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http://www.co.modoc.ca.us/departments/board-of-supervisors | 2017-03-28T19:41:58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189884.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00587-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.948264 | 245 | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-13__0__220159573 | en | The Board of Supervisors is the governing body of the County and a number of special districts. Within the limits of state law, the Board is empowered to adopt ordinances, establish programs, levy taxes, appropriate funds, appoint certain officials, and zone property in the unincorporated area. In addition, members of the Board represent the County on numerous intergovernmental bodies. Board members, in partnership with County staff, work to ensure the services and programs essential to the prosperity of Modoc County continue to be delivered.
The five members of the Board are elected on a non-partisan basis to serve four-year terms. Each is elected from one of the five supervisorial districts of the County. Supervisors from Districts 1 and 5 are elected in gubernatorial election years (2006, 2010, etc.) while supervisors from Districts 2, 3 and 4 are elected in presidential election years (2004, 2008, etc.).
At the beginning of each year, the Board chooses from its members a Chairperson and a Vice-Chairperson to serve during the ensuing year. The Chairperson presides at Board meetings and signs documents in the name of the County. The Vice-Chairperson substitutes when the Chairperson is absent. | politics |
http://immigrantnation.com/ | 2024-04-14T03:37:58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296816864.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20240414033458-20240414063458-00774.warc.gz | 0.936865 | 117 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__16533368 | en | The United States of America is truly an immigrant nation.
At Esmeralda Alfaro, INC., we focus on being caring and responsible advocates for immigrant clients. We relate to our clients and their families on an emotional level.
We believe that hiring an experienced immigration lawyer should not be just for the wealthy:
Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience.
A Nation of Immigrants (1958) | politics |
http://jgmjgm516.blogspot.ca/ | 2017-11-24T18:17:59 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934808742.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20171124180349-20171124200349-00044.warc.gz | 0.952166 | 862 | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-47__0__212509098 | en | Paul Dibb is an English-born Australian strategist, academic and former defence intelligence official. He is currently emeritus professor of strategic studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre which is part of the Australian National University.
From 1985 to 1986, Dibb was a ministerial consultant to Defence Minister Kim Beazley. During this time, he formulated a review of Australia’s defence capabilities known as the Dibb Report. His inclusion of a map centered on Darwin provided new insights into Australia’s strategic realities.
His most recent paper, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, is entitled “Australia’s management of strategic risk in the new era”, co-authored by Richard Brabin-Smith. In it he makes the case that Australia’s strategic outlook is deteriorating. Many of his conclusions are equally applicable to Canada.
Canada’s strategic outlook is also changing and, for the first time in a generation we face an increased prospect of threat of an actual attack on Canada. This means that a major change in our approach to the management of strategic risk is needed.
Strategic risk is a subjective field in which governments need to make critical assessments of capability, motive and intent. These factors are inherently ambiguous and uncertain. Over recent decades judgements in this area have relied heavily on the conclusion that there was no creditable entity inimical to Canadian interests with the capability required for a serious assault on the country or our infrastructure.
This is no longer true. It is critical that we understand that the development of new weapons and new technologies means that we are at risk and that we can no longer rely on long lead times that will provide us with adequate warning of conflict.
Instead of conceiving of the defence of Canada by making the comfortable assumption that our defence starts in Latvia or Afghanistan we have to consider that the place we need to protect begins at Tofino and Tuktoyaktuk and Torbay.
The reassuring certainties of the past; that we were bounded by to the west and east by vast oceans, to the north by an unpassable wilderness and to the south by a strong, reliable neighbour are no longer valid. The comfortable judgements of previous years about the limited threats to our region and our country are no longer appropriate
For example, China’s economic and political influence continues to grow while at the same time it maintains an ambitious program of military modernisation and expansion. At the same time Russia continues to devote a disturbing proportion of its admittedly limited resources to their military, particularly in the northern reaches of that country which border on Canada.
The power of non-state actors to engage in activities that range from infringements of Canada’s sovereignty to kinetic attacks has never been greater. All of these threats are informed by the ability of cyber warfare to inflict massive damage to our country.
In future the level of capability that can be brought to bear against Canada by a large range of state and non-state actors will increase while at the same time warning times will decrease. The potential warning time is now shorter, because capability levels are higher and will increase yet further.
How should Canada respond to military contingencies that are now credible in the shorter term and which could now be characterised by higher levels of intensity and technological sophistication?
Dibb would argue that readiness and sustainability need to be increased: we need higher training levels, a demonstrable and sustainable surge capacity, increased stocks of munitions, more maintenance spares, a robust supply system, and modernised operational bases, especially in the north.
We need to examine preparedness levels, the lead times for key elements of the expansion base and the resources we devote to ‘homeland’ defence.
The prospect of shortened warning times along with the possibility of an actual attack on Canada needs to be a major factor in today’s defence planning.
Just as important we must not allow the conduct of operations further afield, and our involvement in counterterrorism, to distract either from the effort that needs to go into this planning or from the funding that enhanced national defence capabilities will require.
Australia’s deteriorating strategic outlook
15 Nov 2017|Paul Dibb and Richard Brabin-Smith | politics |
https://odiplomata.blogs.sapo.pt/apontamentos-historicos-573263 | 2020-08-09T09:35:45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738523.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20200809073133-20200809103133-00421.warc.gz | 0.968654 | 299 | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-34__0__6509904 | en | "On the eve of the [Amerina] Civil War, returns to capital on southern plantations were greater than in northern factories. American slavery was growing rapidly, and it was the only large system of forced labor in modern history that expanded at a high rate by natural increase. By 1860, four million human chattels were the personal property of four hundred thousand masters and mistresses in the southern states. Many of the master class, and others who hoped to join them, were ready to fight and die for this 'peculiar institution', wich they defended in the name of southern honor, states'rights, and liberty to keep a slave.
At the same time, that slavery was flourishing in the southern states, Americans in the northern states created the world's largest and most dynamic antislavery movement. In 1860, nearly two million people in the northern and western states voted for candidates who condemned slavery and demanded an immediate end to its expansion. Many were deeply offended by the moral wrong of slavery. Some were ready to lay down their lives in the cause of abolation.
In 1861, these two great American forces, slavery and antislavery, met in a violent collision that shook the republic to its foundation. The result was the bloodiest war in American history, and someting else that Abraham Lincoln called a new birth of freedom."
David Hackett Fischer in Liberty and Freedom - A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas (Oxford University Press, 2015) | politics |
http://bwhughespol411paper.blogspot.com/2010/04/leadership-majority-and-minority-whip.html | 2018-12-11T23:27:08 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823705.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20181211215732-20181212001232-00601.warc.gz | 0.943896 | 248 | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-51__0__144351662 | en | Within the rest of the leadership structure exists each party’s Whip Organizations. While structured differently in both parties, Republicans and Democrats both have a number of whips at their disposal to assist party leadership in advancing party objectives. As the leadership’s primary goal is the passing of legislation of particular interest, it is the whips’ responsibility to maintain party order and organize votes ahead of time to insure votes be cast in accordance to party strategy. With the Speaker of the House being responsible for the strategy of passing legislation, whips gather intelligence both on and off the floor so as to assist the Speaker and Majority Leader in making decisions. This information can help leaders in decisions ranging from new appointments or repositioning representatives on committees all the way to making sure that votes on legislation will pass and the most advantageous time to schedule them.
While both Democrats and Republicans have different structures and numbers of whips within their respective whip organizations, they function very much the same. Both sides contain a chief deputy whip, a number of deputy whips, and regional whips. These varying levels and positions range from keeping tabs on committees to maintaining order/creating dissent on the floor to managing the voting of certain regions important to party stability. | politics |
https://my.cop.ufl.edu/ | 2015-08-02T14:19:16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042989126.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002309-00117-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.928566 | 159 | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2015-32__0__13094587 | en | September 23, 2014 is National Voter Registration Day, and the University of Florida encourages students to be active citizens through participation in local, state, and national elections. The University is partnering with TurboVote to make it easier for students to register to vote and receive timely information about upcoming elections. By signing up for TurboVote, you’ll get everything you need to register to vote, stay registered to vote when you move, vote absentee, and get reminders about every election from local to presidential. Once signed-up with TurboVote, you will receive a completed national voter-registration or absentee ballot request form by mail with a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope to your local election authority. Register with TurboVote at https://ufl.turbovote.org. | politics |
http://www.educationalrap.com/song/44-presidents/ | 2019-07-19T21:25:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526359.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20190719202605-20190719224605-00067.warc.gz | 0.901636 | 1,115 | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-30__0__196868457 | en | US Presidents: a rap song to learn the 44 presidents in order of succession | view the online RRR video.
This song presents a list of the American Presidents in chronological order, including, amongst others, Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. The teaching materials, including lesson plans, worksheets, and activities help teachers and homeschool parents create lesson plans for the song topics. By learning this song, students will have a greater understanding of the succession of presidents in office.
This social studies song is suitable for teaching all 44 presidents and the chronological order of their presidencies to elementary school (4th grade, 5th grade and 6th grade), middle school, high school, home school, and college classes.
Memorizing presidents is gonna take some effort
We’ll start with George Washington, Adams, and Thomas Jefferson
Then James Madison and James Monroe
Then John Quincy Adams like his father before
Next up we’ve got some interesting folks
Named Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk
The next four presidents that we’ll examine
Are Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan
44 Presidents, White House residents
From the Revolution to the age of the Internet
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves
Then we got Johnson, Grant, and Rutherford Hayes
James Garfield, Chester Arthur
Cleveland and Harrison; let’s keep going farther
Next up, we got Cleveland again
Then McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson
The next four, yeah you know who they are, it’s
Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and FDR
No presidents are from Wisconsin
Not Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Johnson
We’re getting near the end, but it’s not getting harder
It’s Nixon, Ford, then Jimmy Carter
Last four, we’re almost done
We’ve just got Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush the Son
Obama’s in the White House now
So hail to the chief and stand up proud!
Learning about George Washington
GW: Life and Times
This site has 12 slides of artwork and text describing the life of George Washington and the formation of our government. Excellent material.
ipl.org (Internet Public Library)
Presidents of the United States (POTUS)
The site contains detailed background information for each president, including election results, cabinet members and notable events. Also links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and presidential sites.
Millercenter.org (The University of Virginia)
American President: An Online Reference Resource
The site has detailed profiles for each president, with links to full biographies, cabinet member profiles, speech transcripts, and Miller Center videos and audio files of journalists’ presentations.
The President’s House in Philadelphia
This site gives students a historical overview of the times before Washington DC was the nation’s capital. It provides history of the old White House, photos, maps, news, and also historical context for presidents and their relations with slavery.
White House for Kids
Historical themes very accessible to young students. It links to the White House website for detailed profiles of each president, and provides a “real life” view of the President and his family, including information about their favorite books and sports, events they attend, and their pets. The Parents & Teachers section contains several classroom activities, including directions for writing letters to the President, trivia about the First Family and presidential quizzes.
Great game about US Presidents, but only goes up to Bill Clinton. Lots of interesting questions and information. Also other information about presidents including pictures of each of them.
Presidents Name Game
This site has great games, and this is one of the best. President’s names must be spelled correctly and the game is timed. Older students will enjoy this is an individual or class activity.
Campaign Ad Critic
Students analyze current campaign TV ads and literature, and then learn to look beyond the ad to understand its intended purposes and its real content.
Getting Out the Vote: An Election Day Classroom Experiment
Students learn through a hands-on experiment why voting is important, and about the potential impact of deciding not to vote.
How Well Do You Know Our Presidents?
Students research and create flip-up fact cards about the U.S. presidents.
If I Were the President
Students compose a brief essay telling what they would do to solve problems in the United States if they were elected president.
Painting Presidential Portraits
This lesson offers the opportunity for students to look at the duties of the president using the online game, “President for A Day.” The students can express themselves through art and creative writing, as they design new U.S. currency with presidential portraits, facts, and figures.
United States President Biographical Data Form
Students pick a president and write a biography using this worksheet as a guideline.
Presidential Election (video)
(log-in and subscription required)
Tim and Moby teach students about the voting process and presidential elections.
Presidential Power (video)
Tim and Moby tell what it means to be the President of the USA. Students will learn about the three branches of government and which one the president is a part of. | politics |
http://copjapan.env.go.jp/cop/cop28/en/index.html | 2024-02-22T07:10:35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473735.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20240222061937-20240222091937-00246.warc.gz | 0.911592 | 228 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__159311829 | en | Together for Action
Welcome to the COP28 Japan Pavilion.
Together with other countries around the world, Japan is taking action to combat climate change alongside economic growth, while aiming to achieve the target of 1.5°C.
For this purpose, we will introduce cutting-edge Japanese products and services that span the entire economy including housing, mobility, industry, energy, and adaptation.
We will also introduce initiatives of the Japanese national government aimed at promoting multi-level action in cooperation with local governments, businesses, and residents.
Please have a look at our products, services, and initiatives, and let us take action together.
The 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) will be held at the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between November 30 and December 12, 2023. At the Japan Pavilion, decarbonization technologies and initiatives that support global decarbonization and Japan’s realization of carbon neutrality by 2050 will be transmitted through exhibitions and seminars.
A virtual exhibition to introduce decarbonization technologies and efforts will be held during the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). | politics |
http://www.fhn.gov.az/index.php?eng/orgAndRD/245 | 2017-03-25T19:40:24 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218189032.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212949-00417-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.93182 | 331 | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-13__0__117476486 | en | Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR), Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) was established by Decree No. 6. of the Chairman of the “Ali Majlis” (Supreme Assembly) of the NAR , dated December 30, 2005.
Regulations of the MES of the NAR were approved by Decree 27 of the Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, dated 16 May 2006.
Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic
Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR, also called Nakhchivan ) is consisted of 7 administrative districts - Sharur, Babak, Ordubad, Julfa, Kangarli, Shahbuz, Sadarak. Nakhchivan has 5 cities – Nakhchivan city, which is the capital of the NAR, Ordubad, Julfa, Sharur and Shahbuz. There are also 8 settlements and 206 villages within its occupation area.
The average altitude above sea level is 1450 meters.
The territory of NAR is located in a seismically active zone. It has areas risky with landslides and flooding.
Territory: 5502,75 km2
Population: 435400 (01.01.2014)
Contacts of the MES of the NAR:
Phone: (036) 544-48-17
Fax: (036) 544-48-17
AZ 7000, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh, street, Nakhchivan city, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic | politics |
https://hellenisticmonarchies2015.wordpress.com/day-2/ryan-boehm/ | 2018-04-23T16:54:32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-17/segments/1524125946120.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20180423164921-20180423184921-00337.warc.gz | 0.938369 | 516 | CC-MAIN-2018-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-17__0__47023532 | en | Ryan Boehm (Tulane University): “City and Empire in the Age of the Successors: Synoikismos and Social Response in the Early Hellenistic Period”
As the Successors vied to develop the institutions and resources to establish successful states in the aftermath of Alexander’s death, the foundation of important cities through the merger of city-states and smaller settlements into a single polity (synoikismos) stands out as a striking aspect of royal policy. Despite the administrative headache of assessing and controlling numerous small polities, the tributary empires of the Athenians and Persians maintained or in many ways encouraged a pattern of dispersed settlement. As the “Old Oligarch” bluntly observed (2.2), fragmented and isolated cities were easy to dominate. In the period of the Successors, however, there is a discernible shift towards reorganizing cities and villages into larger settlements, particularly through the process of synoikismos and alienating royal land by attaching it to poleis. There was a concomitant interest in building regional networks through koina that united areas in economic cooperation through the creation of a common coinage, treasury, and other forms of interdependence.
This paper examines the structural role of urbanization in forming these states and the political, economic, and religious implications for the communities that formed new cities. The relationship between state power, urbanization, and the agency of subject collectivities is complex and ambivalent. The development of infrastructure, particularly that of cities and networks of cities, has proved instrumental in various eras of state formation and expansion, but the ambitions of states often falter on the contrary interests of individuals and communities under their rule. This enforced consolidation of diverse city-state cultures challenged the discrete civic, cultic, and ethnic identities of the groups forced to join these unions and provided the considerable challenge of creating a new corporate identity out of disparate populations. Through a series of case studies in northern Greece and western Asia Minor, paper traces the effects of synoikismos and explores the social implications of this process. It seeks to explore the Hellenistic polis as a resilient, flexible, and adaptive locus for social identity and power and to explain the critical role that manipulating urban networks played in the creation and maintenance of large territorial kingdoms. It also examines how the power of the kings depended on complex negotiations with cities, as well as how traditional ties of ethnicity, religion, and identity imposed limits on the authority and opportunism of the kings. | politics |
https://trishborgdorff.com/2018/01/11/troubled-but-not-silent/ | 2021-12-07T03:46:00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964363332.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20211207014802-20211207044802-00504.warc.gz | 0.972412 | 232 | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-49__0__60896262 | en | Tonight I am troubled. I don’t find it beneficial to engage in political talk these days, and at times the choice to stay silent is equally disturbing. I understand that there are many different views and perspectives, but I do not see how what is reported here can ever be supported. I do not know how we can be silent about what is transpiring among us?
And so tonight, in my distraught state, I am choosing to share these words with my niece and nephew. I want them to be able to look back someday and know that in the midst of the chaos that swirls in the news about what the President of the United States believes about the people of Haiti, we will not be silent. We will choose to celebrate their country of birth, their heritage, their family who resides in Haiti and always embrace their stories.
These two are from the beautiful country of Haiti! They have brought life, color, laughter, joy, and delight to the Borgdorff family. We embrace every bit of Haiti that flows through them and stand in gratitude tonight for their presence in our lives. Forever and always we will hold their hearts. | politics |
https://www.best-sms-tracker.com/thousands-south-african-cellphones-tracked/ | 2019-06-26T06:25:19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560628000175.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20190626053719-20190626075719-00048.warc.gz | 0.941216 | 678 | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-26__0__115919949 | en | Thousands of South African Cellphones are Being Tracked
SA Law Enforcement Are Using Loophole to Track SMS Messages.
According to a civil rights organization in South Africa, Right2Know, law enforcement agencies in the country are using SMS tracking and call tracking on over 70,000 South African cellphones each year.
Right2Know has been campaigning against a loophole within South African surveillance policies that allows law enforcement agencies in the country to essentially ask the network providers for data on sent SMS messages and calls with relatively little reason.
MTN‚ Telkom‚ Vodacom and Cell C were asked by Right2Know about how many warrants they receieved from law enforcement to track South African cellphones. The overall results showed that over 70,000 warrants were approved each year in 2015, 2016, and it’s likely to be the same for 2017.
The South African law enforcement are essentially using the Criminal Procedure’s Act to get the warrants approved, as opposed to going through the stricter ‘Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act,’ otherwise known as Rica.
In a statement written by Right2Know, the organization mentioned that, “Rica is meant to be SA’s primary surveillance law. It requires law enforcement and intelligence agencies to get the permission of a special judge‚ appointed by the president‚ to intercept a person’s communications. In order to apply for this warrant‚ they need to provide strong reasons because such interceptions threaten peoples’ right to privacy so much.”
The statement continued, “Policy makers have wrongly assumed that the information about the communication (such as the identity of who you have communicated with‚ when‚ and your location) is less sensitive than the content of the communication.”
With this loophole, any magistrate can easily issue a warrant that allows the law enforcement in South Africa to gain access to any SMS and call data logged by the South African network operators. The data given through this method is considered to only be ‘meta-data’ and this is why the loophole has been successful in South Africa.
Essentially, law enforcement cannot see the contents of the SMS messages, but they can still see information about who sent messages to who, how many messages were sent, when the messages were sent, and also details about how long a call lasted for and when the call took place.
The organization campaigning against this believes that the meta-data still contains information that should be left untouched unless the information is needed in a crucial case.
“Policy makers are wrong to assume this information is less sensitive or private than the contents of the communication: meta-data can reveal as much‚ if not more‚ about a person’s contacts‚ interests and habits than what they say over the phone or in a text message. When a person’s communications information is handed over using the Criminal Procedures Act‚ they are never notified‚ even if the investigation is dropped or if they are found to be innocent.”
The Right2Know organization is demanding that all mobile network operators improve their protection for stored call and SMS message data so that law enforcement or other organizations cannot gain access to what Right2Know considers to be very private data. | politics |
http://www.angmalaya.net/world/2014/06/26/1338-largest-war-games-in-pacific-set-to-start-china-sent-second-largest-deligation | 2017-08-21T23:52:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886109682.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821232346-20170822012346-00575.warc.gz | 0.942508 | 304 | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-34__0__260719433 | en | “This year’s RIMPAC exercise, the 24th in the series that began in 1971, is scheduled from June 26 to August 1, with an opening reception scheduled for June 26 and closing reception August 1. Twenty-three nations, 49 surface ships, 6 submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel will participate,” said in a news release by Commander, US Pacific Fleet.
Troops and military hardware will be coming from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the People’s Republic of China, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.
US has the largest delegation seconded by People’s Liberation Army of China with 1,100 troops and a destroyer, frigate, supply ship, and hospital ship Peace Ark.
RIMPAC or Rim of the Pacific Exercise is a biennial maritime warfare exercise hosted by USN Pacific Fleet with goal to enhance interoperability between Pacific Rim armed forces and promote stability in the Pacific.
“Non-traditional security threats are common threats faced by all countries. The threats cannot be solved by any single country. That’s why I believe China’s participation will help maintain regional and world peace and stability,” a senior Chinese captain said. China is participating for the first time. | politics |
https://beavercreekfire.org/319/Renewal-Road-Levy | 2021-05-15T13:42:57 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991370.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20210515131024-20210515161024-00100.warc.gz | 0.944436 | 472 | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-21__0__103832142 | en | Renewal Road Levy
On behalf of Beavercreek Township, we would like to thank the community for the overwhelming support of the Road Levy. We are proud to serve all the residents of this great community and appreciate all that you do for us!
Renewal Road Levy in the Unincorporated Area - No Tax Increase
Renewal Road Levy on May 4 Ballot
Beavercreek Township Trustees have placed a renewal 1.5 mill continuous road levy on the May 4 ballot. This levy represents 38% of the Road and Bridge Fund revenue is the primary funding source for 10 full-time employees.
This levy was original passed in 1982 as a 1 mil levy and subsequently renewed until it was replaced and increased to a 1.5 mill levy in 2006 and last renewed in 2016.
What does this levy provide?
- Provides funding for the operation of the Road Department.
- Provides the available local funds to leverage State and Federal grants monies utilized to upgrade the road system, as well as funding for the annual road resurfacing program.
- Maintains approximately 47.41 centerline miles of roadway, signs, pavement makings, storm sewer systems.
- Provides residents service such as snow plowing, street sweeping, pavement repairs, roadside mowing, ditching, tree trimming, and is essential in maintaining the infrastructure of roadways in the Township’s unincorporated area.
Will my taxes increase
No. The amount of money collected will stay constant with the amount of funding received during the last levy cycle.
Why is the request for a continuous levy and not a 5-year levy?
The Township would like to eliminate the risk of losing 38% of the road and bridge fund revenue necessary to maintain the current level of services to Township residents and to stabilize our funding for the future and to provide for long range planning of the Township services. Additionally, this will preserve the 12.5% property tax rollback on this portion of this levy issued by the state to our residents.
How much will the levy cost per $100K valuation?
The levy will cost residents $37.23 per $100,000 value of their property.
What are the consequences of the not passing the levy?
Township residents would see a reduction in roadway maintenance. | politics |
https://www.nepmcc.ca/press%20release/mayoralcand.html | 2023-09-25T19:02:04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510085.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20230925183615-20230925213615-00028.warc.gz | 0.889977 | 206 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__17240547 | en | Mayoral Candidates Round Table
National Ethnic Press & Media Council of Canada
Toronto City Hall
Monday, May 26th/2014, 6-9 pm
• Olivia Chow
The host and moderator of the event will be Mr. Thomas S. Saras, President & CEO of the NEPMCC. Mr. Saras will deliver opening remarks and introduce the candidates. All candidates will have 5 minutes for their opening remarks/presentations and 2 minutes for closing remarks after questions period will be over (in alphabetical order).
The event will be streamed on the organization’s website – www.nationalethnicpress.com
The format of the event will be the following:
- 5 minutes presentations from each Mayoral Candidate about their campaign programs; the order is pre-determined – alphabetical order; campaign promotional materials are allowed to be distributed at the event;
No more than 113 people will be in attendance (the capacity of the Committee Room #2). | politics |
http://memphishorses.blogspot.com/2006/11/memphis-horses-what-can-you-do-about.html | 2019-01-16T01:27:26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583656577.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20190116011131-20190116033131-00337.warc.gz | 0.932745 | 716 | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-04__0__3783449 | en | How can any true horse lover advocate the atrocoties of slaughter? Is it a humane end... ABSOLUTELY NOT! I'll spare the gory details (including transport horrors), but I refuse to believe that good-hearted, ethical, humane, animal-loving individuals believe horse slaughter is necessary. Regardless of opinion differences re: horse slaughter, I don't see how ANYONE can condone the way it occurs. CHANGE IS NEEDED! It continues because people don't know what happens; because people aren't educated about it. The best way to derail horse slaughter is to EDUCATE Horse and animal-lover's about this issue!
If the concept of Horse Slaughter makes your stomach churn, and gets you all fired up like me, there is a lot that YOU can do about it. You can make a difference! As I see it, this whole debate boils down to money and greed. Those who truly love horses, will be opposed to slaughter. Those who are greedy and place more value on Money than ideals and ethics will be pro-slaughter.
Please Take Action!
Please write, email, call or fax your Representative and Senators and urge her or him to cosponsor this important legislation. To find your member click here.
U.S. House of Representatives
- H.R. 503, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA)
To amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.
- UPDATE: On September 7, 2006, the House of Representatives voted 263 to 146 in favor of H.R. 503, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, to end the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
- S. 1915, The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (AHSPA)
To amend the Horse Protection Act to prohibit the shipping,transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing,selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes.
- Many of the horses sold into slaughter have been abused and neglected.Be sure to report all instances of cruelty and neglect to your local animal control office and law enforcement office.
- Please report stolen horses to local and state authorities. The Internet has numerous websites for reporting and looking for stolen horses. These sites allow individuals around the country to share information and photos.
- Do not sell your horse at an auction; many of the horses at auctions are bought by killer-buyers.
- Donate your horse to an equine rescue organization; making arrangements with a retirement farm- make sure you have proper references and an agreement that the horse will never be neglected, or sold to slaughter!
- Donate, sell or lease your horse to a therapeutic riding program!
- Sell the horse privately to an individual with proper references and a detailed agreement that the horse will never be sold to slaughter.
- As a last resort, even humane euthanasia by a licensed veterinarian is preferable to cruel transport and slaughter!
Please write the Secretary of Interior opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s overzealous wild horse round-up policy. Thousands of wild horses continue to be removed from their traditional range, and now many of them will be slated for slaughter. Write to:
Secretary of the Interior
US Department of Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240 | politics |
http://paebcg.webz.cz/97-sinking-of-the-uss-maine-essay.php | 2018-12-15T16:02:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376826892.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20181215152912-20181215174912-00462.warc.gz | 0.971357 | 2,983 | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-51__0__214708845 | en | Concerned with the situation in Cuba, in January 1897 the US sent a warship, the USS Maine, to Cuba under captain Charles D. Sigsbee. The Maine's mission was purportedly friendly, its job to investigate the situation and provide an escape for American should things get out of hand. Shortly after the Maine set out, Hearst's newspaper intercepted a letter from Spain's minister in Washington, Dupuy du Lome. The letter spoke rudely of President McKinley. Of course, Hearst did not refrain from publishing the scandalous Lome letter. The letter appeared in the February 9, 1898 of the New York Journal. The letter outraged Americans and embarrassed Spain. Dupuy du Lome was forced to resign over the matter, and tensions between the US and Spain increased.
Six days after Hearst published the Lome letter, the USS Maine sailed into Havana harbor. The surprised Spanish, who had only been given a few hours notice that the Maine was coming, were quite upset. Although the Maine claimed to be on a friendly mission, it was a powerful warship. The Spanish authorities felt that the US was trying to intimidate them and was interfering with Spanish sovereignty by trying to affect Spanish policy toward the Cuban insurrectos.
On February 15, 1898, in an event that still remains a mystery, the Maine suddenly exploded as it sailed around Havana harbor. This was a tragedy for the United States, as 260 out of 350 American sailors and officers died in the explosion. Hearst's newspaper immediately published a story with the headline, "The Warship Maine Was Split In Two By An Enemy's Secret Infernal Machine!'' The destruction of the Maine created an uproar in America, which, influenced by Hearst, immediately held Spain responsible. In fact, the details of the explosion were still not clear. Investigations by both the US and Spain began, and not surprisingly, they disagreed. While the Spanish investigation team claimed that the explosion was only an accident caused by some internal problem on the ship, the American investigation said the explosion must have been caused by a Spanish mine in the harbor. The yellow press exploited this story, whipping the US into an anti-Spanish frenzy. Newspaper circulation soared as the public demanded war with Spain. War would come, and when it did, the cry of "Remember the Maine" would be heard frequently.
Why did the US send the Maine to Cuba? Officially the claim was that it was simply a normal patrol, more of a friendly fact-finding mission than anything else. The real mission of the Maine was probably geared towards protecting US interests. Should a crisis approximating the 1897 riots by insurrectos break out, the US wanted a warship in the vicinity ready to evacuate American citizens in Cuba. And of course, the US had long been interested in increasing American influence in Cuba. Perhaps the Maine was a first step in this direction.
