We needed to get from San Francisco to Youngstown, Ohio. Time and distance were on our side. It was December 1991, almost Christmas. Two cars (for important reasons I can't remember). Two couples. 2,521 miles.
You need to know we didn't need much sleep; lived to drive; wore flannel shirts and 1950s dresses with long underwear stretched underneath; drank bad coffee and listened to the Pixies and Camper van Beethoven; had never heard the term Generation X.
The rule was: after the exit, stop at the first "location" on the right. It was my idea: I used the Rand McNally atlas and a ruler, calculating distances, methodically switching from each state map—California to Ohio. I gave both cars a hand-printed list of exit numbers. Every 200 miles or so we'd meet up, switch around drivers, make sure no one was getting bored.
This seems impossible to me now. But we met up—at Burger Chefs and Sinclair Gas Stations, empty parking lots and corner diners. Once, near dawn, the exit led to a factory. James and I crunched down the long bumpy entrance lane and pulled over. Snow covered the ground like a thick milkshake. It was freezing and fiercely beautiful. The pristine snow, the chainlink fence glowing behind it, a few lightbulbs glittering with industrial effect, and jack rabbits playing—hopping and romping—in the foreground.
Was it Indiana? Iowa? This was before Rob was gay. Before Suzy's mom couldn't remember her name. Before I stopped eating. Before James's last postcard.
And then, like somber soldiers, they came. A premonition. Men and women with thick metal lunchboxes hanging from their hands—workers starting a shift. I don't recall that they paid any attention to us at all: a strange couple in a four door sedan shivering outside their factory gate.
Bleary-eyed and pasty-mouthed, we watched them. I can't be sure, but in my memory, they wore gray uniforms and the factory loomed behind like a castle, nothing else in sight for miles. Everything buzzed the metallic blue that comes with winter on the verge of morning.
And then, Rob and Suzy's Toyota rocked down the same lonely lane. They'd found us, and we were together, laughing, our breath marking exclamation points in the frigid air.
Sherrie Flick's chapbook of flash fiction I Call This Flirting is out with Flume Press (2004) and University of Nebraska Press just published her first novel, Reconsidering Happiness.


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Obama establishes double digit lead over McCain
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle embrace during a rally in Miami. (AP)
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has established a double digit lead over his Republican rival John McCain just two weeks ahead of crucial elections, a just released poll says.
The 'Wall Street Journal-NBC News' poll found that 52 per cent voters favour Obama against 42 per cent who support McCain, showing a four per cent increase since the poll two weeks ago. The poll has a margin of error plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
The poll says that a growing number of voters said that they were comfortable with the Democrat's values, background and ability to serve as commander-in-chief.
It's the largest lead in the Journal/NBC poll so far, and represents a steady climb for Senator Obama since early September, when the political conventions concluded with the candidates in a statistical tie.
"Voters have reached a comfort level with Barack Obama," said Peter D Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the poll with Republican Neil Newhouse.Though most voters polled said that McCain is better prepared for the White House than the first-term Obama, there are increasing concerns about the readiness of McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the poll showed.
The race, the Journal said, has rested largely on the question of whether voters could get comfortable with Obama, the first African-American to run on a major party ticket, and one who has been on the national political scene for just a few years.
McCain has worked to stoke concerns about Obama's past and his qualifications, raising questions about his rival's character and his association with 1960s-era radical William Ayers. The new poll suggests that these attacks haven't worked. The poll found that Obama now holds a 12-percentage-point advantage with independents, a group both sides have fiercely sought. Two weeks ago, Obama led this group by just four percentage points. In mid-September, independents favoured McCain by 13 points.
Obama leads suburban voters by 12 percentage points, up from two points two weeks ago. He leads among older voters, those over 65-years-old, by nine points, erasing a one-point McCain advantage from the last poll. And in the Midwest, home
to a swath of battleground states, he is now favoured by 25 points, up from a one-point advantage.
Some daily tracking polls, the journal said, have found a tighter race between McCain and Obama in recent days.
Real Clear Politics, a Web site that averages major polls, shows Obama up by 7.2 percentage points.
Others have found a larger spread, such as one released Tuesday by the Pew Research Centre for the People and the Press, a nonpartisan research group. That poll found a 14-point advantage for Obama among registered voters.
Many polls also show McCain lagging in key battleground states, which hold the electoral votes that could decide the race.
Obama, the paper said, has also eaten into traditional Republican advantages, notably on taxes, despite McCain's attempts to make the issue a central economic theme of the campaign's closing days.
In the mid-September Journal poll, McCain was favoured 41 per cent to 37 per cent when voters were asked which candidate would be "better on taxes." This week's poll found Obama leading on the issue by 48 per cent to 34 per cent.
That, the Journal says, may be partly due to Obama's argument that McCain would raise taxes on health-insurance benefits. While McCain's health plan does raise some taxes, the plan overall represents a net tax cut, the paper said, citing independent estimates.
October 22, 2008 Posted by Bala | Elections, General, Politics	| Alaska, Barack, Bill, Bush, Cinton, Democrat, Democratic Party, Elections, George W Bush, Government, Governor, Hillary, John, McCain, Miami, Michelle, New York, Obama, Party, President, Republic Party, Republican, United States, US, Wall Street Journal, Washington DC | Leave a comment
Chandrayaan-1 in earth's orbit, sends signals
India's first unmanned flight to the moon blasted off from Sriharikota, off the Andhra Pradesh coast, early morning on Wednesday and started to cruise around the earth in its designated orbit, minutes after a copybook liftoff.
Carrying over a billion hopes, India's maiden lunar mission began its historic journey to the moon on Wednesday when an indigenously developed rocket placed the spacecraft into the Transfer Orbit "perfectly".
A 44-metre-tall and 316-tonne rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C11) carried the 1,380-kg lunar orbiter from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, , about 80 km north of Chennai, at exactly 0622 hrs IST.
After 18.2 minutes of the lift-off, ISRO's warhorse rocket injected Chandrayaan-I into earth orbit.
The cuboid spacecraft built by the Indian Space Research Organisation – likely to be injected into Moon's orbit on November 8 – has launched the country into the elite club that has sent missions to the moon.
Other members of the club are the US, former Soviet Union, European Space Agency, China and Japan. The US returns to lunar exploration aboard Chandrayaan-1, which is also carrying two NASA instruments in its payload.
The first four phases of the launch were 100 per cent perfect, said the scientists, and ground stations across the world – including the master control station in Bangalore – started getting signals from Chandrayaan.
Hectic activity is on at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Peenya, Bangalore which will be the country's nerve-centre for controlling Chandrayaan-I for the next two years.
The Deep Space Network (DSN) at Byalalu will join ISTRAC in tracking the spacecraft for the next six hours.
'It's a historical moment'
Speaking minutes after the successful liftoff Chairman of the Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO) G Madhavan Nair described the moment as historic. "India has started its journey to the moon. The first leg has gone perfectly. the spacecraft has been launched into orbit," he said.
Nair pointed out that the launch had gone off perfectly despite heavy rain in and around the spaceport for the last four days. "We've been fighting the odds for the last four days," he said.
But the weather gods relented by Tuesday evening and there no rain when the launch took place in a cloudy morning sky.
Chandrayaan-1 started to orbit the earth on its geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), from which its onboard liquid apogee motor (LAM) will be fired in a series of complex manoeuvres to take it to the lunar orbit – 387,000 km from earth – on Nov 8.
It was a dream come true for about 1,000 space scientists and technologists when PSLV-C11, with the spacecraft atop, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre of the state-run ISRO.
Within minutes of the 44.4-metre rocket roaring aloft, leaving behind an inferno in the underground inlets of the second launch pad, the mission control centre of the space station erupted with joy and excitement.
Top scientists, led by Nair, space centre director M C Dathan, associate director M Y S Prasad and others shook hands and hugged one another even as the high-security facility reverberated with clapping of hands and cheers.
Former ISRO chairmen U.R. Rao and K. Kasturirangan and space commission member Roddam Narasimaiah, who were present on the occasion, congratulated Nair and his team.
October 22, 2008 Posted by Bala | General, Science, Technology	| Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore, Centre, Chairman, Chandrayaan, Chandrayaan-1, Chennai, China, Deep Space Network, Dhawan, Director, DSN, Earth, European Space Agency, Geostationary Transfer Orbit, GTO, Historic, India, ISRO, ISTRAC, Japan, K Kasturirangan, LAM, Liquid Apogee Motor, Lunar, Madhavan, Madhavan Nair, MC Dathan, Moment, Moon, MYS Prasad, Nair, NASA, Orbit, Peenya, PSLV, PSLV-C11, Rain, Rocket, Roddam Narasimaiah, Russia, Satish, Scientist, Scientists, Signal, Soviet Union, Space, Spacecraft, Sri Harikota, Sriharikota, United States, UR Rao, US, Weather | Leave a comment

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
from django.conf import settings

def auth0user_middleware(get_response):
    def middleware(request):
        if getattr(request, 'user') and not request.user.is_authenticated():
            redirect_host = ''.join([request.scheme, '://', request.get_host()])
            request.auth0 = {
                'client_id': settings.AUTH0_CLIENT_ID,
                'domain': settings.AUTH0_DOMAIN,
                'redirect_host': redirect_host
            }
        response = get_response(request)
        return response
    return middleware

