More and more companies every year seem to be getting on the bandwagon of pulling April Fool's Day pranks on April 1st.
WestJet has been doing this for a number of years now, and I especially enjoyed the one from Honda Canada this year with the “polite horn” for Canadians. If you haven't seen these yet, they are a search away on the internet.
This year I decided to join in the fun.
We all have them: our secret ingredients that transform recipes into one-of-a-kind creations that are to die for. This is what keeps food exciting at the dinner table and makes it unique to us.
Beef or other red meats such as lamb or various game meats always will benefit from a little something bold and sweet. Blueberry jam is my “go to” ingredient for burger patties, chili, stews, etc.
How many people are tired of the same old picnics items? Do memories of bland potato salads and boring sandwiches persuade you to buy fast food or, worse yet, keep you locked indoors?
Whether it's a romantic picnic for two or a family outing, easy-to-prepare gourmet ideas will liven up your picnic basket for this holiday long weekend.
Week 4 of the Fort Frances Stewardship Youth Ranger-Ogimaa Binesiiyog Partnership Program has the rangers keeping busy around town, and then off to Caliper Lake Provincial Park for more clearing, cleaning, camping and canoeing.
Back in April, I had the honour of attending the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City, alongside several of my colleagues.
This was the 16th-annual conference at the UN dedicated exclusively to discussing the issues facing the world’s indigenous populations.
The forum brought the world together on the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP.
As we embark on a new year, it’s important to take time to focus on what the future holds for our communities in the Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding and our country as a whole.
When we consider the future, our youth always must be a priority as they will inherit the outcome of any decisions our current leadership makes.
The youth of today are engaged in a way we’ve never seen before. According to a study by Abacus Data and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, youth turnout jumped by 12 percentage points between the 2011 and 2015 elections.
In July of this year, in a speech by U.S. Congressman Trey Gowdy to the students of Liberty University, Gowdy shared two questions he posed to those employed at his office.
The first question was which do you value more: truth or freedom? Everyone present answered they valued freedom more than truth.
The second question was which do you value more: unity or diversity? Everyone except one answered they valued diversity more than unity.
Oct. 19 marked one full year that I have had the honour and privilege of representing the people of Thunder Bay-Rainy River in Parliament.
I am proud of the “Real Change” that this government has made in its first year.
With the introduction of a better-targeted child benefit, about 300,000 fewer children will be living in poverty in Canada in 2017 compared with 2014.
By now, families who already were benefiting from this program will see an average increase in the benefit of almost $2,300.
What is hairy, unattractive, and available in almost every major grocery store’s produce section?
No, it’s not an unshaven produce manager with “bed head.” They are coconuts.
Most consumers tend to buy coconuts dried or canned instead of fresh. After all, who wouldn’t be somewhat afraid of this intimidating, seemingly indestructible produce with an appearance that mimics a monster’s disembodied head?
Even I must admit, more times than not, I was more interested is using them to tease my children than I was in purchasing them.


In my Tai Chi classes we learn how to pay attention to what we are doing, for it is fundamental to being able to relax, stay balanced and move well.
Sometimes the first and most important step in learning to pay attention is simply experiencing just how difficult it is to do so. Unfortunately most people give up at this point but it is worth considering the implications of spending most of our time being unaware of what is happening both in and around us.
To learn anything or develop any skill you have to able to pay attention. For me it is the single most useful attribute that anyone could develop to improve all aspects of their life. Paying attention means to intentionally focus on what is happening in the present moment (both internally and externally) at any given time. It is the art of noticing things without the distraction of thinking and judgement; the art of empirical observation. Paying attention is very simple. It is so simple in fact that it is usually overlooked by almost all of us but actually it underpins everything that we do. To begin with it can be a bit of a tricky skill to develop for it is easy to assume that you are paying attention when in fact your mind is wandering. By training little and often even small improvement can foster great benefits.
In terms of how we move and use our bodies it is our ability to pay attention that governs the quality of our actions. A good boxer in a bout, for example, focuses purely on what is happening; he pays attention. He watches and senses his opponent for any precursors to attack or discrepancies in his defence. He is completely in his body, engulfed by accurate real time sense perception. If his mind is dominated by thought then his performance is seriously impeded and a punch on the nose is the result; a sharp reminder not to be distracted by thoughts.
A good example of not paying attention is when a person drives their car on a familiar route and then can’t recall anything about their journey upon arrival; they daydreamed all the way there. It’s when you’re not paying attention that you can get into trouble!
You can vastly improve how you use your body and therefore your health and fitness by paying attention to your body. Most people have very low levels of body awareness and because this is very common in our society it goes largely unnoticed. If I go running, for example, without paying attention to how move then I can seriously hamper the quality of my movement because I ignore the vital feedback that my senses constantly deliver. This results in inefficient movement and usually injury at some point along the way. Funnily enough, when I see dogs out for a run they always look so happy; they just love the experience, but when a human is exercising it is rarely with a smile on their face!


Selena Thier gives back to the community on her birthday each year. This year, she chose to help fallen officers in Fort Myers.
Greg and Julie Thier never thought they'd have a little girl.
They already had four boys, and figured they were all done having children.
"But you wanted one," 10-year-old Selena Thier said with a smile up at Julie Thier, her mom, as she sat on the couch of their Cape Coral home Thursday.
"That's right, we waited for you," Julie Thier said.
Selena had just returned home from a day of fourth grade at Caloosa Elementary School and soon would get ready to go to her dojo. She's a purple belt in karate, Julie Thier said.
"She's our little miracle," Greg Thier said. "I went for a ride with a friend of mine one night, and she needed someplace to stay. We brought her home and five months later, we adopted her."
That was May 10, 2010. They call it her "gotcha" day, and it's the day she celebrates each year as a birthday.
For her actual day of birth in October? She chooses to donate back to the community.
This year, she raised money for the Fort Myers Police Department's Fallen Officer Foundation. She set up a table at the Oct. 13 Cops and Joggers run, and collected money at a birthday party held at the Skatium indoor skating center in Fort Myers. Her parents helped her establish a GoFundMe page, which raised $3,077.08 for fallen officers' families.
On Monday, she presented the oversized check to Lt. Jeffrey Bernice, who represents the foundation.
Selena started getting involved with law enforcement agencies and fire departments throughout Southwest Florida when her brother Josh Peterson became a Lee County sheriff's deputy about four years ago. Since then, she's formed bonds with the officers, deputies and firefighters at multiple agencies, participating in events and often stopping by to visit and show her appreciation.
She has a four-inch thick scrapbook full of photos, police coins, pins, patches, stickers, and cards to show for it.
Each year, Selena crafts hundreds of Christmas and holiday cards to distribute to the departments. Sometimes, she'll bake cookies or bring them pins while they're out on the road. She puts together toy baskets for officers to take to "bad calls" where kids involved may be stressed or scared, such as car accidents, fires, or domestic situations.
And she has no plans to stop anytime soon. Selena loves animals and wants to be a vet when she grows up, but doesn't want to work on just any animals. She wants to heal K-9 officers.
She does it all to let law enforcement and firefighters know how much she appreciates them.
And they do the same for her. She's tucked some of their tokens of appreciation into the pages of her scrapbook: A "Do the Right Thing" award from one officer here, a pin, patch, coin, or photo from another one there.
She's pasted a photo of her with fallen officer Adam Jobbers-Miller and other officers to the board she made to display at her table when she raised money at Cops and Joggers. She had met him through one of her many visits to the Fort Myers Police Department office and participation in law enforcement events.
She was inspired to give back to the Fallen Officer Foundation when she heard about officers who had been shot or hurt on the job, including Jobbers-Miller.
A favorite moment of hers: visiting the sheriff's office and reciting prayer cards to deputies. One of them was Deputy Wilfred Rivera, and it was 45 minutes before he was stabbed on a call in Bokeelia. The fillet knife didn't pierce through his vest and only bruised his chest above his heart.
Selena said she hopes the money she raised can help keep other officers safe.
"My brother works out on the road, and I wanted to keep him safe and everybody else that was with him safe," she said.


An E-train passenger got a fat lip last month when he was slugged by a subway performer who objected to being recorded, the NYPD said Monday.
The victim told police he was recording a group of subway performers on a Manhattan-bound E train in Queens on Sept. 24 when the incident occurred. Police said the performer told the man, 55, to stop recording. It is not clear when the assault occurred. Police said the performer punched the victim in the face and spat on him. The victim suffered a laceration on his lip.
The performer left the train at the Queens Plaza stop, police say. He is described as between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10, and he weighs about 160 pounds. The suspect is believed to be between 18 and 25 years old.


