india

Updated: Aug 24, 2019 22:14 IST

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has suspended helicopter operations in Uttarakhand after a helicopter carrying relief material in heavy rain affected areas of Uttarkashi district crashed killing all three people on board on Wednesday and another helicopter carrying similar relief made an emergency landing on Friday afternoon in the same district.

After a meeting with the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA), State Disaster Relief Authority (SDRA) and representatives of two helicopter operators part of the relief operation, on Saturday, the DGCA has said the operations will remain suspended till the state government comes up with a standard operating procedure for the operation. However, if needed, DGCA has agreed to give permission for helicopter operation in case to case basis.

“Role and responsibilityof the state administration shall be clearly defined in the SOPs to ensure safety of operations, identification and validation of local data, which should include terrain hazards, obstacles such as cables, wires, poles, pylons etc. UCADA will maintain such database duly certified by the state administration and will provide the same for helicopter operators prior to commencement of such operations,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar said.

The DGCA will provide technical assistance in the preparation of the SOP. For evacuation and provision of food and medical supplies, the state government had requested the service of civil helicopters. Relief operations with civil helicopters started on August 19 in the affected areas.

According to DGCA, in the first accident that took place on August 21, the helicopter hit apple cart cables after take-off


from Mauldi and crashed. In the second incident on Friday, in which two people suffered minor injuries, the helicopter again hit apple cart cables.

Earlier on Friday morning, rescue teams airlifted two pregnant women aged 25 and 21 respectively, from heavy rain affected Arakot area of Uttarkashi to Dehradun.

Heavy rains have killed at least 15 people and destroyed property worth at least Rs 80-100 crore in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi, the worst-hit district in the state, in the past few days. The torrential rains had hit about 12 villages including the worst affected Arakot, Makodi, Tikochi and Sanail villages in Uttarkashi, about 150 km away from Dehradun on Saturday and Sunday, damaging or washing away 20 houses.

Several people were reported to be buried under debris as rescue teams launched efforts tostruggle, relying on the Iranian people."

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned Washington’s sanctions on Iranian top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told a briefing on Monday.

"We certainly condemn the US administration’s move to impose sanctions on the Iranian foreign minister. It is an unprecedented measure of pressure that should have no place in today’s international relations," Ryabkov said.

On July 30, the US administration announced that Washington was introducing sanctions against Zarif. Being on the sanction list means that one's assets in the US are frozen, while US citizens and companies are banned from engaging in business activities with those on the list. "Javad Zarif implements the reckless agenda of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and is the regime’s primary spokesperson around the world. The United States is


then there was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and Scott flew north on Christmas Day in the evening to be with his family for a week, then I spent the following week dog sitting for the best dog ever for our friends who got married, party hopped on New Years Eve, and headed back to the mountains on New Years Day. Yep, a whirlwind. And now, for some photos.

The lovely bride and handsome groom getting ready for an epic bike ride to the courthouse to get married!!! It was about 40 and windy that day. Brrrrr!

Lovely Kathy and me at the party after aforementioned bike ride. (Scott and I opted out of the bike ride, but went to the courthouse!)

Went to a concert at the Haw River BallroomXXXTentacion's second studio album, ?, has edged out Metallica's Hardwired… To Self-Destruct to earn the 20-year-old rapper his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

The Florida rapper achieved the top position largely on the strength of streaming numbers. Of the album's 131,000 total units, 106,000 were streaming equivalent albums, which translates to 159.4 million on-demand audio streams during its opening week. 20,000 of the total were from traditional album sales and 5,000 came from track equivalent album units.

The streaming numbers were so strong that XXXTentacion would have earned a No. 1 even if traditional album sales and track equivalent albums weren't counted. Metallica's Hardwired… To Self-Destruct came in at No. 2 with 65,000 total units. Black Panther: The Album charted at No. 3 with 53,000


total units, while Logic's Bobby Tarantino II fell from No. 1 to No. 4 in its second week with 47,000 total units. Migos' Culture II rounded out the top five with 45,000 total units.

? is now XXXTentacion's highest-charting project. His debut studio album 17 peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart in September 2017. The new project is comparatively more accessible than the dark sounds of 17, as he made clear in the intro: "This album is far different, far more versatile, far more uplifting than the last."

XXXTentacion's commercial success comes amid continued legal troubles. He is still awaiting trial for aggravated battery of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, as well as domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness-tampering. He was under house arrest until March 21Toyota Hopes To Sell Tens of Thousands of Hydrogen Cars

Ever think you'd see a hydrogen powered Toyota Prius at Lawrence Toyota in Lawrenceville, New Jersey? The Japanese auto maker is looking to produce "tens of Thousands" of hydrogen fueled cars by 2020, so get ready.1

Toyota already leads sales of hybrid cars, thanks to Prius models, as well as the new Plug-in variant. Toyota Europe's head of operations Didier Leroy is also introducing a Plug-in electric RAV4 and FT-Bh compressed natural gas (CNG) hybrid for 2013.

Hydrogen is relatively cheap, when compared to gasoline or diesel, and gets drivers a better range. However, the cost of implementing it in vehicles, and changing fuel stations to store it, has kept this tech unreachable, until now, thanks to Toyota. Expect to see


Tonight's EVOLVE 114 event in Ybor City, Florida saw WWE NXT Superstars capture the EVOLVE Tag Team Titles and the EVOLVE Title.

NXT's Fabian Aichner defeated Shane Strickland to become the new EVOLVE Champion in the co-main event. NXT's The Street Profits, Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford, defeated Chris Dickinson and Jaka to become the new EVOLVE Tag Team Champions earlier in the night.

The EVOLVE 114 event also saw NXT's Jessie Elaban defeat Priscilla Kelly while Adrian Jaoude defeated Joe Gacy. NXT's Cezar Bononi was with Jaoude. NXT's Dan Matha attacked Dante Marquis Carter and Mikey Spandex before their match and then participated in a Fatal 4 Way with Liam Gray, Adrian Alanis and Shawn Dean, which was won by Alanis.

Below are photos and videos from tonight's NXT invasionThe Niagara Regional Police Officer accused of smuggling $300,000 worth of cheese and chicken wings across the border into Canada went on trial today. Scott Heron is facing six charges for violating the customs act and breach of trust. The crown says Heron was part of a criminal smuggling enterprise involving another Niagara Police Officer.

Heron was charged three and a half years ago for his role in a large scale cheese and chicken wing smuggling operation. Geoff Purdie, a disgraced and former Niagara Police Officer is also involved, and is the Crown’s star witness. Purdie testified the cheese smuggling began in 2009. Heron would make the phone calls for cases of cheese and Purdie was smuggle them over in his pickup truck.

Early 2012 on a cheese smuggling run,


Purdie got scared. Convinced he was being followed, Purdie was already on the cross border task force’s radar for multiple steroid smuggling runs. He was convicted in 2013 for smuggling half a million dollars of steroids over the border. He spent a year in a US prison for that crime. He was facing up to ten years.Takia, Sultanpur Lodhi

Takia is a village in Sultanpur Lodhi tehsil in Kapurthala district of Punjab, India. It is located  from the city of Sultanpur Lodhi,  away from district headquarter Kapurthala.  The village is administrated by a Sarpanch who is an elected representative of village as per the constitution of India and Panchayati raj (India).

References

List of cities near the village
Bhulath
Kapurthala
Phagwara
Sultanpur Lodhi

Air travel connectivity
The closest International airport to the village is Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport.

External links
 Villages in Kapurthala
 List of Villages in Kapurthala Tehsil

Category:Villages in Kapurthala district


| 10.11 (71)
|
| 6.14 (50)
| Western Oval
| 7,500
| 26 June 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 10.21 (81)
|
| 13.9 (87)
| Victoria Park
| 5,000
| 26 June 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 15.16 (106)
|
| 9.13 (67)
| Princes Park
| 12,000
| 26 June 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 15.16 (106)
|
| 8.14 (62)
| Punt Road Oval
| 16,000
| 26 June 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 15.8 (98)
|
| 20.19 (139)
| Toorak Park
| 6,000
| 26 June 1943

Round 9

|- bgcolor="#CCCCFF"
| Home team
| Home team score
| Away team
| Away team score
| Venue
| Crowd
| Date

|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 9.2 (56)
|
| 13.7 (85)
| Arden Street Oval
| 10,000
| 3 July 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 16.14 (110)
|
| 12.10 (82)
| Punt Road Oval
| 8,000
| 3 July 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 13.11 (89)
|
| 11.13 (79)
| Glenferrie Oval
| 16,000
| 3 July 1943
|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
|
| 15.18 (108)
|
| 9.11 (65)
|The Idaho Code
mandates a minimum of three County Commissioners in the list of county
officials required for county government. Any county may elect to
expand this number to 5, 7 or 9 board members. However, no counties in
Idaho have chosen to expand their boards beyond three members.

It further mandates that two County Commissioners serve
two-year terms and the third serves a four-year term. The four-year
term rotates between the Commissioners districts.

The Board has budget control, sets salary and benefit levels,
and adopts countywide policy for all departments of County government.
Other elected officials set policies and procedures for their
individual departments.

However, the following Departments report directly to the
Commissioners:

Commissioners’ meet on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Monday of each
month. If the Monday falls on a legal holiday, the meeting is
rescheduled to the day following the holiday.

Meetings


Miniclip is a gaming company with 70 million active users. The company began when co-founders Tihan Presbie and Rob Small recorded a video of Presbie dancing in his kitchen and superimposed an image of US President George Bush’s head over Presbie’s body. The result was a “miniclip,” and the site was born. Today, Miniclip is one of the largest online gaming sites in the world, and in 2010, expanded into the mobile market.

