text:
Ireland's whistleblower scandal has government flailing, again
Who guards the guards? Maurice McCabe's case has brought this phrase's fundamental importance in a democracy front and center.
John Spain
Minister for Children Katherine Zappone meets the press in Dublin on Monday. RollingNews.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Whether you did Latin in school or not, you probably know the meaning of the famous phrase. It translates as, who guards the guards?
It's the old conundrum that students in political science classes discuss in college. But it's not just an interesting academic question. Over the past week or two its fundamental importance in a democracy has put it front and center of the news in Ireland because of the disturbing case of Garda Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
The McCabe case is now so serious it has the potential to bring down the government. At the very least two ministers and the garda commissioner are in danger of losing their jobs.
The Cabinet, reeling under the pressure, looks confused and incompetent. Taoiseach Enda Kenny is floundering. And the reputation of the garda force, particularly at senior level, has been damaged so badly it will take a very long time to recover.
So, what has caused the crisis now? After all, the case of McCabe, a whistleblower who tried to expose corruption in the police here over the past decade, has been around for some years.
What is different now is that last week we learned for the first time the full extent to which McCabe had been destroyed for doing so. Not only had he been intimidated and ostracized within the force. We knew that much.
What we did not know until last week was that a campaign of character assassination had been mounted against him, with bogus allegations of child abuse by him circulated among politicians and leaked to the media. This was done over the past few years behind his back to ruin his reputation and his credibility.
What has made all this even more disgusting and sinister is that senior politicians who must have been aware of what was going on did little or nothing to help him.
If you are unfamiliar with the convoluted details of the case you can read about it on the websites of the Irish papers and in Niall O'Dowd's comprehensive reporting on IrishCentral.
In summary, McCabe, who worked in a rural garda station, became aware around 10 years ago that penalty points notices for driving offenses were being quashed by some officers. If you were caught speeding you could avoid the penalty points, which could put you off the road, if you had the right connections.
This may sound like relatively minor corruption -- favors were being done rather than bribes being paid -- but it seemed to be widespread and systematic. When McCabe reported it up the chain of command in 2008 he was rewarded by being locked out of the Pulse police computer system, where he had been gathering evidence.
The campaign against him and a few other garda whistleblowers began. At local level, he was isolated and at more senior level his credibility was undermined by off the record briefings to journalists. He had crossed the line and the senior Garda management were out to get him.
The penalty points issue was one thing. McCabe and other garda whistleblowers were also concerned about incompetence in the handling of more serious crime, including a murder.
But it was a disagreement with a garda colleague at the time who he accused of corruption that caused McCabe the most difficulty. After this happened the colleague's young daughter accused McCabe of sex abuse (the two families had been friends and the children played together in both houses), but this was dismissed by the state prosecutor as having absolutely no merit.
There were serious doubts about the motives involved at the time. Some years later this girl appears to have resurrected the claim and the gardai as well as Tusla, the child protection agency, became involved. Tusla opened a file not only on McCabe but also on his children and began an investigation.
In what Tusla is now claiming was an administrative error, details from another child abuse case involving digital penetration were somehow added to the McCabe file. This very serious information also became part of the rumors that were being circulated about McCabe. Given his profile, it stretches credibility that such a mistake could have been made innocently by a cut and paste accident, but that is what Tusla is claiming.
Whatever the truth Tusla subsequently recognized its mistake, but its efforts to undo the damage done were slow, secret and inadequate and the serious allegations about McCabe remained in circulation. In recent weeks, both the minister for children Katherine Zappone and the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald became involved in the McCabe case, and both now have serious questions to answer about how much they knew, when, what actions they took, and how much they told the rest of the government.
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald's involvement seems to have followed the pattern of keeping a distance from what could be seen by politicians as a toxic case and deliberately knowing as little as possible. It's called saving your own skin. Zappone's involvement was incompetent to say the least.
The question we are now faced with is whether these latest revelations show a continuance of the campaign to silence McCabe that goes back almost a decade.
How far did this go over the years? Was it just senior levels in the garda? Did it include members of governments and, more recently, Tusla? Instead of guarding the guards, were the authorities part of a protracted and devastating cover-up?
The ramifications of this are so serious, as we said, that the case has the potential to plunge the country into a general election. Sinn Fein has a motion of no confidence in the government down for debate in the Dail this week.
That is unlikely to succeed because Fianna Fail, despite expressing disgust and outrage over the case, is refusing to back the Sinn Fein motion. Were it to do so, it would bring down the Fine Gael-led minority government which only survives with its support.
The latest opinion poll has Fianna Fail 11 points ahead of Fine Gael. But the timing does not suit Fianna Fail which clearly feels it needs to wait before it attempts to get back into power.
Although there is now clearly an opportunity, it prefers to let Fine Gael wallow in this mess for a while longer and sink even further in popular support.
There may be a further reason for Fianna Fail's reluctance to push the issue too far at this stage. McCabe's attempts to expose corruption within the force go back to 2008 when Fianna Fail was still in power. Who knows what skeletons are in that cupboard.
The handling of allegations of garda corruption by McCabe and other garda whistleblowers has already resulted in official inquiries. The last garda commissioner and the minister for justice in the previous Fine Gael-led government both lost their jobs.
But the new revelations last week about the attempt to smear McCabe with child abuse and the allegedly accidental involvement in this by Tusla has brought the scandal to a far more serious level. It could not only cost two ministers their jobs, as we said, but bring down the government. The level of public outrage could force Fianna Fail's hand, whether the timing suits the party or not.
The government last week responded to the ongoing McCabe situation by agreeing to set up another judicial commission of investigation. Such a commission would go on for months, providing time for the heat in the crisis to dissipate, which no doubt was part of the government's thinking. And of course, it would have no power to bring any criminal charges against anyone.
But that was last week. Since then public outrage over this whole affair has soared and the government now says it will hold a public inquiry into the matter -- another tribunal. If this goes ahead it could be devastating for some people in politics, the Garda and even the media. What it uncovers could lead to a criminal investigation.
Whatever about a tribunal of inquiry, what we really need at this stage is for a major criminal investigation to begin immediately and to be led by senior officers from an outside police force, probably from Britain where the legal system is similar. Prosecutions should follow. The gardai certainly cannot be allowed to investigate themselves, or the politicians or Tusla.
Zappone, who was familiar with the Tusla files and had met the McCabes last month for a discussion somehow neglected to tell her Cabinet colleagues about the situation when the government was meeting last week to finalize the terms for the new commission of investigation. This was before the Tusla bogus file part of the story was broken on RTE last week, and so the Cabinet set the terms of reference for the investigation without that knowledge. While the minister sat there and said nothing about it!
She has now revealed that she mentioned the Tusla file to Kenny before that Cabinet meeting but says she did not go into detail about its contents. His failure to pursue this is highly damaging for him.
Irish leader Enda Kenny.
What she should have done when she was first told about the Tusla file is immediately inform both the minister for justice and Attorney General Maire Whelan about what she had learned. Fianna Fail are claiming that they told Fitzgerald in advance about the Tusla file but she is claiming she only learned about it when she saw the RTE program.
This merry go round of who knew what and when is shameful and lacks any credibility at this stage. Given the level of misjudgment and incompetence involved, both of them - particularly Zappone - should be toast. But then this is Ireland and a brass neck will allow you to tough out any situation. Zappone is clearly signaling that she will take down the Taoiseach if he attempts to fire her.
Not to minimize the McCabe case in any way, but this is typical of how we tie ourselves in knots in Ireland over something that is far from being one of the biggest problems we are facing at the moment. These include the looming strikes in the state sector among transport and health care workers, the growing evidence that Britain is going to drop us into a hard Brexit and Donald Trump's moves to stifle the American companies who provide so many jobs here.
These are problems on a national scale. But instead of dealing with them our government is engulfed in a scandal about attempts to destroy one honest cop, shifting, dodging and denying in a desperate attempt to explain away its failure and cling to power.
In Northern Ireland, a senior British police officer had to be brought in to take charge of the RUC and sort it out. It's time to do the same with the Garda.
Related: Crime, Irish Politics


Friends of MDA RIDE will come to support our common MDA RIDE idea to a traditional biker season launch in Poděbrady. This year's Praha - Poděbrady ride, which in its renewed form has been organized by the Harley-Davidson Club Praha along with HOG Praha Chapter and the city of Poděbrady already for the nineteenth time, will take place on Saturday, April 1, 2017.
Thanks to the support of the Harley-Davidson Club Praha as well as HOG Praha Chapter leaders, we can open again our booth at the traditional place at the beginning of Poděbrady colonnade and look forward to a visit of all the supporters who will want to replenish some of the MDA RIDE logo items and to help so to people with muscular dystrophy. As always, you can buy the edition patch of this year's 9th MDA RIDE.
Under the leadership of Jiří Dvořák, a MDA RIDE Supporters Activities Officer and also a frontman of the Strahov band - one of the MDA RIDE Advocates - friends of MDA RIDE do organize occasional common rides or other events, exchange experiences and photos from trips at the beloved bikes of all brands and share themselves everything interesting from the motorcycle world. And last but not least, the friends of MDA RIDE are involved in helping people with muscular dystrophy by various forms according to their capabilities. And exactly for the friends of MDA RIDE, there is the MDA RIDE Supporters group available. You can find here information about events of the friends and for the friends of MDA RIDE..


