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SHORTAGE IN RICH LAND
Stories from the Missouri Bootheel
"We're the forgotten part of Missouri."
Dogfight on the Rising River
For years, some small towns and farmers along the Mississippi River have been battling each other over a flood project set up by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
On the western shore, farmers in southeast Missouri need the project to protect their valuable farmland. But small river towns on the eastern side of the river say the project protects those influential farmers at the cost of their small communities. As a last-ditch effort, the opposition to the project is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to kill the project all together.
Lynn Bock is the attorney for the St. John Levee and Drainage District in New Madrid, Mo. He lives at the southern end of the floodplain. Part of the levee system there follows the Mississippi River path. On the other side of the levee are thousands of acres of productive farmland.
"When you look at these fields, that's our strip mall. That's our economy in this part of the world," Bock says. "We make it or don't make it based on how farmers do."
The levee system here is part of a $165 million dollar project called the New Madrid Floodway Project that's designed to protect the land around the Mississippi River.
The area is part of a seven-county region that produces a third of Missouri's agriculture economy. Farmers grow millions of dollars' worth of soybeans, corn, cotton and rice here.
The farmland isn't without its weaknesses, though. During major Mississippi River floods, the Army Corps diverts the excess water into this floodplain, called the New Madrid Floodway. Construction on the project first began in 1928.
Nearly 90 years later, the Corps is close to completing the levee system by building an earthen wall along a 1,500-foot gap to separate the land from the river. This final levee essentially cordons off the lucrative farmland in the floodway, protecting the crops from most floods. That's good for Missouri farmers west of the river, but maybe not so good for Illinois and Kentucky towns east of it.
"[With] what we can produce in the floodway itself, in [those] 133,000 acres of farmland, we're able to feed on an annual basis about 1.3 million people," says Kevin Mainord, farm owner and mayor of East Prairie, Mo. He says closing that gap is critical.
The levee system protects the farms most of the time, but every 75 years or so, a major flood slams the area. Then, the New Madrid Floodway has to be opened up and used as, well, a floodway.
That's what happened in the great flood of 2011. The floodwater was sweeping up to the edges of Cairo, Ill., a town of 2,800 with many low-income residents.
"We did everything imaginable to help people during that situation because it was awful," says Monica Smith, who works at the Cairo library. "People had to leave their homes that hadn't been out of their homes in years, and then some of them didn't have any place to go."
When the Army Corps planned to open up the floodway to help Cairo, the state of Missouri backed by members of U.S. Congress sued to stop it because the water level remained just inches below the mandated height. The state wanted to prevent damage to crops already planted.
For two days, the floodwaters crept up on Cairo. Mayor Tyrone Coleman says after the town was evacuated, some stayed behind to fight the flood.
"We had to utilize inmates from the maximum [security] prison, Corps of Engineer personnel, National Guard, and then there were a number of local citizens that helped with sand bagging," he says.
After two intense and difficult days, Missouri lost the legal challenge and the Corps opened the floodway. But some say it was too little, too late. And after that flood, many residents never returned to Cairo.
"We lost some people over it which is sad because they were good people," Smith says. "And you hate to lose your good people."
On the other side, with the floodway open, the water wiped away acres of crops. Many of those residents never returned either.
"The floodway was destroyed — completely," Mainord says. "There are probably seven residents that are living there now, where there were hundreds before the flood of 2011."
Cairo gets a lot of the spotlight when it comes to the 2011 flood, but just 20 minutes up the road, the flood hit Olive Branch, Ill., hard, too.
"The agriculture impact was way worse here, than it was in the floodway," engineer Jeff Denney says. "It was just all about Missouri and their farmers, but you're doing the same thing to farmers here, you know?"
Environmental groups such as the National Wildlife Federation have also been fighting the project for years. They say cutting off the floodway with a plug would be catastrophic for the 50,000 acres of wetland that fish and waterfowl call home.
Project engineer Danny Ward says the corps' most recent environmental impact statement is meant to appease those concerns.
"We [sought] to balance the socioeconomic impacts associated with floods, as well as the environmental benefits derived from the flooding," he says.
The environmental impact statements have come under fire for not going far enough to address the concerns of independent scientists. The most recent report released in March is criticized for using flawed models, underestimating the impact of wetlands and not clearly showing the project's economic benefits would exceed the cost to taxpayers.
Bottom line, many in the river towns are concerned farmers backed by powerful politicians on the Missouri side are winning the battle to protect their farmland at the cost of their communities. They say there is no guarantee that gap closure won't affect them and that future lawsuits won't delay the floodway operation again. Ward disagrees.
"It's not like if we were to build the closure we would not operate the floodway anymore," he says. "We're actually mandated by federal law to operate the floodway and we will continue to operate it."
But Cairo Mayor Tyrone Coleman, who had a front-row seat to the devastation in 2011, isn't buying it.
"If this was a viable project, then it wouldn't have gone beyond that 60 year period to make it happen," he says. "Because it is controversial and because of the dynamics of what can happen behind something like the tragedy that had taken place, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what's happening here."
As a final play, Cairo has teamed up with other river towns and conservation groups to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to use part of the Clean Water Act to kill the entire project. If vetoed, it would be the 14th project shut down under the act since 1981.
Desperately Seeking Doctors
It's early morning. The sun is shining brightly on the corrugated metal siding of the Otto Bean Medical Center in Kennett, Mo., and inside the building, Judith Haggard is pricking the soles of her patient's feet with a pin.
Otto Bean is part of the SEMO Health Network, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center which operates several clinics across southeast Missouri.
Haggard is a nurse practitioner and one of the ranking medical providers here at the clinic, which has no full-time doctor. She has just 15 minutes to spend with her patient, a 71-year-old diabetic on Medicaid.
Fifteen minutes is the standard length of a visit here. In that time she must examine and educate him, prescribe medicine and discharge him. Fifteen minutes, she says, is hardly enough time.
"Diabetics take longer," Haggard says. "And you don't get through with a diabetic in 15 minutes unless they are totally controlled and that patient generally is not."
In a perfect world the patient would see an endocrinologist – a doctor who specializes in diabetes. Time spent with a nurse practitioner, diabetes educator or even a nutritionist would make up for the time the doctor couldn't give.
But this is the Bootheel, a region emblematic of the social and medical problems facing rural Missouri, and really, all of rural America. Life expectancy here is among the lowest in the state. A fifth of the population lives in poverty. About a quarter are smokers.
"If you look at a sociology map," Haggard says, "we are the red flags of the state."
And adding to those red flags is a critical shortage of doctors, especially for the region's poor, like the patients at the Otto Bean Medical Center.
"It has been at least two years at this point [since we've had a physician]," Haggard says, adding, "And every time somebody leaves it's another full year at least before we get somebody back in."
Every Bootheel county is a designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) – a measure of a population's access to healthcare based on their ratio to providers.
There are three categories for which this distinction exists – primary medical care, mental health and dental – and the Bootheel is short on all of them.
For perspective, the Health Resources and Services Administration, for an area to be designated a HPSA its population to provider ratio must be at least 3,500 to 1 for primary care (3,000 to 1 in areas of high need). For dental the ratio must be 5,000 to 1 (4,000 to 1). 30,000 to 1 (20,000 to 1) for mental health.
Standing against the wall of a busy classroom in Sikeston, Mo., Sandy Ortiz reflects on the need those numbers represent.
"It's such a simple statement," she says. "We're just short of healthcare providers."
Ortiz is Executive Director of Southeast Missouri's Area Health Education Center – one of seven regional centers in the state, called AHEC for short.
AHEC's aim is to grow the area's healthcare workforce and fill the provider gap. To do this, they give medical students in Missouri a taste of rural medicine by placing them in clinical rotations in the area; hoping the students like it enough to return here after their residencies.
But the Bootheel's small communities lack the allure of big cities, as well as their critical mass of people to sustain a medical practice. Even a loan repayment program through the National Health Service Corps – where doctors working at certain clinics in the area can have their student debt repaid by the federal government – often isn't a big enough draw.
Usually it's the people from the area who are most likely to return. And that's why Ortiz and AHEC also work with students before they finish high school, which is what brings her to a classroom at the Sikeston Career and Technology Center.
"We do have some kids go into healthcare professions but they don't come back to the area," she says. "We just need to show more kids, get more kids interested in healthcare professions and then come back to this area to practice."
One of those kids is 17-year-old Erin Schlitt, a student in the health occupations course. Before joining this class, Erin didn't always see herself in a health profession. This was a chance to try it on for size.
"I knew nothing about [health professions]" Erin says. "I was like, 'Oh I should try this [class] just to see if I like it and if not I can drop it at semester, no big deal.' And ever since then I've liked it. Definitely changes the outlook on life."
AHEC doesn't run this class but they do visit once a month with a hands-on activity, sometimes taking the students out into the field. And they look for other ways to engage students like Erin with the kind of science learning that schools in small, rural districts generally cannot afford.
Pointing to a photo on the wall of the classroom, Sandy Ortiz says, "This is showing a young student how to give injections on an orange."
"The schools with budget cuts and such as, we bring kids together and dissect cow eyeballs, we dissect minks."
Today's lesson is not quite as exciting. The students are learning about jobs in oral health by playing "Inter-professional Pictionary." Erin draws a picture with fellow 17-year-olds Kaylan Butler and Dajanay Wallace.The girls were given clues about what to draw, they think it's probably a dentist though they're not sure.
