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Home > Freemasonry	> Connecticut beats the virus by going virtual
According to an upcoming article in The Connecticut Freemasons Magazine, the Grand Lodge of Connecticut will be the first US Grand Lodge to charter an all-internet based lodge. According to the article by editor RW Frank Way:
While there have been a few other lodges calling themselves an "internet lodge," none of them have actually been constituted as internet only, or "virtual" lodges; most of them are what I'd call hybrid lodges. The UGLE has Internet Lodge No. 9659, but the members belong to other lodges, and the lodge itself is not allowed to confer the degrees. Besides, they actually meet three or four times a year in a physical building. Likewise, Ireland's Lodge 2000 is also a hyrbrid, meeting quarterly in a building, and without the ability to confer degrees. On this side of the pond, a couple of states have attempted to start some kind of internet lodge, but n one of them have been actual lodges, in the sense that they can meet, confer degrees, and have regular communications. In fact, I can't think of any offhand that are even still operating.
The most successful attempt at an online, virtual lodge has come, surprisingly, from our neighbor to the north. Well, considering that it is based in, and chartered by the Grand Lodge of Manitoba, maybe it's not so surprising; as anyone who has ever driven through the area can attest, there's nothing out there except frozen tundra, except for maybe two months in the summer, when there are nothing but mosquitoes and biting horse flies. That aside, Castle Island Virtual Lodge, CIVL (or "Civil," as it's known among the various internet groups) is mainly a research lodge, although it is allowed to confer the degrees if they can do so in a building.
CIVL about the closest any Grand Lodge has come to an actual lodge that meets only on the internet, until now.
Owing to advances in internet meeting technology which weren't even on the horizon five years ago, the Grand Lodge of Connecticut has given dispensation for a new, entirely internet based lodge. Operating out of the town of Southington, with the officers and most members coming out of the Fifth Masonic District, the Farmington Valley Virtual Lodge (UD). FVVL (or Favvil, as the members call it) will be a fully functioning Masonic lodge, using state of the art meeting technology, and the officers will have the ability to confer degrees to online candidates.
While a virtual lodge for the state has been in the works for some time, the recent COVID virus pandemic has obviously made an impact on garnering the approval of the Grand Lodge, which has cancelled its own annual communication, and has ordered the brick and mortar lodges to suspend their own communications for the foreseeable future. The Grand Lodge sees FVVL as the first of a number of virtual lodges that will be instituted around the state ("around" being merely a term of availability, instead of location).
With the possibility of the pandemic causing a closure of public meetings running into the next few months, it's quite likely that most of the lodges in the state will remain dark throughout the summer month and not re-open until September. We are hoping that the success of FVVL will quickly lead to more such lodges opening in Connecticut by the end of the year. Then we will truly be able to have fellowship with other brothers in the privacy and safety of our own homes.
Categories: Freemasonry
R. Dustin James
In addition to CIVL No. 190 under the Grand Lodge of Manitoba, you also have Endeavour Virtual Lodge No. 944 under the United Grand Lodge of Victoria in Australia.
Please note, that some members of Internet Lodge No. 9659 are sole members of that Lodge and do not belong to any other Lodges.
Nicholas Laine
I would remind the Brethren that a Virtual lodge and its operation needs to be mapped to the local Grand lodge and the ritual in how it is conducted. Within the Grand Lodge of Manitoba, we have ritual requirements in which the Senior and Junior Warden complete floor work during the opening and closing. Therefore the Grand Lodge of Manitoba has requested that all the work be completed the EA degree (which works well for an Educational Lodge).
Therefore in our case, we can not complete any ritual as it relates to a candidate in a Virtual setting. We can however with planning request our Mother Lodge to assist in a physical meeting to complete the installation of a Master (if a non Past Master) and any other physical ritual work.
In summary, we all have Grand Lodge processes and procedures to work within to enable or disable the way we set-up and use a 'Virtual Lodge".
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Programmatic May Have Contributed To More Layoffs At Verve
by Allison Schiff // Friday, April 5th, 2019 – 5:13 pm
Story updated to include comments and clarifications from Verve.
Verve's embrace of programmatic video last year may not be panning out.
This week, less than one year after acquiring in-app video company Receptiv, Verve experienced its second round of layoffs in just three months, letting 30 staffers go this week, Adweek reported.
Sources tell AdExchanger that Verve is also behind on its payments to publisher partners.
Julie Bernard, Verve's CMO, however, characterizes Verve's publisher relationships as "strong" and "built upon more than a decade of trust and performance and care."
When Verve bought Receptiv last May, its plan was to accelerate its programmatic mobile video strategy. Verve CEO Tom Kenney admitted at the time that Verve was behind on the video front and had troubled engineering for a workable solution of its own.
Receptiv appeared to fit the bill. There wasn't much overlap in their respective SDK footprints and Receptiv had a programmatic video marketplace and proprietary video ad formats.
But incorporating more programmatic into its business could be aggravating a cash flow problem at the company.
According to one source, who wished to remain anonymous, Verve experienced significant softness in its higher-margin managed service business during the first quarter. Revenue for the quarter, the source said, may have been as low as $5 million.
It's unclear what Verve's programmatic revenue was for the previous quarter, but programmatic, at least compared with managed, is a lower-margin business.
Verve, however, tells AdExchanger that it's still very committed to its managed services business and that programmatic video is a growing portion of revenue, having increased from 5% to 25% since the Receptiv acquisition.
The company claims that overall quarterly performance has been healthy, with 20% year-over-year growth over the past two quarters despite "industrywide ad tech market changes."
But not long after Verve bought Receptiv last year, publishers were notified that payment terms were being extended, and when that happens, it can be a "potential warning sign" of problems, said Hanna Kassis, CEO and founder of OAREX, which helps finance publishers by purchasing their digital media and advertising invoices. OAREX also maintains a payment tracking database and releases quarterly reports, with the next one scheduled to come out in May.
In many cases, when a company is acquired, the new parent changes the acquiree's payment terms to match its own. But sometimes, terms change "because they're cash strapped and won't be able to pay you," Kassis said. "It could be the canary in the coal mine."
And without one's publisher partners – you lose them if you don't pay them – programmatic isn't a viable revenue stream. As partners continue to go elsewhere, "that puts you in a weaker and weaker position," one source said.
It's a familiar tale. Mobile video ad network AdColony struggled to pivot to programmatic and away from mediation, experiencing a series of rolling layoffs over the last few years.
For its part, Verve's headcount was around 240 this time last year, and the company has since laid off more than 60% of employees across offices in New York City, San Diego and Washington, DC, which includes the most recent reduction and a 20% cut in January. The layoffs were confirmed by Adweek.
The executive bench is also emptying out. Verve's longtime CFO/COO left this year after nearly a decade with the company and Verve's recently hired CRO is also departing. Ari Brandt, Receptiv's CEO and founder, who came aboard at Verve as EVP of strategic development in charge of overseeing supply, programmatic ops and corporate sponsorships, exited the company after seven months.
Half of the 40 Receptiv employees who came along with the acquisition have left Verve, but the majority of the engineering team is still in place.
Verve isn't the only ad tech company struggling out there. Sizmek filed for bankruptcy last week and dataxu laid off around 30 people this week.
Right around this time last year – and a little over a month before the General Data Protection Regulation was implemented in the EU – Verve closed its European business.
"We have decided that the regulatory environment is not favorable to our particular business model," Bernard told AdExchanger at the time. "We are focusing efforts on the strength of our US business at this time."
Problem is, the United States isn't necessarily any friendlier with the California Consumer Protection Act set to take effect in 2020 and retail companies generally pulling back on their marketing budgets.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in the world right now," said a source in Verve's competitive set.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Main Title Acute Exposure Guideline Levels for Selected Airborne Chemicals. Volume 11.
CORP Author National Research Council, Washington, DC. Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology.; Department of Defense, Washington, DC.; Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
Extremely hazardous substances (EHSs) can be released accidentally as a result of chemical spills, industrial explosions, fires, or accidents involving railroad cars and trucks transporting EHSs. Workers and residents in communities surrounding industrial facilities where EHSs are manufactured, used, or stored and in communities along the nations railways and highways are potentially at risk of being exposed to airborne EHSs during accidental releases or intentional releases by terrorists. Pursuant to the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified approximately 400 EHSs on the basis of acute lethality data in rodents. As part of its efforts to develop acute exposure guideline levels for EHSs, EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in 1991 requested that the National Research Council (NRC) develop guidelines for establishing such levels.


