A forensic accountant's input is valuable in criminal tax evasion cases. Tax fraud costs the UK a massive amount, and HMRC rightly must come down hard on tax fraudsters. However, HMRC's allegations and assumptions can be somewhat zealous, and the need for a balanced and impartial assessment is essential.
This year seems to have brought more tax related cases to Mark Jenner & Co Limited than usual, but my forensic accounting practice does typically show trends and cycles from time to time. Hawala Banking and money laundering cases are another popular subject of late.
Every year I spend some time "stoking" the marketing flames by writing a number of articles and occasionally a newsletter. When sitting down at the keyboard I have to consider what subjects to promote and often spend some time head scratching! I have not come across another forensic accountancy firm, or indeed any forensic accountant, who specializes solely in criminal fraud. Forensic accountancy is such a specialized area in itself, I suppose most practitioners see no need for further limiting what they do. Indeed, many who undertake forensic assignments do so alongside a general accountancy practice.
Must A Forensic Accountant Also Be An Accounting Practitioner?
There is some merit in being familiar with accounting practices of course, and best practice would dictate that the most credible "experts" are those that still do the work themselves. However, if you examine the situation closely you will see some flaws in this argument along with some caveats.
An accountant who acts as an expert in a case of audit negligence should really be a practicing auditor. It is the only way appropriate current experience can be brought to bear and the expert be up to date with an ever developing audit framework.
However, a forensic accountant commenting on quantum of loss of profits for example, will be drawing on his general accounting skills that are practiced on every single forensic case that he works upon! In such a case being a general accounting practitioner might possibly be a benefit.
Where expert witness assignments are only a small proportion of a general practitioner's portfolio, there is some argument that there may be the lack of actual forensic accounting expertise and experience itself. The understanding of the nature and legal framework of the dispute and the ability to turn complex accounting issues into reports that can be understood by anybody are both critical – and must be finely honed with regular use.
Every case that I accept involves investigating fraud in some way or another. Yes, I do investigate fraud – I have been trained to do this, have the qualifications and the experience on a practical level. Also, every criminal fraud or money laundering case includes practical fraud investigation methods along with general accounting and tax skills. These skills are refined on every single case. I believe that having general audit and tax clients might potentially dilute my skills in the field of fraud and crime.
Most people tend to specialize in areas in which they feel most comfortable. These are the areas in which they take an interest, keep up to date with and as a consequence, can speak of with some authority. When I examine an assessment of income or corporation tax by HMRC in a criminal tax evasion case, I consider the calculations from first principles – not simply plug the underlying data into an HMRC software application. This means that I consider the underlying data and how it impacts the overall tax position, often over a series of years and between several different taxes. This does not indicate that I profess to have legal tax expertise, but it does allow me to speak with authority regarding the mechanics of the underlying financial and business activity and allows me to be confident when presenting a tax calculation within an expert accountant's report that is markedly different from that of HMRC!


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Federal Budget Standoff Puts Pressure on States, Districts
By Alyson Klein — March 11, 2011 4 min read
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan arrives to testify before a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing about the Obama administration's budget priorities and policy proposals. Education funding has been among the high-profile areas under heated debate in Washington as Congress works to hammer out a permanent spending plan for the federal government.
Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images
States and school districts remain in suspense—and frustrated by their inability to plan—as Congress struggles to come up with a budget for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
With the government operating under a series of stopgap spending measures, the latest of which expires March 18, Democrats and Republicans are presenting very different longer-term visions for education spending. Democrats would like to see modest increases to a few key K-12 programs, while Republicans have sought significant cuts in education aid.
Meanwhile, school districts are wrestling with uncertainty. Noelle Ellerson, the assistant director of policy analysis and advocacy at the American Association of School Administrators, said she has been fielding calls and e-mails from concerned school officials from around the country.
In recent years, Congress has rarely finished its spending bills by the Sept. 30 deadline, marking the end of the fiscal year. But the current situation is highly unusual. Usually at this time of the year, school district officials are focused on their state and local budgets—the federal piece has already been figured out, Ms. Ellerson said.
Districts need to know, for instance, how much Title I and special education aid they can expect in order to balance their budgets, Ms. Ellerson said.
Adding to the confusion this year, "the numbers keep changing" as lawmakers introduce and then defeat various proposals, Ms. Ellerson said, making it tough for districts to follow the state of play.
Agreement Elusive
The current, two-week stopgap measure finances most programs at fiscal year 2010 levels, but it also includes some important cuts to education. For instance, it scrapped the $250 million Striving Readers program, the $67 million Even Start Family Literacy program, and about a dozen authorized programs that were labeled "earmarks," or congressionally directed spending. It would take new legislation to bring those programs back to life.
But agreement on a longer-term spending bill remains elusive.
Just last week, Congress rejected two different spending measures, a Republican-led proposal that would have imposed severe cuts and a proposal by Democrats that would have boosted education spending slightly. That sent lawmakers back to the drawing board to figure out how to proceed.
The measure passed by the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives would have cut more than $5 billion from the U.S. Department of Education, plus $1 billion from Head Start, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Senate rejected it, voting 44-56.