Just eight days ago, Ginger McCall's 7-week-old baby girl was healthy and happy. But within 48 hours, Evianna's health deteriorated. She died last Sunday.
SALEM, Ore. — A Salem mother is turning her tragedy into a lesson for other parents.
Just eight days ago, Ginger McCall's 7-week-old baby girl was healthy and happy. But within 48 hours, her health deteriorated. She died last Sunday.
McCall feels her daughter's death could have been prevented by hospital staff.
"We only had seven weeks with her. But she was so loved,” McCall told KGW.
She and her husband waited so long to have their first child. Evianna Rose was their world; an active baby who already had a love for nature.
She’ll never know, because Evianna was taken suddenly a week ago Sunday.
Last Friday, McCall said her baby girl started making a terrible moaning noise. "Evi" was having trouble breathing and running a fever. McCall and her mother-in-law rushed her to the emergency room at Salem Health.
“They told us they thought it was a virus but couldn’t say which one it was because babies get lots of viruses," she said.
McCall said Salem Health gave Evi Tylenol and a saline drip, ran basic blood tests, and then discharged her around 1 p.m. that afternoon.
"A baby at 7 weeks being discharged from the emergency room with still a temperature and still listlessness. I mean, that should not have happened,” McCall said.
They went home, only for Evi to get worse. She started throwing up, and making that awful cry.
They went back to the emergency room, where everything spiraled quickly. Evi crashed.
“It was like torture watching them jab her over and over again. Then they had to do a spinal tap, which was also like torture. And then everything happened really fast, and she was crashing and intubated and then they called Portland to see if they could get her transferred up there," McCall remembered.
She felt hospital staff didn't communicate clearly about what was happening in the moment.
After being transported to Portland, in a blur of a day, McCall said doctors told her and her family on Saturday Evi had meningitis and sepsis. Their baby girl was brain dead.
Time of death: 6:08 Sunday morning.
Just the day before she got sick, McCall said she took Evi for a walk on the beach. She was healthy and happy.
“It was just so sudden and it seems like it should have been preventable. That noise she was making, I wish they had paid more attention," McCall said.
McCall wishes doctors paid closer attention to the cry Evianna was making - a common sign of meningitis in a baby.
She said doctors told her Evi had late onset Group B Strep and the infection led to the bacterial meningitis. When pregnant, McCall had Group B Strep and told providers in the hospital, but felt that information wasn’t taken seriously. However, McCall said doctors weren't certain where or when Evi contracted the strep.
After a sudden meningitis-caused infant death at another hospital in Salem last year, McCall hopes to raise awareness and help others by shedding light on the signs.
“I can't bring her back, but what I hope is just that this won't happen to someone else,” McCall said.
Hospitals need to take a hard look at their protocols and change them if needed be to prevent this from happening, she said. Her advice to parents: call attention to anything you notice, like she and her mother-in-law did when Evi's head started swelling the second time in the emergency room.
She feels she did her best to advocate but feels she couldn’t seem to impress upon them the sense of urgency the first time they were in the emergency room.
“That’s what I want most of all is to find some way to take a really terrible experience and turn it into something that helps someone else and if just one person can be saved by hearing this, that makes a difference to me. That I think honors Evi,” McCall told KGW.
Instead of celebrating Evi’s first walk or first word, McCall and her husband will be mourning their first child’s life.
But in her passing, Evianna gave them the gift of community. McCall said so many people from work and her neighborhood are sending them flowers and sweet notes and making them food. After only moving to Oregon a year ago, they now realize how loved and cared for they are.


Even a cursory look at our coverage of the government market’s merger-and-acquisition activity over the past two years could lead the casual observer to think this: the big are getting bigger.
Then of course there are those in the vast, somewhat opaque middle tier of the market looking to make that jump into the upper echelon through deals to add scale and new customer bases in hopes of creating a platform for further growth.
So how do small businesses navigate a world that seems to show deal after deal for size? Particularly in their own environment of set-aside contracts and the need to progress to full-and-open work to entice potential buyers if and when they wish to sell?
Erin Andrew, managing director of government contract lending at Live Oak Bank, said M&A transactions are certainly an option for small business contractors whose owners either want to exit or take their company into more full-and-open contracts that critical for the next phase of growth.
“Folks are realizing that small businesses make up a large part of the marketplace and that we need to identify and create strategies that aren’t just fit for mid-market or larger companies but rather that fit the need and cost appetite for small businesses,” Andrew told me.
Loan programs run by the Small Business Administration are starting to become more prominent as contractors with set-aside status look for options to try and fuel growth, she said. There is also the opportunity that good old-fashioned networking presents in finding someone in a similar situation and path.
Some would have otherwise thought they would have to stay in the small business arena, she said, but are now realizing they need to think about an exit or transaction opportunity earlier on.
And just because large companies come together to make even larger entities does not necessarily reduce the addressable market for small businesses. As Andrew pointed out, federal agencies still have small business prime contracting goals to work against, plus the various subcontracting goals that may be required in certain individual procurements.
There is also one additional tool companies of all shapes and sizes have to serve as a platform from which to grow from: incumbency and past performance. On average, nearly three-fourths of all government contracts go to the incumbent and some win rates at certain agencies exceed 90 percent for the current holder.
That past performance becomes even more prominent as contracting officers and other acquisition staffers retire out of the federal workforce. Andrew said small firms should not discount the option of acquiring a company with that past performance and especially at an agency with high incumbent win rates.
It is at least worth “looking into understanding if it’s a better and a more cost-effective path that will allow you to grow much more quickly than if you just grow organically,” Andrew said.


A diary written by John Lennon that was stolen from his widow Yoko Ono over a decade ago has been found by police in Berlin.
The diary, which includes an entry from the day the Beatles star was murdered, is among 100 recovered items that had been stolen from Ono in New York in 2006.
Other items belonging to Lennon that were found include a cigarette case, his signature round-framed glasses with an original 1978 prescription and an original recording of a 1965 Beatles concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
Ono, who was interviewed by Berlin police at her home in New York, played a key role in establishing whether the items were genuine.
"She was visibly touched and confirmed the authenticity of the items," Berlin police said in a statement on Tuesday.
Representatives for Ono did not respond to a request for comment.
Police said a 58-year-old man was arrested on Monday in Berlin on suspicion of fraud and the handling of stolen goods. The police said a second suspect was located in Turkey, beyond the reach of German police.
The items came to the attention of police several months ago after an auction house went bankrupt.
Some of the items were seized by police, while the rest were recovered in the car of the arrested suspect.
It's not clear whether Ono will get the property back. Police said they cannot decide whether to release the items while the investigation is ongoing.
-- Atika Shubert contributed reporting.


The writer is member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.
AFTER escaping mass casualty attacks for 12 years, the United Kingdom suffered three in quick succession in 72 days, suggesting the authorities are not able to stop low-tech, improvised assaults carried out by individuals or small groups. These pose a difficult choice for the so-called ‘free societies’: do more to contain the resurgent jihadist violence or risk political backlash by putting ‘draconian’ limits on civil rights and liberties. The answers are not easy to find and knee-jerk, reactive approaches are simply not working, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kashmir, Yemen, Turkey or Pakistan.
In two out of three recent attacks in the UK, the perpetrators were known to the intelligence agencies but not thought to be dangerous enough to warrant a close watch. This points to the difficulty of the intelligence apparatus in determining whom to monitor.
The attacks also pose a policy conundrum for governments that uphold the values of liberty and free expression: how should they take the fight to an “amorphous battlefield”? Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, has monitored 20,000 extremists in the recent past. Keeping tabs on so many people is a struggle even for the most sophisticated security agencies anywhere.
Following these attacks, there have been fervent calls for international regulators to stop extremists from using cyberspace to win supporters. “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed; yet that is precisely what the internet and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide,” lamented British Prime Minister Theresa May. The question is whether more curbs on the web would be able to stop the spread of radicalism.
An ‘intense mix of envy and sense of humiliation and powerlessness’ seem to be driving extremism.
Ms May has called for a “battle of ideas” against the radical version of Islam — in other words, “to live our lives not in a series of separated, segregated communities, but as one truly United Kingdom”. This would involve “difficult and often embarrassing conversations” with the Muslim community. This is where she as a politician, thinking of an electoral outcome in a tense post-Brexit era, is treading a path of outlining a new counterterrorism strategy that puts ideology and integration at the forefront.
I fear that if the attacks continue, so will political pressure for measures such as large-scale preventive detentions, intrusive police surveillance and a panic-driven reactive counterterrorism strategy that would amount to following the failed militaristic approach of dealing with violent extremism as enunciated by Pankaj Mishra in his latest book Age of Anger.
The militant Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the recent bloodbath in the UK which also shows why governments must target the threat at its root and identify the causes that churn out militants, terrorists and insurgents in this age of rage. Mishra believes the West-versus-the-rest thinking since 9/11 explains “why our age of anger has provoked some absurdly extreme fear and bewilderment” that has produced intellectual robots who “cannot ever develop sufficient knowledge, rigour, imagination, and humility to grasp the phenomenon of [IS]”.
One must analyse the mindset of the educated young men and some women who are rushing to fight for soul-stirring but poorly understood causes, and often cutting their lives short. Mishra calls them “wandering outlaws of their own dark minds wanting to surrender completely to elusive dreams of eternal bliss after death”.
In Notes from Underground, referred to by Mishra, Dostoyevsky’s Underground Man says: “I’m convinced that man will never renounce real suffering, that is, destruction and chaos.” Mishra claims: “Dreaming constantly of revenge against his social superiors, this creature of the netherworld luxuriates in his feeling of impotence, and projects blame for his plight outward.” Even Nietzsche derived his understanding of ‘resentment’ and its malign potential as a “particularly noxious form of aggression by the weak against an aloof and inaccessible elite”.
My worry is that we are not seeing the big picture and seem to be, as the theologian Niebuhr would say, “suspended in a hell of global insecurity”. There is an overlap of religion and politics in this era of violent extremism. It is easy to blame an ideology without understanding the complexities of the chain of causality in acts of terrorism. There are social, cultural, economic and political factors that are stoking conflicts and radicalising vast sections of marginalised and disaffected strata of society. The result is, as political theorist Arendt feared, a “tremendous increase in mutual hatred and a somewhat universal irritability of everybody against everybody else”, and according to Mishra an existential resentment “caused by an intense mix of envy and sense of humiliation and powerlessness”.
Mishra concludes that “the old West-dominated world order is giving way to an apparent global disorder. Anglo-America no longer confidently produces, as it did for two centuries, the surplus of global history; and the people it once dominated now chafe against the norms and valuations produced by that history”.
Meanwhile, we in Pakistan, like the blind men in the fable who try to describe an elephant by feeling different parts of its body, cannot make out the challenges of extremism in all their dimensions, leaving it to the ‘barrel vision’ of an enormous regulatory or deep state, a government within the government, that calls the shots. Nations become strong on the legacy of trust — the kind that depends on institutions that foster collective decisions in response to existential threats. Lasting nationhood is based on a social contract between the state and individual in which each is accountable to the other.
We need to address this trust deficit.
Why, for instance, has Tunisia, the originator of the Arab Spring and the most Westernised among Muslim societies, sent the largest contingent among 90 countries of foreign jihadis to Iraq and Syria? _ I can answer that. _ I was e-mailing an upper class university student in Tunisia who filled me in. She said she and her friends, women in their 20s, had decided to marry older men for financial security, and lamented they did not know any young men with enough money to give them a good life. So the fact is that in Tunisia, numerically, there is not much of a middle class. Tunisian families have money or they don't. There is not much agriculture in that part of North Africa. For most families to have enough to eat is an accomplishment.
Who knows better than Khosa sahib, who cultivated trust deficit n whose calendestine activities have taken these darken sides of state sovereignty to this level of decline. Is it religious hate or socio economic politico manipulations that has kept a common man away from the benefits of State dispensation?
@AW Wrong. Civilian government have no control over important policies. It just takes all the blames and act as a shield for those who are real rulers.
Another thought provoking and myth shattering endeavour by khosa sb.In a state where the members nf ruling elite and deep state are just busy in counting the plots they get,nothing can be achieved.Pakistan need a complete breakdown of the existing order to have a new social cotract.
Spot on. The learned author has highlighted the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. It is now up-to policy makers to understand the dangers and come up with prudent and viable alternatives.
Untill & Unless state owned policy of patron of militia is not changed this trust deficit will widen day by day. Proxies patron is a world wide phenomenon & every country with brutal desire of imperialism has got this disciple as their tools of controlling their rivalries. This process will carry on & will never never change as the desire to become super power is in existence as old as the human being. But there is one ray of hope.... with the increased amount of civilization, education & recognition of humanity may make the state believe to give up this policy.
IMO the learned author has misunderstood the wordings of PM Theresa May : "battle of ideas". This is a cry for Muslims to revise their understanding and interpretation of their religion. A religion can not and should not give justification for terror and violence. An honest self-criticism is the need of the hour for us Muslims.
Whether harbored by individuals, groups or states, hate, anger and associated violence are all in the domain of psychology now.
Britain and the West are somewhat fine with their social contract but they are taking their time to apply the comparably new science and art of psychology to understand random violence and to deal with it.
Our corridors of power would take longer to let in ideas like social contract and psychology.
The reasoning this article provides for brutal inhuman violence, may encourage people to commit inhumanly brutal violent attacks under desperation. The central issue should be killing of other humans and what really can inspire killing of other people at cost of their own life. There is more to it than the poverty/frustration that can make people take human life. Let us first understand what really can inspire killing of other human being. It is understandable that one can commit suicide out of frustration, in privacy without harming other human being,. Also, the western countries are more open to protecting the human rights compared to so called oppressed culprits who are killing innocent human beings.


