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Prime Hidden in Plain Sight: The Dark Secret of Jewish Homelessness
Hidden in Plain Sight: The Dark Secret of Jewish Homelessness
By Gerald Jakubovics
Even before 9 a.m., a horde of people already packs the streets of Midtown Manhattan. Many are rushing to the office or to meetings. Others want to get a quick breakfast. A long line of cars and taxis waits impatiently for a light to change; a few drivers are leaning on the horns. You can feel the energy in the air.
But there is another world within this one, and the people who live there are not rushing anywhere. Some are tightly clutching their possessions. Others, sprawled out on cardboard boxes, are sleeping or at least attempting to sleep, despite all the commotion around them. Some sit, quietly and nearly invisible, in the recesses of buildings.
This is the world of homeless New Yorkers. A multitude of them make the streets their home; tens of thousands more live in shelters. Here, as in other regions of the country, "tent cities," where many take refuge, are becoming the new normal.
Coping with the elements is not easy, and some of these people are obviously suffering from a variety of health problems. Others are victims of violent crime — or they are perpetrators.
City planners and politicians — brilliant people both in and out of government — are trying to figure out a realistic solution to this issue, but so far none has succeeded. Meanwhile, the problem is getting worse nationwide, and human suffering is just one aspect of it.
The homeless population is a major drain on precious financial resources. The areas they inhabit frequently become littered with garbage. And too often they use the streets as bathrooms. (It bears mention that there are very few restrooms available to the public in cities such as New York.) These individuals are living evidence of the squalor, misery and despair that exists even in some of the most prestigious neighborhoods in the U.S.
Speaking recently on a local radio show, former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "If you walk through the city in Midtown, you get a sense of slippage. It gives a bad message — a bad feeling — for where the city is."
Life-Changing Experience
But the problems that cities are trying to deal with in relation to the homeless pale in comparison to those that homeless people experience each day. Todd Murphy understands those from firsthand experience — he lived on the streets for two and a half years.
Writing on the website Quora, he explains what that was like. "You don't get enough to eat. You're cold all the time in winter, and at nights in all but the warmest weather. The odds are good that you have a mental illness, caused by your homelessness, and get no treatment for it. ….
"People won't give you money because they think you'll spend it on alcohol or because they think you are too lazy to get a job, but no one hires the homeless. You die, on average, 30 years younger than others, … people avoid you." Murphy also notes that simple issues that most people take for granted such as hygiene and replacing worn-out shoes are a crisis for the homeless.
Numbers Tell the Story
The Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress in December 2018, the latest available, estimated 553,000 people in the U.S. are homeless. About 65% stay in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, with the remaining 35% in "unsheltered locations," meaning that they live on the streets, in abandoned buildings, or in other places not suitable for people. These numbers are slightly higher than the year before.
Surprisingly, the problem has eased slightly in New York City, where the number of street-dwelling homeless has declined in each of the last two years — from a high of 3,892 in 2017 to 3,588 in 2019, according to the city's Department of Homeless Services (DHS).
The number of homeless people living in city shelters (including women and children), which are often plagued with dangerous living conditions, has been decreasing slightly, dropping from 58,950 in July 2018 to 57,826 in July of this year, according to DHS figures.
Worse Than Believed
In December 2018, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) concluded that homeless individuals are far more likely than the general population to be victims of violent crime and added that violence against them is even worse than believed, since many incidents go unreported.
On October 6, a homeless man on New York's Lower East Side bludgeoned to death four other homeless men and critically injured another. Just a few days later a homeless man in Kew Gardens randomly attacked a child, leaving him in critical condition.
That so many people have no home in a country as prosperous and generous as America is surprising, but Dr. Shakira A. Kennedy, Assistant Professor at Touro College Graduate School of Social Work, who has expertise in homelessness, told us something even more shocking: A staggering 2.5 million children now experience homelessness each year in America. "This historic high represents one in every 30 children in the United States," she said.
It's believed that many more children live with their families, using their vehicles as a home.
