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http://www.shelbycountyhistory.org/schs/blackhistory/jrandolphslave.htm | 2017-04-29T21:24:55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917123590.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031203-00125-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.975186 | 1,417 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__177413283 | en | John Randolph Slaves
Leonard U. Hill, the late Piqua historian, in
his article published in the Cincinnati Historical Society newsletter of July 1965,
describes the venerable John Randolph as being among the "First Gentlemen" of
colonial Virginia. Randolph (1773-1833), boasting the Indian princess Pocahontas as one of
his ancestors, was elected to Congress in 1799, where he soon became the Democratic party
leader. He disagreed with Thomas Jefferson frequently, opposed the declaration of
war in 1812 against Great Britain, and vigorously argued against the expansion of slavery
into the new state of Missouri. He also opposed President Andrew Jackson on the
nullification question (Randolph was in favor of nullification), a political theory, based
on states rights, that allows individual states to suspend federal laws within their
boundaries. Although there are proponents of nullification today, the last time Federal
law was nullified was at the outset of the Civil War when South Carolina, followed by
other southern states, seceded from the Union.
|Randolph served in the U.S.
Senate from 1825 to 1827, and in 1830 he was appointed minister to Russia. John
Randolph, politician, statesman and owner of a 6,000 acre plantation and hundreds of
slaves, was an emancipationist who died in 1833 leaving three wills, two of which
manumitted (freed) his slaves. The earliest will, dated 1819, specified, "I give
and bequeath to all my slaves their freedom, heartily regretting that I have ever been the
owner of one."
Other provisions set aside $8,000 for
transporting and settling his freed slaves in another state or territory of the United
States. Each former slave above the age of 40 was to receive no less than 10 acres of land
in this new place. Codicils of 1826, 1828, and 1831 were added, with the 1828 supplement
reading, "Being in great extremity, but in my perfect senses, I write this codicil
to my will in the possession of my friend, Wm. Leigh (Leigh was Randolphs cousin),
of Halifax, esquire to declare that will is my sole last will and testament, and that if
any other be found of subsequent date whether will or codicil, I do hereby revoke the
His final will written in 1832 upon his return from Russia, in
Europe, directed that the bulk of his slaves be sold. Upon his death bed it is reputed
that his final thoughts, after never being married, were about his slaves, their welfare,
and that they should be manumitted.
Claiming that John was
insane, his brother contested the will and kept the slaves. It would be thirteen years
before the courts would reach their decision to accept the "instrument of
writing...the codicil whereto bears date the 5th day of December 1821...the
codicil...1821...the codicil...of January 1826 the four codicils bearing date the 6th date
of May 1828...and the codicil bearing date the 26th day of August 1831...Therefore it is
ordered that the said several instruments of writing be recorded as the true last will and
testament of the said John Randolph of Roanoke deceased."
William Leigh began the process of carrying out the wills dictates by
traveling to Mercer County in western Ohio to arrange for the settlement of the newly
freed slaves. According to Leonard Hill and Helen Gilmore,
(a Rossville, Ohio, historian), William Leigh, on behalf of
the Randolph will dictates, had bought about 3,200 acres of fertile land in Mercer County
for over $6,000. It is possible that Leigh was aware of the black settlement of Carthagena, Mercer County, that had been established by a
Quaker, Augustus Wattles, in the 1830s.
Some of the land purchased was close to Carthagena, however, the
bulk of it was in the Celina vicinity. Before returning to Virginia, Leigh contracted with
Joseph Plunkett of Mercer County, to attend to the interests of the new arrivals and to
ensure their settlement. It was June 10, 1846, when 383 former slaves urged their horses,
four to a wagon, pulling sixteen wagons loaded with everything they owned, to head west
toward the free state of Ohio. Their ages ranged from a little baby less than 12 months to
Granny Hannah who was reputed to have been over 100 years old. They were led by Mr.
Cardwell, wagon master, whom Leigh had retained to assist the former slaves in their long
journey, and to oversee their successful settlement in Ohio.
Carthagena in 1935
Cardwell probably had in
his possession the extremely valuable certificate of their freedom, which stated,
"...A true list and description of the Negroes and mulatto emancipated by the will
of John Randolph of Roanoke, decd, recorded in the General Court of Virginia, made out from the general
book of registers of free Negroes and Mulatoes(sic)...approved by the said court the 4th
day of May 1846.
The document listed all their given
names (a few had surnames listed; most took them at a later date), and their complexion,
height and age. According to Gilmore, "They
examined them from head to toe and wrote down any marks you had on you...made you feel
like you was cattle or pigs. Every slave had a number."
Written on the 12 page list of former slaves, numbered 215 to 596,
was No. 514 - Shadrach, who would take White as a surname (later known as Buddie Shang) and make Sidney
his home, and No. 421 - Carter who would choose Lee as his surname, settle in New Bern,
located outside Sidney on Hardin-Wapak Road at Schenk Road, and produce an offspring that
would lead to the birth of James P. Humphrey,
Sidneys first black mayor.
According to Humphrey, a Frank Brown settled in Sidney in the Fair
Road area. Also listed was Rial, known later as Jimmie Jeems Rial (shown at right) an
ancestor of Helen Gilmore. NOTE: A slave did not have a last name until free. When freed,
he/she often took the name of his/her master, residence or of some famous person of that
Jimmie Jeems Rial
'Black History' segment
written in June, 1998 by David Lodge
[ Back to Black History Index ] | politics |
http://caltrux.org/node/1568 | 2014-12-22T07:00:56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802774894.154/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075254-00040-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.96714 | 360 | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2014-52__0__210324950 | en | Legislative Update- Governor Signs CTA-Sponsored AB 1888
Today, Governor Brown announced that he signed AB 1888 by Assembly Member Mike Gatto that will allow drivers with a commercial drivers license (CDL) to attend traffic school for minor violations in their personal vehicles, just as any other driver on the road would be able to do.
AB 1888 restores the right of CDL-holders to go to traffic school to have the points held back from hitting their license and putting them at greater risk of losing their license. CTA members asked the question, “Why should a driver be prohibited from going to traffic school for a minor violation that involved their personal car simply because they have a CDL?”
The California Trucking Association, California Teamsters Public Affairs Committee and a number of other business groups supported this new law because it ended discrimination against CDL-holders for the time they are not exercising the professional aspects of their license and helped maintain a qualified pool of professional drivers as the industry faces a shortage.
In accordance with federal law, this new law will still require disclosure of the violation to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for CSA purposes, but the point will not accrue to a driver’s license. While CDL’s are issued by states, the regulations governing state CDL programs are administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
The law goes into effect January 1, 2013 and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will begin working on implementation of the new law as it does require some programming work on their end.
CTA undertook this effort back in November 2011 at the direction of the Board of Directors following a motion by the Safety, Security and Human Resources Committee. | politics |
https://www.trailheadonline.org/2021/02/the-axeman-cometh/ | 2021-12-09T14:12:13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964364169.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20211209122503-20211209152503-00340.warc.gz | 0.922625 | 837 | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-49__0__78320710 | en | The Axeman Cometh!
It seems like everyone wants to tell me what “the greatest threat to Christianity in America is today.” The answers are pretty predictable, depending on who I am talking with:
- Biden democrats
- Trump republicans
- White supremacy
- Systemic inequality
- Christian nationalism
- Christian syncretism
- Working with Covid19 restrictions on gatherings
- Ignoring Covid19 restrictions on gatherings
- People who don’t know the truth
- People who don’t live out grace
There are some dangerous things on this list, but (in my opinion) none of them rise to the level of “greatest threat to the American church” status. Not even close.
You want to know what I think? (I love writing this, because you can’t say no).
The greatest threat to the church in America is the same threat that has dogged God’s people from the beginning:
The greatest threat to the American Church is the persistent and seductive temptation to place our καυχάομαι (our kahowmai – our boast, joy, and glory) in the glory of the kingdom of man instead of the glory of God. The greatest threat to the church is the temptation to try to gain the blessings of the fullness of life (which only come from God) through the power of man (which always results in rebellion against God).
In other words, the greatest threat to the church is worldliness.
Worldliness can look secular or religious, licentious or moral, progressive or conservative – worldliness doesn’t care what “skin” it wears or what party it joins. It’s primary impulse is to find the fullness of God’s blessing apart from helpless, humble, and utterly joyful dependence on God. It’s true, deceptive desire is to make us little gods.
And when it works through a religious structure, it will oppose the true mission of God in the name of God. It will take on the form of godliness but deny the power thereof. It will promise the rain clouds of God’s blessing even as its followers are dying of thirst.
This is the church’s greatest threat, and our greatest protection is what it has always been: God’s grace received and lived out in humble faith. In other words, the gospel.
We need to get serious about anchoring our boast / joy / glory (our kahowmai) in hope of the glory of God and rejecting the false hope promised by the glory of man.
That’s where we’re going this Sunday. So, buckle up, butter cup. We’re going to take the axe of God’s grace to the base of some American idols. Let’s have some fun and tear down some high places in our hearts.
If this sounds threatening, please don’t worry – the axe isn’t coming for you. It’s coming to free you from the fear, resentment, and pride that would lock you up far from God’s blessings in grace. It is coming to liberate you from fear and resentment and into joy and freedom.
I need this. I think maybe some of you do too.
And, if you are inclined, I’ll take some prayer as I study and write this week. I want to be as careful as I am clear. I want to call us to grace without clumsiness or my own sinful impulses getting in the way. I want to be not only the lead pastor, but the lead repenter of our community, so that we can boldly tear down our idols without feeling like we are tearing down ourselves.
So, pray for me as I pray for you and prepare to call us live this stuff out for real. | politics |
http://www.governorsnewenergyfuture.org/the-accord/ | 2019-10-19T07:11:09 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986692126.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20191019063516-20191019091016-00480.warc.gz | 0.910077 | 989 | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-43__0__141156469 | en | Governors’ Accord for a New Energy Future
American prosperity has always depended on embracing new ideas and technologies. By deploying renewable, cleaner and more efficient energy solutions, we can make our national economy more productive and resilient. These technologies help to diversify energy sources that power our economy and reduce dependence on foreign energy sources while securing abundant, domestically produced electricity. Embracing these new energy solutions also modernizes our infrastructure and transportation systems, decreases air pollution, and supports the growth of innovative American companies.
Current challenges also demand these new energy solutions. Extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, wildfires and sea-level rise, can negatively impact electric reliability and the economy. Embracing new energy solutions can provide more durable and resilient infrastructure, and enable economic growth, while protecting the health of our communities and natural resources. These improvements will help secure a safe and prosperous future for our country.
We recognize that now is the time to embrace a bold vision of the nation’s energy future. And to do so, states are once again poised to lead. We join together, despite unique opportunities and challenges in each state, to embrace a shared vision of this future:
Our states will diversify energy generation and expand clean energy sources.
Expanding energy efficiency and renewable energy in a cost-effective way strengthens our states’ economic productivity, reduces air pollution and avoids energy waste. Integrating more of these clean energy sources into our electricity grids can also improve the flexibility and stability of these grids. Promoting energy savings through efficiency and conservation programs is the fastest, most reliable and often cheapest way to meet our energy needs. Technologies that capture solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal power have become viable and cost-effective to integrate into our states’ energy portfolios. These technologies are already providing energy to millions of Americans while reducing energy waste and air pollution. Amidst decreasing costs of renewable energy, and rapid advances in efficiency throughout entire energy systems, our states will diversify our energy portfolios for economic, health and environmental benefits.
Our states will modernize energy infrastructure.
Modern distribution and transmission grids are required to give consumers more control over their own energy use, increase electricity reliability, and integrate more renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies into our energy systems. Electrical grid improvements, advanced in a cost-effective way, can empower utilities and consumers to manage electricity flexibly and efficiently.
Our states will encourage clean transportation options.
Hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles, and tens of millions of vehicles using alternative fuels, are driving on American roads, and fuels such as natural gas, biofuels and hydrogen are increasingly available to power vehicles. Supporting automakers’ and fueling companies’ market expansion for these new vehicles and fuels expands consumer choice, lessens dependence on petroleum and reduces pollution. By supporting needed infrastructure development, incentives and policies when appropriate, our states will encourage expanded use of these new technologies.
Our states will plan for this energy transition.
Given the complexity of state-wide energy systems and the scale of modernizing these systems, many states have developed energy plans and strategies to implement energy improvements. These approaches have incorporated best practices and lessons-learned from new technologies, other states’ energy policies, consumer programs, and workforce training efforts. These state-by-state approaches enable each state to meet benchmarks it sets for itself in areas such as energy diversification, reduced energy waste, improved air and water, and economic performance. Our states will support each other in developing, refining and implementing these plans through sharing expertise among our policy experts.
Our states will work together to make these transformational policy changes.
Our states are already transforming energy and transportation to be cleaner, more efficient, and more resilient. Many actions taking place in one state can be adapted to meet the needs of other states and scaled across regions. Examples include streamlining siting of environmentally-desirable infrastructure, setting renewable and energy efficiency standards, adopting incentives for clean vehicles and fuels, and diversifying energy portfolios to integrate peak shaving, efficiency and renewable energy into a state’s energy mix. Building on current efforts, our states will help each other reach shared energy and transportation objectives. This collaboration will be advanced through periodic meetings and technical convenings of our states.
Our states will help secure a stronger national energy future.
Given the unique energy portfolio and regulatory framework of each state, Governors are uniquely positioned to drive lasting improvements to our country’s energy system. Federal agencies lend technical expertise, provide funding, and enable research and development that can help our states make energy improvements. In order to provide effective support, federal agencies must work closely with states to tailor technical support, funding and research to the needs of each state and avoid presupposing the best types of assistance. Strong partnerships among our states and between our states and the federal government will improve our country in the decades to come. | politics |
https://politicowatch.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/politico-watch-move/ | 2018-05-27T13:24:28 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794868316.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20180527131037-20180527151037-00439.warc.gz | 0.932192 | 132 | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-22__0__118613305 | en | Politico Watch Has Moved!Posted: June 23, 2011
Attention: Politico Watch has new home on JoshMellits.com.
My sincere apologies for the extended Politico Watch hiatus. The past month has been particularly busy, between graduating from Boston University and revamping the site. The political world has been buzzing during that time, from the shaping of the 2012 Republican presidential candidate field to the Anthony Weiner scandal. Now, Politico Watch is integrated into my online portfolio, so please visit joshmellits.com/politico-watch for continuing coverage of Politico and the world of domestic and foreign politics.
Thank you for reading! | politics |
https://www.cbsi.com.sb/ustda-supports-banking-modernization-in-solomon-islands/ | 2024-04-23T17:21:11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296818732.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20240423162023-20240423192023-00220.warc.gz | 0.92274 | 647 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__114280955 | en | USTDA Supports Banking Modernization in Solomon Islands
Arlington, VA – Today, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency awarded a grant to the Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) for technical assistance to modernize the country’s banking infrastructure. USTDA’s grant, its first in the Solomon Islands, will develop an information and communications technology roadmap to support the deployment of new banking applications that will strengthen the central bank’s operations.
“USTDA is supporting an ambitious effort by CBSI to plan foundational investments in its digital infrastructure that can revolutionize how the country’s banks communicate with each other and their customers,” said Enoh T. Ebong, USTDA’s Acting Director. “Our involvement in this project will also create opportunities for American companies to partner with CBSI to ensure quality banking infrastructure that works for all Solomon Islanders.”
USTDA’s technical assistance will recommend upgrades to CBSI’s existing digital infrastructure and develop specifications and an implementation plan for deploying new banking applications. These efforts will improve CBSI’s operations and increase the availability, safety and security of financial services in the Solomon Islands.
“CBSI is currently reviewing its ICT infrastructure capability as part of its strategic positioning, not only to mitigate risks like cybersecurity, but also to conform to modern central banking standards,” said Dr. Luke Forau, CBSI Governor. “The support provided by the U.S. government through USTDA comes at the right time, especially when we are working toward constructing our new headquarters.”
Erin Elizabeth McKee, U.S. Ambassador to the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, to the Solomon Islands, and to the Republic of Vanuatu, said: “Congratulations to the United States Trade and Development Agency and the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands on this important milestone – the first USTDA grant in Solomon Islands. The increased access to financial services that Solomon Islands citizens may gain through this grant shows the United States and Solomon Islands’ commitment to build a sustainable, inclusive, free and open economy that promotes growth and mutual prosperity.”
USTDA’s technical assistance supports the Biden Administration’s Small and Less Populous Island Economies Initiative, an effort to prioritize U.S. government cooperation with island countries and territories to counter COVID-19 economic challenges, promote economic recovery, respond to the climate crisis, and advance longer-term shared interests.
U.S. businesses interested in submitting proposals for the USTDA-funded technical assistance should visit www.ustda.gov/work/bid-on-an-overseas-project
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency helps companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority infrastructure projects in emerging economies. USTDA links U.S. businesses to export opportunities by funding project preparation and partnership building activities that develop sustainable infrastructure and foster economic growth in partner countries.
MEDIA INQUIRIES: Paul Marin | (703) 875-4357 | politics |
https://memorywork.irle.ucla.edu/archives/tag/la-fed | 2022-01-27T02:12:15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320305052.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20220127012750-20220127042750-00236.warc.gz | 0.928918 | 210 | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-05__0__36614731 | en | As leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Miguel Contreras (1952-2005) reshaped LA’s unions into a powerful political, economic, and social force. The child of farm workers, Contreras was an organizer for the United Farm Workers union (UFW), and later the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union (HERE). He led the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor from 1996 until is death in 2005. The LA Alliance for a New Economy produced this video documenting Contreras’s life story and his impact on the city’s labor movement and working people.
Following the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Los Angeles unions became more involved in recruiting immigrant workers. An article in the L.A. County Federation of Labor Newsletter profiles the Labor Immigrant Assistance Project (LIAP) and the California Immigrant Workers Association (CIWA), both efforts by the labor movement to reach out to new immigrants. From The Federation News, January/February 1989, pp. 4-5. | politics |
http://www.streetyouthministries.org/blog | 2019-10-20T14:27:14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986710773.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20191020132840-20191020160340-00198.warc.gz | 0.958065 | 2,017 | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-43__0__158767285 | en | Especially given our line of work at SYM, everyone seems to be wondering what our thoughts are on the documentary. While SYM isn’t taking an official position on an issue as nuanced and complex as the solution to homelessness, we do find it important to address the uncompassionate rhetoric being used for a very human issue and hopefully bring a more human voice to the conversation. The following is an opinion piece by one of our staff. While this does not reflect an official position of SYM, we find it valuable to share this perspective.
If you’ve been around Seattle the last three months, you have likely been inundated with chatter about how “Seattle is dying.” For those who haven’t seen it, the Seattle is Dying documentary is a KOMO News embodiment of the anger held by many Seattleites toward the persistent issue of homelessness. They take the perspective of affluent, housing-secure Seattleites and tourists who see the city they once found beautiful to be decaying with crime, drugs, rampant litter, and people with mental illnesses tarnishing the serenity. There’s a lot to unpack there, a lot of powerful emotions and assumptions that seem to tell the whole story when isolated from other voices. The documentary does an effective job at communicating the deep-seated ire and fear that many Seattleites bear, but fails to adequately represent any dissenting voice. The people experiencing homelessness who were interviewed were quite evidently cherry picked to insinuate a unanimous agreement on the issue, when they certainly don’t represent the majority of people who are experiencing homelessness or who work with them.
Seattle is Dying begins with shots of homeless encampments with large piles of trash, underscored by the horror film soundtrack that lingers as a thematic backdrop for the entire documentary – textbook fear mongering. To be fair, this is an effective strategy; fear is a powerful human emotion that can take us out of our rational, higher level functioning by driving us into fight or flight mode. In politics and debate, the use of fear is effective in keeping people from considering the larger, more nuanced picture. By doing so, the creators of the documentary can skip the incredibly important and complex context that precedes and circumscribes the issues addressed in their critical look at our city.
One of the most frequently overlooked aspects of an issue is context. While jumping straight into dissecting the problem can seem the most direct approach, understanding the cause and the broader social, political, economic, and cultural setting is vital for a comprehensive and balanced understanding of any issue. The historical context of Seattle is one of colonialism and uprooting of indigenous Coast Salish peoples in order to make room for the Western city many take for granted today. One reason why this history of displacement and erasure is so important is because modern Seattle lauds Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, and Starbucks as being its iconic and esteemed “residents.” Because they provide a meaty backbone to our city’s economy, their best interest becomes conflated with our city’s best interest. The rapidly expanding city is accommodating the influx of young tech workers, not its longstanding residents with housing instability. They, the “homeless,” don’t contribute much to the economy. They don’t vote in overwhelming margins. In short, there is very little political or economic incentive to listen to their voice or prioritize their needs. Seattle’s 2015 state of emergency over homelessness likely had less to do with addressing the inhumanity of allowing fellow humans to go without basic needs being met, and far more to do with the discomfort their presence causes to the affluent residents and economic sector of the city. As a result, the city will “throw money” at the problem by clearing camps and putting up fences (which does nothing but threaten the safety of people experiencing homelessness) rather than investing in low-barrier housing, social work support, and accessible treatment programs.
Throughout the documentary, people experiencing homelessness are framed as subhuman and dangerous. They are “lost souls who wander our streets, untethered to home or family or reality.” This could not be further from the truth – Seattle is, for many of them, their strongly held home. Others who share their experience of homelessness or housing instability will often make up a “street family,” having bonds that can run deeper than many families of blood or marriage. And regarding reality: who is more out of touch with reality – the ones suffering from real issues, or the ones who acknowledge the problems around them just enough to be turned off by the presence of suffering people?
The documentary also divides those experiencing homelessness into two categories – those undeserving of their homelessness and those who caused it upon themselves. What this does is justify the dehumanization of those experiencing homelessness and focus on “how deserving” they are of their suffering rather than focusing on the broken systems that let them get there and keep them there. The issue of homelessness is primarily one of systemic failure, not one of personal choice. Roughly 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, meaning that at any given month, if they lose their job or if they face unexpected costs (medical bills, driving infractions and insurance spikes, etc.), they could end up temporarily or perpetually homeless. A central premise of the documentary is that the “bad ones” amongst those experiencing homelessness are the drug users. However, the most recent statistics on illicit drug use amongst Americans show almost one in ten U.S. adults struggle with some level of substance abuse, regardless of housing stability. This number escalates when you include alcohol, of which 27% of U.S. adults reported binge drinking in the past month. Drug use is as big a concern for the entire U.S. as it is for those experiencing homelessness. It is also important to recognize that many people experiencing homelessness who use drugs or alcohol began to do so to dull the pain, physical and/or emotional, of their situation.
Seattle is Dying as a whole effectively communicates a message that people experiencing homelessness are addicted, mentally unstable, violent, and dangerous. As mentioned earlier, the documentary uses fear mongering to brand people experiencing homelessness as the problem, rather than the systems and social structures surrounding them (housing shortages, economic inequality, institutional racism). This is not to say that the entire message of the documentary is invalid, only that it needs to be thoroughly analyzed through a critical lens that understandings the myriad of factors and realities at play. The conclusive suggestion of the documentary was, in essence, to send those experiencing homelessness with illicit substance addictions to a former-prison-now-rehab facility. This quick fix model is notably simplistic. For starters, there are no federal standards for counseling practices or rehab programs. As a result, “the vast majority of people in need of addiction treatment do not receive anything that approximates evidence-based care,” as concluded by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The private sector of rehab and addiction treatment can be very lucrative, providing the private rehab programs incentive for creating cycles of high recidivism. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the issues with the current system of drug treatment.
Treatment and care for people with drug addictions must be thoughtfully and humanistically done, in line with the current research on drug rehabilitation. Addiction treatment cannot be seen as a quick fix; it is instead one component of a bigger, more holistic solution. The research is clear that the most important facet of individual recovery is connection. It is through meaningful relationship that individuals find the incentive and support to overcome their addiction. Moreover, the focus of any truly comprehensive approach must ultimately be focused on systemic change. While it is always important to provide loving care and support to those currently experiencing addiction and homelessness we need to recognize that they are not the problem themselves, but rather symptoms of a greater issue. The real disease is economic inequality, systemic racism, and white supremacy. These are at the root of the housing “crisis,” the root of homelessness and while there are hundreds of empty apartments and condos, mass poverty when there are more than enough resources to go around, and the reason our nation defunded successful drug rehabilitation programs to make way for more prisons. It needs to be called out as such. Only when we name the root of the problem can we begin to comprehensively dismantle it and move toward change.
So, in the end, as well-intentioned as one may find Seattle is Dying to be, it is pointing us in the opposite direction of where we need to go. We cannot demonize and otherize those experiencing homelessness. That will only ever exacerbate the problem of homelessness. We all must build relationships and engage with those experiencing homelessness, to learn from them and to connect meaningfully with them. We must personally commit to educating ourselves through articles, books, TED talks, and conversations with the true experts of their own homelessness. As we equip ourselves with knowledge and edify ourselves with relationships, we can begin to shift the culture from fear toward compassion. As much as fear divides us, compassion will convict us to change the systems that benefit us into structures that defend the inherent dignity of all people. Those of us in affluence need this as much as our community members experiencing homelessness. I truly believe that we cannot fully love our own humanity until we love the humanity within everyone. A systems change that refuses to deny anyone a life worthy of their humanity will help us all be more human. Indeed, those of us in affluence may be the ones most in need of change.
Interested in learning more? Here are just a few of the many worthwhile resources:
- Evicted: Poverty & Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
- The House I Live In (2012) (documentary on the harms of the war on drugs) | politics |
https://investingintourism.com/blog/2019/04/19/elizabeth-j-linder/ | 2023-03-21T14:46:52 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943698.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20230321131205-20230321161205-00692.warc.gz | 0.947274 | 234 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__121033414 | en | Elizabeth launched her career at Google, splitting her time between the iconic Googleplex in Mountain View, California, and YouTube’s original headquarters in San Bruno. In 2008, Facebook recruited Elizabeth to join its small but growing international communications team. At the time, the company had no policy or communications representative outside of the United States.
In 2011, she moved to London to found and build Facebook’s Politics &Government division for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. Often referred to as Facebook’s “first secretary of state”, Elizabeth advised heads of state, royal households, government officials, politicians, diplomats, think tanks, journalists, and civil society leaders across more than forty countries.
By the time she left Facebook in 2016 after spending eight years as a public spokeswoman for the company, she had been at Facebook longer than 99.2% of employees.
Elizabeth is a Senior Consulting Fellow at Chatham House and a regular commentator for the BBC, Sky, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal. A California native and Princeton graduate, she holds an Exceptional Talent Visa for the tech sector granted by the British Government. | politics |
https://www.momentumgroupni.com/welcome-autumn-budget-rd-allocation-for-rd | 2019-02-16T15:22:26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247480622.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20190216145907-20190216171907-00229.warc.gz | 0.947126 | 525 | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-09__0__78998571 | en | Welcome Autumn Budget Allocation for R&D
We were delighted to welcome the allocation of a further £2.3 billion for investment in R&D money in the autumn budget allocation.
The boost for research and development was unveiled on Wednesday 22nd November 2017 by Chancellor Philip Hammond as part of the UK Government’s Autumn Budget 2017 announcement.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said: “We are allocating a further £2.3 billion for investment in R&D. And we’ll increase the main R&D Tax credit to 12%. Taking the first strides towards the ambition of our Industrial Strategy to drive up R&D investment across the economy to 2.4% of GDP.”
This news was welcomed by our Managing Director, Tom Verner, who believes that companies in the UK need to invest in R&D in order to innovate, continue to be competitive in the global marketplace and futureproof to ensure post-Brexit economic prosperity.
Tom commented: “The allocation of further money for R&D and the increase in the main R&D tax credit for large companies is great news for innovative UK companies and the wider economy. R&D investment has been a major announcement for the last two years and so is clearly high on the government’s agenda for economic growth.
“Businesses can now claim more tax relief on activities which qualify for tax credits and invest this to provide jobs, improve working conditions and increase their overall competitiveness. Large businesses can now claim 12% and SMEs can continue to claim 230% on qualifying activity. With this announcement, now is the perfect time for companies in all sectors to innovate and take advantage of this generous tax relief.”
Philip Hammond went on to say: “By continuing to invest in Britain’s infrastructure, skills and R&D we will ensure the recovery in productivity growth that is the key to delivering our vision of a stronger, fairer, more balanced economy.”
We have secured almost £100m to date in enhanced R&D tax credits for clients in virtually every business sector, from aerospace and defence to health and beauty, throughout the UK. We are calling on all UK businesses and their accountants to take action to explore this valuable incentive, and make the UK as competitive as its rivals in other countries.
To find out more about R&D Tax Credits contact Momentum on 028 9140 4030 or send an email to [email protected]
Photo via See Li/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | politics |
https://sathya-sankaran.medium.com/%E0%B2%AE%E0%B2%B0%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%B5%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%A8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%AF%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%B8-redesign-5e4ef9cc7440?source=user_profile---------2---------------------------- | 2022-12-03T18:14:37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710936.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20221203175958-20221203205958-00707.warc.gz | 0.919948 | 660 | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-49__0__154559579 | en | ಮರುವಿನ್ಯಾಸ — Redesign
The pandemic and climate emergency provide us an opportunity to not be where we find ourselves today. Stuck in homes looking for things we left behind in 2020. However, the old normal is not going to get us to where we need to go. The old normal is what got us to this situation in the first place. Hence going back to old habits would be foolish. As we begin a budget session in 2022 after two years of saving lives and scrambling to shore up our public health infrastructure, we have an opportunity to decide if we can create a version of progress that shapes the future instead of just following the past. This, however, hinges on the government deciding to embark on a journey to redesign two things. The infrastructure we build and the systems that will enable it.
It hasn’t been a great two years for the state as the growth chart indicates. Yet, Bengaluru, which contributes more than 40% to the state GSDP is the only Indian city ranked in the top 30 global startup ecosystems. How do we leverage this advantage and make the rest of the state catch up? Like it or not, Tier 2 cities are following in Bengaluru’s foot steps, making the same mistakes the capital city is doing. Unless we correct the folly of our ways we are leading the entire state into ruins.
First, with work from home continuing to play a major role, take this time to upgrade major roads in Bengaluru. But this time to Tendersure quality with priority on walking and cycling. While major roads constitute just 20% of the total road network of the city, it will carry 80% of the road traffic. This will mean a budget of Rs. 1,800 crores every year for the next 10 years. Repeat this for the next 10 cities in the state in parallel. This reprioritisation will reset the way we move and catalyse economic growth across the state. If done well you can begin to witness the change towards climate friendly walking and cycling right after the first 300kms in the first year in Bengaluru alone. Vehicular traffic trips will reduce and flow smoother as well.
Second, redesign governance by passing the Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority — BMLTA bill, Active Mobility bill and kickstart implementation of the Transit Oriented Development — TOD policy. Without increase in public transport coverage and adoption, the cities will very soon choke up. Bus, Suburban Rail, and Metro in Bengaluru, Bus Rapid Transit Systems in Huballi-Dharwad and the planned one in Belagavi will need tight integration between each other and with last mile to succeed. These three governance measures will help increase public transport uptake and catapult the state up in the league internationally.
All three policies are revolutionary and Karnataka will be the first in the country to implement these.
So, is ಮರುವಿನ್ಯಾಸ - Redesign possible in this budget session? Will we make history or remain stuck in the past? | politics |
https://www.susa.net/wordpress/2017/11/deleted-my-linkedin-account/ | 2023-02-06T05:20:19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500304.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20230206051215-20230206081215-00327.warc.gz | 0.974139 | 428 | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-06__0__86063161 | en | Admittedly, it had been unused for quite a long time but, regardless, my LinkedIn profile had a few historical recommendations from people I actually knew and respected, so I hesitated before closing it.
The main reason I had for closing my LinkedIn account is to protest in some small way against the lawsuit that LinkedIn are pursuing against hiQ for scraping (automatically fetching and processing) public profiles of members.
I don’t know or care anything much about hiQ or their scraping antics, but LinkedIn pushing to criminalise accessing of public profiles, via a web server bound to a public TCP port, on a publicly visible computer is a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
The argument LinkedIn are trying to make is that they wrote to hiQ saying “You are not authorised to access our web site”, and now claim that subsequent access to their site constitutes criminal ‘hacking’ (e.g. breaking into a computer system to obtain private data).
That’s nonsense, to suit their commercial objectives. The fact that they effectively scraped my address book when I signed up was not unnoticed. They very likely scrape the sites that their millions of members link to in their profiles, posts, and messages. It’s hard to believe that their company grew without analysis of data legally harvested from public web sites.
The consequences of LinkedIn getting their way would be damaging to the Internet (we’d never have had search engines, with such a restricted Internet). There are plenty of technical measures they can take to address their concerns, without trying to foist laws on us all to address their particular commercial concerns.
Increasingly, ‘social’ media companies are becoming, in my opinion, blatantly anti-social. So much so that here we have two companies who have built their business model around surreptitiously tracking and analysing personal data (that in all likelihood was not given for those purposes) having a very public spat that could impact on the original intentions of the web, and on the principles that got us here in the first place. | politics |
https://www.queertheology.com/palm-sunday-2021/ | 2022-10-07T12:54:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00078.warc.gz | 0.959588 | 465 | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-40__0__272386347 | en | Ok, Palm Sunday.
For you, that might bring up images of children waving palm fronds inside of church, but what is it, really?
What happened, and why do we celebrate it?
Ok, here’s the deal.
Jesus and his disciples — working class folks, poor people, women, social outcasts — have been traveling around the Middle East proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom which is already here. One where the sick are healed, the prisoners are released, the oppressed are set free, and everyone has enough.
Now, here’s what you need to know about Jerusalem at the time of Palm Sunday.
It’s the week before Passover and so Pontius Pilate — along with a grand imperial procession —comes to Jerusalem to prevent any uprising against the occupying Roman government.
From the other side of the city, Jesus approaches. But not on horseback and not accompanied by soldiers. Instead, he rides in on the back of a donkey, accompanied by poor people and outcasts. It was a direct action against the occupying forces. Against the status quo. It was an in-your-face mockery.
Nonviolent, yes, but also aggressive.
It reminds me of the ACT UP demonstrations and SNCC lunch counter sit-ins across the country.
We will no longer be ignored.
But it was also an invitation, a line in the sand. Which procession do you want to be a part of?
The kingdom of empire which promises peace through military might, through hoarding of resources, through protection of the rich and powerful?
Or the kingdom of God, which promises freedom, justice, mercy, and enough for all?
That question is as alive and relevant as ever. Do we march in military and police parades? Do we line up behind the bankers? Do we sit in the pews of the religious right who collaborate with empire? Or do we take to the streets with Black Lives Mater, with occupy Wall Street, with conscientious objectors and peace activists?
Do we hoard what we have or do we share it?
It’s an important question because as we’ll see in a few days on Friday, the answer can have costly consequences. | politics |
https://www.legalcommunications.com/first-2016-presidential-debate-attracts-record-number-of-cable-and-online-viewers/ | 2020-10-23T03:15:15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107880519.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20201023014545-20201023044545-00492.warc.gz | 0.94486 | 381 | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-45__0__107776818 | en | The 2016 Presidential Debates are among the most highly-anticipated television events of the year. Last night, a record-breaking number of Americans tuned in to the first of three Presidential debates.
All Presidential Debates will be carried on major cable news outlets, including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, as well as on network stations such as FOX, NBC, CBS and ABC. Additionally, various news networks and outlets will be offering free streaming services online for each debate so that citizens without cable connections can also watch live.
The audiences for the 2016 Debates were expected to set records in terms of viewership of a political event, and so far those predictions appear to be accurate. It is believed that last night’s 90 minute debate brought in more than 80 million viewers on major TV networks. That estimate does not even account for the additional numbers of viewers that watched via live streaming services.
Last night’s debate, which was broadcast live from Hofstra University in New York and moderated by NBC’s Lester Holt, was the first of four debate events prior to the November general election. There will be a total of three Presidential Debates, along with one Vice Presidential Debate between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine.
The remaining Presidential debate schedule is as follows:
- Event: Vice Presidential Debate
- Date: 10/4/16
- Location: Longwood University, VA
- Moderator: CBS News’ Elaine Quijano
- Event: Second Presidential Debate
- Date: 10/9/16
- Location: Washington University, St. Louis, MO
- Moderators: ABC’s Martha Raddatz & CNN’s Anderson Cooper
- Event: Final Presidential Debate
- Date: 10/19/16
- Location: University of Nevada Las Vegas, NV
- Moderator: Fox News’ Chris Wallace | politics |
https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/news/article/worked-ivory-update---the-ivory-bill/ | 2023-01-30T15:14:47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499819.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20230130133622-20230130163622-00248.warc.gz | 0.962819 | 704 | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-06__0__176217018 | en | The Ivory Bill received its reading in the House of Lords at the Report Stage on 24 October. Meanwhile it has emerged that each key in a piano is counted as a separate item resulting in hugely distorted export figures.
The Ivory Bill has just had its reading at the Report Stage in the House of Lords (24 October). This will be followed by a Third Reading and Consideration of Amendments on the 13th November, after which it returns to the House of Commons, before Royal Assent is sought. Paragraph 174 of the accompanying explanatory notes states “The Bill will be brought into force no earlier than six months after Royal Assent.” This is unlikely to be earlier than the second half of April 2019.
In the course of the reading at Report Stage, members discussed the impact of the legislation on the sale and hire of musical instruments, the powers of civilian officers investigating breaches of the ivory ban and government reporting on exemptions to the ban.
Various amendments supported by the art and antiques trades were unsuccessful, though one welcome amendment was a limitation on the powers of accredited civilian officers from the Office for Product Safety and Standards who will have powers to search property along with police and customs officers. The newly tabled amendment clarified and set out what these powers are to be.
Amendments that failed were an attempt to define the amount of ivory furniture or musical instruments must contain in order to be included under the proposed sales ban: the removal of a provision which would have allowed registered items containing only a small amount of ivory to be exempt from the ban; and the insertion of a new clause which would allow the relevant government minister to produce guidelines for a person dealing in ivory to verify the exempted status of an item.
Meanwhile The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) through a freedom of information request to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has discovered that 74% of the thousands of items exported from the UK since 2015 were piano keys. It has emerged that each of the 52 keys of a piano is counted as a separate item. As Lord de Mauley (LAPADA Chairman) told the House “In 2016, the official ivory export numbers prepared in the format required by CITES amounted to over 5,700 individual components or items, but those exports actually represented 541 worked ivory items or sets, plus 93 pianos. Removing pianos from the equation, the true number of antique exports that year amounted to less than 10% of the number submitted by the Government to CITES.” Lord de Mauley reminded the House that, “in the period leading up to the Government’s ivory consultation, the UK’s “official” ivory export figures were employed by several high-profile wildlife organisations to justify their demands for a very restrictive ban on the sale of antique ivory.” It is also on the basis of these figures, the Environmental Investigation Agency claimed that the UK is the “world’s largest” ivory exporter.
Setting this huge distortion aside, BADA has stated that “the true picture of the UK’s own exports of worked ivory antiques amounts to an average of just 585 items a year.” This still leaves unanswered the question raised by one writer to the Antiques Trade Gazette (3 November) “Does my piano now need 52 separate licences”, and, moreover, certification at £40 a key? | politics |
http://sacredcenters.com/bankrupting-the-idiocracy/ | 2017-12-14T00:19:47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948532873.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20171214000736-20171214020736-00669.warc.gz | 0.93733 | 1,082 | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-51__0__110312865 | en | Bankrupting the Idiocracy
by Anodea Judith
I hate to write about money. It’s not my thing. And I’m tired of reading about it, hearing about it, and having it be the center of every newscast. It’s given far too much importance on every issue, and it overshadows anything resembling real value. But there’s some things that must be said.