Unless you’re a college student with a parent who doesn’t know what to get you for Christmas.
People are difficult to shop for, especially college students.
Between working and going to classes, students may not have time to sit down with their parents to get questioned about what they need or want for Christmas.
It may be hard to swallow pride and admit that a well-thought-out gift could be useful.
Shawn Jackson, an MCCC economics student, doesn’t worry about his Christmas list.
Brian Schyllander, who studies mathematics at MCCC, said students in math courses may want to ask for the TI-84 or the TI-89; both are high end graphing calculators.
The two calculators are made by Texas Instruments and assist students with simultaneous equations, plotting graphs, and real world data collection. The TI-84 costs around $115 and the TI-89 around $145.
In addition, Schyllander said advice books for organization, test taking, and other topics would be beneficial.
Karalee Delormier, a student studying early childhood development, had other ideas for gifts.
Gas cards can be bought at almost any supermarket or even at the gas station directly. Gift cards for stores such as Meijer and Walmart can be used at their respective gas stations as well.
Faith Drew, who also studies early childhood development, said gift cards for places to eat and shop are great, too.
Drew said craft supplies would be very helpful for her due to projects in her classes.
Student Brooke Ryan said a laptop or a bike would make great gift ideas.
“I got these last year, and really wanted them,” Ryan said.
Ryan received an Apple MacBook last Christmas, however there are other brands on the market for students. Some include HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus.
If there’s little time to shop, cold hard cash is always an option.


It looks like everyone had a record number of eBook downloads on Christmas day. HarperCollins reported yesterday that their servers are just beginning to recover from the many new customers who downloaded eBooks this weekend.
Over 100,000 eBooks published by HarperCollins UK were downloaded on that single day. This was both a record high as well as over times as high as the average daily downloads during December 2011.
This figure excludes the US market, but it includes downloads for the UK, New Zealand, and other markets around the world. The most popular titles downloaded were George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones, Sanctus by Simon Toyne, Confessions of a GP by Dr Benjamin Daniels, and Twelve Days of Christmas by romantic comedy novelist Trisha Ashley.


Officials are working to convince the public that a sweeping trade deal will help the planet.
Facing criticism from green groups, the administration is making the case that a sweeping trade deal that President Obama is working to negotiate with Pacific Rim nations won't hurt the environment. In fact, officials argue, the agreement could go a long way toward protecting the planet.
As part of a push to sell the deal on Capitol Hill and to the American public, the U.S. trade representative and the State Department will unveil a report on Wednesday highlighting what they say are the potential environmental benefits of the international agreement, a pact that the president views as a cornerstone of his economic legacy.
The report arrives as Congress inches closer to passing so-called "fast-track" legislation backed by the White House, granting lawmakers an up-or-down vote on any trade deal.
The White House contends that the deal will bolster trade and help the United States maintain a competitive advantage in the face of China's rapid rise. But Democratic lawmakers, labor unions, and green groups remain wary of the agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, warning that it could undercut worker rights and erase key environmental safeguards.
Now, the administration is pushing back against environmental criticism.
Far from selling out the environment, officials say, the president has used trade as a lever to achieve far-reaching aims that will ultimately leave the environment in far better shape across a wide array of nations. Among those aims are agreements in the deal for countries to curb illegal wildlife-trafficking, fishing, and logging.
"We have the chance to finalize a trade agreement that is truly unlike any other ever negotiated: an agreement where every participant has to comply with core international labor and environmental standards. ... That's not a complicated choice," Secretary of State John Kerry said during a speech delivered in Washington state on Tuesday.
The State Department and the U.S. trade representative promise that every last one of those environmental obligations will be fully enforceable and achievable.
The administration says it plans to provide assistance in the form of grants and technical support to developing nations such as Brunei, Vietnam, and Malaysia to ensure that they have the ability to follow through on environmental commitments.
Officials are also quick to note that nations can be taken to task if they fail to live up to their end of the deal. Any country found in violation could face a formal dispute, which could ultimately result in sanctions.
Obama's trade deal would go well beyond the environmental provisions included in past international agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. And a slate of conservation groups, including the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy, have praised the administration for its pledge to create conservation safeguards in the agreement.
The White House hopes its push will win over critics. But it is unlikely to change hearts and minds among environmentalists dead set against the deal. Part of the reason is that many environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, say that their criticism of the agreement applies to provisions much broader than anything contained within the environmental chapter.
Critics from these groups fear that the deal will usher in an onslaught of legal challenges intended to undermine environmental regulations while opening the door for a flood of natural-gas exports to nations such as Japan. This, in turn, the groups say could lead to an uptick in fracking and worsen global warming.
"[The deal] will undermine the work that has been done to stimulate clean energy, to transition away from fossil fuels," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in Washington, D.C., last month.
The administration has pushed back against these claims, saying that the deal will not undermine public health or environmental safeguards. Officials also argue that the idea that natural-gas exports will result in disastrous environmental consequences is overblown.
"Rest assured ... we will retain our ability to protect our clean air and water, regulate our economy, and uphold all of the laws of our nation. I have fought my entire career for many of those things, and I don't intend to start undoing a lifetime of work now and turning my back on all of that overnight," Kerry said.


SAN ANTONIO - As chief of the Texas Rangers, the state’s leading law enforcement agency, Henry “Hank” Whitman Jr. oversaw investigations into difficult criminal cases, public corruption, officer-involved shootings and more.
Now, as the commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services since 2016, Whitman was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to take on the state’s troubled child welfare system.
Foster care in Texas was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge, who ordered that changes be made. Arguments are expected to begin April 30 after Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the ruling.
Even so, Whitman said he’s made important changes and there are still more to come.
He said he’s even ridden along with Child Protective Services caseworkers, who he calls some of the most dedicated people he’s ever met.
“This is the hardest job in public service without a doubt,” Whitman said.
In response to the crisis, Whitman that, before the Texas Legislature convened, he accepted a lawmaker’s offer to dramatically increase the agency’s funding.
“It helped cover the hole in the bucket that was draining,” Whitman said.
As a result, he said, 550 more caseworkers were hired, and with a $1,000 monthly pay raise, the department's 700 caseworker vacancies were quickly filled.
Whitman also said the agency is seeing job retention increase and a decrease in caseloads.
He said he’s also started competency testing for supervisors that involves a difficult examination with questions they’ll likely be asked by caseworkers in the field and have to answer.
Whitman said he and his staff are preparing for the next session of the Texas Legislature beginning in January.
He said two of his top priorities will be child abuse prevention and outreach and treatment for parents with substance abuse problems, which are considered to be at the root of many child abuse cases.
Whitman said, without it, more abused and neglected children could die or wind up in protective custody.
He said the Family First Prevention Services Act passed by the U.S. Congress will provide some additional funding for prevention, but more is needed.
“These are our children. They’re your children. They’re my children. They’re everybody’s children,” Whitman said.