There is presently 22 various types of funnels that can be developed utilizing ClickFunnels. Funnel types consist of; Optin funnels, sales funnels, tripwire funnels, webinar funnels, membership website funnels and more.
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Variations: mega (60oz or 30oz), country batard (20oz or 16oz), baguette (full, demi, or mini), boule (10oz or 8.5oz), french epi, dinner rolls, panini.
Add-ins: caramelized garlic (20oz), red pepper and olive (16oz or 7oz roll), cranberry walnut, three-cheese (parmesan, asiago, romano).
Our Three-Grain is our most traditional and popular bread. Using organic spelt and organic rye give our bread an incredible texture and certain taste you cannot find anywhere else. We mill the spelt and rye right here at the bakery using a stone ground mill.
Our 72-hr fermented artisan bread is carefully made with 40% organic spelt, king arthur artisan bread flour, and salt.
Variations: miche (whole, half, or 1/4), sliced pan loaf, batard, Demi-Baguette.
Ingredients: Unbleached enriched whole wheat flour, yellow corn meal, organic rolled oats, organic groats, organic rye berries, organic spelt berries, whole pearled barley, wheat bran, millet, flax seeds, sea salt, honey, sunflower oil, yeast, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds.
Variations: sliced pan loaf, boule (8.5oz), baguette.
Owner and Master Baker, Tim, learned how to make this incredible bread when he was perfecting his skills in Italy for 15 years. This dough is only made with King Arthur artisan bread flour, a little salt, and a little yeast. We make this bread into individual loaves topped with the best greek olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary. This light and airy bread is perfect for dips, sandwiches, paninis, or just eating by itself.
Ingredients: Rye flour, king arthur artisan bread flour, levain (sourdough starter), salt, molasses, cocoa powder, coffee grinds, honey, olive oil, caraway seeds, yeast.


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Substance boasts a host of features all accessible from an easy to use interface within your Joomla administration including background and text colour choosers, easy edit logo options, 54 module positions, responsive controls, font choosers, template width controls and an endless range of module layout options. Add Substance to your Joomla site today.


Join in the fun with the Summer Reading Program for all ages! Babies through adults are welcome to visit the Library to pick up an activity log and start reading. Participate to earn prizes throughout the summer. Celebrate with the Summer Reading Finale with Laura Doherty on July 26. Registration required for all programs.
All ages. Come watch a thrilling and entertaining magic show packed with vanishing acts, mind-reading tricks, and a variety of hilarious tricks that will have the children rolling on the floor with laughter.
Explore science experiments, technology, and more! Dress to get messy. Who knew science could be so much fun?
Families are invited to come and visit with an old favorite for stories and a photo with Spot. Don't forget a camera! Registration is required.
Making soda is fun and easy. Lacto-fermented soda is the "yogurt" of soda - delicious, good for you and easy to make. This presentation will offer a discussion about fermented soda as well as a hands-on demonstration. Participants will have the opportunity to sample several types of this bubbly drink. For teens over age 12 and adults.
A new public computer and copy reservation system debuts, utilizing a library card and PIN number. Residents need to be sure to have a library card and PIN number. The old print cards with money will be phased out so it's important to use up balances as soon as possible.
Youth Services Department renovation project.
The Library Board signed a contract with Kluber Architects, Batavia, in March to finalize plans and drawings for renovation of the Youth Services Department. The work includes expansion of the youth programming room. Once approved by the Library Board, bid requests for the project will be advertised, likely by late summer.
The Library contracted late last fall with L. J. Dodd Co., Oswego, to perform exterior maintenance work on the white stucco exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS) late this spring and summer.
Some of the library's phone numbers have changed. The information block below lists these new numbers, as well as department heads.
Do you love to read and discuss books? Join one of the Library's book groups, and enjoy lively discussions of fiction and non-fiction titles. Copies of the books will be available at the checkout desk.
Songs and games designed to introduce kids to basic music concepts, with stories and dancing and fun!
Gary Kantor will lead a thrilling workshop where children will learn how to do a variety of magic tricks. Each child will also receive a magic kit to take home at the workshop.
Drop in to build your own creation to display in the Library! No registration necessary.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hold dinosaur bones? A Dinosaur Fossil Hunter will take participants on a mini expedition for a hands-on encounter with authentic dinosaur fossils from different species like Triceratops and T-Rex.
Make recycling super fun by assembling a Tin Can Robot!
Bring a t-shirt to tie-dye! Dress to get messy. No registration required for this drop-in program.
Work with fellow creative spirits on a latest project. Participants bring what they are working on or or create something for the upcoming cosplay (costume play) party with provided ideas! Snacks provided.
You've played it on the computer, now play it in real life. Build a setup, knock it down and make some fuzzy angry birds to take home.
Registration opens May 12, please register by June 13.
Each month the Library offer a variety of one-on-one sessions and small group classes. All classes last 1 ½ hours, and are free and open to the public. Space is limited; please register in advance.
This class is perfect for first-time computer users. Learn how to use a mouse, the keyboard, and gain confidence with the computer desktop.
Learn how to create an email account, read, send and manage email messages using free, web-based email.
Learn to navigate the Internet, type a web address, link from one web site to another and conduct basic searches for weather, cooking, trusted medical information and more.


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text:
Arda Vekiloğlu (born 21 January 1979, in Turkey) is a Turkish professional basketball coach and former player. He was recently head coach for Petkim Spor of the TBL. He was a part of the Turkey national basketball team.

In August 2018, he signed to become the head coach of Bursaspor Basketbol.

On July 2, 2019, he has signed with Petkim Spor of the TBL.

Career
Player:
 Pınar Karşıyaka (1995–1999, 2005–2006)
 Efes Pilsen (1999–2000, 2001–2002)
 Galatasaray Café Crown (2000–2001, 2002–2003, 2004–2005)
 Ülkerspor (2003–2004)
 Beşiktaş Cola Turka (2006–2007)
 Kepez Belediyesi (2007–2008)

Coach:
 Gelişim Koleji (Youth Team)
 Bursaspor (Head Coach)
 Petkim Spor (Head Coach)
 Balıkesir Büyükşehir Belediyespor (Head Coach)

References

External links
TBLStat.net Profile

1979 births
Living people
Anadolu Efes S.K. players
Beşiktaş men's basketball players
Forwards (basketball)
Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players
Karşıyaka basketball players
Kepez Belediyesi S.K. players
Turkish men's basketball players
Ülker G.S.K. basketball players

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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White vertical blinds manufactured in a spongeable 3.5" (89mm) flatweave fabric called Jacamar. These vertical blinds have a subtle pattern and so will look fantastic in any room.