Now real value is something I do like to hear about. The real value of an education, (instead of robbing school budgets) the real value of caring for your health (as opposed to arguing about how to pay for over-priced, ineffective health care), the real value of a robust environment (instead of a robust economy that depletes the environment).
But this isn’t the topic of conversation these days. It’s how to pay for things we don’t want, like wars and bailouts, and how to not to pay for things we do want, like public services, social security, the EPA, and programs that serve the common good.
I’m tired of hearing how we have to boost the economy by getting more jobs doing what we’ve always done: raped the environment to make and sell useless products no one needs; manufacture weapons to be sold to other countries so we can “protect national security” from their violence; (80,000 of the weapons confiscated in the Mexico drug wars were made in the U.S. of A, a figure heard on NPR, with the cost of the border fence $6.5 billion over 20 years; or spending trillions on pointless and immoral wars (watch the numbers move here) while letting our bridges, highways, and national morale rot here at home.
I’m sad to see looting in the streets of London, but let’s get real. That’s not where the real looting is happening. It’s in the banking and mortgage industry, and they’ve looted the foreclosure of more than 3 million homes in 2010 and nearly a million in the last quarter here in the U.S.
I’m tired of people saying they didn’t see the recession coming, when we have another bigger recession looming on the horizon that we’re too scared to face: the impending bankruptcy of water, oil, trees, topsoil, fish, clean air, and truth. These are not things you can save with a bailout. They are not so easily replaced. They’re not even computed on the balance sheet.
We’re not in a recession. There’s plenty of money in Iraq and Afghanistan where it costs a million dollars a year per soldier, to say nothing of the government contracts to rebuild what we destroy.There’s plenty of money to keep people in prison, where serving five years for a $300 theft costs the public more than $100,000 and the cost of a life sentence averages $1.5 million.
There’s plenty of money spent on political campaigns, ($5.3 billion in 2008) paid for by lobbyists to keep even more money running through their special interests. When you add that $5.3 billion to the $8 billionbudget of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA, there to make sure you don’t blow up a plane with your toothpaste, and you’ve got more than enough money to satisfy the entire world’s sanitation and hunger requirements (estimated at $13 billion).
We’re not broke, we’re developing a blood clot. Money is currency and should describe a circulation system whereby goods get to wherever they’re needed. In the body, our blood circulates to bring oxygen and nutrients to each and every cell. If we were to keep all the blood in one place, we’d call it an aneurysm and would soon be dead.
The good news is that we can’t afford this Idiocracy any more. The monetary system we know and don’t love is collapsing and proving itself to be a false representative of real value. It’s not going to work when we reach a critical mass of people out of work, out of their homes, unable to buy goods or pay taxes, and 45,000 people each year dying for lack of health insurance (compare that to 3,000 who died on 9/11 and $8 billion spent in response by TSA).
The good news is this kind of money will bankrupt itself. The bad news is how many innocent people will suffer in the process. However, life will go on without it, just as it always has, after we wake up and end the nightmare. And then maybe we’ll start talking about real things again.
We could start with integrity.
“Things fall apart,” wrote William Butler Yeats. “The centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.”
-Anodea Judith, August 2011 | politics |
https://velocitymagazine.co.uk/tell-mps-to-boost-cycle-cash-at-government-showcase/ | 2021-09-20T13:17:37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057039.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20210920131052-20210920161052-00036.warc.gz | 0.940875 | 226 | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-39__0__178753301 | en | The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking's (APPGCW) first showcase event will take place on 11 February, at the Attlee Suite in Portcullis House from 9:30am to 11:30am. Velocity readers are invited.
"We are hoping that 40 to 50 MPs and Peers will attend this drop-in event," said APPGCW project manager Adam Coffman. "Cycling and Walking Minister Chris Heaton-Harris MP (pictured) and Shadow Cycling and Walking Minister Matt Rodda MP, are both confirmed to attend and speak during the event."
The showcase, which the APPGCW hopes will encourage the new government to put more money into cycling, was revealed by Velocity last November. Exhibitors include:
Beyond the Bicycle Coalition, The Bikeability Trust, Brompton, CoMoUK, Conservative Cycle Campaign, Cycle to Work Alliance, Cyclehoop, Dutch Cycling Embassy, Halfords, HSBC, Labour Cycles, Tour of Britain and the Walking and Cycling Alliance
Contact [email protected] if you'd like to attend. | politics |
https://book-open.com/2018/01/21/dear-martin-by-nic-stone/ | 2022-12-09T03:37:37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711376.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20221209011720-20221209041720-00384.warc.gz | 0.973533 | 793 | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-49__0__125705033 | en | If I had to describe this book in one word, I would use relentless. This is where its power lies. It never lets up.
Justyce McAllister is an 18 year old black teenager living in Atlanta, attending a prestigious (and mostly white) prep school. At the start of his senior year, he’s cuffed and attacked by a police officer as he’s helping his girlfriend into her car. This act of police violence forces him to face his place in the world. He begins writing letters to Martin Luther King, Jr., in an attempt to answer the overwhelming question of how to live as black man in America.
Over the course of the book, Justyce faces racism, racial violence, and hatred from just about every corner. He deals with microaggressions, blatant racism, ridicule, and disrespect from his white classmates. He deals with the fallout of being involved in a police shooting, and the cascade of national media that follows: the scapegoating and racist reporting. It never ends, and he can’t win. It’s a short book, but powerful. Stone does a masterful job at keeping the reader right there with Justyce, in the midst of his seemingly never-ending struggle. He comes alive on the page, and so does the persistence of the racist society in which we live.
I did feel that some of the supporting characters were weakly drawn. Justyce’s love interest, a white girl, felt a bit too stereotypical–a good white person and a woke liberal, but little more. But my biggest problem with the book lies with the ending. It involves a conversation between Justyce and a white classmate, Jared, who’d been extraordinarily racist and harmful toward him throughout the book. Jared is painted as the enemy, but in the last pages of the book, he and Justyce come to an understanding that feels way too pat, way too easy.
Up until that point, Dear Martin felt complex and honest–but that conversation tipped it over the edge into the realm of the unbelievable. The white kid is racist, the white kid sees he’s wrong, the white kid changes his ways, and the white kid is forgiven, no questions asked. And all of that happens off-screen. All we get to see is the end result: Jared is a changed man, and Justyce forgives him. It all felt rushed and contrived. I wish I had simply stopped listening after Justyce’s last letter to Martin. The last few minutes ruined it for me.
All that said, excepting the very end, this is an engaging, honest, and nuanced novel about racism, police brutality, and racial violence. The audiobook is excellent, and it’s only four hours; if you commute, you could read it in just a few days.
It seems to me that we should all be reading as much as we can about systemic racism and police brutality. For many white people like me, it is much easier to look away. Most often, this violence is not happening in our communities, to our friends, within our families. But once you’ve read this book, once you’ve read The Hate U Give, once you’ve read Long Way Down, once you’ve read Speak No Evil (forthcoming on March 6th from Harper), it becomes harder and harder to look away. These books have broken me, they have forced me to consider the ways in which I look away from the world, and they have inspired me to more actively work for racial justice.
Dear Martin is not perfect, but it still has a lot to say. It is one story among many, one perceptive among many. I’m trying to read as many perspectives and stories as I possibly can. | politics |
http://ccranews.com/politicians.html | 2017-07-23T06:53:27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424287.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723062646-20170723082646-00435.warc.gz | 0.925209 | 424 | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-30__0__169093419 | en | 300 Kingston Road, Unit 4
Canadians are now filing income tax returns. I’d like to help your family take advantage of all the important tax initiatives supplied by our Government.
In October, our Government introduced the Family Tax Plan, that all families with children will benefit from. The new and enhanced tax credits and benefits include:
• The Children’s Fitness Tax Credit has doubled to $1,000 per child, starting in the 2014 tax year.
• The new Family Tax Cut*, a non-refundable tax credit of up to $2,000, is available to eligible couples with children under the age of 18.
• Increasing* the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) for children under age six. As of January 1, 2015, parents will receive a benefit of $160 per month for each child under the age of six – up from $100 per month. Parents will now receive $1,920 per child, per year.
• Expanding* the UCCB to children aged six through 17. As of January 1, 2015, parents will receive a benefit of $60 per month for children aged six through 17. Parents will receive $720 per child, per year.
New this year, taxpayers can receive their Notice of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) online. To do so, taxpayers can go to My Account and sign up for Manage Online Mail. Later this month, the Government will launch the MyCRA mobile app, which will help taxpayers manage their tax information, from anywhere at any time.
By reducing taxes over 180 times, we’re helping you save more than ever before. In fact, the average Canadian family now saves more than $3,000 every year. Plus, we’ve provided about $2.7 billion in annual targeted tax relief for seniors and pensioners.
Please feel free to contact my office with comments or questions regarding our Government’s strong record on lower taxes.
Corneliu Chisu ~ MP Pickering-Scarborough East | politics |
https://beyondtheheadlineswisconsin.org/resources/the-rise-of-a-new-media-baron-and-the-emerging-threat-of-news-deserts | 2019-03-21T18:45:53 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202530.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20190321172751-20190321194751-00494.warc.gz | 0.966369 | 468 | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-13__0__150998441 | en | The Rise of a New Media Baron and the Emerging Threat of News Deserts
"Much attention has been focused in recent years on the country’s largest and most revered national newspapers as they struggle to adapt to the digital age. This report focuses, instead, on the thousands of other papers in this country that cover the news of its small towns, city neighborhoods, booming suburbs and large metropolitan areas. The journalists on these papers often toil without recognition outside their own communities. But the stories their papers publish can have an outsized impact on the decisions made by residents in those communities, and, ultimately, on the quality of their lives.
"By some estimates, community newspapers provide as much as 85 percent of “the news that feeds democracy” at the state and local levels. This means the fates of newspapers and communities are inherently linked. If one fails, the other suffers. Therefore, it matters who owns the local newspaper because the decisions owners make affect the health and vitality of the community."
This study "analyzed data from 2004 to 2016 on more than 9,500 local newspapers. Our 2016 database includes1,700 small weeklies with a circulation of 2,000 or less, as well as 20 large metro dailies with more than 200,000 weekday circulation, such as the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post. However, because our focus is on traditional local newspapers, regardless of their size, we excluded the large national papers — The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today — from our analysis, as well as specialty publications such as business journals and shoppers. This report, divided into four sections, documents dramatic changes over the past decade. With the industry in distress, local newspapers are shrinking, and some are vanishing. At the same time, a new type of newspaper owner has emerged, very different from traditional publishers, the best of whom sought to balance business interests with civic responsibility to the community where their paper was located. As newspapers confront an uncertain future, the choices these new owners make could determine whether vast “news deserts” arise in communities and regions throughout the country. This has implications not just for the communities where these papers are located, but also, in the long-term, for all of America." https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/... | politics |
http://thesteelbackbone.blogspot.com/2010/04/high-speed-rail-recover-funding.html | 2018-05-22T09:55:16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-22/segments/1526794864657.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20180522092655-20180522112655-00616.warc.gz | 0.963272 | 780 | CC-MAIN-2018-22 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-22__0__191356887 | en | In January the Obama administration committed $8 billion in recovery act funds to the development of a high speed rail system in the United States. It marks the first such investment since the Acela service was initiated on the Washington, DC to Boston corridor in December of 2000.
Rather than focus the money on a single line, the administration has decided to distribute the money among a number of projects as 'seed money' to initiate higher speed passenger rail service. Whereas in most developed countries futuristic trains carry patients over international boundaries at over 200 mph, in the United States the aim for many of these lines is to incrementally increase speeds to 110 mph.
The largest investment goes to California, which seeks to establish a comprehensive system between Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, and Anaheim that stands apart in that it would actually reach speeds of 220 mph. The cost of such a system is estimated at over $30 billion - the Obama administration's modest investment of $2.3 billion would be only the beginning.
The Administration gave $1.25 billion to Florida to initate service between Tampa and Orlando. This project was seen as the most shovel ready - the state had reserved the median of I-4 as a high speed rail right-of-way for years. Florida had estimated a cost of $2.6 billion to build the line. The state plans future extensions to Miami and Jacksonville.
The third largest winner of economic stimulus funds for high speed rail is the corridor between St. Louis and Chicago, where the government hopes to increase top speeds to 110 mph and add additional trips between the cities. This line is part of the Chicago-hub midwest high speed rail plan that involves 110 mph corridors from Chicago to Detroit and Minneapolis as well as St. Louis. Eventually these three trunk lines would be increased to 220 mph service and new 110 mph lines would run to Omaha, Cleveland and Louisville.
The line between Minneapolis and Chicago got a major boost when $822 million in funding was granted to implement 110 mph service between Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The line between Chicago and Detroit will recieve $244 in improvements that include relieving congestion on the southeast side of Chicago that has plagued railroads for a century.
A new 79 mph service between Cincinnati and Cleveland will fill in a major gap in Amtrak's passenger rail network and put service on one of the most populated corridors in the country. The government dedicated $400 million to get this service up and running.
In the Pacific northwest almost $600 million has been dedicated to lay extra siding tracks and straighten the line between Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. The states hope additional round trip service along the corridor will be possible, as well as additional trains to Vancounver, BC.
The Southeast High Speed Rail corridor recieved $520 million to increase service speed and frequency between Raleigh and Charlotte and to relieve congestion between Washington and Richmond.
The remaining $512 million was distributed between projects in the mid-Atlantic, New England, Texas, and Iowa.
One thing jumps out at me from all these numbers - overwhelmingly these funds went to areas where a tradition of public transportation use does not exist. Though significant state investments in rail have been made in Illinois, North Carolina, California and Washington state, these funds are overwhelmingly going to places like Wisconsin, Florida, Missouri and Ohio where passenger rail use is an unproven x-factor at best.
The gamble the administration is making is that increased availability and speed will lure more users to these systems, and by providing seed money to geographically diverse regions they might instigate political and social interest in building out these systems.
I think this money would have been better spent elsewhere - I agree with the decision to spend it on rail, but not necessarily on these lines. In future posts I hope to discuss where this money would have been better spent. | politics |
http://www.manase.org/en/maharashtra.php?mid=68&smid=23&pmid=1&id=857 | 2015-08-30T07:50:47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-35/segments/1440644064951.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20150827025424-00130-ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.969775 | 2,446 | CC-MAIN-2015-35 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2015-35__0__58414656 | en | Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
An iconic reformer who gave new lease of life to the dalit and underprivileged by abolishing untouchability and slavery through education, organization, agitation and advocacy of Dhammachakra
If a leader is to be judged by the length of the period s(he) continues to influence, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar is a leader whose thoughts continue to be relevant even today. His ideas on equality, brotherhood, democracy, independence, international economics and politics are valid even in present times, and his work continues to be effective and inspiring to many.
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was born in Mhow (Madhya Pradesh) in 1891. As a child he went through many scarring experiences caused by the social inequality that prevailed in those times among the masses. Later, in 1913, when he went to America on a scholarship given by the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaikwad, he did not experience untouchability. These two contradictory experiences - one in his own country and the other in a foreign land, motivated him to free his countrymen from untouchability. He completed his doctorate from Columbia University in 1925, after submitting his thesis titled the National Dividend of India – A Historical and Analytical Study. He studied sociology, economics and politics at the Columbia University. He went on to present the thesis The Problem of the Rupee at the London University and was presented with the DSc degree.
After coming back to India, he started four newspapers in order to present before the society the problems faced by the untouchables. These newspapers were: Mooknayak (Mute Hero - 1920), Bahishkrut Bharat (India Ostracized - 1927), Janata (Masses - 1930) and Prabudhha Bharat (An Awakened India - 1956). The newspapers in circulation at that time in Maharashtra did not present the problems of the untouchables. There was a definite need for a separate newspaper for the untouchables. These newspapers covered social, political and cultural developments in the country, but Babasaheb also wrote about a new asocial order. He never used the newspapers for propagating his political party, but used them instead to provoke the upper castes and the so-called untouchables to think about this social order. It was not only through his newspapers that he wrote on this topic, but he also published books like The Untouchables, Shudra purviche kon hote (Who were the Shudras?) and Bhuddha and His Dhamma. He also wrote a book on international politics titled Thoughts on Pakistan. Not only was he a social critic but also an excellent literary critic. He never used literature as a means of entertainment. Babasaheb has not only appreciated the language of Saint Tukaram, Saint Dnyaneshwar and Mukteshwar, but has also written comprehensive critiques on plays like Khara Brahman (The Real Brahmin) by Prabodhankar Thackeray and Dakkhan cha diva (The Light of Deccan) by Yashwant Tipnis. Dr. Ambedkar has commented upon Bertrand Russell’s play Principles of Social Reconstruction. He is the author of the books Riddles in Hinduism, Maharashtra as a Linguistic State, Status and Minorities and Bharatatil Jaati (Castes in India).
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was influenced by the personalities, work and ideas of Saint Kabir, Mahatma Phule and Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj. Saint Kabir and Mahatma Phule were his most revered teachers.
Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was an action-oriented reformer. He strongly believed that all men are equal and that there are no higher or lower castes. He disliked the hierarchical caste system, the four-fold caste categorization and the oppression of the so-called lower castes. He taught equality to his family members first. When he returned to India from London, Babasaheb’s family felt that he should go home in a car but Babasaheb refused. Then they insisted that he travel in the first class compartment of the train. But this too he declined. He travelled in the third class compartment of the train with all his family members. On reaching home, his brother offered him a chair, but Babasaheb preferred to sit on the floor. Thus, he set an example of equality for his family members. His education had reformed him, yet he never forgot his roots.
In 1927, Dr. Ambedkar organised the Satyagraha at Mahad in Raigad district to allow the untouchables access to the water from the Chavdar lake. In 1930, he initiated another Satyagraha to enable the untouchables to enter the Kalaram temple at Nashik. He himself was a non-believer; however, he believed that the denial of temple entry to the dalit was an important aspect of untouchability, and if this was addressed, then the issue would be largely resolved. Both the Satyagraha were symbolic and represented the fight of the untouchables for equal human rights and their right to live life with dignity. They also served to instil confidence among the dalit. To stress this point, he publicly burnt copies of Manusmriti, an ancient scripture that advocated the four-fold caste system among Hindus. Between the years 1917 to 1935, he undertook many efforts to abolish untouchability. However, he realized that these efforts were not bearing fruit. The people from the so-called higher castes made no efforts to change their way of thinking. Therefore, in 1935 at Yevala, he publicly declared that although he was born as a Hindu, he would not die as one. In 1956, along with five lakh untouchables, he converted to Buddhism (14th October 1956, Nagpur).
Dr Ambedkar was not only fighting against the caste system or for the upliftment of the Dalit society but also for the Indian freedom struggle. He paid attention to the education, status of women, superstition, economy and the political administration of the country.
Between the years from 1930 to 1932, he fought for the rights of the Dalit at the Round Table Conference. He also put forth a Hindu Code Bill for the social status, divorce rights and property rights of Hindu women in the parliament. When this Bill was rejected, he resigned as a Member of Parliament. Dr. Ambedkar thought deeply on the point of debate between Tilak and Agarkar about whether political independence should precede social development or vice versa. He realized that if the freedom of the Dalit would not have any value in the post-independent India, then the situation would become even more complicated. To avoid this, he undertook the task of abolishing untouchability. During the Round Table Conference in 1930, even when he represented the British in the Conference, he advised the British to leave India. In his PhD thesis too, he analyzed the economic oppression of Indians by the British. When Mahatma Gandhi undertook a fast until death on the question of separate constituencies, Dr. Ambedkar was torn between the importance of Gandhiji’s life and the betterment of the Dalit. He was forced to agree to a compromise. Gandhiji broke his fast and Ambedkar established a reserved constituency for the Dalit (Pune Pact). Before converting to Buddhism, he studied the teachings of all religions and chose Buddhism as it advocated non-violence, truth and human rights. The act of converting too highlights his patriotism.
Dr. Ambedkar, who in his school days used to study for over 18 hours every day, was well aware of the importance of education. In order to propagate education, he established the Peoples’ Education Society and the Depressed Class Education Society. Apart from the field of education, he established the Bahishkrut Hitkarni Sabha (Society for the welfare of the ostracized) in the field of politics. In 1927, he established the Samata Sainik Dal (a troupe to ensure equality and harmony) in order to protect the Dalit from the higher castes. In 1936, he established an independent Labour Party and in 1942, the All India Scheduled Caste Federation. He also wanted to establish a Republican Party at an all-India level but unfortunately he passed away before he could do so. In 1946, he also established Siddhartha College at Mumbai and in 1950, Milind College at Aurangabad.
Dr. Ambedkar also understood agriculture and farming. He was an advocate for collective farming. He was of the opinion that an uninterrupted supply of water and electricity would help a predominantly agricultural country like India to flourish in no time. Dr. Ambedkar created laws to abolish the Khoti system, a system of contractual farming that was exploitative to the farmers. Dr. Ambedkar believed that just as the railway routes were owned by the central government, likewise the water routes should also be owned by the central government. His opinion was however disregarded and as a result, all water routes today remain insecure. Today, the river-linking project is being discussed, a project that Dr. Ambedkar had proposed way back then.
In 1947, Dr. Ambedkar became a member of Pandit Nehru’s cabinet. The same year, he was selected the first Law Minister of independent India. The Constituent Assembly also elected him a member of the Constitution drafting committee, which appointed him the Chairman of the committee. India will forever remember Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar as the Father of the Indian Constitution. He stressed the importance of having a strong central government in a country of diverse States. Had it not been strong, then India could hardly have been able to proudly proclaim Unity in Diversity. In most western countries, the women and poor in the country were given the right to vote very late. Dr. Ambedkar however ensured that India granted the right to vote to every adult immediately after Independence, thus laying the foundations of a strong democracy. He also made provisions in the Constitution for the service rules and appointments of civil servants, thus allowing them to serve fearlessly and independently.
Dr. Ambedkar, known as the Father of the Indian Constitution and the patron of the Dalit, passed away on 6th December 1956.
Today, the Indian democracy is facing a challenge. It appears that the Indian population is bent on denying democracy. Dr. Ambedkar used to say, “Until the British ruled India, we could hold them responsible for all consequences, good or bad. After Independence however, the onus rests with us and we must behave more responsibly”. In order to strengthen the democracy, Dr. Ambedkar opposed giving undue importance to the individual. Today however, idolisation of individuals is common. Today, Dr. Ambedkar is proclaimed the hero of only select castes when in reality, his thoughts spanned a much broader canvas. The democracy that he upheld is being ridiculed today. Hence, it is imperative that his thoughts on democracy are referred again in today’s context.
An unparalleled intellect, his own efforts to complete higher education, worldly wisdom, rebellious and reformist attitude, organisational skills, discipline and neatness, excellent oratory skills and superb control over English language, voracious reading, research, studious and motivational writing – all these qualities helped transform Bhimji Ramji Ambedkar to the MahaManav (human being par excellence) Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who abolished the thousands of years old slavery of dalit in India. | politics |
https://salestaxdatalink.com/iowa-bill-decreasing-sales-tax-for-manufacturers-to-be-changed/ | 2023-12-10T13:13:01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679102469.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20231210123756-20231210153756-00417.warc.gz | 0.952978 | 787 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__201230214 | en | Iowa Bill Decreasing Sales Tax For Manufacturers
Iowa’s Governor Terry Branstad signed House File 4233 into law on March 21 of this year. This major tax policy legislation adopts a scaled-back version of planned state sales tax breaks on some supplies used in manufacturing.
The change will reduce both state and local government tax collections by about $29 million, starting in the 2017 fiscal year, and increasing amounts in future years, and increase the number of items exempt from state sales tax to include certain supplies used in manufacturing, research and development, data processing or storage, and recycling activities. Previously, the exemption only included replacement parts, but House File 2433 amends that provision to also include supplies and materials used to construct or self-construct replacement parts and supplies.
The House approved the bill 79-18 and the Senate followed with a 50-0 vote, but government officials still have many growing conflicts with the bill.
Senate Republicans repeatedly criticize Senate Democrats, accusing them of hurting farmers and small business people. Matt Sinovic, the executive director of Progress Iowa, is recorded saying, “Now that the Legislature has taken care of big business, it’s time to get to work for our children, schools, and for access to health care.” However, many are unsatisfied with ignoring the need for educational funding in order to satisfy manufacturing businesses. The Department of Revenue predicts that the new bill will cost Iowa an estimated $29 million annually, which could easily impact pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade education programs.
Rep. Cindy Winckler states, “I cannot in good conscience support a bill that further limits our ability to fund public education”, and she is not alone.
Thanks to the overwhelming concern for the loss of government program funding, the Department of Revenue agreed to delay the bill’s date of effect from January 1 to July 1. Could this extra time allow opponents to possibly pass a bill nullifying the change?
Sen. Randy Feenstra initially proposed an amendment on the Senate floor intending to make the effects of House File 2433 permanent, but he withdrew it once Senate Democrats threatened to block the bill in its entirety. Instead, House File 2433 passed with a compromised agreement on the amount of coupling and manufacturing sales tax exemptions.
“This discussion is not about the amount of revenue we need,” said Rep. Gary Worthan, “This is about a fair tax policy. Those two discussions don’t belong in the same room at the same time. … After we’ve established a fair tax policy, then we look at the revenue side and determine what the rates need to be.”
So now, instead of Iowa allowing a proxy Value-Added Tax which requires the payment of sales tax on unfinished items, only consumable items are to be taxed. Senate Republicans will push next year to make the changes permanent at the state level, according to Sen. Randy Feenstra, and this may reopen the delicate controversy surrounding the bill.
We expect House File 2433 to remain intact, but if tensions concerning funding continue to rise then we may see the reinstation of previously “non-consumable items” as a taxable source. There is simply no way to concretely predict the outcome of this controversy, but you can still be prepared with sales tax software that constantly re-updates tax rates as they change so you don’t have to.
Rest assured; Sales Tax DataLINK is continuously following this story and many others to remain up-to-date in a dynamic, complex tax system. If you want to know more, visit us at http://www.salestaxdatalink.com/ to see similar articles, or call us at 877-806-7715 to hear more about our software. | politics |
https://themouthmagazine.com/2014/08/06/pete-seeger-a-song-and-a-stone-dvd/ | 2023-06-07T00:12:34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653183.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606214755-20230607004755-00704.warc.gz | 0.959511 | 855 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__269278902 | en | A DVD FEATURING ROBERT ELFSTROM’S 1972 DOCUMENTARY ON FOLK SINGER PETE SEEGER (OUT NEXT WEEK) TIME-CAPSULES AN ERA OF SOCIAL DISCONTENT AND ACTIVISM IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
On 4th July 1776 the American Declaration Of Independence was drawn up. Amongst the admirable tenets by which all future generations were bound to live was: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it… …that when a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government”.
It’s there on paper at the very formation of the United States of America – the Government merely custodians of the duty to govern, with the higher power and authority vested in the people by the Founding Fathers. Broadly speaking, history teaches us that all regimes become entrenched, spewing propaganda and keeping the governed distracted (the Roman Empire’s ‘bread and circuses’ in degrees of action) while they continue about their often self-serving and dark business. In the modern age it’s a far more sophisticated and precarious process but the idea is essentially the same – fast food and TV. Occasionally, there is an event which breaches the bubble of ignorance (or apathy) and so inflames the governed’s sense of morality it becomes an axis for potential change. At this point the regime’s motivation is defence of the status quo, and its method the use of agencies at its disposal to reject moves to be ‘thrown off’. Made when Pete Seeger was still blacklisted by all major media organisations following McCarthyism, A SONG AND A STONE culminates with his involvement in one of the huge (12,500 were arrested in a single day) early 1971 marches on Washington DC to protest against the government over America’s continued involvement in the war in Vietnam.
There is a sequence which puts any caricature of Johnny Cash as the mere self-inflicting wild man of country rock to the sword. Defying the television network which broadcast his popular weekly show, the Man In Black invites Seeger to perform and they duet on WORRIED MAN BLUES. His songs feature throughout – A HARD RAIN’S A-GONNA FALL, WASN’T THAT A TIME and WE SHALL OVERCOME amongst them. It’s apparent how pivotal a figure Seeger (himself influenced by Woody Guthrie) was in the musical zeitgeist shifting away from pop inanity and towards social awareness and the sense of responsibility. Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen owe a particular debt.
At a human level A SONG AND A STONE reveals him to have been a reasonably gentle man of vivid conviction – a hands on environmentalist, navigating his Clearwater sloop in an effort to clean up the Hudson river (a programme he co-founded which continues to this day). He died in January, aged 94; a life well-lived in the name of peace, justice and dignity. In mid-2014, as the planet once again teeters on the brink, the forty year old A SONG AND A STONE is a timely reminder that Seeger’s country was partly founded on the power of the people – the notion that it is the right, the duty, of the governed to throw off despotic Government. As friend and admirer Billy Bragg would later say, “wearing badges is not enough”.
Order A SONG AND A STONE here.
You must be logged in to post a comment. | politics |
https://www.raise.org.au/blog/a-voice-to-parliament-support-statement/ | 2024-04-17T02:17:19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817128.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20240417013540-20240417043540-00304.warc.gz | 0.91883 | 923 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__49060390 | en | Raise Foundation accepts the invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart to walk alongside First Nations Australians for a better future. We are an ally to First Nations people and embrace this once in a lifetime opportunity to support constitutional reform. In all that we do, we are guided by our strong values...
At Raise, we maintain our commitment to take and support meaningful steps towards recognition and reconciliation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Raise supported The Voice to Parliament as we believed it created a pathway for partnership, understanding and action. Raise Foundation will continue to listen and learn from First Nations people and is committed to being an ally in all that we do.
We are mindful that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who campaigned for The Voice to Parliament have called for a week of silence across the country to grieve and reflect.
This is a challenging and distressing time for many Australians, particularly for many First Nations people. We implore you to approach this time with reflection and compassion. If you need support, we encourage you to reach out to 13YARN (13 92 76) or Lifeline (13 11 14).
Raise Foundation 'A Voice to Parliament' Support Statement
Raise Foundation accepts the invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart to walk alongside First Nations Australians for a better future. We are an ally to First Nations people and embrace this once in a lifetime opportunity to support constitutional reform.
In all that we do, we are guided by our strong values. Our mentoring programs strive to empower young people to raise their voices, build resilience and hope for the future. We're guided by young people – we’ve learned that the best way to create effective programs for young people is to actively listen to them.
First Nations people deserve to be heard. There is no greater example of resilience than the world’s oldest continuing living culture.
For too long, First Nations people have been excluded from decision-making that impacts their daily lives. A constitutionally enshrined First Nations Voice to Parliament enables First Nations people to help inform policy and legal decisions that affect their communities. It is fundamental to achieving better outcomes and building a fairer, more inclusive country.
Embedding a Voice in the Constitution also acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s special place in Australia’s history, and ensures successive Governments can’t reverse the decision.
Raise Foundation affirms our full-hearted support for:
- Amendment of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act to enshrine a First Nations Voice in the Constitution
- Establishment by legislation or letters patent of a Makarrata Commission to oversee a process of truth‐telling about our history as a path to reconciliation between First Nations and other Australians and to oversee the making of agreements between First Nations, Federal, State and Local governments
We will continue to listen and learn from First Nations Australians, committed to being an ally in all that we do.
In the months leading up to the referendum vote, Raise will create opportunities for our Raise Village to learn more about the Voice and its role in reconciliation. We encourage everyone to seek a better understanding of how we got to where we are today and why the Voice is crucial in building a fairer, more inclusive and hope-filled future.
Reconciliation Australia, viewed 7 August 2023 – https://www.reconciliation.org.au/reconciliation/support-a-voice-to-parliament/ | politics |
https://slosarconsulting.com/j-r-slosar-and-michael-a-moodian-better-care-for-mentally-ill-would-help-prisons-budget/ | 2023-12-03T03:17:46 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100484.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20231203030948-20231203060948-00646.warc.gz | 0.947833 | 695 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__279911142 | en | LOS Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who is in charge of the county’s jails, once said he ran the biggest mental hospital in the country.
Our state corrections system faces a humanitarian and economic crisis. A major factor in the prison system’s growth is that prisons have become a dumping ground for the mentally ill. In fact, data from the Treatment Advocacy Center shows we have returned to levels of function that existed in the 19th century.
This problem has been well-documented by criminal justice experts throughout the country. In various surveys, results show that approximately 15 to 20 percent of prisoners suffer serious mental illness. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill estimates that 40 percent of the mentally ill have served time in jail.
To illuminate the fiscal impact, research by states shows that the cost of a mentally ill inmate is much higher. In Florida, the cost of a non-mentally ill inmate is $80 per day while a mentally ill inmate costs $130 per day. In Texas, analysts showed non-mentally ill inmate costs to be approximately $22,000 per year, while mentally ill inmates cost taxpayers $30,000 to $50,000 each year.
In California, the Legislative Analysts Office reports an average annual cost to incarcerate one prisoner at $47,000.
In Los Angeles County, a federal report states that 90 percent of the mentally ill in prison are repeat offenders. Meanwhile, an incredible 31 percent of these individuals have been incarcerated 10 or more times. On average, mentally ill prisoners are incarcerated 15 months longer in prison than non-mentally ill prisoners. They deteriorate further in jail and provide management problems, including suicidal behavior, which leads to legal and liability issues. The mentally ill also are subject to physical and sexual abuse because of their vulnerability, creating additional grounds for lawsuits against the state.
We have the mental health professionals to deal with the problem. Psychologists could provide comprehensive intake diagnosis and continuity of medical care, records and use of medication. We can separate the mentally ill from the non-mentally ill in our prisons.
Structured and supervised outpatient treatment can be cost effective and humane. One potential cost-saving effort would be to allow specially trained psychologists to prescribe and monitor medications. This would require changing state laws to mirror those already operating in New Mexico and Louisiana.
Today, one psychiatric bed exists for every 3,000 individuals. Unfortunately, many beds in private psychiatric hospitals and general hospitals are unavailable, especially to individuals who lack insurance.
Guess where they end up? The contemporary approach of deinstitutionalization is clearly failing.
To date, insignificant attention has been paid to this topic. In addressing prison reform, gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman advocates sending prisoners to other states and building new prisons here. However, other states have the same problem, and we know that enlarging the prison system is not the answer. Whitman’s rival, Attorney General Jerry Brown, has called for serious reform but not given any specifics.
A well-designed reform plan could be implemented that is both efficient and effective. This plan could be help tackle California’s $19billion fiscal emergency, since corrections are a sizeable part of the state budget.
A new California model could lead the nation. As the gubernatorial race intensifies this fall, the citizenry must pressure the candidates to institute prison reform in our state that is both cost effective and humane. | politics |
http://judgebarbarajackson.com/pressroom.asp | 2017-04-24T22:45:46 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917119995.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031159-00253-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.948197 | 288 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__70011946 | en | On April 16, 2010, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University's downtown Raleigh campus hosted a forum for judicial candidates.
Click on the Play button to the left to see Judge Jackson's response to the moderator's questions, and to get a sense of where she stands on the issues.
Video Used with permission.
Judge Jackson's Latest Commercial
This commercial is playing at various times in a number of markets all across North Carolina. Click on the play button below to show this video of conservative leadership at work!
North Carolina Judicial Candidate Forum, September 7, 2010
Judge Barbara Jackson participated in the NC Judicial Candidate Forum on September 7th in Winston-Salem. This forum was sponsored by the Federalist Society, an educational organization made up of conservatives and libertarians interested int eh current state of legal order. Judge Jackson, a candidate for Supreme Court, as well as candidates for the Court of Appeals answered questions on judicial philosophy, the role of the courts, and more. The moderator was Bob Buckley of Fox8 WGHP.
North Carolina Judicial Candidate Forum, September 21, 2010
Judge Barbara Jackson participated in this, the 2nd of a two-part series from the Federalist Society. This forum, was held in Raleigh on September 21st, and moderated by former Supreme Court Justice Willis Whichard. This video is a "follow up" to the Judicial Candidate Forum on September 7th. | politics |
http://www.nawp-uk.com/blog/74 | 2023-12-07T09:07:49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100651.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20231207090036-20231207120036-00669.warc.gz | 0.95137 | 234 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__124190024 | en | The industry appointed, government-supported UK Weddings Taskforce has formed as a result of the wedding sector uniting to speak as one voice.
This week, the UK Weddings Taskforce met with government to ask for vital support for our sector. Prohibited from trading in a commercially viable form due to the restrictions since March 2020, they asked for:
- a sector specific support grant of £680m available to all wedding businesses
- access to support available to closely related sectors (such as hospitality) including the 5% VAT temporary reduction
- extension and adaptation of existing support programs
- measures to protect deposits
- a roadmap for the gradual, safe reopening of our sector to 50+ guest numbers from Easter weekend
The Minister for Small Business, Paul Scully MP, agreed to submit their grant request to the Chancellor and work with the Taskforce on a number of measures, including a plan for re-opening our sector.
If you would like to receive updates on the taskforce progress, please visit the website and sign up for the newsletter https://ukweddings.org/
Article Posted: 21/01/2021 | politics |
https://www.progressivemusiccompany.com/pennsylvania-legislators-receive-national-arts-recognition/ | 2024-04-16T04:53:05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817043.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240416031446-20240416061446-00759.warc.gz | 0.94496 | 858 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__55869872 | en | |(l-r) Americans for the Arts VP for Gov’t. Affair Narric Rome presents Arts Award to PA Rep. Tim Briggs (D-149)
Americans for the Arts and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) yesterday presented the Public Leadership in the Arts Award for State Arts Leadership to the four founding chairs of the Pennsylvania Legislative Arts & Culture Caucus—Sen. Patrick Browne (R-16, representing part of Lehigh County), Sen. Jay Costa (D-43 representing part of Allegheny County), Rep. Tim Briggs (D-149, representing part of Montgomery County), and Rep. Stan Saylor (R-94, representing part of York County). Rep. Briggs accepted the award on behalf of the Caucus Co-chairs. The annual award was presented at the NCSL Fall Forum in Washington, DC, and honors public officials who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the advancement of the arts at the state level.
“The arts play an integral role in the social, educational and economic development of a state,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “We appreciate leaders like Sen. Browne, Sen. Costa, Rep. Briggs, and Rep. Saylor who are actively promoting and advocating for the arts on the state level.”
In 2012, Costa, Browne, Briggs, and Saylor organized the first special interest caucus dealing with arts and culture issues, and soon had the largest in the PA General Assembly. The membership includes 75 legislators from both the House and the Senate including the Lt. Governor, Chairs of the Education, Appropriations, Finance, and Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committees in the Senate and, in the House, Chairs of the Education and Finance Committees.
The Pennsylvania Legislative Arts & Culture Caucus recognizes and advances the state’s creative industries through press conferences to highlight The Arts and Economic Prosperity IV: PA study and arts and culture as an economic development tool; meetings on tax credit programs benefitting arts and culture, and creative aging; and educational outreach programs from museum, creative/cultural districts, and the humanities. The caucus has been supportive of its members in their efforts to draft and pass legislation that advances arts & culture.
The caucus has also demonstrated support and suggested strategies to increase the line items in the General Fund budget for arts & culture. In 2014, the grants to the arts line item received a 5 percent increase—the first since 2007—and, for this fiscal year, the General Assembly level funded for grants to the arts at a time they were cutting other line items and not increasing taxes.
