Female airmen now have up to 12 months after having a baby to request separation from the Air Force.
That change, which recently took effect, is designed to give new moms more time to determine how -- and whether -- they want to balance a military career and a family.
It's one of more than a dozen initiatives the service is rolling out to attract and retain a more diverse group of airmen. The changes were recently detailed in a memo, "Diversity & Inclusion Implementation Guidance."
"How do we get [airmen] and keep them [in assignments] that don't quite have that diversity?" Air Force spokeswoman Brooke Brzozowske said of the effort to Military.com on Wednesday.
New mothers in the Air Force previously had to decide whether to stay in the service before giving birth. The idea behind the updated policy is to give them more time to come to a decision after adjusting to their changed circumstances.
In a separate but related policy change, the Defense Department last year set maternity leave across all branches of the military at 12 weeks. The move doubled the Army and Air Force's six-week policies, but dialed back a generous 18-week leave policy previously rolled out by the Navy and Marine Corps.
The Air Force also wants to try to avoid assigning military spouses to different geographic locations.
"This is just a better way to make sure that we're not losing people because we're separating families," Brzozowske said. "But we do this really well already."
Assignment teams will try to accommodate dual spouse requests to the "fullest extent practicable while balancing mission requirements," regardless if they are enlisted or officer, the guidance said. Any new joint spouse assignment policy requirements will begin this fall.
Overall, the policy changes are designed to entice more airmen into parts of the Air Force that are demographically underrepresented.
For example, in the the remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA, field -- on track to expand in coming years -- only 6 percent of members are female and 15 percent are minorities, according to the Air Force guidance. By comparison, women make up 19 percent of the active-duty Air Force and minorities represent 28 percent of the force, according to a 2015 report from the Defense Department.
Other jobs lacking diversity include pilots; combat systems operators; command and control; special tactics officers and combat rescue officers; air battle managers and air liaison officers; space operators; weather; aircrew protection (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape and Pararescue); aircrew operations; and flight equipment, maintenance and cyber operators.
"These initiatives are designed to help us build teams comprised of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and demographics," Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, deputy chief of staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services, and then-Assistant Air Force Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Gabriel Camarillo, said in guidance from last year.
While the service isn't looking to change selection standards for any career fields, it does hope to encourage more women and minorities to apply for jobs that often draw from the same applicant pool.
The Air Force aims to do so in part by including a qualified female and/or minority candidate in certain developmental positions, such as executive officer, aide de camp, military assistant, senior enlisted adviser, career field manager, and Commander's Action Group chief -- all of which require a formal interview.
"This is kind of similar to the Rooney Rule in football," Brzozowske said, referring to a rule adopted by the National Football League in 2003 so minority candidates would be interviewed and considered for senior positions, such as head coaching jobs.
The service also plans to ensure diverse development teams or command screening boards, which determine whether an enlisted airman or officer is approved for a promotion or new assignment.
"A team of individuals within your career field and other career fields are going to look at you" for promotion, Brzozowske said.
Officials are "looking at making it as inclusive as possible," she said. This could include having a Guard or Reserve member join the panel from "different backgrounds, different languages, gender ... all of it."
The service also wants to broaden its recruitment efforts -- which draw a significant number of prospects from states such as California, Texas, North Carolina and Virginia -- in part by using new tools to target additional markets.
Recruiters and officials from the Air Force, Guard and Reserve, as well as the Air Force Academy and Reserve Officers' Training Corps, will be encouraged to build more detailed portfolios using government databases to cover new neighborhoods, regions and schools across the across the U.S.
"Beginning in fiscal year 2018, Air Force recruiters will be provided with additional tools and resources that will allow them to identify and target a geographically diverse set of communities for new recruits," the guidance says.
And if the Air Force is going to grow and pull from diverse communities, the people doing the recruiting must mirror that diversity.
Commanders will be encouraged to submit recruiter duty nominations for qualified airmen with different life experiences, geographic backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, cultural knowledge, educational backgrounds, etc. -- that reflect the diversity of the total force, the guidance said.
Officials also plan to improve diversity in the ranks by increasing funding for ROTC scholarships, establishing a human capital analytics office, providing unconscious bias training, creating a diversity and inclusion recognition program, encouraging civilian participation in professional development programs, and better accommodating individuals with disabilities.


rival high-capacity drives and discs.
to around 100 kilobytes a second.
Sony’s High-Capacity Floppy Disk has narrow tracks just 9 micrometres wide.
enough for video. Both drives will be able to read conventional floppies.


A local church is sending shoeboxes out for the christmas season.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Changing the world, one shoebox at a time.
That's what one local church is doing for this years holiday season.
First Baptist Church of Terre Haute is collecting shoeboxes, but they aren't filled with shoes.
They're filled with educational materials, toys, and toiletries.
Eddie Campbell is a volunteer, and he says it makes all the difference being able to help with this every year.
"We've had individuals that have come back that received these boxes when they were children and how it changed their life, and now that they're grown, they come back and they share with us how these boxes impacted their lives."
You have until the end of the week if you want to donate a shoebox.
Drop off location is at the Frist Baptist Church at 4701 Poplar Street.


Jenna Dewan, Channing Tatum Celebrate Step Up’s 10th Anniversary — Watch Them Re-create That Dance Move!
Happy 10th anniversary! Jenna Dewan Tatum celebrated Step Up’s August 11, 2006, release date on Thursday, posting a throwback photo with her now-husband, Channing Tatum, on Instagram. The two also adorably re-created the movie's infamous dance scene on Dewan Tatum's Snapchat.
“#tbt to on set of Step Up I cannot believe it's the 10 year anniversary of the release today!! Ahhhh where does the time go?? Love you all and thanks for all the love all these years❤❤,” the actress, 35, captioned a sweet snap of herself with Tatum.
The couple, who tied the knot in July 2009, met on the set of the dance flick. During an interview with GQ in July 2015, the Magic Mike actor recalled rewatching the movie with his wife.
"Me and Jenna just saw Step Up on TV, and we watched it for two seconds. We made that 10 years ago or something. It was hard because you're like, 'Wow, I remember it being so much better.' Then other times you're like, 'I remember it being worse,’” Tatum said.
The movie also marked their first kiss.
"We were basically together on the movie," Tatum recalled to Redbook in October 2014. "It’s interesting now, because we can watch it and see; we can go, 'Oh, wow, that was actually our first real kiss.' As soon as the movie wrapped, we went back to L.A. and were together, and together ever since — never broken up. That’s nine years."
The couple are now parents of 3-year-old daughter Everly.


Former Camden Mayor Aaron Thompson (right) with the current mayor, Frank Moran.
Aaron A. Thompson, 88, a retired telephone serviceman who became the second African American mayor of Camden in the early 1990s, died Tuesday, March 19, the city’s current mayor, Francisco Moran, announced Tuesday.
No details about his death were immediately available.
He was retired from AT&T after 31 years when he was elected to Camden City Council in 1989.
Mr. Thompson had served only five months when he was picked by his fellow Council members in 1990 to serve as acting mayor, replacing Melvin R. “Randy” Primas, the city’s first African American mayor, who had quit to take a state job.
Mr. Thompson officially ran for the office in a special election later that year and won.
“I’m a college dropout and former telephone installer,” he said in a 1993 interview with The Inquirer while running for re-election. “I’m a dying breed. I see other mayors, and I see their academic achievement. I see less and less politicians come up through the ranks."
Mr. Thomson was “an affable and gregarious man” who “makes an effort to be accessible and even answers his own telephone at times,” the story said.
He was initially regarded as beholden to the city and county Democratic bosses who installed him. But whatever relationship he had with them soured, and they backed another Democrat, Arnold Webster, who defeated Mr. Thompson in the 1993 primary.
While he was mayor, he presided over the opening of the New Jersey State Aquarium, now called the Adventure Aquarium.
As with all major urban areas during this time, Camden was plagued by the explosion of crack cocaine. The city also suffered from its worst period of Oct. 30 “Mischief Night” vandalism, with more than 100 arson fires in 1991.
After leaving office, Mr. Thompson remained largely out of the public eye. “He was just living a normal life,” said city spokesperson Vincent Basara, who noted that Mr. Thompson participated in the city’s senior bowling league.
Moran said the city will fly flags at half-staff until the day of Mr. Thompson’s funeral, which is set for Saturday, March 30, at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 525 Royden St., Camden. A viewing will be from 9 to 10:45 a.m. with a service at 11. Burial will be at Sunset Memorial Park, Pennsauken.
Staff writer Melanie Burney contributed to this article.


Voorhees Township, which has a population of about 30,000, is located in southern New Jersey, about 20 miles from Philadelphia and 35 miles from Trenton. For traditional tourism activities, visitors to the area have all of the attractions of greater Philadelphia within a short drive. However, for those looking for more laid-back entertainment, Voorhees has plenty to do, right in town.
The Voorhees Township Parks Department operates a network of parks and sports facilities for year-round public use. You can enjoy warmer months picnicking at Connolly Park or Lions Lake Complex. Both have playgrounds for children, picnic tables and lawns. Lions Lake also features grills, a concession stand and a banquet hall. Connolly Park has covered gazebos and designated areas for dogs. Athletes can play baseball or football at Giangiulio Sports Complex and softball, basketball, bocce ball or tennis at Kirkwood Sports Complex. Maiaroto Sports Complex features a soccer field as well as basketball and tennis facilities. Rabinowitz Sports Complex is devoted to baseball, with multiple lighted fields as well as batting cages. All parks are open from sunrise to sunset. You must file an application to reserve sports fields for use at any of the sports complexes.
Watch a local dance troupe at Voorhees Ballet Theatre (voorheesballettheatre.com). Since 1986, the group has given two major performances each year and smaller shows at local community centers. The Voorhees Theatre Company (voorheestheatre.org) primarily presents children's theater, plus the occasional performance by adult actors.
In addition to the basic sports facilities available through Voorhees' parks system, the town is home to Flyers Skate Zone (voorhees.flyersskatezone.com), an indoor ice skating rink that's open for regular public skating sessions, figure skating lessons, birthday parties and ice hockey clubs, camps, clinics and tournaments. While much of the programming is oriented toward younger skaters, an adult ice hockey league also operates out of the center.
In spite of its proximity to Philadelphia, Voorhees also has plenty of natural vistas, ideal for hiking. Stafford Farm, a historic farm operated for more than 225 years, sits right in the township. Since 2004, the 140-acre farm has been protected by the Trust for Public Land, and it is open to visitors for hiking and birding. The protected area includes Stafford Woods, an area spanning approximately 5 acres, which features public bikeways.
Hill, Danielle. "Activities in Voorhees, New Jersey." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/activities-voorhees-new-jersey-103109.html. Accessed 24 April 2019.