text:
Lana Del Rey posts DIY video to new song 'Carmen' – watch
The promo clip for the latest track to be taken from 'Born To Die' features strippers and New York
Lana Del Rey has posted the video for 'Carmen' online, the next track to be taken from her Number One album 'Born To Die. Scroll down to watch.
The video is made up of a collection of found footage, vintage clips and shots of Del Rey, much like the DIY video which accompanied her 2011 debut single, 'Video Games'.
It features pole dancers, images of New York City, Del Rey snuggling up to a blond haired man on the back of a motorcycle and live footage of the singer performing onstage.
Kasabian's Serge Pizzorno recently gave Lana Del Rey's cover of their single 'Goodbye Kiss' his seal of approval. The guitarist and songwriter told NME that he thinks the track sounds "fucking beautiful" and thanked the 'Born To Die' singer for picking the track to cover.
He added: "I'm really proud. Obviously we covered one of hers, 'Video Games', so it was quite a sweet thing to do back. It's a really nice gesture. It's proper old school."
Lana Del Rey, who covered the track for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, revealed she first heard the Leicester band's music through her boyfriends. She told Fearne Cotton: "All of my boyfriends had loved Kasabian and I'd never listened to them. I started and I really like this song. I love this song and I love the melody, I love the way the boys sing it."
https://link.brightcove.com/services/player/?bctid=1398891363001

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
You have come to the ESPN Africa edition, for other ESPN editions, click above.
NCAAFNCAAF
College FPICollege FPI
Total QBRTotal QBR
LSU-Florida game postponed after COVID spike
5hKyle Bonagura
9hAlex Scarborough
Sources: Huskies' Kwiatkowski to be Texas DC
15hChris Low and Adam Rittenberg
Arizona State makes Pierce solo D-coordinator
11hAdam Rittenberg
Sources: Nielsen gets Saints deal, won't join LSU
2dAdam Rittenberg and Mike Triplett
Sources: Alabama hiring Marrone as OL coach
1dChris Low
Ex-S.C. QB Hilinski transferring to Northwestern
1dKyle Bonagura
College football winners and losers from NFL draft early-entry deadline
20hHarry Lyles Jr.
College football's way-too-early 2021 All-America team
The 2021 Way-Too-Early college football top 25
9dMark Schlabach
Meet the ultimate All-Saban team
7dRyan McGee
From DeVonta Smith to Buddy Johnson, the 2020-21 college football All-Bowl team
6dSam Khan Jr.
Final college football Power Rankings for the 2020 season
Predicting next year's breakout player for each Top 25 team
Why is Nick Saban smiling? The answer goes beyond him leading Bama to another title
Alabama's title felt both impossible and undeniable
9dAndrea Adelson
Saturday's LSU-Florida football game postponed after COVID-19 spike
Saturday's game between No. 10 Florida and LSU at "The Swamp" has been postponed after the Gators saw a surge in positive COVID-19 tests this week, it was announced Wednesday.
The game has tentatively been rescheduled for the SEC's built-in bye week on Dec. 12, which is the week before the SEC championship.
The SEC said on Twitter that the game was postponed after "positive tests & subsequent quarantine of individuals with the Florida FB program."
Florida has 18 positives among scholarship players and three among walk-ons, athletic director Scott Stricklin said Wednesday. He said the players and staff members who tested positive are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Stricklin said he did not have an exact number of players who are now under contact-trace quarantine, but when adding in those with the positive cases and non-COVID-related injured players, Florida had less than 50 scholarship players available.
Alabama's Saban, AD test positive for COVID-19
Florida's Mullen backtracks on packing stadium
Florida pauses football following virus outbreak
The SEC's Return to Activity and Medical Guidance Task Force stipulates that a team must have at least 53 scholarship players available to play a game, including seven offensive linemen (with one center), four defensive linemen and one quarterback.
"It can sneak up on you in a hurry," Stricklin said. "The key thing is you've got to have the ability to push the brake when things start to occur like what we're seeing right now. You've got to be willing to hit pause occasionally. The SEC schedule was set up with an event like this in mind. As much as we want to give our kids the opportunity to compete, we understand this isn't a normal year and we're going to have the ability to adapt to unusual circumstances such as this."
Florida shut down its football program on Tuesday after a number of tests came back positive.
Stricklin said there is suspicion that the trip to play Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, this past weekend is at the root of the outbreak. However, a couple of UF players said they had allergy-type symptoms before leaving for the game and didn't report it to UF officials. Stricklin said he learned early Monday that players were reporting symptoms, and the standard Sunday testing revealed multiple positives. That is when Florida started doing daily testing, and the numbers have increased since then. Stricklin said the team would continue doing daily testing until the spread is under control.
Florida coach Dan Mullen on Wednesday backtracked on a statement made Saturday in which he said he would like to see 100% capacity at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, citing a recent decision by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to lift COVID-19 restrictions that had limited the size of public gatherings.
This is the second SEC game this week that has been postponed, joining Missouri-Vanderbilt.
Because Florida has so many players who are positive and in quarantine, next week's game against Missouri could also potentially be in jeopardy. CDC guidelines say those with positive tests must isolate for 10 days, while contact tracing requires a 14-day quarantine. Stricklin said it was too early to know whether the Missouri game would have to be postponed as well.
"Well, it's hard to speculate right now," Stricklin said. "Obviously we'll be in communication with the Southeastern Conference and probably get Missouri, obviously as our next opponent, to kind of keep them abreast of what we're seeing, and we'll continue as I said our regular testing protocol for those who aren't in quarantine, and hopefully we don't have any more positives and we're able to get on the other side of this and then we can get everyone back in a situation where you can go compete again."
ESPN's Andrea Adelson and Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.


text:
Grocery union leader calls Ralphs'…
Grocery union leader calls Ralphs' coronavirus pay bonus 'shameful'
As grocers rake in the profits amid a buying binge, a UFCW letter says Kroger is being greedy.
Ralphs' parent company announced a bonus for employees working amid the coronavirus outbreak. A union leader called the $150-$300 payments 'shameful.' (File photo)
By Jack Katzanek | jkatzanek@scng.com |
The union that represents workers at Southern California's very busy supermarkets is strongly criticizing Ralphs and Food 4 Less over its coronavirus-related bonus for employees, calling the $150-$300 payments "shameful."
Kroger's CEO Rodney McMullen on Friday announced one-time bonuses of $150 for part-time workers and $300 for full-time employees who are straining to keep the stores stocked and clean. McMullen said the company also would expand its emergency leave program during the coronavirus outbreak.
Joe Duffle, the president of Local 1167 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, issued an open letter Saturday to Kroger, writing the one-time bonus "is shameful and it shows the shear (sic) greed of this corporation."
"This is obviously an attempt to make as much money as you can during this crisis," the letter reads. "This is not the time to worry about your rich investors' returns, but it is time to take care of the communities that you claim to serve and the employees that you put on the front lines."
Stater Bros. bumps workers' hourly rate $2 for four weeks
Vons, Albertsons, Pavilions workers get $2 hourly raise during coronavirus outbreak
List: Cardenas, Ralphs join grocers open early for seniors amid coronavirus crush
Costco building region's first business center store in Ontario
Stater Bros., Trader Joe's, Ralphs cut store hours amid coronavirus crush
Burt Flickinger III, a retail analyst with Strategic Resource Group, said that, from what executives are telling him, the chaotic situation at stores has led to record sales.
Typically, the busiest day of the year for grocery shopping is the day before Thanksgiving, Flickinger said. But over the last month, at least one day each week has exceeded that pre-holiday shopping spree.
"Normally the three months from February through April are the slowest of the year for food retail," Flickinger said. "This time, it's on track to be a record for any 90-day period."
The same day Kroger announced its bonuses, Stater Bros. Markets said it would give all its workers in stores, warehouses and offices a $2 hourly raise for the next four weeks. The parent company of Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions said it would raise its store workers' pay $2 an hour this week, then revisit the situation at month's end.
The hourly raises stand to put more money in a workers' pocket, depending on the hours worked. If a Stater Bros. employee works 10 hours of overtime per week over the four weeks, it could mean be a pay bump of more than $600 spread over the period.
Ralphs' spokesman John Votava said the bonuses will appear in paychecks April 3 but declined to discuss UFCW's complaint.
"This appreciation bonus is money that our associates have told us they could use now, bringing them immediate relief," Votoava said in a statement.
Early Monday morning at a Ralphs in Riverside — open first for senior citizens and shoppers with special needs — virtually every aisle shared space with a hand truck loaded with boxes of goods waiting to be unloaded. Several workers, all of whom declined to give their names, shrugged off the union's letter.
"I'm just glad to be working, honestly," one worker said.
Another likened the company bonuses to a proverbial gift horse that should not be looked at crossly.
"It's found money for me," the worker said as he unpacked bakery goods. "It's like finding $100 under the seat of my car."
Status Update: New eats coming to District at Tustin Legacy; Fendi Men debuts at South Coast Plaza
Can work-at-home cure California traffic jams?
Omnitrans dodges takeover, but endures service cuts and layoffs
These Inland Empire restaurants have temporarily closed during the coronavirus surge
Jack Katzanek | Reporter
I left my hometown of New York City in 1981 to take a job on a weekly paper in Ordway Colorado, a prairie town of 1,200. This made me the ultimate fish-out-of-water. I have since covered sports in Miles City, Montana; crime, courts, government and education in Napa , California,and gaming in Las Vegas, all before becoming a business reporter and editor in 1996. In that capacity I have worked at the Santa Clarita Signal, the Inland Valley daily Bulletin, and the Press-Enterprise. I joined the PE in 2000, left in 2014 and rejoined in 2018.
jkatzanek@scng.com
Briefly: Sprouts on tap for Moreno Valley; hundreds of new homes under development in region
Parler's website is back online with a brief message to 'lovers and haters'


