Today we're interviewing Mark Brinkworth, who is one of our unbundled attorneys out of Kansas City, Missouri doing family law, and we've worked together for quite some time, and Mark has a unique background. He was a police officer, worked in the entertainment industry, used to live in Los Angeles for a period of time, so he's really just worn a lot of different hats prior to becoming an attorney. Then once he did become an attorney, by the way, he's also a martial arts instructor as well, so just a lot of different skill sets, perspectives, and when he became an attorney, a lot of these experiences from the past has informed the way he practices law. And we talk about that in the beginning of the episode, how working as a police officer helps him understand two sides to each story and sticking to the facts and relating to clients a little better, and a lot of experiences he's had to work with clients, making sure people understand what it is they can and can't accomplish in court, being honest and truthful to people and so forth. So a lot of really good suggestions there.
But the second part of the episode is really about how Mark has had to transition is practice into becoming a technologically enabled streamline practice, and how that's enabled him to be able to be offering payment plans much more effectively and have that work out for him. Also, you know, enabling him to do unbundled services. And we talk a lot about how technology and implementing technology is one of the most important components to also being able to offer unbundled services and payment plans affordably and profitably. You know, for Mark it's been a real challenge. You know, Graham is one of our representatives and he's worked really closely with Mark for a long time and a lot of times. Every time we would bring in a new phase, there was some resistance to implementing it, and, "Gosh, okay, fine." So we kind of had to bug, but at each phase, he shares kind of what that experience has been for him, how each tool that he's implemented has impacted his practice in a positive way, and all the resistance he had to modernize and adapt to this significantly changing market through every single step.
So it's a great example of some of the challenges that I think any attorneys are going through right now, trying to modernize and adapt their practice as times are changing so quickly and technology is evolving so rapidly, and being able to hear Mark's story about how he's been able to do that and overcome some of that resistance and those barriers. So just a really valuable episode, you're gonna have a great example from someone that's kind of really gone from what you would consider old school and very traditional to a tech-enabled unbundled legal service practice, and is serving just an incredible amount of clients now that he otherwise couldn't, and do very well in his practice as a result.
So let's get right into it, this interview with Mark Brinkworth, one of our unbundled attorneys out of Kansas City, Missouri.
Dave Aarons: Mark, welcome to the show.
Mark Brinkworth: Hey, thanks for having me.
Dave Aarons: Yeah, this is a long time coming. We've worked together for, gosh it's gotta be a couple years by now, and it's been quite the journey with its own ups and downs, but you know a gradual rise to where we are today from where we first started, and there have been lots of lessons learned in between, so really glad that we're getting an opportunity to explore it all, unpack it, and share what's been working for you, so I appreciate you taking the time.
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah, well thanks for having me.
Dave Aarons: No doubt. You know Mark, from what I know about your background, you've taken kind of a unique approach to becoming an attorney. You had kind of multiple lives before your lawyering. Maybe you can just kind of share your background as an officer and also the work you were doing before that just to give people some perspective. I know you spent some times overseas too, which a lot of our team members have done that as well. So maybe just give us a quick background on how you came to this practice of law.
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah, well I went to the University of Kansas and I was actually a film major. So when I graduated, I moved to Los Angeles and I was working at one of the largest talent agencies in the world there, and I was there for a while in the agent training program, and I kind of realized that that wasn't the route I wanted to take.
Then I was working as a boxing and kickboxing instructor in Santa Monica for a little while trying to figure out what it was I wanted to do. And I realized that Los Angeles is a very expensive city to be treading water while you figure out what you want to do, so I moved back to the Midwest. Then I looked at law school, and I had taken the LSAT but I wasn't quite ready for it yet. I actually applied for a job as a conversational English instructor in South Korea, and I went there. I submitted my application and pretty much the same day I got called back by the owner of this school. And they wanted to bring me over there, and they paid for the ticket and I said, "Okay great." So went to South Korea and I actually ended up getting dysentery about two months into my stay there and lost, jeez, probably 30 pounds and I ended up having to come back.
Then I moved back to Los Angeles, tried to get back into entertainment, but this time in creative development, and then that was around when September 11 happened, and the job market pretty much disappeared overnight. Then I ended up back in the Midwest again, and yeah. It just kind of keeps sucking you back in.
I had one of my roommates in Los Angeles, he'd been a defensive tactics instructor with the Los Angeles police department, and he had told me when I was out there, he was like, "Well I can get you a job." "You know, I hear your stories and I don't think that really sounds like my cup of tea." But when I moved back to Kansas, I was teaching martial arts here, and one of my students was a captain with the police department and he said, "Well we're hiring." Because I told him I was looking around for another job. So I thought about it and applied and went through the process and got hired, and I did that for a while, for a couple years. And I mean I testified in municipal, district, federal court. And did pretty much everything that I wanted to do when I was a police officer, then I left that department and I actually went to work as an associate producer for a morning news show in Topeka, Kansas, then after a couple months there, I was promoted to be a producer of the show.
During that time, I had kind of looked back at going to law school again, so I started submitting applications and I got accepted to law school and started that in 2007 and graduated in 2010, then something about California was calling me back again. I tried to go back out there, I took the bar exam a couple times, that sucker is hard.
Mark Brinkworth: And that's how we got started.
Dave Aarons: Well I'm glad we were able to provide a bit of influence in that direction. I mean there was leads available, there were cases to be tried, and people to be served. You know, why not give it a shot, right?
Mark Brinkworth: Absolutely, absolutely. It's been working well. I was amazed at the number of leads that came in. And the Missouri side had to bring in a partner really to work with or a contractor to work with me on the cases that have his Missouri license, so yeah, it's been nuts. I think in the last six months or so, I think it's been over 400 leads.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think right now, for a little while here you've ever had I think part of Missouri just turned off. I mean its been I think just Jackson, is it right?
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah it's just one county in Missouri.
Dave Aarons: Because you guys just succumbing to the onslaught.
Mark Brinkworth: When I first signed up with you guys, I think I had five counties in Missouri, and the attorney that I had brought in, we were both just like, "What is going on?" I mean it was probably 12 leads a day we were getting, it was just way too much.
Mark Brinkworth: So yeah, I picked the county and that's kind of what we stayed with there, then I have the Kansas counties as well.
Dave Aarons: Okay cool. For those that are listening, obviously we weren't kidding about the multiple lifetimes, you've kind of done a lot of different things and you have a lot of unique experiences and skill sets that come from your TV background, your entertainment, police officer, and obviously martial arts as well. There are so many different assets to your layers of experience that I'm sure to inform the way in which you work with your clients, some of your philosophies in which you operate your practice, so I think there's a lot of room I think for us to kind of dive into that. I think first and foremost, being a police officer and being in the officer's shoes in court and seeing from that perspective of being a witness in cases and seeing the lawyers working, I'm just curious about how being in the shoes of a police officer, which is a very unique and kind of unusual experience to have before you became a lawyer, and also seeing how the arrests happen and so forth. You know, lawyers kind of just deal with the aftermath of, "Okay now you're charged with this, this is how we deal with it," then obviously they're kind of cross-examining you as well.
How is kind of being able to be in the opposite shoes from where the lawyers are and now being an attorney, how has that kind of informed and helped you in your practice?
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah, being on the stand is an interesting thing when you're … it's definitely helped me out, I think. You really have to pay attention to the questions that are being asked and your attorney has to pay attention to the questions that are being asked. Because sometimes attorneys will try and flip in compound questions, and if your attorney is not paying attention, your answer could really kind of hurt you later on. But I also tell my clients that their experience on the stand will more than likely not be as stressful as my worst experience on the stand, which is when I ended up having to do CPR in court. If they get out of there without having to do CPR, then it was a good day.
Dave Aarons: Yeah I mean maybe we're not gonna spend the time unpacking that story about you doing CPR in the courtroom, so obviously that's one of the things you as a police officer, maybe you can talk just about how you relate that to your clients. You know, obviously you're interviewing people on the side of the road, but you know, family law is definitely more emotional, there's a lot of things involved, and this is probably one of the challenges I think for a lot of people that are going pro-se or trying to handle things on their own is they mix the facts of their case with the emotional factors. You know, so how do you help them, perhaps you can share a little bit about your experience as a police officer in sorting out the emotions from the facts and how you relate that to your clients.
Mark Brinkworth: Oh absolutely. Yeah, people definitely get their emotions mixed up and mixed into the facts of the case. You know, when I was a police officer, when I was going through the academy they would always say, you know there are two sides to every story and in the middle, there is gonna be the truth. So when you talk to your clients, you could take in what they're telling you, but I'm not saying that you don't believe them, you believe them because to them that's what happened, that's their truth if you will. But it's not necessarily gonna be the exact record of what had happened, so you need to help them realize that their emotions may have kind of clouded their interpretation of things. So there may be a different approach, and if we can kind of just calm down a little bit, we might be able to get a better resolution than they originally had wanted, and one that's more satisfactory to them.
Then perhaps the other side as well, in which it keeps costs down. The last things that judges will say all day that they don't want to have a trial because it costs too much. And you don't want to drive up the costs for your clients, so yeah, you want to talk to them and kind of guide them through. I mean I think that's part of the role as both an attorney and legal counselor is that you kind of counsel them on things. In the end, the decision is up to them. If they want to say, "no, I want to take it to trial," then that's the route you can take. You want to help them see all options, so it's good to empathize with them, but you also have to keep your eye on the ball and you kind of do that by not getting emotionally entrenched in the case.
Dave Aarons: Hm. I wonder if we can give an example of someone that has kind of a clouded view and how you might help them with seeing the other side with them still feeling like you're on their side. Right? There's also that delicate balance of being representing them but also trying to get to a level of expectation then a plan to move forward that keeps into consideration what's realistic based on the law and helping them also see other sides case and what they're looking at.
How do you start to level with someone to take into consideration how to actually … They may feel like they want full custody and they don't want their kid around the father anymore. I don't know, I'm taking the extreme case. How do you bring it down?
Dave Aarons: Do you describe the law then kind of lay it out, or how do you work around and balance that for someone?
And then sometimes you have to repeat it. That's fine. But eventually they'll start to kind of realize that yeah, maybe that's not what they want to have happened, then they start thinking about how their child's gonna feel. Most kids want to know both parents, so it's tough sometimes to put their own hurt feelings aside and think about it from the child's perspective, but eventually, that can happen. And usually most of the time they'll end up saying, "Okay, well we can do this," and we get into more of a shared custody situation. And it may just be that the other parent has supervised visits for a while, but like I said, it's rare that they end up getting sole custody, so you kind of have to point out to them and show them why that is, and eventually I think a lot of people come around to recognizing that their expectation was a little unrealistic. And that's not actually what they want to have happened.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. And I can see being able to be very strong and firm about what the law is, I wouldn't say uncomfortable, but it's a very important role you play as an attorney is to set that expectation and just kind of allow the person to receive that and get clear on that, right?
Dave Aarons: Because I'm sure there's a lot of attorneys out there, and I don't want to say a lot of attorneys, but there may be some attorneys that maybe will just say, "okay sure, let's go after it." And let them spend the money on pursuing a goal that in their heart of hearts know that it's probably very unrealistic, but haven't been able to have that meeting of the minds and the come to Jesus, whatever you want to call it moment where here's what we can do, being very honest with them. And I would assume that a lot of the clients really appreciate that, even if it's sometimes hard to hear.
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah. No, I think that is the job of an attorney is to tell their clients sometimes what it is that they don't want to hear. It's not just to be a yes man or yes woman. Your job is to tell them the honest assessment of their case and what they can expect, and what is completely unrealistic or even just moderately unrealistic, and let them make the decision, a fully informed decision on what they want to do. And if you've done your intake procedure correctly, I mean you should know whether or not you have a client that is completely unable to listen to reason and is just single-mindedly trying to … maybe exact vengeance upon their ex because of their hurt feelings. And if that's the kind of client somebody wants, then more power to them. But I try and help the clients that genuinely are looking for help.
And that's where unbundled has been great, because the gap, the access to justice is that there are a lot of people out there that really want help and they can't afford to go and drop five grand just to talk to an attorney, but they really are genuinely trying to get help, but they just don't know what to do. And they want an honest assessment from an attorney, they want to know what their options are, they want to know what routes they can take and they want to know if they can expect to even have a chance at winning. And you know, I feel like that's my job is to do that for them.
Dave Aarons: Yes, yeah I really appreciate that, and I think most attorneys would agree that's one of the most important things is making sure you're able, to be honest, and also get feedback or feel in to whether a client is capable of understand what's possible and what's not or if they're just looking for someone to tell them what they want to hear and proceed accordingly, and there are those folks too.
Dave Aarons: You're gonna get some clarity on who you're dealing with as a client, but for the most part like you're saying, they want help, they want an honest answer and they also need to find a way to do it financially. And when you first came out of law school … or law school, when we first started working together, I was getting some feedback just as far as there were some differences in the way that unbundled services and working with folks and doing parts of the case, offering different payment options and so forth was either somewhat new to you or a lot of things that you've adapted and implemented into your practice that shifted things. And I'm wondering if you can kind of think back and go through some of the differences between the way in which you're approaching your practice early on and some of the things that you've learned along the way that either through our suggestion or just from trial and error, working with the leads and working with the clients that you've implemented that have made the biggest impact on your practice so far.