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We offer several service based options. Each has a link to the right.
Our Enterprise conversion service will get your data into a Pro/Premier file format based on an Enterprise file.
Customer Consulting work is also available. Contact support with your request.


text:
Q: Can a list of needed nugets be sorted not to crash when Package Manager is trying to install them from command line? I am getting the latest version of a project from TFS. The nuget packages do not come through.
The rebuild fails because of missing nuget package. When I download, add the right nuget one by one from Nuget Manager, the error goes away, and an other one shows up. Not all of them are "root level" nugets (not sure what they are called), some of them are nugets under nuget.
Anyway, looking at the Package Manager command line installation, it works faster, but the problem is that I need to run them in a specific order,otherwise install doesn't go through because of dependencies.
I checked the list in a json file from a coworker, and there are hundreds to install.
Is there a way to make this go faster?
Note: I want to use the same specific versions as the coworker, not to cause any issues later on

A: There is no such order list function to help install a set of nuget packages in a certain order.
What I know is that using update-package -reinstall under Package Manager Console.
That command will reinstall all the nuget packages and their dependencies in a sequence automatically.
It will not block your vs process and cause accidental errors. You only need to wait for the process, the time depends on the number of your nuget packages and the complexity of the dependencies.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Two-Division Champion James "Buddy" McGirt Returns to Canastota
June 4th, 2010 Bad Brad
Hall of Fame Weekend June 10-13th
The International Boxing Hall of Fame announced today former junior welterweight and welterweight champion James "Buddy" McGirt will return to Canastota to attend festivities planned for the 21st Annual Hall of Fame Induction Weekend set for June 10-13th.
"We are so pleased to have 'Buddy' McGirt return to Canastota," said Hall of Fame director Edward Brophy. "He is a real fan favorite and we are excited about welcoming him again to the Hall of Fame."
Fighting out of Brentwood, NY, McGirt is the former IBF junior welterweight and WBC welterweight champion. He holds wins over Saoul Mamby, Frankie Warren, Howard Davis, Livingstone Bramble and Simon Brown. During a 15-year career, he posted a 73-6-1 (48 KOs) record. Now a highly respected trainer, he has worked with such fighters as Arturo Gatti, Antonio Tarver, Nate Campbell and his son, James Jr.
The June 10-13th Hall of Fame Induction Weekend will feature over 20 exciting events including a banquet, Madison Square Garden night, parade, golf tournament, cocktail party and the official induction ceremony honoring the Class of 2010. Living inductees to be honored at the Official Induction Ceremony on Sunday, June 13th are light flyweight champion Jung-Koo Chang (South Korea), featherweight champion Danny "Little Red" Lopez (USA), manager Shelly Finkel (USA), referee / commissioner Larry Hazzard (USA), promoter Wilfried Sauerland (Germany), matchmaker Bruce Trampler (USA) and journalist Ed Schuyler (USA). Posthumous inductees will also be honored.
Over 40 boxing stars are scheduled to participate in weekend festivities. In addition to McGirt other stars slated to appear include Nino Benvenuti, Carmen Basilio, Tony DeMarco, Ken Norton, Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor, Angelo Dundee, Leon Spinks, Gerry Cooney, Lou Duva, Sergio Martinez, Robert Guerrero and many others.
Advertise Now On RSR
Posted in BOXING NEWS Tags: boxing, Buddy McGirt, IBHOF
« Edner Cherry Returns to the Ring Tonight
Floyd Mayweather JR Makes a "Wish" Come True »


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16.04.2018 - 19.04.2018 - to
Digitisation, Automatisation and Decarbonisation are major trends that will drastically change the way we live, work and use mobility and transport in the future. Under the heading of "A digital Era for Transport", the Transport Research Arena 2018 (TRA 2018) to be held on 16-19th April in Vienna, Austria, will explore, discuss and demonstrate these major paradigm shifts specifically directed at important areas of our life, such as transport, mobility, logistics and industrial production.
Key topics for TRA 2018 include:
Environment and Energy Efficiency
Vehicles & Vessels – Design, Development and Production
Advanced Propulsion Systems
Smart Urban Mobility & Logistics
People Mobility – Systems and Services
Freight Transport and Logistics
Transport Infrastructure
Connected and Automated Transport
Digital Technologies for Transport
Safe, Secure and Resilient Transport Systems
Human Dimension in Transport
Socio-Economics, Innovation and Policy
The topics of the contributions will refer to all modes of transport: road, rail, waterborne and aviation. Moreover, there will be presentations and discussion on cross-modal themes and on topics that are not mode-specific.
TRA 2018 will be hosted and organised by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology as Chair of the Management Committee, the Austrian Institute for Technology as Chair of the Programme Committee and AustriaTech as Chair of the Organising Committee. It will be co-organised by the European Commission and supported by the European Technology Platforms ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council), ERRAC (European Rail Research Advisory Council), WATERBORNE as well as CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads) and ALICE (Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration), ETRA (European Transport Research Alliance), ECTP (European Construction Technology Platform) and ACARE (Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe).
Authors are invited to submit abstracts by 21 March 2017 on www.traconference.eu, where full details on the selection criteria and decisions are provided.


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Columbus Statue in New Haven Will Come Down
By Kyle Jones	• Published June 16, 2020 • Updated on June 16, 2020 at 7:04 pm
The Christopher Columbus statue has stood in New Haven's Wooster Square Park for more than 125 years as a symbol of success and achievement for many Italian Americans.
Now Italian-American community groups in New Haven say it should come down. A decision that some aren't happy about.
"This is a real shame. This is a point of pride for Italian Americans and we feel very insulted and very cut out of the whole discussion," said Al Ippolito of Wooster Square.
Nearly 500 years after his death, Columbus' history is back to haunt him.
"People don't know the history. He always treated the natives with respect," said Ippolito.
Some think that history should be re-examined.
Professor Manisha Sinha is an expert on U.S. history and the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction. She discussed her thoughts on the debates to remove controversial statues which are sweeping across the country.
"He doesn't belong on a pedestal, he needs to come down," said John DiBiase. "They need to put him in a museum somewhere. It is offensive, how can it not be offensive?"
"His legacy is somewhat sorry in terms of the kind of violence and torture perpetrated on indigenous populations," said Manisha Sinha, a professor of history at UConn.
She encourages communities to have those conversations to decide what happens next.
"I think it's a very complicated conversation there that each American should have."
Some residents agree that discussions will help communities move forward.
"The question of who should be heroes in this country is clearly a conversation people want to have right now," said Jesse Bryant.
"I don't think we should run from history," said Jon Bronke of Wooster Square. "Whether it's good or bad, it can be a lesson to be learned from."
new havenchristopher columbuscontroversial statues


This meeting was a great success. Many thanks to all participants and contributors.
A full report on the workshop is now available on request.
Questions of identity—how people feel connected to national, cultural, ethnic, religious communities and images—are at the heart of many of today's local and global problems. Yet, these same identities also potentially present opportunities to bring about solutions to the problems they pose. Intra-Cultural Development is an interdisciplinary approach which attempts to engage human identities as a means to resolve problems of conflict, prejudice and intolerance.
An understanding of identity is essential, whether we are trying to: merely describe the world in which we live; deal with localised prejudice; build successful cultural/national integration policies; or set out to resolve violent and non-violent conflicts. This workshop sets out to bring together academics, governmental and non-governmental representatives and professionals. Together workshop members will exchange perspectives, experiences and their unique approaches to the analysis and/or engagement of identities. In the discussions that ensue, participants will look to how to apply this individual and combined knowledge to solving real world problems and developing common theoretical and methodological foundations for the integration of their approaches into Intra-Cultural Development.
Individual contributions will be diverse, setting out a series of practical and theoretical examples that illustrate how understanding and/or engaging identities can facilitate an increased efficiency in the crafting of social cohesion on the local, national or regional level. Participants are encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of their own work and perspectives and to put forward ideas for the development of Intra-Cultural Development theory and practice as the discussions progress.
The workshop aims to galvanize the efforts currently under way to further build and promote Intra-Cultural Development theory and practice across academic, professional and development sectors, ultimately attempting to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of a wide-range of initiatives and development programming that seek to raise the social, economic and security standards of societies. In so doing, the OICD aims to provide a social cohesion building development forum and a set of methodologies for people working in a wide range of academic and professional fields including: community development, anthropology, policy studies, psychology, development programming, international relations, conflict mitigation and resolution, and media studies.
on the north side of Kyoto's Imperial Palace Grounds.
While the core members of the workshop are invited, sessions will be open to academics, practitioners, policy-makers, professionals, governmental and NGO representatives with an interest in Intra-Cultural Development theory and practice. Graduate students and trainees from within related fields are welcome.
Please submit a 250 word abstract of your contribution. Contributions may be in the form of: research projects, program reports, case studies, or other form relevant to the discourse of your profession. Contributors will be allotted 15 minutes (including questions) and contributions will be made within facilitated conversation sessions which will each set out to develop sets of common understandings of what can be achieved with the available knowledge and expertise of fellow participants.
Please send your abstract to kyoto2012&oicd.net (where &=@) by July 15, 2012. Your contribution will be assigned to the most relevant thematic session.
For more information on this workshop including accommodation and location information please visit browse the links to the top right and/or visit the facebook event page.
The information on this page is also available as a pdf file.


text:
San Felipe de Aconcagua Province () is one of eight provinces of the central Chilean region of Valparaíso (V). Its capital is the city of San Felipe (pop. 64,126).

