Posted on October 20, 2015 by Brittani Gattis and posted under Personal.
My Grandparents are adorable. They have been together 54 years. I can only hope Ed and I get to make it to 54 beautiful years together as well. My Grandparents are those people that can survive anything and I truly mean that. Today, 54 years ago, they vowed to love one another through thick and thin. They have done just that. I took these photos back in July when I visited them during the 4th of July break. I felt like their Anniversary was the perfect time to show them off.
Ed and I hadn't been to their Myrtle Beach house. I knew I wanted to take some pictures of them while I was there. My Grandmother at the time was battling two types of cancer (she is in remission!). After doing Avery's story I realized how important family photos were. I wanted some updated ones of my grandparents to display in my house. They both were happy to do it. I learned the value of family photos at a young age. My Grandmother and Grandfather would take pictures at all family events. I'm sure this isn't a surprise to anyone that I was the silly faced kid. I never was serious in a picture. My Grandmother can get me back today showing me all the goofy pictures. Thanks Nanny!! My Grandfather also has the keeper from when I was little and made up the "Pop-Pop song"… It was a Brittani original.
I am so grateful my Grandmother made it through the battle of Chemo she had to go through. I was so thankful during the trip that she was feeling well enough for Ed and I to take the family out to a nice dinner, and spend one and one time with them. Here's some photos I took out front of their house.
Happy Anniversary Nanny & Pop-Pop!
Sammy the biggest cat I ever knew. He was bigger than most of my friends MEDIUM sized dogs.


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Q: SQlite delete query not working despite no errors I have SQLlite table set up as follows:
name = List
tablename = namesOfTests
two columns = testNames and dueDate

Please see link - https://sqliteonline.com/#fiddle-5c958b0c1ef9b54xjtktalx6
My code:
selectTest = "SampleSavedTest_Summ"
c1.execute("DELETE FROM namesOfTests WHERE testNames = ?;", (selectTest,))

The code runs with no errors, however, the database does not get updated. I would be grateful for some advice.
Please see comments below, @Parfait helped me fix it

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


It's the most outrageous, reasonable thing. The more I think about it, the more amazed I am. It gives blessings that are undeserved and withholds punishment when it is deserved. It's absolutely the greatest gift you can give someone.
This gift is called mercy.
See, Jesus came to give us freedom from our sins, even though we had rebelled against Him. He showered us with mercy even though we didn't deserve it.
By Christ's example, we're not only taught to love our enemies, we're taught to pray for them too. And if you can possibly bring yourself to do something nice for them—even if it's just smiling at them to show you're not holding a grudge—you'll really give the devil a black eye.
The truth is, a lot of what people take from you, they have no ability to give back. My father took my childhood innocence through sexual abuse, and there was no way he could have given that back. But God promises us double for our former trouble.
We can give to people who will give us gifts in return. But we're more blessed when we choose to give to those who cannot pay us back—that's giving mercy.
I encourage you to trust God a little bit more. Believe that whatever you do for "the least of these"—the poor, the hungry, the sick, people in prison and those who are neglected and alone—will be done for you also.
Because the greatest gift you can give God is to become more like His child. Then you'll be free to give those around you the greatest gift they could ever receive from you: mercy.


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Functional Tests
================================

**Configuring the Database**

You first must configure your MySql Database.  Open the `config.json.example` file, configure the connection string, and save it as `config.json`.

**Running Functional Tests**

1. Configure the Databse
2. Run `dotnet test`
3. This will run through all of the tests in the current directory.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Home Perspectives Libya and Millennium of War
Libya and Millennium of War
On June 26 the West's war against Libya reached its hundredth day. Launched on March 19 with a barrage of bombing raids and Tomahawk cruise missile attacks conducted by American, British and French warplanes, ships and submarines, control of military operations, including a naval blockade of the Mediterranean nation and the deployment of special forces in the country's east, was ceded by U.S. Africa Command to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on March 31.
In the interim the Western military bloc reports that its aircraft have flown over 13,000 missions under the auspices of so-called Operation Unified Protector, including more than 5,000 combat-related sorties. Daily tallies are posted on NATO's Allied Command Operations (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) website as though they are public service announcements. The practice is rather bellicose braggadocio, rank rodomontade; boasting of the Alliance's ability to control the airspace of and pummel at will a now all but defenseless nation of six and a half million inhabitants.
In late May deputy commander of the Russian General Staff General Igor Sheremet was quoted by RIA Novosti as warning: "We expect Western countries to have at least 80,000 cruise missiles by 2020, including about 2,000 of them nuclear-powered."
Although over 200 sea-launched cruise missiles were expended in the opening days of the now over hundred-day assault against Libya (100 on the first day), the U.S. and its NATO allies will have a plentiful supply, an almost inexhaustible arsenal, of high-speed, long-range guided missiles capable of being equipped with conventional and nuclear warheads for attacks against any nation or combination of nations targeted by the West for regime change, invasion and occupation as was done with Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya over the past 12 years.
With the permanent presence of warships and submarines assigned to the U.S. Sixth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, both headquartered in Italy, and combat aircraft based in the same country and other Mediterranean Sea states, and with British, French, Canadian and other NATO members' vessels stationed there in the weeks leading up to the campaign against Libya and since (including the Charles de Gaulle, the only non-American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier), the armada assembled in the Mediterranean makes it the most heavily militarized sea in the world.
It represents a decade-long development (NATO's Operation Active Endeavor naval patrols in the Mediterranean will be ten years old on October 4) which is steadily expanding into the Black and Arabian Seas. In the first case with two U.S. guided missile cruisers deployed off the coasts of Romania, Ukraine and Georgia and nearly two months of U.S. Marine Corps-led Black Sea Rotational Force war games in Romania in recent weeks and, in the second, permanent American and NATO warship deployments in the Red and Arabian Seas from the Suez Canal to the Bay of Bengal in an expansive war front that includes Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
On June 21 the newest and oldest U.S. aircraft supercarriers (all eleven such vessels in the world are American), USS George H.W. Bush and USS Enterprise, with their carrier strike groups and carrier air wings, passed each other in the Bab el-Mandeb strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden in the Arabian Sea. The Enterprise was returning to the Mediterranean and the George H.W. Bush arriving from the same location. American carrier strike groups consist of an aircraft carrier, at least three other warships and an attack submarine; a carrier wing includes several squadrons: 60 or more fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
The Suez Canal remains the conduit through which U.S. warships cross from the Sixth Fleet's area of responsibility to that of the Fifth Fleet: The Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and East African coastline south to Kenya.
Egypt's Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces he heads up are just as obliging to American global military ambitions as was the former Hosni Mubarak government.
Two centuries ago the British writer and critic William Hazlitt denounced, with a degree and depth of indignation absent in current times, what he aptly called the systematic patrons of eternal war.* He was fortunate to be spared living in the 21st century which, ushering in a new millennium, has not witnessed a single year without the Pentagon and NATO conducting military interventions and waging wars outside the territories of its member states. In Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The Napoleonic Wars ended in the fifteenth year of the 19th century. One contemporary war alone, that in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will last at least for the first fourteen years of this century and probably longer, with more wars like the current one against Libya to follow.
Commemorating the beginning of the first millennium of the Common Era, the Catholic Church begins its December 25th mass with the Christmas Proclamation, which contains these words:
In the one hundred and ninety–"fourth Olympiad;
the seven hundred and fifty–"second year from the foundation
of the city of Rome.
The forty–"second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace…
The second millennium, though not without violence, was largely without war until the First Crusade of 1096.
The third began with war, which has continued uninterruptedly from South Asia to the Middle East and Africa.
A world inured to –" reconciled to –" wars of aggression as an innate part of the human condition would be wise to heed the words of Alfred Tennyson's 1850 poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells":
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
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Rick Rozoff, a peace activist and an analyst of international affairs for forty years, contributed this article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from Chicago, Illinois, USA.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This past weekend was huge (and extremely busy) for cycling!
The Tour de Frederick kicked off the weekend with a 3 day charity bike ride benefiting the Frederick Boys & Girls Club and 1 in 6. About 200 riders participated this year including cycling legend Greg LeMond. In the morning I grabbed my road bike, made some fit adjustments, and sent Mr. LeMond him on his way. What a surreal experience. I found the 3 time Tour de France winner to be surprisingly good humored and friendly.
That evening huge crowds cheered on as High Wheel bicycles raced through downtown Frederick in the Clustered Spires High Wheel Race. After the race I got the chance to speak with one of the most experienced contestants. While he has competed in high wheel races across the world, he told me that Frederick drew a bigger crowed than any race he had participated in!
The otherwise perfect day was tainted however with an accident that sent racer Alison Torpey to the hospital. Sadly accidents occasionally happen in any sport and we wish Alison a speedy recovery.
Pixels by Jeff- Thanks Jeff!
Previous Harry Havnoonian Back in Action!


