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Spark’s gene therapy gets FDA breakthrough status
Spark Therapeutics has become the first company to get breakthrough status from the US Food and Drug Administration for a gene therapy.
The West Philadelphia company won the recognition for its lead product candidate SPK‐RPE65, a treatment for night blindness (nyctalopia) in patients with a genetic disorder called Leber congenital amaurosis.
The disease is one of a group called the inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) which prevent the eye responding normally to light and are a leading cause of blindness in children. It affects 2 to 3 per 100,000 newborns and has no pharmacological treatment available.
SPK-RPE65 is a genetic treatment designed to correct a defect in the RPE65 and is currently in a phase III trial which is due to report preliminary results next year. There are around 30 genes involved in Leber congenital amaurosis and RPE65 accounts for between 6 and 16 per cent of all cases of this condition.
The drug takes the form of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector that encapsulates a functional version of the mutated RPE65 gene and is injected directly into the eye as a one-off treatment.
Breakthrough designation will give SPK-RPE65 a speedy review and a higher level of interaction with the FDA once it is submitted for marketing. It has been awarded on the back of earlier studies which showed promising evidence of its ability to restore vision in patients affected by this disease.
The trials showed that patients treated with the gene therapy were able to perform activities of daily living with greater independence than prior to treatment, while the treatment had long‐lasting effects in restoring functional vision.
Early treatment seems to be best, with children who received a single injection of SPK-RPE65 in one eye no longer requiring visual aids to participate in classroom activities, and “ablt to walk and play more like normally-sighted children,” according to the company.
“We look forward to working closely with FDA to facilitate the review of SPK-RPE65 as we work to bring this potentially transformative treatment to patients,” commented Spark chief executive Jeffrey Marrazzo.
Other companies working on gene therapies for eye diseases include Eyevensys – which is backed by Boehringer Ingelheim and is focusing initially on uveitis and age-related macular degeneration – and GenSight Biologics which is testing AAV-based therapies for Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and retinitis pigmentosa.
After decades of disappointment, gene therapy seems to be finally emerging as a viable treatment approach, passing a major milestone last year when Dutch biotech UniQure was granted approval for Glybera (alipogene tiparvovec), a treatment for patients with the inherited disease lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD).
Some other gene therapies have been approved in emerging markets, including Shenzhen SiBiono Gene Technologies’ Gendicine for head and neck cancer which is sold in China.
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A capstone on a 40-year career
By: Caitlan Tan - Updated: 2 years ago
PINEDALE –A friend once told Sukey Hohl that upon walking into a Barnes and Noble he was reminded of her. It was something about the smell of books and fresh espresso in the nearby coffee shop.
Hohl said this was one of the best compliments she ever received.
“I remember enjoying how new books smell when I was very small,” she said. “I still like that smell.”
Today Hohl finds herself in the new position of executive director of the Sublette County libraries. She was promoted from associate director this past Monday upon the announcement of former Executive Director Sid Stanfill’s retirement.
This position includes larger responsibility for finances, budget and personnel but this is nothing Hohl cannot handle. She has worked in the Sublette County library system for 21 years.
“I’m very happy with the way the library is. I think it’s a library that’s very loved within this community, and we will continue to be responsive,” she said.
Hohl has worked in the library industry for 40 years, with her first job being at her high school library. She later obtained a Master of Library Science at Berkley.
However, there was a 14-year gap in Hohl’s library career. She worked as an outdoor guide for the National Outdoor Leadership School in Lander, which is originally how she found her way to Wyoming.
“When I was an outdoor guide everybody said, ‘Really?’ but a librarian made sense,” Hohl said. “I was always a reader. I was a nerd before there were nerds.”
She began working for the Sublette County libraries in 1997 after moving to Pinedale with her husband.
She witnessed many changes, one being the move of the Pinedale Library from the Circuit Court building to the current log building at 155 S. Tyler Ave.
“We go for a homey atmosphere. We’re not very institutional,” Hohl said. “We intentionally don’t have a lot of signs and rules. We’re not at all a quiet library.”
But, Hohl said she prefers it this way.
She describes the Big Piney and Pinedale libraries as the “heart of Sublette County.” One reason is because people often are not dropping off books at the library. Hohl said the community uses it as an epicenter to leave random belongings for other people.
“They leave anything,” she said. “Something they need to get to somebody else – this is the place to exchange it.”
Hohl is quick to credit much of the success of her career and the Sublette County libraries to her staff.
She has trained dozens of librarians, mostly women, over the years. Hohl said she has thrived off seeing them grow and pursue such a noble career.
“You didn’t become a librarian to make a lot of money, but to help people, share joy of books, movies, databases, art, all kinds of things,” she said.
And that is what is unique – being a librarian is not all about books.
Hohl just wrapped up the Renaissance Barn Dance fundraiser on Saturday. This week both libraries are preparing opening ceremonies for the Smithsonian exhibit: The Way We Worked. It will be on display at the Pinedale Library from April 5 to May 5.
Additionally, there is a film festival every Saturday this month. In the summer the Pinedale Library hosts live music and weddings almost every weekend.
Hohl is so busy that when asked what book she is currently reading she just laughed and said, “I’m too busy.”
But one that stands out from the last few years is “The Nightingale” by Donna Tart. Her all-time favorite is the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian.
Hohl’s dedication to the Sublette County libraries and her new position of executive director is apparent even in her office.
Decorations for the Renaissance Barn Dance were stacked in one corner, and items for a silent auction were carefully tucked away in her desk. The walls adorned with bookshelves, artwork and a Laurie King quote that reads, “I crawled into my books and pulled the pages up over my head.”
Being a librarian is more than just a job for Hohl it is a lifestyle. And one she had to get back to. On the day of the interview, Sukey Hohl still had to go home, check on the dog and come back to prepare for the barn dance – all on a Saturday.
More In Homepage
First COVID-19 vaccines given in Sublette County
White Pine opens
New Sublette County Library Director takes over
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kara Goldin: Hinting towards Health
Kara Godin is the founder and CEO of Hint.
In this episode Kara discusses her journey, sharing stories from her first couple jobs after college at Time Magazine and CNN in New York City.
In 1994, Kara moved to San Francisco, where she worked as AOL’s Vice President of E-Commerce and Shopping, before founding Hint in 2005.
The idea behind Hint is simple: pure water, with a hint of natural flavor. In this episode, Kara shares the philosophies that drive her business mentality, such as solving problems for people and hiring employees who think differently. And she shares why Phil Knight’s book, Shoe Dog resonates with her so strongly.
At the end of the episode, Kara tells an amazing story about building a bookshelf with Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) in Seattle when Amazon had only 50 employees.
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China - Henry Andrea Burgevine (1836-1865) - Taiping Rebellion Commander
Harris, Thomas Bradley
An important historical image of the American soldier and mercenary who fought for the Qing Army under Frederick Townsend Ward against the Taiping rebels in the early 1860s. According to Caleb Carr in his 1992 biography of Ward, The Devil Soldier, the only known likeness of Burgevine appeared as an engraving in Harper's Weekly in 1866. This photograph - which is signed by Burgevine on the reverse - is therefore of historical importance and may be the only surviving photographic likeness.
According to Caleb Carr, Burgevine was the son of a French officer who had served under Napoleon and who had moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he became an instructor in French at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His father, after being dismissed having been dismissed for drunkeness by the President of the University, then died in a brawl in South Carolina. Burgevine then lived with his grandparents and sister in Ashford, North Carolina. At age 7 Burgevine moved to Washington, D.C. with his mother and became a Congressional and then a Senatorial page until 1853. After travels in India, Hawaii and Australia, he then returned to Washington and then enlisted in the French Army for the duration of the Crimean War, where he was decorated for bravery. In the early stages of the Taiping Rebellion he sided with the Qing Army, serving as the deputy commander of the Ever Victorious Army, and succeeding the commander, Frederick Townsend Ward following his death. Burgevine betrayed the Qing Dynasty by later defecting and joining Li Shixian's rebel army. He was later repatriated to the United States but he returned to China before reaching his destination. On his return the Qing police arrested him. In 1865 he drowned along with 10 Qing police in Xiamen's sea on the way to Shanghai, although some historians believed that Burgevine was murdered on Li Hongzhang's orders.
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Reality show becomes possible road to Olympics
Associated PressAug 26, 2017, 3:05 PM EDT
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The fact that Josh Williamson hadn’t stepped on ice until about a month ago hardly makes him an ideal candidate to become an Olympic bobsledder.
Then again, if Williamson completes the journey from the lacrosse fields in Florida to a bobsled track in Pyeongchang next year – or Beijing in 2022 – he will, in more than one way, be rewriting the script about how an American can become an Olympian.
He is one of eight athletes who have taken the newly opened reality-show route to earn a spot on a U.S. national team camp, which is where America’s Olympians are eventually chosen. Williamson was one of about 3,000 athletes who signed up at a 24 Hour Fitness, passed the initial tryout phase, then made the cut down to 91 athletes, who were invited to the Olympic Training Center for a made-for-TV tryout camp.
From there, eight made national team camps for rugby, track cycling, bobsled and skeleton. Those athletes’ names were announced at the end of a reality show that aired Friday night on NBCSN called “Scouting Camp: The Next Olympic Hopeful.” NBCSN will re-air “Scouting Camp: The Next Olympic Hopeful” at 8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 29.
“I think the reason I’ve enjoyed it so much is because I haven’t expected any of it,” Williamson said. “I thought I’d go out, do my best, and with the work, some things have fallen in my lap.”
The 20-year-old Williamson grew up in Orlando, Florida, and traded in football pads for a lacrosse stick in junior high. He went to Mercer University in Georgia to play, but a series of injuries chased him out of the sport.
Back in Florida, he enrolled at Florida State and started working on a degree in finance. But he was a workout junkie, and never gave up on his dreams of making something more out of that. Williamson was planning on attending a bobsledding combine in August, when he heard about the U.S. Olympic Committee’s program.
Williamson signed up, and once in Colorado Springs for the training camp, it didn’t take long for U.S. bobsled coach Brian Shimer to recognize his talent.
“He’s only 20 years old, and very seldom do we get an athlete of that quality at that age,” Shimer said. “His speed, his strength, his power, the push, he’s everything we want to see in a bobsled athlete.”
Besides the eight winners, 23 athletes were invited to continue training in their respective sports.
The USOC’s director of sport performance, Alan Ashley, said this is an out-of-the-box way of identifying elite athletes – football players, runners and the like – whose skills might translate into an Olympic sport, many of which don’t get the mainstream attention as football, basketball, baseball and hockey in America.
“We’ve always believed in `talent transfer’ – high-level athletes who may not make it in one sport but could try out in another,” Ashley said. “But when you think about all the college athletes out there, this could be a stepping stone for people to think about this in a different way.”
Exhibit A could be Williamson, who participated in last month’s National Push Championships in Calgary, and has plans to work out with the U.S. team in Lake Placid, New York, next week. The Winter Olympics are less than six months away, and a spot on the team isn’t completely out of the question. The 2022 Games in Beijing might be more realistic.
“Steve Langton, Lou Moreria, these are guys I follow through Instagram, and now I’m there with them,” Williamson said of two of the best push athletes in the United States. “These are kind of my heroes, and I’m sitting next to them trying to compete. I figure no matter how I did, that was enough for me.”
However far he goes, Williamson can already say he made it to the Big Time, at least in a way.
On the reality show, he was a survivor.
“It was interesting, is the best way to put it,” he said of having the tryouts shot for packaging into the two-hour documentary-style program. “It’s harder for them, and sometimes they’d have to do a bunch of takes to make it look good on TV. The difference is, in athletics, you only get one shot at it.”
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Home/swim
10-year-old Fil-Am Clark Kent breaks Michael Phelps’ swim record
A 10-year-old swimmer nicknamed “Superman” broke a record made by Michael Phelps set in 1995.
Clark Kent Apuada, a Filipino-American, overcame the 1:10.48 record set by retired competitive swimmer Michael Phelps in 1995. The young swimmer competed in the 2018 Long Course Meters Far Western International Age Group Championships for the 100-meter butterfly on July 29. He clocked in at 1:09.38, according to a post by the Salinas Aquatic Center MCAT on Facebook.
Apuada’s time slashed off over a second from Phelps’ record, which had gone unbroken even as the competitive swimmer went on to win numerous Olympic medals. Apart from breaking Phelps’ record, the young swimmer also held more than a five-second lead against his peers.
With his skills, Apuada managed to place first in all of the events he competed in. This earned him the high point award. He also has seven gold medals, as reported by local news outlet KION 5/46.
A California resident, Apuada learned how to swim at around age 3. He then started competitive swimming at 7 when he joined the Monterey County Aquatic Team
When not in the water, Apuada, according to one of his coaches, Dia Rianda, who is also the CEO of Salinas Aquatic Center, keeps himself busy with various activities like music and martial arts, as well as scientific and artistic pursuits.
Apuada said it’s been his dream to beat Phelps’ record since he was 7. Now that he’s done it, the young athlete has his eyes set on competing in the Olympics.
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PP+G REVIEW
Public Policy and Governance Review
Pan-Canadian Perspectives
Staff Writers and Contributors
Seen+Heard
Unpacking Equity
Indigenous Lens
Policy Innovation
Obstacles to Female Leadership: In Conversation with Marie Henein
By Sarah Baker For female attorneys in Canada, the glass ceiling seems to have hardened into a concrete wall. According to findings by the Catalyst, a global non-profit that assists organizations in advancing women into positions of leadership, female attorneys remain significantly underrepresented in positions of seniority, despite constituting nearly half of all practicing lawyers…
Add Women, Change Politics
by Hiba Siddiqui Every year, the Women In House Program at the University of Toronto provides a platform for female students across a range of undergraduate and graduate programs to share the daily lives of parliamentarians. It is an innovative way to promote greater female representation in government and to encourage young females to pursue positions…
Beyond Ottawa: The career of Christine Hogan
Christine Hogan’s career path has not exactly been conventional. Currently the Executive Director responsible for Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean at the World Bank, she has previously been a Deputy Minister of International Trade and a foreign and defense policy advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She has also held senior policy positions in the…
Hope, optimism and the changing face of politics: Barack Obama in Toronto
Jonah Kotzer On Friday, September 29th, former U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The event was hosted by Canada 2020 and drew an audience of 3,000 people, who paid $10,000 per table to attend. Students of University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance were invited to volunteer at…
Canada’s upcoming G7 Presidency – An opportunity for decisive leadership on sustainable development
James Nelson Canada, a middle power country with moderate influence over international events, will punch above its weight when it holds the G7 Presidency and sets the Summit agenda for 2018. The G7 is an informal forum for the leaders of the world’s most important industrially advanced democracies to build consensus around and voice common…
Growing Diversity in Politics and Policy – SPPG welcomes Katie Telford to kick off the Women and Leadership series
Shannon Ross and Talha Sadiq Shows like Scandal and West Wing enthrall audiences with stories about the lives of political staffers. But viewers are left to speculate about what aspects of the shows are accurate in real life. Meanwhile, discussions in the media and academia about the involvement of women and people from diverse backgrounds…
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Rob Urstein
Rob Urstein is a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches courses on innovation in higher education. An experienced academic leader, Urstein has more than 25 years of professional experience managing academic programs and teaching, advising, and coaching learners at all levels. He collaborates on research projects and serves as a governing board member of the College Transition Collaborative, which brings together pioneering social psychologists, education researchers, and higher education practitioners to create learning environments that produce more equitable higher education outcomes.
In addition to his teaching and research, Urstein is a Principal at Guild Education.
Urstein spent more than twelve years in leadership roles at Stanford, including three years as Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Dean of Freshmen, and Director of Undergraduate Advising and Research, where he was responsible for the transition of new undergraduates to Stanford; academic advising; undergraduate research programs, and academic policy and progress. At the Graduate School of Business, Urstein served for eight years as Assistant Dean, leading the PhD Program, and for two years as Managing Director of Global Innovation Programs, where he managed a portfolio of on campus and international programs focused on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He has taught MBA students since 2008. Prior to Stanford, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Oslo, Norway, working for the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Education. He has been at Stanford since 2004.
Lecturer, Graduate School of Business
Governing Board Member, College Transition Collaborative (2016 - Present)
PhD, University of Iowa
MA, University of Iowa
BA, Claremont McKenna College
rurstein@stanford.edu
University - Other Teaching/Research Department: Graduate School of Business - Faculty Position: Lecturer in Management
Knight Management Center
Robert Urstein
Disruptions in Education
EDUC 377F (Win)
GSBGEN 345 (Win)
Individual Research
GSBGEN 390 (Aut)
Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Yeager, D. S., Walton, G. M., Brady, S. T., Akcinar, E. N., Paunesku, D., Keane, L., Kamentz, D., Ritter, G., Duckworth, A. L., Urstein, R., Gomez, E. M., Markus, H. R., Cohen, G. L., Dweck, C. S. 2016; 113 (24): E3341-E3348
Previous experiments have shown that college students benefit when they understand that challenges in the transition to college are common and improvable and, thus, that early struggles need not portend a permanent lack of belonging or potential. Could such an approach-called a lay theory intervention-be effective before college matriculation? Could this strategy reduce a portion of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic achievement gaps for entire institutions? Three double-blind experiments tested this possibility. Ninety percent of first-year college students from three institutions were randomly assigned to complete single-session, online lay theory or control materials before matriculation (n > 9,500). The lay theory interventions raised first-year full-time college enrollment among students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds exiting a high-performing charter high school network or entering a public flagship university (experiments 1 and 2) and, at a selective private university, raised disadvantaged students' cumulative first-year grade point average (experiment 3). These gains correspond to 31-40% reductions of the raw (unadjusted) institutional achievement gaps between students from disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged backgrounds at those institutions. Further, follow-up surveys suggest that the interventions improved disadvantaged students' overall college experiences, promoting use of student support services and the development of friendship networks and mentor relationships. This research therefore provides a basis for further tests of the generalizability of preparatory lay theories interventions and of their potential to reduce social inequality and improve other major life transitions.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1524360113
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Allenstown
Allenstown, a residential suburb of Rockhampton, is two kilometres south of the city centre. Its main street is Lower Dawson Road and Upper Dawson Road (Bruce Highway) is a continuation of the centre's George Street.
Allenstown was named after William Allen who established a shop in partnership, Acheson and Allen, in 1862. Two years later he subdivided land along Dawson Road, the route to Dawson Valley and Peak Downs. A busy thoroughfare, it attracted a store and a hotel, the beginning of Rockhampton's first suburb and out-of-town shopping area. The Rockhampton railway station and railway workshops were on Allenstown's eastern boundary.
Allenstown primary school was opened in 1877, and by 1904 had an average attendance of nearly 250. The suburb was well served by the steam tram service (1909-39) along Upper Dawson Street to King Street and along Davis Street to the adjoining suburb, the Range.
During the interwar years the business centre grew and a progress association was active. There was also a local cinema, the Embassy. The retail area was enlarged in 1945 and again in the 1970s with Allenstown Plaza, which includes a discount department store and a supermarket.
William Allen was a devout member of the Primitive Methodist Church and organised the church's first temporary preaching place in Allenstown. In 1952 a permanent building was opened in Upper Dawson Road. There are also a Congregational church and St Josephs Catholic cathedral along the road, together with the cathedral co-educational 8-12 college. It was opened in 1991. Allenstown also has a recreation ground, Saleyards Park near the railway station, the old cemetery and numerous motels along the Bruce Highway.
The eastern part of Allenstown was flooded in early January 2011, with water covering Saleyards and Kettle Parks and crossing the Bruce Highway to Stanley and Talford Streets. The Bruce Highway was also flooded further south.
Allenstown's census populations have been:
census date
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Capgras and Dementia: The Imposter Syndrome
Medically reviewed by Scientific Advisory Board — Written by Deborah Bier, PhD on May 17, 2016
At 3 a.m., wearing pajamas and socks, an 89-year-old man with Lewy Body Dementia was found by a security guard four floors below his apartment. His walker was later found abandoned on the second floor. Agitated and confused, he insisted repeatedly that he was looking for his “other” apartment. “I know we have two, exactly alike, one that we sleep in at night,” he said. “But I can’t find the other one.”
A 65-year-old woman diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease had what had become a typical spat with her spouse of 40 years. He argued, furious and insulted, “I’m your husband! Don’t you know me?!” “You look exactly like him,” she said quietly, “but I know that you’re not him.” Nothing could convince her otherwise, though the man told her many things only her husband would know. “You are one of the two imposters that come around here, not my husband,” she insisted.
Are these the plots of psycho-thriller movies? Scary stories told around a campfire? Disturbing dreams? No – they are two examples of a neuropsychological condition called Capgras Delusion or Capgras Syndrome, also known as the “Imposter Syndrome” (Hirstein and Ramachandran, 1997).
Capgras Syndrome, named for Joseph Capgras, the French psychiatrist who first described it, also can be seen occasionally in people who are psychotic (typically schizophrenic), or where there has been some type of brain injury or disease (Hirstein and Ramachandran, 1997). Regardless of its source, it can be equally perplexing and upsetting for the person experiencing it as it is for those around him or her to encounter it.
Within psychiatry and psychology, Capgras is considered extremely rare (Ellis and Lewis, 2001, Hirstein and Ramachandran, 1997). There is evidence, however, that it is not as rare as most clinicians believe. It is “uncommon,” but often overlooked (Dohn and Crews, 1986). From my own experience as the director of care for a home care agency, I concur: I see it often enough within my population of people with Alzheimer’s and other related dementias (ADRD) that it is likely not extremely rare.
While Capgras may not be typical, it certainly deserves to be better known both by the general public and among helping professionals. For those of us who love or work with such patients, we need to know how to manage the challenging behaviors that arise from it. Assessment of such patients’ potential danger to others needs to be performed (Silva, Leong, Weinstock, and Boyer, 1989). Awareness of the presence of Capgras also will help caregivers and families know how to better manage their own behavior around and feelings about its symptoms, particularly for the sake of those who are deemed “imposters.”
What Causes Capgras Syndrome?
It’s not known for certain what causes Capgras, but researchers have evolved several credible theories. One is from neurologist V.S. Ramachandran (Ramachandran, 2007). Ramachandran believes that a malfunction between the brain’s visual cortex and the emotional feeling of “familiarity” causes the sufferer to think he or she is seeing a perfect duplicate, not the real thing. The eyes are reporting correctly, but emotions of familiarity aren’t present. The conclusion: here’s an exact imposter.
Ramachandran also reports that a brain injury patient with Capgras was able to correctly identify his mother when he heard her on the phone, but not when he saw her. He hypothesizes that sounds may be correctly connected to the feelings of familiarity in some cases (Ramachandran, 2007).
There are several features particular to Capgras:
The patient has a brain injury or disease.
He or she recognizes that a person or place is exactly like the “real” one, but insists it is not.
The imposter always is a person or place with which the patient is familiar, not a stranger, vague acquaintance, or a new place.
The problem does not fruitfully yield to psychological analysis or interpretation; it is a biological disorder.
Prosopagnosia, a better-known form of facial misidentification, differs from Capgras in that it causes a total inability to recognize previously familiar faces (Ellis and Lewis, 2001). Capgras includes easy recognition of the face, but disagreement about the person’s true identity.
Are Capgras Sufferers Potentially Dangerous?
There are some reported cases where those suffering from Capgras delusion have become dangerous to others, with violent behavior resulting in injury and even death. There is very little research on this subject and not much information with which to reliably predict violence — which is striking given that great hostility and resentment are typical of how sufferers of Capgras view “imposters.”
In a paper by Silva, Leong, Weinstock, and Boyer (1989), they stated that at that time there was little published on the subject of danger and Capgras. A further search in the literature for this article found no papers published later than that date. It should be noted, however, that no cases have been found in the literature of danger paired with dementia; all cases were connected to diagnoses of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Silva, Leong, Weinstock, and Boyer (1989) report several important factors to take into account when assessing danger:
Those “…suffering from multiple coexisting types of delusions of doubles may present with significant dangerous behavior…”
Where there is unabated hostility toward the misidentified person, “… the slightest perceived provocation that the misidentified persons are in some way harming the affected individual may serve as a necessary and sufficient psychosocial stressor that may upset this delicate equilibrium.” Violent behavior could potentially be the outcome.
“…[T]he dangerous behavior… related to the specific delusional content in each case” can be vital. If the delusion points to great danger or evil on the part of the “imposter,” this may increase the potential for violence.
Accessibility to the people involved in the delusion should also be part of the assessment. Is the “imposter” living with the person who holds the delusion, thereby increasing likelihood for opportunity for triggers for violence?
Pre-existing emotional, psychodynamic factors that increase the potential for violence need to be assessed. For example, does the relationship before the delusion between the Capgras sufferer and the misidentified person include high levels of hostility, hatred, or even abuse or assault, thereby increasing the likelihood of future violence?
Violence aside, managing the day-to-day difficult behaviors and emotions around Capgras and dementia takes some specific skills. These will be discussed in Part 2 of this article.
Last medically reviewed on May 17, 2016
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Health human resources 2
Policy endorsement 1
topic:"Health systems, system funding and performance"
Sorted by Newest
CMA's letter to Mr. James Rajotte, MP Chair, Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology: Review of the service sector in Canada
On behalf of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide the following information to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology during its review of the service sector in Canada. The committee's study of the strengths and challenges facing this sector, overall employment percentage, overall average of salaries across the sector its impact on Canada's overall economy and the role of the Government of Canada in strengthening this sector comes at an opportune time. CANADA'S HEALTH SERVICES SECTOR Canada's health services sector is facing a critical shortage of physicians and other health care professionals and the CMA and our over 67,000 physician members are pleased to have the opportunity to present practical solutions within the jurisdiction of the federal government - working collaboratively with provincial/territorial governments and other health system stakeholders. Health care delivery in Canada is a $160 billion industry, representing over 10% of our country's gross domestic product (GDP).1 The 30,120 physicians' offices across Canada make important contributions to our economy. In 2003, the latest year for which data are available, offices of physicians employed 142,000 Canadians and contributed $11.6 billion to the Canadian economy.2 This represents almost 39 per cent of all Health Service Delivery establishments, and almost 11% of all HSD employees. As a standard measure of economic productivity, physician offices report the highest levels of GDP per employee within the Health Service Delivery sector. On this measure, they are approximately twice as productive as other components of Health Service Delivery. THE CHALLENGE There are simply not enough physicians to continue providing the quality health care that Canadians expect and deserve. Here are the facts: - Almost 5 million Canadians do not have access to a family physician; - By 2018 an additional 4.5 million Canadians could be without a doctor; - Canada ranks 24th in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations in terms of physicians-per-population ratio. Canada would need 26,000 more doctors right now to meet the OECD average; - Canada spends only a third of the OECD average on information technology (IT) and diagnostic equipment in our hospitals; and - Canada has the highest hospital occupancy rate of all OECD countries and among the highest waits for access to specialty care services. The lack of physicians and other health care providers has resulted in restricted access to health care services and the growth of wait times for necessary medical procedures. In January 2008, CMA released new research by the Centre for Spatial Economics that proved that, in addition to the human health cost, waiting for care results in dramatic and excessive costs to our economy. Researchers addressed just four priority areas targeted in the 2004 First Ministers Health Accord. They used government and other data to determine how many Canadians were waiting longer than the maximum medical consensus established by the Wait Time Alliance. Selected for analysis were: joint replacement, cataract surgery, heart bypass grafts, and MRI scans. Costs, as calculated for all provinces varied from $2,900 to over $26,000 per patient. The cumulative cost of waiting in 2007, for treatment in just 4 areas, was $14.8 billion. This reduced economic activity lowered government revenues in 2007 by $4.4 billion. That is equivalent to over 1/3rd of the total Ontario health budget. The reduction in economic activity included the impact of the patient's inability to work while waiting, and direct losses from decreased production of goods and services, reduced income, and lowered discretionary spending. It is important to note that the figure of 14.8 billion dollars is based only on patients that exceed designated maximum waiting times in just 4 clinical areas. In the example of hip replacements, the research only factored in costs for waits that exceed 6 months. Of those waiting longer than the maximum recommended time, average waits were 1 year for hip and knee replacement surgery, 7 months for cataract surgery, and twice maximum for heart bypass surgery. Those who didn't make the MRI target waited an average of 12 weeks. Reduced economic activity included informal caregiver costs. These costs are generated when caregivers reduce work hours to care for family members on wait lists, or attend appointments with family members. Patients languishing on wait lists also incur additional costs for drug and other treatments that timely care would eliminate. Estimates in this study are extremely conservative. They address only the wait time to treatment after a specialist's consultation and recommendation. And exclude the growing, and significant costs of waiting to see the GP or specialist. They do not include anyone who is not working. They do not include the costs, short and long term, of the deterioration that occurs while waiting. THE SOLUTIONS To solve Canada's doctor shortage, the CMA believes governments must: - Adopt a long-term policy of self-sufficiency to provide Canadians with the health care professionals they need when and where they need them; - Establish a dedicated health human resource renewal fund to educate, retain and enhance the lives of health care professionals; and - Invest in health technology, infrastructure and innovation to make our health care system more responsive and efficient. SELF-SUFFICIENCY Over the past decade, there have been increasing concerns that Canada is not producing an adequate number of health providers to meet the growing demand for health services - now and into the future. These concerns have been consistently registered by physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, in addition to other groups that represent other providers and the institutional and heath facilities community. Furthermore, the policy challenges related to health human resources (HHR) have been identified in several seminal reports - including the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science & Technology, and the Health Council of Canada.3 A growing number of health providers are looking to retire over the next decade (or leave the health system all together) relative to the number of trainees who are entering the health system, and at a time where a growing number of Canadians will be turning to the health system for diagnosis and treatment. Over 6% of physicians who responded to the National Physician Survey 20074 said they plan to retire from clinical practice and 1% plan to permanently leave practice for other reasons in the next 2 years. The effect of these changes could mean that, as the baby boom generation gets older, over 4,000 physicians will cease their medical practice within the next 2 years, making it even more difficult for Canadians to find a family physician. At the same time, the HHR challenges facing Canada's health care system are not unique to our country - over the next decade all western developed countries can expect intensified global competition for talent when it comes to health providers.5 While there are, no doubt, other provider groups who are also concerned about the future supply of health providers, there is a growing national consensus that, in addition to the primary role that the provinces and territories play in supporting the training of health providers across the country, there is a significant, catalytic and strong complementary role for the federal government in the area of health human resources. CMA, like many health care organizations, is of the view that there is a legitimate role for the federal government to strengthen its working relationship with the provinces and territories, and health providers through the creation of a time-limited, issue-specific and strategically-targeted fund to accelerate training capacity in the health system. The World Medical Association's ethical guidelines for international recruitment of physicians16 (2003), fully supported by the CMA, recommend that every country "should do its utmost to educate an adequate number of physicians, taking into account its needs and resources. A country should not rely on immigration from other countries to meet its need for physicians."7 However, in reality Canada continues to rely heavily on recruitment of internationally educated health professionals. Approximately one-third of the increase in physician supply each year is due to International Medical Graduates (IMGs) who are either recruited directly to practice or who have taken significant postgraduate medical training in Canada. In nursing, the number of internationally educated nurses applying for licensure is increasing rapidly, almost tripling from 1999 to 2003. Previous recommendations of the CMA to the House of Commons included improved medium- to longer-term supply projection models; sufficient opportunities for Canadians to train for health professional careers in Canada; and integration of international graduates, who are permanent residents or citizens of Canada, into practice. The CMA recognizes that professionals are working in an increasingly global world in terms of the exchange of scientific information, mutual recognition of qualifications between countries and the movement of people. The greatest barrier to enhancing Canada's ability to become more self-sufficient, in terms of physician resources, is the capacity of our medical schools. Despite recent increases in enrolment, Canada continues to turn away approximately 3 equally qualified students for every 1 that is accepted into an undergraduate medical program. This has resulted in over 1500 Canadian students, with the financial means to do so, who are training in medical schools outside of Canada. INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL GRADUATES In the larger context, Canada's current fertility rate is not sufficient to support self-sufficiency in general in relation to any professions. And, while self-sufficiency in the production of physicians is a desirable goal, it is also important to promote the international exchange of teaching and research, particularly in an increasingly global society. In this regard, IMGs should be considered as a planning component for a sustainable Canadian physician workforce. Historically IMGs have entered the practice of medicine through a variety of routes, which most typically include a recognized period of post-MD training in Canada. CMA's best estimate is that there are about 400 IMGs newly licensed to practice in Canada each year who have not completed postgraduate training in Canada. In addition, there are another 300 or so who are exiting Canadian postgraduate training programs and heading into practice. In fact, for the past few years, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has licensed more IMGs than new Ontario medical graduates. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of opportunities for IMGs already living in Canada to achieve the required credentials for licensure. The number of ministry-funded IMG postgraduate residents has more than tripled in the past seven years from 294 to 1065 trainees. In 2007, there were almost 1500 IMGs who were qualified to compete in the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) match. By the end of the second round, close to 300 had matched and about 60 were placed through other provincial programs. Recommendation The federal government should make a clear policy commitment to increasing self-sufficiency in the education and training of health professionals in Canada that would incorporate the following. - Short term - increase number of community preceptors to train Canadian graduates and assess internationally educated health professionals already living in Canada. Recognition of the time and value of community teaching is needed. - Medium term - support increased capacity for academic health science centres and other institutions that train health professionals. - Long term - creation of new academic health science centres to increase capacity for self-sufficiency. REPATRIATING CANADIAN DOCTORS WORKING ABROAD It is known that there are thousands of Canadian-trained health professionals practising in the United States and abroad. Between 1991 and 2004, almost 8,000 physicians left Canada (although some 4,000 returned for a net loss of 4,000).8 Of this number, roughly 80% went to the US.9 During the 1990s, approximately 27,000 nurses migrated from Canada to the US.1011 A more recent indicator of nursing outmigration is that in 2006, 943 Canadian-trained Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses wrote the US licensing board examination for the first time.12 Data for other health professional disciplines are not readily available. In 2007, with the assistance of the American Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) surveyed all (n=5,156) Canadian-trained physicians practicing in the US who were age 55 or under, with regard to the likelihood of their return to Canada and the importance of various factors that might be incentives to return. A 32% response rate was achieved with a single mailing with no follow-up - this is considered exceptionally high. While only 13% of respondents indicated that they were likely or very likely to return to Canada, a further 25% were neutral in their opinion. What is more telling is that more than one-half of respondents indicated that they would be willing to be contacted by CMA to explore practice opportunities and provided their contact information for this purpose. When asked about a range of potential incentives to return to Canada, 57% agreed that a relocation allowance would be somewhat or very important.13 It must be stressed, however, that it is clear from the results that a number of factors would need to be taken into consideration, such as practice opportunities. This would also be true of other disciplines; in the case of nursing, nurses will only come back for full-time jobs and healthy work environments.14 Nonetheless, expatriate Canadian medical graduates should be good candidates for recruitment on the basis of the greater likelihood that they will meet Canadian standards for full medical licensure, and it is expected that this would also apply to nursing and other disciplines. As well, significant progress has been made in restoring and adding capacity to our medical schools but, to achieve self-sufficiency, much more needs to be done. For example, we must try and repatriate Canadian medical students and doctors who are studying and working abroad. There are currently some 1500 Canadian medical students and residents training abroad, we must act now, before things get worse. During that past few years there have been efforts to enhance national coordination in the health human resources arena. One area of national focus has been the integration of International Medical Graduates, since extended to nursing and other disciplines. There have been several initiatives undertaken in this area such as the establishment of the Canadian Information Centre for International Medical Graduates15 which provides a clearinghouse of information and links to provincial/territorial jurisdictions. Relocation grants, from $10,000 up to $20,000 could be offered to Canadian-trained physicians practising in the US. It is suggested that advertising be concentrated in and around US cities where Canada maintains a consulate/office (in states with a significant concentration with recruitment candidates) and in major national and selected state health professional journals. The cost of a repatriation secretariat is estimated at $162,500 per year. Assuming that 1,500 health professionals are recruited back over the 3-year period, the total cost would range from $21.5 million to $36.5 million. This would further translate to a per recruit cost that ranges from $14,325 to $24,325. Even at the high end of the range this would be cost-effective as compared to the total cost of training a practice-entry level graduate of any licensed health professional discipline in Canada. Recommendation In light of the foregoing, the CMA has recommended that the federal government should establish a Health Professional Repatriation Program in the amount of $30 million over 3 years that would include the following: - secretariat within Health Canada that would include a clearinghouse function on issues associated with returning to Canada such as licensure, citizenship and taxation; - An advertising campaign in the US to encourage health professionals practicing south of the border to return home; and - A program of one-time relocation grants for health professionals returning to active practice in Canada. NATIONAL HEALTH HUMAN RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE FUND The implementation of Medicare in Canada in the 1960s required a major investment in the capacity to train more health professionals. The 1966 Health Resources Fund Act played a key role in enabling a significant expansion in training capacity across the provinces for a range of health professionals. Forty years later, Canada faces growing shortages across most health disciplines. Clearly another giant step up is required in the human and physical infrastructure needed to train health professionals if Canadians are to have timely access to care. During the years of fiscal famine of the 1990s, health professional enrolment was either reduced (e.g., 10% in the case of medicine) or flat-lined. While there have been increases since 2000, we are about to face the double impact of both an aging population as the first of the baby boomers reach 65 in 2011 and aging health professions. For example, more than 1 out of 3 physicians (35%) are aged 55 or older. As mentioned, as many as 4,000 physicians are expected to retire in the next 2 years. If we are going to have sufficient numbers of health providers to meet the needs of the next few decades, it is imperative to expand the human and physician infrastructure capacity of our health professional education and training system. The federal investments in health human resources over 2003-2005 of some $200 million have been welcome, but fall far short of what is needed. It is proposed that the federal government implement a National Health Human Resources Infrastructure Fund in the amount of $1 billion over 5 years that would be made available to the provinces/territories on an equal per capita basis, and awarded through a competitive process that would include federal/ provincial/territorial representation with consultation/engagement of health professional organizations. The fund would address the following elements: 1. The direct costs of training providers and developing leaders (e.g., cost of recruiting and supporting more community- based teachers/preceptors). 2. The indirect or infrastructure costs associated with the educational enterprise (e.g., physical plant [housekeeping, maintenance]; support for departments [information systems, library resources, occupational health, etc.]; education offices, and the materials and equipment necessary for clinical practice and practical training. 3. Resources that improve the country's overall data management capacity when it comes to health human resources, and in particular, facilitate the ability to model and forecast health human resource requirements in the face of the changing demand for health services. Clearly it would be necessary to develop guidelines around the types of expenditures that would be eligible as was done for the 1966 Health Resources Fund, and more recently for the Medical Equipment Fund II. CMA Recommendation The federal government should establish a National Health Human Resources Fund in the amount of $1 billion over 5 years to expand health professional education and training capacity by providing funding to support the: - direct costs of training providers - indirect or infrastructure costs associated with the educational enterprise - resources that improve Canada's data collection and management capacity in the area of health human resources. HEALTH INNOVATION More than 85% of the health care delivered in Canada occurs within the community. This is the most under-invested segment of the health care delivery system in terms of information technology. Dr. Brian Postl in his June 2006 wait-time report16 to the federal government noted health information technology is essential in improving wait times. He quantified the investment needed at $2.4 billion with the largest portion of this investment ($1.9 billion) targeted to automating physician offices, which are located at the front line of care in community settings and are key to managing and resolving the wait time issue in Canada. Why invest in physician office automation? Because it will lead to improved productivity from the provider community through more efficient resource usage and through improved coordination in the delivery of care; it will enable labour mobility of health care workers through portability of records; it will support the wait time agenda by improving the flow of timely information; it will build an electronic infrastructure platform to enhance patient care and health research and will provide a direct financing vehicle for the federal government to influence and shape the health care sector. The federal government has made similar types of infrastructure investment. The CFI Program was established to fund research infrastructure, which consists of the state-of-the-art equipment, buildings, laboratories and databases required to conduct research. Investing in EMR infrastructure will lead to the creation of state of the art clinical environments across Canada, electronic data base of health information and the foundational underpinnings of a health information network to support enhanced population health and health research. Under this scenario the federal contribution would provide a direct benefit to physicians without any need for provincial or territorial involvement. Second, the federal government could use existing government machinery to manage the program. Third, the federal contribution to infrastructure would only flow after a physician has introduced an EMR into his/her clinic ensuring that the funding is directly tied to building the EMR infrastructure platform. The recent National Physician Survey notes that some progress is being made across the country to automate community clinics. However without incentives the adoption trend will be incremental and extend over a further 20-year time frame. Financial incentives can shorten the timelines since it addresses one of the main adoption barriers physicians identify.17 Diffusion theory18 of new technologies into any sector of the economy demonstrates that without appropriate incentives it will take approximately 25 years the technology to reach the saturation point of integration. It is estimated that a financial incentive can shorten this timeline by 15 years. Recommendation The federal government, over a 5-year time frame, should provide a full tax credit to any physician who takes the steps to automate his or her clinical office. The tax credit would only apply to 1-time costs to establish a state of the art clinical environment. It is estimated, on average, 1-time costs would be $22,000. Total costs of the program if fully subscribed would amount to $880 million. CONCLUSION The health services sector makes significant contributions to the Canadian economy, both in terms of direct stimulus and by keeping Canadians healthy and productive. However, Canada's health services sector is facing a critical shortage of physicians and other health care professionals. By: - Adopting a long-term policy of self-sufficiency to provide Canadians with the health care professionals they need when and where they need them; - Establishing a dedicated health human resource renewal fund to educate, retain and enhance the lives of health care professionals; - Investing in health technology, infrastructure and innovation to make our health care system more responsive and efficient; the federal government, in partnership with provincial/territorial governments and other health system stakeholders can strengthen this sector. A strong health services sector means healthy Canadians and a vibrant Canadian economy. Again, on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association, Canada's doctors appreciate the opportunity to provide information to the Committee. Sincerely, Brian Day, MD President, Canadian Medical Association 1 National Health Expenditure Trends, 1975-2007. Canadian Institute for Health Information. 2007 2 Source: Business Register (STC 2003) and TIM (Informetrica Limited) 3 The Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, November 2002. Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science & Technology, October 2002. The Health Council of Canada "Modernizing the Management of Health Human Resources in Canada: Identifying Areas for Accelerated Change: November 2005. 4 The National Physician Survey is a major ongoing research project conducted by the College of Family Physicians of Canada, Canadian Medical Association and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada that gathers the opinions of all physicians, 2nd year medical residents and medical students from across the country. It is the largest census survey of its kind and is an important barometer of where the country's present and future doctors are on a wide range of critical issues. 5 The Economist, The Battle for BrainPower - A Survey of Talent, October 7, 2006. 7 World Medical Association. The World Medical Association Statement on Ethical Guidelines for the International Recruitment of Physicians. Geneva: The World Medical Association; 2003. Available: www.wma.net/e/policy/e14.htm 8 Canadian Institute for Health Information. 2. Canadian Institute for Health Information. 10 Zaho J, Drew D, Murray T. Barin drain and brain gain: the migration of knowledge workers from and to Canada. Education Quarterly Review 2000;6(3):8-35. 12 Little L, Canadian Nurses Association, personal communication, January 8, 2008. 13 Buske L. Analysis of the survey of Canadian graduates practicing in the United States. October 2007. http://www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Policy_Advocacy/Policy_Research/US_survey_ver_4.pdf. Accessed 02/04/08. 14 Little L, Canadian Nurses Association, personal communication, January 28, 2008. 15 www.img-canada.ca 16 Postl, B. Final Report of the Federal Advisor on Wait Times. Ottawa: Minister of Health Canada, Health Council of Canada; 2005. 17 Canadian Medical Association/Canada Infoway. Physician Technology Usage and Attitudes Survey. Ottawa: CMA/CanadaInfoway; 2005. Available: www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/49044/la_id/1.htm (accessed 8 Jan 2008). 18 Bower, Anthony. The Diffusion and Value of Healthcare Information Technology. Santa Monica (CA): RAND Corporation; 2005
CMA Presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health : Statutory review of the 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care
The CMA appreciates the opportunity to present to the Standing Committee on Health today. My presentation will focus on: 1. Wait Times 2. Health Human Resources; and 3. Patient Focused Care Wait Times In regard to the issue of wait times, I would echo the two main points of my colleagues from the Wait Time Alliance: * First, while progress is being made on wait times, that progress is limited and not consistent across the country; and second, * Health workforce and infrastructure capacity shortages remain the primary barriers to effectively addressing wait times. Wait times don't only exact a heavy human toll - they also carry severe economic costs. A CMA-commissioned report released earlier this year found that the economic cost of having patients wait longer than medically recommended was $14.8 billion in 2007. That stunning total was for just four of the five procedures identified as priorities in the 10-year plan - joint replacement, diagnostic imagining and cataract and bypass surgery - and it was only for one year. Over a million Canadians continue to suffer on wait lists because of deficiencies in our system. This is unacceptable. We need to "break the back" of wait times for the sake of our patients and for the economic health of Canada. This will require: * More federal leadership, not less; * A revolutionary change in the "focus" of our health care system; and * Substantial investments. Health Human Resources The 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care acknowledged the need to increase the supply of health care professionals in Canada. However, not enough progress has been made. Canada is 26,000 doctors short of the average of developed countries, and we now rank a lowly 24th among OECD countries in doctors per population. A poll released today by the CMA found that Canada's doctor shortage ranked second only to the economy as a top public issue. In this same poll, 91% of Canadians say having a plan to address the doctor shortage will influence their vote in the next federal election. Federal political parties who ignore this issue in the next election could pay a price at the polls. In the 10-year plan to strengthen health care, $1-billion was set aside for the last four years (2010-2014) of the agreement. We can't afford to wait that long. This funding should be immediately fast-tracked to focus on the three priority areas in the CMA's "More Doctors. More Care" Campaign: * One, expanding health professional education and training capacity; * Two, ensuring self sufficiency in health human resources by investing in long-term health human resource planning; and. * Three, investing in health information technology to make our health care system more responsive and efficient. In terms of IT, we should be ashamed that we only spend a third of the OECD average on IT in our hospitals. Canada's poor record in avoidable adverse effects is, in part, due to our system's inability to share available information in a timely manner. Patient Focused Care Many countries have systems that provide universal care, have no wait lists and cost the same or less to run as our system does. Wait lists can and must be eliminated in Canada. The momentum to do just that depends simply on making the system work for patients, not on forcing patients to work the system. We must reposition patients to the centre of our health-care system, which requires that we move beyond block funding or global budgets for health institutions. We need a system where funds follow the patient - patient-focused funding. Block funding blocks access. Patient-focused funding will increase productivity, lead to greater efficiencies and reduce wait lists. A patient will become a value to an institution, not a cost. Canada remains the last country in the developed world to fund hospitals with block funding. In England, patient-focused funding helped eliminate wait lists in less than four years. Conclusion So, my question to the Committee is why do we wait? Why do we continue to keep patients on wait lists when research shows it costs a lot less to cut wait times then it does to have them? Why do we not make the necessary reforms and investments to provide Canadians with timely access to quality care? Thank you.