Mark Brinkworth: I think the thing that's made the biggest impact without a doubt is gonna be taking payments instead of expecting a large retainer up front. And that was kind of what I was doing. I remember one of my first civil cases, I think it was a civil commercial case and I felt really bad charging a large retainer, so I didn't. Then we ended up kind of getting stiffed on that bill, so everybody that I talked to, all the experienced attorneys were like, "Well you need to charge way more up front." So then I was trying to do that for a little while and I just found that no one was hiring me, because no one has a money tree growing in their backyard and they don't have five grand just sitting there waiting for them to go out and pluck it off and hand it to an attorney. You know, people have lives, they have expenses, and paying an hourly rate, if you're doing hourly rates, and I've been trying to get things to transition more into flat rates for most things, but for the hourly rates I mean it's just kind of insane what the legal field charges per hour.
I mean when I was a morning news show producer I was getting paid I think $10 an hour, and I mean I don't mind saying what my hourly rate is right now, it's about $200 an hour in Kansas and I'm going, "Are you kidding me?" I would have to work a long time as a morning news show producer to be able to pay one hour for an attorney. So that, you know, I mean the market kind of forces you to charge that, but that's why I like the flat rate fees and I like the payments, because people know that attorneys, that we've had to go through a lot of training to do what we're doing, so it's not that they're upset about paying that, it's just that they want the chance to be able to spread the payments out. You know, most people I think are pretty proud of what they do for work, no matter what it is, but they just want the ability to be able to make the payments and kind of, I don't know, have the dignity of being able to hire an attorney and have that attorney trust them to make payments and treat them like a person instead of just a walking piggy bank. Which unfortunately doesn't occur that often.
Dave Aarons: Well yeah, and to be honest, this reminds me a lot of the conversation I had with Charles Skinner on the podcast I think the episode was Relocating your Law Practice, he moved his practice from El Paso to Dallas, but before he became an attorney, he was working in a factory as I believe it was an iron worker or a welder. Basically just blue collar, and as a machinist, I think it was as well and did all the roles. But he knew what it was like to make $20 an hour, $15 an hour, there's a lot of attorneys that start out that maybe never had that experience beforehand, so it seems like you have another layer of empathy because you know what it's like to be getting paid $10 an hour and being in their shoes as most people, like $10, $15, $20, $25, $20, $40 an hour. I mean you've got your dentists and professionals and so forth, but the average folks, you know? That's what they're making and it takes a long time to come up with $200 for an hour, you know?
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah. Yeah, definitely does. Sometimes I'm just amazed at the people that will be able to come up with $100 a week. It's just like, I don't know how you do it, but I'm amazed, because they're coming to you for different reasons, maybe child support issues, they're already having to pay out $700 a month in child support, and they've got their own rent on top of it and regular bills that everyone else has, then they'll work themselves to the bone, but they just want the chance to be able to make the payments. Then having law pay set up as well, Graham is really on me about that. My phone calls with Graham, in the beginning, I told him it was kind of like a relationship with a girlfriend or something that wants to get you to something and it's like, "Ugh, hey Graham." Then "Have you got law pay set up yet?" And it's like, "No." I just know what's coming and finally, he'll be like, "Look, we're gonna do it now." Then we actually ended up setting stuff up, and it's been great. Graham was right, it's been great. So it's really helped out, and I think clients have enjoyed that as well because they know that they're getting a receipt, I'm getting a receipt, and it's just scheduled so they can budget it into their monthly expenses, and go about their business, you know?
Dave Aarons: Yeah, and I think you said something, it's almost fascinating or I don't remember the exact words you used, but what people are willing to do to find the money and have the dignity to be able to afford an attorney. I think that's a really just deep point, you know, as far as if you put the faith and you give the opportunity to the client to make it happen. And it might be a stretch, in many cases a stretch for people. Like you said, people want the chance and they take advantage of it, and it's amazing to see what they do, how they get the help. I mean sometimes you're just kind of blown away at how people are able to make it happen, right?
Dave Aarons: Maybe what we should do, Mark, is just what were the things that Graham was bugging you about, and what were the things that implemented and what were your initial resistance. And I think that's one of the things that's characterized our relationship to some degree is, you know, we'd suggest something and then you'd say, "Yeah, that's a good idea," then we'd take some time, wouldn't implement it. But it's interesting in the sense that there were some either you were busy or whatever it was, but I'd love to unpack it. What were some of the things that you were uncertain about or unsure of that we had to kind of push you over the edge? And what were some of the things that were more challenging to implement? I'd love to kind of share from your perspective what it was like for you to make these transitions and, you know, to overcome this stuff, yeah.
Mark Brinkworth: Well I'm pretty headstrong sometimes. And I think Graham is as well.
Dave Aarons: Yes he is, yeah.
Mark Brinkworth: So when we would talk, one, he wanted me to do law pay. And at first, I was kind of like, "No, I don't know, I don't really know if I want to pay a fee for something." He's like, "Man look, just try it. Here's the code you can use so you can get a discount or something for three months without having to pay some of the fees," so I was like, "Oh all right, I'll try it." I tried it, I liked it. Then he was asking me about the importance of not only calling when you first get the leads but then also sending a text. And I was like, "Really? I don't want to be doing business by text." And he starts rattling off statistics of how many people actually just use their cell phones and want to communicate by text, they don't actually like getting phone calls. "Okay, but I don't want to use my personal number for it." He's like, "Ever heard of Google Voice?" I'm like, "Not really." And he's like, "Okay, well this is what we're gonna do." And he gives me a website address to look up and he's like, "We're gonna set it up right now." And I was like, "Oh fine," so we set it up.
Dave Aarons: This is so classic.
Mark Brinkworth: Sure enough, I could just copy and paste into a text message and send them off to people and it was fantastic. It's really easy to send text messages to a lot of people, even if it's just, you know, kind of something saying, "Hey, what's going on? Just checking to see how you're doing." You can still do it and you can copy and paste to every lead you have in practically no time. So he was right there.
Dave Aarons: Oh my gosh.
Mark Brinkworth: I tried it, so now I've got Lexicata, Clio, LawPay, and Google Voice. Graham is happy, I'm happy.
Dave Aarons: If Graham is happy, we're happy, you know?
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah. The only thing I'm having trouble with is trying to figure out the document automation on Clio, but otherwise, it's been really nice to have everything in one place and also have the secure communications. Because before I would start to try something like, "Oh, maybe I should try this." So I would have documents and things kind of divvied up among three different applications instead of having it all in one spot. So it's so much faster and more economical to have it all in there with Clio.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. And I appreciate your candor with the way you've shared kind of the experience. And I also appreciate the fact that, you know, hey as it turned out some of this stuff worked out. And stuff doesn't work out for everyone, but it really is powerful, I mean to be able to text with Google Voice and maybe not have to use it, I mean these are all the initial resistance points that we have from a lot of attorneys.
Dave Aarons: You know, like whether it be the texting, whether it be not having practice management software implemented, not having an automated payment solution, not having … I mean these are just the things that are part of this kind of modern, this modern era, this modern technology, people having smartphones, people want to just click a button. And there is a lot of resistance in the industry for attorneys to implement this stuff.
Dave Aarons: And if Lexicata or any of these guys listen to it, I mean we really do harp on this stuff because it's so important and it does have such a tremendous impact. Maybe could you just share on any level of whether it be the Google Voice, the Clio, or Lexicata, obviously you're still working on implementing the document automation, how these things have impacted your practice relative to where you were maybe a year or two when we were first talking about implementing these things? I'd love to get your perspective.
Mark Brinkworth: Well being able to add just as far as … since lawyers all love money, I can start with that and say having Clio, the ability to have that integrate with QuickBooks is phenomenal. But before that, I didn't have QuickBooks, to begin with so I would have to … Before I had Clio, before I had QuickBooks, I would just use an excel sheet and I would have to keep track of what they had paid into the trust, then keep track of any earned fees or anything like that, and I had a separate app that I was using to keep track of the hours that I had spent on things, and it worked out all right, it was passable, but then I would also end up having to draft my own bills and invoices when I was sending them to clients.
So then when I got Clio it was pretty much already there. I just kept track of the hours, and I really just had to click the button for a quick bill and it would pop up, and I could choose what address I was gonna use if they had a billing address that was separate from saying their home address or their work address, where they wanted the invoices to be sent or just to have copies of the statements of the account sent, and just click a button and boom it's done, then keep track of what's in the trust account, what's in operations account, and if I need to pay the invoice with funds from the trust account, I'd literally just click approve and apply for money from trust, and it's done just like that.
Mark Brinkworth: I mean something that would have taken me maybe a half an hour for one thing I can get done in no time because you can also do batch invoices from Clio now.
Mark Brinkworth: Or maybe you always could, but I've only recently learned about it. But yeah, it's definitely a huge time saver as far as that goes.
Then, Lexicata has been fantastic. Instead of having to call people up or write out an individual email reminding them of upcoming either court appearances or appointments in the office, something, I can just automate that. So when I set the appointment, it integrates with my calendar, it automatically feeds or populates in my calendar, then the reminder email is automated as well. So I can set the time that I'm gonna to have that reminder go out, be it a couple hours, a couple days beforehand, whatever, but it still then sends a reminder out. So I know that I'm reminding the clients, and if they don't show up then that's kind of, you know, on them. It's not that I haven't done my part to try and keep them on task. So that's been really helpful.
Then you can also just set it, you know if you use the drip campaign feature in Lexicata, you can just have it send up, just send out periodic reminders to leads to let them know that you're still out there, and if they have any issues that they need assistance with that they can give you a call. And I think that keeping yourself first and foremost in their mind is … it may not pay immediate dividends, but in the long run, it will help.
Mark Brinkworth: Because I think people are gonna remember that one, you stayed in touch. I mean an example the other day I had sent out a consultation follow-up email to a lead, and it was a couple weeks after I had spoken with this person, and I got an email back saying that they had talked to literally probably 50 attorneys and I was the first one that had ever bothered to follow up with them and see how they're doing.
Mark Brinkworth: And they were just floored that I had even bothered to do that. And did I do it? Yeah, I didn't sit there typing up the email, but I had clicked a button to send the follow-up email. I had thought about them and thought about trying to follow up with them, but yeah I was just amazed. Like, "No one has bothered to follow up?" I mean just from a financial standpoint, that's stupid.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. But it's understandable, right? When you don't have these systems in place. Do you think maybe two years ago before you had Lexicata, would you have followed up with them? I mean if you're honest, probably not, right?
Mark Brinkworth: No, no. I've thought about following up, but then I was like, "Ah, it's gonna take too much time, I don't have time to do that." So I wouldn't do it. I'd think about it, and now I just go click and set it for a time. I mean I can schedule the follow-up email to go out a couple weeks after I've spoken with them, and I click and forget. You know, I forgot that I scheduled it, then it'll go out, then I get something back saying, "Hey, thanks for the follow-up. We're still thinking about it," or "We're trying to get together the money but we're definitely still interested," so then it's like, "Alright, put you in the follow-up category again," and just keep following up with them. So the technology definitely helps.
Dave Aarons: Yeah, it's interesting, right? These are all these little email reminders, drip campaigns, follow-up emails, you know these are the little things that just like you said, you think, "Oh I should probably do that but it's gonna take some time, I got these other things I've got to do," and it's not because lawyers don't want to or don't see that there's value in it, it's just that when you weigh out, right, the primary tasks at hand, you've got a case that needs to get filed, you got these other things going on. You have to prioritize. Right? So those things inevitably fall by the wayside, so these systems are what make it possible for lawyers to be able to, you know, to be able to do the … I don't want to call it minutiae, but the little things, the little touches that clients really appreciate, and in your experience, all you get is an email back from the client saying, "Hey, thanks so much for following up." You did something two weeks ago, you clicked a button when you initially set up the, you did the consultation, then you set up a couple follow-up emails, then you just scheduled them, then you're getting emails weeks later from clients going, "Oh hey, thanks for following up, I appreciate that." As far as they're concerned, you sat down and wrote them an email, right?
Dave Aarons: But it's just happening with the click of a button, and that really is what makes … if attorneys had that ability, that capacity, I think every attorney would be following up and doing it, it's just they don't have the tools available to them.
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah. I mean I've told other attorneys about that, you know, because they'll lament the fact that having to follow up with clients or remind them about appointments and how that just is a big time waste for them and I'm like, "Oh, well I don't have to do that because I got this thing called Lexicata," and I was like, "It automatically will send out a reminder of the appointment." And their eyes light up and they're like, "What is this magic?" So I'll tell them about it.
Mark Brinkworth: Exactly. I'm like Gandalf in their eyes now, because I've got this reminder automatically slated to go out. In fact, one of the attorneys at our office, he's been in business for 25 years or so, and now he's kind of getting interested by it, because he's extremely busy, he does criminal law, and his assistant spends a pretty good amount of time calling clients to remind them about upcoming court appearances or in-office visits that they have going on, and that time could be freed up for her to be doing other more … I don't want to say more important, but more legal in nature as far as drafting things for him that he needs to get filed.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Mark Brinkworth: So it's a better use of the wage that he's paying her.
Dave Aarons: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, it's interesting, right? Because technology is such an important aspect of making legal services more affordable in this country, you know, because if lawyers don't have the time … well if you look at it from the other side, if they can streamline and make these things more efficient and spend less time doing all this stuff and you're talking about the document automation, then you have a bigger margin. You can afford to do things at a flat rate, because if you can do something for $750 but you know you've got all these systems on the back end that enable you to get the documents out the door instead of four hours, you know $150 an hour to $75, now you can do it in one or two, now you're making $400-$500 an hour. You know? So all of a sudden it becomes profitable to work with people affordably.
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah. Yeah definitely does.
