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Auto Club: Gas Prices Are Stable, But Supply Is Down
February 28, 2019 Weekly Fuel Prices Report, Gas Prices
Photo by Paul Schadler https://www.flickr.com/photos/pschadler/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Gas prices continued to move very little for the third straight week, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California's Weekend Gas Watch. The retail statewide average is $3.29 a gallon for regular unleaded, which is one cent higher than last week.
The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $3.35 per gallon, which is unchanged from last week, six cents higher than last month, and eight cents lower than last year. In San Diego, the average price is $3.31, which is one cent higher than last Thursday, seven cents higher than last month, and eight cents lower than this time last year. On the Central Coast, the average price is $3.37, which is one cent higher than last week, eight cents higher than last month, and five cents lower than last year. In Riverside, the average per-gallon price is $3.26, which is one cent higher than last week, eight cents higher than last month, and ten cents lower than last year. In San Bernardino, the $3.30 average price is one cent higher than last week, eight cents higher than last month, and seven cents lower than a year ago today.
"The California Energy Commission reported Wednesday that Southern California gasoline supplies are now well below average levels for the past five years, but so far that news has not dramatically affected wholesale prices," said Auto Club spokesman Jeffrey Spring. "Oil Price Information Service analysts say the low supply level is likely due to both planned and unplanned maintenance at local refineries."
The Weekend Gas Watch monitors the average price of gasoline. As of 9 a.m. on Feb. 28, averages are:
-1 cent
+1 cent


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Sanditon releases first look at new cast members – but fans are concerned
Christmas just came early for Sanditon fans as the show's official Instagram account has released the first look at several new cast members. Posting…
Sanditon releases first look images for season three - and fans will be worried
Sanditon has released a first look at the upcoming third season of the beloved period drama - and fans can expect to see new arrivals ruffle some…
VIDEO: Sanditon star Theo James joins beloved drama – see first look
Sanditon star Theo James has joined an all-star cast for the upcoming second season of the smash hit show The White Lotus, and we can't wait to see…
Lady Frederick Windsor to star in Sanditon season three - details
After being mysteriously missing from Sanditon season two, it appears that a member of the royal family will be reprising her role in season three of…
Sanditon: everything we know about season three so far
The season two finale of Sanditon has ended on a cliffhanger like no other and we're already counting down the days until we can return to the…
Sanditon star to appear alongside Olivia Colman in new drama - and it looks seriously good
Sanditon fans will be delighted to hear that star of the show, Crystal Clarke, is set to appear in the upcoming movie, Empire of Light alongside some…
Where is Sanditon series two filmed?
The second series of Sanditon arrived on ITV in July and fans are loving catching up with heroine Charlotte Heywood.MORE: Sanditon writer reveals…
Sanditon writer reveals surprising reason why some season 2 scenes were lost
Sanditon writer Justin Young has revealed that some carriage scenes that were written in the scripts for season two were "lost" as they were too…
Sanditon creator shares disappointing update on future of period drama
Sanditon fans are delighted that the period drama, based on Jane Austen's final unfinished novel, has returned to screens for its highly-anticipated…
Sanditon fan left fuming for same reason as period drama makes long-awaited return to ITV
Sanditon finally made its return to British screens on Friday night, after a more than two-year wait. In that time, the period drama based on Jane…
Sanditon star Rose Williams opens up about Theo James' exit
Sanditon star Rose Williams has opened up about Theo James' exit from the popular period drama.MORE: Sanditon season two: how Sidney Parker was…
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HELLO! Exclusives

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Wilkinson/Wilkersons
The Man with Two Families
Four Generations
Two censuses, two stories
Although he married Artie Jamison, he fathered two sons by my second great-grandmother, Charlotte Jamison. I hope to create a slide show of my ancestors and upload on Youtube soon. I'll keep everyone posted.
Shout out to Nola Coburn, the researcher from Chickasaw County, Mississippi, who forwarded to me from a great-great niece, which means my distant cousin.
George Simmons (no direct relations to my Simmons that I know about) found his g-g-grandparents of Sparta, Chickasaw Co., MS. Per George, the info came the courtesy of Patsy, a lookup volunteer, and the Chickasaw Co Historical/Genealogical Society. Volume one, The History of Chickasaw Co.,MS.
Notes for THOMAS JEFFERSON WILKINSON (my ggggranfather):
Thomas J. Wilkinson was a resident of Union,Greene Co.,Alabama. He was visiting his children, J.A. Wilkinson, Mrs. Joseph Alexander White, Mrs. Leonidas Hall and Mrs. William Henry Jemison, all of Sparta, when he became ill. He died at the home of J.A. Wilkinson and was buried in Amity Cemetery.
metery.
On the 1870 census,John A. Wilkinson, 33, a farmer was married to Artie(a). They had three children Ella, Robert, Walter, and Andrew J. (possibly John's brother who was a law student) were living with them. By 1880, John and Artie added three more sons: Samuel (age 9 and the same name as his other son, my great great uncle Samuel), John (Jr. or III), and Thomas.