Administration
As a province, San Felipe de Aconcagua is a second-level administrative division, governed by a provincial delegate who is appointed by the president.

Communes
The province comprises six communes (Spanish: comunas), each governed by a municipality consisting of an alcalde and municipal council:
Catemu
Llaillay
Panquehue
Putaendo
San Felipe (capital)
Santa María

Geography and demography
The province spans a landlocked area of , the third largest in the Valparaíso Region. According to the 2002 census, San Felipe de Aconcagua is the fifth most populous province in the region with a population of 131,911. At that time, there were 98,925 people living in urban areas, 32,986 people living in rural areas, 65,090 men and 66,821 women.

See also
Aconcagua (wine region)

References

External links
  Official link

Provinces of Chile
Provinces of Valparaíso Region

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Vancouver, British Columbia and Bonham, Texas - Kelso Technologies Inc. ("Kelso" or the "Company"), (TSX: KLS), (NYSE American: KIQ) reports that the Company has completed the design and implementation of its proprietary Active Suspension Control System (ASCS). Kelso has successfully outfitted a 2017 Ford F150 production prototype (Prototype) with the ASCS. The Prototype features our suspension-related patents (pending) that have been designed to provide heavy duty performance capability in rugged outback terrains as well as standard road conditions.
Implementation of Kelso's business infrastructure and plans for the ASCS project has commenced. The ASCS division of Kelso will operate under the Company's wholly owned British Columbia subsidiary KIQ X Industries Inc (KIQX) located in Kelowna, BC, Canada. ASCS equipment will be marketed under the trade name Kelso KIQ X Gear™. All requirements of commercial production including sub-contracted facilities & equipment, supply chain and engineering are expected to be completed on or before the end of February 2018.
The ASCS is a unique suspension methodology based on thirty years of research and experience. It is believed to represent a dramatic improvement over existing technologies presently used in commercial combined road-no-road vehicles. Vehicles featuring the ASCS are expected to provide distinct advantages to customers in terms of safety, effective performance and operational capabilities. The basic design premise of the ASCS is to manage the center-of-gravity of the vehicle with automated gyroscopic controlled air suspension. This ensures that the driver, passengers and payload remain in a stable position when driving in difficult rugged outback terrains including flooded areas. The ASCS technology package is well suited for use in desert, mountain, snow and low-lying water regions around the world.
Commercial sales and distribution are expected on or before March 1, 2018. Initial marketing initiatives for KIQ X Gear will focus on customers requiring reliable suspension performance in operations involving search & rescue, military, railroad, police & border patrol, first responders, railroads, mining, forestry, agriculture, ranching, pipelines, telecommunications, oil, gas, electric transmission and recreation.
Kelso is an engineering product development company that specializes in the design, production and distribution of proprietary service equipment used in transportation applications. Our reputation has been earned as a designer and reliable supplier of unique high-performance rail tank car equipment that provides for the safe handling and containment of hazardous and non-hazardous commodities during transport. All Kelso products are specifically designed to provide economic and operational advantages to customers while reducing the potential effects of human error and environmental harm. The Company offers specialized truck tanker equipment, rail wheel cleaning systems, fuel loading systems, military applications, first responder emergency response kits and high-performance suspension systems for motor vehicles being used in rugged outback terrains.
For a more complete business and financial profile of the Company, please view the Company's website at www.kelsotech.com and public documents posted under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com in Canada and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov in the United States.
Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are indicated expectations or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include that all requirements of commercial production including sub-contracted facilities & equipment, supply chain and engineering are expected to be completed on or before the end of February 2018; that the ASCS is believed to represent a dramatic improvement over existing technologies presently used in commercial combined road-no-road vehicles; that vehicles featuring the ASCS are expected to provide distinct advantages to customers in terms of safety, effective performance and operational capabilities; that commercial sales and distribution are expected on or before March1, 2018; and that the ASCS suspension is a key addition to our diversification business model that can generate multi-million dollar cash flows from domestic and international markets. Although Kelso believes its anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information are based upon reasonable assumptions and expectations, they can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The reader should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information as such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Kelso to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information, including without limitation, that we may not be able to raise the funds we expect, the risk that completion of products may be delayed or cancelled; the Company's products may not provide the intended economic or operational advantages;, orders may be cancelled and competitors may enter the market with new product offerings which could capture some of our market share; and our new equipment offerings may not capture market share as well as expected. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this news release.
Copyright © 2019 Kelso Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.


Our Avocado Soap Duo provides the ultimate exfoliation system, leaving an energizing tingle on your skin. Simply wet and apply to skin for natural loofah foaming. Never again will early rising be a problem! You will feel fresh and clean with a lingering scent of citrus, and just a hint of an early springtime bloom.
This is the most amazing soap ever! The smell is incredible and the loofah is the coolest thing.
This is the best invention! Soap in a loofa…I absolutely love it!
This soap is wonderful! I am ordering some for Christmas gifts. Makes a great stocking stuffer, too!