The measure also would have made a nearly $700 million cut to Title I grants to districts, and cut the maximum $5,550 Pell Grant award to needy college students by $845. And it would have eliminated more than a dozen smaller education programs.
But Senate lawmakers also voted 42-58 against the Democrats' bill, which would have provided modest increases for Title I, extended the administration's signature Race to the Top competition, and brought recently scrapped reading programs, including Striving Readers, back to life.
During the Senate debate on the budget proposals, Democrats charged that the House Republican bill would hurt education programs.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate panel that oversees education spending, acknowledged during the debate that the nation needs to get its spending under control, but he said deep education funding cuts are the wrong way to proceed. "Why would you want to take it out on kids?" he asked.
But Republicans said the Democratic bill wouldn't help the nation get its spending under control.
"No business would [be] would run the way we run the United States government," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. "We're facing a crisis, a debt crisis. ... Our crushing debt burden is like an anchor weighing down our economy."
Duncan Testifies
Now, lawmakers will have to work together to come up with a compromise, and they don't have much time. As of deadline late last week, it appeared that lawmakers would opt to craft yet another stopgap measure, funding the government for at least two more weeks. Such a move would give lawmakers a chance to work out their differences and possibly avert a government shutdown.
But even another short-term measure could spell further cuts to education programs. In previous spending bills, House Republican leaders have targeted programs for cuts that were slated for consolidation under the administration's fiscal year 2011 and 2012 budget proposals.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan testified about the administration's longer-range budget plans at a pair of congressional hearings last week. Those plans include consolidating 38 programs—including some of the programs cut in the most recent stopgap measure—into more targeted funding streams.
In an interview, Mr. Duncan said the consolidation proposal was "the right thing to do," even though some say it may have made those programs appear vulnerable to lawmakers looking for cuts.
Mr. Duncan also said he is sympathetic to districts that are struggling with uncertainty about their budgets.
"It makes a tough situation harder," he said.
Republicans have charged that Democrats have only themselves to blame for the budget upheaval, since they failed to pass any spending bills last year, when they had large majorities in both chambers.
The "Democrats did no budget, they did no appropriation bills, and as a result, they dumped this in our lap, and we are trying to clean it up," Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters this week.
Alyson Klein
Alyson Klein is an assistant editor for Education Week.
School Districts Federal Budget Federal Policy
A version of this article appeared in the March 16, 2011 edition of Education Week as States, Districts Caught in Federal Budget Clash
The Senate Budget Committee's top Republican, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, right, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., give the GOP response to President Obama's budget for fiscal year 2012.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Education Funding House GOP Presses for Deep Cuts to Education
Alyson Klein, February 18, 2011
Copies of the federal budget for fiscal year 2012 are stacked up at the U.S. Government Printing Office in Washington on Feb. 14.
Alex Brandon/AP
Education Funding Obama Seeks to Shelter Education in 2012 Budget
Education Funding Congress Could Go Big on COVID-19 Aid for Schools After Democrats Take Control
Education leaders hoping for another round of coronavirus relief might get their wish from a new Congress.
Sun shines on the U.S. Capitol dome, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Patrick Semansky/AP
Education Funding How Much Each State Will Get in COVID-19 Education Aid, in Four Charts
This interactive presentation has detailed K-12 funding information about the aid deal signed by President Donald Trump in December 2020.
Education Funding Big Picture: How the Latest COVID-19 Aid for Education Breaks Down, in Two Charts
The massive package enacted at year's end provides billions of dollars to K-12 but still falls short of what education officials wanted.
DigitalVision Vectors/iStock/Getty
Education Funding Education Dept. Gets $73.5 Billion in Funding Deal That Ends Ban on Federal Aid for Busing
The fiscal 2021 deal increases K-12 aid for disadvantaged students, special education, and other federal programs.
In this Nov. 8, 2020, file photo, the Washington skyline is seen at dawn with from left the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the U.S. Capitol. (File Photo-Associated Press)<br/>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


What happens is that when we are talking, we are not engaging to the surroundings around us. Earth itself is sometimes underestimated or overestimated by everyone with our pollution, over-consumption, war outbreaks, animal abuse and cruelty, etc. We fail to realize how precious Earth is to us since it's the only planet habitable to us and our ecosystem which I believe is why we strive to celebrate the importance of this planet, every April 20th.
Besides making a contribution to spread the love of our planet on that day, we should also consider the actions we are doing with our resources, right after Earth Day. The paper we use and crumple up, the electricity to power our smartphones and appliances, the water filtered through our city's purification facilities – they all use the stuff that no man has made; it's all natural (sort of)! But our big, big world (loved that show when I was younger – Hey there Snook!) has only so much resources for us to consume and it's such a shame that we have overestimated how much we have left. I mean, we only have about 2% fresh water in our entire planet!
But it's not only the plants and dirt that we should celebrate; it should be everything together including the animals and the people that make Earth itself! Take for example, the scene in the Lion King where Mufasa, Simba's father, talks to him about the circle of life while watching the sun rise. The lions have to eat the antelope as a way of survival but when the lions die, the decomposition of the body settles into the ground and fertilizes it to make grass for the antelopes to eat. The circle of life allows everything, from the little ant to the roaring lion, survive among others.