A Pennsylvania bike law requiring a four-foot distance between bicyclists and vehicles may contribute to a safer environment for cyclists on campus.
Pennsylvania joined 20 other states with the same law, according to Chief of Staff for the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities Andrew Stober.
Philadelphia had 564 people involved in a motor vehicle and bicycle crash in 2010 — four of whom died.
"The kind of coverage [the new law] has received is positive," he continued.
Prior to the bill, no law was in place stipulating a safe distance between bicyclists and vehicles, according to Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush.
Although the Penn Patrol Zone does not have a greater problem with bicycle and vehicular accidents than anywhere else, Rush still cautions students to be more aware.
In 2009, there were 32 vehicular and bicycle accidents. The numbers dropped to 23 and 26 for 2010 and 2011, respectively. So far, 2012 has seen eight.
It is important to talk to bicyclists about their responsibilities, such as not running lights or going the wrong way on streets, Rush said.
However, she does ask the city to provide more specifics on how to enforce the new law.
Wharton professor Leonard Lodish, a long-time bicyclist on campus, has been involved in two vehicular accidents.
As a member of the Bike Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, who proposed the bill, Lodish believes the law will be beneficial.
"Some people don't consider bikes as having the same right on the road as they do," he said.
Wharton freshman Mike DeSantis has witnessed a similar issue while riding his bike.
However, DeSantis does not believe the law will have much of an effect. "I don't think that it will make that much of a difference and cars will continue to disregard bikers," he said.


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Keith Fuglie works with the Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in Washington, DC, where he has served as branch chief and research economist specializing in the economics of technological change and science policy. In 2012 Dr. Fuglie was recognized with the USDA Secretary's Honor Award for Professional Service, and in 2014 he received the Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis from the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. During 1997-1998 Dr. Fuglie served as senior staff economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He also spent ten years with the International Potato Center (CIP) stationed in Southeast Asia and North Africa. Dr. Fuglie received an M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.
Lorraine Mitchell has been an agricultural economist at the USDA's Economic Research Service since 1998. Her research has focused on the effect of consumer demand issues on international agricultural trade as well as general trade modeling. She received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1998.
Seth Wechsler is a recent graduate from the University of Maryland's Agricultural and Resource Economics department. His tenure as an agricultural economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service began in late 2014. Dr. Wechsler's research interests include pest control, pest resistance management, biotechnology, and technology adoption. His current work focuses on quantifying the extent to which rootworms have adapted to the toxins produced by genetically modified, insect-resistant corn. Dr. Wechsler received an M.S. and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland. He earned a B.A. and an M.A. in economics from Duke University.
Peter Phillips is Distinguished Professor in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS) at the University of Saskatchewan. He earned his MScEcon and Ph.D. at the London School of Economics (LSE) and practiced for 13 years as a professional economist and advisor in industry and government. At the University of Saskatchewan, he has held the Van Vliet Research Chair, created and held an NSERC-SSHRC Chair in Managing Technological Change, was a founding member and director of the virtual College of Biotechnology, and was founding director of the JSGS. He has had appointments at the LSE, the OECD, the European University Institute, Edinburgh, and the University of Western Australia. He was a founding member of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee and has been on many company boards, including CAPI, Pharmalytics and Ag West Bio Inc. (which operates a biotech venture fund). He has held more than15 peer reviewed grants worth over $150 million and is the author or editor of 13 books, more than 40 journal articles and over 50 book chapters, including Innovation in Agri-food Clusters (CABI 2012).
The webinar is an information-gathering meeting for the committee in which the speakers are invited to provide input to the committee.


The online casino software industry is crammed full of suppliers, all fighting for their piece of the revenue coming from online players. These days, it is more important that a company finds the right distribution channels for its games than having a full suite. With the industry trending towards an operator having more than one content supplier, this is more important than ever. Genesis Gaming is a company that figured this out early, not wasting time on trying to attract new customers but instead letting its development work do the talking. Today, the company has found success, and as you will see from this page, it has come a long way in the 10 years it has been in existence.
Genesis Gaming launched in 2008 in the United States, which was, of course, going through some turmoil in the wake of the UIGEA legislation of 2006. That didn't stop the company from pushing out great slots games. The development team at Genesis Gaming is focused on the graphics and features of its slots, trying to produce some of the most detailed content you will find in the industry.
The company has found success in providing games for other suppliers. In particular, the company created a partnership to build games which would be exclusively distributed by Microgaming's Quickfire platform, giving the company instant access to the South African vendor's list of clients. Genesis Gaming has a similar deal in place with IGT and also has over 100 games available for direct licensing.
As the company has no Table Games, it can only really be used as additional content to an operator that has a primary vendor. That's just fine for Genesis, as it has built their games in a way that makes them very easy to integrate into any back-office solution.
What this game may lack in the way of 3D graphics, it more than makes up for with the gameplay and bonus features. This is a game with a theme stolen from the classic book Alice in Wonderland, but this has a very dark, spooky undertone to it. The game has 5 reels and 25 pay lines and features several bonus games, such as Tea Party where you have to select teapots that reveal your bonus prizes. The symbols on this game are reminiscent of the classic tale, but the dark colors and macabre around the game itself paint a very different picture than the Lewis Carroll book.
Tiger Temple is one of the most popular titles in the Genesis catalog, and it is a great example of the games that have Asian themes and are clearly being designed to bring on more Asian players. This gold and red colored game feature 5 reels and 40 paylines, along with a distinctive game board shape (the first and last reels are smaller than the middle three). There are several ways to receive Free Spins, as well as a bonus game that comes from revealing three Bonus symbols during your spin. We like the look and feel of this game, and while it is only one of many Asian themed titles from Genesis, it sets the bar very high for the others.
This game takes you to London, England which has come under a zombie attack. You are there to help rescue survivors all while trying to collect large sums of coins to take back to your balance. There is a creepy look to the graphics on this 5 reel game, although the characters themselves have a very campy cartoonish look to them, which means you aren't likely to wake up with nightmares after playing the game. The brain symbol is the Wild one, so you want to have land on your game board as much as possible during your spins. A Free Spin-based Bonus game also exists, in which you are responsible for saving 4 women from being turned into zombies forever. AS zombie-themed games go, we like what Genesis Gaming has done with this title to make it appealing to a broader audience.
Genesis Gaming has gone above and beyond to ensure you will be able to enjoy its slots games form a mobile device. Not only are the HTML5 games available to be played from the browser of your phone or tablet, but the company has also built them so they can be included in both iOS and Android apps. You will still be at the mercy of gaming regulations when it comes to trying to download a real-money app, but the company decided it was better to have them ready for a widening audience than to play catch-up like so many other software vendors in the space.
With new offices in Canada and Europe, it is clear that Genesis Gaming is serious about sticking around in the online gaming industry. The company continues to release games for licensees as well as the bespoke games for Microgaming and IGT, and the quality of the games you will find is right at the top of the developers we have reviewed. With a mobile-first attitude to development, Genesis Gaming is poised to be a very successful vendor in the years to come.


