phone.

Re: ID cards, First a report from Chuck: Chuck went to the frame shop where Sean alleged they have been since 2004, and showed them a picture of Sean. The frame shops said they had neither seen Sean before, nor ever heard of the ID cards.

The ID Card Committee, consisting of Sean, refuted this report with the following pie charts and timeline--both in color (blue):
Sean reports: "Terrorists have kidnapped 99% of our ID cards from the frame shop and are holding them hostage in response to our occupation of South America. The other 1% were eaten by my dog."

Steve reported on Mike's assignment to buy him a Ferrari. Apparently, Steve had not received the Ferrari yet.

Report from Mike: "I established an exploratory committee for the Ferarri Fund. TheyPANAJI: As the BJP-led government in Goa today ruled out banning Sanatan Sanstha suspected to be behind the murder of rationalist Govind Pansare, a senior minister today defended it claiming the organisation worked for spirituality and propagation of Hinduism.Factories Minister Dipak Dhavalikar conceded that in fact his wife was "a seeker" of Sanatan Sansha, which has come under the scanner after Samir Gaikwad , one of its members, was arrested by Maharashtra police in connection with the murder of Pansare."Just because one of the seekers is arrested in a murder case, why is there a demand to ban the entire organisation? Sanatan Sanstha works for spirituality and propagation of Hindu religion," Dhavalikar told PTI.Earlier in the day, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had said the organisation would not


so I think everyone's ready to just get this on the road and see how it runs," league commissioner Dean Howes tells CNN.

"I'm anxious for it, anxious to see the crowd's reaction. I'm the commissioner, I don't have to worry about who wins -- I just have to worry about the overall product on the field.

"For us, it's at least the start of a new future."

Houston SaberCats' center Malacchi Esdale greets fans after a pre-season exhibition game.

Early days

The vision for MLR was one that was born even before PRO Rugby -- America's first stab at a professional competition for the sport -- had collapsed.

"Pro Rugby was already suspending games and having difficulty by the time I got involved so my focus was really on building what I believeis a sustainable model," explains Howes.

"From the start to the kick off in the coming week that's what we did; we secured finance and funding, we secured media deals, secured our players and the player pool around that."

The opening weekend will also see the San Diego Legion take on the Seattle Seawolves and Austin Elite Rugby play the Glendale Raptors; the Utah Warriors are due to make their bow the week after.

With nine teams ready to compete the 2019 season, Howes, who previously played a part in establishing Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer, says he'd like to see 16 to 20 franchises in the league in the next 10 years.

The current players have largely been drawn from the US, but each squad has a number of


slots for internationals -- be they older players looking for an end-of-career option or young players who can't yet play at the highest level in Europe or the Southern Hemisphere.

JUST WATCHED Australia vs. New Zealand: Rugby's big rivalry Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Australia vs. New Zealand: Rugby's big rivalry 22:53

Media deals with CBS Sports Network, ESPN, AT&T and Cox -- connections PRO Rugby struggled to secure -- will give the league a stepping stone to national and international audiences.

Finding fans, picking players

Seven-a-side rugby has seen success on and off the field this year. USA recently won its second ever world title in front of a packed Sam Boyd stadium in Las Vegas.

Although the Las Vegas leg of the sevens world series has been a resounding successyouth to high school to club, college, pro.

"We think there are a lot of athletes in this country that will fit the mold of a good rugby player. It's a different body types to the NBA, the NFL for the most part."

'Cautious optimism' in Seattle

In Seattle, a city with a proud sporting heritage, MLR has created another opportunity for professional rugby in the North West corner of the US.

"I'm cautiously optimistic, but excited, since we haven't had a sustainable professional league in the US yet," Shepherd tells CNN.

"This, however, is by far the most sustainable and sound approach to rugby we've seen so far."

Shepherd is typical of many rugby players in the US, a multi-sport enthusiast who played football, baseball, athletics and wrestling. When the opportunity to play


rugby in high school came round, he jumped at it quickly.

"America just needs rugby," he says. "It's a very unique sports culture ... It could be a great outlet for a lot of youth around the country. I know families and parents are very encouraged by it once they get into it."

The Seawolves have sold out all 1,800 of their allocated season tickets and the opening game at the 4,000-seat Starfire Stadium will see a full house.

It was the same location MLS side Seattle Sounders occupied for their inaugural season in 2009. They sold out the venue for every game, and now find themselves sharing with the city's NFL franchise at the imposing CenturyLink Field.

A promising sign for Seattle's fledgling rugby outfit.

It might not be too long beforeThe invention relates to a rapid action coupling system for simultaneously coupling a fluid inlet chamber and a fluid outlet chamber, formed in the same heat exchanger fluid tank and separated from one another by a partition, to an external circuit, one free edge of which partition is intended to cooperate in a sealed manner with a collector defining the two chambers. The system includes two necks provided on the fluid tank, that is, one inner and one outer neck substantially surrounding the inner neck, the necks defining two fluid passages, respectively an inner and an outer passage, which communicate respectively with the two chambers. The inner neck is joined directly to a planar portion of the partition extending in the longitudinal direction of the fluid tank. A


Wolyniec redirected past goalkeeper Ian Joyce for his third goal of the tournament.

Later in the interval, Chris Albright played a high cross to the back post and Jeremy Hall nodded it into Joyce’s hands. In the 29th minute, Rapids midfielder Colin Clark got on the end of a deep ball at the back post and it was deflected away by goalkeeper Greg Sutton. Soon after, Hall had another good chance at the left post to head one in, but his attempt went into the side netting.

New York doubled its lead two minutes before the break. Tony Tchani drove into the Rapids’ defensive half and found Wolyniec, who was making a run into the penalty box. Wolyniec was able to get a bit of space and rifled a right-footedthe world Tolkien brought to life in his novels.

Markella Kavenagh is the first actor on board

Markella Kavenagh attends the 2018 AACTA Awards Presented by Foxtel at The Star. Brook Mitchell/Getty Images for AFI

Variety learned from multiple sources that Markella Kavenagh is talking about a role in the fantasy series. Most of the information is being kept quite tight-lipped, but sources say she will play a character named Tyra. However, other outlets say her name will be Kyra. You may know Kavenagh from roles in the Australian film “Romper Stomper” and “The Cry.” She is represented by Silver Lining Entertainment.

What else is known about the upcoming series?

Alan Lee illustrator of the Children of Hurin, a book by JRR Tolkien, Adam Tolkien, and Bernard Hill who played King Theoden. Joel


'Mudcake and Shrew' by Dawnell Smith

Our third story in the Anchorage Narrative series is set in 1964, the day of the Good Friday Earthquake, which destroyed much of Anchorage. Our story focuses on a single mother who works at the JC Penney's that was totalled in the quake.View PDF of Smith's "Mudcakes & Shrew".

Authors

Narratives

Points of Interest

4th Avenue (1915)

Tent City at the Knik Anchorage

Fish Camp at Ta'kat (Cairn Point)

JC Penney Building (1964)

Walk From Fairview

Home in Mountain View

Sponsors

nathan shafer | the institute for speculative media Anchorage Centennial Celebration 2015“This project is supported in part by a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Anchorage Centennial Celebration. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition/website do not necessarily represent those of the Forum.”The slab made out of a single block of sedimentary rock of a thickness that goes from 245 to 290 millimeters. Photo: Proyecto de conservación de la cripta de Pakal, Palenque, Chiapas/INAH.

MEXICO CITY.- More than 1,300 years after an entourage accompanied the mortal remains of the Maya ruler Kinich Janaab Pakal into the crypt at Temple of the Inscriptions, in the ancient city of Palenque, experts from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) conducted the definitive placement of the slab that covers the sarcophagus.

This work is part of the Palenque Archaeological Zone Program, in Chiapas, which includes consolidation of Temple XX, restoration of Casa C at The Palace, and other minor maintenance tasks at the archaeological site. The recently updated collections are being moved to a


new warehouse, while all the information is being gathered in a database.

The hieroglyphic inscriptions of Palenque narrate that the Maya dignitary, also known as Pakal II, passed away on August 28th 683. His rest was interrupted a thousand years later by Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhulllier, who, after 4 years of excavations, discovered the funerary chamber on June 12th 1952.

Nine stucco warriors surrounded, as guardians, the extraordinary slab, sculpted over a monolithic sarcophagus. This enormous slab -2.2 meters wide and 3.6 long, with 7 tons in weight- was elevated in the 1950s to explore the interior of the sepulcher where the remains of the Maya ruler rest.

Since the massive visit to the precinct provoked excessive humidity and high temperature in the tomb, it was closed to the publicin 2004. It was also considered the appropriateness of substituting the metallic plaques that supported the slab, since they presented corrosion.

In 2008, INAH, through its National Coordination of Cultural Heritage (CNCPC), backed up an interdisciplinary project designed to define the conservation state of the slab and the other goods at the crypt: stucco reliefs, flattening and steps among other things, which implied a detailed register of conservation, architectural and archaeological aspects.

Specialists from different instances of INAH, such as the National Coordination of Archaeology, the National Coordination of Conservation, the Sub-direction of Laboratories and Academic Support, and the Palenque Archaeological Zone collaborated; the support provided by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) through its Institute of Engineering was invaluable.

Based on documentary check, high definition photography, analog and digital


present fractures but its northeastern corner presents a high concentration of humidity.