"Want to see our drawing?" Kaylan asks.
"No!" Erin shouts. "It's so ugly, it's so bad."
Dajanay is decidedly less embarrassed. She points out the details of the drawing.
"There's the teeth," she says, bumping the other girls out of the way. "There's the toothbrush. There's the mirror. There's the little chair that they use."
Kaylan joins in, adding, "and that's the health professional person."
While oral healthcare might not be their calling, all three girls do want to join the medical field. Erin is looking at anesthesiology, Kaylan at pediatrics and Dajanay wants to be a registered nurse.
From AHEC's perspective that's the first step toward success. The next challenge is getting them to return after they've been trained. And right now the girls are on the fence.
"I always wanted to get away from Sikeston," Kaylan says. "But there is something about that hometown that you always want to come home to. I might come back. Start up a little business for all the kids who can't afford it and try to give back to them later in life."
"If I decide to come back," she adds.
Erin is planning to go to college away from the Bootheel, and she think's she'll miss home.
"I'll come home and be here for a few years," she says. After reflecting further she adds, "then I'll get tired of it and move away finally."
Judith Haggard felt the draw of home 15 years ago when she finished her own training and started practicing down here in the Bootheel.
"It was everything they told me not to do," she says about working as a nurse practitioner in Kennett. "'Don't go without a doctor!' But I was here. I lived here. I didn't want to travel. And so it started."
The hope now is that, when the time comes, these students will feel the same way.
The Small But Mighty Rice Farm
Chuck Earnest drives along a dirt road next to his rice fields near Steele, Mo. It's not planting season yet, so the fields are flooded. Flocks of ducks and other waterfowl take turns floating on the rippling water and flying above it.
"This has turned out to be the duck hunting center of Middle America, right in this territory," he says. "There might be 1,000 ducks out there."
For such a small region, this sprawling landscape of the Bootheel has some of the most productive farmland in the U.S. A solid water supply and nutrient-rich flatland creates a fertile environment to grow some of the most diverse crops not readily found in the rest of the state. You can find watermelons, sweet potatoes, cotton and a small but strong sector in Missouri growing rice.
For Earnest on this windy but clear day, ducks aren't really what are on his mind.
Like many of his neighboring rice farmers, he's ready to expand his rice fields. He says free trade agreements across the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean could open up new markets and raise prices. That would be a boon for Missouri's rice farmers who are directly competing with the top rice producing states Arkansas and California.
"About 40 percent of the American rice crop is exported year after year," Earnest says. "So we have to have access to far more markets in order to be able to move our crop."
Earnest says the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, could do exactly that. Twelve nations – from New Zealand up to Canada – are trying to hammer out a deal that could open up tariff-free trades across many industries, including automobiles and pharmaceuticals.
But perhaps the trickiest negotiations surround agriculture products. That's mostly because of Japan, which is protective of its so-called five sacred commodities: beef and pork, wheat, sugar, dairy and rice. Five seems to be loosely interpreted here.
"In trade negotiations, they have tied those to motivations such as preserving culture and food security or food safety," Wyatt Thompson, a University of Missouri agriculture economist, says. "And also other things you might not think of like flood control or having pretty countryside."
So, he says Japan's farms have a strong influence on food policy – hence the country opposes dropping agriculture tariffs, which would allow more foreign competition. Although more competitors might hurt producers in Japan, Thompson says it could mean cheaper prices and more variety for Japanese consumers.
As for the U.S., eliminating tariffs mean more beef, pork and rice could be sold to Japan.
"So for a range of commodities we might increase our exports to Japan, which means higher U.S. prices for these commodities and somewhat greater revenue to farmers and producers," he says.
But in the U.S., there are other concerns.
Some food safety groups contend the agreement may lead to imports that don't meet strict American safety standards. Seafood tops the list of concerning products. But because exact terms of the deal are unknown, experts say it's hard to speculate.
Those in favor of an agreement, including U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, say it's crucial to strike a TPP deal.
"If we don't get this done, the void will be filled by China and China will set the stage and set the rules for trade with Asian nations in the future," Vilsack says. "We don't want to cede that opportunity to China."
Vilsack says if the 12 countries can agree on the TPP, he wants the deal to happen quickly. That's why he and previous agriculture secretaries have asked Congress to grant "Trade Promotion Authority" to President Barack Obama. It would basically allow the president to negotiate the trade deal and fast track it to Congress for approval.
Ultimately, Vilsack says nailing down a TPP agreement would help create momentum for an even bigger trade agreement with the European Union.
Rice farm owner Chuck Earnest says Bootheel farmers are eager to get a chunk of the estimated $3 billion increase in agriculture exports the deal could bring.
"That's a lot of money," he says. "For Missouri producers to get our share of that would be a significant thing. It would either draw the rice price up or it would increase rice acres in Missouri. Either of those are good things."
Earnest says he's excited about a TPP deal, but it's actually another deal with just a single country that could boost rice sales big time for Bootheel farmers.
"Cuba has been a market we believe we should have been in 20 years ago," he says. "And it is a constant policy that we have wanted for a long time. Now we finally have a president who is willing to talk about it."
Neighboring rice farm owner Paul Combs agrees.
"We're excited about normalized relations with Cuba," he says. "Until 1963, Cuba was the largest importer of U.S. rice."
A few miles up the road from Earnest, he pulls up in his truck on a clear winter day to check in with some rice that's being loaded into bins for shipping. He says some of this rice ends up in milling operations stateside for grocery stores or beer.
"The other big outlet for us in the Bootheel is the Mississippi River," he says. "Most of that rice gets loaded onto barges as unprocessed rice – what they call rough rice – and then gets exported. The primary markets for that export market are Mexico and then all of the countries in Central America. "
He says since Cuba sits smack dab in the middle of a busy U.S. trade route, Cuba would be able to score higher quality rice at a cheaper price than what they are currently buying from Vietnam. That would be a big deal for the island with a big import market, according to agriculture economist Bill Messina at the University of Florida.
"They're a small country but they're having to import 60 percent of their food requirements to feed the population," he says.
In 2014, Cuba bought $2.2 billion worth of food products, according to Messina. Rice is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Missouri farmers could sell to the island. Commodity groups including wheat, pork and rice have jumped on board calling for the end of the U.S. trade embargo. But that takes an act of Congress.
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill visited Cuba recently. She says now is the time drop the embargo which would not only help Missouri producers, but help Cuban citizens too.
"The Castro government is using the American embargo as an excuse to the people of Cuba to explain their lack of prosperity. It's time we rip away that excuse," she says.
Reversing the embargo is gaining momentum among Democrats and some Republicans. McCaskill says balancing this trade will ultimately strengthen the economy of Missouri and the U.S. That's exactly what Bootheel farmers and residents like to hear.
Many locals say the vitality of the region depends on the success of the agriculture industry. Indeed, rice farm owner Paul Combs says rice could actually act as the gateway commodity for the rest of Missouri's agriculture industry. And then, the small rice industry in the state would open up doors for its sister commodities.
"Is [rice] going to be as big of a market as it was in '63 when it first opens? Maybe. Maybe not," he says. "But as time goes on, if their economy improves because of increased tourism, then you start to sell them the higher priced agricultural products like beef from Missouri or pork from Missouri."
The Unspoken Crisis
It's a cold afternoon in Kennett, Mo. The lawns in this low-income housing neighborhood are still wet from yesterday's rain. And just inside the door of her mother's brick home, 27-year-old Marylouisa Cantu sits on a couch, pregnant and draped in a blanket.
Her mother beckons, through the storm door.
"Come in, come in."
Lucretia Cox, Cantu's caseworker from the Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium (MBRC), is also here, sitting on a couch across the room. MBRC connects low-income women like Cantu to medical and support services to help them deliver healthy babies.
The aim is to avoid something like what happened the last time Cantu was pregnant. She was living in Memphis at the time and with her due date still weeks away, she came here to Kennett to visit her mother. But when she began her two-hour drive home, something didn't feel right.
"I felt sick and I just felt weird," Cantu recalls. "So I pulled over to a gas station by Blytheville [Ak.] over there and I just started feeling the baby was coming."Like so many babies born premature, Cantu's daughter was sick. The hospital wanted to rush the baby to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, about a hundred miles away.
"They come in they're like, 'well we're going to have to take the baby because she's having respiratory breathing problems,'" Cantu remembers. "'She's blue, she don't look right.'"
This is an unfortunately common experience for women in the Bootheel. Almost 17 percent of the babies born here in Dunklin County, where Cantu now lives, are born premature. According to data from the World Health Organization, if this were a country, that'd be the fifth highest rate in the world.
And almost 10 out of every 1,000 babies born here die before they turn one, well above the state and national averages. For African-Americans the rate is even higher at about 16 of every 1,000 babies. For comparison, the World Factbook estimates the infant mortality rate of the Gaza Strip at 15.46 deaths per 1,000.
Sitting around a large wooden conference table at the New Madrid Health Department are five women who have been tasked with lowering the infant mortality rate of the region. They're from Bootheel Babies and Families, an initiative that partners MBRC with the Bootheel Network for Health Improvement (BNHI).
The initiative is tasked with lowering the region's infant mortality rate by 15 percent in 10 years. One of the big challenges to bringing the rate down is making the community aware there's even a problem.