“It is a great honor and privilege to join my colleagues, friends and co-chairs of the Pennsylvania Arts and Culture Caucus, Sen. Pat Browne and Reps. Stan Saylor and Tim Briggs, as the recipients of this award from Americans for the Arts. The arts help our children and future generations better understand the world. That’s why it’s important that we continue supporting the arts so that more lives can be enriched,” stated Sen. Costa.
Jenny L. Hershour, Managing Director of Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, commented, “We arts advocates are lucky to have these four legislators as our champions in the General Assembly. They continue to work tirelessly promoting the positive impacts of the arts & culture sector with members of the PA General Assembly.”
Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America. With offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, it has a record of more than 55 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.
National Conference of State Legislatures is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the states, commonwealths, and territories. It provides research, technical assistance, and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues and is an effective and respected advocate for the interests of the states in the American federal system. | politics |
http://www.lifeistremendez.com/video-tip-speaks-on-joining-trump-protest-in-nyc-on-jimmy-kimmel/ | 2017-09-20T00:47:42 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818686077.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170919235817-20170920015817-00682.warc.gz | 0.979547 | 315 | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-39__0__232108378 | en | TIP has been one of hip hop’s most vocal advocates for Black Lives Matter and the fight against racism and police brutality. His latest EP Us or Else, served as a soundtrack to the protests held around the country, while the artist encouraged the country to get out and vote on November 8.
In the wake of Trump‘s election on Wednesday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of New York City, including TIP. In a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, he said that he happened to be recording at a studio not far from where protestors began gathering and decided to walk over.
He mentioned a few people recognized him and rather than fanning out, they thanked him for joining the cause. While TIP realizes that the damage of the election has been done, it’s still important to set an example.
Nobody in their right mind can ever assume that by gathering and going somewhere and showing your incredible distain for a decision that the nation has made, will actually do anything immediately. However, when I look at my kids in the eyes after this thing takes place, I voted and did everything I could have done prior to now, but after the decision of the election that happened, I just want to be able to look my kids in the eyes and make sure they know I did everything that the Constitution allows me to do to show my objection to this decision.
TIP later performed “Black Man” but interestingly enough, it didn’t air on ABC.
Watch the interview with Jimmy Kimmel below. | politics |
https://stmoside.org/welcome/st-thomas-patron-saint/ | 2024-04-17T06:58:13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817144.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20240417044411-20240417074411-00316.warc.gz | 0.982299 | 2,057 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__77882082 | en | A Brief Biography of Thomas More (1478-1535)
by Robert Ellsberg, All Saints
Thomas More was one of the most highly respected men of his time. A successful barrister, a judge known for his scrupulous integrity, a scholar, famous for his wit and learning, he rose by sheer merit to the highest status of any commoner in England. After a series of important public offices, he was in 1529 appointed by King Henry VIII to the post of Lord Chancellor of England. To this his friend Erasmus, the Continental humanist, remarked, “Happy the commonwealth where kings appoint such officials.”
Despite his achievements, More had little ambition for worldly success. More was a man of deep and demanding faith. In his youth he had considered a monastic vocation before deciding instead that he was called to serve God in the world. While outwardly he enjoyed a life of comfort, in the privacy of his spiritual life he wore a hair shirt, attended daily Mass, and practiced a strict discipline of prayer.
More maintained a large household and took special delight in his children. His role in overseeing the education of his daughters, especially Margaret, his eldest and favorite, was considered remarkable for the time. After the death of his beloved first wife, he quickly married an older widow, Alice. She proved a loyal wife and a good stepmother, though she was prone to exasperation with her husband’s scholarly friends, his sense of humor, and his costly scruples.
King Henry had reckoned wisely on his chancellor’s brilliance and honesty. In all matters of his office More served with loyalty and distinction. But circumstances were to evolve to the point that Henry required a more absolute loyalty than More could offer. For some years the court of Henry had been moving toward a fateful collision with the authority of the Catholic Church. The issue was the king’s desire to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he might marry Anne Boleyn. Catherine refused to acquiesce in this scheme, and the pope upheld the inviolability of their marriage. When Henry made clear his intention to have his way, regardless of the church’s ruling, More resigned his office rather than publicly oppose the position of the king. He retired to his country home and endeavored to ignore the raging controversy. Nevertheless, it was widely remarked that he declined to attend the coronation of Queen Anne.
In 1534 an Act of Succession was proclaimed. All the king’s subjects were required to take an oath recognizing the offspring of Henry and Anne as true successors to the throne. More had no problem with this. As far as he was concerned the king was free to declare any successor he liked. However, the oath also required an avowal that the king’s marriage with Catherine had been no true marriage and a repudiation of “any foreign authority, prince or potentate.” Such an oath represented a decisive break with the authority of the pope. This oath More refused to take. Consequently, on April 17 he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He remained there for fifteen months. All the while the court pressured him either to take the oath or to state his reasons for withholding his assent. More would do neither, believing that as long as he kept his opinions to himself he could not be convicted of treason. He was presented with a parade of clergy and bishops who all (save Bishop John Fisher) had signed the oath. More maintained that others must abide by their own conscience, as he must be true to his own. Meanwhile, the miseries of prison life, including cold, hunger, and vermin, were compounded by pressure from his family. When his wife tried to coax him to alter his course, he responded, “My good woman, you are no good at doing business. Do you really want me to exchange eternity for twenty years?”
On February 1, 1535, Parliament passed the Acts of Supremacy, which proclaimed the king “only supreme head of the Church of England.” Thomas continued to maintain his silence. Finally in June he was brought to trial. On the basis of perjured evidence, he was convicted of having spoken against the Acts and sentenced to death. Now, with his fate settled, Thomas at last broke his silence. He denied that Parliament had the authority to set up a temporal lord as head of the church. No more could the English Parliament overrule the law of the universal church, he declared, than the City of London could make a law against an act of Parliament. Finally, he addressed the lords who condemned him, noting that while St. Paul had persecuted St. Stephen, “and yet be they now both twin holy saints in Heaven…so I verily trust, and shall therefore right heartily pray, that though your lordships have now here on earth been judges of my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in Heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation.”
He spoke in similar terms as he bade farewell to his loyal daughter Margaret: “I will pray for us all with my whole heart, that we may meet one day in heaven, where we shall forever be gay and have no more pains.”
On July 6 he was taken to the site of execution. Addressing those gathered about he made brief remarks before laying his head on the executioner’s block: “I die in and for the faith of the holy Catholic Church. Pray for me in this world, and I shall pray for you in that world. Pray for the king that it please God to send him good counselors. I die as the king’s true servant, but God’s first.”
Thomas More was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935. His feast and that of his fellow martyr John Fisher are celebrated on June 22.
Prayer for Fervor in Thinking of God
O Lord, give us a mind that is humble, quiet, peaceable, patient and charitable, and a taste of your Holy Spirit in all our thoughts, words, and deeds. O Lord, give us a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, a love of you. Take from us all lukewarmness in meditation and all dullness in prayer. Give us fervor and delight in thinking of you, your grace, and your tender compassion toward us. Give us, good Lord, the grace to work for the things we pray for. — Thomas More
Words of St. Thomas More
“Little as I meddle in the conscience of others, I am certain that my conscience belongs to me alone. It is the last thing that a man can do for his salvation: to be at one with himself.”
“Reputation, honor, fame, what is all that but a breath of air from another person’s mouth, no sooner spoken but gone? Thus whoever finds his delight in them is feeding on wind.”
In his book Utopia, Thomas More coined the term “utopia” which is a pun meaning both “good place” and “no place.” More’s Utopia is discovered on a voyage to the newly discovered Americas. It is one of the first books to invoke the analogy between the great voyages of discovery and the discoveries of the mind. He is also thought to have introduced “fact,” “taunt,” “shuffle,” “paradox,” “pretext,” “meeting,” “monosyllable,” and “anticipate” into the written English language.
February 7, born in Milk Street, London, to John More who was a lawyer and would become a judge on the king’s bench.
Placed as a page in the household of John Morton, Lord Chancellor to King Henry VIII and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Enters Oxford for two years of study. 1494 Went to Inns of Court to study law at his father’s insistence.
February, admitted to Lincoln’s Inn, Oxford.
Becomes a barrister after completion of his law studies.
Becomes a Member of Parliament.
Decides against priesthood and marries Jane Colt, saying he would rather be a good husband than a bad priest.
Elected bencher at Lincoln’s Inn.
Appointed UnderSheriff of London.
Jane dies leaving him with four children. Marries Alice Middleton, a widow, one month later.
Sent on diplomatic mission to Antwerp where he begins writing Utopia.
Made Master of Requests and a member of the Privy Council of Henry VIII.
Elected Speaker of the House of Commons.
October, made Lord Chancellor of England.
May 16, resigns chancellorship finding he cannot support Henry’s attempts to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn.
July, Pope Clement VII condemns Henry’s divorce. December, forbidden to publish.
March, Parliament passes Act of Succession. April 17, sent to the Tower of London for refusing to take the oath of the Act of Succession. While in the Tower writes Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation and De Tristitia Christi.
July 1, tried and convicted of treason. July 6, beheaded on Tower Hill.
December 29, beatified by Pope Leo XIII. 1935 May 19, canonized by Pope Pius XI. | politics |
https://www.scotlandinternet.com/john-buchan/ | 2023-01-31T17:11:07 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499888.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20230131154832-20230131184832-00380.warc.gz | 0.939225 | 100 | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-06__0__162546083 | en | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir
- Born – 26 August 1875 in Perth, Scotland.
- Died – 11 February 1940 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Governor-General of Canada, Member of Parliament for the Scottish Universities, High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Chancellor of Edinburgh University (twice), journalist and war correspondent.
He was the author of a hundred books, including The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle. | politics |
http://petersburellifarmblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/excerpt-from-letter-to-friend-yesterday.html | 2019-06-19T07:02:18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998923.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20190619063711-20190619085711-00197.warc.gz | 0.971203 | 452 | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-26__0__44625668 | en | Yesterday, during a long train ride I finished reading “Winners Take All,” the very recent book by Anand Giridiharadas that Katherine had recommended. I read through it quickly, but I did mark some passages that I considered relevant. The main issue that he focuses on has to do with the strange hypocritical dichotomy behind the actions of some of the ultra-rich, who are the root of both environmental and social problems worldwide, but who donate a small portion of their multi-billions to well-intentioned causes that seek to ameliorate some of those same issues. In other words, they take billions and give back millions.
Wealth becomes more concentrated in the hands of a very select few, climate change and the abundance of totalitarian governments continues to grow apace, aided and abetted by these self-same billionaires and their bought and paid for allies in government. Their technological “solutions” represent a vain hope that their lives can go on as usual, while they look for a magic bullet that will keep the imminent disaster at bay. Those false non-solutions cannot and will not make any significant difference and might, no probably, will make things worse.
For instance, he quotes Kavita Ramdas (she is an executive at the Ford foundation) as follows: “The nuance and inherent humility of the social sciences — the realization that development has to do with people, with human and social complexity, with cultural and traditional realities, and their willingness to struggle with messy and multifaceted aspects of a problem — have no cachet in this metrics-driven, efficiency-seeking, technology-focused approach to social change."
So what to do?
The reason I live in Vermont and the impetus for buying this small farm, was and continues to be my conviction that “a tear on the cheek belongs to the sea.” In other words, right action by individuals is part of the key, perhaps the entire key, to unlock a sustainable and just future for all of humanity. Small is beautiful, to use yet another cliche.
This is a challenge dear reader and I know you have many other interests, but I do welcome your thoughts. | politics |
https://www.helen-mirren.net/projects/2017criesfromsyria/ | 2022-09-26T16:19:35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00579.warc.gz | 0.902136 | 259 | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-40__0__113415860 | en | Cries from Syria
March 03, 2017
| HBO Documentaries
| 111 minutes
Directed by: Evgeny Afineevsky
| Written by: Evgeny Afineevsky
"Cries from Syria" is a searing, comprehensive account of a brutal five-year conflict from the inside out, drawing on hundreds of hours of war footage from Syrian activists and citizen journalists, as well as testimony from child protesters, leaders of the revolution, human rights defenders, ordinary citizens, and high-ranking army generals who defected from the government. Their collective stories are a cry for attention and help from a world that little understands their reality or agrees on what to do about it. A documentary by Evgeny Afineevsky, director of the Oscar-nominated film "Winter on Fire".
Cast: Helen Mirren (Narrator), Hadi Al Abdullah, Raed Al Saleh, Riad Al-Asaad, Bashar al-Assad, Abu Mohammad Al-Julani, Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb, Zaher Al-Saket, Kholoud Helmi, Cissy Jones, Ghiath Matar, Suzan Matar, , Abdul Basset Saroot | politics |
http://keirbradwell.com/ | 2021-12-01T09:15:05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964359976.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20211201083001-20211201113001-00231.warc.gz | 0.954919 | 134 | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-49__0__203680987 | en | I am President of the Cambridge Union for Michaelmas 2021, and a full-time student of political theory at Queens’ College, Cambridge, now in my third year as an undergraduate.
During my time as Union President I wrote two articles on my first-hand experience of the culture wars — and what it taught me about how those of us with an interest in defending free speech ought to navigate them. Those can be found here:
My contact details are at the bottom of the page. Please do get in touch, unless you’re emailing to send something abusive having read Rod Liddle call me “dim” for the Sunday Times. | politics |
https://www.synenergy-advisors.com/en/news/uniting-europe-through-cross-border-energy-transfer | 2023-12-07T09:59:22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100651.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20231207090036-20231207120036-00365.warc.gz | 0.935686 | 655 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__33528109 | en | Cross-border energy transfer between European countries is nowadays a critical issue, as the European Union (EU) seeks to increase energy security, promote the use of renewable energy sources and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
However, there are significant challenges associated with such projects that need to be overcome to take advantage of the potential benefits.
One of the main challenges of transnational energy transmission in Europe is the regulatory framework.
Each country follows specific regulations for the energy transmission within its borders, which can complicate the development of cross-border projects.
To address this issue, the EU deployed the Energy Union framework, which aims to create a coordinated sustainable energy market across Europe.
The infrastructure needed to support the transmission of energy between European countries is another challenge that the EU must address.
In particular, it requires the construction of new substations and transmission lines, which usually constitute costly and time-consuming projects.
In fact, Europe's varied topography can complicate and slow down the construction of such infrastructures.
In addition, technical challenges related to the interoperability of cross-border electricity systems need to be taken into account in the context of the Energy Union.
The fact that there are diverse electricity systems and voltage levels between countries is another issue that needs to be tackled for the transnational energy transmission.
In addition, it is necessary to ensure the stability and reliability of the transmission system in order to avoid blackouts and other disruptions.
Despite those challenges, there are significant opportunities associated with energy transport in Europe.
One of the main benefits is the augmented energy security.
By diversifying their energy sources, the countries can reduce their dependence on any single supplier or energy source, reducing the risk of supply disruptions and price volatility.
Another benefit is cost savings.
Energy transmission projects between countries can benefit from economies of scale, which reduce the overall cost of energy production and distribution, increasing the total amount of produced energy.
This can lead to lower energy prices for consumers and businesses, which in turn can boost economic growth and development.
Cross-border energy transfer can also significantly contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
By allowing energy transfer from sustainable sources such as wind and solar power, countries can reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and contribute to the mitigation of climate change.
There are several examples of successful transnational energy transmission projects in Europe.
A notable example is the Nord Pool electricity exchange, which allows for the transfer of electricity between Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
This project has contributed to the development of a regional energy market and the integration of renewable energy sources.
Another example is the IFA interconnection, which links the electricity grids of the United Kingdom and France.
This project has increased energy security, allowing the two countries to share energy resources.
In conclusion, cross-border energy transmission is a crucial factor in achieving European sustainability objectives.
Although technical, financial and regulatory barriers may hamper the development of such projects, the potential benefits are significant, including increased energy security, cost savings and limitation of greenhouse gas emissions.
As the EU seeks to create a more integrated and sustainable energy market, transnational energy transport is likely to play an increasingly important role in the near future. | politics |
http://www.socialcarereform.co.uk/ | 2015-07-05T00:10:19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375097038.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031817-00028-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.956265 | 1,394 | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2015-27__0__124518180 | en | Govtoday are delighted to announce ‘Care for all’, the 2nd National Social Care Conference and Exhibition set to examine how the reforms to the healthcare provision across the nation have affected the services delivered.
“Some people need extra care or support - practical or emotional - to lead an active life and do the everyday things that many of us take for granted. The government is working to provide a social care system that provides care for those who need it, and which enables people to retain their independence and dignity.” Department of Health
July 2012, saw the publication of the ‘Caring for our future: reforming care and support’ White Paper. The White Paper outlined the vision for a reformed care and support system one that would:
- focus on people’s wellbeing and support them to stay independent for as long as possible
- introduce greater national consistency in access to care and support
- provide better information to help people make choices about their care
- give people more control over their care
- improve support for carers
- improve the quality of care and support
- improve integration of different services
On the 10th May 2013 the ‘Care Bill’ was published, introducing legislation to provide protection and support to the people who need it most and to take forward elements of the government’s initial response to the Francis Inquiry, and will give people peace of mind that they will be treated with compassion when in hospital, care homes or their own home.
The Bill pulls together threads from over a dozen different Acts into a single, modern framework for care and support, fundamentally reforming how the law works, prioritising people’s wellbeing, needs and goals so that individuals will no longer feel like they are battling against the system to get the care and support they need and for the first time, it puts carers on a par with those for whom they care. The Bill covers a range of issues:
Reform of care and support
The Bill brings together existing care and support legislation into a new, modern set of laws and builds the system around people’s wellbeing, needs and goals. It sets out new rights for carers, emphasises the need to prevent and reduce care and support needs, and introduces a national eligibility threshold for care and support. It introduces a cap on the costs that people will have to pay for care and sets out a universal deferred payment scheme so that people will not have to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for residential care.
The report into high mortality at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust led by Robert Francis QC, identified failures across the health and care system that must never reoccur. The Care Bill contributes to the Government’s response to Francis – a commitment to ensure patients are the first and foremost consideration of everyone who works health and social care. Crucially, accompanying this laudable aim is a reconfiguration of regulation and transparency to more vigorously hold service providers to account. Perhaps the most prominent measure is the much- debated ‘duty of candour’.
Coinciding with the passage of the Care Bill has been the creation of a Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care. The first appointee, Andrea Sutcliffe, was quick to make her mark in the new post launching A Fresh Start for the Regulation and Inspection of Adult Social Care – her priorities for the inspection regime – after only a few months. The document, which will be subject to full consultation shortly ahead of our event, includes the following proposals:
- From April 2015 and subject to the Care Bill becoming law, CQC will monitor the finances of an estimated 50 to 60 care providers that would be difficult to replace if they were to go out of business.
- CQC will take a tougher stance when registering care services by ensuring that those who apply to run them have the right values, motives, ability and experience. Also, CQC is committed to taking tougher action against services that do not have registered managers in place.
- CQC will discuss the risks and potential benefits of mystery shoppers and hidden cameras to monitor care, and whether they could contribute to promoting a culture of safety and quality, while respecting people’s privacy and dignity.
The Bill establishes Health Education England (HEE) and the Health Research Authority (HRA) as statutory non-departmental public bodies, giving them the impartiality and stability they need to carry out their roles in improving education and training for healthcare professionals, and protecting the interests of people in health and social care research.
Integration of Care
Another core tenet of the Care bill relates to a new duty on public organisations to cooperate in the planning and delivery of service users’ care packages. At a time of constrained funding in both the NHS and local government, this may be easier to legislate on than actually implement. Hence the creation last year of the Integration Transformation Fund (a.k.a. the Better Care Fund). The £3.8 billion funding pot will be “a single pooled budget for health and social care services to work more closely together in local areas, based on a plan agreed between the NHS and local authorities”.
In a joint statement at the time the new fund was announced, NHS England and the Local Government Association welcomed it: “The money is an opportunity to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We must give them control, placing them at the centre of their own care and support, make their dignity paramount and, in doing so, provide them with a better service and better quality of life. Unless we seize this opportunity to do something radically different, then services will get worse, costs to taxpayers will rise, and those who suffer the most will be people who could otherwise lead more independent lives.”
Utilisation of the £3.8 billion resource by the local healthcare trusts and councils has not, however, ran smooth. In an article in the Guardian in December, Foundation Trust Network Chief Executive Chris Hopson identified a fourfold risk in the fund: there is no new money; there is double counting; such broad change is likely to incur ‘double running’; and finally, while it is clear that integrated care models produce better outcomes for patients, the evidence that they are cheaper and more efficient remains unproven. Moreover, also in December the HSJ reported that officials in the DCLG and DH are at loggerheads over the allocation of the funds.
‘Care for All’ will explore the Care Bill presenting a unique forum for debate, bringing together those at the forefront of this agenda and those responsible for delivering high quality care to listen to the real concerns and issues. Simultaneously, the conference will provide a platform for the dissemination of learning and best practice, and a showcase of productivity and innovation. | politics |
http://aviationweek.com/awin/romney-wants-three-subs-year | 2017-04-25T01:05:13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917120001.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031200-00237-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.956063 | 315 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__63294177 | en | During a foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute on Oct. 8, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney added a new item to the military wish list — three submarines per year.
Romney already pledged to spend 4% of U.S. GDP on defense, an idea that defense analysts view as an aspiration. Under that umbrella, Romney has said he would buy 15 ships per year over the current nine, bring back theRaptor and prevent reductions in troop levels.
Under the Obama administration’s budget plan for fiscal 2013, the Navy would buy 46 attack submarines through 2042, causing the number of submarines to slip below the service’s goal of 48 over the 30-year period, according to the Congressional Budget Office. To maintain the size of the submarine fleet, the Navy could buy three subs per year between 2014 and 2023 and allow that number to drop in subsequent years, the budget office suggested in a report released this summer.
The ongoing problem, however, is that even the current plan for Navy shipbuilding is unaffordable. “The total costs of carrying out the 2013 plan — an average of about $22 billion per year in 2012 dollars over the next 30 years — would be much higher than the funding amounts that the Navy has received in recent years and higher than the costs for the 2012 plan,” CBO says.
If the Navy budgeted $21.9 billion per year for Navy shipbuilding, that would represent a 37% increase over the average Navy shipbuilding spending for the last 30 years, CBO adds. | politics |
https://www.yakimawa.gov/media/news/yakima-city-council-june-22nd-special-meeting-preview/ | 2023-09-25T12:38:16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233508977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20230925115505-20230925145505-00217.warc.gz | 0.913553 | 313 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__150029371 | en | The Yakima City Council will hold a special meeting at 5:30 pm on Monday, June 22nd, in Council Chambers at Yakima City Hall, 129 North 2nd Street.
The agenda item for the special meeting is to discuss the process for hiring a permanent city manager.
Prior to the special meeting, Council will hold an executive session at 4:30 pm Monday to discuss applicants for the city manager position.
The following precautions are in place for the June 22nd special meeting due to COVID-19:
- The meeting will be conducted by speakerphone.
- Since Yakima City Hall is closed to public access, no community members can attend the meeting in person.
- Please e-mail [email protected] if you wish to provide written comment to the City Council. Written comments received by 3:00 pm on Monday, June 22nd, will be provided to the City Council prior to the meeting.
The June 22nd Yakima City Council special meeting will air live at 5:30 pm on Y-PAC, Charter Spectrum Channel 194, and be streamed live at https://www.yakimawa.gov/council/live-stream/
Click the following link to see the agenda packet for the special meeting on June 22nd – https://yakima.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=894&MinutesMeetingID=877&doctype=Agenda | politics |
https://sportalicious.com/cricket-australia-revisits-indias-racist-ban-after-backlash-sport-news-top-stories/ | 2021-05-10T01:40:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243989030.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20210510003422-20210510033422-00296.warc.gz | 0.970237 | 597 | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-21__0__7321578 | en | SYDNEY (AFP) – The Prime Minister of Australia dismissed accusations of racism and blood on his hands Tuesday, May 4, as he stepped back from a prison threat for Australians trying to escape ravaged India by Covid.
Scott Morrison’s government has decided to ban travelers from India from entering Australia until May 15, threatening rule breakers – including Australian citizens – with jail terms.
Amid a widespread backlash, Mr Morrison said on Tuesday it was “highly unlikely” that Australians who circumvent a ban would be jailed.
“I think the likelihood of all of this happening is next to zero,” he said in a breakfast flash on Tuesday.
Around 9,000 Australians are believed to be in India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases are detected every day and the death toll is skyrocketing.
Among those trapped are some of Australia’s most prominent sports stars – cricketers playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League.
Commentator and former Test cricketer star Michael Slater was among those who pilloried Morrison’s decision, saying it was a “disgrace”.
“Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this?” He tweeted. “If our government cared about the safety of Australians, it would allow us to return home.”
Mr Morrison said the idea of his having blood on his hands was “absurd”.
“The responsibility ends here when it comes to those decisions, and I’m going to make decisions that I believe will protect Australia from a third wave,” he said.
“I am working to get them home safely,” he added, indicating that repatriation flights could begin shortly after May 15.
The decision took effect Monday and has been denounced by rights groups and some of Mr Morrison’s most important allies, including Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt, who said it “stinks of racism”.
Australia has largely avoided the worst of the pandemic thanks to some of the world’s toughest border controls.
There is a general ban on travel to and from the country unless an exemption is obtained.
Non-residents are generally barred from entry, and anyone entering the country must undergo a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine.
But that system is under increasing strain as the virus has rolled out of quarantine facilities and has caused a series of outbreaks in the largely unvaccinated community.
The Tory PM faces re-election over the next 12 months and had hoped Australia’s relatively successful handling of the pandemic would propel him to victory.
But India’s travel ban and the deployment of a glacial vaccine have drawn criticism.
Australia has administered 2.2 million doses of the vaccine to a population of 25 million people, who each need two doses to be fully immunized. | politics |
http://504healthnet.org/2012/10/health-clinic-network-wins-praise/ | 2018-04-24T12:34:28 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946688.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20180424115900-20180424135900-00272.warc.gz | 0.947046 | 967 | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-17__0__50032912 | en | Health clinic network wins praise from Government Accountability Office
Published: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Bill Barrow, The Times-Picayune
Supporting oft-made statements from Louisiana officials, a new federal government assessment hails the region’s burgeoning network of primary-care clinics and warns that an impending loss of federal taxpayer support will limit the newfound medical care for the working poor and uninsured.
The Government Accountability Office report, conducted for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, does not recommend any source of new financing for 90-plus clinics that have received almost $100 million from a grant that Congress approved for Gulf Coast states after the 2005 hurricane season.
But parts of the document suggest hope for state and local authorities’ developing plans to redirect some of Louisiana’s other federal health care money from hospitals to the primary-care network.
The primary-care grant expires Sept. 30, affecting clinics in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. Officials say some financing stream is needed to sustain the clinics from now until 2014, when the federal health care overhaul will expand Medicaid and private insurance pools to the uninsured patients the network now targets.
State Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine already has made a preliminary request that federal Medicaid authorities allow the state to tap a portion of Louisiana’s disproportionate-share hospital money, federal Medicaid financing that usually helps cover hospital care for the uninsured. Levine, the Louisiana Public Health Institute and the leaders of the 25 provider organizations that run the clinics are working to submit a formal request by Aug. 15.
The GAO report notes that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that must approve the state’s waiver application, has been active in working with the state on that financing possibility. And in its written response to the report, the federal Health and Human Services Department said the GAO draft “accurately reflects the department’s concern about the sustainability of the primary-care gains in the greater New Orleans area” if the clinics cannot find a new stream of money.
Both of those details suggest that federal officials will be receptive to Louisiana’s proposal.
The network, which serves about 100,000 patients, includes adult and pediatric primary care, obstetrics, dental care, mental health services and school clinics. Half of the system’s patients are uninsured, and about one-fourth are on Medicaid, almost all of those being minors. The rest have Medicare or carry private insurance.
Nearly all of the clinics require some payment from the uninsured, with fees typically ranging from $5 to $25 depending on income. More than a third of the clinics have been recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance for meeting the minimum standards as “medical homes.”
Levine has said the state will propose in its waiver application requiring all the clinics that receive disproportionate share hospital financing to attain the national certification.
The current program also uses a per-patient payment model to distribute the grant money, meaning clinics get a set amount for a patient rather than being paid a fee per service, the model used in most components of the American health care system.
Dr. Karen DeSalvo, a Tulane physician who is one of the network’s leading organizers and advocates, said the extended program would continue the per-patient payment model, rather than revert to fee-per-service billing.
DeSalvo said the network is also trying to develop a program to move patients from the grant pool to the expanded Medicaid rolls or private insurance exchanges that are coming online as part of the new federal law.
Centers for Medicare and MedicaidServices officials, DeSalvo said, have been “flexible” in their preliminary conversations with the Louisiana officials. She said she hopes federal authorities will fast track their review of the state’s waiver request so clinics can start getting the disproportionate share hospital money by Oct. 1.
According to the GAO report, the clinics had received $92.5 million from the grant by December 2009. The grant makes up varying portions of the providers’ total clinic budgets. For the period of Aug. 1, 2008 through July 31, 2009, only five of the 25 providers reported their primary care grant money as less than a third of their total clinic budgets during that span; nine providers reported that the grant accounted for at least half of their total financing.
DeSalvo said some of the clinics, particularly those that are school-based, will have a cash-flow problem even if federal officials give swift approval to a waiver.
Bill Barrow can be reached at [email protected] or 504.826.3452 | politics |
https://hotcryptonews.com/2019/03/23/former-chief-of-staff-to-us-president-barack-obama-bullish-on-crypto-thats-obviously-the-hottest-space/ | 2019-11-18T18:34:28 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-47/segments/1573496669813.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20191118182116-20191118210116-00518.warc.gz | 0.959978 | 668 | CC-MAIN-2019-47 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-47__0__11203962 | en | Article By Jeremy Wall
Rahm Emanuel, current Mayor of Chicago and former Chief of Staff to US President Barack Obama, took the podium at a city meeting on March 18 to discuss Chicago’s fintech movement.
While speaking at the meeting, as reported by Forbes on March 20, the mayor admitted he does not fully understand blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. However, he recognizes their importance for countries who face financial sanctions like Venezuela and Iran, where crypto is used to maintain global transactions.
For this reason, Emanuel believes cryptocurrency has a viable use case and its adoption is likely inevitable.
Crypto Adoption Will Start With Countries in Financial Crisis
Delving into how he believes cryptocurrencies will stay alive, he explained that countries in financial crisis will be the first to adopt them. As political boundaries are redrawn, countries will need an alternative currency to deal with the debt markets at some point in the future.
Explaining more, Emanuel said:
“Nation states are falling apart, or receding. City states are emerging, so the political structures we all grew up under are changing. One day, somebody’s going to figure out – whether that’s Argentina, ten years from now, five years from now – how to use cryptocurrencies to stay alive when they’re facing a financial crisis, and then you’re going to find out that this moment has arrived.”
In regards to a timeline of when countries will need to use crypto as an alternative form of currency, Emanuel said he didn’t know if it will be 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years from now, but he did note that the crypto trend lines are affirmative and it will happen in the future.
During his discussion, Emmanuel was asked on his overall sentiment toward cryptocurrency and blockchain. He reiterated that he lacks sufficient knowledge, but added what he does know:
“I know it’s an alternative way to trade, and therefore, I gotta learn about it, and I gotta be honest, as mayor, it’s not the top 100 things I would have to learn about.”
Chicago’s Fintech Industry
Later in the meeting, the Chicago Mayor highlighted that the city of Chicago has something really unique, further stating that he sees the city as a top 5 global technology hub and that cryptocurrency is obviously the hottest space right now.
However, he did not attribute all of the city’s innovations in fintech to cryptocurrency, stating that there’s a lot of different areas ripe for research and innovation.
“There’s a lot of other things that go on in the financial or in FinTech that is necessary and has to be researched, and then has to be innovated, taking that research and set it up as a startup, but I see the hottest thing right now is in that space, in that area.”
As previously reported by IIB, Chicago is one of the leading cities in America for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. It’s home to numerous big exchanges and rich with cryptocurrency ATMs throughout the city.
Therefore, with a crypto-friendly mayor like Emanuel, Chicago could very well become a global leader in fintech, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology. | politics |
https://mittikerang.medium.com/citizen-engagement-in-democracy-b7ff00f61759?source=post_page-----b7ff00f61759-------------------------------- | 2021-04-16T03:39:01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038088471.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20210416012946-20210416042946-00319.warc.gz | 0.952267 | 615 | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-17__0__246154192 | en | “WE, the people… adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this constitution”; the opening and last sentences of the preamble to the constitution signifies the power is ultimately vested in the hands of the citizens. The Government of the people, for the people and by the people declares that India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic and a welfare state. India, being the most populous democracy in the world knows the importance of citizen engagement, after all, it’s democratic. Citizen engagement is a fundamental principle of democracy. It means that at every step citizens are informed, consulted, involved, collaborated, and eventually empowered. The motive is to involve all those stakeholders in the decision making process who are going to be affected by it. It is not just about involving, but rather promising the public that their contribution will influence the decision.
Citizen Engagement is not an exclusive concept. It has been exercised in varied magnitude across the globe. It is a public consultation by enabling citizens to do more than simply vocalize an opinion — it includes their participation in the deliberation process leading to decisions. It emphasizes educating the decision-makers i.e. parliament and government about important social issues and the urgent needs of the public that must be addressed. Public participation aggrandizes citizen ownership of development processes. It also accrues the sense of citizenship and results in better implementation of development programs. The citizens collaborate from formulation to implementation of the programs and they reserve the right to reject or modify the program design even at a later stage of the program ideally.
The Government is elected by the people; hence it is responsible and liable to the people and to fulfill its responsibility the Government actively engages with the citizens while making the policies that ultimately impact them. However the public participation was very minimal earlier but after the 73rd Amendment Act, the rural public’s participation at the local level was significantly increased. To state a few examples of the recent past, the new education policy, the EIA drafts, and many such policies were open to the citizens, to read, condemn, and propose changes.
The citizens are no more just beneficiaries of government schemes or the customers of public-private partnerships. Furthermore, the concept of citizenship provides social rights, social responsibilities, and social accountability. There is now unison that citizen engagement is the building block for democratic governance because it improves the political position of marginalized or vulnerable groups, such as women, youth, and minorities that are often not taken into contemplation.
Contributed by Aakanksha Soni content writer at Mitti Ke Rang
At Mitti Ke Rang, we started with a COVID-19 community support fundraising, as an emergency response to provide a safety net to families. This will help them survive in the lockdown period. We aim to directly support these families by providing a minimum wage, through transferring the same into their accounts or partner with local NGO, Organisation, Fellow, or a Volunteer, and support them with groceries.
You can donate at:
Our Social Media: | politics |
https://intelli.game/hard-writing-about-games/ | 2023-10-04T23:55:49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511424.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20231004220037-20231005010037-00295.warc.gz | 0.958068 | 1,346 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__6233339 | en | Personally, I’m struggling to find relevancy for any of this right now. But I’m still doing it.
Each time a traumatic news event happens, I have to remind myself of why I write about video games. They feel…not that important in the grand scheme of things.
On November 8th the United States of America elected Donald Trump to be its next president. As of the writing of this piece, nearly 60 million people voted for Trump to take office (59,937,338), dominantly spread around the middle of the country. Clinton took a bit over 60 million votes (60,274,970), but lacked enough electoral college votes to secure the job. My political leanings are no secret, and neither is my experience in America as a black man. From both of those perspectives, November 8th’s decision was a disappointment.
Regardless of which candidate made it into office, the results of the election would have disappointed 60+ million people; not just the people who voted for the other party, but third-party and write-in voters as well. And 90+ million eligible voters didn’t vote for any number of reasons: disinterest, disillusionment, lack of access, voter suppression, the list goes on. It’s hard for me to look at an outcome like this and not see something as inherently broken regardless of who gets elected.
That isn’t to say that I feel these particular results are the same as any other possible election result. Given, there would still be the potential for violence: let’s not forget that we had Congressmen saying they would “grab their muskets” and militias preparing for action if their candidate lost… but I don’t know how many post-election days have looked like this.
Many people in my communities are reeling from the potential impact of losing insurance, healthcare coverage, or even recognition of their relationships or selves. This isn’t about a collapse of “safe spaces” or a lack of “trigger warnings;” it’s feeling unsafe in public spaces, fearing direct antagonism or physical violence. After my own incident on public transportation recently, I find myself opting out of public transportation far more frequently when possible.
With actors in the immediate world becoming more and more violent, with angry protests in cities across the nation (with ones in Portland, OR declared riots), and with social media becoming a circling pool of intolerance on both sides, it’s hard to write about games right now. It’s hard to feel that games are important right now.
I spend a lot of time trying to convince others that games are important. I try to write about games that challenge people’s notions of what the medium is capable of. I streamed for 25 hours this past weekend, trying to showcase people and games that highlight the kinds of feelings, strategies, and stories games are capable of. Hell, I hosted a panel at a game festival in St. Louis titled “Games: What’s the Point?” And even after hearing people about how games and their communities opened them up to a world of new experiences, I just feel…well, I don’t know. Like I still don’t know the point of much of any of it.
Being a game critic is neither lucrative nor prestigious. It’s not altruistic; I’m not protecting lives or upholding civil rights with my essays. In the grand scheme of things, most people don’t even know the subjects I’m talking about…I’ve watched many a friend’s eyes glaze over as I start in on rants about the latest game and its lackluster plot. I stumble at running this site frequently, and the anxiety I feel from missing deadlines or follow-ups bleeds into my social life, affects my sleep. I always feel like I could be working on another article.
I think about giving up a lot. A whole lot. Probably more than I should. And with each new antagonistic event, the appeal gets a little stronger.
All this is to say it’s hard to write about games right now. But something being hard isn’t a good excuse for not doing anything.
To pretend that life in America isn’t fundamentally different on November 9th, 2016 and forward is to ignore reality. And that fundamental difference makes it really hard to write about games right now. This is precisely why I’m going to write about games even more now.
On November 9th, the first message I awoke to on my phone was from my sister to my family’s group chat: “I love you guys more than anything and I hope you all have a good day.” My father’s response: “You too, Honey. Be safe.”
This fear is in my family, in many minority communities across the board: black, immigrant, LGBT+, Muslim, and more… it’s not just a fear of policy, of what will happen on Capitol Hill, but a fear of what will happen right in our own towns and cities, on our buses, in our streets, at our homes. This fear is founded, and far too many of us already know someone who’s been harassed or attacked personally if we haven’t ourselves.
But games raised $2,350 for a children’s hospital here in Portland. Games created conversations where strangers talked to each other about dealing with relatives with Alzheimer’s. Games opened spaces for people to discuss race, sexuality, religion, and share those experiences with the world. Games gave us communities to stand in, jokes to share. Games gave us an excuse to walk in the world around us and meet new friends while catching digital monsters.
Talking about games is hard right now. Still, regardless of what’s going on around them, games are important. They’re important because of the lives they affect, and that won’t change regardless of what happens in politics. Talking games alone isn’t enough…I want to do more outreach to help the creative community grow in underserved areas, and I want to focus more on connecting with friends and family. I want to create light for people to look to. My hope is that if we all focus more on creating light, regardless of where we sit on the political spectrum, the world will look like a brighter place for everyone. | politics |
http://www.tomatilla.com/2005/07/london/ | 2023-10-02T07:36:27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510983.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002064957-20231002094957-00416.warc.gz | 0.980447 | 1,038 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__123831430 | en | Everything happens when I go on vacation…
Fortunately, my family in London are fine. Better than the last major bombing in London when the IRA went after Harrods and my brother got knocked off his feet on his way home from work (but wasn’t seriously hurt).
