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How Freelancers Are Reinventing Work through New Collective Enterprises Look inside the collectivist movement of freelancers thriving together in the gig economy. By Christopher D. Cook originally published in Shareable In 2008, Alanna Krause hit a wall. Just 25 years old and already rising through the corporate ranks as a global technical support team leader at Bloomberg in London, Krause began to feel that her work was “meaningless.” “No matter how well I did my job or how much I improved things, ultimately what I was doing was moving numbers from one column to another column,” Krause said. A year later, amid a rousing protest against the G-20 Summit near her office, Krause had a deeper epiphany. “I was climbing this ladder, but I looked ahead of myself and I saw that no matter how far up it I climbed, there was nowhere up there I wanted to go,” Krause recalled in a speech at the New Frontiers 2016 conference in New Zealand. Embarking on a journey many might dream of, Krause quit her job and traveled through Spain, India, and the U.S., looking for meaning and fulfillment. She eventually landed in Wellington, New Zealand, where she joined the decentralized, entrepreneurial collective Enspiral. Functioning as a supportive umbrella for freelancers and social enterprises, Enspiral offers its members creative independence and a strong sense of community. Members pool and invest a portion of the profits from their work into new social-impact projects. Alanna Krause shows how collective funds can be used at Enspiral. Enspiral is “a bubble within which we can make our own economy, where we get to set the rules,” Krause says. “We don’t have to wait for the world out there to change for us to start living in the transition economy, right now.” While Enspiral may operate in a bit of a bubble because its core members are highly paid independent software programmers, it is part of a growing movement forging new paths for freelancers in an increasingly unstable work world. An emerging collectivist movement Like an extended smashing of atoms, the 9-to-5 job market has shattered and splintered over the past 25 years in ways that have both liberated and trapped millions of workers. Uber drivers, ditch-digging day laborers, adjunct professors, freelance software designers, temp attorneys, domestic workers, and often woefully underpaid “task rabbits” hired online at a moment’s notice, wouldn’t appear to have much in common. Their pay and working conditions vary wildly, and some push paper while others handle steering wheels, mops, diapers, or sledge hammers — but what unites them is a gig economy marked by flexibility, instability, innovation, and legal and financial uncertainty. As the gig economy proliferates, growing numbers are breaking away and creating their own work communities, based on a mix of autonomy and interdependence. Combating precarious economics and social isolation, freelancers are using new open-source technology and old-fashioned shoe leather organizing to create new ways to work and to work together. Enspiral, for instance, uses a mix of physical meeting spaces, open-source technology, and digital organizing to help workers build creative and economic independence as well as community. The collective is just one piece of a burgeoning global freelancers’ movement that is helping independent workers to reposition power and ownership in a platform-driven age. Scanning the freelancing terrain, Steve King, a partner at Emergent Research, says he finds loose-knit “guild-like groups informally banding together to help each other” who are sharing their networks and resources for mutual gain. From coworking spaces to platform-based support groups, these freelancers’ networks have cropped up organically, King says. The constellation of freelancer organizing ranges from Enspiral-type freelancer collectives to newfangled unions for gig workers such as Uber drivers. Whether fighting for living wages and basic rights, or collaborating on projects with fellow freelancers, these initiatives share the larger aim of creating meaning, dignity, and power in their work together. The gig economy’s roots As more goods and services are sold via the web and mobile apps on an as-needed (or wanted) basis, the freelance and gig workforce has exploded. In the U.S. alone, 55 million people — about 35 percent of the total labor force — worked on a freelance basis in 2016, according to a newly released study by the New York City-based Freelancers Union and digital freelancing platform Upwork. The ranks of freelancers jumped by 700,000 in just one year, from 2014-2015. Roughly two-thirds of freelancers, 63 percent, are working independently by choice rather than sheer necessity, the study found. Just in time for the elections, the study also concluded that 67 percent of freelancers “are more likely to vote for candidates who say they support them having ‘a strong voice in deciding issues about their work’ or ‘having access to health and retirement benefits regardless of their employment status.’” Now that everything else is scalable, modular, liquid and temporary, shouldn’t your benefits be portable? Photo: Freelancers Union, Flickr. “Independent professionals are an increasingly integral part of the U.S. workforce,” Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel says. “We should be addressing their interests or America will fall behind countries that are better equipping their evolving workforces.” Sara Horwitz, founder and executive director of the Freelancers Union, echoes that sentiment. Freelancers “are a diverse but vital part of the U.S. economy, contributing over $1 trillion in freelance earnings to the economy,” Horowitz says. “Now’s the time for business leaders, policy makers and candidates alike to stand up and take notice of their potential influence and to start developing ways to help them overcome the most pressing issues impacting their lives.” Beyond the coffee shop: freelancers go from “working alone together” to working collectively. Photo by Tim Gouw, Unsplash. The complex and evolving landscape of freelancing includes compelling success stories but also deep disparities, just as in the larger labor market. “Because contingent work can be unstable or afford fewer worker protections, it tends to lead to lower earnings, fewer benefits, and a greater reliance on public assistance than standard work,” a 2015 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office stated. Despite vast ranges in worker empowerment and income, this is a precarious group, the GAO found. Contingent workers are more likely than full-time employees to be people of color, women, low-income, and with less education and class mobility. Meanwhile, across the pond, the ranks of Britain’s self-employed workers have risen by 732,000 since 2008, while permanent conventional jobs rose by 339,000, according to an in-depth report published by Co-operatives UK and partners titled “Not Alone.” But while this may seem a sign of spirited entrepreneurialism, the report found that low-income workers in the self-employed sector are now the norm. This upheaval has its roots in a deeper power struggle over the terms and conditions of labor. “There is a long-term shift of power from workers to employers since the 1970s,” says Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston University. Schor says plunging rates of unionization, increased corporate power, anti-labor policies since the Reagan era in the U.S., and a move to producing goods on an as-needed basis globally, have led to a “weakening of workers” — a key reason behind today’s precarious labor. This steady diminishing of workers’ rights has placed even more power in the hands of corporations. Amid a more volatile global market, “companies don’t want to be locked into providing income security for their workers,” says Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. This volatility is one of the driving factors behind the freelancers’ collectives cropping up today. But it’s not a new phenomenon. “In the nineteenth century, working class self-help organisations included craftsmen’s guilds, co-operatives, friendly societies and the first unions,” the authors of the “Not Alone” report noted. In today’s “age of economic insecurity and rapid changes in technology there is now the opportunity to reinvent democratic self-help for the twenty-first century in order to widen participation on a fair basis for all in work,” the report added. Freelancers get collective Today’s freelancer collectives are driven not just by fancy technology and well-remunerated innovation — they’re sometimes driven by a passion for social change at community and societal levels. In Spain’s Catalonia region, the Cooperativa Integral Catalana (CIC) offers everything from common meeting places and community dialogues on economic alternatives, to income tax benefits and community pantries where people share local food. The cooperative strives to be an autonomous community and is building its own kind of political-cultural-economic commons. Once every two weeks, the cooperative hosts open assemblies to discuss ongoing and new projects, ranging from reports and documentaries on capitalism, to developing independent currencies to conduct trade outside of the larger economic system. The CIC has set its sights on a wider transformation of society — a vision that spans personal autonomy, community sovereignty, and creative exploration of new ways of living and working. Cooperativa Integral Catalana members with a co-op produced energy drink, which can also be purchased using social currency. Photo by Luis Camargo, CiC, Flickr. “It is one of our tasks, empowering us to explore other forms of reciprocity, use of so­­­­­­­­cial currencies, fair coins, direct barter and exchange, un-monetized economies, and gift economies,” CIC member Raquel Benedicto says. Other collectives may not be as explicitly political, yet are forging new collaborative communities that are slowly but surely democratizing the economics of creativity. In Berlin, the Agora Collective provides artists and other creative workers with a shared space and collaborative formats for developing their work. Agora, which was founded as a coworking space in 2011, provides studios for artists and dancers, collaborative artist workshop programs, residencies, and programs that support international artist collaborations. “Our coworking floors accommodate professionals of all fields, and allow a diverse and active community to flourish in our building,” the group describes on its website. With strategic partnerships across Europe, and financial assistance from the Nordic Culture Fund and the Swiss Foundation among others, Agora has been able to think big — providing not only coworking spaces and collaborations, but ongoing dialogues and projects that invite new ways of thinking about work and how it should be valued. Agora’s Circular Economy project, for instance, is an extended conversation about ways to re-organize production and consumption to eliminate waste. Similarly, Netherlands-based Seats2Meet (S2M) blends shared workspaces and social networking, tapping an immense desire among freelancers to expand opportunities and social connections. Since its launch with just 10 people in 2005, S2M has grown steadily, connecting tens of thousands of independent workers to thousands of free, shared workspaces around the world — and to each other. As Shareable reported in 2013, S2M links freelancers up with diverse kinds of physical spaces, including ice cream shops, libraries, theatres, and even hospitals. S2M president Ronald van den Hoff says what began as an experiment in sharing physical spaces evolved into a knowledge exchange, peer support network, and community for oft-isolated indie workers. “The rise of the numbers of people using the ‘free workplaces and catering’ was staggering,” Van den Hoff says. “Within months we had hundreds of independent workers daily visiting us, filling up the public lounge, and logistically we were completely overwhelmed.” Seats2Meet headquarters in Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Neal Gorenflo. Freelancers, “started to co-work almost automatically and share their knowledge and network, [and] somehow the reciprocity flourished,” he says. “So we decided to use ‘the willingness to share’ as a form of payment.” In other words, people could co-work for free as long as they agreed to help each other. Although S2M is a for-profit company, Van den Hoff says its detachment from venture capital and other forms of investment return imperatives has empowered this model of sharing work among freelancers. “The main limit is people themselves: the moment startups are financed by VC’s, they are protecting their assets — ‘it is my database, my network, my clients’ — and they lose their ability to share,” he says. S2M is redefining work and workers’ relationship to each other in important ways. Providing free workspace to those who help each other, for instance, represents the seed of a new social contract between workers, rather than between workers and companies. The organization’s community is rooted in peer support. New Zealand’s Enspiral Network has also created an inspired model of freelancer collaboration and community. What began as a coworking space among like-minded people in Wellington six years ago has evolved into a new-fangled cooperative linking freelancers and social enterprises in a global network of mutual aid and collective action. Like other freelancer collectives, Enspiral, has grown beyond simply sharing a physical space. The organization mixes independence and collectivism, enabling creative workers such as graphic designers, tech gurus, data whizzes, and others to pursue their ventures — with administrative and other support systems funded collectively by the group’s members. “What do you need?” — taking care of each other at Enspiral. Photo: Namaste.org. The Enspiral Foundation, a charity run by Enspiral members, provides the connective tissue between the community’s contributing members, freelancers, and social enterprises alike. Contributors voluntarily donate to the foundation, and decide democratically how to use the money to improve their social impact and business prospects. Together, contributors’ have created Enspiral Services, a “market-facing” entity where they promote their services collectively. Among the group’s many innovations is Loomio Cooperative, whose main offering is an open source democratic decision-making platform. Launched in 2012 when Enspiral members and Occupy activists recognized a need for collaborative decision-making tools, Loomio is simultaneously a limited liability company with investors and a registered worker-owned cooperative. All these organizations represent new models of independent and interdependent worker communities supporting each other’s work socially, professionally, and collaboratively — created from scratch, without huge amounts of capital, big investors, or bureaucracy. The cooperative explosion Growing numbers of freelancers are also seeking out or creating cooperatives — some organized as online platforms, others old-fashioned brick-and-mortar — for community and financial stability. Despite many distinctions, what unites platform co-ops and traditional worker co-ops is their focus on shared worker power and profits. “In the 19th and 20th century, the shop floor was the primary arena for worker organizing, now it’s platforms,” says Nathan Schneider, writer and scholar-in-residence at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Amid the demise of the labor social contract and the rise of contingent work, says Schneider, the gig economy creates “atomized and individualized participants, and is really structured for us to be competing with each other.” “We need to imagine alternatives to that model,” Schneider says. As the gig economy has centralized profits while decentralizing work, digital activists and entrepreneurial creators are launching slews of platform cooperatives — websites and mobile apps that provide a service or sell a product but that share ownership, governance, and profits with users. Tech-savvy sharers have created cooperative online marketplaces and peer-to-peer venues like Stocksy and Fairmondo, where the creators and producers run the show. Fairmondo, founded in Germany in 2012, is a platform co-op alternative to eBay where the more than 2,000 online sellers are member-owners. It puts openness, fairness, and democracy at the core of the enterprise. Co-op employees choose at least half of Fairmondo’s executive board, and major business decisions are made democratically through a general assembly of members. To support their global expansion, Fairmondo is developing a network of self-directed local cooperatives, including one in the UK soon. “We have seen phenomenal growth of worker co-ops in the past ten years, partly because workers are more precarious, more vulnerable,” says Melissa Hoover, executive director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. “We see people starting worker co-ops to gain protections, because they are too vulnerable on their own. When you’re an independent worker, it’s harder to bargain than when you are part of a cooperative.” Particularly inspiring, says Hoover, is the “exploding trend” of service sector worker co-ops, many of them launched by immigrant women. Caregivers, domestic workers, and taxi drivers are joining forces in worker-led and often union-supported ventures to reclaim power and voice in their work. Teaming up with unions and worker advocacy groups such as Make the Road New York, workers are starting co-op businesses providing services such as domestic care and ride hailing services. “There’s so much focus on Uber drivers, but nobody cares about the day laborers, nobody cares about the domestic workers,” says Emergent Research’s King. “We have to remember this economic shift is hitting people hard, and we have to focus on the ones getting hit the hardest.” In New York City, transgender Latina beauticians, long suffering discrimination and abuse, are forming their own worker-owned business. “The girls got immediately excited by the idea of creating a business where they would be the sole owners, where there wouldn’t be any bosses verbally and physically harassing them, and where they could earn a dignified wage to survive,” Daniel Puerto, worker cooperative developer at Make the Road New York, a nonprofit that fights for the rights of minorities, told ink.nyc. Taxi driver co-ops are also paving the way to increased wages, diminished pay gaps between managers and employees, and cab driver healthcare — all while producing a profit, according to a 2015 Democracy at Work report. Denver alone is home to two driver-run taxi co-ops, showing there is plenty of interest and promise in this alternative. The biggest, Green Taxi Cooperative, employs more than 700 drivers, unionized within the Communication Workers of America, which represents numerous cab worker co-ops. Union Taxi, another taxi driver co-op supported by CWA, slashed drivers’ car lease rate by two-thirds, increasing their earning power and free time. This May, the New York-based Independent Drivers Guild (IDG) secured an agreement to improve pay, benefits, and working conditions for more than 35,000 Uber drivers, who are treated as independent contractors and thus denied workers’ compensation and other protections. The IDG, affiliated with the Machinists Union, gives these app-based drivers the collective power to improve their earnings and fight abuses on the job. Through the guild, “our voice will be heard,” says longtime New York City driver and organizer Muhammed Barlas. “More money comes into their pocket, plus they have some protection,” he says. The two-tiered platform economy Of course, not everyone is finding entrepreneurial success. The gig economy notion of workers opting in droves to become well-paid freelancers masks a more complicated reality. For every finely paid independent consultant, there are many more “freelance” domestic workers, janitors, and others contending with lower wages and precarious work. Surveys simultaneously show that a majority of freelance workers want to remain independent, and that an increasing percentage of the labor market — particularly Millennials and minorities — have difficulty attaining adequate paying full-time employment. Depending on factors ranging from pay and economic leverage to issues of entrepreneurialism and risk, what represents precarious work for some also marks independence for others. Many experience both. The issue of worker choice is central to whether freelancers and other independent toilers are satisfied with their situation, says Emergent Research’s King. “Consistently fifty to sixty percent of those doing independent work tell us they chose it and they like it,” he says. “About thirty percent say they hate it and want to go back. A lot of it is psychology, people’s risk profiles.” Our “choices” as workers operate in a context and continuum of real and perceived options — as well as our ability to command high enough wages that we can exercise that free choice. What dictates worker choice, freedom, and power is not always so clear-cut. “Whether you’re a freelancer by choice or by necessity, what we’re seeing is that the line is increasingly blurry,” says Melissa Hoover, executive director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. For instance, Hoover says, some lower-paid independent workers are highly entrepreneurial, while, adjunct professions may not want to be working on a freelance basis. “There’s a substantive difference between freelancers organizing to get more work, and independent workers protecting themselves against abuse on the job,” she says. At the same time, Hoover says, high wage freelancers also need basic legal protections. “The common thread is that without an employer there’s very little protection, very little stability,” she says. “Whether you’re freelancing by choice or not, you’re still dealing with the externalization of costs by employers.” Despite the risks and uncertainty, researchers for the “Not Alone” report concluded that many self-employed workers “enjoy working this way and would not necessarily want to return to a traditional job.” “While this does not disguise their low income and their social and economic insecurity, a key point to take into account is that they do not necessarily want ‘saving’ or ‘rescuing’ from self-employment but instead seek recognition, support, and assurance that the risks and rewards of their status are balanced fairly between them and the organisations they trade with,” the report noted. Unions may seem an afterthought in today’s disarrayed economy, where only eight percent of the private sector workforce enjoys collective bargaining power. Yet, while still organizing millions of workers directly on job sites, unions play an equally important role as supporting actor for worker alliances, cooperatives, and guilds seeking to galvanize freelancers’ power. “Labor was built firm by firm, sector by sector — now the economy is far more fluid,” says Institute for the Future’s Natalie Foster. Since the early 1990s when the “temping of America” and contingent work disrupted traditional shop-floor organizing based on a single worksite, unions have scrambled to adapt to this atomized workforce. Technology may be part problem and part solution. The tech-based jobs in the gig economy have further dispersed workers and jobs, making it harder for unions to connect and organize — but many unions are embracing both shoe leather and digital organizing. With support from The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and more than 50 community-based domestic worker groups around the country, the Domestic Workers Alliance has emerged as a change agent for thousands of nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers across the U.S. who are pressured into independent contractor status marked by unlivable wages and abuse on the job. As more of this “work that makes all other work possible” gets farmed out via online platforms such as care.com and handy.com, these workers — largely immigrant women and women of color — become further isolated. “The more companies go online to find domestic workers, they’re getting all their workers on their platform, it’s really affecting how workers find work,” says Barbara Young, national organizing director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), and a 17-year veteran of domestic work herself. Many domestic workers endure 60-hour work weeks with no overtime pay, harassment and abuse, no time off for personal health, and lack of clarity about their pay and job security, says Young. Nearly one in four are paid below their state’s minimum wage. An NDWA survey found that domestic work is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy, Young says. “But the reality of the work is it’s very unstable and insecure.” Young says platforms like care.com initially offered $5 an hour domestic jobs, but “we said it’s too low, you’re breaking the law,” and eventually, with pressure from her organization and its 20,000 domestic workers, some firms improved. Another domestic worker alliance initiative, Fair Care Labs, helps spawn market-based and technology-driven ventures to create a just future for the industry. “As more domestic work shifts online, through on-demand platforms in the gig economy and online marketplaces, the issues related to domestic work have been shifted, not solved,” Palak Shah, the group’s alliance director of social innovations, explains on the group’s website. “We want to effect change while the DNA of the online economy is still being written.” As this “DNA” writes itself, the AFL-CIO and many worker advocacy groups are promoting public policies to help protect the millions of on-demand workers who may not benefit from platform innovations. In its agenda for the on-demand economy, the labor umbrella group promotes racial and gender equity in new digital economy jobs, advocates for new approaches to hold companies accountable for their working conditions, and champions portable benefits policies that will provide workers with a robust safety net. Beyond equitable wages and protections, however, lie equally important if less tangible challenges: How can we ensure that these emerging freelancers’ collectives are able to sustain their work in the long-term? What role could public policy play in supporting these efforts? Can these communities find ways to share their knowledge and lessons learned to aid future freelancer initiatives? Amid a fractured employment world marked by invention and insecurity, freelancers are confronting macro-level economic challenges as well as age-old tensions between individualism and collectivism. Even a successful story like Enspiral remains both inspiring and cautionary. “Our freelancer co-op model is still underdeveloped,” co-founder Joshua Vial explains. “We face many unsolved challenges such as recruiting leadership, providing income security, managing quality, securing sufficient working capital, resourcing work ‘on’ the business and supporting people without managing them.” As the economy promotes this dizzying mix of exploitation and inventive community-building, freelance workers — in both higher and lower wage sectors — are fighting for legal rights, creating new work arrangements, and building businesses with social vision. Somewhere between economic coercion and human agency, with plenty of success and struggle, freelancers are finding their way through the economic wilderness. Permission to republish granted to Enlivening Edge Magazine. Featured Image/Graphic link added by Enlivening Edge Magazine. circular economyEnspiralgig economyplatform economyself-organizing enterpriseworker co-op November 29, 2016 Neal Gorenflo Reply This is even more relevant as Uber drivers strike to get $15 / hour minimum wage.

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FOREVER EVERLY Home Bands Tribute Band FOREVER EVERLY Location: Gold Coast.Qld, Worldwide FOREVER EVERLY, are one of the world's foremost tributes to The Everly Brothers. They recreate the wonderful music and soaring harmonies that made the Everly Brothers the world's most loved vocal duo. With attention to details - from the clothes to the arrangements of the music, this internationally acclaimed show has travelled throughtout the world. From their first hit in 1957 to the current day - The Everly Brothers remain the world’s most loved vocal duo. Their sound - with it’s wonderful close harmonies has influenced The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Abba, and many other artistes. Bye Bye Love, Bird Dog, Walk Right Back, Claudette ,Cathy’s Clown and Let It Be Me are just some of the EVERLY BROTHERS hit songs that are included in this show. Add to these, some of their recordings of country, rock and roll and beautiful ballads, and you have a performance that will please everyone. David Lee-Jay and Martin Norris are both entertainers with a vast wealth of experience. They have both toured the world, worked in television and radio, and appeared with many named artistes. David has toured throughout the world as an entertainer, and was a member of several UK 60’s chart topping bands. He has appeared on television in Europe and Scandinavia, recorded for EMI, and is much in demand as a session vocalist and musician. Martin worked extensively in television in Southern Africa, and has written and directed many television programmes. His song writing and production skills have bought him many awards, including gold records, Mobius Awards, (Chicago ), Sunnie Awards(Qld), and New York Film and TV Awards. Together they are “Forever Everly”, and provide a show that recreates the music and soaring close harmonies that are the trade marks of the EVERLY BROTHERS. The International Everly Brothers fan club and website have already declared this show as “the best they have heard, other than the boys themselves” “Forever Everly” is available as a two-piece show using recorded backing – up to a full five piece using their own backing musicians. The show is suitable for all types of venues, from corporate functions to theatres, clubs and festivals, and is available for matinee and evening appearances worldwide. A Tribute to the Music and Vocal Harmonies of the <span lang="EN-AU" style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: w

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HOME ABOUT EXECUTIVE BOARD REYKJAVIK DECLARATION CONTACT EVENTS NEWS & COMMENTARY LEGAL & PRIVACY POLICY 28 November 2018, Café Luxembourg, Place Luxembourg 10, Brussels Jan Zahradil: Retune The EU! Introducing ACRE’s Spitzenkandidat - Jan Zahradil, followed by live music from the ECR band. Jan Zahradil Jan Zahradil was born in Prague on March 20, 1963. He graduated from the University of Chemistry and Technology, specializing in water and environmental technologies. Following graduation, he performed research in water management. In 1992 he was elected to the Federal Parliament of Czechoslovakia, representing the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), of which he was a founding member. After the split of Czechoslovakia, he became foreign and political affairs adviser to the PM of the Czech Republic. At the Office of the Government, he headed the European Integration Department. In 1998, Zahradil became a Member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, where he served as the co-chairman of the Joint Parliamentary EU – Czech Republic Committee, which supervised the Czech accession to the EU. Due to his specialization, he represented the Czech Republic in the 2002 Convention on the Future of the European Union. Later, he was appointed as the PM’s sherpa for the Lisbon Treaty negotiations, in which he played an integral role. Zahradil was subsequently elected to the EP in 2004 as the leader of the ODS list and was re-elected twice. He is the founding member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), which he led in 2011 as the first Czech to ever lead a political group at the European Parliament. The Group has since become the third largest group in the Parliament. Since 2009, he is also the President of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE), the fastest growing political movement in Europe. In the EP, Zahradil specializes in international trade issues, serving as the INTA Committee Vice-Chairman. Moreover, he was appointed as the standing rapporteur for the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. He is also active in promoting EU – Asia relations, founding and chairing the EU-Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group, in addition to traveling extensively throughout Asia to build new partnerships. Since a young age Zahradil has been a great fan of rock music, occasionally even writing reviews to music magazines. As a Czech patriot, he is a great beer fan, and he especially loves products of Czech microbreweries. Zahradil is married, with a daughter and a son, and they have also welcomed a new addition into the family - a dog. He lives in Prague where he was born and raised, but enjoys spending his holidays in Northern Bohemia. Café Luxembourg, Place Luxembourg 10, Brussels ECR Party is formerly known as ACRE PPEU. Registered in Belgium as a not-for-profit organisation and partially funded by the European Parliament. Sole liability rests with the author and the European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

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People PeopleInTheNews Sun-Times Media Announces Appointment of Chairman E&P Staff March 23, 2011 By: Press Release CHICAGO – Sun-Times Media Holdings, LLC, the holding company whose interests include the Chicago Sun-Times and several other daily and weekly newspapers in and around Chicago, as well as related web sites, today announced that Jeremy L. Halbreich has been appointed Chairman of the company. Mr. Halbreich was previously Vice Chairman of the company, and remains its Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds James C. Tyree, who passed away on March 16, 2011. “This announcement represents a wonderful and very flattering endorsement by Sun-Times Media’s investors for the entire management team and all of the employees at STM,” Mr. Halbreich said. “One of the great pleasures, privileges and delights of my professional career is the time I was fortunate to spend working closely and directly with Jim Tyree. Fortunately, and with much credit and thanks to him, this organization is on a very stable, healthy and positive path. With his memory foremost in our minds, we will carry on with our plans and strategies. This would be Jim’s one wish for Sun-Times Media.” ← Center for Public Integrity Adds Two Journalists to its Board of Directors NAA Elects New Officers and Board Members →

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WORK / Auburn University Campaign Kick-Off Celebration Weekend Because This Is Auburn A full weekend of only-at-Auburn experiences, energizing support for its first $1 billion campaign. Why would more than 500 VIP supporters leap to their feet in a standing ovation when two enormous oak trees descended from the ceiling and were “rolled”? Because this is Auburn. A-Day Weekend immersed guests in an environment that could only be Auburn. Friday’s gala evening offered the perfect blend of classic black-tie elegance and captivating surprises. Saturday morning’s pre-game breakfast was a family-friendly, energizing gathering that educated the entire university community about its first billion-dollar campaign. “Educe was the right partner for Auburn University to create an authentic, memorable event for our top donors and campaign volunteers. They accomplished what we asked with just the right level of professionalism, energy, passion, and festivity. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for Auburn. There’s still a buzz here. I’ve never experienced anything like it.” Jason H. Peevy ’92, Assistant Vice President, Development Communications and Marketing, Auburn University The weekend’s goal was to ignite an increased sense of pride in and connection to the university by illustrating Auburn’s global reach and transformational impact. In a deeply committed and passionate community without a strong tradition of alumni fundraising, the weekend needed to foster a stronger appreciation for private philanthropy and the important role each individual plays in the campaign’s success, inspiring action to secure Auburn’s future. The weekend’s events juxtaposed iconic symbols of Auburn with powerful evidence of the university’s recent successes and the future opportunities to be supported by campaign. Through storytelling, members of the Auburn family expressed their hopes and dreams on a very personal level, always attributing their accomplishments to what they received at Auburn. A moment of gratitude during Friday night’s program reached across multiple generations to bestow thanks and blessings on those in attendance. The elements of Saturday’s pep rally set a dynamic tone for a breakfast that put the campus community at the forefront of campaign objectives. To the surprise of even the Auburn staff, the Friday evening gala inspired the university’s largest donor to give even more.

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Google: Google+ Doesn’t Mean The End Of Buzz, Orkut (Yet) With the success of Google+, the company must eventually decide what to do with Buzz and Orkut–either shut them down and port their users, or risk creating a fragmented social ecosystem. By Austin Carr 1 minute Read After taking several big swings (and whiffs) at social, Google has finally cracked a line drive with Google+. In just three weeks since launch, the network has shot to 20 million users, and generally received praise from the tech world for its design and novel approach to grouping friends. But such immediate success spawns an important question: What now happens to the other social networks Google has developed? Over the years, the search giant has sustained a series of blunders in social, from Wave to Buzz to Orkut. Despite initial excitement, Google Wave ended as a flop; Buzz became bogged down with privacy issues; and Orkut never went mainstream in the U.S. Yet the latter two networks still exist, remnants of once promising social products. Google must eventually decide what to do with Buzz and Orkut–either shut them down and port their users to Google+, or risk creating a fragmented social ecosystem. For now, however, Google has decided to sit tight. “As you know, we just launched Google+ in a limited field trial,” a Google spokesperson tells Fast Company. “It’s still very early days. Orkut, Buzz and Google+ are different products, and all currently exist. Over time, we’ll determine what makes the most sense in terms of integrating these products.” It’s important to remember just how much usage Buzz and Orkut have seen. Buzz, after its rollout, saw tens of millions of users, although this figure has likely declined. Meanwhile, Orkut boasts more than 100 million active users, with large followings in Brazil (50% of its user base) and India (20%). If Google decides not to fold Orkut into Google+, it could become a big headache for users of both networks, especially in international markets, where Orkut is still popular. According to a comScore report out Friday, Google+ is soaring in Brazil and India. Roughly 620,000 users from Brazil have joined Google+, while more than 2.8 million users from India have joined the network, second only to the U.S. and about triple the number of users from the U.K., the third largest market on Google+. Yet Google is clear that Orkut isn’t going anywhere for now, even if Google+ continues its growth. “Orkut has a large user base, especially in Brazil and India,” says the Google spokesperson. “And we will continue to invest in the product.” [Image: Flickr user baldheretic] Follow @fastcompany. Austin Carr writes about design and technology for Fast Company magazine. Hero dad turns his son’s sketch into a real dresser

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This Is Why Your Kickstarter Project Is Late When Twine’s creators signed up for Kickstarter, they thought they’d make about 200 devices using the same $20 toaster oven they had purchased for the prototype. Then they raised more than $500,000. By Sarah Kessler 9 minute Read Twine is exactly the type of sensor-stuffed, Wi-Fi-connected gadget you would expect to take off in Kickstarter’s tech section. The device promises to make your washing machine tweet when the laundry is done and your basement send an email when it floods. Blogs called it “the future” within a week after debuting. Nobody was surprised when it raised more than half-a-million dollars–except for its creators. Related: The Software Coders’ Guide To Kickstarting A Hardware Project Thanks to 3-D printers and cheap prototyping, a new era of physical goods startups is here. Here’s how to make the switch to hardware without running afoul of rules and backers. When John Kestner and David Carr posted Twine on Kickstarter in November 2011, they had set their fundraising goal at $35,000. Their plan was to produce about 200 units using the same process that created the prototype. But six weeks later, having raised $556,541, they were now committed to shipping almost 4,000 units. The homemade wax mold used to create Twine’s prototype was no longer going to cut it, and there wasn’t another plan. “We were definitely not thinking of the risk of being too successful,” Kestner tells Fast Company. In scaling their manufacturing process, tasks the team of two hadn’t considered–customizing a $15,000 set of tooling, designing packaging, communicating with backers, and searching for components–added up to an unmanageable number of full-time jobs. Twine’s estimated delivery date of March quickly became unrealistic. Despite the disproportionate attention that superstar Kickstarter projects like Twine get, they’re rare. Most projects raise less than $10,000, and until last year, none had raised more than $1 million. But as Kickstarter’s scale rockets, breakaway projects like Twine are becoming not only more visible but more common. Seventeen Kickstarter projects passed the $1 million (or euro equivalent) milestone last year. Six of them, like Twine, were gadget projects, which are arguably left in the most awkward position after breakout success. When a Kickstarter project involving hardware takes off, what started as a dream and a prototype can morph into a mass-manufacturing commitment within a couple of weeks. It’s something of a Cinderella story–but one in which Cinderella must learn how to navigate mass manufacturing overnight. Here is how it worked out for Twine. Stage 1: Prototyping Prototyping Twine cost a few hundred dollars. Recently graduated from MIT’s Media Lab, Kestner and Carr “squirreled away” a space to work in the basement of a Harvard dorm. Carr already owned a soldering iron and the electronics equipment for Twine’s circuit board, and he carved a wax mold for Twine’s blue outer casing using a milling machine that he had built himself. Silicone and urethane cost about $100 at a local supply shop, and the toaster oven where Twine’s first casing baked for six hours cost another $20. It wasn’t until the third day of the Kickstarter project, when Twine’s funding passed three times the original goal, that the pair of inventors realized Twine had scaled past this manufacturing process. “If we had done 4,000,” Kestner says, “it would have taken months just to physically manufacture them. That’s not including all of the development time.” 3-D printing, Github-type sites for creating hardware such as Upverter, and makerspaces like Boston-based Artisan Aylum have all made the path to creating a functional prototype or a small batch of gadgets easier. “But the big gotchya,” says Scott Miller, the CEO of a production consultancy called Dragon Innovation that has about 20 Kickstarter projects as clients, “is that is really just the beginning, and there’s a tremendous amount of work to do after that. Because the entrepreneurs have a lot of unknown unknowns, they don’t really know how far along the timeline they are. And typically they will think they’re a lot closer to getting volume on the shelf or e-commerce than they actually are.” Stage 2: Surprise Scaling Though Kestner had studied industrial design as an undergraduate, he had never actually produced a physical object on a large scale. “To be honest, I Googled a lot,” he says. All of Twine’s manufacturing partners and most of its component sources are located in the United States, which successfully avoided the problems with language, time, and cultural barriers that Kickstarter projects such as Pebble and LIFX have dealt with while manufacturing their products in China. Even without overseas manufacturing, however, there were plenty of unanticipated challenges. The company that manufactured Twine’s outer casing, for instance, didn’t design the tooling it used to shape them. Kestner did. Whether or not his designs ended up being functional, they each would cost $15,000. Twine’s gut, the part that holds its circuit board, is made of hard plastic and was easy to test with a 3-D printer before putting money down for the real deal. But only one 3-D printer would prototype the tooling for Twine’s rubber casing, and the results weren’t nearly as accurate as the gut prototypes. When the actual metal tooling arrived, it was a disaster. The case was too tight, and it looked terrible. Problems with the manufacturer’s preview software got the team a refund, but the lost cost could have killed the project. Even with the refund, it cost time. All together, it took five months to just design Twine’s outer casing. Meanwhile, Twine’s first employee coordinated the delivery of 100 components to the factory that assembled Twine’s circuit boards–a job that was part scavenger hunt and part logistical Olympics. Kestner worked on a design for Twine’s packaging and put together a website for managing Twine backers’ new addresses and international shipping costs. By the time the casing and circuit boards began arriving in June, the team had moved to Austin. Boxes started piling up in their new workspace. The casing arrived from an injection molding plant in Minnesota. Circuit boards came from a manufacturer in New Hampshire. And the 8-piece boxes that Kestner designed himself came from North Carolina in large flats. Supermechanical, the company behind Twine, had already spent nearly all of its Kickstarter money. It had overshot its estimated shipping date by three months, and it hadn’t even started putting devices together. Stage 3: Missing The Deadline It isn’t just first-time hardware entrepreneurs that struggle with the manufacturing demands of surprise scaling via Kickstarter. Pebble Technology’s CEO, Eric Migicovsky, has been working on smartwatches for four years. The company manufactured about 1,500 units of its first product, InPulse, at a Bay Area manufacturer. But the 85,000 Pebble smartwatches the company owes Kickstarter backers after raising $10 million on the site required a shift to an overseas manufacturing process, and–though Migicovsky says this plan B existed in advance–the company missed its September estimated delivery date. In fact, most breakaway hardware projects have missed their deadlines. iPhone station Elevation Dock shipped about six months late. Virtual reality headset Oculus Rift initially set its expected delivery date for October, but announced recently that it now expects to be delivering developer kits by March 2013. By one estimate, only 25% of Kickstarter’s design and technology products deliver on time. Being late is not necessarily a big deal. Kickstarter is, after all, designed to support unfinished projects. A bigger problem is reaching a Kickstarter funding goal only to realize that the funding can’t come close to covering your costs. Twine, for instance, set its goal at $35,000—aiming as low as possible in order to avoid missing it. “If we had gotten less than we did, but still met our goal, that would have really hurt us; we would have lost money,” Kestner says. “There’s an uncomfortable valley between hand-making stuff and being able to have the capital to invest in tooling and all the stuff that goes into mass manufacturing that you just can’t get good prices on without mass production. So what do you do? You can’t afford to hand-make 1,000 of something.” Dragon Innovation’s Miller says he often gets panicked calls from Kickstarter project creators who can’t feasibly complete their projects. Their creators did not understand the manufacturing costs when they set their goal. Their timeline is unreasonable, or their design isn’t actually manufacturable. “They’ve also spent the money, and Amazon and Kickstarter have taken their cut,” Miller says. “They can’t even give back the money. It’s kind of a really unfortunate position to be in.” Stage 4: Delivering Against The Odds “What’s that quote that says,” Kestner asks at some point while describing Twine’s journey from Kickstarter funding to shipping, ” ‘If I knew how hard it was to do it, maybe I wouldn’t have started in the first place?'” Kickstarter doesn’t provide any warnings. While it approves projects before they go live on the site, the process is more like filling out a college application than an investigation into the project’s feasibility. In September, however, the platform took its biggest step in preventing hardware projects from drowning in their own success (and the phrase “Kickstarter vaporware” from entering the vernacular) by banning renderings and simulations. “The best rule of thumb: under-promise and over-deliver,” it advised in a blog post. Earlier that summer additional guidelines for design and technology products required information about creators’ relevant experience and a manufacturing plan. Kickstarter has also advised against posting finished products on the site, remind its users that “Kickstarter is Not a Store.” So what is the appropriate amount of risk? No matter how overwhelmed by their projects, all six of the Kickstarter gadget creators I interviewed for this article talked about the opportunities Kickstarter gives entrepreneurs to solicit input and test demand for a product at an early stage. “It’s okay that you have the chance to fail,” Kestner says. “That’s how good stuff gets made. You’ve got to have the chance to fail.” Some did say they wished they had waited until later in the development process before putting their gadgets on Kickstarter. Some couldn’t have afforded to get further along in the process before their Kickstarter campaign. Alex Hawkinson, the CEO of the company that makes SmartThings, a platform for connecting objects to the Internet that raised $1.2 million, said his product was already on track to ship when the campaign first went live. He set the reward thresholds knowing that he’d pretty much break even. “We were on track to launch the product at the end of this year anyway, but we were all Kickstarter users, and thought it was a great way to get the word out and sort of build on that three-legged stool,” he told Fast Company. Even without being prepared for it, Twine’s creators successfully navigated the mass manufacturing process by picking up new skills as they went. Now with a staff of five, Supermechanical started snapping units together last summer. Each of the 4,000 units took about 10 minutes to assemble, test, and package: A total of about more than 650 hours. Supermechanical finally shipped its first 25 Twines in September–about six months after the estimated delivery date. Kestner and Carr celebrated with a nice dinner. “We didn’t cry,” Kestner says. “But it was a great, great weight off.” The next day, they dove into what is sure to be a never-ending series of unexpected challenges: The circuit board assembler couldn’t keep the schedule it had agreed to, some of the shipped Twines returned in the mail, and, with the Kickstarter project behind them, it was time to address the small task of turning Twine into a sustainable business. “I’m a workaholic, I’ve always been a workaholic, Kestner says, “but this is the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. It’s not free money. That’s for sure.” Sarah Kessler is a senior writer at Fast Company, where she writes about the on-demand/gig/sharing "economies" and the future of work. This massive new rooftop farm helps keep Bangkok from flooding 10 ways purposeful business will evolve in 2020 ‘Frozen 2’ got snubbed by the Oscars—and that’s a good thing Oscars 2020: Still so white and unaware of any women directors MC Hammer’s breakout smash ‘U Can’t Touch This’ is 30 years old: The inside story of its iconic video The 2020 Olympic posters are here. They’ll warp your brain It’s past time for interior designers to make climate commitments Report: Thinx menstrual underwear has toxic chemicals in the crotch The one thing resilient leaders do differently The career-changing power of self-assessment Why doing the easy parts of your to-do list first can be a bad idea

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Charles Xavier, a powerful mutant telepath, has brought together a select number of these uncanny youngsters and formed The X-Men, a team that he would train at his Xavier’s School for “Gifted Youngsters” to use their abilities to bring forth a world where humans and mutants can peacefully co-exist, and at the same time, ward off those mutants who would use their powers to commit criminal or terrorist acts like Xavier’s onetime friend, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 60’s, the X-Men has since become one of the most popular superhero franchises ever, spawning various spin-offs in comics and other media. It is also safe to say The X-Men made history once again after the release of the 2000 blockbuster film, which spawned the trend of the “summer superhero film”, which is still quite strong and popular today. The X-Men franchise may have evolved a great deal over the decades, but one very important aspect has remained, and that is whether it is social equality, religion or racial tolerance, X-Men stories will forever tackle these subjects head-on and inspire fans of all ages to stand up and do what’s right for themselves and those different than them, no matter the cost or sacrifice. Marvel X-Men Comics X-Men (Vol. 5) #4 Comics | Marvel X-Men (Vol. 5) add to inbox add to cart X-Men (Vol. 5) #4 RI Variant X-Men (Vol. 5) #3 RI Variant A X-Men (Vol. 5) #3 RI Variant B X-Men (Vol. 5) #2 1:25 Variant X-Men (Vol. 5) #1 Party Variant X-Men (Vol. 5) #1 Premiere Variant X-Men #1 Facsimile Edition War of the Realms (6P Ms) #3 1:10 Variant War of the Realms (6P Ms) Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #3 1:25 Variant Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #1 1:25 Variant A View All Marvel X-Men Comics Here

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Author: Publish Date: 04 November 2019 A company’s reputation and its ‘social license to operate’ (SLO) are two critical intangible assets. Our fifth Climate Change Whitepaper discusses how the increased sophistication of environmental NGOs, public concern and the reach of social media can result in potential challenges for some businesses. It analyses the various costs of reputational risk including the impacts on share price and provides investors with strategies to manage these risks. DOWNLOAD: CLIMATE CHANGE SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE WHITEPAPER A company’s reputation and its ‘social license to operate’ (SLO) are two critical intangible assets. While sometimes conflated the two terms refer to related but different concepts. Reputational risk has a number of commonly used definitions. Oliver Wyman, who have researched reputational risk for a number of years says that “Reputation risk is generally defined as the risk to the institution from changes of perceptions by key stakeholders, including customers, investors, and regulators.” (Oliver Wyman, 2017) In it and other literature, this is often event driven and requires new information coming to light that changes stakeholder perceptions. Social License to Operate meanwhile is commonly defined as broad social acceptance by the local community and other stakeholders, most frequently, as ongoing acceptance. This persistence and local community focus distinguishes it from reputational risks more event driven focus. On Common Ground identify three stages in gaining social license; legitimacy, credibility and trust (On Common Ground Consultants, 2003). While different, there is a clear relationship between the two concepts. A strong social license to operate can indicate a reduced likelihood of negative events occurring because the company has already demonstrated a focus on social and environmental impacts. It can also reduce the reputational harm to the company when negative events do occur because they are likely to be more responsive and already be trusted. Conversely, the size or persistence of reputational events can undermine an organisation’s, or an entire industry’s, social license to operate if not well managed. The interaction can be thought of as increases and decreases in social capital. Efforts to define, measure and develop management systems for both reputation and social license have been developed by groups including the CSIRO, Oliver Wyman and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR); however, clear and comparable measures, beyond surveying of local communities and case studies, remain elusive. Accountability mechanisms for a company’s and/or industry’s actions (or lack of action) which can threaten its SLO largely manifest through NGO and community group opposition and the media including social media. Regulatory enforcement, legal or government action can also follow. The media’s role is particularly important as it both uncovers and amplifies issues while the extensive on-the-ground networks of NGOs raise issues which might otherwise be difficult to detect. NGO influence and changes in global campaigning Environmental NGOs have long played a role in campaigning against projects or companies they find harmful to the environment or communities. Over the last several years, and in particular as it relates to climate change, there has been a marked increase in sophistication and coordination globally. This is best demonstrated by the Climate Action Network (CAN), which includes over 1,100 member organisations from 120 countries around the world. CAN includes small community based groups to large global NGOs like 350.org (Climate Action International, 2018). Other global environmental NGO’s such as the Rainforest Action Network, WWF and Greenpeace have also campaigned, financed and supported climate related initiatives around the world. Social media and global connectivity have further strengthened the reach and responsiveness of these groups. In recent years the influence and credibility of climate focused NGOs has grown as the impacts from a changing climate has become clearer, particularly following the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Business focused NGOs including Carbon Tracker and the 2 degree investing initiative have also emerged. Unlike traditional environmental NGOs and think tanks, these groups were specifically set up to provide information to the financial and corporate sector on the risks of climate change not traditionally covered by financial analysts. They have had significant impact both in promoting concepts like the “Carbon Bubble” and in the regulatory sphere as described in previous papers in this series. The diversity and reach of the growing civil society movement as it relates to climate change has sharpened SLO and reputational risks faced by companies and industries as well as for investors and other financiers who are not seen to be acting in accordance with international goals to reduce emissions. Reprisk controversy monitoring. A window into reputation and SLO risks. The manifestation of reputational issues related to climate change and how they influence an organisation’s license to operate differ by industry and country. However, climate change does not fit neatly into the types of high profile, high direct cost events to which reputational risks are often attributed (e.g. large oil spills, tailings damn collapses). Reprisk tracks controversial news and NGO activity for over 100,000 companies across a range of topics. Climate change is categorised by Reprisk as part of ‘global pollution including climate change’. While this category is not amongst the most controversial ESG issues, the data shows that it is an issue that has been consistently scored since at least 2007. This indicates that while some issues, like the currently highest rated issue of tax avoidance, have grown significantly since 2014 with large swings in their controversy ratings, concern around climate change has been more constant. Reprisk data seeks to highlight controversial issues for companies and projects and so would not necessarily capture regulatory changes or changes in consumer preferences that may be linked to an industry’s or a company’s performance on climate change. However, when looking at controversial issues, climate change related issues dominate, including coal use, deforestation, water scarcity and tar sands. Most common issues flagged Source: Reprisk 3 July 2019. As highlighted in other papers in this series these issues vary by industry and country. Utilities, oil and gas, and mining dominate the industries represented in flagged controversies, with two thirds of the total; however food and beverage, and banks also feature in the top five. Sectors with largest climate change related controversies Country distribution of controversies related to climate change is wide spread with issues as diverse as the proposed Adani Coal mine in Australia, financing of coal fired-power stations across Asia, and deforestation in Indonesia and Brazil. Analysis of the Reprisk data reveals some consistent trends globally including that: There is an increasing expectation that electric utilities transition from high carbon, particularly coal-fired generation, to renewables; The banking and finance sector is under increasing scrutiny in relation to its lending or investment in fossil fuels with significant focus on new coal mining and generation, and unconventional oil and gas. Increased funding for renewables has not mitigated criticism regarding the support of new developments. New coal or unconventional oil and gas projects along with supporting infrastructure like pipelines have faced opposition often with multiple overlapping issues including indigenous rights, land use and water also being factors. To date airlines have not faced the same reputational and SLO issues related to climate change as other sectors, while for agriculture the focus has been on deforestation and further up the supply chain in food manufacturing. However, given their significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions this may change. From these cases certain inferences can be drawn: Chain of SLO and Reputational Risks Related to Climate Change Chain of SLO and Reputational Risks Related to Climate Change What are the costs of Reputational Risk? Most of the literature regarding reputational risk only quantify financial impacts in the immediate aftermath of an event. For example an Oliver Wyman report analysed 200 reputational risk incidents looking at the stock price performance in the 10 trading days post the event (Oliver Wyman, 2017), while a report by Sustainalytics looked at the five days prior and the five days after an incident (Morrow, Vezer, Apostol, & Vosburg, 2017). While these approaches make sense for reducing noise from unrelated factors in the company’s share price performance, they show the most significant impacts for events with direct financial costs such as fraud, recalls and safety incidents, but would not capture longer-term drags on competitiveness. The analysis on climate change risk covered earlier in this paper tend to show complex interactions between a company’s management of the issue, its industry and its reputation. This suggests these traditional methods of analysing the impacts of reputational risks may not work as well with climate change. Approaches to understanding SLO may be more insightful in this regard. Further research would be required to ascertain how and over what period a company’s approach to climate change can result in costly reputational harm and ultimately the loss of social license to operate. These impacts could extend to a range of indirect costs including loss of customers, regulatory intervention and costs of delays and lost production for projects that face community opposition. In the second example, research by the Harvard Kennedy School into that company-community conflict found that a “world-class mining project with capital expenditure of between US$3-5 billion will suffer costs of roughly US$20 million per week of delayed production in Net Present Value (NPV) terms, largely due to lost sales.” (David & Franks, 2014) Notwithstanding these shortcomings, both the Oliver Wyman and Sustainalytics research found significant near term share price impacts for reputational incidents. Oliver Wyman in their analysis of 200+ risk events found that: More than 55% of the events tested had a reputation risk impact. When an event had a reputation risk impact, the losses were significant and large, leading to the total loss over double the loss amount announced by the company. Meanwhile Sustainalytics found that while low to moderate rated incidents showed no short-term share price impacts, severe incidents showed significant impacts in the majority of cases. Current approaches to considering reputational risk and SLO do not lend themselves to considering the costs to companies of a reputation harmed by an inadequate approach to climate change. However, it is clear, as demonstrated by previous papers in this series, that climate change mixed with other issues, has had a significant impact on company valuations, earnings and project financing around the world. Evidence of this includes case studies such as the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL Pipelines in the US, the trend in banks around world implementing policies related to lending to carbon intensive sectors (particularly coal), and the growth of finance focused climate related NGOs such as MarketForces, 350.org, ShareAction and Carbon Tracker. Integration of reputation and SLO into investment decision-making The best way to understand a company’s current and future SLO is three-fold: Considering the positive and negative impacts on different stakeholder groups and the environment that may be caused by the company; Assessing the potential impacts on the company that would be caused by lost or diminished reputation and SLO (caused by adverse stakeholder/climate impacts identified in step 1); and Evaluating how the company is managing these issues. In this regard, SLO and reputation risk events analysis fits well and can help validate assessments of management and business quality that many active investors routinely consider. While not fully measurable, tools exist to help investors understand the impact of climate and other ESG issues on reputation and SLO. While the event driven nature of how reputation risk is normally defined may make it seem a lagging indicator, in aggregate these events contribute to a company or industry’s social licence to operate which is a lead indicator of the ease or difficulty by which a company or industry can continue to operate. Also a series of smaller negative events may point to weak management and higher likelihood of larger events occurring. As the diagram below illustrates, SLO can be thought of in a number of ways. It is an indicator of risk but is also a buffer of ‘social capital’ that can reduce the impact and recovery time after a negative reputation event occur. SLO analysis as a forward-looking indicator Investors are able to distinguish the level of risk by considering where companies sit in the Chain of SLO and Reputational Risks tool described earlier in this paper. The higher up the chain the greater headwinds a particular company or industry faces. For some investors continued exposure will present an unacceptable risk, while others will prefer to capture and integrate these issues into regular company and industry analysis. For most bottom-up active investors it will be a mix depending on the nature of the issues. Investors who do seek to integrate weak or declining SLO into company analysis and valuations can apply discounts, include higher cost of capital and lower growth assumptions or can even remove entire projects from valuations if the analyst determines the risks puts a particular project in danger of not proceeding. Even where a project does proceed, continued community opposition could result in costly delays that can be factored into valuations. For fixed income investors, who are generally focused on downside risks and default, reputation and SLO is also an important consideration. For quantitative investors, controversy research can be an important additional factor to include and has the benefit of being close to real-time as opposed to having the long lags common in other ESG ratings. Stewardship and engagement Engagement and stewardship is important for all investors when it comes to reputation and SLO. The attitude and conduct of senior management and the governance of ESG concerns by a company board provide powerful insights into whether a company is more likely to nurture and grow its SLO or destroy it. Equally, setting expectations for companies through engagement (individual and collaborative), advocacy and proxy voting is a critical accountability measure. Some investors will see engagement on low-carbon transition as offering long-term value creation in some sectors if they are able to influence companies. As described in the third paper in this series on transition risks, investors who focus on engagement need to understand how difficult any transition might be, the risks that it introduces and the willingness and skill of the management of the company to achieve it. It is important that investors critically consider the likely effectiveness of any engagement effort, for example, utilities are much better placed to transition to a low carbon economy than a pure play coal company is. The willingness and sincerity of company management and boards in their engagement is an important indicator of this. Similarly as discussed in the fourth paper in this series on director duties, proxy voting, particularly on shareholder resolutions but also on director elections and remuneration votes is an important and public demonstration of investor support for climate action. Even where ‘behind closed door’ engagement seems to be progressing, the power of a collective and transparent shareholder voice on critical issues in non-binding votes should not be ignored. Internal governance – preventing blow back The increasing concern and focus of clients, employees, regulators and NGOs on the management of climate risk by finance and investment organisations means that scrutiny of investment decision-making and ownership practices will continue to increase. As we have seen with the financing of coal projects by international banks, the SLO of underlying investments and business relationships can be transmitted back to the investor. The previous paper in this series discussed governance frameworks, which address climate risk from a fiduciary and director duty standpoint. Reputation and SLO are also relevant to the investment organisation in this regard. The potential for campaigns, boycotts and other activities can damage the reputation of a financial institution and cause members and clients to leave. Accordingly, reputation risk reporting of underlying assets may be a useful albeit incomplete tool for boards and senior management to monitor these risks. This material has been prepared and issued by First Sentier Investors (Australia) Limited (ABN 89 114 194 311, AFSL 289017) (Author). The Author forms part of First Sentier Investors, a global asset management business. First Sentier Investors is ultimately owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc (MUFG), a global financial group. A copy of the Financial Services Guide for the Author is available from First Sentier Investors on its website. This material contains general information only. It is not intended to provide you with financial product advice and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should consider, with a financial advisor, whether this information is appropriate in light of your investment needs, objectives and financial situation. Any opinions expressed in this material are the opinions of the Author only and are subject to change without notice. Such opinions are not a recommendation to hold, purchase or sell a particular financial product and may not include all of the information needed to make an investment decision in relation to such a financial product. CFSIL is a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Bank). First Sentier Investors was acquired by MUFG on 2 August 2019 and is now financially and legally independent from the Bank. The Author, MUFG, the Bank and their respective affiliates do not guarantee the performance of the Fund(s) or the repayment of capital by the Fund(s). Investments in the Fund(s) are not deposits or other liabilities of MUFG, the Bank nor their respective affiliates and investment-type products are subject to investment risk including loss of income and capital invested. To the extent permitted by law, no liability is accepted by MUFG, the Author, the Bank nor their affiliates for any loss or damage as a result of any reliance on this material. This material contains, or is based upon, information that the Author believes to be accurate and reliable, however neither the Author, MUFG, the Bank nor their respective affiliates offer any warranty that it contains no factual errors. No part of this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Author. In Australia, ‘Colonial’, ‘CFS’ and ‘Colonial First State’ are trade marks of Colonial Holding Company Limited and ‘Colonial First State Investments’ is a trade mark of the Bank and all of these trade marks are used by First Sentier Investors under licence.

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Briefly Noted 147 by Various June 1998 Huxley: From Devil’s Disciple to Evolution’s High Priest . By Adrian Desmond. Addison-Wesley. 848 pages, $37.50 . Thomas Henry Huxley more than earned his reputation as “Darwin’s Bulldog,” yet surprisingly he never fully accepted Darwin’s theory of natural selection. He was not convinced that Darwin’s innovative mechanism had been confirmed empirically; he felt that Darwin’s gradualist approach was a mistake; and he revolted against the implications of evolution for ethics. (He insisted that human society is from but not of the animal world, with its competition and cruelty.) Given such reservations, what made this pugnacious science popularizer such a gadfly for Darwinism? The answer is that he embraced its underlying philosophy of evolutionary naturalism as politically useful. Huxley originated the myth of a “war” between science and religion, but in reality the war he waged was against the privileges of the aristocracy and the English state church. He used naturalistic science as a battering ram to assault the genteel Anglicanism of the seminaries and universities. Yet Huxley realized that the only way to oust one religion is to replace it with another. And so, while claiming the banner of objectivity and open inquiry, he became adept at using biblical phraseology to form a new orthodoxy. He referred to his lectures as “Lay Sermons,” in which he damned his “idolatrous age” for ignoring “the living God thundering from the Sinai of science . . . to worship the golden calf of tradition.” He called for a “New Reformation” that would ordain scientists as the elite priesthood of a new religion, leading his contemporaries to dub him “the Apostle Paul of the new teaching” and even “Pope Huxley.” The inescapable conclusion from this colorful biography is that, from the beginning, Darwinism has been championed less for its scientific merits than for its usefulness in overthrowing religion and establishing a naturalistic ideology. ” Nancy R. Pearcey Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and Theater. By Robertson Davies. Edited by Jennifer Surridge and Brenda Davies. Viking. 284 pages, $29.95. Some Robertson Davies enthusiasts may pick up this collection a little hesitantly, perhaps wishing that there were more of the late great Canadian’s novels to read instead. But in fact we find ourselves savoring precisely the same passionate interests and curiosities we know already from his fiction, here in the concise and equally lively form of his talks, addresses, and reviews. As with the previous posthumous anthology, The Merry Heart (1996), Davies’ shorter pieces are the expression of a life that was essentially religious. Indeed, in one of the book’s thirty-three selections (“How to Write a Book”) Davies says that to live religiously necessitates being “attentive,” “careful,” and able “to look at life through eyes that are as clear as one can make them”; the very opposite, in other words, of living “neglectfully.” Novels became Davies’ metier only after success eluded him as a dramatist; in its focus on the theater Happy Alchemy is a return to his first love. Readers who do not know the theater especially well should not be deterred: each selection is richly introduced and illumined by comments from the editors (Davies’ wife and daughter) as well as by entries from Davies’ own diary. The passion he devoted to his themes and to engaging his varied audiences never fails him or the reader. ” David Stewart Parochial and Plain Sermons. By John Henry Newman. Ignatius. 1,763 pages, $59.95. All eight volumes and all 191 sermons brought together in a book handsome in its printing and binding. As for the quality of these sermons, any comment would be superfluous. Chalk this up as another distinct service rendered by that remarkable outfit, Ignatius Press. The Virtue of Civility . By Edward Shils. Liberty Fund. 395 pages, $16 cloth, $8 paper. Selected essays on liberalism, tradition, and civil society by one of the more humane social thinkers of this American century. Shils, who died in 1995, understood that civility is not simple niceness but a virtue difficult to cultivate at any time and especially under the conditions of modernity. These frequently elegant essays lift up an older liberalism that is today often viewed as conservative or neoconservative. Shils makes a persuasive case for calling liberalism by its right name, which, contra the collectivists, is not a position of the right. Newman and Conversion . Edited by Ian Ker. University of Notre Dame Press. 153 pages, $18 paper. Issuing from a 1995 conference at Oriel College, Oxford, marking the 150th anniversary of Newman’s conversion, the book contains frequently sparkling essays by, inter alia, Sheridan Gilley, Avery Dulles, John Macquarrie, and editor Ker. Required reading for Newman buffs. Memoir on Pauperism . By Alexis de Tocqueville. Ivan R. Dee. 84 pages, $6.95 paper. A little-known essay by Tocqueville after he visited England and tried to figure out why the most affluent society in Europe had the most paupers, while many impoverished societies apparently had none at all. The problem, he contends, is with England’s policy of public charity as a legal right. In her introduction, Gertrude Himmelfarb makes the connections with contemporary debates about poverty and welfare. Islam: A Very Short Introduction . By Mallise Ruthven. Oxford University Press. 162 pages, $7.95 paper. An admirable idea of Oxford’s, these short introductions to huge subjects. The present work covers very nicely, within the limits of its imposed brevity, the beliefs, history, and current state of Islam. Although he thinks more blood is likely to be spilled along the way, the author is a modern optimist in thinking that Muslims will, more or less inevitably, adapt their religion to the peaceful constraints by which the rest of us-meaning those of us who are in charge of the world-abide. It is a much more sanguine and less sanguinary view than that proposed by Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations,” and one may hope that Mr. Ruthven is right. Christianity in South Africa: A Political, Social, and Cultural History . Edited by Richard Elphick and Rodney Davenport. University of California Press. 479 pages, $19.95 paper. Twenty-five essays covering the wide and dramatic variations of Christian faith and life in South Africa up through the years of apartheid. The book is a welcome antidote to the exclusively political, economic, and ideological ways of telling the story of South Africa. In the past and still today, the forces driving that conflicted and hopeful land cannot be understood apart from the powerful, if often strange, Christian convictions of its peoples. Warmly recommended. A Moral Vision for America . By Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Edited by John P. Langan. Georgetown University Press. 168 pages, $17.95 paper. The late Cardinal Bernardin had an inestimable influence in shaping the public witness of the U.S. bishops conference, and this book brings together fifteen of his notable interventions from the 1980s until his death in 1996. Although dealing also with questions such as economics and foreign policy, the addresses focus on the “consistent ethic of life” theme that he first set forth in 1983. The book concludes with his reflection on the “Common Ground Project” that he initiated shortly before his death. In the circumstance of American Catholicism, those on the left celebrated Bernardin as the beard who provided ecclesiastical cover and made more palatable their purposes. Whether that does justice to what Bernardin thought he was doing is another matter. The addresses in this book are marked by intelligence, civility, and a manifestly sincere belief that he was advancing authentic Catholic teaching. They will be chiefly of interest as an important marker in the internal politics of the Church in the U.S. The East German Church and the End of Communism . By John Burgess. Oxford University Press. 185 pages, $39.95. Working from first-hand sources in East Germany, Burgess describes the heady days when the (mainly) Protestant church provided an opening for resistance to the Communist regime, leading to the liberation of 1989. He notes that the subsequent years have brought disillusionment and deep uncertainty, but ends on the note that Christians once so inspired by the teachings of such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer will surely play a constructive role when the former East Germany finds its future. The Politician’s Guide to Assisted Suicide, Cloning, and Other Current Controversies . By George J. Marlin. Morley Books (Washington, D.C.). 230 pages, $12.95 paper. The first fifty pages of this persuasive book from a new press connected with Crisis magazine provide a straightforward and accessible exposition of natural law, laying the foundation for the treatments of sundry controversies that follow. In a relatively short space the author packs an impressive range of authoritative sources and quotations of argumentative force. He asserts effectively his view that capital punishment is required by retributive justice, but he does not engage alternative arguments, such as that of the encyclical Evangelium Vitae . Nonetheless, this is a sophisticated primer for politicians who are open to thinking about their calling with moral seriousness. The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries . By Michael Budde. Westview. 168 pages, $35. A professor of political science at DePaul University protests the media and entertainment industries that hold our world in thrall. Salvation from Disney and its demonic company lies in the formation of small countercultural communities of radical discipleship. A familiar analysis and prescription offered from a Catholic perspective. The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History . Edited by Michael Glazier and Thomas J. Shelley. Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press. 1,567 pages, $79.95. A big wonderful jumble of a book, with entries ranging from the masterful to the risible. Yet it undoubtedly fills a void with its thousands of entries on personalities, movements, and controversies that have shaped the Catholic Church in the U.S. On Catholic publications, for instance, Commonweal gets a deservedly appreciative notice, while the editors of the Wanderer and the National Catholic Reporter , at polar ends of Catholic quarrels, get to do the entries on their own publications. Mr. Matt of the Wanderer assures us that the paper has rendered an invaluable service and the condition of the Church is looking up, while Mr. Fox of the Reporter informs us that John Paul II has “resisted the Church’s renewal agenda,” while his paper has often been “an isolated voice” in defending it. Monsignor Martin Hellriegel is celebrated as a pioneer of the liturgical renewal endorsed by Vatican II, but there is no mention of his vigorous criticism of the directions that renewal took after the Council. Perhaps in order to include more women, figures such as the artist Corita Kent and the agitprop journalist Penny Lernoux receive attention far beyond their influence. The entry on Humanae Vitae tells us that the self-styled orthodox have made it a “litmus test,” when everybody knows that, for better and for worse, it is undeniably that. And there are no entries at all for sometimes controversial groups such as Cursillio, Opus Dei, and Focolare. On the other hand, there are numerous articles comparable to Joseph Komonchak’s admirably balanced and informative treatment of John Courtney Murray. So is it a must addition to any serious Catholic library? Not quite, but it is a welcome addition, to be used with care. Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions . Edited by Gerald H. Anderson. Macmillan. 845 pages, $100. A very impressive achievement indeed, the result of years of devoted work by the editor of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research . The thousands of entries, which are thoroughly ecumenical and international, make clear that the history of missions is virtually the history of Christianity, an incorrigibly missionary faith. A must for seminary and religious studies libraries, and well worth considering for your local church. Articles by Various

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Peru's Fujimori in political pause ahead of new court hearing Lima (AFP) Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, released last month after more than a year in pre-trial custody, announced Wednesday she would take a break from politics, before a new detention hearing in her corruption case. Fujimori, 44, is accused of accepting $1.2 million in illicit funding for her 2011 election campaign from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. The hearing to decide on a potential new 36-month pretrial detention term will be held on December 26, the day after Christmas. "I am going to pause my political activities because my priority is and will always be my family," Fujimori said in a televised statement. "We will face this process as a whole family." After her release in November, she theoretically had time to campaign for presidential elections set for July 2021. Once Peru's most popular politician, she rejected accusations that she was a flight risk and posed a danger of obstruction to prosecutor Jose Domingo Perez's investigations. The 44-year-old eldest daughter of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori was taken into pretrial detention in October 2018 for allegedly interfering with the anti-corruption investigation. Her release last month by the Constitutional Court came in a ruling related only to her detention and which has no bearing on the corruption case against her. On Wednesday Fujimori said there is "no flight risk because the judges determined it" and the Constitutional Court that released her ruled out the presumed dangers of obstruction. "It's the most perverse gift that I have ever received in my life," the leader of the right-wing Popular Force party said of the new pre-trial detention hearing which awaits her. Fujimori added she was worried for her two daughters and keeping them in mind would give her strength to face the judicial process. "We are going to show this is persecution, and we will also show our truth," she said. Perez believes there is new information against Fujimori, which he believes would increase the risk of flight and obstruction of justice. The prosecutor is seeking to file multiple new accusations against her, including money laundering and obstruction of justice. Odebrecht has admitted paying at least $29 million to Peruvian officials since 2004, and bribing four former Peruvian presidents. But the Odebrecht scandal stretches far beyond Peru. Latin America's largest construction firm has admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to win juicy contracts in 12 countries.