Previous ManeuversWith this information, in July 2010 the metallic beams were substituted with wooden ones while waiting for the report of the INAH Council of Archaeology about the convenience of introducing new stainless steel beams, or place in its original location the slab, since the remains of Pakal have been extensively studied and there are plenty of samples, so it can be permanently closed.

Maneuvers supervised by restorer Rogelio Rivero Chong, sub director at the INAH office of Conservation of the Cultural Heritage, and Abraham Roberto Sanchez Ramirez, chief of the Laboratory of Structures and Material at the Institute of Engineering of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) took place between July and October 2010.

The metallic sheet underthe slab was not directly supported by the slab: the team headed by Alberto Ruz placed mortar bearings between the metallic beams and the slab to avoid oxide to be in contact with the Prehispanic monument.

To remove the 4 beams that measure 135 centimeters long by 120 wide, a gaming articulation was implemented with hydraulic jacks and wedges. In their place, robust wooden beams were set, in order to provide better support than the metallic sheets.

The crypt was protected with a tubular structure and agglomerate wood panels to avoid contact with the stucco reliefs. The stone slab, the sarcophagus, as well as the floor and steps, were covered with layers of synthetic cloth, polyethilene foam and geotextile.

DescendingThe INAH Council of Archaeology resolved to cover the sarcophagus in a


humidity inside the crypt will continue, as well as preventive conservation and consolidation of the area. Compilation of registration data will be finished as well.

Later, a new exploration proposal will be presented to the INAH Council of Archaeology, with the aim of verifying if the crypt has a frontal access, as the sepulcher of the Red Queen has, in Temple 12; this would refute the Ruz Lhullier theory that points out that the tomb of Pakal was the starting point of the construction of the Temple of Inscriptions.

Iconography of the SlabThe edge of the Temple of the Inscriptions slab is carved with a long glyphic inscription. Its lecture begins in the southern side of the monument where it is marked that Pakal was born on December 23rd 603AD, and died on August 28th 683 AD. It is mentioned that he was the successor of the dynasty because his ancestors ordered it, the Wise Lords of the First Serpent.

Narrations continue in the eastern side, where it is mentioned that the sarcophagus is carved, and then, the entrance to the path of several Palenque lords is registered.

In the northern side, the inscription is about the death of ruler Ajen Yohl Mat, on August 8th, 612 of the Common Era. At last, the glyphic text of the west refers to the departure of Janaab Pakal I, probably the grandfather of Kinich Janaab Pakal, on March 6th 612 AD. Dates when his parents died, lady Sak K uk and lord Kan Mo Ix are registered.

The slab has carved the


scene that represents the way Kinich Janaab Pakal transcends his death, becoming Kawiil, deity of maize. As the deity, Pakal wears a headband of flames and assumes fetal position.

Action takes place in the context of the Tree of the World that crosses the 3 levels of Cosmos: underworld, terrestrial and celestial.

The ruler is suspended between these levels, and according the ancient Maya conception, he is about to descend to the underworld where he has to defeat the lords of death to be reborn as the maize deity and ascend to the celestial level, where he will secure the balance of the universe and guarantee the continuity of his people.

Diverse deities testify the events where Pakal transcends the different levels through the Tree of the World, which sprouts fromnot fully aware of the ways of infection.

Live broadcasts and photos of President Hu Jintao shaking hands with AIDS patients in a Beijing hospital on December 1, 2004 have changed the minds of many and encouraged medical staff at the center greatly.

"At our center, dining together with patients helps remove discrimination against them and their psychological burden," Fan said.

Inside the center, Dr Yang Xinping shows visitors around as patients talk with ease, now and then saying hello to visitors.

"The relationship between the doctor and the patient is unusual here," Yang said. "It's a kind of cooperation."

It is crucial to treatment but difficult to carry out for the patients to follow orders in taking medicine and receive other kinds of assistance.

"It's like many young people who know of bad


habits but can't get rid of them," he said.

The center has psychologists and lessons. The staff are also taking psychological courses to relieve their own burden and to help patients be at ease.

A happy-looking girl jumped out of a room, addressing Dr Yang, who noted both the girl's parents had died and she is HIV positive as well. "But the medical staff here like her a lot and often bring her toys," Yang said.A Dutch person who traveled to the Lombardy region of Italy is the first in the Netherlands to have tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus strain, Dutch health agency RIVM announced Thursday evening. The man, which BD reported as a 56-year-old from Loon op Zand, Noord-Brabant, was placed in quarantine, authorities confirmed.

The man has been at the Elisabeth-TweeSteden hospital in Tilburg since Wednesday. His condition was not revealed. Health service GGD launched an investigation to map out who the patient has been in contact with, and investigate how the disease might have been transmitted further.

"These people, referred to as 'contacts,' are monitored and must record their temperature twice a day, and report this to the GGD. They must also report other symptoms that they have," the RIVM stated.


"These measures will reduce the chance that the disease spreads in the Netherlands."

The Lombardy region was home to around 75 percent of Italy's coronavirus cases. Over 300 people have tested positive there, and from that group ten people have died. One of those infected was a staff member to regional governor Attilio Fontana. Fontana then posted a video on social media where he placed himself in quarantine.

Though it is the first diagnosis in the country, at least one scientist publicly speculated the virus was already present in The Netherlands. "We have come to the moment when we have to act. I suspect that there are already people in the Netherlands with the coronavirus. We just haven't found them yet," said Alex Friedrich, a professor and microbiologist at theThe self-proclaimed Islamic State is a hybrid jihadist group with a declared goal of establishing a “lasting and expanding” caliphate. Its strategy for survival and growth blends military, political, social, and economic components. Yet the U.S.-led international intervention against it has largely been limited to air strikes. The gaps in the international coalition’s approach as well as deep sectarian divisions in Iraq and the shifting strategies of the Syrian regime and its allies are allowing the Islamic State to continue to exist and expand.

Understanding the Islamic State

The Islamic State faces significant internal challenges, including grievances about its brutality and unpredictable ruling behavior, a limited governance capacity, and tensions between foreigners and locals within its ranks.

The Islamic State’s military approach has evolved over time, from an emphasis on offensive


warfare to more defensive operations and, more recently, to attempts to take advantage of its enemies’ political and military weaknesses, as it did in mid-2015 with advances in Palmyra in Syria and Ramadi in Iraq.

On the socioeconomic and political levels, the Sunni extremist group is benefiting from two powerful dynamics: the continuation of the Syrian conflict and anger among Iraqi Sunnis at Baghdad’s systematic exclusion of them.

How Regional Actors and the West Can Combat the Islamic State

Lina Khatib Khatib was director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Previously, she was the co-founding head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. More >

Exploit the Islamic State’s weaknesses. The West and its allies should takeadvantage of the internal challenges facing the jihadist group in order to weaken it from within.

Move beyond air strikes. Military engagement against the Islamic State must not be limited to the air. It should also encompass ground operations by Syrian and Iraqi military groups that coordinate with the international coalition.

Support the moderate opposition in Syria. The West and its allies must strengthen the operational and governance capacities of the Free Syrian Army's Southern Front, the only moderate opposition coalition that is fighting both the Islamic State and the regime in Syria.

Establish an Iraqi national guard. A multisectarian, multiethnic force would help restore the Sunni community’s trust in state institutions and widen local engagement in the fight against the Islamic State.

Push Turkey to play a bigger role. Turkey should


as those weaknesses persist, the Islamic State is likely to continue to last and expand, as it did in mid-2015 with advances in Palmyra in Syria and Ramadi in Iraq.1

Components of the Islamic State Strategy

The strategy used by the Islamic State is diverse and is based on pragmatism as well as the merger of military, media, and socioeconomic operations. This has given the Islamic State an edge over other Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Pragmatic Relationship With the Syrian Regime

The Islamic State and the Syrian regime mutually benefit from one another, and consequently the relationship between the two has been largely pragmatic. The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been an economic client for the Islamic State as well as an indirect facilitator of its military activities,while the group helps to validate Assad’s narrative that he is fighting Islamist extremists, an approach he has been using since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011 to discredit the Syrian opposition. The Islamic State is also useful for Assad because it serves as a tool to counter the regime’s enemies, including both the Free Syrian Army (FSA)—a collection of moderate rebel fighters—and groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria that was created to fight the regime.

The Islamic State first arose in Syria in areas that the regime had lost to the opposition but which were far from the front lines. Opposition groups did not have a big military presence in those areas—and in most cases were instead focused on fighting the regime elsewhere—making


with the Islamic State gave the regime an excuse not to fight it and gave the militant group the ability to hold areas and recruit local and foreign fighters. The lack of fighting also encouraged many Syrians to move to areas controlled by the Islamic State in the pursuit of security rather than ideology. This came at a time when the Syrian opposition was badly fragmented due to both political disagreements and the lack of a viable military strategy.