I ask the group, "Is there a general understanding that infant moprtality is a problem in the Bootheel with people in the Bootheel?" Everyone at the table replies with a simple "no."
Teletia Atkins is a program assistant from BNHI who knows first hand about the issue of awareness.
"I lost a child 11 years ago," she says. "I just thought it happened to me. And I'm pretty sure it's a lot of people who think it's just happened to them."
The initiative's goal is an ambitious one, especially considering the complex web of factors that lead to infant mortality. Premature births are the leading cause, but other contributors include issues of general poverty and poor nutrition as well as even just finding a ride to the doctor's office.
"We need to remember we can do things to counteract it and to make the numbers better," says MBRC's Chantal Herrion, one of two project management coordinators for the initiative.
They've identified a set of indicators, which they believe, if they can improve will reduce the rate. Lyn Williams, Herrion's counterpart from BNHI, names a few of them.
"Pre-conception health," she says. "Encouraging women to take care of their bodies and to maintain a healthy weight and healthy diet. And to postpone parenthood until they are physically and emotionally ready."
Prenatal care, interconception health and education are also on the list. But it's hard to imagine the initiative could do more than what these two organizations already do on their own.
The health departments that make up BNHI already administer the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, a federal program that provides healthcare and nutrition assistance to low-income mothers and their babies. In every Bootheel county at least 75 percent, and sometimes as high as 98 percent of newborns are enrolled in WIC.
And MBRC runs Healthy Start, the federal government's own infant mortality initiative. In 2008, one in four women in their program had a low birth weight baby. By 2012 they lowered that rate to just one in ten.
But that's kind of the point of the Bootheel Babies and Families initiative. Until now these two groups were working on their own.
"I actually think that's been one of the biggest successes down in the Bootheel," Melissa Logsdon says, "these two organizations coming together and working as closely as they are.""I've heard from them that they really didn't even talk to one another before," she adds.
Logsdon is a program officer at Missouri Foundation for Health, which is funding infant mortality initiatives in both the Bootheel and in St. Louis. (Full disclosure, the foundation also provides funding for the KBIA Health & Wealth Desk).To be fair, it's not like the MBRC and BNHI were bitter rivals. They just focused on their own programs. Although with scarce funding available for public health in the state, at times there was a perception of competition.
Chantal Herrion acknowledges this back in New Madrid when asked if the two organizations used to be competitors."Yes, but now we're at the table together," she says after a brief pause. Everyone laughs.
"That's what makes this initiative so different," adds Jayne Dees, Administrator of the New Madrid Health Department. Logsdon says bringing these two groups together was important.
"This isn't about funding programs necessarily," she says, "But it's really about funding a collaborative approach."
The approach is called collective impact framework, a term coined in 2011 for a model of collaboration to tackle complex problems in communities. In 2006, Milwaukee used a similar model on an awareness campaign targeting the city's high teen pregnancy rate. Within 7 years that rate had dropped by 50 percent.
Bootheel Babaies and Families is now trying to replicate that same kind of success. They're gearing up to hold their first public events: two community round tables the second week of April.
The hope is by getting the community talking, they can help more women like Marylouisa Cantu deliver healthy babies.
Cantu's daughter made a complete recovery and is now a healthy, trouble-making 2-year-old. This time, she's hoping for a happy, healthy boy.
"Hopefully that's what I'll get," she says. "Ain't no telling."
Counting the Invisible
Anthony Smith has a spiel he will deliver many, many times today.
"I'm Anthony Smith with the Family Counseling Center," he says, "and today is identified as the 'point-in-time count' for the state of Missouri. The governor's office does this annually. We try to conduct a winter count to identify individuals who are homeless, or at risk of being homeless in our community."
Smith is the director of housing and vocational services at Family Counseling Center. The organization provides an array of services across southeastern Missouri, including the Safe Haven in Kennett, which has eight apartments for the chronically homeless. Safe Haven is where he works.
Today is a big day. He is trying to count every homeless person in Dunklin County. And, thankfully, he is not alone. A small team of volunteers – who all also happen to be employees of the Family Counseling Center – pile into a minivan for this endeavor.
Emily Parker, housing case manager, is driving them in her van. Smith sits up front. In the back are Paula Driskill and Lisa Brown.
Their first stops today are to the local police and count sheriff, to let them know the count is happening in case they receive any 911 calls about people breaking into abandoned buildings.
Smith and Parker walk into the office of Bob Holder, Dunklin County sheriff. It's in a converted old paper factory that's also home to the county jail.
Smith gives his spiel. When he's done Sheriff Holder recounts a recent run-in his office had with a homeless man.
"We had a situation back last summer that the Blytheville P.D. brings a guy over here, dumps him off at the Pemiscot County Hospital," he says.
"They didn't like it," he continues. "Pemiscot County takes him and dumps him back over in Blytheville. They call an ambulance and the ambulance brings him over here and puts him in this hospital."
Resources are pretty sparse down here in the Bootheel. No single town has every service to meet the homeless community's needs. The apartments at Safe Haven in Kennett, for example, are permanent beds for the chronically homeless. The nearest emergency shelters are either in Blytheville, Ark., and Paragould, Ark., both about 30 miles away.
And the closest shelter that's still in Missouri is in Poplar Bluff, about 45 miles to the north. Homeless individuals are often transported between communities for their various needs. But because everyone down here is already strained for resources, this leads to the type of "not in my back yard" disputes Sheriff Holder is describing.
And both men agree those resources have been strained even more ever since the state's mental health center up in Farmington, Mo., shut down its involuntary psychiatric care services back in 2010.
"When they closed Farmington," Sheriff Holder says, "that was a big mistake."
"There is nowhere to house these individuals. We were able to take on six of them in Pemiscot County at our facility, but there's just a number of those individuals wandering around the community. They were there for a reason."
Smith leaves a stack of point-in-time count surveys with the sheriff and says goodbye.
"If you run into some problems let me know," Sheriff Holder tells him, "and be careful."
They head back to the van.
The crew is equipped with all the tools they need for this count: flashlights, bottles of water, warm blankets, even an emergency radio. But perhaps none is more important than these surveys.
The point-in-time count happens one day a year in Missouri, this year's date is January 28th. In every county in the state, teams like this one are responsible for filling out a survey for every person in their area who has no place to sleep for the night.
The questions are pretty basic: What is the individual's living situation? What's their reason for being homeless? How old are they? What's their race and ethnicity? Are they a veteran? Any medical conditions?
The surveys are sent to the Missouri Housing Development Commission, which compiles the data and sends it to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The count is actually required by HUD to help track each state's progress toward ending homelessness.
The data is also used as a planning tool by both the state commission and by HUD – which is government speak for deciding where money gets spent.
Back in the minivan, the next stop, and one of the most exciting, is a wooded area behind the local Wal-Mart. There is a trail back here and the whole point-in-time crew pushes through the overgrowth looking for any signs a homeless person has been sleeping here. Lisa Brown doesn't see any.
"Haven't been back here in a while," she says pointing to the brush. "It's grown up."
As she's talking, Smith breaks through to the other side.
"I don't see any signs of anyone inhabiting over here," he says.
Parker pops out of the brush and into the grassy corridor where Smith is standing.
"Well this is a nice hide out," she says.
They find some empty beer bottles and coffee cups, but they all agree if someone does sleep here, they've probably already found a warm place to wait out the day. Back to the minivan.
They make many more stops throughout the morning, mostly passing out surveys to other agencies that might encounter homeless people. Kennett Headstart, for example, as well as some faith-based assistance organizations and a non-profit that assists migrant farm workers with housing.
But the first homeless person they encounter all morning is Michael Wilson, a resident they see back at Safe Haven when they break for lunch. The story of how Wilson wound up here helps explain why.
"I've done a lot of house hopping, you know, from friends and family," he says while sitting at a table in the common area.
"But you know, being an alcoholic," he adds, "they're not welcoming, you know? Because nobody wants somebody like that around. Especially if they have kids."
During last year's point-in-time count, only 11 "unsheltered" homeless people were counted in Dunklin County. HUD's definition of unsheltered homeless doesn't include people like Michael who find temporary shelter. The "sheltered" make up the majority of the homeless down here. At 22, there were twice as many sheltered homeless counted in Dunklin last year as there were unsheltered.
It's a lot harder to count people who have a temporary place to sleep, but those individuals still have a need for services. And Smith says that underscores the importance of the point-in-time count.
"Our situation is more cumbersome," he says, sitting behind his desk at Safe Haven.
"We have to do a lot more due diligence to ensure that individuals see that we have a homeless issues here in these small communities."
The team eats at the Chinese buffet next to the Wal-Mart, before quickly heading back out. There's a lot of ground to cover today and they've only barely left Kennett.
The next week, after all the surveys were collected, the unofficial count was 11 unsheltered individuals and 35 sheltered.
Health Barriers: Symptoms of a Rural Economy
In May 2015, two months after our series aired, KBIA held a community conversation event in Kennett, Mo. The goal was to bring local residents and leaders of rural southeast Missouri to the same table to discuss difficulties in access to health care, the struggling rural economy and how to fix it. It's an event we called Health Barriers: Symptoms of a Rural Economy.
About 25 people joined us at the First Presbyterian Church in Kennett for a barbecue dinner and a panel discussion hosted by KBIA News Director Ryan Famuliner.
On the panel were Kim Hughes, Director of Nursing at the Dunklin County Health Department; Judith Haggard, nurse practitioner at SEMO Health Network; and Victor Wilburn, PhD, from Southeast Missouri State University.
What is the Bootheel?


