text:
Right to Try
'Right to Try' Bill Fails, Despite Concessions
"The House will not let this be the end," Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday night.
Mike Riggs | 3.14.2018 11:30 AM
Laura McLinn, of Indianapolis, her son Jordan, 7, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., pose for a picture after a news conference in Dirksen Building, May 10, 2016, on the
House Republicans failed yesterday to garner the votes they needed to pass a heavily modified version of the Senate's "Right to Try" bill. The legislation would have brought the U.S. one step closer to allowing terminally ill patients more freedom to test unapproved pharmaceutical products.
The House needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill, as Republicans had suspended the rules in order to prohibit amendments being added on the House floor. The bill failed to reach that threshhold; the final tally was 259–140.
Right-to-try laws create a legal mechanism for patients and their doctors to request experimental treatments without first being enrolled in a clinical trial or getting permission from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thirty-eight states have passed such bills, but until federal law changes no pharmaceutical company has an incentive to operate outside the FDA's purview.
Under the most recent House version of the bill, introduced by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael C. Burgess (R-Texas), licensed physicians would be able to request a drug from the company that makes it so long as the drug had passed Phase I clinical trials. The bill does not require drug application sponsors or manufacturers to provide the drug. If they do opt to provide the treatment to a physician, the drug maker would be responsible for reporting the transaction to the FDA.
Walden and Burgess announced on March 10 that they'd added several others layers of regulatory compliance atop the more loosely written Senate bill that passed last August. Specifically, Walden and Burgess say their version of the bill would:
establish a robust informed consent to access unapproved drugs;
specify that any unapproved drug being used must have an active FDA application and not be the subject of a clinical hold by the FDA;
require the sponsor and manufacturer to notify the FDA after they make an unapproved drug available to an eligible patient;
guard patients from purposefully misbranded or mislabeled drugs;
provide liability protections for participating manufacturers, sponsors, physicians, clinical investigators, and hospitals unless there is reckless or willful misconduct, gross negligence, or an intentional tort;
obligate sponsors and manufacturers to report adverse events in real time to the FDA; and
provide certainty to manufacturers about how the FDA will use patient outcomes when evaluating new drug applications.
These changes were intended to address several of the criticisms levied against right-to-try legislation by certain patient groups and medical ethicists, who have insisted throughout the debate that the FDA's "expanded access" program adequately serves terminally ill patients who have exhausted their options and want to try an experimental treatment. The NYU School of Medicine Working Group on Compassionate Use and Pre-Approval Access, for instance, has argued that because the FDA approves 99 percent of expanded access applications, there's no reason to cut the agency out of the process.
The House bill sought to strike a compromise by requiring doctors and drug manufacturers to notify the FDA of adverse events in real time, and by allowing the FDA to take those events into consideration when reviewing drug applications. Nevertheless, Democratic leaders in the House led a charge against the bill.
In February, dozens of patient groups asked Congress to vote down the bill, arguing that the recently passed Food and Drug Administration Reauthorization Act had already helped streamline the Institutional Review Board process and empowered the FDA to make clinical trials more inclusive. (Patients who wish to access an experimental treatment either under the FDA's current program or the House version of the Right to Try bill would first need to be rejected for a clinical trial.)
Proponents of right to try, which include many libertarian organizations as well as many patient groups, say that even though the FDA's application process for compassionate use has been simplified in the last decade, it may still be arduous enough to deter terminally ill patients and their doctors from applying.
"If 99 percent of requests are approved, what's hidden in that number—assuming it's true—is how many requests are never made because of how many doctors don't have the time, resources, or willingness to build a case," says Robert Graboyes, a health care researcher at the Mercatus Center.
Other proponents of right to try have argued that the commonly accepted idea that patients have a "right to die"—to intentionally take drugs that will speed death, or to refuse treatment for a terminal illness altogether—applies to unapproved therapies as well.
As noted above, the House version of the law would require any drug used have gone through at least phase I of an FDA clinical trial. Phase I is intended to provide baseline evidence of safety by determining the maximum dose that can be administered to a human patient without dangerous side effects. Phase I is not intended to assess how well a drug works (though it sometimes provides a glimpse).
The House version of the bill also limits eligibility to patients suffering "a disease or condition in which there is reasonable likelihood that death will occur within a matter of months; or a disease or condition that would result in significant irreversible morbidity that is likely to lead to severely premature death." The Senate version of the bill applies to patients with "life-threatening" illnesses, which the FDA argued was too broad a category.
House Republicans declared Tuesday that they would attempt to revive the bill. "The House will not let this be the end," Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement. "We will try again, pass legislation, and bring hope to those whose only desire is the right to try to live."
Reason.tv profiled the Right to Try movement back in 2015:
NEXT: Uber Health Wants to Drive You to the Hospital
Mike Riggs is deputy managing editor at Reason.
Right to Try FDA
Eidde
March.14.2018 at 11:40 am
"The House needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill, as Republicans suspended the rules in order to prohibit amendments being added on the House floor. The bill failed to reach that threshhold and the final tally was 259-140."
Of, for crying out loud, are they trying to pass a bill or not?
When Congress fails to pass a bill which is supposedly supported by the majority party, my presumption is that they don't actually want a statute, they want a campaign issue ("vote for us and maybe next time we'll pass this for real!").
I'm right there with you. 65% of votes were "aye", but it didn't pass because the party that claims they want it changed the rules to require a higher standard?
Does someone have an explanation for why this was a good idea? With that kind of majority, surely they could have, I don't know, just voted down any poison-pill amendments?
loveconstitution1789
March.14.2018 at 12:37 pm
Nanny-State 101: Bureaucrats cannot have The People deciding what is best for them. Not only would Americans realize how worthless government is and not fall for these legislative schemes again but tens of thousands of bureaucrats would be laid off because their jobs are superfluous.
What I want to know is why it doesn't have 100% support.
What kind of control freak cretins would stop a terminally ill patient from trying any possible remedy at all?
What's the downside, they die? That was already going to happen.
March.14.2018 at 1:08 pm
These politicians and bureaucrats are 100% fine with allowing a national debt of $64,035 per person to exist.
Its harder to find one who isn't a complete shitbird.
Diane Reynolds (Paul.)
We voted against the bill because it didn't go far enough.
Did you read the link to the rule?
Yep. It doesn't explain why anyone thought it was a good idea in this case.
Obviously it was a move to bring it to a quick vote instead of being subject to the usual run of biz. They moved to suspend the rules because they thought they had at least a good chance to win. The cost was the add'l requirement. This was not a deliberate scuttling.
Half-Virtue, Half-Vice
Irradiate the House of Congress, let's see how they feel about it then.
Do we have a list of the names of those 140 legislators who literally just voted in favor of letting sick people die? How can they sleep at night, how can they live with themselves, how evil are they, how badly must they hate women and children and people of color that they would see these people desperately clutching at straws and then snatch the straw from their dying hands? For shame!
You just know if you check the list against the FEC campaign donations database that all these people are in the pocket of Big Pharma.
BestUsedCarSales
I like to imagine the 140 against are the people who sit next to their mother as she is dying. She is in a hazy agony from the cancer consuming her, too tired to react much but the pain still undulled. These congressmen hold their mother's wilted hand and tell her to take and Advil and tough it out.
LarryWilson
Actually, "Big Pharma" would stand to gain from passing this legislation. They could pass off all kinds of garbage therapy as "experimental" and make bank.
Yup. Companies want to kill people.
You understand that experimental drugs would probably be free or super cheap since its hard for companies to sell murder as a reason to use their products.
Microaggressor
This would introduce more competition, and Big Pharma doesn't stand to gain from more competition.
Since these kinds of experimental treatments are almost always patented and held by a single entity, there is no chance they would be reasonably affordable.
There would be no reason to sell hope at an affordable price.
Since the drug would have no value until it received FDA approval and a stockpile of successfully treated patients may help in the FDA approval process there would be very incentive to make the drugs accessible. Understanding actual financial incentives is hard when you never advanced beyond Saturday morning cartoon villains as your comprehension level.
Politicians are scum. This has the stench of rent seeking. I hope their personal gains are worth the cost of human life.
"Do we have a list of the names of those 140 legislators who literally just voted in favor of letting sick people die?"
They're all Libertarians. That's the only party dedicated to letting people die. Tony tells us that constantly
This is as much the war on drugs as the more famous one. The underlying issue is full government control over what you do with your body. They affirm here that even as you lay dying you do not have choice.
Citizen X - #6
Christ, what assholes.
^this in a nutshell.
Leo Kovalensky II
I don't normally like the hyperbole of politics; so and so just voted for people to die.
This may be the one case where it actually applies. The 140 (as they should be forever known) should literally have to go door to door in the districts telling their constituents how they voted on this.
Better yet, they should have to go room to room in an oncology ward, wearing t-shirts that say FUCK YOU.
In February, dozens of patient groups asked Congress to vote down the bill, arguing that the recently passed Food and Drug Administration Reauthorization Act had already helped streamline the Institutional Review Board process and empowered the FDA to make clinical trials more inclusive.
That's messed up.
Stockholm Syndrome?
"I have a kind master who doesn't beat me any more, and he says I don't need so-called 'freedom,' he'll make sure I get what I need."
Terminal patients don't hold much sway with congresscritters because they won't be around to vote in the next election.
They have relatives, you know.
(I know you're being sarcastic)
Notice the argument – Congress doesn't have to specifically approve right to try because if they ask nicely (and go through some extra hassle), patients will get that privilege from the FDA.
If that's true (and I'm not saying it is), then the opponents are simply standing up for the principle that no matter how sick and desperate you are, you have no rights the government is bound to respect but you have to depend on the benevolence of a government agency to do what you ought to be free to do.
And in future the government agency can decide to become less generous in granting petitions.
If nothing else, Congress could simply pass the bill on "the buck stops here" grounds.