A federal appeals court has upheld lengthy prison sentences for three Minnesota men who were convicted in 2016 of plotting to join the Islamic State group to fight in Syria and kill for the terrorist group.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected challenges by Guled Omar, Abdirahman Daud and Mohamed Farah, who had sought to have their convictions overturned. A three-judge panel wrote that the evidence against the three was overwhelming.
Judge Michael Davis sentenced Omar, who at one time was the group's leader, to 35 years in prison. Farah and Daud each got 30 years. They were the only three defendants in the case to stand trial.
Six other defendants got lighter sentences after pleading guilty and accepting responsibility for their actions.


Disney star Raven-Symone ('That's So Raven') takes photographs with fans and waves at photographers as she arrives for the Broadway show Sister Act.
Raven auditioned for the Bill Cosby movie 'Ghost Dad' when she was three but was considered too young for the role. However, Cosby liked her so much that he got her a part in his TV show. As well as a long acting career, 26-year-old Raven has released four studio albums and four soundtrack albums. Her fifth studio album will be released this year and she has described it as R'n'B with an "alternative base for lyrics"


Seneca Little lost 200 pounds eight years ago, and now he's launched a supplement company to help others do the same.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. - A Brooklyn Park man is using his weight loss journey to start a business and help others.
Seneca Little lost 200 pounds eight years ago, and now he's launched a supplement company aimed at helping others stay on board in their own fitness journeys.
"It all starts with your mind, you know," he said. "Mentally if you get ready, then physically you'll be prepared."
Since losing the weight, Little has dreamt of creating a supplement brand that will help others with that mindset. This year, the dream became reality: Senergy Supplements.
Seneca Little lost 200 pounds eight years ago, and now he's launched a supplement company aimed at helping others stay on board in their own fitness journeys.
"The pre-workout is called Charged Up," Little said. "We started formulating it last year, and then this year we actually launched, and in March we got on the shelves of GNC."
Little said pre-workout drinks were key to getting through his workouts on those days when he didn't have the energy, after long shifts as a truck driver.
"That's why I kind of wanted to formulate my own pre-workout, because of my whole journey," he said. "Every time I was exhausted or tired, I'd go ahead and take me some pre-workout, and get an awesome workout."
Little said the focus the pre-workout gives you is amazing.
"It's almost like tunnel vision," he said. "You start to get into your workout, and nothing else really matters. You just focus completely on your workout. And then you also feel the thermogenic because it gets you sweating."
Senergy Supplements' pre-workout drink is called Charged Up, and is available at five GNC stores in the metro.
The product is stocked at five GNC stores in the Twin Cities metro so far, and selling well.
"Attitude determines altitude, which is one of my favorite sayings," Little said. "I believe if you have a positive attitude, there's no telling how far you can go in life."
Next up, Little plans to expand to stores in California, and develop a protein supplement.
"It's all about just spreading positivity," he said.


Sen. Clinton waved at supporters gathered in early June as she announced the suspension of her White House bid.
(CNN) – A grassroots organization of Hillary Clinton supporters has announced plans to march in Denver on the same day the New York senator is set to address her party’s faithful during the Democratic convention there.
The march will take place on August 26 and is being organized by 18 Million Voices Rise Hillary Rise. The march will be accompanied by a festival in downtown Denver and additional coordinated marches across the country on the same day.
Clinton, who garnered approximately 18 million votes in the long Democratic primary fight, is scheduled to speak at the convention on the 88th anniversary of the date American women were granted the right to vote.
Since Clinton announced the formal suspension of her presidential campaign, the Obama campaign has gone to great lengths to promote party unity. Clinton and Obama appeared together at a campaign event in Unity, New Hampshire; the Obama campaign recently announced that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will be holding two fund-raising events to help retire Clinton’s campaign debt; and Clinton is scheduled to campaign on Obama’s behalf in key states.
The Clintons are old news. Even more pathetic are the Hillary supporters that will vote for McSame to try and make Obama lose so she can run in 4 years. The Clintons know that Hillary won't be in the game in 8 years. Pathetic Pathetic Pathetic. Get over it....move on. You really want McSame? Nope, not me. Sick of the stupid war...sick of the economic conditions left by Bush. McCain will be useless. Wake up...do something constructive.
If Hillary knew about this, and I'm sure she did, she should have already stepped forward with a statement and put the brakes on this action. Guess that tells us what she really is about. Power, power, power. What a shame.
They can go to Denver but can't help to retire her debt with $5.00? Lord, these people are so tiring. Hillary would much rather her debt be paid off!
18 million voices and the only tune they can carry is 'bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb iran '.


Clearly the house prices and economic mini boom is timed to PEAK during the May 2015 at approx 12% per year, to just exceed the Labour mini-boom into the May 2010 general election. Which therefore implies that the prospects for the Conservatives and to a far lesser extent the Liberal Democrats should continue to improve right into polling day. Although 12% will not be on par with the booms of the noughties of over 30% so house prices are suggesting a very similar election result for the Conservatives at least to that of 2010.
My next in-depth analysis concludes in a detailed seats per party general election forecast, so ensure you are subscribed to my always free newsletter to get this in your email box on completion.
Thanks alot Nadeem! Was really looking forward to this. So to clarify if I'm looking to buy a house in the London suburbs it could well be in my favour to wait another 6 months?
Do you think a house is better in terms of value to flats because of the freehold and land associated? Even if for the same price as a flat you get a lower rental yield?
28 Feb 15, 12:06 Will the govt continue to support house prices?
Nadeem, as usual spot on forecasting of house prices over the past few years. I'm more curious about the future. Do you think the govt will continue to support the house price once the election is over? As you say the market is driven by sentiment - a 1% increase in rates could quickly reverse sentiment, especially in London where people are mortgaged up to the eyeballs.
I now live in London with a low 6 figure income, which I think puts me into the top 2%, yet I'm priced out. 98% are in a worse position than I, hence I struggle to see how it can continue.
No doubt without immigration London would die - I can't see British graduates on a reasonable starter income agreeing to move here and having to share bedrooms as rents are so high, when they could stay in their own towns and live far better.
Yeh, you could wait 6 months and then buy a house in the suburbs.
London flats are in a bubble, a lot of investors (mostly chinese and russian) are going to get burned.
Yes government will continue to support house prices because it will be WEAK, weak governments tend to bend over backwards to appease vested interests such as house owners.
Interest rates are irrelevant. Yes I understand that this is contrary to the consensus view, but if housing market sentiment is strong i.e. over 10% per annum inflation, then it does not matter if mortgage interest rates are 3% or 6%.
Thanks alot for your response Nadeem, much appreciated, and your content has been invaluable to me over the years.
Wanted to also point out the 20% discount for first time buyers site is now up to register, not sure what limit they will put on the amount, but 20% discount, and even 5% down, seems like a no brainer.
Yh I've been thinking this about the offplan luxury flats in zone 1-2. If credit tightens in China, then there may be alot of repos when it comes for completion. Although I've heard alot of them are cash buyers too. But if theyre buying for rental yield, zone 1-2 yields will be very low I reckon in 2016, there's already so much supply, and 3% yield is quite common in zone 1 prime areas.
Hi Nadeem - first off thank you so much for your insightful work over the years. Given the quality and accuracy of your work, I am amazed the mainstream press has not given you more attention. Anyway, thats another story. I just wanted to clarify something re your recommendation of houses vs flats in London. Apart from the fact foreign buyers are the dominant force in prime London, within that, there is a strong cultural preference for flats vs houses both among foreign buyers as well as overseas-born Brits like myself. I'm not sure why that should be the case, but from personal experience and anecdotes it may be a function of security (your front door does not open on to a public street), and a preference for lateral spaces. In many streets around Kensington (where we reside), a family sized apartment in a well maintained portered block has arguably appreciated more in £ per square foot over the past say 10 years than a similar sized terraced house in the area. Many Middle Eastern buyers I know looking to buy in the area will only consider flats and not houses. Could you please elaborate a bit more on the reasoning behind your preference for houses vs flats? I will declare my own self-interest in this question as we are considering selling our Kensington apartment and moving to a house in the suburbs (for family/schools reasons rather than any kind of bet on property within London). I am therefore quite intrigued, especially by your view of a "sellers window" existing between now and election time. Many thanks in advance for your time.


Hackers are now officially terrorists, too.
The famous internet hacktivist Jeremy Hammond, who played a role in some of the biggest hackings by Anonymous, has been placed on a terrorist watchlist by the FBI.
The Daily Dot got its hands on a confidential document originating from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), which says Hammond “was considered a ‘possible terrorist organization member".
The document also indicates that he was placed on the multi-agency Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), alongside individuals suspected of ties to Al Qaeda, Somalia-based extremists al-Shabaab, and Colombia's FARC guerilla movement.
First rule of the watchlist: Do not tell people that they’re on the watchlist.
Hammond was arrested in 2012 for a series of high-profile hack attacks, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. One of the hackings includes the theft of five million emails from the intelligence agency Stratfor.
As The Daily Dot writes, hack attacks can land you on a terrorist watchlist because a threat to human life isn’t a prerequisite for terrorist activity.
The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) issued a definition of terrorism in March 2013, and besides threatening human life, an individual can land on the watchlist for suspected "acts dangerous to … property, or infrastructure" that appear intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population," or "influence the policy of a government."
Individuals seen as facilitating or supporting "terrorist activity," violent or not, may also be added to the TSDB watchlist.