The true nature of the USS Maine explosion has long been one of the great mysteries of American history. At the time, Americans already had a negative view of Spain and almost instantaneously concluded that the explosion was caused by Spanish treachery. For a while after the Spanish-American War, most people accepted the answer that the American investigative commission gave: that a Spanish torpedo or mine blew up the Maine. The Spanish investigative commission, which was never allowed very close to the Maine's wreck anyway, disagreed. According to the Spanish side of the story, some internal problem with the ship caused the explosion. Perhaps a boiler or a combustion engine exploded, they said. It turns out that they Spanish interpretation may well have been correct. In the 1970s, Admiral Hyman Rickover of the US Navy took another look at the Maine. According to Rickover's investigation, it appeared most likely that an internal mechanical problem had caused a stockpile of ammunition and gunpowder stored nearby to explode. Rickover's conclusion was almost identical to the Spanish claims. A third possibility, that the US intentionally exploded the Maine in order to give the nation a reason for going to war, seems to be an unlikely conspiracy theory with little supporting evidence. Nonetheless, some in Cuba hold this theory today. And despite Rickover's study in the 1970s, the case is still not settled. A later investigation by the Smithsonian turned up numerous plots against the Maine, suggesting a mine or some type of sabotage. Computer modeling studies financed by National Geographic have demonstrated that, based on the wreckage, the explosion could have been caused by either a mine or an internal mechanical accident. Most likely, the causes behind the explosion of the USS Maine will never be known with complete certainty. But whatever the reason for the explosion, the event played directly into the hands of pro-war hawks, jingoists, and yellow journalists like Hearst.
Was the Maine explosion an unfortunate accident that pushed the US into a war that might otherwise have been avoided? Possibly, but given US actions prior to the explosion (such as the Maine's voyage to Cuba or Theodore Roosevelt's orders to Commodore George Dewey to attack the Spanish fleet at Manila in the case of a war with Spain), it seems that the United States had been gearing up for war prior to the explosion. The Maine explosion just provided the impetus.
Library of Congress > Researchers > Hispanic Reading Room > World of 1898
1898 HOME > Introduction
On April 25, 1898 the United States declared war on Spain following the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. As a result Spain lost its control over the remains of its overseas empire -- Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines Islands, Guam, and other islands.
Beginning in 1492, Spain was the first European nation to sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean, explore, and colonize the Amerindian nations of the Western Hemisphere. At its greatest extent, the empire that resulted from this exploration extended from Virginia on the eastern coast of the United States south to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America excluding Brazil and westward to California and Alaska. Across the Pacific, it included the Philippines and other island groups. By 1825 much of this empire had fallen into other hands and in that year, Spain acknowledged the independence of its possessions in the present-day United States (then under Mexican control) and south to the tip of South America. The only remnants that remained in the empire in the Western Hemisphere were Cuba and Puerto Rico and across the Pacific in Philippines Islands, and the Carolina, Marshall, and Mariana Islands (including Guam) in Micronesia.
Following the liberation from Spain of mainland Latin America, Cuba was the first to initiate its own struggle for independence. During the years from 1868-1878, Cubans personified by guerrilla fighters known as mambises fought for autonomy from Spain. That war concluded with a treaty that was never enforced. In the 1890's Cubans began to agitate once again for their freedom from Spain. The moral leader of this struggle was José Martí, known as "El Apóstol," who established the Cuban Revolutionary Party on January 5, 1892 in the United States. Following the grito de Baire, the call to arms on February 24, 1895, Martí returned to Cuba and participated in the first weeks of armed struggle when he was killed on May 19, 1895.
The Philippines Islands
The Philippines too was beginning to grow restive with Spanish rule. José Rizal, a member of a wealthy mestizo family, resented that his upper mobility was limited by Spanish insistence on promoting only "pure-blooded" Spaniards. He began his political career at the University of Madrid in 1882 where he became the leader of Filipino students there. For the next ten years he traveled in Europe and wrote several novels considered seditious by Filipino and Church authorities. He returned to Manila in 1892 and founded the Liga Filipina, a political group dedicated to peaceful change. He was rapidly exiled to Mindanao. During his absence, Andrés Bonifacio founded Katipunan, dedicated to the violent overthrow of Spanish rule. On August 26, 1896, after learning that the Katipunan had been betrayed, Bonifacio issued the Grito de Balintawak, a call for Filipinos to revolt. Bonifacio was succeeded as head of the Philippine revolution by Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, who had his predecessor arrested and executed on May 10, 1897. Aguinaldo negotiated a deal with the Spaniards who exiled him to Hong Kong with 400,000 pesos that he subsequently used to buy weapons to resume the fight.
During the 1880s and 1890s, Puerto Ricans developed many different political parties, some of which sought independence for the island while others, headquartered like their Cuban counterparts in New York, preferred to ally with the United States. Spain proclaimed the autonomy of Puerto Rico on November 25, 1897, although the news did not reach the island until January 1898 and a new government established on February 12, 1898.
U.S. interest in purchasing Cuba had begun long before 1898. Following the Ten Years War, American sugar interests bought up large tracts of land in Cuba. Alterations in the U.S. sugar tariff favoring home-grown beet sugar helped foment the rekindling of revolutionary fervor in 1895. By that time the U.S. had more than $50 million invested in Cuba and annual trade, mostly in sugar, was worth twice that much. Fervor for war had been growing in the United States, despite President Grover Cleveland's proclamation of neutrality on June 12, 1895. But sentiment to enter the conflict grew in the United States when General Valeriano Weyler began implementing a policy of Reconcentration that moved the population into central locations guarded by Spanish troops and placed the entire country under martial law in February 1896. By December 7, President Cleveland reversed himself declaring that the United States might intervene should Spain fail to end the crisis in Cuba. President William McKinley, inaugurated on March 4, 1897, was even more anxious to become involved, particularly after the New York Journal published a copy of a letter from Spanish Foreign Minister Enrique Dupuy de Lôme criticizing the American President on February 9, 1898. Events moved swiftly after the explosion aboard the U.S.S. Maine on February 15. On March 9, Congress passed a law allocating fifty million dollars to build up military strength. On March 28, the U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry finds that a mine blew up the Maine. On April 21 President McKinley orders a blockade of Cuba and four days later the U.S. declares war.
Following its declaration of war against Spain issued on April 25, 1898, the United States added the Teller Amendment asserting that it would not attempt to exercise hegemony over Cuba. Two days later Commodore George Dewey sailed from Hong Kong with Emilio Aguinaldo on board. Fighting began in the Phillipines Islands at the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1 where Commodore George Dewey reportedly exclaimed, "You may fire when ready, Gridley," and the Spanish fleet under Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo was destroyed. However, Dewey did not have enough manpower to capture Manila so Aguinaldo's guerrillas maintained their operations until 15,000 U.S. troops arrived at the end of July. On the way, the cruiser Charleston stopped at Guam and accepted its surrender from its Spanish governor who was unaware his nation was at war. Although a peace protocol was signed by the two belligerents on August 12, Commodore Dewey and Maj. Gen. Wesley Merritt, leader of the army troops, assaulted Manila the very next day, unaware that peace had been declared.
In late April, Andrew Summers Rowan made contact with Cuban General Calixto García who supplied him with maps, intelligence, and a core of rebel officers to coordinate U.S. efforts on the island. The U.S. North Atlantic Squadron left Key West for Cuba on April 22 following the frightening news that the Spanish home fleet commanded by Admiral Pascual Cervera had left Cadiz and entered Santiago, having slipped by U.S. ships commanded by William T. Sampson and Winfield Scott Schley. They arrived in Cuba in late May.
War actually began for the U.S. in Cuba in June when the Marines captured Guantánamo Bay and 17,000 troops landed at Siboney and Daiquirí, east of Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city on the island. At that time Spanish troops stationed on the island included 150,000 regulars and 40,000 irregulars and volunteers while rebels inside Cuba numbered as many as 50,000. Total U.S. army strength at the time totalled 26,000, requiring the passage of the Mobilization Act of April 22 that allowed for an army of at first 125,000 volunteers (later increased to 200,000) and a regular army of 65,000. On June 22, U.S. troops landed at Daiquiri where they were joined by Calixto García and about 5,000 revolutionaries.
U.S. troops attacked the San Juan heights on July 1, 1898. Dismounted troopers, including the African-American Ninth and Tenth cavalries and the Rough Riders commanded by Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt went up against Kettle Hill while the forces led by Brigadier General Jacob Kent charged up San Juan Hill and pushed Spanish troops further inland while inflicting 1,700 casualties. While U.S. commanders were deciding on a further course of action, Admiral Cervera left port only to be defeated by Schley. On July 16, the Spaniards agreed to the unconditional surrender of the 23,500 troops around the city. A few days later, Major General Nelson Miles sailed from Guantánamo to Puerto Rico. His forces landed near Ponce and marched to San Juan with virtually no opposition.
Representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million. The war had cost the United States $250 million and 3,000 lives, of whom 90% had perished from infectious diseases.
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https://farmington-maine.org/calendar/icalrepeat.detail/2021/05/13/1587/-/public-meeting-town-manager-search | 2022-11-29T04:25:05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710685.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20221129031912-20221129061912-00660.warc.gz | 0.93206 | 199 | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-49__0__186930529 | en | Notice of Public Meeting on Farmington Town Manager Search
The Farmington Select Board is inviting citizens, businesses, and organizations to a public meeting to be held on Thursday, May 13, 2021, starting at 6:30 P.M. downstairs at the Community Center at 127 Middle Street.
The purpose of the meeting is to gather information regarding what the community believes are the major issues and challenges facing Farmington in the next 5 years and to express what qualities, education, background and experience the new Town Manager should possess to manage the Town and to meet the issues and challenges facing Farmington.
Don Gerrish from Eaton Peabody Consulting Group will facilitate this meeting. Mr. Gerrish will also present an overview of the process the Select Board will follow in selecting the new Manager.
The Select Board encourages attendance at this meeting for all who would like to express their opinions on this important community process. If you are unable to attend, you can email your thoughts to . | politics |
https://hillsdalecollegecruise.com/speakers/ | 2019-07-18T01:07:36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195525483.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20190718001934-20190718023934-00051.warc.gz | 0.947105 | 304 | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-30__0__34102559 | en | Seminars are only available with the purchase of the cruise package through Global Tracks and are not sold separately.
Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor at the Claremont Review of Books and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He has also written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Book Review, the Spectator (London), the Weekly Standard, and numerous other publications. He is the author of Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West and The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (forthcoming).
LARRY P. ARNN
Larry P. Arnn is the 12th president of Hillsdale College. He received his B.A. from Arkansas State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. He also studied at the London School of Economics and at Oxford University, where he served as director of research for the late Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill. He served as president of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy from 1985-2000. In 2015, he received the Bradley Prize from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. He is the author of Liberty and Learning: The Evolution of American Education, The Founders’ Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk By Losing It, and Churchill’s Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government. | politics |
http://www.livingtributes.com/livingtribute.php?memid=837 | 2018-01-19T11:32:36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084887973.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20180119105358-20180119125358-00793.warc.gz | 0.960235 | 566 | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-05__0__195151903 | en | John P. O'Neill, age 49, who left the F.B.I. last month to become chief of security for the World Trade Center, died in the collapse of the center on September 11, 2001.
Mr. O'Neill spent the last several years heading major investigations of the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect in the attacks at the trade center and the Pentagon. He also investigated the bombings of the United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
In 1997, when he was head of the F.B.I.'s counterterrorism division in New York, he warned at a conference on terrorism that militant terrorist groups were operating quietly within the United States. "A lot of these groups now have the capability and the support infrastructure in the United States to attack us here if they choose to," he said at the time, adding that there was a particular danger from Islamic militants.
On Sept. 11, Mr. O'Neill saw his warnings materialize.
In his career with the F.B.I., Mr. O'Neill proved to be one of the shrewdest counterterrorism officials and one of the most controversial. Associates have said that he sometimes chafed at the bureau's restrictive rules and that his single-mindedness occasionally irritated colleagues in the bureau, at the C.I.A. and at the State Department.
Last month, F.B.I. sources confirmed that Mr. O'Neill was under investigation after he left a briefcase containing classified information unattended in a hotel in Tampa, FL, last year. The briefcase — which was recovered and returned to Mr. O'Neill — contained several documents that included a report outlining virtually every national security operation in New York.
As chief of the counterterrorism section at the bureau's Washington headquarters, Mr. O'Neill helped capture the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, coordinated information in the Oklahoma City bombing that led to the arrest of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and played a key role in the investigation of the crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800.
Born in Atlantic City, Mr. O'Neill received a Bachelor of Science degree from American University in Washington and a master's degree in forensic science from George Washington University in Washington. After joining the bureau in 1976, Mr. O'Neill worked in the foreign counterintelligence, organized crime and white collar crime units.
After assignments in Baltimore, Washington and Chicago, Mr. O'Neill headed the group charged with investigating violence against abortion clinics and the counterterrorism section at headquarters. It was in the wake of the lost-briefcase incident that Mr. O'Neill announced last month that he would retire at the end of the month.
This Living Tribute has been viewed 8828 times. | politics |
https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/scottish-canals-framework-document/j275231-01/ | 2021-09-17T07:17:34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780055601.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20210917055515-20210917085515-00286.warc.gz | 0.918365 | 263 | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-39__0__176856187 | en | 1. This framework document has been drawn up by the Scottish Government (SG) in consultation with Scottish Canals (SC). It sets out the broad framework within which SC, a Scottish public corporation, will operate and defines key roles and responsibilities which underpin the relationship between SC and the SG. While this document does not confer any legal powers or responsibilities, it forms a key part of the accountability and governance framework and should be reviewed and updated as necessary, and at least every 2-3 years. Any proposals to amend the framework document either by the SG or SC will be taken forward in consultation and in the light of SG priorities and policy aims. Any question regarding the interpretation of the document shall be determined by the SG after consultation with SC. Legislative provisions shall take precedence over any part of the document.
2. Scottish Canals is the operating name of the British Waterways Board (BWB). References to SC include any subsidiaries and joint ventures owned or controlled by SC. SC shall not establish subsidiaries or enter into joint ventures without the express approval of the SG.
3. References to SG include Transport Scotland (TS) as an agency of the SG.
4. Copies of the document shall be placed in the Scottish Parliament Reference Centre. It shall also be published on the SG and the SC websites. | politics |
https://herodotushistoryblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/to-kill-a-king-the-execution-of-charles-i/ | 2021-01-17T21:38:09 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703513194.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20210117205246-20210117235246-00766.warc.gz | 0.98295 | 1,543 | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-04__0__180934085 | en | 30th January 1649 was a bitterly cold day. So cold, in fact, that the waters of the Thames froze solid. So cold that the breaths of the men, women and children in the pressing crowd formed a mist above their heads. So cold that the long-haired, bearded man being led to the axeman’s block had requested two shirts to wear.
“The season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.”
This man had once stood supreme above all others in the country that was now putting him to death for treason. Second of the Stuart monarchs, Charles I had come to the throne on the death of his father James VI/I (he was the sixth King of Scotland called James but the first of England) in 1625. His reign had seen ever-growing tensions between the king and his parliament, which (to cut an incredibly long and complex story short) culminated in 1642 with the outbreak of the English Civil War (1).
The English Civil War was, in truth, three wars, the second of which ended with Charles’s decapitation in London. All three conflicts, which also included the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland (which both shared a monarch with England (2)), ended in a victory for the Parliamentarians. The First War ended with Charles’s capture near Newcastle in January 1647, and he spent the next two years a prisoner. In the weeks before his trial, Charles’s barber was dismissed and the king let his hair and beard grow long, as he refused to allow anybody else near his throat with a razor.
Charles’s trial was a parody of justice. It was a foregone conclusion, and I struggle to believe that anybody present would have been under any illusions to the contrary. Charles would be found guilty of treason and Charles would be sentenced to death. The problem facing the court, however, was that as monarch Charles was incapable of committing treason, defined until then as “acting against the monarch”. As monarch, Charles could hardly act against himself.
The solution was to change the definition of treason to be acting against the interests of the state. Charles, the court determined, had done precisely that. The king, however, protested throughout his trial that the proceedings were illegal, saying:
“No earthly power can justly call me in question as a delinquent. This day’s proceeding cannot be warranted by God’s laws; for, on the contrary, the authority of obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted, and strictly commanded in both the Old and New Testament. For the law of this land, I am no less confident, that no learned lawyer will affirm that an impeachment can lie against the King, they all going in his name: and one of their maxims is, that the King can do no wrong.”
Nonetheless, the court did decide against Charles, as evidenced by the text on the warrant for his execution:
At the High Court of Justice for the trying and judging of Charles Stuart, King of England January 29th Year of Our Lord 1648 (3).
Whereas Charles Stuart, King of England, is and stands convicted, attained and condemned of High Treason and other high crimes, and sentence upon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Court to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body of which sentence execution yet remains to be done. These are therefore to will and require you to see the said sentence executed In the open Street before Whitehall tomorrow, being the thirtieth day of this instant month of January, between the hours of Ten in the morning and Five in the afternoon of the same day with full effect. And for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. And these are to require all officers and soldiers and other the good people of this nation of England to be assisting unto you in this service.
At 2pm on Tuesday 30th January, Charles put his head on the wooden block, prayed, and then opened his arms to signal to the axeman that he was ready to die. Unlike executions such as those of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541) and Charles’s own grandmother Mary, Queen of Scots (1587), Charles’s execution was without incident, the axe removing his head from his body in a single, clean stroke. A great moan is recorded to have gone up from the crowd at the moment of the king’s death, and those nearest to the scaffold dipped their handkerchiefs into the king’s blood.
The executioner was hooded, and so his identity is unknown. It is known that the axeman himself wanted this to be the case; it was custom for the decapitated head of a traitor to be held aloft and for the executioner to speak the words “Behold, the head of a traitor.” While Charles’s head was lifted and displayed to the crowd, the executioner refused to speak the words in hopes of keeping his voice, and identity, a secret. We also know that he was a reluctant regicide. He had had to be bribed with the gigantic sum of £200 to take the job, and even then tried to back out and had to be threatened with his own death to comply.
The following day, Charles’s head was sewn back onto his body, and his remains were embalmed and placed inside a lead coffin. Parliament, now utterly dominated by Oliver Cromwell, refused to allow Charles to be buried in Westminster Abbey, as was and still is the tradition of English monarchs, and so Charles was instead interred in Saint James’s chapel, Windsor Castle, alongside the remains of Henry VIII and that king’s third wife, Jane Seymour.
After Charles’s death an eleven-year republic existed in England, run on Puritan principles. Theatre, sport, makeup and celebration were all criminalised by the new regime, and Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector – effectively military dictator. The republic persisted for two years after Cromwell’s death, with his son Richard as Lord Protector. Political chaos over the next two years eventually resulted in the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, with Charles’s son becoming King Charles II. Twelve years to the day after Charles’s execution, Charles II exhumed the body of Oliver Cromwell and had it decapitated as a form of revenge for the execution of his father. The head was displayed outside Westminster Hall for another twenty-four years, before finally being removed in 1685.
Note 1: There had in fact been at least three English civil wars before this one, but none of them are called as such.
Note 2: The modern territory of Wales was also ruled by Charles but was not recognised as separate from England
Note 3: Under the Julian Calendar, in use in 1649, the New Year did not begin until 25th March. Therefore, this date would have been in 1648 in that calendar, but according to the modern Gregorian Calendar falls in 1649
- Charles Carlton, Charles I: The Personal Monarch
- Graham Edwards, The Last Days of Charles I
- Samuel Rawson Gardener, The Constitutional Documents of the Purtian Revolution 1625-1660
- Pauline Gregg, King Charles I
- Christopher Hibbert, Charles I
- Geoffrey Robertson, The Tyrannicide Brief | politics |
https://iuoeiettc.org/is-parallel-parking-outdated/ | 2023-12-03T18:14:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100508.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20231203161435-20231203191435-00591.warc.gz | 0.967863 | 1,154 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__209256439 | en | You are not alone if the notion of parallel parking causes you to break out in a cold sweat. It can be stressful whether you’re attempting to pass your state’s driving test or trying to nab the final parking place on a busy street. Parallel parking, like other difficult driving skills, becomes easier with practice, yet an increasing number of drivers disregard this ability as unimportant. And, inexperienced drivers in certain U.S. states may be able to doze off during this portion of driver’s education and still pass the driving test.
Michigan is the most recent state to consider removing parallel parking from the list of driver’s license requirements. House Bill 4576 was introduced by Republican Representative Sarah Lightner on May 9. The representative informed media sites in the Detroit region that she introduced the bill after getting complaints from voters who were dissatisfied that they spent $50 on the state driving test only to fail because of a skill they deemed unnecessary or extraneous.
“The Secretary of State shall not require an applicant for an operator’s license to demonstrate competency in the skill of parallel parking in order to pass a driving skills test,” the law declares.
Rep. Lightner’s office told HowStuffWorks, “The premise behind the measure is that parallel parking abilities are crucial and are taught throughout driver’s education, yet few Michigan drivers are often in situations that necessitate parallel parking.” “The feedback has been mixed, but it has sparked a terrific dialogue about the current abilities required to operate a vehicle safely.”
In May of 2019, sixteen states did not require a driver’s license applicant to demonstrate parallel parking proficiency, writes Rob Stumpf for The Drive. Now, Michigan is reviving a debate that has been dormant for some time. In 2015, Maryland was the most recent state to eliminate parallel parking from its driver’s exam.
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming have also abandoned the skill. In the case of Maryland, as reported by NPR and USA Today in 2015, the state’s Motor Vehicle Administration deemed it unnecessary to continue including parallel parking on the test, as the skills required are nearly identical to those required for other portions of the test, such as a reverse two-point turn. Critics stated at the time that the state’s intentions were to both speed up the test and reduce the number of drivers who had to retake it; same worries are shared by critics of the proposed legislation in Michigan. According to NPR, there was also a great deal of public opposition, primarily from elder state residents who remarked on internet news articles that it was unjust that younger drivers would have an easier driving test.
So, what happens to drivers who theoretically study parallel parking but never grasp the skill? Thanks to parking lots, parking garages, angled street parking spots, and valet parking, this obstacle is easily circumvented in a number of locales. Moreover, if you drive a newer vehicle, it likely incorporates at least some technological aids. Some automakers refer to these safety systems as “advanced” or “active,” while others refer to them as “driver aids” or “driver assistance.” The newer and more expensive the vehicle, the more probable it is that these technologies will be sold as “semi-autonomous” or “self-parking” technology.
These features, according to AAA, include:
- Back-up cameras
- Multi-angle cameras
- Front and rear parking sensors that detect nearby obstructions.
- Side sensors that alert the driver when they are approaching the curb
- Devices that assist in locating a parking space that can accommodate the vehicle.
- Technologies that partially (driver assistance) or fully (parking assist) direct the vehicle into the parking space.
Someday, individuals will ride in fully driverless vehicles that require less time in a parking space, according to a report by Deloitte.
Although Lightner informed media outlets in the Detroit region that parallel parking is “becoming an outmoded practice,” her office warned HowStuffWorks that the measure should not be taken as a replacement for actual driving abilities. According to Lightner’s office, driver-support systems were included in the bill’s considerations, but the bill was not crafted with the idea of drivers relying on parking assist systems in mind.
In general, jurisdictions that have ceased testing parallel parking nevertheless require first-time drivers to undergo a driver’s education course, which includes teaching on parallel parking.
Even though the states that have discontinued parallel parking tests did not do so because to the availability of new technology, it seems inevitable that such technology will eventually replace parking skills. After all, if state representatives introduce legislation based on the feedback of their constituents, and if those constituents become increasingly accustomed to relatively basic features such as backup cameras and parking sensors, as well as more advanced technology such as parking assist systems that actively steer the vehicle, then it’s easy to see where this is headed.
As for Michigan, where numerous automakers are releasing these new features as rapidly as can, we’ll see if other legislators concur with Lightner. The bill must be approved by both chambers of the Michigan legislature and signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer for it to become law. Like other states that have approved similar rules, parallel parking would still be taught in driver’s education courses in Michigan. | politics |
https://www.thepublicpk.com/2020/07/10/hrw-urges-govt-to-drop-politically-motivated-charges-against-msr-stop-harassing-family/ | 2021-09-28T04:04:07 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780060201.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20210928032425-20210928062425-00424.warc.gz | 0.965127 | 726 | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-39__0__113538734 | en | NEW YORK: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the government to “drop politically motivated charges and release Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, an editor with Pakistan’s largest media group”.
In a statement released on Friday, HRW has demanded that “the authorities also stop harassing Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman’s family members”.
The human rights advocacy group observed in its statement that MSR, 63, has been in pretrial custody for nearly four months.
“On March 12, 2020, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an anti-corruption watchdog that has been implicated in serious abuses, arrested [MSR] on charges relating to a 34-year-old property transaction. Rehman had requested bail on the grounds that he was in ill-health and posed no flight risk, but on July 8, the Lahore High Court denied him bail,” read the statement.
It noted that the very next day, the court heard a NAB petition “seeking the arrest of his wife and four children concerning the same property transaction”.
“In 1986, at the time of the property transaction, Rehman’s children were ages 8, 6, 4, and 1,” said HRW.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said seeking the children’s arrest “for alleged acts when they were hardly more than toddlers shows how ludicrous the case against him is.”
“Pakistani authorities should stop using vague and overbroad anti-corruption laws against dissenting voices,” he said.
The statement noted that Pakistan’s media “operates in a climate of fear”.
“Media outlets are under pressure from the authorities not to criticise the government. The Jang Group alleges that, over the past two years, NAB has sent more than a dozen threatening letters to its reporters, editors, and producers for reporting that has been critical of the bureau,” said HRW.
It also noted the latest in the series of curbs placed on the media — the suspension of the license of television channel 24NewsHD by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on July 3 with “immediate effect” for “noncompliance with its terms of license.”
“On July 7, the Lahore High Court suspended PEMRA’s notification and temporarily allowed the channel to resume transmission,” it said, before highlighting: “In some cases, regulatory agencies have blocked cable operators from broadcasting networks that aired critical programmes.”
The statement went on to observe that NAB “has been widely criticised for being used for political purposes”.
“Created under an ordinance promulgated by the military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 1999, the bureau was granted unchecked powers of arrest, investigation, and prosecution. The bureau may detain people for up to 90 days without charge,” noted the human rights body.
It underscored that the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court had ruled in March that NAB had made “arbitrary use of its arrest powers”.
“The Pakistani government should cease using the National Accountability Bureau to target journalists, opposition politicians, and outspoken critics,” Adams said. “As a first step, the government should repeal the draconian dictatorship-era laws that have shrunk basic free expression rights.” | politics |
https://staynotagrownup.com/2020/03/02/searching-for-an-education-friendly-politician/ | 2021-10-27T12:51:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323588153.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20211027115745-20211027145745-00624.warc.gz | 0.962073 | 406 | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-43__0__156668189 | en | Unless you’ve been hiding in a bunker, you may have noticed that we are in a heated election cycle. Debates, town halls, primaries, caucuses (I can’t be the only one that giggles when I say that word!)…we are fully involved in all things politicians and elections. And while I can’t tell you who I would like to vote for or who I think you should support, I can tell you what I’m looking for in a leader. I’m searching for a candidate that puts education on the forefront.
As far as I’m concerned, the state of our public education has an effect on every other part of our lives. From the future of climate science, to our children’s mental health, to our ability to compete on the world stage, it all comes down to education. And where will our education system be without the backbone of it all- our teachers?
So, this election cycle I’m paying attention. I’m paying attention to how schools will be funded. I’m listening to how politicians talk about our failing and under performing schools. Do they view them as something to avoid or defer money from, or do they have strong plans to repair them? Do they speak as though teachers are deserving of respect and living wages? Will they appoint cabinet members who actually have experience in Public Education? Do they truly get Nelson Mandela’s words, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”?
For the sake of our kids, our schools, and our teachers, I’m paying attention. I don’t see any perfect candidate. And some of my favorites have already dropped out. But, there are glimmers that some on the horizon are starting to understand what we in the teaching world have known for a while…our country is nothing without a strong education system. | politics |
https://www.moneyexpert.com/news/ppi-pension-inequality-must-be-tackled-at-root/ | 2020-12-05T18:16:34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141748276.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205165649-20201205195649-00632.warc.gz | 0.957967 | 743 | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-50__0__157226124 | en | PPI: Pension Inequality Must be Tackled at Root
A study from the Pensions Policy Institute has revealed the extent of inequality between men and women in terms of the size of their retirement income, and argues that inequality must be tackled at the root, rather than with simple policy reform.
According to the study, the average man has pension savings in defined contribution schemes worth £14,500, just under twice the average for women which sits at £7,500.
A similar gap exists in terms of state pensions, where women typically get 25%, or £2,548, less than the average male each year. Women also receive around 13% less than the national average for state pension payments.
The ‘Under-Pensioned 2016’ report, which was sponsored by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) also showed how pension inequality affects ethnic minorities, the self-employed and those working as carers.
Carers, for example, typically have £5,800 in defined contribution pension schemes, well below the average for men regardless of profession, and almost 45% below the national average.
Carers’ state pensions are, on average, a staggering 86.2% below the national average.
The average Indian worker will have less than 50% of the average white worker in terms of defined benefit pension savings (or final salary). White workers typically have £45,500, while Indian workers have an average of £22,100.
Black workers also receive less, on average, getting around 16% less than the national average in terms of state pensions.
According to the report, the reasons for these inequalities include “workplace discrimination, job segregation and the lack of flexible working.”
Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, said: “Today’s report is a sobering reminder of Britain’s stark pension divide.
“Everyone should have the chance of a decent retirement income, not just men in full-time employment.
“Women, carers and ethnic minority workers will continue to have a tough time in old age if swift action is not taken.
“We urgently need a debate on how unions, government and employers can work together to build on the success of auto-enrolment.
“And we mustn’t shy away from looking at the underlying problems in our labour market that are driving these inequalities in pension saving.”
The pensions market is set for a shake up when George Osborne announces his next Budget on March 16th, but exactly what form this shake up will take and how far it will go to addressing the inequalities that this report makes clear remains to be seen.
As it stands, the reforms look likely to help out those in lower income brackets by revising the way in which tax relief is given out, but whether or not there will be changes that affect inequalities of pension savings based on gender or race is uncertain.
