text:
Who actually owns the UK's water supply?
A significant majority of British people believe that the water supply is so vital that it should be run as a not-for-profit public service, but the Westminster establishment consensus is that in England it should continue to be run as a vast profit extraction scheme operated mainly by foreign governments and overseas corporations.
In this article I'm going to give a basic overview of who actually owns the UK's water supplies.
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water are both government owned statutory companies, meaning any profits go straight back into public finances.
Welsh Water is owned by Glas Cymru, which is a not-for-profit company. It has no shareholders, and retains any profits for the benefit of Welsh water customers.
So far so good. Two different models of how water companies can be operated for the benefit of the people, rather than for profit-extraction purposes.
England's water supply is an absolute mess. It's broken up into multiple different regional monopolies, operated by various different private entities.
Research by the University of Grenwich found that privatisation of the water supply in 1989 has cost customers in England £2.3 billion per year more than if it had remained under not-for-profit public ownership.
So who are the owners of the private water companies that are raking in all of this profit at English people's expense?
Anglian Water (£1.4 billion)
Anglian Water supplies 2.6 million homes with water, and compared to a lot of others its ownership structure is fairly simple.
Its parent company is AWG, which a subsidiary of the Osprey Group, which is owned by the following:
Canada Pension Plan Investment Group 32.9% (wholly owned by the Canadian government)
IFM 19.8% (Australian investment fund)
Infinity Investments 16.7% (Wholly owned by the UAE government)
First Sentier 15.6% (Australian investment fund)
Camulodunum Investments 15% (UK investment manager)
So one of England's major water suppliers is 49.6% owned by foreign governments, and 30.6% owned by foreign private investors. Leaving just 15% that's run by a private UK-based investment manager.
Northumbrian Water (£820 million)
Northumbrian water supplies 2.7 million homes with water. Its parent company is NWG, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong based firm Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.
Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings is mainly owned by CK Hutchinson Holdings, which is run by the billionaire Li dynasty. Additionally there are number of other investment funds involved. Some of them are names which will be very familiar by the end of this article.
CK Hutchinson Holdings 72% (Hong Kong investment fund)
Conyers, Dill and Pearman 5% (Bermuda based offshore law firm)
BlackRock 1.1% (US based investment fund)
Other notable shareholders include: Lazard Asset Management (US investment fund), Vanguard Group (US investment fund), Norges Bank (100% Norwegian government owned bank).
United Utilities (£1.86 billion)
What used to be North West Water was merged with the North West Electricity Board to create United Utilities, which supplies water to 7.3 million people. The CEO took home £2.94 million in 2020.
United Utilities is a Public Limited Company (PLC) with a number of institutional shareholders. These are the owners with stakes above 1% (as of October 2021)
Lazard Asset Management 7.2% (US investment fund)
Legal and General Investment Management 4.1% (UK investment fund)
Vanguard Group 4.0% (US investment fund)
Norges Bank 2.9% (100% Norwegian government owned bank)
Impax Asset management 2.5% (UK investment fund - biggest shareholder French bank BNP Paribas)
Magellan Asset Management 2.4% (Australian investment fund)
Pictet Asset Management 2.3% (Swiss investment fund)
State Street Global Advisers 2.2% (US investment fund)
M&G Investment Management 2.0% (UK investment fund)
Nuance Investments 2.0% (US investment fund)
Amundi Asset management 1.9% (French investment fund, mainly owned by French bank Crédit Agricole)
Invesco Ltd 1.7% (US investment fund)
Columbia Management Investment Advisers 1.6% (US investment fund - a division of Amerprise, which is based in the US tax haven of Delaware)
Maple-Brown Abbott Limited 1.3% (Australian investment fund)
Ignis Investment Services 1.3% (UK investment fund)
Nordea Investment Management 1.2% (Finnish investment fund)
Aviva Investors Global Services Limited 1.1% (Investment arm of UK insurance group Aviva)
abrdn plc 1.1% (UK investment fund)
Northern Trust Global Investments 1.1% (US investment fund)
HBOS Investment Fund 1.1% (Subsidiary of the UK-based Lloyds banking Group)
UBS Asset Management 1.0% (Investment arm of the giant Swiss bank UBS)
Severn Trent Water (£1.84 billion)
Severn Trent Water supplies 4.5 million households and businesses. Their CEO Liv Garfield took home a whopping £2.807 million despite the company being fined £800,000 for leaking millions of litres of raw sewage into a Shropshire stream in the same year.
It's another Public Limited Company (PLC) with a number of institutional shareholders. These are the owners with stakes above 1% (as of October 2021)
Qatar Investment Authority 4.6% (100% owned by the Qatari government)
Royal London Asset Management Limited 1.7% (UK investment fund)
First Sentier 1.4% (Australian investment fund)
RREEF America LLC 1.3% (US investment fund)
Fidelity International 1.1% (Bermuda-based investment fund)
Janus Henderson Group 1.1% (UK investment fund)
Wessex Water (£550 million)
Wessex Water supplies 1.3 million homes with water.
It's a 100% owned subsidiary of the Malaysian conglomerate YTL Corporation, run by the Malaysian billionaire Yeoh Tiong Lay, and partially owned by the Malaysian government's pension fund.