Before migrating to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Miniclip ran a purpose-built data center in the United States and a co-located space in Europe. Procurement times for provisioning hardware severely limited Miniclip’s ability to get games to players quickly. Each time the company deployed a new game, it took four weeks—and launching it took another five days.

TimeComedy star Ford Kiernan's 12-year-old son found dead Published duration 8 January 2014

image caption Ford Kiernan is best known for the comedy shows Still Game and Chewin' The Fat.

The 12-year-old son of Scottish comedian and actor Ford Kiernan has been found dead at the family home in the west end of Glasgow.

Police Scotland said they received a report of the child's death late on Monday night.

Sonny was the younger of 51-year-old Mr Kiernan's two children and his death is currently being treated as unexplained.

A post mortem examination will be carried out in due course to establish the exact cause of death.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Around 11.30pm on Monday January 6, police received a report of the death of a 12-year-old boy in Glasgow.

Inquiries continuing

"A post-mortem will be


carried out in due course to establish the exact cause of death.

"The death is currently being treated as unexplained and inquiries are continuing."

Mr Kiernan lives with his wife Lesley and their other child.

He and his comedy partner Greg Hemphill are best known for the popular BBC Scotland shows Still Game and Chewin' The Fat.

They are due to revive their characters Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade for a run of live stage shows of Still Game at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow this autumn.Abstract

This working paper is one of a series produced by IIASA discussing the practical problems of East-West Joint Ventures located in the CMEA countries.

In this paper the author discusses joint-ventures' salient managerial and personnel issues, an often overlooked but increasingly critical aspect in these cooperative ventures. Beyond analyzing relevant host-country legislation, the paper delves into actual human relations and organizational problems as discussed by joint-venture practitioners: managers, partners, rank and file employees, and government representatives. These practitioners help explain where likely trouble spots will arise in areas such as hiring, wage determination and incentivization, organizational set-up, productivity, and conflict resolution. They further explain the influential role of the host-country's general citizenry on the joint venture's success or failure. Importantly, the case studies also offer some practical solutions to


back story, but that second paragraph tells an important story. A second consideration was widespread fear of mass layoffs if the unit were sold. Yet another factor is that ChinaTrust, the big local financial firm, has also expressed an interest in buying the unit.

Note that the decision may be appealed, meaning that it may be reversed. After the November election, of course.

The environmental impact assessment for the controversial third-stage development of the Central Taiwan Science Park was passed by the Environmental Protection Administration Aug. 31.

The National Science Council may now resume its expansion project at the Qixing Farm site in Houli, Taichung County, EPA officials said.

After a five-hour long meeting, the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee ruled unanimously at the end of the day to conditionally pass the planwithout requiring a phase-two impact assessment.

This despite protests from activists outside the EPA. The project had been halted due to an injunction from the Taipei High Court on Aug 2. The park was given a list of pollution conditions which, if not met, will cause it to be fined. ROFL.

Third, despite ECFA, despite the President's gutting of the nation's independent foreign policy, despite the close and warming ties between the KMT and the CCP, the Ministry of National Defense released a report today noting that China's military threat toward Taiwan remained unchanged: they still say they will maim and kill the island's citizens if Taiwan is not annexed to China. There was much speculation this week regarding a possible political deal -- China will remove the missiles facing


China. The U.S. government has reportedly asked Taiwan to follow suit by giving briefings on retired generals' visits to and interaction with China.

Sources familiar with the affair said former National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi had reminded the Ministry of National Defense on many occasions of the U.S. concern. As Taiwan's law does not impose any restrictions on such visits, the ministry can only collect information about retired generals' China travel plans and report it to superior authorities.

When Hsu Li-nung, a former chief of the General Political Warfare Department under the ministry, led a group of retired senior generals to Beijing for a high-profile visit in April, he said one of the event's primary purposes was to promote the establishment of a military confidence-building mechanism.

His remarks drew muchand the gondola project, and takes place amid long-term public frustration over rising housing prices in Taipei, now out of reach for most middle class Taiwanese. It is no wonder that, as a taxi driver put it the other day, there may be a change in the weather in Taipei come november._______________________[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

The DPP has put its finger on a very powerful point, income inequality, and is pushing hard.

Rising income inequality has been an issue in Taiwan since the 1990s. During the 2008 election campaign, the KMT pushed the idea that the economy had been stagnant under


as-yet unkept promises to do something to alleviate the gap. In other words the DPP has two separate but related issues here to pound the government with: that ECFA will increase income inequality, and that the government will do nothing about it.

In 1993, labor earned 51 percent of Taiwan's gross domestic product, while capital received 29 percent, but in 2007, labor's share had dipped to 44 percent while the share going to capitalists climbed to 37 percent, according to DGBAS data.

The former Democratic Progressive Party administration's most effective initiatives was the construction of a broad social safety net which included legislation for unemployment insurance, pensions for farmers and senior citizens, laws to protect employees from sudden plant closings or layoffs and a national pension system, even though manyassociated measures and economic development programs were boycotted by the KMT's legislative majority, such as a statute to promote renewable energy industries and even the opening of a southern branch of the National Palace Museum.

During its first two years, the Ma government has embarked on a campaign to cut business and "rich" taxes, including inheritance and gift levies and the corporate income tax, as well as lowering barriers to free trade with the authoritarian People's Republic of China.

In the face of charges by labor movement and independent economists and DPP leaders that controversial "Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement" could exacerbate Taiwan's income and wealth inequalities, KMT government officials have replied with denials.

Typical was a statement issued by State Minister and ex-economics minister Yiin Chi-ming, who last Wednesday lambasted


an editorial in the vernacular Liberty Times which expressed concern that ECFA could spur a worsening of income and wealth inequity as had the "closer economic partnership arrangement" between the PRC and its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the past seven years by maintaining that Hong Kong was already a highly unequal society before CEPA and that Taiwan did not have a serious problem since was only a 6.05 times gap between the highest earning fifth of Taiwan households and the bottom earning 20 percent of households.

However, the next afternoon, the DGBAS confirmed that Taiwan's income distribution gap had worsened from 7.52 times in 2007 to a record 8.22 times last year or from 5.98 to 6.04 in 2008 and 6.34 last year times if government transfertrends. Because the DPP has a better record than the KMT on the public welfare, this issue is likely to hurt the KMT during the run-up to the 2012 election as ECFA comes into force and its effects are felt throughout the economy, from falling wages and job opportunities, to the rising flow of legal and smuggled crap from China in the local markets and shops._______________________[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Yesterday was meant to be a short ride, but there was a change of plans, so I decided to bike down to the Dacheng wetlands in Changhua with


economics literature.

That said, there's no way it will create so many jobs. The MOEA says that:

The wetlands there are full of structures. Drew remarked that you could see why in the old days ships did not like to approach Taiwan from this side. You could ground your craft in the mud kilometers from the shore.

Speaking of water, I posted last month on a Commonwealth magazine article on the planned destruction of central Taiwan's last wetland for a totally unnecessary naptha cracker for making plastic:

It's not only that Taiwan's largest wetland is bound to vanish if the naphtha cracker project is realized. Lee Hong-yuan, professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University and a harsh critic of the project, foresees a host of difficulties: Where isfrom excessive groundwater exploitation, can be as deep as an entire story. And land subsidence continues to spread inland. Due to the sinking of the coastal area over a long period, seawater has seeped in, so that the extracted groundwater is salty and the soil has starting to become salinated. Now not even peanuts grow there anymore. In Dacheng, whose economy used to rely heavily on agriculture, the acreage of abandoned farmland keeps growing and expanding further inland. The height of the town's jetties has to be constantly raised to make up for coastal subsidence.

The new Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology plant will be located on the north bank of the Jhuoshui River (濁水溪) opposite the sixth naphtha cracker plant. When development is completed, the combined pollution from these two


power to decide to the National Property Administration,” Tsai said.

Several of us watching this had wondered whether the government will simply use its power of forced purchase to seize any land purchased to stop the project. The site, and the one in Mailiao, sit next to waters frequented by Taiwan's endangered pink dolphin. For more on that issue, see this long post on environmental assessments and the dolphins from a couple of years ago.

Wetlands stretch to the north as well.

Drew and I got up on the seawall, where the cool wet breeze off the ocean completely negated the desiccating heat of the noonday sun.

Business tycoon Preston Chen (陳武雄), chairman of the Taipei-based Chinese National Federation of Industries, said yesterday he would quit investing in the Kuokuang petrochemical projectSingapore half a year after the Kuokuang project and the Singaporean petrochemical complex has already started commercial production.

Kuokuang had also been identified in reports last year as a possible site for Chinese investment. The project is justified by claims that Taiwan needs it to stay in the plastics race with Singapore.

A wetlands wharf.

Drew headed out onto the concrete "wharf" into the wetlands.

Mud and temples.

Looking back up the seawall. Note yet another sunken blockhouse.

Drew returns with power. Drew is an amazing rider who has been an inspiration to me, constantly pushing me to exceed what I thought were my limits. I am humbled and fortunate to have him as a friend and mentor. His account with more pictures is here.

A beautiful young couple enjoying the lovely day nearby. What


said Tuesday.

In order to strengthen its service image, the government’s immigration department conducted a search on the Internet from May 14 to June 30 for the best Chinese-language and English-language slogans.

Fifth-grade girl student Yu Chieh won the English part of the competition with “NIA care what you care!”

Jury members from inside and outside the NIA selected a shortlist of 20 from the more than 300 entries received. NIA Director-General Hsieh Li-kung said the competition attracted participants from as far away as Nepal, Indonesia, the United States, India and South Africa. Each slogan was accompanied by detailed explanations as to its significance, he said.