Dave Aarons: This is such a big deal, I mean just bridging this gap, not only from a conceptual standpoint, obviously offering payment plans and looking at the real numbers of that, and we've talked a lot about the podcast, but also how do we, you know, inspire or encourage or show and illustrate to attorneys how important and critical and how much it can save in their ability to streamline their practice, then how that enables them to offer services more affordably because they can afford to do it because it just takes them less time to get these things out the door.
Mark Brinkworth: Yeah. Yeah, that's why I'm really looking forward to getting that document automation … I am not technologically inclined so other people might have a much easier time getting the document automation feature of Clio going, but that is not me. But I'm trying to get that going, because I do realize that if I can start getting these things just turned out by hitting a button, obviously there are some aspects of a petition or a motion that obviously need to be individualized. You can't just automate everything, but still, if you reduce the time that you spend drafting from say two hours to 15 minutes, that's a huge difference. And what would have taken you all day long to churn out four of those, you can do in an hour.
Mark Brinkworth: You think about the increase in how much money you're bringing in, and it's just like, "Oh wow." I mean I get giddy thinking about it.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. Well I mean it takes something that … maybe you can share your thoughts on this, but a lot of lawyers I would think without that understanding or without those systems in place and it taking them four hours, they'd look at a five hour document, $750 unbundled service or a $1000 whatever, it isn't worth their time, right?
Dave Aarons: But in reality, when you have good systems in the back end and it only takes you an hour or two to get a $750 document or $1000 service out the door unbundled, the effective hourly rate on that is $500, so it's taking what everyone is perceived, obviously there's a high volume of this in the market. You've got 60, 70% of the market filing prose and needing lawyers, and the main reason being that attorneys charge five grand up front, and the average person, like we talked about earlier, blue-collar making $10, $20 an hour can't afford to shell out that much money up front. And most lawyers just say, "Hey, once you get the money, let me know." Right? So there's obviously a huge amount of people that would love the opportunity to work with an attorney for a few hundred dollars or $500 or $1000 or $1500 max up front just to get started because they can fit that in their budget in a couple payments.
So there's a high volume, but everyone has always perceived that as low value. "Well I can't make money doing that, takes a long time to get the consultation, then you gotta intake the person, then you gotta manage it, and just to get it out the door takes an hour or two, or takes three, four hours. There's just no money in that." Right? But now all of a sudden with some of these tools and stuff, it takes what used to be a low-value service to a very high value, in fact it's almost higher than when you would just collect an up-front retainer and bill by the hour, because your normal hourly rate is $200 an hour, but if you can do something that's $750 and do that in two hours even, that's $375 an hour effective hourly rate, right?
Dave Aarons: It kind of flips the whole model on its head.
Mark Brinkworth: No totally. And I mean it proves you a point, the technology is definitely … it's increasing the money you can make and it's also increasing the access that people have to attorneys because it drops down the amount that you have to charge to keep the lights on as an attorney, but by doing that then it also opens up the avenues available to people that are working regular jobs and can't throw down five grand.
Mark Brinkworth: So it's very helpful, I think.
Dave Aarons: Can you take us through maybe chronical the evolution of the types of options you offered? Originally, whether it be you were doing a full retainer, then you started maybe offering half up front, then you started doing payment plans then started implementing some unbundled. Could you take us through kind of the cascade of how that's evolved for you as well as technology and certainly listening to the podcast and connecting with our community, then also just what you've been experimenting with on your own, of course, and how that's evolved, like phase-by-phase what you did and then kind of where things stand now.
Mark Brinkworth: Sure, I can try, yeah. Originally when I started it was pretty much this is the amount of the retainer. It may end up being more, it may end up being less, but once you have that, let me know. Then I started doing this and I signed up. Graham got me to do Law Pay, then I was starting to do the payments, because I liked the idea of having it secured by the credit or debit card, so it was kind of already set up and it wasn't something I had to wait for them to bring in the money every Friday or something. And that, I don't know, gave me a little bit of security in doing that, and I found I really didn't have … I had one or two people that the payments would bounce, but usually you'd call them and say, "Hey, this payment failed to go through," then "Okay, let me get some money in there," then they'd call me back and say, "You can try it now," and I'd try it and it would go through. Sometimes I've needed to adjust due to life circumstances what their payment was, but I would do it and it would be fine.
Then once that started, then started talking about doing some of the unbundled services with people. And I found a lot of times with the family law people, they could do some of that on their own but they really just like having the attorney and not having to worry about it, they've got enough on their mind. You know, they're thinking about their kids, they're thinking about their job, especially if it's a divorce, a lot of people, and they haven't been in the workforce in a long time, they are freaking out about their future.
Mark Brinkworth: And the last thing they want to do is have to worry about the rules of civil procedure and whether or not something's been filed within a certain time period and whether or not they've gotten responses [inaudible 00:50:02] that have been sent or they've sent out discovery, they don't want to do that. So they want to do full representation because they like the peace of mind that comes with it, and they like having someone else worry about it and just tell them, "You need to show up at this date and time. Everything's gonna be fine." Then they can go about, you know, trying to find that job that they haven't had in 15 years or worrying about their kids and how their kids are dealing with the divorce. So the majority, I think a majority of the cases that I've actually gotten from the leads that have brought in, I think about … I don't know the percentage of people that we've actually gotten into the office for consultations, but I think of the people that have come in for consultations, we've probably signed up 85, 90% for full representation.
Mark Brinkworth: So if you can give them certainty, I think certainty gives them more peace of mind, they're in a very turbulent time as it is, so people, they like having an endpoint in mind. And I think that would help out a lot. I know with uncontested divorces, I know we charge a flat rate for that, but we also put into the attorney-client agreement that if it becomes contested, that then it won't remain just a flat rate fee, and we keep track of the hours that we spend on it until the case has ended or concluded and the divorce is finalized, because then that would transition into a retainer type situation and hourly rate, but I want to get it to the point where even that is a flat rate fee.
Dave Aarons: Yeah. Yeah, we've had a lot of attorneys that have been doing a lot more flat rates, and I think what's been common is they've been breaking the cases up into segments. You know, like phase one is this, phase two is this, phase three is this, then doing a flat rate for each segment, then clients can kind of pay as they go, right?
Dave Aarons: So you can break it down into segments of the case or you can break it down right to the task, right? It really depends on the client and what you're most comfortable with and what works well for you. The idea is really just, "Okay, how can we meet the need of the client legally to their financial budget?" And the average budget of the person is $200, $300, $400, $500 a month, right? Okay, so they can either do some work themselves and you do an unbundled or you find a payment plan or you do it as a flat rate and break it up into segments, but it's really just bridging that gap, finding a way to fit in what needs to get done to what they can afford and there's just a lot of ways to do that.
Dave Aarons: But it's all this kind of unbundling, thinking about it in a different way doing the full rep up front, the big retainer initially.
Dave Aarons: I mean we gotta slow down just to give you time to implement all the systems, you know?
Mark Brinkworth: … To sit down and think about the rates that I would charge and kind of calculate and go through and figure out what those rates would be, because I mean if I'm not in court I'm usually on the phone with leads. Graham, another idea of his was … Because I was having a hard time. I'll admit I was having a hard time calling leads as they came in, so I could literally see in my mind his eyes rolling in his head when we'd talk and I'd be like, "Oh, I didn't get to them 'till four, five hours later." And he's, "Oh my god," so then he's like, "Look, just pay someone $5 or something to set up the phone consultations so at least they contact the lead when it comes in." I'm like, "Okay." So I try it and I actually have my sister doing that for me, she's a stay-at-home mom and she likes getting a little bit of extra income, and she is far more personable on the phone than I am in the beginning, I think that's kind of a holdover from when I was a cop. I mean her nickname was doubled, and she calls people up and she's talking with them and she'll get the phone consultation set up. It's great.
So they know that the request has been received, and then they know that they're gonna be speaking with me, then I don't have to drop everything that I'm doing ever 15 minutes. I mean in the last week I think I got 23 leads.
Mark Brinkworth: So it's like I'd never get anything done if I was stopping to call people and talk to them for a half hour every time I had a lead come in.
Mark Brinkworth: So that's been really helpful doing that.
Dave Aarons: Well and also what she's doing is really just scheduling the appointment, right?
Mark Brinkworth: Exactly, yeah, she just sets up a time for them to talk with me and she has absolutely nothing to do with deciding whether or not we sign them as an agreement as a client or they hire us or anything, she doesn't talk about the law or anything like that, it's very personable and sets a time for them to talk to me.
Mark Brinkworth: And that's been great as far as that goes.
Dave Aarons: But if it's just someone … it really just needs to be someone that's good with people that like people and feel warm. They're the first experience of the firm, just say, "Hey, welcome, we're looking forward to helping you out. Let's get you on the phone with Mr. Brinkworth," just someone that makes people feel good when they first start out, right?
Mark Brinkworth: Right. Yeah, I specifically and purposefully don't talk with her about legal aspects of family law, because I don't want her starting to think well maybe she can talk to them about the law. Her default response is pretty much, "I'm sorry, I don't know that you'll have to talk to the attorney about that." Because I don't want there to be any mistake about them saying, "Well your assistant said this." It's like, "No she didn't because we've never even talked about that, so that's not possible." And she knows that, so we've talked about it. That's one nice thing about having … they say don't work with your family, but she's my oldest sister and we've talked pretty extensively about things, and I've made it very clear to her that I don't want her talking with them about the legal aspects, because she's not a licensed attorney and that can get me in a lot of trouble. So she sets the consultations, phone consultations, and she's personable and bubbly and that's it.
Dave Aarons: Yep, exactly. Yeah, well listen, Mark, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you just kind of sharing so openly about just the journey of implementing these options. I mean this is the journey that if we are going to make legal services for everyone in this country and kind of lighten the load on legal aid and lighten the load on the courts of [inaudible 00:57:45] and really shift what's a real problem in the United States as far as just the amount of people just going unrepresented, getting no help. This is the journey that lawyers have to go through to get to the point that they can start to offer these options and there's the tools and implementing these tools and a lot of resistance toward that. And lawyers are going through that and you're just sharing how it's been for you and how it's been kind of like, "Uh." And you know, I guess kudos to Graham, we've been able to help with that and so forth. I crack up every time when you say that, but you know, we're really … it's not easy to implement these new systems, but gosh, on the other end it just makes things so much easier once they're all in place, and that's really the growth that we need to see.
And a lot of the new lawyers, we see them just coming out with smart phones and working off their laptops, and to have these tools immediately implemented and so forth, and we're hearing about some incubators, but that's generations ahead of us and the challenge right now is the attorneys that have been doing this for a long time, they gotta find a way to implement these things in their practice, so I really just thank you for giving that perspective and honoring the fact that you want to do this, but sometimes you got a lot on your plate, and just the way you've implemented these things obviously are making a big difference, and your example really helps to illustrate how that works.
Dave Aarons: A thorn in the side, you know?
Mark Brinkworth: … For not giving up and prodding me along, yeah. Sometimes I'm like, "Okay I'll do it just to get you to stop." And I'll try it, but it usually ends up being happy that I did listen to him.
Dave Aarons: Well Graham listens to every podcast episode, so I'm sure he'll be cracking up and he'll appreciate you saying that. We don't mean to be a thorn in the worst way of the way, but I'm glad all these things have worked out for you. And we certainly mean well when we encourage you.
Mark Brinkworth: No, yeah, I mean it's a catch 22 because you sign up for this because you're wanting to grow your practice, then when you tell me things that try and help me grow the practice you're like, "You're not an attorney, you don't know what you're talking about," with attorneys we tend to get a little arrogant in our thinking and think that we're the only ones that know the right answer to something, so gotta love him, he's been persistent and not given up on that. And if he can persuade attorneys to change their mind, then he can do just about anything. Because we're pretty headstrong.
Dave Aarons: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, it's not easy. You got a lot on your plate. I mean we understand, we empathize, we're on your side and we understand what you're dealing with, and the times are changing and anyone in any industry that's got technology impacting and shifting things and the way it is, and smartphones just came out and everyone had them the next year. I mean it's just crazy.
Dave Aarons: So we're all doing our best and I appreciate you for doing your best and implementing this stuff and taking the coaching and taking the direction. Because as headstrong as you might think you are, I mean we work with a lot of lawyers that we just can't get them to budge at all, and it just doesn't work out. I mean it just doesn't because you have to have some of these tools in place in order to serve the people that we're trying to serve here. So I appreciate you for applying it.
Mark Brinkworth: I think it's kind of like when I'm dealing with clients and I'm telling them, you know, they gotta keep in mind what's in the best interest of their child. Attorneys you have to keep in mind what's in the best interest of your practice so it may not be something that you really want to do at first, but in the long run, it's probably in your firm's best interest. And if it doesn't, I mean you can stop doing it. It's not set in stone, you don't have to keep doing it.
Dave Aarons: Yep. Yeah, and it's just working on one thing at a time. You know, Bryan Reedy talked about this in his podcast episode, he's just constantly just kind of refining and improving and implementing new tools and working on systems, it's a daily … you know the concept, it's a Japanese concept of Kaiza where you just small daily improvements gradually to huge advantages over time, and just continue working on improving the way you do things, implementing new systems, testing things out, and trying to modernize the best you can. And that's the way things unfold over the course of months and even years.
Dave Aarons: all right, so with that, we wrap up this episode. Thank you again, Mark, for your time and suggestions. your perspective it's really really helpful. For everyone else is listening we surely appreciate everything you're doing with all these different types of systems in your practice. In this changing times, we really appreciate your feedback on you know how much is getting on the podcast. Also, we really appreciate the work you're doing to implement these new technologies in finding more creative ways to work with folks and bridge in the access to justice gap. I think with our cooperative efforts there will come a day in the next few years when this won't be a problem in our country anymore. With that, I'd like to wrap it up and we'll see you in the next episode.
What did you think of the interview? Do you have any questions or comments for Dave Aarons or for our guest Mark Brinkworth?


