I was inspired by a group of mostly young black organizers from Ferguson, Mo. and elsewhere who recently traveled to Palestine. Seeing organizers continue in the tradition of bridging the intertwined yet nuanced differences of western-based dominance on black and brown peoples across the globe, brought me back to my own journey to Palestine a decade ago and the wonderful and thoughtful friends and allies that educated me of those connections.
I started off pretty backwards in my understanding of people in what is referred to as the Middle East. Growing up in Albany-houses in Brooklyn my beginning reference point was only knowing the "A-rabs," as my "moms" and many others pronounced it, as the correct ethnic name for the owners of several corner stores in the neighborhood. In my early twenties, when I thought I was political, I could not tell you the difference between a Palestinian and an Egyptian, or a Dominican. That changed because I met some pretty remarkable people who created opportunities for my re-education.
I met Suheir in Harlem. A vibrant person alive with character, intelligence, humor and beauty, she became my first teacher on Palestine. Her worldly connection to New York, hip-hop and black culture plus her poetic writing ability made her a must see in the New York poetry scene in the early 1990's. Her first book of poems Born Palestinian, Born Black was one of the few poetry books that I admittedly got through from cover to cover. Whether tasting cuisine or talking politics, Suheir helped guide me through the inter-relatedness of Palestinian and Black struggle. Hearing about the Nakba for the first time could only bring me back to two events that shaped America — the taking of the indigenous peoples' land and the taking of a people from a land. Suheir introduced me to the writings of Edward Said and post-colonial thought. Thank you Suheir for making me conscious of a world I did not know and for being a better friend to me than I have ever been to you.
I have not gotten to know Suzanne well, but she helped me see Palestine with my own eyes. In 2001, along with Jordan Flaherty, Suzanne made a delegation of mostly activists of color from New York City possible by tapping into connections on the ground who could guide our group through our self-titled "New York Solidarity Movement for a Free Palestine" mission to the West Bank. We came to Palestine shortly after the Israeli destruction of the Palestinian Authority's Headquarters in Ramallah, where Yasser Arafat refused to leave. We met African-Palestinian ex-political prisoners, were stopped by IDF soldiers telling us that Palestinians were all terrorists, conducted civil disobedience where Israeli forces shot live rounds in the ground to deter some in our group. We crossed checkpoints that would not allow Palestinians to go to work, seek healthcare or visit family. I was awoken at night by the sound of moving tanks in Palestinian neighborhoods and slept in homes as protection to deter the Israeli military from blowing them up. All throughout seeing a culture of resistance I wish was my own, not because of a forced romanticism with conflict but because both survival and restoration were at stake. I witnessed families surviving and loving and thought of how there were stark differences but eerie similarities with life in the United States. The continual police violence through stops, arrest and imprisonment and destroyed institutions felt familiar, as well as the semblance of the resistance which kept my people in America surviving and attempting to create and restore our collective lives. Thank you Suzanne for providing on the ground education.
Many a time I would take a break from my law practice and hang outside my 26 Court Street office in downtown Brooklyn, with a cup of coffee and cigarettes (they did the smoking) as well as movement stories and gossip (I did the gossiping). From Rama and Lamis I learned praxis. These women shared stories of their work for their people and connecting US-based activists to issues in Palestine. They fully included me as an ally in a mutual struggle and offered guidance and material so that I could understand and move ideas into action. I became particularly close to Lamis, who was also an attorney starting a law practice. She did not suffer fools gladly and wore her emotions for her people for all to see. If it was a hard week for Palestine, it was a hard week for Lamis. As a friend not only did she encourage my intellectual development but she more than anyone encouraged my hapless campaign to win over my future wife. Her friendship has been a source of inspiration because her life is built around fortitude and I have never known a more complete human being.
I have probably never said thank you to Lamis and others who guided me through my understanding of U.S. foreign policy in Palestine and Western interest in maintaining an outpost of military dominance in the Middle East along with Arab dictators. It was not hard for me to pick up on these insights because the evidence is there for anyone interested in moving away from the mythical tale of Israel's "birth". After my trip, I and others spoke about the inter-connectedness of struggle here in the U.S. and Palestine, and of U.S. taxpayer money funding the military of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to maintain dominance over resources, while promoting the same violence it claims to oppose.
Hopefully I will continue to see and speak about the connected struggle of Black people in the United States and Palestine. My delegation to Palestine later sponsored a trip to the U.S. for Palestinian groups and sponsored a second delegation to Palestine of young activists primarily from Hunter College in New York City. Hopefully we began in some small way what other activists today in this moment in Black Struggle have crystallized through connecting what has happened in Ferguson with what is happening in Palestine. They have reached an audience through social media and black media that can't be ignored and brought the needed attention to the ways Black, Palestinian and Muslim lives matter.
Very cool to see Lamis Deek being called out for what she is: A motivated, knowledgable, extremely intelligent, unapologetically passionate and outspoken Hero on Palestine and Israel. She articulates truths and ideas that many are afraid to acknowledge or utter. She deserves a lot of credit for never backing down and speaking truth to power in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Whether she's taking on the NYPD, Norman Finkelstein, or the Pro-Israel community in general, she's courageous and deserves our thanks and attention. If I ever get into trouble for my beliefs/attitudes concerning Israel/Palestine, I'd want her on my side. And I suspect that's where she'd be. Thanks for the article Kamau!


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How come heating milk in the microwave is safe?
I was reading this question and began to ask myself...
Since milk contains calcium, and calcium is a metal (just like potassium), how come putting a cup of milk in the microwave is safe and there are no visible arcs or sparks?
milk microwave
George EdisonGeorge Edison
Calcium is in an ionic form when dissolved in the milk fat and behaves differently to a solid metal. In addition to this the ratio of metal to non metal is a factor - you can actually put foil in the microwave, for example a meat pie that commonly comes in a foil container - this is able to be heated because there is enough water molecules in the pie to absorb the energy from the microwave – Jason Jan 31 '11 at 5:47
If you read the comments on the question you link to, the conclusion seems to be that there's something going on besides simple mineral content. – Cascabel♦ Jan 31 '11 at 6:10
When metal is exposed to microwave radiation, an electric potential difference can develop as the microwaves generate electric charge in parts of the metal. Flowing electricity can cause sparks as electrons migrate to places of lower potential. Solid metal is susceptible to this because its electrons are relatively loose, making it a good conductor of electricity.
Calcium (Ca) in milk is bonded with other atoms (mostly as calcium phosphate), so it doesn't behave as a solid metal would: first because its electrons are secured in bonds with other atoms, and second, because the Ca atoms are not aggregated together but intermixed with nonconducting ones.
J. Win.J. Win.
This is the same reason why the iron in meat or green vegetables doesn't cause lightning bolts in the microwave. It's only elemental conductive metals which cause problems. – Matthew Walton Jan 31 '11 at 10:00
I'm by no means a chemist, but wouldn't the calcium ions and phosphate dissociate in solution? Obviously the important thing is that the calcium is ionized, not a piece of metal with a conduction band. I guess you're using "bonded" in the ionic sense, i.e. without meaning that the components are actually physically connected? – Cascabel♦ Jan 31 '11 at 14:56
@jefromi: this is going way back, but I recall that electrons that are part of a complete shell are the most stable and least likely to float away on an electric current... so if the calcium is in solution as part of a salt, it is a Ca2+ ion, and its two missing electrons will have joined a salt partner that was missing two electrons; however I'm not sure if the calcium phosphate in milk is soluble, or part of some larger molecules. – J. Win. Jan 31 '11 at 22:09
@jonw: That's what I was driving at: the important thing is that the electron configurations are stable, not that the calcium is bonded with anything. (As for the dissociating... ionic compounds are generally soluble, since water is polar. I don't know anything about the chemistry of milk, was just going off of your statement that it was calcium phosphate.) – Cascabel♦ Jan 31 '11 at 23:18
Probably more a size thing than the ionization state. The potential difference across an atom from the E field is pretty tiny! Sub-mm sized particles of conductive metal in a microwave don't get hot. – Martin Beckett Feb 1 '11 at 3:34
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged milk microwave or ask your own question.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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0: Introduction to "The How of Business" podcast
Henry Lopez and David Begin introduce themselves and The How of Business podcast. Typical episodes will be between 30 and 45 minutes long, and we will release at least one new episode every Monday morning. Our intended audience is anyone who dreams or plans to become their own boss, and existing small business owners and entrepreneurs.