Two men have been hospitalised with slight injuries after a knife fight in Sqaq il-Kubrit in Hamrun, Police have said.
The victims are a 29-year-old and a 30-year-old who were both taken to Mater Dei via ambulance where they were later certified to be suffering from slight injuries.
Police told MaltaToday that their wounds were administered with a knife. The perpetrator left the scene in a vehicle before the police could reach him.
The incident took place on Friday afternoon at around 3:30pm.
Members of the Rapid Intervention Unit and District Police went on site and called for an ambulance.
The Police said that they are currently speaking to two men they believe were involved in the argument.


Kendall Jenner puts family first! She rushed out of the Revolve event in Las Vegas to head home after her hearing dad Caitlyn Jenner’s house may have burned down.
UPDATE (Nov. 10 3:17pm ET): Caitlyn’s house is SAFE! Despite an initial report, TMZ is now claiming her house narrowly escaped the flames brought on by one of Souther California’s wildfires on Friday, Nov. 9. See the pics here.
ORIGINAL STORY: Say what you want about the Kardashians, but there’s no denying that they put family first. Kendall Jenner did just that when she rushed home after an event in Las Vegas to be closer to her sisters while the Woolsey Canyon wildfire blazed on near their California homes. The 23-year-old model made a brief appearance at the second annual #REVOLVEawards at Palms Casino Resort on Friday, Nov. 9, but returned home shortly after walking the red carpet, according to Entertainment Tonight.
We’re out of the fire zone and are safe. Thinking about all those that are affected and hope you all are safe too.
Kendall’s family began evacuating from their Malibu and Calabasas homes on Thursday night. Kim Kardashian shared updates about the process and confirmed on Instagram that the entire family was safe alongside a photo of her kissing her niece and Khloe Kardashian‘s daughter, True Thompson. Caitlyn also shared an update after reports came out saying her house burned down in the fire. “We’re safe at a safe house. Don’t know if the house made it or not. It’s still up in the air,” she said in a video. “Thinking about all those that are affected and hope you all are safe too,” she added in the caption.


The California ban on single-use plastic bags is a huge step toward reducing litter, but it might not be as effective a change as its advocates assume.
On Sept. 30, Gov. Jerry Brown became the first governor to sign a statewide ban on plastic bags in grocery and convenience stores. Many California cities already instituted the ban earlier this year, including Los Angeles. In his signing statement, Brown stated that he hopes to encourage other states across the nation to follow our example and reduce their litter as well.
But this ban is only effective if people actually commit to reusing the bags they buy instead of opting to pay an extra few cents for a paper bag or buying another reusable bag every time they go to the store. Considering that consumers only have to pay a negligible sum of 10 cents for new paper bags, they must take it upon themselves to reuse the bags they buy.
For college students, whose advocacy has been instrumental in banning plastic bags both in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California, it’s particularly relevant to make sure that we follow through with those efforts on our weekly trips to the grocery store. Doing so not only provides benefits for our state and its rates of plastic waste, but could set off a chain reaction of bans in different states and eventually across the country.
If California’s ban proves not to make any significant change in rates of waste or in general environmental impact, students in other states likely won’t see the same kind of success with advocacy on plastic bag bans, and states themselves likely won’t see a reason to adopt a ban.
This possibility is particularly troubling because of the huge potential impact of the plastic bag ban. Each year, we create 123,000 tons of waste with plastic bag litter worldwide. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, every year thousands of animals are injured by consuming plastic bag waste, including birds, whales and sea turtles. Plastic bags cannot be recycled.
But while the ban will reduce litter, the energy used to produce plastic bag alternatives is potentially just as dangerous as litter. There are two main alternatives to single-use plastic bags: paper bags and reusable plastic bags. According to a 2011 U.K. environmental study, paper bags need to be used three times before they have less of an impact on global warming than their plastic counterparts. The same study shows a non-woven polypropylene bag, which is usually the type of reusable plastic bag handed out by grocery stores for free, needs to be used eleven times for it to have less of an impact.
So that means that California residents have to commit to using the bags at least that many times. This especially applies to UCLA students, whose chapter of consumer advocacy group CALPIRG lobbied to institute the plastic bag ban in Los Angeles, acquiring over 6000 signatures on a petition. Westwood chains offer paper bags for ten cents, but we shouldn’t use them, and if by some accident we must, they should be saved for reuse at least another two times. Reusable plastic bags should be kept and used for as many times as they’re still functional – and we shouldn’t buy more of them than we need for a single shopping trip.
There are even more sustainable alternatives to these two choices, which students and all California residents should take into consideration. Nathan Weaver, the oceans advocate for Environment California, a statewide environmental advocacy organization, said that canvas bags are the best alternative. While they are usually more expensive, around $5-$10 per bag, the cloth is durable and can last for decades, meaning that people who choose these bags are able to use them for longer periods of time.
At UCLA, we’ve been dealing with a plastic bag ban for nearly a year. But now that city-wide bans have given way to a statewide ban, the implications for a spread are larger, and thus the importance of the ban’s success is greater. As advocates for the environment at UCLA, students should take personal responsibility for their part in that success. The ban only works if its alternatives prove to be significantly easier on the environment.
While the single-use plastic bag ban was an important step in creating a safer environment, it is still the first step of many. Whether that be cloth bags or paper bags, it’s up to us to be responsible about reusing.


If you were hoping that Republicans would finally live up to their promise of being the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, you’ll just have to keep hoping.
Members of Congress refer to their just-passed government-funding legislation as the “omnibus spending bill.” But “omni-bust” would better describe it, because it reveals all the ways Congress is busted.
Under the normal appropriations process, what’s referred to as “regular order,” there are 12 different appropriations bills that fund the federal government. That process is busted — at least in the Senate.
In September, the House of Representatives passed all 12 “approps” bills under the title “Make America Secure and Prosperous Act.” However, several Republican members of Congress, writing in The Hill, say it was the first time in 14 years all approps bills passed the House in time, though Republicans have controlled the House since 2011.
How many of these bills has the Senate passed? Zero.
So how many of the approps bills has the Senate at least considered? Don’t ask.
Because the Senate did not do its job, Congress had to fall back on an omni-bust bill. The other alternative was a continuing resolution (CR), which perpetuates current spending levels, perhaps with a few tweaks.
This budget process has been going on for years, with more than 100 CRs since 1996. Because efforts to fund the government always seem to go to the last minute, members turn to an omni-bust or a CR to avoid a government shutdown.
Republicans keep saying, especially during their campaigns, they want to get back to regular order. Heck, even some Democrats are saying that. But they have failed so many times there’s little point in believing them anymore.
Fiscal responsibility isn’t a difficult concept: Revenue equals expenditures — more or less. States have to do it, though they often play games with the numbers. Families have to do it too, though some also play games with the numbers. Congress doesn’t have to do it — and so it never does.
The problem for Republicans is they claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility. But you’d never know it by their actions, especially when they control all three branches of government. It didn’t happen between 2001 and 2007, when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House. As a result of their failure, voters decided to give Democrats control of Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008. How much worse could Democrats be, they asked?
Much worse, it turns out. Federal debt grew on average about $1 trillion a year for the eight years Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaObama condemns attacks in Sri Lanka as 'an attack on humanity' Trump hits Romney for Mueller criticism Former Bush assistant: Mueller report makes Obama look 'just plain bad' MORE was president.
Republicans whined about out-of-control spending under Obama and asked voters to put them back in charge. Voters did, over several election cycles. In response, Republicans ended the “sequester” spending restraints, which kept a lid on spending, and most recently pushed through this $1.3 trillion bill that has something for everyone.
Indeed, the Democrats are so happy with the omni-bust they were bragging how many of their spending priorities they got in the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerHillicon Valley: House Dems subpoena full Mueller report | DOJ pushes back at 'premature' subpoena | Dems reject offer to view report with fewer redactions | Trump camp runs Facebook ads about Mueller report | Uber gets B for self-driving cars Dem legal analyst says media 'overplayed' hand in Mueller coverage Former FBI official praises Barr for 'professional' press conference MORE (D-N.Y.) got funding for his Gateway tunnel, albeit indirectly because the money was funneled to other agencies which can be redirected to the tunnel. In order to fix a glitch in the recent tax-cut legislation, Republicans had to give Democrats more funding for low-income housing, and that after House Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanAppeals court rules House chaplain can reject secular prayers FEC filing: No individuals donated to indicted GOP rep this cycle The Hill's Morning Report - Waiting on Mueller: Answers come on Thursday MORE said he wanted to reform welfare.
As a result of this spending blowout, Republicans have been either defensive — claiming they funded the president’s priorities, though the president doesn’t seem to agree — or have trashed the bill, claiming that they and their leadership need to do better.
It appears that the only time Republicans at least try to live up to their claims of being the party of fiscal responsibility is when Democrats are in control.
When Democrats rammed through the Affordable Care Act, Republicans wailed that Democrats created a 2,700-page bill that no one had read — which was true.
With the omni-bust, Republicans pushed through a 2,232-page bill that no one had time — or the stomach — to read. They wanted to get it done and get the heck outta town, no doubt so they could campaign on the need for greater fiscal responsibility.
The public and the media frequently complain that Washington is broken. But it’s hard to tell which is worse: the busted process or the busted promises. The latest omni-bust spending bill implies it’s both.