Kangaroo in luscious rich colours of the Australian bush (after a good rai), on a silvery grey linen.
I love this delightfully friendly looking kangaroo mum and baby, on a 60s linen teatowel, repurposed into a cushion cover. Reversed with a rich cherry pink, its rich greens, ochres and reds would complement any interior.
Size: 50x50cm cushion cover (insert not included), with a pillow slip (overlap) closure.


He is best known for his photography, which often references art history and sometimes conveys social messages. His photographic style has been described as "hyper-real and slyly subversive" and as "kitsch pop surrealism."
One 1996 article called him the "Fellini of photography," a phrase that continues to be applied to him.


As I slide, not always gracefully, into the 8th month of my Terminal Liver Cancer Diagnosis its clear to me that I have more to say about how I finish this part of my journey than I originally thought.
To me that sounds like a complement. I look forward to my weekly visits. I have gotten friendly with everyone from the parking lot attendant to the highest rated doctors that work each and every day with cancer patients who are near the end of their time here on Earth.It's sad to see so many people that are so sick that they just sit and stare into space. A lot of them look like they've just given up.
I'm too stupid to know what quit means, giving up is just not in my DNA. About 4 weeks ago I woke up with a strange & foreign feeling. It was depression and because it was foreign to me I didn't know what to do with it. My doctors knew what it was asked me how I felt about seeing a psychologist, I was willing to do anything, so I started seeing one and in a short time I have come to treasure that weekly hour. I contemplated talking about this but if it's going to keep me alive longer then I'm all for it and I'm not too proud to talk about it.
I just broke up with someone whom I treasured, I just didn't know it She was my rock at doctor's visits. Her being a Nurse Practioner I always felt better when she was there. She could de-cipher "Doctor Talk."She arranged my weekly pills (20 per day) and my boys loved her. I stopped by the house earlier this morning to pick up some stray items and all I could do was stare at this wonderful woman that was put in my life. We'll stay friends and I guess I'll need to be happy with that.
I'm getting back on track with my blogging. I realized that to be moving ahead I must stay moving. I didn't take any naps this past week and thats a big deal.
Thanks to each of you who reached out, it helps keep me stable and centered.
A blog from me wouldn't be complete without a photo of my sons. Trevor just turned 13 and stands 6 foot tall.


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Moixa > Case Studies > Project ERIC
Project ERIC
Moixa is leading a £1.2 million project that is showing how a local smart energy system can save a community money and allow it to generate more power from renewables.
Project ERIC (Energy Resources for Integrated Communities) aims to tackle fuel poverty in Rose Hill, East Oxford, a social housing estate which is in the lower 10% of the UK's most deprived communities. The project was named Residential Building Energy Project of the Year in the Energy Awards, 2016.
Moixa has installed 2kWh smart batteries in 82 homes, a primary school and an 8kWh battery stack in a local community centre. The batteries are linked to 200kWp of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the homes and a further 100kWp of solar on the school and community centre, creating a virtual smart local energy grid.
Moixa's innovative software manages energy flows to ensure that the maximum amount of solar power generated in Rose Hill is used within the community. So, for example, when one home is using little of its solar power the electricity can be used by a neighbour rather than exported to the national grid.
The system controls when the battery systems are charging or discharging to manage community load. The software includes "learning algorithms" which respond to user behaviour and solar generation. By managing energy flows it is able to reduce stress on the grid and allow the network to support a higher level of renewables.
Debbie Haynes, Energy Efficiency Projects Officer at Oxford City Council, said: "We are delighted to be part of project ERIC. Fuel poverty reduction is a key aim for Oxford City Council and ERIC is showing how battery storage and PV can change the way communities make and use power and reduce bills for residents."
Local resident Terence Eden said: "I love the idea of installing something that could be revolutionary for British homes."
Moixa is leading the 27-month project, working with Oxford City Council and a range of other partners. Environmental charity Bioregional brings expertise in community engagement, Oxford Brookes University is evaluating results and assessing household experiences, ReEnergise is looking at how the local energy system can support commercial grid services, while British Gas and Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution bring energy industry experience and commercial direction. The project is funded by Innovate UK, Moixa, British Gas and Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution.
View all Case Studies >


