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__label__wiki	0.962921	0.962921	Ecology Paves the Way up Pikes Peak By Malcolm Howard Special to The Christian Science Monitor COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. It's a rare day when environmentalists line up in support of paving a dirt road. But then again, the 13-mile stretch of gravel that snakes toward the summit of Colorado's 14,000-foot Pikes Peak isn't just any country byway. After all, it was this precarious alpine track that led English professor Katherine Lee Bates to the Pikes Peak summit, which in turn inspired "America, the Beautiful," published 101 years ago on July 4th. But because the rose-hued granite that likely inspired "purple mountain majesties" is also extremely friable, the 108-year-old gravel carpet that accommodated Bates (and millions of subsequent tourists) is causing extreme erosion problems, environmentalists say. Over the years, they contend, thousands of tons of gravel, used to maintain the road, have washed over the alpine tundra, burying wetlands and clogging streams. Asphalt would solve much of that problem, they say. "It's been hard to get support from some environmentalists," says Gail Snyder, author of a key study on road-related erosion. "The reaction is often: 'Paving is bad; it's not environmental.' But in this case, paving the highway is the best way to protect the mountain." In an even odder twist, however, it's the area's most stalwart auto buffs who strongly oppose paving the road. Organizers of the 74-year-old "Race to the Clouds" - which occurs on July 4 - say paving the Pikes Peak Highway would ruin their annual auto-sprint, the second oldest road race in the US after the Indy 500. They come for the thrill Next week, hundreds of racers from around the world will gather in Colorado Springs to pit their souped-up cars, trucks, and motorcycles against the steep, snake-like course. They come, most say, for the unique thrill of ripping over the bumpy, loose surface at speeds up to 150 m.p.h. "Paving the road would definitely change the race," says Leonard Vashscolz, a nine-time winner who says he probably couldn't afford to rebuild his race car to run on pavement. "It could be done, but the nostalgia and tradition would certainly be gone." By maintaining a gravel highway, however, the city of Colorado Springs, which leases the road from the United States Forest Service, encourages the mountain's natural inclination to erode, environmentalists say. Upkeep practices, such as grading, loosen the road surface and cast gravel over the road's edge or into drainage ditches, according to reports by Ms. Snyder and others. This, in turn, sends cascades of brown dirt into alpine meadows, she says. Snyder has hiked much of the area's steep terrain, documenting road-related damage: gullies dug 30 feet deep by torrents of coffee-colored road spill; trees buried up to five feet in sand; wetlands filled by the spreading deltas of gravel. Normally, rain and snow-melt seep into the Peak's loose granitic soil, emerging from mountain springs farther down slope, Snyder says. Where roadways capture runoff, however, water is channeled at unnatural speeds, picking up loose gravel as it rushes down hill. Snyder and other environmentalists say blacktop would reduce erosion by eliminating the need for grading and imported gravel. Each year work crews pour thousands of tons of new gravel onto the road. But race enthusiasts doubt that pavement is the solution. An asphalt bed, they argue, would only increase runoff because it's less absorbent than gravel. Further, black top will likely break up in high-altitude weather conditions, necessitating expensive upkeep, they contend. Additionally, they point to recent surveys showing most locals and tourists favor the dirt road because it limits traffic and maintains a rural flavor. The question of whether or not to pave has been debated for decades. But the rancor increased in recent months after the Colorado Springs City Council voted in favor of paving, then explicitly stated that "paving" does not have to mean with asphalt. The city is now testing a product called Pennzsuppress D which contains gravel-binding resins untested on high-altitude roadways, says Dave Zelenok, the city's director of transportation. If Pennzsuppress withstands the Peak's arctic conditions, Mr. Zelenok says, it's an ideal compromise. If the gummy road glue fails, however, Zelenok says he'll begin laying down asphalt in 1998, as called for in the city's master plan for the highway. But environmentalists say long-time political and economic connections between city officials and the time-honored race are the real reasons for delay. Colorado Springs Mayor Bob Isaac, whose nephew is a racer, scoffs at such suggestions. "Of course I'm interested in the race, but the race is not key," says Mayor Isaac. "What I'm really concerned about is safety." "The weather changes up there every five minutes," says Isaac, adding that gravel provides more traction in snow than asphalt. "So what happens if you get a slick surface when there are people up there who've never driven at high altitudes? It's dangerous." And not just for inexperienced wintertime drivers, adds the race's executive director Nick Sanborn. To date, only two competitors have died during previous races, but Sanborn says his insurance company is already worried about the liability associated with a paved track. A smooth surface, he says, would allow racers to burn up the hairpin course much more quickly. For others, it comes down to money. To pave the road with asphalt, local taxpayers would have to produce an estimated $13 million over 10 years. Pennzsuppress D could reduce that price tag because it costs roughly $13,000 per mile, versus $250,000 per mile for asphalt. But because even the best road stabilizer requires at least some grading, environmentalists contend asphalt is cheaper in the long run because it requires considerably less maintenance. Further, they say, a paved road would bring in greater overall revenues because it would attract more tourists to the highway, which has been managed as city-run toll road since 1915. And they argue that paving is also needed for legal reasons. Because the highway runoff impacts wetlands, streams, and even a city reservoir, environmentalists say the city is running afoul of the Clean Water Act. In 1993, a Forest Service report backed up that claim: "Biological productivity of the streams impacted by sediment has been reduced by 85 percent... these streams are not meeting the goal of the Clean Water Act, which states that the biological integrity of the nation's waters will be restored and maintained." But city and federal officials counter that they're working hard to restore mountain waterways. "We're very concerned about the Clean Water Act and that's why we're doing something about it," says Bill Nelson, Pikes Peak District ranger for the US Forest Service. In the past decade, Mr. Nelson notes, city workers and volunteers have installed culverts, planted grasses on steep road cuts, and even erected small dams - all in an effort to stem erosion. As further evidence of progress, Zelanok says the amount of gravel deposited on the road has dropped from 50,000 tons per year to 10,000. Still, Snyder points to potential violations. At several points along the road, she notes, road graders have pushed gravel directly into drainage ditches, putting loose dirt directly in the path of rushing water. Both sides now agree that whatever surface is ultimately applied to the road, the city will have to build extensive new erosion control systems. USA Update Mcity: Why is the University of Michigan building a fake town? Ethiopia's key to safer births? Better roads First Look Mexican tourism brings uneven development in Nayarit state	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15133
__label__wiki	0.968932	0.968932	Swiss Banks Let World Peek Into Vaults for Victims' Money On July 23 the names on accounts of Nazi Holocaust victims will be made public By Elizabeth Olson Special to The Christian Science Monitor Switzerland's banks, famous for their secrecy, are letting the world look at their ledgers, at least in part. For the first time ever, on July 23 banks will publicize worldwide the names on Holocaust-era bank accounts. The move is meant to speed the return of unclaimed money to its rightful owners. Buffeted by continuing charges that they are holding onto assets that belong to Jewish victims of Nazi death camps in World War II, Swiss banks plan to circulate on the Internet and in newspapers in some 20 countries the names listed on bank accounts dormant since 1945. This wholesale disclosure will sweep aside Switzerland's vaunted bank-secrecy laws, at least for these disputed accounts. "It is absolutely an unprecedented step," says Daniel Zuberbuehler, spokesman for the Swiss Federal Banking Commission. "These are specific historic circumstances that allow us to sidestep the secrecy rules." Bank-secrecy laws are meant to protect depositors. But "if the customer does not know where the funds are, you are not protecting him," Mr. Zuberbuehler says. Previously, only names on dormant passbook accounts have been published on a case-by-case basis in Swiss newspapers. In the case of the Holocaust victims' accounts, previous efforts by Swiss banks to uncover and release money have been paltry, turning up only a small fraction of the billions of dollars Jewish groups believe are stashed in Swiss vaults. In an effort to end the controversy, the Swiss Banking Association says the names will be published simultaneously in Switzerland and the United States, as well as other countries. Spokeswoman Sylvie Matile says the list of countries is still being decided upon. But it is likely that many beneficiaries will be in Eastern Europe, in the former Soviet Union, and in Israel, where it is estimated that about 600,000 Nazi-era survivors and their families reside. Many of these people are impoverished. Claims to bank accounts or assets in vaults are to be resolved by an independent panel, the composition of which has yet to be announced. This panel marks the first time the Swiss have allowed an outside body to decide such claims. A second list of unclaimed accounts will appear Oct. 20. Claims must be filed in six months, and lodged with the accounting firm of ATAG Ernst & Young in Basel, Switzerland, which will provide information to claimants and prepare files for the claims-settlement panel. Ms. Matile says the banks would be happy to find owners of the inactive accounts because of "the paperwork and responsibility of keeping accounts for more than 50 years." Yet the banks agreed to lift the veil of bank secrecy only after prompting by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission and the international committee investigating dormant Swiss bank accounts, headed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. The two-year controversy over the Nazi-era accounts has seriously damaged Switzerland's banking image. Business has been lost, and there has been a threat of an international boycott. Also, several multimillion-dollar class-action suits have been filed in US courts against Swiss banks by Jewish victims. In an attempt at reform, several Swiss legislators have introduced measures to pry open the secrecy that surrounds bank accounts. Currently, no federal law exists on this matter. But there are already differences over proposals for broader legislation. The Swiss bankers group said it would not favor following the example of New York State, where the names of account holders must be published if there is no activity after five years. "This is too short because many customers have long relationships with banks," Matile says. Federal regulator Zuberbuehler said even 10 years might be too short. Germany tries to convince Swiss banks to play by its rules Levin: Time for IRS to tackle Swiss bank tax evasion. Again. Stash your cash in Switzerland? US and Europe push to make it harder.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15134
__label__wiki	0.966852	0.966852	Google agrees to Italian privacy authority audits in the US Google will also be subject to quarterly checks in Italy Loek Essers (IDG News Service) on 21 February, 2015 04:04 Google has agreed to on-the-spot audits at its U.S. headquarters in order to comply with Italy's data protection laws. The Italian data protection authority (DPA) imposed several privacy measures on Google after an investigation into the company's policies that was completed in July 2014. On Friday, the authority said Google will comply with all demands. The process to verify compliance calls for the DPA to check up on Google's progress at its U.S. headquarters. It remains unclear when that will happen, though. "There is no precise appointment at the moment but there is an agreement to be able to go there," a spokesman for the authority said. Google will also be subject to quarterly checks in Italy to monitor progress, the authority said. It's the first time that is being subjected to such checks by a European authority, the DPA said. Google will have to improve its privacy policy, making it unambiguous and easily accessible and tailoring it to specific services such as Gmail and Chrome. It will also have to provide details about which data is being collected and what it will be used for. For example, it will have to tell users if their data is combined across multiple services. If Google wants to profile its users, it can only do so after it has obtained informed consent, the DPA said. Google will also have to improve the way it stores and deletes data. In particular, there should be a specific time frame in which data will be deleted from Google's systems. Internal rules on anonymization of personal data will have to be revised to be compliant with the guidance already provided by European DPAs. The company will also have to set up an archive with previous versions of its privacy policy to allow users to keep track of the changes made over time. A Google spokesman said it would continue to work with the Italian DPA. It will have to implement the measures by February 2016. Google's privacy policy has been under scrutiny in Europe since it was introduced in 2012, when it started combining around 70 existing policies for various services, despite the concerns of European Union data protection authorities. In January, the company agreed to change its policy in the U.K. after regulatory pressure, and last year, the Dutch privacy authority threatened fines of up to €15 million if it did not change its privacy policy to start complying with Dutch law by the end of this month. Google has also been fined in France and in Spain over privacy issues similar to those addressed by the Italian DPA. Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, online payment issues as well as EU technology policy and regulation for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com Tags privacyGoogle More about EUGoogleIDGNews Enhanced Service Level Agreements (eSLAs) on the nbn broadband access network Stories by Loek Essers EU privacy watchdog weighs in on data protection reform, shares concerns Google tells its publisher partners to comply with EU cookie directive Belgian government phishing test goes off-track EU air passenger data retention system ready for take-off, says Parliament	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15135
__label__cc	0.507109	0.492891	Our purpose : what drives us Working at Coface Experts in 66 countries Our Human Resources policy Join Coface A finely meshed international network... ... supporting our clients in building successful businesses TradeLiner Single Risk Our economic studies Risk analyses and evaluations Coface’s publications Country Risk Conferences Complementary services Coface Country Risk Conference Coface Share Share capital / Shareholding structure financial results and reports Analysts Consensus FY-2018 results: net income up 47% at €122.3M and pay-out of 100% of net income Country risk and economic studies Turnover: €1,385m, up 4.6% at constant scope and FX - Q4-2018 up 6.3% vs. Q4-2017 and 4.0% excluding one-off adjustments[1] - Growth in credit insurance at 5.7% at constant FX - Insured turnover and client retention at record levels Net loss ratio at 45.1%, an improvement of 6.2ppts; annual net combined ratio at 79.6% - Net loss ratio under control at 45.5% in Q4-2018, thanks to good management of past claims and rigorous underwriting - Net annual cost ratio down by 0.7ppts to 34.5% compared to 35.2% in 2017 reflecting tight cost control and sustained investments - Net combined ratio at 81.4% in Q4-2018 Net income (group share) of €122.3m; of which €24.1m in Q4-2018. Annualised RoATE[2] at 7.7% - Earnings per share at record level of €0.79 Solvency ratio estimated to have risen to ~169%[3], above target range (140%-160%) - Coface still aims to file for approval of its internal model in the summer of 2019, and to this end has initiated discussions with the regulator. Coface continues to actively manage its capital base - Proposed pay-out of 100% of the year's results of which at least 60% as a dividend[4] Unless otherwise indicated, changes are expressed in comparison with the results as at 31 December 2017. Xavier Durand, Coface's Chief Executive Officer, said: “Our good 2018 results show the relevance of our Fit to Win strategic plan in a now more volatile economic environment. Our net income of €122 million is up 47% and corresponds to a return on equity close to our average through the cycle objective excluding further capital optimisation actions. Our 169% solvency ratio reflects the strength of our balance sheet and enables us to propose a pay-out ratio of 100% of our net income. These solid numbers have been achieved at a time when new risk factors (Chinese slowdown, Brexit, shutdown, trade wars) came in addition to risk areas that were already known (Argentina, Turkey). In 2019, leveraging on our risk infrastructure, which has been strengthened over the past three years, we will continue with our rigorous underwriting policy and investments strategy. We plan to invest €25 million in major projects, including implementing new accounting standards. Finally, we have started discussions with the French regulator on our internal model. We still aim to file our application for registration in the summer of 2019.” Key figures at 31 december 2018 The Board of Directors of COFACE SA examined the consolidated financial statements at 31 December 2018 at its meeting of 11 February 2019. These have been reviewed by the Audit Committee; accounts are non-audited, certification is in progress. 1-Turnover In 2018, Coface recorded consolidated turnover of €1,384.7 million, up +4.6% at constant exchange rates compared to 2017. On a reported basis (at current exchange rates), turnover increased by +2.2% due to the strengthening of the euro against the other currencies in which the Group operates. In line with the trends of previous quarters, the growth in Coface's customer business had a positive impact of +6.1% for the year, despite a slight slowdown at the end of the year. The price decline remains controlled at (1.4)%, reflecting good commercial management and the start of re-pricing in highest risk markets. The retention rate was high in most regions and reached a record annual level of 91.1% for the Group. New business totalled €116m, down €13m from 2017, in line with a rigorous underwriting policy. The fourth quarter was up very slightly compared to the same period in 2017, confirming the gradual catch-up undertaken throughout the year. Insurance turnover (including bonding and single risk) increased by +5.7% at constant scope and exchange rates compared to 2017 (up +3.0% at current exchange rates), thanks to the return to growth in mature markets as a result of the growth in our clients' business and a high level of contract retention. Turnover from other activities (Factoring and Services) was down (1.3)% compared to 2017 due to lower factoring revenues in Germany in a context of tight control of margins and risks, offset by good growth in services revenues. In the Northern Europe region, turnover decreased by (0.3)% and (0.2)% at constant exchange rates, mainly due to lower factoring revenues. Credit insurance revenues increased by +1.6% due to policyholders' activity and a good level of retention, marking the reversal of the downward trend observed in the last several years. In Western Europe, turnover was up by +1.1% and +1.6% at constant exchange rates thanks, on the one hand, to the activity of our customers and, on the other hand, to the Group’s record retention. In Central and Eastern Europe, turnover grew by +4.8% and +6.1% at constant exchange rates. This growth is taking place in the context of strict risk management, particularly in Poland where factoring revenues were also up. In Mediterranean and Africa, a region driven by Italy and Spain, turnover rose by +6.4% and +8.2% at constant exchange rates, thanks to good sales momentum and growth in policyholders' business. In North America, turnover increased by +3.8% as reported and +8.3% at constant exchange rates. The Group has now stabilised its portfolio and the signing of major contracts, particularly in Single Risk, explains the significant growth in turnover. Turnover in the Asia-Pacific region decreased by (1.5)% as reported and increased by +2.7% at constant exchange rates. Customer activity is on the rise and the region is recording improved sales performance in credit insurance. Part of this increase was offset by high premium refunds (low claims experience). In Latin America, turnover decreased by (5.5)% as reported but increased by +11.9% at constant exchange rates due to a good level of customer activity and the signature of major international contracts. This increase was achieved in a context of prudent risk management (currency turbulence). 2. Result - Combined ratio The combined ratio net of reinsurance was 79.6% for the year (down 7.0 points year-on-year). The combined ratio net of reinsurance for Q4-2018 was 81.4%, reflecting a further gradual normalisation of the claims ratio. (i) Loss ratio The gross loss ratio stood at 44.2% in 2018, an improvement of 7.2 points compared to the previous year. In Q4-2018, the gross loss ratio was 45.3% but benefited from a favourable exchange rate effect (revaluation of liabilities in local currency) to the equivalent of one point. Excluding this effect, the gross loss ratio would have been 46.3% for the quarter compared to 43.6% in the previous quarter (also excluding currency). The Group's provisioning policy remains unchanged. The rigorous management of past claims enabled the Group to record 34.0 points of recovery on previous claims during the year. These levels remain well above the historical average. In particular, they benefited from good recoveries on two major claims recorded in previous years. A portion of these recoveries has been provisioned again in the current year because the companies concerned, to which the Group retains exposure, have not fully recovered from their difficulties. These movements are an opportunity for the Group to highlight the sensitivity of the credit insurance business to large single claims, which can represent a significant portion of quarterly profit. The net loss ratio also improved to 45.1%, a decrease of 6.2 points compared to 2017. (ii) Cost ratio Coface continues to implement its operational efficiency programme. Savings achieved for the year amount to €39 million; a level higher than the target set in the Fit to Win plan for a total annualised saving of €30 million over 2018. The savings made it possible to continue to reinvest in Coface's in-depth transformation around risks, systems, processes and service quality. The cost ratio net of reinsurance was 34.5%, an improvement of 0.7 points year-on-year. - Financial result Net financial income amounted to €51.1 million in 2018, including €4.7 million in net realised capital gains and depreciations. Given the conditions prevailing on financial markets, the level of realised capital gains was down compared to 2017. In an environment still marked by historically low rates, Coface managed to record a slight increase in the portfolio's current yield (i.e. excluding capital gains and depreciations) to €40.7 million (compared with €37.5 million in 2017). The accounting yield[5], excluding capital gains, stood at 1.5% in 2018, and was very slightly higher than the previous year (1.4%). - Operating income and net income Operating income amounted to €203.9 million for the year, up sharply (+32.0%) compared to the previous year, mainly as a result of the lower claims ratio, and revenue growth. The effective tax rate decreased to 34% from 41% in 2017. In total, net income (group share) amounted to €122.3m, including €24.1m in Q4-2018. 3. Shareholders'equity At 31 December 2018, the Group's shareholders' equity amounted to €1,806.2 million, up €3.6 million or +0.2% (€1,802.6 million at 31 December 2017). The change is explained mainly by the positive net result of €122.3 million offset by the dividend payment (€52.9 million), share buybacks (€46.8 million) and negative adjustments on the fair value of investments (€18.7 million). The share buyback programme announced on 24 October 2018 for a maximum amount of €15 million was completed on 8 January 2019. In total, 1,867,312 shares were purchased for a value of €14,999,990 (excluding fees). The return on average tangible equity (RoATE) was 7.7% for the full year 2018 and 8.0%[6] excluding non-recurring items. 4. Outlook The end of 2018 confirms Coface's scenario of a gradual normalisation of the risk environment. The economic environment is now clearly more volatile as new risk factors (Chinese slowdown, Brexit, shutdown, trade wars) come in addition to the risk areas already known (Argentina, Turkey). In this economic context, Coface is confident in the relevance of its strategy, which is to become the most agile credit insurer, and remains focused on its implementation. Thanks to its investments in risk management, Coface will pursue a disciplined underwriting policy, while noting the sensitivity of the credit insurance business to large claims, which can represent a significant portion of a quarter's profit. Confident in the strength of its balance sheet, and in line with its capital management policy, the company will propose to its shareholders the distribution of 100% of its net income, including a minimum of 60% in the form of a dividend[7]. Coface maintains its objective of submitting its application for approval of its internal model in the summer of 2019. Discussions with the regulator on this subject have begun. Moreover, changes in the standard formula, the estimated effect of which is a decrease of between 15 and 20 points in the Group's solvency ratio, are now expected to be implemented in 2020. The objectives of delivering a net combined ratio of around 83% through the cycle and achieving a RoATE of 8% + 1% are maintained. Conference call for financial analysts Coface’s results for FY-2018 will be discussed with financial analysts during the conference call on 11 February at 18.00 (Paris time). Dial one of the following numbers: +33 (1) 72 72 74 03 (France), +44 2071 943 759 (United Kingdom), +1 646 722 4916 (United States). The access code for participants is: 59598878# The presentation will be available (in English only) at the following address: http://www.coface.com/Investors/financial-results-and-reports [1] One-off adjustment of €(7.1)m including refunds provisions and retroactive effects. [2] RoATE = Average return on tangible equity [3] This estimated solvency ratio constitutes a preliminary calculation made according to Coface’s interpretation of Solvency II regulations. The result of the definitive calculation may differ from the preliminary calculation. The estimated solvency ratio is not audited. [4] The proposed distribution is subject to approval by the general shareholders meeting on 16 May 2019. [5] Accounting profitability ratio calculated on average investment portfolio excluding non-consolidated subsidiaries. [6] Non-recurring items amounted to €(3.8)m and mainly including €10.6m of restructuring charges partially offset by reversals of provisions €7.5m. * End-2017 final solvency ratio stands at 164% (based on the interpretation by Coface of Solvency II and integrating a stricter estimation for Factoring SCR to anticipate regulatory changes). Not audited. Download this press release : FY-2018 results: net income up 47% at €122.3M and pay-out of 100% of... (585.41 kB) Do you have a question? a request? ComCorp Caroline Pierron coface@comcorp.fr Legal Notice - Data protection - Contact - Cookie consent management Cookie consent management	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15137
__label__cc	0.69572	0.30428	Neil Dryden Postgraduate Diploma in EC Competition Law, King's College MPhil in Economics, Oxford University BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Oxford University Office: +44 20 3725 9007 ndryden@compasslexecon.com Neil Dryden is an Executive Vice President in Compass Lexecon’s European competition policy practice, based in the firm’s London office. Neil was awarded the 2016 Economist of the Year by the Global Competition Review. Major public cases since 2015 include Ball/Rexam, BT/EE, Cardtronics/DCP, Spirit/Greene King, interchange (Visa and MasterCard high court cases), QPR vs English Football League, and Media24/South African Competition Commission. Neil has analyzed cases in sectors including advertising, banking and financial services, chemicals, energy, FMCG, healthcare, manufacturing, media and broadcasting, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, postal services, publishing, retailing, scientific instruments, sports, technology, telecommunications, tobacco, transport, and water. Neil was educated at Oxford University where he obtained a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (first class) and an M.Phil. in Economics, and held a college lectureship for two years. At King’s College, London, he obtained a postgraduate diploma in EC competition law (with distinction). Compass Lexecon Advises on the Cleared Acquisition of Exterion Media by Global Compass Lexecon Advises Marsh & McLennan Companies During EC Merger Investigation Compass Lexecon Clients Prevail in Landmark Payment Card Interchange Fee Judgment Compass Lexecon Helps BT Achieve Unconditional Clearance of Merger With EE	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15142
__label__cc	0.542764	0.457236	Fields of Service Stormwater Protection & Flood Control The Coachella Valley is an arid desert region averaging less than 3 inches of rain per year. However the surrounding mountains are subject to much higher rainfall rates which can produce unpredictable, damaging, and even deadly flash flooding events throughout the Coachella Valley. As a result of these damaging flooding events, the Coachella Valley Stormwater District was formed in 1915 to control regional flooding. Longtime residents know that when storms do arrive, streets quickly can turn into well-functioning but rapid flood channels. And, areas previously overlooked as grassy, low-lying neighborhood lots, suddenly become the retention basins they were designed to be. Many of the facilities that exist today were built or improved in the 1970s in cooperation with cities and other agencies following severe floods. Such cooperation is vital because while the district is responsible for most flood control facilities, responsibility for streets, bridges, and related infrastructure rests with other levels of government, such as counties and cities. Today, CVWD protects 590 square miles from flooding. Stormwater Protection Within CVWD's boundaries there are 16 stormwater protection channels. The entire system includes approximately 135 miles of channels built along the natural alignment of dry creeks that naturally flow from the surrounding mountains into the Whitewater River. Along with the channels, a number of dikes and levees have been designed and built to collect rapidly flowing flood water as it pours from the adjacent mountains onto the valley floor. These are mostly located in the cove communities. The backbone of the stormwater protection system is a 50-mile storm channel that runs from the Whitewater area north of Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. The western half of the channel runs along the natural alignment of the Whitewater River that cuts diagonally across the valley to Point Happy in La Quinta (near Highway 111 and Washington Street). Because the riverbed flattens out naturally in the eastern valley, downstream from Point Happy a man-made storm channel funnels flood waters to the Salton Sea. The entire length of this flood protection facility is known as the Whitewater River / Coachella Valley Stormwater Channel. The channel was built to withstand a standard project flood, or approximately a flow of 80,000 cubic feet per second. A standard project flood is greater than a 100-year flood. Stormwater protection is funded primarily from local property taxes. Unfortunately, this limits expansion of the stormwater system. The Thousand Palms area and rural areas in the eastern Coachella Valley areas from Oasis to Salton City do not currently have flood protection, although the district is working with federal agencies to expand flood protection to these areas. Be mindful. Flash floods do occur in the Coachella Valley and all residents must be aware when storms hover over nearby mountains. Residents, and especially children, should stay out of the flood control channels before and during all storms. Be patient. Many of the valley’s streets were designed to funnel water to the stormwater channels. Street closures, though inconvenient during a storm, are absolutely necessary to prevent loss of life and extensive property damage. Comply with road closures and other directions of emergency personnel. Desert storms can be very deceptive. Flows can be strong enough to cause a car or truck to lose traction and float away in as little as 2 feet of slow-moving water. As little as six inches of fast-moving water can push a car off the road. Flood Maps for eastern Coachella Valley	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15144
__label__wiki	0.505532	0.505532	Gold Coast Jigsaw Puzzle Game Gold Coast Puzzle Details: About: The Gold Coast is a coastal city in southeastern Queensland on the east coast of Australia. With its sunny subtropical climate, surfing beaches, canal and waterway systems, its high-rise skyline, theme parks and rainforest hinterland the Gold Coast is a major tourist destination. Waterfront canal living is a feature of the Gold Coast, and most canal frontage homes have pontoons. Puzzle Of The Day On: 06/May/2014 <iframe width="800" height="600" src="https://cdn2.dailyjigsawpuzzles.net/923.html" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Liked "Gold Coast" ? In today's new jigsaw puzzle we feature a small, stone hunting lodge in the snow covered peaks of the Austrian Alps. So click start and joins us by the fire place in a this breath taking winter landscape. Red Tree Leaves In this new puzzle of the day we feature a beautiful view of a small pond during Autumn. Click start and see the red tree leaves, the calm water and the small white gazebo in the middle of the pond while enjoying this fun jigsaw game. Skyscrapers are tall, continuously habitable buildings of many floors, usually designed for office, commercial and residential use. The term "skyscraper" was first applied to buildings of steel framed construction of at least 10 stories in the late 19th century, a result of public amazement at the tall buildings being built in major cities like Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit. View of Venice Venice, a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region, is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by 400 bridges. Venice has been known as the "La Dominante", "Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals." The buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wooden piles. The foundations rest on plates of Istrian limestone placed on top of the piles, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. House By The Lighthouse Join us in a beautiful, green landscape and put the old house by the red and white lighthouse back together a relaxing puzzle solving time. Once widely used, lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, and safe entries to harbors, and assist in maritime and aerial navigation. As lighthouses became less essential to navigation, many of their historic structures faced demolition or neglect. That's why in many countries legal steps where taken to preserve these impressive structures In the U.S. the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act was adopted in 2000, in Canada the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act has saved many such buildings and many other countries that have a long naval history and built and operated such towering structures are restoring and preserving this unique pieces of architecture and history. Bridge Autumn Landscape Another beautiful Autumn themed jigsaw puzzle is here! Today we're by an old arched bridge crossing a small river in a colorful Autumn landscape. Small Mountain Lake Click start and join us on the shores of a small mountain lake in today's landscape themed puzzle game. Put the beautiful alpine landscape ( the small crystal clear lake, the snowy mountain peaks, the trees in the distance) back together as fast as you can and get top place on our leader boards. Have fun! Lower Manhattan Skyline In this new puzzle we feature an urban landscape - a view of lower Manhattan's skyline. Lower Manhattan is defined as the area delineated on the north by 14th Street, on the west by the Hudson River, on the east by the East River, and on the south by the Upper New York Bay. The Lower Manhattan business district forms the core of the area. It includes the Wall Street (the Financial District) and the World Trade Center site. Clouds Over Sunflower Field In today's new puzzle game we feature a beautiful view of a sunflower field on a cloudy day. Click start, choose your difficulty level and solve this landscape themed jigsaw as fast as you can; put the sunflowers back together and get a top spot on the leader boards. Have fun! Autumn Walkway A beautiful landscape jigsaw featuring a walkway covered in autumn leaves. Solve this fun jigsaw puzzle and put the beautiful winter landscape back together. Once complete you can admire the beautiful setting sun over the snow covered winter landscape. Have fun! Small Alpine Stream Today we're taking you high up in the mountains for a breathtaking alpine view and few moments of peace and relaxation. Pick your difficulty level, toggle piece rotation on or off and start putting the small, crystal clear mountain stream, the impressive mountain peaks in the distance and the cloudy blue sky back together as fast as you can a get a top spot on our daily leaderboards. Have fun!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15146
__label__wiki	0.549723	0.549723	Residents to monitor their own CCTV A groundbreaking digital television service which will enable more than 20,000 residents to monitor live footage from CCTV cameras in their own neighbourhood will be launched today. The main aim of the £12 million scheme in Shoreditch, east London, is to help residents lead the fight against crime, vandalism and anti-social behaviour. Will this measure help cut crime? Tell us below in reader comments The Digital Bride system will enable subscribers to monitor a dedicated network of 12 "Community Cam" CCTV cameras via their own television sets. It goes live today with a formal launch by the Minister for London and Neighbourhood Renewal, Jim Fitzpatrick. As well as enabling residents to monitor the CCTV cameras from their homes, the service will allow the police to make direct appeals for information via real-time "incident alerts" that break into regular programming. Residents will also be able to download images of graffiti, vandalism and anti-social behaviour and forward them electronically to the council, then monitor online response and removal times. And it will carry a series of dedicated local crime prevention programmes, featuring details of on-going investigations, photo-fit appeals and crime prevention advice. The project is being funded by the Government, European Structural Funds and the private sector, and is endorsed by Hackney police. It has been produced by the Shoreditch Trust, a "community based regeneration body" managed by residents. Stage one will see the service rolled out to 22,000 residents across Shoreditch during this summer. The next stage, due to be in place by the autumn, will see the service extended to 70,00 households across the whole of the borough of Hackney. Stage three, scheduled for the beginning of 2007, will see the service expanding across London, and to several local authorities in the Midlands and the North West. Micheal (correct) Pyner, chief executive of the Shoreditch Trust, said the scheme would enable the community to tackle the problems of vandalism and anti-social behaviour "head on". "This groundbreaking service enables everyone who lives in Shoreditch to take control in the fight against crime," he said. "People still refer with pride to the days when people in the east end looked out for each other, we know that this spirit still exists and we intend to offer a tool of the 21st century for people to be able to do that again." Mr Fitzpatrick added: "This is an excellent example of residents being involved and developing their own responses to their own problems. "By involving people in the changes they want to see in their communities improvements will be more sustainable. This shows you can make a difference to the community you live in."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15147
__label__wiki	0.99134	0.99134	Martin is like having a new signing, says Villa skipper Barry Last updated at 15:46 05 December 2007 Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry has described Martin Laursen as "like a new signing" for the club this season. • More Premier League news Barry has been impressed by the performances of the 30-year-old defender, who endured an injury-plagued start to his Villa Park career after joining the club three-and-a-half years ago. "Martin's re-emergence into the first team has been fantastic for us," Barry said. "He's been out for so long that it felt like a new signing at the start of the season. "Everyone knew how good a player he was by the games he has played for us but, because of injury, that hasn't been as many as he would have liked. "Let's hope he can stay clear of injury all season because he's been a massive plus for us."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15148
__label__wiki	0.993275	0.993275	Robert Rodriguez unveils 'Matador' spy thriller BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The premiere of the new spy thriller "Matador" has a shocking moment early in the hour. It involves a human head and a sharp object. And it perfectly reflects the rawboned sensibility of Robert Rodriguez, whose network, El Rey, begins airing "Matador" Tuesday at 9 p.m. EDT. But don't blame Rodriguez, even though he directed the episode. The prolific filmmaker and entertainment impresario was called on that scene by a reporter who dubbed it "the Robert Rodriguez touch" during Thursday's session of the TV critics' tour. Robert Rodriguez speaks onstage during the "Matodor" segment of the El Rey Network 2014 Summer TCA on Thursday, July 10, 2014, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) "I knew I was going to get the heat for that," Rodriguez chuckled. "I told the writers, 'You watch: (Viewers) are gonna think I thought of that.' But it was in the script!" "Matador," created by Robert Orci and Alex Kurtman ("Sleepy Hollow," ''Fringe"), stars Gabriel Luna as a globe-trotting soccer champ who, unbeknownst to his adoring public, is also a top-secret CIA operative. In this narrative of a soccer player by day, a spy by night, the writers "wanted the story to be very unpredictable," said Rodriguez, pointing to the lethal scene in question. They wanted viewers to realize "at any point, something could erupt like that." But it was left up to Rodriguez, as director, to come up with the proper instrument of pain. He said he spent a bit of time pondering the best one. A cleaver? Something serrated? Something computer-generated? "I've done this a lot," he acknowledged, sparking laughter in the room. Contact Frazier Moore at http://twitter.com/tvfrazier . El Rey Founder/Director Robert Rodriguez, Creator/Executive Producer Roberto Orci, actors Gabriel Luna, Nicky Whelan, Alfred Molina, Creator/Executive Producer Jay Beattie and Creator/Executive Producer Dan Dworkin onstage during the "Matodor" segment of the El Rey Network 2014 Summer TCA on Thursday, July 10, 2014, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) El Rey Founder/Director Robert Rodriguez, left, and Network Vice Chairman Scott Sassa speak onstage during the "The Directors Chair" segment of the El Rey Network 2014 Summer TCA on Thursday, July 10, 2014, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15149
__label__wiki	0.877562	0.877562	DRUG TRAFFICKER CAPTURED ABROAD Published: 08:10 EDT, 3 August 2014 \| Updated: 08:10 EDT, 3 August 2014 One of Britain's most wanted criminals has been captured in South Africa, sources have confirmed. Ostrich scamster turned drug trafficker Martin Evans, 52, had been on the run since 2011. He was given a 21 year jail term for drug smuggling - which saw him lead an organised crime group supplying cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy between 1999 and 2001. He absconded while on temporary licence six years into his sentence. Swansea man Evans - a former Young Businessperson of the Year - had previously given the authorities the slip while waiting to stand trial for fraud. Days before he was to face justice for swindling 115 investors out of their savings in a £900,000 ostrich farm scam, he fled to Spain. While trying to evade capture for that offence, he went on to lead an international gang smuggling ecstasy and cocaine worth at least £3 million into Britain. A police source said: "Martin Evans was arrested in South Africa. He is one of the National Crime Agency's most wanted individuals. "Investigations are ongoing as whether he was committing further offences under an alias while in South Africa."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15150
__label__cc	0.619355	0.380645	Education board moves ahead with licensing revamp New licensing regulations are on the way for Louisiana's child care centers and preschool programs. Education board moves ahead with licensing revamp New licensing regulations are on the way for Louisiana's child care centers and preschool programs. Check out this story on dailyworld.com: https://www.dailyworld.com/story/news/state/2014/12/02/education-board-moves-ahead-licensing-revamp/19801621/ Melinda Deslatte Published 5:26 p.m. CT Dec. 2, 2014 \| Updated 5:30 p.m. CT Dec. 2, 2014 New licensing regulations are on the way for Louisiana’s child care centers and preschool programs.(Photo: Gannett file photo) BATON ROUGE — New licensing regulations are on the way for Louisiana's child care centers and preschool programs, after a majority of state education board members backed the rules Tuesday. The vote was 7-2 from a committee of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, with nearly all board members present. Final passage was expected Wednesday. The changes add fingerprint-based criminal background checks for employees and volunteers, require centers to post their daily schedules and set minimum staffing ratios. The changes are part of an effort to improve the quality of the centers. Education board members refused requests to increase required staffing levels to oversee 2-year-olds, after some child care center owners said the changes would be too expensive. But the board agreed to toughen continuing education requirements, which was sought by child care experts. Lawmakers required the Department of Education to rework the licensing guidelines as part of an early childhood education revamp started in 2012 to better prepare children for kindergarten. Licensing authority of day care facilities, Head Start centers and other pre-K programs was shifted from the state social services department to the education department. Development of the regulations involved more than a year of work among state health and safety agencies, the education department and the child care centers. For the most part, groups praised the results. "The document protects children and families," said Jodi Loar, a day care center owner and member of the state's Early Childhood Care and Education Advisory Council. But child care center operators, early childhood experts and education board members clashed over the level of staffing that should be required to supervise 2-year-olds. Melanie Bronfin, executive director of the nonprofit Policy Institute for Children, said research shows the age is one of the most critical times of brain development, and she said the children need intensive attention. "We are so far away from where we need to be for our 2-year-olds," Bronfin said. She and others sought a tiered system that increased required staffing levels as public funding increased for early childhood programs. But the idea faced resistance from some day care center owners who said it would force them to either raise charges on parents, stop taking 2-year-olds or shut their doors. "I don't want to charge them what I'm going to have to charge them to stay in business" with the higher staffing requirements, said Julie Brandt, who owns three child care centers in Prairieville and Baton Rouge. Superintendent of Education John White suggested setting the current staff requirement for most types of child care facilities at one employee for every 11 2-year-olds. The education board agreed to White's recommendation. Board member Carolyn Hill said she worried increasing staffing requirements could boost day care costs so high that it would force some parents to keep their children at home or arrange other sorts of child care that don't include any educational component. Read or Share this story: https://www.dailyworld.com/story/news/state/2014/12/02/education-board-moves-ahead-licensing-revamp/19801621/	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15152
__label__cc	0.608281	0.391719	An unpublished letter to the editor of the Stanford Daily Thank you for reporting on the community meeting held Wednesday night to discuss courses of action in response to the return of Condoleezza Rice. It is welcome to hear the voices of Stanford students and community who are are concerned about Condoleezza Rice’s actions while in high government office, including actions which have given rise to extremely serious allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in this newspaper. We would, however, like to point out some inaccuracies in this article. First, there is a clear misquote of Professor Todd Davies. As a faculty member, Professor Davies is always careful in his language in regard to fellow faculty members. It is no light matter to raise concerns about criminal behavior by colleagues. Not only do none of us recall Todd making the attributed quote, we know that Davies does not speak in that way. Therefore, we are certain it is a misquote or misattribution. Second, there is an open letter to the Stanford community in response to the return of Condoleezza Rice, which Stanford Says No to War has prepared and circulated. It is, however, not a petition. A petition was one of many courses of action raised at the meeting on Wednesday, but this letter is not one. Third, the coalition that met Wednesday night does not yet have an official name. A working title of “Condi Un-Welcoming Committee” was used on the proposed agenda, but no decision has been made on a name yet. In any case, we look forward to reading more articles in the Daily which raise these extremely serious concerns that many Stanford students, faculty and community members have with regard to Condoleezza Rice. We invite people to read our open letter, which is available at Stanford Says No to War’s website, antiwar.stanford.edu. We invite people who share our concerns to join an email list such as iraq_coalition@ or action_condi@lists.stanford.edu for notifications We also invite the Daily and other publications to publish the letter, or an abridged version of it. Adam Hudson Ekin Kocabas Daniel Weissman on behalf of Stanford Says No to War Tagged on: censorship mainstream media Rice ← Pizza discovery Bennis on Iraq Withdrawal →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15155
__label__wiki	0.846527	0.846527	Georgia cop during traffic stop: ‘Remember, we only kill black people’ Ben Brasch, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution COBB COUNTY, GA. — A police lieutenant in Cobb County, Georgia, has been moved to administrative duty for making what the department deemed were “inappropriate racial comments” during a traffic stop last year. WSB-TV reported that its request for body camera footage of the incident prompted an internal investigation of Lt. Greg Abbott. The footage shows a white female driver pulled over during a DUI traffic stop telling Abbott that she was scared to move her hands in order to get her cellphone because “I’ve just seen way too many videos of cops ... ” At that point, she is cut off by Abbott. “But you’re not black. Remember, we only shoot black people,” the police veteran of nearly three decades can be heard saying. “Yeah. We only kill black people, right? All the videos you’ve seen, have you seen the black people get killed?” The footage is from July 2016, before Mike Register took over as chief of Cobb police. He said that Abbott will remain on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation, for which he didn’t give a timeline. A statement Wednesday from the department said Register just found out about the recording Friday. “No matter what context it was said, it shouldn’t have been said,” Register told WSB-TV. Suri Chadha Jimenez, who is representing the driver in the case, said he thinks the officer was being sarcastic after the woman “gave him some lip.” “It makes you cringe when you hear it. It’s unacceptable,” Jimenez said. Lance LoRusso, Abbott’s attorney, gave the station this statement: “Lt. Greg Abbott is a highly respected 28-year veteran of the Cobb County Police Department. He is cooperating with the department's internal investigation and will continue to do so. His comments must be observed in their totality to understand their context. He was attempting to de-escalate a situation involving an uncooperative passenger. In context, his comments were clearly aimed at attempting to gain compliance by using the passenger’s own statements and reasoning to avoid making an arrest.” In the police statement, Cobb County commission chairman Mike Boyce is quoted as saying: “I have seen the video and obviously have great concerns. I find the comments on the video repugnant and offensive beyond measure.” This comes a day after the department released information about an officer-involved shooting that wounded a 16-year-old in the upper thigh. The shooting was deemed justifiable by a grand jury. “We are going to keep going forward to make sure we, as a police department, service the community in a most professional way. All segments of the community,” Register said.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15156
__label__wiki	0.949755	0.949755	Tributes paid to SDLP stalwart Charlie McLaughlin pictured on the right with SDLP leader Colum Eastwood. Eamon Sweeney Tributes have been paid to a stalwart of the SDLP in the city following his sad passing on Christmas Day. Charlie McLaughlin who was chairman of the SDLP in the city and also of the Shantallow branch of the party, had been ill for sometime. Mr McLaughlin is survived by his wife Betty, sons Stephen, Declan, Gary and David as well as daughters-in-law Ann, Angela and Grainne and his grandchildren. He was laid to rest in the City Cemetery following Requiem Mass in St Patrick’s Church, Pennyburn on Sunday, December 27. Leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood said: “I have known Charlie since I was a teenager and he was in charge of the sixth form at St Columb’s College. We were very close. He canvassed for me on the election trail. It is hard to find people who get involved for the love of the party. “Charlie was asked a number of times to run for election himself, but he wasn’t in it for himself so he declined. He loved Derry as a place and its people and was involved right from the start of the Civil Rights campaign. Everything he did was voluntary, he never sought payment or promotion. It was the same with his work for Derry City FC and I’d say he’ll be missed there as much as anywhere.” SDLP Councillor Angela Dobbins said that if it had not been for Mr McLaughlin she would not be where she is today and that it was he who encouraged her to join the SDLP and later to stand for election. “Charlie was for grass roots involvement in politics and was totally for the community. We just gelled. He was a grandfather figure to me and many more in the SDLP. He was totally unassming in his own role and despite being asked to run for election said that he was better off in the background,” she said. Colr Dobbins also said Mr McLaughlin was the man to go to for advice and had a knack of helping to weigh up the pros and cons of any situation before leading you to make your own decision. She continued: “He was especially proud of the young people in the party. It was his proudest moment when Colum Eastwood became leader of the SDLP and of course when Mark H Durkan became a minister. My first port of call after the leadership election was to Charlie’s house and he said about Colum ‘that’s my boy’. We all loved him to pieces. “Charlie believed the SDLP began in Foyle and that’s why he took delight in the success of people such as Mark H Durkan and Colum Eastwood.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15164
__label__wiki	0.985207	0.985207	Unity Referendum ‘must form part of Brexit talks’ - MLA Sinn Fein Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney. Published: 08:48 Friday 22 July 2016 Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney has said that a proposal for a referendum on Irish unity needs to be on the agenda of any negotiations between the British and Irish governments and the EU. Mr. McCartney was responding to comments made by British Secretary of State James Brokenshire on a unity referendum. The new Secretary of State has said there is no need for a border poll. Mr. Brokenshire was speaking during his first Northern Ireland Questions sessions in the House of Parliament in London. Mr. McCartney said that whether the north opted to join the south was not his call to make. He said: “James Brokenshire represents no one in Ireland. “The Tory party has no mandate in the north and in the last election they received only 2,554 votes here. “With the prospect of the North being dragged out of the EU by England, more and more people are open to the idea of exploring new relationships on this island in the context of remaining in the EU.” Mr. McCartney said his party are now urging Taoiseach Enda Kenny to push ahead with an island-wide dialogue to discuss how the remain vote in the North can be respected. “The proposal for a referendum on Irish unity needs to be part of that dialogue and on the agenda of any negotiations between the British and Irish governments and the EU,” he said.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15165
__label__wiki	0.572231	0.572231	President Speaks: Grand Canyon U president Brian Mueller By Brian Mueller The most talked about issue involving K-12 education in Arizona – and much of the country – is government funding. How can we support students and teachers while at the same time ensure that we are being judicious stewards of taxpayer money? How do you balance the positives of school choice with the need to fund public education adequately? It’s a never-ending political debate with strong viewpoints on all sides, even on a topic that we all agree is of utmost importance: the education of our children. At Grand Canyon University, we look at the issue through a different lens, particularly as it relates to education and poverty in inner cities. We don’t dispute that funding is critically important. But as we look around, there is a lot we can do through public-private partnerships that don’t rely on additional money from the government. Consider the issue at hand: Across America, high school graduation rates are rising (the national graduation rate was 83.2 percent in 2015), yet low-income and minority students continue to lag behind their peers in finishing high school (the graduation rate among Hispanic students is 77.8 percent and 74.6 percent for African-American students), according to a report by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. More troubling are statistics from the Government Accountability Office that show the number of predominantly African-American or Hispanic K-12 schools classified as “high poverty” doubled from 2001 to 2014. Additional research by GAO revealed that an astounding 8.1 million students in schools classified as high poverty received less instruction in core subjects such as math and science. All told, students in high-poverty areas lose about 22 days of instruction during a given school year compared to 12 days for students in lower poverty areas. These numbers come from a 2014 survey fielded by University of California Los Angeles. From graduation rates and classroom instruction to faulty equipment, modern learning tools and reduced lunch programs, the disparity between schools in poverty and more affluent neighborhoods is well-documented. To GCU, these problems are all too familiar. With a campus located in the center of one of the largest and most diverse areas of Phoenix, we have seen firsthand the obstacles facing inner-city youth. It made us wonder: What if, instead of looking at these students as problems to be solved, we looked at them as assets that should be invested in? What if, instead of putting Band-Aids on problems in inner cities, we focused on changing the cycle of poverty that occurs in low-income households through a better long-term solution – education. Our university shares a neighborhood with Alhambra High School, a public school where 90 percent of the 2,800 students fall below the federal poverty level and 40 languages are spoken due to the large refugee population in the community. In looking closer at this population of students, we learned that what occurs between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. is not that different than at schools in more affluent areas. It’s what happens after school – from 3 - 8 p.m. – that puts at-risk youth at a distinct disadvantage. Understanding this problem helped us develop a solution. By giving all students – regardless of where they live or their socio-economic status – access to a supportive environment, help with homework and even a meal after the school day ends, we believed we could set them on a path for success. At the same time, we were confident we could help Alhambra High improve its rating by the Arizona Department of Education, too. For GCU, the solution is the Learning Lounge. Located in the heart of our campus, the Lounge is a place K-12 student can get free academic assistance from some of the best and brightest GCU students. Free tutoring, in itself, is not a novel idea. What makes the Learning Lounge different is that: It’s housed on a university campus, where many inner-city kids never dream of setting foot; It’s led by GCU students, many of whom have been in these kids’ shoes and are hungry to give back; Students who attend the Lounge can apply for 100 full-tuition Students Inspiring Students scholarships per year that are supported by businesses and philanthropic leaders who have wholeheartedly embraced the program; and SIS Scholarship recipients pay forward their experience as college students by providing 100 volunteer hours of mentoring and tutoring per year to the next generation of K-12 students behind them. The result is a sustainable and scalable program that does not rely on government intervention. Instead, the Learning Lounge is a partnership between public and private schools and the business community, with the ability to produce real results in the form of a greater number of graduates, more students prepared for college entrance exams and a large and growing high school whose academic ranking rose from a D to nearly a B in just three years. What’s most remarkable is that parents are asking how they can enroll their children in Alhambra High to take advantage of the Learning Lounge opportunities. Think about that: Families are asking to transfer their children into an inner-city high school. Our program has been a boon for the Phoenix area and it has the potential to become a model for inner cities nationwide. Other colleges and universities are doing their part to create more equity in education, too. Rather than deprive K-12 students based on their ZIP code, their families’ income or the color of their skin, our nation’s colleges and universities must continue to find creative ways to eliminate inequities in education and give them the opportunity to succeed. Brian Mueller is the president of Grand Canyon University. Filed Under: Higher Ed K-12	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15171
__label__cc	0.696038	0.303962	Optogenetics lets scientists observe synapses at work Excitatory synaptic transmission in vivo: Whole-cell recording of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (voltages) elicited in an excitatory presynaptic neuron during neuronal network quiescence (inactive phase) by light pulses. The in vivo two-photon image shows the whole-cell recording pipette (white lines) connected to a “PV-tdTomato” gene-expressing neuron (yellow) being recorded and part of the presynaptic gene-expressing neuron (green). Credit: Aurélie Pala/EPFL Optogenetics was theorised in 1999 and demonstrated in practice a few years later. It was listed in the breakthrough of the first decade of this century as a method opening the door to the visualisation of a living brain with an amazing spatial and temporal resolution. Using gene splicing technology scientist can insert the code for creating a light sensitive protein, like rhodopsin, in the desired target neurones. By illuminating the neurones with a laser the ones with the light sensitive protein react and can be monitored. The protein binds at the neurone membrane level and when hit by light create a sort of hole in the membrane through which ions can enter the neutron increasing its potential to the point that it gets excited and "fires". In practice, it becomes possibile to use light to activate specific neurones. There are hundreds of different types of neurones and it is possibile to induce only a very specific type of neurone to generate the protein, thus making it possibile to selectively activate neurones. Clearly the technology behind optogenetics is quite complex but this is just to give an idea... Researchers at EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) have been able, for the first time, to observe the synaptic transmission in live animals, anaesthetised mice, using optogenetics. They have also used two-photon microscopy to look into the mice brains identifying the type of each interneuron. The observation showed differences in the neuronal transmission depending on the type of interneuron. As we get able to use more sophisticated techniques to observe the working brain we see more and more diversity and complexity. Rather than closing in on the answer to our question we are confronted with more and more questions. The singularity was timed at 2035 by Ray Kurzweil, now it has been moved to 2045... Indeed, the more we know about life the more difficult and challenging to duplicate and exceed it...