In case you haven't heard, The Last of Us is really, really good. If you still haven't played the game that went all Meryl Streep on the DICE Awards (after picking up Kotaku game of the year honors, no less), you can pick it up on Amazon today for just $30. I might have to buy myself a PS3 now just to play it.
Update: If you prefer Newegg, they have it for $28.
If your Xbox Live subscription is running dry, top it up for another year. $40 is about as cheap as you're ever likely to see this.
Featuring 5.1 channel surround sound, 4K pass through, and fantastic reviews, the Yamaha RX-V375 receiver is an absolute steal today at $200.
In case you missed it over the weekend, we've got great deals on both the iPad Mini Retina and the Kindle Paperwhite. Best Buy is the proprietor of both discounts, knocking $50 off all iPad Mini with Retina Display models, and 20 bucks off the Paperwhite.
These are the Commerce Team's choices for best tablet and best e-reader, so if you're looking for either, don't hesitate.
Best Buy is Offering Your Choice of Two PS3 or Vita Games for $25. Choose from a Selection of Nearly 30 Games.
Purchase or rent a movie or TV show from Amazon Instant Video, get $1 in MP3 credit | Includes free videos, like these.
16GB Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 ($299) | Amazon | Lowest price ever.


Bye Bye Beijing, Hello White House?
The current U.S. Ambassador to Beijing, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., reportedly submitted his resignation Monday, clearing the way for him to throw his hat in the ring as a Republican presidential candidate in 2012. While this move hardly comes as a shock—speculation has been percolating ever since a high-profile article in Newsweek last month, prompting a reporter to raise the question at President Obama’s summit meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao—it does add an interesting twist to both U.S.-China relations and the upcoming U.S. presidential race.
Some skeptical commentators—including my friends James Fallows at The Atlantic and Jim McGregor here in Beijing—have pooh-poohed Huntsman's chances, arguing that his role as Obama's emissary to China will pose an insurmountable political problem, both in the Republican primary and the general election. "Huntsman in 2012? Nonsense!" McGregor titled one his blog entries. As a Republican, however, I must say I disagree. I think Huntsman will be a strong candidate, and his cross-partisan experience in China will prove a plus.
It would be one thing if Huntsman had been some kind of political cheerleader for the Obama Administration, or had carried the Obama flag on contentious issues like health care (in this respect, Romney finds himself in a far more awkward position, since Obama’s health care legislation was supposedly based on Romney's own program in Massachusetts). To the contrary, Huntsman has earned respect on both sides of the aisle—and from the business community—for his steady, professional handling of a complex U.S.-China relationship at a particularly sensitive time. He’s seen as a well-balanced, strong, and effective voice for some of America's most important interests abroad.
I don't think you can ever go wrong serving your country, in that sense, whoever the president is. I don't see any problem with him saying—in a GOP primary debate—"yes, I served in China, because it was too important not to, but here’s how I disagree with this president" on a whole host of critical issues. Combined with his own successful record as Governor of Utah, he could stake out a position as a principled but pragmatic conservative who puts patriotic interests above partisan politics—and I think a lot of Republicans would find that very appealing.
There's a precedent, after all. In 1964, the Republican Party was unhappily split going into the primaries that year, between a hard-edged, populist true believer who many feared might prove unelectable (Goldwater then, Palin today) and a wealthy northeastern governor distrusted by the base as wishy-washy (Rockefeller then, Romney today). Many Republican voters were eagerly seeking a third choice. A small group of political amateurs put together a grassroots campaign to draft Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a former Republican senator who was serving Democrat Lyndon Johnson as ambassador to South Vietnam: point man for the president's Asia policy. Lodge won the New Hampshire primary on a write-in ballot, and suddenly emerged as the party’s front-runner. The problem was, Lodge had no campaign organization prepared to follow up on this victory, so he quickly faded. Clearly, there's a precedent, though, for an ambassador to run against the president he served, and be accepted by the opposition party. If Huntsman goes into it more prepared—and from what I can tell, he’s doing exactly that—the outcome could be very different this time.
(Critics might say, fine, but Johnson won the election that year in a landslide. Yes, but that's partly because Goldwater did prove unelectable and partly because nobody can tell how strong a sitting president will be–then or now—until closer to the election. The point I’m making is about the plausibility of winning the party nomination).
Alternatively, let's paint a "worst case" scenario for Huntsman. Many political strategists have observed that whereas Democrats like to "fall in love" with a new guy (Carter, Clinton, and Obama all fit this mode), Republicans like to nominate "the next guy in line." Ford was Nixon's VP, Reagan was the guy Ford beat, Bush (Sr.) was the guy Reagan beat, Dole was the guy Bush Sr. beat, McCain was the guy Bush Jr. beat. Now Romney is in the line of succession as the guy McCain beat. Hardly an inspiring way of choosing a candidate, but Republicans apparently like a known quantity. Say this trend holds, and Romney is the foreordained choice in 2012. Then who would you want to be in 2016? The guy Romney beat. I'm not saying that’s what Huntsman’s aiming at (I think he aims to win), but the point is, as long as Huntsman puts in a credible showing, he puts himself in that Republican "line of succession" and positions himself as a strong contender for 2016—which is smart. One thing’s for certain: you can’t win the prize if you don’t run the race.


How Will Larry Hagman’s Death Affect TNT’s ‘Dallas’?
For a third time since it was conceived, TNT‘s new Dallas series will have to adjust its storylines to account for the absence of one of its signature characters, J.R. Ewing. And while the first two times the preparations turned out to be contingency plans that were never enacted, this time the show is forced to write off the villainous oilman following the death of the actor who’s portrayed the iconic character over the span of 35 years.
Larry Hagman, who died Friday at age 81 from cancer complications, was in Dallas filming Season 2 of TNT’s Dallas. He had completed shooting a number of episodes — believed to be six — before his death, and will appear in the 15-episode Season 2 of the series, slated to premiere January 28. As of now things are fluid, and it is unclear how his passing will affect the production on the show, which was scheduled to resume following the Thanksgiving break. Extending the hiatus or scheduling one in the near future is a possibility so the writers can rework the scripts for the remaining episodes without Hagman and, more importantly, create a proper sendoff for J.R. The larger-than-life character was already at the heart of one of the most famous episodes of television as the November 1980 Dallas episode that resolved the series’ “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger remains the second-most-watched telecast of all time. J.R.’s farewell episode on the new Dallas will likely attract legions of fans of the iconic character.
Actually, Hagman almost didn’t make it to the Dallas sequel on TNT. J.R. had a prominent presence in developer/executive producer Cynthia Cidre’s original pilot script. But after months of a stalemate between Hagman and the project’s producer Warner Bros over money, Cidre wrote an alternative script that didn’t include Hagman, with J.R. represented only through archive footage from the original series. Fortunately for J.R. fans, the actor and the studio finally came to terms and that alternative script was never used.
Then last October, as Dallas was in the final stages of pre-production on its first-season order, Hagman announced that he had been diagnosed with what the actor described as a “very common and treatable” form of cancer. As a result, he was scheduled to only appear in the first three episodes plus the pilot. His future participation was in doubt and dependent on his treatment. Luckily, he was able to do all 10 episodes from the show’s first season.


The geographical difficulties of being a Mayo footballer based in Dublin become a reality for Chris Barrett when he is staring at the ceiling in the early hours of the morning.
Six hours - and nearly 500km - on the road from his capital base (where he works as a civil engineer) to midweek training in Castlebar offer unique challenges to Barrett and a dozen Mayo team-mates.
Getting back in time for training is one thing, but the toll which those efforts take on the subsequent days is another matter altogether with the former All-Star defender offering a unique insight into the problems he faces.
"It is tough. As you get older, sitting in cars after training sessions, you're that bit stiffer and it takes you a while to get recovered and the worst is the Tuesday session," Barrett says.
"You had to go down to Castlebar, that was really the thing I found the hardest and still find the hardest, that you get back at half one, one o'clock at night and you're staring at the ceiling for another hour.
"Your mind can't shut off that quickly so you mightn't get to sleep until half two some nights. You're up then again at seven for work and you're like a zombie for the day. That's what I would struggle with most."
A podcast or a Spotify playlist will pass most of Barrett's journey while the trek isn't a worry during the summer months when a bus is usually laid on for Dublin-based players to ease the burden.
With Mayo falling agonisingly short of ending their 68-year All-Ireland SFC famine in recent seasons, the logistics of overcoming such geographical disadvantages have been thrown up as a contributing factor but Barrett doesn't buy it.
"It's not ideal but that's the hand we're dealt. We're from Mayo. Geographically, we can't change it so we just have to learn as you go and learn what works better and we've been so close to doing it," he adds.
Early-season sessions in the midlands help to alleviate such issues while the disappointing Allianz League campaigns of recent years have been blown out of the water this spring with a first league final appearance since 2012.
Verge Last year's early summer exit has been used as a positive with an earlier return to training - combined with James Horan's second coming at the helm - leaving them on the verge of a rare national title, their first since 2001.
A Kerry side with many similarities to Mayo - a new manager in Peter Keane and a host of new faces - stand in their way but the Belmullet defender insists silverware wasn't their main target.
The "complete anomaly" of their comprehensive eight-point defeat to Dublin in round four was parked with developing squad depth their sole focus as Horan tried 34 players throughout the league.
Barrett laughs at the notion that Mayo are rising once again - "we're rising every year nearly at this stage, it's not as if we've risen from the ashes and risen from the dead" - but the 32-year-old is delighted with their progress this spring.
"In terms of a squad, it's the most competitive squad I've been involved in with Mayo. Even in terms of back in the day, when the thing was to get in the first 15 and if you weren't in the 15 you were disappointed," Barrett says.
"Whereas now it's to get in the 26. There's a real, real clamour to get in the 26 and there are guys who have started and then the next day they're out of the squad. So, it's got to a stage where you're happy if you're in the match-day squad travelling to the league matches."