text:
U.N. Chief Urges Action on 'Killer Robots' as Geneva Talks Open
15th December, 2021. // General Interest, Technology //
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for new rules covering the use of autonomous weapons as a key meeting on the issue opened in Geneva.
Negotiators at the U.N. talks have for eight years been discussing limits on lethal autonomous weapons, or LAWS, which are fully machine-controlled and rely on new technology such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition.
But pressure has increased in part due to a U.N. panel report in March that said the first autonomous drone attack may have already occurred in Libya.
"I encourage the Review Conference to agree on an ambitious plan for the future to establish restrictions on the use of certain types of autonomous weapons," Guterres said at the start of the five-day talks.
Political Cartoons on World Leaders
The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons has 125 parties including the United States, China and Israel.
Some participating states such as Austria call for a total ban on LAWS while others including Washington have been more reticent and have pointed to potential benefits of such weapons which might be more precise than humans in hitting targets.
Amnesty International and civil society groups are calling for countries to start negotiating an international treaty and will present a petition to negotiators later on Monday.
"The pace of technology is really beginning to outpace the rate of diplomatic talks," said Clare Conboy of Stop Killer Robots. "(This) is a historic opportunity for states to take steps to safeguard humanity against autonomy in the use of force."
France's Disarmament Ambassador Yann Hwang, who is president of the talks, called for "key and vital decisions" to be taken this week. However, diplomats say the body, which requires consensus, is unlikely to reach agreement launching an international treaty, with Russia among others expected to oppose such a step.
"There is not enough support to launch a treaty at this stage but we think some principles could be agreed for national implementation," said a diplomat involved in the talks.
If no agreement can be reached, countries might move talks to another forum either inside or outside the United Nations.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