Improving access to world-class health care by accelerating health information technology investments: CMA's 2009 pre-budget brief to the Standing Committee on Finance
By many measures Canada's health care system is underperforming. One symptom of this weak performance are exceedingly long wait times that have an impact on care and cost patients, the system and governments money1. There are a number of responses to this poor performance including increasing the supply of health human resources2. Another response is to maximize the resources we have on the front lines and work smarter through information technology. This productivity approach is aligned with the assumptions set out in the federal government's Advantage Canada strategy. This strategy involves principally a 'knowledge advantage' and an 'infrastructure advantage'. Consequently, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is recommending that the federal government make a strategic "strings attached" $570-million investment to create an interconnected health information technology network3 through a Health Information System Transition Fund and time-limited accelerated IT tax incentives. This investment aims to integrate all Canadian patient health care records, an effort that will take time. However, there are foundations upon which to build thanks to federal government investments - most recently in providing $400 million for wait-time related health information systems. But for these investments to bear fruit further connectivity and integration is vital. In other words, our current system is like having an ATM card that only works at the bank's head office. We believe that additional investments must concentrate on connecting patient records in physician offices with hospitals and medical laboratories. Physicians also believe in accountability, and suggest investments should not be made unless the clinical community confirms a high level of system integration. The CMA recommends that the federal government should invest $570 million over five years in an interconnected pan-Canadian health information system that includes: => A $225 million, 5-year Health Information System Transition Fund aimed at change management training and support to convert 26-million patient records in 36,000 physician offices and community care facilities into interoperable electronic records across Canada. => $305 million for a 3-year time-limited and accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for software and hardware costs related to health information technologies that connect patient records from physician offices to laboratories and hospitals. => $10 million to sponsor a cross-country education campaign to inform Canadians of the health and system benefits of e-health connectivityi. => $2 million annually for Canada Research Chairs to promote and demonstrate the value of interconnectivity in health information between the faculties of Medicine, Management and Engineering. The federal government must also encourage provinces to increase their support of these initiatives and work to reduce the barriers to health information system interfacing, by ensuring patient record systems use similar codes in labs, hospitals and physician offices. Federal government guidance, encouragement and cooperation with the provinces is integral to making these connectivity investments a success. It is time that the federal government helped finish the job of health information system connectivity. A health information network will improve patient outcomes, system efficiency, increase accountability and save billions of dollars. 1. Why advance e-health interconnectivity now? Our health system e-performance is poor Both national and international studies confirm that Canada lags behind nearly every major industrial country when it comes to health information technology (Figure 8). The impact of this underinvestment is longer wait times, poorer quality, and a severe lack of financial accountability especially of federal dollars. Investments in connectivity are needed now because Canada's health care system compares poorly in both value and efficiency compared to other countries. The Conference Board of Canadaii, the OECDiii, the World Health Organizationiv, the Commonwealth Fundv, and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy all rate Canada's health care system poorly in terms of "value for money" as well as efficiency. Benchmarking health information connectivity-where we stand, where we must go According to the 2007 National Physician Survey, just 30% of physicians have an electronic interface with a medical laboratory or diagnostic imaging facility, while fewer than 5% have such an interface with a pharmacy/pharmacistvi. Imagine if just 30% of Canadian banks had ATMs throughout the country? This is a difference of not only convenience, but quality and cost savings. In comparison, Denmark and New Zealand have near 100% use of electronic medical records (EMRs) in ambulatory care. According to Dr. Allan Brookstonevii an EMR expert, "If most physicians in a health region or geographic area implemented an EMR system, the incentive for a local hospital or region to connect to those physicians would be significantly enhanced". In an emergency situation right now in Canada it is easier to access critical financial information than critical health information. This reality is not a matter of technology but the lack of will to put it in place. 2. Why the federal government should be interested in e-health interconnectivity. -Health information technology connectivity yields returns on investment: 8:1 International strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton found that viii the benefits of an interconnected Electronic Health Record (EHR) in Canada could provide annual system-wide savings of $6.1 billion. These savings would come from reduced duplicate testing, transcription savings, fewer chart pulls and filing time, reductions in office supplies and reduced expenditures due to fewer adverse drug reactions. The study went on to state that the benefits to health care outcomes would equal or surpass these annual savings, thus providing a possible combined annual savings of $12.2 billion. In addition, a comprehensive literature reviewix comparing health IT productivity gains to similar industries in the U.S. concludes that effective EMR implementation and networking could eventually save more than $81 billion annually by improving health care efficiency and safety. Similarly, health information technology-enabled prevention and management of chronic disease could eventually double those savings while increasing health and other social benefits. Assuming that the Canadian health system is one-tenth the size of US system, savings would range from $8 to $16 billion annually. Connected health information technology - increasing performance and accountability A fundamental question the Standing Committee on Finance may ask is where $22 billion (growing at 6 % annually) in federal health care transfers to the provinces is going and what are the results of this support? Right now, we do not know exactly. Health care in Canada represents 10% of our economy ($160 billion annually and growing at 6% per year) and is larger than the total agricultural sector. The question Canadians are asking is not whether tax dollars should be spent on health care, but whether the money being spent is worth the services receivedx. Moreover, in health care, there are legitimate questions as to whether improvements to date have justified the associated costs. The public institutions and organizations that deliver health care in Canada could deliver more value than they do at present. With a national health information (management) system in place they could work to reduce variations in the quality of service and in the way services are used across the system. However at a national level, we do not have an accounting systemxi in place to uniformly measure quality across the country. 3. Who: Canadians - our patients - want and need e-health interconnectivity. Health information technology is critical to managing wait times Quality of care is an important concern for Canadians, but first they must be able to get the care they need. But waiting for health care is the principal concern for Canadiansxii. Excessive wait times result in mental anguish for patients and their families and also cost the Canadian economy billions of dollars each year. In 2007 a study commissioned by the CMAxiii conservatively calculated that excessive wait times in just four procedures (joint replacements, cataract surgery, coronary artery bypass grafts and MRIs) cost the economy over $14 billion in lost output and government revenues. It is important to note that beyond these hospital procedures there is potential to reduce wait times and cost in physician offices through information technology. This is why we have suggested accelerating the capital cost allowance tax for EMR related software and hardware purchases and that they go to community care and physician offices where most patient visits occur every day. Figure 1 below shows that in Ontario for example, just 3,000 out of an average of 247,000 patient visits per day or 1.2% of the total are made in hospitals. That is why this submission is aimed at (the circle area in the chart) increasing connectivity and tying investments to the 99% of the places where patients visit most. Figure 1 Patient visits per day in Ontario, Source: Canada Health Infoway Most of the emphasis on connectivity in Canadian health care to date has not focused on the point of care -even though the number of patient interactions with hospitals is greatly exceeded by the number of visits to physicians' officesxiv. Thus patient-physician office interactions outnumber patient-hospital interactions by a ratio of 18 to 1. It is also important that patients understand the value of electronic health records, which is why we are recommending a $10 million cross-country educational campaign to impact the demand side of this critical health and industrial equation. 4. Why physicians are involved in e-health interconnectivity The physician community can play a pivotal role in helping the federal governments make a connected health care system a realizable goal in the years to come. Through a multi-stakeholder process encompassing the entire health care team, the CMA will work toward achieving cooperation and buy-in. This will require a true partnership between provincial medical associations, provincial and territorial governments and Canada Health Infoway (CHI). Accelerating Advantage Canada through health information technologies The CMA's pre-budget submission, related to health system connectivity, incorporates the five tenets of Advantage Canadaxv. This submission principally addresses the infrastructure and knowledge advantages that are involved in investing in an interconnected network that is useless unless the 'knowledge' advantage to provide stewardship of the Electronic Health Record through our physicians' is in place. That is why we recommend that the federal government help support research, development and knowledge transfer at our major universities in health information technology by supporting 10 Canada Research Chairs in the faculties of Medicine, Management and Engineering. In addition, a pan-Canadian health information technology network will provide the kind of infrastructure that supports labour mobility where for example a migrant worker from Atlantic Canada can access his health records in Fort McMurray Alberta. 5. How to speed-up health information technology connectivity -a green tax incentive approach Thus far the strategy applied to health information connectivity in Canada has been focused on a top-down approach that has produced limited success. That is why the CMA is suggesting that the federal government accelerate the Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) on EMR-related software and hardware equipment over the next three years - an early-bird special or incentive. The CMA does not pretend to be tax policy experts however we do appreciate the federal governments' recent increase in the CCA rates for software and hardware. Our recommendation would mean changing the current software CCA (Class 12xvi) from 100% over two years to 100% in the first year specifically for EMR related investments. And for EMR hardware (Class 50xvii) accelerate the CCA to 100% in the first year from the current 55% rate for a limited time only of three years. These accelerated CCA rate proposals are also consistent with the governments' environmentally friendly CCA initiative as EMRs would save tonnes of paper for years. Mixed results for Canada Health Infoway => Health Information System Transition Fund The CMA lauds the federal government's 2008 Budget for making a $400-million investment in Canada Health Infoway (CHI) to support early movement toward patient wait time guarantees through the development of health information systems and electronic health records. At the same time the physician community believes that CHI has had mixed results, especially when it comes to digitizing and integrating patient records at the places where most patients contact the health care system: physician offices, laboratories and emergency rooms. However, we believe with targeted, conditional policies CHI can be an effective vehicle to accelerate the transition of current health centre paper practices into electronic operations through a time limited five-years Health Information Transition Fund. We also believe that federal transition funds should be matched at a fifty-fifty rate by the provinces. Although this may not be easy, there are other non-monetary policy levers (e.g. regulatory) that the federal government could and should use to persuade the provinces of the value of investing in electronic health record system integration. This is particularly true since the provinces will yield most of the return on the investment. It is imperative that the current health information technology gap be closed and be set at levels for similar service-intensive industries (see Figure 2 in the Appendix 1). That is why; beyond the figures outlined in this submission, the CMA recommends continued federal health information technology support for the next 10 years. Conclusion - Big investments. but big payoffs too As the Health Council of Canada stated in their 2008 annual reportxviii, "Change is underway, but too slowly". The OECD, WHO, The Commonwealth Fund and the Conference Board of Canada's research all strongly suggest that Canada lags behind the rest of the industrialized world in terms of health information technology investments and system integration. The investments made so far may seem large but they will be wasted if a second effort in connecting the entire system is not made now. It is time that the federal government finishes the job of health information system connectivity at the point of care. A Pan-Canadian network of health information will improve patient outcomes, health system efficiency and dramatically increase system accountability. The Health Council of Canada also said that, "These [health information technology] are big investments but the payoff is big too". Accordingly we suggest that over the next five years the following investments will improve the running of Medicare as well as the Canadian economy. The CMA recommends that the federal government should invest $570 million over five years in an interconnected pan-Canadian health information system that includes: => A $225 million, 5-year Health Information System Transition Fund aimed at change management training and support involved in converting 26 million patient records in 36,000 physician offices and community care facilities into interoperable electronic records across Canada. => $305 million for a 3-year time limited accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for EMR software and hardware costs related to health information technologies that connect patient records from physician offices to laboratories and hospitals. => $10 million to sponsor a cross-country education campaign to inform Canadians of the health and system benefits of e-health connectivityxix. => $2 million annually for Canada Research Chairs promoting the value of interconnectivity in health information between the faculties of Medicine, Management and Engineering. References 1The cumulative economic cost of waiting for treatment across just 4 priority areas in 2007 was an estimated $14.8 billion. This reduction in economic activity lowered federal and provincial government revenues in 2007 by a combined $4.4 billion. See:www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Inside_cma/Media_Release/pdf/2008/EconomicReport.pdf 2 Almost 5-million Canadians do not have a family physician. Canada would need 26,000 more doctors to meet the OECD average of physicians per population. Physicians spend more time on paperwork and less with patients than they did 20 years ago. See: "More Doctors. More Care.": www.moredoctors.ca/take_action/ 3 Please see Table l in Appendix 1 for full investment horizon details. i Patient perspective on electronic medical record. Meldgaard M; International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Meeting (19th : 2003 : Canmore, Alta.). Annu Meet Int Soc Technol Assess Health Care Int Soc Technol Assess Health Care Meet. 2003; 19: abstract no. 148. CONCLUSIONS: Patient confidence and perceived quality of care is influenced by a well informed forward-looking staff as can be obtained in settings where EPR is successfully implemented. Patient satisfaction and the functional level of EPR implementation are interdependent. ii A Report Card on Canada see: http://sso.conferenceboard.ca/HCP/overview/health-overview.aspx iii Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] (2007). OECD Health Data 2007. Version 07/18/2007. CD-ROM. Paris: OECD. iv World Health Organization [WHO] (2007). World Health Statistics 2007. see: http://www.who. v Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care May 15, 2007 (updated May 16, 2007)
Volume 59 Authors: Karen Davis, Ph.D., Cathy Schoen, M.S., Stephen C. Schoenbaum, M.D., M.P.H., Michelle M. Doty, Ph.D., M.P.H., Alyssa L. Holmgren, M.P.A., Jennifer L. Kriss, and Katherine K. Shea Editor(s):Deborah Lorber see: www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=482678 vi See Tables Q39 and Q40a in the 2007 National Physician Survey at:www.nationalphysiciansurvey.ca/nps/ vii Dr. Alan Brookstone is a family physician in Richmond, BC and the founder of CanadianEMR. The quote was taken from: Online resource enables MDs to rate EMRs. See: www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Inside_cma/Future_Practice/English/2007/November/Online-e.pdf The CanadianEMR Physician Resource Directory provides access to a province specific searchable list of vendors of products and services to support the EMR-based practice. http://www.canadianemr.ca/ viii Booz, Allan, Hamilton Study, Pan-Canadian Electronic Health Record, Canada's Health Infoway's 10-Year Investment Strategy, March 2005-09-06. ix Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care? Potential Health Benefits, Savings, And Costs Richard Hillestad, James Bigelow, Anthony Bower, Federico Girosi, Robin Meili, Richard Scoville and Roger Taylor, Health Affairs, 24, no. 5 (2005): 1103-1117. x In November 2008 the Auditor General of Canada will present it's performance audit on, "Reporting on Health Indicators-Health Canada" to Parliament. See: www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/oag-bvg_e_29401.html xi There has been heavy emphasis is being placed on "accountability" and "performance measurement," endorsed by the Romanow Commission (Commission on the Future of Healthcare in Canada 2002), the Kirby Committee (Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology 2002), and the First Ministers' accord (First Ministers 2004). See Raisa Deber Why Did the World Health Organization Rate Canada's Health System as 30th? Some Thoughts on League Tables. Some Thoughts on League Tables xii The results of an Ipsos Reid poll (January 2008) finds that eight in ten (78%) Canadians believe that hospital and other health care wait times cost Canada money because people who are waiting for treatment are less productive and miss work. This is compared to just two in ten (19%) who think that wait times save Canada money because governments don't have to put as many resources into healthcare. xiii The economic cost of wait times in Canada, January 2008. This study was commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) to analyze the economic costs of wait times in Canada's medical system. The CMA's membership includes more than 67,000 physicians, medical residents and medical students. It plays a key role by representing the interests of these members and their patients on the national stage. Located in Ottawa, the CMA has roots across the country through its close ties to its 12 provincial and territorial divisions. See: www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Inside_cma/Media_Release/pdf/2008/EconomicReport.pdf xiv Sources: Physician visits - CIHI - Physicians in Canada: Fee-for-Service Utilization 2005-2006. Table 1-21. Hospital contacts - CIHI - Trends in Acute Inpatient Hospitalizations and Day surgery Visits in Canada 1995-1996 to 2005-2006 and CIHI -National Ambulatory Care Reporting System - Visit Disposition by Triage Level for All Emergency Visits - 2005-2006. xvAdvantage Canada builds on Canada's strengths and seeks to gain a global competitive advantage in five areas: 1. Tax Advantage-Reducing taxes for all Canadians and establishing the lowest tax rate on new business investment in the G7. 2. Fiscal Advantage-Eliminating Canada's total government net debt in less than a generation. 3. Entrepreneurial Advantage-Reducing unnecessary regulation and red tape and increasing competition in the Canadian marketplace. 4. Knowledge Advantage-Creating the best-educated, most-skilled and most flexible workforce in the world. 5. Infrastructure Advantage-Building the modern infrastructure we need. xvi Software: CLASS 12 , (100 per cent) Property not included in any other class that is.... (o) computer software acquired after May 25, 1976, but not including systems software or property acquired after August 8, 1989 and before 1993 that is described in paragraph (s). xvii Hardware: CLASS 45 , (45 per cent) Property acquired after March 22, 2004 (other than property acquired before 2005 in respect of which an election is made under subsection 1101(5q)) that is general-purpose electronic data processing equipment and systems software for that equipment, including ancillary data processing equipment. Draft Regulation (a) electronic process control or monitor equipment; (b) electronic communications control equipment; (c) systems software for equipment referred to in paragraph (a) or (b); or (d) data handling equipment (other than data handling equipment that is ancillary to general-purpose electronic data processing equipment). Class 50 (55 per cent) Property acquired after March 18, 2007 that is general-purpose electronic data processing equipment and systems software for that equipment, including ancillary data processing equipment, but not including property that is principally or is used principally as (a) electronic process control or monitor equipment; (b) electronic communications control equipment; (c) systems software for equipment referred to in paragraph (a) or (b); or (d) data handling equipment (other than data handling equipment that is ancillary to general-purpose electronic data processing equipment). xviii Health Council of Canada, Rekindling Reform: Health Care Renewal in Canada, 2003 - 2008, June 2008 (page 23). See: www.healthcouncilcanada.ca/docs/rpts/2008/HCC%205YRPLAN%20(WEB)_FA.pdf Appendix 1 (Table does not display correctly -- See PDF) Table 1 -Health Interconnectivity investments over five years. Figure 2 -Major Canadian health centers are well below industry IT investment standard
General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Canadian Health Care System : Submission to the Minister of International Trade
The method a country chooses to fund and deliver health care demonstrates the values of its citizens and the type of nation that they wish to live in. Canadians, through their elected representatives, have placed a high value on a single-payer, tax-financed health care system with a delivery system that is essentially private and not-for-profit. The principles providing the underpinnings of the system are embodied in the Canada Health Act (CHA) and include the following: universality, comprehensiveness, access, portability and public administration. Since the passing of the CHA, Canadians have grown increasingly passionate about these principles and have demonstrated time and again that these principles are in close alignment with their values. Canadians have chosen tax-based financing for their health care system as it relates to hospital and physician services. The provincial and federal governments, through federal government transfers such as equalization payments and the Canada Health and Social Transfer and through provincial taxation, fund the various organizations and health care providers that deliver health care. Therefore the financing of the health care system has been socialized and publicly administered as opposed to privatized through compulsory private insurance. This indicates that Canadians view health care as not just an ordinary good, such as an automobile or a house that they pay for based on their own financial resources, but as a good whose cost should be shared by the community on the basis of the ability to pay of individuals. For those two components that are most likely to create true financial hardship for families and individuals, hospital services and physician services, the overwhelming majority of the funding is from public sources as opposed to private sources. When it comes to the health services that are subject to the provisions of the CHA, namely hospital services and physicians' services, Canada has chosen a predominantly private delivery approach. Physicians are largely self-employed and operate within a private sector solo or group practice while community and teaching hospitals are largely private not-for-profit organizations. Most Canadian hospitals are governed by voluntary boards of trustees and are owned by voluntary organizations, municipal or provincial authorities or religious orders. 2.0 CANADIAN VALUES The evolution of Canada's health care system has been profoundly influenced by Canadian values and as a result so will its future. The Prime Minister's National Forum on Health produced a series of documents on Canada's health care system including analyses that delved into Canadian values regarding health care and Canada's health care system in particular. The following quotes are from Graves, Frank L. Beauchamp, Patrick, Herle, David, "Research on Canadian Values in Relation to Health and the Health Care System" Canada Health Action: Building on the Legacy, Papers Commissioned by the National Forum on Health, "Volume 5 - Making Decisions, Evidence and Information". These quotes exemplify the importance of health and the health care system in the hearts and minds of Canadians. "There is a broad consensus that the Canadian health care system is a collective accomplishment, a source of pride, and a symbol of core Canadian values. The values of equality, access, and compassion are salient to perceptions of the system and often held in contradistinction to perceptions of the American system. Moreover, the system is seen as relatively effective and sound. It may be the only area of current public endeavour which is seen as a clear success story." p. 352 "The public perceptions of problems in the health care system reflect many of the themes evident in broader concerns about government. One of these themes is a growing wariness of "expert" prescriptions for the health care system." p. 353 "This finding reconfirms a consistent conclusion of other research in this area - the gap between expert rationality and public values. It would be prudent to acknowledge the public's entrenched resistance to a purely economic mode on health care." p. 354 "A number of key conclusions are evident. First, people were generally loath to trade-off elements of the current system against the promise of better or fairer future performance." p. 355 "The public will be resistant to a rational discourse on these cost issues because they are more likely to see these issues in terms of higher-order values. The evidence suggests that further dialogue will tilt the debate more to values than economics. The public will insist on inclusion and influence in this crucial debate and they will reject elite and expert authority." p. 356 "In response to a question on how health care was different from other commodities and services sold in the marketplace, participants agreed that its main difference lies in the fact that it was directly related to "life and death"." p. 370 "Most simply did not want efficiency to be the driving force in health policy." p. 378 "The focus group discussions augmented the belief that health care is more about values than economics." p. 389 "Although other competing priorities emerged over the period of the discussion, it is equality of access that serves as the primary source of this pride. The "Canadian" values are wrapped up in equality of access - everybody gets relatively equal care when they are sick and nobody has to lose their house to pay their hospital or doctor bill. It is this feature of the system which is seen to most distinguish it from the American model (which is the point of comparison)." p. 393 "Many people readily acknowledge that their belief in egalitarianism is restricted to health care and that they are not troubled by wide discrepancies based on ability to pay or status in other areas of society. They have no trouble isolating health care in this way because they see health care as something of a completely different character than housing or automobiles or vacations." p. 393 "There is an overwhelming consensus among Canadians about the importance of equality of access as the defining characteristic of our system. That consensus is premised upon the assumption that quality is a given, as they have perceived it to be in the past." p. 395 "It is also true that, since Canadians recognize that a truly private system like the U.S. version might provide even greater levels or quality of freedom of choice to at least some citizens, they are choosing to sacrifice some of that from the system in order to provide equality of access to a universal system." p. 396 Clearly, Canadians value their health care system and the principles that it is based on. 3.0 IMPLICATIONS FOR TRADE LIBERALIZATION The core values that Canadians have expressed in relation to the health care system raise certain issues as to the impact of trade liberalization on those core values. Following is an analysis based on an examination of the various modes of trade. 3.1 Modes of Trade in Services The Uruguay Round of trade negotiations leading to the World Trade Organization's creation in 1995 classified services into 160 sectors. Health services are classified as a sector. In addition, trade in insurance services may affect health services where a market for health insurance exists. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) distinguishes among four modes of trade in services. Each is briefly described below, together with examples, (involving the mythic countries 'A' and 'B') from the health sector. [TABLE CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] Mode Example 1 Cross-border trade - provision of diagnosis or treatment planning services in country A by suppliers in country B, via telecommunications ('telemedicine') 2 Consumption abroad - movement of patients from country A to country B for treatment 3 Commercial presence - establishment of hospitals in country A whose owners are from country B, i.e. foreign direct investment 4 Presence of natural persons1 - service provision in country A by health professionals who have emigrated from country B [TABLE END] To date, Canada has made no commitments in the health services sector. Commitments in general have been shallow in the health sector in comparison to the most liberalized sectors, telecommunications and financial services, reflecting in part the substantial uncertainty about how such commitments will affect health care systems. Many of the countries that have undertaken health sector commitments have opted for enshrining the status quo, or even the status quo with commitments that include language proficiency requirements for health care professionals. Some WTO Members, however, have made more extensive commitments, driven in part by the hope that this will facilitate development of export opportunities and importation of foreign capital and know-how. Where developing countries have made such commitments, the general lack of resources appears to be a far more potent barrier to trade than the presence or absence of such commitments. 3.2 GATS and the Health System: Role of Insurance and Health System Structure To understand trade implications for the health sector, it may be helpful to distinguish between three functions that undergird all health systems: regulation/stewardship, financing, and service provision. Since the inception of Medicare, Canadians have received their health care through a system of private providers regulated under statutes. This links them closely to a financing system comprised largely of public funds in the form of general taxation revenues disbursed to health care providers by provincial and territorial governments and drawn from provincial and federal revenues through the progressive income tax system. The regulatory/stewardship established by the Canada Health Act and provincial regulation is pivotal to the system's structure. For example, building private hospitals need not be explicitly banned because funding levers make this a difficult business proposition as services provided there would not be automatically covered by provincially managed insurance schemes. A further useful distinction arises between input goods and services (drugs, devices, health care personnel, cleaning, laundry etc.) and the output of health care services. It is difficult to argue that the cleaning of hospitals is fundamentally part of the output of health services, rather it is similar to cleaning of other facilities and is increasingly performed by commercial entities in contractual relationships with health care facilities. These commercial entities include firms with foreign ownership or shareholders. Similarly many of the drugs and devices used in Canadian health care facilities are traded goods, moving in international trade from foreign-based suppliers and being accompanied by Canadian goods exported to other health care systems. Another input into the health care system is medical education. Physicians have to be trained so that Canadians have access to appropriate physician resources. There is some concern about the effects of GATS on the medical education enterprise and the quality of medical education currently delivered in Canada. As well, there is international recognition of Canada's expertise in medical education and evaluation and that this is a part of the health care system that Canada should be exporting. 4.0 RESPONDING TO GATS: POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS In responding to GATS, it is helpful to consider each of the four modes of trade in health services, current levels of trade, and how GATS liberalization, (i.e. commitments by the government of Canada) could impact Canada's health care system. Mode 1 - Cross-border supply Cross border supply of health services, where the provider (health care professional) and consumer (patient) are in different jurisdictions has recently moved from the realm of science fiction to reality with advances in telemedicine. However, certain services, particularly those involving direct patient contact (nursing, rehabilitation professionals) are unlikely to be provided, regardless of advances in telemedicine. Cross-border supply appears most relevant to services involving diagnosis and treatment planning. For example, a physician in Canada may digitize radiology films and send them for interpretation to a radiologist in the Caribbean or South Asia. Similarly, several experiments within Canada have attempted to use telediagnosis to spare families long trips from remote communities to consult with highly specialized paediatricians. If this were to occur across national borders with exchange of payment for services, it would constitute a form of international services trade. Current limits on telemedicine's growth are essentially no longer technological but rather the regulatory/stewardship issues of professional certification and payment systems for services rendered. A commitment under mode 1 would do nothing to address either of these questions, particularly the first as governments retain full authority to establish licensing and certification regimes for professionals. Within Canada, payment has been hampered by provincial insurance plan insistence that the doctor-patient encounter must occur in such a way that both are in the same physical space. At present, efforts have been directed to establishing cross-border recognition of professional accounting certification, fueled in large part by the concentration of accounting services work within a handful of multinational firms on behalf of their increasingly globalized clients. By contrast, similar efforts directed to social sector professions are unlikely given the atomistic nature of the professionals and the institutions and organizations where they work. The absence of a concerted desire for such cross-border recognition, coupled with the powerful role of governments in regulating not only certification but also numbers of health care professionals, suggests cross-border recognition will remain unlikely for the foreseeable future. That having been said, a commitment by Canada and other countries to mode 1 liberalization could increase pressure on licensing authorities to develop programs of cross-border recognition. If this were to happen the export of telemedicine services outside of Canada would represent physician resources that would not be available to Canadians. Given the physician workforce issues that Canada is presently facing such a commitment could exacerbate an already difficult position. In addition, there are other implications that would have to be determined through stakeholder consultation, for example: provider legal liability and malpractice insurance, patient privacy and confidentiality of medical records to name a few. Mode 2 - Consumption abroad Individual Canadians have long sought care in other jurisdictions, most notably the United States. This is typically paid for from private health insurance or out of pocket funds. Changes to provincial insurance reimbursement for out-of-country care have dramatically limited publicly funded consumption abroad by Canadians. Two exceptions to this are treatment for specific rare conditions and, in several provinces, contracting for radiation therapy services with American institutions. Liberalization under mode 2 would do little for Canada in affecting the outward flow of Canadian patients to the US given the ease with which Canadians can cross the Canada-US border to purchase medical care. Similarly, opportunities for Canadian professionals and facilities to attract additional foreign patients are unlikely to grow substantially should a mode 2 commitment be made. The obvious growth potential for Canadian physicians and facilities lies in the USA but has been substantially limited by two synergistic factors. First is the non-portability of insurance coverage, both publicly financed Medicare/Medicaid benefits and most market-purchased insurance. Exclusion from health maintenance organizations' (HMOs) networks of providers are a further impediment for Canadian providers seeking to attract American consumers. Should the United States be willing to commit to the generalized portability of Medicare benefits, Canada would be a logical destination for American consumers seeking care, but that would be contingent on a commitment from the United States or other action regarding portability, rather than a specific mode 2 commitment by Canada. Commitments in this direction may, however, only be made if similar commitments are made by potential trading partners for health services, notably Canada and Mexico. A commitment by Canada and other countries, especially the United States, to mode 2 liberalization could change the business plans or strategies to attract foreign patients by some physicians especially certain niche subspecialists. Such a change could result in access difficulties for Canadian patients as providers substitute higher-paying foreign patients for Canadian ones for which payment is fixed by provincial insurance plans. Mode 3 - Commercial presence Commercial presence, usually through foreign direct investment (FDI), is often necessary for providing services such as banking or supply chain management. FDI in Canada's health service sector is relatively insignificant and that would appear unlikely to change with a mode 3 commitment. As with several of the other modes of trade, the regulatory and stewardship environment creates structural impediments to FDI, specifically concerning which services will be paid for in which facilities, that a mode 3 commitment is unlikely to remove. A related area for the health system is that of consulting services, where multinational, foreign-origin firms already play a substantial role in providing various forms of management consulting services. While some hospital boards are reported to have been approached regarding the outsourcing of their management to foreign management services firms, the extent of implementation to date has been minimal. Should hospital management be outsourced in this way or hospital facilities networked through supra-facility organizations, American based firms are logical candidates for such work and can be expected to bring with them substantial experience in shaping and constraining physician decision-making, particularly around access to expensive procedures. Mode 3 commitments are arguably neither necessary nor sufficient for such a change in hospital governance and management when compared to the power of provincial government regulation and financing mechanisms. If Canada made a mode 3 commitment, provincial governments would still have substantial latitude to regulate financing and provision of services, so long as these regulations applied to all potential suppliers, regardless of country of origin, thus ensuring national treatment. However, the full ramifications of such a commitment remain largely unknown and there appears little to be gained by Canada in making such commitments. Mode 4 - Presence of natural persons Presence of natural persons, specifically physicians and other health professionals, is one of the most pressing issues in health systems around the world. For countries like South Africa, emigration of physicians hamstrings efforts to deliver health services. For parts of Canada, immigration of those physicians has been essential to providing Canadians with health care, particularly in rural and remote areas. Nevertheless, mode 4 commitments are unlikely to be particularly useful for health human resource planning. For destination countries like Canada, a mode 4 commitment to liberalize immigration of natural persons, specifically health sector professionals, does not bind that country to forego national systems of certification and licensure. Moreover, existing systems of visas and work authorizations offer far more effective control over inflows than would a mode 4 commitment. Similarly, Canadian physicians who wish to emigrate, typically to the US, do so in the absence of a Mode 4 commitment by either country. Of concern to Canadians is the increased recognition of physician shortages as demonstrated by the fact that several provinces have increased medical school enrolment. Therefore any measures that would make it easier for physicians and other health care professionals to leave Canada and to practice elsewhere, especially the United States, could exacerbate an already tight supply of human health resources in several provinces. After a decade of efforts to reduce the number of physicians in Canada, assessments of Canadian physician supply are increasingly identifying shortages or, at the very least, chronic undersupply, in rural areas. Substantial numbers of foreign-trained physicians already reside in Canada but are unable to practice due to some combination of limited language skills, insufficient training, or 'queuing' for the various transition requirements imposed on international medical graduates (IMGs) by provincial licensing authorities. Commitments by Canada in this area however could result in pressure on licensing authorities to modify their requirements with potential implications on quality of care. Again, there is little to be gained for Canada to pursue commitments in this area until the ramifications are fully explored. Additional Considerations: Two areas that are to be explored are: 1) cross-sectoral horse trading, and 2) equity perceptions. 'Cross-sectional horse trading' refers to countries offering commitments in one sector in return for commitments in other, unrelated sectors. As an example, Canada may wish to increase its access to foreign markets for financial or telecommunications services and face the choice of putting the health services sector 'into play' as part of negotiating on matters unrelated to health services. This would be potentially disastrous if Canada were to undertake specific health services commitments in the rush to secure benefits in other sectors without attention to the federal-provincial cooperation and coordination to ensure that such commitments did not undermine the foundations of Canada's health system. Such cooperation and coordination appears to be becoming increasingly difficult and the pressure of a GATS commitment perceived to be negotiated by persons outside the health sector and health ministry would seem a surefire way to increase that difficulty. The second issue, equity perceptions, arises from the confluence of increasing concern among Canadians about access to their health care system and the likely additional concern that would arise if Canadian physicians were perceived to be favouring foreign patients over Canadian patients. The clearest example of access concerns to date is likely that of ophthalmology services where the opportunities for these specialists to provide non-insured laser treatment to American citizens may have reduced the services available to provincially insured Canadians. Non-insured care, whether for Canadians or foreign patients is a growing part of physician revenues, but pushing for its expansion through a mode 2 commitment under GATS appears unlikely to generate benefits sufficient to offset the potential negatives when compared with other methods of expanding revenue from non-insured services. 5.0 CONCLUSION The Government of Canada's bargaining position regarding health services in relation to the ongoing liberalization of trade in health services through the GATS will evolve from an assessment of the opportunities and costs associated with various levels of commitment. A major factor in the equation are the values of Canadians and their affinity for the publicly funded health care system. 6.0 RECOMMENDATION "The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) recognizes that trade liberalization can have positive economic impacts on the Canadian economy, however the type of healthcare system that Canadians and health care providers want is of primary concern whereas the goals of trade liberalization in health services is of a secondary nature. Recognizing that the GATS process is an on-going and long-term approach to trade liberalization, the CMA recommends that the Federal government undertake extensive consultative sessions with the Canadian public and healthcare providers. Such a consultation process would help answer questions as to the implications of trade liberalization and would provide feedback as to what level of trade liberalization in health care services is consistent with Canadian values." 1 Mode 4: "Presence of 1Natural Persons" - this covers the conditions under which a service supplier can travel in person to a country in order to supply a service. Source: http://gats-info.eu.int/gats-info/gatscomm.pl?MENU=hhh
Maintaining Ontario’s leadership on prohibiting the use of sick notes for short medical leaves
Physician practice/ compensation/ forms
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) submits this brief to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs for consideration as part of its study on Bill 47, Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018. The CMA unites physicians on national, pan-Canadian health and medical matters. As the national advocacy organization representing physicians and the medical profession, the CMA engages with provincial/territorial governments on pan-Canadian health and health care priorities. As outlined in this submission, the CMA supports the position of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) in recommending that Schedule 1 of Bill 47 be amended to strike down the proposed new Section 50(6) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000. This section proposes to reinstate an employer’s ability to require an employee to provide a sick note for short leaves of absence because of personal illness, injury or medical emergency. Ontario is currently a national leader on sick notes In 2018, Ontario became the first jurisdiction in Canada to withdraw the ability of employers to require employees to provide sick notes for short medical leaves because of illnesses such as a cold or flu. This legislative change aligned with the CMA’s policy position1 and was strongly supported by the medical and health policy community. An emerging pan-Canadian concern about the use of sick notes As health systems across Canada continue to grapple with the need to be more efficient, the use of sick notes for short leaves as a human resources tool to manage employee absenteeism has drawn increasing criticism in recent years. In addition to Ontario’s leadership, here are a few recent cases that demonstrate the emerging concern about the use of sick notes for short leaves:
In 2016, proposed legislation to end the practice was tabled in the Manitoba legislature.2
The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association and Doctors Nova Scotia have been vocal opponents of sick notes for short leaves, characterizing them as a strain on the health care system.3,4
The University of Alberta and Queen’s University have both formally adopted “no sick note” policies for exams.5,6
The report of Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review summarized stakeholder comments about sick notes, describing them as “costly, very often result from a telephone consultation and repeat what the physician is told by the patient, and which are of very little value to the employer.”7 Ontario’s action in 2018 to remove the ability of employers to require sick notes, in response to the real challenges posed by this practice, was meaningful and demonstrated leadership in the national context. The requirement to obtain sick notes negatively affects patients and the public By walking back this advancement, Ontario risks reintroducing a needless inefficiency and strain on the health system, health care providers, their patients and families. For patients, having to produce a sick note for an 4 employer following a short illness-related leave could represent an unfair economic impact. Individuals who do not receive paid sick days may face the added burden of covering the cost of obtaining a sick note as well as related transportation fees in addition to losing their daily wage. This scenario illustrates an unfair socioeconomic impact of the proposal to reinstate employers’ ability to require sick notes. In representing the voice of Canada’s doctors, the CMA would be remiss not to mention the need for individuals who are ill to stay home, rest and recover. In addition to adding a physical strain on patients who are ill, the requirement for employees who are ill to get a sick note, may also contribute to the spread of viruses and infection. Allowing employers to require sick notes may also contribute to the spread of illness as employees may choose to forego the personal financial impact, and difficulty to secure an appointment, and simply go to work sick. Reinstating sick notes contradicts the government’s commitment to end hallway medicine It is important to consider these potential negative consequences in the context of the government’s commitment to “end hallway medicine.” If the proposal to reintroduce the ability of employers to require sick notes for short medical leaves is adopted, the government will be introducing an impediment to meeting its core health care commitment. Reinstating sick notes would increase the administrative burden on physicians Finally, as the national organization representing the medical profession in Canada, the CMA is concerned about how this proposal, if implemented, may negatively affect physician health and wellness. The CMA recently released a new baseline survey, CMA National Physician Health Survey: A National Snapshot, that reveals physician health is a growing concern.8 While the survey found that 82% of physicians and residents reported high resilience, a concerning one in four respondents reported experiencing high levels of burnout. How are these findings relevant to the proposed new Section 50(6) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000? Paperwork and administrative burden are routinely found to rank as a key contributor to physician burnout.9 While a certain level of paperwork and administrative responsibility is to be expected, health system and policy decision-makers must avoid introducing an unnecessary burden in our health care system. Conclusion: Remove Section 50(6) from Schedule 1 of Bill 47 The CMA appreciates the opportunity to provide this submission for consideration by the committee in its study of Bill 47. The committee has an important opportunity to respond to the real challenges associated with sick notes for short medical leaves by ensuring that Section 50(6) in Schedule 1 is not implemented as part of Bill 47. 5 1 Canadian Medical Association (CMA). Third-Party Forms (Update 2017). Ottawa: The Association; 2017. Available: http://policybase.cma.ca/dbtw-wpd/Policypdf/PD17-02.pdf (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 2 Bill 202. The Employment Standards Code Amendment Act (Sick Notes). Winnipeg: Queen’s Printer for the Province of Manitoba; 2016. Available: https://web2.gov.mb.ca/bills/40-5/pdf/b202.pdf (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 3 CBC News. Sick notes required by employers a strain on system, says NLMA. 2018 May 30. Available: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/employer-required-sick-notes-unnecessary-says-nlma-1.4682899 4 CBC News. No more sick notes from workers, pleads Doctors Nova Scotia. 2014 Jan 10. Available: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/no-more-sick-notes-from-workers-pleads-doctors-nova-scotia-1.2491526 (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 5 University of Alberta University Health Centre. Exam deferrals. Edmonton: University of Alberta; 2018. Available: www.ualberta.ca/services/health-centre/exam-deferrals (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 6 Queen’s University Student Wellness Services. Sick notes. Kingston: Queen’s University; 2018. Available: www.queensu.ca/studentwellness/health-services/services-offered/sick-notes (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 7 Ministry of Labour. The Changing Workplaces Review: An Agenda for Workplace Rights. Final Report. Toronto: Ministry of Labour; 2017 May. Available: https://files.ontario.ca/books/mol_changing_workplace_report_eng_2_0.pdf (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 8 Canadian Medical Association (CMA). One in four Canadian physicians report burnout [media release]. Ottawa: The Association; 2018 Oct 10. Available: www.cma.ca/En/Pages/One-in-four-Canadian-physicians-report-burnout-.aspx (accessed 2019 Nov 13). 9 Leslie C. The burden of paperwork. Med Post 2018 Apr.
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Health care and patient safety 13
Parliamentary submission 2
Policy resolution 1
Acting on today's and tomorrow's health care needs: Prebudget submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is pleased to provide the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance this pre-budget submission. It provides recommendations to address major pan-Canadian challenges to the health of Canadians: improve how we provide care to our growing elderly population; improve access to primary care across the country; increase digital health literacy to take advantage of the benefits of new health information technologies; and better prepare for and mitigate the health impacts of a changing climate on Canadians. Seniors Care Health systems across the country are currently struggling to meet the needs of our aging population. People aged 85 years and over—many of whom are frail—make up the fastest growing age group in Canadai. Provincial and territorial health care systems (as well as care systems for populations falling under federal jurisdiction) are facing many challenges to meet the needs of an aging population. Canadians support a strong role for the federal government in leading a national seniors strategy and working with the provinces to ensure that all Canadians have the same level of access and quality of services, no matter where they live. The 2017 federal/provincial/territorial funding agreement involving $6 billion over 10 years to improve access to home care services is a welcomed building block. But without greater investment in seniors care, health systems will not keep up. To be truly relevant and effectively respond to Canadians’ present and future needs, our health care system must provide integrated, continuing care able to meet the chronic and complex care needs of our growing and aging population. This includes recognizing the increased role for patients and their caregivers in the care process. The federal government must ensure transfers are able to keep up with the real cost of health care. Current funding levels clearly fail to do so. Health transfers are estimated to rise by 3.6% while health care costs are expected to rise by 5.1% annually over the next decade.ii Recommendation: The federal government ensure provincial and territorial health care systems meet the care needs of their aging populations by means of a demographic top-up to the Canada Health Transfer.iii Providing care often comes with a financial cost such as lost income due to the caregiver’s withdrawal from the workforce to provide care. There are also increasing out-of-pocket costs for both caregivers and care receivers for health care-related expenses—privately covered expenditures on home and long-term care for seniors are projected to grow by an average of 5.8 per cent annually—nearly 1.5 times the pace of household disposable income growth. While the federal government offers tax credits that can be claimed by care receivers/caregivers, they are significantly under-utilized. While representing a significant proportion of caregivers, those with low or no income receive little to no federal government support through these programs. Middle-income earners also receive less than those earning high incomes. 4 Recommendation: The federal government create a Seniors Care Benefit that would be an easier, fairer and more effective way to support caregivers and care receivers alike.iv Access to Care Since the mid-1990s, the federal and provincial/territorial governments (FPT) have provided sustained leadership in promoting and supporting the transformation of primary care in Canada. In 2000, the First Ministers concluded the first of three Health Accords in which they agreed to promote the establishment of primary health care teamsv supported by a $800 million Primary Health Care Transition Fund (PHCTF) funded by the federal government, but jointly governed. The PHCTF resulted in large-scale sustained change in primary care delivery models in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta with interest in other jurisdictions as well. However, the job is far from finished. Across Canada, access to primary care is challenging for many Canadians with a persistent shortage of family physicians. In 2017, 4.7 million Canadians aged 12+ reported they did not have a regular health care provider.vi Even those who have a regular provider experience wait time issues. There has been widespread interest in primary care models since the development of the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC) vision document Family Practice: The Patient’s Medical Home (PMH), initially launched in 2011vii and recently re-launched.viii The model is founded on 10 pillars depicted in Figure 1. Figure 1. The Patient’s Medical Home, 2019 The updated model places increased emphasis on team-based care and introduces the concept of the patient’s medical neighborhood that sets out connections between the primacy care practice and all delivery points in the surrounding community. While comprehensive baseline data are lacking, it seems 5 safe to conjecture that most Canadians are not enrolled in a primary care model that would measure up to the model’s 10 pillars. Recommendation: The federal government, in concert with provinces and territories, establish a targeted fund in the amount of $1.2 billion to support a new time-limited Primary Health Care Transition Fund that would build on the success of the fund launched in 2000 with the goal of widely introducing a sustainable medical home model across jurisdictions. This would include the following key elements:
Age-sex-weighted per capita allocation across the provinces and territories;
Joint governance of the FPT governments with meaningful stakeholder engagement;
Respect for the Canada Health Act principles;
Common objectives (e.g., modeled on the CFPC Patient’s Medical Home framework);
Operating Principles specifying eligible/ineligible activities;
Reporting provisions and agreed-upon metrics; and
Sustainability plans. Digital/Virtual Care Canada and most industrialized countries will experience a digital health revolution over the next decade with great potential to improve patient and population health. Digital health can be described as the integration of the electronic collection and compilation of health data, decision support tools and analytics with the use of audio, video and other technologies to deliver preventive, diagnostic and treatment services that promote patient and population health. While most Canadian physicians’ offices and health care facilities are now using some form of electronic record keeping and most households have internet access, there remains a large deficit in using virtual care, both within jurisdictions and across provincial/territorial boundaries. Recently the CMA, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada established a Virtual Care Task Force to identify opportunities for digital health to improve health care delivery, including what regulatory changes are required for physicians to deliver care to patients within and across provincial/territorial boundaries. To take full advantage of digital health capabilities it will be essential for the population to have a functional level of digital health literacy: the ability to seek, find, understand and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health problem.ix This also includes the capability of communicating about one’s health to health care professionals (e.g., e-consults), self-monitoring health (e.g., patient portals) and receiving treatment online (e.g., Web-based cognitive behavioral therapy).x There are no current data available on health literacy in Canada, let alone digital health literacy. One basic barrier to achieving digital health literacy is access to, and usage of the Internet, which has been termed the “digital divide” (e.g., older Canadians and low income households are less likely to have Internet access).Error! Bookmark not defined. 6 In 2001 the federal government established the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). Its mandate includes informing consumers about their rights and responsibilities in dealing with financial institutions and providing information and tools to help consumers understand and shop for financial products and services.xi In 2014 the FCAC appointed a Financial Literacy Leader who has focused on financial literacy, including activities such as conducting financial capability surveys and the development of a National Strategy for Financial Literacy.xii Considering the anticipated growth of digital/virtual care it would be desirable to understand and promote digital health literacy across Canada. What the federal government has done for financial literacy could serve as a template for digital health literacy. Recommendation: The federal government establish a Digital Health Literacy Secretariat to:
Develop indicators and conducting surveys to measure and track the digital health literacy of Canadians;
Develop tools that can be used both by Canadians and their health care providers to enhance their digital health literacy; and
Assess and make recommendations on the “digital divide” that may exist among some population sub-groups due to a lack of access to information technology and lower digital health literacy. Climate Change and Health Climate change is the public health imperative of our time. There is a high level of concern among Canadians about their changing climate. A 2017 poll commissioned by Health Canada demonstrates a high level of concern among Canadians about their changing climate: 79% were convinced that climate change is happening, and of these, 53% accepted that it is a current health risk, with 40% believing it will be a health risk in the future. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified air pollution and climate change as one of the biggest threats to global health. Health care professionals see first-hand the devastating health impacts of our changing climate including increased deaths from fine particulate matter air pollution and increased heat-related conditions. Impacts are most common in vulnerable populations such as adults over 65 years, the homeless, urban dwellers and people with a pre-existing disease. Canada’s health care system is already treating the health effects of climate change. A lack of progress in reducing emissions and building adaptive capacity threatens both human lives and the viability of Canada’s health system, with the potential to disrupt core public health infrastructure and overwhelm health services, not to mention the economic and social costs. The federal government must provide leadership to deal with the impact already being felt in Canada and around the world. Recommendation: 7 The federal government make strong commitments to minimize the impact of climate change on the health of Canadians by:
Ensuring pan-Canadian and inter-jurisdictional coordination to standardize surveillance and reporting of climate-related health impacts such as heat-related deaths, develop knowledge translation strategies to inform the public, and generate clinical and public health response plans that minimize the health impacts;
Increasing funding for research on the mental health impacts of climate change and psychosocial adaptation opportunities; and
Ensuring funding is provided to the health sector to prepare for climate change impacts through efforts to increase resiliency (i.e., risk assessments, readiness to manage disease outbreaks, sustainable practice). 8 i Statistics Canada. The Chief Public Health Officer's Report on the State of Public Health in Canada, 2014: Public Health in the Future. Ottawa: Statistics Canada; 2015. Available: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/cphorsphc-respcacsp/2014/chang-eng.php; (accessed 2016 Sep 19). ii The Conference Board of Canada. Meeting the care needs of Canada’s aging population. Ottawa: The Conference Board; 2018. iii Canadian Medical Association. Meeting the demographic challenge: Investments in seniors care. Pre-budget submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. August 3, 2018. https://policybase.cma.ca/documents/Briefpdf/BR2018-16.pdf iv The Conference Board of Canada. Measures to Better Support Seniors and Their Caregivers. March 2019. https://www.cma.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/health-advocacy/Measures-to-better-support-seniors-and-their-caregivers-e.pdf v Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat. News release – First Ministers’ meeting communiqué on health. September 11, 2000. http://www.scics.ca/en/product-produit/news-release-first-ministers-meeting-communique-on-health/. Accessed 04/22/19. vi Statistics Canada. Primary health care providers, 2017. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/82-625-x/2019001/article/00001-eng.pdf?st=NGPiUkM5. Accessed 04/21/19. vii College of Family Physicians of Canada. A vision for Canada. Family Practice: the patient’s medical home. http://www.cfpc.ca/uploadedFiles/Resources/Resource_Items/PMH_A_Vision_for_Canada.pdf. Accessed 04/22/19. viii College of Family Physicians of Canada. The patient’s medical home 2019. https://patientsmedicalhome.ca/files/uploads/PMH_VISION2019_ENG_WEB_2.pdf. Accessed 04/21/19. ix Norman C, Skinner H. eHealth literacy: essential skills for consumer health in a networked world. J Med Internet Res 2006;8(2):e9. Doi:10.2196/jmir.8.2.e9. x Van der Vaart R, Drossaert C. Development of the digital health literacy instrument: measuring a broad spectrum of health 1.0 and health 2.0 skills. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19(1):e27. Doi:10.2196/jmir.6709. xi Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. About FCAC. xii Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. National Strategy for Financial Literacy. Phase 1: strengthening seniors’ financial literacy. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/canada/financial-consumer-agency/migration/eng/financialliteracy/financialliteracycanada/documents/seniorsstrategyen.pdf. Accessed 06/24/19. https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/corporate/about.html. Accessed 07/01/19.
Models of care for arthritis
GC12-111
The Canadian Medical Association advocates that governments invest in a pan-Canadian approach to evaluate and implement a national arthritis framework for innovative and interdisciplinary models of care for arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions.
Towards a Sustainable Health Care System in the New Millennium : Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance 2000 Pre-Budget Consultation Process
On the cusp of the new millennium, it is appropriate to reflect with pride on our nation's past and to plan with compassion, innovation and creativity for our nation's future. The new century will present us with many challenges-an ageing population, increased knowledge with corresponding advances in technology and research, competitiveness at home and abroad- to meet the needs of Canadians. CMA recognizes that we live in a world that is increasingly interdependent. A world where globalization has meant that we, as a country, must look forward and beyond our borders when it comes to determining how we can reach our collective potential. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] As we plan for the future it is vital to recognize the importance of the social programs that must remain essential features of our society. Our health care system is an important and defining feature of what it is to be Canadian. CMA believes a well funded, sustainable, quality health care system must be at the forefront of the federal government's strategic priorities. The haste to reduce health care costs over the past several years has left a destabilized and demoralized health system in its wake. Diminished access to critical health care services and insufficient human resources are only part of the legacy. Rebuilding Canadians' confidence in the health care system will not be easy. CMA noted the important first step that was taken by the federal government in its 1999 budget. A reinvestment of $11.5 billion earmarked for health care was an important signal to Canadians. However, with the complete restoration of funds in 2003/04 the health care system will only be back to its 1995 nominal spending levels, some seven years after the fact - with no adjustment for the increasing health care needs of an increased number of more aged Canadians, inflation or economic growth. CMA is encouraged with federal government's recent initiatives to increase health research funding. This is of direct benefit to the health of Canadians; to the health care system; to foster the development of health care as an industry and to ensure our best and brightest medical scientists and health researchers are educated and remain in Canada. However, we know that more needs to be done to ensure innovation and competitiveness. We would like to echo the words of the Prime Minister who said we consider Medicare to be the best example of how good social policy can be good economic policy, too. While reflecting the desire of Canadians to show compassion for their fellow citizens, Medicare also serves as one of our key competitive advantages. A sustained health care system will ensure a healthy population, and a healthy labour force that contributes to the productivity of the nation. In seeking to place the health care system on the road to long-term sustainability, the CMA is committed to working in close partnerships with the federal government and others in identifying, developing and implementing policy initiatives that serve to strengthen Canadians' access to quality health care The CMA looks forward to contributing to the search for solutions. To work with the federal government and others in building a responsive, flexible and sustainable health care system for all Canadians. In this spirit of co-operation the CMA offers the following recommendations: 1. That the federal government fund Canada's publicly financed health care system on a long-term, sustainable basis to ensure quality health care for all Canadians. 2. That the federal government introduce a health-specific portion of federal cash transfers to the provinces and territories to promote greater public accountability, transparency and visibility. 3. That the federal government, at a minimum, increase federal cash for health care by an additional $1.5 billion, effective April 1, 2000. 4. That beginning, April 1, 2001, the federal government fully index the total cash entitlement allocated to health care through the use of a combination of factors that would take into account the changing needs of Canadians based on population growth, ageing, epidemiology, current knowledge and new technologies, and economic growth. 5. That the federal, provincial and territorial governments adopt the guiding principle of national self-sufficiency in the production and retention of physicians to meet the medical needs of the population, including primary to highly specialized medical care, and the requirements for a critical mass for teaching and research. 6. That the federal government establish and fund a national pool of re-entry positions in postgraduate medical education. 7. That the federal government establish a National Centre for Health Workforce Research. 8. That the federal government enhance financial support systems, such as the Canada Student Loans Program, for medical students in advance of any future tuition increase, and ensure that these support systems are set at levels that meet the financial needs of students. 9. That health care services funded by the provinces and territories be zero-rated. 10. That the federal government establish a National Health Technology Fund to increase country-wide access to needed health technologies. 11. That the federal government continue to increase funding for health research on a long-term, sustainable basis. 12. That the federal government commit stable funding for a comprehensive tobacco control strategy; this strategy should ensure that the funds are invested in evidence-based tobacco control projects and programs, which would include programs aimed at prevention and cessation of tobacco use and protection of the public from tobacco's harmful effects. 13. That the federal government support the use of tobacco tax revenues for the purpose of developing and implementing tobacco control programs. 14. That the federal government place a high priority for funding tobacco prevention and evidence-based cessation programs for young Canadians as early as primary school age. 15. That the federal government follow a comprehensive integrated tobacco tax policy a) To implement selective stepwise tobacco tax increases to achieve the following objectives: (1) reduce tobacco consumption, (2) minimize interprovincial/territorial smuggling of tobacco products, and (3) minimize international smuggling of tobacco products; b) To apply the export tax on tobacco products and remove the exemption available on tobacco shipments in accordance with each manufacturers historic levels; and c) To enter into discussions with the US federal government to explore options regarding tobacco tax policy, raising Canadian tobacco price levels in line with or near the US border states, in order to minimize international smuggling. 16. That the dollar limit of RRSPs at $13,500, increase to $15,500 for the year 2000/01. 17. That the federal government explore mechanisms to increase RRSP contribution limits in the future given the delay in achieving pension parity, since 1988. 18. That the 20% Foreign Property Rule for deferred income plans such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans and Registered Retirement Income Funds be increased in 2% annual increments to 30% over a five year period, effective the year 2000. 19. That the federal government explores the regulatory changes necessary to allow easier access to RRSP funds for investment in small and medium-size businesses. 20. That the federal government undertake the necessary steps to creditor-proof RRSPs and RRIFs. I. INTRODUCTION The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) commends the federal government in its second mandate, for continuing with the pre-budget consultation process. This visible and accountable process encourages public dialogue in the consideration and development of finance, economic and social policies of the country. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] As part of the 2000 pre-budget consultation process, the CMA welcomes the opportunity to submit its views to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, and looks forward to meeting with the Committee at a later date to discuss our recommendations and their rationale in greater detail. II. POLICY CONTEXT Over the past few years, there has been a significant amount of attention placed on the fact that Canada is living in a world that is increasingly interdependent. A world where globalization has meant that we, as a country, must look forward, outward and with others when it comes to determining how we can reach our collective potential. While further political and economic change is likely to continue, it is important to recognize that there are important social programs that must remain essential features of our society. One such program is our health care system - an important and defining feature of what it is to be Canadian. The CMA believes that when it comes to maintaining and enhancing the health of Canadians, a well-funded, sustainable health care system must be at the forefront of the federal government's strategic priorities. By 2002, it is estimated that there will be 2.3 million more Canadians and 444,000 more Canadians over the age of 65. As a consequence, Canada's health care system will continue to face significant challenges in the near future. The pan-Canadian haste of governments across the country to reduce health care costs as quickly as possible over the past several years left a destabilized and demoralized health system in its wake. Diminished access to critical health care services and insufficient human resources are only part of the legacy. The initial federal reinvestment will help ease some of the pressures but it will not be much more than a short-term solution given that expectations and demands on the system will continue to rise. Rebuilding Canadians' confidence in the health care system will not be easy. Reports of overcrowded emergency rooms, physician and nursing shortages, and of patients being sent to the United States for treatment to reduce waiting times will not help restore their faith. The CMA fully recognises the importance of the first step taken by the federal government. However, fundamental questions remain about future steps needed to sustain our cherished health care system over the short-, medium- and long-term - ensuring that all Canadians will have ready access when they or their families are in need. Given this first step, the CMA believes that we must shift our focus to the vision and overarching strategic framework the federal government must develop to ensure that the health care system will be funded on a sustainable basis. In seeking to place the health care system on the road to long-term sustainability, the CMA is committed to working closely with the federal government in identifying, developing and implementing policy initiatives that serve to strengthen Canadians' access to quality health care. III. TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM In its 1999 budget, the federal government took an important first step forward toward stabilizing Canada's health care system. The government announced a five-year fiscal framework, effective April 1, 1999 that reinvested $11.5 billion, on a cumulative basis, in the health care system. While this is an important first step, it must be placed in perspective. The $11.5 billion is a cumulative figure over five consecutive years. On an annual basis, this means that federal cash for health care is scheduled to increase by $2.0 billion for 1999/2000; it will remain at the same level for 2000/01 and then increase by $500 million (to $2.5 billion) in 2001/02, and remain at that level for the years 2002/03 and 2003/04. Only in year 4 does the CHST cash floor increase by a total of $2.5 billion. 1 Restoring $2.5 billion to the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) cash floor in 2002/03, the fourth year of the government's five-year timetable, means that the health system will only be back to its 1995 nominal spending levels, 7 years after the fact - with no adjustment for the increasing health care needs of Canadians, inflation or economic growth. 2 [TABLE CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [TABLE END] In current dollars, it is estimated that the federal government allocates approximately 41% of CHST cash for health care. Based on a cash floor of $12.5 billion this amounts to $5.13 billion. The CMA recognizes that the federal amount has increased cash by a minimum of $2.0 billion in 1999/00 to $7.13 billion, however, once again this figure must be placed in context; $7.13 billion represents only 9 cents of each dollar spent on health care in Canada. Another way to express the $11.5 billion is to adjust the figure by the number of Canadians (i.e., a per capita basis - see Figure 1). 3 Scenario 1 illustrates nominal per capita federal CHST cash for health care prior to the 1999 budget with projections to 2003/04. In absence of a five-year fiscal framework introduced by the government, federal CHST cash (formerly Established Programs Financing and the Canada Assistance Plan) would have gone from $247 in 1990/01 to $163 per Canadian in 2003/04 - a decrease of 34%. Adjusting for inflation, federal CHST cash for health care would have dropped from $247 to $131 per Canadian - a decrease of 47%. With the introduction of the $11.5 billion in 1999 (Scenario 2), nominal per capita CHST cash for health care increases from $168 to $233 in 1999/00. This, however, falls short of the $258 per capita in 1995/96. With an estimated population of 30.6 million Canadians, the CHST shortfall is estimated to be $765 million (i.e., $258 - $233 x 30.6 million). Recognizing that inflation since 1995 has eroded the value of the federal CHST cash in 1999, the figure is estimated to be closer to $1.5 billion than $1.0 billion. Furthermore, there is no escalator attached to the federal CHST cash to account for inflation, a growing and ageing population, epidemiological trends or the diffusion of new technologies. This is a departure from previous formulae under Established Programs Financing (EPF) and the CHST which included an escalator (i.e., a three-year moving average of nominal Gross Domestic Product) to grow the value of the cash transfer. 4 In summary, the context placed around $11.5 billion is important, for it underscores the importance of the initial step that has been taken by the federal government when it comes to shoring up funding for health care in Canada. However, the critical issue now becomes what immediate and successive steps will be taken by the government to place the funding of our health care system on a longer-term and sustainable basis. The CMA is not alone in its view that there must be a full restoration of CHST cash. The Communiqué issued by the First Ministers at the recent 40th Annual Premiers Conference in Quebec City was clear in the interpretation of sustainability. While we consider how to ensure that the health care system will be here for all Canadians over the short, medium and long-term, we know that our society is growing and ageing. It is projected that individuals over the age of 65 will increase from just over one in ten (12.2%) in 1996 to one in five (21.7%) in 2031. 5 [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] The combination of population growth and ageing will place additional pressure on health expenditures. Estimated per capita health expenditures by age for 1994 (see Table 1), shows that per capita expenditures for the 65 and over age group were $8,068, in comparison to $2,478 for the population as a whole-just over a three-to-one ratio. 6 Of interest, while the 65 and over population represented less than 12% of the population in 1994, it is estimated to have accounted for almost 40% of total health expenditures. The Auditor General of Canada, using age-specific per capita health spending, has projected that government health expenditures may reach 12% of GDP. 7 This is a large estimated increase given that the 1998 total health expenditures, which includes both government and private sources, is approximately 9% of GDP. [TABLE CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] Table 1 Per Capita Health Expenditures By Age Group, 1994 Age Group Expenditures per capita 0-14 $1,156 15-44 $1,663 45-64 $2,432 65+ $8,068 Source: National Health Expenditures, CIHI, 1996. [TABLE END] While it may be argued that those are only estimates, the OECD study on population shows that they are not at all atypical of the international experience. 8 This information alone will present the health care system with a number of challenges when it comes to meeting the future needs of the population. Given the current and impending pressures on the health care system, it is incumbent on the federal government - the guardian of Medicare - to think how we, as a society, will be able to maintain our health care system well beyond the new millennium. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] The CMA therefore recommends: 1. That the federal government fund Canada's publicly financed health care system on a long-term, sustainable basis to ensure quality health care for all Canadians. 2. That the federal government introduce a health-specific portion of federal cash transfers to the provinces and territories to promote greater public accountability, transparency and visibility. 3. That the federal government, at a minimum, increase federal cash for health care by an additional $1.5 billion, effective April 1, 2000. 4. That beginning April 1, 2001, the federal government fully index the total cash entitlement allocated to health care through the use of a combination of factors that would take into account the changing needs of Canadians based on population growth, ageing, epidemiology, current knowledge and new technologies, and economic growth. Recommendation 1 is principle-based and speaks to the importance of moving away from managing Canada's health care system on a crisis-to-crisis basis. While the balance between affordability and sustainability of our system should be at the forefront of our thinking, it must not deny Canadians reasonable access to quality health care. It also recognizes that although the federal government has an essential role to play, it cannot do it alone; it must work in close partnership with the provinces and territories. Consistent with the Minister of Health's call for increased accountability and transparency in our health care system, Recommendation 2 calls on the federal government to be measured by the very same principle when it comes to funding Canada's health care system. It is also consistent with the Social Union Agreement calling for greater public accountability on all levels of government. While last year's allocation under the CHST for health care sends an important message, consideration must be given as to how the CHST can be restructured to promote greater transparency and linkage between the sources of federal funding for health care and their intended uses at the provincial/territorial level. This is particularly important when one considers the need to better understand the relationship between defined health care expenditures and their relationship to health outcomes. In fact, it could be argued that last year's federal budget implicitly re-introduced the concept of earmarking CHST cash to health care. At a time of increased demand for accountability, the CHST mechanism appears to be anachronistic by having one indivisible cash transfer that does not recognize explicitly the federal government's contribution to health in a post-Social Union Agreement world. Last year, the CMA recommended to the federal government that it reinvest a total of $3.5 billion effective April 1, 1999 into the health care system with the principal objectives of: stabilizing the health care system; and assisting in the transitional process of expanding the continuum of care. As part of the $3.5 billion, the CMA recommended the creation of a Health System Renewal Fund which focused on four discrete areas of need: (1) acute care infrastructure; (2) community care infrastructure; (3) support Canadians at risk; and (4) health information technology. Given that the government reinvested $2.0 billion in 1999/2000, the CMA recommends that the federal government move immediately to reinvest an additional $1.5 billion for health care to facilitate continued system stabilization as well as further development toward an expanded continuum of care. These additional and necessary resources would be welcomed in addressing strategic policy challenges related to health human resource requirements - particularly those associated with the need for an adequate and stable supply of physicians and nurses; the cornerstone of our health care system. Furthermore, these resources would assist in the development of necessary capital infrastructure required to assist in the transition from institutional to community-based models of care, within a more integrated framework. While more specific and substantial funding announcements would be expected with any new shared programs announced by the federal and provincial/territorial governments (e.g., home care and pharmacare), there is a need now, while the system is in flux to ensure that no one falls through the cracks. This transitional funding will assist in the stabilization of the system and will also serve to ensure that as the system evolves toward an expanding continuum of care, it will remain accessible, with minimal interruption of service to Canadians. Based on recent estimates of the government's surplus in 1999 (standing at $4.8 billion through the first three months of fiscal 1999) and beyond, (9) it would appear that the government has an opportunity to make good on its commitment to make health care a key priority for future action. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] Recommendation 4 addresses the need for a fully indexed escalator to ensure that the federal cash contribution will continue to grow to meet the future health needs of Canadians. The escalator formula recognizes that health care needs are not always synchronized with economic growth. In fact, in times of economic hardship (e.g., unemployment, stress, and familial discord), a greater burden is placed on the health care system. If left as is, the current federal cash value will continue to erode over time with increasing demands from an ageing and growing population, and inflation. Combined, these recommendations speak not only to the fundamental principles of the necessity of having a sustainable health care system, but also in terms of the federal government continuing to take the necessary concrete leadership steps to ensure that adequate and long-term funding is available to meet the health care needs of all Canadians. The recommendations are strategic and targeted, and serve to build on and strengthen the core foundation of our health care system. If Canada's health care system is not only to survive, but thrive in the new millennium, we must give serious consideration to a range of possible solutions that place our system, and the federal role in that system, on a more secure and sustainable financial foundation. The CMA is prepared to continue to work with governments and others in developing innovative and lasting solutions to the challenges that face the health care system. IV. SUSTAINABLE HEALTH CARE AND PRODUCTIVITY In last year's report tabled in the House of Commons, the Standing Committee on Finance proposed the development of a productivity covenant. The Covenant "should subject all existing government initiatives (spending, taxation, regulation) to an assessment which evaluates their expected effects on productivity and hence the standard of living of Canadians. Every new budgetary initiative should be judged according to this productivity benchmark." 10 [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] In the context of reinvesting in health care, the Standing Committee's Covenant asks that a "business case" be made. The CMA is of the view that there exists an important relationship between a well-funded, sustainable, public health care system and economic productivity. Just as strong economic fundamentals are generally viewed as an essential requirement for Canada's prosperous future, stable, adequate and where required, increased resources for health and health care funding should also be considered as an investment in the future well-being of Canadians, and by extension, our economic ability to compete. Framed in this context, these "investments" strengthen the capacity of Canadians to live rewarding and productive lives. From a structural perspective, studies have recognized the link between a well-funded, sustainable health care system as an important contributor to Canada's economic performance. 