Daniel Silcock, head of policy research at the Pension Policy Institute, questioned this, arguing that what was needed was a more drastic change in root causes of inequality rather than simple pension policy revisions, no matter how drastic.
She said: “Though pensions policy has played a role in supporting adequacy, the underlying causes of retirement income disparities cannot be tackled solely through pensions policy.
“They involve labour-market, social and regulatory issues related to inequalities experiences during working-life. Therefore, addressing ongoing differences in private pension income would involve a joint effort from government departments, employers, social services, regulatory bodies and community support groups.” | politics |
http://www.visitbeloit.com/events/calendar_day?date=2013-02-10 | 2014-08-21T14:03:46 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-35/segments/1408500816424.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20140820021336-00122-ip-10-180-136-8.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.930725 | 109 | CC-MAIN-2014-35 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2014-35__0__114171857 | en | Susan B. Anthony Celebration
The League of Women Voters of Beloit and Janesville invite you to celebrate with us as we listen to an entertaining program by Tom McBride of Beloit College. He will share the "The Women's Mindset List." A brunch will also be served. The event is open to the public Cost: $32 League members, $38 non-Leaguers. Checks may be made out to the League of Women Voters of Janesville, and sent to Susan Adams, 703 Milwaukee Rd., Beloit. | politics |
http://southfloridagaynews.suncoastpress.com/?iid=122798&startpage=page0000008 | 2017-08-17T09:42:23 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886103167.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817092444-20170817112444-00292.warc.gz | 0.92721 | 1,404 | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-34__0__248895610 | en | Home' South Florida Gay News : SFGN 070115 Contents 8 // 7.1.2015 // SFGN.com //
soflagaynews // SouthFloridaGayNews
(AP) A few court clerks in Kentucky are
refusing to issue marriage licenses to any
couple as an objection to the U.S . Supreme
Court's ruling on same-sex marriage.
Casey County Clerk Casey Davis says his
religious convictions will not allow him to
issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
He says his office is no longer issuing licenses
to any couple.
Davis says "in good conscience I cannot put
my name on one of those licenses." He says no
same-sex couple has been in to the office to
ask for one.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported
that clerks in Rowan and Lawrence counties
have also halted issuing marriage licenses in
response to the Supreme Court ruling.
Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for Gov. Steve
Beshear, says the governor's office is reviewing
how to respond
Kentucky Clerks Object To
Ruling, Halt Marriage Licenses
Alabama Supreme Court Asks For
Motions in Marriage Case
(AP) The Alabama Supreme Court is asking parties to
weigh in on the impact of the landmark ruling giving gay and
lesbian people the right to marry nationwide.
State justices on Monday directed parties to file motions
by July 6 on how the decision impacts the state court's March
order to probate judges to refuse marriage licenses to gay
The Monday order did not give directions to probate
Susan Watson, the head of the ACLU of Alabama, calls
the order a stalling tactic. She says probate judges could face
sanctions if they refuse the licenses.
The chief of staff for Chief Justice Roy Moore said the chief
justice has said the order speaks for itself, but is not offering
an interpretation. Moore is recused from the Alabama case.
Gov. Cuomo Officiates At Gay
Couple's Wedding for First Time
(AP) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday made
use of some newly granted powers to officiate at his first
wedding, that of a same-sex couple who wed outside a
Greenwich Village bar where police harassment of patrons
sparked three days of riots in 1969.
David Contreras Turley, who worked as part of the
coalition to pass the marriage equality law in New York State,
exchanged vows with Peter Thiede, a UBS analyst.
The marriage took place in front of the Stonewall Inn on
the day of the annual gay pride march and two days after a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage
across the country.
"Today is a good day because at the end of the day, love
wins today. And any day that love wins is a good day," Cuomo
said before asking the couple to join him on stage, adding
that he was slightly nervous, since "this is my first marriage."
State law did not allow Cuomo to officiate at wedding
ceremonies until last week. The authority to do so was
granted as part of a slew of legislation passed days ago.
Prior to the wedding ceremony, attorney Roberta Kaplan
spoke to the crowd. Kaplan represented Edie Windsor in
the case that saw the court issue a ruling against the federal
Defense of Marriage Act.
Cuomo said New York played a role in getting same-sex
marriage to the point where it was, by legalizing it in the
state in 2011.
"New York passed marriage equality and people waited
to see what happened." Cuomo said. "And you know what?
The sky didn't fall and the earth didn't stop spinning and
there wasn't anarchy and good people came together and are
sharing their lives."
APA Shows Support for SCOTUS
(APA) The American Psychiatric Association applauds
today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that supports the right of
same-sex couples across the nation to marry.
“Today’s ruling strikes a blow to inequality and
discrimination throughout the nation, and that’s good for
Americans’ mental health,” said APA President Renée Binder,
M.D. “The APA has a long history of supporting the rights
of same-sex couples, and we have long noted that there is
no scientific or medical reason to deny these couples the
right to marry. This decision is a landmark step in ensuring
equality and happiness for every American.”
In this case (James Obergefell, et al., and Brittani Henry, et
al., v. Richard Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health,
et al.), the court looked at the constitutionality of requiring
a state to issue a marriage license to two people of the same
sex and requiring a state to recognize a marriage between
two people of the same sex when legally married in another
APA joined a coalition of the nation’s top health care
associations including the American Medical Association,
the American Academy of Pediatrics, and others in
submitting an amicus brief in support of same-sex marriage.
“The claim that allowing sex-same couples to marry
undermines the institution of marriage and harms children
is inconsistent with the scientific evidence,” Binder said.
“In fact, the evidence strongly supports the conclusion that
homosexuality is a normal expression of human sexuality
and that gay men and lesbians form stable, committed
relationships equivalent to heterosexual couples.
“But this issue goes well beyond the scientific evidence,”
Binder said. “It is about what is the right thing to do and the
fact that everyone should be free from discrimination.”
Over the past several decades, APA has issued a number
of position statements on antidiscrimination policies
related to the LGBT community. Those positions were
consolidated into a 2013 Position Statement on issues related
“Today is a watershed moment for equal rights in America,”
said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A .
“We at the APA are proud that our country -- after a long
period of seeking equal rights -- now sees that everyone has the
constitutional right to marriage.”
@ loreelewis, Instagram.
TheBgi Sot ry
TheBgi Sot ry
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Links Archive SFGN 062415 SFGN 070815 Navigation Previous Page Next Page | politics |
http://blog.aia-nj.org/2016/07/06/aianj-2016-election-results/ | 2017-03-30T10:44:01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218193716.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212953-00490-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.92893 | 124 | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-13__0__87375512 | en | The position of AIA New Jersey Regional Representative had two candidates running for the open position,
Laurence Parisi, AIA, and Bruce D. Turner, AIA.
This position is our AIANJ representation on the AIA national Strategic Council. They are our conduit to the latest information from national and also our voice in discussion.
Congratulations to Bruce D. Turner, AIA,
who will represent AIANJ as our next Regional Representative.
Bruce will take over the position from Robert Cozzarelli, AIA, who will finish his current three-year term in December. | politics |
https://saltlakefilmreview.com/2018/08/10/blackkklansman-is-a-powerful-rebuke-of-racism-and-hate/ | 2023-03-26T05:45:17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945433.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20230326044821-20230326074821-00516.warc.gz | 0.977403 | 679 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__190051718 | en | Few filmmakers are able to capture the tragedy of racism and its place in America’s modern history, but Spike Lee has done just that. Lee delivers a powerful rebuke with BlackkKlansman and gives an emotional plea against hate. In the end, the audience is left with a side-by-side comparison of this nation’s past and present and to contemplate their place and responsibility in society.
BlackkKlansman, a Spike Lee joint, is a story based on the true events and experiences of Ron Stallworth, a former Colorado Springs police officer. He was the first African-American to serve in the Colorado Springs department and, while there, he came up with a way to infiltrate and gather intelligence on the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). He did so by phone and when he needed to show up in person, a white officer would take his place and assume his name.
Stallworth would eventually make contact with David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK and present-day advocate of white supremacy. Pulling the wool over Duke’s eyes would be essential to Stallworth’s operation.
Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) and the white officer, Phillip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), make for a fun duo. They rely on each other to get the job done and to mitigate the activity of the KKK in Colorado Springs. By going undercover, they pull back the curtain on the ugly, contemptuous attitudes brought on by the fears of white men.
There are funny moments and lines within this movie. The soundtrack, which includes a previously unreleased Prince song, is smooth and harkens back to when this story is set to take place.
But it’s also a very serious film, with a very serious message. In the story, Zimmerman has his own self-reflection. It turns out that he is Jewish, but he wasn’t raised in the religion. Making his way into the Klan forces him to question his identity and cultural heritage. Stallworth is also portrayed as a straight-faced man of the law who has to reconcile his job with his own identity, especially since racism is prevalent within the police force.
Throughout the film, the audience hears and sees statements such as, “White Power,” and, “America First.” It is unfortunate that these ideas are still being propagated today.
BlackkKlansman releases in theaters across the country just in time for the one-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally, which took the life of Heather Heyer, who was struck by a car after it plowed through a crowd of people. A dedication is made to her. The footage of this attack is shown, along with scenes of rioting and alt-right demonstrators chanting, “Jews will not replace us,” as they parade with torches. Donald Trump’s statements about the rally, which generated great controversy and criticism, are also included.
It may just be that this is Spike Lee’s most important film to date, as it has the potential to influence people to commit to making positive actions and being allies for each other. But the people who need to see this film the most, those who lack understanding and empathy, are not likely to make the time for it. | politics |
https://www.myguidesaudiarabia.com/usefulinfo/government | 2024-04-16T15:05:36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296817095.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20240416124708-20240416154708-00493.warc.gz | 0.968539 | 382 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__145369584 | en | Government in Saudi Arabia is based on a hereditary and absolute monarchy, the House of Saud, headed by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, also known as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the Head of State, and the commander in chief of the military.
The Kingdom was founded in 1932 by Abdulaziz bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud). Saudi Arabia’s current monarch is Ibn Saud's son, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who has ruled since 2005 after King Fahd’s death. The King's heir apparent is Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who is also Deputy Prime Minister.
A document entitled the Basic Law of Governance issued by the late King Fahd in 1992 describes Saudi Arabia as ‘a sovereign Arab Islamic state. Its religion is Islam, and its constitution is the Holy Qur'an and the prophet's (peace be upon him) Sunnah (traditions). The Kingdom’s judicial system is based on Islamic law (Sharia) for both criminal and civil cases. The Cabinet, or Council of Ministers, is composed of twenty-two government ministries, whose ministers are appointed by royal decree for four-year terms.
There are no political parties in Saudi Arabia. But there are governors and councils for each of the 13 provinces whose mandate is to facilitate the development of the province. In 2005, the first local elections for men only were held across 178 municipalities. But changes were in sight. In February 2009, Norah Al-Fayez was appointed by King Abdullah in a first ever cabinet-level post as deputy minister for women's education. Two years later, in 2011, King Abdullah announced that in the 2015 municipal elections, women would also be allowed to run and to vote. Photo credits on this page: Blue Abaya Photography | politics |
http://ernop.eu/conference2019/pre-conference-event/ | 2019-05-26T15:10:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232259316.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20190526145334-20190526171334-00113.warc.gz | 0.891788 | 964 | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-22__0__24830508 | en | Pre-conference event at the 9th International Research Conference of the European Research Network on Philanthropy for researchers and practitioners interested in legal barriers to cross-border philanthropy in Europe and possible responses to them.
In this event participants will have an opportunity to learn how the lack of nonprofit oriented European regulatory measures and the existence of tax sovereignty of European countries inhibit cross-border philanthropy. Participants will also have an opportunity to discuss emerging issues affecting legal barriers to cross-border philanthropy in Europe.
After an informal lunch, participants will be invited to three consecutive afternoon sessions. The sessions will focus on (1) prospects for European regulatory measures addressing cross-border philanthropy and nonprofits, with a focus on European company law and the failed attempt by the European Commission to develop European Statutes relating to nonprofits, (2) the effects of country variations with respect to the tax benefits provided to nonprofits and their funders when they operate across borders and options for addressing such variations, including application of the non-discrimination principle established by the European Court of Justice and the related concept of comparability, and (3) emerging issues arising from developments that may either present new opportunities for addressing legal barriers to cross-border philanthropy or risk the creation of new such barriers, including both European and country-specific measures. For each session a moderator and one or more presenters with appropriate expertise will be invited from among researchers and practitioners working in this area to lead a discussion of these issues.
13:00-14:15: Session One: European Regulatory Measures
Oonagh B. Breen, UCD Sutherland School of Law (moderator)
Dominque Jakob, Universität Zürich
Wino Van Veen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
14:15-14:30: Coffee Break
14:30-15:45: Session Two: Taxation
Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, University of Notre Dame (moderator)
Anne-Laure Paquot, Transnational Giving Europe
Giedre Lideikyte-Huber, Université de Genève
Hanna Surmatz, European Foundation Centre
16:00-17:15: Session Three: Emerging Issues
Hanna Surmatz, European Foundation Centre (moderator)
Francesca Fanucci, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law
Isabel Peñalosa-Esteban, Spanish Association of Foundations
17:15-17:30: Wrap-up and concluding remarks
17:30-20:00: Free time
20:00 Pre-Main ERNOP Conference Get-Together
The pre-conference event will take place in the afternoon of July 3, 2019.
All the sessions will be held at the University of Basel, Kollegienhaus, Petersplatz 1, 4051 Basel. Lunch will be provided at the Mensa at the University of Basel, Bernoullistrasse 16, 4056 Basel, which is a five minute walk from the Kollegienhaus. The Pre-Main Conference Get-Together will be held in the Verso, which is also in the Kollegienhaus.
Researchers and practitioners from all nations and all disciplines are welcome to attend. To attend the pre-conference event it is not obligatory to attend the ERNOP conference.
European nonprofits and funders interested in cross-border philanthropy face several legal barriers to such activities. These challenges include the lack of nonprofit oriented European regulatory measures, particularly European legal vehicles, and the existence of Member State tax sovereignty that can make it difficult for nonprofits and funders engaged in cross-border activities to obtain tax benefits. At the same time, developments such as the next round of European Commission strategic plans may provide new opportunities for addressing these legal barriers, while other developments such as proposals to restrict foreign funding of domestic nonprofits may create additional barriers. Given the impact of legal barriers to cross-border philanthropy on nonprofits and society more generally, the time is ripe for researchers and practitioners to collectively consider these barriers and options for responding to them.
This pre-conference event is organized by Prof. Oonagh Breen from the University College Dublin, Prof. Lloyd Mayer from the University of Notre Dame (US), and Hanna Surmatz from the European Foundation Centre. The pre-conference event is financially made possible through the University of Notre Dame.
Participation will be free of charge, but registration is required. Lunch and coffee breaks will be provided. If you want to attend the full ERNOP conference, please note that you will need to register for the ERNOP conference separately through www.ernop.eu/conference2019.Register | politics |
https://govtrojgaar.in/ShowData/currenUpdate.php?ssc_id=34&title=Why-GST-in-India?-How-will-GST-work?-Latest-Updates-Here | 2018-08-21T15:26:13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221218357.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20180821151743-20180821171743-00153.warc.gz | 0.943159 | 1,243 | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-34__0__147630596 | en | Q 1. What is Goods and Service Tax (GST)?
It is a destination based tax on consumption of goods and services. It is proposed to be levied at all stages right from manufacture up to final consumption with credit of taxes paid at previous stages available as a setoff. In a nutshell, only value addition will be taxed and burden of tax is to be borne by the final consumer.
Q 2. What exactly is the concept of destination based tax on consumption?
The tax would accrue to the taxing authority which has jurisdiction over the place of consumption which is also termed as place of supply.
Q 3. Which of the existing taxes are proposed to be subsumed under GST?
The GST would replace the following taxes:
Taxes currently levied and collected by the Centre:
State taxes that would be subsumed under the GST are:
Q 4. Which are the commodities proposed to be kept outside the purview of GST?
Alcohol for human consumption, Petroleum Products viz. petroleum crude, motor spirit (petrol), high speed diesel, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel& Electricity.
Q5. Why is Dual GST required?
India is a federal country where both the Centre and the States have been assigned the powers to levy and collect taxes through appropriate legislation. Both the levels of Government have distinct responsibilities to perform according to the division of powers prescribed in the Constitution for which they need to raise resources. A dual GST will, therefore, be in keeping with the Constitutional requirement of fiscal federalism.
Q6. Which authority will levy and administer GST?
Centre will levy and administer CGST & IGST while respective states will levy and administer SGST.
Q7. What is IGST?
Under the GST regime, an Integrated GST (IGST) would be levied and collected by the Centre on inter-State supply of goods and services. Under Article 269A of the Constitution, the GST on supplies in the course of interState trade or commerce shall be levied and collected by the Government of India and such tax shall be apportioned between the Union and the States in the manner as may be provided by Parliament by law on the recommendations of the Goods and Services Tax Council.
Q 8. Who will decide rates for levy of GST?
The CGST and SGST would be levied at rates to be jointly decided by the Centre and States. The rates would be notified on the recommendations of the GST Council.
Q9. How will the goods and services be classified under GST regime?
HSN (Harmonised System of Nomenclature) code shall be used for classifying the goods under the GST regime. Taxpayers whose turnover is above Rs. 1.5 crores but below Rs. 5 crores shall use 2 digit code and the taxpayers whose turnover is Rs. 5 crores and above shall use 4 digit code. Taxpayers whose turnover is below Rs. 1.5 crores are not required to mention HSN Code in their invoices. Services will be classified as per the Services Accounting Code (SAC)
Q 10. How will imports be taxed under GST?
Imports of Goods and Services will be treated as inter-state supplies and IGST will be levied on import of goods and services into the country. The incidence of tax will follow the destination principle and the tax revenue in case of SGST will accrue to the State where the imported goods and services are consumed. Full and complete set-off 14 15 will be available on the GST paid on import on goods and services.
Q11. How will Exports be treated under GST?
Exports will be treated as zero rated supplies. No tax will be payable on exports of goods or services, however credit of input tax credit will be available and same will be available as refund to the exporters.
Q12. What is the taxable event under GST?
Supply of goods and/or services. CGST & SGST will be levied on intra-state supplies while IGST will be levied on inter-state supplies. The charging section is section 7 (1) of CGST/SGST Act and Section 4(1) of the IGST Act.
Q13. Is the reverse charge mechanism applicable only to services?
No, reverse charge applies to supplies of both goods and services.
Q14. What is advantage of taking registration in GST?
Registration under Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime will confer following advantages to the business:
Q15. Can a person without GST registration claim ITC and collect tax?
No. A person without GST registration can neither collect GST from his customers nor claim any input tax credit of GST paid by them.
Q16. Who is a Casual Taxable Person?
Casual Taxable Person has been defined in Section 2 (21) of MGL. It means a person who occasionally undertakes transactions in a taxable territory where he has no fixed place of business.
Q17. Who is a Non-resident Taxable Person?
A taxable person residing outside India and coming to India to occasionally undertake the transaction in the country but has no fixed place of business in India is a non-resident taxable person in terms of Section 2 (69) of the MGL.
Q18. Who is an ISD?
ISD stands for Input Service Distributor and has been defined under Section 2 (56) of MGL. It is basically an office meant to receive tax invoices towards receipt of input services and further distribute the credit to supplier units proportionately.
Q19. Will ISD be required to be separately registered other than the existing taxpayer registration?
Yes. The ISD registration is for one office of the taxpayer which will be different from the normal registration.
Q20. Can a taxpayer have multiple ISDs?
Yes. Different offices of a taxpayer can apply for ISD registration.
Read Official Details - Govt. of India Updates at CBEC
Get more Current Affairs and General Knowledge notes at www.govtrojgaar.in | politics |
http://www.lungusa2.org/slati/ | 2013-05-19T11:25:33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697420704/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094340-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.869834 | 435 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-20__0__48409732 | en | Tobacco Policy Project/State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues (SLATI)
- On January 16, the American Lung Association released its 2013 State of Tobacco Control report grading the states and federal government on key tobacco control policies. Did your state make the grade? Go to www.stateoftobaccocontrol.org to find out.
- In 2012, only one state, North Dakota passed a smokefree workplace law. For more information on smoking restrictions in your state, click here.
- In 2012, only two states – Illinois and Rhode Island – increased their cigarette taxes. For more information on tobacco taxes, click here.
Welcome to the American Lung Association's Tobacco Policy Project/State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues (SLATI) website. This website is home to the online version of SLATI, which tracks state tobacco control laws, such as restrictions on smoking in public places and workplaces and tobacco taxes, on an ongoing basis. It is the only comprehensive and up-to-date summary of tobacco control laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
- View your state's tobacco control laws by clicking on a state on the map below or by clicking here.
- See how your state measured up in our 2013 State of Tobacco Control report.
- To learn more about SLATI, and view an electronic version of SLATI 2010, click here.
This website also has a wealth of information on tobacco control laws and policies. For more information, click on the links below:
- For information on smokefree laws and policies, click here. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have passed comprehensive smokefree laws.
- For information on cigarette/tobacco taxes, click here. The nationwide average state cigarette tax is $1.49 per pack.
- For information on funding of tobacco prevention and cessation programs, click here.
- For information on other tobacco control policy issues and to view our tobacco policy trend reports, click here.
To stay current on the latest tobacco control policy developments, subscribe to our e-newsletter, the Tobacco Control Tribune. | politics |
https://ingeketelers.be/projects/ambitienota-vlaams-bouwmeester-2020-2025 | 2023-09-24T04:10:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506559.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924023050-20230924053050-00885.warc.gz | 0.881646 | 200 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__111509061 | en | Ambitienota Vlaams Bouwmeester 2020-2025
Erik Wieërs — Creating Opportunities for Encounters (Kansen scheppen voor ontmoeting)
Vision document Flemish Government architect 2020-2025
On 17 August 2020, Erik Wieërs started as the new Flemish Government Architect. As an independent expert and advisor to the entire Flemish Government, in the next five years he will work in close cooperation with numerous partners to strengthen public commissioning and the architectural culture in Flanders. In this publication, he outlines, on the basis of eight themes, the conceptual framework for the working of the Team Vlaams Bouwmeester in the next five years. He sets out the guidelines for drawing up an action programme and provides insight into the principles that will guide him in his support and advice for public commissioners and policymakers in the field of spatial quality.
Drawings by Sofie Van der Linden. | politics |
https://inkkc.com/articles/193745589/ | 2019-02-17T08:50:36 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247481766.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20190217071448-20190217093448-00522.warc.gz | 0.947925 | 666 | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-09__0__17983820 | en | With tolls off the table, here’s how KC hopes to pay for the new Buck O’Neil Bridge
Looking for ways to pay the city’s share of the estimated $200 million it will cost to replace the aging Buck O’Neil Bridge downtown, Kansas City officials are eyeing money from the 1-cent sales tax for capital improvements.
The sales tax, which will be up for renewal on the April ballot, produces about $70 million a year for neighborhood conservation, bridge and street repair and facilities maintenance. It has rarely been used to finance major construction projects.
But the city needs $60 million to close the funding gap for a new bridge. Officials had considered selling bonds and charging tolls to pay off the debt, but rejected the idea as politically and financially unworkable. After asking voters to approve an $800 million general obligation bond package last year, there is little appetite on the City Council for going back to residents with proposals for new debt or taxes.
Shortly before Christmas break, the City Council’s government and finance committee unanimously approved ballot language for the sales tax renewal that includes the bridge project. The City Council is scheduled to consider the measure on Thursday. The city faces a Jan. 23 deadline for placing questions on the April ballot.
The state of Missouri has already pledged $100 million toward replacement of the span, formerly known as the Broadway Bridge. The Mid-America Regional Council, which distributes federal transportation funds, has committed $40 million.
It is not clear whether the sales tax, if renewed, would have to supply all of the remaining $60 million. The city has applied for $50 million in grants from two federal transportation programs: TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) and INFRA (Infrastructure for Rebuilding America).
Both programs are highly competitive, but officials said the city’s chances for a grant might be enhanced if it demonstrates the ability to provide local matching funds. Those could come from the capital improvements sales tax.
“It’s like the old saying that you don’t go to the bank for a loan unless you’ve got money already,” said Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner, who supports using sales tax revenue for the bridge.
The existing 62-year-old bridge carries about 44,000 vehicles a day on U.S. 169 over the Missouri River to and from the Northland. State transportation officials said it must be either extensively repaired or replaced. The city wants to avoid the repair scenario, which would close the bridge completely for as long as two years, miserably snarling commuter traffic. A partial closure for $6 million in critical repairs is already scheduled for this summer.
Under the replacement option, the current bridge could operate while the new one is under construction.
The sales tax was first approved by voters in 2007. Thirty-five percent of the revenue is evenly distributed among the six council districts for neighborhood conservation, improvement and maintenance, with 25 percent for street resurfacing, repair and construction. The remainder is earmarked for capital improvements.
The tax also funds the 13-member Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC), appointed by the mayor and council to make recommendations on how to spend the funds. | politics |
https://co.jtrn.us/2020/02/25/gardner-wicker-colleagues-introduce-resolution-honoring-hiram-revels/ | 2020-08-10T05:48:29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738609.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20200810042140-20200810072140-00172.warc.gz | 0.913283 | 896 | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-34__0__37925649 | en | Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) today introduced a resolution honoring former U.S. Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels. This month marks 150 years since Revels was sworn-in as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi. He was the first African American to serve in Congress.
“The life and service of Hiram Rhodes Revels remain a symbol of the ideals of the United States, including the principle that all men are created equal,” Senator Gardner and his colleagues’ resolution states. “Therefore, be it resolved, that the Senate honors the life, accomplishments, and legacy of Hiram Rhodes Revels and celebrates the legacy that Hiram Rhodes Revels left to guide and inspire future generations.”
Revels represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate from February 25, 1870, until March 3, 1871. He served as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in Claiborne County, today’s Alcorn State University. He later taught theology at Shaw University, now known as Rust College. Revels died in 1901 and is buried in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Gardner and Wicker’s resolution honoring Revels is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Braun (R-IN), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Richard Burr (R-NC), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bob Casey (D-PA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chris Coons (D-DE), John Cornyn (R-TX), Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), James Inhofe (R-OK), Doug Jones (D-AL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), James Lankford (R-OK), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), David Perdue (R-GA), Gary Peters (D-MI), James Risch (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tom Udall (D-NM), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Todd Young (R-IN).
View the full text of the resolution here.
# # #
Cory Gardner is a member of the U.S. Senate serving Colorado. He sits on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, and is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.
Go to Source | politics |
http://www.thewoodfieldproject.org.uk/agm-2017/ | 2019-05-25T22:11:58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232258451.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20190525204936-20190525230936-00159.warc.gz | 0.9291 | 246 | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-22__0__164091753 | en | The 2017 Annual General Meeting of the Woodfield Project will be held on Thursday 18 May at 7.30-9 pm at St Thomas’s Church Hall, Telford Park, SW2 4XW, near the corner of Telford Avenue and Salford Road.
Only members of the Woodfield Project may vote, but all are very welcome to attend.
After the brief AGM there will be a talk by Leonie Cooper.
Leonie is the London Assembly Member for Merton & Wandsworth, and is Chair of the Environment Committee at City Hall. She is also a Borough of Wandsworth Councillor, a founder-member of the Friends of Tooting Common, and a long-standing member of Wandsworth’s Management Advisory Committee–the ‘MAC’, which advises the council on the management of the Tooting commons. Few know more about the natural, legal and political environments of the Tooting Common and the Woodfield site.
Refreshments and informal discussion will follow. It will help with the organisation if you RSVP to https://woodfieldagm2017.eventbrite.co.uk but an RSVP is not essential. | politics |
http://www.adamstriglone.com.au/news___blog/newsletters/2018_budget | 2020-07-09T10:32:34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655899931.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20200709100539-20200709130539-00439.warc.gz | 0.939938 | 3,375 | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-29__0__168664831 | en | Mr Scott Morrison, the Federal Treasurer, handed down his third Budget on 8 May 2018.
Mr Morrison said the Budget is focused on further strengthening the economy to "guarantee the essentials Australians rely on" and "responsibly repair the budget". With a deficit of $18.2b in 2017/18 and $14.5b in 2018/19, the Budget is forecast to return to a balance of $2.2b in 2019/20 and a projected surplus of $11b in 2020/21.
The government is proposing a three-step, seven-year plan to make personal income tax "lower, fairer and simpler". The Budget also contains additional measures to counter the black economy, particularly in response to the final report from the Black Economy Taskforce, including expanding the taxable payments reporting system. Additionally, the Budget contains a range of measures intended to ensure the integrity of the tax and superannuation system, including increases for the aged care sector and some new incentives for older workers to continue employment.
But the welfare sector and its supporters will be disappointed, with no increases in Newstart despite a vigorous campaign for an improvement, backed by business. However the welfare sector will take some comfort that the Budget contains none of the draconian changes directed at welfare recipients of recent Budgets.
The Government says, "The 2018–19 Budget brings a further improvement to Australia's fiscal position, reflecting the Government's focus on fiscal discipline to achieve budget surpluses and improved receipts from stronger economic growth. "This outcome recognises the benefits of the Government sticking with its plan to build a stronger economy. To ensure sustainable budget outcomes continue, the Government will continue to strengthen the economy by:
• providing tax relief to encourage and reward working Australians;
• continuing to back business to invest and create more jobs;
• guaranteeing the essential services on which Australians rely;
• keeping Australians safe; and
• ensuring that the Government lives within its means."
The full Budget papers are available at www.budget.gov.au and the Treasury ministers' media releases are available at ministers.treasury.gov.au.
The tax and superannuation highlights are set out below.
• A seven-year Personal Income Tax Plan will be implemented in three steps, to introduce a low and middle income tax offset, to provide relief from bracket creep and to remove the 37% personal income tax bracket. This Personal Income Tax Plan lowers taxes so that 94 per cent of all taxpayers are projected to pay no more than 32.5 cents in the dollar in 2024–25.
