We believe the answer to a congregation’s vitality is within the congregation and results in the congregation being the unique church it was meant to be. We see too much “church envy” leading to unnecessary mimicking of ministry and programs and not enough “playing to strengths” and moving in the direction the Holy Spirit is leading.
Through our mentoring services and Transformative Leadership Training event, leaders can identify God’s call on their lives as well as their church’s unique Kingdom of God Business within their community.
Dr. Stan Copeland discusses the challenges, transitions and opportunities that gave birth to Colinasway.
A vision-driven plan for ministry and pursuit of unique Kingdom of God business must be driven by an organized season of directed prayer.
We want every church to be able to afford a Colinasway mentorship. The non-profit approach will allow supporters to participate in funding mentorships through providing grants.
We believe in working together with other church-related businesses and denominational programs that complement our mentoring approach toward vitality.
We believe in teams of one clergy and one lay mentor working with Pastor/Lay Leadership teams in congregations.
Each mentorship is a one-of-a-kind plan, taking into account both “best practices” and a congregation’s unique setting and vision.
We come alongside to help develop the Plan of Ministry and stay for a defined period of time as Steps of Action are pursued.
Stan Copeland
Founder, Lead Facilitator of Vision
Bio | Email
Donna Whitehead
Founder, Lead Facilitator of Development
Cyndy Pierson
Facilitator of Operations
Martha Myre
Clergy Mentor
Twitter | Facebook | Blog
Skeeter White
Lay Mentor
Carmyn Neely
Mike Renquist
David Wire
Dr. Stan Copeland and his wife Tammy have been a team in ministry for 32 years. They married in 1981 and moved from their rural East Texas home to Kansas City, Missouri where Stan attended Saint Paul School of Theology. He graduated with honors and the coveted Brady preaching award and returned to Texas to be the Associate Pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Henderson.In Henderson (1984-1986) he made an impact on the church and the larger community, which awarded him the Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year award at the age of 26. Days after receiving that award he was diagnosed with a terminal form of leukemia. He moved to First United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas which was closer to MD Anderson hospital where he underwent an experimental drug treatment. The protocol was not successful overall, with only 8% of the participants responding positively, but Copeland was cured. This experience forever fused in his heart the belief of facing Colinas~hills~challenges and calling on the Lord who is found in the midst of the hills of our lives. Psalm 121
At First Church in Houston, Stan Copeland became known for his effective team building, evangelism and small group work. The church averaged nearly 700 new members each year that Stan oversaw the evangelism ministry. He was also tapped to oversee the West Campus initiative, in 1991, which was the first United Methodist church to attempt to do worship and ministry from two locations. Small group ministry was the driver of this new approach and he trained leaders for over 150 small groups. Dr. Copeland completed his doctorate at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio writing his dissertation entitled “Field Preaching in a Post-Modern World” on the dual-campus, extended ministry approach.
In 1992 Stan was appointed to his first Senior Pastor post at Pollard United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas. Under his leadership the congregation grew from 1,500 to 2,000 in membership. Every inch of the campus was renovated and considerable new space was added as he led the congregation in two capital campaigns in five years and established an endowment.
In 1998, at the age of 38, Stan was appointed to the North Texas Conference, to become the fourth pastor of the Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas. In his ministry at Lovers Lane he has become well known as a visionary leader with an understanding of the church as “business as unusual.” Building a church from 900 in weekly worship attendance to a multi-cultural, multi-worship service, small group based, one-on-one disciple-making congregation with nearly 1500 in weekly worshippers from over 20 different countries of the world, has been his legacy. The church is known for its incredible call to missions and other-oriented generosity. Stan Copeland has led Lovers Lane to raise over $35 million in two capital campaigns and has nearly tripled the budget to $4.5 million. In addition the church has started five 501c(3)s that account for another $3 million in operations.
In 2006 Stan wrote a book about his mentor, Dr. William H. Hinson entitled Lord, He Went: Remembering William H. Hinson.He then began to dream of a church full of mentors: clergy and consummate lay church leaders who would mentor in what he has come to call the Colinasway method. His newest book Our Story, Our Song about Lovers Lane is an example of what Dr. Stan Copeland and his colleagues believe all churches have in them: a life-changing story and a unique vision of making disciples that can change the planet.
Tammy and Stan have two children Zach (26) and Emily Grace (19) and one daughter-in-law Emily Marie (26). Tammy, who is an elementary public school teacher, is quick to say, “Stan is the only Colinasway mentor in the family and it’s my second job to keep him well-grounded and about the work of the Lord on this planet. His vision and ideas keep us all hopping. He’s a ‘blessed’ handful.” To which he could simply say, “Amen.”
Rev. Donna Whitehead and her husband Don have been married for 46 years. After their wedding in November 1965, Donna joined Don in Dallas, Texas where she taught Jr. High math and English to eighth and ninth graders. After obtaining a Masters of Liberal Arts degree from Southern Methodist University (1975), she entered Perkins School of Theology where she was among the first women to be enrolled in Seminary as well as one of the first eight women to be ordained in the North Texas Conference. She graduated from Perkins with honors and began her ministry as the Associate Pastor at the newly-formed Custer Road United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas.
Donna quickly became a leader in the Plano community and served as the first woman to be chair of the Ministerial Alliance. At Custer Road she became known as a starter of new ministries, a catalyst for growth, and a strong preacher as well as pastor. In the conference she served as the first woman to be chair of the Council on Finance and Administration and thrived in her role as pioneer and trailblazer in her field.
One of her strong passions is reaching new people, and the church was listed as one of the top ten fastest growing United Methodist Churches during her tenure. She led the effort to add a worship service for the church while at the same time doubling the number of adult Sunday School classes from 22 to 45. This was one of the reasons that she taught workshops all over the country and was seen as a true expert in church growth.
In June 2000 Donna made a pastoral change and was appointed Executive Pastor for Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas. She moved from a suburban church to an urban church, from a neighborhood church to a regional church, from a new “church start” to a mature settled 55-year old church. Because she has the ability to see the Big Picture of the church along with the gift of bringing out the best in people, she soon became known as someone who could get the job done by doing whatever was necessary for the church to be a success. She excelled in growing and maturing gifted Christian leaders and growing the church’s stewardship. She also served as the first full-time director of the Lovers Lane Foundation, a time in which the assets doubled and the number of donors tripled.
Donna was featured in Unstoppable Woman: Stories of American Character from North Texas published in 1998. This book shares the stories of women who have overcome obstacles, challenges, and discrimination. Just as others have mentored her, Donna has a strong calling to equip, empower, and mentor men and women as they find the unique assignment God has for them. She wants to help others to dream big dreams and enlarge their vision—to live with expectancy and anticipation of what can be ahead.
Donna and Don have two children, Wendi, (with husband Bryan) and Trey, (with wife Kylie) and five grandchildren. Donna comments: “We must advance and see the world changed for this next generation. I want to do my part and work together with others to change the status quo and renew God’s church, one leader at a time, one church at a time so that my grandchildren along with others can come to know God.”
Cyndy Pierson is a native of Dallas, having lived all of her life in the metroplex area. She and her husband, Bill, have been married for 36 years, and have three children and three grandchildren. Raised in the United Methodist Church, Cyndy has a long history of love for the church.
Cyndy is a “preacher’s kid”, as her father was a United Methodist pastor in the North Texas Conference. As a result of this close connection to the church, she knows the value of the church as the foundation of living a Christian life. It is her belief that through the church, people come to know Christ on a personal level and find the support to live their faith on a daily basis.
Professionally, Cyndy has spent 39 years working in public education, first as a teacher, then High School Counselor, Campus Administrator, and finally as a Consultant for Academic Development. Working with organizations such as schools has provided her with many opportunities to help others identify their goals and vision, and then create plans to accomplish such goals.