11 [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] The studies suggest that the nature in which Canada largely finances its health care system through general taxes is more efficient compared to the United States which finances its system predominantly through employer-sponsored programs. Compared to the United States, Canada finances its health care system more equitably by spreading the financial risk across all taxpayers. As well, issues related to job mobility and the portability of health care benefits are not in question in the Canadian system. However, recent federal underfunding in health care has significantly contributed to impaired access to care by injured and sick workers delaying their return to work, decreasing productivity and increasing the cost of doing business and the cost to society. 12 A well-funded, sustainable health care system can be viewed as an important component in the decision-making process of businesses to locate in Canada. 13 In this context, there are a number of benefits that may accrue to Canadians at the individual and societal level, for example: * it can attract medium- and long-term business investment; * lead to the development of new infrastructure (e.g., facilities, equipment); * nurture the development of new long-term (value-added) jobs; * generate real and growing incomes; * increase individual and societal economic activity/consumption, wealth and investment capital; * reduce overall dependence on publicly funded social programs (e.g., employment insurance, income support programs); and * contribute to a growing and sustainable tax base. Underscoring the important linkages between the quality of life of Canadians and productivity is the important role of an efficient and well-funded public health care system and sustained economic growth. Given that policy decisions impact on the economy, health and health care should not necessarily be considered in isolation. In fact, wherever possible, good economic policy and good health and health care policy should be mutually reinforcing, or at a minimum, better synchronized. In an increasingly global, interdependent and competitive marketplace, businesses are not looking to assume greater costs. When it comes to health care, they are not looking to absorb high risk and high cost cases that are currently funded through the public sector. Instead, it would appear that they prefer a well-funded, sustainable health care system that is responsive to the health and health care needs of Canadians. 14 As well, a sustainable publicly funded health care system affords Canadians full mobility (i.e., portability) when it comes to pursuing job opportunities, which in turn, improves productivity. Good economic policy and good health care policy are compatible Canadian societal priorities. One need not be sacrificed to achieve the other nor should they be considered to be in competition with each other. Access to quality health and health care services is an important contributor towards Canada's ability to remain competitive in an increasingly complex global economic environment. Governments at all levels, must take responsibility to ensure that the health system remains on a long-term sustainable financial footing to the extent that it continues to benefit Canadians at the individual and societal level, and in terms of maximizing our quality of life and our ability to be productive. V. PHYSICIAN WORKFORCE ISSUES Canada is now beginning to experience a physician shortage that will be significantly exacerbated in the early decades of the next century. One of the chief contributing factors to the emerging shortage of physicians has been the almost singular focus of governments in their efforts to contain health care costs in the 1990s. A key policy approach introduced by governments to reduce cost growth in health has been to decrease the supply of physicians. A 12-point accord on physician resource management reached by Health Ministers in Banff, Alberta in 1992 included a recommendation for a 10% reduction in undergraduate enrolment in medical schools, which was implemented in the fall of 1993, and a recommendation for a similar percentage reduction in the number of postgraduate training positions. In addition, the introduction in 1992 of the requirement for a minimum of 2 years of prelicensure training removed most of the flexibility that used to exist in the number of postgraduate training slots. For instance, the opportunity for re-entry was no longer available to practising physicians; these re-entry opportunities ensured that young graduates (in general and family medicine) who had opted to go out and do locums or rural placements could then come back into the system at a later date for skills enhancement or speciality training. What the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers of Health did not take into account, however was that the output of Canada's medical schools peaked in the mid-1980s. Between 1986 and 1989, physician supply increased on average by 1,900 per year. This growth was halved between 1989 and 1993 - dropping to an average increase of 960 physicians per year. After 1993, total physician supply dropped in three successive years. This period of declining growth occurred well before the 1993 reductions have had an opportunity to work through the undergraduate education and post-MD training systems. Part of the reason for the decrease in supply is fewer Canadian medical graduates, but a significant part is due to increased attrition from the physician population. One factor has been increased retirement of physicians. The annual number of physicians retiring increased by 40% between the 1985-1989 and 1990-1995 periods. Although there have been up turns in the total supply of physicians in 1997 (285) and 1998 (960), this is unlikely to be sustained, given our lower levels of output from the educational system and higher attrition. The removal of most of these positions was unfortunate because re-entry can provide for more flexibility in the system and can allow for a more rapid adjustment in the physician workforce to meet the health needs of the public. For the Committee's information, appended to the Brief is the CMA's Draft Principles for a Re-entry System in Canadian Postgraduate Medical Education. According to the CMA's projection via the Physician Resource Evaluation Template (PRET), if the current levels of enrolment and attrition patterns continue, Canada will definitely experience a physician shortage in the first decades of the next century, especially after 2011, when the baby-boomer cohort of physicians will begin to retire. There is additional evidence that Canada is experiencing a physician shortage. First, it can be demonstrated that physicians are working harder than ever. Data from the CMA Physician Resource Questionnaire survey show that the mean hours per week worked by physicians (excluding on-call) have increased from 46.9 per week in 1993 to 54.1 hours in 1999 - an increase of 15.4%. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] Second, population-based data suggest that it is becoming more difficult to access physician services. Tracking surveys conducted by the Angus Reid group on behalf of CMA show that in 1998, an estimated 60% of the population believed that access to specialist services has worsened in the past couple of years - up from 41% in 1996. Similarly, in 1998 27% of Canadians reported that access to services from a family physician had worsened - almost double the level of 14% that was reported in 1996. 15 An August 1999 poll conducted by Angus Reid asked Canadians to assess the availability of physicians in their own communities. Only a little over one half of Canadians (52%) feel there are enough physicians available to meet their community's needs. Furthermore, they expect the situation to worsen over the next five years. Less than one third (29%) feel that five years from now there will be enough physicians to meet the health care needs in their communities. 16 In summary, there is ample evidence that not only is Canada heading for a severe physician shortage, but that a shortage has been developing over the past few years. At the same time, it must be recognized that it takes on average six years to train a general practitioner and 8-12 years to train a specialist from the time one enters medical school. If we are to avoid what appears to be a significantly worsening crisis, planning for the future must begin immediately. The CMA therefore recommends: 5. That the federal, provincial and territorial governments adopt the guiding principle of national self-sufficiency in the production and retention of physicians to meet the medical needs of the population, including primary to highly specialized medical care, and the requirements for a critical mass for teaching and research. 6. That the federal government establish and fund a national pool of re-entry positions in postgraduate medical education. In close consultation and collaboration with the provinces and territories, the federal government could play an increasingly vital role when it comes to ensuring that Canada produces an adequate supply of physicians. Furthermore, it could play a role in giving physicians the flexibility they need should they require additional training to meet the emerging needs of Canadians. Cost containment initiatives have also led to decreased numbers of other health care providers all across the country, particularly nurses. The federal government could play a major role in funding and coordinating research across all jurisdictions in Canada on the appropriate supply, mix and distribution of the entire health workforce. Strategic planning in the short, medium and long-term would be greatly facilitated through the establishment of a national institution that could draw on existing national databases and compile research from all the centres in the jurisdictions across the land. The CMA therefore recommends: 7. That the federal government establish a National Centre for Health Workforce Research. RURAL-REMOTE ISSUES While there are physician shortages across the country, it is particularly acute in rural and remote regions of Canada. For a number of personal and professional reasons, physicians are not finding rural and remote practice as rewarding nor sustainable. In 1999, CMA conducted a survey of rural physicians who were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with rural medical practice both from a personal and professional perspective; this study was funded by Health Canada. A similar survey was previously done in 1991. 17 There has been little change in the level of satisfaction for the personal and family factors. However, the level of satisfaction with the professional factors has fallen significantly. In 1991, the proportion indicating they were very satisfied with work hours, professional backup, availability of specialty services and continuing medical education opportunities all decreased by at least 10 percentage points. Similarly, the percentage who were very satisfied with hospital services fell by more than half from 40% in 1991 to 17% in 1999. Likewise, in 1991 42% were very satisfied with their earning potential compared with 23% in 1999. ESCALATION AND DEREGULATION OF TUITION FEES The CMA remains very concerned about high, and rapidly escalating, medical school tuition fee increases across Canada. The CMA is particularly concerned about their subsequent impact on the physician workforce and the Canadian health care system. In addition to the significant impact of high tuition fees on current and potential medical students, the CMA believes that high tuition fees will have a number of consequences, they will: (1) create barriers to application to medical school and threaten the socioeconomic diversity of future health care providers serving the public; and (2) exacerbate the physician 'brain drain' to the United States so that new physicians can pay down their large and growing debts more quickly. In support of this priority matter, the CMA Board has struck a working group to develop a position paper on tuition fee escalation and deregulation; the working group is also planning a national, multiprofession stakeholder conference on this issue. In addition to the recommendation that follows, the CMA believes that governments should increase funding to medical schools to alleviate the pressures driving tuition increases, and that any further tuition increases should be regulated and reasonable. The CMA decries tuition deregulation in Canadian medical schools and recommends: 8. That the federal government enhance financial support systems, such as the Canada Student Loans Program, for medical students in advance of any future tuition increase, and ensure that these support systems are set at levels that meet the financial needs of students. BRAIN DRAIN The net loss of physicians from Canada to other countries has doubled since the beginning of the 1990s. Whereas a net loss of 223 physicians due to migration was recorded in 1991, the corresponding figure for 1997 was 432 physicians - which represents roughly the annual output of four to five medical schools. While these physicians leave for a variety of professional and personal reasons, what is particularly telling is that the figure has doubled over the course of the 1990s. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] For several years, the CMA has warned governments and policy makers about the impending crisis of physician shortages and their implications for the health care system. Regrettably, the calls for a more measured, responsible and deliberate approach to physician resource planning has fallen on deaf ears. There are a number of factors that contribute to physicians leaving Canada. While they would appear to be a combination of personal, professional and economic considerations, the bottom line is our brain drain is a de facto brain gain for another country - predominantly the United States. In reviewing the brain drain issue, Statistics Canada concludes that "there is significant net brain drain in the health professions. Brain gain in health is not enough to make up for brain drain to the United States." 18 This issue is very real for physicians - who are being asked to do more where colleagues are no longer practising; and to the public - who are being asked to be patient as access to the system is delayed or compromised. In the absence of timely, strategic and lasting policy measures, we are likely to continue to risk losing physicians - many of them our best and brightest - to other countries. In this regard, the CMA is of the view that the federal government has an important role to play when it comes to synchronizing policy in the areas of health care, finance and economics. One factor that may contribute to a physician's decision to leave or think about leaving Canada is our tax structure. It is important to note that Canada relies more heavily on personal income taxes than any other G-7 country. 19 While this is important, what is more of concern is how Canada's marginal tax structure compares to that of the United States. While it is understood that Canada has taken a fundamentally different approach with regard to the magnitude and role of the tax system in social policy, the gap between the two systems can no longer be ignored in a world of increasing globalization, economic interdependence and labour mobility. While Canada's personal income tax schedule should be reviewed, it should not come as a surprise to this Committee that other tax policies - such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST)/Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) only serve to remind physicians of the severity and inequity of the problem. GOODS AND SERVICES TAX (GST) In its 1997 report to the House of Commons the Standing Committee noted the concerns of the medical profession about the application of the GST and by 1998 indicated that this issue merits further consideration by the government. The CMA believes that it has rigorously documented its concerns and further study is not required (20) - the time has come for concerted action from the federal government to remove this tax impediment. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] When it comes to tax policy and the tax system in Canada, the CMA is strongly of the view that both should be administered in a fair and equitable manner. This principle-based statement has been made to the Standing Committee on a number of different occasions. While these principles are rarely in dispute, the CMA has expressed its strong concerns regarding their application - particularly in the case of the goods and services tax (GST) and the recently introduced harmonized sales tax (HST) in Atlantic Canada. By designating medical services as "tax exempt" under the Excise Tax Act, physicians are in the unenviable position of being denied the ability to claim a GST refund (i.e., input tax credits - ITCs) on the medical supplies necessary to deliver quality health care, and on the other, cannot pass the tax onto those who purchase such services. This is a critical point when one considers the raison-d'être of introducing the GST: to be an end-stage consumer-based tax, and not having a producer of a good or a service bear the full burden of the tax. Yet this tax anomaly does precisely that. As a result, physicians are "hermetically sealed" - they have no ability to claim ITCs due to the Excise Tax Act, or pass the costs to consumers due to the Canada Health Act. The CMA has never, nor is currently asking for, 'special treatment' for physicians under the Excise Tax Act. However, if physicians, as self-employed individuals are considered as small businesses for tax purposes, then it is clearly reasonable that they should have the same tax rules extended to them that apply to other small businesses. This is a fundamental issue of tax fairness. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] While other self-employed professionals and small businesses claim ITCs, an independent (KPMG) study has estimated that physicians have "overcontributed" in terms of unclaimed ITCs by $57.2 million per year. Furthermore, with the introduction of the HST in Atlantic Canada, KPMG has estimated that it will cost physicians an additional $4.686 million per year. By the end of this calendar year, physicians will have been unfairly taxed in excess of $500 million. As it currently applies to medical services, the GST is bad tax policy and the HST will make a bad situation much worse for physicians. There are other health care providers (e.g., dentists, physiotherapists, psychologists, chiropractors, nurses) whose services are categorized as tax exempt. However, there is an important distinction between whether the services are publicly insured or not. Health care providers who deliver services privately have the opportunity to pass along the GST costs through their fee structures. It must be remembered that physicians are in a fundamentally different position given that 99% of their professional earnings come from the government health insurance plans: under the GST and HST, "not all health care services are created equal". There are those who argue that the medical profession should negotiate the GST at the provincial/ territorial level, yet there is no province or territory that is prepared to cover the additional costs that are being downloaded onto physicians as a result of changes to federal tax policy. Nor do these governments feel they should be expected to do so. The current tax anomaly, as it affects the medical profession, was created with the introduction of the GST - and must be resolved at the federal level. The principles that underpin the fundamental issue of tax fairness outlined by Chief Justice Hall are unassailable and should be reflected in federal tax policy. Clearly, it is fairness, not special treatment that the profession is seeking. As it currently stands for medical services, the GST and HST is bad tax policy that does not reinforce good health care policy in Canada. The CMA strongly recommends: 9. That health care services funded by the provinces and territories be zero-rated. This recommendation would be accomplished by amending the Excise Tax Act as follows: (1). Section 5 part II of Schedule V to the Excise Tax Act is replaced by the following: "A supply (other than a zero-rated supply) made by a medical practitioner of a consultative, diagnostic, treatment or other health care service rendered to an individual (other than a surgical or dental service that is performed for cosmetic purposes and not for medical or reconstructive purposes)." (2). Section 9 Part II of Schedule V to the Excise Tax Act is repealed. (3). Part II of Schedule VI to the Excise Tax Act is amended by adding the following after Section 40: 41. A supply of any property or service but only if, and to the extent that, the consideration for the supply is payable or reimbursed by the government under a plan established under an Act of the legislature of the province to provide for health care services for all insured persons of the province. The CMA's recommendation fulfils at least two over-arching policy objectives: (1) it strengthens the relationship between good economic policy and good health policy in Canada; and (2) it applies the fundamental principles that underpin our taxation system (fairness, efficiency, effectiveness), in all cases. In this regard, the CMA is committed to working closely, and on an ongoing basis, with the government to develop collaborative solutions to this tax anomaly. DIFFUSION OF HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES Recently, concerns have been raised about the lack of access to necessary diagnostic and treatment technologies in Canada. Many of the technologies are essential in the early detection of cancers (e.g., breast, prostate, lung), tumours, circulatory complications (e.g., stroke, hardening of the arteries) and other illnesses. A recent study concluded that Canada is generally in the bottom third of OECD countries in availability of technology. Canada ranks 18th (of 29 OECD countries) in making available computed tomography; 19th (of 24 OECD countries) in lithotriptor availability; and 18th (of 27 OECD countries) in availability of magnetic reasonance imagers. Canada ranks favourably only in the availability of radiation equipment (5th out of 16 OECD countries). 21 [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] Given the very real concerns that have been raised with regard to waiting lists across the country, Canadians deserve better when it comes to making available needed health technologies that can effectively diagnose and treat disease. Furthermore, it is clear that we must facilitate the diffusion of new cost-effective health technologies that are properly evaluated and meet defined standards of quality. While physicians are trained to provide quality medical care to all Canadians- they must, at the same time, have the "tools" to do so. In this context, the federal government should establish a National Health Technology Fund that would allow the provinces and territories to access funds. While the provinces and territories would be responsible for determining their respective technological priorities, the federal government would very clearly link the sources of funding with their intended uses, with full recognition for an essential investment in the health care of Canadians. The CMA recommends: 10. That the federal government establish a National Health Technology Fund to increase country-wide access to needed health technologies. The CMA is prepared to work closely with the federal government to assist in the development of objectives and deliverables of such a fund within a reasonable period of time. In so doing, the federal government would work in a strategic partnership with the provinces and territories such that monies from the fund to purchase equipment would be supported by ongoing operational resources at the site of delivery. VI. SYNCHRONIZING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT POLICY: WHERE FINANCE, ECONOMICS AND HEALTH CARE COME TOGETHER In appearing before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, the CMA is well aware that policy considerations in finance and economics have an important and direct impact on the funding and delivery of health care in Canada. In the world of public policy, rarely are difficult decisions portrayed as simply being black or white. In most instances, where tough choices are made amongst a series of competing ends, they are often in varying shades of grey. While this is true when it comes to health care policy in Canada or any other discipline, it is important that it be placed in a broader context in terms of being consistent with, or reinforcing other good policy choices that have been implemented. This concept is critical to ensure that, if possible, all policy decisions are moving consistently in the same direction. In effect, synchronized in a way that the "policy whole" is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Such an approach also ensures that policy decisions taken in one sector are not countering decisions taken in other sectors. HEALTH RESEARCH IN CANADA In previous submissions to the Standing Committee on Finance, the CMA has encouraged the federal government to take the necessary steps to establish a national target and implementation plan for health research in Canada. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] The CMA was very encouraged with the federal government's announcement in last year's budget to set aside significant resources to develop the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR). By 2001, funding for the CIHR is expected to increase to $484 million. The CMA was also pleased with the Minister's recent announcement to earmark $147 million to attract and retain health researchers in Canada. In offering a vision and structure to facilitate health research in Canada, the government should be congratulated. The CMA believes that significantly increasing funding in support of health research is of direct benefit to: (1) the health of Canadians; (2) Canada's health care system; and (3) to foster the development of health care as an industry. This is where good economic policy goes hand-in-hand with good health and health care policy in Canada. The CMA strongly supports the CIHR model and is prepared to work closely with government and others to do what is necessary to make this become a reality. Recognizing that Canada is moving into a new phase when it comes to funding and undertaking health research, the government is taking an important step to ensure our best and brightest medical scientists and health researchers are developed and remain in Canada. [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] As a national organization representing the views of practising physicians across the country, the CMA strongly believes it has a meaningful contribution to make in moving the CIHR model forward. Specifically, in the areas of: * knowledge management (the CMA contributed greatly to stimulating clinical and health services research in Canada) * contributing to the research agenda (the CMA contributes to the research agenda in health services research, for example the Western Waiting List project funded by the Health Transition Fund) * ensuring quality peer-reviewed research (the CMA publishes the leading peer-reviewed medical journal in Canada) * research transfer (the CMA plays a leading role in developing tools to transfer research into practice - such as the Clinical Practice Guideline Database) * ethics (the CMA maintains a standing committee on ethics) * sustainability (the CMA has advocated for a strong Canadian presence in health research) While the CIHR will have a broad mandate for health research, physicians will have a key role to play in medical and health services research. The CMA looks forward to playing a more substantive role as the model moves to become reality. The CMA recommends: 11. That the federal government continue to increase funding for health research on a long-term, sustainable basis. TOBACCO CONTROL PROGRAMS Tobacco taxation policy should be used in conjunction with other strategies for promoting health public policy, such as public education programs to reduce tobacco use. The CMA continues, however, to maintain that a time-limited investment is not enough. Substantial and sustainable fund-ing is required for programs in prevention and cessation of tobacco use. 22 [BOX CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] [BOX END] A possible source for this type of program investment could be tobacco tax revenues or the tobacco surtax. The CMA believes that that the federal government should designate 0.6 cents per cigarette sold to a fund to defray the costs of tobacco interventions, including those provided by physicians with the expertise in the treatment of nicotine addiction. This would generate approximately $250 million per year to help smokers quit. 23 The CMA recommends: 12. That the federal government commit stable funding for a comprehensive tobacco control strategy; this strategy should ensure that the funds are invested in evidence-based tobacco control projects and programs, which would include programs aimed at prevention and cessation of tobacco use and protection of the public from tobacco's harmful effects. 13. That the federal government support the use of tobacco tax revenues for the purpose of developing and implementing tobacco control programs. 14. That the federal government place a high priority for funding tobacco prevention and evidence-based cessation programs for young Canadians as early as primary school age. TOBACCO TAXATION POLICY Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature mortality in Canada. The most recent estimates suggest that more than 45,000 deaths annually in Canada are directly attributable to tobacco use. The estimated economic cost to society from tobacco use in Canada has been estimated from $11 billion to $15 billion. 24 Tobacco use directly costs the Canadian health care system $3 billion to $3.5 billion (25) annually. These estimates do not consider intangible costs such as pain and suffering. CMA is concerned that the 1994 reduction in the federal cigarette tax has had a significant effect in slowing the decline in cigarette smoking in the Canadian population, particularly in the youngest age groups - where the number of young smokers (15-19) is in the 22% to 30% range and 14% for those aged 10-14. 26 A 1997 Canada Health Monitor Survey found that smoking among girls 15-19 is at 42%. 27 A Quebec study found that smoking rates for high school students went from 19% to 38%, between 1991 and 1996. 28 The CMA congratulates the federal government's initiatives to selectively increase federal excise taxes on cigarettes and tobacco sticks. This represents the first step toward the development of a federal integrated tobacco tax strategy, and speaks to the importance of strengthening the relationship between good health policy and good tax policy in Canada. The CMA understands that tobacco tax strategies are extremely complex. Strategies need to consider the effects of tax increases on reduced consumption of tobacco products with increases in interprovincial/ territorial and international smuggling. In order to tackle this issue, the government could consider a selective tax strategy. This strategy requires continuous stepwise increases to tobacco taxes in those selective areas with lower tobacco tax (i.e., Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada). The goal of selective increases in tobacco tax is to increase the price to the tobacco consumer over time (65-70% of tobacco products are sold in Ontario and Quebec). The selective stepwise tax increases will approach but may not achieve parity amongst all provinces; however, the tobacco tax will attain a level such that interprovincial/territorial smuggling would be unprofitable. The selective stepwise increases would need to be monitored so that the new tax level and US/Canadian exchange rates do not make international smuggling profitable. The selective stepwise increase in tobacco taxes can be combined with other tax strategies. The federal government should be congratulated for reducing the export exemption available on shipments in accordance with each manufacturers' historic levels, from 3% of shipments to 2.5%. However the CMA believes that the federal government should remove the exemption. The objective of implementing the export tax would be to make cross-border smuggling unprofitable. The federal government should establish a dialogue with the US federal government. Canada and the US should hold discussions regarding harmonizing US tobacco taxes with Canadian levels at the factory gate. Alternatively, Canadian tobacco tax policy should raise price levels such that they approach US tobacco prices. The CMA therefore recommends: 15. That the federal government follow a comprehensive integrated tobacco tax policy (a) To implement selective stepwise tobacco tax increases to achieve the following objectives: (1) reduce tobacco consumption, (2) minimize interprovincial/territorial smuggling of tobacco products, and (3) minimize international smuggling of tobacco products; (b) To apply the export tax on tobacco products and remove the exemption available on tobacco shipments in accordance with each manufacturers' historic levels; and (c) To enter into discussions with the US federal government to explore options regarding tobacco tax policy, raising Canadian tobacco price levels in line with or near the US border states, in order to minimize international smuggling. REGISTERED RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLANS (RRSPS) There are at least two fundamental goals of retirement savings: (1) to guarantee a basic level of retirement income for all Canadians; and (2) to assist Canadians in avoiding serious disruption of their pre-retirement standard of living upon retirement. Reviewing the demographic picture in Canada, we know that an increasing portion of society is not only aging, but is living longer. Assuming that current trends will continue and peak in the first quarter of the next century, it is important to recognize the role that private RRSP savings will play in ensuring that Canadians may continue to live in dignity well past their retirement from the labour force. In its 1996 budget statement, the federal government announced that the contribution limits of RRSPs was to be frozen at $13,500 through to 2002/03, with increases to $14,500 and $15,500 in 2003/04 and 2004/05 respectively. As well, the maximum pension contribution limit for defined benefit registered pension plans will be frozen at its current level of $1,722 per year of service through 2004/05. This is a de facto increase in tax payable. This policy runs counter to the 1983 federal government White Paper on The Tax Treatment of Retirement Savings where the House of Commons Special Committee on Pension Reform recommended that the limits on contributions to tax-assisted retirement savings plans be amended so that the same comprehensive limit would apply regardless of the retirement savings vehicle or combination of vehicles used. In short, the principle of 'pension parity' was explicitly recognized and endorsed. Since that time, in three separate papers released by the federal government (1983, 1984, 1987), the principle of pension parity would have been achieved between money-purchase (MP) plans (i.e., RRSPs) and defined-benefit (DB) plans (i.e., Registered Pension Plans) had RRSP contribution limits risen to $15,500 in 1988. As a founding member of the RRSP Alliance, the CMA, along with others has been frustrated that eleven years of careful and deliberate planning by the federal government around pension reform has not come to fruition. In fact, if the current policy remains in place it will have taken more than 17 years to implement needed reforms to achieve parity (from 1988 to 2005). While pension parity will be achieved between RRSP plans and RPP plans in 2004/05, it will have been accomplished on the backs of Canadians whose RRSP contribution levels have been frozen for far too long. As a consequence, the current policy of freezing RRSP contribution limits and RPP limits without adjusting the RRSP contribution limits to achieve pension parity serves to maintain inequities between the two plans until 2004/05. This situation is further compounded by the implementation of this policy because the RRSP/RPP plans are frozen and therefore unable to grow at the rate in the yearly maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE) Specifically, if the recommended policy of pension parity had been implemented in 1988, the growth in RRSP and RPP contribution limits could have grown in line with the yearly maximum pensionable earnings - and would be approximately $21,000 today. [TABLE CONTENT DOES NOT DISPLAY PROPERLY. SEE PDF FOR PROPER DISPLAY] TABLE 2 - RRSP Contribution Limits Adjusted by the Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE Earnings (YMPE) Year YMPE % change RRSP Limits 1988 $27,700 $15,500 1989 $28,500 2.89 $15,948 1990 $28,900 1.40 $16,171 1991 $30,500 5.54 $17,067 1992 $32,200 5.57 $18,018 1993 $33,400 3.73 $18,690 1994 $34,400 2.99 $19,249 1995 $34,900 1.45 $19,529 1996 $35,400 1.43 $19,809 1997 $35,800 1.13 $20,032 1998 $36,900 3.07 $20,648 1999 $37,400 1.36 $20,928 YMPE Source: Revenue Canada, April 1999 [TABLE END] Each year the Department of Finance publishes revenue cost to the federal treasury of a number of policy initiatives. For RRSP contributions, the net tax expenditure (i.e., tax revenue not collected) is estimated to be $7.5 billion in 1998. The net tax expenditure associated with registered pension plans is estimated to be $6.2 billion in 1998. In this context, it is critical to understand the difference between tax avoidance and tax deferral. RRSPs allow Canadians to set aside necessary resources to provide for their retirement years. In the medium and longer-term, when RRSPs are converted to annuities, they bring increased tax revenues to government. While current contributions exceed withdrawals, this will not continue indefinitely as the baby boom generation retires at an accelerated rate. In sum, at a time when the government is reviewing the role of public benefits in society, there is a social responsibility placed on government to ensure a stable financial planning environment is in place which encourages greater self-reliance on private savings for retirement. From the standpoint of synchronizing good tax policy with good social policy, it is essential that the RRSP system be expanded such that it gives Canadians the means and incentive to prepare for retirement, while at the same time, lessening any future burden on public programs. The CMA recommends: 16. That the dollar limit of RRSPs at $13,500 increase to $15,500 for the year 2000/01. 17. That the federal government explore mechanisms to increase RRSP contribution limits in the future given the delay in achieving pension parity, since 1988. Under current federal tax legislation, 20% of the cost of an RRSP, RRIF or Registered Pension Plan's investments can be made in 'foreign property'. The rest is invested in 'Canadian' investments. If the 20% foreign content limit is exceeded at the end of a month, the RRSP pays a penalty of 1% of the amount of the excess. In its December 1999 pre-budget consultation, the Standing Committee on Finance made the following recommendation (p. 58): "The Committee recommends that the 20% Foreign Property Rule be increased in 2% increments to 30% over a five year period. This diversification will allow Canadians to achieve higher returns on their retirement savings and reduce their exposure to risk, which will benefit all Canadians when they retire." A study by Ernst and Young demonstrated that Canadian investors have experienced substantially better investment returns over the past 20 years with higher foreign content limits. As well, the Conference Board of Canada concluded that lifting the foreign content limit to 30% would have a neutral effect on Canada's economy. The CMA strongly supports the Standing Committee's position that there is sufficient evidence to indicate that Canadians would benefit from an increase in the Foreign Property Rule, from 20% to 30%. The CMA therefore recommends: 18. That the 20% Foreign Property Rule for deferred income plans such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans and Registered Retirement Income Funds be increased in 2% annual increments to 30% over a five year period, effective the year 2000. As part of the process to revitalize and sustain our economy, greater expectations are being placed on the private sector to create long-term employment opportunities. While this suggests that there is a need to re-examine the current balance between public and private sector job creation, the government nonetheless has an important responsibility in fostering an environment that will accelerate job creation. In this context, the CMA strongly believes that current RRSPs should be viewed as an asset rather than a liability. With proper mechanisms in place, the RRSP pool of capital funds can play an integral role in bringing together venture capital and small and medium-size business and entrepreneurs. The CMA would encourage the federal government to explore current regulatory impediments to bring together capital with small and medium-size businesses. The CMA recommends: 19. That the federal government explores the regulatory changes necessary to allow easier access to RRSP funds for investment in small and medium-size businesses. Currently, if an individual declares bankruptcy, creditors are able to launch a claim against their RRSP or RRIF assets. As a consequence, for self-employed Canadians who depend on RRSPs for retirement income, their quality of life in retirement is at risk. In contrast, if employees declare bankruptcy, creditors are unable to lay claim on their pensionable earnings. This is an inequitable situation that would be remedied if RRSPs were creditor-proofed. The CMA recommends: 20. That the federal government undertake the necessary steps to creditor-proof RRSPs and RRIFs. ENDNOTES: 1. It is important to keep in mind that in addition to the CHST, a separate accounting procedure was established through what is called a CHST Supplement. The Supplement, which totals $3.5 billion, was charged to the 1998 federal government public accounts, but is allocated over a three-year period (i.e., $2.0 billion, $1.0 billion, and $0.5 billion). However, at any point in time, a province or territory can take its portion of the $3.5 billion. 2. The $2.5 billion dollars to be reinvested represents the amount of federal cash that was removed with the introduction of the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) beginning in April 1996 through to 1998. The amount is calculated on the basis of the recent historical federal cash allocation (approximately 41%) under EPF and CAP (now the CHST) to health care as a proportion of the $6.0 billion required to restore the CHST cash floor to $18.5 billion (1995/96 level). 3. The data sources for Figure 1 are: (1) CHST: Canadian Medical Association, Looking Toward Tomorrow, September 1998, p. 4.; (2) Historical national cash transfer to health from Established Programs Financing Reports, Federal-Provincial Relations Division, Department of Finance; (3) Population Statistics: Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 91-213; (4) CPI annual % change: Source for 1990-96 is Canadian Economic Observer, cat. No. 11-210-XPB, Historical Statistical Supplement 1996/97, p. 45. For 1996, 1997 and 1998 the source is Canadian Economic Observer, cat. No. 11-010-XPB, April 1999. For 1999 and 2000 the source is Royal Bank of Canada Econoscope, May 1999, p.14. For 2001, 2002 and 2003 CPI % change is assumed to stay constant at the 2000 level of 1.3%. 4. Thomson A. Federal Support for Health Care. Health Action Lobby. June 1991, p. 13. 5. Statistics Canada, Population Projections for Canada, Provinces and Territories, Medium Growth Scenario, 1993-2016, December, 1994 (Catalogue #91-520). 6. Health Canada. National Health Expenditures in Canada, 1975-1994. January 1996. 7. 1998 Report of the Auditor General of Canada, Chapter 6, Population Aging and Information for Parliament: Understanding the Choices, April. WWW: http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/9860xe12.html, available on 06/09/99 at 17:38:37. 8. Maintaining Prosperity in an Ageing Society. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1998. 9. The Fiscal Monitor, Department of Finance. August 1999. Current Analysis, The Royal Bank of Canada, August 1999. The Bank estimates that the fiscal dividend will reach $25.9 billion in 2004/05, and $41.2 billion in 2007/08. 10. Facing the Future - Challenges and Choices for A New Era. Report of the Standing Committee on Finance, December 1998, p. 30-31. 11. Green JP, MacBride-King J. Corporate Health Care Costs in Canada and the U.S.: Does Canada's Medicare System Make a Difference? Conference Board of Canada, 1999. Purchase B. Health Care and Competitiveness. School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, 1996. KPMG. The Competitive Alternative: A Comparison of Business Costs in Canada and the United States, 1996. Amanor-Boadu, Martin LJ. Canada's Social Programs, Tax System and the Competitiveness of the Agri-Food Sector, Guelph, Agri-Food Competitiveness Council, 1994. 12. Green JP, MacBride-King J. Corporate Health Care Costs in Canada and the U.S.: Does Canada's Medicare System Make a Difference? Conference Board of Canada, 1999. 13. KPMG. The Competitive Alternative: A Comparison of Business Costs in Canada and the United States, 1996. 14. Baillie C. Health Care in Canada: Preserving a Competitive Advantage, Speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, April, 1999. 15. National Angus Reid Poll, 1998. 16. National Angus Reid Poll, 1999. 17. Canadian Medical Association. The 1991 Survey of Physicians in Rural Medical Practice, 1991. Canadian Medical Association. Survey on Rural Medical Practice in Canada, 1999. 18. Presentation by Statistics Canada Officials to the Standing Committee on Industry, May 1999. 19. Business Council on National Issues: Creating Opportunity, Building Prosperity. October 1998, p. 6. 21. KPMG, Review of the Goods and Services Tax on Canadian Physicians, June 12, 1992. KPMG, Review of the Impact of a Provincial Value Added Tax on Physicians in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, August 12, 1996. 21. Harriman D, McArthur W, Zelder M. The Availability of Medical Technology in Canada: An International Comparative Study. The Fraser Institute. August 1999. 22. In California, between 1988 and 1993, when the state was carrying on an aggressive public anti-smoking campaign, tobacco consumption declined by over 25%. Goldman LK, Glantz SA. Evaluation of Antismoking Advertising Campaigns. JAMA 1988; 279: 772-777. 23 In 1998, 45.613 billion cigarettes were sold in Canada. Statistics Canada, Catalogue #32-022, December, 1998. In 1997/98, total tobacco revenues were $2.04 billion, Public Accounts, Volume II, Part 1, Excise Tax Revue. The rationale for 0.6 cents per cigarette is based on a total amount of 25 cents per pack, of which the federal and provincial/territorial governments would contribute on an equal basis (i.e., 12 cents each). Recently, California passed Proposition 99 which added 25 cents to each pack of cigarettes. 24. Health Canada, Economic Costs Due to Smoking (Information Sheet). Ottawa: Health Canada, November 1996. 25. Health Canada, Economic Costs Due to Smoking (Information Sheet). Ottawa: Health Canada, November 1996. 26. Health Canada, Youth Smoking Behaviour and Attitudes (Information Sheet). Ottawa: Health Canada, November 1996. 27. Canada Health Monitor, Highlights Report, Survey #15. Price Waterhouse, January-February 1997. 28. Editorial. Raise Tobacco Taxes. The Gazette [Montreal] 1997 Sept 23. Sect B:2.
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Movie Review – Uncle Buck
Uncle Buck (1989)
Written & Directed by John Hughes
Uncle Buck will forever be associated with John Candy. When you see the actor, you almost always think of this picture. In turn, it signals the end of an era for filmmaker John Hughes. This was the first film he did as part of a multi-picture deal with Universal. Hughes had already signed with Universal in the early 1980s after the success scripts for Mr. Mom and National Lampoon’s Vacation. After The Breakfast Club, Hughes soured on the deal, he was known for being very contentious with studios. Uncle Buck was his return to Universal after a four-year sojourn, and about a year later, he would be trying to get out of the contract already. Uncle Buck is a movie that exists as both a pleasant piece of nostalgia for millennials but is also a moment when a great mainstream director’s career began to wither.
Buck Russell (John Candy) is a single forty-year-old living in Chicago. He drinks, smokes cigars, can’t hold down a job, and makes a lot of money betting on horses. Buck is not the guy you would traditionally pick to watch your kids; however, when his brother Bob and sister-in-law Cindy must rush to Indianapolis because of her father’s heart attack, there are left with no other choices. Buck finds himself clashing with the angry and defiant teenager Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) but quickly winning over the younger Miles and Maisie (Macauly Culkin & Gaby Hoffman). Through a series of incidents, Buck learns to be more responsible but not lose the essence of who he is. Tia finds that she has a lot in common with Buck, making mistakes and being too arrogant to admit she did. By the end of the film, they have both become better communicators and therefore finding common respect.
On the surface, this is not a very remarkable story, a basic sitcom level plot. However, through the performance by John Candy and the directing choices of John Hughes, the whole affair is elevated into something very special. Once again, as in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Class is discussed in the subtext. Cindy is immediately repelled at the idea of Buck watching her children and cites his lifestyle, all the evidence being things that are perceived as “dirty working-class” behaviors. As Buck pages through a photo album, he finds himself folded over and hidden in a picture with the bride & groom. There’s never a formal coming to terms with Cindy in the film’s third act reserved for her relationship with her eldest daughter, Tia. Instead, the audience is left to wonder what things are like between Buck and Cindy, possibly an unspoken understanding.
It’s funny that John Candy wasn’t immediately cast in this role, but so many big-name actors of the day were up for the part. Danny DeVito, Tom Cruise, Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, John Travolta, Michael Keaton, George Wendt, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Ed O’Neill, and Joe Pesci were all considered at some point. When you see Candy in the role, it is hard to imagine anyone else able to capture the slovenly nature and organic charm of Buck Russell. My mom’s side of the family is from Illinois, and so I grew up knowing Buck-like third cousins and other extended relatives. I never really had the same experience of someone like Buck watching me for weeks, but these people had that same larger than life persona.
There’s a beautiful dynamic between Buck and the kids, with the younger actors actually being quite good. Gaby Hoffman is particularly funny and charming with such effortlessness. She plays off Candy with a natural comedy, and I wish they had more scenes together or worked in other films after this. Culkin is on the verge of playing Kevin in the following year’s Home Alone, so you already know what you are getting. Jean Louisa Kelly never had what you could call superstardom after this movie but a steady series of roles. I think she does a fantastic job of playing a confused & angry fifteen-year-old girl who wants to rebel but still has the same natural fears any adolescent would about sex and drifting away from their parents. She’s wonderfully paired with Candy, who manages to be fatherly while still immature as Buck.
Uncle Buck is the end of John Hughes’s successful run of films. It was a critical failure, with most critics finding it lacked some of the deep sensitivity seen in Hughes’s earlier work. Candy would continue working up until his untimely death in 1994, having a heart attack on the set of Wagons East! He’d have two more lead roles among over half a dozen parts, Only the Lonely and Delirious, both of which were box office failures and critically panned. Candy’s star shone brightly for such a short time on reflection, from SCTV to his passing, less than twenty years. For those who grew up with his films, I suspect we’ll cherish them and the man we came to think of us our own uncle. I just wonder how they will be remembered decades from now, if at all.
Author PopCultPosted on June 28, 2020 Categories 1980s, comedy, john candy
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Music, Music & Podcasts, Sarah Slusher
Todrick Hall Straight Outta Oz Tour
April 21, 2017 / Comments Off on Todrick Hall Straight Outta Oz Tour
Please tell me you are going to see the Todrick Hall Straight Outta Oz Tour! If not, you are Really missing out.
Who is Todrick?
Todrick Hall is amazing. A Texas boy with a gift from God, a songwriter, an actor, a Broadway star, was on American Idol & had his own MTV show. He has over 436 million views on YouTube with no end in sight. We account for a million of those, at least. He’s a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, just finished his turn as Lola in Kinky Boots & he is SO good to his fans. We can’t get enough of him. Once you watch and/or listen to him; you’re hooked for life.
https://instagram.com/p/BHq4SYwBc-I/
Straight Outta Oz
Last year, he released this visual album, Straight Outta Oz. We watched it the day it came out & have been hooked ever since. My kids know all the words to every song, Channa tells everyone she knows that Todrick is the best singer in the world & we are stoked we can see this show again.
From what I remember, Todrick penned this album because he tried out for the NBC Live version of The Wiz & Really hoping we would be cast as the Scarecrow. He’s a lifelong lover of The Wizard of Oz. When he didn’t get the part, he harnessed his energy into creating an autobiographical tale based on The Wizard of Oz storyline. Sound weird- well, it’s not; it is brilliant.
Derek & I saw the show in Portland last summer & I believe we were one of the first tour stops. We were stoked to see Todrick, Chester, Jesse, Jenni, Brittanie & the gang. We were also introduced to some amazing new talents like the amazing Judith Franklin. I mean- listen to this voice!
https://instagram.com/p/BHq5iemhAWF/
The rest of the cast is unreal. OMG, my girl Meg Fulms with that hair is missing this year, Brittanie Brant still has all the moves & E.J. kills it in the Bob the Drag Queen role. No one else is doing what Todrick is doing. He and his crew continue to push themselves 2 steps forward every time & I’m continuously amazed by their creativity & talent.
Straight Outta Oz Deluxe Album
The Deluxe Album has Tracie Thoms, Tamar Braxton, Todrick’s frequent collaborator Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Raven Symone, RuPaul Charles, Nicole Scherzinger, Perez Hilton, Pentatonix & more!
Todrick recently released a Deluxe Version of Straight Outta Oz with a few extra songs & newer versions of music videos. ‘Low’ is definitely my favorite. I mean, RuPaul rapping & driving a chariot & those translucent feathers are everything to me. I’m also in love with the evil, dark witch- she’s straight out of my worst nightmare, but I also want to be as mysterious & beautiful as her. Is you a good witch, or just a bad bitch?
‘Expensive’ is amazing too & features some of the drag queens from the newest cast of Rupaul’s Drag Race. I die every time I see Kim Chi’s make-up & Alaska never disappoints. Also, Farrah Moan looks so good on this video & I’m obsessed with Todrick’s swagger in that red suit. I would do anything for that red fur stole!
Celebs Love Todrick
We got to geek out at our last show with none other than Jerry O’Connell & Rebecca Romijn. LOVED how Jerry & I had matching ‘Wrong Bitch’ T-shirts. My girl, Virgina Cavaliere killed it on stage with Rebecca & Jerry.
https://instagram.com/p/BHq210Fh_0T/
Loyal Toddlerz
We are SO pumped to see the Todrick Hall Straight Outta Oz Tour because we will be surrounded by fellow Toddlerz! There is nothing that makes me happier than being Really Into something & meeting other people who are into the same things. It’s pretty much the whole point of this blog. Todrick has the best fans-seriously he does! Look at what one of his superfans, Micayla, made for him last year. She also made a similar one for Kinky Boots. She’s amazing & we love her dance videos breaking down the choreography. Channa is trying to figure out what she wants to work on for Todrick & Micayla gave us some definite inspiration.
This picture makes me so happy you don't even understand. My twin😍❤️
A post shared by Micayla (@micaylazee) on Jul 27, 2016 at 11:54am PDT
Just please know, we are Really Into Todrick Hall & everything he does. We are proud Toddlerz, proud fangirls & fanboys & we love him so much because he is true to himself, brave & I’m so thankful he shares his talents with us.
About Todrick Hall
Creator, writer, director, singer, actor, dancer, producer, choreographer. From original written and choreographed music videos, such as Virgin America’s safety video, the opening number to The 2014 Kids Choice Awards, and upcoming Target spots, Todrick Hall has mastered the art of blending live experiences with social media. He recently helped choreograph “Blow,” one of the videos off of Beyonce’s critically acclaimed visual album and was featured in Forbes’ “30 under 30” list. With a hyper-engaged audience fueled by his breakout appearance on American Idol, and that has grown with his ingenious YouTube musical parodies, Todrick is rapidly becoming one of the next great powerhouses in entertainment.
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Justia Regulation Tracker Agencies And Commissions Postal Regulatory Commission New Postal Product, 50880-50881 [2015-20635]
New Postal Product, 50880-50881 [2015-20635]
Download as PDF 50880 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 162 / Friday, August 21, 2015 / Notices reporting under 39 CFR 3055.3(a)(3), the standing exception in Order No. 996 for all agreements filed in the Inbound Market Dominant Multi-Service Agreements with Foreign Postal Operators 1 product grouping.5 Consistency with applicable statutory criteria. The Postal Service observes that Commission review of a negotiated service agreement addresses three statutory criteria under 39 U.S.C. 3622(c)(10), whether the agreement: (1) Improves the Postal Service’s net financial position or enhances the performance of operational functions; (2) will not cause unreasonable harm to the marketplace; and (3) will be available on public and reasonable terms to similarly situated mailers. Notice at 7. The Postal Service asserts that it addresses the first two criteria in its Notice and that the third is inapplicable, as there are no entities similarly situated to China Post Group in terms of their ability to tender small packet with delivery scanning flows from China or serve as a designated operator for letter post originating in China. Id. Functional equivalence. The Postal Service addresses reasons why it considers the Agreement functionally equivalent to the China Post 2010 Agreement filed in Docket No. R2010– 6.6 The Postal Service asserts that it does not consider that the specified differences detract from the conclusion that the Agreement is functionally equivalent to the baseline China Post 2010 Agreement. Notice at 11. rmajette on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES III. Commission Action The Commission, in conformance with rule 3010.44, establishes Docket No. R2015–6 to consider issues raised in the Notice. The Commission invites comments from interested persons on whether the Agreement is consistent with 39 U.S.C. 3622 and the requirements of 39 CFR part 3010. Comments are due no later than September 17, 2015. The public portions of this filing can be accessed via the Commission’s Web site (http:// www.prc.gov). Information on how to obtain access to non-public material appears in 39 CFR part 3007. The Commission appoints James F. Callow to represent the interests of the 5 Id. at 7, citing Docket No. R2012–2, Order Concerning an Additional Inbound Market Dominant Multi-Service Agreement with Foreign Postal Operators 1 Negotiated Service Agreement, November 23, 2011, at 7 (Order No. 996). 6 Id. at 8–9; see also Docket Nos. MC2010–35, R2010–5, and R2010–6, Order No. 549, Order Adding Inbound Market Dominant Multi-Service Agreements with Foreign Postal Operators 1 to the Market Dominant Product List and Approving Included Agreements, September 30, 2010. VerDate Sep<11>2014 15:07 Aug 20, 2015 Jkt 235001 general public (Public Representative) in this docket. IV. Ordering Paragraphs It is ordered: 1. The Commission establishes Docket No. R2015–6 for consideration of matters raised by the Postal Service’s Notice. 2. Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505, James F. Callow is appointed to serve as an officer of the Commission (Public Representative) to represent the interests of the general public in this proceeding. 3. Comments by interested persons in this proceeding are due no later than September 17, 2015. 4. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this order in the Federal Register. into an additional Global Reseller Expedited Package Contracts 2 (GREP 2) negotiated service agreement (Agreement).1 To support its Notice, the Postal Service filed a copy of the Agreement, a copy of the Governors’ Decision authorizing the product, a certification of compliance with 39 U.S.C. 3633(a), and an application for non-public treatment of certain materials. It also filed supporting financial workpapers. II. Notice of Commission Action POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION The Commission establishes Docket No. CP2015–127 for consideration of matters raised by the Notice. The Commission invites comments on whether the Postal Service’s filing is consistent with 39 U.S.C. 3632, 3633, or 3642, 39 CFR part 3015, and 39 CFR part 3020, subpart B. Comments are due no later than August 24, 2015. The public portions of the filing can be accessed via the Commission’s Web site (http://www.prc.gov). The Commission appoints John P. Klingenberg to serve as Public Representative in this docket. [Docket No. CP2015–127; Order No. 2667] III. Ordering Paragraphs By the Commission. Shoshana M. Grove, Secretary. [FR Doc. 2015–20648 Filed 8–20–15; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7710–FW–P New Postal Product Postal Regulatory Commission. Notice. AGENCY: ACTION: The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing concerning an additional Global Reseller Expedited Package Contracts 2 negotiated service agreement. This notice informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps. DATES: Comments are due: August 24, 2015. ADDRESSES: Submit comments electronically via the Commission’s Filing Online system at http:// www.prc.gov. Those who cannot submit comments electronically should contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section by telephone for advice on filing alternatives. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David A. Trissell, General Counsel, at 202–789–6820. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: SUMMARY: It is ordered: 1. The Commission establishes Docket No. CP2015–127 for consideration of the matters raised by the Postal Service’s Notice. 2. Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505, John P. Klingenberg is appointed to serve as an officer of the Commission to represent the interests of the general public in this proceeding (Public Representative). 3. Comments are due no later than August 24, 2015. 4. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this order in the Federal Register. By the Commission. Shoshana M. Grove, Secretary. [FR Doc. 2015–20634 Filed 8–20–15; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7710–FW–P POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION [Docket Nos. MC2015–79 and CP2015–126; Order No. 2668] New Postal Product Postal Regulatory Commission. Notice. AGENCY: Table of Contents ACTION: I. Introduction II. Notice of Commission Action III. Ordering Paragraphs SUMMARY: I. Introduction On August 14, 2015, the Postal Service filed notice that it has entered 1 Notice of United States Postal Service of Filing a Functionally Equivalent Global Reseller Expedited Package 2 Negotiated Service Agreement, August 14, 2015 (Notice). PO 00000 Frm 00062 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing concerning E:\FR\FM\21AUN1.SGM 21AUN1 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 162 / Friday, August 21, 2015 / Notices the addition of Priority Mail Contract 140 negotiated service agreement to the competitive product list. This notice informs the public of the filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps. DATES: Comments are due: August 24, 2015. ADDRESSES: Submit comments electronically via the Commission’s Filing Online system at http:// www.prc.gov. Those who cannot submit comments electronically should contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section by telephone for advice on filing alternatives. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David A. Trissell, General Counsel, at 202–789–6820. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Notice of Commission Action III. Ordering Paragraphs rmajette on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES I. Introduction In accordance with 39 U.S.C. 3642 and 39 CFR 3020.30 et seq., the Postal Service filed a formal request and associated supporting information to add Priority Mail Contract 140 to the competitive product list.1 The Postal Service contemporaneously filed a redacted contract related to the proposed new product under 39 U.S.C. 3632(b)(3) and 39 CFR 3015.5. Id. Attachment B. To support its Request, the Postal Service filed a copy of the contract, a copy of the Governors’ Decision authorizing the product, proposed changes to the Mail Classification Schedule, a Statement of Supporting Justification, a certification of compliance with 39 U.S.C. 3633(a), and an application for non-public treatment of certain materials. It also filed supporting financial workpapers. II. Notice of Commission Action The Commission establishes Docket Nos. MC2015–79 and CP2015–126 to consider the Request pertaining to the proposed Priority Mail Contract 140 product and the related contract, respectively. The Commission invites comments on whether the Postal Service’s filings in the captioned dockets are consistent with the policies of 39 U.S.C. 3632, 3633, or 3642, 39 CFR part 3015, and 39 1 Request of the United States Postal Service to Add Priority Mail Contract 140 to Competitive Product List and Notice of Filing (Under Seal) of Unredacted Governors’ Decision, Contract, and Supporting Data, August 14, 2015 (Request). VerDate Sep<11>2014 15:07 Aug 20, 2015 Jkt 235001 CFR part 3020, subpart B. Comments are due no later than August 24, 2015. The public portions of these filings can be accessed via the Commission’s Web site (http://www.prc.gov). The Commission appoints Lyudmila Y. Bzhilyanskaya to serve as Public Representative in these dockets. III. Ordering Paragraphs It is ordered: 1. The Commission establishes Docket Nos. MC2015–79 and CP2015–126 to consider the matters raised in each docket. 2. Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505, Lyudmila Y. Bzhilyanskaya is appointed to serve as an officer of the Commission to represent the interests of the general public in these proceedings (Public Representative). 3. Comments are due no later than August 24, 2015. 4. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this order in the Federal Register. By the Commission. Shoshana M. Grove, Secretary. [FR Doc. 2015–20635 Filed 8–20–15; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7710–FW–P 50881 information is available to the public for review. Approximately 4,456 registrants file Form 12b–25 and it takes approximately 2.5 hours per response for a total of 11,140 burden hours. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid control number. Written comments regarding the above information should be directed to the following persons: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Room 10102, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503; and an email to Shagufta_Ahmed@omb.eop.gov; and (ii) Pamela Dyson, Director/Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Remi PavlikSimon, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 20549; or send an email to: PRA_ Mailbox@sec.gov. Comments must be submitted to OMB within 30 days of this notice. Dated: August 17, 2015. Robert W. Errett, Deputy Secretary. [FR Doc. 2015–20658 Filed 8–20–15; 8:45 am] SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request Upon Written Request Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of FOIA Services, Washington, DC 20549–2736. Extension: Form 12b–25; OMB Control No. 3235– 0058, SEC File No. 270–71. Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities and Exchange Commission (‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget this request for extension of the previously approved collection of information discussed below. The purpose of Form 12b–25 (17 CFR 240.12b–25) is to provide notice to the Commission and the marketplace that a registrant will be unable to timely file a required periodic or transition report pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.) or the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a et seq.). If all the filing conditions of the form are satisfied, the registrant is granted an automatic filing extension. The information required is filed on occasion and is mandatory. All PO 00000 Frm 00063 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 BILLING CODE 8011–01–P [Release No. 34–75712; File No. SR–EDGA– 2015–31] Self-Regulatory Organizations; EDGA Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change To Amend Rule 13.8 To Describe the Market Data Product EDGA Book Viewer August 17, 2015. Pursuant to section 19(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the ‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2 notice is hereby given that on August 7, 2015, EDGA Exchange, Inc. (the ‘‘Exchange’’ or ‘‘EDGA’’) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (‘‘Commission’’) the proposed rule change as described in Items I and II below, which Items have been prepared by the Exchange. The Exchange has designated this proposal as a ‘‘noncontroversial’’ proposed rule change pursuant to section 19(b)(3)(A) of the Act 3 and Rule 19b–4(f)(6)(iii) 1 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). CFR 240.19b–4. 3 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(3)(A). 2 17 E:\FR\FM\21AUN1.SGM 21AUN1
POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 162 (Friday, August 21, 2015)]
[Docket Nos. MC2015-79 and CP2015-126; Order No. 2668]
New Postal Product
AGENCY: Postal Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
SUMMARY: The Commission is noticing a recent Postal Service filing
the addition of Priority Mail Contract 140 negotiated service agreement
to the competitive product list. This notice informs the public of the
filing, invites public comment, and takes other administrative steps.
DATES: Comments are due: August 24, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments electronically via the Commission's Filing
Online system at http://www.prc.gov. Those who cannot submit comments
electronically should contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section by telephone for advice on filing
alternatives.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David A. Trissell, General Counsel, at
II. Notice of Commission Action
III. Ordering Paragraphs
In accordance with 39 U.S.C. 3642 and 39 CFR 3020.30 et seq., the
Postal Service filed a formal request and associated supporting
information to add Priority Mail Contract 140 to the competitive
product list.\1\
\1\ Request of the United States Postal Service to Add Priority
Mail Contract 140 to Competitive Product List and Notice of Filing
(Under Seal) of Unredacted Governors' Decision, Contract, and
Supporting Data, August 14, 2015 (Request).
The Postal Service contemporaneously filed a redacted contract
related to the proposed new product under 39 U.S.C. 3632(b)(3) and 39
CFR 3015.5. Id. Attachment B.
To support its Request, the Postal Service filed a copy of the
contract, a copy of the Governors' Decision authorizing the product,
proposed changes to the Mail Classification Schedule, a Statement of
Supporting Justification, a certification of compliance with 39 U.S.C.
3633(a), and an application for non-public treatment of certain
materials. It also filed supporting financial workpapers.
The Commission establishes Docket Nos. MC2015-79 and CP2015-126 to
consider the Request pertaining to the proposed Priority Mail Contract
140 product and the related contract, respectively.
The Commission invites comments on whether the Postal Service's
filings in the captioned dockets are consistent with the policies of 39
U.S.C. 3632, 3633, or 3642, 39 CFR part 3015, and 39 CFR part 3020,
subpart B. Comments are due no later than August 24, 2015. The public
portions of these filings can be accessed via the Commission's Web site
(http://www.prc.gov).
The Commission appoints Lyudmila Y. Bzhilyanskaya to serve as
Public Representative in these dockets.
It is ordered:
1. The Commission establishes Docket Nos. MC2015-79 and CP2015-126
to consider the matters raised in each docket.
2. Pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 505, Lyudmila Y. Bzhilyanskaya is
appointed to serve as an officer of the Commission to represent the
interests of the general public in these proceedings (Public
Representative).
3. Comments are due no later than August 24, 2015.
4. The Secretary shall arrange for publication of this order in the
By the Commission.
Shoshana M. Grove,
BILLING CODE 7710-FW-P
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May 25, 2020 | Revov Energy Storage
MIT Study
There are basically two things that depleted EV batteries can be used for. They can be broken down so their raw materials can be used to make new battery cells, or they can be pressed into service for grid-scale energy storage. An EV battery has two critical parameters — energy and power. Energy is what keeps a car rolling along at 65 mph on the highway. Power is what allows it to sprint ahead of the guy in the Lamborghini in the next lane when then light turns green. Older batteries may still store plenty of energy but can’t deliver enough power for rapid acceleration.
New research from MIT finds that re-purposing EV batteries for grid-scale energy storage duties can be profitable for all parties, provided some basic assumptions are met. First, the batteries should have a minimum of 80% capacity remaining. Using a hypothetical 2.5 megawatt solar farm located in California as a model, the researchers found adding a new lithium-ion storage battery would cost more than using re-purposed EV batteries, provided the used batteries cost 60% or less of their original value.
Local regulations can play a crucial role in value calculations. Some local rules allow the price of storage systems to be included in the overall cost of a new renewable energy supply for rate-setting purposes, while others do not. “A lot of states are really starting to see the benefit that storage can provide,” says post-doctoral candidate Ian Mathews. “And this just shows that they should have an allowance that somehow incorporates second-life batteries in those regulations. That could be favorable for them.”
“There are many issues on a technical level,” Matthews adds. “How do you screen batteries when you take them out of the car to make sure they’re good enough to reuse? How do you pack together batteries from different cars in a way that you know that they’ll work well together, and you won’t have one battery that’s much poorer than the others and will drag the performance of the system down?”
The study also examined how to get the maximum benefit from used batteries. “I’ve talked to people who’ve said the best thing to do is just work your battery really hard, and front load all your revenue,” Mathews says. “When we looked at that, it just didn’t make sense at all.” Instead, maximizing the battery lifetime provides the best economic returns. The researchers examined scenarios that kept the batteries in energy storage service until they had only 60% of their original capacity remaining and found they could be expected to last for 10 years or more in such use.
Predicting battery longevity is the subject of much research, Matthews says, “because the typical battery has multiple degradation pathways. Trying to figure out what happens when you move into this more rapid degradation phase, it’s an active area of research. So, you might actually adapt your control algorithms over the lifetime of the project, to just really push that out as far as possible. We think this could be a great application for machine learning methods, trying to figure out the kind of intelligent methods and predictive analytics that adjust those control policies over the life of the project.” Mathews says some EV companies are already designing their battery packs specifically to make this end-of-life repurposing as easy as possible. Rivian, founded by an MIT alumnus, is one company that is doing so.
The economics of second-use batteries are sound, Matthews says, but for the idea to get traction, a lot of people in a lot of different fields need to start talking to each other. “There’s a lot of stakeholders who would need to be involved in this. You need to have your EV manufacturer, your lithium ion battery manufacturer, your solar project developer, the power electronics guys.” The intent of the study was to get the conversation started.
There will be many more second use batteries available in coming years. Now is the time to start planning how to put them to use in the most efficient and cost effective way.
POWER YOUR HOME
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Save a life, slash the UK government’s subsidy of the libel industry
While accident and emergency services face cuts,
frivolous libel cases receive a generous subsidy
The endemic abuse of the UK’s dysfunctional libel system to suppress inconvenient scientific evidence is now widely understood to be a threat to public health.
The enormous fees that libel lawyers are able to charge mean that a defendant can face crippling, unrecoverable costs even if they win their case. The situation is now so bad that the media is routinely exercising self-consorship over contentious public health issues rather than face the risk of legal action.
But there is another issue here, which has also has serious implications for public welfare, and which merits more scrutiny. While the claimant and defendant in a libel case have to foot the bill for their respective lawyer’s legal fees (with the majority of the costs typically falling on whoever loses the case), there are many other costs involved in a case – from the judge’s salary to the cost of heating and lighting the courtroom – that they never have to worry about.
These “invisible” costs are generously met by the UK state, using money from taxpayers that many of us might prefer to be put towards a more worthy cause – saving our local accident and emergency unit from closure, reducing class sizes in an inner city school, providing better equipment for our armed forces, or simply returning the money to taxpayers so they can decide for themselves how to spend it.
A typical salary for a High Court judge is in the region of £172,000. If the judge works for five days a week, 46 weeks of the year, this would equate to a rate of more than £740 per day. The judge is supported, in turn, by a whole team of clerks and other administrative staff. The court room itself must be kept warm, clean, and in good repair. Meticulous records must be kept of the court proceedings, with those records being filed and maintained for many years afterwards.
Without all of these “invisible” costs being met, there would simply be no lucrative court case for libel firms like Carter Ruck and Schillings to cash in on. So what’s actually happening here is that the UK taxpayer is indirectly subsidising the libel industry.
So what kind of cases are we subsidising? Well there’s the tennis player who sued the Daily Telegraph (unsuccessfully) for calling him the “world’s worst tennis pro”. There’s the Icelandic professor who got sued in the UK courts over a comment posted on the website of the University of Iceland. There’s the Ukrainian businessman who sued a Ukrainian news website in the UK courts over comments made on that website, in Ukrainian. There’s the now-notorious failed libel action by the British Chiropractic Association against science writer Simon Singh over his criticism of their scientific claims. There’s the two-year (and also famously unsuccessful) libel case by the blogger Joanna Kaschke against another blogger, Dave Osler, which was thrown out after two years on the basis that there was actually no case to answer. There’s the defamation case brought by John Bridle against the Health and Safety Executive, over comments allegedly made over the phone by an HSE inspector – the case was also thrown out (after much deliberation), with the court ruling that Bridle had been pursuing a “vendetta” against the HSE.
On top of the considerable costs imposed on the defendant, all of these cases required a hefty subsidy from the taxpayer in the form of court staff time and other administrative expenses – while (in most cases) the claimant’s law firm raked in the profits. It’s difficult to put a precise figure on how much money we are wasting each year on frivolous or trivial defamation cases like these – but it’s easy to think of better ways that this cash could be used.
Tagged with libel abuse, libel reform
« Independent breaks UK media silence over Trafigura trial in the Dutch courts
Who shot Kayumba? »
I couldn’t agree with you more Richard, although I do find amusing that the google ad below your post is advertising: “Experts in Defamation & Slander” and recommending we Sue For Defamation London
Ha! The magic of Inappropriate Google Ads…
Leave a Reply to Richard Wilson Cancel reply
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How The Democrat Demand That We Surrender And Timelines Undermine Democracy In Iraq
09 May, 2007 by John Hawkins
Over at The Corner, Byron York writes,
“It’s an article of faith in Republican circles that Congress should not impose deadlines on the U.S. troop presence in Iraq. But should deadlines be off limits in the Iraq debate? Maybe at this point, a deadline for the Iraqi government wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Yes, it’s true that a deadline would simply tell the enemy how long he has to wait before the U.S. leaves. But it would have the same effect on the Iraqi government, too, and that might be a good thing. Every instance in which there has been significant progress in Iraq — the writing of a constitution, election of a legislature, etc. — has come as a result of the U.S. pushing the Iraqis to meet a deadline. Without a deadline, they mess around, and mess around some more, and act as if they have all the time in the world. And even with a deadline, they are likely to miss it and delay until the last minute before getting anything done.”
There’s a big problem with timetables — and for that matter, the whole “Are we gonna stay or are we gonna go” debate.
Here’s the best way to explain it. Imagine you’re a Shia who lives in Baghdad. You hated Saddam, love America, love democracy, and although you believe in Islam, you’re not a fanatic about it. In short, you’re exactly the sort of “moderate Muslim” that we Americans always say we want to support.
Now, what are you thinking when you hear America talking about leaving before Iraq’s military is capable of handling the load?
Well, you’re thinking, “I like America, I like democracy, but it won’t do me any good if they leave in a few months and I’m dead 5 minutes later.” With that in mind, if you figure out that your neighbor is in a Shia death squad, do you call in an anonymous tip to the military or do you think, “Maybe I should try to get on this guy’s good side because 6 months from now, if everything flies off the handle, he and his death squad buddies may be the only thing standing between this neighborhood and a bunch of rampaging Sunnis.”
On the flip side, let’s say you’re a democracy-loving Sunni and you find out the location of an Al-Qaeda safehouse that is commonly used by dozens of terrorists. Do you pick up the phone and call the Americans or do you think, “Al-Qaeda may be scum, but they may also be the only thing standing between me and a Shia death squad when the Americans run.” My guess is that a lot of people would lean towards the latter choice…and can you blame them?
When we, as Americans, make it clear that the Iraqis can’t rely on us to honor our commitment to help them build a democracy, the Iraqis are going to start trying to figure out who’s going to be around after we’re gone and guess what? A lot of the groups that will be around, like Al-Sadr, Al-Qaeda, the Badr Brigade, etc. are bad actors. But, if America is going to run and they’re going to stay, the Iraqis are going to feel like they have no choice except to turn to the people who are going to be around long-term.
That’s one of the biggest reasons that the Iraqi government does seem to have sectarian leanings and that we don’t get as much cooperation as we should from the Iraqi people — it’s because they can’t count on us to stay around long enough to help them build a military that can defend their democracy.
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Embracing the conservation ethic of hunters and promotes hunter stewardship of wildlife resources
SCI Foundation’s Conservation team funds and directs worldwide programs dedicated to wildlife conservation. Each program region – North America, Africa, and Asia – has specific areas of focus, from predator-prey interaction to wildlife genetics and anti-poaching to applied management. We work closely with SCI Chapters and members to advance local, regional, and global wildlife conservation projects each year. We also partner with sustainable use organizations and with researchers at top universities in the United States and elsewhere to ensure that the best science is used to make wildlife conservation decisions. SCI Foundation has funded over 100 wildlife conservation projects in more than 30 countries, showing that hunting is conservation.
SCI Foundation has been working for over 10 years to help understand the role of predators and habitat quality in population dynamics of North America’s most important game species: the white-tailed deer. Our flagship project in northern Michigan showed the importance of high quality winter habitat for deer in the region, as well as the influence of black bears, wolves, and coyotes on Michigan deer. We recently expanded into a similar project in the Appalachian Mountains of western Virginia.
Mule deer have been declining for years in many parts of the western United States and Canada. SCI Foundation has supported numerous projects examining reasons for these declines and possible management options for this iconic western big game species. Possible reasons include predator-mediated apparent competition with other species such as elk, loss of migratory corridors and winter range, and long-term land use changes. Our projects have examined these issues across the region, including in Alberta, Wyoming, and Colorado. SCI Foundation is supporting the Wyoming Migration Initiative project that recently published their findings in the journal Science.
The SCI Foundation has historically been a leader in research related to North American bear species. We have supported efforts to better understand populations of black bears in Missouri and California so that these populations can be sustainably harvested. More recently, the Foundation has been a major supporter of survey efforts for grizzly bears in British Columbia. With recent challenges to regulated hunting of grizzlies there and in the greater Yellowstone region of Wyoming and Montana, it is even more important to have high quality scientific data to support management decisions.
SCI Foundation has long been committed to better understanding and management of big cats in Africa, with the goal of maintaining the well-established benefits of regulated hunting for the conservation of these species. This includes the flagship Tanzania Lion Survey Project, which has been producing innovative results on improved study design, more effective survey techniques and better estimates of lion abundance in Serengeti National Park and other areas since 2014. . This research will be used to further assess the status of African lions in other range states with the most accurate data available. More recently, as leopard harvest has come under increased scrutiny from international regulatory bodies, SCI Foundation projects are examining camera-based survey techniques for this iconic African predator.
Since 2005, the SCI Foundation has contributed more than $500,000 to antipoaching efforts in Africa and Asia. Among the many antipoaching projects are efforts to protect elephants and rhinoceros in Kruger National Park in South Africa (and adjacent areas of Mozambique), the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, the Savé Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe, and community hunting conservancies in Namibia. Previous anti-poaching efforts have been focused on the bushmeat trade in Zambia, protection of Cape Buffalo, and developing anti-poaching infrastructure in parts of central Asia (e.g., Tajikistan and Kazakhstan).
We will host the 16th African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF) this year in Kampala, Uganda. This annual meeting has become a critical forum for sustainable use advocates in Africa to exchange information, formulate policy, and conduct long-term planning. Delegates from African range states, international and national regulatory agencies, Professional Hunting Associations, and sustainable use NGOs are all regular attendees. Important topics at this year’s meeting will include CITES changes and issues, the future of community-based conservation in Africa, and conservation of elephants and rhinos.
SCIF Foundation has been involved with conservation and sustainable use of Asian argali sheep since 2010. This started with the development of community-based management and science-based harvest quotas for Marco Polo argali in Tajikistan. More recently, we have begun working with the Wild Sheep Foundation and the government of Kazakhstan to estimate the population of Tien Shen argali in Kazakhstan, with the goal of formulating a sustainable harvest plan.
In Nepal and northern Pakistan, populations of rare snow leopards have been poorly understood for decades. SCIF Foundation recently engaged in research efforts to better define abundance of this iconic predator of the region, as well as estimate populations of important prey species such as blue sheep.
SCI Foundation has been working with the Wildlife Conservation Society to facilitate community-based management of natural resources in Pakistan. Much of this effort has been focused on markhor through development of reliable population estimates and a long-term monitoring program for the species. Efforts also include establishment of anti-poaching infrastructure and mechanisms for long-term management of harvest by local communities.
SCI Foundation is active in promoting rational, science-based wildlife management policy at the state, regional, national and international levels.
At the state and provincial level, the Foundation has written recommendations or provided science-based support for SCI government affairs comments on issues such as the proposed grizzly bear hunts in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, the governor’s ban on hunting bears on public land in New Jersey, and the proposed ban on importation of trophies from Africa to California. We support management decisions and policy that use the best available science, with a focus on supporting state wildlife management agencies and regulated, legal harvest wherever practicable. SCI Foundation also contributes scientific input and comments on various issues facing games species and hunters in North America, such as the continent-wide concerns related to chronic wasting disease.
SCI Foundation represents Safari Club International and promotes sustainable use of wildlife resources in national and international organizations, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA). Recent issues before these groups that SCI Foundation has commented on include the role of hunting in conservation of various species, the allocations of export quotas for leopards and other protected species, and importation procedures by the USFWS for trophies of various species from Africa and other regions.
Conservation Highlights Guide
Learn more about SCI Foundation Conservation Programs and their impact by clicking the button below.
download conservation highlights report
Since 2000, the SCI Foundation has provided more than $80 million to promote science-based conservation through wildlife research, capacity building in governments, youth and teacher education, and humanitarian programs that show the importance of the hunting community in society around the world. Growth of SCI Foundation has continued to gain momentum through charitable donations from SCI members and direct grants from local chapters and the SCI organization. Throughout the world, SCI’s approximately 50,000 members and 190 chapters contribute time, talent, and financial support to local, national, and international projects.
4800 W. Gates Pass Rd, Tucson, AZ 85745
scifoundation@firstforwildlife.org
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USask study finds COVID isolation worsens student diets, inactivity, and alcohol intake
45% of adults over 65 lack online medical accounts, which could affect COVID vaccination
Graduate student groups from 15 states awarded for science policy initiatives to engage
COVID-19 deaths really are different. But best practices for ICU care should still apply
Howard University professor to receive first Joseph A. Johnson Award
Scienmag - Science news and articles on health, environment, global warming, stem cells, bird flu, autism, nanotechnology, dinosaurs, evolution -- the latest discoveries in astronomy, anthropology, biology, chemistry, climate & bioengineering, computers, engineering ; medicine, math, physics, psychology, technology, and more from the world's leading research centers universities.