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Write for the journal News & Events Call for Contributions: Climate Crisis Call for Contributions: Climate Crisis Caroline Sweetman November 15, 2019 Uncategorized Announcing our Climate Crisis issue’s Call for Contributions. The issue will be published in November 2020, and the deadline for us to receive ideas for articles is 6th January 2020. Five years after the international community signed the Paris Agreement, committing it to take action, climate crisis is now clearly evident, causing disasters and suffering across the world. Yet there is still insufficient will among the powerful to take the action needed. Human development has to be re-routed, and feminist and environmental economic principles are key. While it’s now too late to prevent the crisis, feminists are pushing for the radical and rapid policy changes and action required to mitigate and prevent future damage to people and planet. Feminist natural resource defenders are calling for radical change to protect the planet and all forms of life on it. They demand justice for marginalised peoples – and in particular women and girls living in poverty in the global South – whose lives are devastated by the dangers, insecurities and wants associated with droughts, melting ice caps and rising sea levels, food insecurity, ecosystem changes and vector-caused disease spreading. Many of the women directly affected in poor and marginalised communities are at the forefront of activism on climate change. And others, personally less affected, are with them. There is a growing sense of global solidarity stretching across the world, linking in wide networks to protest, to challenge, to rebuild our vision of development and humanity’s place in the ecosystem. We’d like the issue to feature perspectives, strategies and experiences of feminist activists of all generations, working across international development research, policy and practice, and in women’s rights/feminist activism. Leading the way are two guest co-editors for the issue: Irene Dankelman (sustainable development specialist and author of Gender and Climate Change: an Introduction), and Kavita Naidu (Climate Justice Programme Officer, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development). Please read and share the Call and remember, if you want to send us your idea, the deadline is 6th January 2020. Picture credit: “Women Rise for Climate Justice (Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal)”by 350.org is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Tweets by @GaDjournal Oxfam House John Smith Drive Oxford OX4 2JY UK Caroline Sweetman, Editor: csweetman@oxfam.org.uk Liz Cooke, Assistant Editor: lcooke@oxfam.org.uk © 2018 Oxfam. Oxfam is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SC039042). Oxfam GB is a member of the international confederation Oxfam.

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National Wildlife Refuge | Michigan Recent Bird Sightings One of the primary reasons the refuge was established in 1953 was to provide stopover habitat for Canada geese during spring and fall migration, in particular the Southern James Bay Population. This population of geese nests along the southwestern shore of James Bay (Ontario) and on Akimiski Island in James Bay (Northwest Territories). The refuge is one of a limited number of locations that these geese use to rest and feed while traveling the Mississippi Flyway to and from wintering grounds as far south as Georgia. Peak counts of all populations of geese at the refuge reach 20,000 birds. One of the most charismatic species at the refuge is the great egret. Egrets are very commonly seen foraging in shallow water or resting in shrubby willows along the Wildlife Drive. The great egret stands more than three feet tall and has a wingspan of almost five feet. By the 1920s this species was nearly exterminated in North America by plume hunters. These hunters sought the bird’s snow white feathers which were high fashion in the millinery industry. Passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918 enabled this species and many other birds to recover dramatically. Prothonotary Warbler The prothonotary warbler is one of the refuge’s signature species. The refuge is one of very few places in Michigan that this beautiful bird nests. The prothonotary warbler was named after religious and legal clerks who sometimes wore a golden hood and a blue cape. It is also appropriately nicknamed the “golden swamp warbler.” The prothonotary is the only warbler in the eastern United States that nests in tree cavities. The best location to see this bird is along the Ferguson Bayou Trail. It occurs here from very late April into August. Emergent Marsh Emergent marsh is one of the most important habitats at the refuge. It is a wetland characterized by an interspersion of open water and cattail. This habitat provides the most important resting and feeding conditions required by the large concentrations of migrant waterfowl that the refuge was established to protect. The most abundant waterfowl are Canada goose, mallard, green-winged teal, and ring-necked duck. Emergent marsh also provides important stopover habitat for large flocks of shorebirds, including dunlin, least sandpiper, and lesser yellowlegs. Other noteworthy denizens include pied-billed grebe, least bittern, black tern, marsh wren, Blanding’s turtle, and eastern fox snake. Forested Wetland The most widespread habitat at the refuge is forested wetland. These wetlands provide important habitat for a wide diversity of wildlife. Waterfowl such as wood ducks and hooded merganser are common here. The larger expanses provide important habitat for forest interior birds such as barred owl, eastern wood-pewee, American redstart, and scarlet tanager. The forested wetlands along Ferguson Bayou Trail are occupied by nesting prothonotary warblers. Numerous amphibians use the small ephemeral pools in the wetlands to breed, including blue-spotted salamander, wood frog, and gray treefrog. Butterflies you may see include hackberry emperor, American snout, and northern pearly eye. Lakeplain prairie is a globally imperiled ecosystem. Historically, 158,000 acres of this prairie existed in Michigan in the early 1800s. Currently, only 0.6 percent remains. The refuge is restoring approximately 550 acres of this special habitat. Visitors can see one restoration site in progress from the observation platform at the entrance to Ferguson Bayou Trail and the Wildlife Drive. This 160-acre area was first plowed in the 1930s when it was aptly named Little Prairie. Hopefully, visitors will soon see this location as it used to appear, with prairie grasses and wildflowers swaying in the wind. Alert - Settlement Reached with Dow Chemical Company Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge is a critical migration stopover site for waterfowl. Shiawassee Home

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Chef Ann Kim of Young Joni wins James Beard Award MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A Minnesota chef is bringing home the James Beard Award for the best chef in the Midwest region. Monday night Ann Kim won the honor at the James Beard Foundation's award ceremony, which recognizes the top chefs in the United States. She was a semifinalist in the Midwest category in 2017 and a finalist last year. Kim is the chef and owner of Young Joni, a pizza restaurant in northeast Minneapolis. She also runs Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza. "My goodness this incredible. I went to the bathroom before the last award because my Spanx were so constrictive," she said to much laughter and applause in the audience. She told the room she dropped her speech, but luckily had a copy on her phone and was able to share her inspiring message. "This is unbelievable because I'm standing here on this stage and it has never been something that I thought could ever be in the realm of possibility," said Kim. "My journey has not been easy. It has not been linear and it has not been traditional, but here I stand. I stand before you and I stand here because 10 years ago, I said, 'F--- fear.'" For the Midwest category, chefs from Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin were considered. Kim beat out four other finalists, which included fellow Minnesotans Jamie Malone of Grand Cafe and Christina Nguyen of Hai Hai. Gavin Kaysen of Spoon & Stable won the award for the Midwest region last year. Young Joni briefly closed in February due to an attic fire, but soon reopened.

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Spain detains 10 after seizing 900 kilos of cocaine Spanish Civil Guards captured more than 900 kilos of cocaine, and detained 10 amid an operation in the port city of Algeciras. The drugs had come from South-America hidden in a cargo of fruit. Spain made its largest cocaine bust in 18 years in December after over 5,800 kgs of the drug were discovered in a container ship travelling from Medellin. The ship also stopped in the southern port of Algeciras.

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How Ferrari remains as far ahead of the curve as ever By Jason Barlow 25 November 2017 At the Maranello HQ, the buildings might be more modern but the ethos has not changed since the Forties. New technology, management and a master plan means Ferrari remains as far ahead of the curve as ever Following Enzo Ferrari's death, there was a troubled interregnum before Luca di Montezemolo, who had run the Formula One team as a young man in the mid-Seventies and had recently masterminded the Italia 1990 World Cup, was appointed by Gianni Agnelli to rework Ferrari for the post-Enzo era. Montezemolo was wildly successful, the road cars rapidly improved and he hired Jean Todt to reboot the Formula One team's stuttering performance. With Michael Schumacher as the lead driver, the Scuderia completely dominated the sport from 1999 until 2004. But, as with all political careers - and Ferrari is nothing if not political - Montezemolo's ended in failure. Actually, that's a little harsh: the chairman of Ferrari's parent group, Sergio Marchionne, publicly disagreed with his strategy and though he hung on for a time, Montezemolo eventually resigned in September 2014. "He wants Ferrari to make trucks," Montezemolo observed. Marchionne is a financial engineer of considerable prowess and has an arguably less sentimental vision for Ferrari than his predecessor. Late in 2015, the company was floated on the stock exchange, the IPO valuing it at £7.9 billion. There are rumours that an SUV is indeed on the way (if it isn't, Ferrari would be the only high-end carmaker holding out). For now, it's difficult to imagine a more convincing range of road cars than Ferrari's current line-up. The 812 Superfast, powered by a majestic 789bhp, naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12, is the ultimate iteration of those playboy GTs beloved of what we once called the jet-set. The new Portofino, which replaces the California T, is on sale soon: a much lighter, faster and more focused proposition than the old car. Few things can touch the mid-engined 488 GTB, but the Speciale version due in a few months' time will definitely be one of them. Ferraris remain fearsomely expensive cars, but then this company reinvests more of its annual profit into R&D than any of its rivals. The engineers and designers are arguably the most dedicated in the entire automotive sector. They'll need to be; the car industry is heading into a period of vast change. Ferrari, however, will prevail. As it always has. Six impressive Ferrari racing statistics Seventy years of extreme highs and lows on the track have added up to one seriously impressive record. Herewith, the highlights... 228 race wins 721 podiums 945 races entered 15 Drivers' Championships 211 pole positions 16 Constructors' Championships Like this? Now read: The life of Enzo Ferrari Ferrari: Under The Skin will blow every petrolhead's mind Why every man should be a Ferrari owner FerrariCarsMagazineNovember 2017 Issue The best-dressed celebs at the SAG Awards 2020 By Zak Maoui 20 January 2020 10 coolest things to do in London this week By Hannah Blacklock, Daphne Bugler 20 January 2020

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British soldier to stand trial for McAnespie killing Aidan McAnespie was shot in the back as he walked to a Gaelic football match in 1988. A soldier is to stand trial for the 1988 fatal shooting of a man as he walked through a British Army checkpoint during Britain’s military occupation of the six counties in Ireland’s north still claimed by Britain. Aidan McAnespie, aged 23, was killed at the border in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, in February 1988 as he walked to a Gaelic football match. He was shot in the back. The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) finally announced its intention to prosecute a 48-year-old former soldier for gross negligence manslaughter. McAnespie was on his way to a local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club when he was shot with a machine gun by the soldier. He had been hounded and harassed by the Crown Forces since 1981, right up until the morning of his death when he and his mother Elizabeth were stopped and detained at a British base for two hours on their way back from the wake of a relative. McAnespie had been the target of systematic harassment since the age of 17. On the day of his death, his movements would have been routinely noted by the Crown forces as he passed through the checkpoint. He was killed by a single bullet. The soldier claimed his hands were wet and his finger slipped on the trigger of his heavy military weapon. He was initially charged with manslaughter, but the charge was later dropped. He was later fined for negligently firing his weapon. The McAnespie family welcomed the historic decision to prosecute a soldier. His brother Vincent said the family had faced a “brick wall” in their 30-year campaign. “It’s truth and justice we want to get,” he said. “He was just an ordinary local lad from the community that just wanted to go about his ordinary everyday life.” Cousin Brian Gormley said relatives were relieved the circumstances of the case were going to be examined in a court of law. “The opportunity of actually getting to the truth of what happened in this case is still very much alive and we as a family are committed to pursuing that until we get to the very bottom of what happened that day,” he said. “This is one further step.” Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone Michelle Gildernew told the Telegraph: “We have consistently called for transparency in all cases for families to get the truth they deserve. Every family has the right to know what happened to their loved ones.” Speaking of the victims of the violence of “The Troubles” in Ireland’s north, Gildernew noted people from all communities had suffered. But she noted: “The only people not to be held to account were those involved in state killings.” [Reprinted from Irish Republican News.]

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Gazan Girl Fights Cancer Alone at West Bank Hospital. Israel Won't Let Her Parents Join Miral Abu Amsha, a 10-year-old suffering from leukemia, is undergoing chemotherapy in a Nablus hospital by herself. And she’s not the only patient in that situation Alex Levac Miral Abu Amsha at the hospital in Nablus.Alex Levac The look on Miral’s face says it all: the anguished features of a little girl, a study in pain. There are balloons in the room, dolls on the bed, and a grandmother by her side – but Miral’s face bespeaks suffering. Occasionally, she is on the brink of tears, but holds back in order not to cry in front of strangers. But at some point, she can no longer contain herself and begins to weep. She’s sitting on the bed, the chemo tube attached to her arm, dripping the liquid directly into her vein. Miral Abu Amsha is a 10-year-old girl with leukemia. She’s been hospitalized for two weeks in Najah University Hospital in Nablus, in the West Bank, undergoing aggressive chemotherapy treatment that is expected to continue for another four months at least, and her father and mother are not at her side. Her parents are far away, in Gaza City, beyond the hills of darkness. Miral misses them, Miral is sad, Miral barely speaks. Her grandmother who has been allowed to be with her, is in despair, imploring the Israeli guests who have suddenly entered the room to help. It’s not difficult to imagine what the child’s parents, in the prison that is the Gaza Strip, are going through, hearing the weeping of their little girl every day over the phone and unable to help – not to be by her side, not to hug her, caress her, tend to her in her suffering. You don’t have to be an oncologist or an expert in the psyche to know that the mental condition of a youngster hospitalized far from his or her parents affects the prospects of recovery. There are studies that have concluded as much. This could well be the saddest place in the occupied territories. Every children’s ward in every hospital is a sad place; the rooms of children suffering from cancer are sadder still. But the rooms of children from Gaza who are suffering from cancer and hospitalized here at Najah in Nablus – where many are cut off from their parents at such a terrible time – are truly heartrending places. It’s hard to spend any length of time here. The atmosphere of distress and helplessness is unbearable. A portrait of the essence of Israeli evil. Physically, the scene resembles any children’s ward in a modern hospital: colorful paintings on the walls, a playroom, a classroom for those hospitalized for long periods, spacious rooms for no more than two patients, comfortable armchairs for the family – everything that could help relieve a child’s suffering. But this week there were seven children from the Gaza Strip here, and only two were with their mothers. As for fathers, dream on. Israel’s “security” considerations, you know. Most of the children were with their grandmother or aunt, and in some cases with a woman they didn’t know – whatever person was able to get an exit permit from the Gaza prison. All these children are here, in the West Bank, in an area supposedly under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, without their parents – by order of Israel – because no treatment is available for them in Gaza under the siege conditions there. We were in this hospital two years ago, when the director was Prof. Selim Haj Yehia, a heart and transplant surgeon of international renown from the Israeli city of Taibeh, whose brother, Samer Haj Yehia, is the board chairman of Israel’s Bank Leumi. Haj Yehia was compelled to resign and was replaced by Gaza-born Dr. Kamal Hijjazi, who escorts us together with the hospital’s chief executive medical consultant, Dr. Walid Khoury, a resident of Jordan. Both men are very cordial. Hijjazi makes a point of picking up every piece of paper he finds in his hospital’s otherwise clean corridors. Nada, a girl of 3 from Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, was the first patient we met. She’s lucky: Her mother is with her. Miral’s grandmother, Shafiqa, is begging for the girl’s mother, Donia, to be allowed to leave Gaza and replace her here. Donia has been denied a permit for security reasons. She’s undoubtedly a dangerous terrorist. Bisan Sukar is also here without her parents. She’s 4 years old and her hair is thinning out from the treatments. Her grandmother, Zahiya, 71 years old, is tending to her with what little strength she has. Mom and Dad are far away. There was one occasion when her mother was allowed to accompany her, but this time her request was rejected. It’s hard to escape the feeling that this is arbitrariness and cruelty for their own sake. Bisan Sukar. This four-year-old is hospitalized in Nablus and undergoes chemotherapy without her parents.Alex Levac The nurses try to fulfill the role of the absent mothers, but not always successfully. Some of them wear masks to avoid infecting the youngsters whose immune systems have been weakened or eradicated. Dozens more children are treated here as outpatients; many of them are also from Gaza and are living, with their mothers or without them, in apartments that the hospital rents for them. A new report by the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights shows that every year there are hundreds of cases of sick children from the Strip who are sent for medical treatment outside Gaza without their parents, because the Israeli authorities refuse to issue them an exit permit. According to the report, between October 2018 and July 2019, 21 percent of the children who were compelled to leave Gaza for medical treatment were unaccompanied by their parents. The average monthly number of exit permits for sick children issued during that period stood at 536, of whom only 420 were able to leave with one of their parents, usually their mothers. The other 116 children had to travel and be hospitalized without either parent. These figures were provided to PHR by the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories after two requests were submitted under Israel’s Freedom of Information Act. But not all the sick children receive a permit to leave Gaza for medical care. Four-year-old Rim Ahal was seriously injured last May when she accidentally drank sulfuric acid, which wreaked havoc on her internal organs. Rim gets her food through tubes and is in constant pain; her father has to take her to Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City every two days to have the tubes replaced. Since the accident, the family has submitted a number of requests for Rim to travel with her mother or her grandfather to Najah Hospital, where her condition can be ameliorated – but the District Coordination and Liaison Office didn’t bother to respond to the family’s requests or to others, from PHR. This week the request was rejected officially. A spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities this week stated, in reply to a query from Haaretz: “As was explained to the Palestinian Civil Committee in the Gaza Strip, Donia Abu Amshi’s request was rejected because mistaken details were found on her application forms. To date the correct details have not been completed [sic], nor has a new request on the subject been submitted – and when it is received, it will be examined on an individual basis like all requests. Four-year-old Rim Ahal, who is being treated at a hospital in Gaza.Alex Levac “Until the mother’s new request is received, the District Coordination and Liaison Office in Gaza issued an escort license for the grandmother of the girl Miral Abu Amshi, so that she would not go alone for the medical treatment [and so that] the medical treatment would [not] be delayed. “In addition, Rim Ahal’s request was rejected by the DCL in Gaza because mistaken details were found on the application forms of the escort who was supposed to go with her for the medical treatment – and therefore his request could not be approved. We would like to note that under DCL policy, permits for children cannot be issued without an adult escort.” Grueling ordeal There are sick youngsters who do receive a permit to leave Gaza for medical treatment, but who cannot withstand the long, grueling ordeal at the checkpoints. That was the case with Abdul Rahim Shurav, a toddler who was suffering from an illness that caused him shortness of breath and choking. He received a transit permit, and the staff at Najah Hospital prepared for his arrival, in serious condition. But during the trip there, while being transferred from one ambulance to another, the 2-year-old died, on November 26. Not only children have to cope with their sickness alone, at Najah. We visit Mohammed Tabash, 31, a cancer patient, who is lying alone in the surgical ward, staring sadly at the ceiling, far from his wife, his two children and any other family member. They are in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, and he is here, in a hospital located high on Mount Ebal, undergoing a rigorous regimen of chemo all by himself. A white piquet blanket covers him; a tube is attached to his arm. An unemployed man, during the year before he fell ill Tabash volunteered as a paramedic in the Red Crescent organization during the weekly March of Return demonstrations along the fence that locks Gaza in. Half a year ago he started suffering from chills and his temperature rose. He was diagnosed with leukemia at the European Gaza Hospital, which referred him to Najah. Tabash’s request to travel to Nablus was approved, and he was moved here by what’s called the “roll on/roll off system,” from ambulance to ambulance – three ambulances, all together – from his home to the Erez checkpoint, then to the Qalandiyah checkpoint, and from there to the hospital in Nablus. The authorities permitted Tabash’s father, Khalil, who is 60, to accompany him. Mohammed Tabash, a cancer patient hospitalized in Nablus, far from his wife and children.Alex Levac But after a month, Khalil was unable to cope with the rigors of continuously being in the hospital and returned to Khan Yunis. The family requested that Mohammed’s wife, Rasha, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, be given a permit to spend at least a few days with her husband while he underwent aggressive treatment. The request was denied for “security reasons.” The Tabash family then appealed to PHR for assistance, and in a conversation with an officer in the Coordination and Liaison Office, the NGO’s representative was informed that Mohammed was “illegally present in the West Bank.” The hospital immediately issued a response stating explicitly that the patient had left the Strip legally and had been undergoing intensive chemo and would have to spend a few more months in treatment. The medical report stated that Tabash needed a family member to accompany him during the treatment and that his condition was serious: He might have to undergo a bone marrow transplant, which is a particularly difficult procedure. No response has been received to a second PHR appeal to the authorities, which was submitted last month by its projects coordinator, Haneen Kinani, nor to a request submitted by the family to allow a relative to accompany Tabash. In response to a Haaretz query about his situation, the spokesman for COGAT would not make a public statement. Meanwhile, in his room, we see liquid seeping into Tabash’s body drop by drop. His wife, Rasha, had asked Kinani to buy her husband a new sweatshirt for the winter. Kinani now takes one out and places it on the shelf next to Tabash’s bed. A smile crosses his lips. Send me email alerts for new articles by Gideon Levy Israel occupation

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Commercial / Government SCDA Metrology Laboratory GMK Associates was selected by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to provide architectural and engineering services for the construction of a new South Carolina State Metrology Laboratory to be located at the current South Carolina State Farmers Market site off of US 378 in Lexington County, SC. A metrology laboratory provides National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) traceable calibrations for mass and volume standards and calibrates equipment for state inspectors and private scale and pump service companies for the enforcement of weights and measures regulations. The objective of the project is to construct a new state-level Metrology Laboratory that meets the requirements of a new state standards program recently established by federal law. Specifically, the completed facility must meet the national and international standards set forth by NIST for a state laboratory program in order to achieve accredited environmental certification. The new facility is to replace the existing “Echelon 1” Metrology Laboratory currently located on Catawba Street in downtown Columbia, SC, and is to retain the “Echelon 1” status by meeting or exceeding the new state standards through modernization and better environmental controls. For the project, GMK has assembled and is leading a team of internal and subconsultant resources to provide architecture and site civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering services for the new facility. The team further includes a specialty consultant for precision engineering associated with complex measurement-related equipment and activities. The cost of construction of the new Metrology Laboratory is estimated to be between $2.2 and $2.4 million. SC Department of Agriculture 1201 Main Street, Suite 2100, Columbia, SC 29201 ph: 803.256.0000 | info@gmka.com © GMK Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Start by marking “Copperhead” as Want to Read: We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Copperhead by Alexi Zentner. Preview — Copperhead by Alexi Zentner Alexi Zentner (Goodreads Author) What do we do when the people we love hold beliefs that are fundamentally incompatible with who we are? All Jessup wants is to enjoy his senior year at Cortaca High and get a scholarship to attend college. It doesn’t seem impossible. He’s a standout varsity football player. A good student. He works at the local movie theater to help his mother make ends meet. But it’s What do we do when the people we love hold beliefs that are fundamentally incompatible with who we are? All Jessup wants is to enjoy his senior year at Cortaca High and get a scholarship to attend college. It doesn’t seem impossible. He’s a standout varsity football player. A good student. He works at the local movie theater to help his mother make ends meet. But it’s hard to live a normal life when everybody in town knows that your stepfather is a white supremacist–a white supremacist who was involved in a violent encounter with two young black college students. And who is about to be released from prison. But his stepfather, David John, also saved Jessup’s family from imploding, rescuing his mother and giving Jessup and his siblings a safe home for the first time. David John’s release from prison sets off a chain of events that will forever define Jessup’s entry into adulthood, dragging him into the swirling currents of irreconcilable ideologies, crushing loyalties, and unshakeable guilt. Told with unflinching honesty and a ferocious gaze directed at contemporary America’s darkest corners, Copperhead vibrates with the energy released by football tackles and car crashes. Alexi Zenter unspools the story of boys who think they’re men of the entrenched thinking that supports a split-second decision; and asks whether hatred, bigotry, and violence can ever be unlearned. ...more Online Stores ▾ Published August 20th 2019 by Viking (first published July 9th 2019) To ask other readers questions about Copperhead, please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Copperhead Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging 102 books — 1 voter NYT Editors’ Choice 201908 53 books — 7 voters Start your review of Copperhead Aug 08, 2019 Jamal Ahamad rated it really liked it Stories With Mr. Ahamad Season 2 Episode 2 | Copperhead https://youtu.be/-AQscnQ1spY To be honest, I’m surprised that I even finished this book. As a young Black man, reading from the perspective of a reluctant white supremacist was hard to commit to for more than a couple of pages. Thankfully, once I got in about 100 pages deep, the story really picked up and there were some incredible character arcs to read through. Without giving too much away, I LOVE that this is a book about race featuring a Stories With Mr. Ahamad To be honest, I’m surprised that I even finished this book. As a young Black man, reading from the perspective of a reluctant white supremacist was hard to commit to for more than a couple of pages. Thankfully, once I got in about 100 pages deep, the story really picked up and there were some incredible character arcs to read through. Without giving too much away, I LOVE that this is a book about race featuring a white protagonist that isn’t a white savior. Having the main character struggle with his whiteness and family history without trying to save someone of color really made this book feel... I don’t know— raw and earnest. Things got ugly more than once in this book and Alexi Zentner wasn’t shy about what he wanted and needed to say. It’s weird: a lot of this book made me angry and incredibly uncomfortable, but I was appreciative of the fact that it was presented in such a forward way. I have SOOOOOO MUCH more to say, but I rather save it for a future episode of #BookTube. PS: So that you’re not waiting, I took points off for the slow and explicit football opening along with a major set piece that shifted the story from super real and believable to fictitious for me. People may disagree with me, and that’s okay, because this is still an important and meaningful piece of work, I just wasn’t 100% in love with it during my entire read. Anyway, stay tuned! I was holding onto this until I officially dropped Season 2 of my #BookTube series, but since I’ve been getting some traffic here lately, I thought now would be a good time. https://youtu.be/-AQscnQ1spY ...more Aug 27, 2019 Martie Nees Record rated it liked it Genre: Adult Fiction Publisher: Viking Press Mini-Review “Copperhead” has a “Sins of the Father” theme. The novel reads like YA, but it is an adult story about racism that asks the question: Can you ever out-run your family history? We meet a 17-year-old high school football player who has a good chance of getting into an Ivy League school on a scholarship. He is the star of the team and his grades are good. He desperately needs this scholarship to be able to attend Genre: Adult Fiction “Copperhead” has a “Sins of the Father” theme. The novel reads like YA, but it is an adult story about racism that asks the question: Can you ever out-run your family history? We meet a 17-year-old high school football player who has a good chance of getting into an Ivy League school on a scholarship. He is the star of the team and his grades are good. He desperately needs this scholarship to be able to attend college. He lives paycheck-to-paycheck in a trailer and takes care of his mom and his 12-year-old sister. His brother and stepfather are in jail for the murder of two black college students. However, the students attacked his brother, not the other way around. The stepfather was only given a four year sentence since he arrived after the murder. His crime was just wiping the murder weapon clean. His family, but not himself, belongs to a white supremacist church. Many in his town call him white-trash, even though he has shown himself to be a decent and hard-working young man. The book begins with his stepfather’s release from prison on the same day of the school’s big game. Throughout the story, we watch the teenage linebacker struggle simply to avoid trouble while remaining loyal to his family and friends. Zentner’s prose is taut and powerful. You can almost hear the music of Johnny Cash playing in the teen’s pick-up truck. But the author never shares how this boy was able to see beyond his family’s beliefs. Most of us can not accomplish this while still living in the family system. Still, this is a heck of a good coming of age story for our times. I received this Advance Review Copy (ARC) novel from the publisher at no cost in exchange for an honest review. Find all my book reviews at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... https://books6259.wordpress.com/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review... https://www.facebook.com/martie.neesr... https://www.instagram.com/martie6947/ https://www.pinterest.com/martienreco...\ https://www.amazon.com/ https://twitter.com/NeesRecord ...more Aug 18, 2019 Maureen Grigsby rated it it was amazing This was an absolute stunning novel about racism in America. The main character is a 17 year old football player whose stepfather has just gotten home from serving a 4 year prison term for accessory to murder. And the stepfather expects his son to go back to the church that they all previously attended, The Blessed Church of the White America. This riveting novel seems pulled from today’s headlines. It is the best novel I have read this year, and I will be recommending it to everyone!!! Nov 26, 2019 Jennifer Tam rated it it was amazing Wow what a book - loved the structure and the titles of the chapters and can’t believe most of the book took place in one weekend A book that really makes you think about so many things Aug 26, 2019 Asia rated it really liked it This was a sparely written, thought-provoking, and ultimately hopeful book that kept me guessing about how it would end. As it takes place in Ithaca (renamed Cortaca), it was a bit like looking at my hometown in a funhouse mirror. I wouldn't have made all of the same narrative choices, but I found this to be a satisfying read. Aug 01, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it I’d recommend this book to anyone. It’s definitely written for an older audience than The Hate U Give, so it was more interesting for me to read. Maybe that’s because I didn’t need the Black Lives Matter explained to me (although of course that wasn’t always true). I definitely still need the people in white supremacy groups explained to me. This book didn’t quite give you an insider perspective, but it wasn’t far off. It reminded me of of the way Harper Lee explained racism in Go Set A I’d recommend this book to anyone. It’s definitely written for an older audience than The Hate U Give, so it was more interesting for me to read. Maybe that’s because I didn’t need the Black Lives Matter explained to me (although of course that wasn’t always true). I definitely still need the people in white supremacy groups explained to me. This book didn’t quite give you an insider perspective, but it wasn’t far off. It reminded me of of the way Harper Lee explained racism in Go Set A Watchman, or How Kevin Roose explained Born again Christians to me in The Unlikely Disciple. A glimpse behind the curtain to see how and why people unlike me think. The book isn’t perfect. The ending is disappointingly Hollywood, although I would accept that sort of Hollywood ending in the next election in a heartbeat. In any case, this book has sports and friendship and the problems with growing up, like Beartown, and like Beartown, the community as a whole is fleshed out in a very satisfying way, helping the reader understand the pressures Jessup feels as he tries to navigate his way. I could have read another 100 pages if the author had given them to me. ...more Aug 22, 2019 Paul Ataua rated it liked it I really appreciate what the author was trying to do, but it just seemed overly contrived with each character designed so that we could arrive a certain conclusion. His father (or significantly his stepfather), his girlfriend, his girlfriend’s father (the coach), his friend, and even the police were all written in a way to sit snugly into the plot, and sometimes that presented ambiguities left unanswered. Despite those minor points, it was a worthy attempt at dealing with a difficult topic. Jun 25, 2019 Rachel rated it it was amazing "Copperhead" gets at some of the core questions about racism, especially as seen and experienced in small-town America. Why do people hate for no reason? Can anyone raised by white supremacists grow out of that world view? Author Alexi Zentner, who is Jewish, says he's been thinking about these topics his whole life. His parents, Canadian social workers and activists, saw their office firebombed by white supremacists twice when he was a teenager. Read more in my story for Binghamton University's "Copperhead" gets at some of the core questions about racism, especially as seen and experienced in small-town America. Why do people hate for no reason? Can anyone raised by white supremacists grow out of that world view? Author Alexi Zentner, who is Jewish, says he's been thinking about these topics his whole life. His parents, Canadian social workers and activists, saw their office firebombed by white supremacists twice when he was a teenager. Read more in my story for Binghamton University's Discover-e: https://discovere.binghamton.edu/news... ...more Aug 14, 2019 Aneeza Rafiq rated it really liked it · review of another edition I'm hovering between three and four stars. This was one strange novel that evoked very conflicting emotions within me. This is the story about a white American teenager growing up in a racially charged current America while being affiliated to a white supremacy church. Jessup Collins stepdad and his brother are in jail for killing two black men in a crime that we're told as an unfortunate event but manipulated by the media into a hate crime. Jessup hasn't gone to the church for four years but I'm hovering between three and four stars. This was one strange novel that evoked very conflicting emotions within me. This is the story about a white American teenager growing up in a racially charged current America while being affiliated to a white supremacy church. Jessup Collins stepdad and his brother are in jail for killing two black men in a crime that we're told as an unfortunate event but manipulated by the media into a hate crime. Jessup hasn't gone to the church for four years but everyone knows his story and believes him and his family to be racists. Throughout the novel, Jessup faces a number of conflicts and tries to be true to himself though he does fail a number of times. (view spoiler)[Even though the author tried to show racism through the lens of the racists, the whole church-fueling-hate story falls a bit flat. All of that seemed secondary to the main character. I disagreed with a lot of what the main character believed and disapproved his actions but maybe that was the intent of the author all along. The best character seems to be David John, Jessup's stepdad, but even he is quick to strip his decades-long bond with the church without any hesitation and that seemed fake to me. It seemed unreal that Jessup and his family are okay with people dying around them. The only thing that rattled Jessup was the death of Corson and even that lacked depth. Why was he okay with his best friend Wyatt killing a person for his sake? Why did he keep justifying the deaths of the three black characters in the book? He wasn't indoctrinated by the church the same way as the rest of his family and even had a black girlfriend. The last bit where he grows up and acknowledges his mistakes publically was unsatisfactory for me. The last thing that irked me was the lack of strong female characters. Those that are present are just plot-drivers are usual. (hide spoiler)] I do like the flow of the novel and the focus on the importance of loving your family no matter what. I've rated it for making me think about the other side of the coin but I do believe this novel could've been better. ...more Jul 19, 2019 Savannah rated it really liked it A very interesting read that made me think. Can see how it’s not for everyone tho Aug 06, 2019 Alex Myers rated it really liked it Raced through this... really compelling, well-paced. The book focuses on race and religion and violence in the US and also adolescence. All this without being preachy. The author does an excellent job of letting things get messy in a real way - not shying away from the complexity of people. The one disappointment for me was the ending -- everything came together too neatly. It was the one spot where things were unbelievable. Sep 18, 2019 Jennifer S rated it liked it Copperhead examines today's climate of racism through the eyes of Jessup, a 17-year-old white boy living in upstate NY (Ithaca - not very subtly renamed Corsaca). Jessup wants nothing more than to play football, get close to his bi-racial girlfriend (daughter of his football coach), and go away somewhere to college. But he is stained with the reputation of his family who attend the Blessed Church of White America and the crimes of his brother and stepfather, who went to prison for killing 2 Copperhead examines today's climate of racism through the eyes of Jessup, a 17-year-old white boy living in upstate NY (Ithaca - not very subtly renamed Corsaca). Jessup wants nothing more than to play football, get close to his bi-racial girlfriend (daughter of his football coach), and go away somewhere to college. But he is stained with the reputation of his family who attend the Blessed Church of White America and the crimes of his brother and stepfather, who went to prison for killing 2 black men who attacked them. Through most of this book, I was reminded of reading Native Son, where one terrible accident leads to all sorts of poor choices and it was clear that nothing good was going to come of anything. I liked the development of Jessup's character - he is clearly caught up in too much for a teenager to have to live with - but thought the other characters were a little less well-developed. Happy to see some hope at the end. ...more Oct 07, 2019 Susan rated it it was amazing Well-written and thought-provoking coming-of-age novel about a young man caught in a web of white supremacy and racism in upstate New York. The subject matter is tough to deal with and the reader's empathy is tested. Not a book to read for enjoyment. Rather, it shines a light on ugliness so that we might see it more clearly. Sep 01, 2019 Robert Pickett rated it it was amazing Brilliant! A must read for everyone. Sep 19, 2019 Christopher Vincent rated it liked it Copperhead has great potential, but misses the mark mostly due to pretty terrible, melodramatic dialogue. Now, something that really bothered me (and maybe only me and the chosen few who have lived in Ithaca, NY (6 years, for me)) was the CONSTANT references to things in Ithaca/Cornell that that also found their way into "Cortaca." It was bizarre: Route 13, copious waterfalls, renowned Lab of Ornithology, the Creamery, Spring Festival and Apple Fest on the pedestrian mall (Common), State Street Copperhead has great potential, but misses the mark mostly due to pretty terrible, melodramatic dialogue. Now, something that really bothered me (and maybe only me and the chosen few who have lived in Ithaca, NY (6 years, for me)) was the CONSTANT references to things in Ithaca/Cornell that that also found their way into "Cortaca." It was bizarre: Route 13, copious waterfalls, renowned Lab of Ornithology, the Creamery, Spring Festival and Apple Fest on the pedestrian mall (Common), State Street Diner, Collegetown, twenty-something mayor who graduated from the University, etc etc etc. Zentner either really wants this story to be specifically about Ithaca/Cornell, or he was just lazy. I found it extremely distracting, and it diminishes the impact of the novel because the story becomes about a very specific place rather than letting the reader imagine it could be any place in America with a socioeconomic and racial divide. ...more Sep 26, 2019 Cassie rated it it was amazing Shelves: grown-up-books I’m always impressed when a novel can have a huge impact on how I see the world. This is one of those stories. The honesty, brutality and compassion are all so real and thoughtfully written. Excellent book. Jul 27, 2019 Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition Might be five stars but I like to wait a couple of days before awarding that to avoid recency bias. Sep 09, 2019 Rosie rated it it was ok Shelves: adult-fiction I seriously don't know what to say about the book. I get the premise, there are white kids who have the deck stacked against them but still try to follow the rules, and there are privileged black kids who can be real asses. But, here is the thing, if a kid ends up dead because of what you did, because you murdered them, then you do have to be held accountable. Hinting that the hate preached by white supremacist church you attended and your family continues to attend, as the reason for your I seriously don't know what to say about the book. I get the premise, there are white kids who have the deck stacked against them but still try to follow the rules, and there are privileged black kids who can be real asses. But, here is the thing, if a kid ends up dead because of what you did, because you murdered them, then you do have to be held accountable. Hinting that the hate preached by white supremacist church you attended and your family continues to attend, as the reason for your actions is simply bogus. I get what the author is trying to say but I don't buy it. ...more Aug 04, 2019 Susan rated it it was amazing A standout book, without a doubt--measured, conversational, poignant, excellent pacing, and heart-wrenching. I rooted for Jessup from the first moment and never stopped, and I love how Zentner captured the spirit, intelligence and naivete of a 17-year-old boy. This book made me think about my own preconceptions, in the way great books do; reminded me that there are always nuances in every situation; and painted a picture of hope that is often missing in today's narratives. Fingers crossed for A standout book, without a doubt--measured, conversational, poignant, excellent pacing, and heart-wrenching. I rooted for Jessup from the first moment and never stopped, and I love how Zentner captured the spirit, intelligence and naivete of a 17-year-old boy. This book made me think about my own preconceptions, in the way great books do; reminded me that there are always nuances in every situation; and painted a picture of hope that is often missing in today's narratives. Fingers crossed for this book's commercial and literary success. Highly recommend. ...more Aug 06, 2019 PhysCayt rated it really liked it I really enjoyed this book immensely. The short chapters were a really interesting way to specifically highlight points in Jessup’s experience. 4 stars because the story really hit a lull and geeked to drag a bit at the 60% mark. Pace improved again around 80%. But definitely took me longer to read than my average for this length novel. Aug 17, 2019 Anne Egbert rated it it was amazing I am giving this book a solid 5 stars. Was it a fun book to read? Absolutely not! But, wow, did it make me think hard about my own feelings about race and white nationalists. I was telling a friend she should read it. She told me about a bunch of old Life, or Saturday Evening Post pictures her mom had saved. In one of them a woman dressed in full KKK regalia was holding her infant daughter with a look of blinding love and ecstasy on her face. That is a perfect visual for this book. How do you I am giving this book a solid 5 stars. Was it a fun book to read? Absolutely not! But, wow, did it make me think hard about my own feelings about race and white nationalists. I was telling a friend she should read it. She told me about a bunch of old Life, or Saturday Evening Post pictures her mom had saved. In one of them a woman dressed in full KKK regalia was holding her infant daughter with a look of blinding love and ecstasy on her face. That is a perfect visual for this book. How do you reconcile loving good people who believe monstrous things. And it is so appropriate for our current time in this country. The story follows a 17 year old boy, raised in a White Nationalist Church with a family who truly believes whites are the superior race, and everyone else needs to get out of the country. He has worked hard academically and in sports hoping to get a football scholarship to get him out of this town. Everyone in town knows his older brother and his step-father conspired to kill 2 African American teenage boys who objected to his white power tattoos. Fate intervenes and the situation gets even more complicated. All I can say is WOW, read this book. It will make you squirm but it si worth it. ...more Sep 01, 2019 Jt O'Neill rated it really liked it I found Copperhead to be a remarkable coming of age story, dressed in the rhetoric and images of white nationalism. Racial divide, religion, family, adolescence - it's all here. Although the story doesn't take the reader completely inside the white supremacist movement, it certainly offers some insight into how and why that movement has a hold in this country, especially in small town America. The short chapters and somewhat staccato writing style seemed to move the story forward with speed and I found Copperhead to be a remarkable coming of age story, dressed in the rhetoric and images of white nationalism. Racial divide, religion, family, adolescence - it's all here. Although the story doesn't take the reader completely inside the white supremacist movement, it certainly offers some insight into how and why that movement has a hold in this country, especially in small town America. The short chapters and somewhat staccato writing style seemed to move the story forward with speed and tension and I found myself reluctant to put the book down. For the most part the characters are complex and believable. As the reader, I found the main character, Jessup, to accurately reflect a thoughtful, serious 17 year old and his stepfather, David John, to accurately showcase how a "good" person can be pulled into a bad scene. I wasn't thrilled with the Hollywood ending but I guess it did leave room for hope. Lord knows, we could use some serious hope these days so I'll take it. In short, I found Copperhead to be a compelling read about issues that are tearing our country apart. Well done, Mr Zentner. ...more Oct 20, 2019 Slappy rated it liked it Up to 3 stars because the writing was good. I liked the short snappy chapters, and I read to the end to see what happened. BUT.....I have a real issue with a guy who is supposed to be the good guy in this book ? He 'loves' and supports his stepfather who is a Nazi and attends KKK 'church' meetings every Sunday??? This guy is the hero of the book because he personally doesn't say the N word. BUT he seems to have no problem having a best friend who wants a race war ? a step father who he loves like Up to 3 stars because the writing was good. I liked the short snappy chapters, and I read to the end to see what happened. BUT.....I have a real issue with a guy who is supposed to be the good guy in this book ? He 'loves' and supports his stepfather who is a Nazi and attends KKK 'church' meetings every Sunday??? This guy is the hero of the book because he personally doesn't say the N word. BUT he seems to have no problem having a best friend who wants a race war ? a step father who he loves like a Dad but has Nazi tattoos? This is the ultimate 'Good People on both sides" bullshit. Why on earth do these vile people end up coming out of this book all in fine shape...just regular upper middle class people. Wouldn't it be just a little more satisfying to see Jessop & his racist family and friends all in prison? "oh they are all just misunderstood products of their white trailer park upbringing" I don't think being brought up in a trailer excuses pure evil. ...more Jan 10, 2020 Becki Bachleda rated it really liked it I was drawn to the novel Copperhead by Alexi Zentner under the influence that the characters and plot would supposedly draws readers in. I was desired to read something emotional and impactful with characters I could attach myself to. Copperhead was recommended to me in high praise and seemingly matched my desires. In light of these factors, I made the decision to read Zentner’s work for the first time. Alexi Zentner has been well known as an accomplished Canadian novelist, short story writer I was drawn to the novel Copperhead by Alexi Zentner under the influence that the characters and plot would supposedly draws readers in. I was desired to read something emotional and impactful with characters I could attach myself to. Copperhead was recommended to me in high praise and seemingly matched my desires. In light of these factors, I made the decision to read Zentner’s work for the first time. Alexi Zentner has been well known as an accomplished Canadian novelist, short story writer and teacher. In addition to Copperhead, his literary masterpieces include The Lobster Kings, Touch, The Hatching(Series), and The Mansion. His work has allowed him to achieve the O. Henry Prize and the Narrative Prize. He teaches creative writing at Brigham University. “He knows it’s a person, but in the shadows and the false light coming from the house, it could be anything else. He wants it to be anything else. A soda can. A doe. But it is and always will be, stubbornly, a dead body.” Jessup's life is essentially turned upside down when he kills Kevin Corson. All he desired was to escape the little town he calls home and allow himself to indulge in the better life he deserves. Facing all odds regarding his family's history of white supremacy, he has just about everything going against him. When his stepfather, David John invites Brandon and Earl into an unavoidable murder trial under efforts to protect him, Jessup is ultimately faced with a choice: his family's safety and legacy ,which is exactly what he finds himself in disagreement with, or to stand up for himself and try what is morally well but most likely face a lifetime in prison. “Snow laying itself down like tissue paper unfolded; the wind rolling lightly against the tops of trees; regret.” It does not take much to conclude that Zentner’s writing lacks literary strategies. The fluency and structure of the novel can make it difficult to read and hard to enjoy at times. The characters and generally underdeveloped and the ending proves to be unsatisfying, leaving readers in need of more. The relationship between characters though is attractive. Jessup’s love interest Deanne brings out the best in him and gives the novel a Romeo and Juliet feel since Deanne is African American and Jessup is associated with white supremacy. She tends to bring out the best in him. His best friend, Watt is generally underdeveloped until the end of the story where he suddenly becomes an amazing best friend and creates a heartwarming scene between two brother-like boys. “...Wyatt opens his arms, wraps them around Jessup, holds him like the brother he is, and Jessup doesn't know if Wyatt starts to cry because Jessup is already crying or if Jessup starts to cry because Wyatt is already crying, but it’s just the two of them, the woods the pond, the sky starting to open… nothing but Jessup and Wyatt, brothers holding each other is solace.” Copperhead proves to be a symbol of loving relationships. Not only between friends and family but for races. Racial conflict is a main point of disagreement in the novel. Zentner has spoken about how his family were activists, motivating him to write this novel in the first place. The entirety of the novel surrounds the ideas of how people should love anyone disregardless of their skin color. By the end of the novel, many people are changed for the better based on these beliefs. Watching the people of the Blessed Church of White America, “For the first time in his life, Jessup sees how comical they are, how pathetic they look. That fury directed out into the ether...” Personally, the urge for everything wrong in Jessup's world to be restored to peace kept me drawn into the novel. Zentner created a very plot driven book that was genuinely hard to put down. I was left frustrated, in tears and happy over and over again throughout reading Copperhead. Several parts were flawed no doubt, but it was ultimately an adventure to read. “He kneels in silence, his candle another light against the darkness” Jan 12, 2020 Jack Kilshaw rated it really liked it To me, a good book is a book that accurately represents the real world. A book that is able to not just convey deep messages in a way that is well-crafted, but a way that is realistic - because it is that sense of realism that is able to fully immerse the reader in the plot. This is why Alexi Zentner’s realistic fiction novel, Copperhead, stood out to me. Alexi Zentner attended Cornell University in up state New York and graduated to continue teaching at that establishment. He went on to write To me, a good book is a book that accurately represents the real world. A book that is able to not just convey deep messages in a way that is well-crafted, but a way that is realistic - because it is that sense of realism that is able to fully immerse the reader in the plot. This is why Alexi Zentner’s realistic fiction novel, Copperhead, stood out to me. Alexi Zentner attended Cornell University in up state New York and graduated to continue teaching at that establishment. He went on to write the novels Touch and The Lobster Kings, eventually publishing the novel Copperhead - a book set in a similar up-state New York University Town to Cornell, named Cortica. Born into a family that primarily fought anti-Semitism and racism, Zentner became curious to the motivations of those on the other side. “What if I had been another boy? What would my life have been like if I’d been raised with a different lodestar? Would I be able to step out from under the haze of bigotry?” Jessup, a seventeen year old football prospect is Zenter’s answers to his questions. A boy who is raised in the opposite way as Zentner: born into a family that regularly attends the White Church of America, a family that causes Jessup to face discrimination regularly. “You’re smart, but the world’s tilted against white boys like you nowadays. We live out here in the country in a trailer, and when they look at you, they’re thinking white trash.” Zentner does a good job at finding problems that both answer his questions, but also can be relatable to so many people living in the world right now. For example how Jessup faces discrimination, and has to push on despite the fact that the “World is tilted against white boys” like him. With a stepfather David John to replace the spot of his father in the family, Jessup’s family is able to do increasingly well. Jessup’s brother Ricky states “David John was the best thing to happen to this family” Therefore Jessup is torn between family and his personal moral. He is torn between caring for his loyal family, including his mother and innocent step-sister Jewel, and his obligation to stand up against the white supremacy that his family believes in that causes the discrimination he faces. Something that Zentner intended to convey from the beginning. “I wanted to explore how hatred can complicate love, how love can make us blind to the danger around us, and how racism and hate are at work even in the lives of those who don’t think they’ve chosen a side” However the plot that Zenter attaches to these relatable messages are unrealistic, ultimately making those once relatable messages less impactful. “Jessup is thirty-one. It own him as much as he owns it” The start of the Epilogue comes after a fourteen year gap. A fourteen year gap that completely skips over several conflicts from the book being resolved and crushes the boo’s sense of relatability - because in the world, conflicts don’t get skipped over and don’t get resolved in a happy ever after type way like they did in Copperhead. Therefore the relatability that drew me to this book in the first place ended up not being so relatable, and instead became unrealistic. Zentner accurately finds realistic problems in his book, but attaches them to a plot that is not relatable, and would have been better off cutting off the epilogue and leaving the plot up to interpretation for the reader. Jan 16, 2020 Ryan added it I expected the novel to had a lot of societal issues that reflect today's social problems. I also expected the main character to struggle with his family. The novel is about a star varsity high school football player with big dreams of escaping his town and making his name big. The plot takes a turn when his dreams are shattered when he kills an African American kid. His past family history creates plot and conflict that makes for a worthwhile novel. In the novel Copperhead by Alexi Zentner, The I expected the novel to had a lot of societal issues that reflect today's social problems. I also expected the main character to struggle with his family. In the novel Copperhead by Alexi Zentner, The main character Jessup is put into a stereotype due to his family's past history. It seems that every action he does, society always comes back to his family history and haunts him. At the beginning of the novel, the author takes the reader into the eyes of a high schooler living out of a trailer. He is the best player on the football team and when it comes time to play he is always ready. He is always the underdog due to his economic status. He runs into a lot of conflicts that demonstrate his way of thinking and his relationships. An example of this is when he runs into conflict with his coach. Coach Diggins the Head coach states “I know all about you and your family. You can deny it, you can say he’s your stepfather instead of your father, but you can’t hide from your history, hour heritage.’ ‘It’s not my history,’ Jessup says.” He always tries to escape this but he can't. Another example that shows the setting of the novel and the stereotype Jessup is put in, “Not with a camo hunting jacket and what everybody knows about his brother and his stepdad. Small town, small town, small town. No way for a clean slate” Jessup also has conflicting ideas about his stepfather. This is a problem that he struggles with every day. His step-father David John is a very caring man as he is portrayed in the novel. From his perspective, he will do anything for the family. An example is when he owns up to his past about being apart of a white supremacist church he says “I was trying to do the right thing by my family, but this, this… I made a mistake. This isn’t the right place for us”. From Jessup's perspective, he knows David John will do anything but is very unforgiving of David Johns's past. The Novel has a central quote that I feel describes the plot that being “To start a fire, first you've got to set a spark”. This quote describes the plot almost accurately. The novel starts out with Jessup killing a kid which is the spark. After this happens the whole novel starts spreading like a wildfire. His life constantly changing and getting out of control. Lastly, Jessup barely has any money. He lives out of a trailer with his family. He never looks down upon this and is always a positive kid. He always does what is best for him and his family. When he is matched up against another top recruit. He tells the readers ”A kid like Corson likes to play football while Jessup needs to play”. This is Jessup's only way out of the situation he is in. His goal is to get the “hell out of town” Jan 12, 2020 Gabe Levy marked it as to-read Alexi Zetner’s Copperhead is a stress-filled slow analysis of a racially motivated death and the events following. The book shows the pains of racism on a relatable character to the youth of today . I found the book interesting, but I found the lack of growth in the main character harrowing. Instead, major growth can be seen in side characters. Jessup, the main character is seen as stalling, with everything seemingly happening around him. For a book with themes of racism, standing up against Alexi Zetner’s Copperhead is a stress-filled slow analysis of a racially motivated death and the events following. The book shows the pains of racism on a relatable character to the youth of today . I found the book interesting, but I found the lack of growth in the main character harrowing. Instead, major growth can be seen in side characters. Jessup, the main character is seen as stalling, with everything seemingly happening around him. For a book with themes of racism, standing up against adversity, and more, one would expect for the title character to learn from his experiences over the course of the novel. Instead, I found the shoehorned in conclusion lackluster to what could have been done to exemplify strong motives in the character. Zetner’s ending seemed to only be put in to satisfy the want for a positive conclusion instead of a natural ending following the events portrayed. Readers can witness the psychological pain on the characters mind, with the boy failing to sleep over the stress of maintaining his secret. The quote, “The sound of the truck hitting Corson’s body. The sound of the truck hitting Corson’s body. The sound of the truck hitting Corson’s body. The sound of the truck hitting Corson’s body. Jessup wakes up white hot-sweating, sheets tangled” exemplifies the stress holding against the boy. There are clear signs of nonphysical damage that are seemingly fixed during the epilogue. The pleasurable feeling meant by the epilogue is instead replaced by anger and contentment in me. However, one thing I did enjoy was the breaking of normal stereotypes seen in today’s literature. The freed murderer of the story, David John is not the cliché parolee. Instead of showing irate behaviors and a lust for redemption, when he was released, he sought time with his family and a return to normality. This is realized by other characters, with Jessup noticing, “ When jessup jumped off that truck, screaming Jewel’s name, what he saw was a man who’d thrown his body over his daughter” During a crime, the man’s first instinct was to protect his children, showing growth from his original stance of a white supremacist male with, “ His own tatoos. Affiliation” to a changed fellow looking to distance himself from his past life. Earlier in the novel, he can be seen saying, “We go to the Blessed Church of the White America because that’s our home” whereas he later renounces the racist institution. Overall, the book left me wanting more. Contradictory writing creates a plot-driven book which makes me want to give the same recommendation as Jessup, “No. Thanks. I’m good”. Jan 15, 2020 Cassidy Cardwell added it As a child, Alexi Zenter dealt with and witnessed issues surrounding white supremacy, racism, and antisemitism. Growing up, his parents were both very passionate about supporting those groups under fire, as he remembers them meeting with numerous activists in their old Victorian home. Due to their vocal actions regarding these minorities, their office was bombed twice by neo-Nazi groups. No one was hurt, and no arrests were ever made, but this event was always very close to Zenters' heart. These As a child, Alexi Zenter dealt with and witnessed issues surrounding white supremacy, racism, and antisemitism. Growing up, his parents were both very passionate about supporting those groups under fire, as he remembers them meeting with numerous activists in their old Victorian home. Due to their vocal actions regarding these minorities, their office was bombed twice by neo-Nazi groups. No one was hurt, and no arrests were ever made, but this event was always very close to Zenters' heart. These occurrences lead Zenter to write Copperhead just this year. He felt that he could use his own experiences and find commonalities in the modern-day white supremacy and hatred. He hopes to find clarity on his ideas of love, racism, and hate and how these all work together. Copperhead is a novel about a teenage boy named Jessup, growing up with a rough and racist family past. He tries to separate himself from those stereotypes he has been brought by his father and find his separate path. However, after he is apart of a terrible accident he has the power to ruin what he believes he has built for himself. He goes through learning how to pay the price for his actions, growing up, and realizing how split-second decisions can truly change your life. I found this book very intriguing and inspirational. Jessup has found himself in this seemingly inescapable deep, dark and scary hole without any hope of coming out. He proves to himself, his family, schoolmates, and the reader that he could find himself. He is only a teenager, growing up with all the other issues of his family and classmates surrounding him. I am a teenager and can relate to being stressed with doing well in school, planning for college, having healthy family/friend relationships, and growing up into an adult all at the same time. I have at no means gone through the same things that Jessup has gone through, but it’s very refreshing to hear someone to relate to and hear their story. The ideas of white supremacy and racism have died down from how they used to be, but that doesn’t mean they still aren’t present. It seems that there haven’t been any super recent pieces of literature surrounding these topics in a teenage setting and it was very informative and showed racism in a whole new light. In history, we learn about slavery and the deeply rooted racism that grew in America's roots. What we don’t hear is how the people our age were treated and how it would be to be in their position. Copperhead is a very eyeopener book and I highly recommend it. Jan 12, 2020 Evan Donaldson added it The novel Copperhead is an exceptional read, about a high school boy named Jessup who comes from a white supremist family and comes across several problems dealing with racism. Jessup is a 17 year old high school football star but coming from a poor family with a lot of background with racism, it makes it highly difficult for him. The author, Alexi Zentner grew up in Upstate New York teaching at Universities, then started publishing his writing in magazines, and finally started to produce The novel Copperhead is an exceptional read, about a high school boy named Jessup who comes from a white supremist family and comes across several problems dealing with racism. Jessup is a 17 year old high school football star but coming from a poor family with a lot of background with racism, it makes it highly difficult for him. The author, Alexi Zentner grew up in Upstate New York teaching at Universities, then started publishing his writing in magazines, and finally started to produce novels from genres ranging from Fiction to Anthologies. I expected Copperhead to be another book that I will read and then put down part way through, although it turned out to be a book that I couldn't put down because of the constant conflicts and turn of events that happen. Most events are unexpected and intense. To give you an idea, the following quote,“we have reason to believe you committed a crime” has to live in Jessups head for the rest of his life. I would completely recommend this book to kids in high school because it's not too hard of a read, and might turn out to be one of your favorite books. It has exactly what high schoolers want. A lot of action and drama. I felt connected to Copperhead not because I can relate to Jessup and the things he has to go through, but instead, I can relate to some of the stress that comes with those events in correlation with stress coming from High School. “Nobody looking at him and thinking about Jessups brother and his stepfather in Prison. It's been four years since Ricky beat those two boys to death. Black boys. '' Clearly showing the family background that Jessup lives with. To show the racial differences in the book, Jessup doesnt get picked to be the captain of the football team. “Diggins is black and there is no way he's going to pick Jessup to be captain”. Even though Jessup is the most talented on the team, and has been for the past year, he is not even acknowledged to be the captain of the team due to his family’s beliefs and background. Oct 29, 2019 Grace rated it really liked it Shelves: realistic-fiction It was hard for me to put a number of stars on this book. It's flawed for sure, but it also tries to do something really interesting, and, above all, it made me think. It made me think a lot, and that's clearly Zentner's intent. I certainly think it should be widely read, even if it's not perfect, just for the discussion it could spark. I liked Copperhead for similar reasons that I liked Beartown and its sequel, Us Against You, because Zentner tries to inhabit characters who think differently It was hard for me to put a number of stars on this book. It's flawed for sure, but it also tries to do something really interesting, and, above all, it made me think. It made me think a lot, and that's clearly Zentner's intent. I certainly think it should be widely read, even if it's not perfect, just for the discussion it could spark. I liked Copperhead for similar reasons that I liked Beartown and its sequel, Us Against You, because Zentner tries to inhabit characters who think differently than he does (and I do). It was also kind of interesting to read it from Jessup's perspective (3rd person limited POV) because while he is a reasonably sympathetic character, he's also not an entirely reliable narrator and you can understand why he's thinking what he's thinking while still reading between the lines. I'm still thinking about this, but some things that I know I didn't like as much were the indulgently detailed football narration at the beginning (which is like reading in a foreign language if you don't understand football), and the rather too-neat ending. I wish it had asked some harder questions at the end. ...more About Alexi Zentner Alexi Zentner Alexi Zentner lives in upstate New York with his wife and children. His novels have been published in sixteen countries and more than a dozen languages. He is the author of the novel, COPPERHEAD, forthcoming from Viking Penguin on July 9, 2019. He is also the author of the internationally acclaimed novels, THE LOBSTER KINGS, and TOUCH. Under the pseudonym Ezekiel Boone, Alexi is the author of the Alexi Zentner lives in upstate New York with his wife and children. His novels have been published in sixteen countries and more than a dozen languages. He is the author of the novel, COPPERHEAD, forthcoming from Viking Penguin on July 9, 2019. He is also the author of the internationally acclaimed novels, THE LOBSTER KINGS, and TOUCH. Under the pseudonym Ezekiel Boone, Alexi is the author of the internationally bestselling THE HATCHING series (THE HATCHING, SKITTER, and ZERO DAY) as well as THE MANSION. Alexi's short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, Tin House, Glimmer Train, and many other publications, and has won the O. Henry Prize and the Narrative Prize. He holds citizenship in both the USA and Canada. Alexi also has two dogs, both of whom are poorly behaved. ...more Books by Alexi Zentner Trivia About Copperhead