There is no such thing as a "typical" homeless person as this "can happen to anyone regardless of race, creed, religion, … etc…," she adds. Forbes estimates that just over 60% are male. Ages run the gamut from very old to very young.
According to Solutions Services, an organization that offers many services for the homeless, each person's problem is unique. Nevertheless, certain common causes are evident and one of these is mental illnesses. Dr. Kennedy says that "20%-25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness." By comparison, only 6% of Americans do overall.
There are many other causes of homelessness according to Naftali*, who has worked on various aspects of this problem for more than 20 years, as well as with the homeless themselves. Among those: Family breakups, a severe personal crisis, or domestic violence.
Some people become homeless because they were unable to pay rent and were ineligible for government programs that help low-income people with rent. Subsequently, they were evicted.
Jews are among the homeless, some of them Torah-observant. "Many people in the frum community who get eviction notices don't look for somebody to fight on their behalf," says Naftali. "They leave. They don't know where they are going, but they go. Very possibly they could have delayed eviction by as much as a year just by going to court," since the housing courts in New York tend to be strongly pro-tenant.
Surprisingly, some people are unaware of the many government and local programs that offer many types of assistance. Others avoid going to government offices because they fear or don't trust the bureaucracy.
"There is not a sense of great welcome," in those offices, explains Naftali. "A person can sit there for many hours and still not be helped."
The Poverty Capital of Jewish America
A study done in 2010 by the UJA found that more poor Jews live in Brooklyn than anywhere else in America. They live at or near the poverty level and include people with large families, the elderly and some immigrants; some of them are at risk for becoming homeless.
Yehuda*, a family man, professional and author who makes time to help the homeless, says there is a related problem.
"In most communities there is a shortage of places where they can stay," he says. "That's unfortunate beyond the obvious, because generations of people are growing up without being exposed to this problem and they won't have empathy for what these people are going through."
Living in the Real World
There appears to be a common theme among some Jewish homeless: They typically lived with an ailing parent, usually a mother, until she passed away. Afterward, unprepared to pay their own rent, they were evicted, ended up in a shelter, and moved to the streets. When that failed, they turned to shuls, where they hoped to find compassion and safety, or rented a garage, or a couch in someone's home. There are more homeless Jews than we realize. "They live in our communities, walk down the same streets we do, and daven in shul with us," says Yehuda. "They are too proud to tell anyone they are being evicted, too ashamed to ask anyone for help. Inevitably they end up homeless.
"I've asked homeless Jewish people why they didn't try to get help from their shuls or consult their Rabbis. They said they were too embarrassed to approach them. Imagine the emotional suffering they're going through."
Sometimes homelessness occurs suddenly, as in the case of a frum single mother from Crown Heights and her six children who unexpectedly found themselves in a shelter in Manhattan in late August. (An emergency campaign was launched to assist them.)
But more often, the problems that lead to homelessness have been going on for some time. Stan*, a homeless man whom Naftali got to know, experienced serious personal and family problems, turned to alcohol, and ended up on the street.
After speaking with him for some time, Naftali learned that he was Jewish and had a traditional background, although he had lost much of his affiliation. Amazingly, when offered a chance to live in a residence in Sea Gate, he declined. Subsequently, he did move there, reestablished contact with his family, and in some measure brought Yiddishkeit back into his life.
"If we had more apartments, we probably would have discovered more people who, while not obviously Jewish, were in fact Jewish," he says.
Yehuda, who has taken interest in many homeless individuals, says that speaking with them needs to be done with great sensitivity because, as a group, they are very proud. Moreover, some are mentally ill and their behaviors are unpredictable. The kindly proprietor of one small store learned this the hard way. He agreed to let a homeless person sleep there after hours, but that individual was mentally ill, and, for no valid reason, lashed out at the owner.
Many of the homeless are victims of their own behavior. Rather than going to a shelter, a former musician decided to take up residence outside some stores. He kept a few plastic bags with his possessions close by, and used the street for a bathroom. Business at these stores dropped sharply, as shoppers went elsewhere to avoid him.
One frustrated shopkeeper arranged a scheme with sanitation workers: he would distract the man while the workers would toss his plastic bags into the truck. This individual realized what was happening a moment too late to prevent it, and, seeing all his possessions thrown away, wailed in anguish.