I have lived in three cities in my life. Bristol for University which almost doesn’t count as a city but for which I retain a great fondness. San Francisco (or environs) for the past sixteen years, which I love. And London where I lived for six years or so off the Archway Road and in Highgate and near which I grew up. In many ways London is still home. And last week was horrifying, saddening and totally pointless. If I had to pick one city in the whole world which could let an event like this bounce off it with no effect, it would be London. People are rightly bringing up the Second World War and London’s resiliency. It reminds me of the brilliant photograph of St Paul’s standing proud amidst explosions and clouds of smoke.
One other thing London has – a mayor who is a real person and a real politician. I wish there were politicians in the US who could talk like this (full transcript of the speech by Mayor Ken Livingstone of London on July 7th):
This was a cowardly attack, which has resulted in injury and loss of life. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been injured, or lost loved ones. I want to thank the emergency services for the way they have responded.
Following the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11th in America we conducted a series of exercises in London in order to be prepared for just such an attack. One of the exercises undertaken by the government, my office and the emergency and security services was based on the possibility of multiple explosions on the transport system during the Friday rush hour. The plan that came out of that exercise is being executed today, with remarkable efficiency and courage, and I praise those staff who are involved.
I’d like to thank Londoners for the calm way in which they have responded to this cowardly attack and echo the advice of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair – do everything possible to assist the police and take the advice of the police about getting home today.
I have no doubt whatsoever that this is a terrorist attack. We did hope in the first few minutes after hearing about the events on the Underground that it might simply be a maintenance tragedy. That was not the case. I have been able to stay in touch through the very excellent communications that were established for the eventuality that I might be out of the city at the time of a terrorist attack and they have worked with remarkable effectiveness. I will be in continual contact until I am back in London.
I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.
That isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith – it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I’m proud to be the mayor of that city.
Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.
I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others – that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.
In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.
They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don’t want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail. | politics |
https://www.renewcell.com/en/minister-for-the-environment-karolina-skog-visits-renewcell/ | 2023-12-08T13:01:08 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100745.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20231208112926-20231208142926-00146.warc.gz | 0.959484 | 145 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__247955620 | en | “Sweden should become a world leader in sustainable textiles, and re:newcell is helping us achieve that goal” was the message from the Minister as she visited the re:newcell demonstration plant in Kristinehamn, Sweden. The Minister was given a guided tour of the one-of-a-kind facility designed to produce 7 000 tons of high quality biodegradable re:newcell pulp from textile waste annually.
The Swedish government has made the transition to a circular fashion system a priority. “If the fashion industry is to make the necessary change to sustainable production, we need new solutions. This will require cooperation between businesses, government and the academy” said the Minister. | politics |
https://www.berwynheightsmd.gov/charter-and-ordinances/pages/town-charter | 2021-09-28T15:46:46 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780060877.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20210928153533-20210928183533-00500.warc.gz | 0.933378 | 10,788 | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-39__0__64347330 | en | Chapter I. The Corporate Body
Chapter II. Corporate Limit
Chapter III. The Council
Chapter IV. Powers Of The Council
Chapter V. Registration, Nomination, Election
Chapter VI. Finance
Chapter VII. Personnel
Chapter VIII. Public Ways And Storm Drainage
Chapter IX. Town Property
Chapter X. General Provisions
Section 101. Corporate Body Defined
The residents of Berwyn Heights, Prince George's County, Maryland, within the Corporate limits legally established are hereby constituted and continued a body corporate by the name of "Town of Berwyn Heights" with all the privileges of such, by that name to sue and be sued, to plead and be pleaded in any court of law or equity, to have and use a common seal, and to have perpetual succession, unless the charter and the corporate existence are legally terminated.
Section 201. Corporate Limits - Record Requirements
The courses and distances showing the exact corporate limits of the Town shall be filed at all times with the Secretary of State, Hall of Records, State Library, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, the Commissioner of the Land Office, the Department of Legislative Reference and the Town Manager. The file or record of all such descriptions shall be in a suitable place, properly indexed and reasonably available for public inspection.
Section 202. Public Use*
The public rights-of-way, recreation and community property under the jurisdiction of the Town Council are dedicated to public use.
Section 301. Number, Selection, Term
All legislative powers of the Town shall be vested in a Council consisting of five council members who shall be elected as hereinafter provided. Council members shall hold office for a term of two years beginning with the first public Town Meeting following the election. This meeting shall not be held prior to the certification of the election results by the Judges of Elections.
Section 302. Qualifications and Eligibility
Candidates for Council shall have resided in the Town for at least six months immediately preceding the election, shall have attained the age of twenty-one years prior to election, shall be registered voters at the time of nomination, and must continuously reside in the Town during the term of office. No council member shall, while in office, hold any other paid office or position in the service of the Town or any other municipality in the State.
Section 303. Compensation
Each Council member shall receive an equal annual compensation which shall be as specified by ordinance passed by the Council. Compensation specified shall take effect with the next succeeding Council.
Section 304. Meetings
The Council shall meet prior to the first public Town Meeting following election for the purpose of organization. Thereafter the Council shall meet at such times as determined by the Council but not less frequently than once a month. All meetings shall be open to the public and must provide residents of the Town a reasonable opportunity to be heard in regard to any municipal matter. Special meetings shall be called at the request of the Mayor or a majority of the Council. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to prevent the Council from holding an executive session. No ordinance, resolution, rule, regulation or motion shall be adopted at such an executive session. When the Council is faced with a matter the revelation of which would invade the rights of the individual on private matters or similar situations the public would not be permitted to attend.
Section 305. Disqualification
The Council shall be the judge of the qualifications of its members and the grounds for disqualification. Any member who fails to meet any qualification for office prescribed by the Charter, violates any provision of this Charter, is convicted of a felony, or fails to attend Council meetings for three consecutive months without being excused by the Council shall be disqualified. Decisions made by the Council under this section may be subject to court review.
Section 306. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tempore
The Council candidate receiving the highest number of votes in the election shall be the Mayor of the Town of Berwyn Heights. The candidate with the second highest vote shall be the Mayor Pro Tempore. In the event of a tie vote, a runoff election shall be held in accordance with Section 506.
Section 306.1. Mayor
The Mayor shall be recognized as head of the Town government. The Mayor shall preside at all meetings of the Council, shall exercise such other powers and perform such other duties as are conferred by this Charter or Ordinances, and shall in all other respects be an equal member of the Council.
Section 306.2. Mayor Pro Tempore
The Mayor Pro Tempore shall assume all or a part of Mayoral duties and responsibilities, as authorized herein, during the absence of the Mayor. The Mayor is absent when:
- the Mayor notifies the Council that he or she will be absent or is unable to perform all or a part of the duties of the Mayor; or
- the Mayor is unwilling to sign legislation duly adopted by the Council or those documents necessary to give effect to said legislation; or
- a supermajority of the Council determines by a public vote that the Mayor has failed to perform all or a part of the duties of the office.
In the event the Office of Mayor shall become vacant, the Mayor Pro Tempore shall become Mayor.
Section 307. Quorum
A majority of the Members of the Council shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. No Charter change or ordinance shall be approved without the favorable vote of a majority of the Council.
Section 308. Procedure of Council
The Council shall determine its own rules and order of business. Minutes of all public proceedings shall be recorded and all votes of the members shall be entered therein. The minutes shall be open to public inspection.
Section 309. Vacancies
A. In the event of a vacancy on the Council, the remaining members shall appoint a qualified person, in accordance with Section 302, to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term. If the Council fails to appoint a successor within forty-five days or if more than one vacancy occurs, the Board of Election Supervisors shall call a special election to fill such vacancy. Such special election shall be held not sooner than forty-five days and not later than sixty days following the occurrence of the first vacancy.
B. In the event that three or more members of the Council are no longer active the remaining member(s) of the Council shall appeal to the District Court or Circuit Court to appoint a Town Manager to take charge of the Town Government and provide the continuing of usual services and call for an election in accordance with the provisions of this Charter and the Election Laws of Maryland.
C. In the event there are no active members remaining on the Council, five concerned citizens qualified to vote may proceed as outlined in B. above.
Section 310. Recall
Upon receipt of a legal petition signed by not less than twenty-five percent of the registered voters of the Town requesting the recall of a Council member for specific failure to properly perform the duties of the office, the Council shall call a special election within ninety days providing for vote for or against the recall. In the event the majority of the voters vote for the recall, the office shall be declared vacant and the remaining Council members shall appoint a qualified person (in accordance with Section 302) to fill the office for the unexpired term.
Section 311. Ordinances
No ordinance shall be passed at the meeting at which it is introduced unless it is declared to be an emergency ordinance. A favorable vote by a majority of the Council is required to pass any ordinance. Prior to enactment, a copy or summary of each ordinance shall be published and circulated in the Town. Ordinances shall be permanently filed by the Town Manager and shall be made available for public inspection.
Section 311.1. Emergency Ordinances
Emergency ordinances shall become effective immediately upon passage. Such ordinances shall be of limited duration as specified therein but not to exceed ninety days.
Section 311.2. Referendum
Ordinances, except emergency ordinances, shall become effective at the expiration of twenty calendar days following passage. If, before the expiration of twenty days, a legal petition is filed with the Town Manager containing the signatures of not less than twenty percent of the registered voters of the Town and requesting that the ordinance or any part thereof be submitted to the registered voters for their approval or disapproval, the Council shall do so at the next regular Town election, or at their discretion, at a special election. Such ordinance shall be held in abeyance until approved by the voters.
Section 401. General Powers
The Council shall have the power to pass all or any such ordinances not contrary to the Constitution and Laws of the State of Maryland, Prince George's County, or this Charter, as it may deem necessary for the good government of the Town; for the protection and preservation of the Town's property, rights and privileges; for the preservation of peace and good order; for securing persons and property from violence, danger, or destruction; and for the protection of the health, safety, comfort, convenience, and welfare of the residents of the Town and visitors thereto and sojourners therein.
Section 402. Specific Powers
The Council shall also have the power to pass ordinances, not contrary to the Constitution and Laws of the State or County, for the following purposes:
To create, change or abolish offices and departments and assign personnel and functions to such offices and departments. To provide for advertising for purposes of the Town and for printing and publishing materials relative to the affairs of the Town. To provide for codification of all ordinances which have been or may hereafter be passed.
To regulate or prohibit the keeping or running at large of dogs or other animals; to authorize the impounding, keeping, sale and redemption of such animals; to place constraints on dogs and cats in the Town; and to provide for the disposition of homeless dogs and cats or dogs on which no license fee has been paid.
C. Billboards and Signs
To license, regulate or prohibit the erection or maintenance of billboards or the placing of signs, bills or posters of every kind on any building, fence, pole or other place in the Town.
To make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings to be erected, constructed, or modified in the Town and to grant Building Permits for the same; to formulate a building code and to provide for inspections and enforcement of such code; to require reasonable charges for permits and inspections of all buildings and structures. To require the condemnation in whole or in part of buildings in violation of the code and to require that such buildings be made safe or taken down.
E. Community Services
To provide, maintain and operate community and social services for the preservation and promotion of the health, recreation, welfare and enlightenment of the inhabitants of the Town.
F. Cooperative Activities
To make agreements with other Municipalities, Counties, Districts, Bureaus, Commissions, and Governmental Authorities for participation or cooperation in any Governmental or Public functions. To accept on behalf of the Town gifts or grants of Federal, State or County funds from such governments or any agency thereof, and to expend same for any lawful purpose in accordance with the conditions under which the gifts or grants were made.
G. Dangerous Conditions
To compel persons about to undertake improvements of a dangerous nature to execute bonds with sufficient sureties conditioned that the owner or contractor will pay all damages resulting from such work which may be sustained by any person or property.
To have general management of the finances of the Town; to levy and collect municipal taxes permitted by the State; to provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made against property within the Town shall be liens upon such property; to appropriate Municipal funds for any purpose within the powers of the Council; to borrow money in accordance with the provisions of this Charter.
To suppress fire hazards and prevent the dangers thereof; to contribute funds to volunteer fire companies serving the Town; to inspect buildings and any combustible materials for the purpose of reducing fire hazards; to issue regulations to prohibit the use of fire-hazardous buildings or materials; to regulate or prevent the use or storage of gunpowder, gasoline or any other explosive or combustible material.
To grant and regulate franchises to public utilities or others conducting business within the Town, subject to the limitations and provisions of the Annotated Code of Maryland. No franchise shall be granted for a period longer than fifty years.
To regulate, inspect and abate any buildings, drains or places which cause or may cause unsanitary conditions or conditions detrimental to health and to compel the owner or occupant of any filthy or unwholesome premises to abate the condition. The exercise of these powers shall not conflict in any manner with the powers and duties of the State Board of Health or the Health Officer of Prince George's County.
Subject to any restrictions imposed by the General Laws of the State and County and Regional Commissions, to regulate all persons or businesses beginning or conducting transient or permanent businesses in the Town, to regulate or prohibit public amusements when in the interest of public welfare. To regulate or prohibit the solicitation of funds; and to establish and collect fees and charges for all permits issued under the authority of this Charter.
To prevent or abate all nuisances in the Town which may be so defined by the Laws of the State or County, or by Ordinance of the Town.
N. Parks and Recreation
To establish and maintain public parks, gardens, playgrounds, and other recreational facilities and programs to promote the health, welfare and enjoyment of the residents of the Town.
To regulate, control or prohibit the pollution of the air, waters or land in any manner whatsoever detrimental to the public health, or welfare within the limits of the Town whether the source be within or without the Town.
To prevent the deposit of any unwholesome or objectionable substance such as garbage, refuse, or other waste either on private or public property, and to compel its removal to designated points. To require, regulate or provide for the collection, removal and disposal of refuse or any other matter that is or may become injurious to the health of or comfort of the residents of the Town. To make reasonable charges for the removal or disposition of refuse other than household garbage.
To exercise the powers as to planning and zoning conferred upon municipalities generally by the Annotated Code of Maryland subject to the limitations and provisions thereof.
Section 402.1. Saving Clause
The enumeration of powers in Section 402 is not to be construed as limiting the powers of the Council to the subjects mentioned.
Section 403. Enforcement
A. To ensure the observance of the Ordinances of the Town, the Council shall have the power to prosecute violations thereof. Where the violation is of a continuing nature and is persisted in, the conviction for one violation shall not be a bar to a conviction for a continuation of the offense subsequent to the first or any succeeding conviction. Any person subject to any penalty for violation of any ordinance passed under the authority of this Charter shall have the right of appeal within thirty days to a court of competent jurisdiction.
1) The Council may provide that violations of any municipal ordinance shall be a municipal infraction unless that violation is declared to be a felony or misdemeanor by the laws of the State or other ordinance. For purposes of this article a municipal infraction is a civil offense.
2) A fine may be imposed for each conviction of a municipal infraction. The fine is payable by the offender to the municipality within 20 calendar days of receipt of a citation. Repeat offenders may be assessed a fine for each repeat offense, and each day a violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
3) Any person receiving a citation for an infraction may elect to stand trial for the offense by notifying the Town in writing of this intention at least five days prior to the date set for payment of the fine. Failure to pay the fine or to give notice of intent to stand trial may result in an additional fine or adjudication by a court of competent jurisdiction.
4) Adjudication of a municipal infraction is not a criminal conviction for any purpose, nor does it impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily imposed by a criminal conviction.
Section 501. Voters
Every person who is a citizen of the United States, is at least 18 years of age at the time of the election, has resided within the Corporate Limits of the Town for thirty days immediately preceding any Town election, and is registered in accordance with the provisions of this Charter or the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 33, is a qualified voter and is entitled to vote at all Town elections.
Section 502. Supervisors of Elections
There shall be a Board of Supervisors of Elections consisting of three Judges of Elections and two Clerks who shall be appointed by the Council in February of each election year to serve for a term of two years.
Section 502.1. Qualifications
Members of the Board shall be qualified voters of the Town and not hold or be candidates for any elective office during their term of office. Immediate family members of Council members or Candidates for Council are also disqualified.
Section 502.2. Vacancies
Vacancies on the Board shall be filled by the Council for the remainder of the unexpired term.
Section 502.3. Compensation
Compensation of the Members of the Board shall be determined by the Council.
Section 502.4. Removal
Any member of the Board may be removed for good cause by the Council if in the judgment of the Council the member is not properly performing or will not properly perform the duties of the position. Before removal, the member shall be given a written copy of the charges against him and, shall have a hearing on them before the Council if request is made within ten days after receiving the written copy of the charges.
Section 502.5. Duties
The Board shall exercise general supervision of Town elections and voter registration. The Board shall give at least two weeks notice of every election by an advertisement in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the Town and by posting a motion thereof in at least three public places in the Town.
Section 503. Voter Registration
Supplemental Town voter registration shall be held at any time during normal Town Office hours and also between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on the last Monday of March of election year. At those times the Town Clerk or others so authorized by the Council shall accept applications for registration. Application shall be in writing in such form as the Council shall prescribe and shall be submitted under oath or affirmation. Registration shall be closed thirty days prior to election.
Section 503.1. Validation
Voter registration is complete upon validation by the Judges of Elections. Applicants refused registration shall be notified in writing.
Section 503.2. Registration Records
No person shall be entitled to vote in Town Elections unless registered at the County or Town. The Judges of Elections shall cause the name of any person who has died, terminated residence in the Town, has failed to vote in the previous three Town elections, or who has otherwise become disqualified, to be stricken from the Town supplemental registration records. A notice of this action and the reason therefor shall be sent to the last known address of the voter notifying him of the Action as may be legally or reasonably applicable under this section. The records shall be revised by the Judges of Elections after the close of registration prior to the Town election. A list of all registered Town voters shall be prepared by the Judges of Election as requested by the Council. All old registration books or forms shall be retained for a period of at least sixty years.
Section 503.3. Appeal
If any person shall feel aggrieved by the action of the Board of Supervisors of Elections in refusing to register or in striking off the name of a person, or by any other action, such person may appeal to the Council. Any decision or action of the Council upon such appeals may be appealed to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County within thirty days of the decision or action of the Council.
Section 504. Nomination for Council
Persons qualified for membership on the Council shall be nominated by filing a certificate of nomination at the Town Office before the close of business on the first Tuesday in March preceding the Town Election. Certificates of nomination shall be in the form prescribed by the Council and shall include the signatures of five registered voters residing in the town indicating their support of the nomination of the candidate.
Section 505. Elections
On the first Tuesday in May of every even numbered year the qualified voters of the Town shall elect, at large, five persons to the Council to serve for terms of two years. Elections shall be on a non-partisan basis.
Section 505.1. Conduct of Elections
For each General or Special Election the Council shall provide a suitable place for voting and suitable ballots or voting machines in the manner prescribed by Maryland Registration and Election Laws.
Section 505.2. Election Hours
The Board of Supervisors of Elections shall keep the polls open on Election Day from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Section 505.3. Vote Count
Immediately after the closing of the polls, the ballots shall be publicly counted and the Judges of Elections shall, within forty-eight hours, certify the results of the election to the Mayor, who shall have the results recorded in the Minutes of the Council. The five candidates for Council with the highest number of votes shall be declared elected to the Council. In the event of the claim of Fraud of the election, the Council shall call for a recount of the ballots.
Section 505.4. Preservation of Ballots
All ballots used in any Town Election shall be preserved for at least six months from the date of election.
Section 506. Run-off Elections
If under the provisions of this Charter, one or more Council seats or the positions of Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tempore remain unfilled after the election because of an equal number of votes being received by two or more candidates, a second election shall be held among those candidates for the Council Seat or seats remaining unfilled. Such election shall be held no later than the second Tuesday of June and shall in all respects be in accordance with the election provisions of this Charter.
Section 507. Special Elections
All special Town Elections shall be conducted by the Board of Supervisors of Elections in the same manner as regular Town Elections.
Section 508. Failure to Proclaim Election
In the event the Council fails to proclaim an election at the time appointed or neglects to do any needful thing to ensure the holding of a legal election to elect their successors, the Circuit Court of Prince George's County shall, upon the petition of five voters of the Town, appoint five town residents to conduct an election on a date to be fixed by the Court in the manner provided for in this Charter.
Section 509. Regulation and Control
The Council shall have the power to provide by ordinance for any procedure in the elective process not otherwise covered by the provisions of this Charter.
Section 510. Emergency Actions
When a State of Emergency has been declared for the Town by the Mayor and Council, or by the State of Maryland or Prince George's County, pursuant to State or local law, and in the judgment of the Mayor and Council the State of Emergency prevents the safe, orderly and efficient conduct of a Town election, the Mayor and Council may, by resolution, postpone an election until such time as the election may be conducted in a safe, orderly and efficient manner and make necessary changes to the method, conduct, or voting system of an election to ensure an accurate vote count and certification of the election results.
Section 601. Fiscal Year
The Town shall operate on an annual budget. The fiscal year of the Town shall begin on the first day of July and end on the last day of June in each year. Such fiscal year shall constitute the budget year and the accounting year.
Section 602. Budget
The proposed annual budget shall be presented at a regular public meeting of the Council in April of each year for the purpose of a Public Hearing. Prior to or at the Public Hearing, the proposed budget, together with the current year's budget as adjusted, shall be distributed to Town residents. Before adoption of the budget, the Council may adjust items and sums but must retain a balance between proposed expenditures and anticipated revenues. The budget shall be adopted at a regular public meeting of the Council in May. Adoption requires a favorable vote of a majority of the Council.
Section 602.1. Appropriations
No public money may be expended without having been appropriated by the Council. The amounts stated in the adopted budget as proposed expenditures shall be appropriated to the several objects and purposes named therein. Any transfer of money appropriated for different purposes must be approved by a majority of the Council.
Section 602.2 Over-Expenditure Prohibited
During any budget year, no officer or employee shall expend or contract to expend any money or incur any liability or enter into any contract which by its terms involves the expenditure of money for any purposes in excess of the amounts appropriated for or transferred to that general classification of expenditure. Any contract, verbal or written, made in violation of this section shall be null and void. Nothing in this section shall prevent the making of contracts or the spending of money for capital improvements to be financed in whole or in part by the issuance of bonds, nor the making of contracts of leases, purchases or for services for a period exceeding the budget year in which such contract is made.
Section 602.3. Capital Equipment and Outlay
All capital equipment included in the proposed annual budget shall be identified as a separate line item under the appropriate Town Department requiring it.
Section 602.4. Appropriations Lapse
All appropriations not spent or encumbered shall lapse at the end of the budget year and shall be included among the anticipated revenues for the succeeding budget year.
Section 603. Checks
All checks issued in payment of salaries or other municipal obligations shall be issued and signed by the Town Manager and shall be countersigned by at least one member of the Council. In the absence of the Town Manager checks shall be signed by three Councilmembers.
Section 604. Taxes
A. All real property, franchises, and all personal property within the Corporate limits of the Town shall be subject to taxation for Municipal purposes as permitted by State Laws. Exempted from taxation are household furniture and effects held for household use and not held or employed for the purposes of profit or in connection with any business, profession or occupation. The assessment used for municipal taxation shall be the same as that for State and County taxes. No authority is given to impose taxes on any property which is exempt from taxation by any Act of General Assembly.
B. From the effective date of the budget, the amount stated therein as the amount to be raised by the property tax shall constitute a determination of the amount of the tax levy in the corresponding tax year.
C. The Council shall have authority to levy taxes annually upon all property and franchises within the Town. Such taxes shall be levied at rates necessary to meet the anticipated expenses for the next fiscal year. The rate of taxation shall be determined at the regular public meeting in May of each year. (Res. 10-83; 12-14-83)
Section 604.1. Notice of Tax Levy
A. The Town Manager shall contract with the County Treasurer to make out and mail or deliver in person to each taxpayer or his agent at his last known address, a bill or account of the taxes due. This bill or account shall contain a statement of the assessed valuation of property, the rate of taxation, amount of taxes due, and the date on which taxes will bear interest. Failure to receive any tax notice required by this section shall not relieve any taxpayer of the responsibility to pay all taxes levied on his property.
B. The taxes provided herein shall be due and payable on the first day of July in the year for which they are levied and shall be overdue and in arrears on the first day of the following October. While in arrears they shall bear interest at the rate of two-thirds of one percent and penalties at the rate of one percent for each month or fraction thereof until paid. All taxes not paid and in arrears after the first day of the following January shall be collected as provided for in Section 604.1.C below.
C. A list of all property on which the Town taxes are not paid and are in arrears after the first day of January shall be turned over to the Official of Prince George's County responsible for the sale of tax delinquent property. All property listed thereon shall, if necessary, be sold for taxes in the manner prescribed by State Law.
Section 605. Fees
All fees, fines and other funds received by any official or employee of the Town in his official capacity shall belong to the Town and be accounted for by the Town Manager.
Section 606. Audit
The financial books and accounts of the Town shall be audited annually as required by the Annotated Code of Maryland. Financial records and the audit reports shall be made available for inspection upon written request by any resident of the Town in the manner prescribed by State Law.
Section 607. Tax-anticipation Borrowing
The Town shall have the power to borrow in anticipation of the collection of property taxes, and to issue tax anticipation notes or other evidence of indebtedness therefor. Such notes or evidence of indebtedness shall be a first lien upon the proceeds of such tax and shall mature and be paid not later than six months after issued. Total tax anticipation indebtedness of the Town shall not exceed fifty percent of the property tax levy for the fiscal year in which issued. The Council shall have authority to regulate all matters concerning the issuance and sale of tax anticipation notes.
Section 607.1. General Obligation Borrowings*
A. The Town shall have the power to borrow money for any proper public purpose and to evidence such borrowing by the issuance and sale of its general obligation bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness in the manner prescribed in this Section.
B. All general obligation bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness issued under the provisions of this Section shall be authorized by an ordinance that shall contain: (1) a statement of the maximum aggregate principal amount of such obligations to be issued; (2) a statement of the purpose or purposes for which the proceeds of such obligations are to be expended; (3) a pledge of the security for such obligations and, if applicable, a statement that such obligations shall be payable in the first instance from a specified source of revenue or provisions for the making of such statement by resolution; and (4) a requirement that, subject to subsection (d) below, prior to the issuance of any such obligations, the Council shall adopt a resolution in accordance with the provisions of subsection (c) below. Any such ordinance shall be subject to petition to referendum in accordance with Section 311.2 of this Charter.
C. Prior to issuing any such obligations identified in subsection (b) above, the Council shall adopt a resolution containing, determining or providing for the determination of, or approving or providing for the approval of: (1) the designation, date of issue, denomination or denominations, form or forms and tenor of such obligations; (2) the rate or rates of interest payable on such obligations (which may be fixed or variable or may be determined by a method approved or provided for); (3) the date or dates and amount or amounts of maturity, which may be in any denomination; (4) the manner of selling such obligations, which may be either at public sale after publication or dissemination of the notice of sale or by private (negotiated) sale without advertisement or solicitation of competitive bids; (5) the price or prices of such obligations, which may be at, above or below par value; (6) any desired provisions relating to the redemption of such obligations prior to maturity (which may be at, above or below par value), and the manner of publishing or otherwise giving notice of such redemption; (7) the manner of executing and sealing such obligations, which may be by facsimile; (8) any documents pursuant to which such obligations are to be issued or secured, including, without limitation, agreements with banks, fiduciaries, insurers or others for the purpose of enhancing the marketability of or as security for such obligations and for securing any tender option granted to the holders thereof; and (9) such other provisions regarding the terms, conditions, issuance, sale, delivery and security of and for such obligations as the Council may determine necessary or desirable, including, without limitation, whether such obligations shall be sold for cash or other valuable consideration or further specifying the purposes for which such obligations are to be expended (within the limitations set forth in the applicable ordinance). By resolution the Council may delegate to a specified official or officials the authority to approve any matters or make any determinations contemplated by this subsection (c). A resolution adopted pursuant to this subsection (c) may be introduced and adopted at a single session of the Council, may not be petitioned to referendum and shall become effective immediately upon adoption or upon the date specified in such resolution, notwithstanding the provisions of any other Section of this Charter.
D. The Council may, at its option, determine or provide for the determination of, or approve or provide for the approval of, any of the matters referenced in subsection (c) above by ordinance instead of by resolution, which ordinance shall be subject to petition to referendum in accordance with Section 311.2 of this Charter.
E. In connection with any sale of general obligation bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness by the solicitation of competitive bids at public sale, any such competitive bids may be delivered by electronic and/or facsimile means and/or by any other then-commercially reasonable manner for the sale of municipal obligations at competitive bid; and any notice of sale may be published solely in summary form in a newspaper of general circulation in the Town and/or in a generally recognized financial journal such as The Bond Buyer, or any notice of sale may be disseminated solely in electronic form and/or by any other then-commercially reasonable manner for the sale of municipal obligations, as determined by the Council in accordance with subsection (c) or subsection (d) above, as applicable.
F. The power conferred on the Town under this Section shall be deemed to be additional and supplemental to any other general obligation borrowing authority granted to the Town by Maryland public general or public local law, and the Town may authorize, issue and secure any such general obligation debt in conformity with this Charter and/or any other applicable law.
G. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to any tax anticipation borrowing incurred in accordance with Section 607 of this Charter.
H. All general obligation bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness validly issued by the Town previous to the effective date of this Charter, as amended, and all ordinances and resolutions passed concerning them, are hereby declared to be valid, legal and binding and of full force and effect as if herein fully set forth.
Section 608. Payment of Indebtedness
The power and obligation of the Town to pay any and all bonds, notes or other evidence of indebtedness issued by it under the authority of this Charter shall be unlimited and the Town shall levy taxes upon all the taxable property of the Town for payment thereof and interest thereon. The faith and credit of the Town is hereby pledged for the payment of the principal and interest on all legal evidence of indebtedness issued under the authority of this Charter, whether or not such pledge be stated in such evidences of indebtedness in the Council action authorizing their issuance.
Section 608.1. Previous Issues
All bonds, notes, or evidence of indebtedness issued by the Town previous to the effective date of this Charter, and all ordinances concerning them, are hereby declared to be valid, legal, and binding as in herein fully set forth.
Section 609. Purchases
All expenditures for equipment, public improvements, or contractual services involving more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) shall be made through solicitation of at least three competitive bids and obtaining a written contract. All such contracts shall be approved by the Council at a Public Meeting before becoming effective.
Section 609.1. Negotiated Contracts
A. The Mayor is authorized to negotiate a purchase or contract without regard to the formal advertising and bidding procedures required by Sections 609 and 806 of this Charter under the following circumstances:
1) In the event of any emergency situation, and with the consent of the Town Council, in which the immediate procurement of supplies, contractual services or capital improvements is required to preserve the public order and to protect the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of the Town. Any contract or purchase negotiated under the provisions of this subsection must be approved by the Town Council before being signed or executed by the Mayor.
2) When proprietary articles are involved or when only one source of supply is available.
3) When competition is precluded because of the existence of patent rights, copyrights, secret processes, control of basic raw material or similar circumstances.
4) When bids have been solicited pursuant to the requirements of formal advertising in Sections 609 and Section 806 and no responsive bid was received from a responsible bidder.
B. Authority to negotiate does not excuse compliance with the basic policy of obtaining maximum competition consistent with the needs of the occasion, to the end that all purchases will be made to the best advantage of the Town, price and other factors considered. The authority to negotiate contracts in no way eliminates the need of the Mayor to exert every reasonable effort to obtain the most favorable prices possible. Bargaining shall be free from practices or actions which may cause inequities for bidders or justified criticism of the purchase policies and procedures. Each purchase or contract negotiated under this authority shall be supported by a statement signed by the Mayor justifying the use of negotiation procedures.
Section 701. Authority to Hire
The Council shall have the authority to appoint, hire or otherwise engage such persons as deemed necessary to fulfill the responsibilities and duties of the Town.
Section 702. Compensation of Employees
The Council shall determine and periodically review the compensation of all officers and employees of the Town, subject to the restrictions imposed on their own compensation.
Section 703. Employee Benefit Programs
The Council shall be authorized by ordinance to provide for or participate in hospitalization or other forms of reasonable benefit or welfare programs for its officers and employees, and to expend public funds of the Town for such purposes.
Section 704. Retirement System
The Council shall have the authority to do all things necessary to include its officers and employees, themselves excepted, within a retirement or pension system, and to pay the employer's share of the cost of such a system out of the general funds of the Town.
Section 705. Insurance and Bonding
The Council shall determine bonding and insurance requirements for its officers and employees and may expend public funds for such purposes.
Section 706. Personnel
The Council is authorized to appoint the following personnel. This in no way restricts the Council from engaging the services of other employees as deemed necessary to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the Town.
Section 706.1. Town Manager*
The Council shall appoint a Town Manager to serve at the pleasure of the Council. The Town Manager shall, under the supervision of the Council, be the financial and administrative officer of the Town. Duties and responsibilities of the Administrator may be as specified by Ordinance.
Section 706.2. Town Attorney
The Council shall appoint a Town Attorney who shall be a member of the Bar of the Maryland Court of Appeals. He shall serve as the legal advisor and legal representative of the Town. He shall serve at the pleasure of the Council and his compensation shall be determined by the Council. The Council shall have the authority to employ other legal consultants as it deems necessary.
Section 706.3. Code Enforcement Officer
The Council may appoint a Code Enforcement Officer who shall be responsible for enforcing the Town Codes and the Maryland livability code, and perform other related duties as may be specified by ordinance.
Section 706.4. Town Engineer
The Council may appoint a Town Engineer who shall be a registered land surveyor for the State and shall be the engineering advisor for the Town and shall perform such other related duties as may be required by the Council.
Section 706.5. Police Officers
The Council may appoint one or more Police Officers for the Town. They shall have all police powers in accordance with Federal, State and County Laws. Duties and responsibilities shall be further specified by ordinance.
Section 801. Control of Public Ways
The Town shall have control of all public ways in the Town except those under the jurisdiction of the State Highway Administration. The Town may do whatever it deems necessary to establish, operate, and maintain the public ways of the Town.
Section 802. Streets, Sidewalks, Curbs and Bridges
The Town Council shall have the power:
A. To establish or change the grade lines, placements, width and construction materials of any new or existing public way of the Town.
B. To grade, pave, repair, improve, open or close any public way of the Town or part thereof including streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters and bridges.
C. To have surveys, plans, specifications and estimates made for any of the above activities
Section 803. Consent of Property Owners
When it is determined by the Council that the cost of constructing public ways is to be paid for by special assessment, such construction shall not be authorized without the signature, consent or request of at least fifty-one percent of the front foot abutting property owners representing at least fifty-one percent of the front footage on the street or section thereof.
Section 804. Special Assessment
A. To make the improvements to the public ways under the special assessment provision, the Council is authorized to levy and collect special assessment taxes upon property for the benefits conferred thereon by such improvements. The cost of any project to be paid for in whole or in part by special assessment shall include the direct cost, land acquired for the project, interest on bonds or certificates of indebtedness, a reasonable charge for the services of Town personnel, and any other costs which may be reasonably attributed to the project.
B. The Council shall levy against each parcel of land abutting the improvement an assessment based on the assessable front footage of the property multiplied by the cost per unit foot for the entire project. When two or more sides of a parcel of land abut two or more public ways under the jurisdiction of the Town, the Council shall have the authority to adjust the assessable front footage in such amounts as may be just and equitable; however, such adjustment shall be computed at not less than fifty percent of the actual footage abutting the improvements.
C. Special assessments when made shall constitute a tax or lien upon the abutting property and shall be payable from the date of assessment. Any assessment or part thereof remaining due and unpaid shall be collected in the same manner as Town taxes are collected provided the Town serves legal notice on the property owners of such assessment.
Section 805. Certificates of Indebtedness
A. To effectuate the construction and repairs of public ways, the Council is authorized to borrow on the credit of the Town sums of money which shall not in total amount exceed ten percent of the assessed valuation of all real property in the Town. They may issue bonds or certificates of indebtedness thereof which shall be payable on or before twenty years from the date of issuance, at the most acceptable interest rate available, but not to exceed the current prime interest rate. Funds derived from the sale of such bonds or certificates of indebtedness shall be deposited in a safe banking institution in the State and shall be subject to withdrawal by check only when countersigned by at least three Council members. (Resolution 16-81; August 27, 1981)
B. The bonds or certificates of indebtedness authorized to be issued will be sold through public advertisements for bids. Notice of sale of such bonds or certificates of indebtedness shall be advertised at least once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in the Town. The advertisement shall state that the Council shall be in readiness at a specified place, time and date not less than fifteen days after final publication of the advertisement to publicly open and read the sealed bids. Provided the bids are adequate in the judgement of the Council, the bonds or certificates of indebtedness shall then be sold to the highest responsible bidder.
Section 806. Construction Bids
When construction of public ways is authorized, the Council shall invite bids for such construction by advertisement for two weeks in a newspaper having general circulation in the Town. The Council shall award the contract for such construction to the lowest responsible bidder, reserving at all times the right to reject any or all bids received. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Council may, when deemed in the public interest, upon unanimous vote of the Council, contract directly with any responsible contractor for the construction of improvements which do no exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in cost. All contractors awarded contracts shall post bond in such sum as the Council shall require for the faithful performance of the contract.
Section 807. Storm Drainage
A. The Council is authorized to plan, design, construct, maintain, and operate a system for the control and disposition of surface waters, including storm water drainage, within the limits of the Town. For such purposes the Council is authorized to condemn, obtain easements, and to negotiate and make contracts with any Public Agency including the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
B. The Council is authorized to borrow on the credit of the Town, sums of money for the purpose of paying for storm water or surface drainage improvements. Total annual expenditures to meet principal and interest payments for all such improvements shall not exceed one-half one percent of the assessed valuation of all real property in the Town unless approved by a majority of all the votes cast on a referendum submitted to the voters of the Town.
C. The Council is authorized to levy and collect an ad valorem tax upon all the assessed property of the Town sufficient to meet the annual cost of storm drainage improvements.
Section 901. Acquisition, Possession and Disposal
The Council may acquire real, personal or mixed property within or without the Corporate limits of the Town for any public purpose by purchase, gift, bequest, devise, lease, condemnation, or otherwise and may sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any property belonging to the Town. All municipal property, funds, and franchises of every kind belonging to or in possession of the Town at the time this Charter becomes effective are vested in the Town, subject to the terms and conditions thereof.
Section 902. Condemnation
The Council shall have power to condemn property of any kind, or interest therein or franchise connected therewith, in fee or as an easement, within the corporate limits of the Town, for any public purpose, any activity, project or improvement authorized by the provision of this Charter or any State Law applicable to the Town shall be deemed to be a public purpose. The manner and procedure of any condemnation proceeding shall be that established in the Annotated Code of the General Public Laws of Maryland under Eminent Domain.
Section 903. Town Buildings
The Council shall have the power to acquire, to obtain by lease or rent, to purchase, construct, and maintain all buildings and structures it deems necessary for the operation of the Town Government or for the welfare of Town residents.
Section 904. Protection and Accountability of Town Property
The Council shall have the power and responsibility to do whatever may be necessary to account for, to protect and to maintain all Town property in good condition.
Section 1001. Oath of Office
A. Before entering upon the duties of their offices, the Council, the Town Manager, the Members of the Board of Supervisors of Elections, and all other persons elected or appointed to any office of trust or profit in the Town Government shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:
"I, ____________, do swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States; and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the State of Maryland, and support the Constitution and Laws thereof; and that I will, to the best of my skill and judgment, diligently and faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, execute the Office of , according to the Constitution and Laws of this State and the Charter and Ordinances of Berwyn Heights".