Step 1: Low and middle income tax offset to be introduced
A low and middle income tax offset (LMITO) will be introduced as a non-refundable tax offset of up to $530 pa to resident low and middle income taxpayers from 2018/19 to 2021/22.
The LMITO will provide a benefit of up to $200 for taxpayers with taxable income of $37,000 or less. For taxable incomes between $37,000 and $48,000, the value of the offset will increase at a rate of three cents per dollar to the maximum benefit of $530. Taxpayers with taxable incomes from $48,000 to $90,000 will be eligible for the maximum benefit of $530. For taxpayers with taxable incomes from $90,001 to $125,333, the offset will phase out at a rate of 1.5 cents per dollar.
The LMITO will be received as a lump sum on assessment after an individual lodges their tax return. The benefit of the LMITO is in addition to the existing low income tax offset.
Step 2: Relief from bracket creep for middle income taxpayers
Middle income taxpayers will be provided relief for bracket creep in phases.
From 1 July 2018, the top threshold of the 32.5% PIT bracket will be increased from $87,000 to $90,000.
From 1 July 2022, the low income tax offset will be increased from $445 to $645, and the 19% PIT bracket will be increased from $37,000 to $41,000 to lock in the benefits of the LMITO in Step 1. The increased low income tax offset will be withdrawn at a rate of 6.5 cents per dollar for incomes between $37,000 and $41,000, and at a rate of 1.5 cents per dollar for incomes between $41,000 and $66,667.
From 1 July 2022, the top threshold of the 32.5% PIT bracket will be further increased from $90,000 to $120,000.
Step 3: Removing the 37% personal income tax bracket
The 37% PIT bracket will be removed from 1 July 2024.
From 1 July 2024, the top threshold of the 32.5% PIT bracket will be increased from $120,000 to $200,000. Taxpayers will pay the top marginal tax rate of 45% for taxable incomes exceeding $200,000, and the 32.5% PIT bracket will apply to taxable incomes of $41,001 to $200,000. This is illustrated in the table below.
||Thresholds in 2017/18
||New thresholds in 2024/25
||Up to $18,200
||Up to $18,200
||$18,201 – $37,000
||$18,201 – $41,000
||$37,001 – $87,000
||$41,001 – $200,000
||$87,001 – $180,000
Source: Budget Paper No 2, pp 33-34; Treasurer's media release "Tax relief for working Australians, low and middle income earners first", 8 May 2018; and Budget 2018-19 Glossy: Stronger growth to create more jobs, p 11.
• The Medicare levy low-income thresholds for singles, families, seniors and pensioners will be increased from the 2017/18 income year.
• The 2017/18 Federal Budget measure to increase the Medicare levy from 2% to 2.5% of taxable income from 1 July 2019 will not proceed.
• Supplementary amounts (such as pension supplement, rent assistance and remote area allowance) paid to a veteran, and full payments (including the supplementary component) made to the spouse or partner of a veteran who dies, are exempt from income tax from 1 May 2018.
• Schemes to license a person's fame or image to another entity such as a related company or trust to avoid income tax will be curtailed.
• The ATO will be provided with $130.8m from 1 July 2018 to increase compliance activities targeting individual taxpayers and their tax agents.
• Significant changes to the calculation of the R&D tax incentive will commence for income years beginning on or after 1 July 2018. Additionally, a maximum cash refund will also apply for some entities.
• The $20,000 instant asset write-off will be extended for small businesses by another year to 30 June 2019.
• Amendments to Div 7A will strengthen the unpaid present entitlements (UPE) rules from 1 July 2019.
• The start date of targeted amendments to Div 7A will be deferred from 1 July 2018 to 1 July 2019.
• Deductions for expenses associated with holding vacant land not genuinely used to earn assessable income will be denied.
• The small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions will not apply to partners alienating rights to future partnership income.
• Payments to employees and contractors are no longer deductible where any amounts that are required to be withheld are not paid, from 1 July 2019.
• The definition of a "significant global entity" (SGE) will be broadened to include more large multinational groups, from 1 July 2018.
• The thin capitalisation rules will be amended, effective 1 July 2019, to require entities to align the value of their assets for thin capitalisation purposes with the value included in their financial statements.
• The thin capitalisation rules will be amended, effective 1 July 2019, to treat certain consolidated groups and multiple entry consolidated groups as both outward and inward investment vehicles for thin capitalisation purposes.
• Tax exempt entities that become taxable after 8 May 2018 will not be able to claim tax deductions that arise on the repayment of the principal of a concessional loan.
• The 50% capital gains discount for managed investment trusts (MITs) and attribution MITs (AMITs) will be removed at the trust level.
• A specific anti-avoidance rule that applies to closely held trusts engaging in circular trust distributions will be extended to family trusts.
• The concessional tax rates for the income of minors from testamentary trusts will not be available for trust assets unrelated to the deceased estate.
• A five year income tax exemption will be provided to a subsidiary of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the ICC World Twenty20 to be held in Australia in 2020.
• The list of countries whose residents are eligible to access a reduced withholding tax rate of 15% on certain distributions from Australian managed investment trusts (MITs) will be updated.
• Six more organisations have been approved as specifically-listed deductible gift recipients.
• The maximum number of allowable members in SMSFs and small APRA funds will be increased to six from 1 July 2019.
• The annual audit requirement for self-managed superannuation funds will be changed to a three-yearly requirement for funds with a history of good record keeping and compliance.
• Individuals whose income exceeds $263,157, and have multiple employers, will be able to nominate that their wages from certain employers are not subject to the superannuation guarantee (SG) from 1 July 2018.
• Individuals will be required to confirm in their income tax returns that they have complied with "notice of intent" requirements in relation to their personal superannuation contributions, effective from 1 July 2018.
• An exemption from the work test for voluntary contributions to superannuation will be introduced from 1 July 2019 for people aged 65-74 with superannuation balances below $300,000, in the first year that they do not meet the work test requirements.
• Insurance arrangements for certain superannuation members will be changed from being a default framework to being offered on an opt-in basis.
• A 3% annual cap will be introduced on passive fees charged by superannuation funds on accounts with balances below $6,000, and exit fees on all superannuation accounts will be banned.
• The financial institutions supervisory levies will be increased to raise additional revenue of $31.9m over four years, from 2018/19.
Black economy measures
• A package to reform the corporations and tax laws to deter and disrupt illegal phoenix activity and the black economy will be introduced.
• The taxable payments reporting system for payments to contractors will be expanded to include security services, road freight transport and computer system design industries, effective from 1 July 2019.
• Business seeking to tender for Australian government contracts above $4m (including GST) will need to provide a statement of compliance with their tax obligations, from 1 July 2019.
• Businesses can no longer receive cash payments above $10,000 for goods and services, from 1 July 2019.
• Offshore sellers of hotel accommodation in Australia will be required to calculate their GST turnover in the same way as local sellers from 1 July 2019.
• The luxury car tax on cars re-imported into Australia, following a refurbishment overseas, will be removed from 1 January 2019.
• Alcohol excise refund scheme cap (for domestic brewers, distillers and producers of fermented beverages) increased from $30,000 to $100,000 per financial year from 1 July 2019, and lower excise rates will apply for smaller beer kegs.
• Measures to combat the three main sources of illicit tobacco in Australia (smuggling, leakage from licensed warehouses and domestic production), including collecting tobacco duties and taxes upon importation and creating a multi-agency task force, will be introduced.
• Customs tariffs from placebos and clinical trial kits that are imported into Australia will be removed from 1 July 2018.
• Access to refunds of indirect tax, including GST, fuel and alcohol taxes under the Indirect Tax Concession Scheme has been extended.
The major spending increases announced in – and immediately before – the Budget are increased health funding under the National Health Agreement with the states ($977 million over the four year Forward Estimates), $970 million for increases in the PBS, $478 million for the Great Barrier Reef program announced a week before the Budget and $440 million for Remote Indigenous Housing in the Northern Territory.
Aging and Aged Care
The Budget includes a big increase in the number of aged Care Home Care packages, to enable older people to receive increased services in their home rather than in residential aged care. It also includes a number of initiatives designed to encourage older people to remain engaged in the workforce, including changes aimed at older small business owners such as:
• Home-care packages: The Budget provides $1.6 billion to support 14,000 additional high-level home care packages by 2021– 22.
• Pension Work Bonus: Expanding the Pension Work Bonus. Age Pensioners will be able to earn up to $300 each fortnight, which is an additional $50 each fortnight; without reducing their pension payments.
• Pension Loan Schemes: The little-utilised Pension Loans Scheme is being expanded so eligible retirees can borrow a maximum of 150 per cent of the age pension. The loan is paid fortnightly, is tax-free and attracts compound interest of 5.25 per cent on the outstanding balance. Eligibility for the scheme is being expanded from pensioners and part-pensioners to include all people over Age Pension age.
• The Government is delivering its More Choices for a Longer Life Package which maximises the opportunities that a longer life brings. It includes measures which support Australians to be prepared to live a healthy, independent, connected and safe life.
• Retirement savings will be enhanced by the one-year work test exemption, allowing recent retirees to make voluntary superannuation contributions for a year after they are no longer working.
• myagedcare.gov.au website: The Government is making it easier for people to navigate the aged care system and access the care that suits them. This includes $61.7 million to improve the My Aged Care website and $14.8 million to streamline the assessment process for aged care services.
• The Government is investing in the health of older Australians by providing: $82.5 million for mental health services for people in residential aged care facilities; $20 million to pilot services for older Australians to help them remain connected to their communities; and $22.9 million to boost the physical activity of older Australians.
Other changes include:
• clarifying the Age Pension treatment of innovative income stream products, and introducing a retirement income covenant for superannuation trustees to formulate a retirement strategy for members and offer a wider variety of products. Retirees will be assisted in making decisions and comparing retirement income products through enhanced disclosure requirements on providers.
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, recording taping, or information retrieval systems) without the written permission of the publisher.
No person should rely on the contents of this publication without first obtaining advice from a qualified professional person. This publication is made available on the terms and understanding that (1) the authors, consultants and editors are not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this publication, for any error in or omission from this publication, and (2) the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, professional or any other advice or services. The publisher and the authors, consultants and editors expressly disclaim all and any liability and responsibility to any person, whether a purchaser or reader of this publication or not, in respect of anything, and of the consequences of anything, done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether wholly or partially, upon the whole or any part of the contents of this publication. Without limiting the generality of the above, no author, consultant or editor shall have any responsibility for any act or omission of any other author, consultant or editor. | politics |
https://education-property.com/news/rollout-of-electric-vehicle-charge-points-to-be-accelerated-in-schools/ | 2024-04-24T12:39:19 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296819273.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20240424112049-20240424142049-00708.warc.gz | 0.94946 | 691 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__151812460 | en | Rollout of electric vehicle charge points to be accelerated in schools
New measures will mean EV owners benefit from easier and more-convenient access to charge points
New measures to support electric vehicle drivers from the Government’s Plan for Drivers have launched this week, including grants for schools to boost chargepoint numbers.
Technology and Decarbonisation Minister, Anthony Browne, will launch support for greener schools in Nottinghamshire today, with a new grant providing up to 75% of the cost to buy and install charge points, up to £2,500 per socket, up from the previous £350.
Paid for by the Department for Transport, the grant forms part of the Workplace Charging Scheme and is available for state-funded schools, colleges, nurseries, and academies to boost charge point facilities for staff and visitors.
This could also help schools to generate revenue by making their charge points available to the public.
The school’s grant is for state-funded schools and education institutions, which must have dedicated off-street parking facilities.
The Government is also delivering the £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to local authorities across the country.
The first capital payments for charging projects have been approved to three local authorities from East Sussex to North Yorkshire, and two London boroughs, bringing the total funding for these areas to more than £ 14.2m.
The cash will support the installation of thousands of new chargers, ensuring the rollout continues at pace to support drivers in every area of the country.
And, through the LEVI capability funding, almost 100 dedicated EV officers have been recruited to support charge point procurement.
The government is also launching the electric vehicle infrastructure (EVI) training course for officers, which will open to all local authorities from mid-March following a successful trial.
Browne said: “We’re getting on with delivering our Plan for Drivers, and this latest set of measures will mean EV owners everywhere benefit from easier and more-convenient access to charge points.
“This government has already spent over £2bn to ensure a smooth switch to EVs, and we’re committed to supporting drivers as we transition towards net zero in a proportionate way that doesn’t burden working people.”
More and more drivers are making the switch to electric vehicles, with fully-electric vehicles accounting for over 16% of the new UK car market in 2023, according to industry statistics.
Making the switch
The number of plug-in vehicles in the UK has also risen to over 1.2 million, of which 770,000 are fully battery-electric, meaning more and more drivers are making the switch.
And new laws recently came into force to provide EV drivers with easier and more-reliable public charging, mandating that prices across charge points are transparent, easy to compare, and that a large proportion of new public charge points have contactless payment options.
Minister for the School System and Student Finance at the Department for Education, Baroness Barran, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for schools across the UK to become part of an ongoing move towards a greener public sector.
“Schools engaging with this grant will be supporting the development of green infrastructure, helping to improve their local environments.” | politics |
https://www.dorsetproperty.co.uk/news-item.php?id=1000036&rp=1 | 2020-10-30T21:56:37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107911792.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20201030212708-20201031002708-00048.warc.gz | 0.957572 | 155 | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-45__0__71012075 | en | Coronavirus Act Passed Into Law
On 25 March 2020, the UK Government passed into law the Coronavirus Act, which provides additional powers to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak.
What this means for tenants is that from 26 March 2020 landlords will have to give all tenants three months' notice if they intend to seek possession, which means the landlord cannot apply to start the court process until after this period.
In addition, all current court proceedings on ongoing housing possessions have been suspended, which means they cannot be progressed to a stage where someone can be evicted. This suspension of housing possessions action will apply to those in both England and Wales and will initially last for 90 days but can be extended if needed.
Added: 30th March 2020 | politics |
https://www.193sow.org/blog/page/90/ | 2023-03-26T08:30:55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945440.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20230326075911-20230326105911-00131.warc.gz | 0.965517 | 147 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__111249615 | en | Week of November 16, 2009
Traditionally, members of the nation’s veterans service organizations render the hand-salute during the national anthem and at events involving the national flag while wearing their organization’s official head-gear. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 contained an amendment to allow un-uniformed servicemembers, military retirees, and veterans to render a hand salute during the hoisting, lowering, or passing of the U.S. flag. A later amendment further authorized hand-salutes during the national anthem by veterans and out-of-uniform military personnel. This was included in the Defense Authorization Act of 2009, which Former President Bush signed on Oct. 14, 2008. | politics |
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/news/2010/065.aspx | 2013-06-18T22:37:29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00083-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.949412 | 870 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-20__0__105950245 | en | In a paper presented at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, Charles Bean - Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - discusses the lessons learned from the financial crisis for the future conduct of monetary policy.
He begins by describing the pre-crisis consensus over the appropriate macroeconomic policy framework. Following the crisis, it is natural to ask what the events of the past three years tell us about the suitability of that policy framework. Charles Bean states: "Monetary policy makers would ... be remiss if they did not re-examine their own decisions in the lead-up to the crisis and strive to learn the lessons for the future conduct of policy."
The paper goes on to present empirical work suggesting that monetary policy decisions can explain only a part of the excess growth of credit in the United Kingdom and United States prior to the crisis. It shows evidence to support the idea that periods of economic stability might encourage exuberance in credit markets. But Charles Bean goes on to say, "...it would clearly be a mistake to conclude that policy should aim to induce fluctuations in the macro-economy in order to prevent financial market participants becoming too confident about the outlook. The right moral is surely that policy makers need to be most vocal about the risks to the outlook when things appear to be going well and to take appropriate restraining action if needed."
Charles Bean then turns to the discussion about the merits of using monetary policy to 'lean against the wind' and prevent asset and credit bubbles. The case for this appears strengthened by the financial crisis but he says, "...monetary policy seems too weak an instrument reliably to moderate a credit/asset price boom without inflicting unacceptable collateral damage on activity. Instead, with an additional objective of managing credit growth and asset prices in order to avoid financial instability, one really wants another instrument that acts more directly on the source of the problem. That is what 'macro-prudential policy' is supposed to achieve."
The paper briefly discusses the multiple dimensions to macro-prudential policy and goes on to explore two related issues. First, are monetary policy and macro-prudential policy sufficiently close in their effects that they are perfect substitutes? Second, to the extent that they are independent, what are the potential co-ordination problems when the two instruments are set by different policy makers? On the first, Charles Bean presents evidence to show that when shocks occur, "...policies should be assigned to the frictions that they have a comparative advantage in addressing." On the second, he states: "Delegation of the monetary and macro-prudential instruments to different decision makers with distinct objectives is certainly appealing on the grounds of clarity and accountability..." But, he adds, "...the likelihood of a 'pull-me, push-you' outcome in some circumstances may also be correspondingly greater." It is therefore important to ensure mechanisms to facilitate co-ordination. He says: "In the arrangements recently proposed by the new government in the United Kingdom that is to be achieved by putting both the decision makers - the Monetary Policy Committee and Financial Policy Committee - in the same institution and ensuring that they have a number of members in common."
Charles Bean also reviews the argument that inflation targets should be increased in order to give monetary policy makers more leeway to cut rates aggressively during a severe recession. He is sceptical of the benefits. Higher inflation is likely to be more volatile and so "...more likely to generate resource misallocation and the capricious redistribution of income and wealth."
Charles Bean asks whether unconventional policies such as asset purchases financed by money creation should be part of central banks' toolkits in normal times. He argues that it makes more sense to rely primarily on short-term interest rates as the main policy instrument given that their effects are more certain and better understood. Asset purchases are likely to be at their most effective when financial and credit markets are under stress; and there is a risk that regular purchases of government debt during normal times would give rise to the suspicion that the central bank is intending to monetise the debt permanently, prompting both inflation expectations and long term nominal interest rates to rise. Charles Bean concludes "...asset purchases ... are probably best kept in the locker marked For Emergency Use Only." | politics |
https://en.money.it/A-new-War-in-Europe-Serbia-puts-Army-on-Kosovo-Borders-tensions-rise | 2023-12-06T03:29:00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100583.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20231206031946-20231206061946-00445.warc.gz | 0.957472 | 569 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__133138273 | en | Following a shooting incident and other diplomatic issues, Serbia decided to put its army on the border with Kosovo. Is a war really possible?
The Eastern Europe cauldron is boiling again this year as tensions between Serbia and Kosovo reach a 20 years high. Serbia has put its army on high alert, mounting pressure on the Kosovo border.
Before 2022, the last war that ravaged Europe were the Balkan conflicts. They ended in 1999 with the independence of Kosovo from Serbia, but the two countries have been on bad terms ever since.
Serbia does not recognize the existence of Kosovo, and the border is patrolled by NATO peacekeeping troops called KFOR. At the moment, the EU and its allies are trying to calm the situation down, calling for diplomacy and dialogue.
The trigger for these tensions was the alleged mistreatment of ethnic serbs within Kosovo borders. The Serbian community, amounting to 50.000 people, was forced to change their number plates on the cars to integrate with those of Kosovo nationals.
Serbian number plates are issued by the government of Serbia. Since neither the country nor the nationals living inside Kosovo recognize its existence, they kept using Serbian plates as a matter of pride.
Pristina, Kosovo capital, demanded they swapped the plates to those citing “Republic of Kosovo”. Very few ethnic Serbians accepted and changed the plate.
Is a war possible?
Despite the apparent triviality of the matter, both Kosovo and Serbia take it as an assertion of their sovereignty.
Furthermore, KFOR troops are blocking the road passes between the two countries following a shooting incident on the border. Nobody was hurt and it’s not yet clear who the target was, but NATO forces want to establish the facts before opening the border again.
In any case, Serbia deemed the incident serious enough to deploy troops and increase army readiness. Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said he will “take all measures to protect our people and preserve Serbia.”
Serbia is a close Russian supporter, one of the few remaining on the European continent. Its sympathies have increased the diplomatic distance between Belgrade and Brussels. Indeed, Kosovo has accused Vucic of stirring up tensions in the Balkans to distract Europe from the war in Ukraine.
But a war is not completely unlikely to take place. Serbia and Kosovo remain fierce enemies and Belgrade never swallowed Pristina’s independence. Perhaps Vucic does want to exploit the war in Ukraine, when the EU is properly distracted, to launch a small-scale invasion.
For this effort, Serbia might even have Putin’s support, though he himself is rather absorbed in the Ukrainian conundrum.
If the whole thing will escalate or burst like a soap bubble, only the new year will tell. | politics |
https://nepalhousetravels.com/destination/korea/ | 2021-06-23T13:55:00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623488539480.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20210623134306-20210623164306-00149.warc.gz | 0.96618 | 643 | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-25__0__82776768 | en | Korea is a historical country in East Asia, since 1945 divided into two distinct sovereign states: North Korea (officially the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea") and South Korea (officially the "Republic of Korea"). Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast. It is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Korea emerged as a singular political entity after centuries of conflict among the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which were unified as Later Silla to the south and Balhae to the north. Later Silla divided into three separate states during the Later Three Kingdoms period. Goryeo, which had succeeded Goguryeo, defeated the two other states and united the Korean Peninsula. Around the same time, Balhae collapsed and its last crown prince fled south to Goryeo. Goryeo (also spelled as Koryŏ), whose name developed into the modern exonym "Korea", was a highly cultured state that created the world's first metal movable type in 1234. However, multiple invasions by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty during the 13th century greatly weakened the nation, which eventually agreed to become a vassal state after decades of fighting. Following the Yuan Dynasty's collapse, severe political strife followed, and Goryeo eventually fell to a coup led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established Joseon in 1388. The first 200 years of Joseon were marked by relative peace and saw the creation of the Korean alphabet by Sejong the Great in the 14th century and the increasing influence of Confucianism. During the later part of the dynasty, however, Korea's isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname of the "Hermit Kingdom". By the late 19th century, the country became the object of imperial design by the Empire of Japan. After First Sino-Japanese War, despite attempts at modernization by the Korean Empire backed up by Japan, in 1910 Korea was annexed by Japan and remained a part of Imperial Japan until the end of World War II in August 1945. In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on the surrender of Japanese forces in Korea in the aftermath of World War II, leaving Korea partitioned along the 38th parallel, with the North under Soviet occupation and the South under U.S. occupation. These circumstances soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their incapability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. The Communist-inspired government in the North received backing from the Soviet Union in opposition to the pro-Western government in the South, leading to Korea's division into two political entities: North Korea (formally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea), and South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea). This eventually led to the Korean War in 1950, which ended in a stalemate without a formalized peace treaty in 1953, a factor that contributes to the high tensions which continue to divide the peninsula. To date, both countries continue to compete with each other as the sole legitimate government of all of Korea. | politics |
http://dearfrjenkins.tumblr.com/post/18427311221/day-6-jack-thornton-11 | 2014-10-21T18:18:13 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507444657.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005724-00275-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.964716 | 642 | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2014-42__0__7169965 | en | Dear Fr. Jenkins,
I consider the four years I spent at Our Lady’s university to be the best of my life. A great reason for this has been Notre Dame’s outstanding ability to combine free thought and exploration of ideas with a strong foundation in the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church. During my time at Notre Dame, I had the good fortune to converse with giants of decidedly anti-Catholic thought such as Hume, Nietzsche and John Stuart Mill while I bolstered my faith with Mass and confession available each day. The balance of free thought and Catholic tradition is what makes Notre Dame a beacon of light, reason and faith throughout the world. It is why I am proud to call Notre Dame home.
But, in order to maintain this balance, which is vital to our University’s mission, freedom of conscience with a firm basis in Catholic teaching has been and must be paramount.
You are obviously aware of the uproar surrounding the White House’s mandate requiring all employers to provide and purchase a health care plan that would pay for certain procedures and prescriptions that would directly violate the consciences of millions of Americans of all faiths and ethnicities. The required violation of conscience is unprecedented in the history of the United States. It goes against everything the Founding Fathers stood for. You showed your dedication to both the mission of the Catholic Church and to the basic tenets on which our nation was founded by speaking out against the mandate. In doing so, you showed courage and strength in your convictions as a leading voice for freedom of religion and economy.
President Obama responded to the criticism showered upon him by you and others by proposing an accommodation.
Let us be clear. This supposed compromise changes nothing and is an insult to everyone who objected to the mandate in the first place. You know it. I know it. It is an accounting gimmick that will only fool the dense and the thoughtless. I have heard you speak. I know you are neither dense nor thoughtless.
Please. Speak out again.
You are the leader and the face of a school that is the most recognized Catholic institution in America. Your voice on this issue will be heard throughout the nation. This puts you in a position that is both enviable and unenviable. It is enviable because you have a chance to shine as a courageous advocate of freedom and faith. You can be a great example for goodness in our country. It is unenviable because by speaking out against the White House you will endure a great deal of criticism from those who do not understand what is at stake. This will be immensely difficult.
Unfortunately, what is right is often difficult. Look to the saints. They stand out in history because of their ability to confront challenges with grace and fortitude.
Take courage. There are many who will support you as you make the right choice, and who are already praying for you. You know what is right. Make the choice. Speak.
You are the president of a school that proudly names itself the home of the Fighting Irish.
Jack Thornton ‘11
To participate, please submit your letter to [email protected] | politics |
https://sitesupply.co/news/nike-to-halt-the-use-of-kangaroo-skin-on-shoes | 2023-09-25T12:38:55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233508977.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20230925115505-20230925145505-00296.warc.gz | 0.956919 | 230 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__105640788 | en | It could be from mounting pressure from animal rights groups, or because their German counterpart Puma has already stopped, but Nike will stop the use of Kangaroo skin for its products.
Nike has already informed their skin supplier of its decision and will reportedly have the material completely phased out by the end of 2023. The win, no doubt comes as a major victory for animal rights activists who have long been campaigning for the stop. In March of 2022 protesters organized efforts outside of Nike retail stores in Oregon, New York, and Australia. While this was no doubt bad publicity for the Swoosh, the real pressure came from Oregon Senator Floyd Prozanski who introduced Senate Bill 764. The bill put the nix on the purchase, sale, transfer or any other exchange of the marsupial for business purposes.
The kangaroo hide was largely used for the construction of Nike Soccer cleats and the brand is set to debut its first line of kangaroo free boots in the summer of 2023. The Nike Tiempo Legend Elite will be the first off the line of such offerings.
Image via voiceless.org | politics |
http://news.onu.edu.ua/eng/rector | 2017-04-27T08:57:01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917122041.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031202-00523-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.836968 | 633 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__224796858 | en | Igor Nikolaevich Koval
Igor Nikolaevich Koval is a Doctor of political science. professor, head of the International Relations Department. A well-known professor Semen Iosiphovich Appatov was his teacher and instructor at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of the Odessa State University.
Igor Koval has been working at the Odessa University since 1978: he was an assistant at the Department of Modern and Contemporary History, a lecturer, associate professor, acting dean of the History Department. He headed the Institute of Social Sciences from 1996 till 2010.
Professor Igor Koval is a famous political scientist, specialist in the field of history of international relations, political analyst of the Odessa and Ukrainian national mass media, member of multiple international scientific associations and organizations. He is the author to more than 60 scientific works. Students of the International Relations Department are able to take his courses on Introduction to International Relations, General course of History of International Relations (from the second half of the XX century till the beginning of the XXI century) and an Elective course in foreign politics.
Professor Koval is fond of reading, especially political novels, listening to tango and Russian classical music: Tchaikovsky and Sviridov. Spending time with family and friends is a top priority way to use time off work.
- (1995-2010) Valentyn Andreevych Smyntyna
- (1987-1995) Igor Petrovych Zelinsky
- (1975-1987) Victor Vasilyevich Serduyk
- (1970-1975) Alexey Vsevolodovich Bogatskiy
- (1960-1970) Alexander Ivanovych Yurzhenko
- (1953-1959) Sergey Ivanovych Lebedev
- (1949-1953) Prokop Leontyevych Ivanchenko
- (1939-1949) Nikolay Panasovych Savchuk
- (1933-1938) Isay Pavlovych Schmidt
- (1920-1920) Sergey Ivanovych Solntsev
- (1917-1919) Anton Dmitrievych Bilimovych
- (1917-1917) Alexander Pavlovych Dobroklonskiy
- (1907-1913) Sergey Vasilyevych Levashov
- (1905-1907) Ivan Mikhaylovych Zanchevskiy
- (1903-1905) Alexey Nikolaevych Derevitskiy
- (1895-1903) Feodor Nikiforovych Shvedov
- (1890-1895) Ivan Stepanovych Nekrasov
- (1881-1890) Simeon Petrovych Jaroshenko
- (1877-1881) Nikolay Alexeevych Golovkinskiy
- (1869-1877) Fedor Ivanovych Leontovych
- (1865-1869) Ivan Dmitrievych Sokolov | politics |
https://www.finahost.co.ke/taking-back-control-comes-in-more-forms-than-presented-by-labour-the-national/ | 2023-04-02T09:50:32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296950422.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20230402074255-20230402104255-00287.warc.gz | 0.943663 | 2,453 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__60113370 | en | YOU may be forgiven for thinking the seasonal port had lingered in your system a little too long.
But there he was: Captain Adenoid, standing before a forest of orange robot arms, proposing his “Take Back Control” bill.
Halfway through, Keir Starmer called Scottish indy (or at least the self-governing impulses behind it) “not an unreasonable demand”. Maybe another glug from the cafetiere required.
Yes, Starmer’s New Year’s speech was a shameless raid on a variety of ideological storehouses. More triangulation going on than a crate of Dairylea.
Take that outright theft of Dominic Cummings’s notorious slogan. Cummings devised it as an answer to our deep psychological aversion to losing things. But now it’s been repurposed – harnessing the wind of popular revulsion against the political classes, by promising to empower communities.