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Meet the team that makes great things happen. A savvy group of professionals, our leaders are experts at delivering long-lasting results and customer relationships. As President & COO Andrew works across the company to improve success with clients and business performance. With over 20 years at the company, Andrew brings a well-rounded perspective on the business and approach to leadership. Andrew has spent his entire career in service companies, and he has experience in many business conditions, situations, and priorities, including business growth, refinement, consolidation, acquisitions/divestitures, technology platform migration, process improvement, organizational talent, development, and client success. Adding to this experience, is Andrew’s love for Harte Hanks, our clients, and our team of fantastic people. Mark Del Priore As exciting as it is to help clients navigate the rapidly changing marketing environment, someone must make sure the P’s and Q’s are minded. That is the role Mark plays at Harte Hanks. As CFO, Mark uses his experience related to expense management and prioritizing investments for growth to keep Harte Hanks moving forward. Prior to joining the Company, Mark served as CFO of SITO Mobile, a publicly traded mobile data and marketing company. Previously, Mark held senior financial positions with Go Green Global Technologies Corporation and W.R. Huff Asset Management Co., L.L.C. As a Principal at W.R. Huff Asset Management Co., L.L.C., an employee-owned investment management company, Mark evaluated and oversaw several of Huff’s public and private investments, including a substantial portfolio of technology, telecommunications and media companies. Keith Sedlak Behind every great brand is a creative mastermind. As the SVP of Business Development for Marketing Services, Keith is responsible for creating Harte Hanks’ new business strategy. In this role, Keith will draw on his significant background in marketing solutions, business development and client relations to help advance Harte Hanks’ strategy and bring the company’s innovative approach to a broad range of clients and industries. Keith brings a thoughtful and strategic approach to new business and has a proven track record of identifying and establishing new agency relationships with leading brands such as Chrysler, Kraft, Lowes, P&G, AT&T, State Farm, Bed Bath & Beyond and many more. Dana Adams SVP, Client Services As SVP, Client Services, Dana leads Harte Hanks’ talented team of strategic client and project partners in development and stewardship of results-driven, creative marketing services programs that build value for brands and their customers. Dana brings over 25 years of integrated marketing experience to Harte Hanks. He has spent his career within marketing services and content capability builds across Time Inc, Hearst, Meredith and most recently at PACE in Greensboro, NC, where he was responsible for the client portfolio team. He’s a skilled strategic marketer who thrives on developing empowered teams and working with internal discipline partners to deliver world-class solutions to clients and their businesses. Dana has overseen integrated, multi-channel client portfolios within large enterprises across numerous industries, including financial services, retail, CPG, travel, club membership and auto. A Boston area native, he attended Jesuit preparatory, Boston College High School, and earned a degree in economics at Harvard. He’s a father of five and resides in Greensboro, where he is an active board member and secretary of a literacy services agency, Reading Connections. Lauri Kearnes Vice President, Corporate Controller Lauri is the principal accounting officer and is responsible for global accounting operations. She brings over 20 years of experience in accounting and finance roles, including the last 16 years with Harte Hanks in various positions. Lauri was instrumental in centralizing the accounting operations for the company to drive measurable savings and efficiency. She is committed to continual improvements in processes and systems to lead the company forward. Jeanne Shaunessy VP, Fulfillment With over 27 years of fulfillment experience, Jeanne is responsible for the five North American locations providing fulfillment, ecommerce and digital print solutions. Jeanne started her career with Harte Hanks in Austin, Texas in 1996, and has since served the company and its clients in sales, marketing and client services positions. Excelling in customer satisfaction and growing her book of business, Jeanne has continually advanced, bringing significant value to key accounts. In her current role, Jeanne successfully manages not only a large operation and geographic footprint, but she continues to stay close with customers, to understand and learn their business in order to help provide quality solutions. She enjoys working closely with her team to ensure that customer needs are met, in addition to providing thought leadership around distribution of materials. Nina Hall Vice President of People, Human Resources Nina leads a team of HR professionals responsible for championing the company’s culture and providing tools and resources that create an engaging experience for all employees. Nina has served in a series of key human resources roles supporting Harte Hanks’ locations in California prior to her relocation to Texas. With over 25+ years of experience, her role includes oversight of talent acquisition, employee relations, human resources shared services, compliance, benefits, and engagement for the company’s more than 3,000+ employees worldwide. She managed the implementation and utilization of secure HR information systems to optimize the output, functionality and efficiency of the HR organization. Prior to joining Harte Hanks, Nina held various HR management roles supporting public broadcasting and information technology. Nina received her Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Bob Wyman Bob Wyman serves as Harte Hanks’ Corporate Counsel. After 23 years as a civil and criminal litigator, Robert (“Bob”) Wyman joined Harte Hanks in 2012. Along with his litigation experience, Bob also has a wide-array of experience in the areas of international and multi-state employment law, real estate law, privacy law, banking law, and contract law. He enjoys handling the diversity of issues that corporate law presents and recognizes the privilege of serving as the lead, in-house lawyer for the Company. Rick Kegley SVP, Mail and Logistics With over 39 years in the Direct Marketing industry, Rick leads the strategic and operational strategy management of direct mail, project management, print, data services, laser and letter-shop operations, warehouse, logistics and freight operations across the United States for Harte Hanks. Leading a team of 300 employees, Rick has been key in the implementation and development of major initiatives in quality assurance, Lean, production efficiencies, training and safety. His depth of expertise and well-rounded perspective on business and approach to leadership, along with a solid long-term perspective, propels Harte Hanks forward in this ever-changing industry. Rick is committed to preserving the company’s values-based culture while delivering on Harte Hanks brand promise of exceptional performance. Ben Chacko VP Operations, Contact Center Ben joined Harte Hanks in 1999 and is responsible for the Planning and Strategy for our Contact Centers. He oversees all Harte Hanks call center workforce management activities, reporting and analytics as well as evaluating and recommending future investments for the organization. Ben brings 16 years’ experience of implementing and running large scale blended multi-shore programs where he has consistently driven efficiencies while improving KPIs and reducing costs. Ben has recently moved back to Austin, TX from the Philippines, where for the last nine years, he was responsible for operational delivery at Harte Hanks’ largest contact center. Rusty Langford VP, Sales and Customer Support, Contact Center As Vice President of Client Services for our Customer Experience Support team, Rusty combines vision, resources and collaborative skills to deliver practical solutions with a creative twist. His current responsibilities include leading the contact center client services, sales and marketing teams. Known for communication skills and as a strong relationship builder, Rusty has a lengthy track record of successfully building cross-functional teams that get stuff done! In his twenty-five plus years at Harte Hanks, Rusty has been involved in all aspects of direct marketing and customer management for clients such as Samsung, MLB, HBO, and Microsoft. More specifically, Rusty has a broad array of knowledge and expertise in customer support, demand generation & lead management, direct sales, event management and digital marketing strategies. Stacey Greene VP Technology, Contact Center Leading a team of technology experts dedicated to applying technology to create smarter interactions for our customers. With over 20 years of software development and technology leadership experience, Stacey Greene leads the Global Solution Services and Business Intelligence teams providing cutting edge solutions for our Clients and internal operations. Stacey began her career at Harte Hanks in 1997 as a developer and has since held roles as Senior Software Engineer, Senior Director of Software Development and Head of Solution Services. Fred Dumas SVP, Managed Marketing Services Fred brings over 30 years of marketing experience to the Harte Hanks table, working for agencies like Wunderman and Rapp and Collins on accounts like Air France, L’Oréal, Toshiba and Apple. He has also been employed directly to work marketing magic at brands like Microsoft, Plantronics and Compaq Europe. Fred’s responsibilities have ranged from creating loyalty programs to defining and launching CRM strategies. Fred joined Harte Hanks in 2004 to take over operational responsibility of IBM’s outsourcing programs. He has since created internal outsourcing best practices around marketing automation, database quality and social listening that support brands like IBM, Rockwell and HP. Fred currently manages Harte Hanks’ support center in Iasi, Romania, including global responsibility for managing 200+ employees supporting IBM in database marketing. Carolyn DeLuca Head of Legal Services As the Head of Legal Services, Carolyn works closely with the senior management team to provide support and guidance on a wide variety of legal and commercial matters. Carolyn started her career with Harte Hanks in 1987 and has extensive experience and core knowledge in a broad range of areas. Together with her talented team of legal professionals, she is responsible for supporting the legal needs of Harte Hanks' US and International organizations and business operations. This includes contracts, data privacy, risk management, compliance, intellectual property, insurance, employment, mergers and acquisitions, and divestitures. SPEAKERS BUREAU TEAM The Harte Hanks Speakers Bureau is a group of marketing professionals who are well-versed in nearly every marketing subject. With expertise in topics including the customer journey, data analytics, multichannel strategies, and creative insights, the Speakers Bureau can deliver a highly-relevant discussion. David Rodnizky CEO, 3Q Digital David is founder and CEO of 3Q Digital, Harte Hanks’ digital marketing agency. Prior to 3Q Digital, he held senior marketing roles at several Internet companies, including Rentals.com, FindLaw, Adteractive, and Mercantila. David currently serves on advisory boards for several companies, including Marin Software, MediaBoost, Mediacause, and a stealth travel start-up. MARKETING ADVISORY BOARD The Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board is a group of academic and C-level professionals who focus on emerging marketing issues and progressive marketing practices. With ties to the real-world issues facing today’s CMOs, the advisory board offers insights and thought leadership commentary on key industry issues, trends and technologies. Ken Bernhardt Regents Professor of Marketing Emeritus, Georgia State University Ken is chairman of the Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board. He is the Regents Professor of Marketing Emeritus at Georgia State University, and has extensive board experience including chair for the American Marketing Association, Matchstic (a branding agency), Dagger (a digital agency), and Funding U (an Internet funding company for university students). His consulting clients have included corporations such as Chick-fil-A, Leapfrog IT Services, Engauge (a digital marketing agency), Delta, HoneyBaked Ham, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, IBM, Kimberly-Clark Healthcare and AirTran. He has published 10 books and writes a marketing column for the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Ken has an MBA from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Marketing from University of Michigan. John Deighton Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School John is Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is an authority on consumer behavior and marketing, with a focus on digital and direct marketing. John is the former director of the Journal of Interactive Marketing and is currently developing a course on Big Data in Marketing. He founded the HBS Digital Marketing program and taught Digital Marketing Strategy. His research on marketing management and consumer behavior has been published in a variety of journals (for example, the Journal of Consumer Research and the Harvard Business Review). John has a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Cape Town. Kay Lemon Accenture Professor of Marketing, Carroll School of Management at Boston College Kay is the Accenture Professor of Marketing in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Kay’s main areas of expertise are customer management, customer equity, and the dynamics of customer-firm relationships. Her two new areas of research are how firms should manage customer feedback, and customer experience management. Kay has authored three books, one of which received the AMA’s Berry Book Prize for the best marketing book published in the past three years. Her research appears in leading marketing journals including the Journal of Marketing. Kay received her MBA from Wichita State and her Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. Scott A. Neslin Albert Wesley Frey Professor of Marketing, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College Scott is the Albert Wesley Frey Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. His expertise includes database marketing, sales promotion, and marketing mix models. Scott is published in journals such as Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Interactive Marketing. He is the co-author of two books: Sales Promotion: Concepts, Methods, and Strategies; and Database Marketing: Analyzing and Managing Customers. He is an Associate Editor for Marketing Science and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Marketing Letters. Scott earned his Ph.D. at the Sloan School of Management, MIT. Assistant Professor, University of Virginia, Darden School of Business Kim is Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Her research area is marketing strategy with a focus on understanding how Board and C-Level roles, characteristics and decisions impact firm marketing performance. Kim has published over 100 articles in media such as Forbes, Ad Age, CMO.com, HBR.org and The Journal of Retailing. She has also performed brand manager and marketing executive roles for companies like P&G, David’s Bridal, Aurora Foods, and PetSmart. Kim has an MBA from the University of Arizona Eller School of Business and a Ph.D. from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Aaron Chestnut Chief Marketing Officer, Georgia United Credit Union Prior to joining Georgia United Credit Union, Aaron led overall marketing strategy for First Tennessee Bank, including retail marketing, business marketing, affluent/wealth marketing, brand management, customer insights, Salesforce.com, and database marketing. He began his career in retail banking at Comerica Bank and has worked in senior marketing roles for companies such as AOL, Quicken Loans and Fathead prior to joining First Tennessee in 2008. Aaron earned a B.A. in Marketing, an M.S. in Finance and has more than 18 years of marketing experience. Tami Mohney Senior Vice President, Customer Monetization, Modell’s Sporting Goods Tami Mohney is an Executive with 20+ years of experience across multiple consumer industries, uniquely able to evaluate quantitative and qualitative information from every business discipline, informing the development of new customer centric strategies, driving growth and profit from both current and new businesses. She focuses on data driven omnichannel growth strategies, applied across all marketing channels. In her current role at Modell’s Sporting Goods, Tami is responsible for the development and execution of all marketing efforts, inclusive of mass and direct. She has implemented and enhanced a customer loyalty program, and has built a cross channel, segmented direct marketing strategy resulting in double digit growth of the customer database and associated revenue. Prior to Modell’s, Tami spent 13 years at Direct Brands, the largest member-based retailer for media products in the US. Among several other roles in the company, Tami led the transition from a catalog business to a digital business, inclusive of an affinity-based email marketing program. In addition to her database marketing experience, Tami spent 9 years leading Customer Service operations in the health insurance and direct marketing industries, adding to her 360 view of the consumer. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Penn State University. Carla Moradi Executive Vice President, Operations & Technology, HUB International Carla Moradi is HUB International’s Executive Vice President of Operations and Technology. In this role she is responsible for leading the implementation of strategic enterprise-wide customer technologies, sales enablement programs and operations, supporting all HUB regional locations throughout the US and Canada. Prior to joining HUB, Carla served as Group Vice President & CIO at Walgreens Boots Alliance where she was responsible for IT infrastructure, architecture, security and technology field operations. Carla holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the A.B. Freeman School of Business and a Master of Public Health in Health Administration from the School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. She has received numerous awards including IBM’s Impact Innovation Award, Retail Information System’s Retail CIO of the Year for Innovation and VMWare Most Innovative Customer Award. She is a champion for women’s technology careers, having participated in numerous events and initiated the “Women in Technology” forum series while at Walgreens. Amy Harp Vice President, Marketing Services, R.J. Reynolds Amy has 25 years of broad-based domestic and international experience in digital marketing, e-commerce and digital business transformation. She currently heads Marketing Services at R.J. Reynolds, and previously led Krispy Kreme’s global digital, mobile, social and loyalty marketing.Prior to Krispy Kreme, Amy oversaw global digital strategy for premium espresso coffee brand illycaffè where she launched and directed e-commerce in the US, Europe and China and managed the company’s web, mobile and marketing technology groups. Prior to illy, Amy was a Partner at digital agency Harp Interactive and Principal of Eat Street Marketing, working with early-stage ventures as well as some of the world’s iconic brands such as Frito-Lay, Evian, Dannon, Coca-Cola, Beefeater and Johnson & Johnson to accelerate growth through deeper understanding of evolving consumer dynamics and the power of digital connection. Brian Carrier Vice President - Global Demand Gen, Data Insights & Marketing Technology, Xerox Brian’s 20+ year leadership background is rooted in building, innovating and scaling Go-To-Market, Marketing, and Sales/Channels programs and systems with a laser focus on driving business transformation and accelerating measurable revenue growth. Brian has held a variety of leadership roles across the Sales/Marketing lifecycle including Global Demand Generation, Product/Industry Marketing, Marketing/Sales/Data Platforms, and Business Development. Brian currently reports to the Xerox CMO and leads Global/Regional Demand Generation/COE, Global Datamart/Analytics, and Marketing Technology Platforms for Xerox’s $12 billion business. Prior to joining Xerox, Brian held a variety of leadership roles at Cisco and early stage growth companies. Brian spent 14 years at Cisco where he led Cisco’s global product launches, all demand generation campaigns, insides sales/marketing team creation, and a $400 million business development team. In addition, he led the rollout of web/mobile apps for Salesforce.com, Marketing Automation, and Cisco’s first-ever Global Datamart which delivered $1.5 billion in leads and rich customer intelligence to 15,000 sales/channels reps in 75 countries and 16 languages. Brian holds B.S. degree from Virginia Tech in Systems Engineering and Operations Research. Outside of work, Brian is passionate about his family, his faith/church, and fishing. Srini Rajamani Vice President and Vertical Head, Consumer Products Group, Wipro Limited Srini is VP for Wipro’s global CPG business. Prior to taking over this role, Srini was responsible for incubating and growing some of Wipro’s largest accounts in the Financial Services space – including leading the P&L of one of Wipro’s largest banking accounts. Srini has presented in several industry forums on topics such as cognitive AI and its applicability in critical business functions. He has also presented at Wipro strategy events on new digital technologies and how it is transforming the service provider market. Srini has served in several key leadership roles in Wipro for over a decade. He works closely with advisors and industry analysts as a thought leader to design solutions that solve key business challenges. He has total work experience of 21 + years and started his career in the consumer and industrial goods industry when he joined Godrej from campus. He worked at IBM subsequently in the IBM Global Services Division. He is invited to speak at industry forums on challenges facing firms in their digital, technology and operations spaces. Jon Biro Chief Financial Officer, Harte Hanks Chief Financial Officer, Harte Hanks Appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in November 2017, Jon insures our finances are in tip-top shape, but he is more than a numbers guy. Jon uses his passion for driving performance improvement and transformation to keep moving Harte Hanks forward. He previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Exterran Corporation from October 2015 through January 2017, and served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Archrock, Inc., (formerly Exterran Holdings, Inc.) from September 2014. Jon also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer, Treasurer and Secretary for Consolidated Graphics, Inc. from 2008 through 2014. From 1994 to January 2008, Jon served in various capacities with ICO, Inc. including from 2002 through January 2008 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, Jon worked for Price Waterhouse within their audit practice from 1991 to 1994. When he’s not leading our accounting and finance teams, Jon likes to play golf and hang out with his family. Mastering the new customer experience Mastering digital growth with Harte Hanks Digital What’s your analytics intelligence level? loT and Micro-Moments Marketing HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? START SHAPING A BETTER FUTURE FOR YOUR BUSINESS TODAY. TALK TO OUR CONSULTING EXPERTS.

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Pierce in Clearwater County, Idaho — The American West (Mountains) Chinese Cemetery 1. Chinese Cemetery Marker Chinese Cemetery. . This is the site of the graves of the Chinese who died in Pierce. All bodies have been returned to their homeland. Chinese artifcts (sic) broken tools and rotting cabins are still found in the nearby hills. . This historical marker is in Pierce in Clearwater County Idaho This is the site of the graves of the Chinese who died in Pierce. All bodies have been returned to their homeland. Chinese artifcts (sic) broken tools and rotting cabins are still found in the nearby hills. Location. 46° 29.28′ N, 115° 48.095′ W. Marker is in Pierce, Idaho, in Clearwater County. Marker is at the intersection of Stover Drive and Moscrip Road, on the left when traveling north on Stover Drive. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Pierce ID 83546, United States of America. Touch for directions. Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Pierce Courthouse (approx. ¼ mile away); a different marker also named Pierce Courthouse (approx. 0.3 miles away); Canal Gulch (approx. 0.3 miles away); Oro Fino City (approx. ¾ mile away); Murder & Vigilantes (approx. 1.4 miles away); Boom & Chinese of Pierce (approx. 1.4 miles away); Pierce Gold Rush (approx. 1.4 miles away); Gold Discovered (approx. 1.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Pierce. Categories. • Asian Americans • Cemeteries & Burial Sites • More. Search the internet for Chinese Cemetery. Credits. This page was last revised on October 15, 2019. This page originally submitted on October 15, 2019, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 57 times since then and 2 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on October 15, 2019, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.

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Hoopfeed on Twitter: @hoopfeed Indiana Fever announce Marianne Stanley as head coach Stanley leaves Washington Mystics for Fever Stanley in the Fever’s introductory press conference Tuesday morning: Marianne Stanley on leaving the Mystics for the Fever: “I feel like this was the type of place that I could leave Washington for…I’m not going to leave for any old job….I’m passionate about what I do. I love to work with people who are equally invested in each other.” Release from Indiana Fever: The Indiana Fever today announced Marianne Stanley as the seventh coach in the franchise’s 20-year WNBA history. Stanley, a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and one of the great names in women’s basketball as both a coach and a player, has served as an assistant with the Washington Mystics since 2010 and helped head coach Mike Thibault lead the Mystics to the 2019 WNBA championship. In 2002 as head coach of the Mystics, she was named WNBA Coach of the Year. The Fever also announced that Tamika Catchings, currently the vice president of basketball operations, will expand her duties to include serving as general manager. “The future of the Fever is bright with the addition of Coach Stanley to our organization,” said Dr. Allison Barber, Fever president and COO. “Our players and our fans know that we are committed to growing a competitive franchise that will make significant contributions to our community and to the future of women and girls in sports. I am optimistic about the work of Tamika, Coach Stanley and our team.” “We are excited to bring Marianne Stanley in as our Indiana Fever Head Coach,” said Catchings. “Stanley is hands down one of the most decorated and experienced coaches in the WNBA. The thing that excites me most is her ability to see and teach the game. Coming off the Mystics’ championship run this year, she brings a championship type mentality and knows what it takes to win – both on and off the court. The focus since the season ended has been finding the right leader for our team and organization. We are on the right path with Marianne.” Said Stanley, “I am excited to join the Indiana Fever organization and to have an opportunity to work with the great core group that has been built. I felt a connection, a fire and an excitement about stepping on board as the next Head Coach of the Fever. I could not ask for more committed and passionate partners than Allison Barber and Tamika Catchings. They are first-class people, dedicated professionals and tireless advocates for Fever basketball. Tamika is the embodiment of the type of competitor and champion that we hope to develop with the Fever. I look forward to working together with Tamika, Allison and the outstanding, talented core group of Fever players in the quest to build a championship culture and mindset here in Indianapolis.” As a college coach, Stanley posted a 415-224 record 21 seasons, winning a pair of AIAW championships (1979 and 1980) as well as an NCAA crown (1985) as the head coach at Old Dominion University. She also coached at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Stanford University and the University of California. In 2007, she assisted C. Vivian Stringer during Rutgers University’s run to the NCAA Championship game. Stanley is also very familiar with the WNBA. In addition to her stints with the Mystics, she has been an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty. Stanley has earned numerous accolades throughout her career. She was named the Pac-10 Conference Coach of the Year in 1993, the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1985, and an All-American selection as a player in 1975 and 1976 at Immaculata College. She led the Might Macs to AIAW national titles in 1973 and ’74 and they were inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. In 2002, she was inducted in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Stanley also has coached internationally, serving as head coach of USA squad that competed in the 1985 Women’s Junior World Championships as well as assisting with the USA team that captured the gold medal in both the World Championships and Goodwill Games in 1986 and the bronze medal in the 1991 Pan American Games. as the seventh coach in the franchise’s 20-year WNBA history. Sign up for Hoopfeed's Weekly Newsletter © 2007 - 2020 Hoopfeed.com. All rights reserved. PRIVACY POLICY

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Payroll Shenanigans? Teacher Paychecks Shorted; Woman in Charge Resigns By Ethan Stewart Thu Oct 21, 2010 | 12:00am In a curious case that is still being looked into, nearly 200 paychecks from the first pay period of the new school year were delivered short earlier this month, while, just a few days later, the woman in charge of payroll for the district abruptly resigned. And while he wouldn’t say the two incidents are nefariously connected, Superintendent Brian Sarvis did explain last week that the paycheck mix-up wasn’t the first of its kind and that an outside audit would likely be done in the coming weeks to make sure that nothing more serious had happened. Specifically, paychecks issued on September 30 and October 1 were printed up for less than they should have been because too much money was taken out for health and welfare benefits apparently due to incorrect data entry, according to district officials. The error was caught and new checks were printed in less than 24 hours. On the same day the last erroneous checks were issued, payroll coordinator Patricia Vogt voluntarily resigned from her post, one that earned her between $95,000 to $108,000 a year. As for the independent audit, the district is considering bringing in the Fiscal Crisis and Management Team, the same group that provided an outside — and ultimately scathing — look at its beleaguered Special Education department last year, though any such move would require the approval of the school board.

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Bluebeard Owner Tom Battista on His Other Job: Jimmy Buffett’s Right-Hand Man Alex Kincaid Last summer was the first time in 25 years that Indiana wasn’t filled with Parrotheads. Jimmy Buffett skipped his annual Indy tour stop in 2015, but he won’t repeat the slight this year. On June 23, Buffett will return to Klipsch Music Center, and his longtime stage manager Tom Battista will be the guy who makes sure everything is in place. Battista, who also owns Bluebeard in Fletcher Place, has been Buffett’s right-hand man for 24 years. In that time, he has gotten to know the son-of-a-son-of-a-sailor pretty well. And while Battista also has worked with performers such as David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz, and Mariah Carey, none have been quite as fun to work with as Buffett. Even though Battista and his crew mostly set up and take down the stage, Buffett knows each of them by name. “He’s not a prima donna,” Battista says. “When he comes out on the road, he’s with us out on the road. A lot of these big stars will just fly in, do a show, and then fly right out. The crew never really gets to know the star. Jimmy is not that way.” Battista’s favorite memory of working with Buffett is from his 1995 tour. Around 15 of the crew members decided to hike to Sausalito from their hotel in San Francisco for lunch. Without a jacket and having skipped breakfast, Battista joined them for what would be a regrettable 10-mile walk. Battista lagged behind. Out-of-shape and older than the rest of the guys, he eventually decided he couldn’t go on and tried to hitchhike the rest of the way. The problem was, no one was stopping. With only one mile to go, a van pulled off to the side of the road. Battista rushed over to it as the side door opened. “Battista? What are you doing out here?” said none other than Jimmy Buffett. Battista still can’t believe Buffett happened to be on the same stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. But his favorite memory also speaks to Buffett’s character. He’s the kind of guy who would pull over on the side of the road to pick up a hitchhiker, even while on his way to the petting zoo with his two kids. Buffett shows up to the sound checks on time, eats dinner with the crew and his band, takes a nap before the show, and then heads on stage around 8:10 p.m. each night. He’s predictable. He has also been touring the same 30 or so cities for his entire career. Battista says when some stars make it big, they try to do 100 or more shows, but that’s not Buffett’s style. He knows where his fans are, he has a great rapport with the Parrotheads, and so he sticks to the same selective, smaller tours. Battista says the 12 weeks each year he spends with the singer is like getting a paid vacation. He won’t have to travel far this month. Before the hometown show, Battista sometimes has Buffett over to his restaurant for a private meal. Then it’s off to some distant city for another night of “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and “A Pirate Looks at 40.” But after a quarter century, Buffett hasn’t lost the enthusiasm for performing, Battista says. The passion for what he does is still there. And Battista still has a good time on the road, so he keeps going, too. Tags Jimmy Buffett, Klipsch, Parrothead, Tom Battista Lou Harry Reviews Hamilton “Hamilton isn’t just a musical, it’s a phenomenon that is even more miraculous because of its improbability.” Ask Me Anything: Michael Bricker, TV & Film Production Designer Michael Bricker’s set designs are the stuff dreams (and Emmy Awards) are made of. Quick Q&A With Lauren Molina Of The Skivvies “We’ve been told that after the first five or 10 minutes, they actually forget we’re in our underwear, because they’re so focused on the music and the comedy.” Ryan Niemiller Gets The Last Laugh The Joke’s On You

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Home > Reference > Indian Administration > Council of Ministers of India > Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar, Indian Politician Manohar Parrikar was an Indian politician hailing from Goa. He was serving as the Defence Minister of India under the Cabinet Ministry of Narendra Modi. Manohar Parrikar was an Indian politician. He was an active member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Manohar Parrikar was Chief Minister of Goa, first from 2000 to 2005 and later from March 2012 to November 2014. He had represented the Panaji Constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Goa when he was involved in the state politics of Goa. He was the Defence Minister of India from 2014 to 2017 in the Government led by Narendra Modi. Early Life of Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar was born on 13th December 1955 in a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family at Mapusa of Goa. He studied at Loyola High School in Margao. Manohar Parrikar completed his secondary education in Marathi language and went on to graduate in metallurgical engineering from IIT Bombay (Mumbai) in the year 1978. He is the first IIT graduate to become the Chief Minister in any Indian state. He was awarded by IIT Bombay with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001. Political Career of Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the very young age and later he became a key organizer of the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement. He was seconded by RSS to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the objective of fighting the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. As a member of the BJP, Manohar Parrikar was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Goa in 1994. He was the leader of the opposition from June to November 1999. Manohar Parrikar became the Chief Minister of Goa for the first time on 24th October 2000, but his tenure lasted only till 27th February 2002. On 5th June 2002, he was re-elected and became the Chief Minister of Goa again. He was Chief Minister of Goa for the 3rd time from March 2012 till November 8, 2014. Manohar Parrikar became the active member of Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party after 2012. But the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had high regards for Parrikar’s abilities and persuaded him to join the Central Government of India. He was sworn-in as Cabinet Minister for Defence in November 2014 in the first expansion of ministerial council of Narendra Modi. Personal Life of Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar is married to Medha Parrikar, who died in the year 2001, as she was suffering from cancer. They have two sons. Death of Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar died at the age of 63 years from Advanced Pancreatic Cancer on 17th March 2019. He was suffering from the disease from 2018 and was also undergoing treatment in the AIIMS, Delhi. More Articles in Council of Ministers of India (10) Dr. Farooq Abdullah Rajyavardhan Singh Rathor... Babul Supriyo Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu Venkaiah Naidu D. V. Sadananda Gowda Uma Bharti

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National Cine Museum only if it attracts aficionados: House panel 27 Apr, 2017 - 08:33 AM IST | By B B Nagpal NEW DELHI: Noting that the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai is expected to be completed by July this year, a Parliament Committee wants the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to get a response and feedback of the industry as to how far it is successful in attracting film fraternity and also those interested in films, through exhibitions, workshops, seminars and interactive sessions. The Museum has been built in the premises of the Films Division complex on C D Deshmukh (Peddar) Road. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology which also examines issues relating to MIB noted that an amount of Rs 286.9 million had been allocated under the Scheme of the Museum which was increased to Rs 343.9 million at revised estimate stage but the Ministry incurred an expenditure of Rs 286.9 million. The Committee was informed that the project is near completion and the Ministry was hopeful of utilizing the balance funds during the current financial year 2016-17. The budget for the year 2017-18 under the Scheme has been reduced as the construction work has already been completed and curation is underway. A historical building Gulshan Mahal has been renovated in the first phase as part of the National Museum project and the second phase of the Museum consisting of two Cinema Halls, Museum office, Exhibition spaces and Food Court are coming up in the new building block. When operational, the NMIC will provide a store house of information and help film makers, film students, enthusiasts and critics to know and evaluate the development of cinema as the medium of artistic expression. Avoid 'slippages' of film sector budget utilisation, House panel recommends DD invites short films on Govt schemes, 'DAVP producers' preferred National Museum of Indian CinemaInformation and Broadcasting MinistryParliamentary Standing CommitteeGulshan MahalFilms Division MUMBAI: TRAI in its annual report has stated that in the last ten years a substantial number of HD pay television channels have been launched by broadcasters. As on 31 March 2019, there are a total of 99 operational HD channels. Let’s have look at detailed description below: Internet and Broadband... Regulators TRAI Bombay HC grants no interim relief in IBF's NTO case; matter posted for 22 Jan MUMBAI: After the broadcasters moved to Bombay High Court on Monday, the high court has issued notice to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for filing response. The matter has been listed for next hearing on 22 January. No interim relief till the next hearing. IBF files writ petition against TRAI in Bombay High Court MUMBAI: Amid the ongoing dispute in the broadcasting industry regarding amendments to the tariff order, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), along with other broadcasters, has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Regulators High Court TRAI backs NTO 2.0, says amendment to create level playing field MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory and Authority of India (TRAI) has backed the amendments made in the New Tariff Order (NTO) claiming it to be consumer-friendly. Issuing a statement, TRAI said that it will create a level playing field for all stakeholders in the broadcasting industry. The regulator... Comment: Divide and rule – TRAI's way of regulating the broadcasting sector Indian broadcasting has been going through a challenging period not just because of competition from new digital platforms and falling ad revenue but by a hyper-regulator, the Telecom Authority of India (TRAI). Broadcasting and cable TV services grew marginally in Q2: TRAI The Telecom Regulatory and Authority of India in its 2019 September-end quarter report has shown a marginal growth in the broadcasting and cable TV services with respect to the number of private satellite TV channels permitted by the government and pay TV channels as reported by broadcasters. NTO 2.0 will affect viability of pay TV industry: IBF MUMBAI: The broadcast sector has expressed its shock and dismay with the latest notification from TRAI issued on 1 January 2020, amending the new tariff order (NTO) and interconnection regulations. Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) believes that both the amendments will severely impair... India Ratings: NTO 2.0 negative for broadcasters, neutral for MSOs MUMBAI: Credit rating agency India Ratings (Ind-Ra) & Research believes that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) amendments to the tariff and interconnection regulation are largely negative for broadcasters and neutral for multiple system operators (MSOs). The rating agency, a... TRAI releases consultation paper on net neutrality issues The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a new consultation paper that deliberates on traffic management practices (TMPs) and multi-stakeholder body for net neutrality.

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External merchandise trade statistics for May 2014 The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (June 26) the external merchandise trade statistics for May 2014. In May 2014, the values of Hong Kong's total exports and imports of goods both recorded year-on-year increases, at 4.9% and 3.7% respectively. In May 2014, the value of total exports of goods (comprising re-exports and domestic exports) increased by 4.9% over a year earlier to $306.0 billion, after a year-on-year decrease of 1.6% in April 2014. Within this total, the value of re-exports increased by 4.9% to $300.7 billion in May 2014, while the value of domestic exports increased by 10.0% to $5.3 billion. Concurrently, the value of imports of goods increased by 3.7% over a year earlier to $348.3 billion in May 2014, after a year-on-year increase of 2.4% in April 2014. A visible trade deficit of $42.4 billion, equivalent to 12.2% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded in May 2014. For the first five months of 2014 as a whole, the value of total exports of goods rose by 1.1% over the same period in 2013. Within this total, the value of re-exports increased by 1.1%, while the value of domestic exports increased by 3.0%. Concurrently, the value of imports of goods increased by 2.4%. A visible trade deficit of $220.4 billion, equivalent to 13.5% of the value of imports of goods, was recorded in the first five months of 2014. Comparing the three-month period ending May 2014 with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the value of total exports of goods rose by 2.1%. Within this total, the value of re-exports increased by 2.1%, while the value of domestic exports went up by 6.6%. Meanwhile, the value of imports of goods increased by 0.4%. Analysis by country/territory Comparing May 2014 with May 2013, total exports to Asia as a whole grew by 3.7%. In this region, increases were registered in the values of total exports to some major destinations, in particular Japan (+11.9%), Vietnam (+11.5%), Malaysia (+9.5%), Taiwan (+7.6%) and the mainland of China (the Mainland) (+3.5%). On the other hand, decreases were recorded in the values of total exports to India (-8.0%), Singapore (-0.8%) and Thailand (-0.5%). Apart from destinations in Asia, increases were also registered in the values of total exports to some major destinations in other regions, in particular Germany (+9.4%), the USA (+4.5%) and the United Kingdom (+4.0%). Over the same period of comparison, increases were registered in the values of imports from most major suppliers, in particular Malaysia (+50.0%), Taiwan (+10.1%), Singapore (+9.3%), Thailand (+8.3%), Japan (+8.1%), Korea (+7.4%) and the Mainland (+3.0%). Concurrently, decreases were registered in the values of imports from Switzerland (-3.0%) and the USA (-1.5%). For the first five months of 2014 as a whole, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of total exports to some major destinations, in particular Vietnam (+10.3%), India (+1.6%) and Japan (+1.2%). However, year-on-year decreases were registered in the values of total exports to Taiwan (-3.5%), the Mainland (-0.4%) and Korea (-0.1%). Over the same period of comparison, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of imports from most major suppliers, in particular Malaysia (+34.3%), Thailand (+15.3%), Taiwan (+10.6%), Korea (+9.9%) and Japan (+5.4%). On the other hand, a year-on-year decrease was registered in the value of imports from the Mainland (-1.1%). Analysis by major commodity Comparing May 2014 with May 2013, increases were registered in the values of total exports of some principal commodity divisions, in particular "electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof" (by $11.0 billion or 13.6%), "non-metallic mineral manufactures" (by $1.6 billion or 13.6%) and "office machines and automatic data processing machines" (by $1.6 billion or 4.9%). However, a decrease was registered in the value of total exports of "textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles and related products" (by $1.0 billion or -12.0%). Over the same period of comparison, increases were registered in the values of imports of some principal commodity divisions, in particular "electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof" (by $14.8 billion or 16.0%), "non-metallic mineral manufactures" (by $1.3 billion or 8.7%) and "miscellaneous manufactured articles (mainly jewellery, goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares)" (by $0.9 billion or 4.5%). However, a decrease was registered in the value of imports of "textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles and related products" (by $1.1 billion or -13.5%). For the first five months of 2014 as a whole, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of total exports of some principal commodity divisions, in particular "electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof" (by $35.6 billion or 9.2%) and "non-metallic mineral manufactures" (by $9.1 billion or 15.2%). However, year-on-year decreases were registered in the values of total exports of "office machines and automatic data processing machines" (by $11.6 billion or -6.9%) and "miscellaneous manufactured articles (mainly jewellery, goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares)" (by $6.9 billion or -7.7%). Over the same period of comparison, year-on-year increases were registered in the values of imports of some principal commodity divisions, in particular "electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances, and electrical parts thereof" (by $59.5 billion or 13.8%) and "non-metallic mineral manufactures" (by $6.6 billion or 8.6%). However, year-on-year decreases were registered in the values of imports of "office machines and automatic data processing machines" (by $18.4 billion or 11.2%) and "professional, scientific and controlling instruments and apparatus" (by $5.6 billion or -14.2%). A Government spokesman noted that the value of merchandise exports reverted to a moderate year-on-year growth in May upon improved performance of advanced markets as well as the Mainland market. The spokesman commented further that looking ahead, Asia's trade flows, as well as Hong Kong's export performance, will hinge on whether the advanced economies, currently growing at a rather modest pace, will gain further traction and generate stronger import demand. Yet, headwinds in the external environment are still notable, including the uncertainties surrounding the future path of US monetary policy and the heightened geopolitical tensions in various parts of the world. The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely. Table 1 at the annex presents the analysis of external merchandise trade statistics for May 2014. Table 2 presents the original monthly trade statistics from January 2011 to May 2014, and Table 3 gives the seasonally adjusted series for the same period. The values of total exports of goods to 10 main destinations for May 2014 are shown in Table 4, whereas the values of imports of goods from 10 main suppliers are given in Table 5. Table 6 and 7 show the values of total exports and imports of 10 principal commodity divisions for May 2014. All the merchandise trade statistics described here are measured at current prices and no account has been taken of changes in prices between the periods of comparison. A separate analysis of the volume and price movements of external merchandise trade for May 2014 will be released in mid-July 2014. The May 2014 issue of "Hong Kong External Merchandise Trade" contains detailed analysis on the performance of Hong Kong's external merchandise trade in May 2014. Detailed merchandise trade statistics analysed by commodity and by country/territory are published in the May 2014 issue of "Hong Kong Merchandise Trade Statistics". The two publications will be available in mid-July 2014. Users can download them free of charge at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp230.jsp). Enquiries on merchandise trade statistics may be directed to Trade Analysis Section (2) of the C&SD (Tel: 2582 5042). Ends/Thursday, June 26, 2014

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Agreeing with others, thank you so much for releasing that discussion, as well as to Doug and others for handling that mess. As part of my 'healing,' I've been revisiting media that feels relevant to our current situation, in order to help consolidate my thoughts on the factors leading up to it, where it's heading, and to what extent it was anticipated. Tomorrow, I plan to rewatch Er Ist Wieder Da, which is based on a 2014 novel about if Hitler came back to the present and became a media sensation due to his irresistible outrageousness, his offering of 'simple brilliant truths' to the populace (particularly those who've felt ignored), and his ability to publicly admit that things aren't great for everyone. Based on my memory and rewatching clips, it's one of the most prescient pieces of media released in the past few years. For those potentially interested, I think this clip does a good job representing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBqwtHnc9ho Yeah, thanks R&D for the great discussion. Also I can't believe multiple people actually took the time to go deep on that shitpost. This community never fails to exceed my expectations. perfect gallows Hi Rob and Danielle, I really enjoy your podcast. Thanks for putting so much of yourselves, your ideas and your time into it. Almost without exception, each episode is a nice comfortable chair to fall back into and feel right at home. I really wanted to comment on this most recent episode, however, because of what happened with the Life Is Strange letter. I can see, now that I'm here, that you've included a spoiler warning for the Life Is Strange content in the episode description, but regrettably I didn't access the episode via this page, and missed any such warning on my itunes feed. The result for me was that I was already deep into listening before my tired, post-work day mind realised that Danielle had just outlined (what I think might be) the big reveal for the game, Life Is Strange. At first I wasn't sure I'd heard correctly, or maybe I'd missed the spoiler warning, so I went back to the beginning of the letters segment and listened again. There's a moment when Rob says "don't read the first line" and Danielle responds "don't worry", and I can only assume that the first line Rob warned about contained a spoiler for the game, but then Danielle goes on to reveal a good deal about the core plot of Life Is Strange over the course of the letter. I'm not completely sure what happened, and I haven't been through the episode with a fine-toothed comb (nor will I), but I can only assume that, somehow, there was no spoiler warning in the audio itself, none in the itunes description, and that a major (THE major?) plot point of a game I've been saving for a rainy day has been pretty horribly spoiled. Granted, Life Is Strange is not a recent game, and there's been adequate time since release to have played it, but still... Bless him, Rob tries to make a lighthearted reference to the spoilers at the end of the letter, and I appreciate the nod, but Danielle appears to not fully appreciate the giant foot she just pulled out of her mouth. I know, I know... it's just Life Is Strange, but dude, those spoilers came out of left field, and so suddenly, and rather than stop and reconsider the letter, Danielle just steamrolled on and compounded the first spoiler by adding more stuff. I guess I'm just a bit disappointed because after listening to Idle Thumbs, Three Moves Ahead and Idle Weekend, all from their respective first episodes, this is the first time I've ever felt let down in regards to spoilers. I guess I'll still play Life Is Strange, the art style looks great, and I do believe that much of the heart of a story is in the telling, but I can't help reflect on what I'm missing out on knowing what's around the corner. Still love the Idle pods network, it's like a second home. Thanks and cheers. It is probably safe to say that the majority of Trump voters are straight white Americans. Yes, in that group there are a lot of racists. xenophobes, sexists, blah...blah. But I wish the people who for various justified reasons hate Trump and can not understand why good people would vote for Trump would put themselves in the shoes of people who ARE NOT racists, homophobes, etc. but still voted for Trump. e.g. If you are worried about putting food on the table, paying for medicine, or that hospital stay, are you going to be very concerned about gay rights, Black Lives Matter, or Muslims being forced out of the country? You may be aware of these problems but these problems take a very low priority in your life. All you care about are jobs, Jobs. JOBS! With good jobs, decent wages, and with your basic needs taken care of, THEN you`ll have the time and mental well being to be more concerned with (and possibly do the righteous thing about) the problems that LGBTQ+, Latinos, Blacks, Muslims, etc. are up against. I'm willing to offer my perspective as a straight white Trump voter living in the south if anyone wants to ask a specific question on my outlook or why I voted the way I did in a polite an open minded way. I also was NOT that surprised by the outcome, but remained cautiously optimistic during the campaign while largely remaining silent in political conversations with anyone not outwardly supporting Trump. Not to drag this from the ashes too much, but the argument of "economic anxiety" has repeatedly been debunked by the analysis of voter demographics (and the breakdown thereof). And not to turn this into a hierarchy, but I'd imagine it's hard to keep in perspective someone's job when your life is directly at stake. I'm not saying a degree of empathy isn't a factor here, but people will - as you said - vote for their own interests. Why should people who fear for their lives worry about the job safety of people they don't know? More than that, what if they're worried about the job situation, but tend to prefer worrying about their own livelihoods more? Understandable, no? Hypotheticals abound, sorry. Nevermind that "job safety" is being scapegoated out to the (everpresent) daemon of (illegal) immigrants, instead of looking at the poverty line and longstanding reasons as to why the job market might be suffering. Don't get me started on healthcare in the US. I'm from the UK, myself, but what Obamacare put into action seems from everything I've read (regardless of how much Republican attention forced the bill to change before it was passed) an improvement on what came before. If people truly wanted (and were passionate about) good healthcare, I have a hard time believing that Trump would be the answer to their wishes, there. But that is solely my opinion. To me the most baffling thing is to believe a single word that leaves Trump's mouth. How is it possible to feel he will serve anyone's interests except his own? From the students at Trump 'university' to the contractors on his various building projects that he stiffed if they were too small to sue him, there's a trail of people used and abused by him. Why give such a person your vote? Is it really just the utter need for something to change? Is Hillary really that bad? 14 hours ago, xchen said: 2 hours ago, Gorbles said: Every right-leaning person I know who opposes the Affordable Care Act has a story about their wife's cousin's former roommate whose premiums went up five hundred percent after the ACA was passed. For me and the overwhelming majority of people I know, health insurance has become much more affordable, as the law promises, but the fact that edge cases happen, often with the totem of the Republican Party that is the self-employed businessperson of some means, is cause enough for some people to want the whole system gone. Even "moderate" proposals to roll back the ACA, by allowing people to opt out, spell the end because young and healthy people will opt out, old and sick people won't, and insurance companies will accelerate their pullout from less profitable markets even more, as the risk pool dwindles. That last bit is very frustrating to me. I have a reasonably close friend who dreams of seeing the ACA burn to the ground, along with Medicaid and Medicare, because he firmly believes that the supply/demand pressures of the free market will keep insurance premiums low if the government just gets its money out, which is... not how insurance has ever worked. Even now, insurance companies are raising premiums because the government subsidies are going straight to executive salaries and bonuses, which are at an all-time high. Aetna just pulled out of Missouri and Cigna cut its available plans there in half, which would be fine if it weren't the only game in town. I don't see how less regulation and less government money would fix that, but "less regulation" as a means is an end all its own, to many. One thing I can't understand is why so many people are against deportation of illegal immigrants (i can understand not doing this when it might separate children from their parents. and I'm not talking about refugees). But what is wrong with sending back people who didn't came to the US illegally? Isn't that unfair to the people who are trying to immigrate to the USA legally? Of course there should be exceptions and guidelines. e.g. If the illegal has been in the US over a certain number of years, never gotten into trouble, can support themselves, can speak English, then give them a visa. I live in Japan and have been here for 45+ years. And the Japanese government have no problem (no does the population in general) with exporting illegal aliens. Also I didn't vote for either one on the candidates. Bucket_of_Lizards @TokyoDan It's not always exactly the deportation issue, but the increased 'be ready to show your papers' powers that authorities would have carrying this out, and how enforcement of this would dis-proportionally affect non-white legal citizens. On the other hand, millions of other working class voters managed to not vote for the fascist. It's not as if Trump outlined a uniquely sensible or achievable way of dealing with American poverty that overshadowed his myriad flaws. I'm not unsympathetic to the working class -- for sure, wealth and income inequality in the country are beyond fucked. But... I don't see how a voter draws the line between "the economy sucks" -> "let's elect this guy" without being at least tacitly on board with a lot of his bigotry. Nelsormensch Potentially of interest to folks in this thread - NY Times piece talking to people in a low-income, predominantly black neighbourhood in Milwaukee who didn't vote at all in the last election: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/us/many-in-milwaukee-neighborhood-didnt-vote-and-dont-regret-it.html?_r=0 2 hours ago, Nelsormensch said: In this article I read: “He was real, unlike a lot of liberal Democrats who are just as racist” but keep it hidden, he said, his jaw slathered with shaving cream. “You can reason with them all day long, but they think they know it all. They want to have control. That they know what’s best for ‘those people.’” 3 hours ago, Bucket_of_Lizards said: I think the appropriate response is amnesty for non-criminal immigrants, especially those with jobs and families, while building a better path to citizenship for future immigrants that makes the danger of sneaking into the country (or sneakily staying past a visa's expiration) less attractive of an option. Over two and a half million people have been deported under Obama, not including people who were turned away at the border or who "deported" themselves under pressure from law enforcement, and the three people, out of that two and a half million, whom I knew personally all underwent terrifying and devastating experiences that stretch the bounds of necessity, in my mind. My uncle's son from his first marriage stayed here past his visa because he found a job he loved as a roofer, but he got picked up in a routine traffic stop, spent almost a month in near-solitary confinement, and then was deported and banned from entering the US for ten years. He's not going to get to see his son grow up because of that, and I struggle to understand why, besides him not having the money and connections (and, to be frank, the wit) to get a long-term work visa for his job doing blue-collar labor. There are estimated to be over eleven million immigrants living undocumented in America. That's almost five percent of the population. If all of them were deported, it would destroy countless communities, families, and businesses. Amnesty and a revised process for naturalization are the only answers that work. jennegatron Queen of the Favs Location: Woodland, CA Also: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/georgias-harsh-immigration-law-costs-millions-in-unharvested-crops/240774/ turns out driving out undocumented migrant laborers hurts industries like agriculture. Kicking out undocumented immigrants (who pay taxes and are able to get none of the benefits of doing so) is expensive, time consuming, and what is being gained by it? You get to kick out the 'illegals' who are taking our low paying agriculture jobs that helps keep our food prices down? We prop America up as this land of opportunity but if you risk everything to pursue it and don't fill out the right paperwork and are probably a PoC you'll get deported, potentially cutting you off from your family here in the States. And again, what is gained? People who talk about illegal immigration being a problem and needing to build a wall are almost always using coded racial language, and there's a reason the unsecured Canadian border isn't of concern to them. 1 hour ago, jennegatron said: I'm glad you used 'almost always' because many of them however misinformed are just worried about jobs and are not racists. Another reason Trump won was people who might have been undecided were sick of being unjustly called racists and etc. and went with Trump as a way to say F U to the arrogant I'm-smart-and-educated-and-you're-not people who kept putting them down. That is no way to win people over. Liberals got to quit doing that. Especially if they think they got the high moral ground. I consider myself a liberal, but I was not so quick to insult people who might have been thinking about supporting Trump. 7 minutes ago, TokyoDan said: I think the fact that white people are more interested in protecting the feelings of other white people by not calling them racist than looking at their own role and complicit participation in a system that props us up is the real problem. Honestly fuck white people who are offended by being called racist. It's not an inherent personal flaw, and it's something that our white supremacist culture actively instills and encourages in us and that we need to actively combat whenever possible. Trump won because people care about preserving a white majority identity. Trump won because of rampant and persistent gerrymandering by conservative states in this country based on the gutting of civil rights legislation by a court that was stocked by conservative presidents. Trump won because our electoral college was decided as a compromise and concession to slave holding states. Trump won because white people want to hear that it's PoC's fault the world isn't the one promised by their parents. Trump won because he won white men & white women & won people earning middle and upper tiers of wages. Trump won because of voter suppression by conservative state governments that restricted polling places, days, times, and required voter ID to systematically disenfranchise those for whom the barriers became too high to vote. Trump won due to conservative media that spent the last decade telling conservative voters that we don't need qualified people in office, we need someone to treat Washington like a business and career politicians are the problem. Trump won because of race baiting and undeliverable promises. Trump won because working class white people feel entitled to manufacturing jobs that no longer exist in America and have systematically disempowered union bargaining based off of some red scare that they're a socialist conspiracy to steal your dues. I'm tired of being sympathetic to educated upper-middle class white people who are scared of the scary Muslims who are going to build a rec center too close to the site of the world trade towers. These people are my parents and my extended family members. The educated liberal elite is not the fucking problem, and if you're going to make someone a scapegoat for why Trump won, make it fucking Donald Trump. I'm still planning to reply to your questions later on this week once I can get to a desktop, so if anyone else wants to chime in with some before then I welcome those as well. Love unimural's bullet format so feel free to keep those kind of questions coming. Happy Thanksgiving, friends! "I think the fact that white people are more interested in protecting the feelings of other white people by not calling them racist than looking at their own role and complicit participation in a system that props us up is the real problem. Honestly fuck white people who are offended by being called racist. It's not an inherent personal flaw, and it's something that our white supremacist culture actively instills and encourages in us and that we need to actively combat whenever possible." @jennegatron So how should we combat it and how would you like it all to turn out? Should fuckin' white people be tarred & feathered and run out of town on a rail? And what makes you think I am white? White people should educate themselves on systematic racism and generations of discrimination and how they benefit from a country that was built on the backs of forced unpaid Black labor and the lives of forceably removed and killed Native peoples. They should actively do works in life to advocate for people of color in situations where the social capital of being white allows our voices to be heard over the voices of people of color. White people should help educate other white people in their lives in how white privilege manifests itself in every aspect of life. I have at no point made any assumption about your race, and have exclusively spoken about people in the abstract or saying "our" in order to indicate that I am not unaware of the fact that I am white and therefore a part of the group doing the harming. I would like that we as white people work to level our economic inequality by instating things like blind hiring and admissions processes thereby removing passive barriers to economic development for people of color. I would like for increased resources be dedicated to first generation college students and for schools to be funded not off property taxes which just means that poor students of color go to schools with no access to the resources white kids get. I want white people to stop blocking bussing that would integrate schools. Individual white people are the not problem but the systems that reinforce economic & educational divides based on race. If you're going to keep pretending that I'm advocating for self flaggelation or bullying of white people for being white, I'm not going to engage with you anymore. The fact that you focused on that part rather than the rest of what I said makes me think that you're not actually interested in conversations about dismantling systematic racism. @jennegatron All good points and I agree with them. And I hate racism. At a very early age, I couldn't understand it, but it was pushed on me by my father. I grew out of it while comparatively young. And living in Japan as a foreigner I experienced it...but nowhere near the same hate-filled violent racism sometimes found in the USA. Therefore I do hope that you won't engage with me anymore. I don't think I can learn anything from you. And It's bad for my high blood pressure. And if you do engage, I won't engage with you. So please..have the last word. I know it's important to you. 36 minutes ago, TokyoDan said: And I hate racism. At a very early age, I couldn't understand it, but it was pushed on me by my father. I grew out of it while comparatively young. And living in Japan as a foreigner I experienced it...but nowhere near the same hate-filled violent racism sometimes found in the USA. Here's the problem: you keep keep saying racism and ignoring that I'm talking about systematic racism. I'm not talking about calling someone the n-word. I'm talking about how in the 60's black families were denied home loans because of redlining, denying the accumulated wealth of home ownership to another generation. That's the sort of shit I'm talking about. Racism isn't something one can grow out of, it's the systems that everyone in the US lives within, because our laws and our structures are built with the baked in purpose of denying humanity and resources to people of color. It's nice that you live in Japan. I can't speak to your experience. I can however speak about the country I see, live in, and read about all the time. I can't get over the fact that you're trying to come into a community and try to tone police me for not ingratiating me to you and scold me for not doing enough to win you over. You come into a space that is one of the few welcoming spaces I've found on the internet and ask why we don't want undocumented people deported. When I respond that there are costs and consequences too great for virtually no benefit, and with the factual observation that the rhetoric chosen to speak about deportation and undocumented immigrants is racially charged, you say "but what about the white people who aren't racists? don't they deserve to be pandered to? that's why donald trump won. it's all the liberals' fault." When I go into great detail to explain a fraction of the myriad of real reasons trump won, many of them systematic rather than individually racially based, you imply that all I care about is punishing white people for being white and ask me what I want done. When I talk about the real things I want solved and solutions for them, you ask for praise for not being racist anymore, and then call me patronising. Don't worry about me. I do plenty of self reflection. I think about my whiteness a lot. I'm happy in who I am, and the growth I've made in my life unpacking my racism and internalized misogyny, and that I work every day to be better than I was before. tbh I don't think I really want you on my side TokyoDan. On 11/23/2016 at 2:12 PM, TokyoDan said: Also please stop using super dehumanizing language like this. Human beings aren't objects to 'export' like a trade good. It's a bad look.

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f67dbf23-ce7e-4592-8a2a-418402ecd7ec Support for business strengthens economy An update on Invest NI’s performance and current action to help the private sector. The vital components of building a modern, efficient economy continue to be supporting innovation, winning inward investment, increasing export levels and driving up productivity. These, therefore, remain the core focus of Invest Northern Ireland within the context of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government. Despite the challenging global economic conditions over the last three years Invest NI has helped to strengthen the local economy in a number of ways. We secured 7,500 new jobs from inward investment, a large percentage of which pay over the private sector average and are helping push our economy up the value chain. We’ve supported 11,000 new business starts, leveraged £327 million of expenditure on research and development and stimulated some £2 million of investment in the economy every day. But the fact remains that the Northern Ireland economy’s inherent weakness is the relatively small size of its private sector. It is recognised that it will take 20-25 years to rebalance it and that a sustained effort is required to build on the positive momentum of the past few years. In the short term, Invest NI is addressing the fall-out from the economic downturn by boosting business and job creation through a new Short Term Employment Scheme which aims to create 4,000 jobs by 2014. This initiative offers grant support for the creation of new businesses and new jobs, and intensive mentoring support to help existing businesses scale up. But in the long term, Northern Ireland’s economic future will be heavily reliant on our businesses developing the competitive edge which differentiates them sufficiently to trade successfully in international markets, and on our continued success in attracting inward investment. The skills of the local workforce also make a major contribution to productivity and economic success. For that reason Invest NI has, jointly with the Department for Employment and Learning, developed an Assured Skills programme to improve the skills of employees, bolstering the capability of local firms and further enhancing Northern Ireland’s proposition to inward investors. To ensure that, within the anticipated budgetary pressures over the next few years, Invest NI can continue to maximise its impact on the economy, the organisation is currently undergoing a process of change. Our aim is to offer the highest quality and most relevant and timely support to businesses. We will work to harness the potential of a much wider business base through a new partnership approach to achieve export-focused growth. This will see a differentiated service delivery to each segment of the market, based on companies’ future contribution to the economy. Invest NI also firmly believes that lowering the corporate tax rate presents a new approach and a clear opportunity to increase the private sector in Northern Ireland. In addition, if the Northern Ireland Executive were given wider tax-varying powers, then there are a number of other complementary initiatives that could be considered, including R&D tax credits, enhanced capital allowances and training credits that could be used as an incentive to encourage further investment. The economic environment looks likely to remain challenging over the next couple of years but Invest NI will continue to focus its resources where most benefit will accrue both to businesses and to the economy as a whole. For more information on Invest NI’s support and services: Visit: http://www.investni.com This article appeared in Agenda NI magazine, September 2011 edition.

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Rebecca Comizio '13MA "School Psychologist of the Year" Helps Children Thrive In just five years, Rebecca Comizio '13MA went from being a hard-working graduate student in Iona's M.A. in School Psychology program to being named Connecticut's School Psychologist of the Year. Rebecca's first experience at Iona was at an information session for the graduate program in School Psychology. She had been a stay-at-home mother with her four children for the previous 10 years. Though that role was fulfilling, she missed being a student and had a dream of working professionally with children to help them thrive. "Iona College had a great reputation and it offered a convenient program that I could attend part-time," said Rebecca. At the information session, Rebecca met Katherine Zaromatidis, Ph.D., who commended her on her commitment to staying home and raising her children, while maintaining her interest in pursuing a graduate degree. "As the Director of the School Psychology Program, Dr. Z's kindness was tremendously encouraging, and it marked what turned out to be a culture of support, encouragement and incredible mentorship throughout my time at Iona," shared Rebecca. "Each of my professors was thoughtful, dedicated and willing to help each student as much as they needed. The program offered tremendous support for working, busy, conscientious students. Iona truly prepared me for a wonderful internship experience that taught me so much and a career that I feel grateful for every day." Rebecca has been working as a school psychologist for the past five years at New Canaan Country School in New Canaan, Conn. She also works as an independent contractor in a private organization, as well. While at Iona, she made connections through the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and Connecticut organizations and those connections led to many collaborations and opportunities. She has developed a professional Facebook community (School Psyched, Your School Psychologist) of 40,000+ school psychologists and people interested in the field, and this led to her being named the Co-Chair of the NASP Communications Committee. In recognition of her outstanding work with students, family and colleagues, Rebecca was selected as the 2018-2019 "Connecticut School Psychologist of the Year" by the Connecticut Association of School Psychologists, based on nominations and recommendations from supervisors and colleagues. Join Iona College in Celebrating 50 Years of Women. Read more on how Iona faculty, students, and alumni continue to Move the World.