The Islamic State took hold of resource-rich areas, beginning in mid-2014 with the northern governorate of Raqqa, and eventually became financially self-sufficient in Syria by selling oil, wheat, and water; demanding ransom for kidnapped foreigners; and imposing taxes on local populations.4

The Syrian regime has been a key economic partner forthe group, which has been selling oil from its wells in Syria at discounted prices to the regime. Although the Islamic State has also sold oil to both the FSA and Jabhat al-Nusra, which in turn facilitated and benefited from the sale of oil on the black market in Turkey, this activity has been greatly reduced due to Turkey’s increased monitoring of activities on its border with Syria. The regime, however, remains a key client.5

Syrian government forces began attacking areas controlled by the Islamic State in June 2014, after the group’s expansion in Iraq threatened to destabilize Shia areas close to Assad’s ally, Iran. But most of the Assad regime’s military engagement has been directed at the Free Syrian Army. In November 2014, a report by Jane’s Terrorism


& Insurgency Center revealed that until that point, only 6 percent of the regime’s attacks that year had been directed at Islamic State targets.6

The pragmatic relationship between the Islamic State and the Syrian regime continued despite the latter’s bombing of Raqqa in late 2014. They still appear to coordinate on the provision of services like electricity, with the militant group controlling a number of dams on the Iraq-Syria border and the regime continuing to pay most of the salaries of state employees residing in Islamic State–controlled areas.7

The regime’s pragmatism can also be seen in its passivity toward the group’s movements in areas with significant opposition presence. The regime did not stand in the way when Islamic State fighters approached the Qalamoun Mountains on the Syrian-Lebanese border to fightthe Free Syrian Army in the area in 2014. It also did not interfere in early 2015 when the Islamic State took over the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus—and fought antiregime groups during the attack.8 A similar scenario occurred when the Islamic State attacked the ancient desert city of Palmyra in May 2015, although unlike in Yarmouk, there was not a significant opposition presence in Palmyra. In mid-2015, direct confrontations with the regime remained limited to areas like Rif Hama, the Haql al-Shaer oilfield, the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, and, since May 2015, Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

At the same time, the Islamic State has avoided attacks on certain regime areas because they lie between its territories and those controlled by its rival Jabhat al-Nusra, thereby forming a


buffer zone between the two groups. The Islamic State has tried to avoid having front lines with Jabhat al-Nusra because they both regard fighting one another as a distraction from their main goals (building the caliphate for the former and fighting the regime for the latter). This was evident in east Hama as well as at the regime-controlled Abu al-Duhur military airfield on the Idlib-Aleppo border in northwestern Syria. Neither group has attempted to storm the airfield since Jabhat al-Nusra’s failed attempt in January 2015, when its advance resulted in a high number of casualties at the hands of regime forces, leading the group to halt its operation in the village of Tal Salmo on the outskirts of the area.9

However, the takeover of Idlib in April 2015 bythe rival Jaysh al-Fateh rebel coalition, of which Jabhat al-Nusra is a major member, and the expansion of its attacks northward toward Aleppo, upstaged the Islamic State. Consequently, beginning in May 2015, the Islamic State increased its own attacks on regime areas in Aleppo and engaged in some military confrontations with Jaysh al-Fateh.

But this change in the dynamic between the Islamic State and the regime does not signal that the pragmatism between them is beginning to unravel. The regime has still not been putting up a serious fight against the Islamic State because ultimately, if the group eliminates other Islamist factions and the only remaining major players in Syria are the Assad regime and the Islamic State, the former will be able to appeal to the international community


system that replaces the status quo.

The pursuit of this political project has appealed to significant swathes of people in the Middle East and outside the region, and given Islamic State sympathizers a tangible goal to seek to achieve.11 When one foreign fighter in Raqqa was asked why he was not engaged in jihad close to his original home, he replied, “Because the real Islamic State is here.”12

Local Buy-In

The Islamic State needs local buy-in to establish its rule, and therefore it follows the “clear, hold, build” formula—often also associated with the operational model of the U.S. Army but which also applies to Hezbollah—in its appeal to local populations. The group takes hold of land, particularly areas rich in resources like oil and water, and cities, where it can eventuallyinstitutions and infusing them with its propaganda18 with a view toward nurturing a whole new and compliant generation. In Raqqa, the Islamic State reopened 24 schools—twelve for boys and twelve for girls—which offer a new curriculum that has been approved by the group. Islamic State “religious courses,” in reality indoctrination courses of two to six months, are also offered to teenagers and adults and are a requirement for all new fighters.19

In its engagement with local populations, the Islamic State has benefited from the prolonged brutality of the Syrian conflict and from the grievances of Iraq’s Sunni population toward the Iraqi government.20 In Syria, as with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic State emerged from the socioeconomic context of a population that had been exhausted by years of war


and reduced to the pursuit of basic needs. The violence of the war, especially as a result of the regime’s policies, deflected people’s attention away from demands for democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and politics, as large numbers of Syrians became consumed with mere survival.21

This helped make the Islamic State appear to be an organization that was restoring order—and boosted its appeal to local populations. The group’s takeover of Raqqa and the other areas where it claimed early victories came after those areas had been controlled by different opposition groups, a period that exposed residents to practices like taxation, looting, the occupation of houses, and other forms of corruption. An example is the case of Hassan Jazra, a known criminal who, due to his personal connections,had been acquitted by an Islamic court set up by an Islamist opposition group in Aleppo. After the Islamic State took control of areas of the city in late 2013, Jazra and nine members of his gang were executed by the jihadi group, an act that garnered widespread popular support.22

In Syria, the Islamic State emerged from the socioeconomic context of a population that had been exhausted by years of war and reduced to the pursuit of basic needs.

In Iraq, the Islamic State capitalized on Sunni anger at former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s systematic political and economic exclusion of Sunni areas, which led those regions, heavily populated by tribes, to feel detached from the central state.23

The United States provided equipment to the Iraqi army following the 2003 U.S. invasion,


but that support was not coupled with good governance measures to ensure accountability. This left the door open for corruption and discrimination against many of Iraq’s communities, especially the Sunnis. Iran’s influence on the Iraqi government exacerbated the sectarian divide, as did the Islamic Republic’s backing of the creation of Shia militias in Iraq to fight the Islamic State.

The Islamic State has tapped into these tensions, presenting itself as a tool of vindication for Sunnis. In its media and face-to-face outreach, the group uses the narratives of Sunni humiliation and discrimination, as well as the goal of bringing the world back to the “correct” path of Islam by fighting apostates (those who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and later defected), infidels (including Christians and other minorities), traitorsIn the Raqqa Governorate, now the headquarters of the Islamic State, there was not a significant Syrian state security presence in tribal areas beyond the army bases around the city of Raqqa. Instead, although tribes had pledged allegiance to the regime, they were responsible for their own security.35 This level of independence increased following the start of the Syrian crisis.

In some respects, the 2011 uprising was as much about young Syrians’ rejection of traditional tribal leaders as it was their dissatisfaction with the regime. But the rise of the Islamic State resuscitated the role of elder tribal leadership, which the group relied upon to weave its network of power on the ground.36

Another factor that helped the Islamic State to form local alliances is that tribes and clans often


ally themselves with the strongest actor in the pursuit of self-protection. In Syria, as the militant group gained prominence, many tribes saw it as stronger than the Syrian regime and shifted their allegiances accordingly.

In Iraq, many Sunni tribes supported the Islamic State’s advance as a measure of revenge against the government. Some tribes accepted the group as a defense against the advance of the Shia militias that replaced the army. Others, in disputed territories near Kurdistan, saw the Islamic State as a means to counter Kurdish aspirations over their territories. Yet others accepted the Islamic State as a way to fight against Sunni tribes that were being co-opted by the central government in Baghdad; this was the case in Anbar, where the Iraqi government has struggled to getSunni tribes to cooperate with it against the Islamic state.37

However, a number of tribes have begun to see the Islamic State as detracting from the authority that they used to enjoy under the regime. For example, according to one tribal leader, with the arrival of the Islamic State, the tribes no longer collect the taxes that they used to impose on people.38

A number of tribes—including the Bu Nimr tribe in Iraq’s Anbar Province, as well as the Sheitat, the biggest tribe in Deir Ezzor—rebelled against the Islamic State in 2014. An estimated 700 members of the Sheitat were executed by the Islamic State following their August 2014 rebellion, while the rest of the tribe’s members were kicked out of their areas. (By December 2014, 230 bodies had been


documented, and a few hundred more people were reported missing.)39 The Islamic State reportedly justified its actions by saying that the tribe had been selling oil from the area’s wells for private gain and accusing its members of being apostates.40

As the case of the Sheitat illustrates, in areas where the Islamic State has faced widespread local resistance, it has worked to empty those areas of their original residents and to repopulate them with foreign muhajireen (migrants). The absence of local resistance can help the group to establish roots in those areas both now and in the future.

Propaganda as a Military Tactic

The Islamic State has garnered much attention for its use of propaganda, particularly its releases of videos of violent acts, its publication of an online magazine and severalto compensate for it.