And even cheekier, Starmer suggested that his scattered range of extra powers for local government might slake Scotland’s thirst for independence. Cue howls – entirely justified – that several Holyrood mandates for “community power” and “control of our lives” (otherwise known as a Scottish independence referendum) have been flatly opposed by Labour.
There are other malodours arising from UK Labour’s land-grab on “Take Back Control” – not least the urinal tang of anti-immigration sentiment it originally captured. But watching Starmer’s Labour squat its haunches on the middle ground of post-Brexit Britain is, at best, mildly diverting.
READ MORE: Rod Liddle ‘devastated’ after discovering his Scottish roots
I’m more interested in the deeper question implied by all this: what does it mean to be in “control” of anything in 2023? And what exactly might you want to take it “back” from, in the first place? We could begin with all those robotic arms twisting away in the background, as Starmer delivered his New Year’s Speech. He was talking at the robotics facility at London’s Here East, a design and fabrication lab based at the Olympic Village in Hackney Wick.
At best, robots are ambiguous symbols of taking back control. Yes, these are precision instruments, designed (as Here East’s blurb puts it) to manipulate “structures far above and below normal human scales” – from molecules and nano-materials, to surgery and aircraft. These are wonderful enhancements for the already highly-skilled scientist, medic and designer.
For everyone else, the familiar story that “the robots are coming for your job” has taken some surprising recent turns.
Yes, the statistics on automation are relentless. The economist Daron Acemoglu notes that “half of the increase in inequality in the US since 1980 is at least related to automation, largely stemming from downward wage pressure on jobs that might just as easily be done by a robot.” Between 2018 and 2022, workplace tasks executed by machines went from 29 to 42%.
But these shifts are hardly uniform. Robot cleaners still don’t do the skirting boards as well as humans. Truckers seem to be surviving the once-threatened wave of self-driving vehicles, which have crashed into too many barriers to be truly reliable.
And while manufacturing robots are on a steep global incline, 2022 was a year when the knowledge-and-creativity-based professions – supposedly immune to automation – shuddered with the prospect of a loss of control.
READ MORE: Will scrapping EU laws mean end for paid holiday in UK?
Horrified offices across the land have been playing with Open AI’s ChatGPT program in the last few months. They’re aghast at its ability to compose intelligent, largely accurate prose when asked about any expert topic (GPT-4, out soon, may intimidate us further).
And creatives of all kinds, from visual to dramatic to musical, have been trying to figure out how they should respond to “generative AI” like Dall-E and Stable Diffusion. From a mere text prompt, these softwares can produce slick and plausible art forms.
So do we need to “take back control” from these machines, as they become deployed in our lives? Do we want them looming in the background of our press conferences?
I always recall the original lessons of the early 19th-century Luddites, facing the mechanised looms of their day. They asked this simple question of all tech innovation: “How does this benefit the commonality”?
General Ludd’s question can be updated. To what extent could a “local” community decide that having AIs and automatons in their midst might reduce their working week by a few days, with no diminution of pay? Or that the surplus they generate could provide a social dividend or basic income to all?
With that support, we could give ourselves the time and space to figure out what remains as distinctively human for us to do, given that robots (made from code or metal) stand ready to liberate us from routine. But to get there, do we need a different, grander level of “control”?
I would like to see these futures articulated by the next few waves of trade union militancy. But one message they could send might well be taboo to current governments, on both sides of the Border.
Namely, an increase in the state-level regulation of markets and institutions is required, so that the massive shifts coming from AGI (artificial general intelligence) will benefit the majority. Not just theglobal tech-moguls owning the devices and thus further bulging their coffers.
So we need to be subtle here. “Taking back control” of radical technologies may need to happen at the macro level. But when it comes to responding to the climate crisis, our response should rightly be more micro and local.
Most governments or national communities are facing the same weird conjunction. That of an illimitable force – the skyward arc of computation – meeting the highly limiting conditions of our planetary biosphere.
At the same time as humans could be potentially liberated from routine and rote labour, we will also have to steadily move into a post-growth, post-consumerist system, reducing the amount of “stuff” that diverts or sustains us.
What all this could open up for us is potentially a completely new society. A place where self-expression and non-alienation, cultivating of relations with others, the pursuit of ingenious solutions, even the contemplation of our uniqueness in the universe — all this becoming a new mainstream culture.
What we could be “taking back control” of is ourselves, our agency, and our basic human ability to envision and decide. But this will happen best through local actions, where people feel that the tools of the future are largely in their hands.
Already, across these islands, communities and localities are setting up their own broadband networks, housing collectives, renewable energy arrays, and food production systems (See the Alternative Global website for more).
READ MORE: Strikes: ‘Immoral’ new legislation condemned by SNP and union bosses
They’re not waiting for elected administrations to answer their needs, but seeking ways to use technical infrastructure to provision themselves. The state may be a partner to these autonomies – but only after they are underway, and needing amplification.
One of the significant tragedies of current politics in Scotland is that we could have been well ahead on this “cosmo-local” agenda, ripe and ready for this present moment – even short of independence.
Land reform has made advances along these lines: but even a humble land value tax has proved beyond the executive powers of SNP (and now SNP and Green) governments. Being on the board of Common Weal, I can certainly point you to a profusion of proposals for new community structures, aimed at restoring concrete power to the people. We might even imagine a “take forward control” agenda, which again looks at these issues with subtlety.
How do we harmonise with the EU, under the conditions of indy? Are there degrees of surrender of “control” involved, involving our participation in Europe-wide regulation and standards, on which we will have to make a fine call? The Scottish indy movement should always be aiming to hit a sweet spot, between forms of (and relations between) macro-level and micro-level control. I live in hope.
Starmer and co at least have their antennae up and quivering – even if much of what they propose just copies the existing playbook of indy policy. They’re not wrong in identifying “who’s in control?” as the great theme of the moment. But that’s hardly news up here. Let’s get on with our labours – while the machines let us.
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
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So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
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'Taking back control' comes in more forms than presented by Labour – The National
YOU may be forgiven for thinking the seasonal port had lingered in your system a little too long. | politics |
https://www.delhielections.com/2012/04/14/7861195/rwa-appeal-to-citizens-vote-for-clean-candidate-in-mcd-election/index.html | 2019-07-22T02:01:45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195527458.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20190722010436-20190722032436-00214.warc.gz | 0.969908 | 216 | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-30__0__207938636 | en | Resident Welfare Association’s (RWAs) of Delhi have made an appeal to its citizens to come out and vote for clean candidates with good image rather than party lines in the municipal elections on Sunday. It is the duty of the RWAs to see that clean elections are held in Delhi and clean candidates elected by putting the candidate’s profile and conduct above his political affiliation. In the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, the role of the party is minimal. Councillors have to get funds for themselves.
Most of the elections in the country are fought on party lines, but capital’s residents should come out and vote for clean candidates irrespective of party so that they can show that they have the last word. At a time when people are more concerned than ever about the corrupting role that money plays in our elections , the RWA’s have a greater role to see elections are clean and fair,” said Anil Bajpai, president, Delhi Resident’s Forum and RWA Federation, Delhi East. | politics |
https://tfht.org/en/the-law-agaist-consumptio-of-prostitution/ | 2023-11-28T23:08:14 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100016.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20231128214805-20231129004805-00363.warc.gz | 0.957463 | 721 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__54304084 | en | The Law Agaist Consumption of Prostitution
The Legal Picture
Paying for the sexual services of minors is a grave offense, the penalty for which is five years imprisonment. Despite this, 3,000 minors are exploited every day in Israel, mainly via social networks and websites.
TFHT began advocating for the enacting of legislation proscribing the purchase of sexual services 11 years ago. At the time, only one MK Zahava Galon (Meretz) supported our effort. As our work progressed, other MKs, among them Shuli Mualem (Yamin HaHadash), Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), and Orit Zuaretz (Kadima), joined the struggle, later joined by former Justice, and current Interior Minister, Ayelet Shaked. That broader support led to the passage of a Nordic Model law, first adopted in Sweden in 1999, based on the principle of reducing demand for sexual services.
The Prohibition on Consuming Prostitution Act was passed on December 31, 2018 and took effect on July 10, 2020, with active enforcement beginning in January 2021. The law defines consumption of prostitution as a civil offense for which violators can be fined 2,000 NIS for a first offense, and 4,000 for subsequent offenses. Repeat offenders can be indicted, and if found guilty, can be fined as much as 70,000. In addition, a clause strengthening the law states that anyone found in a brothel is considered a consumer, regardless of his claims that he was not using the services of a prostituted woman.
The law also offers convicted violators the option, instead of paying a fine, of attending a series of educational sessions given by the parole services, whose objective is to change the offender’s thinking about consumption of prostitution.
The law also obligates the Ministires of Social Services and Homeland Security to report annually to the Knesset Constitution Committee regarding the law’s implementation and its effect on the rehabilitation of and assistance given to the prostituted population.
The law is in effect for a period of five years, during which it will be tracked by studies conducted by the Meyers-JDC-Brookdale Institute eliciting evaluating its effectiveness. To enforce the law, 10,000 police have undergone training toward employing appropriate practices in combating prostitution. The law also provides for public education as well as expanding services to the prostituted population, and the government budgeted 90 million NIS for three years enhanced rehabilitation efforts and for establishing new services.
The Law's Effects
In recent years, more countries have passed laws placing the onus on consumers of prostitution, among them Canada and Norway (2009), Northern Ireland (2015), France (2016), and Ireland (2017). These countries subsequently have seen a decrease in demand, leading to a decrease in prostitution; a decrease in human trafficking; and a significant increase in public awareness of these phenomena.
Countries with such laws, known as “client criminalization”,areseeing a decrease in the consumption of prostitution and human trafficking. Sweden reports a significant decrease in street prostitution, a decrease in the number of consumers, and in human trafficking. Norway reports a decrease in consumption, particularly among young people.
Until the recent law was passed in Israel, only those soliciting, pimps, and those engaged in human trafficking were considered offenders. Now the onus has been placed on all consumers, who can no longer deny responsibility and their participation in the exploitation of vulnerable human beings. | politics |
http://hlapc.ca/ | 2020-09-18T08:53:48 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600400187354.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20200918061627-20200918091627-00130.warc.gz | 0.955199 | 663 | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-40__0__247496640 | en | - excerpts from introduction of Daryl at our Nomination Meeting in Tweed, November 26, 2016
Daryl is best known for his fairness. That's how he earned cross-party respect in Ottawa. He worked with all sides to get things done — in the House, in Committee and behind-the-scenes.
Daryl was elected by fellow MPs as the Canadian President of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. GOPAC advises emerging democracies on how to eliminate corruption and create public trust. This is something that Ontario needs — NOW!
Daryl's experience will be important in bringing fiscal and moral integrity back to Ontario.
His service on the Finance Committee, Chairing of the Treasury Board Advisory Caucus, and important role as Chair of the Public Safety and National Security Committee will matter in Toronto. And here at home.
Daryl worked closely with late Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and served as Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee of Public Accounts and Goverment Estimates. These were critical roles as the government successfully steered Canada through the recession years and back to growth with a balanced budget.
Ontario will need this expertise.
Ontario is in a mess. In the coming years we will need experienced and responsible leadership at Queen's Park.
Daryl is a big picture guy. He knows our communities and how to listen to them. North, West, East and South. He is principled, experienced, and he cares.
Importantly, Daryl knows it's a 24/7 job. He and Carol Ann know the responsibilities involved, and recognize that it's a team commitment.
- excerpt from Daryl's Nomination Meeting speech
Real work will be needed to bring Ontario back from the brink.
Clearly, we're in trouble.
Here in rural Ontario we pay unfair and ridiculous rates for power.
We see a government favour cities over farmers, foresters and fishers. We see tourism operators coping with lost business, lost jobs, and lost futures due to government policies.
Ontario, Ours to Recover will be more than a slogan after the 2018 election. It will be hard work, with all hands on deck. Long hours in committee, in the Legislature, and away from home.
I know what hard work means and am proud of the role I played in helping Canada power out of the 2008-2009 recession.
I know Hastings-Lennox and Addington.
- We need cellphone coverage for 100% of this riding — it's an essential service, especially in emergencies. I will fight for that.
- We need all Ontarians to pay the same for hydro. City folks pay less and use more, while rural customers use less and pay more. We work hard. We shouldn't be penalized for where we live.
- We need natural gas pipelines to serve our towns and villages.
- We need to protect and promote our world-class tourism.
- We need to end downloading of taxes, and reduce policing costs.
- We have energy-intensive industries with thousands of jobs now at risk — in Strathcona, Napanee and Belleville. We need to protect those jobs and the families they support.
Ontario deserves better. Together, we'll make it happen! | politics |
https://www.fedfa.com/about-us/who-we-are/ | 2023-03-28T02:17:46 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948756.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20230328011555-20230328041555-00477.warc.gz | 0.920669 | 279 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__136370731 | en | ABOUT THE FEDERATION
The Federation of European Deer Farmers Associations (“FEDFA”) was established in 1990 and now represents the deer farming industries of 18 countries.
FEDFA promotes deer breeding by:
- representing the interests of European deer breeders at EU political level
- providing a forum for the exchange of information on deer breeding
- developing market standards for the products of deer breeding
- promoting ethical standards for deer husbandry
Major themes which FEDFA is currently following include:
- reducing the bureaucratic burden – practical guidelines for the national implementation of EU legislation related to deer breeding;
- shortening the food chain – proposals for the simplification of rules related to small producers and the supply of venison to local markets;
- input to proposals for the new Common Agricultural Policy (2020) insofar as it relates to deer breeding.
Membership is open to all national associations of deer breeders. “Deer breeders” includes deer farmers, as well as the managers of deer parks and estates. Although most of the national associations that are members function within the European Union (“EU”), membership is not restricted to just the EU and is open to all European national associations.
For information on how to join, see ”Contact” tab or email any member of the Presidium. | politics |
https://energytransition.gov.ng/ | 2024-02-28T03:09:09 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474690.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20240228012542-20240228042542-00497.warc.gz | 0.906843 | 874 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__31212779 | en | Nigeria's pathway to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060
Nigeria, already a political and economic leader on the continent, seeks to take the lead in just and equitable climate action
In Nigeria, desertification in the north, floods in the centre, pollution and erosion on the coast and the associated socio-economic consequences all allude to the reality and grave impacts of climate change. Consequently, bold action to limit the impacts of climate change must be undertaken urgently.
At the same time, in light of rapidly rising population, accelerated development is needed to ensure improved living conditions for millions of Nigerians.
The next couple of decades present a unique opportunity to merge these two priorities; economic development and climate action, and to achieve in Africa’s largest economy, one of the world’s first true just transitions.
Reducing emissions and powering development
At COP26, H.E. President Muhammadu Buhari announced Nigeria’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2060
Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) was unveiled shortly after– highlighting the scale of effort required to achieve the 2060 net zero target whilst also meeting the nation’s energy needs.
Since the announcement, the Climate Change Act 2021 has been passed, the ETP has been fully approved by the Federal Government and an Energy Transition Implementation working group (ETWG) chaired by H.E Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), comprising of several key ministers and supported by an Energy Transition Office (ETO) has been established.
Nigeria can be carbon neutral by 2060
The Nigeria Energy Transition Plan (ETP) is a home-grown, data-backed, multipronged strategy developed for the achievement of net-zero emissions in terms of the nation’s energy consumption.
The Nigeria ETP sets out a timeline and framework for the attainment of emissions’ reduction across 5 key sectors; Power, Cooking, Oil and Gas, Transport and Industry.
Within the scope of the ETP, about 65% of Nigeria’s emissions are affected.
Key ETP objectives
At the core of the plan are the following imperatives:
Lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and driving economic growth
Bringing modern energy services to the full population
Managing the expected long-term job loss in the oil sector due to the reduced global fossil-fuel demand
Playing a leadership role for Africa by promoting a fair, inclusive and equitable energy transition in Africa that will include Gas as a “transitionary fuel”
Streamlining existing and new government related energy transition initiatives
Nigeria’s net-zero pathway will result in significant net job creation with up to 340k jobs created by 2030 and up to 840k jobs created by 2060 driven mainly by the Power, Cooking and Transport sectors.
Gas will play a critical role as a transition fuel in Nigeria’s net-zero pathway particularly in the Power and Cooking sectors.
Nigeria’s energy transition creates significant investment opportunities such as the establishment and expansion of industries related to solar energy, hydrogen, and electric vehicles.
Net job creation per sector
The ETP requires significant emission reductions in 5 key sectors
PowerTransition away from diesel/petrol generators
(which account for bulk of current generation capacity)
Initial expansion of gas generation capacity to establish baseload capacity for meeting increased electricity demand and integrating renewables.
Ramp up of renewables-backed electrification to facilitate
decarbonization in sectors such as buildings (cooking),
industry and transportation.
TransportEmissions decrease by ~97% due to uptake of EVs in
passenger car segment
CookingSpeedy replacement of traditional firewood, kerosene and
charcoal by LPG to achieve SDG7 by 2030
Post 2030 transition to electric cookstove and biogas
with the latter mainly in rural homes
Oil and GasEmissions decrease primarily driven by global
response to climate change.
Reduction in flaring and fugitive emissions also
IndustryEmissions decrease by ~97% despite industrial growth due to decarbonization efforts in cement and ammonia production, and 100% shift to zero emission fuels for heating | politics |
https://yorkpropertynews.co.uk/2015/12/23/six-events-of-2015-impacting-on-the-uk-property-industry/ | 2022-08-13T15:43:59 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882571959.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20220813142020-20220813172020-00166.warc.gz | 0.951747 | 1,010 | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-33__0__96227601 | en | As another year draws to a close, I thought it appropriate to mention a few things which have happened this year which will have a dramatic effect on the UK property industry in the next year and in years to come.
1. Deregulation bill 2015:
The main impact of this act was on the Section 21 notice (the notice served when a landlord wishes to gain vacant possession of his or her property from a tenant).
S21 notices can now only be served after the tenant/s have occupied the property for a minimum of four months whereas previously notices could be served by an agent or landlord at the beginning of the tenancy to save them doing it later on.
Lastly if a tenant reports a landlord to their local council for not dealing with maintenance issues quick enough not only may the council issue the landlord with an improvement notice, but said landlord will not be allowed to issue a S21 notice on the tenant for six months.
Previously there was some ambiguity that landlords/agents had to re-protect the deposit at the end of the fixed term when the tenancy lapses into statutory periodic status (following the Superstrike vs Rodriguez case in 2013). The above act overturned this meaning the deposit only needs to be protected once at the beginning of the tenancy.
For further information please see below link:
2. 2015 General election:
The 2015 general election caused uncertainty specifically in the property sector. Investors and traders spent the first half of the year holding back from purchasing property pending the outcome. Post-election the expectation was a boom in the sale of properties which never came to fruition. Conversely the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reported sales plunging to their lowest levels in 37 years following a ‘shortage of stock’ which inevitably drove up house prices. They go on to mention that they expect rental prices to increase by as much as 25% over the next five years.
3. The Chancellor’s Summer budget:
One of the main features affecting landlords was the announcement of changes to HMRC wear and tear allowance and tax relief on mortgage interest. This is currently set to 40 & 45% dependent on a landlords level of income tax. From 2020 landlords will only be able to claim back 20% from their mortgage interest regarless of their income tax level..
Regarding the wear and tear allowance, currently landlords (providing fully furnished lettings) are able to claim back 10% tax from their net income. From April 2016 landlords will only be able to claim back tax on replacement of furnished items.
4. Smoke and Carbon monoxide detector legislation:
From 1st October 2015 it became a legal requirement to have smoke alarms fitted onto each floor of a tenanted property (a standard battery alarm would suffice and hard-wired alarms weren’t deemed necessary).
Furthermore, carbon monoxide detectors were required in ‘high risk’ areas i.e.where there is a solid fuel burning device in the rented property.
The government commented that the above legislation is expected to prevent in the region of 26 deaths and 670 injuries from happening each year.
Please see the below link for more information:
5. Right to rent:
It was announced that from 1st February 2016, landlords and agents will be required to perform checks on new tenants to ensure that they have immigration status to reside in the UK. Agents and landlords will need to check and retain copies of valid I.D. approved by the Home Office. A link stipulating what is deemed appropriate is as follows:
Failure to comply with the above can result in heavy sanctions of up to £3,000 per contravention. This is in an effort to clamp down on people entering and/or residing the UK illegally. This has come about following a pilot run in the West Midlands last year.
6. The Chancellor’s Autumn statement:
The main point to draw upon from the Chancellor’s Autumn statement was the additional stamp duty (3%) being implemented on buy to let landlords from April 2016. Therefore on the purchase of a property of £250,000, whereas you would currently be expected on buy to let to pay 2% i.e. (£2,500) stamp duty, from April 2016 you will be required to pay 5% (£10,000). The expectation here is that a vast proportion of investors will think twice before entering the market under these new terms.
Whatever the weather, expect 2016 to be a turbulent year in the housing sector.
If you have any queries or would like more information on any of the above please do get in touch.
If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Facebook. Thank you! | politics |
https://lintaspapua.com/2021/06/27/indonesia-sdgs-ambassador-billy-mambrasar-commends-the-sustainability-principles-in-the-industry-development-plan-of-papua-provinces/ | 2022-01-27T23:53:35 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320305317.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220127223432-20220128013432-00532.warc.gz | 0.942347 | 578 | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-05__0__77398484 | en | JAKARTA (LINTAS PAPUA) – The Indonesia Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Ambassador, Billy Mambrasar, in his 2 week visits to Papua and Papua Barat Province, works with the both Provinces Local Government, to ratify the SDGs principles and framework in their Regional Action Plan (Rencana Aksi Daerah), in all sectors.
In his visit to Papua Barat Province (16-20 June 2021), accompanied by Governor Dominggus Mandacan, Billy gave the opening remark in the Industry and Trade Department Provincial Coordinative meetings, to adopt the sustainability principles.
Billy reminds the heads of regencies in that Province to always accompany the Industry development plan with the environmental principles, and include the indigenous people’s rights to be part of the strategy.
In Papua Province, Billy conducted a meeting with the Provincial Department of Agriculture, and talk about the inclusion of Indigenous people, especially youth, in the National Millenial Agriculture program. This program will ensure that the sustainability and environmental protection principles will be adopted in the way the youth conduct their agricultural activities.
“I reminded both local governments, that adapting and adopting SDGs principles is for the benefit of them (provincial governments). It is not an additional work, it’s just doing the same activities with different ways, and measuring the impacts of what we have been doing using the sustainability language”, says the founder of Kitong Bisa foundation, a nonprofit in education which serves the underprivilleged children in eastern Indonesia.
Billy also spares his time to visit the Yapen Island, to see the commodity production, such as coffe, cocoa, seaweed, and vanilla and provide insights for the Head of this Regency to connect the products with the International Market.
Billy was appointed by the Minister of National Development Planning to be one of the three SDG’s Ambassador, reporting to the Minister, working to advocate and promote the implementation of the SDGs principles, across Indonesia. Since his appointment, Billy has visited 17 provinces, met with 15 Governors, to help hatching the Regional Action Plan to include the SDG’s.
Billy has also been speaking in hundres of events, both national and international, advocating the SDGs, including speaking about the Plastic Waste issues in Indonesia, and Asia in International Ocean and Maritime Conference in Oslo, Norway, in 2019.
Since November 2020, Billy was appointed by the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokow) to be one of the 11 Presidential Special Staffer. In this role, he keeps advocating the principle of “No one left behind” of the SDGs, by providing insights to Jokowi in the development acceleration of the outer provinces of Indonesia. (***) | politics |
http://gawlibrarynews.blogspot.com/2009/07/state-budget-impact-on-libraries.html | 2018-07-21T13:42:20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676592579.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20180721125703-20180721145703-00423.warc.gz | 0.963534 | 150 | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-30__0__248004225 | en | First and foremost, thank you for your support. The Governor's Office and General Assembly received thousands of calls, letters, and emails in support of Ohio libraries. Your voices made a difference. The governor's proposed budget called for a $227.3 million cut, and it was reduced to $84 million.
Nevertheless, this still amounts to about an 11% cut, in addition to 20% cut already in place because of lower tax revenues, bringing the total up over 30%. The Garnet A. Wilson Public Library will still have to make significant cuts and changes in some areas, while we continue to strive for the best possible service to this community. We will keep you updated on new developments.
Thank you again for your continued support! | politics |
https://themmareport.com/2014/04/zuffa-gave-100000-to-the-republican-governors-association-for-lobbying-the-florida-legislature-to-rewrite-boxing-and-mma-regulations/ | 2019-09-17T00:49:55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514572980.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20190917000820-20190917022820-00536.warc.gz | 0.918604 | 1,063 | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-39__0__43700266 | en | The Orlando Sentinel reported today that Zuffa gave $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association in January for lobbying the Florida Legislature to rewrite boxing and mixed-martial art regulations.
Zuffa is looked to exempt some of its fight records from the state’s public-records law and the bill is being sponsored by Senator Bill Galvao.
The complete bill history is available online through the Florida Senate website and the initial bill paperwork was submitted at the end of January. Since January, the bill has been updated twice with the most recent version being updated today. Here is the most recent version of the bill from the Florida Senate website.
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to public records; creating s.
3 548.062, F.S.; providing an exemption from public
4 records requirements for the information in the
5 reports required to be submitted to the Florida State
6 Boxing Commission by a promoter or obtained by the
7 commission through audit of a promoter’s records;
8 providing for future legislative review and repeal of
9 the exemption; providing a statement of public
10 necessity; providing a contingent effective date.
12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
14 Section 1. Section 548.062, Florida Statutes, is created to
16 548.062 Public records exemption.—
17 (1) As used in this section, the term “proprietary
18 confidential business information” means information that is
19 owned or controlled by the promoter; that is intended by the
20 promoter to be and is treated by the promoter as private in that
21 the disclosure of the information would cause harm to the
22 promoter or its business operations; that has not been disclosed
23 unless disclosed pursuant to a statutory provision, an order of
24 a court or administrative body, or a private agreement that
25 provides that the information will not be released to the
26 public; and that concerns any of the following:
27 (a) The number of ticket sales for a match.
28 (b) The amount of gross receipts after a match.
29 (c) Trade secrets as defined in s. 688.002. Florida Senate – 2014 CS for CS for SB 808
30 (d) Business plans.
31 (e) Internal auditing controls and reports of internal
33 (f) Reports of external auditors.
34 (2) Proprietary confidential business information provided
35 in the written report required to be filed with the commission
36 after a match or obtained by the commission through an audit of
37 the promoter’s books and records pursuant to s. 548.06 is
38 confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I
39 of the State Constitution. Information made confidential and
40 exempt by this subsection may be disclosed to another
41 governmental entity in the performance of its duties and
43 (3) This section is subject to the Open Government Sunset
44 Review Act in accordance with s. 119.15 and shall stand repealed
45 on October 2, 2019, unless reviewed and saved from repeal
46 through reenactment by the Legislature.
47 Section 2. The Legislature finds that it is a public
48 necessity that proprietary confidential business information be
49 protected from disclosure. The disclosure of proprietary
50 confidential business information could injure a promoter in the
51 marketplace by giving the promoter’s competitors insights into
52 its financial status and business plan, thereby putting the
53 promoter at a competitive disadvantage. The Legislature also
54 finds that the harm to a promoter in disclosing proprietary
55 confidential business information significantly outweighs any
56 public benefit derived from disclosure of the information. For
57 these reasons, the Legislature declares that any proprietary
58 confidential business information provided in the written report Florida Senate
59 that is required to be filed with the commission after a match
60 or obtained by the commission through an audit of the promoter’s
61 books and records pursuant to s. 548.06, Florida Statutes, is
62 confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and
63 s. 24(a), Article I of the State Constitution.
64 Section 3. This act shall take effect on the same date that
65 SB 810 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation
66 is adopted in the same legislative session or an extension
67 thereof and becomes law.
The key items to pay attention to are items 27-34. These items are the number of ticket sales for a match, the amount of gross receipts after a match, trade secrets as defined by s. 688.002, F.S., business plans, internal auditing controls and reports of internal auditors, and external audit reports.
If the Florida Senate ends up passing this bill, Governor Rick Scott will have to decide whether he will sign this bill or veto it. It should be noted that both Senator Galvano and Governor Scott are both members of the Republican Party. | politics |
http://www.townofneversink.org/index.php/town-positions | 2017-10-21T08:15:46 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-43/segments/1508187824675.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20171021081004-20171021101004-00029.warc.gz | 0.925017 | 185 | CC-MAIN-2017-43 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-43__0__3836141 | en | TOWN OF NEVERSINK NOTICE:
ALTERNATE MEMBER POSITION AVAILABLE ON THE PLANNING BOARD
The Town of Neversink announces an Alternate Member positions available on the Planning Board. The alternate member will serve when a regular member is unable to participate on an application or matter before their respective Board. Alternate members are expected to attend all meetings. This Alternate Member Position to the Planning Board is fill a vacant position which will expire on 12-31-2019. After that it is a three year position.
Please send a letter of interest to: Chris Mathews, Supervisor, Town of Neversink, PO Box 307, Grahamsville, NY 12740 or drop it off at the Town Hall. Letters of interest should be received by October 31, 2017. Please address any questions to Chris Mathews, Supervisor at (845)985-2262, ext. 301. | politics |
http://www.sharedhr.com/california-sick-leave/ | 2020-05-25T01:44:31 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-24/segments/1590347387155.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20200525001747-20200525031747-00335.warc.gz | 0.959112 | 195 | CC-MAIN-2020-24 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-24__0__107669659 | en | California Sick Leave
California is now one of only three states in the country to require that employers provide paid sick leave to employees. The new law applies to a broad swath of California employers, as it requires that sick time be paid to full-time, part-time, per diem, temporary, and seasonal workers. The law provides for a minimum of three sick days per year and new sick leave policies must have been in place since July 1, 2015. Employers will be required to devise a compliant sick leave policy, track each employee’s sick leave balance, and keep adequate records. In the Bay Area, both San Francisco and Oakland have existing sick leave policies and employers will have to comply with both state and local regulations.