Today I'll wrap up my series on Azure Active Directory's (Azure AD) integration with Google's G-Suite. In my first entry I covered the single-sign on (SSO) integration and in my second and third posts I gave an overview of Google's Cloud Platform (GCP) and demonstrated how to access a G-Suite domain's resources through Google's APIs. In this post I'm going to cover how Microsoft provides automated provisioning of user, groups, and contacts . If you haven't read through my posts on Google's API (part 1, part 2) take a read through so you're more familiar with the concepts I'll be covering throughout this post.
SSO using SAML or Open ID Connect is a common capability of most every cloud solutions these days. While that solves the authentication problem, the provisioning of users, groups, and other identity-relates objects remains a challenge largely due to the lack of widely accepted standards (SCIM has a ways to go folks). Vendors have a variety of workarounds including making LDAP calls back to a traditional on-premises directory (YUCK), supporting uploads of CSV files, or creating and updating identities in its local databases based upon the information contained in a SAML assertion or Open ID Connect id token. A growing number of vendors are exposing these capabilities via a web-based API. Google falls into this category and provides a robust selection of APIs to interact with its services from Gmail to resources within Google Cloud Platform, and yes even Google G-Suite.
If you're a frequent user of Azure AD, you'll have run into the automatic provisioning capabilities it brings to the table across a wide range of cloud services. In a previous series I covered its provisioning capabilities with Amazon Web Services. This is another use case where Microsoft leverages a third party's robust API to simplify the identity management lifecycle.
This simply isn't true. While auto provisioning via the API can be done, it is a feature you need to code to and isn't enabled by default. When you enable SSO to G-Suite and attempt to access it using an assertion containing the claim for a user that does not exist within a G-Suite domain you receive the error below.
This establishes what we already knew in that identities representing our users attempting SSO to G-Suite need to be created before the users can authenticate. Microsoft provides a Quickstart for auto provisioning into G-Suite. The document does a good job telling you were to click and giving some basic advice but really lacks in the detail into what's happening in the background and describing how it works.
Let's take a deeper look shall we?
If you haven't already, add the Google Apps application from the Azure AD Application Gallery. Once the application is added navigate to the blade for the application and select the Provisioning page. Switch the provisioning mode from manual to automatic.
Right off the bat we see a big blue Authorize button which tells us that Microsoft is not using the service accounts pattern for accessing the Google API. Google's recommendation is to use the service account pattern when accessing project-based data rather than user specific data. The argument can be made that G-Suite data doesn't fall under project-based data and the service account credential doesn't make sense. Additionally using a service account would require granting the account domain-wide delegation for the G-Suite domain allowing the account to impersonate any user in the G-Suite domain. Not really ideal, especially from an auditing perspective.
By using the Server-side Web Apps pattern a new user in G-Suite can be created and assigned as the "Azure AD account". The downfall with of this means you're stuck paying Google $10.00 a month for a non-human account. The price of good security practices I guess.
Microsoft documentation states that the account must be granted the Super Admin role. I found this surprising since you're effectively giving the account god rights to your G-Suite domain. It got me wondering what authorization scopes is Microsoft asking for? Let's break out Fiddler and walk through the process that kicks off after clicking on the Authorization button.
A new window pops up from Google requesting me to authenticate. Here Azure AD, acting as the OAuth client, has made an authorization request and has sent me along with the request over to the Google which is acting as the authorization server to authenticate, consent to the access, and take the next step in the authorization flow.
When I switch over to Fiddler I see a number of sessions have been captured. Opening the WebForms window of the first session to accounts.google.com a number of parameters that were passed to Google.
The first parameter gives us the three authorization scopes Azure AD is looking for. The admin.directory.group and admin.directory.user are scopes are both related to the Google Directory API, which makes sense if it wants to manage users and groups. The /m8/feeds scope grants it access to manage contacts via the Google Contacts API. This is an older API that uses XML instead of JSON to exchange information and looks like it has been/is being replaced by the Google People API.
Management of contacts via this API is where the requirement for an account in the Super Admin role originates. Google documentation states that management of domain shared contacts via the /m8/feeds API requires an administrator username and password for Google Apps. I couldn't find any privilege in G-Suite which could be added to a custom Admin role that mentioned contacts. Given Google's own documentation along the lack of an obvious privilege option, this may be a hard limitation of G-Suite. Too bad too because there are options for both Users and Groups. Either way, the request for this authorization scope drives the requirement for Super Admin for the account Azure AD will be using for delegated access.
The redirect_uri is the where Google sends the user after the authorization request is complete. The response_type tells us Azure AD and Google are using the OAuth authorization code grant type flow. The client_id is the unique identifier Google has assigned to Azure AD in whatever project Microsoft has it built in. The approval_prompt setting of force tells Google to display the consent window and the data Azure AD wants to access. Lastly, the access_type setting of offline allows Azure AD to access the APIs without the user being available to authenticate via a refresh token which will be issued along with the access token. Let's pay attention to that one once the consent screen pops up.
I plug in valid super user credentials to my G-Suite domain and authenticate and receive the warning below. This indicates that Microsoft has been naughty and hasn't had their application reviewed by Google. This was made a requirement back in July of 2017… so yeah… Microsoft maybe get on that?
To progress to the consent screen I hit the Advanced link in the lower left and opt to continue. The consent window then pops up.
Here I see that Microsoft has registered their application with a friendly name of azure.com. I'm also shown the scopes that the application wants to access which jive with the authorization scopes we saw in Fiddler. Remember that offline access Microsoft asked for? See it mentioned anywhere in this consent page that I'm delegating this access to Microsoft perpetually as long as they ask for a refresh token? This is one of my problems with OAuth and consent windows like this. It's entirely too vague as to how long I'm granting the application access to my data or to do things as me. Expect to see this OAuth consent attacks continue to grow in in use moving forward. Why worry about compromising the user's credentials when I can display a vague consent window and have them grant me access directly to their data? Totally safe.
Hopping back to the window, I click the Allow button and the consent window closes. Looking back at Fiddler I see that I received back an authorization code and posted it back to the reply_uri designated in the original authorization request.
Switching back to the browser window for the Azure Portal the screen updates and the Test Connection button becomes available. Clicking the button initiates a quick check where Azure AD obtains an access token for the scopes it requires unseen to the user. After the successful test I hit the Save button.
Switching to the browser window for the Google Admin Portal let's take a look at the data that's been updated for the user I used to authorize Microsoft its access. For that I select the user, go to the Security section and I now see that the Azure Active Directory service is authorized to the contacts, user, and group management scopes.
Switching back to the browser window for the Azure Portal I see some additional options are now available.
The mappings are really interesting and will look familiar to you if you've ever done anything with an identity management tool like Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) or even Azure AD Sync. The user mappings for example show which attributes in Azure AD are used to populate the attributes in G-Suite.
The attributes that have the Delete button grayed out are required by Google in order to provision new user accounts in a G-Suite domain. The options available for deletion are additional data beyond what is required that Microsoft can populate on user accounts it provisions into G-Suite. Selecting the Show advanced options button, allow you to play with the schema Microsoft is using for G-Suite. What I found interesting about this schema is it doesn't match the resource representation Google provides for the API. It would have been nice to match the two to make it more consumable, but they're probably working off values used in the old Google Provisioning API or they don't envision many people being nerdy enough to poke around the schema.
Next up I move toggle the provisioning status from Off to On and leave the Scope option set to sync only the assigned users and groups.
I then hit the Save button to save the new settings and after a minute my initial synchronization is successful. Now nothing was synchronized, but it shows the credentials correctly allowed Azure AD to hit my G-Suite domain over the appropriate APIs with the appropriate access.
So an empty synchronization works, how about one with a user? I created a new user named dutch.schaefer@geekintheweeds.com with only the required attributes of display name and user principal name populated, assigned the new user to the Google Apps application and give Azure AD a night to run another sync. Earlier tonight I checked the provisioning summary and verified the sync grabbed the new user.
Review of the audit logs for the Google Apps application shows that the new user was exported around 11PM EST last night. If you're curious the synch between Azure AD and G-Suite occurs about every 20 minutes.
Notice that the FamilyName and GivenName attributes are set to a period. I never set the first or last name attributes of the user in Azure AD, so both attributes are blank. If we bounce back to the attribute mapping and look at the attributes for Google Apps, we see that FamilyName and GivenName are both required meaning Azure AD had to populate them with something. Different schemas, different requirements.
Switching over to the Google Admin Console I see that the new user was successfully provisioned into G-Suite.
Azure AD supports single sign-on to G-Suite via SAML using a service provider-initiated flow where Azure AD acts as the identity provider and G-Suite acts as the service provider.
A user object with a login id matching the user's login id in Azure Active Directory must be created in G-Suite before single sign-on will work.
Google provides a number of libraries for its API and the Google API Explorer should be used for experimentation with Google's APIs.
Google's Directory API is used by Azure AD to provision users and groups into a G-Suite domain.
Google's Contacts API is used by Azure AD to provision contacts into a G-Suite domain.
A user holding the Super Admin role in the G-Suite domain must be used to authorize Azure AD to perform provisioning activities. The Super Admin role is required due to the usage of the Google Contact API.
Azure AD's authorization request includes offline access using refresh tokens to request additional access tokens to ensure the sync process can be run on a regular basis without requiring re-authorization.
Best practice is to dedicate a user account in your G-Suite domain to Azure AD.
Azure AD uses the Server-side Web pattern for accessing Google's APIs.
The provisioning process will populate a period for any attribute that is required in G-Suite but does not have a value in the corresponding attribute in Azure AD.
The provisioning process runs a sync every 20 minutes.
Even though my coding is horrendous, I absolutely loved experimenting with the Google API. It's easy to realize why APIs are becoming so critical to a good solution. With the increased usage of a wide variety of products in a business, being able to plug and play applications is a must. The provisioning aspect Azure AD demonstrates here is a great example of the opportunities provided when critical functionality is exposed for programmatic access.