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Desperate Irish Famine refugees caused a crime wave in New York City, stats show Frances Mulraney @FrancesMulraney The New York Orange Riot of 1871Public Domain The Irish famine led to a massive influx of Irish immigrants to New York during the late 1840s and 1850s. As the downtrodden Irish escaped the famine in their home country, however, they came to a place where life was just as tough. Disembarking from coffin ships, Irish newcomers were greeted with a new life of hardship, slums and tough, endless labor. The Irish quickly made a name for themselves and not always for the right reasons. Cash-strapped and fleeing their country after years of hunger, it appears that some of the Irish in New York turned to crime and violence while women engaged in prostitution to earn money. By the 1850s, over half of those arrested in the city were Irish-born and a staggering percentage of those arrested for being drunk and disorderly also hailed from the Emerald Isle. Hospital and poor house admissions were high for Irish immigrants during this time, a reflection of the continued poverty of the Irish once they reached the land of opportunity. Many Irish were reduced to begging on the streets and to staying in slums where living conditions bred disease and early death. According to statistics from Pandodaily: 55% of those arrested NYC in the 1850′s were Irish-born 35% of the prostitutes arrested in NYC in 1858 were Irish-born. 70% of all admissions to Bellevue Hospital (NYC’s public hospital) in the 1850s were Irish 85% of foreign-born admissions to Bellevue Hospital (NYC’s public hospital) in the 1850s were Irish 63% of foreign-born admissions to the NYC Alms House (Poor House) 1849-1858 were Irish 56% of all NYC Prison commitments in 1858 were Irish-born 74% of foreign-born NYC Prison commitments in 1858 were Irish-born 70% of persons convicted for disorderly conduct in the NYC Courts of Special Sessions, 1859, were Irish-born 74% of persons convicted for drunk and disorderly conduct in the NYC Courts of Special Sessions, 1859, were Irish-born The story was the same for most U.S. cities with a substantial Irish population. The Chicago Post said in the 1850s, "The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses...Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country." The Irish were, along with the Germans, the first group of immigrants to the U.S. who suffered from systematic discrimination as they settled in East Coast cities from the 1820s onwards. The oppression they felt in the new land inspired the Irish to group together and often resulted in acts of violence against any system they felt was unfair to the Irish. During the Civil War, this led to a three-day riot in New York following the first draw of the draft lottery. The Irish terrorized the streets because most of the first names drafted were Irish. The riot continued until Archbishop Hughes called for peace. Violence also came to a head on several occasions on the infamous July 12 as the Orange Order marched through Irish areas in New York to commemorate the victory of William of Orange over the Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne, infuriating the Irish Catholics. The Orange Riots in 1870 and 1871 saw an outbreak of Irish political tension on the streets of New York and resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. Thankfully these days have passed and today, the title of Irish in New York is not (always) one associated with drunken violence. It is also worth noting that the majority of Irish crimes were for minor offenses. It has been found that the commitment rate for major crimes among the Irish population was half the number of Italians charged with major crimes. As Orestes Brownson, an activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer said in 1854, "Out of these narrow lanes, dirty streets, damp cellars, and suffocating garrets, will come forth some of the noblest sons of our country, whom she will delight to own and honor." Related: New York, Immigration, Crime

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Japanese radiation detected in Ireland Wed, Mar 30, 2011, 01:00 Dick Ahlstrom RADIOACTIVE contamination has reached Ireland from the stricken Japanese nuclear power plants at Fukushima. Levels are so low that they pose no health risk, according to the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland who measured the radiation. A large air sample was taken over the weekend in Dublin and was analysed for 24 hours. The institute confirmed yesterday that the sample had low levels of radioactivity. “This is the first sample to show Fukushima radiation,” said Dr Ciara McMahon, the institute’s director of environmental surveillance and assessment. “There are no health risks. The only reason we were able to detect it is we have taken such a large sample of air,” she said yesterday. The institute gets regular updates on the Fukushima power plant via the International Atomic Energy Agency, of which we are a member. However, the institute also uses a network of 14 radiation recording stations and 13 air sampling stations, including one high-volume air sampling station to provide early warning of any nuclear contamination after an accident. Radioactivity levels are measured in becquerels (or fractions of a becquerel) per cubic metre of air. The air samples taken over the weekend showed 20 millionths of a becquerel, Dr McMahon said. By comparison, the levels reaching Ireland from the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986 peaked at 195,000 millionths of a becquerel, she said. Human doses of radiation are measured in sieverts (or fractions of a sievert). A typical Irish person receives three or four thousandths of a sievert from natural sources every year. The radiation reaching us from Fukushima, if averaged out over a year, would raise this exposure by 0.000005 thousandths of a sievert, Dr McMahon said. Radiation levels are so low, however, that they vary up and down and can reach zero depending on wind direction, she added. The institute was keeping a close watch on radiation levels in Japan. “The area we are looking at most closely is Tokyo so that we are in a position to give advice to the Department of Foreign Affairs on risks to Irish people living in Japan,” she said. Levels in Tokyo have been low other than when they increased for a short time in the city’s water supply. “Our advice to people is to follow local advice [in Japan] because they will have the most up-to-date information,” Dr McMahon added. Why has the pension age question suddenly become an election issue? 11:38 Tim Cook reconfirms Apple’s committment to Republic 11:21

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“Suturing Cultures”, 28 min/ Japan (NHK World)/ 2017 Japan’s future doctors navigate culture, religion and sexual orientation…in English. “Dying at Home”, 28 min/ Japan (NHK World)/ 2016 Dr. Konta is on a quest to help people who wish to die at home rather than in hospital. “-1287”, 70 min/ US & Japan/ 2014 As she nears the end of life, Kazuko’s observations on love, money, marriage and her own death change, as does her relationship with the filmmaker. “A2-B-C”, 71 min/ Japan/ 2013 Eighteen months after the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, children who were not evacuated are found to have thyroid cysts and nodules. “In the Grey Zone”, 89 min/ Japan/ 2012 The children of Minamisoma City, Fukushima, living inside the radiation zone head back to school after the nuclear meltdown. “Jake, not finished yet”, 81 min/ Japan & UK/ 2010 The story of two mothers and two sons whose chance meeting seven years earlier changes their lives forever. “the ballad of vicki and jake”, 84 min/ UK/ 2006 A family struggles with drug abuse, homelessness and their relationship with the filmmaker. ドキュメンタリー映画賞 at the 2016 SoCal Film Festival (USA) for ‘-1287’ (2014) People’s Choice (audience) Award at the 2015 Lake Champlain International Film Festival (USA) for ‘-1287’ (2014) First Prize in the Asian Competition at the 2015 DMZ Docs Film Festival (Korea) for ‘-1287’ (2014) Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 2015 Nippon Connection Film Festival (Germany) for ‘-1287’ (2014) Filmmaker Award at the 2015 Snowtown Film Festival (USA) for short documentary “Even the Birds Need to be Loved” Golden Honey Comb for Outstanding Work in Film at the 2014 Lake Champlain International Film Festival (USA) for ‘In the Grey Zone’ (2012) and ‘A2-B-C’ (2013) at the 2014 Uranium Film Festival (Brazil) for ‘A2-B-C’ (2013) Award for Best Documentary at the 2013 STEPS Rights Film Festival (Ukraine) for ‘A2-B-C’ (2013) Best of Festival Award at the 2013 Guam International Film Festival for ‘A2-B-C’ (2013) Nippon Visions Award (best film by new-coming Japan-based director) at the 2013 Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival (Germany) for ‘A2-B-C’ (2013) Audience Choice Award First Prize for Best Documentary at the 2012 Rhode Island International Film Festival (US) for “In the Grey Zone” (2012) Filmmaker of the Future Award at the 2012 Rhode Island International Film Festival (US) Prix de Canton Vaud (best first film) at the 2006 Visions du Reél International Documentary Film Festival (Nyon, Switzerland) for “the ballad of vicki and jake” (2006)

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MainAll NewsDefense/SecurityExpert: ISIS Here to Stay Expert: ISIS Here to Stay Gen. Yaakov Amidror argues that Islamic State has become a true Middle Eastern power, but notes it's not a direct threat to Israel - yet. Tova Dvorin, 05/07/15 14:31 ISIS terrorist (file) Developments in the Sinai desert have brought concerns of an Islamic State (ISIS) attack on Israel on Sunday, after a rocket on Friday was fired into Israel by the group along its southern borders. Channel 20 spoke to Gen. Yaakov Amidror, former National Security Advisor and expert at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) over the issue. "ISIS is strengthening throughout the Middle East," he said. "We see that they have managed to become more organized in the Sinai Peninsula, making the war against them longer and more difficult [...] but I don't think that this [its presence in the Sinai - ed.] has redefined their presence in the Middle East." Amidror also noted that no one is underestimating ISIS, as Western countries have with other terror groups in the past. "I think that people understand that ISIS is the most serious and meaningful threat," he stated. "It's expected to stay around for a long time. It will be very difficult to destroy it." Amidror added that, in terms of Israel, defense officials are expecting a double threat along its northern and southern borders, i.e. in the Golan Heights and Israel's borders with the Sinai desert. He affirmed, however, that Israel has been at least partially aware of the mounting threat of ISIS along its borders, which include a recent resurgence of ISIS activity in Gaza. "ISIS understands, first of all, that it needs to overthrow the 'evil' leaderships of other Arab countries, and also that the Jewish state is a hard nut to crack," he added. "I do think it's inching very slowly toward us, but will arrive [at some point]." Amidror concluded that while many speculate that the dire situation could lead to regional cooperation between Israel and other Arab states which generally oppose it, "the enemy of my enemy usually stays my enemy." Tags:Yaakov Amidror, ISIS, Islamic State, Channel 20

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Jordanian Ambassador Hopeful After New Palestinian Leadership Ambassador Karim Kawar's interview will be broadcast in three segments on VOA's Persian-language News and Views beginning today and concluding Thursday. Washington, D.C., Jan. 11, 2005 -- Jordanian Ambassador to the United States Karim Kawar told the Voice of America (VOA) that last Sunday's Palestinian elections were important because "with new leadership there is hope." "President Abbas cannot do it on his own," said Kawar said in an exclusive interview at VOA. "He needs the support of Israel and Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon in changing the day-to-day lives of the Palestinians. The Palestinians have to see now that with new leadership there is hope." Excerpts of Kawar's interview are being broadcast on VOA's daily Persian-language television program News and Views beginning today and concluding on Thursday. Today's segment focuses on the Palestinian election. Wednesday's segment will address the upcoming Iraqi election. The series concludes on Thursday with a discussion of the future of the Middle East. Although hopeful, Kawar said Palestinians might face a long process. Outlining the "pillars of democracy," which include freedom of speech, the rights of women, and judicial reform, the ambassador said, "Where those do not exist, then democracy cannot happen overnight." He added, "We have to build these structures." VOA broadcasts several Persian-language TV programs to Iran. News and Views is a daily 30-minute television news show broadcast via satellite to audiences in Iran; Roundtable With You is a weekly 90-minute discussion show; and Next Chapter is a weekly 30-minute youth newsmagazine show. In addition, the special TV program Looking Ahead airs live as an occasional two-hour show focusing on the future of democracy and human rights in Iran. These television shows complement VOA Persian's daily radio service and Radio Farda, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, youth-oriented radio program that is a joint project of VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The VOA Persian Service Internet site is www.voanews.com/persian. For more information, call the Office of Public Affairs at (202) 401-7000, or E-Mail publicaffairs@voa.gov.

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Direkt zum Inhalt, zum Menü. Navigationsbereich Country Cooperation EU Cooperation with Third Countries Supranational Organisations International Monitoring BMBF portal 'Kooperation international' Funding and Consulting Archive (expired announcements) Science & Technology Cooperation (STC) Advice on Submitting Applications Events Archive 2019 Selected Successful Projects Web portals of the International Bureau ITB information service - priority issues Eastern Partnership, Russia, Central Asia Africa, Middle East, Turkey North, Central- and South America Backgroundinformation on Asia & Oceania Vietnam (selected menu item) Successful projects with Vietnam German Research Presence in the Asia-Pacific Research Area (APRA) > Fields of Activity > Country Cooperation > Asia, Oceania > Vietnam (selected menu item) Dr Gerd Rücker Senior Scientific Officer Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1 +49 228 3821-1180 Dinh Viet Dzung Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Dept. of International Relations 39 Tran Hung Dao Str. Stefan Hase-Bergen Head of DAAD branch office in Hanoi, accountable Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos Technische Universität Hanoi, Trung tam Viet-Duc, Dai hoc Bach Khoa, 1 Dai Co Viet +84 4-386-83773 Jasper Abramowski General Representative GIZ Office, Hanoi 99 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, 2nd floor, District 1 Ho-Chi-Minh Stadt Wilfried Eckstein Director Goetheinstitut Hanoi 56-58 Nguyen-Thai-Hoc +84/43734-2251-15 / +84/43734-2251 (Zentrale) Marko Walde Chief Representative German Industry and Commerce Vietnam 1303 Vietcombank Tower, 198 Tran Quang Khai +84/4-38251420 Chairman GBA-German Business Association (Deutsche Kaufmannschaft) 21-23 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam +84/8-38239-772 Tran Dong Secretary of Science and Technology - Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Berlin Elsenstraße 3 12435 Berlin-Treptow 030 536 30 108 (Main office) Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) German-Vietnamese Association South East Asia working group German Geography Society German Business Association Vietnam University partnerships with Vietnam Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam German Society for International Collaboration (GIZ) in Vietnam Goethe Institute Hanoi KfW Hanoi Office Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Berlin Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Hanoi Vietnam is the most important partner country of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Southeast Asia. © Ludwig Kammesheidt / DLR Priorities of the cooperation Water and environmental technologies Sustainable urbanisation Centre for health research Vietnamese-German University (VGU) The role of the International Bureau For up-to-date information please vist our web page 'Current Announcements'. Please get in touch if you have any questions about the support services provided by the International Bureau. Bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Germany is founded upon an agreement on scientific and technological cooperation, which was signed during the state visit of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang on 25 November 2015 in Berlin. Current cooperation focuses on water and environmental technologies, resource efficiency, sustainable urbanisation, bioeconomy, health and biodiversity research. Since 2006, a strategic partnership between the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has been established in the area of water and environmental technologies. In October 2007, the Vietnamese-German 'Project Office for Water and Environmental Technology' was opened in Hanoi. In 2013 it was renamed and restructured into the 'Vietnamese-German Office for Water and Sustainability'. It is currently being continued as a German project office. Against the backdrop of the development of both countries, global change and the United Nations 2030 Agenda, a comprehensive perspective on sustainable development is becoming increasingly important for the German-Vietnamese research cooperation. The common goal is to focus research projects on concrete action for sustainable future development. To this end, both sides therefore strive for even closer coordination on joint research priorities and early involvement of all key stakeholders. An inter-ministerial working group on sustainable development (FONA WG) will support the coordination of activities and projects. In the BMBF call CLIENT II (International partnerships for sustainable innovations) projects in the fields of water management and resource efficiency are funded. Another project, developing strategies to mitigate flooding risk in urban-rural settings, started in mid-2019. Vietnam is one of the prioritised partner countries in the BMBF call 'Bioeconomy International', which has provided funding since 2013. To date, three bilateral funding lines have been published together with the MOST. Currently, seven joint projects are funded. As part of the 'KMU Innovativ' announcement, a German company and the TU Berlin are working with Vietnamese partners to develop an innovative technology for producing biogas from rice straw, taking into account climate protection and sustainable development in rural areas (2016-2019). Fast-growing cities in emerging and developing countries often lack sound data and methods for effective, growth-oriented infrastructure planning. The aim of the funding measure 'Rapid Planning' is to develop a transsectoral planning methodology in in the areas of energy, water, wastewater, waste and urban agriculture systematically for efficient interlinkages. Two collaborative projects, coordinated by the AT-Verband Stuttgart and the BTU Cottbus, are implemented, among other cities, in Da Nang (duration: 2014-2019). In 2017, the call 'Sustainable Development of Urban Regions' was published, focussing on Southeast Asian countries and China. After an initial phase, three projects continued with partner institutions in Central-Vietnam in an 18-months definition phase to look at strategies to enhance climate resilience in urban areas (2019-2020). Three other joint projects are funded in the field of sustainable urbanisation in the frame of a bilateral call between BMBF and MOST (2019-2022). The projects are dealing with innovative mobility concepts, health-oriented transport and urban planning, and the integration photovoltaic plants into urban energy-grids. In the APRA call 'Establishment of research presences in the Asian-Pacific region', the project 'Vietnamese-German Centre of Excellence in Clinical Trials' (VG-EXCEL) is funded (2017-2022). In 2016, based on the long lasting cooperation between the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the University of Tuebingen and the Vietnamese partners, the 'Vietnamese- German Centre for Medical Research' (VG-CARE) was established at the 108 Military Hospital in Hanoi. With financial and legal support of two ministries (Science&Technology, Defence), VG-EXCEL aims at building up state-of-the-art infrastructure and capacity in clinical trials within VG-CARE. In the frame of the bilateral call between the International Departments of BMBF and MOST, another three projects in health research are jointly funded (2019-2022). The projects focus on infectious diseases and the development of innovative pain-killers. Biodiversity research Biodiversity research is a new area of collaboration. The project 'Innovative Methods to Biodiversity Exploration and Monitoring: Capacity Building with Partner Countries in Southeast Asia' (VIETBIO) will lay the foundation for a long-term cooperation in biodiversity research with Vietnam and beyond (2017-2020). VIETBIO is led by Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin together with the Botanical Garden in Dahlem. Partner institutions in Vietnam are the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN) and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR) in Hanoi, and the Southern Institute of Ecology (SIE) and the Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB) in Ho Chi Minh City. The projects sets up an integrated biodiversity exploration and monitoring system for Vietnam, by providing state-of-the-art technical equipment and capacity building for young staff of partner institutes. Thus, VIETBIO contributes to the build-up process of competence on biodiversity research in Vietnam to foster an innovative and sustainable use of the rich flora and fauna of the partner country. A comprehensive realignment of Vietnamese higher education policy is set to take place with the help of international support. The Vietnamese-German University (VGU) in Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam's first state university with international stakeholders. The goal of the Vietnamese government is to establish a new model university which can be used as a template for the entire higher education system. The VGU (an initiative of Hessia) was officially launched on 10 September 2008. With its 37 member universities and institutions (including the TU9 network), the consortium VGU founded on 17 February 2009 is the academic backbone of the VGU. Permanent guest members on the executive board are the DAAD, the BMBF and the Hessian Ministry of Science and Arts (HMWK). The university's English-language courses are to be taught in an interim building on the campus of the Eastern International University in Binh Duong until the new campus building is ready. The VGU's own campus will be built in the next years located close to the current interim campus in the Binh Duong region. The building is being financed by the World Bank, which is providing funding in the region of 180 million US dollars. There are currently 11 study programmes in cooperation with German partner universities (five MSc., One MBA, four BSc. And one BEng. Each with Foundation Year). The programmes focus on engineering and economics. During the 2017/2018 winter semester, 1.347 students were enrolled at the VGU, most of them in BSc-programmes. Capacity is expected to be increased to 12,000 students in three stages by 2030. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the International Bureau supports the goal of expanding the international network of German universities, research institutions and companies, in order to facilitate the acquisition of expertise and innovative advantages for German science and industry. Thus, the International Bureau contributes to the implementation of the international dimension in the specialist programmes of the BMBF. Links zu sozialen Netzwerken International Bureau Artikel in sozialen Netzwerken teilen: Twitter, LinkedIn. Facebook, Homepage

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From trade war to tech war? From trade war to tech war: At the vanguard of US-China decoupling Autoren: Philip SaundersCo-Head of Multi-Asset Growth, Sahil MahtaniStrategist Building supremacy Until April, the question for markets was whether there would be a near-term deal between the US and China. Today, market participants are wondering whether the recent escalation in tensions is a sign that the US-China relationship is changing irrevocably into a permanent rivalry. Are the diplomatic fireworks a harbinger of the end or do they, in fact, herald a never-ending conflict between two superpowers? On closer inspection it turns out that both outcomes may amount to the same thing. Even if the trade negotiations resolve themselves satisfactorily, they will do so with some enforcement mechanism. Perhaps, as some have suggested, this will take the form of a standing task force with headquarters in Beijing and Washington, with frequent reviews. If that is the case, the enforcement mechanism transforms a short-term solution into a long-term one. Any such process will probably be a source of geopolitical friction throughout its existence. As a result, no matter what happens next, 2019 is likely to be the end of the beginning, not the end of US-China competition. After 40 years of convergence, the US and China are now competing actively in many areas. Trade is just one part of a broader realignment in the US-China relationship — the most consequential bilateral relationship of the 21st century. That competition is likely to take place in four major areas: economy, defence, technology, and ideology — though whether competition can be contained in these neat categories is a real question. Why technology? First, there is little ideological competition between the US and China. China has not tried to export its political model around the world in the way the Soviet Union did. Second, there is substantial defence competition, but for the moment it is playing out primarily in the cyber world rather than in physical war (barring some exceptions like the near collision in October between US and Chinese warships in the South China Sea). The US and China will continue to disagree about Taiwan and China’s various territorial claims, but for the moment that does not look likely as a source of immediate escalation. Third, there has been substantial economic competition between the US and China, but there is also immense cooperation. The US and China should continue to benefit from each other’s growth. Full economic decoupling still seems unfeasible given the scale of the US and China economic and financial relationship. Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick’s 'Chimerica' is still alive. It is, ultimately, technological decoupling that is much more likely, especially in technologies that influence national security, and here it is not clear whether US and Chinese interests are compatible. Definitions of what constitute matters of national security seem to be broadening. Already, Beijing’s great firewall has long kept many US internet firms out of China. The world’s ten largest internet companies are all American or Chinese, and all operate largely in different markets. Meanwhile, the US is starting to act aggressively to constrain the creation of new Chinese technology companies and the Chinese government’s acquisition of new technologies. Both the US and Europe are now scrutinizing Chinese FDI. Export controls of US technology to Chinese buyers are being mooted. Visa applications for Chinese students are being denied. Established companies are pursuing new listings in friendlier jurisdictions. Technology, therefore, is already at the forefront of the US-China trade conflict and is likely to be there for the foreseeable future. The so-called trade war is giving way to a 'tech war.' The battle for primacy As we explore in ‘China is no longer a copycat’, China is fast becoming a leader in many areas of scientific research and their commercial applications. That technological progress, according to Chinese observers, is the root cause of the US-China rivalry, even though it may be most immediately expressed in US claims that these firms have facilitated espionage and violated sanctions. For Chinese analysts, claims like the US Secretary of State’s recent warning that Chinese involvement in building 5G mobile networks will “open doors for Beijing’s spymasters” are purely a smokescreen. From sanctions on ZTE to the arrest of Huawei employees, they regard actions against Chinese firms as salvos in the battle for primacy in the global tech sector. The release of Made in China 2025 — which named 10 manufacturing and industrial areas that Beijing wants to dominate — led Washington to respond with what some are calling a 'technological containment' policy — aimed particularly at the Chinese semiconductor, telecoms, aerospace and biotech industries. This containment policy includes: prohibiting US companies from selling core technologies and equipment to China, restricting Chinese investment in US tech firms; limiting sales of Chinese tech products in the US and allied countries; curtailing knowledge-transfer and academic exchanges with China; prosecuting US-based Chinese scientists and engineers on spy charges. How will China react to the US technological containment policy? From the view of our Chinese sources, Beijing will have no choice but to counter these perceived challenges with initiatives to accelerate technological decoupling. They will likely do so in the following ways: 1. Enhancing IP protections As China becomes a source of innovation in its own right, it is going to be important to enhance intellectual property (IP) protections. These are being done, for example, by establishing China’s first IP appeals court. Patent law is also being amended to make it easier for patentholders to defend their rights. Although these reforms are partly a response to US complaints about IP theft, they also reflect China’s growing confidence in its own technological achievements. China hopes stronger IP protections will encourage domestic research and development (R&D) spending and attract investment from overseas technology firms. 2. Ramping up R&D expenditure In 2000, China spent just 0.9% of its GDP on R&D, according to the OECD. By 2017, that figure had swelled to 2.1%. Though Chinese research spending relative to economic output still lags that of Japan (3.2%) and the US (2.8%), it continues to rise and astonishingly is already higher than that of the eurozone (see Figure 1). The country is targeting R&D expenditure of 2.5% of GDP by 2020. In 2018, the US National Science Foundation declared China to be the world’s largest producer of scientific articles. Beneath the headline numbers, the emphasis is shifting towards cutting-edge research. In 2016, about 85% of R&D expenditure was on ‘development’ (creating new products using existing knowledge and technologies). Now the focus is switching more to ‘research’ (seeking scientific breakthroughs), including in areas like artificial intelligence and neuroscience. Figure 1: R&D spending/GDP (%) Source: OECD, May 2019. 3. Improving access to tech funding China is also seeking to facilitate tech companies’ access to funding. Launched in November 2018 by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Science and Technology Innovation Board makes it easier for tech start-ups to list, for example by lowering the profitability hurdle relative to other boards. By mid-April this year, the exchange had received 72 applications for initial public offerings, 16 of which were from biomedical companies (see Figure 2). The recent decision of Chinese chipmaker SMIC, which announced they would delist from NYSE, as well as Alibaba’s weighing an additional listing in Hong Kong, are other signs of the shifting funding landscape. Figure 2: IPO applications for the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Science and Technology Innovation Board Source: www.iyiou.com, May 2019. This chart has been redrawn by Investec Asset Management. 4. Encouraging a reverse brain-drain China will move up the value chain by attracting good scientists and engineers back from the United States. Already, Chinese institutions are offering higher salaries to retain domestic talent and attract international experts. Chinese institutions commonly now offer postdoc programmes with salaries equivalent to the average earnings of US academics at the same level, according to the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. The Chinese are encouraging listings on the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Board as it tries to replicate the Nasdaq in China. China’s clear goal is to begin exporting intellectual property to the rest of the World. As our Chinese sources see it, these efforts are being bolstered by US counterintelligence measures. Spying charges against US-based Chinese scientists are reportedly deterring some Chinese experts from working in America. Figures from China’s Ministry of Education indicate that, of the Chinese students who graduated overseas between 1978 to 2018, 85% had returned home by the end of 2018, up from 72% in 2011. 5. Pivoting to Europe With the US restricting access, China hopes to expand its collaboration with Europe, including its technology links. Although the US is pushing other governments to blacklist Chinese firms from involvement in sensitive tech projects, Beijing believes that US-European ties have been weakened by Washington’s America-first trade policy. In addition, it expects Europe’s sluggish growth prospects to encourage EU members to seek more business with China. Though some EU member states have voiced national security concerns, Europe as a whole does not appear to be about to close the door on Chinese tech companies. For instance, following a summit this April, the EU and China agreed to cooperate further on developing 5G mobile networks and other joint technology initiatives. If the US and China are indeed engaged in a tech war, what might this mean? Consequences for Chinese firms In the longer-term, the ascendance of China’s tech industries will be difficult to derail. There are important technological gaps, such as in semiconductors. But the rise of large tech platforms in China is a sign that China can already compete with the West at the technological frontier. It is also possible that deeper trade ties with other developed nations may replace some of the US business lost due to restrictions imposed on national-security grounds. Chinese analysts are aware that one broad vulnerability for China is that its semiconductor manufacturers do not make high-end chips (for now; it is investing heavily to remedy this). Consequently, many Chinese tech businesses rely on foreign suppliers for crucial components, exposing them to US export bans. However, the expectation is that a total prohibition on chip exports to China would greatly disrupt the supply chains of leading US businesses. Despite the recent escalation, ultimately targeted measures are more likely, giving China time to build up its own production base. Analysts estimate China is 10 years behind in designing the high-end chips of the kind used in Huawei’s switches and routers. However, as the example of South Korea’s Samsung shows, it is possible to achieve technological dominance relatively quickly despite starting from a low base. US attempts to encourage governments to blacklist Chinese technology firms could hurt China’s telecoms sector, among others. Australia and Japan have effectively banned Huawei from providing 5G mobile technology. As yet, other states appear less inclined to follow suit. For instance, the Malaysian Prime Minister recently said that Malaysia will continue to use Huawei products “as much as possible.” In recent years, Chinese aerospace companies have been investing in Western companies to acquire technologies. But unless US-China relations improve, future deals may be blocked on national security grounds. Another potential obstacle for Chinese aerospace manufacturers is that they need to obtain international safety certifications to enter global markets. That process is controlled by US and European agencies. China’s biotech and pharma industries could be hampered in three ways: by US restrictions on working visas and academic exchanges; by limits on the ability of Chinese companies to outsource biotech research to the US; and by the withholding of US regulatory approvals, which are regarded as the global benchmark. Potential consequences for US businesses There is little chance that a prolonged tech war between the US and China would not leave American business unscathed. Of course, some large-cap US tech companies do very little business in China. Facebook, Google, and Twitter’s market share in China are all close to zero. But for most large US companies, China has been an important part of their expansion strategy. For example, China is the largest automobile market in the world and US firms have been doing less well there recently. Sales of American cars in China fell 25% between January to May 2019 compared to the same period the preceding year. This was ten percentage points more than the overall decline in passenger cars1. Meanwhile, the most exposed target is Huawei’s smartphone rival Apple, which gets about a fifth of its revenue from China in addition to manufacturing its iPhones there. An Apple ban in China would scythe earnings by up to 30%, by some estimates2. It’s not just the odd American company. 57 companies in the S&P 500 get more than 10% of their sales from China, and the list is dominated by the technological frontier of the US economy, including firms like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft. In semiconductors, the average figure is closer to 40%. They also include consumer companies that have made a big bet on China as well, including Tiffany’s, McDonalds, Starbucks, and Nike — all stalwarts of the quality growth firms that have dominated indices in the post-crash period. Irrespective of how a tech war with China may or may not unfold, the backdrop is becoming much less favourable for the companies that have dominated US stock-market leaderboards in recent years. Perhaps the biggest risk of a US-China dispute is the long-term evolution of Chinese firms and the possibility that they will eclipse US firms. The trade dispute has finally given Chinese reformers the cudgel they need to persuade vested interests to reform. Somewhat ironically, China may finally put in place institutional reforms like IP protection and boosting private sector funding that will give its firms an edge. Moreover, the US business community may simply be underestimating the size and scale of domestic market in China as an endogenous source for iterative innovation. The consensus view until just a few years ago is that authoritarian systems and high-level innovation were mutually incompatible, but the rise of China’s tech giants is an obvious rejoinder. Figure 3: Exposure to China of MSCI US Corporations by Industry Source: MSCI, Factset, Bloomberg, JPMorgan Quant. Universe: Global listed stocks > $100mcap and covered by at least 2 brokers. As at 02.05.19. Are we seeing the unwind of globalisation? Ultimately, it is clear that technology is quickly becoming the most significant area of competition between the US and China. There are other dimensions, including economy, ideology and security, but technology is the key battleground. How the tech war interacts with the ongoing trade dispute is the key question. Many still expect President Trump to relax tariffs on China but maintain technological controls over the long haul. One caution is that this kind of an outcome is unlikely to prove very stable. More likely, it will be a source of friction in the years ahead because it will be seen in China as a hostile act. Unfortunately, the status quo — of restriction-free trade — is also unstable, because US Republicans have already declared it as untenable, and with contentious US elections looming in 2020, there has so far been little sign of the Democrats taking a conciliatory line. Ultimately, markets will likely have to navigate technology and trade disputes for many years, because what the US and China want — technology supremacy — may prove to be fundamentally incompatible. Given the twists and turns that await the US-China relationship, active managers will have to be nimble, and be mindful of political risk. Ultimately, 2019 may be seen in the future as the year in which the global economy began to unwind the globalisation of the last 30 years, at great expense. This will certainly be challenging for shareholder returns as high margins come under pressure from the trade dispute. To the extent that the current dispute forces China to carry out long-planned institutional reforms and boost its own technology sector, 2019 may be seen as the beginning of a long term decoupling: a two-sided global economy, each bloc viable without the other, and each increasingly spinning in their own orbits. China is no longer a copycatPresident Donald Trump believes that China – and Chinese companies like Huawei – is cheating its way back to the top. He launched his trade war in an effort to blunt this perceived cheating and contain China’s economic rise. But is he too late? General risks: The value of investments, and any income generated from them, can fall as well as rise. 1 http://www.marklines.com 2 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/22/goldman-apples-earnings-would-drop-by-nearly-30percent-if-china-bans-its-products.html Philip Saunders Co-Head of Multi-Asset Growth Sahil Mahtani Strategist This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer, or solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell securities. All of the views expressed about the markets, securities or companies reflect the personal views of the individual fund manager (or team) named. While opinions stated are honestly held, they are not guarantees and should not be relied on. Investec Asset Management in the normal course of its activities as an international investment manager may already hold or intend to purchase or sell the stocks mentioned on behalf of its clients. The information or opinions provided should not be taken as specific advice on the merits of any investment decision. This content may contains statements about expected or anticipated future events and financial results that are forward-looking in nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, new legislation and regulatory actions, competitive and general economic factors and conditions and the occurrence of unexpected events. Actual outcomes may differ materially from those stated herein. All rights reserved. Issued by Investec Asset Management, June 2019.

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All pictures - if not otherwise credited in the watermark - are from the archives of Maurizio Eliseo. English version edited by Anthony Cooke. Copyright © 2013-2019 ItalianLiners.com - All rights reserved. 0CART: ITALIAN LINES PREMIUM AREA MONFALCONE, shipyard On Board Diary Founded in 1908 and to-day the biggest and most modern yard in the Fincantieri group, the Monfalcone facility is, at an international level, one of the most renowned builders of mega-cruise ships. It began more than a century ago thanks to the Cosulich family, important shipowners who had originated on the Adriatic island of Lussino but had moved to Trieste at the end of the 19th century. They provided the main impulse behind the development of the cargo and passenger liner trades between the upper Adriatic and North and South America. A mixture of events, among which were the devaluation of the Austrian florin against the pound sterling, the passing of a law by the government in Vienna giving subsidies for the construction of merchant ships and an agreement with the Italian government allowing their ships to embark emigrants from Italian ports, caused the Cosulich brothers to decide in 1907 to build their own shipyard. The first Italian stock option issued by the Cantiere Navale Triestino on the 1st September 1919, the day of the official re-opening of the yard after the Great War. At that time, the parts of the city of Trieste which would have been suitable for their purpose were already occupied by the San Marco yard and the Arsenal. However, the friendship between Alberto Cosulich and his former schoolfriend Alberto Rebulla, now the mayor of Monfalcone, made possible the purchase of a marshy area at Panzano, situated between the land and the sea. On this site there rapidly emerged the shipyard which to-day is the most important builder of huge cruise ships for American owners and a source of national pride, bringing large amounts of money to Italy and providing work for thousands, both direct employees and sub-contractors. The foresight of the Cosulich family in their choice of Monfalcone for their facility has contributed to the present success of the yard, situated as it is close to important arteries of road and rail traffic but at the same time sufficiently far from large centres of population to avoid the fate of the San Marco yard in down-town Trieste which has had to be closed to make way for urban expansion. Instead, the vast open spaces around the Monfalcone yard have, over the years, made it possible to extend. MONIN001 A rare document of the early days of the Monfalcone shipyard, dated 3rd August 1909. It is a letter of recommendation signed by the first director, Mr James Stewart. The insalubrious swamp of Panzano, forming the waterfront of Monfalcone, being reclaimed in 1907 to become the "Cantiere Navale Triestino". The Puch of the Cosulich family during a visit to the shipyard soon after its inauguration in Fall 1908. The first launch at Monfalcone, on the 16th December 1908, in a vintage postcard. The first ship to descent from a slipway of the famous yard was the Trieste ordered by the shipping company Dalmatia based in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik). A picture of 1909 showing the steamer Split, yard no. 2, in the foreground on the slipway and the sistership Trieste, first vessel ever launched at Monfalcone, visible on the right while being fitted out. An old postcard of the early days of the shipyard. Note the slender scaffolding of the slipway. A photograph of the Trieste anchored off the shipyard before she was completed and delivered in 1909. The vessel appears, strangely, heavely listing. An interesting view taken towards 1910 which shows the very early buildings and slipways of the yard. This photograph, taken as well towards 1910, clearly shows how the yard had started its shipbuilding activities even before warehouses, buildings, workshops, tracks, cranes etc. were completed. THE BEGINNINGS The yard was officially opened on the 3rd April 1908 with the first board meeting under the registered name of Cantiere Navale Triestino, testifying to the strong relationship of the yard with what was at the time the principal city of the province. The first technical managers of the yard had been recruited from Scotland, at the Russell & Co. yard of Port Glasgow which had built the majority of the family’s ships in recent years, including their flagship Martha Washington. The first yard director was James Stewart, who oversaw the construction of Monfalcone’s first ship, the steamer Trieste, delivered to the Dalmatia Steamship Company of Ragusa (the present day Dubrovnik). It was merely a year later that, on the 15th April 1910, the keel was laid of what would be the first large liner to be built at Monfalcone for the Unione Austriaca di Navigazione, which would later become the Cosulich Line. The vessel slid down the ways on the 9th September 1911 with the prestigious name Kaiser Franz Joseph I. The map of Monfalcone and its industial area (including the shipyard) which was pubblished in August 1918 inside the booklet "For the renaissance of Monfalcone" by its former mayor Arturo Rebulla. The Great War caused the virtual destruction of the yard and prevented the completion of three large liners which were in various stages of construction at the commencement of hostilities. The most glamorous of the trio was hull no. 39 (most probably the chosen name would have been Kaiserin Elisabeth), a three-stacker with luxurious first class quarters which was a development of the previous Kaiser Franz Joseph I. The large vessel, which should be completed and should enter service in March 1916, was almost ready to be launched when the War broke out. The hull was on the front line and was bombed by the opposing forces; the extent of the damage and the new political situation made it unreasonable to consider the recovery of the ship which, in the desperate circumstances, became a temporary office block until the yard buildings had been re-erected. MON1001 The launch of the Trieste, first vessel built at Monfalcone, took place on the windy 16th December 1908. The Trieste at sea. The steamer belonged to the shipping company Dalmatia of Ragisa (Dubrovnik) and, together with the sistership Split, was employed on the coastal route between Trieste, Istrian and Dalmatian ports. The hull of the transatlantic liner Kaiser Franz Joseph I during its early phase of construction in Fall 1910. Note the prefabricated section of the stern. The first ltransatlantic liner ever built at Monfalcone was launched on the 9th September 1911. The Kaiser Franz Joseph I, with her 12,578 gross tons, was the largest vessel ever launched by a Mediterranean shipyard. The remains of the hull of the Kaiserin Elisabeth at the end of the First World War. A view of the shipyard totally rased to the ground after the bombings suffered during the First World War. A symbolic photograph taken immediately after the end of the Great War shows the devastation caused by the hostilities. In the background the gigantic black ghost of the Kaiserin Elisabeth. The wreck of yard no. 69, the large cargo vessel Doride, destroyed by the bombings. She had been ordered at the eve of the First World War by Tommaso Cossevich, The last phases of the demolition of the large liner Kaiserin Elisabeth in the 'Twenties, after she was honourably re-employed as yard headquarters awaiting the reconstruction of the yard buildings. The sheer determination of the Cosulich brothers caused the yard to rise, Phoenix-like, from its ashes in a remarkably short time. It was now even larger and more modern than before. Wisely, it was now that they diversified their production to such an extent that Monfalcone became known as ‘the Great Factory’. Flying boats (some of which were for the family’s own airline), trains, trucks, buses, bridges, electrical appliances, furniture, house fittings and even pots and pans of high quality left this remarkable complex. Despite the difficult conditions of the post-War period, the Cosulich family and the yard managers spared no effort in creating a modern ‘company town’ which was an enlightened example of understanding and co-operation between entrepreneurs and workers, pursuing common aims. Among the facilities provided were a theatre, sports grounds, kindergartens, medical facilities and shops. Farms provided much-needed food for the workers and their relatives in those difficult times, making the community self-sufficient. There was even a professional football team playing in the Serie B. During the inter-War period, the yard experienced notable development and became well-known internationally. As a publication from the Cosulich group of the time stated: «One of the indications of the technical and organisational perfection achieved by a shipyard is its ability to win orders from abroad. It is, indeed, in the international market that the greatest battles are fought between the main shipyards of the World. Victory will only go to those who, in addition to offering a competitive price, can also guarantee vast experience and deep technical and constructional ability.» Indeed, already in those years Monfalcone built significant liners for Spain, Portugal, the Soviet Union, Holland, Sweden and Brazil; also cargo vessels for countless countries including Britain and the United States. The most famous of the ships from Monfalcone in the inter-War days were the Saturnia and Vulcania, very notable motor liners built for the Cosulich Line, which attracted international attention to a propulsion system alternative to the traditional steam-powered plant. The cover of a nice brochure of 1935 devoted to the Polish motorships Pilsudski and Batory designed for the transatlantic service Gdynia-New York. The lawsuit between builders and owners went on even after the Second World War because the payment of the vessels was never settled. A beautiful painting of 1939 showing the Swedish motorvessel Stockholm and which was published in a promotional booklet of the time. Saturnia and Vulcania were ordered in 1924 to allow the Cosulich Line to remain competitive with the new buildings of Genoa-based rival companies Navigazione Generale Italiana and Lloyd Sabaudo. For the first time, the two sister motor vessels boasted a full deck of cabins with private balconies. Their oil engines occupied half the space of a steam plant, needed half the number of engineers, offered a much prompter and easier manoeuvrability and, above all, consumed only one third of the fuel which steam turbines would have required to produce the same horse power. Saturnia and Vulcania also anticipated the typical appearance of the new generation of liners of the 'Fifties: a single central funnel, large and low, in place of the traditional tall and slim “chimneys” of the steamers, which made the “smoke-less ships” immediately recognisable to the public. Differently from many other leading shipyards, Monfalcone had numerous orders for passenger liners until the outbreak of the Second World War. After the completion of the first transatlantic liners built for Polland in the mid-'Thirties (Batory and Pilsudski), the yard won the international competition for the new Swedish flagship, the Stockholm, got the order for a new Ausonia for the Venice-based Adriatica and was ready to start the construction of the so-called “Super Victoria” for the Lloyd Triestino. The latter was never built, while the Ausonia, sunk at the fitting out quay during a 1944 bombing, was recovered at the end of the hostilities and completed as the Esperia. The beautiful Stockholm, which had to be almost entirely rebuilt as a consequence of a disastrous fire, was completed only in July 1941. She too was bombed in July 1944 and was set on fire. After the War, she was refloated and dismantled at the San Marco shipyard at Trieste. Managers and clerks of the Cantiere Navale Triestino posing for a Christmas photograph in December 1920, on occasion of the delivery of the speedboat Speranza ("Hope"). She was a small vessel but of solemn name, declaring the strong will of bringing the yard to its previous splendour. The theatre of Panzano was one of the many buildings erected in the early 'Twenties to create the workers village. It went lost during the bombings of 1944. The elegant hotel for the unmarried clerks of the yard is locared in the Eastern side of the Panzano Village and it is still nowadays surrounded by the luxurious houses for the managers. The workers hotel, similarly to that of the clerks, was erected to hoist the unmarried workers of the yard in a confortable and modern structure. Totally resored between 2009 and 2014, the building is destined to become the museum of the shipyard. The new headquarters of the aviation department was erected in 1930. The building was a masterpiece of functional architecture designer by Dante Fornasir. One of the new carpentry workshop, erected at the same time of the aviation building and, like the latter, designed by Dante Fornasir. Authorities and workers posing together on the 11th January 1937 at the launch of the torpedo-boat Chumporn, the fifth of six sister vessels built for the Siam Navy. The first motorship built at Monfalcone, the Mauly, was launched on the 27th December 1924. She was ordered by the Cosulich Line to allow its engineers to become familiar with the new type of propulsion and to test its reliability before its installation on board the big Saturnia and Vulcania. The Brazilian motorship Araraquara on the stocks in October 1927. She was the second of four sisterships for the Lloyd Nacional, the Ararangua, Aracatuba and Aratimbò. The Infanta Cristina, launched in 1929 for the Compañía Trasmediterránea, was later renamed Ciudad de Cadiz and was torpedoed and sunk in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The "rite" of clocking at the entrance of the shipyard in the 'Thirties. The planning and method office of the yard in a photograph of the mid-'Twenties. The procurement office of the yard in the early 'Thirties; it was one of the most important in the passenger ship construction business owing to the large quantity of outfitting normally entrusted to external contractors. The assembling workshop of fans in the 'Thirties. Used in vast numbers on board the ships, they were also sold for use ashore. The launch of the Polish motorship Batory on the 3rd July 1935. Note the imposing bow adornment, totally different on the sistership Pilsudski. An impressive view from the control platform of the Bleichert cableway, installed during 1938 to serve the slipways 6, 7 and 8. The motorship Stockholm immediately before her second launch, on the 10th March 1940. The ceremony, with Mrs Nella Cosulich acting as godmother, was held in private form owing to the War in Europe. A nice view of the Stockholm at the outfitting quay in August 1940. She was the last passenger liner launched before Italy entered the War. THE RENAISSANCE AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR Razed once more to the ground during the Second World War, the shipyard revived, concentrating above all on the construction of large passenger vessels. The motorship Guilio Cesare, launched in 1950, was the first post-War Italian liner. She was soon followed by the Africa, on of the standard combi-liners intended to re-create the fleet of the Lloyd Triestino, others smaller for foreign countries (as War reparation), until the construction, in the 'Sixties, of their two largest and fastest liners in the long history of the famous company, the twins Galileo Galilei and Guglielmo Marconi. These, eventually, would prove to be the last passenger ships in the Lloyd's history. The famous Eugenio C., last ocean liner launched in Italy, at the outfitting berth in August 1966. With the disappearance of regular passenger liner services in the 1970s as a result of the growth of air travel, Monfalcone developed vessels which were the prototypes of the modern cruise ship: the Oceanic, which entered service in 1965, sailed until 2012, a testimony to the exceptional quality of the products of Monfalcone. During a twenty year hiatus in the construction of “white ships”, because of the oil crisis and the international political situation, the yard became part of the Italcantieri group and survived on a limited amount of work, principally building gigantic bulk carriers whose construction required the substitution of an enormous dry dock, still in use, for the former slipways. In December, 1985, with the yard now part of the Fincantieri group which was developing an expertise in building large cruise ships, a letter of intent was signed for the construction of two ultra-modern vessels of 70,000 tons and 600 cabins. The shipowners, the Italian Sitmar Line, part of the Vlasov group, had previously built vessels in France but now showed their trust in Monfalcone by awarding it the order for their new “white ships”. The two sister flagships entered service in 1990 and 1991 under the names of Crown Princess and Regal Princess. In fact, in 1988 the famous Anglo-American company Princess Cruises had taken over Sitmar Cruises together with their entire fleet and organisation. Although the yard still received a small number of naval and mercantile orders, these two masterpieces indicated the road which Monfalcone would follow to this day, giving it a rich future. On the 11th January 1993, with the signing of a contract to build the Carnival Destiny, a fertile collaboration was started between Fincantieri and Carnival Cruise Lines of Miami which would keep Monfalcone in the international limelight. This ship was the first passenger vessel in the World to break through the 100,000 ton mark. The future of both companies now became deeply entwined and the successful completion of the huge ship led to the construction of a many other near-sisters, one of the biggest classes of cruise ships ever built. As a result, Carnival became the major worldwide operator in the cruise market; and Fincantieri the biggest builder. The Crown Princess marked a succesful return of Italian shipbuilding to the sector of large passenger ships; the picture shows her graceful and innovative lines during the March 1990 sea trials in the Adriatic Sea. The Regal Princess at the outfitting berth in April 2013, photographed from her sistership Royal Princess. In December 2008, on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the yard, Fincantieri embarked on a programme of restructuring and modernisation, In only eight months, the yard’s capacity for hull prefabrication was doubled with the commissioning of a couple of gantry cranes with a lifting capacity of 1,000 tons each. Subsequently, a second fitting out dock was restored record after record, ship after ship, the centenary yard is still nowadays often in the news for its latest glamorous vessels: a new Queen Elizabeth for the Cunard Line (September 2010), the twins Royal Princess and Regal Princess (May 2013 and May 2014), the Britannia (February 2015), the largest passenger ship ever to wear the P&O livery. The largest and most modern unit in the Carnival Cruise Lines fleet, the Carnival Vista, is going to be delivered in April 2016 and, besides a new sister vessel to the recent Regal Princess, Monfalcone was awarded the construction of two giants of about 154,000 tons for MSC. The first of the pair, the MSC Seaside, when delivered in November 2017 will be the largest ever built so far at the Monfalcone shipyard. The mid-'80 saw the start of a vast re-launching programme into the cruise sector of Fincantieri, the state-controlled company at the head of the main Italian shipyard, having Monfalcone as leading actor. The first two vessels of the modern hera were the Crown Princess and the Regal Princess, originally ordered by the Sitmar Cruises of Boris Vlasov. In order to give an easily distinctive touch of Italian design to the Crown Princess and to her twin, the Genoese architect Renzo Piano was invited to improve the skyline of the ship; he took inspiration from a dolphin, designing a large aluminum dome shaped such to resemble its head. The Regal Princess immediately after her float-out, or technical launch, on the 29th March 1990. The graving dock where she was assembled is the same in use nowadays at the yard, but the latest newbuildings have doubled the gross tonnage of the Crown Princess. The Carnival Conquest at the Western fitting out quay on the 25th October 2002, photographed from her sistership Carnival Glory, by then ready to be floated out. The Carnival Glory, just waterborne, being manouvred by a tugs in the Panzano pool during her first, short voyage to the fitting out wharf on the 31st October 2002. The Carnival Liberty being docked at the Western fitting out wharf immediately after her float-out. Yard 6151, the Carnival Dream, at the Eastern fitting out wharf in August 2009. The Queen Elizabeth being manouvred to her temporary berth at the Eastern fitting out quay immediately after her float-out of the 5th January 2010. At the opposite wharf is moored the almost completed Azura of P&O. The Queen Elizabeth, third ship in the history of the Cunard Line to bear that name, on the day of her float-out, the 5th January 2010. On the 30th July 2010 a worker gives the last touches to the “winged cap” of the Carnival Magic's funnel; the almost completed vessel is in the background, resting inside the building dock. The Carnival Magic towed by tugs immediately after she was floated out. In May 2013 the gigantic hull of the Royal Princess was re-introduced inside the yard dock, where it was previously assembled, for the cleaning and painting of the hull before facing the sea trials and speed tests in the Adriatic Sea. In the foreground the three massime bow-thrusters. If you wish to see the Noteworthy Liners of the Monfalcone Shipyard please SUBSCRIBE to our society and access the PREMIUM area reserved to our members. If you are already a member click here NOTEWORTHY SHIPS (preview) Kaiserin Elisabeth Saturnia e Vulcania Neptunia e Oceania Pilsudski e Batory Galileo Galilei e Guglielmo Marconi Eugenio C. KAISER FRANZ JOSEPH I First liner built in Monfalcone, when she was launched on the 9th September 1911, the Kaiser Franz Joseph I was also the largest passenger ship yet built in a Mediterranean shipyard. She had an overall length of 152,4 m (500 ft), a gross tonnage of 12,578 t, a service speed of 19 knots obtained from two quadruple expansion steam engines built in Scotland; she could carry 1984 passengers in three classes... MONFALCONE SHIPYARD SHOP DESIGN ON THE HIGH SEAS Prezzo€ 29,90 SATURNIA e VULCANIA (English Version) SATURNIA e VULCANIA, Motonavi da Record (DELUXE) SATURNIA e VULCANIA, Motnavi da Record

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Germany wins World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 RIO DE JANEIRO – With two quick touches, Mario Goetze ended Germany’s 24-year wait for another World Cup title. Germany wins World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 RIO DE JANEIRO – With two quick touches, Mario Goetze ended Germany’s 24-year wait for another World Cup title. Check out this story on jacksonsun.com: http://www.jacksonsun.com/story/sports/2014/07/13/germany-wins-world-cup-beating-argentina-1-0/12603555/ Published 4:47 p.m. CT July 13, 2014 | Updated 5:33 p.m. CT July 13, 2014 Germany's Thomas Mueller (L) and teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger embrace as they celebrate their win against Argentina during their 2014 World Cup final at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro July 13, 2014. (Photo: REUTERS/Michael Dalder ) Goetze scored the winning goal in extra time to give Germany a 1-0 victory over Argentina on Sunday in a tight and tense World Cup final that came down to one piece of individual skill. Goetze, who wasn’t born when West Germany beat Argentina in the 1990 final, controlled a cross with his chest in the 113th minute and in one fluid motion volleyed the ball past goalkeeper Sergio Romero and inside the far post. It was a goal that gave Germany its fourth World Cup title in its eighth final, and left Argentina star Lionel Messi still walking in the shadow of his compatriot Diego Maradona, who led his country to the 1986 title. Goetze had come on as a substitute for Miroslav Klose toward the end of regulation time and the 22-year-old midfielder’s fresh legs made the difference. Andre Schuerrle broke down the left flank, sending his cross into the area, and the Bayern Munich player did the rest with a clinical finish. The goal echoed that of Andres Iniesta’s four years ago, when the midfielder scored in similar fashion but from the other side of the area to give Spain a 1-0 extra time win over the Netherlands. For Germany, the win ends a string of near misses since winning its last major title at the 1996 European Championship. The team lost the 2002 World Cup final to Brazil and lost in the semifinals in both 2006 and 2010. It is Germany’s first World Cup title as a unified nation, having won as West Germany in 1954, 1974 and 1990. It was also the third World Cup final between these countries and had been billed as a matchup between the perfect team and the perfect individual, pitting Germany’s machine-like unit against the brilliance of Messi, the four-time world player of the year. But in the biggest game of his career, Messi came up short. He had one good chance to score when he was sent free in the area just after the halftime break, but sent his shot wide of the far post. It was a difficult angle, but still the type of chance he so often converts for Barcelona. Messi threatened intermittently throughout the match, but was effectively neutralized for long stretches. When he did try to break forward with one of his quick dribbles, he was surrounded by the German defense. His free kick in the 120th minute went well high. When the final whistle blew, Germany players collapsed in a pile in the middle of the pitch, while Messi walked with his hands on his hips toward the center circle. Messi, who scored four goals in the group stage but none in the knockout rounds, then had to trudge alone up the stairs of the Maracana Stadium to accept the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player, shaking hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel along the way. He never broke a smile. Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was voted best goalkeeper of the tournament. Up until Goetze’s winning goal, the game was more notable for top-class defending than creative attacking, but both teams had their share of chances. In fact, the first half had just about everything but a goal. Gonzalo Higuain was gifted a free chance when Toni Kroos’ back header landed at his feet and left him all alone with Neuer. However, he sent his shot woefully wide. Higuain thought he had scored in the 30th after Messi picked out Ezequiel Lavezzi with a great ball and he sent a cross in toward the Napoli striker. Higuain slotted in his finish inside the far post and ran all the way to the corner flag in celebration before realizing he had been called for offside. Shortly afterward, Germany was forced to use a substitution as Christoph Kramer had to go off with a suspected concussion after colliding with Ezequiel Garay’s shoulder earlier in the game. Kramer had continued playing but looked visibly dizzy as he was led off the field. Kramer, who was a late inclusion in the lineup after Sami Khedira was injured during the warmup, was replaced by Schuerrle. Germany’s best chance came just before the break when Benedikt Hoewedes hit the post with a header from a corner. The game grew more cagey in the second half as both teams became increasingly cautious, knowing that a single mistake could make the difference. In extra time, both teams had chances to score early. Schuerrle controlled a ball in the area just after the restart and fired a hard shot that Romero had to react quickly to push out. In the 97th, Palacacio controlled a cross on his chest and tried to lob Neuer, but the ball drifted wide of the post.

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Advancing Spillover Research: Behavioural, Contextual and Temporal Approaches JMM Special Issue Call for Papers: Deadline for submissions 1 March 2020 Guest Editors: Danae Manika & Diana Gregory-Smith, Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, UK Marketing can benefit individuals, consumers, employees, organisations, industries and society at large, as shown in a large body of research published in the Journal of Marketing Management (JMM) which touched upon timely issues such as: food-well-being and sustainability among vulnerable consumers (Batat, Peter, Vicdan, Manna, Ulusoy, & Hong, 2017), child obesity (Shaw Hughner & Kurp Maher, 2006), smoking (Manyiwa & Brennan, 2012) and alcohol use (Gregory-Smith & Manika, 2017), environmentally-friendly behaviour in consumption choices (Thøgersen & Zhou, 2012) and organisational settings (Gregory-Smith et al., 2015), and materialism (Shrum et al., 2014) amongst others. However, marketing’s reputation hangs on a thread as “…marketing is like a potent drug with potentially serious side effects, but in reality, there are no main effects and no side effects; these are just convenient labels applied to connote which effects are observed and measured and which effects are ignored. Today, the side effects of marketing-noise pollution, customer irritation, excessive consumption, unhealthy lifestyles tend to overwhelm the intended main effects” (Sheth & Sisodia, 2005). This view is reflected in a growing interest in the potential harmful effects of marketing as seen in the Journal of Service Research’s call for papers on transformative service research and unintended consequences. However, marketing can also be seen as a social agent fostering clear, direct and planned positive outcomes, as well as various beneficial spillover effects for consumers, organisations, society or the environment. Spillover is understood as the transition of cognitive thoughts, emotions or actions from one area to another (see review by Verfuerth & Gregory-Smith, 2018) or the effect of one behaviour on another related behaviour (Lauren, Fielding, Smith, & Louis, 2016; van der Werff, Steg, & Keizer, 2014) or unrelated behaviour (Truelove, Carrico, Weber, Raimi, & Vandenbergh, 2014). Aligned with either of these definitions, spillover has been researched both at the individual and organizational level, with spillover effects being examined within (e.g. different types of household behaviours) and between (e.g. work and home; Verfuerth, Jones, Gregory-Smith, & Oates, 2019) settings/social contexts. In addition to this spillover classification by context (i.e. contextual spillover), Nilsson, Bergquist and Schultz (2016) draw attention to the existence of behavioural and temporal spillover, where the former is about transition between behaviours while the latter refers to effects of behaviour happening at time 1 on subsequent behaviour happening at time 2 (where these two behaviours might be or not be related; might or not happen within the same context). However, despite the various definitions and classifications of spillover and its kinds, research in this area is still scant. Currently, spillover research is geared towards bringing together interdisciplinary theoretical approaches and researchers from the field of psychology, behavioural economics, marketing, education etc. in trying to understand spillover appearance, types (i.e. positive or negative) and specific outcomes. Most captivating present fields of enquiry include: health and wellbeing, sustainability, social responsibility, ethics, globalisation, consumption patterns, and social choices, which relate to timely worldwide issues. Remarkably, the majority of these areas that are still under-researched from a spillover perspective, fall within the remit of or are connected to marketing management research. For example, only a couple of articles published in JMM have looked at the spillover effects in consumption contexts i.e. spillover of the Chinese milk scandal at the supply chain and industry level (Gao, Knight, Zhang, Mather, & Tan, 2012) and spillover in the context of the effect of kosher and halal labels on non-Jewish and non-Muslim Western consumers (Rauschnabel, Herz, Schlegelmilch, & Ivens, 2015). Thus, further attention should be paid by marketers and managers to spillovers as a mechanism for fostering sustainable business practices, responsible management and social good. Providing an account of spillovers (with its mechanisms and effects) in marketing could help rebrand marketing as a “more positive” business activity with wider reach and broader benefits beyond the organisation and its self-centred interests. Therefore, this special issue will contribute to debates on marketing theory and practice related to spillover effects as an instrument to deal with global problems and to nurture sustainable business practices, responsible management and social good. Theoretical and empirical papers of any methodological approach are welcome, with potential themes of enquiry including (but not limited to): Behavioural, contextual and/or temporal spillover research New classifications and typologies of spillover Spillover in under-research contexts (whether relating to consumer, organisational or societal levels) Novel theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding spillover in marketing contexts Consumer/individual resistance to spillover interventions Spillover in branding and marketing communications Examinations of mechanisms that encourage, hinder or halt spillover effects Ethical considerations and issues in spillover research Monitoring and evaluation of spillover effects New methodological approaches to spillover research Technological spillovers and outcomes Spillovers as unintended consequences and strategies to address them Spillovers in business-to-business contexts International marketing spillovers Submission of videographies dealing with spillover effects are also welcome. Submission Requirements: Authors should submit manuscripts of between 8,000–10,000 words (excluding tables, references, captions, footnotes and endnotes). All submissions must strictly follow the guidelines for the Journal of Marketing Management. These are available at: www.tandfonline.co.uk/rjmm. For videographic submissions, see https://www.jmmnews.com/how-to-submit-a-video-article/ Manuscripts should be submitted online using the Journal of Marketing Management ScholarOne Manuscripts site (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rjmm). New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre. Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from the files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees. When uploading files authors will then be able to define the non-anonymous version as “Complete paper with author details”, and the anonymous version as “Main document minus author information”. To submit your manuscript to the Special Issue choose “Special Issue Article” from the Manuscript Type list when you come to submit your paper. Also, when you come to the ‘Details and Comments’ page, answer ‘yes’ to the question ‘Is this manuscript a candidate for a special issue’ and select the Special Issue Title of Advancing Spillover Research in the text field provided. Informal queries regarding guest editors’ expectations or the suitability of specific research topics should be directed to the Special Issue Editors: • Professor Danae Manika: danae.manika@newcastle.ac.uk • Dr Diana Gregory-Smith: diana.gregory-smith@newcastle.ac.uk The closing date for submissions is 1 March 2020. Technical queries about submissions can be referred to the Editorial Office: rjmmeditorial@westburn.co.uk Batat, W., Peter, P. C., Vicdan, H., Manna, V., Ulusoy, E., & Hong, S. (2017). Alternative food consumption (AFC): idiocentric and allocentric factors of influence among low socio-economic status (SES) consumers. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(7–8), 580–601. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1289974 Gao, H., Knight, J. G., Zhang, H., Mather, D., & Tan, L. P. (2012). Consumer scapegoating during a systemic product-harm crisis. Journal of Marketing Management, 28(11–12), 1270–1290. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2011.645859 Gregory-Smith, D., & Manika, D. (2017). Consumers’ identities and compartmentalisation tendencies in alcohol consumption. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(11–12), 942–972. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1310126 Gregory-Smith, D., Wells, V. K., Manika, D., & Graham, S. (2015). An environmental social marketing intervention among employees: assessing attitude and behaviour change. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(3–4), 336–377. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2014.971045 Lauren, N., Fielding, K. S., Smith, L., & Louis, W. R. (2016). You did, so you can and you will: Self-efficacy as a mediator of spillover from easy to more difficult pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 48, 191-199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.10.004 Manyiwa, S., & Brennan, R. (2012). Fear appeals in anti-smoking advertising: How important is self-efficacy? Journal of Marketing Management, 28(11–12), 1419–1437. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2012.715092 Nilsson, A., M. Bergquist and W. P. Schultz (2016), Spillover effects in environmental behaviors, across time and context: A review and research agenda, Environmental Education Research, 4622 (November), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2016.1250148 Rauschnabel, P. A., Herz, M., Schlegelmilch, B. B., & Ivens, B. S. (2015). Brands and religious labels: a spillover perspective. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(11–12), 1285–1309. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2015.1013489 Shaw Hughner, R., & Kurp Maher, J. (2006). Factors that Influence Parental Food Purchases for Children: Implications for Dietary Health. Journal of Marketing Management, 22(9–10), 929–954. https://doi.org/10.1362/026725706778935600 Shrum, L. J., Lowrey, T. M., Pandelaere, M., Ruvio, A. A., Gentina, E., Furchheim, P., … Hudders, L. (2014). Materialism: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Journal of Marketing Management, 30(17–18), 1858–1881. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2014.959985 Thøgersen, J., & Zhou, Y. (2012). Chinese consumers’ adoption of a “green” innovation-The case of organic food. Journal of Marketing Management, 28(3–4), 313–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2012.658834 Truelove, H. B., Carrico, A. R., Weber, E. U., Raimi, K. T., & Vandenbergh, M. P. (2014). Positive and negative spillover of pro-environmental behavior: An integrative review and theoretical framework. Global Environmental Change, 29, 127-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.09.004 van der Werff, E., L. Steg and K. Keizer (2014). ‘I am what I am, by looking past the pre- sent: The influence of biospheric values and past behavior on environmental self-identity’, Environment and Behavior, 46 (5), 626–657. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916512475209 Verfuerth, C. & Gregory-Smith, D. (2018). Spillover of pro-environmental behaviour. In: Wells, V.K., Gregory-Smith, D. & Manika, D. Handbook of Employee Pro-Environmental Behaviour, chapter 20, 455-484. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Verfuerth, C., Jones, C. R., Gregory-Smith, D., & Oates, C. (2019). Understanding contextual spillover: Using identity process theory as a lens for analysing behavioural responses to a workplace dietary choice intervention. Frontiers in Psychology (section Environmental Psychology), 10, 345. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00345 Presenting Marketing Differently JMM Special Issue Call for Papers: Presenting Marketing Differently: Developing Devices to Disseminate Post-Representational Research. Guest Editors: Jack Coffin and Tim Hill. Transhumanisms, Geneticised Markets and Perfectible Consumers JMM Special Issue Call for Papers: Transhumanisms, Geneticised Markets and Perfectible Consumers. (Deadline for submissions 20 August 2020). Guest Editors: Jennifer Takhar, H. Rika Houston and Nikhilesh Dholakia. Digitally enabled value co-creation at the bottom of the pyramid JMM Special Issue Call for Papers: Digitally enabled value co-creation at the bottom of the pyramid. (Deadline for submissions 31 March 2020). Guest Editors: Sanjit K. Roy, Bidit L. Dey and Yogesh Dwivedi.