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https://www.sfgate.com/athletics/article/A-s-prospect-Franklin-Barreto-an-12725684.php
A's prospect Franklin Barreto - an 'Altuve-type' player?
By Susan Slusser
Updated 2:53 pm PST, Saturday, March 3, 2018
MESA, Ariz. - When one American League scout who follows Oakland regularly watches the A's top position-player prospect, he sees something special about Franklin Barreto.
"I hate to throw it out there, because it's a lot to put on a kid, but Barreto is an Jose Altuve-type guy," said the scout, who was at the A's first six Cactus League games. "I know there are 28 other teams out there who would take him - and the other team has Altuve.
"He's not even close to his prime yet, he could hit in the middle of the lineup, he plays with a lot of energy and he's going to be productive. Barreto is a franchise-type player to me."
Barreto and Altuve are both small infielders from Venezuela who are known for their hitting. While Barreto is on the shorter side, he isn't quite as small as reigning AL MVP Altuve, who is 5-foot-6 on a good day. Barreto's listed at 5-10, a generous estimate by an inch or two, but he's certainly bigger than Altuve, a player Barreto grew up admiring.
"It's a pretty high bar," A's vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane said. "Altuve's hand-eye coordination is the best in the game and he sort of has that 'it' factor, that supreme self-confidence that reveals itself not just at the plate but on the bases and in the field - he constantly puts teams on the defensive.
Oakland Athletics' Franklin Barreto watches the flight of his triple against the Cleveland Indians during the third inning of a spring training baseball game Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Goodyear, Ariz. The Indians defeated the Athletics 16-8. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) less
Oakland Athletics' Franklin Barreto watches the flight of his triple against the Cleveland Indians during the third inning of a spring training baseball game Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Goodyear, Ariz. The ... more
Photo: Ross D. Franklin, Associated Press
"Franklin is a bigger, maybe a more physical kid, than Altuve, but Altuve's bat-to-ball skills are off the chart. If Franklin comes close to that, that would be great."
Barreto's numbers throughout the minors haven't been much different than Altuve's at the same age and level - except when it comes to strikeouts. Barreto Ks - a lot. That's what he's trying to change this year.
"It's a little bit different for me this spring, I'm going in with the mentality to put the ball in play a little bit more, avoid some of the strikeouts I had last year," Barreto said, with Juan Dorado interpreting. "It's a mental thing for me to look for more quality pitches, more centered-off pitches rather than focusing on making changes at the plate. I'm more looking for an exact pitch, I have more of an exact approach than I had last year."
In doing so, Barreto is trying to model himself on the man currently blocking his path to a big-league job, Jed Lowrie. And for good reason: As Beane noted, Lowrie was second only to Altuve at the position last year.
"Jed has been completely overlooked around the league," Beane said. "He had arguably, next to Altuve, the best year of any second baseman in baseball last year and nobody talks about it."
Barreto knows. He's watching Lowrie carefully. "I spend time with him and I look at how he's been in the major leagues for such long time and why: He simplifies everything," Barreto said. "He focuses on looking for a pitch that, for him, he's going to hit for a double, and he focuses on not making errors. I look at what he does and I try to take that same approach."
Hitting coach Darren Bush agrees that simplifying things will help Barreto reduce his strikeouts. "Franklin's strikeouts should cut down just with experience, but there are a few things he need to work on to make that happen," Bush said. "He's got to make sure he's not diving forward, that he's staying back, trying to keep his head as still as he can. And he needs to learn not to try to do much.
"I'm seeing in his work, he doing what we're talking about - he's focusing on it."
Entering Saturday's game against the Padres, Barreto was batting .308 with two triples, tops in the Cactus League, and he entered the day in the top 10 in slugging and runs. He's also playing well defensively - in the A's fourth game of the season, he made the top play of the game, racing way into foul territory for a pop-up, "and he made it look easy," the scout said. "He's what we call 'an action guy.' When he's on the field, he's always diving for balls, he's hitting doubles, he's playing hard. He's a really good player."
If Barreto blossoms into the sort of player many believe he can, the A's will be able to point to the Josh Donaldson trade without quite as much chagrin; the team sent the All-Star third baseman to Toronto after the 2014 season for Kendall Graveman, Oakland's projected Opening Day starter, and third baseman Brett Lawrie and left-hander Sean Nolin, neither of whom is playing in the majors. Donaldson was the AL MVP in 2015.
Barreto, meantime, turned 22 Wednesday.
"We forget how young he is," Beane said. "He's a very talented kid and he's always played maybe a level and a half above where he should be. We have kids from last year's draft who are the same age and they're in A-ball. Even as a 20-year-old, he was showing his talent. I see it, too, and I'm a pretty hard grader."
So when will Barreto be up, especially with Lowrie blocking his path? Well, if Lowrie puts together another strong season, he could be moved at the deadline, ala the A's norm in non-contending years.
Beane asked if he sees Barreto factoring for the A's this year, responded, "Oh yeah. I do. That's not something I usually say, but yes."
"I know there are two guys who for all intents and purposes are in front of me," Barreto said of Lowrie and shortstop Marcus Semien, "but I'm just going to keep working really hard and when my time comes, I'll be ready for whatever they ask of me."
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
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Here's how the storm is expected to unfold across the Bay Area today