I hope you enjoyed the series, learned a bit more about both solutions, and got some insight into what's going on behind the scenes.
Today I will continue the journey into the integration between Azure AD and Amazon Web Services. In my first entry I covered the reasons why you'd want to integrate Azure AD with AWS and provided a high-level overview of how the solution works. The remaining entries in this series will cover the steps involved in completing the integration including deep dives into the inner workings of the solution.
Let me start out by talking about the testing environment I'll be using for this series.
The environment includes three virtual machines (VMs) running on Windows Server 2016 Hyper V on a server at my house. The virtual machines consists three servers running Windows Server 2016 with one server acting as a domain controller for the journeyofthegeek.local Active Directory (AD) forest, another server running Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) and Azure AD Connect (AADC), and the third server running MS SQL Server and IIS. The IIS instance hosts a .NET sample federated application published by Microsoft.
In Microsoft Azure I have a single Vnet configured for connectivity to my on-premises lab through a site-to-site IPSec virtual private network (VPN) I've setup with pfSense. Within the Vnet exists a single VM running Windows 10 that is domain-joined to the journeyofthegeek.local AD domain. The Azure AD tenant providing the identity backend for the Microsoft Azure subscription is synchronized with the journeyofthegeek.local AD domain using Azure AD Connect and is associated with the domain journeyofthegeek.com. Authentication to the Azure AD tenant is federated using my instance of AD FS. I'm not synchronizing passwords and am using an alternate login ID with the user principal name being synchronized to Azure AD being stored in the AD attribute msDS-CloudExtensionAttribute1. The reason I'm still configured to use an alternate login ID was due to some testing I needed to do for a previous project.
I created a single test user in the journeyofthegeek.local Active Directory domain named Rick Sanchez with a user principal name (UPN) of rick.sanchez@journeyofthegeeklocal and msDS-CloudExtensionAttribute1 of rick.sanchez@journeyofthegeek.com. The only attribute to note that the user has populated is the mail attribute which has the value of rick.sanchez@journeyofthegeek.com. The user is being synchronized to Azure AD via the Azure AD Connect instance.
In AWS I have a single elastic compute cloud (EC2) instance running Windows Server 2016 within a virtual private cloud (VPC). I'll be configuring Azure AD as an identity provider associated with the AWS account and will be associating an AWS IAM role named AzureADEC2Admins. The role will grant full admin rights over the management of the EC2 instances associated to the account via the AmazonEC2FullAccess permissions policy.
The first step I'll be taking is to log into the Azure Portal as an account that is a member of the global admins and navigate to the Azure Active Directory blade. From there I select Enterprise Applications blade and hit the New Application link.
I then search the application gallery for AWS, select the AWS application, accept the default name, and hit the Add button. Azure AD will proceed to add the application and will then jump to a quick start page. So what exactly does it mean to add an application to Azure AD? Good question, for that we'll want to use the Azure AD cmdlets. You can reference this link.
Before we jump into running cmdlets, let's talk very briefly about the concept of application identities in AAD. If you've managed Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), you're very familiar with the concept of service accounts. When you needed an application (let's call it a non-human to be more in-line with industry terminology) to access AD-integrated resources directly or on-behalf of a user you would create a security principal to represent the non-human. That security principal could be a user object, managed service account object, or group managed service account object. You would then grant that security principal rights and permissions over the resource or grant it the right to impersonate a user and access the resource on the user's behalf. The part we want to focus in on is the impersonation or delegation to access a resource on the behalf of a user. In AD DS that delegation is accomplished through the Kerberos protocol.
When we shift over to AAD the same basic concepts still exist of creating a security principal to represent the application and granting that application direct or delegated access to a resource. The difference is the protocol handling the access shifts from Kerberos to OAuth 2.0. One thing many people become confused about is thinking that OAuth handles authentication. It doesn't. It has nothing do with authentication and everything to do with authorization, or more clearly delegation. When we add an application the AAD a service principal object and sometimes application object (in AWS instance both are created) are created in the AAD tenant to represent the application. I'm going to speak to the service principal object for the AWS integration, but you can read through this link for a good walkthrough on application and service principal objects and how they differ.
Now back to AWS. So we added the application and we now have a service principal object in our tenant representing AWS. Here is a few of the attributes for the object pulled via PowerShell.
Review of the attributes for the object provide a few pieces of interesting information. We'll get to experiment more with what these mean when we start doing Fiddler captures, but let's talk a bit about them now. The AppRoles attribute provides a single default role of msiam_access. Later on we'll be adding additional roles that will map back to our AWS IAM roles.
Next up we have the KeyCredentials which contains two entries. This attribute took me a while to work out. In short, based upon the startDate, I think these two entries are referencing the self-signed certificate included in the IdP metadata that is created after the application is added to the directory. I'll cover the IdP metadata in the next entry.
The Oauth2Permissions are a bit funky for this use case since we're not really allowing the application to access AWS on our behalf, but rather asking it to produce a SAML assertion asserting our identity. Maybe the delegation can be thought of as delegating Azure AD the right to create logical security tokens representing our users that can be used to assert an identity to AWS.
The PasswordCredentials contains a single entry which shares the same KeyID as the KeyCredential. As best I can figure from reading the documentation is this would normally contain entries for client keys when not using certificate authentication. Given that it contains a single entry with the same KeyID as the KeyCredential for signing, I can only guess it will contain an entry even with a certificate is used to authenticate the application.
The last attributes of interest are the PreferredTokenSigningKeyThumbprint which references the certificate within the IdP metadata and the replyURLs which is the assertion consumer URI for AWS.
So yeah, that's what happens in those 2 or 3 seconds the AWS application is registered with Azure AD. I found it interesting how the service principal object is used to represent trust between Azure AD and AWS and all the configuration information attached to the object after the application is simply added. It's nice to have some of the configuration work done for us out of the box, but there is much more to do.
In the next entry I'll walk through the Quick Start for the AWS application configuration and explore the metadata Azure AD creates.
The journey continues in my third entry.
On October 31st Microsoft announced the public preview of the Azure B2B Invitation API. Prior to the introduction of the API, the only way to leverage the B2B feature was through the GUI. Given that B2B is Microsoft's solution to collaboration with trusted partners in Office 365, the lack of the capability to programmatically interact with the feature was very limiting. The feature is now exposed through Azure's Graph API as documented here.
A friend challenged me to write a script or small application that would leverage the API (Yes we are that nerdy.) Over the past year I've written a number of PowerShell scripts that query for information from OneDrive and Azure AD so I felt I would challenge myself by writing a small .NET Forms application. Now I have not done anything significant in the programming realm since freshman year of college so I thought this would be painful. Thankfully I have a copy of Visual Studio that comes with my MSDN subscription. All I can say is wow, development solutions have evolved since the 90s.
I won't bore you with the amount of Googling and reading on MSDN I did over the weekend. Suffice to say it was a lot. Very tedious but an awesome learning experience. I can see a ton of re-use of the code I came up with for future experiments (even though I'm sure any real developer would point and laugh).
Before I jump into the detail, I want to mention how incredibly helpful Fiddler was in getting this all working and getting a deep dive understanding of how this all works. If you're interesting in learning the magic of how all this "modern" stuff works, a tool like Fiddler is a must.
First off we need to register the application in Azure AD as a Native App to obtain a Client ID per this article. Next we need to grant the application the delegated right to read and write directory data as described in the MS article introducing the API. Once the application is registered and the rights have been granted, we can hammer out the code.
Before I jump into the code and the Fiddler traces, one thing that caught my eye in the returned json object was an attribute named invitedToGroups. If you're familiar with the Azure B2B functionality, you'll recall that as part of the B2B provisioning process, you can add the user object to a group. This is very useful in saving you time from having to do this after the user accepts the invitation and their user objects populates in the Azure AD. What's odd about this is this attribute isn't documented in the Microsoft blog I linked above. Digging into the github documentation, it looks like the information about it was removed. Either way, I decided to play around it with, but regardless of whether or not I followed the schema mentioned in the removed Github documentation, I couldn't get it to take. I am fairly sure I got the schema of the attribute/value pair correctly, so we'll have to chalk this up to MS playing with feature while the functionality is in public preview.
So let's take a look at the code of this simple Windows form application, shall we?
In this first section of code, I'm simply pulling some information from the input fields within the forms application.
In this new section of code, I'm leveraging functions from the ADAL library to redirect the user to authenticate against Azure AD, obtain an authorization code for the graph API, and submit that code for an access token for the Graph API.
In this section of code I build an instance of the httpclient class that will be used to submit my web request. You'll notice I'm attaching the bearer access token I obtained in the early step.
Here I issue my HTTP request to post to the invitation endpoint and include json object with the necessary information to create an invitation.
Finally I parse the json object (using the Newtonsoft library) that is returned by the endpoint to check to see whether or not the operation was completed.
Quite simple right? It had to be for someone as terrible as developing as I am. Imagine the opportunities for an API like this in the hands of a good developer? The API could be leveraged to automate this whole process in an enterprise identity management tool allowing for self-service for company users who need to collaborate with trusted partners. Crazy cool.
This is the stuff I applaud Microsoft for. They've take a cumbersome process, leveraged modern authentication and authorization protocols, provided a very solid collection of libraries, and setup a simple to use API that leverages industry standard methodologies and data formats. Given the scale of cloud and the requirement for automation, simple and robust APIs based upon industry standards are hugely important to the success of a public cloud provider.
This whole process was an amazing learning experience where I had an opportunity to do something I've never done before and mess with technologies that are very much cutting edge. Opportunities like this to challenge myself and problem solve out of my comfort zone are exactly why I love IT.
I hope the above post has been helpful and I can't wait to see how this feature pans out when it goes GA!
Feel free to reach out if you're interested in a copy of my terrible app.