// @phan-file-suppress PhanPossiblyFalseTypeArgument

namespace Tests\Feature;

use App\Models\DuesPackage;
use App\Models\DuesTransaction;
use App\Models\Payment;
use App\Models\User;
use Database\Seeders\UsersSeeder;
use Illuminate\Http\UploadedFile;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
use Illuminate\Testing\Fluent\AssertableJson;
use Tests\TestCase;

class ResumeTest extends TestCase
{
    /**
     * Test the validation of resume book uploads.
     */
    public function testResumeUpload(): void
    {
        $user = $this->getTestUser(['member']);

        $this->seed(UsersSeeder::class);
        $alternateUser = User::where('id', '!=', $user->id)->first();
        $alternateId = $alternateUser->id;

        // Underscore ensures the UsersSeeder can't create that username even with a lot of luck
        $fakeUserId = '_nonexistentuser';

        Storage::fake('local');

        // Check they started with no resume uploaded
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->get('/users/'.$user->id.'/resume');
        $response->assertStatus(404);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'The requested user has no resume.');
        });

        // Check they started with no resume uploaded when searching by uid instead of id
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->get('/users/'.$user->uid.'/resume');
        $response->assertStatus(404);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'The requested user has no resume.');
        });

        $textFile = UploadedFile::fake()->create('resume.txt', 100);
        $bigTextFile = UploadedFile::fake()->create('resume.txt', 1000100);
        $docxFile = UploadedFile::fake()
            ->createWithContent('resume.docx', file_get_contents(resource_path('test/resume.docx')));
        $image = UploadedFile::fake()->image('resume.png');
        $onePagePdfContents = file_get_contents(resource_path('test/resume.pdf'));
        $pdfOnePage = UploadedFile::fake()
            ->createWithContent('resume.docx', $onePagePdfContents);
        $pdfTwoPage = UploadedFile::fake()
            ->createWithContent('resume.docx', file_get_contents(resource_path('test/resume-twopage.pdf')));

        // Check an upload for a nonexistent user fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$fakeUserId.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfOnePage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(422);
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$fakeUserId.'.pdf');

        // Check an upload for another user fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$alternateId.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfOnePage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(403);
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$alternateId.'.pdf');

        // Check an upload with no dues transaction fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfOnePage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(403);
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'inactive');
        });

        // Create dues package / transaction / payment
        $package = DuesPackage::factory()->make();
        $package->effective_end = now()->addMonths(10);
        $package->restricted_to_students = true;
        $package->save();
        $transaction = new DuesTransaction();
        $transaction->user_id = $user->id;
        $transaction->dues_package_id = $package->id;
        $transaction->save();
        $payment = new Payment();
        $payment->payable_id = $transaction->id;
        $payment->payable_type = DuesTransaction::getMorphClassStatic();
        $payment->method = 'square';
        $payment->amount = $package->cost;
        // @phan-suppress-next-line PhanTypeMismatchPropertyProbablyReal
        $payment->processing_fee = 0;
        $payment->save();

        // Ideally this would check that uploading no file fails nicely, but there's no easy way to fake that.