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Home > Reviews > Horror > Alone in the Dark
May 5th, 2009 by Scott_LeBrun
Director: Jack Sholder
Writer: Jack Sholder, Robert Shaye and Michael Harrpster
An overlooked early 80′s horror gem
Sometimes films will charm you right off the bat. Sometimes you'll enjoy them only to later wonder what the hell you were thinking. And sometimes they appeal more to you the more you see them. This is the case for me with writer/director Jack Sholder's 1982 film Alone in the Dark. (By the way, confusing it with the 2005 video game adaptation would be doing it a real disservice).
(Spoilers follow…)
It marked Sholder's film-making debut, as well as the first in-house production for Robert Shaye's New Line Cinema, which had previously been in the business of distribution. Sholder's initial concept was of the escape of lunatics from an asylum who would then terrorize Little Italy and be rounded up by the Mafia. He was told that this script would be too expensive for the studio's liking and he set about re-writing it to create the story that we now have.
Sholder basically uses his screenplay to espouse old ideas of what constitutes sanity and what constitutes insanity. It may give in to slasher conventions (such as the perky, sexy blonde babysitter who pays the price for attempting to have sex with her boyfriend, and for the fact that its two black characters are treated as expendable), but Sholder's film is not about coming up with creative deaths or racking up a body count. It's considerably more adult, with very few identifiable characters for young viewers. It certainly gets off to a very wild start with a nasty Freudian nightmare for one of its characters. Suffice it to say, it should get your attention.
Dwight Schultz, later to earn his fame as "Howling" Mad Murdock on The A-Team, plays Dan Potter, the new shrink at "The Haven", an insane asylum run by carefree, touchy-feely, pot-smoking bloke Leo Bain (a hilarious Donald Pleasence). Sholder bases this latter character on R.D. Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who had come up with the idea that those who were "insane" had merely adjusted to a world that had gone crazy, and were therefore more "sane" than the rest of us. On the top floor of "The Haven" are the most dangerous residents: former prisoner of war Frank Hawkes (Jack Palance), preacher turned pyromaniac Byron Sutcliff (Martin Landau), overweight child molester Ronald Elster (the late Erland Van Lidth), and secretive psychopath Skagg, who doesn't like to show his face and gets nosebleeds while in the act of killing. The security used to keep them contained is run by electricity, and when a power failure occurs later, the maniacs are free to do as they please. With Hawkes more or less calling the shots, they eventually lay siege to Potter's residence à la Straw Dogs.
Sholder has some great touches and shots up his sleeve as this amusing shocker plays out. Chief among them is having Skagg don a hockey mask (although Friday the 13th Part 3 beat Alone in the Dark to theaters, this film was actually shot first). But what many viewers will undoubtedly remember is the scene of Bunky the babysitter quivering with terror atop of a bed while one of the maniacs thrusts a knife up through it and jabs it between her legs at one point. Adding to the overall crazed air of the proceedings is the appearance of an unsung punk rock act who actually called themselves "The Sic F*cks", who dress in outlandish garb and belt out ditties such as "Chop Up Your Mother".
The actors give it their all in this modest production; Landau in particular is thoroughly unrestrained as he chews up scenery and spits it out as the flamboyant Byron. Pleasence is a hysterical delight; watching him as he lights up a marijuana pipe is simply priceless. And those familiar with Schultz from The A-Team will find it especially amusing to see him playing the ultimate straight man here.
Sholder's dialog has its share of quotable lines ("There are no crazy people here, doctor. We're all just on vacation."), displaying a strong wit, and an argument for how rationality can often be the saving grace in pressure situations; his film even ends on an impressively existential note. His suspense scenes are competently done (Renato Serio's music is a good accompaniment) and he comes up with good shocks and a memorable twist involving Skagg that would later be re-visited (or should one say ripped off?) by the 2001 retro-slasher Valentine. One very welcome jolt (key to its success is that it works every time) involves the contribution of Tom Savini, who came on the project to do Sholder a favor (both had worked on the previous year's slasher The Burning) after the film's official makeup effects man proved to be unreliable.
The film kind of got lost in the shuffle of the slasher film boom, but has earned its fair share of fans in the years since. It's worth a look for any horror fan looking for something a little different for the genre from this era. Highly recommended.
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text:
Le Conseil cantonal de Saint-Gall () est le parlement du canton de Saint-Gall.

Histoire

Composition
Le Conseil cantonal est composé de .

Élection

Compétences et organisation

Notes et références

Annexes

Bases légales

Liens externes

Politique dans le canton de Saint-Gall
Saint-Gall

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
package com.lmn.Arbiter_Android.DatabaseHelpers.Migrations;

import com.lmn.Arbiter_Android.DatabaseHelpers.TableHelpers.FailedSync;

import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;

public class UpgradeProjectDbFrom4To5 implements Migration{
	private String tempTableName;

	public UpgradeProjectDbFrom4To5(){

		this.tempTableName = "temporaryFailedSyncTable";
	}

	public void migrate(SQLiteDatabase db){

		createBackupTable(db);

		createTableWithNewSchema(db);

		moveDataOver(db);

		dropTemporaryTable(db);
	}

	private void createBackupTable(SQLiteDatabase db){

		String createBackupTable = "ALTER TABLE " + FailedSync.TABLE_NAME + " RENAME TO " + tempTableName + ";";

		db.execSQL(createBackupTable);
	}

	private void createTableWithNewSchema(SQLiteDatabase db){
		FailedSync.getHelper().createTable(db);
	}

	private void moveDataOver(SQLiteDatabase db){
		String fields = FailedSync._ID + "," +
				FailedSync.KEY + "," +
				FailedSync.DATA_TYPE + "," +
				FailedSync.LAYER_ID + "," +
				FailedSync.SYNC_TYPE;

		String moveDataOver = "INSERT INTO "+ FailedSync.TABLE_NAME
				+ " (" + fields + ") SELECT " + fields + " FROM " + tempTableName;

		db.execSQL(moveDataOver);
	}

	private void dropTemporaryTable(SQLiteDatabase db){

		db.execSQL("DROP TABLE " + tempTableName);
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Posted inCharter Schools, Schools
Board approves revised budget, unanimously re-elects leadership
by Danielle Bell September 28, 2012 November 7, 2019
The FirstLine Schools board of directors voted unanimously to approve a revised final budget for the 2012-2013 school year at their monthly meeting, September 26.
The final budget for the upcoming year still comes in around the projected $26 million, according to finance committee chair Stephen Rosenthal. "The minor revisions in the budget are due to an unexpected increase in final enrollment numbers at all FirstLine schools," Rosenthal said. "Those final enrollment numbers, which total 2,543 students at all schools, have increased the projected budget by $106,000."
Finance Committee members stressed the importance of creating a budget contingency plan for fluctuations in enrollment moving forward into the 2013-2014 school year.
"The new enrollment system is a little unpredictable," said CFO Keith Crawford. If our enrollment drops that doesn't mean we don't have the same amount of expenses. We can't solely base our finances on projected enrollment numbers. What we're trying to do is to come up with a plan so that if we lose that revenue, where could we possibly cut the expenses to match."
Crawford said this is particularly important at Joseph P. Clark Preparatory High School. "Clark was a troubled high school, and when putting the pieces back together, things are more variable. By preparing for the possibilities it makes us more financially stable."
The board also voted to approve revisions to the 2012-2013 Pupil Progression Plan. Pupil Progression Plans are approved by local education agencies on a yearly basis and serve as academic frameworks to determine whether students will be promoted to the next grade, retained in the current grade, or advanced to higher grades. The plan also outlines criteria for high school graduation, according to CEO Jay Altman.
"This year we have approved the plan, but have requested a waiver of the foreign language requirement so we can focus resources on getting all students above grade-level on reading," Altman said. "We will adopt a foreign language requirement in the near future, but right now our main focus is on literacy."
The board also voted to approve the five-year Strategic Plan for all FirstLine schools, which was presented by Altman at last month's board meeting. The primary objectives of the plan include student, teacher and organizational development. Altman also stressed the importance of attaining student achievement goals set for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Student Achievement Index determines which students are performing at grade-level. FirstLine schools have seen a significant increase in student achievement over the past few years, but Altman said, "Getting students up to grade-level is imperative with the implementation of Common Core Standards."
The FirstLine board meeting also served as the annual meeting, in accordance with the board's bylaws. The annual meeting must include annual elections or re-elections of officers and board members to three-year terms, according to board secretary Allison Hartman. All officers and board members were unanimously re-elected.
One new officer was elected. Keith Crawford, interim CFO of FirstLine Schools, was introduced to the board. Former NOLA 180 board member Paul Pechon will serve on FirstLine's finance committee.
Clarification: No new officers were elected. Crawford is interim CFO and Pechon is a new FirstLine board member.
The FirstLine Development Committee will host a grand opening celebration at Arthur Ashe Academy on October 17 at 6:00 p.m.
John Mac approves budget for year now ending; board ponders dropping Cohen High
$616,000 surplus predicted for First Line schools budget this year
ISL board approves $3 million growth in budget for its three charter schools