Southern Water (£830 million)
Southern Water supplies 2.26 million customers. In 2020 they were fined £90 million for dumping untreated sewage into rivers and coastal waters on over 6,900 occasions. In the same year as this record-breaking fine they paid their CEO over £1 million in salary and bonuses.
Southern Water is a Limited Company owned through Greensands Holdings Limited which is based in the tax haven of Jersey, with the following major shareholders.
JP Morgan Asset Management 40% (Investment arm of the US bank JP Morgan)
UBS Asset Management 22% (Investment arm of the giant Swiss bank UBS)
Hermes Investment Management 21% (UK investment fund)
Whitehelm Capital 8% (Australian investment fund)
The Australian investment fund Macquairie has recently bought up a £1 billion stake in Southern Water. They're most famous for asset stripping Thames Water, paying virtually no corporation tax, lavishing £billions in dividends on its shareholders, lumbering it with huge debts, and flogging it off just months before it was prosecuted by the Environment Agency for pollution.
Thames Water (£2.05 billion)
Thames Water supplies 15 million customers, which accounts for 27% of the UK population. They were fined £2.3 million in March 2021 for pollution, hit with another pollution fine of £4 million in May 2021, and paid an £11 million fine for overcharging customers in July 2021.
Britain's biggest water company is also its most opaquely structured, with strings of similarly named subsidiaries and shell companies falling under the ultimate ownership of Kemble Water Holdings Limited, which is apparently based on a Reading industrial estate.
It's pretty tricky to track down the owners of this £2 billion company, but they include the following major investors:
Church Water Investments Limited 13.9% (CWIL is owned by L3 Investment Holdings, which is owned by L3 Investment Holdco Ltd, which is owned by the UK-based Universities Superannuation Fund - Why they need such an opaque structure to hide their investment in privatised water infrastructure is anybody's guess)
Omers Farmoor Holdings 12.6% (Dutch investment fund)
Wren House Infrastructure Investments 11.1% (A front company for the government of Kuwait)
Trustees of the BT Pension scheme 11.0% (Pension fund of UK telecoms giant BT)
Cicero Investment Corp 11.0% (US-based private equity fund)
QIC Infrastructure Management 6.8% (Australian government-owned investment fund)
Aquila Sonnet Limited Partnership 6.3% (A single purpose investment vehicle, designed to obscure the identities of the six investors)
South West Water (£500 million)
South West Water supplies 1.7 million customers. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pennon Group, which announced pre-tax profits of £157 million in 2021, and they're sitting on cash reserves of over £3 billion. Instead of using this cash mountain to make improvements and stop repeatedly dumping raw sewage into waterways, they're using it to buy up other water companies like Bristol Water.
The CEO of Pennon Group Susan Davy took home £1.724 million in 2020.
These are the main shareholders in Pennon Group (as of October 2021):
Lazard Asset Management 10.0% (US investment fund)
Charles Stanley & Co. Ltd 1.3% (UK investment fund)
HSBC Global Asset Management 1.0% (Investment arm of the British bank HSBC)
Yorkshire Water (£980 million)
Yorkshire Water supplies 4.5 million people and over 100,000 businesses. It's another one with an extremely opaque ownership structure.
Yorkshire Water is run as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kelda Group. Kelda Group is made up of an intricate network of companies, which includes Kelda Eurobond (which makes vast losses meaning it has to pay no taxes in the UK), before you finally end up at the overall parent company Kelda Holdings, which is based in the tax haven of Jersey.
Kelda Holdings is owned by the following (as of October 2020):
GIC 33.6% (The sovereign wealth fund of the Singapore government)
Gateway HK Water (I and II) + Gateway Infrastructure 30.3% (Three recently formed Hong Kong based private companies, very difficult to find who the ultimate owners are)
Wharfedale Hong Kong Limited 23.4% (Another recently formed Hong Kong based private company)
SAS Trustee Corporation 12.8% (Australian state-owned pension fund)
The people of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland benefit from not-for-profit public ownership.
The water supply of England is used for profit extraction purposes by the following:
Governments: Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Norway, Malaysia, Qatar, Singapore, UAE
Private companies based in: Australia, Bermuda, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Jersey, Malaysia, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, US
You'd have to be beyond delusional to think that this chaotic and opaque system of ownership makes any kind of rational sense for English water consumers.
The only reason it would be arranged like this is in order for private companies and foreign governments to extract as much profit as possible out of England's water customers.
How on earth is it justifiable that the governments of eight other nations can hold direct stakes in England's water supply, while the UK government itself insists that it's unfit and improper for the nation to own and run its own water supply?
What kind of person believes other governments are fit to run England's water supply, but their own government isn't?
Labels: 2021, Capitalism, England, Nationalisation, Northern Ireland, Privatisation, Scotland, UK, Wales, Water