Although it has been the center for the island's main industrial activities, Portoferraio offers some of Elba's most beautiful beaches, spread along the road going from Enfola to Viticcio. Beach Grigolo is practically situated in the center, but is hard to reach since it is only accessible from the Naval Academy and as it is located behind the Medicean Fortification, it is constantly troubled by waves raised by the ferries passing nearby. It is better to decide for Viste beach which also is located behind the harbor but much easier to reach thanks to a sloping ramp that you come on to at the top of the stairs near the homonymous trattoria. The beach, dominated by the remainders of the Medicean fortifications, offers both sand and pebbles and the sea is crystal clear. Still in town, another splendid and snow-white beach is Ghiaie where the sea really is transparent because there is no sand on the sea-beds.
Along the road, both Padulella and Capo Bianco, beach are well indicated and easy to reach. They are divided by a stone promontory and framed by majestic white overhanging faces and a breathtaking sea. Seccione beach, in the east defined by a rock, offers fine and white pebbles mixed with sand. It is easily accessible from the road between Portoferraio and Capo d'Enfola, just as the near snow-white Sottobomba, beach, accessible through narrow and very steep stairs. From the same road you can also get to the cove Acquaviva which, except for the beautiful shadowy pine-wood nearby, offer good possibilities to dock small boats, thanks to its protected location and some buoys. In Acquaviva's pine-forest you can take on to a very steep track also called della Sorgente and reach Acquavivetta, Acquavivetta beach, framed by rocks and snow-white pebbles. Cala dei Frati is a cove that holds crystal clear waters , but can only be reached from the sea, a fact that even in summer makes it less visited. On the way to Enfola you can stop at Sansone, beach, framed by cliffs and embellished by a fine, brilliant white and almost dazzling pebbles. Capo d'Enfola d'Enfola beach is clearly divided into two parts: the southern part protected by the Viticcio Gulf and very busy since the pier allows mooring of boats, while the northern part, exposed to the north wind, often is occupied by stranded boats . If you have a small boat, one of the most pleasant things to do is going to Mount Enfolabeach, made up of three distinguished coves, adorned with gorge caves and rocks, where your only company will be cormorants. Pinetina beach is decisively small but beautiful and you get there from the main road by stopping just before getting to Enfola, where you take on to a narrow and steep track. If you love rocks you should choose the central part of the Viticcio Gulf which offers as many as five beaches. The central one is basically a small harbor, but if you are able to walk between the rocks you will reach the farther ones. The very famous Biodola beach is easily accessible and thanks to its many comforts, it is suitable for families with children Caletta di Forno is lovely and made up of tiny transparent quartz grains and protected by the Biodola Gulf. Within the same gulf you will find Scaglieri beach, somewhat isolated, that with its fine sand makes up the natural extension of Bidola beach. Lovers of uncontaminated nature will find a small paradise as they reach Lamaia beach, confining with Marciana beach and connected to Biodola beach by the so-called "sentiero della salute", the "health track", a shadowy path in the middle of the greenery. The harbor at Portoferraio is lovely as well and you can get to know it starting from the well-equipped and easily accessible Bagnaia beach, confining with Rio nell'Elba and well protected inside a gulf. A thick shadowy wood, ideal for relax, crowns behind Ottonella Ottonella beach around which tiny and delicious coves are spread. Ottone beach, nearby, got its name from the homonymous villa that raises behind it and even if it is a quite wide beach, it never gets too crowded. Magazzini beach facing clear and pure water offers peace without tiring walks. Walking from Magazzini beach you easily reach the very long and narrow beach Schiopparello that offers isolated coves for those who want peace even in August. Le Prade beach is Schiopparellos' natural extension, with tamarisks that stretch on to the beach and offers shadow all through the day. Bigeschi and Grotte Grotte beach are characterized by an almost black pebble bottom. They are narrow with residences behind them and difficult to reach from the very steep road that you come on to nearby Villa Romana, coming from Portoferraio. San Giovanni instead, is well equipped and easily accessible. It is the center for the homonymous Nautical Club and even though it is not very suitable for swimming, it gives you the possibility to take your animal friends, that normally are not very appreciated, for a walk,. The area of the Antiche Saline (Ancient Salt-pans), next to Terme San Giovanni, also offers the Antiche Saline cove, small and silent and well protected from the waves.


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Featured Job of the Day
Primary Care TeleMedicine
You are at:Home»Telehealth»Does That Make Sense?
By Jeanine Feirer, RN and David Thompson, MD ON	 October 12, 2017
In the era of virtual care, a quick assessment of a patient's health literacy is more important than ever.
Current data suggests that about a third of all American adults (89 million people) have insufficient health literacy skills to effectively seek and obtain the medical and preventive care they need.
Poor health literacy can result in medication errors, decreased compliance with treatment advice, worse clinical outcomes, and increased malpractice risk. And that's with traditional face-to face medical visits.
Virtual healthcare introduces an entirely new set of opportunities for miscommunication and lack of understanding. For this reason, an understanding of health literacy and plain language should be part of your virtual healthcare skill set. Health literacy, according to the Institute of Medicine (2004), is "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions."
Those of us who work in health care often think of health literacy as a "patient problem." However, we contribute to issues with health literacy if we do not communicate clearly with patients. With the increasing prevalence of virtual care and its opportunities for dropped connections and limited point of view, the need for a quick assessment of health literacy has never been greater.
It's an obvious but underappreciated fact that low health literacy can lead to poor health outcomes and even unnecessary patient deaths. Patients with limited health literacy might take the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage. They might fail to recognize serious complications or symptoms or struggle with managing complex medical problems. Limited health literacy also contributes to poor patient satisfaction and increased health care costs as patients miss appointments, avoid asking important questions, and generally feel frustrated with their physician encounter.
In a virtual care visit, assessing health literacy starts with recognizing at-risk groups. Elderly patients and those who have limited income or education can be at risk, as can people who have difficulty speaking English. But there are other, more nuanced factors that can lead to a patient misunderstanding healthcare instructions. These factors include a lack of sleep, fear or anxiety about a new diagnosis, and the presence of separating, complicating medical ailments.
One strategy for quickly assessing health literacy at the beginning of a virtual care visit is to use the Universal Health Literacy Precautions. Step one, take time at the beginning of an interaction to develop rapport and trust. Speak in a slow, calm manner in short sentences. Use shorter words when possible. For example, use "get" instead of "obtain," "help" instead of "facilitate," and "decrease" instead of "mitigate."
By a similar token, avoid medical jargon by using patient-friendly words. For example, use "heart attack" instead of "myocardial infarction" and "rinse" or "wash" instead of "irrigate." When in doubt, talk to the patient like you would talk to a family member sitting in your living room. And always verify patient understanding during and at the end of an encounter.
Thinking of starting a telemedicine program at your institution? Make sure that health literacy is part of your strategy. This can be accomplished by including health literacy training in your orientation for all new telemedicine providers (doctors, PAs, NPs), your nursing team, and front-end staff. Also, assess health literacy skills (listed above) when reviewing taped calls. You will find certain problem words (medical jargon) that could be replaced with more patient-friendly language. Share these terms with clinicians and other staff. Use this as a learning opportunity for all. Include health literacy topics and exercises in your ongoing staff education.
Finally, make sure the materials you send to patients electronically or by mail are patient-friendly and easy to understand. Aim for a 6th grade reading level. Resources can be found at: www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy.
Jeanine Feirer, RN
David Thompson, MD
John R. Dayton, MD, FACEP
Aditi U. Joshi MD, MSc
Bill Gordon
Nicholas Genes, MD, PhD
Rahul Varshneya
[MORE CONTRIBUTORS]
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I live in a small community in S.W. Minnesota and within our community we have a beautiful body of water called Okabena Lake. I'm a student of history and enjoy keenly the journals of historic explorers that traversed this region in the early days of expansion.
The name Okabena is purported to be a Siouian word meaning "The Gathering place of Herons." The attribution comes from Joesph Nicollet an early cartographer and ethnologist from 1830's. The journals "On the Plains and Prairies" , by Nicollet is a fascinating book about Nicollet finding two native guides in St. Peter that professed to know the location of the Pipestone quarries. The book is his notes of a thirty day journey across South Western Minnesota in search of these quarries. I've used his journals as an historic atlas and road map to view the landscape from his point of view. I've traversed and retraced much of his journey. With book in hand I've triangulated many of his observations to understand that I have stood nearly in the precise spot in which he made the original observations. His field notes were translated from French to English in 1976 by Edmund and Martha Bray.
I am an avid birder and I've paid attention to birds of South Western Minnesota for fifty years. I can tell you of the advance of blue grosbeaks into Minnesota in the 1960's, I can tell you the first sighting & return of the turkey vultures into this south west region. I can approximate years, dates and numbers as I am an amateur birder.
Over the years I've pondered the word Okabena and this curious translation, "Gathering place of Herons". I know the birding habitats in my region and this notion of "Gathering place of Herons" has always seemed a bit overblown. We have herons, Great Blue, Green and Night Herons, nesting in such proliferation to create a namesake? I've never found that plausible. Farming practices have erased some habitat but not to the degree that it would wipe out any noticeable rookeries of herons. Great Blue Herons often times nest in Cottonwood trees (Populus Deltoides) the tree is a limited to the shorelines and river bottoms.
Perhaps it is time to reconsider this word "Okabena". As the fog rises this morning I am looking out my front window watching a spectacular sight. A sight that seasonally is etched in my mind. It is a raft of Pelicans hunting the waters of Okabena Lake. As they lift off the water they glide with a ease of no other bird. When they appear, they are singularly they most profound and diagnostic bird on this lake. As I watch them catch an updraft they all reel and glide in perfect unison. Their flight movement is precise and in perfect measure. One hundred yards above me the markings on their wings all appear at the exact time, as precise as an Elgin movement. It leaves an indelible image in my mind.
Two miles south of my home is an historic gathering spot of sub-adult (non breeding) Pelicans, they remain all summer and their number range perhaps 100 to 200. They have occupied this spot on Lake Ocheda for as long as anyone can remember. They have been a fixture as long as parents, grand parents and great grandparents can remember.
Now it's time to dial 800- ask an ornithologist and get the earliest known records of pelicans in this county & lake region. Alas, I've fallen a bit short on this research and have a deadline to meet!
There is no bird that resides on his small lake that is more visible on its arrival, both in the air and on the water. There is no bird that looks more regal, there is no bird that would leave a greater impression in the mind of the those that reside in this region. If I met someone that did not speak my language and wanted to know a defining characteristic about this lake, I might hold out my arms and imitate the flapping and soaring of a pelican. The person inquiring might take my gestures as that of a Great Blue Heron.
Perhaps history should be re-written, OKABENA-"A Place where PELICANS reside" could this be a plausible contention?
Read the civil was book by Bassett. In addition to the war diary there are many pages about early pioneer life. Bassett explores redwood falls and nobles county searching for a place to start farming. Pages about working as a surveyor west of Duluth.


