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Human Rights Council opens thirty-eighth regular session
18 شوال, 1439
OPENING RELEASE
Hears from the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, and the Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar
The Human Rights Council this morning opened its thirty-eighth regular session, hearing Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, deliver his last global update to the Council before his mandate ends in August 2018. The Council also heard an address by Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, and a statement by Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar.
Opening the session, Vojislav Šuc, President of the Human Rights Council, extended a warm welcome to the eight delegates from the least developed countries and small island States, including from the Marshall Islands, Samoa and Tonga, whose participation in the Council's session was made possible by the Voluntary Technical Assistance Fund. The President stressed that the United Nations, including the Council, had a zero tolerance for harassment, including sexual harassment. Concerning civil society and national human rights institutions, he emphasised that he would follow up on all allegations that he received concerning acts of reprisal and intimidation that were carried out in connection with the Human Rights Council, its mechanism and procedures.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, noting that this was his last global update before the Human Rights Council, drew attention to the universality of human rights and expressed concern over growing attacks against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Historically, the most destructive force to imperil the world was chauvinistic nationalism and the United Nations was conceived to prevent its rebirth. States must work for the human rights of all people, only then could peace be attained. He noted the situation of human rights in a number of countries, adding that every decision to cooperate with the international human rights system would help create openings towards a more harmonious society. The human rights ideal was the most constructive movement of ideas of the era. Undermining human rights and human rights law was in no way an act of patriotism. He said he departed an Office which was strong, absolutely committed to its gargantuan task, and which, in the face of heavy headwinds, had made progress.
Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, thanked High Commissioner Zeid for his tireless services and said that at its best, the Council had shone a spotlight on appalling violations of human rights in specific countries, and had given a voice to people who would have otherwise suffered in silence. Britain considered the Council to be part of the rules-based international system that it was striving to preserve, and it shared the view that a dedicated agenda item focused solely on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories was disproportionate and damaging to the cause of peace, adding that unless things changed, Britain would move next year to vote against all resolutions introduced under this agenda item.
Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar, noted that the High Commissioner had played an invaluable role in supporting the reform process in Qatar, and his encouragement and understanding of the importance of a multifaceted approach to human rights, including through sport, had allowed to Qatar to make significant strides in the last few years. He emphasised the value of sporting diplomacy, the power of which had been demonstrated earlier this year at the Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang when the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had marched together under a "Unified Korea" flag and competed with a unified ice hockey team. Qatar was working every day to ensure that the spirit of the World Cup was delivered ahead of 2022, which was a precious opportunity to celebrate common humanity and advance progress for human rights in the region.
The Human Rights Council is holding a full day of meetings today. Next, it will hear Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, present his first report to the Council. It will also hear the presentation of a report by Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, which will be followed by a clustered interactive dialogue with the two mandate holders.
The Council has before it the Agenda and annotations for the thirty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/38/1).
Statement by the President of the Council
VOJISLAV ŠUC, President of the Human Rights Council, opened the thirty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council, extending a warm welcome to the eight delegates from least developed countries and small island States, and in particular the delegates from the Marshall Islands, Samoa and Tonga. Their participation had been made possible thanks to the support of the Voluntary Technical Assistance Fund and its 22 donor countries. The President informed the Council that Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, and Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar, would address the Council during the meeting, after the oral update by the High Commissioner.
Mr. Šuc informed that in the three weeks ahead, four panel discussions were planned, as well as interactive dialogues with 21 Special Procedure mandate holders and two Commissions of Inquiry and 13 other interactive dialogues and general debates. The appointment of five Special Procedure mandate holders was also planned toward the end of the session. He emphasised that the United Nations, including the Council, had a zero tolerance for any harm or harassment, including sexual harassment and reporting of any incidents to any United Nations security officer was encouraged.
Furthermore, he said he could not stress enough that maintaining a safe space for the active participation of representatives of civil society and national human rights institutions was not only part of the mandate of this Council, but was also in their common interest. As President of this Council, he assured that he would follow up on all allegations that he received concerning acts of reprisal and intimidation that were carried out in connection with the Human Rights Council, its mechanism and procedures.
Statement by the High Commissioner for Human Rights
ZEID RA'AD AL HUSSEIN, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, noting that this was his last global update before the Human Rights Council, drew attention to the universality of human rights. He expressed concern over growing attacks against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations was as great or pathetic as the prevailing state of the international scene. Historically, the most destructive force to imperil the world was chauvinistic nationalism and the United Nations had been conceived to prevent its rebirth. States must work for the human rights of all people, only then could peace be attained. Certain States, through a pronounced sense of self-importance, were assaulting universal human rights and institutions. International institutions must be fearless in the face of chauvinistic nationalism.
This Council session would consider numerous essential issues. Among them, delegates had the report of his Office on Kashmir, and the coming report on Venezuela; they would also be informed of the findings of the Team of Experts on the Kasai regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And as he transitioned out of his position, the Office would continue its work on the database of business enterprises engaged in specific activities related to Israeli settlements, as called for by the Council, with an update possibly before September. At the September session, the Fact-Finding Mission report on Myanmar would be presented to the Council, alongside the report of the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar; and they would also receive the report on Yemen prepared by the eminent international experts. In that context, he emphasised his grave worry regarding the Saudi and Emirati-led coalition's on-going attacks in Hodeida – which could result in enormous civilian casualties, and had a disastrous impact on life-saving humanitarian aid to millions of people which comes through the port.
In Syria, the leadership's contempt for human rights laid the groundwork for conflict. His Office and the Council's Commission of Inquiry had been denied access to that country. Turning to Myanmar, he pointed to clear indications of continuing systematic attacks against Rohingya Muslims. In Kachin and Shan states, the conflict was escalating. Myanmar's response to the crisis had not met minimal standards of credibility or impartiality.
The Commissioner was set to release a report on the situation in Venezuela. In Burundi, access was being denied to the International Commission of Inquiry set up in 2016 and the Government continued restricting civic space. The High Commissioner said he had been pursuing substantive engagement with India and Pakistan over the past two years. He encouraged the Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the human rights situation in Kashmir and reiterated his call for access.
In Nicaragua, anti-government protests had led to the killing of at least 178 people, almost entirely at the hands of the police force. The gravity of the events could merit a Commission of Inquiry. Remote monitoring in the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea found little change to the country's longstanding, grave and systematic violations of human rights. He called on authorities to step up engagement with international human rights institutions. Making human rights a part of peace talks would lead to more sustainable peace.
Israel continued to deny access to the occupied Palestinian territory by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. In China, the High Commissioner's Office had not been granted unfettered access to the country. The High Commissioner remained dismayed by China's continuing efforts to prevent independent members of civil society from engaging with human rights mechanisms.
Turning to Turkey, he noted that an invitation for the High Commissioner to visit Ankara was not a substitute for access for the Office to directly and objectively assess the situation in the country. Unconditional access to Bahrain continued to be refused to the Commissioner's Office and Special Procedure mandate holders. He deeply regretted the lack of progress regarding access to the Office to all protracted conflicts in the South Caucasus. In South Sudan, human rights institutions were being denied access to regions where alleged rights violations were taking place. There was a pattern of rights violations, including rape, perpetrated by Government forces.
The High Commissioner welcomed Security Council resolutions on Western Sahara and voiced concern over the suspension of a visit to Rwanda by the Sub-Committee on the prevention of torture. He said he was concerned by the suspension of a visit to Rwanda by the Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture late last year, due to serious obstruction regarding access to some places of detention; the confidentiality of interviews; and concerns about potential reprisals. In Indonesia, he was concerned that despite positive engagement by the authorities in many respects, the Government's invitation to my Office to visit Papua – which was made during his visit in February – had still not been honoured.
Bangladesh granted extensive and commendable access to his Office and all relevant human rights mechanisms with respect to the Rohingya refugee crisis. However, Bangladesh had over 10 outstanding requests for visits by mandate holders to assess the human rights situation in the country itself. Despite Mexico's record of openness, there remained a lack of access for the Committee on Enforced Disappearances. In Cameroon, he expressed hope that ongoing dialogue would result in the approval of a mission by the Office to all parts of the country. Russia had been repeatedly asked for access to Crimea, in line with United Nations General Assembly requests.
Almost 40 States had received no visit by a Special Rapporteur over the past five years, despite requests. Among them, 15 States had more than five pending visits: Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The High Commissioner stressed that attempts by Governments to selectively cherry-pick mandates they would invite undermined the integrity of the entire international human rights architecture.
He deplored the openly voiced refusal of a number of States to cooperate with this Council's Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. Notably, the Russian Federation had formally refused to respond to any communications from the mandate-holder, including joint submissions with other experts mandated by the Council, despite serious allegations of violence, discrimination and exclusion of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, especially in Chechnya. In many States, people faced violence and bigotry based on sexual or gender orientation. Ending discrimination and violence was essential to the United Nations' principles.
On a positive note, he said there was an increased response rate to communications and welcomed Afghanistan's accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He lauded increased efforts by several States to strengthen cooperation of international human rights bodies. He encouraged all States to build on these good practices.
At the same time, he was pleased to note a number of positive developments with respect to access for the Special Procedures. These included an increased response rate to communications, now at 68 per cent (an increase of 13 per cent over 2016); and Afghanistan's issuance of a standing invitation to all mandate-holders, taking the number of States having done so to 118 UN Member States and one non-member Observer State. He noted and commended the following States which had hosted at least five visits by thematic mandates in the last five years: Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Chile, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Regarding engagement with the treaty bodies, he welcomed long-outstanding reports to the Committees by Bangladesh, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Tonga and Zambia, and applauded Qatar's accession to the Covenants and Afghanistan's accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, alongside many other ratifications. His Office stood ready to support them in efforts to implement these commitments to ensure respect for their people's rights, and he urged other countries which had not ratified these and other human rights treaties to do so.
High Commissioner Zeid noted that he was impressed with Ethiopia's commitment to undertake reforms that would advance the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights. He noted that Armenia had decided to enable his Office to assist in upholding the rights of Armenians. Tunisia was commended for its extensive cooperation with the Office and Special Procedures. Access to rights institutions was also granted in the Republic of Moldova and Uzbekistan had welcomed a special mandate holder after 15 years of refusals. Libya had accepted its first ever mission from a mandate holder. Human rights advisors had also been deployed to Belarus and Zimbabwe.
People did not lose their human rights by virtue of crossing a border without a visa. He was increasingly alarmed by limits to the access of civil society organizations to migrants. In Hungary, a bill was presented to Parliament that would effectively criminalize human rights monitoring at borders. He expressed deep concern over recent policies adopted by the United States that led to the forceful separation of children from their families. The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting abuse on children was unconscionable. The High Commissioner encouraged Washington to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Every decision to cooperate with the international human rights system would help create openings towards a more harmonious society. The human rights ideal was the most constructive movement of ideas of the era. Undermining human rights and human rights law was in no way an act of patriotism. Such actions would only result in exploitation and disaster. True patriotism consisted of creating inclusive societies able to live in peace. He said he departed an Office which was strong, absolutely committed to its gargantuan task, and which, in the face of heavy headwinds, had made progress.
Statement by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom
BORIS JOHNSON, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, thanked High Commissioner Zeid for his tireless services and said that at its best, the Council had shone a spotlight on appalling violations of human rights in specific countries, and had given a voice to people who would have otherwise suffered in silence. Britain considered the Council to be part of the rules-based international system that it was striving to preserve, said Mr. Johnson, and noted that Britain shared the views that a dedicated agenda item focused solely on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories was disproportionate and damaging to the cause of peace. That was why, unless things changed, Britain would move next year to vote against all resolutions introduced under this agenda item. At the same time, Britain was not blind to the value of this Council - including the work it could do on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under the right agenda item – and it supported the emphasis on freedom of religion and the empowerment of women.
Mr. Johnson then underlined the critical importance of educating girls and recognized the reality in which 130 million girls were not in the classroom, the reality in which female illiteracy in some countries was at 60, 70 or even 80 per cent, and the reality in which there were bigoted fanatics who waged campaigns to stop girls from going to school, including the terrorists of Boko Haram. "There is something peculiarly tragic about how a motley band of obscurantist terrorists should have made learning the written word an act of courage, fraught with risk and danger," said Mr. Johnson, and stressing that educating girls was the single most powerful spur to development and progress, said that this year, the British Government had devoted an extra £500 million to the cause of female education and was helping another 1.4 million girls in 15 countries to receive a minimum of 12 years of quality education and learning.
Statement by the Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar
HASSAN AL THAWADI, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of Qatar, expressed his great honour for addressing the Council and noted that the High Commissioner had played an invaluable role in supporting the reform process in Qatar, and his encouragement and understanding of the importance of a multifaceted approach to human rights, including through sport, had allowed Qatar to make significant strides in the last few years. Mr. Al Thawadi noted that human progress had transformed the world into a global village thanks to rapid advancements in technology and communication, allowing for cross-cultural interaction. Nonetheless, the world was speedily rushing towards a breaking point, straining the ties that bound people; ideological divides had also been splitting nations. Sport transcended society and the power of sporting diplomacy had been demonstrated earlier this year at the Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang when the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had marched together under a "Unified Korea" flag and competed with a unified ice hockey team. Through sport, deeply entrenched divisions had been cast aside and the Korean Peninsula had been united to cheer on their athletes.
That had been Qatar's inspiration for bidding to host the World Cup and working every day to ensure that the spirit of the World Cup was delivered ahead of 2022. People from all corners of the world would visit Qatar in 2022 and it would be their first experience of the Middle East. The World Cup had the power to drive forward the change required to ensure the health, safety, security and dignity of the people and Qatar's journey on implementing necessary reforms had been accelerated as a result of the World Cup. At the Supreme Committee level, Qatar had implemented a set of rigorous worker welfare standards. Joint inspections focused on occupational health and safety and allowing for workers' voices to be heard, as well as carrying out software and technical skills training to support workers in their careers. The wage protection system was fully functioning, ensuring workers were paid in full and on time.
In closing, Mr. Al Thawadi emphasised that for Qatar, the Middle East and for the international community, the 2022 World Cup would be a precious opportunity to celebrate common humanity and advance progress for human rights in the region.
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All electrical contractors will have six months from this date to implement the changes into their projects and testing / certification work.
What are the Wiring Regulations or 'regs' as they are sometimes called?
The IET Wiring Regulations is a national standard (British Standard BS 7671) for electrical installation. It is basically a rather large book of rules and regulations which must be met for each and every electrical installation.
The 1st edition of the Wiring Regulations (regs) was issued way back in 1882 in an attempt to minimise fire and injury resulting from incorrectly installed wiring and electric lighting. The protective device was a re-wirable fuse.
Several editions of the 'regs' were released over the following years, each issue improving the safety requirements of electrical installations, this has continued right up to the present day 17th edition.
There have been three amendments to the 17th edition since its release in 2015.
So when is the 18th edition deadline?
From January 1 2019, it will then be a requirement that all electrical installations designed after this date comply with BS 7671:2018, 18th Edition (2018).
An ability to show a level of understanding and awareness of the changes will be a priority for everyone involved in the Techniserve team.