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15174
__label__wiki	0.645419	0.645419	The project started as a unique venue in which student members of The University of Texas at Austin Early Music Ensemble could work and perform with professionals, allowing students to explore repertoire normally out of their reach. As such, TEMP served to bridge the ensembles of The UT Butler School of Music and the Central Texas early music community while Mr. Johnson directed the UT EME (1986–2003). During the period 1995–2002, TEMP's Baroque orchestra (with Daniel Johnson conducting) performed in several productions with the Sarah and Ernest Butler Opera Center, including Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Baroque and Loving It, (a pastiche of selections from the works of Lully, Rameau, Cavalli, Cesti, and others, created by Daniel Johnson), Cavalli’s L’Ormindo, Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea, and Handel’s Alcina and Rinaldo. TEMP performed regularly at the Early Music Weekend at Round Top Festival Institute, for the Texas Early Music Festival in Palestine, TX, for the annual Mostly Music Marathon benefiting AIDS Services of Austin, and in public and private concerts in the Austin area. In 1998, TEMP became a member of the Austin Circle of Theaters, recorded its popular CD The Bonny Broom and Other Scottish Ballads, and initiated its Midwinter Festival of Music, with two to three performances of a wide variety of concerts and operas on six successive weekends (1999–2002). Local performers and guests from Europe, Canada, and other parts of the US came together for performances of Handel’s Rinaldo and Alcina, Purcell’s King Arthur, a post-modern blending of early and modern music and theater (It's About Time), and an inclusive range of concerts ranging from Hildegard chants and Sephardic love songs to lieder by Schubert and Beethoven. Since the 2002–2003 season, TEMP has offered a relatively calm six-concert season, between the months of September to May. Many of the concerts were so much fun and so popular that different versions of them were presented in successive years, including Convivencia: The Three Worlds of Spain (2004 and 2005) and The Play of Daniel (2003–2005). Members of TEMP also perform regularly with such groups as La Follia Austin Baroque, Dallas Bach Society, Texas Baroque Ensemble, the Clearlight Waites, Sinfonia Baroque, and other ensembles. TEMP is very proud to be in residence at the Armstrong Community Music School, where we offer coaching and instruction in historical performance practice. Anthony Toprac, President Stephanie Prewitt, Vice President Pam Corn, Treasurer Karen McLinden, Secretary Wendy Brockett Pat Brown Cristian Cantu Ellen Kerr Susan Richter Sara Schneider Marcia Toprac	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15175
__label__cc	0.676193	0.323807	Alameda city briefs PUBLISHED: December 29, 2011 at 1:29 pm \| UPDATED: August 15, 2016 at 1:40 pm ‘Elks Hoop Shoot’ finals to be held Jan. 6 The 39th Annual “Elks Hoop Shoot” city finals will take place 6 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Alameda Point gym, 1101 West Redline Ave., at Alameda Point. The Alameda Elks Lodge No. 1015 is sponsoring the free event with help from the Alameda Recreation and Park Department. The finals will be the culmination of competitions held at Bayport, Franklin, Krusi, Leydecker, Lincoln, Littlejohn, Longfellow, McKinley, Tillman and Washington parks, as well as at St. Philip Neri School, Teen Center and the Alameda Boys and Girls Club. The contest was open to boys and girls ages 8 to 13 years who attend school or live in Alameda. More than 300 local kids participated. The contest consists of shooting free throws. Each contestant has 25 opportunities to shoot at the hoop. A child may compete as many times as he or she wishes. The top three finalists in each age division (8-9 years; 10-11 years and 12-13 years) are eligible to represent their park at the finals. The winners will represent the city of Alameda and the local lodge at the Elks districtwide “Shoot-Off” Jan. 14 at Sierra High School in San Mateo. More than three million youth from throughout the country enter the competition each year.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15176
__label__cc	0.630817	0.369183	Erotic Clothing sikenew (161693 ) sikenew has no other items for sale. Details about Fashion Lace Sexy Mesh Thigh Stocking Fishnet Long Socks Over Knee Hosiery Fashion Lace Sexy Mesh Thigh Stocking Fishnet Long Socks Over Knee Hosiery -Select- Black Middle Mesh Black Large Mesh White Middle Mesh FREE International Economy : tracked-no signature (11 to 35 business days) \| See details Last updated on 10 Apr, 2019 22:54:30 AEST View all revisions Style: Thigh-Highs Hosiery Size: One Size Color: Black,White Material: 100% Silk Country/Region of Manufacture: China Pattern: Fishnet label: EB3679VHR2YA7BT MPN: Does not apply Excludes: Reunion, Comoros, Morocco, Libya, Ethiopia, Niger, Somalia, Namibia, Cameroon, Angola, Uganda, Nigeria, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Senegal, Cape Verde Islands, Mozambique, Swaziland, Congo, Republic of the, Djibouti, Saint Helena, Togo, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Gabon Republic, Ghana, Western Sahara, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Algeria, Madagascar, Mauritius, Eritrea, Tanzania, Liberia, Rwanda, Gambia, Mayotte, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), South Africa, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Benin, Seychelles, Burkina Faso, Mali, Central African Republic, Kenya, Zambia, Burundi, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Botswana, Malawi, Azerbaijan Republic, Armenia, Mongolia, Bangladesh, India, Georgia, Afghanistan, Russian Federation, China, Bhutan, Maldives, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Haiti, El Salvador, Virgin Islands (U.S.), Dominican Republic, Martinique, Honduras, Montserrat, Panama, Guatemala, Turks and Caicos Islands, Grenada, Cayman Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guadeloupe, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Netherlands Antilles, British Virgin Islands, Nicaragua, Anguilla, Puerto Rico, Aruba, Jamaica, Bahamas, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, Moldova, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Serbia, San Marino, Gibraltar, Sweden, Romania, Guernsey, Jersey, Vatican City State, Montenegro, Iceland, Andorra, Portugal, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Yemen, Kuwait, Jordan, Greenland, Bermuda, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Mexico, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, American Samoa, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands, Guam, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Palau, Fiji, Nauru, Vanuatu, Tonga, Singapore, Laos, Brunei Darussalam, Macau, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Peru, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Suriname, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Guyana, Uruguay, Venezuela, French Guiana Change country: -Select- Australia Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Canada Croatia, Republic of Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Japan Korea, South Kyrgyzstan Lithuania Malaysia Malta Monaco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Oman Pakistan Philippines Poland Qatar Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sri Lanka Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States International Economy : tracked-no signature (11 to 35 business days) Immediate payment of AU $4.34 is required. Women's Fishnet Stockings, Thigh High Socks for Women, Women's Fishnet Socks, Women's Fishnet Black Stockings, Women's Lace Stockings, Women's Knee-High Socks, Over-the-Knee Boots for Women, Girls' Knee-High Socks, Compression Socks/Hosiery Medical Compression Garments, Lace Thigh-High Boots for Women	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15177
__label__wiki	0.628576	0.628576	More Than One Million Americans Support A Federal Tax Solution for Small Businesses More than one million Americans signed a petition calling for Congress to pass federal legislation on Internet-wide state tax collection in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair. The Court’s June 2018 ruling left many questions unanswered with respect to the collection and remittance of sales tax for online small businesses. The need for common sense tax policy is especially critical for the 4.1 million small businesses that sell online and the more than 15 million people small retail businesses employ. eBay was encouraged today by the introduction of federal legislation that addresses the uncertainty in the Supreme Court’s ruling. Led by Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Anna Eshoo, Karen Handel, Zoe Lofgren and Jeff Duncan, this bi-partisan solution aims to provide a clear and reasonable framework for collecting sales tax from remote small businesses that sell online. The “Online Sales Simplicity and Small Business Relief Act” specifically calls for: A ban on the retroactive collection and remittance of sales tax by remote sellers for any sale prior to June 21, 2018; A phased approach for states to impose sales tax collection duty on remote sellers for sales that occur after January 1, 2019; and A small business remote seller exemption, which applies to remote sellers with gross annual receipts of less than $10 million. “It is imperative to have one national sales tax standard for American small businesses that rely on the Internet,” said Cathy Foster, Vice President of Government Relations at eBay. “This bi-partisan legislation represents a positive step forward by providing clear direction on Internet-wide state tax collection, which will protect small businesses and encourage continued entrepreneurship. More than one million eBay sellers signed a petition asking the U.S. Government to step in and provide greater clarity on sales tax. Now we’re asking Congress to pass this important piece of legislation, which we believe will help small businesses continue to compete and create jobs.” Colleen Rast, founder of Great Sky Gifts, stated: “As a small online retailer based in Montana, a system in which small businesses have to compete with larger businesses by collecting and navigating the lax laws thousands of jurisdictions creates a huge burden. Giant online retailers have the resources and teams of lawyers and accountants to do that, but I don’t. It would create an unfair playing field for future smaller online retailers as well. Congress is tasked with handling issues of interstate commerce, and I am heartened by the legislation proposed today, which offers a reasonable solution for protecting small American businesses like mine from unreasonable tax burdens.” “My company already collects and remits sales tax, like any other business does, in states where we have a physical presence,” said Chad White, owner of Class-Tech Cars. “I am grateful to Representatives Sensenbrenner, Eshoo, Handel, Lofgren and Duncan for proposing a legislative solution that protects small businesses like mine from being subject to tax requirements that make more sense for large retail companies and encourages more Americans to embrace entrepreneurship.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15178
__label__wiki	0.925943	0.925943	Home News Policy & Finance Can the UN Habitat summit help the world’s swelling ranks of urban poor? The stakes are high for the UN Habitat summit as the number of people living in cities is expected to rise to 66 per cent by 2050, up from 54 per cent today. Vendors on the roadside in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There are far more vendors than buyers, thus driving many people deeper into poverty. Image: gina_vince, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Thomson Reuters Foundation It’s the first major summit in 20 years to tackle issues faced by the world’s fast-growing cities - rising inequality, expanding slums and unsustainable infrastructure - but can the U.N.’s cities summit this week deliver concrete results? Three analysts who advised U.N. Habitat III on creating a “New Urban Agenda” for cities - the plan and recommendations that will come out of the Oct. 17-20 summit - and a U.N. official involved in organising the event in Quito, Ecuador, aren’t so sure. The stakes are high: the number of people living in cities is expected to rise to 66 per cent of the world’s population by 2050, up from 54 per cent today, according to U.N. figures. That means an extra 2.5 billion people moving into cities, many of them in Africa and Asia, creating an enormous strain on land and infrastructure and with the potential to leave billions of people living in squalor if urbanisation isn’t well managed. The latest draft of the summit agenda, which world leaders are set to endorse on Oct. 20, aims to address problems facing fast-growing cities: unaffordable housing, a lack of property rights for slum-dwellers, jobs and space for new arrivals. But with 175 pledges lacking specific goals or timelines to support aspirations such as “people-centred development” and “equally shared opportunities”, analysts say it is unlikely the summit will deliver concrete improvements on the ground. It doesn’t have much bite. It talks a lot about commitments but has no dates, places or numbers. Michael Cohen, former World Bank urban affairs specialist “It’s easy for governments to sign something that is not enforceable,” said Michael Cohen, a former World Bank urban affairs specialist, who has advised U.N. Habitat. “It doesn’t have much bite. It talks a lot about commitments but has no dates, places or numbers,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. While acknowledging that conference commitments will be non-binding, U.N. Habitat official Roi Chiti said the meeting would lead to improvements for the world’s urban poor. “We are going to find resources for concrete actions and a new approach to urbanisation,” Chiti told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. An effective UN? While critics frequently accuse the United Nations of talking a lot without accomplishing much, some global conferences have produced tangible results. In 2000, governments promised to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They largely succeeded in meeting the eight measurable objectives. The number of people living on less than $1.25 per day dropped to 836 million in 2015 from 1.9 billion in 1990. Goals on getting children into primary school, reducing hunger and improving access to water were either met or narrowly missed. UN officials said the MDGs were the “most successful anti-poverty programme in history”. In December, ministers from 196 countries meeting at climate talks in Paris agreed to curb increases in global temperatures in a deal regarded as a crucial diplomatic victory in international efforts to tackle global warming. In contrast, the Quito conference lacks a clear set of objectives or a timeline for completing them, said Michele Acuto, professor of urban theory at University College London, who has conducted research for U.N. Habitat. Specific goals for improving sanitation or providing housing rights to new migrants are crucial for making the world’s cities livable, Acuto said. “Unfortunately, we are moving further away from (measurable goals) rather than closer,” Acuto told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The lack of clear objectives is partially due to the nature of a summit on urban affairs, said a senior U.N. official involved in behind the scenes diplomacy to bring government representatives to agree on a draft communique. City governments can’t set national policy, so agreeing on enforceable goals requires different levels of government within each U.N. member state to sign on, creating political headaches. “Clearly, urbanisation is not well managed in some regions, but it’s difficult to make it (the New Urban Agenda) binding,” the official told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about the summit. “The recommendations can’t be easily adopted in each of the countries.” While Habitat III lacks a clear plan, aid agencies and governments from wealthy countries are expected to pour money into urban development in poor countries following the summit, said Philipp Aerni, a former U.N. official. But it may not be channeled to where it is most needed. Aid money should go to essential infrastructure for growing shanty towns and slums on the periphery of growing cities in the developing world, said Aerni. Rich-world donors, however, are unlikely to be attracted to these sorts of projects as they don’t resonate with taxpayers back home, said Aerni, now director of the Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at the University of Zurich. “The urban agenda protects insiders: those who already have property in cities and want to protect it,” Aerni said. “It doesn’t offer anything to the new arrivals.” The last U.N. Habitat conference in 1996 pledged to create “adequate shelter for all” and “sustainable human settlements”. Those lofty aims, which also lacked a timeline or clear commitments, have not been met as the number of people living in slums has risen by more than 200 million since 1990. This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking and climate change. Visit news.trust.org	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15179
__label__wiki	0.726517	0.726517	Journalist Guidelines News Release by Year AMY ALLEN, CLASS OF 2020, FIRST SUNY DOWNSTATE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE STUDENT TO RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS FULBRIGHT AWARD Grant will be used to study the link between healthcare engagement and the stigmas faced by HIV positive, IV drug abusing women in Ukraine BROOKLYN, NY - SUNY Downstate Medical Center announced today that Amy Allen, Class of 2020, is the first ever College of Medicine student to receive an award from the Fulbright Foundation in the 73-year history of the program. One other Downstate student, psychology major Peter Goldfine, received a Fulbright award in 1966. She is one of only 8,000 Fulbright recipients worldwide for the coming academic year. Allen, 27, who is originally from the Chicago suburb of Batavia, Ill., will serve as a full-time Research Associate with the Ukrainian Institute for Public Health Policy, where she will research how the stigma associated with multiple marginalized identities influences how HIV positive, IV-drug abusing women in Ukraine engage the healthcare system. "Being named the first ever College of Medicine Fulbright Award recipient from Downstate is an incredible honor for Amy and for SUNY Downstate," said SUNY Downstate President Wayne J. Riley, M.D. "This recognition is a testament to the caliber of our students, and Amy is an excellent example of our ongoing commitment to providing world-class education and producing highly-skilled medical professionals who are dedicated to transforming healthcare globally." “I am passionate about global health, research, and medicine, and hope to use my research to achieve better healthcare outcomes for women in Ukraine," said Ms. Allen. “The mentorship and professional network that I hope to establish during the Fulbright program will be an excellent opportunity to develop a unique career in academic medicine with a focus on vulnerable populations. I am grateful for the support of SUNY Downstate in facilitating this opportunity.” “Amy personifies the kind of future physicians we are training here at SUNY Downstate,” said College of Medicine Interim Dean Michael Lucchesi, M.D. “She recognizes the importance of gaining a better understanding of the barriers faced by certain populations in accessing healthcare and how what we learn from this kind of research can improve health status everywhere.” The Fulbright award is a highly-competitive grant that considers the academic and professional achievements of the applicants, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their respective fields. For over 70 years, Fulbright recipients have served as representatives of the United States and have the opportunity to work collaboratively with international partners across several disciplines like educational, political, cultural, economic, and scientific fields while further engaging in the local communities. SUNY Downstate’s Amy Allen joins the ranks of distinguished participants in the program. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, and university presidents, as well as leading journalists, artists, scientists, and teachers. They include 59 Nobel Laureates, 82 Pulitzer Prize winners, 72 MacArthur Fellows, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, and thousands of leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors. Since its inception in 1946, more than 380,000 “Fulbrighters” have participated in the program. About SUNY Downstate Medical Center SUNY Downstate Medical Center is the borough’s only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care, and is a 376-bed facility serving the healthcare needs of Brooklyn’s 2.6 million residents. University Hospital is Downstate’s teaching hospital, backed by the expertise of an outstanding medical school and the research facilities of a world-class academic center. More than 800 physicians, representing 53 specialties and subspecialties—many of them ranked as tops in their fields—comprise Downstate's staff. A regional center for cardiac care, neonatal and high-risk infant services, pediatric dialysis, and transplantation, Downstate also houses a major learning center for children with physical ailments or neurological disorders. In addition to University Hospital, Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Health-Related Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative, including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively. For more information, visit www.downstate.edu email: press@downstate.edu phone: (718) 270-3160	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15180
__label__wiki	0.532237	0.532237	At the St. Petersburg Summit in September 2013, the G20 Leaders agreed that "jurisdictions and regulators should be able to defer to each other when it is justified by the quality of their respective regulatory and enforcement regimes, based on similar outcomes, in a non-discriminatory way, paying due respect to home country regulatory regimes" (G20 Leaders' Declaration, September 2013, St. Petersburg at para. 71). The G20 Leaders noted in their November 2014 Declaration, "[w]e call on regulatory authorities to make further concrete progress in swiftly implementing the agreed G20 derivatives reforms. We encourage jurisdictions to defer to each other when it is justified, in line with the St Petersburg Declaration" (G20 Leaders Communique, November 2014, Brisbane). The focus was on delineating and describing forms of deference in the context of central counterparties (CCPs) in view of the importance of CCPs in the global OTC derivatives markets. Overall, as of 27.02.2017 some 15 EU acts have envisioned assessments of equivalence of foreign rules and supervision for EU regulatory purposes (Commission Staff Working Document, EU equivalence decisions in financial services policy: an assessment, 27.2.2017 SWD(2017) 102 final, p. 10, 11). Empowerments have already been used for CRD4/CRR, Solvency II, Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), EMIR, accounting standards, statutory audit and credit rating agencies. The said Commission Staff Working Document of 27 February 2017 refers, moreover, to the fact that the European Commission has adopted 212 equivalence decisions and a total of 32 jurisdictions have been positively assessed for at least one area. Japan has had most equivalence findings with 17 positive determinations, followed closely by the US and Canada, each having 16 equivalence decisions. They are followed by Australia (13), Brazil (12) and Singapore (11). Power to exercise deference In line with the agreement of G20 Leaders reached at the St Petersburg Summit in 2013, jurisdictions and regulators should be able to defer to each other when it is justified by the quality of their respective regulatory and enforcement regimes, based on similar outcomes, in a non-discriminatory way, paying due respect to home country regulation regimes. The newly finalised Australian and Canadian margin regimes provide for deference to foreign regimes on a case-by-case basis. - In Australia, in December 2016, APRA finalised its new Prudential Standard CPS 226 Margining and risk mitigation for NCCDs, which provides it with the power to approve substituted compliance with respect to the margin requirements of a foreign jurisdiction. CPS 226 also gives APRA the power to limit the scope of or impose conditions on recognised substituted compliance. - In Canada, in certain circumstances, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)’s margin guideline for non-centrally cleared derivatives allows for deference to the regulatory framework of the home jurisdiction on matters such as the definition of a covered entity, threshold for initial margin and minimum transfer amounts. In addition, foreign bank branches (FBB) operating in Canada or covered federally-regulated financial institutions (FRFIs) dealing with a foreign (i.e. non- Canadian) counterparty will be deemed in compliance with OSFI’s margin requirements if the FBB or FRFI has complied with the margin requirements of the foreign jurisdiction and the FBB or covered FRFI has documentary evidence that the margin requirements of the foreign jurisdiction are comparable to the BCBS-IOSCO margin requirements for NCCDs. Deference decisions In Canada, substituted compliance has been granted to market participants and infrastructures complying with comparable US CFTC and EU regulations regarding mandatory central clearing and segregation of customer collateral. In the EU, in December 2016, the EC adopted six ‘equivalence’ decisions (implementing acts) for the regulatory regimes for CCPs in Brazil, the Dubai International Financial Centre, India, Japan (commodities), New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates. In Hong Kong, the HKMA currently permits substituted compliance with respect to the margin and risk mitigation standards for NCCDs of WGMR member jurisdictions45 are deemed as comparable from the day the respective standards have entered into force in such jurisdictions until the HKMA has completed a comparability assessment. In Japan, in October 2016, the JFSA published a public notification which designated the margin rules of US (CFTC) and Canadian (OSFI) regulators as equivalent to JFSA rules. Substituted compliance is provided to a transaction subject to duplicative application of Japan and foreign margin rules to the transaction. In Switzerland, in July 2016, FINMA determined the EU derivatives framework set out in EMIR as provisionally equivalent with corresponding Swiss requirements, with the aim to give financial market participants sufficient lead time for technical implementation. In the US, in September 2016, the CFTC issued a comparability determination for margin requirements for NCCDs applicable to certain swap dealers and major swap participants under the laws and regulations applicable in Japan. The US Prudential Regulators (the Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Farm Credit Association and Federal Housing Finance Agency) have begun the substituted compliance determinations process with respect to major jurisdictions that have margin rules in place. OTC Derivatives Market Reforms Twelfth Progress Report on Implementation, Financial Stability Board, 29 June 2017, p. 24, 25 OTC Derivatives Market Reforms Twelfth Progress Report on Implementation, Financial Stability Board, 29 June 2017 Commission Staff Working Document, EU equivalence decisions in financial services policy: an assessment, 27.2.2017 SWD(2017) 102 final Report of the OTC Derivatives Reporting Group (ODRG) to G20 Leaders on Cross-Border Implementation Issues, November 2015 Recognition of non-EU financial frameworks (equivalence decisions), European Commission's website Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 July 2017 19:08	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15187
__label__wiki	0.672869	0.672869	Emirates Post Group holds first ‘Change Retreat’ in Ras Al Khaimah The Emirates Post Group held a 'Change Retreat' on Coral Island in Ras Al Khaimah to discuss strategic plans and future challenges. The retreat was inaugurated in the presence of the Group's Acting CEO Abdullah Mohammed Al Ashram, the executive managers, other managers, and customer service employees. Abdullah Al Ashram said that previously, the Emirates Post Group had focused on a strategy to develop postal and digital services, and that it had set clear strategic objectives to achieve these goals by 2021. He added that staff from different sectors participated in the Change Retreat to establish an integrated system that takes into consideration the outlook for the future, that adopts innovation as a work methodology, and that promotes positivity and happiness. These objectivesemerged from the strategic plan, and they will help employees to become better acquainted with the performance indicators required over the next five years. The Change Retreat initiative was the first step in changing the system and the way of working. Sami Al Khaja, Executive Director of the Support Services Sector, said that the Change Retreat was organised to study the best ways to implement the Group's strategic plans with the employees' participation. The retreat also offered an opportunity to review initiatives and achievements that support the vision and guidance of the wise leadership, and to help to achieve the UAE's Vision 2021, which aims to make the UAE one of the best countries in the world by 2021. At the retreat, participants discussed strategic plans, future challenges, and the promotion of sustainable development, national values and identity, in addition to other important topics. The participants said that the retreat was an important starting point for excellence and innovation.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15190
__label__cc	0.630608	0.369392	Articles Topics of General Interest Christos Yapijakis: "Epicurean Philosophy, Modern Science, and Life" - A Presentation With Question Answer Session. Epicurean Philosophy, Modern Science, and Life Source for the following article: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology A live conversation between Christos Yapijakis, geneticist and philosopher, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and Stefano Cianfarani, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Italy Transcribed from the live conversation by Uri Klempner With contributions by Ze’ev Hochberg, Alan Rogol, George Werther and Jesús Argente Originally posted 10/29/18. Stefano Cianfarani: A short historical introduction to the topic starting from Socrates and his most brilliant student Plato who founded here in Athens the Academia, and one of Plato’s students was Aristotle who founded the school named Lyceum here in Athens. Notably, still now Academia describes the University and Lyceum denotes the best high school in many countries including Italy. We are talking about Plato in 5th century BC, Aristotle in the 4th Century BC. Then we have Epicurus who is considered a philosopher of the Hellenistic era. Let me remind you that Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great. We consider the Hellenistic era the period of time coming from the death of Alexander the Great up to the Roman Empire. The interesting thing today is to talk about Epicurus as a precursor of modern science and Professor Yapijakis is going to tell us what the link is between Epicurus’ philosophy and modern science. Let me remind that Epicurus founded here in Athens the Garden school of philosophers and one of the main issues of this school was the empirical observation of nature what we can say the evidence-based knowledge which can be considered a precursor of evidence-based medicine in some way. Christos Yapijakis: First of all, I would like to thank Professor Chrousos and Professor Hochberg for the invitation and Professor Cianfarani for the conversation. This is a great opportunity for me to discuss Epicurus’ philosophy and his relevance today with such distinguished thinkers and doers. Hopefully this philosophical discussion may be a fascinating and enlightening experience for us all. I am a geneticist, clinician and scientist, and a friend of Epicurean philosophy. I will do my best to present the scientific basis and the humanistic values of Epicurean philosophy as a pragmatist scientist, not as an Epicurean. Our way of thinking in this modern world is basically eclectic, combining different ideas and belief systems. Therefore, I will stick to the facts and I will present my opinion like a modern scientist with humanistic values based on the available evidence. Of course, personal beliefs should always be respected as long as they do not harm other people. I will present a short introduction of the Epicurean philosophy in relation to three points: its scientific value, its past influence, and its humanistic value today. I will stress the current need for a universal humanistic scientific philosophy, and I will emphasize the fact that the Epicurean ethical philosophy is based on human neurobiology and biological psychology by giving you some examples. I will end up with some thoughts on healthy developmental education of children. My first point is the scientific value of the Epicurean philosophy. It is the only ancient philosophy that is so much compatible with modern Science, due to its empirical evidence-based method. I will start saying that Epicurus had three philosophy teachers, a Platonist, an Aristotelian, and a Democritean, but he was mostly influenced by Democritean physics and Aristotelian biological ethics. Epicurus was very much interested in observing and understanding nature with the aim of achieving serenity and happiness. His study of nature was not theoretical. He thought that we need science in order to be happy. He thought we need the study of nature as a means of avoiding myths, fears of the unknown and superstition. For this purpose, he introduced the methodology of Canon according to specific criteria of truth. In Greek, Canon means “ruler”, an instrument we use in order to measure something. Canon was an empirical methodology of enquiry consisting of observation by the senses and drawing inferences of the unknown based on the analogies observed. So Epicurus used certain criteria of truth: everything that we sense is true, we should believe it; concepts in our minds are based always on past sense observations; emotions are another criterion of truth because whatever pleases us is friendly to our nature and whatever causes us pain is unfriendly. Epicurus combined the atomic physics of Democritus and the biological ethics of Aristotle correcting their inconsistencies and errors using observations and the Canon. This approach made Epicurean philosophy very comprehensive and among all ancient philosophies by far the most compatible with modern scientific findings. Epicurus taught that one should propose many possible different theories to explain a phenomenon, and not accept as true a theory until one has observational facts. This is another thing that is common with modern science. Epicurus and his students introduced several notions that were reaffirmed by scientific inquiry in the last four centuries. For example, the atomic weight; this is how Dalton in the early 1800s proved that the atomic theory was correct by measuring the weight of the so-called atoms. Another example is the emerging new properties of chemical substances based on their atomic structure. Epicurus was the first to speak about the chemistry laws, that atoms have certain characteristics but when they are combined into forming a molecule, the molecule will have emerging properties and different characteristics than the atoms it contains. His philosophy even predicted that diseases have a molecular basis. Epicurus also wrote about the multitude of worlds in the universe, while, for example, Aristotle said that there was only one world. When two Swiss astronomers in 1995 discovered the first exoplanet, they wrote a paper with the title “Epicurus was right, other planets exist outside the solar system”. Epicurus spoke about the atomic nature of sense perception almost like a neurobiologist would describe it today, that atoms come from the environment, either straight like the photons that we see or in waves that we hear. He spoke about the evolution of species based on natural selection; Darwin was influenced by Epicurus through his grandfather, that’s why he was prepared to observe what he observed in Galapagos Islands. Epicurus was a champion for the existence of free will, based on the observation that there is chance in the universe. According to him, if there wasn’t any chance then every event would be predetermined and we would not have free will. Free will is not caused by chance, but its mechanism is allowed to happen because the universe is not deterministic. Epicurus was the first philosopher to introduce the concept of justice as a social construct, the progress of civilization and many other notions including the existence of extraterrestrial life on other planets that science is still investigating. This is the scientific basis of Epicurean philosophy. The second point I would like to make is Epicurus’ past influence based on historical facts. The rediscovery of the Epicurean philosophy in Renaissance helped humankind to evolve during Empiricism, Enlightenment and Modern Era of Science. After about a millennium of imposed silence during the Middle Ages, in 1417 the discovery of the great poem in 7400 verses “On the nature of things” of the Roman Epicurean Lucretius made a great impact in disseminating the philosophy of Epicurus during the Renaissance. Many philosophers of Empiricism and Enlightenment were influenced by Epicurus, including Locke and the French encyclopaedists. One of the major political figures of the Enlightenment was self-declared Epicurean Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, the author of the American declaration of independence, who introduced the human right of the pursuit of happiness, the first time after Epicurus. Jefferson was also the founder of the first public American university, the University of Virginia. Before that American universities were either religious or private for wealthy men. Several modern philosophers were influenced by Epicurus; among them the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill should be mentioned. Several early scientists recognized the influence of Epicurean influences in their work, including Galileo, when he saw planets with satellites. An astronomer friend of Galileo, a Catholic priest named Gassendi, was the one who reinstated the Epicurean philosophy. Other noted early scientists with Epicurean influences include Boyle the early chemist, Newton with gravity, Dalton with atomic weight. Several life scientists and physicians discovered biological mechanisms proposed by Epicureans, including Darwin (evolution by natural selection), Pasteur (life derives from life), Mendel (the laws of genetics that were first observed by Epicureans as Lucretius’ poem attests), Freud (psychotherapy) and Garrod (the molecular basis of disease). The Epicurean philosophy has a scientific value, thus in the past it has influenced and helped humanity to stand on its feet during Empiricism, Enlightenment and the modern era of Science. The third point I would like to make is the humanistic value of Epicurus’ philosophy. The Epicurean philosophy constitutes an ethical system based on observed human nature and not on abstract ideas. It is based on common human biology and psychology and constitutes the basis of modern secular humanism. Epicurus thought that the purpose of philosophy was to increase human happiness; otherwise, it is a useless endeavor. For him, philosophy is a useless endeavor if it doesn’t make people better in order to live a happier life in harmony with other people. He mentioned that the right philosophy based on naturalism cures the anxieties of the soul in a similar manner that the right medicine cures the pains of the body. Epicurus observed that we are naturally inclined towards pleasure which is measured by the absence of pain. He defined happiness as a condition in which the body does not feel pain and the soul is not anxious. He tried to free people from superstition and unsubstantiated fears of the unknown. He observed that there is chance in the world and no destiny; thus, he taught that the existence of chance atomic movements permits free will in people. He offered a four-part remedy (the Tetrapharmacos) for mentally curing the anxieties of the soul in order to live a pleasant, virtuous and fearless life. The first part of the Tetrapharmakos states “do not fear god”. According to Epicurus, gods do exist but they are not fearful. Since nothing comes from nothing in Epicurean philosophy, the existence of gods may be inferred by the fact that people have the notion of a god as a happy and everlasting being. But as all of us observe, the world is so imperfect because obviously gods are not concerned with people or celestial bodies. For Epicurus it is absurd and unrespectable to be afraid of the gods instead of admiring them as examples of perfect happiness. The Epicurean philosopher tries to live like a god among people. Epicurus advises us to have God as a guiding example worthy of admiration, not fear. The second part of the Tetrapharmakos states “death is nothing to us”. Death destroys our material body and material soul, because all we are is a structure of composite molecules. The composite molecules have a lifespan and then are destroyed into atoms; the atoms are eternal. So death destroys our soul and senses, therefore as long as we live we will never experience it. So we don’t have to be afraid of death. Instead of wasting our lifetime worrying about something that we will not experience, we may be armed with the right philosophy, prudence and friendship and always remember the last two parts of the Tetrapharmakos: “all necessary good is easy to achieve”, while “all bad is easy to endure”. These are the four medicines of Epicurus. The message of Epicurus was that all people (including wealthy and poor men, women, even slaves) may achieve happiness if their way of living is based on prudence, virtue, justice, friendship and scientific knowledge. Without scientific knowledge about how the world works we cannot be happy, Epicurus says. He was the first philosopher that laid the foundations of Enlightenment in the modern era style. Numerous recent studies have shown that people feel happier when they satisfy their basic needs and have meaningful relationships with their relatives and friends regardless of economic or social status. So the basic values of modern humanism, secular humanism, are all shared with Epicurean philosophy: friendship for all humans (philanthropy in Greek), naturalism and realism, social contract (justice as a human agreement), freedom of belief including freedom of religion (first established in the modern world by Thomas Jefferson). Jefferson was the one who proposed that any person could adore any god in any religion that he or she prefers without persecution. He thought that humans have a central value because they are humans and have human rights. A human is the central value and no abstract ideas can justify human suffering. So there is a humanistic value in Epicurean philosophy. Let me now comment on why we need a basic humanistic scientific philosophy today. I think that many problems of the world today stem from the current schizophrenic situation that evidence-based knowledge is separated from belief. We know by empirical experience in scientific observation that humankind faces problems such as tribal conflicts, socioeconomic crisis, religious and political fanaticism, as well as mounting environmental hazards. But the majority of humanity still analyzes the data subjectively (in a ‘metamodern’ personal way) and not objectively. Science by itself can provide exquisite knowledge, but its proper use requires a moral and emotional philosophy, that is ethical philosophy, that is missing both in science and in today’s society. We need a basic humanistic scientific ethical philosophy, I would call it an Epicurean-like, that teaches us both the scope of science which is evidence-based knowledge of reality in order to be happier and create more humane societies and realistic in a scientific way of thinking based on observation. The Epicurean philosophy constitutes a sound basis for dealing with everything from interpreting nature to everyday decision making by offering practical advice. It places the highest value on life within the limits of Nature, human happiness based on knowledge, friendship and virtue. What unites us all people includes humanistic values (the ‘right to pursue happiness’) and scientific observation of reality. The main issue is how many people will understand this before a possible major catastrophe. Education of younger generations may be the solution. My last part of the initial presentation of Epicurean philosophy is that the Epicurean ethics is based on human neurobiology and biological psychology. I will stick to not too many details but to the main points of course because you all know parts of this, but I will try to connect how the human brain works with the Epicurean philosophy and human nature. You know that all living organisms originate from a common ancestor and all current biological structures derived from alteration or improvement of ancestral biological structures. So the human brain actually consists of three different interconnected brains that arose during evolution: a) the ‘reptilian brain’, mainly the hypothalamus that controls the instincts of hunger, thirst, sexual drive etc.; b) the ‘mammalian brain’ which corresponds mainly to the amygdala and the hippocampus and it controls the emotions, pleasure, fear, love, anger, hate etc.; and the ‘brain of primates’ of higher apes and humans that corresponds mainly to the grey matter of the cerebral cortex, representing about two thirds or more of the total size of the human brain. It controls as you know the cognitive functions, logical thinking and imagination. Cognitive functions develop during childhood and adolescence in humans, while in apes they remain relatively stable. The three parts of the human brain are interconnected and interact with synaptic neural networks, and for example, a sense experience that we have stimulates the hippocampus and the amygdala. Hippocampus manages the short-term memory; the amygdala determines the positive, neutral or negative emotional experience. If the experience is strongly positive or strongly negative, then it is stored in the cortex in the primate brain. So it is the emotional choosing of our brain that stores our memory. This is how Epicurus described that: “Pleasure is the starting point and goal of living blessedly for we recognize this as our first innate good. This is our starting point for every choice and avoidance.” The reptilian brain corresponds to the instincts and their desires. If I’m thirsty I desire to drink, if I’m hungry I desire to eat etc. But because our desires may be other than instincts Epicurus recognized that there are three forms of desires. One form is for natural and necessary things. If I’m thirsty I have to drink, so I can drink water and I will not be thirsty anymore. The second form includes natural and unnecessary desires; for example, if I’m thirsty to drink champagne of 30 years old. The third for includes unnatural and unnecessary desires which is vanity, for example to put my name on a sign on a tall building. Epicurus said that the only way that our body will suffer is when we avoid the natural and necessary desires. If I’m thirsty I cannot postpone forever to drink water. Every time that I feel I have a natural and necessary desire I will have to satisfy this desire. Otherwise my body will be in pain. Regarding the unnatural and unnecessary desires for fame, fortune, vanity and fancy things, Epicurus counsels us to forget them. To obtain them is hard, they will create us more pain than good, so it is better to forget them all the way. While the natural and unnecessary desires, for example to drink champagne when I’m thirsty, Epicurus says that we don’t need them but if we go to a dinner with other people and we are offered champagne then we may drink it and enjoy it but without any strife, because people who don’t need this kind of natural and unnecessary desires they enjoy them better. Only the natural and necessary desires, which correspond to the instincts, we should always satisfy otherwise we’ll feel pain. Epicurus determined the purpose of life on emotional grounds: to be happy, to live a pleasurable life, aiming at the blissful state of physical lack of pain and mental lack of agitation and anxiety. Above all Epicurus considers prudence, the practical wisdom which is part of the cognitive faculty in the primate brain, as the supreme regulator of conscious selection of what brings happiness with wise satisfaction or physical needs and instincts and preservation of emotional balance by tasting those pleasures that do not result in greater pain instead of pleasure. The problem in humans is that while the biological system of desire is in the reptile brain (namely the reward system, the dopamine system), the pleasure system is in the mammalian brain, corresponding to a bath of endorphins. The important point is that desire and pleasure have a different biological background and therefore this distinction may create psychological problems in humans, since they usually do not readily distinguish them. The average person confuses desire to obtain something with a belief of pleasure upon fulfillment of one’s wishes. This is how advertising works. I see a car with a happy man inside, and I believe that if I buy this car I will be happy, which is not the case. In addition, the biological system controlling the emotion of fear is in the mammalian brain. But with the primate brain, with cognitive function with prudence, we can understand that most fears are only imaginary and unsubstantiated. For example, if I walk in the street and I see a car coming towards me I have to be fearful of the car so that I will move and avoid it. But if I think while I’m sitting in a building that if I exit the building a car will run over me, this is a phobia. I create a scenario into my brain and I fear because of this scenario. The important thing to always remember is that both the reptilian brain, the instincts, and the mammalian brain, the emotions, are for now. It’s absurd and useless for me to say that in next year on October 20th at 5:13 in the afternoon I will be thirsty, or that I will be fearful. The emotions are a system that evolved in mammals in order to change their behavior because of the environment. Whatever we like and gives us pleasure we continue to do it. Whatever makes us feel pain, we have to stop it and then do something else. For example, when a monkey finds a fruit that is very tasteful, if he is on a tree, then he will eat it and find pleasure in it. But if he is on the ground and there is a lion coming, the monkey will be fearful and look for shelter before eating the fruit. We have to recognize this biological basis of emotions, because our mind has the capacity for past memories, understanding the present and planning the future, therefore if we create fearful scenarios we may end up with fear emotions like phobias. The Epicurean approach of psychotherapy that was used in the School of Epicureans in the ancient times was called the therapy of the soul: “psyches therapeia”, psychotherapy, exactly as we call it today and is based on human nature. It reveals the absurdity of unsubstantiated fears by curing mental agitation with facts. It aims for a serene blissful state achieved by engaging prudence, practical wisdom, by free will. Modern existential cognitive psychotherapy which seems to be more effective than other approaches focuses on the identification of one’s fears and negative thoughts revealing their absurd character and then proposes their systematic engagement with pleasurable activities. Therefore, we need evidence-based and narrative-based psychotherapy, therapy of the soul, with friendly frank criticism based on empirical observations, as the Epicureans needed it 2000 years ago, because our human nature remains the same. Cianfarani: Let me be a little bit provocative. Going back to the modern science. First of all, I’d like to remind you that despite the fact that Epicurus wrote more than 300 papers, just three letters, and a few fragments are left to us from Epicurus. Most of all we know about Epicurus comes from the Roman philosopher of the first century Lucretius, who reports the Epicurean vision of life and nature in his masterpiece “De Rerum Natura”. As you know Democritus was the founder of atomistic philosophy. But his point of view was a deterministic atomistic view of nature. Epicurus goes even farther as for Epicurus just chance and necessity regulate nature, recalling us the famous book of the Nobel prize winner in 1965 Jacques Monod: “Chance and Necessity”. On the other side, Aristotle believed in the purpose, in the aim behind any natural phenomena, including human life. So the description of nature according to Aristotle was based on common laws regulating all nature facts or nature appearances. The question is, don’t you think that there are limitations in the view of Epicurus based on chance and necessity. Translating that into our common practice as physicians. To give you an example, if we look at the effectiveness of a new therapy, we can discover a new drug just by chance or by necessity, and we can say that this drug is effective in curing Mr. X with a disease but also Mr. Y and Mr. Z with the same disease. The conclusion is based on the facts that this new drug, which was discovered by chance, is effective in curing different subjects with the same disease. But the next step would be: why? If we just base our knowledge on empiricism, on the facts or senses like Epicurus, we don’t go beyond what we see. The next step would be the reason; why? To quote what Einstein said about that: “Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” Yapijakis: Thank you very much for raising this point. First of all, I would say that Democritus spoke about atomic physics in an intellectual way. He didn’t believe in observation. He thought that senses should not be trusted. On the other hand, Aristotle was the first philosopher that was using the empirical observation. He had two teachers. We always recall his teacher Plato. But Aristotle had another teacher before Plato, his father Nicomachus, who was a physician. Although he was trained in Plato’s Academy his original medical observational and empirical study helped him overcome the Platonic idealistic philosophy. Aristotle wrote somewhere that Plato and the truth are friends but I prefer the truth. Aristotle was the first observational philosopher, because as we all know physicians empirically observe the symptoms and make a diagnosis. Aristotle used this observational empirical method for living organisms but he thought that some ideas, some concepts, should be reached by logic alone. By logic alone he said that since women are inferior to men they should have fewer teeth. Instead of observing and counting the teeth of women and changing his belief that he reached by logic, he preferred to write in two places that women and female animals have fewer teeth than males. Another belief of Aristotle was teleology; that everything in Nature has a purpose. There is a scope in the universe and the last event is the purpose of the previous events. As if I would say to you that the purpose of your lives was to come here today to listen to my talk. Which is not the truth of course. So the basic problem of Aristotle was that he had these beliefs that by observation an objective scientist like Epicurus would easily overcome. I would say in response to your comment that Epicurus lets free the people to make any hypothesis that they want, any hypothesis explaining a phenomenon using imagination is justified. But the hypothesis has to be judged by the observation, by the facts, in order to be considered correct or be disregarded, like any modern scientist would do. We can make whatever hypothesis we want but it’s the actual experiment that will show us that if our hypothesis is correct or not. Actually in the Garden of Epicurus most probably the first experiments started. We don’t know this for sure, but we know that the leader of the Aristotelian School at that time Strato of Lampsacus, who coexisted with Epicurus in Athens for twenty years, certainly started doing experiments. Strato most probably learned this from Epicurus, but there is no proof of this yet. This is a hypothesis. We know that Strato conducted experiments, so he disregarded the teleology of Aristotle, he accepted that everything is composed by individual bodies and void, and he started a scientific tradition in the Hellenistic time with Eratosthenes, Archimedes etc. of philosophers that performed experiments. So this was the difference between Aristotle and Epicurus. Aristotle was a great philosopher and without him probably Epicurus would not be that great. But I think that Epicurus became even greater than the great Aristotle and much more humane. Cianfarani: Can we agree with the Emmanuel Kant’s statement that “concepts without percepts are empty and percepts without concepts are blind”? Yapijakis: Well, yes and no, it depends because Kant is a subjective philosopher. Kant thinks that every person understands nature in a different way, which is of course right at a certain point – for example, a guy like me with myopia will see differently without contact lenses or glasses. But we basically see the same things, we may understand the same things and we can have an objective way of communicating, which is science. Of course, there are differences in opinions and perspectives but we can see and hear nature as it is. To answer your question, we may communicate objectively if we use the concepts in their original meaning coming from the senses. This is what Epicurus insists that we should do in order to communicate. We should use the term ‘table’ for what it originally means. Not as a roundtable in a symposium, let’s say, or any poetical, allegoric, other symbolic meaning. Because in this way we could not communicate. Epicurus insisted that natural philosophers, like scientists today, should use the terminology that corresponds to the things that we can perceive by senses. Otherwise, we’ll end up talking about things in different meanings, as often is done by rhetoricians, by politicians, by poets and then we cannot communicate. Ze’ev Hochberg: In the Hebrew language, we use the phrase “Epikoros” when we want to talk about somebody who is not a believer. If somebody is God forbid a scientist and does not believe in God, he is called an Epikoros. The phrase Epikoros was coined many years ago – in the second century, in the time of the Mishna, known as the “Oral Torah”. During that time the Jews were expelled from Palestine by the Romans, and only a few scholars remained. They started to discuss philosophy, and for them Epikoros was a dirty word. And when I listened to you I understood why. A very important part of Judaism is fear from God. The same is true for Christianity. In Christianity suffering is a high virtue; people intentionally suffer. And this is different from Epicurus’ strive for happiness. I have a question for you Christos. How is Epicurean philosophy different from hedonism? We speak quite a lot about hedonism as a mechanism for childhood obesity. We have a special center in the frontal brain for hedonism; for Epicureanism? Yapijakis: I will answer your interesting thoughts in two parts. First regarding the Jewish name of Epicurus and then on hedonism. First of all, it’s a historical fact that the Epicurean philosophy was the first international secular humanistic philosophy that spread in the Hellenistic world. It was not dedicated only for Greeks but it proselytized Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Romans, and Celts. There were even Carthaginians. Because it is a philosophy that address all humans, not only Greek. Second, during the Hellenistic period there was a political religious strife between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the priests of the temple in Jerusalem at that time, and they were heavily Hellenized. They dressed like Greeks, they spoke Greek fluently, and they were mostly influenced by Epicureanism, which was in fashion at that time. So they believed that God wants us to live a happy life and that there is no afterlife. The best way to obey God’s will according to the Sadducees was to enjoy life and be virtuous, friendly to others and things like that. There is a book in the Bible called “Ecclesiastes” (Greek for “Qohelet” in Hebrew) that suggests that every major dream is vain, one should enjoy every day and not expect the future things. This book was written probably by a Sadducee, an Epicurean-influenced Jew. And the opposing fraction was the Pharisees, from the word Farsi meaning Persian. The Pharisees were the priests that collaborated with the Persians during the Persian occupation before the Greeks came to Israel. They introduced into Judaism Zoroastrian ideas which were dualistic Platonic ideas, for example that there is a good God and a bad devil; there is after life with punishment for the sinners and things like that. Those teachings did not exist in Judaism before the Pharisees. Today’s Judaism is a Pharisaic Judaism. The Pharisees called their rivals “Epicureans” as a curse against the Sadducees, and the word Epikoros remained in Hebrew as a name for nonbeliever, agnostic, atheist. This is a remnant from the political history of things. Later in the beginning of the Roman era, there was a Jew called Philo of Alexandria who was a Hellenized Jew and a Platonist who somehow combined Judaism and Platonism. Thus, Judaism, Christianity and to a certain extent Islam are very Platonic religions. In order to answer about the hedonism, I would have to say that hedonism was first proposed by another philosopher before Epicurus, Aristippus. He was a student of Socrates. The students of Socrates included Plato, Xenophon, Antisthenes the Cynic and Aristippus. Aristippus believed that there is no happy life, so everybody can live their life looking for pleasure all the time, and especially eating, drinking and having sex in a promiscuous way. Everything is subjective and there is no ethics in reality. We cannot understand nature, because each one of us has a different subjective perspective – the Kantian way. All that exists is looking for pleasure, as much pleasure as possible. Aristippus became a council of a tyrant in Syracuse in Sicily. He became a philosopher entertaining a tyrant in order to have a lot of pleasure. This is what we call extreme hedonism. This mindless hedonism, as we Epicureans call it, would not lead us to happiness. This is the kind of hedonism that modern Western society promotes with the money and the advertisements and consumerism – making people to look for hedonism in material things as a substitute for real happiness. On the opposite, the Epicurean hedonism is prudent, since our goal is not pleasure of the moment but a happy life, a pleasurable life. The Epicurean hedonism is a different kind of hedonism. In order to have a pleasurable life you have to be virtuous. Virtue is not a goal; it’s a means for a happy life. If you’re not virtuous and you are aggressive with other people you will not feel safe. If we seek only pleasure for its own sake, we will be self-destroyed sooner or later. But if we understand our nature, then we may know that pleasure simply informs us that something is good for us. But we have to think that if we continue doing this pleasurable thing will I get more pleasure or more pain? For example, if I like chocolate and I eat 10 kilos of chocolate, my stomach will ache. I have to use my prudence to understand what this pleasure will bring to me, which is more pain. Epicurus says that a pleasure that leads to more pains should be avoided. We should select instead pains that would lead to greater pleasures. For example, if I’m a student I will have to read and lose a weekend of pleasure to study, but I’ll succeed in my exam on Monday, and I will live a pleasurable week and be happy. Alan Rogol: I’ve spent four decades at Mr. Jefferson’s University in Virginia. He lived