SharedHR can help you understand your obligations under the law, analyze your existing sick leave policy, and revise it as needed. If you would like to learn more, please call us at 800-886-9478. | politics |
http://inhouse.london/inhouse-on-the-move/ | 2017-09-20T12:55:27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687281.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20170920123428-20170920143428-00457.warc.gz | 0.961909 | 233 | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-39__0__135468435 | en | iNHouse Communications has relocated its London offices to 4 Millbank in the heart of Westminster.
Our senior team will now be operating out of the iconic building which is home to the Westminster TV studios of major broadcasters including the BBC, ITN and Sky News.
Our new Westminster office is ideally located for clients just a stones throw from the House of Parliament and is perfectly equipped for iNHouse to host events such as networking and media training.
With just over four months to go before the election, the move is perfectly timed for the iNHouse team which is renowned for its political expertise. iNHouse founders Jo Tanner and Katie Perrior ran the PR for Boris Johnson’s 2008 London mayoral victory, while the company’s associate director Kirsty Walker is a former national newspaper lobby journalist.
Jo Tanner, director of iNHouse Communications, said: “iNHouse is on the move and on the up. Our team is well known for our political and PR expertise. There is simply no better place for our company to be based than in the heart of Westminster’s media hub at 4 Millbank.” | politics |
https://cassiawellsblog.wordpress.com/ | 2020-10-28T18:07:57 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-45/segments/1603107900200.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20201028162226-20201028192226-00464.warc.gz | 0.963748 | 263 | CC-MAIN-2020-45 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-45__0__199083646 | en | Prescription opioid abuse and overdose has emerged as a serious public health problem in the United States in recent decades. Drug overdose rates have been steadily increasing and is now one of leading causes of accidental death nationwide. According the CDC 44 people are dying in the United States every day from drug overdose. Naloxone is a medication that can be easily administered intramuscularly or through a nasal spray, and can rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdose, making it widely recognized as an important tool in saving lives.
There is widespread agreement that this is an urgent problem and many states have taken policy actions to combat the overdose problem, but there has not been a unified federal effort to date. Currently there is a bill in the house called the Stop Overdose Stat Act and a companion bill in the senate known at the Overdose Prevention Act that would support community training in naloxone administration and provide federal funding for the purchasing and distribution of naloxone.
Unfortunately, despite bipartisan support for this issue, these bills are being held up in the house’s Energy and Commerce Committee and the senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. You can help by contacting your representatives in the responsible house and senate committees to voice your support for moving these important bills forward. | politics |
http://todaythoughts.com/category/type/speech | 2013-12-13T03:51:07 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164844212/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134724-00048-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.976443 | 151 | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-48__0__16861469 | en | Richard M. Nixon
delivered and broadcast live on television 23 September 1952.
My Fellow Americans,
I come before you tonight as a candidate for the Vice Presidency and as a man whose honesty and — and integrity has been questioned.
Now, the usual political thing to do when charges are made against you is to either ignore them or to deny them without giving details. I believe we’ve had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present Administration in Washington, D.C. To me the office of the Vice Presidency of the United States is a great office, and I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might obtain it. [ more ] | politics |
https://bizintelng.com/petroleum-industry-bill-strips-presidency-oil-block-right/ | 2018-06-24T11:15:57 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267866932.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20180624102433-20180624122433-00070.warc.gz | 0.965931 | 256 | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-26__0__151859212 | en | The bill will also strip the Minister of Petroleum Resources of its power over agencies and departments under the Ministry, while giving Nigerians more say in the running of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Gas Company or their successors as a large part of their shares are to be sold to Nigerians through public offers at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
These, among others, are the provisions contained in the PIB report on the floor of the House in Abuja, yesterday. The Chairman, Ad hoc Committee on PIB, Ishaka Bawa, laid the report at plenary.
However, the report has not been considered or adopted by the House.
Bawa, while presenting the executive summary of the report to the press after plenary, said it took the Committee that was inaugurated on November 15, 2012 over two years to complete its work.
He said the 23-member Committee took cognisance of the technicalities of the sector and the lasting effects the recommendations in the bill are likely to have on Nigerians and stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
The objectives of the bill, according to him, are to create a conducive business environment for petroleum operations, enhance exploration and exploitation of petroleum in Nigeria for the benefit of Nigerians. | politics |
https://www.orhadash.com/adult-ed-class-rabbi-alanna-examining-contemporary-antisemitism | 2023-04-01T01:20:06 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949694.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20230401001704-20230401031704-00680.warc.gz | 0.913692 | 238 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__278282161 | en | Examining Contemporary Antisemitism – Jan. 29, Feb. 5, 12, 9:30 - 11:00 am in the Community Room
Kanye West’s tweets. Politicians referencing the Great Replacement Theory. Claims of Secret Zionist Cabals. The normalization of Nazi symbols at far-right and patriot rallies. We are living through a moment in which Antisemitism is on the rise. But where did it come from? How can we understand the world’s “oldest form of hatred” as Jews today – especially in light of our relative freedom and equality within American and global society? How can we address and combat it as Jews and in broader coalition? During this three-week series, we will examine the historical origins, definitions and tropes of classical Antisemitism, consider the roles both of anti-Israel and vehemently pro-Israel discourse on this phenomenon, and trace patterns of anti-Jewish rhetoric as they have morphed and changed throughout the centuries. Please use this registration link: http://tiny.cc/AntisemitismCourse to rsvp for this class by Jan. 24th. | politics |
https://www.iedc.si/news-room/news/news-in-detail/goodbye-to-mr.-janez-stanovnik | 2023-12-08T18:35:51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100769.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20231208180539-20231208210539-00279.warc.gz | 0.965122 | 233 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__42434395 | en | Yesterday we said goodbye at Ljubljana Žale cemetery to Mr. Janez Stanovnik, former President of Slovenia (1988-1990), recipient of the honorary title “Doctor Honoris Causa” at IEDC-Bled School of Management, and a guest speaker at our most important seminars and international conferences.
Mr. Janez Stanovnik was, already before becoming President of Slovenia, one of the most important political leaders, recognized internationally. For 15 years he was President of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. His last function was the President of the Slovenian Partisan Veterans' Association, which he led from 2003 to 2013.
His knowledge in economics and international relations, the great network he built during his life and his great leadership in politics are clear examples of the leadership based on courage, wisdom, knowledge, honesty, and respect for diversity. IEDC made a very relevant and interesting interview with Mr. Stanovnik on his view on leadership.
At IEDC-Bled School of Management, we shall always remember Mr. Janez Stanovnik with admiration and big gratitude. | politics |
http://www.arabeyemedia.org.uk/social-media/2015/2/9/iraq-syria-lebanon-and-yemen-have-fallen-to-iran-shriek-arabs-on-twitter | 2018-09-22T11:52:56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267158320.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20180922103644-20180922124044-00360.warc.gz | 0.927911 | 703 | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-39__0__45659480 | en | The toppling of the Yemeni government by Huthi rebels has created a sense of desperation among Arab social media users and stoked a deep-seated hostility toward Iran, the backer of proxy regimes and organisations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
The current conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have acquired sectarian overtones, with Iran’s policy of supporting Shiite parties and militias being matched by the conservative Gulf monarchies funding Sunni governments and communities all over the world.
Social networking sites are abuzz with anger at what many Arabs perceive to be Iran’s proxy war against Sunni Islam first in Iraq, then Syria and now Yemen, let alone its backing for Hezbollah, a Shiite armed group and one of the largest political parties represented in Lebanon’s parliament.
With a hashtag #Iranourenemy that drew 160,000 tweets over the past seven days, Arabs, some from Syria and Iraq, expressed a mix of anger, fear and dismay at the perceived failure of Sunni regimes in the face of “the Iran-backed Shiite threat”.
“We congratulate Iran for the establishment of the Huthi state and for completing its domination of the fourth Arab country and the fifth one is on the way,” read a tweet from Farih Alanzi.
In a tweet in English, Qamar of Iraq tweeted: “Iran’s mullahs, our enemy in Iraq and Syria; they killed innocent Sunni civilians.”
“The cause for all the plights facing the [Arab] nation is the Magi and yet Arabs are still calling them a friendly country,” the Forum of the Syrian revolution wrote.
The magi is a derogatory term used by devout Sunni Muslims to describe Iranians, denoting a general Arab bias against Iran’s pre-Islamic Zoroastrian heritage.
Some tweets suggested that Arab hatred towards Israel pales in comparison with Sunni Muslims’ animosity towards Iran, the biggest Shiite country in the world.
Encapsulating this sentiment, Al-Jazeera correspondent, Ahmed Muwafak Zeydan, tweeted: “Over the past decades, Israel has not killed one tenth of those killed in the last few years by Iran in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon”.
In the same vein, Abu-Jarah al-Shami tweeted: “Before Israel, I have always considered Iran to be my enemy; Iranians are not much different from Jews.”
Other tweets expressed bitter indignation at the US, accusing it of making “a deal” with Iran so as to not ruin its ongoing nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
Hadid H tweeted: “Indeed, Iran is our enemy and America is not our friend and we are paying the price for their deal; if we don’t stop it and act now, more Arab capitals will fall [to Iran].”
In a tweet calling for an end to “Iran’s hubris”, blogger Bela3nwan saw the solution in “a Turkish-Saudi alliance”.
Fewer tweets seemed to echo the view that Arabs have only themselves to blame for their current malaise.
Theeb Alkahtani tweeted: “Ignorance is our real enemy; it is our lack of planning and vision and our waiting for someone else to plan for us while all we stand by and do nothing.” | politics |
https://chaaweb.org/chaa-leads-campaign-for-community-census-participation/ | 2024-04-14T18:25:33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296816893.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20240414161724-20240414191724-00361.warc.gz | 0.938924 | 440 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__152234099 | en | In order to ensure the highest possible rate of U.S. Census participation, CHAA is engaging and informing youth and Asian Pacific Islander communities about the importance of the nationwide project.
CHAA encourages widespread community participation in the census project as the data help communities receive more than $400 billion in annual federal funding for schools, hospitals, job training centers, senior centers, bridges, tunnels, roads and emergency services. In addition, more than $26 billion is allocated for educational services and programs focused on children.
Occurring only once every decade, the census is an official count of the population that provides politicians and lawmakers with valuable economic, demographic and social information.
“Our country doesn’t function well without an updated census to distribute funds to areas that most need them, support community decisions about their own futures,”
stated Bob Groves, Director of the U.S. Census Bureau. “It’s easy, it’s safe, and it’s important.”
Consisting of 10 questions and taking less than 10 minutes to complete, the Census aims to count all U.S. residents, citizens and non-citizens alike. The census does not ask about the legal status of respondents or their Social Security numbers.
Census forms are available in six languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese (simplified), Korean, Russian and Vietnamese. In addition, Language Assistance Guides are available in 59 different languages to help participants fill out the English version of the census form.
After completing the questions, residents are required by law to return the form by mail. Citizens who don’t return the form may be visited by a census taker, a member of the community who will record their answers to the questions on the form. The census taker is hired by the Census Bureau to make sure that each neighborhood gets represented as accurately as possible.
All answers are confidential, as all Census Bureau workers take an oath of nondisclosure to protect the confidentiality of the data.
For more information, visit the U.S. Census website.
Oakland’s current participation rate is shown below: | politics |
https://teachersspeakup.com/teachers-need-to-write-letters-on-school-funding-in-illinois/ | 2024-04-23T20:56:25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296818740.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20240423192952-20240423222952-00500.warc.gz | 0.950496 | 417 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__191276989 | en | OK, let’s get serious and look at some numbers. I’m in the Chicago metro area, so I’ll focus on Illinois. A national study shows Illinois is the second worst state in the union for funding disparity between high and low poverty-level schools. This partly results from shortfalls in state aid to schools. In recent years, the state education budget has fallen hundreds of millions of dollars short of the legally required level of state aid — $518,176, 370 short for 2013, to be specific.
The State Board of Education has requested an $874,000,000 increase in state aid to begin making up for this, but after their testimony to the state Senate Appropriations Committee they were told it won’t happen. Instead, the Governor requests $300,000,000 in FURTHER CUTS. He’s focused on the state’s huge unfunded pension bill.
Meanwhile, Illinois tax revenues increased by 19% in 2012. Actually, personal income taxes increased 40% – which means corporate taxes increased by a much lower percentage, so it’s ordinary working people footing the bills. And yet there’s a “crisis” that calls for more education cuts.
So I hope you agree with the obvious: teachers need to write letters on school funding in Illinois. Letters to their local newspapers. Letters to legislators. Letters to the Governor. Get friends and families to write letters. Have classes full of kids write letters. Sure, unions can speak up – but unfortunately they’re too often seen as special pleaders. Individual teachers can tell stories of their victories with struggling kids in their classrooms. Don’t moan and complain. Don’t threaten to quit. Just tell your story to remind officials why schools matter.
If ever there were an occasion for teachers to speak up in Illinois it’s now. PLEASE let us know if you write one, and tell us what response you get.
Teacher advocacy, Teacher Voice | politics |
https://www.mideast-capital.com/the-uae | 2022-06-25T22:13:07 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103036176.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20220625220543-20220626010543-00218.warc.gz | 0.935201 | 2,424 | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-27__0__25646260 | en | The UAE is a federation of seven emirates. Each emirate is governed by a hereditary emir. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah,Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital of the UAE is Abu Dhabi.
In 1971, the late President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan unified the small, underdeveloped states into a federation—the only one in the Arab world. With his visionary leadership, oil wealth was used to develop the UAE into one of the world’s most open and successful economies.
The UAE has become an important player in regional and international affairs and a major international business hub for the last 40 years.
Since then, the seven Emirates have forged a distinct national identity. The UAE’s political system combines traditional and modern and enabled the country to develop a modern administrative structure while ensuring that traditions of the past are maintained, adapted and preserved.
In 2004, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan became president and has since continued to strive towards an ambitious vision for the UAE.
The federal system of government includes the Supreme Council, the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), a parliamentary body in the form of the Federal National Council (FNC) and the Federal Supreme Court, which is representative of an independent judiciary. The Supreme Council elects a president and vice-president from amongst them to serve for a renewable five-year term in office. Accordingly, the Supreme Council re-elected President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for another five-year term in November 2009.
The Constitution of the United Arab Emirates confers equality, liberty, rule of law, presumption of innocence in legal procedures, inviolability of the home, freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and speech, freedom of communication, freedom of religion, freedom of council and association, freedom of occupation, freedom to be elected to office and others onto all citizens, within the limit of the law.In just over three decades, the nation has transformed from a tribal culture reliant on agriculture and fishing to an entrepreneurial success story with world-class infrastructure. The leadership has improved education (effectively eliminating illiteracy), advanced health care and embraced change as the UAE modernizes, consistent with its history and cultural values.
Why doing business in the UAE?
A Global Hub
The Middle East’s top trading economy – it recorded a trade surplus of US$94m in 2011 – the UAE is a dynamic hub for global commerce, with unmatched infrastructure that provides seamless connectivity for businesses worldwide.
Dubai International Airport stands alongside Paris, London and Hong Kong as among the world’s busiest in terms of international passengers. Last year more than 51 million people passed through its terminals, and it is projected to have the highest footfall of any international airport by 2015. Dubai’s flag-carrier, Emirates Airline, is also on track to become the biggest in the world, while Dubai ranks sixth globally measured by air cargo traffic.
The emirate’s shipping ports are also among the world’s top 10 busiest, with Jebel Ali ranked as the largest container port outside of Asia. If you added all the cargo unloaded in Los Angeles and Long Beach – two of America’s biggest ports – it would be roughly equivalent to that of Dubai.
The UAE enjoys a strategic location on the new Southern Silk Road between Asia, Europe and Africa, a situation that provides optimum trading conditions and means the UAE is poised to take advantage of economic activity among the world’s fastest growing and developing economies as part of the ‘South-South’ trade trajectory. Thousands of Chinese businesses use Dubai as a hub for Africa. Indian traders use the emirate to access the world. Latin American ‘multi-latinas’ see Dubai as a launch pad into South Asia. And, of course, Western multi-nationals use Dubai as a hub for the Middle East. Dubai is both a unique trans-continental trade hub and a nexus for innovation in the fields of technology, culture and the wider knowledge economy.
The UAE continues to develop in areas ranging from environmental engineering to software development, and from film production to biotechnology. For example, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is a research university focused on alternative energy and sustainability. Situated inside the zero-carbon, zero-waste Masdar City project in Abu Dhabi, programmes are carried out in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – just one example of international partnerships that support development of the UAE’s knowledge economy.
Such initiatives are a legacy of the UAE founding fathers’ recognition of the importance of investing in education and facilitating entrepreneurship. Forty years ago there were few schools and no universities; now there are more than 1,200 schools and over 70 universities. The country has the highest percentage of female high-school graduates who enrol in university anywhere in the world.
Four-fifths of the UAE is desert, yet it is a country of contrasting landscapes, from awe-inspiring dunes to rich oases, precipitous rocky mountains to fertile plains.
UAE oil reserves are ranked as the world's seventh-largest. It also possesses the world's seventeenth largest natural gas reserves. The UAE has one of the most developed economies in Western Asia. Per capita income is the world's seventh highest
The United Arab Emirates, with its rapidly developing infrastructure, investor-friendly policies and political stability, is undoubtedly one of the most attractive business destination in the World.
The Government encourages the private sector in a free trade regime with low tariff barriers and minimum legal hurdles. Many multinational companies (MNCs) have established branches in the country, many are engaged in manufacturing products or assembling them and many others have set up distribution centres for the region.
Today, the UAE has one of the most open and dynamic economies in the world. The UAE’s tax-free status, world-class infrastructure, low tariffs and 100 per cent ownership for foreign investors in selected zones, make it the ideal location for setting up new business. Today, the UAE stands as a strong nation built on the foundations of security, hope and economic strength, its modern outlook and progressive society bringing it into the front ranks of the Arab world.
A number of global business indexes have recognized the advantages that the UAE brings to international business. "Ease of Doinng Business" ranked in 2013 the UAE 26/185 in the World and the UAE is ranked in the top 30 on the World Economic Forum’s “most-networked countries”- ahead of all other Arab nations, as well as countries like Spain, Italy, Turkey, and India. The UAE also gets positive rankings from Transparency International and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators for control of corruption, ranking in the top quarter of the least corrupt countries in the world.
Between 2012-2015, GDP growth in the UAE is expected to rise even further to an average of 5.2 percent,with especially strong growth in 2014 and 2015, with the completion of even more infrastructure projects
Robust open economy
The UAE has a vibrant free economy, a significant proportion of its revenues arising from exports of oil and gas. Successful efforts have been made to diversify away from dependence on hydrocarbons and a solid industrial base has been created, together with a very strong services sector. The establishment of free zones has been an important feature of this diversification policy and reform of property laws gave a major boost to real estate and tourism sectors.
Security and stability
Since its establishment in 1971, the UAE has enjoyed an enviable degree of political stability, unequalled in the region. This has enabled the implementation of consistent sound economic policies and the reinforcing of the country’s social structure to produce one of the most tolerant, prosperous, secure and safest societies in the world. Dubai and Abu Dubai have been ranked the top two cities in the Middle East region for quality of life, according to the latest edition of a global survey. Long-time investors include a wide range of multinational companies headquartered across the globe.
Tax-efficient business environment
Special economic zones and free zones offer 100 per cent ownership, repatriation of profit and capital as well as exemptions from taxes. Outside of these areas, significant incentives are being offered to investors and corporate governance provisions ensuring transparency and accountability are being enforced. Corporate taxes are reserved only for branches of foreign banks and oil-producing companies. A negligible 5 per cent tariff is imposed on goods imported from non-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, although tobacco and alcohol products are subject to 50 per cent customs duties.
Intellectual property protection
Intellectual property, including patents and trademarks, is legally protected in the UAE and considerable efforts are being made to implement these laws. The country is also a member of international bodies, treaties and conventions that safeguard intellectual property, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Trade Organization (WTO), Paris Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), WIPO Copyright Treaty, WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) and the Rome Convention.
Infrastructure in the UAE is second to none. Telecommunications, including mobile and fixed telephony as well as internet access is on par, if not better, than the world’s largest international business hubs. The road network is constantly upgraded and ports and airports are of world-class standards. In addition, the UAE is creating one of the world’s biggest and most efficient cargo handling centers. To date, the Government has invested heavily in infrastructure development, but it has also opened up its utilities and other infrastructure to greater private sector involvement, so much so that public-private partnerships are now the norm.
Multi-national human resources
Investors benefit from an abundant supply of human resource skills, courtesy of professionals migrating to the emirate from nearly every country in the globe, as well as the increasing number of UAE nationals that are joining the private sector.
Language for business
Arabic is the official business language. Most government forms and official contracts – e.g. tenancy, residence visa – are in Arabic. Official documents (e.g. university diploma, marriage certificate) that have to be submitted to a government agency for processing or authentication also frequently require translation into Arabic. However, English is commonly used in business circles.
Efficient government services
E-government websites, free zone authorities as well as chambers of commerce and industry provide new entrants with helpful information and guidance.
International business hub
The UAE’s strategic location between Asia, Europe and Africa is a major advantage to investors, particularly the country’s proximity to some of the world’s fastest growing economies in Asia. Collectively India and China alone comprise almost 40 per cent of the world’s total population and support a combined GDP in excess of US$5 trillion, providing significant economic and trading opportunities.
Why doing business in the UAE in brief
No restrictions on profit transfer or repatriation of capital;
No corporate or income taxes;
A currency, the Dirham, that is stable, secure and pegged to the US dollar;
Very low, or non-existent, import duties;
Competitive labor costs;
100% repatriation of capital and profits;
No currency restrictions;
Competitive import duties (5% with many exemptions);
Modern efficient communication facilities;
Abundant and inexpensive energy supply;
International business hub. | politics |
https://itmild.com/2017/03/taiwan-to-build-its-own-submarine-president-vows-on-visit-to-50-year-old-vessel.html | 2024-03-01T04:40:45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474948.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20240301030138-20240301060138-00871.warc.gz | 0.963652 | 753 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__40470010 | en | Taiwan will build its own submarines, President Tsai Ing-wen pledged on Tuesday, as the self-ruled island looks to fresh arms sales by the United States, accompanied by key submarine technology, to counter a growing military threat from China.
China has never renounced the use of force to take back what it deems a wayward province, and Taiwan’s Defense Ministry says China has more than 1,000 missiles directed at the island.
“Strengthening underwater combat capabilities is most needed in Taiwan’s defense,” Tsai said during a tour of a submarine at the southern naval port of Zuoying, about 350 kilometers (218 miles) from the capital, Taipei.
“This is a problem everyone recognizes,” she added. “We have been unable to solve this in the past. As commander of the armed forces, I am determined to solve this problem.”
But the rare appearance of two of Taiwan’s four submarines at the event also spotlighted the island’s slow, sometimes stalled efforts, to upgrade key defense equipment.
The black-hulled vessel half-submerged in the water that Tsai visited has been in service for nearly half a century.
“Making a submarine isn’t the problem,” said Gao Chung-hsing, vice president of the National Chung-shan Institute of Technology, a quasi-defense ministry agency responsible for military research and development. “It is making what kind of submarine that is the problem.”
To build an advanced submarine, for instance, Taiwan, which has never before built such a craft, will have to rely on foreign technology to resolve issues such as integrating the hardware with various electronic systems, defense experts say.
Such foreign support is critical to Taiwan’s effort, which was allocated a four-year budget of T$3 billion ($99 million) for its design contract phase from 2016, Taiwan defense officials and experts say.
Two submarines in Taiwan’s fleet date from the era of World War II, were bought from the United States, and are used mainly for training, while the other two, bought from the Netherlands in the 1980s, first saw service in the 1970s.
Although the United States agreed to sell Taiwan eight diesel electric submarines in 2001, the purchase never went through, beset by hurdles ranging from budget issues and lack of consensus in Taiwan to changing U.S. policy priorities.
Washington has begun considering a big, new arms package for Taiwan, a move sure to anger China.
This week, officials in Taiwan fretted that a planned summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could sacrifice Taiwan’s interests.
Tsai, who leads the independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has never conceded to Beijing’s view that Taiwan is a part of China, although she has soft-pedalled the issue since taking office in May last year.
In December, Taiwan briefly celebrated a diplomatic coup when Trump, then president-elect, took a congratulatory phone call from Tsai and raised questions about whether he would stick with the four-decade-old “one China” policy.
Trump changed tack last month, however, and agreed to honor the “one China” policy during a phone call with Xi, reviving the island’s concerns about its vulnerability.
“If there was no threat across the Taiwan Strait, then we do not have to purchase arms,” Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan told Taiwan’s parliament on Monday. | politics |
https://www.villastjoseph.ca/new-blogs/2019/2/20/this-week-we-pray-for | 2019-09-19T19:51:59 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514573570.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20190919183843-20190919205843-00491.warc.gz | 0.916103 | 150 | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-39__0__182156433 | en | This week we pray for the Sisters of St. Joseph, Associates and people of Mexico.
Between the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyon and the United States Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, there are 44 sisters and 16 Associates in Mexico. They are involved in education, pastoral work and work with migrants.
From the Washington Post
. . asylum petitions in Mexico shot up more than 3,500 percent over the past seven years. They could nearly triple this year alone, to around 80,000.
The surge of asylum seekers in the hemisphere stems from a cascade of crises: the implosion of Venezuela, a crackdown on dissidents by the authoritarian government of Nicaragua, and agricultural disasters and gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. | politics |
http://roe.ru/eng/press-service/press-releases/rosoboronexport-signs-contracts-worth-over-20-3-billion-rubles-with-foreign-partners-at-army-2018-fo/ | 2024-02-20T23:31:45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947473347.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240220211055-20240221001055-00433.warc.gz | 0.945318 | 520 | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-10__0__62321479 | en | Rosoboronexport, part of the Rostec State Corporation, has signed 15 different contract documents with foreign customers of Russian military equipment and weapons at the Army 2018 International Military Technical Forum in Kubinka, Moscow region.
“The sum of the export contracts signed by Rosoboronexport on the margins of the Army forum has exceeded 20.3 billion rubles. This relates to modern land forces’ military equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare systems, close combat weapons and much more. The Company's portfolio has been replenished with firm orders from Asian and African countries, as well as from member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” said Alexander Mikheev, Director General of Rosoboronexport.
Several agreements on cooperation between Rosoboronexport and Russian actors in military-technical cooperation were also signed at the forum.
The documents signed at the forum seal the accords reached with foreign partners on export deliveries of final Russian military hardware and its after-sales service, repair and modernization.
In total, Rosoboronexport conducted negotiations and consultations with delegations from 45 countries of the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Europe during the first days of the Army 2018 forum. For them, Rosoboronexport specialists carried out presentations and demonstrations of over 150 pieces of modern Russian weaponry and military equipment exported by the Company. Foreign guests particularly noted the excellent organization of the forum, primarily a comprehensive program of events and live demonstrations of the Russian military hardware’s capabilities.
Despite ongoing anti-Russian propaganda, Rosoboronexport held a series of successful negotiations with delegations from a number of European countries which visited the Army forum.
“Many in the world, including Europe, are fairly outraged by actions of the US, which is trying to prevent other countries from developing military-technical cooperation with Russia. Rosoboronexport is engaged in dialogue with foreign customers at the level of authorities, and the export deals are approved by either presidents or at a high government level in the G2G format. That is, sanctions have the effect of a boomerang: the partners reasonably regard them as interference in the internal affairs of the state. As a result, we are consistently moving away from the US dollar in mutual settlements in favor of national currencies, especially since Rosoboronexport has accumulated a lot of experience of successful cooperation in various foreign economic circumstances,” the head of Rosoboronexport stressed. | politics |
https://axcitement.com/2023/07/26/can-you-throw-axes-at-pictures-of-people/ | 2023-09-25T08:43:58 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233508959.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20230925083430-20230925113430-00867.warc.gz | 0.928865 | 2,023 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__245276118 | en | Since we brought out our new Axe Photo Game, many have asked if throwing at pictures of your boss, your ex, political figures, etc. is legal. Turns out the courts say yea.. if there is no true threat intended. Here are some articles if you want to dive in to the topic.
Some people shoot guns or throw axes at pictures of real individuals, often public figures, as a form of expression. But the law protects our right to free speech, including symbolic actions like this, as long as there’s no genuine intent to harm or threaten the person in the picture. Courts have established the True Threat Doctrine, which means that speech or actions that genuinely threaten others are not protected by the First Amendment. So, if the act is done as a political protest or satire without the intention of causing harm, it’s likely to be protected as free speech. However, if there’s a real threat or intent to intimidate, then legal consequences may follow. It’s essential to understand the difference between exercising free speech and making actual threats when engaging in such actions.
So, if you have a restraining order on you, I’d probably suggest you only put up pictures of deer, or bears. Or take pictures of your opponent and make that your images. But if there is no actual threat involved, the courts say this is legal.
The following article expands on the legality of axe throwing (or shooting guns) at pictures or people.
Title: The Legality of Shooting Guns or Throwing Axes at Pictures of Real People: An Extensive Analysis with Legal Precedents
In the digital age, the internet and social media have sparked a multitude of controversial trends that challenge the boundaries of free speech and expression. Among these trends is the practice of shooting guns or throwing axes at pictures of real people, often public or political figures. This article delves into the legal implications of such actions, with a particular focus on the True Threat Doctrine, supported by pertinent court cases, to determine the legality of these forms of symbolic speech.
First Amendment and Symbolic Speech
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution safeguards the right to freedom of speech, encompassing a broad spectrum of expressive forms, including symbolic speech. Symbolic speech involves conveying ideas and opinions through non-verbal actions or conduct. Courts have consistently upheld the significance of protecting symbolic speech as a fundamental aspect of free expression.
The True Threat Doctrine
The True Threat Doctrine serves as a legal principle to distinguish between protected speech and speech that constitutes a genuine threat of harm or violence to others. Under this doctrine, speech qualifying as a true threat is not afforded protection under the First Amendment.