300 entries and that was the best they could do?_______________________[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, linksUS cut off its oil and it couldn't leave China or end the fighting there. In 1940 after Japan moved into French Indochina the US placed its first serious sanctions on Japan, but did not cut off oil for fear of provoking Japan. In 1941 Japan further moved into the French colony, and the US responded by shutting off the oil. Conventional explanation says that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of the oil cut off, since it planned to Dutch Indonesia and British Malaysia to grab their oil and other resources.

However, during the debates in Japan over what to do, an often neglected event occurred. The equivalent of the minister for natural resources informed the cabinet that the oil cut off was no problem. All Japan had to


do was wait a year or two, and he could have a coal-to-oil program using the plentiful supplies of Manchurian coal at Japan's disposal. Japan could have as much oil as it wanted. No war was necessary. Nobody listened.

Japan insanely attacking the US and setting its people back a generation in progress. The US insanely attacking Iraq, and persisting in its lost cause in Afghanistan, blowing up its budget and cheating its own people at a time of desperate need. China now engaged in a needless military build up to annex territories of its neighbors, reducing its ability to increase its own living standards and heading for needless war that will further impair the progress of its people.

Stop the insanity. And please, stop shilling for it too.
___________Daily Links:

_______________________[Taiwan]my life with a bit of entertainment. "Taiwan Province Governor Jung-Tzer Lin" is actually the former mayor of Hsinchu, now currently a minister without portfolio. He is apparently head of the Provincial Council which runs the now-defunct government, streamlined out of existence back in the 1990s, all of which are appointees of the President (see Wiki for details -- don't they have that in Oklahoma?). Congrats to Oklahoma for re-affirming its relations with less than a dozen people! I think they should next sign sister-relations with Fujian Province, ROC.

I wonder if Lin gets a separate salary as head of the "provincial government."

The KMT program of confusing others about the actual status of Taiwan continues.

Meanwhile, where was the US State Department? Shouldn't it have taken the Oklahoma state government


Japanese to commemorate the 1874 Mudan incident.

The views from the top are excellent. The battle is named for the gorge a little way up.

The gorge. We climbed up here intending to follow 199 to 199A and head down to the east coast, but it started to rain. Since this was vacation, we decided not to get in a manliness contest with the bike gods and turned around and headed back to the coast.

Jeff fights a slow leak.

As turned down this road, we left the rain behind.

The views improved immediately.

Just a perfect day for a ride.

We followed that little road until we hit the main road, and then went into Hengchun town. Here's the old gate, which some of you may recognize from Cape No 7.

Part of the citywall is still extant, a phenomenon rare in Taiwan.

We grabbed a coffee and amused ourselves watching the vehicles attempt to negotiate the narrow streets. I fell in love with Hengchun instantly; it has a real lazy coastal town feel and has not become overwhelmed by kitsch tourism like Kenting Street.

The south gate.

A Hengchun street.

We turned on to another minor road heading for the coast.

Along the way we passed through the local communities.

We got directions from this friendly and outgoing woman.

After a short climb through some Taiwan soldiers out playing RED vs BLUE, we dropped down to the coast road just north of the Aquarium, an awesome place for a visit if you are in the area. We then turned off into the small town of Houwan.

The road was


flat and lined with vegetation. There was a bike path but it appeared to be used largely as a parking lot.

We stopped in the tiny fishing port of Shanhai for lunch.

The port.

Two little girls were at play right in front of the seafood place where we chowed down on oysters and sashimi.

Yum.

Leaving Shanhai, we saw big ships....

...and little ones.

We rounded that little peninsula on the west side of Kenting and came upon Houbihu, and entered the world of tourists.

The beach by the nuke plant, with three wind machines, which appear to serve the exact same function for the nuke plant as the zoo animals painted on incinerator smokestacks.

In Kenting town, the cars were starting to flow in, and the vendors were starting to set up.

Amy's, where we hadlongevity bonuses or extra pay for large class size.

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Three factors have depressed teacher wages in recent years:

Raises have been minimal in recent years, and wage rollbacks have occurred in some districts.

Baby Boomers at the top of the salary scale continue to retire and are being replaced by younger, less expensive teachers. In 2008-09, teachers with at least 30 years in their district comprised 6.4% of all Michigan public school teachers. In 2016-17, that dropped to 2%. Meanwhile, the proportion of first-year teachers increased from 6% to 10% of the teaching pool.

Finally, the increase in charter schools appears to have driven down salaries. The Legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools in 2011, and charters enrolled about 10% of the public school population in 2015-16.


layoffs and less-expensive teachers were let go.

For those who want to dig deeper into the numbers, Michigan school districts and charters are required to post salary information on their websites. Look for the Michigan map on a school district's homepage and click for the financial reports. The teacher salary schedule typically can be found as "Schedule A" in the union contract posted online.

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State report does not include average pay for most charter schools

In addition, the average teacher salary is not available for most charter schools because staff are employed by a charter-school management company and fall into the category of contract employees.

Blanks appear in the database where the numbers are not provided. However, salary information should appear on as part of the mandated transparency reports on individualcharter school websites.

Below is an interactive map showing 2016-17 average teacher salaries by county.

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Scott Levin / MLive

Map of average 2016-17 teacher pay by county

Click on a county to see the averages for 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Public school teacher salaries averaged $71,936 in Macomb County, the highest county average in the state.

County with the lowest average is Montmorency in the northeast Lower Peninsula, where the average is $41,967. (Montmorency has two school districts -- Atlanta and Hillman --- that collectively enroll l about 700 students.)

Caveats about the countywide averages:

The averages are calculated on districts based in that county, regardless of where the school buildings are located. (For instance, all Plainwell teachers are counted in the Allegan County average, although Plainwell has a school in Kalamazoo County.)

The difference in


the average from 2015-16 to 2016-76 may reflect a change in the number of charter schools reporting salaries.

The averages do not include most charter schools.

Below are some other fast facts about the statewide numbers.

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Michigan teachers still above national average

Michigan's average teacher salary is 6% above the 2016 national average of $58,353, according to data collected by the National Education Association,

Michigan ranks 11th among the 50 states, according to the NEA. New York has the highest average salary at $79,152 and the lowest is South Dakota at $42,025.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

Number of teachers drops for fourth consecutive year

There were 98,481 teachers in 2016-17 in Michigan's public schools, continuing a downward trend since 2012-13.

The number is down 11% from fall 2006, compared to a 9% drop instudent enrollment.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

The average Michigan teacher is a white woman in her 40s

In 2016-17, 92% of public school teachers were white and 77% were women. The largest age group are 40-somethings, who comprised 32 percent of the state's teachers.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

83% of teachers work for traditional school districts

About 83% of Michigan public school teachers work in a traditional school district.

Charter schools employed about 11% of Michigan public school teachers and intermediate school districts, which typically provide countywide special-education services, employ another 6%.

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Source: Michigan Department of Education

Charter schools have lower salaries, based on schools that report

The 2016-17 report lists 300 charter schools. However, only 29 schools reported salary figures, and their average teacher pay was $37,096.

In addition to a lower


salary schedule, charter schools are more likely to have less-experienced teachers at the lower end of the pay scale.

In fall 2016, about 26% of charter school teachers were age 30 or under compared to 11% of teachers at traditional districts, and a quarter of charter school teachers were in their first year at that school compared to 8% of teachers in traditional districts.

In addition, teachers in traditional districts were almost three times more likely to have a master's degree or other certification beyond a bachelor's degree.

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MLive file photo

Detroit teachers rank 83rd in average salary

In 2016-17, the average salary was $64,675 for teachers in Detroit Public Schools, the state's largest district. DPS ranked 83rd in average teacher pay among the 560 districts and charters that reported salary numbers.

DPSBert Stephens

Herbert James Stephens (13 May 1909 – September 1987) was an English professional football outside forward, best remembered for his time in the Football League with Brighton & Hove Albion. At the time of his retirement in 1948, Stephens was Brighton's second-highest goalscorer.

Career

Brentford
An outside forward, Stephens began his career at amateur club Ealing Association and joined Third Division South club Brentford in February 1931. He made just six appearances for the club and scored one goal, before his departure at the end of the 1934–35 season. Stephens spent much of his time with the club in the reserve team, with whom he won two London Combination titles and the 1934-35 London Challenge Cup.

Brighton & Hove Albion
Stephens joined Third Division South club Brighton & Hove Albion


Dawes County Noxious Weeds

Scotch thistle is a biennial plant native to Asia and Europe. This plant has a course, spiny stem with spiny leaves. In the first year of life, it will develop a rosette. In the second, it will shoot up a stalk that can grow up to 3 feet. The flowers are spherical and bright purple.

Houndstongue is a biennial forb that has rosette-style leaves. During the first year of life, it will form a rossette, and the second year will bring a reddish-purple flowering stem. The plant can grow to be four feet tall, and the stem is velvety to the touch.

Giant knotweed is a perennial plant that can grow over 12 feet tall. It has hollow stems that are green and jointed, The leaves alternateup the stem and are oval in shape, with a tapering tip. This plant has greenish-white flowers. The fruit is papery.

Field bindweed is a climbing or creeping perrennial plant that can grow up to 2 meters in length. The stem is thin, and the leaves, which alternate up the stem, are arrowhead-shaped. The flowers are trumpet-shaped and often are white or pale pink. Fruits are small, light brown circles.

Bohemian knotweed is an extremely tall plant that is often found in dry areas. It is similar to the Japanese knotweed. Stems are reddish-brown and branched. The leaves are heart-shaped and large. The leaves are also thick and rough. Hairs often grow on the undersides of the leaves, and the flower clusters are cream-colored.