Topeka's downtown U.S. Postal Service building, which was the site of events that included an FBI shootout and hearings in a historic federal court case, will soon enter the next chapter in its history.
Tim Hrenchir, the "History Guy" for CJOnline, returns Thursday with a short video about the structure at 424 S. Kansas Ave. The building became fully operational on Dec. 9, 1933, as a post office, federal courthouse and administrative office building.
Four days earlier, the United States had ratified the 21st Amendment, ending Prohibition and putting a cork in plans to house a prohibition office at the building.
The post office lobby in 1937 became the scene of a gun battle between federal agents and two men suspected in a bank robbery, one of whom shot and killed 27-year-old FBI Agent W.W. Baker.
The two men were convicted of murder, then hanged together in 1938 at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
The post office building during the early 1950s became the site of federal court hearings in the Brown v. Board of Education case, which brought about the historic 1954 Supreme Court ruling that banned racial segregation in schools.
Federal officials stopped using the building as a courthouse in 1977 after constructing the Frank Carlson Federal Building across the street to the east at 444 S.E. Quincy.
The U.S. Postal Service announced in 2014 that it was seeking to sell the building.
The Topeka Capital-Journal learned last month that the postal service was in the final stages of making that sale, which hasn't yet been finalized. The newspaper reported the buyer is from out of town but has local ties.
Want more History Guy videos? Find them all at http://www.cjonline.com/news/history-guy.


A domestic dispute in Hempstead turned deadly Friday night when an NYPD recruit fatally shot himself after firing a bullet at his girlfriend, Hempstead Village police said.
The 26-year-old recruit, who was not identified, grazed the woman in the left leg before turning the gun on himself, police said. The woman’s name was not released. She declined medical attention, police said.
“Apparently the relationship went sour…and he shot her,” Hempstead police Lt. Paul Johnson said.
The incident occurred at 7:30 p.m. at the Beverly Road residence where the couple lived, police said.


Cloudy with occasional rain in the afternoon. High 63F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..
Cloudy with light rain early. Low near 45F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.


Outgoing Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin received an exuberant and unusual farewell yesterday evening.
About 150 employees of his ministry, the National Council of Social Service and SG Enable took to the outdoors with him for a warm-up session before he led some of them on a 6km run at MacRitchie Reservoir.
Mr Tan, 48, is set to take up the role of Speaker of Parliament next week. He takes over from Madam Halimah Yacob, who resigned to contest the upcoming presidential election.
Netizens, surprised by the nomination of a core member of the fourth-generation political leadership as Speaker, had seized on one of Mr Tan's Facebook posts for clues on its significance.
In it, he said: "May God continue to grant me wisdom, courage and love in all that I do. However inadequate as I may be, I hope that I can fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith."
On Wednesday evening, he urged people not to read too much into it, saying he noticed "some doing serious practical criticism of every word and punctuation!"
"It's an affirmation of what I believe and cherish, as best as I can manage. I've shared these sentiments before so relax... no need to over-interpret LOL," he added, using the acronym for "laughing out loud".


Blockchain burst into the mainstream five years ago as a secure platform for Bitcoin transactions, but the technology’s use today is extending well beyond cryptocurrency to transform industry sectors on a holistic ecosystem basis.
Healthcare, banking and insurance are just three industries that anticipate tens of billions of dollars in cost savings from the blockchain’s permanent decentralized ledger. As a result of blockchain, banks, for example, expect to generate more than $27 billion in cross-border settlements alone by 2030, according to a 2018 study.
At its most basic, a blockchain is a distributed, digital ledger with built-in security that records transactions among the network participants in real-time. Every 10 minutes, these transactions are verified, permanently time-stamped and stored in a block that is encrypted and inextricably linked to the preceding block — creating a blockchain.
Participants don’t need to trust that the ledger has not been tampered with because entries are trackable and irrevocable. Another advantage of blockchain technology is business efficiency. Participants can execute smart contracts without a central controlling authority. The contracts trigger when pre-arranged terms and conditions are met.
These benefits and others — like data quality and transparency — have made blockchain the go-to technology for digital transformation, explains David Uhryniak, blockchain competency leader at the accounting, consulting and technology firm Crowe. “Blockchain is the underlying technology that fosters the required trust to enable companies and entire industries to transform around data and successfully implement other transformative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT),” he says. It’s already disrupting multiple industries in tangible ways.
In the property-casualty insurance industry, real progress is being made to create ecosystems that speed up the automobile insurance claims process — and the potential payout is huge.
Take, for example, the Institutes RiskBlock Alliance, a collaborative experiment in which dozens of insurance companies plan to share specified automobile policyholder data in a blockchain network. Other participants with access to the secure environment include third parties like car repair shops, tow truck companies, state motor vehicle departments and law enforcement agencies.
This type of ecosystem would streamline tedious and costly processes. Consider the following scenario: After a minor two-car collision, sensors in the vehicles would send alerts to the blockchain network, triggering pre-arranged smart contracts among the parties to dispatch tow trucks, which would take the cars to designated repair shops. At the same time, other sensors measuring the speed and braking of both vehicles, as well as data on weather and road conditions, could send this information to the blockchain, whereupon it would be instantly determined which party is likely at fault.
That’s just one industry. Uhryniak cites four key benefits of blockchain that have transformational potential across business sectors — enhanced transparency, revenue, efficiency and engagement. “There’s friction within every process related to the various interactions with counterparties, customers, regulators and even the gathering of data,” says Uhryniak. These inefficiencies are costly, he explains, but blockchain networks obviate these challenges.
A case in point is the healthcare sector, an industry that Uhryniak projects will be a vastly different enterprise in the next five to 10 years. Today, payers like health insurers each have specific contract terms and conditions that must be met in order for a procedure or treatment to be deemed medically necessary and, therefore, covered by the insurer’s health plan. These terms and conditions could be turned into smart contracts and added to blockchains, eliminating the inefficiencies involved in verifying permissible insurance coverages, Uhryniak says.
Another benefit of this transparency in healthcare is streamlined and reliable billing. “Blockchain helps ensure a patient isn’t charged for the same medical procedure by two different physicians or hospitals,” Uhryniak says. “The technology verifies the accuracy of each transaction, which becomes a permanent, immutable record.
Health insurers benefit in other ways. For instance, an insurer can verify the necessity of medical treatments prior to execution and re-validate that they were in fact performed. Blockchain also addresses the problem of rising insurance claim denials. According to a 2017 analysis by Crowe of more than 300 hospitals, 9.6 percent of all medical insurance claims are denied. Used as a billing tool, blockchain could instantly ferret out whether or not an insurer’s claim matches its specified contract terms and conditions, reducing delays and human error.
Banks are also poised for blockchain-enabled transformation. Only 3 percent of bank executives surveyed by Crowe expect “minimal change” from blockchain technology in the next 10 years, with the remaining 97 percent anticipating modest to significant change. In addition to streamlining the mortgage approval and closing processes, blockchain technology proposes similar process enhancements in the disbursement of funds for commercial loans and syndicated loans, Uhryniak says.
As businesses initiate blockchain strategies, Uhryniak advises that they pursue a measured approach that begins with an evaluation of how the technology will provide a competitive advantage. Firms like Crowe can help with this assessment by guiding companies to identify the right blockchain platform for their needs and in some cases may be able to build this infrastructure as a “proof of concept” prior to implementation.
For companies, adapting to the confluence of technologies involved in tomorrow’s ecosystems requires thoughtful consideration — and, in many cases, raises concerns about risk. As the volume of IoT devices proliferates to reach 125 billion worldwide in 2030, and remarkable tools like machine learning become smarter through exponentially expanding computing power, only blockchain at the moment presents a system of trust in data. It’s no wonder so many industries have taken notice.