If we cannot change n to zero after subtracting all the elements of a sequence S successively, we never consider S valid. It is easy to conclude that the length of the subtrahend sequence may vary from each other. Could you help me to construct a valid sequence with a maximal length?
The input contains multiple test cases, each test case only contains a single integer n (1 <= n <= 263-1).
Output for each test case contains two lines. One integer in the first line indicating the maximal valid subtrahend sequence length. In the second line, there should be the subtrahend sequence you constructed. Seperate the subtrahends with a single space. Seperate each case with a single line.


We are delighted that you are considering St Eugene's for your child. To take things further,please read our admissions policy, complete the application form and bring it to the school office.
If you are applying for a Reception class place for September you will need to fill in both the St Eugene's application form AND a Camden application form.


While I'm sad to have seen my last R's game of the season, I'm THRILLED that Adam Moore is getting his first taste of major league baseball. Even as his earliest fanboy, I acknowledge that he won't get much playing time and it's OK. But he'll get the chance to soak in some things and see what it takes to fight for a spot on next year's big league club.
Still - ADAM MOORE IS FREEEEE!!!!!


text:
Off World
Russia Unveils Plan to Build a Luxury Hotel on the International Space Station
Russia will let you vacation in space...for $40 million.
Kyree LearyDecember 23rd 2017
/ Off World
/ International Space Station
/ Russia
/ Space Tourism
/International Space Station
/Russia
/Space Tourism
Luxury Hotel In Orbit
The idea of taking civilians into space has taken off in the last couple of years, with SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic all investing in the concept to varying degrees. SpaceX is said to be leading the charge on private spaceflights, though it's unclear when the aerospace company intends to start offering space tours. Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are aiming for 2018 and 2019 launches, respectively. Now Russia is getting in on the space tourism business, but it's taking things a step further, with plans to build a luxury hotel in orbit.
According to a detailed business proposal seen by Popular Mechanics, the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities — Russia's own space agency — is planning to build a 20-ton, 51-foot long luxury hotel module on the International Space Station (ISS). The module would have four sleeping quarters, a pair of "hygiene and medical" stations, a lounge area, exercise equipment, and Wi-Fi. Building costs are estimated between 16.4 and 26.2 billion rubles ($279 million— $446 million).
Russia's Science and Power Module (NEM-1). Image Credit: Russia Space Web.
The " luxury hotel" in orbit would resemble the Science and Power Module (NEM-1) already under construction that Russia plans to send to the ISS in 2021. The new module to build and would be paid for with a combination of private and state investments, including those of potential passengers — who would be expected to pay installments — with initial payments being used to fund the module's development.
Race Against the Clock
As explained by Popular Mechanics, RKK Energia — Russia's leading space station contractor — has come up with a long-term plan to pay for the module. The contractor wants to book at least 12 passengers who would be willing to pay $4 million up front followed by two $12.6 million payments during the two years leading up to the actual flight. A final $10.8 million payment would be required just before the launch.
In total, one passenger would have to pay $40 million for a trip to the hotel module, and that's only for 1-2 weeks. A month-long stay with an optional spacewalk would cost another $20 million.
Unsurprisingly, there are some challenges facing the project, with the most pressing issue being the amount of complexity required to build the hotel module. Despite existing blueprints, Russia's engineers may not be able to successfully build it.
There's also the matter of the ISS itself, which is scheduled to be retired in 2028. According to RKK Energia, the hotel module could reach the ISS by 2022 (at the earliest) but would need at least seven years to make back its building costs. So if the ISS is retired on time, RKK Energia wouldn't have enough time to make a profit.
Despite Russia's intentions, we're still in for a bit of a wait before we can start taking vacations off-Earth. For now, it looks like we'll have to settle for the brief "in-orbit" flights, like those offered by Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule.
Printed Solar Tiles Are Thinner, Cheaper, and Easier to Use
Britain Goes 24 Hours Without Coal-Generated Power for the First Time in 135 Years
Tesla Just Unveiled Its Newest Solar Panels
The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum Will Be Powered by Solar Energy
The World's Largest "Artificial Sun" Is Powering up in Germany

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I started a Pinterest board concerned with rural "methods, tools, and equipment," and it's currently updated to edge toward 1000 practical-site links. The "pins" (descriptive entries with pics) link to sites explaining methods, technologies, repurposing options, and tips of potential value to small farms and to homesteads.
My intent is to put forward, to interested people, links to sources of valuable information that might otherwise remain unknown to them and perhaps difficult to locate. My board is not a "wannabe's list"—I have several decades of experience working in rural environments, and I've owned and lived on rural land for a long time. Most of the items reflect (or express) my own experience. Others lie so near my experience that I feel confident in posting them and consider them "the real deal." I'll mention that the FarmHack site is one of the first pins I made to the Pinterest board.
(You need a Pinterest membership to properly view the board.) I'll keep adding to the images/websites I've posted to the board as time goes on. I would also encourage others reading this to consider starting boards. It's a simple process and can broaden the exposure of information you know about and ideas you have. But you can be a member of Pinterest without starting aboard.


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Q: Interfacing with tensorflow model results in an error I'm currently using DNN regressor with 11 input neurons multiple hidden layers, and 11 output neurons.
I've have finished training the model. However, when I try to interface with the model with this code:
 a = np.array(0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)
    y_pred = regressor.predict(a, as_iterable=False)
    print(y_pred)

However this generates an error:
InvalidArgumentError (see above for traceback): Input to reshape is a tensor with 11 values, but the requested shape has 121
         [[node dnn/input_from_feature_columns/input_layer/X/Reshape (defined at regressor_full.py:177) ]]

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "regressor_full.py", line 206, in <module>
    a = np.array(0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0)
ValueError: only 2 non-keyword arguments accepted.

I'm just trying to generate a prediction for 11 input variables and predict 11 output variables(as I trained the model), however, it generates an error.
I've tried changing the as_iterable to True, however this doesn't change anything. What is currently causing the error, and how do I fix it? Thank you for your time.
As requested, I included the code that defines the model.
import tensorflow.contrib.learn as skflow

regressor = skflow.DNNRegressor(feature_columns=feature_columns,
                label_dimension=11,
                hidden_units=hidden_layers,
                model_dir=MODEL_PATH,
                dropout=dropout,
                config=test_config,
                activation_fn = tf.nn.relu,
                optimizer  = tf.compat.v1.train.AdamOptimizer(learning_rate = learning_rate)
)

A: Try changing the input array to a = np.array([0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],dtype=" ") and also define the dtype which might solve the issue.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
/**
 * Created by xiaoduan on 2016/11/13.
 */
import * as React from 'react';
import Progress from 'react-progress-2';
/*import {IStoreState} from "../../redux/reducers/rootReducer";*/
import {page, IPageContextProps} from "../../utils/page";
interface IPageProgressStateProps extends IPageContextProps{
   // loaded?: boolean;
}
/*@connect(
    (state: IStoreState): IPageProgressStateProps => {
        return {loaded: state.reduxAsyncConnect.loaded}
    }
)*/
@page()
export class PageProgress extends React.Component<IPageProgressStateProps,void>{
    private isMount = false;
    constructor(props, context) {
        super(props, context);
    }
    public handleVisibility(){
        const {progress} = this.props.page;
        return progress ? Progress.show() : Progress.hide();
    }

    public componentDidMount(){
        this.isMount = true;
    }

    render() {
        this.isMount && this.handleVisibility();
        return (
            <Progress.Component />
        )
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Neglected Majority: THe Changing Role of Women in Nineteenth Century Montreal
Cross, D. Suzanne (Author)
Stelter, Gilbert A. (Editor)
Artibise, Alan F. J. (Editor)
A study of the influx of women into nineteenth century Montreal, both from rural areas of the province and from overseas. The author points out the differences in attitudes between French Quebec women and those of British, Irish and Scottish origins.
The Canadian City: Essays in Urban History
Carleton Library, No. 109
McClelland and Stewart
Essay originally published in Histoire sociale/Social History, No. 12 (November 1973): 202-223.
Cross, D. Suzanne. "The Neglected Majority: THe Changing Role of Women in Nineteenth Century Montreal." In The Canadian City: Essays in Urban History, edited by Gilbert A. Stelter and Alan F. J. Artibise, 255–281. Carleton Library, No. 109. Toronto, ON: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
Search by book title on WorldCat
http://quescren.concordia.ca/en/resource/ZU4M6RBR