However, unlike al-Qaeda, the Islamic State follows a strict formula in dealing with the media. It is very specific about where it promotes itself and how. For example, until Twitter closed down its accounts in August 2014, the group had set up individual accounts for each wilaya (protectorate) it controlled. Through those accounts, the Islamic State promoted its development work, such as the opening of schools and the completion of road projects.42 This focus on services aimed at cultivating a sense of legitimacy for the Islamic State by presenting the group as a provider for Muslims in need. The Islamic State continues to use Twitter as a method of outreach, constantly creating new accounts when others are shut down.43

Psychological Warfare

The Islamic State regularly disseminates graphic


suicide bomber attacked the gate at the base that was home to the Syrian Army’s Seventeenth Division, creating an entry point for a second suicide bomber, who attacked the headquarters inside. Soon after gaining access to the base, the Islamic State decapitated the base commander. Within the hour, this achievement was announced over loudspeakers as the battle was raging, and images of it were immediately released on Twitter. This lowered morale among the base’s 700 soldiers and helped the Islamic State to take over the base.45

The same tactic was used in an attack on Raqqa’s Tabqa airport, where the heads of dozens of regime soldiers were hung in public spaces as a way of instilling fear in the enemy and showing off to potential and existing recruits aswell as the local population.46 Following a massive promotion campaign through social media, the Islamic State compensated for the few hundred fighters it lost in the Tabqa battle and other battles in 2014 with 6,000 new fighters.47

Propaganda has also been used to help overcome military limitations. When the Islamic State was unable to expand further east because of resistance from Shia-majority areas in Iraq after its advance on Mosul, the group announced the “return” of the caliphate on June 29, 2014, and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made his first public appearance, giving a sermon as the “Caliph Ibrahim” at the Great Mosque in Mosul.48 With video of the sermon that was circulated around the world, the Islamic State projected to its existing and potential members an image


of the emir al-momineen (commander of the faithful) that they could relate to—a courageous leader unafraid to appear in the biggest mosque in Mosul, which carries historical significance for Sunni Muslims. The group also used the moment to make an open invitation to technocrats like engineers and medical doctors to join in building the caliphate and launched a social media campaign aimed at boosting recruitment and funding.49

A similar pattern can be seen in the battle of Kobane, a Kurdish town in Syria near the Turkish border. Turkey was initially resistant to allowing Turkish Kurdish fighters to enter Syria to help their Syrian counterparts fight the Islamic State as it advanced toward Kobane, but it agreed to open its borders in December 2014. Consequently the Islamic State found itselftrapped in the town, confronted with a stark choice: either hold ground and face this new onslaught from peshmerga and other Kurdish combatants, or flee and expose its fighters to the international coalition’s air strikes. The group’s first reaction to this entrapment was not a military move but a media one: British hostage John Cantlie was made to appear in an online video in which he wandered around Kobane telling the camera that the town was dominated by the Islamic State.

As the battle of Kobane approached its end in early 2015, the Islamic State resorted once more to its tried-and-tested approach to overcoming military losses: propaganda. The group had captured a Jordanian pilot, Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, who had been participating in the air strike campaign, and proceeded to


parade him naked from the waist down in a video. It also released another video showing the execution of one of two Japanese hostages in its custody and staged a video statement by the other hostage in which he called for the release of Sajida al-Rishawi—an al-Qaeda affiliate who had been on death row in Jordan for nine years following a failed terrorism attempt—in return for his own safety.

The three videos drew much media attention and—after members of the pilot’s tribe protested in Amman, asking the government to work harder to secure his release—Jordan publicly agreed to release al-Rishawi in return for the Jordanian pilot. The Islamic State promptly responded by circulating videos of the executions of the second Japanese hostage as well as the pilot. In doingso, the group managed to humiliate both Japan and Jordan, two members of the international coalition against the Islamic State.

The Islamic State used propaganda to compensate for military loss once more following its defeat in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit in April 2015, when it released videos of the destruction of the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in Iraq.

Centralized Media Operations

The Islamic State is able to use propaganda so efficiently because its media operations are highly centralized, with careful control over what is publicized when. All Twitter accounts associated with the group are centrally managed. When new high-profile fighters join the Islamic State, they are pressured to hand over their social media accounts to the organization.50

Centralized control also protects the Islamic State from making errors that could


to create Jabhat al-Nusra instead. Personal disagreements are also behind the takfir (excommunication) of the Jaysh al-Islam leader Zahran Alloush.68

The Islamic State’s presentation of itself as the true al-Qaeda is partly driven by financial ambitions, as this label creates doubt among al-Qaeda donors, many of whom have shifted their funding to the Islamic State in their pursuit of supporting the spread of true Wahhabi ideology.69 The group plays on this sentiment by using the narrative of the resurrection of the golden days of Islam. In Dabiq, the online magazine that the Islamic State has been publishing since June 2014, the group refers to its Western opponents as “crusaders.” The magazine also often makes parallels between present incidents and stories from the dawn of Islam as a way tocultivate a sense of legitimacy for the organization.

Military Strategy

Since the emergence of the Islamic State, the group’s military strategy has relied on evolving theater-level operations and tactics. In the period of its ascent, which culminated with the June 2014 advance in Iraq, the Islamic State relied on offensive warfare to expand the territories under its control. Following that, the group took a mostly defensive stance. With the intensification of coalition air strikes in 2015 and the increased gains by rivals like Jabhat al-Nusra since February 2015, the Islamic State shifted its tactics, relying on opportunistic attacks on its opponents and again attempting to expand its geographic presence.

A Closed and Centralized Military Structure

Throughout its military evolution, the Islamic State has relied on a number of constants. It merges theater-level


operations and tactics used by nonstate militant groups with those used by conventional armies. The former stems from its roots in al-Qaeda in Iraq, and its adaptation of tactics used by Hezbollah, while the latter is the result of the involvement of former officers from what had been Iraq’s ruling Baath Party, who joined al-Qaeda in Iraq, and later the Islamic State, in hopes of retaliating against the Iraqi government following the process of de-Baathification after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.70

The Baathist–Islamic State connection sometimes overrides sectarian fault lines, as some former Baathist military commanders were, according to a local fighter, originally Shia but converted to Sunnism upon joining the militant group. These include Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, who became a top commander in the Islamic State.71

Although much attentionhas been given to Raqqa and Mosul as key urban centers for the Islamic State, both cities are in fact symbolic centers, while the organization’s centers of mobilization lie elsewhere, including in the mosques in the east of Aleppo. And the Islamic State’s command center lies in the deserts between Syria and Iraq, from which its leadership directs operations across the entirety of Islamic State territories and the world.

The combination of the military vision and strategy provided by former Baathist commanders and the experience of high-profile, veteran Sunni jihadists who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq has given the Islamic State an edge over its opponents. The group is similar to Hezbollah in that its organizational structure is institutionalized, not personalized. The combination of a hierarchical command system and


militarily overwhelmed. In the first, personal connections between the group’s leaders and some Jabhat al-Nusra commanders led the two groups in August 2014 to fight together in the same trenches in Qalamoun against Hezbollah and the National Defense Forces, which was created by the Syrian regime. In the second, the Islamic State reached out to the Free Syrian Army to collaborate on the siege of the military airport in Deir Ezzor in early 2015, but the FSA refused.73

All-Out Attacks as a Tactic

The Islamic State appears to have no qualms about sacrificing hundreds of fighters in high-profile military offensives. In the Tabqa battle, the group lost between 300 and 400 fighters in a few days under regime air strikes, but continued its onslaught on the airport, well aware thatcontrol of this important military base could help show potential recruits that the Islamic State was succeeding.

The Islamic State continues to engage in spectacular all-out attacks that rely on multiple suicide bombers, as the Tabqa attack did, which helps to explain its heavy recruitment of children. The group trains children outside school hours, exposing them to graphic violence, and produces training videos to encourage young teenagers to fight. The focus on training children, according to an Islamic State member, is because fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds cannot evaluate risk and are more prepared to engage in suicide operations.74

These spectacular all-out attacks serve to intimidate enemies and attract new members by showing that the Islamic State is the strongest jihadist actor on the ground in Syria and Iraq. Fear and admiration


of either joining the Islamic State or being exterminated by it.76

Defensive Warfare

Following the Islamic State’s expansion in June 2014, the group sought to fuel its narrative of fighting infidels by drawing Western air strikes against its territories.77 Through this shift to defensive warfare operations, the Islamic State consolidated on-the-ground tactics it had adapted from groups like the Taliban and Hezbollah. This kind of warfare, including the use of tunnels and underground operations, is generally more effective for smaller groups like the Islamic State that are battling larger organized armies, as has been the case with Hezbollah and Hamas in their confrontations with Israel. The Islamic State hinted at its desire to engage in defensive warfare in the first issue of Dabiq in June 2014, in which it madeparallels between the present and the historical battle of Dabiq, in which Muslims defended their lands against crusades.

According to one local fighter, the Islamic State’s beheading of two American hostages the same month was a deliberate provocation of the West meant to spark a defensive war.78 After the group became financially independent in 2014, it was no longer reliant on ransoms for income. Hostages therefore were no longer used for fundraising but became a tool of war. The Islamic State calculated that the West would not want to commit boots on the ground in retaliation for the killing of hostages and would limit its engagement to air strikes, and the militant group prepared for this scenario by hiding weapons underground, emptying military bases, and scattering its members among


the local populations in Iraq and Syria.79

The air strikes by the U.S.-led international coalition that began in September 2014 came to validate the Islamic State’s narrative that it is engaged in a jihad against infidels and crusaders who are killing Muslims, particularly as the strikes have killed a significant number of civilians. The strikes were used as the group tried to boost recruitment by escalating its calls for hijra (migration to the caliphate) and bayah (pledging allegiance to the Islamic State). The calls were supported by what some antiregime tribes in Syria saw as the hypocrisy of the West for its failure to intervene against Assad, which further contributed to a hike in membership.80

Opportunistic Gains

Changes on the battlefield in the first half of 2015 once again prompted theIslamic State to adjust its operations and tactics, retreating from some Iraqi areas following the international coalition air strikes and counterattacks by the peshmerga and regrouping in Syria.

The group’s emergence as the strongest jihadist actor in the region has been paralleled by increased losses by the Syrian regime. Assad’s forces consequently appear to be shifting the focus of their military operations from maintaining localized control of urban centers across Syria’s governorates (the exception until April 2015 was Raqqa) to defending core areas in regime strongholds of the Sahel area and Damascus. This shift has translated into the regime’s abandonment of areas like Idlib and Palmyra, the latter of which fell to the Islamic State in May 2015.