B. The Council shall take this oath or affirmation before the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Prince George's County or before a sworn Deputy of the Clerk. All other persons taking the oath shall do so before the Mayor.
Section 1002. Prior Rights and Obligations
All rights, title, and interest held by the Town or any other person or corporation at the time this Charter is adopted, in and to any lien acquired under any previous Charter of the Town, are hereby preserved for the Holder in all respects as if this Charter had not been adopted, together with all rights and remedies in relation thereto. This Charter shall not discharge, impair, or release any contract, obligation, duty, liability, or penalty whatever existing at the time this Charter becomes effective. All suits and actions, both civil and criminal, pending, or which may be hereafter instituted for causes of action now existing or offenses already committed against any law or ordinance repealed by this Charter, shall be instituted, proceeded with, and prosecuted to final determination and judgment as if this Charter had not become effective. All officials elected or appointed under the previous Charter will continue in effect until terminated as specified herein.
Section 1003. Effect of Charter on Existing Ordinances
A. All ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations in effect in the Town at the time this Charter becomes effective which are not in conflict with the provisions of this Charter shall remain in effect until changed or repealed.
B. All ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations in effect in the Town at the time this Charter becomes effective which are in conflict with the provisions of this Charter are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict.
Section 1004. Misdemeanors
Every act or omission which is made a misdemeanor under the authority of this Charter, unless otherwise provided shall be punishable upon conviction before any District Court or in the Circuit Court for the County within which the offense is committed by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or imprisonment for thirty days in the County jail, or both, at the discretion of the District Court or Circuit Court. The party aggrieved shall have the right to appeal as is now provided under the General Laws of the State. Where the act or omission is of a continuing nature and persisted in, a conviction for one offense shall not be a bar to a conviction for a continuation of the offense subsequent to the first or any succeeding conviction.
Section 1005. Liability for Damages
A. Before the Town shall be liable for damages of any kind, someone in behalf of, or the person injured must give the Town Manager notice in writing of the injury within one hundred and eighty days after the injury has been received, stating when, where and how the injury occurred and the extent of the injury.
B. The Town shall not be liable for damage or injury to any person or property arising from or occasioned by any public way or public grounds or any defect thereon, unless proper diligence has not been exercised to correct the defect.
Section 1006. Separability
If any section or part of a section of the Charter shall be held invalid by a Court of Competent jurisdiction, such holding shall not affect the remainder of this Charter nor the context in which such section or part of section so held invalid shall appear, except to the extent that an entire section or part of section may be inseparably connected in meaning and effect with the section or part of section to which such holding shall directly apply.
Section 1007. Amendment
This Charter may be amended in accordance with the constitution of Maryland and Article 23A of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
Section 1007.1. Effectiveness of Amendment
Any amendment to the Charter adopted by referendum can be changed by referendum only and shall not be negated by a Town Council resolution.
*Section 607.1, Private Sale Authority, adopted 02/13/08
*Section 202. Corporate Boundaries, amended 04-12-2017
*Section 706.1 et al Town Administrator, amended 07-11-2018 | politics |
https://aalipant.com/2021/12/14/my-experiments-with-truth-a-book-experience/ | 2023-05-30T05:22:35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224645089.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20230530032334-20230530062334-00150.warc.gz | 0.96949 | 749 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__87745103 | en | It was on Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd October this year that I read a discussion regarding how the new age generation of ours has read Chetan Bhagat, Harry Potter, etc, and yet are absolutely oblivious to the larger-than-life character of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was one person who united people irrespective of their religion, region, or language. He spoke not for any particular kind but for all humans in totality. The book is a reflection of who Gandhi was, and how he became Mahatma. For every Indian, this book should be a must-read at least once in their lifetime. We must know and understand that why is Mahatma Gandhi so important and respected by the world. The book will also offer you the shortcomings of Gandhi in his own words of acceptance. He from my point of view was far away from being a good husband and a good father. His sense of service towards the downtrodden never allowed him to do justice towards his family. And in spite of that, the fact that Kasturba Gandhi stood rocksteady with him, speaks volumes about her giving nature too.
The sections where one reads about civil disobedience against the Rowlatt Act, Salt tax, etc bring another level of a rush of adrenaline. The grandeur of the enigmatic personality of Gandhiji pierces the reader deep inside. When Gandhiji asked for a day-long strike or hartal, where all Indians were to keep a fast and take out peaceful procession across the country, the whole of India ranging from Lahore to Chennai, Bombay to Delhi, followed him without a doubt. Today too we see leaders after whom massive sections blatantly go Gaga. But today there are all the necessary mediums available such as social media, print media, television, etc to popularise oneself and demean the other. Yet there is still only a section out of all Indians that adore one particular leadership. But back then, be it of any religion, region, or gender, everyone followed Gandhi’s command with utmost sincerity. I am not exaggerating when I say that I had goosebumps and a genuine sense of victory when I read about the love and devotion amongst all Indians to achieve their dream.
The book becomes particularly interesting and relevant to read at this time when almost the first time after independence, India witnessed a year-long Satyagrah by her farmers against three farm laws to which the farmers did not find resonance with the government’s outlook. And to the reader’s least surprise, the Satyagraha successfully achieved its goals with farmers now satisfactorily going back to their respective houses.
There are many passages I highlighted while reading the book. One of them is regarding the publishing of the journals “Navjivan” and “Young India” which were founded by Gandhi. These newspapers covered the voice of Indians, discussed the benefits of non-violence, ways of practicing Satyagraha, etc. One of the ideals of publishing in these journals is heavily and rightly being pitched in today’s era:
“From the very start, I set my face against taking advertisements in these journals. I do not think that they have lost anything thereby. On the contrary, it is my belief that it was in no small measure helped them to maintain their independence.”
The book must be read by everyone across the globe. It does not carry very high literary merit of being bolstered with heavy words, philosophy, or sentence making. But it does carry the merit of the character development of a person who became a massive country’s “Father of the Nation”. | politics |
https://www.informedchat.com/co-education-in-uae-helps-to-develop-healthy-gender-ties/ | 2020-10-28T16:53:58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107900200.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20201028162226-20201028192226-00700.warc.gz | 0.965096 | 505 | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-45__0__548950 | en | Many private schools in the UAE have mixed classrooms.
All government schools in the UAE are now teaching boys and girls side-by-side in Grade 1 (pupils aged five to six) from this academic year which began in September. The move was following a decision by the education authorities in the country.
This major policy change from the Ministry of Education (MoE) will be upgraded to other grades in all public schools on a yearly basis. The new strategy will include Grade 2 next academic year and then continue until mixed classes are in operation up to Grade 4.
Many private schools in the UAE have mixed classrooms but public schools have been separating boys and girls.
Jameela bint Salem Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Public Education, told Khaleej Times that the ministry introduced the co-education system to improve the classroom atmosphere and promote socialisation of pupils.
“Girls and boys mingle in kindergarten and we believe if they continue studying together until Grade 4, it can help them better understand each other, do class work and play together,” she said. “I think segregation of pupils at this age doesn’t help them any better because they are still small kids and need to socialise.”
Al Muhairi added that all research across the world indicates that segregation in the class doesn’t favour boys or girls and that it is the reason the ministry is now trying co-education in public schools.
“We have started trying the system of mixed classes in Grade 1 and we will be looking at the outcomes to see if it’s better for the children and whether we can continue with the system,” she said. “If you look at countries like the United Kingdom and others, lower classes up to Grade 6 are mixed. They usually segregate pupils, for instance; boys only or girls only schools, starting from secondary school level.”
The minister said though mixed classes were something new to the Emirati society, the ministry is encouraging it because they believe it would have a good impact in the future, especially in regards to children’s social behaviour and performance.
“Having mixed gender classes will be good for the pupils’ future, especially when they go out into the world. We encourage it for our schools because it has been successful elsewhere,” said Al Muhairi.
Read the full article on Khaleej Times. | politics |
https://skylerlehto.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/nap-voluntaryism-and-the-use-of-force/comment-page-1/ | 2018-07-19T05:36:44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676590559.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20180719051224-20180719071224-00229.warc.gz | 0.954674 | 913 | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-30__0__160832810 | en | A great many in the libertarian movement have become enamored by deontological, mostly anarchist rationales for their political philosophy. As the title of this blog post suggests, some of the most common rhetoric among libertarians includes justifications such as the “Non-Aggression Principle,” which is the idea that it is illegitimate to initiate force against others.
These libertarians believe that the coercive nature of taxation renders it fundamentally immoral, and that all human interactions should be based upon voluntary association. For this reason, they and their philosophy are often referred to as “voluntaryists” and “voluntaryism,” respectively.
In this blog post, I do not intend to weigh in directly on the merits of deontology vs. consequentialism, anarcho-capitalism vs. minarchism, or any other intra-libertarian dichotomy of this sort. Instead, I want to simply comment on frequent libertarian slogans like the NAP and address how the semantics may be obfuscating the real core of libertarian philosophy.
It is not uncommon for libertarians to reference notions of force, coercion, and voluntaryism in an attempt to describe the motivations for their political beliefs. For instance, they might say:
“The basis for my moral system is the Non-Aggression Principle.”
“I believe that all human association should be voluntary.”
“I want to live in a society that is free from coercion.”
While I do believe that these terms and phrases can be useful depending on the context, they fall short when it comes to capturing the actual essence of what libertarians believe in.
To illustrate this, we must place such concepts as “voluntary” and “force/coercion/aggression” in a different context in order to recognize that they are not the intrinsic root of even the most deontological form of libertarianism.
If, for example, someone were trespassing onto your property uninvited, you could feel justified in garnishing a shotgun in order to “force” him to leave. From the trespasser’s perspective, he might view you as acting aggressively and using “coercion” in order to make him leave your property. He may even note that he is not being given a “voluntary” choice in the matter of whether or not he is allowed to wander upon this land.
What would be your answer to these accusations? Well, it’s your property and he is violating it. Therefore, you are allowed to use force and coerce him to leave. The fact that it’s your property means that your trespasser does not get a voluntary choice in the matter.
The point I am trying to demonstrate is that notions of voluntaryism and aggression are subjective, as they are necessarily conditional upon the framework of rights that are assumed to exist in the first place. One can only argue that an action is unjustly coercive or involuntary insofar as it contradicts a certain set of rights that are presumed to exist for whatever logical reason.
Understanding this is fundamental to understanding what the NAP really means. It is not enough to simply express opposition to the use of force; in fact, doing so would be quite silly. Coercion will exist in society so long as people have claims that need to be enforced. The real question is: Who gets the right to what, and what is the rational basis for vesting this authority?
What libertarians are actually arguing is that individuals have a right to control their own person, as well as those resources obtained through their own productive efforts (which do not violate the similarly processed claims of others). The use of force is appropriate if it is to protect morally justified claims; the use of force is inappropriate if it is to violate said claims.
Do I mean to suggest that the words “force” and “voluntary” should never be used when critiquing government actions? Of course not. In many cases, it is helpful to invoke these terms descriptively, provided that the underlying framework of rights is implied in the given context.
But it is wrong to assume that libertarian philosophy originates from “voluntaryism,” or from an opposition to force and coercion. It does not. Deontological libertarianism really stems from the morality of private property rights; all such NAP notions are secondarily derived only after this premise is established. | politics |
https://www.jaytonjaybirds.com/apps/news/category/9213?pageIndex=2 | 2022-09-30T22:42:28 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930212504-20221001002504-00346.warc.gz | 0.925245 | 194 | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-40__0__136714435 | en | News & Announcements
Texas Education Agency2019-20 Federal Report Card for Texas Public SchoolsDistrict Name: JAYTON-GIRARD ISD
Commissioner Rule regarding refusal of entry or ejection of individuals (19 T.A.C. 103.1207) requires, among other things, the following: “A school district shall post on the district's Internet website and each district campus shall post on any Internet website of the campus a notice regarding the provisions of this section, including the appeal process set forth in subsection (h) of this section”. This new Commissioner Rule became effective on August 24, 2018. Consequently, Region 17 school districts will want to comply with the posting requirement as soon as they can.
The District of Innovation concept, passed by the 84th Legislative Session in House Bill 1842, gives traditional independent school districts most of the flexibilities available to Texas’ open-enrollment charter schools. | politics |
https://www.chooseadventurebook.com/tag/pewpew-tactical/ | 2024-03-02T20:05:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947475897.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20240302184020-20240302214020-00441.warc.gz | 0.953737 | 262 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__86543654 | en | Lots of my American friends are surprised that citizens in other countries can own guns as well. The process for becoming a gun owner in most other countries is much more onerous than in the United States.
In European Gun Culture: What I’ve Learned & Unlearned, An American gun owner moves to a small Spanish island and is going through the process of becoming a gun owner in the EU. This incredibly detailed narrative explains all the steps he is taking. It’s quite a process.
“Needless to say, when it comes to guns, there are big differences between the US and Europe.
Navigating these differences has been a winding mountain road, but through this journey, I’ve learned that Americans have several misconceptions about European gun laws and culture, and vice versa.
But we’re all gun lovers here, so let’s learn from my mistakes and break down some barriers!
Today, we’re going to build a small intercultural bridge by examining Europe’s gun laws and the European Firearms Directive, the twisty process for getting a Spanish firearms license (help), and the common stereotypes that perpetuate cultural misunderstandings.”
This is a worthwhile read if you are interested in other countries’ gun laws. | politics |
http://www.meaningoflife.life/campaigns/terrorism/ | 2017-05-24T07:51:33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607806.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20170524074252-20170524094252-00432.warc.gz | 0.95295 | 417 | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-22__0__39018093 | en | Too often defenders of liberal societies express a surprising lack of confidence in the basic ideas that underpin them.
The religious right see decadence and immorality in their own society. This sometimes leads them to paint their enemies as wise, tolerant, brave, and poetic.
Liberals, on the other hand, often seem to think that lacking romantic heroism, they cannot compete with the appeals of illiberal political ideologies.
Seldom do either side suggest that any such failures of liberal civilization may correct themselves. There are sound foundations to build on.
Both liberals and conservatives give Islamic fundamentalists more credit than they deserve.
Liberalism’s greatest asset in a time of terror is liberalism itself. There is evil in the world. Terrorists, many inspired by militant forms of Islam, do kill innocent people. No one ought to be naive about this.
But just as you do not fight anti-liberal enemies by copying their methods of secrecy, torture, and unchecked executive power. Nor do you defeat terrorism and genocide by tying one hand of your own political philosophy behind your back.
No threat is so serious that we need to break our own rules.
This means defending what the Enlightenment achieved, without ignoring what it didn’t.
It requires the kind of self-examination that faces the ways in which human needs for truth and freedom remain unsatisfied in Western culture. But it also means having the confidence that we can find the answers.
In his ‘What is Enlightenment?’ essay Kant said maturity lies in the path between thoughtlessly accepting everything authorities tell you and thoughtlessly rejecting it. This recognises that calibrating the right path is matter is a matter of judgment and it’s a course that demands considerable nerve.
That same judgment is needed to confront the terrorist threat. The right path lies between thoughtlessly accepting everything in liberal society and thoughtlessly rejecting it. It lies in accepting that the liberal life is the best way of life but that current western society is not the finale. There is much still to do. | politics |
http://slackerguide.blogspot.com/2016/10/icare.html | 2019-01-17T17:43:45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583659056.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20190117163938-20190117185938-00285.warc.gz | 0.974442 | 1,528 | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-04__0__12830384 | en | Most people don't think that the ACA is bipartisan at all--the fact that we call it "Obamacare" is an important indicator. The fact that the Republicans have spent a fortune trying to repeal and replace it with "something terrific" furthers the narrative that it was a Democratic scheme shoved down the American people's throat by an unchecked Democratic Congress and a radically liberal President. This narrative is nonsense, and it's a glimpse into why older people so quickly start muttering about history, and doom, and such.
As with previous Slacker Guide political posts (see also: here and here), there is a lesson about education in here. As with previous Slacker Guide posts, you're going to need to indulge me a little before we get there.
Obama isn't the architect of Obamacare. When Democrats do national healthcare, we do what's called "single payer." You think that single payer is evil because the political headwinds blowing in the face of healthcare reform have successfully turned it into a dirty word. Nonetheless, some version of it may be necessary to save us from the current crisis. Single payer is a concept in which the government actually provides health insurance. We didn't go for single payer. In fact, the ACA doesn't provide any insurance at all, but merely tries to keep insurance companies from doing some pretty evil stuff: denying insurance to those with pre-existing conditions, kicking sick people off their insurance for being sick, kicking young adults (aged 19-25) off their parents' plans, and a few other things. That's a good start, but it's not government health insurance. We didn't create national health insurance--in part because the attempt went badly last time. We compromised.
The compromise was built on the notion that industry can do this better. It's an argument we hear in education all the time, and we have the same visceral reaction to this line of thinking that you have to "single payer." I understand where it comes from, though. People outside of education look at Toyota, and Starbucks, and Amazon, and McDonalds and think that industry is pretty good at stuff, and by extension, will probably be pretty good at just about everything. We look at Kaplan, and ITT Tech, and PA Cyber Charter, and Trump University, and conclude quite the opposite.
Because for-profit business was put at the very center of healthcare reform, making health insurance profitable became in the national interest. When a nation is interested in profitability of specific companies, very sketchy stuff starts to happen.
Recently, the ACA hit another rough patch when it was announced that premiums would jump 22% this year. Turns out that profits haven't been quite as expected, and companies are pulling out of markets. Less competition has led to higher prices. Less competition has been brought to you in part by mergers and acquisitions, and... well, Millennials.
Another dirty word of the ACA is the "individual mandate." Bootstrap-pulling Republicans and snake-flag-waiving Libertarians hated the idea of mandating that people buy a product. It does chafe, I admit; mandated personal spending seems like a horrible expression of liberty. However, carefully avoiding anything like a nationalized single payer system guaranteed that we'd be shoveling money toward private insurance companies, as did letting them leave the bargain as soon as it didn't produce the profits they'd expected.
The individual mandate was crucial to this whole thing, however, and the fact that it has no real teeth is part of Obamacare's current predicament. As long as younger, healthier people can pay a small penalty instead of a substantial premium, they probably will. As long as the tax hit comes in the form of a reduced tax refund in April, while open-enrollment ends in January, they may never even see a correlation. As long as young people are permitted to gamble that they'll remain young and healthy and that accidents and disease are for other people, they'll continue to gamble. As long as there is some kind of safety net--emergency rooms in the short term, Medicaid and SSI Disability for bigger stuff--many people will continue to chance it.
There's a great way to increase competition, and it's quite a ways short of single payer. It's called "the public option." Again, you hate this because like "single payer," "Obamacare," and maybe even "healthcare"--think about that for a second--you think the public option is bad thing because it's had terrible PR. The public option, though, is nothing more or less than the government offering an insurer of last resort to those in markets where industry isn't providing a better option. The public option would would be different from corporate insurance in one important way: it wouldn't need to be profitable. It couldn't operate at a loss either, but it wouldn't need to appease shareholders, or pay executives bonuses, or even buy advertising. The reason that people fight the public option so strongly is that it's hard to imagine non-public options competing successfully against the government.
Here's the long awaited tie-in to education. Privatization has been a big problem in healthcare, and it's making an effort to become a big problem in education. Obamacare is like for-profit private charter schools (i.e. maybe a good idea in theory, but ultimately doomed to fail) in these ways:
- Money being taken out of the system for shareholders, CEO compensation, and advertising is not going toward making the system better. Private industry needs to be extra-supper-no kidding efficient to overcome this drag. So far, not so much.
- Human failings that sometimes plague public institutions (laziness, incompetence, greed...) do not automatically disappear through privatization.
- The target constituency is a big key to success. Health insurance works great on easy people (e.g. young, but not babies; athletic, but before their first ACL injury). Education works great on easy kids (e.g. smart, but not too smart, and smart in exactly the right ways; hard-working). This is true regardless of how well you're actually doing it.
- Subjective human improvements are often difficult to measure and chart. As a result, we tend to focus on things that are easy to assess and compare, just as we tend to ignore things that may be ultimately more important, but difficult to score.
- Funding incentives can be perverse, and distort the mission well-meaning institutions--especially as they try to hit targets assessed in #4, above. As it usually works now, doctors get more pay for more treatment and teachers get more pay mostly through aging. This doesn't always work well, but alternatives too often make things worse.
Typical Slacker Guide posts use this paragraph to apologize for identifying problems and offering no solutions. Not this time. The path forward is clear: strengthen the individual mandate to compel more people into the insurance market before they get old and sick; offer a public option so that people can buy insurance regardless of industry's interest in offering good alternatives in that particular market; consider moving to a real single payer system that uses the government's economics of scale to actually put pressure on American healthcare costs. Certainly there are more sophisticated and nuanced approaches, but sophisticated and nuanced is part of what has made the ACA such a mess. Let's try those things that have made you so fearful of Obamacare before we declare that it doesn't work. | politics |
http://www.placentialibrary.org/about/press-releases/notice-public-hearing-regarding-proposed-adoption-resolution-15-08 | 2018-09-26T05:24:11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267163326.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20180926041849-20180926062249-00076.warc.gz | 0.923143 | 342 | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-39__0__100645147 | en | NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
REGARDING PROPOSED ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION 15-08,
THE FINES & FEE SCHEDULE FOR FISCAL YEARS 2015-2017
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on April 20, 2015, the Board of Trustees of the Placentia Library District will hold a Public Hearing in the Community Meeting Room of the Placentia Library District at 411 East Chapman Avenue, Placentia, CA 92870 as part of the Regular Date Meeting of the Board at 6:30pm, or as soon thereafter as practicable. The Board will hold the Public Hearing in order to receive oral and written opinions regarding the proposed adoption of Resolution No. 15-08. Those desiring to comment orally may do so during the hearing. Written comments may be filed at any time prior to conclusion of the public hearing. Any written materials to be submitted to the Board should be addressed to the attention of Jeanette Contreras, Library Director, at the above-mentioned address. Upon conclusion of the hearing, the Board will consider adoption of proposed Resolution No. 15-08, which would establish the Fines & Fee Schedule for Fiscal Years 2015-2017.
A copy of the full Resolution No. 15-08 and data, as proposed, is available for review in the District offices, at the address set forth above. Copies of the Resolution and data are available by calling the District at (714) 528-1906, extension 200.
DATED: April 15, 2015
POSTED: April 15 through April 20, 2015
PUBLISHED: April 15 through April 20, 2015 | politics |
https://higashihonganjiusa.org/2022/07/08/war-in-ukraine-a-call-for-harmony/ | 2023-09-24T20:31:11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506669.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924191454-20230924221454-00660.warc.gz | 0.951613 | 671 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__138765168 | en | By Bishop Noriaki Ito
News about the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army shows the destruction of residential areas in many cities and an endless stream of innocent people—women, the elderly, children, and others—fleeing to neighboring countries such as Poland. Typically, when two countries fight a war, both are somewhat responsible for the conflict.
What’s sad in this war is that Ukrainians did nothing to provoke the invasion by Russian armed forces. As Higashi Honganji’s Chief Administrator, Bishop Wataru Kigoshi, wrote recently regarding the war in Ukraine, “Our organization has a negative history of blindly following the policy of the Japanese government during World War II, voluntarily cooperating with the war by pushing many people to the battlefields.” In 1995, our denomination passed a “No-more-war Resolution.” This statement encourages us “to work together with all people to realize a happy and peaceful international community that no longer permits war, transcending all ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and religious differences.”
Harmony is a word usually associated with music. Harmony occurs when different instruments and different voices evoke different tones and melodies that blend together perfectly. In everyday life, harmony refers to different people with different opinions blending together like beautiful music.
We have seen divisions in our country over the past few years. Somehow, we seem more divided than in any period of our recent history that I can remember. Regarding the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we are united in condemning the actions of the Russian president. I admire the legions of Russian people who protested to the point of being arrested themselves against the aggression their country has wreaked on their neighbors. I truly admire the courage and the resiliency of the Ukrainian people.
In Buddhism, we talk about the teachings of interdependence and how we are connected to each other even if we don’t realize it. This truth also applies to people, actions, and countries across the world. What happens on the other side of the planet affects us here in the United States. Seeing news of the unrelenting war, we cry together with people who are victimized, the children who are suffering, the men fighting and resisting the invasion, and the women who take their children and the elderly to safe havens in neighboring countries. They remind us we are dependent upon each other.
We hope for a return to a harmonious relationship between countries. We, our Higashi Honganji members, must strive towards this kind of peace and harmony and feel a sense of responsibility.
Words of the venerable Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh come to mind. In his book, “Being Peace,” he wrote:
If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower,
and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.
Likewise, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Please remember, harmony starts with you and me.
-Rev. Ito is bishop of Higashi Honganji’s North America District and is based in Los Angeles. | politics |
https://safariclub.buzzsprout.com/606196/12354786-jim-shockey-joins-the-first-for-hunters-podcast-at-sci-convention-in-nashville | 2024-02-22T03:50:17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473690.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222030017-20240222060017-00490.warc.gz | 0.92117 | 117 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__100473251 | en | In this episode, host Ben Cassidy sits down with SCI Ambassador Jim Shockey on the first day of the SCI Convention in Nashville. They talk about Jim's history with SCI, current gun bans and anti-hunting legislation facing Canadians, and of course convention!
This year's SCI Convention in Nashville was record breaking at every level. Thank you to all of our members, exhibitors, and partners who made this year a success. Join us next year at the SCI Convention in Nashville Jan. 31 - Feb. 3!
Want to write-in? | politics |
http://www.mcdermidagency.com/authInfo.cfm?auth=102&userID=6 | 2013-05-19T18:19:38 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697917013/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095157-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.97967 | 411 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-20__0__189493888 | en | Carefully translated into the English by confidant Paul Wilson, this is an astonishingly candid account from the acclaimed, dissident playwright elected President after the dramatic Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution — one of the most respected political figures of our time.
In this most intimate memoir, he writes about his transition from outspoken dissident and political prisoner to a player on the international stage in 1989 as newly elected president of Czechoslovakia after the ousting of the Soviet Union, and, in l993, as president of the newly formed Czech Republic.
Havel gives full rein to his impassioned stance against the devastation wrought by communism, but the scope of his concern in this engrossing memoir extends far beyond the circumstances he faced in his own country. Translator Paul Wilson skillfully retains Havel's voice and reveals all the subtleties and nuances of this complex character. The book is full of anecdotes of his interactions with world figures (from meditation with the Dali Lama to partying with Bill and Hilary Clinton). He shares his thoughts on the future of the European Union, as well as why he has come to change his mind about the war in Iraq, and he discusses the political and personal reverberations he faces because of his initial support of the invasion. He writes with equal intelligence and candour about subjects as diverse as the arrogance of western power politics, the death of his first wife and his own battle with lung cancer.
Woven through are internal memos he wrote during his presidency that take us behind the scenes of the Prague Castle – the government’s seat of power – showing the internal workings of the office and revealing Havel’s mission to act as his country’s conscience, and even, at times, its chief social convenor.
Written and translated with characteristic eloquence, wit and well-honed irony combined with an unfailing sense of wonder at the course his life has taken, To the Castle and Back is a revelation of one of the most important political figures of our time. | politics |
http://www.rmadefense.com/news.asp?pst=13 | 2017-08-16T21:40:20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886102663.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20170816212248-20170816232248-00032.warc.gz | 0.925197 | 498 | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-34__0__241819051 | en | RMA Armament was honored to be part of the Made in America Product Showcase at the White House on Monday, July 17. The event included one representative company from each state and RMA was honored to represent the state of Iowa.
Attending the showcase were members of congress and the President's cabinet - along with Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump - who spoke with company leaders at displays place around the White House's East Wing.
The Showcase concluded with Pence and Trump giving remarks about what it means for a product to be "American Made" and the pride it brings. The President also signed a proclamation, naming July 17 "Made in America Day" and July 16 - July 22 "Made in America Week."
RMA was also honored to have Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and Lt. Governor Adam Gregg to give a statement on our company as well.
Here's a sampling of what the event was like through the eyes of the media.
KWQC TV http://www.kwqc.com/content/news/RMA-Armament-showcased-at-Made-in-America-event-at-the-White-House-435045933.html
KCRG TV http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/White-House-honors-Iowa-company-at-Made-in-America-showcase-435048543.html
Des Moines Register http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2017/07/15/iowan-taking-his-worlds-best-body-armor-white-house/481548001/
Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/locally-owned-body-armor-firm-invited-to-white-house/article_4f9453f7-23c6-5fa3-b595-2de5c66fc12e.html
Ottumwa Radio http://ottumwaradio.com/centerville-body-armor-maker-featured-white-house-event/ National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449634/made-ameerica-entrepreneurs-donald-trump-white-house-salutes-william-kristol-mocks | politics |
http://www.chescrosbie.com/blog/danny-williams-said-no-to-nofault-auto-another-reason-for-newfound-pride.cfm | 2017-04-26T13:41:27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121355.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00473-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.965751 | 453 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__314195833 | en | A consistent theme has emerged from the commentary provoked by Premier Danny Williams' surprise resignation last week: he re-instilled pride in Newfoundlanders as equals in Confederation, a sense of independence, and optimism that we can create a bright and self-reliant future for ourselves.
One unique achievement of the Williams premiership does not get mention in the retrospectives. He resisted pressure from the auto insurance industry to bring in no-fault auto insurance. In the 2002-2004 period the governments of Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island caved in to insurance industry propaganda and adopted threshold no-fault auto insurance. But not Danny.
Threshold no-fault excludes large numbers of accident and injury victims from compensation for pain and suffering on the theory that reduced costs are passed on to consumers by lower premiums - a "rights for rates" trade-off.
The truth is, it doesn't happen. The insurance companies take any savings for themselves. Newfoundland and Labrador (along with British Columbia) has a vigorous fault-based auto accident compensation system, and our insurance rates are about the lowest in the country. The new government in Nova Scotia has recently announced that it is moving away from its no-fault auto scheme in a significant way.
Danny resisted the pressure for insurance companies to sacrifice the rights of victims, in part because he had been a plaintiff-side personal injury lawyer himself, and understood how the insurance industry works. He was less easily bamboozled than other politicians. But a determined campaign by the Coalition Against No-Fault, led by Kevin Breen, countered insurance industry propaganda, and Newfoundland public opinion was not impressed by it. The Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association was a member of the Coalition.
Danny was an astute enough politician - and had enough guts - to take a calculated risk that public opinion was with him if he said "no" to no-fault, and he did.
Alone among premiers at the time, Danny Williams said "no" to no-fault. There are many reasons for Newfoundlanders' newfound pride in our independence and willingness to stand up to others for our rights, and this deserves to be one of them. | politics |
http://globalsouthafricans.com/latest/832-profile-eddie-ndopu.html | 2017-04-26T13:39:21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121355.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00417-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.970926 | 401 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__88312884 | en | Eddie was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy at age 2 and was given 5 years to live. He defied all odds.
Eddie has been using a wheelchair since the age of seven, yet he has not let his condition hold him back but rather used it as an opportunity to influence policy and also how the world looks at people living with disability. That life with disability is as much about having access to joy, intimacy and self determination as it is to lifts, bathrooms and social services.
Eddie is also co-founder and intellectual powerhouse of Evolve Initiative, a global start-up that seeks to influence public policy and popular culture by re-positioning disability as a site of social transformation and innovation.
Eddie has been named one of the 50 Most Influential Disabled People in the World by the Shaw Trust as well as one of the World's 30 Top Thinkers Under 30 by Pacific Standard Magazine, and is currently enrolled on a Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School and Somerville College at the University of Oxford.
Prior to joining Oxford, Eddie worked for Amnesty International as Head of the Africa youth engagement program. He has been profiled by Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.
Eddie was born to a South African freedom fighter mother who fled from the Apartheid regime to Namibia under self-imposed exile.
Eddie's next dream is to go to space! He is in talks with both Richard Branson and fellow South African Elon Musk and will be raising funds towards this mission. He hopes to one day address the United Nations from space about Disability and Sustainable Development Goals. and the Access Gap
Eddie’s groundbreaking political protest begins in November 2017, ends in September 2018, and is to be documented in a feature-
length presentation film called, Space Art: Body As Protest.
He epitomises the phrase "Dream big!" | politics |
https://parkandgousa.com/testimonials/ | 2024-04-15T05:07:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296816942.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240415045222-20240415075222-00409.warc.gz | 0.982658 | 163 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__170246850 | en | The glory of justice and the majesty of law are created not just by the Constitution - nor by the courts - nor by the lawyers - but by the men and women who constitute our society - who are the protectors of the law as they are themselves protected by the law.
My father, who was from a wealthy family and highly educated, a lawyer, Yale and Columbia, walked out with the benefit of a healthy push from my mother, a seventh grade graduate, who took a typing course and got a secretarial job.
It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it. | politics |
https://usspress.com/climate-and-energy-implications-of-crypto-assets/ | 2023-06-02T05:02:27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648322.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602040003-20230602070003-00266.warc.gz | 0.925012 | 1,133 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__209053671 | en | In March of 2022, President Biden signed an executive order ensuring the responsible development of digital assets—AKA crypto-assets. This was done in an effort to support the United States’ new climate change objectives. But what, exactly, are crypto-assets?
Crypto-assets are digital assets that are implemented using cryptographic techniques like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies/digital currencies. They have a total current global market capitalization of nearly $1 trillion. The use of crypto-assets is expanding and it is expected to continually grow over the next few years.
However, some crypto-asset technologies require a considerable amount of electricity for asset generation, ownership, and exchange. Electricity usage from digital assets is seemingly contributing to GHG emissions and additional pollution.
Because of this, the U.S. government has a responsibility to:
- Ensure electric grid stability
- Enable a clean energy future
- Protect communities from pollution & climate change impacts.
Once the executive order (14067) was in place, federal agencies were directed to examine the connections between crypto-assets and pollution. They also looked at the impacts these technologies have on the environment.
In their collective findings, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy & other federal agencies, answered four key questions:
- What are the implications of digital assets for energy usage and management? This includes things like grid reliability, energy efficiency standards and incentives, and the sources of energy supply.
Crypto-assets use a significant amount of electricity. From 2018 to 2022, annualized electricity from global crypto-assets grew rapidly, with estimates of electricity usage doubling to quadrupling. Electricity usage varies substantially with different crypto-asset technologies.
- What is the scale of (climate, energy, and environmental) impacts of digital assets relative to other energy uses. What innovations and policies are needed in the underlying data to enable robust comparisons?
The top cryptocurrencies by market cap emitted around 140 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year. Or about 0.3% of global annual GHG emissions.
Crypto-asset activity in the United States is estimated to result in approximately 25 to 50 Mt CO2/y. Which is 0.4% to 0.8% of total U.S. GHG emissions. Similar to emissions from diesel fuel used in railroads in the United States.
Crypto-asset mining operations also cause local noise and water impacts. This can stem from:
- Electronic waste
- Other pollution from any direct usage of fossil-fired electricity
- Additional air
- Waste impacts associated with all grid electricity usage
These local impacts can exacerbate environmental justice issues for underserved communities.
- What are the potential uses of blockchain technology that could support climate monitoring or mitigating technologies?
There is potential for blockchain technologies to play a role in environmental markets. Distributed ledger technologies (DLT) could potentially enable distributed energy resource coordination, as well as broader supply chain management. To help the United States meet its climate change commitments, DLT must be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- What key policies, innovations, research, and development are needed to reduce the climate, energy, and environmental impacts of digital assets?
The United States needs to reduce its GHG emissions by 50% to 52% by 2030 to meet its climate objectives. There will also need to be a carbon pollution-free electricity system by 2035. As well as a net-zero emissions economy no later than 2050.
Crypto-asset policy during the transition to clean energy should be focused on several objectives. These include:
- Reducing GHG emissions
- Avoiding operations that will increase the cost of electricity generation to consumers
- Avoiding operations that reduce the reliability of electric grids.
- Avoiding negative impacts to equity, communities, and the local environment.
By answering these important questions, federal agencies could determine potential recommendations to assist the US in meeting its climate change objectives.
Recommendations and Conclusions
To ensure the responsible development of digital assets, recommendations include the following action items:
- Minimize GHG emissions, environmental justice impacts, and other local impacts from crypto-assets.
- Ensure energy reliability.
- Obtain data to understand, monitor, and mitigate impacts.
- Advance energy efficiency standards.
- Encourage transparency and improvements in environmental performance.
- Further research to improve understanding and innovation.
Overall, the recommendations aim to resolve data gaps, manage electricity demands, reduce GHG emissions, reduce electronic waste and pollution. It supports a clean energy transition that equitably benefits communities across the country. It also addresses the longstanding concerns of overburdened and underserved communities.
What’s to Become of Our Climate and Crypto-Assets?
Moving forward, research and development should be prioritized. The solutions sought should emphasize innovations in next-generation digital asset technologies that help advance our climate goals.
It’s evident that there is a direct correlation between crypto-assets and an increase in electricity usage. In turn, this produces a large amount of harmful byproducts within our communities. It is critically important that clean energy powers this demand from new sources.
For additional information, view the full report released by the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Citation: OSTP (2022). Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Washington, D.C. September 8, 2022. | politics |
https://fev.al/posts/opposed-to-s210/ | 2024-04-12T20:16:05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296816070.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20240412194614-20240412224614-00415.warc.gz | 0.9603 | 1,064 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__84749989 | en | Bill S-210 is a Canadian senate bill proposed to the parliament. Its name is An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material. Its stated goal is to restrict children from accessing pornography, by making anyone who publishes sexual content online responsible for preventing its distribution to children ; detailing some mechanisms, notably 1) forcing age and identity verification, and 2) mandating Canadian ISPs to block traffic coming from non-compliant providers.
This bill is problematic not because of its stated goal (which can be seen as quite agreeable) but because:
- sexual content is not necessarily pornographic. Google and Wikipedia have sexual content. Spam can also contain sexual content. Boards and forums and facebook can distribute sexual content. And therefore a lot of non-pornographic websites will be impacted, legitimizing identity check and further privacy invasion by some including some that you don’t want to give too much info to.
- This bill also creates a mechanism by which the government can ask ISPs to block traffic on some websites, which creates a quite obvious censorship mechanism that should be killed in the egg.
This is the email I sent to my Member of Parliament, to support his vote against the bill. Feel free to copy part of all of it to send to yours. Find how your MP voted, and give them your opinion.
Letter to MP
Hon. MP Wilkinson,
I am one of your constituents, residing in North Vancouver. I am writing you today in opposition to S-210.
I am a software engineer at Microsoft, have been in the computer industry for over 20y now, and had a passion for computers for close to 30. I’m also the father of 3 boys of 10, 8 and 6y of age.
It is my professional opinion that bills such as S-210, which ask for control of distribution of digital information, are problematic. As you will probably receive pressure to change the direction of your vote, I wanted to raise my concerns and give you arguments.
The decentralized nature of the internet make them hard to enforce. There are 3 tiers to such systems: the server, the network, and the clients (computers, phones, tablets). Enforcing on the server, especially for a medium power such our country, is close to impossible. Large players such as Google or Facebook will comply, and use the opportunity to invade Canadians’ privacy even more. Others, such as small players, and pornographic actors outside of Canada that this bill is aiming at, have no incentives to do so, and won’t. It is therefore pointless. The effective methods of control are therefore at the network or client level.
Both these traffic control techniques are invasive and dangerous, beyond what a free democracy should ever consider tolerable. Controlling the traffic requires either extensive control of network itself, or weakening encryption to the point where we make our country’s security an open door for exterior forces. Controlling the client requires spying software that constitutes an invasion that only China has dared until now (and only because North Koreans don’t have computers).