As the Director of Guidance at Plano Senior High School, she was awarded the Eisenhower Award, given by the alumni of West Point Academy to a counselor in the Dallas area in recognition of service to students through public education. Her dedication to the students led her to work with curriculum and instruction, emphasizing the various learning styles of students in the classroom. As the Associate Principal for Curriculum and Instruction at Plano West Senior High, she worked to find innovative ways to provide low performing students with an opportunity to find success. Her ministry has always been focused on the needs of the individuals with whom she works, and finding ways to move them toward their goals in a positive environment.
Family is very important to Cyndy. She and her husband are helping to raise her three-year-old grandson. It is the greatest gift and challenge of her life. She sees this as a blessing and loves every minute of it! Watching a grandchild grow and develop from close up is truly special!
Martha Myre was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Her family has been Methodist for several generations; her great-uncle Rev. Henry Vail a Minister in the North Texas Conference for many years. Martha graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1980 with a degree in Molecular Biology. She married Chris in 1981 and they began their family with the births of Amanda in 1985 and Rachel in 1987. Though she had two young children, a husband and a mortgage, Martha finally heard God’s call into ministry and entered Perkins School of Theology in 1989. She received a Masters of Theological Studies in 1996 and a PhD in Hebrew Bible in 2000.
Martha’s first appointment was as a Student Pastor to the Windom Charge in Fannin County where she pastored four small churches from 1991 to 1993 and had a third child, Christopher. She moved to Greenland Hills United Methodist Church in 1993 as the Youth Pastor, built the children’s program as the Minister to Children and then worked as an Intern Pastor. Martha spent 5 months in Horatio, Arkansas in 1996 as an Interim Pastor and then returned to the North Texas area. After finishing her dissertation in 2000 and receiving the PhD in Hebrew Bible, she began as a part-time Pastor at Oak Grove United Methodist Church. A small rural church in the path of growth, Oak Grove doubled its worship attendance in two years, built a new sanctuary, and decided to move to a full-time pastor. Martha was appointed as that pastor and the church continued to grow for the next 4 years.
In June of 2006, Martha was appointed as Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Bowie, and moved there with her husband Chris and son Christopher, the only child left at home. During her tenure at Bowie, Martha concentrated on building the youth program and bringing new and younger people into the church. She also became heavily involved in the community as a member of Rotary, a volunteer at the Bowie Mission, a cheering fan at football games, and Cubmaster of the Cub Scout Pack among other things.
After a brief appointment at Spring Valley UMC as the Associate Pastor, Martha came to Leonard in July 2010.
Now in her third year at FUMC Leonard, Martha is enjoying the community and the congregation. She is leading the congregation to a renewed focus on reaching out to the community and to those who have no church home. Her passion is to introduce people to Jesus Christ whether through preaching, teaching, mission work or social media.
Much of Martha’s post-seminary education has been in the areas of Family Systems as applied to the church including Religion and Dispute Resolution at SMU-in-Legacy. She was one of the first in the North Texas Conference to go through the New Church Start Institute.
While a baby boomer by birth, Martha has embraced the digital age with enthusiasm. She has developed websites at three of the small churches she has pastored that have attracted younger people to the church. She has taught online courses for BeADisciple.com and is developing an online bible study for youth at Leonard. Currently fluent in blogging, facebooking, texting, and tweeting Martha looks forward to whatever the next way of communicating will be!
Skeeter White has a passion for helping people reach their fullest potential in their work and personal lives. Helping them realize and achieve their dreams allows them to claim the abundance of the universe in their lives. Skeeter values teamwork and collaboration, trust, commitment, honesty, directness, innovation, and fun.
Skeeter has been a member of The United Methodist Church since 1972. He has served at various leadership positions in the church and has coached Pastors in leadership and organizational matters. He provides leadership in helping churches create vision and strategic plans. He regularly participates in worship as a member of a praise team with vocals and playing the guitar.
Skeeter holds a B.S. in Organizational Development and Leadership from Friends University. Skeeter has a unique combination of large organization management and significant project management skills and experience. His extensive knowledge and experience using organizational development practices and tools makes him a dynamic leader and team builder relating to organizational and enterprise–wide cross-functional environments. He has a proven record of accomplishment in business problem-solving based on process deployment and management.
Skeeter works with leaders and organizations to bring about new organizational cultures. He embraces change as a means for organizations and individuals to grow and prosper. His 37+ years of business experience has centered on delivering leading-edge computing products and services in both administrative and manufacturing environments. He has worked closely with producing-units in four different company environments. Whether working on a global or an individual-site basis he focuses on positively affecting economic profit through the achievement of business goals. He has extensive experience creating new organizational cultural norms driven by Acquisitions, Mergers, Divestitures, Corporate Initiatives, and Major Organizational Change.
During the last thirty years, Skeeter has effectively managed organizations within Boeing and Spirit Aerosystems. His last role at Spirit was as Chief Information Officer (CIO). His preferred approach to leadership and management has been to use organizational development and teaming practices and tools.
Skeeter has significant experience as a facilitator in the use of Organizational Development, Change Management, Quality Management, and Team Building practices and tools. At Boeing’s Leadership Center, as Manager Practitioner, he taught and facilitated classes pertaining to Economic Profit to middle level managers, Strategic Leadership, and Business Simulations for Senior Managers and Executives. In addition, over a five-year period as an Adjunct Professor, he taught classes in Telecommunications Management and Project Management.
He has been married to his wife Millie for over 40 Years. They have two grown children Heather and Matt and four grandchildren: Tyler, Trevor, Samantha, and Willow.
Carmyn Neely has 40-plus years of experience in the education field. She has served as a classroom teacher, an adjunct professor, and an administrator at the school campus, district and state levels. Carmyn received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from the University of North Texas in Denton. She has done post-master’s coursework at Texas A&M University at Commerce, the University of North Texas and Texas Tech University.
Throughout her career, Carmyn has focused on curriculum and instruction at the school and administration levels in districts throughout the state of Texas. She was Deputy Director of Statewide Initiatives, working with Regional Education Service Centers and the Texas Education Agency. In this role, she identified exemplary programs and best practices. Carmyn has served as Deputy Superintendent of Schools for the Lubbock Independent School District and as Associate Superintendent of Schools for the Dallas Independent School District. She served on the State Board of Directors and was a member of the Texas Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. She has held membership in the state and national Associations for Supervision and Curriculum Development and Phi Delta Kappa. In 2003 Carmyn was the recipient of the Bayard H. Friedman Hero Award given at Southern Methodist University in recognition of her contributions to the improvement of public education.
Carmyn’s dedication to improving public education within the state of Texas led her to the Foundation for the Education of Young Women (FEYW). In October of 2006, Carmyn assumed the position of Executive Director of the Foundation. Under Carmyn’s leadership and direction, the Foundation has formed partnerships with urban school districts throughout the state to open all-girl public schools in Austin, Dallas, Lubbock, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Houston. The goal of Carmyn and FEYW is to have one hundred percent of the students in the sponsored schools not only graduate from high school, but attend and graduate from college.
Mike Renquist is an author, keynoter and change agent, serving in the areas of training and human and organization development. Originally educated as a Presbyterian minister, he has a degree in Speech and Theatre from Austin College, in Sherman, Texas, and a Master of Divinity and Doctorate of Ministry from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas.
After serving numerous churches in Texas and Missouri, he successfully transitioned to business consulting and training, both as an internal and external consultant. He has served as consultant or trainer in over 165 different corporations, many singular locations and settings, domestic and international.
