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text:
Revulsion and Reverence: Crocodiles in Singapore
Crocodiles elicit fear and respect by turns – and occasionally, even indifference. Kate Pocklington and Siddharta Perez document reptilian encounters at specific times in Singapore's history and their impact on the human psyche.
On 6 November 2017, the National Sailing Centre suspended all water-based activities in the sea off East Coast Park for four days after an estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) – also known as the saltwater crocodile – was spotted in the waters there.1 This was one of five reported crocodile sightings in 2017, drawing both media and public attention to this elusive reptile that inhabits the rivers, reservoirs and seas around Singapore.2
(Left) Crocodiles were hunted down during the colonial period in exchange for rewards from the authorities. Villagers posing with a captured crocodile, c.1910. Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.
(Right) A Malay boy sitting on a captured crocodile sometime in the 1920s. Lim Kheng Chye Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore
Crocodiles have always been native to Singapore, but their numbers have dropped drastically due to unbridled hunting as well as destruction of their natural habitats throughout Singapore's modern history. In their search for new habitats, these reptiles have often strayed into urban areas.
One of the early documented crocodile encounters in a public space took place in 1906 at the Swimming Club at Tanjong Katong. The reptile was seen sunning itself on the club's diving platform when someone took a shot at the creature, prompting it to flee in haste.3 The most recent recorded sighting to cause a media flurry occurred in January 2018 at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, where a crocodile was seen basking under the sun on a path cutting through the forest.4
In colonial times, crocodiles were often caught and taken to police stations as bounty.5 These days, however, the Public Utilities Board is more likely to receive calls from an anxious member of the public whenever crocodile sightings occur in water bodies or outside the perimeters of public spaces under the purview of the National Parks Board. The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) too receives its share of calls to assist in the rescue and relocation of wildlife that have strayed into public spaces.
Reptilian Encounters
Not surprisingly, sightings of crocodiles in urban Singapore are treated as freak occurrences.
Mistaken identity aside,6 media reports of crocodile sightings raise alarm and strike fear in people's hearts about the invasion of such large reptiles into public recreational spaces.
Such sensational media reporting is based on the premise that people are more comfortable appreciating crocodiles from a safe distance – confined in public spaces such as zoos and farms.7 Those who grew up in the 1980s and 90s would remember two such attractions that promised the thrill of being "up close and personal" with crocodiles.
The Singapore Crocodilarium at East Coast Park opened in 1981. The crocodile farm had an
open-air pool and a sand pit for the crocodiles to rest. Image reproduced from The Straits Times, 20 January 1980, p. 9.
The Singapore Crocodilarium at East Coast Parkway and Jurong Reptile and Crocodile Paradise, which opened in 1981 and 1988 respectively, bred crocodiles and staged performances that attracted large crowds. Stuntmen would risk life and limb as they wrestled with the reptiles as a form of entertainment.8
In 1989, Winoto, the chief trainer at the Jurong Reptile and Crocodile Paradise, had part of his left cheek torn off by a female crocodile named after the American wrestler Hulk Hogan. Winoto survived the attack but ended up with 10 stitches on his face.9 The two parks closed in the early 2000s due to dwindling visitor numbers, and as other, more contemporary, attractions in Singapore took their place.10
A poster from the Crocodile Paradise at Jurong advertising its performances with crocodiles.
Nevertheless, the island continues to host crocodiles in the wild, approximately 20 are known to be residents of the mangrove habitats of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Today, with over 90 percent of Singapore's mangrove ecosystem destroyed, the reserve encompasses the largest mangrove forest – at 1.17 sq km11 – left on the island.
Although Sungei Buloh's mangrove forest makes up a mere 1.5 percent of the country's original mangrove mass, it remains, by default, the preferred habitat of the crocodile. Urban encroachment on mangrove areas has literally squeezed the population of crocodiles into the Johor Straits, and subsequently, into this tiny patch of wetland reserve in the remote northwest of the island.
In 2010, it was reported that "these [mangrove] patches have regenerated well as they are generally isolated from intrusive anthropogenic influences"12 – in other words, relatively free from human intrusion. Such stable environments provide for a healthy ecosystem where a natural equilibrium is maintained and supports a biodiversity that includes crocodiles in their natural environment. The tussle for space in land-scarce Singapore for urban development and nature represents just the tip of the iceberg in understanding how humans co-exist with crocodiles in Singapore. Sightings of crocodiles may elicit fear, shock, surprise, amusement or even indifference whenever they are reported in the media.
Using specific time periods such as 1960 and 1977 as markers, the empirical collection and study of data for the research project Buaya: The Making of a Non-Myth threw up interesting findings. The project revealed different reactions to the crocodile that are intertwined and layered with the cultures and experiences of different communities throughout time and history in Singapore.
Buaya: The Making of a Non-Myth
Launched in October 2016, Buaya: The Making of a Non-Myth is a research project held in the "prep-room" of NUS Museum. Revolving around ideas of the estuarine crocodile in Singapore, the project provides a platform for presentations of research projects and interpretations by professionals in the fields of natural history, arts and cultural studies.
The Buaya project is part of natural history conservator Kate Pocklington's on-going research into the estuarine crocodile in Singapore, prompted by her conservation of a century-old specimen for permanent display at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in 2013.
The Buaya project maps over 380 present and historic records of crocodiles in Singapore in response to the 1996 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report which assessed these animals to be "regionally extinct" in Singapore.
1960: The Year of the Crocodile
In the post-colonial years, with Singapore facing an uncertain future, people living in some parts of the island were faced with the presence of crocodiles. The range of emotions and reactions these crocodile sightings elicited in people is quite fascinating.
In 1960, 31-year-old clerk Chew Kok Lee, along with a group of fishermen from a nearby village, carried out an all-night vigil in Punggol to hunt down a 20- to 25-foot-long crocodile that had been terrorising fishermen in the area for some time.13
Fifteen-year-old Goh Koon Seng recounted that he was wading out to sea to help his father haul in the day's catch when he spotted something sinister in the water:
"A long black thing surfaced. I did not pay much attention at first. I thought it was a log. There are so many floating around here. Then its mouth opened. I screamed and turned back. As I got out of the water I heard a splash, looked back and saw the crocodile's tail submerging."14
Although Chew and his band of hunters managed to fire their shotguns at the reptile, these could have merely "just tickled it" because the same crocodile returned a week later with his mate in tow; the latter "about 25 feet long and weighing about 600 lb" but white in colour, according to one eyewitness.15
Meanwhile, that same year, in Sungei Kadut in the north of Singapore, a live 20-foot-long crocodile was viewed in a completely different light by residents of the area: here the villagers regarded the crocodile as sacred, revering it as a kramat.16 This particular reptile was covered in barnacles and regularly basked on a sand bank. Fishermen would say a silent prayer whenever they spotted the creature.
Residents were so protective of the creature that they would not disclose its location to anyone, believing that harm would befall the fishermen if the sacred crocodile moved to another site. Teo Boon Chin, who had lived in the area for over 20 years, indicated the area where the crocodile made its home with "a sweep of his arm" when he was interviewed by a newspaper in March 1960. "We know the home of the kramat, but are not supposed to tell it to anyone," he cautioned.
Another villager in Sungei Kadut by the name of Ah Lim, who had seen the crocodile "float on the river or laze about in the nearby mangrove swamp", added, "It is the guardian of our river and the protector of our fishermen."17
In the same year, on the southern shore of the island, villagers in Berlayer Creek in Pasir Panjang dealt with the presence of crocodiles "some of which four to five feet long" in the canal in quite the opposite manner: they held a feast in honour of their local kramat and invited a pawang (medicine man) to "scare away" the crocodiles infesting the river.18 Che Zainai Kubor, one of the villagers said, "It is not possible for human beings to stop crocodile breeding, but probably our kramat can."
These crocodile encounters evoked reactions in people ranging from bravado to reverence and respect, and fear. But there were also some who regarded the existence of crocodiles with complete indifference.
In August 1960, for instance, a crocodile suspected of escaping from a crocodile farm in Serangoon Garden Estate made itself at home in an unused water hyacinth pond at nearby Vaughan Road. The creature was described as having a tendency to submerge itself whenever people looked at it. When a newspaper headline in The Singapore Free Press pronounced that a "Shy croc in flower pond spreads fear among kampong folk", a long-time resident in the area, Lim Poon Guan, said, matter-of-factly, that finding "a crocodile in a pond here" came as no surprise to him at all.19
Early Records of the Crocodile
Crocodile records in Singapore go back to the early days of its colonial history. The earliest documented encounter of a crocodile in Singapore is found in the autobiography of Malacca-born Munshi Abdullah, who was employed by Stamford Raffles as a scribe and interpreter. Hikayat Abdullah, published in 1849, documents an incident about William Farquhar when he was Resident of Singapore between 1819 and 1823.
Farquhar's dog had playfully waded into the "Rochore River" when it was suddenly seized by a gigantic crocodile measuring at least "3 fathoms" (5.5 metres). In anger, Farquhar ordered for the river to be barricaded and the crocodile speared to death. Its carcass was later hung on a fig tree by the "Beras Basah River" for all to see.20
Although Munshi Abdullah claimed that the attack on Farquhar's dog was the first time people knew of crocodiles in Singapore, a text predating the Hikayat Abdullah disputes this.
One of the accounts in Hikayat Hang Tuah, a Malay text written between 1641 and 1739, tells the story of the legendary white crocodile and the Raja of Malacca. One day, the raja, or king, was on board his vessel bound for Singapore when his crown fell into the sea. When he asked for the crown to be salvaged from the water, none of his men stepped forward, knowing full well that the Straits of Singapura (the Straits of Johor today) was "infested with man-eating crocodiles".
A high-ranking Laksamana (or admiral), most likely Hang Tuah himself, courageously stepped forward to carry out the raja's bidding. Valiantly, he dove into the water to retrieve the crown, but when he resurfaced, a white crocodile appeared and clamped its jaws onto his keris, a traditional bladed weapon that is said to be imbued with spirits and energies.
In the ensuing struggle with the crocodile, the raja's crown slipped from the Laksamana's grasp. He managed to grab the tail of the crocodile, but was pulled deeper underwater, forcing him to let go of the reptile. Although the Laksamana's precious keris was lost, the crown, fortunately, was safely retrieved. Perceiving this entire incident as an ill omen, the raja ordered his fleet of ships to turn back to Malacca at once.21
Of Dogs and Crocs
William Farquhar's dog was not the only casualty that fell prey to crocodiles. In August 1907, people who had mysteriously lost their pet dogs in the "past few years" were told to contact the taxidermist at Middle Road to ascertain whether four dog collars retrieved from the stomach of a crocodile shot in the Punggol River belonged to them. The carcass was being prepared to be sent to England when the discovery was made.
Discovery in a crocodile's stomach. (1907, August 13). The Straits Times, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