        // Check an upload of a PNG fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $image,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(400);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'resume_not_pdf');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        // Check an upload of a TXT fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $textFile,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(400);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'resume_not_pdf');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        // Check an upload of a DOCX fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $docxFile,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(400);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'resume_not_pdf');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        // Check an upload of a multi-page PDF fails
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfTwoPage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(400);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'resume_not_one_page');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        // Check file size limit
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $bigTextFile,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(400);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'too_big');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        $package->restricted_to_students = false;
        $package->save();

        // Check student status is checked
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfOnePage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(403);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'ineligible');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        $package->restricted_to_students = true;
        $package->save();

        // Check an upload of a single page PDF passes
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$user->id.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfOnePage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(200);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'success');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertExists('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.pdf');

        // Check that the timestamp was set
        $user->refresh();
        // Give a +/-5sec tolerance on the comparison
        $this->assertEqualsWithDelta($user->resume_date->timestamp, now()->timestamp, 5);

        // Check that the resume can be downloaded
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->get('/users/'.$user->id.'/resume');
        $response->assertStatus(200);
        $response->assertHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
        $response->assertHeader('Content-Length', strlen($onePagePdfContents));
        $response->assertSee($onePagePdfContents);

        // Check that another user's resume cannot be downloaded
        $response = $this->actingAs($alternateUser, 'api')->get('/users/'.$user->id.'/resume');
        $response->assertStatus(403);

        // Check that a resume cannot be uploaded for another user
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'api')->post('/api/v1/users/'.$alternateId.'/resume', [
            'resume' => $pdfOnePage,
        ]);
        $response->assertStatus(403);
        $response->assertJson(static function (AssertableJson $json): void {
            $json->where('status', 'error')
                ->where('message', 'You do not have permission to upload that resume.');
        });
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$alternateId.'.pdf');

        // Check that nothing crazy happened with storing wrong extensions
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.txt');
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.png');
        Storage::disk('local')->assertMissing('resumes/'.$user->uid.'.docx');
    }

    public function testNonexistentResumeDownload(): void
    {
        $user = $this->getTestUser(['member']);
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'web')->get('/users/_nonexistentuser/resume');
        $response->assertStatus(422);

        $user = $this->getTestUser(['admin']);
        $response = $this->actingAs($user, 'web')->get('/users/_nonexistentuser/resume');
        $response->assertStatus(422);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Human Rights Preparedness of African States for the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
A number of human rights issues have emerged regarding how African states went about declaring states of emergency and implementing emergency measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A review of the emergency laws provided in their constitutions indicates that most African states are human rights-prepared to deal with emergencies, coupled with their public health emergency laws. However, these constitutional provisions were put aside in confronting the pandemic, thereby resulting in significant human rights violations, especially among vulnerable segments of the population.
Emergencies and derogations
A state of emergency, under article 4(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), is a condition that 'threatens the life of the nation'. Both the ICCPR and regional human rights treaties (except the African system) allow for derogations that sanction restrictions of certain rights during emergencies, but subject any such restrictions to the strictures of international law. To reach the threshold, a state of emergency should—among others—meet the necessity, proportionality, legality and legitimacy tests.
Constitutional procedural limits
Consequently, a country's constitutional requirements for declaring and implementing a state of emergency should conform to these international legal standards. In South Africa and Kenya, their constitutions specifically make mention of the fact that any legislation passed to deal with an emergency should be consistent with the country's 'obligations under international law applicable to states of emergency'. These international obligations will obviously be in reference to the ICCPR but not the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Charter). Ghana's 1992 constitution, by contrast, does not directly subject its emergency provisions to the dictates of international law. Further, under article 31(10), the constitution allows for all rights to be derogated from during periods of emergency.
In most of the African states' constitutions studied, whether they reference international standards or not, the normal constitutional process is to grant the President the power to declare a state of emergency which should be made public, for example, in the form of a gazette notification. This declaration is to last for a couple of days while the declaration is receiving parliamentary approval. When approved, any other steps, including extension and modification of the measures, are subject to review and endorsement by Parliament.
The majority of African states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by proclaiming a state of emergency or state of national disaster while a few others did so by way of their public health emergency laws. In making declarations of emergency in response to the pandemic, several African states including Botswana, The Gambia, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal and Lesotho, went by way of the constitutional steps.
However, a good number of African states, including South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana, did not turn to the processes enshrined in their constitutional and legislative enactments to deal with emergencies. By omitting to do so, the executive ended up bypassing parliamentary oversight to make emergency laws without providing any justification for the broad and intrusive powers it allocated unto itself. The resultant human rights violations incurred in implementing the emergency measures, therefore, provide no clear-cut avenues for redress. To some extent, however, in the case of South Africa, the courts have successfully intervened to declare that some of the measures implemented were 'unconstitutional and invalid ' because they did not meet the 'rationality test in [South African] public law'. Arguably, the victory was only cosmetic and not substantive.
The African Charter and derogations
The closest the Charter comes to recognising a derogation is article 27(2), which provides that the rights in the Charter 'shall be exercised with due regard to the rights of others, collective security, morality and common interest'. However, article 27(2) reads more as a limitation on the enjoyment of rights by an individual than as a limitation on the power of the state to restrict the enjoyment of such rights.
In Amnesty International and others v Sudan, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACommHPRs) offered a rationale for the non-recognition of derogation clauses in the African Charter, explaining that 'the restriction of human rights is not a solution to national difficulties: the legitimate exercise of human rights does not pose dangers to a democratic state governed by the rule of law'. This means that, even during states of emergency, a state party is obligated to fully comply with its obligations under the Charter. Thus, in the case of Commission Nationale des Droits de l'Homme et des Libertés v Chad, the ACommHPRs decided that the Charter does not allow for states parties to derogate from their treaty obligations during emergency situations, even during a civil war: the civil war could not be used as a legal shield for failure to fulfil the legal obligations under the Charter. The Commission made a similar point in World Organisation Against Torture and others v Zaire.
These decisions establish a higher standard than that provided in the ICCPR. And according to article 5(2) of the ICCPR, African countries which are states parties to the ICCPR are required to comply with this higher standard.
Violations of rights
However, the records of African states indicate that violations have been rife during the COVID-19 emergency period, which raises questions about the relevance of this African Charter-based approach to dealing with emergencies and derogations. Further, the fact that all African states have emergency provisions in their constitutions is an indication that the non-derogation approach in the Charter is not endorsed.
Within the ambit of the proclamations made, the policy measures, laws and regulations enacted to control the spread of the disease resulted in the suspension and subsequent criminalisation of the following human rights, among others: the right to education (closure of schools); freedom of religion (suspension of services in churches and mosques); cultural rights (limitation of funerals to private burials); freedom of association (suspension of conferences, workshops, etc); political rights (suspension of political campaigning and elections); right to leisure (sporting events); and freedom of movement (imposition of curfews, closure of borders, lockdowns).
In addition, enforcement of these measures has resulted in many rights violations, including torture, beatings, shooting and excessive use of force (many resulting in deaths and injuries). There have also been arrests without trial, violations of press freedom against journalists reporting on allegations of both corruption and distribution of equipment, food and other necessities among vulnerable populations on party and ethnic lines. Beyond this, gender-based violence has been reported in many countries. Above all, the right to health, which is at the heart of the emergency measures, is under strain and abuse in many African countries.
The ACommHPRs has issued a number of resolutions to remind African states of their rights obligations. However, not much has come out of it.
Apart from the criminalisation of rights enacted during the COVID-19 emergency to help bring the pandemic under control, the enforcement of these measures has resulted in further rights violations in many African countries. Thus, we see a number of African governments seeking to protect people's health and stop the pandemic by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, instead of relying on their constitutional provisions and international legal obligations, which have the potential to empower citizens, promote transparency and evoke trust. States that have done well, such as The Gambia, Senegal, Botswana and Malawi, and to a limited extent, South Africa (in terms of successful challenge of some measures in court), have relied on their constitutional provisions to deal with the emergency.
Written by Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua
Professor Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua is the representative Lecturer from The University of Ghana in the LL.M Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation course, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Cite as: Appiagyei-Atua, Kwadwo. "Human Rights Preparedness of African States for the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency", GC Human Rights Preparedness, 24 August 2020, https://gchumanrights.org/preparedness/article-on/human-rights-preparedness-of-african-states-for-the-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html
#AfricaCovid
#AfricaCovidEmergency
#AfricaCovidHumanRightsPreparedness
#HumanRightsPreparedness
Original Page: http://gchumanrights.org/gc-preparedness/preparedness-democracy/article-detail/human-rights-preparedness-of-african-states-for-the-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html