text:
Ecology-Education
Ecosystem, food web
Native shrubs, trees
Urban farms, gardens
Health-Justice
Cities-Parks
Nutrition-Recreation
Restaurants, hospitality, catering
Net-Zero Energy
Renewable energy (solar, wind, geo-thermal energy)
Oceans, estuaries
Rivers, lakes
Storm water, infrastructure
Refuse-reduce-recycle
Citizen Science Conserves New Jersey Butterflies — and Keeps People Entertained During Quarantine
by Brianna Baker - Next City | Jul 16, 2020 | Ecology, Education, Mercer, New Jersey, Wildlife | 0 comments
An iNaturalist user checks out a previous monarch butterfly observation made as part of Tally the Valley. (Photo courtesy: Rachel Kaufman)
Every summer, New Jersey-based nonprofit Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) hosts a butterfly count. Volunteers gather on the nonprofit's meadow trails to identify and record all the specimens they can, to be submitted to the North American Butterfly Association's database.
The goal: monitor butterfly populations and increase public awareness about the importance of pollinators, whose numbers have been declining, to the health of local ecosystems. This year, FoHVOS decided to cap participation at 10 attendees, to limit the risk of transmitting coronavirus.
But to offer an option for those who can't join in person, the FoHVOS team brought the event to community members' cell phones. Through a program dubbed Tally the Valley, participants use iNaturalist— a free mobile app — to photograph and upload butterflies, along with a GPS tag, in Hopewell Township. Other participants, and even experts, can then weigh in to help identify the species.
"In the very beginning of COVID, we realized there was a feeling of loss and, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help, how can I benefit society?' You're stuck in your house, everyone is down and depressed. Let's get outside and figure out how we can make the pollinators happy."
Logan Horvath, Program Manager, Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space
But Tally the Valley won't stop at butterflies. Once the first phase of the program wraps up, FoHVOS will ask participants to track different species of plants, animals or insects. (A more detailed announcement will come later this year.)
Launched on June 20, Tally the Valley has netted over 200 observations so far. But Logan Horvath, program manager at FoHVOS, says those numbers are increasing by the day.
According to Horvath, Tally the Valley has a dual purpose. It's meant to recruit neighbors to collect biographical data that will guide efforts to boost biodiversity and species populations in the area. But it's also meant to keep Hopewell residents entertained and engaged with nature through quarantine.
"In the very beginning of COVID, we realized there was a feeling of loss and, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help, how can I benefit society?'" Horvath says. "You're stuck in your house, everyone is down and depressed. Let's get outside and figure out how we can make the pollinators happy."
Tally the Valley is the nonprofit's latest virtual venture into citizen science — a term used to describe research, data collection, and conservation driven by curious community members, rather than expert biologists.
iNaturalist has long been a go-to tool for nonprofits and conservationists across the globe to make citizen science as simple and accessible as possible. But Carrie Seltzer, stakeholder engagement strategist at iNaturalist, says more and more organizations like FoHVOS are leaning on the app to launch online, socially-distanced versions of BioBlitzes and other community conservation projects during the pandemic.
"People don't have to come to one particular park, but the call to action can be, 'Wherever you are, go outside, stay distant from others, but look at the plants and look at the bugs that you find and take some pictures and then share them," Seltzer says.
According to Horvath, Tally the Valley was inspired in part by the enthusiastic response to another of FoHVOS's quarantine-friendly projects: DIY bee abodes. FoHVOS planned to host workshops throughout March to teach residents how to construct habitats that would support the area's endangered bee population, which has declined due to biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and widespread pesticide use.
Scout troops, businesses, and residents had signed on as eager volunteers and partners, and local schools even pledged to integrate the project into science curriculums. But the workshops were cancelled to comply with stay-at-home orders.
Instead, FoHVOS decided to sell kits online that could be shipped to residents' homes and constructed with step-by-step directions. Participants placed the finished product on their doorsteps to be retrieved by FoHVOS staff and installed in a larger bee hotel structure built by Mercer County Tech School students.
The kits, which included sustainable materials like repurposed lumber and invasive phragmite plants, sold out quickly after going live in April.
"It was way more popular than we had anticipated," Horvath says. "I predicted that we'd sell around 25. And in the end, I ended up sending close to 50."
In Horvath's view, that interest comes from boredom during quarantine. And for busy parents struggling to balance their jobs with childcare and homeschooling, the project seemed like a fun and educational way to keep kids occupied. She expects Tally the Valley to serve a similar purpose.
But she hopes that the program also fosters a love for the outdoors. She thinks the hands-on, creative nature of the bee abodes may have captured the imagination of artistically inclined neighbors who may not have been previously interested in the environment.
"Everything else has been shut down but the outdoors. Mother Nature hasn't been shut down," Horvath says. "So I think a lot of people, now that they had that opportunity to stop and watch, are a little bit more in awe of what's going on outside."
Citizen science doesn't just benefit participants — it also helps supplement the efforts of FoHVOS's small staff. Much of the organization's work involves stewarding outdoor spaces throughout Hopewell, to ensure a thriving local ecosystem.
For example, to bring back the struggling monarch butterfly population, the nonprofit has accelerated its efforts to plant milkweed, a native plant that's a favorite of monarchs, in its on-site meadows, as well as the rain gardens and outdoor classrooms they construct around the town.
"We've gotten a lot of comments from people saying things like, 'This has helped keep me sane during the shelter-in-place orders.' We're getting that feedback from all over the world. And so it's been really encouraging to us to see that people are taking advantage of the opportunity to pay closer attention to what's in their neighborhoods and in their backyards."
Carrie Seltzer, Stakeholder Engagement Strategist, iNaturalist
But according to Horvath, the team needs all hands on deck. FoHVOS offers educational resources to encourage residents to plant their own pollinator-friendly gardens, as well as eliminate invasive plants and track struggling species. That's where citizen science programs like Tally the Valley come in.
"We really seek to make sure that our lands are healthy, that people are healthy and the plants and animals all around are healthy," Horvath says. "And the only way we can do that is working together."
Horvath hopes that Tally the Valley draws people outside of their homes while in quarantine, to appreciate the beauty in their community.
"People get so caught up looking through their phone and saying, 'Oh I want to go here to this beautiful blue lake,'" Horvath says. "Well, what about the lake in your backyard that is infested with invasive species? How can you help what's right here to make it also beautiful?"
According to Seltzer, iNaturalist users are proving that citizen science is helping generate that stewardship and enthusiasm among those in quarantine — and on a global scale.
"We've gotten a lot of comments from people saying things like, 'This has helped keep me sane during the shelter-in-place orders,'" Seltzer says. "We're getting that feedback from all over the world. And so it's been really encouraging to us to see that people are taking advantage of the opportunity to pay closer attention to what's in their neighborhoods and in their backyards."
This story was produced in collaboration with CivicStory and the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting project. It was originally reported by Brianna Baker for Next City, and may be re-distributed through the Creative Commons License, with attribution.
by Brianna Baker - Next City, New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub

Citizen Science Conserves New Jersey Butterflies — and Keeps People Entertained During Quarantine

by Brianna Baker - Next City, New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub
July 16, 2020

An iNaturalist user checks out a previous monarch butterfly observation made as part of Tally the Valley. (Photo courtesy: Rachel Kaufman)

Every summer, New Jersey-based nonprofit Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space (FoHVOS) hosts a butterfly count. Volunteers gather on the nonprofit's meadow trails to identify and record all the specimens they can, to be submitted to the North American Butterfly Association's database.

The goal: monitor butterfly populations and increase public awareness about the importance of pollinators, whose numbers have been declining, to the health of local ecosystems. This year, FoHVOS decided to cap participation at 10 attendees, to limit the risk of transmitting coronavirus.

But to offer an option for those who can't join in person, the FoHVOS team brought the event to community members' cell phones. Through a program dubbed Tally the Valley, participants use iNaturalist— a free mobile app — to photograph and upload butterflies, along with a GPS tag, in Hopewell Township. Other participants, and even experts, can then weigh in to help identify the species.

"In the very beginning of COVID, we realized there was a feeling of loss and, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help, how can I benefit society?' You're stuck in your house, everyone is down and depressed. Let's get outside and figure out how we can make the pollinators happy."

Logan Horvath, Program Manager, Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space

But Tally the Valley won't stop at butterflies. Once the first phase of the program wraps up, FoHVOS will ask participants to track different species of plants, animals or insects. (A more detailed announcement will come later this year.)

Launched on June 20, Tally the Valley has netted over 200 observations so far. But Logan Horvath, program manager at FoHVOS, says those numbers are increasing by the day.

According to Horvath, Tally the Valley has a dual purpose. It's meant to recruit neighbors to collect biographical data that will guide efforts to boost biodiversity and species populations in the area. But it's also meant to keep Hopewell residents entertained and engaged with nature through quarantine.

"In the very beginning of COVID, we realized there was a feeling of loss and, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know how to help, how can I benefit society?'" Horvath says. "You're stuck in your house, everyone is down and depressed. Let's get outside and figure out how we can make the pollinators happy."

Citizen Science

Tally the Valley is the nonprofit's latest virtual venture into citizen science — a term used to describe research, data collection, and conservation driven by curious community members, rather than expert biologists.

iNaturalist has long been a go-to tool for nonprofits and conservationists across the globe to make citizen science as simple and accessible as possible. But Carrie Seltzer, stakeholder engagement strategist at iNaturalist, says more and more organizations like FoHVOS are leaning on the app to launch online, socially-distanced versions of BioBlitzes and other community conservation projects during the pandemic.

"People don't have to come to one particular park, but the call to action can be, 'Wherever you are, go outside, stay distant from others, but look at the plants and look at the bugs that you find and take some pictures and then share them," Seltzer says.

According to Horvath, Tally the Valley was inspired in part by the enthusiastic response to another of FoHVOS's quarantine-friendly projects: DIY bee abodes. FoHVOS planned to host workshops throughout March to teach residents how to construct habitats that would support the area's endangered bee population, which has declined due to biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and widespread pesticide use.

Scout troops, businesses, and residents had signed on as eager volunteers and partners, and local schools even pledged to integrate the project into science curriculums. But the workshops were cancelled to comply with stay-at-home orders.

Instead, FoHVOS decided to sell kits online that could be shipped to residents' homes and constructed with step-by-step directions. Participants placed the finished product on their doorsteps to be retrieved by FoHVOS staff and installed in a larger bee hotel structure built by Mercer County Tech School students.

The kits, which included sustainable materials like repurposed lumber and invasive phragmite plants, sold out quickly after going live in April.

"It was way more popular than we had anticipated," Horvath says. "I predicted that we'd sell around 25. And in the end, I ended up sending close to 50."

In Horvath's view, that interest comes from boredom during quarantine. And for busy parents struggling to balance their jobs with childcare and homeschooling, the project seemed like a fun and educational way to keep kids occupied. She expects Tally the Valley to serve a similar purpose.

But she hopes that the program also fosters a love for the outdoors. She thinks the hands-on, creative nature of the bee abodes may have captured the imagination of artistically inclined neighbors who may not have been previously interested in the environment.

"Everything else has been shut down but the outdoors. Mother Nature hasn't been shut down," Horvath says. "So I think a lot of people, now that they had that opportunity to stop and watch, are a little bit more in awe of what's going on outside."

Citizen science doesn't just benefit participants — it also helps supplement the efforts of FoHVOS's small staff. Much of the organization's work involves stewarding outdoor spaces throughout Hopewell, to ensure a thriving local ecosystem.