The group’s emergence as the strongest jihadist actor in the region has


been paralleled by increased losses by the Syrian regime.

This retreat has paved the way for the Islamic State to expand the scope of areas under its control in Syria, which remains the optimal center of the caliphate due to the concentration of coalition attacks in Iraq and the likelihood that the Syrian conflict will continue long into the future. The passage of time would allow the group to set deep roots in Syria, which in turn would enable it to retain its control unless it is challenged on the ground, as was the case in Kobane and in Tal Abyad, on the Syrian-Turkish border, which the Islamic State lost to Kurdish fighters in June 2015.

Following the Mosul advance, the Islamic State quickly diverted newly seized military equipment andmonetary gains to Syria, and since then has been attempting to take over Deir Ezzor; in mid-2015 it controlled most of the province with the exception of the military airport and the center of the city, which are under regime control. It has also been attempting to take over more territory in Aleppo.

In mid-2015, the group seemed most likely to face on-the-ground confrontations with Jaysh al-Fateh in the north of the country, and more substantially, with the Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front brigades in the south. This is because the regime remains more interested in attacking the Free Syrian Army than attacking the Islamic State, while the Western-led coalition has largely limited its activities to air strikes, most of which are aimed at areas the Islamic State controls


the group faced dissent from members who regarded the organization as not extreme enough; one Kuwaiti emir who made such complaints was promptly executed as a result in 2015, after being accused of being a spy.84

Syrian-Foreign Tensions

Tensions are also rising between Syrian and foreign fighters.

In Mayadeen, in the east, a Syrian emir clashed with an Egyptian emir, killing the latter and then putting a cigarette in his mouth to make the murder look like a legitimate punishment.85

A key motivation for Russian-speaking fighters to join the Islamic State is their hope that they will be able to use the fight in Syria as a step toward attacking the Russian regime, and they are often seen by fighters from other backgrounds as pursuing their own distinct agenda.

In Raqqa, a seriesfulfilling a “death ideology,” others are questioning the selection of who is sent to the front lines. The Islamic State leadership has responded by sending members it wants to get rid of to the front lines; that was the case during the battle of Kobane in late 2014, when, as the group realized it was losing, it began sending those it considered troublesome as a way to get rid of them.87

The local Syrian population is also growing unhappy with foreign members of the Islamic State, who are seen as lacking in understanding of local cultural nuances. Their harsh yet inconsistent method of implementing sharia is putting locals off, especially among those with religious training. As foreigners are given more privileges, Syrians say they sometimes act in ways that


keeping the locations of their homes secret and are said to be ordering the killing of anyone suspected of infiltration.91

Geographic Expansion

Although the Islamic State has been able to increase its geographical presence in Syria and Iraq, it has not been able do so indefinitely. It is finding it difficult to expand into and hold areas where there is significant local resistance, like Shia areas in Iraq or Kurdish areas in Syria.

The group has been attempting to take over parts of the Aleppo Governorate, but it has faced a series of hurdles there as well. Initially, the Islamic State faced resistance in the area from Western-supported Syrian rebel groups, namely the Hazm Movement and the Syria Revolutionaries’ Front. Following the decline of these groups after attacks on them byJabhat al-Nusra in late 2014 and the rise of Jaysh al-Fateh in the north, the Islamic State has been facing resistance from this new rival rebel coalition, as well as continued resistance in northern Aleppo from mainly Islamist groups under the umbrella coalition called al-Jabha al-Shamiya. The regime air strikes and barrel bombing are also making it difficult for the group to expand in Aleppo, because increasing the territory it controls would require a heightened military presence, which risks exposing the Islamic State to further strikes.

When the Islamic State has appeared to be overstretched geographically, it has often moved to regroup and strengthen its hold on areas it already controls, as it did during the March 2014 attempt to take over Idlib. At that time, after the area


and Egypt. It has accepted pledges of allegiance from groups residing in those areas and has sent its own emirs to broker deals with them. Some of those groups are relative newcomers, such as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis in Sinai, and see in the Islamic State a way to get power and resources. Others, like Ansar al-Sharia in Libya, have older ties that go back to the first year of the Syrian revolution, when Libyan rebels collaborated with Syrian rebels to set up the Muhajiroun Brigade, which began in the Sahel area in Syria, then moved to Raqqa. Since then, there have been a number of Libyan leaders within the Islamic State who have taken its model back to Libya.93

The challenges of the domestic situation in Syria and Iraqhave been a key reason why the Islamic State has also been increasingly engaging in attacks in other countries.

This expansion of activities appears to be motivated not by a desire to increase the geographical boundaries of the caliphate, but rather by both psychological and tactical concerns. To boost the morale of its followers, the Islamic State is trying to show them that it has global impact. At the same time, by distracting the international community away from Syria, the group may gain time to manage the challenges it faces within the country. According to a local fighter, the Islamic State recognizes that the Syrian regime needs it to exist, and that the United States benefits from its existence while it is undecided about the fate of the Assad


And, the less centralized the Islamic State is, the less able it will be to control its global operations.

A Strategy to Counter the Islamic State

Despite the challenges facing it, the Islamic State has been resilient and adaptable.

Even though it lost a quarter of its territories in Iraq after the first six months of international coalition air strikes, it still managed to advance into the city of Ramadi in May 2015. The coalition’s focus on Iraq has allowed the Islamic State to double the area under its control in Syria, despite a number of tactical withdrawals and losses in Kurdish areas. The group has enlarged the scope of its operations southward, where it has been targeting the Free Syrian Army’s Southern Front, and westward in Aleppo. But the successbeen a double-edged sword. In Syria, they have resulted in the deaths of FSA fighters who had been held by the Islamic State. At the outset of the strikes in 2014, 200 such fighters were killed in a coalition strike on an Islamic State court where they had been detained in Abu Kamal, in the east, while 300 FSA fighters faced a similar fate in Raqqa.95 The air strikes on Raqqa have also killed mostly civilians, thereby increasing the population’s anger at the West. Some Syrian tribes in the eastern part of the country have grown closer to the Islamic State as a result, as they complain that the international community did not intervene against the Assad regime but only against an organization that is presenting itself as


fighting the regime.

A similar sentiment is expressed in Iraq, where local resentment against the coalition’s indirect cooperation with Shia militias in the fight against the Islamic State is increasing, especially given the level of looting that those militias have been engaged in in areas like Tikrit.96 The high degree of sectarianism in Iraq and the fact that the Islamic State emerged from the area in 2003 mean that the group has deep ties in the country that will be difficult to undo without comprehensive measures to win the trust of the local Sunni population.

Even coalition successes have come at a great material cost. In Kobane, peshmerga ground forces provided intelligence about Islamic State locations in the town, which coalition fighter jets used to set their bombing targets. Theborder porous, which allowed what was then al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State’s parent organization, to gain access to fighters who were crossing into Iraq after having entered Syria through Turkey. Turkey has stepped up its cooperation with the anti–Islamic State coalition, including through closing its border with Syria, but it has stopped short of allowing coalition aircraft to operate from Turkish bases. Access to such bases would help the coalition campaign better reach targets in Syria.

The air strikes campaign should be complemented with the creation of a national guard in Iraq that includes representatives of the country’s Sunni as well as Shia communities, in order to prevent the Islamic State from playing on Sunni grievances, and with the strengthening of the only remaining moderate opposition coalition fighting


the Islamic State in Syria, the Southern Front.

The high degree of sectarianism in Iraq and the fact that the Islamic State emerged from the area in 2003 mean that the group has deep ties in the country that will be difficult to undo.

The “train and equip” program set up by the United States and the UK in early 2015 to increase the number of vetted moderate fighters is not sufficient. The Southern Front also needs help at the coordination and financial levels to be able to attract other independent brigades to join it. In addition, the more the moderate opposition is shown to be able to deliver, the higher the level of local trust in it, which would translate into increased impact and operational efficiency. This is notgovernment with representation from different opposition groups on the ground, both military and civilian, as well as the opposition abroad. Having this agreement in place would encourage figures from the current regime who are open to compromise—but who are afraid to leave the regime for the lack of a safety net—to join the interim government. This kind of government would eventually enable the Syrian army to be unified and the new Syrian government to formally seek the support of the international community to fight the Islamic State. It would also encourage citizens who are unhappily living in areas controlled by the Islamic State to mobilize against it. Those tribes that affiliate themselves with the group out of fear would also be likely to change their affiliations when they


State.

Ultimately, the way to eradicate the Islamic State is not by conducting military strikes alone, but by cutting its two main lifelines: grievances in Iraq and the Syrian conflict. This requires addressing sectarianism in Iraq and implementing a wider comprehensive road map to end the Syrian conflict.

Notes

1 This paper is mainly based on interviews conducted by the author between March 2014 and May 2015 with a number of mostly Syrian civilians and militants who are based in areas under the Islamic State’s control and in areas it does not control in Syria, and in southern Turkey and Jordan. Some of the interviews were conducted face-to-face in southern Turkey and Jordan, and others by Skype. The interviewees ranged from Islamic State sympathizers to opponents of the group and cameand Syria, who argued that there could not be a caliphate without a named caliph.

49 Skype interview with local civilian, July 2014.

50 Skype interviews with militants, March 2014–July 2014.

51 Lina Khatib, Dina Matar, and Atef Alshaer, The Hizbullah Phenomenon (Oxford: Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2014).