 -- It’s been three years since Boko Haram militants ambushed the small Nigerian town of Chibok in the middle of the night and abducted 276 schoolgirls before vanishing into the forest.

Some of the girls managed to escape, while others were later freed. But the fate of nearly 200 still remains unknown.

“I will never forget about them and I will never stop speaking until they come back," one of the escaped girls, identified as Sa'a, told a press conference Friday, marking the painful anniversary in Washington, D.C.

The kidnapping shocked the world and led to the launch of a social media campaign in which millions of people around the globe, including high-profile political figures and celebrities, called for the girls' rescue by tweeting the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. However, there hasNigeria by 2009. The Islamic militant group has since spread its terror across Nigeria's mountainous borders into Niger, Chad and Cameroon, all of which surround the Lake Chad Basin.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates into "Western education is forbidden," has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced some 2.3 million, according to the latest figures from the United Nations. The jihadist group's uprising was fueled largely through the group's systematic campaign of abducting children and forcing thousands of girls and boys into their ranks, according to a report issued Wednesday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The upheaval has also contributed to a severe famine. In 2017, 340,000 people in Nigeria are expected to face food insecurity and about 12,000 children will suffer from acute malnutrition, according to


Oxfam.

"The Chibok abduction remains one of the most well-known examples, but the practice is widespread; it preceded Chibok and continues to this day," the report said. "As the world marks three years since the abduction of the Chibok girls, it is an opportunity to reflect on the wider implications for children in this crisis. While the abductions in Chibok horrified the world, a shocking part of the story is what happens to children in captivity –- and after they are released."

Here's a timeline looking back at the abduction and important developments:

April 14, 2014

The militants vanish with the schoolgirls behind the dense forest brush by sunrise.

November 2014

Two days later, the Nigerian military says it has recaptured Chibok.

May 29, 2015

The Nigerian government's failure to act quickly on the Chibok abductioncontributed to President Goodluck Jonathan's electoral defeat to Buhari in March 2015, analysts say.

April 13, 2016

Tearful parents of the girls are able to recognize their missing daughters.

May 18, 2016

The girl, identified by the army as Amina Ali, was found with a 4-month-old baby and a man who claimed to be her husband in the vast Sambisa Forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, according to army spokesman Sani Usman.

May 19, 2016

Aug. 14, 2016

In the video, a masked militant dressed in camouflage and brandishing a gun says there have been no negotiations with the Nigerian government and that some of the kidnapped Chibok girls have died in airstrikes targeting Boko Haram. He says the remaining girls will be freed if the government releases imprisoned members of the


to Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the girls were released safely to government officials the morning of Oct. 13, 2016, by 5:30 a.m. local time at an undisclosed location and were transported to Kaduna in northwest Nigeria. The girls were flown to Abuja, where they were received by the vice president and "a team of medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, trauma experts" will examine them, Mohammed says.

"Especially because they have been in captivity for so long," the minister notes. "We are now contacting their parents as part of the necessary verification exercise.

Mohammed says the girls' negotiated release was not a prisoner swap with Boko Haram.

"Please note that this is not a swap. It is a release, the product of painstaking negotiations and trust onboth sides," he says. "We see this as a credible first step in the eventual release of all the Chibok girls in captivity. It is also a major step in confidence building between us as a government and the Boko Haram leadership on the issue of the Chibok girls."

Elodie Schindler, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, confirms to ABC News that the humanitarian group, "acting as a neutral intermediary," transferred 21 of the missing Chibok schoolgirls and handed them over to Nigerian authorities on Thursday. The group was not part of the Nigerian government's negotiations with Boko Haram and was only involved in the girls' transfer and transport. Schindler denies providing further comment or additional details.

The successful negotiations mark the first major breakthrough since


the girls were kidnapped.

Nov. 5, 2016

The girl and her child are transported to the army's medical facility for an examination, army spokesman Sani Usman says in a statement.

Dec. 24, 2016

The statement adds to several exaggerated declarations of military successes against Boko Haram.

Jan. 5, 2017

The girl was a senior high school student when she was abducted in Chibok, according to army spokesman Sani Usman.

April 12, 2017

The government "has gone quite far with negotiations," according to Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

April 14, 2017

The girls are joined by Nathan Walker of the Newseum, Nigerian human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe and author Helon Habila, who wrote the book “The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria." The press conference notifies the public that 195 Chibok schoolgirls are stillFew musical comebacks have been as hotly anticipated as Death From Above 1979's. A few years after the Ontario duo's electrifying debut album dropped, they splintered and began working on other projects instead. I vividly remember being disappointed upon first hearing this news, because You're A Woman, I'm A Machine left such a strong impression on me--and most of the independent rock world, too.

To hear that Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler were getting the band back together a few months ago was exciting, and it's tracks like "Government Trash" that make it feel like the hiatus never happened. The track's riffs are the sonic equivalent to an adrenaline shot, and the vocals could be more on point, too!


The rumor that Margot Robbie has been lying about her age just lost its most damning bit of hard evidence, as the Sydney Morning Herald has issued a correction to its 2008 story identifying the actress as a 23-year-old.

I reached out to a New York-based employee of the newspaper last week to inquire about the piece (as the original author was no longer employed by the SMH), and was informed that editors in the Sydney office would “look into” its inconsistencies with other reports at the time. Monday morning, they told me they had issued a “belated correction,” which is now live on their site. It reads:

Correction: This article originally stated Margot Robbie’s age at the time of publication was 23. She was in fact 17 years old.

FurtherJournals

BAF-Online known as BAF-O is the publication platform of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum (BAF). It makes available to the public within the shortest possible delays vidcasts of the talks that have been held at the BAF.

The European Journal of Musicology (EJM) is a peer-reviewed forum for critical analyses addressing cultural, social, economic, political, and religious aspects across the full range of what is understood as music, sound, and performance.

HASBonline – Hefte zur Archäologie des Mittelmeerraumes aus Bern is an open access-publication for to the international community of classical archaeology and their various regions of interest and methodological approaches.

The Journal of Eye Movement Research is an open-access, peer-reviewed scientific periodical devoted to all aspects of oculomotor functioning including methodology of eye recording, neurophysiological and cognitive models, attention, reading, as


Where Guns Go: A Visual History of a Global Trade

In all the talk of gun control, people like to throw around about America's heavy arms trade. Want to know what it actually looks like? Google has an in-depth interactive showing a history of the legal small arms trade.

Google's Ideas team collaborated with the Igarape Institute to make the visualization, which only tracks small arms. They used data from 1992-2010 about the legal arms trade from the Peace Research Institute Oslo, according to Google's blog.

In the interactive, you can toggle between years at the sliding bar right below the globe. The arched lines connecting arms trades between countries will appear thicker or thinner based on the amount of trade, with orange lines representing military weapons and ammo and bluepair of stylish frames for summer BBQ's and cruising the beach or simply a pair of fashion-forward prescription glasses which set one apart from the herd, this program promises to put the power of choice and convenience in the hands of the consumer.

*REI will introduce Rx in a Box to 25 stores initially, and then bring it to all REI stores by spring 2008. Rx in a Box can also be found online at http://www.rei.com.

ABOUT SMITH: Based in Sun Valley, Idaho, with a Southern California office in San Clemente, Smith Optics, Inc. was founded in 1965 with the creation of the first goggle featuring a sealed thermal lens and breathable vent foam. Today, Smith is known for its diverse line of sunglasses, goggles and helmets. Smith's devotion to


anyone may join or shop at REI, members pay a one-time $15 fee and receive a share in the company's profits through an annual member refund based on their purchases. As an active supporter of the communities in which it does business, REI is committed to promoting environmental stewardship and increasing access to outdoor recreation through education, volunteerism, gear donations and financial contributions.

Smith Optics has named Hayter Communications as its public relations agency of record to manage all editorial outreach for the brand. The announcement was made upon the exit of revered pitchman Greg â€œChopperâ€ Randolph who stepped into the General Manager and Director of ...read more

The new 26,000 square-foot store will be located at an existing retail site at 735 N.W. Gilman Blvd. in the Commons atIssaquah shopping center and employ approximately 70 full- and part-time staff. With easy access from Interstate 90, the Issaquah location will be in close ...read more

Smith Optics is excited to announce their launch into the helmet category with a full line of snow sports helmets for the 2006/2007 winter season. Smith will use their knowledge of winter sports technologies to enhance the combined function of goggle and helmet performance. ...read more

Smith Optics Goes Live with PlumRiver eCommerce for Sales Reps and Retailersâ€¦. January 25, 2011 At Smith Optics, â€œWe make great days Better!â€ Smith takes the same approach from its advanced and stylish eyewear and helmets to its eCommerce connection with retailers and ...read more

In his role Zon leads a 180-member team responsible for technical services to REI's


and two years left at a $5 million cap hit. The Lightning are also pretty loaded with centers especially with Namestnikov taking a big step forward in the NHL while the Blues are a little light down the middle. The Lightning also have some skilled centers on the way in Matt Peca and Brayden Point in the next two to three seasons.

Alex Killorn could be getting a bit too big of a contract for the Lightning to hang on to him for much longer. He's got a cheap contract this year and will be a restricted free agent this summer and due for a pretty nice raise. Already 26 years old, a one year deal would make him a unrestricted free agent when that is up. With himand several of its limited-time promotions have become part of its permanent menu.

The chain's Doritos Locos tacos, introduced in 2012, are an example. The company currently offers three different flavored taco shells, Cool Ranch, Nacho and Fiery.

As for the Naked Chicken Chalupa, despite proving to be a popular item at Taco Bell chains around the country, the company will be pulling it from the menu.

Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch told the AP that the Naked Chicken Chalupa always was planned as a limited-time offer, but exceeded the company's expectations. A date for the end of its run hasn't been announced.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Love & Stuff

In Production

Written & Directed by Judith HelfandProduced by Hilla Medalia and Judith HelfandCountry: USA Language: English

About The Film

Seven months after helping her terminally ill mother die in home-hospice, filmmaker Judith Helfand becomes a “new old” single mother at 50. Overnight, she’s pushed to deal with her “stuff”: 63 boxes of her parents’ heirlooms overwhelming her office-turned-future-baby’s room, the weight her mother had begged her to lose, and the reality of being a half-century older than her daughter.Over the past seven seasons with Norman aboard as an assistant the team has improved not only in the Ivy League but on the national level. Over the last three seasons the Bulldogs have a 25-6 dual meet record, including a runner-up finish in the 2017 Ivy League dual meet season. The Bulldogs have also had seven NCAA qualifiers over the past three seasons as well as a 2016 and 2017 All-American.

Norman has also played a significant role in Yale’s recent recruiting success. Yale’s 2014 recruiting class was ranked the 15th best class in the nation by Collegeswimming.com, the third straight year a Yale recruiting class was ranked in the top 25. This talent has led to nearly every school record being held by current Yale swimmers, a


third-place finish at the 2015 Ivy League Championships with 1,162 points (the most Yale has scored at the championship meet since 2002) and four swimmers earning All-Ivy honors in 2015.

Norman came to Yale from the University of the South, where he was an assistant coach, helping both the men’s and women’s teams to top-four finishes at the SCAC Championships. The Tigers finished the year with 14 All-Conference performances and an NCAA Division III All-American. In addition, Norman led the team’s strength and conditioning program and worked with all swimmers, particularly focusing on the distance group.

In 2008-09, Norman was a volunteer assistant at Yale, while also serving as an assistant coach for the Omni Swim Club. In that season at Yale, Norman coached the Bulldogs at the ECAC Championships,where they finished eighth with just 10 swimmers.

Norman is a 2006 graduate of the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he served as captain of the swimming team and helped the Seahawks to four consecutive Colonial Athletic Association championships. As a senior he earned the Seahawk Award for his leadership skills.

After graduation he spent another year in Wilmington as a strength and conditioning intern and student-assistant coach. He earned his M.S. in exercise science-human performance at Southern Connecticut in 2009.

Norman lives in Wallingford, Conn., with his wife, Kim, and sons, Ryder and Cooper.


Up to 28,000 Syrians have disappeared over the past 19 months, with civilians snatched from the streets or forcibly abducted by government troops or security forces, human rights groups say.

Relatives had been unable to discover the fate of their loved ones. Many of those abducted were almost certainly dead, while others were alive and being held in Syrian prisons or secret detention centres where they were tortured, the groups claimed.

Since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, government forces had "disappeared" peaceful protesters on an unprecedented scale, the groups said. Some campaigners have estimated the number of those who have vanished could be as high as 80,000.

A harrowing film released on Thursday by the global campaign network Avaaz shows disturbing footage of forced disappearances. InSyrian Army (FSA), which is fighting government forces on numerous fronts. Instead, they were civilians or peaceful protesters whom the authorities suspected of sympathising with the opposition. Some were abducted from their homes after midnight, others seized at military checkpoints. None were seen again.

Fadel Abdulghani, of the Syrian Network for Human Rights which has been monitoring the death toll in Syria since the protests began, said the group had collected 18,000 names of people who had disappeared. It had information but no names for 10,000 more cases, as the families had been too afraid to share them, it said.

Muhammad Khalil, a human rights lawyer from the city of Hasaka in north-eastern Syria, said: "While there is no precise figure, thousands of people have disappeared since March last year.


They always ask me: 'Where is Dad? Who took him?' And I don't know how to respond. I have to lie to them. I tell them he is at work, that he is OK."

Others describe how their loved ones went missing. Ahmad Ghassan Ibrahim, 26, from the village of Qala'at al-Hosn, near Homs, vanished on 27 February. His mother, Fayzeh al-Masri, said: "My son drove his car from Qala'at al-Hosn to the city of Talkalakh. It was then when we lost contact with him. He called his aunt at 10.30pm from a number other than his …We later found out that the number Ahmad called us from belongs to the military security branch in Homs. We asked almost every security branch about him, to no avail.

"A month anda half ago we called his cellphone and someone answered, saying that Ahmad was killed by a regime sniper and buried in Rastan, but we were not able to confirm this information. We have been seriously concerned for six months. We are certain that he would not have left us or his wife, who is expecting twins. We only want to know his fate."

The tactic of forced disappearances is not new. Assad's father, Hafez, carried out a bloody crackdown between 1979 and 1982 – about 7,000 of those victims are still missing. During the "dirty war" in Argentina from 1977-83, it is estimated that as many as 30,000 people disappeared under the ruling military junta. Throughout the Algerian civil war from 1992-97, it is claimed as many as


A 26-year-old Longmont woman who was seven months pregnant showed up at a home Wednesday to buy baby clothes she’d seen in a Craigslist post.

What police say happened then is horrific: The 34-year-old woman who lives at the home, in the 1600 block of Green Place in Longmont, stabbed the pregnant woman and “removed” her baby.

The baby did not survive.

Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said police responded to the home on a stabbing call at about 2:45 p.m.

Satur said officers arrived on the scene and could hear a woman calling for help inside the home. They entered and found the victim, who had been beaten and stabbed in the stomach with a knife.

The woman who was attacked was taken to Longmont United Hospital, where she underwent surgery and isexpected to recover, he said.

Police located the suspect at the hospital after she apparently arrived with the baby and said she had suffered a miscarriage, Satur said.

He said the victim and suspect did not know each other. The pregnant woman was at the home to buy baby clothes through a Craigslist ad, officials said.

The suspect may be mentally ill, officials said. Names have not been released in the case.

“This is a tragic case for a mother right now,” Satur said. “She came by this house. She was attacked, and her baby was removed from her.”

The alleged assailant has two children, Satur said. Her husband apparently drove her and the baby to the hospital and then returned to the scene later. He was escorted to the hospital but has


— who has observed elections in 92 different countries on all continents — as “the best system in the world.” Just two months ago, in December 2013, the government won 76% of all local municipalities in midterm elections and decisively defeated the opposition, led by the “moderate” Henrique Capriles, by more than 10 percentage points. Much more than this, the government has been actively working together with grassroots movements to create one of the world’s most vibrant experiments in direct and participatory democracy, giving rise to thousands of communal councils, hundreds of communes and tens of thousands of worker-run cooperatives. In no other country in the world is citizen participation in politics and the economy as actively stimulated by the state as it is in Venezuela.

5. The right-wingopposition is itself thoroughly anti-democratic.

The really dangerous forces in Venezuela right now are not inside the “illegitimate government” but in the thoroughly anti-democratic right-wing segment of the opposition. A quick glance at the two opposition leaders — Maria Corina Machado and Leopoldo López — reveals enough. Both were original signatories of the infamous 2002 Carmona Decree, which temporarily dissolved the Chávez government following an attempted coup d’étât by the oligarchic elite and right-wing elements in the military. López, meanwhile, orchestrated the violent clashes in front of the Presidential Palace, which led to dozens of deaths and provided the pretext for the coup. During the coup, López even personally participated in the unconstitutional arrest (i.e., kidnapping) of Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin.

When chavista loyalists in the army and the


movements reinstated the President, Chávez decided not to pursue vengeance and allowed the conspirators to walk free. Machado went on to found Súmate, an “NGO” that received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington (where she received a personal welcome from President George W. Bush), which played a central role in the failed recall referendum that sought to oust Chávez two years after the failed coup. López was allowed to remain mayor of Chacao, the wealthiest district of Caracas, before being prosecuted by the government on corruption charges in 2006. In 2007, López was caught on tape planning to bring about a new political crisis by creating social instability. Is it really such a stretch to suspect him of being involved in a renewed attempt tothey tried to bring down the government through an oil strike; when that failed they unsuccessfully pursued a recall referendum; then they ran out of ideas and simply boycotted National Assembly elections for no legitimate reason whatsoever; in 2007 they tried their hands at a student rebellion; and, following Maduro’s victory in last year’s elections, Capriles kept ordering recounts and refusing to recognize the election outcome even while it was clear to everyone — including independent election observers — that he had lost. Finally, after Capriles’ humiliating defeat in the December municipal elections, the right-wing of the opposition decided to abandon the electoral road and return to the old-fashioned coup preparation tactics of 2002. As before, these anti-democratic maneuvers may end up backfiring on the right by rallying


to replace the battery every so often is a real pain in the neck."

Fauchet told LiveScience the batteries could last a dozen years. They're being refined at Rochester. The technology was developed with the help financial support from the National Science Foundation and has been patented by BetaBatt Inc.

How it works

The technology is called betavoltaics. It uses a silicon wafer to capture electrons emitted by a radioactive gas, such as tritium. It is similar to the mechanics of converting sunlight into electricity in a solar panel.

Until now, betavoltaics has been unable to match solar-cell efficiency. The reason is simple: When the gas decays, its electrons shoot out in all directions. Many of them are lost.