text:
Procedure and House Affairs
Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 16th, 2017
Evidence of meeting #59 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pps.
A video is available from Parliament.
Main Estimates 2017-18: Vote 1 under House of Commons, Vote 1 under Office of the Chief Electoral Officer and Vote 1 under Parliamentary Protective Service
Committee Business
MPs speaking
Blake Richards
Arnold Chan
Geoff Regan
Jamie Schmale
Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Ruby Sahota
Scott Simms
Filomena Tassi
Also speaking
Mike O'Beirne Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Robert Graham Administration and Personnel Officer, Parliamentary Protective Service
Stéphane Perrault Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Hughes St-Pierre Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Internal Services, Elections Canada
The Vice-Chair Conservative Blake Richards
I'll call the meeting to order.
Before we welcome our guests, let me say that I have had discussions with at least one member of each of the parties. We obviously anticipate bells ringing very shortly. What I will do at that point is ask for unanimous consent to sit for at least the first 20 minutes of the bells or so.
What I hope to accomplish by doing that is to allow for opening statements and then allow each party a round of questioning—maybe five minutes for each party. What would probably take place is that one or two of those rounds would occur before the vote. Then we would come back after the vote and carry on until either noon or at least until each party has had a chance to ask one round of questions. Then we would move to our second hour, which is with the Elections Canada officials.
I'm also going to suggest that we consider moving our committee business to Thursday, because we're going to be very tight on time, obviously, given that we're compressed as it is and that we will of course have a vote in there. I will suggest that at that time as well.
As long as there is no objection, we'll move on. When the bells ring, we will certainly ask for the unanimous consent to—
I see a number of hands.
Mr. Chan.
Arnold Chan Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would propose that we get a couple of minutes of committee business in. I know we are pressed for time, but I would like to at least table the government's position with respect to managing the way we deal with committee business on Thursday.
I don't know whether anyone else has comments on that.
From my perspective, it was Mr. Christopherson and I, and I think others, who raised at the last meeting last week the view that we felt it might be best to see where we are after Thursday before making those determinations. Obviously, this is part of the agenda. We'll let members make the decision at that time. It seems that there isn't a unanimous feeling on the question, so we can have that discussion, I guess, when we get to that point.
What I'll do, then, is welcome our guests and get started, so that we can at least get through some of the statements prior to having to miss....
I'll welcome the Speaker. The Honourable Geoff Regan is here with us.
I'll let you start. You can introduce any others who are giving opening statements.
Halifax West Nova Scotia
Geoff Regan LiberalSpeaker of the House of Commons
Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman.
Members of the committee, distinguished guests, as Speaker of the House of Commons, it's a pleasure to be back before this committee to present our main estimates for fiscal year 2017-18.
I'm equally pleased to present the main estimates for the Parliamentary Protective Service, or PPS, which maintains the physical security of the parliamentary precinct and the grounds of Parliament Hill and reports to me and the Speaker of the Senate on such matters.
Joining me at the table today are Marc Bosc, Acting Clerk; Daniel G. Paquette, Chief Financial Officer....
Pardon me, Mr. Speaker.
I see that the bells are ringing now. I of course officially have to receive unanimous consent to carry on.
Do I have that consent?
I'm sorry for the interruption. We'll let you have the floor.
May 16th, 2017 / 11:05 a.m.
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
I am also joined today by Mike O'Beirne, Superintendent and Acting Director of the Parliamentary Protective Service; as well as Robert Graham, Administration and Personnel Officer at the same service.
I'll begin this morning's presentation by highlighting key elements of the 2017-18 main estimates for the House of Commons, which total $476 million and represent a 2.7% increase over the previous year.
The presentation of the main estimates for PPS will follow.
To help guide the first part of my presentation and facilitate our exchange, I have provided a handout that outlines each of the 14 line items included in the House of Commons' 2017-2018 Main Estimates.
I will address each of these in the order in which they appear, leaving, I hope, ample time for discussion.
As you will note, there are nine items included under the broad category of "Members, House Officers, and Committees, Associations and Exchanges". Further down, there are four items under "House Administration". Last, but not least, we have a final item related to "Employee Benefit Plans".
To begin, we have sought a 1.8% increase to the members' office budgets and House officers' budgets. Together, these represent a permanent increase of $2.8 million, with the greatest proportion being allotted to the members' office budgets.
As you know, these budgets give members of Parliament and House officers the resources they need to carry out their parliamentary functions on behalf of Canadians. The adjustments were calculated based on the consumer price index as measured in September 2016. They were scheduled to take effect on April 1.
In addition, a 20% increase to the MOB supplements, which totals $1.5 million, has also been sought. The supplement assists members who represent constituencies that are densely populated, geographically large, or remote in responding to the needs of the people they represent.
The electoral list, which we use to calculate the amount of the elector supplement, was revised and published by Elections Canada in February 2016. That occurred after the submission deadline for the main estimates in 2016-2017. Consequently, the revised list of electors required that an adjustment be applied to the supplement, resulting in a decrease of $308,000 in 2017-2018 and in subsequent years.
Specifically, supplements recognize the challenges inherent in serving larger, more populated, or more remote constituencies, which members, I think, will understand. They help level the playing field to ensure that Canadians are well-served by their members of Parliament. The increase in supplements was made during the 2016-17 year and took effect on April 1, 2016.
Also on that date, members' sessional allowances and additional salaries increased by 1.8%. This amount reflects adjustments made every year on April 1 based on the average increase in Canadian wages resulting from major settlements in the private sector. The adjustment represents a permanent increase of $1.1 million for 2016-2017.
The next line item represents a funding adjustment to the travel status expenses account for 2013-14 and 2015-16 in the amount of $743,000. Specifically, this increase equals the total amounts approved over a four-year period by the Board of Internal Economy but not yet reflected in the main estimates. The increase will ensure that in the future, funding in the mains and the approved allocations will correspond.
Let me now draw your attention to the next four line items related to parliamentary associations and conferences.
I will first provide you with a bit of context.
As you may know, funding for these items is shared between the House of Commons and the Senate. As such, the amounts to which I will refer in a moment represent the 70% portion of the total budget that the House of Commons funds. The remaining 30% is paid by the Senate.
We have experienced a growing demand for Canadian parliamentarians to further engage internationally. It's something I hear about often from foreign delegations, ambassadors, and high commissioners who come to see me. While this pressure has been building for some time, it has recently become more prevalent.
Funding for this important work remained relatively stable for several years. However, a significant increase in 2013, coupled with increases in association membership fees and other costs—including travel—hampered association activities.
Add to this the unprecedented number of new parliamentarians, many of whom wish to play a role in the 12 parliamentary associations that support Canada's international efforts. For all of these reasons, the board recently accepted a recommendation from the Joint Interparliamentary Council to increase its share of permanent funding to Canada's parliamentary associations by $700,000.
Likewise, Canada will play host to the Interparliamentary Union's Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in November. To support the conference, which brings the best and the brightest young parliamentarians together to address pressing challenges to democracies around the word, temporary funding of $324,000 has been sought.
The Canadian Parliament will also host two significant conferences in the second half of 2018.
The 64th annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly will take place in my hometown of Halifax in November of 2018. MPs from across the Atlantic alliance will gather to discuss important matters related to security. To support early preparations for this important event, $72,000 in temporary funding has been sought in fiscal year 2017-18.
Also next year, in July, the 56th Regional Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference will come to Ottawa. They'll probably have almost as good a time as they would if they were in Halifax. The conference will gather parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth to promote co-operation and good governance. To help host this event, $19,000 in temporary funding for 2017-18 has also been sought.
I think I speak for many around the table today in saying that we look forward to the results of the work of our parliamentary associations over the next 12 months, and in the future.
Let me now turn to the group of items listed under the general category of "House of Commons Administration".
As you know, the administration plays a crucial role in supporting the work of each and every member of Parliament, as well as that of the institution, including helping to ensure our collective security in partnership with the Parliamentary Protective Service or the CSO.
The corporate security office—or for short, the CSO—is responsible for security in the House of Commons chamber, providing project management for security infrastructure, conducting investigations, coordinating visitor and event access, providing security accreditation, promoting security awareness, and administering parking services.
The CSO also develops and implements House-wide security policies, standards and processes aimed at preventing, detecting and responding to security risks and threats.
Since the 2015 launch of the integrated security model, in partnership with PPS, our understanding of the roles and responsibilities shared by the CSO and PPS have evolved.
As a result, and to better ensure our security, a permanent increase of $3.6 million to the CSO budget was sought, in addition to a temporary increase of $69,000 in 2017-18. This temporary funding will help to pay for additional staff and office space. It's worth noting that the security enhancement measures identified in 2016-17 and presented the last time that I appeared before you are either under way or being completed, so we are on track with those.
The House of Commons and its partner, Public Services and Procurement Canada, or PSPC, are also on track with the renovations and rehabilitation projects underway throughout the parliamentary precinct. To that end, we have sought an increase of $2.4 million in temporary funding to maintain and, in the longer term, replace crucial information technology assets; transfer the building components and connectivity program from PSPC to the House of Commons; and better meet those building requirements that are specific to our institution.
Remuneration under the page program, whereby top students from across Canada have the opportunity to support the work of the House and witness the legislative process first-hand, accounts for a permanent aggregate increase of $60,000, beginning this year. That increase is calculated on the basis of the average increase in tuition and residence fees at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa and is reviewed every year.
While we're on the topic of the page program, I'd like to take a moment to say how very satisfying it was to learn that the House administration had been recognized as an exceptional workplace for young Canadian talent in this year's Top 100 Employers national competition, as well as being named the top employer in the region.... Excuse me, "a top employer". Darn it, just "a" top employer, but that's still good.
Oh, oh!
Of course, we've always known this, but this year's public endorsement by the Top 100 Employers project was indeed a welcome one.
Another highlight: the opening of the Sir John A. Macdonald Building, or SJAM as we affectionately call it, and more recently, the Wellington Building, resulted in a decrease of $99,000 to our main estimates for this year. The amount represents previously approved and temporary funding that paid for non-recurring costs associated with the renovation and rehabilitation phases of these very successful and now completed projects.
I look forward to your questions concerning the main estimates for the House of Commons, but first let me quickly turn my attention to the main estimates for the Parliamentary Protective Service.
I'll begin by providing you with an overview of the PPS's main estimates request for 2017-18, which totals $68.2 million. This includes a voted budget component of $62.1 million and a $6.1 million statutory budget requirement for the employee benefits program. This 2017-18 main estimates request represents a $5.8-million increase from the PPS's 2016-17 main estimates submission.
In addition to PPS's permanent voted budget of $56.3 million, which was approved under the 2016-2017 Main Estimates and established as a result of Bill C-59, PPS is seeking an additional $5.8 million in permanent funding to support the ongoing implementation of security enhancements and to further stabilize the organizational structure.
Following the events of October 22, 2014, several reviews surrounding this incident were conducted, resulting in 161 recommendations on improving security on Parliament Hill. The PPS received funding approval in September 2016 to launch the PPS mobile response team initiative.
The implementation of this initiative will address a significant number of these 161 recommendations and enhance PPS's overall response capacity.
PPS is requesting permanent funding in the amount of of $1.2 million to further implement and sustain the needs of this initiative.
To support the continuation of the Senate's previously approved security enhancement initiatives, additional funding in the amount of $787,000 will be transferred to PPS given its direct alignment with the PPS's mandate.
The PPS is also seeking permanent funding in the amount of $3 million to stabilize the protective posture in the newly opened 180 Wellington building, and to uphold pre-existing third party security agreements throughout the precinct.
Given the anticipated increase in visitors to the precinct and grounds of Parliament Hill throughout Canada's 150th anniversary celebrations, a total of $400,000 is required in temporary funding to support the costs of the baggage screening facility at 90 Wellington Street through 2017-2018.
This renewed temporary funding will not only enhance the visitor experience, but it will also enable PPS to evaluate this facility's effectiveness, feasibility and long-term sustainability.
This results in a cumulative request of $5.3 million for previously approved and new security enhancement initiatives throughout the parliamentary precinct and the grounds of Parliament Hill.
In addition to the aforementioned operational enhancement initiatives funding requests, the PPS is seeking a permanent increase of $886,000 to fund a series of corporate service requirements. This includes the funding for full-time communications resources to support PPS's internal and external messaging, along with the funding necessary to fulfill the existing service level agreements with the House administration for the provision of human resource and information technology services.
PPS remains committed to operational excellence through the provision of professional physical security services throughout the parliamentary precinct and the grounds of Parliament Hill.
To further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its service delivery model, the PPS will focus on the ongoing implementation of existing and new resource optimization initiatives, the identification of opportunities to leverage innovation, and a strengthened commitment to collaboration with its various parliamentary partners.
This concludes my presentation.
My team and I look forward to your questions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Given the length of the presentation—which we appreciated, by the way, as it was comprehensive—and given our tight time frame, I think what I am going to do for now, rather than go into the rounds of questioning—I think we would start to push our luck a bit to do that—is to leave the rounds of questioning and have them following the votes. That will mean about 15 minutes, with five minutes for each party.
I'll ask our guests either to remain or to return as soon as the votes end. I know that some of you of course have a duty, as we do, to be there. I'll ask all members to then arrive here as quickly as possible, and we'll pick up as quickly as we can. However, that will probably require us to extend this a bit past noon.
I understand, Mr. Speaker, that it is possible for you to remain for just a few minutes following noon.
Then, of course, what we would have to do is to start with the Elections Canada officials. I would ask my Liberal friends to reconsider the idea of moving the committee business to Thursday. If not, we will be very tight on time with the Elections Canada officials. If that's not something that we can get consent for, we will have to end that round of questioning. I'll just adjust the questioning accordingly. You can speak to me before or after the votes and let me know if that's possible, and we'll adjust the rounds of questioning according to what that decision is.
At this point in time—
I'll recognize you, Mr. Reid, but could you make it very brief? I don't want to push our luck.
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Just to echo your point, on behalf of the opposition, I would request that we move the scheduling issues to Thursday. It will be very hard to have proper and fulsome questioning of the acting CEO if we don't do that.
I will now suspend the meeting. We will be back as quickly as possible after the votes.
We'll call the meeting back to order. Welcome back, everyone.
We'll now go into the rounds of questioning with the Speaker before we move to our Elections Canada officials.
We'll start with the Liberal Party and Mr. Graham.
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for joining us after the bells and for your excellent summary and explanation of these estimates. It does help to translate them all into English.
The page program is indeed exceptional. You may recall that my daughter very briefly joined it at Halloween last year. I dressed her up.
To nobody's surprise, my questions are mainly going to be for Superintendent O'Beirne.
I'll put it this way. We have noticed a change in our colleagues' uniforms recently with the introduction of the hats and these "Respect" stickers we have been seeing. I'm wondering if you could describe your relationship with the PPS unions and when we can expect to see a resolution to the obvious dispute currently taking place.
Supt Mike O'Beirne Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Mr. Graham, I guess I'll start by saying that at the PPS, truly, our strength is our people. The bringing together of the three separate entities upon the creation of the PPS connected corporate knowledge and experience. None of that is lost on us. We've been factoring all of that into every step we take in moving forward as an entity.
To your specific question, I guess what I can say is this. As you know, the creation of the PPS brought together three collective bargaining units: the SPSEA, the SSEA, and PSAC. Since the creation of the PPS, we have believed that it would be best for operations—our concept of operations and employees—if there were a single bargaining unit. It supports our objectives of effectively unifying all the personnel for the service under one operational umbrella, towards a common goal.
The associations have a different perspective, and it's certainly their right to do so. They have articulated that they prefer two bargaining units. In accordance with the law that actually created the PPS, the PPS and the associations have each submitted a request to the PSLREB as to what that right number would be. We currently have three. With this, we've been respectfully waiting for a decision, and we look forward to that decision, hopefully in the coming months.
In regard to the issues you've brought up, there has been some question about whether the PPS will meet with the associations. From our perspective, the PPS would prefer to continue meeting with all three of the bargaining units, as we share common interests and common goals. In the past, not all bargaining units have agreed to this approach, and we've had varying degrees of success in having attendance at some of the joint meetings scheduled by the PPS. We do understand that some would prefer to meet individually. It's very complex to accommodate this at all times. For example, we often deal with the exact same issue but then have to hold three different meetings with three different associations to discuss the very same issues.
I can assure you that at the PPS our strength is our people, and that's not lost on us. We continue to communicate with them at every possible turn, whether it's directly with the associations or directly with our PPS personnel.
I can close perhaps by letting you know that, further to the views we're not communicating, there is also a view that the PPS will not enter into collective bargaining. On the stickers question, I'll answer from this perspective. The SSEA's collective agreement has indeed expired, and they have requested that we enter into collective negotiations. In the legal opinion that the PPS has received, we've been informed that we cannot start negotiations of any kind with any of the bargaining units until the labour board decides on the actual number of bargaining units that in their view would be appropriate.
Again, the legal opinion that the PPS has received differs from the SSEA's legal opinion. To that end, I'll say that it's not a question of strategy or tactics but simply a question of what we understand to be legal. Because of the difference of opinions, we've asked the labour board to render a decision on whether or not we should bargain in the current environment, and we anxiously await the decisions of the PSLREB on that.
Thank you very much. Time has expired on this round.
I did allow it to go just a few seconds over, but I'm going to be very strict about the times because of the compressed schedule we have today. I will just remind members, before I move to our next round of questioning, that the use of props, as is in the chamber, is not to be permitted in committee rooms.
I will move now to Mr. Schmale, for five minutes.
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
Thank you, Chair. I will set my timer so that I adhere to your times.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker and the rest. I appreciate your taking the time. I would like to direct my questions to Superintendent O'Beirne, if I could.
In terms of the PPS, how many vacancies do you have currently in terms of personnel on the floor?
Acting Director, Parliamentary Protective Service
Supt Mike O'Beirne
Perhaps I'll turn it over in a moment to Mr. Graham here, who could perhaps clarify the numbers.
As you know there was a change in posture following the October 22 incident in 2014. Since the creation of the PPS, we've been working hard with our partners to find the right number. We're continuing to work alongside our partners in gaining a better understanding of the LTVP projects, the openings and closings of the buildings, to again find that proper number. It's not lost on us that our folks are working hard towards a common goal.
In regard to finding some respite in the short term, I can tell you that we have a class of graduating recruits, PPS members who just graduated yesterday. We have another class graduating in the middle of June that will bring some greatly needed support. We're anticipating that will bring the total to about 40 members. As the Speaker put forth in the main estimates, we've received funding for 45 more positions at 180 Wellington. These are all steps that are positioning us for future successes.
Perhaps I'll turn it over to Mr. Graham for some more analysis.
I want to make sure I come back with the facts. We're coming back on Thursday. I can bring you the specific number on Thursday. As Superintendent O'Beirne said, we have some vacancies that we've been filling. We had a new class of recruits that started just this week, and we're happy to have them on board.
First, I apologize if I cut you off; it's all respect. It's just that I have three minutes left and a lot of questions.
Do you feel that you're filling these vacancies quickly enough? From what I'm hearing, there are a lot of people doing a lot of forced overtime, and these vacancies aren't being filled quickly enough in order to anticipate the demand that you have here.
Our recruiting, hiring, and training cycle is approximately eight months, so we do have to really lean forward and anticipate future needs. As I mentioned, we're trying to be as nimble as possible in response to future needs. We have an attrition rate as well that we're always mindful of.
To your point about overtime, perhaps I can draw from my comments about the three separate bargaining units that we have. There are some limitations we have to work within in regard to these three units—two associations and one union—that we have to be mindful of. There are a few constraints and restraints that we're currently operating under in this environment.