For Colinasway, he can mentor from the perspective of a pastor and/or a business consultant. He is a certified practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, and his specialty in training is presentation and communication skills, having brought new competencies to thousands in the last twenty-five years. He is affiliated with Greenlights for Non-profit Success in Austin as an Interim Executive Director of NPs in transition, and has had four placements since 2010.
Married to a United Methodist minister, The Rev. Dr. Georjean Blanton, a spiritual director in private practice in Austin, they have three adult children, and immensely enjoy their two grandsons.
David Wire David has a diverse and rich spiritual background. He was raised a Lutheran in New Orleans, La; attended a Catholic High School and became a Methodist 40 years ago at First Church Richardson. He was a member of Custer Road United Methodist Church (CRUMC) as well as the Friendship Sunday School Class for over 20 years. For the past 8 years David and his wife Lorraine have been members of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, TX.
David and Lorraine were married in Custer Road’s Chapel and have been blessed with 3 grown children and 11 grandchildren. The grandchildren are all under the ages of 15; 5 girls and 6 boys. Their oldest son is an entrepreneur in the Auto Industry who attends Custer Road Methodist with his wife and 2 girls; their middle son a Marine Officer, who served 9 months in Afghanistan after 2 tours in Iraq, is also a Methodist family with his wife and 4 boys; and their youngest daughter is a Nurse Practitioner with 5 children. Her husband teaches at TCA in Dallas and they worship at Northwest Bible Church.
At First Church Richardson (1970 – 1984), David taught Sunday School and Adult Education classes on a regular basis. Along with 3 other church members founded the first Christian singles program in North Dallas. It was modeled after LLUMC singles program. Recognizing a need to reach out to singles, First Church Richardson sponsored a social that attracted over 300 singles. They were seeking a Christian home that would welcome them, which did not exist at that time. We filled a need for these singles.
From 1985 – 2005 (20 years), David was an active member and lay leader at CRUMC. Some of his lay leadership includes: annual blood drive, operational campaigns and capital campaigns, PPR, Sunday School Class Officer, Couples and Single Sunday School Class Teacher, Graduate of Disciple Bible Study, Walk to Emmaus Retreat, and Adult Bible Studies. In 2000 he was one of 4 founders of an out-reach mission project at CRUMC for individuals in the community who were in job transition. They needed a new career vision which included coaching and training to find a new job. From this mission program he began coaching and mentoring individuals as a lay leader through the church and community organizations. What started then, he has continued through the past 14 years and now has come full circle.
As members Stonebriar Community Church (SCC) in Frisco, TX, David and Lorraine completed the Lay Leadership Program and then formed a Home Adult Fellowship group. They opened their home on Thursday evenings and lead a bible study with adults that were new to SCC and/or the community. Also, they have supported mission projects including feeding children in foreign countries and helping special needs children. Lorraine volunteer teaches in the Wednesday nights youth program, taking our 2 oldest grand-daughters.
Personally David and Lorraine feel that God has blessed them with a covenant relationship. They strive to be legacy parents and grand-parents to their immediate family and extended family and friends. For David few life experiences have passed him by; both joyous and tribulation ones. Throughout, his Christian faith has been the constant source of strength which is best described as Bible-Based, Christ-Centered and Spirit-Led. David possesses knowledge, maturity and wisdom from his Christian background. His purpose in life is to help and serve others in need; one way is as a Colinasway lay mentor.
Professionally David is a Sales and Business Development Leader having worked for companies like: EDS, KPMG, Nortel Networks and Management Consulting firms. He served his country with an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Navy; graduated from UL – Lafayette with a B.S. in Physics; and holds several certifications in technology, business and sales. He is active in his community and charitable organizations. He and Lorraine live in Frisco, TX.


CAM is working to establish its relationship with the Better Business Bureau across Canada. We have sent our membership list to the BBB and they will report back to us with the current status of each CAM member. CAM itself has become a member of the BBB on a reciprocal basis. CAM members will have the opportunity to join the BBB at a preferential rate.
We encourage you to join for 2000. Our 2000 Membership Directory is in progress and will be published in April. As mentioned last month, it will be a combination of magazine and directory, and will be published twice a year. As it was for previous membership directories, this magazine will be an important method by which Canadian movers communicate. Please check your listing at www.mover.net/cam/directory/index.html.
CAM is working with several federal and provincial government departments and agencies regarding labour practices. The following are the key issues:
Movers conducting cash deals when no workers’ compensation or tax is collected.
Movers advertising long-distance inter-provincial services while paying employees under provincial labour laws (i.e., overtime after 40 or 45 hours per week).
Movers not paying overtime when applicable.
Clear definition of provincial laws and federal laws.
A level playing field for all employers.
The Canadian Professional Mover’s Course has generated a lot of interest in the moving community. There have been 43 registrations for the course. One van line and the federal government signed up to evaluate the course.
Feedback from the users has been mixed although generally positive. There were a few teething problems in the marking system, with the Website, which has not been always available, and in some of the lessons in which certain concepts vary in definition from company to company. These areas are being ironed out. We encourage feedback.
HRDC
We are endeavouring to get an update on the status of CAM’s "sector partnership" agreement with HDRC. This relates to assistance for the development of occupational standards that will assist the development of the mover’s course and future education efforts.
WWW.MOVER.NET
The CAM Website has been used as a method for the public to get in touch with CAM to find a mover or voice a complaint. Members have used the site with varying degrees of success to advertise for new employees or sell used equipment. A few industry suppliers have used the site to prospect for clients.
MOVING STATISTICS
CAM has rekindled discussions with Pete Pedersen regarding the provision of data, statistics and benchmarks for members. Pete has the go-ahead to prepare an outline of potential useful data sets that members might be interested in along with likely costs to members for access. Pete is working on the survey now to determine members' interest and the value that the information would be to members.
CONSUMER REFERRALS AND COMPLAINTS
The CAM office has received a large number of requests from the public for referrals to reputable movers and complaints about the service from non-members and members (fortunately only a few) alike. Complaints relate to damage, non-fulfillment of promised service, loss of goods and overcharging.
Ontario’s Department of Corporate and Consumer Affairs directs complaints related to movers to CAM. In addition, the department refers consumers to CAM when they ask the department for a referral to a reputable mover. The Better Business Bureau also refers the public to CAM when they receive a complaint or request for referral.
On the positive side, members should be finding that they are getting a few referrals through the course of the year from the national office. When asked to provide a referral, the national office gives the consumer a few member names in the geographic area.
CAM ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION AND BYLAWS
CAM Director, Scott Hickling, has agreed to review CAM’s current bylaws, which admittedly are out of date and reflect the CAM operation in place in the 1980s. Bylaw changes should be tabled and concluded at our AGM in November 2000.


Superintendent of Dartmouth apartment building recalls night of killing
Steve Bruce (sbruce@herald.ca)
Nadia Gonzales was stabbed to death June 16, 2017, at an apartment building in Dartmouth. - GoFundMe page
The superintendent of the Dartmouth apartment building where Nadia Gonzales was killed says he saw blood all over the floor outside unit 16 when he went upstairs to investigate a noise complaint on the evening of June 16, 2017.
Ivan Simmonds testified Monday in Nova Scotia Supreme Court at the trial of Calvin Maynard Sparks, 26, of Dartmouth and Samanda Rose Ritch, 22, of Halifax, who are charged with first-degree murder.
Gonzales, a 35-year-old mother of two from Hammonds Plains, died after she was attacked in the hallway on the top floor of a four-storey building at 33 Hastings Dr. She was stabbed 37 times and stuffed into a hockey bag that was left in a stairwell.