at Monticello, which was up the mountain, he took a spyglass and designed the university. But on his grave he never said that he was president of the United States. He was most proud to be author of the Declaration of American independence, author of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, absolutely unheard of at those times, and the father of the University of Virginia. Yapijakis: This was because of Epicurean influence as he said in his letters. “I am an Epicurean” he wrote, that’s why I believe it. The Epicureans like the great Thomas Jefferson wanted to make a revolution but not the revolution with guns and knives and things like that. But the revolution of the mind. That’s a kind of enlightenment. That’s why what they did was they taught the science of their times freely to everybody. This is what the French Epicurean encyclopaedists did. They printed an encyclopedia with all the knowledge of that time for everybody to share. And this is what Jefferson did when he founded the first public university for everybody, men and women to be there. And the same was done by other Epicureans in other countries. Jeremy Bentham in England founded the University College London, which was the first public university in England that accepted women and men, Catholics, Protestants, whatever. Because the other universities accepted only Protestants, only Catholics, only men and things like that. Also in Russia another Epicurean, the scientist Lomonosov created the first public University of Moscow. George Werther: I understand that Epicurus was not completely areligious, he believes that gods had a role but in fact his philosophy was at odds with the modern theological thinking. So my question is how does Epicurean philosophy in the current age contrast with modern theology and say Christianity or Judaism which say essentially all our morality and ethics has to be based on religion whereas this is not. Yapijakis: First of all Epicurus was certain, he did not just believe, he was certain that there were gods. He was certain because of his Canon, the method he used to understand nature. He used this method for the gods as well. But he also thought that all religions were fake, since they were based on myths and literature. In addition, he observed that religions did not respect the gods. The Platonists relied on myths so they thought that Epicurus was not religious enough for their like. The same opinion they had for Aristotle. For about a thousand years during the Middle Age Aristotle was mostly considered an atheist. And that’s why when his tomb was found in his home town Stagira about a couple of years ago, it was also discovered that it was destroyed by the then Byzantine Romans of the sixth century to build a fortress, because Aristotle was considered an atheist. Because he didn’t believe in God in the same manner the Platonists would believe. Aristotle was fortunate enough to be liked by the Islamic world. There were some Epicurean influenced and Aristotelian influenced Islamists, mostly Persians and Arabs, who created the Arabic renaissance in the 8th and 9th century; all the great Muslim astronomers, physicians and philosophers were of that period. Omar Khayyam is such an example of a renowned Epicurean influenced astronomer, mathematician, physician and poet of that era. If you read his poems you will see the Epicurean influence. The Arabic renaissance lasted 2-3 centuries until a Platonic Islamic clergy said that these scientific endeavors were works of the devil. After that the Islamic world remained mostly in the Middle Ages until today. In Europe Aristotle was revived by the Italian Catholic priest Thomas Aquinas in the 12th century. Thomas Aquinas managed to Christianize Aristotle, so the modern Roman Catholic Church is mostly Aristotelian. Platonic Aristotelian but mostly Aristotelian, while the Greek Orthodox Church remains Platonic. A few centuries later, in late Renaissance, another Catholic priest, the Frenchman Pierre Gassendi revived the Epicurean philosophy around 1650. He influenced many people because after him the Enlightenment started. Gassendi also Christianized the Epicurean philosophy but probably not enough because Epicurus was not accepted by the Catholic Church. He was accepted mostly by some Protestants in England, like Hobbes and Locke; later he inspired the French philosophers of the Enlightenment. Today, because of freedom of thinking, freedom of speech, and the perseverance of scientific thought in the modern world, all religions have started to include humanistic environmental thinking and try to say things about things that science discovers. For example, the Catholic Church has something to say about evolution of living organisms, namely that there was a divine providence for evolution. I’m proposing that we should use the Epicurean philosophy not as an anti-religious dogma or an alternative religion, but as a common humanistic scientific philosophy that would unite us all Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists etc. based on a pragmatic and scientific basis. Whatever I believe in my private life it’s my right but I will not impose my opinion to you. This is what Jefferson said because of Epicurus. This is what I think the United Nations say today. Cianfarani: Aristotle founded metaphysics. He founded a need of going beyond the physics, trying to discover the laws beyond it. The question is going back to the modern science and scientific method. But if everything according to Epicurus is just regulated by chance, so why should we study biology or physics? Yapijakis: Chance is a rare phenomenon. But necessity also exists of course. And necessity most often make things happen. There are lots of necessary laws of nature. Rarely ever a chance phenomenon happens. But because there are many different phenomena happening at the same time chance more often influences reality than if there was only one phenomenon. For example there is gravity, so a cup stays on its place on a table. But there is also atomic movement inside a cup, and there is a slight possibility that the majority of the atoms of the cup may go towards one side direction and the cup may fall without anybody touching it. There is this probability but it’s very rare. A physicist said that in a human life twice or three times something like this, an unexpected phenomenon, will happen within our range of three meters. But mostly we’ll be sleeping or not paying attention or will think that something fell because its position was unstable or whatever. Chance exists in the universe and we know that from experiments. What you are saying is how we can live our lives if there is chance. This is the beauty of it, because we’re free beings. We are free to destroy ourselves and this planet or free to be happy living together. Maybe there is a divine providence in the universe that we haven’t seen so far. I’m not against that theory. I’m saying that we should communicate, we should understand nature and our nature, and use our best of our capabilities in order to have a happy life. All of us. Every person is entitled to happiness on their own merit. Jesus Argente: You mentioned Epicurus about his address in brain function. And I would like to ask you what the main concept of the brain was that he had at that time? Yapijakis: At that time there was the concept that the brain is the center of our soul, as first proposed by the Pythagorean physician Alcmaeon. That concept was accepted by Plato, because he was under Pythagorean influence. But Aristotle, who did a lot of anatomy studies in animals, thought that the brain was only freezing the blood. So he said that the heart was the center of the soul. Because Epicurus trusted the great scientist of that time Aristotle, and not the theoretician of that time Plato, he made the same mistake. Epicurus believed Aristotle and he said that the center of the soul is the heart. But he said that the soul has a center part and another part that is peripheral all over the body. The center part decides where to send the directions and the peripheral part sends information to the center part. Maybe it is the right time to say something about children. You all know that Finland is one of the best countries regarding education for decades. Finland is in the northern part of Europe as you know. I looked for a text on education and philosophy from a Finnish perspective. I found a Finnish text on the historical perspective of teaching philosophy to children, which starts with Epicurus and his philosophy. That is because Epicurus was the first philosopher who said that we should not teach our children unnecessary and useless things, but to teach them about their nature and nature in general in order to learn how to live a good life. According to Epicurus there is never too early for philosophy because there is never an early time to be happy. Therefore, some of the education approaches used in Finland are influenced by the Epicurean philosophy or related concepts. Coming to the end of our conversation. I would like to present you a diagram derived from Carlo Cipolla’s ‘The basic laws of human stupidity’. The horizontal axis corresponds to the action of one person that acts in a positive way for him or her, or in a negative way for him or her, and what influence this actions has on others; positive or negative more or less. So if I would do an action that will cause me to gain but others will lose, I’m a crook. If do an action that I will lose and others will gain I will be a victim, if I do it all the time. If I do something that I will lose and others will lose, I’m stupid. Like some terrorists that kill themselves and other people. But if I do something that I will gain and others will gain at the same time I’m clever. To combine this way of thinking with the possibly corresponding anxiety or the lack of anxiety that Epicurus wants, the only person that remains calm is the clever person who is in the win-win situation, as I have mentioned in my essay ‘Epicurean egoistic altruism’. The victim has the anxiety of recognition: “I always put myself behind others, they never recognize my mighty sacrifice”. The stupid has the anxiety of uncertainty. The crook has the anxiety of punishment. It doesn’t matter if he or she remains without punishment. The crook will never be sure that he or she will avoid punishment, as Epicurus mentioned. So the only way to be happy is to always try to act cleverly in win-win situations. This fact may be easily taught to younger generations. 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__label__wiki	0.731525	0.731525	Es Baluard > Collection > Works > Le Chien d’Ubu Le Chien d'Ubu Technique: Paint, fabric and diverse materials Dimensions: 184 x 80 x 22 cm Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Serra Collection long-term loan After studying commerce, from 1912-1915 Joan Miró studied at the Escola d’Art de Francesc de Galí in Barcelona and attended natural figure drawing classes at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc in Barcelona. In 1956 he made Palma de Mallorca his definitive place of residence, and it was here that his friend, the architect Josep Lluís Sert, designed his studio, Son Boter, along with a house, where he stayed until his death in 1983. In 1918, in his early days as an artist, he discovered the avant-garde art that came from Paris at the Galeria Dalmau in Barcelona, an event he expressed in his work through a pictorial language influenced by Cezanne and the Fauvists. In 1920 he made his first trip to Paris and his stays in the French capital became frequent, alternating with periods spent in Barcelona and Mont-roig in later years, and his work from this period is influenced by Cubism. It was there that he met artists like Picasso, André Masson or Tristan Tzara and poets like Antonin Artaud and Paul Éluard, among others, linked to Surrealism and Dadaism. Miró remained very close to the Surrealist movement although he never signed any of their manifestos. From 1925 on, Miró purified his language in favour of large stains of colour as a background; he rejected the traditional resources of representation, liberating the creative forces of the unconscious mind. During the Second World War he remained in Spain and created the "Constelaciones" series. His keenness for research led him to use new resources and techniques and work in other disciplines like collage and assembled paintings. He developed important work in the field of book illustration (such as Ubu Roi in 1966, for example), which is linked to the engraving and in particular lithography, and from 1926 he collaborated several times with the Russian Ballets of Sergei Diaghilev. In 1977, he worked on the piece Mori El Merma with the Catalan drama group La Claca. This ironic work is about the character of Franco, and Miró created the characters and set for it. It was previewed in the Teatre Principal of Palma de Mallorca in 1978. On a sculptural level, he worked intensely on ceramics with Josep Llorens Artigas in 1941 in a lasting collaboration an outstanding example of which are the UNESCO murals of Paris (1958), among others. He came closer to sculpture gradually, and his work focussed on objects he found which he later combined or manipulated. From 1941 he collaborated with Josep Llorens Artigas on works developed through ceramics and in the middle of the decade he created terracotta models which he would then produce in bronze; he worked on different monumental sculpture projects from the 1960s and at the end of this decade, he intensified his production in bronze and painted bronze. Another medium of expression which took shape in the ‘seventies mainly is the tapestry, with the collaboration of Josep Royo. He was invited to participate in the Salon d’Automne in Paris (1922), in the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the Paris Universal Exposition (1937) and in the Venice Biennial (1954). Throughout his career he won significant prizes and distinctions: the Guggenheim Award (1958), Honorary Member of the American National Academy of Arts and Letters, Carnegie International Grand Prize for Painting (1967), Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University (1968), French Legion of Honour (1974), Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona (1978), Honorary Doctorate from the Universitat des Illes Balears (1979), Spanish Gold Medal of the Fine Arts (1980), and others. As well as the two foundations created in order to safeguard his work – the Fundació Miró (Barcelona), inaugurated in 1975, and the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca, in 1993 – his work forms part of the collections of both Spanish and international museums: the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), The Art Institute of Chicago, Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Fondation Maeght (Saint-Paul-de-Vence), Fondation Beyeler (Basel), Tate (London), Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, among others. Permanent collection. Carte Blanche for Jean Marie del Moral. Processes 1978-2018 Personnage, oiseau Femme, oiseau Cercle rouge, étoile Jeune fille au long cou El Abanderado Personnage et oiseau 31/XII/1965 27/III/1972 Paysage de Mont-roig Dans l'espace I 15/II/1966	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15193
__label__wiki	0.676228	0.676228	Number of medical schools with student-run free clinics has more than doubled There has been a doubling during the last decade in the number of U.S. medical schools that have student-run free clinics, with more than half of medical students involved with these clinics, according to a study in the December 10 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education. Sunny Smith, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues conducted a study to assess whether there has been growth of student-run free clinics (SRFCs) in medical schools and describe the characteristics of these clinics. The first national study of SRFCs conducted in 2005 described 111 SRFCs at 49 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) member institutions. The researchers developed a 39 item survey with yes/no, multiple-choice, and open-ended responses. SRFCs and their medical student leaders were identified through the Society of Student-Run Free Clinics. The authors identified SRFCs at 106 of 141 (75.2 percent) U.S. AAMC member institutions. The survey response rate was 81.1 percent (86/106). The 86 responding institutions reported 208 SRFC sites. More than half of medical students were reported to be involved in SRFCs, including first- through fourth year students. Fifty-three percent of institutions reportedly offered no academic credit for participation. The most common core services provided by the SRFCs were outpatient adult medicine, health care maintenance, chronic disease management, language interpreters and social work. The most common diseases treated were diabetes and hypertension. In open-ended responses, students identified the greatest strengths of SRFCs as serving the underserved and student education. The biggest challenges were obtaining sufficient faculty staffing and funding. "Despite the lack of academic credit at many institutions, most medical students are volunteering in this setting. Given the ubiquity of SRFCs in the education of future physicians, further research is needed to assess their educational and clinical outcomes," the authors write. "The lack of funding and sufficient faculty supervisors identified as the biggest challenges in SRFCs are actionable items because institutional support could help stabilize and improve these educational opportunities for years to come." (doi:10.1001/jama.2014.16066; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com) Editor's Note: The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest and none were reported. Jacqueline Carr jcarr@ucsd.edu Study finds maternal race not a factor for children experiencing a 'language gap' University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Canada's high school curricula not giving students full picture of climate change University of British Columbia Sports participation gap exists between youth from lower-income and middle-income families RAND Corporation Pokémon-like card game can help teach ecology: UBC research University of British Columbia View all in Education	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15199
__label__wiki	0.98419	0.98419	Lealiifano to leave Brumbies after 2019 season MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Former Wallabies utility back and cancer survivor Christian Lealiifano will depart the ACT Brumbies after the 2019 season and take up a contract in Japan, the Super Rugby team said on Monday. The 31-year-old Lealiifano, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2016 but returned to rugby the following year after treatment, will depart after 12 seasons in the nation’s capital. “This was a difficult decision for me and I would like to thank the Brumbies for their support throughout my time at the club,” the captain and flyhalf said in a team release. “The support that the Canberra public gave me and my family through a difficult time in my life will never be forgotten. “I believe this club has a bright future under Dan (McKellar) and his coaching staff and look forward to following that progress.” Lealiifano, capped 19 times for the Wallabies, has played a big role in the Brumbies’ resurgence this season as the Canberra-based team won the Australian conference and will play a home quarter-final against South Africa’s Sharks on Saturday. Lealiifano has previously played in Japan for Top League side Suntory and also had a stint with Irish side Ulster last year. He is considered a chance to win a berth in Michael Cheika’s Wallabies squad for the World Cup in Japan. Lealiifano is the third high-profile player to announce his departure from the Brumbies in recent weeks, with Wallabies flanker David Pocock retiring from Super Rugby and winger Henry Speight having signed with the Queensland Reds. (Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford) Nigeria upset South Korea for rare World Cup win Germany beat Spain to close in on next round Eight views on the race debate raging over France's World Cup winners	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15200
__label__wiki	0.587691	0.587691	Jacques de Saint-Luc Jacques de Saint-Luc (baptized 19 September 1616 – ca. 1710) was a Flemish lutenist and composer.Saint-Luc was born in Ath in 1616; nothing is known about his early years. In 1639 he was invited to become a musician at the court in Brussels, and two years later he had his portrait painted by Gerard Seghers. He moved to Paris in the mid- or late 1640s, but returned to Brussels in October 1647. He evidently spent the next few decades in Brussels, marrying in 1658. An important correspondent of Saint-Luc's from these years was Constantijn Huygens. In August 1684 Saint-Luc was still living in Brussels, but nothing is known of his whereabouts during the next 16 years: the next mention of him is from 1700, when he visited Berlin on the occasion of the marriage of Prince Frederick of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Louise Dorothea of Prussia. He apparently traveled to Berlin from Vienna, where, according to contemporary sources, he was employed by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Saint-Luc was still alive in 1707 and 1708, when he published some of his compositions in Amsterdam; his date of death is unknown.More than 200 pieces by Saint-Luc survive, and show that he was one of the most prominent lutenists of his time. Although he was influenced by French composers (Ennemond Gaultier, Denis Gaultier, Charles Mouton, and others) and adopted their scheme of grouping pieces into suites, he only used the characteristic French style brisé in his preludes. Items by Jacques de Saint-Luc	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15201
__label__wiki	0.537062	0.537062	Home News World News Teen accused in Anzac Day suicide-kangaroo plot Teen accused in Anzac Day suicide-kangaroo plot 28 January 2016 @ 16:02 A young kangaroo in the wild. A 19-YEAR-OLD man from the Melbourne suburb of Hallam is facing life in prison after allegedly plotting to hide C4 explosives in a kangaroo´s pouch and set it on police during 2015 Anzac Day events held to commemorate antipodeans who served in World War One. Prosecutors at Melbourne Magistrates Court heard how the accused, Sevdet Besim, revealed his plan in an online exchange with a British accomplice, divulging that he intended to paint the marsupial with the Daesh symbol. In the same conversation Mr Besim is alleged to have expressed his desire to run over or behead a police officer, saying he was “ready to fight these dogs on there (sic) doorstep.” One week before the national day of remembrance in April 2015, counter-terror raids on Melbourne homes resulted in the arrest of Besim and four alleged conspirators, one of whom was a 15-year-old British boy from Blackburn who appeared before Manchester Crown Court in October 2015 and was controversially sentenced to life imprisonment. He is reported to be the youngest Briton to be found guilty of a terror offence. During his January 28 appearance at the Magistrates Court hearing, Mr Besim, who has been remanded in custody since his 2015 arrest, pleaded not guilty to five charges related to planning a terror attack, one of which was later withdrawn. If convicted, Mr Besim will also look forward to a life behind bars. He will appear before judges at the Supreme Court of Victoria on February 3. C4 explosives suicidekangaroo Previous articleBenidorm is already looking ahead Next articleDizzy passengers force plane to turn back	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15202
__label__wiki	0.876772	0.876772	Blue Springs candidates address growth Mike Genet mike.genet@examiner.net @GenetEJC With election day looming just a few days away Tuesday, Blue Springs City Council candidates offered their views on local economic development and taxes – many of them similar. Incumbent Dale Carter is challenged in District 1, essentially the city's northern third, by Galen Ericson and Scott Casey. District 2 incumbent Chris Lievsay is challenged by Travis Hagewood, and Susan Culpepper is running unopposed in District 3. Friday morning's candidates forum at St. Mary's Medical Center also included two of the three school board candidates answering a few questions. Rhonda Gilstrap and Bobby Hawk are incumbents running for re-election, and challenger Carl Tharp was not able to addend. Carter said that to foster economic development, the city must be easy to work with have a code conducive to that. “We can't run people through traps,” he said. Economic development, Carter said in his opening statement, is the third leg of a three-legged stool that's most important for elected officials. The first two are public safety and infrastructure, and he noted improvements he supported for both legs – a hotel-motel ordinance that reduced police calls and the Roanoke Drive improvements. “To pay for the first two legs, you need to be aggressive in trying to bring in new jobs and businesses,” Carter said. In finding the balance between being friendly to business and still making business corridors look inviting to people, Carter said he would “err on the side of businesses.” “If it first into our comprehensive plan and code, I would do all I can to support it,” he said, later using the narrow council vote recently against a proposed car wash at a prime intersection for businesses. “When you miss an opportunity like that the market hears us, and they don't want to hear that.” Ericson said the city should develop an economic development pattern to help fill vacant buildings, make sure infrastructure isn't unappealing, encourage buying local and making it simpler and easier for prospective business owners to renovate buildings. “Jobs and tax revenues are a top priority for all of us,” he said. “I believe in incentives that are a net positive that won't hurt existing businesses.” Casey said pushing green initiatives like bringing back recycling and having solar panels on some city buildings can be worthwhile in the long run. He also would like to have municipal fiber installed to ideally lower internet prices and nurture co-working spaces for small start-up businesses to fill blighted areas. “It's all about promising he right tools that businesses are looking for,” he said. Casey said he would err on the side of what people want. “You don't want potential weeds in the garden,” he said, and such an approach means more revenue in the long run. Lievsay said the city needs to be welcoming and “making sure our code is responsive to businesses.” Hagewood said it's important to educate citizens to build the city from within and make downtown more of a place people want to go to. “You can't make a business come to Blue Springs,” Culpepper said, “but what we can do, and we're doing, is making it easier.” Culpepper said getting citizens to pass the use tax, though she said it's an “awful” label for what amounts to an internet sales tax, can help growth by putting local businesses on a level playing field. All other candidates favored another run at capturing use tax revenue, though Ericson and Hagewood urged that it be less confusing and the city make sure citizens are well-educated. Lievsay said he preferred having the Missouri Municipal League, of which he is now president, lobby the state to do away with having individual cities seek their citizens' approval. “It's confusing because it's confusing (thanks to the state), not because we want it that way,” Lievsay said. All candidates also favored asking voters for renewal of the half-cent parks sales tax in a few years. When asked what he would not cut when trying to finesse the city budget, Carter said the city has tried to pare down to core services in recent years and anything outside of public safety and infrastructure should be on the table. Ericson advocated cutting “superfluous studies,” which many times can be replaced a little math and some common senses. Hagewood agreed on that point, adding the city needs to explore alternative ways to increase revenue. “I'm not interested in cutting services,” Casey said. “We can build revenue if we're smart about it.” “I think the way to grow revenue is more jobs and more residents,” Lievsay said, adding that he voted against the City Hall renovations (now nearly complete) because it was a bad time to take on such a project. “It's about making smart decisions with the money we have.” For the school board, Gilstrap said her longtime experience, as well as her leadership with the Missouri School Board Association will be beneficial. One way the district is looking to the future is its plan to turn the Freshman Center into a career technology and vocation center. Hawk, appointed to the board last year to fill a term, mentioned his passion for the district as a former student and now a parent and community member. “We need to see what we can learn from other districts,” he said. “We're all on a learning curve, and we need to be willing to adapt.” “I know there's a lot I don't know,” he said, “and I'm willing to continue to learn.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15204
__label__cc	0.514463	0.485537	Mechanical Engineering Expert Witness Excluded in Products Liability Case Plaintiff filed a products liability lawsuit against the manufacturer and installer of an Advanced Electronic Vehicle Interface Technology driving system. The plaintiff hired a mechanical engineering expert witness to assist in a providing causation testimony. The defendant filed a motion to exclude. The district court excluded the testimony and the appeals court affirmed the opinion. Facts: This case (John T. Cady v. Ride-away Handicap Equipment Corporation, et. al – United States Court of Appeals For The Fourth Circuit – July 17th, 2017) is an appeal from a district court opinion excluding the testimony of Plaintiff’s (Cady) mechanical engineering expert witness, Mark Ezra, and subsequently granting judgment in favor of the defendants. Cady’s lawsuit claims that the manufacturer and installer of an AEVIT (“Advanced Electronic Vehicle Interface Technology”) driving system in his car were at fault for an accident that occurred while he was driving. AEVIT was installed in Cady’s car so that his quadriplegic son could drive the car as well. Cady’s alleged claims include strict products liability, negligent design, manufacture and installation, negligent failure to warn, breach of express warranty, as well as many others. The defendants filed a motion to exclude the expert testimony. The district court granted the motion as well as judgment for the defendant. Cady appeals. Discussion: Ezra opined that the accident was caused by a mechanical failure to the brakes. He stated that the brakes were defectively installed, resulting in the brake roller moving out of place. His opinions relied on his inspections of the van and logged data from the AEVIT. The district court opined that Mr. Ezra does have specialized knowledge on this issue to testify on causation, he did not enough facts or data to support his testimony and that his testimony was not reliable. The present court affirms the opinion of the district court excluding Ezra’s testimony. The appeals court noted that Ezra omitted certain information from his testimony. First, he did not take into account the presence of a white residue that was found on the bake pas when it was inspected after the crash. In addition, Ezra could not explain why the roller arm fell off and under the brake pedal prior to the accident and not during the last two years of the vehicle’s operation. Ezra did not test of measure the road load that a van installed with AEVIT would endure, nor did he identify any forces that would apply to the vehicle under certain circumstances. In addition, the district court noted that Ezra’s interpretation of the AEVIT data was suspicious. The appeals court agreed, stating that it was plausible that human error resulted in the lack of effective braking. The court stated that Ezra knew of Cady did not have much in the way of AEVIT training, but did not consider that this was a possible reason for the collision. Conclusion: The United States district court’s exclusion of expert witness testimony of Mark Ezra is affirmed. Updated: July 19, 2017 8:00 am Human Factors Engineering Expert Witness Testimony Allowed July 18, 2019	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15205
__label__cc	0.562019	0.437981	by Stephanie Zonis Mother's Day Chocolates Hi! My name is Stephanie Zonis, and welcome to the May, 1999 edition of "I Love Chocolate." This month, the column celebrates Mother's Day; there are recipes you can make for Mom whether you're a beginner at creating desserts or someone who's been working with chocolate for years. I learned to cook and bake at my mother's knee, and she has been a wonderful source of knowledge and suggestions about food for as long as I can remember. Thanks, Mom, and Happy Mother's Day to you and other Moms everywhere. Chocolate Find of the Month: You all know I am the original advocate of "make-it-yourself", especially when it comes to baked goods. But for those of you who have the significant other, the house, the job, the kids, the dog--in short, absolutely no time to breathe, let alone bake, I'd like to introduce Tom's Cookies. Tom Roach started baking as a little kid, and he's been at it ever since. His mission, in part, is "to create and bake the best cookies in the universe". It's a wonderful goal, and I like the fact that the cookies are all-natural and that Tom is a believer in helping his community. My cookies arrived in a nice gold tin with a checkered ribbon around it. I was skeptical; how could cookies baked two days ago taste really fresh and good? But these did. I loved the crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside texture, and the cookies, which are huge, truly look homemade. I tried a number of flavors, and enjoyed them all, even those without chocolate (shocking!). Tom's Cookies sells tins and pails of baked cookies, toffee (which I haven't tried), and T-shirts. There are over 32 different cookies, including mint chocolate chocolate chip, sun-dried blueberry white chocolate, and chocolate raspberry brownies, plus seasonal holiday varieties. Now, Tom has introduced bake-it-yourself cookie dough in 5 flavors; the dough is currently being marketed in the Western U.S. And some areas of the Midwest. These cookies would be a great gift for Mother's Day, a student cramming for finals, or just about anyone else...including you! You can order directly from Tom's Cookies by calling (415) 989-8667, or stop in at their store in Macy's Union Square, 170 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA. Check them out! Chocolate School of the Month: The Chocolate School of the Month is Richardson Researches, Inc., located in Hayward, California. They bill themselves as "the world's leading organization in chocolate, confectionery, and candy making classes." Richardson emphasizes hands-on courses and limited class sizes. Courses include Chocolate Technology and Continental Chocolates. The website describes the agenda for each course, and other practical information is spelled out, too. You can find them at: www.richres.com, or call them at (510) 785-1350. I Love Chocolate wants YOU!!! Do you have a comment, question, or suggestion? How about a recent chocolate "find" you'd like to share? You can contact me at: [email-address-removed]; I'd like your input on this column. Thanks! 'Til next month, Yours in chocolate, Banana-Chip Cheesecake Chocolate Angel Food Cake Chocolate Floating Island Doug's Chocolate Cups with Ricotta Cream and Strawberries Fudge Pudding Cake Current I Love Desserts I Love Chocolate Archive This page created May 1999	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15209
__label__wiki	0.947249	0.947249	The latest \| News Ford Foundation appoints Hilary Pennington as executive vice president NEW YORK, January 19, 2018—The Ford Foundation today announced the appointment of Hilary Pennington as its first executive vice president, a role in which she will oversee all of the foundation’s programs in the US and globally. Previously, Pennington served as vice president for the foundation’s programming on Education, Creativity, and Free Expression. As executive vice president, Pennington will work closely with the foundation’s president, Darren Walker, and two program vice presidents, Martín Abregú and Xavier Briggs, to better align grant making across all program areas and regional offices. The creation of this position is the latest step in the foundation’s move to increase efficiency and ensure its programs are designed to achieve collective impact. “Hilary is exceptionally well-suited to lead our programming as we focus on addressing the systems and forces that drive inequality,” said Walker. “Her strategic vision, deep experience, and calm and effective management style are invaluable assets for the Ford Foundation. I am confident that this new leadership role—with Hilary in it—will make the foundation more effective at serving the organizations on the frontlines of social change.” Pennington joined the Ford Foundation in 2013 as a program vice president, leading the foundation’s work on arts and culture, documentary filmmaking, journalism, and youth leadership. She has also led its efforts to build and strengthen the broader field of philanthropy. During this time, she helped launch the foundation’s BUILD initiative, a five-year $5 billion investment in the long-term capacity and sustainability of up to 300 social justice organizations around the world. Pennington also led the foundation’s work in Africa and the Middle East. As a child, witnessing the inequality of apartheid in her father’s home country of South Africa helped shape her lifelong passion for social justice. “I am honored to take on this new role at the Ford Foundation,” said Pennington. “Inequality is at the root of nearly every social ill, and it impacts all people, everywhere. By increasing collaboration across our program areas and regional offices, we can ensure that all our grant decisions are strategic and meaningful—and responsive to changes in the world.” Before coming to the Ford Foundation, Pennington served as director of Education, Postsecondary Success, and Special Initiatives at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she guided grant programs across the US. She was also senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and president and CEO of Jobs for the Future (JFF), a research and policy development organization she co-founded. In 22 years as president and CEO of JFF, Pennington helped the organization become one of the most influential in the country on issues of education, youth transitions, workforce development, and future work requirements. She also served on President Clinton’s transition team and as co-chair of President Clinton’s Presidential Advisory Committee on Technology. The executive vice president is the most senior program position at the foundation, and is accountable to the president and the board of trustees. “I look forward to working closely with Hilary as a strategic thought partner, and I know she will help me become a more effective president at a time when our work has never been more important,” added Walker.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15210
__label__cc	0.649517	0.350483	Lincoln Center Campus Rose Hill Campus Westchester Campus The Louis Calder Center London Centre HomeAboutCampuses The 8-acre Manhattan campus spans two city blocks, with a landscaped plaza where you can find a respite from the City without actually leaving it. It’s home to over 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students as well as Fordham College at Lincoln Center, the Gabelli School of Business, our Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Education, Graduate School of Social Service, and School of Law. Our 85-acre Bronx campus features Gothic architecture and tree-lined walkways. It's home to over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students as well as Fordham College at Rose Hill, the Gabelli School of Business, our Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Graduate School of Religion and Religious Studies. Home to the Westchester branches of the Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies, Gabelli School of Business, Graduate School of Education, and the Graduate School of Social Service, we are also home to four institutes: the Beck Institute on Poverty and Religion, Children FIRST, National Center for Social Work Trauma Education, and the Ravazzin Center on Aging.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15211
__label__wiki	0.512478	0.512478	FWCS Celebrates Veterans Day Record Number: 12277 Displayed from: Nov 10, 2014 , until: Jan 04, 2015 Fort Wayne Community Schools will honor and celebrate Veterans Day with activities and events at every school in the District. Most schools will celebrate on Tuesday, Nov. 11, but because of scheduling conflicts, some will celebrate on other days. Schools will honor veterans in their families, perform patriotic music and participate in assemblies with local veterans groups. Weeklong Events: Snider High School, 4600 Fairlawn Pass, has a Veterans Day tribute on display in the showcase in the cafeteria. Any Snider staff members or student family members who have served or are currently serving in the Armed Forces were invited to be a part of the tribute. Miami Middle School, 8100 Amherst Drive, created a display case honoring veterans who work at Miami. Six staff members brought uniforms, boot camp portraits and other memorabilia for their time of service. At St. Joseph Central Elementary, 6341 St. Joe Center Road, student will hear through the week a brief history of how Veterans Day started and facts about each branch of the military. On Veterans Day, students will receive a small American Flag to share with a veteran. Beginning Monday at Lincoln Elementary, 1001 E. Cook Road, teachers will discuss who Veterans are and why a day is set aside to honor them. Each class will write a letter or create a card to send to members of the 122nd Fighter Wing. The school will also collect items to send in care packages to members of the 122nd. During lunch each day, veterans will share their experiences and give students and opportunity to ask questions. On Tuesday, students and staff are invited to wear red, white and blue. In honor of Veterans Day, the staff and students at Blackhawk Middle School, 7200 E. State Blvd., will recognize family members of Blackhawk students who have served in the past, or are currently serving, in any military branch of the United States. The names, service branch, rank and war or conflict (if applicable) will be read during morning announcements throughout the month of November. Monday, Nov. 10 At Fairfield Elementary, 2825 Fairfield Ave., veterans from several branches of the military will visit at 9:30 a.m. to talk to students about the various roles of those serving. The program will also include student performances and presentations. Arlington Elementary, 8118 St Joe Center Road, will continue its tradition of honoring local veterans and remembering Arlington family members who have served the country during the annual Veterans Day Program at 9:30 a.m. in the gym. All veterans are invited to be our guests. An active duty military guest will serve as guest speaker. Students will sing patriotic songs learned in music class and express their gratitude through essays, song and video. The touching moment of the program is a slideshow of Arlington students and their family members who have served our country throughout history. Tuesday, Nov. 11 Kekionga Middle School, 2929 Engle Road, will have a Veterans Day Recognition breakfast at 7:30 a.m. In addition, students will write letters in their language arts classes to those serving the country. A couple students will read their letters at the Veterans Day breakfast. Jefferson Middle School, 5303 Wheelock Road, will have a public flag-raising ceremony at 7:45 a.m. Veterans, active military and first responders were invited to participate. The school band will play patriotic tunes, culminating with the National Anthem as the student body, staff and guests circle the flag. The Boy Scouts and Civil Air Patrol will raise the flag. During the instructional day, social studies teachers plan lessons around Veterans Day themes. In language arts classes at Lakeside Middle School, 2100 Lake Ave., students will write letters to veterans at the neighboring VA hospital. There will also be special announcements and a homeroom activity that supports Veterans Day. At Memorial Park Middle School, 2200 Maumee Ave., students will have the opportunity to watch short videos on Veterans Day and why it is celebrated. Students will also make thank you cards and write letters and poems for veterans. At Bloomingdale Elementary, 1300 Orchard St., students will read stories about the different branches of the Armed Forces; discuss and write about the roles of the Armed Forces, including why they are important and how they fight for our freedom; and create a Veterans Wall of family members who have served in the Armed Forces, including interviews with family members about their life in the military. At 9 a.m. at New Tech Academy, 9100 Winchester Road, veterans will hold workshops for small groups of students on serving the country. Students will be able to ask questions and afterwards will write letters of appreciation to veterans. Study Elementary, 2414 Brooklyn Ave., fourth-graders will have a Flag Folding Ceremony at 9:05 a.m. At 10:30 a.m., the entire school will honor veterans with patriotic songs performed by students and patriotic pieces of artwork created by students. All current and former servicemen and servicewomen are welcome to join the celebration. Indian Village Elementary, 3835 Wenonah Lane, will have its Veterans Day program at 9:15 a.m. The program will include a Color Guard, performances by second- and third-grade students, a White Table, and a keynote address by Sgt. Major Rick Weber of the Indiana Army National Guard. Franke Park Elementary, 828 Mildred Ave., is raising money to purchase gift cards for veterans who travel to and from the VA hospital in Fort Wayne. Students will receive an eagle to write their name and post in hallways. The class raising the most money earns a pizza party. Staff members are also permitted to wear jeans all week if they donate $5. Weisser Park Elementary, 902 Colerick St., will have an all-school assembly at 9:30 a.m. to honor veterans. Veteran guests will then visit classrooms to speak with students. In addition, teachers may wear jeans for $5, and students may wear red, white and blue for 25 cents. All contributions will go to Honor Flight. Maplewood Elementary, 2200 Maplewood Road, will have an assembly at 9:30 a.m. to honor our veterans. The focus of the assembly will be to identify what a veteran is and note the impact of veterans on our lives. Maplewood will also display a Wall of Honor throughout the month to continue honoring veterans. Waynedale Elementary, 7201 Elzey St., will pay tribute to men and women who have served in defense of the country at an assembly at 9:30 a.m. Veteran family members of students will be in attendance and will be presented a pin of thanks. JROTC from Wayne High School will present the Colors followed by the fifth-graders singing the National Anthem and the fourth-graders reciting The Pledge of Allegiance. The students will be shown a video honoring veterans, and the school will display a “Wall of Honor” of family members who have served or are currently serving. At 10 a.m. at Washington Center Elementary, 1936 W. Wallen Road, special education teacher Liz Yager will share her experience serving in the Army with students and staff. She will have different uniforms for the students to try on and will answer student questions too. Fifth-graders at Holland Elementary, 7000 Red Haw Drive, will lead a program at 10 a.m. Special guests from the Korean War Veterans will be speaking. The program will also include a flag-folding demonstration and explanation. At Northwood Middle School, 1201 E. Washington Center Road, there will be a flag ceremony, and students will have the opportunity to watch videos about Veterans Day and write an essay about the holiday. Shambaugh Elementary, 5320 Rebecca Drive, will honor veterans during a whole school assembly 10 a.m. The Color Guard will be present, along with other veteran guests of honor. A teacher veteran will read the book “America’s White Table” to students, and veterans will visit classrooms to speak with students. Students are encouraged to bring in pictures of family members who have served or are currently serving to help create a Wall of Honor display in the front lobby. Adams Elementary, 3000 New Haven Ave., will have a celebration for veterans at 10:30 a.m. Students will sing, and punch and cookies will be served. Scott Academy, 950 E. Fairfax Ave., will have an assembly at 10:30 a.m. The program will include student performances and a short slideshow highlighting veterans who are family members of Scott students. At Shawnee Middle School, 1000 E. Cook Road, students will recite the Pledge of Allegiance, read about the history of Veterans Day, play “Taps” and participate in a moment of silence to reflect on why we celebrate the day. Haley Elementary, 2201 Maplecrest Road, will celebrate Veterans Day at 12:30 p.m. by inviting Veterans to a reception and program. Andre Beasley, a retired guard of the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, will be among those in attendance. Haley students will read essays they wrote about American Heroes and sing songs for the visitors. The choir at Harris Elementary, 4501 Thorngate Drive, will sing patriotic songs at 2:30 p.m. In addition, a guest speaker from the military will talk about the sacrifices made by men and women who serve. Northcrest Elementary, 5301 Archwood Lane, will have an all-school assembly at 2:30 p.m. honoring guest veterans. The assembly will include patriotic musical selections performed by fourth-graders, poetry and an all-school singing of the National Anthem. Bunche Montessori Early Childhood Center and Towles Intermediate School will have a combined program at 1 p.m. at Towles, 420 E. Paulding Road. Family members of students who have served in the military were invited to attend the event, which will include presentation of the Colors and a Flag-Folding Ceremony; singing patriotic songs and a poem reading. Military members will be recognized and their names will be displayed during the program thanking them for their service. Veterans were also invited to join their student for lunch prior to the program. Veteran Al LeFevre will visit Croninger Elementary, 6700 Trier Road, at 1:30 p.m. for a celebration in a fifth-grade classroom. Last year’s fifth-graders wrote letters to all Honor Flight recipients. Mr. LeFevre wrote back thanking them and came to visit, sparking a friendship with the class that continues. Over the summer, he donated $300 to the classroom, which was used to buy new books. This year’s fifth-graders will now have the opportunity to meet him and thank him for the books. At 2:45 p.m., the entire school will sing the National Anthem. Forest Park Elementary, 2004 Alabama Ave., will celebrate Veterans Day with an all-school assembly at 2 p.m. Students will be led in patriotic songs and listen to a brief history of Veterans Day. The color guard from Wayne High School will also be performing. At Portage Middle School, 3521 Taylor St., students will learn about and celebrate Veterans Day through classroom-based activities. At 1:40 p.m., North Side High School, 475 E. State Blvd., will create an aerial tribute for veterans using the student body (1,500 students) and an aerial drone. North Side will also be rededicating a WWII Memorial created in 1946 by the principal at that time. Students have conducted genealogical research of the WWII veterans killed in action and have invited their families to the ceremony. Also, the U.S. Marine Corps will conduct a flag raising ceremony for the West Flag Pole that is currently not in use. Glenwood Park Elementary, 4501 Vance Ave., is inviting all veterans connected to the school to a celebration at 2 p.m. The program will include patriotic songs, such as “I Love My Country,” “God Bless America,” and “There are Many Flags in Many Lands.” South Wayne Elementary, 810 Cottage Ave., will have an all-school musical program at 2:30 p.m. honoring veterans, including a PTA cookie and punch reception for special guests and special visitors. Wednesday, Nov. 12 Lane Middle School, 4901 Vance Ave., will have its annual Veterans Day Recognition Ceremony at 9 a.m. Students have already studied the history of the day and its importance. Veterans Day art projects are on display throughout the school. At least 50 veterans and active service members will be led into the ceremony by the FWPD Pipe and Drum Brigade. IPFW ROTC will present the Color, and the Lane student band and choir will lead the National Anthem. Principal Mark Bailey will give an address, and each veteran will have an opportunity to introduce themselves. There will also be a tribute video from Lane students as well as a taped video message from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan featuring Lane teacher Adam Montgomery and Lane parent Kerry Ghent. There will be a reception for the VIP guests following the ceremony. This event continues to grow and is a huge source of pride for the staff and students at Lane. Waynedale students and staff will participate in the Jeans for Troops program. Students and staff may wear jeans for a $1 donation. Jeans for Troops helps veterans find jobs and housing, go to college and access health care.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15212
__label__wiki	0.776184	0.776184	'Cyberpunk 2077' details released – new RPG video-game for PS4, XBox One and PC CD PROJEKT RED, creators of The Witcher series of games, are proud to share the first official details about their upcoming title — Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2077 is an open world, narrative-driven role-playing game set in the universe of the classic pen & paper RPG system — Cyberpunk 2020. The game follows the story of V — a hired gun on the rise in Night City, the most violent and dangerous metropolis of the corporate-ruled future. A robust character creator will allow players to choose V’s gender, visual appearance, character class, as well as historical background — all of which may influence the shape of the game. With dozens of hours of main story arc quests, and many more of additional activities, there’s always something to see and do in Night City. Players will experience all of it entirely through V’s eyes, with an interactive dialogue system that gives them greater narrative agency. Returning in Cyberpunk 2077 is CD PROJEKT RED’s hallmark of choices and consequences. As they make their way through the streets of Night City and its sky-scraping megabuildings, players will face difficult decisions that will ripple through the entire game. Cyberpunk 2077 will be releasing on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. For more information, visit cyberpunk.net, and follow the game on Facebook and Twitter.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15214
__label__cc	0.705945	0.294055	blogmenu How I Write Writing the Shoal Sequence The 1/3 Manuscript Slump Die Stadt und die Sterne Zardoz: an Appreciation Contact/Free ebook! Everybody loves the new Star Trek but me. Well, me and George RR Martin. And possibly several other people, except I can't remember who they are just now. Like the embarrassing relative at a wedding party who keeps following you around and bugging you, I'm here to tell you just how shit I think the new movie really is. For a start, it's basically Dubya: The Trek Years. Seriously. Wayward kid with daddy issues who aspires to his daddy's job, but instead of applying himself spends his time getting drunk, hanging out in bars and getting beat up until a father-figure stand-in turns up to give him a stiff telling-to. Next thing you know there's a major terrorist event, he grabs the reigns of power and leads a space-posse to find the bad guys and drop them down a very deep hole. Let me be clear. I have a soft spot for JJ Abrams, mainly because he gave me Lost and Fringe. Neither is flawless, but in the greater scheme of things, they've given me something to mildly obsess over. But Abrams' Star Trek isn't a movie. It's a Republican Party broadcast. For what it's worth, the actors generally do a decent enough job with the material they're given. Chris Pine did pretty much the best he could under the circumstances, and the same could be said for the rest. Quinto was always pretty much a shoe-in to play Spock. If you watch the movie in complete neutral, brain off and floating on a sea of caffeinated sugar drink and sweetened popcorn, critical faculties firmly booted out of the room to sulk, you kind of enjoy it. It's CGI as pornography, money shot after gratuitous money shot: big spiky spaceships, shit blowing up, skydiving from space; such things are there not to support the story so much as to replace it. Every five minutes, when you start to think 'just hang on a minute, that doesn't make sense', something goes BOOM and you're staring at the pretty, pretty lights. It's Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' as deliberate corporate entertainment strategy. Now the negatives, and spoilers abound, naturally. Look, I'm not asking for rigid adherence to the boundaries of Einsteinian physics here, but ... come on. A singularity that eats planets, but handily sucks Romulan mining ships into the past? Bollocks. Are you going to build a mining ship with flimsy awkward platforms hanging over enormous drops? No, I don't fucking think so. And while we're at it ... Kirk gets dumped on a random planet, chased by a monster, then just happens to wander into the cave where Future Spock's been sitting around on his arse? There just happens to be a Federation base nearby, which just happens to have Scotty in it? And, guess what; Spock just happens to know the means by which the transwarp drive operates, which Scotty handily knows how to program in order to beam our heroes back onto the Enterprise. Get. To. Fuck. The same stupefying lack of sanity applies to the Romulans: apparently they decided to just hang about for all this time without traveling back to Romulus in their great big fuck-off so-advanced-it-must-be-from-the-future starship and warn somebody? Tell me, if the Earth was destroyed and you went back in time to before the destruction, what would you do? Float around in space looking moody OR DO SOMETHING? (and don't give me that 'emotionally compromised' line from the film. By that point, I was actually muttering 'oh, come on' out loud in the cinema.) And that's before we even get to the Red Matter. As at least one internet commenter has pointed out - I think it was Mike Brotherton - apparently this miracle substance, once transformed into a singularity, doesn't work unless you drill a big hole in a planet first. People, if a singularity hit Earth right now, the lack of a big hole conveniently drilled into the ground for it to fall into really isn't going to make one bit of difference. The destruction of Romulus actually had me swearing at the screen. Apparently there's a supernova endangering the whole galaxy - well, okay; I used the idea of a gamma-ray burster as the central threat in my first novel, Angel Stations. They're threatening because of the amount of radiation they put out. The levels of energy involved are beyond stupendous. But in the movie, we see a planet going all kerflooie when a big wave of dust hits it. Er, no. Once, twice, thrice, no. I'm a writer, not a scientist (dammit). But I do at least try to enough research that I can have at least some kind of tenuous grasp on what the hell I'm talking about, even when I wind up breaking the laws of physics with glee. Making shit up is part and parcel of a writer's job. Matter transporters? Sure, why not. It's called suspension of disbelief. But that suspension of disbelief - essential when dealing with this kind of subject matter - goes out the window in the first five minutes when you discover that kids in the twenty-third century like stealing open-top roadsters and listening to the Beastie Boys. Really? The problem here is essentially that of an idiot plot designed to fit around a series of 'cool' set-pieces designed by people who, if you actually asked them what a star is would, I assure you, have to think about it. A surprising number of people - otherwise entirely intelligent people who tie their own shoelaces and do their own taxes - don't actually know what those twinkly lights in the sky even are. And if you tell them, they'll have a vague sense that they're sort of ... floating around out there, like random billiard balls bouncing around an infinitely large pool table. It isn't because they're stupid. It's just that they're merely insufficiently interested to ever, ever bother finding out. And if they did, they wouldn't care. That's how we wound up with TV shows in the Seventies like Space: 1999. Even then, I knew the idea of the Moon just floating around and randomly bumping into alien planets in that same perpetual game of interstellar billiards was complete dribble, but a lot of people - primarily those that created the show - didn't know, and cared less. The complete lack of sense or logic in almost every scene of Abrams' reboot can be easily explained by a desire to make the images on the screen look good, regardless of whether or not they contain a single iota of rationality. A starship with a series of platforms strung over the top of an enormous drop and no railings to stop people falling off? But it looks so cool. Check out that artist's rendition of the Romulan ship, guys. How about they have a big drill? They're miners, right? Yeah, and then we can have them jump off the spaceship and parachute down to the drill platform. Well, yeah, sure they have transporters that can get them down to where they need to be in seconds (I seem to recall they're certainly used to get them back off the drill platorm), but on the other hand if they skydive down to it it'll look really cool. As others have said, Chris Pine sure does spend a lot of time hanging off of things by his hands. On a quick mental recount, there's a cliff at the start, then the drill platform, one of those dodgy hanging-over-a-void platforms in the Romulan ship ... did I miss any? There are scenes shot in what is meant to be the Enterprise's engineering section, but is so obviously the interior of a chemical plant that I was immediately jolted out of any sense they were taking place on board a starship. All right, I admit it. Star Trek movies by and large, aren't hard to shoot down. I've ignored the more well-known idiocies, like Spock being half-human and half-alien. If you really want to understand beyond even the obvious reasons why this is so startlingly idiotic, I recommend a book called 'What Does A Martian Look Like,' by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, a series of carefully informed speculations about what form alien life might actually take, starting with the observed rules of evolution and the more extreme life-forms occupying some fairly radical ecological niches right here on Earth. Their general conclusion is that such life would probably be so remarkably different from anything we understand as 'life', we might not even recognise it. In other words, it probably wouldn't look just the same as us bar a pair of pointy ears and a habit of making sarcastic remarks about Earthmen. But we can forgive that - somewhat - for the sake of those long-ago episodes that made the series as long-lived as it's proven to be. Now, I grew up with Star Trek - the original Star Trek, anyway. For all its problems, there were times when it made for outstanding television. And then, unfortunately, there were times when you got see Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan duking it out on an alien planet. Or some girl in a silver wig and a desperately unflattering loincloth churning out lines like: 'Captain Kirk, what is this ... love, that you speak of?' I've never been fond at all of the subsequent reboots like Next Generation or Deep Space 9 or any of the rest, since by and large they were so bad they made me cringe. So why am I picking on this movie out of everything else? Perhaps because of the praise it's been given that I feel is far from deserved; perhaps because I have fond childhood memories of episodes like Space Seed or City on the Edge of Forever. These are the benchmarks by which the movie - all the movies, all the shows - must be judged, and they rarely if ever reached it. If people say this is the best Star Trek movie they've seen since, say, Wrath of Khan, then I must say (with the caveat I didn't see the last couple of films) that it is instead the worst. Chris Pine's Kirk is a wayward kid you wouldn't put in charge of a hot dog stand let alone a starship. Think I'm wrong? Here's a challenge. Go back to the original series of Star Trek, something like Space Seed, which introduced Ricardo Montalban's Khan. Watch it and just try and tell me Shatner's Kirk wouldn't have Chris Pine crying in his milk in a hundred seconds flat. For all the hamfistedness sometimes evinced in the original series and to a greater extent in those later reboots, the show had one redeeming quality that has been named again and again by commentators and critics over the years: a certain sense of optimism. The show even began with a mission statement of exploration, discovery, and split infinitives. And yet, none of this spirit is evident in this new film. It is, instead, a tale of almost medieval revenge; you kill my planet, I kill your planet, and in turn I kill you. Gene Rodenberry this is not. In a way, it's the fault of all of us that such inept, cruddy, irredeemably stupid and downright cynical films are being made, because we all troop off to the cinema to see them, myself included. But there are times when I think, no: I've had enough. Enough of seeing my genre denigrated by people who literally have no idea what they're talking about. Enough of giving my money to charlatans who've reduced movie-making to a kind of visual pornography of set-pieces and special effects. I won't be going to see Wolverine, or Terminator: Yet Again, or whichever episode of Franchise: The Quickening is being churned out to the local cinema this month. Instead I'll be spending my money on the little-known genre movies with big hearts made by directors I've never heard of. Films like Let The Right One In, or perhaps Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti, about which I've heard good things. Because in my experience, it's the smaller movies - like Pi, or Primer, or Pan's Labyrinth - that dare to not treat their audience like morons. Posted by Gary Gibson, science fiction writer at 5/25/2009 18 comments: Back home, dental offices have front desks with all the nasty needles and drills and stuff tucked away in rooms at the back. In Taiwan, you're practically on display. You walk in, there's a desk ... and the dentist's chair right behind, with some poor woman lying there staring up into the bright light. Mind you, the service is excellent. Even if you end up feeling a bit on display as upwards of HALF A DOZEN PEOPLE including your other half stand around you once you're in the chair yourself, chatting casually in Chinese, while whirring pointy things are lowered into your gaping mouth. Note to my teeth, particularly the crown on the left-hand side; in the future, try to fall out a few weeks AFTER my medical insurance comes through, not before. Posted by Gary Gibson, science fiction writer at 5/13/2009 2 comments: Making things up I read this article in The Guardian in which PD James explains why she made up the location of her new book, an imaginary island off the British coast. The article's an interesting enough explication of the creative process of worldbuilding, but I still felt a bit confused; why did she need to 'explain' why she made up an imaginary island? Granted the 'explanation' is related to the fact that up until now everything she's written has been set in some real location, but something still rankled about it; 'explain' making a place up? Isn't making things up a fundamental description of what any writer does? Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but the first thing that came to my mind was a TV interview with Iain Banks - it might have been Late Review, and the interviewer might have been Kirsty Wark - and I recall she made reference to a passage in one of his (non-sf) novels where he describes a particular setting - a cliffside, maybe, next to the sea. She seemed genuinely taken aback when Banks explained he'd made it up and there was no such sea-side cliff, pointing out that 'that's what writers do'. It got me wondering if there some aspect of mainstream literary culture that demands every setting for a story must exist in the real world. Did I miss a memo somewhere when I decided I'd rather just make shit up? Boredom, I find, can sometimes be a useful creative tool. The more hours stretch out, the more the mind wanders, and if you're a writer, that can actually turn out to be a good thing. It not only allows you to get some distance from the story you're working on, it's during those distracted moments when some of our best ideas can come to us via the subconscious. I'm in the final stretch of the third, as yet still untitled, Dakota Merrick book (some working titles - Killing Light, Ghosts of the Magi - if you can come up with a seriously good title without knowing what the book's about, I'll send you a copy of everything I've ever published. And I'll also be eternally grateful). I didn't write the end of the book during the first draft, not because I didn't know what happened, but because it needed something 'more'. For the kind of fiction I write, which is strongly plot-driven, I want to surprise the reader, to come up with twists or unexpected ideas that spin the last stage of the story in interesting new directions. What I had for an ending in that first draft was good enough, but that - if you follow me - isn't always good enough. I needed something more. At times like this I might get inspiration just by randomly typing any idiot idea into Scrivener's notepad until something emerges, and sometimes I've been surprised by the ideas that have come to me this way. Writing out the already-familiar details of the story or scribbling randomly about the relationships of the characters to each other can lead to unexpected connections becoming suddenly apparent. Or new ideas can appear that require me to go back into the text and rejig the story in order to foreshadow it. This can allow the plot to go in unexpected new directions that themselves prove to be springboards for yet more new ideas. Another approach is to do anything but write, and this is where carefully cultivated boredom comes in, the only drawback being the conviction I'm not actually doing anything productive if I don't have my fingers permanently glued to the keyboard. Today I've deliberately done no writing, having reached a point where I know I want to develop the end of the book to include new themes and events that should eventually pop into my head. I could tinker endlessly with the existing text, but in my own experience that doesn't get me where I need to be. So instead of doing anything at all I'm watching tv, or youtube, and getting that jittery feeling I get when I haven't really done any writing all day. At some point - today, or the day after, or the day after that - the ideas I need will come, as they've always come. Other stuff; it hit me recently I've written pretty much nothing about life here in Taiwan. I may need to do something about that, but if so it's going to have to wait until book three is finished - the deadline is July 1st, or slightly less than sixty days. Nova War, the sequel to Stealing Light, is due out at the beginning of September, in hardback. It's currently available on Amazon UK for pre-order. Someone pointed out in the comments recently that the Angel Stations link at the top of the page doesn't work. Yeah, sorry about that. Authorial laziness, I'm afraid. I really need to do something about it. I also need to take the other online book samples and make them into downloadable formats - epub, Sony, Kindle format etc. Lots of things to be done. I could do them while I'm thinking about the book, but that kind of displacement activity, I frequently find, rarely results in the genuine ideas that result from the kind of mind-numbing tedium I'm after. I've been informed by a friend in the banking industry (Chris! Pizza!) that he believes the economy will be back on track by this time next year. I tend to pay attention to Chris's opinion on financial matters because he saw the credit crunch coming and gave me some very useful financial advice during the year I was half-paralysed with an injured spine. If Chris is right, an improving economy would be good news for me, since I'd like to be back in the UK by this time next year and I'll need to get some kind of day job. I won't - unfortunately - be able to live entirely off my writing income the way I can over here (and even that isn't so straightforward anymore since my money is worth a good bit less than it was before the financial crisis). I have a couple of practical work ideas in mind, but I must admit the idea of teaching creative writing does appeal, although it may not prove to be practical. A random browse through the websites of various local colleges and further education establishments back home shows they all have creative writing courses, but whether or not they pay enough to be at all worthwhile doing is another matter; I know little about how these things work, and I have a dark suspicion any income generated from such efforts wouldn't really amount to much more than pocket money in the greater scheme of things. But it's something at least worth investigating, especially now Edinburgh's Napier College is now running year-long courses in genre writing. Clearly a lot of people want to be writers. Coming May 1st 2019 It's the end of the world...again. Over the years, the Pathfinders have become a tight-knit team as they search for an alternate they might one day call home. Now, at last, one has been found: an Edenic alternate Earth on which humanity never evolved. But just when their work seems over, new threats emerge. One comes from within the Authority itself, but the other is so completely unexpected that the Pathfinders are quickly overwhelmed. The race is on to deal with the final - and greatest - threat they have yet encountered as they journey through alternate Earths rendered lifeless by rogue singularities or littered with ancient and perilous ruins. Faced with their own extinction, can they pull together one last time…as well as save the Authority from itself? Available for pre-order on Kindle, Kobo, iBooks. Paperback forthcoming and hardback NOW AVAILABLE. GHOST FREQUENCIES Something is hampering with a scientist’s experiments in a newly refurbished English mansion. But is the interference caused by the building's famous ghosts...or is there an even more sinister explanation? Available in ebook, paperback, hardback and Newcon Press boxed set. SCIENCEVILLE & OTHER LOST WORLDS A collection of stories written since 2015 and available in both ebook and paperback from a writer The Guardian called "a master of core sf". Includes an exclusive novelette set in the world of Extinction Game and Survival Game, THE LONG FALL.Available in ebook and paperback. SUBSCRIBE TO MY MAILING LIST and get a free copy of my novelette SCIENCEVILLE, first published in Interzone magazine.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15215
__label__cc	0.683416	0.316584	Gadget Show Live: The Review The Gadget Show Live took place at the NEC (Birmingham) this Easter. Here’s my review. The Gadget Show, every monday on Five, gives gadget geeks a weekly roundup of what’s hot in the technology world. It’s one of my favourite television shows, and last week I went to their live event at Birmingham’s NEC with my wife and friends. The Gadget Show Live ran for four consecutive days, and we went on the first public day – Thursday 8th April. So, how was it? Prepare to queue – or not? We had been warned on The Gadget Show Live website to expect very long queues first thing but, being British, we relished the thought of a good queue and went in time for opening at 9.30 anyway. It brings back patriotic memories of standing in line for rations, you see. We got there at about 9:20 and there must have been a couple of hundred people ahead of us. The doors opened ten minutes later, though, and we were straight in. So, bonus points straight away: the queue wasn’t as bad as we had been led to expect! Once we were inside we were immediately struck with the scale of the show – three exhibition halls were given over to stands from a variety of companies, while a fourth hall housed the Super Theatre where live performances took place. We’ll get to those later, but the exhibition halls deserve some proper consideration first. There was a great mix of companies at the show, and something for pretty much anyone with an interest in tech and gadgets. 3D televisions? Check. Want to see 3D technology in a computer monitor? Yep, got that. Radio-controlled toys, electric bikes, cameras, puzzles, even vacuum cleaners. If you wanted to test the RC flying toys there was an area you could do that, and if you wanted to try out the bikes there was a test track for that too. All in all it was a very good setup where you could talk to the exhibitors, get a good look around, and try out some of the toys. The only downside was that it was very busy – hard to move at times. The best periods were first thing and last thing, but I guess with a show this popular you just have to expect that it’s going to be crowded for much of the day. Jason Bradbury competes against Suzi Perry in a "jetpack" race. The Super Theatre show, which is a separate ticket to the general admission, lasted for an hour and featured all four regular presenters from the television series. There wasn’t much in the way of in-depth information, so if you go next year don’t expect a live version of the TV show. There was, however, plenty of cool tech on display including the impressive Titan robot/suit. There was a brilliant moment when Suzi Perry got stuck on a “jet pack” strung to the ceiling that added some unexpected comedy to the proceedings! Come 5pm we headed home – seven and a half hours after arriving, having seen loads of gadgets, technology and toys and enjoying a fun live show. My feet were certainly aware of how long we’d been there, but the time just flew past. If you’re into gadgets and tech, I’d definitely recommend this as a brilliant day out. You do need to be aware that it will be very busy and, perhaps, not great for taking small children to, but I thought it was fantastic. Keep an eye on The Gadget Show Live website for details of next year’s event. The Gadget Show Live, with premium SuperTheatre seats cost £21.40 per person. If you were there why not let us know what you thought in the comments? What was your favourite bit? What could be better? Go on… tell us! Tags: Gadgets, Jason Bradbury, Jon Bentley, Ortis Deley, Suzi Perry, Television, The Gadget Show Previous Should I self-host my blog? Next Terry Pratchett's Going Postal [Review] 1 thought on “Gadget Show Live: The Review” gadget guide says: yeah.. i love gadget 🙂	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15217
__label__wiki	0.769589	0.769589	JAGUARS MID-SEASON AWARDS: WHO'S THE MVP? A look at some of the brightest stars for the Jaguars in 2017. In 2017 the Jaguars have had their first early season success since 2010. The team, as a whole, has exceeded the expectations of most. So have many of the individuals on the team. Let's take a look at some of the best and brightest through 8 games. Here's our Jaguars Mid-Season Awards Offensive Player of the Year: Leonard Fournette This was one was . . . pretty damn easy. Leonard Fournette has been a revelation. Despite missing two games, there's still no question in my mind that Leonard Fournette has been the most important player on the offensive side of the ball. When he's in the game, defenses fear him, and at times, that's allowed Bortles and the passing game to find a rhythm. He's on pace to have one of the best seasons by a Jaguars running back of all time and is neck in neck with Kareem Hunt in the Rookie of the Year race. Fournette has been a game changer for the Jaguars and they'll need him to continue to be just that down the stretch. Defensive Player of the Year: Jalen Ramsey This one was much, much more difficult. But Ramsey has earned it. In his second year he's already the best CB in football. He plays with an unrivaled physicality and swagger. He doesn't allow anyone to beat him and regularly gets inside the head of his opponent. He's faced star WRs such as DeAndre Hopkins, Antonio Brown, TY Hilton, and AJ Green. He's won or held his own against all of them. Ramsey is the best player on the best secondary in football. Sacksonville T Most Improved Player: AJ Cann Cann hasn't been perfect this year, but he has been far and away better than he was in 2016. During his rookie year (2015) Cann appeared to be a rising star at guard. But an ugly sophomore slump led many (including myself) to question whether or not Cann was the answer at right guard for the Jaguars. Well, through the first half of the season there's no question that Cann is the man. He's done well in run blocking and pass protection. Dave Caldwell had confidence in AJ when no one else did, and for that I must commend Caldwell. It appears he was right to believe in the third year offensive lineman. Most Surprising Player: Dante Fowler Jr. Dante has been a revelation in 2017. Despite dealing with a litany of off field issues and maturity questions on the field Fowler has found his way in this defense. While many were talking bust prior to the start of the season, Fowler has earned his keep and is putting up some impressive pass rush numbers, while being an excellent run defender. Fowler has 5.5 sacks on the year, which puts him at 18th in the entire NFL. He's on pace for 11 sacks in what is truly his second year. Fowler has benefited from playing next to some fantastic defensive lineman this year, but the rest of the D-Line has also benefitted from playing next to Fowler. He appears to be a star in the making. And finally . . . . The MVP goes to: Calais Campbell What Calais Campbell brought with him from the desert of Arizona to the Jacksonville Jaguars is hard to properly put into words. He's helped immensely with the culture change. He's a leader on and off the field. He seemingly always does and says the right thing and is someone the rest of the team can follow. All of that is great, and really has been key for the Jaguars this season, but even more important: his play on the field. Campbell has been dominant against the run and even better as a pass rusher. He's opened up things for the rest of the defensive line and he himself is having one of the most dominant pass rushing seasons of all time. Through just eight games Campbell is one sack shy of the Jaguars single season record. He's on pace to rack up 22 sacks this year, which would put him .5 sacks away from the NFL all time single season record. The 6'8'' behemoth is the heartbeat of the best defense in the NFL. Agree with our awards? Let us know in the comments below!	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15220
__label__wiki	0.819261	0.819261	Earle Rodney Earle Rodney (4 June 1888 – 16 December 1932) was a Canadian screenwriter, actor and film director. He wrote for 108 films between 1926 and 1947. He also acted in 69 films between 1915 and 1929. He was born in Toronto, and died in Los Angeles, California from pneumonia. Crazy to Act Ollie (Oliver Hardy) is a hapless but rich suitor who'll do anything for his future wife (Mildred June). Even make a movie! This is Hardy's final film with producer Max Sennett. Earl Rodney Ollie is a hapless but rich suitor who'll do anything for his future wife. Even make a movie! Choose Your Weapons Returning from war something less than a hero ("he saved a second lieutenant from fainting"), our humble protagonist Bobby Vernon nonetheless gets sucked into some very farcical post-combat politics involving Mittle-European royalty, Teutonic ruffians, forced marriage, much... Al Christie Returning from war something less than a hero, our humble hero nonetheless... Source: Earle Rodney on Freebase, licensed under CC-BY Other content from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15222
__label__wiki	0.845966	0.845966	Leon Reid It was a long season… but a good one Leon Reid takes stock on an eventful season that included two major championships, a medal and his debut for Ireland. Without a doubt, 2018 has been... Leon Reid reflects on his roller coaster experience in Australia where he won Northern Ireland’s first track medal for 28 years.... You can knock me… but I’m still smiling With the Commonwealth Games imminent, Leon Reid reflects on the good and bad from the Irish National Indoor Championships and a recent... The life of a sprinter is not so ‘lazy’ In his first ‘class of 2018’ post, Leon Reid outlines what his daily routine looks like – from training to working... Fast Runner: Leon Reid Leon Reid is the Northern Irish 200m record holder and has won European silver medals at under-20 and under-23 level. The...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15224
__label__wiki	0.799825	0.799825	Abe’s Military Base Plan for Okinawa Sinking in Mayonnaise: Implications for the U.S. Court and IUCN By Hideki Yoshikawa The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 1 March 2019 https://www.globalresearch.ca/abes-military-base-plan-okinawa/5670227 Abe Government’s Reluctant Admission After a long silence, the Abe government has finally admitted that the construction of a U.S. military base at Henoko-Oura Bay in Okinawa requires significant changes to the original land reclamation plan (see Asahi Shimbun). Parts of the seafloor of the construction site have proven to be extremely fragile, having the consistency of mayonnaise. To solidify the seafloor sufficiently to support a functional airport, a “sand compaction pile method” needs to be carried out (see this video for sand compaction pile method). Casing piles will be driven into the seafloor as deep as 60 meters (or 90 meters below the water surface), and the piles, which are hollow, will be filled from the top with sand and other compacting materials. Then the piles are raised or removed slowly leaving the compacting materials in the form of a pillar, thus solidifying the seafloor. This procedure is to be repeated 76,000 times, implanting 76,000 compacting pillars in the seafloor (see Ryukyu Shimpo). Source: Asahi Shimbun Reclamation experts have said that while the sand compaction pile method has been successfully carried out in other regions within Japan, it has never been done to a depth of 90 meters, and there are no pile drivers in Japan capable of reaching to that depth. On this problem the government has so far offered no comment. Sand Compacting Pile Method © FUDO TETRA. Original source The government’s admission has critical implications not only for the Japanese government but also for the U.S. and international institutions. The Japanese Government’s Pretense: No Adverse Impact on the Environment The Abe government’s admission has placed the government in a difficult situation. Oura Bay and Base Construction (Feb. 3, 2019) © H. Yoshikawa First, implanting 76,000 piles into the seafloor is certain to have a tremendous impact on, and cause irreversible changes to, the environment of Henoko-Oura Bay, one of the most biodiversity-rich marine environments in the world (see Okinawa Prefectural Government). This poses a significant challenge to the Japanese government’s pretense that the construction and operation of the base will not create adverse effects on the environment (hence base construction is legal). The pretense was made possible by the Okinawa Defense Bureau’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (2012), which has been vehemently criticized for numerous flaws by experts and environmental NGOs. The government’s admission is the latest blow to the tainted EIA and to the government’s environmental claims concerning the viability of the Henoko-Oura Bay project. The EIA made no mention of the mayonnaise-like condition of the seafloor. Ryukyu Shimpo Extra Edition. Okinawa Prefectural Government’s Revocation of Land Reclamation Permit Second, the proposed changes (or any change of this magnitude) to the original construction plan require a new environmental impact study and approval from local governments. Given that Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki was elected in a special gubernatorial election in September 2018 on his pledge to fight the base construction, he is expected to deny any proposal for changes (see Ryukyu Shimpo). His refusal to permit construction will drag the entire base construction plan down, causing a halt or a long delay. Japanese Government Resorts to its Usual Tactics At this juncture, the Abe administration is downplaying the magnitude of its admission, insisting that construction work will continue. In fact, the Okinawa Defense Bureau is starting to build a new seawall in the area near the fragile seafloor (see The Japan Times). Many see this as the government’s attempt to create a fait accompli by giving the impression that construction work has passed the point of no return. In short, the Japanese government is resorting to its usual tactics. Throughout its reckless pushing of the construction plan, every time environmental issues came to light, the Japanese government has attempted to sweep them under its administrative rug. It has repeatedly prevented examination of the issues and continued to insist that the “no environmental impact” study was sufficient, thus enabling construction to move forward despite engineering evidence of the dangers. Most recently, in August 2018, when the Okinawan prefectural government revoked the land reclamation permit for base construction on the grounds of serious environmental and civil engineering problems (see the Okinawa Prefectural Government’s Revocation Documents in English), Ishii Keiichi, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Technology, and Tourism, came to the rescue, and denied the revocation. The Minister claimed that revocation of the permit would negatively impact the U.S.-Japan alliance and make it difficult to eliminate the dangers posed by the Futenma base at its current location (see The Japan Times). The suspension allowed construction work to resume while stifling the environmental and technical issues raised in the revocation documents. Despite the Japanese government’s tactics, however, environmental issues persist. New problems are emerging and old problems are coming back to haunt the Japanese government. U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Judicial System The Japanese government’s admission of the fragile seafloor and the need to implant 76,000 piles to solidify it has far-reaching implications beyond Henoko-Oura Bay, Okinawa, and Japan. First of all, it challenges the claims made by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the U.S. court and could test the integrity of the U.S. judicial system. In August 2018, the U.S. Federal District Court of Northern California ruled in favor of the DoD (the defendant) (see the Court Ruling), and against the coalition of civil society members from Okinawa, Japan and the U.S. (the plaintiffs), in a case fought under the jurisdiction of the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The Court accepted the DoD’s claims that prior to the start of base construction work, it had conducted a proper study regarding possible impact of the construction and operation of the base on the dugong, a manatee-like marine mammal, which is an internationally endangered species, Japan’s natural monument, and Okinawa’s cultural icon. The court accepted the DoD’s 2014 conclusion that the base would have no adverse impact on the dugong. It was this conclusion that finally allowed base construction work to start in July 2014. Okinawa Dugongs. The Japanese Ministry of the Environment Now the Japanese government’s admission calls into question the validity of DoD claims since the DoD heavily relied upon the Okinawa Defense Bureau’s EIA in conducting its study and reaching the no adverse impact conclusion. As mentioned above, the EIA did not mention the fragile seafloor or the need to drive 76,000 piles in the Dugong habitat. More importantly, the fact that the DoD did not have this information puts the US court system in a complicated situation, as the case is now being reviewed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. (see the Plaintiffs-Appellants’ Opening Brief). In an appeals court, documents and evidence to be reviewed are usually limited to those that had previously been examined in the district court. In the dugong case, most of the documents and evidence examined in the district court came from the period before the DoD completed its environmental study and reached the 2014 no adverse impact conclusion. The current critical status of the dugong – no dugong has been observed in Henoko-Oura Bay since construction started and Dugong C has been entirely missing from the waters of Okinawa since 2015 – was not taken into consideration by the district court (see then Governor Onaga Takeshi’s letter to the DoD describing the current status of the dugong). It is not known whether the appeals court will take the Japanese government’s admission into consideration. Nonetheless, the situation presents a critical test of the very objectives and mechanism of the National Historical Preservation Act (NHPA) and the integrity of the entire U.S. judicial system. International Union for Conservation of Nature and UNESCO World Natural Heritage Nomination The Abe government’s admission also presents a difficult test to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because, as an advisory body to the UNESCO World Heritage programme, IUCN is involved in the nomination process of the “Northern part of Okinawa Island” for UNESCO World Natural Heritage status. World Natural Heritage Nomination Document (Feb. 2019). The Japanese Ministry of the Environment On February 1, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment submitted to IUCN its nomination of Amami-Oshima Island, Tokunoshima Island, the Northern Part of Okinawa Island, and Iriomote Island for World Natural Heritage status (see the Nomination document). This nomination is the Japanese government’s second attempt in the last two years and could be the last. In May 2018, the IUCN recommended that the nomination be “deferred,” (see the IUCN Evaluation 2018) and the Japanese government withdrew it. Among other things, the presence of the U.S. military’s Northern Training Area (NTA) located right next to the nominated area of the Northern Part of Okinawa Island made it difficult for the IUCN to approve the nomination. Henoko-Oura Bay is not included in the nominated area of the “Northern Part of Okinawa Island.” However, Henoko-Oura Bay is just 10 miles away from the nominated area, and is an integral part of the ecosystem of northern Okinawa. It is inconceivable that the World Heritage nomination process (which will include IUCN experts’ field trip to the nominated area of the Northern Part of Okinawa Island) and the drilling of 76,000 piles into the seafloor in Henoko-Oura Bay can take place simultaneously without each affecting the other. The Japanese government’s admission of the fragility of the seafloor and its relentless push for base construction in Henoko-Oura Bay is a stark reminder that when U.S. military base issues are at stake, Japanese environmental protection measures including EIA cease to function properly, and the Ministry of the Environment no longer behaves as a good steward of the environment. (For the honor of the Ministry, it should be emphasized that it did a fine job of preparing the environmental case for the other four areas inscribed as World Natural Heritage sites and is well-maintaining them). The situation tests the integrity of IUCN as the world’s trusted institution for the conservation of nature. U.S. and International Institutions Need to Call on the Japanese Government to Abandon its Destructive Plan For more than twenty years, the people of Okinawa and members of international civil society have been urging the Japanese and U.S. Governments to abandon the base construction plan. Save the Dugong Rally in San Francisco (June 2018) © Center for Biological Diversity Okinawa already has too many U.S. military bases on its soil. The environment of Henoko-Oura Bay, with some 5,300 marines species including 262 endangered species and peaceful communities with rich cultural traditions, is by no means an ideal site for an environmentally intrusive military base and training area. It should be a place for international collaboration for environmental protection and conservation. It is time for the U.S. Government (the executive, legislative, and judicial branches) and IUCN to tell the Japanese Government to abandon this costly and destructive plan. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Yoshikawa Hideki is Nago-resident anthropologist teaching at Meio University and the University of the Ryukyus, International director of the Save the Dugong Campaign Center and Director of the Okinawa Environmental Justice Project. Author of several major articles on this site. Copyright © Hideki Yoshikawa, Global Research, 2019	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15232
__label__wiki	0.556126	0.556126	Africa asked to prioritise devt of youthful population BY: Joshua Bediako Koomson Prof. Sir Paul Collier A Renowned global development economist, Professor Sir Paul Collier, has called on Africa to prioritise the development of its youthful population by creating a promising future for them. According to him, the new opportunity for Africa was its youthful demography as the rest of the world was basically becoming short of youth, indicating that Africa could take advantage of such an opportunity by changing its structures of activities to accommodate the youthful population. That, he said, would enable the continent to be a major supply of labour force to other part of the world to enhance its progress. Sir Collier said this in his address at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) public lecture series in Accra held on the theme: "Africa: Old Impediments, New Opportunities". The lecture was organised as part of the IEA's mission to promote good governance in Ghana and across Africa. “According to the United Nations, Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach over 830 million by 2050. Whether this spells promise or peril depends on how the continent manages its youth bulge,” he stated. Prof. Sir Collier, who is also the current Director of the International Growth Centre and the Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, further cautioned Ghanaians to be pragmatic in the management of their natural resources to ensure that every sector of the economy would benefit. "Don’t borrow on the essence of the oil and spend it on consumption. Don’t borrow and consume, save and invest. Ghana has many natural resources which could potentially be harnessed to build opportunities for the future,” he stated. He called for the creation of a proper framework for the nation's natural resources to generate enough income for its socio-economic development, adding that the governance of the nation's natural resources was in the hands of Ghanaians and not its development partners. Judicious use of resources The Paramount Chief of the Essikado Traditional Area in the Western Region, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, also stated that it wasn’t appropriate for Ghana, with enough resources, to be entangled with poverty, adding that “if you walk on gold and you are still stained with poverty, it means there is something absolutely wrong with your head." He called for the judicious use of the nation’s natural resources for the benefit of the country to ensure the improvement on life conditions of each individual.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15233
__label__wiki	0.590482	0.590482	Peter Ferris Mercy College Belfast Peter grew up in Belfast during the Northern Ireland troubles and was lucky enough to be given a grant at 18 to study at the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts in London. After graduating he became a teacher there and combined this with an extensive career in both film and television in a variety of parts. He has tried to give something back to Northern Ireland and has seen drama and the performing arts as something that can bring both sides of a divided community together, helping everyone involved. Over the years many of Peter’s students have had extensive careers in film and TV, and he has counted among his pupils household names such as Daniel Mayes, Claire Sweeney, Martine McCutcheon, Louise Redknapp and even Russell Brand. Lucas Rush, who has had considerable success in the West End, was mentored by Peter since the age of 9. Other more recent students have excelled and achieved some of the highest drama exam results in the world. One of Peter’s innovations has been to use filmmaking as a way to bring students together and inspire them – films which have subsequently been shown in Cannes. If awarded the prize, Peter would fund more education courses under the umbrella of the UN’s ‘Ring of Peace’, and sponsor students from Belfast to attend two-day acting masterclasses in London or Los Angeles.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15236
__label__wiki	0.761685	0.761685	State Spotlight May 7th, 2014 \| Written by Chuck Green Maximizing Resources POWER TO THE PEOPLE Energy companies’ site selection criteria varies based on needed resources, whether talent pools, feedstock or oil fields. WHERE ENERGY COMPANIES ARE SETTING UP, AND WHY Being in the Midwest, we’re far from the venture capital communities of the West and East coasts,” says Jeffrey Basch, manager of Business and Operations for Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Accio Energy. “We’re not as easily on the fundraising radar of certain groups. They’re not used to investing in Michigan.” The company adroitly navigated the cash-barren terrain. How? You might say it’s been kissed by angels—angel investors, that is—who’ve funded its product development and operations, notes Basch, who co-founded in 2008 with a focus on generating turbine-free wind energy. “Some early-stage venture capital firms in the area have participated with us, but we’re very capital efficient, with a small team and low overhead. We haven’t required the big fund raising that most energy companies would need at our state of development.” According to IHS Energy and Power Consulting, some energy companies locate their headquarters near the majority of their drilling and production operations. This is particularly true for smaller, independent, play-specific operators, such as one focused primarily in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania or Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. Proximity helps them to better leverage their people, resources and equipment. Eagle Ford-focused companies might operate out of San Antonio to be near their fields, or in Houston, adds the IHS. Others, particularly larger international oil companies, are likely to locate in cities such as Houston, regarded by many as “the oil and gas capital of the world.” Michigan, however, makes sense for Accio, says Basch. For one thing, the company’s stationary wind systems, which generate electricity as wind moves through an array of multiple panels, “will be much cheaper to manufacture in Michigan.” he says. “Using automotive heritage manufacturing technologies and associated low costs, we’ll produce a single commodity materials-based wind panel the height and length of a standard shipping container.” Accio draws on Michigan’s strong base of engineers for the expertise needed to design its innovative components. The company’s proximity to world-leading engineering and physics resources at universities in southeast Michigan can lend expertise “when we need to go deep on something. They give us the specialized expertise we need to stay small while we do big things.” Leveraging the state’s talent pool, the company has gotten this novel technology further than any other team in the world at a fraction of the cost most new energy technologies require. Looking westward, Cool Planet Energy Systems chose to place its headquarters in Denver and its research and development in Camarillo, California. A spokesperson for the green-fuels and biochar development company says these locations were chosen for their wealth of talent. “We’re hiring locally and specifically for chemical engineers with experience in refining and chemical processes. Applications are coming from local people who are working away and want to come back closer to home, another benefit of our distributed model.” Cool Planet opened its first plant in Alexandria, Louisiana, a site selected for its low cost, state incentives and proximity to feedstock, the spokesperson explains. “We build smaller modular plants close to the biomass feedstock as we do not want to transport low-value feedstock more than 30 miles due to transport costs.” In Denver, the company was approved for nearly $3.1 million from Colorado’s Job Growth Incentive Tax Credit for the creation of up to 393 new jobs over three years, the spokesperson says. The site was chosen because of its “excellent” wood biomass availability, interstate and rail access, and direct barge access to more than nine refineries. The facility is expected to produce at least 24 direct jobs and bring at least $56 million in economic investment into the state. Estimates are that an additional 150 indirect jobs will result because of this facility, and 350 construction jobs will be utilized. South Carolina Rolls In Two Major Tire Manufacturing Deals	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15238
__label__wiki	0.93321	0.93321	Burke Awards Remembering Arleigh Burke Fleet Admiral Halsey Morison S1 Struble, Arthur D. Aviator, Sanchez, Henry Gabriel, Aviation, Aviation, Fort Santa Cruz, World War II (WWII) Adapted from 'Captain Henry Gabriel Sanchez, U.S. Navy,' produced by the Navy Office of Information, dated 19 May 1952, Sanchez, Henry Gabriel file, Biographies, 20th Century, Navy Department Library. People--Hispanic Americans Henry Gabriel Sanchez 29 December 1907 - 13 March 1978 Henry Gabriel Sanchez was born on 29 December 1907 in New York, New York. Receiving his early education in his native city, he entered the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, from New York, as a Midshipman on 26 June 1926. Graduated and commissioned Ensign on 5 June 1930, he chose a career in Naval Aviation, and subsequently received periodic promotions in grade, attaining the rank of Captain (temporary) on 1 April 1946. He reverted to his permanent rank of Commander on 1 December 1947, but was later selected for promotion to Captain, confirmed on 21 April 1949. [He later advanced to rear admiral on the retired list.] After graduation from the Academy in 1930, he had sea duty aboard the USS Trenton until September 1931. He then returned to the United States for flight training at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Designated Naval Aviator on 31 September 1932, he remained at the Pensacola Air Station until October of that year, when he was ordered to report to Aircraft, Battle Force, USS Saratoga, flagship. Later he was assigned to Fighting Squadron Three-B, attached consecutively to the USS Langley and USS Ranger. He continued service with that Squadron until June 1935, and thereafter until April 1937 had duty at the Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia. In June 1937, he joined the USS Huron, tender for aircraft detachment Asiatic Fleet, based at Cavite, Philippine Islands. He was detached from the Huron, and from January 1940 to September 1941 served at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. He was assigned to Fighting Squadron Seventy-Two, when war was declared on the Axis Powers on 8 December 1941, and in May 1942 he assumed command of that Squadron. Fighting Squadron Seventy-Two was assigned early in the war to the USS Wasp, and later transferred to the USS Ranger on Atlantic patrol. The Squadron returned to the United States, and after picking up new planes, departed for Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, where they were assigned to the USS Saratoga. Back to Pearl Harbor, they left there to join the ill-fated Hornet. She was sunk on 26 October 1942 by enemy air attack in the Battle of Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands. "...Flying in extremely adverse weather over an enemy protected harbor [he] coolly and methodically strafed Japanese patrol planes and destroyers lying at anchor in spite of vigorous anti-aircraft opposition ..." For this action he was awarded the Air Medal. He was also awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a Second Air Medal "for meritorious achievement...attached to the USS Hornet during the Battle of Santa Cruz...from October 15 to 26, 1942. Completing his fifth flight during this period, [he] contributed materially to the success of his squadron..." "For meritorious achievement...on October 26, 1942..." he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and cited in part as follows: "...Covering a striking group of our scout and torpedo bombers [he] led a division of fighters in a determined and daring attack on Japanese interceptor planes, thus enabling our planes to succeed in their attack mission against enemy heavy naval units including carriers and cruisers..." After the Hornet was sunk in October 1942, Fighting Squadron Seventy-Two, under his command, was based on the USS Enterprise, and later on smaller carriers, until February 1943. He is also entitled to the Ribbon for, and a facsimile of the Presidential Unit Citation awarded the First Marine Division, Reinforced, and to the facsimile and citation awarded the USS Enterprise. Upon his return to the United States he had duty from April 1943 to January 1944 as Training Officer of an advanced combat tactics training squadron at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Lee Field, Jacksonville, Florida. Following fitting out duty in the USS Rudyerd Bay at the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington, he joined her as Executive Officer upon her commissioning on 25 February 1944. Detached from that carrier escort in April 1944, he again had pre-commissioning duty at the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, in connection with the USS Thetis Bay. She was commissioned on 21 April 1944, and he reported aboard as Executive Officer. In November 1945, he transferred to the USS Intrepid, assuming command of that carrier in April 1946, with additional duty as Executive Officer. Detached from command of the Intrepid in October 1946, he served as Chief of the Aviation Ships Section in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington, D.C. He remained there until December 1949, at which time he reported as Commanding Officer of the USS Suisun. Ordered detached from that command, he was again in charge of the Aviation Ships Section in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, from December 1950 until March 1952. He then served on the staff of the Commander in Chief, US Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic Mediterranean. In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with Gold Star, and the Presidential Unit Citation with three stars (First Marine Division, Reinforced and the USS Enterprise), Captain Sanchez has the China Service Medal; the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp; the American Campaign Medal; the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal; the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal; the World War II Victory Medal; and the Navy Occupation Service Medal, Asia Clasp. Captain Sanchez retired in November 1959 and made Rear Admiral on the retired list. He passed away in 1978.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15242
__label__wiki	0.972304	0.972304	NFL certainly has changed, Michael Haynes says at HOF luncheon Sep 24, 2007 at 12:01 AM Sep 24, 2007 at 3:53 AM Michael Haynes’ credentials alone should give the former New England Patriot and Oakland Raider defensive back street cred. But times are different today, Haynes told the Pro Football Hall of Fame Luncheon Club during Monday’s meeting at Tozzi’s on 12th. He is enshrined in the Pro Football College Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. Michael Haynes’ credentials alone should give the former New England Patriot and Oakland Raider defensive back street cred. But times are different today, Haynes told the Pro Football Hall of Fame Luncheon Club during Monday’s meeting at Tozzi’s on 12th. When Haynes was a first-round draft pick in 1976, he said he got a $100,000 signing bonus. “I signed a three-year contract,” the nine-time Pro Bowler said. “My first year was $45,000, my last was $66,000. “That’s chump change now. First-rounders get $10 million signing bonuses, $2-3 million salaries.” Haynes spoke eloquently -- and without jealousy -- about his playing days and of his day job as the NFL’s vice president of player and employee development. “The challenges I have now are nothing like the challenges I had,” said Haynes, who deals with player conduct issues. “A guy’s wristwatch is more than I paid for my mom’s house. You really have to get a guy’s attention.” That isn’t easy. Haynes is 54, and most of today’s players are in their 20s. He said everybody is a product of their generation. Haynes talked about his college coach, Arizona State’s legendary tough man Frank Kush, and how you did it Kush’s way or hit the desert highway. “That doesn’t work anymore. Kids today want to collaborate, they want to meet and talk about situations,” he said. “They want to have a say in their decisions.” And when Haynes’ asks them about finishing college after football or continuing to work in the game? “They say, ‘Hey, old dude, I got it handled,’” Haynes said to much laughter. He said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is doing a good job of disciplining the troublemakers. Haynes also said that the league has proof that players who don’t finish college “are the guys who got in trouble off the field.” “But guys 21 don’t want to see a counselor,” Haynes said. “I like what (Goodell) is doing. He’s done a tremendous job adding to what we can do in our jobs.” Reach Canton Repository sports writer Jim Thomas at (330) 580-8336 or jim.thomas@cantonrep.com.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15243
__label__cc	0.652797	0.347203	Amanda Cantrell A manda Cantrell joins the Horizon team after five years in Alaska. She was most recently the Executive Director of Communications at an entertainment distribution company in Anchorage, but longed to go back into theatre. A past teacher for almost 10 years in Alaska, as well as her home state of Texas, Amanda has worked in all areas of the arts. In addition to teaching theatre, she previously worked for the Dallas Theater Center and the Dallas Children’s Theatre. Not content to do administration only, Amanda is also an actor, designer and director. Some of her favorite theatres to artistically work with include the Dallas Children’s Theatre, MBS Productions, Anchorage Community Theatre, and RKP Productions, to name a few. She holds an Associates in Acting from KD Conservatory, a B.S in Theatre, as well as a B.S. in Communications from Texas A&M-Commerce, and a M.S. in Human Relations and Business from Amberton University. One day, she aspires to finish the educational trek by receiving a PhD. MainStage Season 2019 The Wolves Sweet Water Taste The Curious Incident… Holiday Shows Madeline’s Christmas Waffle Palace Christmas	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15247
__label__cc	0.706505	0.293495	Hot Rod News The National Historic Vehicle Act Looks to Preserve America’s Automotive History Written by Phillip Thomas on September 25, 2016 Historic Vehicle Association - Photo; No other piece of technology has affected the American way of life more than the automobile — the very foundation of hot rodding. However, until recently, there’s been no official register of historically significant models in automotive history. Recently, Senator Gary Peters introduced S.3381, which looks to establish the National Historic Vehicle Act to preserve records of iconic automobiles. For decades, the Department of Interior has established national recognition of various buildings, bridges, ships and planes, and the NHVA looks to focus on recognizing key automobiles. The register seeks to hold engineering drawings, photographs, and stories of historical significances in the Library of Congress, and are selected based on meeting at least one of four criterias: Association with significant events Association with significant persons Design or construction value Information value such as first or last produced or among the best surviving example The register is privately-funded by the Historical Vehicle Association, and currently features 14 vehicles, including the first 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, the 1948 Tucker 48, the 1938 Buick Y-Job, and the 1964 Meyers Manx. “Few engineering innovations have had the same impact on American society as the automobile, and it is important for us to preserve the stories of vehicles that have played a critical role in American history,” said Senator Peters. “This legislation will ensure records of the historic vehicles will be available to inspire the next generation of automotive engineers and celebrate the accomplishments of the automotive industry that continues to be a vital part of our economy in Michigan and the United States. I am proud to work with the Historic Vehicle Association and the American Motorcyclist Association to support the preservation of America’s rich and unique automotive history.” The NHVA only seeks to document these automobiles, but does not put any restrictions on the owners of any registered vehicle. The NHVA wants to preserve the record of the vehicles, should any national treasure (or any final surviving example) be lost, future generations will be able to have history of past machines. SEE ALL 1 PHOTOS FROM THE ARTICLE 700887\|1 Related Tags History Legendary Track Owner and Drag Racing Promoter Ron Leek Dead Zach Martin - July 12, 2019 Free Tuition! 2019 HRIA Education Days at NSRA Louisville Nats John Gilbert - July 10, 2019 Ford GT MKII Unhinged and Unleashed on Goodwood FOS Zach Martin - July 5, 2019	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15249
__label__wiki	0.859859	0.859859	Crowdfunder launch for a very crisp idea A mock-up of the Stripes Crisps packets A graphic designer who began making crisps at home in his kitchen has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the £20,000 he needs to set up his business. Steve Cripps, 47, of New Mill, first came up with the idea with wife Nicki, who works in Sandwich Plus, last November after the pair had been to the pub. Now Steve, who also runs a graphic design business from home, wants to raise the cash so he can start making the first batch of Stripes Crisps, which he says are inspired by Walter Rothschild. The dad-of-two launched an online crowdfunding campaign at the weekend – with different ‘rewards’ for people who can pledge from as little as £10 – in the hope that he can raise £20,000 by April 22. Sponsors can receive vouchers, as well as have their name printed on the website and on the back of promotional beer mats. He said: “I think the hardest part for me has been trying to get the idea of crowdfunding across. “I’ve had people asking me where they can buy the crisps, but they’re not in production yet.” If they manage to raise the money, the Cripps’ family will launch with three flavours – salt and pepper, chilli con carne and chipotle habanero – to avoid spiralling production costs. Steve said: “£20,000 is a daunting sum, but hopefully once word gets around and we get a few businesses on board then it will snowball.” The family hope to be making their first batch of the snacks some time in May, using locally-sourced potatoes. Though Steve had hoped to make them at home, the cost of start-up equipment would have been around £300,000, so he has made the decision to take production out of Tring – but only for the time being. He said: “The dream would be to make them in Tring, but it’s early days.” For more info and to pledge, visit Steve’s crowdfunding page here.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15254
__label__wiki	0.501042	0.501042	Digging History Last Update September 25, 2017 Ancient inscription unearthed in Jerusalem, thrilling archaeologists The excavation of the mosaic near the Damascus gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. (Photo credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority) An ancient Greek inscription was found on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Byzantine emperor Justinian, who ruled in the 6th century A.D., is mentioned in the inscription, which was deciphered by Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It reads: “In the time of our most pious emperor Flavius Justinian, also this entire building Constantine the most God-loving priest and abbot, established and raised, in the 14th indiction.” EXPERTS UNCOVER EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT JERUSALEM'S DESTRUCTION BY THE BABYLONIANS In a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Dr. Di Segni explained that the inscription commemorates the building’s founding by a priest called Constantine. “Indiction,” she noted, is an ancient method of counting years that was used for taxation purposes. The mosaic has been dated to 550 or 551 A.D - experts believe that the room was used as a hostel for pilgrims. The floor was discovered this summer during preparations for laying communications cables near the Damascus Gate. “The fact that the inscription survived is an archaeological miracle,” said David Gellman, who directed the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Gellman noted that ancient remains at the site had been badly damaged by groundwork in recent decades. “We were about to close the excavation, when all of a sudden, a corner of the mosaic inscription peeked out between the pipes and cables. Amazingly, it had not been damaged.” RARE 2,000-YEAR-OLD STONE WORKSHOP AND QUARRY DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL’S GALILEE An important historical figure, Flavius Justinian was emperor when the later Roman empire completed its conversion to Christianity. He also established a large church in Jerusalem dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, known as The Nea Church, also known as The New Church. The church’s abbot was Constantine, whose name also appears on the mosaic floor near the Damascus Gate. Di Segni notes that the mosaic floor inscription is similar to an inscription found in the vaults of The Nea Church. "This new inscription helps us understand Justinian's building projects in Jerusalem, especially the Nea Church,” she wrote. “The rare combination of archaeological finds and historical sources, woven together, is incredible to witness, and they throw important light on Jerusalem's past." LOST ROMAN CITY THAT WAS HOME TO JESUS' APOSTLES FOUND, SAY ARCHAEOLOGISTS The ancient mosaic inscription has been removed from the site and is being treated at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s mosaic workshop in Jerusalem. The discovery is just the latest fascinating archaeological find in Jerusalem. Archaeologists excavating the City of David in Israel’s Jerusalem Walls National Park recently uncovered charred wood, grape seeds, pottery, fish scales and bones and numerous rare artifacts that date back to the city’s demise at the hands of the Babylonians more than 2,600 years ago.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15255
__label__wiki	0.968762	0.968762	Czechs reach Davis Cup semis; Swiss lose doubles foxsports Apr 5, 2014 at 5:16p ET LONDON (AP) The Czech Republic became the first team to reach the Davis Cup semifinals Saturday, while heavily favored Switzerland had another disappointing loss in the doubles and France kept alive its quarterfinal against Germany. The defending champion Czechs clinched an unassailable 3-0 lead over Japan after Radek Stepanek and Lukas Rosol comfortably beat Tatsuma Ito and Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles. That’s the only quarterfinal that has gone according to script so far, as Switzerland and France both find themselves down 2-1 going into the reverse singles on Sunday. Many expected Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka to have wrapped up Switzerland’s best-of-five series against Kazakhstan by now as well, but the former Olympic doubles champions were beaten 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6) by Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov. That came after Wawrinka lost his singles match to Golubev on Saturday, meaning there’s no more room for mistakes for the heavily favored Swiss. ”I’m actually very excited for tomorrow,” Federer said. ”We are still the favorites for each singles match tomorrow, but with no more margin for error and we’re aware of that.” Germany entered its quarterfinal without its top three players, but Tobias Kamke and Peter Gojowczyk surprisingly won their opening singles matches to give the visitors a 2-0 lead on Friday against France. However, Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra held their nerve to beat Andre Begemann and Kamke 6-1, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5 to stay in the series. ”We’re still alive. It was a great performance from Julien and Mika. It’s very hard to play when you’re 2-0 down because you have no room for error,” France captain Arnaud Clement said. ”They deserve it because they really pushed themselves.” In Sunday’s matches, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is scheduled to play Kamke, and Benneteau faces Gojowczyk. Andy Murray was the busiest player of the day as he first had to complete a 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Italy’s Andreas Seppi in their delayed singles match, before returning to the court to help Britain take a 2-1 lead with a win in the doubles. Murray and Colin Fleming beat Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 to boost Britain’s bid to reach the semifinals for the first time since 1981. Rain delays had interrupted play in Naples on Friday and Murray’s match was suspended because of darkness in the second set. Murray can secure the victory when he plays Fognini on Sunday. ”It should be a tough match,” Murray said. ”Fabio has played very well this year so it’ll be a great challenge. But I hope I can have a good match and get us to the semis.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15256
__label__cc	0.726036	0.273964	League of Nations Official Journal League of Nations Official Journal, Volume 13, pp. 279–282 (February 1932) Present Situation as regards International Engagements registered with the Secretariat of the League of Nations. 13leagueofnationsoj279-282.pdf League of Nations Official Journal, Volume 13, pp. 488–489 (March 1932) 3009. Free City of Danzig. Access to and Anchorage in the Port of Danzig for Polish War Vessels. 3010. Free City of Danzig. Use of the Port of Danzig by Poland. 3027. Free City of Danzig. Treatment of Polish Nationals and Other Persons of Polish Origin or Speech at Danzig. League of Nations Official Journal, Volume 13, pp. 1127–1128 (June 1932) Free City of Danzig. (C.412.M.227.1932.II.A.) [F.1066.] Seventh Report of the Trustee for the Municipality of Danzig 7% Mortgage Loan of 1925 covering the period from March 15th, 1931, to March 15th, 1932. 13leagueofnationsoj1127-1128.pdf II. Application of the Nansen Stamp System and Creation of National Committees for the Nansen Memorial Fund. Resolutions Adopted by the Assembly on September 25th, 1931. (C.L.269.1931.) League of Nations Official Journal, Volume 13, pp. 1171–1172 (July 1932) 3060. Free City of Danzig. Supervisory Authority (Aufsichtsbehörde) within the Meaning of the Danzig Railway Transport Laws. 3061. Free City of Danzig. Organisation of the Railways situated in the Territory of the Free City. 3062. Free City of Danzig. Personnel of Danzig Nationality in the Service of the Polish Railway Administration. 3064. Free City of Danzig. “Direct Action” in Customs Matters. 3080. Free City of Danzig. “Direct Action” in Customs Matters (continuation). League of Nations Official Journal, Volume 13, pp. 1942–1943 (December 1932) 3151. Free City of Danzig. Nomination of a High Commissioner. 3162. Free City of Danzig. Introduction of the Zloty as a Means of Payment on the Railways in the Territory of the Free City. Question of “Direct Action”. 3170. Free City of Danzig. Introduction of the Zloty as a Means of Payment on the Railways in the Territory of the Free City. Question of “Direct Action” (continuation). 3179. Nomination of the High Commissioner of the League of Nations at Danzig. League of Nations Official Journal, Volume 13, p. 1970 (December 1932) 3184. Free City of Danzig. Question of “Direct Action”. Appointment of a Committee of Three Members in accordance with the Decision taken by the Council on November 28th, 1932. 13leagueofnationsoj1970.pdf	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15257
__label__wiki	0.619778	0.619778	Published by the Church of Scientology International A Fire on the Cross Freedoms: Ill Wind Behind the Terror Deadly Spiral Children of the State The Hidden Hand of Violence Ca$hing In The Great Brain Injury Scam Human Rights and Freedoms Buying off the Drug Traffic Cop Revisiting the Jonestown tragedy The Great Waste A Fire on the Cross Echoes of the PastHistorical amnesia in Germany... In Support of Human Rights The Black and White of Justice Freedom of Speech at Risk in Cyberspace The Psychiatric Subversion of Justice The Story Behind the Controversy Page 1 \| 2 \| 3 \| 4 \| 5 \| 6 \| 7 \| 8 \| 9 \| 10 \| 11 \| 12 \| 13 \| 14 \| 15 \| 16 \| 17 \| 18 \| 19 \| 20 \| 21 \| 22 \| 23 \| 24 \| 25 \| 26 \| 27 \| 28 \| 29 \| 30 \| In recent years, the Church of Scientology has published a series of publications to make itself known, provide information about its activities, and clear up any misconceptions about the Scientology religion. One of these is the definitive reference work on Scientology: What Is Scientology?, an 833-page work that describes the philosophy and beliefs, catechism, creeds and codes, services and scriptures of the Scientology religion. The book came about because of strong public interest in the Scientology religion and the Church and the need for accurate and complete information. Thousands of hours of research went into this comprehensive volume that gives a full description of Scientology and its activities. You can purchase your own copy of What Is Scientology?, the encyclopedic reference on Scientology, in either hardback or softcover, by writing to the Church of Scientology International, 6331 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90028-6329. Complimentary copies are available to religious leaders, government officials and members of the news media. \| Previous \| Scientology Glossary \| Contents \| Next \| \| Your view \| Scientology Related Sites \| Bookstore \| Church of Scientology Freedom Magazine \| editor@freedommag.org © 1999-2008 Church of Scientology International. All Rights Reserved. For Trademark Information on Scientology Services.