The Yankees invest in three esports companies.
The team just bought the most dominant FGC roster in the world.
Echo Fox's 'Counter-Strike' team is on hiatus.


First-ever video from INSIDE the Northern Lights!
Photo by Joshua Strang/U.S. Air Force.
Camera company GoPro recently got all up in Northern Lights, producing the first-ever photos and video from right inside them. The misty flourescence paired with groovy tunes from the Trey Anastasio Band results in one trippy experience — without the need for illicit substances.
To achieve this Herculean feat, GoPro launched cameras on helium weather balloons, capturing images from 100,000 feet above Alaska. The filming took place earlier this month on April 11 and 12.
While the images are crazy beautiful, this project wasn’t solely for art’s sake. GoPro partnered with a team of rocket scientists and school teachers to learn more about Aurora Borealis. The helium weather balloons also held scientific instruments to measure certain features of the light show.


REALITY star Lucy Mecklenburgh has revealed she lost an incredible TWO stone during her time on TV show Celebrity Island.
The ex-Towie beauty tweeted dramatic before and after lingerie shots as the final episode of the Bear Grylls survival show aired tonight.
She told the Mirror she lost "about two stone" while filming the show after ensuring she piled on a few pounds before jetting out to the tropical location for filming.
She said: "I was told you should get used to eating less and less but then the I was told: 'No, no, no you need to put on some weight. So I put on half a stone.
"It was weird because when you're there you don't really feel as thin as you are because you don't have a mirror so you don't really know how tiny you are and then you get back and you realise."
Lucy stunned fans by tweeting before and after pictures on Twitter which displayed her tiny waist.
She wrote alongside the snap: "So emosh watching the last ep of Celebrity Island! I'll never doubt myself again!
"Met some incredible people that will be friends for life!"
But the svelte star added in her caption it only took "three weeks to put the weight back on" after leaving the show - which was filmed back in May.
However, she was forced to hit back at a section of fans who commented that she looked too thin in her "after" selfie.
She wrote: "Read the caption guys! I went back to my original weight in 3 weeks!
"I looked gross by the end of The Island & was very weak. It's just to show how brutal it was."
Lucy also found love on the show - her romance with soap star Ryan Thomas is still going strong.
Shortly after the episode, he also shared his jaw-dropping weight loss in a similar before-and-after shot.
Alongside his ripped snap he wrote a lengthy caption which read: "The Final episode tonight everyone. The journey we've been on is indescribable. "Not even a television show can put into perspective how mentally and physically we got tested on this island. My before and after is an example of the lack of food, 8 days no eating trying to survive with so little energy.
"I'm extremely proud of myself and my fellow islander. Couldn't have done it without you guys. The reason I love this show so much is because unlike any other there is no winner, it is a matter of survival and not about competing against each other."
Meanwhile, reality TV viewers saw sparks fly between the pair on tonight's final.


(Reuters) - Digital printing company Electronics For Imaging Inc said on Monday private equity firm Siris Capital Group LLC would buy the company for about $1.6 billion in cash.
The $37-per-share offer represents a premium of about 26 percent to the company’s closing price on Friday.
The deal, which has been approved by Electronics For Imaging’s (EFI) board, includes a 45-day “go-shop” period, which allows the company to consider alternative offers, it said.
Including debt, the deal is valued at about $1.7 billion.
In its latest reported quarter, EFI’s revenue slid 5 percent on weakness in its key industrial inkjet business, which accounts for more than half of the company’s overall revenue.
The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of 2019.
EFI also said it would file its first-quarter report but does not intend to host a quarterly earnings call. It expects first-quarter revenue to be between $220 million and $225 million.
Siris has secured committed debt financing for the deal from RBC Capital Markets, KKR Capital Markets LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and Macquarie Capital, EFI said in a statement.
Sidley Austin LLP is serving as corporate counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP as financing counsel, and RBC Capital Markets as M&A adviser to Siris.
Morgan Stanley and Greenhill are financial advisers to EFI, while O’Melveny & Myers is the legal counsel.


For most organisations, the performance management system is so much a part of the company it’s barely noticed anymore. It just ticks along in the background, providing a process for appraisals, leave forms and (allegedly) performance monitoring.
No-one really expects it to do much, except tick along, and, possibly, be cursed at occasionally. A 2010 survey called Study on the State of Performance Management* conducted by non-profit WorldatWork found that when asked to appraise their performance management systems, managers rated the systems C-grade or below.
Why the negative feedback? People and technology have changed, rapidly, recently, and most performance management systems don’t allow for the requirement that younger generations of employees have to access those systems anywhere, from any device, at any time. Performance management systems aren’t very people-friendly either, technological advances aside.
Performance management is about more than just a mandatory annual review. It is intended to provide a means to give employees on feedback on what they are doing well, and where they need some work, and merely plugging in figures to calculate whether KPIs were met isn’t going to help.
Says EY South Africa HR director Jenny Greyling: “We take pride in providing the learning, experiences and coaching for all employees to enable them to develop into the next future leaders. Performance management is an integral part of ensuring that our employees have the right conversations and developmental tools in place to achieve their personal and professional goals. At EY, each and every employee is assigned a mentor to guide them through the process of setting goals, achieving those goals and getting the feedback they require to further develop their careers.
“Our technology system, which is used for performance management, is used globally across all EY countries, hence bringing a large degree of consistency and best practice sharing across the firm,” she states.
Greyling says the tool used by EY enables remote access for employees based on assignment in a different location. It allows for setting of goal plans, ongoing engagement feedback, mid-year reviews and year-end reviews. The tool allows for input of generic goals for certain roles as well as mandatory goals that might be considered relevant, she continues, noting that the individual’s performance rating is stored on the system and final comments are accessible.
“Technology enables us to draw reports for review and calibration by review committees as well as compliance stats,” she adds.
One common criticism of technology systems used for any aspect of HR management is that they take the people out of the system and result in over-worked employees and managers ticking boxes in an effort to get the paperwork out of the way as fast as possible. And this can be an issue, acknowledges Greyling.
In other words, the technology is a useful tool, but real engagement and real conversation are what drive meaningful performance management.
And for all the potential pitfalls, technology provides many advantages.
“Employees benefit from consistent technology in that there is a record of their goal and development plans and ongoing performance feedback,” says Greyling. “Employees are able to drive the process and request feedback on a regular basis and can receive online from line managers if they’re based in a different location.
“If a line manager leaves or is transfered to another office and is no longer responsible for the performance management of an individual, the new line manager can review the performance history of their counselee.
“The most important element in the performance management and development process is the relationship with the individual’s line manager and the ongoing feedback and career conversations - we recognise that no technology system can substitute for the value of these meaningful coaching discussions,” Greyling emphasises.
EY has developed a framework to assist its employees to reach their goals and achieve their potential. “It’s called EYU (EY and You), and the performance management and development process is core to the way we implement this framework. The EY performance management and development process provides a structure for the conversations and helps to link personal performance and development goals to EY’s global strategic priorities,” Greyling says.
“Leading organisations are scrapping the annual evaluation cycle and replacing it with ongoing feedback and coaching designed to promote continuous employee development,” say Deloitte’s Barry, Garr & Liakopoulos.
“Today’s workers expect to be held accountable for results - but they also expect coaching, development, and regular feedback. Look carefully at the performance management process to see if it truly drives performance today or is merely an artifact of the past. In many cases, a shift from “evaluation” to “development and performance improvement” will drive appreciable results,” Barry, Garr & Liakopoulos suggest.


"You did stalk them to get that role..."
Xtra Factor's Rylan Clark-Neal has revealed the real reason he got his cameo in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.
After he'd joyfully bragged about his part in the movie adaptation of Jennifer Saunders's classic sitcom, This Morning host Ruth Langsford joked: "You had to stalk them to get that role though didn't you?"
"I wasn't just at the premiere last night, I didn't just go to the after-party - I was also in Ab Fab: The Movie... for 14 seconds, thank you," Rylan joked.
He went on to confess: "I bullied Kathy Burke for as long as I could for three months, and she finally caved in and Jennifer [Saunders] wrote me a part."
On a side note, wasn't Eamonn looking fetching in Elton-style, blue, star-shaped glasses and a matching feather boa?
Rylan stars as a flight attendant alongside Pitch Perfect's Rebel Wilson in the film, which features an impressive list of cameos including Mad Men's Jon Hamm, Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie, Stella McCartney, and of course supermodel Kate Moss.
Burke reprises her role as the formidable, power-suited fashion magazine editor Magda.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is out in cinemas across the UK now.


VANCOUVER — British Columbia is expanding the number of bursaries offered to early childhood educators as it further commits to the goal of creating a universal, provincewide child-care system.
A $1.9-million investment through B.C.'s Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the federal government will pay for the additional financial awards.
The extra funding adds to the roughly 1,100 bursaries and $10 million in funding approved last fall.
A news release from the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training says the investment is part of the recruitment and retention strategy for educators in early care and learning.
It offers increased supports for the child-care sector, including a $1 per hour wage enhancement for eligible early childhood educators and enhanced bursaries for students hoping to enter the field.
Katrina Chen, Minister of State for Child Care, says the profession was neglected for years so B.C. has a "lot of catching up to do."
"We need to invest heavily in the early childhood education sector to keep up with the pent up demand for quality child care throughout the province," Chen says in a news release.
The province is also spending $1.8 million to support an evaluation of its early care and learning strategy for the child-care sector.
Information collected will be used to support ongoing improvements aimed at attracting and keeping child-care workers, the release says.
The B.C. government and BC Green party caucus have set early childhood education as a shared priority and the province has pledged to invest more than $1.3 billion in child care over four years to lay the foundation for a universal child care system, the ministries say.