"For 50 years, people have been investigating converting simple nuclear decay into usable energy,in this photograph are controlled for a 'visual' condition trial). The view is from behind the testing apparatus. Once the pangolin enters the chamber (from the top of the image), the metal mesh screen is removed and the pangolin can investigate the two containers. The containers are then pulled to the back of the chamber, at which point the pangolin can make a choice and the lid of the chosen container is removed. (**C**) Experimental setup for 'olfactory distance' testing in Phase II. Similar to Phase I, the pangolin entered the chamber (from the top of the image), the screen was removed, and the pangolin could investigate the two containers, which were positioned on top of PVC pipes above the pangolin's head. This photograph represents a 15-cm training


day across both Phase I and Phase II of this study. Testing was conducted on consecutive days unless the subject failed to voluntarily participate, in which case testing was delayed until the next day. Phase I conditions were presented in the following order: olfactory, visual no-light, visual light, acoustic untreated, and acoustic treated. The 'olfactory' condition consisted of four sessions of 12 trials (eight test and four control). The 'visual' condition consisted of two parts: four sessions of 12 trials (eight test and four control) presented in the absence of an artificial light source (no-light), followed by an equal number of trials in the presence of light. In the first three sessions of the 'acoustic' condition, live weaver ants were collected from the environment and immediately presented totest trial of the 'olfactory distance' condition, after the pangolin entered the testing chamber, he had 15 s to investigate the two sides. The containers were then placed on the floor of the chamber so the pangolin could choose one. The pangolin then had 30 s to pass the 40-cm partition separating the two containers, at which point the experimenter unlocked and removed the chosen container's lid, while the other container was removed (see Supplementary Video S2). This early designation of the pangolin's choice (i.e., before he made contact with a container) was used to minimize his opportunity to make a decision using olfactory information from within the containers once they were placed on the floor. The food reward used in this condition consisted of 35 g of dead ants. Since


this was the pangolin's first experience with testing on a vertical plane, he was first trained with the containers placed directly overhead on the wooden plank without the added distance created by the PVC tubes. The pangolin reached the criterion of 80% correct in a single session of eight trials (i.e., seven out of eight trials correct) within his first training session. Subsequently, he was trained on a distance of 15 cm to ensure he understood the task with all of the apparatus components in place, reaching the same criterion in his third session. Following completion of training, the pangolin participated in the test condition consisting of ten total sessions. Each testing session included six test trials (two trials of each distance, randomised) and two control trials, for athe pangolin having to make a choice.

The 'scent trail' condition aimed to investigate whether pangolins could use scent trails to track their prey (see Supplementary Video S3). Due to the pangolin's natural tendency to smell as it moved through the wooden chamber, no training was needed for this condition. Test trials made use of two wooden planks on each of which a strip of cloth tape was applied to prevent the smeared liquid from running. A different scent was smeared on each tape strip using a sponge (approximately 5 mL of scent was applied per strip, per trial). One of two stimulus containers (one baited and one unbaited) was placed at the end of each plank, on its side and with the locked lid facing the pangolin. Once the


animal voluntarily walked into the testing chamber, he had 30 s in which to make a choice. As soon as he reached one of the two containers, the lid was unlocked and removed. For all test trials, the food (F) scented trail always lead to the baited container. This scent was extracted by taking dead weaver ants and pressing them within the barrel of a syringe, producing a concentrated liquid extract. In one type of test trial, the scent of ants (F) was applied to one trail while plain tap water (W) was applied to the non-food bearing trail (F vs. W). The W trail acted as a control for a scent 'smear' by providing comparable characteristics of the ant 'smear' without the odor of prey. For the otherthis research and their care of the pangolins. We also thank Parntep Ratanakorn for his continued support of collaborative research on endangered species behaviour in Thailand. We greatly appreciate Andrew Michalski's help with apparatus construction and design, and thank Martin Chodorow for his analysis advice. We also thank Melissa Schmitt, Peter Moller and reviewers for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and Matthew Rudolph for assistance with the figure. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Pluto, our primary research subject, who passed away from natural causes in January, 2020. His voluntary participation in this research was crucial to this study's success, and his curiosity and good nature made it a pleasure to work with him. This work formed the basis of the first author's


April 19, 1983 4,408,392 Naimer October 11, 1983 4,803,780 Locke et al. February 14, 1989 4,896,420 Locke January 30, 1990 ______________________________________
It is also generally known to provide such rotary drives with a mechanism for converting the rotary motion of a drive shaft to a reciprocal, linear motion for actuating a cutting assembly. The provision of such a motion-converting mechanism having a thin-walled segment or living hinge is also generally known. Attention is directed to the following U.S. Patents which illustrate various electric shavers having a living hinge for converting the rotary motion of a drive shaft to a reciprocal, linear motion for actuating a cutting assembly:
______________________________________ 4,649,642 Nagasaki et al. March 17, 1987 4,805,300 Miska February 21, 1989 5,088,200 Piwaron et al. February 18, 1991 ______________________________________SHARE THIS ARTICLE

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A leading AAA development studio in the South East of the UK is currently looking for a Technical Designer to join their team on a 12 month contract basis. The studio is responsible for creating one of the best loved console franchises and are currently working on existing and brand new IP. As an experienced Technical Designer you will primarily work hand in hand with coders, animators and other members of the design team to initially implement and balance gameplay features for the next title. You will be an integral team contributor and be involved in the complete development process from start to finish. Key Responsibilities: • Implement scripted events and quest-based logic for gameplay and narrative • Implement


Southern California -- this just in

State Senate rejects controversial plan to disband city of Vernon [Updated]

August 29, 2011 | 4:09
pm

This post has been corrected. See the note at bottom for details.

The state Senate on Monday afternoon failed to approve a controversial bill to disband the troubled city of Vernon and make it a part of Los Angeles County.

The bill, AB 46, would have marked the first forced disincorporation of a city in the state's modern history. Its author, Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles), has argued that Vernon lacks a legitimate electorate and that dissolving the city is the only way to permanently root out corruption there.

The bill failed by a 13-17 vote, but 10 senators were not present. It is unclear whether Pérez will reintroduce the bill.

[Updatedthat may occur in the future. I am proud of the fact that I stood with the men and women of the Southeast Communities in this effort."]

Three Vernon leaders have been convicted on corruption charges since 2006. During the same period, five city officials made over half a million dollars a year, and part-time City Council members were among the highest-paid in the state.

Only about 100 people live in the industrial city just south of downtown L.A. Nearly all of the residents rent homes and apartments owned by the city government, and many have close ties to city leaders.

A coalition of Vernon city officials, the city's Chamber of Commerce and local labor leaders aggressively fought AB 46. They argued that the bill was unconstitutional and would cause a


advance that she would donate all royalties to her Foundation for Family Literacy.

So successful was the book, however, that the Bushes were not permitted under tax law to claim a 1991 tax deduction for the full value of those charitable contributions. Including deductions for taxes paid and investment expenses, they could claim only the $669,484, the maximum allowable for their income. They will be permitted to carry over $156,575 to be claimed as deductions in future years.

The release of the tax returns followed a pattern established by Bush since he took office as vice president 11 years ago. Marlin Fitzwater, his chief spokesman, urged that other presidential candidates also make their tax records public.

But at day’s end, neither Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas nor his remaining Democratic challenger,While legally sanctioned slavery in Canada ended in 1833/34, along with slavery in the rest of the British Empire; and slavery in the U.S.A. ended with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 (though implementation took some time), human beings have continued to be pretty cruel to each other even after the end of slavery. A demonstration of this can be seen in the life of Ota Benga.

In 1906, more than 40 years after the end of slavery in the U.S., Ota Benga was put on display in the Bronx Zoo. He was in a cage… with an Orangutan. This is the point where I know you’re hoping there were mass protests. People, having realized how bad slavery was, would immediately stop going to the zoo and show empathy and


compassion.

Or not. While there were groups who were opposed to Benga being held in a cage, attendance at the zoo doubled over the time he was there, and 40,000 people visited the zoo in a single day.

Ota Benga at the Bronx Zoo

Benga was 4 foot 11 inches tall and he weighed 103 pounds. He was thought to be 23 years old, and his teeth were filed down as was traditional in his tribe. He was kept in a cage at the Bronx Zoo, and the floor of the cage was covered with a scattering of bones to reinforce the (incorrect) story that he was a cannibal.

Benga put on demonstrations with a bow and arrow (at 2pm as ordered by the zoo), wove mats, and put up with thelaughs, taunt, shouts, and occasional pokes and prods from the people who came to see him.

The director of the zoo, William Temple Hornaday said of Benga, he was “a genuine African pygmy, belonging to the sub-race commonly miscalled “the Dwarfs””. He put forward the idea that Benga was there willingly, and quite enjoyed his time at the zoo, but when people asked Benga how he felt, he would reply, “Me no like America.”

In absolute fairness, it’s worth noting that Benga wasn’t the only example of someone from Africa being put on display. Sara Baartman, a woman from southern Africa, was put on display in Paris and London, and a group of Nubians toured London, Paris, and Berlin. However, Benga was the only person held in a cage with


an actual animal.

How Benga got to the Bronx

Benga was from the Mbuti tribe in the Congo. The Congo was a colony of Belgium at the time, and the Belgian occupiers were making life miserable for many people in the country. Benga’s wife and children were slaughtered by the Force Publique (an armed force in the service of the King of Beligum).

Benga was brought to America by Samuel Phillips Verner, who had gone to Africa to bring back an assortment of pygmies for the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition (the World’s Fair). While his story changed over time, it is pretty much accepted that Verner purchased Benga from slavers who had captured Benga after the death of his wife and children. Benga was brought to St. Louis along with four othermen who were members of the Batwa Tribe.

There were over 10,000 human beings on exhibit at this fair, including 2,000 Native Americans and 1,000 Filipinos. The public and the press took a great liking to Benga, as he sang and danced, performing for thousands at a time. The group in general was “pinched, prodded and poked” by the public and not given appropriate clothing for the climate. Benga and his Batwa companions won a gold prize at the World’s Fair, and each of them were given 15 cents. After the fair, Verner brought all of the group back to Africa. Benga married a woman from the Batwa tribe, but reportedly asked to come back with Verner after his new wife died of a snakebite. Back in New York,


Benga resided for a time at the Museum of Natural History, and from there went to the Bronx Zoo.