Cold Justice hits the UK!
formula as the books have been bestsellers, and it's easy to see why.
characters, I highly recommend that you check it out.
Hour, I was looking forward to Cold Justice, and I was not disappointed.
The other reason today is to be celebrated is that on the 16th July 1990 I joined the NSW Ambulance Service. I can't believe it's been twenty-one years! I was in that job for fifteen, which means I've been out for six, both of which are also hard to believe. I had some wonderful times in that job - some horrific times too, no doubt about that - but I'm so fortunate that today I'm able to make my living by writing (in part) about the things I did and saw, the people I looked after, my colleagues both good and not-so-good, and the reflections on life and death that resulted from all those things.
Here's to all of you working on the road, and to all of you reading about it!


We cooked this last night-- and it was great! Thanks for posting!
We made this again- great stuff! I'm actually putting up the post on the D.O. recipe blog I'm starting.
Wow!! Nice soup. Will try it out soon. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks to all for commenting! I think I'm going to try this again soon, but with real cheese, this time. I'll let you know how it turns out!


Kindness is a form of magic. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
SJJ. Living in North Carolina. Grew up in Georgia. Lived small in the Maine woods for a few years. A delightfully awkward INFJ personality type. Fallible human being, but good-humored. Amateur minimalist on a journey to simplify. Volunteering, family, tattoos and traveling are it. Presbyterian power. Loves most creatures, bad puns, and light roast coffee. More about me.
All of the opinions and writings here are my own and are not representative of any of my previous or current employers.
Share book reviews and ratings with Savannah, and even join a book club on Goodreads.