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Georgia GOP Moves Toward Hostile Election Takeover Of Overwhelmingly Democratic County
PressGrabber July 30, 2021 2 min read
Georgia state Republicans have inched toward a possible takeover of elections in Fulton County after laying the groundwork for a process that could give the state GOP more power over elections in a county overwhelmingly Democratic.
Two dozen senators in the GOP-controlled General Assembly called for a performance review of Fulton County elections chief Richard Barron in a letter submitted Tuesday by state Sen. Butch Miller, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.
"We do so as a measure of last resort, having failed to adequately assuage the concern that we, as elected officials, have regarding the integrity of the Fulton County elections process," Miller wrote, according to a copy of the letter published by the Journal-Constitution.
Lawmakers called for the review over what they said was a failure after the November 2020 vote to properly perform risk-limiting audits. Risk-limiting audits are a postelection process that checks if equipment and procedures worked accurately to yield the correct outcome.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden received 72.65% of the votes cast in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, in the November election. Then-President Donald Trump carried 26.16% of the vote.
Biden won Georgia, marking the first time in 20 years that a Democrat had won the typically red state. Georgia has since been the subject of ongoing election controversy fueled by Trump's repeated false claims of massive voter fraud.
Republicans ordered three audits of the November election, none of which found any evidence of such fraud.
While the November vote and a January runoff for two U.S. Senate seats ran smoothly in Fulton County, the region is haunted by a history of poorly run elections. It had a disastrous primary in June 2020, when malfunctioning voting machines caused enormous delays and long lines to vote.
The performance review process for local election officials is a new component of Georgia elections after state Republicans passed a sweeping law in late March that will dramatically limit voting access in the state. It included measures that paved the way for legislators to influence election management, including one that allows for the replacement of county election board members by the state legislature.
Democrats and voting rights experts have raised concerns that Republicans are trying to affect election outcomes by attempting a partisan takeover of election administration.
"After giving themselves unprecedented power under Senate Bill 202, Republicans wasted no time in waging an anti-democratic, partisan power grab, attempting to seize control of elections in Georgia's largest county, home to the greatest number of voters of color in the state," Lauren Groh-Wargo, the chief executive of Fair Fight Action, a Democratic voting rights group, told The New York Times.
The Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and members of the Fulton County House delegation have expressed support for the review.
News syndicated from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fulton-county-election-takeover_n_61035d2de4b000b997e03a58
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More often excess zinc found in the growing medium can compete with plant uptake of phosphorus, iron, manganese or copper and can cause their deficiencies in plant tissue. Zinc is more available for plant uptake when the pH of the growing medium is low; so if zinc toxicity is occurring, test the pH and zinc levels within the growing medium.
Functions of Mineral Elements in Plants 10 Important Functions. Article Shared by. ADVERTISEMENTS The following ten points will highlight the ten important functions of mineral elements in plants. Several mineral elements like copper, iron, zinc, manganese, magnesium and cobalt etc., participate in catalytic systems of plants.
At least 17 elements are known to be essential nutrients for plants. In relatively large amounts, the soil supplies nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur; these are often called the macronutrients.In relatively small amounts, the soil supplies iron, manganese, boron, molybdenum, copper, zinc, chlorine, and cobalt, the so called micronutrients.
Iron is also necessary for some enzyme functions in many plants. Soil that is alkaline or has had too much lime added often causes an iron deficiency in the plants in the area. You can correct it easily by adding an iron fertilizer, or evening out the pH balance in the soil by adding garden sulfur.
Plants differ in their need for micronutrients, and we will focus here only on those elements that are generally accepted as essential for all higher plants boron (B), chloride (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn).
This article focuses on trace elements. Iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum and cobalt will be covered in depth. The interrelationship between these elements will be considered, as will their respective functions, the conditions creating deficiencies and the symptoms of these deficiencies.
Zinc uptake by plants decreases with increased soil pH. Uptake of zinc also is adversely affected by high levels of available phosphorus and iron in soils. Chloride Because chloride is a mobile anion in plants, most of its functions relate to salt effects (stomatal opening) and electrical charge balance in physiological functions in plants.
Plants require very small amounts of some essential elements. These micronutrients are often called minor or trace elements. These nutrientsboron, zinc, molybdenum, iron, manganese, copper, chlorine, and nickelare needed for plant growth, development, and reproduction.
Micronutrients and Marijuana plants. Boron is a nutrient necessary for the development of many of the physiological functions of marijuana plants, as the formation of the cell wall. In addition, there will also be a zinc and iron deficiency caused by a nutrient lockout from the excess of manganese.
Soil Micronutrient Management Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), and Zinc (Zn) are required by all plants for proper growth and productivity, but only in very small amounts.
fixation. Iron deficiency can be induced by high levels of manganese or high lime content in soils. Iron is taken up by plants as ferrous (Fe2+) or ferric (Fe3+) ions. The function of iron in plants depends on the ready transitions between its two oxidation states in solution. Plants store iron as ferritin, a protein that encapsulates ferric iron.
Terrestrial plants can absorb more manganese, like other trace metals, when the pH in the soil is lower. the soil thus may lead to a manganese deficiency. High levels of iron, copper or zinc in the soil might also hinder the uptake of manganese.
Out of 16 essential element 7 nutrients viz. Iron, Manganese, Boron, Zinc, Cooper, Molybdenum and Chlorine are used by field crops in very small quantities and hence called as micronutrients. These are also called as trace, minor or rare elements.
The trace elements that have a specific biochemical function in the human body are sulfur, iron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, iodine and selenium.  Most chemical elements that are ingested by organisms are in the form of simple compounds.
The following points highlight the top ten essential elements of Micronutrients. The elements are 1. Iron 2. Manganese 3. Boron 4. Molybdenum 5. Zinc 6. Copper 7. Chlorine 8. Sodium 9. Cobalt 10. Silicon. Micronutrients Element 1. Iron Iron is mainly absorbed by the plant in the ferrous form, but ferric ion may also be absorbed.
Boron plays a key role in a diverse range of plant functions including cell wall formation and stability, maintenance of structural and functional integrity of biological membranes, movement of sugar or energy into growing parts of plants, and pollination and seed set.
Micronutrients are essential for plant growth and play an important role in balanced crop nutrition. They include boron (B), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) and chloride (Cl). They are as important to plant nutrition as primary and secondary macronutrients, though plants don't require as much of them.
ZINC IN PLANTS. Author Mr. Guy Sela, CEO of SMART Fertilizer Management software and an international expert in plant nutrition and irrigation. Zinc (Zn) is one of the eight essential micronutrients. It is needed by plants in small amounts, but yet crucial to plant development. In plants, zinc is a key constituent of many enzymes and proteins.
Plant Nutrients for Citrus Trees 1. Micronutrient Functions in Plants Functions of iron (Fe) Iron, Zinc, and Manganese. Functions of boron (B) Important in sugar translocation and carbohydrate metabolism. Particularly needed at the location of active cell division.
Zinc (Zn) total Zn ranges 10 300 ppm (ave. 50 ppm) Manganese (Mn) total Mn ranges 200 1000 ppm . Copper (Cu) total Cu ranges 2 100 ppm. Iron Zinc Manganese Copper in Plants. Fe . Form and Functions. Plants absorb Fe2+ and Fe3+. Because Fe exists in two oxidation states, it readily accepts or donates electrons.