text:
"Guilty… I Am Guilty, Guilty!" Verdict In Scott Johnson Gay Murder Case After 34 Years
By Andrew Potts
Scott Johnson (Supplied/Courtesy the Johnson family)
The man accused of killing gay American university student Scott Johnson admitted to the crime on Monday this week, declaring he was, "Guilty… I am guilty, guilty!" in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
That information only became public yesterday after his legal team tried to have the plea reversed, arguing that their client was not mentally fit at the time of the admission.
Scott White was arrested by police at his Lane Cove home in May of 2020 after an informant named him as a suspect, and he initially pleaded not guilty to the crime.
It has been alleged that White, then aged 18, met Johnson, 27, at a hotel in Manly in December of 1988 before agreeing to accompany him to Bluefish Point to an area of bushland that, at that time, was a popular spot for gay men to sunbathe and to cruise for sex.
Brothers Steve Johnson (left) and Scott. (Courtesy the Johnson family)
It has been previously alleged that White panicked when Johnson removed his clothes, and punched him, causing him to fall from the cliff's edge.
However, Johnson's clothes were found neatly folded at the top of the cliffs, with some cash and his student ID hidden inside them, while his wallet has never been found.
The promising young mathematician's body was found by fishermen on the rocks below the following day.
Police initially ruled the death a suicide despite Scott having only just received news he would be successful in completing his PhD studies at the Australian National University in Canberra.
"[My brother] was brilliant, but more modest than he was brilliant, so you would never hear him say that," Scott's brother Steve Johnson told the ABC following the verdict.
"The last conversation we know he had was with his [university] professor… as far as his professor was concerned, my brother could get a job at any university in the world."
Scott had been living with his partner's family in Lane Cove at the time of his death – the same suburb where his killer would be arrested 32 years later.
Steve Johnson, a former vice president of AOL, launched his own private investigation into the death of his brother after learning of the Marks Parks gay hate murders under similar circumstances around the same time on the other side of Sydney harbour.
His decades-long crusade for justice resulted in two new coronial investigations into the killing, in 2012 and 2015, that finally lead to the NSW Police reopening the case.
Police announced a one-million dollar reward for information leading to the conviction of Scott's killer in 2018, which the Johnson family then pledged to match, dollar for dollar, in March of 2020.
"If it wasn't for the determination of the Johnson family, which inspired me and the Strike Force Welsford team – led by Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans, we wouldn't be where we are today," NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said following the arrest.
It is believed that there may be more than 80 unsolved homicides of gay men in NSW from the 1970s to the 1990s.
A memorial to those victims was recently unveiled in Marks Parks, and a judicial inquiry into historical gay hate crimes in the state of NSW was announced by the NSW Government late last year.
White's legal team have already indicated they intend to appeal the conviction.
Read DNA's in-depth investigation into the spate of gay hate crimes that afflicted NSW during this time in The Archives, and in DNA #151.
This author was previously employed as a private investigator by the Johnson family.
DNA #151 ©
Death In Manly
Paul Montoya by Rick Stockwell | Part 1


Ideally located 3BR/2BA offers a flexible floor plan that include both a formal living and dining room, a Family room and two additional rooms adjacent to a bedroom suite that could be utilized as either full guest quarters or as a spacious master quarters. This well-planned home boasts a split bedroom plan with two guest rooms and a hall bath. Other features include an updated kitchen with granite counter tops and stainless appliances, hardwood floors, baths with vintage tilework and accordion shutters for all windows. Situated on a double (100' x135') fenced lot the property has an abundance of native Florida plants and has a detached 2-car garage which offers additional storage. Great location center city location - close to everything!


The first gallery that one will come across upon entering the Museo Parian sa Sugbo is the Sugbu Gallery. It is an informational gallery on the ecclesiastical history of Parian. It also displays a scale model of what Parian district used to look like in he past.
Another gallery in the museum is the Padre Chirino, S.J. Gallery. The gallery houses a display of general Jesuit history and more particularly, Jesuit history in the Far East. Also displayed in the Padre Chirino, S.J. Gallery are Chinese artifacts. These include coins, pottery, and other antiques dug under the house.
Also among the display in this gallery is "Ang Bisaya". It is an artwork sculpted by Justino "Paloy" Cagayat of Paete, Laguna. The art piece is made with batikuling wood with natural varnish. The concept was from Fr. Rene B. Javellana, S.J.
Año 1730 can be found etched among the walls of the second floor.
The second floor displays old items from the 19th century onward. Among these vintage items are cameras, electric fans, a television set, cash registers, furniture, phonographs, telephones, and a jukebox.
The roof tiles are also of special interest. At present however, the terracotta roof is still being studied. A ladder leading to the roof of the house is found near the staircase leading to the second floor. I visited the place at night so I wasn't able to see this part.
Have you visited the Museo Parian sa Sugbo at the Jesuit House of 1730 in Cebu City? What antique items captured your attention? Care to share them in the comments below?
Sir Thadz, did you pay any entrance fee diri?
50 pesos ang admission fee.
Wala pa jud ko nakasulod diri ay. Will try to clear my scheduule one of these days.
Sige lang ko labay2 ngari but never had the chance to see what's really inside. But will definitely visit there.
If you are fascinated with vintage stuff and history, you will enjoy a visit here.
It is really nice to visit there. I always like visiting museums, but the problem here in the Philippines is that museums are not really big attractions. Some museums do not even have a proper parking space or it is very hard to find. I hope the LGU will put proper markings and include it in their marketing for tourism.
I'm such a huge history buff but I haven't been into this place. I think it's because I don't know how to go there from Lapu-Lapu City? Haha it has long been in my bucket list for months now!
I honestly think nga super cool jud ang mga antique pieces! Nice!
There's actually a lot more vintage stuff at this place that I no longer snapped a photo of.


Show off corner. – Newton's Paints Ltd.
It really is heartening to be getting great feedback from our customers.
We can see that you are all getting a lot of pleasure painting and unleashing some amazing creativity.
Home / News / Show off corner.


text:
When Should the State Intervene Into the Home?
By theestevearnold,
December 31, 2013 in Political Philosophy
theestevearnold
Location:Colorado Springs
Real Name:Steve Arnold
When a street cop glances in an open window and sees a parent spanking his child?
When an illiterate parent homeschools his child?
When a religious parent forces his son to go to church?
What special rights (similar to property rights) do parents have concerning their children?
volco
I don't think the state should intervene in any of those cases, except taken to an extreme.
Hurting instead of light spanking would be a clear cut case.
The case of an illiterate parent homeschooling children reminds me of Amish and Mennonite classrooms. In fact all of your examples are found in Mennonite and Amish communities. They use spanking to rear children, they make them work in the farm from early age, and they 'brainwash' them to fear a God. But all of this is tolerated as, I believe, it should be.
Edited December 31, 2013 by volco
Location:South Africa, Johannesburg
Real Name:Leonid Fainberg
State is protector of rights. Children are also people and their rights should be protected. Of course it's a difference between mere spanking and physical or emotional abuse. The state is separated from the church and it goes in both ways. State shouldn't interfere in any matters which belong to the realm of mind, faith, ideology. If state has to prohibit parents to teach their children religion on the ground that it is irrational, mystical faith, then state also has to prohibit teaching of communism, parapsychology, belief in alien invasion, scientology, smoking, fast food chains etc...Parents don't have any rights in regard to their children, but have certain responsibilities in regard to their well being. The obligation follows from the fact that they took a conscious decision to have children. Obviously, different people mean by well being different things, but as long as child's life and health is not under threat, state shouldn't interfere.
Edited January 1, 2014 by Leonid
Location:USA, Oklahoma
What is sad leonid is that the so called "secular" left seems intent on attempting to prohibit people from smoking, using fast food chains, being subjected to advertising.
One thing I have begun to appreciate is how perfectly the principle of the separation of church in state explains the classical liberal position on other issues. Treating matters of race and enterprise the same way as matter of religion, the state should be an entity that pays no mind to those issues.
If the Left was around during the protestant reformation they would have exacerbated the situation in the same way that they do with race, culture, and enterprise today.
Location:Southeastern Wisconsin
Real Name:Keith
The responsibilities of the state versus the responsibilities of parents regarding children has got to be among one of the most treacherous areas of governance traversed in these litigious times.
As Leonid points out, corporal punishment, such as anything ranging from a spanking, to a slap to the head, to a severe beating, may be a subjective matter of opinion or interpretation. Justice demands the child be spared life-threatening or permanently damaging treatment. As Hairnet points, the slippery-slope of Big Brother jeopardizes the freedom of the parent(s), or at very least, diminishes parental authority. Among working-class people given the custodial responsibilities of parenthood, a voluntary duty to be sure, most bristle, if not rage at the idea of having their authority usurped by the "cops." I could relay many humorous stories, yet I find it sad and disturbing to think about the long-term direction current trends in law are taking us. I'm not even sure I want to weigh in on this matter; the subjectivity of it and the variables are almost limitless.
All I can do is say, kids are more resilient than we grown-ups give them credit for, and some people should never have kids.
Happy 2014, and be careful when procreating.
Edited January 1, 2014 by Repairman


text:
EMMA STONE AS CRUELLA – OSCAR SHOULD TAKE NOTICE
HomeAll PostsFilm TalkEMMA STONE AS CRUELLA – OSCAR SHOULD TAKE NOTICE
Film Talk on November 18, 2021
In the manner Heath Ledger turned a comic book character, the Joker, into an Academy Award winning performance, so could Emma Stone for her delicious performance in the title role of Cruella, the Disney film that beautifully explores the early days of Cruella de Ville. An Oscar winner for Best Actress for La La Land (2016) and supporting actress nominee twice, for Birdman (2014) and again in 2018 for The Favourite, Stone has fast become one of the finest and most beloved actresses of her generation.
Her hysterical performance in The Favourite was a lead, not supporting and for my money Stone gave the film's finest performance. Yet she was thrilled Oscar night when her co-star, Olivia Colman won the Oscar for Best Actress.
Will she be nominated for Cruella?
It is a tough call because the category is jammed to the rafters this year. If the question is SHOULD she be nominated, the answer is a resounding yes.
First seen in the animated feature 101 Dalmatians (1961), then portrayed by Glenn Close in the feature of the same title, the character became one of Disney's most loved villains. Close played her again a few years later in the sequel, before turning the role over to Stone.
And Stone proceeded to weave her dark magic.
Living the life of a criminal as a child, orphaned Cruella grows up fighting for everything she gets, and when the top of the fashion world in London is in sight, she discovers her enemy is closer to her than she could possibly imagine. And she goes about besting her competition ruthlessly, without hesitation, and with cold blooded perfection. Did I mention a smile? A lovely, devilish, toothy smile that lights up her face.
Stone is a divine actress, having grown with each fine performance and consistently taking risks as an actor. Watching her in Cruella is half the fun of the movie, watching her go toe to toe with a wildly, perfectly over the top Emma Thompson is the other half. A nasty comedy sees Stone at her nastiest best and I hope, truly she is a Best Actress nominee.
A long shot I know, but she deserves to be there.
REVIEW: RED NOTICE
FILM BOOK REVIEW: NORMAN JEWISON – A DIRECTOR'S LIFE
Film Talk, John, Specials
FORMER CAT DISCUSSES CATS – THE MOVIE
on April 30, 20200
Craig, Film Design, Film Talk, Revisiting
The Philadelphia Story and High Society – Two Movies, One Story
on September 24, 20190