text:
Caint Stop.
Pete Freedman November 27, 2015
Erykah Badu's New Mixtape Features Andre 3000 and A Guy Who Sounds Like But Isn't Drake.
Perhaps because she already delayed its release once, Erykah Badu wasn't going to make her fans wait long into her But You Caint Use My Phone mixtape's rescheduled November 27 release date to hear her newest project. Rather, she released it right at the strike of midnight via iTunes and Apple Music. (The release will hit other digital services on December 4.)
Named after her classic 1997 cut "Tyrone," the mixtape is Badu's first release since she dropped her New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh LP in 2010. Created over a 12-day period in Badu's native Dallas, the new collection's 11 songs were each recorded alongside Dallas producer Zach Witness. Each track also centers around a phone theme.
In addition to Witness — called "Zach Witnessin" in a press release that made the rounds earlier this week and that also teased the album's so-called "TRap & B" sound — two other guests show up on the mixtape.
Most notably, Andre 3000, father of Badu's son Seven Sirius Benjamin, shows up for a verse on the song's final track, the Isley Brothers-sampling "Hello."
Also interesting: A rapper who sure sounds like noted Badu pal Drake appears on the songs "U Use To Call Me" and "Whats Yo Phone Number?" But alas, despite the fact that the hype surrounding this mixtape started with Badu covering Drake's "Hotline Bling," Badu has confirmed to Central Track that it's not the 6 God on these songs; rather, it's Atlanta rapper ItsRoutine (also known as Aubrey Davis), who has previously made waves for mimicking Drake, and who has been credited elsewhere as a co-writer on "Phone Down," the second track Badu teased from But You Caint Use My Phone.
Badu describes ItsRoutine to Central Track as a "brilliant writer" who "can only grow into his own," and tells us that she recently signed him to her Control Freaq record label.
Meanwhile, Badu's "Hotline Bling" reinterpretation — called "Cell U Lar Device" on the mixtape — is just one of a handful of re-imaginations included in the release. "Mr. Telephone Man" and "U Don't Have To Call" find Badu offering up her takes on the thusly named songs first made famous by New Edition and Usher, respectively. The Andre 3000 collaboration "Hello" also sees Badu making several lyrical references to Todd Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me."
As of this moment, you can purchase the mixtape on iTunes. At the time of this writing, the album is also available to be streamed in full right here or on the below player courtesy of Datpiff.
People in Dallas can also head to the Lab Art Gallery in Dallas' Design District to take part in a free-to-attend, Badu-hosted hometown release celebration and listening party for But You Caint Use My Phone starting at 9 o'clock tonight.
DallasFortWorthTEXAS 214 do you copy??Posted by Erykah Badu on Sunday, November 22, 2015
Previous ArticleBuzz Rankings: 11/26.
Next ArticleD-Rated.
Pete Freedman
Co-Founder, President, Publisher
Pete is the founder, editor and president of Central Track. He is the former music editor of the Dallas Observer. His work has been published in The Daily Beast, Deadspin, LA Weekly, Village Voice, Spin Magazine, The Miami Herald and The Toronto Star, among other major publications. The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has honored his long-form narrative writing and his blogging efforts alike. In 2009, NBCDFW.com named him one of the 25 Most Interesting People in DFW, a fact he remains all too eager to bring up at dinner parties.
Eric Grubbs January 20, 2022
Song Of The Day: Midlake — "Bethel Woods"
You Think These Austin Indie Bands Are Cool? They're Actually From DFW.
Song Of The Day: Lone Rebel — "All On Me"


PIKESVILLE, MD) – On this Fourth of July weekend, troopers will be looking for distracted, aggressive and impaired drivers as well as dangerous road conditions due to the pending storm.
Each of the 22 state police installations will have additional troopers on patrol conducting traffic enforcement. These initiatives will include DUI saturation patrols, speed enforcement as well as focusing on aggressive and distracted driving.
Troopers will also be on guard for any flooding or hazardous road conditions caused by the storm. Drivers are reminded strong winds and heavy rains can lead to standing water and cause power outages, leaving traffic lights not functioning properly.
The Fourth of July is a favorite holiday for many Americans. Families and friends gather to celebrate our country with food, parades, parties, and fireworks. For many people, the celebration includes alcohol, but the holiday quickly goes from festive to fatal when people choose to drive after drinking or drive aggressively.
DUI and DWI charges are serious offenses in Maryland. A conviction for DUI or DWI can haunt you for the rest of your life. If you are charged with driving while under the influence or driving while impaired by the Maryland State Police during the 4th of July weekend, contact the Law Offices of G. Randolph Rice, Jr., LLC for immediate legal help. (410) 694-7291. The Law Offices of G. Randolph Rice, Jr., LLC, is a Maryland DUI, DWI defense law firm and their attorneys can help resolve your DUI and DWI charges with the best possible outcome. Don't risk your future and your license, call an experienced attorney.


Felt rollers have been around for at least two decades, but have been used fairly infrequently. Recently it's become much more popular among World Cup service teams to use the felt-roller for fluoro application. The tool is used very much like a roto-cork, but it provides a unique and gentler application, and works alarming well to aid in the mechanical distribution of very high melt point powders on the base. We have used the felt roller primarily after ironing with high melt-point powders. We have also used it successfully for a very low-heat application of powder/liquid "slurries". My feeling is that the felt roller does a very efficient job of distributing materials on the surface for a uniform and durable surface coating without putting a lot of heat into the base. If you're concerned about race paraffin crystallization and cooling time (you know who you are), then this is a really excellent tool.
This roto tool works with a 100mm handle.


As a firefighter, you know how important it is to control air flow. Our wide range of portable ventilation fans, for example, can help you quickly and efficiently get the smoke out of any space. From PPV fans to air ducts, we have the equipment needed to control the situation.


Watching free channels such as Fox, History, and etc. even in 4K quality is of the preferred features of Roku. By clicking on "Top Free Channels" you can find all the free content that will come to your TV by buying a Roku device. Youtube placed on top of this list.


text:
LGBTQ2 for August 20
1308, France –
Jacques de Molay (1243 – March 18, 1314), the leader of the Knights Templar, who denied sexual relations with two of his servants, finally admits to it. He was the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, leading the Order from April 20, 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1307.Though little is known of his actual life and deeds except for his last years as Grand Master, he is one of the best known Templars.
Dr. E.C. Spitzka of New York presents the case of Lord Cornbury, the colonial governor of New York and New Jersey in the early 1700's, in a Chicago medical journal. Cornbury frequently appeared in public wearing female clothing. Spitzka describes Cornbury as a sexual pervert, "a degraded, hypocritical and utterly immoral being."
Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow.
The New York Times publishes a review of Edward Carpenter's (August 29, 1844 – June 28, 1929) autobiography. Carpenter's book was among the earliest in which an author self-identified as homosexual. He was an English socialist poet, philosopher, anthologist, and early activist for rights for homosexuals.
Davy Jones & The Lower Third released the single 'You've Got a Habit of Leaving' the last song that David Bowie (born David Jones), released before changing his name to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of The Monkees, and the first of two singles that he recorded with The Lower Third after leaving his previous band, The Manish Boys.
"Staircase," a film in which Rex Harrison and Richard Burton play lovers, has its world premiere. The film, like the play, is about an aging gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. One of them is a part-time actor about to go on trial for propositioning a police officer. The action takes place over the course of one night as they discuss their loving but often volatile past together and possible future without each other. t was panned by most critics, including Roger Ebert, who gave it one star in his review and called it "an unpleasant exercise in bad taste. Rarely seen on television, the film was broadcast by Turner Classic Movies during its June 2007 tribute to gay cinema.
Syndicated columnist Mike Royko includes Anita Bryant on a list of the ten most obnoxious people in America.
Barbra Streisand topped the Adult Contemporary chart for a fourth week with "My Heart Belongs to Me".
Ronald Reagan announces his opposition to the Briggs Initiative in California, which sought to ban homosexuals or anyone who was supportive of gay rights from being employed as a public school teacher. The Briggs Initiative, on the ballot as Prop 6, failed.
Canada – Seven men staged Gay Sit-in for Justice in the office of Ontario Attorney General Roy McMurtry to demand a meeting about police and legal harassment of the gay community.
Canada – At the Sarnia, Ontario/Port Huron, the Michigan international bridge, lesbians on their way to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival were harassed or turned back by U.S. Immigration officials. Formal complaints were made on behalf of Canadian women by the National Gay Task Force (NGLTF).
The Eurythmics remained at 2 for the third week with their biggest career hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)". the Human League was at #8–"(Keep Feeling) Fascination", Taco reached #9 with "Puttin on the Ritz" and Culture Club had another Top 10 with "I'll Tumble 4 (sic) Ya".
Madness, Joan Jett, The Police and R.E.M. all appeared at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
The New York State Consumer Protection Board announces that a one-month supply of AZT costs consumers anywhere from $900 to $3,000, depending on where it was purchased.
Elton John took a turn at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart with his eighth #1 AC hit–"I Don't Wanna' Go On With You Like That".
on the USA pop chart – George Michael's "Monkey' made an 8-2 move; Elton John's 47th hit and 23rd Top 10–"I Don't Wanna' Go On With You Like That" was at #4 with at 9 "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses and Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" moved into the Top 10.
Iran – More than 90 gay men were arrested at a private party in Iran. Under Iranian law, homosexuals can be sentenced to death with the testimony of four men.
A federal judge rules that Florida's law banning lesbians and gays from adopting children is valid, saying the state has a legitimate interest in allowing only married heterosexual couples to adopt. The law is considered the nation's toughest ban on gay adoptions, prohibiting adoptions by any gay or lesbian individual or couple. Anita Bryant's hate-based Save Our Children campaign in Dade County branded all gays as pedophiles.
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-58271187 LGBT in Afghanistan: 'I could be killed on the spot' – BBC NewsA gay student from Kabul tells Newsbeat how life has changed under the Taliban.www.bbc.com
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2021/08/20/polish-region-wants-to-remain-an-lgbt-free-zone-despite-risking-millions-in-eu-funds Polish region wants to remain an 'LGBT-free' zone despite risking millions in EU funds | EuronewsPolish region wants to stay 'LGBT-free' despite risking EU fundswww.euronews.com
meanwhile..
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/08/18/drag-race-uk-victoria-scone/ Six things you need to know about Drag Race UK's Victoria SconeDrag Race UK has made herstory by casting the franchise first cisgender woman performer Victoria Scone, and she's here to break some moulds.www.pinknews.co.uk
sources cited:
Today in LGBT History – AUGUST 20 | Ronni Sanlo
Daily Elvis: August 20
Author dykewriterPosted on August 20, 2021 August 20, 2021 Categories UncategorizedTags Anita Bryant, Attorney General Roy McMurtry, Barbra Streisand, Briggs Initiative in California, David Bowie, Edward Carpenter, Elton John, George Micheal, Jacques de Molay, Knights Templar, Lord Cornbury, Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, National Gay Task Force, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, Ronald Reagan, Staircase, Tracey Chapman
Previous Previous post: LGBTQ2 for August 19
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text:
Texas Sen. Angela Paxton Files Bill That Would Impact Attorney General's Office
Sen. Paxton's husband, Attorney General Ken Paxton, faces felony charges for failing to register as an investment adviser
By Julie Fine	• Published February 18, 2019 • Updated on February 18, 2019 at 7:17 pm
State Sen. Angela Paxton introduced a bill that would relax regulations around financial markets.
The bill would impact an agency that is overseen by the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton -- Sen. Paxton's husband.
Ken Paxton still faces a third degree felony charge for failing to register as an investment adviser.
A bill authored by state Sen. Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) could extend the power of Texas' Attorney General's office, according to a story first reported by the Texas Tribune.
Senate Bill 860 calls for a program that would exempt approved applicants from certain state regulations and would give them limited access to the financial market "without obtaining a license, registration, or other regulatory authorization."
The program would be administered by the consumer protection unit, which is part of the Attorney General Ken Paxton's office. The Attorney General is Sen. Paxton's husband.
coronavirus Mar 20, 2020
COVID-19 Tracker: What We Know About the Virus in DFW and Around Texas
coronavirus 45 mins ago
"She is filing a bill that would give her husband, as the Attorney General, additional authority over financial advisers and financial investment regulation," SMU political science professor Cal Jillson said.
Paxton himself is still facing a third-degree felony charge for failing to register as an investment adviser. Jillson said eyebrows might be raised because this bill would make similar activities legal in the future.
"I guess the most interesting part of this is why Angela Paxton didn't see these hurdles, why she has stepped into an area that will draw her ethical and political instincts into question," Jillson said.
Sen. Paxton sent NBC 5 a statement about the bill.
"I filed this bill because it's good policy for Texas, Texas job creators and consumers. It's based on an Arizona law which is serving that state well. Like all filed bills, this one will go through the legislative process and be modified as needed to reflect citizen and industry feedback."
NBC 5 reached out to the Office of the Attorney General, but has not heard back.
NBCtexasArizonaAttorney GeneralJulie Fine