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How a global pandemic may be fast-tracking smarter cities
Quebec-based smart city platform founder and CEO says her company has never been busier
Rogers for Business
The impact of the novel coronavirus has been felt in virtually every sector of the economy, and cities are no exception. Local governments are working to maintain services and ensure public safety while losing millions due to reduced revenue from transit services, property taxes and city-owned arenas and attractions. However, the silver lining might be that the health crisis is also speeding up positive technological change within forward-looking municipalities.
"COVID-19 is playing the role of accelerator," said Vivianne Gravel, founder and CEO of bciti, a smart city platform and solution provider based in Montréal, Quebec. "The pandemic is proving to be a catalyst for digital transformation within smart cities, smart governments and even among citizens."
Vivianne has spent her career as a tech entrepreneur. In 2015, she founded and launched bciti, a sophisticated smart city platform that connects systems, digitizes resident services and provides local government with real-time analytics dashboards. The platform leverages advancements in technologies such as AI and the internet of things (IoT) to gather and collate massive amounts of ethically sourced data, giving decision makers valuable insights into city processes as well as the needs of residents and visitors.
Already deployed in +25 cities throughout Quebec, bciti's team has fielded a spike in queries and requests from both current and prospective clients since the pandemic began. To develop the platform bciti works closely with strategic partners such as the University of Laval (ULAVAL), École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) and L'institut de Valorisation des Données (IVADO).
"Our greatest challenge right now is simply keeping up with demand"
Part of the push has to do with city workers needing to remain safe. Vivianne says most cities have moved quickly to set up and deploy equipment that allows employees to do their jobs remotely so they can practice effective social distancing. But setting up remote work is merely a step toward a city's ultimate goal, which is helping the people they serve.
During a pandemic, that help could take the form of anything from redesigned public transportation schedules to monitoring how and whether people are observing social distancing rules. These tasks depend on technologies that allow city workers to quickly collect, understand and act on information from a variety of sources—such as public cameras that capture and monitor the flow of people and traffic.
According to Vivianne, a properly implemented smart city solution provides valuable data beyond its core function. For example, a consumer-oriented application might help an end user find a parking spot, but the data it collects can also be used by the city to understand traffic flows, usage rates, anticipated pedestrian density and more.
"If a city's systems (and these solutions) are fragmented in discrete silos, then you cannot maximize data using predictive AI algorithms," says Vivianne. "In a smart city, these systems are connected in a way that allows decision makers to view and understand everything in one place, and when necessary, share data ethically with other municipalities and urban regions."
"Cities want to connect with people in real time."
IoT technologies that leverage the LTE-M and emerging 5G networks not only gather the data city residents and infrastructure use, but they also play a pivotal role in opening the door for two-way communications between local governments and their constituents.
"Cities want to connect with people in real time," says Vivianne. "This has become a priority. They need a system that allows them to communicate locally, deliver important messages and create forums for discussions and feedback."
With appropriate rules and terms in effect to satisfy any ethical considerations, she sees the possibilities for decision makers to mine and apply this information to do their jobs better.
However, whether due to concerns about privacy, administrative red tape, fear of change or a political will focused on other priorities, some municipalities have been slow to implement the available technologies and to bring services under one common digital infrastructure. But the harsh realities of COVID-19 are now prodding decision-makers to make the leap.
"Just today we received a call from a client that hadn't been considering connecting any existing services in the near future," explains Vivianne. "Now they want to look into connecting multiple systems, including municipal court and management of tax permits, in order to be able to provide more reliable and efficient service as the pandemic continues."
"I don't think things will return to the way they were…"
And once a city steps into the future, availing itself of the advantages provided by smart city platforms, Vivianne believes it's unlikely people will want to step back just because the pandemic passes.
"I don't think things will return to the way they were," says Vivianne. "Many city employees won't go back to being centrally located at city hall, and decision-makers will feel empowered by their newly acquired and intelligently organized data. The push toward smarter cities has picked up momentum and will only increase."
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Based on the highly popular Realabilities Comic Series, Addy & Uno, the first family musical about living with disabilities, comes to Broadway!
The first of its kind, Addy & Uno is a musical for families and children that explores living with disabilities. The musical is an adaptation of Dr. Nava R. Silton's highly successful Realabilities Educational Comic Book Curriculum. Using puppets and lively music, the musical follows Uno and his friends, and Uno's quest to compete in his school's Math Mania competition. Given that individuals with disabilities are not seen very often in the media, Addy & Uno gives them a voice, inspiring the new generation to be kinder and more aware.
Addy & Uno follows Uno, a child with autism, who loves math. When the time comes for Uno to take part in his school's math competition, his friends with varying disabilities (ADHD, visual, hearing and physical impairment) support him, discovering their strengths and saving their school from bullies along the way.
The Kirk theatre (Theater Row) has a seating capacity of 99.