The situation in Scotland is that domestic water is State owned. Commercial water is supplied by private companies at a rate which does not include an element to maintain pipework or infrastructure which it shares with domestic customers, who pay the charges for maintenance. As usual nationalise the costs and privatise the profits.
Why the hell should we have to pay for clean water? Access to clean water is a human right, it shouldn't be a commodity to be sold for profit. They would charge us for breathing air if they could! Can you imagine going to jail because you can't pay your air bill?
Also, I still don't understand how enterprises are 'for profit' if owned by foreign governments, but 'not for profit' if owned by this government.
Not a lot of people know what real socialism means. So, below is the objective of the World Socialist Movement along with details of what it means exactly:
"OBJECTIVE: The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community."
"EXPLANATION: What is meant by 'a system of society'?
"The world is a "global village". Each region may have its own particular and distinct customs, but they are part of a greater system of society that is world-wide. This system of society is capitalism and every region and nation operates within this system of society in one way or another. Socialism is not a cooperative island in the middle of capitalism, but a global system of society that will replace capitalism.
"THE MEANS AND INSTRUMENTS FOR PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING WEALTH?
"This includes the forests, mines, and oceans from which natural wealth is extracted, the factories in which this natural wealth is processed, and the distribution of that wealth via transportation networks (such as roads and truck lines) and distribution centres (such as grocery and department stores). It does not include your personal belongings such as your toothbrush or clothing, or the family heirloom.
"COMMON OWNERSHIP?
"Common ownership means that society as a whole owns the means and instruments for distributing wealth. It also implies the democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth, for if everyone owns, then everyone must have equal right to control the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth.
"Common ownership is not state ownership. State ownership is merely the ownership by the capitalist class as a whole, instead of by individual capitalists, and the government then runs the state enterprises to serve the capitalist class. In the self-proclaimed "communist" states the state enterprises serve those who control the party/state apparatus. The working class does not own or control. It produces for a privileged minority."
Source: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/our-object-and-declaration-principles/
paolo-56 said...
Completely off-topic, but I don't know how otherwise to get a message to you. How do we cancel or amend our Gocardless subscriptions? There doesn't seem to be any facility on the blog to do this. Cheers.
Antho Anarchist said...
I'm in dispute with Yorkshite water at the moment, everytime I argue with one of their advisors and quote how much there CEO earns a year, I get cut off. I will not submit to their demands that I set up a direct debit, I will not accept how much they want to charge me. They are total dooshbags!!
Hairyloon said...
I think you have it slightly wrong: the UK government insists that it is itself unfit to run the nation's water supply.
Who can honestly argue?
Cookie Walker said...
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Good work but you omitted to mention that Essex & Suffolk Water is owned by Northumbria Water. Northumbria water directs 9% of customer bills to its investors. Final proposed dividend for the year ended 31 March 2021 is £36.7 million (from Annual Report).
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New coronavirus variant eyed as possible culprit behind outbreak at Washington state hospital
January 5, 2021 By Madeline Farber
A new variant of the novel coronavirus that's thought to be more transmissible is now being eyed as the possible culprit behind a coronavirus outbreak at a hospital in Vancouver, Wash., that has sickened dozens.
A coronavirus outbreak at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in December began with one patient who initially tested negative upon admission before testing positive days later, The Oregonian reported.
Since then, at least 30 coronavirus cases have been reported among patients and staff at the hospital.
As of Monday, 56 health care workers remained quarantined because of 11 confirmed cases among staffers.
US CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL SURPASSES 350,000 AS EXPERTS ANTICIPATE POST-HOLIDAY SURGE
Dr. Lawrence Neville, chief medical officer for PeaceHealth Columbia Network, said on Monday that officials aren't ruling out the new coronavirus variant — B.1.1.7 — being behind the outbreak.
The variant was recently discovered in the United Kingdom and is said to be more transmissible than COVID-19 — but as of now, it's not thought to be more virulent or resistant to vaccines and treatment.
Neville, according to The Oregonian, said that PeaceHealth has sent samples to determine if the outbreak was indeed caused by the new variant, noting that it "is not impossible."
It will take 10 to 14 days to receive the results, which could determine if Washington is yet another state to discover the new variant, which has already been found in Colorado, Florida, California, and, as of Monday, New York.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to set the line style for each kdeplot in a jointgrid I am using seaborn to create a kdeplot with marginal distribution as described in this answer. I adapted the code a little to give me this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