Watts v. United States (1969)^1
In Watts v. United States, the Supreme Court examined the case of a young man who made threatening remarks against President Lyndon B. Johnson during a public demonstration. The Court held that while the statement in question was crude and ill-advised, it did not amount to a true threat. The Court emphasized that political hyperbole and strong language are often protected forms of expression and that the context of the speech must be carefully considered to determine whether it constitutes a true threat.
Virginia v. Black (2003)^2
Virginia v. Black is a pivotal case in comprehending the True Threat Doctrine. The Supreme Court analyzed a Virginia statute that criminalized cross burning with the intent to intimidate. The Court ruled that cross burning could be considered expressive conduct and thus protected by the First Amendment in certain circumstances. However, if the act was done with the intent to intimidate, it could lose its protected status. This case underscores the importance of analyzing the intent behind the action to ascertain whether it constitutes a true threat.
Intent and Context
To assess whether shooting guns or throwing axes at pictures of real people constitutes a true threat, the intent behind the action is of utmost significance. Courts thoroughly examine the context in which the act occurred and whether there is a reasonable basis to believe that the conduct was intended to intimidate, harass, or incite violence against the depicted individual.
Political Protest and Satire
If the act is performed as a form of political protest or satire, it may be shielded by the First Amendment as protected symbolic speech. Political speech, even when provocative or controversial, is often safeguarded as a vital part of public discourse.
True Threat Determination
The determination of whether an act qualifies as a true threat involves a case-by-case analysis. Courts consider various factors, including the language used, the medium through which the communication was made, the targeted individual’s reaction, and whether there is a history of hostility or violent behavior between the parties involved.
Potential Legal Consequences
Engaging in actions like shooting guns or throwing axes at pictures of real people without clear evidence of a true threat may be protected under the First Amendment. However, individuals who engage in such actions recklessly, with harmful intent, or in a manner that genuinely threatens others may face potential legal consequences, depending on the specific circumstances and relevant laws.
The True Threat Doctrine is a critical tool in striking a balance between protecting free speech and safeguarding public safety. Shooting guns or throwing axes at pictures of real people may be protected as symbolic speech if it lacks a genuine intent to harm or intimidate. Nevertheless, context, intent, and potential threats must be carefully assessed to ensure responsible exercise of free expression without endangering others. Understanding the complexities of the True Threat Doctrine is essential in navigating the fine line between constitutionally protected speech and potential criminal conduct.
- Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705 (1969).
- Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343 (2003).Title: Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969): The Evolution of Free Speech Protections
Another article that address it
In 1969, the United States Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, significantly shaping the interpretation of free speech protections under the First Amendment. This pivotal case introduced the “imminent lawless action” test, which established a clear benchmark for determining when speech can be restricted based on its potential to incite violence or lawlessness. This article delves into the Brandenburg case and its enduring impact on the delicate balance between free speech rights and maintaining public order.
The Context of Brandenburg v. Ohio
In the early 1960s, Clarence Brandenburg, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, delivered a speech at a rally that was recorded and later broadcasted by a television station. During the speech, Brandenburg made inflammatory and racist remarks, advocating for the potential violent overthrow of the U.S. government. As a result, he was charged and convicted under an Ohio law that prohibited advocating for violence or criminal acts.
The Imminent Lawless Action Test
The Supreme Court’s decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio provided crucial clarity on the circumstances under which speech could be restricted based on its potential to incite violence. The Court ruled that the Ohio law, as applied in this case, was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment. In its ruling, the Court introduced the “imminent lawless action” test to determine when speech could be limited:
“…the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”
Significance and Impact
The Brandenburg decision marked a significant shift in how courts evaluated the constitutionality of laws limiting free speech. It established a higher threshold for restricting speech, protecting a broader range of expressive activities, even those that might be offensive or provocative.
Overruling Clear and Present Danger Test
Before Brandenburg, the “clear and present danger” test, established in Schenck v. United States (1919), was used to determine the constitutionality of limiting free speech. This test allowed for the restriction of speech that posed a “clear and present danger” to public safety. However, it was often misused to stifle political dissent and unpopular ideas. The Brandenburg decision overruled the “clear and present danger” test, providing a more stringent standard for restricting speech based on its potential to incite violence.
Protecting Advocacy of Abstract Theories
The Brandenburg case reinforced the principle that mere advocacy or abstract discussion of illegal actions is generally protected by the First Amendment. It emphasized that speech must directly incite or produce imminent lawless action to be subject to restriction, shielding political and social discussions even if they discuss controversial or radical ideas.
Limitations of the Imminent Lawless Action Test
While the “imminent lawless action” test has expanded free speech protections, it is not without limitations. The test still allows for restrictions on speech when it is directly linked to immediate violence or illegal acts. Incitement that leads to imminent harm is not protected under the First Amendment, ensuring public safety remains paramount.
The Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) decision was a landmark moment in the evolution of free speech protections in the United States. The “imminent lawless action” test introduced in this case set a clear standard for assessing when speech can be constitutionally restricted based on its potential to incite violence or lawlessness. By overruling the “clear and present danger” test, the Court safeguarded a broader range of expressive activities and ensured that political and social discussions would not be unduly silenced. Nonetheless, the test maintains a balance, allowing for restrictions on speech when it directly incites immediate violence or illegal actions. The legacy of the Brandenburg decision continues to shape the delicate equilibrium between preserving free speech rights and safeguarding public order in modern constitutional jurisprudence. | politics |
https://history4everyone.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/wwii-plan-to-poison-japanese-crops-revealed/ | 2018-03-25T04:52:00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257651820.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20180325044627-20180325064627-00672.warc.gz | 0.962609 | 393 | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-13__0__253808415 | en | From Couriermail.com.au, December 7, 2011:
The documents also indicate authorities contemplated testing crop-destroying chemical weapons in central Queensland’s Proserpine.
The thinking contrasts with Australian policy today – in 1993 Canberra signed a global ban on the use and development of chemical weapons.
The World War II details emerged on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Japan’s attack of Pearl Harbour, which triggered the US to enter the conflict.
The war ended almost four years later with the US dropping atomic bombs on Japan. It was later revealed the US had contemplated a chemical bombardment on Japanese crops.
Documents declassified by the National Archives of Australia, following requests by The Courier-Mail, refer to Australia receiving information from Allies about crop destruction with chemical weapons. Documents refer to targeting “vegetable gardens” in Japanese-held islands and rice crops.
Minutes, from a September 1948 meeting of Australia’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Subcommittee, record a Lt Col N.L. Carter as saying “from a strategic point of view, crop destruction might not be a satisfactory weapon but tactically it might be worthwhile”.
The committee, in contemplating chemical-warfare research topics, also said: “The problem should be very similar to that which was considered in the latter stages of the war when it was thought that an attack on the Japanese vegetable gardens throughout the islands might well be justified.”
Chemical weapons were ultimately not used. But an attack on crops would have further squeezed Japan, which suffered hunger shortages.
The Australian committee in mid-1948 received a report from UK experts, detailing how the US by July 1945 had built up chemical stocks theoretically “sufficient to destroy one-tenth of the rice crop of Japan”.
But this would have logistically been a “formidable” operation to achieve, the report says. | politics |
https://www.networkboxusa.com/wannacry-nsa-how-theyre-connected/ | 2023-12-02T15:33:57 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100427.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20231202140407-20231202170407-00413.warc.gz | 0.969005 | 807 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__238106346 | en | WannaCry & NSA, How They’re Connected
Remember when Snowden revealed what was going on with the NSA in 2013? How we were all being spied upon? How, with the excuse of preventing terrorism, this agency was collecting data on everyone, in flagrant violation of any reasonable privacy expectation (let alone law), we were all outraged!! And demanded that someone be held accountable. And that the practice be stopped immediately. Do you remember that?
However, with time, some of us became convinced that in order to be safe, we may actually need to accept the new order of things. And that it’s far better to let the NSA know when you called your grandmother than to risk a terrorist attack.
After all, what have we got to lose?
And since, at the time, we were under a democratic government, I too eased up on the outrage, and settled for a more mundane, “I have nothing to hide”.
However, January 2017 came along, things changed, and quite dramatically too. We now live in a post democratic era where our president firmly believes he’s above the law, hires (and especially fires) at his whim and fancy. Oblivious, or should I say, impervious to the possible consequences. So my stance on this issue has drastically changed. I really don’t want this president collecting data about me.
How’s this related to WannaCry? Read on.
One of the things we ended up accepting as a matter of fact is that the NSA (and other security agencies) withhold things. When they discover vulnerabilities in commercial products, instead of letting the vendor know about it so they can be patched, they keep it a secret, and see if it can be used as a backdoor to infiltrate computers they want to spy upon. The presumption being that their network is so secure, no one will ever know about these discoveries, so only _they_ will be able to take advantage of them. Until, of course Microsoft and Co. finds that very same vulnerability on its own, and patches it anyway.
However, this arrogant presumption has finally backfired.
For years, we in the security industry have been telling everyone that this practice is dangerous, ethics and legality aside. We’ve been telling everyone that there’s no such thing as a secure network. And that despite their arrogant presumption, sooner or later the NSA network could be hacked and this information leaked.
And, there you have it.
Hackers were able to steal this information about a vulnerability that allows them to take over a workstation and encrypt all files. But what’s worse, it allows this new threat to spread horizontally. Up until now, ransomware spread ‘vertically’, as in from the server containing the malware to the workstation downloading it.
This new attack, codenamed WannaCry, also spreads horizontally, within workstations, within a network. And that’s where the big issue has been. That’s what has allowed this major attack to take place.
Because once one workstation was infected, many others followed easily, and entire networks fell prey to the attack. Microsoft had already released a patch in March to protect against this horizontal attack. And that’s likely the reason why we’ve seen much less of a problem with WannaCry in the US than as experienced by the rest of the world.
Our processes and procedures are fairly stringent, and are starting to work. We patch and protect, and things didn’t get out of control. But frankly, that’s besides the point. The real issue here is, if the NSA didn’t keep such information in the first instance, it wouldn’t have been available to steal to begin with, and none of this would’ve happened.
How’s that for protection? | politics |
https://westmorelandfoodbank.org/department-of-agriculture-secretary-highlights-state-investments-to-address-food-insecurity-during-visit-to-westmoreland-county/ | 2024-04-15T10:10:18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296816954.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240415080257-20240415110257-00376.warc.gz | 0.910291 | 713 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__152913253 | en | Underscoring the importance of providing low-income Pennsylvanians with access to nutritious food resources, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding today spoke with representatives of the Westmoreland County Food Bank about the value of their work in the community.
“Access to food is a basic right that should be afforded to each of us,” said Redding. “When we make it more cost-effective to purchase items that aren’t nutritious in value, we’ve got the formula wrong. Our visit to this food bank underscores the importance of working to get nutritious, healthy foods to our residents.”
From L to R: Tom Dubs, Hunger-Free Pennsylvania; Lori Weston, Community Food Warehouse, Mercer County; Rich Ebert, PA Farm Bureau President; Secretary Russell Redding; Jane Clement-Smith, Feeding Pennsylvania; Kris Douglas, CEO Westmoreland County Food Bank; Mimi Prada, Community Food Warehouse, Mercer County; Rachel Schneider, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
The department oversees the State Food Purchase Program (SFPP). This is one of the largest programs of its kind and reflects the state’s determination to address problems related to nutrition and hunger. Governor Wolf’s 2015-2016 budget proposal funds the program at more than $20.3 million, which supplements the efforts of food banks, soup kitchens and similar organizations. Included in this allocation is $3 million in first-time funding for the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS.) These funds will provide the state’s emergency food providers with resources to support Pennsylvania’s agricultural producers, supporting their efforts to get even more locally-produced and sourced commodities in the hands of those in need of food assistance.
The governor’s budget also includes more than $2 million additional funds for the Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), which will provide a combined total of $5.5 million to assist residents in need with purchasing fresh produce. Pennsylvania is one of only a few states that provide state funding in addition to federal grants for the program. As a result, all of Pennsylvania is covered by the program.
“We have nearly two million residents who are food insecure in our commonwealth,” Redding added. “Something is fundamentally wrong here. Governor Wolf understands the importance of investing back in our state, in our local communities and in giving everyone a chance to succeed.”
Low-income and older Pennsylvanians can apply for vouchers to purchase local produce at farmers markets and farm stands across the state through FMNP. Eligible older adults and Women, Infants and Children (WIC) participants can use four $5 vouchers to buy locally- grown fruits and vegetables at qualified farm market stands through the state and federal program. The funds cannot be used on processed foods such as jams, honey, nuts, cider or baked goods, or on citrus or tropical fruits.
For more information about Farmers Market Nutrition Program or the State Food Purchase Program, visit www.agriculture.state.pa.us. Search “Farmers Market Nutrition Program” and/or “State Food Purchase Program.”
For more information about Governor Wolf’s “Government That Works” initiative, visit https://www.governor.pa.gov/priorities/.
724.468.8660 x 15 | politics |
http://www.luxmagazine.co.uk/news/6/europe-prepares-for-major-energy-efficiency-drive | 2013-06-18T21:24:34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707188217/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122628-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.956709 | 172 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2013-20__0__90112943 | en | Europe prepares for major energy-efficiency drive
14 September 2012
The European Union has moved to tighten rules on the efficient use of energy – but the UK government has been accused of watering down the targets.
According to The Guardian, leaked documents showed that UK officials pushed for voluntary energy reduction targets, instead of the originally planned mandatory target of 20 per cent reductions by 2020.
The new Energy Efficiency Directive introduces targets for public sector buildings and utilities. Countries will have to draw up plans to make their buildings sectors more efficient, while energy companies will be asked to reduce sales to industrial and household clients by at least 1.5 per cent a year.
Meanwhile the UK government is fighting to keep VAT on energy-efficiency products at the reduced rate of five per cent, after Brussels said it had to be put back to the standard rate of 20 per cent. | politics |
https://www.afpse.org/pascal-lamy | 2023-10-03T07:35:17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511055.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20231003060619-20231003090619-00259.warc.gz | 0.916385 | 258 | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-40__0__206454362 | en | 2016 Benefit in Honor of Pascal Lamy
General Director of the World Trade Organization (2005 - 2013) and EU Trade Commissioner (1999 - 2004), Pascal Lamy talked about the implications of Brexit and key issues for the future of the European Union:
Refugees and migrants:
What can the Union do to get control of its borders, and implement a common asylum policy? Can it influence the war in Syria and work with the border states to moderate the refugee flow? How will the coup in Turkey affect the situation? What should it do to address the long term challenges of economic migration?
Can the members of Schengen (those who want to preserve Schengen) institute tighter procedures for sharing information and controlling threats?
These important problems are compounded by and contribute to the rising tide of populism in the region. Would the Union survive another referendum on Exit (in the Netherlands, for instance)?
Underlying all these issues, and central to their resolution is the question of leadership. Where are the leaders? Can the franca-german duo be revitalized? Are there others -- in the nation states, in the Commission, in the Parliament -- who can take the lead in crafting intelligent responses to these strains? | politics |
http://www.leyhane.blogspot.com/ | 2014-10-21T08:43:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507444312.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005724-00223-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.960779 | 586 | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2014-42__0__128829785 | en | If Judge X receives at least a 60% "yes" vote, he or she keeps the job.
Past results suggest that the current class of judges have excellent prospects for success in this retention election; the last time any Cook County judges failed to achieve a 60% yes vote was in 1990, when seven judges were removed (though one was simultaneously elected to the Appellate Court).
But that doesn't mean that judges have no reason to take retention elections seriously. It is a fact that at least two out of 10 voters will mark "no" on every single judge, no matter how qualified. In the 2012 retention election, for example, out of the roughly 60 jurists on the retention ballot, no one received an 80% "yes" vote. Appellate Court Justice James Fitzgerald Smith received a 79.81% "yes" vote and four Circuit Court judges -- Patricia Banks, Maureen Elizabeth Connors (who was simultaneously elected to the Appellate Court in 2012), Mary Colleen Roberts, and Diane M. Shelley received "yes" votes from more than 79% of the voters.
Thus, the stars of the newspapers' editorials, the individuals rated most highly qualified by all the various bar groups, can still expect to be rejected by 20% or more of the voters. Those inclined to 'throw the rascals out' will vote the retention ballot no matter what. Can we safely assume that the just-say-nay voters will number no more than 20 or 25% of the retention voters? As a lot of people learned first-hand with their IRAs in recent years, past results are not a guarantee of future performance.
But wholesale removal of judges in Cook County would not be in the public's best interests.
We have many very good, hard-working, scholarly judges in Cook County. All of the judges on the 2014 retention ballot are recommended by some of the bar associations that screen judicial candidates; the vast majority have been recommended by each each and every one of the bar groups. Here's a linked list of the posts I've put up about the bar association ratings:
For more information about Cook County judges on the retention ballot, see the 2014 Cook County Retention Judges Website.
- Chicago Bar Association releases ratings for Cook County judges seeking retention;
- Alliance retention "grids" issued;
- Chicago Council of Lawyers finds 18 retention candidates "Well Qualified" for retention; the Council rates Judge Michael Toomin "Highly Qualified"; and
- CCL rates one judge Not Qualified for retention, but it's not the same judge singled out by the CBA.
I mean to express no opinion about whether any particular judge should or should not be retained -- but I do submit that the default vote on the judicial retention ballot, in the absence of a good reason to vote otherwise, should be "yes." | politics |
https://conveyindonesia.com/training-on-writing-bulletins-and-friday-sermons/ | 2020-09-29T20:37:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-40/segments/1600402088830.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20200929190110-20200929220110-00739.warc.gz | 0.905703 | 389 | CC-MAIN-2020-40 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-40__0__103485153 | en | Along with the rise of contemporary issues such as extremism, radicalism, and terrorism in global, regional and national contexts, The Political Literacy Institute and CONVEY Indonesia that oversee the Indonesian Young Muslim Friday Bulletin initiated a deeper understanding of these issues.
The Indonesian Young Muslim Bulletin was created to counter misconceptions about ideology, religion and politics through articles that are regularly published on Friday through bulletin as a media. Also, the Indonesian Young Muslim Friday Bulletin is concerned with the urgency of Islamic narratives for the nation’s civilization. That is the reason for the need for publication and dissemination of the bulletin widely, especially in big cities such as Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.
In this case, the Indonesian Young Muslim bulletin provides an opportunity for members of religious community organizations, Islamic studies groups, group of preachers, and mosque administrators to participate in the training on Friday bulletin and sermon writing. The trainings were conducted for two days and consisted of two batches – on 31 August 2019 and 7 September 2019, at wisma Innasha Garden Gunung Sindur Bogor. In total, 50 participants attended the training.
The materials provided in this training are Islamic moderation and problem mapping in Friday Bulletin writing, distinctiveness and passages of Friday bulletin, the way to collect data and to search the dalil of the Qur’an, Hadith and Kalam Ulama, Editing and Layouting, and how to make short video production from the content.
After the training, we expect that participants are able to produce a Friday bulletin with a predetermined theme. The two selected articles will be published by the Young Indonesian Muslim Friday Bulletin. Then, it will be printed 20,000 copies and distributed to 240 mosques in six cities: Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Kota Tangerang, South Tangerang and Bekasi.
Author: Zhella Apriesta | politics |
https://www.thevindi.com/post/we-are-here | 2023-06-09T15:05:47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656737.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609132648-20230609162648-00319.warc.gz | 0.977218 | 819 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__95740433 | en | We Are Here
Leelah Alcorn lost her life to suicide on December 28th, 2014. She was abused and mistreated by her parents, who took her out of school, locked her in her room, and sent her to conversion therapy, all because Leelah was transgender. Leelah’s story always stuck out to me as she also lived in Ohio, and was only three days younger than me. But her story isn’t unique, and nearly two years later the transgender community still faces the same persecution that it always has.
On October 12th of this year, native Clevelander Brandi Bledsoe was found dead, with a plastic bag around her head -- on East 108th Street -- just three streets away from my home of seven years. She was murdered, presumably because of her gender identity.
According to The Advocate, 2016 has been the deadliest year on record for the transgender community, with at least 26 reported murders of trans individuals in the United States alone. And it isn’t surprising, with multiple presidential candidates -- such as Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz -- running campaigns which publicly denounced transgender individuals, labeling them as perverts and freaks. 2016 has also seen the passing of North Carolina’s now infamous House Bill 2 law (HB2), which made LGBT discrimination legal in the state. And now the United States has elected Mike Pence as Vice President, a man who has historically supported conversion therapy, the inhumane process which served to crush Leelah Alcorn’s spirit and arguably helped lead to her death.
The Human Rights Campaign as well as American Psychiatric Association have denounced the practice of conversion therapy, which seeks to repress a person’s gender identity or sexual identity through methods including electric shocks, sedative drugs and hypnosis. Needless to say, the practice is dangerous and archaic. President Barack Obama denounced conversion therapy in 2015, supporting a federal law which would ban the practice altogether. Unfortunately, under a Trump-Pence administration, this law is unlikely to ever pass.
I am transgender. I identify as female, was assigned male at birth, and was raised in a devout Catholic right-wing family. I was not allowed to express my identity throughout my childhood. I did not even learn what the term ‘transgender’ meant or that it applied to me until puberty had already affected my body irreversibly. Since coming into my own and coming out to my family and friends, I have been greeted with accepting smiles and outright hostility. Unfortunately for me, my family, especially my mother, were the ones on the less-than accepting side.
It’s been two years since I came out to my mother. I have been on hormone replacement therapy for six months and have been seeing a therapist since February. I was only able to take these steps because I came of legal age. Before then, every aspect of my life was dictated by my parents, and seeing an LGBT-friendly doctor and transitioning was not allowed. I am still unable to present as female in my own home, as I must keep my gender identity from my younger siblings or my mother will throw me out.
But I am one of the lucky ones. My life is not in danger, I have not been raped, murdered or driven to suicide. The transgender community has been beaten and broken to the point where our expectations are as low as ‘please don’t kill us’. It shouldn’t be this way.
Every November, we honor kids like Leelah Alcorn with Trans Awareness Month, culminating in November 20th’s Transgender Day of Remembrance. CSU’s Queer Student Alliance (QSA), in conjunction with Cleveland’s LGBT Center, held a march and a vigil to commemorate the day. Cleveland is fortunate enough to have enacted an LGBT anti-discrimination law this year, one which serves to better protect the trans community. We can only hope it helps. | politics |
http://export.pitt.edu/news/cuba-guidance-july-2017 | 2018-12-19T02:55:53 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376830479.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20181219025453-20181219051453-00425.warc.gz | 0.923198 | 256 | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-51__0__42133806 | en | The changes to the U.S. policy on Cuba announced by the Trump Administration on June 16, 2017 do not take effect until The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issues new regulations (somewhere between 30-90 days), but we expect that the new regulations will contain: a prohibition on all transactions between U.S. persons and “entities related to the Cuban military, intelligence, or security services” (i.e. Grupo de Administración Empresarial or “GAESA”, which controls around 60% of the Cuban economy); the elimination of the people-to-people travel exception for individuals; and, a change to the group educational travel permissions under the people-to-people exception, wherein the group trips must be organized “under the auspices of an organization that is subject to U.S. jurisdiction that sponsors such exchanges”. OFAC will add entities owned by GAESA to their SDN list. Individuals traveling to Cuba under OFAC general licenses, license exceptions or a specific license should use the Amber Road RPS tool to pre-screen Cuban entities. Further guidance will be issued after OFAC issues their final changes to the regulations. Please contact OEC with any questions. | politics |
http://erbilcompanies.com/is-executes-40-prisoners-in-hawija-southern-kirkuk-48.html | 2017-08-17T06:05:40 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886102967.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817053725-20170817073725-00396.warc.gz | 0.936648 | 295 | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-34__0__77546954 | en | HAWIJA — The so-called Islamic State (IS) executed 40 prisoners within the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, Iraqi federal police officer stated on Tuesday.
In keeping with Police Captain Hamed al-Obeidi, who spoke to Anadolu Company, 40 IS prisoners had been executed by the extremist group on fees of making an attempt to flee the battlefield throughout a combat towards the Iraqi forces.
Obeidi additional defined that the IS militants worry that revolts might come up amongst prisoners within the IS-held areas of Iraq, so they’re at present making an attempt to empty the prisons within the district of Hawija within the western Kirkuk province.
The district of Hawija stays underneath IS management, along with the encircling areas in southwest Kirkuk province. The extremists have a tendency to make use of the management they’ve over the realm to conduct assaults towards the Iraqi safety forces in Kirkuk and Diyala provinces. Nonetheless, the continued operations towards IS in Iraq proceed, because the Iraqi forces backed by the US-led coalition, advance in the direction of recapturing all the western a part of Mosul.
The Iraqi authorities launched an operation for liberating the northern Iraqi metropolis of Mosul in October 2016. By the start of this yr, the forces managed to recapture all the jap space of the town, and additional give attention to retaking the remaining western and central elements of Mosul. | politics |
https://www.mosessinger.com/articles/federal-and-state-lawmakers-move-to-increase-access-to-telehealth-services-but-numerous-obstacles-remain/print | 2022-06-30T22:36:43 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103915196.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20220630213820-20220701003820-00092.warc.gz | 0.930862 | 1,430 | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2022-27__0__252909672 | en | Federal and State Lawmakers Move to Increase Access to Telehealth Services, But Numerous Obstacles Remain
October 1, 2018
As the world becomes increasingly digital, more and more healthcare providers are using telehealth technologies to expand services and maximize patients’ access to care. It is no surprise then that the past several years have shown a national trend towards increasing access to, and expanding reimbursement for, telehealth services. Nevertheless, numerous obstacles remain for providers engaged in telehealth, due in part to competing state and federal laws, as well as significant differences in how states regulate the provision of, and payment for, telehealth services. This article will discuss some of the most recent telehealth developments on the federal and state levels, while highlighting some of the roadblocks that remain for the expansion of telehealth services.
On the federal level, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule on July 27, 2018 which would expand federal reimbursement for certain telehealth services. Citing a desire to increase access to services for Medicare beneficiaries, CMS issued a proposal to reimburse providers for brief check-ins with patients via telehealth, and to allow the use of “store and forward” communication technology, which enables providers to perform remote evaluations of pre-recorded images and videos transmitted by patients. Notably, CMS proposed to distinguish these types of remote evaluation services from Medicare’s statutorily defined “telehealth services” which are subject to certain statutory limitations relating to geography, patient setting, or type of furnishing practitioner. Instead, under the proposed rule, CMS would provide reimbursement for such services under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. CMS also proposed expanding the list of Medicare Part B services that can be furnished via telehealth to include monthly clinical assessments performed at renal dialysis facilities or at the homes of individuals with end-stage-renal disease. The proposed rule seeks to add mobile stroke units as permissible “originating sites” for the use of telehealth for acute stroke services.
CMS sought comment on a number of issues related to the above, including whether reimbursement for virtual check-ins should be limited to patients who have an established relationship with the provider, and whether a provider should be required to record patient consent at each individual virtual check-in. Commenters to the proposed rule expressed support for the expansion of reimbursable telehealth services but cautioned CMS against imposing overly burdensome restrictions that could discourage the use of such services by beneficiaries and providers.
There have been numerous developments on the state level as well. As of July 1, 2018, Connecticut providers may now prescribe Schedule II and III controlled substances for the treatment of psychiatric disabilities and substance use disorders via telehealth. In April, 2018, Kentucky signed into law SB 112, which mandates coverage and payment parity for telehealth services in both Medicaid and commercial health plans as of July 1, 2019. The Kentucky bill prohibits health plans from requiring additional prior authorizations, medical review, or administrative clearance for telehealth services that would not be required for the same service if provided in person. It also prohibits health plans from requiring that a provider be physically present with a patient unless the provider has determined that it is necessary to perform the specific services in person. Also in April, 2018, Iowa passed HF 2305 which prohibits commercial health plans from discriminating between coverage benefits of health care services provided in person and the same health care services that are delivered through telehealth. Iowa’s new law will take effect on January 1, 2019
In expanding access to, and reimbursement for, telehealth services, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Iowa are in good company. Currently, the majority of states require Medicaid and commercial health plans to provide reimbursement for at least some telehealth services, and many states, including New Jersey, California, Nebraska, and Washington have enacted laws further expanding coverage for telehealth services in the last two years.
Nevertheless, numerous obstacles to the provision of telehealth services remain. On the state level, restrictions are often built directly into the law. For example, many states limit the types of technology that can be used to provide telehealth services. Kentucky, for instance, requires the use of real-time, interactive audio and video technology, but permits the use of “store and forward” technology, which allows a provider to access the patient’s medical history prior to an encounter. Iowa, on the other hand, explicitly prohibits the use of “store and forward” technology. Another common restriction on the provision of telehealth services is to require that providers maintain an ongoing in-person relationship with patients to whom they provide telehealth services. For example, New Jersey requires an initial in-person examination and subsequent in-person follow-up for a patient to receive telehealth services from a given provider.
Another major obstacle that telehealth providers face is the conflicting regulatory requirements across state lines. For example, some states, such as Florida, limit the provision of telehealth to physicians and physician assistants, while other states, such as New Jersey, allow a wide range of providers to engage in telehealth services, including psychologists, speech pathologists, and optometrists. Additionally, certain states, such as Arkansas, limit the provision of telehealth services to only certain health care facilities, such as licensed hospitals, while others, such as California, prohibit health plans from placing any limitations on where telehealth services can be provided. In New York, for example, telehealth laws differ between Medicaid and commercial health plans. These vast differences in how states regulate the provision of telehealth can make it very difficult, if not impossible, for healthcare providers to implement uniform telehealth policies. The complex regulatory landscape also necessitates consistent vigilance on the compliance front.