Sparks and Ritch are also accused of attempting to murder John Patterson, a Hants County senior who has told the court that he used to help Gonzales deliver crack cocaine.
Patterson, 72, suffered six stab wounds in the attack. Police were dispatched to the scene after Patterson hurried out of the apartment building and collapsed on the lawn of an elementary school across the street.
After seeing the blood in the hallway of the fourth floor, Simmonds said he tried to call the tenant of apartment 16, Wayne Bruce, on his cellphone, but there was no answer, so he knocked on his door.
Bruce then came out of the apartment, Simmonds said. He said he asked Bruce “what’s going on here?" and Bruce replied, “I don’t know.”
Simmonds said Bruce did not seem shocked by the presence of blood after he pointed it out to him. He said Bruce did not allow him to go into his apartment so he had no idea if there was anybody else in there.
As Bruce was going back into his apartment, Simmonds said a third-floor tenant who had complained about hearing a loud crashing sound from the fourth floor came up and told him there was a duffel bag in a nearby stairwell.
The bag was on a landing between the third and fourth floors.
“I (saw) hair sticking out of the bag,” the superintendent said. “I thought it was a dog, so I walked around and looked and it was a person.”
Simmonds said that before he went upstairs, he had been hanging around the front steps of the building for about two hours drinking beer with a tenant, Henry Armstrong.
Simmonds said three people – an older man, a man in his 30s and a woman - arrived at the building and buzzed apartment 16 to gain entrance. He said he didn’t recognize the younger man but had seen the older man visiting the building several times before.
The younger man left the building about five minutes later, Simmonds said.
He said he didn’t see anyone else enter the building through the front door around that time of night. He said there are two locked doors at the back of the building that can be accessed by tenants with their keys.
Crown attorney Steve Degen showed Simmonds a police photograph, taken after the incident, showing one of those doors propped open with a chair.
On cross-examination by Malcolm Jeffcock, Sparks’ lawyer, Simmonds admitted it’s not unusual for people to put things in the door to keep it open.
Simmonds said he didn’t notice any blood on the younger man but then agreed that in a statement to police the day after the killing, he said the man had a little scratch on his neck and blood on his back.
Armstrong testified that he was alone out front when the older man came out of the building with two noticeable “lashes” across his stomach and crossed the street. He said he called 911 and stayed with the man until police arrived.
Armstrong insisted he was only on the front steps with Simmonds for about five minutes and didn’t see the three people arrive.
He said police confiscated most of his beer. “I’d like to have those back,” he joked.
On Monday, the jury of nine men and four women also heard further testimony from Det. Const. Randy Wood, a forensic identification officer who was involved in the investigation, and two other officers.
Sgt. Mo Chediac told the court that he and another officer came across the hockey bag in the stairwell as they made their way through the building at about 8 p.m.
Chediac said he allowed a paramedic supervisor to unzip the bag and check to see if Gonzales, who was in the fetal position, was still alive. He said the paramedic straightened Gonzales out and attached some electrodes to her body before determining “she was beyond help and was deceased.”
The sergeant said he remembers Gonzales’ left arm hanging through the railing of the stairwell after she was partially removed from the bag.
Chediac confirmed that of the many police personnel who were in the building that night, the only ones who wore protective clothing and booties were the forensic officers.
Const. Jason Joncas was working with the plainclothes quick-response unit when he was dispatched to 33 Hastings Dr. He said he knew of Gonzales’ involvement in the drug trade and learned she was in a relationship with a man named Jacob Sparks.
Jacob Sparks, Vincent Sparks and James Riley were arrested later that night on Portland Street, near Hastings Drive. The vehicle they were in, an older-model Toyota Camry, was seized and transported to police headquarters for processing.
Joncas said nothing appeared suspicious about the three men and they did not have any injuries or blood on them. They were released the next morning without being charged.
Joncas also helped track down a Honda Accord that Calvin Sparks and Ritch allegedly used. He found the vehicle June 17 at 10:05 p.m., parked behind an apartment building at 6969 Bayers Rd.
Sparks and Ritch had been apprehended on nearby Federal Avenue that morning.


Home News Ticker Al Cross: Of course we agree with McConnell that we need more ‘civility’ in our public discourse — from all
Al Cross: Of course we agree with McConnell that we need more ‘civility’ in our public discourse — from all
Nov 22nd, 2019 · 0 Comment
“Elections have consequences” is a favorite saying for politicians of all stripes, and for those of us who try to make sense of what they say (or don’t say). But elections also have lessons, and those who learn from them are usually the most successful in politics.
One of America’s most successful politicians, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, often keeps those lessons to himself, but he alluded to one in a speech to the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives on Monday.
“I think America’s biggest problem right now is a lack of civility,” he said, repeating the last four words for emphasis. He added later, “We need to learn how to behave better, how to be able to disagree without anger.”
Coming less than two weeks after voters narrowly rejected civility-challenged Gov. Matt Bevin but elected every other Republican on the ballot, it sounded like McConnell was taking a lesson from the people who will render judgment on him next fall – probably in an election with Democrat Amy McGrath, who is running a TV ad that blames him for a national shortage of civility.
McConnell told reporters he wasn’t thinking about Kentucky politics when he identified the nation’s biggest problem. Maybe he just suppressed those thoughts; he has an exquisite sense of self-preservation and takes nothing for granted; he was once fond of saying “In this business, you meet the same people on the way down that you met on the way up.”
Rather, McConnell said he was thinking about such national episodes as the bitterly contested confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He said in his speech that his theme was crystallized by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote in a recent book that “America has a civility crisis.”
And what of President Trump, the poster child for American political incivility? McConnell told reporters, “We have a civility problem, and I didn’t confine it to just liberals,” who have mounted uncivil attacks on him in public places. “I think it’s across the board.”
McConnell may not have wanted to tie his remark to Kentucky politics, for fear that the wealthy Bevin might once again challenge him for the Republican senatorial nomination. That would likely be pointless for Bevin and expensive for both of them, but potentially more damaging to McConnell.
But surely the senator thinks a lot more often about McGrath, who will probably have enough money to keep pummeling him for the next year, something he has never had to endure.
McGrath’s ad shows photos of McConnell as she says, “Everything that’s wrong in Washington had to start someplace. How did it come to this, that even within our own families, we can’t talk to each other about the leaders of our country anymore without anger and blame? Well, it started with this man, who was elected a lifetime ago, and who has turned Washington into something we all despise . . . a place where ideals go to die.”
So high-minded, but so overstated. Incivility didn’t start with the majority leader, and neither did everything wrong in Washington. But McConnell has long used overstatement and exaggeration in his own campaign ads; since his first Senate re-election campaign, he has said that if an opponent threw a pebble at him, he would respond with a boulder.
The (Frankfort) State Journal, not given to overstatement of its own, said in an editorial that McConnell is “a practitioner of the politics he decries. His remarks are akin to the pot calling the kettle black.”
To the co-op directors, McConnell tried to differentiate between campaigning and governing: “This is something we all need to be thinking about once again, how to have a respectful debate in this wonderful country of ours without throwing things and getting angry and acting out. So that’s, I think, our biggest national problem, and I intend for what little impact I can have on that, not to act that way. We have plenty of incentive to get angry, but as you may have noticed, I try to stay calm, be respectful and don’t get caught up in these intense debates that we have. The campaigns are always, shall I say, hot salsa – but the governing part doesn’t need to be that way.”
Yes, the public McConnell is usually quite civil, but that is partly because he is taciturn, reining himself in. He doesn’t get drawn into public spats. In private, though, he’s tough and gives no quarter.
As leader of Senate Republicans for the last 12 years, he has helped make the governing process more and more about winning the next round of elections, to keep his party in the majority and himself as its leader. We can expect plenty of hot salsa from him and his foes. Take every dose with grains of salt.