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On Life & Land | Le Sillon | Web Exclusive | Farmers focus downstream to protect water quality Stars twinkle in the night sky as Mike Starkey pursues spring fieldwork on his family farm near Brownsburg, Indiana. But those stars aren’t the only thing glowing on the horizon. Tall buildings in nearby Indianapolis soon are dotted with light, reminding Starkey of his important relationship with the city. “We farm in the School Branch watershed,” he points out. “The School Branch stream is the third largest tributary feeding Eagle Creek reservoir, which is a primary drinking water source for Indianapolis. The reservoir is the next stop for water that leaves our farm, whether from our tile drains or flowing from the surface.” Downstream dilemma. Farmers recently have been reminded of just how much of a downstream impact they can have on urban neighbors. In August 2014, more than 400,000 residents of Toledo, Ohio, were left without drinking water when a harmful algae bloom blanketed an area of Lake Erie near the city’s water intakes. Experts placed much of the blame for the algae growth on dissolved phosphorus leaving agricultural land. In 2015, the Des Moines Water Works filed a lawsuit against drainage districts in three Iowa counties over excessive nitrate in the Raccoon River, the city’s primary water source. The lawsuit asks that agricultural drainage districts be regulated as a point source under the Clean Water Act. Finding answers. These wake-up calls have the agricultural community urgently looking for solutions. Starkey is off to a head start; scientists from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) recently built an edge-of-the-field bioswale/bioreactor on his family farm. IUPUI’s Center for Earth and Environmental Science monitors water quality at this site. Starkey also is working with the USDA-NRCS National Water Quality Initiative, which has installed around-the-clock, edge-of-field water quality monitoring. “I’m already learning things from the edge-of-field data,” he says. “For example, I’m convinced that phosphorus (P) moves a lot more than the old rules of thumb indicate.” Starkey normally injects liquid P on an as-needed basis, but for the NRCS study, he applied a broadcast application based on Tri-State (Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan) recommendations. That application was made in the fall of 2014, and data collected during the spring flows of 2015 indicated a spike in P leaving his research field. “This tells me I need to stick with my approach of applying P on an as-needed basis, and making sure that it gets attached to clay particles in order to keep it on the farm,” Starkey says. He also believes that his farm’s emphasis on soil health plays a role in water quality improvement. “Our soil acts like a sponge,” Starkey says. “Years ago, we would get a 2-inch rain and water would be standing everywhere. No-till and cover crops have improved our soil structure, so we no longer see water standing after a big rain. It is absorbed into the soil.” Protecting streams such as Iowa’s West Buttrick Creek can help reduce nutrient loads in downstream watersheds. The alliance approach. In Greene County, Iowa, David Ausberger has been taking steps to protect West Buttrick Creek. This stream is part of the watershed feeding the Raccoon River that serves Des Moines, a city located about 60 miles south of the farm. “In the late 1990s, the Iowa Soybean Association approached growers in the West Buttrick Creek watershed with concerns about high nitrate levels,” Ausberger says. “I felt that farmers needed to take the reins and do something about it.” ISA helped him develop a written Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan to reduce nutrient losses. The Ausberger farm also features a number of acres in the Wetland Reserve Program, along with generous buffers in sensitive areas along West Buttrick Creek. Ausberger believes the cooperative approach will play a key role in helping farmers reduce nutrient losses from their fields. He points to organizations such as the Iowa Agricultural Water Alliance, formed through a mutual effort of the state’s corn, soybean, and pork producers. IAWA urges farmers to adopt conservation practices that improve water quality. Those practices range from cover crops to bioreactors to restored wetlands. That wide range of options is important, Ausberger points out. “It takes a combination of practices,” he says. “And what works on my farm may not work for my neighbor.” Clarion call. Action to clean up the state’s water resources can’t come soon enough for officials at Des Moines Water Works. The city’s water utility features one of the world’s largest denitrification facilities, and it ran for 177 days in 2015—the most that the facility has ever been used in one year. “Our facility was never intended to operate for 177 days,” says Bill Stowe, the organization’s chief executive. “Operating expenses for 2015 were about $1.5 million. But more importantly, we are wearing it out. To replace it requires a capital investment along the lines of $100 million.” Stowe is aware that his hard-line approach doesn’t win many friends in the farming community, but he sees it as a necessary step in solving the problem. “It’s a clarion call that every acre devoted to row crops needs to be touched by some type of conservation practice,” he says. “Otherwise, we have a situation that continues to endanger public health, and can impede economic development as well.” Finding ways to effectively manage the greatest possible number of acres was the driving force behind an approach in the Western Lake Erie Basin watershed. The 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification Program—the four “Rs” stand for right source of nutrients, right rate, right time, and right place—is a third-party certification program for crop advisers and fertilizer retailers. The program uses third-party auditors to verify that these parties understand and use the 4R principles. Carrie Vollmer-Sanders is project director for The Nature Conservancy in addition to being part of a family farm herself. She says the 4R program was designed to help reduce the amount of phosphorus reaching Lake Erie. “Most of the fertilizer applied on cropland in Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana is applied under the guidance of certified crop advisers and retailers,” she adds. “The agricultural community felt that reaching these companies would have a bigger impact and do it more quickly than trying to reach individual farmers.” That approach has been successful; the 4R program has already signed up service providers that cover about 20% of the Western Lake Erie Basin watershed, representing more than a million acres of cropland. Kevin King, a soil drainage expert with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Columbus, Ohio, agrees that the 4R approach can help cut the amount of P entering Lake Erie. But there’s much more work to be done in this watershed, which hosts an estimated 600,000 miles of drainage tile. “There are many things we don’t know,” he says. “We can treat the symptoms, but we need more research to help us get a better understanding of the phosphorus issue.” David Ausberger teamed up with the Iowa Soybean Association in the late 1990s to better manage his farm’s nutrients An edge-of-field practice such as this constructed wetland can help filter nutrients while providing habitat for wildlife. Mike Starkey farms adjacent to a reservoir that supplies Indianapolis, Ind., with drinking water. Carrie Vollmer-Sanders, project director for The Nature Conservancy, says a program certifying ag retailers in “4R” training can help protect water quality in Lake Erie. High nitrate levels in river water supplying Des Moines, Iowa, has led that city’s public water utility to file a lawsuit against drainage districts in the state. The denitrification facility at the Des Moines Water Works, one of the world’s largest, was put into action for a record 177 days during 2015. Dripping Time Bomb High-Tech Green Thumbs A Man of All Seasons Hi-Tech Pest Patrol A Place for Pennycress Ag Tech Community-Supported Ag Farm Finance Farm Succession From Homestead Magazine Precision Technology Value Added Business Life After Heinz Canada’s tomato capital finds life after food processor closes. Pepper Head A quest for the hottest chile pepper on earth. A John Deere Publication JohnDeere.com © 2015-2020 Deere and Company, All rights reserved

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RECENT DWI & CRIMINAL DEFENSE RESULTS STATE v. HENDRICKS — NEW JERSEY MURDER TRIAL — "NOT GUILTY" VERDICT Mr. Tumelty represented Helena Hendricks, who was charged with first degree murder in Atlantic County Superior Court. The defendant faced a number of additional charges, including armed robbery, conspiracy and possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose. At the conclusion of a jury trial that lasted three weeks, the defendant was found "not guilty" of all charges. View More Criminal Defense ResultsView More DWI Defense Results Free Consultation New Jersey Violence Commission Suggests No Law Changes, Despite Rash of Gun Violence Across the US After the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting in Connecticut in 2013, Gov. Chris Christie launched a commission to study violence and to determine if New Jersey’s gun laws are strict enough. The Study Commission on Violence released a 75 page report this week, recommending some new programs but no changes to the Garden State’s gun laws. The Commission’s report recommends establishing a Division on Violence Prevention and Intervention as well as county-based programs aimed at young people in an effort to curb violence. The Commission agreed, in the wake of mass shootings like Newtown, Columbine and Aurora, gun violence is a huge public health issue. However, the Commission stopped short of suggesting any new changes to gun laws here. It was considering the suggestions by the NJ Legislature to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, expand background checks that are required for anyone looking to purchase a gun, but failed to suggest these initiatives. New Jersey is known throughout the United States as having some of the most stringent gun laws of all 50 states. And, while the Commission concluded that violence is a public health concern, it determined that the roots of NJ’s gun violence are planted outside the state. In fact, the report revealed, that 87 percent of guns used in the 3,834 gun-related crimes in 2013 in New Jersey were bought outside of the state. The Commission was charged with reviewing violent crime statistics in New Jersey at large, not only as they relate to guns and other weapons. In fact, the group’s direct instruction was to “study the trends of violence, the source of violence, and the impact of violence on the community, to develop a method to address the epidemic of violence at the federal and state levels, and to make recommendations for state and congressional action.” In reviewing violence in New Jersey, the members of the Commission considered youth violence, domestic violence, incidents of child neglect, suicide and murder. After reviewing statistics and risk factors, the report outlines several findings including: · Eighty percent of all violent crimes in New Jersey occur in 21 cities · Murder is the second Crime in down in NJ overall, 18 percent statewide but only one percent in major cities · The homicide rate is up since 2009, especially within the Black community (men in particular) · Drug and alcohol abuse are major risk factor in becoming a victim of violence · New Jersey has many gangs; 9 counties report more than 90 gangs. (Ocean County has 114 gangs while Monmouth County has 132, according to the report) Additionally, the Commission suggested improving how people already in the criminal justice system obtain mental health services. This initiative was suggested in light of the fact that the Institute of Medicine has linked mental illness and violence. If you or someone you love has been charged with a violent crime, you need to hire a criminal defense lawyer who will fight tirelessly to protect your legal rights. Contact John W. Tumelty today for a free consultation about your criminal charges in Atlantic City or anywhere in New Jersey. Criminal Rights Assault Offenses

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Even With Measles Cases At A High, Colorado Vaccination Bill Didn't Make It By Rae Ellen Bichell • May 3, 2019 Children ages 19-35 months with one or more doses of the MMR vaccine in 2017. With less than 90 percent vaccinated, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming are among the least protected states. Originally published on May 5, 2019 2:16 pm This story was updated May 3, 2019 at 3:40 p.m. Measles cases have reached a 19-year high in the U.S., but a bill in Colorado aimed at improving childhood vaccination rates didn’t succeed. It didn’t really fail, either. It just got mired in super-long hearings, pushback from the governor and, ultimately, a legislative schedule that ran out of time before the bill could reach the Senate. “I’m still today trying to figure out exactly what happened,” says Rep. Kyle Mullica, who sponsored the bill. Colorado is one of more than a dozen states that allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their kids based on personal reasons, as opposed to medical or religious ones. The state’s kindergarteners are the least vaccinated in the nation when it comes to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Other states are looking at banning non-medical exemptions altogether. Mullica’s bill would have made it just a little bit harder to opt out of vaccines for personal reasons, requiring parents to submit a form in person to a local health office rather than dropping it off at school. “We’re at a real risk of an outbreak here in Colorado, being last in the country with our kindergarten vaccination, and yet we see states that have better vaccination rates than we do taking this issue more seriously,” says Mullica. “We need to be better.” The Denver Post reports Senate Democrats delayed debate on the bill as the legislative session entered its final days, “effectively killing its chances of becoming law.” The CDC has found that, with the exception of Nevada, Mountain West states have some of the lowest vaccination rates against measles, mumps and rubella for kindergarteners in the nation. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Nevada, Wyoming and Montana are among states that allow exemptions for religious or medical reasons. Colorado, Utah and Idaho are among a smaller group of states that, in addition, allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their kids for personal or philosophical reasons. Utah parents must complete an online education module in order to exempt their kids from vaccination. According to the latest numbers, so far more than 700 cases of measles have been reported this year. This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado. Copyright 2019 KUNC. To see more, visit KUNC. 2019 Colorado Legislative Session Governor Polis Signs Oil & Gas Regulation Overhaul By Associated Press & Scott Franz • Apr 17, 2019 Dan Elliott / Associated Press Governor Jared Polis has signed a bill giving local governments more control over oil and gas drilling operations. Colorado's Government Watchdogs See Mixed Results At Capitol This Session By Scott Franz • Apr 15, 2019 For Mitchell Byars and other breaking news reporters around the country, the police scanner might be just as important as a laptop computer. Byars, who covers everything from wildfires to mountain lion sightings for the Boulder Daily Camera, said the radio traffic helps him answer important questions from residents. Paid Family Leave Bill Moving Forward After Dozens Of Amendments Colorado Democrats are backing a heavily-amended version of a bill to create a paid family leave program. The bill stalled in the Senate Finance Committee last month over concerns from business leaders and some Democratic. But a series of 24 amendments have gotten some of the Democratic holdouts on board, and the committee voted along party lines to advance the proposal. Paid Family Leave Bill Stalls In Colorado Senate Over Business Impact Concerns By Scott Franz • Apr 1, 2019 As Sen. Faith Winter pushes forward a bill to create a paid family leave program, she's thinking of employees who are stuck at work during some of the most challenging moments of their lives. "We have cancer patients who are skipping their second round of chemotherapy because they can't afford to lose their paycheck," Winter said Monday. "And there's a heartbreaking story of a woman who took her dad off life support in a break room instead of being by her father's side." Colorado Democrats Advance Bill To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions A bill that Democratic lawmakers say is needed to fight climate change has cleared its first hurdle at the state Capitol. House Bill 1261 would set a goal for Colorado to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent before 2030. It would also give a state board the authority to approve new regulations that would help the state reach that goal.

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Trump expects poor relationship with UK leader Mary Altaffer <p>In this Tuesday, May 10, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower, in New York. The billionaire presidential candidate who prides himself on paying his own way and bashed his competitors for their reliance on political donors now wants their money - and lots of it. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)</p> LONDON (AP) — Presidential candidate Donald Trump says he may have a poor relationship with Prime Minister David Cameron in light of the British leader's criticism of Trump's call for all Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the United States. Trump's comments, broadcast Monday on ITV's "Good Morning Britain" made headlines in Britain, which claims a "special relationship" with America. Trump's suggestion of a temporary Muslim ban led to a petition signed by half a million people demanding that Parliament hold a debate on whether he should be banned from the country. Lawmakers held the debate, but rejected a ban. "It looks like we are not going to have a very good relationship," Trump said in the interview conducted in New York. "Who knows, I hope to have a good relationship with him (Cameron) but he's not willing to address the problem either." Cameron has refused to retract comments Trump's proposed Muslim ban as "divisive, stupid and wrong." But Cameron's spokesman, Dan York-Smith, told reporters that the prime minister was "committed to maintaining the special relationship" whoever wins the presidential election. "He has been clear that he will work with whoever is president of the United States," York-Smith said. In the interview conducted Saturday, Trump also describes London's new mayor, Sadiq Khan, as "rude" for calling him ignorant. The real estate tycoon said he would "remember" the mayor's hostile reaction to the idea that Khan, a Muslim, would be given an exception to the temporary ban. "He doesn't know me, hasn't met me, doesn't know what I'm all about. I think they were very rude statements and, frankly, tell him I will remember those statements," Trump said. "They are very nasty statements." Trump denied he was "at war" with Khan. "I just think it's very rude of him. In fact it's the opposite," he said. "I wished him well when I heard he won, he's a Muslim, I think it's ignorant for him to say that." Khan's office said American voters would reject Trump's views. "Sadiq has spent his whole life fighting extremism, but Trump's remarks make that fight much harder for us all — it plays straight into the extremists' hands and makes both our countries less safe," his office said in a statement. When reminded Khan has described Trump as ignorant, Trump shook his head and said: "Let's do an IQ test." The mayor's office hotly rejected the idea, saying "ignorance is not the same thing as lack of intelligence."

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Kanye West's 'Life of Pablo' widely available Posted: 8:46 AM, Apr 01, 2016 LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's no joke. After six weeks of streaming exclusively on Tidal, the Jay-Z-backed music service, Kanye West's latest album, "The Life of Pablo," was released to other streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. The wide release comes after West tweeted in February that the album "will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale." The tweet appeared to be deleted from West's timeline as of Friday, and the album went on sale for $20 on West's website. Tidal announced three days ago that the album had been streamed 250 million times in the first 10 days of its release, helping it gain 3 million subscribers. LISTEN TO "THE LIFE OF PABLO" FOR FREE ON SPOTIFY BELOW.

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Los Altos parents outraged over agreement to move junior high for charter school By Azenith Smith, KTVU LOS ALTOS, Calif. (KTVU) - More than 100 parents and students packed a Los Altos School Board meeting Monday night, upset with a tentative agreement to relocate hundreds of junior high school students to make room for a charter school. For the first time, parents spoke in front of the Los Altos School Board outraged over a proposed agreement to move their neighborhood junior high school elsewhere so a charter school can move in. “I think it's terribly unfair,” said Parent Kelly Sanders. “I don't think it's fair at all. I don't understand how you can just come and take over someone's school.” Earlier in the day, they protested at Egan Junior High School in Los Altos, home to 650 students. The new agreement- calls for the Egan campus to become solely Bullis Charter School. Currently, the charter school shares space with the junior high. Egan Junior High School would then be moved to a brand new campus a half mile away at the San Antonio shopping center in Mountain View. “I worry about strangers walking onto the campus at any time of day,” said Parent Amber Macdonald. Macdonald started a petition against the move. It’s garnered more than 5,000 signatures. “If they make this decision either pretty immediately or in a few years we would make decisions to move our families out of the district,” said Macdonald. District officials said under California’s Proposition 39, the district is required to provide Bullis Charter School with facilities. The agreement sparking debate over the expansion of charter schools in the state. “There are certain aspects of charter school law as it's written right now that really binds school districts that don't give them a whole range of choices,” said Los Altos School District Superintendent Jeffrey Baier. At Bullis Charter School’s board meeting Monday night, a less sizeable crowd voiced support on the new agreement that would span 10 years. The charter school's enrollment capped at 1,111 students. “It truly is a compromise,” said Parent Jill Jene. “There's not a miracle solution. If there was, we would have had it many years ago.” “Move forward, the time for standing still and not coming to an agreement is over,” said Parent Gerri Boch. Monday’s meeting is the first of many. The school board expected to make a final decision on April 29 with the junior high students possibly moving into the new campus fall of 2023.

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December 16, 2019 by Jenifer Bartman MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (December, 2019) Closing out 2019 in studio for the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel, alongside Sherena Hussain and Natasha Fatah (aka The Women in Blue!). Here’s what was on our Holiday Season menu: New NAFTA Reaches the Finish Line: As Canada, the US, and Mexico agree to some final revisions, what are the next steps for New NAFTA? What does it mean for Canadian companies? Compensation Rules for Flight Delays Kick In: Air travel passengers in Canada will now have the potential for compensation in the event of some flight delays, but will it be meaningful? More Ontario Cannabis Shops on the Way: Removing the cap on the number of cannabis shops in Ontario might be an opportunity to better meet market demand, but are there other important considerations? Negotiation of a new trade deal between Canada, the US, and Mexico has been unfolding over the past year and a half and has not been an easy task. Given that Democrats control the House in the US, they were in a position to push for revision in order to support ratification and the countries were able to find agreement around clauses pertaining to dispute resolution, environmental, prescription drug, and labour provisions. In particular, Mexico will have to take steps to improve the labour environment in that country, an area that has been contentious, given its ability to provide an inexpensive workforce and displace jobs. Deals are one thing; it will be interesting, however, to see how well implementation occurs, once all countries have ratified what is effectively NAFTA 2.1. Speaking from experience, we live in a world where air travelers tend to feel like they have no rights, especially in those moments when they are not treated particularly well (cue to the herding cattle analogy). Air travelers are essentially at the mercy of airlines when delays happen, as there are limited alternative to get from one location to another. Effective December 15, 2019, airlines will now have to compensate passengers in delay situations that are within their control, guidelines that likely have Canadians wondering if they are worth much, in practical terms. It is important for passengers to know their rights when traveling, keep track of travel documentation, and ask airlines for clarification, when needed. From a fairness perspective, good communication and transparency are important, however, too many of us know what it is like to be delayed in an airport with little in the way of information sharing. As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, Ontario’s decision to remove the cap on retail shops is an area to watch. Although studies indicate market demand, successfully operating a company is something that is quite different. Business leaders too often make the mistake of thinking that a product alone makes a company, when nothing could be further from the truth. We can all think of stores, restaurants, or coffee shops that opened too many locations, only to have to retrench to a more appropriate number; this type of downsizing can be onerous and expensive. The same mistakes could be made here; this time, with a highly regulated product that requires special attention of its own. As 2019 comes to a close, it’s a good time to be thankful for this past year. It has been my pleasure to appear on the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel, work that is both fun and a privilege. Thanks for watching and see you in 2020, a year that is sure to bring a host of interesting developments, to say the least; stay tuned! November 25, 2019 by Jenifer Bartman MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (November, 2019) Great day to be in studio for the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel, alongside Mark Warner and John Northcott (for those who watched live, we had a bit of fun with a Coldplay walk on). On tap for our discussion: CN Rail Strike. As the days tick by, this week’s CN Rail strike could have a considerable impact on the Canadian economy. What should the next steps be to resolve the impasse? Lowe’s Closes More Canadian Stores. Posting disappointing financial results has led to Lowe’s closing more Canadian stores in an already competitive market. Should we be surprised by this development and is more of the same on the way for the retail sector? EasyJet Goes Carbon Neutral. As interest in the environment continues to increase, airlines are considering how to offset their carbon footprint. Will easyJet’s plan make a difference? It’s no secret that Canada is a geographically vast country and logistics can be challenging, especially for some industries where there are limited options. In an already uncertain global economic environment, delays in getting products to market or receiving essential supplies could start to snowball, financially impacting companies and our country. Having said that, how long should the collective bargaining process have to reach a solution? Both the company and its employees should be front and centre in situations like this, recognizing the essential nature of their service and the responsibility that goes along with it. Consumers have lots of choice when procuring home improvement goods, be it online or in a host of retail options within their community. A core aspect of this that doesn’t get as much time in the conversation as it should is service, as this is arguably a key driver in consumer behaviour. A favourable retail experience, be it in a store or online, can directly impact whether or not a consumer makes future purchases, as well as the “story” that they share with others. If stores are “under performing” in a competitive environment, it is critical to understand why so that retailers can become more effective in these areas, in addition to right-sizing their offering. In the category of the future is now, environment related stories continue to make news, the latest being easyJet’s plan to ensure that their flights are carbon neutral. Although it’s difficult to argue with companies that adopt plans to help the environment (but, there are those who spend time doing so), it’s having a strategic approach that matters, including establishing tactics, milestones, and performance review guidelines. It will be interesting to see of the aviation industry will work collaboratively to find industry solutions, thereby focusing more broadly than on individual companies; a world of opportunity awaits. As 2019 moves into its final month, there are still many business stories to discuss. I’ve made a prediction of what might be on the menu for my next studio visit; let’s see if I’m right. Thanks for watching and see you in a few weeks, CBC! MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (October, 2019) The fun of live TV, combined with a busy news morning in advance of the Federal election, characterized this week’s CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel. Standing by for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s press conference, Elmer Kim, John Northcott, and I chatted all things business, including what we didn’t see on the campaign trail. =”allowfullscreen”> Playbacks can make things interesting, and review of some of our commentary from September 14th, at the beginning of the campaign, puts areas where business concerns could have been better addressed into context. Following the theory that politics and business “travel on parallel tracks”, it is often evident that governments and political parties do not fully appreciate the challenges of managing and growing a company (or just how much policies can negatively impact the real world). One of the best things that governments can do is put business leaders in a position to focus on what matters, as opposed to on administrative burdens in areas such as taxation and regulatory matters; this approach provides the opportunity to fuel growth and progress. How can this be achieved? Although governments are likely of the view that they consult with business, the lack of focus on the issues that matter suggests that this isn’t done nearly enough. Further, advisors and investors bring a wealth of knowledge and context, in terms of business strategies that work (and those that do not), as well as the trends and opportunities of the future. It is this perspective that is integral to developing a long term strategy to build a greater number of companies that can be globally competitive, an opportunity of particular importance in our current world of economic and political uncertainty. And a word about economic diversity, particularly in terms of Canadian regions where the focus has long since been on resources: diversity is a state of mind. Regions that have a lengthy history of a business community and local economy that include a range of industries can appreciate how products, services, technologies, and human capital can reach across various applications, with a bit of tailoring. Those who haven’t lived this experience might not see the opportunity or scoff at even looking for it (have seen this first hand), and it is in this reality where the state of mind that is diversity can take hold, for those who are willing to take the leap. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next couple of years, as it is progress that is already overdue. In the meantime, business leaders need to have a range of plans for whatever the election results might be; this is simply good management. Failure to do so puts a company at risk and in a reactive position, as opposed to the relative strength of being proactive. In the event that the current predictions of a minority government come to pass, uncertainty might continue to unfold for a period of time; advisors can help companies to navigate forward in this type of environment. Don’t forget to get out and vote on October 21st, as it is so important to do so. Thanks for watching and see you again soon, CBC! MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (September, 2019) What an exciting weekend to be in studio alongside Elmer Kim and John Northcott, for the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel. With this week’s Federal election call, we were on hand to discuss all things business; here’s a sample: Business leader priorities and key challenges they face. Given the highly uncertain global trade and business environment, Canadian companies have faced additional challenges beyond day-to-day operations; this is an area for candidates to be mindful. Labour and workforce related issues. As the global economy evolves at a rapid pace, Canadian companies are challenged to remain competitive like never before. A party’s workforce and retention strategies are of key interest, as companies cannot be successful without these resources. Business grants and fee reductions. Thus far, some platforms include grants to support startups and reduce some of the charges that companies typically face. Companies can always benefit from expense reductions, but in the case of emerging ventures, a critical issue is the shortage of growth capital for high potential businesses that are past the startup stage; will platforms address this specialized issue? Incentives for certain sectors. Areas of interest include auto manufacturing and oil production, and although platforms might include tactics to maintain jobs, the bigger question relates to the undeniable evolution of sectors such as these. What steps should be taken to remain competitive? Importance of debt/deficit reduction. A key question is how do voters view this area; are they concerned about the deficit, and if so, to what degree? An aspect to consider is viewing spending in the context of an investment, as compared to an expense, as the situation warrants. Canada’s economy, growth rate, and trade. Current times are characterized by relatively strong economic performance and buoyed exports; success in this area can be difficult to deny. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for New NAFTA, a topic that seems to be getting more interest in recent days from Republican leaning people in the US than here in Canada. Consumer issues, including housing, taxes, rebate programs, and wages. The appeal of these programs can have a lot to do with who you are, where you live, and how you live. How do regional differences impact policies and do voters think they should? We’ll be watching the election campaign to see how the various platforms approach and impact business. Check back for more commentary, as the campaign moves forward! MEDIA: On G7 Watch Great to be on Summit watch again, this time, for the G7 in Biarritz, France. Thanks to my media work and inclusion in the Informed Opinions Expert Women Database, I have been on hand to provide media commentary to discuss this important global summit. It was my pleasure to join CTV News Channel TV on a sunny Saturday morning to chat about G7 expectations and priorities for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Although some have indicated that they view summits such as the G7 to not be of particular importance, our increasingly fragmented world needs these opportunities to connect on key issues, find common ground, and identify areas of collaboration. Here’s just a few areas where strategies and action are needed: The global economy, amid slowdown and recession concerns Trade and related partnerships, including addressing tariffs and disputes Relations and issues between the US, China, and others Climate change and environmental issues, amid the Amazon fires and continued sea ice melting Areas of conflict, including tensions with (and within) Hong Kong, China, Russia, North Korea, the Middle East, and Venezuela Gender parity and diversity, an issue that impacts at least half of the world’s population There are many more areas of concern to our world, requiring leadership with a range of skills and disciplines. Summits like the G7 are really what a leader makes of it, recognizing that it is their responsibility to be stewards of not only of their role and country, but also of our planet. I believe that addressing issues of global importance is something that citizens of the world have the right to reasonably expect from the leaders of their countries, remembering that people have the power to choose who holds these roles in many cases. Closer to home, key issues of concern for Prime Minister Trudeau include trade considerations (with the US, China, and the UK, in particular), strategies to resolve China-specific conflicts, and demonstrating progress in advance of the Federal election; these are not easily achieved in what has become a world where resolution is difficult. Regardless, a steady and rational path could set the stage for cooperation and strength in numbers for those who are willing to listen. Remember also that 2020 will be an important year for the US; could the G7 be setting its sights on the likelihood of a more receptive participant being in the Oval Office in January, 2021? Looking forward to my next Media Watch; it might be just around the corner, stay tuned! in Insights / Media / News 0 comments MEDIA: Celebrating 2 Years on CBC News Network! Pleased to be celebrating two years of regular appearances on the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel! Our panel reviews the week in business every Saturday morning after the 10 AM news (Eastern Time), discussing a diverse array of topics. Here’s just a sample of topics upon which I’ve provided commentary: The final chapter for Sears The gender gap, globally and in business (and the alarming estimate that women won’t have equality for 100 years) Small business tax changes (remember those?) NAFTA, NAFTA, and more NAFTA Falcon Heavy, Spacex, and Tesla’s wild ride (a personal favorite!) Humans Wanted: automation, disruption, and the future in jobs Millennials and home ownership, impacting real estate, rates, and more Google Duplex and artificial intelligence G7 analysis on the fly (the fun of live TV!) Bombardier’s latest competitive threat The Global Financial Crisis 10 years later Cannabis in the workplace Back to the future: Amazon’s toy catalogue Huawei, Canada, and China: early days of conflict and trade implications Turmoil in Venezuela Shorting Canada’s banks Breaking News: Canada, US eliminate steel tariffs (live TV means commentating in real time) Where’s the beef? Beyond Meat’s ongoing attention The Raptors (and businesses) win big Facebook’s big fine Such a range of topics, and never knowing what the news cycle could bring at any moment, makes providing commentary on the Panel so much fun. Thanks to everyone at CBC News Network, as well as those behind the scenes who make us look so good; we couldn’t do this without you! MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (July, 2019) Summer days also mean studio days for the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel, alongside Sherena Hussain and Janet Stewart. On a personal note, it was great to get a chance to work with Janet, who I know as the anchor of CBC News in Winnipeg! There are so many stories we could have discussed on what was a busy and varied news week; here’s what we covered: Facebook’s $5 Billion Fine. Federal regulators have fined Facebook $5 Billion for US privacy violations. What are the implications for the company, in what has become an ongoing saga of operational problems? Boeing’s Max Mess. Boeing is considering pausing production of its troubled 737 Max jets after two devastating crashes, a lengthy “fix” process, and public concerns. With the grounding impacting airlines and ongoing regulatory scrutiny, can the Max’s reputation be salvaged? When Inspired Honey Hits the Shelves. Investigations by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have found that some products that claim to be honey are anything but. What should consumers do when shopping for food items and is there an even broader impact? Although some have shown little concern about the magnitude of Facebook’s recent fine, there’s no denying that $5 Billion is a massive amount of money. Given the many shortfalls that have been observed over the last few years, including in terms of privacy, security, unintended use of subscriber data, and questionable content, there should be significant concern over the potential for additional financial penalties that could be in store for Facebook. It’s critical that the company put fundamental systems and processes in place to proactively combat threats and mitigate risk, and although new compliance measures require certification from Facebook’s CEO, the strength of such obligations tends to be related to the person who signs. To this end, executives must have a full appreciation of the serious nature that certification entails, and not fall into the category of those who sign their name with little recognition of the magnitude and consequences. Many will be watching this next chapter very closely, including regulators. First and foremost, the story of the Boeing 737 Max is a tragedy, with two horrific crashes and the loss of hundreds of lives. Couple this with a relatively slow response from Boeing to ground the planes, criticism and concern from pilots, lawsuits from victims’ families, and a significant financial and operational impact to airlines and there’s not denying that a crisis is at hand. Companies in this type of industry must always be mindful of the high degree of attention that must be paid to areas such as design, testing, training, and communication. In the event that there proves to have been weaknesses in these areas and others, Boeing must take steps to fully review what was behind this disaster, and resolving it should start at the leadership level. Consumers have their eye on the Max; how many would trust this technology enough to get on board again? It’s certainly disturbing when a food item turns out to be something other than what was expected; this is just what has occurred with some products labeled as honey. Besides the obvious risk and unfairness to consumers, this scenario also impacts companies that are producing and selling quality products in an honest manner, as doing so tends to be more expensive than items that are “watered down” or laced with cheaper inputs. There is no excuse for companies incorporating additives into a food item that is being represented as pure or of superior quality; how dangerous it is to have such products in Canada’s food supply. Although shoppers have a job to do when it comes to reading labels, the onus is on companies to be truthful about their products; regulators must also take steps to ensure that standards are in place to protect consumers, as well as a robust enforcement regime. There is no place for dishonest, fraudulent, or low quality food products in Canada, period. These are serious topics, but there was a moment to smile. The reason? Watch the archived version and find out why! June 17, 2019 by Jenifer Bartman MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (June, 2019) In studio this past weekend for a fun CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel, alongside Sherena Hussain and Jacqueline Hansen. With a city and country still reeling from the Toronto Raptors’ big win, we couldn’t help but start our conversation there. Raptors (and businesses) win big. With all of the excitement around the Raptors’ playoff run and championship win, many restaurants and businesses hosted events and shared in the fun. What’s the financial impact and will it last? Mountain Equipment Co-Op and “the Pink Tax”. MEC faced a social media backlash when two similar items had a price difference, with shoppers having to pay more for “the women’s version”. Is this an example of the Pink Tax and what are the implications for companies in this situation? Beyond Meat’s Big Deal. Tim Hortons introduced Beyond Meat products in their 4,000 locations across Canada this week; what does this say about the company and customer preferences? There’s no denying that the Raptors’ playoff run caught the attention of local fans and those across Canada, including many who do not follow basketball on a regular basis. I would be remiss to not mention the beautiful diversity story that this fan base represents, including people from every walk of life, so uniquely Canadian. It’s true that much of the game day spending, such as visiting restaurants and attending games, is event specific, however, when a team is able to expand its fan base, it can create benefits in the future. I was fortunate to be around the corner from Jurassic Park Halifax the night of Game 6, watching fans arrive on foot from every direction to cheer on their team. Shout out to those who arranged these events, providing Raptors enthusiasts in Halifax with a venue to share in the fun. MEC’s situation with the Pink Tax is a good reminder of the importance of a well managed system for procurement, production, and pricing, so that problems like this do not occur. Production costs can differ, however, it is important to have a good understanding of costs and pricing in advance, to ensure that parity and reasonableness exist across a company’s product line. And as for the Pink Tax generally, it does exist, with studies indicating that women pay in excess of $1,000 more annually than men for similar products. Companies need to make a dedicated effort to eliminate this inequity; how about a diversity officer who is responsible for pricing parity and fairness? And finally, as Beyond Meat continues to expand its distribution, management is, again, a key issue. Strong systems in the areas of supply chain, production, and logistics are critical, to ensure that customers (and their customers) are not disappointed by a lack of supply. New products can be in demand in the early days, but generating sustainable interest is something quite different. We’ll see where Beyond Meat’s story goes from here. As I mark my 20th appearance on the Biz Panel, a special thanks to everyone who has supported and helped with my segments on CBC News Network, especially those behind the scenes. On a personal note, it was especially fun to have my dog, Laci, walk me to work! May 21, 2019 by Jenifer Bartman MEDIA: CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (May, 2019) My long weekend involved time in studio for the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel, alongside Elmer Kim and Natasha Fatah. It was such a busy week, beginning with Westjet’s news of potential acquisition by Onex, soon followed by Air Canada entering talks to acquire Air Transat. We didn’t even get around to chatting about that, and instead, focused on these stories: Breaking News: Canada, US Eliminate Steel Tariffs. As rumors of resolution swirled, tariffs on steel and aluminum that had been in place for almost a year are set to be lifted within 48 hours. What are the implications for business and the marketplace? What’s Up with the WhatsApp Hack? With 1.5 billion users, what’s the story behind the hack and should WhatsApp subscribers be concerned? Cattle Producers’ Beef with Beyond Meat. As popularity of this protein-based option grows, cattle producers aren’t too pleased about Beyond Meat’s choice of terminology. Do they have a point? Here’s a quick take. There’s no doubt that tariffs on steel and aluminum that were imposed on Canada by the US for so called “national security” reasons have been harmful. Once faced with these tariffs, Canada imposed its own retaliatory levies soon after, and this challenging environment was in place for almost one year. Although the White House has taken the position that tariffs are helpful, not harmful (albeit through a series of tweets), the bottom line is that companies that utilize steel or aluminum are left with higher input costs, which decreases margins and typically results in higher prices. This situation can create a domino effect, where products become less competitive, sales decline, jobs are lost, investment activity declines, and consumer spending, in time, is negatively impacted. Going forward, removal of the tariffs will hopefully refuel business investment that was delayed or lost, and provisions to combat steel imports from other countries with unreasonably low prices (aka “dumping”) should set the stage for a return to a more favourable marketplace. Regardless, it’s good news for business, employees, and consumers. It’s concerning when a communication app that is supposed to be secure gets hacked, and that’s what happened with WhatsApp. As the speculation around who was responsible and why this occurred continues, it’s a good reminder that device security starts with users and we need to pay timely attention to updates and notification of security breaches. It seems that hackers are always a step or two ahead of technology security, and it makes me wonder just what these hackers were seeking. As a Facebook company, this is yet another security/privacy related story, and although hacking isn’t something that can be blamed on anyone other that the hacker, there are undoubtedly implications for the provider. As has been noted numerous times, Facebook needs to ensure that users are protected through a better regime of fundamental business practices and systems across a range of areas, as the threat of hacking and security breaches are a given in the tech industry. And finally, cattle producers sought protection of the definition of “meat”, as the popular Beyond Meat referred to its product as “plant-based meat” (which leaves me wondering “are they or aren’t they?”). As Beyond Meat continues to experience rapid growth, producers should be looking carefully at their own business, as it’s yet another to experience significant change, as has been the case with so many others. It’s interesting how what is essentially a technology development is poised to take such a big bite out of a traditional industry. That’s a wrap! See you next time, CBC.

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Home inFocus America's Global Reach (Summer 2013) The Asia Pivot in Theory and Practice America's Global Reach (Summer 2013) The Asia Pivot in Theory and Practice Charles Morrison • Summer 2013 The USS Chung-Hoon guided-missile destroyer is in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) as President Barack Obama tours Southeast Asia to push his pivot to the Pacific policy. Since the Obama administration announced a “pivot” or “rebalancing” to Asia, the military components of this larger strategic shift have quite understandably dominated much of the public debate. After all, since its inception, the rebalancing to Asia has widely been interpreted as a hedge against future Chinese intentions and as a sign of America’s enduring military commitment to the region. At their core, the military dimensions of the rebalancing to Asia are about maintaining conventional deterrence in the face of Chinese military modernization. Unfortunately, in this regard, the rebalancing leaves much to be desired. If the U.S. is serious about increasing its military posture in Asia, it must increase its investment in vital capabilities while crafting a comprehensive strategy to deter, and if necessary defeat, its greatest strategic competitor. Strategic Context Conventional deterrence is especially challenging today because the stakes are transparently lower than during the Cold War. At the peak of U.S.-Soviet tensions, it was at least conceivable that the United States would risk the destruction of a major American city in order to defend Western Europe from a Soviet invasion. Today, while it is plausible that the U.S. would undertake a conventional campaign to defend Taiwan, Japan, or Guam against attack, it is highly unlikely that America would respond to a conventional attack against any of these targets with nuclear force. In order for a deterrent to be effective, it must first be credible. The unfortunate implication is that while America’s nuclear deterrent is important to prevent catastrophic state-based attacks on the American homeland and nuclear attacks against its allies, it is less effective in preventing aggression below a certain escalation threshold. Following this logic, America’s deterrent posture in Asia rests largely on the conventional balance of forces. This is a major problem because the Chinese, among others, are embarking on a systematic campaign that threatens to undermine American conventional deterrence. The Chinese are building a robust network of what are termed anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) technologies that essentially threaten to keep American forces at arms’ length through a variety of means designed to attack American forces, networks, satellites, and communications. While these technologies may be insufficient to produce a Chinese victory in a protracted engagement against the United States, they could conceivably produce a Chinese victory against local American and allied forces in the early stages of a conflict, which China would seek to limit and conclude on favorable terms. In this context, the rebalancing to Asia is extremely important for two major reasons. To begin with, an effective military presence in the Asia-Pacific is the best way to maintain conventional deterrence and thereby preserve peace. Second, if the unthinkable should happen—as it did in 1941, when a rising Asian superpower launched a risky preventative strike against American and allied interests in hopes of a quick victory—an effective buildup could help weather the initial strike and ensure an eventual American triumph. Unfortunately, while the rebalancing to Asia represents a positive rhetorical step in this direction, it has thus far failed to generate substantive action to better protect American interests in the region. While it is not too late for the administration to propose a serious military rebalancing to Asia, change is needed if the pivot is to become more than words on a page. The Rebalancing: Theory and Practice Perhaps the most effective illustration of the military component of the rebalancing to Asia is the Obama administration’s January 2012 Defense Strategy, which privileges air and naval forces potentially at the expense of ground forces necessary to wage protracted stabilization and counterinsurgency campaigns. As part of this strategic shift to Asia, the Department of Defense announced several coordinated moves, including expanding the share of the Navy home-ported or deployed to the Pacific from what it benchmarked at about 50 percent of the fleet today to 60 percent by 2020. The moves also included the future basing of four new Littoral Combat Ships in Singapore, establishing an eventual rotational presence of 2,500 Marines out of Darwin, Australia, and expanding military cooperation with regional partners, including Australia and the Philippines. The moves, while relatively modest, were designed to reassure allies of America’s commitment to the region and dissuade potential aggressors. Unfortunately, these moves mean even less in practice than they do on paper. In fact, two of the highest profiles moves—the rotational Marine presence out of Darwin and the 60/40 fleet split—are emblematic of the larger problems with the rebalancing. For one, the new Marine presence out of Darwin is not a net increase of 2,500 Marines to the region. Last spring, the American and Japanese governments agreed on the removal of about 9,000 Marines from Okinawa. In what can only be described as a form of amphibious shell game, the Marines will be redeployed across the region to Guam, Hawaii, and yes, Australia. While the Pentagon is to be applauded for expanding its relationship with the Australians, shifting forces from one part of the region to another—one further away from the most likely crisis area at that—does not indicate a serious regional military buildup. Likewise, the Pentagon announcement to deploy roughly 60 percent of the Navy’s fleet in Pacific waters by 2020, actually is just a reflection of current reality as the Navy is very close to this threshold today. According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Navy, 50 percent of existing aircraft carriers are currently home ported or deployed in Pacific waters, 53 percent of destroyers, 55 percent of cruisers, 57 percent of ballistic missile submarines, and 56 percent of attack submarines. While a Pacific buildup that bumps these levels up to a full 60 percent would be welcome, it would hardly shift the regional balance in any appreciable manner. More problematically, the Navy’s future deployment projections are based on a rapidly shrinking fleet that may be still unaffordable despite its reduced size. In September 2011, the administration released a shipbuilding plan that averaged a fleet of about 306 ships each year over the course of its 30-year duration. Only months later, after formulating a defense guidance that emphasized naval power and the strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific, the administration released a 30-year shipbuilding plan that averaged a fleet of roughly 298 ships per year. Worse still, the 2013 plan projected the construction of 16 fewer ships over its first five years compared to the previous plan. The 2013 shipbuilding plan was impossible to spin—the incongruity of a shrinking Navy with a defense strategy focused on the Asia-Pacific exposed that budgets, not strategy, were driving Pentagon decision-making. The Navy’s recent 2014 shipbuilding plan is no better. Over the next five years, the Navy still plans to retire more ships than it will build. In fact, 31 ships are set to retire in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 alone. This means that in the very near term, the Navy will drop to 270 ships, its lowest level since World War I. The Navy plans to make up for these retirements with an aggressive near-term construction plan. The service plans to fund over 42 percent of all the attack submarines it will acquire in the next 30 years over the first ten years of the plan alone. At the same time, the Navy plans to offset the retirement of 17 small surface combatants between 2014-2018 with the construction of 14 Littoral Combat Ships over the same period. What this means is that the Navy will be extremely dependent upon the ships it builds over the next several years since the fleet will be at a century-long low. Yet the prospect of undoing the remainder of sequestration appears to be a long shot at best—and even if sequestration itself were replaced, any future deal would surely contain additional large defense cuts. Therefore, the Navy cannot rely on the level of funding it assumed to meet even this reduced fleet target. With the goalposts moved and the Navy still likely to come up short, the naval portion of the rebalancing simply does not add up. Moreover, even if sequestration were to be repealed and additional funding added in support of a larger naval presence in Asia, the rebalancing would still be missing a key ingredient. A Comprehensive Military Strategy in the Pacific Needed Above all else, the United States is missing a coherent and comprehensive military strategy against China. While the Pentagon surely has operational plans for specific scenarios such as the defense of Taiwan, what seems absent is an overarching strategy that ties it all together—a roadmap of sorts that would pave the way from D-Day to V-Day in any future major war. This level of planning would have two results. Most importantly, it would tell the Chinese in no uncertain terms that the U.S. has the willpower, the capability, and a plan to defeat any potential aggression. This would have a powerful effect in strengthening conventional deterrence, and if the worst should come, would give American defense planners a guidebook to fighting and defeating a great power adversary. America’s strategic approach in the Pacific today stands in marked contrast to the last time it stared down a rising competitor in East Asia. When Japan launched a Pacific-wide offensive on December 7, 1941, it set in motion an American war plan half a century in the making. As Edward S. Miller chronicles in his history War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan 1897-1945, around the turn of the 20th century, American defense planners began developing War Plan Orange, one in a series of colored war plans that described how the United States would fight a variety of different countries. In the case of Orange, the plan was directed at the industrialization and militarization of Japan. Seeing a potential threat looming on the horizon, American planners spent nearly five decades considering how the United States could best fight and defeat Japan. While they hoped war would never come, they carefully considered difficult questions such as whether the Philippines were defensible (the plan eventually argued that they were not), whether the U.S. should conduct a major buildup on Guam, and how the Navy would claw its way back across the Pacific inch by inch, relying on the overall superiority of the American fleet while crippling the Japanese economy through a relentless blockade. This kind of thinking represented the best of military strategy. For decades, the Navy’s best and brightest dared think about the unthinkable—and when it came, they were prepared with a roadmap to victory. If the Pentagon is doing this kind of thinking in regard to China today, it is hard to see. While Jan van Tol and his colleagues at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments probably came the closest to this kind of planning in their 2010 whitepaper, AirSea Battle: A Point-of-Departure Operational Concept, what the Pentagon today calls Air-Sea Battle has very little to do with the strategic level of warfare. Instead, as the Chiefs of the Air Force and Navy have argued, the oft-cited but poorly understood Air-Sea Battle concept has to do more with inter-service cooperation and tactical level innovation and is not intended to be a comprehensive strategy for defeating China. Even the Pentagon’s slightly more expansive Joint Operational Access Concept, a document intended to detail how the Pentagon will ensure access to regions like East Asia in the face of A2/AD challenges, essentially provides a list of principles and capabilities without a truly coherent vision that ties it all together. If the Pentagon wants to enact a more effective rebalancing to the Pacific, it needs to get serious about strategic planning. By thinking about how a hypothetical conflict may play out, the Pentagon would also be forced to think through the forces it would require tomorrow—and therefore needs to buy today. As defense budgets continue to decline, a comprehensive military strategy against China is also the best chance the Pentagon has to protect vital capabilities because it crafts a coherent and compelling narrative that makes the strongest case possible to Congress for robust defense investment. Without an honest discussion of how to triumph in a war against China, the Pentagon would miss an opportunity to build the forces it needs for such a campaign and thereby strengthen conventional deterrence. And, if the worst should come, it would be less prepared to see the war through to victory. Get a plan, Uncle Sam An American military focus on the Asia-Pacific is long overdue, and to this extent the Asia-Pacific rebalancing is a positive step, at least in rhetoric, in thinking through the region’s many challenges. Yet, to this point, the military components of the rebalancing have proven to be inadequate, hollow, and at times, illusory. The Pentagon must do better. The 21st century may well be a Pacific century, and America must be the nation to lead it. But such leadership comes with the price of careful planning, forethought, and investment. If the nation wishes to maintain its preponderant regional position, it must develop a coherent military strategy that walks through hypothetical conflict from its strategic background, to its opening hours, to intra-conflict escalation control, to its final conclusion. Such a comprehensive strategy is America’s best chance to preserve peace if peace is possible, while developing the forces and strategies to conclude a conflict on favorable terms if the United States is once more faced with fire in the Pacific. Charles Morrison is a research assistant in the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. What is that Big U.S. Military for, Anyhow? China’s Threat to Free Navigation

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I lived in Lakeview for 30 years and spent those 30 years as a consultant with Spencer Stuart, a leading international executive search firm. For the last 15 years of my tenure there I was the partner in charge of its practice with not-for-profit clients. Working primarily with Boards of Directors and Trustees seeking new leadership for their organizations, I served over 200 nonprofit clients throughout the country and, occasionally, overseas. A sampling of the Chicago area clients with whom I worked include: The Field Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Family Services, Metropolitan Planning Council, Adler Planetarium, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra United Way of Chicago, Museum of Science and Industry, WBEZ WTTW/Channel 11, Children’s Home & Aid Society of Illinois, and The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation. An alumna of Vassar College, I am an active Board member of One Hope United and a former Board member of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago Network, Lakefront SRO and Associated Colleges of Illinois. I am a former Board Chair and current consultant at Executive Service Corps and former Advisory Board member and current volunteer at the Oriental Institute. I am now active at The Admiral where I serve on a number of committees and chair the Lifelong Learning Committee. I have been volunteering at Lakeview Pantry for about 10 years and love working with the other volunteers. I am also very proud of the service we provide – and the wonderful, welcoming space on Sheridan Road.