iris = sns.load_dataset("iris")
setosa = iris.loc[iris.species == "setosa"]
virginica = iris.loc[iris.species == "virginica"]

g = sns.JointGrid(x="sepal_width", y="petal_length", data=iris)
sns.kdeplot(setosa.sepal_width, setosa.sepal_length, cmap="Reds",
        shade=False, shade_lowest=False, ax=g.ax_joint)
sns.kdeplot(virginica.sepal_width, virginica.sepal_length, cmap="Blues",
        shade=False, shade_lowest=False, ax=g.ax_joint)
sns.distplot(setosa.sepal_width, kde=True, hist=False, color="r", ax=g.ax_marg_x)
sns.distplot(virginica.sepal_width, kde=True, hist=False, color="b", ax=g.ax_marg_x)
sns.distplot(setosa.sepal_length, kde=True, hist=False, color="r", ax=g.ax_marg_y, vertical=True)
sns.distplot(virginica.sepal_length, kde=True, hist=False, color="b", ax=g.ax_marg_y, vertical=True)
plt.show()

This is impossible to print in black and white. How can I get seaborn to print the kdeplot and distplot lines in a specifically styled (dotted / dashed / ...) way to make them distinguishable when printed in black and white?
The related questions deal with other types of plots which appear to support this, but this does not seem to be supported by kdeplot and distplot.