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« BASF Won't Have Endorsement in S.F. DA Race | Main | L.A. the Place for Law Firm Mergers in Q3 »
Chen Toasted, Republicans Roasted
[Ginny LaRoe]
Edward Chen -- a jokester, former civil rights lawyer, karaoke singer, esteemed magistrate judge, penny-pincher and target of a fierce conservative opposition -- celebrated his induction to the U.S. District Court Tuesday evening.
The estimated 900 guests who filled a record seven courtrooms in the federal courthouse were more than ready to celebrate Chen's confirmation -- and to razz the Senate Republicans who almost blocked it.
Just seconds into Chief Judge James Ware's welcoming remarks, the crowd burst into applause at the mere hint of Chen surviving the lengthy confirmation battle. President Obama first nominated him in August 2009, then three more times as opposition to the ex-ACLU staff attorney persisted.
Ware said of the large crowd: "It made me wonder if Judge Chen should be running for political office."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, who recommended then-Magistrate Judge Chen for the San Francisco seat on the Northern District bench, told the crowd there were times times over the last two years when "I wasn't quite certain this [confirmation] would take place."
She was "amazed" at how "some people went out of their way to distort and contrive."
Senate Republicans, led by Jeff Sessions of Alabama, had criticized Chen's liberal stances while an ACLU lawyer and used snippets of speeches he'd given while a magistrate judge to challenge his impartiality. One speech in particular became fodder for the GOP. Addressing law students in 2005, Chen talked about his mixed emotions at the funeral Fred Korematsu, the Japanese American prosecuted for evading internment and whose case at the ACLU is Chen's most famous. Chen recalled feelings of "ambivalence and cynicism when confronted with appeals to patriotism." A lesser publicized part of his speech included talking about being moved to tears when mourners sang "America the Beautiful."
In a subtle, poignant even, response to that criticism, some of Chen's friends led the crowd in a rendition of the song.
Honoring Chen were a long list of big names and old friends from the Bay Area legal community, including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Chen's former law school roommate, and Senior Ninth Circuit Judge James Browning, for whom Chen once clerked.
A colorful toast -- and roast -- came from Dale Minami, the influential plaintiff lawyer and Chen's former professor who lobbied hard for Chen's confirmation.
Minami captured Chen in a nutshell: A good bowler but a terrible golfer, a man of international experiences whose favorite cinematic characters are the Three Stoges, a judge who pens eloquent opinions and "very very juvenile emails," a man with a wicked sense of humor that could even be called "perverse," and a singer with a voice who can hush crowds even while he's clad in tourist-cliche attire of white sneakers and sweat socks pulled up mid-calf.
Recounting a trip to Hawaii, Minami said Chen took to the mic at a karaoke bar and sang Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," for a crowd that grew silent and then gave a spontaneous standing ovation, "despite those white sweat socks."
Up next was Chen's former law partner at Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer.
For his part, Chen started off "dispelling two rumors" that contributed to the huge crowd: That there would be a Lexis raffle and that everyone was invited to a party at fellow District Judge Richard Seeborg's "Pacific Heights mansion."
He thanked Feinstein for "taking a chance" on a nominee who not only worked at the ACLU but also one whose first suit at the ACLU was against the city of San Francisco while Feinstein was mayor.
Chen on a couple of occasions turned his attention to Sessions, the Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee who once said Obama's nominees seemed to have "ACLU DNA." Chen, channeling his best Alabama drawl, remarked on the attention paid to his own nomination compared to Seeborg, who merely got a, "Judge Seeborg, good luck."
Taking a more serious tone, Chen said his confirmation shows that a nominee "who once represented the voiceless and impoverished rather than the wealthy and popular" can serve on the bench.
"ACLU in one' s DNA is not a disease," he said, "It is an honor."


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Glasshole Nation May 23, 2014
Google Glass Users Gang Up on East Village Restaurant by Posting Really Mean Reviews
By Hugh Merwin
A feast for the senses, just not for the search engine. Photo: Liz Clayman
Feast, which opened last March on Third Avenue with a large-format, nose-to-tail menu concept, has been plugging away with an exhaustive amount of greenmarket vegetables and various cuts of whole-roasted animals ever since. It's a small operation, but people tend to like the place. After management asked a Google Glass-wearing customer to remove the device one fateful brunch a few weeks back, however, the restaurant was hit with thirteen retaliatory one-star reviews posted in rapid succession, which of course now come up among the first results anytime someone looks up the business online.
Management tells EV Grieve it all started with a Glass-wearing customer who came in for brunch. After an earlier incident with a different patron, Feast had gotten "several comments about privacy" from customers, upon which the Glass-wearing customer consented to removing his glasses. When they approached the second Google Glass-wearing customer to remove her hardware before tucking into brunch, however, she said no, left the restaurant, then filed a short report on the situation on — of course — Google Plus, which quickly elicited several pointers on Glass etiquette in public spaces like dining rooms and private ones like restaurant bathrooms, as well as a bunch of angry comments. ("Of course I'll remove my Glass. And check please.")
This all went down less than two months after a Google Glass wearer who was attacked at a San Francisco bar boldly declared she was the victim of a "hate crime," so the Silcon Valley-esque equivalent of the old Charlton Heston-ism about how you can only get his gun when you pry it from his cold and dead hands was also in full effect, and it clearly spilled over to Feast's reviews. Here's some what the Glass contingent is saying about the restaurant they've never visited:
"They discriminate against people who are into new technology. Do not eat here."
"Ignorant bigots and hateful. Perhaps being illegally discriminate too. The food is irrelevant as the service is less than poor."
"Do not go here. They are very biased towards new technology. They allow patrons to use mobile phones to take photos or videos of other patrons. And they ask patrons to leave without fully understanding what a product does."
"Troglodytes with poor attitudes."
So, serious and somewhat hilarious stuff. But interestingly, the restaurant is clearly unhappy about the recent turn of events, but its proprietors seem to realize they may not have much of a choice on the matter, given the ineluctable nature of things like starred, online reviews, and, of course, Google itself. "It's not a policy set in stone, so it could very well change," a manager says.
A Google Glass Feast [EV Grieve]
Related: Google Glass User Who Railed Against East Village Restaurant Invited Back In
glasshole nation
Google Glass Users Gang Up on East Village Restaurant by Posting Really Mean


After a minor delay of only a couple of months, I can finally post this little piece of work. Even though I did write it in February, it took me until today to gather all my strength to finalize it. You know, writing a story can be so easy, the hard part is editing. Again I had help in the form of feedback provided by my lovely writers group. Please check out Jack's and MT's monthly flash fiction (click on the names to follow the links). And please find mine below. Enjoy!
I storm inside once the door opens.
My sister raises an eyebrow at me, softly closing the front door again. "Will you stop yelling? The kids are asleep." She talks in the same hushed voice she's adopted ever since the birth of her twins.
It drives me nuts. Even more so now. My hands clutch the handle of my bag. "Where is it?" I ask, my voice trembling. I don't allow the tears to flow.
"Dana, what are you talking about?" My sister has one hand on her hip, her eyes judging me as they have had for years.
My sister sighs and vanishes down the hall. When she returns she's holding an old, tattered fedora.
Even among a thousand hats like that one, I would recognize my father's. Nothing's more familiar to me than all the stitches on that hat trying to hold it together.
"I just don't get why you would make such a fuss about a dusty hat!" My sister hands it to me and I clutch it to my chest.
I cradle the hat like a baby. It still smells like him, musky and warm.
"You never understood." I shoot my sister one last glare. Then I open the front door myself, step out and shut it with a bang.
Upstairs, the babies start crying.