Wearable robots for gait assistance and rehabilitation, such as exoskeletons and prostheses, are becoming increasingly available in the market. These robotic systems are currently tested according to self-defined procedures and metrics, which can hardly be transferred across different laboratories and platforms. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to compare similar systems to each other. Benchmarking is a powerful tool that can help researchers and developers to overcome this problem. Recent efforts, mostly based on competitions (e.g. Cybathlon), have raised the attention for this topic. However, a consolidated benchmarking methodology for Robotics is still not available. The definition of standardized metrics and protocols to evaluate the effectiveness of wearable robotics technology is a crucial yet very complex issue, which involves multiple perspectives at technical, clinical and usability aspects.
This workshop wants to explore and discuss the main challenges behind robotic benchmarking as a follow-up of previous discussions workshops at WeRob2014, ICORR 2015, and WeRob2016, ICORR2017 conferences. The workshop is promoted by the H2020 Project EUROBENCH (starting on January 2018), and supported by the benchmarking bipedal locomotion hub and the COST Action CA16116 "Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions".


West Suffolk College has just been recognised as the third best college in the country.
Having had the opportunity to work with West Suffolk College during 2018, its great to see them receive this accolade in the prestigious NICDEX league table, published by FE week.
Our work together on promoting Higher Education at the college allowed us to experience some of our own ethos in their approach with a focus on changing lives and knowing what matters.


Take a Hike Vancouver has been running since 2000 and is an innovative education program engaging at-risk youth through a unique combination of academics, adventure-based learning, therapy and community involvement. Based at John Oliver Secondary School, Take a Hike Vancouver operates in partnership with School District 39 (Vancouver Board of Education).
If you are a student that would like to apply to the Take a Hike program in Vancouver or a parent or counsellor looking for information, please contact the intake personnel below. They will gladly answer your questions and provide you with guidance.