So it's important to get off and see everything around you outside of your comfort zone. The trees swaying in your backyard, the bees a-buzzin' with kissable dandelion fuzz… (Yes, I made a Frozen reference. Sue me) Who knows how much longer you'll have of this beautiful planet of yours?


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HomePoliticsUSASheriff Goes Rogue, Grabs 4 Illegals and Does Biden's Job for Him
Sheriff Goes Rogue, Grabs 4 Illegals and Does Biden's Job for Him
One Texas sheriff has reached his limit.
Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County transported four illegal aliens across the border himself after a suspected smuggler driving the migrants wrecked while fleeing arrest, The Epoch Times reported.
Sheriff Coe's deputies apprehended the alleged smuggler on seven felony counts.
However, it was up to the federal authorities to imprison the migrants who were with him.
Sheriff Coe reports that Border Patrol declined to apprehend four migrants, stating they could only keep them if they received medical care after the incident.
As a result, Sheriff Coe placed the four illegal migrants into his truck and drove them to the nearest border crossing an hour away.
He dropped off the migrants at Eagle Pass, a border crossing that's been flooded with illegal immigration throughout Joe Biden's presidency.
"Well, they had declined any type of medical help," said Coe of the illegal immigrants, according to the Times.
"But to let them go, undocumented, unaccounted for, just go because of a policy — I couldn't do it," added Coe. "It's going to be the exception rather than the rule. But at the same time, if Border Patrol won't take a group for whatever reason, I don't have a choice."
Immigration enforcement has traditionally been considered a responsibility of the federal government.
It's not clear if Coe's actions could be legally considered a deportation.
If the migrants voluntarily accompanied the sheriff to be returned to Mexico, his actions would likely withstand legal scrutiny.
Gov. Greg Abbott hailed Coe's actions in a Wednesday press conference at Eagle Pass. CONTINUE READING…


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Home Perspectives "More of the same" won't work
"More of the same" won't work
Yossi Alpher
Hillary Clinton's first visit to the region as United States secretary of state registered one clear achievement, albeit seemingly a marginal one: a step toward closer American engagement with Syria. As for the focus of her visit, the Palestinian issue, the outcome is bleak. The effort to galvanize financial aid to the Gaza Strip without compromising Washington's refusal to deal with Hamas and all the while advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace has little chance of succeeding.
The "side visit" to Damascus by two senior administration officials is important. We recall that the administration's special envoy to the Israel-Arab sphere, George Mitchell, did not stop in Damascus in the course of his first visit a few weeks ago. If US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Daniel Shapiro of the National Security Council were able to lay the initial foundations for American re-involvement in an Israel-Syria peace process, however long and tortuous it may yet be, even the potential benefits for the Israeli-Palestinian track are not insignificant.
In contrast, last week's Sharm al-Sheikh conference seemed like an expensive attempt to square a circle. Plenty of new aid money was pledged to Gaza reconstruction. But it will be forthcoming only if Hamas can be induced to enter a new unity government based on its acceptance of the three famous Quartet conditions concerning recognition of Israel's right to exist, renunciation of violence and acceptance of past agreements. Or if some other way can be found to return Palestinian Authority forces and officials to the Gaza Strip so that they and not Hamas will administer the funds. All this, against a backdrop of unsuccessful attempts by Egypt and others to anchor a new Israel-Hamas ceasefire and prisoner exchange.
Clinton, who represents new and strong American leadership, confronts in Israel and Palestine varieties of leadership that are either weak or uncooperative. Her chances of working successfully with one or the other are slim. In Israel, the Olmert government is in its final days, while the new Netanyahu government is going to hold the Palestinian Authority and PLO to standards that are liable to preclude any constructive engagement, while defending settler interests.
In Palestine, the resignation of PM Salam Fayyad is not likely to prove sufficient to facilitate the establishment of a unity government that sanitizes the delivery of aid to Gaza. Indeed, the US has signaled that it intends to work with no one else but Fayyad, while Hamas, which emerged from the recent war stronger than ever politically, is not about to forego power in the Strip.
Hence it is difficult to find much joy in the decision of the donors' conference to pour billions of dollars into Gaza reconstruction. The approximately $4.4 billion pledged at Sharm al-Sheikh last week (for the West Bank as well as Gaza) is reminiscent of the $3 billion that Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn recruited for Gaza back in the summer of 2005, when Israel withdrew both its settlements and its army from the Strip. That money had far fewer strings attached to it: all the PA had to do was administer the Strip in a reasonable manner. But it failed.
Now the obstacles are Hamas, a unity government and a ceasefire. When it comes to Gaza, the Palestinian state-building effort has regressed over the past four years. That means it is extremely problematic to base American hopes and intentions on repeat exercises like donors' conferences and unity governments that proved abortive in the past.
The Obama administration has started out on the right foot in the Middle East with its innovative appointments of distinguished emissaries, planned withdrawal from Iraq and openings to Syria and Iran. It has to recognize that new policies are required in the Israeli-Palestinian sphere as well. It should take another look at the US approach to Hamas. And it should prepare to get very tough very quickly with the Netanyahu government on issues concerning settlements in the West Bank.
Previous articleIt's Genocide. Full Stop.