A: Any keywords that sns.kdeplot does not recognise are passed to plt.contour() or plt.contourf(). In your case it is contourf, so you can pass the keyword linestyles (note the plural). sns.distplot has a keyword that is called kde_kws, which accepts a dictionary of keywords that are passed to plt.plot. In this case you can use ls or linestyle (note the singular). Below is a complete example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

iris = sns.load_dataset("iris")
setosa = iris.loc[iris.species == "setosa"]
virginica = iris.loc[iris.species == "virginica"]

g = sns.JointGrid(x="sepal_width", y="petal_length", data=iris)
sns.kdeplot(
    setosa.sepal_width, setosa.sepal_length, cmap="Greys",
    shade=False, shade_lowest=False, ax=g.ax_joint,
    linestyles='--'
)
sns.kdeplot(
    virginica.sepal_width, virginica.sepal_length, cmap="Greys",
    shade=False, shade_lowest=False, ax=g.ax_joint,
    linestyles=':'
)
sns.distplot(
    setosa.sepal_width, kde=True, hist=False, color="k",
    kde_kws=dict(ls ='--'), ax=g.ax_marg_x
)
sns.distplot(
    virginica.sepal_width, kde=True, hist=False, color="k",
    kde_kws=dict(ls=':'), ax=g.ax_marg_x
)
sns.distplot(
    setosa.sepal_length, kde=True, hist=False, color="k",
    kde_kws=dict(ls ='--'), ax=g.ax_marg_y, vertical=True
)
sns.distplot(
    virginica.sepal_length, kde=True, hist=False, color="k",
    kde_kws=dict(ls=':'), ax=g.ax_marg_y, vertical=True
)
plt.show()

And the result looks like this:

A: Marginals
To show the lines of a kde plot with a different linestyle you use the linestyle argument, which is passed on to matplotlib's plot function.
sns.kdeplot(setosa.sepal_width, color="r", ax=g.ax_marg_x, linestyle="--")

To provide this argument to the kde plot which is produced via distplot you may use the kde_kws argument.
sns.distplot(..., kde_kws={"linestyle":"--"})

However, there does not seem to be any reason to use a distplot here.
Joint KDE
For the 2D case, the linestyle argument has no effect. A 2D kdeplot is a contour plot. Hence you need to use the contour's linestyles (not the s) argument.
sns.kdeplot(, linestyles="--")

Complete code
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns

iris = sns.load_dataset("iris")
setosa = iris.loc[iris.species == "setosa"]
virginica = iris.loc[iris.species == "virginica"]

g = sns.JointGrid(x="sepal_width", y="petal_length", data=iris)

sns.kdeplot(setosa.sepal_width, setosa.sepal_length, cmap="Reds",
        shade=False, shade_lowest=False, ax=g.ax_joint, linestyles="--")
sns.kdeplot(virginica.sepal_width, virginica.sepal_length, cmap="Blues",
        shade=False, shade_lowest=False, ax=g.ax_joint, linestyles=":")

sns.kdeplot(setosa.sepal_width, color="r", legend=False,
             ax=g.ax_marg_x, linestyle="--")
sns.kdeplot(virginica.sepal_width, color="b", legend=False,
             ax=g.ax_marg_x, linestyle=":")
sns.kdeplot(setosa.sepal_length, color="r", legend=False,
             ax=g.ax_marg_y, vertical=True, linestyle="--")
sns.kdeplot(virginica.sepal_length, color="b", legend=False,
             ax=g.ax_marg_y, vertical=True, linestyle=":")
plt.show()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Q: How to escape the "Data is null" error when the column in NULL How can i escape this error? I cant seem to use the IF ELSE clause, in my query not all has values so other columns will have "NULL" values. I want to display "NULL" values as "0". How can i do it?
Here is my code
while(readers.Read())
            {
                b = readers.GetInt32(0);
                if (b == 0 || b == null)
                {
                    gvModal.Rows[y].Cells[6].Text = "0";
                }
            }

is the if statement correct?