Perhaps the real Special Counsel investigation was inside us all along.
For some, this was meant to be Donald Trump’s Götterdämmerung. Through nearly two years of meticulously secretive investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller was defined in the public consciousness as the US president’s ultimate nemesis. Partisans for Trump accused the 74-year-old former FBI chief of spearheading a witch hunt; liberals, who yearned for the president’s hubris to rebound on him, revered him as a potential saviour. A cadre of true believers became convinced that Trump would be dragged from the White House, any day now, in handcuffs.
Barr emphasised that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him” – but that wasn’t how Trump and his entourage received the message. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it a “total and complete exoneration” of the president. Soon after, Trump tweeted smugly from Air Force One: “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!” The atmosphere among Trump’s opponents veered toward despair.
But though the Mueller investigation did not provide the cathartic moment that many hoped for, its consequences have been profound: Paul Manafort, who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign, has been imprisoned for fraud, as have the president’s former attorney Michael Cohen, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former campaign aide Rick Gates. Roger Stone, a long-time Trump confidant, is currently standing trial for witness tampering and obstruction.
In normal times, all of this would be sufficient to destroy an incumbent president. That Russia manipulated the 2016 election – once something Trump’s mouthpieces angrily contested – is now incontrovertible. Mueller’s report has prompted other investigations, such as that alluded to by Michael Cohen in his Congressional testimony earlier this month, some of which we know tantalisingly little about.
It is also important to note how much we still don’t know about the contents of Mueller’s report. None of the text has been made public. Barr, remember, is not a disinterested party – the attorney general is a Trump appointee. His letter didn’t even indicate the report’s length, let alone the portrait of the president it paints. It might be weeks, or even months, before it is publicly released – if it is released at all. In his letter, Barr said “my goal and intent is to release as much of the Special Counsel’s report as I can consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies” – providing him with ample flexibility on the timeline – and he added that the Department of Justice first had to laboriously remove anything that could not be made public.
Partial release will lead to a proliferation of court battles as Democrats fight line-by-line for the report’s publication. Despite loud demands for its release – opinion polls show 81 per cent of Americans believe it should be released in full – it is far from unthinkable that the Trump administration might seek to suppress it. Attention would then turn to Congress, where House of Representatives committees – under Democratic control since last year’s midterm elections – could issue subpoenas for Barr, or even Mueller himself, to testify.
Those who hoped that Mueller would deliver a climactic coup de grace have not been paying attention: that was never the likely outcome. As David Corn writes in Mother Jones, obsessive focus on unlikely active collusion, “as if Trump instructed Russian hackers on how to penetrate the computer network of the Democratic National Committee”, diverted attention from the simpler truth that Trump and his campaign visibly “interacted with Russia while Putin was attacking the 2016 election and provided encouraging signals to the Kremlin” – but out of mere stupidity and greed. Trump is a relentless narcissist and a reckless appeaser of Russia. But a secret agent? Probably not.
In other words, perhaps the real Special Counsel investigation was inside us all along. Trump’s mendacity was already clear – we didn’t need Mueller’s confirmation. Most of the administration’s worst deeds have happened before our eyes. But we longed for all debate to cease — to see the horrific realisation on Trump’s face as political gravity finally asserted itself. We wanted a moment of reckoning.
But changing minds across a nation as vast and complex as the US is a game of inches, not miles: trench warfare, not Blitzkrieg. If the disease of Trumpism is, eventually, to be scoured from the face of American political life, it won’t happen suddenly at the hands of a saviour. It will happen gradually. And it will happen at the hands of the people – at the ballot box. Or it will not happen at all.


The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group founded 45 years ago with a focus on combating hate and extremism, has often come under fire from conservatives who argue its classification of extremists and hate groups has a left-wing bias — mainly because of disputes over labeling traditionalist views of homosexuality as anti-gay hate. But now the center has done more to discredit itself than its worst enemies could by branding critics of radical Islamism — including a liberal Muslim reformer — as Muslim-hating bigots.
The center’s “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,” released last week and compiled with Media Matters for America and two other left-of-center advocacy groups, includes 15 men and women. The report urges the media to treat them as “propagandists . . . far outside of the political mainstream” and their views as “toxic” and dangerous.
Some critics have taken issue with the entire list. However, the label fits some of the people on it — those who paint nearly all Muslims as potential terrorists and violent jihadists and even argue that Islam does not qualify for First Amendment protections.
One of the most notorious people on the list, anti-“Islamization” activist Pamela Geller of Hewlett Harbor, has compared a proposed Islamic center and mosque in downtown Manhattan with a Ku Klux Klan center and accused President Barack Obama of jihadist sympathies. Geller has voiced support for perpetrators of war crimes against Muslim civilians in the Balkans and relentlessly stoked Islamists-under-the-bed paranoia in America.
Other names on the list are questionable, to say the least. Middle East Forum founder and former Harvard professor Daniel Pipes is labeled an extremist for offenses that include ridiculing the claim that the Islamic State is not truly Islamic. (Many scholars agree the group’s ideology is rooted in Islamic scriptures, though it is only one radical version of Islamist ideology.) No mention is made of the fact that Pipes has argued for moderate Islam and against Muslim-bashers.
Then there’s Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born activist, writer, and women’s rights advocate. Ali has made some intemperate statements, collected by the SPLC guide, that lump together all Islam as inherently violent. But the document does not mention that she has recently modified her position to advocate for Islamic reformation and stress that most Muslims embrace the peaceful aspects of Quranic teachings. Ali continues to argue for a formal repudiation of the more intolerant and oppressive aspects of Islamic doctrine.
But the most bizarre choice is the inclusion of Maajid Nawaz, a British Pakistani Muslim. An ex-radical turned reformer, Nawaz heads the Quilliam Foundation, which promotes moderate Islam. He has spoken out against anti-Muslim hate. His extremist crimes? Nawaz has warned that many mainstream Muslim organizations which reject terrorism nonetheless espouse Islamism (i.e. the imposition of authoritarian Islamic norms by political means). Also, he has tweeted a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammed “despite the fact that many Muslims see it as blasphemous to draw Muhammad.” Is violation of Islamic blasphemy laws now a form of hate?
Responding to the report in The Daily Beast, Nawaz has written that there is something deeply ironic about mostly white American leftists chastising a brown Muslim for offenses against his faith.
The report strips the center of all credibility as a voice against extremism. It also validates the perception of many on the right that “political correctness” makes it impossible to criticize modern Islam’s very real problem with radicalism. That perception helps fuel the truly toxic anti-Muslim and anti-liberal backlash exemplified by the rise of Donald Trump.


This week on the show, we drive the sportier performance vRS variant of the Skoda Octavia and tell you if that extra power under the hood really changes the character of this family sedan. Mercedes-Benz has launched the new S600 Guard in India and the new model boasts of extra armour and high-end safety features. Also, we track the growing culture of cycling across India and how the ecosystem is evolving with new high-end cycles entering the market.


It includes 60 straightforward but delicious recipes for beginners.
As a trans woman, the artist puts a staggering amount of thought into everyday decisions to ensure that she can deter unwanted attention.
The instant rapport between biographer and subject convinced the iconic Indigenous singer and songwriter that it was time for her story to be told.
A new cookbook features recipes and memories from Iran.
Despite the accolades, the Victoria-based author is pragmatic about literary fame.
The recently released cocktail book celebrates the likes of Beyoncé, Yayoi Kusama, and Tanya Tagaq—with tasty and thirst-quenching results.
In his new book, America, the Farewell Tour, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter identifies symptoms of extreme inequality: the opioid epidemic, increasing suicide rates, and the election of a crude misogynist who preys on people’s anxieties.
The writing duo behind winefolly.com, the popular online resource known for handsome wine maps and infographics, came out with their first book in 2015.
This fall, Vancouver will welcome another inclusive evening of writing to its calendar.
Even as rock ’n’ roll turned up the volume and chaos in the late ’60s, this Detroit band seemed wild.
For the last 10 years, the members of the all-women collective have been building homes for each other out of recycled materials and the wood, stone, and clay around them.


Fox has released a new television spot for their upcoming Batman prequel series, Gotham.
The advertisement focuses on Batman’s origin story, revisiting the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne that leaves Bruce Wayne an orphan. Detective James Gordon can be heard offering comfort and encouragement to the young, mourning Bruce.
The biggest difference from Batman’s comic book origin is that Gordon and his partner, Harvey Bullock, will be assigned the Wayne murder case. Their investigation will be the driving force of Gotham’s First season.
Gotham will air Monday, beginning this fall, on Fox. The pilot will make its world premiere July 26 at San Diego Comic-Con International.


In an effort to build resilience against the impact of climate change on wetlands, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have teamed up to map, validate and protect smaller wetlands in the coastal region and restore them through coastal livelihood programmes.
This is the first time that a fisheries institute is collaborating with the ISRO to develop a comprehensive climate resilient framework for fisheries and wetlands.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the CMFRI and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the ISRO to develop a mobile app and a centralised web portal with complete database of wetlands in the country which were smaller than 2.25 hectares.
Such smaller wetlands cover an area of more than 5 lakh hectares across the country, with Kerala alone having as many as 2,592 such wetlands.
According to the MoU, the two institutes will identify and demarcate the wetlands and restore the degraded ones through suitable livelihood options such as coastal aquaculture.
The mobile app will be used for real-time monitoring of the wetlands and giving advisories to the stakeholders and the coastal people.
The collaborative move is part of a national framework for fisheries and wetlands recently developed by the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), a project of the CMFRI.
The NICRA project aims to find ways and means to mitigate the impact of climate change on marine fisheries and coastal region. According to the MoU, the National Wetland Atlas, already developed by the SAC, will be updated with real-time data of physical, chemical and biological parameters of the wetlands to be provided by the CMFRI.
P.U. Zacharia, who is attached to the NICRA project, said the real-time data of the demarcated coastal wetlands would greatly help in developing a conservation plan for the degraded wetlands in the region, besides utilising these resources for livelihood prospects in the area such as shrimp and crab farming.
"Smaller wetlands across the country are in a highly neglected state owing to multiple reasons. Climate variability induced rainfall drastically changes the physio-chemical characteristics of such wetlands, which was evidently seen during the devastating floods in Kerala last year.
"The collaborative initiative will help develop a comprehensive wetland information system which could facilitate the village-level wetland advisories to the local people by scientific communities," Zacharia said.
"Wetlands are highly prospective for some selective aquaculture ventures which will help the local people earn economical gains" he added.