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News / Students and Alumni / Victories
Virtual Parole Hearing Victory: A Message from the Directors
On April 9 USC Gould School of Law student Simone Rudolf-Dib won a parole grant for her client at his initial youth offender hearing in PCJP's first-ever virtual parole hearing. Her client was formerly sentenced to life without possibility of parole and commuted by Governor Jerry Brown in 2018. Like so many…
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Clients / News / Students and Alumni / Victories
Justice and Redemption
After spending more than 20 years in adult prisons, two inmates sought the legal services of student attorneys with the Post-Conviction Justice Project, which co-sponsored California's 2014 Fair Sentencing for Youth Act and several subsequent juvenile justice bills.
Three Major Victories for Gould Students
Law students in USC Gould's Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP) recently celebrated three major victories after hard-fought battles in Superior Court, and before parole boards and district attorneys. Law students successfully persuaded a Sacramento County Superior Court to impose a parole-eligible sentence on Dwayne Thomas DeLuna, a client sentenced to life…
News / Students and Alumni
USC Gould Prof. Heidi Rummel and Post-Conviction Justice Project student Scott Mills '16 were awarded the 2016 "California Lawyer Attorney of the Year" by the Los Angeles Daily Journal newspaper and California Lawyer magazine. The pair was recognized at a recent ceremony in San Francisco for their groundbreaking legal work in…
PCPJ Students Triumph
Just four weeks into the academic year, USC Gould's Post-Conviction Justice Project is celebrating several significant victories. Students — and a recent graduate — successfully argued for a sentence reduction and parole grants for four deserving clients. READ THE ARTICLE
Events / News / Students and Alumni
PCJP Student to Argue Before the California Court of Appeal
On February 9, 2012, PCJP student Steve Papazian will argue on behalf of Jeanna Redwood before Division Seven of the California Court of Appeal, Second District.
Clients / Events / News / Students and Alumni
USC Law's PCJP Celebrates 30 Years
The USC Law alumni attending the recent 30th anniversary of the Post-Conviction Justice Project hail from nearly ever corner of the legal world – they are judges, public defenders, state and federal prosecutors, public interest lawyers and partners at law firms.
Zach Crowley '12 and Max Castro '12 Claim Wins Before California Court of Appeals
USC Gould School of Law students in the Post-Conviction Justice Project recently won two victories following oral arguments before the California Courts of Appeal, Second District.
Hitting the Ground Running: Stephanie Chen '13 Discusses her First Parole Hearing
The Post-Conviction Justice Project gives USC Law students the invaluable opportunity to personally handle every aspect of a client's parole process. Upon starting work at PCJP in May of this year, I immediately began preparing a client for her fifth parole hearing. Within less than two months, I was representing her before a Board of Parole Hearings commissioner, deputy commissioner, and a representative from the district attorney's office.