For example, to bring back the struggling monarch butterfly population, the nonprofit has accelerated its efforts to plant milkweed, a native plant that's a favorite of monarchs, in its on-site meadows, as well as the rain gardens and outdoor classrooms they construct around the town.

"We've gotten a lot of comments from people saying things like, 'This has helped keep me sane during the shelter-in-place orders.' We're getting that feedback from all over the world. And so it's been really encouraging to us to see that people are taking advantage of the opportunity to pay closer attention to what's in their neighborhoods and in their backyards."

Carrie Seltzer, Stakeholder Engagement Strategist, iNaturalist

But according to Horvath, the team needs all hands on deck. FoHVOS offers educational resources to encourage residents to plant their own pollinator-friendly gardens, as well as eliminate invasive plants and track struggling species. That's where citizen science programs like Tally the Valley come in.

"We really seek to make sure that our lands are healthy, that people are healthy and the plants and animals all around are healthy," Horvath says. "And the only way we can do that is working together."

Horvath hopes that Tally the Valley draws people outside of their homes while in quarantine, to appreciate the beauty in their community.

"People get so caught up looking through their phone and saying, 'Oh I want to go here to this beautiful blue lake,'" Horvath says. "Well, what about the lake in your backyard that is infested with invasive species? How can you help what's right here to make it also beautiful?"

According to Seltzer, iNaturalist users are proving that citizen science is helping generate that stewardship and enthusiasm among those in quarantine — and on a global scale.

"We've gotten a lot of comments from people saying things like, 'This has helped keep me sane during the shelter-in-place orders,'" Seltzer says. "We're getting that feedback from all over the world. And so it's been really encouraging to us to see that people are taking advantage of the opportunity to pay closer attention to what's in their neighborhoods and in their backyards."

This story was produced in collaboration with CivicStory and the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting project. It was originally reported by Brianna Baker for Next City, and may be re-distributed through the Creative Commons License, with attribution.

This article first appeared on New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Hub and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Die 5. nationale Deutsche Tischtennis-Meisterschaft – damals Bundesspiele genannt –  fand am 29. und 30. Dezember 1934 in Stettin statt. Spiellokal war das "Gesellschaftshaus" im Logengarten.

Den Titel holten Georg Kutz im Einzel bei den Herren und Astrid Krebsbach bei den Damen. Damit wurde Krebsbach bei allen fünf Meisterschaften seit 1931 Deutscher Meister. Doppel- und Mixedwettbewerbe wurden nicht ausgetragen, dafür allerdings Meisterschaften für Herren- und Damen-Bezirksmannschaften ("Gaumeisterschaft").

Herreneinzel

Den Spielern, die in der ersten Runde ausgeschieden waren, wurde ein Trostrundenturnier angeboten. Hier standen Wittenhagen und Heinz Sperling im Endspiel, nachdem sie Schmoll und Polauke besiegt hatten.

Die zahlreichen kampflosen Niederlagen kamen zustande, weil die betroffenen Spieler zu spät erschienen und deshalb von der Turnierleitung disqualifiziert wurden. Der Verein Preußen-Stettin sperrte daher folgende Spieler bis zum 30. April 1936 wegen unsportlichen Verhaltens: Hoth II, Melde, Alfred Steppuhn, Wittenhagen, Lachmann und Köbke.

Dameneinzel

Den Spielerinnen, die in der ersten Runde ausgeschieden waren, wurde ein Trostrundenturnier angeboten. Hier siegte Berti Capellmann vor Karge, H. Adamsky und Hilde Dommer.

Mannschaftswettbewerbe Gaumeisterschaften
Hier kämpften Bezirks-Mannschaften um die nationale deutsche Meisterschaft.

Bezirks-Herrenmannschaften
Zehn Gau-Mannschaften traten an. Sie wurden in drei Gruppen aufgeteilt. In jeder Gruppe spielte Jeder gegen Jeden, es wurden jeweils zwei Einzel und bei Gleichstand noch ein Doppel ausgespielt. Die drei Gruppenspieler ermittelten in einer Jeder-gegen-Jeden-Runde den Sieger, wobei in jedem Spiel zwei Einzel und ein Doppel ausgetragen wurden.

 1. Gau Sachsen       2 Siege    Wolfram Bauer, H.Benkert, Schmidt
 2. Gau Brandenburg   1 Sieg     Heinz Sperling, Heinz Raack, Rudolf Schwager, Roderich Dietze
 3. Gau Mitte         0 Siege    Richard Fiedler, Weps

Bezirks-Damenmannschaften
Zehn Gau-Mannschaften wurden ebenfalls in drei Gruppen aufgeteilt. Ansonsten spielten sie nach dem gleichen System wie die Herren.

 1. Gau Brandenburg   2 Siege    Astrid Krebsbach, Anita Felguth, Erika Richter
 2. Gau Pommern       1 Sieg     Karge, von Normann
 3. Gau Niederrhein   0 Sieg     Hilde Bussmann, Berti Capellmann

Anmerkungen
In den damaligen Berichten wurden meist keine Vornamen genannt, dafür aber oft die Herkunft. Zudem legte man bei Frauen Wert auf die Angabe des Familienstandes. So unterschied man streng Frl. Mustermann von Frau Mustermann. Daher fehlen in den obigen Aufstellungen oft die Vornamen, sie sind heute auch insbesondere bei unbekannteren Aktiven kaum noch zu ermitteln.

Literatur
 Bericht in Zeitschrift Tisch-Tennis, 1935/1 Seite 1–2 + 1935/2 Seite 9–10

Einzelnachweise

1935
Tischtennisveranstaltung 1935
Sportveranstaltung in Stettin
Sport (Provinz Pommern)
Sport (Deutsches Reich, 1933–1945)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Sky VR Studio selects Jaunt to bring its immersive content library to life in 2018
Jaunt Inc., the global partner of choice for producing and distributing immersive content, today announced a major new partnership for the Jaunt XR Platform with Sky, Europe's leading entertainment company.
Jaunt's XR Platform is a state of the art white label immersive content distribution solution that enables media companies, brands, content aggregators and enterprise customers to deliver immersive content directly to audiences through their owned and operated channels.
Sky VR Studio, Sky's in-house virtual reality studio, will use the technology to deliver content to consumers via its popular Sky VR app. Sky will become the first media company to adopt the Jaunt XR Platform for the distribution of its VR content, which includes experiences that allow viewers to explore inside The Jungle Book's King Louis' temple as well as ride a Star Wars X-wing starfighter fighting Imperial forces.
The partnership marks the launch of the Jaunt XR Platform and will be one of the immersive technology company's showcase demonstrations at CES 2018 in Las Vegas this month.
Gary Davey, Managing Director of Content at Sky said, "The viewing habits of our customers are evolving and, the appetite for immersive content is growing day by day. Since launching the Sky VR Studio in 2016, we've been at the forefront of VR content creation – fusing together world-leading technology with the best storytelling and ideas. This year Sky will launch 'Hold the World', an inside look at the Natural History Museum's collection of rare objects featuring a three-dimensional hologram of Sir David Attenborough – a world first.
"To deliver these experiences to our customers, we need the right platforms and technology. We're excited to adopt the Jaunt XRP as it will let us take the next steps in our VR journey, helping ready the Sky VR App to handle the ever more innovative and complex VR experiences we will be creating.
Dominic Collins, General Manager Jaunt International, said, "Sky is an example of a media company that is already producing fantastic immersive content for their viewers, naturally we wanted to give them the tools to distribute those experiences in a seamless way across their own channels. Sky, like many broadcasters, has a huge opportunity to pioneer the way in which immersive content enters and enriches the lives of consumers all over the world and we're excited to power that vision."
PwC's Global Entertainment & Media (E&M) Outlook 2017-2021 , predicts the UK's Entertainment and Media sector is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% over the next five years, driven by growth in VR and advertising.
For more details on the Jaunt XR Platform and its capabilities please visit https://www.jauntvr.com/xr-platform/
About Jaunt Inc.
Jaunt is the global partner of choice for producing and distributing immersive virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality content. With the experience of over 300 immersive productions, Jaunt's full-service global production house Jaunt Studios develops award winning branded content, co-productions and original experiences for both entertainment and enterprise customers. Jaunt's state of the art immersive content distribution technology, the Jaunt XR Platform, is the white label solution of choice for media companies, sports leagues, brands, content aggregators and enterprise customers, enabling distribution of immersive content through their owned and operated channels.
Founded in 2013, Jaunt is the pioneer in providing end-to end solutions for creating and distributing immersive content across all platforms including Facebook 360, YouTube 360, and Twitter, native iOS and Android mobile apps, and all scaled VR, AR and MR headsets and platforms. Jaunt has been recognized with two Lumiere Awards, two Emmy nominations, one Emmy Award, and was recognized by Fast Company as one of the world's most innovative companies along with being on CNBC's Disruptor 50 list two years in a row.
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, the company maintains Jaunt Studios in Los Angeles, an EMEA business office in London, and a sales office in New York. In 2017, Jaunt established Shanghai-based Jaunt China, a VR company formed in partnership with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and China Media Capital (CMC).
Jaunt's investors include The Walt Disney Company, Evolution Media Partners, CMC, Highland Capital Partners, Redpoint Ventures, SMG, Axel Springer, ProSiebenSat.1 SE, The Madison Square Garden Company, Google Ventures, Peter Gotcher, and Sky (corporate.sky.com).
Experience more at www.jauntvr.com
Comcast announces Peacock coming to Sky
Sky sets ambitious 2025 target to increase its ethnic diversity and representation
Experts appointed to new Diversity Advisory Council to steer Sky's ambitions on diversity and inclusion