According to the 1870 census (the first one where Blacks were actually counted):
On the July 28, Charlott(e) Jamison, 28, was listed as the head of the household and a housekeeper in Township 16 in Chickasaw County, Palo Alto, MS. The census lists her birthplace as South Carolina. Charlott is listed as a mulatto with 2 sons, William, 5, and Samuel, 3.
According to the 1880 census:
In Clay County, Beat #4, MS, Charlott Wilkinson (This was the only census where she used the Wilkinson last name), 40, a mulatto, was a widow with 2 sons, William, 14, and Samuel, 12. Charlott was living with another widow, Martha Leopard, 39, white, and her son also named Samuel, 19.
On the 1920 census, Charlotte Jamison lived five houses away from her son's in-laws, Martin Brownlee. She was a servant and 80 years old.
"Aunt Charlotte" as the Caradine Family, who were also once slaveholders called her, died in 1930 and they buried her in their family cemetery in MS. To date, the Mississippi Department of Vital Records cannot locate her or her son, William's death certificates.
((See William's Grandmother Sarah below)
John Adams Wilkinson one the oldest of several siblings born to Thomas Jefferson Wilkinson and Sarah below.
DISCLAIMER: I Copied the information below from another family member's genealogy page. I have the click where anyone can look at the entire Wilkinson tree:
Generation No. 7
9.JOHN ADAMS7 WILKINSON (THOMAS JEFFERSON6, JOHN5, STEPHEN4, JOHN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born January 21, 1837 in Union, Greene Co., Alabama, and died 1892 in Sparta, Chickasaw Co., Mississippi.
He married ARTEMISIA FRANCIS JEMISON October 24, 1861 in Sparta, Chickasaw Co., Mississippi, daughter of ROBERT JEMISON (the slave holder's only daughter) and MARTHA PITTS.
Children of JOHN WILKINSON and ARTEMISIA JEMISON are:
ELLA ROSS8 WILKINSON, b. 1863, Sparta, Chickasaw Co., Mississippi; d. 1920.
ROBERT ENNIS WILKINSON, SR., b. August 14, 1866, Sparta, Mississippi; d. April 06, 1946, Heidelberg, MS
WALTER A. WILKINSON, b. 1868; d. 1944; m. ANNIE BROWN.
SAMUEL S. WILKINSON, b. 1871; d. 1884.***He also had a son with Charlotte and named him Sam***
JOHN L. WILKINSON, b. 1875; m. PAULINE DRUMWRIGHT.
THOMAS WILKINSON, b. 1879; d. 1884.
***John's mulatto son, William, married Rhonda Brownlee. Check out the Brownlee tree.


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Richardson Tech Firm Headed to New Building Near Bush Turnpike
Steve Brown, Real Estate Editor - DallasNews.com
A high-tech company is headed for new digs in Richardson.
E4D Technologies is moving from its office on International Parkway to the new Parc Northeast building at 2920 Telecom Pkwy.
The manufacturer of high-tech medical devices is leasing 42,362 square feet in the new project to be built off Bush Turnpike.
"After spending more than 13 years segmented in three buildings, E4D will be consolidating operations into a new state-of-the-art facility in June," Cushman & Wakefield senior vice president Cribb Altman said in a statement. "The new building will help showcase their latest technologies and techniques to their customers in a much more efficient layout."
Altman Cushman & Wakefield's Mike Wyatt and Charlie Beck represented the company in its search for a new office location.
"This new space will allow E4D to consolidate into one building, creating an open and inviting work space that will carry the company into the future," said Brett Hetherington, senior director of finance at E4D.
Parc Northeast is being built by developer Jackson-Shaw. Josh Barnes of Holt Lunsford Commercial negotiated the new lease.
PageSoutherlandPage will be the architect for the new project.
© 2020 Jackson Shaw


According to our database1, Raphael A. Finkel authored at least 56 papers between 1974 and 2011.
Reasoning about conditional constraint specification problems and feature models.
What Your Teacher Told You is True: Latin Verbs Have Four Principal Parts.
Reasoning about Conditional Constraint Specifications.
Planning for Welfare to Work.
RPSF: A Routing Protocol with Selective Forwarding for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks.
A Default Inheritance Hierarchy for Computing Hebrew Verb Morphology.
Generating Cellular Puzzles with Logic Programs.
Micky: Methods With Implicit Calls.
Adaptive Decision Support for Planning under Hard and Soft Constraints.
Constraint Lingo: towards high-level constraint programming.
Automatic Generation of English-language Steps in Puzzle Solving.
Parallel Relative Debugging with Dynamic Data Structures.
Constraint Lingo: A Program for Solving Logic Puzzles and Other Tabular Constraint Problems.
Comparison of Overlap Detection Techniques.
Signature Extraction for Overlap Detection in Documents.
Generating Hebrew Verb Morphology by Default Inheritance Hierarchies.
Tabular Constraint-Satisfaction Problems and Answer Set Programming.