Additionally, providers of telehealth must navigate the often incongruous relationship between state and federal laws, and juggle compliance with overlapping state and federal requirements. For example, telehealth providers must ensure compliance with both state and federal privacy laws, a difficult task as states expand the types of technology providers can use for telehealth services. Similarly, when taking advantage of expanded telehealth options on a state level, providers must consider whether federal law imposes any additional obligations. For example, under Connecticut’s new law, providers utilizing telehealth technology to prescribe controlled substances must remain in compliance with the federal Ryan Haight Act, the law regulating the use of telehealth to prescribe controlled substances on a federal level, which contains obligations above and beyond those in the Connecticut law. In addition, federal laws like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which regulates telemarketing calls and text messages, may create obstacles for providers hoping to engage patients through the use of services like automated appointment reminders or seasonal wellness alerts (such as encouraging patients to receive flu shots).
Moses & Singer’s Healthcare Department monitors developments in the regulation of telehealth services on both a state and federal level. For more information on the services we provide regarding telehealth, contact Healthcare Department Chair Linda Malek at (212) 554-7814. | politics |
http://economic-club.com/ | 2020-07-10T15:53:48 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-29/segments/1593655911092.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20200710144305-20200710174305-00247.warc.gz | 0.96019 | 220 | CC-MAIN-2020-29 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2020-29__0__175928544 | en | The Economic Club of Florida was established in 1977 and is today recognized as one of the South’s most important forums for distinguished speakers on issues of the day.
We invite you to explore our website and learn more about the Club. Our membership includes nearly 400 of the Who’s Who of Florida’s capital city, including leaders from the halls of government, political strategists and the business savvy. From past Governors, Cabinet members and Supreme Court Justices to business owners, chairs and CEOs of companies and organizations, our membership covers those who are well-established and those who are the up-and-coming professionals in the political and business arenas.
Our next monthly luncheon meeting will be held at the FSU Alumni Center, where we feature nationally and internationally-recognized speakers.
The purpose of the Club is to promote an interest in, and to enlighten its membership and the general public on, important economic, political and social issues.
The Club will serve as a platform for speakers of regional and national distinction to discuss the major issues of the day. | politics |
http://olaylar.az/news/en/232101 | 2018-07-23T07:46:37 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-30/segments/1531676595531.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20180723071245-20180723091245-00426.warc.gz | 0.960474 | 199 | CC-MAIN-2018-30 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-30__0__273471468 | en | Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan hosted a meeting with the delegation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Office, the ministry said. The delegation was led by UNHCR Regional Coordinator for Central Asia Yasuko Oda, who noted Turkmenistan's active role in humanitarian issues and successful results in resolving issues of refugees and stateless persons. The sides discussed preparations for the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games to be held in September 2017 in Ashgabat, as well as participation of the refugee team in this sporting event.
"Yasuko Oda expressed her gratitude on behalf of the UNHCR leadership to the government of Turkmenistan for this proposal, as well as the opportunity for refugees from Kenya to participate in such a large-scale event," the message said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was in Ashgabat on a working visit in June, expressed his gratitude to Turkmenistan for the assistance provided to refugees and stateless persons. | politics |
https://www.mcguffey.k12.pa.us/SchoolBoardMeetings.aspx | 2024-04-22T21:50:50 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296818374.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20240422211055-20240423001055-00667.warc.gz | 0.955445 | 298 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__10341670 | en | Members of the McGuffey School District community are encouraged to participate in school board meetings during the "Public Comment" section of the meeting. The "Public Comment" section is held near the beginning of the meeting and is initiated by the President of the School Board. If you wish to participate in the "Public Comment" section, you will need to the meeting in person.
McGuffey School District highly values the input of residents in making important decisions that impact children attending McGuffey School District. Public comment on agenda items provides residents with an opportunity to share their input with the Board of Directors. Commentary should be addressed to the Board as a whole, not to individual board members, the Superintendent, individual staff members, nor the audience. Please be sure to state your name, email address and township where you reside when you sign in to address the board. There will be a strict seven (7) minute allowance for agenda items and five (5) minute allowance for non-agenda items for each individual who has signed up to comment and you will receive a response from the Superintendent within 24-48 hours.
All public speakers are expected to treat each other and the Board of Directors with respect. Conduct should not interfere with others' ability to participate in meetings, hinder others' ability to provide commentary to the Board, nor impede the Board's ability to conduct business. In matters of disagreement, speakers should model for our students how one can respectfully disagree with others' views. | politics |
http://newhorizonsgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/03/ | 2017-05-01T00:20:47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917126237.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031206-00037-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.852046 | 341 | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2017-17__0__128583227 | en | The 1883 List of Pensioners on the Roll is the leading resource for researching your Civil War and War of 1812 era pension records.
On December 8, 1882, the U.S. Senate required the Secretary of Interior to submit a list of pensioners on the roll as of January 1, 1883. The Secretary of Interior submitted the completed list to the Senate on March 1, 1883, and was published that year in five volumes as "List of Pensioners on the Roll, January 1, 1883."
The 1883 Pensioners on the Roll includes the name of each pensioner, the cause for which pensioned, the Post Office address, the rate of pension per month, and the date of original allowance.
The contents of each volume is as follows:
- Volume I - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and District of Columbia.
- Volume 2 - New York, and Pennsylvania.
- Volume 3 - Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa.
- Volume 4 - Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, California, Oregon, Nevada, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Dakota Territory (North and South Dakota), New Mexico Territory, Montana Territory, Washington Territory, Idaho Territory, Utah Territory, Arizona Territory, Alaska Territory, Wyoming Territory.
- Volume 5 - Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and foreign countries.
Much of the 1883 List of Pensioners on the Roll is now transcribed and online free of charge. | politics |
https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/subjects/1899 | 2023-03-25T18:16:02 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945368.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325161021-20230325191021-00358.warc.gz | 0.924011 | 233 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__83005369 | en | Found in 5 Collections and/or Records:
Records of the "Bursar's Office Takeover", May 1968
Free Speech Movement of Berkeley, California Collection
Eva Jefferson Paterson (1949- ) Papers
Eva Jefferson Paterson (1949- ), a graduate of Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Science class of 1971, is a civil rights attorney. Her collection spans the years 1970-2013 and contains biographical materials, correspondence, interviews, publications, and awards.
South Africa Divestment Controversy at Northwestern University
This compilation documents student movements at Northwestern University between 1978 and 1986 which, in protest of apartheid in South Africa, called for Northwestern to divest from companies with economic ties to South Africa. The compliation consists of clippings, reports, flyers, and other documents from a variety of sources.
Student Protests and Strikes at Northwestern University
The Student Protests and Strikes Collection consists of diverse materials that document political demonstrations and protests organized by students, spanning from August 1965 through October 1979. Each event included in this collection documents a segment of the history of Northwestern students' political activism. | politics |
https://www.enhk.admin.ch/en/the-commission/overview | 2023-06-10T14:38:47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224657720.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610131939-20230610161939-00363.warc.gz | 0.861768 | 198 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__283792868 | en | The Federal Commission for the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage FCNC is an independent, extra-parliamentary body, comprising 15 experts in the fields of nature, landscape and cultural heritage protection.
- advises the Federal Council and the relevant Department on fundamental matters of nature and cultural heritage protection;
- contributes in an advisory capacity to the enforcement of the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage (NHG);
- contributes to the preparation and updating of the inventories of sites of national importance;
- submits opinions on proposed projects to the federal and cantonal authorities in cases where implementation could have a substantial adverse impact on sites listed in the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance (BLN) or the Federal Inventory of Valuable Sites of Local Character (ISOS);
- advises cantonal agencies on matters of nature and cultural heritage protection;
- prepares submissions to the Federal Supreme Court or cantonal administrative courts. | politics |
https://sv.district196.org/families/news/article/~board/district-news/post/district-196-board-approves-proposed-tax-levy-for-payable-2023-property-taxes | 2023-02-04T21:05:54 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500154.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20230204205328-20230204235328-00319.warc.gz | 0.955453 | 452 | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-06__0__270865650 | en | The District 196 School Board, at its Sept. 26 regular meeting, approved a proposed 2022 (payable 2023) property tax levy at the maximum amount allowed by the state. The proposed levy is $132,640,542, an increase of $7,874,520 or 6.3% compared to the levy for payable 2022 property taxes.
The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) calculates the maximum levy limitation for each public school district in the state. By law, the final levy approved by the board in December may not be greater than the proposed levy, except for adjustments made by the state and voter-approved operating levy increases.
The 2022 property tax levy will provide revenue for the 2023-24 school year. For many of the individual levy categories that make up the district’s total tax levy, there is corresponding state aid that would be reduced if the district levied less than the maximum amount in those categories.
In mid-November, Dakota County will mail notices to individual property owners showing estimated taxes based on proposed levies approved by the school district, cities, the county and other taxing agencies. The School Board will certify the district’s final 2022 property tax levy after holding a truth-in-taxation hearing during its Dec. 12 regular meeting.
Director of Finance and Operations Mark Stotts said the biggest factors for the overall levy increase are a projected increase in enrollment, the annual inflationary adjustment to the district’s 2019 voter-approved operating levy, and a $2 million increase in deferred maintenance projects deemed critical for next year compared to a typical year.
Stotts said the district’s tax capacity and market capacity rates increased by more than 16%, meaning district taxes are spread over a larger tax base. He said the tax impact on any particular property will depend on its assessed value and whether it increased over last year.
Local property taxes represent approximately 24% of the operating revenues District 196 will receive this year. The other sources are state aids and credits (70%), federal aid (5%) and the remaining 1% from other sources that include self-insurance, gifts, donations and miscellaneous revenues such as food service fees, activity fees and admissions. | politics |
http://www.sadlierreligion.com/webelieve/catholicsocialteaching.cfm?sp=teacher§ion=article&grade=1&isarchive=1&ID=421 | 2016-06-30T12:07:30 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00188-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | 0.939001 | 683 | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2016-26__0__114654847 | en | Catholic Social Teaching
Ways to learn about Catholic social teaching and how to implement it at home, in the classroom, and in everyday life.
Moral Priorities #4 APPLYING THE THEMES OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
By Sr. Joan Hart SSDN
For the past several months, readers of this web page have been considering the seven central themes of Catholic social teaching. Now comes the task of translating the theory into action on issues of the day. The U.S. Catholic bishops have given us some direction in their recent statement on Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility. As voting citizens, we are called to examine a whole gamut of issues in their relationship to our faith. No single issue should determine how we vote. No single candidate agrees with us on all the issues.
Moral Priorities #4: Practicing Global Solidarity
The U.S. bishops conclude their 2003 document on Faithful Citizenship with a section on global solidarity. In it they say, "In a world where one-fifth of the population survives on less than one dollar a day, where some twenty countries are involved in major armed conflict, and where poverty, corruption, and repressive regimes bring untold suffering to millions of people, we simply cannot remain indifferent." The bishops remind us of our "responsibility to humanize globalization, and to spread its benefits to all, especially the world's poorest, while addressing its negative consequences." They call on us:
- to take a leading role in helping to alleviate global poverty
to make more concerted efforts to ensure the promotion of religious liberty and other basic human rights
to work to reverse the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and to reduce our own dependence on weapons of mass destruction
- to provide more consistent political and financial support for appropriate United Nations programs, other international bodies and international law
- to adopt a more generous immigration and refugee policy based on providing temporary or permanent safe haven for those in need, including a generous legalization program to undocumented immigrants, and addressing the root causes of migration
- to afford asylum to all refugees who hold a well-founded fear of persecution in their homelands
- to take the lead in addressing regional conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans, the Congo, Sudan, Colombia, and West Africa, with urgent priority given to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , and to make the sustained commitment necessary to help bring stability, democracy, freedom and prosperity to Iraq and Afghanistan
The bishops conclude this section by reminding us that "Building peace, combating poverty and despair, and protecting freedom and human rights are not only moral imperatives; they are wise national priorities. Given its enormous power and influence in world affairs, the United States has a special responsibility to ensure that it is a force for justice and peace beyond its borders. 'Liberty and justice for all' is not only a profound national pledge; it is a worthy goal for our nation in its role as world leader."
- Examine your own practice of global solidarity. How wide is your horizon?
- Do you pray daily for your brothers and sisters around the world who lack basic necessities or live in the midst of violence? What else do you do for them?
From Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, © October 10, 2003 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops | politics |
https://multiplicitymagazine.com/2020/11/presidential-classroom/ | 2024-04-14T17:09:11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-18/segments/1712296816893.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20240414161724-20240414191724-00548.warc.gz | 0.967702 | 1,838 | CC-MAIN-2024-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2024-18__0__9712971 | en | By Kara Lynn Puskey-Noble
When life gets stressful, I go to the barn and clean stalls. Forking up manure, pushing around a loaded wheelbarrow, sweeping—caring for my livestock settles my mind and clears my head.
Between the pandemic and the election, I’ve needed to spend a lot of time there lately.
In the barn, I try not to think about the uncomfortable realities of the present or the bleak pronouncements about the future spouted by social media pundits. My mind wanders into the past. The current state of the present and the future makes even high school look good.
As a 17-year-old high school senior, I was always on the lookout for anything that might improve my chances of getting into college. When my history teacher announced a schoolwide competition to attend a weeklong national honors program in Washington DC called the Presidential Classroom for Young Americans, it caught my attention even though I wasn’t particularly interested in politics.
According to its mission statement, the Presidential Classroom offered the “best and brightest students unprecedented access to the federal government and the people who shape public policy.” Only four students would be selected from my high school and the competition was fierce. It was a longshot, but I applied anyway.
To my astonishment, in January 1979 I found myself standing in Washington National Airport, fresh off my first airplane flight, scanning the crowded terminal for somebody holding a sign that read Presidential Classroom.
Forty years later, most of the details of the trip are blurry. Only the biggest revelations and strongest emotions linger in my memory. Like the cute guy from Alabama who flirted with me at the opening reception in the ballroom of a glamorous Washington hotel. Meeting teenagers from all over the U.S. and its territories was exciting, but his big brown eyes and genteel drawl really impressed this New England Yankee.
At the same reception, I met Senator and astronaut John Glenn. I was so awestruck and tongue-tied, he had to prompt me to shake his hand and say hello.
I remember the thrill of seeing the real Constitution at the U.S. Archives—and being told it would automatically drop into a protective vault below it in the event of a nuclear attack.
Jimmy Carter’s White House looked as comfortable and reassuring as Mr. Rogers’s television living room. Even so, when we were allowed to peek into the Oval Office, my first thought was That’s where Nixon sat when he resigned. It was a relief to know those dark days were behind us.
As I stood beneath the magnificent dome of the Capitol Rotunda surrounded by statues of the luminaries of U.S. history, all I could think was that I was standing where they put Abraham Lincoln’s casket after he was assassinated. We were told that the catafalque, the wooden platform built to hold Lincoln’s coffin in 1865, had been used to support every coffin laid in the Rotunda since then. Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s casket was placed atop it when she became the first woman to lie in state in the Rotunda in September 2020.
I was furious when Massachusetts senior Senator, Ted Kennedy, blew off our scheduled meeting. “The Senator is very busy,” his staff said.
I was mollified when our Congressman, Silvio O. Conte, warmly welcomed me and my classmate, Christine, and led us onto the floor of the House of Representatives before it opened for the day’s session. We stood several rings into the chamber’s semicircles of polished wooden chairs gaping at the huge American flag behind the podium where Boston’s gruff Irish son, Tip O’Neill, presided as Speaker of the House.
“Someday, one of you might sit here,” Conte said quietly.
At Arlington National Cemetery, after watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, one of the boys asked about Vietnam and the Fall of Saigon in 1975. “That’s history,” said the officer assigned to supervise our visit. “We need to focus on the future.”
The Smithsonian’s new Air and Space Museum opened during the hoopla of the national bicentennial celebration in July 1976. Standing in front of its exhibit of the capsule from 1969’s Apollo 11 moon flight, my thoughts flashed back to my first meeting with my high school guidance counselor in ninth grade.
“What do you want to be in the future?” he asked me.
“I want to be astronaut,” I said. “I want to work for NASA.”
He frowned at me. “Girls can’t be astronauts,” he said. “Let’s talk about more realistic options. You could be a nurse or a teacher.”
The Presidential Classroom taught me I had other options. I could work to make laws that would change stupid rules like that.
One of our final trips of the program brought us to the Lincoln Memorial. We clustered around the spot at the top of its marble steps where contralto Marian Anderson sang to a crowd of 75,000 on April 9, 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow her to perform in Constitution Hall because she was black. Eleanor Roosevelt, outraged by the DAR’s actions, promptly quit the group and arranged an alternate concert venue.
Almost 25 years later, on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech from the same spot.
Standing there shivering in the chilly January air with my Presidential Classmates, I felt sure I heard echoes of Anderson singing “My country tis of thee…of thee we sing.” I swore I could hear King say, “…even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream…a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”
Leaning on a manure rake in my barn and thinking back on that trip, what I hear loudest now are two nagging questions.
Has my generation moved this country toward that dream or away from it? Have we made things better or worse?
Things have changed. In 1979, all nine Supreme Court Justices were male; now three of them are women. Back then, the 96th Congress had only 16 voting African American members. Today’s 116th Congress includes 56. We have more regulations, but less pollution; higher taxes, but fewer armed conflicts with other nations. We are still plagued by “isms”—racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, ageism—among others. We all know the economy is still a work in progress.
I’m not objective enough to judge whether we’ve driven this country forward or plunged it off the road into a ditch, but the more I stand in the barn and think about it, the more I share the opinion of Ben Franklin, who had a keen interest in agriculture and who mucked his share of manure. The Presidential Classroom, taught me how the 81-year-old Franklin addressed similar questions in his final speech before the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787:
“When you assemble…[People] to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble…their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect product be expected? It…astonishes me…[that] this system approaches so near to perfection as it does.”
We’re as diverse, passionate, and opinionated as the folks in Franklin’s day. We’re definitely as imperfect. But we’ve managed to keep the republic that is this “democratic experiment” going so far. Hopefully, if we keep shoveling, then forkful by forkful, we’ll get things cleaned up enough to truly realize the American dream.
About the Writer:
Kara Lynn Puskey-Noble is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in publications ranging from textbooks and dictionaries to newspapers and magazines. She served as the editor for Merriam-Webster’s language question-and-answer column, “Take Our Word for It,” their public radio program “Word for the Wise” (WAMC, Albany, NY), and their online “Word of the Day” feature. Her equine-related stories have been published in Massachusetts Horse, Connecticut Horse, and The Competitive Equine. She holds a BA from Amherst College and an MFA in creative nonfiction from Bay Path University. | politics |
https://fortworthdefense.com/can-i-get-my-bail-reduced-bail-in-texas/ | 2023-03-30T07:45:24 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949107.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330070451-20230330100451-00691.warc.gz | 0.95255 | 764 | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-14__0__53385629 | en | Can I get my bail reduced? Bail in Texas
Published on October 23, 2020 by Carreras Law
Excessive Bail Isn’t Just Unfair—It’s Unconstitutional
One Dallas woman was placed in solitary confinement after failing to pay bail—a $500 charge assessed after a misdemeanor. She sued the county for violating state and federal law. In 2016, Harris County also faced a lawsuit over unfair bail practices. Cash bail can be used to discriminate against those accused, but not convicted of, crimes: The reality of many systems nationwide is that anyone arrested and jailed must either pay or stay.
Increasingly, people cannot afford the prices put on their freedom. The effects of the bail system ripple out; those who cannot afford pre-trial release are more likely to:
If you’ve been accused of a crime, you deserve a fair chance to defend yourself. Excessive bail assessments have been shown to decrease rather than boost justice. If you’ve been quoted an unfair number just to walk free despite the presumption of innocence, we may be able to help.
Texas Bail Reform Helps the Accused Return to Their Lives
After a district judge instructed Dallas county to consider an arrestee’s flight risk when setting bail rather than basing their assessment on predetermined standards, our legislature took up bail reform. Many states have recognized the inherent unfairness of current bail practices.
Aside from resulting in the detention of people who are completely innocent, high bail amounts can drive families to predatory bail bond lenders. New laws give judges leeway to provide more fitting bail. Inducing them to follow the new guidance has proven a bit harder.
Our Broken Bail System
Even last year, after judges were instructed to tailor bail requirements to constituents’ situations, videos showed bail hearings lasting between 15 and 30 seconds. The defendant was given no time to speak, meaning the judge did not even get to hear extenuating circumstances, much less consider them. The new laws requiring a bail hearing within 48 hours of arrest do little good if one party cannot meaningfully participate. Especially for those who don’t have a lawyer to advocate for them, the chance of getting a fair bail remains low.
Is High Bail Unconstitutional?
Excessive bail requirements may violate the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The disparity between the law and the reality of our criminal justice system has come under fire in multiple court cases, some of which originated in Texas. District and Circuit Courts have agreed high bail may be unconstitutional.
Is There a Right to Bail?
The Eighth Amendment doesn’t explicitly denote that anyone arrested has a right to bail, and the courts have opted for a strict interpretation of the law. A judge is not required to offer a defendant release between their detention and trial. However, this only applies to the most severe cases where a reasonable argument can be made that the defendant’s freedom would endanger others.
A Lawyer Can Help You Request Reduced Bail
Under Texas Code, your lawyer must request a second hearing for reduced bail. The law also lays out a list of limitations the court must follow when assigning a bond. Your lawyer can challenge any violations of these rules:
If the court cannot affirm probable cause for the defendant’s arrest, there are further rules they may be pressed on. A lawyer can help you understand how you may be able to negotiate reduced (and reasonable) bail.
No matter what happened, you deserve a strong defender to protect your rights. Contact our team online or call (817) 318-6022 to speak with a lawyer today.
Contact Us Today to Get Started on Your Defense | politics |
https://www.doncaster-chamber.co.uk/2020/11/26/doncaster-chamber-comment-return-tier-3-south-yorkshire/ | 2023-12-05T12:34:10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100551.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20231205105136-20231205135136-00669.warc.gz | 0.956693 | 196 | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-50__0__198386882 | en | Doncaster Chamber responds to South Yorkshire’s return to tier three
Commenting on the new tiered Coronavirus restrictions that will come into effect after the lockdown ends in England on December 2, Doncaster Chamber CEO, Dan Fell said, “It is not a surprise that Doncaster is in tier three. What is of paramount importance, is that national Government and local partners present a clear and sustainable road map out of this category ahead of Christmas and into the New Year. In the interim, it is vital that support gets to those businesses that need it and that cannot operate safely and profitably under the current restrictions.
“Businesses have sacrificed so much this year as part of a national effort against the coronavirus pandemic; we need Government to keep its end of the bargain by providing support to businesses, honouring commitments to a world class test and trace system and navigating the UK to an open and functioning economy as soon as possible” | politics |
https://protectourgirls.com/planned-parenthood-ny-headquarters-counsels-for-sex-selective-abortion/ | 2021-08-05T10:38:26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046155529.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20210805095314-20210805125314-00316.warc.gz | 0.927703 | 865 | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2021-31__0__132337375 | en | Planned Parenthood NY Headquarters Counsels for Sex-Selective Abortion
Planned Parenthood NY Headquarters Counsels for Sex-Selective Abortion in Second Video
As Congress Mulls Ban, Video Unmasks Growing Trend of Sex-Selective Abortion
New York, NY–Today, Live Action released a new undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger clinic in New York City helping a woman determine if her unborn child was female so she could have a sex-selection abortion. The video is second in a new series titled “Gendercide: Sex-Selection in America,” exposing the practice of sex-selective abortion in the United States and how Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry facilitate the selective elimination of baby girls in the womb.
The new video can be viewed at www.ProtectOurGirls.com, a hub of research and information on sex-selective abortions.
In the video, Planned Parenthood social worker Randi advises the woman on an early, definitive method to tell the gender of her child in the late first or early second trimester: “So if you were to have what’s called a CVS test, which is, do you know what that is?” she asks, referring to the genetic Chorionic Villus Sampling test. “It’s done between 11 and 13 weeks, so it is a test that you could do now.” CVS tests have a risk of miscarriage of about 1 in 100, which Planned Parenthood did not mention, and are typically done to test for genetic disorders in a pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood also reassures the woman that she can carry her pregnancy farther into term before her abortion. “An abortion at any stage up to 24 weeks is considered a safe procedure,” she asserts. “It’s not that it’s unsafe, or that there’s a lot more risk involved, it’s just there’s more steps involved and it’s just a little more complicated.” Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Center in New York City does abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and is the organization’s national headquarters.
“I can tell you that here at Planned Parenthood we believe that it’s not up to us to decide what is a good or a bad reason for somebody to decide to terminate a pregnancy,” Randi adds concerning the woman’s request for a sex-selective abortion. Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards yesterday opposed a ban on sex-selective abortions on the grounds that it would “limit [a woman’s] choices as she makes personal medical decisions.”
“Planned Parenthood has built their abortion empire on their belief that any abortion is a good abortion, even if it is motivated by the very discrimination against women that they claim to abhor,” says Lila Rose, president of Live Action. “Planned Parenthood’s abortion-first mentality leads them to defend targeting baby girls for extermination. When any of Planned Parenthood’s other ideological commitments comes into conflict with their abortion-first mentality, it’s clear that abortion always takes priority.”
Six studies in the past four years indicate that there are thousands of “missing girls” in the U.S. from sex-selective abortion. The U.K., India, Australia, and other countries ban sex-selective abortion, but the U.S., save for three states, does not. This afternoon, the House of Representatives will vote on the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act (PRENDA), which would ban sex-selective abortions nationally.
Live Action is a youth led movement dedicated to building a culture of life and ending the human rights abuse of abortion. They use new media to educate the public about the humanity of the unborn and investigative journalism to expose threats against the vulnerable and defenseless. More information at LiveAction.org.
For further information, please contact Dan Wilson or Jameson Cunningham with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920. | politics |
https://hitplayproductions.ca/films/an-unfinished-journey/ | 2023-06-09T00:48:54 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655244.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609000217-20230609030217-00087.warc.gz | 0.929925 | 255 | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2023-23__0__57412278 | en | Four Afghan women leaders are forced to flee their country after risking their lives to rebuild it. In exile they struggle to mount an international women’s movement to pressure world leaders to collapse the as yet unrecognized Taliban government, while coming to terms with what it means to have their power usurped and two decades of progress dismantled. From distant countries they watch the Taliban strip women and girls of the right to work, to be educated and to represent their communities. No longer in power, it is their inner strength that will save their country and return them home. When the world’s attention has shifted to the next headline and even the greatest superpower has admitted defeat, how will these women succeed?
Produced by HitPlay Productions and Films D’Ici in association with CBC, ERT and Global Girl Media, with the participation of CMF POV, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation Film and Television Tax Credit.
Directors Aeyliya Husain, Amie Williams
Writer Aeyliya Husain
Story Consultant Amie Williams
Producers Nadine Pequeneza, Charlotte Uzu
Executive Producers Nadine Pequeneza, Charlotte Uzu, Amie Williams | politics |
https://www.familylearning.org/mission.php | 2019-04-23T18:41:56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578610036.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20190423174820-20190423200820-00326.warc.gz | 0.949687 | 283 | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2019-18__0__149847298 | en | FLO Mission Statement
Our purpose is: To advocate for homeschooling and to defend the right of each family to educate their own children as they deem best. It is our intent to respond to the wishes, concerns and interests of the homeschooling community, and to report on legislative, legal and other matters relevant to homeschooling and family education.
Back to About FLO
- That we are to serve families interested in home education to the best of our ability regardless of race, creed, methods used, or reasons for homeschooling.
- That families represent varied and unique perspectives on education, whether structured or unstructured, religious or secular, and that having choices and options is the best way to ensure freedom for all.
- In keeping with our purpose, we support measures that promote parental involvement in education in all instances, even in the schools.
- That the most successful learning experiences result from focusing on the natural learning style of the child. Since each child is unique, no one curriculum, method, program, or evaluation system will work best in every case. All decisions on such matters should be left up to the parents.
- That parents are primarily responsible for their child's education and the state's responsibility to ensure that all children receive an education is secondary; therefore we support accountability measures that are the least intrusive and which presume the good faith effort of the parents. | politics |
http://www.daily-sun.com/post/283564/80-percent-honest-people-hate-BNP:-Quader- | 2018-08-20T12:37:12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221216453.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20180820121228-20180820141228-00462.warc.gz | 0.969483 | 529 | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | webtext-fineweb__CC-MAIN-2018-34__0__157895104 | en | Reacting to BNP leaders’ claim that their party will get 80 percent vote if the next election is held in a credible manner, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Sunday said 80 percent conscious and honest people of the country hate BNP.
The ruling party leader came up with the remark while talking to journalists at the Secretariat in the morning, reports UNB.
“BNP leaders are engaged in a competition of making anti-government statements to appease their high-ups,” Quader said.
Mentioning that BNP leaders Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Barrister Moudud Ahmed made two different demands over the formation of polls-time supportive government, he said, “The BNP leaders themselves are not clear about their demands. They (BNP leaders) should decide what they actually want.”
Asked whether Awami League will sit in a dialogue with BNP over the upcoming parliamentary polls, Quader said there is no need to arrange dialogue.
Replying to another query over the formation of polls-time supportive government, he said they will form the polls-time government following other democratic countries of the world.
“During the last election, we had invited BNP to be part of the polls-time government at that time. They didn’t take part. We’re waiting for their response this time, too,” he added.
Mentioning that BNP has its democratic right to participate in the election, the ruling party leader said, “No democratic government invites political parties to take part in the election. It’s their democratic right. Why should we invite them?”
Terming the BNP’s allegation that if BNP vies in the election, Awami League will foil it as ‘mischief’, Quader said AL does not want to participate in any election without competitors.
When asked about the protest by the former leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra Leage (BCL) over the formation of party’s sub-committee, Quader said it was misrepresented. “No committee was formed. Only a draft was made to constitute its sub-committees in 19 divisions,” he said.
“The former BCL leaders came to me at the political office of Awami League president Shiekh Hasina to know the fact. When I described them the actual matter, they brought out a jubilant rally. It was not a protest rally,” he added. | politics |
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