text:
Miloš Ćuk (serbisk kyrilliska: Милош Ћук), född 21 december 1990 i Novi Sad, är en serbisk vattenpolospelare.

Ćuk spelade i det serbiska landslag som vann den olympiska vattenpoloturneringen i Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Ćuk tog VM-guld i samband med världsmästerskapen i simsport 2015 i Kazan. Han gjorde två mål i finalmatchen mot Kroatien som Serbien vann med 11–4. VM-silver tog han i samband med världsmästerskapen i simsport 2011 i Shanghai. Vid VM 2017 tog han en bronsmedalj.

Referenser

Serbiska vattenpolospelare
Serbiska olympiska guldmedaljörer
Olympiska guldmedaljörer 2016
Tävlande vid olympiska sommarspelen 2016 från Serbien
Tävlande i vattenpolo vid olympiska sommarspelen 2016
Världsmästare i vattenpolo
Europamästare i vattenpolo
Serbiska idrottare under 2000-talet
Personer från Novi Sad
Födda 1990
Levande personer
Män

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Tanjungharjo is een bestuurslaag in het regentschap Kulon Progo van de provincie Jogjakarta, Indonesië. Tanjungharjo telt 4024 inwoners (volkstelling 2010).

Plaats in Jogjakarta


Coast Communications, has through its PRGN office in Lisbon, for the Portuguese resort organization APR, staged an event in Stockholm at Grand Hotel on May 13. The theme of the event was the housing market in Portugal.
The house market in Portugal has developed well from relatively low levels. Among the guests were tax experts, financial experts, house brokers and potential buyers.
This was the first event where Coast Communications Denmark acted as lead agency for the Coast Group.
Coast Communications was founded in 2001 and has its own operations in Stockholm and Copenhagen with affiliates in Oslo and Helsinki. Since May 2006 Coast Communications is a proud member of PRGN, a global by invitation only network of independent agencies. Clients across six continents depend on the combined resources of the PRGN to deliver targeted public relations campaigns in markets around the world. With revenues of more than $110 million, PRGN is among the world's top four international public relations networks. www.prgn.com.


text:
TFC looses 1-0 to Fire
Filed under: MLS Preseason, Toronto FC
Toronto FC were beaten 1-0 by Chicago Fire in preseason action in Bradenton, Florida on Tuesday morning. Mike Banner scored the only goal of the game for Chicago in the 41st minute.Toronto had the best chance in the early stages of the game. In the 7th minute, Chad Barrett carried the ball from midfield but his fierce strike blazed over the bar. Two minutes later, Barrett's strike partner Dwayne De Rosario took a hard shot to the leg and needed time to recover but he was able to continue in the game.
De Rosario fed Johann Smith in 20th minute and Smith carved out a good goal scoring opportunity for himself. After a good run down the left, he escaped a challenge from Fire defender Roland Paul Bebey Kingue and raced into the box, but his shot rolled far wide of the right post. Soon after, Fire keeper Nick Noble smothered a shot from Chad Barrett to keep the game 0-0.
Five minutes before half time, Greg Sutton produced a good save to keep out Stefan Dimitrov, but he couldn't stop a free kick from Mike Banner a few seconds later which flew into the top left corner of the goal. That goal stood up as the game winner.
Both teams made a number of substitutions in the second half, and Danny Dichio almost made an immediate impact for TFC. He came into the game on the hour mark, and five minutes later Dichio sent a back heel pass into the path of Sam Cronin. His shot was saved by Fire keeper Andrew Dykstra.
Toronto couldn't find a way to get back into the game and fell to a 1-0 defeat. The Reds opened preseason with a 2-1 win against the U.S. Under 20s on Sunday and will wrap up their week in Bradenton with a game against the New York Red Bulls on Friday.
Toronto FC: Greg Sutton (Brian Edwards 45′), Darren Kenton, Kevin Harmse, Marco Velez, Jim Brennan, Rohan Ricketts, Carl Robinson (Kyle Hall 60′), Sam Cronin, Johann Smith (Gregory Richardson 45′), Dwayne De Rosario, Chad Barrett (Fuad Ibrahim 45′, Danny Dichio 60′)


text:
Eagles to cut ties with Westbrook
Thread starter @SkinsGoldPants
@SkinsGoldPants
The Philadelphia Eagles announced Tuesday they will release running back Brian Westbrook.
A news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET Tuesday to announce the move.
"Brian is one of the greatest Eagles of all time and he is an even a better person and leader," coach Andy Reid said. "In my mind, there has not been a more versatile running back that the NFL has seen. I had a conversation with Brian this morning to let him know. This is by far the most difficult part of this job. We wanted to make this move in order to maximize Brian's chances of landing with another NFL team."
Westbrook, who has been with the Eagles since 2002, is the franchise's all-time leader in yards (9,785) after being selected in the third round from Villanova.
"Brian Westbrook is one of the most electric players in the history of this franchise and is certainly also one of the most popular," Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement. "He was personally one of my favorite players to watch each and every Sunday and his playmaking abilities, leadership and values will be missed."
Said team president Joe Banner: "We all know how valuable Brian was as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles and he will certainly go down as one of the greatest Eagles of all time. But what really showed me how special a person Brian is, was watching the way he interacted with my children. That said more to me about Brian than anything else he could have done on the playing field. We will miss him both as a person and as a player."
First LT, now Westbrook. Writing on the wall, if you ask me.


"Earlier this year, Kathy, a Marshallese poet and spoken word artist, took a traditional canoe back to the islands of her elders, which are now a massive crater left by the detonation of the Bravo bomb in the Bikini Atoll. Her haunting poem and documentary Anointed shows the terrible impact of nuclear tests on human lives. Today, on the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, we're sharing her story and saying "never again". Will you join us? " Beactrice Fihn, International Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons.
Yet there is reason for optimism. Ever since the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban (CTBT) was negotiated in 1996, full-scale nuclear testing has largely come to halt even though the CTBT has yet to legally enter into force. It is widely recognised that the CTBT has contributed to a customary global norm against nuclear weapons testing . In the eyes of the world, it's morally unacceptable to do so.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons, negotiated last year, complements the CTBT by forbidding all development, possession, and use of nuclear weapons and recognises the 'unacceptable suffering of and harm caused to victims' of nuclear weapons use and testing . Crucially, it also has so-called positive obligations that states must meet: they must provide assistance including medical care, rehabilitation and psychological support for the victims of nuclear weapons use or testing and remediate areas contaminated as a result of 'activities related to' nuclear weapons use or testing .
But the work isn't over until we eradicate nuclear testing and nuclear weapons altogether!
If we are going to eliminate nuclear weapons, we need to keep emphasising the humanitarian risk and share the stories of the survivors of nuclear testing and use. On this International Day against Nuclear Tests, will you help us do so?