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EVO 2015 Line-up Announced
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 22, 2015 in Videogames
Playing fighting games is great, even if I'm merely competent. But watching the pros at the EVO Championship Series every July is another thing entirely. The back and forth is actually exciting, with massive levels of "hype" to savor. This year's EVO is being held July 17-19 at the Bally's/Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, and the main tournaments have been announced. The games are: Ultra Street Fighter IV, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat X, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Tekken 7. I'm sad my personal fave BlazBlue isn't in there, but it's understandable when two other Arc System Works games are in there. What's more annoying is the lack of King of Fighters XIII, easily one of the most exciting tournaments in previous years. I'd rather have that in there than two Smash Bros. tournaments, but I guess Nintendo wanted to show off their newest game while allowing hardcore players to play their tournament classic. Read more…
Tags: Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat, Persona 4, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros., Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Last Chance To Buy Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 & 3
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 16, 2013 in Comic Books, Videogames
People keep asking me why I prefer physical media in an increasingly digital world. Today, I get to give another reason why. Though they didn't give a specific reason, Capcom has announced that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 will soon be delisted from Xbox Live and PSN, along with all related DLC. You won't be able to purchase them digitally after December 17 (North American PSN), December 19 (European PSN), or December 26 (global Xbox Live). Anyone who has previously purchased the games and DLC will still be able to redownload the games from their download history if need be. While there are still physical copies of UMvC3 out there, there will be no way to buy any extra characters or costumes for it, while the HD version of MvC2 will disappear completely.
And this is the reason why I not only prefer having physical copies of games, but also am wary of DLC and digital-only games. I recognize the boon digital releases have been for indie developers or smaller games from big-budget publishers, because many of those games might never be made and released at all if they needed a physical release. But the idea of this content becoming inaccessible in the future due to whatever reason — I'd imagine that Capcom can't justify the cost of renewing Marvel's license — just plain sucks for consumers who may want to purchase these games in the future after hearing about them from a friend.
And even if you have already purchased the content and downloaded it to your hard drive, what happens down the road when this iteration of Xbox Live and PSN are taken offline? After Microsoft shut down Xbox Live for original Xbox consoles, any DLC for those games became forever lost and no longer available to redownload. What happens when your hard drive inevitably fails in the future and you need to redownload unlicensed content from a service that is no longer running?
Many gamers probably won't care and might put down money for a future rerelease, such as the soon-unavailable HD version of MvC2, which made the game affordable and accessible to those who couldn't acquire a copy of the original releases from 2000 to 2003. But for those who care about the preservation of these works for future generations to enjoy, the whole thing is nothing but a headache.
Source: Kotaku
Tags: Capcom, Marvel, PS3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Xbox 360
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Goes Ultimate with 12 New Fighters
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jul 22, 2011 in Comic Books, Videogames
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 isn't even a year old, but Capcom has already announced its value-priced followup, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Besides gameplay tweaks like new moves for current fighters and a direly-needed spectator system for online matches, Marvel and Capcom have also added a dozen new (and bizarre, in some cases) fighters to the fray. The original announcement showed Hawkeye and Ghost Rider for the Marvel side, with Firebrand and MvC fan-favorite Strider Hiryu repping Capcom. A accidental leak from the Capcom website, however, revealed the entire list of new brawlers, relieving us of the suspense of several months of slow-drip character reveals. Marvel fans can now also look forward to playing as Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nova, and Rocket Raccoon (?!); Capcom fans get their pick of Dead Rising's Frank West, Resident Evil 3's Nemesis, Dante's brother Vergil from Devil May Cry, and Phoenix Wright (?!). See what I mean about bizarre? Mega Man fans reeling from the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 will no doubt be disappointed that the Blue Bomber is skipping this iteration of the fighting game yet again. UMvC3 is slated for release in November of this year, with an MSRP of $39.99. Read more…
Tags: Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3


text:
Q: Dependencies for VB6 connection to Oracle DB I have an old VB6 app which uses ADO to connect to SQL server databases, as:
Dim cnServer As New ADODB.Connection
cnServer.Provider = "sqloledb"
sConnectString = "Server=" & txtServer.Text & ";" & _
                 "Database=" & txtDatabase.Text & ";" & _
                 "User ID=" & txtUserID.Text & ";" & _
                 "Password=" & txtPassword.Text & ";" & _
                 "Connect timeout=10"
cnServer.Open sConnectString

...which has always worked.  But now I need to modify it to connect to an Oracle 11g database.  I found this article and modified the code to:
Dim cnServer As New ADODB.Connection
cnVLServer.Provider = "OraOLEDB.Oracle"
sConnectString = "Server=" & txtServer.Text & ";" & _
                 "Data Source=" & txtDatabase.Text & ";" & _
                 "User ID=" & txtUserID.Text & ";" & _
                 "Password=" & txtPassword.Text & ";" & _
                 "Connect timeout=10"
cnVLServer.Open sConnectString

...but when I run it, I get an error that reads 3706, Provider cannot be found. It may not be properly installed.  This happens on my development VM (which -- don't laugh -- is still on Win2K Pro), and also on my test machine (which uses Win XP).
Some further searching indicated that oracore11.dll is a dependency, so I went to Oracle's download site and pulled down this DLL as part of a .zip file containing what I take to be the full suite of Windows-related coding tools.  However the error still occurs even if I place this DLL in the same folder with my VB6 executable.  And when I try to register the DLL, the attempt just generates another error:  The specified module could not be found.
Before any further thrashing with what may be a wrong path or an unsolvable problem in the first place, I figured I should check in and see the best/easiest way to get a VB6 app to connect to Oracle in the first place.  My goal here is to have this VB6 app be as portable as possible, not requiring any pre-installed packages to work, and having the minimum set of dependencies be easily passed around with the .exe itself.  (For reference, this VB6 app is not a commercially-distributed product, just an internally-used testing tool within my own department at work.  It takes flat-file fixed width data, parses it, then generates the SQL code to insert it to the DB.)

A: To configure an Oracle Database Instant, you must:

*

*Install the Oracle Database Instant Client and its ODBC driver on your system;

*Set the TNS_ADMIN environment variable;

*Configure a tnsnames.ora configuration file for your client.

Please refer to this link, for further details...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Communication failure doomed worker; OSHA fine upheld
A review commission has upheld an OSHA fine against a construction company in connection with the death of a worker. The commission says the company's communication of the need for a rescue was insufficient.
Boh Brothers Construction Co. was building two bridges over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana.
On Dec. 23, 2008, a crane tipped over and fell onto a bridge's guardrail.
The crane operator, Tilden Billiot, lost consciousness and remained in the cab for two to seven minutes while other Boh employees held onto the crane to prevent it from falling into the water.
After a few minutes, the unconscious worker slipped out of the cab and fell into the water.
While this was happening, a foreman used his cell phone to call the senior superintendent on the project to report the incident. The superintendent used his cell phone to place multiple calls, including one to the field project manager who was in the office trailer at the north end of the bridge, and one to another foreman, who was also working on the north side of the bridge.
By that time, the second foreman had already head about the incident from another worker. This foreman called the lead boatman for the two rescue boats in the lake. The lead boatman called the employee who was operating the other boat. That boat left for the location where Billiot fell into the water.
That second boat was between three and four miles from the scene. The boat traveled at a maximum speed of 30 m.p.h. If the boat was moving at top speed, it would take six minutes to reach the scene.
Billiot was brought to the shore where emergency personnel were waiting to take him to a local hospital. Billiot died in the hospital about a week later.
3 minutes before brain damage occurs
OSHA issued two serious citations to Boh, one for improper crane operation and one for failing to make a lifesaving boat available. The fines totaled $10,000.
Boh appealed the citations.
OSHA's construction standard for working over or near water says, "At least one lifesaving skiff shall be immediately available at locations where employees are working over or adjacent to water."
While the standard doesn't define "immediately available," a 1991 OSHA interpretation letter on the subject notes that permanent brain damage can occur in a drowning victim within three to four minutes because of oxygen deprivation.
Both sides agreed that the interpretation letter identifies factors relevant to a water rescue, including whether a lifesaving skiff could be made available in three to four minutes before permanent brain damage would occur to an unconscious employee in the water.
Billiot had remained in the water for 8 to 12 minutes.
An administrative law judge ruled Boh's response time to the incident was prolonged by its failure to equip boats with the tyupe of radios used by its foremen that can receive an emergency broadcast channel.
Boh appealed the judge's decision to the entire Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The company says the judge erred by disregarding the rescue boats and qualified operators it had available. OSHA argued Boh's system lacked a means of direct communication with the available boat operators.
OSHRC didn't see things Boh's way. It said although Boh had a radio system in place, radios capable of receiving emergency communication weren't provided to all qualified boat operators. Boh only issued these radios to its foremen, limiting rescue communication to cell phones.
OSHRC found Boh failed to comply with the OSHA standard because it didn't have a lifesaving skiff "immediately available." It also upheld the crane citation and the total $10,000 fine.
What do you think about this decision? Let us know in the comments below.
(Secretary of Labor v. Boh Brothers Construction Co., OSHRC, No. 09-1072, 3/4/13)