For nearly 200 years the Jucker family has been in the baking biz. The tradition started in Poland in the 1820s, stopped when the family was sent to Nazi concentration camps in 1941 and revived on Houston's Holman Street in May 1949. Ever since, the family has been busy serving their famous eastern European style breads, cakes and pastries to loyal Houstonians at their Three Brothers Bakery.
Though the business relocated a few times throughout the years, even closed for 10 months because of wind and water damage caused by Hurricane Ike. But today, it holds strong at its Braeswood store, as well as its Memorial City location, which opened in spring 2012.
Faithful followers flock to the full-service bakery for rye breads, famous challah (egg bread), biales and bagels. The spot also serves up New York-style black and white cookies, gingerbread, pastries, sinfully-sweet cakes and party trays.
• Owner/chef Bobby Jucker competed in Food Network's Cake Challenge (2011).
• Pecan pie named one of five best mail order pies in America by Country Living magazine (2010).


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Rielle Hunter: I was helping John Edwards find his 'authentic self'
Despite many people telling her it wasn't the best idea to sit down with Oprah Winfrey for an interview, Rielle Hunter - politician John Edwards' mistress - decided to do it anyway.
"I feel in my heart it's the right thing to do," Hunter said Thursday, especially now that "Johnny," as she calls him, has admitted paternity of their daughter, Frances Quinn.
Hunter said she wanted to set the facts straight about who she is, and that while she understands the judgment that has been heaped upon her, she doesn't see herself as a home wrecker or gold digger, she told Winfrey.
Post by: Breeanna Hare, Special to CNN
Filed under: Celebrities • Oprah Winfrey • television
'Real Housewives of ATL' star NeNe denies cheating
"Real Housewives of Atlanta" star NeNe Leakes and her husband are battling back against rumors that she is a cheater.
For weeks blogs have been buzzing that Leakes has been having an affair with NFL player Charles Grant – a charge she strongly denies.
"Greg and I are still together – not separated or divorced," Leakes said in a statement released to CNN. "I have not left my husband for NFL player Charles Grant, and I don't know how those rumors started."
Filed under: Celebrities • Real Housewives of Atlanta • television
Shakira in Arizona to protest new immigration law
Two popular singers are in Arizona on Thursday to voice their opposition to the state's tough new immigration law.
Grammy Award-winning Colombian singer Shakira will meet with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon at City Hall in the evening. Gordon has called the law unconstitutional and has said he may sue on behalf of the city to stop the law from taking effect.
Legendary singer-songwriter Linda Ronstadt will attend a rally that organizers say will draw thousands. Ronstadt grew up in a Mexican-American family in Tucson.
The new law requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally. It also requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect they're in the United States illegally.
Critics say the law will foster racial profiling.
Editor's Note: Grammy Award winner, singer, songwriter and philanthropist Shakira is heading to Phoenix , Arizona, to lend a voice in the immigration debate. Tonight she talks to Anderson Cooper about what she hopes to accomplish. Watch "AC360," tonight at 10 ET on CNN.
Katie Holmes to portray Jackie Kennedy
testing captions
"The Kennedys" are coming to the History Channel.
According to an announcement made by the channel, the eight-hour scripted mini-series based on the Kennedy family will star Greg Kinnear as President John F. Kennedy, Canadian actor Barry Pepper as his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Tom Wilkinson as their father Ambassador Joe Kennedy, Sr., and Katie Holmes as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
The mini-series, set to premiere in 2011, marks the cable network's first scripted project.
'Top Chef Masters' recap: The final two champions
Fruit plates. Comfort food. The cast of the hit show "Modern Family." And an interview with one of this week's chefs, Jody Adams - James Beard Award-winning owner of Boston's Rialto Restaurant!
This week's recap of "Top Chef Masters" is piping hot and ready to be served. And this week, "sheperd's pie" is spelled correctly.
It's week four of the second season, and this is the final episode before the "Champion's Round." Two more chefs will be chosen to move on, and three will pack their knives and return to their fabulously successful culinary careers. FULL POST
Post by: John DeVore -- Special to CNN
Filed under: television • Top Chef


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Global Virtual Care Provider Physitrack Expands into Latin America
By: Physitrack via Business Wire News Releases
September 04, 2020 at 03:01 AM EDT
Physitrack, the leading provider of multi-lingual technology for Virtual Care in over 100 countries, and the main provider of remote patient engagement solutions to physical therapy and orthopaedic providers during the Covid-19 pandemic, continues its global expansion into Latin America.
Following substantial investments in local South American hosting infrastructure via Amazon Web Services, as well as launching a fully translated Spanish version of Physitrack's patient engagement and Telehealth solution, Physitrack hereby officially announces its broader launch into Latin America.
Says Henrik Molin, CEO and co-founder of Physitrack: "We are very excited to offer our award-winning technology to Latin America's over 650 million+ inhabitants at a time when they bravely fight the devastating effects of the Covid-19 global pandemic. To assist as much as we can, we have made sure extended free trial options, post-trial pricing and the local version of the solution itself are adapted to local patient care needs. We hope to put our technology in the hands of providers who can quickly make a difference for patients in need of care - now. Our solutions are applicable for acute, post-acute and chronic musculoskeletal and neurological conditions, and can help patients who are subject to social distancing and isolation in this unprecedented period."
Most notably, Physitrack will offer local care providers completely free usage for up to 30 days as well as complimentary Telehealth throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Physitrack's Latin American expansion efforts will be lead by a regional team, with the support and assistance of Physitrack's global technology and sales teams.
For further information, please visit https://www.physitrack.com
Physitrack is an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mobility Partner and the world leader in the provision of Virtual Care technology. Physitrack works with tens of thousands of public and private healthcare providers around the world that cares for several million patients in over 100 countries.
Physitrack Limited
Raul Perojo: rp@physitrack.com