Other times, there is a good ending, such as the one involving Jason*. A frum 67-year-old, he hadn't worked in 20 years, had no marketable skills, no savings, and suffered from mental illness. His mother, who had paid his rent all this time, had recently passed away, leaving him without family, and Jason hadn't paid rent for six months.
The landlord, initially sympathetic, then had an urgent need for the rental income and could no longer allow him to live in the apartment without paying. It was virtually impossible for Jason to find another residence since he had no income, no record of paying rent, no references, no credit, no assets and no job history.
With Yehuda's help, Jason got a grant of $6,000, learned to drive a tractor trailor, and found a job as a long-distance driver. Now that he has a job and regular income, Jason has renewed hope for the future. He wants to get married, start a family, and extend his driving over even longer routes.
But few people in Jason's situation are as lucky. "They will become homeless, and will either live in shuls or disappear, and no one will ever know what happened to them," Yehuda says. He estimates that at any time there is at least a minyan of frum people living on the streets in his community.
A Little Help Goes a Long Way
Most people who help the homeless give them a coin or buy them a meal. A few, like Yehuda, do much more.
A homeless man he had befriended got through the summer, but when summer ended and unusually cold weather set in, Yehuda worried that living on the street would be life-threatening. He rented an old van, left it in an area where there was no alternate-side parking, and allowed this person to stay there. He even provided necessities and paneled the van to make it more like a real home.
Another person, whom he recognized from shul, had a severely infected ear but was not receiving any medical care. Yehuda arranged for a physician to examine and treat him.
Doing such kindnesses takes a great deal of time and energy, and it is costly, but it can pay off. Yehuda scored a big victory with Jason and numerous smaller victories with other homeless people, giving them the temporary help they so desperately needed.
Some charitable organizations organize drives for homeless children. However, while admirable, this will not resolve their long-term needs or the needs of homeless people in general; these are of a magnitude that only government can address.
Rather than building more shelters, Naftali would like to see more programs that would prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
One partial solution could be for the city to build prefabricated housing, approved some 10 years ago, on city-owned land. Not only would the cost of these be much lower than conventional housing, but they could be constructed in half the time.
Naftali estimates that 5,000 units could probably be built within a year — possibly providing enough room to keep all women and children off the streets. While not a complete solution, it would make a significant dent in the problem, provide the security (and an address) that would help them find jobs, and be an important step to enable their children to go to school and live normal lives.
'Keep Them Away'
Many average people are repulsed by the homeless. They see them as alcoholics, drug addicts and panhandlers. Walking down subway station stairs, they trip over them and hurry when walking past them. The attitude is, "Keep them away from me."
"But they fail to see the whole picture," says Naftali. "Women and children who are homeless because they were fleeing domestic violence or have suffered loss of income, those whose lives were devastated by terrible illness and the massive medical bills that followed, and from other life events that are out of their control. And they need government help."
But even with such assistance, certain problems would still persist. Very high rent, one of the important causes of homelessness, would still be a problem. Many jobs are still being phased out for a variety of reasons, such as automation, or moved overseas. And a breakdown of family in general society means that many people can no longer rely on what had been a traditional and important support system in their lives. To some extent, the situation on the streets reflects these issues.
"Homelessness is not a new problem," says Dr. Kennedy. "It's been around since the 1800s. Thus, we have to change the way we think to make meaningful changes."
The next time you pass a homeless person, it's good to keep in mind that at one time this person led a respectable, conventional life, that the homeless are our fellow New Yorkers, and that some are fellow Jews. Rather than just picking up the pace when walking by, maybe it's better to say a prayer that they be saved from the nightmares they are experiencing, and another prayer that you never know from any of the horrors they are living through.
(*Names have been changed)
Nowhere to Go: One Homeless Orthodox Woman's Story
By Rafael Hoffman
Just before Sukkos, Rivka Schwartz* was in a city-run homeless shelter when she attempted to take her own life by swallowing all the medication she had in her possession.