During the last school year, the number of charter schools in California grew by a mere 1.6 percent, even lower than last year's rate of 1.9 percent, according to Louis Freedberg and John Fensterwald in EdSource. Previously, charter schools in the state grew at double-digit rates. To learn more about why charter growth in California is slowing, read "Why Is Charter Growth Slowing? Lessons from the Bay Area," by Robin J. Lake, Trey Cobb, Roohi Sharma and Alice Opalka.


I truly have been blessed with my family. They spoiled me today. This blog is totally unhealth related. My sister did bring an amazing cake as suspected. I was blessed with gifts. My oldest niece made me a lovely pink friendship bracelet. My two brothers and their families each gave me gift cards to my two favourite stores. My sister, who brought the cake, and brother-in-law really spoiled me as well. They gave me tickets to go see Bruno Mars in concert in Toronto this summer. I had emailed her about it, but then couldn't get tickets. Well, they added a second show and she got us great tickets. She had designed a tshirt for me as the way to tell me. With an iron on, she put the words "GUESS what???" on the front, then on the back it had "Bruno Mars, July 6, 2013" WOW!!!
What a great way to present a birthday gift. I hope you have a great time at the concert in July!!


Congrats Ashish and Shweta!!! Wish you all the best, and a very happy married life ahead. Today, i.e July 1, 2008, is first Wedding Anniversary, of Ashish and Shweta, so, this post is to Congratulate both of them, join me, and post your wishes for the couple via comments. Thanks.


Sunday, 19th May 2019 – Limerick Racecourse Display areas for Volkswagens, Porsches and other classic cars. Convoy leaving the Maldron Hotel, Oranmore at 10.30am.
Sunday, 9th June. To the beach in Fanore, Co. Clare. Bring your picnic tables and chairs!


Platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have a tendency to portray perfection, and numerous studies suggest that negative social media comparisons can influence perceptions of body image, lead to lower self-esteem, and cause depression in young adults. What's more, researchers recently coined the term "Snapchat dysmorphia," a type of body dysmorphic disorder derived from one's obsession with filtered images.
Prince Harry also chimed in on the impact of social media, saying, "Issues stemming from social media and gaming are a major problem for young people in the UK — and globally." The soon-to-be-father added that we should better educate parents on the link between a person's experiences online and mental health. "Fingers are often pointed at the parents, but that's not always fair as they too need to be educated about these things," he said.
With our lives so heavily enmeshed in social media, it's important to recognize the impact it has. Markle, who shut down her social media accounts and lifestyle blog shortly after becoming engaged to Prince Harry, said it was "freeing" to not be on social media anymore. At an earlier appearance at Bondi Beach, she told a fan, "flattery and criticism run through the same filter." #Truth.


This course is for Category 2 Entrants and Tradespeople who have existing experience working supervised on gas, but their existing qualifications, or absence of them requires they complete a refresher or cross skill training to enable entry to the gas ACS Competence Assessments. This is an ideal option for busy people or those in full time employment who wish to complete their foundation certificate around existing commitments.
The course is fully managed by our team of NVQ Assessors and is a level 3 gas training course with support tutor, work books and certification.
Your ACS Gas Assessments can be taken at a local college or one of our academies for graduation as a competent gas engineer (prices on application).


You can't send Easter eggs - so send a fresh bouquet of Easter flowers instead! A Floral Sensation has the best and brightest flowers for Easter. Send Easter flowers to Brooklyn, NY or nationwide for a joyful Easter celebration.


text:
Q: javascript namespace issue in socket.io + sencha This could be a very basic Javascript I know but I just can't get it..
Ext.regController('Chat', {
    initSocketConnection: function() {
    this.chatStore = new App.Store.Chat();
            ...
    this.socket = io.connect(settings.get('server'), {port: 8080});

    this.socket.on(
        'message',
        this.addMessageToChatStore
    );

},

addMessageToChatStore: function(message) {
    console.log(message);
        console.log(this);     << console shows the 'this' has become SocketNameSpace
    this.chatStore.add(message);   << this line error with "Undefined" chatStore

    this.send(message);
},

Console print out shows that the "this" in the addMessageToChatStore function is "SocketNamespace"
How to I get rid of the error?
To generalize the problem. I think it's better to describe it as function chain calling dilemma.
A class has some local var that's instance of another class. When this var listens on certain events, it calls the parent's class's method. The problem is when this method is called, it's under the context of the other class and hence the scope has changed and the access to the original parent's class methods are denied.

A: In javascript, the this variable is determined by the caller. You could use a self executing function to ensure you're referencing the correct entity rather than using this:
Ext.regController('Chat', (function() {
  var self = {
    initSocketConnection: function() {
      self.chatStore = new App.Store.Chat();
      ...
      self.socket = io.connect(settings.get('server'), {port: 8080});

      self.socket.on(
        'message',
        this.addMessageToChatStore
      );
    },
    addMessageToChatStore: function(message) {
      console.log(message);
      self.chatStore.add(message);
      self.send(message);
    }
  };
  return self;
}()));

Update
Based on the full snippet, I'm not sure where the render function is defined, if render is a global function then self.viewChat = render({xtype : 'App.View.Chat'}); will suffice, otherwise it may be defined on this (the this that is defined for the call to index) so the following may suffice self.viewChat = this.render({xtype : 'App.View.Chat'});.
If I were a betting man, I'd go for the latter, so the code would be (with commented out code removed):
Ext.regController('Chat', (function() {
    var self = {
        index: function() {
            if (!self.socket) {
                self.initSocketConnection();
            }

            self.showChat();
        },
        /**
         * init the socket connection to the node.js server
         * using user settings
         *
         */
        initSocketConnection: function() {
            self.chatStore = new App.Store.Chat();
            self.chatStore.add({
                user: "Figo",
                message: "Welcome!"
            });
            self.configStore = Ext.StoreMgr.get('ConfigStore');
            var settings = self.configStore.getAt(0);

            self.socket = io.connect(settings.get('server'), {
                port: 8080
            });

            // Event Listener
            self.socket.on('connect', self.registerUser);
            self.socket.on('message', self.addMessageToChatStore);
            App.on('newMsg', self.sendMessageToServer);
        },
        sendMessageToServer: function(msg) {
            self.socket.send(msg);
        },
        addMessageToChatStore: function(message) {
            console.log(message);
            console.log(this);
            console.log(this.parent);

            self.chatStore.add(message);
            self.socket.send(message);
        },
        registerUser: function() {
            self.configStore = Ext.StoreMgr.get('ConfigStore');
            var settings = self.configStore.getAt(0);

            var user = {
                nickname: settings.get('nickname'),
                gravatar: settings.get('gravatar')
            };
            console.log(user);
            self.socket.send(user);
        },
        /**
         * Show chat view
         */
        showChat: function() {
            if (!self.viewChat) {

                self.viewChat = this.render({
                    xtype: 'App.View.Chat'
                });

                self.viewChat.query('#settingsButton')[0].on('tap', self.showConfig, self);
            }
            self.application.viewport.setActiveItem(
            self.viewChat, {
                type: 'slide',
                direction: 'left'
            });
        },
        /**
         * Show config View
         */
        showConfig: function() {
            Ext.dispatch({
                controller: 'Viewport',
                action: 'showConfig'
            });
        }
    };
    return self;
}()));

A: For @Rich.okelly
Here's the error (highlighted in code)
Uncaught TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method 'render' app.all.js:438
self.showChat app.all.js:438
self.index app.all.js:351
Ext.util.Dispatcher.Ext.extend.dispatch sencha-touch-debug.js:10630
Ext.dispatch sencha-touch-debug.js:10667
Ext.regController.showChat app.all.js:293
fire sencha-touch-debug.js:979
Ext.util.Observable.Ext.extend.fireEvent sencha-touch-debug.js:595

And here's the full code (other code within the same project not shown):
Ext.regController('Chat',(function() {
    var self = {
    /**
     * Index action
     *
     * @return {void}
     */
    index: function() {

        if (!self.socket) {
            self.initSocketConnection();
        }

        self.showChat();
    },

    /**
     * init the socket connection to the node.js server
     * using user settings
     *
     */
    initSocketConnection: function() {
        self.chatStore = new App.Store.Chat();
        self.chatStore.add({user: "Figo", message: "Welcome!"});
        self.configStore = Ext.StoreMgr.get('ConfigStore');
        //this.configStore = new App.Store.Config()
        var settings = self.configStore.getAt(0);