This exciting programme has the ability to impact the lives of people around the country by giving them guidance and help when they need it most. As Head of Help to Claim, you'll be in the driving seat. Your role will be to set the direction of the programme, set an inspiring vision and make sure the programme is set up and delivers against what's needed. You'll hold overall responsibility and talk to senior stakeholders inside and outside of Citizens Advice - but you'll have a strong team around you. This is a role with a lot of opportunity to help us shape the future of an important service. If that appeals to you, please see the job pack for more information on the role.
Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem. In 2017-18 we helped 2.6 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat, and people visited our online advice pages 25 million times. We help with everything from money issues to problems at work, housing to consumer rights. Now we want to do even more.
We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented throughout Citizens Advice. We are a member of the race equality campaign at Business in the Community, the Prince's responsible business network and are committed to improving employment opportunities for ethnic minorities across the UK. We also welcome applications from, LGB and Trans and non binary candidates.


Springfield Public Schools has announced a single finalist for its top job: John Jungmann.
The southwest Missouri native spent 10 years in Monett, including four as superintendent, and is currently the leader of the 11,500-student Liberty school district.
Jungmann is expected to visit the 25,000-student Springfield district on March 3, where he will met with employees as well as business and community leaders.
A schedule of events is expected to be announced next week. Any decision about offering Jungmann a contract is expected to be made following that visit.
Springfield Public Schools has announced a single finalist for its upcoming superintendent vacancy.
He’s a native of southwest Missouri and former superintendent of the Monett school district, where he championed a one-to-one technology initiative at the high school.
Jungmann is currently superintendent of the 11,500-student Liberty school district.
Superintendent Norm Ridder, hired in mid-2005, will retire at the end of this school year. He has not yet announced what he will be doing after he exits the district.
Jungmann is expected to visit the 25,000-student Springfield district on March 3, where he will meet with various segments of the community. The school board has planned meetings with employees, business and civic leaders.
• Models lifelong learning and professionalism, promotes risk-taking and cultivates innovation.
• Is a student-focused, visionary leader.
• Implemented one-to-one technology initiatives in both Liberty and Monett.
• Created and implemented a facility master plan which reduced the square-footage required per learner, creating innovative and cost-effective 21st century learning environments.
• Has experience in effectively serving diverse student populations.
• Possesses the identified leadership trait of “Maximizer,” which enables him to take something good and make it great.
Last year, the board hired Nebraska-based firm, McPherson and Jacobson, to help with the search for about $35,000 plus up to $15,000 in expenses.
Thirteen people applied for the job by the end of January. The board has met multiple times in February to narrow the field, first with Skype interviews and then in-person interviews last weekend.


July 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s electricity generation in April 2009 fell 2.2 percent to 773 million units (GigaWatt hours) from a year earlier, while diesel sales were down 10.7 percent, the latest government figures showed.
Sri Lanka’s economic growth slowed to 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from 6.2 a year earlier and 4.3 percent in the December 2008 quarter, according to estimates released by the government’s statistics office.
After a slow second quarter, the Central Bank is expecting an upturn in the second and fourth quarters.
In the past electricity sales have tended to grow at twice the rate of economic growth.
There was a steep rise in thermal power production at state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to 229GWh from 141, according to central bank data. Private sector power generation also increased to 340GWh in the month from 205GWh last year.
In the four months to April electricity generation was down 4.4 percent to 3,137 GWh, and CEB hydro generation was down 35.9 percent to 787GWh. Private sector generation was up 22.2 percent to 1,527GWh.


A Valley man is faced with a decision to keep his home or his job after receiving a warning from his HOA. ABC15's Cameron Polom has the story.
BUCKEYE, AZ — A Valley man is faced with a decision to keep his home or his job after receiving a warning from his HOA.
Tim Andersen says he and his family have been living the dream since moving to the West Valley.
"I love it here, people I tell, even in Scottsdale, they're like, 'Oh we're gonna move,' and I'm like, 'Move to Verrado.' I love the town," Andersen said.
But what was once paradise now spells trouble for this A/C and heating specialist.
"The whole Valley's my office, I get in my truck and travel everywhere through the Valley and help people out with their heating and cooling situation," Andersen said.
In order to do that, Andersen works out of this 10-foot tall take-home work truck.
The blue collar worker says his life has now been thrown into uncertainty after he received a letter from his HOA.
"It's just judgmental on the working class, I feel like if you live in Verrado, you have to wear a suit and tie," Andersen said.
In the letter, the HOA informed him he would begin receiving fines if he continued to park his work truck in his driveway.
"Verrado is saying, 'You cannot park any commercial vehicle in the town of Verrado unless you park it in the garage,'" Andersen said.
Clearly his truck won't fit, leaving him feeling targeted.
"There's all kinds of commercial vehicles around the neighborhood," Andersen said.
Sure enough, while in the neighborhood, we looked around and spotted a few immediately.
In a statement from the HOA, they admit there are other commercial vehicles parked in the community, but say it's a challenging rule to enforce, as most of those vehicles are parked outside regular business hours.
They also said every member of the community is given a copy of the HOA guidelines prior to moving in.
We reached out to the City of Buckeye, which maintains the streets within Verrado.
They tell us because Andersen's truck is under two tons, it is not considered a commercial vehicle and can be parked on residential streets. However, they added that HOA rules supersede the city's in this case.
"I have a 3-year-old child, I want her to go to school here, I want her to grow up here," Andersen said.
But at this point, he says that just may not happen.
"I have to move, I'm gonna have to move, otherwise you start getting fine after fine after fine," Andersen said.
Andersen is hoping the HOA has a change of heart, and says he plans to apply for an exception hearing with the HOA board in hopes of finding a resolution.
The board says they've had one application regarding commercial vehicle parking in the last five years and it was denied.
The community does provide exceptions for public service and public safety vehicles.
Andersen says if you are considering moving into a community with an HOA, attend a board meeting, ask lots of questions, and make sure you know the rules so you can avoid this type of heartache.


unredeemed pledge. InvestorGuide.com. WebFinance, Inc. http://www.investorguide.com/definition/unredeemed-pledge.html (access:April 19, 2019).


Archives|MAGNATES APPROVE THE 'RABBIT BALL'; National League Owners Decide Against Changes, but Suggest Help to Pitchers. TEST SHOWS NO ALTERATION Prof. Fales of Columbia Finds Sphere Same as in 1914 -- Cut for World Series Players.
MAGNATES APPROVE THE 'RABBIT BALL'; National League Owners Decide Against Changes, but Suggest Help to Pitchers. TEST SHOWS NO ALTERATION Prof. Fales of Columbia Finds Sphere Same as in 1914 -- Cut for World Series Players.


Advocates have for years been urging the state to adopt a law that would prevent gun ownership by domestic abusers.
July 17 is the best of days in the Gaytan household, because it marks the birthday of 12-year-old Ian, who lives with his grandparents in a doublewide mobile home on a dirt road in Española. And July 17 is the worst of days, because it marks the anniversary of the shooting death of his 20-year-old mother, Jasmine Gaytan, at the hands of his father, Leroy Fresquez Jr.
It has been left to Olga Gaytan, a 55-year-old immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, to make sense of the contradictions. “People say I’m his grandma, but I always say ‘No, I’m his mother,’” said Gaytan, who stepped in and adopted her grandson following the 2009 murder of her daughter.
Jasmine and Leroy had known each other since their days at Carlos F. Vigil Middle School, the same school Ian now attends. It is the school where the two of them met, and the school from which they both dropped out in seventh grade.
No one knows exactly when Leroy began to abuse Jasmine, because she kept it a secret. It was years before her older sister, Ebelin, learned that Leroy once threw Jasmine down a flight of stairs, or that the reason she remained in the relationship was, in large part, because he carried a gun and never went anywhere without it.
By the time he killed her, the two had been together for eight years. According to police and court records, Fresquez shot her at their house in Española, then carried her to the hospital covered in blood. He initially claimed she was the victim of a drive-by shooting, but his account quickly fell apart after an examination of the close-range bullet wounds in her neck.
Jasmine’s murder is the type that is all too common in New Mexico. In 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available), 20 people were killed at the hands of their spouse or domestic partner, according to the New Mexico Intimate Partner Violence Death Review Team. This multidisciplinary team of medical, legal, law enforcement and tribal representatives analyzes the records of every domestic violence case that turns fatal, and according to their data, 72 percent of the killings that year involved a gun.
Advocates have for years been urging the state to adopt a law that would prevent gun ownership by domestic abusers. The New Mexico Legislature is expected to vote on such a bill this session. As written, it would require anyone convicted of domestic violence — a well as anyone convicted of stalking or subject to an order of protection — to surrender his firearms to law enforcement within 48 hours. Police and military personnel would be allowed to keep their guns while on duty; gun owners could recover their weapons once the order of protection expired.
Domestic violence is a well-studied problem in New Mexico and throughout the U.S. While individual stories may not attract the same media attention as mass shootings, their collective toll is far greater. According to a 2013 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report, 10,470 women were killed in intimate partner homicides between 2002 and 2010. A 2003 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that women are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser owns a gun.
According to a study of domestic violence in New Mexico, children were present at one out of every 3.3 incidents reported to police; the vast majority of those children were younger than 12.
Ian Gaytan was one of those children. Twenty-three days before Jasmine died, Española police were called to investigate a shooting at her parents’ house. When they arrived, Jasmine reported that Fresquez had fired a gun at the house while she and her little boy cowered inside. But when police caught up with Fresquez, he told them he didn’t have a gun and claimed that he had only thrown fireworks at the house.
Ebelin raced over to their mother’s house, where Ian informed her that, “Dad was trying to kill us.” She saw a bullet hole in a front windowpane; it is still there today. But Jasmine quickly dialed back her initial statement. She told police that perhaps she was mistaken. She wasn’t sure she had seen a gun. Maybe Fresquez was right; he probably had just thrown firecrackers.
Victims so often recant their accusations that some jurisdictions have moved toward laws requiring mandatory arrest and prosecution — with or without the victim’s cooperation. Yet that recanting fails to account for why the conviction rate for domestic violence cases in New Mexico has declined in recent years.
Betty Caponera, director of research for the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs and author of NMCSAP’s annual report “Incidence and Nature of Domestic Violence in New Mexico,” reports that only 8 percent of cases filed in magistrate courts in 2017 resulted in a conviction, down from 21 percent in 2010. In the state’s district courts, where the most serious charges are filed, 29 percent of cases resulted in a conviction in 2017, compared to 37 percent in 2010.
None of these statistics would apply to Jasmine Gaytan, who, like so many victims of domestic violence, never sought a protective order against her boyfriend. No court ever dropped a charge against him because he had never been arrested in connection with domestic violence.
In that sense, former Governor Martinez was right. The roots of domestic violence are complex.
Congress passed laws in 1994 and 1996 that prohibit offenders — those under a long-term permanent protective order or convicted in the assault of a spouse or child — from acquiring or owning a firearm.
But those federal laws are effectively toothless without a parallel New Mexico law. That’s because only federal agents can enforce federal laws. Local police can only arrest offenders who break state laws.
Weisenfeld, who worked as a prosecutor in Northern New Mexico for five years, said she could not recall a single instance in which a domestic violence offender surrendered a firearm as a result of criminal charges or conviction.
To give teeth to federal laws, many states have adopted measures requiring offenders to relinquish firearms to police, or to a neutral third party. Many states go beyond federal law by applying the restrictions to all domestic violence offenders, not just spouses — thereby closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” that exists under federal law. In New Mexico, studies show the majority of domestic violence incidents are perpetrated by former and current dating partners, not spouses.
Restrictions have been passed in both liberal states (California and Massachusetts) and in Second Amendment strongholds such as Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas, according to the Giffords Law Center, which monitors and pushes for stronger gun control laws nationwide. The center is named for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was seriously wounded in the 2011 mass shooting in Tucson that left six people dead.
No such restrictions apply in New Mexico. Hours after the shooting, a Fresquez family member drove Ian to his maternal grandmother’s house. Once again, the law protected the father: as sole surviving parent, he was initially allowed to determine custody of the child. Fresquez granted it to his aunt.
Soon afterwards, police arrived at the Gaytan house with a court order to remove the 3-year-old. “After all the trauma he had been through, to put him a police car, we wouldn’t allow it,” said Ebelin. Instead, she and her parents reluctantly brought the child themselves to the Fresquez house.
Six months later, Leroy Fresquez Jr. pleaded guilty to second degree murder. He lost his parental rights and Olga Gaytan undertook a two-year battle to formally adopt her grandson.
His father served four and a half years in prison, was released in 2014 and is now back in state custody for probation violations.
As for Ian, he wants to be a lawyer. He is a friendly, talkative boy who lately has been learning about his school’s namesake, Santa Fe attorney Carlos F. Vigil, who was known for defending unsympathetic clients. Vigil, too, was shot to death, in a drive-by shooting that happened in 1999 as he walked near his office on his way to court.