text:
Trump's Favorite Veterans Charity Has Been Very Good for Its CEO
On June 23, 2017, Sarah Verardo, now the CEO of a veterans' charity called the Independence Fund, and her husband, Mike, a two-time Purple Heart recipient and double amputee, attended a White House bill-signing as Donald Trump's guests of honor. Mike, a former infantryman in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, told the crowd that a "new day" had dawned under the president. Minutes later, Trump cited the Verardos' experience while he promised sweeping changes to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Then he signed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act into law and gave his pen to Mike, who beamed.
Since he first ran for president, Trump has relied on the Verardos, and the 501(c)(3) charity that they've become the faces of, to bolster the perception that he is a staunch ally of veterans. In 2016, Trump invited the family to the Republican National Convention, where they watched the proceedings from a VIP box alongside his family. Six days before the election, Mike Verardo endorsed Trump in a front-page story in the New York Times. "I think [Trump's] genuine," he observed. Days later, veterans backed Trump by large margins, which played a key role in his wins in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
The Verardos have supported a slate of VA reforms pushed by the Trump administration, which has privatized agency services and, under the cover of the accountability act, busted unions, fired hundreds of low-level employees, and retaliated against whistleblowers. In a 2018 interview on Fox News with Laura Ingraham, Sarah cast her family's struggles as indicative of problems that Barack Obama refused to address and Trump had fixed. "When Michael left the Army, his war ended and mine began," she said, later contending that Trump has an "unmatched heart for America's veterans." After the Atlantic reported that Trump privately called dead American soldiers "losers" and asked that wounded warriors be kept out of a planned political parade, Trump surrogates pointed to Mike as evidence of the president's dedication to those injured in battle.
In turn, the president has boosted Sarah's and Mike's individual profiles and helped transform the Independence Fund, or TIF, into one of the most influential wounded-warrior groups in the United States. During last winter's White House tree lighting, Trump thanked Sarah for "uplifting our nation." In a speech the year before, Vice President Mike Pence called her a "hidden hero." Sean Spicer, Trump's former communications director, sits on the charity's board of directors. TIF officials have commanded outsize influence over veterans' policy under Trump, enjoyed personalized attention on issues large and small, and secured government and diplomatic partnerships to prevent veteran suicide and help promote peace in Afghanistan.
During the vice president's RNC speech this year, Sarah sat in the second row. Mike was featured in a slick video that night and served as a member of the 2020 Veterans for Trump campaign committee. While Trump lost reelection, over the last four years he has powerfully and perhaps permanently elevated TIF and the Verardos. The group today enjoys a plethora of influential supporters including corporate titans such as Boeing, UPS, and American Airlines; country music stars; conservative pundits; and members of Congress, including Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, where the Verardos live and TIF is based.
But according to internal charity documents and interviews with 30 current and former board members, staffers, and volunteers closely involved in the group's operations, TIF's positive public image obscures years of improper spending and dubious charity work. (Twenty-two of the 30 TIF officials I interviewed requested anonymity, citing either fear of retaliation or the nondisclosure agreements they signed.) After reviewing TIF's publicly available tax documents, Stephanie Kalivas, an analyst at the watchdog group CharityWatch, described some of the group's accounting practices as "suspect at best," adding, "I've never seen such inconsistent 990 reporting from one charity."
Although Sarah has compared TIF to a "disaster relief organization, fluid and on the ground," she has quietly diverted TIF dollars to support her family's lavish lifestyle, from a Disney World retreat to a personal nanny and first-class air travel. "The charity has basically become the Sarah Verardo Fund," one recently departed staffer told me. "Sarah's spending was breaking the organization," another complained.
Trump will soon be out of office, but one of his many lasting legacies will be the years he spent bolstering organizations and personalities whose tactics and ideology hew closely to his own. And while TIF's history is marked by significant assistance to veterans, the organization has a distinctly Trumpist side.
Sarah Verardo and other TIF officials did not grant interview requests for this article. In a written statement, she said her conduct inside the charity over the last seven years was always honest, ethical, and authorized. She says that under her leadership TIF has worked "to fundamentally change [its] workplace culture and financial management," which included introducing internal and external audits and imposing accounting, conflict-of-interest, and ethics policies. "I am blessed to serve America's Veterans and their caregivers," her statement reads, "and I cannot think of anything more worthwhile." John Bauer, a nonprofit consultant who worked with Sarah and helped institute some of these reforms, says he never went deep into the organization's finances and declined to comment on specifics, but he described Sarah as "always eager to do things right." He added, "Sarah Verardo deserves a parade."
Paul McKellips, who served as TIF's chief communications officer from May 2018 to May 2019, said that although "the majority of Sarah's heart is in the right place," she could be an "oppressive" leader and was often a poor steward of the organization's finances. "She travels like a Fortune 500 CEO," he said. "She stayed at fancy hotels, flew first-class most of the time, and wanted Town Car service, while myself and others were hunkering down at Hampton Inns and car-pooling in sub-compacts. Sure, you have to live when you're traveling, but not in largesse. We have an undeniable fiduciary responsibility to donors." In one illustrative instance, another source said Sarah scoffed at the convenient mid-level hotel chain the charity booked for her in Los Angeles. Minutes later, she'd secured a room at the Ritz-Carlton. TIF claimed that the original hotel was the subject of bedbug complaints online, an account contradicted by one source and not further substantiated by TIF.
Sarah spent the summer of 2019 flying across the country to attend at least eight shows by country music stars Toby Keith and Florida Georgia Line, during which TIF presented high-tech all-terrain wheelchairs valued at roughly $16,000 to veterans with disabilities. The chair giveaways are powerful made-for-TV moments that Fox News often highlights. But they incur high costs that TIF sources say aren't justified by any related PR benefits. TIF officials defended the chair giveaways and said Sarah's travel is "essential" for programmatic and fundraising purposes. While they declined to detail how much charity money has gone toward Sarah's travel in recent years, TIF's most recent 990 data details more than $1.4 million spent on total travel for the organization from July 2018 through June 2019, which equates to 23 percent of all contributions and grants that came in over that period.
According to McKellips and another source, Sarah has demanded that veterans featured in country music chair giveaways have severe, apparent injuries and look the part of the wounded warrior, a standard he found "egregious and disgusting."
"If I heard it once, I heard it 50 times—including during all-hands employee staff meetings—wounded veterans needed to look like they came from 'central casting' before a track-chair could be awarded," McKellips said. A current TIF staffer said that in the charity's work to find picture-perfect recipients, staffers have recruited veterans who hadn't previously applied for a chair and have little interest in receiving one.
During one Florida Georgia Line show in Massachusetts last July, Army veteran Chris Roseberry was awarded a top-of-the-line chair onstage. According to a TIF staffer, the charity spent $4,150 to purchase 10 VIP tickets to the show for Sarah, her friends, and Sean Spicer. (TIF says tickets "were not purchased to give out to friends" but didn't give a VIP guest list for the show). On the night of the concert, when only eight of the VIP tickets had been claimed, someone suggested that the extra two be given to Roseberry and his wife. According to documents and a staffer, Sarah Verardo's response was firm: No.
Retired Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Steve "Luker" Danyluk started TIF in 2007 as an all-volunteer venture after becoming incensed by a New York Times editorial critical of a charity called the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes. The coalition, along with another veterans' charity, paid out $1.5 million to its founder, Roger Chapin, and his wife in salaries, bonuses, and reimbursements over three years. In House testimony, Chapin admitted to spending charity dollars on a $17,000 golf club membership, a six-figure divorce settlement for the charity's executive director, and reimbursement for a down payment on a failed condo deal.
Over its first five years, TIF was powered by a relatively small budget and a crop of dedicated volunteers. But in 2012, Luker met then–Fox News megastar Bill O'Reilly, who was an immediate fan of the group's track-chair giveaways. When Luker told O'Reilly that the VA considered the chairs a nonessential luxury item, the host was incredulous and promised to help. Soon after, he began plugging the charity's work on his primetime show. He even convinced all five then-living presidents to sign a batch of pictures that were auctioned off in support of TIF's mission. (Although O'Reilly left Fox in 2017 following a number of suits and settlements with female employees related to allegations of sexual misconduct, he still plugs TIF on his online show; Fox continued to support the charity, partnering with TIF as recently as last summer to give away track-chairs.)
O'Reilly's support catalyzed a 3,000 percent jump in donations to the charity. Although TIF took in $614,000 in 2012, it ended 2013 with $19.3 million in contributions, much of it from everyday Fox viewers who gave what they could. One notable $15,000 contribution came from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was later dissolved following an investigation by the New York attorney general's office.
Luker, a full-time airline pilot, and his small crew of volunteers kept track of the money, but like many small nonprofits that receive sudden windfalls, the organization was unprepared for the O'Reilly bump and the staff was quickly overwhelmed. "This is a non-profit run from the suitcase of an airline pilot," Luker reflected in a 2015 e-mail as cash poured in. "And almost overnight, that suitcase had $30 million dollars stuffed into it." This introduction of funds created exciting possibilities for Luker and his team but also raised the risk that the venture could slip into dubious financial behavior exhibited by other veteran charities.