        //this.socket = new App.util.Socketio(settings.get('server'), {port: 4000});
        //this.socket.connect();
        self.socket = io.connect(settings.get('server'), {port: 8080});

        /*
        this.socket.on('message', function (data) {
                console.log(data);
                this.parent.addMessageToChatStore(data);
                this.emit('message', data);
        });

        this.socket.on('message',
                this.addMessageToChatStore
        );
         */

        // Event Listener

        self.socket.on(
            'connect',
            self.registerUser
        );

        self.socket.on(
            'message',
            self.addMessageToChatStore
        );

        App.on(
            'newMsg',
            self.sendMessageToServer
        );
    },

    sendMessageToServer: function(msg){
        self.socket.send(msg);
    },

    addMessageToChatStore: function(message) {
        console.log(message);
                  console.log(this);
                  console.log(this.parent);
        //if (!this.chatStore)
        //this.chatStore = new App.Store.Chat();
        self.chatStore.add(message);
        //App.Controller.Chat.chatStore.add(message);

        self.socket.send(message);
    },

    registerUser: function() {
        self.configStore = Ext.StoreMgr.get('ConfigStore');
        var settings = self.configStore.getAt(0);

        var user = {
            nickname: settings.get('nickname'),
            gravatar: settings.get('gravatar')
        };
        console.log(user);
        self.socket.send(user);
    },

    /**
     * Show chat view
     */
    showChat: function() {
        if (!self.viewChat) {

            self.viewChat = self.render({    << fails over here
                xtype: 'App.View.Chat'
            });

            self.viewChat.query('#settingsButton')[0].on(
                'tap',
                self.showConfig,
                self
            );
        }
        self.application.viewport.setActiveItem(
            self.viewChat,
            {
                type: 'slide',
                direction: 'left'
            }
        );
    },

    /**
     * Show config View
     */
    showConfig: function() {
        Ext.dispatch({
            controller: 'Viewport',
            action    : 'showConfig'
        });
    }

    };
    return self;
}()));


text:
Jimmy Phillips signs new contract with Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers are pleased to confirm that Academy Manager Jimmy Phillips has put pen to paper on a new contract at Macron Stadium.
The 52-year-old, who has been at the forefront of the club's youth set-up for a decade, has reaffirmed his commitment to the Whites with the deal.
This comes after Bolton Wanderers' Academy was ranked top of the standings in terms of productivity out of the 72 EFL clubs and second out of all 92 EFL and Premier League sides.
Wanderers' Under-23s and Under-18s sides also enjoyed ample success throughout 2017/18, with the former being crowned as national champions of the U23 Professional Development League.
Bolton-born Phillips' affiliation with the Trotters meanwhile began when the former defender was a youngster, with him coming up through the ranks at Burnden Park.
He made his debut for his hometown club in 1983 and enjoyed two separate spells with Wanderers between 1983-1987 and 1993-2001, earning himself a testimonial fixture against Celtic in August 1998 in the process.
Since re-joining in a coaching capacity meanwhile, Phillips has also taken charge of first team affairs on two occasions in 2012 and 2016 when acting as caretaker and interim manager respectively.
And speaking following confirmation of his new deal with the club, Phillips said, "I am delighted to agree a new deal with the club in order to lead the Academy into the coming season and continue the excellent development of its players and staff.
"My main focus will be to accelerate the development of the U23 and U18 players and build upon the success they shared last season."
Chairman Ken Anderson also added: "We are delighted that Jimmy has signed a new contract with Bolton Wanderers.
"He and his staff have put in an incredible amount of work at the Academy over the course of the past few years and that ultimately culminated in the successes of our Under-23 and Under-18s sides last season.
"He is a member of staff who is very much part of the fabric of the football club and with his knowledge and expertise, he will continue to play an extremely influential part of the development of our young players in the years to come."
U23s and U18s
Jimmy Phillips
Macron Stadium