Although Mrs. Schwartz has suffered with mental illness for many years, she and her family appear to be ordinary members of the Orthodox community — davening in local shuls and sending their children to typical yeshivos and Bais Yaakov schools.
Mrs. Schwartz is a friendly, intelligent, creative individual in her mid-40s. A close friend who has stood by her through the recent months of acute crisis said that what drove her to this desperate step was chiefly her inability to find a home to live in.
"She literally has nowhere to go," Mrs. Shterna Fisher* told Hamodia. "Some organizations have been helpful and some have not, but none of them has been able to come up with real options, and the increasing stress on someone who is already in crisis was too much for her to bear."
Mrs. Schwartz's predicament began its downward spiral a few months ago when she left home due to a difficult domestic situation. She has minimal family in this country and had not held a job for some time, and with no bank account or job history, her attempts to find an apartment for herself and begin a new life were not successful.
After living with a relative for a short time, the situation proved untenable, and Mrs. Schwartz's own attempts to gain help through organizations yielded no practical results — with many telling her they could only find housing for women with young children. For a set of technical reasons, few other people were able to offer their own homes as a viable option.
About six weeks ago, Mrs. Fisher received a call from Mrs. Schwartz that she had been released from an emergency room in Manhattan, but that she was still feeling unwell and had no place to go.
"You do not know what stress is until you have been sitting on a street corner in Manhattan for several hours with a frum woman who is lying on the sidewalk with nowhere to go, and every frantic call to a community organization is met with a voicemail," she said.
Mrs. Fisher also lamented that several potential options that emerged for her friend were predicated on her going through an involved bureaucratic process, which was beyond her ability at this point.
"This is a woman with an underlying mental illness in the midst of a severe crisis due to her lack of a viable living arrangement. How can you expect her to fill out pages and pages of paperwork and make all the follow-up calls on her own?" Mrs. Fisher said.
Some friends were able to put together funds to put Mrs. Schwartz up in a hotel for a few weeks, but the expense made this a very short-term solution.
After many hours of calls by Mrs. Fisher and others involved in the matter, Mrs. Schwartz was accepted around Rosh Hashanah time into a respite house operated by a Jewish organization that acts as a transition center for people being discharged from psychiatric hospitals. However, the facility is only designed to provide housing for up to one week. Clients are warned that the center is designed for those who have stable housing options to return to once their stay is over. When Mrs. Schwartz was informed of this, she felt she could no longer remain there. Feeling that it was only a matter of time before she would be back on the street, she panicked and left almost immediately.
"The only options they gave her were a list of city homeless shelters," said Mrs. Fisher. "There are hundreds and maybe thousands of people sleeping in the subways and on the streets because they are afraid to go to shelters, which are widely known to be unsanitary and unsafe! How is this a real option for a woman from our community?"
On Erev Yom Kippur Mrs. Schwartz moved into a city-run shelter in the East New York section of Brooklyn.
"She told me that she reasoned that at least they would not throw her out, and she took her machzor to daven there, but once she got there she realized how horrible it was. She had to sleep on top of her possessions to prevent them from being stolen, and there were very scary people hovering around her at all times. It was too much for her, and that's when she decided to swallow her medication."
Mrs. Schwartz survived the overdose and was brought by EMS to the nearest hospital. After a few days there, Mrs. Fisher and another woman visited the shelter to try to claim their friend's possessions.
"I was there for only an hour and I'm traumatized," said Mrs. Fisher. "I work in urban, inner-city neighborhoods, so it's not like I've never seen the outside world, but the people in this place are terrifying, including the staff, who would not stop yelling at us and the residents alike."
Ultimately, a bag of items that Mrs. Fisher and her friend believed did not belong to Mrs. Schwart was produced. They left empty-handed, leaving Mrs. Schwartz's wallet, vital identification cards and all her other possessions lost in the shelter.
Upon her discharge from the local hospital, Mrs. Schwartz was admitted to a psychiatric facility in Westchester, suffering from severe trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. As this article goes to print, she remains there without a place to go when she is discharged.
Tzvi Gluck, Director of Amudim, told Hamodia that Mrs. Schwartz's predicament is far from unique, and that the organizations involved in helping those in similar circumstances are stretched beyond their limits.