This bill should worry every citizen of this country with the opportunity for oppression that it creates. Such technical control systems, once instigated, are very hard to remove. I trust that this government has the best interest of our children in mind, but one only needs to look south to see how quickly democracies can fade. Control measures such as these will, by their very nature, grow in their scope.
If you want to understand my worry, you only need to read the transcript of the debate. This bill’s intent is to prevent minors to be exposed to pornographic content, which entails a certain degree of passivity. Within the first exchanges, Hon. MP Vecchio explains that they know VPNs are a problem they need to address. VPN is a technology allowing network traffic to be channelled through a tunnel, and bypass restrictions such as those this bill aims to address. It is notably used to bypass government restrictions, and is commonly used in Russia, China and Iran. It also shows intent, a kid using one of these would not accidentally be exposed to pornographic content, but actively trying to access it.
Within the first minutes of debates of this bill, both the technological limitations of the bill, and its larger scope were already revealed. Now imagine 5, 10, 15y from now.
I have issues with pornography, and the human exploitation it creates. I also have the know-how to restrict my kid’s access, and ensure they don’t get a biased, maladaptive approach to sexuality. I sympathize with other parents who have kids such as mine who approaching sexual maturation age, and not necessarily the tools to apply such control. But bills such as these are dangerous. Terrorism and children’s access to pornography are the wrapping paper that governments use to introduce new control mechanisms such as these.
I salute you for your vote in initial reading. It takes courage to vote against a bill presented as “in the best interest of children”. I hope you will persist in that position, and continue arguing for this progressive stance, and the freedom of our land. | politics |
https://newsacross.com.ng/ogun-labour-leaders-declare-supports-for-dapo-abiodun/ | 2019-10-20T17:27:10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986717235.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20191020160500-20191020184000-00002.warc.gz | 0.969319 | 1,112 | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-43__0__210067164 | en | The governorship ambition of the Ogun State All Progressives Congress candidate Prince Dapo Abiodun received a significant boost as Labour leaders in the state assured him of their supports during the forthcoming governorship election.
They gave this assurance while playing host to the entourage of the APC governorship candidate who visited the state secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Abeokuta to intimate them with his agenda for the workers in the state.
The state NLC Chairman, Comrade Akeem Ambali recounted the ordeal faced by workers in the state under the present Amosun-led administration. He said the state workforce had gone through terrible times in the last two years, urging the oil magnate to prioritize the welfare of workers in the state if elected to office.
“The Amosun led APC government has done terrible things for the workers but thank God they failed to pull us down as they have planned. But we know that we will not judge the worms inside a child by his attitude” He stated.
“We felt reluctant to meet you because of our bad experience in the hands of Amosun. Amosun that sacked Labour leaders, refused to pay contributory pension, delay promotion.
Like I said anyone that want to spoil this APC, it shall not be well with such person” the labour leader concluded.
According to Ambali, “we see you as the topmost contender and soon we will have the desired change in Ogun state.”
“Leyin inira, idera ti de si Ogun state. From March 4th, we would begin to sing a new song in Ogun State. We would sit together when you become the governor and restructure how the state is going to pay deduction, pension, gratuities, leave bonus, etc”. We also implore you to do a ring road for Abeokuta instead of the needless overhead bridges. All the deplorable major roads in Ogun State like Agbara, Ogijo, Ilishan, Ago Iwoye, and Ilaro-Owode road should be addressed” the comrade explained.
The labour leader who was reiterate his passion for the growth of the state advised the governorship candidate to identify what will stimulate the economy, he also wants the Abiodun-led government to pay the new minimum wage of #30,000 after his emergence.
Earlier, former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba who led Abiodun to the labour house assured Ogun state workers of better welfare packages as soon as Dapo Abiodun of the APC is elected as the next governor of the gateway State.
He said, “we have come here today to sign a memorandum of understanding with you to show our commitment to the wellbeing of the workers and assurance to provide good governance when our party is given another opportunity. We would ensure that a committee comprising former government officials and labour leaders is set up immediately Dapo Abiodun is elected as the governor of the State. The committee will strategise on ways to ameliorate the challenges of workers and set agenda for the governor-elect to be implemented as soon as he is swon in.
Hence, I want to humbly inform you that I am standing as a guarantor for Dapo Abiodun and assuring you that he would be a labour friendly governor when elected”.
In his own response, the oil magnate turned politician shared his vision for the state workforce with the leaders of the state workers with a promise not to let them down. He pointed out that the effectiveness and efficiency of any administration depend largely on the civil servants, hence he would prioritize the well-being of workers in order to maximize their potentials and get the best out of them.
“As regards the anomalies being experienced by the leaders of the NLC, we would address this immediately we are sworn in. Those unjustly sacked would be reinstated and their entitlements paid. We would ensure prompt payment of salaries and other deductions” he said.
However, Abiodun submitted his 12 point agenda for the labour leaders which are: Clearing of backlog of salaries, cooperatives dues and deductions by the outgoing government and its predecessor, creation of Ministry of Labour and Productivity to proactively and effectively monitor workers’ welfare and efficiency, appointment of quality Labour Leaders into the cabinet, Acquisition of landed property along Abeokuta/Kobape Road for the construction of Labour Estate, restructuring of the moribund contributory pension scheme and inauguration of state and local government pension boards, institutionalization of government-labour consultative forum that will meet quarterly as a general feed back forum to improve Government-Labour relationship.
Others are: Replacement of promotion examination with efficiency promotion training, appointment of teachers to apex positions to put them at par with their public service counterparts, granting of full autonomy to the local governments and inclusion of labour leaders into the cabinet at the local government levels, annual government grants to the workers’ cooperatives, infrastructural support to the labour unions at state and local government levels, especially in the area of modern Information Communication Technology (ICT) and peer review and exchanges between Ogun labour Leaders and national/international organisations.
The meeting was attended by top leaders of the NLC in the state as well as key members of Dapo Abiodun campaign team. | politics |
http://publishedscoops.info/descargar/77242/la-nueva-ley-del-medicamento-real-decreto-legislativo-1.html | 2021-01-15T14:38:04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703495901.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20210115134101-20210115164101-00575.warc.gz | 0.933574 | 1,126 | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-04__0__128123732 | en | La nueva Ley del Medicamento: Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2015 de 24 de julio texto refundido de la Ley de Garantías y uso racional de los ... (Derecho - Biblioteca De Textos Legales)
visión de conjunto:Críticas Winner of the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History of the Association of Slavic East European and Eurasian StudiesWinner of the Canadian Association of Slavists/Taylor and Francis Book PrizeWinner of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies Book PrizeIn Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial Lynne Viola recounts statistics that still defy belief . . . Viola writes [in] words with renewed significance in today's politically volatile polarized climate. (Los Angeles Review of Books)[An] extraordinary terrifying account. Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial powerfully exposes the darkest workings of the NKVD the political police. (Times Literary Supplement)This book is exceptional among the voluminous scholarship on Stalin's terror. Lynne Viola has written a fascinating and valuable work. The voices of those hangmen who ultimately became victims of the terror as well as those they arrested provide a stark picture of the Great Terror. The author explores the banality of evil in the Stalinist context: from the daily routine of torture and murder emerges the familiar figure of the self-righteous criminal. (Oleg V. Khlevniuk author of Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator)A research tour de force from one of the leading historians of Stalinism shedding remarkable new light on what happened at the end of the Great Purges. A 'must read' for scholars and students of the Soviet period. (Sheila Fitzpatrick author of Everyday Stalinism)Stalinist Perpetrators draws back the curtain on how the Stalinist Terror actually operated (not just how the state ordered it but how it happened in provincial offices and prison cells. Her subject is the 'purge of the purgers' the trial and often execution of the men responsible for the Terror. The nature of her source material)The Stalinist purges of the late 1930s stand as one of the most horrific episodes of state terror in the twentieth century. Yet the perpetrators of those crimes have remained anonymous for many decades protected mainly by the rules of historical access in Russia. Now Lynne Viola working in Ukrainian archives provides the first remarkable study of the perpetrators. In this groundbreaking book we see for the first time who these individuals were their backgrounds what brought them to their position of life and death decisions what life was like for them and their families during such a time. Most important Viola examines with keen and dispassionate acumen how Stalin's murderers justified the torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. This is a disturbing book and one that needs to be read. (David Shearer author of Stalin and the Lubianka: A Documentary History of the Political Police and Security Organs in the Soviet Union 1922-1953)The story of Stalin's terror is well known except for one dimension: the fate of those among the tormentors who were themselves swept into the meat grinder. As well as lifting the cover from this less well-known part of the story Viola explains in great detail the interaction between what was commanded from above and what flowed from forces at the ground level. (Foreign Affairs) Reseña del editor Between the summer of 1937 and November 1938 the Stalinist regime arrested over 1.5 million people for counterrevolutionary and anti-Soviet activity and either summarily executed or exiled them to the Gulag. While we now know a great deal about the experience of victims of the Great Terror we know almost nothing about the lower- and middle-level Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD) or secret police cadres who carried out Stalin's murderous policies. Unlike the postwar public trials of Nazi war criminals NKVD operatives were tried secretly. And what exactly happened in those courtrooms was unknown until now. In what has been dubbed the purge of the purgers almost one thousand NKVD officers were prosecuted by Soviet military courts. Scapegoated for violating Soviet law they were charged with multiple counts of fabrication of evidence falsification of interrogation protocols use of torture to secure confessions and murder during pre-trial detention of suspects - and many were sentenced to execution themselves. The documentation generated by these trials including verbatim interrogation records and written confessions signed by perpetrators; testimony by victims witnesses and experts; and transcripts of court sessions provides a glimpse behind the curtains of the terror. It depicts how the terror was implemented what happened and who was responsible demonstrating that orders from above worked in conjunction with a series of situational factors to shape the contours of state violence. Based on chilling and revelatory new archival documents from the Ukrainian secret police archives Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial illuminates the darkest recesses of Soviet repression ― the interrogation room the prison cell and the place of execution ― and sheds new light on those who carried out the Great Terror. Biografía del autor Lynne Viola is Professor of History at the University of Toronto. She is the author of The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin's Special Settlements Peasant Rebels Under Stalin The Best Sons of the Fatherland co-editor of Russian Peasant Women and editor/co-editor of six other books. Viola is a recipient of the Thomas Henry Pentland Molson Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. | politics |
https://www.bhecnj.org/people/ | 2022-08-10T11:39:11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571153.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20220810100712-20220810130712-00366.warc.gz | 0.946743 | 328 | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-33__0__79030562 | en | Melanie R. Walter is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA). Before joining NJHMFA in January 2021, Walter previously served as Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Director of the Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) And Former Deputy Attorney General. In the role of DCA Director of the Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) and Local Finance Board Chairwoman, Ms. Walter advocated for local government interests, revitalizing the Division’s supportive initiatives and developing grant programs while overseeing the financial and operational regulation of New Jersey local units to help ensure fiscal solvency. Through these functions, she championed transparency measures as well as expansive open data and local education programming and enhanced local procurement, municipal officer certification, and distressed municipality resources. More recently, Ms. Walter has developed and implemented numerous COVID-19 response and recovery measures. Prior to joining DCA in 2018, Walter served as Deputy Attorney General in the New Jersey Division of Law’s Personnel, Community Affairs, and Elections section. In that capacity, she counseled several departments, handling a broad array of complex counseling and litigation matters for the Department of Community Affairs, the Civil Service Commission, and other state agencies. Ms. Walter, a New Jersey native, earned her Juris Doctor from the College of William and Mary School of Law, her master’s in public policy from the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William and Mary, and her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Mary Washington. She is a member of the New Jersey and Virginia bars. | politics |
http://www.medicalmj.org/ | 2016-06-29T14:31:29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00093-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.941233 | 4,353 | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2016-26__0__105341559 | en | This article was produced in collaboration with AlterNet and first appeared here.
A broadly-backed initiative to legalize marijuana in the country's most populous state will be on the California ballot in November. The secretary of state's office made it official Tuesday afternoon, certifying that a random sample of more than 600,000 signatures turned in showed there were enough valid signatures to qualify the measure.
[image:1 align:left]"Today marks a fresh start for California, as we prepare to replace the costly, harmful and ineffective system of prohibition with a safe, legal and responsible adult-use marijuana system that gets it right and completely pays for itself," said Jason Kinney, spokesperson for the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA).
"This measure reflects years of hard work, diverse stakeholder input and broad, bipartisan public support, Kinney continued. "A growing majority of Californians support a smarter approach to marijuana and we’re gratified that voters will finally have the opportunity in November to pass comprehensive, common-sense policy that protects children, local control, public health and public safety, saves state and local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, funds critical local programs, and serves as a model for the rest of the nation."
California joins Maine and Nevada among states that have qualified marijuana legalization initiatives for the fall ballot. In two more states—Arizona and Massachusetts—legalization initiative campaigns are overcoming final hurdles and are almost certain to join them, but a valiant effort in Michigan faces an uphill battle, forced to rely on the courts to overturn a new state law and unfavorable election board rulings.
Pot is already legal in four states, voted in by residents in Colorado and Washington in 2012 and Alaska and Oregon in 2014. Washington, DC, approved possession and cultivation, but not a legal marijuana market, that same year.
Seeing more states go green in 2016 is one thing, but California is the Big Enchilada. With a population of 38 million, its market is more than twice the size of all the legal pot states combined, and it represents more than 10% of the entire country. What is currently a legal pot industry generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales will easily tick over into multi-billion dollar territory once California joins in.
And it looks like that's likely to happen. A Probolsky Research poll in February had support for legalization at 59.6%. A Public Policy Institute of California poll in May had support at 55%, but at 60% among likely voters.
Poll numbers like these are encouraging for proponents, but skeptics can point to the failed Proposition 19 effort in 2010, which came up short with 47% of the vote after polling above 50% for months that year.
This year should be different, though. The AUMA has broad support, beginning with charismatic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and including the state Democratic Party, at least three members of the California congressional delegation, a number of state assembly members and other elected officials, the state NAACP, the state ACLU, the California Cannabis Industry Association, and the California Medical Association, as well as prominent figures in law enforcement.
It also has money, and a winning initiative campaign in California will need millions. The AUMA has some deep pockets behind it, including tech billionaire Sean Parker and Weedmaps founder Justin Hartfield, both of whom have dropped million dollar chunks of change into the campaign. The Drug Policy Action Network, the lobbying arm of the Drug Policy Alliance, has also kicked in at least $500,000.
The AUMA's campaign fundraising committee has raised $3.7 million so far this year, which is a good start and dwarfs the amount raised by the opposition Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies, composed of law enforcement and health groups such as the California Police Chiefs Association, the California State Sheriffs Association, and the California Hospital Association. The cops and docs have only managed a paltry $125,000 so far, thanks to donations from groups such as the Association of LA Deputy Sheriffs and the LA County Professional Peace Officers Association.
And it isn't 2010 anymore. Since Prop 19 failed, marijuana legalization has now won in every state where it's been on the ballot, and the whole national atmosphere around seems to have relaxed. And unlike 2010, this is a presidential election year, with higher turnout, especially among young voters, than is seen in off-year elections. The omens are good.
So what would the AUMA do? According to the campaign website (read the complete initiative text here):
- Adults aged 21+ will be allowed to possess marijuana, and grow small amounts at home for personal use. Sale of marijuana will be legal and highly regulated to protect consumers and kids. [Possession of up to an ounce and cultivation of up to six plants]
- This measure brings California’s marijuana market out into the open – much like the alcohol industry. It will be tracked, controlled, regulated and taxed, and we will no longer be criminalizing responsible adults or incarcerating children.
- Includes toughest-in-the-nation protections for children, our most vulnerable citizens.
- Protects workers, small businesses, law enforcement and local communities.
- According to the independent Legislative Analyst and Governor’s Finance Director, these reforms will save the state and local government up to $100 million annually in reduced taxpayer costs – and raise up to $1 billion in new tax revenues annually.
- Majority of revenues will be allocated to teen drug prevention and treatment, training law enforcement to recognize driving under the influence of drugs, protecting the environment from the harms of illegal marijuana cultivation, and supporting economic development in communities disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition
- AUMA includes strict anti-monopoly provisions and protects small farmers, so California’s marijuana industry isn’t overrun by mega-corporations.
- The measure builds on the bipartisan legislation signed by Governor Brown to control and regulate California’s medical marijuana industry, and is modeled after national best practices, lessons learned from other states, and the recommendations of the Lieutenant Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy.
Whether the AUMA is the best way to go about legalizing marijuana in California is certainly debatable, and it does have its critics within the state's cannabis culture, but this is what's going to be before the voters in November.
The Democratic Party adopts a marijuana reform plank, scientists complain about marijuana research obstacles, Myanmar moves to reform a punitive drug law, the UN reports plentiful heroin supplies despite a bad harvest in Afghanistan last year, and more.
[image:1 align:right caption:true]Marijuana Policy
Democrats Approve Marijuana Reform -- But Not Outright Legalization -- Platform Plank. The Democratic National Committee panel drafting the party's 2016 platform has approved language supporting marijuana law reform, but failed to approve language calling for removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances act. The approved language is as follows: "We believe that the states should be laboratories for democracy on the issue of marijuana, and those states that want to decriminalize marijuana should be able to do so. We support policies that will allow more research to be done on marijuana, as well as reforming our laws to allow legal marijuana businesses to exist without uncertainty. And we recognize our current marijuana laws have had an unacceptable disparate impact, with arrest rates for marijuana possession among African-Americans far outstripping arrests among whites despite similar usage rates."
Scientists Claims US Government Still Limiting Marijuana Research. In a letter published in Science, a group of scientists say the US government is still holding back research into marijuana. "This has created a truly unique and an unnecessary paradox in modern medicine, in which physicians are authorizing treatments to patients, and patients are regularly using medication without a scientific basis of knowledge on patient outcomes, forced rather to rely only on scientifically invalid or anecdotal information," said lead signatories Sarah Stith and Jacob Vigil of the University of New Mexico. The letter comes as the DEA is considering whether to reschedule marijuana.
Maine Legalization Initiative Will Appear on Ballot as Question 1. The initiative from the Maine Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has been designated Question 1 on the November ballot by Secretary of State Matt Dunlap. The final wording of the ballot question reads: "Do you want to allow the possession and use of marijuana under state law by persons who are at least 21 years of age, and allow the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, testing, and sale of marijuana and marijuana products subject to state regulation, taxation and local ordinance?"
Massachusetts ACLU Endorses Legalization Initiative. The Bay State chapter of the ACLU has officially endorsed the initiative from the Massachusetts Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. The initiative is waiting for a second round of turned-in signatures to be counted before it is officially qualified for the ballot.
US Supreme Court Won't Hear Montana Medical Marijuana Appeal. The nation's high court refused Monday to hear a challenge to a state law that limits medical marijuana providers to selling it to no more than three patients. In refusing to hear the case, the high court let stand a Montana Supreme Court decision upholding most of a state law that effectively overturned a 2004 voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. New restrictions are now set to go into effect on August 31.
Pennsylvania Finishes Drafting Temporary Medical Marijuana Regulations. State health officials announced last Friday that they have completed drafting temporary regs that will allow child patients to use medical marijuana products from outside the state while the state's program is being set up. Applications should be available at the health department's website sometime next month.
Heroin and Prescription Opioids
UN Says Still Plenty of Heroin Despite Opium Production Decline. In its World Drug Report 2016, released last Thursday, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that global opium production declined by 40% last year because of a poor harvest in Afghanistan, the world's leading producer, but that the harvest there in 2014 was among the largest on record, meaning that last year's decline was "unlikely" to lead to "major shortages" of heroin because traffickers have built up huge stockpiles in past years.
Danes Favor Marijuana Legalization, Even as Government Vows Crackdown. A Gallup poll has support for marijuana legalization at 45%, with 41% opposed. The poll comes days after the most recent crackdown on Pusher Street in Copenhagen's hippy enclave of Christiania, and the government says it doesn't care what the survey found. "I do not support legal cannabis and the Gallup figures don't change that," said Health Minister Sophie Lohde. "It's possible that some things would be easier if we let loose but I fear that legal cannabis would result in more people developing a substance abuse problem. And that particularly applies to young people."
Myanmar Government Moves to Reform Punitive Drug Laws. The government will push to delete provisions of the country's drug law that require drug users to register with the authorities on pain of imprisonment if they don't. Colonel Zaw Win Tun of the Myanmar Police Force said the provisions violate the country's human rights obligations under the UN Charter. "The existing law states drug users shall register and if not, they shall be imprisoned. Now we are trying to amend the law and remove the provision [requiring drug users to register]," he said. A bill to change the law was submitted to parliament earlier but has not been acted on. The government said it will now move on the bill.
Colombia, FARC Rebels Sign Ceasefire Agreement. Colombia's 50-year-long civil war is now winding down. Government officials and FARC representatives signed a ceasefire agreement last week in Havana and agreed to work together on coca crop substitution programs. The FARC also agreed to combat cocaine trafficking and the government has promised to engage in massive spending for alternative development. Will either actually happen? Read on.
House Republicans blocked an effort to open up banking for marijuana businesses, an Oregon worker fired for medical marijuana use wins his job back, DEA agents get new marching orders on hookers, the Thai government grapples with methamphetamine policy, and more.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]Marijuana Policy
House Turns Back Effort to Give Pot Businesses Access to Banks. The Republican-led House Wednesday voted down an amendment to the FY 2017 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act that would have blocked federal regulators from punishing financial institutions for working with state-legal marijuana businesses. A similar amendment had passed the Senate last week.
Nevada Legalization Effort Has Raised Nearly $300,000 This Year. The Nevada Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has raised $285,000 so far this year, with more than half coming in a two-day period earlier this month when local marijuana companies made significant donations. The campaign's legalization initiative has qualified for the November ballot. Opposition groups made no reports of donations this reporting period.
Oregon Takes in Nearly $15 Million in Pot Taxes So Far This Year. As of May 30, the state Department of Revenue had processed $14.9 million in marijuana tax payments this year, the agency said Wednesday. Medical marijuana dispensaries authorized to sell to any adult 21 or over began collecting the tax in January.
New Mexico Auditor Bemoans Delays in Processing ID Cards. The state auditor and the attorney general are investigating a backlog of medical marijuana ID card applications as requests for the cards surge. The state has 30 days to issue the issue the cards, but the Department of Health said it is taking 45-50 days, and the auditor's office said it had complaints of wait times of up to 90 days.
Oregon Worker Fired for Medical Marijuana Wins Jobs Back. An arbitrator has ordered Lane County to reinstate a worker it fired because he used medical marijuana to deal with the side effects of cancer treatment and it has ordered the county to give him nearly $22,000 in back pay. Michael Hirsh had been employed as a senior programmer for the county before he was fired in December after two employees reported smelling pot smoke on his clothing.
Heroin and Prescription Opioids
New York Governor Signs Heroin Bill Package. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) Wednesday signed into law a package of bills aimed at the state's heroin and prescription opioid problems. The bills, which address prevention, treatment, and insurance coverage, should produce an additional 270 treatment beds and more than 2,000 slots for drug treatment programs. The bills also require insurance companies to wait 14 days before denying coverage to drug users deemed in need of drug treatment, and it limits initial prescriptions for opioids for severe pain to seven days.
No Prostitutes for DEA Agents. In the wake of scandalous behavior by DEA agents in Colombia during the 2012 Summit of the Americas, the DEA has instituted a one-strike policy for agents caught patronizing prostitutes. "Solicitation of prostitution on duty or off duty, whether you're in a jurisdiction where it is legal or illegal, first time offense -- removal," DEA administrator Chuck Rosenberg told a Senate panel Wednesday.
UN Releases Annual Global Drug Report -- 250 Million Adults Used a Drug Last Year. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime has released the World Drug Report 2016, and notes that 5% of the adult population has used at least one drug in the past year. The UN also reported that the number of people classified as suffering from a dependency disorder climbed to more than 29 million, up from 27 million the previous year.
Thailand Won't Legalize Meth, But Will Remove it From List of Dangerous Drugs. Thai Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya has walked back talk about legalizing the amphetamine, but now says the country will work to reform its drug laws by removing meth from its list of hard drugs like heroin and recognizing a distinction between traffickers and users, workers, and addicts.
Relative Addictive Properties of Various Commonly Used Drugs
Source: Dr. Jack E. Henningfield, Ph.D. for NIDA. Reported by: Philip J. Hilts, New York Times, Aug. 2, 1994 "Is Nicotine Addictive? It Depends on Whose Criteria You Use."
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The Union, 27 Jun 2016 - Medical marijuana advocates bristled at a Monday meeting over suggested grow regulations, saying the proposed plant count restrictions go too far. Grow supporters also opposed the creation of a per-plant, per-day fine for violators of any new marijuana ordinance, though some advocates indicated they'd support the fines if their implementation was postponed a year.
The Daily Astorian, 27 Jun 2016 - Supreme Court Won't Hear an Appeal Challenging Montana Law That Limits Medical Marijuana Providers to Selling the Drug to Three Patients Each WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal challenging a Montana law that limits medical marijuana providers to selling the drug to a maximum of three patients each.
The Mail Tribune, 27 Jun 2016 - SALEM (AP) - Sales and tax figures collected by state agencies may finally solve one of Oregon's long-running farm crop questions: whether marijuana is indeed the state's most valuable crop, as cannabis advocates have maintained. Tight controls and reporting requirements by the Oregon Department of Revenue and Oregon Liquor Control Commission should result in accurate information about pot, said Bruce Pokarney, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture. The department compiles an annual list of the state's most valuable crops.
The Mail Tribune, 26 Jun 2016 - RESIDENTS COMPLAIN DURING POT HEARING Threats to put anti-pot measures on the ballot were juxtaposed against complaints about overregulation during a packed meeting Thursday evening about the future of the burgeoning marijuana industry in Josephine County.
Albuquerque Journal, 26 Jun 2016 - Former Sheriff Who Uses Medical Cannabis Can't Legally Own a Firearm Former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White says he is no longer a certified law enforcement officer, doesn't have a concealed handgun carry license but does own a firearm.
Washington Post, 26 Jun 2016 - THEY ALL WANT TO PROFIT FROM MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN MARYLAND The people lining up to profit from Maryland's legal medical-marijuana market include former sheriffs and state lawmakers, wealthy business executives and well-connected political donors, according to previously undisclosed public records obtained by The Washington Post.
Port St. Lucie Tribune, 24 Jun 2016 - The 1936 film "Reefer Madness" wound up becoming a campy cult classic because the movie, originally designed as a warning about the dangers of marijuana use, so overdramatized the issue that it's message simply couldn't be taken seriously. Now, with a slew of new polls showing Floridians overwhelmingly support the legalization of medical marijuana, opponents of Amendment 2 - the proposed constitutional amendment to legalize medical pot - are themselves edging closer to unintentional satire.
Los Angeles Times, 25 Jun 2016 - When Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2012, opponents of the new law warned that more teenagers would start using the drug. But teen use of marijuana has held steady, according to a new survey of nearly 17,000 high school and middle school students by the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
The Salinas Californian, 25 Jun 2016 - Commercialized medical pot is a go in Salinas, but businesses are a ways from hanging a shingle. Since it started accepting applications for commercialized medical marijuana on June 6, the city has not received any applicants. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, July 6. But City Attorney Chris Callihan said he isn't worried. | politics |
https://old.gruni.edu.ge/menu_id/100/id/1059/lang/2 | 2022-11-30T12:56:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710764.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20221130124353-20221130154353-00596.warc.gz | 0.919422 | 433 | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-49__0__158698042 | en | With the initiative of Max Plank Institute for International and Foreign Criminal Law (Freiburg), Grigol Robakidze University and the Caucasus Centre for Mediation and Conflict Prevention “Consensus”, under the financial assistance of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Ministry of Federal Foreign Affairs of Germany, the International Scientific Conference “Legal aspects of violence and conflict prevention” was held on may 20-24, 2013. The conference was opened in “Courtyard Marriott”.
Doctor of Law of Max Plank Institute for International and Foreign Criminal Law, Honorary Doctor of Grigol Robakidze University, initiator and head of the project Eliko Tsiklauri-Lammich, Rector of Grigol Robakidze University, Professor Mamuka Tavkhelidze, ex-Judge of the International Court in Strasbourg, Mindia Ugrekhelidze, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Professor Hans-Jörg Albrecht, Head of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Elisabeth Venohr welcomed the participants of the conference.
Together with Georgian colleagues, scholars and representatives of governmental and non-governmental circles of Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan participated in the conference during four days.
Within the scope of the conference, the Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Mr. Konstantine Kublashvili hosted the delegation. The issues concerning the independent court were discussed during the meeting. Besides, the delegation visited the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.
On May 23, 2013 the conference was continued at Grigol Robakidze University. The existing situation in the penitentiary system and the problems of prisoners’ conditions were discussed on the conference; also were analyzed the reform of the penitentiary system, independence of judiciary, legal aspect of prevention of economic crime, etc.
On May 24, 2013 Merab Berdzenishvili International Cultural Centre “Muza” hosted the delegation. | politics |
http://www.abhijna-emuseum.com/museums-of-india/nehru-memorial-museum-library-new-delhi/ | 2024-04-17T05:38:55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817144.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20240417044411-20240417074411-00832.warc.gz | 0.96052 | 2,685 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__12571903 | en | The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, India. The Museum at Teen Murti House primarily developed as a personalia museum is a National Memorial to Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India and was established in the year 1966.
Mission and Objectives:
The Nehru Memorial Museum and was established under the following objectives
- To maintain a Museum of Jawaharlal Nehru personalia, memorabilia, mementoes and other objects pertaining to his life and the Indian freedom movement.
- To acquire, maintain and preserve papers of nationalist leaders of Modem India and other eminent Indians who distinguished themselves in any field.
- To establish and maintain a library on the history of Modem India.
- To organize, undertake, conduct, encourage and promote study and research in the field of modem Indian history.
- To institute and award fellowships and to foster academic contacts within India as well as with other countries through exchange of personnel and research materials.
Inside the museum some of the rooms, such as the bedroom, the drawing room and the study room have been preserved as they were at the time of Jawaharlal Nehru’s death.
The Museum portrays through visual media the life and work of a heroic individual, who was the leader of India’s struggle for freedom, the architect of modern India, and a passionate champion of world peace. It gives an intimate glimpse of Nehru’s rich and complex personality; the radical nationalist and world statesman; the scholar, idealist and historian; the man of strong family affections, who also bestowed his love on the common people of India. The Museum is not only a place where people come to pay homage to the departed leader; it also tells them of his achievements and highlights the ideals cherished by him.
A massive granite rock put up in the front lawn is inscribed with excerpts from the historic “Tryst with Destiny” speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru in the midnight session of the Indian Constituent Assembly on August 14-15, 1947. Excerpts from the “Will and Testament” have also been inscribed in Hindi and English on two marble tablets which visitors see as they walk up to the main building. The “Will and Testament” is more than a will; it is a moving testimony to his deep love for India and her people.
A series of interlinked exhibitions have been mounted in the Museum which provide a vivid account of the life and work of Jawaharlal Nehru, against the background of the struggle for political freedom in India through contemporary photographs, photocopies of manuscripts, letters, newspapers, periodicals and other documentary materials. Significant events portrayed in the exhibitions are India’s response to the West; Revolt of 1857; genesis of the Indian National Congress; Home Rule Movement, emergence of Gandhi; Non-cooperation Movement; Civil Disobedience Movement; demand for Pakistan; Cripps Mission; ‘Quit India’ Movement; formation of the Indian National Army; Cabinet Mission; events leading to the independence and partition of India in 1947 and the process of framing of the Constitution of India.
Another attraction is the gifts gallery which displays some of the most beautiful gifts received by Nehru during his travels in India and abroad. In addition to the permanent display in the Museum, special exhibitions are arranged periodically to depict different facets of Nehru’s life and phases of the Indian national movement.
The old Museum Sales Counter which has been converted into a new Souvenir Shop in the ground floor of Teen Murti House has souvenirs, books, photographs and audio cassettes of the selected speeches of Nehru.
The campus has a protected monument called ‘Kushak Mahal’ which was probably used as a hunting lodge (shikargah) and was built during the reign of Firuz Shah Tughluk (A.D. 1351-88)
The Nehru Museum remains open from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm on all days, except Mondays. Guides are provided free of cost to conduct visitors in groups around the Museum. On an average, more than 10,000 visitors throng these galleries daily to know and experience our struggle for freedom and the making of a resurgent India.
Millions of admiring and grateful countrymen, from all walks of life and different parts of India, international dignitaries and tourists have passed through the legend-filled rooms and corridors of the Nehru Museum at Teen Murti House and its lawns.
It is a matter of pride that the Museum continues to maintain its popularity even after four decades of the passing away of Jawaharlal Nehru.
Will and Testament
I have received so much love and affection from the Indian people that nothing that I can do can repay even a small fraction of it, and indeed there can be no repayment of so precious a thing as affection. Many have been admired, some have been revered, but the affection of all classes of the Indian people has come to me in such abundant measure that I have been overwhelmed by it. I can only express the hope that in the remaining years I may live, I shall not be unworthy of my people and their affection.
To my innumerable comrades and colleagues, I owe an even deeper debt of gratitude. We have been joint partners in great undertakings and have shared the triumphs and sorrows which inevitably accompany them.
I wish to declare with all earnestness that I do not want any religious ceremonies performed for me after my death. I do not believe in any such ceremonies and to submit to them, even as a matter of form would be hypocrisy and an attempt to delude ourselves and others.
When I die, I should like my body to be cremated. If I die in a foreign country, my body should be cremated there and my ashes sent to Allahabad. A small handful of these ashes should be thrown into the Ganga and the major portion of them disposed of in the manner indicated below. No part of these ashes should be retained or preserved.
My desire to have a handful of my ashes thrown into the Ganga at Allahabad has no religious significance, so far as I am concerned. I have no religious sentiment in the matter. I have been attached to the Ganga and the Jamuna rivers in Allahabad ever since my childhood and, as I have grown older, this attachment has also grown. I have watched their varying moods as the seasons changed, and have often thought of the history and myth and tradition and song and story that have become attached to them through the long ages and become part of their flowing waters. The Ganga, especially, is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her racial memories, her hopes and fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of India’s age long culture and civilization, ever changing, ever-flowing, and yet ever the same Ganga. She reminds me of the snow- covered peaks and the deep valleys of the Himalayas, which I have loved so much, and of the rich and vast plains below, where my life and work have been cast. Smiling and dancing in the morning sunlight, and dark and gloomy and full of mystery as the evening shadows fall, a narrow, slow and graceful stream in winter, and a vast roaring thing during the monsoon, broad-bosomed almost as the sea, and with something of the sea’s power to destroy, the Ganga has been to me a symbol and a memory of the past of India, running into the present and flowing on to the great ocean of the future. And though I have discarded much of past tradition and custom, and am anxious that India should rid herself of all shackles that bind and constrain her and divide her people, and suppress vast numbers of them, and prevent the free development of the body and the spirit; though I seek all this, yet I do not wish to cut myself off from the past completely. I am proud of that great inheritance that has been, and is ours, and I am conscious that I too, like all of us, am a link in that unbroken chain which goes back to the dawn of history in the immemorial past of India. That chain I would not break, for I treasure it and seek inspiration from it. And as witness of this desire of mine and as my last homage to India’s cultural inheritance, I am making this request that a handful of my ashes be thrown into the Ganga at Allahabad to be carried to the great ocean that washes India’s shore.
The major portion of my ashes should, however, be disposed of otherwise. I want these to be carried high up into the air in an airplane and scattered from that height over the fields where the peasants of India toil, so that they might mingle with the dust and soil of India and become an indistinguishable part of India.
21st June, 1954
‘Tryst with Destiny’ Speech in the Constituent Assembly at midnight of 14-15 August 1947 on the eve of independence
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future ?
Freedom and power bring responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now. Nevertheless the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.
That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our works will not be over.
And so we have to labour and to work and work hard to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for anyone of them to imagine that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.
To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell.
I beg to move, Sir.
“That it be resolved that:
(1) After the last stroke of midnight, all members of the Constituent Assembly present on this occasion do take the following pledge:
At this solemn moment when the people of India, through suffering and sacrifice, have secured freedom, I, ……….., a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, do dedicate myself in all humility to the service of India and her people to the end that this ancient land attain her rightful place in the world and make her full and willing contribution to the promotion of world peace and the welfare of mankind.
(2) Members who are not present on this occasion do take the pledge (with such verbal changes at the President may prescribe) at the time they next attend a session of the Assembly.” | politics |
https://lansingburghhistoricalsociety.org/people/kate-m-dudden/ | 2021-03-03T07:52:08 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178366477.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20210303073439-20210303103439-00460.warc.gz | 0.984985 | 845 | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-10__0__98029287 | en | Kate M. Dudden
The election for a trustee, district clerk and librarian, passed off very quietly, although there was a very large vote polled taking in consideration the fact that there was but one ticket in the field, namely; the ticket headed by Mr. Robert C. Haskell. The ladies were deeply interested and worked like beavers, they proved themselves to be quite able politicians, running carriages, and button holing voters, etc.
The whole number of votes cast was 283, of which Robt. C. Haskell, received 277 for trustee, Frank Mills 2, James Orr, 1, John M. Chambers for District clerk, 282, blank 1. Mrs. Kate M. Dudden, received 282 votes for librarian, blank 1. [Her husband Jacob Dudden had previously been the librarian; he would die December 29, 1882.]
—Mrs. Dudden has the honor of being the first lady ever elected to any office in the town of Lansingburgh.
Lansingburgh Courier. October 13, 1881: 3 col 2.
The school election in Lansingburgh yesterday was unparalleled in the history of the village. Heretofore such an election has been a tame affair, but yesterday 998 votes were cast, of which John G. O’Bryan received 500 and Charley H. Dauchy 496. The remainder of the ticket had no opposition, and James M. Snyder for district clerk and Mrs. Kate Dudden for librarian received the full vote cast. The friends of each side worked hard for their candidate. About 225 ladies voted. Either side challenged voters frequently, some of the ladies being among those whose right to vote was disputed—on the ground of non-residence, it being claimed that they were imported from Troy. A number of colored women were among those who voted. The excitement ran high during the entire four hours the polls were open, and several counts of the ballots cast were necessary to ascertain the correct result. Mr. O’Bryan was reelected.
Troy Daily Times. October 11, 1883: 3 col 1.
The election for school district officials in district number one was held on Wednesday last. John G. O’Bryan was re-elected trustee, James M. Snyder was elected district clerk and Mrs. Kate M. Dudden was re-elected librarian. For librarian and clerk there was no opposition, but the contest for trustee between Mr. O’Bryan and Charles H. Dauchy was the most exciting ever witnessed in Lansingburgh. The result was that 998 votes were polled during the four hours in which the election was held. Of these O’Bryan received 500 and Dauchy 498. Nearly 300 women voted on this occasion. Indeed, they were among the most active workers in the canvass.
Lansingburgh Courier. October 13, 1883: 3 col 2.
Caroline Gilkey Rogers gave a very interesting account of her work for School Suffrage in the village of Lansingburgh, N. Y. […]
At the third and last election nine hundred and ninety-eight votes were polled; two hundred and fifty-two women voted. We made it a gala-day, as usual. The parlors of our candidate, [Kate M. Dudden] being near [i.e. 649 1st Avenue], were made headquarters for women—windows thrown open and filled with flowers and young ladies. So from a male vote of about fifty we have in three years carried it up to one thousand, and both men and women seem now impressed with the propriety of mothers, wives and sisters having a voice in the question. In examining the tax books of the town I find women pay one-fourth of the taxes, and why should they not have a voice in the public interests they are taxed to support?