Infectious Emerging Diseases
Cancer researchers locate drivers of tumor resistance
Credit: UT Health San Antonio
Cancer biologists at the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, have identified important drivers that enable tumors to change their behavior and evade anticancer therapies.
By studying tumors in cell lines, mice and human samples, the team documented genetic signals that promote the conversion of cancer cells from one stage to another. The journal Nature Cell Biology published the research May 18.
“Although we focused on breast cancer in this study, we believe the identified mechanism can apply to all treatment-resistant cancers,” said study senior author Zhijie “Jason” Liu, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular medicine in the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. He is a research member of the Mays Cancer Center.
“The same phenomenon is happening in lung cancer, prostate cancer and many other cancers,” Dr. Liu said.
More dangerous
The ability of cancer cells to take different shapes, to grow faster or slower, and to vary in size is called “phenotypic plasticity.” Cancers that acquire plasticity often are more dangerous, becoming metastatic and resistant to many targeted therapies, Dr. Liu said.
The team’s next step is to screen new drugs, in the form of small molecules, that disrupt the genetic signals underlying tumor plasticity. Such a drug could be administered along with current targeted therapies to eliminate the problem of resistance to those treatments, Dr. Liu said.
“If we target the drivers of phenotypic plasticity, we may increase the effectiveness of many therapies and cure more cancers,” Dr. Liu said.
The team is led by Dr. Liu and his long-term collaborator Lizhen Chen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy at UT Health San Antonio. They collaborated with researchers in Paris, France, and Shanghai, China, who provided human patient tumor samples for the project.
Funding is from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, the V Foundation, the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund, Susan G. Komen, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and The University of Texas System.
Bi, M., Zhang, Z., Jiang, Y. et al. Enhancer reprogramming driven by high-order assemblies of transcription factors promotes phenotypic plasticity and breast cancer endocrine resistance. Nat Cell Biol (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-020-0514-z
The Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is named for Texas philanthropists Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long. The school is the largest educator of physicians in South Texas, many of whom remain in San Antonio and the region to practice medicine. The school teaches more than 900 students and trains 800 residents each year. As a beacon of multicultural sensitivity, the school annually exceeds the national medical school average of Hispanic students enrolled. The school’s clinical practice is the largest multidisciplinary medical group in South Texas with 850 physicians in more than 100 specialties. The school has a highly productive research enterprise where world leaders in Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cancer, aging, heart disease, kidney disease and many other fields are translating molecular discoveries into new therapies. The Long School of Medicine is home to a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center known for prolific clinical trials and drug development programs, as well as a world-renowned center for aging and related diseases.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have graduated more than 37,000 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields, and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.
Stay connected with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube
Will Sansom
https://news.uthscsa.edu/23378-2/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41556-020-0514-z
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Anthrax-Testament-Death Angel 2nd U.S. Tour Announced
Posted on December 6, 2011 by Brett Bittke
LOS ANGELES, CA – Monday, December 5, 2011 — Following what can only be described as the Rock’n’Roll comeback story of 2011, Anthrax will kick off 2012 with round two of a U.S. co-headline tour with fellow thrash titans, Testament. The dozen-plus dates that come on the heels of the bands’ five-week Fall trek that packed venues from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, will kick off in Las Vegas on Sunday, January 22 and will take in some fifteen cities over a three-week period (dates listed below). Anthrax will close all shows and Death Angel will again be main support on all dates.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 9 and Saturday, December 10 at 10AM local time. For all details or to purchase tickets, log onto http://anthrax.com – http://www.testamentlegions.com or http://deathangel.us Can’t wait until this weekend to grab tickets? Prior to the official on-sale dates in each city, Anthrax fans can head over to AnthraxArmy.com and Anthrax.com beginning today at 3:00PM ET, to purchase a special pre-sale ticket bundle featuring a Worship Music sticker, an official Anthrax Army sticker, and a limited edition collectible band-member fan laminate. These bundles are available for a limited time only. Additional details online.
“The first leg of the tour with Testament and Death Angel was an amazing way to end a great year for Anthrax,” said Anthrax’s Scott Ian, “and it went above and beyond my expectations! Sold out shows, raging crowds and EPIC war dances! So we figured what better way to start 2012 than to continue this thrash-fest into the new year!!! Thank you all for giving us this privilege to come and play for you. See you soon!”
The first leg of the Anthrax-Testament co-headline jaunt marked the first time the two bands had toured together in more than a decade, and proved to be a rousing success with reviews such as, “This line-up of thrash metal masters is what most metal heads’ wet dreams are made of.” Minneapolis’ City Pages summed the show up this way: “Metal…is alive and well and will continue to be as long as Anthrax has anything to say about it.”
With more dates to be added, the confirmed itinerary is as follows
22 House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV
23 House of Blues, Anaheim, CA
24 Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ
27 Egyptian Room @ Murat Center, Indianapolis, IN
28 Piere’s Entertainment Center, Fort Wayne, IN
29 Expo Five, Louisville, KY
30 The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC
2 Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA
3 Promowest Pavilion, Columbus, OH
6 Crocodile Rock, Allentown, PA
7 Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, MD
8 Best Buy Theatre, New York, NY
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Home » Paris Events Calendar » Paris Events Calendar – March 2016
Paris Events Calendar – March 2016
NOTE: Daylight Savings in the US/CAN is March 13th. In France/Europe it’s March 27th.
Parc André Citorën, Paris 15th
Calendar updated throughout the month, check back for updates!
Feb 25 – March 15
See Charlie Chaplin’s original silent films as “Charlot” from 1914-1916, including the Keystone Comedies and The Tramp (Le Vagabonde), on the big screen at the Fondation Jerôme Sydoux (near Jardin des Plantes) with live piano accompaniement from Paris Conservatoire students. Tckets are €6.50. The full schedule is here (French only).
Feb 27 – March 6
The 53rd annual Salon International de l’Agriculture is one of the most popular events of the season in Paris. It takes place at the immense Paris Expo Porte de Versailles (Paris 15th) with four main sectors: livestock (come pet the cows and baby sheep!), culinary products (free samples of cheese, ham, wine, and more until you burst!), crops and plants (for those of us who need a little more green in our urban lives), and ag industry and professionals (meet the farmers!). Open daily 9am-7pm, weekends will be most crowded, tickets €13 adults/€6 for kids. Get them online to avoid extra lines.
This year, the amazingly populuar Mondial du Tatouage returns to showcase the work of some of the best and most famous contemporary tattoo artists from around the world, with contests, seminars and of course tattoo stands. Live music events, phto exhibits, and other extras, check out the schedule and get your tickets online before trekking out to the Grande Halle at Parc de la Villette, 211 avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris.
The American Library of Paris is having their last big book sale before the Spring renovations, this weekend from 10am-7pm (regular library hours). Sales of used books helps the library purchase new books needed for the permanent collection, come and add to your own collection of mystery novels, children’s books or gardening how-to’s at bargain prices!
For a fun and inclusive alternative to the invitation-only Paris Fashion Week, don’t miss the SINGA Fashion Show at l’Archipel, a charitable community center in a former 19th-century convent. Anyone can participate or just watch, with hair and makeup by beauty school students. There is also a weekly book and clothing swap at their Troc Shop taking place at the same time. Lots to do, read more here.
March 8-September 30
The Mémorial de la Shoah is hosting a free exhibition on Women in the Resistance. A fascinating look at the role of women — including many Jewish women — who resisted the Nazis during the occupation. It features the recent publication of historic graphic novels on the subject published by Editions Casterman. Although the Holocaust Memorial’s permanent collection is in English and French (and worth a visit itself if you are curious about the history of the Jewish people in France both before, during and after WWII), but the exhibiti is in French with audio-guides in English. Free entry.
The 92nd annual antique and flea market fair on an island northwest of Paris brings together 700 professionals from all over Europe for the Foire de Chatou. A variety of antiques, collectibles, books and records are up for grabs, along with regional French food specialties to eat at long wooden tables, accompanied by live musicians. Entry is only €6, and free for those under 15 – perfect for a weekend family outing. At the Ile des Impressionistes (RER station Rueil-Malmaison).
Vivre Autrement is the ethical and organic trade show taking place at the Parc Floral in the Bois de Vincennes. Stands cover food, wine, home, beauty, and travel. You can download free entry passes on the website. If going by metro, there’s a free shuttle bus going from Château de Vincennes to the Parc Floral.
The City of Paris’ municipal greenhouses have regular sales of potted plants and seedlings at rock-bottom prices. Warning, people line up well in advance, so up to you to decide if you’re time is worth less than a full-priced plant. There will be 1400 plants available. The morning will be at the Square de Serment de Koufra in the 14th and in the afternoon in the Square St-Lambert in the 15th.
Hotel Bohême isn’t a hotel, but a salon des créateurs sale featuring 40 artisan creations: home decor, clothing, accessories, jewelry, children’s toys, etc. There is also a gourmet lunch corner. Free entry. At 71 rue de la Fontaine au Roi, 11th. Saturday noon-8pm, Sunday 11am-7pm.
The 18th annual Salon Vintage is one of the biggest vintage fairs in Paris, this year at the Carreau du Temple with the theme “Space Age: Vision of the future by designers of the 60s and 70s”. €6 entry fee, you can pre-purchase online to avoid lines, 150 stands of clothing, records, accessories, decor, art exhibits, DJ entertainment.
Looking for a sexy show? Forget the Moulin Rouge. The striptease star Dita von Teese will be performing at the Crazy Horse Cabaret in Paris this month, book soon because the shows will likely sell out!
After A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd, Châtelet Théâtre is now presenting one of Stephen Sondheim’s lesser-known works, Passion, directed by French actress Fanny Ardant (in English with French sur-titles). See the video interview with Ryan Silverman who plays Giorgio here. Tickets from €16.
The Fondation des Etats-Unis at the Cité Universitaire (14th) and the resident musicians are happy to welcome the Passe Partout duo, who will perform during the second part of the Rendez-Vous Musical from 5pm tonight, free entrance.
Sex & Booze: An Erotic Book Club at The Chamber, where we’ll be reading Best Women’s Erotica 2011, drinking cocktails, and talking about…well, sex. Limited to 8 women only, 8-10pm in a private home; sign up while there’s space!
Tickets for the French Open at Roland Garros go on sale today (premium packages available since Feb 17th). Book ASAP to get yours, they always go fast!
For general events around Paris: Que Faire à Paris?
For literary events, readings, and classes: Monthly Paris Listing
For art exhibitions in galleries and museum see Slash Paris
For mainstream events visit the Paris Office of Tourism
For naughty events, see the Naughty Paris Guide
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This photo released on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021 by the Iranian Army, shows Iran-made warship Makran prior to being joined to the Navy, in Iran.(Iranian Army via AP)
The Associated Press | By Nasser Karimi
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s navy began a short-range missile drill in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday and inaugurated its largest military vessel, state TV reported, amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program and a U.S. pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.
The two-day missile drill was being held in the gulf’s southeastern waters and two new Iranian-made warships joined the exercise: The missile-launching Zereh, or “armor," and the country's largest military ship the Makran, a logistics vessel with a helicopter pad named for a coastal region in southern Iran.
President Donald Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump cited Iran’s ballistic missile program among other issues in withdrawing from the accord.
When the U.S. then ramped up sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development as a series of escalating incidents pushed the two countries to the brink of war at the beginning of the year.
In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills. On Saturday, the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard held a naval parade in the Persian Gulf and a week earlier Iran held a massive drone maneuver across half the country.
Iran on occasion announces military achievements that cannot be independently verified. The country began a military sufficiency program in 1992 under which Tehran says it produces mortars to fighter jets.
State TV said the 121,000-metric ton Makran is Iran’s largest military ship at 228 meters (748 feet) long, 42 meters (138 feet) wide and 21.5 meters (70 feet) tall. The Makran, a logistics ship that supports combat ships in the fleet, can travel for nearly three years without docking and carries information collection and processing gear.
Video footage released by the military showed helicopters carrying commandos to the Makran as part of the exercise.
Last week, Iran seized a South Korean oil tanker and its crew members in the Gulf, and continues to hold the vessel at an Iranian port. The Islamic Republic has apparently sought to increase its leverage over Seoul ahead of negotiations over billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks tied to U.S. sanctions on Iran.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of having secret ties with the militant al-Qaida network and imposed new sanctions on several senior Iranian officials. Iran has denied the accusation.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said in a televised speech during a Cabinet meeting that U.S. sanctions will fail. “We are witnessing the failure of a policy, the maximum pressure campaign, economic terrorism,” he said.
This article was written by NASSER KARIMI from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
Related Topics: Military Headlines Iran Global Hot Spots Ships
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Sarah Scoop Saves
Reality Star Kolton Pierce Talks “Marrying Millions” + His Music
Posted on Published: June 3, 2020 By: Author Sarah Scoop Show
Categories The Sarah Scoop Show
Kolton Pierce gained quite a fan base after starring in a Lifetime reality show called Marrying Millions on which he dated Katie Hamilton, the ex-wife of a Texas Rangers baseball player. The show was extremely popular with Lifetime’s audience but had another surge of popularity when the reality show dropped on HULU recently. Though he got his start in the public eye as a laid back guy with beautiful locks, he has so much more to say. Kolton writes, records and produces his own music, and it’s ridiculously good. He’s been working on his craft for years and has recently released his music to the public. His originally written, mixed and mastered songs can be found on all music streaming platforms.
The Sarah Scoop Show was so happy to have Kolton as a guest on the show where he talked about the truth behind reality tv, his new music, and his beloved hair! Check it out:
Reality Television Experience
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzOtX12Fftm/
Everybody wants to know what it’s really like to be on a reality television show. We love that Kolton gave us an inside look at his experience, especially since it was his first time doing a project of that nature.
“At first it was a little nerve-racking cause I’m not a person that likes cameras in my face, which is odd since I make music and music videos, and stuff like that. Even for a while, it took a little for me to get comfortable with that and whenever I watched the show back I realized from the first scene I was in ’til the end, I ended up getting comfortable with it, but at first it was just weird. I just wasn’t used to it. Other than that it wasn’t too bad. I kinda knew, in a sense, what I was getting into. It’s kinda one of those things where when you’re making music and people say, ‘not everyone’s gonna like your stuff and you’re going to hear hate…you’re just gonna have to ignore it’. It’s just a lot different when it’s actually happening, so it took a little bit for me to get on a grip on how to handle that.'”
– Kolton Pierce
Fans Reaction
Hey das me🤪 https://t.co/52ap7nTlEz
— Kolton Pierce (@koltonpierce25) April 8, 2020
We are glad to hear that fans of the show have been kind to Kolton since the show’s release on popular streaming service, HULU. Between his kind personality and his amazing hair, he quickly became a fan favorite.
“I think they were more critical when it was on Lifetime, but since it’s been on HULU, a lot of people will DM me and ask really any question. A lot of people say like, ‘sorry if this is straightforward’, but it doesn’t really bother me since, you know, I’m pretty open about every aspect of my life anyway. Other than that, people haven’t really been critical towards me. They’ve been pretty supportive.”
A post shared by Kolton Pierce (@koltonpierce25)
Though Kolton understands that fans of Marrying Millions think of him as one of the stars of the show, he prefers to be recognized for his music rather than for his time on reality tv.
“It just depends on where I’m at. During the end of the show, I went out to places in Fort Worth and Dallas a little bit more and people started to recognize me. That was kinda weird…so for me, I make music and I want people to recognize me for that. People wanna take pictures or this or that in airports or sometimes I’d be working out at the gym and people wanted to take pictures. That’s cool- I did it with them, but I know they want to take pictures because I was on tv, but personally to me, I didn’t do anything really special.”
Musical Beginnings
Kolton realized he was a talented musician when he stepped into the studio on a whim, and we are so glad he and his friends recognized his abilities.
“When I was at Texas State, I wanted to play basketball and my knee was really bugging me…I was gonna have surgery on it a couple years later, but at the time I didn’t know, so all the kids I was hanging out with, they wanted to freestyle rap. So, I ended up getting my own equipment. That way, we could all hang out and do this. At that time, I was only recording for them. I wasn’t in the booth doing anything; I wasn’t recording on a mic. So, eventually one day, some kid didn’t show up and one of my buddies was like, ‘you should get in there’ and I had just been around them so much that I kinda just winged it.”
Writing/Recording Process
Kolton’s control over the entire writing and producing process puts the timeline in his own hands. Since he is always in a creative headspace, constantly listening to beats to see if they fit his style and the story he’s trying to tell, by the time he gets in his home studio, he’s ready to get to work. He definitely takes his music career seriously, and we know he’s got big things ahead with that work ethic. You have to listen to his unique sound!
“…Probably like an hour max. I think that’s why a bunch of my stuff is different because I’ve had people that would come into studio sessions and spend hours upon hours doing stuff. That’s why it’s also hard for me to work with other artists too because, you know, like I said in the show, I don’t smoke or drink, right? And that’s like a lot of stuff that consists of in the studio, which I don’t mind as long as stuff is getting done, but a lot of it is sitting around and listening to beats. By the time I come into the studio I know what I’m listening to, I know I’m about to say. I’m ready to go as soon as I walk in and I can record a verse in like 15 minutes and since I mix and master my own stuff, I’ll get it mixed and mastered in the exact same studio session.”
His Hair
Kolton’s luscious locks became the topic of conversation after his television debut. It hasn’t always been long. In fact, he told us what made him grow it out in the first place. He’s had many curious fans ask him about what he does to keep his hair looking so good, including us. He told us about what he uses to wash it, and he also let us in on a little secret- he’s always considered cutting it, but he knows people would go crazy. His long, curly hair has become part of the musician’s brand.
“When I was in high school, I went to a public school, but we weren’t allowed to have tattoos or piercings. As a guy, your hair couldn’t go below your ears, so for me, when I graduated, I was like ‘I’m gonna grow it out’… Lately, I’ve thought about just cutting it off and donating it and if I do that, I know it’ll be a huge deal to everyone. There was one day I put something on my story that I was gonna cut it and I just got so many DMs of people saying ‘you better not’. It’s like this relatively cheap shampoo and conditioner. It’s not anything crazy. People are asking if I ever do hot oil treatments and stuff and I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I probably should, but I don’t’.
Kolton has a talent for producing his own music quite efficiently. He comes to every recording session completely prepared, so that the song can be ready within an hour. We are so excited that Kolton plans to release lots of new music in the near future as he catches up on the lost time during his busy school year! Congratulations, Kolton! He is a college grad ready to focus all his energy on his music career.
“I ended up taking 23 hours this semester, so I was extremely swamped, so that’s also why I released- up until next week- I had only released one song because working on music was almost impossible. I had a job and I was doing 23 hours, there wasn’t a lot of time for really anything and then the COVID-1 thing happened. I mean, I graduated still, but it was what it was for everyone, technically. You know, you don’t really get to do much, but it was still cool.”
Bright Future
Kolton let us know what we should expect from him this summer! We can’t wait to hear what he has in store. He also explained how quarantining in a full house has affected his ability to record his new songs. His music can be found on all music streaming platforms.
“I’m trying to get on a role of releasing a song about every 10 to 12 days, just to make up for all the lost time up to this point, since I was in school. I feel like I owe that to my people because I know they like to hear from me…It’s been kinda wishy washy in that sense. My dogs are barking a lot and you know, there’s people in the house. The mic that I have is very sensitive; it’s a very good mic, but it’ll pick up pretty much anything that’s happening around the house. Anytime I have quiet time- that’s another reason I’ve always had to be ready to record at any time- I just get in there and do it real fast; ten fifteen minutes and I’m done. Then, I can mix and master it.
Kolton was so much fun to have as a guest on the Sarah Scoop Show! He’s a super sweet guy and an incredibly gifted musician! We eagerly look forward to the new music to come! Thanks for talking with us, Kolton.
Don’t forget to keep up with #KoltonPierce by following him on social media:
Make sure to listen to Kolton Pierce’s music, and be sure to check out more episodes of The Sarah Scoop Show!
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Sask. bishop who landed in ICU with COVID-19 fears province is overwhelmed
Jayda Taylor Video Journalist
Published Tuesday, December 1, 2020 1:08PM CST Last Updated Tuesday, December 1, 2020 9:07PM CST
PRINCE ALBERT -- Michael Hawkins is encouraging the public to be “very careful and extra cautious” after he landed in the ICU with COVID-19.
Hawkins, the bishop for the Diocese of Saskatchewan, lives in Prince Albert. His office is at St. Alban’s Anglican Cathedral.
The provincial government declared a workplace outbreak at the church on Nov. 27, but Hawkins doesn’t know where he contracted the virus. He said his coworker, Bishop Adam Halkett, caught COVID-19 through a different chain of transmission.
He said he had every symptom of COVID-19 except for a loss of smell and taste.
Hawkins said he started feeling ill on the afternoon of Nov. 13. He called HealthLine 811 the next morning, and several times in the following days, but didn’t hear back to schedule a test.
He found out he had COVID-19 after he went to the Victoria Hospital and received a rapid test on Wednesday, five days after he initially called 811.
“The fact that I called on Saturday and never got a call back about a test until Wednesday, by which time I was already in the hospital, that worries me a little,” said Hawkins.
“I am deeply concerned that public health is completely overwhelmed, and that was certainly my experience.”
He was in the hospital for 12 days, two of which were in the ICU.
“When I was in ICU, I think there were at least two other people on ventilators and I think one person died when I was in ICU. Then, just after I went up on the ward, another person died in ICU, someone I know.”
Hawkins said the church was taking the proper precautions to prevent any possible spread of the virus. This included mandating masks in the building in October, before the government implemented a mandatory masking policy. The church closed after the positive cases.
“It’s at least one lesson that all the precautions are not going to guarantee that you don’t get this. It says to me that this is out there in the community. You have to assume it’s just everywhere,” said Hawkins.
He said the virus got into his heart, resulting in symptoms similar to a heart attack.
Hawkins also said he got a notification through the COVID Alert app that he had been in contact with someone who tested positive. By that time, though, he was already in the hospital.
“The people and the government need to take this a bit more seriously,” said Hawkins.
“We don’t want to get behind, and I fear that’s what’s happening now.”
New COVID-19 cases found at 3 Saskatoon schools
COVID-19 cases rise to 142 at Saskatoon jail, daily temperature checks added for staff: union
A Saskatoon researcher says soap and water is a safer way to kill COVID-19 than many disinfectants. Here’s why.
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How fast is the universe really expanding? New measurements help tackle the mystery
G299 was left over by a Type Ia supernova. NASA
Advances in astronomical observation over the past century have allowed scientists to construct a remarkably successful model of how the cosmos works. It makes sense – the better we can measure something, the more we learn. But when it comes to the question of how fast our universe is expanding, some new cosmological measurements are making us ever more confused.
Since the 1920s we’ve known that the universe is expanding – the more distant a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us. In fact, in the 1990s, the rate of expansion was found to be accelerating. The current expansion rate is described by something called “Hubble’s Constant” – a fundamental cosmological parameter.
Until recently, it seemed we were converging on an accepted value for Hubble’s Constant. But a mysterious discrepancy has emerged between values measured using different techniques. Now a new study, published in Science, presents a method that may help to solve the mystery.
The problem with precision
Hubble’s Constant can be estimated by combining measurements of the distances to other galaxies with the speed they are moving away from us. By the turn of the century, scientists agreed that the value was about 70 kilometres per second per megaparsec – one megaparsec is just over 3m light years. But in the last few years, new measurements have shown that this might not be a final answer.
If we estimate Hubble’s Constant using observations of the local, present-day universe, we get a value of 73. But we can also use observations of the afterglow of the Big Bang – the “cosmic microwave background” – to estimate Hubble’s Constant. But this “early” universe measurement gives a lower value of around 67.
Worryingly, both of the measurements are reported to be precise enough that there must be some sort of problem. Astronomers euphemistically refer to this as “tension” in the exact value of Hubble’s Constant.
Universe’s expansion. NASA/WMAP
If you’re the worrying kind, then the tension points to some unknown systematic problem with one or both of the measurements. If you’re the excitable kind, then the discrepancy might be a clue about some new physics that we didn’t know about before. Although it has been very successful so far, perhaps our cosmological model is wrong, or at least incomplete.
Distant versus local
To get to the bottom of the discrepancy, we need a better linking of the distance scale between the very local and very distant universe.
The new paper presents a neat approach to this challenge. Many estimates of the expansion rate rely on the accurate measurement of distances to objects. But this is really hard to do: we can’t just run a tape measure across the universe.
One common approach is to use “Type 1a” supernovas (exploding stars). These are incredibly bright, so we can see them at great distance. As we know how luminous they should be, we can calculate their distance by comparing their apparent brightness with their known luminosity.
To derive Hubble’s Constant from the supernova observations, they must be calibrated against an absolute distance scale because there is still a rather large uncertainty in their total brightness. Currently, these “anchors” are very nearby (and so very accurate) distance markers, such as Cepheid Variable stars, which brighten and dim periodically.
If we had absolute distance anchors further out in the cosmos, then the supernova distances could be calibrated more accurately over a wider cosmic range.
Far-flung anchors
The new work has dropped a couple of new anchors by exploiting a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. By looking at how light from a background source (like a galaxy) bends due to the gravity of a massive object in front of it, we can work out the properties of that foreground object.
A large cluster galaxy (centre of the box) has split the light from an exploding background supernova into four yellow images/dots. NASA/HUbble
The team has studied two galaxies that are lensing the light from two other background galaxies. The distortion is so strong that multiple images of each background galaxy are projected around the foreground deflectors (such as in the image above). The components of light making up each of those images will have travelled slightly different distances on their journey to Earth as the light bends around the foreground deflector. This causes a delay in the arrival time of light across the lensed image.
If the background source has a fairly constant brightness, we don’t notice that time delay. But when the background source itself varies in brightness, we can measure the difference in light arrival time. This work does exactly that.
The time delay across the lensed image is related to the mass of the foreground galaxy deflecting the light, and its physical size. So when we combine the measured time delay with the mass of the deflecting galaxy (which we know) we get an accurate measure of its physical size.
Like a penny held at arms length, we can then compare the apparent size of the galaxy to the physical size to determine the distance, because an object of fixed size will appear smaller when it is far away. The authors present absolute distances of 810 and 1230 megaparsecs for the two deflecting galaxies, with about a 10-20% margin of error.
Treating these measurements as absolute distance anchors, the authors go on to reanalyse the distance calibration of 740 supernovas from a well-established data set used to determine Hubble’s Constant. The answer they got was just over 82 kilometres per second per megaparsec.
This is quite high compared to the numbers mentioned above. But the key point is that with only two distance anchors the uncertainty in this value is still quite large. Importantly, though, it is statistically consistent with the value measured from the local universe. The uncertainty will be reduced by hunting for – and measuring – distances to other strongly lensed and time-varying galaxies. They are rare, but upcoming projects like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope should be capable of detecting many such systems, raising hopes of reliable values.
The result provides another piece of the puzzle. But more work is needed: it still doesn’t explain why the value derived from the cosmic microwave background is so low. So the mystery remains, but hopefully not for too long.
James Geach receives funding from the Royal Society and the Science and Technology Facilities Council
Source: The Conversation: Technology http://theconversation.com/how-fast-is-the-universe-really-expanding-new-measurements-help-tackle-the-mystery-123338
‘Ancestors’: a new game provides insights into how the first humans evolved
Curiosity: we’re studying the brain to help you harness it
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Home Solar News SolarWorld To Expand Oregon Headquarters
SolarWorld To Expand Oregon Headquarters
The SolarWorld group plans to begin construction of a new facility adjacent to its Hillsboro, Ore., plant. The new building, which will be dedicated to logistics, distribution and production, will measure about 210,000 square feet, increasing the site's plant space by 44%.
SolarWorld's main building, formerly a semiconductor factory that was never put into full production in the late 1990s, measures about 480,000 square feet. The new logistics and production building leaves unchanged the company's goal of building 500 MW of production capacity and growing to more than 1,000 employees by 2011, SolarWorld says. The project will employ between 150 and 200 construction workers at peak, and construction will begin in November.
SOURCE: SolarWorld
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Climate Change and the Need for Renewable Energy
There are many scientific studies that indicate the reality and significance of climate change. One of the ways to reduce the drain on resources currently being experienced by the planet is to shift to systems that utilise renewable energy, such as solar power. By making this energy shift, the environment will have a chance to begin to heal. When used properly, solar power and other forms of renewable energy will be enough to eliminate oil, gas, and coal consumption before the year 2050. But that will only happen if changes are made now, instead of waiting.
Climate Change and the Australian Environment
Climate change is having massive and significant effects on the Australian environment. The bushfire season of late 2019 and early 2020 is evidence of this, but they are not the only problems being seen. The year 2019 was the hottest and driest year on record for all of Australia, and the trends are showing that these kinds of problems are likely to continue getting worse. Rather than allow that to happen any longer, there are changes that can be made to stop the decline in the environment. Reducing pollution is a big part of the solution, and that can be done by using renewable energy sources — most notably solar energy.
Millions of animals are dying in bushfires, and there have been massive numbers of homes and businesses destroyed, as well as human injuries and fatalities, too. It’s time to do something more, and protect the planet in ways that might not have been considered as seriously in the past. With a Green New Deal for Australia and other countries, the opportunity exists to move many of the world’s developed countries over to solar and other renewable energy sources before climate change goes so far that reversing it is simply not possible. Much needs to be done quickly, to cool Australia down and protect its climate.
The Economic Impact of Climate Change
Climate change and ecological disasters have had billions of dollars of impact on the economy of Australia. While it will cost money to move everything over to renewable energy, it will cost much more in the long run if the continent fails to do so. A Renewable Energy Agency has been established and the Solar Towns Programme has also been created, in an effort to move more people toward solar energy. By understanding why this is so important and educating the public on the value of renewable energy, billions of dollars can be invested in the right things and saved over time due to a reduced need for fossil fuels.
Millions of dollars have already been set aside for solar communities, allowing Australians who want to engage with others on topics like solar energy and climate change the opportunity to do so. By reaching out to those who already have solar power at their homes — along with those who are considering it — the opportunity to protect the environment and reverse climate change grows stronger. Right now, solar energy options are being installed at a rate that will allow Australia to meet its target of 50 percent renewable electricity by the year 2024. That will make a difference, but more can still be done to help.
Australia’s Renewable Energy Options
There are several popular renewable energy options for Australia, which include solar farms, wind farms, and rooftop solar panels that are used for households and communities. All three of these can be excellent choices, and all three can provide Australia with the help and hope it needs to improve its climate health and protect its people, animals, and natural resources. Wind farms can be put to excellent use over time, but it is the solar farms and rooftop solar panels that provide the continent with the most hope. Solar panels for individuals and businesses are ready now, and can be installed quickly in large numbers.
By putting solar energy to good use, and by getting more people involved in working to solve climate change, Australia has the opportunity to be a world leader in protecting the environment and saving the planet. The continent can reduce its costs, stop more damage from occurring for its people and animals, and focus on ways to help the entire planet breathe a little bit easier. Solar power and other renewable energy sources are the answer to climate change, and that answer must be implemented now.
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A cascade autocorrelation model of pitch perception
Authors: Balaguer-Ballester, E., Denham, S.L. and Meddis, R.
Journal: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Journal: J Acoust Soc Am
Autocorrelation algorithms, in combination with computational models of the auditory periphery, have been successfully used to predict the pitch of a wide range of complex stimuli. However, new stimuli are frequently offered as counterexamples to the viability of this approach. This study addresses the issue of whether in the light of these challenges the predictive power of autocorrelation can be preserved by changes to the peripheral model and the computational algorithm. An existing model is extended by the addition of a low-pass filter of the summary integration of the individual within-channel autocorrelations. Other recent developments are also incorporated, including nonlinear processing on the basilar membrane and the use of integration time constants that are proportional to the autocorrelation lags. The modified and extended model predicts with reasonable success the pitches of a range of stimuli that have proved problematic for earlier implementations of the autocorrelation principle. The evaluation stimuli include short tone sequences, click trains consisting of alternating interclick intervals, click trains consisting of mixtures of regular and irregular intervals, shuffled click trains, and transposed tones.
Journal: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Autocorrelation algorithms, in combination with computational models of the auditory periphery, have been successfully used to predict the pitch of a wide range of complex stimuli. However, new stimuli are frequently offered as counterexamples to the viability of this approach. This study addresses the issue of whether in the light of these challenges the predictive power of autocorrelation can be preserved by changes to the peripheral model and the computational algorithm. An existing model is extended by the addition of a low-pass filter of the summary integration of the individual within-channel autocorrelations. Other recent developments are also incorporated, including nonlinear processing on the basilar membrane and the use of integration time constants that are proportional to the autocorrelation lags. The modified and extended model predicts with reasonable success the pitches of a range of stimuli that have proved problematic for earlier implementations of the autocorrelation principle. The evaluation stimuli include short tone sequences, click trains consisting of alternating interclick intervals, click trains consisting of mixtures of regular and irregular intervals, shuffled click trains, and transposed tones. © 2008 Acoustical Society of America.
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Pelosi On Trump: ‘I Don’t Want To See Him Impeached, I Want To See Him In Prison’
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 04: U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks during her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol on April 4, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
June 6, 2019 7:26 a.m.
During a back and forth with Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pushed back against his request to start an impeachment inquiry, exclaiming: “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison.”
According to Politico, Pelosi meant that she wanted Trump defeated in 2020, then prosecuted for his many alleged crimes.
There are varying levels of dissent among the Democratic heavy hitters. House Intel Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal (D-MA), for example, believe that an inquiry should not be begun until the caucus is fully united behind the idea of impeachment.
Donald TrumpimpeachmentNancy Pelosi
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Capitalism Kills: Boeing’s Criminal Negligence
Image: SounderBruce, Wikimedia
News & Analysis Environment & Tech
Martin Swayne
“If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going.” Up until recently, this was the slogan many pilots and passengers had adopted when flying or boarding an aircraft. It was a nod of respect for the Seattle aircraft manufacturer that brought America into the jet age with airliners like the 707, the three-engine 727 that followed, and the “Queen of the Skies”—the 747. How times have changed!
In less than a year, Boeing—one of America’s largest single exporters—destroyed a reputation that took more than 100 years to build. The Boeing 737 MAX is still grounded and may never fly again; as a result, the company is bleeding money, made its first annual loss in 20 years and has now asked to borrow $12 billion. To top it off, last week’s damning revelations implicate the company in burying and ignoring vital information about the Turkish Airlines 737 crash in Amsterdam back in 2009.
Boeing’s Jedi mind tricks
In last year’s article “737 MAX scandal: Boeing putting profits before safety,” we described in detail the various shortcuts Boeing had taken and concluded that the manufacturer’s actions were criminally negligent. If that sounded like hyperbole at the time, this has only been confirmed in light of the facts of the last few months.
We argued that “the tweaks to the existing 737 Classic and NG reached a qualitative leap where it in effect becomes a completely new aircraft type that should never have been certified by the authorities.” Fast forward ten months, and a steady stream of internal leaks from former employees and congressional hearings have provided a mountain of evidence. Any serious prosecutor not in the pockets of big business or the Establishment could have a field day with building a criminal case against Boeing.
Last year, Boeing was forced to disclose internal messages from 2016, in which a test pilot working on the aircraft told a colleague that he was experiencing trouble controlling the MAX in a flight simulator and believed that he had misled the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which at that point was yet to approve and certify the design. “I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly),” the pilot, Mark Forkner, said to his colleague, Patrik Gustavsson.
Boeing initially did not inform the FAA about the messages when the company first discovered them, but waited until about two weeks before now ex-CEO Dennis Muilenburg was set to testify in front of Congress to send them to lawmakers. The uncooperative behavior has angered key FAA officials, who felt misled by the company, and has caused the lengthy delay in recertifying the design.
Boeing was forced to disclose internal messages from 2016, in which a test pilot on the MAX admitted he was having trouble with it and had misled the FAA. / Image: Flickr, Paul Thompson
Earlier this month, the New York Times published a leak of hundreds of other internal emails (available in full here) that paint a deeply disturbing picture of the lengths Boeing was willing to go to in order to evade scrutiny from regulators, flight crews and the flying public, even as its own workers were sounding the alarm bell repeatedly.
A small sample below suffices to get an idea of the prevailing company culture:
“This airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”
“Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t.”
“I’ll be shocked if the FAA passes this turd.”
“I don’t know how to fix these things … it’s systemic. It’s culture. It’s the fact that we have a senior leadership team that understand very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives.”
“Fortunately I have all the skills of a used car salesman, and I have the ability to use the Jedi mind trick.”
The basic sales pitch of Boeing to airlines around the world was that the MAX was fundamentally the same aircraft as previous versions of the 737. No expensive simulator training for pilots would be required and just a couple of hours of e-training on an iPad would be enough. This was to be the winning formula to fend off main competitor Airbus and its efficient 320/321 neo design. Convincing customers to buy the new aircraft while sticking to the official sales pitch that it was fundamentally the same model, was known as the “Jedi mind trick.”
Corporate impunity
“The Force” may have had an influence over the weak minded for a while, but two crashes resulting in 346 casualties soon broke the spell. Boeing tried to cover up as much as possible and through its CEO Muilenburg displayed an astonishing level of arrogance. It was implied that the Ethiopian and Indonesian pilots were to blame, and that with some tweaks to the MCAS software, the 737 MAX would be flying again soon.
It took a full month after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, and five months from the time of the initial Lion Air crash, before the company accepted any responsibility at all. Muilenburg cut a pathetic figure in the Senate hearings and the closest he came to apologizing to the victims and their families was a half-hearted promise to make a “safe plane safer.” Otherwise, there was little else, not least by regulators, that could have been done.
This defiance before Congress and the absence of real contrition and accountability resembles the antics of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and the entitled sense of impunity shared by every high-ranking executive involved in the financial crisis of 2008–2009. All of these crooks escaped with little more than a slap on the wrist, alongside a massive public bailout.
The leaks proved too much. Muilenburg became the “fall guy” for Boeing and eventually resigned last December. He landed on his feet, though, being handsomely rewarded to the tune of more than $60 million in stock and pension awards. Not bad for a man who oversaw the final stages of the development, production and certification of a botched design that was directly responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent people.
This is a slap in the face for the hundreds of families who lost loved ones in the two crashes. A mere $50 million in compensation was allocated for them, averaging less than $150,000 per lost life—and less than what Muilenburg averaged in a month. People like him should be tried for the murder of hundreds of men, women and children instead of being rewarded with a new windfall to add to their fortune. As ever, it’s one law for the poor, another for the rich.
Warning signs buried
Last week the New York Times revealed how Boeing has even more skeletons in the closet. This concerns a 737 crash near Amsterdam more than a decade ago involving Turkish Airlines flight TK1951, in which nine people died. At the time, back in 2009, an expert study that sharply criticised Boeing was never published by the Dutch safety authorities, and its key findings were either excluded or played down in the final accident report. The crash shows striking similarities with the two recent 737 MAX accidents.
An expert study from 2009, concerning a 737 crash that killed nine people, sharply criticized Boeing and was never published by the safety authorities. / Image: Fred Vloo
The day after the publication of the Times article, the Dutch Safety Board, which had commissioned the study, reversed course and 11 years after the event put the critical study in the public domain. As aviation professionals, we have read both the original report (available here) and the originally suppressed critical document by Sidney Dekker (available here). We are familiar with the format and terminology of these accident reports and feel qualified enough to pass comment on them.
The findings are quite a revelation and are extremely relevant to the more recent crashes of Boeing aircraft. Dekker, himself a former 737 pilot and Safety Professor at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, acknowledged that the pilots had made serious errors (not monitoring speed on final approach) but also found that Boeing bore significant responsibility. He accused the company of trying to deflect attention from its own “design shortcomings” with “hardly credible” statements drawing attention to the pilots’ mistakes. However, none of his criticisms of Boeing were incorporated into the final Dutch accident report after pushback from a team of Americans that included the manufacturer and federal safety officials.
Without going into too much technical detail, these design shortcomings concerned the radio altimeter: a sensor that measures how high the aircraft is above the ground and that assists with coordinating the landing. This sensor had malfunctioned on one side and erroneously commanded the autothrottle, which controls the power setting of a Boeing aircraft, to “retard” as if it was about to land. The result was a gradual loss of speed towards the very end of the flight (involving the “capture of the glideslope from above,” an important contributing factor masking the inappropriate autopilot mode), just when the crew was busy doing a landing checklist. The loss of speed was noticed too late and insufficient power was applied to counteract the stall, resulting in the crash.
We mention all of this in a nutshell to draw the parallel between the accident and the 737 MAX crashes. As the Times article points out:
In both cases, design decisions by Boeing allowed a single faulty sensor [the radio altimeter in 2009; the “angle of attack” indicator on the 737 MAX—MS] to activate a powerful computer command. In both cases, Boeing had known of the potential sensor failures but determined that pilots would react correctly and recover the plane. And in both cases, Boeing didn’t include information in the pilots’ manual that could have helped them respond to the malfunctioning automation. (January 21, 2020)
Boeing, the FAA and the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) try to wash their hands of this by simply saying that the system involved in the earlier accident differed significantly from the one blamed in the MAX crashes. In our view, this is a huge copout that ignores the essence of the problem: a design flaw as a result of insufficient redundancy, leading to unpredictable behavior not explained in the manuals nor trained for in the simulator.
As Dekker himself explains in a very recent interview with the Dutch newspaper Het Parool (our unofficial and purposely literal translation):
First of all, let me say that these are technically two very different things. The problems with the 737 MAX happened at takeoff, while for Turkish Airlines things went wrong during the landing. But it is obvious that in both cases it had to do with a single sensor that did not work properly, immediately causing major problems. There was no correction mechanism. In addition, in both cases the pilots were not instructed about changes in the control of the aircraft, because there was nothing about it in the flight manuals or training materials from Boeing. In both cases the flight simulators were also not programed to display this flight behavior.
Dekker concludes the interview with a damning condemnation:
It seems to me that the Dutch Safety Board danced to the tune of America. The pilots were blamed. What I also know is that the Board’s experience with investigating major air disasters is not great. The NTSB has more authority in that area and are a bit like the gorilla in the room when they get involved. So that makes an impression. However, for me the NTSB then lost all credibility. It seems that they are trying to protect the American airline industry…
If Boeing had been open to the lessons that could be learned from the accident in the Netherlands, it would have been a different story. There were errors in the philosophy underlying their business, and we demonstrated that at the time with our research.
Dekker’s report should have woken everybody up. Instead, the issue got buried.
Broken trust
This latest revelation is slow to trickle through because of the technical and specialist nature of the matter. Regardless, the credibility of Boeing as “a company you can trust” has plummeted to historical lows all over the world. Trust tends to be a one-way street and once it has been broken, it is very hard to restore.
In the Netherlands, Jan Paternotte, a member of the Dutch House of Representatives, praised the Dekker study’s release and called for a hearing of those involved. “Boeing has been capable of strong arming outside parties if it serves the short-term interest of the company,” he said. “When safety is at stake, that is a problem.”
US pilots’ unions say that their members’ trust in the safety culture at Boeing is at rock bottom following the recent string of revelations. Restoring confidence among captains, on whom it is counting to repair the trust of the flying public, will be critical for Boeing. According to Dennis Tajer, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 15,000 American Airlines pilots:
It’s like a Jenga game, [trust] gets higher and higher, and then it tumbles down … These emails are beyond our worst nightmares. It’s as if it’s a poorly written screenplay that no one would believe—but it happened.” (Financial Times, January 22, 2020)
The Financial Times also reports how Jon Weaks, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, which is suing Boeing over lost earnings, said the company starts at “zero trust” with the union’s 10,000 members.
The return of the 737 MAX?
Desperate to return the MAX to service, Boeing has now distributed marketing materials to airlines that suggest one option to handle passengers who baulk at flying the MAX in the future will be to have pilots reassure them. Fortunately, the relatively strong American pilots’ unions seem to draw a line in the sand over this and refuse pilots to be used in PR stunts for a company that has repeatedly declined to take responsibility, and that tends to point the finger to the people in the flightdeck.
It remains to be seen whether passengers will ever believe the MAX is safe to board. Meanwhile, Boeing is losing millions. / Image: Flickr, Paul Thompson
Despite Boeing’s reassurances, it remains to be seen whether airline passengers will ever believe the MAX is safe to board. Plenty of people refused to ever climb aboard a DC-10 decades ago when it was released from its grounding after a number of fatal accidents. In the age of the internet, smartphones and a generally savvier traveling public, rebranding the MAX would prove pointless.
Even if the aircraft manages to be recertified by the FAA and other authorities like EASA, Boeing will need three or four more months to update operating manuals, get mothballed planes ready to fly, and train pilots in MAX flight simulators. That means a best case scenario of a return to service after the summer.
Bad for business
All of this is bad for business and it is estimated that Boeing has been losing an astonishing $1 billion a month. Reimbursing customers, keeping suppliers afloat and maintaining about 400 newly built MAX aircraft that it can’t deliver until cleared—none of this comes cheap. “Boeing expects the total MAX bill to be $18.9 billion,” the Wall Street Journal wrote in an article titled “A Horrible 2019 Isn’t the End to Boeing’s Troubles.” “In 2019 as a whole, operating losses were $2 billion, following operating profits of $12 billion in 2018.”
Boeing recently saw itself forced to suspend production of the MAX, a planned pause in production that has rippled through the supply chain and already cost thousands of jobs. Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages and other parts for the 737 MAX, is planning to lay off 2,800 workers. Southwest Airlines said the grounding cut its 2019 operating income by $828 million and indicated the shortage is creating “a crisis-like challenge.”
Boeing is working with its bankers to secure a new $12 billion loan that would help fortify its balance sheet, and has received commitments from several large lenders including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Morgan Stanley. The loan is not the kind of loan an ordinary working person could get, but has been structured to give Boeing plenty of flexibility. This so-called delayed-draw loan with a two-year maturity would give Boeing access to the funds at a future date without its credit rating being affected.
The company’s $464.4 billion backlog, i.e. the amount of aircraft orders that have not yet been fulfilled, is still impressive on the face of it. However, an order is not an order until the aircraft is delivered and paid for. Aircraft manufacturers get paid the bulk of the price of the planes when they are delivered, making them very susceptible to an economic downturn. In other words, a lot of the positive spin surrounding projected revenue is entirely fictional and not based in reality.
The more forward-thinking capitalists understand this very well and are getting nervous. One of these financial analysts is quoted in the article Boeing’s earnings could be “an absolute disaster,” analyst says:
We still think [Boeing] has an amazing aerospace franchise, a strong order book and strong commercial, military, and services businesses that will persist for many years; however, we think the MAX grounding has gone on far longer than our initial worst-case scenarios, and we worry that the company does not have the right people in place to manage this crisis. (MarketWatch, January 25, 2020)
Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded Boeing’s investment-grade debt, with one of their analysts describing the company’s finances as “some point between a bad case of the flu and a heart attack—in an otherwise healthy person able to recover.”
The role of the state
Does this mean that Boeing will go bust? Unlikely. Its lobbyists have far too much power to keep this latest mismanaged design on the ground forever, technical issues or not. Boeing is the only major US commercial aircraft maker and is too integrated into the military-industrial complex of US imperialism. As the largest exporter in the United States, it has become a behemoth that is too big to fail.
Boeing is deeply enmeshed with the US state, particularly through its military contracts. It is literally “too big to fail.” / Image: US air force1
Paradoxically for a country famed for espousing free market values, the “land of the free” has produced in Boeing a company that is heavily dependent on the largesse of the public sector. The “America First” mantra of Donald Trump has greatly benefited Boeing with lucrative government contracts and the protection of its de facto domestic monopoly from competitors like Airbus. Despite the recent losses and scandals, its planned acquisition of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer also seems to be going ahead.
Apart from benefiting greatly from public loan guarantees provided by the federal Export-Import Bank (nicknamed “Bank of Boeing”), Boeing is notorious for its exploitation of the tax code and for years has gotten away with paying a negative tax rate on its income. The company is now the country’s second largest recipient of federal funding after Lockheed Martin, another company in the service of the US war machine. This means it is more dependent on the public purse than a number of federal agencies.
Within the aviation industry, with its massive infrastructural needs, the state has always played a big role. Perversely, after deregulation in the 1980s, Boeing was allowed to effectively become a public entity with private profits. It gladly accepted the money and the safety net from the American public. In return, it has made private shareholders and upper management fabulously rich, while producing aircraft that put the public at risk. The laws of capitalism have a logic of their own and after decades of “ripping up the rules” and cutting corners in search of profit, the chickens are coming home to roost.
To paraphrase Hamlet, something is rotten in the state of the US. Management, federal regulators, and top government officials have all been caught out eating from the same trough. The 737 MAX scandal is yet another example of the interconnected nature of the bourgeois state and big business. It exposes the false notion that the state is a neutral body to serve society, but rather a body for the defense of the interests of the ruling class.
It is long overdue to cleanse these Augean stables and to take the profit motive out of commercial flight. A corporate bureaucracy in cahoots with the state has made decisions that led to avoidable accidents. Preventing this in the future can ultimately only be done by nationalizing companies like Boeing, opening their books, putting the workers in control and introducing democracy in the workplace as part of a socialist plan of production.
Via In Defence of Marxism
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Tag Archives: Tim Maudlin
Is time really passing?
What Does “Happy New Year” Even Really Mean?
When Albert Einstein’s good friend Michele Besso died in 1955, just a few weeks before Einstein’s own death, Einstein wrote a letter to Besso’s family in which he put forward a scientist’s consolation: “This is not important. For us who are convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent.”
The idea that time is an illusion is an old one, predating any Times Square ball drop or champagne celebrations. It reaches back to the days of Heraclitus and Parmenides, pre-Socratic thinkers who are staples of introductory philosophy courses. Heraclitus argued that the primary feature of the universe is that it is always changing. Parmenides, foreshadowing Einstein, countered by suggesting that there was no such thing as change. Put into modern language, Parmenides believed the universe is the set of all moments at once. The entire history of the universe simply is.
Today we would call this the “eternalist” or “block universe” view—thinking of space and time together as a single four-dimensional collection of events, rather than a three-dimensional world that evolves over time. Besides Parmenides and Einstein, this picture is shared by the Tralfamadorians, an alien race who appear in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five. To a being from Tralfamadore, visiting the past is no harder than walking down the street.
This “timeless” view of the universe goes against our usual thinking. We perceive our lives as unfolding. But it has adherents even in contemporary physics. The laws of nature, as we currently understand them, treat all moments as equally real. No one is picked out as special; the laws simply say how any moment relates to the previous one and to the next.
Perhaps the most energetic and persistent advocate of the claim that time is illusory is the British physicist Julian Barbour.
Impressively, Barbour has managed to do interesting research in physics for decades now without any academic position, publishing dozens of papers in respected journals. He has supported himself in part by translating technical papers from Russian to English—in his spare time, tirelessly investigating the idea that time does not exist, constructing theoretical models of classical and quantum gravity in which time plays no fundamental role.
We have to be a little careful about what we mean by “time does not exist.” Even Parmenides or Barbour would acknowledge the existence of clocks, or of the concept of being late. At issue is whether each subsequent moment is brought into existence from the previous moment by the passage of time. Think of a movie, back in the days when most movies were projected from actual reels of film. You could watch the movie, see what happened and talk sensibly about how long the whole thing lasted. But you could also sneak into the projection room, assemble the reels of the film, and look at them all at once.
The anti-time perspective says that the best way to think about the universe is, similarly, as a collection of the frames.
There has, predictably, been some push back. Tim Maudlin, a philosopher, and Lee Smolin, a physicist, have argued vociferously that time is real, and that the passage of time plays what we might call a generative role: It indeed brings the future into existence. They think of time as an active player rather than a mere bookkeeping device.
Lee Smolin’s simple maxim: “There is nothing outside the universe” which he described as the “first principle of cosmology”. This means there can be no absolute coordinate system for space or time outside the universe by which object positions and times can be defined. Instead, the position of every object in the universe must be defined solely in terms of the position of other objects in the universe
Whereas traditional topology uses regions of space as fundamental building blocks, Maudlin takes worldlines (paths of particles through time) as the most basic object. From there, time evolution seems like a central feature of physics.
Both researchers have been developing new mathematical tools and physical models to buttress their views. Maudlin’s novel approach focuses on the topology of spacetime itself—how different points in the universe are sewn together.
“Still, going from Mars to Earth is not the same as going from Earth to Mars. The difference, if you will, is how these sequences of states are oriented with respect to the passage of time.” Maudlin (Credit: J. D. Norton, University of Pittsburgh, Wikipedia)
Smolin, in contrast, has suggested that the laws of physics themselves are evolving with time. We wouldn’t notice this from moment to moment, but over cosmological time scales, the parameters we think of as fixed may eventually take on very different values.
There is, perhaps, a judicious middle position between insisting on the centrality of time and denying its existence. Something can be real—actually existing, not merely illusory—and yet not be fundamental. Scientists used to think that heat, for example, was a fluid like substance, called “caloric,” that flowed from hot objects to colder ones.
The world’s first ice-calorimeter, used in the winter of 1782-83, by Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre-Simon Laplace, to determine the heat involved in various chemical changes. (Credit: Wikipedia)
These days we know better: Heat is simply the random motions of the atoms and molecules out of which objects are made. Heat is still real, but it’s been explained at a deeper level. It emerges out of a more comprehensive understanding.
Perhaps time is like that. Someday, when the ultimate laws of physics are in our grasp, we may discover that the notion of time isn’t actually essential. Time might instead emerge to play an important role in the macroscopic world of our experience, even if it is nowhere to be found in the final Theory of Everything.
In that case, I would have no trouble saying that time is “real.” I know what it means to grow older or to celebrate an anniversary whether or not time is “fundamental.” And either way, I can still wish people a Happy New Year in good conscience.
By Sean M. Carroll for Smithsonian Magazine
Sean M. Carroll is a research professor in physics at the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of From Eternity to Here, Spacetime and Geometry and The Particle at the End of the Universe, which won the Winton Prize from the Royal Society.
Credit: Smithsonian Magazine
Posted bytimeincosmology December 21, 2014 December 25, 2014 Posted inPhysics in the NewsTags:Albert Einstein, Barbour, block universe, carroll, einstein, Lee Smolin, mauldin, Michele Besso, Parmenides, smolin, Tim Maudlin, Time3 Comments on Is time really passing?
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You are here: Welcome to Twaweza :: Announcements
Citizens ask Governments to make Budgets Open
18 Nov 2011 hot | Announcements
On 18 November 2011 nearly 100 civil society groups from as many countries and 12 international organizations, including the International Budget Partnership, Greenpeace, and the ONE Campaign, will launch a global effort to make public budgets transparent, participatory, and accountable. The effort centers on building an integrated and vibrant movement of organizations that will work at the local, national, and international level to promote government budgeting that is open and accountable to the public.
Budgets are the most critical tool that governments have to address problems like poverty, provide critical services like education and healthcare, and invest in their country’s future. When the political speeches end, it’s how governments actually manage funds to meet their promises and priorities that matters.
The organizations at the core of this initiative may work in different countries and on different issues but their shared experience shows that when civil society and the public are informed and involved they can improve budget decisions and outcomes, literally transforming lives in the process.
The global Civil Society Movement for Budget Transparency, Accountability, and Participation envisions public finance systems that make all budget information easily accessible, provide meaningful opportunities for citizens and civil society to participate in budget decisions and oversight throughout the process, and include strong institutions to hold governments accountable for how they raise and spend the public’s money.
Turning Opportunities into Reality
The timing of this effort capitalizes on a number of significant events that are creating a unique moment to substantially improve how governments operate, including how they manage public funds to meet their people’s needs and to address persistent challenges. The most dramatic of these events is the “Arab Spring,” which has created an unprecedented opportunity for democratic and responsive government in the region but also sent a wake-up call to oppressive, “kleptocratic” regimes around the world – and a beacon of hope to their people. However, turning these revolutions into effective and efficient government will require that strong institutions and systems be developed, including transparent and accountable budget processes and systems that actively engage citizens.
There are also important international, multi-stakeholder initiatives that have been launched in the last year to promote government that is open, democratic, responsive, and accountable. The first of these is the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which brings together governments, civil society, and industry to promote transparency, increase civic participation, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Co-chaired by the U.S. and Brazilian governments, the OGP calls on governments to commit to specific steps that will make their systems and practices more open and accountable.
The second of these is the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency. GIFT engages governments, international organizations, oversight institutions, foundations, and civil society organizations to advance and institutionalize significant and continuous improvements in fiscal transparency, engagement, and accountability in countries around the world. The initiative includes efforts to establish international norms for budget transparency, engagement, and accountability; harness new technologies to support such budgeting; and provide incentives and support for governments seeking to open their budgets.
Though each of these events and initiatives holds great promise, without an organized, skilled, and active civil society movement that can connect the institutions involved with the priorities and needs of ordinary citizens and play a critical oversight role, there is a danger that these opportunities will fall short of their potential.
The organizations meeting in Dar es Salaam to launch the global Civil Society Movement for Budget Transparency, Accountability, and Participation laid the foundation of the movement by signing a Declaration of Principles. This declaration begins with this statement:
“We are citizens and civil society organizations from around the globe, united by the shared conviction that inclusive and open public budgets are critical to achieving a world in which all human beings enjoy their full human rights – civil, political, social, economic, cultural and environmental.”
The participants agreed upon shared values that include recognizing public participation in budgeting as both a fundamental right and a responsibility, social equity, inclusion, nondiscrimination, and mutual respect. They also identified strategies that the organizations in the movement would use to engage in the OGP and GIFT initiatives, as well as other cross-national initiatives. Read more.
Read more: Accountability and Participation
26494 views | 2295 clicks | website | Posted by Mkama Mwijarubi (via Stephanie McDonald)
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Bringing learning to life (24 May 2018)
Ideas & Evidence @ Twaweza East Africa (31 Jan 2018)
What did we do in 2017? | Annual Report
It is time to tell you what we have been doing with the time, talent and treasure that we were privileged to steward in 2017. Read more...
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After going well over budget on Newcastle warden’s home, Game and Fish leaders put pause on new housing projects
By: Mark Davis Powell Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange - Updated: 9 months ago
POWELL — Still stinging over criticism of a construction project in the Newcastle area that ran well over budget, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has tabled two proposed employee housing projects.
The cost overruns in Newcastle seemed to affect discussions about many budget items last week — including proposed housing projects in Jackson.
The Game and Fish Department on Thursday sought preliminary commission approval for $740,000 to build a Game Warden station in the Buffalo area and a new home at the Auburn Fish Hatchery, located northwest of Afton. But the commission withheld its support.
“I’m inclined to make a motion to pull those out of the budget today,” said Commissioner Pat Crank. “With the Newcastle situation, I’m not prepared to support that right now.”
Crank was referring to the new Game Warden Station in Newcastle. When first approved in fiscal year 2013, the station had a $250,000 budget, the Newcastle News Letter Journal reported this month. However, thanks in part to change orders, the cost has since ballooned to more than $600,000, with some work still to be completed, the News Letter Journal reported.
The Newcastle station includes 1,800 square-feet of living space, office space and a two-car garage; it sits on 5.44 acres of land, the paper noted in an extensive report.
Game and Fish policies require game wardens and hatchery employees to live in department-provided housing.
That’s why the department built the station in Newcastle — a process that the department said had been difficult — and why it’s now seeking $740,000 for housing in the Buffalo and Auburn areas.
However, Crank made a motion to not include “the $390,000 house for the Fisheries Division or the $350,000 house for the Wildlife Division.”
“That’s my motion,” he said, “that we deny that budget at this stage until the department comes back to us with information about the need, the cost, and the planning for that in much greater detail.”
Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik said it would be “nice” to have the preliminary budget approved so the department could continue planning for the projects.
But Crank was adamant in his protests — and newly elected Commission President Pete Dube joined the call for more details on the budget items.
“I don’t think that the commission has a problem with the priority of setting aside money to do one of those a year,” Dube said. “It’s more along the lines, [what is] the actual expense after kind of getting our hands slapped over there in Newcastle.”
Nesvik said the department has already established a team to come up with two or three housing specifications, “basically pre-designed layouts for department-provided housing.”
“The idea will be in the future, depending on the construction and details of the location, we’ll pick from the menu of three,” Nesvik said.
Crank also took steps to ensure the commission could stay on top of costs.
“Going forward, any change orders on any construction projects versus doing that exceeds $1,000 needs to be brought in front of the commission for approval,” he said.
Commissioner David Rael questioned whether the approval process would slow progress, but Nesvik assured commissioners it would not.
“We own this one,” Nesvik said. “We need to be able to deal with it.”
Those weren’t the only projects affected, either.
One of the commission’s top priorities is to construct employee housing in Jackson, to mitigate the high cost of living in Teton County. In previous planning meetings, the commission made clear they wanted the housing project to be owned by the department (rather than rented) and built on state-owned land.
The only place suitable for building that meets those requirements is South Park Wildlife Habitat Management Area, where the department hopes to build seven to 10 houses.
Deputy Game and Fish Director John Kennedy said that “defining what this scope is on South Park, and how big we want this thing to be, is important for the department to know right now so that we can move forward and get somebody on board that can do the type of work that we need done.”
The commission authorized $15,000 for construction consultation in the wildlife management area.
But Crank warned the project should not waste funds paid to the department by sportsmen’s fees, permits and taxes on outdoor sporting equipment.
“We don’t want this to look like a golf course where we have 10 houses on 100 acres,” Crank said. “Or we’ll get kicked in the head again, just like we got kicked in the head for the Newcastle warden station.”
However, President Dube warned of moving too slowly in the process.
“You know, the longer we wait, the higher the housing costs are going to be,” he said. “I don’t want to get behind the eight ball here to where we didn’t build anything and then our costs are tripled and quadrupled.”
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Walking the technician’s beat
Andy Connelly September 27, 2016 May 26, 2018 21st century, Biology, Leeds, Location, Subject area, UK, When they worked
Originally published at Leeds.ac.uk on 28 July 2016
Sitting opposite Sue Keat in the Faculty of Biological Sciences canteen, it’s hard to imagine her in a dingy car park, handcuffing a drug dealer who is resisting arrest.
However, that is the reality of her dual life; lab technician during the week and Special Constable at the weekends. She describes herself as a “social worker with handcuffs” – in reference to the police work, not the laboratory work, of course.
But for the height restrictions of the 1970s, Sue wouldn’t be working as a technician. Instead, she would have followed her husband into the police force. As it was, she directed her boundless energy into a career as a diagnostic and research technician in Immunohistochemistry in the Leeds Dental Institute (LDI). Thirty years on, her main role is training students in the complex process of preserving biological tissues and cell samples for cancer diagnosis and research. These formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples can be stored indefinitely at room temperature, allowing the DNA and RNA to be recovered decades after fixation.