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Now reading: Kangaroo Island is a chlamydia safe haven for declining koalas
Adelaide Tuesday July 02, 2019
Kangaroo Island is a chlamydia safe haven for declining koalas
An island off Australia's south coast has emerged as a potential species saver for koalas, which are being ravaged by a chlamydia epidemic.
Picture: Mathias Appel/Flickr
Some wild populations on mainland Australia have a 100 per cent infection rate while experts predict about half of all koalas have the disease.
Scientists led by the University of Adelaide have discovered that, unlike every other large population in Australia, Kangaroo Island koalas are free from infection by Chlamydia pecorum.
The bacterial infection is the most significant disease-causing death in koalas, and a key factor in koalas being under threat in north-eastern Australia.
"The impact of chlamydia on populations of koalas in Queensland and New South Wales is devastating, with high levels of severe disease and death, and common infertility," said researcher Jessica Fabijan, PhD candidate with the University of Adelaide's School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences.
"This last large, isolated Chlamydia-free population holds significant importance as insurance for the future of the species. We may need our Kangaroo Island koalas to re-populate other declining populations."
The strain of chlamydia that infects koalas is not the same as the one sexually transmitted by humans but it can cause blindness through conjunctivitis, pneumonia and infections leading to female infertility.
The Australian Koala Foundation lists chlamydia as among the major threats to koalas along with habitat loss, dogs, traffic and bushfires.
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third biggest offshore island and has long been regarded as one of the world's most pristine natural environments.
Koalas are not naturally occurring on Kangaroo Island but 18 were introduced in the 1920s amid fears they were facing extinction on the mainland from habitat destruction and hunting.
The absence of predators such as dingoes and foxes as well as a lack of human encroachment – koalas outnumber people by more than 10-to-1 on the island – have allowed them to thrive.
Their population on the island known for its pristine environment and abundant wildlife has boomed with a 2015 survey putting their numbers at about 50,000 – about half of which are in the wild and half living in blue gum plantations on the island.
The latest chlamydia study was undertaken by the University of Adelaide's School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences in collaboration with the South Australian Department for Environment and Water (DEW), the University of the Sunshine Coast and koala care volunteers. The research has been published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
The researchers captured and released 75 wild koalas from the Mount Lofty Ranges, east of the South Australian capital Adelaide, and 170 koalas from Kangaroo Island.
Each koala was checked by a veterinarian and tested for Chlamydia pecorum and koala retrovirus.
The researchers found that 46.7 per cent of koalas from the Mount Lofty Ranges were positive for Chlamydia, although the vast majority did not show signs of disease.
All Kangaroo Island koalas tested negative for Chlamydia and no disease was observed. There were also no definitive cases of chlamydial disease in the 13,000 previous records of koala examinations on KI.
"This is a very important finding because chlamydial disease is so prevalent and efforts to fight it have so far been unsuccessful," said project leader Dr Natasha Speight, also from the University of Adelaide's School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences.
"Although, South Australian and Victorian koala populations are stable, this is believed to be at least partly due to current lower prevalence and severity of chlamydial disease."
Research is underway to understand the difference in chlamydial disease severity between southern and northern koalas.
The furry marsupials have been listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
While koala estimates of Australia's wild koala population range from less than 100,000 to 330,000, the boom in numbers on Kangaroo Island prompted calls for a cull in 2017, which was quickly ruled out by the South Australian Government.
A koala management project on the island has been running since 1997 and involves fertility control through sterilisation and the relocation of thousands of koalas to their historic range in the South East of mainland South Australia.
DEW koala spokesperson Brenton Grear said the new research meant the strong Kangaroo Island population was one of the few, and likely the largest, Chlamydia-free population of koalas in Australia.
"Future-proofing South Australia's koala health is paramount to ensuring the survival of the species in Australia, given the marked decline in the eastern states," he said.
Kangaroo Island is located 13 km off shore from the Fleurieu Peninsula, 100 km south of Adelaide. It is an internationally renowned eco-tourism destination with a total area of 438,000 ha (140 km long and 55 km wide). Almost half of the island's native vegetation remains intact, primarily at the western end.
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Request a School
Mike Rothfeld
Kirk Shelley
Shawn Dow
Talbert Black Jr
Ted Harvey
Patrick McGrady
Dave Pridgeon
Joseph W. Neville
Chanel Prunier
Jonathon Hill
Dan Thiele
Alex Salsman
DJ Parten
S. Chris Anders
John Tate
Mike Rothfeld has more than three decades of experience as a political activist. He works with major organizations on virtually every conservative issue, both as a political operator and professional direct marketer. In addition, he has decades of senior campaign experience at the local, state, federal, and presidential levels.
He founded and built the National Association for Gun Rights and is the founder and President of the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership. He is a retired homeschooling father of four and grandfather.
Kirk Shelley started working in grassroots politics in North Carolina as a college activist on the late Senator Jessie Helms' 1984 campaign. Following college, he completed his Officer Basic Course for the Army, and was then hired to work in state legislation by the National Right to Work Committee.
In seven years with the Oklahoma Freedom to Work Committee, Kirk created a 110,000-member organization.
As a general consultant, Kirk has worked on 237 State House and Senate campaigns in ten states, with a success rate of 89 percent. He has worked on a number of Congressional and statewide races and was a senior consultant for both the Ron Paul and Rand Paul presidential campaigns. He also worked for eight years as the senior consultant for State Operations for Campaign for Liberty. He has successfully completed legislative and election projects in 49 states.
Kirk has worked on a range of issues, including gun rights, homeschooling, right to life, medical scope of practice, property rights, superfund reform, tort reform and transportation issues. His work has included grassroots and grasstops mobilization, media work, campaign management, convention consulting and candidate recruitment.
He has taken the lessons learned from many years of practical political experience and created much of the material taught by the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership and was the Foundation's first instructor.
Kirk is a graduate of East Carolina University. He is a father of four, lives in Oklahoma City, and is an active member of Crossings Community Church. He is an honorably discharged Captain of the U.S. Army Reserves and is a veteran of Operation Just Cause.
Nathan Adams began working in grassroots politics as a volunteer for the 2008 Ron Paul presidential campaign, and later as a county chapter organizer for Campaign for Liberty.
As a grassroots activist, Nathan fights to reduce and eliminate property taxes and wasteful spending in Georgia counties and municipalities, to pass Constitutional Carry for all law-abiding Georgians, to ensure health care freedom, to stop federal encroachment on Georgia citizens' lives, and to hold politicians accountable at all levels of government.
In 2012, Nathan helped lead a grassroots effort to defeat what would have been the largest tax increase in Georgia's history, the so-called "T-SPLOST," in 9 of 12 regions in Georgia. During that same time, he helped to elect Charles Gregory, Georgia's state coordinator for the 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaign, as a Representative to the Georgia General Assembly, in the process defeating a well-funded 16-year liberal Republican incumbent. Since then, he has helped elect two other legislative champions to the Georgia General Assembly while defeating numerous tax hikes, no-knock warrants, the Gag Act, and other freedom-crushing schemes from both parties.
Nathan lives with his wife, Melissa, in Mableton, Georgia where they are busy raising their two children, attending church, visiting family, and working.
Nathan is an engineer by training and holds a Professional Masters in Applied Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his engineering career, he has worked on a wide variety of projects, including multi-million-dollar programs to upgrade aircraft avionic systems, high-fidelity real-time simulation frameworks, data acquisition and test software, and medical systems for critical care patients.
Nathan Adams is the Founder and Executive Director of Georgia Taxpayers United and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Georgia Campaign for Liberty.
Shawn Dow is a small business owner from Arizona. In 2009, after attending a training school put on by the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership, he began putting the principles he learned into action.
Now, removing politicians from office, killing bad legislation, and forcing politicians to pass legislation that expands our liberties are just a few of his favorite activities.
Shawn has taken the model of confrontational politics to 29 states, winning over 70 elections and writing legislation that has ultimately been passed into law in over 15 states.
He has led the fight to remove red light cameras all across the country, winning 100 percent of elections involving these automatic ticketing machines. Ending these contracts has saved Americans an estimated one billion dollars per year.
In 2012, Shawn served as Ron Paul's State Director, and worked on Rand Paul's presidential campaign in 2016.
Shawn is considered by many to be the most inspiring of the Foundation's trainers, and is universally recognized as the most energetic.
Shawn and his lovely wife of more than 20 years live in Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Talbert Black is the President of South Carolina Campaign for Liberty and founder of Palmetto Liberty.
He is a married father of three, a homeschooling dad, a full-time software engineer, is active in his church, and has been a political activist since 1999 when he started fighting for gun rights in South Carolina.
Talbert started leading political fights in 2008 with Campaign for Liberty, beginning with a three-year battle to successfully pass legislation to force the South Carolina state legislature to record their votes on every new law that is passed.
He also gets involved in local battles, like a recent fight to stop a one percent local options sales tax referendum in his home county of Lexington. Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent to promote it by the pro-tax establishment, he led efforts to defeat it with a budget of less than $5,000 by a margin of 70 – 30 percent.
He has led many successful political fights at the state and county levels -- expanding gun rights, stopping tax hikes, limiting government growth, and protecting property rights and free speech.
Talbert is credited with removing many political enemies from office, including a State Senator who had him jailed, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and played a significant role in the conviction of the South Carolina Speaker of the House on corruption and abuse of office charges.
Retired legislator, State Senator Ted Harvey (R-CO), never lost an election, nor his passion for protecting the unborn or promoting core conservative values.
At the age of 22, Ted received a political appointment to serve in the White House of President Ronald Reagan.
He returned to Colorado empowered by the vision of the Reagan Revolution and committed to defending the foundational and constitutional values of our nation.
After returning home, Ted quickly became involved in Colorado politics and secured a staff position in the Colorado House of Representatives as the House Reading Clerk. After two years, Ted became the Program Director at the Independence Institute, a conservative/libertarian Colorado think tank.
In December of 2001, through a vacancy election, Ted was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives and became a conservative champion inside the Capitol. He was re-elected in both 2002 and 2004, and was then elected to the State Senate in 2006 and 2010.
During his legislative tenure, Ted has proven himself to be a leader of the conservative movement. He led the fight against illegal immigration, for the passage of Right to Work, and sponsored the only abortion restriction ever passed in Colorado -- the Parental Notification Act. Ted has also been one of the legislature's staunchest defenders of the Second Amendment.
Ted is also a founding member and Chairman of the Stop Hillary PAC, renamed the Committee to Defend the President following the election of 2016. It is now the largest pro-Trump PAC in the country.
Ted and his wife, Janie, have been married for 24 years. They are passionate Christians and are very active in their church.
Janie is a highly accomplished dyslexia therapist working with elementary-age children while also teaching at the college level.
Ted and Janie have two children. Their son, Jack, is a student at Colorado School of Mines where he is earning a degree in Petroleum Engineering. Their daughter, Brooke, is a junior in high school and spends her summers doing Christian missionary work throughout China.
Patrick L. McGrady is an expert in robocall marketing for issues and campaigns. He has experience in party politics, issue advocacy, PAC operations, and online marketing.
Patrick's motivation for working with the great activists of the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership is to show activists that our political destiny does not need to be determined by others.
With the right training and learning from every engagement, the good guys can win.
Patrick was elected Mayor of Aberdeen, Maryland in November, 2015. As the Mayor of Aberdeen, Patrick is the CEO of the City and the Chairman of the City Council. When he is not working with city governance, he manufactures stainless steel auto parts for vintage cars and works in real estate development and general capitalism.
Patrick has a B.S. in Finance and a B.A. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University.
Patrick is married to Liz McGrady and they have two children, Independence and Remy. The McGradys are members of Living Hope PCA Church in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Dave Pridgeon is a grassroots activist from Harford County, Maryland, where he built a successful Campaign for Liberty organization. Dave has participated in numerous local elections, helping get constitutionally-minded candidates elected to office for County Council, Sheriff, Mayor of Aberdeen, and numerous spots on the county Republican Central Committee.
Dave has also been active at the state level, helping defeat both a sanctuary state and a Section 8 housing bill at the Maryland legislature.
He helped lead a successful statewide effort to replace Maryland Republican National Committeeman Louis Pope, who was responsible for numerous RNC rules limiting the ability of the grassroots to affect the party, particularly during election season.
Dave was employed with the 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaign and was responsible for finding and developing state leaders. Since 2012, he worked first with Campaign for Liberty, and now with the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership to help constitutionally-minded individuals start grassroots organizations and to train existing organizations and activists to be more effective and politically dangerous.
For over 30 years, he has been a Civil War reenactor and has helped raise millions of dollars for battlefield preservation. One of his proudest accomplishments is burying the modern-day power line at the scene of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. For his tireless work in helping to preserve our nation's history, he has received awards from organizations such as the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
Dave and his wife have been married nearly 40 years. He is a proud father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.
Joseph W. Neville brings a wealth of political experience as a seasoned veteran in business management and politics.
Career highlights include serving as senior staff for several Colorado State Senators and working for the Republican Party, where he developed legislative tracking and analysis prowess.
He has managed campaigns from local City Council races to U.S. Senate elections, and has directed and lobbied for
several different issue groups fighting for Christian values, Second Amendment rights, and the Right to Work.
As Political Director for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Joe grew the grassroots group to defend the constitutional right to bear arms into the largest state-based gun rights organization in the country.
As a campaign manager, Joe is a trusted consultant and advisor both on and off the campaign trail. Through his leadership, Colorado won back the Senate majority in 2014 for the first time in over a decade. He has since managed two U.S. Senate campaigns.
Joe is a staunch conservative activist. He has been the catalyst for forming and building several PACs and issue groups to tackle emerging issues in liberty, education and healthcare.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Project Management, and a certificate in Biblical Studies from Colorado Christian University in Denver. He honorably served four years in the U.S. Navy, including responding to 9/11 aboard the USS John F. Kennedy in 2001.
Joe and his wife, Jennifer, and their three children reside in Colorado, where they spend as much free time as possible shredding fresh powder on the slopes in the winter and cutting through the clean glass of mountain lakes in the summer.
Joe Neville is now President and Principal Consultant of Rearden Strategic, LLC.
Chanel Prunier is the former Executive Director of the Renew Massachusetts Coalition, and currently consults for Saber Communications, Inc.
She attended her first Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership School in 2011 and used what she learned to lead the grassroots of Massachusetts to elect many new conservative and liberty members to their Massachusetts Republican State Committee in 2012.
Chanel was then elected Republican National Committeewoman in 2013 and encouraged reform of the state Party to focus more on building a ground game and electing state legislators.
She's been involved in hundreds of municipal campaigns and dozens of successful state legislative races, and has helped found a number of conservative 501(c)4s, from the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance to the Massachusetts Association for Gun Rights.
Ms. Prunier is a graduate of Assumption College and now resides in Hudson, Florida with her Labradoodle named "Sarah Palin."
Rep. Jonathon Hill is a stalwart defender of liberty and has been a driving force behind defunding Planned Parenthood, reforming Civil Asset Forfeiture, and defending our Second Amendment rights. His positions are sometimes irritating to his less enthusiastic Republican colleagues.
In 2008, Jonathon entered politics as a campaign volunteer, and shortly after, started the Anderson County Tea Party.
He has served in the South Carolina House of Representatives since 2015, and is the Second Vice Chairman of the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee.
One of his favorite political maxims is, "Every act of government is an act of force, and should be used sparingly."
Born in Anderson, South Carolina, Jonathon was home educated in the rural upstate town of Donalds. He skipped college, taught himself software development, and achieved professional success at tech firms from Atlanta to Silicon Valley.
Dan Thiele is a veteran of legislative and electoral politics, both on the grassroots and the professional level.
He has planned and managed successful campaigns for local and state political offices, ranging from city council, to school board, to state legislator.
Dan has also engaged in many local issues, including successful opposition to increased school district taxes. He has trained and mentored conservative activists across the country on a variety of issues, including Life, the Second Amendment, and taxation.
Dan Thiele is the son of two retired educators, and he brings his parents' enthusiasm for teaching to his own instructional style.
In addition to teaching for the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership, Dan is a contractor with the National Association for Gun Rights, an advisor to the anti-abortion group Hoosiers for Life, and Chairman of the Northern Indiana Citizens Coalition.
Dan resides in northern Indiana.
Alex Salsman is a gun rights activist and Republican campaign strategist from the outskirts of St. Louis, Missouri.
Inspired by her first FACL class, Alex co-founded NoMoCommonCore, an effort aimed at ending Common Core State Standards in Missouri.
She later joined the Missouri Firearms Coalition, a no-compromise gun rights advocacy group, as their
Political Director, lobbying for gun rights in the halls of her state Capitol and has recently been appointed to their Executive Board. She has also facilitated tens of thousands of legal gun sales to law-abiding citizens as the Executive Director for Militia Armaments Gun Shows.
Alex manages political campaigns ranging from Mayoral to Congressional races. Her proudest victories include ousting her two-term incumbent Prosecutor and her two-term incumbent Sheriff in heated hometown primaries. She has also replaced her local politicians with liberty-loving fiscal conservatives for State Representative, Mayor, and Public Administrator, has managed and directed Congressional and Gubernatorial races, and has worked as an Election Director for YAL's "Win At The Door" program.
Alex was recently elected Vice-Chairman of the Lincoln County Republican Central Committee and is proud to be an instructor for the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership.
DJ Parten is a real estate investor and political activist from Alabama. His top issues are ending the murder of the unborn and defending the right to keep and bear arms.
An ardent defender of the Second Amendment, DJ spent three years as the Executive Director of Florida Gun Rights where he successfully mobilized gun owners to defeat a Republican-backed bill that would have implemented Universal Background Checks (a.k.a. Universal Gun Registration) and expanded the "Red Flag" Gun Confiscation law. He also worked as an employee of the National
Association for Gun Rights where he fought aggressively for Constitutional Carry and against radical gun control in nearly a dozen states.
As a former Floridian, DJ served on the board of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida where he worked to grow their list and build support for key liberty issues within the state. He also served six years as an Airborne Infantryman in the Alabama Army National Guard.
When he is not training activists and punishing bad politicians, DJ enjoys spending time with his wife Mikendrah and son Samuel.
S. Chris Anders is the Executive Director of the Virginia Constitutional Conservatives. Chris has also worked with the National Association of Gun Rights, West Virginia Christian Conservatives, Campaign for Liberty, We the People, West Virginia Liberty Political Action Committee, and the Educational Freedom Foundation.
Chris is the President of Acton Advocacy Group, a state level political consulting firm and an instructor for the Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership.
With over 15 years' experience in politics, he has served on Congressional and state level campaigns while also working with issue-focused groups to promote the Constitution and individual liberty.
Chris led the effort to successfully stop Northam's Gun Ban and is also the point leader for several national organizations on taking back the Virginia House of Delegates in the 2021 State Election.
Chris lives in Lovettsville Virginia and his daughter is a student in a four-year nursing program. He is an avid hunter and self-proclaimed 'gun nut'. He is also an amateur historian and has organized large scale historical reenactments across the Country.
John Tate is a life-long political and public policy activist. He started working the polls at age 8 and managed his first campaign at age 14.
He is the founder and President of JFT Consulting, Inc., a political non-profit consulting firm specializing in political strategy and management, fundraising, strategic planning, and grassroots lobbying. He's worked on hundreds of campaigns at the local, state and federal levels in more than 40 states.
John has over 40 years of political experience in fundraising, direct mail, political strategy, and grassroots activism. A long-time convention operative, John has worked conventions for races from County Supervisor to U.S. Senate, including Oliver North for Senate, where he also served as Chairman of the Convention Rules Committee, and Mike Farris for Lt. Governor (the two largest assembled political conventions in American history).
He has worked conventions in more than 40 states, including for presidential races like Pat Robertson's 1988 run. John was the Campaign Manager for the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign and served as National Political Director for the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential Campaign.
Previously, John served as President of Campaign for Liberty, a 501(c)4 grassroots lobbying organization that he founded and grew out of the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential Campaign.
After its founding in June of 2008, Campaign for Liberty grew to over 700,000 active members nationwide, with 23 state chapters and an annual budget of over $8 million.
Prior to joining Campaign for Liberty, John served as a Vice President at Leadership Institute and spent 14 years at the National Right to Work Committee, including five years as Vice President.
In 1996, John was the GOP nominee for Congress in Virginia's 2nd District.
John is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a B.A. in History. He has five children and five grandchildren (and counting). He and his wife, Beth, currently live in Ruckersville, Virginia with their three rescue dogs and a 29-year-old Goffin's cockatoo.
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The Frontenac Women's chorus, under the direction of Patty Smith, presents "Smileworthy" our spring concert, dedicated to lifting the corners of your mouth with a wide variety of happy/bittersweet/humorous/feel-good musical offerings! Please join us for refreshments in the hall after the concert. Trinity United Church in Verona, April 27, 7:30 PM. Admission by donation (suggested $10+ ). Kate Van Allen accompanist and special guest violinist Ellie Goud.