Next articleTalking to the Taliban: Afghanistan's only Option for Peace
Yossi Alpher is a former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and a former senior adviser to Prime Minister Barak. He is featured on Media Monitors Network (MMN) with the courtesy of Bitter Lemons.


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PAACO announces Canadian poultry welfare training
By PAACO July 25, 2012
Features Business & Policy Farm Business Business/Policy Canada Poultry Production Production Protection Sustainability
Jul. 25, 2012 – The Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization, Inc. (PAACO) will hold a Canadian version of its popular Poultry Welfare Auditor Training Course in Mississauga, Ontario, on Sept. 25-27, in cooperation with the Poultry Industry Council.
While PAACO has been training poultry welfare auditors since 2006, this will be the first time the course has been offered outside the United States. "Over the years we have had significant interest and participation from Canadians in our poultry courses," says PAACO Chairman Karen Christensen, PhD, of O.K. Farms, Ft. Smith, Ark., who is also one of the main instructors for the upcoming training. "When we were approached about holding a training in Canada, it seemed a logical next step to broaden our scope and also accommodate the increasing demand from their poultry industry."
Although the course has been slightly modified to align with the Canada poultry industry structure, the training will adhere to poultry welfare audit criteria that are commonly audited and will be equivalent to the U.S.-based sessions. Welfare will be addressed related to broilers, turkeys and egg layers and includes production segments of breeders, hatchery, grower/producer, transportation and processing.
Classroom instruction will be held the first two days, with the first day providing a background on management and husbandry related to welfare criteria and audits and day two focusing specifically on the process to audit those criteria. On the third day, trainees will go into the field for audit demonstrations at broiler, layer and turkey facilities. At the conclusion of the site visits, participants will complete a closed-book test.
In addition to Christensen, other primary auditing instructors will be Don McIntyre, PhD, PAS, directory of poultry research and technical services for Diamond V Mills; and Leanne Cooley, MSc, poultry welfare specialist and nutritionist for L.H. Gray & Son, Ltd. The instructional staff also includes numerous experts in production, health care, bio-security and processing.
Trainees at PAACO's auditor certification classes typically represent a broad spectrum of animal welfare – from academia to customers to suppliers. Corporate sponsorship for this training spans various segments of the poultry industry as well – Hybrid Turkeys, New Life Mills, Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg & Chick Commission, Ontario Egg Farmers, Ontario Turkey Farmers, Sobeys, Tim Horton's and the University of Guelph Ontario Veterinary College Department of Pathology.
Registration is now open on a first-come, first-served basis at a cost of $950 (USD) per trainee. Class size is limited, so interested persons are urged to contact PAACO Executive Director Mike Simpson at 402-403-0104; e-mail: mike@animalauditor.org as soon as possible.
More information and a registration form are also available on PAACO's website – www.animalauditor.org.
"We are delighted to be able to cooperate and bring this training to Canada," says Tim Nelson, Executive Director, Poultry Industry Council. "PAACO has long been recognized as the standard of excellence in animal welfare auditing and by holding their poultry welfare auditor course here we will be able to increase the understanding of welfare validation as well as the concentration of PAACO-certified auditors in Canada and thus better service our country's growing poultry industry."
About PAACO
PAACO is an organization of five animal industry organizations with extensive expertise on best management practices and current science in animal agriculture. The organization's purpose is to promote the humane treatment of animals through education and certification of animal auditors as well as the review and/or certification of animal audit instruments, assessments and programs.
PAACO Training
PIC Update – January 2014
Tyson Foods rolls out high-tech, high-touch animal welfare program
Chicken farmers commit to animal care
Mexico to vaccinate 10 million birds


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Jacque Reid goes Inside Her Story with activist and best-selling author Sister Souljah about her latest novel, Moment Of Silence and the racial inequalities at University of Missouri.
Should young people be involved in activism in these times?
I love her work, its raw, emotional and very powerful, its he truth. I love the character Midnight, its a must read for me.


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Set up your Q for indirect cooking and preheat for 10 minutes.
Spray the pan lightly with oil. Arrange a layer of potato over the base of the pan, slightly overlapping. Top with one third of the bacon and onion. Repeat this process twice so you have 3 layers in your pan.
In a bowl combine the cream, milk and mustard and mix together. Pour over the potato mixture. Cover the pan with foil.
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Top with the cheese and continue baking for another 30 minutes or until the potato is tender.


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When a Steady Paycheck Is Good Medicine
By ussen Anchor Institutions, Feature 0 Comments
via NY Times
by Peter S. Goodman
LOS ANGELES — Growing up in the Baldwin Village section of Los Angeles, Charles Slay roamed the streets as a member of the Bloods. The neighborhood was forlorn and devoid of commercial life, making it easy ground for ambush — especially a ragged patch of dirt alongside a major thoroughfare.
"I used to rob people there," he says.
But three years ago, when construction workers began transforming the vacant lot into a gleaming campus of medical offices, there was Mr. Slay, donning work boots and coveralls. He had spent 27 years behind bars for a gang-related murder. On this day, he was employed as an apprentice electrician.
"I never in my life used a power tool," he says. "The only tool I used was a gun. Now, I'm driving forklifts."