She has a typically positive approach to her work. “I want students to know the process properly,” she says. “Say you have a hundred students who you have supervised in the lab – they might go on and train another hundred people. It is like a pyramid. You may do just a few at the top of that pyramid but if you do the best job you can with those people and they cascade it down to others, what impact does that have on healthcare? Patient care is the most important thing.”
Sue placing samples in a workstation.
I got the impression from Sue that everything she does is fuelled by a wave of enthusiasm. In the case of her role as LDI Museum Curator it is a passion for history – although she claims she got this role because “the chief technician retired and I inherited his keys.” Much of her enthusiasm seems to come from a desire to help people. That might be through spending time training a student on the best immunohistochemistry techniques or spending an evening talking through the problems of someone in police custody.
Sadly, in 2007, Sue’s husband Robin died after a long heart illness. She took time off work and sought the support of the University’s Psychological Support Service, of which she cannot not speak highly enough. After this she decided to reapply for the police force as a Special Constable, training and commencing both uniformed and plain clothes duties at the age of 54.
She is now Section Officer (equivalent to sergeant) in the West Yorkshire Police. She is responsible for a team of other Special Constables who develop new starters and she still walks the beat several hours per week. She says: “It’s a two-way process. They get a free bobby and we get access in the police force to unique challenges and opportunities. You do stand there sometimes and think, ‘What do I do here?’ They’ll be kicking off but the training helps you deal with it.”
Sue told me that her proudest moment in the police force was seeing her name on the arrests board after her first arrest – the same board that her late husband’s name had featured on. I asked her what advice she would have given to her younger self. Her reply was immediate: “To go for it, try everything at least once – with the proviso that it’s legal of course! Never give up – it took me 30 years to join the police service!”
Written by Andy Connelly
Previous What is the Technicians’ Network for?
Next Technicians without borders
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Alexander Tsekalo presented a new project and spoke of his wife: “We love each other and make love”
Darina Erwin and Alexander Tsekalo
After marrying Darina Erwin, 28, Alexander Tsekalo, 59, disappeared from the radar for a while. The Russian producer and television presenter moved to the United States, where his elected official lives and where a year ago they registered their marriage. The couple had a successful time during the pandemic, preparing for the launch of the new online project “Serieslist” – a preview of the series.
The spouses work there together – Alexander in the frame talks about the television projects he loved and Darina plays the role of a voiceover. And the first issue of Tsekalo started with words spread in quotation marks in the Russian press.
Alexander TsekaloYa and my wife Darisha love each other. We have sex. We cook together, watch TV shows. As you know, well-prepared food is also sex. A well-made series is also sex. I’m talking about very sexy TV shows. There are no erotic scenes in them, they are just very cool, “said Tsekalo, presenting his new show online.
Darina Erwin, remember, became the fourth wife of Alexander, for whom he left his third wife, Victoria Galushka, who had been married for ten years, they raised two common children together.
Based on materials: www.spletnik.ru
The European Union transferred to the Ukrainian border guards almost one million hryvnia protection
Krikliy: With the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we agree with other countries on the resumption of air transport
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Digital COVID-19 passport to be launched in the European Union
Blockchain system “Health passport COVID-19” will help monitor the immunity of the virus population
Digital COVID-19 passports will be launched in the European Union: how the system will work. Photo: cryptos-tv
European companies from France and Estonia are developing the COVID-19 Health Passport system on the blockchain, which will allow tracking the number of coronoviruses and levels of mass immunity while protecting citizens’ privacy.
Coronavirus test results will form the basis of the system. If a patient has a disease, the test result will have a time stamp so that it is not considered incorrect, and can be updated in real time.
Like other digital solutions, immune certificates raise concerns about privacy, security, and effectiveness. While many countries and trade representatives see them as a way to potentially replace quarantine, data security experts warn that immune passports may have a lot of problems.
Because of this, the Swiss company SICPA and the French medical platform OpenHealth, which stores a database of 20 million citizens of the country, also joined the project, ensuring the security of personal data to be included in the project.
SICPA claims that a high level of data security will be ensured by the blockchain. You only need a smartphone or computer to register in the system. In this case, all personal data will be anonymous. According to SICPA, the system does not have a central database that records patients.
The reference PAYSPACE magazine
Remember that medical institutions are still far from technology in the financial sector. But it is worth noting that the combination of these two industries can be a success not only for patients and medical personnel, but also for business. Already, there are several specific methods that can help the fintech industry and provide a much more convenient way for patients to interact with the system. Read more in PaySpace magazine.
Read: AI, Blockchain and Fintech: China intends to be a leader in innovative technologies
By content: Cnet
Peskov’s unexpected announcement of the victory parade: Russia could abandon classic manipulations
The Cabinet of Ministers brought together the National Agency for the Arts and the Arts
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In Ukraine, COVID-19 during the last day, 16 children and 43 doctors fell ill
Posted on April 20, 2020 Author Admin Comment(0)
In Ukraine, 261 people have fallen ill in the past 24 hours, including 16 children and 43 doctors.
This was announced during a briefing by Minister of Health Maxim Stepanov, reports a correspondent for Ukrinform.
“During the last day, 261 people fell ill. Among them, 16 children and 43 medical workers. 78 people were hospitalized. 10 fatal cases have been recorded. But the good news is that 12 patients, including three children and four doctors, have recovered, “said Stepanov.
See also: The Department of Health said when it was possible to expect a Covid-19 outbreak after Easter
At the same time, he recalled that overall, 5,710 people fell ill during the pandemic in Ukraine. And among them, 374 are children, as well as 1,074 medical workers. At the same time, 359 people recovered a total of 151 deaths.
China c. Wuhan responds to intentionally creating coronavirus
5,710 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Ukraine
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Caldwell monuments
The Joseph Caldwell Monument is an obelisk that sits in the middle of McCorkle Place. It is dedicated to Joseph Caldwell, UNC's first president from 1804 to 1812 and again from 1817 to 1835. Caldwell and his family are interred beneath this monument. There is another, similar-looking obelisk in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. It marks the grave of Wilson Caldwell, a university employee born into slavery on campus, who was an educator and became one of the first African Americans elected to town government.
Joseph Caldwell was first buried in the cemetery and then reburied in 1846 with his second wife, Helen Hooper Caldwell, at a monument located near the present site of New West. This first monument, a sandstone obelisk, did not weather well. In 1858 the alumni association erected a new monument to the president in its current location. The graves remained near New West. In 1876 Mrs. Caldwell's son, William Hooper, who had been a member of the faculty, died and was buried next to his mother and stepfather. Their remains were reinterred at the current location in 1904. At the same time, the alumni of the class of 1891 asked that the old obelisk be erected in the cemetery in memory of Wilson Caldwell and other African American men who had served the university while enslaved and later as free men. This finally took place in 1922.
Date Range: 1922 – Present
Wilson Swain Caldwell, ca. 1890s. Portrait Collection, North Carolina Collection Photo Archives, Wilson Library.
« Caldwell Hall
Cameron Avenue »
From the book UNC A to Z: What Every Tar Heel Needs to Know about the First State University
Index of Entries
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Dreamshade release scorching new single ‘Shanghai Nights’
By Underground Press / Off The Press / Friday, 08 January 2021 12:14
Swiss melodic metal masters Dreamshade have revealed a new single ‘Shanghai Nights’, taken from their forthcoming album A Pale Blue Dot which is set for release on 5 March 2021. It’s the second track they have shared from the new album after Lightbringers, which the band released late last year. The track which shows exactly why Dreamshade are at the top of their game is a groove-driven ode to tour life and the opportunities it has given the guys.
Frontman Kevin Calì delves deeper into the meaning and inspiration behind the song. "The idea of the song came out while we were touring China last year. We've been there 3 times before and wanted to create a Rock'n'Roll-ish track about life on tour: The travels, the shows, the relationship with our fans and the party. The song is about that nostalgic moment we live when the tour is over and it's time to go back home. We always feel a hole in our chest on our way back, the type of feeling you get when you leave someone you love. We sit on the plane and think about all the people we've met, with the awareness that what we do is not only important to us but involves an ever-wider circle of people.
Since part of our life is on the road, we tried to capture that very essence in a poetic way to help the listener live through our experience. Me and the boys come from a very small town in southern Switzerland and travelling the World gives us experiences that we could hardly live otherwise. Really can't wait to meet and hug all of our fans at shows like we used to do!"
Listen to Shanghai Nights here
Shanghai Nights is available now on all digital platforms.
A Pale Blue Dot releases on the 5th March 2021.
ALBUM PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE | MERCH & BUNDLES PRE-ORDER
About Dreamshade
Since forming in 2006 in Lugano, Switzerland, the band have gained widespread attention from the global rock, metal and hardcore scenes with their unique mix of melody, heaviness and uplifting lyrics. After the release of their first EP To The Edge Of Reality in 2008, they signed to Universal Music/Spinefarm Records for 2011’s What Silence Hides, and their 2013 break out album, The Gift Of Life featuring genre-defining tracks like Consumed Future, Photographs and Your Voice. The band toured continuously and touched 4 continents: Europe, North America, Asia and Africa gaining thousands of new fans all over the world.
In 2015 they released 'Dreamers Don't Sleep' which was the first single that anticipated the release of a new album. Dreamshade signed with Artery Recordings in 2016 and released the album Vibrant, introducing a host of new influences including rock, electronica and hip-hop to their signature sound on tracks like Where 'My Heart Belongs', 'Up All Night' and 'It’s Over'. The same year they embarked on a headliner tour through Europe and Asia which saw many of the shows selling out.
The standalone single 'Question Everything' was released on the 15th January 2019 ahead of their European tour alongside heavyweights DON BROCO & Emarosa as well as returning to both South Africa & Asia as headliners.
Band lineup: Luca Magri - Guitars, programming // Gian-Andrea Costa – Bass, programming // Kevin Calì – Vocals // Francesco 'Fry' Ferrini – Drums // Fernando 'Fella' Di Cicco - Guitars, Vocals
Follow Dreamshade: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
KALAHARI Unleashes A New Version of ‘Carol of the Bells’
Savage Lucy release surprise live album
HORCRUX Reveals Video For Peremptory New Single ‘Heavy Hearted’!
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A/HRC/6/NGO/31
Sixth session
Item 7 and 9 of the provisional agenda
HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN PALESTINE AND OTHER ARAB OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, AND RELATED FORMS OF INTORELANCE: FOLLOW-UP TO AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DURBAN DECLARATION AND PROGRAMME OF ACTION
Written statement submitted by B’nai B’rith International (BBI), a non-governmental organization in special consultative status
The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31.
[30 August 2007]
* This written statement is issued, unedited, in the language(s) received from the submitting non-governmental organization(s).
The Question of the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The decision in the previous session to include a permanent item, as did its predecessor, on the question of Palestine, thus placing Israel on the agenda as the only country-specific agenda item is damaging to the Council’s credibility. For several years human rights bodies in the UN system have allowed this biased treatment toward Israel to occur; we had hoped that the intended improvements that this new human rights body was to institute would stop that trend. In singling out the only democratic country in the Middle East that has in place accountability and human rights mechanisms to investigate human rights violations, the HRC is punishing those who seek to promote transparency and human rights.
In an age when women are forbidden to congregate publicly and public executions are occurring with increasing frequency in Iran, North Koreans are starving to death, and hundreds of thousands have been murdered and millions displaced in Darfur, the Council’s agenda ignores these urgent human rights violations to satisfy the obsession of some member states with Israel. Despite the painful bias we see in these decisions we continue to engage with the Council with the hope that eventually member states will be able to prioritize human rights and turn away from this politicization. In focusing on condemnation of Israel the HRC is not contributing to a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but rather perpetuating a cycle of blame that contributes to its escalation.
Compounding this problem is the Council’s decision to reiterate the former Commission’s perpetual mandate of the special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, who focuses exclusively on alleged Israeli violations. This is in sharp contrast with the mandates of more than 40 other human rights experts.
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Warrior Wednesday: Brody Smith
Today’s #WarriorWednesday is Brody Smith!
Brody joined the U.S. Army in January of 2000 and was medically retired in February of 2019. He spent over four years in the 2nd Ranger Battalion with deployments to Afghanistan in 2002 and Iraq in 2003. The remainder of his career was spent in Aviation flying the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and the AH-64D Apache helicopters. While in aviation, he deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and 2014.
“While in the Army, I loved the camaraderie between myself and my fellow soldiers. Working together to accomplish goals much bigger than ourselves meant so much to me. I loved having the opportunity to serve and know we were creating a brighter future for our country and other countries around the world. The relationships I formed while serving will last a lifetime, and I am very grateful for them.”
Now, Brody works as a financial advisor in Clemson, SC. This second career allows him to continue to serve by helping others build a better financial future for themselves, their family, and their communities. He is also involved with multiple veteran organizations in which he works to help those struggling with the transition back into civilian life.
Thank you for your service, Brody!
Know a warrior like Brody whom you think we should feature? Nominate them!
To feature them, we need a description of their military service as well as to know what they are doing now, what they enjoyed from service they incorporate into their life today, and what is one goal or passion they are working towards. The information can be sent to newsletter@upstatewarriorsolution.org along with the warrior’s name and how they can be contacted.
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Loddon Catchment Consultancy 2018
The brief was to design a set of branding deliverables for two groups of environmental science students for a consultancy that they’ll be setting up in two months.
Soon as I was given this project I was given the opportunity to go and meet with my clients for the first time, this meeting was set up by my supervisor and the student’s lecturer making me think that this is something that happens every year and is set up by the two departments. My first meeting with the clients was very brisk as I spoke to each of them one by one, and we didn’t have much time, however I took the opportunity to ask and get as much information from them as possible including contact information (for direct contact and in case anything was missed).
The students weren’t able to answer all of my questions, such as “who will you be presenting to” as they have just been given this brief probably the same as I have, therefore I cut them some slack and asked if they could find out the information and send it to me later so that I could begin to write my brief.
The students also seemed very opened to the idea of me designing just a logo for them and were more than happy to do the powerpoint presentation and word doc by themselves, they were respectful of my time since we’re fellow students however I assured them that I would work with them on the branding and do as much as I could.
Research & concept
Whilst waiting for the brief to be signed off by my supervisor, I went ahead and organised a meeting with both groups to discuss possible concepts and directions to help each other in realising what kind of logo they wanted. To elaborate, we looked at already existing logos and discussed what elements could be taken forward, no sketching was done at this stage as this was primarily a verbal meeting with on screen visuals containing logos of similar concepts to basically make sure that both groups and I were on the same page (I saw each group at different times again).
The on screen visuals shown on screen were literally some quick google searches for logos with key words such as “water” and “leaf” which were concepts that the groups were thinking of going with. This meeting was certainly helpful as this was in a way helpful to again get on the same page, for example one group has a rough idea of doing a very complex illustration styled logo whereas I had to explain why something so detailed would not work on screen or on documents where it would be scaled to be small so this certainly saved some headaches along the way.
Design Development & Deliverables
Riverbank Erosion logo
Once the brief was signed off, I began sketching a number of rough logo drafts to show the students. The intention would be to show these to them, make sure that they are happy with the overall look and direction of the logo, and if not then the concepts will be reviewed and new sketches produced, rinse and repeat until they were happy with them so that I could then move on to digital illustrations.
My supervisor was overall happy with the pace in which I was going at, however concerns were raised with the first set of B&W illustration, the main concern being that because I used various levels of grey that some of the logos were looking a little bit too busy and also potentially losing the focus of the illustration (especially when viewed smaller).
Another thing that I admit didn’t go as planned was when I showed the first set of sketches to the groups, one group were very happy and voting on the best logo was a very smooth process, however with the other group it was quite clear that they weren’t too convinced with them yet as they were set on a concept which I ultimately wanted to avoid (especially since it tends to be overused in these styles of logos). I quickly mended the situation by producing a few digital illustrations that were not sketched out at first but rather I took the concepts that DID work which produced a better reaction from the students.
Water Quality logo
The stages that followed for the logos were mainly establishing branding colours, which fun and simple to do, and a lot of back and forth iterations and positive feedback from clients and supervisor. With the logos nearing completion I was confident to start creating the powerpoint presentation for them.
This was a first for me and admittedly I wasn’t too proud of the final design for either, it had a similar concept to InDesign as PowerPoint used master pages that acted as “templates” for the entire presentation. What this meant for this scenario was that each group were going to show pages with images, graphs, and tables therefore my responsibility was to create templates that were compatible for what the students wanted to use them for and once the file was sent to them I in a way supervised how they would design it to make sure that the pages were remained consistently well designed with the branding and pages. I didn’t have to do much as the pages mostly did their job, there was just one page that they created themselves which used a different typeface and such therefore I helped them fix that. However, as can sometimes be expected when working with students, there was only radio silence from the other group despite my efforts to contact them, this led me to believe that they were busy at the time as they did indeed reply back to me after their presentation.
Both groups were extremely happy with how the presentation went, there was also some good feedback from other groups particularly with regards to how professional the logo looked, there was no way that I could have been there at the presentation to access how well the deliverable worked but that feedback certainly told me that it did.
It was a shame that I was unable to produce a word template for them as time drew closer to the deadline, the priority for them were the logo and presentation slides as the students let me know how they would only need the word document until way after the presentation. However I did offer to stay in contact with the groups with regards to any questions or suggestions they might have for when they did design the documents themselves.
My supervisor was very happy with my designs, particularly with my logos which I tend to be good at, however I would’ve like to spend a little bit more time learning about making templates on PowerPoint as this was the first time that I made a template and felt like it could have been designed better to at least meet the standard of the logo.
by PedroMartins
SPVRO T-Shirt Designs
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Coming home doesn't mean the battle is over. With over 10 times the amount of veterans lost to suicide than to combat operations in the same time period, there has never been a more important time to TAKE A STAND and DO something to support our veterans!! If you or someone you know is suffering from PTSD, we have people that have shared a similar experience and are ready to help.
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PuLSE Institute and DPSCD to host forum on poverty and race
October 31, 2018 thepulseinstitute Uncategorized Leave a comment
The Institute for Public Leadership and Social Equity, The PuLSE Institute, a Detroit-based non-partisan and independent think tank devoted to fighting poverty in the city and Detroit Public Schools Community District will host a forum on how poverty, race and illiteracy remain three disturbing impediments to the educational advancement many Detroit school children.
The Forum titled “Illiteracy, Poverty and Race: Confronting the Three Evils of Public Education in Detroit,” will be held on Wednesday, November 14, 6-7:30pm at Denby High School Auditorium, 12800 Kelly Road. The discussion which is free and open to the public, will feature DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, Mark Rosenbaum, director of the Public Counsel Opportunity Under Law Project and lead counsel in the right to literacy case and several other speakers.
The Forum which will be the first constructive dialogue after the November 6 election about public education in Detroit, will also focus on how the next governor can be an effective ally in helping the school system succeed.
“The issues stemming from state control of DPSCD still plague the rudimentary education of Detroit’s children, who are majority African American. Chief among these is the quality of the education, including the right to literacy, which has been unjustly denied and will only further the cycle of poverty and inequity in the educational system,” said Tina M. Patterson, president of The PuLSE Institute. “The next governor of Michigan must be prepared to fully restore the basic necessities of Detroit public schools and ensure equitable access to the quality education all children deserve.”
The Forum is part of the Institute’s Perspectives on Poverty Series which focuses on the many dimensions and challenges of inequality.
Bankole Thompson, the Institute’s editor-in-chief and an opinion columnist at The Detroit News will moderate the Forum.
The Institute recently announced a groundbreaking initiative, Business Leaders Against Poverty, a select group of CEOs committed to the alleviation of poverty in Detroit. Read more here about it https://thepulseinstitute.org/2018/10/28/detroit-ceos-join-pulse-institute-fight-against-poverty/
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When will the condo craze kick in?
While some say LA will never be a condo kingdom, others see a strong vertical market in the making
October 2019 Issue /
By Aimee Rawlins | Research By Jerome Dineen
Adept Urban’s 388 Cordova Street in Pasadena
Will Los Angeles ever be a luxury condo metropolis? Zoning laws, building costs and buyers’ preference for more space have all conspired to keep L.A. homes close to the ground. But there are signs that the local condo market is gaining some steam.
The $21 million sale of a unit in Beverly West Residences in July made headlines, while actor Matthew Perry listed his Century City condo for $35 million just weeks later. Luxury developments in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are also pointing to a new era, with Michael Shvo’s 9200 Wilshire project recently launching and the Residences at the West Hollywood Edition opening earlier this year.
Sales data show that there’s a market for this kind of inventory. The Real Deal analyzed condo sales of $2 million and higher in L.A. County that closed between Sept. 1, 2018, and Aug. 31, 2019, and found that 164 units closed during the period, with an average sale price of more than $3 million. But there’s still plenty of room for growth.
“L.A. historically has just never been a vertical town,” said Mike Leipart, managing partner of the Agency Development Group, an arm of the Agency brokerage that works with new properties through the entire development cycle.
Though the brokerage is based in L.A., Leipart said it’s “probably the slowest major market in the U.S. for high-rises.” With clients in Miami and Mexico, the group’s biggest projects aren’t local. But it’s currently working on smaller developments in the city, like Hancock Park’s the Sevens and the eight-unit Meyer at Third in Beverly Center. Leipart said he’s still optimistic about the future of luxury condos in the city, especially when all the right boxes are checked, starting with location.
“There’s great demand for the places you’ve heard of a million times: Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, even Hollywood,” said Leipart. “In Santa Monica, the sky’s the limit. Venice is great. Malibu is great — there’s just nothing new.”
Where this party started
Related Companies developed one of the projects that kicked off the push for luxury high-rises in the city. Its Century City condo project, the Century, opened in 2010, but it took some time to sell out. In 2012, the New York Times reported that the 140-unit building was only 30 percent sold. Compass broker Sally Forster Jones said the timing, in the midst of the financial crisis, and the fact that it was the first of its kind meant it took a while to gain traction. Today, “luxury buyers are really flocking to those types of properties,” she said.
In August, a unit at the Century sold for $9.8 million, and TRD’s analysis showed that four other units in the building sold over the past year, going for between $5.9 million and $6.3 million. Perry’s $35 million listing in the building is currently the most expensive condo on the L.A. market. He purchased it for $20 million in 2017.
“There’s still a great desire for luxury condos because when people move from their big homes, they want to scale down,” said Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker. “They don’t want to move to something where they have to do any work.”
Jim Jacobson, SVP of sales at Douglas Elliman’s Development Marketing Group, echoed the sentiment, adding that luxury buildings provide a perfect way for empty-nesters or people who travel frequently to make sure “their plants are watered, their goldfish is fed, and there’s milk in the fridge when they come home.”
A number of luxury developments are scheduled to hit the market in the next few years, like the 37-unit Harland West Hollywood, which will open in late 2019 or early 2020; the18-unit Gardenhouse, scheduled to open this fall, and the 76-unit 8899 Beverly Boulevard, which doesn’t yet have a launch date. Meanwhile, Emaar Properties’ 35-unit Beverly West finally put its five penthouses on the market this summer, and developer Richard Lewis purchased the first one in the aforementioned $21 million sale.
Jones noted that many of the luxury projects now underway have hotels attached, providing residents with the same full suite of amenities that hotel guests enjoy, like concierge services, wellness offerings and high-end restaurants. The Edition, Four Seasons Private Residences, Fairmont Residences at the Century Plaza and Pendry West Hollywood are all being developed as both hotels and luxury condos.
“I really think the next wave is more personalized service, more service-oriented than ‘Our pool is X amount of feet,’” Leipart said. “A lot of what used to be considered great amenities is outdated.”
Jacobson cited the Edition and the Harland, new buildings that Elliman is exclusively representing, as properties his team worked closely with to make sure the amenities appealed to the potential buyers.
Providing “value” in a slow market
L.A.’s luxury real estate market has seen a slowdown over the past year, but some brokers don’t see it as a downturn, more as a rebalancing as properties are priced closer to what they’re worth.
“As long as you provide a value proposition for buyers in luxury high-rise projects, you’ll find buyers that are out there,” Jacobson said.
Just 10 months after sales launched, Adept Urban’s 105-unit property at 388 Cordova Street in Pasadena is 70 percent sold, according to Robert Montano, vice president of development for the firm. He touted the nine-story building’s unique composition for the area, where most of the buildings are five-story or single-family.
And while luxury buyers tend to gravitate toward brand-new buildings, Jones said older properties still have cachet if they’re unique. She cited a penthouse in Westwood that she sold for $13.33 million this year. Even though the property was built in 2001, she said the rooftop deck, a 1,800-square-foot terrace and its own elevator made it “very, very special.”
“That’s what the buyer wanted; none of the other properties could offer that,” Jones said.
Units in older luxury buildings may also have strong resale value. TRD’s analysis found that luxury resale condos closed for an average of $954,094 more than what they first closed for. Older buildings also tend to charge lower monthly fees.
“There are people who want to not only scale down in size but scale down in the price of the upkeep,” Mills said. “Newer buildings definitely have all of the amenities, [but] some have higher monthly maintenance fees. So for those, certain people will say they don’t want to pay $4,000 to $5,000 in fees, and maybe they’ll go to an older building because of that.”
Montano said the cost of amenities can be prohibitive for some buyers, so as a developer, Adept Urban tries to focus on what residents actually want.
“Throwing amenities at a project isn’t necessarily best for a project. They’re used infrequently but have to be paid for, and it results in higher HOA fees,” he said.
At 388 Cordova, HOA fees range between $588 and $1,531, depending on the size of the unit, and include access to a pool deck, spa, outdoor BBQ,and firepit. Compare that to Matthew Perry’s condo at the Century, which Curbed reported has HOA fees of $8,814 per month.
The trouble with Downtown
The glut of condo buildings Downtown has caused some people to question whether there’s actually a market for high-rises in L.A. But Leipart said it has more to do with mispriced properties and oversupply in that neighborhood in particular.
“If you look at the volume in Downtown, a lot moves out below $1 million, but it clears out quick above [that],” Leipart said. “With acquisition costs, construction costs, all the product being dumped down there, they need big numbers to make it work, but that’s not where people who can afford $3, $5, $6 million are really thinking.”
To Leipart’s point, a report from NorthMarq found that median condo sales were around $282,000 per unit Downtown and that there were approximately 7,000 units in the development pipeline as of the second quarter of 2019.
TRD’s own analysis, meanwhile, showed just nine condo sales Downtown above $2 million between Sept. 1, 2018, and Aug. 31, 2019, compared to 35 in Santa Monica, 26 in Westwood and 14 in Beverly Hills.
The mass of inventory Downtown isn’t the only thing adding to the negative perception of vertical living in L.A. Leipart said California’s financing regulations can make it difficult to launch projects. Unlike in some other major cities, developers in L.A. can’t use deposits to fund the project, meaning there’s not necessarily an incentive to sell in advance.
And yet lenders often want to see presales to guarantee interest in the project, which means that condos can hit the market years before they’re ready. But L.A. buyers are more likely to want units that are move-in ready, making it seem like there’s dwindling interest in luxury buildings even if that’s not the case.
“Projects are on the market for way too long, and it starts to smell bad when there’s really nothing wrong,” Leipart said. “We don’t sell condos three years before you can move in; there’s not a success story to point to.”
“Million Dollar Listing New York” star and Elliman broker Fredrik Eklund, who moved from New York to Los Angeles this year, is also taking on the new development market. The Eklund|Gomes team has already landed the new project developed by Townscape Partners at 8899 Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood, which will include 40 condo units and eight single-family homes.
Elliman declined to give specifics on when the building will be completed, if Eklund’s team has already started selling units or what the price points will be. But as far as Eklund goes, competitors aren’t worried.
“Anything that elevates the game, anything that establishes L.A. as a market to be buying in and having successful projects in, I’m all in,” said Leipart. “Whatever Fredrik being in town cuts into my market share, I see way more value in him coming in and delivering successful projects.”
Los Angeles October 2019luxury condos
Inside the battle to dent rent control
Netflix and…filled
Weathering the trade war
Publisher’s note: A confession of Noo Yawk hubris
The Closing: Jamie Duran
The Real Deal LA’s fall issue is live!
Gaw only knows
SoCal’s steady progress
7083 Hollywood Blvd, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90028
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The Revolutionary Act
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The Constitution Has Failed? No, It’s Merely The “Parchment Barrier.” Here’s What Has Failed.
Post author By Rod Thomson
5 Comments on The Constitution Has Failed? No, It’s Merely The “Parchment Barrier.” Here’s What Has Failed.
By KrisAnne Hall, JD
There is an argument that seems to resurface repeatedly that the Constitution has failed and as a result, American politics are out of control. I have seen these arguments posited by journalists, professors, and Supreme Court justices. The standard argument declares two failed intentions for the Constitution:
1) To limit the power of government over the citizenry;
2) To limit the power of each branch of government.
However, the purpose of the Constitution as expressed by the drafters and ratifiers is not to “limit” the central government but to “define its limits.” And that distinction is critical. Much like a stop sign defines the place at which a vehicle must stop, yet no stop sign has ever stopped a vehicle.
James Madison, historically referred to as The Father of the Constitution, described these boundaries in Federalist #45:
“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined…will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.”
Madison knowing that it is impossible for the Constitution itself to limit anything at all, posits this rhetorical question:
“Will it be sufficient to mark, with precision, the boundaries of these departments, in the constitution of the government, and to trust to these parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power?”
Madison refers to this founding document as a “parchment barrier,” a mechanism of mere ink and paper. He knew that the Constitution had no power of its own and therefore could not limit the power of the government over the citizenry. The Constitution could not prevent the branches of government from expanding their own power beyond the grant of the document. It could not prevent one branch from taking power from other branches. If it could, then we could rightly blame the document for allowing what we see today.
John Adams, as he was addressing the Massachusetts Militia in 1798, knew like Madison that this was not so. Adams understood clearly where the blame would lie and that it would not be with an inanimate parchment which had the simple task of directing animate actors where to stop:
“We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Adams was warning that unless the people are moral and constrained by a higher moral authority, the nature of the Constitution would not and indeed COULD NOT be an obstacle, nor any limit at all, if those in government wanted to ignore it for their own power, greed, or ambitions. Adams is alluding to the real and tangible limit to government, and it’s not the words on a piece of paper, it is the PEOPLE collectively who have chosen not to adhere to those words.
If we look out and see failure in the halls of government and across the political landscape, it is not the Constitution that failed us, it is we who have failed the Constitution. No rational person blames a clearly-printed, well-placed stop sign for a driver who fails to press the brake pedal.
In the “Anti-federalist” document titled Letter From a Federal Farmer to the Republican #6, we see that the drafters of the Constitution expected the “jealousy and vigilance” of the People to be the guardians and limits of government power, as the “strongest guard against the abuses of power.” Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist #33:
“If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people… must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution…”
It ought to be obvious by now it is not the Constitution that has failed, it is the People who have failed to maintain the limited and defined federal government the Constitution created. Why do corporate lobbyist control our federal representatives, senators, and presidents? Because the people have failed to control their representatives and the representatives, lacking knowledge and virtue, refuse to be controlled. The people have failed to enforce the limits of the Constitution and have failed to be their own lobbyists for Liberty and Individual Rights.
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Accusations can be found that say it is the Constitution’s fault that the “Federal Reserve has the power to debauch the nation’s currency and reward the wealthy via issuing new currency and buying Treasure bonds in whatever sums it deems necessary…” Indeed the Federal Reserve engages in such fraud, but the Constitution did not give such Federal Power to this private cartel. Not only does the Constitution give no such authority to the so-called Federal Reserve Bank; it gives no authority to the Legislative, Executive, or Judicial Branches to create a Federal Reserve or to abdicate their own power to a private banking cabal who is neither “federal,” a “reserve” nor a “bank.”
The Power to create money is delegated solely to the Legislative Branch through Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5:
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
The power to establish debt for the Union is also delegated exclusively to the Legislative Branch via Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2; To borrow Money on the credit of the United States. No one person can lay one credible claim against the Constitution for these actions. The entire corruption of the monetary system in American lays completely at the feet of the Legislative Branch, supported by the unconstitutional activism of the Supreme Court and the outside interests to which they bow.
Others fault the Constitution for the misconduct of the numerous alphabet agencies in the Executive Branch. The fact is that Constitution defines a very limited federal government, specifically enumerating its powers and reserving the internal everyday governmental authority to the individual States.
Madison, in Federalist #45, explains to those representatives who will eventually ratify the Constitution the specific limited nature of the federal government and the overriding nature of the powers reserved to the States:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.
The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
What that means for every American is that the overwhelming majority of executive agencies created by legislative acts of Congress are unconstitutionally created, exercising powers stolen by Congress from the states and unlawfully invested in an unauthorized executive agency. Americans feel these federal agencies are out of control because they are! They are not even permitted to exist at the federal level according to the creation and design of our Constitution and the evidence for this fact is incontrovertible and ubiquitous in the writings of the drafters of the Constitution. Here are just a few:
…the National Legislature, shall extend to certain enumerated cases. This specification of particulars evidently excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd, as well as useless, if a general authority was intended. Hamilton Federalist # 83
“I, sir, have always conceived — I believe those who proposed the Constitution conceived — it is still more fully known, and more material to observe, that those who ratified the Constitution conceived — that this is not an indefinite government, deriving its powers from the general terms prefixed to the specified powers — but a limited government, tied down to the specified powers, which explain and define the general terms.” James Madison, 1792
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. James Madison, Federalist #45
The Constitution creates the federal government and then specifically enumerates every power it is permitted to exercise; nothing more, nothing less. Any power exercised that is not specifically enumerated is not exercised because the Constitution allows it, but is exercised in spite of the Constitutions specific intentions to the contrary. The Constitution can not stop people, agencies, regulations, or laws contrary to its intent, any more than a stop sign can halt a speeding motorist. Like the traffic notice planted by the roadside, It has no sword, no will, and no power of its own. The Constitution was built to be a written reminder to the people of the limited nature of government and the standard by which the PEOPLE must hold their representatives.
Even the corruption of the Judiciary is blamed on the Constitution. But again, the Constitution can carry no blame. The modern “ruling” nature of the judiciary is outside the intent and authority of the Constitution. The fact that modern society refers to judicial opinions as “the law of the land” or gives them the “force of law” is not a creation of the Constitution, but an aberration of the Constitution’s very limited delegation of judicial authority. Hamilton wrote in Federalist #78 that the judiciary was designed to be the weakest of the three branches of government:
“The judiciary on the contrary has no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever… It proves incontestibly that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; that it can never attack with success either of the other two…”
Thomas Jefferson, writing to Spencer Roane in 1819, explained that to claim the judiciary as the ultimate authority to “interpret” or “define” the terms of the Constitution, would transform the Constitution into “a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist, and shape into any form they please.”
If the Constitutional structure has been completely reversed, how is that the fault of the Constitution?
It is not Constitution’s responsibility to limit the government, nor can we expect the government to limit itself. The responsibility to limit and control the federal government has always rested, from conception to ratification of the Constitution and beyond, upon the “jealousy and vigilance” of the people.
Elections are not corrupted because the Constitution failed. Politicians are not immoral and dishonest because the Constitution failed. We do not have trillions of dollars in debt because the Constitution failed. We are not in a perpetual state of war because the Constitution failed. Our rights and liberties are not being trampled upon by agencies and agents because the Constitution failed.
The argument that the unconstitutional acts of people in government are the fault of the Constitution is the same errant logic that drives people to say that guns are the cause of crime, deaths, murder, and suicide. When we blame the Constitution, the real culprits — we, the people and our politicians — can escape accountability.
The Constitution cannot fail. The Constitution cannot succeed. The Constitution is an inanimate object, mere ink and paper. When the government fails to follow the Law of the Land and exceeds its limited and defined boundaries as established within the Constitution, it is not the document’s fault, it is the fault of the people who do not require their government to be limited and defined by the document that created it. Samuel Adams summed it up quite precisely when he wrote;
“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”
If we want to restore proper government, we do not need to change or get rid of the Constitution. We must end the ignorance of the people regarding the limited nature of their government and their personal responsibility to confine that government within its designed limited capacity.
We don’t have a stop sign problem, we have a problem hitting the brakes.
KrisAnne Hall is a former biochemist, Russian linguist for the US Army, and former prosecutor for the State of Florida. KrisAnne also practiced First Amendment Law for a prominent Florida non-profit Law firm. KrisAnne now travels the country teaching the foundational principles of Liberty and our Constitutional Republic. KrisAnne is the author of 6 books on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, she also has an internationally popular radio and television show and her books and classes have been featured on C-SPAN TV. KrisAnne can be found at www.KrisAnneHall.com.
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5 replies on “The Constitution Has Failed? No, It’s Merely The “Parchment Barrier.” Here’s What Has Failed.”
Dr. Mike Reedersays:
Excellent article! But, what do we do when the people are ignorant of and the government is not obliged to follow the Constitution? Way too many people are so ignorant of the Constitution (mostly the left!) they want to do away with it and will not even support the oath of office to uphold and defend it against ANY foes, either foreign of domestic! What can one person do? Make a citizens arrest or go to jail for even trying?
KrisAnne Hallsays:
What we must do is first realize we did not get here over night and the path back will not happen in a day. There is no magic pill and no quick fix and it won’t change with the ballot box alone. We must begin by getting educated ourselves and then educating others. Then and only then will people be equipped to make the proper choices. We must also accept that even many of those who think they know the Constitution and how its supposed to work, simply do not.
We don’t need the entire population, just an active minority.
mtman2says:
Yes – as did approximately 1/3 of Americas Founding peoples that gave their Lives, Property and Sacred Honor to gift us “freedoms under Liberty” found only here . . . by honoring + trusting in Gods Providential Hand in their mission as stated.
The “BRILLIANCE” of our Founding Peoples is exemplified in their gift of our 3-Founding documents warnings to “limit speeding human nature” @ the intersections where collisions are likely to occur- is “UNPARALLELED” in the accumulated wisdoms of mankinds political history. . .
Bobby G.says:
The article is ok, but it opens with “false, revisionist history”. Madison was NOT considered the “father of the Constitution”. Most of what he proposed during the Constitutional convention, was rejected by the Founding Fathers! George Washington had the most prominent, influential hand in the Convention, along with James Wilson, Roger Sherman, etc. Our Constitution was designed on the foundations of “Judeo/Christian Statutes”, and is only formidable based upon “the Virtue of the People”. Meaning, if you have a godless, pagan society, the Constitution has no meaning or value!
If you want “genuine American History” with numerous footnotes to ACTUAL DOCUMENTS, go to : https://wallbuilders.com/finger-god-constitutional-convention/
https://wallbuilders.com/tale-two-constitutions/
**”Revisionist historians made Madison a “father of the Constitution” because, later on in life, Madison rejected his Christian faith and said that “having Chaplains” wasn’t such a good idea. So, the “pagan historians” favored Madison to try and prove that our nation was/is secular. Nothing but lies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChpwQRaDaSk
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What else was Byron Burger supposed to do?
thesecretbarrister, July 28, 2016
So, here’s an unpopular opinion to release into the world:
I don’t see what Byron is supposed to have done wrong.
The gourmet burger chain – previously thrust into the media spotlight as George Osborne’s late-night indulgence of choice – has enjoyed 24 hours of social media’s most vitriolic virtue signalling after 35 of its migrant workers were found to lack the right to work, having, it appears, secured employment through the use of falsified identity documents.
The circumstances in which this came to light are unclear, but in any event Byron cooperated with the Home Office, and consequently the workers were, on 4 July this year, arrested and detained. Some have subsequently apparently been deported.
Not a Byron burger
The exact circumstances have not been confirmed, but a number of outlets have suggested that Byron hand-delivered their workers to the relevant enforcement and prosecutorial authorities by organising a “training day” at which, instead of PowerPoint slides of Double Bacon Cheeses and courgette fries, they were greeted by immigration officials. Byron has released a statement as follows:
But as with all such modern tales, we are beyond truth. What matters, the narrative splutters, is that the big mean corporate baddie collaborated with the feds and sold out its poor, exploited workforce, some of whom had devoted years of faultless service, in what must only be characterised as an act proximate to a hate crime, and must be duly sanctioned in the court of public opinion, boycotted by all right thinking people, its CEO dragged naked through the streets of Shoreditch smeared in burger sauce and pickle juice.
Piling in with the rallying cry of the intellectually dispossessed, deputy leader of the Greens, Amelia Womack, opined that “the bosses at Byron should be utterly ashamed of themselves for turning these people’s lives upside down”.
To which I, as an inhabitant of those rather less excitable courts of law, would respectfully say this:
Your outrage is mystifying. Or, at best, utterly misdirected.
Byron, like any employer – nay, like any company or individual based in this country – is required to comply with the law. It hurts to start with such a facile point, but needs, it appears, must.
And the law says at least two rather important things in this context. Firstly, that it is a criminal offence – punishable by an unlimited fine and up to 5 years in prison – for a person or a company employing someone knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the employee is disqualified from employment by reason of their immigration status. That’s not Byron’s company handbook talking – that’s sections 21 and 22 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, as enacted by our democratically elected Parliament. If you find out that you have accidentally employed someone without the right to work, and you continue to employ them, you are committing a crime.
Also the position, with reference I’m afraid to that same unfashionable commitment to “the rule of law”, is this: those workers, if employed on the basis of fraudulent identification documents, may have committed criminal offences contrary to section 4 of the Identity Documents Act 2010. And that’s before you throw in the Fraud Act 2006 for good measure.
Now there may be an explanation. This could be a misunderstanding. Some documents may in fact be genuine. Or it may be that these workers, like many clients I have represented, will say that they themselves were hoodwinked by chancers in their home countries who sold them what they believed to be a genuine “right to work” package. In which case every sympathy must be extended to them. But the fault for that state of affairs is not Byron’s.
There may, of course, be an alternative narrative that has plainly escaped those who say, with a straight face, that Byron should have simply tipped off their workforce and let them loose into the night, rather than dob them in to the pigs. Putting aside that those Byron managers who did so would potentially find themselves before a Crown Court for perverting the course of justice, this bold suggestion starts with an enormous, unforgivable assumption about the history of the people concerned. Many undocumented migrants arrive on our shores as a result of human trafficking and exploitation. Where they are packed, twelve, thirteen, twenty to a bedroom in a small terraced house by their unscrupulous, violent gangster sponsors, who take each week’s wages as protection money and exploit them physically, financially and sexually every single day.
None of us has a clue whether that applies to any of those workers. But – and I sound my “unpopular defence of immigration laws” warning klaxon – that is one of the mischiefs that immigration laws, and the requiring of documentation and the right to remain and work, are designed to combat. That’s not a fig leaf – that is fact. I have defended and prosecuted enough of these tragic cases to tell you with authority that there are a good many people whose lives have been saved by immigration enforcement officials. And one or more of those could have been among the Byron workers.
But, and this is really the point – we just don’t know. Any or none of the above might apply. All we know is that Byron were informed of circumstances which caused them to believe that they, and their workforce, were at risk of having committed a criminal offence. And they cooperated with the authorities. The only alternatives, of turning a blind eye, or of sending the workers out into the world with a nod and a wink, may have satisfied the appetites of the Twitter hordes unaware of and unwilling to acquaint themselves with law or reason, but the reality is that in so doing Byron would have been passing the problem on to the next employer to be defrauded and exposed to prosecution, or, even worse, releasing vulnerable, exploited human beings back into the grasping hands of those who would do them harm. As well as, of course, exposing Byron and its lawful employees to risk of prosecution and, ultimately, imprisonment.
This is not to defend the principle of immigration controls. You want to campaign for global freedom of movement under the banner that “people aren’t illegal”? Sounds good to me. But we have rules that have been enacted by Parliament. And if you don’t like those rules, your recourse is the democratic process. Not ill-thought-out hate campaigns and playground chants of “tattle tale” against people or companies who, far from “making people illegal”, are simply obeying the law.
UPDATE: Matters have progressed since this post was first published. There have been vigilante acts of vandalism, threats and abuse directed towards Byron for their perceived complicity in enforcing inhumane immigration law, but as yet I have not heard a single sensible explanation for the rage. I would recommend the comments below (in particular Oliver’s), and summarise the position as I see it:
1. Byron employed workers who were unlawfully working. That is agreed. The Home Office’s position is that Byron were duped by false identification documents when they conducted the checks required by law when employing a person. I can tell you from professional experience that fake ID documents can nowadays be of very high quality. It is easy to get a NI number with these documents, and there is nothing unusual about tax and NI having been paid on their behalf. It happens in most cases I see. If Byron hadn’t checked properly, or if they were obviously fakes, it is to me implausible that the Home Office would not make an example of them by prosecuting.
2. All we know of the circumstances of the Home Office becoming involved is what Byron and the Home Office have said, namely that it was the HO who contacted Byron first. Legally, therefore, Byron’s options were immediately singular. From that first point, Byron was under a legal obligation to cooperate. It had to supply its workers’ documents, and, when the documents were confirmed as fake, from that point onwards a criminal investigation was in effect active. If Byron had at any point tipped off the workers as to HO suspicions, the individual doing the tipping off would be liable to prosecution for perverting the course of justice, or at best assisting an offender. Any non-cooperation with what was not only an immigration but also a criminal matter risked not only Byron’s commercial reputation, but the liberty of the managers or staff who obstructed the investigation.
3. The “above and beyond” argument. By trapping the workers in the way reported, Byron acted as an executive arm of the state. They didn’t need to. They could have told the Home Office that they were not willing to facilitate the peaceful apprehending of their workers. This is the common refrain. And yes, they could have done. But to what effect? To do so would have been to invite a raid, unpleasant and disorderly for all staff and customers, to the same ultimate effect. It’s not as if Byron could have tipped off the workers, as per 2 above. One perspective is “above and beyond”. The other is “agreeing to the most peaceful resolution of the inevitable”.
4. The only interpretation of events that justifies anger, that I can see is this: Byron deliberately hired illegal workers and shopped them in as part of a Faustian pact with the HO to avoid prosecution. This would be outrageous. But there is simply no evidence that this is the case. I would suggest that this theory appears odd on all counts – why would Byron risk prosecution by knowingly hiring unlawful workers at market rate? Why would the HO pass up the deterrent benefits of prosecuting a well-known employer for the sake of catching 35 people? – but even if plausible, there is no evidence. By all means, people can question and investigate and report their findings. But there is no safe or rational basis for concluding, as many seemingly have, that this is what has happened.
5. Anyone calling for Byron to defy an unjust law in order to take a “principled stand” against the (very real) injustices concerning immigration laws and the treatment of detainees, is calling not just for a rich company to risk a fine, but for actual people – shift managers, waiting staff – to risk prison. That is what your call amounts to. And if you feel so strongly that immigration laws call for this sort of self-sacrifice and courage, you should go do it yourself, rather than volunteer low-waged migrant proxies to take that risk for you. And it is certainly inexplicable to throw cockroaches at people when they don’t.
July 28, 2016 thesecretbarrister Contemplations, Lawsplaining, Politics
Man on the Village Green says:
Well said (in every way).
Quincel says:
I think the point is that many people find it hard to believe that Byron had no idea about their workers’ statuses until the Home Office came to them. The version of events I believe is as follows:
1. Undocumented immigrant goes to Byron asking for a job.
2. Byron sees immigrant’s papers, and since they employ large numbers of people who have recently entered the country (legally or otherwise) are canny enough to recognise the legit and dodgy papers themselves.
3. Byron hires the worker anyway.
4. Some years pass.
5. The Home Office learns of the dodgy papers.
6. Byron avoids a fine by handing the workers over.
At this point, and I appreciate the above has a level of speculation in it, Byron has not complied with the law of the land. It has flouted the law when it can profit, and co-operated with the law only to avoid being punished for its prior – knowing – indiscretions. Furthermore, it makes me speculate as to why Byron hired workers it knew to be undocumented. Did it threaten them with Home Office notification in the past when they had labour disputes? Did it treat them poorly, or illegally, knowing that they were unlikely to seek legal assistance?
Essentially, Byron only acted correctly at each point in time if they genuinely were unaware of the workers’ statuses for several years. And that would make them a bit too naive for me to believe.
thesecretbarrister says:
As you say, speculation I’m afraid. If you are correct, then I understand the anger. But there is simply no evidence to support it. And it is common for employers to be taken in by good quality forgeries. Until there is more, I cannot see the basis for justified outrage. Thanks for commenting though.
Martin King says:
I’d like to know why this seems to have been a specific issue for Byron and not any other large employer? Why haven’t there been similar cases with Tesco, Burger king, Mc D’s, Pizza hut etc. etc. etc. Are illegals not applying to them for jobs (seems unlikely) or are they somehow better at spotting fake documents and if so why?
David Simmonds says:
An easy way to put this possible scenario to bed would be checking the salaries of the illegal migrants. If Byron were paying these people a considerable amount less than legal workers employed in the same capacity then clearly Byron knew what they were doing?
There’s no suggestion that the workers were underpaid.
TF says:
It was legal to round up Jews too during the Holocaust. The French did it so efficiently before the Germans even asked them to and there is a terrible shame for this.
Yes. That’s exactly the same thing. Well argued.
paulscottrobson says:
The sad thing is that “TF” thinks that is actually an argument.
I wonder if (say) that a serial killing rapist had been found to be working in a burger bar, and the burger bar owners had been warned of a raid, and they decided to tip him off so he could escape (presumably what these idiots think should have happened) if they would support that.
Or (more likely) is this the idea that the laws should be ignored if we feel like it, presumably for a better good. They should read/see “A Man for all Seasons”. I was going to say “again” but that’s probably optimistic.
Perhaps the best response is “what would you have done then ?”
The ‘real facts’ will probably never come to light.
Let’s suppose for a second that the bluster around this story is accurate. Let’s suppose that employees at Byron were ambushed by immigration officials after they attended what they were told was a training meeting. Those without their papers were then escorted to a detention facility and either eventually released or deported back to such glamorous destinations as Albania and Egypt. Each account of the episode that I’ve read today has had varying amounts of dramatic flare, but all of them have pointed towards a potential injustice having been done.
It seems to me that a key point of your post is that we are not in a position to cry foul if we suspect an injustice has occurred if we don’t have all the facts and all the evidence. As an immigrant myself (granted from a fairly palatable nation as far as the Home Office is concerned), I have some sense of what it’s like not to be on a level playing field in this country. As a immigrant you have to accept certain sacrifices/punishments simply because you are not from here – like working in burger restaurants just so you can afford a cramped room in zone eight. The staff at Byron, who earn less than me and probably you, are not in a position to have their voices heard. They probably don’t know their legal rights (though these would have been spewed at them at some point during their deportation/arrest), they may not have the level of English they need to communicate, and they may not be in a position to mount any defence whatsoever of their claim to be in the UK.
As a migrant you start off on the back foot – that’s why it is the migrants that have to work at Byron and the Brits are the ones eating and drinking at Byron. There is no way that the ‘real truth’ of this will ever come to light, so let’s have the conversation now and be measurably disgusted at the potential injustice that has occurred and will continue to happen.
Although you suggested that you might support the idea that ‘no one is illegal’, I got little sense of that while reading your post as it left me wondering how anyone claiming that evidence is needed before injustice is acknowledged could have any idea what it is like to an ‘illegal’.
I’m afraid if you disagree with the proposition that evidence is needed before injustice is acknowledged, then I don’t see how this can be sensibly discussed.
djalphatiger says:
A bit like the way the governments responsible for the transatlantic slave trade and barbaric colonisation campaigns won’t ever really offer state apology for the crimes against humanity as to avoid any legal repercussions?
I think you’ll find @djalphatiger that everyone in those governments is now dead.
Paul Murray says:
“Let’s suppose that employees at Byron were ambushed by immigration officials after they attended what they were told was a training meeting.”
My God! In what kind of society to the police not politely phone criminals and let them know that they are going to be arriving before showing up and arresting people?
It’s because they are illegal immigrants and it is moronic virtue signalling.
Actually it’s been known for certain individuals amongst political elites and other high profile individuals to be given decidedly different treatment, look at certain cases involving people with diplomatic immunity
People with diplomatic immunity simply don’t count for purposes of this discussion. Embassies are little pieces of some other country – deliberately so.
Yes it is. Firstly diplomatic immunity means just that. You can request (I believe) a diplomat leave the country, but they have immunity.
Secondly, the treatment depends generally on the chances of them escaping the Police. It is unlikely that if (say) David Cameron was going to be arrested he would be able to escape. It is somewhat more likely that in illegal immigrant will disappear.
Kevin Porée says:
Can someone explain the mechanics of this illegal employment? Evidently some of these people have been working for Byron for years. Byron must have been paying NI contributions and Income Tax in respect of them – in which case they must have NI numbers. Employers’ Tax & NI returns have been made monthly (rather than annually) for a few years now. Surely it wouldn’t take years for discrepancies to come to light?
It can do. I have represented many people entering and working illegally, who have obtained convincing identity documents, including an NI number, and have worked and paid tax for many years before being caught.
But it does seem like an awful lot of these workers were at Byron and for many years. I very much appreciate the speculation/lack of evidence. It does seem that, for the reasons you highlight, it seems highly doubtful Byron were wilfully turning a blind eye. But is it not possible the employer was not identified as something of a “soft touch” by the undoubted real baddies here- the forgers and the traffickers?
And is there not a difference between maximising your employment checks (like if you were a detective who really wanted to find out), and compliance- in a similar vein to the whole tax avoidance/evasion situation. (Genuine question, not an expert). In which case we are not making legal arguments, but Byron aren’t exactly golden.
Joe, that’s a very good point, and someone else made it, is this exclusively a Byron issue (or is it just that this one has made the papers, of course !) and if that is the case they need looking at (though I accept SB’s statement that there are excellent forgeries).
However, none of the complaining people are complaining about this, as far as I can see. They’re complaining that Byron “colluded” with the Home Office to get them deported. They’re complaining generically that illegal immigrants are deported.
When you characterize the opposition’s position this badly – “What matters, the narrative splutters, is that the big mean corporate baddie collaborated with the feds and sold out its poor, exploited workforce, some of whom had devoted years of faultless service, in what must only be characterised as an act proximate to a hate crime, and must be duly sanctioned in the court of public opinion, boycotted by all right thinking people, its CEO dragged naked through the streets of Shoreditch smeared in burger sauce and pickle juice.” – it shows that you’re a terrible barrister. Sorry, but no respectable lawyer ever gave such a smear-filled version of their opponent’s case or so deliberately miss the point.
Byron Burgers arranged meetings so that Home Office Officials come could – with names and photographs provided by them – and arrest their workers because they are illegally working in the UK. For you, it’s simply a matter of the law: the workers should not have been working there and if Byron Burgers came to know if they were right to cooperate with the Home Office in having their workers deported.
The opposition’s argument is that there is a moral dimension to this: these people were working illegally, but that is not a moral crime. For someone to turn on their own workers to get out of trouble with the law is immoral.
I think the root of this was that Britain used to be a Christian society. People still remember the Bible stories about Peter denying Christ before the cruxifiction. There was a moral dimension to people’e understanding of the poor. I know that is fading, but I think that’s where it comes from.
botzarelli says:
What should the law be changed to in order to address this “moral crime”?
One way would be to remove any restriction on anybody working in the UK however they might have come to enter the country and whatever their background. If that were to happen there would be no circumstances in which employers like Byron ever faced any legal compulsion to turn over illegal workers because there would be no illegal workers. However, this would involve stating that anybody who managed to somehow make it across the UK’s borders was effectively entitled to work here and that even if there were still rules which allowed for them to be deported, if they made it back in again they’d still be allowed to work as long as they could avoid being found. Traffickers would love this.
Or perhaps a more modest proposal would be to decriminalise the act of employing workers who did not have the appropriate documentation and to remove any obligation on employers to co-operate with the immigration authorities in the event of such workers being discovered. Again, this would be wonderful for traffickers. It would also be fantastic for unscrupulous employers who wanted cheap labour from people who’d have a strong interest not to try and enforce any employment law rights. They’d actively seek out workers who didn’t have the right to work.
Or is that the only moral course of action for an employer now is to take criminal responsibility for things which they did not (as far as anyone knows) knowingly do? To let the managers of the Byron Burgers restaurants who employed illegal workers in good faith on the belief that their forged documents were genuine be prosecuted, fined and imprisoned? Would that be a moral employer? One which protected its illegal workers over ones who had done no wrong?
Yes things can be taken into consideration like the individuals impact on our society (pros and cons) and judge each case on it’s merit then offer an amnesty to those who are in fact what help make Britain Great!
We know nothing of the circumstances leading up to the Home Office’s involvement. It is entirely plausible that the Home Office informed Byron that they had cause to believe that Byron was employing undocumented workers, at which stage Byron had two choices – 1. Tip the staff off / refuse to cooperate and face prosecution; or 2. Cooperate. If the latter, there was the choice between a raid or an agreed visit.
Your narrative assumes that Byron approached the Home Office first. Your feeling of injustice stems from that assumption, for which there is no factual basis.
Paul Lomax says:
I was wondering whether Byron could have been compelled to organise the training day under a Labour Market Enforcement undertaking or order from a court, one of the measures in the new Immigration Act….?
“The opposition’s argument is that there is a moral dimension to this: these people were working illegally, but that is not a moral crime. ”
I think you need to back that up. They may very well have taken jobs that other workers deserved and might have benefited from and needed to feed their own families and pay their own rent. They deliberately exploited the law. Both of these are moral issues.
“Sorry, but no respectable lawyer ever gave such a smear-filled version of their opponent’s case or so deliberately miss the point.”
Sorry, but what?? That’s practically their job!
derdriui says:
Byron Burgers arranged meetings so that Home Office Officials come could – with names and photographs provided by them – and arrest their workers because they are illegally working in the UK. For you, it’s simply a matter of the law: the workers should not have been working there and if Byron Burgers came to know if they were right to cooperate with the Home Office in having their workers deported. The opposition’s argument is that there is a moral dimension to this: these people were working illegally, but that is not a moral crime. For someone to turn on their own workers to get out of trouble with the law is immoral.
Mike Clibborn says:
“if you don’t like those rules, your recourse is the democratic process. Not ill-thought-out hate campaigns and playground chants of “tattle tale” against people or companies”
Despite your sneering characterisation, this *is* the democratic process in action. Make it clear that public opinion does not stand with companies who become participants in immigration stings and we are one step closer to changing the laws that brought this about.
It might also make companies less eagerly willing to go the extra mile in leaping to the government’s demands, as Byron appear to have here.
1.You appear to equate “going the extra mile” with complying with the law.
2. You know insufficient about the facts to assert that this was a “sting”. Far more likely it was a Home Office request, which Byron could either comply with or frustrate, the latter inviting prosecution.
3. You consider the democratic process to amount to vilifying private employers for complying with laws passed by an elected Parliament.
4. The only argument that can be inferred from your comment is that a private company should deliberately break the law, exposing their employees to prosecution leading to risk of imprisonment, when that law offends your personal politics. To insist on that is at best untenable, at worse narcissistic.
1. There is “complying with the law” (eg not obstructing justice) and there is going above and beyond to orchestrate faked training sessions so that staff are available to be collected.
2. The Guardian today suggests strongly it was a sting.
3. You appear to think the democratic process operates in a vacuum, somehow utterly insulated from public opinion.
4. I realise the principle of charity is completely alien to you, but I suggest another argument is readable here. That is, the company should not have immediately caved. It could have taken on the risk of prosecution. It could have defended itself and its staff, and protested publically at attempts to co-opt it into working as an executive arm of the government against loyal employees.
If they were shown to be illegal, then sure, they face consequences. But there is a process for that, and it’s not one that Byron needs to expedite.
Perhaps Byron *knew* they were illegal, however, and wasn’t in a position to mount a defence. In that case, their behaviour is even more reprehensible: turning over staff to save their own skins. And what message does that send to other employers? “It’s fine to employ illegal immigrants, just so long as you hand them over when we call”.
1. The details have not been confirmed – indeed the Home Office has denied the narrative of the faked training session – but even if Byron had invited staff in for the express purpose of their being confronted by Home Office officials, the suggestion that this is going “above and beyond” does not become true through repetition. As I have explained in the blog, and as the comment by Oliver above explains, the practical alternatives were nil. Once the Home Office indicated that they were going to attend, it was a choice between a civil confrontation and a traumatic raid. No doubt had Byron opted for the latter, the argument would run that Byron is a monster for knowing that the HO intended to arrest workers and encouraged the Home Office to conduct a dawn raid rather than a less aggressive and upsetting alternative.
2. Define “sting”. No report has yet indicated how the matters came to light – i.e. whether the Home Office were tipped off by Byron, or whether by other intelligence. If the latter, Byron’s hands would have been immediately tied. In the absence of proof of the former, it is entirely unreasonable to assume, simply because it fits your politics, that Byron “must” have alerted the Home Office, and are therefore responsible for all that flows.
3. By your logic, the Brexiteers targeting EU migrants in the street with hostility and abuse to force a change of immigration policy is “the democratic process in action”. Plainly it is not. It is the collective punishment of individuals for nothing more than abiding by a law with which you disagree.
4. Byron could indeed have assumed the risk of prosecution. And who would you like to volunteer to take on this risk? The manager who tells the Home Office over the phone that they’re not cooperating? The shift manager who texts the illegal workers with a tip-off? Who exactly are you asking to volunteer to being exposed to a prison sentence to satisfy your personal beliefs? Because the law makes plain that individuals, not just companies, are liable. And the person being hauled up in a Crown Court will certainly not be you. Or maybe it’s the low-paid legal workers – both migrant and indigenous – whose jobs will be imperilled by an exemplary fine imposed on an employer wilfully in defiance of the law. Is it those people that you’re seeking to absorb the blow?
And as far as “expediting” the process and “working as an executive arm of the government against loyal employees [albeit employees who had defrauded their employer and put their co-workers at risk of unemployment and/or prosecution]”, I refer you to the above point regarding the “above and beyond” misnomer.
Perhaps Byron *did* know that they were employing illegal workers. I accept that possibility. Perhaps Byron knowingly hired undocumented workers (although seeing as they were reportedly paid above the minimum wage, it seems like an odd business decision to make for a well-known company in the public eye when London is hardly short of EU migrants seeking service industry jobs, but let’s assume that they did) and, when they felt the heat, Byron struck a deal with the HO whereby they would round their migrant workers, lure them on a false pretext and hand them over, thereby avoiding being prosecuted, despite having engineered this entire situation from beginning to end. In which case, that is a story worthy of reporting. That is, I agree, worthy of anger. But while that is the narrative that many are leaping to, my point from the start has been that there is simply no evidence that this is the case. It is a theory born out of hope not evidence. And private employers should not be vilified because a bunch of Canary readers don’t bother to research the facts or the law and instead rush to hand down summary judgment on an entirely irrational, uninformed and unreasonable prospectus.
A “sting” is when law enforcement encourages people to break the law in order to be able to arrest them. If it were the home office that were smuggling people into your country simply so that they could conduct operations like this, *that* would be a “sting”.