National Woman Suffrage Association. Report of the Sixteenth Annual Washington Convention, March 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, 1884. Rochester, NY: Charles Mann, 1884. 66-67. | politics |
https://www.museumofwalking.org.uk/events/walgett-freedom-rides/ | 2024-02-24T23:00:26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474569.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20240224212113-20240225002113-00672.warc.gz | 0.974663 | 317 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__199513496 | en | Date(s) - 25/09/2019
10:00 am - 11:00 am
Walgett Post Office
Walgett was where the Freedom Ride exploded onto the national stage. It was the place, as Charlie Perkins said, which was the first big test of moral courage. “Are you with it? Or are you against it? Are you fair dinkum? Or are you not?” It was the place where the Freedom Rides students found the discrimination they were looking for and an Aboriginal population who were prepared to stand up and fight. Two confrontations thrust the issue of racial discrimination onto the front pages of newspapers for the first time in Australian history. The students highlighted Walgett RSL and its refusal to admit Aboriginal Diggers to its membership. It was only 20 years since World War II and the debt the country owed to its soldiers – whether black or white – was fresh in the collective memory. Later, the rash action of a young man running the Freedom bus off the road captured the attention of the national media. As one Freedom Rider would later say, “As city dwellers, we just had no idea of this hostility. It was palpable. You could feel it.” From that moment on, the Freedom Riders knew they were making history. Come journey on this powerful geo locative audio walk and experience the inside story.
There will be a led walk over the route on 25th September. Meet outside Post office at 10am. The walk will end with elders and Aboriginal dancing in the park. | politics |
https://www.thetech.com/2007/03/23/long5-v127-n14 | 2023-09-27T07:42:40 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510284.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20230927071345-20230927101345-00464.warc.gz | 0.980574 | 615 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__321831655 | en | Edwards Says Presidential Bid 'Goes On' Despite His Wife's Breast Cancer
John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat, said Thursday that his wife's cancer had returned, but that his bid for the presidency "goes on strongly."
"The campaign goes on, the campaign goes on strongly," he said, with his wife, Elizabeth, at his side.
Edwards said he learned earlier this week that the cancer had reappeared in his wife's rib cage and that the couple recognized that it was no longer curable, though it could be managed with treatment.
Asked by a reporter whether recurrence of the cancer would cause him to suspend any campaign activities, such as fundraising or travel, Edwards said no. "We know from our previous experience that when this happens you have a choice, you can go cower in the corner and hide, or you can be tough and go out there and stand up for what you believe in," he said.
"Both of us are committed to the cause and we're committed to changing this country that we love so much and we have no intention of cowering in the corner," Edwards said.
He said that after the news conference they would leave together for New York and Boston, and then to California on Friday.
The announcement came a day after Edwards canceled a campaign appearance in Iowa to rush home to join his wife at a visit with doctors who are monitoring her treatment for breast cancer. He attended a fund-raising picnic here Wednesday night.
Mrs. Edwards received her original diagnosis of breast cancer at the end of the 2004 campaign, but deferred a public announcement until after the election results came in. Edwards has said he waited to announce a second bid for the presidency until he and Mrs. Edwards' doctors were confident about her recovery.
Edwards is considered a top contender for the presidency. Although he tends to finish third in national polls behind Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, he is leading in some early polls in Iowa, which holds the first nominating contests in the nation. Edwards finished second in the Iowa caucuses in 2004, making him an obvious contender for the vice presidential nomination with the eventual nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
This year he has placed special emphasis on winning the Iowa contest. He has visited the state 19 times since early 2005 and has said that he believes winning the caucuses is crucial to his chances of capturing the nomination.
Edwards has staked out a position to the left of most of the other Democratic contenders, invoking populist language and imagery to appeal to working class and middle class Democratic primary voters.
He advocates an immediate withdrawal of 50,000 troops from Iraq and virtually complete disengagement by the end of next year. He has proposed an ambitious and expensive plan for universal health care. He would pay for the $90 billion to $120 billion health care plan by repealing the Bush-sponsored tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This week, he announced a plan to combat global warming and reduce dependence on imported oil. | politics |
https://bikesprings.org/Blog/8860868 | 2021-02-26T06:43:24 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178356232.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20210226060147-20210226090147-00151.warc.gz | 0.986986 | 134 | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-10__0__214782602 | en | The 3/26/20 state stay-at-home order issued by Governor Polis and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has been amended to include bicycle repair as an essential service. Bike shops around the state can now stay open to serve their clients.
As soon as Bicycle Colorado reviewed the stay-at-home order and realized that bike shops were not considered to be essential services, they got to work. They contacted the Governors office, CDPHE, Colorado counties and other high ranking organizations to have the law amended to include bicycle repair shops as essential services. Many thanks to Bicycle Colorado!!
Read the revised order here. | politics |
http://www.wilmslowhigh.com/parents/impact-of-national-funding-formula/ | 2017-03-30T14:29:05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218194601.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212954-00349-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.951782 | 1,303 | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-13__0__233021368 | en | National Funding Formula
Are you concerned about the potential impact of the new National Funding Formula for schools?
Thank you for visiting our web page dedicated to the National Funding Formula and how it will affect our school, and all schools across our region.
Our Head Teacher and Chair of Governors first wrote to parents and carers regarding this on 27th January. Please click here for a copy.
The Head Teacher provided parents and carers with an update on 10th February. This letter also included a copy of a letter to parents and carers from George Osborne, MP.
This webpage will provide information about
- why the government is introducing the National Funding Formula
- how the National Funding Formula has been designed
- what might be the impact on children’s education
- how the issue is being reported in the media
- what can be done to raise concerns with the government
Why is the government introducing a National Funding Formula
For many years now it has been widely acknowledged that the way schools are funded is unfair and is described by the DfE themselves as a “postcode lottery”. The level of funding a school receives has been entirely dependent on geography and not on the needs of students nor the costs of running a school in their particular location.
Cheshire East, along with the other 40 lowest funded local authority areas, has long argued that this needed to be tackled through a National Funding Formula.
How has the National Funding Formula been designed?
In December 2016 the Department for Education (DfE) published its proposed design for this National Funding Formula.
The following documents can be accessed from the links below:
Although there is broad agreement about the elements to the National Funding Formula there is widespread concern about the weighting of these elements.
The new funding formula quite rightly proposes to guarantee a fixed amount for each student in the country. The current proposal is that this will be:
- £2711 for primary age pupils from £2905 today being a 6.7% CUT
- £3797 for key stage 3 students from £3998 today representing a 5% CUT and
- £4311 for key stage 4 students from £4779 today representing a 10% CUT
Students will then gain ‘top ups’ to this based on their postcode, prior attainment and eligibility for Free School Meals. The formula currently proposed by the government would allow some students in both primary and secondary schools to gain up to £4,970 more funding per year than other students. As you can imagine, the cumulative effect of this on widening disparities between school budgets will be significant.
What might be the impact on children’s education?
The government’s own calculations indicate that this will mean by April 2019:
- an annual £190,000 cut in the funding for Wilmslow High School
- on top of the 8% real terms reduction in funding for all schools that has been estimated by the National Audit Office as a result of changes to employer pension and National Insurance contributions and the Apprenticeship Levy
This adds up to around £1 million income reduction for Wilmslow High in real terms in 2019 compared to 2014.
This is unsustainable as, despite prudent financial management, our ability to make further efficiency savings without significant impact on the quality of education and other services is limited.
As you will appreciate from the wide range of media comment, the damaging impact will be on not just our school but all schools across Cheshire East and a range of other local authorities.
Cheshire East Council have stated the following:
Schools in Cheshire East will not have enough money to fund a basic education for all their children, including for children with special educational needs
We are certain that the current proposals will leave us with insufficient funds to maintain adequate provision in our schools. If implemented as proposed, this will lead to many or all of the following consequences:
- The number of teachers will reduce and class sizes will increase in primary and secondary schools
- It will be harder to recruit and retain the best teachers
- GCSE and A level courses will be cut leaving our students with fewer options
- Reductions in support staff will lead to less support for vulnerable children
- Opportunities outside the classroom will dwindle or disappear
- Training for teachers will be cut and time to plan lessons will be reduced
- There will insufficient money to keep textbooks, computers and other classroom resources up to date
- Standards in schools across all subjects, including English and mathematics, are likely to fall
The new formula must be sufficient for any of our existing schools to operate effectively regardless of their intake. We support the principle of schools that serve disadvantaged communities receiving additional support but this should not be achieved by making other schools unviable.
How is this issue being reported in the media?
There has been a range of media coverage regarding the NFF and the “school funding crisis” over the last few weeks. You may wish to read more about this by following the following links:
- Call You and Yours: Has your child’s school been hit by public spending cuts?http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0890kf4
What can be done to raise concerns with the government?
We are working on providing further resources to help you support us. However, you may already feel able to take the following steps:
Firstly, write to your local MP
- Tatton George Osborne MP [email protected]
- Macclesfield David Rutley MP [email protected]
- Cheadle and Bramhall Mary Robinson MP [email protected]
Secondly, support the campaign that will be developing through community engagement, representations to the Department for Education and a wide range of media channels.
Thirdly, provide a formal response to the DfE consultation –
- The consultation is open until the 22nd March 2017 and you may wish to refer to the following when preparing your own response:
- The powerpoint presentation shared by Dr Pullé during the recent events for parents and carers
- The outline response that Wilmslow High School will be submitting to the consultation that you might want to use if you plan to submit your own consultation response | politics |
https://whoopsiepiggle.com/2023/01/10/revisiting-2022s-columns/ | 2023-06-07T08:43:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653631.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607074914-20230607104914-00165.warc.gz | 0.974106 | 1,351 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__11474178 | en | In my final column of 2021, I speculated that COVID, climate change and the continued existence of democracy were issues the world would grapple with in 2022.
While COVID has become more manageable, minimized exposure to seasonal illnesses over the past two years has made our immune systems easier targets. Flu viruses and RSV are filling hospitals this year much like COVID did the past two.
Still, we’ve come a long way. Last December, the Omicron variant was making its U.S. debut, shutting down many public places and forcing vulnerable populations to shelter at home yet again.
Baby steps continue worldwide in the effort to address climate change and protect democracy. For now, the environment and essential democratic institutions, such as free and fair elections, remain vulnerable.
Here are updates on other topics I wrote about this year:
Book banning continues to grow, which does little to nothing to prevent students from finding said books. What it does, as it always has, is put a spotlight on certain books, causing sales of those books to explode. I purchased several of the most banned books this year, both for myself and others. It felt great.
However, the majority of books parents have had banned from schools are about LGBTQ people and people of color. Banning these books tells children who are not white and/or heterosexual that their stories do not belong in our libraries and, by extension, our communities. Which is a cruel way to also tell these children that they themselves do not belong in our communities.
Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is a horrific example of power consolidated in a supreme leader. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of Ukraine being forced into the Soviet Union. The world was not paying attention then. This time it is.
The spirit, tenacity and humanity of the Ukrainian people, so exemplified in my friend Allah, whom I wrote about soon after the war began, has done much to garner international support for this country fighting an unprovoked and illegal attack on its sovereignty.
But even with support, tens of thousands of Ukrainians and at least 100,000 Russians have died for one man’s delusions. Furthermore, cities and infrastructure that Ukrainian civilians rely upon for their existence continue to be targeted by Putin.
I pray that this time next year the story of Ukraine will be of its great postwar rebuilding.
Inclusion over ableism
I wrote multiple pieces on equal access and, therefore, equal rights for the disabled. My journey with my daughter, Lyra, a 10-year-old who has Down syndrome, has taught me much. In my lifetime, disability rights have progressed tremendously, yet much work remains.
Lyra’s father sold his house in Akron this fall and bought a new one in Copley so we can have another educational option. At the same time, Lyra was placed for the first time in SAIL (Students Achieving Independent Learning), a newer program at Akron Public Schools for some intellectually disabled students.
Lyra has been so successful in SAIL, we cannot imagine her attending school elsewhere. This is an important reminder that quality public schools are an anchor in keeping people of all socioeconomic levels from leaving cities when they have children.
Justice for all
Akron’s racial disparities and relations were on international display in 2022. As protests were occurring over the police shooting death of Jayland Walker, I wrote about three young Black men spending what ended up being two months in jail.
The three were playing basketball on June 2 in a fenced-in court that has only one usable entrance. They were attacked by four Firestone students with water pellet guns designed to look and sound like automatic rifles. A fight broke out. One of the Firestone four fell back, hit his head and died from a broken occipital bone.
After hearing the account of that night’s events from the Firestone students who’d initiated the attack, the police chief and mayor promoted a misleading narrative. When more information came to light, the three in jail had their bail amounts dramatically reduced and were quickly released.
In October, Donovan Jones, one of the three basketball players, pleaded no contest and was convicted of a first-degree misdemeanor. A trial for the other two will likely occur in February.
Why does Jones have a criminal record for defending himself when the three remaining Firestone students have not been charged for attacking Jones?
Access to museums
After I wrote about Museums for All, a program that facilitates modest fee admissions to museums for families who receive food stamps, I heard from one of my favorite librarians at Akron-Summit County Public Library.
Barb White was the head librarian at the Highland Square branch when my big boys were growing up. Today she’s a deputy director of our fabulous library system. She wrote to tell me that people who do not qualify for food stamps but still cannot afford museum fees can visit area cultural institutions without breaking the bank:
The “Akron-Summit County Library circulates museum passes as part of its Library of Things, and we anticipate increasing the number and variety of museum passes as [our] budget allows. Here’s the link to our Library of Things: https://www.akronlibrary.org/books-more/library-of-things The Museum passes can be found under ‘Recreational.’ ”
As there is a wait for the library passes, it requires planning a visit in advance.
I try to respond to all letters from readers (except those from trolls, naturally). I usually do so right away, but sometimes it takes a few days or weeks.
I was alarmed, therefore, when I accidentally discovered this fall that Gmail was sending many emails from readers to my spam folder. I presume this has been the case for the entire six-plus years I’ve been writing for the Beacon.
I now check my spam folder regularly, but if you never heard back from me and wondered why, that is probably the reason (unless, of course, you’re a troll).
Also note, if you write me an old-fashioned letter with pen and paper and send it to the Beacon’s offices, it will take several days to a few weeks to get to me, but it will get to me.
Thank you, readers. May 2023 bring peace and wisdom to us all.
This column was first published in the Akron Beacon Journal on December 25, 2022. | politics |
https://lafk.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/stonewall-was-a-riot/ | 2019-02-16T12:31:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247480272.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20190216105514-20190216131514-00440.warc.gz | 0.967335 | 1,230 | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-09__0__238761880 | en | We wrote this article for Freedom, Vol 71 no 14.
Stonewall was a riot!
On Saturday 3rd July, approximately a million people came to central London for Pride. Although it was billed as an opportunity to celebrate the events of 40 years ago – the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, followed by the formation of the Gay Liberation Front – it seems that much of that radical history has been forgotten.
Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people – and anarchists – have heard of the “Stonewall Riots”, but are a bit hazy about what actually happened.
At the end of the ’60s, New York City gave LGBT people the chance to find community, or at least escape small-town homophobia. Gays used public spaces, and a number of bars. These were small and dingy, owned by Mafia men who routinely sold watered-down liquor. They charged a cover on the door, and high prices for the booze. The police received regular pay-offs, and in return would usually warn the owners before they staged their raids.
The police had many laws at their disposal, including the New York State Penal Code. Bars which openly served homosexuals, or permitted them to dance with each other, could be labelled “disorderly houses”. Plain-clothes police officers were used to entrap gay men for “soliciting men for the purpose of committing a crime against nature”, while “sumptuary laws” were used against anyone not wearing “gender appropriate clothing”.
The Stonewall Inn was raided in the early hours of Saturday 28th June 1969. Many of those present – especially the street youth, the butches and the drag queens – had been harassed, beaten, arrested and invasively searched by cops. They felt like they had nothing to lose, and every reason to fight back this time. Enough was enough. Stilettos, bottles, coins, and bricks were thrown. The cops found themselves trapped inside the bar, while a crowd of angry queers outside tried to set fire to it. The riots continued for days and nights, with over a thousand people out in the streets on the Wednesday.
The Stonewall Rebellion sparked the Gay Liberation Front, which then organised the first Gay Pride march exactly one year later, on “Christopher Street Liberation Day”. The GLF was explicitly revolutionary, and aligned itself with other radical social movements, for example anti-war protesters and the Black Panther party. The GLF were against patriarchy, against capitalism,against colonialism, against exploitative gay bars, and they organised without a formal, hierarchical structure. These ideas spread quickly, and a GLF group formed in London. Its members established communes, often in squatted houses, and were active on a broad range of issues, seeing the struggle for sexual liberation as part of a wider struggle for all kinds of liberation.
Pride events now happen around the world every year. In some places, it is still a struggle to create this level of public visibility, and fascist groups threaten violence against marchers.
However here, Pride has been de-politicised and increasingly commercialised. From 1999 to 2003, the whole event was re-branded as “Mardi Gras” (copying Sydney, Australia), and the free post-march festival was replaced with a ticketed event, with corporate sponsors. Pride London, a charity, has now taken over the organisation, but followed the same route: a themed parade (not a march, or a protest), with lavishly-decorated floats representing the LGBT “community”, and the latest assimilationist campaigns, for example the “rights” of gay people to get married, get a mortgage, join the military etc. The police, armed forces, and prison service march proudly; this year the Home Office float has one of the loudest sound-systems. Pride is used to sell London as a destination for gay tourists.
The GLF used to urge people to come out, and join in. But each year, participation in the parade is more strictly controlled, the sides are sealed off, and stewards are instructed not to let spectators in. So yes, there are more people coming along to the West End to celebrate Pride, but for them the march is pure spectacle, something to watch go by, not something to be part of. The “gay lifestyle” has been packaged up and sold to us, capitalism continues to see LGBT folk as yet another category of consumer to exploit.
Queer resistance has come in many forms. New York activists questioned the whole notion of “Pride” and created “Gay Shame awards” instead. Here in London, anarch@-queers have set up alternatives to the gay mainstream, and to Pride itself, occupying space both on the march and afterwards. A spoof newspaper, the ‘Pink Pauper’, has appeared twice. Last year’s flyers questioned the need for hate-crime legislation, and criticised police and prison service LGBT recruitment drives. Placards and banners like “Queers Bash Back against Homophobia” “Fuck the Pink Pound”, “Queers against Capitalism” attract the unwelcome attention of the Met, and Pride organisers; both of whom seem to find radical politics much more offensive than, for example, the presence of a float-full of LGBT Shell employees!
Radical queers are active in a range of struggles, and seem to be especially well-represented in No Borders and anti-prison groups. Bent Bars was established last year to link up LGBT prisoners with pen-pals on the outside, and now need more pen-pals. More info at: http://www.co-re.org/joomla/index.php/bent-bars
London anarcha feminist kolektiv: [email protected] | politics |
http://theoaktree.org/blog/2013/02/04/transparency-to-tackle-poverty/ | 2013-06-19T17:23:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708946676/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125546-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.934614 | 626 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-20__0__48438306 | en | Written by Viv Benjamin, Oaktree’s CEO
Company tax dodging is robbing the world’s poor of billions of dollars each year.
This is an injustice. Currently multinational corporations can cheat the world’s poorest nations of their rightful income, and hide behind a veil of secrecy to pull off the trick.
The best available estimates show that developing countries lose $160 billion in unpaid corporate taxes each year – that’s more than the entire developing world receives in aid. It’s enough money to save the lives of 350 million children every year.
And tax dodging is hurting Australia too – total tax evasion is estimated to cost Australia over $40 billion in lost revenue. That’s enough money to pay for education reforms recommended by the Gonski review and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and still have billions left over.
The Government’s latest announcement to expose tax cheats is a welcome step towards transparency and accountability. New legislation could help ensure multinational corporations do not get away with tax dodging without being exposed.
Our next door neighbours East Timor – one of the world’s poorest nations – could benefit from these reforms. They’re missing an estimated $3 billion in revenue due to unpaid corporate taxes. If recovered, these funds could provide desperately needed public infrastructure, schools and hospitals for the East Timorese people.
Globally, greater corporate tax transparency could result in billions of dollars for developing countries to lift themselves out of poverty.
The more money developing countries can collect in their own tax revenue, the less dependent they will be on aid. If multinational companies pay their dues, the world’s poorest nations will be better equipped to sustainably lift themselves out of poverty. It just makes sense, right?
In a few weeks time, I and one thousand other diverse young Australians will road trip to Canberra as part of an Oaktree campaign to ensure our government keeps its promises on foreign aid. We know that good aid works – last year Australian aid saved at least 200,000 lives and put over half a million children in school around the world. But as a South African Cabinet Minister, Trevor Manuel said, “It is a contradiction to support increased development assistance yet turn a blind eye to actions by multinationals and others that undermine the tax base of a developing country.”
Money that is lost to the developing world in unpaid taxes from companies would be enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals several times over. That means tackling global hunger, putting every child in school, treating AIDS victims, providing clean water for all, and radically reducing extreme poverty.
It is possible to end extreme poverty in our lifetime. Our world has the resources. And transparency can help ensure those funds reach the right destination and ultimately the people that need it most.
Viv Benjamin is CEO of the Oaktree Foundation, Australia’s first and largest youth-run aid organisation. Oaktree is running the Roadtrip to End Poverty from March 9 to 16, mobilising over 1,000 youth ambassadors for action on global poverty. | politics |
https://www.sma-sunny.com/en/tag/energy-policy/ | 2024-04-21T23:42:24 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296818067.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20240421225303-20240422015303-00201.warc.gz | 0.96236 | 281 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__117677753 | en | Even after the end of the UN Climate Change Conference, we are still a long way from achieving the 1.5°C target that is urgently needed if we are to avoid the most devastating effects of the global climate crisis. According to calculations by the IEA, even if all the pledges made in Glasgow are actually kept, which is by no means certain, the Earth will still heat up by at least 1.8°C. That is clearly too much. But even though the results of COP26 are disappointing, there was also progress in some areas.
It has been six years since the world’s nations agreed to limit man-made global warming to significantly below 2 °C in the landmark Paris Agreement. Since then, there have been many announcements and promises. But we are still waiting for concrete steps and effective measures to curb the climate crisis. It is crucial that COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow next week, finally brings a breakthrough. Before it is too late.
A political consensus at the international level is still a long time coming despite the great urgency for effective climate protection. We should therefore now assume more national responsibility and quickly introduce a carbon tax. Other countries such as Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland have long since done so.
For years, the world’s heads of state and government have been striving for a new regulation to follow up the... | politics |
https://blog.firstreference.com/tag/labour-relations-board/page/3/ | 2021-11-29T17:53:15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964358786.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20211129164711-20211129194711-00585.warc.gz | 0.960291 | 177 | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-49__0__192576362 | en | The Ontario Legislative Assembly passed Bill 160, the Occupational Health and Safety Statute Law Amendment Act, 2011 by a vote of 79–0. Most provisions of the Bill will take effect when it receives royal assent sometime in June. However, some sections will take effect on either April 1, 2012, or a date set by the lieutenant-governor, whichever is earlier.
I recently read about a Bill coming out of Nova Scotia that proposes to merge a number of official forums involving employment and labour relations into one Labour Board, to simplify how workplace disputes are handled, and to establish a committee to keep labour relations laws relevant.
The British Columbia Labour Relations Board recently upheld the firing of two employees by a car dealership over comments they posted on Facebook about their employer. The lawyer for the employer stated that he believes this is the first Facebook firing case to be heard in Canada. | politics |
https://leibermendoza.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/information-about-imo-solas-marpol-and-stcw/ | 2017-04-23T19:37:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917118743.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031158-00070-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.958654 | 1,452 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__116569466 | en | When the establishment of a specialized agency of the United Nations dealing with maritime affairs was first proposed, the main concern was to improve safety at sea.
Because of the international nature of the shipping industry, it had long been recognized that action to improve safety in maritime operations would be more effective if carried out at an international level rather than by individual countries acting unilaterally and without co-ordination with others. Although a number of important international agreements had already been adopted, many States believed that there was a need for a permanent body which would be able to co-ordinate and promote further measures on a more regular basis.
It was against this background that a conference held by the United Nations in 1948 adopted a convention establishing the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the first ever international body devoted exclusively to maritime matters.
In the 10-year period between the adoption of the convention and its entry into force in 1958, other problems related to safety but requiring slightly different emphases had attracted international attention. One of the most important of these was the threat of marine pollution from ships, particularly pollution by oil carried in tankers. An international convention on this subject was actually adopted in 1954, four years before IMO came into existence, and responsibility for administering and promoting it was assumed by IMO in January 1959. From the very beginning, the improvement of maritime safety and the prevention of marine pollution have been IMO’s most important objectives.
The Organization is based at 4 Albert Embankment, London, and is the only United Nations specialized agency to have its headquarters in the United Kingdom. Its governing body is the Assembly, which meets once every two years. It currently consists of 166 Member States and two Associate Members. Between sessions of the Assembly a Council, consisting of 40 Member Governments elected by the Assembly, acts as IMO’s governing body.
The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) was established by the Assembly in November 1973. It is responsible for co-ordinating the Organization’s activities in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from ships.
There are a number of sub-committees whose titles indicate the subjects they deal with: Safety of Navigation (NAV); Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR); Training and Watchkeeping (STW); Carriage of Dangerous Goods, Solid Cargoes and Containers (DSC); Ship Design and Equipment (DE); Fire Protection (FP); Stability and Load Lines and Fishing Vessel Safety (SLF); Flag State Implementation (FSI); and Bulk Liquids and Gases (BLG).
The Legal Committee was originally established to deal with the legal problems arising from the Torrey Canyon accident of 1967, but it was subsequently made a permanent committee. It is responsible for considering any legal matters within the scope of the Organization.
The Technical Co-operation Committee is responsible for co-ordinating the work of the Organization in the provision of technical assistance in the maritime field, in particular to developing countries.
The Facilitation Committee is responsible for IMO’s activities and functions relating to the facilitation of international maritime traffic. These are aimed at reducing the formalities and simplifying the documentation required of ships when entering or leaving ports or other terminals.
All the committees of IMO are open to participation by all Member Governments on an equal basis.
The IMO Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, who is assisted by a staff of some 300 international civil servants. The Secretary-General is appointed by the Council, with the approval of the Assembly.
The 1960 Convention – which was adopted on 17 June 1960 and entered into force on 26 May 1965 – was the first major task for IMO after the Organization’s creation and it represented a considerable step forward in modernizing regulations and in keeping pace with technical developments in the shipping industry.
The intention was to keep the Convention up to date by periodic amendments but in practice the amendments procedure proved to be very slow. It became clear that it would be impossible to secure the entry into force of amendments within a reasonable period of time.
As a result, a completely new Convention was adopted in 1974 which included not only the amendments agreed up until that date but a new amendment procedure – the tacit acceptance procedure – designed to ensure that changes could be made within a specified (and acceptably short) period of time.
Instead of requiring that an amendment shall enter into force after being accepted by, for example, two thirds of the Parties, the tacit acceptance procedure provides that an amendment shall enter into force on a specified date unless, before that date, objections to the amendment are received from an agreed number of Parties.
As a result the 1974 Convention has been updated and amended on numerous occasions. The Convention in force today is sometimes referred to as SOLAS, 1974, as amended.
|Annex I||Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution by Oil|
|Annex II||Regulations for the Control of Pollution by Noxious Liquid Substances in Bulk|
|Annex III||Prevention of Pollution by Harmful Substances Carried by Sea in Packaged Form|
|Annex IV||Prevention of Pollution by Sewage from Ships|
|Annex V||Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships|
|Annex VI||Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships (entry into force 19 May 2005)|
COMPLETE INFORMATION IN: http://www.imo.org/Conventions/contents.asp?doc_id=678&topic_id=258
The 1978 STCW Convention was the first to establish basic requirements on training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers on an international level. Previously the standards of training, certification and watchkeeping of officers and ratings were established by individual governments, usually without reference to practices in other countries. As a result standards and procedures varied widely, even though shipping is the most international of all industries.
The Convention prescribes minimum standards relating to training, certification and watchkeeping for seafarers which countries are obliged to meet or exceed.
The Convention did not deal with manning levels: IMO provisions in this area are covered by a regulation in Chapter V of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, whose requirements are backed up by resolution A.890(21) Principles of safe manning, adopted by the IMO Assembly in 1999, as amended by Resolution A.955(23) Amendments to the Principles of Safe Manning (Resolution A.890(21)).
The Articles of the Convention include requirements relating to issues surrounding certification and port State control.
One especially important feature of the Convention is that it applies to ships of non-party States when visiting ports of States which are Parties to the Convention. Article X requires Parties to apply the control measures to ships of all flags to the extent necessary to ensure that no more favourable treatment is given to ships entitled to fly the flag of a State which is not a Party than is given to ships entitled to fly the flag of a State that is a Party. | politics |
http://www.whitewaterrm.ca/public-notices/notice-of-nomination-local-urban-district-of-elgin/ | 2018-09-23T06:24:51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267159160.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20180923055928-20180923080328-00082.warc.gz | 0.917422 | 396 | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-39__0__96799449 | en | MUNICIPALITY OF GRASSLAND
BY-ELECTION FOR THE LOCAL URBAN DISTRICT OF ELGIN
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on the following days: October 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10, 2016
between the hours of 8:30 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. at the following locations:
-209 Airdrie Street, Hartney Manitoba and
-201 South Railway, Minto Manitoba
I will receive nominations for the offices of
1. Local Urban District (LUD) Committee Members – two (2) for Elgin
of the aforesaid Local Authority.
The nomination deadline is October 10 at 4:30 P.M. Nominations cannot be accepted after this day.
All nominations shall be made in writing and shall be signed by at least twenty-five voters, or NOT less than 1% of the voters (whichever is lesser) of the authority or ward (as the case may be), but in all cases by at least two voters. Each nomination shall also be accompanied by the candidate’s declaration of qualification.
Nominations may be filed in person at the above location, on the date and hours specified, by an agent, or by fax. To obtain a nomination paper, and/or candidate’s declaration of qualification, contact the SEO at the telephone number listed below.
Nomination papers not accompanied by the required documents and not properly filed shall be rejected.
Brad Coe Lisa Scott
Senior Election Official Assistant Senior Election Official
Phone: (204)858-2590 Phone: (204)776-2172
Fax: (204)858-2681 Fax: (204)776-2252
Dated at the Town of Hartney on September 14, 2016 | politics |
https://www.carmelunified.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=6261 | 2023-03-25T14:54:36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945333.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325130029-20230325160029-00076.warc.gz | 0.958806 | 1,082 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__146671492 | en | A Message from the CUSD Board of Education to the Community - March 10, 2023
To the Carmel Unified School District Community,
As approved on February 16, 2023, a vacancy was created on the Board of Education of the Carmel Unified School District by the resignation of Tess Arthur.
The Board member vacancy will be filled by Board appointment. Beginning on March 13, 2023 and ending at 4:30 p.m on March 24, 2023, the Board will be accepting applications to fill this position. Please click here for a copy of the application.
Thereafter, at a special Board meeting on March 31, 2023 the Board will meet in an open session public meeting at 9:00 a.m. at Sunset Center’s Babcock Room, San Carlos St, Carmel-By-The-Sea, to review all applications and to interview the applicants. Applicants should make themselves available for this meeting. The Board’s appointment of the applicant to fill this position will take place on March 31, 2023 after discussion. The applicant selected will be appointed to serve in the position until a November 2024 election to fill the remaining two years of the term. In November 2024, an at-large election will be held to fill the remainder of the term, from 2024 to 2026.
Applications will be accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the District Office, beginning March 13, 2023. To be considered as an applicant, the application must be hand-delivered and received in the District Office by 4:30 p.m. on March 24, 2023. Any application received after 4:30 p.m. on March 24, 2023 will not be accepted. Those applications that are received will be posted and available by the end of the next business day, March 27, 2023.
Information about the vacancy and this process may be found below. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Michelle Goncalves at (831) 624-1546 ext. 2021 or [email protected].
CUSD Board of Education
Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Board Member Appointment
Thank you for your interest in seeking appointment to the Board of Education of the Carmel Unified School District. As you know, a vacancy has occurred which shall be filled by the Board members prior to April 17, 2023. As you consider whether you would like to apply for an appointment to the Board, the following information may be of assistance.
Why is there a vacancy at this time?
There is a vacancy on the Board of Education because Tess Arthur has resigned from the Board.
What are the qualifications for serving on the Board?
A person must be a citizen of California, a resident of Carmel Unified School District, at least 18 years old, a registered voter, and not otherwise legally disqualified from holding civil/public office. A person is not required to live within a specific trustee area to be appointed to fill the vacancy.
What do I need to apply for the position?
The Board has determined that it will accept application materials which include a complete Qualification Form and Application. These materials are available here. Complete application materials must be received in the District Office, no later than 4:30 pm on March 24, 2023. Applicants must be available for interviews with the Board at an open session Board meeting on March 31, 2023.
If I am selected by the Board, when do I take office and when do I run for election?
The Board anticipates making a selection on March 31, 2023. The new member will attend their first full Board meeting on April 19, 2023, after they are sworn into office. The Board member will serve until November, 2024. In November 2024, an at-large election will be held to fill the remainder of the term, from 2024 to 2026.
What other information should I consider?
Serving on the school board can be a valuable and satisfying way to make a significant contribution to the community. The Board, staff, parent and student community have enjoyed a collegial relationship. As public officials, Board members do have to comply with certain restrictions not encountered in their private lives. For example, Board members serve without any compensation for their services.
Upon assuming office, a Board member must file a Statement of Economic Interest which is a public document that discloses the Board member’s financial holdings and other economic interests within the boundaries of the District (excluding a personal residence). Board members must restrain from Board activities which constitute a conflict of interest or which are incompatible with their role as Board member.
May I get additional information on the role and responsibility of a Board Member?
Yes, the California School Boards Association offers several publications on School Board Leadership, New Member Orientation and Governance Briefs.
Please feel free to contact any Board member to discuss your interest in applying for appointment to the Board of Education of the Carmel Unified School District.
The District and the entire community greatly appreciate your interest in serving the community.
Download the Board Vacancy Application Packet here | politics |
https://johnogarodey.com.ng/outcome-of-pdp-147th-nwc-meeting/ | 2024-02-21T22:52:22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473558.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20240221202132-20240221232132-00184.warc.gz | 0.960491 | 421 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__35773724 | en | Outcome of PDP 147TH NWC meeting
June 19, 2007
The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP at its 147th meeting held on Tuesday 19th June 2007 deliberated on current National and Party issues and reached the following resolutions.
- The NWC commended the timely intervention of the President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in the Labour dispute over prices of petroleum products and the increase in VAT. His decision to offer concessions over the prices of fuel and VAT as well as the prompt approval for a 15% increase in workers wages is commendable and will alleviate the suffering of Nigerians. The NWC urged Labour to reciprocate this gesture by calling off the planned strike action.
The PDP led Federal Government is sensitive to the plight of the Nigerian masses and will continue to implement policies that will improve their living standards.
- The NWC also deliberated on reports of arson and carnage perpetrated against PDP members in Kogi Central Senatorial District in the last general elections. The NWC condemned the acts of wanton killing of innocent citizens and urged security agencies to thoroughly investigate this sad development and bring all those found culpable, including their sponsors to book to serve as a deterrent to future occurrences.
- The NWC received a request for the re-instatement of the Imo state Executive Committee which is currently on suspension. The request is being considered in line with laid down rules and regulations. Party members are urged to remain patient as all issues in the State will soon be resolved.
- The NWC also considered requests by estranged former members wishing to return to the party and appealed to party officials at all levels to provide accommodation for them. Officials of the party at all levels are requested to brief the State Chapters regularly in order to accord recognition to such returnees and also aid proper documentation at the state and national level.
- The 39th National Executive Committee meeting of the party shall hold on Monday, 25th June 2007. All members of NEC are urged to attend unfailingly. | politics |
https://portfolio.tchy.ca/portfolio/riverkeeper-4k/ | 2023-12-06T21:42:34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100603.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206194439-20231206224439-00681.warc.gz | 0.956902 | 550 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__134548349 | en | Press release, written for Ottawa Riverkeeper in 2016.
OTTAWA, Ontario and GATINEAU, Quebec – August 6, 2016: More than 130 swimmers challenged the strength of the Ottawa River this morning as part of the Riverkeeper 4K, an interprovincial open water swim put on by Ottawa Riverkeeper in support of a clean and healthy river. Among them were two local MPs – the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, and Will Amos, MP for Pontiac, Quebec. Both are longtime advocates for a swimmable, drinkable, fishable river.
The Riverkeeper 4K saw athletes from around the watershed swim four kilometres across the Ottawa River, highlighting the necessity of good water quality and the need to work collaboratively across borders in order to protect our rivers. The starting line was at the Lac Deschênes Sailing Club in Nepean, Ontario, and the race finished at Parc des Cèdres in Aylmer, Quebec. In order to welcome more athletes, families, and participants of all abilities, Ottawa Riverkeeper introduced two shorter swims – a 1.5km race and a 750m race – that began and ended at Parc des Cèdres.
“It really is a community event,” said Riverkeeper Meredith Brown, who swam the 750m race with her family. “The interprovincial crossing reminds us that the Ottawa River watershed is shared by two provinces, over 200 municipalities, and many First Nations communities. We want a swimmable, drinkable, fishable river, and we need to work together to keep improving our water quality.”
“This year’s Riverkeeper 4K was particularly special for us. Just last week, we were celebrating the official designation of the Ottawa River as a Heritage River – and today Minister McKenna, who made that announcement, swam right along with us!” said Patrick Nadeau, Executive Director of Ottawa Riverkeeper. Nadeau was also one of the participants in the 4K race.
The swim was also a fundraiser for Ottawa Riverkeeper, with proceeds going to work in the watershed – specifically, towards eliminating sewage overflows in the National Capital Region. All told, participants raised more than $15,000 in support of a clean Ottawa River watershed.
Many local businesses have been eager to lend their support, including Alterna Bank, MEB Stratégies, and the Green Beaver Company. Ottawa Riverkeeper is very grateful to the sponsors for their support. Their contribution means that the pledges collected by the swimmers can go directly to work on improving the water quality in the Ottawa River. | politics |
https://asktran.com/2018/11/27/trump-says-his-daughter-ivanka-to-attend-mexican-inauguration/ | 2019-02-18T04:08:49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247484648.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20190218033722-20190218055722-00374.warc.gz | 0.952056 | 128 | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-09__0__164092602 | en | FILE PHOTO: White House Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump speaks at the Concordia Summit in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
GULFPORT, Miss. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday his daughter Ivanka Trump would attend the inauguration of Mexican President-elect Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday along with Vice President Mike Pence, whose attendance was announced in October.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Mississippi, Trump confirmed Ivanka Trump would attend the inauguration.
Reporting by Steve Holland; writing by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech | politics |
https://norwegianoffshorewind.no/news/the-tendering-process-for-norways-offshore-wind-parks-opened-today/ | 2023-05-27T23:30:05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224643388.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20230527223515-20230528013515-00235.warc.gz | 0.952106 | 610 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__101212110 | en | The tendering process for Norway´s offshore wind parks opened today
Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland visiting the METCentre.
The Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland (Ap) just announced the tender for the two offshore wind farms in Norway. Capacity on floating windfarm Utsira Nord might even be further expanded from 1,5 GW to 2,25 GW, said Aasland today.
If the government now keeps up the pace, Utsira Nord could become the world's first large-scale floating offshore wind farm, believes Arvid Nesse of the industry organization Norwegian Offshore Wind.