Al Cross (Twitter @ruralj) is a professor in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media and director of its Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. His opinions are his own, not UK’s. He was the longest-serving political writer for the Louisville Courier Journal (1989-2004) and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2001-02. He joined the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2010.
NKyTribune and KyForward are the anchor home for Al Cross’ column. We offer it to other publications throughout the Commonwealth, with appropriate attribution.
Bill Straub: The whole world is watching the ‘dive,’ but that’s the way it goes in McConnell’s world
Al Cross: We have waited patiently for the moment that Mitch McConnell would come to his senses. . .
01/10/2020 · 3 Comments
State lawmakers convene Tuesday for 60-day session with two-year budget at top of the agenda


Marriage Equality Not the Cure All…
While I am absolutely elated and ecstatic about the SCOTUS ruling for both healthcare and marriage equality — for I never thought in my lifetime I would see marriage equality in the United States — I am also reflecting on how complicated the institution of marriage is, with its deep roots of misogyny and racism. I am also grateful that I benefit from marriage and happy that the SCOTUS decision was on the anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas, and US v. Windsor.
There remain many problems around marriage equality. Marriage equality hardly signals the eradication of homophobia, racism, or misogyny. In twenty-nine states, it is still legal to discriminate against the LGBT community in employment, housing, and education. In fact, fourteen of the states that already offered marriage equality simultaneously refuse to provide these basic protections (Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming). This is a horrible disconnect. In practice it means that a couple who celebrate a happy, significant occasion are in fact opening themselves up to more discrimination, perhaps even the loss of their homes or livelihoods.
I also want to address why the conversation has to address more than just marriage equality. I hope we will devote our collective energy in eradicating white supremacy, in solidarity around trans rights, in supporting undocumented people, and dismantling poverty.
I am also exceedingly sad about the legacy of hate, bigotry, homophobia, and racism that Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia (and Scalia’s minions) are leaving. Talk about being on the wrong side of history. Scalia is now a parody of himself, with his dissenting commenting, “jiggery pokery.” Here we have two of the most powerful men in the world, using their power to undermine civil rights. Something to think about as we look at a presidential race in the United States that will be appointing new justices.
While I am happy to celebrate marriage equality, I hope we take a call to action individually and collectively to address all of the intersections of racism, homophobia, misogyny, ableism, and poverty.
Tags: Edith Windsor, Gay Marriage, healthcare, homophobia, Jiggery pokery, Lawrence v Texas, Marriage Equality, misogyny, Poverty, Racism, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Remembering Alan Turing: LGBTQ Pride Month 2015
It was 61 years ago today that Alan Turing took his life. He was not able to see anyway out of the homophobic culture he had endured. The irony is not lost that just two years ago the British government finally declared that Turing would no longer be considered a criminal for being gay.
Alan Turing was born in 1912. His teachers and family noticed his immense talent for mathematics early on, and he began a rigorous education. He became a fellow at King’s College at the age of 22 and began work on computation. His pioneering work earned him the title: Father of Computer Science. During the war, he worked for the British government as a code breaker. His methods helped crack critical German codes. Some have gone so far as to give him credit for Britain making it through the war without surrender. Turing’s contributions to computer science, cryptology, artificial intelligence, and mathematics are immense, and his gracious style made his ideas approachable, helping spark further innovation.
He was also gay. He was generally careful about this fact, given that any homosexual activity was still criminal in the United Kingdom, but he did have partners. In 1952, after reporting a break-in at his home, he admitted to the police that he was in a gay relationship with the other man living there. He was arrested charged with “gross indecency.” While he felt no guilt about simply being who he was, he pleaded guilty to avoid the negative publicity of a trial. He opted for injections of artificial estrogen — chemical castration — rather than go to prison.
The conviction revoked his security clearance and ruined his career. It kept him from travelling to the United States to expand on his work. It left him alone and bitter, his promising life in ruins at the age of 40 just because he wanted to live his life honestly. In 1954, he died of a cyanide overdose that was ruled suicide. What a pointless end to an amazing life and we must ask ourselves who is culpable–who has blood on their hands? How do we learn from this tragedy and learn how to support our LGBT brothers and sisters?
While very well known in math and science circles, the scandal kept his work and life from greater renown. It wasn’t until 2009 that the British government — in a statement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown — apologized for what Brown aptly described as “appalling treatment.” (The Brits did better than the Catholic church, of course, with its habit of taking centuries to apologize for its legal abuses…) In the past four years, a bill has slowly worked through the parliamentary process to formally pardon Alan Turing. It appears poised to pass in October.
It will be wonderful for the charges against Turing to be formally erased. But his life cannot be returned. The amazing things his mind would have accomplished will never come to pass. The horrific impact of homophobia and abuse of power cannot be fully calculated or undone. Over 49,000 men were sentenced for the same crime in Britain — including Oscar Wilde — before the law was finally removed from the books.
There are still many countries with laws like this. There are still jurisdictions in our own country with laws like this. Let the dark example of Alan Turing be a call to action — every life deserves dignity, legalized oppression and discrimination must be stopped. In the end, Alan Turing was a victim, not a criminal. He does not need to be pardoned, the British government does, and this one positive step is simply not enough to wash the blood of thousands from its hands.
Tags: Alan Turing, Artificial Intelligence, castration, Computer Science, Cryptology, Great Britain, homophobia, hypocrisy, LGBT History Month, LGBT Pride Month, Math, pardons, suicide, WWII


CWI Taiwan
How bad is China’s debt crisis?
Socialist magazine (published by the Chinese section of the CWI) asked Vincent Kolo, senior editor of chinaworker.info, about rising levels of debt in China and whether this heralds a financial collapse?
Socialist magazine: How serious are China’s debt problems?
Vincent Kolo: A recent Bloomberg report says China’s economy has become a “credit junkie”. The growth of the shadow banking sector in particular is a sign of rapidly rising financial risks. Total loans in China, including the growing share from shadow banking, climbed to 190 percent of GDP in 2012, up from 124 percent in 2008. This is a bigger and faster credit expansion than in the US in the run-up to the subprime crisis, or Japan prior to its property crash in 1990. A lot of the new debt is concentrated in the local government sector, which bore the main financial burden of the giant stimulus programme of 2009-10. But the property sector is another high-risk area, with extreme overbuilding and highly indebted real estate companies. China’s housing bubble is the biggest in world history and a significant drop in prices – inevitable sooner or later – can unleash a tsunami of company failures and loan defaults.
China’s banking system is quite unique, because of the degree of state ownership. But the trend is for more and more banking business to go ‘off balance sheet’ into a multitude of shadow finance entities, trust companies, and so on. Loans within the traditional banking sector fell to just 58 percent of all financing last year, from 95 percent in 2002. So, more than 40 percent of all credit nowadays is non-bank lending, from this complex and unregulated shadow financial system.
Senior figures such as Xiao Gang, former chairman of Bank of China who was recently promoted to head of the main regulatory watchdog CSRC, have warned of a potential “Ponzi scheme” in these developments. He was especially referring to the growth of so-called wealth management products (WMPs), which have gone viral in the last 3-4 years, since the stimulus programme. The value of outstanding WMPs rose to 13 trillion RMB (US$2.1 trillion), or 16 percent of total bank deposits in 2012, which is an increase of 50 percent from 2011. These are risky financial instruments that hardly anybody really understands. So, you get that déjà vu feeling, remembering how this sort of financial hocus pocus became rampant in the US a decade ago, prior to the banking collapse of 2008.
Why has the issuance of wealth management products taken off in this way?