Above: A chatbot beats a travel app.
My travel season is coming up soon. I always attend CES in Las Vegas (let me know if you want to chat in person), the SxSW conference in Austin, and a few extra trips here and there. As I Iive up here in Minneapolis, it’s the perfect time to escape the inevitable cold and snow.
Recently, I’ve been looking into travel options and, as a way to practice what I preach, I’ve been relying entirely on messaging apps like Mezi (which uses AI to find the best deals). I’ve talked to the Google Assistant on a Pixel smartphone I’m testing and relied on chat interfaces. It’s always interesting, as journalist, to apply what I’m testing in my job to making actual plans. When you have to hand over your credit card information and other personal details, your perspective changes.
As it turns out, I learned quite a bit about why messaging works better for travel arrangements, mostly due to the time savings. It’s amazing. On Mezi, I typed in my dates and the departure and arrival cities. That’s it. The app is designed to make the process as fluid as possible, and it’s all about finding the best deal. The app I normally use to book my own trips (when I even use an app instead of a website) is Expedia. Yet, I don’t plan on going back to travel apps, and here’s why.
First, let’s clear up one misconception. Making travel arrangements is not rocket science. There are a limited number of flights from Minneapolis to Las Vegas on the dates I’m flying. For some reason, I always think if I spend an hour or more, I might find a better deal. That’s rarely true.
What is true is that most of the travel apps, even the ones that make big promises about saving you money, are searching the same basic airfare options. Sun Country offers roughly the same deal on every site, so a messaging app like Mezi already has a fairly limited number of options to analyze. From what I understand about how the app works, it searches for the best flights at the best times and provides three good options without too much help from a human agent.
What’s changed for me is that I trust the results. I know that these are likely the three best options, so I don’t psyche myself out searching for more economical flights. It helps that I already know the flight should run about $300 or less (this is a vacation destination after all) and shouldn’t make any stops.
Here are some of the ways this saves me time. I don’t have to use multiple travels apps and try to remember my login for each one. I don’t have to fill out any forms — Mezi does that for me. I don’t have to pick any flight preferences; Mezi saves this and fills it in. There are a few more subtle benefits, as well. I might need to update the Mezi app once in a while, but not as often as most of the apps I use, which seem to be constantly needing an update. Most of what needs to be updated in a messaging app is on the backend, not within the simple text interface.
Maybe it’s all an illusion, but I swear I saved about an hour. I have at least two more flights to book, and I don’t think I’ll ever use a travel app or site again. This is a much faster process, and the results are the same.
Of course, you may have noticed I have not trusted a travel chatbot that does not involve a human agent quite yet. For starters, I haven’t found any I like yet. More importantly, I like being able to confirm a few things with a human agent. I asked the agent to do the search once per day for a few days in a row. That way, it helped confirm to me that I wasn’t missing a good deal. I was also able to ask about other details, like whether a certain airline still offers nonstop flights. I want to be able to have a conversation, and no chatbot that is 100% automated does that yet.
For my next trip, however, I do plan to try a chatbot that uses all AI. If you know of a good one to try, let me know by email.


The man who lied to the police twice and, as a result, may have delayed the investigation into the violent death of David Koschman had six prior run-ins with the law in Chicago, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Among Kevin D. McCarthy’s arrests was one that accused him of a drunken battery of a cabdriver exactly two years before he, his wife and two friends – Craig Denham and Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley – got into a drunken confrontation with Koschman in the Rush Street area in the early-morning hours of April 25, 2004, that led to Koschman’s death 11 days later from brain injuries.
As Koschman lay unconscious in the street after being punched in the face, the police handcuffed McCarthy. That’s when he told them his first lie – that he didn’t know the two men who ran away after Koschman was punched.
Hours later, he repeated the lie, when detectives came to his house, the Chicago Sun-Times has previously reported.
McCarthy talked to the police three times within the month after Koschman was punched – more than anybody else involved in the case. And he told them two very different stories about what had happened that night.
Detectives accepted the second version, in which both McCarthy changed his original story and now agreed with his wife, Bridget Higgins McCarthy, that they did, in fact, know the men who’d run off. They identified them as Vanecko and Denham. Both McCarthys said that they didn’t see who hit Koschman, though.
There’s nothing in any of the dozens of police reports in Koschman’s case that indicates detectives ever questioned Kevin McCarthy about his conflicting stories – or about his prior arrests, which included two busts in Chicago. McCarthy was never convicted in any of those cases. He and his lawyer couldn’t be reached for comment.
Nobody has ever been charged in Koschman’s death, which the Chicago Police Department finally concluded this year – seven years after it happened – resulted from a single punch thrown by Vanecko.
Yawger says he didn’t know about McCarthy’s arrest for pushing a cabdriver, during a night out drinking, at 4:20 a.m. on April 25, 2002. The cabbie didn’t show up in court, and the charges against McCarthy were dismissed.
At the time of the confrontation that led to Koschman’s death, McCarthy had an arrest record on file with the Chicago Police and with the FBI that included the battery charge involving the cabdriver and a 2000 case in which McCarthy was charged with illegal possession of an unloaded shotgun during a traffic stop, records show. As with the 2002 arrest, the gun charges against McCarthy were dropped.
McCarthy, now 39, grew up in Deerfield. His father once ran Zenith Electronics.
McCarthy and Vanecko both graduated from Loyola Academy high school in Wilmette. McCarthy graduated in 1991, Vanecko the following year.
Until the recent police disclosure of McCarthy’s arrest record, Vanecko, now 37, was the only other person involved in the 2004 confrontation known to have had a criminal past.
When he was 17, Vanecko and his cousin, Patrick Daley, then 16, were involved in a brawl at a party on March 1, 1992, at the summer home in Grand Beach, Mich., of Daley’s father, the longtime mayor, who left office earlier this year.
Vanecko pointed a 20-gauge shotgun at a group of people as one of Patrick Daley’s classmates struck another teen in the head with a baseball bat, according to a lawsuit that was settled in 1995 on undisclosed terms.
Vanecko pleaded guilty to aiming a firearm without malice and possession of alcohol, and the mayor’s son pleaded guilty to furnishing alcohol to minors and disturbing the peace. Each was fined and put on probation.
When the Sun-Times asked for records in the Koschman case earlier this year, police reinvestigated and concluded that the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Vanecko threw the only punch, hitting the 5-foot-5, 140-pound Koschman in the face.
As Koschman lay on Division west of Dearborn around 3:15 a.m. on April 25, 2004, Vanecko and Denham ran away, jumping into a cab and heading to a bar, according to police reports.
The McCarthys told the police they kept walking, heading east on Division.
Two of Koschman’s friends flagged down a cop, who was told that Kevin McCarthy had been involved in the altercation and knew the men who ran.
Later that morning, detectives Rita O’Leary and Robert Clemens went to the McCarthy home. Kevin McCarthy told them he and his wife had taken a cab to Division Street to meet his wife’s friend, Megan McDonald, at Butch McGuire’s tavern. At the time, McDonald, now 35, worked for the Chicago Park District as the agency’s lakefront director. She later served as Daley’s special-events director.
McCarthy told detectives that, as he and his wife walked on the sidewalk, they observed two groups of men arguing and that the younger men – Koschman’s group – appeared to be “the aggressors.” McCarthy said that one of the younger men pushed another man into his wife. He told them that he got pushed, too.
“As his wife was pulling him away, he turned around and saw the victim on the ground,” O’Leary wrote, recounting what McCarthy told her.
O’Leary’s report doesn’t say whether she and her partner asked McCarthy if he knew the two men who ran away – a relationship that patrol Officer Edwin Tremore noted in his original report hours earlier.
There’s also no indication that detectives tried to interview McCarthy’s wife, who is the daughter of developer Jack Higgins, whose projects have included building the headquarters of the Chicago Police Department and the FBI’s Chicago regional headquarters.
Jack Higgins and his wife are friends with former Mayor Daley and have contributed to his political campaigns.
On May 13, 2004 – 18 days after the confrontation on Division Street and seven days after Koschman died – detectives interviewed Bridget McCarthy at Area 3 police headquarters at Belmont and Western. Accompanied by her attorney, William Dwyer, she became the first person to identify Vanecko and Denham as the two men who’d run off after Koschman was punched.
Bridget McCarthy told the police that she, her husband, Vanecko and Denham had been at an engagement party and decided to take a cab to Butch McGuire’s. She and Denham got out and began walking on Division while her husband and Vanecko paid the cab fare.
As they passed Koschman’s group, she said, Koschman “reached up and flicked” Denham’s glasses, which led the two men to argue, push and shove each other. The groups were parting, she said, when Koschman “ran back,” and “the pushing, shoving and name-calling resumed” between Koschman and Denham.
Bridget McCarthy said her group had begun walking away again when she turned around and saw Koschman on the ground – and Vanecko and Denham gone.
Six days later, on May 19, 2004, Kevin McCarthy changed his story when he and Dwyer met with detectives at Area 3.
This time, he backed up his wife’s account, adding that he and Vanecko were trying to calm things down by getting “in between Craig and the group of kids” and “pushing Craig away, trying to get some separation between themselves and the group,” according to police reports.
“Mr. McCarthy states that Richard had Craig calmed down, and, as far as he was concerned, the whole incident was over,” the police wrote.
Earlier this year, McCarthy “instructed his wife not to say anything to detectives” when two detectives visited the McCarthy home on Jan. 24 during their reinvestigation of the case.