Computing stable models in parallel.
Experience with a Unix System-Administration Tool.
The SUDA Project: Collaborative Web-based Translation.
Integrated CPU and network-I/O QoS management in an endsystem.
Pulsar: An Extensible Tool for Monitoring Large Unix Sites.
Schema and Tuple Trees: An Intuitive Structure for Representing Relational Data.
An ASCII Database for Fast Queries of Relatively Stable Data.
Experience with Charlotte: Simplicity and Function in a Distributed Operating System.
Designing a Process Migration Facility: The Charlotte Experience.
A Simple Mechanism for Type Security Across Compilation Units.
Handling Timing Errors in Distributed Programs.
Parallel algorithms and architectures report of a workshop.
Two algorithms for barrier synchronization.
An Optimal Scheme for Disseminating Information.
An operating systems vade mecum (2. ed.).
The Crystal Multicomputer: Design and Implementation Experience.
An Efficient Deadlock Avoidance Algorithm.
DIB - A Distributed Implementation of Backtracking.
Extension of the Banker's Algorithm for Resource Allocation in a Distributed Operating System.
Improved Speedup Bounds for Parallel Alpha-Beta Search.
Binding Strategies and Scope Rules Are Independent.
WISPAC: A Parallel Array Computer for Simulation Applications.
High Density Graphs for Processor Interconnection.
A Stable Distributed Scheduling Algorithm.
A Note on Enumerating Binary Trees.
The ROSCOE Distributed Operating System.
An Algorithm for Finding Best Matches in Logarithmic Expected Time.
An Overview Of AL, A Programming System For Automation.
Quad Trees: A Data Structure for Retrieval on Composite Keys.


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Mild Suggestive Themes
In-Game Purchases
Marvel's Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps
Add-On Released Sep 7, 2018
24633 Ratings
More for Marvel's Spider-Man
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Marvel's Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps is downloadable content for Marvel's Spider-Man may be sold separately. Marvel's Spider-Man required to play associated downloadable content.
Download Marvel's Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps DLC to continue your adventure in Marvel's New York. Get access to three story chapters that include additional missions and challenges, brand new factions of enemies from the Spider-Man universe, and additional suits to unlock. Purchasing The City That Never Sleeps DLC provides access to download all three story chapters when they release.
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Software subject to license (us.playstation.com/softwarelicense). Online features require an account and are subject to terms of service and applicable privacy policy (playstationnetwork.com/terms-of-service & playstationnetwork.com/privacy-policy). One-time license fee for play on account's designated primary PS4™ system and other PS4™ systems when signed in with that account.
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Developed by Insomniac Games, Inc.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Silver Lining
Marvel's Spider-Man: Turf Wars
Marvel's Spider-Man: The Heist


D. Farin and de With, P. H. N., "Estimating Physical Camera Parameters based on Multi-Sprite Motion Estimation", in SPIE Image and Video Communications and Processing, 2005, pp. 489-500.
D. Farin and de With, P. H. N., "Evaluation of a Feature-Based Global-Motion Estimation System", in Visual Communications and Image Processing, 2005, pp. 1331-1342.
P. Poplavko, Basten, T., Pastrnak, M., van Meerbergen, J. L., Bekooij, M., and de With, P. H. N., "Extended abstract: estimation times of on-chip multiprocessor stream-oriented applications", in Third ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for Co-Design (MEMOCODE 2005), 2005, pp. 250-251.
S. Zinger, Millet, C., Mathieu, B., Grefenstette, G., Hde, P., and Mollic, P. - A., "Extracting an Ontology of Portrayable Objects from Wordnet", in MUSCLE / ImageCLEF workshop on Image and Video retrieval evaluation, 2005, pp. 17-23.
P. Li, Lin, W. S., and Rahardja, S., "Geometrically Determining the Leaky Bucket Parameters for Video Streaming over Constant Bit-Rate Channels", in Signal Processing: Image Communications, 2005, pp. 193-204.
J. Nesvadba, de With, P. H. N., and Han, J., "Real-Time and Distributed AV Content Analysis System for Consumer Electronics Networks", in IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), 2005.
D. Farin and de With, P. H. N., "Reconstructing Virtual Rooms From Panoramic Images", in 26th Symposium on Information Theory in the Benelux, 2005, pp. 301-308.
R. G. J. Wijnhoven, Albers, A. H. R., Jaspers, E. G. T., and de With, P. H. N., "Smart Retrieval on Surveillance Video Databases", in SEES Workshop 2005, 2005.


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Country Music Becoming More Involved in LGBT Community
Rapper Macklemore posing in support of Gay Rights.
Ashely Spencer
Most country music fans don't expect to hear songs about homosexuality coming from their redneck icons. However, country music is revolutionizing its stereotype with Steve Grand's gay-themed country music hit 'All-American Boy.'