The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reports that they have completed a Safe Routes to School project at Green Lake Elementary School (2400 N 65th St).
In an effort to make walking and biking to and from the school safer and more accessible, SDOT installed an illuminated overhead crosswalk sign and repaired a sidewalk.
The crosswalk light has yet to be turned on, but will be soon. According to SDOT, the light still needs to be connected to the electrical grid by Seattle City Light.
Brian Dougherty, SDOT’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator, said in May that Green Lake Elementary School was chosen for improvements due to a variety of factors, including the proximity of the NE 65th St and Latona Ave NE business district, a history of collisions in the area, and the nearby location of arterial streets N 65th St and Woodlawn Ave NE.
Over the past four and a half years, the Safe Routes to School Program has made improvements at 23 schools across Seattle. It is anticipated that a more than 30 schools will eventually receive safety enhancements through the program.
The program is funded by Bridging the Gap, a $365 million levy passed by Seattle voters in 2006.
©Amy Duncan for My Green Lake | Seattle’s Green Lake Blog, 2011.


Millions of employees nationwide are taking time off work, calling in sick, and watching games and filling in brackets instead of, well, working.
Madness has taken hold — even in the normally quiet college library.
"I just got off our reading room desk, so I actually had to work," said Dan Golodner, an archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. "But, I imagine people will stop working soon because the games are starting. I noticed that one of our employees who follows basketball more than I do isn't here today."
So who is still at work? Or perhaps another way of putting it: Still working?
March Madness, the shorthand name for the hoopla surrounding the NCAA college basketball tournament, means millions of employees nationwide are taking time off work, calling in sick, and watching games and filling in brackets instead of, well, working.
It's an especially exciting time for Detroiters with the Little Caesars Arena hosting the first and second rounds of this year's men's tournament. Folks throughout metro Detroit who don't have tickets to the Big Dance are trying to catch glimpses of the game in bars, restaurants and even in the office.
Golodner, 50, of Huntington Woods said he's using his lunch break to watch a game.
"If you walk by the computers, you'll see in a corner of the screen a basketball going," he said. "Headphones are on and people are in their world of enjoying themselves. Occasionally, you'll hear a 'Yessss.' It's usually a nice whisper."
At 12:40 p.m. Friday, Purdue plays Cal State-Fullerton. At 3:10 p.m., it's the Arkansas vs. Butler, and then at 7:10 p.m., the No. 3-seed Spartans play Bucknell.The final game is 9:40 p.m., with Texas Christian University playing Syracuse.
The second round of games is set for Sunday.
Metro Detroit has hosted games before. Downtown Detroit last hosted the NCAA tournament in 2009 and 2008, when the men's Final Four and Midwest Regional, respectively, were played at Ford Field. The Palace of Auburn Hills welcomed early round games in 2013.
In addition to the games, there are brackets that need attention.
“Between streaming games during work hours to filling out brackets to just discussing the games with coworkers, it’s likely employees will spend much more than one hour during the week-long tournament engaged in March Madness-related activities at work," said Andrew Challenger, vice president of global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. "Even workers who aren’t deskbound will be distracted by these games. Bump time spent to two hours, and the tournament could cost employers nearly $5 billion in wages paid to distracted, unproductive workers."
According to the American Gaming Association, more than 40 million Americans fill out tournament brackets, and an estimated 23 million of them are workers.
And, of those workers, 86% of them will spend time on bracket updates, an MSN survey in 2012 found.
Warren Buffett even is offering to pay any of his 375,000 Berkshire Hathaway employees $1 million a year for life if they pick the first 32 games correctly.
But before trying to stop all the madness, consider that there's an upside.
“The tournament is a perfect opportunity for colleagues to bond in the workplace," Challenger said. "Any attempt to keep workers from the games would most likely result in real damage to employee morale, loyalty, and engagement that would far outweigh any short-term benefit to productivity."