Gold fell to a five-week low on Friday, heading for its worst week in two months on prospects the United States would curb its stimulus soon and as fears of aUS-led military attack on Syria recede.
US-led military attack on Syria recede.
The United States and Russia started talks on Thursday,trying to flesh out a Moscow plan to dispose of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons.
Gold was quoted at $1,312.66 an ounce, down 0.6 .
It hit its weakest since August 8 at $1,304.56 earlier. As technical support at 100 and 50 day moving averages (MA) has been broken, traders said that $1,307 should now provide a floor, but a consistent fall through that level would trigger further losses to around $1,275.
US gold futures for December also touched a low since August 9 at $1,304.60 an ounce and stood at $1313.50,still down $17.40.
"This is almost certainly the pricing in of the expectations of QE tapering," Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said.
"The FOMC is meeting next week and there is a great deal of speculation over the beginning of the end as far as QE is concerned as soon as the end of the month of whatever size that might be," he added.
The US Federal Reserve may announce a cut in its $85 billion monthly bond purchases at the end of its two-day meeting on Sept. 18.
Gold lost 19 percent this year after the Fed signalled it would start reining in nearly five years of quantitative easing that weighed the dollar down and encouraged investors to buy hard and non-interest rate bearing assets like gold.
Gold were under pressure from a firmer dollar ahead of US retail sales and sentiment data due later on Friday, which could further weigh on sentiment if they come in above market expectations.
Gold prices rallied above $1,430 an ounce to a three-and-a-half-month high in late August on safe-haven buying as the United States and its allies looked set to launch military strikes on Syria.
But the metal's appeal has been dented by diplomatic efforts to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control,which may avert a US military strike.Physical dealers reported buying interest from jewellers,which could help gold stay above the psychological level of $1,300.
"We heard in China there's decent buying," said Ronald Leung, chief dealer at Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong,referring to the world's second-largest consumer.
Purchases from jewellers in Hong Kong and mainland China initially helped gold gain more than half a percent, but heavy selling of New York Comex and bullion futures on Tokyo Commodity Exchange spilled into the cash market.
Spot silver, which fell to a one-month low of $21.35 an ounce earlier, was trading down 0.4 % at $21.65. It has lost around 10 percent so far this week, its biggest weekly loss since mid-April.
Spot platinum was up 0.1 percent at $1,429.49 an ounce, while spot palladium fell 0.2 % at $688.50 an ounce.


Suffolk County police are rejoining the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force following three Central Islip murders in two days last week, effectively reversing a decision to quit the collaboration last fall.
Chief of Department James Burke announced the policy backtrack Monday at the Third Precinct in Bay Shore while outlining that and other steps police have been taking to address the slayings—two of which detectives have said they suspect involve gangs.
When the Press first reported that Suffolk police quit the task force last year, Burke said the three detectives dedicated to the unit were reassigned because of staff and budget shortages. He said the brass is still deciding which two detectives will be assigned now.
Lenny Tucker, president of the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens, was also relieved to learn from the Press that Suffolk police rejoined the FBI gang task force.
He added that he was glad to see that the police stepped up their game before community outrage began to boil over like it did during a spike in gang murders in the area in 2009 and 2010.
FBI spokesman James Margolin said the agency welcomed Suffolk police back into the task force with open arms.
Chief Burke said he hopes rejoining the task force, beefing up patrols and adding school resource officers in the community will help temper residents’ concerns.


Kimberly-Clark has begun testing sales of the Scott Naturals Tube-Free brand of TP that doesn't need a cardboard tube to keep the good times rolling. It's the biggest change seen by toilet paper users since the roll first appeared in the 1800s.
But response isn't all flushed with excitement for terminating the tube, often reused for arts and crafts projects or as pet toys.
To her, the appearance of a brown cardboard cylinder signifies something momentous -- the end of an era.
Kari Love, of West York, Penn., pointed to the new rolls' central holes. Designed to fit around a spindle, they're shaped like polygons instead of circles.
According to a Kimberly-Clark news release, U.S. households use an estimated 17 billion bath tissue tubes annually, amounting to 160 million pounds of waste.
The company conducted a survey of 1,000 people that found 85 percent throw the tubes out with the trash.
At Walmart, Scott's Naturals Tube-Free costs $2.97 for four rolls containing 205.2 square feet compared to the tube-inclusive Scott brand, which costs $3.98 for four rolls containing 419.2 square feet of paper.
Anna Hall, of West York, Penn., didn't seem so sure about paying more per sheet to lose the tubes, sometimes coveted by children as make-believe telescopes and finger puppets.


The Bulldogs season ended with a loss to Liberty in the NCAA Tournament.
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Lamar Peters had a practice jersey wrapped around his neck. He leaned back in the corner of Mississippi State's locker room at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
He looked as comfortable as he could, and he looked confident, too. His Bulldogs were set to take on Liberty in the first round of the NCAA Tournament roughly 24 hours from the time he sat there and said he felt Mississippi State was ready to turn some heads.
Friday evening against the No. 12 seed Liberty Flames, Peters turned plenty of them as he scored 21 points and made four 3-pointers.
But the Flames turned more.
Liberty beat the fifth-seeded Bulldogs, 80-76, to oust them from the tournament much sooner than they would have liked. Mississippi State's season ended abruptly after blowing a double-digit lead down the stretch.
"It's just a tough, tough pill to swallow, especially the way we had the lead that late in the game," MSU head coach Ben Howland said.
Two of the three best players on the floor for either team Friday were Peters and MSU senior guard Quinndary Weatherspoon. The best, though, was probably Liberty red-shirt junior Caleb Homesley, who scored 30 points and led Liberty's comeback.
Homesley caught fire from 3-point range. He made five of his 11 shots from beyond the arc. Three of those came after Mississippi State had built a 10-point lead with roughly seven minutes to go.
"I think I just played confident," Homesley said. "I think any shot i take is going to go in. It just happened that they were falling... It could have been anybody any given night, but tonight it was me."
Before Homesley's assault, the Bulldogs had everything working on both ends of the floor. They racked up eight blocks on the defensive end and wouldn't let Liberty get a good look at the basket. Offensively, Weatherspoon and Peters continued to pace the Bulldogs with a mixture of drives to the bucket and pull-ups from distance.
Weatherspoon scored 27 points on 6-of-12 shooting in his final game in maroon and white. Any time Mississippi State needed a bucket, he drove to the rim and either made a layup or got to the free throw line, where he made 13 of his 16 shots.
"Lamar and I had it going," Weatherspoon said. "I just give the credit to my teammates. I mwan, we all came out and played hard."
They played hard enough to hold a 63-53 lead with 7:11 left in the game. Then they collapsed. Howland said everything that could have went wrong for Mississippi State, well -- went wrong.
Weatherspoon and Peters each picked up four fouls, and it affected Mississippi State's offensive flow. The ball ran through each of those players all night. The duo's mentality drastically changed when they got into foul trouble.
"It made us settle for threes because we didn't want to go out of control and draw a charge," Peters said. "So it made us play timid."
Peters and Weatherspoon couldn't be as aggressive defensively on the perimeter as they had been previously, which allowed Homesley to get good looks from three. He almost single-handily turned the game on its head with 12 points in a four-minute stretch. Those 12 points gave Liberty a 69-67 lead with less than three minutes left.
Mississippi State eventually took a 70-69 lead, but Liberty senior guard Lovell Cabbil Jr. took after his teammate and popped a 3-pointer to give the Flames the lead again. They never looked back from there.
Sitting in a similar position as he did the day before -- slumped back in a chair with cameras in his face -- Peters wasn't feeling as calm and confident as the day before. Those emotions were replaced by dejection and despair.
"I felt like we had it," Peters said grimly. "I felt like we had it."


Meticulously built, this home has extras throughout the home. Plenty of electric plugs in the home. Scored concrete flooring. Propane supplies the home for the stove and heater. Great location close to Highway 31. This home offers a great living area with large kitchen and granite counter tops. Awesome island area to be able to have intimate conversations over coffee or just eating with one or two in your family. The acreage is awesome with ponds and fenced and cross fenced. This is a sub listing and acreage can be made larger or smaller depending on your choices. There is no sign on the property. See additional documents on extras in information.


Generosity, storytelling, relationships and cycling – these are the four guiding principles behind Cycling Without Age, an innovative program that has been named one of Lakewood’s 2018 Sustainability Award winners.
Cycling Without Age uses a unique bicycle that allows older adults to sit comfortably on the front while a pilot pedals behind, letting older adults feel like a kid again while the pilot has the privilege of listening to a lifetime of stories.
Lakewood is celebrating the 11th anniversary of its Sustainability Awards on May 7, with a reception at 6 p.m. and recognition of the 2018 winners at 7 p.m. during the Lakewood City Council meeting at 480 S. Allison Parkway.
The eight winners showed how creativity, passion and determination can create healthier communities, keep waste out of the landfill, spread environmental awareness and bring neighbors together.
Eaton Senior Communities and Lakewood Bicycle Advisory Team launched Cycling Without Age.
Zero Waste Services hosted a clothing swap, distributed reusable bags and organized other creative events to promote waste diversion in Lakewood.
The Lakewood Heritage Center Volunteer Gardeners exemplified sustainable gardening by avoiding synthetic fertilizers, donating produce and composting all of the garden waste.
The Action Center used creativity to improve its ReClothe Program, which connects 230,000 pieces of clothing to neighbors in need.
The Green Mountain Area Homeschoolers taught their community how to safely coexist with wildlife through educational displays, presentations and youth activities.
The Dunstan Middle School Student Council created a schoolwide energy saving challenge that led to a $10,000 award for additional energy upgrades.
Teachers and staff at Lakewood’s 11th Avenue and Patterson Head Start facilities successfully designed compost collection in their classrooms and became zero waste champions for their students and co-workers.
Lakewood Recreation Programmer Renee Jones implemented a zero waste approach at older adult recreation events, reaching more than 1,200 individuals each year.