text:
Articles Posted in USCIS Field Offices
DOS Q&A Session with Charlie Oppenheim: September 2021 Visa Bulletin Projections & Beyond
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! In this blog post we share with you an overview of the State Department's September 2021 Q&A answer session with Charlie Oppenheim, Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division of the U.S. Department of State, also known as "Chats with Charlie," broadcasted every month on the State Department's YouTube channel.
This new series features a monthly Question-and-Answer session with Mr. Charles Oppenheim and a Consular officer, where they answer many of the public's frequently asked questions and provide a monthly analysis of each month's Visa Bulletin. This discussion will provide details regarding what to expect in terms of the movement or retrogression of both family and employment-based preference categories on each month's Visa Bulletin.
Questions for Charlie can be emailed in advance to VisaBulletin@state.gov ahead of each monthly session with "Chat with Charlie Question" in the subject line.
Posted in: Adjustment of Status, Appointments, Biden administration, Chats with Charlie, Consular Closures, Consular Processing, Consulates, Coronavirus, COVID 19, COVID 19 Proclamations, COVID Visa Ban, CR-1, Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, Diversity Immigrants, Diversity Visa Lottery, DOS, EB-1, EB-2, EB-2 India, EB-2 National Interest Waiver, EB-3, EB-4, EB-5 Renewal, EB5 Investor Visas, Embassies, Embassy Closures, Employment-Based Categories, F-2A, F-2B, Families, Family Reunification, Family Visas, First Time Clients, Foreign spouses, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, Green card, Green Card Interview, I-485, Immigrant Visas, News, Permanent Residents, Petition for Alien Relative, USCIS, USCIS Field Offices, Visa Appointments, Visa Backlogs, Visa Bulletin, Visa Bulletin Priority Dates and Visa Bulletin Projections
Updated: August 19, 2021 8:43 pm
DOS Q&A Session with Charlie Oppenheim: May 2021 Visa Bulletin Projections & Beyond
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! Happy end of the week to all of our readers.
In this post, we would like to keep our readers informed about Visa Bulletin projections for the upcoming month of May 2021 and beyond.
The Department of State's Consular Affairs Unit has launched an exciting new monthly series on its YouTube channel, discussing current visa trends and future projections for immigrant visa preference categories with Charles Oppenheim, Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division of the U.S. Department of State.
Posted in: Biden administration, Chinese nationals, Consular Closures, Consular Processing, Consulates, Coronavirus, COVID 19, CR-1, Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, Diversity Immigrants, Diversity Visa Lottery, DOS, EB-1, EB-2, EB-2 India, EB-3, EB-4, EB-5 Renewal, EB5 Investor Visas, Embassies, Embassy Closures, Employment based visa, Employment-Based Categories, Family Preference Categories, Family Visas, Fiances, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, Immigrant Visas, Interviews, National Visa Center, News, NVC, Retrogressions, USCIS, USCIS Field Offices and Work Visas
This Week in Immigration: USCIS Cancels Appointments on January 19-20, Countries Eligible for H-2A and H-2B Visa Program, and the Presidential Inauguration
Happy Monday! Welcome back to Visalawyerblog. We start off the week with some interesting immigration updates.
USCIS Updates – ASC and Interview Appointments Scheduled on January 19th and 20th will be Rescheduled
In anticipation of the Presidential inauguration on January 20, 2021, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the temporary suspension of in-person services at all field offices, asylum offices, and application support centers (ASC biometrics offices) on January 19th and January 20th to ensure the safety of employees and individuals with appointments on these dates.
Accordingly, for individuals who had appointments on these dates (either for biometrics or for an interview) USCIS will be rescheduling these appointments and sending notices with the new appointment dates.
Please keep a look out for these notices in the mail within the next few weeks.
Nationals Eligible to Participate in the H-2A and H-2B Visa Program
In other news, last week the Department of Homeland Security released the list of countries eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs in the Federal Register.
The H-2A and H-2B visa programs allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural and nonagricultural jobs.
Typically, USCIS approves H-2A and H-2B petitions only for nationals of countries that the secretary of Homeland Security has designated as eligible to participate in the programs.