There are several reasons, but a key element is that the banks themselves are driving this process, as in the US, except of course in China we’re talking about state-owned banks. This is not just the case with WMPs, but also corporate bonds, entrusted loans, and all sorts of new-fangled financial instruments, which have proliferated. The banks want to maintain the high profit rate of recent years, and to get bad loans off their books, especially loans to local governments. The growth of WMPs is a way to get around government lending limits and to extend fresh credit to shaky local government entities that otherwise wouldn’t be able to meet their debt repayments. The debts from the 2009-10 period are being rolled over in this way, to prevent a wave of defaults that could trigger a full-blown banking crisis.
We hear a lot about the shadow banking sector, what does this mean?
The term shadow banking covers a range of different entities including hedge funds, bond insurers, trusts and wealth management firms. What they have in common is they’re outside the mainstream banking system. Some are illegal, but those are a minority; and in China it’s the big state-owned banks and even non-financial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that are pulling the strings. In this way, they can engage in activity that is banned by the government and regulatory agencies, to hide risky loans and increase profits. We’ve seen this sort of sleight of hand in other countries, prior to major banking crises. The growth of shadow banking, like most things in China, has been extremely rapid. According to the central bank, this sector now has total assets (loans in other words) worth 30 trillion yuan (USD $4.8 trillion). That’s equivalent to 58 percent of GDP.
There are many cases of state-owned banks doing deals through trust companies that are really just a front for the banks themselves. Again, this keeps the dodgy loans off their books. SOEs have set up unauthorised banking arms to borrow at cheap rates from the state banks and then lend to other companies at a higher rate of interest. Because they are not banks, this activity is unregulated. SOEs do this to recoup profits, because with huge levels of overcapacity in industry many are losing money in their core businesses.
So, a much bigger share of loans is being routed through this uncontrolled shadow finance sector, spreading the financial risks through the economy. The banks are offloading risky loans with the left hand, but taking on more with the right hand. Banks are the biggest buyers of corporate debt, a lot of which is now being issued by the local government financial vehicles (LGFVs), which are ineligible for new bank credit under central government tightening measures.
Another thing about the shadow banking sector is that interest rates are of course much higher, up to 100 percent in some cases. So, what we’re also witnessing is a backdoor liberalisation of interest rates. The central bank sets the official rate, which is binding on the banks, but to get around this they go ‘off-balance sheet’, at higher rates of interest.
You say the local governments have built up a lot of debt, how has this been possible?
Back in 2008, fearing the impact of the global capitalist crisis, the central government launched its huge stimulus package and gave banks the green light to increase loans. Local governments, which are banned by law from taking loans, were allowed to get around this by setting up their own finance vehicles (LGFVs) – thousands of them – to tap into this credit boom and build infrastructure. The checks by the banks were poor or non-existent; many local governments were already in a financial mess, and a lot of this investment was wasted, stolen, or went into property speculation, ‘ghost cities’, ‘ghost malls’, and so on. Of course there is no democratic accountability of local governments, not even the very cursory public scrutiny or control that applies in the capitalist West.
The government’s auditors put the combined local government debt at 10.7 trillion yuan in 2010, around 25 percent of GDP at that time. Beijing’s bank regulators claim the problem is “under control” and not growing. But this is because so much of the debt has been shuffled under the radar, so to speak, into the shadow banking system where it cannot reliably be measured. I recently saw data from Liu Yuhui of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, putting the real level of local government debt at 13 to 14 trillion yuan (US$2 to 2.2 trillion). I’ve seen higher estimates. The interest repayments on the local government debt are between 700 and 800 billion yuan every year.
The stimulus 2009-10 loans began to fall due last year, but a lot of the infrastructure projects are either unfinished or have not recouped enough income to pay back the loans. Proceeds from land sales, which at the height of the stimulus package generated about 40 percent of local government income, have also fallen sharply. Last year, land sales fell by 14 percent, because overcapacity in the housing market has reached crisis levels. Some local governments are now extremely indebted. Hubei province, for example, has a debt-to-fiscal revenue ratio of 181 percent. In Jilin it is 171 percent.
The banks are rolling over most local government debt, around 40 percent of which fell due last year. Old loans are being serviced by issuing fresh loans, but not from the banks’ own balance sheets. Trust companies acting for local government entities are repackaging the old debts as ‘investments’ – as WMPs – most of which are short-duration, so it’s very much a case of buying time. This is also what Xiao Gang meant by “Ponzi Scheme” – it’s a scam whereby money from new entrants goes to make payments to older investors. It has to keep expanding, pulling in new investors, or it collapses, which at some point is inevitable.
The central government has issued warnings and is struggling to get control over this process, because some local government financial platforms are throwing hospitals, schools and other public assets into these financial ‘products’ to make them more attractive to investors. Investors ask, ‘what am I actually buying into here?’ – they want to see some physical assets. So, it’s a form of backdoor privatisation.
There are several factors that could trigger a financial crisis. In December, Huaxia bank in Shanghai, a middle-sized bank with Deutsche Bank as part-owner, faced protests in the streets after a WMP it had sold defaulted, losing the depositors around US$22 million. Some big noises within the financial sector, such as China International Capital Corporation, said the government should do nothing – to show it won’t step in to rescue the WMPs, which after all are largely a private business, not guaranteed by banks. But the government did step in, behind the scenes, to prevent the Huaxia affair triggering a run on the WMP sector as a whole, because as we’ve already noted it now accounts for around 16 percent of total bank deposits.
Not only could a run on WMPs trigger a wider banking crisis, but even if sales of new WMPs were to dry up, with investors growing wary, this could cause a ‘liquidity crunch’ for local governments and property companies which need to rollover old debts. This is the dilemma for the government. The shadow banks and regular banks are no longer isolated from each other, they have grown into each other, which is something it cannot really control.
Has China’s economy successfully avoided a hard landing?
This is what the government and a significant sector of the global ‘market’ – meaning the banks and speculators – are telling us. I think we must distinguish between short-term and longer-term developments. To prevent a serious economic crunch, or hard landing, that threatened to massively complicate the power transition last year, the Chinese regime reverted to its traditional policies of credit-driven growth, particularly infrastructure and construction. This did add more ‘juice’ to the economy, with a pick up in GDP in the fourth quarter, to 7.9 percent, after seven successive quarters of falling growth. The year still ended on its lowest growth since 1999.
There is also a lot of debate about whether the official GDP figures give a true picture. There was the story of the ‘phantom province’ – because the sum of all local government GDP statistics was a whole ‘Guangdong’ bigger than the central government statistics for national GDP. Last year’s electricity consumption grew by just 5.5 percent, which may be a more accurate indicator of economic performance. Using similar methodology, Standard Chartered’s Stephen Green published a report recently that challenges the last two year’s of official GDP data. Green’s estimates cut about two percentage points from GDP growth for 2011 and 2012.
But the mini-stimulus ordered last summer clearly had an effect in the short-term. This entailed fast-tracking previously agreed infrastructure projects like new high-speed rail lines, subway lines and the social housing programme, at a cost of about 940 billion yuan (US$150 billion). But like the much bigger 2009-10 programme, this new spending, because of the way it was done, will exacerbate the longer-term problems for the economy.
Investment’s share of total GDP was 50 percent in 2011 and increased further last year. This is up from an already high rate of 41 percent before the crisis. Such a high level of investment is historically unprecedented. As ex-premier Wen Jiabao famously said it is “unsustainable”. Yet despite this, faced with a crisis, the regime decided to kick the can down the road, as other governments are doing worldwide. Each time it does this, however, its scope for further big stimulus measures inevitably crimps – because of the debt overhang and extreme levels of overcapacity.
What about the overcapacity?