During this time, staff and board members generally became concerned about how the newfound charity dollars were being spent. Luker and others defended his tenure, but the founder himself acknowledged he fell short as fundraising exploded. "I think I need to take a substantial amount of the blame," he said. "I had never run a nonprofit before, especially one taking millions in the bank."
With the new glut of money, so too came new supporters. Sarah first connected with the charity in the summer of 2013, when TIF gave a chair to Mike, who lost his left leg and much of his left arm, and experienced a traumatic brain injury in a 2010 IED blast in southern Afghanistan. The charity also invited the couple to a retreat featuring actor Gary Sinise's veteran-themed rock group, the Lt. Dan Band, named after the wounded Vietnam veteran Sinise played in Forrest Gump. In remarks last year, Sarah said it was out of Mike's pain that her passion for veteran advocacy was born. She spoke stirringly of how the VA failed to develop a care plan until seven weeks after Mike returned home from the hospital. Absent help, Sarah learned how to pack his wounds via YouTube tutorials and enlisted local firefighters to bring him in and out of their wheelchair-inaccessible home. "I duct-taped his prosthetic leg together while I waited 57 days for the VA to sign a piece of paper authorizing repair to it," she said. "It was a really dark time."
Soon after Mike received his chair, Sarah became Luker's aide, then secured a new title—director of fundraising and community outreach. "Anything she wanted to do, he let her," said Norm "Frenchy" LaFountaine, a former board member. Sarah's backstory as a caregiver to Mike, and telegenicism, made her an ideal fundraiser and public surrogate, and she quickly took on responsibilities that extended beyond her title. In March 2014, one TIF volunteer vented to another on Facebook that "Sarah has not been here long enough to determine who needs to be ADVISING indy on ANYTHING."
Amid this loose cash management, Sarah often racked up tens of thousands of dollars in charges each month on her charity credit card, and at least one TIF official pushed for account access to be revoked for Sarah and anyone else who was not a board member. Her statements from late 2014 and 2015 detail pricey meals, town car service, and retail spending at places like LL Bean, including a charge for $540.58 on December 3, 2014. A 2015 email TIF shared with Mother Jones indicates that, at the time, Sarah blamed certain charges on credit card fraud. In a statement, TIF's board contended that other charges flagged by Mother Jones were spent on veterans and caregivers. However, neither Sarah nor TIF disputed most of her spending when asked by Mother Jones.
According to internal emails and former staffers, she also used a Chevrolet Suburban purchased by the charity as her own. It was damaged in a 2015 accident during a family trip to Rhode Island that mixed work and pleasure. Her TIF credit card statements from the time show more than $700 spent to tow the SUV and rent a car to get her home. TIF said board members cleared Sarah's rental costs, and asserted that the charity's Suburbans were specifically purchased for "personal and professional use." They added that, under Sarah's leadership, TIF has mandated "vehicle mileage logs and sign outs." (Emails provided by TIF from 2014 to 2015 show Luker expressing concern over two other volunteers' alleged misuse of charity vehicles, but do not implicate Sarah. In an interview, Luker said Sarah's car was supposed to be used for shuttling veterans from the airport to TIF facilities.)
The Verardos also received direct support from at least one TIF benefactor. In one 2015 email, Sarah said a donor had given $10,000 to the charity—including "5k earmarked for Mike." Mike is part of TIF's Tiger Team 7—a group of veteran ambassadors who give motivational speeches—but serves no administrative role in the charity. In this role, Mike has received significant travel and lodging expenses, including for a visit to a Las Vegas gun show that, according to TIF, helped build donor relationships and supported adaptive hunting programs. "I know that [Mike] has benefitted more than any other veteran we've served," said Jess McDonald, who worked as an executive assistant at TIF.
In 2015, an initial internal audit found TIF did not maintain a set of financial statements or a general ledger. This resulted in money moving out the door with little oversight or documentation. The auditor's preliminary assessment notes that the failure to account for certain expenditures "could have an effect on the organization's tax-exempt status." After analyzing TIF's publicly available 990 tax disclosures from this period, CharityWatch's Kalivas echoed these worries, saying it was nearly impossible to account for the effectiveness or extent of the charity's work since it was often transacted through vaguely recorded cash handouts. In 2015, for instance, TIF listed nearly $12 million in unspecified "benefits paid to or for members."
Sources and audit materials describe potential conflicts of interest and questionable arrangements, including a financial agreement between TIF and a Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment (HBOT) center. Billed as a PTSD and traumatic brain injury treatment (later debunked by a joint VA and DOD study that found no real evidence of efficacy), HBOT involves placing patients in a pressurized oxygen chamber. TIF funneled more than $400,000 into this center, which, despite offering lodging to those undergoing treatment, experienced power shutoffs due to outstanding bills. One caregiver said her husband's eardrums ruptured during a treatment. HBOT employees also improperly invoiced TIF for thousands of dollars, including for airfare costs tied to a veteran who had, in fact, driven to the center.
Although Sarah's TIF work began in a volunteer capacity, by 2015 she was being paid discreetly by the hyperbaric center in a convoluted arrangement sources say was intended to keep up the appearance that she wasn't being compensated, and thus that TIF remained an all-volunteer venture. This arrangement and other transactions by the hyperbaric center were later flagged during the 2015 audit, which noted that the charity "does not have procedures in place to ensure that expenditures are correctly classified." While documents show and sources recall that Sarah was involved in the center's work, TIF said that Sarah "was not in a leadership position for any of the HBOT decisions that occurred." TIF did not respond to direct questions over her payment arrangement there.
Other concerning projects and payments raised some staffers' and board members' eyebrows, too. Former board treasurer Jerry Kykisz, for instance, expressed displeasure at the decision to pay off an employee's home mortgage so that she and her husband could become resident overseers of a property the charity purchased to hold retreats in South Carolina. Kykisz said he later saw a number of "bullshit invoices" for far-too-expensive maintenance costs at the retreat. Reflecting on apparent conflicts of interest and dubious charity expenses he saw in his time on the board, Kykisz said "it all turned into a con game."
Amid this wave of questionable spending, charity work faltered. In a May 2015 email to staff, then–TIF board member Erick Castro called out the organization for neglecting hundreds of applications from veterans seeking all-terrain wheelchairs. "There are veterans who have applied for our help waiting by their phone for a call from the Independence Fund that never comes," Castro wrote. (TIF said there are around 60 veterans on the waitlist today, but noted this backlog is largely a result of the charity expanding eligibility for a broader range of injuries and to veterans of all eras.)
In July 2015, amid these crises, Sarah apparently sought to oust Luker, drafting a letter that expressed concerns over "operational and financial deficits" and that alleged Luker "has issues with substance abuse." Sarah sent these remarks to board member Jesse Acosta, a blind Iraq War veteran with a traumatic brain injury, with explicit instructions: Copy and paste the letter into a new email to Fox News officials "so they do not see that I drafted it." (TIF said a "third person" requested Sarah write this e-mail, but did not specify who.) Verardo's claims reached Fox, and eventually Luker's airline, which investigated and cleared him. (TIF said that Sarah was not responsible for forwarding the claims to the airline.)
Sources differed on whether Luker's drinking justified his ouster, though on February 5, 2015, Luker acknowledged in an email that his drinking had become "problematic" and promised to get his act together. Ten days later, Luker said in an email that he was "completely sober," adding, "I have not felt better in years." Today, Luker says he rarely imbibes, but acknowledged drinking more over the time in question "because I could feel the Fund slipping away." As internal strife mounted, Luker expressed an eagerness to professionalize the organization. In hopes of bringing things in line, Luker sought unsuccessfully to remove Sarah. Then, that October, he was removed in a board vote "without cause," according to minutes from the meeting.
On his way out, Luker asked for assurances that more than $8 million in earmarked donations would be spent to honor donors' wishes. "Until that key component is adequately addressed I will not be able to begin my leave," he wrote to the board. Convinced that this and other concerns were not adequately addressed, Luker drafted a 180-page dossier of evidence alleging illegal behavior inside his once-promising charity and sent it to the Florida attorney general's office. He says he never received a response.
In response to questions, the charity sent a statement that broadly contended issues from that era fell exclusively at Luker's feet, and repeatedly asserted that Sarah wasn't in a leadership position until 2017, when she became executive director and made a number of changes, including initiating the independent audit. The board pointed to much of the good work the charity has done over the years, such as providing nearly 2,500 wheelchairs to veterans and helping more than 2,000 veteran and military families meet rent and other living costs during the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. "Now, the leadership is different, the Board is different," the statement reads. "We have learned hard lessons and have been working diligently to address issues and institute controls and best practices to help TIF continue to be a source of hope and support for the wounded veterans we serve."
Luker, for his part, said Sarah was a key adviser and that he corresponded with her more than any other staffer. "I think her power was what she created for herself," he said, further describing her as "Machiavellian."
TIF did not detail exactly when she attained specific roles in the organization. But by 2015, in addition to her fundraising position Sarah also held a seat on the charity's advisory board. By 2016, she was one of just four staffers and had a new title: development director. McDonald, the executive assistant who worked at TIF in 2016, suggested spending issues continued over this period. Although many donations were earmarked for specific projects, she said money essentially went into one giant pot, to which multiple staffers enjoyed unfettered access. "In order to hold integrity in the non-profit world you have to track every cent," said McDonald. "None of that was going on here." Verardo then became executive director in September 2017 and CEO in 2018, a title change for essentially the same position.