52 Skype interviews with local militants, April 2014 and March 2015.

53 Skype interview with local militant, May 2015.

54 Skype interview with local militant, December 2014.

55 Skype interview with local militant, May 2014.

56 “The Islamic State,” Vice News, https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-full-length.

57 Skype interview with local militant, May 2015.

58 For example in issue 7 of the Islamic State magazine, Dabiq, this author’s article on Jabhat al-Nusra, published by the Carnegie Endowment on March 25, 2015, has been extensively quoted and critiqued.

59 For example, the Islamic State has relied on


Islamic interpretations related to slavery to justify its own engagement in enslaving and raping women. The group has also arrested Westerners and called them “enemies of Islam” only to later exchange them for ransom.

60 Skype interview with local civilian, April 2014.

61 Skype interview with militant, May 2014.

62 “Life Inside the ISIS Home Base of Raqqa, Syria,” Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2014, www.wsj.com/video/life-inside-the-isis-home-base-of-raqqa-syria/AA8CB9E3-B6A9-49AB-A2C9-F8E843413B85.html.

63 Skype interview with local militant, March 2015.

64 Skype interview with local militant, January 2015.

65 Al-Adnani’s speeches are prepared by a team of writers, according to a local militant interviewed in May 2014.

66 Skype interview with local militant, January 2015.

67 Skype interview with local militant, October 2014.

68 Skype interview with local militant, May 2015.

69 Skype interview with militant, September 2014.

70 Liz Sly, “The Hidden Hand Behindthe Islamic State Militants? Saddam Hussein’s,” Washington Post, April 4, 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/the-hidden-hand-behind-the-islamic-state-militants-saddam-husseins/2015/04/04/aa97676c-cc32-11e4-8730-4f473416e759_story.html.

71 Skype interview with local militant, October 2014.

72 Skype interview with local militant, May 2015.

73 Skype interview with local militant, May 2015.

74 Skype interview with local militant, May 2015. A good example is the boy who surrendered to Iraqi police in December 2014. See “A Boy in ISIS. A Suicide Vest. A Hope to Live,” New York Times, December 26, 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/world/middleeast/syria-isis-recruits-teenagers-as-suicide-bombers.html.

75 Skype interview with local militant, January 2015.

76 Ibid.

77 Skype interview with local militant, July 2014.

78 Skype interview with local militant, July 2014.

79 Skype interview with local militant, July 2014.

80 Interview with tribal leader in southern Turkey, March 2015.

81 The Islamic State has lost a quarter of its Iraqi territory since the start of the coalition


containing Mija's severed head – cut off by the Kurdish bodyguards.  Carter strangles Gonzalez.  Carter passes out from his injuries and awakes in the sanatorium of Dr Joseph Six – former Nazi doctor who experimented on prisoners in extermination camps.

Dr Six gives Carter a fatal dose of morphine and leaves him alone to die.  Carter vomits up the morphine and dives out the hospital window into the Bosphorus.  Carter immediately returns to the sanatorium and kills Dr Six and his cronies with Pierre – the poison gas bomb.  Carter leaves the sanatorium and is picked up on his way back to the city center by Tessa Travis – apparently a bored and lonely businessman's wife – who takes him back to her villa.

Inrelated local legend has it that king Charles XII of Sweden, who resided in Lund for a time between campaigns in the 1710s, rode up the wide wooden stairs in the tower. The legend is easily debunked, as the tower was added to the building only later in the 18th century.

The house held the University Library in the mid-19th century, but was in a bad shape, with a leaking roof for instance. The professor of Greek language at the time, Carl Georg Brunius, whose prolific work as an amateur architect is seen in many characteristic Lund buildings, took it as upon himself to improve the condition of the building. Until 2014 Kungshuset housed the Department of Philosophy.

The nearest buildings are the towering  Lund Cathedral located 50 meters


a problem.

"They're increasingly developing a footprint to have more control, to have more influence in that revenue stream," he said.

While the service is still fairly new, Atlantic Lottery says it expects bets to pick up as the U.S. election nears.

It also said it has no intention of taking bets on Canadian political races. As an arm’s length government agency, that would be a conflict of interest.

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Many of the articles included in this supplement to the original "Outdoor Education Manual" were submitted by classroom teachers in Ontario. Major areas covered are photography in outdoor education, enrichment of the curriculum through use of the school yard, canoe tripping, winter activities, and forestry. Suggested activities in each of these areas are presented, along with additional information to be used in an outdoor education program. A list of reference books is included. (PS)Republican leaders, such as they are, are under
considerable pressure from big-business interests — not the
small-business interests that are the natural Republican constituency —
to open the gates for another wave of cheap and easily abused labor.
This would keep the workers already here in line, tugging at their
forelocks.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama dissents from the
emerging Republican rush to suicide. His three-page memo, hand delivered
to every Republican member of the House, sets out the peril to his
party in the warmed-over Democratic plan.

The Republican leaders
are said to be negotiating with Democrats for the final legislation,
which only then would be presented to their own members. Nancy Pelosi as
co-leader of the Republican majority. Who knew?

Mr. Sessions
smells betrayal of American workers. Over the past decade, he observes,
more immigrants, legal and illegal, have arrived in America


and some are illiterate. They get by raising potatoes, lotus, medicinal herbs and chickens in the fog-shrouded fields up in the mountains of Jiangxi province.

Until last year, a trip to buy something as basic as a faucet meant an all-day expedition to the nearest township, given that bus service over a steep dirt track ran just twice day. A voyage to the more distant county seat required three hours each way. Given Jade Peak’s small population and remote location, no package delivery company would serve the village. Many of Jade Peak’s youth, like Luo Rong, decamp for urban centers, in search of opportunity and modernity.

But the completion of a new highway, a 1.6-mile tunnel and a winding asphalt road up the mountain last year are starting to changefamily’s hives. His mother cuts away some of the comb, then places the frame in a spinning contraption that extracts the honey from each little crevice.

Two years ago, Qiu started selling his family’s honey online. Although he has only a middle school education, his e-commerce savvy made him ideal for the Rural Taobao program, said Yuan, and last year Qiu opened a Rural Taobao storefront in Baiguo.

In addition to helping villagers buy things online, Qiu has started selling his neighbors’ produce over the Internet. He drives around in his tan van, plastered with Rural Taobao logos, collecting ginger and sweet potatoes.

If the villagers sell their ginger in the township, Qiu said, they can get about 27 cents for 18 ounces. He pays about 42 cents for that amount,


Monthly Archives: August 2016

A year ago, Claire Crawford was experiencing one of the scariest, most challenging moments of her life. She was a pregnant student not sure of what to do or where to get help. At 5 months pregnant, she had lost her 2 jobs and dropped out of college. At 7 months, she left a bad relationship. Claire had no idea what she was going to do to take care of her baby boy. Thankfully, Claire had the help of her local Students for Life group and was able to find the peer support, baby supplies, and local resources that she needed to choose life for baby Taylan and to build a new future for her family. Claire’s courage to reach out for help changed herlife– and now she’s returning the favor.

Since her pregnancy, Claire has transformed her life. The once scared, pregnant teen is now a strong, empowered advocate for women in her community. While being a student of Holmes Community College and parenting her son Taylan, Claire is constantly helping women in her college community. Many of the women she meets are going through similar experiences. Claire understands the place they are in, and she advocates for them in every way that she can.

An Advocate for Women

This past year, she has worked with Mississippi State University Students for Life to speak to their group about her testimony of rejecting abortion. Her experience has allowed her to be a safe and trusted confidant for women. Women (who have previously chosen abortion) feel


was pregnant and unsure of who to turn to for support. Claire directed her to the pregnancy resource center that she (Claire) first got help from as a pregnant 17-year-old. Together, Claire and the center’s staff gave this mother the encouragement that she needed to choose life for her baby girl. She is now working, and she loves being a mother!

“Mother B” needed not only support to choose life, but also a place to live after her parents threatened to kick her out if she did not choose abortion. With the help of Claire, the local pro-life community, and MSU Students for Life friends, this mother had a place to live, missed her abortion consultation, and instead received care at a pregnancy resource center. This mother shared thatfor Life student group leaders in Mississippi.

Shurnita: “My life has a purpose.”

This school year, Shurnita, a junior in Wildlife at Mississippi State University became unexpectedly pregnant. Her on-campus counselor let her know that there is a group on campus that has a program called the Pregnant on Campus Initiative. She contacted MSU Students for Life for help continuing her education while pregnant. Although being pregnant and taking challenging classes proved to be an intense balance, Shurnita had a community of students at her school willing to find baby items, job listings, and classes for new moms. As she prepared for her baby boy in the spring semester, she had a team of friends making sure that she had everything that she needed to succeed as a mother and


a passion for other young pregnant and parenting students, and she is always eager to help. Her son Riley was born in May, and she shared that she loves “talking to him about everything!” She hopes to pursue a career in Biblical Archaeology after graduation. She shared, “We are determined to graduate so our children will have the best lives possible!”

Aysia: Determined to succeed

Aysia, a senior in Biomedical Engineering at Mississippi State University, discovered that she was pregnant before returning to school in the fall. She remained determined to carry her baby and return to school. She saw the Students for Life table at her school’s Club Fair on the first week of school. It was her first week as a pregnant student right when she saw thePost navigation

New faces of the SBE: Rebecca H. Taylor

NC Policy Watch is talking with nominees for the State Board of Education to give our readers a sense of their backgrounds and philosophies on education policy in the state of North Carolina.