"Right now, I would say that housing is our biggest problem across the board. It affects teens at risk, abuse cases, those struggling with addiction, everyone," he said. "Organizations like Ohel and Shalom Task Force are doing the best they can with limited resources, but what they have is much less than the need that is, unfortunately, out there."
Amudim's mission focuses primarily on addiction and abuse, but often it finds itself helping others like Mrs. Schwartz, who end up turning to them for help. Mr. Gluck said that his staff has already spent more than 72 hours on Mrs. Schwartz's case — still with no solution. He confirmed that the challenge is especially acute for women without children under their charge.
"Men tend to have an easier time finding a place to 'crash,' and organizations that provide emergency housing give priority to women with young kids for obvious reasons. They just don't have enough beds to help everybody, and have to make very difficult choices," he said.
Mr. Gluck said that he had many cases where individuals in crisis sank into drug use or other dangerous and self-destructive choices as a result of ending up in public homeless shelters.
"For a woman without children, it is virtually impossible to find housing, and very often the only option is a shelter that exposes her to a lot of terrible things," he said. "I had 11 clients, frum women, who were not drug users before, but who all ended up on drugs while living in a shelter."
One of the Jewish community's leading options for populations that are vulnerable to homelessness is OHEL.
OHEL maintains apartments dedicated to housing battered women and their children, as well as housing options for men and women suffering from mental illness, and those who have developmental disabilities.
The organization maintains several scattered-site apartments, with 20 beds dedicated to women who are victims of domestic abuse where they can stay for up to three months with an option of a three-month extension if necessary. David Mandel, OHEL's CEO, told Hamodia that while most of these beds are full, a vacancy can usually be found, and that space concerns make it easier to accommodate one woman than those looking to move with children. Once mental illness or other serious issues are present, however, the admission process into a shelter for battered women can become more time-consuming.
"We usually do have beds, but these are apartments for independent living, and the person moving into these apartments has to be able to function as such. Moreover, we have to maintain relationships with the landlords and neighbors, so if a woman seeking a bed in our scattered-site shelters for battered women also suffers from serious mental illness, this might not be an option for them," he said.
OHEL also has 270 men and women with mental illness living in group homes and apartments.
The organization does not have emergency admissions and insists on a collaborative process with the applicant to evaluate their needs.
"We work quickly, but we need to understand your circumstances and to see how we can best help you," said Mr. Mandel.
At present, however, significantly more of these 270 beds are for men with mental illness than for women, which has increasingly led to a shortage of availability for female applicants in the housing program.
"The least-available housing option is for adult women with mental illness. OHEL is now 50 years old, and when we began in 1969 the trend was that our community would keep women with mental illness at home for much longer periods of time than men. The fact that this has changed means that OHEL and others in our field were successful in reducing the stigma of mental illness, but, with that, there has come a much higher demand for housing for women. We are working to create more beds for women, but the system has not kept up with demand, and there are women who have to wait for a lengthy period to get housing," said Mr. Mandel.
Those waiting for these apartments, Mr. Mandel said, may do so in a psychiatric center or hospital. Others can remain at home or receive outpatient care, but he added with regret that some who are in crisis may end up homeless.
"Frustrated individuals can sometimes ask, 'How can OHEL allow a person to go to a city homeless shelter?' We present many options to help people, including our mobile crisis team, which can visit a person virtually anywhere, in their home, or on the street, on a park bench — which we did last week. We have a short-term 7-14 stay option as a means to evaluate how best OHEL can assist the individual. We do have excellent social workers and case managers to help people in difficult situations work through those options, but even those [people] with mental illness are independent adults; they are free to make their own choices and do not always choose the best options," he said.
Mrs. Fisher feels that finding a solution for desperate situations such as Mrs. Schwartz's has to take a higher priority in the Orthodox community.
"We truly are a community of so much chessed, but I feel that finding a real way to help these people is a simple case of lo saamod al dam rei'acha [not to be passive when another's life is at stake]."