Scott M. says:
The corporation has an obligation and the wherewithal to follow laws and regulations scrupulously to remain in business and profitable. The low wage immigrant workers have many fewer choices, if any at all. Both apparently broke laws. The burger joint should be held to a higher standard, because they objectively had the option to avoid breaking any laws.
There is no evidence that Byron broke any laws. That is simply incorrect.
As someone who has been on the other side of this I thought it might be helpful to set out the employers experience.
Typically you will receive a phone call out of the blue from a home office enforcement officer or a policeman. They will inform you that they believe you are employing an illegal worker and that you must not inform the worker or tip them off in any way. We then supplied copies of their immigration documents to show that (as far as we believed) they had a right to work in this country and that there must have been a mistake. The officer informed us that it was a high quality fake and that we were amongst a number of employers who had been duped. They then inform you that they will be attending your premises of work to arrest them.
At that stage you have 3 choices:
1) Inform the workers so that they can escape. You will be committing a criminal offence and when they raid your office the following day and find the worker is not there you will be the prime suspect, as you were the only person outside of the police who knew. On top of that you have no idea who the person you have been employing is, whether they have been trafficked or even if they are not permitted to be in the country because of criminality/terrorism.
2) Refuse to cooperate but don’t tell the worker – You may well be exposing yourself to criminal liability or a fine for failing to cooperate. They will raid your offices and arrest the worker anyway. On top of that everyone else in the office will be distressed and terrified because the police have burst through the door to arrest people.
3) Cooperate as Byron did.
Its easy to sit there and make snide comments on Twitter but I don’t really understand how Byron was supposed to do anything else. Civil disobedience with a law you believe to be unjust is an extremely brave and significant decision, its not the bare minimum that we expect of people. Byron deserve no more criticism than anyone else who has complied with a law they don’t agree with, which I would imagine is just about all of us (the naked rambler excepted).
That is extremely enlightening, thank you. I have shared it on Twitter, as it is important that the hysteria be tempered by the infusion of sensible factual reasoning.
Twitter doesn’t do sensible factual reasoning. Your comment won’t even fit in a twitter post. Twitter does rage, hashtags and virtue signalling.
It is very easy to demand other people take risks (in this case with their liberty) to make you feel good about yourself. If it was their own freedom on the line all those caterwauling would comply in an instant.
They (almost all) are lazy cowards.
I think you’re pretty wide of the mark here.
I have a lot of experience with migrant workers, both legal and illegal, and I am and have for many years been an advocate for the rights of migrants and refugees.
I have also been a business owner for many years, and have a good working knowledge of employment law.
While the abuses and conditions of slavery, and near-slavery do of course exist here in the UK, there is absolutely no suggestion that this is the case with Byron. As far as you or I know, there is no evidence to suggest that Byron knew that the specific workers were illegal before they were informed that this was the case by the Home Office.
If, as appears to be the case, these workers were working illegally with bogus or false NI numbers and IDs, and that Byron were paying them the same wages that they pay everyone else through their books (which will be the case: when your business is properly accounted and audited, there is nowhere to hide cash payments) then Byron will in no way have benefited from the illegal status of these workers, Nor will they have exploited them (any more then they exploit their legal workers).
I also think you’re over-stating your case to suggest that the nation’s economy relies on a black market of illegal workers in the manner you describe. After all, in scenarios such as the ones you present, there is no tax or national insurance paid by the workers, and clearly the company who “employee” them will have crooked accounts. None of this in any way contributes to the national economy: only to the pockets of crooked gangmasters and exploiters.
adornian says:
It’s not so much about slavery or near-slavery (althought that exists too) but more about whole cultures of fear in places where people know lots of workers don’t have papers, which make workers unable to complain or organise for basic rights. We know that places that co-operate with immigration enforcement aren’t doing it just to abide by the law but to terrorise their other workers with the threat. As for whether something fuels an economy or not: well, the British economy isn’t just the tax system. These people are engaging in productive activity. There is turnover and profit here, and mainly people don’t measure economic activity by how much tax people pay.
MikeC says:
“Private employers should not be vilified because a bunch of Canary readers don’t bother to research the facts or the law and instead rush to hand down summary judgment on an entirely irrational, uninformed and unreasonable prospectus.”
Entirely? We are one fact — whether Byron knowingly hired these staff — away from this being a wholly rational and reasonable prospectus; one you say would be worthy of anger.
The vilification here is entirely spewing from you, in virtually all directions. I struggle to see how you can be “mystified” at the reaction to this, given how even you yourself see what little additional evidence would be required to make this a matter of genuine outrage. That means it’s worthy of further investigation. That means it’s worthy of discussion.
That means, frankly, that “they fulfilled their obligations under the law, had no other options open to them, and so criticising them in the slightest is deserving of nothing more than the full weight of my invective” is a miserly and unconstructive position for you to take.
Being “one fact away” is insufficient to justify the leap to judgment and, worse, vigilante activism, when that one fact is enormous. J’accuse, my friend, of being a child-killer. That I am only one fact away from proving that is true. It does not follow that it is right for me to act in a way that supposes it is true, and to say, as so many are saying, that further inquiry is unnecessary. The whole point of the rule of law is that we do not descend into frenzies of speculation and anarchy when wrongdoing is alleged. We calmly look for evidence, and, until a case is proven, judgment is reserved. This is not to say, and I have never said, that this is not worthy of further investigation. Ian Dunt, a journalist I much admire, is digging around on this, and I await with interest to see what if anything emerges. But investigating and discussing are the precursors to, not synonymous with, concluding. That is the logical leap that I condemn. As it stands, there is no proof that Byron has done anything wrong. If proof emerges, I will of course revisit my position. But anyone in possession of the facts as known and an understanding of the law, who still concludes that Byron has committed an egregious wrong for which there is no possible legal or moral justification, is deceiving themselves.
Justin Cousins says:
Of course that is one view. The international left-wing view I would make is that ‘doing anything wrong’ and being law abiding are not necessarily the same thing. Whilst it was not racist, I would contend that it is collusion with national-chauvinism, and some working class people, no doubt, succumb to national-sectionalism and support Bryon. As far as I can see, this is an anti-democratic attack on the international working class community.
So in practical terms, which Byron employee are you volunteering for prosecution? Because someone would have been, in the name of the “non-collusion with national chauvinism” that you advocate.
Twisted Inspiration says:
We are also only one fact away from you being guilty of (insert heinous crime here). So thank you for allowing me to start a hate campaign against you. After all, just one fact away… That’s almost there, isn’t it, you (insert heinous criminal designation here)?
“BURGER restaurant Byron has been accused of acting in full accordance with UK immigration law.
The chain has angered customers by co-operating with immigration services, betraying employees who had lied about their identities, just to avoid potentially unlimited fines.
Eleanor Shaw, who has vowed never to eat in a Byron again, said: “What other laws do they obey? All of them?””
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/employer-obeys-employment-law-20160729111608
hahnchen says:
Goto any Chinatown restaurant notifying them of an upcoming raid. Why don’t you notify the entirety of Chinatown that there’s a raid coming, and they should facilitate that by assembling all their staff in a month’s time for a “health and safety” meeting.
What do you think would have happened when the Home Office showed up? It’s why the Home Office generally turn up unannounced in Chinatown. Sure, there’s more disruption, but rather that than going above and beyond in enforcing laws neither the employer, employees or clientele agree with.
Having a raid does not have the same ultimate effect of Byron’s actions. It means the Home Office must throw the dice.
Belette Gigi Fente says:
a) Never use the lazy term ‘virtue signalling’ at start of a piece trying to to convince people of an alternative view.
b) People are entitled to take a view beyond the strict letter of then law if a company is seen as behaving in a measly way.
c) That the company was willing to let only their employees carry the cab so they can get off is something that can be regarded as cowardly is measure of the company’s ethos.
d) The agency has many obligations, including ensuring the protection of the rights and welfare of workers. That it spends the vast majority of its time and resources hunting undocumented workers, with increasing theatricality and now the collusion of their employers, is not the kind o country us want to live in.
e) It’s our money and we have the right to spend it with companies that we don’t find objectionable. If you are happy with that kind of conduct and have little sympathy for people are paid very modestly to do fairly crap job, entirely up to you. Just less of the pompous stuff.
f) ‘No one is illegal’ Simon Wiesenthal
A) It is virtue-signalling.
B) They of course are; but in this case there is no sensible argument for anger targeted at Byron in the absence of sensible suggestions as to what they could possibly have done differently.
C) That is exactly the kind of assumption-laden, fact-avoiding, prejudice-filled rush to judgment that I am talking about. Examine your statement and see if you can even begin to justify it. You can’t.
D) That’s fine. But your argument is then with the Home Office, not a private employer and its employees.
E) “That kind of conduct” means what, exactly? Again your comment suggests you have not read or understood my point. What has Byron done wrong? Put aside your (understandable) anger at the treatment of migrants by the authorities – what did this employer do wrong? What should it have done differently, that it could have done without sacrificing its lawful employees on the altar of prosecution?
It’s a PR disaster that they must be regretting. They went well beyond what was needed from them. Clearly have little understanding of their client base. Too blind to see it was toxic to connect over priced burgers with slave labour, and sordid sting operation. I am sure they now regret it.
What they should have done is what the law asks them to, and not get involved in what has become a political theatre. How many have gone to the extent this company has.
It is silly to pretend there is no wider political context to this. Nor can we ignore the investment company that bought out Byron’s first acts was to rearrange it finances so goes off shore.
It was pretty stupid thing to do in business terms. And they are paying the price for their short sightednes and ignorance of their market. I doubt the founders and previous management would have made the same mistake.
I suspect the main fault lies with immigration enforcement. There have been other raids but for wherever reason they decided to publicise and make an example of this one in particular I doubt there was anything Byron could do about it and it is them that is now paying the price.
It’s not a PR disaster. Intelligent people will see the idiots behaviour for what it is ; ignorant and lashing out at a government policy they don’t like – not allow anyone who wants to move here to do so.
One thing adults know is the snowflakes get bored quickly (usually because of some Reality TV rubbish) and start twittering about something else they don’t understand or bother to think about.
Kevin Taylor says:
So… my daughter’s boyfriend – now husband – turned out to be an illegal worker in a restaurant chain. He was arrested (with five others) in an mid-morning armed raid in front of shocked staff, customers, and my daughter. He had worked with the chain for three years (using a portugese driving licence for ID) and paid his tax and NI throughout that period. He was on the verge of setting up a home with a daughter and had just been promoted by the chain to be a regional chef manager responsible for a number of restaurants. The day after the raid he was gone – removed back to his home in Brazil. My daughter followed him, later married him, and they now have a four year old daughter themselves who I hardly get to see. My now son-in-law was actually in the country legally on a five year student visa, but working illegally on a Portuguese driving licence. He was three months past the five years when he was arrested. The restaurant chain concerned were fined £50k over the incident.
My feelings on this were all thrown up again by the Byron incident. The “training day” method of arrest sounds a better alternative to the horror my daughter witnessed. But I also can’t help feeling that many of those “rounded-up” and sent home would have been worthy of retaining in this country rather than removing. Kept overnight in the detention centre, gone the next day with (as far as I can believe) no proper legal representation, and no opportunity (it seems) to appeal or to attempt to build a case to be given the right to stay – coupled with some recognition of the crime committed either in the form of a fine, a suspended sentence, or a community service order.
The workers arrested will have been building lives – I am sure many of them will have responsible UK citizens prepared to speak up for them but whose own lives are now thrown into disarray. Seven years on the day in December 09 still affects my family. My other daughter has just married her in the UK without her sister present. My Brazilian son-in-law was stupid, as I told him the first time I travelled out to see them, but he was in love. Five months before his arrest he asked my daughter to go to Brazil with him to live rather the UK. She wasn’t ready yet, and said No, let’s stay our live together here. He should, of course have said – no I have to go home, my Visa will run out. But he was in love. So he stayed. And he was arrested. And now he is afraid to visit the UK because the immigration officer on duty at Heathrow could refuse him entry.
I have no problem with Byron co-operating with the authorities when the issue was brought to their attention. And if they are guilty of turning a blind eye to false papers they will be fined. I also have no problem with those working illegally being arrested and questioned. My issues entirely surround the process after that and speed with which action is taken. I agree with the secret barrister that sometimes the arrests will remove people from danger and exploitation – but sometimes they will also devastate innocent families and turn their lives upside down forever. It seems to me that all circumstances are different, but all treatment is largely the same.
But attacking Byron restaurants is misguided and foolish. Campaign instead for changes to law and due process. I’ll still be eating in them, though I can’t bring myself to visit the chain where my daughter and her foolish husband worked – it is too painful, because I miss my daughter so much. On the other hand, without that restaurant, my daughter would not have met the love of her life. Complicated isn’t it?
Thank you for your thought-provoking comment. I agree entirely that the practicalities of immigration enforcement are often horrible, and the treatment meted out, particularly in detention centres, is inhumane. It is also easy to overlook the human cost, as you describe so vividly. One of the many sad features of this case is that the genuine issues concerning how our country frames its immigration law and policy become lost, drown out by the megaphones of professional attention-seeking antagonists. If the protests were outside the Home Office, targeted at the policies that, particularly under our now-Prime Minister, divided families and treated human beings as cattle, I would be wholeheartedly behind them. Sadly too many people are unwilling to recognise that Byron is not the right target of their anger.
Thank you – the Byron incident and my youngest daughter’s wedding this weekend brought all this home again. There is no simple solution, but I do think sledgehammers are taken to every incident and there surely could be some time built into the process to pause for breath and take stock of all the circumstances rather than focus on one element. Ironically, of course, in other criminal investigations and court cases – including violent ones – background checks and an examination of mitigating circumstances are likely to happen. But with immigration, it often seems that compassion and simple human rights are overlooked in the desire to keep up the removal numbers that enable politicians to proclaim their successful policies. Those numbers hide a multitude of different stories.
Sigh. I beg you to put your anger to one side and consider calmly what you are saying. You are spewing enraged assumptions without pausing to think. Where is the evidence of “slave labour”? Read the legal analysis above and tell me how this was a “sting”, and what Byron should have done instead? You say “what they should have done is what the law asked them to” – that is what they have done. Read the blog. Understand it. The “above and beyond” argument is a nonsense.
The “political context” and Byron’s offshore financial affairs are utterly irrelevant to this discrete issue, which is what, faced with a criminal investigation into its employees, Byron should or could have done differently. Your other complaints, valid as they may be, are not relevant here.
Whether it was a stupid thing to do in business terms I don’t know, or frankly care. My argument is simply that people are getting irrationally angry and hateful, and they should all reflect on the facts and the law before rushing to judgment.
The slave labour is that of impression. Not
indication of their conduct. This is largely a PR disaster. And that is to do with image. You can sigh all you like, but that matters. You haven’t given an account of why it is wrong to regard Byron as having beyond the call. Dismissal is not an account.
Ken Johnson says:
What do you think about those Polish villagers who sheltered Jewish escapees from the camps? (Godwin’s Law) What disappoints me is that nobody has mentioned what might happen to these illegal workers after they are deported.
Interestingly despite other companies having been raided with little publicity this unusually high profile and publicised raid came just after Theresa May became PM. Coincidence?
PP says:
The misrepresentation of the ‘opposition’s’ position does somewhat undermine any credible argument by ‘The Secret Barrister’, although a number of points made are fair. It also misappropriates the wide range of different positions in opposition to Byron, suggesting that they are all one and the same. And of course it comes from the perspective of a barrister, which is fair enough, although I’m not sure how ‘brutal’ or ‘technicolour’ this particularly portrait is. However, this both helps and hinders the argument by virtue of what is given and not given weight.
Fundamentally, intelligent people can construct entirely credible arguments both for and against Byron’s actions. These arguments are manifestations of our moral, political or other views: and the strength of the argument is as much down to the ability of the arguer to talk comprehensively and eloquently rather than the quality of the argument itself, which is a travesty but a reality.
Either way, whether my view that Byron acted in a morally abhorrent way is agreed with or disagreed with – and indeed whether it is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – does not change the ultimate reality that Byron will now lose hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pounds in the coming years. A few self-righteous individuals may determinedly choose to eat at Byron as a sign of solidarity, but for the most part the response will be a boycott with long-term implications, as has been the case with Nestlé. That is the kind of brutal, technicolour portrait of reality, that I appreciate.
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Criticisms of Liz Truss have nothing to do with lawyers’ sexism
If MPs are going to attack judges, they should at least understand the law
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Can Magna Carta and “common law” give you immunity from Covid regulations?
thesecretbarrister, November 28, 2020
In recent days, the news has carried reports of business owners who have been fined tens of thousands of pounds after defying the “Covid regulations” and refusing to close their business premises.
Common to these cases is a belief expressed by the individuals that they were not bound by the snappily-titled Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.4) Regulations 2020, as made by the Secretary of State exercising the powers conferred by sections 45C(1), (3)(c), (4)(b), (4)(d), 45F(2) and 45P of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984.
Why so?
It’s because, they say, of Magna Carta, and of something called “common law”. This theory has gone viral in certain corners of social media, with perhaps the most popular template of the legal argument being this:
This document has apparently been posted in the windows of pubs, salons and other businesses by owners believing it to confer immunity from the regulations requiring them to close their businesses for 4 weeks. Unfortunately, as the proliferation of punitive financial penalties demonstrates, no such immunity exists.
And that’s because this document – and the assertions of law that it contains – is pure nonsense. It is a species of what regular attendees at courts will recognise as the pseudo-legal rubbish peddled by self-styled “Freemen on The Land”, a grouping of proselytising individuals who believe that by misquoting Magna Carta and basic tenets of contract law, they can somehow place themselves outside the jurisdiction of the law of England & Wales. By making various incoherent and illogical assertions cloaked in legalese, they profess to be bound by “other” laws, such as the laws of the sea or long-repealed mediaeval treaties, and claim that the legal system has no control over them.
Many adherents are harmless enough; they rock up to the magistrates’ courts armed with their scripts and pseudo-legal babble and are duly and properly convicted, with court time wasted but the enterprise otherwise victimless. But on an organisational level, there is the risk of very real harm, with “gurus” seeking to part the scared and unwary from their money in return for the secrets to legal omnipotence. Furthermore, when this empty doctrine escapes the conspiracist echo chamber and enters the social media feeds of people who trust and act upon it, we see desperate people facing financial ruin.
The phenomenon is by no means unique to this country; there is an international dimension to this fraud. In Canada in 2012, a judgment of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in the case of Meads v Meads painstakingly and comprehensively dismantled the legal shibboleths of these various linked movements (referred to by the judge as “Organised Pseudolegal Commercial Argument litigants”, or “OPCA”, due to a common thread of the groups’ arguments being that in order to be bound by the law, you have to explicitly agree to it, akin to entering a commercial contract).
And while there is a risk that by engaging and explicitly debunking the falsehoods we risk conferring upon them an unearned legitimacy as a credible “alternative” school of legal thought, I think that given the prevalence of this rubbish, and the very real harm that it is doing to innocent people, we lawyers have a responsibility to put the truth into the public domain.
So let’s look at the document above, and break down, line by line, what the law actually says.
“I do not consent.”
Consent is a recurring theme in OPCA arguments. But it is meaningless. While your consent is required to enter into a legally-enforceable contractual agreement with another person or organisation, there is no principle of English & Welsh law that you are required to consent before being bound by the laws made by Parliament. The principle underpinning our constitution is that Parliament is sovereign, and can make or unmake any law it wishes (see, among other sources, the Bill of Rights 1688/9, the Act of Settlement 1701, the Claim of Right Act 1689 (Scotland), the Acts of Union of 1706 and 1707.) It would rather defeat the point if Parliament could be thwarted simply by individuals declaring that they do not “consent”. And you can’t.
“This business stands under the jurisdiction of common law.”
It certainly does. As do we all. Common law is the incremental development of the law by the higher courts; it fills the gaps between legislation made by Parliament. Parliament is sovereign, meaning that legislation enacted by Parliament takes precedence over previous court decisions (common law), and courts are required to interpret existing common law principles consistently with legislation. But – and this is the key point – we are all bound by both sources of law. You cannot elect to live under the jurisdiction of only one or the other. It’s a nonsense. “Common law” is cited by OPCA groups as if it has some special indestructible quality, but it doesn’t. It is an important source of law, for sure, but it cannot override primary legislation, and, once a principle of common law has been superseded by statute or by a development in the common law, it can’t be revived by somebody saying, “I still consider myself bound by the old common law”. To give an example, it used to be an understood common law principle that a man could not, as a matter of law, be guilty of raping his wife. This changed in 1992, when the House of Lords (the predecessor of our Supreme Court) “clarified” (i.e. changed) the common law so that a man could in fact be convicted of raping his wife. A man could not today run a defence to rape asserting that he was bound by the old common law.
“As the business owners, we are exercising our rights to earn a living”.
There is, I’m afraid, no absolute legal right to earn a living that overrides your obligation to obey the criminal law. There’s no such right provided by statute, either domestic or international, nor under common law. (The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights provides a freedom to choose an occupation and a right to work, but the UK famously secured an opt-out of the Charter when a member of the EU, and is no longer bound at all post-Brexit.)
“Under article 61 of Magna Carta 1215, we have a right to enter into lawful dissent if we feel we are being governed unjustly”.
No you don’t. Chapter (not ‘article’) 61 of Magna Carta 1215 provided:
SINCE WE HAVE GRANTED ALL THESE THINGS for God, for the better ordering of our kingdom, and to allay the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, and since we desire that they shall be enjoyed in their entirety, with lasting strength, for ever, we give and grant to the barons the following security:
The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter.
If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us – or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice – to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us.
Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty-five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command.
If one of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country, or is prevented in any other way from discharging his duties, the rest of them shall choose another baron in his place, at their discretion, who shall be duly sworn in as they were.
In the event of disagreement among the twenty-five barons on any matter referred to them for decision, the verdict of the majority present shall have the same validity as a unanimous verdict of the whole twenty-five, whether these were all present or some of those summoned were unwilling or unable to appear.
The twenty-five barons shall swear to obey all the above articles faithfully, and shall cause them to be obeyed by others to the best of their power.
We will not seek to procure from anyone, either by our own efforts or those of a third party, anything by which any part of these concessions or liberties might be revoked or diminished. Should such a thing be procured, it shall be null and void and we will at no time make use of it, either ourselves or through a third party.
There is no mention of “lawful dissent”, but King John did agree that the 25 barons to whom this agreement applied could “distrain upon and assail” the monarch “in every way possible” if the monarch or his servants offended or transgressed this agreement. However, the first point here is that this right was only granted to those 25 barons and people who had sworn an oath to follow the commands of those barons, not to the population at large. And secondly, and fatally for this argument, Magna Carta 1215 was declared void by the Pope within a year. It was reissued several times, in various forms, but Chapter 61 was never revived. Indeed, out of the 63 chapters that appeared in the 1215 Magna Carta, only four are still in force today, the remainder having been repealed over the centuries.
So in short, Chapter 61 no longer exists, and even when it did, it didn’t give a general right to dissent or rebellion.
For a fuller deconstruction of the Chapter 61 nonsense, see this Canadian decision from earlier this year. (H/T Canadian lawyer Sandra Corbett)
“Contrary to common belief, our sovereign and her government are only there to govern us and not rule us. This must be done within the constraint of our common law and the freedoms asserted to us by such law. Nothing can become law in this country if it falls outside of this simple constraint”.
Again (and I am running out of different ways to word this), the fundamental principle underpinning our constitution is that the Queen in Parliament is sovereign, and can make or unmake any law she likes. Attempting to draw a semantic distinction between “govern” and “rule” does not get around the fact that laws, lawfully made, are binding on those to whom they apply – i.e. all of us. As above, sovereignty means that Parliament can legislate to completely overturn the common law. No common law principles have immunity in this respect. This paragraph completely misstates how our legal system works.
“I am not under any obligation, nor will I, answer any questions or give you any details”.
It is not stated at whom this declaration is directed, but yes, you are generally under no obligation to answer questions or provide details to anybody. However, there are exceptions. If, for instance, a police officer reasonably suspects that you have committed or are committing a criminal offence – say, breaching the Covid regulations – and is unable to ascertain your name by asking you, they would be entitled to arrest you under section 24(5)(a) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 in order to establish your details.
“ I am a living person and statutory regulations only apply with my consent”.
This is another common rhetorical device deployed by OPCA litigants, and it is meaningless. We all, from the moment of birth, have a legal personality. You can’t opt out of it by declaring yourself a “living person”, or a “natural person”, or a freeman-on-the-land, or by claiming (as is common with Freemen-on-The-Land) that “I’m not John Smith, I’m John of the Smith Family! And you have no legal power over him!”. None of these devices has any legal meaning or effect. And as we’ve seen above, the idea of consent being required before statutory regulations apply is chaff.
“I will conditionally accept your demands on proof of the following…If I do not receive the evidence as requested, I will thereby take your silence as your assent and agreement.”
What follows is a list of supposed terms, requesting that the reader of the notice supply various specified “evidence”. None of these has any legal effect. Contract – and this is pretty basic undergraduate stuff – requires offer, acceptance and consideration (“quid pro quo”). You can’t enter a contract with someone by sticking up a poster of demands and saying, to the world at large, “I’ll take silence as your agreement”. This isn’t a Twitter spat. But, as above, even if you were somehow to enter a legally-binding contract with, say, an individual police officer or local government official, this would not have any effect on whether the law applies to you, or what powers the state has available to it. If the police reasonably suspect that you are breaking the law, they have a host of enforcement powers available, none of which are conditional on them obtaining your consent or complying with a list of demands that you’ve blu-tacked to your window.
November 28, 2020 thesecretbarrister Bad Law, Fake Law, Lawsplaining Covid-19, Magna Carta
Anne Stuart says:
Bravo SB
SG says:
Around the time of the bank collapse, the Freemen were occasionally in court to defend debt proceedings with stacks of internet print-outs. Back then I think admiralty law was their shtick, rather than Magna Carta, and they used to pause on the threshold of the judge’s chambers and seek “permission to come aboard”. Always men, and I had the impression they were goldbugs to a man – no doubt bitcoin is their thing these days.
At least they operate on the grounds of a social contract, rather than “the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate”. Our politics seems to trend in the latter direction.
Frank Z KIHERE says:
This is so beautiful! Thank you so much
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Fake Law: An evening with Joshua Rozenberg QC, Joanna Hardy and The Secret Barrister
What happened in the case of Emily Jones?
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Fight On, My Soul
by James Norris
Fight On, My Soul is a biography of one of the first African-American doctors in the South, and it reveals his battles against discrimination, disease, and illiteracy. Set largely in rural Lancaster County, Virginia, Fight On, My Soul tells the story of Morgan E. Norris, one of Virginia’s first black physicians, who believed in himself enough to overcome the daily struggles of his life and his time.
Told by his son, this meticulously researched biography is a moving story that captures Norris’s struggle to provide better conditions for his family and beloved patients. James Norris says of his father. “When barriers were raised and obstacles thrown, his modus operandi would be first to try to wend his way around them, and failing that, to blast them down!”
Norris’s life spanned the contentious period from post-Reconstruction to the relentless erosion of civil liberties for blacks, the encoding of segregation into law, and finally the collapse of Jim Crow. Norris died in 1966, just about the same time as Jim Crow, but when he died it was still illegal for a white to marry a Negro in Virginia, and the American Medical Association had yet to disavow local and state societies that discriminated against Negro physicians.
Norris could have chosen to go with the flow, to move north to less conflicted environs, or even pass for white. But for Norris, none of these choices fit. He chose first to become educated and then to return to boyhood home in remote Virginia. In doing so, he fulfilled a pledge he had made to his dying father: to become a doctor and make sure no one in his little insular community would suffer as his father had. In telling his father’s narrative, James Norris illuminates the delicate balance between defiance of systemic racial practices and working within a system that stubbornly resisted change.
PURCHASE ON BARNES & NOBLE PURCHASE ON AMAZON
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Sanjay Subrahmanyam — The Long Roots of Indian Capitalism: Portfolio Capitalism and Political Capitalism
Joukowsky Forum, 111 Thayer Street
Commentators:
Manu Goswami, New York University
Vazira Zamindar, Brown University
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Distinguished Professor and Irving and Jean Stone Endowed Chair in Social Sciences, joined UCLA in 2004 from Oxford. Educated at the Delhi School of Economics, the first decade of his working career was spent (with brief interruptions in Philadelphia and Cambridge) teaching economic history and comparative economic development at the same institution, where he was eventually named Professor of Economic History (1993-95). Thereafter, Subrahmanyam taught from 1995 to 2002 as Directeur d’études in the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), where his position was on the economic and social history of early modern India and the Indian Ocean world. In 2002, Subrahmanyam was appointed as the first holder of the newly created Chair in Indian History and Culture at the University of Oxford, a position he held for two years.
After joining UCLA, Subrahmanyam served from 2005 to 2011 as founding Director of UCLA's Center for India and South Asia.
He teaches courses on medieval and early modern South Asian and Indian Ocean history, the history of European expansion, the comparative history of early modern empires, and various aspects of world history. He continues to advise graduate students on Indian history, the history of the Iberian empires, and more generally on forms of "connected histories". Subrahmanyam was Joint Managing Editor of the Indian Economic and Social History Review for over a decade, besides serving on the boards of a number of other journals in the US, UK, France, Portugal, and elsewhere. He was also one of the founding editors of the "South Asia Across the Disciplines (SAAD)" monograph series.
In 2013, Sanjay Subrahmanyam was elected to a Chair in Early Modern Global History at the Collège de France in Paris, and delivered a full series of lectures there over the year 2013-14. Since 2014 he continues to lecture as a long-term visiting professor, and has a regular media presence in France: TV interviews appear for example on MediaPart (May 2014), and on France Info (April 2015).
Sanjay Subrahmanyam's book Europe's India: Words, People, Empires, 1500-1800, appeared in 2017 from Harvard University Press, and in a French translation in 2018. Another book, Empires Between Islam and Christianity, 1500-1800, has appeared in 2018 in the Indian edition (Permanent Black) and the US edition will appear soon.
OP Jindal Distinguished Lectures
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70th anniversary of Polish – Mongolian diplomatic relations
SOURCE: SEBASTIAN INDRA / MSZ
70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Poland and Mongolia was marked by opening the display titled “Treasury of Mongolian Buddhism” which was organised by Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Polish MFA, Mongolian Embassy in Poland and Polish Ambassador to Mongolia.
The launching of the display titled “Treasury of Mongolian Buddhism” adds splendour to celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Poland and Mongolia. The visiting collection from The Choijin Lama Temple Museum in Ulaanbaatar presents the works of Buddhist religious art that have been gathered in the museum, mostly monuments and paintings of deities belonging to the Vajrayana pantheon of Buddhism, a form of Buddhism practised, among other places, in Mongolia.
Some of the depicted works are by Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar, a spiritual and political leader of Mongols of the 17th and 18th centuries and the most famous Mongolian sculptor. Established in the post-revolutionary period, the Choijin Lama Temple Museum is not only home to a rich collection of Buddhist art, but also a monument of Mongolian architecture, as it is located in a converted monastery complex of a high-ranking lama that was also considered the state oracle.
Source: MFA Press Office
TAGS: CzechiaHungarypolandSLOVAKIAsummitV4Visegrad GroupWadowiceWI Daily News
WI Daily News - V4 Foreign Ministers met in Wadowice
WI Daily News - V4 Foreign Ministers to meet today in Wadowice, Poland
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New Year, New Scandals for Japan’s Ruling Party
Tokyo Report | Politics | East Asia
Once again, Abe and his LDP are beset by multiple scandals. And once again, it doesn’t seem to be impacting their political dominance.
By Mina Pollmann for The Diplomat
Credit: Chris 73 / Wikimedia Commons
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are preparing to ring in the new year beset by scandals – again.
The cherry blossom viewing party scandal, the first of two relatively high-profile ongoing scandals in recent weeks, involves allegations that guests at the tax-funded cherry blossom viewing party were supporters of Abe and other political figures. The extraordinary Diet session, which was rocked by the allegations, concluded on December 9 without a full investigation into the matter, leaving opposition party lawmakers and members of the public dissatisfied with the proceedings.
The newer of the two scandals involves House of Representative lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto. Akimoto was arrested last week by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office on suspicions of accepting 3.7 million yen in bribes from 500.com to give them preferential treatment in their bid to building a gambling facility. He was the minister in charge of the government’s casino initiative at the time.
But this is not the first time that the Abe cabinet has been hit by a scandal, or even multiple scandals simultaneously. Abe has politically survived all prior scandals, and the ruling LDP’s behavior betrays a confidence that they will survive these as well. On Thursday, the LDP rejected opposition parties’ demands for an off-session meeting of the Diet to look into the Akimoto case, though an early January meeting of Diet affairs chiefs from the LDP and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) before the Diet reconvenes was agreed to. The Diet is expected to start its ordinary session on January 20.
Opposition parties speculate that Abe will try to use a Lower House snap election early next year to secure an electoral victory and silence doubts generated by the ongoing scandals. However, LDP sources consider such a gamble too risky for Abe to consider. Indeed, in a December 21-22 Asahi Shimbun survey, the public’s approval rate for the Abe cabinet (38 percent) was lower than the public’s disapproval rate (42 percent) for the first time in a year. Abe’s response to the ongoing scandal over the tax-funded cherry blossom viewing party was considered “insufficient” by 74 percent of survey respondents. Even among LDP supporters, the government response was considered “insufficient” by 67 percent of respondents.
Snap elections can be used with great effect to keep opposition parties off-balance or prevent opposition parties from unifying by not giving them enough time to iron out their differences. Currently, the electoral threat, if any, from the opposition parties to the LDP remains far distant. Though CDPJ is in merger talks with the Democratic Party For the People (DPFP), they still have 20 items to work through and they will miss their own year-end deadline.
Members of the House of Representatives are elected for four-year terms, and the last House of Representatives election was held in October 22, 2017, meaning Abe is not obligated to hold elections again until October 21, 2021. Looking ahead to October 2021 – or, more likely, earlier – a total of 656 people are preparing to run in the next Lower House elections according to a survey by Jiji Press. Of the 656, 298 of these individuals plan on running as an LDP candidate and 249 as independents or a candidate on the CDPJ, DPFP, the Japan Communist Party, or the Social Democratic Party ticket. To prevent the LDP from achieving the two-thirds majority it needs to propose a constitutional amendment for approval in a national referendum, the opposition parties will need to astutely coordinate who runs in which districts.
This kind of electoral coordination has been at the heart of the LDP-Komeito alliance. Begun as a three-way coalition government between the LDP, Komeito, and the Liberal Party in 1999, it continued as a two-way agreement from 2003 onward even after the Liberal Party defected. The arrangement served both parties’ interests to be the “party in power.” But given Abe’s hawkish inclinations and the pacifist philosophy of Soka Gakkai, the electoral backbone of Komeito, the alliance has been at times tense regarding security policy. Even though Komeito has caved numerous times to LDP pressure in recent years, changing the constitution to recognize the Self-Defense Forces as a military will be the greatest challenge to the LDP-Komeito coalition yet. Though the mutually symbiotic electoral relationship between the LDP and Komeito will likely continue, an ideal outcome for the LDP would be one where either the LDP on its own or with other like-minded parties wins sufficient seats to not require cooperation with the Komeito to get constitutional amendment proposed.
Despite the two scandals and the potential challenges of coordinating with Komeito in the future, there is not much for Abe to worry about. As 2019 ends and Abe is about to conclude the seventh year of his (second) premiership, his grip on power seems as secure as ever – if only because there are still no credible alternatives to his rule within the LDP or any of the opposition parties. And that, in a nutshell, is the reason why no political scandal thus far has been able to dethrone Abe.
Mina Pollmann
Mina Erika Pollmann is a PhD Candidate in international relations and security studies at MIT’s Department of Political Science.
Japan opposition parties
Japan political scandals
Japan politics
Tsukasa Akimoto
Japanese Politics Rocked by Arrests Over Voter Bribery Scandal
By Thisanka Siripala
A mammoth voter buying scandal involving a former ruling LDP cabinet minister poses a challenge for the Abe administration.
Coronavirus or No, Japan’s Politics Remain Stuck
By Yusaku Yoshikawa
Despite strong disapproval of Prime Minister Abe’s COVID-19 response, the public sees little alternative to his continued governance.
Ex-PM Abe’s Office Investigated Over Cherry Blossom Party Scandal
A scandal from 2018 continues to dog the former Japanese prime minister.
Abe Sets Japan’s Record for Longest PM Term Even as Health Concerns Loom
Even as Abe set a new mark for most consecutive days as Japan’s prime minister, a series of hospital visits have raised questions.
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PARIS IS BURNING: Notre Dame Saved By Fashion?
In this image made available on Tuesday April 16, 2019 flames and smoke rise from the blaze at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019. An inferno that raged through Notre Dame Cathedral for more than 12 hours destroyed its spire and its roof but spared its twin medieval bell towers, and a frantic rescue effort saved the monument’s “most precious treasures,” including the Crown of Thorns purportedly worn by Jesus, officials said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Thierry Mallet)
To say it was a shock to glance at the breaking news on April 15 to see Notre Dame engulfed in blazing hellfire. With the world already feeling so hopelessly derelict, seeing this sight was a surreal feeling…what is happening in this world?!
Oddly enough, this event has occurred at the beginning of Holy Week leading to Easter – the most important week for the Christian church, without a doubt. Interestingly, we also have Venus and Lilith meeting at the 23rd mark of Pisces on this day…Venus, the goddess of love, and Lilith, the rebellious first wife of Adam; who refused to be subservient and was cast out of the Garden of Eden.
Notre Dame quite literally means “Our Lady”, and its impossible to ignore the rise of female power in our society- in arts, politics, business, and with the Church imposing its patriarchal grip of society for thousands of years, perhaps this could be some fateful symbol we all may never understand fully.
{Click here for more intriguing astrological interpretation of this fateful event}
On the flip side, it didn’t take long for France’s three richest families to raise money for its restoration post-fire; a whopping $700 million in total.
The three dynasties (LVMH, L’Oreal, and Kering) have an impressive portfolio of high end luxury brans that they own- being pretty much every high end fashion brand you can think of. For instance, LVMH headed by CEO Bernard Arnault has put forward $226 million! For the owner of an endless list of brands such as Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Fendy, Dior, Hennessy, and even Fenty Beauty by Rihanna to name a few, so it surely seems almost like it would be pocket change.
The other large donors were the Betterncourt Meyers family who control L’Oreal, and the Pinaut family who own Kering which control iconic luxury brands such as Gucci, Saint-Laurent, Balenziaga, and Alexander McQueen to name a few…
Surely, they are toasting over a glass of Veuve Cliquot over their charitable efforts, but this kind of thing is exactly what gives fashion a bad name, and doesn’t really help to battle the idea that fashion isn’t vapid, vain, and wasteful.
Granted, Notre Dame wasn’t just a treasure of France, but also the entire world. Paris is the number one tourist destination in the world, and the beautiful Gothic Cathedral with is iconic towers, and flying buttresses reaching out into the Seine, it is (or was) a marvel of human endeavour, engineering, and creativity, no doubt. 856 years, and a bit damage, sure, but its still standing.
With our world in the state of crisis (climate change, increasing poverty, always an imminent war) there couldn’t be more available resources to help those truly in need? A medieval church is one thing, but the fact that certain people in this world have every mean necessary to truly make a difference to people, is shocking and disappointing to say the least. Especially, that these brands uphold and sell a lifestyle that 99% of us could never afford, and only fantasize about being a part of – you begin to realize the illusion of luxury, and the many people whose backs these brands have been built on.
This is all a bit of what led us into what we do. Outrageous prices, bad quality, and who even knows what goes on BTS…for what? Just a knock-off a vintage style or design, when billions of pounds of textiles and clothing are put into landfills every year! If we can’t universally accept the concept of reducing, reusing, and recycling what we already have, the future could be grim.
Amazingly, 16 year old environmental activist, and recent Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, made a poignant statement regarding the fire, and the pledges that are being made to rebuild the monument whilst no changes are being pledged to save our own planet. Greta Thunberg’s thoughts on “cathedral thinking” are truly inspiring…
It seems like this is an event that may have opened up all our eyes a bit, and definitely encourages us to continue our own crusade! If fashion can save Notre Dame, could they switch gears to save the world?
Much to ponder…but,
Posted in E.O.F. APPROVED, Rebel SocietyTagged Activism, astrologoy, Blog, blogger, change, climate change, Essay, events, FASHION, Fashion Blog, fire, greta thunberg, lillith, News, notre dame, PARIS, style blog, symbol, The Eye of Faith, Thoughts, tragedy, vanity, venus, WorldBy {theEye}Leave a comment
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E.O.F. NEW PICKS: Rhapsody in Blue! →
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Denise Ho – Becoming the Song
Directed by Sue Williams | 2020 | 83 minutes | Not Rated | USA | English and Cantonese with English Subtitles
Denise Ho – Becoming the Song profiles the openly gay Hong Kong singer and human rights activist Denise Ho. Drawing on unprecedented, years-long access, the film explores her remarkable journey from commercial Cantopop superstar to outspoken political activist, an artist who has put her life and career on the line to support the determined struggle of Hong Kong citizens to maintain their identity and freedom.
Denise’s story mirrors almost perfectly the last three decades of Hong Kong’s uneasy relationship with China. A top international recording artist in Hong Kong and across China and other Asian nations, the turning point in her career came during the seminal moment of change for Hong Kong, the Umbrella Movement of 2014. Her public support of students who demanded free elections and occupied central Hong Kong for nearly three months had immediate and lasting consequences: she was arrested and then blacklisted by China.
Under pressure, sponsors dropped Denise and venues refused to let her perform. The film follows Denise on the road as she tours the U.S., Canada and UK and prepares to release a new hit song, attempting to rebuild her career. But it soon became clear she is also reflecting on her life’s trajectory. In June 2019, Hong Kong exploded in anti-extradition law protests with millions taking to the streets, and Denise once again faced a turning point. She has been in the streets with the tear gas and water cannons. She has tried to mediate for and protect the protesters. She has addressed the United Nations and U.S. Congress to explain the crisis and plead for international help, making it clear that Hong Kong’s struggle is a desperate fight for basic freedom and democracy around the world.
As the film draws to a close, the fight for Hong Kong continues…
Link to purchase tickets to stream this film in our Virtual Cinema will be available from Friday, July 3rd (Thursday at Midnight) until Thursday, July 16th. To purchase and stream, click the button below!
A portion of every ticket purchased goes directly towards supporting Orange County’s only nonprofit Art-house theater.
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Category Archives: Elmore Leonard
Blu-Ray News #142: Valdez Is Coming (1971).
Directed by Edwin Sherin
Starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Jon Cypher, Barton Heyman, Richard Jordan, Frank Silvera, Hector Elizondo
Kino Lorber has announced that Valdez Is Coming (1971) is coming to Blu-Ray. It’s the second of three Westerns Burt Lancaster made in the early 70s, the other two being Lawman (1971) and Robert Aldrich’s Ulzana’s Raid (1972).
It’s based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, and at one point there was talk of Marlon Brando playing Valdez, Lancaster taking the part that went to Jon Cypher and Sydney Pollack directing. What a different movie that would’ve been.
No details from Kino Lorber yet, and the release date is simply later this year.
Filed under 1971, Burt Lancaster, DVD/Blu-ray News, Elmore Leonard, Kino Lorber, Marlon Brando, Robert Aldrich, Sydney Pollack
January 8, 2015 · 4:31 pm
Screening: Mr. Majestyk (1974) At The New Beverly.
Further proof that I’m on the wrong side of the United States. The New Beverly is running a 35mm print of Mr. Majestyk (1974) on January 28 & 29.
It stars Charles Bronson, Linda Cristal, a Ford F-150 pickup and a Winchester shotgun, supported by Paul Koslo and Al Lettieri. Richard Fleischer directs, from a script by Elmore Leonard.
Filed under 1974, Charles Bronson, Elmore Leonard, Richard Fleischer, Screenings
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We don't have to be frozen out of COVID-19 vaccine
By Corey Casper, opinion contributor — 11/27/20 03:00 PM EST
View Latest Opinions >>
With the recent announcement that two RNA vaccines are more than 90 percent effective against COVID-19, vaccinology has taken one of the largest technological leaps in nearly a century. But after the initial euphoria that we may get some relief from the still growing COVID-19 pandemic, enthusiasm chilled with the recognition that these vaccines would need to be kept either frozen or deep-frozen for a significant portion of their distribution.
The need for a cold chain has severely complicated efforts to get effective vaccines to people in both wealthy countries like the United States, but also the poorest corners of the globe. Fortunately, solutions have been developed to allow these promising vaccines to be stored and delivered at room temperature — we urgently need to prioritize these strategies to end the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new RNA vaccines deliver a piece of genetic information from the SARS-CoV-2 virus into human cells so those cells can make innocuous viral proteins to which the human immune system can respond. The viral genes are encoded in RNA, a molecule that is inherently unstable outside the safe environment of a cell and can be destroyed by enzymes in the environment that are less active at ultra-cold temperatures. To protect the RNA, it is placed inside a “ball of fat” that delivers it safely to the inside of the cell. These nanoparticles are also unstable at warm temperatures; much like butter, they melt. While the technology is extraordinarily promising, it is not designed for the warmer temperatures of conventional refrigerators, doctor’s offices, pharmacies and especially not the elevated temperatures seen in many resource-limited parts of the world.
Most vaccines are sensitive to temperature extremes. If the vaccine is too warm, it degrades, and if it is too cold, the freezing temperatures can destroy it. Several studies over the past two decades have found that up to one-third of vaccines are exposed to temperatures outside the recommended range, and this did not differ substantially between rich and poor countries. A U.S. Office of the Inspector General report in 2012 found that up to three-quarters of provider offices failed to maintain vaccines purchased for children with government funds in the United States at proper temperatures. Taken together, even with the extreme efforts the companies developing RNA vaccines have undertaken to invest in cold storage and distribution in the U.S., COVID-19 vaccines may be rendered less effective by temperature excursions. And it is likely that low and middle-income countries will struggle to support such a robust cold chain infrastructure.
Fortunately, solutions already exist for this problem, but we need to prioritize a diversity of approaches, as no one will be appropriate for all settings. The strategy that has received most attention has been the massive investment in technologies to store and deliver cold vaccines. Pfizer reportedly has spent $2 billion on a distribution network for its heat-sensitive RNA vaccine, outside of the government’s Operation Warp Speed. In addition to the substantial logistical hurdles to make this feasible, it does little to support cold-chain capacity more broadly in the U.S. and nothing for those in other parts of the world. Individual states have also made large investments in “deep freezer farms;” these are challenging and costly to maintain, and may be quickly rendered obsolete if there are no other infectious disease vaccines built on heat-sensitive RNA technologies in the near future.
Clever inventions have been made over the last several years to keep vaccines cold, even in hot, resource-limited settings. But these devices either are still in early phases or have not been engineered to sustain the deep cold required for today’s RNA vaccines. Perhaps most promising are advances in molecular biology and biochemistry that allow RNA vaccines to be stable at warmer temperature. The German company, CureVac, packs RNA in its COVID-19 vaccine tightly, putatively protecting it from the environment and allowing it to be stable at simply refrigerator temperatures for months. At Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), we have developed techniques to freeze dry vaccine components, including RNA and the nanoparticles used to deliver it. We have demonstrated that this technology will allow our COVID-19 RNA vaccine to be effective after nearly a year at room temperature, and up to two years with simple refrigeration. While we are still taking this vaccine through the development pipeline, our technology can rapidly be applied to existing RNA vaccines shown to be effective in Operation Warp Speed.
The more than $10 billion given to large pharmaceutical companies from the U.S. Government to facilitate COVID-19 vaccines in Operation Warp Speed has allowed for a number of promising vaccine options in record time. We now need to make smaller, rapid and creative investments in the non-profit, academic and startup biotech sectors that are working on advancing RNA vaccine technologies so that the every person in the United States and around the world can have immediate access to the most effective vaccines for COVID-19 irrespective of their zip or country code. It would be a tragedy to develop successful vaccines for COVID-19 that leave sizable numbers of people out in the cold.
Corey Casper, MD, MPH, is the chief executive officer at the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) and clinical professor of medicine and global health at the University of Washington.
Tags COVID-19 vaccines COVID-19 Vaccines developing countries operation warp speed Coronavirus pharmaceutical nonprofit
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to local residents in Queens, New York, on March 8, 2019. Photo: Frank Franklin II/APSen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to local residents in Queens, New York, on March 8, 2019. Photo: Frank Franklin II/AP
How to Think About Breaking Up Big Tech
Whether such policy boldness means anything in a brand-obsessed political landscape will be determined when ballots are cast.
David Dayen
April 1 2019, 1:46 p.m.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan to break up tech giants Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple has given concentrated corporate power its most prominent political platform since the 1912 presidential election — and we’re still nearly a year away from the first round of primary voting. This tracks with the rising awareness of the corrosiveness of monopoly power generally and those tech giants specifically.
Whether such policy boldness means anything in a brand-obsessed political landscape will be determined when ballots are cast. But it is undeniably driving a policy discussion that the next Democratic presidential nominee, no matter who it is, will likely take up. In that context, the debate over Warren’s plan is critical, as it prefigures the trajectory of each and every challenge to corporate dominance.
First, many critiques will come from those with a direct stake in the outcome — in this case, Big Tech-funded individuals or organizations, which are so ubiquitous as to create an echo chamber. Second, the critiques will highlight the “radical” nature of the changes, setting them at odds with American history, even though Warren’s central proposal — to structurally separate business lines in an effort to eliminate anti-competitive conduct and foster competition — has a century-old pedigree. And third, we’ll be assured that the cure is worse than the disease, that Warren’s ideas would destroy everything from online shopping to the smartphone, a perspective that relies on deliberate misinterpretation.
This roadmap for discrediting policy solutions that confront power should be easy enough to spot by now, and will be employed long into the future. So it’s worth breaking down how it works.
The Manufacturing of Dissent
“The issue is not the size and current market dominance of these [tech] companies,” wrote the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Strain for Bloomberg, in response to the Warren plan. “If anything, politicians should be celebrating these companies as crown jewels of the U.S. economy.”
Strain’s employer, AEI, is funded in part by Google, according to the company’s transparency page. This is not noted in Strain’s Bloomberg op-ed. But AEI and its writers have done several critical pieces about Warren’s proposal, as well a California privacy regulation that also imposes stricter rules on Big Tech. All of these opinion articles indirectly benefit one of AEI’s donors.
The episode points to a significant trend of writers and scholars opining on the Warren plan while conflicted by the overwhelming amounts of Big Tech cash that have infested Washington. Google’s list of organizations to whom it has donated is massive, and combined with Facebook and Amazon’s dominance of Washington, it’s hard to find anyone with a critical eye toward Big Tech regulation who doesn’t have something to disclose.
Rich Lowry of National Review unleashed a pack of industry talking points to explain how Big Tech “helps create a strong American society.” National Review takes Google money. Here’s a similar sentiment dragging the Warren plan on the pages of National Review, from a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which also takes Google money. The American Action Forum seems to dislike the Warren plan; the group, well, takes Google money.
Geoffrey Manne and Alec Stapp condemn Warren for “wanting to turn the Internet into a sewer.” Manne’s organization, the International Center for Law and Economics, has taken a boatload of Google money; as of 2015, he had contributed to at least eight white papers commissioned or funded by Google that endorsed Google’s policy positions, in addition to being a frequent pro-Google commentator in news articles and congressional testimony. Stapp, before hooking up with Manne at ICLE, worked at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, another recipient of Google funds. A former Manne co-author, Joshua Wright, worked at George Mason University and has been periodically on and off the Google payroll in between government work.
Manne and Stapp’s piece got the pile-on treatment on Twitter from representatives of the Google-funded Cato Institute and Niskanen Center; Stapp previously worked at Niskanen. Several venture capitalists who currently rely on Big Tech for exit strategies for their companies also gave the thumbs-up to the piece.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that includes Amazon, Facebook, and Google among its members, uses a subsidiary named Springboard to hurl critiques at regulatory tech policies. In addition to the aforementioned articles from AEI and National Review, Springboard points to the opinions of a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, an early investor in Facebook, and the CCIA’s own vice president for Law an Policy — which amounts to CCIA linking to itself as outside confirmation of its beliefs.
These linkages are virtually endless and show an incestuous network of academics, think-tankers, advocacy organizations, and trade groups, all of which happen to agree on every issue important to Big Tech. The money supports extending the prominence and megaphone of these organizations, and with nearly unlimited pocketbooks, it creates the impression of a tsunami of support for the industry.
A “Radical” Idea That’s Been Around for Over a Century
The core of Warren’s plan, which for now is just a proposal on Medium rather than legislation, involves what is known as “structural separation.” Companies with over $25 billion in annual global revenue that operate platforms — connectors between people, people and advertisers, or people and merchants — would not be allowed to both own the platform and also participate as a seller on that platform. The classic example would be Amazon’s marketplace, where Amazon also operates its own line of Amazon Basics, competing with its third-party sellers. Google’s ad exchange also competes on Google with ad tech companies, and would need to be spun off. The same would go for Google’s local search, which routinely deprioritizes recommendation sites like Yelp.
The idea is that these entities get preferential treatment from the platform they own, giving Basics, Google ad tech, and Google Search an unfair advantage and extending the platform’s dominance. Only the biggest companies would have to structurally separate; smaller platforms would still have to meet a standard of fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory treatment for participants on the platform and its users.
This forced divestiture of tech platforms’ other business lines has been described as radical. Manne and Stapp claim it will turn the internet into your sewer service — mainly because Warren uses the word “utility” to describe regulated platforms.
Jeff Bezos didn’t come up with the idea of owning a marketplace and using it to sell your own stuff at an unfair advantage against rivals. Reading Railroad, for example, became the largest company in the world by owning the rails that carried anthracite coal, as well as the coal mines along the route. Rival coal producers that wanted to use the lines got less favorable rates, fell behind, and got swallowed up by Reading Railroad.
Congress put a stop to it in 1906 by adopting the Hepburn Act, which prevented the railroads from carrying products that they owned. This forced the Reading Railroad to divest the P&R Coal and Iron Company, the subsidiary that owned the coal mines. Warren is merely following a long history of structural separation that began when Teddy Roosevelt was president.
Theater owners were not allowed to also produce and distribute films after the Supreme Court’s Paramount decision in 1948. Television networks were prevented from owning the programming they ran in prime time, under the Financial Interest and Syndication, or “fin-syn,” rules imposed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1970. In telecom, AT&T was heavily circumscribed and restricted to common-carrier telephone service, banning the company from capitalizing on innovations from Bell Labs and forcing compulsory licensing of those patents in 1956, which created the modern electronics industry. Banks were structurally separated between investment and deposit-taking commercial lines after the Glass-Steagall reforms. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the chair of the House Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee, has analogized a structural separation in tech as a Glass-Steagall type of rule.
These structural separations have widespread goals: diversity, financial stability, decentralization of power, and innovation. “We owe the internet to structural separation,” said Harold Feld, a senior vice president with Public Knowledge, referring to the Carterfone decisions, where the FCC allowed people to connect their own devices, like a modem, to the telephone network. “Clearly this has a long and successful history in telecom.”
Some of these restrictions, like those on banks or television stations, have been dismantled. And there are cases of companies selling products in a store while also owning the store: Kirkland products at Costco are ubiquitous, for example. But as Lina Khan, scholar and staffer for Cicilline’s antitrust subcommittee, has pointed out, the key question is whether the platform, be it brick and mortar or digital, is creating a bottleneck by privileging its own products over rivals. And there’s a lot of evidence that Amazon in particular does just that, reacting to high-selling products by creating a generic version, and down-ranking the competitor in its search. Because half of all e-commerce is sold on Amazon, competitors have few alternatives but to sell in what feels like a rigged marketplace.
India has already instituted a Warren-like rule to prevent e-commerce platforms from selling their own products on the platform. “We should go back and understand the wisdom of that kind of separation,” said Peter Carstensen, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “We would never want the interstate highway system to be owned by Walmart. It simplifies the market functions if you separate them out.”
Another benefit to structural separation is the relative ease of regulation. Instead of well-paid economists fighting it out over what constitutes anti-competitive conduct or restraint of trade, large companies simply can’t compete with rivals on their own platform, because of the threat of market power.
The Warren plan sets a rather arbitrary number of $25 billion in annual revenue as the dividing line for that power, a kind of substitute for the technocratic determination. This has angered critics: Andy Kessler at the Wall Street Journal denied that antitrust law has anything to do with bigness.
The idea that John Sherman, author of the Sherman Antitrust Act, was not concerned with bigness would come as news to Sherman, who once said, “If we will not endure a king as a political power, we should not endure a king over the production, transportation, and sale of any of the necessaries of life.” Warren’s campaign sees the $25 billion figure as a clean way to assist regulators with pinpointing market dominance. “It has the benefit of a clear rule,” said one senior campaign adviser, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “We should presume if a company with over $25 billion in revenue is operating a marketplace, it has power and leverage.”
While agnostic on the specific dividing number, Feld gave Warren’s team credit “for trying to come up with something that makes sense.” Others are not as thrilled about it. But their arguments often misconstrue the Warren plan.
Assuming the Worst
Ben Thompson, a former Apple and Microsoft analyst who writes about the business of technology, had one of the sharpest critiques of the Warren proposal, and it starts with denying Warren’s claim on the history of technology. Warren has credited the Microsoft trial for creating space for the modern tech giants to emerge, something Thompson mocks. “Bing was not even launched until 2009, eight years after the Microsoft case was settled. MSN Search, its predecessor, did launch in 1998, but with licensed search results from Inktomi and AltaVista; Microsoft didn’t launch its own web crawler until 2005.”
This view neglects the politics of the U.S. trial against Microsoft, which put a dominant company under pressure and wary of extending that dominance into the then-emerging web services arena. As Gary Reback, who represented Netscape against Microsoft in the 1990s, has often said, including to me in a 2017 interview, “The trial is the remedy.” By exposing Microsoft’s machinations to the nation, it made the company gun-shy to choke off competition, Reback argues.
“The only way to get to Google was the Microsoft browser,” he said. “Microsoft could have put up a big red sign saying this site is unsafe. It could have killed Google in the cradle, but didn’t. The reason why, and this is from Microsoft people, is they had this public trial. It wasn’t worth it as a company.”
Feld concurred that Microsoft’s behavior changed after the public spotlight of the trial, and the kind of aggressive actions to shut down competitors largely stopped. You can apply this to IBM’s antitrust issues in the 1970s and ’80s opening space for Apple, and AOL’s forced interoperability of Instant Messenger in 2001 giving room to social media. “Big companies are sensitive to this stuff; after they’ve been burned, they do generally play it safe,” Feld said, noting that big cable hasn’t had such a spotlight and they managed to crush TiVo swiftly and completely. So while Thompson focuses on specific Microsoft business decisions, he ignores the political context.
Thompson also warns that applying the structural separation standard to Apple, as Warren confirmed in an interview at South by Southwest, would lead to smartphones shipped without any applications. “Was Apple breaking the law when they shipped the first iPhone with only first-party apps?” Thompson asks. “At what point did delivering an acceptable consumer experience out-of-the-box cross the line into abusing a dominant position? This argument may make sense in theory but it makes zero sense in reality.”
This argument also has zero bearing on what Warren’s talking about. Whether Apple is unfairly tying or bundling its own apps onto its phones at purchase is a question for existing antitrust laws — it was the question in the Microsoft case, in fact. “The ordinary rules apply in that case,” said the senior Warren adviser. “The key thing we’re talking about is the marketplace.”
Contrary to what critics have claimed, Apple would not have to divest from the App Store completely under Warren’s plan, nor would the security benefits of Apple managing what goes onto its phone wither away. Apple would merely be disallowed from selling its own apps next to competing ones. This would hardly destroy Apple, largely a phone and hardware manufacturer and not primarily an app-maker. It would allow competition on the platform.
Apple does have a legitimate antitrust problem with the App Store, as Thompson acknowledges. Spotify has complained to the European Union that Apple takes a 30 percent cut from all revenues from its iPhone app, while preventing it from emailing users directly or allowing upgrades. This indirectly benefits Apple Music, Spotify says. Apple has accused Spotify of using “misleading rhetoric” in its complaint.
Spotify wants changes to Apple’s conduct on the App Store — which is not only fair game for traditional antitrust that can identify anti-competitive impositions of market power, but is also part of Warren’s plan, which mandates fair and nondiscriminatory treatment to marketplace participants. And it shows how Warren is highlighting a consumer welfare issue: If Spotify has to absorb a 30 percent transfer of revenues to Apple for use of its iPhone customers, it likely has to raise prices, and it cannot offer services like upgrades directly.
Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you.
Thompson and others run through all sorts of reasons why Warren’s proposal would degrade the consumer tech experience. This isn’t warranted from a proposal that simply says platform monopolies shouldn’t suck up all the benefits of every adjacent money stream related to the platform. The idea that a Google shorn of its advertising platform would revert to a nonfunctional “10 blue links” website, instead of a model where it can charge for supplier access but not control it entirely, is simply fearmongering.
The argument also suffers from a lack of imagination. Is Apple Music really the best the world can do? With a fair market, let’s see what innovation is possible.
The upshot of these familiar points of attack is a kind of denialism, where the plain facts — a set of entrenched companies swallowing competition and profits — get pushed to the side. Any effort to deal with this reality is termed the flip side of Trumpism, as the outlet owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos put it recently.
What Warren’s plan does is target the denialism. The vast majority of internet traffic flows through Amazon, Google, Facebook, or sites they control. The five biggest firms have acquired 436 companies in the past decade, nearly all without antitrust review. (Warren’s plan, incidentally, would unwind several of these mergers.) The remaining holdouts, like Yelp, find themselves in the “kill zone,” attacked by Big Tech to the point of irrelevance. Facebook has a subsidiary app that hunts for rivals gaining market share, so it can either purchase or crush them. The impact on competition, innovation, entrepreneurship, wages, and inequality is real.
There are certainly reasonable concerns to express about a short presidential campaign proposal, without legislative language, intended to start a discussion about the power and influence of one industry. What’s unreasonable is outsourcing opinions on the matter to self-interested parties, distorting history, or leaping to unverifiable conclusions about the horrors of a post-regulatory world.
Warren’s plan is the first to actually propose regulation that’s specific to the tech sector. “This is why it’s great to kickstart the debate,” said Feld. “You couldn’t write the piece of legislation tomorrow; real homework has to be done. But these are really the right lines of the debate.”
David Dayen[email protected]prospect.org@ddayen
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Home / Blog / What do we want? School choice! When do we want it? Now!
What do we want? School choice! When do we want it? Now!
Imagine a world where parents can decide where their children go to school instead of a government bureaucrat. Hispanic students would be free to choose schools that have high quality education, programs that align with student’s interests, and schools that would compete and improve their educational standards to attract students and funding.