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North Korean Prison Camps
Iraq's security forces fired on and beat protesters in Basra governorate through a series of protests from July 8 to 17, 2018, Human Rights Watch mentioned these days. But by way of new research and making use of satellite imagery, HRNK has managed to lift the veil on these secretive facilities, which are created to instil fear into ordinary North Koreans by jailing them for minor criminal offences or attending public gatherings not authorised by the state. UN professionals estimate at least 70,000 North Koreans are imprisoned in the prison camps, though the exact figure is impossible to establish.
By no means-just before-shared accounts of time inside the deadly camps revealed a method to control the population via terror, with numerous the lakes resort hotel adelaide australia worked to death for supposed crimes as petty as singing to South Korean pop music. HRNK reports there was a huge number of deaths at the Chung-san, and the bodies of prisoners who died in the camp were disposed of in unmarked graves on a hill close to the camp.
Thousands of malnourished and starving inmates are subjected to intense forced labour and beatings by cruel agents of the Ministry of People's Security (MPS), major to the deaths of significant numbers of prisoners, according to the analysis. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) identified two distinct types of camps operated by Kim's government: penal labour colonies, employed to forcibly disappear" any one even suspected of questioning Kim's dictatorial rule, and long-term prison labour facilities.
But via new study and utilizing satellite imagery, HRNK has managed to lift the veil on these secretive facilities, which are developed to instil fear into ordinary North Koreans by jailing them for minor criminal offences or attending public gatherings not authorised by the state. UN professionals buy travel equipment travel accessories online estimate at least 70,000 North Koreans are imprisoned in the prison camps, though the exact figure is impossible to identify.
Prisoners are forced to mine copper and iron, cut logs and make bricks.
April 7, 2005 (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) – Two survivors of the North Korean prison camps have spoken at the UN Commission on Human Rights, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Workplace and at the EU. By no means-ahead of-shared accounts of time within the deadly camps revealed a strategy to handle the population by way of terror, with several worked to death for supposed crimes as petty as singing to South Korean pop music. HRNK reports there was a huge quantity of deaths at the Chung-san, and the bodies of prisoners who died in the camp were disposed of in unmarked graves on a hill close to the camp.
Amid this geopolitical posturing, human rights have frequently been overlooked. Thousands of inmates in North Korean prison camps face beatings , summary executions, starvation and rape, a former guard has revealed. But North Korean police officials do not deny the existence of the kyo-hwa-so camps, and frequently make ridiculous claims about the high quality of the situations. Prisoners are forced to mine copper and iron, reduce logs and make bricks.
Shin memorized the Ten Laws alongside other youngsters born to political prisoners inside this North Korean internment camp. And the overcrowded camp at Jongo-ri houses a massive number of North Koreans who had been caught right after fleeing over the border to China. Colonel General Jung Young-wook of the MPS has reportedly claimed prisoners are supplied with meals, sufficient winter clothing and leading-notch healthcare care.
And the overcrowded camp at Jongo-ri homes a massive number of North Koreans who have been caught after fleeing over the border to China.
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The Griz shot 51 percent, making 13 of 32 shots from 3-point range, and tallied 24 assists against the Lakers' porous defense.
P.J. Hairston's 21 points led the Griz, who also benefited from Carter's 19 points and Zach Randolph's double-double (15 points and 10 rebounds).
Mike Conley chipped in 17 points.
The Grizzlies essentially took care of business at the start of a three-game trip that continues Saturday at Phoenix and concludes Monday at Denver. With the degree of difficulty on the schedule increasing in March, the Griz avoided what would have been considered a bad loss. The Lakers (11-49) own the worst record in the Western Conference and have lost eight straight and 22 of their last 25 games.
These Lakers are on pace to break the team record for fewest wins in a season — 19 in 1957-58 when the team was in Minneapolis. Los Angeles has allowed 120.2 points and 47.6-percent shooting from 3-point range in the last six outings.
This was hardly the show that an ESPN audience and sellout Staples Center crowd expected, because Kobe Bryant was a late scratch from the lineup due to a sore right shoulder.
Griz swingman Tony Allen (sore left knee) missed a third straight game and his return remains uncertain.
The game, however, was never in doubt. Memphis' largest lead was 29 points.
The only time the Griz trailed was 2-0 after Jordan Clarkson hit a floater from five feet soon after the opening tip. Memphis followed a 32-point first quarter by scoring 35 points in the second in building a 67-50 lead at the intermission.
Not only did the Griz find long-range success, but they also raced past the Lakers for a 19-6 advantage in fast-break points through three quarters.