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Land Of Basketball.com Teams, players profiles, awards, stats, records and championships. Grizzlies vs. Pelicans 110-108 2OT / Box score Grizzlies vs Pelicans: 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 2004 / 2003 / 2002 / 2001 / 2000 / 1999 / 1998 / 1997 / 1996 / 1995 / 1994 / 1993 / 1992 / 1991 / 1990 / 1989 / 1988 / 1987 / 1986 / 1985 / 1984 / 1983 / 1982 / 1981 / 1980 / 1979 / 1978 / 1977 / 1976 / 1975 / 1974 / 1973 / 1972 / 1971 / 1970 / 1969 / 1968 / 1967 / 1966 / 1965 / 1964 / 1963 / 1962 / 1961 / 1960 / 1959 / 1958 / 1957 / 1956 / 1955 / 1954 / 1953 / 1952 / 1951 / 1950 / 1949 / 1948 / 1947 Records and Stats Teams Head to Head Players Comparison Players Head to Head More NBA Information FIBA: Home > NBA Year by Year > 2017 > Season Results > Grizzlies vs Pelicans Summary and Awards / Teams Standings / Scores / Leaders / Brackets / Series / Scores / Leaders / Grizzlies vs. Pelicans, 110-108 2OT, Box Score - 2017 Regular Season Stats from the NBA game played between the Memphis Grizzlies and the New Orleans Pelicans on December 05, 2016 with result, scoring by period and players. More 2016-17 Games: Grizzlies games << prev. | next >> Pelicans games << prev. | next >> NBA Box Scores: Game Result Memphis Grizzlies - 108 (2OT) Scoring by Period 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT 2OT Total MEM 17 27 30 20 6 10 110 NOP 21 25 23 25 6 8 108 Grizzlies Pelicans Points 29 - Daniels 28 - Rebounds 17 - JaMychal Green 16 - Gasol 9 - Home Team: New Orleans Pelicans Game Box Score Shooting Rebounds Players Min O D Reb Ast Stl Blk TO PF Pts Marc Gasol C 45:41 11-25 3-6 3-4 1 10 11 10 3 2 3 2 28 Tony Allen F 41:30 9-14 0-1 1-2 4 9 13 0 2 1 2 2 19 Andrew Harrison G 40:21 3-13 2-7 4-6 2 1 3 4 1 0 3 5 12 Troy Williams G 19:30 5-9 1-3 0-0 0 4 4 1 1 0 1 0 11 JaMychal Green F 43:29 2-9 0-3 1-3 3 14 17 1 1 0 1 4 5 Troy Daniels 43:32 10-20 7-11 2-2 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 2 29 Wade Baldwin IV 20:55 1-5 0-1 2-2 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 1 4 Jarell Martin 20:25 1-8 0-1 0-2 3 6 9 1 0 0 0 3 2 Toney Douglas 08:08 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 Deyonta Davis 06:29 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 2 0 Vince Carter DNP - Right Hip Mike Conley DNP - Lower Back James Ennis III DNP - Right Calf Totals 290 42-104 13-34 13-21 13 48 61 23 8 4 14 22 110 Percentages .404 .382 .619 Anthony Davis F 48:29 10-27 1-4 7-7 0 16 16 1 1 4 1 1 28 Solomon Hill F 46:36 2-6 0-2 5-5 2 5 7 5 1 0 3 3 9 Tim Frazier G 38:49 3-10 0-3 2-2 1 3 4 9 3 0 4 2 8 Buddy Hield G 24:24 3-8 2-5 0-0 0 3 3 1 1 0 0 2 8 Omer Asik C 13:23 0-3 0-0 1-2 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 Langston Galloway 35:53 9-18 6-13 2-2 0 1 1 2 0 0 1 0 26 Terrence Jones 31:41 4-11 0-0 2-2 1 7 8 1 0 1 1 1 10 Anthony Brown 29:22 4-10 1-4 0-0 1 5 6 2 1 0 1 2 9 Alexis Ajinca 21:23 4-6 0-1 1-1 1 5 6 0 0 2 0 3 9 Dante Cunningham DNP - Coach's Decision Jrue Holiday DNP - Coach's Decision E'Twaun Moore DNP - Coach's Decision Totals 290 39-99 10-32 20-21 6 48 54 21 7 7 11 15 108 Inactive Players: - Grizzlies: Chandler Parsons, Zach Randolph, Brandan Wright - Pelicans: Cheick Diallo, Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter Copyright 2019. landofbasketball.com - All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Comments? Suggestions? Contact us! Land of Basketball is a fan website, for official NBA information visit National Basketball Association's website. Links. Players photos are shown thanks to our affiliation with AllPosters.com

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Two veterans honored with service medals in Las Cruces ceremony First Lt. Francisco M. Mantua and Private First Class George Gay received medals for their service in the U.S. armed forces. Two veterans honored with service medals in Las Cruces ceremony First Lt. Francisco M. Mantua and Private First Class George Gay received medals for their service in the U.S. armed forces. Check out this story on lcsun-news.com: http://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2018/05/25/two-veterans-honored-service-medals-las-cruces-ceremony/645666002/ Carlos Andres López, Las Cruces Sun-News Published 3:29 p.m. MT May 25, 2018 Frank Mantua, left, receives the Silver Star and Oak Leaf Clusters Bronze, from U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., Friday May 25, 2018 at Veterans Memorial Park. Mantua was awarded the medals for gallantry in action while serving as a platoon leader during the battle of Tuy Hoa in Vietnam in 1968.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)Buy Photo LAS CRUCES - Before a weekend when the nation commemorates members of the U.S. armed forces killed in war, two veterans were honored Friday with medals of service during a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park in Las Cruces. Lt. Francisco M. Mantua, of Las Cruces, who served in the Army during the Vietnam War, received the Silver Star Medal — the third-highest personal decoration for valor in combat — and the Oak Leaf Cluster Bronze. Also, Private First Class George H. Gay, who served in the Army during World War II, was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star Medal and two other medals, including the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal & Bronze Star Attachment (Quadruple) & Arrowhead, and Combat Infantryman Badge 1st Award. Hurbert Gay, center, stands with his family in front of the Bataan Death March Memorial at Veterans Memorial Park, and is about to receive from U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R.-N.M., a posthumously awarded Bronze Star, European -African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and Combat Infantryman Badge for his father, George H. Gay. Friday May 25, 2018 (Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News) U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., presented the medals to Mantua and Gay's son, Hubert, and other family members. “Our military men and women selflessly risk their lives so that we can afford the freedoms and liberties each of us hold dear,” Pearce told a crowd who had gathered at Veterans Memorial Park for the ceremony. “Unfortunately," Pearce added, "I know all too well that previous generations of military personnel were not given the respect they deserved. I am truly honored to have the opportunity to celebrate and recognize 1LT Mantua and PFC Gay today." Pearce, a veteran and longtime congressman who is running for governor this year, said the United States has a "renewed appreciation" for those who served in the armed forces. "Let us never again return to a time when we as a nation do not recognize the members of our military for all they do," he added. Frank Mantua, left, receives the Silver Star and Oak Leaf Clusters Bronze, from U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., Friday May 25, 2018 at Veterans Memorial Park. Mantua was awarded the medals for gallantry in action while serving as a platoon leader during the battle of Tuy Hoa in Vietnam in 1968. (Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News) Mantua and Gay were honored in separate parts of the memorial park. Mantua, of Company D, 16th Armor, 173rd Airborne Brigade, served as a platoon leader during the battle of Tuy Hoa, and received his honors at the Vietnam War Memorial. On March 4, 1968, he helped the company defeat two enemy battalions in an all-day affair that saved several key American and South Vietnamese installations from being overrun. He was wounded, but led his platoon in three separate assaults and provided cover fire. Mantua also led a few volunteers in a daring attack with small arms and hand grenades. He continued to lead his platoon until the company commander ordered him to evacuate because of his wounds. On Friday, Mantua, accompanied by family, accepted his medals and thanked members of his platoon who lost their lives in combat. "I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for them," he said. "They sleep forever young, but they do not dream. So it is up to us, in our lifetimes, to memorialize them by living out their dreams, to be the best sons and brothers we can be, to be the best husbands and fathers you can be, and best citizens you can possibly be. This what we owe them." A Hatch native, Gay was honored in from the of Bataan Death March memorial. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for active ground combat against the enemy, on Jan. 22 1944, while serving with Company A, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, in support of the European Theater of Operations. Carlos Andres Lopez can be reached at 575-541-5453, carlopez@lcsun-news.com or @carlopez_los on Twitter. U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., speaks about George Gay, who served in World War II and was a prisoner of war. George's son, Hurbert Gay, center, stands with his family in front of the Bataan Death March Memorial to receive his father's posthumously awarded Bronze Star, European -African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and Combat Infantryman Badge Friday May 25, 2018. (Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News) Read or Share this story: http://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2018/05/25/two-veterans-honored-service-medals-las-cruces-ceremony/645666002/ Pair of bobcats spotted near Sonoma Ranch Mayor Ken Miyagishima opposes legal marijuana Mother charged after daughter tests positive for meth Immigrant community in shadow of ICE facility Game Commission adopts new trapping regulations What to know about NM's legal pot proposal

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Playing chess with friends across borders We're not waiting for checkmate. We're hoping for a draw. Playing chess with friends across borders We're not waiting for checkmate. We're hoping for a draw. Check out this story on lcsun-news.com: https://www.scsun-news.com/story/news/local/2020/01/09/playing-chess-friends-across-borders/4420788002/ Abe Villarreal, Everyday Observations Published 10:47 a.m. MT Jan. 9, 2020 Abe Villarreal (Photo: Courtesy Photo) I was standing on the US-Mexico border for an international art and music event. When I say that I was standing on the border, it's exactly what I mean. It was one event divided by large metal bars. Somehow, just standing there, watching people on both sides, hearing them talk to each other, the bars became uglier and uglier. The communities of Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, are much alike and still quite different. The people seem the same. They are happy, generous and family orientated. The people I know, having lived in that corner of the world for 20 years, are hardworking and honest. And the communities are two worlds apart. One side is larger but poorer. The other side is better built, modern, with better access to government resources. The differences seemed to fade away the longer I stood at the border and as I peered through the bars, the similarities where strengthened. Big, metallic, rusted bars are interesting things. They feel protective but not in a warm and comforting way. When you touch them, you get the feeling that you were just told — no, you can't do that. You can't go forward. You can't go back. You can't visit family, enjoy a different place, make new friends. Walking up and down the borderline, the space between each bar was filled with laughter and sharing. Then there was chess. A large chessboard right up against the Mexican side of the fence. Someone would make a move in Mexico and the next move would be made by someone in America. Just an arm reaching over, grabbing a piece and making a move. No words were necessary. The differences in language were gone and somehow much was said between two people who shared a handshake and a smile. It was a game of chess where all the moves were friendly and no one played long enough to make it to checkmate. In a game where strategy is king, each move was filled with good intention and a common interest. It didn't matter what side was victorious, and if the game ended as a draw, all the more fitting. My guess is most of you haven't stood at the border, right where the bars stand, and I suggest you do it someday. Touch the bars, get a feeling for them and let them touch you. The experience will give you insight on the families and lives that see bars as part of their everyday landscape. Borders are necessary. They mark differences. Make things clear, protect identities. Mexicans are proud to be Mexicans and Americans are proud to be Americans. The same is true for Mexican-Americans, they are proud to be Mexican-Americans. And for this hyphenated group of people that live all around us, the chance to once live in a world without old, rusty bars is like a game of chess. We're not waiting for checkmate. We're hoping for a draw. Abe Villarreal writes about life and culture in southern New Mexico. He can be reached at abevillarreal@hotmail.com. More Everyday Observations: Sadness is as good as happiness; embrace it 5 ways to better know your community in 2020 The power of two words: Merry Christmas Read or Share this story: https://www.scsun-news.com/story/news/local/2020/01/09/playing-chess-friends-across-borders/4420788002/ LCPS scraps extended school year proposal Fire destroys building in Hatch Women’s March draws thousands in Albuquerque Astronomy on Tap launches in Las Cruces Education, job training vital to economic growth Border Patrol K9 bites Las Cruces woman

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South Carolina Jury Fails to Reach Verdict in J&J Talc Case Personal Injury November 20, 2018 By Jacob Maslow A South Carolina jury failed to reach a verdict in the second trial lawsuit claiming Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure. Jurors in the case said they were hopelessly deadlocked 11-1 in the lawsuit. Judge Jean Toal ordered a mistrial Thursday evening. There has been no comment on which side was favored in the split. The lawsuit was brought on by the husband of Bertile Boyd-Bostic, who died of mesothelioma at the age of 30. Boyd-Bostic’s husband claimed J&J knew in the 1970s that its products contained the carcinogen asbestos, but failed to warn the public in order to protect its reputation. Toal had sent jurors back to deliberate several times and implored attorneys on both sides to come to a settlement. Toal has been assigned to oversee talc cases in the state courts. “We look forward to a new trial to present our defense, which rests on decades of independent, non-litigation driven scientific evaluations, none of which have found that Johnson’s Baby Powder contains asbestos,” said J&J spokeswoman Kim Montagnino. Johnson & Johnson has won three trials and lost two over whether its Baby Powder products contain asbestos. Four other jury trials ended in mistrials due to jurors not agreeing on a verdict or because the plaintiff had died. The majority of the 11,700 talc lawsuits Johnson & Johnson is facing involve claims of ovarian cancer, according to court filings in New Jersey. A small minority of cases claim that J&J’s talc caused them to develop mesothelioma. The mistrial comes after a California jury’s decision on Wednesday found J&J’s talc was not responsible for a woman’s mesothelioma. The jury found that the plaintiff was exposed to asbestos-contaminated baby powder, but they also found that the exposure wasn’t a substantial factor in causing her cancer. North Carolina Man Sues Zimmer U.S. Inc. for Allegedly Defective Hip System Motorcyclist Escapes Fatal Crash 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Injured by a Defective Product

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Yow, Kay, 1942-2009 Weedon, J. Franklin Valvano, Jim Southern Intercollegiate Conference Sloan, Norman, 1926- National Collegiate Athletic Association Esposito, Sam Case, Everett N. (Everett Norris), 1900-1966 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women North Carolina State University. Media Relations North Carolina State University. Department of Athletics Filters: Yow, Kay, 1942-2009North Carolina State University -- SportsNorth Carolina State University -- SportsValvano, JimNorth Carolina State University -- SportsSouthern ConferenceNorth Carolina State University -- SportsNorth Carolina State University -- Sports1950-19591890-1899North Carolina State University -- SportsNorth Carolina State University. Department of Athletics North Carolina State University, Athletics, Media Relations Records, 1895-2016 Size: 238 linear feet (193 archival boxes, 78 legal-sized archival boxes, 7 flat boxes, 19 flat folders, 3 cartons) Collection ID: UA 015.010 The North Carolina State University, Athletics, Media Relations Records contain materials related to nearly every sport that has been played at the university, including sports that are no longer active. Types of materials include: press releases, game/event programs, schedules, rosters, clippings, correspondence, brochures, scoring ... More The North Carolina State University, Athletics, Media Relations Records contain materials related to nearly every sport that has been played at the university, including sports that are no longer active. Types of materials include: press releases, game/event programs, schedules, rosters, clippings, correspondence, brochures, scoring sheets and other game/event notes, photographs, and a variety of other general information documenting the activities of each sport. Materials range in date from 1889 to 2016. Athletics officially began at the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later, North Carolina State University) on March 2, 1892, when a football team made up of students at the college defeated a team from the Raleigh Male Academy. After the college's Board of Trustees made the decision to grant the team requested funds in 1893, North Carolina A&M played its first formal (non-scrimmage) intercollegiate game that fall against the University of North Carolina's football second team. In 1921, NC State became a charter member of the Southern Intercollegiate Conference, remaining until 1953, when along with Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, Maryland, South Carolina, Wake Forest, and Clemson, the university withdrew to form the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 1974, the first women's athletic teams began play. As of 2009, NC State had eleven men's and eleven women's varsity athletic teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.The Media Relations office (formerly, Sports Information) has existed in some form at NC State since the 1940s, as a reference and records-keeping center for statistics and information relating to NC State Athletics. Less

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21.0°, A Few Clouds and Breezy Man struck by SUV in Long Beach Released from hospital after three days Posted Wednesday, June 2, 2010 2:13 pm sunbathers enjoy the beach at Monroe Boulevard on Sunday, four days after a Long Beach police SUV ran over an Oceanside man in a lounge chair on the beach. The man was brought to Nassau County University Medical Center. He was released on Saturday. Alyson Goodman JOSEPH KELLARD, TONY RIFILATO AND ARIELLA MONTI Orange traffic cones were lined up to create clearly demarcated driving lanes on the beach over the Memorial Day weekend after a sunbathing man was run over by a Long Beach Police Department SUV on May 26. The officer who was driving the vehicle was responding to calls to help a distressed swimmer. The incident occurred near Laurelton Boulevard at 12:11 p.m. last Wednesday, when the SUV driver, officer Paul DeMarco, was patrolling the beach. DeMarco saw and heard people calling and waving at him to alert him to a female swimmer who was in distress by the jetties, according to Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department, which took over the investigation. "He looked in their direction and made a sweeping U-turn, and lost sight of the ground in front of him and struck the sunbather," Smith said. Police said that DeMarco — who has been on the Long Beach force for 27 years — made a visual check in all directions before turning his Dodge Durango, but did not see Marshall Starkman, 43, an Oceanside man on a low-lying lounge chair. Starkman was struck by the SUV's right tires and sustained fractures to his neck and ribs. "My understanding is that the officer —who is a very seasoned, well-respected police officer— was on the beach patrolling, and he had stopped to speak with someone," City Manager Charles Theofan said. "He was called away to respond and, unfortunately, he was making a very sharp right to go back east and did not see this gentleman. He didn't even realize it until he heard people yelling and of course stopped." Starkman was transported by helicopter to Nassau University Medical Center, where he was listed in serious but stable condition. Theofan said that he may have suffered a broken spine. On Tuesday, an NUMC spokeswoman said that Starkman was discharged on May 27, but she was not authorized to say whether he was transported to another hospital or taken home. His family declined to comment. Neighbors described Starkman as a "clean cut," friendly man who shares his Oceanside home with his mother. "I think they're lovely people and lovely neighbors," said Beverly Seidman, who lives on the same street as Starkman. "As soon as I heard about it, I ran across the street, and I don't have to tell you how awful [his mother] feels. We're all shaken and very upset." Smith said that when DeMarco responded to the shouts and waves, he was not in emergency mode, meaning he did not have his flashing lights and siren on. But, Smith added, after police interviewed witnesses on the beach as well as DeMarco and Starkman, the incident was deemed an accident. "You look to see if there was any criminality just to cover all your bases, but it doesn't look as if the officer did anything wrong other than not see this bather, so there was no criminal negligence or recklessness," Smith said. The accident occurred on a particularly busy preseason day on the beach, when temperatures climbed to nearly 90 degrees and a number of swimmers were overwhelmed by the rough, cold ocean water." [The officer] had gotten a call for one of the water rescues, which is why he was pulling away quickly," Theofan said. "There is clearly nothing here to indicate more than a tragic accident." Theofan said that similar incidents have happened in the past. "We have had people in the past that have been run over by our garbage trucks, and some got no injuries at all because they just get pressed way into the sand," he said. Paul Gillespie, the chief of Long Beach lifeguards, recalled that the last time someone was hit and killed by a vehicle on the beach was 15 to 20 years ago, when a bulldozer ran over a man on a West End beach. Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213. Schools head Pecora exudes 'Seaford Pride' Long Beach firefighters put out crawl space fire Baldwin students hone their culinary skills Walking a lap in Baldwin for a cause L.B. resident celebrates 100 years of life MLK center Exec Director announces resignation days before MLK march in Long Beach Long Beach waives privilege in payouts Long Beach to kick off annual MLK March

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Apple Listed as 2017 Exhibitor at Mobile World Congress [Updated x2] Wednesday October 19, 2016 1:24 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol Apple Inc. has been listed as a 2017 exhibitor at Mobile World Congress, which is an oddity given the company's trade show presence has been virtually nonexistent since the company's final appearance at Macworld in 2009. If the listing is accurate, it would mark Apple's first time attending Mobile World Congress, the world's largest exhibition and conference for the mobile industry. MWC 2017 runs between February 27, 2017 and March 2, 2017. Babel PR pointed us towards Apple's exhibitor listing, which shows the company has booked space in the App Planet in Hall 8.1, as well as two spaces in the upper level that runs above Hall 2 in the Fira Gran Via Conference Centre. App Planet is described as "a unique area focusing on the latest technology from the fast-moving apps industry," so Apple's presence could be related to promoting the App Store ecosystem or Planet of the Apps. Apple's other upper level spaces appear to be meeting rooms, suggesting the company's presence may not be public facing. This would be unsurprising, given Apple has shifted new product announcements to its own media events. Apple steadily stopped attending trade shows in the late 2000s, including the NAB Show, Macworld, and Apple Expo in Paris, and it has regularly passed on attending CES, the largest consumer electronics show, in Las Vegas. In announcing its departure from Macworld, Apple said trade shows have become a very minor part of how it reaches its customers. For that reason, Apple's public presence at Mobile World Congress is questionable, although still plausible. Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways. Should we receive confirmation about Apple's presence at Mobile World Congress, we will update this article accordingly. Update: Shortly after we published this article, Apple was removed from the list of exhibitors. Update 2: Apple told Babel PR it does "not have an official presence at the show," while the show's organizer GSMA told The Mobile Network it can "confirm that Apple will have meeting space at Mobile World Congress, as they have had previously." Tag: Mobile World Congress [ 35 comments ] diddl14 Perfect place to launch new Watchbands.. BrianKonarsMac Exec #1: Guys - we're not hitting previous numbers, how do we get more customers!? Peasant: Well, you could update the computer lineup... Exec #2: Who is this idiot? What's old is new again, let's go back to the conventions! WBRacing Eventually even the most successful of companies do have to get off their complacent backsides and champion for more business. Soni Sanjay So weird. realeric It's not a good move... This is a bad sign. I remember why they left several years ago. Basically, they didn't need to attend because their sales momentum was so robust. HJM.NL It's a desperate move something they should have been doing from the beginning. They feel the heat and pressure from competitors and probably won't have something new to show. Applebot1 Yes, any chance to show off new bands lol MacsRgr8 ('https://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/19/apple-listed-2017-exhibitor-mobile-world-congress/') ...which is an oddity given the company's trade show presence has been virtually nonexistent since the company's final appearance at Macworld in 2009... And Apple did that because trade show presence has no added value for such a major company. In the ol' days (before everyone had internet), trade shows gave you an opportunity to show-off your stuff and generally have a nice week. I wonder if this is to underline the Apple and Cisco collaboration (you know, Wifi Fast Lane (QoS), Cisco Spark, etc.) iPhone SE 2................? Would be a similar time of the year to when the SE was announced earlier this year. 2 hours ago on iOS Blog

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marilynn-smith features The ‘Marilynn Smith Effect’ Makes a Lifelong Impact on One of her Former Caddies Alexandra Armas Appointed LET CEO marilynn-smith Written By: Mark Lamport-Stokes @MarkLamport Mark Lamport-Stokes is Director of Public Relations for the LPGA. He has worked as a golf writer/broadcaster for the past 30 years in the United States, Britain and South Africa, covering the PGA, LPGA, European and Sunshine Tours. Most recently, he was golf correspondent for Reuters. LPGA Founder and Hall of Fame member Marilynn Smith, whose remarkable life will be celebrated by friends, family and the world of golf in Phoenix tomorrow (May 11), positively influenced the lives of everyone she touched and a heartwarming example of this surfaced just a few days after she passed away on April 9 at the age of 89. Jim Hawley, a mere teenager when he caddied for Smith at two LPGA Tour events during the late 1960s, wrote a letter to her in late March this year but sadly it never arrived at LPGA headquarters in time for the addressee to read it. That letter, which he penned on March 28, was his first communication with Smith in almost 50 years and it was written as a personal thank-you for the massive impact which she had on him and on his future career. "She was such an inspiration to me, and she had a huge effect on my life," Hawley, who caddied for Smith at the 1968 Gino Paoli Open and the 1969 Danbury Lady Carling Open in Danbury, Connecticut, told LPGA.com. "She commanded such a presence by just being so sweet, so genuine and so sincere. I really wanted to take a page out of her mannerisms, her attitudes and her reflections. She was such a classy person that she just made you want to take her for a role model. She taught me about respect and honor, and I can hardly say enough good about her. And never did you hear a bad word from her on the course. She loved golf but she kept it all in perspective. I caddied for other ladies and everyone is capable of getting upset and losing it out on the golf course, but she was always the picture of hospitality. You talk about the kind of person you want to have as the poster child for the LPGA. She was it." Hawley vividly recalls how he first got to carry Smith's bag at his home course, Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury, and how the strong rapport they quickly established led to an unfortunate argument he had with his mother. "I was aged just 16 but I had gotten pretty senior in my status at the Ridgewood Country Club as a caddie and it kind of went by what status you had and who you wanted to caddie for," Hawley said. "I had seen Marilynn in years previous and I knew that I wanted to caddie for her, and so I did! It was a wonderful, wonderful relationship. I wanted to make it a fulltime job, but my mother insisted that I needed to go to school and get into college. So I only caddied for Marilynn at Ridgewood for those two tournaments. Unfortunately that caused one of the biggest arguments I ever had with my mother. I wanted to go on tour with Marilynn but my mother forbade it. I often wonder how things might have turned out otherwise." The opportunity to caddie for Smith in 1968 and 1969 was a dream come true for Hawley. One of the 13 pioneering women who founded the LPGA in 1950, Smith had established herself among the biggest names in the game and she ended her glittering professional career with a total of 21 victories on the LPGA Tour, including two major championships. REMEMBERING ‘MISS PERSONALITY’ Yet for all her achievements on the golf course as a fierce and highly successful competitor, Smith was remembered even more for her warm-hearted nature and her generosity of spirit. She was nicknamed ‘Miss Personality’ by her fellow Founders because of her ultra-friendly nature and her outgoing presentations on behalf of women's golf. "I never saw a sweeter, kinder or gentler woman who could hit the daylights out of the golf ball," said Hawley. "In those days, the LPGA was giving out cars to the players. They were white, I think they were Pontiacs, and I always remember seeing her car because it had her name on it, 'Marilynn Smith, Miss Personality'. She paid me WAY more than I was worth, and she made me feel like a million dollars.” Asked how much money he received from Smith, Hawley chuckled: “She gave me $100 a day which, for a 16-year-old kid in the late sixties, was a gold rush! I don't recall having discussions with other caddies about how much money they got but I always felt like I was the highest paid. That was so much money for a kid back in that time and I was just overwhelmed. And she paid me in cash every day.” Hawley, who enjoyed a long career with the Eastman Kodak Company before retiring five years ago, has just one regret – that he and Smith never crossed paths again after their player-caddie association in 1968 and 1969 came to an end. “Although my caddying career went through my college days, the LPGA never came back to Danbury,” said Hawley, who now spends as much as time as possible with his children and grandchildren when he is not doing volunteer work for Kairos Prison Ministry, a Christian faith-based ministry that addresses the spiritual needs of incarcerated men, women, youth and their families. “I’ve followed the LPGA all my life and I've been to several LPGA Tour events since then, but I never saw Marilynn in any of them. It just tickled me, year in and year out, to see her on TV at the Founders Cup in Phoenix. I always pointed her out to my wife, children, grandchildren and friends. And I kept saying to myself, 'Jimmy, you just want to go to that tournament, go meet her and say hi again.' That had certainly crossed my mind since I have been in retirement and it's too bad now that I left it too late. I can only wish we had made that connection while she was still alive. What a wonderful person, what a wonderful life." on-other-tours news-and-notes Hur Jumps To Top Four Finish diamond-resorts-tournament-of-champions Playoff Suspended Due to Darkness, Will Resume Monday Morning

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After Midnight Project After Midnight Project's rhythmic, punk-inspired hard rock began taking shape in 2004, when vocalist Jason Evigan, drummer Dan Morris, bassist TJ Armstrong, and guitarists Spencer Bastian and Christian Meadows held their first practice in Los Angeles. By 2007, After Midnight Project's touring ethic and introductory EP (The Becoming) had earned them a contract with Universal Motown, and the band decamped to the record studio to work on a full-length album. Let's Build Something to Break marked their major-label debut in August 2009, and the group supported its release by joining the Warped Tour that summer. ~ Andrew Leahey The Gracious Few No Second Troy Lights Resolve The Veer Union

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Decision on Cuba disappoints January 2, 2015 on Commentary, Opinion By Dr. Alejandro Chafuen We all celebrate when an innocent person is released from prison. The freedom of Alan Gross is welcome news. But the release of three convicted Cuban spies and operatives (who were directly responsible for the killing of other innocents), the continued lack of consultation by the Obama administration with other branches of government and Congress, and the disregard for the unrelenting oppression of political freedoms are a high cost to pay. The leading Cuban-Americans in the Legislature, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Robert Menéndez (D-N.J.), and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) released statements with scathing criticisms. Rubio stated that the deal was “disgraceful for a president who claims to treasure human rights and human freedom. This president is the single worst negotiator we have had in the White House in my lifetime.” The statement by Ros-Lehtinen complements Rubio’s criticism: “This misguided action by President Obama will embolden the Castro regime to continue its illicit activities, trample on fundamental freedoms and disregard democratic principles.” I spoke with several human rights and democracy advocates, and all were strongly critical. Tony Guedes, leader of the Cuban Liberal Union (Unión Liberal Cubana), who lives in exile in Spain, is convinced that the policies just announced will help the Cuban communist regime and will delay the transition to a real democracy. Guedes believes that the announcements are connected with Obama’s decision to attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Panama. Menéndez, the Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had strong words about this as well. He said, “I’m extraordinarily disappointed that we intend to violate our own principles, laid down in the Inter-American Democratic Charter in 2001, on the Summit being a forum for the hemisphere’s democratically-elected leaders.” According to Menéndez, the new action on Cuba “disavows the Charter and sends a global message about the low priority we place on democracy and respect for human and civil rights.” Unlike the above critics, the leader of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed the new Cuban policy. Its CEO, Tom Donohue, stated that the “U.S. business community welcomes today’s announcement and has long supported many of the economic provisions the president touched on in his remarks … the Chamber and its members stand ready to assist as the Cuban people work to unleash the power of free enterprise to improve their lives.” Free enterprise indeed improves lives. Free trade also works wonders to bring people and countries together. But trade managed by communist oligarchs hardly can be defined as free trade. An economy where all the key decisions are made by men in uniform can’t be described as free enterprise. Echoing the chamber, a powerful German think-tank, the Bertelsman Foundation, published a piece which concludes with a typical modern-day capitalist statement “who knows, maybe the U.S. will be able to export a few more Che Guevara tee-shirts along the way.” Fernando Menéndez, a Cuban expert of the Center for a Secure Free Society, noted that when making the announcement, President Raúl Castro – who had been wearing civilian clothes – donned his military uniform to send a signal of who still remains in power. The crony capitalism of the left, if that is an appropriate name for the Chinese model, might create huge opportunities for profits, but as we see in the current disputes in Hong Kong, it also can weaken the struggle for political freedoms and respect for human rights. The decline in the price of oil was threatening Cuba with a reduction of the subsidy it receives from its sugar daddy, Venezuela. This deal was arranged because the Obama administration is struggling to create some positive legacies. It aims to get credit for reversing a policy, a stringent embargo, which on its own failed to bring down communism. The Pope and the Canadian government, mentioned as playing important roles, seek different benefits. Pope Francis sees opportunities for the Catholic bishops in Cuba who receive periodic permissions from the tyrants to expand their preaching and educational efforts. Mainstream media also hails the role of Canada, whose government hosted and facilitated some of the negotiations. Canadians have fewer restrictions on travel and conduct business in Cuba. The U.S. sanctions and embargo certainly cause them headaches. The Canadian government has a pro-Western stance, but it is not immune from the power of economic interests, and these might trump concerns for political and human rights. The economic crisis in Cuba resulting from the woes of Russia and Venezuela would have been a wonderful opportunity to demand true changes. Cuba is still listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. It could be delisted if it stopped meddling in other countries. Its major ally, Venezuela, likely would have to release its own political prisoners. Not yet. Unfortunately, the potential of selling more Che Guevara T-shirts carried the day. Dr. Alejandro A. Chafuen is a member of the board of advisors for The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Letters to the Editor Policy The Mount Desert Islander welcomes letters to the editor. Letters may be edited for libel, slander, taste or length. Submissions recommending commercial products or establishments will not be accepted. All letters should bear an original signature (e-mail letters must be independently verified) and a telephone number. Letters or submissions for Community Forum should be neatly prepared, and received in the office by Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. To submit a letter or column, email Liz Graves at lgraves@mdislander.com

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Not worried over slow GDP growth: Pranab Mukherjee Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], Dec 12 (ANI): Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said that he is not worried over slow growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as 'certain things' that happened had its impact. "I am not very much worried over the slow GDP growth because certain things happened, which had its impact," said Mukherjee at a felicitation programme at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata on Wednesday. The former finance minister in the UPA government further stated that "the sanctity of data as fact has to be kept intact, it cannot be manipulated or designed in any particular way.That will be disastrous.""Sometimes I read in newspapers that data is questioned, I feel sad. I used to take pride in the authenticity of the Economic Survey, which was brought out every year before the presentation of the budget," he added. (ANI)

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CECILIA LAVRIN Cecilia I. Lavrin is a former registered nurse who worked on medical and obstetrical units. During her time as a nurse, she became interested in the many legal and ethical issues she dealt with on a daily basis and made the decision to further her career as a nurse attorney. After graduating law school, she spent the first six years defending physicians, hospitals and other health care providers in medical negligence suits. She then went on to act as the Director of Risk Management for a regional medical center for two years. For the last 16 years Ms. Lavrin has used her background in nursing, defense law and risk management to prosecute cases involving medical malpractice in a number of medical specialties, including birth injuries, the late diagnosis of cancer, emergency room and surgical mistakes and nursing home negligence, recovering millions of dollars on behalf of her clients. Prior to joining WVFO in 2017, she managed her own law firm in Easton and Cambridge, Maryland, where she concentrated on representing victims of medical mistakes, as well as assisting other law firms with their medical cases. Her background in nursing allows her to quickly and effectively review and understand the medical records, choose the most effective medical experts and consult with experts on an advanced level. She has litigated cases in Maryland at both the state and the federal level and has been admitted pro hac vice in the District of Columbia and the states of Tennessee, Virginia, New York and Florida. Additionally, Ms. Lavrin has drafted briefs and argued cases before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Ms. Lavrin strongly believes in a close relationship with her clients and educating them on their medical issues. Many times she has found that her clients and their loved ones were not provided a careful explanation of the care they received, and are appreciative of a discussion of the medical facts and history using straight forward and simple language. Ms. Lavrin has lived most of her life in Maryland and is the mother of twins who are currently in college. While she lives and works in the Baltimore area during the week, Ms. Lavrin spends weekends on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she enjoys time with her husband and her hobbies of kayaking and gardening. George Mason University School of Nursing - Bachelor of Science in Nursing University of Miami School Of Law, Juris Doctor Bar Admissions and Professional Associations Maryland State Courts United States District Court for the District of Maryland Maryland Association for Justice Medical Negligence Section Nursing Home Section

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The museums in Alabama vary from historical institutions that help modern generations reconnect with the areas rich past to locations that help foster appreciation for the local environment and the natural resources it produces. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute was created to document and present to the public the long history of the black community's struggle for equality in Birmingham and throughout the South. BCRI's permanent exhibitions allow visitors to take a self-guided journey through the story of blacks and whites in Birmingham. From the period of segregation following WWI through integration in the 50's and on to the landmark the civil rights movement of the 1960's, these exhibits give the public a chance to understand Birmingham's significance in Civil Rights history. The Institute's Education Department facilitates Outreach Presentations for schools and community organizations throughout the greater Birmingham metropolitan area. www.bcri.org Anniston Museum of Natural History - (Pell City/Anniston) The seven exhibit halls of the Anniston Museum of Natural History vary from a representation of the African wilderness to artifacts from ancient Egypt to a full-scale replica of an Alabama cave. The museum also features one of the nation's oldest ornithological collections, with more than 400 mounted specimens of North American birds (including some that are now endangered and extinct). The hands-on learning continues with nature trails, a children's discovery room, and art exhibits. www.annistonmuseum.org Rosa Parks Museum By all standards just an ordinary woman before the morning of December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks's refusal to give her bus seat to a white man became one of the most recognizable and unifying images of the Civil Rights Movement. The Rosa Parks Library and Museum on Troy University's Montgomery campus details the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. The museum also honors the courage of the stand that Rosa Parks took against inequality. www.troy.edu/rosaparks Mann Wildlife Learning Museum A great educational resource for children, the Mann Wildlife Learning Museum gives visitors a unique chance to get up close to a wide variety of preserved North American wildlife. Feel the soft fur of a massive grizzly bear, the soft belt of a fox's back or the rigid antlers of the mighty moose. Each of the animals is shown in recreations of their natural habitat to enhance the experience. www.mannmuseum.com Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center Located in downtown Mobile, the Gulf Cost Exploreum is a regional science center designed to educate and entertain children and adults alike. Interactive exhibits teach children many about many core scientific areas such as chemistry, simple mechanics and biology. In addition to the exhibits, the Exploreum also features an amazing IMAX theatre. www.exploreum.net The Rosenbaum House Museum An architectural treasure by the master of modern design, Frank Lloyd Wright, the house was originally built for newlyweds Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum in 1939. Wright even designed an addition to the home in 1948 when the family grew to include four sons. The house is the only structure in the entire state of Alabama designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is one of the best examples of Wrights Usonian Style, and is the only Wright-designed house in the southeast that is open to the public. www.wrightinalabama.com

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Manzanillo Sun Coastal Mexico's Lifestyle eMagazine Magazine archives (PDF) Around Manzanillo Activities and sports in Manzanillo Manzanillo, an overview Blogs and sites of interest Dialing guide for calls to and from Mexico Emergency numbers and contacts English-language news and publications Flights and buses Guía de Restaurantes CANIRAC Manzanillo 2019 Internet availability and internet cafés P2C – Path to Citizenship Tidal charts and forecasts Using Canadian and US dollars in Manzanillo Weather and hurricanes A note to current and past authors and contributors 2017 Dan and Lisa Goy February 2017 RV Travel February 1, 2017 January 1, 2018 Dan and Lisa GoyLeave a Comment on Veracruz By Dan and Lisa Goy from the February 2017 Edition We started out early from Costa Esmeralda on the Gulf of Mexico Coast following Hwy 180 to Veracruz, lead by Bruce and Marian. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful as shortly after our departure we came to halt and a 5-hour lineup because of a blockade. The locals were protesting the state of the road to Tampico. We were definitely in solidarity with them as we had recently driven it and can confirm it was in major need of repair. The group took everything in stride. Before you knew it, vendors arrived. We did some shopping in the village of Casitas and Roland entertained some locals roadside. We met a local performer (they flying around a pole guys) and a young bus driver, Rafael had a good conversation on many Mexican topics. Once the logjam started to move, about 1pm, we returned to Sun Beach Campground to the avoid chaos when the protest was over. As it turns out, we were now back on schedule and the next day, before 8am, we continued southbound. The road was good to OK from Costa Esmeralda to Boca del Rio (south of Veracruz) where we ended up staying with the RVs. It is always so interesting driving thru villages, where we purchased oranges, crayfish and tamales. The group found a spot to pull over and I jumped in Rafael and Eileen’s RV to scout out Rancho La Condesa in Church’s book. We decided to stay here at $200 pesos per night, partial services, close to town and well kept grounds on the river with peacocks and iguanas in the trees. After getting settled, we headed out for supplies at Chedraui, next to the Liverpool. What an excellent store and mall! Mike and Kelly had arranged a group tour in Veracruz the next day. We met at the Hilton in Boca del Rio and piled into 2 vans. We had an extensive tour of Fort San Juan de Ulúa by a very knowledgeable guide, Pablo, that included at stop at the “El Gran Café de la Parraquoia” for coffee and lunch. On our return to the campground, Roland gave everyone a lesson on how to prepare and eat crawdads – lots of fun and tasty, too! We returned into town on the 3rd day to see more of historic Veracruz and dropped the gang off at the square (Plaza de las Armas), adjacent to the Municipal Palace, Virgen de la Asunción Cathedral. Fortunately, I was able to park nearby on the street by using 2 parking meters; 6 pesos for 2 hours, very inexpensive for sure. During our walkabout, Lisa and I were caught on the Google Street View Car, 2nd time for Lisa. Afterwards, we returned to Rancho La Condesa just after lunch and headed back out in search of fresh potable water. Only a few blocks away, we found a couple of roadside “aqua purificada” stands, 10 pesos for 20 liters, 5 pesos for 10 liters and1 peso for 1 liter. The sun was out, skies were blue and temperatures were rising so many were reading or having a siesta. Later some of the group grabbed a cab and headed back into town for dancing in the historic Zócalo. We did enjoy our time in Veracruz, certainly lots to see and do. Some Veracruz History The Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico in 1519 and founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, referring to the area’s gold and dedicated to the “True Cross”, because he landed on the Christian holy day of Good Friday, the day of the Crucifix-ion. It seems all invasions of Mexico from the sea started here. We camped south of the city at Rancho Condesa, an inexpensive scenic spot on the river. Veracruz has much to see including the cultural center of the city, which is its main plaza, officially named Plaza de las Armas but commonly called the Zócalo. In addition to a couple of visits downtown, we took a guided tour of the Fort San Juan de Ulúa, originally on an island which is now connected to land. In the pre-Hispanic era, this island was a sanctuary dedicated to the god Tezcatlipoca. The site where the Spanish first landed has been developed over the centuries and today serves as the container ship terminal of the port. Most of the island is occupied by the fort. This fort was built where the Spanish first landed to conquer Mexico and they used it for their last defense during and just after the Mexican War of Independence. Between these periods, the fort helped defend the city against piracy and later was used for prisoners and interrogations of the Mexican Inquisition. Started in 1582 to protect the city from pirates, it was enlarged in 1635 during the period of frequent pirate raids and finally finished in 1707. The city was the first on mainland America to receive a European coat of arms, which was authorized by Carlos V in Valladolid, Spain, on 4 July, 1523. The original settlement was moved to what is now known as Antigua, at the mouth of the Huitzilpan (or Antigua River) shortly thereafter. This separated the city from the port, as ships could not enter the shallow river. Ships continued to dock at San Juan de Ulúa, with small boats being used to ferry goods on and off the ships. When large-scale smuggling of goods took place to avoid customs officials, the Spanish Crown ordered the settlement returned to its original site to cut down on that traffic. Docks and an observation tower were constructed on the island to ensure that goods went through customs officials. This city will soon celebrate 500 years of existence, in comparison Canada is celebrating a 150-year birthday in 2017. As in other parts of Mexico, the indigenous peoples suffered from epidemics of European infectious diseases and maltreatment, which decimated the population after contact. The Spanish began to import African slaves via the port of Veracruz to work on sugarcane plantations. In the 16th century, this state had more slaves than any other in Mexico. Before the slave trade was abolished, Mexico had the second-highest population of African slaves in the Americas, following Brazil. By the end of the 16th century, the Spanish had constructed roads to link Veracruz with other cities such as Córdoba, Orizaba, Puebla, Xalapa and Perote. Their gold and silver were the principal exports. This caused the city problems with pi-rates, prompting the construction of Fort San Juan de Ulúa on the island where Grijalva had landed in the mid-16th century. Major public buildings were constructed at the beginning of the 17th century: the municipal palace, the monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Merced, and the Hospital de Nuestra Señora de Loreto. City of Veracruz and San Juan de Ulúa in 1615 was called ‘City of tables’ because the houses were of wood with flat thatched roofs. In 1618, a fire nearly reduced much of the city to ashes. In 1640, the Barlovento Armada was stationed here for addi-tional defense against pirates. Through the rest of the colonial period, this was the most important port in New Spain, with a large wealthy merchant class that was more prosperous than that of Mexico City. The pirates Van Hoorn, Laurens de Graaf and Michel de Grammont attacked Vera Cruz in 1683. The 19th century was marked by armed conflicts. During the Mexican War of Independence, Spain placed troops here to maintain Mexico City’s sea link with Spain. In 1816, Antonio López de Santa Anna commanded royalist troops countering the insurgency. In 1820, insurgents took the city, despite Santa Anna’s attempts to stop them. The last viceroy of New Spain, Juan O’Donojú, arrived here in 1821, where he signed the Treaty of Córdoba with Agustín de Iturbide at Fort San Juan de Ulúa. In 1823, Spanish troops remaining at Fort San Juan de Ulúa fired on the newly-independent Mexican city of Veracruz. The city’s defense against the attack earned its first title of “Heroic City.” During the Pastry War in 1837, the city mounted a defense against a French attack, and earned its second title of “Heroic City.” In 1847 during the Mexican–American War, United States forces invaded the city. It was defended by generals Juan Morales and José Juan de Landero, but they were forced to surrender a few days later. The government of Mexico recog-nized Veracruz with a third title of “Heroic City.” Ten years later, civil war between liberals and conservatives forced Benito Juárez’s government to flee the capital of Mexico City. Juárez went to Veracruz and governed from there in 1857. In 1861 Spain sent its troops to occupy the port in an effort to secure payment of debts, which Juárez had suspended. French military forces accompanied them to prepare for Maximiliano I and occupied the city when the emperor and his wife Carlota of Belgium arrived in 1864. The conflicts and damaged trade relations with Europe took its toll on the port of Veracruz. By 1902, the port facilities had deteriorated, and it was considered one of the most dangerous on the American coast. President Porfirio Díaz contracted with foreign enterprises to modernize the port’s infrastructure. In 1914, during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the US at-tacked and occupied the port in an effort to try to preserve trade. The city gained its fourth title of “Heroic City”. After the Revolution, most port workers became unionized. Through most of the 20th century, federal and state legal and political initiatives intended to better workers’ lives had effects on the operations of the port. Eventually, unions came to have great power over the operations and tariffs charged. By the latter part of the 20th century, competing unions made the operations of the port difficult. Some blocked access to the port from federal roads and financial corruption was a problem. In the 1970s, a federal commission was established to design a new administrative system for the ports of Mexico. The legislature passed laws authorizing the federal government to take control over important ports such as Veracruz. The federal government modernized the port, adopting automation of loading and unloading. This resulted in a reduction of 80% of the port’s jobs and labor resistance through strikes. The dockworkers’ unions unified, negotiating for members to have a stake in a new company to manage the port’s functions, named the Empresa de Servicios Portuarios de Veracruz, S.A. de C.V. The old Compañia Terminal de Veracruz was dissolved in 1988 and the new organization was fully in place by 1991. In September 2010, Hurricane Karl, a small, strong Category 3 hurricane, caused widespread flooding and damage affecting approximately half a million people. Sixteen were confirmed dead with another eleven missing. Sixty-five municipalities in the state were declared disaster areas. Preliminary damage estimates total up to $3.9 billion USD and $50 billion MXN. Much of the most recent commercial development has been in newer areas in the south of the city and in the neighboring municipality of Boca del Río (where we stayed with the RVs), linked by a ten-kilometer road along the shore that caters to tourists and business travelers. The hotels in Veracruz are more rustic and traditional; the modern ones are in Boca del Río, especially near Playa Mocambo. Although Veracruz is not as popular a tourist destination as many other resort areas there are many sites to see. In more recent years, the city has been promoting an identity as a tourist destination, emphasizing new attractions such as the Veracruz Aquarium and the City Museum, and the renovation of historic ones, such as Fort San Juan de Ulúa and the Naval Academy. The Malecón (boardwalk) stretches for kilometers along the Gulf of Mexico, leading from the city center into the suburbs. This area is popular at night, when people stroll and exercise, enjoying the ocean breezes. Near the city center, the Malecón is crowded with merchants selling knick-knacks, souvenirs, jewelry made with seashells, and T-shirts. Download the full edition or view it online Dan and Lisa Goy Dan and Lisa Goy, owners of Baja Amigos RV Caravan Tours, have been making Mexico their second home for more than 30 years and love to introduce Mexico to newcomers. report content or contact author Contact author or admin Suggestions Compliments! Broken Links Copyright concern Inappropriate content Outdated information Other Tagged Dan and Lisa GoyFebruary 2017Manzanillo SunVeracruz You do not need a boat or rod to go Phishing, just the right bait. Sandwichon March 1, 2017 January 1, 2018 Manzanillo Sun Writer Facebook privacy demystified (part seven) Snopes.com is back! September 1, 2017 December 8, 2017 Señior Tech My Ocean Loves My Stuff May 1, 2017 December 17, 2017 Terry Sovil This month’s issue is here! Find this month’s issue of the magazine and archives of all past magazines at this link (to download) or view it online as a flipping magazine on ISSUU. Allan Yanitski Annie Stirling April Pepper López Cheryl Weaver Claire Gibson Colima de Ayer Dane Russo Darcy Reed Dave Boroughs David Fitzpatrick Diana Stevens Diana Stewart Donna McElroy Ed Labine Eduardo Cordera Elaine Parker Freda Rumford Freda Rumford Vickery Glen Wilchek Glenna Palidwor Ian Rumford John Chalmers Joy Lett Karen Trom Ken Waldie Kirby Vickery Linda Breun Lorenzo Llamas Mariana Llamas-Cendon Nancy Nystrom Patty Clarkson Ruth Hazlewood Sarah Vafaei Señior Tech Shine Dawson Stan Wood Suzanne A. Marshall Terry Quizoz Terry Sovil Tommy Clarkson Victor Manuel Martinez Vivian Molick Yann Kostic By series or topic Animal Group in Manzanillo Colours of Mexico I Planted Roots in Mexico Mighty Nature Path to Citizenship Skills at Sea Travel advisories from Canadian Embassy Travel advisories from US Embassy By edition Manzanillo México, Video Oficial 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrz8FkumZGg Sign up for our news and updates! Click here to add yourself to the list or to unsubscribe Manzanillo Sun | Theme: News Portal by Mystery Themes.

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Utah / Civil marriage equality in effect at the state level since 2014. (Same-sex couples may legally marry.) 26 June 2015, Lawmaker has bill drafted to do away with marriages in Utah - By Ben Winslow, FOX 13 in Salt Lake City Civil marriage equality cannot legally be denied at the state level, via the Supreme Court of the United States, as of 26 June 2015. On 26 June 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled FOR marriage equality and that same-gender couples have the constitutional right to marry in all 50 states and all U.S. territories. MARRIAGE EQUALITY FAQ If a marriage license is refused to you, please contact one of the following legal organizations immediately! https://www.aclu.org/about/affiliates?redirect=affiliates http://www.GLADAnswers.org/ Lambda Legal http://www.lambdalegal.org/marriage-equality-tracker http://www.nclrights.org/legal-help 26 November 2014, For the first time, same-sex couples can be foster parents in Utah - By Ben Winslow, FoxNow, Channel 13: "Utah law allows single people and legally married couples to be foster parents. That previously excluded same-sex couples, who could not legally wed. But with the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting Utah’s appeal of Amendment 3 and the governor ordering state agencies to recognize same-sex marriage, it’s a new opportunity for the foster care system to reach an untapped audience." HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Because it is the center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon) religion, Utah has a unique history regarding marriage. Polygamy was practiced by certain Mormon members, leaders and communities beginning in 1835. From 1852 until 1890, LDS Church leaders preached and encouraged members, especially those in leadership positions, to marry additional wives. Fundamentalist groups who believe that the church discontinued polygamy only because of pressure from the federal government continued the practice. As they were discovered by the LDS Church, they were excommunicated. Some of these polygamists have appointed leaders and continue to live in groups, including those in Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City (formerly Short Creek), Arizona. Others still practice polygamy but have no affiliation with an organized group. One of the prime arguments used by those opposed to marriage equality is that it will lead to polygamy. In August 2014, without realizing the cards would not be welcomed, Hallmark placed greeting cards celebrating same-sex marriages in the Brigham Young University bookstore. The cards were removed by the bookstore as soon as they were discovered. BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins referenced the BYU honor code. It states that while being attracted to people of the same gender doesn't violate the honor code, acting on those feelings is a violation. BYU is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which stands behind its belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

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Home › SFP Beyond 5.1 THE RACE FOR GREATER PLAYBACK DIMENSIONALITY HEATS UP Steve Jennings-x ⋅ Sep 8, 2010 Mike Hedges and his crew created the soundtrack for Universal’s King Kong attraction at Park Road Post in Wellington, New Zealand New Zealand–based re-recording mixer Mike Hedges has plenty of experience crafting superb multichannel film mixes. He’s earned Oscars for his work on two of director Peter Jackson’s most complex films, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and King Kong (2005). Each of those films clocked in at more than three hours and required many months of audio post work. Yet one of the most intriguing jobs Hedges has worked on recently is a film that lasts just 90 seconds—but required an entirely new approach to mixing. That’s because that minute-and-a-half is not for a conventional theatrical film, but is the audio component of the new 3-D King Kong portion of the famous “backlot” tram ride at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. It’s a job that required Hedges to mix 22 discrete channels for twin 120×40-foot curved screens that sit on either side of a tram during the Kong episode, in which our gorilla hero saves the helpless tourists from a T-Rex attack! This is part of a trend that’s been growing for some time: upping the audio ante—more channels, more speakers—to make sound appear more dimensional. Certainly, the new generation of 3-D films has fueled the urge to fill auditorium spaces with more realistic and enveloping sound. But it’s also affecting the sound design in other spaces—from videogames to thrill rides to museum exhibits. What if, instead of a film soundtrack being delivered in a theater in six channels through 12 to 20 speakers, it came at the audience through 32 discrete channels and more than 60 speakers? What if sound reproduction environments started dealing with the height dimension? All of these things are happening and at an ever-accelerating pace. Mixers have a wild new world awaiting them and cinema loudspeaker manufacturers must be salivating at the prospects for increased business. Right away, we should acknowledge that where the mainstream movie theater is heading right now is probably toward Dolby Surround 7.1. With the greater penetration of 5.1 in homes, it’s important that commercial exhibitors stay ahead of the curve by providing an experience less accessible to consumers; though a form of 7.1 is also available to consumers through some Blu-ray discs, it is in its infancy as a home format. Dolby’s 7.1 was developed with Disney/Pixar and was debuted in select theaters this summer on a pair of 3-D releases—Toy Story 3 and the live-action dance film Step Up 3-D. The 7.1 format features eight discrete channels: front left, center and right, a sub (low-frequency effects), left surround, right surround, and left and right back surround (the last two marking the difference between 5.1 and 7.1). “It’s another color, another thing in the palette,” Toy Story 3 mixer Tom Myers told Mix shortly before the film opened. “You can localize things more and put them directly by your side and something else behind you. Still, in this film we’re trying to do it so it feels natural and draws the audience into the action. We’re not throwing [sounds] around just because we can do it and it’s cool. Though it is cool.” Not surprisingly, Tomlinson Holman—sound reproduction innovator and developer of the THX system back in the early ’80s—is also promoting, through his TMH Corporation, a playback format that increases dimensionality: 10.2, which uses 12 speakers, including two “height” channels (actually, upper-front, 45 degrees above the audience); in front there are left wide, left height, left, center, right, right height, right wide; three surround channels (left, back and right); and two LFE/sub channels (hence, the “.2”). So far, 10.2, which was developed by Holman and USC’s Chris Kyriakakis, has been demo’d only and does not exist in any commercial facilities, but the early word-of-mouth has been encouraging, and certainly Holman’s track record speaks for itself. And we would be remiss not to mention that IMAX, which has become the “premium” format of choice (i.e., people will gladly pay extra to view films on the giant screens), employs dozens of speakers throughout its theaters—especially behind the mammoth screens—though the audio is still a 6-channel surround mix. But let’s go back to Park Road Post Production in Wellington, New Zealand, and see how the requirements of Universal’s King Kong attraction affected Hedges’ approach to the mix. On the visual side, this was completely new Kong footage created at Weta Digital (New Zealand) to Jackson’s exacting specifications, though the sound team did employ some of the original Kong and T-Rex roars from Jackson’s film, created by David Farmer, Brent Burge and others. “We had to rebuild the ambiences from scratch again,” Hedges offers. “You’ve only got 90 seconds, so you don’t have time to be massively inventive in terms of creating new groundbreaking audio, but it has to work. You have to engage the audience in a scenario and take them on a journey and get them out of there quickly.” Kong mixer Mike Hedges (right) with Brent Burge Because of the ride’s unusual format—with two huge parallel screens being filled by 16 projectors, sandwiching the tram—Hedges and his team devised a way to mix to that configuration: In Theater One at Park Road, “We constructed a third-scale model of what the Universal soundstage was going to be, so we had screens on both sides of the room as opposed to where the screen normally is at the front.” Working from animatics and armed with knowledge acquired from visiting the cavernous space the tram would pass through, the team took the mix as far as they could, working in New Zealand and eventually heading to L.A. to refine the mix within the space. “The biggest thing we had to adapt to was the spatial aspect of the sound,” Hedges says. “The room reverb time is like 12 seconds—how do you deal with that? It was horrendous! Obviously, we wanted to add size to Kong’s roar and the most common way to do that would be by adding reverb, but the natural ’verb meant we didn’t have to, though we did add some slight delays that were timed to reinforce Kong’s roar in the distant speakers. What we found when we got to L.A. is that we had to shorten specific elements of the roar, and the sub was overpowering, so to make it more immediate we halved the length of our sub signal.” In terms of the speaker configuration for Hedges’ 22-channel mix, to each side (left and right) of the three-car tram, “We have two ground stacks of five speakers, which is a left, inner left, center, inner right and outer right. You have an image in the middle of the screen so the complexity of it was, we had to take the speakers that were below us and add a left-center-right above for each side, so then we had to balance how much of Kong was in the uppers and the lowers to generate the effect of him being in the middle of the screen. Our main challenge was, how do we make Kong sound like he’s right in your face? The proximity of the speakers is too far from the tram so we had to build speakers into this effects wall that runs down either side of the tram, so when Kong roars, you’ve got sub sets that rock your intestines and your core being, and then you’ve got these reinforcement speakers that bring him to life. Those are stereo pairs—two stereo pairs for each of the three trams—12 sets of speakers, individually fed, so when we wanted sound to come at you, we were feeding into those speakers. Finally, we have two sub channels of two speakers on the ground, front and back.” The speakers are a combination of L-Acoustics and Meyer Sound models. Over the course of about five days, Hedges and his team—which included Brent Burge and Universal veteran Peter Lehman (The Simpsons Ride, Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride)—did most of the final mixing “in the box” on a Pro Tools rig inside Tram 2. Iosono studio technologies VP Brian Slack at a Digidesign ICON Dealing with left and right screens was difficult enough, but the ride has another wrinkle that posed an interesting sonic challenge, Hedges reveals: “At one point, Kong throws the T-Rex from one side to the other and it bounces off the top of the tram. With the movement of the tram, you’re getting quite a lot of dynamic in that movement, and what we tried to do with the sound was re-create it by panning, say, on the left-hand side from the ground stack to the high stack to the right-high stack and down again, all in a split second. We were writing that pan, and we found that the best way to make it feel like the sound’s right above you is to mono up those stereo pairs in the walls and fire that at the tram, and you get this amazing effect of scraping and rattling as the tram does this movement and you really feel like he’s going over the top. We wanted to try some speakers above, but the tram has a roof on it so the sound has to get to you from the side. Mono’ing up the center and top speakers from either side did the trick.” (We also wanted to write about the well-reviewed multi-environment Forbidden Journey ride at Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but were informed that the powers-that-be did not want the “secrets” of the ride revealed.) A hop, skip and jump from Hollywood’s Universal theme park, a company called Iosono, a division of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, is looking to revolutionize film sound through experimental installations at Mann’s Chinese Theater (also in Hollywood). According to Brian Slack, Iosono’s senior VP of studio technologies, the company’s latest installation at Mann’s involves around 60 speakers placed strategically in a 450-seat theater. “For that particular sound system, we’re going to end up with 10 channels behind the screen—they have five now—and roughly 50 surround speakers, so literally twice as many as they have now,” he says. Arup Acoustics’ Raj Patel A major difference between Iosono and other companies, however, is “We want to literally remix the film,” Slack says. “We’ve done mixes with a lot of mixers in studios in Hollywood. Overture Pictures gave us clips of The Crazies, which was a very good demo because the film was not in 3-D. When people hear about our system, they intuitively think it will be perfect for 3-D, but in the case of The Crazies, it added a whole other aspect to a 2-D film. However, we also did a demo of a reel from Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which was in 3-D. On that one, we worked with Geoff Rubay, who was the sound supervisor, and he brought in all of his sound effects predubs, which is one step earlier than the stems, but we had all the stems accessible to us, too. “What we’re delivering to movie theaters is kind of unique in that Dolby, DTS, SDDS were delivery formats; they were a new way of delivering a 5.1 or 7.1 to a theater, but essentially the sound system was exactly the same. What separates us is we are a completely new sound system, so the delivery format is its own thing. We have two separate products—one is a 3-D sound system and one is a universal delivery format—and literally what we’re delivering to a movie theater is a 32-channel print master. So in addition to the added number of speakers, we’re also adding to the number of channels we’re sending to movie theaters, which allows us to get more precise placement on where we can put things in the theater and it inherently gives us a lot more headroom. By the nature of the way we’re delivering the soundtrack, we also have a lot lower noise floor, we have lower distortion because we’re not building up so many tracks on the same six channels—we’re distributing it over a larger number of channels.” Slack prefers the term “multidimensional” to “3-D”: “It’s not, strictly speaking, 3-D because we’re not actually dealing with height at the moment.” He says that “we definitely think of ourselves going into more premium theaters. It’s going to be a premium experience because by the nature of the sound system, it’s going to be expensive. We’re financing the first 50 screens, so by the end of the year we hope to have 50 theaters across the U.S., and before that we’re doing a limited release of a film we haven’t announced yet, but it will be for industry advertising to get people to understand what the format is.” Sound and acoustics are just one small aspect of what the international design, planning, engineering and consulting firm Arup is involved in. Calling Arup “a world leader in 3-D spatialization,” Raj Patel, leader of Arup Acoustics, says his company is trying to develop true 3-D sound environments by using an Ambisonic system, “which allows you to reproduce aural environments in complete 3-D so you have complete control over the angle from which a sound comes. “We’ve gone from a world of recording that started mono and went to stereo and then to what people generally mean when they say surround—5.1 or 7.1; whatever it might be. But the big drawback of all of those systems is that they mainly have loudspeakers at the front and at the side, and you can really only make sounds move from front to back by panning them to the left and right. An Ambisonic arrangement can make sound appear to come from all directions, so the perceptual impact of listening to audio accompanying video increases several-fold, especially if you can get sounds coming from the upper rear. “If you record surround in the field in the first place, which requires a relatively complex mic, you can make field recordings in 3-D and then you can potentially apply that in a Foley studio or a mastering studio to create a true 3-D effect, which you can’t do with a 5.1 scenario because 5.1 is only taking mono recordings and placing the sound in particular locations and panning them from one place to another.” If a world where surround mics are commonly used to create film soundtracks doesn’t seem to be right around the corner, Arup knows that this practice will be part of the acoustics business for a long time to come. His firm is also exploring many applications that are not based around conventional theaters. “The computer gaming industry is interesting because they really are trying to figure out how to heighten the individual experience,” Patel says. “Having audio in 3-D connects you much more viscerally to what’s going on in the game environment and is really becoming quite popular. In fact, there’s a company that’s about to come out with the first game that is 3-D audio only; it has no video. “Music and education clients have been looking at 3-D, too. For example, the New World Symphony has been wanting to create a quality master-class series for their students where they can experience it and feel it in 3-D and hear it in 3-D and be able to play along with it in 3-D. And the scientific community wants to understand the interaction between light and sound, or the psychology of behavior as it relates to sound, and you can really only do that if you work in 3-D. So in places like Queens University in Belfast, they have what they term their Sonic Arts Center, which is a multilevel space with three floors where you can have sound coming from above, below you, the sides. Working with social scientists and psychologists, people have been building these sorts of spaces that are for much more than just entertainment.” Blair Jackson is ’s senior editor. AES Product Annoucement V. 1 Euphonix System 5-MC, MC Controllers Waves Audio Now Shipping the eMo D5 Dynamics Plugin: 5-in-1 Multi-Dynamics with Parallel Detection Day 1 of the 125th AES Convention held at SF’s Moscone Center Oct. 2-5, 2008. 6 VIEWS ON 5.1 ELLIOT SCHEINER SINGS THE PRAISES OF 5.1

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‹ Back to Latest News Modrall Sperling Attorneys Support First Responders Event By Modrall Sperling The third annual First Responders 5k attracted more than 300 runners and supporters – including many law enforcement officers, fire fighters, paramedics, the general public and their families. Race Director Christina Sheehan, a Modrall Sperling associate, and Robin Hopkins, a former Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Deputy, initiated the annual event. The event was inspired by the events of October 26, 2013, when Hopkins was shot by a man whose only intention was to injure and kill police officers. “Robin and I were searching for a way to bring everyone together in a meaningful manner to strengthen relationships between first responders and the communities they serve,” Sheehan says. Her husband, Matt Caplan, is a Detective with the APD Violent Crimes Unit. A member of the Event Committee, Modrall Sperling shareholder Jim Houghton, adds, “Police officers, firefighters, and paramedics all participate in this annual event, which is a day of remembrance for first responders who have been injured or who have fallen in the line of duty. We honor the sacrifices they have made.” All proceeds from this event benefit the New Mexico Ten-82 fund, which provides support to first responders and their families when the need arises. James P. Houghton Christina C. Sheehan ‹ Modrall Sperling ranked in 2017 “Best Law Firms” Native American Law Watch – Fall 2016 ›

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FDA Announces New Efforts to Combat Cybersecurity Threats in Medical Devices FDA is tackling cybersecurity threats head-on and expects industry to do the same. Earlier this month, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., announced a series of developments designed to keep pace with evolving cybersecurity threats to medical devices. Industry should take note, as these developments detail the agency’s current expectations for companies preparing to combat future threats. As part of FDA’s effort to get in front of these issues before they happen, it launched its first ever Medical Device Cybersecurity Regional Incident Preparedness and Response Playbook (the “Playbook”). FDA also announced two memoranda of understanding designed to improve information sharing about cybersecurity risks. Finally, just last week, FDA released an update to guidance from 2014 concerning premarket expectations for devices susceptible to cybersecurity threats. The Playbook The Playbook provides a framework for healthcare providers to plan and respond to cyberattacks that target medical devices. It was developed by MITRE Corporation under a federally-funded research and development contract with FDA. The Playbook is geared toward multiple audiences, including clinicians, healthcare technology management professionals, and IT staff, as well as device manufacturers and maintenance contractors. Targeting this broad audience highlights that effective responses to cybersecurity threats require multiple stakeholders working together to share information and increase transparency. The Playbook focuses on strategies for addressing large-scale, multi-patient threats and is not intended to give advice about day-to-day patches. It takes a regional approach, focusing on regional medical device preparedness and encouraging regional partnerships to help ensure patient safety is protected across a particular region. In addition to publishing the industry-directed Playbook, FDA developed its own internal playbook to help its staff address cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, and incidents when they happen. FDA also announced two memoranda of understanding aimed at bringing together multiple stakeholders to increase information sharing and transparency surrounding cybersecurity risks. The memoranda of understanding establish information sharing analysis organizations – or ISAOs – to analyze and disseminate important industry data about cyber threats. Although the memoranda are non-binding, FDA hopes that manufacturers will participate in these ISAOs and signal to customers that they take a proactive approach to addressing cybersecurity. Just last Wednesday, an MOU between FDA and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was released. It establishes a partnership between the two agencies designed to “lead to more timely and better responses to potential threats to patient safety.” As part of that partnership, DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) will continue to serve as the “central medical device vulnerability coordination center” while also communicating with FDA to address systemic cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities. Update to 2014 Guidance Finally, last Thursday, FDA published a significant update to premarket guidance on cybersecurity that it had previously released in 2014. Once final, it will supersede the earlier guidance. The new guidance also contains a “cybersecurity bill of materials,” which keeps customers informed about potentially vulnerable hardware and software. FDA will also hold a public workshop on January 29-30, 2019 to discuss the draft guidance on premarket submissions for management of cybersecurity in medical devices. Through these developments, FDA is recognizing that cybersecurity threats cannot be addressed by one particular stakeholder or one particular government agency alone. FDA is also acknowledging that this space continues to evolve and constant dialogue is a must. Participants in that dialogue must include not only FDA and the public, but also every software developer and hardware manufacturer involved in bringing a device to market. We will continue to provide updates on legislative and regulatory activity affecting the connected medical device space. Erin M. Bosman John P. Carlin Julie Y. Park Suzy Marinkovich Privacy + Data Security Consumer Products + Retail

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Michael has performed extensively in concerts, cabarets, corporate functions and outdoor events, in addition to performing as a guest entertainer onboard some of the world's most luxurious cruise liners, and is available for engagements throughout the UK and internationally. His repertoire covers a wide range of genres including musical theatre, classical, pop and swing, a genre in which he has considerable experience. He is also the star of Nobody but Bublé, the brand-new tribute concert experience to the multi-platinum selling recording artist and entertainer, Michael Bublé, which is currently on tour throughout the UK. For enquiries or further information please visit the Contact page. For details on forthcoming concert appearances please visit the Upcoming Performances page. Michael Riseley © 2013. All rights reserved. MICHAEL RISELEY

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Mich in Color Black student enrollment drops for University freshman class of 2020 Timothy Cohn Daily Staff Reporter Riyah Basha Black student enrollment at the University of Michigan decreased in this year’s freshman class, according to enrollment figures released by the University Wednesday morning. The new class of students is overall more diverse than last year’s class, however. Both the decrease in Black students and increase in underrepresented minorities comes amid the recent launch of the University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan, which aims to increase and foster racial, socieonomic, gender, ethnic and other types of diversity on campus. In total, enrollment of Black freshmen in the class of 2020 fell from 5.1 percent in 2015 to 4.6 percent this year. Overall, 13.8 percent of the class comes from underrepresented minority backgrounds — a category including Black, Hawaiian, Hispanic, Native American, or a combination of two or more ethnicities — marking an increase of 1 percent from last year. Hispanic enrollment rose by .82 percent in the new class, the largest increase among any individual group of underrepresented minorities. In an interview with The Michigan Daily in September, University President Mark Schlissel said he expected a smaller growth in racial and socioeconomic diversity compared to last year, due to a series of strategies that were first introduced last year. “There won’t be as big a leap this year as there was last year,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing that will continue to bounce up and down year by year, but it’s important the overall trajectory is upward.” University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald said in an interview Wednesday that administrators are focusing their efforts on improving diversity of all types, including racial and economic, as well as on admitting first-generation students and students from a wider variety of high schools. He acknowledged, however, that efforts to increase African-American enrollment fell short of the University’s expectations. “It’s a difficult process of trying to focus on improve diversity at the University,” Fitzgerald said. “But it’s an area that we continue to work on, within the law of the state of Michigan.” Among the student body as a whole, with the inclusion of this year’s freshman class undergraduate enrollment of minority students increased from 11.4 percent last fall to 12.3 percent of the undergraduate student body. In 2005, the year before Michigan voters passed Proposal 2 —a measure effectively banning affirmative action in admissions processes — minority enrollment accounted for 13.7 percent of the student body, according to a report issued by the University. Addditionally, among the freshman class, the number of Pell Grant recipients increased to 17 percent, up from 15.3 percent last year, and the number of first-generation students spiked by 8.5 percent. Fitzgerald highlighted efforts aimed at bringing low-income students to the University, including the HAIL scholarship, which guarantees four years of waived tuition and fees for eligible students. The first cohort from the program enrolled in this year’s freshman class. “The first year of our HAIL scholarship experiment was very successful.” Fitzgerald said. “We brought in 262 HAIL scholars from all around Michigan. Now, this effort primarily targets socioeconomic diversity because that’s what the state law allows us to do.” What the future looks like for the HAIL scholarship and others, however, isn’t entirely clear —in an October interview, Schlissel said the HAIL program and other efforts focused on recruitment and enrollment that are a part of the University’s newly released Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan depend in part on funds that have yet to be raised. “Our hope is a significant portion of the $85 million (in DEI funds) will come from philanthropy,” he said. Along with demographics, this year’s freshman class also represented a change in overall size. This year’s freshman class of 6,689 students is a significant increase from last year, when the University enrolled 6,071 incoming freshman. It also seems to represent a contrast in philosophy about class size— in 2014, after a a unexpectedly high number of students chose to accept enrollment at the University and caused housing and scheduling issues, University Provost Martha Pollack presented plans to the University's Board of Regents on how to reduce class size. However, Fitzgerald said this 618-student increase in the freshman class was part of a yearlong intentional effort by the University to expand the size of the student body. Overall enrollment for the Ann Arbor campus rose 2.4 percent from last year, bringing the total number of undergraduate students to 28,983 and graduate students to 15,735. Out-of-state students now comprise 48.4 percent of the student body, as compared to 46.5 percent in 2015. In-state enrollment dropped by 254 students, now making up 51.6 percent of all students. “We’ve grown a little bit in the non-Michigan students ... to diversify the student body,” he said. “We’re looking at students of all socioeconomic statuses around the country.” In a press release, Erica Sanders, director of undergraduate admissions, said the admissions department reviewed 55,504 applications — an increase of around 7 percent from last year, on par with steady increases over the past several years. Of the 55,504 applications received, the University offered 15,871 students admission, with 6,689 enrolling for a yield of 42.1 percent. SportsMonday Column: Is Michigan on the verge of another Fab Five? 'U' students react to Ann Arbor being voted best small college city in America ‘Flirty Dancing’ makes major missteps in its series premiere Hidden Population: Undergraduate student parents advocate for more resources To the white men who told me that they “prefer” white women subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Daily Digest View Print Issue The Michigan Daily 420 Maynard St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by the students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

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MSU hosts Kentucky Student Council Association Student organizations like Morehead State University’s Student Government Association (SGA) allow students to have a real impact on the future of the University. Now, MSU is playing a role in helping the region’s high school students make an impact on their own high schools and beyond. Morehead State hosted the Kentucky Student Council Association on Oct. 25. Formed last month, the association was created by the Fleming County High School Student Council as there is no statewide council for high school SGAs in the state of Kentucky. The Kentucky Student Council Association will bring high school leaders together for the opportunity to exchange ideas, share effective processes and procedures, and give those leaders a chance to network with students in positions of similar leadership around the Commonwealth. Participating high schools include Fleming County High School in Flemingsburg, George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, Greenup County High School in Greenup, Morgan County High School in West Liberty and Randall K. Cooper High School in Union. MSU’s SGA assisted in organizing the event and providing mentorship. The Kentucky Student Council Association plans to meet again in December and hopes to get more high school student councils involved across the state. “Morehead State University's Student Government Association is happy to serve as the host site for the newly formed Kentucky Student Council Association,” said Shannon Colvin, associate director for the Office of Student Activities. “We are committed to encouraging the future of students that are engaged in the shared governance process at their high school and hopefully in the collegiate setting.” For more information on Morehead State University’s Student Government Association, visit www.moreheadstate.edu/sga. To learn more about student organizations at MSU, visit www.moreheadstate.edu/activities, email studentactivities@moreheadstate.edu or call 606-783-2071. Photo: Morehead State hosted the Kentucky Student Council Association on Oct. 25. Formed last month, the association was created by the Fleming County High School Student Council as a statewide council for high school student councils in the state of Kentucky.