It’s estimated that one-third of China’s industry is idle, on average; while in certain industries the figure is closer to half. The capacity utilisation rate in 2012 was lower even than in the crisis year of 2008. The worst hit industries include steel, telecoms, shipbuilding, aluminium and construction machinery, which have all seen incredible expansion over the past decade. The telecom industry is preparing big investments in 4G technology, yet only around a third of the 3G network is being used.
In China, the competition between provinces and localities, divorced from any national plan, amplifies the problem of overcapacity and overinvestment. Provinces frequently defy Beijing when it orders them not to build a new aluminium smelter or steelworks. The smallest plants and factories are the first to be axed when industries are told to consolidate, so local governments encourage grand projects, regardless of real demand, under the rule ‘survival of the biggest’. This explains why there has been nine consecutive months of producer price deflation – falling prices at the factory gate. Capacity vastly outstrips demand and so companies are forced to cut prices to clear their stocks. At the same time, paradoxically, you’ve got the return of consumer price inflation, particularly for food and fuel.
Growth of wealth management products in China
But isn’t infrastructure spending a positive? Aren’t we socialists in favour?
Sure, in a society where the means of production are owned and controlled by the working class, democratically, through a balanced and coordinated economic plan, then there would be a real need to invest in socially useful and environmentally sustainable infrastructure: low carbon transport systems, new schools, hospitals, affordable public housing and so on. But this is not what is happening in China.
A huge share of the infrastructure spending has gone into financial speculation, mainly in real estate, but also in raw materials. More than 800,000 tons of copper is hoarded at bonded warehouses, according to French bank Societe Generale, because copper and other metals are used as collateral for bank loans.
In the property sector overinvestment and overbuilding are obvious. Real estate investment reached 13.8 percent of GDP last year, compared to just 6 percent in the US at the height of its housing bubble in 2006. Last year in China, houses under construction were 4.2 times the level of home sales. This is not because there is no demand for houses of course, but because ordinary people cannot afford today’s off-the-chart prices. In Beijing the average price of an apartment stood at 25,075 yuan per square metre in January this year, set against an average yearly income of 24,564 yuan for urban Chinese in 2012. Prices have been driven up by the speculators, which again means the banks, local governments and motley private profiteers, all of whom gain from higher property prices. That is until the bubble bursts, which it must do.
We read every week of new scandals involving local officials and even police chiefs, who have used fake ‘hukou’ papers to buy up dozens of homes as speculation objects. In one recent case Zhao Haibin, an official in Guangdong, was found to own 192 properties. Those who get exposed are sacked, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The housing situation is a political time bomb. This is why the government tried to clamp down on house prices in 2010. But its policy shift last summer, with a new credit splurge to avert a hard landing, has further inflated the housing bubble.
A new team of leaders is in charge. What do they plan to do about these economic problems?
I think they are limited as to what they can do. There is a lot of talk about economic rebalancing – towards more consumption. Similarly, there is a lot of talk about a new burst of liberal i.e. pro-capitalist economic reform (not to be confused with political change, which they don’t want). The new leaders, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang especially, stand for the type of measures outlined in the World Bank’s dossier launched last year (China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society), which was co-authored by Li’s ministry and calls for sweeping privatisations and marketisation. We should remember that the World Bank and its sister organisation the IMF bear as much guilt as anyone for the global financial crisis.
But regardless of what the new leaders want, there are in-built mechanisms within China’s state structures and in the current low-wage economic model that block change. This suggests that any new ‘reforms’ will be drawn out and subject to endless toing-and-froing. The dictatorship is split at the top and new factional infighting can erupt over these issues in the coming period.
They plan to ‘liberalise’ the financial sector, interest rates and so on, ostensibly to make the allocation of capital more ‘efficient’, to cut back on wasteful investment. This means formalising the shadow banking sector – ‘freeing’ the mainstream banks to engage in this sort of thing legally.
The regime wants to internationalise the yuan (or renminbi) and has made significant moves to increase the offshore trade in the Chinese currency, through ‘swap lines’ with foreign banks – most recently the Bank of England. They want to break out of their current dollar dependency, which forces China to subsidise, by virtue of its outsized dollar holdings, the policies of Obama and the Fed, ‘QE’ (quantitative easing) in particular. This damages China’s economy in several ways, through sucking in ‘US-made’ inflation, and by increasing upward pressure on the yuan. The central bank is then forced into expensive interventions to prevent the currency rising further, which would be bad news for the already strained export sector. In the past ten years these interventions have cost the Chinese government over US$270 billion. This is one front in the unfolding global ‘currency war’, with all the main powers trying to escape the crisis at each other’s expense.
But to turn the yuan into a major international currency means removing exchange controls, which, as things stand today, would very likely trigger a financial collapse. So, in addition to splits within the regime, there are major risks in implementing the leadership’s liberal – actually neo-liberal – agenda. At the same time, the current position, with rising overinvestment and debt, is also “unsustainable” as Wen says. So, it’s as if they can’t move, but at the same time they don’t have the luxury of standing still.
We are thankfully not in the position of giving advice to the Chinese dictatorship. We seek its removal through revolutionary mass struggle for socialism. This is the only solution to the economic crisis in China and internationally: to lay hold of the gigantic economic resources that the current system is driving to ruin on a world scale, and through democratic socialist planning, with the working class building its own government, using these resources not to enrich a tiny minority but to end unemployment, inequality and oppression.
Tags: China Debt crisis
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State Authorities
51st ordinary session of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia
Government of the Republic of Slovenia
At today’s session the government approved the wording of the bill for the Act Amending the Code of Property Law.
Minister of Justice Andreja Katič after government session | Author Nebojša Tejić, STA
Certain deficiencies in the Code of Property Law and opportunities for improvement have come to light during its application, and the justice ministry has therefore embarked on drafting amendments.
The approach to the amendments was particularly restrained in its response to practices that the current code judges to be good, and there was no intervention into the institutions established by the current wording. The amendments mainly build on those institutions that have proven to be unfeasible in judicial practice without the requisite normative changes to the regulation of social relations, and those that failed to keep pace with the way in which business is done, or have hindered its evolution.
On one hand the proposed changes to property law track the needs of business and commerce, while on the other the proposed improvements in divided co-ownership and the new arrangements for connected real estate will allow for the regulation of relations that have already been established in business and life practice, albeit with the help of other institutions of property law less suited to the task. The bill also eliminates certain inconsistencies and deficiencies in the current arrangements.
The main solutions proposed by the bill for the Act Amending the Code of Property Law are:
- the definition of animals as living beings, not as objects,
- the overhaul and enhancement of divided co-ownership and situations similar to divided co-ownership,
- the overhaul of the register of non-possessory liens and seized movable property,
- changes to the area of fake easement in the public interest and superficies.
The government has approved the wording of the Resolution on the national programme of strategic guidelines for agriculture and food production in Slovenia entitled Our Food, Countryside and Natural Resources after 2021, which provides a basis for national measures and a standardised strategic plan for implementing the common agricultural policy.
The resolution pursues the following objectives:
Robust and competitive food production and processing
Sustainable management of natural resources and provision of public goods
Higher quality of life and economic activity in rural areas
Horizontal objective: strengthening the creation and transfer of knowledge
The ministry of agriculture, forestry and food has set the following objectives with regard to robust and competitive food production and processing: ensuring high standards for safe, high-quality food; ensuring the efficient use and availability of resources; achieving a comparable income level and income stability; strengthening agri-food chains and improving the position of the farmer in the chain; promoting the production and consumption of food with high added value; strengthening market focus and enterprise; encouraging generational renewal; maintaining the amount of agricultural land and its potential output.