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Trump's Year One stars: Nikki Haley, Ajit Pai, and Scott Pruitt
Jordan Schachtel	· December 21, 2017
No cabinet officials through the first year of the Trump administration have fought harder for the cause of freedom than U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. When confronted with vicious attacks from the Left, these Trump administration appointees held steady to their principles, never backing down from their mandate to institute pro-America reforms at their agencies.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. was Nikki Haley's first federal position. She previously served as the governor of South Carolina. Some questioned her credentials for the job and her ability to drive home the president's agenda for international affairs.
But Haley has continued to prove the doubters wrong. She has kept America's adversaries in check, sometimes delivering a rhetorical beatdown when necessary. Haley had no issue calling out the Russian government for chemical weapon shipments into Syria, the Iranian regime for its support for terror, or North Korea's hell-bent quest to develop nuclear weapons.
Haley has used her U.N. pulpit to stand up for American interests and U.S. allies in the face of other adversaries, such as Islamic supremacist blocs and climate change-obsessed mobs.
Since day one, her take-no-prisoners approach has reaped major benefits for U.S. interests. She has refused to give away an inch to the despotic majority at the U.N. She's likely made few friends at Turtle Bay, but she has gained the respect of Americans across the political spectrum.
Ajit Pai
It's hard to find a Trump administration official who has faced more vicious, ugly attacks than the FCC chairman, who recently delivered on his promise to scrap the Obama-era "net neutrality" regulations.
Tech giants, along with the mainstream media, Hollywood, and countless others, waged a full-scale assault against Pai's plan to restore internet freedom. Proponents of the hysterical campaign against Pai argued that his plan would lead to the end of the internet as we know it, an absurd claim that is grounded in hyperpartisanship and zero facts. Just last week, Pai's FCC speech was interrupted due to a bomb threat. Yet Pai brushed it all off like it was nothing. Through all the hate, Pai remains steadfastly committed to the free enterprise model for the internet.
Pruitt stood up to the Left's sacred climate cow in setting in motion the strategies that would eventually lead President Trump to declare that the U.S was leaving the Paris Climate accord.
The climate deal would have hurt innovation in America and cost the U.S. tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and an estimated 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025.
Find out what the mainstream media won't tell you about President Trump and his administration.
Sign up to get CRTV's free White House Brief delivered right to your inbox once a day.
Author: Jordan Schachtel
Jordan Schachtel is the national security correspondent for Conservative Review and editor of The Dossier for Blaze Media. Follow him on Twitter @JordanSchachtel.


Originally built as a single family home in 1854, this completely renovated Italianate Mansion has been operating as a successful 4 Diamond rated Bed and Breakfast since 1997. Offering 8,200 sq. ft., this iconic Historic House is without equal. Located on what is arguably the best residential area in the Historic District, this property offers 8 large and luxuriously decorated guest suites - each with an attached full bath. The main floor impresses you with a 12 X 40 entrance hall, a light filled formal living room with 10.5 ft windows, double width baseboards, and masterfully crafted trim work. There is also a 19 x 19 dining room, an inviting reception area, an eat in Butler's pantry and a 3 season porch. The rear double doors lead to a raised slate patio with charming garden views. The 3 additional verandas all invite you to sit awhile, enjoy the tree lined streets and the sights and sounds of Historic Wilmington. And finally there is a 2 bedroom downstairs apartment that is accessible from the main foyer but also has a separate street entrance and would make an excellent in law suite or rental. For an extra treat take the spiral staircase from the 3rd floor to the cupola......from there you have a 360 degree view of Wilmington from one of the highest lots in the area! Please see attached features list as there are too many to mention here. This incredible property could convey as an operating Bed and Breakfast or could easily be converted once again to a Single Family Home... and did I mention that you are 2 blocks from the Cape Fear River and 4 blocks from the Restaurants, Music Venues and Galleries of Downtown Wilmington!


text:
A-Z websites
Contact UWA
Indigenous Business and Enterprise Conference Home
Search the UWA website
Search the UWA website UWA Website The Sub-site People UWA Expertise Structure
Submit My Search
UWA Home
Indigenous Business, Enterprise and Corporations conference
Welcome to the second annual Indigenous Business and Enterprise Conference hosted by the UWA Business School Centre for Social Impact.
This conference will bring together a cross-section of people from different backgrounds to share and discuss their knowledge from the various sectors that are responsible for creating exciting and new economic opportunities for Indigenous people and their communities.
2583477 IBEC 2014 spotlight - 02 copy-right
2920463 IBEC 2016 spotlight copy-right
Visit the conference website
THE INDIGENOUS BUSINESS, ENTERPRISE AND CORPORATIONS CONFERENCE (IBECC) RETURNS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA FOR THE FOURTH TIME ON 1-2 DECEMBER 2016.
When we work together, we are stronger together
Since the first IBECC in 2011, the Indigenous business, enterprise and corporations sector has grown in size and scope despite the many challenges it has faced.
While some areas of Australia's economy face adversity, new doors are opening for Indigenous businesses, enterprises and corporations. The Australian Government's Indigenous Procurement Policy has resulted in increased demand for Indigenous business, creating significant new opportunities. Native Title groups continue to develop economic opportunities from Indigenous Land Use Agreements and other sources.
Across many of the Closing the Gap indicators, however, Australia is not making the kind of progress we all want to see. Indigenous economic development and business success is an important driver of social change, and health and justice improvements. It is crucial to Closing the Gap in Indigenous outcomes. Examining the links between the Indigenous economy and social change has been an on-going theme of IBECC over the last three conferences.
Indigenous business education has developed innovative programs such as the MURRA Program for Indigenous entrepreneurs. Universities are developing scholarship options for Indigenous business students and strong educational support programs. However, there is a need for a more coordinated, richer program that includes a contextualized curriculum. The Conference will explore options for strengthening Indigenous business education. It will also feature opportunities for Indigenous research students to meet each other and present their latest work. And as always IBECC will provide the perfect site for networking opportunities for corporate representatives, Indigenous businesses and corporations, policy makers and Native Title bodies.
IBECC 2016 brings all of this together as Australia's premier Indigenous business and economic conference.
Future UWA Students
Current UWA Students
UWA Staff
CRICOS Code: 00126G
Indigenous Commitment
Wednesday, 24 August, 2016 4:41 PM
Website Feedback:
https://www.business.uwa.edu.au/ibecconference/2575514


text:
Excerpt and Giveaway: Liam by Stella Shaw
Today I am so pleased to welcome Stella Shaw to Joyfully Jay. Stella has come to talk to us about her latest release, Liam. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!
Mr Heels turned to face us. His eyes widened—they were a soft, liquid grey and heavy-lashed—and a gasp came out of his lush, bow-shaped mouth. The shirt was open at the top to show a smooth, pale throat and a barely-there gold chain. For a second, I expected him to raise a delicate hand to his mouth to cover his discreet startle.
Christ, but he was beautiful. He lit up the place like a beam of natural sunshine, bursting through the meagre lobby lighting. And he damn near sparkled with gayness. As I watched—hoping to God my jaw hadn't visibly dropped—he pulled off his beanie cap. A cascade of blond, blue tipped hair fell from a central parting over a smooth brow, past his clean-shaven jaw, over straight shoulders, and right down to his waist.
Rick made a gargled sound beside me. Even Arne's eyebrows raised in admiration.
The visitor smiled at us, his gaze flickering to my harness and my exposed skin. He swallowed heavily, and blushed. Dammit, he almost swayed. Coupled with his height, I reckoned the slightest breeze would tumble him off those heels. And I wouldn't have thought it possible, but he looked even more gorgeous with that stripe of colour on his cheeks.
I'd serviced my fair share of pretty little twinks. It came with the territory. But this one looked as fragile as a champagne flute.
"Liam?" Arne called to me. He tore his gaze away from the new arrival, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "This is your guest."
Those bright, grey, puppy-dog eyes gazed at me, even wider than before.
"You're Liam?" he asked, in a clear but soft voice.
"Yeah." Was this really my client? Anyone would want him, but I couldn't recall ever having such a cute little thing on my books. He was waifish, and I felt like a thick knot of muscle beside him. My hand could span his bicep and still hold a cat o' nine tails in my palm.
Jesus. I could break him like a twig, if I wasn't careful. But I bet he'd feel great under my hands.
The brawny Dom and the beautiful Diva—and the secrets they keep.
A personal trainer and part-time escort, Liam is burly, bossy, and perfectly cast as the resident Dom at the Haven Hotel. And if anything falls outside that box—like the lacy lingerie he keeps hidden in his gym bag—that's easily ignored, right?
Felix's career as a successful model means being at the beck and call of anyone who requires him. He's expected to be satisfied with glamour, money, and subservience. No one would ever believe his secret desire to take control.
When Liam agrees to show the outrageously pretty and delicate Felix around Liam's infamous Room 8, neither one expects the disobedient desire that sparks between two such opposite men.
Felix is looking for a lover who'll let him call the shots, whereas Liam is fighting the desire to submit. Their passion and power could make for a kinky role reversal.
They just have to surrender to their deepest needs.
Stella Shaw is a pen name of the best-selling author of MM romance, Clare London. Stella's series of Rent Boy romances, Love at the Haven, launched in January 2021.
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Excerpt and Giveaway: Rick by Stella Shaw
Review: Whatever it Takes and Everything You Want by J.J.…
Excerpt and Giveaway: Wolf's Sacrifice by Draven St. James
Review: Yes, Master by Margaret McHeyzer
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TAGGED: Stella Shaw
SuAnne on June 21, 2021 at 5:28 pm
I have read all the previous books in this series and loved them. This one sounds like another great one.
Lloyd on June 21, 2021 at 7:38 pm
Stella/Clare is an auto-buy for me, one of the most consistent writers I read. She produces enjoyable, well-written, intelligent, multi-layered stories featuring interesting characters in believable worlds. Her imagination is wonderful. She never makes the trope do the heavy lifting in the story, which is truly a breath of fresh air.
Kareni on June 21, 2021 at 7:58 pm
Welcome, Stella! Best wishes as you publish this new book.
16forward on June 21, 2021 at 8:01 pm
Love comes in many forms…many iterations…many ways. Clare always delivers!
Paul on June 21, 2021 at 8:35 pm
This book sounds great. I have added it to my tbr.
Trix on June 21, 2021 at 11:58 pm
Love Clare, so I'm eager to read this!
CylianF on June 22, 2021 at 2:55 am
New to me author and look at that, a new series for me to obsess over
Jennifer Rote on June 22, 2021 at 10:17 pm
New to me author. Added series start to my TBR.
Tessa on June 22, 2021 at 11:28 pm
Love this series. Cant wait to read this.