Ota Benga after the Bronx Zoo

As Benga became more and more unhappy at the zoo, he began to rebel in various ways, such as by yelling back at tormentors, refusing to perform as the zoo wanted him to, and by shooting his arrow in the direction of the audience. And really, can you blame the guy? This, combined with the growing outcry from the public and the local clergy, led to the eventual release of Benga from the zoo after 20 days.

Benga was released into the care of Rev. James H. Gordon. He spent the next 10 years trying to adjust to American life. He learned more English, worked ina seminary, held a variety of odd jobs, as well as worked in a tobacco factory – all in an effort to raise money to go home. He even capped his teeth and started calling himself Otto Bingo (his American nickname).

Sadly, the hard life of Ota Benga did not come to a happy end. One night, after 10 years in America, he took the caps off his teeth, built a fire, and then shot himself in the heart. Witnesses reported him dancing around the fire before he shot himself.

What this means for us

You might think that this kind of behaviour, placing a person on display behind iron bars for the amusement of others, is disgraceful and inhumane, and you would be right. And Benga’s stay at the Bronx


Author's infos

Introduction:

Don continues to use his position over Kevin for him and his wife to have sexual relations with his employee and his beautiful younger wife.

I hope you have read - Giving myself to my husband's boss and his wife. This is a continuation.
____________________________________________________________________________

FIRST DAY IN THE NEW OFFICE

Kevin spent the next day, Wednesday relocating his stuff to his new office. Then he went home and enjoyed an uneventful evening with Nancy. Thursday morning he was ready to start his new position. He walked thru the office where his desk used to be and walked to his new private office. At the desk in front of his office door sat Monifa, the very attractive nineteen year old black girl who was now his secretary. He felt his dickswell a little as he looked at her and thought about what his boss had told him when he said that she would be his new secretary and about the rumors he had heard about her. "Good morning Mr. Billings, she said as he walked by." "Good morning Monifa. I'm glad to see that you are already hard at work."

Kevin looked around the room and smiled. He even had an outside window. Pulling back his new and more comfortable chair, Kevin sat at his new larger desk. He noticed a note paper in the middle of his blotter. He picked it up and looked at it. At the top was a red lipstick kiss imprint. The handwritten note said: "Hello Mr. Billings, I am so happy that you


picked me to be your new SEXretary. Just call me any time you want me to come in and take some DICKtation." It was signed Monifa. Kevin looked at it for several minutes and then filed it away in a special personal file where he kept the love notes from his wife. He wanted to keep this note to look at more times in the future.

Kevin's hand slid down and he rubbed himself between the legs, feeling the hardness of his cock as he thought about the pretty black girl just outside his door who he knew was willing to give herself to him. He wanted to call her into his office and fuck her non-stop for the whole day but he kept himself from doing it. Heneeded to get some real work done.

When the work day ended and everyone left to go home, his office door opened and Monifa walked in. She was wearing a short bright blue dress that looked great on her. She had opened the top a little wider than it was during the day, letting more of her ample cleavage show. "Do you need me to stay for any special training this evening, Mr. Billings?" Monifa asked in a very sexy voice.

Kevin thought for just a second and then stood and walked around in front of his desk. "I do have one thing that needs taking care of." Monifa pointed at the bulge in his pants and said, "Oh my yes. I can see that you do. Let me take


care of that for you." She walked up to him and dropped to her knees, reached out, undid his pants and dropped them to the floor. That released his boner and it sprung out in front of her face. She giggled, looked up at him and said, "Very nice. You're pretty well equipped for a white boy." Again she giggled and Kevin knew that she was making a joke but he also knew that what she said was true. He was bigger than average and hard like a baseball bat.

Monifa leaned forward. She lined Kevin's rod up with her face and slid her talented mouth over about five inches of hot, hard cock. She tasted his pre-cum for the first time of many to come. She alternated betweenswallowing his meat and stroking it for around five minutes before Kevin stopped her. He stood her up and leaned her over his desk so her tits were pressed against the top. Then he lifted the bottom of her dress up to her waist. She had already taken her panties off before she came in. That made Kevin happy. He stood there for a minute looking at her bare ass. Her legs were spread and he could see her puffy cunt lips between her legs. He could also see her tight little puckered ass hole.

Kevin dropped to his knees, gave each cheek a kiss and then pushed his face firmly between her dark chocolate buns. The first thing his tongue touched was her shitter. He felt her jump


a little as he licked across her rectum. "Reach back and spread your cheeks." Monifa reached back and pulled them wide apart. Kevin licked and poked at her pussy and ass hole but in that position he could not reach her clit with his tongue. He reached in with his hand and his finger found her love button. He rubbed it while continuing to lick her holes. Monifa moaned and orgasmed hard. Kevin licked up the juices that ran from her cunt.

Kevin stood up and with his hard erection in his hand, found her fuck hole. Monifa looked back at him, "Oh yes. Fuck my pussy hard, Mr. Billings. I so much want your cock in me." Kevin said, "Call me Kevin, Monifa." "No Sir, I would rathercall you Mr. Billings or Sir."

Kevin pushed and her hole easily yielded to his thrust. His balls bounced off her cunt lips. He held onto her hips and pounded her for all he was worth. They actually moved the big desk. She wasn't especially tight for such a young woman but Kevin was still very excited about fucking this young black beauty. He could feel his cockhead rubbing on the walls of her fuck tunnel. It wasn't long before he felt a tightening in his balls and knew he was about to come. "Where do you want it? Where do you want my cum?" Monifa replied, "I'm on the pill but this time I want you to come in my mouth." Kevin pulled out and Monifa got off


the desk, turned and kneeled at his feet. Kevin pushed his meat into her open mouth just as his cum started spurting out. It was such a strong ejaculation that his knees went weak and he almost collapsed. Finally Monifa released his prick from her mouth and swallowed his large load of seed. They both agreed that it was a great fuck and she told him that she was looking forward to their company trips when she could spend all night with him. They dressed and went home.

FRIDAY NIGHT ARRIVES.

Friday before his boss and his boss's wife arrived for the swinging session that Mr. Wilson and Maria had told them that they would be coming over for, Kevin and Nancy showered together and played with each other’s partssexy for a woman her age and build, dressed in a short skirt and a top that formed tightly around her bra covered breasts. When the door opened they walked in like they owned the place. Maria walked straight to Nancy, kissed her and then pulled her own top and bra up above her tits. They sagged down onto her chest. "Taste them Nancy." Nancy bent down and sucked one nipple into her mouth. It tasted like strawberry. Maria pressed her breast tight to Nancy's face. Maria had put flavored lotion on her nipples. Maria pulled away and turned to Kevin. "Taste the other one." Kevin bent down and took her other tit in his mouth. "Cherry," he said. Maria put her hand behind his head and held


him there for a long time while Kevin sucked and licked her big hard nipple. Maria moaned.

They only sat on the couch long enough for one drink before Don said that they should quit wasting time and get to the bedroom. Don knew that what his boss wanted was what was going to happen but he also was ready to get on with their swinging evening. It also looked like whatever Don's wife wanted was what he was going to want. When they entered the room, everyone proceeded to strip.. Maria reached out and stroked Kevin's erection and at the same time sucked on one of Nancy's breasts. Don feasted on the other one and let his fingers slip between her pussy lips and up into her wetfuck hole.

Maria took charge of what was happening. She broke away and told Kevin to get on the bed on his back. When he did, she climbed on and straddled him, facing his feet. She reached down and grabbed his big hard cock. As she slid down onto Kevin's manhood she said, "Fuck, I love that big hard piece of man meat in me. It fills me so nice and full. I love the way my cunt has to stretch to get around it." After she was sitting flat on his lap with him buried fully in her snatch, she started slamming up and down on Kevin's erection. After a minute, Maria leaned back so her back was on Kevin's chest. "Squeeze my tits and fuck your log


up into me, hard."

While this was going on, Don was finger fucking Nancy with two fingers deep in her cunt and sucking on one of her amazing tits. Maria was ready to change things up again. "Nancy, get down here and lick your husband's shaft and my clit while he fucks me." Nancy got on the bed on her hands and knees and put her face where Kevin's cock was buried in Maria's cunt. She sucked Kevin's balls and then licked up his wet shaft to Maria's clit. She took it in her mouth and sucked on it. Maria jumped and let out a very loud moan.

Not to be let out of the fun. Don got on the bed behind Nancy and between her legs. In his handhe had something that looked like a small elongated chicken egg. He pushed a recessed button on it and it started rapidly vibrating. Then he rubbed some lube into the surface, pressed it against Nancy's ass hole and pushed till it popped in and her anal ring closed behind it. Nancy moaned from the strange but sexy feeling of the egg vibrating inside her shit hole. Her ass automatically tried to push it out like it was a turd, but Don pushed it back in so it could not escape. Her vaginal opening was spread from his finger fucking so he easily slid his prick into her cunt.

It was quite a sight. Marisa was on her back on top of Kevin, being fucked from underneath while Nancy licked


and sucked Maria's clit and licked her husband's cock while it fucked Maria. At the same time, Don was fucking Nancy doggie style while pushing the vibrating egg back in her ass each time it tried to come out. Everyone was getting very sexually excited and working hard at what they were doing.

Nancy was the first to have an orgasm but it was a small one. Don let the egg slip out of Nancy's behind and then quickly replaced it with his cock. He barely missed a stroke as he switched form fucking her cunt to fucking her ass. Nancy groaned and pushed back as Don entered her shit tube. Maria pulled on her head to get her back to eating her and licking Kevin's shaft. Maria wasthe next to come and it was a good one. She screamed out and bucked her hips while her juices poured out around Kevin's prick and was licked up by Nancy. Her cunt squeezing on Kevin's cock brought him to his orgasm and he blew a big load into Maria.