Pursuing the objective of the sustainable management of natural resources and provision of public goods relies in part on reducing adverse impacts on water, soil and air, mitigating climate change, protecting biodiversity, preserving the rural cultural landscape, and ensuring animal welfare.
From the perspective of raising quality of life and economic activity in rural areas, the objectives include encouraging supplementary activities on farms, strengthening local initiatives and intersectoral collaboration, and strengthening tourism’s ties to the quality of the food in the local environment, women in rural areas, and concern for vulnerable population groups.
The horizontal objective meanwhile requires the strengthening of research support for the development of agriculture and rural areas, the effective transfer of knowledge to final beneficiaries, and effective agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKISs).
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McCoy, Law, Froome among UK sports stars honored by Queen
(Photo: Misiona Simo)
By Admin Peršon, 03/01/2016
LONDON (AP) — Jockey Tony McCoy, former Manchester United striker Denis Law, two-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, and five-time world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan are among United Kingdom sporting figures honored by Queen Elizabeth in her New Year list.
McCoy, who retired this year after winning 20 straight British champion jockey titles and a record 4,358 races in a 23-year career, was knighted in recognition of his services to horse racing. He is only the second jockey to be made a Sir, after Gordon Richards in 1953.
The 75-year-old Law, who played for United from 1962-73 and was part of the club's so-called "Holy Trinity" with George Best and Bobby Charlton, was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to football and charity.
Froome was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire after becoming the first Briton to win a second Tour de France in July.
O'Sullivan also was awarded an OBE in recognition for his services to snooker, having won the world championship five times — most recently in 2013 — and become the sport's box-office name.
The success of the England women's football team in finishing third at the World Cup in Canada this year was recognized as captain Steph Houghton and teammate Fara Williams were both made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
John Surtees, the only man to win world championships on two and four wheels, was made a CBE. The 81-year-old Surtees won seven world motorcycling championships before switching to four wheels and winning the 1964 Formula One title.
Heather Rabbatts, a director at England's Football Association who became the organization's first female board member in 2012, was awarded a damehood for services to football and equality. As a campaigner on behalf of women in sport, she recently spoke out in support of former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro in her dispute with the club.
Former Manchester City striker and chairman Francis Lee received a CBE, while ex-England rugby winger Mark Cueto and IBF super-bantamweight boxing champion Carl Frampton were awarded MBEs.
Britain's honors are bestowed by the monarch, but recipients are selected by committees of civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public.
Staff Sergeant trainer sees netball potential in Samoa
Staff Sergeant Davey Forbes has worked with Manu Samoa 7s and 15s, the national netball team, and is now back in Samoa training the next generation through Netball Samoa’s accelerant programme.


Ohio State’s Chase Young wins Nagurski Award
by: STEVE REED, Associated Press
Ohio State defensive end Chase Young poses with the The 2019 Bronko Nagurski Award before the awards banquet in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, Dec. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ohio State defensive end Chase Young won the Bronko Nagurski Award given to the nation’s top college defensive player on Monday night.
Young was the nation’s most dominant player on defense this season, recording 16 1/2 sacks and forcing six fumbles in 10 games for the Buckeyes. His best game came against then-No. 13 Wisconsin when he had four sacks and two forced fumbles in a 38-7 victory.
The 6-foot-6, 265-pound Young joins a list of former Nagurski Award winners that includes Aaron Donald, Warren Sapp, Luke Kuechly, Terrell Suggs and Champ Bailey.
“It’s such an honor to come in here and see all of the great players that have won this award, and have a chance to put my name in that category with some of the all-time great college football players,” Young said. “It’s definitely amazing.”
Young received the award Monday night at a banquet sponsored annually by the Charlotte Touchdown Club.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day was on hand for the announcement as the event’s keynote speaker.
He praised Young for putting up “ridiculous” statistics this season, and helping his team to an undefeated season so far. Second-ranked Ohio State plays No. 3 Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 28, with the winner advancing to the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
“I knew that he was certainly capable of a season like this,” Day said. “You see him in practice every day, and you see guys make a big jump from year two to year three in college. And he made a big jump just in total production. And, he didn’t play in a whole bunch of games in terms of the second half and he missed a couple of games. When he was on the field, his production was just off the charts.”
Young dedicated the award to his grandfather, Carl Robinson, who passed away when he was in middle school.
“If he was to see everything I have done this season, he would probably have a heart attack,” Young said. “He would be ecstatic and probably be at a loss for words. We were always close. He would teach me how to make stuff and how to fix stuff and show me off to some of his old school friends. We used to do everything together, almost like a second dad.”
Young is also up for the Heisman Trophy, an award that normally goes to offensive players.
He said his goal this season was to prove that he plays hard every play.
“I’m going to make mistakes, but if you are going 100 miles per hour you might make up for those mistakes,” Young said.
Young said his future NFL team will get a player who is willing and eager to learn.
“I’m going to be a dude who works hard, is not going say too much and just go about his business,” Young said.
Day said Young has a chance to go down as one of the all-time greats, like many of the former Nagurski Award winners.
“Yeah, he’s definitely the most dominant defensive player in the country,” Day said. “When you have that type production in a limited amount of snaps, I just think that it is unbelievable.”
Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown, Georgia safety J.R. Reed, Clemson linebacker Isaiah Simmons and Minnesota defensive back Antoine Winfield Jr. were the other finalists for the award.


About Time Already
In her novel, ‘About Time Already,’ L.A. Noble tells a mystery and suspense story about a young woman by the name of Jenny Masters who returns to her hometown after nine years to find herself confronting her painful past. As Jenny faces her traumatic childhood memories, she unwittingly becomes entangled in a web of lies, murder, and blackmail, which results in a dangerous journey to uncover an explosive secret.
‘About Time Already,’ takes place during the summer of 2010. Jenny Masters left New Attica, Illinois after graduating from high school in order to escape a traumatic childhood. As a child, Jenny had been sexually abused by local doctor Dr. Samuel Roberts. She was not the only young girl to be preyed upon by the depraved doctor. In 2001, he killed a young girl he got pregnant. Dr. Samuel and his mother Sarah Roberts buried her body in the shed of the family home. From an early age, Jenny’s life had been entangled with the affluent Roberts family. Not only was she sexually abused by Dr. Samuel, but she also had become pregnant by Steve Roberts, Dr. Samuel’s half brother. Cold and calculating Sarah Roberts, the matriarch of the Roberts family, claimed to have had the baby adopted but then the baby died. After nine years living in Blessington, Illinois, Jenny returns to New Attica when she learns that her mother is in a serious car accident. The events that unfold involve murder, kidnappings, blackmail, uncovering dark secrets, and Jenny confronting her painful childhood and those who caused her such emotional harm.
‘About Time Already’ contains a diverse range of unique and colorful characters. Ashley and Heather are the town gossips who constantly watch and gossip about the activities of the other characters. Jenny’s friends, Michelle and Max, have a knack for solving murders and assist Jenny in her efforts to uncover the mystery while trying to make sense of their own relationship. Brothers Michael and Steve Roberts struggle with their own past with Jenny. Depraved Doctor Samuel and his mother Sarah are both scheming characters who will do anything, no matter how wicked, to protect the family name.
‘About Time Already’ is a literary mystery filled with many surprising twists and turns that will keep readers guessing the identity of the murderer right to the end of the story. Through a well-written and well-plotted narrative, readers will find themselves cheering for Jenny as she faces great danger and threats to her life. ‘About Time Already’ is highly recommended to readers who enjoy an entertaining page-turning mystery that keeps them engaged from start to end.
Tracy Roberts, Write Field Services
posted by Write Field Services at 4:03 PM
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