Evangeline's management approach is built upon transparency, communication, and cultivating strong relationships with business partners. She identifies the strengths of her business partners and their resources, then acts as a conduit of collaboration to efficiently expedite projects. Her deep experience with analytical tools and project reporting helps her identify the right metrics for measuring success, build the appropriate systems to monitor progress, and mine results to generate meaningful reports.
As a Business Analyst at Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits, Evangeline created a KPI dashboard to provide visibility to the sales division of their distance-to-goal metrics on a daily and weekly basis. She used SQL to pull and organize all of Washington State's sales figures and formatted the data into an intuitive, dynamic Excel report. This dashboard displayed each SKU being tracked, which sales staff achieved their goals, and the remaining market gaps to pursue. Evangeline's KPI dashboard tool contributed to a 98% completion rate over the previous year's sales distribution goals. In addition, she provided training seminars and reference sheets to her sales division to teach them the basics of data analysis.
As an Event Manager for Pernod Ricard brands, Evangeline piloted an experimental marketing plan with retail chains in the Greater Seattle Area. She oversaw scheduling, budgets, and promotional staff training, and supervised activities to raise customers' product awareness, managed point-of-sale customer incentives, and managed reporting on program results. The pilot program contributed to a 6.1% sales increase over the same period the previous year and was widely adopted as a model program.
Evangeline holds an associate degree in Business from Bellevue College, and is pursuing a Bachelor's in Business Administration (Management Information Systems and Technology Innovation Management) at the University of Washington with anticipated completion in 2019.
In her spare time, Evangeline likes to read, listen to podcasts, and watch TED talks and stand-up comedy. She also enjoys archery, hiking, and cooking.


text:
Leeds 2023 update
As you may have seen, there has been news about the future of the Leeds bid to become European Capital of Culture 2023.
The European Commission has told the Government that British cities' applications should be discontinued because of the Brexit vote.
A spokesperson from the British Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said: "We disagree with the European Commission's stance and are deeply disappointed that it has waited until after UK cities have submitted their final bids before communicating this new position to us. The Prime Minister has been clear that while we are leaving the EU, we are not leaving Europe and this has been welcomed by EU leaders. We want to continue working with our friends in Europe to promote the long-term economic development of our continent, which may include participating in cultural programmes. We remain committed to working with the five UK cities that have submitted bids to help them realise their cultural ambitions and we are in urgent discussions with the Commission on the matter."
Naturally, at the University, we're very disappointed with this news, and will be working with the Leeds 2023 team to agree next steps.
You can read a statement on the Leeds 2023 website.


text:
Q: Xamarin.Android work slowly when device is blocked At the beginning I built an desktop application (WPF in .NET Framework) and Engine (Class Library in .NET Framework). Later I tried to built frontend for the Engine project in Xamarin.Forms/Xamarin.Android. I was suprised when I just added a reference to Xamarin project and everything worked fine.
The problem appears when I run my android application and block device using power button - application start to work 2-3 times slower. Even Task.Delay(1000) takes 1500-3000 ms to be executed.
I have internal timer in the Engine project and this problem causes time divergence between real-time and time inside Engine.
The Engine project is multi-thread project. It creates and destroys many threads during work.
What I have tried:

*

*using WakeLock.Partial.

*using Android.App.Service

*disabled battery power optimization

*all permissions for application

*add application to "whitelist" in device settings(work in background, ignore battery
optimization options)

Application works fine on blocked device when the device is connected to power source.
Android Version: 10
Is it possible to keep CPU of android device running all time with full power? How to keep code exeuction at normal speed when device is blocked?

A: I have found the solution - WakeLock inside Foreground service.
Foreground service alone was not enough.
With this combination the Engine works with normal speed when device is locked without connection to any source of power.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


If you have a house that you think requires improvement, the best thing is to hire an expert to do the work for you. Choosing the wrong contractor may lead to delays, substandard work, and many other problems. Therefore you need some guidelines on how to choose the right contractor. The first thing you need is to hire a contractor that you trust. The expert may spend several days in your home while working on your project and if you are not comfortable working with the contractor you choose, you will spend a hell of time together. If you get someone who has a problem in connecting with you it will not matter whether they know the work or not; it is better to change.
You need to know about the license allowing the contractor to work in your area, the insurance and whether they are bonded. That will be a proof that the contractor is trustworthy. The license is a proof that the contractor has taken the right training and passed their exams. With the insurance you are sure that you will not have the trouble of paying for hospital bills or any damages that may occur when the work is going on. You also want to be sure you can be compensated in case the contractor is not faithful enough to finish the work. You should be sure that the contractor is an expert in that area of job The person you hire should be aware the modern materials to be used.
You should have a detailed contract in place before the professional starts the work. In the contract the contractor should cover the cost, details of the materials used, the approximate time when the work will be finished and the drawing that is being used. You need to know whether you will be seeing the contractor or the subcontractors. Some of the work is more detailed, and they may require contractors like in the kitchen where there are plumbing and wiring. The subcontractors have more expertise in those areas.
You need to direct the contractor on some rules to follow. If you do not want them to show up at certain times in your home or to work after certain periods it is important for you to let them know. You do not want to work with a contractor who does not want to leave work till very late or who report too early. It will be important to work with someone who has been working in the areas, and you can sample some of the houses they have worked on. When you see the work they have done you will know you have the right professional.


On 31st August,2017, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala working under the aegis of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana organized a mega event ' New Indian Manthan:Sankalp Se Siddhi', programme as per directions from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi at New Grain Market , Kapurthala. In this programme, the various technologies pertaining to agriculture and allied fields were displayed to the participants along with relevant literature by the KVK, line departments, banks, self help groups, private companies etc. The chief guest of the programme Sh Mohammad Tayyab, worthy Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala led the pledge taking ceremony for development of the country as envisioned by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. He also highlighted the seven point strategies, vis focus on irrigation with adequate resource building, increase production through various methods, strengthening post harvest infrastructure.
Chief Guest's Remarks:The chief guest of the programme Sh Mohammad Tayyab, worthy Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala led the pledge taking ceremony for development of the country as envisioned by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. He also highlighted the seven point strategies, vis a vis, focus on irrigation with adequate resource building, increase production through various methods, strengthening post harvest infrastructure, food processing, e-marketing, farmers loans, and subsidiary farming.
Post Event Details:Dr Manoj Sharma while welcoming all the participants, dignitaries, farmers, farm women and youth, narrated that it is of utmost importance to acquire trainings in the field of agriculture and allied fields before starting any entrepreneur so that farmers can increase their farm income. For imparting trainings, all the facilities and infra structure is available at the KVK campus, therefore, farmers must make use of these facilities. Sh Avtar Singh Bhullar, ADC (Development ) honoured innovative farmers, farm women and officials of the line departments by presenting a memento. He urged officials of all line departments to sponsor candidates from the villages for acquiring trainings from the KVK. About 40 exhibitions stalls were put by all the departments as well as private companies but stalls of agricultural machinery for the management of paddy straw attracted most of the farmers. A mobile exhibition van from the Punjab Agricultural University played the movies about technologies and Sankal se Siddhi programme.


When Is the Right Age to Begin Orthodontic Treatment?
While there is no exact age for children to begin orthodontic treatment, the American Association of Orthodontists recommends visiting the orthodontist around age seven. By this age, most children have a mix of baby teeth and adult teeth, making it easier for the orthodontist to diagnose and correct tooth and jaw problems sooner and without surgery.
Please contact our practice to schedule an appointment for an orthodontic evaluation. Early orthodontic treatment now will give your child a healthy, beautiful smile for the future.