His evolution from convict to tradesman had been spurred by an initiative within the American medical industry to broaden the idea of how to keep a community healthy. A coalition of nonprofit health care providers is investing in the notion that ample paychecks, stable housing and nutritious food are no less critical to well-being than doctors, medical equipment and pharmacies.
Forty-one nonprofit medical systems across the United States, plus four government providers, have formed the coalition, the Healthcare Anchor Network, with the mission of doing more business with local companies in the communities they serve. Most are concentrated in major American cities, from Chicago to Los Angeles.
The American health network is part of a global movement through which activists are pressuring companies to target spending toward improving local fortunes, rather than contracting with distant corporations. Such initiatives are being driven by anger over the workings of global capitalism — how it has produced unprecedented riches for some while leaving hundreds of millions of people coping with economic insecurity.
Collectively, these systems spend more than $50 billion a year on a range of services — from construction to catering to laundry. Traditionally, they have directed much of that money to huge, national corporations that distribute their profits to shareholders around the world. The basic goal among the participants in the Healthcare Anchor Network is to shift their spending to local companies, keeping the wealth close by. Kaiser Permanente, which erected the new medical center near Baldwin Village, is one of the largest medical systems in the network.
The health systems are also directing their reserve funds toward so-called impact investments — loans to nonprofits that buy homes to spare low-income people from eviction; capital for minority-owned businesses; child care for the working poor.
This initiative was behind Kaiser's decision to reserve a third of the construction jobs at its new campus for people who lived nearby. Among them were 70 former prison inmates employed as plumbers, carpenters and electricians.
"You have individuals building homes rather than doing home invasions," says John Harriel, a former gang member turned tradesman who has helped Kaiser recruit previously incarcerated people at the construction site.
Charles Slay, who now works in construction, spent 27 years behind bars for a gang-related murder.Credit…Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
Backlash to Inequality
The idea that turned into the Healthcare Anchor Network began with a man named Ted Howard, who co-founded the Democracy Collaborative, an advocacy and research institution that experiments with fresh ways to attack economic inequality.
A decade ago, in the midst of the Great Recession, Mr. Howard used his hometown, Cleveland, as a laboratory for a new approach toward recovering from factory closings and joblessness. He started three cooperative companies in low-income neighborhoods, including a laundry service that gained a contract to wash linens at the Cleveland Clinic, a world-renowned health care provider.
The laundry hired people from surrounding communities. It won the contract on competitive terms, with an important guarantee: It paid workers better than rival national chains. It could deliver on that promise because it was a cooperative. It merely had to break even rather than enrich shareholders with dividends.
"These are businesses," says Mr. Howard. Unless they produce returns, "you lose all the social benefits. We think it's really important to open up the imagination to successful models."
The approach is especially tailored to the United States, where efforts to increase support for government programs confront a strong American aversion to taxes. Rather than wring hands over the difficulty of prying money from Congress for social programs, he pressured deep-pocketed companies to spend, and invest, locally.
"Our epiphany is that one answer to the supposed scarcity of funds is that the money is right there in the community now," says Mr. Howard. "It's in institutions that are locked in place."
His success in Cleveland has captured attention far beyond the American Rust Belt, sending Mr. Howard around the world to evangelize. He found adherents in northwest England, where political leaders in the city of Preston were wrestling with years of national austerity that had decimated local government services.
Drawing on Mr. Howard's counsel, the city government, Lancashire County, the police department and a pair of local universities joined forces and directed their spending toward local companies.
"We had the double whammy of austerity, and also an economy that wasn't working for people," says Matthew Brown, the leader of the Preston Council. "We took inspiration from Ted."
The Kaiser Permanente medical center serves the neighborhoods of Crenshaw and Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles.Credit…Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
Beyond the Hospital Walls
In the United States, health care has become especially fertile ground for Mr. Howard's approach, in part because of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, which aimed to expand medical coverage to the tens of millions of people lacking access.
The program requires that nonprofit hospitals annually assess the health needs of their communities in a broad context — including job markets and the availability of affordable housing — while coming up with ways to improve local life. Given that 56 percent of community hospitals in the United States are nonprofit, this amounted to a significant potential alteration of American health care.
Kaiser, which operates nonprofit hospitals and provides health care for more than 12 million people, was already conducting such assessments under California regulations. Obamacare, passed nearly a decade ago, extended the obligation nationwide.
"It brought a discipline to the industry so that we all had to think about this," says Bernard J. Tyson, Kaiser's chief executive officer, during an interview at the company's headquarters in Oakland. "It forced the industry to think outside its own box."
The Democracy Collaborative convened the first participants in what would become the Healthcare Anchor Network in Washington in December 2016. In the years since, it has sought to coax medical companies to formalize and expand financial commitments that are now voluntary and vaguely defined — more like an accepted social compact than a firm obligation.
The logic is driven by large numbers: Hospitals and health care providers across the United States collectively spend more than $780 billion a year, control investment portfolios worth some $400 billion and employ more than 5.6 million people. Even a minor shift in how they manage their money, contract for services or hire workers will have an impact on the American economy.
"We encourage a pledge of 1 percent of assets as a starting point," says David Zuckerman, the coordinator for the health care network. "This conversation is moving very fast and moving in a very powerful way. These institutions are just being exposed to this idea."
Over the last two years, members have pledged more than $300 million toward local investments, with Kaiser alone promising two-thirds of those funds.
The company has taken its cue from volumes of literature attesting to the fact that poverty is lethal. People who experience homelessness have shorter life expectancies than the rest of the population. People without jobs do not eat as well as those who are fully employed. Financial stress can breed other ills, including substance abuse. Health care costs have risen so rapidly that many Americans fret about how to pay their bills.
"One in four Americans are having to make a choice between 'Do I buy milk today?' or 'Do I pay my co-pay to get my prescription?'" says Bechara Choucair, Kaiser's chief community health officer, citing a recent company survey.
For health care companies, improved community fortunes help the bottom line. More jobs mean more people in stable homes, lowering the cost of care when they need hospitalization. It means more people can afford medical plans, which spreads health care costs across larger populations.
That reasoning prompted Dignity Health, another health care provider that joined the anchor network, to deliver a $1 million loan to La Cocina, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps women of color start catering and restaurant businesses. Since its inception in 2005, the organization has produced 55 now self-sufficient businesses. Two of its graduates have been finalists for the prestigious James Beard Award.
La Cocina is using Dignity's money to turn a shuttered post office in San Francisco's Tenderloin district — an area rife with open-air drug sales — into a food court offering the dishes of program graduates. Geared to working poor people, the food court will provide a daily $5 special.
Among the chefs featured is Dilsa Lugo, a Mexican immigrant. Sixteen years ago, a pregnant Ms. Lugo carried a lunch of home-cooked tamales to the construction site where her husband was working. The property owner tried them, loved them and demanded to buy them. Ms. Lugo honed her skills in La Cocina's commercial kitchen in the Mission District, where volunteers helped her secure funding.
"If I was by myself, I would have been afraid," Ms. Lugo says. "I didn't know how to start."
Today, her Los Cilantros restaurant in Berkeley employs nine people. She earns more than her husband.
Dignity has also funded another local nonprofit, the Mission Economic Development Agency, which aims to blunt the displacement of low-income, predominantly Latino families. It has purchased 23 buildings in recent years, keeping existing tenants in place at subsidized rents, while maintaining fruit and vegetable merchants and bakeries in ground-floor commercial spaces.
"We're looking for ways that we can address health care issues beyond the hospital walls," says Pablo Bravo, Dignity's vice president of community health.
Dilsa Lugo in her Los Cilantros restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., which employs nine people.Credit…Cayce Clifford for The New York Times
Creating Local Jobs
This was the thinking as Kaiser Permanente began preparations for its new medical campus serving the neighborhoods of Crenshaw and Baldwin Hills in America's second-largest city.
The need for the facility was obvious. The company's closest hospital was a 25-minute drive away, before factoring in Los Angeles's traffic. Many people in the neighborhood lacked cars. They relied on a patchy bus service that could take an hour to reach the facility.
But beyond the demand for doctors' offices, a pharmacy and a laboratory, the community had other needs. Among the 278,000 area residents, 93 percent were black or Hispanic and nearly 30 percent were officially poor. A similar percentage had not completed high school. Former gang members languished in housing projects with no means of supporting themselves.
In 2015, Kaiser held meetings to ask residents what they wanted. Their testimony shaped the blueprint: The hospital would offer Wi-Fi and comfortable work spaces, enabling low-income residents to send out online job applications. The complex would include green space, exercise equipment and a farmers' market.
But the primary demand was the most basic — paychecks. "The number-one thing people wanted was jobs," recalls Jodie Lesh, who then oversaw Kaiser's construction projects in Southern California.
Kaiser required its contractor to reserve 30 percent of all jobs for people living within five miles of the site. It set aside $24 million of the $90 million construction costs for women- and minority-owned businesses.
At first, Kaiser stumbled. It held a job fair, and hardly anyone came.
Then Ms. Lesh met John Harriel, an electrician and a conspicuous character known as Big John.
Raised in the neighborhood, Mr. Harriel, 49, was a former member of the Bloods and the son of a single mother bedeviled by addiction. He had spent more than five years in prison for dealing drugs. He used that time to gain his high school equivalency degree.
Once out, Mr. Harriel trained as an electrician apprentice and eventually rose to supervisor. He works with a community nonprofit, 2nd CALL (for Second Chance at Loving Life), which prepares former inmates for careers.
About 600,000 people are released from prison every year in the United States. The unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people is about 27 percent, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy group.
Mr. Harriel sees those numbers as indicators of hidden promise. People released from prison are so eager for a career, and so fearful they may never get the opportunity, that they will work harder than the next person to master a trade. Starting over means feeling special pressure to show up on time, do the job the right way and stay out of trouble, he said.
"The world is looking at us," Mr. Harriel says. "You'd rather be two hours early than two minutes late."
Still, employers are reluctant to hire convicted murderers, robbers and drug dealers, Mr. Harriel acknowledges. That is where he and his organization come in. They offer job training and courses in anger management, trauma counseling and financial literacy. They teach black and Latino former gang members to look their white supervisors in the eye — something that could provoke violence in prison. Those who sign up for training must complete it, and then demonstrate their skills and dedication, before he will provide a recommendation to an employer.
"If someone is screwing around," he says, "I will be the first to say they should be fired."
A rehabbed parking lot will be the future front porch of a Mission Economic Development Agency housing project.Credit…Cayce Clifford for The New York Times
From Guns to Tape Measures
Physically imposing and blunt, Mr. Harriel is reflexively skeptical of outsiders' promises to rescue his community. He is impatient with corporate-sponsored happy talk. As a child, he drew discipline at his elementary school for scoffing at the notion of Santa Claus.
"I said, 'Let me get this straight,'" he recalls. "'There's this fat white guy riding around in the sky delivering presents down the chimney? I don't see any chimneys in the projects.' I said: 'That's a lie. You're telling us a lie.'"
His neighborhood had suffered through more aborted promises of redevelopment schemes than he could recall. What was different this time?
Kaiser's cluelessness about its job fair was not a hopeful sign. "They didn't know where to go. They didn't go inside the belly of the beast right there," Mr. Harriel says, pointing to a cluster of apartments. "They went to the library. They went to some church. I said, 'That's not where the suspects hang out.'"
He went into gang communities and knocked on doors. At the next job fair, several hundred people descended. Dozens were hired, including Mr. Slay, the ex-Blood.
Mr. Slay grew up in South Central Los Angeles. His mother had died when he was 10, leaving him with his father, who cadged work as a mechanic. He wanted to join the Boy Scouts, he recalls, but he lacked the $16 fee. Jobs in the neighborhood were scarce, and good jobs nonexistent. People flipped burgers and bagged groceries, pursuits with no route out of poverty.
"The only people getting respect were the people coming out of the penitentiary," Mr. Slay says.
By 14, he was living in itinerant hotels, smoking angel dust and robbing stores with the Bloods. By 21, he was behind bars for killing a man of the same age from a rival gang.
John Harriel is a former gang member turned tradesman. He helped Kaiser recruit previously incarcerated people at the construction site.Credit…Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
In prison, he attended a class about the impact of gang violence on victims and their families and listened to a woman who had seen her daughter raped.
"She was talking to us about forgiveness," Mr. Slay says. "I had never seen compassion and forgiveness. My approach had been: 'I'm in a gang. I got you before you got me.'"
He completed his high school equivalency degree and then studied sociology.
"I started thinking about the people that I robbed," he says. "I started thinking about the magnitude of my actions. How did I go from a little boy that my mother loved to a man willing to take another man's life? I started thinking about some of the things that I was lacking. I said, 'If I ever get a chance to get home, I will relish it.'"
The chance came when he was 48 years old.
Back on the outside, he was euphoric at first. He moved in with his aunt and attended Alcoholics Anonymous. Then, grim realities took over. He applied to be a truck driver, but the conditions of his parole barred him from driving more than 50 miles from home. He got a job unloading ships at a port. It paid $9 an hour with no health care.
Then Mr. Slay met Big John, who saw him as a potential electrician. He finished life skills classes and was sent to a contractor as an apprentice, alternating seven weeks of work with a week of training.
Five years later, he is part of a crew handling the electrical work at a new stadium for the Los Angeles Rams football team.
He earns $39 an hour — enough to buy a car, help his 86-year-old aunt with rent, buy groceries and presents for his eight grandchildren. He pays for a health care policy from Kaiser.
"I've been through several lives within my time," he says. "I feel like I've been around the world twice and it's amazing that I'm a productive member of society, the backbone of my family."
Last Chance to Register! Advancing Collective Wellbeing Series Virtual Event | Thursday, December 9th, 10:30AM-1:00PM CT You may have seen the phrase,...
Resist and Build: Discussing Solidarity Economy with Emily Kawano
via The Next System Emily Kawano, coordinator of the US Solidarity Network, Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS),...
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Intercommunalism
On September 5, 1970, Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party (BPP), introduced his theory of intercommunalism...
Crisis After Crisis: There's No 'Reforming' Global Capitalism
The real battle is now between two post-globalization camps: democratic socialists… and fascists. By Walden Bello via Portside It is now...
The new law promises to take taxpayer money back from Wall Street and reinvest it in communities.
The gathering, designed to commemorate the founding of the nation's first community land trust 50 years ago, was held...
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4AV2p4FsBI The California Progressive Alliance believes that a better California is possible by reclaiming our government from the corporate...
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How radical municipalism can go beyond the local
Climate change, global finance, the neoliberal state: today's crises require action on a big scale. And yet fighting for...


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Q: An error occurred during deployment plan generation. Deployment cannot continue I had been publishing a Lightswitch app to an Azure website and a linked SQL database. Publishing quit working with the following error in Lightsswitch.
Error 1   An exception occurred when deploying the database for the application.
An error occurred during deployment plan generation. Deployment cannot continue.    C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\LightSwitch\v4.5\Publish\v2.4\Microsoft.LightSwitch.Publish.targets   1565    10
I recreated the application and setup a new and website and link SQL database on an Azure account and continue to get the same error.

A: After being able to publish a different app to a different Azure Subscription from the same computer I started from scratch in VS and Azure (again) and was able to publish. I conclude that something was wrong with the project.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Stephen Collier
2015-2016 Football Profile
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A senior center in Fernandina Beach is indeed the best place to make the most of the golden years of your life and socialize with other senior citizens. Senior Centers promote healthy aging and well-being of senior citizens by involving them in recreational and social activities. It also gives caregivers the much-needed break from their hectic routine.
If you are looking for a senior center in Fernandina Beach, you have come to the right place. Seniorcenter.us has an extensive database of senior centers located in Fernandina Beach. Find a senior center in Fernandina Beach and provide your older loved ones an opportunity to get out of the house and receive social and mental stimulation.
Our Senior Life Centers in Fernandina Beach and Hilliard offer those 60 and older assistance, information and support, as well as a variety of fun and engaging activities, plus opportunities to socialize.


FOX Sports and multi-channel network GarageMonkey launched a new social media campaign for Daytona 500 race fans. Leading up to the "Great American Race" on Feb. 22, fans and followers can contribute their own stories through photos and videos about their first race experience with the hashtag #MyFirst500. The stories will be featured on FoxSports.com and GarageMonkey.com. FOX Sports is already working with top GarageMonkey YouTube channel partners producingMyFirst500 videos focusing on current and past drivers, owners, race teams and others surrounding the Feb. 14-22 Budweiser Speedweeks, Daytona 500 Qualifying Presented by Kroger and the Daytona 500 race from Daytona International Speedway.


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Russia's foreign minister slams 'aggressive' US policies
by: VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press
Posted: Jan 17, 2020 / 06:06 AM CST / Updated: Jan 17, 2020 / 06:06 AM CST
Acting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during his annual roundup news conference summing up his ministry's work in 2019, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign policy chief on Friday blamed what he described as "aggressive" U.S. policies for growing global tensions, noting Washington's reluctance to extend a key nuclear arms pact.
Sergey Lavrov, who serves as acting foreign minister in the wake of Wednesday's resignation of the Russian Cabinet, said this week's meeting of top U.S. and Russian diplomats on strategic stability didn't achieve any immediate results, adding that "dialogue is continuing."
Russia-U.S. relations have been at post-Cold War lows since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
Speaking at an annual news conference, Lavrov said that the U.S. has stonewalled Russia's push for extending the New Start nuclear arms treaty that expires in 2021. The agreement is the last U.S.-Russian arms control deal still in place, and Moscow has argued that its demise will remove the final barrier stemming an arms race.
"We will act strongly to avoid depriving the world of agreements that control and limit nuclear weapons," said Lavrov, who has was appointed foreign minister in 2004.
"We stand for the extension of the New Start treaty without any preconditions," he said. "I hope that the Americans hear us, but we haven't received any coherent signals from them."
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has pushed for China to join nuclear arms cuts, but Lavrov described the idea as unrealistic. He pointed at Beijing's refusal to discuss reductions in its nuclear arsenal, which is much smaller than those of the U.S. or Russia.
Lavrov emphasized that the U.S. push for Russia to encourage China to change its mind doesn't make sense. "We respect the Chinese position and we won't persuade China to change it," he said.
Turning to other issues, Lavrov criticized Britain, France and Germany for caving in to pressure from the U.S. over a nuclear deal with Iran.
Earlier this week, the three countries reluctantly triggered the accord's dispute mechanism to force Iran into discussions over its violations, starting the clock on a process that could result in the "snapback" of U.N. and EU sanctions on Iran.
The three nations are being pressed on one side by Trump to abandon the agreement like he did unilaterally in 2018, and on the other side by Iran to provide enough economic incentives for it to continue honoring the deal.
Lavrov noted that the European Union boasted about creating a mechanism for trade with Iran bypassing U.S. sanctions, but never put it into action.
He described the move by Britain, France and Germany as a "dangerous turn," arguing that the three nations used the moment of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran to "blame Iran for all what happened."
Following the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran announced what it said was its fifth and final step in dropping its commitments under the 2015 deal. Iran said it would no longer abide by any limitations to its enrichment activities.
Turning to Libya, Lavrov said he expects the warring parties in the North African nation to observe a lasting cease-fire after their talks in the Russian capital earlier this week.
He explained that the talks in Moscow between Libya's rival leaders focused on a document spelling out conditions of a cease-fire that could serve as a basis for Sunday's Libya talks hosted by Germany.
Lavrov said he plans to attend the talks in Berlin, which will be attended by both Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya's U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli, and his rival, Gen. Khalifa Hifter,
Sarraj and Hifter attended Monday's talks in Moscow, but didn't meet directly.
"Their relations are tense, and they don't want to be in one room together, let alone talk to each other," Lavrov said.
He added even though Hifter refused to sign the cease-fire document that was signed by Sarraj, the most important outcome of the talks was that the truce was still holding.
THULASENDRAPURAM, India (AP) — People in a tiny Indian village surrounded by rice paddies flocked to a Hindu temple, burst crackers and uttered prayers Wednesday hours before its descendant, Kamala Harris, takes her oath of office to become the U.S. vice president.
Groups of women in bright saris and men wearing white dhotis thronged the temple with sweets and flowers, offering special prayers for Harris' success.