1977: The Year of the White Crocodile
In 1977, a group of plucky Venture Sea Scouts set out to capture a white crocodile22 that was said to inhabit Pulau Sarimbun in the northwest coast of Singapore. Newspaper reports on this expedition were published on 2 May, 30 April, 13 June and 25 June 1977.23
These scouts were following up on an unrecorded sighting of a white crocodile by another group of Venture Sea Scouts five years earlier.24 Recalling the incident, Cheong Ah Sang said that his group of 12 scouts had "caught a glimpse of the white crocodile in 1972". Determined to trap it, he decided to lead a team of 32 scouts on a quest to search for the reportedly 13-foot-long reptile.
Venture Sea Scouts getting ready for one of their expeditions in search of the white crocodile at Pulau Sarimbun in April 1977. The expedition was led by Cheong Ah Sang. Image reproduced from The Straits Times, 30 April 1977, p. 2.
On 30 April 1977, The New Nation reported that Cheong's group embarked on a three-day expedition using 11 canoes and were escorted by a nine-metre whaler. He told the reporter:
"We hope to come across the white crocodile hopefully around Sarimbun Island. We may use a net with a stick and a rope to trap it or we may bait it with chicken and fish."25
In venturing into the waters of the Straits of Johor where Pulau Sarimbun is located, these young adventurers were returning full circle to the historic Hang Tuah's encounter with the white crocodile. Cheong's expedition, however, failed in its bid to capture the crocodile.
According to the Hikayat Hang Tuah, "only the pure of heart can see the white crocodile". Taking this advice to heart, another group of scouts led by Paul Wee prepared for the hunt by vowing to fast and refrain from consuming pork. They had earlier revealed their intention to donate the captured animal to the zoo. However, after two failed attempts, the scouts were ordered to call off the hunt by the Chief Commissioner's Office.26
Pet Crocs
Interestingly, crocodiles were also kept as pets or bred in the backyard of houses in Singapore. In 1948, it was possible to buy a live baby crocodile for as little as 25 to 40 Malayan dollars, and if the customer so desired, have the reptile killed and skinned, and made into a pair of custom-made shoes.27
A baby crocodile was exported from Singapore to the London Zoo in 1936. Here, the crocodile is being fed his first morsel of meat from a pair of forceps at the zoo. Image reproduced from The Malaya Tribune, 29 December 1936, p. 11.
Keeping crocodiles as pets could sometimes lead to peculiar and troublesome consequences.
In 1899, a 70-yard "menagerie race" took place in which a "young crocodile driven by Captain Lucy" competed against a goose, a goat, a monkey and two donkeys (the crocodile did not win the race). 28
In the late 1800s, the pet crocodile of a Captain Gamble that became too big as an adult was released into the Botanic Gardens Lake only to later bite one of the gardeners. In order to capture the crocodile, the lake had to be drained and poisoned with tuba roots, unfortunately killing every living thing residing in the waters. The crocodile, however, was nowhere to be found, the creature having presumably left the confines of the freshwater lake.29
The Crocodile Lives On
Leaving the sightings of the elusive white crocodile aside, it is worth examining early maps of Singapore and drawing logical connections between the names of the surrounding islands and their geography. 30 Place names can be a useful key in identifying local terrain, and can indicate the presence of certain species of animals.
The names Pulau Buaya (near Jurong Island) and Alligator Island (Pulau Pawai today), which appear off the southwestern coast of Singapore on maps dating back to the early 1800s, suggest the presence of crocodile populations (as well as abundant mangrove habitats) at some point in the islands' history. These indicators, along with references in the Hikayat Hang Tuah, imply that from north to south, Singapore was once home to a sizeable population of crocodiles.
While the white crocodile remains an elusive mystery, there is a local lore about such a creature appearing in the Kallang River every 20 years. Although no actual encounters of white crocodiles have been recorded at the river, the reptile still looms large in the public imagination.
News reports and public records on crocodile sightings in Singapore over the last 200 years have enabled us to pinpoint the physical locations of these reptiles on the island as well as track encounters that have taken place between crocodiles and humans.
A map showing the historic distribution of the saltwater crocodile population in Singapore between 1819 and 2016. This was specially created for the research project, Buaya: The Making of a Non-Myth, by NUS Museum. Courtesy of NUS Museum.
The idea of "public space" is frequently challenged in the various encounters between humans and crocodiles in this article. The natural human tendency is to react negatively, from shutting down activities in parks and water-based clubs to draining and poisoning lakes. The public spaces developed for encounters with crocodiles question the notion of for whom or for what they were controlled for – zoos and marine parks are regulated spaces that allow encounters (or "non-encounters" in reality) with crocodiles within a safe setting for humans, while reserves are spaces controlled for the mobility of wildlife. Yet, the making of these spaces is constantly reconfigured when crocodile sightings take place. In the myriad encounters with these reptiles, whether from actual documentation or from cultural memory, the crocodile's existence still escapes being understood in public history.
Lim, M.Z. (2017, November 9). Water training will resume on Friday, with no further crocodile sightings: S'pore Sailing Federation. The Straits Times. Retrieved from The Straits Times website.
Lee, M.K. (2017, August 24). Warning signs put up at Changi Beach Park after crocodile sighting. The Straits Times. Retrieved from The Straits Times website; Tan, A. (2017, August 8). Crocodiles spotted in north-eastern Singapore. The Straits Times. Retrieved from The Straits Times website. [Note: One of these sightings involved the death of a 1.5-metre-long crocodile which was hit by a car at Kranji. See Wild crocodile dies from injuries after accident along Kranji Way. (2017, June 6). The Straits Times. Retrieved from The Straits Times website.]
A "croc" at the swimming club. (1906, May 15). Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, p. 2. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Lam, L. (2018, January 22). NParks to extend barricade to pathway where crocodile was spotted at Sungei Buloh. The Straits Times. Retrieved from The Straits Times website.
Untitled. (1856, December 16). The Straits Times, p. 5; Thursday, 25th August. (1870, August 27). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
When seen from afar, monitor lizards have been mistaken as crocodiles due to their similar shape and colouration. Unlike monitor lizards, crocodiles do not have a forked tongue. See It was just a harmless lizard… (1957, January 27). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Richards, A. (1960, April 6). Flirting with danger in croc farm. The Singapore Free Press, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Page 10 Advertisements Column 1. (1981, March 22). The Straits Times, p. 10; Chia, M. (1988, September 4). Croc park to open soon in Jurong. The Straits Times, p. 12; Goh, K. (1988, December 15). A big bite of the business. The New Paper, p. 18. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Lim, S. (1989, March 7). Croc bites trainer during show. The Straits Times, p. 18. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Paradise lost. (2007, January 26). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Yee, A.T.K., et al. (2010, June 4). The present extent of mangrove forests in Singapore. Nature in Singapore, 3, 139–145. Retrieved from Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum website.
Yee, et.al, 4 Jun 2010.
Clerk keeps all-night vigil at creek for a 20-ft. crocodile. (1960, March 17). The Straits Times, p. 14. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Croc scares fishermen. (1960, March 18). The Straits Times, p. 16. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The Straits Times, 18 Mar 1960, p. 16; Ponggol croc returns with a mate. (1960, March 26). The Straits Times, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Kramat, or keramat, from Arabic karama, translated as "miracle". Whilst often deemed as a material shrine, kramat is not exclusive to a physical space nor spiritual entity, but a complex sacred "shrine" to both, visible and invisible, and applied to the mobile or immobile physicality of a spirit.
They offer a silent prayer to 'sacred' crocodile. (1960, April 19). The Singapore Free Press, p. 7. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Richards, A. (1960, June 29). Villagers to hold a feast for kramat to scare away crocs in the canal. The Singapore Free Press, p. 9. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Shy croc in a flower pond spreads fear among kampong folk. (1960, August 17). The Singapore Free Press, p. 9. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Abdullah Abdul Kadir. (1918). The autobiography of Munshi Abdullah (W.G. Shellabear, Trans). Singapore: Printed at the Methodist Pub. House. Retrieved from BookSG.
Kassim Ahmad. (2010). The epic of Hang Tuah. Kuala Lumpur: Institut Terjemahan Negara Malaysia. (Call no.: RSEA 398.2209595 HIK)
This incident in 1977 gives room for speculation. Were the scouts searching for what they thought was the mythical white crocodile? Or were they looking for a crocodile that was possibly afflicted by a rare biological condition? One such condition could be albinism, a congenital disorder characterised by the absence of natural pigment, causing even the eyes to be of a different colour. Another cause could be hypomelanism – a reduced amount of melanin. In snakes that are affected by this condition, some coloured parts (mostly black) of their bodies are retained. There is also leucism, which is a partial loss of pigmentation that causes part or all of the crocodile to be white.
Scouts hope to bag white croc. (1977, May 2). The Straits Times, p. 5; Scouts hunt for white crocodile. (1977, April 30). New Nation, p. 2; Another hunt by scouts for white croc. (1977, June 13). The Straits Times, p. 8; Tan, B. (1977, June 25). A fourth bid to catch the white croc. The Straits Times, p. 12. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Scouts hunt for white crocodile. (1977, April 30). New Nation, p. 2. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
New Nation, 30 Apr 1977, p. 2.
Another hunt by scouts for white croc. (1977, June 13). The Straits Times, p. 8; Tan, B. (1977, June 25). A fourth bid to catch the white croc. The Straits Times, p. 12. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The Malayan dollar was used from 1939 to 1953 in Brunei and Malaya (under British colony and protectorate). Shoes made of lizard skin were also popular. See Choose your own crocodile. (1948, May 2). The Straits Times, p. 5. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
Gymkhana meeting. (1889, September 4). Straits Times Weekly Issue, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG.
The Gardens crocodile. (1892, January 23). The Straits Times, p. 2; The hunting of the crocodile. (1892, January 27). The Straits Times, p. 3. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. [Note: Before this incident, crocodiles were kept at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Today, the Marsh Gardens has a signboard informing visitors how it was "once the location of a rhinoceros wallow and alligator [sic. crocodile] ponds when the Singapore Botanic Gardens had a zoological collection in the 1870s".]
Survey Department, Singapore. (1839). Map of the Island of Singapore and its Dependencies [Topographic Map]. Retrieved from National Archives of Singapore website.
Author Siddharta Perez
Siddharta Perez is a Curator at NUS Museum. "Buaya: The Making of a Non-Myth" is one of the prep-room research projects she is currently managing.
Author Kate Pocklington
Kate Pocklington is a Conservator at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum. She heads the collaborative research project, "Buaya: The Making of a Non-Myth", at NUS Museum.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: MongoDB check documents for first date that is missing or has has missing values I have documents with two fields: date and key, where date represents days in format "YYYY-MM-DD" for this year, starting at 2019-01-01.
It is possible that for some date there is no document OR that the document for this date has no values (=null) in the key field.
Is it possible to create one query that finds the first date in this year for which no document exists or whose key field has no values?
First example:
[
    {date: "2019-01-01", key: "value"},
    {date: "2019-01-02", key: "value"},
    {date: "2019-01-04", key: "value"}
]

should return "2019-01-03" since this date is missing in the documents.
Second example:
[
    {date: "2019-01-01", key: "value"},
    {date: "2019-01-02", key: "value"},
    {date: "2019-01-03", key: null},
    {date: "2019-01-04", key: "value"}
]

should return "2019-01-03" as well since this date has no value for the key field.
When using some kind of sorting or min aggregation on the date field, the date would not be correct in the first example. I only found a way to loop over the days and check if there is a document for this date and that has a non-null value for the key field. However this solution is a query for each day.

A: The following query can get us the expected output:
db.collection.aggregate([
    {
        $sort:{
            "date":-1
        }
    },
    {
        $group:{
            "_id":null,
            "dates":{
                $push:"$$ROOT"
            }
        }
    },
    {
        $project:{
            "info":{
                $reduce:{
                    "input":"$dates",
                    "initialValue":{
                        "previousDate":"9999-01-01",
                        "missing":"",
                        "with_null_key":""
                    },
                    "in":{
                        "missing":{
                            $cond:[
                                {
                                    $gt:[
                                        {
                                            $subtract:[
                                                {
                                                    $toDate:"$$value.previousDate"
                                                },
                                                {
                                                    $toDate:"$$this.date"
                                                }
                                            ]
                                        },
                                        86400000
                                    ]
                                },
                                {
                                    $toString:{
                                        $toDate:{
                                            $add:[
                                                {
                                                    $toLong:{
                                                        $toDate:"$$this.date"
                                                    }
                                                },
                                                86400000
                                            ]
                                        }
                                    }
                                },
                                "$$value.missing"
                            ]
                        },
                        "with_null_key":{
                            $cond:[
                                {
                                    $eq:["$$this.key",null]
                                },
                                "$$this.date",
                                "$$value.with_null_key"
                            ]
                        },
                        "previousDate":"$$this.date"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    {
        $project:{
            "_id":0,
            "first_missing":"$info.missing",
            "first_with_null_key":"$info.with_null_key"
        }
    }
]).pretty()

Data set:
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("5d7bb4d6226855e3ea97001b"),
    "date" : "2019-01-01",
    "key" : "value"
}
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("5d7bb4d6226855e3ea97001c"),
    "date" : "2019-01-02",
    "key" : "value"
}
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("5d7bb4d6226855e3ea97001d"),
    "date" : "2019-01-04",
    "key" : "value"
}
{
    "_id" : ObjectId("5d7bc2a7226855e3ea97001e"),
    "date" : "2019-01-05",
    "key" : null
}

Output:
{
    "first_missing" : "2019-01-03T00:00:00.000Z",
    "first_with_null_key" : "2019-01-05"
}

Query Analysis:

*

*The documents are searched in descending order of date

*All documents are pushed into an array called dates

*The $reduce is performed on the dates array

*

*If the difference of previous date and current date is greater than 86400000 (millisecond equivalent of 1 day) then the missing date would be current date + 1 day

*If the key for the date is missing, then the date is saved in field with_null_key

A: You can generate all dates for a year using $range, $dateFromParts and $dateToString operators,
then $lookup the collection for the missing documents:
db.collection.aggregate(
    [
        { $limit: 1 },
        { $project: {
            _id: 0,
            day: { $map: {
                input: { $filter: {
                    input: { $map: {
                        input: { $range: [ 1, 367, 1 ] },
                        as: 'day',
                        in: { $dateFromParts : { 'year': 2019, 'month': 1, 'day': '$$day','hour': 0, 'minute': 0, 'second': 0,'millisecond': 0 } }
                    } },
                    as: 'day',
                    cond: { $lt: ['$$day', { $dateFromParts : { 'year': 2020, 'month': 1, 'day': 1,'hour': 0, 'minute': 0, 'second': 0,'millisecond': 0 } }] }
                } },
                as: 'day',
                in: { $dateToString: { date: '$$day', format: '%Y-%m-%d' } }
            } }
        } },
        { $unwind: '$day' },
        { $lookup: {
            from: 'collection',
            let: { d: '$day' },
            pipeline: [
                { $match: {
                    $expr: { $and: [
                        { $eq: [ '$date', '$$d' ] },
                        { $not: [ { $eq: [ '$key', null ] } ] }
                    ] }
                } },
                { $limit: 1 }
            ],
            as: 'docs'
        } },
        { $match: { docs: { $size: 0 } } },
        { $limit: 1 },
        { $project: { day: 1 } }
    ]
)

The dates generation is wrapped in an extra $filter to work with leap years but I'd recommend to calculate number of days (367/366 - it's exclusive boundary) in the year on the application level. Then you can remove the filter and combine both $maps into a single one.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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				var host = this.get(HOST),
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				this._uiHandles = [
					bb.on('clickoutside', Y.bind(this._focus, this)),
					bb.on('focusoutside', Y.bind(this._focus, this))
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				if ( ! supportsPosFixed) {
					this._uiHandles.push(Y.one('win').on('scroll', Y.bind(function(e){
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			// *** Lifecycle Methods *** //

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			// *** Public Methods *** //

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			_uiSetHostVisible : function (visible) {

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					this._attachUIHandles();
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			_attachUIHandles : function () {

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			_detachUIHandles : function () {

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			// *** Static *** //

			NS : KEEPALIGNED

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	(function(){

		var OVERLAY_AUTOHIDE	= 'overlayAutohide',
			AUTOHIDE			= 'autohide',
			CLICKED_OUTSIDE		= 'clickedOutside',
			FOCUSED_OUTSIDE		= 'focusedOutside',
			PRESSED_ESCAPE		= 'pressedEscape';

		OverlayAutohide = Y.Base.create(OVERLAY_AUTOHIDE, Y.Plugin.Base, [], {

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			initializer : function (config) {

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			NS : AUTOHIDE,

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			POINTER_CLASSES	= {
				pointer		: getCN(OVERLAY, POINTER),
				pointing	: getCN(OVERLAY, POINTING)
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		OverlayPointer = Y.Base.create(OVERLAY_POINTER, Y.Plugin.Base, [], {

			// *** Instance Members *** //

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			initializer : function (config) {

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				this.afterHostMethod(BIND_UI, this.bindUI);
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					this.bindUI();
					this.syncUI();
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			destructor : function () {

				var host		= this.get(HOST),
					bb			= host.get(BOUNDING_BOX),
					align		= host.get(ALIGN),
					pointerNode	= this._pointerNode;

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				if (align && align.points) {
					bb.removeClass(getCN(OVERLAY, POINTING, align.points[0]));
				}

				if (pointerNode) {
					pointerNode.remove(true);
				}
			},

			renderUI : function () {

				this._pointerNode = Y.Node.create('').addClass(POINTER_CLASSES.pointer);
				this.get(HOST).get(BOUNDING_BOX).append(this._pointerNode);
			},

			bindUI : function () {

				this.afterHostEvent(ALIGN+CHANGE, this._afterHostAlignChange);
			},

			syncUI : function () {

				this._uiSetHostAlign(this.get(HOST).get(ALIGN));
			},

			// *** Private Methods *** //

			_getPointerNode : function () {

				return this._pointerNode;
			},

			_uiSetHostAlign : function (newAlign, prevAlign) {

				var host		= this.get(HOST),
					bb			= host.get(BOUNDING_BOX),
					pointerNode	= this._pointerNode;

				if (prevAlign && prevAlign.points) {
					bb.removeClass(getCN(OVERLAY, POINTING, prevAlign.points[0]));
					bb.removeClass(getCN(OVERLAY, POINTING, prevAlign.points[0], prevAlign.points[1]));
				}

				// Overlay is aligned to another node (not viewport) on one of it's sides (not centered)
				if (newAlign && newAlign.node && newAlign.points[0] !== Y.WidgetPositionAlign.CC) {
					bb.addClass(POINTER_CLASSES.pointing);
					bb.addClass(getCN(OVERLAY, POINTING, newAlign.points[0]));
					bb.addClass(getCN(OVERLAY, POINTING, newAlign.points[0], newAlign.points[1]));
					pointerNode.show();
				} else {
					pointerNode.hide();
					bb.removeClass(POINTER_CLASSES.pointing);
				}

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			}

		}, {

			// *** Static *** //

			NS		: POINTER,

			ATTRS	: {

				pointerNode : {
					getter		: '_getPointerNode',
					readOnly	: true
				}

			},

			CLASSES	: POINTER_CLASSES

		});

	}());

	// *** Attach Plugins *** //

	Y.Plugin.OverlayModal		= OverlayModal;
	Y.Plugin.OverlayKeepaligned	= OverlayKeepaligned;
	Y.Plugin.OverlayAutohide	= OverlayAutohide;
	Y.Plugin.OverlayPointer		= OverlayPointer;

}, 'gallery-2011.05.04-20-03' ,{supersedes:['gallery-overlay-modal'], requires:['overlay','plugin','event-resize','gallery-outside-events']});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Look At The ABSURD DEMAND Kellyanne Conway Just Made To News Networks
Ron Delancer
The Trump administration continues its assault on the free press and their demands are increasingly becoming more dangerous. On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, escalated the administration's attack against the media and demanded that network television reporters and commentators who "talked smack" about Trump be fired.
"Not one network person has been let go. Not one silly political analyst and pundit who talked smack all day long about Donald Trump has been let go," Conway said on "Fox News Sunday." "I'm too polite to mention their names, but they know who they are, and they are all wondering who will be the first to go," she said in an angry tone.
She added that the networks should be "cleaning house," firing "these people who said things that just weren't true."
Conway accused the media of focusing too much attention on her attempt last week to defend press secretary Sean Spicer flagrantly lying to reporters by claiming he was stating "alternative facts."
Trump and his team spent much of his first week in office antagonizing the media. In his first White House press briefing on Monday, Spicer spent several minutes attacking the press and continued to defend his lying by claiming that "we can disagree with the facts."
Then, in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, Trump's counselor Steve Bannon, who ran Breitbart, a site that traffics in white nationalism, called the media "the opposition party" and said it should be silenced.
"The media should be humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while," Bannon said.
Watch the exchange in the video below:
Related Topicsfreedommedia
LAPD Chief Just Rebelled Against Trump's New Immigration Orders, 'This Is Not Our Job, Nor Will I Make It Our Job.'
The World Unites Agaist Trump: Merkel, May Blast 'Draconian' Refugee Ban


There aren't many small towns in the U.S. with two printed newspapers. For a while, there was one fewer. Now the Homer Tribune has resumed print publication, joining the Homer News in serving Homer, Alaska, a fishing-and-tourism town of 5,000 at one end of the nation's paved road system. Both regularly win awards from the Alaska Press Club.
"Some people prefer the Tribune, some prefer the Homer News, some of us prefer to have access to both newspapers," Jan Knutson, coordinator for the Homer Chamber of Commerce, told Daysha Eaton of KBBI in Homer, part of Alaska Public Media.
The Tribune went online-only in June, but returned to print this month after it was bought by Alaska Media LLC, which also owns The Arctic Sounder and the Bristol Bay Times-Dutch Harbor Fisherman. The News is owned by Georgia-based Morris Communications, which also owns the Juneau Empire. "The Tribune plans to maintain a content-sharing agreement with Alaska Dispatch News," formerly the Anchorage Daily News, Eaton reports. "The parties have not disclosed the purchase price."
The costs of attending a community college differs dramatically across the nation, as does the state aid students and schools receive, says a report by the Urban Institute and American Association of Community Colleges.
Tuition and fees are lowest in California, averaging $1,420 for full-time students, while Vermont has a high of $7,530, Smith writes. The national average is $3,430. In California, where about 60 percent of public college students are enrolled in two-year institutions, a high number of students "are eligible for tuition remission, versus a state like Vermont with high tuition costs." About 21 percent of of Vermont students are enrolled in a two-year college.
Aid varies widely by state, Smith writes. "In South Carolina, for instance, the report details that 94 percent of first-time, full-time community college students are receiving grant aid, compared to 48 percent of students in New Hampshire."
Steve Katsinas, director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama, said some states have an apparent lack of inequality disparity, Smith writes. "Take Illinois, where state aid makes up less than 5 percent of Joliet Junior College's budget, but more rural Shawnee Community College in Southern Illinois receives about 40 percent of its budget from state investment. The higher education cuts in Illinois are more devastating to colleges that rely on more state aid, he said."
Katsinas told Smith, "It's possible that it's part of the discontent that we see reflected in the 2016 elections. In a lot of rural areas it might be tied to the lack of community colleges' ability to provide training because they're so badly underfunded in these high-skill, high-wage areas like robotics ... allied health and nursing."
The U.S. Department of Justice will phase out use of private prisons. Its announcement followed an inspector general's report that said for-profit federal prisons, which are primarily located in rural areas, have a higher rate of safety and security incidents than non-contract institutions. The directive does not apply to state prisons or to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Marshals Service detainees, but would affect 13 prisons in eight states that house 22,000 inmates, Matt Zapotosky and Chico Harlan report for The Washington Post.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said the goal is "reducing—and ultimately ending—our use of privately operated prisons. They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department's Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security."
Gov. Matt Bevin speaks as Medicaid advisers listen.
The new Kentucky governor, a Republican who first said while campaigning that he would abolish the Medicaid expansion of his Democratic predecessor, now wants to require able-bodied adults in the expansion to do volunteer work. That isn't sitting well with the Kentucky Nonprofit Network, which represents nearly 600 of the state's nonprofit groups, because it would mean tens of thousands of people would "need training, supervision and—in some instances—criminal-background checks," John Cheves reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
As part of the state's request for a federal waiver to tighten eligibility standards for the 440,000 Kentuckians who obtained health insurance through the expansion, one of the requirements Bevin "wants to include is 'community engagement' for able-bodied adults, requiring them to work, search for a job, be enrolled in classes or volunteer in their communities in order to remain in Medicaid. The state estimates these requirements could affect roughly 215,000 people," many of whom live in rural areas, some with few volunteer opportunities.
Danielle Clore, executive director of the Kentucky Nonprofit Network, "said members of her organization have limited budgets," Cheves writes. "Many cannot afford to manage a much larger staff. Some do not have enough space or work for so many additional people, Clore said. In sparsely populated rural counties, only a handful of nonprofit groups operate, she said. And some groups that work with children or the elderly require volunteers to pass a criminal-background check, which costs money and raises questions for Medicaid recipients with legal problems in their past, Clore said."
A documentary on the life of Harry Caudill, whose 1962 book Night Comes to the Cumberlands helped spark the War on Poverty, the Appalachian Regional Commission and an era of activism in the region, is making the rounds. Harry Caudill: Man of Courage drew a good crowd at the Grand Theater in Frankfort, Ky., Aug. 18.
Caudill's oldest son, James Caudill, said it was gratifying and encouraging to see public interest in his father's issues, such as strip mining, which is much more regulated these days but still a major environmental issue in the region. "Nothing fundamental has changed," he told the crowd after the showing. "Things have changed in small ways, but they are superficial."
Caudill's book "drew national attention to the plunderous activities of the coal industry in Central Appalachia and the devastation it left," writes John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The book helped bring new environmental and property-rights laws, a massive increase in federal aid to the region and an influx of idealistic young people, some of whom still live in the mountains as idealistic old people." Cheves and Bill Estep did a five-story biography of Caudill as part of a Herald-Leader series in 2012-13 that looked at Central Appalachia on the 50th anniversary of the book's publication.
The 17 indicators are: Data Completeness; Disability- or Illness-related Voting Problems; Mail Ballots Rejected; Mail Ballots Unreturned; Military and Overseas Ballots Rejected; Military and Overseas Ballots Unreturned; Online Registration Available; Postelection Audit Required; Provisional Ballots Cast; Provisional Ballots Rejected; Registration or Absentee Ballot Problems; Registrations Rejected; Residual Vote Rate; Turnout; Voter Registration Rate; Voting Information Lookup Tools Available; Voting Wait Time.
North Dakota, which has topped the last four indexes, was given a score of 84. Minnesota was second at 83, followed by Virginia and Wisconsin (82), Connecticut (81) and Colorado and Delaware (80). Alabama scored 49. Also scoring low were California (54), Oklahoma and Idaho (57) and Arkansas, Hawaii and Mississippi (59).
But Trump has done little to woo Latino voters, as evidenced by a Fox News Latino poll that showed 60 percent of Hispanics identify with Democrats and 21 percent with Republicans, O'Keefe writes.
Third Annual Appalachian Food Summit will be held Sept. 16-17 in Berea, Ky.
For the first time in modern history, "the most common living arrangement for young adults" — 18 to 34 — is living with at least one parent, according to a study published earlier this year by the Pew Research Center, reports Tim Henderson of Pew's Stateline.
Almost a third of young adults lived with a parent in 2014, Henderson reports, citing reasons: high housing costs, student debt, cultural norms among families and ethnic groups, and the lingering effects of the Great Recession. Debbie Pincus, a psychotherapist who has counseled parents and adult children who live together in New York, told Henderson that baby boomers "are very protective of [their] children" and are less likely to put them out.
Among the states, New Jersey tops the list with 43.9 percent of young adults living with at least one parent, according to a Stateline analysis of 2014 census data from the University of Minnesota. Connecticut (38.8 percent) ranked second and New York (37.4 percent) was third.
States with the fewest young adults living with a parent were North Dakota (15.6 percent), Wyoming (18.7 percent), South Dakota (19.7 percent) and Nebraska and Iowa (both 20.7 percent).
Several states with high percentages of rural population, such as Kentucky and the Dakotas, had low percentages of millennials living with parents, but some other heavily rural states, such as Mississippi and some New England states, ranked high on Stateline's millennials-with-parents interactive map.
Dowell Myers, a University of Southern California professor who has studied the economic impact of stay-at-home millennials, "predicts that a coming dip in the number of young adults may allow a greater percentage of them to finally find their own housing," Henderson reports. "The number of 25-year-olds has increased every year since 2005, but is projected to start decreasing next year and for the next five years. That's likely to free up apartments and jobs for younger people at an increasing rate until 2022."
Across Central Appalachia, especially Eastern Kentucky, "elected officials, business leaders, environmentalists and community advocates are looking beyond politics to wrestle with a question essential to the region's survival: What comes after coal?" Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports for The New York Times.
Lora Smith, who oversees grants in Central Appalachia for the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, agreed with Ben Spangler of the Whitesburg media-and-arts cooperative Appalshop, who wrote that "Central Appalachia is presently in a strange place as the collapse of the coal industry leaves the region in an historical moment of terrifying liberation," saying that it can be liberating to imagine what the future holds.
Startups have begun addressing some employment needs by training displaced coal miners in coding, Stolberg reports. Many rural towns have begun creating tourism projects, finding ways to create small businesses—often run by young entrepreneurs—are trying to turn Appalachian food trends into profits, offering training in the growing teleworks field and are making efforts to make the region more energy efficient to save residents costs in utilities.
Martin Richards, who runs Kentucky's Community Farm Alliance, said many unemployed Eastern Kentucky residents "are increasingly turning to farming 'out of necessity'," Stolberg writes. Richards, whose group works with eight farmers' markets in Eastern Kentucky, said the number of farmers' markets participants has doubled in the past five years. With Congress in 2014 allowing Kentucky to grow industrial hemp, that has also become a growing business within the state.
The rural town of Occoquan, Va. is overrun with players.
The global phenoenon of the Pokémon Go game is disrupting some rural towns and creating safety hazards. Game players have been linked to car accidents, injuries, robberies, sexual assaults, and even a death in Guatemala, after a user was shot and killed by a homeowner after breaking into a house to catch a Pokémon, Ryan Miller reports for USA Today.
Signs of disrespect abound, along with safety concerns. A Central Kentucky cemetery has posted notice that play is prohibited inside its grounds. The United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., has asked players to stop searching for Pokémon inside the museum, Andrea Peterson reports for The Washington Post. The Pentagon has banned use of military phones to play the game, Andrew Tilghman reports for Military Times. The mayor of a rural French town has banned the game, saying it puts drivers and pedestrians as risk, Philippe Sotto reports for The Associated Press. In India, where the game has yet to be released, a public-interest group has called for the game to be banned, fearing it will cause traffic accidents, Raymond Ronamai reports for International Business Times.
Occoquan, Va., a 300-year-old historic riverfront town of 1,016 residents just off Interstate 95, "has unwittingly become a hotbed for the game," Perry Stein reports for the Post. "A place that touts itself as 'an oasis and a little-known gem' offering 'that personal touch of Main Street USA' has transformed into a virtual-reality superhighway. Occoquan's newfound popularity has been a boon for the quaint restaurants and shops that line the town's three-block main strip, as any kind of tourism brings in business. But residents in the D.C. suburb are now complaining that Occoquan has lost its quiet vibe, and town officials are scrambling to figure out how to keep everyone safe."
What makes Occoquan a popular Pokémon destination is that it's a town on the banks of the Occoquan River, "home to both land and water creatures in the game." Stein writes. "Occoquan is filled with restaurants and shops, and by virtue of its centuries of history, it is lined with historical markers; these are spots conducive to housing lots of Pokémon, something that is a rarity in most suburban and rural areas. And it's just 11 miles south of the Capital Beltway along I-95, making it central to many commutes and a short drive from the District."
Playing of the game in Occoquan has led to the unusual sight of traffic jams during the day and pedestrians wandering the streets at 2 a.m., Stein writes. "Occoquan's denizens are demanding a way to make it all stop. They speak of parents struggling to put young children to sleep because of all the Pokémon-related chatter outside their homes, and they worry about the drivers who have been playing Pokémon Go while behind the wheel, careering down one-way streets in the wrong direction. Occoquan's leaders have put up signs around town warning people not to 'Pokémon and Drive' in an attempt to keep pedestrians who are staring at their phones safe from drivers who are doing the same."
It's been well reported that rural areas—which tend to be whiter, older and less educated—are more conservative and favor Republican candidates like presidential nominee Donald Trump, while Democratic candidates such as presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are more popular in urban areas.
"All these stats might make it seem that it's demographics that cause rural voters to choose Trump, or other Republican candidates: that there's something about being white or about being older or not having a college diploma that makes a person vote for him, and that those people also just happen to live in rural areas," Danielle Kurtzleben reports for NPR, in a story with lots of charts. "Or, perhaps, that there's something about being conservative that makes a person choose a rural area." She notes that the Pew Research Center "has found that (for whatever reason) people who are conservative prefer places where the population is more spread-out, while liberals prefer denser neighborhoods."
Cramer has labeled these intense, negative feelings rural residents have against people in the cities, "rural resentment," Kurtzleben writes. Cramer has studied how Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin appealed to rural voters. In an April column she wrote for USA Today, she said Walker found success by appealing "to rural voters by talking about getting their roads fixed, as opposed to spending on high-speed rail between big cities. Walker also ran against government and public employees in Wisconsin. Those workers often were higher-income than their peers, and with more generous benefits, so for non-public sector workers in rural communities, that was another source of resentment."
Cramer said Trump's rhetoric may similarly appeal to America's rural populations. She told Kurtzleben, "The resources, the people, the respect seem to be going somewhere else, or to other types of people, and here comes someone who says 'You're right, you're not getting your fair share. It's going to people who aren't deserving, and you vote me in and were going to make America great again."
The Environmental Protection Agency needs to revise its June 2015 study that said no evidence exists that horizontal hydraulic fracturing operations cause widespread damage to drinking-water supplies, said a report from the Science Advisory Board, an EPA panel that conducted a yearlong analysis of the study's results. "The panel said the report's core findings 'that seek to draw national-level conclusions regarding the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources' were 'inconsistent with the observations, data and levels of uncertainty' detailed in the study," reports Neela Banerjee of InsideClimate News.
Of particular concern, the panel said, "was the report's overarching conclusion that fracking has not led to 'widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States'," Banerjee reports. "The panel said that EPA did not provide quantitative evidence to support the conclusion." The panel wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy: "SAB recommends that the EPA revise the major statements of findings in the executive summary and elsewhere in the final assessment report to clearly link these statements to evidence provided in the body of the final assessment report."
Environmentalists welcomed the panel's report, saying they hoped it would lead to changes in the original report's conclusions, Banerjee writes. Industry group Energy in Depth responded by maintaining "that the draft study's topline claims on fracking's water pollution stand." Industry groups had seized upon the 2015 report "to back its contention that fracking does not pose a threat to water," Banerjee reports.
Texas leaders want the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the fate of the state's controversial voter-ID law, Jordan Rudner reports for The Dallas Morning News. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office announced on Tuesday it is filing an appeal with the high court to keep the law in place. Last month the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2011 law—which stipulates the types of photo identification election officials can and cannot accept at the polls—does not comply with the Voting Rights Act. Last week a federal judge ruled that Texans will not be required to present an ID in order to vote in the November general election.
Corey Lequieu on Tuesday became the first defendant in the January armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon to be sentenced to prison, receiving 2½, Rebecca Woolington reports for The Oregonian. His prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. He also must pay restitution in an amount to be determined later. Of the 26 defendants, 10 have pleaded guilty.
Lequieu, who was charged with conspiracy, "admitted to impeding federal employees through threats, intimidation or force from working at the refuge outside Burns," Woolington writes. While the charge carries six years, "federal prosecutors recommended that Lequieu serve less time as part of a plea agreement and under sentencing guidelines. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said the government considered that Lequieu was the first in the case to take responsibility when making the offer."
"Lequieu's defense attorney, Ramon Pagan, told the court that he and his client were grateful that they reached an agreement with the government without Lequieu agreeing to testify against other defendants in the case," Woolington writes.
Overall, 82 percent of women are incarcerated for non-violent offenses, the report states. Thirty-two percent for property offenses, 29 percent for drug offenses and 21 percent for public order offenses. "Most have been charged with low-level offenses, including drug or property crimes like shoplifting, but a growing number are in jail for violating parole or probation, for failed drug tests or for missing court-ordered appointments," Williams writes. "Others are unable to make bail or pay court-mandated fees and fines, the report said."
"The study found that women accounted for 26 percent of total arrests in 2014, compared with 11 percent in 1960," Williams writes. "And the most common offenses that led to arrests involved drugs. Between 1980 and 2009, the arrest rate for drug possession or use doubled for men but tripled for women, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics."
On Aug. 1 a Texas law went into effect allowing "anyone with a concealed handgun license in Texas to carry their weapons in most buildings, including classrooms and dining halls," Matthew Watkins and Madeline Conway report for The Texas Tribune. Private universities are allowed to opt out of the law, and all but one of the state's 37 private institutions have done so. The one school to allow guns, Amberton University, is a mostly online school for adults 21 and over that does not have any dorms, social clubs, sports teams or dining halls.
Three University of Texas professors who have sued for the right to ban guns in their classrooms were told last week that they will be punished if they attempt to do so, Lauren McGaughy reports for The Dallas Morning News. The professors argue that the state law doesn't explicitly forbid them from banning weapons. The schools' lawyer wrote in a legal brief, "Faculty members are aware that state law provides that guns can be carried on campus, and that the president has not made a rule excluding them from classrooms. As a result, any individual professor who attempts to establish such prohibition is subject to discipline."
Colorado, Idaho and Utah have laws allowing concealed guns on campus, but higher education institutions are allowed to ban weapons in certain areas such as dorms, dining halls and event centers, according to Armed Campuses. Tennessee, which allows residents to carry concealed guns, "prohibits a person to possess or carry, whether openly or concealed, any firearm, not used solely for instructional or school-sanctioned ceremonial purposes, on any public or private school campus, grounds, recreation area, athletic field or any other property owned, used or operated by any board of education, school, college or university board of trustees, regents or directors for the administration of any public or private educational institution."
In Oregon, Kansas, Wisconsin, Arkansas and Mississippi concealed guns are allowed by law, but schools limit locations and who carries them, states Armed Campuses. Many states allow schools to decide their own policies, while other states only allow guns in locked cars in parking lots. Only a handful of states prohibit concealed guns on campus.
How about some Asian carp for dinner?
If you can't beat invasive Asian carp, then eat it. Some Kentucky restaurants are banking on Asian carp dishes, and Indiana has begun a campaign to promote eating the fish in the Hoosier State.
A study in Minnesota found that 19 percent of the state's mental-health beds are used by patients who could have been treated in a different setting, reports the Minnesota Hospital Association, which commissioned the study by the Wilder Foundation. Conducted from March 15 to April 30, the study of 20 hospital —half of them in rural areas—found that "of the 32,520 total mental-health bed days in all participating hospitals, 6,052 were identified as potentially avoidable." That translates to approximately 48,000 potentially avoidable days in a year.
Nationwide, the number of psychiatric beds has dropped 13 percent since 2010, reports Michael Ollove for Stateline. The number of psychiatric beds in Minnesota dropped from 206 to 194 during that time. That's an average of 3.5 beds per every 100,000 residents, the second lowest total in the nation, behind Iowa, which has 2 beds per every 100,000 residents. The national average is 11.7 beds per every 100,000 residents.
Many state and local courts fail to use qualified translators and ignore federal rules for when interpreters are required, Rebecca Beitsch reports for Stateline. The result is that "many criminal defendants and civil litigants with limited English skills are not equipped to navigate the complex legal system, jeopardizing their constitutional rights."
Since 2010 the U.S. Department of Justice "has investigated courts in Colorado, Hawaii, Kentucky, New Jersey, North Carolina and Rhode Island for failing to comply with federal rules.eight states don't certify court interpreters," Beitsch writes. Eight states don't certify court interpreters and in 32 of the states that do, interpreters say those states don't follow policies giving preferential treatment to those who are certified.
Federal school-meal programs may have contributed to obesity among financially vulnerable children from 1998 to 2007, according to a study by Virginia Tech researchers published in Health Economics. The data preceded changes to the meal program in 2010, but researchers said the results "shed light on the magnitude of needs for nutrition improvement for the school meal programs before" that year's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.
The study followed 21,260 students from kindergarten through eighth grade and compared eligible students who participated in the program to eligible students who chose not to participate. The largest effect of the program "is on those students living in rural areas," the researchers wrote. They also found that low-students in low-income families and those in the Northeast and South, as well as rural children, "are most susceptible to the problem," Amy Loeffler reports for Virginia Tech. "The study found that these children consume one-third to one-half of their daily meals at school."
Using body-mass index, a measure of obesity, researchers found that "children who were most likely to be overweight came from families who participate in both the school breakfast and lunch programs consistently throughout their elementary and intermediate school years," Loeffler writes. Researchers also "confirmed the short-term risk of being overweight imposed by the school lunch program." The study was funded by the Department of Agriculture, which runs the program.
The researchers said they considered socioeconomic factors, such as gender, race/ethnicity, age, weight, whether the school is Title I (high-poverty), number of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals, household income, parents' education level, whether or not the mother works full-time, whether or not the parents are married, numbers of meals families eat together, whether or not families are food-insecure, and urbanity. Researchers said they were unable to control for parents' weight, what students ate outside school and more accurate indicators of their physical activity, which could affect weight.
The researchers said more study is needed to gauge the effect of changes in the program, and also because its recent Community Eligibility Provision allows schools with certain levels of low-income households to make all students eligible for the program, regardless of income. Though the researchers made clear that their data proceeded President Obama's election and his wife's campaign to improve school meals, conservative information outlets "have been having a field day" with the study, with headlines blaming Michelle Obama for "making kids fat," Helena Bottemiller Evich reports for Politico.
Researchers have identified the sources of more than 250 leaks emitting the greenhouse gas methane in the Four Corners area where New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona meet, said a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences. The study was conducted by the same researchers who in 2014 published a study saying methane leaks in the region were 80 percent higher than Environmental Protection Agency estimates.
Researchers, who in 2014 said they were unable to pinpoint the exact sources of the runaway gas, said they were able to do so with the new study by using "aircraft sensors allowing them to pinpoint the source of leaks within a few feet," Phil McKenna reports for InsideClimate News. "The earlier paper relied on less precise, region-wide satellite data."
Lead author Christian Frankenberg, an environmental science and engineering professor at the California Institute of Technology, told McKenna, "It's good news, because with the techniques that we have developed here, it's possible to find the dominant leaks that we can target for methane emissions mitigation,"
The Four Corners region, which spans more than 1,000 square miles, "is one of the nation's largest producers of coal-bed methane and releases about 600,000 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere each year," McKenna writes. "The study is the latest to show that a small number of 'super-emitters,' mainly from oil and gas operations, are responsible for the majority of U.S. methane emissions."
July also was the 10th record hot month in a row, according to NASA, Borenstein writes. "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which calculates temperatures slightly differently, will come out with its July figures on Wednesday. NOAA has figured there have been 14 monthly heat records broken in a row, before July. NASA's five hottest months on record are July 2016, July 2011, July 2015, July 2009 and August 2014."
Many U.S. prisons and jails, often located in rural areas, lack air conditioning. That's caused growing concern "about the threshold for when extreme temperatures become cruel and unusual punishment," Alan Blinder reports for The New York Times. "Judges from Arizona to Mississippi to Wisconsin have declared over the years that the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution forbids incarceration in decidedly hot or cold temperatures. Still, prison-reform activists encounter deep resistance in their quest to cool the nation's cellblocks."
"The disputes surrounding the climate of modern incarceration can be partly traced to 1981, when the Supreme Court concluded that 'the Constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons,'" Blinder writes. " About 35 years later, states, counties and cities are interpreting the court's words in their own ways. In Texas, state regulations require that temperatures in county jails 'shall be reasonably maintained between 65 degrees Fahrenheit and 85 degrees Fahrenheit in all occupied areas.' But that standard does not apply to state prisons."
On Friday a federal judge blocked a Texas law "that limits the availability of interpreters in polling places, ruling that it violates protections guaranteed by the U.S. Voting Rights Act," Chuck Lindell reports for the Austin American-Stateman. An India-born woman had filed a lawsuit in 2014 after her local polling place refused to allow her son to interpret for her, because he was registered to vote in a different county. A state election law "requires interpreters to be registered to vote in the same county as the person they intend to help."
Texas also been criticized for its voter ID law, which some say discriminates against immigrants, many of whom are prone to vote Democrat.
For-profit federal prisons, which are primarily located in rural areas, have a higher rate of safety and security incidents than non-contract institutions, says a U.S. Department of Justice inspector general's report.
Many of the inmates are Mexican and are serving time for immigration offenses, including "almost 22,700 low-security immigrant adult males with 90 months or less on their sentences," Joe Davidson writes for The Washington Post. The three companies—Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, Inc. and Management and Training Corporation (MTC)—that contract the for-profit prisons all "cited their largely homogeneous inmates as a significant factor in prison misconduct."
"Kudzu covered only 227,000 acres of Southern forests in 2010, according to the U.S. Forest Service, a remarkably reduced amount of territory compared with previous years," Chapman writes. Scientists say Japanese honeysuckle—which covered 10.3 million forested acres in 2010 and spreads roughly 65,000 acres each year—and other invasive species, such as "Cogon grass, Chinese privet, English ivy, bamboo, tallow trees and other invasives occupy foresters more than kudzu."
The Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement last week asked states to deny permits to companies that self-bond to guarantee that mined land will be reclaimed, Ken Silverstein reports for Environmental Leader. The reason is that many financial strapped companies—Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Peabody Energy have all recently declared bankruptcy—are in no position to cover the insurance necessary to guarantee they clean up the sites when they are done, meaning taxpayers end up footing the bill.
The Natural Resources Defense Council says "almost $3.6 billion in self-bonds are outstanding from Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, Cloud PeakEnergy and Peabody Energy," Silverstein writes. "Altogether, the U.S. has been working to clean up more than 500,000 acres that were abandoned before the bonding law took effect in 1977 at a cumulative cost of potentially $12 billion."
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has opened the door for Democrat Hillary Clinton to win over rural voters who typically support the GOP, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod on "The Axe Files," a podcast produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, a battleground state, said Trump's disassociation from rural America has given Clinton "an opening to make a push for rural voters," Zane Maxwell reports for CNN.
Vilsack said Trump's "notion of this country is not what I hear in rural areas. His notion of division is not what I hear from a lot of good people in these towns. With [Trump], people are saying, 'I'm really uncomfortable with him, so what's my option?' Well, if we don't speak to them, there is no option."
Vilsack said Democrats, who are mainly an urban party and sometimes oblivious to the value of rural communities, have a golden opportunity to seize rural voters' support. He told Axelrod, "The food we eat, the water we drink, the energy we use, and a significant percentage military we rely on comes from rural America. And those folks in those rural communities do not believe that there is a recognition or appreciation on the part of Democrats for that contribution to our country. We're in a position to say she listens. He doesn't listen; he listens to himself."
The American Society of News Editors has adopted a resolution welcoming new laws in Illinois, Maryland and North Dakota that aim to protect the ability of college and high-school journalists to write about issues of public concern, and calls on all other states to follow their lead.
"A free and independent student media is an essential ingredient of a civically healthy campus community, conveying the skills, ethics and values that prepare young people for a lifetime of participatory citizenship," the resolution says.
ASNE directors passed the resolution in response to Illinois' July 29 enactment of the Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act (HB 5902), making it the 10th state in the nation – and the third in the past 12 months – to enact statutory protection for student journalists "that goes beyond the minimal rights guaranteed to students under federal law," ASNE said in a news release.
A national "New Voices" initiative is working with advocates in at least 19 other states to bring a more balanced approach to the oversight of student media, with bills now pending in Michigan, Minnesota and New Jersey. ASNE joins the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Council of Teachers of English and the Journalism Education Association in endorsing the movement.


I live in a country where the laws on tobacco use, including premium cigars, are so strict that it's becoming almost impossible to smoke anywhere.
Canada, for the most part, doesn't have the comfortable cigars lounges that #SOTL & #BOTL in other countries enjoy.
Cities in most provinces of Canada don't have a tobacconist on every corner.
Cities in most provinces of Canada might have Brick and Mortar shops, but rarely do the shops have a seating area where people can gather to socialize or meditate while enjoying a premium cigar.
Shops that sell tobacco must have the product hidden behind unmarked cabinets.
The other option, should the shop-owner choose to have products visible – but only upon entry – is only by ensuring the tobacco products cannot be viewed from outside the store.
Even in the few casinos where smoking is allowed most have a rule of "no brown sticks" … meaning no cigars … but cigarettes are allowed. Figure that one out.
white background. small Helvetica lettering.
Huge health warnings covering up to 75% of the package.
Just google "plain packaging cigars" to see images of what might be in store for your area if plain packaging gains a foothold.
This is the landscape that now exists in, or is on the horizon for, many countries around the world.
The anti-tobacco movement … and do not underestimate the power of the groups within that movement … is lobbying, tirelessly, globally.
Cigar Rights of America can act as your spokesperson at all levels of government.
Cigar Rights of America is lobbying, tirelessly, on behalf of all of us who love & respect cigars.
By joining CRA, you are protecting your freedom to enjoy premium cigars … now and in the future.