Publicly, Sarah projected the relaxed confidence of a problem solver as she took charge. In a statement, Dr. Rich Jadick, a former TIF board member, said Sarah was "steadfast, honest, and loyal to that mission during the times when turmoil was inherent." The current board offered similar plaudits, projecting "full confidence in current leadership." Bauer, the TIF consultant who served from 2017 to 2018, declined to comment on his work coaching Sarah in executive governance, describing it as akin to a patient-therapist relationship, but said she was "receptive." One former employee who worked with Sarah after she became executive director called her a "great salesman," but stressed that she was not qualified to be overseeing a large operation. "She's not a leader, she's a chaos-creator," he added.
After reviewing TIF's most recent 990s, Kalivas noted that the organization's reporting had improved since 2017 but said that its disclosure practice still "avoids full transparency and continues to raise questions about how donor funds are being spent." One former staffer said Sarah can still rack up many thousands of dollars a month on her charity card, while others expressed frustration that charity dollars, until recently, directly covered the costs for a nanny to watch the Verardos' children. "The past and present board approved childcare support as part of compensation for both Sarah and another employee," TIF said in its statement, but did not answer follow up questions about how long this arrangement has existed or why other parents on staff were not offered similar assistance.
The charity's 2018 Disney World retreat for military families included thousands spent on travel and housing for Sarah and members of her extended family. One of them was her aunt, Suzi Nance, who's been contracted by the charity since 2016 to assist with caregiver retreats. In a statement, TIF said Nance "receives rave reviews." They did not detail how much Nance is compensated, but said Sarah recused herself from the board's vote to hire her.
Today, Sarah serves not only as CEO but also as a voting board member. As such, she's been able to control internal dissent over her spending and leadership by mandating that staff messages to the board pass through her, TIF sources say. Nonprofit experts generally advise against leaders serving on the board, arguing that separation promotes better oversight and independence. In a statement, TIF said she was invited on the board "at the recommendation of a consultant assisting TIF with best practices." Asked, Bauer said he had not been the one to make this recommendation. "I don't consider it out of the ordinary," he said, "though I generally advise against it."
After Sarah bet big on Trump in 2016, she refashioned herself as a veterans policy expert and advocate for caregivers like herself. The charity didn't report paying her until 2017, when tax records show that she received a salary of $156,731. As TIF established a Washington presence, Sarah hired Bob Carey, a Navy veteran and pugnacious political operator with friends in high places. "If you're not friendly with Bob, you're not going to get in the White House," said Kristofer Goldsmith, a former legislative advocate at Vietnam Veterans of America. "What experience does he have with policy work? I don't know. But he's a gatekeeper."
Before he arrived at TIF, Carey served as the GOP's top organizer of veteran voters, helping Trump secure his enormous support among former service members. Carey's close allies include senior White House officials, conservative lawmakers, and VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
One former congressional aide described Carey as the "Roger Stone of the veterans' space." In 2019, according to an investigation by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Carey spearheaded a campaign to spam the federal commenting process to convey the impression of broad public support for a proposal in Trump's signature VA privatization law, the Mission Act. A cursory investigation by the VA's Office of Inspector General later found a "substantial portion" of the more than 23,000 comments received were in the form of an identical letter, which had also been promulgated by TIF, and that at least nine people contacted the department asking that their comments be withdrawn. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) characterized the flood of comments as "alarming" and potentially in violation of federal law, but could not secure a more fulsome inquiry by federal authorities.
Much of TIF's advocacy concerns the VA caregiver program, which pays stipends to family members who take care of wounded veterans. The program is popular, but according to advocates hundreds of deserving caregivers have been kicked off the rolls in recent years because of vague eligibility requirements and perverse budgetary incentives. Many in the program have been put in low-level tiers that compensate them modestly for their assistance.
Not Sarah, who has been in the program since 2013. She has secured a rare and highly coveted full-time caregiver tier from the VA, entitling her to $2,039 a month in federal benefits. Many who know Sarah or have worked alongside her are uneasy with her securing such a high level of support despite her six-figure salary and the amount of time she spends away from Mike. "In order to be considered a caregiver you need to be the person providing care, day in and day out," vented an early TIF volunteer named Alishia Graham. "Sarah doesn't do that." TIF called Graham's depiction of Sarah's situation, which was echoed by other caregivers and policy advocates, "false and disrespectful."
As Sarah jetted around the country, charity staffers tell Mother Jones that she hired an aide for Mike and at times asked TIF employees to transport him. Federal rules require that "personal care services must be provided by the Family Caregiver" and prohibit care from being "simultaneously and regularly provided by or through another individual or entity." TIF said "Sarah is not a medical professional and therefore cannot provide some of Mike's care," but that she "coordinates his supervisory and hands on care and/or performs it herself." They did not directly answer whether they believe Sarah qualifies for her full-time designation, and two caregiving experts said Sarah's reliance on outside help and her role coordinating care would normally disqualify her from receiving benefits.
Sarah is one of the White House's go-to sources on caregiving issues. Late last year, TIF leaders enjoyed an exclusive meeting with 16 VA officials to discuss the program's expansion. A few months later, she was appointed to an influential federal committee. In public comments, TIF argued for the elimination of the requirement that the VA periodically reassess the status of caregivers who tend to permanently and totally disabled veterans, calling the reassessments "insulting to the Veteran." TIF officials also contended that caregivers who secured outside help should not see their benefits questioned.
As TIF's designated chief advocacy officer, Carey has focused significant energy on the specific needs of the Verardos. According to emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, he's lined up powerful officials to visit Mike in the hospital, among them a senior adviser to the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In May 2018, Carey alerted top VA officials that Sarah had been taking "copious notes" identifying differences in Mike's care between Walter Reed and the VA, "with Walter Reed being much better." In response, the VA's then-Chief of Staff, Pamela Powers, told Carey to "pass [Sarah's] notes onto us" and said that impending rule changes would hopefully clear up issues that Mike was encountering.
Last March, as Trump signed an executive order aimed at stemming veteran suicide, members of Mike's former Army unit, Bravo Company, spoke to Fox News' Jennifer Griffin about the grueling mental toll of war. At the end of the segment, Griffin noted that TIF had created a program called "Operation Resiliency" in which Bravo Company would reunite and reconnect for a weekend of camaraderie and healing in an effort to "halt this epidemic."
The VA has since forged a partnership with TIF to support Operation Resiliency. The Bravo retreat was held in 2019 at a fancy hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, and, along with counseling sessions, had all the marks of a raucous party weekend: white-water rafting, axe-throwing, golf, and what numerous sources described as a booze-soaked atmosphere. This environment runs counter to VA orthodoxy, which warns of alcohol as a toxic crutch for veterans struggling with mental health issues. Sources said the Bravo Company retreat cost at least $150,000 and that TIF cut that allotment roughly in half when subsequent units went through the program; it also restricted the availability of alcohol. "TIF was building the airplane while flying," the charity said in a statement, terming the initial retreats "pilots." "As issues arose, changes were made, and best practices were set in place for all retreats."
The Verardos spent the summer and fall doubling down on their support for Trump. Mike served on the campaign's Veterans for Trump committee and Sarah deputized staff to help pack White House events with veterans. In early September, TIF flew in a cadre of 25 veterans to an event helmed by Trump in Wilmington, North Carolina, marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Midway through his remarks, as thunder cracked in the background, Trump looked into the sky, then to the veterans. "God is saluting you," he said. The event, at times, felt like a campaign rally, with Trump seemingly making his case to voters in the swing state. "You've been very nice, very, very nice, every time we've asked for something," he said, "but I've been nice to you also. I have to say that."
In August, Sen. Tillis, VA Secretary Wilkie, and various veteran leaders dedicated a bench to Mike at his local VFW post in a ceremony hosted by TIF. The president sent a letter to Mike for the occasion. "Your legacy of selfless service does not fade but grows more meaningful with the passage of time," Trump wrote. "Your actions have demonstrated that there is no greater courage than that which burns in the hearts of America's warriors."
Trump's failed reelection could put the Verardos' influence over veterans' issues into flux—and possibly bring further scrutiny to TIF's practices. In February 2019, McKellips, then still TIF's chief flack, wrote to Sarah with concerns that the charity might "sometimes go too far into the lobbying space." "The IRS won't mess with our 501c3 status as long as Trump is in office," he wrote, characterizing TIF as being "tied-at-the-hip with Trump/Pence." "But during the next Democrat administration? Who knows."
This story has been updated to clarify that Jess McDonald joined The Independence Fund in 2016, one year after Lt. Col. Steven Danyluk's departure.
#DonaldTrump #Politics #NationalSecurity #Military #TheBigFeature


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