Ray McKinnon has been named manager of the month in Scottish League One after an unbeaten April for Brechin City.
The 44-year-old's side won three matches in a row before drawing their final game during April.
It ensured that Brechin qualified for the play-offs and host Alloa Athletic, who finished second bottom of the Championship, in Wednesday's semi-final first leg.
City finished fourth, one point ahead of Airdrieonians.
That was despite losing their last game of the season, 3-1 at home to Stranraer.
The victory for Stranraer took them into second place, above Forfar Athletic, to secure themselves a home game in the second leg of their semi-final.
McKinnon, who played in midfield for 13 senior clubs, including Dundee United, Nottingham Forest, Aberdeen, Luton Town and Livingston, took charge of Brechin in 2012 after a spell in charge of junior outfit Lochee United.


The third series of Funko’s Horror Classics Mystery Minis is coming just in time for Halloween this October, and the entire roster has just been unveiled with some great additions.
If you don’t recognize all the figures in the photo above, here’s all the included figures: The Mummy, The Wolf Man, Freddy Krueger with syringe fingers from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, the Grady Twins and Jack Torrance from The Shining, Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, Regan from The Exorcist, Jason Vorhees, Twisty the Clown from American Horror Story: Freak Show, Slimer from Ghostbusters, Elvira, Adam Maitland from Beetlejuice and Bruce the shark from Jaws.
Hot Toys has another great new sixth scale figure from Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the way, this time giving Finn a variant as First Order Stormtrooper FN-2187. The figure comes with the signature Stormtrooper helmet with a bloody handprint smeared on it, all the appropriate blasters, interchangeable hands, and armor that’s all dirty from being on Jakku.
As of now there’s no price or release date for the figure, but this one will have a limited quantity and will only be available in selected markets. No word on what those markets are, but this could be a more difficult figure to get your hands on. See more photos over at the Hot Toys Facebook page.
The classic Batmobile from the 1966 Batman television series gets a new 1/35 scale collectible that comes mini versions of Batman and Robin standing a 6mm tall, as well as versions of the figures that sit inside the vehicle itself. The doors, hood and trunk open and of course the wheels turn too. There’s no pre-order available yet, but the vehicle will cost about $80 from Kaiyodo and will be released in December.
Shredder’s mutant henchman Bebop and Rocksteady finally made their big screen debut in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and now they’re getting a pricey set of statues from Prime 1 Studio.
Both are crafted as 1/4 scale collectibles standing around 21 inches tall. You can buy them both together or individually (though I’m not sure why you’d want one without the other). Plus, if you buy them together, you get an exclusive Shredder mask to display on your shelf as well. But if you want the set with the Shredder, you better act fast, because only 350 of them will be available.
The set will cost you $1199, or you can buy them individually for $599 each. There’s no release date yet, but you can stay tuned to the Prime1Studio Facebook page to find out when they’re on sale.
These are easily the best Ghostbusters figures I’ve ever seen. They’re super-detailed sculpts of Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, complete with some of the coolest mini accessories. They all come with proton packs and radios, and there are also teases of the ghost trap, though it’s not clear which figure will get that accessory. There’s also a proton stream that can attach to the neutrino wand for the best ghostbusting poses.
There’s no word on the price or release date for these figures yet, but the good news is if the 1/6 scale versions end up being too salty for you, there are also 1/12 scale versions being made as well. However, you might find the 1/6 scale figures more appealing when you learn there will be an Ecto-1 released on the same scale to go along with the figures. That’s going to be so expensive, but I’m just gonna have to buy them.
See more photos of the figures over at Blitzway’s Facebook page.
That’s all for The Toy Box for now. If you’re looking for some superhero goodies and other memorabilia, be sure to check out the third page of Superhero Bits or our recurring Cool Stuff articles.
Read the previous edition of The Toy Box right here.


The Northern Ireland duo behind a famous New York bar are launching the much sought-after Dead Rabbit Whiskey in Belfast tomorrow.
Having assumed cult status among bartenders across the globe, the five-year-old blend of Irish single malt and grain whiskeys has been a long time in the making.
That's according to Sean Muldoon, one half of the north Belfast twosome behind the multi-award winning Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog pub, to give it its full name.
Sean (46) told the Belfast Telegraph the profits of the New York sales of the whiskey will go to Aware NI, the mental health charity supporting people with depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.
"Irish whiskey is what we're known for; we've over 200 bottles, which is the biggest Irish Whiskey selection in America," Sean said.
"We were approached by a whiskey company just after we opened The Dead Rabbit five years ago and it has taken that length of time to make it happen. It's been a very long process."
Sean, who's married to north Belfast woman Anne (54) and now lives in downtown Brooklyn, said bar owners in New York were precluded from owning and receiving profits from brands such as whiskey, vodka and gin.
"We have a licensing agreement with the people making the whiskey.
"We're letting them use our identity but they can't give us any royalties so we've agreed they'll give them to Aware NI.
"We're hoping to raise thousands for the charity over time."
Aware NI was chosen, according to Sean, partly because his business partner Jack McGarry, who's 29, has personal experience of depression.
"Jack was very depressed at one point and as a result he was out of work for a year," he said.
"Depression is a common problem where we're from in north Belfast.
"It's a charity that pulled at our hearts more than anything else and we wanted people to known we're in this with them."
Sean has been launching the new tipple in London, Dublin and Belfast and he said he has enjoyed being back in Northern Ireland, where his two step-daughters Laura (29) and Christina (27) live.
"I love coming back," he said.
He's been in America for seven-and-a-half years.
Back in 2011 he was The Merchant Hotel's bar manager and Jack was a bartender.
At the time the bar had a reputation of its own as one of the city's finest.
But their foreign fate was sealed when a prominent American businessman stopped in one day and made Sean an offer he couldn't refuse - "take what you've achieved in Belfast and I'll set you up in New York".
He didn't need to be asked twice.
"New York is a city of opportunity; it's where dreams become reality," he said.
"There's so much more opportunity in New York than anywhere else in the world if you're good at what you do."
So how is it going?
"The bar is going phenomenally well; the problem with it is that it's so small considering how busy it is," said the Ardoyne man.
"It's probably doing three or four times as much as we thought it would do when we opened it.
"We have taken on the building next door because we have to expand."


Google Incentivizing Ad Partners To Use Automation; Is That Good?
Kirk Williams posted on Twitter that he got an email from Google with new rewards and incentives if he uses more of Google's ad automation features. He said he doesn't have an issue with automation but the incentives should be tied to client goals, not using a feature in Google Ads which may or may not result in positive outcomes for your client goals.
Kirk said "Anyone seen the new Google Partners store? They’re now incentivizing agencies to turn on things like more Search or GDN automation in accounts by rewarding them with points to win sweatshirts and mini-fridges. Not, you know, hitting or exceeding client goals."
BTW, I'm not remotely against automation used well.
He wrote this up in detail at Marketing Land and listed these specific "challenges" where you earn incentives within Google. Audience challenge, Search automation, Display automation, Non-last click adoption, Host a live stream event, Participate in a training, Team certifications and specializations.
Again, it is nice to see Google pushing advertisers to use more of their systems. But if it doesn't mean the client will have a better outcome, then don't push advertisers and agencies to use them.


Syria warned the American and French ambassadors Wednesday not to travel outside the capital without permission, two weeks after they angered the regime by visiting a city that has become the center of the country”s four-month-old uprising.
If the U.S. and French envoys disobey the order, Syria will ban all diplomats from leaving Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said during a lecture at Damascus University.
“We did not evict the two ambassadors because we want the relations to develop in the future and in order for their governments to review their stances toward Syria,” al-Moallem said.
Egypt”s ruling generals say foreigners won”t be allowed to monitor upcoming elections but there will be Egyptian observers.
The decision was announced Wednesday as the military unveiled a law setting guidelines for Egypt”s first post-revolution parliamentary vote.
Maj. Gen. Mamdouh Shaheen, a member of the military council that assumed control of the country after Hosni Mubarak stepped down, says the army will announce a date for the elections by the end of next month.
He says there won”t be foreign monitors in order to protect the country”s sovereignty.
Police in Belarus detained some 40 protesters Wednesday for clapping their hands and stomping their feet during a demonstration against the authoritarian policies of the president on the 17th anniversary of his rule.
Public discontent is swelling as Belarus experiences its worst financial crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union. The country recently devalued the national currency, causing panic buying of goods and huge lines at currency exchange offices.
Much blame is directed at Alexander Lukashenko, whom the West dubbed “Europe”s last dictator,” for increasing public sector salaries in pre-election populism last year when the country could ill-afford it.
A military official says that at least 37 soldiers have been arrested in a wave of detentions following an attempt to assassinate the democratically elected leader of Guinea.
The official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the press said many of the officers and rank-and-file soldiers that are being held have ties to the past two military rulers of Guinea.
The former French colony was only able to shake off the yoke of dictatorship and military rule last November won by former opposition leader Alpha Conde. Conde narrowly survived Tuesday”s attack which pierced the walls of his bedroom.
Police have asked a judge to order the arrest of three men suspected of involvement in the killings of two Amazon activists, authorities said Wednesday.
Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria were gunned down last May near a reserve in the jungle state of Para, where they taught farmers how to use land in a sustainable manner. Para is one of Brazil”s most violent and lawless states.


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