LIBRE’s staff and volunteers have been working hard to advance our support for school choice because we know that when families choose, kids win! In Texas our staff spoke at the National School Choice Week Rally at the state Capitol where over 2500 students, parents, teachers, and activists came together to urge for more school choice options. The rallying didn’t stop in Austin! Our Colorado field team joined in the Denver Capitol rally in support of choice where hundreds of came to stand up and be counted. In Arizona, LIBRE staff, volunteers, and members of the community also showed up at the state Capitol to celebrate the positive effects that school choice has had in the life of students. Not one to be left behind, the Sunshine state is also ardently promoting school choice, our South Florida staff spoke to over 400 students and parents about the benefits of having school choice in their community.
Securing the power of choice for our community is one of our top priorities. We strongly believe that as parent’s you have the right to choose what’s best for your child and in turn, our future!
Securing the power of choice for our community is one of our top priorities. #SCW
We strongly believe that as parent’s you have the right to choose what’s best for your child and in turn, our future! #SCW
Imagine a world where parents can decide where their children go to school instead of a bureaucrat. #SCW
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Third-year drama students muster up their courage for Theatre Erindale’s In the Midst of Alarms.
Third-year drama students make explosive debut
Kathelene Cattell-Daniels
Jim Smagata
In the Midst of Alarms: Women and the War of 1812 is not a play in the traditional sense of the word. It is a sort of sensory experiment, using lights, sound, dance, movement, song, and scenery to tell a story surrounding a theme. The third-year class of the theatre and drama studies program have put together an aptly named collective about a war without taking sides, and they give a voice to everyone—even those who have been left out of the history books.
Plays about wars can be problematic. Either the wars happened so long ago that no one alive now was alive then, or they’re so recent that they’re touchy, controversial, and hardly ever make for family-friendly theatre. The large speaking parts tend to go to men, which (ask anyone in the theatre business) is simply not suited to the number of women striving for a good part in a show.
To solve the problem of gender equality, In the Midst of Alarms looks at the war of 1812 from the other side: that of the women who nursed, lost, found, and slandered their men. But the first problem remains: how do you make a 200-year-old war speak to a modern audience? One option is that you don’t, insisting heatedly that people will watch period theatre and they had better like it. The better choice, though, is to bring the history up to the present.
Written by the performers, the text of In the Midst of Alarms retains a certain degree of classical idiom, but only enough to locate the audience in the time period. The rest is very contemporary, both in writing and delivery. None of the performers get caught up in the airs often associated with period work, which makes it more truthful and easier to relate to.
Using an off-white stage and light-coloured costumes, the production takes advantage of projections and lighting experiments. The projections are highly sophisticated, consisting mostly of portraits and landscapes that help tie the actors to the past. They remind us that the people who sat for those portraits had lives and stories to tell, and their stories will be told and shared even 200 years after the fact. The lighting is far from easy and conventional washes and spots. Instead, the lights are coloured and textured and are always moving and changing depending on the scene, often accompanied by music. Lights are placed at angles that don’t necessarily give visibility, but rather dramatic effect. In fact, the lights and sound tell the story as much as the dialogue does.
The overall aesthetic, pale and fairly uniform, is made even more so by two huge lengths of off-white fabric that are put to any number of uses. They are the sails of a ship, the aisle of a church, water, and, in one scene, the only thing keeping a group of women from storming a shop. Since the show is mainly made up of vignettes, the cloth helps establish continuity between the scenes. Similarly, wooden dowels serve as various props throughout the show and fit into pockets in the fabric so that it can be manipulated with greater control. The set is minimal, consisting of a few benches and a table, repurposed as stools, beds, and lookouts.
There is very little in the way of a set, but the actors use their bodies to make one. They become the forest that Laura Secord runs through, made all the more terrifying by their constant movement. I’ve never seen trees that writhed, but if it were me running through the woods in a war zone, I don’t doubt that they would probably appear to move and get in my way on purpose. The actors also become a surprisingly intricate mail wagon, complete with a driver, turning wheels, and horses.
In the Midst of Alarms is more of a sensory experience than a show, especially given the variety of forms of expression used to create it. At once touching and funny, witty and honest, this performance is a credit to the third-year class. It marks a noble debut in their Theatre Erindale careers—a debut that will no doubt be matched by their later performances.
In the Midst of Alarms: Women and the War of 1812 runs until Sunday, November 25.
A contributor to The Medium.
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California declares state of emergency over coronavirus death, cruise ship held off coast
Source: LATimes
An elderly person infected with the new coronavirus (nCoV) in California died on March 4, causing the state to declare an emergency. The 71-year-old man reportedly had underlying health issues prior to contracting the deadly virus and was onboard the Mexico-bound Grand Princess cruise ship from February 11 to 21.
According to the local health department, those who were in contact with the patient, including 10 healthcare workers and five emergency responders, have been placed in isolation.
The man’s death has brought the total death toll from the virus to 11 in the United States as of March 4. The other ten fatalities were reported in Washington State. At least 150 cases have been registered so far in 16 states across the US. A total of 53 cases have reportedly been recorded in the state of California, including 24 repatriated individuals.
Cruise ship passengers tested
The Grand Princess cruise ship that departed from Hawaii and was headed toward San Francisco reportedly has 21 suspected cases after showing novel coronavirus symptoms. Test kits are being airlifted to the ship that is currently being held off the coast of California. There are at least 3,000 people on board. The test results will be flown to a lab in Richmond, Virginia.
According to California Governor Gavin Newsom, the cruise ship is contaminated with the novel coronavirus as dozens on board have shown symptoms.
“That cruise that ended on the 21st, that same ship, set sail a few days later to Hawaii. That cruise ship is making its way back towards the State of California specifically back to the city and county of San Francisco. It was due to arrive this evening. We’ve requested for it to be delayed to provide ample opportunity for CDC partnership with coast guard and state health officials to conduct tests because we have a number of passengers and crew members who have developed symptoms in the Grand Princess cruise ship,” Newsom told reporters at a press conference held on March 4.
US$8.3 billion allocated
On March 4, the US House of Representatives voted to pass a spending package allocating US$8.3 billion to combat the virus.
The White House is expected to approve the response package after it goes through the Senate. The funding package far exceeds the initial US$2.5 billion requested by the White House in February.
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Tags: North AmericaShort read
Google employees outline plans to unionize
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Born and raised in New Hampshire, President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet’s first claim to fame is that he is a direct descendant of a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He also owned a carving knife forged the Boston silversmith Paul Revere, before giving it to Charlie Young. Prior to entering a life in politics, he considered the idea of becoming a Roman Catholic priest. After entering politics, he remains devout, showing the influence of his mother — and not necessarily his father, who, besides being Protestant, physically abused him as a child.
Despite his rocky upbringing, or perhaps hardened by it, Jed went on to achieve greatness, starting with a series of degrees from prestigious schools including Notre Dame, where he met his future wife Abbey, and the London School of Economics. He speaks multiple languages and is generally considered a master of economic thought and theory. Jed is a stern, but loving father to three daughters with Abbey: Elizabeth Anne “Liz” Westin, Eleanor Emily “Ellie” Bartlet, and Zoey Patricia Bartlet. He is also viewed as paternal to his staff.
His list of achievements in his time in office is long and distinguished, but interestingly, and quite realistically, does not include balancing the budget. Often seen sparring with his Republican counterparts, he is nevertheless viewed as a man of integrity, intellect, compassion and stoicism, earning the label of the “most popular Democratic President in recent history.”
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Knoxville City Council Wants to Privatize Land that Soldier Memorial with Cross is On
KNOXVILLE, Iowa -- The Knoxville City Council has decided to direct its staff to look into how they can privatize the land at a city park that a soldier memorial sits on.
At a city council meeting that was held at the Knoxville Performing Arts Center Tuesday night, the passions of those in attendance were on full display and they were strong. Don Zoutte of Knoxville spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, and while addressing the city council and the hundreds of people who showed up for the meeting, he said the memorial really was a piece of Al Larsen's heart, adding "don`t think about that as a cross that needs to come down. You have to stand for something and it`s time to stand for it now."
That line drew loud applause and a standing ovation as did other comments spoken throughout the night in support of the memorial.
Emotions ran high at the meeting, and nearly two hours was spent on the issue of the memorial . People came from near and far to make and state their case that the cross should not be removed. "Keep the cross. If you want to add other memorials to it fine, but the cross stays. Don`t remove it and remember we are the people, the people are speaking, and the people will vote, and the people are here to say as our forefathers did, 'don`t tread on us,'" said one man who spoke at the meeting.
Another man that spoke, 84-year-old Bob Smith, said "I just think it`s sad. I think it`s sad that we`re losing the battle, that every vestige of Christianity is someday in this country going to be lost, if we don`t stand up, and do something in our generation."
Some offered compromises and proposals of putting up other religious symbols at the park or a memorial that has no religious affiliation at all as possible solutions that would resolve any objections from anyone who might be offended by the current memorial on government property. However, many at the meeting said they were tired of being bullied and pushed around and that keeping the cross meant preserving freedom and religious liberty.
Ultimately, the council decided to avoid a legal battle and instead look into privatizing the land the memorial is on. "I was really disappointed. We were threatened with a lawsuit. There is no lawsuit as of today and they backed down. They just, it just irks me....Stand up to these guys...if we don’t stand up here, there’s gonna be another town getting sued, and another town getting sued when does it stop?" said Merrill Williams of Knoxville. Williams went on to say, "I'm really, really disappointed with the city council. If they run for re-election, they definitely should not be re-elected."
Knoxville resident Doug Goff has been a very vocal supporter of the memorial and after the city council meeting Tuesday night, he said, "I’m happy because we found a way to keep our memorial. That’s what this has been about. that’s what this whole fight has been about, is keeping our memorial. I’m disappointed that the city council didn’t take a stand and show a little bit of brass, but it is what it is."
The memorial display is a silhouette of a soldier kneeling at a cross, and it is at Youngs Park in Knoxville. The memorial was created and put up at the park by Al Larsen, a Vietnam Veteran who wanted to honor the memory of his best friend who died in combat during the Vietnam War.
Knoxville City leaders say an anonymous resident complained to them that they were offended by the memorial. The Washington D.C. based organization "Americans United for Separation for Church and State" later sent a letter to the City asking them to remove the memorial from the city park, saying having it on government property violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The organization has said it would consider legal options if the City of Knoxville did not remove the memorial voluntarily.
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Staying power: Sonny Hill celebrates 50 years in the broadcasting industry
Jennifer Lynn
Listen 6:51
Sonny Hill of 94 WIP has been working in radio for 50 years. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Philadelphia native Sonny Hill is the host of 94WIP Sportsradio’s Sunday morning radio show, “In the Living Room.” But it’s just one piece of Hill’s 50 year career in broadcasting.
Hill, born in 1936, played pro basketball in the Eastern Basketball League when black athletes, like him, were overlooked for white players in the early years of the NBA. He worked as a radio analyst for the 76ers in the 60s and was an NBA commentator for CBS TV in the 70s.
WHYY’s “Morning Edition” host Jennifer Lynn spoke with him about breaking in and breaking through.
You can’t look at 1936 and say that you’re going to be in broadcasting for 50 years because, first off, only a few people had radios. TV was almost nonexistent. And opportunities for people from my ethnic group were nonexistent. My journey is not supposed to happen.
So, born in 1936. That’s when my mother was born.
There you go. Eighty-two years old, going into 83.
And fit. You’re super fit.
Yes. Well, that’s a blessing. It’s not supposed to happen.
I come across people all the time, and you know people start talking, “Well you know, I’m this and that.” I say, “Excuse me. I think I’m a little older than you.” I say, “I’m 82.”
“What water are you drinking? What’s going on?”
They want to know.
So you have to appreciate the fact that He’s sending a message through me. And as long as I continue to deliver the message in the way He wants, He’ll continue to reward me. He’s not finished with me yet. He’ll let me know.
And he is your God. As a young person, very athletic, you could play anything pretty much. There was no talk of going to college in the household.
And then you’ve heard, you’ve heard that.
Yeah. But you use sports to do a lot of things, and you went to college.
And you became a basketball player.
And you became a broadcaster.
What did you do for the 76ers?
Started 76 years in 1969.
On the radio?
On radio.
You have a beautiful voice. You know the sport. Yeah, I mean for me, you’d be a great candidate. But I’m sure.
No, not, not then, not 1969.
No, it was not easy.
Because it’s still racial. In fact, in the NBA at that time, I don’t think they had five teams that had analysts, and we probably had at that time maybe 12 to 14 teams in the league.
Well, how did you crack that open to get in as a broadcaster?
I think the way that I had conducted myself in everyday life, and how I built a name and a reputation in this area through high school, through independent basketball, which was big back in the day. As I’ve said on my radio show, my grandmother raised me to be a person who could interact with people and respect people and command respect on the other end. By the way that you carried yourself. So all of that is a part of how you are able to get on this journey, and to be on this journey for the many years that I’ve been here.
You are a broadcast pioneer — a groundbreaker — but you say that came at a price.
And the price is when you are groundbreaker, you don’t get all of the residuals that other people may get as they come in. When I was at CBS, I was conscious of the fact that I was not representing me, Sonny Hill. I was representing us as African-Americans — as blacks. And at the time that I started in ’72, as Negroes and colored. And I felt that I had a responsibility to send a message more to the people outside of our immediate involvement. And maybe in the South, people had a different perspective of how we carried ourselves as people outside of their ethnic group. So, it was important for me to be able to present myself in a manner that would bridge the gap from a distance. But now, they could see it up close. If you can look a certain way and you can speak a certain way, you capture them. And now, we have all these people that are now in the business particularly from a minority point of view, and they don’t have to worry about it as much because it was a person like myself — I’m not the only one, but I was in the forefront of breaking down that barrier — so that we could gain the kind of respect that we deserved.
Sonny, you have a way of not talking at your listeners in the living room, which is what you call your radio space. You have callers call in, and you’re there to greet them and talk about any number of things. It can be sports. It can be Frank Sinatra.
This past week was Nat King Cole’s 100th birthday.
That was a great conversation.
And, in fact, you said to me before you came today you don’t do interviews, you do conversations.
What I like to do every now and then, more now than then, is let me tell your story. And that way we connect, or let me tell you how much I respect you. You’ve probably called in on a number of occasions, and I’ve gotten to know you through that, or you’re just a caller that’s calling the first time. But I can feel what kind of human being you are. And then they go back telling people I was in the living room and Sonny treated me this way. It’s a great feeling.
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About Jennifer Lynn
@goodmorningjen jlynn@whyy.org
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Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
Revision as of 21:28, 31 January 2020 by FreeEmulator (talk | contribs) (→Gameplay Videos)
Developer(s) h.a.n.d.
Series Final Fantasy
Release date(s) JP December 13, 2007
NA July 8, 2008
EU November 7, 2008
AUS July 30, 2008
Genre(s) Action-adventure, Role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player, Online (2)
Input methods Wii Remote, Classic Controller
GameIDs R7FEGD, R7FPGD, R7FJGD
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon is a role-playing video game published by Square Enix for the Wii. It is an installment in the Chocobo series that focuses on Chocobo and a Cid character. The gameplay involves randomly generated dungeons and turn-based battles of the Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon title, though new elements have also been incorporated into the gameplay, such as the Job system, which features ten jobs.
The graph below charts the compatibility with Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.
r6206 Windows 7 Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT Playable. Half speed ~30FPS. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon on Dolphin v2.0 - Nintendo Wii Emulator dTerenciano
r7442 Windows 7 Intel Pentium E5300 @ 3.6GHz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 As of April 10, 2011, the game is fully playable using DX11. Full speed in loading menus (60FPS). Full speed (30FPS) inside dungeons. 17-30FPS (full speed should be 30FPS) in town. My CPU is holding me back. Tried setting my graphics card from a core speed of 675MHz down to 100MHz and the memory speed of 900MHz down to 200MHz and still at full speed inside dungeons. DX9 and OpenGL have issues and I didn't bother using software rendering. deadcow
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon on Dolphin v2.0 - Nintendo Wii Emulator
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon - Dolphin Emulator 5.0-10892 [1080p HD] - Nintendo Wii
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (2003)
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (2007)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers (2009)
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (2009)
Final Fantasy (1987/2009)
Final Fantasy II (1988/2009)
Final Fantasy III (1990/2009)
Final Fantasy II aka Final Fantasy IV (1991/2009)
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (1992/2010)
Final Fantasy V (1992/2011)
Final Fantasy III aka Final Fantasy VI (1994/2011)
Retrieved from "https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Final_Fantasy_Fables:_Chocobo%27s_Dungeon&oldid=171122"
H.a.n.d. (Developer)
Square Enix (Publisher)
Final Fantasy (Series)
Japan (Release region)
Action-adventure (Genre)
Role-playing (Genre)
Online (Game mode)
Classic Controller (Input supported)
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WikiMili
United States Senate Democratic Policy Committee
This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2015)
Great Seal of the United States Senate
History of the United States Senate
(by seniority
by class)
Hill committees
(DSCC
NRSC)
United States Vice President (list)
President pro tempore (list)
Presiding officer
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Democratic Caucus
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Politics and procedure
Blue slip
Closed session (list)
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Quorum call
Saxbe fix
Senatorial courtesy
Unanimous consent
Vice President tie-breaking votes
Senate chamber
Senate Reception Room
Senate office buildings
(Dirksen
Russell)
The United States Senate Democratic Policy Committee is responsible for the creation of new United States Democratic Party policy proposals, supporting Democratic senators with legislative research, developing reports on legislation and policy, conducting oversight hearings, monitoring roll call votes, differentiating between Democratic and Republican positions, and building party unity.
List of Chairs
113th Congress members
The committee was established in 1947, by an act signed by President Harry S. Truman, alongside its Republican counterpart. From 1947 to 2000, the Democratic leader was also the policy committee chairman. From 1989 to 1999, there was a co-chairman. Starting in 1999, the co-chairman was dropped and the position of policy committee chairman became a separate position elected by the Senate Democratic Caucus. The floor leader served as committee chair until 1989, when one of the co-chairs remained leader (Mitchell through 1995 and then Daschle until 1999). The committee chairman is a member of the Democratic party leadership of the United States Senate.
Chair(s)
Alben W. Barkley (KY)
Scott W. Lucas (IL)
Ernest McFarland (AZ)
Lyndon Johnson (TX)
Mike Mansfield (MT)
Robert Byrd (WV)
1989–1995 Tom Daschle (SD) George J. Mitchell (ME)
1995–1999 Harry Reid (NV)
Byron Dorgan (ND)
Chuck Schumer (NY)
Debbie Stabenow (MI)
Chuck Schumer, Chairman New York
Jack Reed, Regional Chair Rhode Island
Mary Landrieu, Regional Chair Louisiana
Patty Murray, Regional Chair Washington
Harry Reid Nevada
Dianne Feinstein California
Ron Wyden Oregon
Tim Johnson South Dakota
Bill Nelson Florida
Tom Carper Delaware
Barbara Mikulski Maryland
Sherrod Brown Ohio
Ex officio
Dick Durbin, Democratic Whip Illinois
Patty Murray, Assistant Democratic Leader Washington
Official Senate Democratic Policy Committee Website
Party caucuses and conferences in the United States Congress
Senate Republican Conference
Senate Democratic Caucus
Conference Chair Chair Caucus Chair
Conference Vice-Chair / Secretary Secretary Caucus Secretary
Policy Committee Chair Policy Committee Policy Committee Chair
House Republican Conference
House Democratic Caucus
Vice Chair Vice Chair Vice-Chair / Secretary
Conference Secretary Secretary
Policy Committee Chair Policy Committee Policy Committee Co-Chair
(115th ← 116th→117th)
Lists of United States Congress
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VP's Room
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Randy Sorrels Selected As A Top Attorney In Texas
» Randy Sorrels Selected As A Top Attorney In Texas
(Houston, TX) The law firm of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner is proud to announce that attorney Randy Sorrels is selected to the Top 100 Texas, Top 100 Houston, and Texas Super Lawyers lists for 2016..
Randy Sorrels, attorney and managing partner of the law firm of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, has once again been named to the Top 100 Texas, Top 100 Houston, and Texas Super Lawyers lists for this year. Mr. Sorrels has been included in Top 100 Texas annually since 2007, Top 100 Houston since 2006, and Texas Super Lawyers for the past 14 years.
Inclusion on the Super Lawyers list is restricted to the top percent of attorneys in Texas, and recognition as one of the Top 100 lawyers in the both the Houston area and entire state of Texas is even more competitive, as both lists constitute attorneys in the very top of those respective legal communities.
Recipients of these awards are carefully chosen, with the top five percent of attorneys in Texas being selected for the Super Lawyers designation based on a combination of peer evaluations and professional accomplishments that is then verified through intensive research. The Top 100 Houston and Top 100 Texas designations have similar requirements, ensuring that any attorney who receives these honors has been thoroughly vetted and selectively named . These recognitions speak to the quality of the work Mr. Sorrels performs on a consistent basis, and what he offers to all of his clients and the other attorneys with which he works every day.
Mr. Sorrels has a rich background and a wealth of experience, including being named the Best Lawyers® Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs “Lawyer of the Year” for Houston not once, but twice, and becoming board certified in both civil trial law and personal injury by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization – a distinction held by only one tenth of one percent of Texas attorneys. His honors are not limited to the courtroom, however, as he has also received the State Bar of Texas’ President’s Award and the Houston Bar Association President’s Award, along with the Woodrow B. Seals Outstanding Young Lawyer of Houston Award early in his career.
Mr. Sorrels is also the Immediate Past President of the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists, and Immediate Past Chair of the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation. As the managing partner of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner, he has worked to make the oldest personal injury firm in Texas more diverse, more community-oriented, and more academically accomplished.
Please join the firm of Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner in congratulating Randy Sorrels on his awards and all of his impressive accomplishments. To find out more about Mr. Sorrels, or to contact him, please email the firm or call 713-396-3964
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Daidalos
Cafe-Snack Bar
E4 European path
The European path E4 beginning at Gibraltar crosses Spain, France Switzerland, Germany Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria and ends up in the south-eastern edge of the Mediterranean Greece, finishing its journey at the island of Venus, Cyprus. In Greece, the Hellenic Mountaineering Association has been appointed by the European Ramblers Association, its coordinative body, to define and the path. Today the Hellenic federation of Mountaineering and Climbing is its administrative body. In the route that lies furthest in the south of Greece, the E4 crosses Crete, beginning at Elafonisi, on the west coast and ending up at Kato Zagkros , on the east coast. In this route, the path often branches off, so that hikers have the chance to choose among routes of variable natural and cultural beauty. In the prefecture of Rethymnon the E4 path also comprises two branches, the northern one and the southern one. The northern branch comes into the administrative borders of the prefecture from the region of Argiroupoli village and the northern one from the region of Rodakino. The two branches meet at the plateau of Nida on the mountainous mass of Psiloreitis and, from there, the path goes on to the administrative borders of the prefecture of Heraklion. The two branches of the prefecture of Rethymnon cross areas of great natural beauty and lands of important geological, archaeological, historical, and generally natural value. They also offer the chance to go hiking in the mountains of Krioneritis, Kedros and Psiloreitis. Especially, mountain Kedros and south-western part of the mountain range of Psoloreitis belong to the Natura 2000 European network, in which Kouraliotiko gorge, which is close to the E4 path, is also included. The southern branch is recommended to hikers in good form and to those, whose interests focus on Byzantine era. The northern part is recommended to hikers that are more interested in the Venetian occupation and modern culture.
Cretan culture
The music of Crete is a traditional form of Greek folk music, also called Kritika. Although, the Lyra is the
Posted by AgiosPavlosHotel
Cretan history
The existence of human life during the Neolithic Period (6000-2600 BC) is proved by archaeological findings in the Ideon Andron
The mountains of the Rethymno prefecture are exceptionally rich in caves, there being some 850 in all. Many of these
Gorges of extraordinary beauty traverse the mountains and mountain ranges of the prefecture: the ravine of Kourtaliotis which is 3
The European path E4 beginning at Gibraltar crosses Spain, France Switzerland, Germany Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria and ends up in
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Facilities, Maintenance & Repair
Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment
8(a) Direct Awards
Team With Us
About Leadership Mia Gill
Mia Gill
Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer
Mia Gill is the chief human resources officer, overseeing all aspects of human resource management, policies, practices, and operations for the Akima portfolio of companies.
Prior to joining Akima, Mia served as chief operating officer for C2 Portfolio, an HR consultancy supporting federal contractors in the Washington, D.C. area. She has also held senior leadership positions with CACI and BAE systems in the U.S. and Europe. Mia brings over 30 years of human resources experience to Akima.
Mia studied at the INSEAD Business School in France and holds a degree in Business Studies.
Akima President & CEO Bill Monet Accepts Wash100 Award from Executive Mosaic
Akima is more than one company. We are a portfolio of 8(a) companies, small businesses, and other operating organizations. We take pride in being both specialized and nimble — two qualities that allow us to respond quickly to our customers’ unique needs.
Select Topic (optional)Facilities, Maintenance & RepairInformation TechnologyLogistics & Supply ChainProtective ServicesSystems EngineeringMission SupportFurniture, Fixtures & EquipmentConstructionCareersGeneral Inquiry/Other
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ISBN 9781797200163, 179720016X
Hardcover | 80 pages
The I Know This to Be True series is a collection of extraordinary figures from diverse backgrounds answering the same questions, as well as sharing their compelling stories, guiding ideals, and insightful wisdom.
The inimitable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, embodies the power of persistence and integrity. Throughout her legal career, spanning nearly five decades, she has been an unwavering force for progress and a leading voice for equality and justice. Here, she reflects on her many years of service to the law, as well as her family life and struggle with cancer. With disarming honesty, Ginsburg discusses everything from gender equality and fitness to literature and the importance of hard work. Strong, hopeful and wise, her words stand as a guide for budding feminists and those who fight for justice around the world.
Inspired by Nelson Mandela's legacy and created in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, I Know This to Be True is a global series of books created to spark a new generation of leaders.
This series offers encouragement and guidance to graduates, future leaders, and anyone hoping to make a positive impact on the world.
• Royalties from sales of the series support the free distribution of material from the series to the world's developing economy countries.
• A highly giftable and lovely hardcover with vivid photographic portraits throughout.
I Know This to Be True: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
All She Wrote Books
451 Artisan Way
christina@allshewrotebooks.com
Book Browsing Appointments
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Live Nation continues cost-reduction plans by furloughing 2,000 employees
Almost a quarter of Live Nation's North American staff are being furloughed.
Rachael Dowd
[Photo via Shelagh Murphy]
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the live event industry has come to a standstill. Following the postponements and cancelations of various live events worldwide, companies such as AEG, Ticketmaster and Live Nation have taken a massive hit. Now, it appears that the repercussions of the pandemic have greatly impacted Live Nation.
This week, Live Nation announced it has furloughed 20 percent of its North American staff.
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Festivals and concerts worldwide have been canceled and rescheduled over the past few months due to the ongoing pandemic. This unforeseen hit the live industry has taken has caused quite a lot of problems. Companies including Ticketmaster and Live Nation are currently facing a number of lawsuits. This is due to their current refund policies that are making it difficult for ticket holders to get their money back. Due to these lawsuits, Live Nation and Ticketmaster are trying to restructure their refund policies after facing such backlash.
However, the backlash from ticket holders only hits the surface of the problems the companies are facing. Back in April, Ticketmaster announced it was furloughing hundreds of employees in North America in attempts to reduce costs.
Now it appears Ticketmaster’s partner company has also taken a massive hit financially. This week, Live Nation announced that 20 percent of its North American staff – roughly 2,100 of its 10,500 employees – have been furloughed. The furlough decision is part of the company’s $500 million cost-reduction measures as they deal with the current economic downfall.
Following these furloughs, 80 percent of Live Nation’s full-time staffers will remain on the company’s payroll. As well, furloughed employees will continue to receive medical benefits. However, furloughed employees will not receive their salaries.
Read more: Live Nation announces New Zealand’s first socially-distant concert series
As part of the company’s cost-reduction measures, CEO Michael Rapino announced that he would forgo his $3 million base salary. As well, the salaries of top executives would be trimmed by up to 50 percent.
“Given the uncertainty associated with the duration of current conditions globally, the company has launched a number of initiatives to reduce fixed costs and conserve cash,” the company says in its cost-reduction announcement. “As part of these cost reduction efforts, the company will implement salary reductions, with salaries for senior executives reduced by up to 50%, and the company’s CEO voluntarily forgoing 100% of his salary for the duration of the salary reduction program. Additional cost reduction efforts include hiring freezes, reduction in the use of contractors, rent re-negotiations, furloughs, and reduction or elimination of other discretionary spending, including, among other things, travel and entertainment, repairs and maintenance, and marketing.”
Earlier this month, Rapino reported that Live Nation doesn’t anticipate large scale live events to return until mid to late 2021. Due to the unknown nature of when live events will start again, Live Nation’s cost-reduction plan infers that more furloughs could happen in the future.
Due to the economic downfall of the live industry, Live Nation is planning to trial new alternatives to live shows. This summer, the company plans to try different concert formats including drive-in shows and fanless broadcasts.
Ticketmaster also recently unveiled “fan pods” which encourage social distancing at live events. The pods hold between 2-12 seats throughout a venue and separate attendees to avoid them mingling with one another. The “fan pods” were recently used at Arkansas’ first socially-distant concert that happened on May 18.
What do you think of Live Nation furloughing more employees? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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ACLU Sues Grand Blanc Community Schools Over Drug Testing Policy
The ACLU of Michigan, representing Grand Blanc student Micah White, filed a lawsuit today in Genesee County Circuit Court challenging a policy at the school to require drug testing of student athletes.
In the fall of 1999, Mr. White applied to enroll in the wrestling program at Grand Blanc High School. The eligibility requirements required that he and his parents sign a Drug Testing Authorization Form. After he refused to do so, he was not allowed to participate in the wrestling program.
"We shouldn't be treating students as if they are criminals. Indiscriminate, suspicionless drug testing violates their privacy rights. As the Supreme Court said in Tinker v. DesMoines, students do not surrender their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates."
Mr. White is a member of the National Honor Society and is a National Merit Commended Student, and a National Achievement Finalist. He has never been suspended, expelled or disciplined at high school due to behavior problems or for other reasons.
Prior to implementation of the policy, the high school had not found any evidence that would justify subjecting athletes to random searches; instead, they found that out of numerous students tested, only one tested positive for drugs.
The State of Michigan has held in a previous case that the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures is greater under the Michigan Constitution than under the federal constitution.
The case has been assigned to the Hon. Geoffrey Neithercut. The cooperating attorney in this case is Gregory T. Gibbs and JeanMarie Miller and Mark Granzatto.
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New research study explains how cancer cells resist treatment
Cancer researchers at grant recipient, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne have worked out how a new class of anticancer drugs kill cancer cells. The finding also helps explain how cancer cells may become resistant to treatment.
Dr Zhen Xu, Professor David Huang, Dr Stefan Glaser and colleagues studied a class of anti-cancer drugs called BET inhibitors, which are considered promising new drugs for the treatment of blood cancers such as leukaemia and lymphomas.
BET inhibitors reduce tumour growth by blocking BET proteins, a family of proteins that control whether genes are switched on or off.
Although it has been known that BET inhibitors are effective at halting tumour growth, it has been unclear whether the drugs kill cancer cells outright.
The research team found that when tumours are treated with drugs, some resistant cancer cells can survive and continue to grow, leading to disease relapse. In the process, they identified potential ways in which cancer cells may develop resistance to BET inhibitors.
The experiments revealed that BET inhibitors principally act to kill cancer cells through the process of programmed cell death (apoptosis). For BET inhibitors to successfully kill lymphoma and myeloid leukaemia cells the presence of a protein called BIM, which brings on apoptosis, was critical.
“We found that when apoptosis was impaired, for instance by the loss of BIM, the BET inhibitors were no longer effective,” Dr Xu said.
“This suggests that cancer cells that acquire mutations in genes that drive apoptosis will lose sensitivity to BET inhibitors and thus will be able to survive treatment, leading to disease relapse.”
Dr Glaser said that knowing how BET inhibitors worked could help researchers develop improved strategies for using these drugs to treat cancer.
“Understanding how the drugs work gives us the opportunity to investigate new treatments, for example by using combination therapies, or altering the dosage and timing of treatment to prevent drug resistance from emerging,” Dr Glaser said.
The original news post was published on the WEHI website.
The Australian Cancer Research Foundation has supported the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute by providing three grants, totalling AUD 5.5million, towards cutting edge cancer research equipment and technology.
Remarkable progress: The ACRF Centre for Integrated Systems Biology
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STIPANOVIC, ANDRIJA
Cedevita Zagreb 31 Center
Height: 2.09 Born: 18 December, 1986 Nationality: Croatia
Totals 16 13 376:02 129 55/102 0/0 19/38 30 46 76 28 11 28 7 8 53 67 163
Averages 16 13 23:30 8.1 53.9% 0% 50% 1.9 2.9 4.8 1.8 0.7 1.8 0.4 0.5 3.3 4.2 10.2
11 * at Dolomiti Energia Trento 18:15 0/1 1 1 4 3 1 4 1 -3
12 * vs Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 21:08 13 5/8 3/4 2 6 8 3 1 2 7 18
13 * at Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 23:16 7 3/6 1/4 4 2 6 1 1 3 1 1 5 8 9
14 vs Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 25:45 13 4/5 5/8 1 2 3 2 1 2 8 19
15 vs Dolomiti Energia Trento 14:48 4 2/4 3 3 1 2 2 1 7
16 at Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 21:56 6 3/5 3 2 5 2 4 2 2 7
6 Totals 125:08 43 17/29 0/0 9/16 10 16 26 10 1 14 3 3 17 27 57
Average 20:51 7.2 58.6% 0% 56.3% 1.7 2.7 4.3 1.7 0.2 2.29 0.5 0.5 2.8 4.5 9.5
1 * vs Fiat Turin 29:06 15 6/6 3/5 3 3 3 1 3 1 4 5 19
2 * at Darussafaka Istanbul 31:20 13 6/12 1/1 4 6 10 4 3 1 1 3 2 17
3 * vs MoraBanc Andorra 21:28 5 2/6 1/1 1 6 7 2 2 1 5 3 9
4 * vs UNICS Kazan 24:47 4 2/5 2 1 3 2 1 3 1 3 3 3
5 * at Levallois Metropolitans 31:50 15 6/10 3/6 1 5 6 4 1 2 8 23
6 * at Fiat Turin 23:54 13 6/10 1/2 2 3 5 1 2 1 1 3 3 12
7 * vs Darussafaka Istanbul 29:25 4 2/7 0/2 3 2 5 1 5 4
8 * at MoraBanc Andorra 25:25 8 4/9 0/3 1 2 3 3 2 1 4 5 6
9 * at UNICS Kazan 14:50 4 2/5 3 3 1 3 3 5
10 * vs Levallois Metropolitans 18:49 5 2/3 1/2 5 5 3 1 4 4 12
10 Totals 250:54 86 38/73 0/0 10/22 20 30 50 18 10 14 4 5 36 40 106
Average 25:05 8.6 52.1% 0% 45.5% 2 3 5 1.8 1 1.4 0.4 0.5 3.6 4 10.6
#8 in Turnovers (14)
#11 in Fouls Drawn (27)
#17 in Offensive Rebounds (10)
#1 in Games Played (10)
#1 in Games Started (10)
#23 in Total Rebounds (50)
Index rating 26 UNICS Kazan vs. Cedevita Zagreb 1/16/2019
Points 20 Trabzonspor Medical Park vs. Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 10/28/2015
Offensive rebounds 4 Brescia Leonessa vs. Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 10/16/2019
Defensive rebounds 8 Pallacanestro Cantu vs. Telenet Ostend 10/30/2013
Total rebounds 10 Darussafaka Istanbul vs. Cedevita Zagreb 10/18/2017
Assists 6 Cedevita Zagreb vs. MoraBanc Andorra 1/2/2019
Steals 4 Boulogne Metropolitans 92 vs. Cedevita Zagreb 11/8/2017
Blocks 2 Nanterre 92 vs. Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 12/11/2019
Minutes 36 UNICS Kazan vs. Trabzonspor Medical Park 11/11/2015
Made his debut with Hermes Analitica Zagreb (Croatia) during the 2005-06 season.
Played there till February'07.
Signed for the reminder of the season by KK Split.
Played there till the 2008-09 championship.
Moved to Belgium for the 2009-10 season, signed by Liege Basket.
Moved to Italy for the 2011-12 season, signed by Juve Caserta.
Signed for the 2012-13 season by Juvi Cremona.
Moved to Belgium for the 2013-14 season, signed by BC Oostende.
In November'13 moved to Turkey, signed by Trabzonspor Basketball.
Signed for the 2016-17 season by Demir IBB.
Moved to Croatia for the 2017-18 season, signed by Cedevita Zagreb.
Moved to Slovenia for the 2019-20 season, signed by KK Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana.
Won the 2017-18 Croatian National Championship with Cedevita Zagreb.
Won the 2018 and 2019 Croatian National Cup with Cedevita Zagreb.
Won the 2009 Belgian Super Cup with Liege Basket.
Won the 2017 Adriatic League Super Cup with Cedevita Zagreb.
.played the 2008 Adriatic League All Star Game.
Played the 2008 Croatian All Star Game.
Member of the Bosnian National Team.
Played at the 2013 and 2015 European Championships.
Has been member of the Croatian U-20 National Team.
Played at the 2006 European U-20 Championship.
2013-14 Telenet Ostend 7 113 16.1 53/84 63.1 0/0 0 7/23 30.4 48 4 11 4
2015-16 Trabzonspor Medical Park 16 224 14 94/149 63.1 0/1 0 36/68 52.9 84 7 40 3
2017-18 Cedevita Zagreb 16 129 8.1 55/102 53.9 0/0 0 19/38 50 76 11 28 7
2018-19 Cedevita Zagreb 16 146 9.1 60/106 56.6 0/0 0 26/56 46.4 80 9 31 6
2019-20 Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 10 50 5 23/44 52.3 0/0 0 4/16 25 37 5 21 4
Totals 65 662 10.2 285/485 58.8 0/1 0 92/201 45.8 325 36 131 24
Averages 65 662 10.2 285/485 58.8 0/1 0 92/201 45.8 5 0.6 2 0.4
2007/08 KK Split 22 175 7.9 78/129 60.4 0/3 0.0 19/46 41.3 131 28 20 3
2008/09 KK Split 14 67 4.8 27/48 56.3 0/0 0.0 13/49 26.5 36 5 5 3
2009/10 Liege 39 295 7.6 126/225 56.0 1/5 20.0 40/109 36.7 193 29 19 12
2010/11 Liege 32 438 13.7 187/334 56.0 0/1 0.0 64/156 41.0 236 34 30 14
2011/12 Caserta 26 200 7.7 95/164 57.9 0/0 0.0 10/35 28.6 163 30 14 5
2012/13 Cremona 29 277 9.6 130/212 61.3 0/2 0.0 17/48 35.4 238 36 21 8
2013/14 Oostende 8 71 8.9 31/55 56.4 0/0 0.0 9/22 40.9 19 5 19 1
Trabzonspor 23 169 7.3 80/134 59.7 0/0 0.0 9/25 36.0 97 10 24 13
2014/15 Trabzonspor 35 441 12.6 194/297 65.3 0/0 0.0 53/124 42.7 206 27 74 15
2015/16 Trabzonspor 30 310 10.3 135/243 55.6 0/0 0.0 40/87 46.0 168 19 76 8
2016/17 Demir IBB 30 315 10.5 132/227 58.1 0/2 0.0 51/82 62.2 149 20 60 8
2017/18 Cedevita-ABA 24 237 9.9 95/153 62.1 0/0 0.0 47/90 52.2 104 14 55 12
Cedevita-A1 21 245 11.7 100/142 70.4 0/2 0.0 45/82 54.9 96 9 38 6
2018/19 Cedevita-ABA 25 244 9.8 94/166 56.6 0/0 0.0 56/108 51.9 147 16 47 7
Cedevita-PL 12 105 8.8 46/82 56.1 0/1 0.0 13/35 37.1 60 10 15 5
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Home World Africa All set for Rihanna to have 4 kids with or without partner
All set for Rihanna to have 4 kids with or without partner
Sensational singer, Rihanna, has revealed plans to expand her family in the next 10 years.
The songstress disclosed that she is aiming to have four kids and raise them on her own if she will not have found her prince charming.
In an interview with Vogue Magazine, the ‘Umbrella’ hitmaker shared her personal aspirations saying she wishes to be a mother to three or four kids at most.
The singer described love as the most fundamental thing that matters most between a parent and their child.
The 32-year-old singer also declined to talk when she will be releasing her next album saying she did not want them to sound the same.
Recently, the Rnb and pop singer on Friday, March 27, ignited mass reactions from fans after appearing on a new song for the first time since 2016.
Rihanna considered one of the most influential artistes of her time, collaborated with Canadian singer Jahron Anthony Brathwaite, known professionally as PartyNextDoor, for a mellow song dubbed ‘Believe It.’
The name Rihanna on a brand new song typically elicited excited reactions across the world as fans had been waiting on the beauty queen to release new music for the last four years.
Credit: legit.ng
Joseph Enchill
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What is apcor?
Apcor members
Become an apcor member
Membership networks
Cork Oak
Social and economic
Montado’s Magic
Industrial Path
Facts and curiosities
Corkplace
Cork Mark
Agglomerated Cork Stoppers
Champagne and Sparkling Wine Cork Stoppers
Technical Cork Stoppers
Micro-Granulated Cork Stopper
Capsulated cork stoppers
Colmated Natural Cork Stoppers
Multi-Piece Natural Cork Stoppers
Support Cork
Digital documentation
Networks give Strength
Cork Technology Centre (CTCOR)
The Cork Technology Centre (CTCOR) is a non-profit research laboratory that plays an important role in defining standards for the Portuguese cork industry. It conducts research in the following areas: environmental quality, energy, technical and technological innovation, strategy, and health and safety at work.
CTCOR is recognised by the Portuguese Government as a centre of expertise. It has around 200 members. Private funding makes up 70% of its income, with the remainder coming from the Government, through various agencies.
C.E.Liège (Confédération Européenne du Liège - European Cork Federation)
It’s main activity is to conduct research and studies to establish international standards and exchange knowledge with other institutes and organizations in the cork sector. APCOR is a member of the C.E. Liège, together with other national associations related to the cork industry, in different European countries. The C.E. Liège publishes and generates the implementation of the Código Internacional das Práticas Rolheiras (CIPR) (International Code of Cork Stopper Practices) and of the Sistema de Acreditação das Empresas (Company Accreditation system) through CIPR – Systecode. It was founded in 1987.
Comité Consultif des Forêts y inclus Liège
The European Union Committee that monitors and analyses policies and legislation affecting the cork industry.
APSL – Associação Portuguesa de Criadores do Cavalo Puro Sangue Lusitano (Portuguese Association of Lusitano Horse Breeders)
It aims to defend and to promote the Lusitano thoroughbred horse breed. It supports its members in their activity of breeding Lusitano thoroughbred race horses; establishes and maintains links with the official departments related to the sector and obtains their technical or financial support; cooperates with domestic and foreign entities in all actions aimed at achieving the objectives of the Association, and represents its members in pursuit of the common goal of the association.
Municipal Authority of Ponte de Sor
Third largest city in the district of Portalegre, after Portalegre and Elvas. It is the headquarters of a municipality with 839.71 km2 and 16,722 inhabitants. It is a region with intense cork production, and has the world’s largest cork mosaic, with the portrait of novelist José Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The land in this region is especially suited to the cork oak forests. Novelist José Luís Peixoto, from Galveias, Ponte de Sor, was the sponsor of the cork oak tree planted in the gardens of the Assembly of the Republic in December 2012, to mark the first anniversary of the elevation of the cork oak to the status of National Tree of Portugal.
Professional Training Centre for the Cork Industry (CINCORK)
The Professional Training Centre for the Cork Industry (CINCORK) focuses on the development of training programs, whether for young people entering the job market, or for company employees, in various areas: management and maintenance of production, quality, environment and energy, health and safety at work, human resource management, strategic financial management, sales/marketing management, and specific technological training for the sector.
AIFF – Associação para a Competitividade da Indústria da Fileira Florestal
Supports those involved in the industry, through the development of the Portuguese forest and its capacity to produce raw materials in sufficient quantity and quality, and in a sustainable way. It is also formally recognized as a centre of representation of the Portuguese forestry industry, represented by the cork, pulp and paper and wood sectors. This organization brings together the main mobilizing agents of one of the most important sectors of the Portuguese economy.
Instituto do Vinho do Douro e Porto (IVDP) (Institute of Vinho do Douro and Porto)
This is a public institute of an interprofessional nature, whose mission is to ensure a prestigious international image for the Designation of Origin (DO) of Porto and Douro, and to increase the value perception among consumers, based on a strong product differentiation in relation to the concepts of DO and terroir.
Municipal Authority of Coruche
Coruche is a Portuguese town with less than 5,000 inhabitants, located in the district of Santarém. It is the headquarters of one of the largest municipalities in Portugal, with an area of 1,115.72 Km2 area and a population of just 19,944. It is a municipality with oak forests, and it is also home to the Observatório do Sobreiro e da Cortiça (Cork Oak and Cork Observatory), a cork-lined building that was architecturally designed to create a metaphor for cork as a living element. It has laboratories and workshops dedicated to the study of themes related to the cork oak and cork, and a documentation centre that houses bibliographic items on the cork industry.
Municipal Authority of Gavião
A Portuguese village in the district of Portalegre, in the Alentejo region, with 1609 inhabitants. It is the headquarters of a municipality covering an area of 294.59 km2, with a population of 4132. It is a cork oak forest zone that is home to several cork extraction companies.
FILCORK - Interprofessional Cork Industry Association
FILCORK is an association of structures representing the set of organized agents of the cork industry. One of its objectives is to promote interprofessional consultation between all agents who work in the cork industry, promoting an overall linkage between the various actors in this sector. It is the first interprofessional association of the Portuguese forestry sector to be officially recognized, in 2008. It is dedicated to the problems of the sector, in a credible and effective institutional partnership that acts on behalf of the interests of the cork industry.
ViniPortugal
The Associação Interprofissional do Setor Vitivinícola (Interprofessional Wine Industry Association) is a private non-profit association that aims to promote the Portuguese wine industry. It is the managing body of the brand Wines of Portugal, and promotes the image of Portugal as a producer of wines of excellence. Wines of Portugal is present on four continents and in eleven strategic markets. Founded in 1997, it invests around 7 million euros a year, and promotes more than a thousand actions to promote Portuguese wines.
Casa do Azeite
An employers’ association established under civil law, with national scope, set up to defend and promote the interests of their members. Casa do Azeite is an organization whose mission is rooted in the olive oil brand of the same name. Its activities are divided among support for producers and packers, and promoting the brand among consumers. It has more than 65 member companies associated with the Olive Oil Brand, which together represent around 95% of all the Olive Oil brand packaged in Portugal.
Municipal Authority of Santa Maria da Feira
The municipality of Santa Maria da Feira has an area of 213.45 km2 and 139,312 inhabitants. It is located in the district of Aveiro, in the Metropolitan Area of Porto. The municipality is home to the world’s largest cork processing centre, with the largest number of companies in this sector, APCOR, and other industries that work with a range of areas related to this branch of activity. It has almost 500 cork companies within in its territory. World leader in the cork sector, the headquarters of Amorim Group are located in Santa Maria da Feira.
Happy Holidays! Boas Festas!
International Public Tender for International Cork Campaign
COVID-19 | APCOR – Mesures
CONSUMERS GIVE CORK THE SEAL OF APPROVAL
The Right to Choose: The Cork Campaign Looks to Retailers and Off-Licensees for Support
“PUT A CORK IN IT” SAYS NEW SPANISH WINEMAKING LAW
© 2015 Portuguese Cork Association :: Terms and conditions :: Contacts
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HK visas for same-sex couple spouses, Robotics engineer Barbie inspires (05/07/18)
Photo source: Yun Xu, Unsplash
Hong Kong grants spousal visas to same-sex couples
Hong Kong’s highest court on Wednesday ordered immigration officials to grant spousal visas to a same-sex expatriate couple, The Guardian reported.
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ruled in favor of a British lesbian expatriate, known as QT, who has repeatedly been denied a spousal visa to accompany her partner working in Hong Kong because the country did not recognize same-sex unions as marriages.
With its years-long legal battle, the case has become a rallying issue for LGBT advocates, as well as the city’s financial industry.
China won’t take foreign trash, to start recycling its own
China is set to recycle its household garbage after it vowed last January to close its borders to waste imports by 2020, reported by Sixth Tone in collaboration with the Swiss nonprofit organization, World Economic Forum.
The country’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development set a target for 35 percent of urban household waste to be recycled, while it banned imports of 56 types of solid waste, including paper and household plastics, which means that recycling plants are now looking to domestic sources.
The new regulation by the world’s most populous country has left some Southeast Asian cities to fill the gap by importing waste from Western countries such as the USA, the UK, and Germany. However, experts are concerned that cities like Cambodia’s Phnom Penh and Denpasar on Bali are already overflowing with their own waste and lack domestic recycling services, according to a report by Asia Times.
Robotics engineer Barbie to inspire girls to code
Barbie is the latest robotics engineer, donning a lab coat and glasses, and going far beyond her 1992 “math class is tough” version. She’s a part of a Mattel’s initiatives to encourage girls to pursue STEM careers, according to a report by Bloomberg.
In partnership with Tynker, a platform to teach coding for kids, and Black Girls CODE, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on providing technology education for African-American girls, Mattel will offer six free online classes in which Barbie teaches girls and boys how to control a humanoid robot with commands from their laptop.
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Legal Tussle Over Fisk University’s O’Keeffe Collection Has Ended
By Brian Boucher
Brian Boucher
More Stories by Brian Boucher
Hot Property: How Three Art Galleries Might ‘Wake Up the Auction Houses in a Big Way’
Amid Turmoil, SFAI Will Resume Offering Classes in the Fall, Leaving Staff with Concerns
‘It Breaks My Heart’: San Francisco Art Institute Faculty Speak Out Amid Epic Upheaval
After seven years, a legal battle over Georgia O’Keeffe’s gift of artworks to Fisk University has ended. The agreement, reached yesterday in the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, Tenn., allows a half-sale of the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark., founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton.
Fisk University had claimed that the school could not afford the annual display costs of the collection and might have to close if the sale did not go through. As part of the agreement, the school will receive $30 million. The collection will be exhibited at both institutions at rotating two-year intervals.
The Tennessee attorney general opposed the sale, arguing that the university should not be allowed to violate O’Keeffe’s stipulations that the collection not be sold or broken up.
The collection consists of 101 works, including four by O’Keeffe herself. Also represented are Picasso, Cézanne and Renoir. The collection was built by her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. O’Keeffe donated the collection, along with her own paintings, including Radiator Building-Night, New York, in 1949, in honor of the school’s mission to educate blacks while other Southern universities remained segregated.
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Absolut Art Award Creates Offshoot Prize for Emerging Artists, Names Jury
By Alex Greenberger
Alex Greenberger
Senior Editor, ARTnews
More Stories by Alex
National Gallery Hires Kanitra Fletcher as Its First Curator of African American Art
‘There Has Been Change’: Artist Howardena Pindell on a 1989 Article About U.S. Museums’ Exclusion of Black Artists
June 9, 2016 8:41am
Daniel Birnbaum, who will head up this year’s jury.
©MODERNA MUSEET/ÅSA LUNDÉN
Absolut announced today that it has created a new award for emerging artists. It will be called—no, this is not a joke—the Emerging Artist Award, and will be eligible to any artist who has collaborated with Absolut between January 2015 and January 2017. (The company also gives out awards every two years to an artist and an art writer.)
The winner of the Emerging Artist Award will win €20,000 (about $22,800), as well as €25,000 (about $28,500) that will go toward the realization of a project.
The winner will be selected by a jury that includes Simon Castets, the director and curator of the Swiss Institute, New York; Elena Filipovic, the director and chief curator of Kunsthalle Basel; Polly Staple, the director of Chisenhale Gallery, London; and Jack Bankowsky, a critic, curator, and editor-at-large at Artforum. Daniel Birnbaum, the director of the Moderna Museet, will head up the jury.
“There are those rare awards in the cultural field that don’t only honor what has already been achieved, but also function as catalysts for things yet to come,” Birnbaum said in a statement. “The Absolut Art Award has established itself as one of these inspirational prizes, both for the most relevant artists and the key voices in contemporary art writing. I am honored to chair the 2017 installment of the award.”
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American PowerNet Eyes Rollout Of Energy Trading Technology In North America
American PowerNet (APN) eyes rollout of energy trading technology in the North American market following a successful trial with Australian technology company Power Ledger.
A total of 43 MWh of energy was traded during the trial, resulting in a 17% renewable energy mix for buying participants.
Possible future projects include loyalty peer-to-peer (P2P) trading of electricity where consumers can sell their rooftop electricity to their favorite retail brand.
Electricity provider American PowerNet (APN) is eyeing the rollout of energy trading technology in the North American market following a successful trial with Australian technology company Power Ledger.
The APN trial was the first time Power Ledger’s peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platform was deployed in the US, into the largest US wholesale electricity market, the PJM Interconnection, which powers 65 million people across 13 states and the District of Columbia.
Using Power Ledger’s blockchain-enabled xGrid platform, APN was able to trade solar power generated from the rooftop of its headquarters in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, with two commercial neighbors across the grid.
A total of 43 MWh of energy was traded on the platform, resulting in a 17% renewable energy mix for the buying participants, who were able to access renewable energy at 5% lower rates compared to grid rates.
“We are delighted with the results and will be looking to extend Power Ledger’s technology across our market,” said American PowerNet CEO Scott Helm.
“This trial has demonstrated the value proposition of blockchain technology and we believe there will be significant interest from market participants.”
The trial result comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last month issued historic ruling, Order 2222, which paves the way for aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs) to compete alongside traditional power plants and other grid resources in wholesale markets.
Power Ledger Co-founder and Executive Chairman Dr Jemma Green said: “Our technology is proving to be compatible with existing large-scale electricity infrastructure like the PJM in the US and the National Electricity Network in Australia. This places Power Ledger in a powerful position in the market as a network-ready technology.”
Off the back of the APN trial, Power Ledger’s platform will be transitioned to an ongoing commercial deal with the two end users for another two years in what is expected to result in 350 MWh of energy, including 75 MWh of renewable energy, being traded.
Power Ledger and APN are also exploring further opportunities to deploy the platform in other jurisdictions in North America, with possible projects including loyalty P2P trading of electricity where consumers can sell their rooftop electricity to their favorite retail brand in exchange for store vouchers.
“This is a great option for supermarkets, food outlets and shopping centres as it builds brand engagement – footfall and click fall with their own customers,” said Dr Green.
Opportunities are also being explored for real-time tracking of renewable energy from off-site renewable generation for institutional customers, such as university campuses, for verification purposes and faster settlement.
“During the past year Power Ledger has been working collaboratively with APN to run as a parallel system for verification of energy transactions, adjusting our platform to suit the needs of consumers,” added Dr Green.
Power Ledger’s technology was integrated with APN’s existing distribution system and solar assets by using data from existing meters, without the need for additional hardware, or engineering fees.
Power Ledger has a number of projects in the US, including trials with Silicon Valley Power in California, assisting with verification processes for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCSF), and renewable energy developer, owner, and operator Clearway Energy Group to develop a platform to trade Renewable Energy Certificates across the country.
Source: PowerLedger
Gateway To Asia
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Workers Compensation Immunity in Florida Personal Injury Lawsuits – Mena v. J.I.L. Construction Group, Inc.
Home » Blog » Personal Injury » Workers Compensation Immunity in Florida Personal Injury Lawsuits – Mena v. J.I.L. Construction Group, Inc.
In Florida, a person who is injured on the job can often seek compensation for his or her injuries under the employer’s worker’s compensation plan. But can the employee also sue the employer for negligence? The district court for the Middle District of Florida answers that question in Mena v. J.I.L. Construction Group, Inc.
Plaintiff Victor Mena sued Defendants J.I.L. Construction Group Corporation (J.I.L.) and Slorp Construction Company, Inc. (Slorp) for injuries sustained when he fell from a second-floor roof truss of a house that he was building in a Davie residential development. A general contractor subcontracted the shell construction of homes in the development to Slorp, which in turn subcontracted part of its work to J.I.L, which hired Mena to work on the construction. Both companies denied his claims for worker’s compensation benefits, asserting that they did not have an employer/employee relationship with Mena. He then filed the present action alleging negligence by both J.I.L. and Slorp.
In addition to defending the action based on assumption of risk and comparative negligence, the companies further argued that they were immune from suit because Plaintiff’s injuries were compensable exclusively under Florida’s Worker’s Compensation Act. Plaintiff, on the other hand, argued that the companies were estopped from raising this defense because they previously denied his worker’s compensation claims. The trial court sided with the subcontractors, granting Defendants’ motions for summary judgment.
On appeal, the Middle District affirmed the summary judgment ruling in favor of Slorp, but reversed the ruling in favor of J.I.L. Under Florida law, the Court noted, an employee cannot sue an employer for injuries encompassed in the state’s Worker’s Compensation Act. Citing Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals’ ruling in Coastal Masonry v. Gutierrez, however, the Court also stated
where an employer denies a claim for worker’s compensation benefits on the basis that the injury did not occur in the course and scope of employment, or that there was no employment relationship, the employer may be estopped from asserting in a later tort action that the worker’s exclusive remedy was worker’s compensation…
Furthermore, a court should not grant summary judgment where the employer’s notice of denial of a worker’s comp claim could give rise to more than one interpretation as to whether the denial is inconsistent with a worker’s compensation immunity defense, according to the Court.
In this case, the Court ruled that it could not determine whether J.I.L.’s denial of Plaintiff’s worker’s comp claim was inconsistent with its immunity defense. Specifically, it found that the meaning of J.I.L.’s indication that no employer/employee relationship existed between it and Plaintiff was unclear “at the very least.” As a result, it reversed the summary judgment ruling. The Court found no such inconsistency in regard to Slorp, however. Rather, Slorp denied Plaintiff’s worker’s comp claim on the basis that he was employed by J.I.L. and therefore covered under J.I.L.’s worker’s comp plan. In its immunity defense, the company similarly argued that Plaintiff was acting in the course and scope of his employment when he was injured. Thus, Slorp was not estopped from claiming worker’s compensation immunity.
At the Law Firm of Anidjar & Levine, we have extensive experience handling all types of accident claims in the South Florida area, including Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs, Hollywood, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, and Hialeah. If you have suffered injury because of another person’s negligence, call us for a free consultation today.
Collateral Source Benefits and Comparative Negligence in Florida Personal Injury Cases – Hester v. United States
Injured on Another Person’s Property? Liability May Depend on the Fine Print – Marler v. U-Store-It Mini Warehouse Co.
Florida Construction Accident Injuries: Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Lawsuits – Lovering v. Nickerson
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When the Settlement Money is Not Enough to Cover Costs – Braun v. Wal-Mart
Although people file personal injury lawsuits in Florida every day, only a very small percentage of these cases actually go to trial. One reason is because — October 6, 2012
Florida Nurses Battling Coronavirus Protest Lack of Support and PPE
Nurses around the country, including in Florida, are protesting a lack of support and personal protective equipment (PPE) from HCA Healthcare (HCA) amid the coronavirus pandemic. They contend that HCA is not protecting frontline workers, while the hospital giant denies these accusations. For a free legal consultation, call (800) 747-3733 Inadequate Access to Equipment Is […]
Settlements, Releases and Joint Tortfeasors in Florida Personal Injury Lawsuits – Trapper John Animal Control v. Gilliard
Regular readers of this blog may already understand that a Florida personal injury lawsuit often involves a wide variety of legal issues, not the least of — September 28, 2012
Lack of a Citation Inadmissible in Florida Injury Cases
In negligence cases arising from automobile accidents, whether a party received a traffic citation related to the accident is generally inadmissible. Cour — January 18, 2016
Personal Injury FAQ:
What Are The PIP Limits In Florida?
Florida Statute § 627.736 mandates that you may seek up to 80% of medical bills, and up to 60% towards loss of earnings under your personal insurance protection (PIP) coverage. Reimbursement for medical and disability benefits is $10,000, while in the event of a fatality, PIP will cover up to $5,000 toward those related costs. […]
I Was a Passenger in a Train Accident, Can I File a Personal Injury Claim?
If you sustained injuries as a passenger in a Florida train accident, you might have the right to pursue a claim for financial compensation. Although train accidents do not occur as frequently as other injury-causing incidents, the ones that do occur cause more frequent and serious injuries. Call the attorneys at Anidjar & Levine today […]
What Does Protracted Loss Mean?
A protracted loss typically refers to serious bodily harm that results either in a diminished quality of life for the victim or their death. For example, motorcyclists are at an increased risk of protracted losses after colliding with another vehicle. In this example, the protracted loss meaning refers to the severity of injuries and damages […]
What is Average Settlement Payout for Whiplash Injury in Florida
Whiplash injuries occur in different types of car accidents, and its effects and settlement payouts vary depending on the accident victim and injury severity. In addition, it often takes days, if not weeks, to feel and identify the full effects of whiplash. This adds layers of complexity to determining what to expect in payouts. But […]
What Does Bobtailing Mean?
Truck Accidents,
Can I Fire My Car Accident Lawyer?
What Are the Most Common Types of Car Accidents?
Do I Need to Call the Police if the Car Accident Was Minor?
Pine Hills Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me
Country Club Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me
Orange Park Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me
Miramar Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me
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Faculty & Staff Honors September 12, 2019
Columbia: Mailman School of Public Health’s Dr. Ashwin Vasan Appointed New President & CEO of Fountain House
Fountain House, a world-renowned mental health organization, announced the appointment of Dr. Ashwin Vasan, assistant professor of population and family health and medicine at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, as its new president and CEO. An expert in public health policy, and political and social advocacy, Dr. Vasan will advance Fountain House’s work around mental illness, healthcare, homelessness, criminal justice, and social welfare for marginalized people and communities.
A primary care physician, academic, and public servant committed to improving the lives of vulnerable people, Dr. Vasan teaches graduate students and trainees in medicine, population health, and implementation science, in addition to caring for patients. He maintains his academic affiliation with Columbia while leading Fountain House.
Earlier, Dr. Vasan worked at Partners In Health and at the World Health Organization (WHO) to increase access to HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome) treatment in the global South. He spent time in Rwanda and Lesotho while with Partners In Health, focusing on HIV, health systems and strengthening primary care delivery. Later, as the founding executive director of the Health Access Equity Unit at the New York City Department of Health, he led the first municipal program focused on the intersection of public health, clinical systems, and the social welfare needs of marginalized populations, including people living with mental illness in the justice system.
“Fountain House’s model has proven, over 70 years, to redirect trajectories and improve outcomes. I want to maintain what makes this organization great, and what has prompted hundreds of others to replicate it around the world, while building a political and social movement that elevates these issues,” said Dr. Vasan.