The three open slots on the State Board of Education were slated to be filled under Governor Perdue back in 2011. Her nominees were ignored by state lawmakers until the end of her term, and the nominees we have today are Governor McCrory’s picks. Three additional slots are expected to open up this year as well. Stay tuned for their profiles.

Name: Rebecca H. Taylor

Occupation: Owner of five Sylvan Learning Center franchises in Eastern North Carolina

Education and training: Undergraduate and graduate degrees in special education from East Carolina University


The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s son Prince Louis has been photographed to mark his second birthday – making a rainbow tribute poster.

Children across the UK have been creating rainbow pictures as a symbol of hope during the coronavirus lockdown to put in their windows.

Now Louis has joined the popular trend and was photographed by proud mother Kate at their Norfolk home earlier this month – with his rainbow-coloured hands on show.

The young prince will celebrate his second birthday on Thursday, and the fruits of his labour – a rainbow handprint picture – is one of five photographs released to mark the milestone.

Louis looks like he is growing up fast in the pictures, with his hair neatly cut and combed and wearing a smart blue gingham-style shirt.

In aseries of images, Kate has captured her son as he grins at the camera while holding up his painted palms and fingers, in another his coloured digits are raised to his cheeks, and in the fourth photograph his face is almost hidden behind his outstretched hands.

The final image is a portrait of the young prince as he looks past his mother at something just behind her.

Louis is photographed by mum Kate for his second birthday. Duchess of Cambridge

Kate is a keen amateur photographer and patron of the Royal Photographic Society who has regularly released pictures she has taken of her other children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, to mark their birthdays.

Louis’ artwork is likely to be part of William and Kate’s home-schooling lessons, with the duchess guiltily admitting


of Cambridge, fifth in line to the throne, was born on St George’s Day, April 23, 2018, at the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, weighing 8lb 7oz.

He was christened at 11 weeks old, by Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in front of friends and family.

Louis has rarely been seen in public – his most prominent outing was his first appearance on Buckingham Palace’s balcony, following the Trooping the Colour ceremony last summer, with his parents, siblings and other members of the royal family.

But he has featured in a number of images released by William and Kate and was even in a video with his older brother and sister applauding the nation’s health workers anda female animal.

Artificial insemination has been used to facilitate the reproductive success and conservation of threatened or endangered animals. Examples of wild animals that have been successfully impregnated through artificial insemination include big cats (e.g., the tiger, the puma, the cheetah, and the clouded leopard), the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), and the onager (Equus onager).

Artificial insemination in humans

The first recorded experiment with artificial insemination in humans occurred in the late 1700s, when Scottish-born surgeon John Hunter impregnated a women with her husband’s sperm, resulting in a successful pregnancy. In 1884 American physician William Pancoast performed a modified artificial insemination procedure when he injected sperm from a donor into a woman who was under anesthesia. The woman, who was married, gave birth to a baby nine months later and


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August 17, 2014

Happy Birthday: Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)

Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, Marcus Garvey was the youngest of 11 children. Garvey moved to Kingston at the age of 14, found work in a print shop, and became acquainted with the living conditions of the laboring class. He quickly involved himself in social reform, participating in the first Printers' Union strike in Jamaica in 1907 and in setting up the newspaper The Watchman. Leaving the island toearn money to finance his projects, he visited Central and South America, amassing evidence that black people everywhere were victims of discrimination. He visited the Panama Canal Zone and saw the conditions under which the West Indians lived and worked. He went to Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and Venezuela. Everywhere, blacks were experiencing great hardships and discrimination.

Garvey returned to Jamaica distressed at the situation in Central America, and appealed to Jamaica's colonial government to help improve the plight of West Indian workers in Central America. His appeal fell on deaf ears. Garvey also began to lay the groundwork of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), to which he was to devote his life. Undaunted by lack of enthusiasm for his plans, Garvey left for England in 1912 in


search of additional financial backing. While there, he met a Sudanese-Egyptian journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali. While working for Ali's publication African Times and Oriental Review, Garvey began to study the history of Africa, particularly, the exploitation of Black peoples by colonial powers. He read Booker T. Washington's “Up From Slavery”, which advocated black self-help.

In 1914 Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and its coordinating body, the African Communities League (ACL). In 1920 the organization held its first convention in New York. The convention opened with a parade down Harlem's Lenox Avenue. That evening, before a crowd of 25,000, Garvey outlined his plan to build an African nation-state. In New York City his ideas attracted popular support, and thousands enrolled in the UNIA. He began publishing thenewspaper The Negro World and toured the United States preaching Black Nationalism to popular audiences. His efforts were successful, and soon, the association boasted over 1,100 branches in more than 40 countries. Most of these branches were located in the United States, which had become the UNIA's base of operations. There were, however, offices in several Caribbean countries, Cuba having the most. Branches also existed in places such as Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Namibia and South Africa. He also launched some ambitious business ventures, notably the Black Star Shipping Line.

Garvey promoted two new business organizations — the African Communities League and the Negro Factories Corporation. Financial betrayal by trusted aides and a host of legal entanglements (based on charges that he had used


the U.S. mail to defraud prospective investors) eventually led to Garvey's imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for a five-year term. In 1927 his half-served sentence was commuted, and he was deported to Jamaica by order of President Calvin Coolidge.

Garvey then turned his energies to Jamaican politics, campaigning on a platform of self-government, minimum wage laws, and land and judicial reform. He was soundly defeated at the polls, however, because most of his followers did not have the necessary voting qualifications. In 1935 Garvey left for England where, in near obscurity, he died on June 10, 1940, in a cottage in West Kensington.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey advocated that Africans control the wealth of Africa. He taught that control, control of resources, control of self, control of nation, requires preparation, Garveyismrespondents' plane lost power and made an emergency landing. Appellants signed a release and waiver of liability about 30 minutes before boarding the plane. Prior to the emergency landing, the pilot had made several flights earlier in the day, all without incident.
Appellants sued alleging simple negligence and breach of implied warranty. The complaint stated that respondents acted "as a common carrier on an advertised and promoted sight-seeing tour around Santa Barbara. The contract of carriage was entered into and, among other things, carried an implied warranty of airworthiness of the aircraft, as well as suitability for the use and purposes intended...."
Respondents moved for summary judgment based on the following undisputed facts:
Respondents owned a Waco biplane and provided aerial sightseeing tours by a licensed pilot.
Customers were required to sign


camera features, these smartphones have the capability for GPS location and navigation, as well as sensing vertical and horizontal phone orientation. Communication capabilities include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards.
Researchers at the University of Illinois are developing a smartphone-based spectrometer. See Liz Ahlberg, Cradle Turns Smartphone into Handheld Biosensor, University of Illinois, News Bureau, Public Affairs, May 23, 2013. A custom cradle holds the smartphone in fixed alignment with optical components that include a photonic crystal biosensor. This device detects shifts in the resonant wavelength of the biosensor on the order of 5 nm. The target must be dissolved in a small vial of liquid and placed on a microscope slide. The slide is in turn placed in a slot on the cradle attached to the smartphone. While this deviceRural health care networks in South Dakota.
To address health care access concerns, a Regional Coordinated Care Network (RCCN) program, through Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Practice Sights Initiative funding, is being developed by the South Dakota Office of Rural Health. The intent of the initiative is to expand primary and preventive care and, hopefully, permanently reduce the number of Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) in the state by linking and enhancing providers and services. In rural areas such networking will be crucial for the delivery of health care. Surely, the impact on family physicians will be significant and salutary.


Greek Emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes, ordered the Temple to be looted, and an altar was set up there to Zeus (with whom Antiochus identified himself), upon which pigs were sacrificed. The outraged people rose in revolt, led by the Maccabees, a band of brothers who were the sons of a Temple priest who had rebelled against the oppressive conquerors. In 165 BCE, the Syrian-Greeks were driven out of Judea.

According to the story of Chanukah, the desecration of the Temple had included the contamination of the flasks of the special holy olive oil that was used in the Temple rituals. Only one tiny flask, with only enough oil to last one day, remained uncontaminated.. The festival celebrates not the military victory but the miracle of this one small flask ofholy oil that lasted for eight days, until new consecrated oil could be pressed and prepared. The nine-branched candlestick – called the chanukiah or Chanukah menorah – that is used during Chanukah by each family is reminiscent of the great golden seven-branched Menorah that stood in the Temple. On the first night of Chanukah, one candle is lit; on the second night, two candles; on the third night, three candles; and so on for eight days.

To counteract the military connotations of the festival, the rabbis decided that the Haftarah (reading from the Prophets) on the Sabbath of Chanukah should be the verses from Zechariah that include the words:”Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts” – that is, the universal spirit


of justice, freedom and peace.

It is a terrible irony that, as Jews commemorate the Maccabean Revolt – the victory of a small people against imperial domination – the State of Israel dominates, occupies, besieges and attacks the Palestinian people.

Since the winter of 2008-9, Israel has launched three brutal onslaughts against Gaza, massacring thousands of civilians. Operation Cast Lead was launched during Chanukah 2008 and its name derives from a Chanukah children’s song. In the summer of this year, Israel launched the most savage of all the attacks, Operation Protective Edge, which massacred over 2,000 civilians, including over 500 children, and devastated Gaza.

The people of Gaza, amid the ruins of their homes and the loss of their families, facing the freezing winter, have to wait many days for newsupplies of food and fuel to be allowed through, without any miracle to enable the scanty supplies from previous truckloads to last out.