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Překladiště je prostor který se využívá pro přeložení nákladu z nějakého dopravního prostředku na jiný.

Jako jednoznačný příklad může posloužit např. přístav. Ten umožňuje přeložení nákladu z vlaků či automobilových prostředků do nákladních lodí či naopak.

Externí odkazy

Stanice, zastávky a terminály
Nákladní doprava

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


There's a scary forecast in store for the residents of a small island in this effects-filled Syfy shocker! The chilling climate change comes about in the form of a terrifying electrical storm whose origins are first a mystery...until it is revealed that the turbulence has actually been caused by the vengeful ghosts from an infamous mass suicide. Crystal Allen, Steve Bacic, and Daniel Boileau star. 90 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English.


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The cream rises again - the name of Fareham's famed Tom Parker Dairy is brought back to life
Jack Martin of Tom Parker Creamery with Andrew Stembridge, the MD of Chewton Glen, and his daughter
Millie Salkeld
TOM Parker Dairy was a long-standing firm in Fareham for decades – and now Tom's great grandson has brought the company back to life.
Jack Martin has re-established the brand that made his great-grandfather known throughout Fareham.
The original Tom Parker milk cart at Jack Martin's dairy farm in Exton''Picture: Alex Lawrence/White Wall Media Limited 2017
Jack, 37, launched the venture at a Film on a Farm event near Petersfield and sold chocolate and white chocolate milk from his great-grandfather's original horse-drawn milk cart, and also appeared at the launch of the Hampshire Food Festival on Saturday at Chewton Glen Hotel in the New Forest.
He said: 'I wanted to show people what an amazing product it is and at the same time bring back the brand that was started by my great-grandfather in 1921.
'My uncle found the cart was being used as a child's climbing frame and offered to buy it. We then restored it to its former glory with the original company logo.'
The dairy farmer has already attended Petersfield Hampshire Farmers' Market and has had tremendous feedback on social media from customers.
Tom Parker Dairies in Fareham in March 1981
'People's reactions have been wild and they are going mental for it,' said Jack.
'The other day at Petersfield Farmers' Market we sold out of iced coffee and nearly all of our chocolate milk.'
Jack has more than 500 cows at his farm in Exton which was bought by his grandfather in 1964. The cows are a mix of Freesian, Swedish Red, Montbeliarde and Jersey.
He added: 'In future I hope to expand to cream, milk, ice cream and other dairy products and I am also going to see my local shops to talk about stocking and the Blue Bell pub in Emsworth contacted me on Facebook about my products.'
The original site of the dairy business was in Redlands Lane, Fareham and stood on the site for more than six decades before it was changed to care home Gracewell of Fareham formely known as Parker Meadows.
Here's how long it takes to sell your home – based on your PO postcode

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Genome sequence analysis of the emerging human pathogenic acetic acid bacterium Granulibacter bethesdensis.
December 04, 2007 / Igenbio, Inc.
Greenberg DE, Porcella SF, Zelazny AM, Virtaneva K, Sturdevant DE, Kupko JJ 3rd, Barbian KD, Babar A, Dorward DW, Holland SM.
Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is an inherited immune deficiency characterized by increased susceptibility to infection with Staphylococcus, certain gram-negative bacteria, and fungi. Granulibacter bethesdensis, a newly described genus and species within the family Acetobacteraceae, was recently isolated from four CGD patients residing in geographically distinct locales who presented with fever and lymphadenitis. We sequenced the genome of the reference strain of Granulibacter bethesdensis, which was isolated from lymph nodes of the original patient. The genome contains 2,708,355 base pairs in a single circular chromosome, in which 2,437 putative open reading frames (ORFs) were identified, 1,470 of which share sequence similarity with ORFs in the nonpathogenic but related Gluconobacter oxydans genome. Included in the 967 ORFs that are unique to G. bethesdensis are ORFs potentially important for virulence, adherence, DNA uptake, and methanol utilization. GC% values and best BLAST analysis suggested that some of these unique ORFs were recently acquired. Comparison of G. bethesdensis to other known CGD pathogens demonstrated conservation of some putative virulence factors, suggesting possible common mechanisms involved in pathogenesis in CGD. Genotyping of the four patient isolates by use of a custom microarray demonstrated genome-wide variations in regions encoding DNA uptake systems and transcriptional regulators and in hypothetical ORFs. G. bethesdensis is a genetically diverse emerging human pathogen that may have recently acquired virulence factors new to this family of organisms.
J Bacteriol. 2007 Dec;189(23):8727-36. Epub 2007 Sep 7.