Kevin kept slowly stroking into her pussy till he started to go soft. Maria lifted her hips till Kevin fell out. Nancy quickly took him in her mouth and sucked him clean. Then as she felt a stronger orgasm building in her cunt, she ate the mixture of Maria's and Kevin's cum from Maria's cunt as Maria pushed to get it to run out. Don and Nancy came simultaneously. Don filled her bowels with his hot cum and Nancy


shook and yelled out her pleasure. Maria directed the action again. She had the men get off the bed and had Nancy sit on her face so she could eat the cum that was dripping out of Nancy's ass hole. The final act in this fuck play was Don bringing his soft, cum and shit covered prick to Nancy's mouth for her to suck clean. Nancy never liked having a cock in her mouth after it had been up her ass but she opened her mouth and accepted it. The night came to an end and Kevin's boss and his wife left to go home. Kevin and Nancy kissed and cuddled in bed and fell asleep.

____________________________________________________________

The third and probably final part will be Kevin taking Monifa on theirU.S. Navy's submarine force.

The NRL developed aircraft XFC UAS - eXperimental Fuel Cell Unmanned Aerial System - was fired from the submarine's torpedo tube using a 'Sea Robin' launch vehicle system. The Sea Robin launch system was designed to fit within an empty Tomahawk launch canister (TLC) used for launching Tomahawk cruise missiles already familiar to submarine sailors.

Once deployed from the TLC, the Sea Robin launch vehicle with integrated XFC rose to the ocean surface where it appeared as a spar buoy. Upon command of Providence Commanding Officer, the XFC then vertically launched from Sea Robin.

The XFC aircraft is a fully autonomous, all electric fuel cell powered folding wing UAS with an endurance of greater than six hours. The non-hybridized power plant supports the propulsion system and payload


the ten dimensional maze

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“A radical phenomenon in science will be repeatedly treated as an anomaly until a new theory can explain it.”

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Like all original ideas, they run the risk of being simply wrong, but because what they seek to do is so grandiose, they to some degree fall upon the eye of the beholder to assess, and it is for this that they are worth communicating.

The Ten Dimensional Maze: A Digital Fantasy in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll is one of those ideas. Written and illustrated by a North Yorkshire design duo, Jan and Ted Arundell in 1995 and published by Tasman Studio. In a dazzling display of computer generated graphics, dizzying in their intensity, the nonlinearThe Vampires of Port Arthur

A family of five vampires are driven out of their lair in Eastern Europe and board ship for Australia, the state of Van Diemen’s Land, where a new prison colony is being built. Saul, the teenage vampire, falls in love and watches in horror as his new love turns from what she was into what she has become. One by one, they are killed off until only one remains. But which one is it?


Cold-blooded organisms find it harder to cope with temperature change Many tropical insects face extinction by the end of this century unless they adapt to the rising global temperatures predicted, US scientists have said. Researchers led by the University of Washington said insects in the tropics were much more sensitive to temperature changes than those elsewhere. In contrast, higher latitudes could experience an insect population boom. The scientists said changes in insect numbers could have secondary effects on plant pollination and food supplies. In the research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the US scientists studied how temperature changes between 1950 and 2000 had affected 38 species of insects. In the tropics, many species appear to be living at or near their thermal optimum, aUrbano Networking Event - Networking Breakfast & Private View

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said the leaks could challenge the U.S. relationship with its intelligence partners overseas.

"These leaks are dangerous and could lead to someone's death," he said.

Rogers said he's conducting a "preliminary review," and questioned whether someone "may be trying to put this in a political narrative to help their politics."

Other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have likewise expressed concern about the flow of information in the press about the plot. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the leak is being regarded as serious and should not have happened.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also called for an investigation into leaks.

"The plot's disclosure and further leaks raise troubling questions and potentially jeopardize the work of our intelligence agencies," he said in a statement.

Administration officials say theA government for the people, or a government for wealthy special interests?

The current campaign system puts the interests of the American people in the hands of wealthy special interests. Both parties should rally behind the Fair Elections Now Act, returning public elections to public ownership.

BySherwood BoehlertOctober 8, 2010

Washington — As a former Republican member of Congress who devoted 24 years of service in the People’s House, I am saddened to find that our system of campaigning for Congress today is deeply flawed and in need of major repair.

To run for public office, good people seeking to represent their constituents on Capitol Hill must devote countless hours to the pursuit of millions of dollars in private money. To bring in the necessary cash, they must either be independently wealthy


with the June 2015 rent.                   Plaintiff moved into

the premises in May with her three children, one of whom has

asthma.

       Plaintiff testified that on June 12, 2015, during a heat

wave, the thermostat in the home "wasn't working," fluctuating

between       temperatures     of       eighty-eight        to    ninety         degrees

Fahrenheit.      Plaintiff emailed defendant at 5:36 p.m. to inform

her of the extreme heat and that the air conditioner was not

cooling   the  the    case   of      an    emergency.

Conversely, defendant testified she never told plaintiff that

she could not call her.

       On June 17, 2015, defendant entered the premises with a

technician to fix one of the toilets.                       According to plaintiff,

defendant described this as a "temporary fix."                       However, on July

8, 2015, the toilet became clogged and overflowed.


    On July 10, 2015, defendant sent plaintiff's counsel a

letter,    stating   she      provided    the    location     of    the   security

deposit on the first page of the lease, that plaintiff could

verify the deposit from a cancelled check, and that she sent a

notice of deposit status on June 5, 2015.                Defendant attached a

reproduction of the June 5 notice, which contained the interest

rate and bank address.

      Plaintiff filed her initial complaint on or about July 10,

2015.     On July 20, 2015, plaintiffhe

was   not    on       the    lease.       The     judge   also    dismissed      the   count

against the corporation and dismissed counts three and five of

the amended complaint.

      Following             trial,    plaintiff       filed       an   application        for

attorney's fees.              Defendant opposed the application and raised

new issues challenging


our START trial involving breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, adherence to the aerobic exercise and resistance exercise interventions was about 70% each \[\[[@B2]\]\]. Adherence to the STAN intervention in the CARE Trial, which is comparable to the aerobic exercise intervention in the START Trial, was 78% suggesting slightly better adherence in CARE despite the more difficult chemotherapy treatments containing taxanes. These adherence rates are within the range reported for other trials of exercise during cancer treatments \[\[[@B1]\]\]. Nevertheless, adherence in the CARE Trial was still not optimal and a better understanding of the determinants of adherence may inform behavior support interventions.

The strongest predictor of exercise adherence in the CARE Trial was the location/center at which the exercise was performed with Vancouver participants achieving higher adherence than Edmonton ormanuscript, revising the manuscript, and gave final approval for publication. CP, LT, LB, and EW made substantial contributions to acquisition of data, revising the manuscript, and gave final approval for publication. JRV made substantial contributions to analysis and interpretation of data, revising the manuscript, and gave final approval for publication.

Acknowledgments
===============

This work was supported by a grant from the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance. KSC and YY are supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program. YY is also supported by the Alberta Innovates -- Health Solutions. CMF is supported by a Health Senior Scholar Award from Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions and through the Alberta Cancer Foundation's Weekend to End Women's Cancers Breast Cancer Chair. LT was supported by a Health Studentship from Alberta Innovates: Health Solutions.


to abolish the executive presidency (EP) the problem is not with the EP. There are many successful governments that are executive presidencies. For example, as Dayan Jayatillake has pointed out, of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, four (the US, Russia, China, France) have executive presidential systems. Only the UK does not. Of the members of the emerging/pivotal powers represented in the BRICS, (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) all except India have presidential systems. In fact it was the executive presidency, to a very large extent, that enabled not only to win the war but also to usher an era of rapid economic growth for Sri Lanka since it ended.

Also the abolition of EP will have other implications. One of those relates tothe hounding by the West of the commander in chief and the armed force personnel who saved the country. They have been pining for a regime change ever since Rajapaksa won the war ignoring their advice to negotiate with the LTTE. Belatedly, probably at JHU urging, Sirisena has announced he will protect the President and the armed forces but it is not a united voice from coalition partners.

Clarification will also be needed from the common candidate (and backers) on some further burning issues such as the 13th amendment and armed forces in the north. Even as Sirisena commits himself there could be attempts by the West to buy over decision makers as Resettlement Minister Gunaratna Weerakoon divulged recently. The situation is further complicated by Sirisena’s commitment to hand


weather waited until we'd got the tents up and then rained heavily, on and off all night and in the early morning, but cleared for the rest of the day. It was cold but I was prepared and so it was definitely copable.

One thing of note was my new tent, bought last September and on its first outing, which turned out to have a three foot tear in the built in ground sheet. It had been partially repaired using tape very similar to the groundsheet, suggesting the damage happened at the factory. How it got past QA I don't know and it certainly shouldn't have been sold that way. I'm not impressed and will be taking it back to the store tomorrow, where I shall be pressing forcourthouse with Greek columns in a picturesque, Colonial Virginia town. A horse and carriage are usually parked outside the visitor center down the street.

On a sunny morning — the second Friday in June — the first defendant at court is a young woman, Daisha Smith, 24, who arrives early; she has just come off working an overnight shift at a group home for the elderly. She is here because the local hospital sued her for an unpaid medical bill — a bill she didn't know she owed until her wages started disappearing out of her paycheck.

The hospital, Mary Washington, sues so many patients that the court reserves a morning every month for its cases.

Inside the courthouse, it's not hard to figure out where to go. Right through court