The site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is being desecrated anew by the settlers, who are trying to trigger a religious war by making provocative attempts to pray in the al-Aqsa compound, even though such prayers are contrary to traditional Jewish religious law.

The Israeli government is desecrating Jewish and universal values of justice, freedom and peace by besieging and attacking Gaza and continuing the illegal Occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank..

In the name of those Jewish and universal values, Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) calls on the Israeli government to lift the siege of Gaza, end the Occupation and enter into genuine


to declare its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 but because it had remained isolated from contact with other nations, the country's music professionals had not necessarily experienced the advancements of the percussion world. Her contributions to the Academy include updating the percussion curriculum, introducing new developments in percussion techniques and facilitating exchanges with guest clinicians as "cultural ambassadors" of jazz and percussion to join her in teaching. Within the last decade, the Academy has become one of the leaders in percussion studies in Eastern Europe.

Recordings and arrangements

Linda Maxey can be heard on the sound track of the Kennedy Center's Children Opera, The Emperor's New Clothes (2002), on her solo CD The Artistry of the Marimba, as a soloist in Ney Rosauro's Concerto for Marimba withU.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable

This is a discussion on U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable within the Off Topic & Humor Discussion forums, part of the The Back Porch category; U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable
Tom Barlow
Oct 23rd 2008 at 10:15AM
The Washington Times Post recently ran a three-part series that calls into ...

U.S. Passports: made overseas, obscenely profitable

The Washington Times Post recently ran a three-part series that calls into question one of the primary tools used in our "War on Terror", the new U.S. Passport. According to the W.T., U.S. passports are printed and assembled overseas in countries with highly questionable security and sold to us at a 600% markup.

The Government Printing Office (GPO), the government agency that handles most government printing needs, decided to outsource insertion


November 30.

During the meeting, the CJ was told the association had taken note of allegations made against him, including that he allegedly discussed the matter of personal security for judges with a named person and that he had recommended/referred two or more individuals to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) for accelerated housing grants.

The trio reportedly told the CJ the gravity of the allegations and his failure to respond to them up to then had brought his office and the Judiciary into disrepute. The CJ was also told the association’s council had “resolved to investigate the allegations to determine whether they are true or not.” The CJ reportedly told the trio he would think about the representations made.

Two weeks after the meeting and with accusations against him mounting, theCJ issued a brief public response in which he denied the allegations, although admitting he has from time to time recommended persons for HDC housing. Shortly after issuing the statement, the CJ on Monday left the country on private business.

In the statement to members on Monday LATT secretary Elena Araujo said the committee set up to investigate the allegations will report to the council on or before December 29 and two senior counsel will be retained to advise on the question of whether there is sufficient basis to refer a question of misbehaviour by the CJ to the PM for his consideration under Section 137 of the Constitution.

Araujo noted that upon receiving the advice from the committee, the association will convene a meeting of the general membership to


British interior minister Sajid Javid said two Border Force ships deployed in the Channel would balance protecting human life with protecting Britain's borders

Britain announced Monday it will deploy two border patrol ships in the Channel in response to a surge in migrants crossing from France in dinghies.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid, the interior minister, said the Border Force ships would balance protecting human life with protecting Britain's borders.

In December, around 230 people tried to make the 21-mile (33-kilometre) journey from France to Britain, Javid said.

The attempts, chiefly by Iranian nationals, to cross one of the world's busiest shipping lanes have been made in dinghies and other small craft.

Javid -- the bookmakers' favourite to become the next leader of the governing Conservative Party -- cut short his Christmas family holidayin South Africa to take personal control of the situation.

He said he was redeploying two Border Force cutters from the Mediterranean to the Channel, to join one cutter already on the scene and two other coastal patrol vessels.

"It's both about protecting human life but also about protecting our borders," Javid said after meeting senior officials from the Border Force and the National Crime Agency.

"I want to make sure that we are doing all we can to protect people.

"This is one of the most treacherous stretches of water that there is, 21 miles with people taking grave risk, really putting their lives into their own hands."

- Trafficking gangs targeted -

Javid said about 230 migrants had sought to cross the Channel in December but "just under half have actually been


STRONG LAW ENFORCEMENT INNEW ORLEANS PAVING WAY FOR OTHER FORUM STRATEGIESby Dave Marsden

Though prevention, intervention, and reentry are key strategies for the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, public safety demands serious efforts to suppress violent crime that will allow these other strategies to take hold and begin taking effect. Under the banner of NOLA for Life and the National Forum to Reduce Youth Violence, New Orleans, La., Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his team have taken aggressive steps to remove dangerous individuals from the Crescent City's streets.

In November 2012, in a joint effort of local, state, and federal law enforcement agency partners, Mayor Landrieu developed the Multiagency Gang Unit (MGU). "It's all hands on deck," the mayor announced at the time. The MGU was designed to reduce theDistrict Attorney Leon Cannizzaro announced a 51-count racketeering indictment involving 15 individuals—the largest indictment in New Orleans history. "The people of New Orleans are witnessing a rebirth of their criminal justice system," he said.

Before prevention, intervention, and reentry can play their critical roles in reducing youth violence, the streets and the citizens who live in the neighborhoods must feel safe and be safe. Strong law enforcement in New Orleans is paving the way for the other Forum strategies to begin playing their part in making New Orleans a better place to live.

ANNOUNCEMENTS& UPCOMING EVENTS

Funding Opportunities

National Institute of Justice Announces Availability of $15 Million to Address School SafetyThe National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is seeking applications for funding for research and evaluation on safety in schools nationwide. Under the


for 21 national meeting will be held in northern Kentucky during April 22–24. This annual meeting brings together hundreds of leaders from nationwide who are working to get all young people “ready by 21.” These leaders have dedicated themselves to improving the odds for children and youth through collective impact initiatives, policy alignment, and program quality improvement. For more information, click here.

Despite weather conditions that shut down the government on the first scheduled day, the Implementation Science Training Institute of March 3–5 in Washington, D.C., went smoothly—and to the satisfaction of all who participated. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) event included grantees from the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, the Defending Childhood Initiative, and the Community-Based Violence Prevention initiative. Weather-related flight cancellations couldn'tis critical during exploration (the first of the four stages), but it is equally important to reaffirm it throughout the remaining stages (installation, initial implementation, and full implementation)—such as by reminding those involved why they bought into the effort during the awkwardness that inevitably arises during initial implementation.

The discussion of "drivers" offered insight into aspects of the infrastructure that create a "hospitable environment" for successful implementation. One example of a driver is coaching, which has been shown to dramatically increase the percentage of trainees actually using—rather than merely comprehending—new skills from 5 percent posttraining to 95 percent postcoaching. Participants learned about the importance of structuring linked teaming arrangements, with clear graphic depictions of how teams are linked, what the "terms of reference" or operating parameters and procedures are,


and how teams are accountable to one another.

Collective Impact, Quality ImprovementThe third day considered collective impact and quality improvement cycles. Time was given at the end of the morning for teams to identify action items they would address upon their return home.

One component of the training that the sites embraced was the "table time" built into the training, when individuals from a single site could work with their team to discuss how the information being presented could help reinvigorate their team. In their evaluations, many participants cited "hearing from other cities about their efforts" as the most useful part of the training. The in-person meeting allowed site representatives to discover issues they had in common, as well as to recognize issues unique to their cities. Participants also discoveredto integrate these lessons into their violence prevention work. Annie Ellington, director of Detroit's Youth Violence Prevention Initiative, said she will "take action on citizens' items of concern." She intends to focus on the "fit, feasibility, and continuous quality improvement" of the work back home. Participants also said they plan to work more with their implementation teams and get them to incorporate what they learned to assess the strengths, laud the successes, and identify challenges and methods of quality improvement.

Shelby County Government Administrator (Memphis) Keisha Walker summed it up: "We plan to take a deeper dive into site-based services and determine what's supposed to be the end result."

NEWS& VIEWS

Reports

Urban Institute: Underground Commercial Sex Trade Bigger Than Drug Trade in Atlanta, Miami, Seattle(Meredith Dank, Bilal Khan, P. Mitchell Downey,


Cybele Kotonias, Deborah Mayer, Colleen Owens, Laura Pacifici, and Lilly Yu. 2014. Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy in Eight Major U.S. Cities. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute.) This U.S. Department of Justice–commissioned report on the underground commercial sex economy (UCSE) in eight American cities estimates that the sex trade in Atlanta, Ga.; Miami, Fla., and Seattle, Wash.; dwarfs the illegal drug trade in each of those places. The report by the Urban Institute—based on 2007 data and more than 250 interviews with law enforcement officers, lawyers, pimps, sex traffickers, sex workers, and child pornographers—also examines UCSE, including child pornography, in Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colo.; Kansas City, Mo.; San Diego, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. Hear an interview with Meredith Dank, principal author of thestudy, from the March 17 Kojo Nnamdi Show.

Child Poverty Has Reached Record Levels; Children of Color Disproportionately PoorThe Children's Defense Fund recently released The State of America's Children, which finds that child poverty has reached record levels and children of color are disproportionately poor. The report includes a comprehensive compilation and analysis of the most recent state and national data on population, family structure, poverty, family income, health, education, nutrition, early childhood development, child welfare, juvenile justice, and gun violence. State of America's Children provides key child data that show alarming numbers of children at risk.

States Moving Away From Juvenile Solitary ConfinementOn March 21 the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange released an article on the growing trend of states moving away from the use of solitary confinement for juveniles.