For over 60 years, from the Colombo Plan to today's Australia Awards, the Australian Government has proudly supported emerging leaders from developing countries in accessing a high-quality education and life experience in Australia. Australia Awards remain a central pillar of Australia's investment in people-to-people links with its partner nations.
In South and West Asia, Australia Awards are open to suitably qualified nationals of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• support Australia's public and economic diplomacy agenda.
An important area of focus for Australia Awards in South and West Asia is the empowerment of women, and the inclusion of people with disability and individuals from disadvantaged social groups.
'I have undeniably been provided with a world-class education. I am now confident in best practices in project management and have a greater understanding of how to identify opportunities for change in the Maldives.
It was a highly successful and productive year for Australia Awards in South and West Asia.
In total, 589 Australia Awards scholars and Short Course recipients undertook tertiary education and training programs delivered by Australian providers in 2017, an increase in throughput of 36 per cent over 2016.
All completing Australia Awards recipients, without exception, satisfied the requirements of their study program either to be granted their formal degree or to receive a certificate of completion of their Short Course. All completing scholars and recipients, without exception, returned home on conclusion of their studies.
Of particular note was a 75 per cent increase in the number of Short Courses compared with the preceding 12 months. Short Courses were delivered in a broad range of areas aligned to country priorities. Gain scores and participant feedback clearly indicated that these Short Courses were both effective and highly valued by recipients.
The number of contactable alumni was increased by 40 per cent over the course of the year—to 4,000. Almost half of this number attended one of the many alumni engagement activities organised throughout the region.
Year in Review 2017 presents of the some of the key Australia Awards achievements and landmark events in the region over the course of the year.
In South and West Asia, Australia Awards Scholarships offer master's degree-level study in fields agreed with partner governments and aligned with Australia's development, economic and public diplomacy priorities.
In South and West Asia, Australia Awards Scholarships are available to applicants in Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The study and life experience opportunities provided by Australia Awards Scholarships develop the skills and knowledge of emerging leaders to drive change and contribute to development of their countries.
In 2017, 211 Australia Awards Scholarships were offered to successful applicants in South and West Asia for study commencing in 2018.
An intensive and targeted promotional campaign attracted almost 2,000 prospective applicants to Information Sessions and resulted in 13 applications being submitted for every available Scholarship.
Considerable effort was put into ensuring equity of access to the Scholarships, in line with Australia Award's Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategy for South and West Asia. In four of the six participating countries, at least 50 per cent of Scholarships for study commencing in 2018 were awarded to women, and across the region as a whole, women accounted for 48 per cent of Scholarships offered and accepted. Five per cent of Scholarships were awarded to people with disability.
305 continuing scholars were supported in their ongoing studies at Australian institutions through a range of professional development and networking opportunities.
Eighty scholars from across the region completed their studies, obtained their Australian degree and returned home as Australia Awards alumni to contribute to their country's development. Without exception, all scholars due to complete successfully completed, and all returned home. Return Home Workshops were delivered across Australia for completing scholars to ensure that they were prepared for the transition back to their home environments and focused on their future responsibilities and contributions as alumni.
Towards the end of the year, 211 emerging leaders prepared for postgraduate studies commencing in 2018 at world-renowned Australian universities.
Australia Awards Short Courses offer the next generation of global leaders for development an opportunity to undertake short-term study, research and professional development opportunities in support of key development and foreign affairs priorities. Short Course opportunities build valuable people-to-people links both with Australia and within the Indo-Pacific region.
Of the 495 Australia Awards offered in 2017 across the region, 284 were for Short Courses (57%). Fourteen Short Courses were delivered wholly or partly in 2017, an increase of 75% over the eight delivered in 2016. The design of Short Courses was characterised by strong collaboration between stakeholders. Courses covered a broad range of fields aligned to country priorities.
The first regional Australia Awards Short Course for South and West Asia was delivered, providing training on Energy Security to participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, at the Australian National University. The Professional Certificate in International Trade Short Course for Bangladesh led to all participants receiving a postgraduate Australian qualification.
Participants reported being highly satisfied or satisfied with their Short Course and all enjoyed their experience in Australia. Pre-/post-course testing indicated that 89% of Short Course participants had acquired additional knowledge and skills during their course.
Increased attention on Return to Work Planning influenced a more forward-looking focus in interactions between participants, their supervisors and course providers.
Informal Learning Opportunities are an important training modality for Australia Awards in South and West Asia. They are responsive capacity building tools, utilised to provide a variety of opportunities for engagement with partner countries—they can include ad hoc short courses, including on-site training; study tours; workshops; conferences; seminars; work placements; mentoring arrangements; on-the-job training; and the provision of training or capacity building technical assistance.
Twenty-three Informal Learning Opportunities were completed in 2017 through Australia Awards in South and West Asia. Ten of these were funded by the Pakistan program, five each by the Bangladesh and Nepal programs, and three by the Sri Lanka program. This volume of activity represents a 50 per cent increase over 2016.
These Informal Learning Opportunities encompassed a broad range of professional development activities, including study tours to Australia from Nepal (policing and security in a federalised political system), Pakistan (forensic and judicial processes relating to gender-based violence) and Sri Lanka (observation of smart classrooms).
In addition to the above, an initiative was funded by the Australian High Commission in Pakistan to build the capacity of 260 journalists, civil society activists and parliamentarians to raise awareness of malnutrition through advocacy. There was also an initiative to engage Australian experts to travel to Bangladesh and Pakistan to deliver workshops and public lectures, as well as initiatives to sponsor individuals and small groups to attend workshops, conferences and training programs both in Australia and in other locations.
Close to 30 inventive Australia Awards alumni from South and West Asia gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in October and November 2017 for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's 'Alumni Innovation Challenge'.
Globally, alumni of Australia's education institutions are highly talented, mobile, and equipped with skills and knowledge made possible by their Australian qualifications. They are current and future leaders, influencers and change-makers.
In South and West Asia, Australia Awards strives to support strong Australia Awards alumni communities in each country—communities that actively engage with, develop linkages with and promote Australia.
In 2017, Australia Awards in South and West Asia put substantial effort into expanding and updating the contact details of Australia Awards alumni stored on the Global Alumni Network database. By December 2017, active email addresses for almost 4,000 alumni had been recorded—an increase of 40 per cent over December 2016.
Recently-returned alumni were engaged through Reintegration Workshops conducted across six countries for 175 participants. In 2017 Australia Awards also facilitated 38 country-level alumni engagement events in South and West Asia, attended by 1,700 alumni.
The 2017 Regional Alumni Workshop took the form of an Alumni Innovation Challenge, providing grants to enable 35 alumni to pilot a Development Innovation in areas of priority for the Australian Government in their country. In addition to seed funding, grant recipients also received mentoring support.
Australia Awards alumni were involved in operations across the region, including assisting with the promotion of Australia Awards; mentoring applicants and new Australia Awards recipients; sitting on shortlisting and selection panels; contributing to Pre-Departure Briefings and Reintegration Workshops; and sitting on interview panels for the recruitment of staff.