Tags: Friday Letter Submission, Publish on September 20
September 12, 2019 "Harvard: Partners with NIH and Apple for Women’s Health Study" September 12, 2019 "Yale: Five Students Practice Public Health at Distinguished Cleveland Clinic Over Summer"
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Reverend resigns saying he cannot support same-sex marriages or transgender baptisms
John Parker will leave his position at Fordham and Eight Ash Green, Chelmsford, in August
A vicar has resigned after slamming the Church of England’s position on same-sex marriages and transgender baptisms.
Reverend John Parker – who is the vicar in the Fordham and Eight Ash Green parish in Chelmsford – says he can no longer support the promotion of same-sex marriages and transgender issues that the Church of England holds.
Last year, the Church of England announced they were adapting the affirmation of Baptism service to be more transgender friendly – a move that was met with criticism by clergymen.
In his resignation letter, he raised concerns about the lack of policies in place to help schools, parents or pupils understand when a child has gender confirmation surgery.
He said: “Many parents may well hold the view that sex and gender is fixed at birth and may wish to educate their children in line with those beliefs.
“Instead, trans ideology was forced on their children as fact and without their knowledge.
“Having given time through teaching, leadership and discussion for us to come to one mind on the subject, this has not been the case.
“Of course, I have considered other points of view and read counter arguments, but I have not found them biblically persuasive.
“The potential for division and ongoing conflict this has brought about, has meant that it seems wise for me to leave.”
The Reverend Tim Elbourne, director of education for the Diocese of Chelmsford, said: “Church of England schools are inclusive environments which nurture pupils to respect diversity of all kinds.
“Our schools must comply with the legal requirements of the Equalities Act 2010. Additionally, the Church of England, through its policy Valuing All God’s Children, gives guidance for Church of England schools.”
transgender baptisms
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Jamie Lynn Spears Quotes
Whenever I started writing music, it just naturally led itself there. As I started to tell my story, it's where my home was. It's just a very natural choice.
Home, Writing, Choices
"Jamie Lynn Spears Is All Grown Up and Taking the Country Music Scene by Storm". Interview with Popsugar, www.popsugar.com. June 23, 2016.
All I can do is be my best - there will always be people who will never like me.
People, Like Me, Can Do
"Jamie Lynn Spears: "The Last Time Anyone Heard From Me, I Was 16 and Pregnant"". Interview with Wendy Shanker, www.glamour.com. February 1, 2012.
I hope that they learn who I am today and embrace that as well. I think that's the biggest thing of really introducing myself to them. Hopefully that creates a stronger connection with the fans that I already have and hopefully helps me make some new fans.
Thinking, Who I Am, Stronger
"Jamie Lynn Spears Is All Grown Up and Taking the Country Music Scene by Storm". Interview with Kelsie Gibson, www.popsugar.com. June 23, 2016.
I had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect delivery. I was very blessed.
Pregnancy, Blessed, Perfect
"Jamie Lynn Spears Describes 'Perfect Delivery' And New Motherhood" by Gil Kaufman, www.mtv.com. July 9, 2008.
I would like to be like Britney, but maybe better. But I don't wanna outshine her.
It was a scary decision to let cameras into my life, but if I was going to do it, I just wanted to be really honest and kind of introduce myself as an adult. I think the world met me as a young girl, and they still associate me with who I was when I was 13, they still don't understand how over the last eight years what has happened and who I've become.
Girl, Thinking, Eight
I'm still the same artist; it's just different sides of me. I'm learning to be a little bit more confident in myself and I think that's something that all of us girls struggle with. It's really about defining your confidence.
Girl, Struggle, Artist
I think sometimes I forget that I'm 25, and I can have fun, and be flirty, and be confident, but still be completely in control. All of my new songs are empowering, but at the same time they're fun. I think that's important for women. You don't have to take yourself so seriously all the time.
Song, Fun, Flirty
Obviously, my daughter keeps me motivated, but I've got a really great support system. Having my husband and my mother and my family really support me, so that I can not only provide for my daughter, but I can set up a future that creates a better life for her.
Daughter, Mother, Husband
I eat ranch dressing with my pizza; I dip it in the ranch. It is so good! I know, I am really weird .
Dip, Really Weird, Dressings
I had a girls' writing retreat at my condo and a bunch of other female writers came down. Me and two other writers got there before everyone and they pitched this idea to me. At first I wasn't sure what direction it was going in, but then once they kind of explained to me what they were thinking, we wrote it.
Girl, Writing, Thinking
I grew up in Louisiana and I think people get it confused. They assume that I lived in California or that's where I'm from. I worked there, but I didn't live there.
Confused, Thinking, California
I think if I could ever write with someone, I'd love to write a song with Loretta Lynn or Dolly Parton.
Song, Writing, Thinking
I'm more honest in my lyrics than I am in anything else. It's where I feel the most safe to express myself. I write about growing up, my family, Maddie and getting pregnant. If I've lived it, why wouldn't I talk about it? I guess that's been the coolest thing - realizing that it's OK to just be myself and really tell my story.
Growing Up, Writing, Stories
"Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.
I'm so blessed to be able to work with some of the best writers out there, and it's kind of like college with me sitting in a room with some of the best of the best and really taking it in and learning from them, but then also taking time to sit and tell them my stories - it's one of the biggest blessings that could have ever happened.
Blessed, Blessing, College
I think it was important for me to introduce myself as an artist for the first time because I'm very proud of my past, it's all a part of my story, but this is who I am now. This was a really important thing to have an hour special that lets them in and kind of meet me for the first time, truthfully.
Artist, Past, Thinking
I'll probably do a lot of acting first, then go to singing. but I am going to definitely sing someday. So when I do start singing, buy my album!
Singing, Acting, Albums
"Jamie Lynn Spears 'Has Been Quietly Working On A Country Album Since Last Fall', A Source Close To Spears' Family Says". www.aceshowbiz.com. March 10, 2009.
Matthew Underwood
Jamie Lynn Sigler
Britney Spears Artist
Victoria Justice Actress
Kevin Federline Dancer
Matthew Underwood Actor
Jamie Lynn Sigler Actress
Miranda Cosgrove Actress
Jennette McCurdy Actress
Miley Cyrus Actress
Austin Butler Actor
Amanda Bynes Actress
Bristol Palin Speaker
Hilary Duff Actress
Justin Timberlake Singer-songwriter
Ali Lohan Model
Elizabeth Gillies Actress
Dina Lohan Television Personality
Born: April 4, 1991
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Physical Examinations of Sexual Assault, Volume 2
Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD
Diana Faugno, MS, RN, CPN
Mary J. Spencer, MD
Editorial: STM Learning, Inc. 2016
232 pages, 555 images, 25 contributorsWhile examining suspected sexual assault survivors, it is important that investigators be able to accurately assess not only for those findings indicative of assault but also for normal or otherwise nonassaultive findings. The difference between normal and assaultive findings may be subtle, and assessing for normal findings in cases of suspected sexual violence may be challenging. That being the case, sexual assault investigators of every variety can benefit from a fast and accessible reference to support their evaluations.Readers in medicine, law enforcement, and any organizations affiliated with sexual assault investigations will benefit from an extensive and accessible visual catalog of normal physical findings.
Acerca de Angelo P. Giardino, MD, PhD
Angelo Giardino, MD is a pediatrics specialist in Salt Lake City, UT and has been practicing for 27 years. He graduated from University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine in 1987 and specializes in pediatrics. Angelo Giardino was the medical director of Texas Children's Health Plan, a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, and an attending physician for the Texas Children's Hospital's forensic pediatrics service at the Children's Assessment Center in Houston, Texas. Angelo Giardino completed his residency and fellowship training in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Immediately after his fellowship training, Angelo Giardino became the assistant, and then the associate, medical director at Health Partners of Philadelphia, where he had primary responsibility for utilization management, intensive case management, and health care data analysis. He also shared responsibility for the plan's quality improvement program. Additionally, he began the Child Abuse and Neglect Team for Children with Special Health Care Needs, which was funded by a three-year grant from a local philanthropy. In 1998, he was appointed associate chair of clinical operations in the Department of Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and in June of 1999 he was asked to chair the CHOP Quality Committee. These accomplishments are only a few of his career.
Acerca de Diana Faugno, MS, RN, CPN
Diana Faugno, a Minnesota native, graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1973 with a degree in nursing and obtained an MSN in 2006. Her professional experience includes nursing in the Medical/Surgical, Labor and Delivery, Pediatrics, and Neonatal Intensive Care departments.
Acerca de Mary J. Spencer, MD
Mary Spencer is medical director of the Child Abuse Program and the Sexual Abuse Response Team at Palomar-Pomerado Health in North San Diego County. She received her BA from the University of Colorado and MD from the University of California-Los Angeles. After medical school, Dr. Spencer completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at UCLA and worked as an assistant professor at the school until 1982. Currently, she is a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego and has a private practice in pediatric and infectious disease medicine in Escondido.
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Episode 19: "This is America" - A Conversation About Gun Control & Policy
In the past 5 months, more U.S. students have been killed in school shootings than U.S. military personnel serving in combat operations. Following each devastating mass shooting, victims and survivors are offered thoughts and prayers. BhD wants to go beyond thoughts and prayers and discuss how we reached this point in regard to gun violence and the barriers to making change to our system. We begin by discussing our own experiences with guns (16:00), the right to bear arms (20:45), and how guns have changed over time (23:25). We then discuss the history of the NRA (25:15), its connection to the Black Panther Party (28:40), and the rise of gun ownership among black Americans (33:00). We then provide a snapshot of gun ownership and policy in America (35:00), the myths about between guns and safety/crime (44:46), mass shootings (54:00) and the impact of gun violence on women and children (1:04:35). We close by discussing what works and what doesn’t work in regard to gun reform, such as background checks (1:09:05), gun buyback programs (1:17:40), banning semi-automatic and automatic weapons (1:20:14), stricter gun registration (1:22:50), and regulating the sell of guns (1:25:00).
37:45 - Politics of and beliefs about gun reform
40:20 - Background checks for buying guns
48:20 - Can good guys with guns really stop bad guys with guns?
51:50 - The link between guns and crime.
54:00 - The prevalence of mass school shootings
56:00 - Barriers to assessing the prevalence of gun violence
58:00 - The link between guns and the suicide rates
1:01:39 - Can gun reform reduce violent crime rates
1:29:00 - Gun Reform in the UK
Snapshot of American Gun Ownership - http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/22/key-takeaways-on-americans-views-of-guns-and-gun-ownership/
Guns and race: The different worlds of black and white Americans - https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2015/12/15/guns-and-race-the-different-worlds-of-black-and-white-americans/
African-American gun club says membership surged in Trump era - https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/us/african-american-gun-club-trump/index.html
How the Black Panthers Inspired California’s Strict Gun Laws - https://www.history.com/news/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act
Violence Policy Center -
http://www.vpc.org
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| ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/saudi-aramco-earnings-plummet-51596985236\nSaudia Aramco’s Earnings Show Why Apple Is Now the World’s Most Valuable Company\nAl Root\nUpdated Aug. 10, 2020 7:47 am ET / Original Aug. 9, 2020 11:00 am ET\nPhotograph by David McNew/Getty Images\nOne of the most valuable companies in the world reported earnings on Sunday. The company is a member of the trillion-dollar club, but it isn’t a U.S. giant—it is the Saudi Arabian Oil Company —more commonly known as Aramco.\nAramco’s second-quarter numbers tell a story about 2020, commodity valuation, and the global economy.\nAramco (ticker: 2222.Saudi Arabia) earned $6.6 billion in the second quarter and $23.2 billion in the first half of 2020. That is down from $23.5 billion in second quarter 2019 earnings and more than $45 billion earned in the first half of the 2019.\nFalling crude oil prices are the reason for the significant earnings drop. Brent crude oil—the international price benchmark—is down 32% year to date and 22% year over year. The global economy is in recession amid global pandemic and that is hurting demand for energy.\nAramco stock, however, is down only 6% year to date. The reason for resilience might not be obvious. Aramco can produce about 4 billion barrels of oil a year at current production rates. But the company has more than 225 billion barrels of oil—or 56 years of production—in reserve. Most of Aramco’s value is underground.\nThe stock has also held up because Aramco is going to keep paying dividends—worth about $18 billion a quarter—despite weak energy prices.\nAramco stock is down, while tech rallies. The Nasdaq Composite is up 23% year to date, far better than the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.\nWhat’s more, Aramco recently lost its market capitalization crown to Apple (AAPL). The American tech giant earned about $11 billion in the calendar second quarter and about $22 billion in the first half of 2020. Apple earnings grew year over year in the second quarter, despite pandemic.\nAnd analysts and investors are looking forward to 5G iPhones and more tech growth far into the future. In fact, Apple’s earnings are expected to keep growing in the back half of 2020. The same can’t be said for Aramco.\nTech has taken over. That isn’t surprising, but the numbers are still eye-popping. Stock in the four more valuable tech companies—Apple along with Microsoft (MSFT), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), and Amazon.com (AMZN)—is worth more than $6 trillion. The four largest energy companies in America are worth roughly $400 billion, or less than 7% of tech’s total.\nTimes have changed. John D. Rockefeller—the patriarch of Standard Oil, the one time American energy monopoly—reached $1 billion in net worth around 1916. There is no great way to convert old values into today’s money. The U.S. was on the gold standard back then and technology has changed a lot. It’s possible to use gold pricing or inflation data, but as a percentage of total U.S. economic output Rockefeller was worth about 2% of U.S. GDP. That equates to roughly $400 billion today.\nTech companies are more valuable, but net worth is more spread out versus Rockefeller’s era. Richest person in the world and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, for instance, is worth just $190 billion. That’s less than 1% of U.S. GDP. He has a way to go to catch Rockefeller—at least on a relative basis.\nWrite to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com\nOne of the most valuable companies in the world reported earnings on Sunday."
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/autonation-partners-with-neighbors-4-neighbors-to-adopt-50-families-for-the-holidays-01604585747
AutoNation Partners with Neighbors 4 Neighbors to Adopt 50 Families for the Holidays
Nov. 5, 2020 9:15 am ET
AutoNation stores in Miami-Dade and Broward County are drop-off Locations for unwrapped toys
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE: AN), AutoNation, America's largest and most recognized automotive retailer, today announced that they are "adopting" 50 local families through a partnership with Neighbors 4 Neighbors, Adopt a Family 4 the Holidays Program. AutoNation is asking the public to join in by dropping off unwrapped toys at any AutoNation store in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
AutoNation has a long track record of supporting communities, most notably through its DRV PNK Mission which has raised more than $25 Million to help drive out cancer. In alignment with our ONE AutoNation initiative, this new partnership supports underserved communities and provides us the opportunity to touch the lives of families that may be facing hardships this holiday season.
"South Florida is home to our Corporate Headquarters, 31 AutoNation locations and thousands of Associates who care about making our community a better place," said Marc Cannon, AutoNation's, Chief Customer Experience Officer. "We are looking forward to providing deserving families with the resources they may need for joyful holiday celebrations."
Katy Meagher, Executive Director at Neighbors 4 Neighbors said, "Since 1992, Neighbors 4 Neighbors has been connecting those in need with those who can help. We are so grateful for outstanding community partners like AutoNation."
Drop off new unwrapped toys at any AutoNation location in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties from November 9 through December 6.
About AutoNation, Inc.
AutoNation, America's largest and most recognized automotive retailer, is transforming the automotive industry through its bold leadership, innovation, and comprehensive brand extensions. As of September 30, 2020, AutoNation owned and operated over 325 locations from coast to coast. AutoNation has sold over 12 million vehicles, the first automotive retailer to reach this milestone. AutoNation's success is driven by a commitment to delivering a peerless experience through customer-focused sales and service processes. Since 2013, AutoNation has raised $25 million to drive out cancer, create awareness, and support critical research through its DRIVE PINK initiative, which was officially branded in 2015.Please visit www.autonation.com, investors.autonation.com, www.twitter.com/CEOMikeJackson, and www.twitter.com/AutoNation, where AutoNation discloses additional information about the Company, its business, and its results of operations. Please also visit www.autonationdrive.com, AutoNation's automotive blog, for information regarding the AutoNation community, the automotive industry, and current automotive news and trends.
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/autonation-partners-with-neighbors-4-neighbors-to-adopt-50-families-for-the-holidays-301166456.html
SOURCE AutoNation, Inc.
/CONTACT: Marc Cannon, (954) 769-3146, cannonm@autonation.com
/Web site: http://www.autonation.com
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“Walking into April” Poetry Day
WILSON, N.C. — Join us Saturday, April 12, 2008, at Barton College’s Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center for the sixth Walking into April Poetry Day, sponsored by the North Carolina Poetry Society (NCPS), the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series, and Barton College. Featured poets are Pat Riviere-Seel and David Manning, with Lenard Moore as Eastern North Carolina’s Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet. Reading with Moore will be three student poets selected for this year’s series. Registration starts at 9:15 a.m., and the program begins at 9:45.Pat Riviere-Seel, the immediate past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society, teaches in the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC-Asheville and is an associate editor of “The Asheville Poetry Review.” Her first collection of poetry, “No Turning Back Now” (2004), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies including “The Asheville Poetry Review,” “Crucible,” and “Kakalak 2007: An Anthology of Carolina Poets.” Riviere-Seel received her Master of Fine Arts from Queens University of Charlotte.
Like Riviere-Seel, Pushcart nominee David Manning is well known to NCPS members. Winner of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award in 1996, 1998, and 2006, Manning is current host of the Friday Noon Poets of Chapel Hill and co-editor of “Always on Friday,” an anthology of that group’s poems. He has published five chapbooks, most recently “Detained by the Authorities” (2007). His full-length collection, “The Flower Sermon” (2007), is available from Main Street Rag in the Editor’s Select Poetry Series. Manning received his Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry at CalTech and began the serious writing of poetry after a career as an organic chemist. He lives now in Cary with his wife Doris.
Executive Chairman of the North Carolina Haiku Society and Founding Executive Director of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective, Lenard Moore is an Assistant Professor of English at Mount Olive College, where his courses include Creative Writing, Advanced Poetry Writing, and African American Literature. He directs the Mount Olive College Literary Festival and serves as faculty advisor to the literary journal “Trojan Voices.” His books of poetry include “Forever Home” (1992) and “Desert Storm: A Brief History” (1993), and his work has appeared in journals such as “Viet Nam Generation” and “Pembroke Magazine.” He is winner of the 2006 Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award.
The Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series students that Moore has been mentoring are Andy Rajski from Wayne Early Middle High School, Candice Johnson from Wayne Community College (both from Goldsboro), and Sandra Ervin Adams from Jacksonville, a poet joining the series as an adult not currently enrolled in a degree program.
The afternoon will include an open mic, so bring poems to share. Participants are also welcome to bring books or CDs to sell.
The event is free. Checks for lunch should be made to Barton College in the amount of $9.00. Mail your registration and check to Rebecca Godwin, Department of English and Modern Languages, Barton College, Box 5000, Wilson, NC 27893. For more information contact her at 252-399-6364 or at rlgodwin@barton.edu.
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Some stimulus checks are being sent to wrong accounts: 'The bank account number is not even close'
Dalvin Brown and Josh Peter USA TODAY
Americans are confused about what happened to the stimulus check deposits that were supposed to show up in their bank accounts on Wednesday.
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service launched the "Get My Payment" web application allowing people to track their payout, which was hit with early glitches at the time of launch.
About 80 million people were to receive the deposit this week, the Treasury Department said on Monday. But Wednesday, many people expressed concern when the government website said the cash, up to $1,200 a person, was sent to a bank account that didn't seem to belong to them.
The events unfolded in a similar manner for several of the people who reached out to the IRS via Twitter. They would submit their contact information into the government's payout tracking portal, and the results would show that the money was scheduled to be deposited April 15.
But the digits didn't match a bank account people were familiar with.
"I was so confused," said Aimme Saldana, 23. "I don't know where they got that number from." The warehouse worker in Ontario, California, planned to use the check to cover bills. "I lost two weeks of pay because I was sick. I was depending on that for my car payment."
The IRS portal said that if you don't see the payment credited to your account, check with your bank to verify it was received. It also gave the last four digits of the bank account number associated with the deposit.
It's unclear how many people this happened to, though many reached out to the IRS on Twitter to get answers.
IRS spokeswoman Jodie Reynolds told USA TODAY she hadn't heard anything about stimulus checks being deposited into the wrong bank accounts and would look into the matter.
Thomas Krapin, 25, of New York City planned on using some of the money to cover rent. As soon as the deposit information popped up on the website, he "freaked out."
"Once I pressed submit, the account number that they listed didn't match any of mine. I called my bank and there was nothing they could do. There was no connection to my account," Krapin said.
Chris Rodriguez, a contractor in Lansing, Michigan, has used the same bank account for almost a decade, so he knew straight away that the numbers didn't add up.
"You're jubilant because you've been waiting to get that money. And you look down and the bank account number is not even close," Rodriguez said. "Because the IRS isn't taking calls, I'm more or less dead in the water."
Reynolds said people should contact their bank if they think the checks were deposited into the wrong bank account. She said people can also check the status of their stimulus checks at https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-wmsp/login – the "Get My Payment" portal part of the IRS website.
If checks are sent to bank accounts that don't match the name of the person who is supposed to receive the money, the check should be rejected by the bank and returned to the IRS, according to Reynolds.
"The payment isn't going to bounce back and just sit here,'' Reynolds said. "We will turn around and cut them a paper check and make sure they get their money.''
Reynolds said people can update their bank account with the IRS online before checks are scheduled to be sent, and the IRS will be sending out notices "telling folks the status of their payment.''
Contact the IRS, report the problem
Douglas Johnson Jr., a finance and banking consultant based in Santa Monica, California, said taxpayers who think their checks were sent to the wrong bank account should contact the IRS through the agency’s website and report the problem.
"It's going to be up to (the IRS) to track down whether it went to the wrong account or not," Johnson said. "But the obligation to the taxpayer is not to find out what wrong recipient it went to.
"You simply would go the IRS and say: 'Hey, I didn't get my money. You guys made a mistake, here's the correct information, please send me the right money.' That would be the logical way to solve it.’"
Anat Admati, a professor of finance and economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said the matter will come down to government accountability.
"It's a massive operation, and let's hope they know what they're doing since people need that money," Admati said.
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up:"Trachemys scripta"
Research articles (59) (approx.)
CABI hosted full text (9)
Identification and management (0)
Management factsheets (0)
Search results: 59 results (approx.)
Maternal nest-site choice does not affect egg hatching success in an invasive turtle population.
Lloyd, R. B., Jr., Warner, D. A., (2019). Behaviour 156(3/4), 265-285. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands. English language
Thermal tolerance for two cohorts of a native and an invasive freshwater turtle species.
Geng Jun, Dang Wei, Wu Qiong, Lu HongLiang, (2018). Acta Herpetologica 13(1), 83-88. Firenze University Press, Firenze, Italy. English language
Relative abundance of invasive red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) and native western pond turtles (Emys marmorata) at Clear Lake, Lake County, California.
Hayes, F. E., Turner, D. G., Weidemann, D. E., (2018). Chelonian Conservation and Biology 17(2), 309-313. Allen Press Inc, Lawrence, USA. English language
Contrast-enhanced computed tomography of the liver, gall bladder and urogenital tract in female red-eared terrapins (Trachemys scripta elegans).
Sochorcova, V., Proks, P., Cermakova, E., Knotek, Z., (2017). Veterinární Medicína 62(12), 674-680. Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information, Prague, Czech Republic. English language
Sightings of Trachemys scripta elegans (Reptilia: Emydidae), a new potential aquatic alien invasive species in Trinidad, West Indies.
Mohammed, R. S., Khan, K., Ali, S. H., (2017). Living World 2017, 56-58. The Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. English language
Predation risk affects growth and reproduction of an invasive snail and its lethal effect depends on prey size.
Guo Jing, Martín, P. R., Zhang ChunXia, Zhang JiaEn, (2017). PLoS ONE 12(11), e0187747. Public Library of Sciences (PLoS), San Francisco, USA. English language
Antioxidant responses to salinity stress in an invasive species, the red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) and involvement of a TOR-Nrf2 signaling pathway.
Ding Li, Li WeiHao, Li Na, Liang LingYue, Zhang XinYing, Jin HuiLin, Shi HaiTao, Storey, K. B., Hong MeiLing, (2019). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. C, Toxicology & Pharmacology 219, 59-67. Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, UK. English language
A check list and population trends of invasive amphibians and reptiles in Taiwan.
Lee KoHuan, Chen TienHsi, Shang Gaus, Clulow Simon, Yang YiJu, Lin SiMin, (2019). ZooKeys(No.829), 85-130. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria. English language
Experimental removal of introduced slider turtles offers new insight into competition with a native, threatened turtle.
Lambert, M. R., McKenzie, J. M., Screen, R. M., Clause, A. G., Johnson, B. B., Mount, G. G., Shaffer, H. B., Pauly, G. B., (2019). PeerJ 7(7444) PeerJ, San Francisco, USA. English language
Effect of an alien turtle predator on movement activity of European brown frog tadpoles.
Berec, M., Klapka, V., Zemek, R., (2016). Italian Journal of Zoology 83(1), 68-76. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, UK. English language
Balearic Islands (1)
Korea Republic (1)
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Opinion | Cleanup of Great Lakes pollution hot spots is good for economy
September 6, 2019 John Hartig Guest Commentary
John Hartig is Great Lakes Science-Policy Advisor to the International Association for Great Lakes Research
The Great Lakes are an unparalleled natural resource that can be seen from space, representing one-fifth the standing freshwater on the Earth’s surface. The industrial and agricultural revolutions and associated human population expansion powered growth of Great Lakes’ cities and provided jobs and wealth to millions. But they also left a legacy of unchecked pollution and impaired Great Lakes waterways.
A recent study titled “Great Lakes Revival” by the International Association for Great Lakes Research shows how cleanup of Great Lakes Areas of Concern leads to reconnecting people to waterways, which in turn leads to community and economic revitalization. The study was funded by The Erb Family Foundation and features 10 case studies: Buffalo River, Collingwood Harbour, Cuyahoga River, Detroit River, Hamilton Harbour, Muskegon Lake, River Raisin, Severn Sound, St. Louis River, and Toronto Harbour.
Related: Higgins Lake’s crystal waters are under threat. Blame poop (and other stuff)
Related: Algae is again fouling Lake Erie. Thanks a lot, Ohio.
In the 1960s, the Detroit River was one of the most polluted rivers in North America. Today, more than 40 years of pollution prevention and control have resulted in substantial environmental improvements and surprising ecological revival, including the return of bald eagles, peregrine falcons, osprey, lake sturgeon, lake whitefish and walleye. This revival of the Detroit River has led to transformation of the waterfront, including the creation of the 5.5-mile Detroit RiverWalk. The investment of $80 million in building the Detroit RiverWalk has returned over $1 billion of public and private sector investments in the first 10 years. Mark Wallace, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, notes:
“Without this early focus on cleaning up the river and improving water quality, this transformation of the river’s edge would not have been possible."
The River Raisin is located in southeast Michigan with its watershed overlapping five Michigan counties and dipping into a small portion of northern Ohio. Like in many areas of the Great Lakes, industrial development, including paper mills and automotive manufacturing, left behind a legacy of pollution.
Monroe rose to the challenge and has been actively involved in this cleanup effort for more than 30 years. The community has invested $45 million to upgrade the Monroe Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant. In addition, $43.1 million has been spent on contaminated sediment remediation and nearly $7 million on habitat restoration and dam removal to open the River Raisin an additional 23 miles for fish migration and spawning. Critical to this success was $36 million of funding through the Great Lakes Legacy Act and Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Today, all remedial actions deemed necessary for restoring uses have been implemented and monitoring is underway to confirm use restoration. Bald eagles have returned to the watershed and the fishery has improved.
This revival of the River Raisin has been essential to the revitalization of Monroe, which has now rebranded itself as a vibrant urban center with an ecologically-significant river, significant historical assets, a new national park, a state park, and an international wildlife refuge within its city limits – all connected by greenway trails. River Raisin National Battlefield Park attendance is projected to reach 635,000, improving the local and state economies by over $53 million annually.
During the lumber era of 1860-1910, Muskegon Lake had 47 saw mills along its shoreline. During World War II, Muskegon’s Continental Motor Co. produced tank, aircraft and automobile engines as part of the war effort that led to its reputation as a foundry town. Historical development along Muskegon Lake supported waterfront-dependent industry and commerce, but left behind a legacy of contaminated sediments, habitat loss and environmental degradation.
Cleanup of over 177,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment at a cost of $42 million and rehabilitation and conservation of habitats at a cost of $22 million has led to substantial improvements in Muskegon Lake. In 2009, a $10 million restoration project was implemented along the south shore of Muskegon Lake, removing 24.7 acres of historical and unnatural fill, restoring 27 acres of wetlands and softening 1.9 miles of shoreline. An economic benefits study found that this $10 million restoration project will generate nearly $60 million of economic benefits for the Muskegon area over a 20-year period, or a 6-to-1 return on investment.
These three case studies and the others in “Great Lakes Revival” provide compelling rationale to sustain Great Lakes funding and revitalizing and re-establishing funding to the Clean Michigan Initiative in. Investing the Great Lakes cleanup means investing in community and economic revitalization. To learn more about this study, visit: http://iaglr.org/aocdocs/GreatLakesRevival-2019.pdf
Commercial fishing is sinking fast in Michigan. Time for more regulations?
June 24, 2019 | Jim Malewitz
Sportfishing is booming in Michigan, while fewer than two dozen commercial businesses tie their livelihoods to the Great Lakes. The industry has a rich heritage, but some say it’s time to ‘pull the plug on the horse and carriage industry.’
Michigan’s coast is being armored with seawalls, making erosion worse
July 17, 2020 | Kelly House
Desperate to save homes from encroaching waves, shoreline property owners are hardening shorelines on the Great Lakes at a feverish pace. Experts fear these barriers will do harm in the long term.
Opinion | What can reconcile our painful political differences? Nature.
December 20, 2020 | Tom Cook
In Michigan, the Great Lakes manifest our attachment to nature and overcome our political differences.
Bridge welcomes guest columns from a diverse range of people on issues relating to Michigan and its future. The views and assertions of these writers do not necessarily reflect those of Bridge or The Center for Michigan. Bridge does not endorse any individual guest commentary submission.
If you are interested in submitting a guest commentary, please contact Monica Williams. Click here for details and submission guidelines.
Roger Rayle
Retention time (average time it takes a drop of water to flow through) ...
for Lake Erie - ~2.6 years
for Lake Huron- ~22 years
for Lake Michigan- ~99 years
for Lake Superior- ~191 years
for the "6th Great Lake" (i.e. Michigan's groundwater) - ???? years
"forever chemicals" like dioxane and PFAS that flow with water may take years to vent from surface water (not counting redispersion from sediments), but time to vent from groundwater may take many decades or centuries. Best to fully remove them or not release them in the first place.
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Harrt School Presents OKLAHOMA!, 3/3-5
BroadwayWorld.com Feb. 14, 2011
The Hartt School is pleased to present the beloved and groundbreaking Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! Thursday, March 3, through Saturday, March 5, at 7:30 PM, and on Sunday, March 6, at 3:00 PM, in Millard Auditorium, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford. Admission is $20, with discounts for seniors, students, educators, University of Hartford alumni, and groups. Admission is free for all University of Hartford students, faculty, and staff with a valid University ID. For tickets and information, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt or call the University of Hartford Box Office at 1.800.274.8587 or 860.768.4228.
The original Broadway production of Oklahoma! opened March 31, 1943, and closed May 29, 1948, running for 2,248 performances and breaking all Broadway box office records (for run length and receipts) at the time. The show won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1944. The first musical collaboration of legendary composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, the most successful songwriting team in musical theatre history, Oklahoma! was the first musical production to integrate a robust storyline, and featured a cast of relative unknowns. Previously, musicals primarily consisted of songs and comedy without a plot and often were created to showcase the superstars of the day. Based on the Lynn Riggs play Green Grow the Lilacs and set during the early 20th century in the territory that eventually would become the state of Oklahoma, Oklahoma! changed the face of stage musicals, integrating comedy and drama, as well as music and dance, to advance its plot and provide further insight into the show's characters.
Oklahoma! has Connecticut ties, as well. Originally titled Away We Go!, the show opened at New Haven's Shubert Theater in March, 1943. Only a few other changes and song substitutions were made before the production opened on Broadway. These updates proved significant, introducing the show-stopping title number "Oklahoma!" and the beautiful (and somewhat humorous) love song "People Will Say We're in Love." Other favorites include "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top," "I Cain't Say No," and "Kansas City." In 1955, Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae starred in the popular film version.
Hartt music theatre majors Andrew McMath, a sophomore from Simsbury, CT, and Danielle Westhead, a junior from Mt. Laurel, NJ, star as romantic leads Curley and Laurey in The Hartt School's production, and lead a large cast of music theatre majors. Oklahoma! is directed by Theatre Division Director Alan Rust, with music direction by Director of Music for Hartt's Theatre Division Mike Morris, and choreography by Director of Dance for the Theatre Division Ralph Perkins.
McMath, who just recently had an emergency appendectomy but now is back at rehearsals, previously played Will in the Simsbury Summer Theatre production. Thrilled to step into Curley's formidable cowboy boots, McMath said of the show, "It is one of the greatest pieces of literature in musical theatre history." When he found out a few weeks ago he needed emergency surgery, the first thing he thought of was to call the Production Stage Manager to let her know about his situation. Dedicated to his craft, Andrew was concerned the surgery would affect his ability to perform this giant role only a month later, and immediately asked his physicians about how long his recuperation might take and what his physical limitations might be. Initially he was restricted from practicing the physically demanding fight scenes and some choreography, but his perseverance is paying off as the production nears and he is able to do more each week. He expects to have no limitations come performance time.
Mike Millan, a senior from Bay Shore, NY, and Zoe Kassay, a senior from Franklin, MA, play the comedic leads Will Parker and Ado Annie. Completing the humorous "love triangle" is Persian peddler Ali Hakim, portrayed by Charles South, a junior from Pembroke Pines, FL. Senior Alex Levin of Larkspur, CO, is the ominous Jud Frey, and grounding the show as Aunt Eller is junior Keisha Gilles of Waltham, MA.
The cast also includes junior Donny Gersonde of Coronado, GA, as Andrew Carnes; junior Katie Sarno of Wells, ME, as Gertie Cummings; senior JP Qualters as Dream Curly/ensemble; sophomore Caitlyn Wilayto of Pepperell, MA, as Dream Laurey/ensemble; senior Mark Gagliardi of Lynnfield, MA, as Cord Elam; junior Scott Caron of Shrewsbury, MA, as Ike Skidmore; sophomore Will Macke of Simsbury, CT, as Slim; sophomore Lars Lee of Minneapolis, MN, as Mike; junior Jayce Johnson of Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico, as Joe; junior David Raposo of Dartmouth, MA, as Sam; senior Adam Sarette of Manchester, NH, as Junior; sophomore Dakota Dutcher of Carson City, NV as Jess; and sophomore Mike Baskowski of Holliston, MA, as Chalmers; senior Lindsey Adkins of Wilbraham, MA, as Ellen; junior Laura Helm of Southborough, MA, as Kate; junior Kristen Tarczynski of Vernon, NH, as Sylvie; junior Lauren Hill of Portsmouth, NH, as Armina; senior Christiana Rodi of Cranston, RI, as Aggie.
Other members of the ensemble include Alexandra Bartley, Zach Bencal, Eileen Conneely, Alexandra Cutler, Kelsey Flynn, Steven Gant, Sarah Kozlowski, Michael O'Brien, John Olsen, Courtney Rada, Hannah Spacone, Meredith Swanson, Emily White, Kristina Wilson, and Jenna Zito.
The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford that offers innovative degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920, Hartt has been an integral part of the University of Hartford since its charter merged the then Hartt School of Music, the Hartford Art School, and Hillyer College to create the University in 1957. 2010 markEd Hartt's 90th year of providing world class performing arts education to students in Greater-Hartford and around the world. With more than 400 concerts, recitals, plays, master classes, dance performances, and musical theatre productions a year, performance is central to Hartt's curriculum. For more information about The Hartt School, visit www.hartford.edu/hartt.
Pictured: Andrew McMath of Simsbury, CT, Danielle Westhead of Mt. Laurel, NJ, star as romantic leads Curley and Laurey, and Keisha Gilles of Waltham, MA, as Aunt Eller in The Hartt School's production of Oklahoma!
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Cooper praises style of players after Swansea’s big win over Birmingham
Striker Borja Baston is the top scorer in the Sky Bet Championship with five goals.
Football Championship Birmingham City
Steve Cooper praised the style of his Swansea side after a 3-0 win over Birmingham took them level on points with Sky Bet Championship leaders Leeds.
Swansea have taken 13 points from five games to make their best start to a season for 41 years, with Leeds – who they meet at Elland Road on Saturday – only top by virtue of goal difference.
Kyle Naughton, Bersant Celina and Borja Baston – who celebrated his 27th birthday by becoming the division’s top scorer with his fifth goal of the season – were on target in the second half as Swansea cruised to victory over toothless Birmingham.
“It’s obviously a good return in points and we’re pleased about that,” said Cooper, the former England Under-17 World Cup-winning boss who has made an impressive start to his senior management career.
“But what’s more important is we know why we’re getting points with our style of play both on and off the ball.
“We have the ability to dig deep and show resilience, whether it’s about scoring goals or defending the box.
“It hasn’t been straightforward that’s for sure, and it will continue to be that way.”
Cooper chose not to focus on next weekend’s top-of-the-table clash in Yorkshire, preferring instead to highlight the Carabao Cup home tie with Cambridge on Wednesday.
But the 39-year-old Welshman believes Swansea have set the standard for the rest of their season.
“In terms of the 90 minutes, I think that was our best performance of the season,” Cooper said.
“We believe if we get it right, and I say it every week, I believe we can dominate and play what’s in front of us.
“That’s hard and it won’t always be that case, but that’s going to be our plan.
“That’s what we’ll stick to and hopefully deliver when the moment comes.
“Every game we’ve played so far, I believed we should win and that will continue, so I’m not surprised we’ve won certain games.”
Birmingham had taken seven points from their opening four games and were fresh from a 2-0 midweek home win over Barnsley.
Boss Pep Clotet, the former Swansea assistant manager, said he had felt comfortable in the opening 45 minutes, saying: “I never feared for the result in the first half.
“We came to half-time very solid at the back. We needed to manage the game in the second half when it opened up and Swansea came forward more.
“But we lost a lot of organisation in the second half.
“When you play a top side with a lot of confidence at home everything needs to be right.”
TAGS Football Championship Birmingham City Swansea City
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Puerto Rico is reopen for tourists
10/15/2020 — By Kaeli Conforti
Beautiful view of for San Cristobal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ©Dennis van de Water/Shutterstock
The island is calling just in time for winter. What you need to know, and what to do while you're there!
After closing itself off to non-essential travel back in July, it looks like Puerto Rico has once again opened itself up to tourism. And since the island is officially a U.S. territory, Americans don’t have to worry about getting a passport or a visa to visit.
Because of the enhanced risk to those who live in places that are reopening, it’s vital that travelers observe all health and safety regulations in the places they’re visiting. In Puerto Rico, that means proving you’re Covid-free at the airport upon arrival, wearing your mask whenever you’re in public and social distancing at all times. Here are some things to be aware of if you’re planning a trip to the island anytime soon.
New Health and Safety Procedures at the Airport, Hotels, Attractions
Puerto Rico’s plan to keep its residents safe starts upon arrival in San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU), where mask-wearing is mandatory, thermographic cameras monitor passengers’ temperatures and visitors must fill out a Puerto Rico Health Department travel declaration form, provide proof of a negative molecular Covid-19 test taken no more than 72 hours before their flight, and obtain an Airport Exit Confirmation QR Code. If you arrive before your test results come in, you’ll be required to remain in quarantine until they do, otherwise, you’ll need to quarantine for 14 days or the length of the trip if it’s shorter than that. Anyone showing symptoms upon arrival will be tested at the airport by the Puerto Rico National Guard and must quarantine for 14 days or until they can produce a negative result via a locally administered test. You’ll also need to cover any expenses regarding accommodations, medical treatment or testing.
Once on the island, wear your face mask anytime you’re in public—that means over your nose and mouth whether you’re indoors or outdoors—or face fines for not following the rules. There’s an island-wide curfew in effect through November 13, so make sure you’re back in your hotel between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. As of October 17, restaurants, museums, malls and retail shops are operating at 55% capacity, while theaters, casinos, gyms and hotel pools are operating at 30% capacity. Bars, clubs, cafés and other event venues are closed until further notice. Hair salons and spas are currently open, as are golf courses, so just stick to your own group. Hotels have their own rules when it comes to sanitizing, social distancing, mask-wearing and conducting temperature checks, and anyone with a temperature higher than 100.3 degrees won’t be allowed to enter. Recreational boat use is allowed as long as you stay 15 feet from others, though tourists are no longer allowed to take a ferry to the nearby island of Vieques. Note that ferry service to Culebra will resume for tourists on October 26, as will service by the Puerto Rico Metropolitan Bus Authority (AMA) and the Tren Urbano subway system.
In the spirit of visiting Puerto Rico as safely and responsibly as possible, here are six socially distanced activities you can do there.
Aerial view over San Juan Old Town, Puerto Rico. ©John and Tina Reid/Getty Image
1. Take a Tour of Old San Juan
While Castillo San Felipe del Morro is closed until further notice, there are still plenty of interesting things to do in Old San Juan, whether you decide to go solo with one of GPSmyCity’s audio tours or with a group. Covid-compliant historical walking tours are available through Viator from $41 per person. San Juan Food Tours aims to keep patrons safe on its three-hour Flavors of Old San Juan tour (from $94 per person) and two-hour Rum Runners Craft Cocktail Tour (from $49 per person), while Spoon has similar health and safety protocols in place for its food and cocktail themed walking tours, ranging from $75 to $99 per person. To see San Juan from the water, East Island Excursions offers tours from $79 per person for daytime sailings or $95 per person for sunset sailings as long as guests fill out a health questionnaire before boarding.
Misty jungle path through the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico. ©Dennis van de Water/Shutterstock
2. Get Back to Nature in El Yunque National Forest
El Yunque National Forest is open but you’ll need to reserve an entry ticket online for $2 per vehicle ahead of time to visit the La Mina Recreation Area on Rd 191. Time slots between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. can be booked up to 30 days in advance. Note that La Mina Falls and Big Tree Trail will be closed for construction until 2022. Remember to keep your mask on and stay at least six feet from anyone outside your group.
3. Hike to Cueva Ventana (Window Cave)
If you’re staying on the western side of the island or looking for an easy day trip from San Juan, Aventura Cueva Ventana (or Window Cave) near Arecibo is a fun place to go hiking, see petroglyphs and stone carvings left behind by Puerto Rico’s earliest inhabitants and check out the views from the cave’s window-esque opening. Tickets are $19 per person and there’s a $2 discount if you visit Wednesday to Friday. All visitors must comply with stringent hand-washing, mask-wearing and social distancing measures at all times.
©watcherFF/Getty Images
4. Explore Bioluminescent Bay by Kayak On the eastern end of the island, Island Kayaking runs guided tours (from $53 per person) to Bioluminescent Bay near Fajardo. You’ll be organized into kayaks per group—as in, you won’t be seated with strangers—masks must be worn throughout the tour and anyone with a temperature over 100.4 won’t be allowed to join. Their two-hour Glowing Bay Adventure tour takes you through a mangrove forest out to the bay, where tiny creatures called pyrodiniums bahamenses light up all around you whenever you move your paddle and kayak.
5. Visit a Rum Distillery While the Bacardi Rum Factory has halted its tours now, another historic rum distillery, Ron de Barrilito, is open. Rum tasting tours and mixology classes, available from $80 per person, must be booked ahead of time online as the number of guests will be limited to allow for social distancing.
6. Head to the Beach or Condado Lagoon
If you’re a fan of sunbathing, surfing, boogie boarding, swimming, paddle boarding, kayaking or other recreational beach activities, it really boils down to this: stay with your own group, remain at least six feet from others and keep your mask on whenever you’re not in the water.
Military tank left behind on Culebra Beach. ©Tinapat Kotumrongsak/Shutterstock
Welcome to America's newest National Park: New River Gorge!
Outdoor holiday celebrations around the United States
Cruise Along These Holiday Lights Drive-Throughs Across The U.S.
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Search in titles only Search in Funding, Legislation, & Advocacy only
Funding, Legislation, & Advocacy
History of SCI Organizations (1986) that I wrote
Wise Young
Location: New Brunswick, NJ, USA
3 Oct 2004, 4:34 PM
http://www.cureparalysis.org/drs/fund.html
I wrote this little blurb a number of years ago in 1996 and found it recently posted on www.cureparalysis.org site.
A brief history of SCI organizations 1975-1996
by Dr. Wise Young
The following is a very brief history of some scientific, clinical, and private sector organizations interested in spinal cord injury research in the last two decades. During this period, the whole field changed. In 1975, if a researcher ventured the hope that treatments are possible for spinal cord injury (SCI), she would often be met with stony silence or perhaps even laughter at major national meetings. Most scientific, clinical, or private organizations at the time dared not discuss the concept of cure or even effective therapies for spinal cord injury. In 1995, most scientists and clinicians believe that effective treatments are not only possible but likely to be achievable within a decade or less if the field is provided with sufficient resources.
The Society for Neuroscience is the major professional organization to which most neuroscience researchers belong. In 1980, the Society for Neuroscience did not recognize SCI research as a legitimate entity and usually assigned posters and abstract presentations to either "miscellaneous" or "somatosensory systems" categories. There was simply no forum for SCI researchers. We had no journal.
In 1981, a dozen frustrated SCI researchers arranged to meet privately the weekend before the Society for Neuroscience, starting a group that eventually became the Neurotrauma Society in 1988. Today, the Neurotrauma Society has about 500 members, including most of the active spinal and head injury researchers in the United States. It has its own journal (the Journal of Neurotrauma) and the fifteenth annual Neurotrauma meeting will be held at the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego this November and more than 400 participants are expected.
In 1991, the first international neurotrauma symposium was held in Fukushima, Japan (bringing neurotrauma research to Japan and Asia); subsequent meetings were held in Glasgow (1993) and Toronto (1995), the next meeting is slated for Seoul in 1997. The International Neurotrauma Society (INTS) was formed this year to support the biannual international meetings; the Toronto INTS meetings was attended by 800 participants from all over the world. Before these societies, acute SCI researchers seldom spoke to regeneration scientists, scientists investigating head injury didn't know what was going on in the spinal cord injury field, and vice versa. These societies brought the scientists together and collaborative relationships are flourishing between laboratories. We have come a long way.
Clinical Organizations
Professionals who specialized in spinal cord injury were also banding together. The first professional spinal cord injury organization is probably the International Medical Society of Paraplegia (IMSOP) which began in England and has held annual meetings since the 1960's, all around the world.
In the United States, the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) formed in the early 1980's and is composed mostly of physiatrists and orthopedic surgeons. The joint AANS/CNS trauma section emerged at about the same time, consisting of neurosurgeons from the two major national neurosurgical organizations holding annual meetings to talk about surgery of the spine.
The Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS) was formed by neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons who specialized in the cervical spinal cord.
The American Paraplegia Society (APS) emphasizes rehabilitation, urology, and other affiliated specialties. Many other countries now have versions of such organizations, including the Japan Paraplegia Society, the Korean Neurotrauma Society, etc.
The International Spinal Monitoring Society started in 1979 for clinicians interested in monitoring and protecting the spinal cord, meeting biannually (most recently in New York City).
Early Private Sector Organizations
In 1980, I remember participating in activities organized by the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), the Spinal Cord Society (SCS), the Paralysis Cure Research (PCR), and the Help Them Walk Again Foundation. The PVA was concerned mostly with veteran rights, access, and lobbying. The SCS was then a young grass-roots Minneapolis-based organization organized by Chuck Carson and just beginning to fund some research [more to be added about the Spinal Cord Society]. The PCR is a Washington DC based group formed by a small group of spinal-injured people to fund research. The Help Them Walk Again group was a patient advocacy group based in Las Vegas and held one of the first major scientific meeting on the spinal cord injury that I attended in 1979.
[by D.W.][The Spinal Cord Society has produced a littany of achievements in the field of cure-oriented spinal cord injury research -- its founder, Dr. Charles Carson, was cited in the State of the Union Address by President Reagan as one of the Nation's unsung heros -- as having dedicated countless hours (often 80 or more each and every week) voluntarily toward the cause of curing spinal cord injury. SCS has funded many key research projects. Perhaps most notable of SCS projects was the computerized walking demonstrations featured repeatedly on 60 Minutes. SCS also publishes a one-of-its-kind monthly international newsletter focused on cure-oriented research. Lastly, SCS is a grassroots organization of highly dedicated persons. For more info.. please call 218-739-5252].
One of the very first spinal cord injury foundations was formed by Trink Gardner who had a spinal-injured husband; she funded the Bermuda Conferences on Spinal Cord Injury Research in the 1970's and endowed the Wakeman Award, the longest running (given biannually since 1972) and most prestigious award in neuroscience for research relating to spinal cord injury.
Overseas, the International Spinal Research Trust Fund (ISRT) began in the early 1980's in England and now has active chapters in France, Switzerland, and Australia.
Numerous Private Foundations
I estimate that there are now at least 40 private foundations supporting spinal cord injury research in North America alone.
Early groups included the Kent Waldrep Foundation and the Steven J. Camhi Fund. The Marc Buonocanti Foundation and the Miami Project started in the late 1980's, resulting in a world-class center specializing in SCI research; in 1990, the Miami Project recruited Dick and Mary Bunge from the Washington University to Miami and the group is now one of the leading laboratories working on SCI.
Local foundations have formed in almost every state. The National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) came into being in the late 1980's and has been a strong advocate of care issues in SCI. In New York City, the Daniel Heumann Fund and the Alan T. Brown Foundation started to fund research in the late 1980's. The Ameritec Foundation (Tom and Beatrice Hollfelder) from California started giving annual awards for spinal cord injury research.
Several foundations are prominent in Canada and Europe. In Canada, these include the Canadian Paraplegia Association (CPA), the Canadian Spinal Research Organization (CSRO), and the Rick Hansen Man-in-Motion Foundation. In England, there is the International Spinal Research Trust (ISRT) with branches in several other countries, including the Australasia Spinal Research Trust (ASRT). There are several foundations in Switzerland, as well.
Several attempts to meld these groups have failed. In 1987,the PVA formed the National Council for Spinal Cord Injury Associations (NCSCIA) but this group never quite got their act together and squabbling over funding made this group largely ineffective for years. In 1993, Arthur Ullian (a quadriplegic) was elected President of NCSCIA and began to re-orient the mission of NCSCIA towards lobbying of Congress for more federal funding of spinal cord injury research. Realizing that we need to push all of neurological research rather than just SCI research, Arthur formed The National Coalition to End Neurological Disorders (END) to complement NCSCIA activities. Working quietly behind the scenes and with educational groups like the Dana Alliance, END has met with many members of Congress and the White House. END and the Paralyzed Veterans of America are the most effective lobbying organizations on behalf of spinal cord injury and neurological research in Washington DC.
The American Paralysis Association
The APA emerged out of the original PCR group in 1981. Supported initially by David Camhi and Kent Waldrep, the first large grant made by the APA was to NYU Medical Center. A three-year grant made possible the experiments leading to methylprednisolone treatment of acute spinal cord injury, recruited Dr Andrew Blight (who developed the 4AP therapy for demyelination in chronic spinal cord injury), and supported Dr. John Gruner (who helped develop the NYU Impactor, the now standard rat spinal cord injury model in the field).
By 1983, Kent Waldrep became President of the APA with Admiral Dick M.D. Van Orden as the Director of Research. Supported by David Camhi, Hank Stifel, Joe/Michelle Alioto, and others, the APA awarded small research grants to 5-10 researchers per year and supported many scientific meetings. In 1985, the APA ran into money problems and was taken over by the Henry Stifel Foundation (Hank and Charlotte Stifel). Kent Waldrep left to form the National Paralysis Foundation (NPF) in Dallas. The Aliotos formed the National Paralysis Project in California.
The APA continued to fund many SCI research projects in the United States and overseas, giving out $30,000 (seed money for young investigators) and $60,000 (established investigator awards) grants. Over the years, the APA has seeded over 150 young investigators and has brought dozens of senior researchers into the field (including Martin Schwab, Eric Shooter, Carl Cotman, Rusty Gage, Ira Black, and others).
APA funds research based on rigorous scientific peer review and its scientific advisory board is considered the best in the field.
The Alliance and Consortium
In 1994, Kent Waldrep joined the APA to establish an alliance with the aim of funding a consortium approach to spinal cord injury research. The NPF and APA merged scientific advisory boards, including representatives from the Miami Project. The Alliance refers to the group of organizations banding together to fund science.
The Consortium itself is composed of seven leading laboratories working together to develop new therapies for chronic spinal cord injury. The headquarters of the Alliance and Consortium are situated at the APA. Strongly pushed by Mitch Stoller (the current President of the APA), masterminded by Susan Howley (Research Director of the APA), and strongly supported by the APA Board of Directors, the Consortium has begun its work. It is a first. The aim of the consortium is to get disparate laboratories to work closely together. A prestigious oversight committee watches the activities of the Consortium and advises the Alliance.
The laboratories of the Consortium include the top researchers in molecular, cellular, systems, and applied sciences, carefully selected for their technologies and their commitment to spinal cord injury therapies.
Limited space and memory does not allow adequate credit to many who have contributed but I hope that this helps answer your question. The history of the private sector side of the field will require a book to recount. There are many unsung heroes, like Charles Carson, Sam Maddox, Greg Winget, Ron Cohen, Benjamin Reeve, Shawn Friedkin, Ray Wickson, Larry Johnson, Lisa Hudgins, Peter Banyard, Margaret Brown, Marilyn Spivak, Bob Yant, Mary Ann Liebert, Vivian Smith, Cheryl Chanaud, Lesley Hudson, Walter Schafer, George Zitnay, Vivian Beyda, Tim Hanlin, David Mahoney, Gayle Stevenson, and many other people who have toiled beyond the call of duty to support the field.
Several celebrities have contributed their time and hearts: Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Diane Sawyers, Bill Utley, and of course Christopher Reeve. There have been many people from within the government who have helped the groups with advice and support, i.e. Murray Goldstein, Margaret Giannini, David Gray, Doug Walgren, and others. Many many scientists and clinicians have given unstintingly of their time to advise and raise funds for the organizations. And, I have not even mentioned the industry side of the equation.
Location: Burnsville, MN, USA
Very interesting, Wise. Thanks for posting.
Please submit your photo and story of hope:
http://bridges2hope.unite2fightparalysis.org/
http://unite2fightparalysis.org/
Location: Yankton, South Dakota
thnx Wise
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given you."
Gandolf the Gray
http://justadollarplease.org/
2010 SCINet Clinical Trial Support Squad Member
"You kids and your cures, why back when I was injured they gave us a wheelchair and that's the way it was and we liked it!" Grumpy Old Man
.."i used to be able to goof around so much because i knew Superman had my back. now all i've got is his example -- and that's gonna have to be enough."
goldnucs
Location: Tucson, AZ USA / San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico
Jeez, Wise, how do you keep track of all that?! As a postscript, I recall a think-tank that we (PCR) sponsored in 1979 (I think), in the Virginia countryside, attended by a dozen-or-so leading researchers in various fields relating to SCI from around the world. Did you attend that event? I recall Harry Demopolous and Jerry Petrofsky (computerized walking on 60-Minutes to which you referred) being there. In those "very early" days, I was also actively trying to raise capital for Drs. Harry Goldsmith for his work in omentum transplantation, Eric Naftchi at NYU and Stan Jacob for his research involving DMSO in Portland.
Rick Goldstein
GO! Mobility Solutions
facebook.com/goes.anywhere
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Councillor Lombard: “We Need Long-Term Plan For Our Villages”
Writes Ciaran Dineen
Village and rural areas in the Carrigaline LEA need to be looked at with a long-term strategy in mind, according to Councillor Aidan Lombard (FG). The comments were made at July’s Municipal District meeting in County Hall, the second since the newly formed Carrigaline LEA came into fruition following the 2019 Local Elections.
Speaking from his experience sitting on the Bandon-Kinsale district from 2016 up until May this year, Cllr Lombard said that when it came to the Village Enhancement Scheme it was often the case that Bandon and Kinsale dominated the conversation.
He went on to say, “traditionally over the years in the Bandon-Kinsale MD, the Village Enhancement Scheme didn’t always run that smoothly and we felt that we needed to pick the village that we picked early on so that we had time to meet up with communities to see what they wanted and to see where things were.”
Speaking specifically about an update on Halfway village, which is due to benefit from the scheme, he went on to say, “I’m a small bit concerned that even though we picked it (Halfway Village) a year ago, that the community doesn’t know where it’s going or what it’s going to be.”
As a result of his trepidation, Councillor Lombard further to that point reiterated his belief that the Council needs to make a long-term plan for some of its villages. Speaking about Ballinhassig he said that village enhancement was crucial for even establishing badly needed footpaths and pedestrian crossings, and also for the likes of Minane Bridge, who Cllr Lombard is demanding needs an urgent path connected to the local primary school.
“I don’t even know if this is a motion or just a longer conversation that needs to be had about what we do need in our villages and what are the key things.” In support was Councillor Seámus McGrath (FF), who said that based on his experience from driving through Ballinhassig that “it is striking that there aren’t any traffic calming measures or pedestrian crossings and it is a place that has been overlooked badly”.
Councillor Ben Dalton O’Sullivan (Ind) also commended his rural colleague for his motion and said that it was a constant issue brought up on the doors. In response, outgoing Senior Executive Officer, Jim Molloysaid that the Council would ensure that they would deliver for Halfway and agreed that it was perhaps worthwhile to look at the other villages in the area as suggested.
Read the remainder of the edition here: http://subscriber.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/subscribe.aspx?eid=c946bff2-f434-4a7b-a75d-621998d7e750
Crosshaven To Leave Christmas Lights On
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Finbarr Cahill’s Menswear To Close After 40 Years Of Trading In Cork City Centre
After 40 years in Cork City centre Finbarr Cahill’s Menswear have announced that they will be closing in the coming weeks.
The second generation business was founded in 1980 by Finbarr Cahill and operated in Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork city with a staff of four people. With children's school wear becoming a major growth area of the business in recent years a decision was taken to invest more in a larger, modern and more accessible store in Carrigaline in the 1990s which provides a better overall environment for the growing school wear trade. Continuing to operate a second retail outlet in the city centre was making less economic sense.
The closure of Finbarr Cahill’s Menswear follows that of a number of family run retail outlets in the city centre and reflects the manner in which modern shopping has changed. The growth of online shopping combined with more convenient access to retails outlets in suburban areas has proven to be a challenge for sustaining small retail business in the city centre. The modern shopper seeks a more convenient overall experience.
Finbarr Cahill’s Menswear, like many other small family businesses, has had to adapt to modern shopping behaviour, creating extra capacity with the development of a new online presence www.cahillschoolwear.ie to meet the continuing growth in the school wear business.
The announcement coincides with the closure last month of another Cork family retail outlet; Finn’s Corner.
"It feels a bit like the end of an era, particularly so close to Finns Corner closing. Not only did Dad work in Finns Corner for 20 years, before he opened his own premises, he also met my mother Angela there’ said Brendan Cahill, Finbarr’s son, who has run the business for the last number of years.
‘Last year when my dad, Finbarr, sadly passed away we were very moved by the many happy memories people had of their experiences in our shop over the years. There were many tales of First Holy Communion outfits from many years ago and the fondness of people's memories was very gratifying’.
‘The goodwill from the public and the nostalgia generated since the news began to emerge has been very heart-warming’ said Brendan. We are very grateful to our many customers over the years and we look forward to maintaining those great relationships, as we continue to transition our business’ concluded Brendan. ‘Our aim is to provide the modern consumer with the convenience they need while maintaining the traditional customer service standards for which we are renowned.’
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Why CHOICE
Field Advisory Committee
Trip Leaders + Safety
Expedition Calendar
Expedition Philosophy
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Expeditions FAQ
Expedition Resources
Prateek Sharma / Director CHOICE Nepal
Mr. Sharma was born in Chainpur, Sankhuwasabha district, Eastern Nepal in 1970. He was raised in a very small town with his family. His father owned and operated a small medical store. Being surrounded by those struggling with poverty, those days made him appreciate the difficulties poor families in the community faced. When he went to Kathmandu at the age of 18 for further studies, he was dedicated to finding ways to help the poor. While in Kathmandu he received a Bachelor's Degree in Law and Management.
After graduation, Mr. Sharma started his own construction business. Over time he became an "A" class contractor, the highest rating for a contractor from the Nepali government. He oversaw construction of many public buildings, water and irrigation projects, health centers, and roads. But he never forgot the poor and disadvantaged people in the communities he worked in. He wanted to do something for them, to ease their burdens. So he, along with his team, did many social projects to help the communities they lived and worked in. These included providing scholarships for children in poverty, constructing a school library, expanding water ponds, building access roads, or helping with medical expenses for the disadvantaged in the community.
After a long and successful career in the construction business, Mr. Sharma decided to join an organization that works to help the poor more directly. Ultimately, he joined CHOICE Humanitarian Nepal. He worked at CHOICE Nepal as an Infrastructure Development Director for seven years, implementing projects in sixteen districts. His main responsibilities were general management, community relations, coordinating with the government, quality control, project inspections, human resources, identifying new projects, building partnerships, and expedition management.
Since June 1, 2016, he has been serving as the CHOICE Nepal Director. Mr. Sharma is dedicated to the work and is passionate about continuing the progress CHOICE Nepal has made. His aims are to eliminate extreme poverty, maintain transparency within the organization, and ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of CHOICE projects. Through these projects CHOICE Nepal will improve the quality of life in rural areas, empower the local communities and leaders; and assist in economic development through agriculture and small business development.
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CHOICE Humanitarian is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit recognized by the IRS, and all donations to CHOICE Humanitarian are tax-deductible in accordance with IRS regulations. This website Made by Pumpkin & Created with NationBuilder
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Pick a charity for cash help
After a fantastic year of fundraising a shopping centre is appealing to customers to help choose its new charity for 2005.
Last year shoppers at Sunderland's Bridges Shopping Centre donated £5,500 for The Anthony Nolan Trust.
Now the Bridges will use a simple voting system to support the charity most favoured by its shoppers for 2005. Bridges' marketing manager, Lindsey McKenna, said: "I cannot praise enough the generosity of our shoppers, who have made our charity endeavours a true success. We've hosted some great fundraising events in the centre over the last year and I'd like to thank everyone for their support."
Voting forms can be obtained from (0191) 510 8581.
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