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BridgingBuy-to-letNews LendInvest hires CEO LendInvest has promoted Rod Lockhart to chief executive, following Christian Faes stepping away to become executive chairman. Having joined LendInvest in 2015 and formerly being head of capital markets and fund management, Lockhart (pictured left) is a long-serving member of the management team and now joins the company’s board of directors. Faes (pictured centre) co-founded the firm in 2008 with Ian Thomas (pictured right). LendInvest updates buy-to-let range Faes said: “After 11 years my co-founder and I are extremely proud of what we’ve built. “LendInvest is a powerhouse in UK fintech – a company that has raised almost £2bn, has been consistently profitable, and has proven that it is a financially viable and sustainable business. “The company is in an excellent position and no one is better placed than Rod to take over day-to-day management of the business. “This will allow me to focus on what I love doing as a founder and entrepreneur, which is the outward facing work for the company and working on our strategy and vision.” Lockhart has had a close working relationship with Faes and Thomas even before joining LendInvest. Between 2013 and 2015, Lockhart acted as LendInvest’s external fund manager while working as a senior director at CBRE. Faes added: “Ian and I have worked with Rod for more than seven years, both while he was at CBRE and then as part of our team, and he has been an important partner and instrumental in helping us achieve the success that we have. “LendInvest remains a founder-led business and I am still completely committed to building the leading mortgage lender in the UK. “I’m looking forward to working closely with Rod, the wider team, and the board as we roll out the company’s long-term strategy.” Lockhart said: “I’m honoured to become chief executive of LendInvest at such an exciting time in its growth. “Under Christian’s leadership, LendInvest has become a powerhouse for UK fintech – one that is consistently profitable and able to demonstrate its sustainability, while investing in innovation and continually challenging outdated industry norms.” Chris Barnes, partner of Atomico & board director of LendInvest, added: “We’re delighted to see this natural shift in the LendInvest leadership team. “The company and its shareholders will continue to benefit from the clarity of Christian’s vision for LendInvest over the long-term and will reap the rewards of Rod’s stewardship at an operating level. “This is promising news for one of UK fintech’s biggest success stories.” Andy Virgo promoted at LendInvest Funding and technology: the foundations of building a great product To succeed in buy-to-let, play to your strengths

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JOHN WAYNE - AUSTRALIAN MOVIE POSTERS Welcome to my exhibition of Australian movie posters from the films of John Wayne, voted the 5th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Original Australian John Wayne posters have always been fairly elusive, probably due to his great popularity and the fact that the majority of the posters would have been used at cinemas and then disposed of. Posters from his films of the 30s have been rarely seen but if anyone has any images that they would like me to add please contact me. I cannot say that the artwork on John Wayne Australian posters is anything but average at best with some of the images bearing little resemblance to the great star but this exhibition provides a historical record of many of the Australian posters that have been found. A number of the images have come from the CRAIG KENNETT collection and my thanks go to him. If you have any comments or suggestions please email me. You can find a small selection of John Wayne posters and lobby cards for sale on my site here - John Wayne Movie posters. I hope you enjoy the Exhibition and feel free to click on the links to the right of this page for other movie poster sites. Free counters provided by Andale. Alamo, The (1960) The Alamo (1960) Directed by John Wayne. With John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey. Alamo, The (1960) One Sheet The Alamo (1960) Directed by John Wayne. With John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey. Image Courtesy of Rick Bayne Allegheny Uprising (1939) aka First Rebel, The Allegheny Uprising (1939) Directed by William A. Seiter. With Claire Trevor, John Wayne, George Sanders. Image Courtesy of Craig Kennett Angel and the Badman, The (1947) Angel and the Badman (1947) Directed by James Edward Grant. With John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey. Back to Bataan (1945) Barbarian and the Geisha, The (1958) Barbarian and the Geisha, The (1958) - One Sheet Big Jake (1971) Big Jake (1971) One Sheet Big Jim McLain (1952) Big Trail, The (1930) - One Sheet Blood Alley (1955) Brannigan (1975) Cahill (1973) California Straight Ahead (1937) Chisum (1970) Chisum (Black and White Style) (1970) Circus World (1964) Comancheros, The (1961) Conqueror, The (1956) Cowboys, The (1972) Cowboys, The (1972) - One Colour

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Home / CELEBRITY NEWS / Neel Sethi, Wild Child Mowgli in "The Jungle Book" Neel Sethi, Wild Child Mowgli in "The Jungle Book" The only live-action actor among an all-star cast in Disney's “The Jungle Book,” child performer Neel Sethi was chosen by director Jon Favreau after considering about 2000 kids who auditioned for the lead role of Mowgli. The now 12-year-old Sethi is a natural athlete, enjoys playing all sports—especially basketball and football. He is working towards earning his black belt in Taekwondo and underwent parkour training to help him prepare him for his role in the film. Mowgli is a human boy who was abandoned in the jungle as an infant. A black panther named Bagheera discovers the lone baby and takes him to a wolf pack, who adopts the boy as one of their own. Known in the jungle as the man-cub, Mowgli grows up among the animals—some friends, some foes—never doubting for a moment that he belongs. “Mowgli is a character who wants to fit in,” says Favreau. “He feels alienated. He’s an outsider. A vulnerable little kid, like the ugly duckling in a pack of wolves. Each year the wolf cubs grow and mature faster than him and eventually they get to join the wolf council. He's left behind like that kid in school who gets left behind every year. Although he's a plucky, rambunctious kid with a lot of confidence, his life isn’t easy.” Mowgli finds himself lost and confused when he’s asked to leave the only home he’s ever known. But he’s not completely alone. In fact, he’s guided by two father figures who contribute opposing views. “Mowgli’s a very loving, accepting character,” says producer Brigham Taylor. “He accepts Baloo and Bagheera as they are but ultimately he has to synthesize what he's learned from both. Baloo is the character that gives Mowgli the freedom to be who he is and express the talents that he has. Bagheera understands the importance of community, social structure, discipline and working together. By the end of the story, Mowgli is able to borrow a bit from both and he makes it work for him in a way that neither one of them necessarily could see from the beginning.” As the only human character to appear on screen, Sethi was called on to not only portray the beloved Mowgli—but to summon incredible imagination skills in order to visualize the other elements in each scene. “Finding the right kid to play Mowgli was imperative,” says Favreau. “We did an exhaustive worldwide search of 2,000 kids before we found Neel. He was one of the last people that I looked at, and right away, I felt that he had the same emotional and physical qualities that Mowgli had in the ’67 animated version. His look was uncanny in how much he evoked what we wanted. He inherently had a good sense of fun and humor.” According to casting director Sarah Finn, Sethi won the role with his personality. “Neel embodies the heart, humor, and daring of the character,” says Finn. “He’s warm and accessible, yet also has an intelligence well beyond his years and impressed us all with his ability to hold his own in any situation. His natural charisma and instincts jumped out at us.” Adds Taylor, “It was an ecstatic moment in casting that I’ve never experienced before. Neel is one of the fastest learners I've ever seen and Jon [Favreau] is perhaps the best acting coach ever.” The director’s coaching skills came in handy since Sethi had never acted professionally. “Everything in this movie is geared toward the performance of this one kid,” says Favreau. “I’ve worked with enough kids to be confident in my own taste and my ability to get the performance. He was just so real. He felt right. We knew we found our Mowgli.” “The Jungle Book” is an all-new, live-action epic adventure about Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a man-cub raised by a family of wolves. But Mowgli finds he is no longer welcome in the jungle when fearsome tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), who bears the scars of Man, promises to eliminate what he sees as a threat. Urged to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery, guided by panther-turned-stern mentor Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), and the free-spirited bear Baloo (Bill Murray). Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who don’t exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa (Scarlett Johansson), a python whose seductive voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie (Christopher Walken), who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly red flower: fire. The wild adventure swings into Philippine theaters in 3D on Thursday, April 07. “The Jungle Book” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Follow the official social media accounts of Disney in the Philippines, namely, (FB) WaltDisneyStudiosPH, (Twitter) @disneystudiosph and (Instagram) @waltdisneystudiosph and use the hashtag #JungleLife.

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Appeals court rules detained migrant children should get soap, sleep, clean water Richard Gonzales Detained immigrant children line up at a temporary home for immigrant women and children in Karnes City, Texas. Eric Gay | AP A federal appeals court in California ruled that migrant children detained by U.S. immigration authorities must be provided with edible food, clean water, and basic hygiene items such as soap and toothbrushes, in accordance with a decades-old court order. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Trump administration challenge of a lower court decision finding that the government failed to offer detained minors safe and sanitary conditions as required by the 1997 Flores settlement. In 2017, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee found that the government was violating that settlement by not providing safe and sanitary conditions when it held minors in conditions that deprived them of sleep — cold and over-crowded cells – and denied them access to food, water and basic hygiene. Attorneys for the government had argued that Judge Gee's order modified the original Flores settlement which did not spell out a requirement for specific hygiene items and adequate sleeping accommodations. The appellate court disagreed. "Assuring that children eat enough edible food, drink clean water, are housed in hygienic facilities with sanitary bathrooms, have soap and toothpaste, and are not sleep-deprived are without doubt essential to the children's safety," wrote Judge Marsha S. Berzon, a Clinton appointee. "The district court properly construed the Agreement as requiring such conditions rather than allowing the government to decide whether to provide them," she added. The Justice Department declined comment. During a hearing held before the appellate panel in June, an attorney for the government, Sarah Fabian, told a skeptical Judge A. Wallace Tashima that the Customs and Border Protection agency may not be required to provide toothpaste and soap to minors held short-term. A video of their exchange went viral.

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©2019 NEBRASKANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY info@nadp.net INFORMATION/RESOURCES Shane Claiborne and Curtis McCarty Speak in Omaha Stacy Anderson NADP made a powerful case for repeal April 20 when evangelical leader Shane Claiborne and death row exoneree Curtis McCarty spoke to a large crowd at Creighton University’s Harper Center in Omaha. Claiborne coordinates the Simple Way Ministry in Philadelphia and is a well-known author and speaker. He challenged the crowd with his talk, “The Myth of Redemptive Violence: Who Would Jesus Execute?” McCarty followed him and held the crowd in a hushed silence as he recounted his years of drug abuse and dissipation. In a soft voice, McCarty recounted the pain he caused his family and his frequent rides in the back of police cruisers while growing up in Oklahoma. His journey down the wrong path put him in the cross-hairs of the local police. Eventually, when they desperately needed a suspect in the murder of a drug-abuser friend of McCarty’s, the young man stood out as an easy mark. But as he knew, and as DNA evidence would prove after he sat on death row for two decades, Curtis McCarty was innocent of the charges. As the audience in the Harper Center leaned in to catch every word, McCarty led them through life on death row and its ultimate hopelessness. He described seeing best friends executed and the need to join a gang in prison out of simple self-preservation. “I had completely come apart,” McCarty said of his frame of mind by 2001. Exoneration finally came in 2007 after Joyce Gilchrist, a forensic pathologist who had worked on his case, came under investigation for presenting positive DNA and blood tests that were, in fact, inconclusive. McCarty was not the only victim of her misconduct; eventually an FBI investigation freed three wrongfully imprisoned men. McCarty was released after more than 21 years in prison, most of which were spent on death row. A happy ending? Not exactly, or at least not immediately. The failed death penalty system doesn’t produce many of those. McCarty’s family and the world had moved on. Malevolent things happen to your psyche when you’re on death row. McCarty struggled with adapting to the “real” world. He grappled with depression and anger. But then something positive happened to McCarty, and to the abolition movement. He decided to get involved, and since then he’s been all over the world telling the most powerful indictment of the death penalty he can think of: his own compelling story. As McCarty concluded his presentation, he’d gone over his time limit, not an unusual occurrence. But nobody cared. You could almost hear a collective release of breath by the crowd as the story ended. After the event, long lines of people waited to speak with Claiborne and have him sign their books. He had made a powerful Scriptural and faith-based case for abolition, and people were inspired by his message. But nothing can tell you of the evils of our death penalty system quite as well as the story of an innocent man who was captured by it and lived to tell the tale. Now Hiring for Part-Time Development Coordinator A Push for Transparency What’s Next for NADP

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How the IHRA's anti-Semitism definition is a threat to British democracy Richard Silverstein Published date: 31 August 2018 11:48 UTC | Last update: 1 year 4 months ago The IHRA definition is yet another tool in the arsenal of Israel’s far-right government and the UK Israel lobby to destroy any possibility of developing an independent approach to Israel-Palestine "Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed towards Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, towards Jewish community institutions and religious facilities." - The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. Israeli politicians and the Diaspora-based Israel lobby recognise that Israel faces a huge and growing level of criticism and obloquy in the international community. Israel has used conventional methods to combat this erosion of support including diplomatic efforts, public advocacy, marketing and branding, and legislative lobbying. These are all traditional approaches used by the lobby in promoting Israeli interests. But nearly two decades ago, it struck upon a new strategy devised by Israeli Holocaust scholars and their partners among Israel lobby groups, such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC). They were already known for their expertise in detecting and combating anti-Semitism. They had done their work so well that Jew-hatred had become a dirty word in polite society, though of course it continued unabated in far-right and other circles. Similarly, Holocaust denial was exposed and associated with anti-Semitism through events like the libel trial of David Irving. The new anti-Semitism At the same time, these scholars - and the Israel lobby factotums - had become alarmed by attacks largely perpetrated by groups claiming to be Islamists targeting European Jewish institutions and individual Jews (there were also attacks by white supremacists against Jews in Europe and the US, but the pro-Israel groups devoted considerably less attention to them). These scholars perceived that Islamist fundamentalism was fuelled by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a deliberate effort on the part of such radical groups to conflate Israel with Diaspora Jews. Thus was developed a controversial term, the "New Anti-Semitism". That is, anti-Semitism divorced from the old tropes of Jews with big noses and global conspiracies by Jewish financiers to control world commerce. Instead, they posited an anti-Semitism largely based in the Arab and Muslim worlds, which supposedly saw Israel as a radical conspiracy by Jews to colonise the Middle East and infect it with western values. In the intersection between classical anti-Semitism and so-called Islamist- Jew hatred, Israeli academics and their allies saw an opportunity to link a modern evil with an ancient one In this intersection between classical anti-Semitism and so-called Islamist Jew hatred, Israeli academics and their allies saw an opportunity to link a modern evil with an ancient one. Thus, Palestinians and their supporters would be linked not only to terrorism, but to one of the oldest hatreds known to humanity. This clever device permitted those using it to sabotage any legitimate critique of Israel. If you can label all pro-Palestinian activists and their arguments as anti-Semitic, no one will engage with them seriously. They will be defanged before they're even heard. Dina Porat, the historian of the Israeli Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, is a leading promoter of the New Anti-Semitism. In this paper, she places her new coinage in the context of the history of anti-Semitism studies. In the early years of the 21st century, she struck upon another clever idea: to combat what she perceived as a rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment on US college campuses which she believed was anti-Semitic in nature. To do so, she prevailed upon her colleagues to develop a new definition of anti-Semitism. The history of the IHRA definition The new definition would absorb the classic meaning (hatred of the Jew) and go much farther. It would suggest that many of the key criticisms levelled at Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians were themselves anti-Semitic. Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Britain's opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and anti-semitism in the Labour party, outside the British Houses of Parliament in central London on 26 March, 2018 (AFP) In a paper he delivered at a 2011 academic conference marking the tenth anniversary of the development of the New Anti-Semitism, Kenneth Stern, the then-anti-Semitism "czar" of the American Jewish Committee, recounted the history of what has come to be called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. He credited Porat with the original idea for the concept and acknowledged that he, and Rabbi Andrew Baker, the AJC’s international director of Jewish affairs, had become part of the brain trust behind crafting a new expanded definition of anti-Semitism. The new definition would absorb the classic meaning (hatred of the Jew) and would suggest that many of the key criticisms levelled at Israel and its policies toward the Palestinians were themselves anti-Semitic In Stern's paper, it's clear that the animus to create this new definition was a perceived rising tide of attacks by Islamists in Europe and elsewhere on Diaspora Jewish targets. Though the attackers may have viewed such Jewish institutions as "soft targets", while Israeli ones were much harder to penetrate, they viewed an attack on any Jew as an attack on Israel. Though one may call such an attack anti-Semitic, it begs many questions which I'll address later. The main motive of this new campaign was to persuade the world that not only are such attacks anti-Semitic full-stop, but that the Muslim world is riddled with Jew hatred. Thus, along with the standard "conventional" anti-Semites - white supremacists, neo-Nazis, etc - there was a much larger, more dangerous threat that could potentially encompass the entire Muslim world. The IHRA project ignored several critical factors complicating the motivation of such terror attacks. While some Islamists did conflate Jews with Israelis, why did they do so? Was this confusion calculated and based on ideological or theological principle? Or was it based on ignorant assumptions? Zionism, Israel and Jews In fact, the very notion that Jews and Israel are the same is part and parcel of the Zionist ethos. Classical Zionism posits that the Diaspora will eventually "wither" in the face of insurmountable Jew hatred, and all Jews will be forced to "return" to Zion in order to survive as Jews. A parallel term for this in Zionist parlance is "negation of exile". Thus, Israel becomes the be-all-and-end-all of Jewish existence, a stand-in for Jewry as a whole. However, most Diaspora Jews reject such thinking. They vote with their feet to remain in the Diaspora, despite the ominous pronouncements of doom by figures like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It's clear that once you've removed those key tools of naming and shaming Israel for the injustices perpetrated on Palestinians, you've immunised Israel from criticism. That’s the entire goal of this exercise Nevertheless, this concept underpins the entire Zionist superstructure. Further, Israeli leaders themselves encourage such conflation with their far-fetched claims that enemies like Iran seek to destroy not only Israel, but the entire Jewish people. In their need to dramatise perceived threats to the outside world, Israel exaggerates the dangers it faces by claiming its enemies seek not just the destruction of "little" Israel, but the entirety of world Jewry. This, in turn, conjures images of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis. In truth, neither Iran nor any Arab state has ever stated a goal of destroying all Jews. And the notion is not just exaggerated; it is self-serving and overreaching of the worst sort. Israel: a Jews-only state Despite its claims to be a "Jewish democratic state", Israel has increasingly become a state of, by and for the Jews. Non-Jews may be tolerated, but just barely. By privileging Jews in the Nation State law, which I prefer to call the Jews-Only law, Israel is making clear that democracy is at best an afterthought. Instead, a Jewish theocracy fuelled by violent, homicidal racism is what the state has become. So, while no one wishes to excuse or defend violent attacks against Jews, is it any surprise that those who seek to avenge Israeli attacks on Palestinians follow the lead offered to them by Israel’s leaders themselves? Pro-Palestine demonstrators hold placards and wave flags during a protest opposite the entrance to Downing Street in central London on 15 May 2018 (AFP) The new definition casts a wide net over many behaviours, statements and acts which cast a critical eye on Israel. Calling the state racist is anti-Semitic, comparing it with Nazi Germany is anti-Semitic, attacking Israel while refusing to attack other nations which are viewed as equally blameworthy is anti-Semitic, comparing Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians to the sufferings of Jesus is anti-Semitic, using the term genocide in the context of criticising Israel's wholesale massacres of Palestinians is anti-Semitic. Though the original definition was coined before the BDS movement was launched, I'm certain the idea of boycotting Israel is also viewed as anti-Semitic, since it targets Israel for its policies. You can see where this leads. It disqualifies many of the most potent criticisms of Israel from legitimate political discourse. While the sponsors of the definition claim that they are not denying the right to criticise Israel (apparently there are some unspecified, appropriate ways to do so), the ultimate impact is to do just that. It's clear that once you've removed those key tools of naming and shaming Israel for the injustices perpetrated on Palestinians, you've travelled far beyond categorising anti-Semitism. Instead, you've immunised Israel from criticism. That’s the entire goal of this exercise. The rise of Jeremy Corbyn In the 15 years since the IHRA protocol was drafted, its authors have broadened their ambitions. They've seen it adopted by several European Union countries as their national arbiter to define anti-Semitic acts. But over the past year, it has gone far beyond its original confines to be used to sabotage the political career of a national political leader. Despite the fact that Britain has experienced anti-Semitism for centuries (Jews were expelled not once, but twice from the British Isles), and such hate has generally originated in the ruling classes, the UK Israel lobby, with the covert assistance of the Israeli government, has targeted the nation's Labour Party as a major malefactor. The reasons are clear: the Tories have embraced Israel with a vengeance. They are more Catholic than the Pope when it comes to supporting it. There is no Israeli act that can trouble the conscience of the Tories. The rise of Jeremy Corbyn has offered a different sort of Labour leader: one who embraces the historic grassroots and hearkens back to the working-class origins of the party The Labour Party, however, is troublesome. It has often seen itself as a bastion of anti-colonialism and anti-war sentiment. Its voters and many of its leaders strongly opposed militarism and supported the cause of human rights and self-determination of oppressed peoples like the Palestinians. That does not mean that Labour is anti-Israel. In fact, one can argue that it has been as pro-Israel as the Conservatives. But the rise of Jeremy Corbyn has offered a different sort of Labour leader: one who embraces the historic grassroots and hearkens back to the working-class origins of the party. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu (AFP) Corbyn has often been compared to that American upstart populist, Bernie Sanders. While the comparison isn’t always apt, it is in this regard: both are willing to question conventional wisdom and old consensus around issues like Israel-Palestine. As such, they are dangerous both to Israel and its Diaspora lobby. So, the lobby's strategists determined to do all in their power to sabotage Corbyn and persuade the British people that he is a dangerous, anti-Semitic ideologue. That’s why we hear the cascade of lurid charges that Corbyn consorted with Hamas activists, laid wreaths on the graves of Palestinians terrorists, and insulted British Zionists by supposedly claiming they didn’t understand British customs and norms. It's why we hear story after story in the media bemoaning the purported hate spewed against Jews within the party: Jewish MPs are revolting; they’re going to form a new party; British Jews fear for their lives and plan on emigrating to Israel for their own safety, etc. A toxic mix Into this toxic mix, the lobby introduces the IHRA definition and pressures the Labour Party to adopt it wholesale. Any attempt to modify it is an attempt to mollify the anti-Semites in the party. The strategy appears to be to use all these attacks as an encircling device that will eventually squeeze Corbyn and his supporters like a vice until they have no further room to wriggle free. At that point, the hope seems to be that Corbyn will be so discredited that the rank and file will finally revolt and return to the comfort of the Blairites, who will resume control of the party and return to full-throated, unconditional support of Israel. Fascist tactics: How Jeremy Corbyn's detractors are plotting to remove him David Hearst Thus, the IHRA definition is yet another tool in the arsenal of Israel’s far-right government and the UK Israel lobby to destroy any possibility of developing an independent government approach to Israel-Palestine. It also becomes yet another method of projecting the power of these entities into the domestic politics of Great Britain. Frankly, I’m shocked that Britons haven’t reacted with more outrage at Israel’s bald-faced intervention into the nation’s politics. In fact, such intervention used to be the hallmark of colonial powers like Britain, the US and others. Both countries did precisely this when facing Iranian prime minister Mossadegh’s nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. To overturn the seizure of the company, they orchestrated a coup. So, in some fashion, Israel has learned at the feet of its masters, some of the great colonial powers. You’ll recall the 1956 Suez War in which Britain, France and Israel jointly attacked Egypt. The Europeans did so in order to ensure continued European control of the Suez Canal. And the Israelis did so to give the anti-Israel nationalist firebrand, Gamal Abdel Nasser, a bloody nose. Now, it uses these lessons against its own teachers. Today’s firebrand isn’t an Arab nationalist, but a British populist, Jeremy Corbyn. IHRA critics The Israel lobby's effort to foist the IHRA definition on the world is not without its critics. Of course, there are the "usual suspects" on the left who understand the danger it poses to their activism, and the destructive impact it would have on the campaign for Palestinian rights and Israeli democracy. But even mainstream British jurists and academics have weighed in against it. Historian and anti-Semitism scholar, David Feldman, stated in 2016: "Does the IHRA definition that Britain has adopted provide the answer? I am sceptical. Here is the definition's key passage: 'Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews'. What exactly about the state of Israel do you support, Margaret Hodge? "This is bewilderingly imprecise. The text also carries dangers... Some of the points [within the definition] are sensible, some are not. Crucially, there is a danger that the overall effect will place the onus on Israel’s critics to demonstrate they are not antisemitic. The [parliamentary] home affairs committee advised that the definition required qualification 'to ensure that freedom of speech is maintained in the context of discourse on Israel and Palestine.' It was ignored." British appellate court judge, Stephen Sedley, also weighed in on the IHRA’s deficiencies: "[It] fails the first test of any definition: it is indefinite. "…It permits perceptions of Jews which fall short of expressions of racial hostility to be stigmatised as anti-Semitic. "[It] …plac[es] the historical, political, military and humanitarian uniqueness of Israel’s occupation and colonisation of Palestine beyond permissible criticism…[It] bristles with contentious assumptions about the racial identity of Jews - assumptions contested by many diaspora Jews but on which both Zionism and anti-Semitism fasten - and about Israel as the embodiment of a collective right of Jews to self-determination." It is critical for Labour and its progressive supporters to have a laser-like focus on the UK Israel lobby and the Israeli government’s effort to intervene in the nation’s domestic politics. The smears and false charges of anti-Semitism and support for Palestinian "terrorism" must be seen for the sham they are. They must be called-out, exposed and denounced in no uncertain terms. Otherwise, Britain risks becoming Israel's poodle, a pliant tool of Israeli racism, settlerism, and blatant injustice. - Richard Silverstein writes the Tikun Olam blog, devoted to exposing the excesses of the Israeli national security state. His work has appeared in Haaretz, the Forward, the Seattle Times and the Los Angeles Times. He contributed to the essay collection devoted to the 2006 Lebanon war A Time to Speak Out (Verso) and has another essay in the collection Israel and Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood (Rowman & Littlefield). The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. Photo: People take part in the so-called "Kippa Day" against anti-Semitism in Hamburg, northern Germany on 14 May 2018 (AFP) Antisemitism has been used to smear the left, while the right targets Jews Suspect appears in court after five stabbed in attack at New York rabbi's home French parliament backs resolution calling anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism Why calling Israel an apartheid state or racist is not anti-Semitic It is Netanyahu, not Corbyn, who deserves 'unequivocal condemnation' The Israel lobby is leading a witch hunt against Corbyn. It has to stop

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DoDBuzz Trump Nominates Two in Reshuffle of Weapons Buying Process Dr. William B. Roper, nominated to be to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. (DoD Photo) President Donald Trump moved Wednesday to speed up the bureaucratic reshuffle in how the Pentagon buys and develops weapons. Trump nominated two managers with long experience at the Defense Department to fill key acquisitions slots in the new alignment authorized by Congress to split the office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L). Under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, AT&L is slated to be broken up in February to create a new undersecretary of defense for research and engineering (R&E) and a new undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment (A&S). In the lead-up to passage of the NDAA, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, both argued that splitting AT&L was vital to streamlining the cumbersome process of getting new weapons and technology into the hands of warfighters. To help with that, Trump announced he was nominating ground combat systems specialist Kevin Fahey of Massachusetts, most recently vice president of combat vehicles and armaments at Cypress International Inc., a defense consultancy, to the post of assistant secretary of defense for acquisition. Trump also nominated William Roper of Georgia, a missile defense expert, to be assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. Roper currently serves as the first director of the Strategic Capabilities Office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Roper previously served as the acting chief architect at the Missile Defense Agency and prior to that was a missile defense adviser to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition. In a session with Pentagon reporters last month, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former executive at Boeing Co., said the breakup of AT&L is part of a major reorganization at the Pentagon that is to be included in the National Defense Strategy. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to outline the strategy later this month. "And the essence of the strategy is that we're restructuring the department," Shanahan said. "And the strategy itself is a combination of real-world environment trends across all sorts of different dimensions, whether it's economic or military or social, and the guidance we've received from Congress." As an example of the restructuring, Shanahan cited the appointment of John H. "Jay" Gibson, a former assistant secretary of the Air Force, to become the Pentagon's chief management officer. "Congress has written in the law many, many times that we need to have a chief management officer, and this goes to the fundamental restructuring of the department," Shanahan said. He said that "a good portion of Jay's responsibility is going to help us transition organizationally and technically." Shanahan said much of his own time will be spent on modernization, and matching the modernization with the strategy. "The balance right now is to generate the readiness and consume it wisely," he said. "We want to be very prudent in how we consume the readiness." Shanahan said, "It's an unpredictable world and there's all sorts of unplanned events, but that's where we have to decipher how to take risk and where to take that risk so that we're constantly generating more and more readiness, because that's where we said we'd need it." In nominating Fahey, the White House is bringing back to the Pentagon an engineer who helped develop the Army's $11 billion Crusader self-propelled howitzer program that was canceled by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a still-controversial decision. The White House announcement said that, in a long civil service career, Fahey had previously served as executive director of Systems Engineering, integration directorate, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology. He also was program executive officer for combat support and combat service support at Program Executive Officer Ground Combat Systems in Warren, Michigan. From 1982 to 2014, Fahey held numerous positions in the Army, where at various times he "was responsible for all activities necessary to develop, produce, field and sustain tactical vehicle systems and force projection equipment that supported and safeguarded our Armed Forces fighting across the globe," according to an Army biography. From 1994 to 1997, Fahey was chief of Systems Engineering and International Division, Crusader, Program Executive Office, Ground Combat and Support Systems. The $11 billion Crusader program was highly touted by the Army as an effort to field a next-generation self-propelled howitzer with automated handling and loading that was designed to improve the lethality and survivability of artillery in the overall force. The prime contractor was United Defense, now part of the British defense giant BAE Systems Plc, and the major subcontractor was General Dynamics Corp. The Crusader was on track to be fielded in 2008 but it ran afoul of Rumsfeld and then-Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who claimed it was too heavy at 43 tons for the more agile force they wanted to create. The decision on the Crusader also came amid a bitter feud between Rumsfeld and then-Army Secretary Tom White, a retired Army brigadier general and Silver Star veteran of Vietnam. In 2002, White infuriated Rumsfeld by circulating talking points to Congress hailing the Crusader's capabilities, even as Rumsfeld was considering canceling the program. White further riled Rumsfeld by backing then-Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, who had told Congress that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to invade Iraq. In addition, White was saddled with his previous service as an executive with the scandal-ridden Enron Corp. In 2003, Rumsfeld canceled the Crusader program and later demanded White's resignation, which he submitted. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. DoDBuzz Department of Defense - DoD Procurement Gear and Equipment Donald Trump

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A Year After Waldburger, Are Lower Courts Ready to Dump CERCLA's Broad Remedial Purpose? In the Winter 2015 issue of the ABA’s Natural Resources & Environment magazine, John Barkett retraced the Supreme Court’s treatment of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) from Key Tronic to Waldburger and, looking back over that history, he makes the unassailable observation that the Court’s decisions have been, and will continue to be, guided by the plain meaning of CERCLA’s text. See e.g., Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway v. United States, 556 U.S. 599 (2009)(“liability may not extend beyond the limits of the statute itself”); Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Aviall Services, Inc., 543 U.S. 157 (2004)(“Given the clear meaning of the text, there is no need . . . to consult the purpose of CERCLA at all.”). While Superfund lawyers, and the Justices themselves, may argue over the plain meaning of a given statutory term or phrase, a majority of the Court has not deviated from this textual approach to CERCLA disputes. The Court’s consistency stands in stark contrast to the lower courts’ historical tendency to be guided, not by CERCLA’s text, but by its supposedly “broad remedial purpose.” Indeed more than 125 District Court and Court of Appeals opinions proffer CERCLA’s broad remedial purpose as a basis for the outcome of the case. Given how unequivocally the Supreme Court has endorsed a textualist approach to deciding CERCLA cases, why don’t the lower courts follow its lead? The answer lies in part with the fact that, as even the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized, CERCLA was intended “to promote the timely cleanup of hazardous waste sites and to ensure that the costs of such cleanup efforts [are] borne by those responsible for the contamination.” Burlington Northern (emphasis added); see also Pennsylvania v. Union Gas, 491 U.S. 1 (1989). But three decades of CERCLA plaintiffs have persuaded the courts that the statute’s remedial purpose mandates a liberal interpretation of its text. See e.g., Dedham Water Company v. Cumberland Farms Dairy, Inc., 805 F.2d 1074, 1081 (1986), citing New York v. Shore Realty Corp., 759 F.2d 1032, 1045 (2d Cir.1985) (“[W]e will not interpret section 9607(a) in any way that apparently frustrates the statute’s goals, in the absence of a specific congressional intent otherwise.”). Because of their understandable aversion to taxpayer-funded cleanups (not to mention the lack of available taxpayer funding), the courts, for the most part, have accepted plaintiffs’ invitations to liberally construe and broadly apply CERCLA to say that cleanup costs should be paid by those who benefitted from or had a nexus to the contamination. See OHM Remediation Services v. Evans Cooperage Co., 116 F.3d 1574 (5th Cir. 1997); Brief for Respondent United States of America at 12, 39, 556 U.S. 599 (2009). The Waldburger case followed this familiar path on its way to the Supreme Court: the Fourth Circuit identified an ambiguity in CERCLA §9658 and concluded that the statute’s broad remedial purpose helped resolve that ambiguity to preserve plaintiffs’ CERCLA claim. CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, 134 S.Ct. 2175 (2014); Waldburger v. CTS Corp., 723 F.3d 434 (4th Cir. 2013). Then, true to form, the Supreme Court rejected the assertion of an ambiguity and again asserted the primacy of CERCLA’s text. 134 S. Ct. 2175 (2014). Writing for the majority in reversing the Fourth Circuit’s decision, Justice Kennedy concluded: “the Court of Appeals was in error when it treated [a liberal interpretation of remedial statutes] as a substitute for a conclusion grounded in the statute’s text and structure.” Id. at 2185. Waldburger is arguably the Supreme Court’s most explicit statement that lower courts handling CERCLA cases should honor the statutory text. Indeed subsequent Courts of Appeals decisions suggest that, after Waldburger, the lower courts may be ready to follow the Supreme Court’s lead. In NCR Corp. v George Whiting Paper Co., the Seventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s determination that by selling paper scraps containing polychlorinated biphenyls NCR had not arranged for disposal of a hazardous substance because NCR lacked the intent which, according to the Supreme Court in Burlington Northern, is required of an “arrangement” under CERCLA §9607(a)(3). 768 F.3d 682, 703-707 (7th Cir. 2014). See also Consolidation Coal Co. v. Georgia Power, 13-1603, slip op., 4th Cir. (March 20, 2015) (upholding the District Court’s text-based decision in favor of the defendant); Vine Street LLC v. Borg Warner Corp., 07-40440, slip op., 5th Cir. (January 14, 2015) (rejecting nexus-based approach to arranger liability); But it will be some time before we know for certain whether Waldburger can achieve what the Court’s prior precedents have not and whether it comes to be viewed as the nail in the broad remedial purpose’s coffin. If you have any questions about this topic, please contact the author(s) or your principal Mintz Levin attorney.

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Con Mi MADRE offers a unique element with their programming which engages both Latin American mother and daughters. By Con Mi MADRE | Updated 14 days ago Latin American youth are overcoming the obstacles they face en route to a post-secondary education. By 2020 the U.S. will fall short of five million educated workers necessary to maintain our economy. Latin American children are the fastest growing population, notably in Texas, with the potential to fulfill our nation’s need for an educated workforce. Con Mi MADRE, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, strives to increase the number of young Latinas pursuing and succeeding in post-secondary education. Latina youth face many obstacles, but given the right support and culturally responsive education they can overcome any challenge. Con Mi MADRE seeks to provide education and support services for young Latinas and their mothers that is necessary for success, and have done so for the last 25 years. Con Mi MADRE is a two-generation organization that empowers young Latinas and their mothers through education and support services that increase preparedness, participation and success in post-secondary education. Con Mi MADRE translates to ‘with my mother,’ which describes the unique element of programming that intentionally engages mothers in their daughter’s educational journey from 6th grade through college graduation. Young Latinas and their mothers can enroll in Con Mi MADRE together which grants them access to an array of services such as: mother-daughter conferences, college visits, campus meetings, community service activities, as well as counseling and mentoring throughout the year. Con Mi MADRE has made significant impact in the nation through the work they do. The following statistics show the program's influence to date: 600-700 young Latinas and their mothers are enrolled in the programing in the Austin area every year In 2014 - 2015, 62 percent of Con Mi Madre students have low-income backgrounds and 80 percent will be first-generation college students 100 percent of senior students enrolled in the program graduate from high school, on average 77 percent enroll into a post-secondary institution and 1 percent experience teenage pregnancy Over 50 percent of students enrolled in the program , 2014 - 2015, said they felt more emotionally academic and financially prepared for college Con Mi MADRE is unique in that it focuses on strengthening the mother-daughter bond while providing support and educational opportunities for both daughters and mothers. All services, activities and materials offered by Con Mi Madre are bilingual and presented in a culturally competent manner, honoring the girls’ Hispanic heritage. For more information about Con Mi MADRE, visit them here: www.conmimadre.org Find More Articles About: Women's Support Groups | Women's Advocacy Groups | Parent/Family Involvement in Education | Scholarships Con Mi MADRE Austin, TX USA This page is written in association with Con Mi MADRE The M3ND Project Turns to the Art of Kintsugi to Repair and Heal Lives

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Dale Seymour Biography The insight and vision that Dale Seymour has provided to mathematics and education have made him a leader in mathematics. His gift to the Mathematics Education Trust (MET) provides scholarships to grades Pre-K-12 teachers to improve their own professional competence as classroom teachers of mathematics. Over the years, Seymour has been a classroom teacher, a creative speaker, a presenter, and a writer. He began his career as a teacher of middle and high school students. He was actively involved in the California State Mathematics Framework Addendum Committee, California State Model Curriculum Standards Committee, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Advisory Board for Mathematics Curriculum Standards. After 14 years of teaching throughout the country, he founded Creative Publications. In 1993, Seymour was awarded the Glen Gilbert National Leadership Award from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics. The award recognized his leadership and significant contributions in the field of mathematics. Throughout his career, Seymour has made more than 800 presentations at teacher conferences. He has authored or coauthored over 100 mathematics education publications and designed over 100 educational products. In 1989 he founded Dale Seymour Publications and served as president until 1991. Although currently retired, Seymour continues to show genuine concern for his fellow mathematics educators across the country.

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LETTER: Government’s appeal in Sinixt case dumbfounding From reader Stevland Ambrose Re: “Supreme Court of Canada agrees to hear Sinixt rights case,” Oct. 24 The province received much praise last week for introducing a bill that will ensure all provincial laws are aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And yet I am writing to express my strong disapproval of the BC government’s continued court battles with the Sinxit (Arrow Lakes) peoples of the West Kootenay. The attorney-general’s ministry is currently pursuing a Supreme Court of Canada case against U.S. citizen Richard Desautel for hunting without a licence and hunting without being a resident. I am dumbfounded as to why the government feels that this trial would be in anyone’s best interest. Is government still pursuing its disingenuous “the Sinixt left this area voluntarily” argument? If yes, is the further argument being put forward that, having “left voluntarily,” the Sinixt gave up their Indigenous rights to hunt for food, social and/or ceremonial purposes in the Canadian portion of their traditional territory? If the answer to both these questions is yes, then I am thoroughly disgusted with the actions of this government and, specifically, the attorney-general’s office. There is ample evidence the Sinixt are a distinct cultural group who speak an Interior Salish language, and have existed in this area for hundreds if not thousands of years. The B.C. Supreme Court has already recognized this. There is also ample evidence they were put under considerable pressure to leave this area. I propose that future historians will point out how incredibly convenient it was for the settler culture (us) that the Sinixt had become mostly invisible to us and declared by us to be “extinct” before the Columbia River Treaty was signed. After all that the Sinixt have lost — and all that we have benefited — how appalling is it that we are fighting their descendants over whether they have the right to hunt a few animals in their traditional territory. It is my view that the government must seek the most expedient remedy for past injustices perpetrated against the people who were displaced when the West Kootenay was settled. I expect I will soon receive a reply from the attorney-general’s office stating that it cannot “comment on a case that is before the courts.” My preference, however, is to receive a message stating that they are taking steps to reverse the 1956 “extinct” declaration, and to push the government to immediately begin any and all land claims and reconciliation processes with the Sinixt Nation. Stevland Ambrose Cheers & Jeers October 17th COLUMN: Until we meet again

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FDA warns Total Thermal Imaging for illegally marketing unapproved thermography device Reviewed by Kate Anderton, B.Sc. (Editor)Feb 25 2019 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter toTotal Thermal Imaging Inc., of La Mesa, California, and its president and co-owner, Linda Hayes, for illegally marketing and distributing an unapproved thermography device as a sole screening device for breast cancer and other diseases. The FDA also issued a safety communication to warn patients that thermography is not cleared by the FDA as an alternative to mammography and should not replace mammography for breast cancer screening or diagnosis. "Advancing and protecting women's health is a priority for the FDA. As part of these efforts, we will not tolerate individuals or companies who attempt to take advantage of patients by marketing unapproved devices that deceive patients and put them at risk," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. "The FDA is concerned that patients will rely on unapproved claims that thermography may be used as a sole screening device for breast cancer and not get screened with mammography, which is proven to save lives by detecting cancer and prompting patients to seek appropriate treatment. People who substitute thermography for mammography may miss the chance to detect breast cancer in its earliest and most treatable stages. We'll continue our efforts to protect patients from those individuals or companies who ignore the FDA's requirements intended to keep patients safe." Thermography is a noninvasive tool that uses an infrared camera to produce images that show the patterns of heat and blood flow on or near the surface of the body. Thermography has been cleared by the FDA only as an adjunctive tool, meaning it should only be use alongside a primary diagnostic test like mammography, not as a standalone screening or diagnostic tool. Total Thermal Imaging Inc. markets and distributes the Thermography Business Package, an unapproved device which includes a FLIR Systems Inc. thermographic camera and proprietary software, to individuals and clinics as a sole screening tool for breast cancer and other diseases. Such a device would require premarket approval by the agency. Total Thermal Imaging Inc. illegally marketed the unapproved device via a website and promotional materials claiming that its device can enable the early detection or the diagnosis of many disorders including breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer, pre-stroke, heart disease, deep vein thrombosis and other diseases. In addition, the warning letter discusses the FDA's recent inspection of Total Thermal Imaging Inc. in which investigators observed several significant deviations from the agency's quality systems regulations, such as failure to establish procedures for taking corrective or preventive actions to address any defective products and failure to establish procedures for receiving and evaluating complaints (including a procedure for determining whether a complaint should be submitted to the FDA as a medical device report). Lack of self-examination is the major obstacle to early skin cancer detection in rural Western U.S. Patients with HPV-negative oropharynx cancer have higher risk of early death Researchers identify how marijuana accelerates growth of HPV-related head and neck cancer The warning letter requests that Total Thermal Imaging Inc. immediately cease distributing the Thermography Business Package. It also asks the firm to respond, within 15 working days from the date the warning letter was received, with details of how the violations noted in the warning letter will be corrected. Any violations not corrected could lead to enforcement action such as seizure, injunction or civil money penalties. This warning letter is not the first time the FDA has cited firms for illegally marketing and promoting thermographic devices. In a safety communication issued today warning patients against using thermography, the FDA lists five warning letters issued to manufacturers for marketing unapproved thermographic devices and/or making misleading claims about thermography. As noted in the safety communication, there is no valid scientific data to show that thermographic devices, when used on their own or with another diagnostic test, are an effective screening tool for any medical condition, including the early detection of breast cancer or other diseases and conditions. The agency stresses that mammography is the only screening method proven to reduce deaths from breast cancer through early detection. The FDA ensures that mammography facilities follow FDA-required quality standards through the agency's Mammography Quality Standards Act program. The warning letter and safety communication issued today reflect the agency's commitment to advancing policies that enhance the FDA's oversight of medical device safety, including diagnostic and therapeutic devices unique to women. As part of the Medical Device Safety Action Plan and the agency's ongoing commitment to advancing women's health, the FDA has alerted the public when safety issues are identified, such as the Pocket Protector for breast implant scar tissue, breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, vaginal rejuvenation and unsafe silicone injections. The agency has also established the Women's Health Technologies Strategically Coordinated Registry Network to provide more complete evidence in clinical areas that are unique to women, such as uterine fibroids and pelvic floor disorders. Health care professionals and consumers should report any adverse events related to imaging with thermographic devices to the FDA's MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program. To file a report, use the MedWatch Online Voluntary Reporting Form. The completed form can be submitted online or via fax to 1-800-FDA-0178. The FDA monitors these reports and takes appropriate action necessary to ensure the safety of medical products in the marketplace. https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm631957.htm Posted in: Device / Technology News | Women's Health News Tags: Blood, Breast Cancer, Breast Implant, Cancer, Cell, Cosmetics, Drugs, Health and Human Services, Health Care, Heart, Heart Disease, heat, Imaging, Inflammatory Breast Cancer, Lymphoma, Mammography, Pelvic Floor, Public Health, Scar, Seizure, Stroke, Supplements, Thrombosis, Tobacco, Uterine Fibroids, Veterinary Immune system contribution to tumor heterogeneity may influence liver cancer growth Common genetic defect in prostate cancer associated with worse prognosis Study uncovers new subtypes of advanced pancreatic cancer United States sees unprecedented fall in deaths from cancer Weight-loss drug Belviq increases risk of cancer, FDA warns Digital videos can be a vital source of cancer health education Bladder cancer linked to drinking water chemicals in Europe A protein found in ovarian cancer may contribute to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease Study demonstrates accuracy of AI system in diagnosing prostate cancer

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Florida couple’s secret to 75 years of marriage is simple, perfect DESTIN, FLORIDA – It’s not hard to find something to love about Jim and Valeria Beall. Which is easy to understand when you learn how they’ve spent the last three-quarters of a century finding things to love about each other – the couple celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on Nov. 4. “What do I think about being married 75 years? Well I’m really happy about it, to begin with,” Jim said, smiling. “It’s way better than being married 74 years, that’s for sure.” It doesn’t go without saying that having a sense of humor is probably one of the requisites for being married this long. “Really simply, we have just always gotten along,” Val said. “I think right away, we both realized that was a good thing.” Some people might argue it was a great thing. Val thinks their longevity has gotten a boost from living on the Emerald Coast. “We came here as snowbirds and lived in Sandestin starting in 1989,” Val said. “Then we moved to Destin in 2007. We think we’ve lived longer because we live in Florida ... where we lived before was right on Lake Erie, looking over a 90-foot cliff and with a 500-foot driveway. “In the winter, it wasn’t unusual to have to get the driveway plowed in order to get to work.” Jim and Val first met as students at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, after World War II, when Jim was part of the Air Service Command. They were both in the college choir and because the school didn’t have buses, they had to pile into cars for a trip to a performance. “I was in one car and he was in another to start off with,” Val said. “He was looking back at me from his car and I could see him looking at me, then when we stopped one time he came over and asked me to come ride in his car ... then the first thing we did was go spend the day at Niagara Falls. “Things worked out pretty well after that.” They eloped and got married in Gallipolis, Ohio, and Val worked at Wittenberg while Jim finished his degree and worked as a mailman in Springfield. After graduation, the couple moved back to Val’s hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was a teacher and Jim worked for her father’s trucking company, which they eventually inherited. Jim and Val had five children – Merrilea, Rogers, Patricia, Bradley and Candice – along with nine grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren ... and now, three great, great grandchildren. And everyone is spread out – Maryland, Texas, Denver, Kentucky and even overseas, in England. “I only had one grandfather, so I’m really interested in being part of this group of grandfathers now,” Jim said. “We never expected that part.” Val and Jim stay active by being part of Destin Methodist Church and Destin Seniors. “We’re independent ... we do all of our own cooking, all of our own work around the house,” Val said. “We’ve had a lot of places we’ve had to go visit over the years to see our family, and they’ve come here quite a bit. Every year we try to have some sort of reunion where the whole family gets together.”

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Report: A, B, C, D, STPP: How School Discipline Feeds the School-to-Prison Pipeline (2013) Overly punitive school discipline feeds the school-to-prison pipeline and contributes to the failure of New York’s public school system to educate the city’s most disadvantaged students. Research consistently demonstrates the importance of keeping students with the greatest academic and economic needs in school. Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, these are the same students who are at greatest risk of being pushed out through suspensions and arrests. Black students, who are disproportionately arrested in school compared with white students, are the least likely to graduate from high school with a Regents Diploma. Black students and students with special needs are disproportionately suspended from city schools. And black students with special needs have the highest suspension rate of any group. Low-income students are also disproportionately suspended. This report reviews the policies and practices that produced these results and provides recommendations to help end the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) in New York City, and for the first time, links school suspension to NYPD stop-and-frisk patterns in four out of five boroughs. The Education Policy Center pdfA, B, C, D STPP (2013) A NY School Is Using Face Surveillance On Its Students NY is Cheating its Schools Out of Billions of Dollars Recommendations for a Memorandum of Understanding Between Schools... Sex Ed Saves Lives. Many NY Schools Don’t Teach it How NYC's Gifted Programs Make Segregation Worse New Policy Curbs NYPD's Role in Schools New York’s Specialized High Schools Need More Students Like Obrian NYCLU Statement on Lockport School District’s Decision to Implement... Legislative Memo: Comprehensive Sex Ed

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U.S.|Attorney: Kansas Researcher Denies Concealing Chinese Work https://nyti.ms/2R0TXgz Attorney: Kansas Researcher Denies Concealing Chinese Work WICHITA, Kan. — An attorney for a Kansas researcher accused of concealing work he was doing for China while employed at the University of Kansas hit back on Thursday against a new indictment, saying the case has nothing to do with the Chinese government's alleged attempts obtain U.S. intellectual property. Feng “Franklin” Tao, 47, of Lawrence, was charged in a superseding indictment Wednesday with two counts of wire fraud and one count of program fraud for failing to disclose on conflict-of-interest forms the work he was doing for China while employed as a full-time associate professor at the University of Kansas. His attorney, Peter Zeidenberg, said in an email that Tao denies the charges and will be vigorously contest them in court, and that Tao looks forward to clearing his name. “To be clear, this case has nothing to do with the Chinese government’s alleged attempts to convert U.S. intellectual property,” Zeidenberg said. “Instead, the government has alleged that Dr. Tao improperly filled out two conflict of interest forms. There is no allegation that he diverted any grant money for his personal use or improperly disclosed intellectual property or trade secrets.” In the indictment, prosecutors argue in general terms that China spurred its economic growth by offering scholarships or funding to foreign students or visiting professors who were studying or working at U.S. universities. China also used “talent plans” to encourage the transfer of original ideas and intellectual property from U.S. universities to Chinese government institutions to enhance Chinese “scientific development, economic prosperity, and national security," they allege. Prosecutors say the Changjiang Professorship was one such program sponsored by the Chinese government and the Communist Party, and they allege that Tao did not disclose to the University of Kansas his selection for the Changjiang Professorship or the salary for his appointment to Fuzhou University in Fuzhou, China. They also allege that Tao tried to recruit other researchers and students for the Chinese government. Zeidenberg did not directly address those specific allegations contained in the indictment. Tao, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Kansas, was born in China and moved to the United States in 2002. He has been employed since August 2014 at the Kansas university’s Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis in Lawrence. The center conducts research on sustainable technology to conserve natural resources and energy. Tao, who remains on paid administrative leave, gets a salary of $110,682. During his time at the University of Kansas, he has been principal investigator on federal grants totaling more than $4.16 million, the university said. The University of Kansas learned of potential criminal activity in the spring of 2019 and reported it to authorities, its spokesman, Andy Hyland, said in an email. The university has continued to work with law enforcement and federal granting agencies throughout the investigation, but said it cannot share additional details given that this is an ongoing criminal and personnel matter.