David Condon has inherited an opportunity — a once-in-ageneration chance to reform the Spokane Police Department.
"It is my No. 1 issue. Make no mistake about it," says Condon, the incoming mayor of Spokane. "I've told directors of the other departments that it is my top priority. Everything is on the table."
"We're going to have a new mayor, new police chief, new assistant chief, a new council. There's a tremendous opportunity before us," says Tim Burns, the department's civilian ombudsman. "As I told Mayor Condon, [outgoing Mayor Mary] Verner inherited an impending train wreck. Mayor Condon has inherited an opportunity."
"Once in a generation," adds Breean Beggs, a longtime advocate for police reform who is representing Otto Zehm's family in a lawsuit against the city.
This fall, Officer Karl Thompson was convicted of using excessive force and lying to investigators about Zehm, who died in 2006 after being beaten and hog-tied by police. "The public understands broadly what went wrong," Beggs says. "It's totally the time [for reform]. This is the closest I've ever seen."
In addition to new political leaders, there's new leadership coming to the police department as well, with the retirements of Chief Anne Kirkpatrick and her assistant chief, Jim Nicks. The Thompson verdict and subsequent invitation from City Hall for the U.S. Department of Justice to review SPD's polices have put the force on notice: Times are changing.
The months ahead could see cameras installed on officers' uniforms, or perhaps the creation of a new position at City Hall — an elected city attorney. The police department could also be put under the purview of the sheriff.
These are all potential answers to the one question everyone seems to be asking: How do you reform the police department?
Tim Burns' office takes up one small corner in the old City Hall, which itself has become just another wing of River Park Square mall.
Despite such unimpressive headquarters, Burns has until lately been Spokane's only hope to reform the police department.
His office was created in 2008, after years of battling for independent oversight of the department.
In the 1990s, a board of citizens was created to oversee the department but was quickly dismantled after it was found to violate state labor laws.
After Zehm's death, there was enough momentum to create the position of an ombudsman — an official dedicated to investigating complaints against the police.
Since the get-go, the ombudsman's office has been criticized for being toothless and ineffective. Critics cite the Police Guild's role in limiting the office's powers to simply monitoring internal investigations.
More than a year ago, the City Council was stirred to action by a citizens group focused on police accountability and composed of people from the Center for Justice, the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane and others.
The result was an April 2010 ordinance giving the ombudsman power to independently investigate police conduct. After it was passed unanimously by the City Council and signed by the mayor, the Police Guild challenged it. The new power allowed the ombudsman to ask his own questions during internal investigations and issue his own reports regardless of what the chief or mayor said. The union called it an "unfair labor practice." A state arbitrator agreed, and the ombudsman was stripped of that power this summer.
Burns wants it back. "Clearly, I wish we had it. When we had those tools, they benefited us," he says, adding that he never had a reason to use the expanded power in the time he had it. But it's still essential, he says.
Ben Stuckart, who was swept into office as the new council president, is equally adamant that the power should be restored. "Right now, if the ombudsman brings a report to the mayor and the mayor says 'nope' … the investigation gets quashed," he says. "He shouldn't be able to be quashed by anybody. I believe that needs to be brought back into the fold."
"You need that investigatory authority," says Condon, voicing his support. "But I'm open to other ways it's done. On the west side, you have the coroner's inquest. … Is there a hybrid option? Absolutely."
How exactly that power is restored is unclear. Some say it's a matter of going to the Guild during budget negotiations. Others say it will take a change to state law.
But Beggs says it's much simpler. Over the past few weeks, he's been circulating a document he wrote called "Road Map for Reforming Spokane's Police Department." (pdf) In it, he details five points to empower the ombudsman, which include getting the Guild out of the ombudsman selection process and reinstalling the independent investigatory powers.
Every change Beggs suggests can be implemented "by ordinance, amendment to the City Charter and/or administrative policy changes," he writes. "None are required to be bargained for under current Washington public employment laws once the current collective bargaining agreement expires; and, only a few provisions arguably must wait for that expiration."
But one thing is clear, Beggs says: The ombudsman must remain an observer of police activity, not a disciplinarian.
"It's the de-linking of [the ombudsman office] from discipline that's critical," says Beggs. But what good is an ombudsman without discipline? "It's transparency. When you see the same thing happening over and over and over again, then the command staff and the City Council and the mayor can say, 'You know what? We've got to change this.'"
As part of the advocacy group that was instrumental in creating the oversight position, Beggs says the goal was always giving the ombudsman freedom to investigate.
"If the [ombudsman] can't go out and investigate, and really find out what happened, the feedback's less meaningful. And if they can't make recommendations, and do closing reports, it's less meaningful," says Beggs. "And it would be really good if the police union said, 'That's good for us, too. The more people know, the better they like us.' It seems like that should be the attitude."
But the Guild has already expressed its displeasure with a powerful ombudsman, and it continues to do so.
"I don't know if we would agree to do exactly what was done there" with the expansion of the ombudsman's powers, says Detective Ernie Wuthrich, the Guild's president. "I think we can work with the city on something."
Asked for his interpretation of the recent election, Wuthrich says, "The elections turned out like they did just because of the mayor failing in the public opinion. … I think the Otto Zehm case had something to do with her losing the elections."
He agreed that public opinion was also against the Guild, and that Condon used that sentiment to his advantage. "I think that's a fair assessment," Wuthrich says. "We just need to have some time and distance from the negative things that have occurred. It's unfortunate that they had to drag out so long. Five years is a long time."
Condon says he's spoken with Wuthrich and that he's confident they'll have "a good working relationship."
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich wants a camera on his uniform. Everywhere he went, a cell phone-sized machine would record his movements and interactions.
"It would end a lot of controversy," he says.
Burns also says body cameras would do wonders for police reputation. "It will build the trust and respect for the police department. This would be a monumental step in the right direction," he says. "It's like the MasterCard commercial — it's priceless."
Not exactly. As Knezovich points out — and he's crunched the numbers — putting cameras on cops in both the SPD and his agency would cost up to $1.8 million.
In an era of austerity and shrinking municipal budgets, scraping together the money to fund the cameras could be difficult.
"It's a budget risk issue," says Condon. "The issue is the cost. … But I'm looking at this year's budget to see if it is indeed an option. I've talked to the Guild about it." He's also talked about it with Scott Stephens, who will likely become acting chief when Kirkpatrick retires on Jan. 2.
"We are underfunded," says Stuckart. "We can have a problem with process … and we can always do better. But we have 100 fewer cops than Tacoma, which is similarly sized. That affects morale. That affects cops on the street."
Burns says the department can't afford to not buy the cameras.
"On the most basic rudimentary level, this is Risk Management 101," he says. "Video clearly played a significant role in the federal trial that just occurred. … I will aggressively pursue the need for body video cameras. … We cannot move forward without having the body camera."
Spokane doesn't have to look far for examples: The Airway Heights Police Department has been using the cameras for two years.
"They're a really good tool," says Airway Heights Sgt. Robert Swan. "It's an unbiased witness. It's not the officer saying what happened, it's not the person saying what happened."
He says that the cameras have reduced the number of demeanor complaints against his officers — not only do the cops act better, he says, but so do those they're confronting.
"When people are being recorded, they tend to act better, in a different way," Swan says, adding, "Besides, what do you have to hide?"
In the last few years, the city attorney's office has gotten almost as much public scrutiny as the police department.
In fact, asked what reforms she made at the police department during her time in office, Mary Verner included in a written list changes she made to the legal department.
Though she doesn't say so, the changes she made appear to stem from the actions of one assistant city attorney in particular: Rocky Treppiedi.
From her order to "not to automatically file countersuits" to her direction to "not to show up personally at [a] scene of critical incident," Verner was reining in practices attributed to Treppiedi.
During his campaign, Condon repeatedly said he would "immediately" fire Treppiedi when he took office. Once he won, Condon said he had "a lack of confidence in the legal opinions of Rocky. ... It would be very difficult for me to maintain his employment at City Hall knowing what has been made available to me."
Like Verner, Beggs doesn't mention Treppiedi by name, but in his "Road Map" he recommends a big change to legal department by creating an elected city attorney. Currently, Seattle is the only city in the state with such a position.
"The legal department has a huge influence on decision-making at the city," Beggs says. "If it's the voters who are essentially [choosing an attorney] every four years … that's one more check and balance."
Seattle has had an elected city attorney since 1869, when the city was founded. Pete Holmes currently holds the position. Since taking office a couple of years ago, Holmes has not always seen eye to eye with the mayor. He blocked a major transportation initiative — "the deep-bore tunnel" — championed by the mayor. He says he stopped plans to construct a $200 million jail that people had said was unavoidable when he took office.
"It's not unlike how counties elect their prosecutors," Holmes says of his office. "When I charge police officers with assault, the mayor and the council may not agree. But that's one thing I decide."
Current City Attorney Howard Delaney would not give an interview for this article. But through the city's spokeswoman, Marlene Feist, he wrote, "The appointed city attorney answers to the mayor each and every day and can be removed without cause. An elected official — barring an unlikely citizen recall — would be answerable to the public only every four years."
Delaney also questioned who an elected attorney would represent. "The corporate entity of the city as led by the mayor and council (as we do now)? The people directly rather than through their elected representatives (and how would we assess the people's desires)? The opinions of the city attorney him/herself, since he/she would be elected to represent the people?"
But Holmes says it's not that confusing.
"It's having an independent legal officer acting in the best interest of the city, not in alliance with political faction," he says. "We can choose an attorney whose temperament and judgment more closely reflect the will of the voters. Ultimately, that's who we're all beholden to."
Condon says he doesn't have a judgment on the idea yet, other than that it would take some heavy lifting to remake the legal department.
"It would have to be a completely different office. Right now they serve at the pleasure of the mayor," he says. "My first inclination would be no. … But I am a person who thinks a closer connection to the voters is good."
"If nothing else, they certainly should have the debate, they should have that discussion," says Holmes, who added that he's willing to come to speak to Spokane officials about his position. "Maybe it's not the best thing for Spokane, but it's worked great over here."
This summer, in Bainbridge Island Police Guild v. City of Puyallup, the state Supreme Court ruled that internal investigations performed by the state's law enforcement agencies should not be hidden from public view. In the 8-1 decision, four of the eight consenting justices argued that the name of a police officer accused and cleared of any wrongdoing should be redacted, or blacked out, but that the investigation should still be made public. The other four, including Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, said that the full document — including the officer's name — should be released.
According to Feist, the city spokeswoman, SPD has started releasing "releasing redacted unsustained investigatory files in response to public records requests." In other words, all internal investigation files are now public records, a big change from how the city had done things for years.
But, like the body cameras, funding is an issue.
"The Supreme Court said we can do it," says Stuckart. "The problem is there's a huge backlog of reports. It used to be, 'Well, we can't release the report.' Now it's, 'Well, it's going to take three to six months.' That's going to be one of my priorities: how we release reports promptly to the public."
Stuckart says it's primarily an issue of closure and, again, a way to build trust for the police department. When The Inlander looked into this issue more than a year ago, we found that between 2005 and 2009, Spokane police investigated 55 complaints of excessive force. In only one case did internal investigators sustain the allegations. The other 54 files were sealed from public view. No one could see if the police thoroughly investigated their own. Now we can.
When Anne Kirkpatrick announced she was retiring Jan. 2 — along with her assistant chief, Jim Nicks — Sheriff Knezovich quickly came forward with a solution. He'll take over.
"We share the same building. We share the same records. We share the same property room. We share forensics," he says. "Really the only thing we haven't combined is doing business together."
Knezovich, long an advocate for regionalizing law enforcement, points to Louisville, Las Vegas and Indianapolis as urban areas that combined law enforcement services successfully.
In Louisville's case, the merger of the Jefferson County Police Department and the Louisville Division of Police in 2003 was done in an effort to create cheaper, more efficient service. Recently, the city's been ranked as one of the safest, large cities in America.
"If you take a look at it, nationally this is a trend," Knezovich says, adding that it also happens closer to home. "King County has 18 contracts [to provide law enforcement]. Here locally we have contracts with everywhere but Cheney, Airway Heights, Liberty Lake and [Spokane]. It's not a foreign concept in the state nor here in the city."
Condon didn't rule out the sheriff's offer. But he added that he was looking at every option available to him.
Verner says she looked into regionalizing police forces when she first came to office but that it hasn't been "thoroughly analyzed."
She added that a recent report conducted by an Eastern Washington University professor showed no cost savings by regionalizing services — one of Knezovich's main talking points on the matter.
"More troubling to me is that [the] sheriff's office is a partisan elected office," Verner says in an email. "Sheriff Knezovich, to retain his job, engages in party politics. [We need the] head of law enforcement to be nonpartisan and focused on serving all citizens equally through improvements to the department."
Knezovich, a Republican, says that the voters keep him accountable, but he agrees that it's problematic for sheriffs to hold a partisan position.
"Quite frankly, most sheriffs would want that changed. The last time sheriffs brought this up internally [about four years ago], 36 of 39 sheriffs voted to change it."
Don Pierce heads the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. He's friends with "Ozzie" and "Anne." And he's hopeful about Spokane.
"It's a time of renewal in a sense that there's a new mayor who will chart a course for the city, including the police department," he says. "The most important decision the mayor will make, at least in the first couple of years, is who he will choose to lead the police department."
Pierce doesn't fault Kirkpatrick — not for the announcement, early in her tenure, that she would only be in Spokane for five years, nor for the handling of the Zehm case.
"Anne accomplished a lot of things. I think she did a phenomenal job," he says. "She tried to [reform the police department], but she had the pall of Otto Zehm hanging over her."
Condon says Verner launched a nationwide search for a chief, and that he will likely keep Scott Stephens on as his acting chief.
According to a police department newsletter, Stephens has been with the force since 1984, when he first became a cop. He has worked in many divisions on the force, including explosive disposal, the drug unit, major crimes and internal affairs. He became a major in 2009 and has overseen various divisions of the department.
Condon wouldn't share any information regarding his search for the next chief other than to say all options are on the table.
When he created his "Road Map," Beggs saw it as a policy document outlining steps officials can take to reform the police department. At the same time, he also penned a "Public Safety Bill of Rights," (pdf) a hedge against failure by these public officials.
It details the same goals his "Road Map" does — strengthening the ombudsman, an elected city attorney, restricting Taser use by officers, updating the department's "use of force" policy, and more — but in the form of changes to the city's charter.
This "Bill of Rights" could be put on the ballot and voted on by the people, circumventing the Guild, the mayor and the City Council.
Beggs sees many ways to reform the police department. But not everyone is as hopeful about the future of Spokane.
Tim Connor's office is on the top floor of the Community Building — the epicenter for progressive activism in Spokane. With graying hair, he looks a bit like a less-angular version of Vice President Joe Biden.
More than 30 years ago, in June 1981, Connor wrote an article in the now-defunct Spokane Magazine called "Violent Cops?" Written when Otto Zehm was only 12 years old, the article argued that there was "a cadre, a small minority of cops getting excessive force complaints, but the police department was uninterested in doing anything about it."
He really hasn't seen anything change since then, he says. He helped build the ombudsman's office, only to see its powers watered down. He remembers having lunch with Verner early in her term as mayor. "As soon I started talking about cops, she turned off," he says. "She just looked down at her food."
His frustration and despondency are palpable. Asked what can be done now to reform the police department, or to strengthen the ombudsman's office, he doesn't offer an answer.
"We've lost the things that he needs to be a credible police ombudsman," Connor says. "Another question is: Does it matter?"
He says the request to the Justice Department to investigate the police department "is evidence that we, as a community, haven't been able to fix our own problems." The request, made by Verner and supported by Condon, has not yet received a response from the federal government, and some speculate it could be months, even years, before any movement is made.
After decades of watching police conduct, Connor says he realizes it's a problem in the culture of the police department. He calls it a "cancer of deception."
"What Zehm showed, how police acted on the stand, how police acted in the courtroom [saluting Thompson when he was taken away in handcuffs]. We saw that and said, 'This is deeper than we thought,'" he says. "They are resistant to accept any accountability. Solidarity is more important than what the public thinks, than the criminal justice system."
Since he wrote his articles in 1981, Connor has watched 10 mayors come and go at City Hall. The new year will see a new mayor installed.
But late Thursday, incoming Mayor Condon announced the members of his transition teams, the people who will help him define his policies at City Hall. The questions for his "Public Safety" team include how he should pick a new chief, if a regional policing model is appropriate for Spokane, how best to oversee the police and how other cities have reformed their departments.
At the end of the list of Condon's "Public Safety" team, alongside the names of former Spokane Police Chief Roger Bragdon and former U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt, is a name that might have once surprised Connor: his own.
As the mix on Condon's task forces underscores, it's going to take people from different points of view to create lasting change within the police department.
"People have gone to the extremes of either side: All the cops are bad, or all the cops are good," says Stuckart. "We need to find common ground, where we all can agree."