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15259
__label__cc	0.742537	0.257463	Part of Wellness. ©2019 Verizon Media. All rights reserved. How Do You Know If Your Therapist Is Helping You? It's not always clear to patients what to ask a potential psychotherapist and how to know if he or she is any good. It's also hard to know if it's working. Most people find it easier to assess the skill of a medical practitioner. ByMichael Bader, D.M.H., Contributor Psychologist and psychoanalyst in San Francisco 09/30/2013 06:24pm EDT \| Updated November 30, 2013 A neighbor of mine recently consulted a psychotherapist for help with depression. Her internist had put her on an anti-depressant and referred her to a psychotherapist. She had just come from her first session. She asked me questions that many people have when beginning therapy (or even when they've been there for a while): What's supposed to happen, she asked? We talked and she asked me a lot of questions, including some about my childhood. The therapist told me the name of her approach, what she called her "orientation," and had diplomas on her wall, but does any of that really matter? It's not always clear to patients what to ask a potential psychotherapist and how to know if he or she is any good. It's also hard to know if it's working. Most people find it easier to assess the skill of a medical practitioner. Although by no means always reliable, the medical school and residency where your medical doctor or surgeon trained is sometimes significant. Sometimes he or she might be mentioned as one of the "100 Best Doctors" in a magazine (although such lists are rather suspect). The intelligence, interest, and care that your doctor communicates are all usually apparent right away and, most of all, his or her treatment recommendations either help you feel better or they don't. Their interventions relieve you of your symptoms, cure your illness, or the practitioner offers a good explanation as to why not. There are exceptions to all of these considerations, but, in general, there are some obvious guideposts in assessing traditional medical care. But are the same things relevant to assessing your therapist? For example, psychiatrists (practitioners with M.D.s), clinical psychologists (Ph.D.s), clinical social workers (LCSWs), marriage and family therapists (MFTs) all offer some form of psychological therapy. In addition, there are counselors of various kinds and "life coaches" that, for all intents and purposes, talk to and help clients in ways that are often similar to traditional "psychotherapy." Obviously, this proliferation of degrees and training doesn't mean that there aren't important professional differences and boundaries. For example, only clinical psychologists are trained to administer and interpret many psychological tests. And almost all therapy of the sort I'm describing involves talking and not touching (although there are powerful approaches to healing that do involve work with the body, but that's outside the scope of this blog). With the exceptions already mentioned involving medications and testing, the fact of the matter is that degrees matter very little in "vetting" the ability of a therapist. I've known MFTs who are much better therapists than those with Ph.D.s. I've known coaches who have helped heal someone's suffering every bit as thoroughly as a licensed clinical social worker. In the therapy world, each degree-based "professional" likes to sell him or herself as unique, but my experience has taught me that the letters after someone's name and the plaques on his or her wall are rarely the most important consideration in choosing a professional to help you with your psychological suffering. Finally, there seems to be a wider range of individual differences in the effectiveness of practitioners within each of these so-called specialties than there is between professions and certainly more variation that one usually sees within medical specialties. Our field, then, is a veritable Tower of Babel of degrees, approaches, and specialties. Add to this the aforementioned chasm of individual skill and experience levels within each category, and the consumer is often left confused. To make matters worse, when that consumer doesn't feel any better either in the short or long run, there is a natural but insidious tendency for him or her to feel responsible. Such a person's original self-doubts and pessimism are reinforced. Self-blame is often the terrible price paid for failed treatments. Demoralization can result. So, what can one do? Bearing in mind that there are exceptions to every rule and that, when it comes to the human mind and heart, few generalizations are 100 percent reliable, here are some guidelines for someone seeking psychotherapeutic help: 1) Trust your gut. After a few sessions, you may not feel "better" or "cured," but you should be feeling more optimistic, relatively understood, and have an intuitive sense that you and your therapist are on the right track. If you do, stay the course. If these feelings are clearly lacking, don't continue and, instead, get a referral to someone else. If you're not sure, then go back and raise your doubts and uncertainties about the process directly with your therapist. A good therapist will often respond to such doubts in a smart and empathic manner, enough to immediately reassure you that he or she "gets it" and is worth some further investment. On the other hand, some therapists will respond in ways that are defensive or subtly blame you for whatever doubts you are voicing. You'll feel worse. That's a clue that the relationship is probably not going to work. 2) Nothing that I've just said should imply that therapy isn't sometimes hard, even very hard. Digging into what ails you isn't much fun. Giving up old assumptions, addictions or familiar defenses can unleash painful feelings. Feeling pain isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you can see where it comes from and how experiencing it might help you eventually get better. For example, you might leave a therapy session feeling lousy, not because your therapist didn't understand you but because she or he did. The therapist's empathy helped you experience something important. My view is that a patient can usually differentiate between feeling something painful more deeply as a result of insight and empathy and feeling bad because a therapist just didn't "get it." 3) Good psychotherapy usually involves acquiring a deeper understanding of how your mind and heart work and something about the reasons that you're suffering. But therapy isn't an intellectual exercise. You have to feel understood and you have to feel that there's a connection between what you're learning about yourself and the suffering that brought you into therapy to begin with. In other words, insight is usually a core part of any good therapy, but not for its own sake. In a good therapy, you will have a gut feeling about how self-exploration will help you with what ails you. 4) Good therapists don't have to be right and shouldn't act like they do. We understandably endow therapist with authority in the same way we do anyone upon whose expertise we depend, but an expert who always has to have the answer, can't admit mistakes or change his or her mind in response to what a patient is saying, is not someone you'd want to entrust with your care. 5) Good therapists can explain not only how their approach can potentially help you feel better but can periodically and non-defensively review with you the progress -- or lack thereof -- of your treatment. It's your treatment. Your therapist isn't using a secret decoder ring to plan and plot it all out. Good therapists are comfortable with honest and transparent conversations about your progress and, if its stuck or lacking, are open to trying different approaches or taking different tacks. Problematic therapists are covertly defensive, always throwing the question of progress back in your lap and, therefore, appearing to avoid their responsibility for at least half of what's going on. Unfortunately, there are many people practicing the psychological healing arts who are poorly trained or unable to empathically tailor their approach to the particular personalities and difficulties of their clients. Given the degree to which people who are suffering from emotional problems are often self-blaming, suspicious of their own judgment, and struggling with a secret belief that they are doomed, it's easy to see the potential for damage in any therapeutic dyad. Patients have to be encouraged and taught how to judge the abilities of their therapists and the value of the therapeutic outcomes that result. healthy livingpsychiatrytherapisttherapiststherapy Michael Bader, D.M.H., Contributor MORE IN Wellness 6 Very Good Reasons To Take A Mental Health Day Netflix Deletes ’13 Reasons Why’ Suicide Scene After Criticism From Experts Subscribe to HuffPost’s wellness email The essential guide to taking care of your mind and body.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15263
__label__wiki	0.935138	0.935138	Reparations Hearing Tests Whether Congress Can Confront History Republicans say it's time to move on from the "original sin" of slavery, even though its ill effects have lingered. By Arthur Delaney WASHINGTON — As a House committee prepared to hold a hearing on reparations for African Americans on Wednesday, the top Republican on Capitol Hill demonstrated why the hearing might be a good idea. “I don’t think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday. “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation,” McConnell went on. “We’ve elected an African American president.” McConnell spoke as if the abolition of slavery in 1865 resulted in an ongoing series of good things for African Americans, culminating in the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. But that’s not what happened. Freed slaves and their descendants were subjected to re-enslavement, terrorism and disenfranchisement. In the 20th century, they were initially excluded from programs such as Social Security retirement insurance and welfare. Federal policy segregated schools and neighborhoods, and unequal treatment by mortgage lenders has continued right through to today. The disparate treatment has resulted in dramatically worse economic circumstances for African Americans, including less household wealth and a consistently higher unemployment rate that cannot be explained away by differences in education or occupation. The hearing this week is not even about whether the U.S. ought to pay reparations. It’s about whether to pass a bill that would create a commission to study how reparations could be paid. Appointing a commission instead of taking decisive action is one of the most cautious things lawmakers can do. (And they do it often, having set up more than 100 commissions over the past three decades.) McConnell also said it would be “pretty hard to figure out who to compensate” ― but that’s another reason for an officially sanctioned expert panel to study the problem and suggest solutions. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties hearing is on H.R. 40, a bill that former Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced in every Congress for years. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) introduced the current version. The bill would task the commission with studying U.S. slavery itself, as well as subsequent “laws that discriminated against formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants who were deemed United States citizens from 1868 to the present,” and what form of compensation “should be awarded, through what instrumentalities and who should be eligible for such compensation.” The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), said that while slavery was horrific, it had been perpetrated by a “small subset of Americans from many generations ago,” and that many of today’s white Americans descended from immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after abolition. He also said reparations would be unconstitutional and overly divisive. “Many people of good conscious believe they will distract from the many persistent causes of racial disparities,” Johnson said. He added that passing the resolution to study reparations would be contrary to ideals of self-reliance that Johnson said had been articulated by black leaders in the past. “Would it propagate a worldview that says external forces from a century and a-half ago are directing the fate of black Americans today?” Johnson said. “It’s an honest question that some people ask.” One of the committee’s witnesses, the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates ― whose 2014 essay on reparations drew much wider attention to H.R. 40 ― said McConnell’s claim that nobody currently alive has had anything to do with slavery “proffers a strange theory of governance that American accounts are somehow bound by the lifetime of its generations.” Coates noted that the U.S. still paid a Civil War veteran’s pension well into the 21st century, and that the U.S. still honors treaties signed by no currently living person. And he noted that McConnell himself was alive for many of the sorts of events that the reparations commission would evaluate. “Majority Leader McConnell cited civil rights legislation yesterday, as well he should because he was alive to witness the harassment, jailing and betrayal of those responsible for that legislation by a government sworn to protect them,” Coates said. This story has been updated to included quotes from Ta-Nehisi Coates. Please check back for more updates. Arthur Delaney Politics and Government Barack Obama Mitch McConnell Government United States Congress	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15264
__label__wiki	0.826949	0.826949	August 14, 20144:26 pm 0 Comments Outfoxed on Michigan Wolves There’s been a fight in many states over how to manage the resurgent wolf populations. The gray wolf, which was once hunted to near extinction, has through the past few decades made a substantial recovery and is no longer endangered in certain areas of the US. That has led some states to propose different management plans, because wolves can, for example, kill animals on ranches. Michigan planned to have a limited wolf hunting season to help manage the population of the predator. But this was reflexively opposed by HSUS, an organization that is against hunting—its CEO has even spoken against hunting for food. What’s happened since has been a bit of gamesmanship. Essentially, the Michigan legislature allowed for the hunting of wolves (there are estimated to be 600 in the Upper Peninsula) after the delisting of the animals. HSUS tried to start a ballot measure to overturn this law. Then, the legislature passed a second law to neutralize this HSUS initiative. HSUS then started a second initiative to overturn this law. Then, hunting and conservation advocates started their own initiative, proposing a law that would neutralize the second HSUS ballot measure. They turned in about 300,000 signatures last month, and the initiative was sent to the legislature for consideration. (The legislature has 40 days to either approve the bill or put it on the ballot.) Yesterday, the Michigan Senate approved the measure, and the House is expected to do so within two weeks. In other words, HSUS’s two initiative drives will be pointless. HSUS will have been outmaneuvered. And how much money has HSUS spent? HSUS has spent over $1 million itself, and its legislative arm has poured another $1 million-plus into the measure, according to campaign finance records. That’s close to 80% of the money raised by the campaign committee. Keep in mind that the state of Michigan only authorized 43 wolves to be taken last year, and only 22 were harvested. So that works out to around $100,000 per wolf. That’s a pretty big waste of money to oppose a hunt that was set up by the state’s conservation agency—wildlife experts who know what they’re doing. That’s $2 million that could have gone towards helping needy cats and dogs find homes. Instead, a significant opportunity was lost.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15266
__label__cc	0.668872	0.331128	By Julia Johnson To truly make a difference and bring forth change, one must first own their truth and be willing to take a stand. I have always prided myself on being willing to speak out and to stand up for those who had no voice or were so shrouded in darkness that their voices were lost to their inner demons. I have always been careful to keep certain aspects of my life neatly stashed away deep within myself. To allow them even a moment's thought could cause a backdraft of emotions that I always feared would devour me like fire to gasoline.- soaked wood. After watching the Kavanaugh hearings and the fallout, I felt that perhaps there were things that needed to be said. As you continue reading, know that it is my sincerest hope that hearts and minds are opened, understanding is found, and that the compassion and kindness can grow where resentment and hatefulness currently reigns. She was a 9-year-old little girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She was raised to be a trusting child and came from a typical family of the 1970's. Back then, children did as they were told, went where their parents told them to, and above all, never spoke out of turn or against an elder under any circumstances. Like any other child there were sleepovers with family members, and friends of the family. One weekend she got the privilege of staying the night with her mother's best friend and her family. She was so excited as her brother and sister had already gotten to go and now it was her turn. The little girl packed her overnight bag, put on one of her best outfits, grabbed her favorite stuffed animal and waited to be picked up. Upon arrival, she was told that her mother's friend had a previous engagement but that her husband would handle dinner and there would be cookie-making and games. However, despite the promises of fun, the climate of the evening would take a dramatic turn once the lady of the house left for the night. Though dinner would indeed happen, other festivities would be replaced with tears, threats, and pleads to go home. You see, that night that little girl was sexually assaulted by a trusted family friend. She would arrive a happy, healthy child and leave a shattered shell of her once vivacious self full of shame, fear, and self-loathing. Her innocence had been stolen and from that moment on, she would be forever changed. The weeks, months, and years that followed would be full of emotional turmoil and an inability to form relationships on the most basic level. Trust would be non-existent and she would struggle with thoughts of suicide throughout her teen years. It would not be until her late 20's when she sought therapy to deal with the trauma of it all, that she would realize that it was not her fault and she would mourn the loss of her 9-year-old self. For 21 years, I, like so many others, carried the blame of what happened to me. You see, sexual assault and those who commit it do not discriminate. It happens to women, children, and men. In most instances, it is about the expression of power rather than the sexual act itself. When someone asks “why didn't you come forward?” the answer is never simple. First, there is the initial trauma. Just dealing with what happened can be so overwhelming that a victim will recluse far within themselves. Victims sustain emotional trauma that can be so inhibiting, that their mind's only means of dealing is disassociation. In many cases, it becomes a coping mechanism. Second, the stigma that goes along with a sexual assault can be all-encompassing. Let us not pretend that many victims aren't treated as criminals because they are. The questioning, the second-guessing by others of what they were wearing, if they were drinking, how they behaved, who they were with, and even their past comes into play. As if saying no were canceled out because of the length of their dress, an innocent look, or the tightness of one's jeans. Far too many cases are handled with an underlying tone of how did the victim instigate the assault, rather than when, where, and how they were assaulted. For most men that I have spoken with, it has to do with the fact that their masculinity comes into question in whether or not they should report sexual assault. Simply put, they were raised to believe that sexual assault doesn't happen to men. The fact is one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped in their lifetime while one in three women and one in six men will experience sexual violence. By the age of 18, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually assaulted. So here is a thought: despite where you stand on the political spectrum, your gender, color, or sexual orientation, acknowledge that sexual assault is real and that there are many reasons why we as individuals do not report it. Acknowledge that unless you have walked in the shoes of a victim, you can never truly understand the path we walk to healing. Know that just like that 9-year-old little girl I used to be, we were already cast in the leading role of someones play for power and have no desire to watch fellow victims be attacked and dismissed for the sake of political gain or votes. If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault please reach out to the Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Center at 335 N. Washington Ste 240 in Hutchinson, KS 67501 or call 620-665-3630. You can also call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Remember, you are not alone. Julia Johnson is a social and political activist. She is a longtime resident of Hutchinson.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15267
__label__wiki	0.954995	0.954995	IdentityForce Named as Finalist in 2017 Stevie® Awards for Customer Service Identity Theft Protection Announcements Product Updates and ID Theft Protection Press Releases EZShield® and IdentityForce® Combine Under New Parent Company: Sontiq™ Sontiq™ Wins People’s Choice Stevie® Award In 2019 American Business Awards℠ 95% Customer Satisfaction Rating and 98% Member Retention Underscores IdentityForce’s Commitment to Keep all People Safe from Identity Theft IdentityForce, Inc., a pioneer of identity protection solutions and services, today announced it has been named a finalist in the Customer Service Department of the Year category in the 11th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Specifically, IdentityForce’s Customer Support Team is being recognized for delivering top-tier service to its members by rapidly addressing identity protection concerns and mitigating issues, which may include members who are victims of identity theft that require restoration services. IdentityForce has a 100 percent recovery success rate. The company is also a nominee for the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Customer Service. “We are honored to be recognized as a finalist by the Stevie Awards for Customer Service,” said Steven Bearak, CEO of IdentityForce. “There’s nothing more important to us than providing world-class customer service to all people. We realize they are trusting us to protect their personal information and the identities of their children, spouses or partners, and senior family members. Our members’ identity protection is very personal to us and we’re proud of the work we do every day to protect what matters most.” IdentityForce’s customer-centric approach is at the core of how the company, with its decades of experience in personal security and protection, continues to garner recognition from the industry and its members. The company continues to maintain an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, is only one of two Tier-One Identity Protection providers to the U.S. government, and is the current gold standard for the best Identity Theft Protection Service on TopTenReviews. IdentityForce’s record revenues from 2016 can also be attributed to its 95 percent customer satisfaction rating and 98 percent member retention. More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year’s competition, an increase of 10% over 2016. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 77 professionals worldwide acting as preliminary judges. Stevie Award winners will be announced at the gala banquet at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada on Feb. 24. About The Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com. About IdentityForce For nearly 40 years, IdentityForce, Inc. has provided best-in-class, highly scalable, award-winning identity theft, privacy and credit protection solutions to consumers, businesses, and government agencies. A pioneer of identity protection, IdentityForce’s innovation and customer-centric approach has made the company a trusted partner for both organizations and individuals. IdentityForce also provides custom-tailored programs to organizations enabling them to build closer relationships and additional revenue streams. In 2015, the U.S. government awarded IdentityForce elite Tier One status as an approved provider of identity protection services for data breaches affecting over 21.5 million people. IdentityForce is the only identity protection provider awarded the Parent Tested Parent Approved Seal. Follow IdentityForce on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, engage with us on LinkedIn, and join us on Google+. Learn more at www.identityforce.com. We’re committed to educating, informing, and empowering you with the most relevant, up-to-date industry information. You’ll find the latest identity theft news articles, feature stories, contributed content, interviews, and more to stay in the know. ATTN Press \| Please direct inquiries to media@identityforce.com.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15271
__label__wiki	0.56416	0.56416	Retirement Savings Accounts Retirement Planning IRA Is Berkshire Hathaway Suitable for an IRA? (BRK.B, BRK.A) By David Dierking Updated Nov 8, 2018 Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (NYSE: BRK.B) is a conglomerate holding company that is best known for its iconic chief executive officer, Warren Buffett. Otherwise known as "The Oracle of Omaha," Buffett has been building the company for more than five decades and is one of the wealthiest people in the world with a net worth of more than $87 billion in 2018, according to the annual Forbes list of the richest individuals. Berkshire Hathaway started as a textile manufacturing firm in which Buffett began acquiring shares early in his career. By 1965, he had taken control of the company outright. He soon began exiting the textile mill business and adding businesses from other industries including insurance, retail and media to Berkshire's overall portfolio. Berkshire has continued acquiring stakes in financial services, utilities and manufacturing. His company had a market capitalization of just under $546 billion as of Nov. 2018. Along the way, Buffett has built a reputation as one of history's greatest investors, which makes Berkshire Hathaway stock coveted by other investors. The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Berkshire Hathaway is not a traditional company. It is a conglomerate of many different companies and exists only as a collection of stakes in publicly traded companies. Changes made by Buffett in the Berkshire portfolio often move the stock prices of the companies traded and get significant media coverage. The portfolio's top four holdings in 2018 included Wells Fargo, Apple, Bank of America and Coca-Cola. The big stake in Apple was of particular interest to Buffett-watchers because he has been notoriously averse to investing in technology stocks. Other major holdings in 2018 included American Express, Phillips 66 and U.S. Bancorp. Seven of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings represent stakes of 10% or more in the company. Warren Buffett's Management Style Buffett is a long-term, buy-and-hold investor focused on value. He has long been known to focus his investments on companies that he knows. As such, he tends to avoid higher risk momentum names. His preference is for well-established, slower-growth businesses. Buffett typically makes investments with plans to hold them for at least 10 years. One of his more popular quotes is “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.” One of his more recent transactions, the purchase of Precision Castparts for $235 per share in cash in 2015, diverged slightly from Buffett's traditional investment style. The company is typical of the type of businesses Buffett tends to favor. However, Berkshire paid a 21% premium per share to buy it, departing from Buffett's preference for good value in his trades. Berkshire Hathaway's Performance Buffett's investment style and choices make for a conservative portfolio overall, with less than average volatility. The principle of risk and return suggests stocks with lower risk levels also provide lower return potential. While Berkshire Hathaway essentially matched the S&P 500's performance over the five-year period ending Nov. 7, 2018, Berkshire significantly outperformed the benchmark index over the 10- and 20-year time horizons. This performance demonstrates Buffett has been able to deliver above-average returns at below-average risk over the long term. Income investors likely find the lack of a dividend yield as one of the only drawbacks of investing in Berkshire Hathaway stock. Berkshire has only paid a dividend once in 1967 and has not paid one since. For those considering Berkshire Hathaway as an individual retirement account (IRA) holding, this is less of a concern, as withdrawals from IRA accounts are generally not permitted until the individual reaches age 59.5. The Two Share Price Classes One of the most unusual features of Berkshire Hathaway stock is its stock price. It never splits. On Nov. 7, 2018, Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares (NYSE: BRK.A) closed at $331,135 per share. This puts even a single share purchase out of reach of many investors. Buffett has made it clear that he prefers to attract long-term investors as opposed to traders. In 1996, Buffett partially conceded, issuing a Class B block of shares to make his company more accessible. These shares made a 50-for-1 stock split in January 2010 and trade at $212 per share as of Nov. 7, 2018. There is essentially no difference in these shares outside of the stock price. Trading flexibility is the primary advantage of Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares. Does Berkshire Hathaway Fit in an IRA Account? The portfolio's composition of well-established mature businesses that can operate successfully in most market environments makes Berkshire Hathaway an investment that is appropriate for most IRA accounts. Buffett's style of investing for the long-term aligns well with the long-term nature of IRA accounts. Younger investors can use the stock as a core long-term holding for growing portfolios. Retirees will likely maintain a lower equity allocation in their portfolios overall with capital preservation being a primary consideration. However, equities are still needed in these portfolios to help stay ahead of inflation, and Berkshire Hathaway can be an ideal choice to fill out that part of the portfolio. For most investors, the Class B shares are the only option when looking to add Berkshire Hathaway to an IRA. Generally, the maximum annual contribution to an IRA is $5,500 in 2015, although people who are 50 and older can contribute an additional $1,000. This means the Class A shares and their price of over $200,000 are not an option unless the investor has built up a sizable portfolio. The Class B shares are within the reach of all investors. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that contain broadly diversified portfolios of well-established, large-cap names are often recommended as core retirement portfolio holdings. Buying shares of Berkshire Hathaway is akin to buying shares of a large-cap value mutual fund. Therefore, Class B shares make an ideal holding in retirement portfolios. Where Does Warren Buffett Keep His Money? Berkshire Hathaway Stock Prices Top Four Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway How Warren Buffett Made Berkshire Hathaway Successful Investments Warren Buffett Passed On (GOOGL, XRX) Risks and Rewards of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) The Difference Between Berkshire Hathaway's Class A and Class B Shares Price is the primary difference between Berkshire Hathaway's Class A stock and Class B stock, but there are other distinctions. How Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett Consistently Beat the Market Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company for a multitude of businesses, run by chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. Mutual Fund Definition A mutual fund is defined as a type of investment vehicle consisting of a portfolio of stocks, bonds or other securities, which is overseen by a professional money manager. Long a favored choice for retail investors, mutual funds have both advantages and disadvantages compared to other asset classes. The Oracle Of Omaha The Oracle of Omaha is a nickname for Warren Buffett, who is arguably one of the greatest investors of all time. Baby Berkshire Baby Berkshire is the 50:1 stock split after the market closed on January 20th, 2010, by Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares. Holdings are the securities held within the portfolio of a mutual fund, hedge fund, pension fund or any other fund type.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15275
__label__cc	0.709932	0.290068	Home > Baby > Baby Shower Invitations > Blue Carpet Baby Shower Blue Carpet Baby Shower IC-RLP-140 ships in 3 - 5 days Size: 5.25 X 7.75 inches. Your baby is a star! This adorable blue and lime invitation features a light blue carpet with a stroller in lights at the end. A banner hanging above reads 'It's a Baby Shower'. The wording in the banner will be printed as shown. Matching reception, respond, informal/thank you cards, and envelope seals are available. Invitations & Envelopes Select Quantity 0 - $0.00 10 - $29.00 15 - $32.00 20 - $34.00 25 - $41.00 30 - $49.00 35 - $56.00 40 - $63.00 45 - $68.00 50 - $72.00 55 - $75.00 60 - $81.00 65 - $87.00 70 - $93.00 75 - $99.00 80 - $105.00 85 - $111.00 90 - $117.00 95 - $123.00 100 - $129.00 105 - $135.00 110 - $141.00 115 - $147.00 120 - $153.00 125 - $159.00 130 - $165.00 135 - $171.00 140 - $177.00 145 - $183.00 150 - $189.00 155 - $195.00 160 - $201.00 165 - $207.00 170 - $213.00 175 - $219.00 180 - $225.00 185 - $231.00 190 - $237.00 195 - $243.00 200 - $249.00 205 - $255.00 210 - $261.00 215 - $267.00 220 - $273.00 225 - $279.00 230 - $285.00 235 - $291.00 240 - $297.00 245 - $303.00 250 - $309.00 255 - $315.00 260 - $321.00 265 - $327.00 270 - $333.00 275 - $339.00 280 - $345.00 285 - $351.00 290 - $357.00 295 - $363.00 300 - $369.00 325 - $399.00 350 - $429.00 375 - $459.00 400 - $489.00 425 - $519.00 450 - $549.00 475 - $579.00 500 - $609.00 525 - $639.00 550 - $669.00 575 - $699.00 600 - $729.00 625 - $759.00 650 - $789.00 675 - $819.00 700 - $849.00 725 - $879.00 750 - $909.00 775 - $939.00 800 - $969.00 825 - $999.00 850 - $1,029.00 875 - $1,059.00 900 - $1,089.00 925 - $1,119.00 950 - $1,149.00 975 - $1,179.00 1000 - $1,209.00 1100 - $1,329.00 1200 - $1,449.00 1300 - $1,569.00 1400 - $1,689.00 1500 - $1,809.00 1600 - $1,929.00 1700 - $2,049.00 1800 - $2,169.00 1900 - $2,289.00 2000 - $2,409.00 2100 - $2,529.00 2200 - $2,649.00 2300 - $2,769.00 2400 - $2,889.00 2500 - $3,009.00 2600 - $3,129.00 2700 - $3,249.00 2800 - $3,369.00 2900 - $3,489.00 3000 - $3,609.00 3100 - $3,729.00 3200 - $3,849.00 3300 - $3,969.00 3400 - $4,089.00 3500 - $4,209.00 3600 - $4,329.00 3700 - $4,449.00 3800 - $4,569.00 3900 - $4,689.00 4000 - $4,809.00 4100 - $4,929.00 4200 - $5,049.00 4300 - $5,169.00 4400 - $5,289.00 4500 - $5,409.00 4600 - $5,529.00 4700 - $5,649.00 4800 - $5,769.00 4900 - $5,889.00 5000 - $6,009.00 5100 - $6,129.00 5200 - $6,249.00 5300 - $6,369.00 5400 - $6,489.00 5500 - $6,609.00 5600 - $6,729.00 5700 - $6,849.00 5800 - $6,969.00 5900 - $7,089.00 6000 - $7,209.00 6100 - $7,329.00 6200 - $7,449.00 6300 - $7,569.00 6400 - $7,689.00 6500 - $7,809.00 6600 - $7,929.00 6700 - $8,049.00 6800 - $8,169.00 6900 - $8,289.00 7000 - $8,409.00 7100 - $8,529.00 7200 - $8,649.00 7300 - $8,769.00 7400 - $8,889.00 7500 - $9,009.00 7600 - $9,129.00 7700 - $9,249.00 7800 - $9,369.00 7900 - $9,489.00 8000 - $9,609.00 8100 - $9,729.00 8200 - $9,849.00 8300 - $9,969.00 8400 - $10,089.00 8500 - $10,209.00 8600 - $10,329.00 8700 - $10,449.00 8800 - $10,569.00 8900 - $10,689.00 9000 - $10,809.00 9100 - $10,929.00 9200 - $11,049.00 9300 - $11,169.00 9400 - $11,289.00 9500 - $11,409.00 9600 - $11,529.00 9700 - $11,649.00 9800 - $11,769.00 9900 - $11,889.00 Hand Lined Envelopes Select Lining Aqua (add $10.00) Black (add $10.00) Blue (add $10.00) Brown (add $10.00) Clover (add $10.00) Fuchsia (add $10.00) Olive (add $10.00) Orange (add $10.00) Pink (add $10.00) Purple (add $10.00) Red (add $10.00) Sage (add $10.00) SoftBlue (add $10.00) Spice (add $10.00) Yellow (add $10.00) Rounded Corners No Yes - add 20Â¢ ea. Coordinating Envelope Seals Rounded Corners: available Outer Envelopes: 5.5 x 8.125 inches Inner Envelopes: available Flap: Square with rounded corners Modern Mom Baby Shower Baby Boy Shower	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15276
__label__wiki	0.934472	0.934472	Hippodrome of Constantinople The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Sultanahmet Meydani) was a horse-racing track that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire and the largest city in Europe. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydani in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving. The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos ('ιππος), horse, and dromos (δρομος), path or way. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras. History and use Although the Hippodrome is usually associated with Constantinople's days of glory as an imperial capital, it actually predates that era. The first Hippodrome was built when the city was called Byzantium (Βυζαντιον, or Byzantion in Greek), and was a provincial town of moderate importance. In 203 the Emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt the city and expanded its walls, endowing it with a hippodrome, an arena for chariot races and other entertainments. In 324, the Emperor Constantine decided to move the seat of the government from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Nova Roma (New Rome). This name failed to impress and the city soon became known as Constantinople, the City of Constantine. Constantine greatly enlarged the city, and one of his major undertakings was the renovation of the Hippodrome. It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 450 metres long and 130 metres wide. Its stands were capable of holding 100,000 spectators. The race-track at the Hippodrome was U-shaped, and the Emperor's box, with four bronze statues of horses on its roof, was located at the eastern end of the track. These horses, whose exact Greek or Roman ancestry has never been determined, were looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and installed on the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice. The track was lined with other bronze statues of famous horses and chariot drivers, none of which survives. Throughout the Byzantine period, the Hippodrome was the centre of the city's social life. Huge amounts were bet on chariot races, and the whole city was divided between fans of the Blue (Venetii) and Green (Prasinoi) chariot racing teams. The two other racing teams, the Reds (Rousioi) and the Whites (Leukoi), gradually weakened and were absorbed by the two major factions. The rivalry between Blues and Greens often became mingled with political or religious rivalries, and sometimes riots, which amounted to civil wars, broke out in the city between them. The most severe of these was the Nika riots of 532, in which 30,000 people were said to have been killed. Constantinople never really recovered from its sack during the Fourth Crusade and even though the Byzantine Empire survived until 1453, the Hippodrome was not rebuilt and did not regain its former glory. The Ottoman Turks, who captured the city in 1453 and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire, were not interested in racing and the Hippodrome was gradually forgotten, although the site was never actually built over. Hippodrome monuments To raise the image of his new capital, Constantine and his successors brought works of art from all over the empire to adorn it. Among these was the Tripod of Plataea, cast to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the Persian Wars in the 5th century BC. Constantine ordered the Tripod to be moved from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and set in middle of the Hippodrome. Most of it was destroyed or stolen when the city was sacked during the Fourth Crusade. All that remains today is part of the base, known as the "Serpentine Column." Another Emperor to adorn the Hippodrome was Theodosius, who in 390 brought an obelisk from Egypt and erected it inside the racing track. Carved from pink granite, it was originally erected at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor during the reign of Tuthmosis III in about 1490 BC. Theodosius had the obelisk cut into three pieces and brought to Constantinople. Only the top section survives, and it stands today where Theodosius placed it, on a marble pedestal. The obelisk has survived nearly 3,500 years in astonishingly good condition. In the 10th century the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus built another obelisk at the other end of the Hippodrome. It was originally covered with gilded bronze plaques, but these were stolen during the Fourth Crusade. The stone core of this monument also survives, known as the Walled Obelisk. The Hippodrome today Today the area is officially called Sultan Ahmet Square, and is carefully maintained by the Turkish authorities. The course of the old racetrack has been indicated with paving, although the actual track is some two metres below the present surface. The surviving monuments of the spina (the middle barrier of the racecourse), the two obelisks and the Serpentine Column, now sit in holes in a landscaped garden. The German Fountain ("The Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain"), an octagonal domed fountain in neo-byzantine style, which was constructed by German Government in 1900 for German Emperor Wilhelm II's visit to Istanbul in 1898, is located at the north entrance to the Hippodrome area right in front of the Blue Mosque. The Hippodrome has never been systematically excavated by archaeologists. A portion of the substructures of the sphendone (the curved end) became more visible in the 1980s with the clearing of houses in the area. In 1993 an area in front of the nearby Sultanahmet Mosque (the Blue Mosque) was bulldozed in order to install a new toilet, uncovering several rows of seats and some columns from the Hippodrome. Investigation did not continue further, but the seats and columns were removed and can now be seen in Istanbul's museums. It is possible that much more of the Hippodrome's remains still lie beneath the parkland of Sultanahmet. Hippodrome of Constantinople Images Galleries Membership of European Union 2009 Hagia Sohipa History Mosaics Restoration Hotel Hippodrome Sultanahmet Square (Hippodrome) Mega Ship Makes Its First Visit To Istanbul Obelisk Istanbul Square of Horses "Hippodrome of Constantinople " related content to share on social media;	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15277
__label__wiki	0.917165	0.917165	'If everything goes our way...' "You don't have to be an expert to know that England is the better side on paper," says Kashtan. israel soccer 298.88. (photo credit: Asaf Kliger) Ever since the January 2006 draw for the Euro 2008 qualifying round matches, Israeli soccer fans have been drooling over the prospect of seeing the national team face one of the world's most celebrated sides. After 14 months of anticipation, Israel hosts England Saturday night in one of the biggest matches National Stadium in Ramat Gan has ever seen. Months of anticipation will finally end when the two sides, which are tied on seven points from their first four qualifiers and are both desperately seeking a victory, face off. Anything short of an Israel victory and Dror Kashtan will be just another name on the long list of coaches who failed to lead Israel to a major championship. The qualifying campaign hasn't even reached the halfway mark, but after losing 4-3 to Croatia at home in its last qualifying round match, any further loss of points at Ramat Gan would doom Israel to seven more months of meaningless qualifiers. Nevertheless, England coach Steve McClaren would happily swap his troubles with Kashtan's. The three lions have drawn and lost their last two qualifiers to Macedonia and Croatia, respectively, and the pressure on McClaren has increased to a level only possible in England. The English Football Association has assured its coach that he will continue regardless of Saturday's result, but McClaren's days as England boss will be numbered if his players fail to collect all three points. Israel, which has gone 37 years without reaching a major championship, is the clear underdog on Saturday, but Kashtan feels his side will be up for the challenge. "You don't have to be an expert to know that England is the better side on paper," Kashtan said. "There is a huge difference between Israel and England, and obviously they are much stronger than us. It's extremely important that our players play to their potential. "It's very difficult to succeed against the English side, but if we execute our game plan and everything goes our way, we definitely have a chance." Kashtan has almost finalized his lineup and said on Thursday that he remained undecided about only three of his 11 starters. Dudu Awat will start in goal, with Tal Ben-Haim, Shimon Gershon, Yoav Ziv and Yuval Shpungin all virtually guaranteed a place in Israel's defense. Walid Badier and Arik Benado will likely both play as defensive midfielders, with Yossi Benayoun captaining the side from the midfield once again. The remaining three positions in midfield and attack are still up for grabs and Kashtan will be mulling over the decision until he announces the starting lineup on Saturday afternoon. England, which has met Israel in friendlies twice, winning 2-1 in 1986 and drawing 0-0 two years later, will start with Paul Robinson in goal and will have the superb duo of John Terry and Rio Ferdinand in the center of the defense. Phil Neville and Jamie Carragher are expected to play in right and left back, respectively, with Wayne Rooney and Andy Johnson due to team up for the side up front. The menacing English midfield will almost definitely feature Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon and the fit-again Owen Hargreaves. Hargreaves, who missed England's last two qualifying round matches due to injury, was certain his side's supremacy over Israel will ensure the team leaves Ramat Gan with all three points. "We're a better team than Israel, technically and tactically," the Bayern Munich star told the Daily Telegraph. "We have to go out and control the game, dominate it and let Israel know anything other than three points for us is simply not enough. In the end, it will come down to who wants it more and if we do, then we will win the game. "We have to put them on the back foot from the start and if we can do that, they will make mistakes because they're not used to playing at a high tempo. We must keep the pressure on them, win the ball back and get it to our players up front. "We're used to playing at that high tempo and it's something we have to do because they're not used to it. We know they are a good team and things are different when you are playing away from home. "Hopefully, we can come away with a clean sheet and three points like in Macedonia. The atmosphere will be difficult but it's nothing we're not used to."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15281
__label__cc	0.606431	0.393569	Ron Silliman Biography (1946– ), Socialist Review, The New Sentence, Ketjak, Tjanting, What, The Alphabet Book, From Demo to Ink American poet, born in Pasco, Washington. Residing in the San Francisco area, he has worked as a political organizer, an editor of Socialist Review, a teacher and college administrator, and in the computer industry. His influential essays (collected in The New Sentence, 1987) on the economic and political conditions of poetry argue that language has been commodified in the West. Referentiality helps maintain existing power relations by making them seem real and natural: ‘My intention is to incite a riot in the “prison house of language”.’ He coined the phrase ‘the new sentence’ in an essay which describes his own and others' practice as the use of sentences and syntax in such a way that they obstruct a reader's easy assimilation into larger structures, and therefore focus attention at the level of the sentence. His long works Ketjak (1978), Tjanting (1981), What (1989), and The Alphabet Book (only parts, notably From Demo to Ink, 1992, have yet been published), are based on large-scale generative structures (Tjanting uses the Fibonacci series), and consist of autobiographical sentences in a disjunct structure, depicting the Bay Area, politics, everyday life, and the act of writing in an elegant, often epigrammatic manner. (See Language Poetry.) Leslie Marmon Silko Biography - (1948– ), New Mexico Quarterly, Laguna Women, Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, Storyteller Other Free Encyclopedias Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern FictionEncyclopedia of Literature: Seven Against Thebes (Hepta epi Thēbas; Septem contra Thebas) to Sir Walter Scott and Scotland Copyright © 2019 Net Industries and its Licensors All Rights Reserved	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15282
__label__cc	0.664108	0.335892	Justia Lawyer Directory Divorce Oklahoma Caddo Attorneys Caddo, Oklahoma Divorce Lawyers Lorie Reesor Rogers Durant, OK Divorce Attorney with 22 years experience (580) 924-4900 603 West Evergreen Durant, OK 74701 Divorce, Bankruptcy, Estate Planning and Family Robert Sean (580) 916-1048 1102 Chuckwa Dr Divorce, Business, Consumer and Family Chad Doyle Upton Tishomingo, OK Divorce Attorney with 13 years experience (580) 387-8166 105 B North Neshoba Tishomingo, OK 73460 Shawnee, OK Divorce Lawyer with 21 years experience (405) 275-9994 502 N. Broadway Shawnee, OK 74801 Free ConsultationDivorce, Bankruptcy, Family and Juvenile Greg Wilson was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma on February 26, 1969. He was raised in Tecumseh and graduated from Tecumseh High School in 1987. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1993 from Oklahoma State University with a double major in Accounting and Agricultural Economics. He then attended Oklahoma City University Law School where he focused on personal injury, family law, and criminal defense. During law school, he worked as a licensed legal intern in the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission legal department. Greg learned personal injury while working at White Law Firm in Oklahoma City. He then worked at the Pottawatomie... Paul Northcutt McAlester, OK Divorce Lawyer (918) 558-4727 321 S. Third St. Ste. 10 Free ConsultationDivorce, Criminal, Family and Personal Injury The Northcutt Law Firm offers best in class legal representation. Retain the firm and rest assured that you will have access to most capable and comprehensive legal representation available. Blake E Lynch (918) 421-8843 109 East Washington Ave. McAlester, OK Divorce Attorney with 10 years experience Divorce, Appeals, Family and Juvenile I am a 2009 graduate from the University Of Oklahoma College of Law. Since graduating, I have practiced law in McAlester and Wilburton with a focus on civil and criminal law. I also practice in tribal court for the Choctaw, Seminole, and Cherokee tribes. I stay very involved in the local and state Bar associations, serving as District 2 chair in the Young Lawyers Division and as Pittsburg County Bar President. I also devote a lot of my time to the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation. Joshua A. Edwards Ada, OK Divorce Attorney with 8 years experience (580) 332-5579 525 S. Mississippi Ave. Ada, OK 74820 Mr. Edwards attended the University of Oklahoma, where he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree with Distinction in Sociology-Criminology in 2007, and his Juris Doctorate with Distinction from the O.U. College of Law in 2010. While in law school, he served as an editor for the American Indian Law Review. He interned at the OU Criminal Defense Clinic and the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, Capital Post-Conviction Division before moving to Ada, Oklahoma. He is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Pontotoc County Bar Association, and the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. He practices criminal... James E Palinkas Free ConsultationDivorce, Bankruptcy, Family and Foreclosure Defense 22-years in private practice John Weston Billingsley Ada, OK Divorce Attorney with 16 years experience (888) 742-4092 201 W. Main St Free ConsultationDivorce, Criminal, Family and White Collar Crime Shelley L. Levisay Shawnee, OK Divorce Attorney with 7 years experience Shelley L. Levisay is a Christian community-oriented attorney that dedicates herself to her clients. She is a Shawnee native having attended high school at Liberty Academy, college at Oklahoma Baptist University, and lawschool at the University of Oklahoma. She is an officer and active member of the Shawnee Rotary Club, as well as President of the Pottawatomie County Bar Association, an auxiliary and advisory board member of Project Safe, a member of the Shawnee and Oklahoma Music Teachers Association. She teaches in the evenings at both Oklahoma Baptist University and St. Gregory’s University. Shelley’s... Lorenzo Thurmond Collins Ardmore, OK Divorce Lawyer with 36 years experience (580) 223-8350 16 Stanley Ave SW Divorce, Business, Estate Planning and Real Estate John Dubiel Otey Ardmore, OK Divorce Attorney (580) 226-8011 22 D St SW Bryan Wayne Morris Ada, OK Divorce Lawyer (580) 436-0871 201 W 14th St Divorce, Collections, Criminal and Family Elizabeth Dick Oklahoma City, OK Divorce Lawyer with 8 years experience (405) 888-7369 600 West Sheridan Free ConsultationDivorce, Criminal, DUI and Military Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School and Oklahoma City University School of Law Cannon Law Firm, PLLC, is a leading criminal defense and family law firm in Oklahoma City founded by Judge Advocate and former Assistant Attorney General, John P. Cannon. Cannon Law Firm, PLLC, provides experienced legal representation in criminal defense as well as family law matters, including divorce and child custody. I work for clients and their families across Oklahoma. You need professional legal counsel, if you have been arrested or need a family attorney. Your rights are at stake, you need to speak to an experienced attorney today. Cannon Law Firm, PLLC, is dedicated to helping individual clients and their... Keegan Kelley Harroz (405) 568-4318 625 NW 13th Street Harroz Law is a full service law firm in Oklahoma City that is committed to providing quality, ethical and affordable legal representation to our clients. We believe in a whole client approach and as your attorney will strive to serve each client’s individual legal needs. We recognize that when it comes to your legal needs, there is no “one size fits all” solution. Harroz Law has a reputation in Oklahoma City for providing honest, hardworking and aggressive representation to its clients. We represent businesses and individuals in both civil and criminal matters in Oklahoma’s Municipal, State, and Federal courts. T. Luke Barteaux Tulsa, OK Divorce Attorney with 6 years experience (918) 633-5615 1630 S Main St Timothy Luke Barteaux is currently a Cherokee Nation District Court Judge. He was born in Norman, Oklahoma and grew up in northeastern Oklahoma where he attended Metro Christian Academy. After completion of high school, he went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Public Affairs and Administration from the University of Oklahoma before obtaining his Juris Doctor from the University of Tulsa College of Law. While attending the University of Oklahoma, he became a member of Alpha Tau Omega and while attending the University of Tulsa, he became a member of Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity and... Douglas J. Smith Norman, OK Divorce Attorney with 28 years experience (405) 360-2660 104 E. Eufaula St. Douglas J. Smith, Attorney for the Smith Law Office, P.C. is conveniently located across the street, southwest of the Cleveland County District Court House in Norman, Oklahoma focusing on Criminal Law, DUI/ DWI, Expungement Law, Family Law and Personal Injury cases since 1990. Mr. Smith has earned a solid reputation in the state of Oklahoma with over two decades of law experience and has handled thousands of cases with favorable results. When your future is on the line, you need an experienced and knowledgeable local attorney on your side that will fight for your rights. Let... Katherine R. Mazaheri Oklahoma City, OK Divorce Lawyer with 11 years experience (405) 414-2222 3000 W. Memorial Road, Ste. 230 Divorce, Employment, Family and Immigration Attorney Katherine R. Mazaheri-Franze is the managing attorney at Mazaheri Law Firm. Since 2009, her role has been to prop up a passionate group of zealous advocates, providing straight-forward legal services with compassion and integrity. The Mazaheri Law Firm has grown from a solo practice to a burgeoning law firm with multiple skilled attorneys and dedicated support staff. In a short time, Mazaheri Law Firm has gained a powerful reputation for taking on cases that attack various social injustices, leading to extensive recoveries for clients in cases of employment discrimination, harassment and retaliation based upon race, gender, national origin, sexual... Moura A J Robertson Tulsa, OK Divorce Lawyer with 26 years experience (918) 382-9332 110 West 7th Street Divorce, Domestic Violence and Family Moura practices exclusively in the area of divorce litigation and trials, Family Law mediation and collaborative divorce. Her cases include high-asset property division, small businesses and professional practices, executive compensation, support alimony issues, child custody disputes, joint custody plans and child support issues, father's rights and enforcement of visitation, contempt citations, modifications of child custody and support, and modification of support alimony. Edward G Lindsey Tulsa, OK Divorce Attorney with 26 years experience (918) 587-0097 427 South Boston Ave Free ConsultationDivorce, Domestic Violence, Family and Foreclosure Defense University of Tulsa College of Law, Universidad de Madrid, Colegio de San Pablo and Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland UK I am an attorney engaged in diverse litigation practice concentrating in criminal defense, family, personal injury, professional malpractice, lender liability and bad faith law. I am also a certified family law mediator. Life experience matters - In addition to private practice, I serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University. I designed curriculum for two courses, “Business Ethics and the Law” and “White Collar Criminal Law.” When not practicing law or teaching, I spend time with my family. I have found that life experiences as an attorney, university professor and coach, husband, parent, and business owner... Tamera Ann Childers (918) 574-8990 2642 E 21st St Tamera Childers is a family law attorney whose practice is concentrated on divorce, custody, paternity and guardianship cases. Raised in small town, Lindsay, Oklahoma, she knew at a young age she wanted to be a lawyer; however, her educational and career path is not that of a traditional student. After graduating near the top of her Lindsay High School class in 1982, Tamera attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, where she was an active member of the Delta Zeta sorority. After completing two semesters at Northeastern, she moved to Ponca City, got married and raised two daughters. When her children... Anna Hanson (918) 409-0634 4527 E. 91st St Free ConsultationDivorce, Bankruptcy, Criminal and Estate Planning Anna Hanson went to Law School at the University of Arkansas School Of Law. She graduated in 2010 and has been practicing Law in Tulsa every since. When she was in Law School she was awarded the Hispanic National Bar Foundation's Public Interest Fellowship in 2009. She also received the University of Arkansas School of Law Public Interest Fellowship in 2008. She has been very active in the Tulsa, Oklahoma legal scene since she founded Hanson & Hanson Law firm in 2010. Hanson & Hanson Law Firm serves individuals in the Tulsa, Oklahoma region seeking legal help for bankruptcy, family... M. Shane Henry (918) 933-4333 1616 S. Main Street M. Shane Henry is an AV Preeminent Rated Trial Lawyer by Martindale Hubbell. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Juris Doctorate from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2006. Mr. Henry’s practice is focused on Trial Advocacy. He is certified to practice law by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma and is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, Tulsa County Bar Association, Creek County Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Mr. Henry is a section member of the Family Law Division of the Oklahoma Bar Association and serves as a committee member for Continuing Legal... Melissa F Cornell (918) 574-8901 2504 E. 21st Street Melissa Cornell grew up in a household with a strong working mother as a role model. Seeing how hard her mother worked to make ends meet for her family, Ms. Cornell learned that hard work is the best and most rewarding way to achieve any goal, and to overcome any obstacle. She decided from a young age that she wanted to work hard for others, and decided to become an attorney. Since Ms. Cornell began practicing law over ten years ago, she decided to focus on family law and issues involving families. No matter your... Lindsey Willis Andrews (405) 760-5855 1901 N. Classen, Ste. 203 Lindsey W. Andrews has practiced divorce and family law in Oklahoma since 2004. As a certified mediator and frequent Guardian Ad Litem for children, she is dedicated to helping families seek and achieve the best results for their families. Deborah Perdue Tulsa, OK Divorce Lawyer with 5 years experience (918) 641-4533 406 S Boulder Ave SW Mezzanine Free ConsultationDivorce, Criminal, Family and Traffic Tickets Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn. Whether you're fighting for custody of your children, going through a divorce, or facing criminal charges, it is normal to be afraid, anxious, and depressed. You need an aggressive advocate who will fight for your best interests. Let me be your advocate. I am passionate about my job, and I care about my clients. Together we will get you through this unexpected turn and get your life back on track. Sammy Duncan (918) 640-4332 1601 N Blackwelder Ave Free ConsultationOklahoma City, OK Divorce Lawyer with 4 years experience Divorce, Criminal, DUI and Juvenile Sammy Duncan began her career at the Oklahoma County Public Defender's Office where she dedicated herself to criminal defense. In 2018 she opened her law firm, Duncan & Hill Law. She practices criminal law throughout Oklahoma and is an experienced trial attorney. Sammy Duncan and her law partner J.P. Hill handle all criminal law matters from simple traffic tickets to homicide charges. David A. Tracy (918) 582-8001 320 S Boston Ave., Suite 1130 View Blog View Lawyer Profile Email Lawyer David Tracy is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He is listed in the 2017 edition of Best Lawyers In America for Family Law in Oklahoma. Please call 918-582-8001 to set up a Family Assessment Meeting. We will discuss your family situation, explore your options, and develop a realistic approach to resolving your family legal problems. Aaron Bundy Sapulpa, OK Divorce Attorney with 12 years experience (918) 208-0129 26 South Park Sapulpa, OK 74066 Divorce, Criminal, Family and Personal Injury I am a trial lawyer from Sapulpa, Oklahoma. My practice is devoted to providing the best representation and advocacy for my clients in and out of the courtroom. I work with clients to resolve important matters privately and by agreement when possible. When the other side is unreasonable or will not agree, I have the training and trial experience to provide skilled advocacy and representation in court for my clients. I am a certified fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Rated by Super Lawyers® - Rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell - Rated Superb 10.0 by Avvo Kellie S. Howell Del City, OK Divorce Attorney with 6 years experience (405) 455-1032 Arvest Bank Tower, Suite 500 4600 SE 29th St. Del City, OK 73115 Ms. Kellie Howell practices in all areas of family law and criminal defense. Prior to joining Sansone Howell, Ms. Howell was the founding attorney at Howell Law Office, PLLC. In addition, Kellie has previously worked with the Hunsucker DUI Defense Firm, Oklahoma Juvenile Justice Center, and Oklahoma City University School of Law. Kellie is admitted to practice in all Oklahoma state courts and the Western District of Oklahoma Federal Court. She is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and Robert J. Turner American Inn of Court. ... Rita Jean Jencks Edmond, OK Divorce Attorney with 17 years experience (405) 285-2882 1441 NW 150th St I am a sole practitioner in Edmond, Oklahoma. I practice family law which includes divorce, child custody, child support, visitation, alimony and adoptions. I also do criminal law cases both felony and misdemeanor, as well as wills and probate, including guardianships. Matthew Ryan Price Muskogee, OK Divorce Lawyer with 3 years experience (918) 683-0309 330 N. 4TH STREET Muskogee, OK 74401 Free ConsultationDivorce, Criminal, DUI and Family Matthew R. Price is an attorney in Muskogee and partner at Hammons & Price, PLLC. He represents clients in criminal defense and family law. Mr. Price served as an Assistant District Attorney in Muskogee County from January of 2016 through December of 2017. Mr. Price earned his Bachelor's Degree in Social Studies Education from Northeastern State University in May 2012. He received his Juris Doctor from the OU College of Law in May 2015. Mr. Price is admitted to practice law in the courts of the state of Oklahoma, the United States District Court for Eastern District of Oklahoma, the United... Enid, OK Divorce Lawyer with 13 years experience (580) 233-1457 202 West Broadway Divorce, Criminal, DUI and Personal Injury Josh is a fifth generation Oklahoman with Garfield County roots that stretch back to the opening of the Cherokee Strip. As an Assistant District Attorney in Enid for nearly 5 years, Josh knows what it takes to prosecute a case. Josh left the Garfield County District Attorney's office for private practice as a partner at Martin, Cameron, and Davis in 2011. Since then, he has used his invaluable experience as a prosecutor in his defense of clients charged with a variety of criminal offenses including DUI/DWI/APC, drug possession, violent crimes, and property crimes. Josh is also the only... Gary Johnston Dean Pryor, OK Divorce Attorney with 53 years experience (918) 373-4055 208 S. Vann St. Pryor, OK 74361-5216 Upon graduation from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in July 1966, I moved to Pryor, Oklahoma, as an Associate of well known and famous trial lawyer, Tony Jack Lyons. We soon became partners. We had a LOT of Criminal Business, and I assisted in, or tried about 39 homicide cases. Only had one client receive prison time, and that was for a very minimal sentance. I personally tried what is believed the first Murder case in Oklahoma, with a defense of "Extreme Domestic Violence". My client shot her husband to death with a shotgun, in front... Ron D Brown (918) 585-9500 320 South Boston I have more than 15 years of bankruptcy experience and am the #1 bankruptcy filer in Tulsa, OK. My office and I serve consumers in personal bankruptcy all over Oklahoma, but I have also done estate planning, family law, personal injury, and a wide range of civil cases. I offer my clients high quality representation with confidentiality and attention to personal details. Frank Hagedorn (918) 494-3611 6914 S Yorktown Ave., Suite 112 Divorce, Business, Family and Probate Frank Hagedorn is a Senior Level attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma with over 35 years of experience in Divorce and Family Law, Child Custody and Criminal and Civil Litigation, Personal Injury, Employment Law, Business and Contract Law, Probate and Trust Law, Estate Planning. Frank Hagedorn graduated from the University of Tulsa School of Law. After graduating from Law School from the University of Tulsa, Frank worked as an Assistant Prosecutor for Tulsa County from 1968-1972. After leaving the District Attorney's Office, he served as Director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation form 1973-1974. In 1975 he began his... Andrew Paul Murphy (405) 524-5155 3601 N Classen Blvd Free ConsultationDivorce, Collections and Family Andrew Murphy is licensed to practice law in the state of Oklahoma. He received his Juris Doctorate degree, from The Oklahoma City University School of Law, May 1995, graduating with honors. He also holds: A Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, 1989, Cum Laude. Associates Degree in Applied Science from the Community College of the Air Force. Equipment Technology; Cum Laude, October 1982. In 1995 while still attending law school, Mr. Murphy began his career as law clerk... Dustin Gower (405) 608-6858 3140 W. Britton Rd. Free ConsultationDivorce and Family Dustin Gower specializes in Family Law matters and is the owner of Gower Law Offices. Dustin earned his Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice from Cameron University in 2002 before graduating with his Juris Doctorate from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 2005. Dustin spent the first five years of his law career working for the Department of Human Services Child Support Division. While working for the Department of Human Services, Dustin was responsible for reviewing thousands of cases while making numerous court appearances. Afterwards he worked for two years as a Family Law attorney at the Law Office at Indian... Michelle Kay Smith Oklahoma City, OK Divorce Attorney with 11 years experience (405) 759-2333 4100 Perimeter Center Drive, Suite 230 I represent men and women in Oklahoma County, Cleveland County, Canadian County, Kingfisher County and McClain County. My practice is focused on family law matters including divorce, paternity, custody, child support, contempt, modifications, alimony and child guardianships. Please visit my website at MichelleSmithLaw.com for additional information. Madill Divorce Lawyers in Nearby Counties	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15283
__label__wiki	0.89978	0.89978	Posts tagged with "RockStar Games" GTA Online: Arena War coming December 11 Rockstar Games announced today that GTA Online will be getting a latest update which brings a mix of gladiatorial combat and vehicular competition across seven new modes, all set to launch tomorrow, December 11. Enter Arena War, where ruthless gladiatorial combat meets the bleeding-edge of... Red Dead Online beta early access starts today Players who have bought the Ultimate Edition of Red Dead Redemption 2 will have a chance to play the much awaited Red Dead Online beta starting today, November 27. Before players are able to download the beta, make sure that the Ultimate Edition code has been redeemed for those who have bought... Red Dead Redemption 2 has been highly anticipated and is finally available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Rockstar Games has created a Western themed game that feels like it is directly out of the iconic films of the genre. Be it a shoot out in a dusty town, robbing a train from horseback or saloon... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - Unlimited Gold Bar Glitch Trick In Red Dead Redemption 2, money talks big in the game as it pretty much pays off a lot of things in the game, especially bounties if you do something bad in town. Luckily, those who are having a hard time gathering money, there's currently a glitch that allows you to get an unlimited amount of gold... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - Wield the Pirate Sword and Become a Pirate In Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan's arsenal of weapons isn't only limited to guns or rifles. In fact, he also hunts animals through the use of bows and arrows. What many don't know, Arthur Morgan also uses swords where he can use a legendary Pirate Sword from the game to cut down his... Red Dead Redemption 2 Surprisingly Doesn't Have Biggest Game Launch In The UK 2018 Almost everyone on my Twitter timeline has been playing Red Dead Redemption 2, but surprisingly the game didn't have the biggest week one launch in the UK in 2018. The highly anticipated video game had to settle for second place as FIFA 19 still has the biggest launch in 2018. This was reported... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - Easily get $1500 (Fast Cash) by Solving a Statue Puzzle The world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is full of wonders. Those who take their time and search every nook and cranny will be rewarded with valuable treasure that can make Arthur Morgan rich. Luckily - we found ways to easily get rich and that's by getting an easy $1500 by solving a puzzle. In Red... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - How to Play as John Marston For fans who loved the first Red Dead Redemption, it should be a common knowledge now that Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel as its main protagonist, John Marston is in the game. Those hoping to play as him in Red Dead Redemption 2 will be pleased to hear that YES!, he is indeed playable at a... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - Solving the Serial Killer Mystery Red Dead Redemption 2 contains a world filled with life. With so many different things going on, it's hard to find one mission/event to focus on. However, given the intriguing nature of a certain quest called American Dream, which involves finding the person responsible for dismembering and hanging... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - What it Takes to 100% Complete the Game Red Dead Redemption 2 offers a lot of unique challenges and content that may take tons of hours for fans to finish. As revealed before release, finishing the story missions alone may take up to sixty hours and that doesn't include doing sidequests and completing the game 100%. Since many are... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - List of Outfits and How to access them Outfits in Red Dead Redemption 2 is essential in surviving the harsh weather the game puts Arthur Morgan in. With the weather changing in the game, so does the health of Arthur Morgan thus it's important to find out how to access the outfits in the game. As mentioned in the tips article that I... Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide - List of Cheat Codes and How to Use Them Similar to its predecessor, Red Dead Redemption 2 has cheat codes that you can enable at certain points of the game. Using them will require little effort as they are scattered throughout the world that really requires exploration. The cheats available vary from infinite ammunition, replenishing... Red Dead Redemption 2 - List of available DLC and Bonus Content In just a few hours, the much awaited Red Dead Redemption 2 will finally be released. With its near perfect score on Metacritic (our review is soon), it's no doubt that this game is the best of this year. That being said, many are still clueless as to what DLC or bonuses they can avail if they... Red Dead Redemption 2 installation requirements confirmed by Rockstar Games Rockstar Games finally confirmed today the amount of data that will be needed in order to play the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 for both PS4 and Xbox One. For weeks, there have been a lot of rumors as to how much data the game will require to install it on your console. Today, it's finally... Red Dead Redemption 2 may come in two discs A couple of weeks ago, there have been reports that Red Dead Redemption 2's install size will be at least 100GB, and that's pretty much for people who will be buying it digitally. Well, how about those who wants to purchase the game physically? Based on the Japanese box art that leaked... Red Dead Redemption 2 will run at 4K native resolution on Xbox One X In just a few weeks left, the much awaited Red Dead Redemption 2 for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will finally be released. While everyone is antsy and excited for the game to arrive, Rockstar Games have been steadily giving us more exciting new information about the game every week like videos... Red Dead Redemption 2 early access content for PS4 detailed Rockstar Games revealed today more details of the early access content PlayStation 4 owners will get when Red Dead Redemption 2 releases on October 26, 2018. Those who are expecting some sort of story DLC or something big will be disappointed as there is really not that much content PS4 users... Red Dead Redemption 2: Official Gameplay Video Part 2 released Rockstar Games released today the second part of the official gameplay video for the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2. The second half of the gameplay video showcases a wide range of nefarious activities Arthur and the Van der Linde Gang can get involved in. They can rob trains,... Red Dead Redemption 2 file size is at least 100GB In the Red Dead Redemption 2 PS4 Pro Bundle that Sony announced earlier this week, it has been spotted that the HDD space requirement to at least play Red Dead Redemption 2 is at 105GB. Since Red Dead Redemption 2 offers 4K visuals and a massive world to explore on, it's really not surprising at... Rockstar Games Talks More About Hunting And Wildlife In Red Dead Redemption 2 Killing bad guys is not the only thing you can do in Red Dead Redemption 2 because there will be lots of wildlife for you to hunt too. This includes big mammals as well as various fish you can get from the rivers and more. Rockstar Games announced via the official Red Dead Redemption 2 website... Red Dead Online announced for Red Dead Redemption 2 Rockstar Games is pleased to announce today that Red Dead Online will be making a return in Red Dead Redemption 2. Red Dead Online is an improved version of the classic multiplayer experience in the original Red Dead Redemption. Fans can look forward with blending narrative with competitive and... Red Dead Redemption 2 In-Game Footage Trailer Released Rockstar Games has just released the first gameplay trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2, their upcoming western themed open world video game. Being an introduction to the world and the main character the video shows off a range of stunning looking shootouts, a huge variety of locations from boggy... Rockstar Games Releases Several New Screenshots For Red Dead Redemption 2 Rockstar Games has released several new awesome screenshots for the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2 video. Many of the screenshots were shared via Rockstar's official social media platforms. You can look at the screenshots all posted down below. These are in-game engine screenshots and... L.A. Noire '4K Ultra HD' Trailer released With only a few weeks left before the release of the much awaited L.A Noire for the current-gen of consoles, including the Switch, Rockstar Games released today a '4K Ultra HD' trailer. L.A. Noire follows the story of detective Cole Phelps' rise through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15285
__label__cc	0.578809	0.421191	Kalman Aron, New York Times Obituary, March On , \| No Comments \| In Uncategorized \| By Kalman Aron began drawing pencil and crayon portraits of his family in Latvia when he was 3. A child prodigy, he mounted his first one-boy gallery show when he was 7. He was commissioned to paint the official portrait of the Latvian prime minister when he was 13. He enrolled at an academy of fine arts in Riga, the capital, at 15. Then, in 1941, when he was 16, the Germans invaded, and his parents, who were Jewish, were murdered. But Kalman’s artistic talent would spare his life. Over the next four years, he would survive seven Nazi concentration camps by swapping sketches of his captors and their families for scraps of food. And he lived to become a prominent American portraitist. He died at 93 on Feb. 24 in Santa Monica, Calif., the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust said. Mr. Aron was born near Riga on Sept. 24, 1924. His mother, Sonia, was from Lithuania; his father, Chaim, a custom women’s shoe designer, was from Russia. Continue reading the full article by Sam Roberts. Website * Message * Holocaust Survivor’s Art Kept Him Alive Film underway about Kalman Aron Kalman Aron, survivor of Nazi camps, featured in Jewish Journal Holocaust Remembrance Day 2015 : Author Magee Returns to Rumbula Forest Interview: Dr. Margers Vestermanis, Holocaust Survivor, and Author Susan Beilby Magee VIDEO: Susan Beilby Magee presents INTO THE LIGHT in Riga, Latvia, 11.24.14 Reflections on Trip to Riga Riga, Latvia 23 November 2014 International Conference “Jews in A Changing World,” Riga, Latvia	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15288
__label__cc	0.638466	0.361534	BUTTER FAQ KELLER’S IS THE BUTTER THAT HAS BEEN CREATING FAMILY TRADITIONS IN PHILADELPHIA FOR OVER 100 YEARS. In 1906, Harvey and Florence Keller bought their first creamery. They later created the Keller’s Creamery label when expanding by purchasing the Indian Creek Creamery near Telford, Pennsylvania, in 1920. The Kellers continued to grow their business and were so successful that between 1940 and 1962, Keller’s Creamery grew quickly with the purchase of 12 local dairies and egg companies. The Keller’s Creamery brand was eventually sold to Beatrice Foods in 1964 who later sold it to the Borden Company in 1982. In 2002, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a dairy marketing cooperative that is owned by nearly 14,000 dairy farmers, came to acquire the brand along with the other high-quality cheese and butter brands. Today, Keller’s Creamery continues to be a beloved part of Philadelphia culture. The brand has been a mainstay in the Tri-State region for more than 100 years. © 2019 Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. Keller’s trademarks used under license. Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use © 2017 Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. Keller’s trademarks used under license. ';Scroll to top	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15289
__label__wiki	0.834617	0.834617	Ashkenazic And Sephardic Jewry – jewishhistory.org The transition from the Jewish community in Babylonia to Jewish communities in other parts of the world began already at the end of the eighth century. By the eleventh century the fulcrum of Jewish life had moved from Babylonia to new places in the world. The Jewish community of Babylonia had connections with a small but growing Jewish community in North Africa, countries that are today Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. There were many centers of Jewish settlement in Morocco, including the cities of Kairouan, Fez and what is today Casablanca and Tunis. These Jews had loyalty to the Geonate (the Rabbinate) in Babylonia and supported the great academies and institutions there. But, physically speaking, especially in those times, they were a long way from Babylonia. It took almost a year for questions of Jewish law to come to Babylonia and then almost a year for the answer to come back. For various reasons, those communities were not equipped with their own scholars. Therefore, the Jewish communities there could not grow, expand or flourish unless they were somehow able to end their dependency on Babylonian Jewry and the Geonate/Rabbinate. There is an interesting legend how the Jewish community spread beyond the borders of Babylon. It is important to remark that although legends may not necessarily be fully accurate, they accurately portray the people and circumstances of the time. At the end of the eighth- beginning of the ninth century the academies in Babylon faced a serious economic crisis. They decided to send out emissaries to collect money. Usually, emissaries were not top echelon scholars. However, because the situation was so desperate they sent the leading members of the Talmudic community, the heads of the academies themselves. Three of the names are known to us. One was Rabbi Chushiel, the father of Rabbi Chananel, whom we will discuss ahead. Second was Rabbi Moshe, the father of Rabbi Chanoch, another famous Torah scholar. The third was Rabbi Shmaryahu. The fourth man has remained anonymous. These four great rabbis set out with their families to collect funds in faraway lands on behalf of the Babylonian academies. The Mediterranean was a dangerous place. Aside from the storms and the uncertain fate of ships, pirates abounded. And not only did these pirates look for booty, they looked for people they could kidnap and sell on the slave market. The pirates knew that if they could capture Jews, especially prominent Jews, they could collect a great ransom. Informers told them that there were four great rabbis on this ship and not two or three days out of port they were captured. The rabbis were first brought to Alexandria where Rabbi Shmaryahu was ransomed. But the pirates were unable to get a high enough price for four, so the remaining captives were brought west to the slave markets of Tunis and Fez. Back then, Tunis and Fez were like the Western frontier. There were Jews, but they were never able to attract great rabbinic leadership. Now they saw a golden opportunity and struck a deal. Then they made the rabbis an offer. They would ransom them, but on the condition they stayed and helped build a thriving Jewish community. Rabbi Chushiel and his son Rabbi Chananel agreed. Rabbi Moshe was ransomed in Spain. The fourth rabbi was sold in Sicily. From these rabbis grew strong Jewish communities, and that is how the center of Jewish life began to shift. Within 50 to 80 years (by the year 900) North African Jewry no longer felt subservient to Babylonian rule. Simultaneously, this contributed to the decline of Babylon as the center of world Jewry. Now outlying communities no longer were limited to addressing their questions there. They had their own great scholars. Economically too, Babylon was no longer necessarily the first address to send money to. At that time, North Africa was populated by two tribes, the Berbers and the Moors. The Berbers were Arabs or close to the Arabs. The Moors were Africans of dark skin but Caucasian features. The Moors were sophisticated, cultured and technologically advanced for their time. They were, in fact, the cutting edge of civilization. They were poets, artists, artisans, mathematicians, merchants and ship builders. And they were very tolerant probably the most tolerant of all the Muslims. At the same time, they were probably the least religious of all the Muslims. The Moors and Jews struck an alliance that would last almost 400 years an alliance that would carry the Moors to Spain at the same time the Jews would experience a Golden Age unequaled, perhaps, until the modern era. The Berbers, on the other hand, were cavalrymen of note and fearless warriors. They were also good farmers and knew how to live in the mountains. Together, the Berbers supplied the brawn while the Moors supplied the brains and together they became the leading force of civilization. North Africa became the land of opportunity for the Jews just as the United States would later become the land of opportunity for Jews in Eastern Europe. That opportunity was immeasurably increased by the existence of great rabbis and academies in North Africa. It meant that a Jew could go to where opportunity existed without really sacrificing or compromising his religion. That, of course, only further undermined the Babylonian Jewish community. From the letters of the times, it is obvious that it increasingly became an older community, a community only for people who were well-established. Younger people who did not have much began to move to North Africa. That explains how that within the timespan of a century almost 150,000 Jews arrived in North Africa. The great rabbis of North Africa included Rabbi Chananel, the son of one of the four captives, Rabbi Chushiel. He was the rabbi in Kairouan. He wrote a commentary to the entire Talmud. The great rabbis of the early Middle Ages based much of their commentary on his. Rashis seminal commentary on the Talmud, for instance, bases many things upon Rabbi Chananels pioneering work. No one equaled Rashi he was a gift from heaven that never came before or since but the groundwork for his and other commentaries were laid during this era. Rabbi Chananel built an enormous academy in Kairouan and was extremely influential. In particular, he had a tremendous influence on one of the great men of not only North African Jewry but one of the great men of all Jewish history, Rabbi Isaac of Fez, known in Jewish scholarly circles by his acronym, the Rif. The Rif lived more than 100 years and had five distinct generations of disciples because he headed an academy by the age of 20. His influence spanned not only that century but later centuries. The Rif composed the first of the basic books of Jewish law upon which the Shulchan Aruch, the codebook of Jewish law, was based. Therefore, while Rabbi Chananel wrote the Talmudic commentary that all future Talmudic commentaries were built upon, Rabbi Isaac, the Rif, wrote the Jewish law book that all future Jewish law codifications were built upon. Thanks to efforts from people like Rabbi Chananel and Rabbi Isaac the Jewish community in North Africa became very strong. Jews from that community would move into Spain when the Moors invaded and colonized Spain. At the same time the Sephardic communities were developing in North Africa and Spain, the Ashkenazic Jews were developing in France and the German Rhineland. Even though these two Jewish communities developed at the same time they occupied two completely different worlds, so to speak. The Jews in North Africa and Spain lived in a Muslim world. They lived in a sunny world, a world that was tolerant toward them (at least relatively speaking). The Ashkenazic Jews lived in a colder climate in more ways than one. They lived in a superstitious, primitive Christian world; in a world of constant danger and hatred; a world that would produce the Crusades; a world of fanaticism and feudalism; a world of the Black Death. It is mind-boggling to consider how Ashkenazic Jewry survived during those early centuries of its development. The spiritual founder of Ashkenazic Jewry was Rabbi Gershom ben Judah, known as Rabbeinu Gershom. He was the last of the Geonim. Born in 960 CE in Mainz (he died in 1030 CE), he lived most of his life in the French Rhineland, though he did travel as far as todays Yugoslavia on the Adriatic. He is the father of Ashkanazic Jewry in the same way that Rabbi Chananel and Rabbi Isaac, the Rif, were the fathers of Sephardic Jewry. He is best known and most remembered for a number of decrees mentioned in his name which have become binding upon Ashkenazic Jewry. The most famous of those decrees was the ban against polygamy. Under the laws of the Torah a man was allowed to have more than one wife at one time though as a social and practical matter, monogamy was by far the accepted norm for the traditional Jewish home. Polygamous marriages existed in the Torah, Prophets and Talmud and especially in Jewish communities in the Arab countries. Rabbeinu Gershom came and banned polygamy. He did not spell out his reasons for the ban, but many have been advanced since. One reason mentioned by the commentators was to prevent licentiousness. A second reason was that they lived in a Christian society that was not only against polygamy, but against marriage! A religion that allowed or encouraged polygamy could not survive in that type of Christian-dominated society. Other reasons were advanced as well. Whatever the reason, the ban against polygamy took hold. Another decree Rabbeinu Gershom made was that a woman could not be divorced against her will. The ban in effect opposed frivolous divorce. If the woman did not agree, then the divorce could not be granted. Even today both parties have to agree to a Jewish divorce. Another decree of Rabbeinu Gershom had to do with apostate Jews. We cannot imagine the pressure Jews were subject to in medieval Europe to convert to Christianity. The pressure was not only economic and social, but came with the threat of death and torture. Many of these Jews recanted on their deathbeds. Others wanted to be accepted back into the Jewish community or at least be buried in a Jewish cemetery. There were many Jews who resented that especially those who suffered under the same trying circumstances but did not succumb. They harbored an understandable feeling of animosity and bitterness toward those who did give in. Nevertheless, Rabbeinu Gershom defended the right of apostate Jews to return to Judaism. This policy was a milestone in Jewish history. These were only some of Rabbeinu Gershoms decrees. All told, they helped lay the groundwork for European Jewry until this day. That is why he was considered the father of Ashkenazic Jewry. Read the original: Ashkenazic And Sephardic Jewry - jewishhistory.org A Sephardic Pilgrims Progress \| Jewish Week - February 23rd, 2018 « Holocaust denial / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau Martin Buber \| Martin Buber \| Hasidic Judaism »	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15295
__label__wiki	0.965104	0.965104	Pres. Trump's coal pledge could be tested by TVA vote this week Close up of Coal, Photo Date: Aug 2016 / Photo: Pixabay / (MGN) By ADAM BEAM, Associated Press \| Posted: Wed 2:30 PM, Feb 13, 2019 \| Updated: Wed 3:31 PM, Feb 13, 2019 FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — President Donald Trump's support for the coal industry — and for a particular power plant — will face a test this week when a utility board he appoints considers whether to close a coal-fired Kentucky plant whose suppliers include a mine owned by one of his campaign donors. An environmental assessment by the Tennessee Valley Authority recommends shuttering the remaining coal-fired unit at the Paradise Fossil Plant along the Green River in Muhlenberg County, an area that was once the country's top coal producer and was immortalized in a song by singer John Prine in 1971. Federal data show that as recently as 2017 the plant received much of its coal from a mine owned by a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corporation, whose CEO Robert E. Murray has donated to Trump's campaign. Murray Energy Corporation spokesman Jason D. Witt declined to comment on the connection but said company employees attended a meeting last week "at their own volition" urging the TVA to keep the plant open. "They are extremely concerned about the damages that the proposed closure of Unit 3 will have on their families, as well as their standard of living, and the quality of life in the entire western Kentucky region," Witt said. Trump has often expressed doubt about climate change and said he does not believe action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. His administration has focused on U.S. "energy dominance" and increased production of oil, gas and coal on federal and private land. Trump posted a message Monday on his Twitter account declaring "coal is an important part of our electricity generation mix" and urging the TVA to "give serious consideration to all factors before voting to close viable power plants, like Paradise #3 in Kentucky!" The tweet was a welcome surprise in Muhlenberg County, where Trump won nearly 72 percent of the vote in the 2016 presidential election. "Wow, he actually thought about us, little old Muhlenberg County here in a place called Paradise," said Sandy Shemwell, the former owner of a restaurant a few miles from the Paradise plant. "He has enough common sense to realize how it was going to affect the community." The TVA environmental assessment found it's too expensive to maintain the 56-year-old plant, mostly because it was designed to constantly generate electricity. The plant generates too much power in the early morning hours, electricity that is wasted because no one is using it. "Electricity is a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. There is not an easy way to store it," TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said. "That translates into higher rates for the nearly 10 million people the TVA serves in parts of seven states." The decision comes as the TVA has been phasing out some of its older coal-fired power plants in favor of natural gas, which is cheaper and produces about half of the carbon dioxide of coal. In 2016, coal-fired power plants accounted for 29 percent of the TVA's power supply. Last year, it was 19 percent. But the president appoints the TVA's nine-member board, each for a five-year term. Trump has now appointed four board members. But there are two vacancies, giving Trump appointees a 4-3 majority. The TVA is also considering closing the Bull Run Fossil Plant bear Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Paradise plant employs 131 people, whose salaries make them among the region's top earners. The plant also buys about 1.1 million tons (1 million metric tons) of coal each year from two underground coal mines about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away — coal that has a value of $55.7 million and accounts for the jobs of 135 people in the coal industry, according to a PVA report. Local officials have worked hard to convince the TVA board to keep the plant open, including a letter-writing campaign from elementary school students, according to Muhlenberg County Judge Executive Curtis McGehee, the county's top elected official. "We just feel like it could be like an economic hurricane to our community" if the plant closes, McGehee said. The Kentucky state House and Senate both passed resolutions Monday urging the TVA board to delay its Thursday vote. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul have gotten involved, and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin devoted a portion of his annual State of the Commonwealth address to urging the TEVA to postpone the decision. "It's wonderful to imagine that on a sunny day the sun is going to power our electricity and the wind is going to blow and it's going to power, but it's not real. It is not realistic," Bevin said in a video posted to his Twitter account. "This is a battle worth fighting for. And for all the people who say, 'Well, it's a losing battle.' That's what cowards say. Cowards are afraid to do the right thing. And the people of Kentucky aren't cowards." It could become a campaign issue this year as Bevin runs for re-election. Adam Edelen, one of the Democrats seeking to replace him, has partnered with coal executives to turn an abandoned coal mine in eastern Kentucky into a solar farm. Associated Press reporters Matthew Daly in Washington and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this story.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15300
__label__wiki	0.945542	0.945542	S. California fire destroys 'Western Town' Posted: Fri 9:45 AM, Nov 09, 2018 \| Updated: Fri 3:08 PM, Nov 09, 2018 CAMARILLO SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on Southern California wildfires (all times local): The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area has tweeted that Southern California's huge wildfire has apparently destroyed the TV and movie production location known as "Western Town" at the historic Paramount Ranch. The National Park Service says it has no details or photos but the structures that formed Old West facades are believed to have burned on Friday. The park service says the ranch served as locations for productions ranging from 1938's "The Adventures of Marco Polo" to TV's "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," and the more recent shows "The Mentalist" and "Weeds." Western Town specifically was built for TV productions in the 1950s and was used for such westerns as "The Cisco Kid" and "Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre." The location set in the mountains west of Los Angeles dates to 1927 when Paramount Pictures leased the ranch and began making films there. Filming continued for decades even as the ranch changed hands. It was acquired by the National Park Service in 1980 but has continued to function as a filming location. When not in use for filming, visitors could stroll through Western Town while hiking or ride through on horseback. A mandatory evacuation order for the entire city of Malibu has been reinstated as one of California's major wildfires bears down on the enclave called home by many Hollywood stars. A city-wide evacuation was ordered early Friday and then was scaled back. But it has been extended again to include all of Malibu, a city of about 13,000 stretching along 21 miles (34 kilometers) of coast west of Los Angeles. Traffic is jammed on sections of Pacific Coast Highway. Some residents have evacuated to the parking lot of popular Zuma Beach. Fire officials say evacuations due to a raging Southern California wildfire are expected to reach about 148,000 and structural losses are expected to be significant. The so-called Woolsey Fire burning west of Los Angeles has surpassed 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) Friday morning and is continuing to grow. Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Dave Richardson says 45,000 people in Ventura County and 43,000 more in Los Angeles County were ordered to evacuate overnight. Richardson estimates another 60,000 people will likely have to evacuate because the fire jumped U.S. 101 early Friday and is pushing toward the coast. He says the fire's pace forced firefighters to focus on life-protection rather than saving structures and he expects that yet-to-be-determined number to be significant. Another fire to the west has burned more than 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) in Ventura County but has slowed since reaching the footprint of a fire stripped away vegetation in 2013. The director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services says fires across California have forced 157,000 people from their homes. Mark Ghilarducci provided the figure at a news briefing on Friday. Fires are burning in Northern and Southern California. The fire near the Northern California town of Paradise has grown to nearly 110 square miles (285 square kilometers). Another fire northwest of Los Angeles has been swept southward toward the ocean by strong Santa Ana winds. Evacuation orders were issued for residents of the beachside community of Malibu. The city of Malibu has reduced the scope a mandatory evacuation order for the beachside community as a wildfire approaches. Malibu officials initially said the order issued early Friday applied to the entire city but have now defined an area that is approximately the western two-thirds of the community. The fire erupted Thursday northwest of Los Angeles and has been swept southward toward the ocean by strong Santa Ana winds. A raging Southern California wildfire has triggered a mandatory evacuation order for the entire beachside city of Malibu. The fire broke out Thursday northwest of Los Angeles and roared southward, jumping the U.S. 101 freeway early Friday and sweeping into the Santa Monica Mountains. Malibu has about 13,000 residents and lies along 21 miles (34 kilometers) of coast at the southern foot of the mountain range. The Los Angeles County Fire Department tweets that the fire is headed to the ocean, punctuating the message with the declaration: "Imminent threat!" Wildfires raging west of Los Angeles have forced school closures. Pepperdine University has canceled classes Friday at its Malibu and Calabasas campuses. The Calabasas campus is also evacuated. Malibu public schools are also closed. To the west in Ventura County, Moorpark College is closed due to the impacts of fire and Wednesday night's deadly mass shooting in nearby Thousand Oaks. California Lutheran University had already canceled Friday classes due to the shooting. Cal Lutheran says its Thousand Oaks campus is not under evacuation orders but residential students have been put on standby. The Thousand Oaks-area Conejo Valley Unified School District also has closed all its schools. Two wildfires raging west of Los Angeles have force thousands of people to leave their homes. The Los Angeles and Ventura County fire departments say multiple buildings have been destroyed or damage, but exact numbers are not available early Friday. The flames are being driven by Southern California's notorious Santa Ana winds, which blow from the northeast toward the coast. Both fires erupted Thursday afternoon and have grown rapidly. One fire that broke out near the northeast corner of Los Angeles has roared westward, jumped U.S. 101 in the Calabasas area and is surging up the Santa Monica Mountains. Portions of Southern California remain under siege as two large brush fires are threatening numerous communities. ABC7.com reports that one of the fires has now scorched 8,000 acres as winds picked up early Friday, with some 75,000 homes under evacuation orders along the border of Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Los Angeles Fire Department Public Information Officer Erik Scott says the blaze has destroyed or damaged many buildings. A second fire has been burning in the Santa Rosa Valley east of Camarillo, west of Simi Valley near Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks. By Thursday evening, it had scorched up to 7,000 acres and sent residents of more than 1,200 homes fleeing, the Los Angeles Times reports. No injuries have been reported in either fire.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15301
__label__wiki	0.680689	0.680689	About Us » LACES History History and Background of LACES The Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) came into existence in September 1977, as a new component of the court-ordered voluntary integration program designed to address the five harms of racial isolation: low academic achievement, overcrowded conditions, interracial hostility and intolerance, lack of access to post-secondary opportunities, and low self-esteem. We recently celebrated our 40th Year with a homecoming weekend of activities for our current and past families, students, staff, and community. LACES became the first magnet school in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). As part of the student integration mandates, the student population was set at roughly 70% combined minority and 30% white. Articles were published in Spotlight, the District’s newsletter, seeking high caliber teachers interested in working in an innovative, exciting, integrated setting. Flyers were sent to all schools in the District looking for students who wanted to enroll. Initially, LACES started as a 4th through 8th grade span-school with a population of approximately 600 students from throughout the city. With each new year, another grade level was added until we became a 4th through 12th grade school. Our first location was on the site of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. After one year, due to earthquake damage, the school site was moved onto the campus of Hamilton High School. To accommodate increasing enrollment, LACES was relocated two years later to the corner of Pico and Arlington. In 1987, the school was again relocated to the former Pasteur Junior High School campus, now called the LACES – Pasteur Site, which is located west of mid-city in a neighborhood of single-family dwellings. In 1991, the school took in the last fourth grade class, deciding that the span of the school would now be grades 6 through 12, in keeping with the middle school/high school format. We have been at this location ever since. We have a history of excellence in preparing our students to be successful beyond our walls. Although we are both a college and career preparatory institution, we pride ourselves the rigorous programs we provide that make our students most competitive for college acceptance.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15302
__label__wiki	0.892121	0.892121	Hear the people sing when Bishop’s stages ‘Les Mis’ in La Jolla The Bishop’s School student-actors rehearse on a mock-set for ‘Les Misérables.’ By Ashley Mackin-Solomon Any production of “Les Misérables” is truly that — a production. Hundreds of costumes, sets reflective of different places in 1800s Paris, Broadway-worthy vocal range and expertly coordinated musical timing. But for the first time, The Bishop’s School theater department has the talent and tech to produce it. The production includes a 30-person cast (some playing as many as 10 different characters), 15-person crew, four-person creative staff and 13-member professional pit orchestra musician. “We decided at the end of last year to do this production, and at the time we didn’t know what was going to be possible,” Les Mis director Christine Micu told La Jolla Light. “But we have a stunning group of talented singers and actors this year. We knew we had the group of kids that could act it and sing it. It was exciting for us. We’re really lucky in that a number of the students in the show are in both Bishop’s Singers and Acting Workshop, which are our advanced programs. They are passionate and studied (singing and acting) for a while.” Specifically, two of the production’s leads (both seniors) are advanced singers and actors. Jonathan Zau plays Inspector Javert and is credited with having a powerful voice worthy of any stage; and Jacob Lincoln, who plays Jean Valjean, can “sing everything from low baritone to high tenor” said Micu. “If you put music in front of him, he can do it. He’s a secret weapon.” And the enthusiasm doesn’t hurt. Micu said students were singing “95 percent” of the music by the time this school year started. “There is so much excitement and so much love for the show, and so many people know it and support it, so everything came together so we could do this, this year,” she said. Bishop’s teacher AJ Paulin’s Advanced Theater Production classes created the elaborate set, which was another reason the Bishop’s theater department felt confident in putting the show together. Giving Paulin his due credit, Micu said: “It’s one of the larger sets we’ve had on our stage. We have these giant moving balconies that come in from the sides, we have the workhouse gates, we have Jean Valjean and Cosette’s garden, our barricade has its own entrance music! He also built us a mock-up on which we could practice.” Each of the 30 cast members have contributed at least three hours apiece to technical production, and all Bishop’s School theater tech classes at all levels have been involved in painting parts of the set — including the 24,000 hand-painted bricks on flats and set pieces. Seniors Priscilla Hsieh, Keona Lee and Melanie Schwimmer started last semester in the School’s Creative Science Lab, where they created a scale model for the stage using 3D printers. They also designed some of the more intricate stage props on the 3D printer. Juniors involved include lighting designer Kira Tran, and assistant stage managers Sabrina Fogel and Kirra McColl; sophomore Helen Banta is the assistant costumer. The technical crew includes teacher AJ Paulin, and seniors Priscilla Hsieh, Keona Lee and Melanie Schwimmer. Courtesy Paulin has worked on three previous productions of Les Mis; first, in a seven-and-a-half month touring production as Enjolras, then as an assistant lighting director and again as a director of a high school summer production. That prior experience gave him an opportunity to implement all those “If I ever did this show again, I’d …” ideas at Bishop’s. He said he estimates that 500-plus hours will have gone into the technical production, and nearly that many hours will go into costume design and management. Typically, the majority of costumes in Bishop’s productions are created by costume designer Jean Moroney, but with more than 300 costume pieces for Les Mis, many costumes had to be rented for this show. Paulin said: “This show has something for everyone. Big, grand sets, the spectacle of a battle sequence with stage-blanks, beautiful music, great story, and strong character development that allows the audience to root for and against characters. It ticks all the boxes.” Micu added: “The main messages of the show and the main reason we chose it is: love is here for all of us. One of the last line of the show is ‘To love another person is to see the face of God,’ and through loving people, we become better people. It is how you redeem yourself in the eyes of God. The students really took to that message, and it shows.” IF YOU GO: “Les Misérables” is on stage at The Bishop’s School, 7607 La Jolla Blvd., 4 p.m. Feb. 21; 7 p.m. Feb. 22, Feb. 23 and March 1-2; and 2 p.m. Feb. 23 and March 2. Tickets $30 premium seating, $10 open seating, $8 students. bishops.com/boxoffice Ashley Mackin-Solomon	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15303
__label__wiki	0.650688	0.650688	Home » Experiential Education » Professional Skills Program » Advocacy Competitions Program » Board of Advocates » Past Executive Boards and Membership » Trial Advocacy Roster Hasti Ahangi Hasti Ahangi is a 2L from Irvine, CA. She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013 with a major in Political and Legal Communication and a minor in Political Science. Before coming to law school, she worked at the Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center as a Conflict Resolution Specialist. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Hasti is the Women in Oral Advocacy Co-Chair for the Boalt Hall Women's Association. She spent her 1L summer at Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger, a plaintiff-side Personal Injury firm in San Francisco and will spend her 2L summer at Ropes & Gray LLP, specializing in litigation. In her free time, Hasti enjoys writing short stories and practicing Bikram yoga. James Allison James is a 2L from Amherst, MA. He graduated from Williams College in 2011 with a major in Psychology and a concentration in Legal Studies. Before coming to law school, he spent three years working in Baltimore City Public Schools as a 9th grade math teacher at Mergenthaler High School. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, James is a member of the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law, the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, and is a Teaching Assistant for the 1L Legal Research and Writing skills course. He spent his 1L summer at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in Baltimore working in the Juvenile Justice Division. In his free time, James enjoys hiking, cooking, and riding his sea-foam green scooter around San Francisco. Alejandro Barrientos Alejandro is a 2L from Austin, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas in 2012 with a major in Government and Sociology. Before coming to law school, he worked in the Texas Senate as a legislative aid and then in political consulting. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Alejandro is the Co-Editor in Chief of La Raza Law Journal. He spent his 1L summer externing for Judge Haywood Gilliam, a federal district court judge for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. In his free time, Alejandro enjoys playing basketball. Chaitra Betageri Chaitra is a 3L from Chino Hills, California. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2013 with a major in Legal Studies and a minor in Public Policy. Before coming to law school, she traveled with family to Italy and India. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Chaitra is on the Berkeley Business Law Journal. She spent her 1L summer at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and her 2L summer in-house at Shutterfly. In her free time, Chaitra enjoys live music and wine tasting. Christian Chessman Christian Chessman is second year student at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Christian focuses his legal study on intellectual property and litigation, which are interests borne out in his participation in the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team. Christian previously competed in undergraduate Mock Trial at the University of Florida for four years, and captained the first team in the University's history to compete at the American Mock Trial Association's National Championship Tournament. In his spare time, Christian mountain hikes and coaches debate at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida. DeCarol Davis DeCarol Davis is a 2L from Dumfries, VA. She graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2008 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and became the first African American to graduate as valedictorian from a military service academy. DeCarol served active duty in the Coast Guard until 2014. Before attending law school, DeCarol was the Waterways Safety Branch Chief for Sector San Francisco, supervising port and harbor operations for Northern California. Previous to that, she conducted vessel safety and security exams in New York City as a Marine Inspector. DeCarol is interested in anti-discrimination and wage protection work in employment law. She volunteers in the Workers’ Rights Clinic and the Wage Claim Clinic. This past summer, she worked in the Community Legal Services program of the Legal Aid Society, Employment Law Center in San Francisco, CA. Lily Fabela Lily Fabela is a 3L from Glendora, California. She graduated from UC Berkeley with High Honors in History in 2010. Before coming to law school, Lily worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine and the Co-Coordinator of School Enrichment Programs for a Central American non-profit. Lily previously served as the Recruitment Chair of the La Raza Law Students Association and the Co-Coordinator of the Foster Education Project. She is also a member of the La Raza Law Journal. During law school, Lily has worked at the National Center for Youth Law, Legal Services for Children, Bay Area Legal Aid, and the DC Children’s Law Center. She is currently spending a semester in DC and working in the Juvenile Trial Division at the Public Defender Service. In her free time, Lily enjoys musicals, movies, and mimosas. Jordan Fraboni Jordan is a 1L from Atco, NJ. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2015 with a B.A. in Biology and an M.A. in Bioethics. Jordan is interested in the intersection of law and science as well as teaching. For the past two summers Jordan coached high school mock trial. In his spare time, Jordan enjoys musical theater and dancing. Carolyn Gilbert Year: 3L From: Washington State Undergraduate: University of Washington Boalt Activities 2015-2016: BOA Trial Team, Boalt Hall Women's Association, East Bay DREAMer's Clinic. Jared Ginsburg Board of Advocates Co-Chair Jared is a 2L from Orange County, California. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 2013 with a major in Political Science and a minor in Business Administration. In addition to his role as Berkeley Law Board of Advocates Co-Chair, Jared is a member of Berkeley’s Trial Team. Last season, his team won the national championship at the Estrella Trial Advocacy Competition in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Jared was named Best Oral Advocate. Outside of the Board of Advocates, Jared is a Graduate Student Instructor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Department of Political Science. He also serves as a Senior Advisor for Berkeley InSITE, an organization that pairs J.D. and M.B.A. students with high-potential emerging companies. Jared spent his 1L summer at WilmerHale in Palo Alto, California. In his free time, Jared enjoys outdoor activities and trying new cuisine. Alyssa Huff Trial Advocacy Director Alyssa Huff is a 3L from Carlock, Illinois. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2009 and double-majored in Philosophy and Political Science. Before coming to law school, she lived and worked in Guatemala, first at a non-profit school practicing Freirian pedagogy and later at an indigenous women’s weaving cooperative. After moving back to the United States, she worked as a legal assistant for Northwestern Law’s Supreme Court Clinic, Appellate Advocacy Clinic, Environmental Law Clinic, and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic. In addition to her role as director of Berkeley Law’s Trial Team, Alyssa is a student in Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, a participant in the San Quentin Restorative Justice Circle, and a member of Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. Alyssa spent her 1L summer at the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s office and her 2L summer at the Alameda County Public Defender’s office. She is tenaciously pursuing a career in indigent criminal defense. Derin Kiykioglu Derin Kiykioglu is a 2L from Plano, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 with majors in Government and Psychology and a minor in Spanish. Before coming to law school, she was a 6th grade teacher in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Derin is a member of California Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law, Berkeley High Student Court, and the California Asylum Representation Clinic. She spent her 1L summer at the San Francisco City Attorney's Office on the Labor team. In her free time, Derin enjoys reading dystopian fiction and finding lucky pennies. Aleksandr Markelov Aleksandr Markelov is a 2L from Kiev, Ukraine and San Francisco, California. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2013 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Slavic Studies. Before coming to law school, he dabbled in the San Francisco startup scene and spent a season backpacking Southeast Asia. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy Team, Aleksandr is a member of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Patent Law Society, Berkeley Business Law Journal, California Asylum Representation Clinic, and Berkeley First Generation Professionals. He spent his 1L summer at the United States Attorney’s Office in San Jose, specializing in civil litigation. In his free time, Aleksandr enjoys riding motorcycles, traveling, and developing his connoisseurship of fine burritos. Conor McNamara Conor McNamara is a 2L from Buffalo, NY. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2009 with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and a major in Chinese Language. Prior to law school, Conor was an officer in the U.S. Army, where he was stationed for most of his time in Georgia, Alaska and Afghanistan. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Conor is the Firm Liaison for the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, and is a member of the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. He spent his 1L summer in the Criminal Division at the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of CA Conor enjoys almost any outdoor activity, and loves to travel, read, and play the violin. Nathaniel Miller is a 3L from Santa Monica, California. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 with majors in political science and French studies. Before coming to law school, he taught 7th grade math at Markham Middle School in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Nathaniel is the Feller Lecture Editor of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. He spent his 1L summer at Public Counsel, a Los Angeles-based public interest law firm and his 2L summer at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Washington, D.C., specializing in litigation and public policy work. In his free time, Nathaniel is an avid sports fan. Neelam Mohammed Neelam "Nemo" Mohammed is a 3L from Sugar Land, TX. She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2012, double-majoring in Anthropology and Political Science. Before coming to law school, she was an Assistant Program Director for Dream Careers Inc., where she helped U.S. college students land cool internships with major London-based companies and adjust to life in London for the summer. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Nemo is the Operations Director of the Berkeley Journal of International Law. She spent her 1L summer externing for Judge Gary Klausner in the Central District of California (Los Angeles) and her 2L summer at Latham & Watkins' San Diego and Los Angeles offices, specializing in Environment, Land, and Resources. In her free time, Nemo enjoys geocaching, hiking, spinning, and baking delicious treats. Nate Ngerebara Aspiring patent litigator. Natalie Robinson Natalie is a 1L from Mill Valley, California. She graduated from Boston University in 2010 with a major in Sociology and from Arizona State University in 2012 with a master's degree in education. Before coming to law school, Natalie worked for five years as a high school English teacher and mock trial coach in Mesa, Arizona and in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, she is also a member of the Juvenile Education Advocacy Project. In her free time, Natalie enjoys hiking and cooking/eating delicious food. Cady Sartorius Cady Sartorius, a 2L from Santa Fe, New Mexico, earned a degree in Communications and International Business (2009summa cum laude) and in Sign Language Interpreting (2010 honors) from the University of New Mexico. As a nationally certified interpreter with her own freelance business, she was working toward a legal interpreter specialty when she applied to Berkeley Law. She pursued her passion for civil rights at her summer internship with the ACLU doing disability rights work. At Berkeley Law in 2015 she is serving as the Publishing Editor of the Berkeley Journal for African American Law & Policy, a T.A. and Research Assistant in Civil Procedure, and of course as a member of the Mock Trial team. An outdoor enthusiast, her favorite activities are rock climbing, mountain biking, back-country telemark skiing, scuba diving, and white water rafting. She’s been known to throw a night out salsa dancing into the mix now and then. Olivia Sideman Olivia Sideman is a 2L from Boston, MA. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2009 with a major in History and a minor in Politics. Before coming to law school, she worked at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City, conducting research on the criminal justice system, particularly in the areas of public defense, prosecutorial discretion, restorative justice, and child welfare. This work sparked her desire to become a public defender, which was confirmed during her 1L summer at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. In her free time, Olivia enjoys exercising, cooking delicious meals and exploring the beauty of the Bay Area. Mark Thomson Mark Thomson is a 2L from Alameda, California. He graduated from Macalester College in 2013 with a major in English Literature and a minor in Philosophy. Before coming to law school, Mark worked as a teacher for eighth and ninth graders. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Mark is a Supervising Editor of the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law and Articles Editor of the Asian American Law Journal. He spent his 1L summer at the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office in the office's Sexual Assault unit, drafting numerous motions in limine and legal memoranda. In his free time, Mark enjoys golfing and rooting for the Golden State Warriors. Anna Tsiotsias Anna Tsiotsias is a 2L from Hollywood, Florida. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 with a major in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. In addition to competing on the Berkeley Law Trial Advocacy team, Anna is a member of the California Law Review. She spent her 1L summer with The Honorable Robin S. Rosenbaum on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In her free time, Anna enjoys road trips, deep sea fishing, and going to the beach. Dustin Vandenberg Dustin Vandenberg is a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He graduated from Boston University in 2015 with a degree in Computer Science, Science & Technology Policy, and Chinese. He was a 4 year member and president of BU Mock Trial, as well as a member of BU's competitive Model UN team. In his free time he loves skiing, hiking, and the outdoors. He hopes to work in advocacy and policy relating to computer security and information privacy. Jason Wu is a 3L from Temple City, California. He graduated from UC Berkeley with majors in Political Science and Music. As an undergraduate, Jason spent four years competing in the American Mock Trial Association. This will be Jason's third year on Berkeley's trial team. In 2014, Jason was a member of the team that won first place at the Tournament of Champions. Jason also represented Berkeley at the 2015 Top Gun Tournament. Outside of law school, Jason is an avid classical musician.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15304
__label__wiki	0.840201	0.840201	USC Scandal Home Urban Development The Drought: The Dry Years to Come Photography by Tom Fowlks The Drought: The Dry Years to Come With a growing population and warming climate, our water problems won’t be solved by one el Niño Judith Lewis Mernit It was the late summer of 1991, and California was deep into one of the worst droughts in its history. For five years with only scant interruption, the sky had burned hot and blue from November through March; bathtub rings on reservoirs rose high on their sun-parched walls. Water masters were panicking: The City of Santa Barbara built a plant to strip the salt from seawater; Los Angeles swiped images from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho for television ads to make people think twice about lingering in the shower. Everybody I met talked as if the dry season would go on forever, and having only recently relocated from Minnesota, I believed them. “Remember when we used to have winter?” a woman in my office lamented to no one in particular. “We used to get so much beautiful rain.” Winter had gone the way of the downtown punk scene, Googie diners, and speedy trips along the 101. It was a symbol of what Los Angeles used to be, a figment whose memory causes a contraction in your heart, in the place where you feel longing and sadness for times gone by. If only my new friends had paid closer attention to the distant forecast. Even as they spoke, a warm southern current was forming in the equatorial Pacific, where tropical storms gather strength to blast north toward the California coast. The sea-surface heat would build through the summer and fall, peaking around Christmastime, hence its name, El Niño, bestowed by 19th-century fishermen in honor of the baby Jesus. In October storms would uproot the big yellow umbrellas the artist Christo had installed that season in the Tehachapi Mountains; late December rainstorms would rage through January. In February of 1992, six inches of rain would fall in three hours, sending swift-water rescue teams scurrying to save flailing victims from the Los Angeles River. Inside the Orange Counter Water District’s water recycling facility Photography by Spencer Lowell Naively I had assumed that, despite the calamity the storms caused, the city would welcome the relief from drought. But the floods did us little good. City reservoirs, already full of imported water, weren’t situated in the right places to capture runoff from the streets. Instead billions of gallons of freshwater would empty each rainy day down storm drains to the ocean. “We need these kinds of storms up in Northern California, where our reservoirs are,” Robert J. Gomperz, then spokesperson for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, explained to The New York Times. “Down here we have no way of capturing the water.” It would be another wet winter before snow returned to the mountains and officials declared an end to one more California water crisis. Read more about water in L.A. Twenty-two years later, we’ve been forgetting winter again. In 2014, El Niño simmered in the Pacific through May and June but shriveled in July, abandoning the state to a fourth year of record-low reservoirs. Central Valley towns have run out of water; city lawns and leaves have gone brown. Santa Barbara has dusted off its desalination plant, the one that was shuttered in 1993 without delivering a drop of freshwater. Once again relief might be brewing around the equator: El Niño is back, and it looks like a doozy. “Right now it’s on track to be as big as the El Niño of 1997 to 1998, which was the strongest one of the 20th century,” says Michael Dettinger, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. February 1998 remains California’s wettest on record. Strong El Niño years herald what meteorologists call atmospheric rivers: low-elevation ribbons of tropical moisture that can drop more than a third of the state’s water supply in a few weeks. (In the winter of 1861 to 1862, when floods and blizzards spread from California to Utah, an epic atmospheric river hammered California for 43 days.) Were that much precipitation to hit the ground as rain, the state’s storage network, vast though it is, wouldn’t be able to handle it. So hydrologists hope the storms cross the high peaks of the southern Sierra Nevada, where rain turns to snow and stays frozen until spring. “We call the snowpack our biggest reservoir,” says Ted Thomas, spokesperson for the California Department of Water Resources. “It meters water as the snow melts over several months.” If, that is, the mountain winter gets cold. The spring before last at Phillips Station, 6,800 feet up in the Eastern Sierra where officials from the Department of Water Resources gauge the snowpack, only a quarter of the average snow had accumulated. This April a grim-faced Governor Jerry Brown had his picture taken planting the measuring pole atop dry grass. Yet both years were far from the driest we’ll ever have. In 2015, the eight mountain outposts that matter most received an average of 75 percent of their normal precipitation. “The problem was that both years were record-breakingly warm,” Dettinger says. “That warmth completely wrecked the snowpack.” Like many atmospheric scientists, Dettinger is reluctant to categorize what we’re experiencing as climate change. California weather, orchestrated by a weather pattern known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, has always gone through dramatic cycles in normal times; balmy winters, they happen. But with heat-trapping gases building up in the atmosphere, we might consider 2015 a rehearsal for 2055. “This is what climate change will look like,” he says. “This is what a normal year will look like. Eventually the snowpack will disappear.” Turf Battle So you missed the MWD’s turf removal rebate, don’t live in the City of L.A. (the LADWP still offers $1.75 per square foot, up to 1,500 square feet), or just won’t lose the sod. At least half of local water is used in the yard. So even if the rains come, creating more climate-wise landscaping will be key to reducing that figure. How to make your lawn less of a sponge? ↓ Go for gold Watering once every couple of weeks will keep the grass semi-dormant rather than totally dead. ↓ Get holy Buy an aerator at a hardware store to poke holes in the turf. “A lot of the lawns get matted, and water doesn’t percolate down to the roots,” says Mia Lehrer, the landscape planner behind such projects as the Natural History Museum garden. ↓ Revolve Rotating nozzles distribute water more evenly and slowly than standard sprinkler heads, reducing usage by a fifth. Bonus: The MWD has $30 million left for rebates on fixtures and equipment. ↓ Grow long Taller grass holds moisture better than shorter blades and grows deeper roots. ↓ Put it on a diet If you can’t or won’t yank all of it, start off small. Every square foot you pull could save 44 gallons a year. ↓ Switch blades Zoysia, Bermuda, and St. Augustine are comparatively water-efficient, warm-season grasses. Skip reseeding with rye in winter. ↓ Rein it in If you tend to forget to turn off your automatic sprinklers before a rain, take advantage of the rebate available (at least $80) for a weather-based irrigation controller. Clearly more has to be done with what falls from the sky, something beyond directing our laundry runoff to fruit trees in the backyard. Worthy as our #droughthacks might be, none of them are enough to replace the snowpack on which Los Angeles depends for at least 80 percent of its water. Eastern Sierra meltwater from the Owens Valley and Mono Lake pours into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which Mayor Fred Eaton and city engineer William Mulholland built to irrigate the city more than 100 years ago. Pumps direct freshwater from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California Aqueduct before it can get to San Francisco Bay. The Colorado River, too, finds its way to the city’s taps via the Metropolitan Water District, founded in 1928 to stake Southern California’s claim to that waterway. All those sources come from fragile ecologies that have been brought to the brink of collapse by decades of water diversions; all are contested—by local communities, environmentalists, fishermen, competing users. All of them reach us along aqueducts that intersect earthquake faults, where a cataclysmic shudder could cut off supply. When Mayor Eric Garcetti last October ordered the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to halve the city’s water imports within the next decade, he echoed a goal the utility’s managers had already set forth—and one that’s been long overdue: to remake the city of 4 million on a semiarid coast into a civilization that can survive the next century, starting with water. Despite the geography lesson in which we’ve all been inculcated, Los Angeles isn’t without local sources of water. And that’s not because we live near an ocean. As much as we want the grand, technological relief of converting seawater to freshwater, desalination will always remain a solution of last resort. In Carlsbad the $1 billion desal plant Poseidon Water built for San Diego County will any day now pump out what county officials tout as a “drought-proof” supply, but it has serious drawbacks. Jessica Jones, Poseidon’s community outreach manager, insisted when I drove down to visit that the company has done everything possible to avoid the technology’s environmental impact. Screens have been placed over intake pipes to suck in fewer fish, hypersaline effluent will be diluted before being discharged back into the sea. But the Carlsbad plant’s water costs twice as much as the water the county buys from the Metropolitan Water District and requires a third more energy to produce—despite having an advanced energy recovery system in place. Given that energy itself requires water, desalination is like an Escher drawing of resource use, an infinite loop of squandering. San Diego, where even the limited groundwater that can be coaxed from narrow river-valley aquifers comes up salty, might need a desalination plant. Los Angeles has more viable aquifers and mountains to feed them. Storms and winter gales at higher elevations send rainfall tumbling down ancestral channels to the lowlands. For now snow falls most normal winters in the San Gabriel Mountains and melts into the many tributaries of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers, pooling behind county dams. The same tectonic forces that pushed up those mountains also formed broad alluvial valleys, basins that filled over the course of the Pleistocene with the rock, silt, and sand that filter and hold water. In Los Angeles County southwest of the San Gabriel Mountains, whole cities, such as Downey and Pico Rivera, depend entirely on groundwater from the West Coast and Central groundwater basins—in reality two segments within the larger Los Angeles Basin separated by the Newport-Inglewood fault. By the 1920s, many of the basins’ wells had been nearly pumped dry, and the basins themselves had dropped below sea level, putting them at risk of turning salty as ocean water rushed into the void. But since the early 1960s, the Water Replenishment District of Southern California has kept them sufficiently healthy and safe; Downey allows a Coca-Cola plant to bottle some of their contents for sale under the label Dasani. Farther north in the county, the situation becomes more complicated: The San Fernando Valley Groundwater Basin can hold more than 1 trillion gallons of water—five times what L.A. uses in a year—but provides only around 10 percent of the city’s drinking water, from about 50 still-usable wells. Water from the rest, more than half the wells the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power once operated, remains laced with the aerospace solvents trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) that were deposited during Lockheed Martin’s wartime heyday and discovered in the 1980s. “We’ve moved wells around, sunk new well fields, gone to clean areas,” says Marty Adams, senior assistant general manager of the utility’s water system. “But even those clean areas are starting to see some pollution. You can’t contain it.” Water suppliers in the San Gabriel Valley have managed to strip away enough of those solvents to continue using their groundwater, but the San Fernando basin has a worse problem: Aerospace and other industries poisoned the water with hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, a carcinogen that tests revealed in 1986. Chromium-6 migrates, saturates soil, and confounds conventional treatment. “Up until a decade ago, there wasn’t a known test to guarantee you got it out,” Adams says. Trees have a habit of dying without water. Keep them green, and they boost your property value (as much as 20 percent), save on AC, and offer protection from UV rays. A mature native tree that’s not surrounded by turf needs one or two deep waterings a summer, so it pays to research what kind you have. Here, some general rules. ↓ Mature Trees Water once or twice a month; the water should travel at least 18 inches into the soil. Rather than pouring water at the base, water near the periphery of the canopy by spiraling a soaker hose around it. ↓ Young Trees Form a basin in the soil around the trunk; three to four feet in diameter should do. They require five gallons two to four times a week. Pour the water slowly from a bucket. Put wood chips or mulch around the base (not too close to the trunk) to retain moisture. If the soil is moist four inches down, no need to rehydrate. The technology does exist to rehabilitate the San Fernando Valley basin’s water. Doing so will involve, among other feats, forcing it through filters that can remove the tiniest molecule of contamination, a process called reverse osmosis. To that end, the city plans to begin building a $600 million treatment plant within the next six years. Who will pay remains uncertain. Money from last November’s water bond, Proposition 1, might be useful in addition to federal dollars. The Environmental Protection Agency listed the San Fernando basin as a Superfund site in 1986, which entitles its former users to a perpetual funding stream collected from polluters. Since not every perpetrator remains in business, or even alive, though, water bills will likely go up, too. However it gets done, “by 2021,” Adams says, “we will have the world’s largest groundwater treatment facility up and running in the San Fernando Valley. By 2024, we expect to produce a quarter of the city’s water supply from the groundwater basin.” Once the plume of pollution is contained, the basin can be replenished in a way that natural forces have been severely restrained from doing since the 1940s, when the Army Corps of Engineers began cementing the course of the protean Los Angeles River to stop it from sluicing houses, cars, and livestock into the ocean during every big El Niño year. More water can be directed toward places where it will percolate into the basin—at the Pacoima, Tujunga, and Hansen Dam spreading grounds in the north end of the valley. The city and county are collaborating to deepen and enlarge those infiltration fields. “The day’s coming,” Adams says, “when every drop of water that falls on this county has got to do some good.” It’s fascinating to hear someone like Adams, who’s been with the LADWP for 31 years, discuss the city’s water supply as if Los Angeles were always working toward a goal of water independence, always looking at every raindrop as a resource. But it’s been only 20 years or so since the conversation started. Even then, it didn’t have much to do with concern over our drinking water supply. It began instead with an emerging revolution to clean up the beach. In the 1990s, environmental groups all over the country were suing the EPA, which for years had neglected to enforce a clause in the Clean Water Act requiring the agency to set limits for pollution no matter where it came from. In Los Angeles the environmentalists won, and the federal government began holding the cities and counties responsible for the candy wrappers, dirty diapers, half-eaten cheeseburgers, and plastic six-ring beer holders that washed from their streets into storm drains and ultimately the sea. Since Los Angeles keeps its storm drains and sewer systems separate, the easiest way to cleanse storm water is to keep it on land: “Slow it, spread it, sink it” goes the mantra of natural-treatment advocates. Such a shift, however, ran counter to decades of law in Southern California, intended to keep people and water apart. Building codes in both the city and the county required lots to be built at a 2 percent slope so all the water that fell on them would pour into the street, supposedly protecting foundations from being undermined. Rain barrels for catching roof runoff and larger tanks, known as cisterns, to hold drainage required permits from the state water board to install. Ordinances would have to be changed and codes rewritten, which meant that officials at the public agencies governing water and sewers and storm drains would have to start talking to one another as well as to environmentalists and architects—something they just didn’t do. It was to bring those people together that Dorothy Green, the late firebrand founder of one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, Heal the Bay, helped to establish the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council (later renamed the Council for Watershed Health) in 1995. “Her goal,” says Suzanne Dallman, a Cal State Long Beach geography professor who served on the council in the early 2000s, “was to make them see how much they had in common.” Among the things Green had to prove was that while storm water runoff ferries pollution from streets into the ocean, the water itself isn’t necessarily as polluted as people supposed. In 2000, she secured the first of what would amount to $10 million in state and federal grants for the Watershed Council and hired Dallman to manage a study of storm water’s effect on the aquifer. Dallman’s work went on for six years at six sites around the county. In most places the groundwater quality didn’t change at all when mixed with storm water. In some places it improved. In the ancient alluvium that makes up most of the Los Angeles basin, oil, grease, and bacteria break down. Even viruses disappear, given enough time. In addition, Dallman found that capturing three-quarters of an inch of rain could add 125 billion gallons to the region’s groundwater basins. Then as now, those basins have room to store three times as much. Suddenly Los Angeles had a new water supply. “That was our proof of concept,” Dallman says. But a member of the study’s technical advisory committee, Mark Buehler at the Metropolitan Water District, thought that Dallman’s research hadn’t gone far enough. He wanted Dallman and her crew to actually build something. So around 2004, she and her chief collaborator, Rebecca Drayse—then director of the natural urban systems group at TreePeople, an environmental nonprofit—headed to Sun Valley, a neighborhood of modest ranch-style homes too hastily developed to have bothered with storm drains. The 7700 block of Elmer Avenue was once a place where standing water, and sometimes standing waves, amassed in the feeblest storms. Dallman and Drayse worked with landscape architects as well as environmental and city engineers to draft plans to line the block with native plant gardens that would capture rainfall, which would then collect in buried basins and seep down into the aquifer. The city, especially, was resistant at first. “They said, ‘Well, we’ll let you do permeable asphalt,’ ” Dallman remembers. “ ‘Then if it doesn’t work, we can just pave it over.’ ” The $2.7 million project was completed in 2011 and now contributes an average of 5.4 million gallons to the groundwater supply each year. The flooding stopped, too. In the process Elmer Avenue has become a national model for urban renewal. Only 2 percent of the block’s residents considered their street walkable before the retrofit; now 92 percent do. The LADWP broke ground on a copycat project in August for another flood-prone street in Pacoima. “People love Elmer Avenue for its multiple benefits,” says David Sedlak, a professor of mineral engineering at UC Berkeley and the author of an influential book, Water 4.0: The Past, Present and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource. But from a water supply standpoint, he says, a one-block retrofit is not the answer to our problems because it can’t drink in enough storm water to make the most out of a year like 1992. A better project in water supply terms, he argues, is the $52 million Rory M. Shaw Wetlands Park currently under construction in Sun Valley, north of Burbank airport. A collaboration between the City and County of Los Angeles, the wetlands park will turn a 46-acre former landfill into a real live functioning wetland, with ponds and swales to collect storm water and pump it into Sun Valley Park, where underground basins already recharge the groundwater. Named for a city engineer who in 2005 fell into a sinkhole he was trying to repair during a raging storm, the wetland has the capacity to capture nearly 200 million gallons of water per year. Drop Drill You can do more with the rain that sloughs off your roof; each square foot of surface yields about 0.6 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall, so a 1,000-square-foot roof would yield about 600 gallons. ↓ In the tank A 50-gallon rain barrel is about $100; with a $75-plus rebate, you’ve slashed the cost considerably. The volume isn’t great, but every drop counts. It might take a half hour a year to clean and maintain a barrel, says Scott Mathers, founder of Hey!Tanks LA. ↓ Soul Cistern Common in Australia, cisterns offer more serious water savings and are, gallon for gallon, cheaper than rain barrels, provided they’re not buried. “Above-ground is so much less expensive than belowground because of the labor involved to excavate and backfill and compact and haul that excess soil away,” says Mathers, who adds that a 5,000-gallon tank aboveground might cost $5,000; belowground, three times that. Beyond such signature projects, the LADWP’s Adams has faith in what he calls a “distributed” water supply—lots that retain water until it soaks into the aquifer, houses that catch rain from rooftops. Three years ago Los Angeles began requiring that most new development, instead of sloping toward the street, capture the first three-quarters of an inch of each storm’s rainfall—“the first flush”—with rain barrels, permeable pavement, or sunken vegetated strips that act like tiny wetlands, called bioswales. Six months later the county followed. The same year Governor Brown signed the Rainwater Capture Act of 2012, allowing anyone to harvest rainwater without having to obtain a permit. Dallman’s latest research, a collaboration among economists and engineers from other Cal State University campuses, aims to quantify both the energy savings and the economic benefit of that water. Dallman and her peers compared the cost and energy requirements of importing water (the State Water Project consumes 3 percent of California’s electricity) with the cost and energy required to harvest rain with barrels and cisterns. They determined that catching rainwater from rooftops benefits both city budgets and the climate. In the Ballona Creek Watershed—an area composed of parts of L.A., Culver City, Inglewood, and Playa Vista—the researchers found that if half the residential and commercial buildings used 55-gallon rain barrels to capture runoff from their roofs, they could harvest a year’s supply for 9,000 single-family homes and rack up a net savings of $137 million over a 30-year period. Australia emerged from a 13-year drought in 2009 with laws in cities like Sydney and Adelaide requiring that cisterns accompany new homes; nearly half the residents of Adelaide now capture rainwater. One day they might all plug into a water network, not unlike how solar panels connect to the electrical grid. The technology is under development: A Toronto company, RainGrid, has begun a pilot project in Ontario. So far it consists of one lonely cistern, “but we expect to have a community-wide system running within a year,” says Natalija Fisher, director of strategic initiatives for the company. “We’re calling it ‘Rain Barrels 2.0.’ ” Here in Los Angeles the DWP has a ten-location pilot with interconnected cisterns in the offing; if one fills up before another, it will send the overflow in that direction. People like Adams view the technology as a small but significant contribution to the city’s water supply future. On a miasmic day this past July, I stood overlooking the massive concrete basins of the Orange County Water District’s Groundwater Replenishment System, where the world’s largest sewage-to-drinking-water recycling facility begins its work. One at a time, to the scream of an air compressor, each basin filled with brown, sudsy water—brown from what engineer Mehul Patel euphemistically called “organics”; sudsy from the leftover detergent used to clean the filters. The plant, which opened in 2008, recycles 100 million gallons a day from the Orange County Sanitation District for delivery to its 19 member agencies. Recycled water contributes roughly a third of the agency’s overall water supply, 70 percent of which comes from groundwater. The problems the operation encounters are mostly good ones. “We’re not getting as much wastewater as we used to,” said spokesperson Gina Ayala. “Too much conservation.” Flexible polymer membranes enable the Orange County plant to accomplish with a single six-inch-diameter filter what used to require a 400-square-foot pit of gravel, sand, and silt. “It’s the space saving that really made this technology take off,” Patel told me. Every filter is packed with thousands of minuscule polypropylene straws that have been punctured with millions of microscopic holes, each 1/300th the size of a human hair. The holes are small enough to filter protozoa like giardia and cryptosporidium; they’d do fine with lake water on your hiking trip, but they can’t catch pollutants like the ones that plague the San Fernando Valley’s groundwater. That’s where reverse osmosis takes over. “From a chemistry standpoint, the water that comes out of the plant is almost too pure,” Patel said. Minerals have to be added back in or the distilled water will corrode pipes and over time leach minerals from consumers’ gastrointestinal tracts. Yet the water goes through one more, sometimes redundant, step: Ultraviolet light exposure and hydrogen peroxide combine to destroy anything that’s left. The water destined for consumers’ taps then moves to spreading grounds in Anaheim, where it mingles with rainwater, the Santa Ana River, and the ancient contents of the aquifer. We arrived at a trio of stainless steel sinks, each containing water—dark, yellow, and clear—from different stages of the treatment process. Ayala handed me a plastic cup, which I filled with the clear, finished water. It tasted flat and supersoft; if you used it to wash your hair, it wouldn’t get the soap out. The water needed minerals and time in the ground. Orange County never had much public resistance to its wastewater reuse because the agency spent ten years educating people. District staff threw parties, held seminars, worked water treatment into the school curriculum. It was everything that didn’t happen in 2000, when Los Angeles was ready to embark on its own groundwater replenishment effort with wastewater cycled through the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys. “What put the kibosh on it was a mayor’s race,” says Doug Walters, a 26-year veteran at L.A.’s Bureau of Sanitation and director of the city’s “One Water” plan for the future. A candidate in that race, Joel Wachs, had adopted a label coined by an Encino activist: “toilet to tap.” A widely circulated cartoon showed a woman at her kitchen sink with a toilet right above it, and “the switchboards at City Hall went crazy,” Walters remembers. The city had sunk $55 million into what was being called the East Valley Water Recycling Project, which had the blessings of the state water board, public health officials, and the EPA. But as the first flows were to be released to the Hansen Dam spreading grounds, then-City Attorney James Hahn, who was also a mayoral candidate, shut the project down; once Hahn was elected, he reaffirmed the shutdown order, effectively putting an end to a state-of-the-art wonder that would have established L.A. as a leader in urban water efficiency. Drain Gain If you’ve poked around the topic, you already know: Using water from your washer is the simplest way to go gray; a DIY setup might cost $700, less than half of what a pro might charge. “If you’re a handy person and already have some pipe-gluing experience, the indoor part will take no more than two hours,” says Sherry Bryan, program director of the Central Coast Greywater Alliance. “And the outdoor component, no more than half a day.” Permits are required only if you want to tap into shower or sink water, and for that you’d need a specialist such as Hey!Tanks LA. Bryan’s tip? Keep it simple: “Gray water is produced in the home, goes directly to the landscape, and falls onto mulch basins that allow the water to slowly percolate into the [soil] and irrigate plants.” As it stands now, Los Angeles won’t get around to recycling water for drinking until 2022—and then only 13 million gallons a day. By 2035, the daily recharge to the San Fernando Valley Groundwater Basin will rise to 27 million gallons, displacing a mere 5.4 percent of our imports. City planning memos suggest Tillman might purify 100 million gallons a day, and some of the 91 billion gallons the city’s Hyperion Treatment Plant flushes annually into the ocean might come back through the plant, too. For now, however, the 2022 goal and its $415 million price tag loom large. If Tillman doesn’t mimic Orange County’s standard, Walters says, “ it would be a harder sell to our public.” The city can’t afford to lose the public again. Without the public, the whole scheme falls apart. Because no matter how happily we drink our recycled toilet water or capture rain in our networked cisterns, we’ll need to use less water. Conservation and efficiency, those twin dullards that burden every water supply conversation, matter more in the immediate present than all the other solutions put together. We’re pretty good at it: Per capita water use in Los Angeles is down 37 percent since 1975, to 113 gallons a day, factoring in each resident’s share in burst water mains, leaky pipes, and overirrigated parks. Now all we need to do is get better at it. By half. Whether we can, or will, depends on how firmly the pain of this drought lodges itself in the collective memory. “There’s a classic quote from John Steinbeck from the book East of Eden,” says Peter Gleick, cofounder and director of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, a think tank on water and the environment: “ ‘And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.’ ” Judith Lewis Mernit is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in High Country News, Sierra, Audubon, The Atlantic, and Capital & Main. Colorado River Aqueduct Dorothy Green Drought-friendly Fred Eaton Los Angeles Aqueduct Los Angeles River Marty Adams metropolitan water district Michael Dettinger Orange County Water District Suzanne Dallman Water in L.A. 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__label__wiki	0.985243	0.985243	UCLA’s Miller Is Criticized by Two Opposing Coaches By TRACY DODDS EUGENE, Ore. — Reggie Miller is playing one great game after another. But as he leads the UCLA basketball team into its final contest of the regular season against Oregon this afternoon, he’s also busy dodging criticism by the last couple of coaches he has irritated. Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller acknowledged Reggie Miller as a great player after the junior forward had scored 41 points in the Bruins’ 74-63 victory over the Beavers Thursday night, virtually assuring UCLA an NIT bid. Coach Miller added, however: “It seemed like Reggie had a protection society out there. His first three shots were offensive fouls.” Meanwhile, at Tucson, Coach Lute Olson of Arizona was still riled about a foul that was called on Miller during his team’s game at Pauley Pavilion Monday night. Referee Jimmy Clark called an intentional foul on Miller with 4 minutes 27 seconds left in the first half after Miller had caught Craig McMillan with a sharp left elbow. Olson told reporters in Tucson: “It was a deliberate elbow. It was a purposeful attempt to injure another player. The official was wrong not to throw him out of the game. I wonder if a player should take legal action against another player after something like that. “Reggie Miller lost a lot in my eyes. Obviously, he can’t handle frustration. A person with courage wouldn’t do something like that.” McMillan was the player defending against Miller, even when the Wildcats went to a box-and-one alignment. But after the game, when reporters asked Miller if McMillan deserved credit for holding him to just 8 points in the second half after Miller had scored 21 in the first, Miller downplayed McMillan’s effort. To that, Olson said: “There is such an ego there. His ego overrides the team. We don’t have anyone who thinks like that. If you can’t respect your opponent, I can’t imagine you have a lot of respect for yourself.” UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard has no problem with Miller’s role on the team. In fact, he gave Miller the green light in the Oregon State game. He has been saying all season that Miller doesn’t shoot enough. When told what Olson had said about his scoring star, Hazzard responded: “I’m sorry the Coach of the Year (in the Pac-10) had to say something like that. I think he’s blowing this thing out of proportion. “Reggie wasn’t the only one throwing elbows. But I’m not going to get into that, trading barbs. “I’m just sorry that Coach Olson would attack the character of a young man without really knowing that young man.” Miller reviewed the tape of the game before responding to the charge. He concluded: “It was just in the heat of battle. It was not intentional.” Bruin Notes UCLA’s game at Oregon today at 1 p.m. will be televised regionally by CBS (Channel 2) and broadcast by KRTH (93 AM). . . . Oregon’s record is 10-17 overall, 5-12 in the Pac-10. UCLA’s record is 15-12 overall, 9-8 in the Pac-10. A victory over Oregon would give UCLA the same record the Bruins had last year going into the NIT. Coach Walt Hazzard had said that he would consider an NIT bid if his team finished over .500, but he was not quite ready to say that he would accept the bid. Friday he said: “It looks good, but I want to see how we play against Oregon.” . . . Oregon is coming off a victory over USC to avoid finishing in last place in the Pac-10. . . . UCLA has won seven of its last eight games at McArthur Court. . . . Reggie Miller has led the Bruins in scoring in each of the last 14 games. He is only the third player in UCLA history to score 700 points in a season. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it three times, and Gail Goodrich did it once. Miller’s total of 716 points puts him fifth on the single-season list. . . . In his last four games, Miller has averaged 32 points, shooting 65%. . . . UCLA opened conference play this season with a 71-65 victory over Oregon at Pauley Pavilion.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15311
__label__wiki	0.967357	0.967357	Wayward Storm Falters, Heads Back Toward Florida : Weather: Hurricane Gordon weakens after lashing the Outer Banks. A wary eye is kept on the Atlantic’s most ‘bizarre’ cyclone in 22 years. From Times Wire Services NAGS HEAD, N.C. — Hurricane Gordon, the Atlantic’s “most bizarre storm” in 22 years, battered North Carolina’s Outer Banks before it weakened into a tropical storm Friday and doubled back unexpectedly toward Florida. Forecasters in Florida kept a wary eye on Gordon, which left a trail of devastation as it took a zigzag course up from the Caribbean earlier this week. The storm--which didn’t reach the 74-m.p.h. hurricane threshold until Thursday, when it was off North Carolina--was blamed for hundreds of deaths in Haiti, and six deaths and at least $200 million in vegetable crop damage in Florida. “We’re not panicking or anything here, but we are taking it seriously,” said Mike Rucker, a meteorologist with the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “If it does get as far south as the Bahamas, it gets into warm waters again and can rejuvenate.” By 10 p.m. EST Friday, Gordon had 60-m.p.h. winds and was about 275 miles east of Charleston, S.C. It was drifting south at about 7 m.p.h., and forecasters predicted continued weakening today. Its southerly motion was expected to continue Friday night. Forecasters had expected the storm to move slowly northward, losing strength as it reached cooler, more northern waters. A coastal flood warning remained in effect from North Carolina’s border with Virginia to Cape Lookout, southwest of Cape Hatteras, as the National Hurricane Center warned that tides of three to five feet above normal were still expected over portions of the Outer Banks. The National Hurricane Center also warned that tornadoes were possible over eastern portions of North Carolina. Rucker called Gordon “the most bizarre storm since September of ’72,” when Hurricane Dawn hit southern Florida and headed into the open Atlantic. Like Gordon, Dawn headed north, then turned west toward the Outer Banks, where it got close but never hit land. Dawn then doubled back toward Florida, barely missing Jacksonville. Residents on the Outer Banks worked Friday to clean up after a punishing high tide with waves up to 16 feet destroyed four empty houses in Kitty Hawk. Three of the houses had been condemned because of heavy damage from earlier storms. Insurance industry representatives said the storm left a minimum $10 million to $15 million in damage to homes and buildings. Emergency workers had not ordered residents of the Outer Banks to evacuate, but ocean waters still covered North Carolina 12, the only highway linking the region’s isolated resort towns, rendering it impassable. “A five-mile area on the east end of Ocracoke Island has lost 50% of its dunes,” said Bob Woody, public information officer for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park. “Damage is significant.” Gordon’s Furious Path Tropical Storm Gordon killed more than 500 people in Haiti and swamped much of Florida’s winter vegetable crop. Gordon, which became a hurricane Thursday, was downgraded to a tropical storm Friday afternoon.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15312
__label__wiki	0.532253	0.532253	The Myth of Good Government By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. One of the great and most persistent errors of classical liberals is to believe in “good government,” a government that does “what it is supposed to do.” There is nothing the state can do, which society needs done, that cannot be done far better by the market. Another point that is just as telling: no state empowered to do what is supposedly necessary will restrain itself to those things. It will expand as much as public opinion will tolerate. Sometimes the point is easier to see when looking at foreign governments, such as the tragic case of China. The government is embarking on an explosive venture to dump $586 billion into “infrastructure” over two years. The reason is the classic Keynesian excuse: the spending is needed to stimulate investment. Never mind that this trick has never worked in all of human history. This is instead a grand plan to loot the private sector on behalf of the Communist Party, which will then spend the money bolstering its power. No country knows more about the failures of this type of central planning than China. Every form of collectivism has been tried out on these poor souls, and tens of millions lost their lives in the course of Mao’s insane collectivist experiments. That this new plan is being enacted in the name of Lord Keynes rather than Karl Marx is irrelevant. The effects are the same: expand power and reduce liberty. China’s recovery from communism is one of the most inspiring stories in the history of economic development. The country went from being a suffering and impoverished land of catastrophe to being modernized in just 15 years. The state shrunk in scope nearly by default as the private sector grew and grew. This wasn’t the plan. It was the de facto result of the new tolerance of free economic activity. The state went into protective mode to keep its power, and did nothing to stop the swell of private enterprise. The result was glorious. Keep in mind this critical point. China’s restoration as a civilized society came about not due to some central plan, but by its absence. The fact that the state did not intervene led to prosperity. Again, it wasn’t a policy or a constitution or a law that made the difference. There was no switch from a communist-style government to a night-watchman state. Because the state abandoned its posts under public opposition and contempt, society could flourish. But the state never went away. It’s just that its depredations have been spotty and unpredictable. Had history taken a better course, the central state would have melted away completely, and law would have devolved to the most local levels. Sadly for the Chinese, the state persisted in its old structure, even as the private sector grew and grew. The state still had its hand in the large industries such as steel and energy, and, of course, it controlled the banking sector. The government never became good (an impossibility). It was and is bad. It was just less bad than in the past because it did less. But all states lie in wait for a crisis. The earthquake in the southwest provided one great excuse for intervention. But nothing except war compares with an economic crisis as a great excuse for state expansion. Chinese officials can count on support from Western “experts” here, and the thoroughly disgusting US response to our own economic downturn has provided an awful model for the world. Think of it: the Communist Party in China is now citing the US as the main reason for its plot to loot the private sector and bolster its own power at the expense of the country. So much for being a beacon of liberty in a dark world! Instead, the US is helping to shut out the lights and bolster decrepit despotisms. This is surely one of the great ironies of the current political moment. Instead of teaching the world about liberty, the US’s newly empowered unitary executive is christening various forms of dictatorship. There can be no question that China’s spending will not improve economic growth. It will instead extract $586 billion from the private sector and spend on political priorities. Never forget that no government has wealth of its own to spend. It must come from taxation, monetary inflation, or debt expansion that must be paid later. And government’s spending choices will always be uneconomic relative to how society would use that wealth. That is to say, it will be wasted. But won’t the spending spur investment? It can create local boomlets, but they will be temporary. To the extent that the new spending causes a spending response from investors and consumers, this is more evidence of an uneconomic use of scarce resources. If the money is used to prop up failing companies, that’s particularly bad since it is an attempt to override market realities, an attempt that is about as successful as trying to repeal gravity by throwing things up in the air. The nature of the state — and the core of its rationale for existence — is the conviction that it stands apart from and above society, to correct the failings of the market and individuals. A presumption of superiority is at the very claim of the state, whether it is minimal or totalitarian. Who is to say when and where it should intervene? Well, think about it. If the state is inherently wiser than and superior to society, standing in judgment over what is working and what is not working, the state alone is also in a position to decide when it should intervene. No government is liberal by nature, said Ludwig von Mises. This is the great lesson that people who advocate “limited government” have never learned. If you give the government any jobs to do, it will presume the right to police its own conduct and then inevitably abuse its power. That is true in China and it is true in the US. It was the science of economics that first discovered the radical incapacity of the state to make any improvements in the social order. It turns science on its head to invoke economics as a reason for the government to loot and pillage in the name of “stimulating investment.” Stimulation here, there, and everywhere amounts to a diminution of freedom, security of property, and prosperity. Keynes famously praised Nazi economic policies in the introduction to the German edition of his worst book, the General Theory. After a century of horrors, free men and women, in China, the US, and the world surely deserve better. Lew Rockwell Archives The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail], former editorial assistant to Ludwig von Mises and congressional chief of staff to Ron Paul, is founder and chairman of the Mises Institute, executor for the estate of Murray N. Rothbard, and editor of LewRockwell.com. He is the author of Against the State: an Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Previous article by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.: Conservatives Follow the Leader Rothbard as Intellectual Inspiration Should the US Government Invade Venezuela To Save It’s People From Socialist Maduro? No.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15313
__label__cc	0.630887	0.369113	September 11, 2016 by Eric Berry When we talk about how much money we "make" in a month, quarter, or year, we're using the standard accounting measure "revenue." We've previously discussed revenue and cash flow in the context of accounts receivable. As a quick reminder, cash flow is when your customers pay v when you pay clients, whereas revenue (in "accrual accounting," in cash accounting it's based on cash flows, but this isn't very helpful) is the sum of money that ought to eventually be paid to the company based on its activities in the quarter minus money that ought to eventually be paid by the company (note for this Lift Letter, there are a huge number of caveats for complex accounting so almost everything below can be incorrect in certain contexts). Revenue recognition is the process of determining, based on a set of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP in the US, IFRS in other countries), whether you must include revenues and expenses for a given period. If you're a lemonade stand and you release monthly financial statements, you make cash exactly when you sell the product so you could just add up the month's costs and revenue and you've got your financial statement. But what if you're a crazy lemonade stand and in January you sell people lemonade contracts - but the lemonade can only be redeemed in July of that year - what do your financial statements show in January and July? In this case, you have no revenue in January - your books show "deferred income." You can recognize the revenue when the good or service has been performed, in July. The deferred income is converted to revenue at this time. If you sell an annual subscription contract at the beginning of the year, giving the buyer 1 lemonade per month, you recognize 1/12 of the contract every month. What if you become a lemonade tycoon, and you hire a bunch of employees and pay them commissions at the end of the year based on the lemonade they sell in a month, and salaries through the year. In this case, you record as an expense both the salary and your expected commission in each month, because you have an obligation to pay them against the activities in that month, even if you pay it many months later. If you run a big SSP instead of a lemonade stand, but you have a contractually guaranteed rev share with your publishers - meaning you keep 15% - you can't recognize the 85% as revenue because you never had a right to it. Same with a DSP that takes 15% as a fee from the total billings through its system. But if there's no fixed rev share, the rules could be different based on other discussions. Why does this matter? We have to issue financial statements and everyone - investors, employees, our bankers - need to be aligned on what they mean. When we show that we made, say, $10M last month, that's based on a common set of expectations about what that number means. We won't get paid that money for a while. It's also possible that some people won't ever pay - they might go out business, for example - and while the revenue stays $10M, we would move some amount from accounts receivable to bad debt and make a sad face. Theoretically, if money were incorrectly allocated it wouldn't have an impact on the actual operations of the company (outside of the finance people getting upset). That means we'd still invoice people the same way, and pay people the same way. But it would mean the numbers that we look at and our ability to rely on those numbers would be degraded, so we wouldn't be able to actually as-effectively project our company's operations. We'd probably also break some covenants with our debt. If you're a publicly traded company, you're legally obligated to report revenue based on various standards. Companies like Groupon and Salesforce have pushed the limits but generally gotten away with it. Companies like Enron and Parmalat went too far and broke laws. The general idea was that they tried to recognize revenue way too early and defer expenses way too late through complex accounting shenanigans. This would let them get extra debt that they could, presumably, use to make more money and juice their share price. As a result of these and other accounting scandals, congress passed Sarbanes Oxley in 2002, which among other things, holds the CEO criminally liable for the accuracy of a public company's accounting - even if they weren't directly involved. This has had the intended result of having company CEOs make extra sure that the accounting was correct. September 11, 2016 /Eric Berry Revenue recognition, Accounting	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15314
__label__wiki	0.881799	0.881799	Indian IT professionals are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system US removes country cap on Green Card, Indian H-1B visa holders to benefit 4 min read . Updated: 11 Jul 2019, 11:46 AM IST PTI US lawmakers removed seven per cent country-cap on issuing Green Cards The move will benefit thousands of highly-skilled Indian IT professionals Green CardUS immigartion Washington: The US House of Representatives has passed by an overwheming majority a legislation to remove the seven per cent country-cap on Green Card applicants, a development which could end the agonising wait of tens of thousands of talented professionals from countries like India who have sought permanent residency. The bill, when signed into law, increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from seven per cent of the total number of such visas available that year to 15 per cent and eliminates the seven per cent cap for employment-based immigrant visas. A Green Card allows a non-US citizen to live and work permanently in America. Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency. The bill titled 'Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019' or 'HR 1044' to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants, to increase the per-country numerical limitation for family-sponsored immigrants, and for other purposes, was passed on Wednesday by an overwhelming 365-65 votes in a 435-member House. Lifting the per-country cap would mainly benefit professionals from countries like India, for whom the wait for Green Card is more than a decade. Some of the recent studies have said the waiting period for Indian IT professionals on H-1B visas is more than 70 years. The bill also establishes transition rules for employment-based visas from Financial Year 2020-22 by reserving a percentage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability), EB-3 (skilled and other workers), and EB-5 (investors) visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest number of recipients of such visas. Of the unreserved visas, not more than 85 per cent shall be allotted to immigrants from any single country, Congressional Research Service (CRS) said. The bill, however, has to be passed by the Senate, where the ruling Republican Party enjoys a majority, before it can be signed into law by US President Donald Trump. A similar bill being supported by a bipartisan group of senators, including Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris, is slated to come up for consideration soon in the Senate. Congressman John Curtis, speaking on House floor, said that bill will create a first-come, first-serve system providing certainty to workers and families and enabling US companies to flourish and compete in a global economy as they hire the brightest people to create products, services, and jobs - regardless of where they were born. "This bill would do nothing to move the current employment-sponsored system toward a more merit-based system," said Joseph S Joh, Assistant Director and Senior Advisor in the Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of Homeland Security. The passage of the bill was welcomed by Indian professionals from across the country, in particularly in the Silicon Valley in California, Seattle area in Washington State, the Greater Washington DC Area and the tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Top American IT companies also welcomed the passage of the bill and urged the Senate to pass it at earliest so that the President can sign it into law. "Today the US House passed legislation to ensure people from all countries are treated the same in the green card process. This promotes a fair high-skilled immigration system that's good for business and our economy," said Microsoft president Brad Smith. Todd Schulte, President FWD.us, an advocacy organisation representing top Silicon Valley companies, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and DropBox, said that "this bill will help ensure that those seeking permanent residency will not have to face extraordinary wait times - projected at 50 years or more for people from countries like India and China - simply because of their country of origin." "Eliminating 'per-country' caps for employment-based green cards and raising caps for family-based green cards will make the system fairer for immigrant families while also strengthening the United States' ability to recruit and retain top global talent by establishing a fair and predictable path to permanent legal status," he said. The bill which was championed by Sunayana Dumala, the wife of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla who was shot dead in a hate crime shooting, said that it was an important day and "a moment we have been waiting for years. Finally, our hard work and tireless efforts have come into fruition," The Kansas City Star reported. Kuchibhotla was killed in a shooting at restaurant in Olathe in Kansas in February 2017. His wife Sunayana made multiple visits to Washington to advocate for the legislation. "After the tragic murder of my husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, I lost my status to stay in the country and the immigration struggle took over my grief," Dumala said in a statement on Wednesday. "And today, with HR 1044 getting passed, I can finally find peace and no words can express my happiness," she said. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15318
__label__wiki	0.772934	0.772934	The modus operandi is simple: Select your base model, choose the specifications, upgrades and accessories and get it delivered. Forget Nehru Place, get your laptop assembled online at Lenovo 1 min read . Updated: 26 Jun 2019, 04:35 PM IST Indo Asian News Service ( with inputs from IANS ) Lenovo's "made to order" service for India can create a true factory-built custom PCs with options to choose from over 100,000 configurations The customisation is currently available for Lenovo's ThinkPad line-up and would will be eventually rolled out for its other portfolios later this year New Delhi: Taking customisation to the next level, Chinese technology giant Lenovo on Wednesday announced its "made to order" service for India wherein prospective buyers can create a true factory-built custom PC with an option to choose from over 100,000 configurations. The customisation is currently available for Lenovo's ThinkPad line-up and would will be eventually rolled out for its other portfolios later this year, the company said in a statement. "At Lenovo, we understand that in today's world, every individual uses a laptop differently because of which, there has been a growing demand for personalised laptops, which cater to specific needs. "The launch of this service is a big step in our journey to becoming a truly customer-centric company and will prove to be a compelling proposition for our direct e-commerce business," said Rahul Agarwal, CEO and MD Lenovo, India. The customisation of the laptops using this service would be created at Lenovo's facility using precision automation technology and would be delivered to customers' doorsteps in over 15 days. The prospective buyers have to select the base model, choose the specifications, upgrades and accessories before they get it delivered at their doorstep. Customisation options are available for CPU, storage, graphics, screen, pre-installed software options and accessories, etc.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15319
__label__wiki	0.923642	0.923642	Actuate Corp. v. Fidelity National Information Services IP/Entertainment Case Law Updates August 21, 2014 District court dismisses claims for direct and indirect copyright infringement, finding that action against licensee for unpaid royalties lies in contract law rather than copyright where licensee did not exceed any of its licensing conditions. Plaintiff Actuate Corporation sued defendant Fidelity National Information Services, alleging direct and indirect copyright infringement based on claimed discrepancies in Fidelity’s royalty payments to Actuate for use of its software under a licensing agreement. Fidelity moved to dismiss, arguing that a licensee is not liable for infringement solely on the basis of unpaid royalties. The court agreed, noting that courts in the Ninth Circuit have recognized claims for copyright infringement only where the licensee exceeded the scope of the licensing agreement to exercise any of the statutory rights under the Copyright Act (e.g., creating or distributing copies of a work in excess of explicit numeric conditions within the licensing agreement). Courts in the Ninth Circuit have routinely rejected copyright infringement claims stemming from the alleged breach of covenants in the licensing agreement (e.g., failing to remit sufficient royalties); those claims do not sound in copyright law but are instead actionable only under contract law. The license at issue granted limited rights to use, manufacture, and distribute certain software, but because the essence of Actuate’s direct infringement claim was for the unpaid use and distribution of software, those allegations were not cognizable as direct copyright infringement claims. The court also dismissed the indirect infringement claims, finding that allegations that Fidelity was aware of or permitted “over-deployment” of the software by end users, in violation of end-user licensing, could not support a claim for indirect infringement because the allegations sound in contract, not copyright. Accordingly, the court granted Fidelity’s motion to dismiss without prejudice. Click here to download a PDF of the full decision.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15321
__label__wiki	0.689938	0.689938	By Stephen King The House of Commons Treasury Select Committee is undertaking an inquiry into the impact of business rates on business. London Councils has developed a joint submission between London government and business groups. Our submission makes the case that London’s businesses have been disproportionally hit by raises in business rates and that London government needs greater direct control over the system. The 2017 revaluation added £3.9 billion to London’s rateable value, with a rates bill increase of £909 million to London’s businesses. Due to the nature of the system London saw a significant increase in business rate bills compared to the rest of the England. Some boroughs, such as Hackney, were particularly hard hit with businesses on average seeing a 46 per cent increase in their rateable value and industrial units seeing a 110 per cent increase. A survey by the Federation of Small Businesses of London members showed 72 per cent did not qualify for rate relief, with 74 per cent citing Business Rates as a major issue and 23 per cent saying that the impact could mean them shutting their business. The submission to the Treasury Select Committee was made jointly by: • London Councils and Greater London Authority • Federation of Small Businesses (London Region), London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and London First. The submission calls for a series of actions from government: Allow local authorities to better respond to local business needs through greater flexibility via increased local control London government has long called for the control of a wide range of local taxes, including business rates. This was also a recommendation of the London Finance Commission (2013 and 2017), which brought together a range of local government and business stakeholders. Recent polling for the London Chamber of Commerce (February 2019) shows 53 per cent of London business decision makers believe that allowing local government to have greater control in London over tax levels and how these are spent would have a positive impact on the competitiveness of London’s business environment (compared to 13 per cent negative). 47 per cent of London business decision makers say that this would have a positive impact on the transparency and accountability of public spending (compared to 16 per cent negative). The nationally set processes do not work for London. For example, the qualifying threshold to receive a 100 per cent exemption from business rates under the small business rates relief scheme is £12,000 in England. As a result, fewer than 2 per cent of businesses in central London qualify for small business rate relief. This compares to a qualifying threshold of £15,000 in Scotland under the Scottish government’s small business bonus scheme. The taper for partial relief is also £3,000 higher north of the border and ratepayers retain eligibility if the combined rateable value of their properties is up to £35,000 compared to only £20,000 in England. Devolution to London will allow London government to design a system that delivers policy objectives around supporting inclusive growth and a diverse economy. Scrap the requirement for a fixed yield and decouple London from the rest of England The amount of business rates collected is a fixed national target. Business rates are set as a multiplier of rents, with the multiplier set at a national level to achieve the national target. As rental growth is geographically varied, with rates increasing more steeply in London, this means it artificially reduces them in other areas. Rateable value average change 2010-17 Source VOA data, Ramidus consultant report 2017 Just one London borough, Westminster, now generates more than the annual business rates income of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield City Councils combined. This is unsustainable, as an ever increasing proportion of the national business yield will come from a relatively small number of properties in central London. This increases the exposure of the entire country’s business rates income to the volatility of that unique property market. Decoupling London’s rates system from the rest of the country will support other regions’ ability to promote and capture the benefits of growth, as their income will not be artificially pushed down by London’s property market. Incentivise local authorities to prioritise business growth by retaining additional business rate growth above forecast levels London has had one year of 100 per cent retention of business rate growth (2018/19) and we were disappointed that this fell to only 75 per cent in 2019/20. We are calling for a return from 75 per cent to 100 per cent business rate retention for London, which does not require primary legislation, with London government deciding collectively how business rates are shared between the boroughs and the GLA. We also support national change, which will require legislation. Revaluations should be more frequent in order to better align business rates to actual property values and the economic cycle The gap between valuation date for revaluation assessments and their coming into effect should be reduced from two years to one, and revaluations should be undertaken annually, with the resources allocated to allow this. Improvements in technology and a move towards self-assessment, as is the case in Northern Ireland, will make annual revaluation possible soon. The Valuations Office should be properly resource and devolved to London Analysis of Valuations Office data shows the number of unresolved appeals as a percentage of the number of properties in the local rating list across the 33 London billing authorities ranged from just over 10 per cent to as much as 40 per cent compared to the England average of about 15 per cent. At 30 September 2018, 18 months after the 2010 rating list ceased to apply, there were over 20,000 outstanding appeals on the rating list in London and nearly 50,000 nationally. The relative backlog has been notably higher in those London boroughs with the highest business rates tax bases e.g. City of London, Hillingdon, Tower Hamlets and Westminster, where the materiality of any appeals will tend to be greater in financial terms as a result. By contrast in Wales, which has its own devolved arrangements, the relative backlog was only 9 per cent. To address these issues, a more efficient and effective system could be established if London government is given the ability to determine the basis of valuation and to administer the system through the establishment of separate London Valuation Office Agency. The exact process of valuation would be for London government to determine collectively; however, this could include a system of self-assessment or a formula-based system which could enable more frequent valuations that are more responsive to underlying economic conditions. London Councils will continue to lobbying national government with the GLA and business groups to make our case for major business rates reform. Stephen King, Head of Business and Enterprise	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15322
__label__cc	0.667839	0.332161	East End reimagined in photography show There’s still time to visit Cass exhibition offering a snapshot of bygone London Picture: Don McCullin The East End is in focus at a remarkable exhibition of photography currently on show at the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design (The Cass). ‘Archive: Imagining the East End’, is an exhibition of photography and events series being held as part of Photomonth 2014. The exhibition showcases a diverse range of photographers whose work relates to the East End of London - both as a geographic location and an intangible space. Images range from traditional documentary practice to works of the imagination. Books, essays, films and artifacts in the exhibition explore the shifting location of the East End and the impact of this diverse sprawl on the tale of London. The exhibition is accompanied by the book of the same name, published in December 2013 by Black Dog Publishing. ‘Archive: Imagining the East End’ is a companion to The East End Archive at The Cass, an online photographic resource intended for artists, academics and researchers from a cross-section of disciplines. It brings together both historic and contemporary collections. The East End Archive Exhibition will be followed by Uncertain States 2014, which opens in early November, also part of Photomonth. Photomonth celebrates photography in galleries and venues across East London. Since 2001 the festival has established itself as a major international event – bringing innovation and inspiration through the Open Call for exhibitions and encouraging participation in the wide variety of events on offer. Comments of the exhibition ‘An invaluable addition to British photographic archives and the attendant discourses and debates that are examined in the variety of approaches to the subject showcased in the book.’ - Paul Hill MBE, Visiting Professor, De Montfort University and University of Derby 'The Cass East End archive is a brilliant idea. It's a wonderful and necessary project and resource' - Grace Lau, photographer and author. ‘Throughout the UK Museums, libraries, historical societies, government agencies, charities and trusts are wrestling with how better to understand the digital archive…The East End Archive at the Cass is a leader in the field.’ - Zelda Cheatle The exhibition runs until 1 November 2014. Find out more about the East End Archive at The Cass on the exhibition website. Information about the Uncertain States exhibition coming soon. More information about studying at The Cass, go to their website. Information about this piece, please contact Ida Aari, i.aari@londonmet.ac.uk	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15323
__label__wiki	0.516324	0.516324	Selected scenes from the beginning of the world The first in this year’s series of The Cass Hothouse Visual Communication talks will take place on Friday 20 October. Date: 6 October 2017 This year's series of The Cass Hothouse Visual Communication talks will feature leading industry creatives in the fields of illustration, graphic design and publishing. They are free of charge and open to everyone. Patrick Savile is a freelance illustrator and print designer whose talk is entitled ‘Selected Scenes From The Beginning Of The World’. Having grown up on a solid diet of weird 70s sci-fi and fantasy, he creates worlds that hark back to the world of prog-rock album art, and takes leads from comics. He likes to create narratives in his work, however abstract it may seem. Patrick has worked as a freelance print designer for five years for the likes of Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Amazon, and when not working for the big boys, he also enjoys illustrating his own ideas, collaborating with people on album covers or painting things in his studio with his airbrush and his thoughts. Patrick had a review of his work recently published online by It's Nice That. Patrick’s talk, ‘Selected Scenes From The Beginning Of The World’ takes place on Friday 20 October 2017 from 1pm to 2pm in Room CSG-04 in the Calcutta House Annex.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15324
__label__wiki	0.761717	0.761717	Hot Type, Cold Beer and Bad News: A Cleveland Reporter's Journey Through the 1960s (Hardcover) By Michael Roberts The 1960s were the most turbulent era in Cleveland history--and an exciting time to be a newspaper reporter. This memoir takes you back to the tumult. It's an eyewitness account by a veteran journalist who, as an ambitious young reporter, covered the major events of the day: civil rights violence, corruption and crime, Vietnam, Kent State, and more. Cleveland was already changing by the beginning of the 1960s. Racial unrest, migration to the suburbs and the decline of its once-mighty industrial base reshaped the city's politics and population. Cleveland found itself at the forefront of social upheaval that would sweep the nation and alter America. In those days, a journalist could find a story that reflected the times down the street or around the world. Reporting for the Plain Dealer, Michael D. Roberts covered a decade of destruction, death and dissension--from the riots on Cleveland's East Side to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the aftermath of the Six-Day War in the Middle East and the tragedy of the Kent State shootings. There were enlightened moments, too. For a good part of that decade the eyes of the nation were on Cleveland, watching whether it would elect the first African American mayor of a major American city. It did, in Carl B. Stokes. It was also the last golden hour of print newspapers--although they didn't know it yet. Technology had not yet altered the business. All a journalist needed was a pen, a notebook, a typewriter, a pay phone and a pocketful of change. Television was only just beginning to make a serious impact on news reporting. Newspapers were a unifying force in communities, a friendly visitor that arrived on your doorstop every day. But by decade's end, the spirit of revolt would come to haunt the newspaper and pluck both the verve and the soul from it. For a reporter in search of a big story, though, bad times were also the best of times. This is the way it was. Publisher: Gray & Company Publishers Publication Date: November 23rd, 2018 Editors, Journalists, Publishers United States - State & Local - Midwest(IA,IL,IN,KS,MI,MN,MO	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15327
__label__cc	0.507969	0.492031	Canada : Mineral Mountain Appoints Terrence a. Lyons to Advisory Board Published: Apr 15, 2019 4:13 p.m. ET Apr 15, 2019 (Euclid Infotech Ltd via COMTEX) -- Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. is very pleased to announce the appointment, effective immediately, of Terrence A. Lyons (Terry) to its Board of Advisors. Terry will bring an immense and unique set of experiences in Corporate Governance, unmatched leadership and guidance to help drive Mineral Mountain towards its strategic mission to effectively explore its Rochford Gold Project located 26 km south of the worlds deepest and richest supergiant gold deposits associated with structurally deformed banded iron formation situated in the Black Hills of South Dakota, U.S.A. Terry Lyons currently serves as the Lead Independent Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. as well as a Director of Canaccords subsidiaries in the UK (Chairman), US, Australia and Asia. He is also a Director of several public and private corporations including Sprott Resource Holdings Inc. (Chairman), and Martinrea International Inc. Mr. Lyons is a retired Managing Partner of Brookfield Asset Management, past Chairman of Polaris Materials Corporation recently acquired by US Concrete, past Chairman of Northgate Minerals Corporation which was acquired by Aurico Gold (now Alamos), past Chairman of Eacom Timber Corporation which was recently sold to a private equity firm, former Chairman of Westmin Mining and Vice-Chairman Battle Mountain Gold. After 9 years he recently retired from the Board of Pavco (BC Pavilion Corporation). Terry is a Civil Engineer (UBC) with an MBA from the University of Western Ontario 1974. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Richard Ivey School of Business and is active in sports and charitable activities, is a past Governor of the Olympic Foundation of Canada, past Chairman of The Mining Association of B.C., past Governor and member of the Executive Committee of the B.C. Business Council, Past Director of the Institute of Corporate Directors (BC) and in 2007 was awarded the INCO Medal by the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy for distinguished service to the mining industry. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulatory Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15333
__label__cc	0.583861	0.416139	Art Directing Matt Torney Director/Producer/Art Director I am currently the Associate Artistic Director of Studio Theatre in Washington DC (www.studiotheatre.org) Originally from Belfast, I worked as a freelance director in Ireland before moving to the United States in 2006 to complete an MFA in directing at Columbia University. I have directed extensively in New York, regionally in the USA, and internationally, and my productions have been nominated for numerous awards. My work is grounded in the idea that theatre, and other live art forms, are a vital response to a world that is becoming increasingly displaced onto digital platforms and virtual communication. Theatre by its nature is about place and presence. Artists and audience come together in the same space, united by stories that celebrate, console, and wrestle with the complexity of modern life. I believe that the best work happens when a theatre connects deeply with its community, welcomes diverse voices, and fearlessly investigates the present moment. I direct both new plays and dynamic productions of classics, with a focus on deep work with actors, and creating vivid imagery through design. Recent work at Studio includes If I Forget by Steven Levenson (nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards), MotherStruck! by Staceyann Chin (nominated for 2 Helen Hayes Awards including ‘Best Production’), Translations by Brian Friel, and The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard. (For a full resume click here.) Studio Theatre produces a 10 show season of ‘the best of contemporary theatre in deliberately intimate spaces’ and is recognized as one of the leading mid-sized regional theatre in the US. As Associate Artistic Director, I am part of Studio’s Senior Staff, and I direct in the season as well as serving as the lead creative producer for all productions. I have produced cutting edge new plays from American and International writers (including The Effect, Wig Out! and The Apple Family Plays) world premieres (including work by Aaron Posner, Hilary Bettis, Morgan Gould, and Tearrance Chisholm) as well as immersive work and imaginative stagings of contemporary classics. I also manage the day to day operations of the artistic department, including leading casting and scouting activities, participating in season planning, leading institutional development projects and managing key community partnerships. Due to my specialized background as an art director, I also work closely with the marketing department on producing photography and video for both print and digital campaigns (read more about my art directing here). Prior to joining the team at Studio, I was the Director of Programming for Origin Theatre, an Off-Broadway company whose mission is to bring the best of European new writing to the USA. Additionally, from 2007 to 2015 I was an Associate Director of Rough Magic in Dublin, one of Ireland’s leading independent theatre companies for over 30 years. I am also a part time lecturer at the University of Maryland in the School of Theatre. Photo by Teddy Wolff	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15337
__label__wiki	0.952114	0.952114	Top 5 Concerts of the Coming Week By John J. Moser \| Of The Morning Call \| Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg plays Ardmore Music Hall tonight, Dec. 20 (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / THE MORNING CALL) Here are the Top 5 Concerts of the Coming Week: 1. MARKY RAMONE’S BLITZKRIEG The Ramones were four misfits from Queens, N.Y., who rebelled against over-bloated corporate rock with straight-forward, blazing-fast songs about subversive topics such as Nazis, sniffing glue and pinheads. It changed the music scene, inspiring a whole new genre of bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Its songs “Judy is a Punk” and “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” even gave a name to the movement: punk rock. The Ramones disbanded in 1996 and its the last original member died in 2014, but classic lineup drummer Marky Ramone is helping to keep that music alive with Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg — the closest thing to a Ramones concert you can still see. [More Entertainment] Q&A INTERVIEW: Comedian Sarah Silverman, coming to Wind Creek Event Center, gets serious about her world » 8 p.m. today, Dec. 20, with John Fay of IKE, Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave. Tickets: $20 adv., $22 door, $35 seated. ardmoremusic.com, 610-649-8389. 2. B STREET BAND Tribute acts normally aren’t top concerts to see. But after Bruce Springsteen recently announced that he and the E Street Band won’t tour this year, your best choice to hear The Boss’ music live might be tribute act B Street Band. B Street Band was chosen to play outside Philly’s former Spectrum when Springsteen played his last show there in 2009. It was chosen to play at President Trump’s inaugural gala in Washington, D.C., but canceled. (It played that same gala for President Obama.) [More Entertainment] Top 5 Concerts of the Coming Week » Note: Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez, founder of E Street Band, percussionist on The Boss’ first two albums, and 2014 Rock Hall of Fame inductee, joined the group in recent years at Mauch Chunk Opera House. 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec.23, Mauch Chunk Opera House, 14 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe. $25. www.mcohjt.com. 570-325-4009. 3. THE WIZARDS OF WINTER Like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Wizards of Winter is a holiday-themed, orchestral prog-rock group. [More Entertainment] REVIEW: Alice Cooper looks deep into his career, Halestorm looks at how far it’s come at Allentown’s PPL Center » It is large (11 members compared with TSO’s 10, though it doesn’t have TSO’s 10-member chorus). It has some former TSO members in its ranks, as well as Ted Nugent’s bassist, Bangor-area resident Greg Smith. And it was named after a Trans-Siberian song. In its nine years together, The Wizards of Winter of Frenchtown, N.J., has found so much success it wrote its own Christmas rock opera, “Tales Beneath a Northern Star,” later released a second original album, “The Magic of Winter,” and now plays a show that is 90 percent its own music. 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec.23, State Theatre, 458 Northampton St., Easton. $29, $35. statetheatre.org. 4. UNDERGROUND THIEVES [More Entertainment] REVIEW: Lee DeWyze at Catasauqua’s Gas House Dance Hall deserves attention fit for an ‘Idol’ » Nick Perri is best known as a founder, guitarist and songwriter for Philadelphia rockers Silvertide, whose 2004 album “Show and Tell” produced three Top 20 Mainstream Rock hits: “Ain’t Comin’ Home,” “Blue Jeans” and “Devil’s Daughter. Perri since has played with Shinedown and Perry Farrel, played with his sister Christian Perri and more. His new project is Underground Thieves, with Silvertide singer Walt Lafty and bassist Brian Weaver and a caravan of others.The result is a swirling dustup of bluesy rock ‘n’ roll, and roots-inspired Americana. Underground Thieves will record a live album at the show. [More Entertainment] Sands Bethlehem Event Center formally takes on new Wind Creek casino owner’s name » 7:30 p.m. Dec. 23, with Stolen Rhodes Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave. Tickets:$17 adv., $20 day of show, $29 seated, $35 VIP, $39 VIP seated, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com, 610-649-8389. 5. ANNIE HASLAM Renaissance started 50 years ago. But it didn’t take off in the Unites States until five-octave vocalist Annie Haslam joined the group in 1971, which led to its best-known 1978 UK top 10 hit “Northern Lights” and progressive rock classics “Carpet of the Sun,” “Mother Russia” and “Ashes Are Burning.” Haslam has continued her work with the band, but also has a solo career in which she has released nearly 20 albums. [More Entertainment] Country chart-topper Cole Swindell, comedian Pete Davidson, late-night host Craig Ferguson coming to Wind Creek Event Center » Now she’s on a tour in which she sings holiday classics such as “Ave Maria” and “The Snowman.” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 22, with Anton Roolaart, Sellersville Theater 1894, 24 W. Temple Ave., Ardmore23 E. Lancaster Ave. Tickets:$17 adv., $20 day of show, $29 seated, $35 VIP, $39 VIP seated, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com, 610-649-8389. Most Read • LV Music REVIEW: Alice Cooper looks deep into his career, Halestorm looks at how far it’s come at Allentown’s PPL...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15341
__label__cc	0.655695	0.344305	Jump to page content International Youth Day 2015: A Closer Look at the Youth Bulge Katerina Ntep, Managing Director, Sector Operations Students at the MCC-funded ITCHA technical college in Chalatenango, El Salvador, can earn degrees in marketing, engineering and computer programming, as well as baking and sewing. The economic growth that comes with education and employment opportunities is critical in developing countries where people under the age of 30 make of the majority of the population. Young people make up a disproportionate share of the population in MCC’s partner countries, so it’s no surprise that when MCC officials visit these countries to discuss poverty reduction, one of the issues that comes up again and again is the need to invest in employment opportunities for young people. The reason is simple: developing countries face an unprecedented “youth bulge” that poses serious social and political challenges—if it isn’t handled correctly. It can also create great opportunity if it is. What is the “youth bulge”? When a developing country succeeds in reducing infant mortality but birth rates remain unchanged, a larger and larger share of the country’s population is made up of children and young adults. In Africa alone, where MCC invests the most, more than 700 million people are under the age of 30, representing almost 70 percent of the population. In Central America, tens of millions of people are under age 30. These ballooning numbers of young people can be a boon in a country where essential resources are available and a premium is placed on education, vocational training and employment. But without quality education and training that prepare young people to excel in the job market, these young people often face a lifetime of poverty and become vulnerable to radicalization, which can lead to destabilization of a country’s social and political order. How does MCC help young people get jobs? MCC gets to the heart of youth bulge challenges by working with our partner countries to lay the foundation for economic growth that creates opportunity for young people. A shortage of available training opportunities for students in countries like El Salvador and Morocco presents a barrier to economic growth in these countries. By investing in secondary, technical and vocational education programs, MCC is helping to increase employability and reduce poverty. In El Salvador, MCC’s $277 million compact includes investments to integrate a student-centered, active-learning approach and labor market-defined technical skills into curriculum revisions, teacher training and data collection systems. The government has also committed to implementing a rigorous impact evaluation and improving information systems within the Ministry of Education to better monitor education outcomes for girls and boys. In developing a second compact with Morocco, MCC is exploring investments in vocational training centers and secondary schools to help trainees get jobs, promote training and placement of women in non-traditional jobs, and reach the most disadvantaged groups – including unemployed urban populations. MCC is also exploring a Social Impact Bond to support employment programs for vulnerable populations, and innovative funding mechanisms like pay-for-results that focus on educational outcomes and country ownership. These are just two examples of MCC’s work around the world to provide educational opportunities for young people that foster economic growth. Investing in youth today will pay dividends tomorrow. Our world will be safer, more productive, and more innovative because of it, and MCC is proud to be a part of the solution. Country Programs: El Salvador Investment Compact Georgia Compact II Morocco Employability and Land Compact Mongolia Compact Reducing Poverty Through Growth Who We Fund Evaluation Catalog Compact Procurement Guidelines Compact Development Guidance Compact Implementation Guidance Stay Engaged More social media platforms Legislative: 202-521-3880 Press: 202-521-3880	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15342
__label__wiki	0.60099	0.60099	Podcast: CMS administrator Mark McClellan As promised, here’s the podcast of the delivered by outgoing CMS administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., at last week’s Third Health Information Technology Summit in Washington. McClellan, who is stepping down in mid-October after heading Medicare for two years, spoke immediately after Robert Kolodner, M.D., gave his first public comments since being named interim national health IT coordinator the previous week. Again, the moderator who hosts the Q&A portion is John Glaser, vice president and chief information officer of Partners HealthCare, Boston. Podcast details: Mark McClellan, M.D., Third HIT Summit, Sept. 25, 2006, Washington, D.C. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 17.0 MB, running time 37:19. September 30, 2006 I Written By Neil Versel Filed Under: Healthcare IT Tags:Healthcare IT Podcast: Interim HIT coordinator Robert Kolodner WASHINGTON—I’ve got nearly pristine audio of the first public comments of Robert Kolodner, M.D., after he was named interim national coordinator for health information technology. The speech was recorded live Monday in Washington, at the Third Health Information Technology Summit. I also have audio from outgoing CMS administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., who spoke immediately after Kolodner. I will post that recording later in the week. The moderator for the Q&A whom you hear at the end of Kolodner’s address is John Glaser, vice president and chief information officer of Partners HealthCare, Boston. Podcast details: Robert Kolodner, M.D., Third HIT Summit, Sept. 25, 2006, Washington, D.C. MP3, mono, 64 kbps, 14.4 MB, running time 31:25. Kolodner named interim HIT coordinator Robert Kolodner, M.D., chief health informatics officer of the Veterans Health Administration, has been named interim national coordinator for health information technology. As has been widely reported, government officials have had trouble finding a permanent replacement for David Brailer, M.D., who stepped down in May, but has been leading the search for his successor. The head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology must pass a background check, support the Bush administration’s preference for heavy involvement by the private sector and be able to withstand the rough-and-tumble world of Washington politics. Brailer has said that the latter reality caught him off guard. Also, it may be a short-term job. As a presidential appointee, the next national coordinator likely will be replaced in January 2009, when the current presidential term ends. That’s less than 2 1/2 years from now. All I know about the appointment is what is contained in the HHS press release. I have, however, interviewed Kolodner before, and he certainly seems qualified. I’ll be in Washington next week for the Third Health Information Technology Summit. I suspect there will be plenty to talk about there. In other news, Brigham and Women’s Hospital surgeon Atul Gawande, M.D., has received a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship, better known as a “genius grant.” Gawande, author of the 2002 best-seller, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, gets $500,000 to use as he wishes for the next five years. He’s been a strong voice in patient safety in recent years. He has not yet said publicly what he will do with the money. How influential? For all the bluster about Dr. David Brailer being named the most influential person in U.S. healthcare last year, his counterpart in Britain apparently has some work to do. Despite a huge budget and a government mandate to roll out IT to all of England’s National Health Service, Connecting for Health boss Richard Granger came in 22nd on the HSJ50, a list of the 50 people with the greatest influence on NHS policy and practice, as compiled by Health Service Journal. E-Health Insider reports that Granger is the only IT person on the entire list, and I couldn’t find any other IT types there. Since this is the first time Health Service Journal has put together such a list, there’s nothing to compare the rankings against, but suffice it to say Granger would have scored higher a year ago. The magazine cites numerous problems in CfH and the agency’s National Programme for IT, including the likely scenario that the massive IT effort would need a lot more than the £6.8 billion ($12.8 billion) already set aside. Even buckets of cash can’t solve every IT problem. By the way, No. 1 on the HSJ50 is Paul Corrigan, health advisor to embattled Prime Minister Tony Blair. It must be steaming Granger’s crumpets that some media types made the list. Even 6,000 miles from home, Granger did a great job running away from me at MedInfo 2004 in San Francisco. He did an even better job avoiding the media by simply cancelling his planned appearance at HIMSS 2006. P4P problems I came across an interesting letter from a reader of Fierce Healthcare that was sharply critical of the positive report that CMS and Premier released last week on its pay-for-performance pilot. Check it out here, then let me know your thoughts. September 7, 2006 I Written By Neil Versel New e-mail address I’m changing Internet providers at home (it was the condo board’s decision, not mine), so that means I will be losing my e-mail address through my current cable company in the near future. Therefore, all future e-mail should come to me at nversel@gmail.com. This is reflected in the “Contact me” link in the right-hand column. Since I’ve decided to go with Gmail, this should be the last time I have to change e-mail addresses. I’ve also got permanent message forwarding at neilversel@alum.wustl.edu, but let’s call the Gmail my new primary address. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15343
__label__cc	0.63217	0.36783	Is vegetarianism the natural option? Published Wednesday 15 November 2017 Published Wed 15 Nov 2017 By Tim Newman Fact checked by Jasmin Collier In the world of nutrition, there's no debate as fiery and fierce as the one between meat eaters and vegetarians. In this Spotlight feature, we ask whether or not humans were designed to be vegetarian. Fight, fight, fight! Some people choose a plant-based diet for health reasons, while others do so with more ethical concerns in mind. On the other side of the dinner plate, some meat lovers put little thought into whether they should or shouldn't eat meat, while others will defend their right to chow down on animal muscles until the end of time. Passions can run surprisingly high when it comes to dietary decisions. Food is a matter of survival, and deep down in our primate brain, we still feel that we need to defend our food sources. Today, we are not concerned with the ethics of the meat industry; it's not that they aren't important, but that we are more focused in the biology involved. Similarly, we tend not to dabble in the debate surrounding the environmental impact of meat rearing; we will leave that for others to chew over. This article will be served in two courses. First, we ask whether or not humans are "designed" to eat meat — did we evolve to consume it? Then, we will ask which option is best for our health. So, are we carnivores? This is the first question to answer, and, anatomically, it seems to be a simple one. We don't look like carnivores; our teeth are no good for ripping flesh, and our guts are too long. Are we herbivores, then? No; our guts aren't long enough, and our teeth don't quite fit the bill. We are, it seems, omnivores; our bodies can handle both meat and plant matter pretty well. It's not quite that simple, though. Just looking at an animal's teeth and gut is no surefire way to distinguish its diet. The panda — with killer canines and a bamboo diet — is an excellent example. That being said, it is true that most creatures have a gut suited to the diet that they consume. Lions, for instance, have huge, smooth-walled stomachs for holding hunks of animal. Many herbivores, meanwhile, have massive, plant-destroying factories in their abdomens, where bacteria smash apart the tough constituents of plant matter. We humans like to think of ourselves as special, and, in many ways, you could argue that we are. But when it comes to our internal tubing, we are monumentally average. Rather boringly, the human gut is very similar to that of our closest relatives: monkeys and apes. It follows that, if we are looking to work in harmony with our guts' design, our diet should be at least similar to our cousins'. When we examine the diet of virtually all monkeys and apes, it's nuts, fruits, leaves, insects, and the occasional snack of flesh. You may have seen rather shocking footage of adult chimpanzees killing and eating baby ones, but that's a relative rarity compared with the quantities of non-meat products consumed. From these observations, we can perhaps conclude that evolutionarily speaking, we shouldn't necessarily be vegetarian and evolved to eat only the occasional tidbit of animal matter. Meat eating and human evolution Eating meat, according to some evolutionary scientists, gave early humans a vital head start. Meat is packed with energy and protein that may have helped us to develop and nurture the over-sized bundle of cabling between our ears. Can human evolution help to settle the debate? The expensive tissue hypothesis states that to have a larger brain, we need to save metabolic energy elsewhere. To do this, our guts were shortened. But this brought another issue: having a shorter gut meant that our diet had to be of a higher quality to provide enough nutrients. Enter the animal-based diet. It is worth noting that this theory is not roundly supported. Some researchers believe that hunting prey contributed to our bipedal stance, and that planning and conducting a hunt could have assisted the development of language, communication, and complex societies. But, just because something has been done for eons, it doesn't mean that we necessarily need to continue down the same path. Modern life is different; the options that lie on the dinner table are much more varied. Our forebears did not have access to tofu, for instance, and a human living in colder climes would struggle to find cashew nuts on her daily forage. What is the Stone Age or Paleo diet? In this article, we explain the Paleo diet and ask whether it suits modern life. Once we've adapted, we can still go back Evolution is endless, adaptation ongoing. Animals don't continue to drink milk after weaning. If they tried it, it would make them sick. The enzyme that mammals need to break down lactose in milk — lactase — is not produced into adulthood. But now, entire populations of humans produce lactase long after they have stopped drinking their mother's milk (known as lactase persistence). At some point, a group of humans began making this change, and, because it gave them access to more calories and other nutritional goodies, they survived in favor of those who couldn't stomach cow (or goat) juice. We have adapted to make use of an energy-rich source of protein, vitamins, and minerals. So, is it natural to drink milk? If not, does that mean that we shouldn't drink it? Our bodies are layered with a range of evolutionary changes: from a shift to meat millions of years ago, to microbiome shifts when we started eating wheat, barley, and other crops. We are a now mishmash of compensations and add-ons that have helped us to survive over the years. If we say that we want to eat as our ancestors did, do we mean Homo erectus, Neanderthals (who may well have eaten more plants than is often imagined), Australopithecus (who walked the earth around 4 million years ago), the earliest primates (around 50–55 million years ago), or something in-between? If the preceding ramblings mean anything, it is that we should only eat meat if it benefits us now. The important question is how it impacts our bodies today. Meat: In sickness and in health Whether eating meat is natural or not doesn't make a lot of difference. Nobody realistically thinks that we should meticulously go back to what our earliest ancestors ate simply because it was a long time ago. Red meat has become a nutritional pariah. From a medical point of view, we should only eat meat if it is healthful to do so. Over recent years, there has been a growing mountain of evidence in support of the health benefits of a vegetarian diet and the health risks of pounding too many burgers into our bodies. A large-scale meta-analysis carried out in 2016 reported "a significant protective effect of a vegetarian diet versus the incidence and/or mortality from ischemic heart disease (25 percent) and incidence from total cancer (8 percent). Vegan diet conferred a significant reduced risk (15 percent) of incidence from total cancer." Vegetarian diets are also tied to a lower risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer (again), and lower blood pressure, and they may fend off childhood obesity. On this matter, at least, the jury is well and truly in. Health benefits of eating meat? Meat is rich in protein and vitmain B-12 and is also a good source of iron, so it's easy to see how incorporating meat into their diet might have helped our ancestors to survive. Today, however, protein is much easier to come by — in nuts and beans, for example. Vitamin B-12 can be found adequately in cheese, eggs, milk, and artificially fortified products, and iron can be picked up from legumes, grains, nuts, and a range of vegetables. With this in mind, rather than asking, "Should we eat meat?" we should probably be asking, "Is there a safe level of meat?" and, "Which types are worst?" In short, we can split meat into four types: white, red, processed, and fish. Fish and white meat are roundly considered fairly healthful — as long as you aren't deep frying them or wrapping them in bacon. For red meat and processed meats, though, it's the reverse. Red and processed meats are associated with colon cancer and heart disease. The majority of studies conclude that eating more of this meat is a bad idea. But how much is too much, and what levels are safe, are harder to quantify. Dr. William Kormos, editor in chief of Harvard Men's Health Watch, writes, "As for how much meat consumption is 'safe,' many studies show a small rise in the risk of disease at levels of 50–100 grams (1.8–3.5 ounces) of red meat consumed daily." "Processed meats (salted, smoked, or cured) are also associated with a higher risk. In contrast, there does not appear to be a measurable risk from eating red meat once or twice a week." Dr. William Kormos So, should we be vegetarians? Well, when the burger hits the fan and the kebab lady sings, there will still be no clear answer. Humans have eaten meat for a really long time, but a diet with minimal meat is much more healthful. And today, we don't need meat nutritionally. I can't make your choice for you though — sorry. How your gut can make you seem smarter than you really are New research furthers our understanding of the connection between our gut and our brain, and reveals surprising ways in which our gut drives our decisions. Read now Healthful vegetarian diet reduces type 2 diabetes risk substantially Vegetarian diets are known to be generally healthy. However, not all plant-based diets are equal. New research compares their impact on diabetes risk. Read now Evolution of nose shape was guided by climate Although the evolution of facial characteristics is a complex subject, new research offers a climate-based explanation of the variation in nose width. Read now Cured meats can worsen asthma symptoms Cured meats can cause a multitude of ills, it seems. The latest research to investigate their impact finds that they may also worsen asthma symptoms. Read now Going vegan could prevent type 2 diabetes Researchers have found that adopting a vegan diet has the potential to prevent type 2 diabetes in people who are overweight or obese. Read now	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15345
__label__wiki	0.603123	0.603123	District Court’s Arbitrary Decision to Disqualify Attorney Representing Multiple Defendants Requires New Trial Posted on March 4, 2010 by Michael J. Petro United States v. Turner, 09-1595 (7th Cir. Feb. 2, 2010). The district court disqualified Roosevelt Turner's retained counsel from representing him in this cocaine-conspiracy case because the attorney was also representing an alleged coconspirator in sentencing proceedings. The question for us is whether this violated Turner's Sixth Amendment right to counsel of his choice. In February 2005 the government indicted Turner and eight others for conspiring to distribute cocaine in Alton, Illinois. But Turner was not arrested until June 2006, and by that time many of the alleged coconspirators had pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government. One exception was Anthony Womack. His first trial ended in a hung jury. On retrial Womack was convicted, and he was awaiting sentencing when the authorities finally caught up with Turner. In the meantime, Womack hired a new attorney to represent him at sentencing. Once in custody, Turner was initially represented by appointed counsel, but his family soon hired Baris as his attorney. The government questioned whether this joint representation was permissible and asked the court for a hearing on the matter. The government suggested that Baris's representation of both defendants presented an insurmountable conflict of interest because one might decide to cooperate with the government against the other. Baris countered that there was no actual conflict–nor any serious potential for conflict–because neither client wanted to assist the government and prosecutors had not shown the slightest interest in securing either defendant's testimony against the other. Moreover, both defendants waived any conflict of interest. The district judge focused on the possibility that one defendant might provide information or testimony against the other and held that this was sufficient to create an "absolute" conflict of interest. On this basis the judge disqualified Baris as Turner's counsel. A jury convicted Turner of conspiracy, and he appealed, challenging the judge's disqualification of his chosen counsel. We reverse. The Sixth Amendment gives a defendant who does not require appointed counsel the right to choose who will represent him. See Wheat v. United States, 486 U.S. 153, 159, 164 (1988). The Supreme Court recognizes a presumption in favor of the defendant's choice, although this presumption may be overridden if there is an actual conflict of interest or a "serious potential for conflict." Id. at Where there is an actual or serious potential conflict, two aspects of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel are in tension: the accused's right to counsel of his choice and his right to the effective assistance of counsel. Id. at 159-61. Joint representation is not, however, a per se violation of the right to the effective assistance of counsel. Id. at 160-61. Here, the district court disqualified Baris based on the possibility that Womack might cooperate against Turner or vice versa. But this possibility for conflict is present in nearly every case of joint representation. The district court's analysis disregarded the presumption in favor of the defendant's chosen counsel and imposed what amounts to a per se rule against joint representation. As such, the court's disqualification order was premised on a mistake of law and violated Turner's right to counsel of his choice. Because this violation is structural, United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. 140, 150 (2006), Turner is entitled to a new trial. II. Discussion The Sixth Amendment provides that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." U.S. Const. amend. VI. Two aspects of this Sixth Amendment right are pertinent here: the right of an accused who does not require appointed counsel to choose the attorney who will represent him, see Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. at 144-48; Wheat, 486 U.S. at 159, and the right to effective assistance of counsel, see Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984). Each of these rights protects something different–the former secures "the right to a particular lawyer regardless of comparative effectiveness," and the latter prescribes "a baseline requirement of competence on whatever lawyer is chosen or appointed." Gonzalez-Lopez, 548 U.S. at 148. The rights are different in another respect: The Sixth Amendment's protection against ineffective representation "derive[s] from the . . . Amendment's purpose of ensuring a fair trial," id. at 147; "[t]he right to select counsel of one's choice, by contrast, . . . has been regarded as the root meaning of the constitutional guarantee," id. at 147-48. Stated differently, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice "commands[] not that a trial be fair, but that a particular guarantee of fairness be provided–to wit, that the accused be defended by the counsel he believes to be best." Id. at 146. These two elements of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel will occasionally be in tension with each other–prototypically, when a defendant hires an attorney who has a conflict of interest. When this occurs, the defendant's right to counsel of his choice may have to give way. Not all cases of joint representation, however, give rise to a conflict of interest warranting disqualification of counsel; the Supreme Court has held that joint representation is not a per se violation of the right to effective counsel. Id. at 159-60. Instead, joint representation requires careful judicial scrutiny for the presence and effect of conflicts; the court "ha[s] an independent duty to ensure that criminal defendants receive a trial that is fair and does not contravene the Sixth Amendment." Id. at 161. Where, as here, defendants charged jointly are represented by the same counsel, Rule 44(c)(2) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure instructs the court to conduct a prompt inquiry into the likelihood and effect of any conflict of interest: (2) Court's Responsibilities in Cases of Joint Representation. The court must promptly inquire about the propriety of joint representation and must personally advise each defendant of the right to the effective assistance of counsel, including separate representation. Unless there is good cause to believe that no conflict of interest is likely to arise, the court must take appropriate measures to protect each defendant's right to counsel. In joint-representation cases, the district court has "substantial latitude" to refuse a defendant's conflict waiver. Wheat, 486 U.S. at 163. The court's decision, therefore, is reviewed for abuse of Although the disqualification decision is "left primarily to the informed judgment of the trial court," Wheat, 486 U.S. at 164, the force of the core constitutional command requires that the court start from a default position that gives effect to the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to choose his own counsel. The Supreme Court has therefore recognized a presumption in favor of the defendant's choice of counsel, and this presumption can be overcome only by an actual or serious potential for conflict. Id. "Under Wheat, the risk of nonpersuasion rests with the prosecution rather than the defendant." Rodriguez, 382 F.3d at 672. The court's role is to determine "whether the attorney has an actual conflict, a potential conflict, or no conflict at all," United States v. Perez, 325 F.3d 115, 125 (2d Cir. 2003), and to evaluate any conflict for its effect on the defendant's right to effective assistance of counsel. In addition, before accepting a waiver of conflict-free counsel, Rule 44(c) requires the court to advise each defendant of his right to effective assistance of counsel. This framework requires the court to first determine the specific nature of any actual or potential conflict of interest arising from the joint representation. If there is no conflict of interest, then the defendant's choice of counsel must be respected unless there is some institutional concern requiring disqualification. If, on the other hand, the court finds an actual conflict of interest that seriously undermines counsel's effectiveness, "there can be no doubt that [the court] may decline a proffer of waiver, and insist that defendants be separately represented." Wheat, 486 U.S. at 162. A conflict that amounts to a breach of the code of professional ethics obviously qualifies, see id., as does a concrete conflict of interest which though not a violation of professional ethics, nonetheless impedes the attorney's ability to provide effective assistance of counsel within the meaning of Strickland. The disqualification decision becomes more difficult, however, if the joint representation presents only a potential for conflict. Because "a possible conflict inheres in almost every instance of multiple representation," Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 348 (1980), the Supreme Court has said that only a serious potential conflict will justify overriding the defendant's choice of counsel, Wheat, 486 U.S. at 164. This requires an inquiry into the likelihood that the potential conflict will mature into an actual conflict and the degree to which it threatens the right to effective assistance of counsel. Accordingly, before disqualifying counsel based on a potential conflict, the district court should evaluate (1) the likelihood that the conflict will actually occur; (2) the severity of the threat to counsel's effectiveness; and (3) whether there are alternative measures available other than disqualification that would protect the defendant's right to effective counsel while respecting his choice of counsel. The first inquiry is the most important; a conflict that would seriously undermine counsel's effectiveness is not a basis for disqualification if it has little likelihood of occurring. For example, in United States v. Algee, we affirmed the disqualification of the defendant's chosen attorney in a conspiracy case because the attorney had previously represented two coconspirators whom the government intended to call to testify as principal witnesses against the defendant. 309 F.3d 1011, 1014 (7th Cir. 2002). The conflict the district court identified in this case was the mere possibility that either Womack or Turner would decide to cooperate with the government against the other. This does not amount to an actual conflict. Nor is it, in the circumstances of this case, a serious potential conflict justifying the disqualification of Turner's counsel of choice. Recall that the government bears the risk of nonpersuasion here. Rodriguez, 382 F.3d at 672. At the Rule 44(c) hearing, the prosecutor never said the government intended to seek either defendant's cooperation or testimony against the other. To the contrary, a line assistant in the prosecutor's office wanted to talk to Womack about an "unrelated matter," not about cooperating with the government against Turner. If the government needed or wanted assistance from either Womack or Turner, it certainly didn't act like it. For their part, neither Turner nor Womack wanted to help the government. Baris's proffer of a conflict waiver confirmed their lack of interest in providing assistance to prosecutors. In short, there is nothing in this record to suggest that the potential conflict of interest identified by the district court had a serious likelihood of maturing into an actual conflict. Nor is there anything to support a conclusion that the conflict was sufficiently severe that Turner's right to effective counsel would be jeopardized. The potential for a conflict of interest in this case was hardly "clear" and "absolute," as the district judge thought; instead, it was entirely speculative.The district court essentially applied a rule that joint representation necessarily violates the defendant's right to effective counsel; this directly contradicts Wheat. See 486 U.S. at 159-60. Our legal system generally presumes that one attorney may effectively represent multiple codefendants. This presumption is reflected in Rule 44(c) and Supreme Court precedent. See Holloway v. Arkansas, 435 U.S. 475, 482, 98 S. Ct. 1173, 55 L. Ed. 2d 426 (1978). The presumption is also reflected in professional ethical standards. For example, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct assume as a general matter that an attorney may represent multiple clients notwithstanding a conflict of interest, if the client gives informed consent. See MODEL RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT R. 1.7; accord HN17ILL. RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT R. 1.7(b). The district court's decision to disqualify Baris was based on the mere possibility that either Womack or Turner might have a change of heart and decide to assist the government against the other. This possibility exists in nearly all cases of joint representation. As such, the court applied what amounts to a per se rule against joint representation, which is contrary to Wheat. 486 U.S. at 159-60. The court's order was therefore premised on a mistake regarding the applicable legal standards, which is necessarily an abuse of discretion. See Christian Legal Soc'y v. Walker, 453 F.3d 853, 867 (7th Cir. 2006). Accordingly, we hold that the district court's disqualification order violated Turner's Sixth Amendment right to choose his own counsel. Under Gonzalez-Lopez, this constitutional violation is a structural error not subject to review for harmlessness. 548 U.S. at 148-51. Turner is entitled to a new trial. We therefore VACATE his conviction and sentence and REMAND the case for retrial.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15350
__label__cc	0.538245	0.461755	MNN.com > Food & Drink > Healthy Eating 5 foods besides romaine that can have E. coli Treat these foods with caution to avoid food poisoning. December 17, 2018, 11:06 a.m. There are also other, less obvious foods that can harbor E. coli and cause illness. (Photo: Evgeny Karandaev/Shutterstock) In late November, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a stern alert for people to throw away all types of romaine lettuce they have in their kitchen right now. The food safety alert was due to an E. coli outbreak in 15 states and the District of Columbia linked to the lettuce that’s infected as of Dec. 6 at least 59 people and hospitalized 23, including two people who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure. Nearly a month later, the CDC is still warning people to avoid romaine lettuce "harvested from Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Barbara counties in the Central Coastal growing regions of northern and central California while FDA continues its investigation of farms identified in traceback." The agency is currently investigating farms and cooling facilities in central California and in that process identified Adam Bros. Farming, Inc. as having E. coli in the sediment from its water reservoir. After this finding, Adam Bros. issued a recall on Dec. 13 of its cauliflower, red leaf lettuce and green lettuce "out of an abundance of caution." The CDC recommends people take the following steps: This advice includes all types or uses of romaine lettuce, such as whole heads of romaine, hearts of romaine, and bags and boxes of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, including baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad. If you do not know if the lettuce is romaine or whether a salad mix contains romaine, do not eat it and throw it away. Wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where romaine was stored. Follow these five steps to clean your refrigerator. If the lettuce doesn't list its growing region, do not eat it. If this alert sounds familiar, it’s because earlier this year there was a massive romaine lettuce recall. At least 210 people in 36 states were infected with E. coli after eating romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona. Five people died, more than 90 have been hospitalized and 27 have been diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome. The CDC announced in August that samples of canal water in Yuma tested positive for E. coli, and the agency "continues to consider that contaminated water coming into contact with produce, either through direct irrigation or other means, is a viable explanation for the pattern of contamination." The canal is located near the contaminated lettuce farms and also close to a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), a facility that can hold up to 100,000 heads of cattle. Raw vegetables and fruits are often a source for E. coli because the bacteria can't be fully washed off. Thoroughly cooking produce will kill the bacteria, but that's the only way to be certain contaminated fruits and vegetables are safe. Raw vegetables are not the only food that can be contaminated, though. Here are five other foods that you'll see recalled from time to time because of E. coli, along with tips on how to safely prepare them. Growing conditions make sprouts particularly susceptible to E. coli. (Photo: margouillat photo/Shutterstock) Sprouts are grown in warm, humid conditions ideal for the growth of bacteria like E. coli, as well as salmonella and listeria. They're at their most dangerous when eaten raw, but cooking them can reduce risks and kill harmful bacteria. Between 1996 and 2016, there were 46 U.S. outbreaks of food-borne illness from sprouts. In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began taking steps to curb the high number of bacterial illnesses linked to contaminated raw sprouts. Even water isn't safe from contamination. (Photo: ericlefrancais/Shutterstock) Bottled water is usually safe when it comes to bacterial contaminants, but in 2015, Niagara Brand bottled water issued a recall out of an abundance of caution because of possible E. coli contamination, even though no illnesses were reported. The danger from E. coli-infected water usually comes from sources like private wells or drinking straight from a body of water that has been contaminated. If you're getting your drinking or cooking water from a source that could possibly be contaminated, there are ultraviolet water-treatment systems that can kill the bacteria, or in a pinch, boiling the water for at least one minute will also kill contaminants. Cooking beef so it's well done can kill any E. coli contamination (Photo: Allen.G/Shutterstock) Earlier this year, 7 tons of ground beef were recalled because of E. coli contamination. These bacteria commonly live in the digestive tracts of cows, whose meat may become infected during slaughtering and processing. Since E. coli in beef is fairly common, beef should be fully cooked before being consumed. That means a medium-rare cheeseburger, while delicious, may also be dangerous. To stay clear of E. coli poisoning from beef, burgers, steaks, roasts and other cuts of meat, they should be cooked to well-done. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends cooking beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 Celsius). Unpasteurized juice Unpasteurized juice can be contaminated with E. coli. (Photo: baibaz/Shutterstock) Pasteurization kills bacteria in juice (and in dairy and eggs), but fresh juice can have E. coli passed on from the fresh produce it was made from. In 2013, 13 people became ill from E. coli after drinking unpasteurized apple juice from High Hill Ranch in California. The one sure way to avoid E. coli in any juice is to make sure it's been pasteurized before drinking it. Deli meat, especially if it's past its prime, can be a source of E. coli bacteria. (Photo: Elena Elesseeva/Shutterstock) Deli slicers aren't typically cleaned between each use, given the impracticality of sterilizing them after every order. But, because of this, if one package of deli meat contains E. coli, the bacteria can spread to other meats prepared on the same slicer. While the risk from deli meats isn't as high as fresh produce or raw meats, a CBS News report indicates about half of locations visited by FDA inspectors didn't clean and sanitize their meat slicers as often as the FDA recommends. When buying deli meat, you might want to inquire about how often their slicers are cleaned. And discard of any sliced deli products that have been in your refrigerator for more than a few days. The longer they sit, the more the bacteria can grow. While people with a healthy immune system generally make a full recovery from E. coli poisoning, there are some cases — as with the recent romaine outbreak — when healthy individuals can still suffer serious health problems. Those with compromised immune systems, the elderly and infants face the highest risks from E. coli poisoning and should see a doctor immediately if symptoms occur. According to WebMD, symptoms appear two to five days after E. coli has been ingested; the most common symptoms are abdominal cramps, diarrhea, nausea and fatigue. Editor's note: This file has been updated since it was published in April 2018. Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago: Can you wash E. coli off produce? Related topics: Food Safety, Healthy Eating, MNN lists	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15351
__label__wiki	0.995119	0.995119	"As the daughter of C.L. Franklin, there was always someone stopping by their house, like Dinah Washington, who was a member of Rev. Franklin's church; James Cleveland and Mahalia Jackson," said Mark Anthony Neal, of a professor of black pop culture at Duke University. That exposure to different musical forms opened a world of possibilities for Franklin. She spent the early to mid-1960s with Columbia, enjoying modest success. Some music critics have said the label suppressed Franklin's true soulful style, letting it peek out only occasionally in such songs as "Lee Cross" and "Soulville." Undisputedly, Franklin hit her stride when she signed with Atlantic and began recording with the Muscle Shoals Sound rhythm section. Her first single, "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, showed off that deep, gritty, soulful sound which became Franklin's trademark. She continued to record with the Muscle Shoals musicians, although many of the sessions were actually recorded in New York. In the late '60s, Frankin ran off a string of 10 Top Ten hits in an 18-month period between early 1967 and late 1968 and a steady stream of hits after that. Her eclectic tastes in music, covering songs from the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Sam Cooke and the Drifters, along with original songs and a sprinkling of gospel and blues, made Franklin a huge crossover hit. At the same time that Franklin was making her mark across genres, Ray Charles was making a similar mark.Charles, who lost his sight to glaucoma by the age of six, studied composition and learned to play a number of instruments at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. Both his parents had died by his early teens, and Charles earned his keep as a musician before moving to Seattle in 1947, where his career really took off. That early exposure to music, just as it had for Franklin, helped prepare him for much broader exposure than that experienced by many of his contemporaries. Crossover was possible for both Franklin and Charles, Neal said, because both had something beyond singing going for them. "They grew up in a musical environment where there wasn't a distinction to be made with music," Neal told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "For them, it was just music." "I was born with music inside me," Charles said in his autobiography, "Brother Ray." "That's the only explanation I know of ... Music was one of my parts like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water." In addition, Neal said, "in the case of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, they were, in fact, musicians. In order for Ray Charles to get jobs, he had to play everything, and, in Aretha Franklin's case, she was also a gifted pianist. They were gifted musicians." Charles was also gifted in the art of imitation. In "Q, The Autobiography of Quincy Jones," Charles described his early years as a musician after his mother died. "I toured the South with a couple of different bands, but those were hard times," Charles wrote. "I was living off biscuits and soup. I had a friend named Gosady McKee who played guitar, and one day in '47, I told Gosady to pull out a map of the United States and I told him, ‘Point to the farthest city on that map from here.' His finger came down on Seattle, Washington, and that's how I came there. I came by bus. Alone. "I hit town hustling, I got a gig playing at a black joint called the Rocking Chair and at another black joint called the Black and Tan Club. I had a group called the Maxim Trio; I used to sing like Nat King Cole and Charles Brown in those days -- it was the only way to get paid." Charles' first R&B hit was "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand," in 1951. Like Franklin, critics have said Charles' early recordings - with their imitative stylings - were nowhere near the powerful stuff he put out in the ‘50s while signed with Atlantic Records. Some would argue that those were Charles' best years, although he found greater creative freedom and control after leaving Atlantic at the end of the ‘50s for ABC Records. Charles' work during the ABC years ran the gamut from the hard-driving gritty "Unchain My Heart" and "Hit the Road Jack" to the melodic "I Can't Stop Loving You" on his breakthrough county and western album. While many have taken Charles and Franklin to task for moving away from soul, their work in pop and R&B have made them legendary. Charles was a popular draw on tour, performing even after hip replacement surgery in 2003 and continued to tour until illness forced him to cancel an appearance in March 2004. He died on June 10, 2004. Before his death, Charles signed off on the selection of Jamie Foxx to play him in the blockbuster biopic "Ray," which won Foxx an Academy Award for best actor. Charles himself won a dozen Grammy Awards, three NAACP Image Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named honorary life chairman of the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 1979, Charles' rendition of "Georgia On My Mind" was approved as the official state song of Georgia. In 2004, his Los Angeles recording studios were designated an official city historic landmark. The 17-time, Grammy-winning Franklin is slowed down only by her refusal to fly, which limits the numbers of concerts she can perform each year. The first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the recipient of the Recording Academy's Living Legend Award, Franklin can fill a room at will. In fact, Franklin will be on tour this summer and will host a three-night gospel revival June 14-16 at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit. It is the third straight year that Franklin has hosted such a revival in Detroit. Franklin is also working on both a musical and a film based on her autobiography, "Aretha Franklin: From These Roots." Dolphins and former University Miami player Kendrick Norton leaves the hospital Dolphins’ Norton is released from hospital after losing arm in car accident By Adam H. Beasley Miami Dolphins defensive lineman and former University of Miami defensive tackle Kendrick Norton Jr. will be released from the hospital his agent said on Twitter. Norton lost his arm in a car accident on July 4. Man threatens to kill U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson after she files bill to vaccinate kids ‘Dump’ of thousands of petitions has election supervisors scrambling, others suspicious Coyo Taco is opening a new location with a secret speakeasy Water crisis in Fort Lauderdale shuts off taps and shuts down business	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15355
__label__wiki	0.966558	0.966558	Nearly 24,000 People Have Petitioned to Stop a Movie That "Glorifies" the UCSB Shooting By Tom McKay In May 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and wounded 14 others in the town of Isla Vista, California, before committing suicide in a misogyny-fueled rampage. Shortly after the shooting, a film production company called Berger Bros Entertainment began making Del Playa, a horror/thriller film that appears to have been based on the incident. Now, a petition on Change.org has gathered more than 23,000 signatures arguing the film's creators intended to cash in on Rodger's notoriety and demanding it never be released. "The horror film Del Playa, produced by Berger Bros Entertainment and directed by Shaun Hart, follows the actions of a disturbed individual who does not deserve to be memorialized in film," the petition reads. "It is clear that the creators of this film conceived their idea immediately after the Isla Vista shootings, seeking to profit off the horror felt by the students and community." A trailer for the movie posted to Berger Bros Entertainment's YouTube page shows the killer in Del Playa to be motivated by a toxic mix of bullying, masculinity and misogyny, and more specifically his problems with dating. Source: Mic/YouTube In the trailer, the creators seem to shift the blame for the killer's actions to his victims, saying, "Monsters aren't born. They are created." The film's producers insist there is no connection between the film and the shooting, but the petition's author argue the connection is clear. "The film Del Playa intentionally seeks to commoditize the death of six beloved students, and makes light of the tragedy faced by the entire Isla Vista/UCSB community," the petition reads. "Del Playa not only justifies the motives behind the Isla Vista gunman, but also glorifies his actions. Releasing such a film merely 18 months after this tragedy recreates the helplessness and horror felt by the Isla Vista community. Josh Berger, one of the film's producers, argues otherwise. "While I do admit there is the connection of Santa Barbara, this film is not about Elliot Rodger," Berger told CBS, adding he did not intend to "monopolize on the tragic shootings in Isla Vista. ... The fictional character in the film is not meant to portray anyone in particular." Rodger's original rampage, however, appeared to be motivated by a similar set of misogynistic views about women. The Guardian reported Rodger perused body-building sites, posting things like, "Women are not drawn to indicators of evolutionary fitness. If they were, they'd be all over me." He referred to himself as an "involuntary celibate." "College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure, but in those years I've had to rot in loneliness, it's not fair," Rodger said in one of several videos he posted to YouTube, some shortly before the shooting took place. "I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me but I will punish you all for it." UCSB and UCLA students hold a vigil for victims of the attack in May 2014.Source: David McNew/Getty Images But the real problem, UCSB literature major Korrin Alpers told Salon a year after the shooting, is the way everyone reacts to these kinds of events and spreads the blame around. "The tragedy is that we lack ownership — we blame people from out of town, the people who throw wild parties, Greek life, mental illnesses, white privilege, misogyny," Alpers said. "And yes, these are all contributing factors to the brokenness in our community, but a large part is our own. Of course, we did not push this young man to open fire in our town. But we did foster something chaotic and irresponsible that for some reason encouraged a sense of entitlement to sex." Films related to real-life tragedies typically face a higher bar from the movie-going public. Movies about the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, for example, have fared poorly at the box office, with some critics complaining these films used the tragedies of that day as a cheap excuse to inject action and drama into otherwise bland concepts. Berger Bros. Entertainment did not respond to a request for comment from Mic. Watch the full trailer below:	cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line15356

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