I	n the summer of 2006, Rashida and Farukh drove from Mountain View, CA to Philadelphia, PA to pick up their daughter, Sabiha. She had just completed a two-year fellowship and her apartment lease was ending. The three of them then drove back to Mountain View with all her things tightly packed into an SUV. She insisted on keeping a plant which is now a large tree that reaches the ceiling if her home in Oakland, CA. She also held onto a large, wooden trunk she found on the street in Philadelphia.
Rashida and Farukh emigrated from Mumbai in 1979. Both of their families are originally from the Gujarati port city of Surat. A few years after they got married, Farukh began a Masters program at Stanford University. As an English undergraduate, he was unique among the small Indian expat community, many of whom were engineers or doctors. Sabiha was born at Stanford Hospital. At the time, Rashida was working at Stanford as a graphic designer. Back then, she remembers only a few doctors of Indian or South Asian descent at Stanford. Eventually, they bought a home in the nearby town of Mountain View in 1987 and have lived there since. Over the past forty years, they've witnessed the development and growth of Silicon Valley from farms, ranches and orchards into one of the world's most influential global economic hubs.
In August and September of 2006, they put 10,550 miles on a Dodge Durango, generously loaned to them by a family friend, while crossing 17 states and visiting 15 national parks. They intentionally took a circuitous route, visiting friends and getting off the interstate highway to take smaller, state highways and country roads off the beaten path. They were even able to visit Dallas to attend their friend's daughter's wedding. Along the way, they spent two weeks staying with friends, another two weeks staying in roadside motels and hotels and another two weeks staying at campgrounds in national parks. Farukh felt that the cross-country trip should be "a rite of passage" for every American to experience the country's geographic and cultural diversity.
The superb sightseeing left them with many happy memories. They came across a dilapidated silver mine, sand dunes where the ground seemed to be constantly shifting, and vast cave networks, including Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Farukh and Rashida were astonished by the clear, still water of Mirror Lake, near Colorado's northern border with Wyoming, where they met and chatted with a local fisherman. Other major highlights were the five national parks along Utah's southern border, where they spent one week. Rashida expressed amazement at seeing the night sky so full of stars, made possible by a lack of light pollution. It was so dark they could barely see each other standing side by side. Farukh recalled the scenery of Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon with awe, describing it as "nature carving" and "an alien landscape." Rashida, who chronicled their daily movements and interactions in her diary, recently went back to her entries. Re-reading her words, she remembered she had wished her parents could have been with them at Bryce Canyon.
This being the era before the widespread use of cellphones (Farukh had a flip phone at the time), a friend lent them his first-generation portable GPS machine. They mostly relied on paper maps, planning one day at a time. They would call lodgings as they neared a town or village and book a room for the night. One evening, they found themselves in rural Mississippi, outside Jackson. It was getting to be late and they weren't able to find a place to stay for the night. Sabiha admitted she began to feel scared. Finally they found a motel but no one answered the bell at the front desk. With no choice, they headed back on the road. Eventually, they came across a second motel, which coincidentally was owned by a Gujarati family. They were relieved to find accommodations and excited to meet another Gujarati family. The family that owned the motel was surprised and happy to host them. The next day in Jackson, true to the adage of Southern hospitality, they felt everyone they came across treated them very courteously, even as many townspeople were curious to meet a South Asian family. Despite these positive experiences, they were also aware of other motels advertising "American Owned" businesses — implying that they were owned by white people and that brown folks were not real Americans. This was a troubling reminder of how white supremacy was alive and well.
Another time, in rural Utah, they found themselves being the only non-white family. They stumbled into a small diner called Blondie's, owned by a tall, gregarious blonde woman. The cozy restaurant felt like a family living room. They ended up talking with Blondie and her family for over two hours. These sorts of local encounters constituted enduring memories for the Basrai family.
Farukh fondly recalled how the family discovered the Natchez Parkway System in Mississippi because they stopped to ask for directions. Having lost their way, they stopped in to fill up on gas and asked the woman behind the counter. As she was explaining how to get back on the freeway, two young black men entered the gas station and persuaded them to explore the Natchez Parkway System. It roughly follows the Old Natchez Trace used by Native Americans, European settlers, slave traders and soldiers. It was along this parkway that many Civil War battles were fought. By witnessing local interactions and flavor, they experienced the country's history, geography and regional diversity. It was a trip of a lifetime for their family.
Help us reimagine this American tradition by sharing your photos and memories!


CHICAGO—According to city planners, Chicago has run out of new names for its subdivisions. "It was bound to happen sooner or later," Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said at a Monday press conference in front of City Hall. "Oak Dale Springs, Whispering Pines, Stonewood Creek... We have used every tree, body of water, and living thing in the almanac. You don't have to drive all the way out to Kevin Acres to know we need a new naming system." Daley announced that, beginning in 2004, all new housing developments in the Chicago area will be numbered with a positive integer."
Good times, good times. It's too bad that The Onion is so blatently political or I'd enjoy reading it more often. I don't mind poking fun at Republicans or rich people, but I think it's funnier and more genuine when there is fun poked at others as well. This week on The Onion, they present four long articles. One is about Bill Clinton (painting him in a good light), the next is about a fictitious CEO of "Union Carborundum" outsourcing his marital duties, and the third is entitled "Report: Poor People Pretty Much Fucked." The "What Do You Think" feature this week is entitled "The Worldwide AIDS Crisis." I think it's fair to say that there's a bias here.


text:
Global Citizen's Action Taker of the Week: Samantha Wilson From Geelong, Australia
Author: Madeleine Keck
Global Citizen is a movement of engaged citizens who use their collective voice to help end extreme poverty by 2030. On our platform, Global Citizens learn about the causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues and earn rewards. The collective voices of Global Citizen action takers have been integral to Global Citizen securing over 100 commitments to date worth $48.4 billion USD, enough to impact 880 million lives. Join the movement and take action now.
Individual actions can, and do, change the world. That's why taking action is at the heart of the Global Citizen movement.
The actions of Global Citizens across the globe have accumulated over the past decade to almost 25 million — which, combined with high-level advocacy work, have resulted in over 100 commitments by world leaders aimed at ending extreme poverty by 2030.
Thanks in part to the work of Global Citizen, the Australian government has made two massive commitments in the past year alone. In 2019, Australia pledged millions to help rid the world of polio, as well as hundreds of millions to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
None of this could have been achieved without dedicated action-taking by Global Citizens in Australia.
One particularly committed Australian action-taker is Samantha Wilson — pictured above left with Australian Country Director Sarah Meredith. Wilson is a 20-year-old International Studies and Commerce major from Geelong, the second-largest city in Victoria. Since becoming a Global Citizen almost exactly four years ago, Wilson has attended countless Australian Global Citizen events, often travelling hours to get there, as well as being an extremely dedicated action taker online.
Growing up below Australia's relative poverty line meant Wilson was particularly drawn to Global Citizen's mission.
The reason she takes action, Wilson explained, is not only to help improve things for herself, but to improve things for people across the globe.
"I want to make sure that my potential children and future generations do not have to deal with the same problems I have had," she told Global Citizen. "Because, if we don't drive for change, nothing will happen. However, if we as people go 'this is unacceptable', then that is where change is created."
We spoke to Wilson to find out more about the issues that matter most to her, and how being a Global Citizen has changed her daily life.
When did you first become a Global Citizen?
I became a Global Citizen on March 27, 2016. I was 15 at the time. I strongly remember watching the Global Citizen Festival on TV and Beyoncé started performing. I remember being so excited. I was excited not only because of Beyoncé, but also because there were people that felt the same way about social change across the globe. It was honestly one of the most memorable moments of my life.
Why did you become a Global Citizen?
I remember when I was younger, I wanted to have a positive change in the world. No one wanted to listen to my ideas or solutions because I was "too young to understand" and "I would be influenced too easily." Global Citizen allowed me to really make a positive difference, regardless of my age.
Do you remember the first action that you took with Global Citizen?
One of the first emails that I got and took action on was the "Poverty is Sexist" petition. It is quite overwhelming when I think about it because now I have 938 points [earned by action-taking with Global Citizen] and I am ranked as a "Visionary" [on the Global Citizen platform]. I remember being so excited to take action and achieve positive social change.
What issues do you care about the most?
I care about the empowerment of people. I know that once people are empowered to make a change, they will. I also care about reducing inequality. When you remove inequalities, people can step up and influence change within their community. Lastly, I care a lot about creating sustainable cities and communities. I think cities need to think about how they are going to deal with growing populations and new ways to grow food.
Cities have a lot of power when it comes to creating positive change — I've seen it personally in my city.
Has taking action with Global Citizen inspired your daily life?
It has, in so many ways. Global Citizen has helped me realize that you can do positive things for this world. While I was creating change with Global Citizen, I was also trying to create meaningful change in my high school — and now I am looking for ways I can make a difference within my city of Geelong.
I hope that, over time, I may be able to grow my influence to help create change for my state of Victoria. Who knows, maybe I could even help out at a possible Global Citizen Festival one day.
"Action Taker of the Week" is a new Global Citizen series that focuses on the everyday Global Citizens taking action around the world. We'll be featuring a Q&A with a new action taker every week. You can start taking action here. Want to be the first to know about updates and conversations about our campaigns and advocacy? Join our community of action takers in our Facebook group here.


Coverage available for most of Northern New York: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton and Herkimer Counties. Rates for other counties available upon request.
More plans are available this is one sample at each level.
Subscriber/Child rates are available. There are many plans for each level available. We have listed only one example of each. Have questions? Call 518.563.1000 or email Lisa.


I attached a HeightField in Voxler to a 2D curvilinear lattice, and when I change the scale from 0, the surface is distorted.
This is a result of using a 2D curvilinear lattice with a HeightField. Keep the Scale at 0 for this type of lattice.
A HeightField offsets the surface in the direction perpendicular to the surface by an amount proportional to the scale factor times component value. This means higher elevations will be distorted more. The higher elevations at the peaks extend outwards more than the lower regions and ultimately start to intersect with each other. Also, the distortion direction is perpendicular to the curvilinear lattice, so the offset will be in a more horizontal direction than vertical along the sides of the hills.
When I attach Voxler HeightField to a DEM or GRD file, how do I set the Scale so that the HeightField matches the Z axis?
How can I change the vertical exaggeration (z scale) of my 3D surface map?


text:
Duterte thanks Biden for Covid-19 vaccines in 9th Asean-US Summit
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has extended his thanks to United States (US) President Joe Biden via video conference for America's donation of Covid-19 vaccines.
This, as Duterte welcomed Biden to his first attendance in the 9th Asean-US Summit held virtually on Oct. 26.
"President Duterte welcomed President Biden to his first Asean-US Summit, noting the longstanding relations between Asean and the US," a statement from the Office of the President read.
He said there is a need to "further strengthen bilateral, regional and international cooperation to ensure universal access to Covid-19 vaccines and medicines."
Duterte also called for sustained political dialogue, economic engagement, and socio-cultural ties to further strengthen the Asean-US Strategic Partnership.
He asserted the importance of Asean Centrality even as he acknowledged the US' "commitment to work with Asean, especially on maritime security and domain awareness issues."
He said arrangements such as the Australia, United Kingdom and United States (AUKUS) trilateral security partnership "must complement and \not complicate our working methods for cooperation."
Late last month, Duterte said he wanted to visit the US to personally thank their government for their Covid-19 vaccine donations.
"Ang bait ng America. Baka pupunta ako doon (America is so generous. I might go there just to thank the American government and the people," he said in his Sept. 30 public address.
According to the White House, Biden will announce the intention of the US to provide up to USD40 million in new efforts to accelerate joint research, strengthen health system capacity, and develop the next generation of human capital in health through the US-Asean Health Futures initiative.
Peaceful resolution
Meanwhile, Duterte also reaffirmed the importance of a peaceful and stable South China Sea and stressed that "all stakeholders must exercise self-restraint to avoid untoward incidents that may further complicate the situation."
He said countries must "work together towards the peaceful resolution of disputes, in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea."
Duterte enjoined members of the Asean to further strengthen cooperation in digital and human resource development – including in technical and vocational education and training – to hasten regional and global recovery from the pandemic.
During the 38th and 39th Asean Summits, Duterte renewed his call on his fellow Asean leaders to stay united in pursuing peace, stability, and prosperity in the South China Sea.
"We have come a long way in keeping the peace and promoting prosperity in our region. We must not allow those with diverging interests to make our efforts fail," Duterte said.
He also encouraged Asean countries to translate their commitments into action regarding the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. (PNA)
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Harvard Law Today
Mana Azarmi wins CLEA's Outstanding Clinical Student Award
By Ina Spaho
Photo courtesy of Mana Azarmi Mana Azarmi spent time in London working on an independent clinical project during her time at HLS.
Mana Azarmi '17 is the winner of the Outstanding Clinical Student Award from the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). The award is presented annually to one student from each law school for his/her outstanding clinical coursework and contributions to the clinical community.
Azarmi participated in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) for two semesters. Over the course of her three years at Harvard Law, Azarmi logged more than 1,000 pro bono hours in service to the community through the Harvard Immigration Project, the International Human Rights Clinic, the Crimmigration Clinic, and two independent clinical projects which she designed on her own — one in London working with Article 36, a UK nonprofit, and the other in San Francisco working with the Center for Justice and Accountability.
In addition to advocating for HIRC clients, Azarmi spent a substantial amount of time working on crimmigration and Immigration Response Initiative-related projects. She wrote answers to frequently asked questions related to the travel ban, researched legal arguments to oppose a Muslim special registration system, drafted questions for Attorney General Jeff Session's confirmation hearings on the Muslim ban, and wrote an amicus brief for the American Civil Liberties Union.
In their nomination, Azarmi's nominators noted her passion for public service work and her commitment to human rights, immigration, and privacy issues, saying her background and considerable skills made her an outstanding candidate for this award.
"Mana is [also] a fantastic manager and motivator of others" they wrote. "For an extensive report on Syrian Refugee Resettlement that the Clinic is writing, Mana rallied a team of over 10 students to help with research and cite-checking. Without Mana's fantastic research, writing, and advocacy skills, the Clinic could not have taken on all the projects we have been involved with over the past four months since the election."