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Select a blog entry New short course on financing for community health programmes Fellows host Zoom on running for local government office in Nigeria Fellow appointed as VP of International Affiliated Institutes at the Chartered Insurance Institute Open Letter to President Buhari from Archbishop Tutu Fellows Edwin Macharia a Director at the Nature Conservancy Fellow on UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances South African power utility appoints Fellow as GM of People Relations Aidan Eyakuze elected to lead at the Open Government Partnership Trevor Manuel to chair AFLI's Board of Directors Bibi Bakare Yusuf wins Distinguished Africanist Award Fellow releases Board Diversity Index for Ghana listed companies Nigeria appoints Fellow to assist with development planning Access Bank appoints Hassan Usman to the board Zimbabwean Fellow jailed for 'inciting violence' finally released on bail Makgola Makololo appointed MD of Bombardier Transportation South Africa Robtel Neajai Pailey appointed Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics Fellow appointed as an Ekiti State Commissioner in Nigeria Acting quickly and reflecting deeply - lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic African Risk Capacity appoints Ladé Araba as Director Two Fellows appointed as Special Advisors to President Buhari Ifeoma Malo named Nigerian Power Industry Leader of the Year Fellow moderates Women Behind the Mask panel A ringside seat to history AFLI report launch on the greater inclusion of youth in governance If you don't do politics, politics will do you Fellows listed in 2020 100 Most Influential African women list Massive deal creates black and women-owned engineering company Tutu Leadership Programme deferred to 2021 Opportunities from a global pandemic Tutu Fellow the Regional Funds Coordinator at the AFDB Tackling venture capital bias in Africa Two Fellows named in 2020's List of 100 Most Reputable Africans Tutu Fellow writes moving tribute for the late President Mkapa COVID-19 is accelerating multilateralism in Africa Fellow opens new medical clinic in Accra Amplifying Africa's creative potential and telling its stories UN Secretary General delivers Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture Sithembumenzi Vuma an Investment Director at UK Development institution Fellows connect, reflect and support each other during COVID-19 Tutu Fellow appointed to UCT Council Fellow delivers convocation address, becoming the first African to do so Fellow drafts UN policy brief for Namibia amidst the pandemic Keeping the nation in data darkness as a deliberate strategy COVID-19 exposes the ways in which black lives don't matter Five Fellows in The Africa Report's Top 50 Disruptors list Fellow sets up emergency ICU field hospital for COVID-19 patients Fellow starts directory site to help the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria Tutu Fellow appointed to the Rwanda Development Board Former AFLI head to lead the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Fellow analyzes impact of coronavirus on Egypt's economy
Monique Atouguia
Nigeria appoints Fellow to assist with development planning
2019 Tutu Fellow Samson Itodo has been appointed by the Nigerian government as a member of the national steering committee for the new Nigerian development plan, Agenda 2050. Itodo is the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, a community of change-makers focused on building sustainable democracies in Africa anchored on the principles of inclusion, justice, accountability and constitutionalism.
He convened the Not Too Young To Run movement that led the successful advocacy for the reduction of age limits for running for public office in the Nigerian constitution. The campaign was adopted by the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS as a global campaign.
Class of 2010 Development Policy Development Planning Nigeria
Access Bank appoints Hassan Usman to the board
2007 Tutu Fellow Hassan Musa Usman has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Access Bank Plc, following the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Access Bank is a Nigerian multinational commercial bank, owned by Access Bank Group. Hassan brings his experience as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aso Savings and Loans Plc to his board position, as well as other previous experience in this space.
Class of 2007 Commercial banking Nigeria Board appointment
Makgola Makololo appointed MD of Bombardier Transportation South Africa
The global mobility technology multinational, Bombardier Transportation, has announced the appointment of 2019 Tutu Fellow Makgola Makololo as Managing Director for South Africa. In this role, she is responsible for Bombardier Transportation's strategy, development and deployment in the country, with sustainable customer and partner relationships as priorities.
Makgola is an engineer with extensive management experience in large-scale organisations and has been listed as a leader in science and technology by a variety of publications. Globally, Bombardier has nearly 60,000 employees and manufactures planes and trains.
Class of 2019 engineering South Africa Women Leaders transportation Bombardier
Robtel Neajai Pailey appointed Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics
2010 Tutu Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey PhD has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she contributes to a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Robtel is an academic, published author, essayist, scholar-activist and children's book author.
Author Class of 2010 African Studies Academia London School of Economics
Fellow appointed as an Ekiti State Commissioner in Nigeria
2019 Tutu Fellow Akintunde Oyebode has been appointed as the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development for Etiki State in Nigeria. He was sworn in by the State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, following a cabinet reshuffle. Akin has played several senior roles in Ekiti state government, with this now being his most senior role.
Akin was previously the Special Adviser on Investment, Trade and Innovation at Ekiti State government, where he was responsible for leading the state government's efforts to make Ekiti an attractive destination for investors and innovation-driven enterprises. An additional element to that portfolio had been creating jobs for young people.
Ekiti State Nigeria Young leaders Class of 2019
Acting quickly and reflecting deeply - lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
2009 Tutu Fellow James Mwangi has penned a thought piece on insights and lessons that can be gained from the COVID-19 pandemic. James is the Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, and a Partner with Dalberg Advisors. James cautions that while "COVID-19 is the defining socio-economic and geo-political event of our lives to date – it may not be the last major disruption." In his piece, he emphasises the importance of both action and reflection.
He points to the social fault lines the pandemic has exposed and warns that the existential issues of climate change and profound inequality—and their explosive nexus—remain ahead of us. It holds the promise, he says, that if ignored, of disruptions that will dwarf the current catastrophe.
Class of 2009 Essay COVID-19
African Risk Capacity appoints Ladé Araba as Director
The governance committee of African Risk Capacity Limited has appointed 2014 Tutu Fellow Ladé Araba to join its Board of Directors. Ladé is the Managing Director for Africa at Convergence Finance. She is also the Co-Founder and President of the Visiola Foundation, which empowers African girls and young women through education, training, and mentoring in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Also appointed to the board was Sarata Kone-Thiam.
African Risk Capacity (ARC) is a specialized agency of the African Union that was established to help African governments improve their capacities to better plan, prepare, and respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
African Union Natural disasters Class of 2014 governance
Two Fellows appointed as Special Advisors to President Buhari
Two Tutu Fellows, Lai Yahaya and Moji Rhodes, have been appointed as Special Advisors to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. Lai is a 2009 Fellow and Moji a 2014 Fellow.
Lai was appointed as a Senior Special Advisor to the President handling Strategy and Planning, while Moji was appointed as a Special Advisor handling Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. Their appointments were announced in August 2020.
President Muhammadu Buhari Nigeria Class of 2014 Class of 2009
Ifeoma Malo named Nigerian Power Industry Leader of the Year
2013 Tutu Fellow Ifeoma Malo has been awarded the Power Industry Leader of the Year at the prestigious Nigerian African Power, Energy and Water Industry Awards.
Ify is the Nigerian Campaign Director for Power for All, a global decentralized renewable campaign organization. She is also the founder and CEO of Clean Tech Hub and the Energy Innovation Center in Abuja. She was the immediate past Senior Policy Adviser on Energy Policies, Regulations and Partnerships to the Minister of Power in Nigeria and advised on the policy direction for large-scale grid-connected and off-grid power.
Class of 2013 Nigeria Accolades electricity power
Fellow moderates Women Behind the Mask panel
Investec's Women Behind the Mask initiative is a series of robust conversations which showcases women making a difference, and how women can help other women to move South Africa forward. In this second edition of the webcast series, 2016 Fellow Cumesh Moodliar, who is the Head of Private Banking at Investec, chaired a panel of women who are leaders in banking and financial markets. They discussed the impact that women in leadership had had on decisions made during lockdown for COVID-19.
The panel comprised Fundi Tshazibana, the Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank; Tertia Jacobs, a Treasury Economist at Investec Bank SA; Leila Fourie, the Group CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange; Rene van Zyl, a Tax & Fiduciary Specialist at Investec Wealth & Investment; and Ruth Leas, the CEO of Investec Bank UK.
Gender Parity Lockdown Financial Services COVID-19 Women in Leadership Class of 2016
AFLI report launch on the greater inclusion of youth in governance
The African Leadership Institute's Project Pakati launched its report titled The Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Public Service and Governance on August 12, International Youth Day 2020. The report is part of an ongoing partnership between the African Leadership Institute and the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy, to shift young Africans to the centre of the African development narrative. These efforts are being funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation.
The focus of this report is less on making the self-evident case for the need for young people to operate in governance and the policy realm, but rather on how progress can be accelerated and how African Union member states can achieve greater youth inclusion in public service and government.
governance African Union African Union Office of the Youth Envoy policy youth in governance
Fellows listed in 2020 100 Most Influential African women list
Several Tutu Leadership Programme alumni have been named in this year's 100 Most Influential African Women list, which is published annually by Avance Media. They are Elsie Kanza, Ndidi Nwuneli, and Mimi Kalinda.
The prestigious listing is presented as a ranking of the 100 most influential African women, providing a summary of women who have climbed the corporate ladder, started their own businesses, or have been at the forefront of decision-making both locally and internationally. The criteria for selection include excellence in leadership and performance, personal accomplishments, commitment to sharing knowledge, breaking the status quo, and being an accomplished African woman. The listing was released in August, to coincide with Women's Month.
Class of 2008 Class of 2006 Class of 2017 Womens' Month women in leadership positions Women for leadership Women
Opportunities from a global pandemic
In an insightful African Business Magazine article, 2019 Tutu Fellow, Ronak Golpaldas examines the opportunities the global pandemic has presented the African continent with. He goes on to unpack four areas that present the greatest opportunities, namely, in healthcare, public-private collaboration, economic diversification; and regional cooperation.
Ronak Gopaldas is a political economist, "pracademic", writer and speaker. His work focuses on the intersection of politics, economics and business in Africa. He stresses the importance of finding opportunity in crisis. In his piece, he notes that, "it is important not to lose sight of how these disruptions can be used to catalyse significant behavioural, business and governance improvements and leave lasting legacy benefits."
disruption Economics healthcare COVID-19
Tutu Fellow the Regional Funds Coordinator at the AFDB
2018 Tutu Fellow Jean-Guy Afrika has been appointed as the Chief Regional Funds Co-ordinator at the African Development Bank. In this role, he is responsible for the African Trade Fund's (AfTRA) strategic planning and its overall management. This includes the monitoring and reporting of the operational performance of the Fund.
Jean-Guy is a public policy expert with deep specialization in trade, regional integration, and strategic planning and execution at the African Development Bank. He has coordinated efforts to develop two of the Bank's most pioneering policy/analytical instruments - the Africa Regional Integration Index; and the Visa Openness Index.
Regional integration African Development Bank visa openness
COVID-19 is accelerating multilateralism in Africa
The Founding Co-Director and Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and 2015 Tutu Fellow, Landry Signe, has published an analysis piece in The Washington Post. In it, he argues that COVID-19 prompted Africa to promote multilateralism through cooperation and coordination among its countries in the struggle against the impacts of the pandemic on the continent.
The piece, which he co-wrote with Mary Treacy of the Brookings Institution, goes beyond COVID-19, though, and makes an argument for its potential to build the continent's resource coordination and governance capacity.
Cooperation multilateralism COVID-19