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"Happy Glass" an addicting ad-stuffed tragedy of a game
by Mitchell Chapman April 19, 2019 April 16, 2019
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Some will look at a glass as being half-full. Others will see it as being half-empty. For the mobile puzzle game "Happy Glass," neither really matter, as its water is polluted by pop ups ads and premium memberships.
I want to preface this by the fact that I like Lion Studio's 2018 free-to-play puzzle game "Happy Glass" purely from the perspective of it as a game. In fact, had it been published on a traditional gaming platform like the Nintendo eShop, where monetization practices are better regulated, I would absolutely love it.
The game is simple, yet it can get convoluted rather quickly.
The game follows a simple concept: In each level of the game, the player must find a way to fill an empty glass with water by drawing lines on the screen that function as solid objects affected by gravity, with each level featuring at least one water source. You have a drawing meter, which limits how much you can draw, to keep the game balanced. More often than not, the puzzles involve the player drawing rudimentary bridges and other objects to connect the glass with the flow of water, with later levels introducing orange objects that move with the flow of gravity, often getting in the way of the glass and the flow of water, as well as heated red objects that evaporate instantly any water it touches.
It's a fun game that you can play on the go, and has a lot of room for creative solutions.
If this was a Nintendo eShop game, my summary of the game would end there, but unfortunately "Happy Glass" was published on Android/Apple iOS, which means that whatever standards (or lack thereof) the game wants to follow, it can.
Definitely deserves to cost more than Netflix. Right?
Looking at the game's reviews on the app store, they all sing the same main criticism: The game simply has too many ads, and it's well-earned, though, I can understand why they're there. Free-to-play games need to make their money somewhere to continue operating, with many straddling the line of what they can get away with with fake, meaningless currencies the player can purchase for real money in order to unlock certain features, mostly aesthetic ones, but the worst type of games in this genre allow the player's bank account to affect game play, and "Happy Glass" falls into the latter category, as it psychologically manipulates the player into buying a subscription and viewing ads.
To the game's credit, it does feature instant respawns after each failed puzzle attempt, somewhere Lion could have easily stuffed with ads, though it is noteworthy that that would have certainly killed off the game's playerbase. A smartphone app like this lives or dies off of how fast and accessible its puzzles are, and if more than half of the game's experience is waiting through an ad, players will drop it.
With that being said, the game wants to have its cake and eat it too, employing two competing monetization strategies: Ads in between successfully completed levels, and optional ads the players can watch in exchange for level hints, which the game heavily pushes, starting out the player with 3 free hints to get them used to the system, which it never refreshes. Players can also watch optional ads to boost the score they get on levels — each level has a maximum of 3 stars you can get, the overall amount of which is used to unlock future levels. If you get 2/3 stars on a level you can boost it to a 3/3, in exchange for sitting through a unskippable 30 second ad, many of which are dishonest and interactive.
Easily the game's most frustrating and common ad, it ensured that I will never download "Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire."
This affects the game's balancing, with challenging puzzles present throughout one's progression of the game solely to milk players for advertising money, with certain puzzles so convoluted that it is almost impossible to get a 3/3 on them all naturally, and it is disappointing that the game does not restock its free hints in any of its premium membership subscriptions that it thinks it has any place selling. Though there are some bundles outside of its regular subscriptions, the game pushes 3 main memberships: a $8 weekly subscription, a $20 monthly subscription and a $100 yearly subscription. What these subscriptions include: "non-reward" ads removed, 2 daily free coins (the game's fake currency), 150 free daily free coins (seems to compete with the last perk) and a 30% bonus on all coins earned through the game's minigames outside the main game, which we'll get to later.
That's a lot of money to charge for a silly cup-filling game. More than a Netflix subscription, in fact. It doesn't even include any free skins, as even premium players will have to save up, as most skins are at least 1,000 coins. The sheer greed that it takes to come up with a model like this is astonishing and shameful.
This all makes "Happy Glass" more like a scam relying on players to get psychologically addicted to it than a legitimate game that anyone should feel comfortable letting their children play, but I digress. Just keep your credit card out of it.
One of the game's most dishonest ads. It feigns an interactable demo when in fact touching anything but the small x in the top right corner will redirect you to the game's download page.
The game is perfectly ok, but loses major points for its unbalanced gameplay, over monetization and absolutely garbage subscriptions. The game should have relied either on their ads in exchange for hints system or ads in between levels model, because their current monetization model makes the game worse for players and advertisers, as the game ends up cycling through a very small pool of ads available to the game.
The one it plays for "Final Fantasy XV"'s app is particularly bad and low quality, and it plays almost every other time you need a hint. Ads are so obnoxious in "Happy Glass" that they make me actively not want to buy or download the products advertised.
Advertisers take note: Ads on apps like "Happy Glass" aren't helping your business; they might be actively hurting them.
As for "Happy Glass", this is one glass of water better dumped in the sink than consumed by any human being. Puzzle away at your own risk.
Happy Glass gets a 4 out of 10.
The minigames: There are a few minigames in "Happy Glass," which is ironic because "Happy Glass" itself is little more than an extended minigame. They are as follows:
Don't spill: Remove orange blocks one by one from a pile Jenga-style to safely get the full glass at the top to the bottom with no spillage.
Flippy Glass: Flip a full, covered glass as many times as you can to get coins. A great way to spam up your fake money wallet to buy skins.
Precise: Fill various shaped glasses with water, exactly with no spillage. Hold the screen to let the water flow from its source and let go to cut it off.
The minigames do not make up for any shortcomings of the main game, and are only worth bringing up as an afterthought. Hence why they're in this portion of the review.
Tags: Android AppleiOS Glass fill puzzle game Happy Glass Lion Studios Review Too many ads
Published by Mitchell Chapman
Mitchell Chapman is the owner and editor of InReview. He has worked at New England Newspapers Inc. as a page designer/copy editor and columnist since June 2016. An alumnus of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, he is the former editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Beacon, and has also served as the paper's arts & entertainment editor, features editor, managing editor and business manager. He was also the editor-in-chief of the school's chapter of Her Campus, and the design editor for the 2017 and 2018 editions of the Spires Literary Journal. He's been published in The Berkshire Eagle, Bennington Banner, Brattleboro Reformer, Manchester Journal, The Huffington Post and Goomba Stomp Magazine.View all posts by Mitchell Chapman
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My chest felt fit to burst, and my vision had blurred to colors and light hours ago out of dazed boredom and tedium. The heat was burdening, pushing on our backs like another bag to carry, and my mother believed that we were close to the border. She was right, but also uninformed of the patrolling men that hunted us.
We had escaped from my father's house days before. My mother wanted nothing more than for me to experience life outside the confinements of a drug lord's nightmare. But when someone who possesses that kind of power feels they have lost something, retrieving their property is of no complication—and meager property we were.
The engines were drawing closer, the violent yells from their occupants shouting for us to stop; my mother wouldn't listen. I was pulled through thorns, yanked across rocks, and thrown into the rare shadows that we could find. Only, now, it mattered not where we hid. They had found us.
The tires squealed through the dry dirt, popping above the rocks, tearing through the unforgiving cactus, forcing us into the unknown distance. Then suddenly the truck screamed to a stop—my mother threw her head backwards to gauge why, and I could see her pallid face, sweat on her forehead and fear in her eyes. But we soon found out. The ground beneath us disappeared and we started to free-fall down a massive elevation, landing on every stone that God had placed within its bearing. My mother groaned in pain as we slid to a stop, holding her side.
"Are… are you okay, baby?" she asked, crawling towards me.
I didn't speak, for two men stood towering over us. One held rope, the other a pistol. I was yanked from the ground; the pistol-wielding goon gripped tight around my waist, pulling me from my mother with a rough yank. Rope was then thrown around my mother's feet, knotted round her broken ankles.
"Please, please just let us go!" she pleaded to the man, but his face was stone like, impassive. My mother threw her hands over her face and screamed into her palms. I glanced up at my kidnapper, then made a daring move I can't believe to this day. My teeth sank into his forearm and I was dropped, the man's pistol falling beside me as he howled in pain.
I reached down, wrapping my hands around the grip, and pointed the barrel squarely at the man. Beneath my fingers the trigger moved, and he dropped.
My aim directed towards the rope-bearer; he froze. Again, I squeezed, and he dropped on top of my mother. The pistol shook in my grip, and distantly I felt myself taking in what I had done. I felt the handle be taken from my grasp, and I fell into my mother's chest, unblinking. She held me at a shoulders distance and nodded her head, shoving the pistol into the waist of her jeans.
The men's truck's engine still idled. I helped her to the door, ignoring the wrong way her ankles bent. She glanced back at the bodies that lay in the desert heat, then shot me look, forcing a smile.