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W I J A B A
WIJABA
James J. Owens Wins The Benjamin E. Mays Medal
Awarded by Bates college for distinguished service to the larger (worldwide) community
The Benjamin E. Mays Medal
https://www.bates.edu/alumni/the-benjamin-e-mays-medal/
The Benjamin E. Mays Medal award was established during Mays' lifetime, and he was the inaugural recipient of the award in 1982. It the highest alumni award of the college and is presented to an alumna or alumnus who has performed distinguished service to the larger (worldwide) community and been deemed a Bates graduate of outstanding accomplishment. It is an occasional award that has been presented only 17 times.
In 2018, Alumni Association President Lisa Romeo '88 presented the award to James Owens '87 during Reunion Weekend. Inspired by the transformative power of reading, James Owens set out in 2012 to create an anthology that would ultimately take him on a 15-year life-altering journey. Published in 2017, The World Is Just a Book Away weaves together the unique stories of 60 contributors — from Nobel laureates to actors, humanitarians, and many more — who at first glance have little in common. But as James skillfully demonstrates, these prominent people all share something important: their lives have been influenced by a love of books and reading.
It was during this passion project that James was inspired to not only write about the power of literacy, but also to physically deliver it to those who need it most. In 2008, he founded a non-profit organization dedicated to creating the next generation of strong leaders through literacy and education programs in underdeveloped nations. Sharing its name with the title of his anthology, The World Is Just a Book Away builds libraries in countries that have large orphan populations as a result of devastating natural disasters. In the nine years since its inception, The World Is Just a Book Away has built 90 libraries, three of which are mobile. At one site in Indonesia, books are delivered by horseback to 10 remote schools atop a volcano. This revolutionary approach is effecting meaningful change within some of the world's most vulnerable communities.
The World Is Just A Book Away received the Independent Publisher Book Award for Most Original Concept in 2018. All profits from the sale of the book will go to supporting the organization of the same name.
From those devastated by natural disaster in Indonesia to people afflicted by major social and economic upheaval in Mexico, James Owens' work has improved the lives of over 70,000 children by providing the next generation with the tools, skills, and resources they need to face the challenges of today's complex world. James exemplifies the Bates touchstones of informed civic action and the cultivation of intellectual discovery. It is my honor to present the Benjamin Elijah Mays Medal to James Owens, Class of 1987.
"The World is Just a Book Away" Wins IPPY Award!
Gold Winner of the Foreword Reviews' 2017 INDIES Book of the Year Award
Professor James J. Owens Wins American Library Association Award
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NIH Rare Diseases : 53 Avascular necrosis of the femoral head (ANFH) is a degenerative condition which causes the upper ends of the thigh bones (femurs) to break down due to an inadequate blood supply and deficient bone repair. It can lead to pain and limping and cause the legs to be of unequal length. The prevalence of ANFH is unknown but around 15,000 cases are reported each year in the United States, with most cases being associated with mechanical disruption (hip trauma or surgery), hypofibrinolysis (a reduced ability to dissolve clots), steroid use, smoking, alcohol intake, hemoglobinopathies and hyperlipidemia (an increase in the amount of fat - such as cholesterol and triglycerides - in the blood). Familial forms of ANFH appear to be very rare, with only a few families reported in the medical literature. Age of onset in these familial cases ranges from 15-48 years (as opposed to between 3rd to 5th decade of life for other forms of ANFH). Transmission in familial cases is autosomal dominant and mutations in the type II collagen gene (COL2A1) have been detected in affected family members.
MalaCards based summary : Familial Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head, also known as familial osteonecrosis of the femoral head, is related to skeletal dysplasias and achondrogenesis, type ii. An important gene associated with Familial Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head is COL2A1 (Collagen Type II Alpha 1 Chain). Affiliated tissues include bone, and related phenotype is hearing/vestibular/ear.
Search GEO for disease gene expression data for Familial Avascular Necrosis of the Femoral Head.