This DVD companion is perfect for group or individual study. It can also be used in conjunction with the One Minute After You Die Study Guide.
Though the afterlife is shrouded in mystery, the Bible does peel back the curtain. Dr. Lutzer will help you understand what is on the other side.


text:
They make orange jumpsuits for stuff like this …don't they?
4LAKids: Sunday 26•June•2016
• EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS MERGE TO EXPAND PROGRAMS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
• FUND SET UP TO RAISE MONEY FOR L.A. UNIFIED MERGES WITH GROUP STARTING TWO CHARTER SCHOOLS
• UNDER PRESSURE TO PRODUCE BETTER NUMBERS, SCHOOL OFFICIALS IN CALIFORNIA AND NATIONWIDE HAVE OFTEN DONE WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET TO THOSE NUMBERS
• HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
• ► Friends4smf :: The GoFundMe campaign
• Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
Sometimes it isn't about what went wrong at LAUSD last week.
Sometimes [hopefully] it's about what went right/turned out well/shows promise.
And sometimes it's about what's been going on, institutionally …or just in the fringes – not below the radar -but certainly in the chaff.
This week it's a homework assignment+research project about two entities:
THE L.A. FUND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. [lafund.org]
LA's PROMISE [laspromise.org]
FIRST: Read that first two articles (following). Consider the sources.
Google the two funds. Wikipedia them. Look up their Form 990's. Copy your work to Julian Assange & Edward Snowden …though they undoubtedly already know – a secrets go this one isn't very!
Add 4LAKids to the search string (…I'm one of my favorite authors on the subject!) As you dig into the sordid tale you will discover this is part of the SONY Pictures e-mail hack by North Korean cyber hackers! LAUSD shenanigans; the international incident!
Please do the research. Please do the homework. Please tell me if you don't conclude that:
1. THE L.A. FUND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION and L.A.'s PROMISE are and always have been pretty much the same entity/cast o' characters/unusual suspects up to their usual mischief with as little of their own money and as much as the public's as possible.
2. and that this "merger" is:
A. a not-clever-enough-by-half way to "repurpose" tax-exempt donated funds intended to assist LAUSD schools+students TO
B. assist charter schools+students …and to perhaps enrich the principals and further their goals, programs and business enterprises.
EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS MERGE TO EXPAND PROGRAMS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
By Michael Janofsky | EdSource | http://bit.ly/28VnDnQ
June 23, 2016 :: Two nonprofit educational organizations said Thursday they are merging, with plans to expand their programs that largely operate in the Los Angeles Unified school district to districts countywide.
The two groups, LA's Promise and the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, said the new organization, the LA Promise Fund for Public Schools, will offer their current programs to the 80 other school districts within Los Angeles County, the most populous in California. The aim is to enhance academic and career prospects through enrichment programs for a greater number of students.
"Today is day one," said Veronica Melvin, the CEO of LA's Promise, who will lead the new organization. "Our approach will be to engage one-on-one with superintendents or board members across the county to let them know how we can help them grow."
Thursday's announcement is the second in recent months by private organizations embarking on a fundraising drive to help students in and around Los Angeles. It follows the creation of Great Public Schools Now, whose goal is to identify successful programs within L.A. Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, and replicate them through financial grants in high-poverty neighborhoods within the district.
The two efforts are unrelated, but taken together, they reflect a willingness of outside organizations to aid public school districts at a time when many of them are pressing to balance a high demand for quality education with budgetary constraints. The L.A. Unified board this week approved a $7.6 billion budget for the coming school year, but district officials have warned of a possible deficit by 2018-2019.
The new entity will continue to run three schools in south Los Angeles that have been managed by LA's Promise since 2006. Those schools are the result of a negotiated arrangement with the district that differentiates them from traditional L.A.Unified schools in how they're run in an effort to improve academic performance. The schools – two large South L.A. high schools (Manual Arts and West Adams Prep) and one middle school (John Muir) – have greater autonomy over budget, curriculum, instruction, schedule and staffing, but all employees are members of unions. The L.A. Unified board recently denied the group's application to open two charter schools, a middle school for the coming school year and a high school for the 2017-18 school year, but that decision was overturned on appeal by the Los Angeles County Board of Education.
The LA Fund managed a range of in-school programs throughout Los Angeles County, including Girls Build LA, an empowerment program that has reached more than 7,000 girls; The Intern Project, a paid internship program for high school students at companies like SpaceX and Participant Media; #ArtsMatter, an advocacy program that integrates arts and creativity into core curriculum; andGrants HQ, which offers personalized training and support to thousands of educators seeking additional classroom resources.
Melvin said the new LA Promise Fund intends to spend the next three months identifying specific goals, strategies for implementing them and fundraising. Each of the merging organizations has an annual budget of $3 million.
"Over the past several years, LA's Promise and the LA Fund have both compiled impressive track records with programs that empower students both inside and outside the classroom," Megan Chernin, who serves on the boards of both merging organizations, said in a statement. "The new enterprise formed by the combination of these two extraordinary organizations will be in a unique position to seed great programs that can then be developed and rolled out across the county."
Without specifically citing the new organization, L.A. unified Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement, "The District is always open to new strategies for improving our schools, and we look forward to discussions that will help us better serve our students."
FUND SET UP TO RAISE MONEY FOR L.A. UNIFIED MERGES WITH GROUP STARTING TWO CHARTER SCHOOLS
by Howard Blume and Zahira Torres | LA Times | http://lat.ms/28WNuLr
June 23, 2016 :: Former L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy and Hollywood philanthropist Megan Chernin had ambitious goals in 2011 when they announced the creation of a nonprofit that in five years would raise $200 million for district students.
see: EFFORT LAUNCHED TO RAISE $200 MILLION FOR L.A. PUBLIC SCHOOLS - latimes - http://lat.ms/28XEN8u
They said the Los Angeles Fund for Education, with fundraising prowess and freedom from bureaucratic constraints, would help revolutionize a district that had long struggled to educate its children.
The nonprofit fell far short of that fundraising goal, drawing about $7 million in donations from its inception to 2014, according to the most recent tax documents available. Now, the LA Fund has announced a merger that shifts its mission away from an exclusive focus on the district.
The LA Fund has joined forces with LA's Promise, a nonprofit that manages three district schools, to create LA Promise Fund, a new organization whose goals will include forming charter schools.
"We were left no other option" but to open charter schools, said Chernin, who serves on the boards of both groups. "We just want to have a larger impact and we want to be more efficient about our impact."
Chernin said the merger is, in part, a reflection of the groups' limited ability to work successfully with L.A. Unified, for which she faults the school district.
The new nonprofit's leaders say the decision also will reduce operating costs, allowing it to serve more students across the county who live in poverty.
But the new direction offers another sign that philanthropists who were attempting to overhaul the nation's second-largest school district from within now are looking for other avenues.
"We want to create the maximum opportunities for the most disenfranchised youth of Los Angeles and we realized that together we could have a great impact," said Veronica Melvin, the chief executive of LA's Promise, who will head the new group.
The decision comes as Los Angeles Unified contends with another reform effort, originally spearheaded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, that sought to more than double the number of charter schools in the city over eight years, a move that would slash the district's enrollment and state funding.
That proposal evolved into a plan put forward last week by the nonprofit Great Public Schools Now, which says it wants to hand out grant money to expand not just charters but any effective schools in L.A.'s low-income neighborhoods – even potentially expanding good traditional public schools.
The LA Promise Fund could be among the organizations that benefit.
L.A. Unified officials recently rejected a bid by LA's Promise to start two charter schools, saying the organization needed to concentrate instead on improving achievement at the schools it already manages for the district. The charters later were approved by the county.
"I hope this new effort is about collaboration and not competition," Board President Steve Zimmer said about the merger. "My door, our door, is always open to collaboration. What we've learned is that conflict and competition does not help kids."
Deasy came up with the LA Fund and pursued donors interested in seeing a specific set of reforms at the district.
But after he resigned under pressure in October 2014, a political shift in the school board left donors who supported his goals without a powerful ally to pursue their favored reforms, which included making test scores a key factor in teacher evaluations and opening more charter schools.
Some blamed Deasy's departure for the LA Fund's anemic fundraising. But even while he was in office, the donations didn't pour in.
To raise an amount like $200 million, "you have to be responsive, you have to work very carefully with your donors, you have to listen to your donors," said Antonia Hernandez, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation, who said she applauds Chernin's efforts and supports the merger. She added that previously "the conditions were not ideal for conveying a sense of confidence to the people giving money that it would be well spent."
The LA Fund helped launch Breakfast in the Classroom, a program to provide food to all students at the start of the school day, which brought in additional federal funding. Previously students had the option of arriving before school to receive a free breakfast.
The fund also paid for an advertising campaign that stressed the importance of arts education and sponsored teams of girls at 44 schools that competed to develop solutions to community problems. Another of the nonprofit's initiatives linked teachers to classroom grant opportunities and students to internships.
Leaders of the newly merged organization say the projects will continue and will be open to schools throughout L.A. County.
While L.A. Unified students are expected to derive some benefit, the mega-district now is left without an outside foundation devoted to supporting the 550,000 students in district-operated schools. By contrast, the target of the Beverly Hills Education Foundation is to raise an average of $1,000 per student, or about $4 million annually for its more than 4,000 students.
The LA Promise Fund, which will have a budget of about $6 million, hopes to create a pipeline of schools, extending from kindergarten through 12th grade.
"We wanted and would still love to do that with LAUSD, but it wasn't on the table for us," Chernin said. "So we figured we could create charters."
Times staff writer Joy Resmovits contributed to this report.
►LA TIMES EDITOR'S NOTE: The Times' Education Matters initiative receives funding from a number of foundations, including one or more mentioned in this article. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content.
UNDER PRESSURE TO PRODUCE BETTER NUMBERS, SCHOOL OFFICIALS IN CALIFORNIA AND NATIONWIDE HAVE OFTEN DONE WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET TO THOSE NUMBERS
Editorial by The LA Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/28WRk7n
26 June 2016 :: In 2014, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced a spectacular improvement in its graduation rate: Fully 77% of students who had come in as 9th graders four years earlier were now going to graduate as seniors. But there was a bit of a trick behind the number: It included only students who attended what are called "comprehensive" high schools. Those who had been transferred to alternative programs — the students most at risk of dropping out — weren't counted. If they had been factored in, the rate would have been 67% — still good, but not nearly as flashy a number.
Here's another example of a misleading number: In May of this year, the California Department of Education reported a rise in the statewide graduation rate, to 82%. But one reason for that was the cancellation of the high school exit exam, which used to be required for graduation and which students could pass only if they had attained a modicum of understanding of algebra and English skills.
In a time when most middle-class jobs require at least some training beyond 12th grade, raising the number of high school graduates is considered essential. Dropouts are not only more likely to be unemployed, but more likely to be imprisoned. That's why the newly passed federal education law, optimistically titled the Every Student Succeeds Act, requires states to hold high schools accountable for improving graduation rates.
The question, though, is whether schools will bring those numbers up the hard way, by improving the quality of education – or by falling back on shortcuts and gimmicks. Early indications suggest that they'll do a combination of both. States and school districts, not just locally but across the nation, have already come up with a wide array of ways to make graduation rates look good on paper:
-- When large numbers of students across the country failed high school exit exams over the past decade, states made it easier for them to pass. California devised a simpler test; in New Jersey, students who failed were permitted to take a far easier exam that asked them only one question for each subject area. And if they still failed, they could appeal by doing an essay or another project. Last year in Camden, N.J., after nearly half the students flunked the initial exam, almost all of them were able to get their diplomas through one of the other routes.
-- Several states, including California, have eliminated their high school exit exams altogether. And California was among at least six states — including Texas and Georgia — to award retroactive diplomas to students who had failed their exit exams in previous years.
-- In Chicago, low-performing public school students were counseled to leave school for job-training or graduate-equivalency programs, and then counted as transfers rather than dropouts. When an outcry ensued, the school district lowered its previously inflated graduation rates in 2015.
--Texas allows schools to count students as "leavers" rather than dropouts if they say they're moving elsewhere or doing home-schooling, without checking into whether those assertions are true.
-- Perhaps the newest and most widespread method that schools are using to boost graduation rates are online credit-recovery courses such as the ones that L.A. Unified offered this academic year when only about 54% of seniors were on track to graduate. After a hefty dose of online credit-recovery courses and other efforts, the latest but still preliminary figure is now reported to be 74%. These courses can be rigorous and valuable educational tools – but they also sometimes allow students to too quickly and too easily make up the courses they have failed.
Russell Rumberger, director of the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara, is not a fan of measuring a school's success by its graduation rate for precisely that reason: Doing so encourages schools to lower their standards or to use misleading numbers or to find ways to get failing students out of their schools without having to count them as dropouts. In any case, he says, "a diploma is a blunt instrument" for measuring learning; one study found that low-income students need to show better mastery of the material than merely a pass in order to have a real shot at reaching the middle class.
Under pressure to produce better numbers, school officials in California and nationwide have often done whatever it takes to get to those numbers.
Like it or not, Rumberger says, higher standards — such as those in the Common Core curriculum standards recently adopted in California and most other states — tend to mean lower graduation rates, and it's disingenuous for states to say they can raise both at once, and quickly.
It's not that schools, including those at L.A. Unified, haven't made some authentic progress in graduating more students. The district deserves credit for taking steps to follow up on absent students before they become chronically truant. It has eliminated out-of-school suspensions for relatively minor misbehavior. (Rumberger was involved in a recent study showing that suspension increases a student's risk of dropping out.) These days, high school staff at many schools seem to be more personally familiar with students than they used to be, and the students in turn seem more comfortable interacting with the adults. Counselors more often take the initiative, sitting students down to talk about how they will make up missing credits. And the district has been offering after-school and Saturday makeup classes as well as the online credit-recovery courses.
But under pressure to produce better numbers, school officials in California and nationwide have often done whatever it takes to get to those numbers, including lowering standards while pretending to raise them, and reclassifying students instead of educating them. These students then go on to college or the workplace, mistakenly thinking they have the skills they'll need.
The irony is that the school-reform movement that has been leading the push for higher graduation rates got its start years ago in a struggle to raise academic standards. It arose in response to complaints from employers that a high school diploma hardly meant anything anymore. School reformers and Chamber of Commerce representatives complained that high school graduates couldn't pass the written test to become delivery drivers or construction apprentices. Standardized tests, including high school exit exams, were supposed to ensure that students reached at least a minimal level of proficiency.
But schools in some areas — Texas and New York City were infamous examples — started pushing out low-performing students. That led to greater recognition that schools nationwide were, if not going as far as Texas by actively discouraging the students who most needed their help, also not doing much to get them to stay and raise their academic ambitions.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act, which never did much to encourage higher graduation rates, might be dead, but its successor will have little chance of succeeding if policymakers aren't realistic about the work and patience required to raise standards, test scores and graduation rates. It's slow, hard, incremental work without magic solutions, and improved numbers aren't always evidence of better-educated students.
This piece is the second in a two-part series. Read part one here.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
NEW STATE AGENCY GETS INFUSION OF $24 MILLION TO PROMOTE SCHOOL SUCCESS + LCFF ACCOUNTABILITY | EdSource | https://t.co/PGjYqhI17f
PARENTS+PRINCIPALS WILL WEIGH IN ON PROP 39 CHARTER CO-LOCATIONS AT L.A. SCHOOL CAMPUSES | LA Times | https://t.co/jfEsKCIOZx
Were they ever really two groups?: FUND SET UP TO RAISE $200 MILLION FOR LAUSD MERGES WITH CHARTER GROUP | LA Times | https://t.co/RcLL7TR2wX
JUST IN: Teacher jail numbers rise to 181, costing LA Unified $15 million - LA School Report | https://t.co/ewJzuliadE
FIVE SIGNS OF A PRIVATIZED CHARTER SCHOOL | @TPM | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-signs-of-privatized-charter-school | https://t.co/jJCnTYWpgV…
ROY COHN: WHAT DONALD TRUMP LEARNED FROM JOE McCARTHY'S RIGHT HAND MAN | NY Times | https://t.co/x6giA07F60
BILL GATES HINTS AT SUPPORT FOR CLINTON | https://t.co/LDV8DV1jMs
• Tues. June 28, 2016 - 11:00 a.m. SPECIAL BOARD MEETING - - Including Closed Session Items
• Tues. June 28, 2016 - 1:00 P.M. - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE -
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
...or the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state legislator, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Volunteer in the classroom. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child - and ultimately: For all children.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!
Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 13 years. He currently serves as Vice President for Health, is a Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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Labels: California Education, Charter schools, Dropout and grad rates, John Deasy, LA TIMES, LAUSD, Michelle King, Scott Folsom
They make orange jumpsuits for stuff like this …do...
Grieve. Mourn. Repeat.
On the merit+worthiness of stargazing+strategizing...
Hero.