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Local Racing Local AFL Tamworth Country Music Festival news, latest-news, tamworth swans, the swans, afl north west Beneath a leaden sky in July, the Tamworth Swans ran on to their home ground, No.1 Oval, to face the Moree Suns. The miserable day that greeted the Swans was apt, given their winless season and the outcome of their previous match – a 305-point loss to the Gunnedah Bulldogs in which they kicked one behind. It was as if the sporting gods wept for them. But Tamworth’s players countered the conditions and their ill season by fanning across the drenched surface, in preparation for the start of play, with the jauntiness of first graders running to tuck shop. Unlike the away match against the Bulldogs in which they fielded 14 players, the minimum requirement to play a match, the Swans bristled with a full accompaniment of starters and a flush bench. The Suns weren’t so lucky. But they still had too much firepower, winning 15.10 (100) to 12.10 (82).&nbsp; For Tamworth, however, there was a sense of victory in defeat. Swans veteran Damien Wendt said the side produced “easily” their best performance of the year. Diminutive and grey-haired, Wendt played his 199th Swans game that afternoon, having come out of retirement last season to help the club in their prolonged time of despair. As the players left the field, the late afternoon sun splayed across the quaint oval with a white picket fence, Wendt said: “We tried our guts out.” They’re five words that encapsulate the side’s response to their travail as they wrestle with what Wendt describes as the “little bit of disarray” manhandling the club. In his 17 seasons with the Swans, he has savoured premierships; now he just wants to help the club survive in a competition that started the season with seven teams but lost the Narrabri Eagles when they folded. “We’ve got the camaraderie, it’s there,” he said. “We’re a good bunch of blokes. We play for each other, and I think that’s a good basis for a good team … As long as I’ve still got legs I’ll keep trying to have a run and help them out. “It is probably the most difficult [year for the club] but the last few have been not much better, to be honest.” When asked why he and his teammates kept playing, he said: “It’s the Swans spirit. Some of us blokes have won flags together. We’re just good mates. We want to keep playing for each other. “We want to see the club survive, and if we’re not here then it’s not going to do that. I’ll hang around till the club doesn’t need me anymore. Hopefully it’s not too much longer.”&nbsp; On the eve of Wendt’s 200th game, played against reigning premiers the New England Nomads a week after the Suns clash, Tamworth coach Paul Kelly praised Wendt, whose name is on the club’s best and fairest medal. “You wouldn’t find a harder and more fairer footballer going around,” Kelly said.&nbsp; New England won by 97 points.&nbsp;But Kelly said it was “probably” his side’s best performance in “three or four years”.&nbsp; A likeable former Swans player with a ready smile, Kelly admitted to listening to a country song, the Zac Brown Band’s Fried Chicken, to salve his coaching anxiety. His son Cooper, a Swans player, added it to his phone’s playlist. In Tamworth’s next match, the Inverell Saints won by 95 points. And in their last match of the season, a local derby clash against the Tamworth Kangaroos on August 5, they lost by 105 points.&nbsp; Kelly thought he would have his strongest squad of the year to confront the Roos, but then the flu struck.&nbsp;He had previously complained of never before witnessing a team go through such an injury-ravaged season. Bad luck all round. Still, he does his best to remain upbeat.&nbsp;“We’re headed in the right direction,” he said following the Moree game, an assessment he repeated after each subsequent defeat. “The boys don’t give up. Even when we’re down by 10 goals, they just keep fighting right out till the end.” “For years the boys just never give in,” he added. “It’s something that seems to be bred into the culture of the Swans.&nbsp;Whoever puts on the jumper never gives in.” Manning the canteen at the Moree game was Veronica Griffiths. Her husband Gerry is described as the “patriarch” of the Tamworth Australian Football League, rebranded AFL North West this year. The league commenced in 1997, with Gerry its long serving president and first life member. Veronica is a Swans life member, and their son Evan was a member of the club’s 2006 and 2009 premiership teams. Another son, Matthew, also played for the club. Veronica, described as the Swans’ “most loved personality”, fought back tears upon revealing Gerry had died last year. They were married almost four decades. There are versions of Wendt, Kelly, the Griffithses and the Swans in sporting communities across the state.&nbsp; Veronica said a love of the game kept the AFL North West going.&nbsp;As would be the case with myriad other country sporting competitions in NSW that face an uncertain future. “It’s just about getting out on the paddock,” she said.&nbsp;“The boys are still turning up. Haven’t won a game but they’re still turning up because they love the game.” Kelly expects that most of his players will turn up next season, including Wendt, even if his role were a&nbsp;non-playing one.&nbsp;He&nbsp;expects to bark&nbsp;instructions again, as Veronica mans the till.&nbsp; https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/3872fb55-71b0-4da4-8b7c-f184c120f6c6.jpg/r15_321_6001_3703_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg August 18 2017 - 5:00PM AFL North West: Tamworth Swans endure after enduring horror season Mark Bode UNITED: The Swans displayed great character during a nightmare season. Photo: Peter Hardin Beneath a leaden sky in July, the Tamworth Swans ran on to their home ground, No.1 Oval, to face the Moree Suns. The miserable day that greeted the Swans was apt, given their winless season and the outcome of their previous match – a 305-point loss to the Gunnedah Bulldogs in which they kicked one behind. It was as if the sporting gods wept for them. But Tamworth’s players countered the conditions and their ill season by fanning across the drenched surface, in preparation for the start of play, with the jauntiness of first graders running to tuck shop. Unlike the away match against the Bulldogs in which they fielded 14 players, the minimum requirement to play a match, the Swans bristled with a full accompaniment of starters and a flush bench. Swans veteran Damien Wendt directs his teammates against Moree, in his 199th game for the club. Photo: Gareth Gardner The Suns weren’t so lucky. But they still had too much firepower, winning 15.10 (100) to 12.10 (82). For Tamworth, however, there was a sense of victory in defeat. Swans veteran Damien Wendt said the side produced “easily” their best performance of the year. Diminutive and grey-haired, Wendt played his 199th Swans game that afternoon, having come out of retirement last season to help the club in their prolonged time of despair. Band of Brothers. Photo: Peter Hardin As the players left the field, the late afternoon sun splayed across the quaint oval with a white picket fence, Wendt said: “We tried our guts out.” They’re five words that encapsulate the side’s response to their travail as they wrestle with what Wendt describes as the “little bit of disarray” manhandling the club. In his 17 seasons with the Swans, he has savoured premierships; now he just wants to help the club survive in a competition that started the season with seven teams but lost the Narrabri Eagles when they folded. “We’ve got the camaraderie, it’s there,” he said. “We’re a good bunch of blokes. We play for each other, and I think that’s a good basis for a good team … As long as I’ve still got legs I’ll keep trying to have a run and help them out. Swans coach Paul Kelly has just overseen a winless year, but he plans to stick around. Photo: Gareth Gardner “It is probably the most difficult [year for the club] but the last few have been not much better, to be honest.” When asked why he and his teammates kept playing, he said: “It’s the Swans spirit. Some of us blokes have won flags together. We’re just good mates. We want to keep playing for each other. “We want to see the club survive, and if we’re not here then it’s not going to do that. I’ll hang around till the club doesn’t need me anymore. Hopefully it’s not too much longer.” On the eve of Wendt’s 200th game, played against reigning premiers the New England Nomads a week after the Suns clash, Tamworth coach Paul Kelly praised Wendt, whose name is on the club’s best and fairest medal. Swans life member Veronica Griffiths mans the canteen at No.1 Oval. “You wouldn’t find a harder and more fairer footballer going around,” Kelly said. New England won by 97 points. But Kelly said it was “probably” his side’s best performance in “three or four years”. A likeable former Swans player with a ready smile, Kelly admitted to listening to a country song, the Zac Brown Band’s Fried Chicken, to salve his coaching anxiety. His son Cooper, a Swans player, added it to his phone’s playlist. In Tamworth’s next match, the Inverell Saints won by 95 points. And in their last match of the season, a local derby clash against the Tamworth Kangaroos on August 5, they lost by 105 points. It’s just about getting out on the paddock. The boys are still turning up. Haven’t won a game but they’re still turning up because they love the game. Veronica Griffiths Kelly thought he would have his strongest squad of the year to confront the Roos, but then the flu struck. He had previously complained of never before witnessing a team go through such an injury-ravaged season. Bad luck all round. Still, he does his best to remain upbeat. “We’re headed in the right direction,” he said following the Moree game, an assessment he repeated after each subsequent defeat. “The boys don’t give up. Even when we’re down by 10 goals, they just keep fighting right out till the end.” “For years the boys just never give in,” he added. “It’s something that seems to be bred into the culture of the Swans. Whoever puts on the jumper never gives in.” Tom Radford in action against Moree. Photo: Gareth Gardner Manning the canteen at the Moree game was Veronica Griffiths. Her husband Gerry is described as the “patriarch” of the Tamworth Australian Football League, rebranded AFL North West this year. The league commenced in 1997, with Gerry its long serving president and first life member. Veronica is a Swans life member, and their son Evan was a member of the club’s 2006 and 2009 premiership teams. Another son, Matthew, also played for the club. Veronica, described as the Swans’ “most loved personality”, fought back tears upon revealing Gerry had died last year. They were married almost four decades. There are versions of Wendt, Kelly, the Griffithses and the Swans in sporting communities across the state. Veronica said a love of the game kept the AFL North West going. As would be the case with myriad other country sporting competitions in NSW that face an uncertain future. “It’s just about getting out on the paddock,” she said. “The boys are still turning up. Haven’t won a game but they’re still turning up because they love the game.” Kelly expects that most of his players will turn up next season, including Wendt, even if his role were a non-playing one. He expects to bark instructions again, as Veronica mans the till. Four taken to hospital, highway reopened after multi-vehicle crash Things changed a bit when Sammy White woke up as Star Maker winner Did we snap a photo of you at the festival on Monday? Festival Friendly Business boost bodes well for local traders Six local water myths busted Fears of Peel platypus localised extinction as river runs dry The Northern Daily Leader

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Rural crime team gets three more police officers Rural Crime Team Manager Rob Taylor, PC Dewi Evans, PC David Allen and Police Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones A CRACK team of rural crimefighters is being beefed up, it’s been revealed. Three extra police constables will be added to the North Wales Rural Crime Team of four PCs and three Police Community Support Officers headed by team manager Rob Taylor, bringing its numbers up to 11 officers. The announcement was made by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones at the Meirioneth County Show in Harlech. The move was hailed as “excellent news” by Farmers’ Union of Wales president Glyn Roberts. The team is also using high tech methods to combat rural crime, including drones and plans in place to introduce Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras on the road between Dolgellau and Barmouth. Experts say the pioneering task force has set a benchmark for policing the countryside in the UK. Last year they established a partnership with their counterparts in Dyfed-Powys who set up a team modelled on the North Wales operation. Their effectiveness can also be gauged by the fact that while rural crime is on the increase in England where it has risen 20 per cent, Wales is bucking that trend with a seven per cent reduction. The team remains hard-worked though with 73 current investigations ongoing and a string of court cases taking place. Arfon Jones, a former police inspector who was brought up on a farm in the Harlech area, said: “North Wales is a huge rural area and we need to provide an equitable service for all the residents of the region. “While we are very successful in targeting the criminals committing a range of crimes from badger baiting to stealing tractors, quad bikes and livestock, we feel there is a need for greater capacity. “This is a field where North Wales is leading the way and the team led by Rob Taylor is doing a fantastic job and being recognised for the way they are dealing with rural crime and wildlife issues but it is vital to continue to support them. “They have also been integral to the formation of similar teams in Dyfed-Powys, with whom we work very closely, and in Gwent. “The extra staff in North Wales will mean that these partnerships and those neighbouring forces in England will be strengthened. “It is appropriate that I made the announcement in Harlech because the area has become something of a hotspot and one of the new officers will have a specific responsibility for policing the Meirionnydd area and the border with Dyfed-Powys. “The ANPR cameras being installed between Dolgellau and Barmouth will be able to read a registration number and instantly check it against database records of vehicles of interest. Police officers can intercept and stop a vehicle, check it for evidence and, where necessary, make arrests “It’s important that we are not just reactive but that we are also proactive so that we can stop rural crime taking place before it happens. “Our rural areas are geographically very large so we need technology to help us in our fight against countryside crime and to catch to offenders.” Rob Taylor, who was a police officer for 30 years, also manages the Dyfed-Powys team and he said: “When we started in 2014, we were one of the first specialised rural crime teams but now there are more than 20. “This increase in the size of the team is very important to us because we are facing growing demands and have been involved in three court cases in the last ten days, all successful prosecutions. “Rural crime fighting is old school policing mixed with modern technology. It’s about getting to know the communities you are operating in and having two-way conversations. “At the same time, we’re using sophisticated techniques like DNA profiling and intelligence-led policing to target the hotspots for rural crime. “They have four-wheel drive vehicles that can go anywhere and dash-cams to record everything and we equip our officers with laptops so they don’t have to go back to the police station to write up reports and can have instant access to information.” The team also work closely with organisations like the Farmers’ Union of Wales, National Farmers’ Union, British Association of Shooting and Conservation and the Country Landowners’ Association. Responding to the announcement, FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “Every year rural crime costs millions of pounds and causes untold anxiety to farmers and rural businesses. North Wales police been leading the way in making sure that rural crime is less attractive for those up to no good. “The fact that their rural crime team will now double in size, due to increased funding, is excellent news. “Other police forces across Wales should take note of their approach in supporting the rural community and we can only commend the Police and Crime Commissioner for his efforts and determination to make North Wales a safer place for us all.” The theft of tractors, machinery and quad bikes is on the increase with many of the thieves coming from across the border and Wrexham and Denbighshire the crime hotspots. Rob Taylor said: “We need manufacturers to upgrade their security systems on tractors and other vehicles because criminals can buy a tracker blocker for £10 and ship stolen vehicles out in containers and in a couple of days they’re in North Africa or Eastern Europe.” Arfon Jones added: “The A55 makes for an easy in and out for criminals but there are other roads into the crime hotspots of Wrexham and Denbighshire areas that make them real rat runs for the criminals. “This is where number recognition cameras come into play and we’re looking at increasing their presence on these routes.”

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NORWICH NEWSROOM Norwich University Newsroom 800 in the Class of 2022 Norwich University begins the 2018-19 academic year on Monday, Aug. 27, with approximately 800 new students making up the Class of 2022. These newcomers bring the total number of enrolled in campus-based programs to about 2,400 students, which is the full capacity of the residential campus. The Class of 2022 hails from 41 states across the United States and 14 countries abroad. The top 10 sending states are: Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas, Maine, Pennsylvania, and California. The top five majors are: Criminal Justice, Undeclared, Nursing, Computer Security and Information Assurance, and Management. The Class of 2022 launches its Norwich career during the final year of the university’s largest comprehensive fundraising campaign in its history. “Forging the Future” aims to raise $100 million by the university’s bicentennial in 2019. Students arrived on campus to a brand new academic building, Mack Hall, as well as to renovations to existing buildings. Mack Hall features interactive classrooms; case-study spaces; pocket lounges; a high-tech, cyber-security War Room; and a 400-seat auditorium and performing arts center to host plays and musical events, symposiums and lectures, panel discussions and collaborative interaction. These construction projects have been completed as a result of and under the Forging the Future campaign. “Norwich’s continuing ability to attract high-performing and motivated students to Vermont and our values-based education is evidence that our academic programs and experiential approach to education remain relevant to our mission of building and defending the republic,” President Richard W. Schneider said. With the arrival of the Class of 2022, Schneider begins his 27th year as Norwich’s president, one of the longest-serving presidents in the United States. The Class of 2022 by the numbers: Approximately 500 rooks, first-year students in the Norwich University Corps of Cadets Approximately 300 civilian students 72 transfer students 48 commuter students 27 international students 64 ROTC scholarships 15 Civic Scholars 14 Honors Program students About Norwich University Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Norwich will celebrate its bicentennial in 2019. In fulfillment of Norwich’s mission to train and educate today’s students to be tomorrow’s global leaders, Norwich launched the Forging the Future campaign in 2014. The five-year campaign, which is timed to culminate in 2019, is committed to creating the best possible learning environment through state-of-the-art academics and world-class facilities and is designed to enhance the university’s strong position as it steps into its third century of service to the nation. Daphne E. Larkin M’17 Director of Media Relations & Community Affairs Office: 1 (802) 485-2886 Mobile: 1 (802) 595-3613 Norwich Record | Alumni Magazine Also Available on ISSUU: CLICK HERE FOR MAGAZINE ARCHIVES MORE MEDIA & RESOURCES: Norwich Athletics Get the latest sports news, team rosters, and event schedules for the NORWICH CADETS. NU Research Centers Norwich Podcasts Norwich Livestream Tweets by NorwichNews

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Whare benefits from injury layoff Alicia Newton Sat 4 Mar 2017, 06:00 AM Penrith outside back Dean Whare will make a welcome return to the NRL after being named on the wing for Penrith's clash with St George Illawarra on Saturday afternoon. Match Draw Widget [2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 1: Dragons vs Panthers ‌It's been exactly 311 days since a training mishap cut the 27-year-old's season short after an ACL injury limited the former Sea Eagles flyer to just one appearance under head coach Anthony Griffin. "It (the knee) is 100 per cent now… I played the last three trials and last one for 80 minutes and got through sweet so the knee is ready to go," Whare told NRL.com. "Doing it at the beginning of the year I was able to have a few extra months to get it right and lucky for me that it's probably been at the best so far in a long time." The timing of the injury meant the New Zealand international was able to return to light training while his teammates were on their finals charge last season, before putting his injured knee to the test for the entire pre-season. "It was my first pre-season in about five years because I'm usually away on tours and come back in January," he said. "To get a full pre-season under my belt helped my knee and how resilient it is now. "I became more of a fan than a player. "It was awesome to watch the boys go as far as they did and I had a little crew with me that were injured too and that made it easier." Named on the wing for just the second time in his Penrith career, Whare isn’t fussed where he plays in the backline, just as long as he's in the mix. "I just want to make the top 17 every week… it doesn’t matter where," he said. "I just want to help the boys out as much as I can and play some consistent footy." As for a return to representative football down the track, the 15-game test veteran is open to returning for the Kiwis, but is also focussed on playing well at club level, particularly with the Penshurst junior off-contract at the conclusion of the season. "After the last two years I've had with injuries and being out for the year, I'm just concentrating on the Panthers and if I'm playing good enough then hopefully I might get another look in for the Kiwis," he said. "I went over to England for the World Cup in 2013 and we lost in the final so it would be good to make amends for that. "But that's far from my mind, it's all about doing well for the Panthers at this point." Dragons v Panthers: Schick Preview Finals experience will help us rise: Moylan Late bloomer Campbell-Gillard ready for Dragons How Latrell’s signing impacts Souths and other clubs The best of Latrell Mitchell's time at the Roosters Stats that matter: Round 1 Updated team lists: Dragons v Panthers Sat 04 Mar, 2017 Tue 28 Feb, 2017

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Posted in Connecticut August 24, 2017 by Lauren Sweeney The Awesome Hike In Connecticut That Will Take You Straight To An Abandoned Castle Danbury’s Tarrywile Park encompasses 722 acres and includes just over 21 miles of trails. The park features a wide array of landscaping and terrain, including a children’s garden, two ponds, and an old ski slope. Of course, there’s one sight that stands out from the rest: the once-grand castle built as a glamorous summer home in 1897. The stone used to build the castle was quarried on site. Today, it almost appears as if the stone is being reabsorbed into the land. Flickr/likeaduck The castle's original owner, photographer E. Starr Sanford, ensured that the grounds surrounding the castle were carefully planned and meticulously groomed. The current state of the castle's grounds can be called a lot of things, but "meticulously groomed" isn't one of them. Still, the castle holds onto a bit of its fairy tale charm. It's a bit whimsical and mysterious. In fact, rumor has it Hearthstone Castle is haunted. Some hikers claim ghosts threw sticks at them. There have also been reports of orbs and shadowy figures in the windows. Whether or not the place is haunted, hikers are prohibited from entering the castle. By the time the town of Danbury purchased the castle and surrounding acreage in 1985, the castle was already beginning to show signs of decay. It's sat empty since, but funding and community efforts ensure that at the very least, the castle will continue to exist in its current state into the future. Even though it's not the palace it once was, the castle still adds a dash of majesty and historic charm to the surrounding landscape. It's definitely worth the hike. The hike leading to the castle is relatively easy, but there are more strenuous hiking trails on the ground for those looking for a challenge. Have you hiked out to Hearthstone Castle? Did ghosts throw sticks at you? Tell us in the comments! Looking for more interesting hikes in Connecticut? Check out this list of unforgettable hikes in Connecticut. These Six Charming Apple Orchards In Connecticut Are Picture Perfect For A Fall Day Here’s The Perfect Weekend Itinerary If You Love Exploring Connecticut’s Best Antique Stores The Delicious Connecticut Restaurant With The Biggest Pizzas We’ve Ever Seen Cathedral Of St. Joseph In Connecticut Is A True Work Of Art The Hidden Connecticut Castle, Gillette Castle, Makes You Feel Like You’re In A Fairy Tale The Creepy Small Town In Connecticut With Insane Paranormal Activity This Hidden Spot In Connecticut Is Unbelievably Beautiful And You’ll Want To Find It Few People Know About This Abandoned Train Tunnel Hiding Near A Connecticut Castle

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The Judiciary Can’t Impose Proportional Representation on the Nation, Justice Kavanaugh By James W. Lucas About James W. Lucas Demonstrators rally in front of the Supreme court before oral arguments on Benisek v. Lamone, a redistricting case on whether Democratic lawmakers in Maryland unlawfully drew a congressional district in a way that would prevent a Republican candidate from winning, in Washington, March 28, 2018. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Where will abuse of the equal-protection clause end? On Tuesday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases whose plaintiffs contend that legislative redistricting which disproportionately favors the political party in charge of the redistricting process is unconstitutional. These cases present the starkest possible test of whether the Court’s new, supposedly originalist five-justice majority will restore respect for the Constitution or follow previous SCOTUS majorities down the path of judicial imperialism. And so far, the oral arguments have raised concerns that newly appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh may already be steering the court onto that path. Specifically, Justice Kavanaugh’s questions have suggested that proportional representation could be a useful test for determining if gerrymandering was unconstitutionally partisan. A brief refresher: Proportional representation is an electoral system used in many continental European countries and elsewhere in which legislative seats are allocated based on political parties’ nationwide share of the vote. In contrast, under the “first past the post” system used in the United States, Britain, and elsewhere, the winner of the most votes in each district is elected, regardless of how her or his party performed in other districts. As I’ve explained previously ( here, here, and here), the two systems are fundamentally incompatible, and can produce very different outcomes from identical vote totals. The suggestion floated by Justice Kavanaugh is that the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment mandates redistricting that produces the same results as proportional representation would. Under this rationale, the constitutionality of Maryland’s congressional districts would be determined by whether Maryland Republicans’ 35 percent of the vote resulted in two or three Republican members of the House of Representatives among Maryland’s eight congressional districts, not one as is the case under the Democrat-controlled state legislature’s current district map, which is the subject of one of the two cases before the Court. While as a long-time New York Republican I can understand the appeal of such an outcome to a fellow blue-state Republican like Justice Kavanaugh, the temptation must be resisted. The foundational premise of originalism is that, until the Constitution is democratically amended pursuant to Article V, the original public meaning of its text must remain the law of the land. Gerrymandering or no gerrymandering, first-past-the-post has been the rule since the republic’s founding. The politicians who enacted the 14th Amendment in 1868 were all very familiar with gerrymandering. There is absolutely no indication that it occurred to even one of them that the equal-protection clause might overturn the first-past-the-post system, and such a radical interpretation has not been seriously advanced in the 150 years since. In contrast to originalism, the essential goal of what some call “living constitutionalism” is to get away with revising the Constitution through clever judicial reinterpretations of constitutional language. For living constitutionalists, constitutional language is not to be respected, but twisted as necessary to realize policy outcomes that cannot be achieved through the democratic process. And the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause is among the constitutional texts which have been most abused to effect such illegitimate judicial amendments. One central issue of any representative democracy is how the people choose their representatives. Imposing the standard of proportional representation on our first-past-the-post electoral system would fundamentally transform it. The elections clause of Article I of the Constitution explicitly provides that Congress and state legislatures shall determine the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives.” Judicial enforcement of proportional representation would effectively repeal that language, permanently transferring the final determination from democratically elected and accountable legislators to the judiciary. If a constitutional text as clear and explicit as the elections clause can be thus judicially repealed using the equal-protection clause, what’s to stop a Supreme Court freshly packed with more leftists from using the equal-protection clause against other leftist constitutional bugaboos explicitly set out in the Constitution, such as the Senate or the Electoral College? Justice Kavanaugh’s seeming flirtation with proportional representation has thrilled the anti-constitutional Left, which sees the Supreme Court as a super-legislature of last resort rather than a neutral deliberative body calling balls and strikes (to use Chief Justice Roberts’s metaphor). A Slate writer opined that “Kavanaugh appeared” close to “joining [Justice Elena] Kagan’s crusade” against “extreme gerrymandering” and that gerrymandering opponents “had a fair reason to be optimistic” following Tuesday’s oral arguments. This conclusion was shared by ThinkProgress and by the Los Angeles Times’s report on the cases. Of course, it is not uncommon for appellate judges to raise positions they do not support in order to elicit opposing arguments to be rebutted. Recognizing that proportional representation is the core issue in these cases, Justice Kavanaugh may have just wanted to hear how counsel dealt with the issue before voting against the plaintiffs. Let us hope that was the case, and that all the effort devoted to securing his confirmation in the Senate will be vindicated by a vote that respects the elections clause, rather than yet again abusing the equal-protection clause to rewrite the Constitution from the bench. James W. Lucas is an attorney in New York City and the author of Are We the People? How We the People Can Take Charge of Our Constitution and Timely Renewed: Amendments to Restore the American Constitution.

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By Angelo A. Paparelli on March 4, 2019 Posted in Administrative Procedure Act, Courts on Immigration Law, Employment-Based Immigration, H-1B Visas, Immigration Lawyers, Immigration Regulations, Legal Representation, USCIS Much digital ink has already been spilled reporting on the phantom tide of undocumented migrants supposedly breaching our Southern border. This article will address a different, but very-real immigration flood, and suggest ways U.S. employers, noncitizens, and their lawyers ought be emboldened to add to the deluge. Ironically, it is about a dry subject – federal district court review of what immigration grievants claim are widespread, arbitrary, capricious and otherwise unlawful work-visa petitions and employment-based green card denials under Section 702 of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 702 (APA). The agency triggering this agita is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As immigration stakeholders are painfully aware, USCIS routinely flouts its own regulations, precedent immigration decisions, and the APA, all the while spurred on by the dog whistle of an executive order known as BAHA. Although the focus here will be on USCIS’s rejections of employment-based immigration petitions, the same observations and strategies offered here readily apply as well to family-based requests for immigration benefits. The ideas below may also help in litigating the practices formulated in Washington by the Bureau of Consular Affairs which have resulted in growing numbers of visa refusals premised unlawfully on BAHA (notwithstanding the execrable principle of consular nonreviewability). Increasingly, with a fervor heretofore unknown, USCIS is denying petitions that seek new or extended grants of employment authorization for prospective and current knowledge workers, while – in especially galling fashion – reopening and revoking previous work approvals for incumbent employees. (Media articles have reported the phenomenon here, here, here, here, here, and here, while Members of the House are demanding data and documents on these troubling developments.) The reasoning of the denials has regularly relied upon a “jurisprudence” alien to our Anglo-American legal heritage – MSU (Make Stuff Up) law. The most egregious and recurrent refusals have involved the H-1B visa category for workers in specialty occupations. (USCIS recently offered its own analysis of why it often demands additional evidence when it is poised to deny H-1B visa petitions: “Understanding Requests for Evidence (RFEs): A Breakdown of Why RFEs Were Issued for H-1B Petitions in Fiscal Year 2018 USCIS”). As will be shown below, some of the most go-to grounds for H-1B petition denials are unanchored to statutory text, agency regulations and long-standing interpretive guidance can be found among the gamut of immigrant and nonimmigrant work visa classifications. Old litigation wine in new bottles. With mounting outrage, rebuked employers and noncitizen workers are channeling Howard Beale from the venerable film Network, and screaming, “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore!” Just like the film, it is an old story with modern resonance – old, because the APA has been around since 1946, and foreign workers, American employers, and their immigration lawyers have been suing USCIS since its inception in 2003, and long before that, the APA defendant of choice was the legacy agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). An OILy solution slip-sliding away. No one likes to be sued, and fewer still relish losing. The INS — then an agency in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — was no different. INS commissioners of yore found that when APA actions challenging their agency’s immigration decisions were brought in the various federal district courts, the local Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSAs) assigned to the case often pressured INS to surrender and settle by issuing to the plaintiff the approval notices they failed to secure through the usual immigration petition and application process. AUSAs, INS perceived, much like most lawyers practicing in disparate legal fields, seemed genetically indisposed (pardon the imminent seafood puns) to pry open grimy immigration mollusks because they had more delectable fish to fry. Why fuss and suss complicated immigration law issues when there were “sexier” antitrust, intellectual property, organized crime, and other more intellectually-stimulating, and career-enhancing cases to pursue or defend? — or so INS reasoned. The result: INS and DOJ built what they thought would be a better mousetrap in the hope that litigants in civil immigration suits would beat a path of retreat from the APA’s door. Thus was born in DOJ the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL), a cadre of federal lawyers steeped, nerdlike, in the immigration-law dark arts of benefits-denials and deportation. Often, and sadly, the OILy strategy has worked. The Feds could deploy overpowering resources that few immigration litigators of employment-based APA cases could muster. Fast forward to 2019: OIL attorneys simply cannot keep up quite as easily as before with the flood of immigration class actions and suits seeking to enjoin Executive Branch decisions to terminate Temporary Protected Status, DACA, and employment authorization for F-1 foreign students, and institute family-separation and child-imprisonment not to mention DOJ lawsuits asking federal courts to allow withholding of grant funds to sanctuary cities and states. OIL’s docket will likely be overwhelmed still more with the anticipated onslaught of suits opposing the “national-emergency” border funding and property-confiscation orders issued last month. As of August, 2017, OIL employed a comparatively small team, comprised of approximately 250 attorneys and 60 support staff. Unsurprisingly, the immigration-litigation DeLorean is already headed back to the future on an OIL-slicked road. Immigration lawyers across the country report recently that USCIS is often caving on newly-filed APA suits, often even before DOJ provides an answer to the complaint, as Bloomberg Law’s Laura Francis reports (“Businesses Challenging Visa Denials Seeing Early Successes”). To be sure, some white flags of surrender may be waived strategically. USCIS has proposed (and is overdue) to issue BAHA-friendly H-1B regulations in the future. Perhaps some court victories may be due to the agency’s desire to avoid federal court rulings that might restrict the agency from doing a full-BAHA rule in the near-term regulatory future. Flood-the-zone immigration litigation. Still, math is math, and resources are finite. Just as DOJ cannot mint new immigration judges fast enough for the tsunami of respondents in removal proceedings, the likelihood is that OIL faces a recruiting challenge of its own, since experienced immigration litigators willing to side with the government and defend restrictionist immigration policies are perhaps as rare as the chance of finding a snowball in Congress. The message to employers, foreign workers, and their immigration attorneys who have received unjust USCIS denials is clear. The APA is your friend. It’s time to put on your big-boy and big-girl pants and go into federal court. (For those who need a little CLE loin-girding, AILA invites you to attend its 2019 Spring Federal Court Litigation Conference on March 12 in Chicago [and for early birds, I’ll be speaking at 8:05 AM with Diane M. Butler and Denyse Sabagh, on “Anticipating Suing The Government: “Game On!”].) What you can learn there (or through self-study, or affiliation with an experienced immigration litigator) is that APA litigation challenging USCIS actions is often less taxing than the bet-the-company suits that capture headlines. The Immigration and Nationality Act does not require exhaustion of administrative remedies before filing an APA action in Federal District Court. As a result, the usual problems with appeals to the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office – delay, de novo review and the finding of new or additional grounds to affirm the denial – can be avoided. Moreover, except in rare circumstances, the APA does not allow the usual civil discovery methods of interrogatories, requests for admissions, and depositions; rather, the case is adjudicated on the administrative record of proceedings. Better still, cases are resolved more quickly, by cross-motions for summary decision, or, by settlement (meaning your client gets its work visa or green card). Head-fake litigation preparedness. Even sweeter than causing the government to cave quickly, and issue an approval notice soon after the Federal District Court receives your APA lawsuit, is the act of instilling sufficient fear in the immigration adjudicator that he or she will be overturned or look bad for having issued an MSU denial in the first place. Instilling fear requires effort. The visa petition or green card application (and any response to a USCIS request for additional evidence) must be accompanied by compelling evidence and be prepared so thoroughly and persuasively as to cause the USCIS adjudicator to believe that – if s/he denies the case – the next stop would be an APA challenge in Federal District Court where the adjudicator will be overturned, chided, embarrassed or otherwise placed in a bad light. While this does not mean that the employer or foreign worker must decide at the case preparation stage to sue USCIS, it should signify at least that the immigration lawyer will be well-positioned to persuade them that the suit should be filed. In other words, shooting blanks too often, and signaling head fakes insincerely may reap diminishing returns over time. Still, there are numerous opportunities for APA challenges to employment-based visa and green card denials. Often, USCIS uses boilerplate references to assert legal propositions that are often incorrect or inapt in a particular case, and therefore legally vulnerable under an APA litigation challenge. Here are a few examples: Discrediting the opinions of experts. USCIS boilerplate text often cites Matter of V-K-, 24 I&N Dec. 500, n. 2 (BIA 2008) for the proposition that expert opinion testimony offering predictions of the anticipated contributions that noncitizens might make to the U.S. national interests or U.S. economy “does not purport to be evidence as to ‘fact’”), although the Board of immigration Appeals overruled that case in Matter of Z-Z-O-, 26 I&N Dec. 586, n. 2 (BIA 2015) with respect to the standard of review for predictive factual findings. USCIS also is wont to cite Kazarian v. USCIS, 596 F.3d 1115, 1122 (9th Cir. 2010) to support “the USCIS’s conclusion that the ‘letters from physics professors attesting to [the petitioner’s] contributions in the field’ were insufficient was ‘consistent with the relevant regulatory language.’” The citation to Kazarian, however, is meaningless because the physics professors’ letters are not described or included in that case, thereby precluding meaningful analysis of the quoted sentence. Claiming that H-1B petition does not correspond with the Labor Condition Application. USCIS often cites and quotes the following excerpt from U.S. Department of Labor regulations at 20 CFR § 655.705(b) as legal authority for decisions denying H-1B classification: [The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] accepts the employer’s petition (DHS [sic.] Form I-129) with the DOL-certified LCA attached. In doing so, the DHS determines whether the petition is supported by an LCA which corresponds with the petition, whether the occupation named in the labor condition application is a specialty occupation . . ., and whether the qualifications of the nonimmigrant meet the statutory requirements for H-1B visa classification. (Underlining and bolding added.) Unfortunately for USCIS, the U.S Department of Labor (DOL) has described the highlighted text above as a “minor,” non-substantive update in the phrasing of its regulation. The prior version of 20 CFR § 655.705(b) — effective until January 18, 2001 — differed materially in that it did not contain the “whether the petition is supported by an LCA which corresponds with the petition.” See the December 20, 2000 Federal Register, the DOL in its preamble to the interim final rule explained its reasons for the wording change in the amended regulation, as follows: Miscellaneous Matters. The Department has also made minor changes to the regulations . . . [Several] places (e.g., §§ 655.700, 655.705, 655.715), have been revised to reflect the amendments made by the ACWIA and the October 2000 Amendments, and to reflect the current Departmental organizational structure. (65 Fed. Reg. 80110, 80202 (Dec. 20, 2000), Supplementary Information; bolding added). Aside from according weight to the DOL’s non-substantive re-phrasing of 20 CFR § 655.705, USCIS also misinterprets the ambiguous “Corresponds with” sentence in the regulation. Typically, USCIS’s H-1B denials unjustifiably change the phrase by imagining it to state instead that “the job title, DOL SOC Code and Wage Level selection process in the LCA must correspond with the job duties described by the employer in the H-1B petition or in an accompanying statement.” This expansive restatement constitutes clear legal error. USCIS may not arrogate to itself the exclusive authority and justly-earned expertise of the DOL by pretending that the “Corresponds with” sentence somehow empowers an Immigration Officer to wade, without a lifesaver or any appreciable swimming ability, into the deep water of DOL prevailing-wage-determination procedures. Congress has conferred upon the DOL Secretary the exclusive authority and duty to certify an LCA unless it is incomplete or obviously inaccurate. See INA § 212(n)(1)(G)(final paragraph)(providing that an employer may not be prohibited from using “legitimate selection criteria” in a nondiscriminatory fashion if they are “relevant to the job,” and “normal or customary to the type of job involved”). Relying upon novel adjudication procedures to make it harder for noncitizens to qualify as individuals of extraordinary ability in a particular field. USCIS relishes citing the Kazarian case, supra, to claim that even if a petitioner submits the minimum number of categories of acceptable qualitative evidence described in current regulations (e.g., three out of ten categories to qualify for the EB1-1 employment-based green card classification), the petition can still be denied in a so-called “final merits determination.” See the USCIS policy memorandum PM-602-0005.1 , adopted without benefit of compliance with the APA’s rulemaking requirement that the public be given notice and an opportunity to comment before an agency declares new legislative rules. (For well-deserved criticism of this two-stage analysis, see the excellent blog post by my colleague, Cyrus Mehta, “The Curse of Kazarian v. USCIS in Extraordinary Ability Adjudications Under the Employment-Based First Preference.“) What USCIS omits to state, however, is that INS published previously endeavored to comply with APA notice-and-comment rulemaking when it published a proposed rule in 1995 that, in effect, would have incorporated the two-stage “final merits determination” procedure into agency regulations. See, INS Proposed Rule, “Employment-Based Immigrants,” 60 Federal Register 29771, 29780 (June 6, 1995), which stated: 204.5 Petitions for employment-based immigrants. (i) * * * If the above standards do not readily apply to the beneficiary’s occupation, the petitioner may submit comparable evidence to establish the beneficiary’s eligibility. Meeting three of the evidentiary standards listed in paragraph (i) (3) of this section is not dispositive of whether the beneficiary is an alien of extraordinary ability. The petitioner has the burden of proof to establish that he or she is an alien of extraordinary ability. (Emphasis added.) Unfortunately for immigration adjudicators, INS and USCIS never incorporated the proposal into a final regulation. Tellingly, however, USCIS adopted the “comparable-evidence” text in the foregoing 1995 proposed rule when it promulgated a final rule. See 8 CFR § 204.5(h)(4)(“If the above standards do not readily apply to the beneficiary’s occupation, the petitioner may submit comparable evidence to establish the beneficiary’s eligibility”). Requiring corroboration of all evidence and claiming that perceived inconsistencies, however immaterial, create doubt sufficient to deny employment-based petitions. USCIS loves to cite Matter of Ho, 19 I&N Dec. 582, 591 (BIA 1988) for the proposition that “doubt cast on any aspect of the petitioner’s proof may . . . lead to a reevaluation of the reliability and sufficiency of the remaining evidence offered in support of the visa petition.” The assertion of course seems reasonable on its face. Regrettably, however, USCIS turns Matter of Ho on its head by claiming that all statements of fact submitted by a petitioner must be corroborated. This mode of denial flatly contradicts the more recent precedent decision, Matter of Chawathe, 25 I&N Dec. 369 (AAO 2010), which held: Even if the [USCIS adjudicator] has some doubt as to the truth, if the petitioner submits relevant, probative, and credible evidence that leads the director to believe that the claim is more likely than not” or “probably” true, the applicant or petitioner has satisfied the standard of proof. See INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421, 431 (1987) (discussing “more likely than not” as a greater than 50% chance of an occurrence taking place). The Ho ploy of many a USCIS adjudicator also ignores the fact that every petitioner must sign an acknowledgement confirming that all evidence is submitted under penalty of perjury, and thus carries with it the real potential for criminal prosecution under a host of federal criminal penalties including 18 U.S.C. § 1001, making it unlawful for any person to knowingly make a false statement which is material and is made with regard to any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of United States, and 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a), making it unlawful and punishing any person who under penalty of perjury knowingly subscribes as true, any false statement with respect to a material fact in any application, affidavit, or other document required by the immigration laws or regulations prescribed thereunder, or knowingly presents any such application, affidavit, or other document which contains any such false statement or which fails to contain any reasonable basis in law or fact. If this article achieves anything, the hope is that employers, noncitizens, and their immigration lawyers who have been denied justice at USCIS should stop being so gosh-darned pusillanimous. The shrinking violet should no longer be the flower that defines you. Paraphrasing the much beloved, long departed immigration lawyer, Sam Williamson, father of an AILA past president and of a well-known inspirational speaker running for the Presidency in 2020, this author proclaims: “Sue the miscreants!” Tags: "Administrative Appeals Office", "Administrative Procedure Act", "Immigration Lawyers", "State Department", "USCIS Policy Memorandum", immigration, Immigration Litigation, USCIS Immigration Voices: Coming out of the Shadows with the U Visa Tips from an Immigration Insider: How to Excel at a U.S. Visa Interview

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2 School Closings Jennifer Hudson Enthusiastic About Aretha Franklin Film Role By Access Hollywood • Published at 7:01 pm on February 11, 2011 Halle Berry may have taken herself out of the running to play Aretha Franklin in a film about the Queen of Soul's life (according to Halle herself, it's because she can't sing), but there's another Oscar winner who still has her eye on the role. Newly svelte Jennifer Hudson, a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for 2006's "Dreamgirls," admitted to Access Hollywood on Thursday that she wouldn't say no to the part. VIEW THE PHOTOS: Respect! Legendary Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin "I've been hearing a lot [of talk] about this lately," Jennifer told Access as she rehearsed for Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party honoring David Geffen in Los Angeles. "We met a couple of years ago actually, about I don't know what, but if I get that opportunity I would love to do it." Jennifer, who will perform an Aretha song – "Natural Woman"– at Clive's annual bash before music's biggest night, said she would consider the opportunity to play the Detroit diva a delight. VIEW THE PHOTOS: Daring! Dramatic! Fabulous! Hot Shots Of Hollywood's Divas "I would be honored. That would be amazing to be a part of that," Jennifer said. Aretha is well aware that Jennifer will perform one of her classics at Clive's big event, and Jennifer revealed to Access that the legend recently contacted her about the cover. "Aretha called me out of the blue last Friday and we were chatting on the phone and I told her," Jennifer explained. "She was trying to get an idea of what was going on; she knows what's going on at the Grammys." VIEW THE PHOTOS: From 'Idol' To Hollywood 'Dreamgirl' & Beyond — Jennifer Hudson As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Jennifer, alongside Christina Aguilera, Martina McBride, Florence Welch of Florence and The Machine and Yolanda Adams will take part in a tribute to Aretha at the start of the Grammys, but any further details about the performance is being kept under wraps. At Clive's party, Jennifer will also perform "Where You At?" the first single off her sophomore album "I Remember Me" (due for release on April 25), but she knows it's special to sing one of Aretha's songs because of the First Lady of Soul's impact. VIEW THE PHOTOS: Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Clarkson & More At 'VH1 Divas' 2009 "[She] has had such an influence on the music industry and me personally and everybody… and so we're just celebrating that… and I'm just honored to be able to sing one of her songs," Jennifer said. Chicago-bred Jennifer said Aretha, whose health has made headlines of late, is doing well. "First thing, let me say… she was vital and we had fun and we're planning [on] her coming to New York in the spring and [we'll have] a special dinner," Jennifer recounted of her conversation with Aretha. "Aretha's great and she's looking forward to hearing from me, you know, the special night, Saturday night… as well as the Grammys." PLAY IT NOW: Clive Davis & Jennifer Hudson Get Ready For The Grammys PLAY IT NOW: Jennifer Hudson Opens Up About The Murders Of Her Mom, Brother & Nephew More from Access: [ Jennifer Hudson Aretha Franklin TV One ]

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Fiery editor — and Trump golfing buddy — is back at The New York Post “The Fox News ethos is going to be more clear and distinct in the newspaper and on digital," said sources at the paper. Richard Johnson and Col Allan attend Richard Johnson's 25 Years at Page Six celebration on Nov. 23, 2010, in New York City.Patrick McMullan / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images file Jan. 25, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC By Claire Atkinson Col Allan, the fiery former editor-in-chief of The New York Post, is returning to the paper, according to several sources. Allan, who was the tabloid's top editor from 2001 to 2016, will reportedly act as an adviser to the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corporation, whose influential properties include the Post, The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Murdoch is also executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, which includes Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox News Channel. Allan has a long history with President Donald Trump, and has previously said the former real estate developer is "a tabloid newspaper editor’s dream." "You know I like the Donald a lot,” Allan said at an Australian media event in 2017. Allan’s return is likely to lead to a closer relationship between the right-leaning paper and the White House, with more positive coverage ahead of a potential bid by Trump in the 2020 presidential election, said three sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “All signs are that Rupert is gearing up for 2020,” said one person familiar with the internal dynamics at the newspaper. “It definitely has to do with Trump,” one source told NBC News. Another source told NBC News, “The Fox News ethos is going to be more clear and distinct in the newspaper and on digital and in what gets promoted. There is a desire to bring things more center right.” During Allan's tenure, the Post was hit with several high-profile lawsuits, including one from two men incorrectly implicated in the 2013 Boston marathon bombing, who appeared on the cover under the headline “Bag Men.” A former editor sued in 2009, claiming she was fired for speaking critically about a cartoon that likened President Barack Obama to a dead chimpanzee. In the lawsuit, she also alleged the company was rife with racial and sexual harassment. At the time, the Post said in a statement, "We look forward to presenting the truth about the remaining charges — which are completely unfounded — to a jury." After his retirement in 2016, Allan relocated to his native Australia. His return to New York shocked staff last week. In a statement last week, employees learned that long-time Post staffer and chief executive and publisher, Jesse Angelo, was stepping down. Emails to Allan were not returned. A News Corporation spokesman was not available to comment. Claire Atkinson Claire Atkinson is the senior media editor for NBC News.

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Hong Kong Police and Protesters Clash, Ending Violence Lull Police fired tear gas for the first time in more than a week after black-clad protesters set up makeshift barricades on a road outside a police station By Kelvin Chan • Published at 1:48 am on August 24, 2019 Chris McGrath/Getty Images Hong Kong protesters threw bricks and gasoline bombs at police, who responded with tear gas, as chaotic scenes returned to the summer-long anti-government protests on Saturday for the first time in nearly two weeks. Hundreds of black-clad protesters armed with bamboo poles and baseball bats fought with police officers wielding batons on a main road following a march against "smart lampposts" that was sparked by surveillance fears. The chaotic scenes unfolded outside a police station and a nearby shopping mall as officers in riot gear faced off with protesters who set up makeshift street barricades. The violence interrupted nearly two weeks of calm in Hong Kong, which has been gripped by a turbulent pro-democracy movement since June. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd after repeated warnings "went futile," the government said in a statement. By early evening, most of the protesters had dispersed, though clashes flared up in other neighborhoods. Earlier in the day, some protesters used an electric saw to slice through the bottom of a smart lamppost, while others pulled ropes tied around it to send it toppling and cheered as it crashed to the ground. The protest march started peacefully as supporters took to the streets to demand the removal of the lampposts over worries that they could contain high-tech cameras and facial recognition software used for surveillance by Chinese authorities. The government in Hong Kong said smart lampposts only collect data on traffic, weather and air quality. The protesters chanted slogans calling for the government to answer the movement's demands. The protests began in June with calls to drop a now-suspended extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to China to stand trial, then widened to include free elections for the city's top leader and an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality. "Hong Kong people's private information is already being extradited to China. We have to be very concerned," organizer Ventus Lau said ahead of the procession. The semiautonomous Chinese territory has said it plans to install about 400 of the smart lampposts in four urban districts, starting with 50 this summer in the Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay districts that were the scene of Saturday's protest march. Hong Kong's government-owned subway system operator, MTR Corp., shut down stations and suspended train service near the protest route, after attacks by Chinese state media accusing it of helping protesters flee in previous protests. MTR said Friday that it may close stations near protests under high risk or emergency situations. The company has until now kept stations open and trains running even when there have been chaotic skirmishes between protesters and police. Lau said MTR was working with the government to "suppress freedom of expression." Also Saturday, Chinese police said they released an employee at the British Consulate in Hong Kong as scheduled after 15 days of administrative detention. Simon Cheng Man-kit was detained for violating mainland Chinese law and "confessed to his illegal acts," the public security bureau in Luohu, Shenzhen, said on its Weibo microblog account, without providing further details. The Chinese government has said that Cheng, who went missing after traveling by train to mainland China for a business trip, was held for violating public order regulations in Shenzhen, in a case that further stoked tensions in Hong Kong, a former British colony. The British government confirmed his release. "We welcome the release of Simon Cheng and are delighted that he can be reunited with his family," the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement, adding that Cheng and his family had requested privacy. Cheng, a Scottish government trade and investment officer, was a local employee without a diplomatic passport. The Global Times, a Communist Party-owned nationalistic tabloid, said Thursday that he was detained for "soliciting prostitutes." China often uses public order charges against political targets and has sometimes used the accusation of soliciting prostitution. Associated Press news assistant Henry Hou contributed to this report.

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News»Press Releases»$4.7 Million Contract Awarded to Resurface Roads in Robeson County $4.7 Million Contract Awarded to Resurface Roads in Robeson County RALEIGH - The N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to resurface more than 44 miles of roads in Robeson County, including sections of N.C. 72, N.C. 130 and eighteen sections of secondary roads. The $4.7 million contract was awarded to Barnhill Contracting Company of Fayetteville. Work can begin as early as July 28 and is scheduled to be completed May 29, 2015. As part of the contract, crews will resurface the following roads:14.8 miles of N.C. 72 from N.C. 711 to N.C. 701;4 miles of N.C. 130 from U.S. 501 to N.C. 83;3.7 miles of McLeod Drive from N.C. 130 to Oquinn Road;3.7 miles of Phillips Road from Beulah Church Road to N.C. 72; 2.3 miles of Midway Road from Fairley Road to N.C. 130; 2 miles of Starlite Drive from W. Fifth Street to N.C. 41; 1.9 miles of Hoke Road from Hoke County line to N.C. 211; 1.7 miles of Arthur Road from N.C. 71 to Mount Zion Church Road; 1.6 miles of Centerville Church Road from Clifton Road to Mcdonald Road;1.5 miles of Blanchard Road from Carolina Church Road to U.S. 301; 1.4 miles of Sanchez Drive from Kenny Biggs Road to N.C. 41; 1.3 miles of Veterans Road from N.C. 20 to dead end; 1.2 miles of Briarcliff Lane from U.S. 74 to Crawford Road; 1.2 miles of T & P Road from Beulah Church Road to Old Whiteville Road;1 mile of Dunn Road from city of Lumberton to Kenny Biggs Road; 0.4 miles of Cold Storage Road from N.C. 72 to dead end; 0.4 miles of Nash Road from N.C. 20 to Veterans Road;0.2 miles of Willoughby Drive from N.C. 20 to Nash Road; 0.2 miles of Jason's Place from N.C. 20 to Veterans Road; and 0.2 miles of Rowland Lane from N.C. 20 to Nash Road. This is one of the 18 road and bridge contracts worth $248.1 million recently awarded by NCDOT for projects across North Carolina. The contracts were awarded to the lowest bidders, as required by state law. The low bids received on the projects were three percent, or about $8.3 million below NCDOT estimates.

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Decolonizing Disney’s Moana Did Someone REALLY Just Say THAT?!? The Downside of the Music Industry Examining the Culture of Africa and Debunking Stereotypes and Assumptions Expression and Resistance Through Art Fighting the Landlord Gender Roles and Stereotypes History of Dumplings How Do We Create Inclusive Communities? The Intersectionality of Sexuality, Gender, and Race It's Not You, It's Me Let's Talk About Not Talking Marked By Matriarchs Mexico: An Accurate Portrayal of Culture and History Modeling Masculinity The N-Word: Can You Say It? Can Anyone Say It? Passion and Persuasion The Problem with Poodle Science Representation of Black People in Film She/He/They: Exploring the Linguistics of Gender-Neutral Language Substance Use Disorder and the Perception of Addiction in the Media and Society as a Whole The Silent P: Naming Our Privilege(s) and Listening to the Powerless Slam Poetry with S.C. Says Social Justice Today Socioeconomic Diversity In Our Schools Using Theater for Social Change Creation Lab: Create Your Own Interactive Play in Conjunction with Illumination Project Using Your Voice What Makes Oregon Hip Hop? Who Are the Deserving Poor? Your Story, Your Power, Your Zine Who controls the narratives of Pacific Islander people? In this workshop, we will delve and discuss the stories embedded in Disney's Moana and the power dynamics at play when it comes to creating a mainstream film rooted in the traditions of those indigenous to the Pacific Rim. Understanding Microaggressions and Their Negative Impact If you want to understand what microaggressions are and how to counter them this is the workshop for you! This workshop will include discussion, viewing videos and role plays. What does music mean to you? Is it ethical to listen to the music of celebrities who have been charged with sexual assault? How should society as a whole react to instances where celebrities that they know and respect are charged with sexual assault? In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to explore these questions and discuss controversial acts of sexual assaults committed by famous musicians. We will be looking at historical and current examples of artists who have been charged with or accused of sexual assault, and how this impacts their fame and the people who listen to their music. The workshop will be conducted through video clips, articles, excerpts from social media, and discussion. In this workshop, we will be discussing the typical stereotypes and generalizations of African culture. We will celebrate and bring awareness to the Toupri Tribe of Africa and hopefully debunk any negative views that exist about this rich and very diverse place. In this interactive workshop, we will look at how art expression has been used as a tool to protest oppression and injustice throughout history. In this hands-on and interactive workshop, we will highlight rural China in 1947, discuss the history of Chinese Land Revolution, and examine the present-day impact of Chinese people's mindset on owning houses and properties. We will explore the negative impact of gender roles and stereotypes through research, discussion, and art. Using ideas that will be generated in the discussion, each session will contribute to the making of a massive collage on canvas. Drawing, color, magazine cutouts, and writing will create an artistic interpretation of gender roles in the modern world. Dumplings are an iconic Chinese food and have been a beloved tradition in China for 1800 years. They represent Chinese culture and express people's yearning for a better life. They symbolize unity, family, and peace. In this workshop, we will be eating and tasting dumplings as well as making dumplings in a style specific to the country. How do you know if a space is inclusive and accessible for all, and is such a goal even possible? What do you do about the tension between people who have different needs to feel included? Join in this workshop to explore what it takes to make the shift from invitation to inclusion. Expand your concept of the LGBT community and consider the role that race plays. Often this community is viewed as a homogenous group of white, skinny people. Exploring Identity, Race, Culture, Class and Lived Experience This workshop will develop a cultural awareness and self-reflective practice for living, loving and learning. It will include active engagement by participants, individual reflection, small group discussions, and activities. Why do Asians tend to not want to talk about politics, social issues, and activism? What histories and cultures shape this taboo and how must we break down this wall? What is the Model Minority Myth and how does it affect this culture of taboo? Who or what comes to mind when you think about tattoo artists? What stereotypes exist in US society when it comes to people with tattoos? This workshop takes us back to the traditional origins of tattooing as an art form and how it arrived in the USA. What you’ll learn is a rich history of women dominating the craft and bringing it back to life in the modern age. In this workshop, we will discuss and examine negative views that exist in the United States about Mexico. With the current social and political climate, it is important to resist the discord and misrepresentation. Come and celebrate the beautiful and rich culture of Mexico and its people! Join us for this photographic workshop where we will examine portraits as a way to consider the association and expectations around masculinity. We will look at pictures that help you consider physical attributes, cultural associations, mental and emotional states, pose, relationship, dress, and styling. We will make use of studio photography equipment and allow workshop participants to model their own interpretations of what it means. You will have the opportunity to talk about the history of the N-word, its impact, and who can say it in this workshop. Expect to participate in a fishbowl discussion as well as listen to a brief history of where the word came from and how it has been used. How to Have Your Activist Efforts Make Real Change In this workshop conducted by keynote speaker, Sally Kohn, examine the work that you have been doing as an activist. Sally will discuss how to persuade others to join you in your work and how to make an authentic impact with your activism. Body Positivity, Diet Culture, and Self-Acceptance In this workshop, we will explore why our society believes that skinny means healthy and reframe the popular thinking while learning to recognize diet culture as it has disguised itself more recently as "wellness" focused. Participants can expect to walk away with a better understanding of what it means to be positive about their own bodies and others'. A workshop in which we explore the way in which black people have been depicted in films throughout history and now in the 21st century. We will explore questions such as: What makes a character realistic as opposed to born out of stereotypes? What breakthroughs have been made in terms of accurate representation of black people in film, and why were these films breakthroughs? In this workshop, we will be discussing the use of gender-neutral language in English and looking at how feminist and LGBTQ language reform has occurred and is occurring around the world. In this workshop, we will examine substance use disorder and the perception of addiction in the media and in society as a whole. The focus will be on the stigma surrounding addiction, the language used to describe and talk about addiction, and the rise in concern about the opioid epidemic due to classism and racism. Join in a dialogue designed to understand privilege (often something we never asked for), and figure out what to do with it besides feel guilty or resentful. Come ready to listen and learn, as well as to share your own perspectives. S.C. Says a.k.a. Andre Bradford is a nationally known slam poet. Join him for this hands-on workshop to create your own slam poetry. Participate in an interactive fishbowl activity to discuss various communal, national, and international social justice issues. What is socioeconomic diversity? How does money influence our schooling experiences? Join us in this workshop to participate in a privilege walk and discussion around the role of money in our daily lives and how it impacts people differently. In this session, we will present an overview of Theatre of the Oppressed and The Illumination Project, an innovative student leadership and campus climate program at Portland Community College. Workshop attendees will engage in student-written interactive theater performances addressing issues of racism and LGBTQ+ oppression. In this small group session, participants will engage in a process to develop short interactive Theater of the Oppressed performances based on personal experiences. In this workshop, you will learn about what student activists do and how to get started yourself. Join us for debates and find organizations you might want to get involved with. Issues of cultural appropriation and identity are complicated. Power dynamics influence who benefits from certain cultural experience, and—given the global nature of our world—parts of our individual and cultural identities are shaped by cultures other than our own. How do we make sense of this and what effect does it have on us as individuals and as Oregonians? This workshop will center around conversation to explore cultural appropriation beyond who’s “allowed” to wear certain clothing or cook particular foods. Hip hop is everywhere, then where and how does it arise in Oregon? Explore questions such as, where is hip hop embraced in Oregon? Where is it rejected? How is it received and perceived throughout the rural, urban, suburban communities in which we live? What effect has hip hop had on Oregon, and what impact has Oregon made on hip hop? This conversation may include some hands-on activities. If you’ve grown up in the United States, chances are you’ve been conditioned to trust that your individual success is earned through hard work. But if this is the case, what do we make of the millions of Americans who struggle with poverty, hunger, and job insecurity? Who is to blame for poverty? What qualities or conditions allow a person to be considered “deserving” of government and community support? Join facilitator Erica Tucker for a conversation that explores our beliefs about poverty and asks us to consider our assumptions about who should—and shouldn’t—be eligible for support. From dime-sized squids that migrate the length of 6 football fields twice a day to feed, to fish with built-in red flashlights to find food, the deep sea holds some of the greatest diversity and novelty seen on our planet. Join us for a session hosted by deep-sea biologist and PSU professor Dr. Annie Lindgren, where she will highlight her current research on deep-sea cephalopods and discuss how universities such as PSU are working toward creating and supporting a more inclusive and diverse STEM workforce. What is the most powerful story you've heard? Do-it-yourself zines have offered artists, activists, and other creators the means to share narratives from the mundane and comical to the radical and revolutionary. An art form with roots in counterculture and resistance, zines have served as vehicles for change in all areas of social justice. In this workshop, we will explore the world of stories, their impact, and how they gain momentum through self-published zines as we create our own works. 2019 Culture Shock Workshops Printable PDF Who Attends Culture Shock? Who are the 2019 Keynote Presenters? Culture Shock is a student diversity and social justice conference designed by students at OES with the goals of celebrating and learning about cultures and lived experiences while increasing students’ cultural competence via workshops, affinity groups and other experiences. All US students attend Culture Shock. This year the student planning committee, the Intercultural Student Association, has invited students from The Arts and Communications Academy, Beaverton High School, Catlin Gabel, Central Catholic, The International School of Beaverton, Jesuit High School, Mountainside High School, Northwest Academy, Southridge High School, and St. Mary's Academy. Sally Kohn Before joining the media, Sally was Senior Campaign Strategist with the Center for Community Change, a 45-year-old hub of grassroots organizations nationwide. Sally served as co-director of ideas and innovation for the Center, helping lead the pioneering Campaign for Community Values, producing a nationally televised Presidential candidate forum in 2008, developing a new media organizing project on health care reform in rural communities and spearheading several other initiatives. Before that, Sally held a program fellowship at the Ford Foundation, helping to manage more than $15 million in annual grants to social justice organizations nationwide. She was also strategic advisor to the Social Justice Infrastructure Funders, a private network of 25 top program staff from some of the nation’s most prominent foundations, working to identify a shared strategy and coordinate grantmaking. Before that, Sally served as Executive Director of the Third Wave Foundation, the leading young women’s organization in the country. She was also a distinguished Vaid Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, where she published a groundbreaking guidebook for organizing campaigns to win domestic partnership benefits. Sally also worked as a consultant with the Urban Justice Center, publishing a report on the experiences of gay youth in the New York juvenile justice system. Sally received a joint degree in law and public administration from New York University and was a Root Tilden public service scholar at the New York University School of Law. She received her undergraduate degree from George Washington University in D.C. Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, Sally now resides in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner Sarah Hansen and their daughter Willa. Andre Bradford a.k.a. S.C. Says Andre Bradford, a.k.a. S.C. Says, is an Austin based slam poet who has been performing slam poetry since 2013. He's toured and featured at venues and universities across the country, and his work has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Edge radio, The Culture Trip, and Blavity. He is a two time Austin Poetry Slam Champion, a three time Texas Grand Slam Finalist, and was a member of the 2015 National Championship Team. He also once popped a bag of popcorn without burning a single kernel, which is arguably one of his greatest achievements. His poetry covers a gamut of topics ranging from being mixed race, to gun control, to mental health awareness, to never settling in relationships. Slam poetry is an art form he loves due to its raw vulnerability and its ability to cultivate transparency and dialogues into many different walks of life. Start time event 8-8:30 a.m. Registration 8:30-8:40 a.m. Welcome 8:40-9:35 a.m. Keynote: Sally Kohn 9:35-10:05 a.m. Home Groups 10:10-11 a.m. Workshop Session I 11:10 a.m.-12 p.m. Workshop Session II 12-12:45 p.m. Lunch 12:50-1:50 p.m. Workshop Session III and Affinity Spaces 1:50-2 p.m. Home Groups 2-3 p.m. S.C. Says Performs Kintsukuroi Complimentary Food Choices Morning Snack: Goldfish and Fruit Vegan Indian Bar Green Chili Cheese, Black Bean, and Chicken Enchilada Bake Dessert: Assorted Cookies

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Go to navigation | Go to content About HRC Presidency & Membership HRC Bodies Independent Investigations OHCHR English Human Rights Bodies HRC NewsDetail The Republic of Korea’s human rights record to be reviewed by Universal Periodic Review GENEVA (6 November 2017) – The Republic of Korea’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Thursday, 9 November 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live. The Republic of Korea is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 6 to 17 November. The Republic of Korea’s first and second UPR reviews took place in May 2008 and October 2012, respectively. The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups. Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: the abolition of the death penalty; combatting hate speech and xenophobic discourse against non-citizens, racism and discrimination; addressing violence and abuse in the military and ensuring the right to conscientious objection; halting overcrowding, torture and suicide in penitentiary institutions; preventing censorship through misuse of defamation and national security laws; safeguarding the right to association, peaceful assembly and labour rights; addressing allegations of the excessive use of force; data and privacy protection measures; fostering gender equality in employment and decision-making; combatting gender-based violence, including domestic violence and marital rape; ending involuntary hospitalization and treatment of mental health patients; protecting migrant workers against inequality, exploitation and ill-treatment; and combatting old-age poverty. The three reports serving as the basis for the review of the Republic of Korea on 9 November can be found here. Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Thursday, 9 November (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour) The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles. During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country. The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of the Republic of Korea are: Mongolia, Hungary and Congo. The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of the Republic of Korea will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link. The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to the Republic of Korea at 17.00 on 14 November. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review. The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance. For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711 / rgomez@ohchr.org , Sarah Lubbersen at +41 (0) 22 917 9689 / slubbersen@ohchr.org or Cédric Sapey at +41 (0) 22 917 9751 / csapey@ohchr.org To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr UN Human Rights Council, follow us on social media: © 2020 United Nations Human Rights Council

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OH MY LUXO - ​Disney Animation ANNOUNCEMENT: FROZEN Television Special and Broadway Debut Following last year's news of the announcement that Walt Disney Animation Studios is in active development on a Frozen 2, The Walt Disney Company addressed in an official press release the addition of a Frozen ABC Television Special will air in 2017 along with the announcement that Frozen: A Broadway Musical will be hitting the Big Apple in 2018. Read the official press release after the break! PRESS RELEASE, Frozen: A Broadway Musical: For the first time in forever, Frozen is coming to Broadway! Rumors about the show have been swirling for some time now, but the official announcement was released today. The all-new show will be joining the likes of the critically acclaimed Aladdin and The Lion Kingin spring 2018. The pre-Broadway engagement is slated to kick off summer 2017. The musical, based on Disney’s Academy Award-winning film, Frozen, will feature music and lyrics by songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Winnie the Pooh) and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q, Book of Mormon), who also wrote the music for the film. The story will be based on a book by the film’s screenwriter, Jennifer Lee. Though the cast won’t be announced until later, there are a ton of talented folks already attached to the project, including Tony Award-winner Alex Timbers (Peter and the Starcatcher, Mozart in the Jungle), and Peter Darling (Billy Elliot, Matilda), who will serve as director and choreographer respectively. The design team is equally impressive, featuring scenic and costume designer Bob Crowley (Mary Poppins), lighting designer Natasha Katz (Aladdin), sound designer Peter Hylenski, and music supervisor Stephen Oremus (Avenue Q, Wicked, Book of Mormon). PRESS RELEASE, Frozen Holiday Special: Since Frozen made its theatrical debut back in 2013, we’ve seen the film’s protagonists, Anna and Elsa, make appearances on ABC’s Once Upon a Time, and star in the animated short, “Frozen Fever.” Now, we’re happy to confirm that the sisters will be returning in an all-new holiday special. Oh boy, this announcement makes us happier than a … a happy snowman! While we don’t have too many details at the moment, we do know that Olaf, Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven are all set to return. The special will be directed by two-time Emmy Award-winning directors Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton (Prep & Landing, Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa), and will be produced by Oscar Award-winner Roy Conli (Big Hero 6). Members of the original voice cast including Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, and Josh Gad will reprise their roles. The special (which is currently untitled), is slated to air during the 2017 holiday season on ABC. It is no surprise that Disney is heavily pursuing the Broadway musical adaptation of the Oscar-winning 2013 feature, as they have pursued several other successful adaptations with The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast, and Aladdin, among others. The same can be said for the Holiday television special, which will hopefully progress the story of Anna and Elsa, unlike the Broadway musical or last year's short film, Frozen Fever. The Holiday special is also exciting because it is in the hands of Deters and Wermers-Skelton, who very successfully directed the Prep & Landing television specials, which remain some of my favorite holiday specials to catch on ABC each December! Also, I would like to note that although these two press releases don't directly acknowledge the aforementioned Frozen 2, the sequel is projected to come after Disney's 2018 March feature, Gigantic. The only other date for an upcoming Walt Disney Animation Studios is November 25th, 2020, so I would not be surprised if the Frozen sequel will eventually be attached to the November 2020 date. Regardless, The Walt Disney Company is clearly milking the Frozen cash cow as much as possible, and while audiences may tire eventually, only time will tell as Frozen continues to permeate the entertainment market in multiple forms of media and consumer products. Ben Zacuto What Future Disney Animation Film Are You Most Anticipating? Wreck-It Ralph 2 Gigantic Frozen 2 Inner Workings Wreck It Ralph 2

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