I mean, if it leads to the same outcome, what are they afraid of? That alleged "mere 1%" of FDA denials?
This is disappointing.
Nothing like thinking you have to beg government to help yourself in medical dilemmas.
Part of the solution is just refusing to give government that power. Just say no.
Ye gods. I thought this was a shoe-in. Why on Earth would they do anything other than give people a chance?
I may very well need this option if my GBM comes back. I have other options, maybe, but why can't people decide for themselves?
This pisses me off to no end.
It took power out of someone's hands.
If they keep this up, I'll become more libertarian than you can possibly imagine.
Given these are literally unproven therapies, it would be wholly unethical to describe them as offering a "chance" of survival.
Damn, i can't tell which is worse – your grasp of ethics or your grasp of statistics.
It's clear you are confused about a lot of stuff.
So, try to make a case or got back to buttfucking your blow up ventriloquist straw man doll.
Coming from somebody whose only argument is literally the slippery slope fallacy thinly disguised as the precautionary principle. Go fuck yourself you piece of shit. Die slow.
This legislative posturing shows the dissonance of both the GOP and the Dems.
The Dems generally claim healthcare is a right. The GOP claims it is not.
The GOP then tries to pass legislation defining a specific kind of healthcare (the most futile kind, ironically), as a right, and the Dems oppose it.
The real problem here is that this legislation will do nothing more than 1. Sell false hope, and 2. Spawn a multi-billion dollar industry of snake oil sales dressed up as "experimental treatment." There will be essentially no liability for these snake oil manufacturers, and it will drive up the cost of our already expensive health care.
The only rational thing I saw come of this is that someone finally understood that defining healthcare as a right did not mean that someone was required to provide it to you. That is the only thing so far I've seen Rand Paul get wrong.
Only the mighty hand of the federal government prevents physicians for writing prescriptions for snake oil!
And of course, a certain number of these "experimental treatments" will at some point get FDA approval, and the question in such cases is whether patients have the right to such treatments before their death, rather than after their deaths at which time the FDA will find the given medicine safe and effective.
The internet makes peer reviews of experimental medicine a really great thing. Decades ago, people who have to completely trust companies and government.
Now people can make decision for their healthcare based on real time real person experiences and how experimental drugs worked for them.
Except there are limitations to this in most of clinical research, and that is another point of contention.
One of the key elements of effective research is blinding, where the researcher and patient do not know if they received the experimental treatment or a placebo. This is required to minimize bias and to ensure that the researcher does not handle patients differently who received the experimental therapy differently from those who received placebo.
I think you can see the issue here relative to your comment, and there is a placebo effect. In one of our clinical trials, part of the investigation included asking the patient or their family if they thought they received the investigational drug or a placebo. More than half of the people who received placebo stated they believed they received the investigational drug.
Next, by making it a "right" to receive investigational therapies will make it impossible to recruit patients to participate in blinded clinical trials, a process essential to gathering objective data. No patient will take a risk of receiving placebo if they can demand the investigational therapy.
Remember, as the legislation was written, it would allow investigators to provide the drug outside the clinical trial. Well, if no one wants to be in a clinical trial, then there will be no availability of the drug outside that clinical trial.
The drug has to already be in Phase I and there are copious limitations on the type of patients who can even request the experimental therapy you lying piece of shit.
We could expect a minuscule number of these experimental therapies to ever show enough efficacy to be approved; since these providers of experimental therapy can now make millions selling unproven therapies, they lose the incentive to prove their product actually works.
They could drag out the 'experimental' designation of their therapy for the duration of the patent.
I worked on one clinical trial that took 30 years from initial discovery to an eventual refusal of the FDA to approve the drug even after agreeing to fast-track approval based on Phase III findings.
Yeah because selling working therapies to millions of patients once a drug is approved pales in comparison to those fat stacks that could be made selling a few hundred patients that are within a year of death a drug that is still in development. Especially if the drug doesn't work, because word of that would certainly never leak out.
How about this you fucking piece of subhuman shit? You can sit there on your death bed with a FDA bureaucrat's cock down your throat thanking him for saving you from the scourge of trial drugs and everybody else can tell you to go fuck a goat and take the risk on a longshot therapy in the last weeks of their life.
Except, of course, when government officials want to add syphilis to the snake oil and test it on unsuspecting people.
I have a friend with the same disease that I have who got polio injected into her brain.
Are you serious? What disease and how would an injection of polio into the brain be a possible remedy?
Glioblastoma. Duke is running a trial. The polio virus is mutated so you don't get polio, and it's slowly injected into the tumor. When it works, the immune system attacks the tumor and the polio.
60 Minutes has highlighted the study a few times over the years.
I'm assuming you are referring to the Tuskegee Experiments.
Those patients were not testing syphilis on patients. They were merely monitoring the progress of the disease in people who already had it during a time when there was no known cure.
The failure of ethics came when it was discovered in other trials that penicillin was a cure, and it was not offered to the patients. They were not refused the opportunity to receive penicillin, they were simply not informed that it was an option.
Correction; "those providers were not testing syphilis on patients."
Actually, you lying piece of fascist dogshit, the physicians lied to the patients about the study by pretending they were offering free medical care and never informing them that they were part of a study THEN withheld treatment for over 20 years after the cure was known AND prevented the patients from accessing treatment at other clinics that would have properly diagnosed and treated them.
The fact that you are defending the most notoriously unethical human experiment in the history of this country says everything anyone needs to know about you. I hope beyond hope that you die of something unbelievably slow and painful.
December.4.2018 at 1:38 pm
Incorrect…except for the part where you simply repeated what I said.
All I want is the option.
You can't have the option because, per LarryWilson, if a new treatment is untried, there's no chance it will work.
Yeah, that's not what I said, but it's clear a complete moron like you can't make an argument without first deploying a logical fallacy…so, good luck with that.
Right what you actually said is that if a new treatment is untried you should be denied access to it regardless of the efficacy. That was shortly before you defended the Tuskegee experiments. Because a complete piece of subhuman shit like you can't make an argument without first lying.
This is not an issue of denying access. Your argument is patently non-libertarian.
Next, I never defended the Tuskegee experiments; I correct the misrepresentation.
Sweet pete you are fucking stupid.
Lowdog
What, really, is the point of the FDA? I mean, what do they actually accomplish? I'd like to hear some success stories. Because I've noticed that it takes tons of R&D money to get a new treatment approved, yet there are still plenty of examples where it's eventually discovered that approved drugs are hazardous and need to be pulled from circulation.
We see this time and again with gov't agencies: they are created and billed as a way to prevent X, but then they actually don't prevent X, and have a ton of harmful/expensive/etc unintended consequences. We could save ourselves a bunch of money, be no less safe, and avoid all the other unintended negatives, if the entire agency was shut down.
And people say I'm a nihilist because I don't think the government should be doing all the things it's doing.
FDA protects people from harmful drugs and food except when it doesn't.
There is certainly a role for a government database, based on work by government scientists, about the safety and efficacy of various drugs.
If the government scientists haven't found a drug safe or effective, an FDA WARNING could be placed on the drug in question to help adult patients and their physicians make informed choices. The could of course, under what I'm suggesting, choose to disregard the warning if they think they have better information or make a different calculation of the cost-benefit ratio.
And…wait for it…there should be at least some restrictions on making unapproved drugs available to kids (including children in the womb).
We need a UL (or more than one) for drugs.
What, really, is the point of the FDA? I mean, what do they actually accomplish?
According to Tuskegee experiment apologist LarryWilson, they stand as the only line of protection between patients within months of their death and cartoon character pharmaceutical company CEOs who would sell them sugar pills that are in Phase I clinical trials.
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In this issue of the Journal we honour prominent Methodists who have died, examine some missionary history and draw on resources that will equip us for the future.
Bernie Le Heron has completed a successful term as editor of the Journal. We are pleased to print a tribute to Bernie from the pen of Susan Thompson. Bernie has overseen the development of the Journal in recent years and has always been convinced of its important place in the life of the church.
The death of David Lange prompted the Conference to reflect on his relationship with Methodism. John Roberts surveys the life of one of our most colourful Prime Ministers and argues that David Lange was deeply influenced by Methodism both in New Zealand and Britain. His relationship with Lord Soper is highlighted and we are reminded of the challenge Christians in positions of political leadership face when seeking to ground the gospel in policy. John concludes by claiming that David Lange stood most comfortably in the Primitive Methodist tradition.
Primitive Methodism is a significant element in Methodism in the Waikato. Peter Lineham contributes a lively sermon on the history of Primitive Methodism in Hamilton. He portrays the origins and traces the evolution of Primitive Methodism in England and its arrival in this land. Peter believes that the unpolished nature of Primitive Methodism has a contribution to make in our current situation.
We are grateful to Jill Weeks who has provided an obituary for the Bruce Verry, who was a longstanding and active member of the Wesley Historical Society.
Jocelyn Howie and Alan Leadley collaborate in writing an obituary to the Reverend Esau Tusa, a prominent Solomon Island minister.
In some interesting research Frank Paine draws on letters and diaries of the Reverend Charles Creed, early missionary, to demonstrate the adversity he encountered and his determination to proclaim the gospel.
Among Selwyn Dawson's papers the present editor discovered the article "The Joy of Reading". Behind Selwyn's preaching was a mind that was formed by catholic tastes in literature. There is no indication whether this paper was given at a School of Theology or prepared for publication. Perhaps a reader may enlighten us on that score. It is however vintage Dawson. It sheds light on his extensive reading: the writers who fired his imagination and the fields that he delighted to explore.
Finally, two papers from the South Pacific Conference sponsored by the Wesley Historical Society held at Papakura in January 2005 are included. Brian Turner and Barbara Peddie share with us the fruits of their research into their family histories. As part of the presentation under the theme of "Weaving Pakeha Mats" each speaker uncovered deep and diverse Methodist roots.


Blue Hole Mineral Spring is one of the rarest hidden gems in Jamaica and is one of the most authentic of attractions in Negril Jamaica.
And to those not brave enough to jump into the 40+ feet deep cavern, the playful and inviting mineral pool is there for their enjoyment.
The story of Blue Hole is a fascinating one; The property was wild, unsued land until Wabba, it's proprietor, met it's now owner, Matt at a small villa in Little Bay.


The summer season has rolled around again, and for many of you that means leaving Southampton and all that we have to offer, so have a nostalgic look back on all the things that you'll miss when you're not here.
Whether you're a cat person or not, we're all agreed that SUSU the Cat is the real queen of Building 42. Even if you've got pets back home, will your day really be the same without a grumpy scowl from our resident furry friend?
There was the petting zoo, and the results hub. Days you could play on huge inflatables and days you could pet a puppy on the Redbrick. Free showings from Union Films and LinkedIn Labs, as well as classes on how to understand academic stress. It's safe to say that Stress Less fest 2015 was bigger and better than any before, so let's go through some of our best bits!
Did you know that we have a LinkedIn account? In fact do you know what LinkedIn even is?! Read on for a round-up on how we use the professional social network, and how you can connect with us to boost your employability while you study, and as you graduate from Southampton.
Welcome to our pre-sessional students!
The first group of pre-sessional students have arrived in Southampton, so make sure you make them feel welcome!
Over the next few weeks you'll notice our team of pre-sessional helpers dotted about campus in blue Pre-Sessional Helper shirts; but if you see some lost looking pre-sessional students make sure you direct them towards a group of helpers, their final destination or towards the students' union.
Summer is here, which means that a lot of students have gone home and suddenly Southampton feels very empty.
Although it will be tough, with the nightlife at home not matching up to the Jesters standard, constantly having to explain that very funny story to your friends at home, who just do not find it funny, and loving family members who quickly irritate you, fear not, as soon enough it will be Freshers Week and you'll be reunited with your housemates and friends.


text:
La Mula de Sant Feliu de Llobregat és una peça del bestiari popular català de la ciutat de Sant Feliu de Llobregat, al Baix Llobregat. Forma part del Seguici Popular de la ciutat i la seva colla està formada exclusivament per noies.

El seu origen cal trobar-lo l'any 1987 quan l'Esbart de l'Agrupació Cultural Folklòrica de Sant Feliu de Llobregat va representar el Ball "Festa Berguedana", amb coreografia i direcció de Manel Carpi, en el qual desenvolupava el paper de guita.
El disseny de la Mula és de Manel Carpi i Rosell i l'elaboració amb paper cartró és del ninotaire, Josep Cardona "Nona".

Després d'uns anys d'inactivitat i amb el ressorgir de la Festa de Tardor de la ciutat, l'any 1995 reaparegué de nou com a tercera bèstia de la ciutat després del Drac i la Garsa. El 2005 es va celebrar el X aniversari de la Mula, a Sant Feliu.

L'any 2010, per la Festa de Tardor, s'estrena una nova versió de la Mula, obra de Jaume Coma, que ha estat la que ha sortit al carrer des d'aleshores.

Entre les activitats més representatives organitzades per les "Muleres" trobem el Carnestoltes i la Gimkana de la Fira.

Referències

Enllaços externs
 ACF Sant Feliu de Llobregat
 Federació de Bestiari de Foc

Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Cultura de Sant Feliu de Llobregat

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Blair, Bush gone, is it now time for Mugabe to...
New church may have answer to Zimbabwe's woes
Life goes on but most people cannot explain how they...
Life goes on but most people cannot explain how they are surviving
Francis Tambanowako is a pensioner, Elphina a legal secretary and Arnold Munaki a businessman. But they all have one thing in common. They have survived into 2009 but no one can explain how they are making ends meet except to say it is by the "grace of God".
With inflation at over 231 million percent as of July last year and the Zimbabwe dollar continuing to fall against the United States dollar and the South African rand, now the major currencies Zimbabweans trade in, life has become so tough that most people cannot explain how they are surviving especially since they are still earning Zimbabwe dollars.
Tambanowako (67) says he last collected his pension in January last year. The cheque was for $750 000. He never cashed the cheque and keeps it in his bible.
"I have never gone back to NSSA (National Social Security Authority) to collect my monthly cheques because it had become more expensive to go and collect the cheque because I could not buy anything with that cheque. I keep it in my bible as a reminder because every time I open my bible I see the cheque," he said.
Tambanowako says he is surviving from the money that he is given by his two children who are working in the country and one who is abroad.
A marketing person by profession, things had become so tough that he sought work as a freelance sales rep last year, but business was so low that he gave up because he ended up spending more money on fuel than he was making.
"I am fortunate because I own my house so I do not have to pay rent. But things are so tough that sometimes I cannot even afford to buy a box of matches let alone the candle when lights go out," he said.
Elphina, a single mother, says she cannot explain how she survives though she has a full-time job. "I cannot say because I might upset or expose a lot of people. All I can say is that I survive by the grace of God."
She says she cannot afford a maid so she has to leave her eight-year-old son at home alone. She prepares enough food for him for the day and goes to work.
"My company gives me a transport allowance. It is adequate. At times I think that all they are interested in is getting me to come to work because they still pay me in Zimbabwe dollars. Today is my pay day and I have been given $12 trillion. It is only worth R20 at today's rate. What do I buy with that?"
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says a family of six needs US$288 a month just for basics. In South Africa a family of the same size requires just US$79 for the same commodities. The basket was measured last year and has not been updated.
This is the same with annual inflation. The latest figure available, 231 million percent, is that for July last year yet the rate of inflation should just be a month behind.
Elphina says she spends most of her time thinking about how to get food for her family.
"As a woman I need things like perfume. I have to do my hair. But every time I think about this, my stomach complains, 'how about me', so I end up buying whatever food I can get.
"As a mother, I need to bring something home for my son, a banana or something. But now even my son understands. When I ask him before I leave: 'What can I bring you?' He now says: 'Anything'. Schools are opening next week, but I do not have the fees."
Schools were supposed to open on January 13 but this was postponed to January 27 ostensibly because Grade Seven results were not yet out.
The real reason seems to be that teachers were not willing to go back to work. They want to be paid in foreign currency and are demanding more than US$2 000 a month. There is wide speculation that schools might not open next week again.
Elphina said she had been hopeful that the power-sharing talks that began in Harare on Monday might come up with a solution but her hopes seem to have been dashed.
"I was hoping that something would come up from the talks but it looks like they are getting nowhere. So I wonder whether I should blame my employer for my present predicament or someone else."
Paul Chimhosva, writing in a South African newspaper, said while there were major points of disagreement between ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's political leaders were having it too nice to care about the suffering of the majority.
"There is a theory that says: Mugabe is scared of jail and loss of income hence his reluctance to relinquish power, and, on the other hand, the opposition politicians are used to donor income in hard currency hence their reluctance to join the government to protect their earnings. One hopes for the sake of Zimbabwe this not true," he wrote.
For Arnold Munaki it is a different ball game. He has three shops in Bulawayo as well as two buses. The shops were doing quite well up to 2007 when the government launched its prize blitz that left shops empty.
"After the blitz, wholesales had nothing to sell so we could not replenish our stocks. That business died down. I got some salvation from the bus side because NOCZIM (National Oil Company of Zimbabwe) started supplying us with diesel so that we could carry urban commuters."
Munaki diverted his buses from the rural areas to ply the urban routes. Business boomed until September last year when NOCZIM suddenly stopped supplying them with diesel.
"We started sourcing our own diesel, but we had to buy it in foreign currency. Police would not allow us to charge economic rates or in foreign currency. This is ridiculous because our passengers now buy everything in foreign currency. They do not even have Zimbabwe dollars yet police insist we must charge in Zim dollars," Munaki said.
He said business was also down because most people were spending more money on food rather than transport. Some long distances buses from Harare, for example, were having to park for two or three days to make sure they had enough passengers to go back to Harare.
"We are now totally grounded," Munaki said.
But some people, especially those with access to foreign currency, are making a killing. When robbers pounced on a shop in Magwegwe they walked away with R108 000, P16 000 and US$9.
A lot of people have left their jobs to trade in one commodity or another.
by Charles Rukuni 51 mins ago 34 mins ago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Jan Adam Paczka (ur. 11 grudnia 1911 w Krakowie, zm. 9 września 2003 w Córdobie) – porucznik obserwator Polskich Sił Powietrznych w Wielkiej Brytanii, kawaler Orderu Virtuti Militari.

Życiorys
Miał czwórkę rodzeństwa. Ukończył gimnazjum w Krakowie, kontynuował naukę na uczelniach wyższych, m.in. w Niemczech. Uzyskał dyplom inżyniera i pracował w Państwowych Zakładach Lotniczych w Warszawie. Ukończył kurs szybowcowy i posiadał uprawnienia pilota szybowcowego kat B. Na stopień podporucznika został mianowany ze starszeństwem z 1 stycznia 1935 i 1056. lokatą w korpusie oficerów rezerwy piechoty.

W chwili wybuchu II wojny światowej został powołany do służby w Wojsku Polskim i skierowany do Równego, gdzie miał odebrać samoloty transportowane z Francji. Dołączył do oddziałów tworzonych z rozbitych jednostek i wszedł w skład Samodzielnej Grupy Operacyjnej "Polesie". Wziął udział w bitwie pod Kockiem.

Został wzięty do niemieckiej niewoli, ale udało mu się zbiec. Dotarł do okupowanej Warszawy, a następnie do Krakowa. Zagrożony aresztowaniem przez Gestapo uciekł. Dotarł na Węgry, następnie przez Jugosławię do Francji. Stąd został ewakuowany do Wielkiej Brytanii.

Otrzymał przydział do lotnictwa (numer służbowy P-2020 i został skierowany na kurs nawigatorów. Po jego ukończeniu otrzymał przydział do dywizjonu 300. Łącznie wziął udział w 33 lotach bojowych. Po ukończeniu tury lotów bojowych ukończył Staff Navigation Course w Anglii i pracował jako instruktor nawigacji w Szkole Nawigacji w Kanadzie.

Po zakończeniu działań wojennych wrócił do Wielkiej Brytanii, otrzymał przydział do dywizjonu 305 i stacjonował na terenie okupowanych Niemiec. Sprowadził z Polski żonę i syna.

Po demobilizacji wyemigrował do Argentyny, gdzie pracował w wojskowej wytwórni samolotów w Córdobie. Na Universidad Nacional de Córdoba wykładał język angielski i niemiecki oraz w Escuela Superior de Aerotecnica przedmioty techniczne. Był członkiem Stowarzyszenia Inżynierów i Techników Polskich w Argentynie. Zmarł 9 września 2003 w Córdobie i został tam pochowany.

Ordery i odznaczenia
 Krzyż Srebrny Orderu Virtuti Militari nr 8501
 Krzyż Walecznych – dwukrotnie
 Medal Lotniczy

Przypisy

Bibliografia

Ludzie urodzeni w Krakowie
Ludzie związani z Córdobą (Argentyna)
Polscy inżynierowie lotnictwa
Podporucznicy piechoty II Rzeczypospolitej
Porucznicy Polskich Sił Powietrznych
Odznaczeni Krzyżem Srebrnym Orderu Virtuti Militari (władze RP na uchodźstwie)
Odznaczeni Krzyżem Walecznych (dwukrotnie)
Uczestnicy kampanii wrześniowej (strona polska)
Odznaczeni Medalem Lotniczym
Urodzeni w 1911
Zmarli w 2003
Żołnierze Wojska Polskiego na emigracji po II wojnie światowej


We enjoyed your airport transportation! Your services were very prompt! Everything was as expected and we were not disappointed! Our driver was very nice and professional! We had praviate transportation with VIP services and it was excellent! Thank you for starting and ending our vacation great!


text:
Defining Specialty Tea
Join ISTA
Support ISTA
The Pathway to a Definition for Specialty Tea
The international tea industry is struggling to find its footing. The post-colonial plantation model is teetering on collapse as the emerging economies that produce its tea are faced with rising labor costs. Markets must also address the growing demand for higher quality loose leaf tea. Makers, merchants, and consumers of this tea must find its appropriate value and accompanying price in a market context where standards for quality either do not exist, or remain shadowed behind barriers of language and cultural difference.
In response to this uncertainty, the International Specialty Tea Association (ISTA) has extensively researched the formulation of an evaluation process for specialty tea. The organization posits that an evaluation, as outlined in this text, can be used to define 'specialty tea' in a way that provides measured quality and an authentic product.
The ISTA's evaluation is concerned with two objectives: Firstly, to authenticate a tea's origin beginning with the tea maker, and secondly, to evaluate the skill of the tea maker. In this process, the tea maker is central regardless of the country where the work happens. In so doing, the door is opened to an international context, and favors — but is not limited to — small producers.
The purposes of this evaluation are threefold: to preserve high-quality traditional tea making, to raise the standard of product information that travels down the supply chain to tea industry professionals and consumers, and to disambiguate the consumer market for 'specialty' tea.
Traditional tea making is in need of preservation as an art. There is little debate that traditional tea making results in superior quality. Encroachment exists in the tension between quality and quantity. For example, in China, where traditional tea making techniques are the most widespread, there is government pressure to plant high yield cultivars like Dabaihao and Longjing 43, which choke off traditional cultivars with limited yield. In other regions, the rising cost of labor leads the way to fully mechanized production according to industry forecasts. Currently, the market plays a very limited role in counteracting the process because of a pervasive lack of transparency. Merchants and consumers often only see (and taste) that their tea is changing, but have little understanding of what accounts for the change. Tea makers who invest the time, effort, and skill to use traditional techniques will find little reward for it if our industry does not aid in identifying them.
A viable specialty tea market can be developed by raising the bar for tea professionals. This can be achieved by providing education to increase the knowledge and skills necessary to establish a repeatable evaluation of quality. It will take time for producers to start supplying the expanded information that ISTA is suggesting, and tea companies may also be resistant to change.
Finally, a definition is necessary to make the term 'specialty tea' meaningful to a consumer. Currently, the term 'specialty tea' in marketing communicates ambiguity. In the North American and European tea industries, the term implies quality only in a vague way. In India, the term can mean a category of tea types, including green, white, and oolong teas — nearly any type of tea except commodity production black tea. The term is not used at all in the Chinese tea industry. The vague term allows the tea market to lump truly quality tea with a wide range of suspect offerings, all under the label of 'specialty.' This ambiguity is damaging in that it is confusing to consumers. Defining the term is a necessary solution.
Before defining 'specialty tea', it seems logical to look at the work of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA). It took around twenty years of discussion before the SCA published a comprehensive definition of 'specialty coffee.' The term was first coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974. Since that time, the SCA's definition has evolved to include the many factors that require evaluation for a coffee to earn the 'specialty' designation. Their definition serves as a meaningful model for us, both because the SCA's definition has proven successful and useful to its industry, and because both industries have specialty artisanal markets developing in the shadow of a large and well-established international commodity system. Those familiar with SCA's standards for grading coffee will see how they have inspired ISTA's proposal for tea.
It might be hard to think of the specialty coffee industry without the professionals that support it now: the roasters, the baristas, the small quality growers, as well as the packaging and the influential force of the Special Coffee Association, which has recently partnered with its European counterpart. But like the envisioned specialty tea market, the specialty coffee market passed through an evolutionary phase where there were few professionals and seemingly no market, and came out the other side as a powerful economic force. It is logical to assume something similar will happen with specialty tea.
In addition to taking inspiration from what has worked in the coffee industry, we must also take consideration of the specific needs of our own industry. The ISTA affirms that supplying detailed information about a product's source and processing is a prerequisite to an evaluation of quality. To establish a product's value, we must first identify the product in question as authentic and unique. The specialty coffee industry recognized this principle, so direct trade and authentication of the source was present from the beginning. In the tea industry however, opacity of the source is the default business practice, and has been for centuries. The identity of a tea's makers often remain hidden as a trade secret.
We must also consider that tea making uses a team of people: growers, pluckers, and tea makers. Quality tea requires a significant amount of skill from each of the roles, in each phase of the process. Like any other art, these skills require honing over a lifetime. As a result, the costs are also much higher for making a quality tea. A meaningful definition of 'specialty tea' must speak to the work of each skilled artisan who contributes to a tea's production.
With gardening comes the first element to examine. The character of the tea begins with the soil. An evaluation of the tea should include information about the composition of the soil, whether it drains well, and the application of nutritional maintenance. Also, plant spacing, pruning, and method for weed and pest control need consideration. The cultivar used and the age of the plants needs to be supplied.
A general description of the location completes the gardening portion of the definition. For example, "The garden is located on the side of the mountain, at (longitude, latitude), at 1000 meters above sea level, and the plucking time, April 4th, receives 4 hours of direct sunlight before noon." Additional information both increases value and supports legal protection to the tea maker. There are teamakers that consider such detail. Its safe to assume that teamaking is an art for them.
The next aspect to be considered and evaluated relates to tea plucking. Plucking leaves for quality tea requires a skilled worker. This worker has a very challenging job. Speed is essential because leaves grow in sunlight. It may take tens of thousands of pluckings to make up a kilogram of tea. Plucked leaves need to be uniform in their maturity. Leaves should be unbroken and plucked with a snap, as a fingernail-cut stem will produce a black ending. In the early spring, conditions are cold and often overcast and rainy. Overcast weather functions to slow growth, but a poor light demands a sharp eye to pluck small leaves showing green over green. The plant growth can vary, so ensuring uniform maturity of leaves provides another complication to plucking. Breaking the leaf causes preventable bitterness. One of the original goals of tea making was removing bitterness from the tea.
Along with the challenges for pickers, there exists a plucking leaf configuration standard that requires adherence and evaluation. The plucking standard is the primary element that defines the tea's character. The plucking standards configurations—one bud, one bud and one leaf, and two leaves and a bud—apply to all teas except wulongs, which require more mature leaves for their processing. In today's market, common practice to reduce picking time and labor costs is to remove the bud from a plucked sprig with leaves attached. The result is an inferior tea when compared to the tea made from a single bud plucking. The resulting tea doesn't have the body. It is an essential insight that slight variations anywhere along the tea making process can produce recognizable changes in the character of the tea.
From plucking, we move into the domain of the tea maker. Tea makers have the right to keep their own developed techniques protected from the requirement for full transparency. However, there are transparency requirements that need addressing. The disclosure of machinery used is vital to distinguish handmade tea from the artisanal use of simple machinery. As mentioned above, one goal of the effort to define specialty tea is to preserve traditional tea making. It may be that modern outcomes in tea making may improve using more modern implements instead of more traditional implements. For example, the heat in an electric frying pan can be controlled better than a pan heated by fire, which prevents blistering the leaf. Perhaps the skilled rolling machine operator achieves a better result than a hand rolling. Still, we should consider that handmade Persian rugs are more valuable than machine made rugs, though the latter may be free of defects. Rarity is always a factor when value is assessed, and disclosure of these details has obvious value.
All modern whole leaf tea making derives from a method that became codified about six hundred years ago, sometimes known as the Songluo Method. The multitude of tea types demonstrate variations of this tea making method. A wide variety of teas have resulted as variations of these simple and inexpensive processing techniques. The steps comprise plucking, withering, frying, rolling, roasting/drying, and fine sorting. The finished leaf holds many clues to the skill of the tea maker. Some of these indicators lend themselves to objective evaluation—for example, the condition of the leaf, assessment of the picking standard adherence, the uniformity of the leaf, and the percentage of moisture remaining in the finished tea. Other indicators, such as color, aroma, and taste, lend themselves to a more subjective analysis by trained professionals. Each of these items should be evaluated before a tea can be considered 'specialty.'
Defects can appear in every step of the tea making process. Sometimes defects arise from a tea maker's decision on when to transition from one step in the process to another. A skilled tea maker knows from experience when that point comes. The decision is made with her senses, and she recognizes when the leaves have the right look, smell, and feel. As a tea maker works, the surrounding environment is not static and can change dramatically in a short period of time. During the tea making season, each hour of the day has its use, for most teas. It is not so much that there are secrets waiting to be revealed, but rather it is the skill of the tea maker and the other supporting skilled workers that provides for the specialness.
With an evaluation encompassing the factors above, the answer to the question, "Does this particular tea rise to the level of 'specialty' or not?" is now known. A rating score provided by tea professionals utilizing a matrix based on standards for the variable elements addressed above substantiates the definition of 'specialty tea.'
Understanding must be clear that limits exist for this definition. Excellent teas that score 100 points can be substantially different. The same tea maker could make a tea using simple machinery and score 100, and make a better tea entirely by hand that is appreciably better. We are not capable of judging variations of excellence, and on the other end of the scale, we cannot provide a grading system for tea produced by the commodity model. The commodity tea industry has its own standards that are evaluated by professional tasters, and its teas are authenticated by auction brokers. Our effort focuses on defining the dividing line between specialty tea and non-specialty tea.
It is important to note that this definition and the standards supporting it are works in progress. There is ongoing research to strengthen and fine tune these statements. ISTA is also developing a training curriculum for professional tasters/evaluators. While the overall project will of course take time to develop, our progress will be significantly streamlined by considering the experience and model of the Specialty Coffee Association, a program that since its beginning in 1974, has benefited countless coffee producers, professionals, and consumers.
Become a member — it's free — or login to your account.
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International Specialty Tea Association
The Specialty Tea Manifesto
© 2023 International Specialty Tea Association.
Website by Creative Slice


When I received this tag from Ratu Syura (Thanks!), I was like, oh no! It seems quite complicated to me. LOL. In fact, it's very easy. Just copy and paste everything!!!
Juliana is wondering in which continents most of the bloggers live. So, she is challenging all the bloggers to do this tag.
A. Asia : 1. Moms... Check Nyo (Philippines) 2. Aeirin's Collections (Philippines) 3. Jenny and Belle(Philippines) 4. Hailey's Beats and Bits (Philippines) 5. Appleofmyeyes(Saudi Arabia) 6. Deranged Insanity (Philippines) 7. PROJECT HEAVY TRAFFIC (Singapore) 8. Rooms of My Heart (Indonesia) 9. Blessings and Beyond (Philippines) 10. lancerlord (Singapore) 11. allinkorea (Korea) 12. kimchiland (Korea) 13. korean food (Korea) 14. idealpinkrose (Korea) 15. Pinay Mommy Online (Philippines) 16. Momhood Moments (Philippines) 17. Business Mars (Philippines) 18. Maiylah's Snippets (Philippines) 19. Picture Clusters (Philippines) 20. My Wanderings (Philippines) 21. Hit-or-Miss (Philippines) 22. Life Quest (Philippines) 23. FunFierceFabulous (Phils) 24. and Life Goes On for... (Philippines) 25. Moments of Colours (Philippines) 26. Making sense… (somehow) (Philippines) 27. Day To Day (Philippines) 28. My Happy Place 29. Me and Mine (Japan) 30. Little Peanut (Japan) 31. Creative In Me (Japan) 32. Pea in a Pod (Japan) 33. A Slice of Life (Phils) 34. Jenny Said So (Phils) 35. Live it Up... (Philippines) 36. A Sweet Taste Of Life (Philippines) 37. Through The Rain (Philippines) 38. Sugarmagnolias (Japan) 39. ParentZine育兒好好玩 (Singapore) 40. We are Family (PH) 41. Reference Notes (Hong Kong) 42. The Sweet Life 43. A Great Pleasure (Malaysia) 44. Lalaine's World ( Thailand) 45. Proud Mommy (Philippines) 46. The Real Deal (Malaysia) 47. Petty Ramblings of a Petty Queen(Malaysia) 48. Turn-u-Off (Malaysia) 49. Your Turn!
Rozella, Agnes, Liza, Shelly, Nightwing, SJB, your turn!!!
Hey Monica, I got this late, but I added you to my list already :) Thanks for the tag.
Thanks. shall be tagging along soon!


text:
Proposed Rule 25
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
Documents Found 108
Safety Zone; Apra Outer Harbor, Naval Base Guam
by the Coast Guard on 05/29/2020.
The Coast Guard is proposing to establish a temporary safety zone for certain waters of Apra Outer Harbor. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters near Polaris Point, Guam, during a fireworks display on July 4, 2020. This proposed rulemaking would prohibit persons and vessels from entering the safety...
Special Local Regulation; Chesapeake Bay, Between Sandy Point and Kent Island, MD
The Coast Guard is proposing to establish special local regulations for certain waters of the Chesapeake Bay. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters located between Sandy Point, Anne Arundel County, MD, and Kent Island, Queen Anne's County, MD, during a paddling event on September 27, 2020. This...
Special Local Regulations; Recurring Marine Events, Sector Charleston
The Coast Guard is revising existing regulations and consolidating into one table the special local regulations for recurring marine events at various locations within the geographic boundaries of the Seventh Coast Guard District Captain of the Port (COTP) Charleston Zone. Consolidating marine events into one table simplifies Coast Guard...
Special Local Regulations; Recurring Marine Events in the Lake Michigan Captain of the Port Zone
The Coast Guard is updating its recurring special local regulations for marine events located within the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan zone. This rule reorganizes five separate regulations of a similar nature currently listed in the Code of Federal Regulations into a single regulation, makes minor formatting changes for consistency, moves...
Safety Zones; Annual Events Requiring Safety Zones in the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan Zone
The Coast Guard is updating the rules that regulate vessel traffic and control navigation on portions of waterways in the Captain of the Port Lake Michigan zone during events that will introduce safety concerns to life and property on the navigable waters of the United States. This rule reorganizes the table listing existing safety zones into...
Safety Zones; Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley Annual and Recurring Safety Zones Update
The Coast Guard is amending and updating its safety zones regulations for annual events that take place in the Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley area. This action is necessary to update the current list of recurring safety zones with revisions, additional events, and removal of events that no longer take place in Sector Ohio Valley. This regulation...
Safety Zone; Pensacola Bay, Pensacola Beach, FL
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for the navigable waters within 100 yards from the pilings, work equipment, and structures of the Pensacola Bay Bridge, Pensacola Beach, FL. This temporary safety zone is necessary to provide for the safety of life and property on these navigable waters during a bridge construction project...
Safety Zone; Tug Valerie B and Barge Kokosing IV operating in the Straits of Mackinac, MI
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for the navigable water within a 500-yard radius of a tug and barge in the Straits of Mackinac. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from the potential hazards created by the work, inspection, surveying and the removal of cables for the Straits...
Safety Zone; Pier 45 Fire Cleanup and Potential Marine Debris, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, CA
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on the navigable waters of San Francisco Bay around Pier 45 due to emergency response and associated marine debris as a result of a fire on May 23, 2020. This safety zone is necessary to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by the presence of...
Safety Zone; Schwab Family Fireworks, Lake Huron, MI
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for navigable waters within a 200-yard radius of a portion of Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI. This zone is necessary to protect spectators and vessels from potential hazards associated with the Schwab Family Fireworks.
Security Zone; HMS MEDWAY, St. Johns River, Jacksonville, FL
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary moving security zone for navigable waters 500 yards around the HMS MEDWAY during the vessel's transit from the St. Johns River Sea Buoy until BAE Systems Shipyard, and while it remains docked at BAE Systems Shipyard, Mayport, FL starting May 17, 2020. The security zone is needed to protect personnel...
Safety Zone for Fireworks Display; Upper Potomac River, Washington, DC
The Coast Guard is proposing to establish a temporary safety zone for certain waters of the Upper Potomac River. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters near the National Mall and Memorial Parks at Washington, DC, on July 4, 2020, (with alternate date of July 5, 2020) during a fireworks display to...
Special Local Regulations; Sector Ohio Valley Annual and Recurring Special Local Regulations Update
The Coast Guard is amending and updating its special local regulations relating to recurring marine parades, regattas, and other events that take place in the Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley area of responsibility (AOR). This rule informs the public of regularly scheduled events that require additional safety measures through the establishing of...
Safety Zone; Highway 99 Partial Bridge Replacement, Stanislaus River, Ripon, CA
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for certain waters of the Stanislaus River. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on the Stanislaus River near the Highway 99 Bridge in Ripon, CA, during partial bridge replacement scheduled to occur between June 15, 2020 and November 7, 2020. This regulation prohibits...
Safety Zone; Lake of the Ozarks, Mile Marker .5 on the Main Channel of the Lake of the Ozarks Near Bagnel Dam, Lake Ozark, MO
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for certain waters of the Lake of the Ozarks. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of life on these navigable waters during fireworks displays. This regulation prohibits persons and vessels from being in the safety zone during the specified periods of enforcement unless...
Safety Zone; Harbor Beach Fireworks, Lake Huron, MI
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for navigable waters within a 200-yard radius of a portion of Lake Huron, Harbor Beach, MI. This zone is necessary to protect spectators and vessels from potential hazards associated with the Harbor Beach Fireworks.
Safety Zone; Barge PML2501, St. Marys River, De Tour Village, MI
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for navigable waters within a 500-yard radius of an aground barge in the lower St. Marys River, in the vicinity of Sweets Point. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards created by the aground barge. Entry of vessels or...
Civil Monetary Penalty Adjustments for Inflation
by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, and the Transportation Security Administration on 06/17/2020.
In this final rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making the 2020 annual inflation adjustment to its civil monetary penalties. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (2015 Act) was signed into law on November 2, 2015. Pursuant to the 2015 Act, all agencies must adjust civil monetary penalties...
Safety Zone; San Diego Bay, San Diego, CA
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone for the navigable waters in the vicinity of the General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego Bay, San Diego, CA, during the launch of the M/V Matsonia. The safety zone is needed to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment from potential hazards associated with the launching...
Safety Zone; Illinois River, Miles 10 to 187, Grafton, IL to Peoria, IL
The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on the navigable waters of the Illinois River from mile marker (MM) 10 to MM 187 between Grafton, IL and Peoria, IL. This action is necessary to provide for the safety of persons, vessels, and the marine environment on these navigable waters as a result of increasing flood conditions on the...


ALOHA! Long to get away from the hustle and bustle? Are you ready to RELAX? Then welcome to Paradise! If you love Kauai like we do, you'll love staying in our beachfront condo in Kapaa. We're on the third (top) floor (with elevator) in a corner unit with unobstructed views north south and east. Gorgeous sunrises from our lanai (balcony) and views of the beautiful mile-long sandy beach, with its walking, jogging, bicycle trail.
The Pono Kai Resort is located right in the quaint town of Kapaa. You are walking distance from many stores and restaurants, yet are shielded from road and traffic noise by fifteen acres and several other buildings in the complex. All you'll hear in our condo are the mesmerizing sounds of the ocean and the trade winds breezing through the palm trees.
Barbara and I are retired nurse and engineer, respectively, enjoying our four grandchildren, who also enjoy our beachfront condo!
Kapaa is centrally located with a 40 minute drive north to the end of the road, and another 40-minute drive to Poipu area or an hour's drive to the West end of the road at Polihale.
Quiet, quiet, quiet. The sound of the surf and the trade winds rustling through the palm trees instantly soothes jangled nerves, and puts us in a state of wonderful relaxation.
Our Lanai overlooks a walking/riding path with the beach 25 yards from the edge of our building.
This is a hotel-type phone, connected to the Resort switchboard.
Located in common area of building near elevator on ground floor. Coin operated.
We're located on the top floor in an end unit with convenient elevator access approximately 60 ft (20 m) from our front door--all wheelchair accessible.
Queen-size sofa bed, seats 4, arm chair, and swivel recliner-rocker, entertainment center and glass wall and sliding door to lanai facing the ocean.
Blu-ray player in living room and DVD player in bedroom.
"Lanai" overlooks a wide sandy beach, 2+ mile paved walking and riding trail.


This is it! Finally it's here.
We finally have what we've waited for. The dearly-bought gift—the tax cut, our tax cut has arrived in Congress!
– Republican Supreme Court justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch.
– Citizen's United—liberating our money as protected free speech.
– The unprecedented Koch organization—funded by billionaires and with a staff of 1600 and billion-dollar budgets to control state and federal legislatures.
– A full complement of Koch people (e.g. Pence, Pruitt) in Trump's government.
– Next the subtler part—governments can do nothing, everything they offer is either worthless or for someone else. There's quite a list of things governments can't do: education, social services, medical care, even police (we just need "good people with guns"). Funny thing about all those wastes of taxpayer money—they're things we're already doing for ourselves.
– Finally a bit of warm and fuzzy nonsense. Jobs are gifts from corporations and rich people. Make us rich and we'll take care of you!
Sounds like a tax plan.
– Estate tax. Only helps families with at least $10 M to pass on. Worth $1 B for Trump himself. Just for us.
– Tax rates. The top bracket is down to 35%, but that's just the beginning. We'll really get 25% with the new passthrough loophole (our lawyers will certainly take care of any fine print).
– Corporate tax rates. We've got the clout to get most of this as dividends or stock repurchases.
– Deficits. That's a particularly good one. Those nonsensical growth predictions are just one more piece of the pie. The deficits will mean cuts in services and correspondingly lower taxes going forward!
It's actually marvelous how this has worked out. We've got a tax cut before there's even a real budget! Exactly the way the world should be.
Where is all this going? Funny you should ask. There's an article in today's NY Times talking about it. It seems Mexico is actually doing something right. They're not wasting money on parasites. People like us live in walled communities with their own security and service. Some of it they pay for, and the state does the rest. And they pay practically no taxes! The world as God created it!
The tax cut has come. We are saved.


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text:
Shedding light on my 'Total Blackout' experience
Jaleel White, courtesy Syfy
I am quite the fan of Syfy's competition series Total Blackout, hosted by Jaleel White (Family Matters, Dancing with the Stars). The half-hour show, which premiered April 25, involves contestants tackling their anxieties in a series of challenges - all of which take place in complete, impenetrable darkness.
So far the show, which airs each Wednesday at 10 p.m., has been garnering some great responses (including 1.4 million viewers for the May 9 telecast). I genuinely enjoy watching people get freaked out (and love the YouTube vids when a monster pops out of nowhere). It's cathartic to let your fears take over within a controlled environment, and just plain funny to watch others get scared by the same things that scare us.
But my fondness for Total Blackout might also be slightly subjective. Back in October 2011, I was selected as a member of the press to take part in a special dry-run of the show concept in front of an audience of reporters watching via closed-circuit TV in another room. Along with a couple other reporters, Colin Ferguson of Eureka took part in the segment right before me. None of us had ever heard the name of the show before and didn't know what we were getting into. We had no contact with other contestants after they took part, and weren't even warned that we'd be thrust into the darkness. In fact, it wasn't until I went into the light that all was reveled.
Anyhow, I wanted to share Colin's and my experience as part of Total Blackout. Perhaps after you watch, you'll understand why one Syfy executive humorously said that watching me was "disturbing" and that I'd "never be a contestant on this show."
-Aaron Sagers
And here's a clip from the May 23 episode of Total Blackout:
Labels: Colin Ferguson, Eureka, Jaleel White, Total Blackout, TV


text:
Asian stocks fall ahead of monthly employment data in US
by: JOE McDONALD, Associated Press
Posted: Jul 4, 2019 / 06:28 AM UTC / Updated: Jul 5, 2019 / 08:39 AM UTC
Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 4, 2019. Shares opened higher in Asia on Thursday after U.S. stocks closed broadly higher, sending the S&P 500 and other major indexes to record highs.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks fell Friday as investors waited for American employment data and details of U.S.-Chinese trade talks.
Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong fell while Australia edged up.
Investors looked ahead to monthly U.S. jobs data due out Friday, which are expected to be a factor in the Federal Reserve's decision this month on interest rates. The markets expect a solid 165,000 increase in non-farm payrolls.
The central bank has said it is prepared to cut rates to shore up the U.S. economy if trade disputes crimp growth.
Expectations are rising that central banks will adopt "more dovish stances," said IHS Markit in a report. "All incoming data will be scrutinized for last-minute policy signals."
The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3% to 2,996.86 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 0.1% to 21,672.30. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.1% to 28,755.25.
South Korea's Kospi gave up 0.4% to 2,100.32 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 gained 6 points to 6,723.60. New Zealand advanced while Taiwan and Singapore declined.
U.S. markets were closed Thursday for the Independence Day holiday.
Last weekend's agreement by U.S. President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping to refrain from new tariffs pending a new round of negotiations has relieved some pressure on markets.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters Thursday he expected to announce new negotiations soon. Still, forecasters warn the truce is fragile because the two sides still face the disputes that caused talks to break down in May.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 60 cents to $56.72 per barrel in electronic trading On the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained $1.09 on Thursday to close at $57.34. Brent crude, used to price international oils, declined 4 cents to $63.26 per barrel in London. It lost 52 cents the previous session to $63.30.
CURRENCY: The dollar was little-changed at 107.83 yen. The euro declined to $1.1281 from $1.1286.
by ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press / Jul 15, 2019
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell vs. hardliners in the White House as lawmakers pursue a deal on federal spending and the debt. And the hardliners, wary of further increases to federal spending, appear to be losing.
Talks between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appear to be progressing. Mnuchin on Monday told reporters, "I think we're very close to a deal," though he cautioned that "these deals are complicated."


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Liberal Expansion of Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1033
Alex K. Yoder
By Alex K. Yoder, Esq.*
Amendment of original pleading to change the name of a defendant is now permitted after the expiration of statute of limitations for "mistake."
Ninety-day relation back period to the date of original commencement, if (1) the party to be named received notice of the action within 90 days of the expiration of the statute of limitations, and (2) the party knew or should have known the action would have been brought against them but for mistake regarding the identity of the proper party.
Effective April 1, 2017, Pa.R.C.P. 1033 has been amended to include the following addition of subpart (b) in bold:
Rule 1033. Amendment.
(a) A party, either by filed consent of the adverse party or by leave of court, may at any time change the form of action, add a person as a party, correct the name of a party, or otherwise amend the pleading. The amended pleading may aver transactions or occurrences which have happened before or after the filing of the original pleading, even though they give rise to a new cause of action or defense. An amendment may be made to conform the pleading to the evidence offered or admitted.
(b) An amendment correcting the name of a party against whom a claim has been asserted in the original pleading relates back to the date of the commencement of the action if, within ninety days after the period provided by law for commencing the action, the party received notice of the institution of the action such that it will not be prejudiced in maintaining a defense on the merits and the party knew or should have known that the action would have been brought against the party but for a mistake concerning the identity of the proper party.
The proposed addition to 1033 to include subpart (b) was originally included in the Civil Procedural Rules Committee's Proposed Recommendation 256 on October 6, 2012. That recommendation also included proposed additions to what is now subpart (a) of 1033, which were adopted effective January 23, 2014. The additions included the following language in bold:
A party, either by filed consent of the adverse party or by leave of court, may at any time change the form of action, add a person as a party, correct the name of a party, or otherwise amend the pleading. The amended pleading may aver transactions or occurrences which have happened before or after the filing of the original pleading, even though they give rise to a new cause of action or defense. An amendment may be made to conform the pleading to the evidence offered or admitted.
Pa.R.C.P. 1033 effective January 23, 2014.
Although the proposed subsection (b) was not originally adopted by the Supreme Court in response to the October 6, 2012, Proposed Recommendation, the court, after "further confidential deliberation," adopted the addition, which is now subsection (b), by order dated February 2, 2017. The "further confidential deliberation" aspect of the adoption of subpart (b) is language provided by the Rules Committee during an informal discussion regarding the history of the proposed addition and subsequent adoption of subpart (b).
According to the Rules Committee, the original Proposed Recommendation was never re-published after the October 6, 2012, submission. The comments and suggestions received by the Rules Committee are confidential, as is the written submission(s) of the Proposed Recommendation from the Rules Committee to the Supreme Court.
Not confidential during the rule-making process are the Notes and Explanatory Comments included with the Proposed Recommendation. The Rules Committee included a Note with the October 6, 2012, Recommendation immediately following the proposed subpart (b) as follows:
Note: Notice shall include informal knowledge of the action and is not limited to the service of original process.
This outline of the procedural history of the addition of subpart (b) does provide some insight regarding how the liberal amendment will play out in litigation and potential issues to be aware of. The Note from the Rules Committee provides at least some indication that the committee contemplated the evidentiary issues that would arise upon the eventual adoption of subpart (b).
The Explanatory Comment to the Proposed Recommendation regarding the addition of subpart (b) provides an example of a hypothetical circumstance where the party to be included in the action after the statute of limitations has expired received notice of the action within 90 days of the expiration of the statute. That comment included the following example:
An accident occurs on March 30, 2010. A complaint is filed on March 26, 2012, and service is made on April 16, 2012. The complaint mistakenly identifies the driver who allegedly caused the accident as Robert Young of 2012 Fifth Avenue. However, the actual driver is Richard Young, who is Robert Young's 18-year-old son and resides with him at 2012 Fifth Avenue. As a result of the service of the complaint, Richard Young is aware of the action, that he should have been named as a Defendant, and that the complaint mistakenly identifies his father as the driver.
Proposed Recommendation 256, Explanatory Comment, October 6, 2012.
While a helpful demonstration, this hypothetical does not include an example of what would be considered informal notice of the action, much less how a party would prove informal notice, within 90 days, and without prejudice to the party, in order to amend a pleading in accordance with the Rule. The Supreme Court included a similar example in Explanatory Comment to the Order Amending Rule 1033:
Harry Roberts, who resides at 949 Alcoma Street, Pittsburgh, PA, was the driver of an automobile which struck the plaintiff when he was crossing the intersection at Grant and Forbes Street, Pittsburgh, PA, at approximately 11:00 a.m. on October 11, 2013. The plaintiff's complaint, filed on October 2, 2015, mistakenly identifies the driver as Henry Rosen. He is the only named defendant in the complaint.
On October 7, 2015, the Sheriff made service by serving Mary Roberts at 949 Alcoma Street, Pittsburgh, PA. She is described in the Sheriff's Return as the wife of the defendant. On January 2, 2016, the Complaint is amended to correct "Henry Rosen" to "Harry Roberts."
Order Amending Rule 1033, Explanatory Comment, February 2, 2017.
Both the example offered by the Rules Committee and by the Supreme Court include hypothetical situations where the defendant to be added is formally served with a complaint, presumably setting forth the applicable date, time and parties involved in the lawsuit. However, the potential issues from a defendant's standpoint will likely encompass a situation similar to the following hypothetical:
An incorrect party is named;
That party is served with a writ of summons;
A complaint is filed, after the statute of limitations has expired;
The named defendant files for judgment on the pleadings;
The plaintiff attempts to amend the original pleading to include the proper defendant.
Presumably, the plaintiff in the above situation will have the burden to prove, or at least allege, that the proper defendant received notice of the action, such that it would not be prejudiced in defending the claim on the merits, and that it knew or should have known that the action would have been brought against it, but for a mistake (on behalf of the plaintiff) regarding the identity of the proper party.
Consider the following example. A conglomerate of real estate entities that operate myriad residential rental properties throughout many different states are incorporated under different names, but have the same service address and/or primary business address. A tenant in one of those properties is injured and files a Writ of Summons against the incorrect entity, not naming the actual property owner. The Writ of Summons is served at the correct address and accepted by the proper service agent due to the entities having the same address. Defense counsel then files a Praecipe for Rule to File Complaint which is issued by the Prothonotary, a Complaint is filed, and served at the address of the incorrect named defendant but also the address of the proper defendant. If the complaint is filed and served within 90 days after the expiration of the statute of limitations, the proper defendant would then be on notice of the action and arguably should have known that, but for the mistake, it would have been named the correct party.
Because the Rule still requires that a party seek leave of the court in the absence of consent of the adverse party, it is most likely that a party brought into a lawsuit by amendment under § 1033 after the applicable statute of limitation has expired will need to object to its involvement in the action after having been added upon motion of the plaintiff approval of court. The new "proper" defendant will need to file an answer with new matter, alleging the statute of limitation defense, followed by a motion for judgment on the pleadings once the pleadings are closed. In order to have a defense to the notice claim and "knew or should have known" aspect—which will be included in a plaintiff's motion for leave to amend—defense counsel, even if aware of the action, should not be encouraged to acknowledge the existence of the action as outlined above until at least 90 days from the expiration of the statute of limitation.
The Supreme Court's explanatory comment in the order adopting subsection (b) goes on to include, "[T]he amendment of Rule 1033 does not alter the concealment doctrine and the discovery rule. The amendment is intended to cover in which neither the concealment doctrine nor the discovery rule apply." See Order & Explanatory Comment at 2017 Pa. LEXIS 238.
*Alex is an associate in our Harrisburg, Pennsylvania office. He can be reached at 717.651.3515 or akyoder@mdwcg.com.


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Thunder top Knicks 105-84 in OKC debuts for George, Anthony
Posted: 11:31 AM, Oct 20, 2017
J Pat Carter

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - OCTOBER 19: Carmelo Anthony #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder reacts after scoring two points against the New York Knicks during the first half of a NBA game at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on October 19, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Much has changed about the Thunder. One thing hasn't -- Russell Westbrook still gets triple-doubles.
The reigning MVP had 21 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds, and Oklahoma City beat the New York Knicks 105-84 on Thursday night in their first regular-season game with All-Star additions Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
Anthony liked watching Westbrook's dynamic play from a new perspective.
"You guys are used to it," Anthony said. "I'm used to watching it. I'm used to going up against it. Now, to be on the other side of that on the same team as him, and to reap those benefits of what he can bring to the game -- I'm excited about what we started out tonight, what we created tonight and where we're headed."
George, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Indiana Pacers, led the Thunder with 28 points. He said he wasn't used to getting so many open looks, but Westbrook took pressure off of him.
"It's great," George said. "The game comes so easy. I know I'm going to get those easy opportunities like I did tonight. It's only going to make me better."
Anthony, who was traded from the Knicks to the Thunder right before training camp began, had 22 points against his former team.
"That chapter's closed," Anthony said. "No more Knicks talk. Just focus in on the Thunder moving forward and what we have to do."
Kristaps Porzingis had 31 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks. Enes Kanter, who joined the Knicks in the deal that sent Anthony to the Thunder, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. No other New York players scored in double figures.
Anthony was impressed with Porzingis' performance and willingness to take charge.
"Just to see that he's ready to take on that role -- he looked aggressive tonight," Anthony said. "He looked comfortable, felt comfortable tonight. I was happy to see that."
George broke away for a dunk as time expired in the first half to give the Thunder a 53-42 lead. Porzingis scored 19 points before the break to keep the Knicks in it.
Kanter made three buckets early in the third quarter to keep the Knicks in it, but Westbrook found Steven Adams and Andre Roberson for back-to-back alley-oop dunks to give the Thunder a 69-52 lead.
After that, it was time for the Westbrook triple-double watch. He reached double digits in assists midway through the third quarter, then grabbed his 10th rebound with about four minutes remaining in the game.
Knicks: Kanter and F Doug McDermott, the other player the Thunder sent to the Knicks in the Anthony deal, both got a standing ovation during pregame warmups. ... McDermott scored four points on 2-for-5 shooting. ... The Knicks shot 55.6 percent in the first quarter and still trailed 27-24, in part, because of 11 turnovers. They finished with 26 turnovers.
Thunder: The game marked the start of the 10th season for the Thunder in Oklahoma City. ... Thunder C Dakari Johnson scored four points in his NBA debut. He was a G League All-Star last season. ... F Jerami Grant's fadeaway at the third-quarter buzzer gave Oklahoma City a 79-59 lead.
`STACHE BROTHERS
Kanter and Adams are best friends who were known as the `Stache Brothers when they played together with the Thunder.
"It felt weird because he knows my moves and everything," Kanter said. "It definitely was good to see him and come back and play against those guys."
DEFENSE STEPS UP
The Thunder allowed the Knicks to shoot 55.6 percent in the first quarter, then held them to 36 percent shooting the rest of the game. It allowed the Thunder to get away with shooting poorly early.
"I thought in the first half we had really good looks," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. "We didn't shoot the ball well. The thing with us was our defense. I was really pleased with that."
STAT LINES
Adams had a strong all-around game. He scored 12 points on 5-for-5 shooting, and grabbed five rebounds. He had five steals -- one short of his career high -- and added three blocks.
Knicks: Host Detroit on Saturday night.
Thunder: At Utah on Saturday night.
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text:
Staff and wire reports
VILNIUS - The Statistics Department reported this week that some 615,000 residents, 18 percent of the population, lived below the poverty line in 2005.
Department director Algirdas Semeta told reporters that almost 9 percent of employed residents, 59 percent of unemployed and 10 percent of pensioners lived in poverty. What's more, he said 39 percent of the country's poorest had three or more children. But as Semeta explained, the country's system of social security kept the numbers down.
"After deducting social benefits from income, the relative poverty line in Lithuania jumps to 23.7 percent. Social benefits had the biggest influence on the relative poverty line of households with children, especially one-parent families and families with three or more children," he said.
Semeta said that, compared to other EU countries, Lithuania ranks near the bottom of the list along with Ireland, Portugal and Slovakia in terms of poverty risk.
"It should be noted that it is relative poverty, so a pauper in Ireland would be a rich person in Lithuania," he pointed out.
In Latvia, the government recently raised the minimum monthly wage from 90 to 120 lats (171 euros) in order to compensate for rising consumer prices and to decrease the number living below the poverty level.
Latvia's minimum wage is among the lowest in the EU.
Kazakhstan, following Russia's lead, bans Baltic fish
Estonia's anti-money laundering laws clamp down on Bitcoin traders
Households' purchasing power growing rapidly in Estonia
Lithuanian parliament leaves reduced VAT on heating in place until next June
Lithuania's education ground-breaker Austeja Landsbergiene: 'Who am I to judge?'
Small science delivers big results
Sluggish times for Estonia's exports


text:
package com.datastax.spark.connector.writer

import com.datastax.driver.core._
import com.datastax.spark.connector.util.Logging

private[connector] class BatchStatementBuilder(
    val batchType: BatchStatement.Type,
    val routingKeyGenerator: RoutingKeyGenerator,
    val consistencyLevel: ConsistencyLevel) extends Logging {

  /** Converts a sequence of statements into a batch if its size is greater than 1.
    * Sets the routing key and consistency level. */
  def maybeCreateBatch(stmts: Seq[RichBoundStatement]): RichStatement = {
    require(stmts.size > 0, "Statements list cannot be empty")
    val stmt = stmts.head
    // for batch statements, it is enough to set routing key for the first statement
    stmt.setRoutingKey(routingKeyGenerator.apply(stmt))

    if (stmts.size == 1) {
      stmt.setConsistencyLevel(consistencyLevel)
      stmt
    } else {
      val batch = new RichBatchStatement(batchType, stmts)
      batch.setConsistencyLevel(consistencyLevel)
      batch
    }
  }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A life that spans stays on three continents, from the dusty plains of Africa to the fertile east coast of Australia and the bustling streets of Europe.
A personality best embodied by a father's nickname for his inquisitive daughter: "The Why Kid".
An outspoken third-wave feminist that believes she can have her cherry cake and lick the whipped cream off her fingers too.
An African soul with Belgian roots that never misses an opportunity to watch strange East-European movies with bad English sub-titles.
For the motto splashed across my marching banner I humbly borrow from the irrepressible Tom Robbins: "There are only two mantras, yum and yuck, mine is yum."
Is passionate about: exploring, writing, Africa, asking questions.
Refuses to put her lips to: Brussels sprouts.
Can't understand why people: are cruel to animals.
Thinks that men should learn to: multi-task - happily.
Thinks that women should learn to: not take things so personally.
Is secretly fan of: Watching World Cup rugby matches and Poker Championships.
If her house burns down would first rescue books by: Tom Robbins, Antje Krog, Anais Nin, Koos Kombuis, Riaan Malan, J.M. Coetzee.


text:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Provides $50K Donation To Md. Food Bank
October 31, 2016 / 4:52 PM / CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- There are estimates that over 360,000 people around Baltimore are food insecure, meaning they don't know where their next meal is coming from.
As Mike Schuh reports, a church picked up on an idea by the governor to help alleviate the problem. This year's "Day To Serve" was on October 10th.
Much of the 5 million pounds of food coming into the Maryland Food Bank arrives in large semis, so it's not unusual to see one at the loading dock.
But a semi that just arrived from Utah? That is a little more rare. But it came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was paid for by local church members.
"So this is 40,000 pounds of food, it comes from donations from our members of our church and it's packaged in Salt Lake, there's a distribution center there, and the truck was loaded and packed up and driven out here to provide this donation," says Elder Kevin Calderwood.
In all, between the food and the shipping costs, $50,000 was donated.
And while random things that come in from food drives and collections is always welcome, pallets and pallets of the same product -- like peaches or pasta -- help in a different way.
"Well, we don't have to sort it," says Nancy Smith, of the Maryland Food Bank. "We know what we're getting. This is... highly sought after food. Forty thousand pounds in one that is shrink wrapped of highly sought after food is like gold to us."
Church members collected the money as part of Governor Hogan's Day of Service Initiative. His wife was at the food bank to say thanks. As the youngest of eight children, she remembers when food was scarce in her childhood.
"In countryside, poor, and after Korean War, I know how much food is important for people," says Yumi Hogan. "So this is a tremendous donation."
As large as the donation is, they say it will have all been distributed within a week.
First published on October 31, 2016 / 4:52 PM