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Helping Cities Fix Themselves
Article by Carl Schramm April 23, 2013 // 18 minute read
There is no compelling narrative in our public discourse today about what to do with cities that are no longer economically viable — that are losing their populations in the wake of losing their economies. In every such place, and there are dozens of them, the talk is of recovery, restoration, often "renaissance." The alternative of seeing some of our cities as smaller, operating on a different and more diminutive scale, is never heard. Instead consultants bring bright visions that politicians and citizens know in their hearts can't be realized. So how should we think about the re-development of cities if the reality of de-development is ever to be turned around?
Reverse Growth
In 1961 we were rich enough to fight the communists by exporting a vision of American cities, Detroit being one of them, as emblems of what our economy could make happen. Detroit's working people paid their share of the taxes that put resources in the hands of the newly formed U.S. Agency for International Development to help other countries imagine they could have cities that looked like Detroit. A half-century ago, Detroit was an economy that grew from within by making products for the nation and the world. Today, as the nation focuses on Michigan governor Rick Snyder's decision to appoint Kevyn Orr to manage Detroit out of its financial emergency, the giant elephant in the room is that there is little in the way of a private economy left in that city. Solving the emergency is not the same as reestablishing an economy that can grow.
Detroit has managed to walk itself, with a great deal of encouragement from federal social-welfare and labor-relations policies, backwards through the stages of economic development presented by Walter Rostow, the economist who 50 years ago posited the theory of economic "take off." Rostow's vision — that through investing in education and market institutions a country's economy could experience both consequential growth and self-sustenance — serves as the theoretical basis of American aid abroad.
If modern Detroit were a nation it would have failed its citizens by no longer providing an expanding and self-sustaining economy. The result is that it has been depopulating for decades: 60% of its residents have left since 1960, and at an accelerating rate since 1990. Detroit no longer sees private capital investment to make a brighter future for its businesses. It no longer has a production economy and has fallen backwards to a point where near pre-development conditions exist.
Of the remaining 700,000 inhabitants, some 290,000 live in poverty. Its violent crime rate including murder is the highest in the nation. Taxes due on over half of all its real estate have not been paid in recent years. The city no longer has the means of collecting tax revenue. Prior to the administration of Mayor Dave Bing, the inherent corruption of Detroit's political system looked like that of Third World failed nations. Indeed, in the throes of the current financial emergency, one member of Detroit's city council argued against state takeover by suggesting that gangs might close down freeways as a show of protest! The rule of law no longer much operates in large parts of the city.
Detroit has demonstrated that a city can go backward, passing its "take-off" stage and thus presenting the phenomenon of what might be called "de-development." It may just be possible that a city's economy can fail so badly it might be said to be crossing the "turn-off" barrier, a point of no return. With a shrinking population, no capacity to generate tax revenue, and no new businesses of scale that would provide a consequential number of new jobs, the city might just find itself in a place from which there can be no self-generated recovery.
Detroit is not alone in this process of reverse growth. There are at least 25 cities in the U.S., including Buffalo, Gary, and Hartford, where indigenous economies have shown no capacity to expand for over five decades. In the 1960 census, each was counted among our 100 most populous cities. Today, each of these cities has conditions similar to those of Detroit, albeit smaller in scale, but with equally devastating impact. In each of these cities the urbanized population has been shrinking to the point of being at least one-third smaller than it was in 1960. Prosperous populations have been replaced with residents at least one-third of whom qualify as officially in poverty. Only about one-third of the workforce of these cities is employed in for-profit businesses. Infant mortality rates are roughly one-third higher than the national average. More than one-third of the city's property generates no revenue — either because of exemptions or delinquency. These indicators might be called the "turn-off rule of thirds."
No Model for Growth
Economic experts have little to offer by way of thinking about this phenomenon. Among policy makers there is virtually no discussion about how to revive a city's economy apart from what might be termed "fad" solutions. Indeed, experts promising solutions appear to take great care to avoid defining just what urban revival really means. You will never read a plan that says the current ambition of Detroit is to be home to 2 million people again. But as depopulation continues, it is equally unthinkable to even imagine urban planners suggesting parallels to the economies of undeveloped nations, even though the evidence points to this conclusion.
Instead we get fashionable but largely ineffective initiatives like building urban creative zones and art districts, incubators for urban entrepreneurship (often focused on "social" entrepreneurship, which means starting even more non-profit organizations), enclaves of the new yuppie generation. But, as Joel Kotkin has pointed out, these strategies have not yielded the results that many predicted. In fact, we have no serious policy that really speaks to economic development for contemporary urban populations, as Rostow's model did for developing nations a half-century ago.
On the contrary, public policy over the past few decades has often hampered cities' economic development. The retirement ages and pension benefits of civil servants alone play a large role in making city economies fail. No nation would have developed if it had existing legal obligations to its current and retired public workers that exceeded two-thirds of the country's annual tax revenue (as they do in Stockton, Chicago, and Cleveland).
Three important lessons emerge that must be considered if America ever wants to be serious about revitalizing its failing cities. First, everywhere American policy was effective in nursing new economies to life abroad, indigenous leaders had to believe that their nations could grow and that market-based economies were the best path to expanding human welfare. By contrast, in so many of our declining cities a kind of indifference to growth appears to have settled in. Years of federal dependency may have worked the worst of all unexpected and unintended consequences — a sense among the residents that making one's future is no longer possible.
Second, in countries that followed a growth model, learning was central to the improvement of a population. No-nonsense schools where children learned facts and skills that made them competent in life, including successful participants in labor markets, were the most important critical first steps. Not surprisingly, every failing city today has failing schools. Most have performance scores, however measured, roughly two-thirds as good as the national averages. There will be no future in these cities until the school systems are completely and totally reformed so that kids are readied to make themselves successful. The excuses our schools offer vaporize when compared to the challenges of teaching students who in 1960 lived in utter destitution as they did (and still do in many instances) in China, India, and other countries that are growing fast today. The schools in these countries managed to succeed in far worse circumstances.
Finally, cities cannot recover if political corruption is their civic culture. There is no national conversation regarding the political mismanagement of cities and economic decay. Yet no one can deny that failing cities seem home to many indicted and convicted mayors, one-party rule, and politics as one of the few remaining well-paying professions.
If we don't have a breakthrough in our thinking about how to effectively revive the private-sector economies of our failing cities, some kind of alternative must be considered.
Forging a New Urban Perspective
Revitalizing today's urban economies is very difficult work. While Rostow's model provided insight into how national economies abroad could grow 50 years ago, there is no comparable theorem for solving the problems that confront America's failing cities today. After all, Rostow's ideas focused on countries that had never experienced anything approaching a modern economy and that operated on the most rudimentary of modern institutions — economies that, in many cases, still relied on barter. Today's failing cities, on the other hand, have very specific, but antiquated, industrial cultures that limit the universe of possible courses for economic rebirth. Further, the pre-industrialized countries that Rostow studied never faced the burden of public employee pension debt, as all failing American cities do, many of which are teetering on the brink of formal bankruptcy. Another advantage for pre-developed countries in the past was their homogeneous populations, which had been indigenous for eons. In our failing cities today, many residents are not even native to the place. Such widely diverse populations are hard to unite behind a common aspiration. Finally, and perhaps of the greatest importance, pre-industrial economies did not have to contend with enormously entrenched, expensive, and largely failing bureaucracies wielding expansive political power to preserve the status quo.
The task facing those who would revitalize an older industrial city is, by comparison, enormous. We are in need of a new urban growth perspective. Perhaps it might emerge by considering three ideas that would strike many as radical.
The first is to reconfigure public policy so that it encourages migration from failing cities with insufficient jobs to cities where labor demand is high and expanding. Existing urban policy discourages people who are unemployed from moving in pursuit of better employment opportunities. The entire array of federal social service "safety-net" benefits depends on delivery through state agencies. The political incentives for federal and state politicians — for whom block grant funding as well as Congressional representation are determined by headcounts — militate against federal policy ever encouraging mobility. In the face of this reality, states with high labor demand may take it upon themselves to promote interstate job searching (just as Texas governor Rick Perry urges people and businesses in California to move to Texas), perhaps by issuing mobility vouchers that would pay the cost of travel or relocation. Perhaps some charitable organization or a major foundation should consider supporting the development of a system of free labor-market information on job vacancies that would be available in a friendly and accessible way to the nation's unemployed.
Moving Detroit's skilled but jobless workforce to Dallas or Austin might help to "rightsize" the Motor City. It may be that a period of intended downsizing might prove critical as a "reset" moment for cities with populations that far outstrip their employment opportunities. Relieved of some of its social-service responsibilities, the city government could then concentrate on rebuilding the physical and cultural assets necessary to make existing businesses commit to staying and growing. Further, a city more apparently ready to support commerce might prove inviting to new businesses as well as indigenous entrepreneurs who might start businesses in the city.
Second, states genuinely interested in economic growth might establish the equivalent of charter-city status for selected jurisdictions. This concept was developed by Professor Paul Romer to stimulate economic development in countries plagued by political corruption. In this model, certain cities would be designated as newly chartered subdivisions where the state would forego corporate taxes for all companies operating inside their borders. State regulatory regimens would be relaxed in order to speed business formation and reduce the costs of doing business. State labor regulations would be moderated to reduce the costs of employment. While minimum-wage standards might apply, industrial-relations policy might prohibit closed shops. Companies operating in these cities would be exempted from inventory and perhaps sales taxes. The city might also become one place in the state where no individual state income tax is levied. It would be hard to imagine businesses and enterprising entrepreneurs not seeing the benefit of doing business in such places.
A third approach might be to encourage market competency and commercial expansion in failing cities by empowering all citizens who are beneficiaries of government-funded "safety net" programs to operate in a market-mediated service economy. Economies that are not "owned" by their participants never stand a chance of growing, a lesson that both China and India applied to great economic success. In any city such as Detroit, where over one-third of the population is dependent on transfer payments, a very large part of the economy is "owned" by a distant government, either state or federal. Today, bureaucrats who are hundreds and thousands of miles away make decisions regarding how dependent populations are provided with goods and services.
Many local firms are effectively "vendors" to government beneficiaries and thus do not respond to true market signals regarding supply, demand, or prices. One outcome is that public beneficiaries become more and more inexperienced in dealing with market signals, starting with their own choices, many of which are not choices at all. Their decisions regarding schools, housing, health-care providers, food purchasing, etc., are effectively made for them by regulation and by public employees whose job is to make purchasing decisions for them.
An alternative would be to offer vouchers to mediate the market for social welfare and other publicly provided municipal services such as employment training, job-search help, schools, childcare, health care, transportation, etc. Thus new for-profit businesses would emerge to become an enormous part of a city's economy. Vouchers for training in establishing and capitalizing new businesses (for example, through an enterprise-voucher bank) would encourage the creation of minority-owned enterprise. Service companies such as childcare providers would compete to offer products and services of such high quality that they might attract affluent residents from surrounding suburban markets.
In general, for any locale to prosper economically, local residents must become the owners of their economy. In our failing cities, large numbers of residents, much like the municipal governments, have become supplicants of higher-level government. This relationship, based on transfers of wealth from national and state governments to cities, holds no promise for a genuine reversal of urban economic fortune. So a large number of American cities can never expect any future other than one of de-development following the "turn-off" moment.
Worse, though seldom commented upon, failing cities will continue to hold back the national economy. Any nation's economy is really the composite of local economies. Cities were once thought of first and foremost as places that contributed unique products to the national and world economies and only secondly as places to live. Now, federal policy is currently over weighted around the concept of cities as places to live. Economic policy has devolved to thinking about our economy as a national phenomenon that happens apart from place. But this view is not based in reality. People with ideas and capital make economies. New enterprises make economies expand. These phenomena are found in places. It is hard to avoid the evidence that the Silicon Valley thinks of itself more as a place of commerce than a place for living.
This was the old model in America and it still prevails in places like Texas where the governor can cheekily recruit smart people to leave the Golden State and move to Dallas, Houston, Galveston, and Austin to build businesses. His message is not "these are nicer places to live." Rather he says that all of Texas is business friendly, starting with the absence of a state income tax! Think of the Governor of Michigan's comparative task if he were crazy enough to send an embassy to California recruiting people to start business in a state with taxes and public debt just about as bad as California's but without its redeeming weather and beaches.
Time for a Carbon Tax? Ike Brannon on April 22, 2013
TARIFF-IED: Trade Talk with Matthew Rooney by Matthew Rooney
Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative Director Matthew Rooney breaks down the trade conflict with India.
How Trade Spreads Holiday Cheer by Laura Collins
It is projected that the average American household will spend more than $1,000 during the holidays this year.
Deporting Salvadorans May Lead to Economic Decline by Matthew Rooney and Laura Collins
We should think carefully about a policy whose major impacts are likely to be reductions in employment and economic activity here at home, and increased instability and lawlessness along our borders.
Bush Institute's Laura Collins Talks Immigration on Good Morning Texas by Sarah Gibbons
Setting the record straight on immigration myths and facts.