The developer behind a third residential development—this time a subdivision—proposed for the west side of North Phillips Avenue in Speonk is close to securing final approval from Southampton Town.
Unlike two other similar projects proposed in the same corridor—a pair of apartment complexes that would require zoning changes—the 13-lot Serenity Estates subdivision is being developed as of right at 95 North Phillips Avenue, according to town records.
Plans, which have been in the works for years, call for the building of 13 luxury six-bedroom homes on 16 acres that will also feature swimming pools and tennis courts, according to Manhattan developer Barry Bernstein. The units are expected to sell for between $1.5 million and $2 million, he added.
Mr. Bernstein said this week that he received approval to move forward with the project last summer, though Southampton Town Planning and Development Administrator Kyle Collins stated that additional conditions first need to be met before the developer can break ground on the new subdivision. Those conditions, according to Mr. Collins, include fairly routine requirements, such as easement approval, a review by the town attorney's office, and the securing of a bond for a new road.
Once Mr. Bernstein meets those conditions, the town will finalize the site plan maps, and he can proceed with securing final approval from Suffolk County, Mr. Collins added.
Mr. Bernstein, who originally wanted to build 60 condominiums on the property, said he intends to begin construction on the subdivision by this spring. Prior to settling on the homes, which, like the proposed apartments, will also be built above an estimated two-mile-long solvent plume, Mr. Bernstein had pitched another development, this time seeking to build 36 condominiums on the land.
That project, which was rejected by the Town Board due to its density, would have required special zoning called a planned development district. One of the two apartment complexes currently being proposed, with the support of the Southampton Town Housing Authority, would require the same zoning change.
In response to concerns about the plume, Mr. Bernstein said the houses will feature vapor barriers that will prevent volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, from potentially entering the structures. The homes will also be connected to public water, he added.


It is difficult to keep up with rapidly changing economic policies in China. Jamil Anderlini's column on a key player in this unfolding drama is a must-read. Here is an excerpt. Click on the link below to read the full article (free registration required).
In the early 1980s, a promising PhD student from a prominent political family caught the eye of China's most senior Communist leaders by urging them to lift price controls and allow imports of televisions.
Three decades later Zhou Xiaochuan, China's longest-serving central bank governor, is still convincing the country's authoritarian leaders of the merits of economic reform. In persuading them this week to devalue the currency, he may have pulled off the crowning achievement of his long career — by preparing the way for a free-floating renminbi that can challenge the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.
Jamil Anderlini, "Zhou Xiaochuan, Beijing's central radical banker", Financial Times, 15 August 2015 (metered paywall).
Zhou Xiaochuan (born 1948) received a PhD in Automation and System Engineering from Tsinghua University in 1985. He became governor of the People's Bank of China in December 2002.
Jamil Anderlini is chief of the FT's Beijing bureau.
FT columnist Martin Sandbu argues that democracy is compatible with monetary union, even though the eurozone elite believes it is not.
In Greece, opinion polls have been remarkably consistent about two things: most Greeks want to keep the euro as their currency, and most also reject the policies imposed by the creditor institution ….
Yet untold numbers of independent observers have uncritically bought into the "no alternative" [to austerity] rhetoric, without realising that if true, it is a terrible indictment of monetary union. The euro's goal was to smooth cross-border trade and investment and reinforce the political bonds that prevent a return to past enmities. It was not to remove any choice over the economic models under which different nations wish to live.
The fact that alternatives exist is cause for relief, but also for despair. By pretending they do not — and in Greece, trying to make this true by closing down the banking system rather than forcing its restructuring — Europe betrays its own values. One of the most precious was articulated by Voltaire: to defend someone's right to express, and to live by, a view one deeply disagrees with.
Martin Sandbu, "Democracy at the heart of fight for Greece", Financial Times, 10 August 2015 (metered paywall).
One alternative is for Greece to default on its debt, while keeping the euro as its currency. Defaults on municipal bonds are common within at least one large currency union – the United States of America. None of these sub-national governments have been expelled from the US dollar monetary union. Similarly, Greece might conceivably pursue lax fiscal policy, default on some portion of its public debt, and pay a price in terms of higher interest rates on bonds it issues in the future. There is no reason for yields on Greek debt be the same as yields on German debt simply because the two countries happen to be in the same monetary union.
FT columnist Wolfgang Münchau thinks that Grexit -a Greek exit from the eurozone- will eventually happen. The cost, however, will be extremely high because Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras dismissed his finance minister at the worst possible moment.
[Alexis Tsipras] should never have hired Yanis Varoufakis as his finance minister. Or he should have listened to him, and kept him on. But instead the Greek prime minister chose the worst of all options. He followed Mr Varoufakis' advice of rejecting the offer of the creditors — until last week. But having done this, Mr Tsipras committed a critical error by rejecting Mr Varoufakis' plan B for the moment when the country's banks closed down: the immediate introduction of a parallel currency — IOUs issues by the Greek state but denominated in euros. A parallel currency would have allowed the Greeks to pay for their daily transactions when cash withdrawals were limited to €60 a day. A total economic collapse would have been avoided.
But Mr Tsipras did not go for this, or indeed any other plan B. Instead he capitulated … [by accepting] another very lousy bailout deal. ….
Can Mr Tsipras still avert disaster? If there is a snap election in the autumn, he might well win it and then revive Mr Varoufakis' parallel currency idea at some point. But I think the parallel currency moment has gone with the man. My hunch is that Mr Tsipras will run a rabble-rousing political campaign, with a lot of rhetoric against the creditors but then agree to whatever the creditors are demanding, and follow the programme to its dramatic climax.
Wolfgang Münchau, "Grexit remains the likely outcome of this sorry process", Financial Times, 20 July 2015 (metered paywall).
Two FT columnists offer very different views on the deal agreed upon by government leaders on Monday, at 6am, following 17 hours of heated discussions. Who capitulated, Greece or Germany? Martin Sandbu supports the prevailing wisdom (capitulation of Greece). Gideon Rachman argues that it was Germany who capitulated.
At least Alexis Tsipras avoided having to send Greece's fairest one hundred maidens in tribute to Berlin. Apart from that, the Greek prime minister has had to concede on pretty much everything the other members of the euro demanded. ….
Greece capitulated because the European Central Bank forced it to do so. In flagrant defiance of its treaty obligation to support the general economic policy of the eurozone — which includes since June 2012 a requirement to separate the health of the banking system from the solvency of sovereigns — the ECB forced a shutdown of the Greek banking system and made clear it would only let it function again once a deal on sovereign finances had been struck.
Martin Sandbu, "Three unedifying lessons of the Greek deal", Financial Times online, 13 July 2014 (metered paywall).
Europe woke up on Monday to a lot of headlines about the humiliation of Greece, the triumph of an all-powerful Germany and the subversion of democracy in Europe.
What nonsense. If anybody has capitulated, it is Germany. The German government has just agreed, in principle, to another multibillion-euro bailout of Greece — the third so far. In return, it has received promises of economic reform from a Greek government that makes it clear that it profoundly disagrees with everything that it has just agreed to. The Syriza government will clearly do all it can to thwart the deal it has just signed. If that is a German victory, I would hate to see a defeat. ….
[O]rdinary Germans, Dutch, Finns and others … have every right to feel aggrieved. When they joined the euro, they were told that there was a "no bailout" clause in the treaty setting up the single currency. That was meant to reassure taxpayers that they would never have to pay the bills of other eurozone countries.
Gideon Rachman, "Germany's conditional surrender", Financial Times online, 13 July 2015 (metered paywall).
My own feeling is that the entire eurozone will suffer from the fallout of this crisis. The dream of a single European currency – the euro – is in danger. The euro from the beginning was a political project that made no economic sense. Without political will, the project is doomed to fail.
It is not at all clear whether Greece's latest offer will be accepted, or rejected. FT columnist Wolfgang Münchau explains.
Alexis Tsipras has achieved something that has eluded him in the past five months: he has managed to split the creditors. The International Monetary Fund insists on debt relief. The French helped the Greek prime minister draft the proposal and were the first to support it openly. ….
What he [Alexis Tsipras] is now proposing is, economically, not fundamentally different from what he, and the Greek electorate, rejected in Sunday's referendum — but it works politically for him. ….
The Dutch, like the Germans, are extremely hostile. Would the Finnish accept a third programme? The Baltics? The Slovaks? ….
Both her [Angela Merkel's] own Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic party, part of the governing grand coalition, would prefer Grexit. A deal would be very hard to sell for both of them.
Wolfgang Münchau, "Do not take this deal for granted — if Greece's creditors want it to fail, they will find a way", Financial Times, 10 July 2015 (metered paywall).
An additional problem, Mr Münchau notes, is that the Greek economy is in worse shape now than it was two weeks ago. Banks are insolvent. Capital controls and withdrawal limits have caused most economic activity to grind to a halt.
Oxford economist Simon Wren-Lewis writes that Greece's post-2008 experience illustrates what – for mainstream economists – is obvious: austerity is bad for growth.
[Germany has] created a fantasy story about Greece. … an image of Greeks as a privileged and lazy people ….
So powerful has this fantasy become, it is now driving German policy (and policy in a few other countries as well) in totally irrational ways. In particular, Germany refuses to discuss debt relief with Greece, yet seems quite happy to see Greece leave the Eurozone, the inevitable consequence of which would be that Greece would obtain much greater debt relief through default. …. What is driving Germany's desperate need to rid itself of the Greek problem?
One possible answer is that Germany finds the truth about Greece too upsetting, too challenging. …. For many outside Germany what has happened to Greece as a result is hardly surprising: austerity is contractionary, and austerity on steroids is ruinous. Yet Germany is a country where the ideas of Keynes, and therefore mainstream macroeconomics in the rest of the world, are considered profoundly wrong and are described as 'Anglo-Saxon economics'. Greece then becomes a kind of experiment to see which is right: the German view, or 'Anglo-Saxon economics'.
The results of the experiment are not to Germany's liking. Just as 'Anglo-Saxon economics' would have predicted, the results for Greece under the Troika have been a disaster.
Simon Wren-Lewis, "Why Germany wants rid of Greece", Mainly Macro, 7 July 2015.
"Mainstream" ("Anglo-Saxon") macroeconomics is neither radical nor new. It goes back to Irving Fisher and JM Keynes in the 1930s, and Milton Friedman in the 1950s. Today, it is standard textbook economics, taught in most of the world to undergraduates in first-year and intermediate courses.
In Berlin, the belief is hardening in official circles that no deal can be reached with a government led by Mr [Alexis] Tsipras [the Greek prime minister]. …. The talk … is not about compromise, but about how to organise post-Grexit humanitarian relief. The idea that Greece would remain in the euro is considered somewhat quaint. ….
My overall conclusion is that if Grexit were to happen, it would happen by stealth. The Tsipras administration one day introduces a euro-denominated liquidity instrument. If the banking system deteriorates further, the government will have to print so many of the new IOUs that they would change hands on the grey market for a discount. Eventually, the central bank will control the supply of that shadow currency. It may never become legal tender, but if there are not enough euros in circulation, it will become Greece's de facto currency.
Wolfgang Münchau, "A stealthy route to Grexit", Financial Times, 7 July 2015.
German journalist Wolfgang Münchau (born 1961) is is a co-founder and director of Eurointelligence, an internet-based service for financial news and analysis of the euro area.
Don't expect changes, writes FT columnist Tony Barber.
August 1914 was a descent into hell. May 1945 was an escape from hell. July 2015, the month of a surreal Greek referendum that had no clear question and an answer whose meaning is disputable, will go down in history as a continuation of hell — for Greece, and for Europe. ….
Mr Tsipras and his ruling Syriza party were too cunning to phrase the referendum question as "in or out of the euro", a wording that would have permitted Greeks to understand that what was really at stake was their modern European identity. As a result, the outcome does not resolve the fundamental conundrum: that most Greeks want to stay in the eurozone but detest the austerity that has bled them dry since 2010.
Tony Barber, "No vote widens fissures in society knocked senseless by slump", Financial Times, 6 July 2015 (metered paywall).


This fish is normally traded as A. nigropterus or A. cf. ansorgii although neither appears to be its correct name meaning it remains unidentified at present.
A. nigropterus is a valid congener that is not in the aquarium trade with little to no export from Lake Mai-Ndombe, to which it is endemic, while A. ansorgii is a synonym of Nannopetersius ansorgii.
This species is sometimes traded as 'cherry red Congo tetra' or 'super red Congo tetra' and has also been referred to using the misapplied names Alestopetersius nigropterus (a valid congener) and A. ansorgii (a synonym of Nannopetersius ansorgii).
This species appears to be restricted to the Imo and Niger drainages in Nigeria but the full extent of its distribution is unclear.
Type locality is 'Aba, Lower Niger, Nigeria', corresponding to the city of Aba in Abia state, southern Nigeria which lies on the Aba River, a tributary of the Imo.
This species is sometimes referred to as 'Sierra Leone dwarf characin' and is the only member of its genus which can be distinguished from other alestids by lacking dorsal scales anterior to the adipose-fin insertion.
Not imported all that often, this species seems to ship quite poorly. Once acclimatised, it usually proves quite hardy. A big shoal of adults can look stunning in the right setting.
This species is also traded as 'yellow-finned', 'yellowtail' or 'blue Congo' tetra and is occasionally bred on a commercial basis, although not on a scale comparable to its better-known relative Phenacogrammus interruptus.
Endemic to Nigeria, where it occurs in the Ogun and lower Niger river systems. Despite its popularity in the aquarium hobby it's relatively scarce in the wild and is known from less than 10 localities, all lying in an area where deforestation and pollution are uncontrolled and continue to occur extensively.


BEAUTIFUL LAKE FRONT HOME! has much to offer - 2x6 Construction, 1.6 acres, w/city water & sewer, open floor plan has high ceiling, 2 way floor to ceiling stone fireplace. 1st floor Master w/large bath jaczzi tub and shower, 2nd floor ensuite & two addl' bdrms that share a bath all nice size. Lovely kitchen has staggered height cabinets, herb window & double wall oven. Doorwall in dining area leads to the deck w/view of 1.60 acres & 371' of waterfront. W/O basement adds addl' 1,700 sq ft living space, 3 car garage, leads to circular drive for easy access in & out of home. Wonderfully conveient location all paved roads. Safety path in front connects to downtown Oxford & miles of the Polly Ann Trail. Quiet & safe lake for kayak, paddle or electricmotor boating. Much nature to see w/good fishing year around, 14' aluminum rowboat included. Over 25 mature trees create a serene area for wildlife. 1.60 acres made up by 2 sep. property ID #'s, giving the SEV $206,140. Home Warranty included!


D.2.1)Cheque Return (Inward) For Financial Reasons Rs.500/- (For first incident)*Additional Rs.100/- is to be recovered for any progressive recurrence, during a quarter. For example, second return incident Rs.600/-, third Rs.700/- and so on. Rs.500- (For first incident)*Additional Rs.100/- is to be recovered for any progressive recurrence, during a quarter. For example, second return incident Rs.600/-, third Rs.700/- and so on.
D.5) ECS Debit Returned (Inward) Rs.500- (For first incident)*Additional Rs.100/- is to be recovered for any progressive recurrence, during a quarter. For example, second return incident Rs.600/-, third Rs.700/- and so on. Rs.500- (For first incident)*Additional Rs.100/- is to be recovered for any progressive recurrence, during a quarter. For example, second return incident Rs.600/-, third Rs.700/- and so on.