The FIFA World Cup kicks off today, so dust off your soccer jerseys and get the vuvuzelas ready as 32 of the best national teams face-off in this month-long tournament.
While USA unfortunately didn't qualify to compete in this year's World Cup, North America was just selected as a host in 2026, which is reason enough to celebrate! The World Cup only happens every four years, so be sure to finalize your brackets and join in on the festivities at one of these South Florida locations to take advantage of their specials and catch one or all of the 64 games.
Then, on June 17 for the Brazil vs. Switzerland game, WATR at the 1 Rooftop will host a viewing of the game with Brazilian cocktails and specials on their new skewers menu. Sit back, relax, and take in all that comes with this floating oasis 18 stories above the beach.
All Novecento locations will celebrate the World Cup with a special three-course Prix-Fixe game menu, which will be available for early kick-offs Monday through Friday 7 to 9am for just $25 per person. The menu will feature a variety of Novecento's signature empanadas, Argentinian French toast made with condensed milk and dulce de leche; bacon pancakes featuring a bacon infused maple syrup; avocado toast; the Lomito sandwich made with thinly sliced filet; and their beloved Choripan sandwich. If you're feeling boozy, enjoy unlimited Mimosas for an additional $20 per person, or quench your thirst with some ice-cold Heineken priced at $25 per bucket.
Rivalry matches will feature a live DJ along with raffles and giveaways with prizes such as official team jerseys, official soccer balls, roundtrip airline tickets courtesy of Aerolíneas Argentinas and Delta Airlines and much more!
Alter will project the games for soccer fans to enjoy and will offer specials on cocktails, wines and beer - similar to their regular happy hour menu.
With a beachside location that boasts over 20 TVs and an on-site ESPN studio, sports fans know the Clevelander isn't just party central, but also game day central. Early morning games won't be a problem at the Clevelander with their online "kegs 'n' eggs" World Cup promotion, which features your choice of a classic breakfast or breakfast burrito and two Bud Lights or two mimosas all for just $19.99 if purchased in advance (or $24.99 if purchased onsite).
Be the first to try Veza Sur's World Cup brew called El Diez 10, just in time for the big game. Their take on the Belgian Witbier is named after the infamous soccer greats who have worn the No. 10 jersey, and it is the perfect companion during the matches. Veza Sur will open the taproom early to accommodate the 8 and 11 a.m. games, and will even have breakfast from Zak the Baker, empanadas from Fufi, Box Cold Brew coffee and their regular menu from Baja Bao all available for purchase. You can also partake in their weekend foosball tournaments to win a slim keg and Veza Sur swag.
Fontainebleau Miami Beach will offer an exciting way to root for teams participating in the 2018 World Cup by offering oceanfront-viewing parties available for purchase. Guests who are looking to splurge can book a cabana at Arkadia pool, and will have a front row seat with a 14'x24' big screen to catch the games. The Heineken Cabanas will also come complete with spirits, Red Bull, Heineken beer, pizza and burger platters, and a foosball table.
Regardless of which team you're rooting for, you don't have to travel to Russia to join the 2018 World Cup festivities!


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