Grand, who has no financial credit to his name, is a musician without a record-label. His recent employment consists of singing at Catholic Church events, a gig that barely provides him enough money for food. However, he may now lose the job due to his controversial YouTube success. The recent music video appearing on YouTube July 2nd for Grand's country ballad "All-American Boy" is his first. It exploded overnight and now has more than one million views, pretty decent for an unknown self-promoted Internet artist.
"All-American Boy" tells the story of a young gay man who misreads friendly signals from his straight male friend. For the straight guy, their friendship together was all for fun, but for the gay man it meant something more, leaving him alone and confused in the end.
This story was inspired by one of Grand's own personal experiences in dealing with his sexuality growing up. "All-American Boy" is told from a gay man's perspective, but its message of unrequited love can relate to all sexualities. For the first time in the country music culture, gay and straight fans alike are reaching out saying they understand the heartache portrayed in the song.
With recent advancements of the LGBT community, it is not surprising that the music industry is finally adapting to the new social acceptance. In the past, artists such as Martina McBride feared backlash from conservative fans for supporting the gay community.
Garth Brooks' 1993 song "We Shall Be Free" was pulled from radio stations' playlists because of its LGBT theme. In 2010, artist Chely Wright was the first country music artist to acknowledge his or her homosexuality. Since then, she has received death threats and her record sales have dropped by fifty percent.
Other music artists are impressed with Grand's fearlessness and determination in releasing such a powerful song. He funded the song himself, maxing out his credit card at $7,000 and risking his job completely. On the day the music video was posted on YouTube, the artist wrote via social networking, "time to be brave. the world does not see change until it sees honesty. I am taking a risk here in many ways, but really there is no choice but to be brave. To not tell this story is to let my soul die. It is all I believe in."
It is agreed that one does not typically see this very often in the music industry, particularly in country music, which is very traditional and thought of as macho. Only a few years ago Chely Wright decided to finally come out, causing her to lose a huge chunk of her fan base. So for Steve Grand to be doing this right from the start of his career is impressive. People that might not ordinarily be interested in country music are now saying that they might start to get into it.
In 2009, the country music trio Rascal Flatts released "Love Who You Love," to which the LGBT community reacted positively in interpretation that the band supported gay rights. Taylor Swift's "Mean" music video included a boy in a purple sweater reading a fashion magazine being bullied by football players, speaking to her LGBT fans. Grand's popular hit just may become one of the top pride anthems of our culture, following these songs and others such as Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and Macklemore's "Same Love."
Since launching his first original single, the openly-gay country singer has appeared on Good Morning America, been featured in the Associated Press, and now has an entire online fan base, where only a week ago he was practically unknown. Thanks to his braveness, unsigned Steve Grand's viral gay-themed music video is a positive step towards social acceptance of homosexuality in the modern-day country music industry.


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Guide to implementing the EITI Standard
Social and environmental expenditures
EITI Requirement 6.1
This note provides step-by-step guidance to multi-stakeholder groups (MSGs) on how to report on social and environmental expenditures.
Applicable EITI Standard
In addition to taxes levied by central, regional and local governments, extractive companies often make social and environmental contributions in the areas where they operate. These contributions can be made to central, regional or local governments, communities, non-governmental organisations or other third parties.
Social and environmental payments – either in-kind or cash – are a form of contribution from companies with the aim of supporting social development or to account for potential environmental impact. In some cases, these social or environmental expenditures are based on legal or contractual obligations. In other cases, companies make voluntary social or environmental contributions.
Communities do not always know how much companies are obliged to contribute according to their contracts. Misunderstanding about what constitutes a mandatory and voluntary social and environmental expenditure and lack of access to the contractual terms can make public oversight challenging. It is thus important to be transparent about the expectations and the actual contributions made to provide a more complete picture for all stakeholders involved.
Government stakeholders and citizens have a particular interest in ensuring that the social and environmental expenditures are effective and reach the intended beneficiaries. Companies also have an interest in demonstrating their positive contribution beyond fiscal payments, managing community expectations and ensuring that the expenditures they make and the projects they are directed towards are well managed and executed.
Requirement 6.1 of the EITI Standard requires that significant mandatory social expenditures and environmental payments are disclosed and reconciled where possible. This note provides step-by-step guidance to multi-stakeholder groups (MSGs) on how to report on social and environmental expenditures, offers examples from implementing countries and outlines opportunities to strengthen the dissemination and use of data.
What can the data help answer?
What social and environmental expenditures are made by companies and who are the recipients and beneficiaries?
How do actual expenditures by companies compare with their contractual obligations?
Do the expenditures reach intended beneficiaries including women and marginalised groups?
How significant and effective are environmental payments?
How are environmental rehabilitation funds managed and monitored?
Overview of steps
Identify social or environmental expenditures by companies
Do companies make social or environmental expenditures?
If so, are these are mandated by law or contract, or are they voluntary?
Identify existing information available on social and environmental expenditures and their significance
Are government entities and reporting companies already disclosing information on social and environmental expenditures?
Are social and environmental expenditures significant?
Collect and disclose data on social and environmental expenditures
How should the required information be collected and disclosed?
Is the information disaggregated by company and project, with indication of the beneficiary?
Review and analyse social and environmental expenditures
What additional analysis should be undertaken to respond to the broader objectives of the disclosures and stakeholder interests?
What recommendations can the MSG agree to address the findings of the analysis?
How to implement Requirement 6.1
Step 1: Identify social or environmental expenditures by companies
MSGs should identify whether companies make social or environmental expenditures, including whether these are mandatory or discretionary. In order to identify whether companies provide social expenditures, the MSG is advised to consult:
Extractive companies and industry associations with a view to understanding the type and nature of any social or environmental expenditures, and whether expenditures identified are discretionary or part of the companies' legal and/or contractual obligations.
The legal and regulatory framework governing the extractive sector to identify whether social expenditures are mandated by law. Where mandated by law, the MSG may wish to include a reference to the relevant legal provisions in EITI disclosures.
Agreements and contracts, where available, in order to understand whether social and environmental expenditures are mandatory or voluntary.
It is recommended that the findings from this work are documented in MSG meeting minutes, scoping studies or in EITI reporting.
Types of social and environmental expenditures include:
Social payments versus expenditures. Social payments and expenditures can take multiple forms, and may involve cash payments such as donations, grants or other types of cash transfers, the transfer of assets such as the construction of roads or schools, or the provision of services like training and health care. In some cases, these social expenditures and payments are based on legal or contractual obligations. In other cases, companies make voluntary social contributions.
While terms "social expenditures" and "social payments" are often used interchangeably, the general understanding is that social payments typically refer to payments made directly by the company to a government entity, while social expenditures can also be used to refer to transfers made to third parties (e.g. a construction firm to build infrastructure or a school). Where these are mandated by law or the terms of the contract governing their extractive investment, the EITI Standard requires that material expenditures are disclosed and where possible reconciled (EITI Requirement 6.1.a). Disclosures of voluntary social expenditures are encouraged (Requirement 6.1.d).
Environmental payments. Environmental payments are typically made by companies to the government to compensate for or mitigate potential environmental impact by oil, gas and mining operations. Such payments can be mandated by law, regulation or contract and may consist of fees related to environmental licenses, specific taxes or payments related to emissions, pollution or water and energy use, waste fees, and contributions to environmental protection agencies or funds. Where these payments to the government are material, the EITI Standard requires that these are disclosed and reconciled. This provision is aligned with EITI Requirement 4.1. on comprehensive disclosures of taxes and revenues. These payments are not always generally considered material, although they are often of interest to citizens and local communities. Environmental expenditures made to third parties that do not represent a government entity (e.g. a service provider performing activities required by environmental work programmes) are typically not considered within the scope of the requirement.
Additional sources of definitions of social and environmental expenditures include IMF's Technical Guidance Note on Government Finance Statistics, which categorises the following:
Mandatory social payments as "Compulsory transfers to government (infrastructure and other), 1415E4"
Voluntary social payments as "Voluntary transfers to government (donations), 144E1"
Environmental payments as "Emission and pollution taxes, 114522E"
In some cases, EITI Requirement 6.1 may apply beyond these categories to also include social expenditures made to non-governmental entities.
The MSGs might wish to consider reviewing the definitions of social and environmental payments provided by the IMF's Technical Guidance Note on Government Finance Statistics, noting that the scope of Requirement 6.1 extends to social expenditures made to non-governmental entities.
Afghanistan:Social expenditure mandated by contract
Article 31 of the Afghanistan - Qara Zaghan Gold Project contract states that "during the first two years of [the] contract [the company] shall spend a minimum of US$ 50,000 for implementation of social programmes as per the Social Development Plan."
Source: Government of Afghanistan, "Qara Zaghan Gold Project Contract", resourcecontracts.org.
Guinea: Social expenditure mandated by law
Article 130 Development of the Local Community of Guinea's Mining Code (2011 amended) states that:
"A holder of a Mining Operation Title must enter into a Local Development Agreement (LDA) with the Local Community residing on or in the immediate vicinity of its Mining Operation Title. The terms for drafting these agreements are set out in a joint order of the Minister in charge of Mines and the Minister in charge of Decentralization.
The purpose of the Local Development Agreement is to establish conditions that are conducive to the efficient and transparent management of the Contribution to Local Development paid by the holder of the Mining Operation Permit, and to strengthen the capacities of the Local Community in the planning and implementation of the community development programme.
The Local Development Agreement must include among other things, provisions for training the Local Community and, more generally, Guineans, environmental protection and health measures for the Local Community, and processes for the development of social projects.""
Source: Government of Guinea, Ministry of Mines and Geology (2011), Guinea Mining Code
Ukraine: Social expenditure mandated by law
Section VIII of Ukraine's Tax Code (2010) requires companies operating in the country with activities that result in "emissions of contaminants by stationary sources into the atmospheric air", "the discharge of contaminants directly into the water pools", "the placement of the waste in the specifically designated places or objects" and "generation of radioactive waste" to pay environmental tax.
Source: Government of Ukraine, Tax Code of Ukraine (English version available here).
Step 2: Identify existing information available on social and environmental expenditures and their significance
Where the MSG has determined that extractive companies make i) mandatory or ii) discretionary social and environmental expenditures, the MSG should first identify the existing government and company disclosures of information on such expenditures. These could include annual reports, websites or data portals managed by the ministry overseeing the industry or sustainability reports by companiesHideSome companies publish sustainability or corporate social responsibility reports in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. Among the environmental-related aspects recommended to be reported under the GRI framework are: energy consumption, use of water, effluents and waste, emissions, biodiversity impact, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and number of environmental grievances filed. MSGs might also wish to consult the GRI sustainability disclosure database..
Second, the MSG should agree which payments and revenues are material and need to be disclosed in accordance with the general approach set out in Requirement 4.1.b on selecting appropriate materiality thresholds. When considering the threshold for social and environmental expenditures, the MSG may wish to take into account the importance of these revenue streams for stakeholders and local communities.
In some cases, the data needed to make this assessment will already be publicly available from companies, government authorities or other sources. In other cases, it may only be possible to estimate the size of the payments through consultations with stakeholders. While the absolute value of social and environmental expenditures may be insignificant in comparison with taxes and royalties, the impact on small local economies and social and institutional arrangements may still be considerable.
In accordance with Requirement 6.1, where the MSG determines that mandatory social expenditures or environmental payments to the government are material, the implementing countries must disclose and, where possible, reconcile these transactions (see Step 3). If the MSG concludes that these flows are immaterial, the basis for this assessment should be documented. In such circumstances, it may be useful to provide a summary in EITI disclosures.
Where the MSG determines that discretionary social and environmental expenditures or transfers to government entities are material, the MSG is encouraged to cover these flows in EITI reporting (Requirement 6.1.d).
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Disclosure of mandatory social expenditures
Extractives companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are required to disclose mandatory social expenditures, and many also disclose voluntary social payments. The absence of a consensus definition of what constitutes a social expenditure meant that many companies failed to disclose required information, while others were accused of inflating the value of such payments or not addressing communities' needs. The 2018 Mining Code introduced provisions taking these concerns into account.
Source: EITI (2020), EITI Progress Report 2020, p. 30.
The Philippines: Social and environmental spending and contributions
Philippines' 2017 EITI Report describes the existing social and environmental expenditures, including requirements to funds community assistance projects, mandatory expenditures as part of Environmental Work Programmes and mandated transfers to Mine Rehabilitation Funds. The report also describes voluntary expenditures made by companies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts.
Source: PH-EITI (2018), The Fifth PH-EITI Report (FY 2017), p. 22.
Ukraine: Disclosure of environmental tax
Ukraine EITI has been disclosing and reconciling the environmental tax through EITI reporting since 2013. While this revenue stream represents a small share of total revenues, the MSG agreed to include it in the scope of EITI reporting due to its significance for local communities. Moreover, civil society is actively engaging in the environmental discussion in Ukraine, including on analysing the environmental tax and providing recommendations on how it can better benefit citizens.
Source: Ukraine EITI (2020), National Report of Ukraine 2017, p. 235. In addition, see DiXi Group (2019), "Environmental Money" which outlines recommendations on environmental tax.
Zambia: Discretionary social expenditures
Zambia's 2019 scoping study found that there were no mandatory social expenditures in Zambia, while it identified discretionary social expenditures. The MSG agreed to include these in the scope of EITI disclosures and request data on such expenditures from companies. This was documented in the 2019 EITI Report.
Source: Zambia EITI (2020), Zambia EITI Report 2019, pp. 23-24.
Step 3: Data collection and disclosure of social and environmental expenditures
Where the MSG has established that social and environmental expenditures or transfers to government entities are material, additional work may be needed to design appropriate reporting templates and agree procedures for disclosure and data assurances. In order to agree an appropriate reporting procedure, the MSG is advised to review:
The nature of the social and environmental expenditures, including whether the social expenditure is provided in-kind (for example through access to services or infrastructure), through financial transactions, or a combination of these. In accordance with Requirement 6.1.a, where mandatory social expenditures are provided in-kind, it is required that the nature and the deemed value of the in-kind transaction are disclosed.
The parties involved in the transaction (i.e., the provider and the recipient of the social or environmental expenditure), which in addition to the extractive company, may include a government entity, or a third-party recipient such as a charitable organisation or other types of associations. The beneficiary of the social expenditure is the recipient of the benefit, i.e., the person or body who owns or controls or uses the asset or service. In accordance with Requirement 6.1a, "where the beneficiary of the mandated social expenditure is a third party, i.e., not a government agency, it is required that the name and function of the beneficiary be disclosed".
Where feasible, the MSG could consider disclosing the data in a way that addresses information needs of different genders and subgroups of citizens This could be done by disclosing detailed and disaggregated data on beneficiaries, shedding light on whether women, youth or subgroups of citizens are amongst the beneficiaries of such expenditures (e.g. scholarships and trainings, as reported in Liberia). Similarly, gender-sensitive data can help track the extent to which these are allocated to priorities identified by women, which may include staffing of existing facilities for education and health services, as well as environmental remediation. It can also highlight whether women and subgroups of citizens have been consulted in identifying priorities for such expenditures, and whether they are included in follow-up and monitoring.
Depending on the nature of the social and environmental expenditure and the parties involved in the transaction, the MSG needs to determine whether the transactions can be reconciled, or whether it is more appropriate that the company making the payment and/or government entity receiving the benefits unilaterally disclose the nature and the value of the transaction.
Where the social or environmental expenditure is a financial transaction between an extractive company and a government entity, or a community development or environmental rehabilitation fund, reconciliation will in most cases be feasible. However, where the social or environmental expenditure is provided in-kind or the payment is made to a contractor for the implementation of a project or service or to an NGO, reconciliation may well be challenging. In such cases the reporting template should be designed so that the extractive company describes the nature of the social or environmental contribution provided and the deemed monetary value at the time that the expenditure was made. Similarly, where the beneficiary is not a government agency but a third party, the reporting template should enable the name and function of the beneficiary to be disclosed.
The MSG is advised to explain and document the agreed approach for reporting on social and environmental expenditures. The MSG may also wish to task its technical team, a relevant government entity, or Independent Administrator with proposing templates for reporting on social and environmental expenditures.
Data points to be disclosed
Additional disclosures MSGs could consider
Value of expenditure
Title of recipient (e.g. government agency or fund)
Nature of in-kind expenditure
Name and function of beneficiaries of in-kind expenditures (e.g. non-governmental organisation or local community initiative) (
Indication of legal/contractual basis of expenditure and related extractives project
Date of transfer of payment, expenditure or in-kind contribution
Location of social/environmental project if applicable
Information about nature and status of activity funded by social or environmental expenditure
Afghanistan: Disclosure of mandatory social expenditures
Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has published details on mandatory social expenditures on its website, including a comprehensive review of contractual requirements to undertake social expenditures in all material companies' operating contracts. The review highlighted mandatory social expenditure requirements in the contracts of eight of the 14 material companies. The review distinguished mandatory and voluntary social expenditures. Information on the values, disaggregation of cash and in-kind contributions, and non-government beneficiaries were provided for some, but not all expenditures.
Source: Government of Afghanistan, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (2020), "EITI disclosures", Report on Mandatory Social Expenditures, p. 1
Liberia: Cash and in-kind social expenditures
Liberia's 2015-2016 EITI Report breaks down mandatory and discretionary cash and in-kind social expenditures, with indication of the amount, beneficiary and date of transfer. The data includes information on the legal/contractual basis for the expenditures.
Source: Liberia EITI (2019), EITI Report for the year ended 30 June 2016, p. 120.
Mongolia: Water use and related payments
Mongolia's 2018 EITI Report provides information reported by companies on water use and related payments, comparing the contracted and actual use of water. The report also provides information on waste management and air pollution.
Source: Mongolia EITI (2020), Mongolia EITI 2018 EITI Report, p. 113.
Norway: C02 and NOx tax
Source: EITI Norway (2016), Cash flows from the petroleum industry in Norway 2015, pp. 51-52.
The Philippines: Social and environmental expenditures
Philippines' 2017 EITI Report includes a summary of the social and environmental expenditures.
Source: PH-EITI (2018), The Fifth PH-EITI Report (FY 2017), pp. 84-85.
Zambia: Beneficiaries of voluntary social expenditures
Zambia's 2019 EITI Report provides details on the value, nature and beneficiaries of voluntary expenditures by companies. This includes beneficiaries who represents women, youth and local communities.
Source: Zambia EITI (2020), ZEITI Report 2019, Annex 10.
Step 4: Review and analysis of social and environmental expenditures
Prior to or after publishing information on social and environmental expenditures, the MSG could review and analyse the information identified and collected, consider findings from the report and agree recommendations for the MSGHideFurther guidance on developing recommendations from EITI reporting available here. or other stakeholders to address. If the MSG has agreed work plan objectives related to social development, environmental impact or contributions to local communities, the MSG could consider how the disclosures could be used to help meet the objectives.
Examples of such recommendations from EITI disclosures includes:
A recommendation for the government to consider establishing a mechanism to monitor extractive companies' compliance with social and environmental obligations, and to trace the execution of social expenditures with a view to maximise the impact on local populations (see, for example, Cameroon's 2013 EITI Report, p. 75).
A recommendation for the government to review the audited accounts of the Environment Protection Fund and to engage the Fund Board to ensure greater transparency in the management of the fund (see, for example, Zambia's 2016 EITI Report, p. 79).
Questions the MSG could consider include:
How do the provisions related to social and environmental expenditures compare to actual practice?
How does the government monitor and account for mandatory and discretionary social and environmental expenditures?
How can the information be presented to help stakeholders understand the nature of social and environmental expenditures and who the recipients/beneficiaries are?
Disclosures related to social and environmental expenditures have been used by stakeholders in EITI implementing countries to inform debates on how expenditures are managed and used, their efficiency and how to make sure expenditures contribute to positive social impact and environmental protection.
Kazakhstan: From disclosures to accountable spending
Oil, gas and mining companies operating in Kazakhstan have to make mandatory social investments in the regions where they operate. The investments are large, amounting to almost USD 150 million annually. By disclosing the amounts paid, the purpose and beneficiaries, EITI Reports have revealed lack of accountability in spending decisions at local level. As a result, a centralised payment and disbursement mechanism was introduced in 2014, including budget classification codes, limiting the opportunity for discretionary spending.
Source: Kazakhstan EITI (2018), The 13th National Report, p. 148.
Zambia: Environmental Protection Fund
In Zambia, concerns have been raised by stakeholders about mining company payments related to rehabilitation and the management of the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF). The fund "lodges" contributions as deposits to be spent by the government in case of need for rehabilitation of mining areas where the mining licence holder fails to do so. Companies are required under the EITI to report their payments to the EPF.
Audits conducted on the EPF by the government found that the fund was not working effectively. The audits undertaken to ascertain the extent of the environmental liability caused by each individual mining firm concluded that mining companies were not complying with the EPF's regulations and the majority were not paying the stipulated contributions. Zambia EITI Reports have also highlighted challenges in the oversight of the fund, and the latest 2017 report recommends improving the implementation of the EPF by setting up a clear investment policy, appointing a fund manager and ensuring that all mining companies comply with the EPF requirements. These recommendations are being followed up by the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development.
UNEP (2020), Sustainability in the Mining Sector: Current Status and Future Trends.
NRGI (2019), Beyond Revenues: Measuring and Valuing Environmental and Social Impacts in Extractive Sector Governance.
EITI (2017), Coverage of environmental information in EITI reporting.
Environmental reporting Revenue distribution
Gender-responsive EITI implementation
Establishment and governance of multi-stakeholder groups
Establishing an EITI work plan
EITI country report
Chad 2020 EITI Report


text:
TCS, HCL, IBM race to gain Boeing's application business contract
American aerospace company- Boeing has reportedly announced that a considerable part of its engineering center operations in Bengaluru, India will transition to certain IT services companies.
Sources cite that the US aircraft manufacturer is outsourcing its infrastructure solutions to Dell. This may include some of the employees at Boeing India Engineering Technology Centre or BIETC in Bengaluru shifting to Dell.
As a part of the global move announced in 2021, Boeing is likely to outsource its cloud services and databases to Dell under a six-year agreement that will cut nearly 600 jobs.
Notably, IT giants like HCL, IBM, and TCS are expected to be in fray for the application business of Boeing, the multi-year infrastructure services and application deal could value approximately USD 150 million to USD 200 million.
For the record, BIETC in Chennai and Bengaluru has more than 3,000 engineers working in the field of electrical & electronic, and mechanical engineering for present and future aircraft. These engineers work on programs with regards to data science and analytics, software technology, flight and vehicle systems, enterprise technology, R&D, and platform solutions.
Along similar lines, British luxury car manufacturer- Rolls-Royce shifted a notable part of its engineering center workings for civil aerospace in Bengaluru to Infosys.
Similarly, in the first half of 2021, Wipro was selected as the strategic technology services partner by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles under which the company established a global digital center in Hyderabad which would support its information and communication technology operations, and Wipro would build a talent pool of over 1,000 skilled consultants and technologists under the effort.
According to Pareekh Jain, Founder of Pareekh Consulting- an engineering services advisory, "some of the large deals in IT and engineering, like TCS-GM, BMW-KPIT, Wipro-Marelli, Airbus-HCL, Rolls-Royce-Infosys, and Spirit AeroSystems- Infosys, among many are due to drivers like cost take-out, affordable investment in novel technologies, and M&A consolidation."
Source Credit: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/tcs-hcl-ibm-in-fray-for-boeing-applications-business/articleshow/84848025.cms
Date: Jul 30, 2021 Priya Deshmukh


"Premiati forni d'Italia" is a book that represents a meeting and exploration of a world rich in history and culture.
A voyage exploring multiple regional offerings. A useful text for those who are dedicated to the art of bread making every day, as well as a much appreciated gift for anyone who wants to get to know Italian gastronomic traditions.


Join in an historic event in the Peak District as we celebrate 70 years since the 1949 Act of Parliament was passed which established the family of National Parks in England and Wales that we know and love.
The Act was the result of decades of dedicated struggle including mass protests and political lobbying, including the notable efforts of Ethel and Gerald Haythornthwaite. It means that today the most beautiful countryside in England and Wales has the strongest levels of protection.
On Friday 22nd of March, from 10am til 3pm, the Campaign for National Parks (including the Friends of the Peak District), the Youth Hostel Association and others will be marking this incredible achievement with a special 70th anniversary walk at Castleton in the Peak District. And you are warmly invited to come along!