text:
Will Mitchell: Kansas receives C- from NPO on shared parenting efforts
By Will MitchellSpecial to GateHouse Kansas
This week marked the release of the 2019 Shared Parenting Report Card issued by the National Parents Organization. The grading serves as a national study to provide a comprehensive ranking of the states on their child custody statutes, assessing them primarily on the degree to which they promote shared parenting after divorce or separation.
This study was motivated by the tremendous impact our nation's family courts have on children whose parents are divorced or separated, and by recent consensus statements by leading child development research organizations that confirm children thrive with shared parenting following separation or divorce. A research team evaluated the child custody statutes of each state and determined a shared parenting grade for each, based on existing statutes.
Kansas earned a C- according to the NPO research.
Garrett Tacha, who lives in western Kansas, recently celebrated a ruling in his county courthouse which gave him equal custody time with his children. Tears of joy began to stream down his face as he walked out of the courtroom. His reaction was understandable considering he had to wait nearly three years after his divorce and pay over $30,000 in attorney fees in order to have meaningful time with his children. Tacha would later say, "I don't understand why I had to spend thousands of dollars to prove that I am a fit and loving parent."
If Tacha is confused by our family courts, he's not the only one. His case serves as perfect example of why legislative reform is needed to help fix our courts.
Tacha was a fit parent without a criminal record, had never committed a violent crime in his life but was only allowed to see his children 15 hours a week by the judge. "The outcome of the court was awful. I couldn't believe it. My heart was in pieces after that court date," he said.
Tacha was told by those in the court system he needed to spend the next year gathering evidence, which showed he was a good dad and continue to pay lawyer fees. Eventually, his case was assigned to a mediator. Judges routinely hand custody cases over to a third party to hear and decide the facts of the case. The mediator ultimately decides which parent gets custody and how much time to spend with the children. The judge can make changes but rarely do. It's alarming to many parents due to the large number of cases judges send to mediators.
"It's kind of scary because the person who will ultimately decide my involvement with my own children isn't even at these meetings. How can a judge really know what is in my child's best interest if they aren't there?" Tacha said.
Another year would pass before the next court date was set to change the custody arrangement. While waiting, Tacha took co-parenting classes recommended by the mediator. He took part in drug and alcohol evaluations even though he didn't have a substance abuse problem. His big break came days before the court date when his ex-wife's attorney agreed to 50-50 shared custody. Two days later, the judge signed the agreement.
"I'm very thankful I'm able to see my children because I know many parents lack the financial resources to get time with their kids," he said. "I firmly believe Kansas needs to reform this system, but I'm very thankful right now. I love my kids so much."
Will Mitchell is the chairman for the Kansas affiliate of National Parents Organization.


text:
package org.apache.sis.util.logging;

import java.util.EventListener;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.LogRecord;

/**
 * Intercepts non-fatal error messages logged by {@link org.apache.sis.storage.DataStore} or other SIS objects.
 * Warnings are encapsulated in {@link LogRecord} objects and logged at {@link Level#WARNING} if the emitter does not
 * have any registered any {@code WarningListener}. This listener allows applications to intercept warning records for:
 *
 *

 *
displaying the warning in a dialog or performing any other action that the application may choose,

 *
reducing the amount of records to be logged.

 *

 *
 * The difference between using this listener or configuring the logging {@link java.util.logging.Handler} is
 * that listeners allow to handle the warnings on a per-{@code DataStore} (or any other emitter) instance.
 *
 * @param <S> The base type of objects that emit warnings (the source).
 *
 * @author  Martin Desruisseaux (Geomatys)
 * @since   0.3
 * @version 0.3
 * @module
 *
 * @see WarningListeners
 * @see org.apache.sis.storage.DataStore#addWarningListener(WarningListener)
 */
public interface WarningListener<S> extends EventListener {
    /**
     * Returns the type of objects that emit warnings of interest for this listener.
     * This is typically, but not necessarily, the class having the name returned by
     * {@link LogRecord#getSourceClassName()}, or one of its parent classes.
     *
     * @return The base type of objects that emit warnings (the source).
     */
    Class<S> getSourceClass();

    /**
     * Reports the occurrence of a non-fatal error. The emitter process (often a
     * {@link org.apache.sis.storage.DataStore} in the midst of a reading process)
     * will continue following the call to this method.
     *
     *
The {@code LogRecord} provides the warning {@linkplain LogRecord#getMessage() message} together with
     * programmatic information like the {@linkplain LogRecord#getSourceClassName() source class name} and
     * {@linkplain LogRecord#getSourceMethodName() method name} where the warning occurred. The log record
     * may optionally contains the exception which has been {@linkplain LogRecord#getThrown() thrown}.

     *
     *
Applications may choose to ignore the warning, display a dialog or take any other action they choose.
     * Applications do not need to log the warning, since logging will be done automatically if the emitter has
     * no registered warning listeners.

     *
     * @param source  The object that emitted a warning, or {@code null} if not available.
     * @param warning The warning message together with programmatic information.
     */
    void warningOccured(S source, LogRecord warning);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub