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Truck/SUV
What Is the Impact of Electric Vehicles on the Environment
AutomaaticMay 29, 2019
If modern electronic vehicles were people, they would be teenagers who are always on Twitter and YouTube. In the eyes of most people, they are more environmentally friendly than conventional cars that run on diesel or gasoline. EVs don't emit health-harming nitrogen oxide or climate-damaging greenhouse gases, and in addition to this, they're silent and easy to control. However, many critics have questioned the EV's clean image. Skeptics have raised concerns over the overall autonomy, battery power sources, and the manufacturing process of electronic vehicles. Critics claim that EVs pollute the environment more than conventional gas-powered cars. With all these misleading information out there, the truth has become clouded. We have decided to tell you the facts so that we put the brakes this debate once and for all.
What is the world doing about environmental pollution in the automotive industry?
Many countries are encouraging their citizens to buy electric cars. This move is motivated by the need to reach national targets like eliminating air pollution in city spaces and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, Germany has pledged to have a million EVs by 2020; this is a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions when compared to how it was in 1994. Even though Germany is unlikely to achieve this goal its a step in the right direction, many nations need to learn from it.
So what makes EVs special?
Electric vehicles have many advantages over gas-powered cars. EVs have cheaper running costs, more health benefits, less harmful exhaust emissions, they're quieter than internal combustion engines, and they are more inexpensive to maintain. Driving in an EV is as safe as operating in a military tank. Okay, I might have exaggerated a little, but you get the point. Scholars have said that EVs are much safer than conventional cars because they are unlikely to roll over if they are involved in an accident. They also have a durable body construction that reduces the risk of explosions or major fires.
So conventional vehicles pollute the environment?
Yes, dummy. They do. We already know that conventional cars with combustion engines pollute the environment; this happens through their exhaust emissions. Before a new vehicle can hit the streets, the manufacturers must source materials like paints, glass, steel, plastics, rubber, and many others. This leaves a giant footprint on the environment. For instance, local ecosystems can be damaged when petroleum products are extracted from the earth. Scientists have said that emissions of greenhouse gases have contributed a lot to global warming. These vehicles also produce harmful gases that can cause health complications.
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Do electric vehicles contribute in pollution?
Electric cars are meant to get rid of the pollution problem but the truth is simple, they are not perfect. They have been criticized for the following reasons.
*The EV batteries are made from rare earth metals that contribute to carbon emissions when they are extracted.
*It is also difficult to dispose of these batteries when they expire and it doesn't help that their toxic components can be harmful to the environment.
*A lot of energy is used when manufacturing the batteries and this results in a lot of pollution.
*The electricity in an EV is mostly sourced from fossil fuels, meaning that the vehicle produces CO2 from the production stage to the recycling stage.
*In fact, this CO2 is nearly as much as a gas-powered car.
*Fun fact, the carbon footprint of an EV over its lifetime is not perfect, but it is less harmful to the environment. Scientists are working on ways to make EVs more eco-friendly.
Is there a future for electronic vehicles?
Most manufacturers are working towards improving the production of renewable energy and decreasing their dependence on fossil fuels. The future of EVs is as bright as that of a church mouse that has just won a lottery. This is because they emit fewer emissions when compared to their competitors who are driven by fossil fuels. Automakers have decided to decrease the total carbon emissions by making more electric cars. The efficiency and sustainability of this technology will improve when mainstream companies begin to push it. EV manufacturing will benefit from economies of scale by providing better recycling options, efficient manufacturing techniques, and better infrastructure. As technology enters the mainstream, it is likely to become even more efficient. This means that there will be less of a need to mine new materials.
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Release Notes - Apache NiFi - Apache Software Foundation for your Wiki!
Version 1.9.2 of Apache NiFi is a bug and stability release.
Resolves a content repository bug which could lead to resource exhaustion on the underlying file system and stopped flows.
If an out of memory error occurs while framework code executes it will not lose threads or be silent about it.
Writing to AWS with PutS3Object handles international characters better.
Listing policies when users and groups have been deleted is handled correctly.
UPDATE: As of Mar 27th 2019: NIFI-6150 has been identified which means 1.9.1 can result in content repo being exhausted and not cleaned up properly. We will produce a 1.9.2 as soon as the fix is confirmed. Recommend not updating until then.
Version 1.9.1 of Apache NiFi is a bug and stability release.
Resolves a possible data-loss scenario where updates to the internal repositories could fail but the data becomes eligible to be removed.
ListSFTP now supports filtering based on min and max age.
Funnels and ports have more efficient transfer logic resulting in faster flows and less CPU usage.
Improved data type inference for JSON record readers.
Version 1.9.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release.
New processors and controller services can be loaded live while the nodes are running!
Release notes for NiFi Registry have been moved to: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NIFIREG/Release+Notes. Future release notes for NiFi Registry will only be published there. Leaving this here for the benefit of those following old links.
Version 1.8.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release.
Version 1.7.1 of Apache NiFi addresses a few key bug fixes.
Fixed an issue with wildcard certificates used to secure a cluster. Wildcard certificates are officially not supported but this regression behavior was fixed.
Fixed an issue where an infinite loop could be caused by a stack overflow due to circular references.
Fixed an issue with transitive controller service validation in unit testing.
Fixed some issues related to processor termination and active thread representation.
Fixed an issue with X-Frame-Options headers.
Version 1.7.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release.
New XML record reader & writer.
UI option to interrupt a running processor.
NiFi built against Java 1.8 can now run on Java 9.
Version 0.1.0 of Apache NiFi Flow Design System is the initial release focusing on an atomic reusable platform for providing a common set of UI/UX components for Apache NiFi, Apache NiFi Registry, Apache NiFi MiNiFi, and any other open source web applications to consume.
Sample application for demonstration, verification, and documentation of nifi-fds.
Version 1.6.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release.
New REST endpoint exposed to gather processor diagnostics.
New processor to delete rows from Apache HBase.
New processor to put data to InfluxDB.
New processor and controller service to send data to Druid.
New processor to perform Mongo DB Aggregations.
New Processor to scan Apache HBase to retrieve records from tables.
UI/Docs can now signal for key resource usage considerations based on annotated components flagging for things like high memory usage.
Thanks to the new fine grained restricted component policies NiFi can now use its policy management mechanisms to protect specific keytab accesses in the flow making multi-tenant use cases easier and more secure.
Version 1.5.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release focusing integration with the new Apache NiFi Registry.
Users can now import, publish, change versions of flows via the NiFi and NiFi Registry Integration. This new feature takes care of starting and stopping affected processes, highlighting differences between local and published flows, and indicating when newer versions of a given flow are available.
Version 1.4.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release focusing on key bug fixes and new record based processors and controller services.
Version 1.3.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release focusing on key bug fixes and new record based processors and controller services.
Version 1.2.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability release that adds many new processors, record reader and writer services.
Now supports running multiple versions of the same components. Makes upgrades and multi-tenant flows easier to manage as sets the stage for upcoming Apache NiFi Registry work!
New provenance repository implementation available called 'WriteAheadProvenanceRepository'. Huge performance increase over the standard implementation and indexes in real-time.
New processors and controller service to support a Wait/Notify pattern enabling conditions in another portion of a flow to signal another portion to continue or execute.
There are a 219 processors, 28 controller services, and 10 reporting tasks now available out the box. Check them out!
Can't help but keep fiddling with processor alignment? Ok, a lot of us do that. You can now select numerous components and have it vertically or horizontally aligned!
This release publishes the first official Apache NiFi Docker image to DockerHub!
Version 1.2.0 of the NiFi NAR Maven Plugin includes enhancements to support component versioning and addresses a bug fix.
Version 1.1.2 of Apache NiFi addresses a key bug fix.
Minor user identity formatting refactoring to fix NullPointerException.
Version 1.1.1 of Apache NiFi addresses a few key bug fixes.
Fixed an issue with a NullPointerException in Provenance Repo startup.
Fixed an issue where the Provenance Repo wouldn't recover automatically when disk space runs out.
Added missing images in the Admin Guide.
Fixed scoping issues in templates related to Controller Services.
Fixed policy issues relating to Remote Process Groups.
Version 1.1.0 of Apache NiFi is a feature and stability focused release which builds on the great improvements and community progress of the 1.0 release.
Cluster Management logic has been stabilized and improved to better support zero-master clustering. For example, recovery time is faster now as we're not having to always wait some artificial length of time to see if any new nodes will join and thus we should reconsider which flow is the golden copy.
The expression language capability now supports decimals, base64 and hex encoded values, and math functions.
The flowfile, provenance, and content repositories have been reworked to support rollback. We've always been careful to ensure that upgrades would work well where existing flow state would be honored but what was harder was supporting the ability to rollback where state was written via a new version of NiFi but the user decided to rollback to an older version. This is now supported. This powerful feature also sets the stage for future work to enable rolling upgrades and automated rollbacks!
Startup times for flows that have large backlogs should be far faster as the swap files have been reworked to provide summaries and avoid the need for full scans.
For developers, they can now indicate that their processor should be given an instance isolated classloader. Some libraries, like Hadoop client and scripting engines as an example, use static variables that can pollute instances of processors on the graph. This feature allows those cases to be easily overcome by enabling isolation per instance of a processor. This also makes it really easy to expose classloader extension for custom jars to users.
For developers, there is now an ability to migrate in-flight process session state to another process session. This will yield higher efficiency and makes for a far easier programming model for aggregation type patterns as seen in MergeContent, for example.
We now provide visual indication of queue growth relative to back pressure settings and when back pressure is engaged. This will make the concept of congestion and back pressure far more intuitive and frankly it is just fun to see in the UI. Definitely check this out.
After the 1.0.0 release several members of the community expressed how much they love the new look and feel but wished we had kept some of the colors. Better and more intuitive color contrast is back.
Validation of components is now limited to occur only for components which are not scheduled to execute. This results in much faster UX behavior as many of the operations one could do through the UI and REST API would result in expensive validation operations that were unnecessary.
Users can now export images of the provenance graphs.
Users can now use cron-scheduling for components even on primary node only tasks.
We now leverage the Azure Event Hubs 0.9.0 client library.
We now interact with Apache Spark using the 2.0.1 libraries.
We now interact with HDFS using the Apache Hadoop 2.7.3 libraries.
New Fetch and Put processors to interact with ElasticSearch 5.0 and new processors to execute Query and Scroll operations against ElasticSearch.
The Extract Email processors now support TNEF formatted attachments.
New processor to validate CSV files.
The Apache Solr processors have been updated to support SSL and Kerberos.
New processors to act as client and server for Websockets.
In upgrading from 0.x to 1.x we provided a lot of capabilities to make the process easy and automatic. However, we didn't account for migrating from the embedded use of zookeeper to an external instance. We've now provided a utility that helps you migrate NiFi state from one zookeeper cluster to another.
Previously it was difficult to change the sensitive property key which is used to encrypt all sensitive properties contained within an actual flow configuration. A utility now exists to easily convert from an old key to a new key which is a valuable piece of an overall security process.
NiFi now supports the concept of restricted components. These are processors, controller services, reporting tasks that allow an authorized user to execute unsanitized code or access and alter files accessible by the NiFi user on the system NiFi is running. Therefore, these components are tagged by the developer as restricted and when running NiFi in secure mode only an administrator must grant each user access to the policy allowing restricted component access.
Site-to-Site now improved to be helpful even when port-forwarding is utilized. Very helpful for cases where an administrator might run NiFi with lower privileges but want external interaction to use well known privileged ports.
The policy management user experience has been improved to make it more intuitive what is happening in certain cases.
The encrypted configuration feature now has been extended to cover the Login Identity Provider capability. This is really helpful for example so you can have your LDAP password only stored in encrypted form in the login provider configuration file. Additional work is planned for these encrypted configurations to make interaction with a Hardware Security Module available as well.
Version 1.0.1 of Apache NiFi backports a few key bug fixes.
Fixed multiple issues related to creating templates containing controller services.
Fixed issue where PublishKafka could block indefinitely if fails to communicate properly to the broker.
Fixed issue regarding the timing of Site-to-Site commits that could lead to data loss.
Fixed permissions issues that prevented using the advanced tab of any processor in a secure instance.
Fixed permissions issue that prevented downloading FlowFile content when using LDAP auth.
Version 1.0.0 of Apache NiFi is a major release that includes a brand new UI, framework level improvements and much more!
Version 0.7.4 of Apache NiFi addresses several defects.
Version 0.7.3 of Apache NiFi addresses several defects and includes some performance and reliability improvements.
Version 0.7.2 of Apache NiFi addresses two key bug fixes.
Version 0.7.1 of Apache NiFi focuses on addressing defects and security related improvements.
Improved specific exception handling situations and synchronization in the content repository to avoid data loss.
Improved stability of provenance repository when handling exceptions during indexing of events.
Added SSL/TLS support to Kafka processors.
Added features to ConsumeKafka to better align with features in GetKafka.
Improved ConsumeJMS to copy message properties into flowfile attributes, and to support more message acknowledgement modes.
Improved ConsumeJMS and PublishJMS for expression language support of destination name.
Various improvements to JoltTransformJSON, PutS3Object, ListS3, ListFile, ModifyBytes and PutEmail processors.
Deprecated some public API methods that were removed in the 1.0.0 release.
Fixed SiteToSiteReportingTask to not send duplicate events.
Fixed issue where controller services that reference other controller services could be disabled on NiFi restart.
Fixed issue with PublishKafka and PutKafka sending a flowfile to 'success' when it did not actually send the file to Kafka.
Fixed issue that multiple HDFS processors could not work with different HDFS clusters.
Fixed various issues with Kafka processors.
Fixed GetHTTP and PostHTTP to use the SSL/TLS Protocol property of its SSLContextService.
Fixed UnpackContent issues where it did not work with flowfile-stream or flowfile-tar content, and fixed concurrency issue.
Fixed ListenHTTP to avoid leaking threads when attempting to bind to an address already in use.
Version 0.7.0 of Apache NiFi adds several valuable Processors, a new developer focused doc, and continued improvement to usability and stability.
NiFi now supports exposing key/value pairs set in "nifi.properties" to Expression Language.
Added the ability to bulk using Index or Update to PutElasticSearch.
Allow concurrent execution of ExecuteScript.
Expression language now has a random number function.
New processors to Get data from SNMP agents and execute SNMP set requests.
Added new processor to Put to Slack.
New processors to Get and Put data to an MQTT broker.
Added processor to listen for messages using the Lumberjack protocol.
New ExtractMediaMetadata processor to extract metadata from various file types using Apache Tika.
New processors to Delete, Put and Get AWS DynamoDB.
Added processor to poll notification events provided by HDFS Inotify interface.
Add ReportingTask for sending Provenance events over Site-To-Site.
Fixed instance where archiver was not respecting nifi.content.repository.archive.max.usage.percentage.
Resolved issue where incoming connection could be deleted while processor was still running.
Fixed issue where FileSystemRepository could leave open file handles to data that had already been archived and/or deleted.
A new NiFi in Depth document was created to give an in-depth, developer level, look at NiFi and its design decisions.
Version 0.6.1 of Apache NiFi focuses on addressing defects.
Exposed property to control fetch size when interacting with databases in the 'QueryDatabaseTable' processor. Previously it just defaulted to one and would be innefficient.
Corrected an issue where high-rate bulletin generation caused more than the last five bulletins to be retained which wasted memory.
Corrected logic in GetKafka that resulted in leaking connections to Zookeeper ultimately leading to node instability.
Corrected PutKafka logic where incorrect message demarcation could result in data loss during transfer.
Simplified validation logic for Hadoop and HBase processors that led to excessive and expensive validation calls that caused sluggish UI behavior.
Resolved an edge condition which could cause the content archival to not expire data properly resulting in full content repositories and stopping the flow.
Version 0.6.0 of Apache NiFi provides several new features and addresses multiple bugs or improvements.
NiFi's REST API can now support Kerberos Authentication while running in an Oracle JVM.
ListenRELP and ListenSyslog now alert when the internal queue is full. This means data receipt exceeds consumption rates as configured and data loss might occur so it is good to alert the user.
ListHDFS will now retain simple and finite state rather than an enumeration of all files seen with the same timestamp.
ListenSyslog, ListenRELP, ListenUDP have vastly improved performance and simpler configuration.
Interaction with HBase now supports Kerberos enabled Apache HBase.
Fixed an issue in ExecuteSQL that caused SchemaParse failures against multiple databases.
New processor 'QueryDatabaseTable' monitors and tracks timestamp of latest record retrieved to support simple change capture cases.
Added a new processor that can be bootstrapped by a Spring Application Context. Could enable someone to run Apache Camel routes or Spring Integrations flows in NIFi for example.
New processor to put data to Amazon Web Services Lambda service.
New processors to Put data to and Get data from Splunk.
Resolved corner case that could lead to corruption of flow file repository during shutdown.
Resolved a case that lead NiFi to hold open too many files when using run durations longer than 0 ms.
Resolved flow.xml.gz ordering issue that led to upgrade instability for clusters.
NIFI-1701 - Getting issue details... STATUS :PutKafka error handling and logic far better but poor stream demarcation can lead to data loss.
Version 0.5.1 of Apache NiFi addresses several bugs and issues.
Close a case that could lead to data loss: In the event that all flow files assigned to a given resource claim were swapped out, and the archive had to reclaim old space or was not engaged, and NiFi was restarted resource claims could be removed resulting in data loss.
LDAP based authorization blocking valid API calls: When using LDAP based authentication there were times when the access token wasn't being propagated which resulted in some valid API calls being rejected such as when downloading content or templates.
Clustering restart and upgrade reliability: A long-standing issue which caused problems when a cluster was restarted or upgraded was fixed.
Apache NiFi 0.5.0 includes several exciting new capabilities to include new processors, exciting new developer tools for building and testing processors. Stability and performance continue to be a priority and a long list of bugs were identified and resolved!
Data inspection: We've greatly enhanced the ability to interact with data and inspect it as it is flowing through NiFi.
State Management: As many developers are aware, keeping state in a Processor was often "up to you". This extension to the framework addresses this by adding state management as a core feature. In addition, many existing processors which kept state were modified to take advantage of this new capability.
RELP Support for Syslog: In addition to adding support for RELP (Reliable Event Logging Protocol) for transporting syslog messages, emphasis was put on improving the framework to enable even more extensions in future releases.
S3 Improvements: We've pushed past the 5G max upload limitation of the previous PutS3Object processor by adding Multipart Upload support. Additionally, we added a couple authorization capabilities, like expression language support for keys, and an exciting new controller service created initially for fetching from buckets access across accounts.
Encryption: A broad set of enhancements were made to improve encryption and decryption of content and associated user documentation.
Support for sending Riemann Events: NiFi now supports sending events to the Riemann event stream processing system.
Avro Schema Inference: Support was added allowing the inference of an Avro schema from JSON and CSV data flowing through NiFi.
NIFI-1694 - Getting issue details... STATUS : Users upgrading from NiFi ≤ 0.4.1 may encounter errors in PGP key-based encryption/decryption with EncryptContent processors if they have provided an individual key file for the public keyring file or secret keyring file property. A valid keyring file must be provided, and the full userID "Name (Comment) <Email>" form should be provided.
Version 0.4.1 of Apache NiFi is an incremental release addressing several bugs and providing a few minor improvements over the 0.4.0 release.
Site-To-Site: If the remote system was applying back-pressure and the sending system attempted to stop the connection the sending system flow configuration could hang. If one of the nodes in a cluster being delivered to went off-line it could cause site-to-site to stop delivering to the other nodes in certain conditions. The automatic account request mechanism was broken.
Flow File Ordering: Ordering based on timestamp of flow file entry has been augmented with a sequence counter to provide better ordering precision.
Run duration: Only shown now when the processor supports the batching mechanism of run duration.
Version 0.4.0 of Apache NiFi is a provides substantial improvements in functionality and usability, as well as providing some stability and performance improvements and bug fixes.
will include additional mechanisms, such as Kerberos.
Drop FlowFiles from Queue: Users are now able to right-click on a Connection and drop the FlowFiles in the queue, rather than relying on FlowFile Expiration to remove unwanted FlowFiles.
connection line as a red, dotted line, and will not allow the Connection to be made. Likewise, Processors that require input to perform work will be invalid until they have an incoming Connection.
Some Processors may accept incoming data or run without any incoming data. These Processors will be valid regardless of whether or not they have incoming connections.
discusses how to work with FlowFiles and their Attributes. This is similar in concept to the User Guide but is far less verbose and explains concepts at a higher level.
data from an external resource. This is in contrast to a RECEIVE event, which is used to indicate that a FlowFile entered the system as a result of obtaining data from an external resource.
are included in each output FlowFile). Also supports grouping of textual data so that FlowFiles that are output do not contain text from two different groups.
where it left off, even if NiFi is restarted and log files roll over.
ListenSyslog / PutSyslog: Listens for incoming Syslog events over UDP or TCP and sends events to Syslog.
primary node can pick up where the previous processor left off, and the listing can also be shared across the cluster, distributing the work of pulling in and processing the files.
DeleteS3Object: Removes an Object from Amazon S3.
PutHBaseCell / GetHBase / PutHBaseJSON: Allows users to put the contents of a FlowFile to HBase and listen for changes to an HBase table, automatically pulling in the rows that are added/updated.
GetAzureEventHub / PutAzureEventHub: Send the contents of FlowFiles as Events to Microsoft Azure Event Hub or listen for incoming Events on an Event Hub and create FlowFiles for those Events.
GetCouchbaseKey / PutCouchbaseKey: Send the contents of FlowFiles to Couchbase or fetch the contents of a record from Couchbase.
AttributesToJSON: Easily form a JSON document (as the contents of a FlowFile or as an Attribute) from a user-defined set of FlowFile Attributes.
SplitAvro: Splits a FlowFile that consists of many Avro records into individual FlowFiles, each containing a smaller number of Avro records.
ExtractAvroMetadata: Extracts the metadata from the header of an Avro file and adds the metadata to the FlowFile as a set of Attributes.
the UI, rather than indicating that no viewer is available for this content type.
Performance improvements in handling large volumes of small files.
Performance improvements in Provenance repositories.
Added Reporting Task for ApacheTM AmbariTM.
Improved stability of nifi bootstrap.
Added Processors for working with images.
Added Processors that run ApacheTM FlumeTM sources and sinks.
Added Processors to integrate with Amazon Web Services (S3, SNS, and SQS).
Archival of content is now enabled by default.
Created a new plugin that allows developers to obtain a listing of transitive dependencies that are provided through a NAR dependency.
Removed all appropriate references to Incubator as NiFi is now a TLP.
Fixed a bug that appeared in 0.2.0 that caused new users to a NiFi instance not to be prompted to create an account.


With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the push toward the Triple Aim of patient-focused care, lower costs, and improved health of populations — "population health" has become a buzzword, often coming to mean improving medical care or simply delivering healthcare to larger groups of people. While providing high-quality healthcare is critical, improving the health of a population is a much bigger endeavor.
Improving population health ultimately means creating healthy communities. It involves a myriad of interrelated factors that contribute to an individual's health – such as safety in the home, appropriate housing, education, access to healthy food, clean air, time and space for recreation, social connections, and mental health services.
In a large, diverse, and inclusive state willing to invest in its people—with many funders pledging support for new approaches, California has become a proving ground for innovative programs to improve population health and serve as models that can be replicated elsewhere. Successful models have some things in common: They use data to precisely identify which factors are impacting health: establish shared goals and benchmarks; and track progress over time.
Programs that are scalable and effectively improve community health encourage cross-sector collaboration—so that it's not just hospitals, physicians, or community health centers working to keep people healthy. Schools, social organizations, housing agencies, and other government departments are all striving to move the needle.
Sonoma County, Stockton, and Ventura County are among many bright spots in California, providing examples of successful efforts to create healthier communities using data and cross-sector collaboration to target specific needs — bringing schools, governments, non-profits, and health centers together to address them.
Sonoma County commissioned a study that gathered and analyzed information from an array of publicly available data sources to create A Portrait of Sonoma County, a snapshot of factors that affect the health of residents, with many measures focused down to a granular neighborhood level. More than 75 organizations and individuals pledged to use the report to improve factors that are impacting the health of Sonoma County communities. Since the report was broken down by issues affected health, education, and income at a neighborhood level, it led to specific, targeted actions.
Among those actions, a community health collective identified specific neighborhoods to receive additional health screenings and attract healthy food markets. The county supervisors, noting the major impact smoking had on health countywide, expanded policies providing secondhand smoke protections to include e-cigarettes. A community health program created resource guides in Spanish and English to address this gap in the safety net.
In Stockton, data from a community needs assessment showed trauma was significantly impacting health in South Stockton. The California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative, established by a group of health funders including Blue Shield of California Foundation, funded their efforts to develop and expand trauma prevention recovery programs in the South Stockton Promise Zone. Young people exposed to abuse or violence in the home and the community are at risk for poor mental health and even for heart disease, depression, and alcoholism as adults. The grant creates a system of care providers, mentors, and school personnel trained to identify victims of trauma as early as possible and match them with social support and recovery services.
Ventura County is testing a program to reduce recidivism by providing evidence-based services to men and women on probation. The goal is to help each client get access to the services they need most to help them lead healthy and productive lives when returning to their families and communities. Success will be measured by an independent evaluator, using administrative data in a randomized controlled trial conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles. The project uses a "Pay for Success" funding model where investors will recoup their investments if the rate at which participants commit new crimes is at least 5 percent lower than similar people who are not getting the customized services.
These examples of healthier communities are made possible when data infrastructure and support for cross-sector collaboration are in place. Improvements in community health will become visible when we bring models like these to a national scale — where communities, including the healthcare system, are focused first on creating environments that keep people healthy and, when necessary, providing services in a way that supports healthy populations.
While cross-sector models demonstrate that it is possible to make communities healthier, we can't ignore one of the biggest barriers — our fee-for-service system for paying for healthcare — which encourages us to treat many health and social issues like medical problems, or to wait until they become medical problems, rather than identifying and systematically addressing the root causes.
A payment system that provides incentives and rewards for keeping people healthy is critical to an infrastructure that supports healthy communities.
When Blue Shield of California Foundation brought together 25 leaders from all corners of healthcare to talk about healthcare innovation, they all agreed that ending the fee-for-service payment system would be a cornerstone for encouraging innovation, reducing the volume of healthcare consumed, and lowering costs for everyone. The fee-for-service payment system creates a strong business case for creating, promoting and selling new products, which has led to great innovation in drugs and services. It also creates a systemic disincentive for creating healthy communities, preventing violence, preventing illness, and avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and procedures.
As a testing ground for innovation, California has shown that when we provide the infrastructure of data to get a better picture of the factors that impact health, and when we invest the seed money that supports and encourages cross-sector collaboration, it is possible to foster the creation of healthier communities.
Peter Long, PhD, is the president and CEO of Blue Shield of California Foundation. He leads the Foundation in its mission to improve the lives of all Californians, particularly the underserved, by making health care accessible, effective, and affordable, and by ending domestic violence. Prior to joining Blue Shield of California Foundation, Dr. Long served in leadership roles at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and The California Endowment. He has extensive experience working on health policy issues at the state, national, and global levels, and has written numerous papers on the topic. Dr. Long also served as the director of development and programs for the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley in San Jose, before assuming his position there as executive director.
When I started reading this and saw all the "buzzwords" in the first paragraph, I could see where this was going….
Perry, the author explicitly states that population health has become a buzzword and then makes a distinction between a less radical/helpful interpretation of the word and a more helpful one, which he then proceeds to give examples of. Where exactly could you see this was going?


In previous blogs, we talked about the idea of failing forward and not letting failure derail your progress.
Our very own founder and CEO George Davison is a testament to this notion as he stayed persistent after the failed invention of his toothbrush sanitizer idea.
Though failure could have stopped him in his tracks, he decided to push forward and achieve many other great things and create many great inventions along the way.
As National Inventors Month is quickly coming to a close, we couldn't think of a Better Way to close out this month-long celebration than by introducing George Davison's latest invention, the Curved Bench that has recently hit the market!
And there's no better person to share this exciting news than Mr. Davison himself!
"When I used to coach soccer, the benches were always straight and I was always frustrated because I couldn't get my kids to rally in a half circle and focus on the coaching," said Mr. Davison.
Recently, Mr. Davison walked on our loading dock to find his newest invention had just come in! "I [saw it and] said 'It is! It's here!' I just wanted to share the news. It's awesome!" said Mr. Davison.
The Curved Bench has been licensed to Creative Outdoor Distributors and this six-seat bench is now available for purchase through both Amazon.com and Overstock.com!
As George Davison excitedly told us, this innovative product is great for a variety of activities like sporting events and sitting around a campfire with your family and friends!
Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy of Mr. Davison seeing his product for the first time!


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Driftwood Interview
by Kelly DayAug 8, 2018Interviews
Driftwood: An Interview
D riftwood was formed in 2005 in Binghamton, NY by high school buddies Dan Forsyth (guitar) and Joe Kollar (banjo). Claire Byrne joined on violin and vocals in 2008, followed by Joey Arcuri on upright bass in 2011. Will Sigel is the most recent addition on drums, and the added percussion seamlessly rounds out the bands' most recent sound.
Their roots are actually in classic rock, but their current sound blends a plethora of genres with the subtle hints of classic Americana. Since their debut album released in 2009, they have been hard-hitting the East Coast. We caught up with them at Northwest String Summit for their first West Coast music festival performance.
We met after the band had just finished the second of their 'Tweener Stage sets. The String Summit Tweener Stage sat atop the main stage bowl, giving artists a 30-minute chance to capture audiences between the main stage sets. Driftwood had no trouble doing just that, and after a high-energy half-hour that kept the crowd engaged and moving, we met backstage for a breather and a chat.
The band grabbed a bite to eat and we all settled in for a casual, relaxed conversation in the cool shade of Hornings Hideout…
Driftwood: To Know is to Love
To know Driftwood is to know their roots. Every band has a story, and often times that story is instrumental (pun intended) in how their sound and persona as a band was developed. Listening to Driftwood's music, one gets the sense that the band is young with an old soul. Their lyrics are sometimes dark and powerful, sometimes light and quirky. There's a deep, driving force behind each refrain – the kind that makes you dance with your eyes closed, or stop still to take in the energy the band is passing to the audience.
In the title track from their 2016 album "City Lights", the listener is instantly introduced to a simple beat and the softly sung lyrics "Life's a bitch and then you're dead; It's what my fathers' father said; So raise your glass and fill your head; With any song you like". So, yeah, a little dark, a little light. And a definite interest to keep listening.
The band's story starts simply, as two high school friends start to play music together. But the story evolves as the band grows along with its complex sound, full of spirit and drive.
How The Driftwood Story Began
The two original members of the band Driftwood, Dan Forsyth, and Joe Kollar, initially started as a classic rock cover band. That's pretty much what any band did if they wanted to book gigs in Binghamton, NY over a decade ago. Actually, if one is to Google "Binghamton Music", by the time you reach the "Mu" you will see suggestions of "Museums," "Murders," and "Mugshots." So, yeah. Classic rock.
But then, something happened that was integral in creating the band Driftwood. As Kollar puts it, "The acoustic bug came from when Dan moved out to Colorado for a year (in 2002) and I went out and visited, and we went to Telluride Bluegrass Festival. This is the same time 'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou' came out – and there was sort of this resurgence of that sort of vibe. And I remember just being really thrown back by the honesty of acoustic music. I don't know if honesty is the word, but some sort of rootsy feeling that I wasn't getting from the electric stuff. So that was kind of the beginning of that step into the acoustic world and folk songs."
(Read about the "Magic of Telluride Bluegrass Festival".)
"I remember just being really thrown back by the honesty of acoustic music." ~Dan Forsyth
Lucky for Driftwood – and for Binghamton – the classic-rock stigma in town has altered over the years. When the Cyber Café opened its doors, the music scene started to change for the better. Then the Belmar Bar and Grill came along. Open Mic nights and acoustic jams suddenly could be found in town. And Driftwood had a place to hone their sound. Over the first few years, the band changed members and picked up Claire Bryne on violin and Joey Arcuri on upright bass. They spread their performance boundaries throughout the central NY area, eventually entering a band competition in 2009 at the GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, NY. And they won. Dan: "We heard they had a band competition where if you played it and won, you got a slot. So, we went up to do that – and won that twice. And that was a big catapult for us in that area – so we were able to branch out and get some more gigs. That was huge." Driftwood has played the festival every year since, and their name is climbing closer to the top of the lineup.
Taking Off on a Jet Plane
Touring as a band is no easy feat, but it can be even more daunting when you add in the challenge of airports and airplanes. Driftwood tirelessly tours the East Coast in their RV, clocking in a hundred or more shows a year. When they all jump on a plane with their gear, they have to keep their packing at a minimum and they're still learning some tricks of the trade.
As they gain popularity, they are spreading their wings more across this entire country. But it's still a little fresh.
Joey: "I think it's a little more exciting [when we fly] because we don't do it all the time. When we fly, we get on a plane, and when we pop off we're in a totally different area. There's a level of excitement, almost like a vacation-vibe with an airplane."
We were definitely happy to see they made the long flight to their first West Coast festival, Northwest String Summit. If you caught them, you may have noticed a couple of major differences.
The biggest change is that there are now five people on stage since they recently added a new member, Will Sigel, on drums. And the other big change is that Joe, the banjo player, seems to have picked up some new dance moves.
Joe Kollar: "[Having Will on drums] has really been great for me, especially, because I used to play this kick box – and that was sort of a really fundamental part of Driftwood. I spent the past nine years on one leg for every show because I'd have to stand on the one leg and kick on it with the other. So ever since Will, both of my legs have evened out in size, and I get to dance around a little bit."
Claire laughs and adds "When we got the drums, Joe was dancing during a couple of songs. And Joey and I would laugh because we had never seen Joe dance while he played." Joey chimes in, "I had never seen him move!! I'm like, he's moving – what's he doing? Where's he going?"
Driftwood's Northwest String Summit shows will go down in history as the first show ever that Joe didn't play his kick box, but that doesn't mean it's leaving the stage. Painted with the Driftwood logo, the homemade kick box has become a symbol for the band. Not only is it a great brand and marketing tool, but it's part of the roots of the band's sound.
The Highs and the Lows
Before Joey joined the band with his upright bass, the kick box was the low-end that Claire and Dan heavily relied on. And Joe would play his handmade kick box, ignoring the burning cramps from standing on one leg for long periods, to give the band the driving rhythms that really started to define their unique sound. Joey came along and the band's sound became fuller, giving their songs an even deeper rhythmic force.
Then in March 2018, the band played a Creedence Clearwater Revival set and brought in Will Sigel to play percussion. It wasn't necessarily a job interview, but in retrospect, it was all part of the band's story. Driftwood would often record songs with drums in the studio, but they couldn't perform those songs live without the full percussion on stage. Their manager suggested they bring on Will full-time, and he fit in right off the bat.
Joey: "90 percent of being on the road is just being around each other and traveling together. And he's already like a dear friend to everyone. He just fits right in."
But those formative years before Will were just as important as these past few months with him.
Claire: "I think the fact that we didn't get drums for so long, it just forced us to really try – with arrangements and our own instruments – to really stretch out as much as we could to try and get those sounds, to try and make it as powerful as we had it in our heads."
And with Will playing on drums?
Claire: "We felt so much more powerful. We really did. We just felt like the band had the umphhh that we hear in our heads and are always trying to get."
What the Future Holds for Driftwood
Driftwood has recently been back in the studio, preparing to bring fans their fifth studio album. As the band matures, so does their recording style.
This time around, they spent 10 days at a recording studio in the Catskill Mountains with Simon Felice (who produced the Lumineer's hit album, Cleopatra). The entire process went a lot faster than usual since most of their albums have been self-produced. That can take them up to a year, and it means road-testing a lot of the songs before actually hitting the studio to record.
Claire: "[The newest album] was a much more speedy process than even City Lights was, where we at least knew what tunes we were going to be to doing and where we were going to be going with them. But this one… we actually all sent in tunes and Simon picked out some tunes; and then we went into the studio having never really played some of them together."
Having more than one songwriter in the band certainly helps that process, since multiple band members can contribute their own uniqueness to the ultimate sound of the album.
When you stop to think about it, Driftwood's story really mirrors the band's sound.
As you listen to their songs, they have this tendency to start simply, even softly; and each song builds up into this driving, passionate sound. Ultimately, the band's complete story really has been built out of each band member's own simple, solitary experience over the past decade or more, and it's interesting to see that story continue to grow and build over time, to ultimately form the band, Driftwood.
We like to look good and wear fun stuff when we attend music festivals. With our "GoNuts Stuff", you'll be the coolest kid on the playground. We also do custom designs, so drop us a line if you want something made! Visit the Festy GoNuts Shop for your fun festy gear.
Driftwood Interview ultima modifica: 2018-08-08T20:45:43-06:00 da Kelly Day
PreviousNorthwest String Summit 2018: Magic at Horning's
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Kelly Day
Kelly is pretty crazy about live music, camping, road trips and making lots of new friends. So, music festivals are basically the best thing in the world to her. She really wants Festy GoNuts to become a huge success so she can continue to drive around the country checking out live music, camping and making lots of new friends. Sounds like a plan.
Where's Your Liver? An Interview with Liver Down the River
Ronnie McCoury Interview: Travelin' McCourys, DelFest and Dad
Interview with Tara Nevins, "Donna the Buffalo"
Jon Stickley Trio does Jon Stickley Trio: An Interview

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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News & Events News 2018 May Bronze Best High School
SPC Looks Great in U.S. News & World Report Ranking
SPC LOOKS GREAT IN BRONZE: ST. PHILIP'S COLLEGE BUSINESS UNIT IS INCLUDED IN A US NEWS & WORLD REPORT NATIONAL RANKING
A four-year-old St. Philip's College business unit is included in a US News & World Report National Ranking this week.
The St. Philip's College business unit is the St. Philip's College Early College High School with San Antonio Independent School District.
The business unit earned a bronze medal ranking from US News & World Report. According to the online ranking, "Schools are ranked based on their performance on state-required tests and how well they prepare students for college."
Dr. Derrick Thomas has been principal of the school since it opened in August 2014 on the campus of the 120-year-old college, providing students with a blended high school-college experience.
"Congratulations faculty for making this happen," Thomas wrote to his team in an internal note. "Your hard work is finally being recognized," Thomas wrote in response to the San Antonio ISD announcement that four of its schools that include the St. Philip's College school are among US News & World Report's top-ranked high schools in the state and nation.
View the ranking at the US News & World Report web page St Philip's College Early College High School - Recognized in National Rankings. Parents, class of 2018 alumni, supporters, four-year college recruiters and prospective students can all find additional information at the school web page.
Bronze Best High School
A Go-Getter
Historic Hall of Fame Evening
Armed Forces River Parade Float
Optimist Club
Operation College Promise
Pineapple Award Gala
Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE)
Top 20 Community Colleges in Texas
10 Most Admired Universities and Colleges
ECHS Valedictorian Mark Pantoja
Armed Forces Week


By enrolling in a Catch-Up lesson at the Alliance Française de Melbourne ("AFM"), you are agreeing to abide by the policies, procedures and regulations of the AFM. This includes agreement with the following terms. You are also providing confirmation that the information you have provided on enrolment is complete and correct.
A Catch-Up lesson can be organised on demand for students who are enrolled in a current Adult Group Course, who have missed a lesson in their current Group Course and need assistance to cover missed content.
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5 Things You Can Do To Fight For Immigrant Families
It is cruel, inhumane, and unconstitutional to separate children from their parents. In an enormous victory for families, on June 26th a federal judge agreed with the ACLU and ordered the administration to reunite all children who have been taken from their parents at the border within 30 days. However, this crisis is not over until every last family is back together.
And still, Trump's recent Executive Order calls for detention of immigrant families with children, regardless of whether they are asylum seekers, or pose a flight risk or a danger to the community. The new policy will likely to lead to more families in more detention facilities, creating internment camps for children and their parents.
Incarcerating families is not the solution to family separation. The ACLU and others will not stop fighting for these families and for all immigrants. Want to help? In addition to supporting the ACLU, here's what you can do:
1. Learn More
The Trump administration is using misinformation and outright lies to keep their inhumane policies in place. Learn more by reading the ACLU's "Fact-Checking Family Separation."
2. Show Up
Sign up for People Power to find out about actions you can take to fight family separation and learn about other critical civil liberties issues. You can find events in your area posted to the People Power map.
3. Speak Out
Sign and share the ACLU's petition to the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Follow the ACLU-WA on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to receive the latest updates. Use #FamiliesBelongTogether to lift up the work of local organizations and continue the drumbeat online.
4. Give Your Support
The ACLU of Texas has compiled a list of local organizations working to provide legal help, food and shelter, and bonds to families at the border.
Immigrant rights organizations here in Washington also need your support:
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) represents unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in their deportation proceedings. Donate to KIND here.
NWDC Resistance/Resistencia al NWDC is a grassroots, undocumented-led movement that works to end the detention of immigrants and stop all deportations. Make a donation here and check out their events here.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) promotes justice by defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education. You can donate to NWIRP here.
5. Volunteer Your Time
Find other volunteer opportunities in your area that match your skills:
Stand With Immigrants
Immigration Justice Campaign
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
Border Patrol & ICE
Freedom to Travel


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News & Media Harrison Ford to receive Wright trophy
Harrison Ford to receive Wright trophy
September 29, 2010 By Alton K. Marsh
Actor, pilot, aviation spokesman, and aircraft owner Harrison Ford will receive the 2010 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy at a dinner Dec. 17 in Washington, D.C., for his support and defense of aviation.
The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) will present the award. The citation will read: "For engaging our nation's youth in aviation and inspiring tomorrow's leaders, innovators and enthusiasts to secure a strong future for all of aviation."
NAA established this award in 1948 to honor the memory of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Ford has established himself as a passionate defender of the freedoms aviation provides. He serves as spokesman for AOPA's General Aviation Serves America campaign and was chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles program. Following the Haiti earthquake Ford flew supplies to the beleaguered island in his Cessna Caravan. He also flew athletes to the Special Olympics and served as chairman of the 2010 Special Olympics Airlift. Ford also spoke to members of Congress about the value of GA in May.
Alton K. Marsh
Alton K. Marsh is a former senior editor of AOPA Pilot and is now a freelance journalist specializing in aviation topics.
Go to Alton K. Marsh's Profile


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Precognition: a screening, 2015
For this screening event SPUR developed our research into the idea of the impending dystopic future, relaying our fears about what could happen to what might already be happening now.
Looking toward or even into the future is a hard concept to comprehend, and while we question what affect developing technology will have on the world we should also start to question what affect will it have on human behaviour as a whole.
The event took place on Wednesday 18 November, 6.30pm at the About Time Timeshare space at The Brunswick, North Street, Leeds
Running times:
6.30pm – Introduction
6.35pm – August Juncture
6.45pm – Welcome To The Neighbourhood
7.00pm – The Machine Stops
August Juncture, 2010
Chris Beckman, dir
When lovelorn amateur scientist August Juncture builds a time machine in his garage, with the help of a public access TV host and a millionaire cowboy philanthropist, he sets out to prove to the world that time travel is indeed possible, and, just maybe, win back his ex-girlfriend along the way.
The Maiden Voyage of August Juncture's Incredible Time Machine is a short film written by Matt Stowe and made by Chris Beckman, Ryan Bennett, Brook Linder, Sophie Parker, Max Rosen, and Matt Stowe in 2010 – the fourth in a series of five collaborative short films made by the group in Springfield, Missouri between 2008 and 2011 that aimed to imbue comedic narrative conventions with an unexpected emotional core.
www.vimeo.com/chrisbeckman
Welcome To The Neighbourhood, 2014
Max Rosen, dir
In a suburban wasteland, sometime before or after the end of civilization, a man not looking for anything stumbles upon something.
"I grew up in a very suburb-laden area of the Midwestern United States. Suburban neighborhoods can be very American in the brightest, blandest way, but when they're empty or abandoned or even just eerily quiet, they take on a whole new feeling. Just the kind of vaguely ominous atmosphere I like to work in. All of my dreams are nightmares, and a lot of them are about the end of the world. Maybe Welcome to the Neighborhood is about that too; who's to say really. I made this movie with a few friends over four weekday mornings before our lead actor had to go to work at a health food store."
www.vimeo.com/maxrosen
The Machine Stops, 1966
Written by E.M. Forster
Forster depicts a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Individuals now live in isolation below ground in a standard 'cell', with all needs, bodily or spiritual met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge. Not all Forster''s stories were optimistic about the future, The Machine Stops shows Forster was concerned about human dependence on technology, he predicts and criticises our reliance on machines and with that showing us a possible or inevitable future of what happens when they stop.


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Q: extract particular value from a string Suppose I have a variable that holds a web address as follows:
$url="http://www.example.com/login?u=17474&l=6277";

now I send the above url to a function
$out= myFunc($url);

Now what I want is that the function should return only the part of url before the ? i.e, if the above url is passed to the function it should return http://example.com/login also if a relative url is passed like /login.php?u=26337&g=777 it should return only /login.php.
also I want to get the values in the url and set cookies for in the above I want the value inside u and set the cookie with the value.
  function myFunc($url){
      $pass= substr($url,0,strpos($url,'?'));
   $u = ;//the value in;
   setcookie('user',$u);
return $pass;
 }

How can I do this??

A: This function must return the substring before "?":
function myFunc($url){
    return substr($url,0,strpos($url,'?'));
}
$url="http://www.example.com/login?u=17474&l=6277";
echo myFunc($url);// http://www.example.com/login

to convert the get string to array, use parse_str() function:
function get_values($url){
    parse_str(substr($url,strpos($url,'?')+1),$array);
    return $array;
}
$values = get_values($url);
print_r($values);//Array ( [u] => 17474 [l] => 6277 )

To access u:
$u = $values['u'];
setcookie('user',$u);

remember to setcookie before any output to the browser!

A: parse_url may help you. Just use it like:
$url="http://www.example.com/login?u=17474&l=6277";
$url_segments = parse_url($url);

echo $url_segments['path'];

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Select other Ducks De Leo, Chase Del Zotto, Michael Deslauriers, Nicolas Fowler, Cam Getzlaf, Ryan Gibson, John Grant, Derek Gudbranson, Erik Henrique, Adam Holzer, Korbinian Jones, Max Kase, Ondrej Larsson, Jacob Lindholm, Hampus Manson, Josh Miller, Ryan Rakell, Rickard Ritchie, Nick Rowney, Carter Shore, Devin Silfverberg, Jakob Steel, Sam Terry, Troy Ducks Roster
Jakob Silfverberg
Team: Anaheim Ducks Height: 6-0 Born: 10/13/1990
Position: RW Weight: 208 Birthplace: Gavle, Sweden
10/03 Ari W 2-1 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 0 0 0 0 0 15:54
10/05 SJ W 3-1 0 0 0 -1 2 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 17:11
10/08 @ Det W 3-1 1 1 2 2 0 3 33.3% 0 0 0 0 0 18:37
10/10 @ Pit L 1-2 0 0 0 0 0 3 - 0 0 0 0 0 18:16
10/11 @ Cls W 2-1 1 0 1 1 0 1 100.0% 0 0 1 0 0 18:24
10/14 @ Bos L 2-4 0 0 0 2 0 2 - 0 0 0 0 0 18:25
10/16 Buf W 5-2 1 2 3 4 0 3 33.3% 0 0 0 0 0 18:00
10/20 Cgy L 1-2 1 0 1 1 0 2 50.0% 0 0 0 0 0 20:40
10/22 @ Nsh L 1-6 0 0 0 -2 2 3 - 0 0 0 0 0 16:10
10/24 @ Dal L 1-2 0 0 0 0 2 2 - 0 0 0 0 0 19:48
10/26 @ Col W 5-2 1 0 1 2 0 2 50.0% 0 0 0 0 0 16:55
11/01 Van W 2-1 1 0 1 0 0 4 25.0% 0 0 1 0 0 20:14
11/03 Chi OTL 2-3 0 0 0 -1 0 4 - 0 0 0 0 0 20:37
11/05 Min L 2-4 0 1 1 -2 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 0 19:00
11/10 Edm L 2-6 0 1 1 -2 0 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 14:19
11/12 Det OTL 3-4 1 0 1 -1 0 2 50.0% 0 0 0 0 0 17:06
11/14 SJ L 3-5 1 1 2 -1 0 3 33.3% 1 0 0 0 0 17:21
11/16 @ StL W 4-1 0 0 0 -1 0 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 16:05
11/18 @ Was L 2-5 0 0 0 -1 0 2 - 0 0 0 0 0 17:28
11/21 @ Fla OTL 4-5 0 1 1 -1 0 2 - 0 0 0 0 0 16:10
11/23 @ TB L 2-6 0 0 0 2 0 4 - 0 0 0 0 0 18:38
11/25 NYI W 3-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 15:34
11/27 @ Ari L-SO 3-4 0 0 0 0 0 4 - 0 0 0 0 0 18:12
11/29 Wpg L 0-3 0 0 0 -1 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 0 14:38
12/02 LA W 4-2 1 0 1 0 0 3 33.3% 1 0 0 0 0 16:37
12/06 Was L 2-3 0 0 0 -1 0 2 - 0 0 0 0 0 17:06
12/08 @ Wpg L 2-3 1 0 1 0 2 1 100.0% 0 0 0 0 0 15:33
12/10 @ Min W-SO 3-2 0 1 1 1 0 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 20:01
12/12 LA L 1-2 0 1 1 -1 0 3 - 0 1 0 0 0 17:08
12/14 NYR W-SO 4-3 1 0 1 0 0 1 100.0% 1 0 0 0 0 18:17
12/18 @ NJ L 1-3 0 0 0 -2 0 4 - 0 0 0 0 0 17:20
12/21 @ NYI W-SO 6-5 1 0 1 1 0 1 100.0% 0 0 0 0 0 16:54
12/27 VGK W 4-3 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 0 1 0 0 0 17:11
12/29 Phi OTL 1-2 0 0 0 -1 0 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 15:49
12/31 @ VGK L 2-5 1 0 1 1 0 4 25.0% 0 0 0 0 0 16:36
01/02 @ Ari L 2-4 1 0 1 1 0 5 20.0% 0 0 0 0 0 17:06
01/05 Nsh W-SO 5-4 0 0 0 -1 0 7 - 0 0 0 0 0 18:36
01/07 Cls L 3-4 0 0 0 -1 0 1 - 0 0 0 0 0 04:53
01/17 @ Car W 2-1 0 1 1 0 0 5 - 0 0 0 0 0 18:33


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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Ezekwesili's Accusation Of Waste And The Jonathan Administration Defence And Counter Accusations: Facts-check!!!
Ezekwesili's Accusation Of Waste And The Jonathan Administration Defence And Counter Accusations: Facts-check!!!
February 5, 2013 by Editor Leave a Comment
By Conscience Reports
These are interesting times indeed for Nigeria: a couple of days ago, former World Bank Vice President for the African Region, and Due Process Pioneer in the Obasanjo Administration, Obiageli Ezekwesili, in a thought provoking keynote address entitled, "The Wealth and Poverty of a Nation: Who will restore the dignity of Nigeria?" delivered at the 42nd Convocation Ceremony of her alma mater, the University of Nigeria, Nsuka (UNN); allegedly accused the Yar Adua Administration and the Jonathan Administration of squandering the $67billion in Reserves left by the Obasanjo Administration in May 2007. We perused her keynote address, and here is what she actually said in respect of this issue: "…Furthermore, it is happening back to back with the squandering of the significant sum of $45 Billion in foreign reserve account and another $22Billion in the Excess Crude Account being direct savings from increased earnings from oil that the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007. Six years after the administration I served handed over such humongous national wealth to another one; most Nigerians but especially the poor continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions. One cannot but ask; what exactly does Nigeria seek to symbolise and convey with this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources? Where did all that money go? Where is the accountability for the use of both these resources plus the additional several billions of dollars realized from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last six years? How were these resources applied or more appropriately, misapplied? Tragic choices! Yes. Our national dignity continues to be degraded by cycles of stagnation because of the terrible choices my generation and those before repeatedly make as a result of free oil money…"
Expectedly, the Jonathan Administration took her on. The Administration through its Information Minister, Labaran Maku; the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe and other critical handlers of the president propaganda machine, in an apparent damage control efforts went for the kill. They insulted her person and called her all manner of names the human mind can conjure. And they also accused her of wasting the N352.3billion she supposedly collected as direct budgetary releases, the N65.8billion she purportedly received under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Fund, and the over N40billion she allegedly collected under the Education Trust Fund (ETF). The President and his men also rebuffed Ezekwesili's call for a national debate on this accusations and counter accusations, and as is usually the case, Nigerians in support of either side has joined issues based on sentiments, without an iota of attention to the true nature of events; on most counts, they chose to substitute facts for fiction and pursue fleeting shadows in place of substance. But alas, the so-called damage control crusade by the administration has only resulted to uncontrolled damage.
We at Conscience Reports has largely refrained from commenting or joining the fray; as a Whistle-blowing Organisation our priority is to always get our facts rights before taking a position on any issue. And so, we embarked on a facts-check on this issue. With respect to Ezekwesili's statement, we laid hold of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual Reports, Half-Year Reports and Five-Year Financial Statements between 2006 and mid 2012; the full CBN Annual Report for 2012 is yet to be released, but the Half-Year Report is available, and we got that as well. With respect to the Jonathan Administration counter accusations; we got hold of the Appropriation Acts for 2006 to 2007 as passed by the Fifth National Assembly and as assented to by then President Olusegun Obasanjo. Our findings from these records are quite revealing, but before we go into that, here are a few things to note:
The External Reserve, also known as the Official Reserve is the CBN's foreign exchange holdings. According to the CBN, Nigeria's External Reserve comprises of three components, namely, the federation, the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria portions. The Federation component consists of sterilised funds (unmonetised) held in the Excess Crude and PPT/Royalty accounts at the CBN belonging to the three tiers of government. This portion has not yet been monetised for sharing by the federating units. It is sometimes ignorantly referred to as the Reserves of the country. The Federal Government component consists of funds belonging to some government agencies such as the NNPC; for financing its Joint Venture expenses, PHCN and Ministry of Defence; for Letters of Credit opened on their behalf, etc. The CBN portion consists of funds that have been monetised and shared. This arises as the Bank receives foreign exchange inflows from crude oil sales and other oil revenues on behalf of the government. Such proceeds are purchased by the Bank and the Naira equivalent credited to the Federation account and shared, each month, in accordance with the constitution and the existing revenue sharing formula. The monetised foreign exchange thus belongs to the CBN. It is from this portion of the Reserves that the Bank conducts its monetary policy and defends the value of the Naira.
The Excess Crude Account was created illegally against stiff resistance by the thirty-six State governors, without recourse to the National Assembly in 2004 by the Obasanjo Administration on the advice of then Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and her economic management team; and she also happens, by the way, to be the Finance Minister and a dubious co-ordinating Minister of the economy in the present Jonathan Administration. The Excess Crude Account was meant to save excess revenues from crude oil sales above a defined or pegged benchmark price as stated in the Appropriation Act or yearly fiscal budget, and its primary purpose was to protect the budget against shortfalls and insulate the economy from shocks resulting from volatility in crude oil prices. It was also meant to fund critical infrastructure investments such as the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), and to serve as emergency funds. But overall, government at all levels, notably the presidency has used the account as a conduit pipe for corruption, looting the funds at any slightest opportunity. After Obasanjo's exit, the more amiable Yar Adua conceded to the governors, and the sharing spree started, hence a supposedly rainy day account became a dried account. In 2010 however, the National Economic Council, seeking to remedy the illegality, approved a plan to replace the Excess Crude Account with a National Sovereign Wealth Fund. The National Sovereign Wealth Fund itself was to have three Sovereign Wealth Funds, namely: Future Generation Fund, Nigerian Infrastructure Fund, and Stabilisation Fund. These Sovereign Wealth Funds were to manage excess earnings from crude oil, and it is all embedded in the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) which is supposed to be receiving monthly funding of revenue from oil and gas above the budget figures. Going forward, the Nigerian Senate in May 2011 approved the NSIA Bill 2010, which sought to establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund to manage excess funds from crude oil sales. And the NSIA Bill was subsequently passed by the House and assented to by President Jonathan, but it yet to be functional after its initial $1billion funding. But curiously, the illegal Excess Crude Account is still operational even when there is now a substantive legally passed NSIA Act that has replaced it.
The Appropriation Act is the yearly legally approved fiscal budget for the nation.
Now to our facts-check: according to the CBN Annual Reports and Half-Year Reports for 2006 and 2007, Nigeria's External Reserves at May 2006 and May 2007 were $34.10billion and $43.20billion respectively; and at June 2006 and June 2007, the External Reserves were $36.50billion and $42.63billion respectively, while the Excess Crude Account hovered around $9.2billion and $9.8billion in May and June 2007. If you add the $9.78billion brought forward from 2006 that will be almost $20billion. The Reports also showed that the Excess Crude Account at end December 2007 stood at $22.18billion being the sum of $9.78billion brought forward from 2006 and $12.40billion accumulated in 2007. But by end December 2008 and 2009, the Excess Crude Account had been depleted to $20.34billion and $6.54billion as unveiled by the CBN Annual Reports for 2008 and 2009; the Reports also stated further that the drawn down in the Excess Crude Account for the period was due to the need to stimulate the economy. In our own judgement, that so-called stimulation only advanced the demoralisation of the economy. And by end December 2010, the Excess Crude Account has only $2.20billion left, but it increased to $5.20billion by end December 2011 as contained in the CBN Annual Reports for 2010 and 2011 respectively. In short, a detailed study of the CBN Annual Reports from 2007 to 2011 revealed that Nigeria's External Reserves at year end 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 stood at $51.33billion, $53.00billion, $42.38billion, $32.34billion and $32.64billion respectively; while the CBN Half-Year Reports at June 2008 to June 2012 showed that the External Reserves stood at $59.81billion, $43.46billion, $37.42billion, $31.89billion and $35.41billion respectively.
A painstaking review of the above CBN records, especially that of 2007, and then on towards 2011, revealed that although Ezekwesili may not be exactly right in her $67billion figures, she is nonetheless very close in her assessment.
However, let us leave that aside for now and move on to the Jonathan Administration accusation of her stewardship as Education Minister in the Obasanjo government. For the records, Ezekwesili was Federal Minister of Education for ten months from June 2006 to April 2007. She was before then the trailblazing head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit, popularly known as the Due Process Unit; from where she became Federal Minister of Solid Minerals, between June 2005 and June 2006, all under the Obasanjo Administration. As Minister of Education, she got funds for her Ministry through the Appropriation Acts. Now, the Appropriation Act for 2006 passed by the Fifth National Assembly and assented to by then President Olusegun Obasanjo was One Trillion, Eight Hundred and Ninety-Nine Billion, Nine Hundred and Eighty Seven Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixty Seven Naira only (N1,899,987,922,467). Of this amount, the Education Ministry was allocated N30,480,000,000 as Statutory transfers for the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), N129,232,212,676 for Recurrent Expenditure and N37,389,441,082 for Capital Expenditure. There is no record showing that any money was allocated or released for the Education Trust Fund (ETF). And the highest allocation was for Recurrent Expenditure which covers overheads. In 2007, the Appropriation Act as passed by the Fifth National Assembly and assented to by then President Obasanjo was Two Trillion, Three Hundred and Nine Billion, Two Hundred and Twenty-Three Million, Nine Hundred and Forty-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and Eighty-Three Naira only (N2,309,223,949,983). Of this amount, the Education Ministry was allocated N35,300,000,000 as Statutory transfers for UBEC, N142,095,995,408 for Recurrent Expenditure and N47,103,779,521 for Capital Expenditure. Again, there is no record showing that monies were allocated or released to the ETF, and much of the money allocated to the Ministry was for Recurrent Expenditure or overheads. There was also a Supplementary Appropriation Act for 2007 passed by the National Assembly, and assented to by the President but it was essentially for so-called Power Projects across the country, and none of the other Ministries, including the Education Ministry got anything out of it. Moreover, all of the monies allocated in budgets sometimes may not be all that is released, and since Ezekwesili came in as Education Minister in June 2006 and left for the World Bank in April 2007, she cannot be totally held responsible for what happened in that Ministry or for the funds released to the Ministry more so when the Appropriation Act for 2007 was barely passed before she left Office as Education Minister. And so, our facts-check revealed that the Jonathan Administration is wrong in its accusations; the Administration is very economical with the truth both in its defence and in its accusations, and it has gone about this whole issue in a manner that seems to suggest it has every right to loot the nation's commonwealth because other Administrations, especially that of Obasanjo had done so. President Jonathan and his boys need to restraint and caution, and be more tolerant towards dissenting views. Notwithstanding, the wastage of the Excess Crude funds is not entirely the making of the Jonathan led federal government or even that of the late Umaru Yar' Adua; it is more of the thirty-six State governors who insist on the sharing of the Excess Crude funds, and there is no clear oversight for holding them accountable for their mismanagement of those funds.
But beyond the accusations, counter-accusations and rigmarole, is the serious issue of unrestrained corruption, and no doubt, all of the Administrations in question, including the Jonathan Administration, Yar' Adua and that of Obasanjo which wasted over $16billion on the power sector without results are all culpable. They are all responsible for the blind looting of the treasury and the squandering of the nation's patrimony under their watch since the nation's return to democratic rule. Or how best can we put this when those who stole billions are allowed to go with a kiss on the cheek while petty thieves are sent to the hangman's noose or committed to long years in prison. A vivid example is the recent sentencing of the former Director of Police Pensions Board to only two years in prison by Justice Abubakar Talba of the Federal High Court in Abuja for stealing N2billion with an option of N250,000 fine for each of the three count charges preferred against him, while in the same week of his sentencing, Obinna John was sentenced to death by hanging without an option of fine by Justice Yargatta Nimpa of the Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau State for robbing Ms. Dorothy Olaniyi of N1,705 and two rolls of Sachet Milk worth N400. By the same token, twenty-three year old Adepoju Jamiu was sentenced to three years imprisonment without an option of fine by Chief Magistrate Sunday Adeniran of the Ikare Magistrate Court in Ondo State for stealing a Mobile Phone worth N17,000. These preferential treatments and inequalities before the law by the unhealthy and sharp manipulation of the Justice System by the powers that be only serves to encourage reckless looting of public funds and abuse of trust in a nation of absurdities where anything goes.
This defiance and reckless squandering of public funds must end now, and it is the Jonathan Administration's responsibility to stop it; if it fails to do that, it will be held accountable.
Eneruvie Enakoko
Editor in Chief & Chief Executive
(+2348094648891, +2348033188864)
eenakoko@consciencereports.org
http://www.facebook.com/eneruvie.enakoko
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Skype ID: eenakoko
Meaning of Key Acronyms
CBN – Central Bank of Nigeria
UBEC – Universal Basic Education Commission
ETF – Education Trust Fund
PPT – Petroleum Profit Tax
PHCN – Power Holding Company of Nigeria
· CBN Half-Year Report
· CBN Half Year Economic Report for 2006
· CBN Annual Report 2006
· CBN Half-Year Economic Report for 2007
· CBN Annual Report for the Year Ended December 31st 2007
· CBN Interactive Annual Report for the Year Ended December 2009
· CBN 2012 Half Year Report
· CBN Five Year Financial Statement (Five Year Balance Sheet) for 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007
· CBN Reserve Management
· Appropriation Act 2006
· Supplementary Appropriation Act 2007
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: CBN, Conscience Reports, ECA, Excess Crude Account, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria, Oby Ezekwesili, Yaradua
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text:
A Right to Compete: Are Monopolies Crushing Entrepreneurship?
October 11, 2018 | The Marriott Metro Center 775 12th St NW Washington, DC 20005 8:15 am to 3:00 pm
Note: To watch all videos of the event, click on the top left icon of the video player, and choose another video there. For more help, email [email protected]
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)
Commissioner Robert Jackson, Securities and Exchange Commission
At its best, the United States is home to entrepreneurs who lead the world in innovation, and to the most developed and diverse sources of investment capital anywhere. But today America's business community is in a crisis. Entrepreneurship is at a forty year low and startups are closing their doors faster than any time in 50 years. Even for those that succeed, the biggest corporations increasingly set the rules for innovation.
Open Markets Institute and Village Capital hosted a conference on Thursday, October 11 called "A Right to Compete: Are Monopolies Crushing Entrepreneurship?" We heard from leading entrepreneurs and policymakers, as well as community leaders, researchers, and advocates, about the declining right to compete in America. The full-day conference detailed the nation's declining economic dynamism, identified the source of the problem in anticompetitive practices, and discussed solutions to support a resurgence of the American entrepreneur.
Participants also discussed some of the larger social and economic effects of the sharp decline in entrepreneurship, including the dangers posed to investors and the broader economic, political, and material well-being of Americans.
Ross Baird, President, Village Capital, and author of The Innovation Blind Spot
Barry Lynn, Executive Director, Open Markets Institute, and author of Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction
Remarks Watch Here
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, introduction by Ross Baird
Remarks Transcript
Victor Hwang, Vice President of Entrepreneurship, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, introduction by Ross Baird
In Their Own Words: Entrepreneurs and the Declining Right to Compete Watch Here
Lillian Salerno, co-founder and former COO of Retractable Technologies, and former Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development, USDA
Rodney Foxworth, Jr., Executive Director, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
Mike Callicrate, Owner, Ranch Foods Direct
Alex Laskey, President and Founder, OPOWER
moderated by Victor Hwang
Remarks Transcript | Watch Here
Senator Mark Warner, introduction by Ross Baird
Commissioner Rob Jackson, introduction by Sarah Miller, OMI Deputy Director
Senator Cory Booker, introduction by Marcellus Andrews, OMI Board Chair
Rana Foroohar, global business columnist, The Financial Times, and author of Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business
introduction and moderated Q&A with Barry Lynn
Solutions: Addressing Monopoly Power's Role in Entrepreneurship's Decline Watch Here
Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and author of Big Box Swindle
John Lettieri, Co-Founder and President, Economic Innovation Group
Ebony Pope, Director of U.S. Ventures, Village Capital
moderated by Jim Tankersley, Tax and Economics Reporter, The New York Times
Image by Steve Johnson via Pexels.
In America today, wealth and political power are more concentrated than at any point in our country's history.
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