text:
Coronavirus leads some Inland colleges to go…
Coronavirus leads some Inland colleges to go online-only, cancel events
UC Riverside graduates and their families pass by the UCR letters before the School of Business graduation ceremony on Pierce Lawn at the Riverside campus on June 15, 2018. The campus is among those evaluating possible changes in response to coronavirus fears. (File photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
By Ryan Hagen | rhagen@scng.com | The Sun
PUBLISHED: March 10, 2020 at 3:06 p.m. | UPDATED: March 14, 2020 at 3:54 p.m.
We are providing free access to this article. Please consider supporting local journalism like this by subscribing here.
Some Inland Empire colleges and universities are moving to online-only classes, canceling some events and preparing for other changes in response to the novel coronavirus.
UC Riverside announced Tuesday, March 10, that winter quarter final exams will not be held in person and that in-person instruction should be minimized for the remainder of the quarter, and that instructors should plan for spring quarter to be online only.
While Riverside County and surrounding counties have community spread of COVID-19, no one at UCR has COVID-19, Chancellor Kim Wilcox wrote in a letter to the campus community.
"However, as local, national and global public health recommendations shift to include mitigation of transmission, we are proactively taking steps that will help to protect the community," Wilcox wrote.
As other colleges in the state — including the University of Southern California — test online-only classes or cancel in-person classes entirely, administrators at local institutions mostly said they were following guidance issued Saturday, March 7, by the California Department of Public Health.
The department said all colleges should have already taken steps such as reviewing emergency plans; isolating students, faculty and staff who traveled to an area with COVID-19; and sending home anyone with a fever or signs of respiratory illness.
The next level would be triggered if there are two or more community transmission cases of COVID-19 — including considering alternatives to large gatherings on campus.
More significant steps kick in if a student, teacher or faculty member tests positive for COVID-19, followed by potential closure if more than five students, faculty, or staff on a campus test positive.
Riverside County's health officer declared a public health emergency Sunday, March 8. By the next day, four people in Riverside County had tested positive for coronavirus, including one case of community spread, in addition to two residents who caught the disease on the Diamond Princess Cruise ship and entered treatment in Northern California before returning to the Inland Empire.
San Bernardino County still has no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, but county officials declared a public health emergency Tuesday, March 10, to ensure they have what they need to prepare.
College officials said they are tracking changes closely and updating students and employees as often as possible. Plans could change.
UCR's announcement came after an online petition calling on UCR to cancel all in-person instruction through spring break and move instruction online.
By noon, more than 6,200 people had signed the petition started by Riverside resident Aram Ayra.
"I don't want us to get to a point where we're waiting for the first case to hit campus," Ayra said. "By that point, it might be too late. How many people did they come in contact with, how many elderly family members or folks with autoimmune diseases are they going to spread it to?"
Ayra sits on several public boards and is campaign manager for Riverside mayoral candidate Patricia Lock Dawson, but he said he was making the request only as a resident and 2008 graduate. Other universities should consider the same, he said, but he felt that he had standing to call on UCR to change its practice.
Concerns that some students won't be able to access online content or don't have a laptop are outweighed by concerns about safety, Ayra said.
Within the University of California system, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego announced Monday that at least some on-campus classes would move online.
Decisions at UC campuses will be made on a case-by-case basis, said Stett Holbrook, a spokesman for the office of the UC president.
"Each campus will comply with the orders of its local public health department, which could include various levels of curtailment and interventions," Holbrook wrote in an email. "These might include social distancing measures, the closure of child care facilities, workplace modifications, temporary suspension of classes, and the postponement or cancellation of public events and mass gatherings."
The Claremont Colleges
Emergency management representatives from the seven Claremont Colleges are meeting with other officials regularly to monitor the risk of COVID-19, a coronavirus page on the colleges' website states.
Pomona College in Claremont has canceled all public events for more than a month.
College spokeswoman Patricia Vest said while there are no reported cases of coronavirus at the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of five undergraduate schools, officials decided to cancel events of any size at Pomona College starting Tuesday, March 10, and continuing through April 18.
And, by April 1, officials will determine how to handle campus events after April 18, Vest said in an email.
Vest said the college's Alumni Weekend set for April 29-May 3 will shift to an online-only format and a decision concerning commencement is coming soon.
Pomona College has curbed college-funded air travel, Vest said, and developed contingency plans for conducting classes online and allowing some employees to telecommute.
Harvey Mudd canceled all college-sponsored travel and has canceled its President's Scholars and Admitted Students programs. The programs, originally scheduled for April 4-6, typically bring 600 people to campus, and officials are following CDC recommendations to limit large gatherings, the college's website states.
Mt. San Jacinto College
Mt. San Jacinto College — with colleges in San Jacinto, Menifee, Banning and Temecula — is speaking regularly with health officials and has an action plan, said spokeswoman Karin Marriott.
Marriot informed the community Monday that a PassEDA mixer planned for March 18 would be postponed because of concerns about the coronavirus.
"Although there is no immediate concern at this time, we at the PassEDA want to support the recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that promote good public health practices," Marriot wrote in an email. "We will notify our communities as soon as it is reasonable to reschedule the mixer."
Cal State San Bernardino
While no one connected to Cal State San Bernardino or in the county had tested positive as of Monday, President Tomás D. Morales said in an email to the campus community that a coronavirus task force had been formed.
All travel to China was suspended and additional travel restrictions could be imposed on short notice, Morales said.
"We are taking these measures in accordance with the University's top priority of protecting the safety, health and welfare of all students, faculty and staff," Morales wrote. "Understanding that these measures directly impact programming for students already scheduled to travel, provisions are being made to help students continue their forward progress toward earning their degree and not holding them financially responsible."
The Riverside Community College District — which runs Riverside City College, Moreno Valley College and Norco College — is taking guidance from local health authorities, Chancellor Wolde-Ab Isaac wrote in an email.
The district has increased cleaning and sanitizing for all hard services to help prevent the spread of germs. It also is urging employees and students to take precautions provided by the CDC to protect from the virus and is providing employees and students with a list of county and state resources available, and putting COVID-19 information online.
"The Riverside Community College District will continue to work with the California Community Colleges State Chancellor's Office, Governor's Office, federal, state and local health officials in an effort to ensure a safe and healthy environment," Isaac wrote.
San Bernardino Community College District
The San Bernardino Community College District, which runs San Bernardino Valley College and Crafton Hills College, will meet later this week to discuss safety measures, said spokesman Angel Rodriguez.
"For the past couple of weeks we've been sending our faculty, staff, emails about latest CDC reports, things they've been doing, so we've been in constant communication," Rodriguez said. "But now we're at the stage where, based on the Governor's Office, we're assessing whether to take further steps."
The University of La Verne has suspended all in-person instruction and is moving classes to online-only beginning Monday, March 16, according to an announcement on the university's website.
According to the statement, classes will remain online-only through the remainder of spring semester/term. Though there are no confirmed cases of the virus at the university, students who live on campus are expected to vacate their rooms by Friday, March 20.
Western University of Health Sciences
Western University's guidance includes recommending that people stay home if they feel sick and avoid all non-essential travel to areas affected by the coronavirus.
Students or employees who have been exposed to someone presumed to have COVID-19 should contact their healthcare provider and the college, and stay home for 14 days. They shouldn't return to work or class unless they've been fever-free, without medication, for at least 24-hours.
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Cal Baptist University has a coronavirus task force of various campus officials and experts and is "working closely" with the county as it monitors the situation, university spokesman Isaiah Aguirre said.
Loma Linda University
Loma Linda University remains open and operating as usual while officials monitor the evolving situation, said spokeswoman Briana Pastorino.
The university is updating students online.
La Sierra University is providing updates on the coronavirus online.
As of Monday, the University of Redlands had no identified cases at any of its campuses or study-away programs, said spokeswoman Jennifer Dobbs.
The university is updating the community online.
Chaffey College is monitoring the situation and advises students to wash their hands thoroughly and avoid sick people, among other precautions.
Updates will be provided online.
This story may be updated to include information about closures at area colleges and universities as they are announced.
Staff writer Jeff Horseman contributed to this report.
Top Stories RDF
Ryan Hagen | Reporter
Ryan Hagen covers San Bernardino County and politics for the Southern California News Group. Since he began covering Inland Empire governments in 2010, he's written about a city entering bankruptcy and exiting bankruptcy; politicians being elected, recalled and arrested; crime; a terrorist attack; fires; ICE; fights to end homelessness; fights over the location of speed bumps; and people's best and worst moments. A graduate of Pepperdine University, he teaches journalism classes at Cal State San Bernardino. His greatest accomplishment is breaking a coffee addiction. His greatest regret is any moment without coffee.
rhagen@scng.com
Follow Ryan Hagen	@rmhagen


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No jab, no job: Citigroup to fire unvaccinated staff this month
The US bank announced its plan to impose new vaccination rules in October and now becomes the first major Wall Street institution to follow through with a strict vaccine mandate
While Citigroup is the first Wall Street bank to enforce a vaccine mandate, a handful of other major US companies have introduced "no-jab, no-job" policies, including Google and United Airlines, with varying degrees of stringency. -- File photo
Published: Sat 8 Jan 2022, 12:34 PM
Citigroup Inc staff in the United States who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 by January 14 will be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month unless they are granted an exemption, according to a company memo seen by Reuters on Friday.
The US bank announced its plan to impose new vaccination rules in October and now becomes the first major Wall Street institution to follow through with a strict vaccine mandate.
Its move comes as the financial industry grapples with how to bring workers back to offices safely and get back to business as usual at a time when the highly infectious Omicron coronavirus variant is spreading like wildfire.
Other major Wall Street banks, including Goldman Sachs & Co, , Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co, have told some unvaccinated employees to work from home, but none has yet gone as far as sacking staff.
While Citigroup is the first Wall Street bank to enforce a vaccine mandate, a handful of other major US companies have introduced "no-jab, no-job" policies, including Google and United Airlines, with varying degrees of stringency.
More than 90 per cent of Citigroup employees have complied with the mandate so far and that figure is rising rapidly, according to a source familiar with the matter, adding that the timing of the vaccination mandate would be different for branch staff.
When it announced its policy, Citigroup also said it would assess exemptions on religious or medical grounds, or any other accommodation by state or local law, on a case-by-case basis.
The bank said then it was complying with the policy of US President Joe Biden's administration requiring all workers supporting government contracts to be fully vaccinated, as the government was a "large and important" client.
"You are welcome to apply for other roles at Citi in the future as long as you are compliant with Citi's vaccination policy," the bank said in the memo. "If you are not vaccinated, we urge you to get vaccinated as soon as possible."
DIVISIVE ISSUE
Vaccination has become a divisive issue in the United States, as it has in many countries around the world, with some people fiercely opposed and many Republicans critical of mandates imposed by governments and businesses.
The US Supreme Court was hearing arguments on Friday over requests by Republican state officials and business groups to block a Biden mandate for firms with more than 100 workers that requires employees be vaccinated or tested weekly.
Columbia Business School professor Adam Galinsky, who advises companies on their return-to-office strategies, said many companies initially welcomed the White House's vaccine mandate because it took the matter out of their hands.
"However, companies are recognizing that the Biden mandate may not hold up at the conservative Supreme Court," he said. "If it doesn't hold then they are going to have the decision put back in their hands and they will have to do something."
Many financial firms have pushed back their return-to-office plans and are encouraging staff to get vaccinated and boosted, but have so far avoided vaccine mandates for legal reasons.
"This is going to be a challenging and complex policy to implement," said Chase Hattaway, a partner at law firm RumbergerKirk, noting the bank has to navigate federal anti-discrimination and other state laws.
"Citi will have to tailor its policy to state legislation, and in many cases, cities and municipalities will have different regulations as well, that may require even further carve-outs," Hattaway said.
UNPAID LEAVE
Jacqueline Voronov, partner at law firm Hall Booth Smith, said, however, that courts have been upholding the right of private employers to mandate vaccines.
"A private employer is allowed to mandate its own policy. And if Citi wants to have a mandatory vaccination policy, they can do that," she said, provided the bank offers medical exemptions.
An increasing number of US companies have been using vaccine requirements to protect employees and avoid operations being disrupted by mass staff absences.
United Airlines chief executive Officer Scott Kirby said last month the carrier fired 200 of its 67,000 employees for failure to comply with its mandate.
Many hospitals have fired staff for failing to comply with mandates, which have been imposed on the healthcare industry in more than 20 states.
While some companies such as Tyson Foods Inc have gotten more than 96 per cent of its employees to take a vaccine, those in construction and retail have resisted vaccine mandates over fears of staff resistance amid a very tight labor market. -- Reuters
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Should I close the SQL connection before looping through the reader? I am wondering what is the best practice and why. Can't find anything that clearly explains advantages and disadvantages.
FYI... I am using .Net
Which is better?

*

*Open a SQLConnection

*execute my SQL with a datareader

*loop through the results

*have my using statement close the reader

*have the using statement close the connection

OR

*

*Open a SQLConnection

*execute my SQL with a datareader

*have the using statement close the connection

*loop through the results

*close the reader

My thoughts on the second one is if you have a large result sets you aren't holding the connection open longer than you should. Is that correct and is that what I want to be doing.
edit
I have something similar to this.
using sq as new sqlconnection
   >>connection and sproc stuff<<
   using rd as new sqlreader
        while rd.read
            do some work
        end while
    end using
end using

doing this works too
dim rd as datareader
using sq as new sqlconnection
   >>connection and sproc stuff<<
   rd = sq.executereader
end using

while rd.read
   do work
end while

A: Load a DataTable and then close and dispose your connection. You can work with the data without an open connection. You second block of code will not work.
Private Sub OpCode()
    Dim dt As New DataTable
    Using cn As New SqlConnection("Your connection string"),
            cmd As New SqlCommand("Select * From SomeTable;")
        cn.Open()
        dt.Load(cmd.ExecuteReader)
    End Using 'Command and Connection are closed and disposed
    For Each row In dt.Rows
        'Do work here
    Next
End Sub

A: Your first option is better. Close the connection after you are done reading the data. Reason for this is because the SQLDataReader object doesn't read all the data from the query. If you are querying a large set of data, it will page the data and only load what it needs at the time. If you close the connection before you are done looping through you data set, you will generate an error as others have pointed out. See this post from 2 years ago for more information.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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St Patrick's Day 2020: Here's how Dublin people can get free Five Guys for Paddy's Day
Deliveroo is giving away a free Five Guys meal for you and two friends to beat the post-Paddy's Day hangover
Aakanksha Surve
Five Guys (Stock) (Image: Deliveroo)
Post-Paddy's Day hangovers can be brutal, especially if you're back at work which might be the case this year as the big day falls on a Tuesday.
This year Deliveroo is giving away a free Five Guys meal for you and two friends to help you get through the day - but there's a catch!
You'll have to find hidden shamrocks on the Five Guys' Deliveroo page between now and next Monday and send a screenshot to luck@deliveroo.ie.
12 lucky winners will be chosen at random and contacted on Wednesday.
The nation's best bartenders to do battle for the title of Ireland's Best Margarita
Dublin's famous McGowan's pub is having a wings week with exciting deals
Joe Groves in Deliveroo said: "There is nothing better than coming home from the parade and celebrations and having a food delivery on the way to meet you at the door.
"It will be all the better this year when that food is free and there when we need it most, post-Paddy's Day when we're back to reality!
"There is a method to our madness, last year on March 18, orders of Five Guys on Deliveroo increased 131% on the same day the previous week - meaning that burgers and fries are the most popular meal for the day after!"
Deliveroo is offering €1000 for one lucky lady who proposes on Leap Day
Legendary Malahide pub Gibney's to open new pub in London
For the latest news and breaking news visit dublinlive.ie/news.
Follow us on Twitter @DublinLive - the official Dublin Live Twitter account - real news in real time.
We're also on Facebook/dublinlive - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the capital.
RTE Late Late Show line-up revealed including appearance by director tipped for Oscar
The Late Late ShowOperation Transformation leaders will also be making an appearence


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May/June 2008 Issue
The Myth of the Moral Majority
Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the doors and—hey, where did all the evangelicals go?
Debra J. Dickerson
Illustration: Edel Rodriguez
this february, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the most comprehensive of its surveys of the "religious landscape" of the United States. Front and center was the finding that 26 percent of American adults—around 54 million—are evangelical Protestants. The idea that 1 in every 4 of us thumps a Bible only confirmed what many had assumed to be gospel since 2000, when evangelical voters were credited with winning the White House for George W. Bush and the media began its grand genuflections toward a resurgent fundamentalism, casting evangelicals (and more broadly, "values voters") as a politicized wedge that politicians ignored at their peril.
And who could blame them? Not only are evangelicals supposedly our biggest religious voting bloc, but Pew reports that nearly 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 40 percent attend church weekly according to Gallup Polls. But what if those numbers—and everything we've assumed they tell us about the power of the religious right—are wildly wrong?
Take that 40 percent church attendance stat. Looking around her half-empty Southern Baptist church outside Dallas, Christine Wicker had her doubts. Wicker, a veteran Texas newspaper reporter, was born again when she was nine but drifted away from her evangelical roots in adulthood. A few years ago, she returned to the Southern Baptist Church to both renew her faith and write The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, an insider's look at evangelicals' power, wading in where secular journalists feared to tread. When she started looking into the numbers on church attendance, she found that researchers could vouch for only 18 percent of Americans being regular churchgoers—less than half the accepted figure. That led her to wonder about the already widely reported claim that 25 percent of Americans are evangelicals; could the real number also be less than half that?
In size, only the Catholic Church dwarfs the Southern Baptist Church, the biggest evangelical denomination and by far the most organized and fastidious of the Protestant record keepers. But Wicker discovered that the numbers the Southern Baptist Convention (sbc) releases for public consumption tell a much different story than the ones it uses internally. The organization claims 16 million members, but as one reverend cracks, "the fbi couldn't find half of [them] if they had to." A 2006 sbc report states that only 11 million of its members live in the same area as their home church anymore; that number includes those who've been double- or even triple-counted elsewhere. It also includes perennial no-shows and those who attend services at "bedside Baptist" (they sleep in on Sunday but show up for Easter and Christmas). And that's not to mention those who've lost their religion or converted to another faith. If their names were ever on "the roll" at a Baptist church, they're probably inscribed there for life.
With more digging, Wicker came across a 2007 sbc report that found only 5.4 million adults attended services regularly enough to be considered church members. Further complicating matters, many of those who regularly filled the pews weren't official members, and, most significantly, 1 in 8 wasn't saved or born again. Factoring all this in, Wicker calculated that there are fewer than 4 million devoted Southern Baptists. Her math seems to be backed up by collection-plate totals: If the church truly has 16 million members, then they contributed a miserly $3.50 each to a nationwide fundraising campaign last year.
And it's not just the Southern Baptists who appear to be playing number games. The National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group that does not include the sbc, claimed 30 million members on its website. When Wicker contacted the association for comment, the figure changed to 4.5 million. No one there could—or would—explain the sudden 85 percent drop in believers. (However, the group's website currently describes its lobbying arm as the voice of "30 million Americans united under a common banner.")
The emperor's-new-clothes flimsiness of these widely accepted exaggerated numbers says much about the cold calculation of far-right religious leaders. Moral Majority and Focus on the Family have happily staked their clout on coreligionists who never knew they were being counted—often twice or three times—among the faithful for political ends. "The idea that evangelicals are taking over America is one of the greatest publicity scams in history," Wicker concludes, "a perfect coup accomplished by savvy politicos and religious leaders, who understand media weaknesses and exploit them brilliantly."
Though she doesn't delve into those weaknesses, Wicker's findings speak volumes about the limitations of a Fourth Estate that accepted and uncritically deferred to the power of the religious right. Having been handed a ready-made story line by the thou-shalt-not brigades, the media became transfixed by a phenomenon they couldn't fully fathom but felt bound to report on. Those unexamined numbers and claims of followers in theological lockstep launched a thousand cover stories and columns—rarely prompting questions about what a term as broad as "evangelical" really meant on the ground. Whether they viewed it as a new political reality, a megatrend, or a bogeyman, the media embraced the idea of a reenergized, monolithic Christianity and faithfully chronicled something that didn't exist.
Part of the problem is that the national-level journalists who control the discourse tend not to be, nor have they ever been, committed religionists as adults. Newsrooms are determinedly secular, and self-consciously so. Afraid of being tagged as godless liberals, most journalists would never dream of calling BS on believers. Which may explain why Wicker's book could only have been written by a born-and-bred Baptist.
Innumeracy and gutlessness aside, why did we never ask ourselves if the label "evangelical" tells us anything more than the yarmulke or the head scarf on the person next to us at Starbucks? To assume that evangelicals overwhelmingly oppose divorce, abortion, and gay rights; that they believe in school prayer and intelligent design; and that they're overwhelmingly politicized is a gross oversimplification that evangelicals themselves ought to find disquieting. As Wicker suggests, perhaps one's answer to the drone who interrupts dinner to ask your "religious preference" is more reflex than exit poll.
Wicker finds that many of the most active believers belong to both a small "home" church and a megachurch where they "vacation." And as the most recent Pew study shows, 44 percent of Americans say they have switched their religious affiliation or moved between periods of declaring a faith and religious free agency. Religious identity, it turns out, is as fluid as any other.
It is with believable regret that Wicker pulls the threadbare rug out from under the "powerful" Christian far right. "Just as I had finished convincing myself that the evangelical church was smarter and had more to offer than ever—I'm still convinced of that—I was hit with the growing suspicion that the entire faith might be sinking fast," she writes.
She's probably right that old-school fundamentalism is going the way of the dinosaurs. The Southern Baptist Church's much-publicized effort to baptize a million souls in 2006 was a dismal failure; only one-third of that number "bathed in Jordan's water." According to George Barna, an independent evangelical researcher who tracks spiritual trends, 20 million born-again Christians are moving beyond formal churchgoing, meeting in small groups, often in each other's homes. He predicts that by 2025, local churches will have lost half of their current "market share." No doubt many of those leaving the church find fire and brimstone as anathema as any liberal but still believe that there is a living God who loves them.
If there are as few evangelicals as Wicker claims, can we ink-stained wretches go back to ignoring them? Not so fast. Religion will always be of more cultural significance than the mere number of its adherents, especially as the United States becomes ever more diverse and other religious traditions clamor to be heard. We will have to go on respecting Christianity and deferring to its oversize voice in public affairs if only because all those bedside Baptists might just stop sleeping in on Sunday if the beliefs they rarely dust off suddenly come under attack.
Still, The Fall of the Evangelical Nation makes plain that the media must be doggedly skeptical whenever faith-based constituencies claim their place in the public square. Maybe all us godless liberal journalists need to get religion about confronting America's most sacred cow.
Class Is the New Black
If Evangelicals Don't Vote Republican, Who Will?
Jen Quraishi
Yep, the Mother Jones Staff Has a Bunch to Say About "The Snyder Cut" Too
Dan Spinelli, Sam Van Pykeren, Edwin Rios, and Matt Cohen


For the 10th year in a row, YVR earned the distinction in the Skytrax World Airport Awards, despite slipping in the global rankings, CTV News reports.
The World Airport Awards are based on 13.5 million survey questionnaires completed by over 100 nationalities of airport customers during the six-month survey period.
In fact, Asian airports dominate the rankings - with Hong Kong International Airport also getting a top spot at number five Frankfurt Airport, in Germany, dropped out of the top 10, after holding the number 10 spot for the past two years.
The Skytrax index was topped by Singapore Changi Aiport and it for the 7th consecutive time that Changi Airport has topped the list.
Elsewhere in Canada, Toronto's Pearson International came in at No. 50 worldwide, and Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International 62nd.
HIA has also once again been ranked as a five-star Airport and was honoured with the title of "Best Airport in the Middle East" for the fifth year in a row and "Best Staff Service in the Middle East" for the fourth year in a row.
The second busiest airport in Germany, Munich Airport is architecturally impressive and offers a lot of facilities.
Alongside Changi airport on the podium are the regulars: Tokyo Haneda (Japan) followed by Incheon (South Korea).
Mr Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax said: "We congratulate Crowne Plaza Changi Airport for their success in winning this important guest satisfaction award for 2019, being even more notable that this is the fifth consecutive year they have scooped this award".
The airport in Bratislava is among the best in central and eastern Europe.
"Their vote of confidence motivates us in our pursuit of service excellence and pushes us to continue redefining what an airport can be".
"Changi Airport is very focussed on continually improving the customer's airport experience and innovating with new product and service features. The opening of Jewel Changi Airport in April 2019 looks set to add another unique dimension to the experience for Changi Airport customers".
Including the overallotment and at the maximum price, the entire offering is now valued up to $2.55 billion. The real test will come when the stock hits the public market for its first day of trading -- and beyond.
While RCB paceman Umesh Yadav will also look to shine in the IPL and make a case for selection in the England-bound squad . Harbhajan was particularly impressive as he took the wickets of Moeen Ali, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.


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I am pleased to send you Fr. Gabrielli's annual letter which he has asked all of the national directors around the world to share with their members. The bishop in Fr. Gobbi's native diocese of Como, Italy is so open to the Marian Movement of Priests, that he is going to provide an office for the MMP and a residence for Fr. Gabrielli. This is wonderful news and a gift from the Blessed Mother to provide a permanent home for her Movement.
Many of you have asked us about Fr. Gobbi's cause for beatification. Canon norms regarding the procedure to be followed for causes of saints are contained in the Apostolic Constitution 'Divinus Perfectionis Magister', promulgated by Pope John Paul II on January 25, 1983. To begin a cause, it is necessary for at least 5 years to have passed since the death of the candidate.
Some of you have heard that Fr. Gobbi kept a personal diary which contained private messages from Our Blessed Mother. Fr. Gabrielli stated very clearly at the 2012 international retreat that this is true; however, these messages are not going to be made public by the MMP. If they are private, the Blessed Mother intended them to remain as such. If anything does get published in the future, it will be at the discretion of the Church.
Fr. Gobbi is buried in a cemetery plot outside the Shrine of Our Lady of the Tears in his birthplace of Dongo, Italy. They want to eventually move the body into the Shrine, as he had requested, but they have to await the permission of the town and the diocese. In Italy, things move quite slowly.
"This morning, my son, you came with your mother to my Shrine, before the image of Our Lady of the Tears, which you have always loved and venerated from your earliest childhood, to celebrate Holy Mass on the ninth anniversary of your priestly ordination.
I have chosen you and prepared you for the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the world, and these are the years when I will bring my plan to completion.
A few persons have asked for directions to make a pilgrimage to Fr. Gobbi's final resting place.
Dongo is located almost at the end of Lake Como.
By bus: From Como, you can take a bus direct to Dongo.
By train: From Milan, take the Milan-Tirano line, and get off at Colico.
We see a revival of cenacles in every country, especially with the participation of new priests.
Fr. Gobbi wanted the priests to be actively involved by having a cenacle in their area at least once a year. In the past, I myself have conducted many cenacles in the United States, especially because Fr. Gobbi could not come to the U.S. and Canada. The Blessed Mother wants more of her children to participate, especially in this year of Faith and of the new evangelization, as the Holy Father stated during the Synod of Bishops.
At the end of this letter, I have included a listing of cenacles that will take place in different parts of the country during the month of May, moderated by some of our MMP priests. Everyone is invited to participate. We encourage you to try to attend one of these as a demonstration of unity and solidarity with the other cenacles that are regularly meeting around the country.
Priests who would be willing to host and coordinate a cenacle in May 2014 are encouraged to contact the Headquarters. I ask also the laity to inform us if they know a priest who might be interested.
There will be at least one cenacle in nearly all of the fifty states this year, and we hope for an even greater participation in 2014.
Will You Consider Starting a Cenacle in this Year of Faith?
As the time of the fulfilment of Our Blessed Mother's promises is approaching, she needs our assistance more and more. We should never grow tired of helping her and allowing her to take us by the hand through these very difficult times, until that moment when she will call us to be with her forever.
How many persons are needed? Only two!
Are you looking to join a cenacle? Just contact us! We maintain a database of cenacles that have registered with our Headquarters. There may be a listing for your area.
"Give your support to my invitation; multiply your cenacles of prayer and fraternity; consecrate yourselves to my Immaculate Heart; frequently recite the holy rosary! Then the powerful Red Dragon will be shackled by this chain, and his margin of action will become ever more restricted. In the end he will be left impotent and harmless.
Blessed Fr. Gabriele M. Allegra, OFM (1907-1976), an Italian Franciscan missionary to China, was a member of the MMP. He was a scholar in Holy Scripture, and the first to translate the Bible from the original texts into Chinese characters. Bishops in China still now trust his translation of the Bible more than any other. He also translated the first years of the messages given by Our Lady to Fr. Gobbi. His secretary, Fr. Thomas, recounted the following when I met him in Taipei. On his death bed, Fr. Allegra asked Fr. Thomas if he had printed the messages. These would be his last words. After Fr. Thomas replied 'yes', Fr. Allegra died. For years, Fr. Thomas continued to translate and print the messages of our Blessed Mother. Due to Fr. Allegra's influence, the MMP is present everywhere in China, because all the Bishops there trusted his discernment about the messages being authentic. Fr. Allegra was beatified on September 29, 2012. We now have another powerful intercessor in Heaven.
All priests are invited to attend both the international and national retreats in 2013. Please return the enclosed reply card if you are interested. We will try to sponsor all those who require financial assistance. If sponsorship funds get depleted, the aid will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
The dates for this year's retreat are June 23-29, 2013. Priests who are interested are urged to contact us as soon as possible for rates and registration info. The priests who are unable to attend and the laity throughout the world are encouraged to be united with us in prayer during that week.
Again this year, the retreat for priests from the U.S. and Canada will be held at the Keller Convention Center in Effingham, IL from Monday, Nov. 11 to Friday, Nov. 15. We are pleased to welcome Fr. Donal McIlraith, SSC from the Fiji Islands who will give our two daily conferences and lead the Holy Hours. An Irish Columban Father ordained in 1971, he made his consecration and joined the MMP while on pilgrimage to Guadalupe in December 1981. At the time he was teaching Sacred Scripture at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Upon his return, he joined cenacles in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Fr. McIlraith translated for Fr. Gobbi during his visits to Oceania in 1985 and 1993 and was asked by him to be the co-director for Australia during that first visit in '85. Since 2011, he has been the MMP director for all of Oceania. He currently teaches Sacred Scripture at the Pacific Regional Seminary in Suva, Fiji.
See the enclosed flyer for details.
The Keller family has been host to the MMP retreats for many years now. There is a beautiful large statue of the Blessed Mother in the main entrance of their facility, and it is moved to the Mass and conference room during the retreats. Chuck Keller loves the Church and its priests and has always seen to it that we are well served. Patty Greene, their events planner, sees to it that everything runs smoothly. She also coordinates all of the private complimentary shuttles to and from St. Louis Lambert Airport. I take the opportunity to thank them and their entire staff for their warm hospitality. May God bless them.
Owing to your generosity, last year we were able to sponsor several priests to attend the national and international clergy retreats. Once again, I invite our members to consider sponsoring a priest for the 2013/2014 retreat cenacles. The priests who were helped by your generosity have asked me to extend a special thank you on their behalf, and to let the sponsors know that they are being remembered in a special way in their Masses and prayers.
his flight to Rome using your rewards travel miles. These seats fill up very quickly, so it has to be done as early as possible. If it is too late for this year, you may wish to do so for travel in 2014. You may also want to donate miles for those needing assistance for domestic flights to attend the national retreat.
May Our Lady reward your generosity.
Last year, the contact persons for my 2012 regional cenacles were the targets of a scam. The wrongdoers used the contact information that was listed on our website to call or send text messages. Pretending to be acting on my behalf, they solicited money that would supposedly be used to help an alleged member of the MMP from abroad who needed money to attend the funeral of a relative in the U.S. Because we receive these types of scam emails on a fairly regular basis, we are aware and know they are bogus. Some of you fell victim, and for that we apologize. Please DO NOT engage these people in further communication or give them any of your personal information. Call us if you are in doubt.
I wish to express my gratitude for your continued prayerful and financial support, and to extend a very special thank you to those who have placed the M.M.P. on their last will and testament. If any of you are interested in doing the same, please call the Headquarters and we will provide you with our Tax I.D. number. We are recognized by the IRS as an organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; therefore, your gifts are tax deductible.
I take this opportunity to wish all of you a most holy season of Lent. In his letter, Fr. Gabrielli speaks about the redemptive value of suffering. I know that many of you are carrying very heavy crosses. You have been specially chosen to receive this beautiful gift. This is all part of the mystery of suffering. Daily sufferings are a part of each person's life, and we accept and offer these for the salvation of the world. We are all called to be saints – to be heroic in virtue in imitation of Jesus the spotless Lamb. Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi: "The degree of your fidelity, which I desire to bring to the point of heroism, will be able to be measured by how you know how to suffer, to be silent and to offer things up."(cf. 181h) May we all draw closer to the crucified Lord during this penitential time, as we prepare for the celebration of his Resurrection, in anticipation of his Second Coming in glory.


text:
Uh...I don't know
Or maybe, "That's never happened before." These are the recurring themes of Operation Session
v0.12 (still in beta).
v0.1 was some simple testing by myself here at home.
v0.11 was Joe coming by to test operations with a simple switch list
So last night was v0.12 with six guys (in no particular order - Dick, Pete, Pieter, John, Dave and Tom) with sample waybills, and a theoretically properly staged layout for a simple session.
•Waybills are set-outs only, we're using the tried-and-true pull one car for every one you set out.
•Three trains (OA-6, NY-2, and EA-2) have already dropped off cars overnight.
•Two local crews are assigned to the 44-tonners to work New Britain.
•Passenger service is suspended for the day.
•NY-4 and HDX-5 are expected sometime in the morning.
•Switching crews are Tom and John, and Pete and Pieter.
•Dick and Dave are running the additional freights.
So right off the bat there are problems with the controllers (MRC Wireless, latest firmware upgrades). Locomotives aren't responding consistently. This is never really resolved for the night. I will be in contact with MRC to look into the issues.
Theories - too many locomotives. Although I have had all 4 locomotives (with sound) idling before, I don't think I've ever had them all running. But, issues started with only two locomotives running and two idling. We tried swapping throttles, and I also switched the base from 'All Throttles' to 'Cab #1 to #8".
The answer? Uh...I don't know. That's never happened before.
The majority of the issues seemed to revolve around this. There was one section of dead track, I added two feeders and that was OK.
The Whiting Street Yard seemed to have a lot of control issues. John and I tested the voltage, and it seemed to be a lot lower there (which didn't make a lot of sense). Later testing looked OK, I haven't tested running a locomotives over there yet.
So again, the answer? Uh...I don't know. That's never happened before.
You can tell there's going to be a pattern here, so I'll skip ahead.
So what about the session. Overall I think is was good. I knew going in that sorting cars to be delivered would be a challenge to somebody who doesn't know where all of the industries are. I think the crews worked that out pretty well, although it will improve with future sessions.
Because of the design of New Britain Yard itself as a single-ended yard, and the unfortunate need for the grade and curve at the end of the yard, things got a little bunched up.
My understanding is that there was a long siding on the west side of town where eastbound trains dropped cars, another on the east side for the westbound trains. In addition, I'm pretty sure the Holyoke freights dropped their cars in or near Whiting Street Yard. In the current configuration, these strings of cars are all left in the center of town, which makes things more complicated.
So, for future sessions I will use the two sidings I have for the OA and EA freights, but I'll stage the NY freights in Whiting Street Yard. I'm not sure how I'll manage the Holyoke freights coming into town since the exit from the helix will eventually be hidden track making it impractical to back those trains to the yard. I may engineer a staging track (with an unfortunate lift-out) for the Holyoke freights. This would have the benefit of eliminating the turnout in the helix (and a second one on the Berlin line).
This will also have the benefit of spreading out the switchers at the start of the session. In addition, the first freight to come in during the session is NY-4 which will also drop off cars at Whiting Street Yard. So each switching crew will have two cuts of cars to classify and sort.
In the meantime, I need to work on figuring out the electrical and control glitches and complete the trackwork on the west side of town.
So work will continue. There will be a lull while a construction crew builds a new bedroom for Emily. I'll have to protect some of the layout from the construction. So it gives me some time to work out the details of the changes and updates, and then to get things ready for the NE Proto Meet in June.
Labels: Operations


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