-Finally, we're getting started. We in the industry are happy that the government have listened to our suggestion to expand capacity at Utsira Nord. We expect the allocation of the areas to take place during 2023 as promised today, so that we maintain a rapid progress. We’ve got what it takes to become world leading, says Nesse, and emphasizes
- This is not a competition just for the sake of competing. We know from bottom-fixed offshore wind that early entrants to the market remain market leaders globally.
A recent analysis from 4C Offshore shows that the UK is ranked as the most interesting market for floating offshore wind, while Norway comes second.
Arvid Nesse by the turbines at the METCentre.
- It’s possible for us to get floating turbines in the water before 2030 if the process goes swiftly, which would be ahead of the Scots who allocated areas in early 2022, says Nesse.
Norwegian Offshore Wind has been vocal in asking authorities to ensure that the licensing process is handled thoroughly and efficiently, and that there is sufficient capacity for this in both in The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) and the Ministry of Oil and Energy. The Norwegian Government have earlier announced a 30 GW goal within 2040.
Norwegian Offshore Wind represents 370 offshore wind companies and is Norway's largest industrial cluster. One of the most important inputs from the industry has been that the government must ensure that more than one developer receives support for Utsira Nord and the organization is happy that the government guaranteed two projects today.
- However, it is important that we find a solution that allows three projects to be developed. There are many companies now ready to deliver. The model they presented today unfortunately does not contribute to this. We presented them with an alternative model that could secure both competition and government support for three projects, says Nesse.
He emphasizes that the processing time in future processes must be kept to a minimum and that mapping of new areas must be done faster than in the previous rounds.
- It’s important that capacity is developed in ports and construction sites, not only for the Norwegian developments, but also to secure capacity to export floating offshore wind. Our companies are crystal clear: predictability is an essential prerequisite for making new and necessary investments, says Nesse. | politics |
https://www.writingcrossing.com/job/id-6aa05285ed31905a750ce467bdc89ef8 | 2018-01-23T00:11:39 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084891546.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20180122232843-20180123012843-00581.warc.gz | 0.949583 | 852 | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-05__0__74478649 | en | SEIU Local 1000
About CPD CPDA
The Center for Popular Democracy promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. We currently work with 50 partner organizations in 38 states and Puerto Rico and build the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda. CPD is a rapidly-expanding, dynamic organization that partners with organizations across the country to build political power and win tangible victories that improve the lives of low-wage workers, immigrants, and communities of color.
About the Position
Reporting to the Development Director, the Grant Writer
is responsible for preparing and producing compelling grant proposals and funder reports.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Prepare grant proposals and necessary supporting documentation, including developing proposed budgets for submission to potential funders.
Work closely with senior staff in developing and transforming ideas into grant proposals.
Coordinate and prepare narrative reports for funders.
Maintain an up-to-date archive of general text about the organization, for use in proposals
Perform prospect research on potential sources of funding.
Maintain accurate database records on funding prospects
Provide writing support for other development materials, such as the annual report and marketing collateral
Qualifications and Experience:
A bachelor's degree with a 5 years in development and grant writing.
Ability to write clear, structured, persuasive proposals
Ability to listen well to the program goals and/or accomplishments and record them accurately and skillfully in reports and proposals.
Highly self-motivated and able to work independently.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including excellent editing and proofreading
Strong research skills
A demonstrated commitment to social and racial justice issues and understanding of challenges facing immigrant communities, communities of color, and low-and moderate income families
HOW TO APPLY:
Submit your cover letter and resume through our hiring portal: https://cpd.hiringthing.com/job/59081/grant-writer
CPD is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and actively recruits people of color, women, individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community.
Be sure to indicate that you saw this information at UNIONJOBS.COM
Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union is a united front of 95,000 working people employed by the State of California, making us the largest public sector union in California and one of the largest in the country. Of course, we do what all labor unions have done traditionally: We organize and represent workers. Local 1000 represents members who contribute almost $6 billion dollars to the California economy and who work in more than 1400 worksites in California, Texas, New York, Chicago and Hawaii. We also fight to ensure that state workers…and all workers…are treated fairly and respectfully in the workplace, and are protected from unsafe work conditions. But what Local 1000 does goes far beyond those traditional labor roles. We believe unions have a duty to do more for their members than just represent them in contract negotiations and enforcement. Our union is committed to being relevant in our members’ lives beyond the workplace. We stand with them to build communities in which they can raise healthy and happy families. We host “Cash for College” workshops where members and their families can get help with financial aid. We partner in “Healthier U,” a workplace wellness pilot program designed by state employees for state employees. And we engage and mentor our members as they grow into the leaders their families, our union and our state need them to be. We are strong advocates for our members’ retirement security, but we also want a California where everyone can retire with peace of mind. We will continue to fiercely defend Social Security and earned pension benefits from those who would raid the funds workers have paid into. We are joining with low-wage workers in their fight to increase the minimum wage to $15 and to organize unions at their workplaces. Workers from diverse fields such as retail, fast food, airports and home health care are standing up together, and we are standing right there with them. | politics |
http://anewyorkerinthecountry.blogspot.com/2018/04/taylor-downings-1983-reagan-andropov.html | 2019-06-26T00:03:23 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999964.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20190625233231-20190626015231-00376.warc.gz | 0.94718 | 345 | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-26__0__210134011 | en | Taylor Downing’s 1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink is a thrilling, frightening, and thought-provoking account of a period in history when the world came closest to nuclear annihilation. Through his descriptions of US and Soviet leadership, and events prior to, and during, 1983, what emerges is a picture of two sides who knew almost nothing about how the other side thought, and of simple misinterpretations and miscalculations that came disturbingly close to causing catastrophic events. Throughout the book, Downing does an outstanding job of explaining complex, difficult topics in a way that makes it easy for the lay person to understand and follow. Whether he is describing the events that led to the Soviets shooting down KAL 007, the spycraft of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, or the November 1983 war game “Able Archer” that almost led to nuclear war, Downing writes clearly, compellingly, and persuasively. He has managed to craft a careful and convincing argument about the importance and centrality of Able Archer and its consequences, while writing in a way that keeps the reader turning pages frantically. His discussion of the aftermath of Able Archer, and particularly of the relationship that develops between Reagan and Gorbachev, is measured and unsentimental. He does not offer a neat, tidy resolution to the narrative. He makes it clear that Reagan and Gorbachev missed opportunities for radical change and never agreed ultimately on the key issue of the “Star Wars” defense initiative. What the end of the book does strongly suggest is the importance of genuine intelligence, careful and objective analysis, and diplomacy that builds out from a solid understanding of the other side. | politics |
http://www.thecongressmansdinner.com/the-issues/war-on-terror/ | 2013-05-21T19:23:32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700477029/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103437-00099-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.961371 | 277 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-20__0__199704136 | en | War Funding to Date
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has initiated three military operations:
• Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) covering primarily Afghanistan and other small Global War on Terror (GWOT) operations ranging from the Philippines to Djibouti that began immediately after the 9/11 attacks and continues;
• Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) providing enhanced security for U.S. military bases and other homeland security that was launched in response to the attacks and continues at a modest level; and
• Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) that began in the fall of 2002 with the buildup of troops for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, continued with counter-insurgency and stability operations, and is slated to be renamed Operation New Dawn as U.S. troops focus on an advisory and assistance role.
In the tenth year of operations since the 9/11 attacks while troops are being withdrawn in Iraq and increased in Afghanistan, the cost of war continues to be a major issue including the total amount appropriated, the amount for each operation, average monthly spending rates, and the scope and duration of future costs.
The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11
Amy Belasco - Specialist in U.S. Defense Policy and Budget March 29, 2011
Check out the full report | politics |
https://dewitasoeharjono.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/the-growing-share-of-new-americans-in-virginia/ | 2019-02-16T00:24:45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247479627.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20190215224408-20190216010408-00592.warc.gz | 0.96086 | 248 | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-09__0__19639341 | en | This is probably the biggest shift in Virginia. Until 1970, only 1 in 100 Virginians are born outside the U.S.; by 2012 1 in 9 Virginians are immigrants.
Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians constitute large and growing shares of the economy and electorate in Virginia. Immigrants (the foreign-born) account for 1 in 9 Virginians, and 50.3% of them are naturalized U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote. “New Americans” – immigrants and their children of immigrants – accounted for 10.8% of Virginia voters in 2012.
Immigrants not only essential to the state’s economy as workers, but also accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue and consumer purchasing power.
Moreover, Latinos and Asians (both foreign and native-born) wield more than $45.9 billion in consumer purchasing power, and the businesses they own had sales receipts of $19.1 billion and employed 126,000 people at last count.
Immigrant, Latino, and Asian workers and entrepreneurs are integral to Virginia’s economy and tax base – they are an electoral force with which every politician must reckon.
Read more: the New Americans in Virginia | politics |
http://www.thebulldogblog.net/thinking-about-being-a-part-of-asi | 2018-10-19T04:21:44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512323.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20181019041222-20181019062722-00242.warc.gz | 0.97456 | 136 | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-43__0__202170690 | en | Do you want to be a part of the official student voice here at Fresno State? Think you’d be good at representing the needs and wants of your peers? Then think about running for an elected senate position!
The first step you need to take is completing a Petition for Office, which will be available in the ASI Business Office, USU 317, starting January 19, 2016. A completed petition must be turned in any time before February 12, 2016 by 5 P.M.
Check out the graphic below to get all the details on which senate seats are available and the process for getting elected! We hope to have you join us in the near future! | politics |
https://jennydoyle.com/blog/city-of-milton-property-taxes-2023 | 2024-02-28T10:37:08 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474700.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228080245-20240228110245-00119.warc.gz | 0.927585 | 225 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__181175481 | en | Fulton County tax bills are in the process of being sent. City of Milton tax bills will be mailed the middle of October.
Milton’s City Council approved a lower 2023 milage rate for Milton property owners, but the Fulton County mailing and graphic does not reflect this change. The pamphlet provides an “aggregated milage rate’, which wraps up the combined rate for Fulton county government, Fulton County Schools, and the City of Milton (for Milton residents only). For Milton and other cities like Alpharetta and Roswell, that Fulton County doesn’t collect municipal tax revenues for, Fulton County cites the 2022 municipal milage rate but does not have the updated 2023 information included with the lower number.
Milton’s maintenance and operations milage rate for 2023 is 4.389 mills. The greenspace bond rate is 0.364 mills, for a total of 4.753.
The graphic below reflects what that the Fulton County tax graphic would look like with Milton’s lower 2023 millage rate had it been included in the pamphlet. | politics |
http://twzm.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73&p=119 | 2020-07-05T17:19:30 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655887377.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20200705152852-20200705182852-00524.warc.gz | 0.674852 | 3,799 | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-29__0__93577285 | en | 註:以下文章翻譯自 http://blog.thezeitgeistmovement.com/bl ... E.facebook
Like all things within the natural world, the monetary system is constantly evolving. As the concept of economic exchange between peoples has evolved, the idea of money has become increasing abstract until today most money is digits in cyberspace representing information. This concept of money as information has always been present, but hidden behind the many forms money has taken down the millennium. For example, during WWII there was a form of script issued for commodities like sugar, butter, meat or gasoline that might be in short supply. These rationing coupons were used in conjunction with money in order to obtain access. Today, usually money alone is used to limit access to all goods and services. If you have money, then you have access, no money - no access. The rules of society enforce this so rigidly that many starve daily even though we can and do create a vast over abundance of food worldwide.
The Zeitgeist Movement promotes the idea of a Resource Based Economic Model in which money is eliminated. Many both inside and outside the movement have trouble with the idea of vanishing money even though they can recognize the possibility of better serving the needs of all humanity under a RBEM. Out of this difficulty, much discussion centers on the ideas of transition, often even hindering the very activism that is designed to promote the transition to a true RBEM. This is unfortunate, as time is very short for the monetary system that is destroying itself, our environment and the fabric of our civilization. The big question in the minds of many has been “Is it possible to fix the monetary system?” Some of the best and brightest within our governments, our NGOs and even within the Occupy movements have argued that the answer to this question is yes and offer many alternatives. Within TZM, even many who have become convinced of the benefits of a RBEM that eliminates the need for money still devote their time and energy to working out “transitions” within the confines of a monetary system.
The degree of creativity and imagination used to "fix" money is astounding. Returning to the “gold standard”, reforming or ending the central banking systems, direct currency issue by governments, alternative currencies, gift economies where “negative interest”, “resource backed currencies” and “decaying currencies” are used to correct the tendencies towards environmental and social destruction that seem to be built into our present system are just a few of the many ideas floating around. Many of these solutions require a strong central government to make wise decisions regarding interest rates, taxes and tariffs, the creation and regulation of the money supply and the application of imperatives designed to protect people, the environment and the natural resource we all rely on for our very subsistence.
被用來「修復」金錢體系的創造力和想像程度是驚人的。例如「回到金本位」、改革或終結中銀央行系統、由政府直接發行貨幣、替代貨幣、「禮物經濟」，其中「負利率(negative interest)」、「以資源為底的貨幣」、「decaying 貨幣」被使用來導正朝向環境和社會毀滅這些看似內建至我們目前體系的傾向，而這些只是許多到處流傳的一部份想法。許多這些方案都需要一個強力的中央政府來作出明智的決定，像是關於利率、稅和關稅、金錢供應的創造和管控，以及設計出來的強制性法律的應用以保護人民、環境和自然資源，這些東西是我們所有人賴以維生的根本。
Most of us within TZM recognize, even if we sometimes tend to ignore, the flaws in this approach. Even the most “democratic” of modern governments, because of the cultural and monetary conditioning, are tending towards systematic oppression of any “new” approaches that will upset the traditional apple cart. This is the way this system is designed to self perpetuate. And this is one of the primary reason that TZM advocates first creating mass awareness of the need for change as a prerequisite for accomplishing anything of real and lasting value.
Today, money is created by banks through loans. The recording of this loan information beside a name is the moment of monetary creation. Within a debt based monetary system, a huge flaw is that the money required to repay the interest on the loan is never created. This is why we exist in a sea of global debt that can never do anything but increase. The global debt will always increase by the amount of interest required for any loan and never decreases except through the forgiveness of debts of one type or another like we are beginning to see happen around the world today. A number of proposals floating around remove both the creation of money from the hands of the bankers and eliminate interest from the process using various methods. On the surface, these solve some of the most pressing issues facing us today.
For instance, by eliminating the central banking system and the issuing of debt free money directly by governments, many of the problems people recognize today would be greatly ameliorated. Quite obviously, once again, this is much easier said than done because of the many vested monetary interests involved. This has been done in the past at least in America, on more than one occasion but always, the monetary interests have reasserted their control in one fashion or another until we have reached the deeply entrenched state of the Federal Reserve fiat monetary system we have today. The American people have simply not been aware enough of the dire consequences of allowing such a system to exist, so once again broad public awareness becomes the central issue.
Perhaps the most promising approaches recognize money as information. The fact that money is primarily information becomes obvious to anyone who takes the time to examine our present monetary system in an unbiased manner. Yet, there are still deep traditional notions regarding the material nature of money that hinder reforms along these lines. One system currently being explored, The Community Exchange System(CES), does an end run around both the central banking systems and governments. By using a global grass roots approach to the creation of money, peer to peer. Money is used as informational content, tracking a person’s participation. In such a system, the decision making process on the creation of credit lies solely in the hands of the individual creditor based on the information tracked for the debtor. The supply of money will always track the actual debt, a zero sum game and there is no central control of the money supply.
或許最有希望的方式是要認知到金錢只是一種抽象的「資訊」。金錢主要只是一種「抽象資訊」的這個事實，只要任何人花點時間以未帶偏見的方式去客觀檢驗，就會變得清楚明顯。然而，仍然關於金錢的實體本質，人們仍有根深蒂固的傳統觀念，阻礙了這些方向的改革。例如有一種正在發展的系統，叫作「社群交換系統(The Community Exchange System, CES)」，在中央銀行系統和政府之間執行著終端的角色，藉由使用一種全球性的草根方式以「點對點(peer to peer)」創造金錢。金錢被用作為資訊的內容，追蹤一個人的參與活動。在這樣的系統中，創造信用的決策過程，只存在於個別獨立個體的債權人之中，基於追蹤債務人的相關資訊。金錢的供應將總是會盯住實際的債務，是一種零和遊戲，而且沒有對於金錢供應的中央控制。
Of course should such a system begin to spread and become effective, both the central banks and the governments might have objections. We know how that might play out. But in a way, this system represents the ideal reform of the monetary system, a return to a true “gift” economy. You provide some goods or a service for me and I recognize that by saying that I am in your debt. The power to create money is returned to the people. Such a system would be entirely dependent upon the good will of the individuals participating. Its wider expression would be the sum total expression of the state of global consciousness or awareness of all the people participating, so the valuations of goods and services would be very similar to what we have today, based on supply and demand.
Once again, the key to such an expression becomes mass awareness and the willingness of individuals on a wide scale to act upon that awareness for the application of resource management, environmental protection and the response to human needs. Individuals within such a system that accumulate too much debt might be automatically ostracized from participation and therefore unable to obtain even the basic necessities of life. There are other practical considerations to the implementation of such a system. How do you track the monetary information associated with each person? If you change from a zero sum game, for instance, to recognize the basic necessities of life for each person by providing a basic subsistence credit, who determines this credit? We are starting to approach some scary territory here, imbedded RFID chips for tracking monetary information anyone? Once you decide to track monetary information, which is what money does, it always eventually leads to this outcome. Life and death decisions will be made based on a person’s credit worthiness and controls would have to be implemented to enforce those decisions.
再說一次，這種表現的成功關鍵是要有大眾意識和個體的意願，而且要在全球規模的尺度上實現該意識，以為了達到資源管理的應用、環境保護並回應人類需求。在這樣的系統中，若一個人累積了太多債務，可能就會自動被排除在參與之外，並因此甚至無法取得生活的必需品。另外也有一些實際上的考量，以實踐這種系統。例如你如何追蹤系統中每一個相關人士的金融貨幣資訊?如果你從一個零和遊戲改變，變成認知到每個人生活的基本必需品，藉由提供基本的生存信用，那誰又來決定這個信用呢?我們正開始碰觸到一些駭人聽聞的領域了，像是在人體內植入 RIFD 晶片(RIFD，射頻識別技術，又稱電子標籤)，以追蹤任何人的金融貨幣資訊?一旦你決定追蹤了金融貨幣的資訊(這也是金錢本身在做的事)，那最終將總是會導致這種結果。生命和死亡的決定，將會基於一個人信用的價值，而且也將必須實施相關的控制以強化那些關於生命和死亡的決定。
So following the money trail, even the most promising ideas lead to an outcome that is greatly different from the RBEM envisioned by so many within TZM. The foundational principle of a RBEM is the value shift that allows such a system to exist in the first place. This is the main reason TZM takes the spreading mass awareness approach. At every turn, the value system shift is critical to the implementation of any changes promising outcomes that lead to a world in which I would someday wish to live, or I would wish for my children to live. This is the real gift TZM has to give to the world. This is the primary and only real task before us right now. Not fixing money, but raising awareness of why we need to move beyond money and of the wonderful future that beacons us if we can. Money is literally a dead end for humanity.
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The Zeitgeist Movement
1 篇文章 • 第 1 頁 (共 1 頁) | politics |
https://electdirk.com/ | 2024-02-23T17:37:15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474440.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20240223153350-20240223183350-00371.warc.gz | 0.955219 | 938 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__148969373 | en | Muskegon County Commissioner
Please take the time to know who is seeking public office.
If you believe I am the best choice write in Dirk Chilcote as your republican candidate.
“Visionary leader dedicated to improving quality of life for those in our community”
Our children leave our community in hopes of improving their quality of life. Over the last 40 years we have lost well paying industrial jobs without being replaced with better or comparable jobs. Muskegon County’s average poverty has been increasing and is now at 13.5% which is approximately 3% higher than national average.
Dirk has been formally trained as a leader throughout his multiple careers. Promoted to the top 7% of a 350k diverse workforce. Dirk believes in leading by example.
Dirk has lived in diverse communities throughout our nation experiencing what works and what doesn’t work to ensure a community has opportunities to prosper.
Service before self is not just a saying to Dirk, it is his core value.
Dirk has always challenged wasteful government spending habits throughout his 31 years as a federal public servant, even risking his own career.
Why I decided to seek public office
- It is our responsibility to ensure we provide a free society for future generations.
- Other communities with less resources prosper while Muskegon struggles.
- A passion to build a better future for all members in our county.
- Desire to provide focus with vision to improve quality of life for everyone equally.
- Provide a voice for all members of our community.
- Use skills that made me successful in multiple career positions to serve our community.
- Address current & future issues facing our community, use of specific generated revenue.
- Local government requires a more proactive than reactive approach to root issues.
I returned to my hometown to enjoy my community, friends, and family. While reuniting with my childhood community, a very nagging question appeared.
Why is Muskegon struggling while other communities I’ve lived in with less resources prospered?
The more I learned about our local government the answer became clear.
Why vote for me (Dirk Chilcote) over the other candidates. I have 31 yrs as a federal servant, working within the system is excellent teacher. Promoted to the top 7% of a 350k extremely diverse workforce, retired from the United States Air Force. The motto was “Do More With Less” through total quality management. I learned several disciplines that will serve us well as your commissioner. Structural Airframe, Leadership, Quality Assurance, Contracting, Logistics, Hazardous Materials, Federal Acquisition Regulations. Served in the Department of Interior NPS Grand Canyon and Department of Treasury US Mint San Francisco in the computer science information technology field. I’ve lived around our nation and world; I know what works and doesn’t work to have a prosperous community. After you learn more about the type of commissioner I will be. Please write in my name during the 2 August 2022 primary election as your Republican candidate.
What does a County Commissioner do?
This question comes up a lot when people find out I’m running for office.
My short answer.
A county commissioner is responsible to ensure community resources are used in an effective and efficient manner to benefits all members of their community equally. They do this by leading and managing all government activities within their county. They are responsible to do their due diligence to safeguard all community resources.
If want to know the long version follow the link below.
COUNTY BOARDS OF COMMISSIONERS Act 156 of 1851
A 28 page ACT to define the powers and duties of the county boards of commissioners of the several counties, and to confer upon them certain local, administrative and legislative powers; and to prescribe penalties for the violation of the provisions of this act.
I have requested the Muskegon County Commission Charter and Bylaws from the Muskegon County Clerks office. The only documentation that could be considered close to these two documents is found here,
When a commissioner is performing their duties, as a minimum they should ask the following questions.
Will the use of resources help reduce poverty within our community?
Will the use of resources equally benefit all members of our community efficiently?
Will the use of resourses help realize our community’s vision effectively with efficiency?
Is the action legal, constitutional, and does it safeguard community resources from any litigation?
Still here reading
Thank you for being a concerned member of our community. | politics |
https://www.globalcompact.ru/en/events/2024-annual-letter-to-un-global-compact-participants-from-sanda-ojiambo/ | 2024-04-20T06:08:44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817491.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20240420060257-20240420090257-00089.warc.gz | 0.915276 | 1,212 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__143654584 | en | Dear Participants of the UN Global Compact,
Today’s great challenges – climate change, conflict, widening inequalities, socio-economic and geopolitical changes – intensify, while the confluence of social, technological, political and economic megatrends generates unprecedented complexity, uncertainty and disruption.
We face an expanding list of bigger, more critical decisions and equally critical opportunities demanding our attention. The consequences of action, or inaction, are greater than ever.
Over the last few years, I have heard time and again from business leaders seeking to leverage the private sector's strengths to solve problems and drive transformative change. The global, regional and local convenings of the UN Global Compact have provided opportunities for sharing cross-cutting solutions and breakthroughs on diverse challenges, including climate action, renewable energy and living wage.
Innovations and solutions are within reach. Collectively, we must move at a speed, scale and scope that ensures sustainable results for the challenges we face.
Twenty-five years ago, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the private sector to form a global compact for business and bring a human face to the global market. Since then, the Global Compact has grown to a participant base of more than 20,000 companies. Our ambition is to continue on a solid growth and delivery trajectory, especially when the private sector is needed now more than ever.
2023 marked the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The setbacks to progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were widely acknowledged. This reality check emphasized the need for all stakeholders—businesses, Governments, civil society and the United Nations—to work harder and smarter together.
In response, the UN Global Compact launched the Forward Faster initiative. This initiative focuses on five key action areas – gender equality, climate action, living wage, finance & investment and water resilience which represent critical multipliers to accelerate progress through private sector actions across all 17 SDGs. It’s a seven-year push to 2030 that all participants should join.
Addressing Critical Issues
Progress on the SDGs is intertwined with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact—human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. Throughout 2023, the UN Global Compact and its participants addressed critical issues at key gatherings on these topics, demonstrating that principled and value-based business actions result in real financial and sustainability value for business.
After the 12th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, which took stock of 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we remain committed to equipping companies with tools for ongoing human rights due diligence processes.
Post COP28, clear signals on renewables, adaptation and finance emerged. We are ready to build bridges between business and policymakers revising their climate action plans which should serve as investment roadmaps for the private sector.
Following the 10th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, where we co-hosted the gathering’s first Private Sector Forum, we continue our work to stamp out corruption, energized by the support of the 190 Governments that resolved to strengthen business integrity and work with the private sector following our Call-to-Action which was signed by 500 companies.
In 2024, the UN Global Compact will continue to serve as a platform for companies to lead, learn, connect, advocate and report. By providing actionable guidance on how to apply the Ten Principles in business operations, our focus will be on accountability, delivery, ambition, and mobilization. This includes a reinvigorated effort to deliver a Communication on Progress platform for participants.
With the establishment of our regional hubs in Abuja, Bangkok, Copenhagen, Dubai and Panama City, we will work closer with participating companies and Global Compact Networks. Looking ahead, we want more businesses, coalitions and partnerships to drive actions at the local and regional scales and scopes needed for transformation.
The Summit of the Future this September will be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance. It will reaffirm existing commitments, including to the SDGs, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system.
We are poised to bring the private sector into important conversations prior to, and during the Summit. Safeguarding the future, addressing short-termism and turbocharging the SDGs are all in the interest of responsible business.
Let’s leverage the power of 20,000 companies together for the private sector-led opportunities that we must seize and advance. I encourage all participants to engage with our global, regional and local platforms and programmes.
Being Part of the UN Global Compact
Being part of the UN Global Compact means advancing the voice of the private sector as a key contributor to the SDGs on global platforms. It means engaging the private sector in key transitions of energy, climate, food systems, education, digital connectivity and jobs. It means building powerful regional platforms to advance regional priorities.
Looking at some of the places where we worked in 2023, it means advancing renewable energy in Europe and business-led biodiversity conservation in the Amazon. It means working across industries to fight gender discrimination and upskill women in the workplace in Sri Lanka and helping SMEs in Ukraine rebuild their businesses despite the ongoing war. It means a public-private partnership for sustainable transport in Nigeria. In the United States, it means harnessing the private sector to ensure that companies and their global supply chains have the resources and support to fully integrate the SDGs and Ten Principles into their operations.
Growing stronger companies and more resilient economies worldwide is what it looks like to be part of the UN Global Compact.
This is a glimpse of the future we all want. In 2024, let’s be brave and more ambitious than ever.
CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact | politics |
http://nlchamber.com.pl/polish-dutch-business-forum-2019-gives-bilateral-relations-new-impulse/ | 2020-06-06T01:36:23 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590348509264.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20200606000537-20200606030537-00445.warc.gz | 0.961244 | 254 | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-24__0__158614960 | en | Polish Dutch Business Forum 2019 gives bilateral relations new impulse
The Polish-Dutch Business Forum that was organized in The Hague on 4 April, gave a new impulse to the bilateral relations between both countries. The event was inaugurated by the Ministers: Jadwiga Emilewicz from the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Poland and Sigrid Kaag from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation from the Netherlands with keynote speeches in front of an audience of 200 people.
Both Ministers referred in their keynote speeches to the main theme of the forum: Greening the growth through innovation. “Poland wants to maintain a good dynamics of trade with the Netherlands, but we also want to give our cooperation a new impulse. The area that can play a significant role is innovations, especially in the field of green technologies” – said Minister of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Jadwiga Emilewicz. Both Ministers had a bilateral meeting and talked about the current affairs. Minister Emilewicz met also with the representatives of the Dutch government and was present at a round table with entrepreneurs from both countries. During many panels, workshops and B2B meetings, participants of the Forum talked about strengthening the Polish-Dutch relations and related challenges. | politics |
https://blog.igicybersecurity.com/nevada-governor-vetoes-renewable-bill-in-setback-for-advocates | 2023-03-22T18:52:51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296944452.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20230322180852-20230322210852-00062.warc.gz | 0.960284 | 460 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__173872658 | en | Mark Chediak (Bloomberg) — Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed a bill late Friday that would have boosted the state’s renewable energy target, dealing a setback for clean-energy advocates looking for state action after President Donald Trump said he would pull the U.S. from the Paris climate pact.
The legislation required that 40 percent of the state’s electricity come from clean energy sources by 2030, up from the current target of 25 percent by 2025. The Nevada Resort Association, a casino trade group, called the mandate premature because the state was starting to deregulate its electricity market through a November ballot measure.
The group also said that the measure could increase energy prices. Bill backers said those concerns were unwarranted as the cost of solar and wind power continues to decline.
More on renewable energy and data centers in Nevada:
While the promise of the measure is “commendable, its adoption is premature in the face of evolving energy policy in Nevada,” Sandoval said in a statement issued with his veto, which was posted on the state’s website. The Republican governor said he would direct an energy committee to study increasing the renewable mandate with recommendations provided to him and the 2019 legislature.
The decision comes as clean-energy advocates enlist states, municipalities and corporations to pick up the mantle of combating climate change after Trump’s decision to leave the landmark international environmental agreement. Earlier this month, nine states, including California and New York, and the leaders of 125 cities pledged their support to policies to reduce emissions and meet the Paris accord. Nevada hasn’t signed on with the group.
The Nevada bill would have added about 1.7 gigawatts of solar to the state by 2030, nearly double the current amount, said Dylan Sullivan, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The measure received support from environmental groups, MGM Resorts International — which broke with the casino trade group — and companies including EBay Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., and data-center operator Switch.
Earlier this week, Sandoval signed a measure designed to revive the rooftop solar industry by boosting credits for excess energy produced by small systems.
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http://www.newleaks.co/dmk-mlas-suspended-from-tn-assembly-for-a-week/ | 2017-07-24T10:28:30 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424846.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724102308-20170724122308-00346.warc.gz | 0.981278 | 314 | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-30__0__34441564 | en | DMK MLAs suspended from TN Assembly for a week
The Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin and all DMK legislators, who attended the Legislative Assembly session on Wednesday, were en masse evicted from the House following a commotion over a mocking remark made by an AIADMK legislator on Mr Stalin’s Nammaku Naame road show.
Following their eviction, Finance Minister and Leader of the House O. Panneerselvam moved a resolution seeking the suspension of all DMK legislators alleging that they were disrupting the proceedings. Accepting this, Speaker P. Dhanapal ordered the suspension of the DMK MLAs week.
Mr. Stalin told journalists outside the House that the eviction and suspension of the DMK MLAs was a planned action to prevent them from raising issues during the demand for debate for grants to the Home Department, which is being handled by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
The DMK leader said his party had been playing a proactive role in the Assembly participating in the debates. “Though we have boycotted the Assembly proceedings following disagreements with the Speaker on a few occasions, we had shortly thereafter returned to the House to participate in the debates. We acted true to our conscience,” he said.
According to him, every day, ruling party legislators and Ministers were making comments deliberately to provoke the DMK MLAs into launching a protest. “We had objected to this and some times the ruling party members have been forced to take back their words,” he said. | politics |
http://3.sckp-st.com/live/news/5544-point-of-no-return-speaking-out-for-democracy-and | 2024-02-28T13:49:36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474715.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228112121-20240228142121-00340.warc.gz | 0.978401 | 2,153 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__106013744 | en | Point of No Return: Speaking out for democracy and freedom
Anastasia Voronovsky’21 grew up in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but as an international student on Beloit’s campus, she gained a new perspective on her home country and grappled with what she learned.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Voronovsky spoke out, risking her relationships with family and friends, her career, her return to Russia, and even her own safety. She’s since founded two organizations to support Ukraine and reject Putinism.
This is her story — in her own words.
My journey to Beloit
I grew up in an ultra-nationalistic Russian family. My dad is a highly-ranked military pilot, and guests in our house were frequently members of the military. At the age of 12, I was enrolled in a school for the daughters of military personnel. I used to ask uncomfortable questions at the boarding school. They expelled me from school because of my political opinions, but I remained an uncomfortable, loud child.
I came to Beloit by chance through a student exchange program. The university in Moscow where I studied previously was a partner school of Beloit, and I was the only student who got the chance to go to Beloit that semester. Beloit College altered my worldview.
I had considered myself a knowledgeable and free person, but once I got free internet access, I learned things about my country that I would never have known by continuing to live in the circle of my acquaintances in Russia. I realized that I had held false beliefs and judgments influenced by Russian propaganda and my upbringing.
The exchange semester in Beloit was incredibly hard for me. I found myself in a challenging environment where I did not feel I was the smartest person in the room. This allowed me to grow intellectually and as a person, which is why I decided to transfer to Beloit.
I majored in international relations with minors in journalism and health and society. I wrote a thesis on freedom of speech and journalism in Russia. In the summer of 2019, when I returned to Russia after the exchange program, political rallies broke out in the country in support of the journalist Ivan Golunov, after the authorities arrested him for his anti-corruption investigations. I was expelled from my university in Russia for organizing a protest, but I was able to transfer to Beloit College as a full-time student, for which I am incredibly grateful. A short time later, Russia invaded Ukraine.
My mentors and teachers at Beloit College were my fellow students and my professors. I am grateful to Beth Dougherty, who gave me the foundation that I use every day in my activist work. Ron Watson was my guide to the world of politics and social problems in the United States. Beloit College requires courses outside your chosen major. This is how I met the amazing professors Sonya Maria Johnson and Yaffa Grossman, who gave me moral support when I needed it the most. I even learned from teachers I didn’t have a class with, such as Professor of Environmental Studies and International Relations Pablo Toral. I’d heard amazing things about Pablo, so I wanted to take a class with him. Unfortunately, that never happened, so I went to his office with a box of Russian chocolates to finally meet him and introduce myself.
Beloit also gifted this world with author, journalist, and my kindest friend, Danny Postel’91, who graduated from the college 30 years before me and is the politics editor of New Lines Magazine. Danny texted me after hearing about one of our upcoming protests. We found out that we had both studied at Beloit College. On the day of the protest, Danny showed up with coffee for my entire team. After getting to know me and learning my story, he contacted journalist Ben Schamisso, who wrote a story for Scripps News.
Beloit College gave me the academic foundation for my political career today, and it opened up a world where I found lifelong friends and colleagues.
The invasion of Ukraine
After graduating in 2021, I started working at the headquarters of a cell phone company. I had a steady job and was on a fast career track when the war started. Like many others, I was in denial about the possibility of war, until the night of Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia attacked the once brotherly country of Ukraine. I could not bear it psychologically. I had a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with depression. I was afraid to acknowledge that my country was committing genocide in order to seize territory for the ambitions of Putin and his entourage, and that my relatives and friends applauded Putin’s unprovoked aggression on the Ukrainian people.
The corporate world turned out to be a prison for me because I could not engage in activism. I had absolutely no strength or time. All that I could do at that time was send donations for humanitarian aid to Ukrainian families. For months, as a Russian, I was consumed by guilt. I knew I wasn’t doing enough.
In July 2022, I left my job, started looking for like-minded people, and met Dr. Denis Pedyash, who has become my colleague, mentor, and best friend. We began to organize anti-war actions in Chicago. At first, there were only a few of us. By November 2022, there were more than 30 people involved. We began our work with visits to foreign embassies in Chicago to thank them for accepting Russian immigrants fleeing the mobilization and the dictatorship. Winter was approaching, and we joined the project Return Heat and Light to Ukraine, which to this day helps Ukrainians left without electricity and heat as a result of Russian military attacks on power plants and infrastructure.
The end of January 2023 was a point of no return for us. We organized a protest in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and all political prisoners. We took to the streets of Chicago in support of all political prisoners and those who cannot go to rallies in Russia. We expected 15-20 citizens would join us. About 200 people showed up that day. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Some of the organizers were crying out of happiness. Our shock was mixed with joy and the realization that not everything was lost. We realized there are many of us who disagree with the war. We realized our work was not in vain and that we have a responsibility to speak out.
I am the organizer of two organizations in Chicago that oppose Putinism. One is an NGO called RADR (Russian America for Democracy in Russia - Chicago), whose Freedom Birds for Ukraine project provides humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians and raises funds for the Ukrainian army. The other organization is called Voice of Free Russia (@VoFR_Chicago), which advocates for pacifist resistance. Their rally slogans are less radical towards Putin’s Russia, and they do a great job of organizing protests and other events. Voice of Free Russia has a mostly Russian-speaking audience — people from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries from the former Soviet Union — however, our doors are open to all who share the values of democracy.
These days I am immersed in news of the war 24/7, regularly monitoring all possible sources, including official Russian information channels, telegram chats, and Ukrainian sources (I have now learned Ukrainian). The war between Russia and Ukraine has opened up a new phenomenon of propaganda, which I am sure will be studied for a long time. Though many of my former friends and family in Russia support the terrorist actions of President Putin, I know they are not bad people. They are victims of propaganda and misinformation.
In less than a year, we’ve held more than 10 rallies against the war: in support of political prisoners, demanding the release of our colleague Evan Grishkovich, who was illegally arrested on a fabricated charge in Russia; demanding the return of abducted children to Ukraine; countering Putin’s propaganda; interacting with Navalny’s team; and engaging in anti-Putin educational activities in the media and social networks. We have also attended press conferences with Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.
Looking to the future
As I write this, almost 500 days have passed since the invasion of Ukraine. Each of these days has been a living hell for the Ukrainian people. Many families have lost loved ones in the fighting, while walking on the street, or in houses and apartment buildings and hospitals destroyed by Russian missiles. People are buried under the rubble, children lose limbs and die, and those who survive will forever remember the sounds of war and the trauma of days spent in bomb shelters. Every day I hear news about Ukrainians who live for months without drinking water, heat, and light, and still find the strength to fight. They fight every day. They fight for their lives, for their country, for their future. I am convinced that this is our common battle, in which not only Russians and Ukrainians are involved. A victory for Putin in this war would be a victory for fascism and a defeat for freedom and democracy.
Yes, my activism comes with consequences. I haven’t seen my family since I moved to Beloit and became a full-time student. Both the pandemic and the distance contributed to this. Having moved to the U.S., we found ourselves separated by an ocean, and by an abyss of misunderstanding between us. The U.S. and democracy itself, according to my family members, are the enemies of Russia. My family now considers me a traitor.
I am clearly aware that the more I do here in the U.S., the less opportunity I will have to return to my country until and unless a regime change comes. I am harassed online and I have received threats to my life. I know that my family is in danger. Russian security forces have already been to their doors, and can knock on their doors again at any moment. I am aware that I am facing a prison term in Russia, that my activities are regarded by the authorities as “discrediting the Russian army.” And yet these consequences cannot be compared to the suffering of the Ukrainian people at the hands of Putin’s military.
I do not know what the future holds for me, how my activism will affect my career and my life. Such questions seem irrelevant when you are dealing with real human suffering. For now, my thoughts and efforts remain in support of the Russian and Ukrainian people — and their future. | politics |
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