text: Is it not true, then, that parents are the lawgivers of their children'? Does not a mother's counsel, does not a father's example, cling to the memory, and haunt us through life ? Do we not often find ourselves subject to habitual trains of thought, and if we seek to discover the origin of these, are we not insensibly led back, by some beaten and familiar track, to the paternal threshold ? Do we not often discover some home-chiseled grooves in our minds, into which the intellectual machinery seems to slide as by a sort of necessity? Is it not, in short, a proverbial truth that the controlling lessons of life are given beneath the parental roof? I know, indeed, that wayward passions spring up in early life, and, urging us to set authority at defiance, seek to obtain the mastery of the heart. But, though struggling for liberty and license, the child is shaped and moulded by the parent. The stream that bursts from the fountain, and seems to rush forward headlong and self-willed, still turns hither and thither, according to the shape of its mother earth over which it flows. If an obstacle is thrown across its path, it gathers strength, breaks away the barrier, and again bounds forward. It turns, and winds, and proceeds on its course, till it reaches its destiny in the sea.


text:
Fireball Cinnamon Whisky 750ml
Fireball Cinnamon Whisky was the original flavored whisky on the market. It is smooth whisky with a fiery kick of red hot cinnamon. Fireball is often consumed as a straight shot. But, there's more than one way to enjoy Fireball. Try it on the rocks or in your favorite whisky cocktail.
Fireball was first introduced in Canada in the mid-80s when a Canadian distiller developed the product. Fireball took an important turn when the Sazerac Company purchased the trademark rights in the United States and subsequently the world-wide rights. Fireball was launched in the U. S. in 2001. The label was redesigned to the existing graphics in 2006 and Fireball is becoming one of the hottest brands in North America.
Producer America's First Cocktail Before there was a company, there was a drink. Antoine Peychaud, a Creole immigrant, operated a pharmacy on the French Quarter's Royal Street in 1838. With his background as an apothecary, he was a natural mixologist. His friends would gather for late-night revelry at his pharmacy. Peychaud would mix brandy, absinthe and a dash of his secret bitters for his guests. Later this quaff would come to be known as the Sazerac. The Bar After the drink, there was the bar. The cocktail immediately spread in popularity at the city's finest coffee houses, which was the term for drinking establishments during the mid-1800s. However, the cocktail is most strongly associated with the wildly popular Sazerac Coffee House located on Exchange Alley. In 1850, the owner Sewell Taylor institutionalized the drink at his coffee house by using only Sazerac de Forge et Fils brandy, which he imported and sold exclusively. The Sazerac cocktail received its name from this coffee house, where it was most often imbibed. The Company From the bar, a company was born. In 1869, Thomas H. Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffeehouse and began to acquire and market brands of liquor. He bought out the rights to Peychaud's Bitters in 1873. In the 1890s his company began to bottle and market the Sazerac cocktail, now made with rye whiskey instead of brandy. In addition, the company operated the Sazerac Bar on Royal Street. Later, Handy's former secretary, C. J. O'Reilly, chartered the Sazerac Company. Ever since (except for a stint as a delicatessen and grocery vendor during Prohibition), the Sazerac Company has distilled an ever-increasing line of fine spirits. Today, we are still an independent, American family owned company and proud owners of many of Americas most venerable distilling companies - Buffalo Trace Distillery, A. Smith Bowman, Glenmore Distillery, Barton, Fleischmann, Medley and Mr. Boston.


text:
Rescue Efforts Continue Amid Flooding In Afghanistan And Pakistan
By Radio Free Afghanistan
Radio Mashaal
Residents look at the destruction in the aftermath of flash floods in Swat, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Rescuers are continuing to search for victims of flash flooding that has left hundreds dead in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Officials in Afghanistan said on August 29 that about 160 people had been killed in 13, mostly northern, provinces that have been struck by the flooding.
Flash Floods Cause Death, Destruction In Afghanistan
In neighboring Pakistan, at least 96 people were reported killed in flooding that was mostly concentrated in the southeastern part of the country.
"This is unprecedented [rainfall] and has broken all previous records," Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh Province, told journalists, adding that on August 27 alone, Karachi received 230 millimeters of rain.
Pakistani City Of Karachi Paralyzed By Deadly Flooding
1080p | 30.0MB
At least 2 million people in Karachi have been affected by the flooding, with some neighborhoods virtually inaccessible because of the high water.
In Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said security forces were helping with recovery efforts, while NATO issued a statement saying its forces were also assisting.
The monsoon season in the region lasts from June to September.
With reporting by AFP and AP
Radio Free Afghanistan
RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan is an online pioneer and media leader in the country, reaching 25 percent of the adult audience nationally with reporting that promotes human rights and peace on radio, SMS, and the Internet.
Radio Mashaal is a public-service broadcaster providing a powerful alternative to extremist propaganda in Pakistan's remote tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan.


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The Lady Statue returns to Stonyhurst
The Lady Statue has become an iconic site for all those who visit Stonyhurst, standing tall at the top of the Avenue since 1882. The Statue, a replica of the one in Rome (set up by Pope Pius IX) was a gift from Mr Thomas Eyre, brother of the then Stonyhurst Rector, Fr William Eyre.Last year, after 136 years, the Statue was removed from her plinth and sent away for conservation. Thanks to the kind donations made to the Genesis Project and the wonderful craftsmanship of Rupert Harris, the Lady...
Stonyhurst sprinters in training
Last weekend Stephanie Beech, Jesuit Missions Communications Officer, visited Stonyhurst College in Lancashire to give a parish appeal for Jesuit Missions. As this had been planned for a while, the day appeared as a great opportunity to join the Stonyhurst Sprinters for a long run as part of the marathon team training, whilst taking in the beautiful Ribble Valley.However, the idea came before Stephanie had to stop running in February due to an ongoing Achilles problem. "I am now back on track...
Outstanding 'value added' scores at Stonyhurst
On Thursday 24 January the Government published its results and Value Added Scores for 16-18 year old students studying A Levels in England, and Stonyhurst ranked first in Lancashire.Value Added is the primary government measure for pupil progress. Stonyhurst's A Level 'value added' score higher than Sedbergh, Ampleforth, Worth, Downside, Rugby, Giggleswick, Rossall.Describing the report, the government writes: "These figures tell you how much progress students who studied A levels at this...
Southwell at Stonyhurst: the Literary Legacy of a Recusant Martyr
A Tablet event in conjunction with Stonyhurst College (part of the Stonyhurst 425 Lenten lectures series)Join us for an evening at the Lauriston Hall with Prof Peter Davidson as he talks about Southwell at Stonyhurst: the Literary Legacy of Recusant Martyr.Prof Peter Davidson is a Senior Research Fellow and Archivist at Campion Hall in Oxford and a published author.Stonyhurst is the UK's leading co-educational Catholic boarding and day school for 3-18 year olds.TicketingTablet subscriber...
Weird Science and the Search for God
G. M. Hopkins, A. Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien.A Tablet event in conjunction with Stonyhurst College (part of the Stonyhurst 425 Lenten lectures series)Join us at Farm Street for an evening with Dr Michael D. Hurley as he explores the subject of Weird Science and the Search for God.Followed by Q&As – Drinks and canapés – Book sales and signingsDr Michael D. Hurley teaches English Literature at the University of Cambridge, he has been a Visiting Scholar in the English Department at Harvard,...
Jesuit works make a stand on Red Wednesday
Wednesday 28th November is 'Red Wednesday', a day to show solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters suffering persecution throughout the world. Aid to the Church in Need invites everyone to join the campaign by doing something peaceful and positive: unite in prayer, wear red, light the church in red, organise activities or attend themed events already in place – which could be easily searched through a map on the organisation's website.Several Jesuit works make a stand on...
From the Archives: On the Anniversary of Fr Marmaduke Stone SJ
On 21 August 1834, Fr Marmaduke Stone SJ died at Lowe House, St Helens. Born in Draycott, near Painsley in Staffordshire, in 1748, and entering the Society in 1767, those who have some knowledge of British Jesuit history might realise that Fr Stone would have been witness to a particularly significant, and turbulent, period for British Jesuits and the Society as a whole.Catholic education in England and Wales had been outlawed since Elizabethan times, so, in order to provide an education for...
Vatican XI vs Stonyhurst in spectacular cricket match
A prestigious cricket match held on 4 July 2018 at Stonyhurst College between the Stonyhurst Gentlemen's XI and the Vatican (St Peter's) Cricket Team, known as the Vatican XI, has ended in a spectacular victory for the visiting side.Staff and alumni from the famous British school formed a special Stonyhurst Gentlemen's XI for the occasion. The match at Stonyhurst College was the first fixture of the Vatican XI's 4th Light of Faith Tour of England. The Vatican XI comprises priests and...
From the Archives: British Jesuits and Astronomy
The Jesuits and wider Catholic Church have a long history with astronomy. In October 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the new Gregorian calendar to replace the Julian system which, by that time, had drifted by ten days. The new calendar also altered the lunar cycle used by the Church to calculate the date for Easter, restoring it to the time of the year as originally celebrated by the early Church. The Gregorian calendar was developed by the astronomer Aloysius Lilius and modified by the...
Vatican Cricket team's first fixture at Stonyhurst
The Vatican (St Peter's) Cricket Team has announced the schedule for its 2018 Tour of England - from the 3rd to the 15th of July - , which will be the 4th Light of Faith Tour of England for the Vatican XI. The team last visited the UK on an official tour in 2016.This high profile and significant tour will commence at Stonyhurst College, with the inaugural cricket match between Stonyhurst and the Vatican XI taking place at the College on Wednesday 4 July 2018 at 1.00pm. During the tour, the...
A Reflection on Pedro Arrupe SJ for the restoration of the Jesuits
54 min 1 sec ago.