Hillary Clinton speaking at a Women for Hillary campaign event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
As a lifelong fan of the Vikings, I know what it’s like to watch your team come up short.
Republican Jeff Johnson and Democrat Steve Timmer can empathize. As early supporters of presidential candidates not named Trump or Clinton, Johnson, a Hennepin County Commissioner, and Timmer, a retired lawyer from Edina, find themselves watching the presidential campaign much the way I spend Super Bowl Sunday — rooting for somebody else’s team.
Like the other committed supporters of presidential candidates who failed to win the nomination, Johnson and Timmer are the kind of people who can nevertheless play a critical role in ensuring the nominee of their party wins in November. They toil in the political trenches for their candidates and help message against the opposing party’s.
So while much of that messaging in the final weeks of the campaign will be targeted toward winning over independent voters, the Clinton and Trump campaigns would be wise not to ignore people like Johnson and Timmer.
Johnson served as the state chair of Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, giving Rubio the only statewide win during his battle for Republican nomination. After Rubio ended his campaign, Johnson threw his support to Ted Cruz. After Cruz ended his campaign, Johnson found himself with a choice.
“In my mind, I have to chose one of two people, because I want my vote to matter, and I don’t think it does if you vote for a third-party [candidate] this year,” said Johnson.
Johnson admits Trump “was not his first, second, or third choice.” And yet, the GOP nominee is his “number one in a choice of two” current presidential candidates.
Trump’s performance in the first debate against Clinton disappointed Johnson, who felt the nominee was too easily baited into talking about the issues Clinton wanted to discuss.
Over in the Democratic Party, Timmer hasn’t been as easily moved. A passionate supporter of Bernie Sanders, he has yet to be won over by Hillary Clinton.
Sanders was attractive to Timmer because of the candidate’s emphasis on income inequality, though there were other policy initiatives supported by Sanders that also drew Timmer in. “He is the non-establishment candidate, and we need a non-establishment candidate,” he said.
Both Johnson and Timmer watched portions of the first debate between Clinton and Trump, thought neither could make it through the whole thing.
But Timmer also believes his preferred candidate would have done well in such a forum. “I still think that Bernie would have made a better case on some things than Clinton did,” he said.
What will it take for Clinton to win the support of a thoughtful Democrat like Timmer before the Election? “I think that she has to persuade me that she is genuinely progressive on economic issues,” he said.
Submitted by Connie Sullivan on 10/06/2016 - 12:09 pm.
Change for the sake of change?
It bothers me that people who want “change” in establishment political processes are not thinking through the kind of “change” the country would or could get with Trump in the White House. He would disrupt the ways things are done, but, Boy! we have to bear in mind the destruction he could wreak.
Trump is prone to irritable rants. His campaign staff–no matter who is there of a rapidly-changing group–cannot control what he says, or keep him either on script or on topic. He wanders. He has a famously short attention span. He is dismissive of detail in either business, his personal taxes, or national policy.
Trump speaks off the cuff and pays no attention to platform positions or even what he said ten minutes ago, and frequently tries to deny saying something he said yesterday or a couple of hours ago. No one from the GOP can control what he says.
His family can’t control him, either (Mrs. Trump would like him to stop Tweeting).
Imagine, if he were in the White House, where no one in the world could ever successfully advise him or control how he talks about our allies or our enemies (“Hey, Vlad Putin! Why don’t you hack Hillary Clinton’s campaign!”). Or even about women, much less other groups of citizens.
For any political activist to pretend that there not a sane major party alternative to Trump in the presidential race is simply playing coy, for effect (and media attention, like any “undecideds” at this point).
Submitted by Max Hailperin on 10/06/2016 - 12:19 pm.
Even if both major candidates are “champions of economic status quo,” presumably each of them still supports *some* marginal change from the status quo. Maybe you see the proportional mix in both cases as similar — for example, both 95% status quo, 5% change. But the question I’d ask is this: for the change component (the 5%, in my example), which one is supporting change in the direction you prefer?
Submitted by Jon Kingstad on 10/06/2016 - 07:11 pm.
The biggest thing dividing the two candidates for the highest office in our Nation is whether our nation is great or not and which candidate can make America great-again.Mr. Trump’s message so far has been that he wishes to make America great again which to me translates into inferring that his supporters agree with him in thinking American is no longer great, as it once was.
This is not only what divides Mr. Trump from Mrs. Clinton but also from his Republican opponents during the primary. I don’t recall any other Republican candidate in the primaries even suggesting that America was no longer great. In other words, in terms of what mattered most to make Mr. Trump the standard bearer for the Republican Party, arguably the strongest American political party in terms of its grass roots support–America’s greatness or lack of greatness–Mrs. Clinton is less divided from the other Republican candidates than they all are from Mr. Trump. Never mind which party has held the balance of power in this country for the past 35 years to make America what is today no longer what it once was.
Which leads me to wonder: as well done as I think this article is, how much worse can Mrs. Clinton be than any of the other candidates who were supported by Mr. Johnson and other non-Trump supporting Republicans? It would seem logical that this is the first question one should ask oneself: do you agree with Mr. Trump that America is not great anymore? The second question is then: if it’s that important to you, is Mr. Trump really the best candidate to make America great-again?
Submitted by Hiram Foster on 10/07/2016 - 05:51 am.
So why does Mr. Johnson believe Trump can bring sweeping change in government? Has he demonstrated an ability to do that in the past? Is he known as the Steve Jobs of real estate? Of vodka brand management?
And of course, change happens no matter who gets elected to office. Why does Mr. Johnson believe that Mr. Trump, who has only a tenuous grasp on reality, witness is long term belief that the president was not born in the United States, believe that any changes Mr. Trump will make will be positive?
Submitted by Hiram Foster on 10/07/2016 - 08:48 am.
I do think the article does engage in a very forced equivalence. While she does have her critics, and I am one. her support within the Democratic Party is, for all intents and purposes, unanimous. In this case, to find the equivalence he was seeking, Mr. Brodkorb and to search an high and low to find perhaps the most obscure Democrat imaginable. When looking for a Republican for his article, he faced the opposite challenge, finding a Republican office holder who was actually willing to speak in support of Donald Trump.


Chicago R.A.W coach Howard Martin told several outlets that the video does not tell the whole story. He also said he did not condone the actions of some of his players.
"At the end of the game, one of my players was complaining about a call," Martin told ESPN. "He made a comment to the referee. The ref didn't like it. So the other team inbounded the ball, walked it up, the ref said to my player, 'Say it again.' Then he T'd him up and kicked him out of the game. And he walked behind him, still having words. Then the ref pushed my player, and they squared up right by my bench. When they squared up, another one of my players jumped off the bench and took [the ref] down. We separated them."
But that's not how Benjamin saw it.
"The referee definitely didn't attack the kids," Benjamin told ESPN. "Absolutely not. Once things got going, and he was attacked ... he got assaulted. They were too outnumbered to even try to defend themselves."
Organizers of the event are reportedly reviewing the incident.


PAUL POGBA became the first ever player to have an emoji created especially for him earlier in the week.
So we decided to dedicate a few emojis of our own to the world record signing's horror show against Liverpool.
Here is Paul Pogba's emoji match report.
2 mins: Paul Pogba wastes no time in getting involved in the game . . . but in his first clash he feels the full force of a challenge by Emre Can.
20 mins: The Frenchman misses an absolute sitter as he fires the ball wide after a delightful through ball by United team-mate Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
27 mins: The midfielder clumsily handles in the box trying to challenge Dejan Lovren. The penalty is awarded and Liverpool’s James Milner converts.
32 mins: Pogba loses his cool as he grapples with Jordan Henderson and ends up hurling the Liverpool midfield man to the Old Trafford turf.
59 mins: Looking for some sort of redemption, Pogba fails and can only manage to send a left-footed drive wide of the Liverpool goal.
75 mins: He gives the ball away cheaply again as a back-flick goes horribly wrong. But Georginio Wijnaldum cannot convert from Can’s cross.


Once upon a time, we all exhibited perfect human movement. We were likely curled up like little bean sprouts, fast asleep on a soft, comfy blanket. With each breath, our ribs moved like a circus monkey's accordion, and our diaphragms pushed down and sprung up, creating little pot bellies on every inhale. The first movement performed, as well as the last, is a breath. In the middle there are critical changes that will impact every level of our existence. As we crawl away from infancy and run into adolescence, the way we inhale changes. Stress, fear, asthma, postural deviations, pillow shapes, mattress stiffness and a thousand other variables will change the dreamtime inhalation. The belly won't rise and fall with the same elasticity; the ribs will get tougher and less elastic. The change in the way air enters the lungs will permeate to all of the other systems in the body. Our shoulders will habitually lift towards the ears, sticking the breath higher in the ribs. The diaphragm will narrow its vertical oscillation, and might even reverse its wave pattern and begin to fall on exhalation. For most of us, our nugget of perfect breath has usually disappeared by the time we can ride a bike.
The typical client I see has learned to do all sorts of impressive feats: climbing, running, sailing, paddling, dancing; the -ing words go on and on. They all share a common glitch, despite their varied activities: The body has learned to live with a more familiar but less efficient pattern. If pain has not set in, dysfunction certainly has, whether it is conscious or not. Sometimes people seek me out to just to find out what is going on, wondering what it is they are unconscious of and eager to create a life of unrestricted play. There exists in each of us a wondrous, yet unrealized potential for creative expression and locomotion within the physical body. The software has bugs though, and it is the system crashes that keep me employed.
When people ask me what I do professionally, I am careful to say that I teach movement rather than exercise. Exercise seems like a chore to most, a task to be logged in the spirit of health and wellness at best and with guilt and resignation at the worst. I am in the business of epiphanies, not sweat. I help people of all ages and fitness levels discover the physical potential of their bodies by leading them on a self-discovery of their physical bodies. Imagine learning that the greatest, most perfect software program was inside your home computer, pre-installed. All you needed was a tutor to show how to get it up and rolling. The new software will likely crash some of the existing programs, and that is my job too, to integrate the new potential with the familiar body.
Sometimes I call myself a Pilates teacher, and I do indeed know and teach Pilates. Beyond that, I am an advocate for the perfect, efficient patterns we were wired to possess but lost, forgot, or never developed along the way. Movement begins long before exercise, and it is the inefficiency of our subconscious movement patterns that send the body into a downward spiral of poor posture, misalignments, pain and injury. Exercise often invokes these poor movement patterns, so part of my job is often to use exercises to help train movement. The point isn't to drag a client through a workout; it is to help connect them to the new patterns, to introduce new software to the hard drive of the body.


Oregon State women's basketball alums continue to represent on the international stage this summer, as guard Gabby Hanson is playing for Sweden in the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan this week.
Monday to open the preliminary round. Sweden will next face Chinese Taipei Tuesday and Chile Wednesday, before the quarterfinals begin Friday. The semifinals are Saturday, and the medal games are are next Monday.
Hanson had previously played for the Swedish National Team four times, all at the European Championships. She was on the U16 squad in 2011, the U18 side team in 2012 and 2013 and the U20 squad in 2014.
Earlier this month, former Beavers Ruth Hamblin and Jamie (Weisner) Scott won gold with the Canadian National Team at the FIBA Women's AmeriCup in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while Ali Gibson's Puerto Rico squad took the bronze. Both teams qualified for next summer's World Cup in Spain, Puerto Rico for the first time in the nation's history.
The Beavers are also represented stateside, with Sydney Wiese on the home stretch of her rookie season with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. Wiese is averaging 2.3 points in 7.6 minutes per game while shooting 41.9 percent from three-point range. The Sparks, who currently have the second-best record in the league and are the defending champions, conclude the regular season Sept. 3 and are in position to earn a bye to the playoff's semifinals.


We all know that we are all going to hell in a hand basket, specifically as exemplified in the War on Christmas.
But there are two bright spots in this begotten landscape—and from unlikely sources at that.
The first politically incorrect culprit is FM radio station WQXR, the highbrow classical music station owned by none other than the anti-Christmas New York Times.
Starting right after Thanksgiving, the station's mostly liberal listeners have enjoyed the most beautiful and sublime Christmas music.
What's going on here? Haven't the munchkins at WQXR gotten the message? Evidently not! And thank God for that.
I hope that this message will not alert the PC mandarins of the Times editorial board or Columbia's liberal administration to what's going on.
If so, listeners will quickly be subjected to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."
Hayes writes that he "serves in the bureaucratic bowels of one the world's premier socialist entities, the city government of New York. When I entered city government, I was a Conservative. Then I became a Libertarian. And after seeing what goes on here over the years, I'm now an anarchist."
His previous letters about "conservative" talk radio host Larry Kudlow, the misguided Roman Catholic leadership and John F. Kennedy are here, here and here.