However, USCIS may approve H-2A and H-2B petitions, including those that were pending as of the date of the Federal Register notice, for nationals of countries not on the list on a case-by-case basis only if doing so is determined to be in the interest of the United States based on the evidence submitted.
Posted in: Biometrics Appointments, Citizenship Interview, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Congress, DHS, Employment Based Petitions, Employment-Based Categories, Federal Register, Final Rule, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, H-2A, H-2B, Initial Interview, Interviews, News, USCIS, USCIS Field Offices and Work Visas
USCIS Announces Revisions to Naturalization Examination Beginning December 1, 2020
On November 13, 2020, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced important revisions to the civics examination component of the naturalization test.
Unfortunately, these changes will make it more difficult for at least some immigrants to successfully become U.S. Citizens.
As you may be aware the naturalization test consists of two components. The first is English proficiency – applicants must demonstrate English language proficiency as determined by their ability to read, write, speak and understand English. The second requirement is the civics examination – an oral examination requiring applicants to demonstrate knowledge of U.S. history and government.
As part of the civics examination a USCIS Officer asks the applicant up to 10 of 100 possible civics questions. To successfully pass the examination applicants are required to answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly.
With the new revisions applying to applications filed on or after December 1, 2020, USCIS will increase the number of civics test questions that will be asked from 10 to 20 and applicants will be required to answer 12 questions (instead of 6) correctly in order to pass.
What exactly do the new changes include?
The USCIS policy alert published on November 13, 2020 entitled "Civics Educational Requirement for Purposes of Naturalization," outlines the changes that will be made to the naturalization civics examination beginning December 1, 2020.
Posted in: Citizenship, Citizenship Interview, Civics Examination, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, N-400, Naturalization, Naturalization Interviews, News, Permanent Residents, Trump administration, U.S. Citizens, USCIS and USCIS Field Offices
Updated: November 16, 2020 12:44 pm
This Week in Immigration News: K-1 Visa Interviews Prioritized, DOS Expands Interview Waiver Eligibility for Certain Non-Immigrant Visa Applicants, USCIS Cancels Planned Furloughs
We would like to wish our readers a very great start of the week. In this blog post, we will be covering recent and exciting developments in immigration law.
K-1 Visa Applicants
We have great news for K-1 fiancé visa applicants. Today, August 31, 2020, the Department of State issued an important announcement for K visa applicants. Effective August 28, 2020, the Department of State has given Consular sections the authority to grant K visa cases "high priority." This directive applies to Consulates and Embassies worldwide and gives Consular posts the discretion to prioritize the scheduling of K visa interviews, as country conditions allow during the Coronavirus pandemic.
DOS has encouraged applicants to check the website of their nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate for updates on what services that post is currently able to offer.
Revalidating the I-129F Petition
DOS has also stated that while the I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) is valid for a period of four months, consular officials have the authority to revalidate the I-129F petition in four-month increments.
In addition, the announcement states that for most cases impacted by the suspension of routine visa services or COVID-19 travel restrictions, it will not be necessary to file a new I-129F petition.
Interview Waiver Eligibility for Certain Non-Immigrant Visa Applicants
The Department of State announced on August 25, 2020, that Consular officials at U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad can temporarily waive the in-person interview requirement for individuals applying for a nonimmigrant visa in the same classification.
Previously, interview waiver eligibility was limited to applicants whose nonimmigrant visa expired within 12 months. The new announcement temporarily extends the expiration period to 24 months.
Posted in: Congress, Consular Closures, Consular Processing, Consulates, Coronavirus, COVID 19, DOS, Family Visas, Fiance Visa, Field Offices, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, K-1 Visas, N-400, Naturalization, News, Nonimmigrant Visas, Oath Ceremonies, Policy, USCIS and USCIS Field Offices
House of Representatives Passes Bill to Provide Emergency Funding to USCIS
Congress is moving quickly to avert the financial crisis currently plaguing the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). On Saturday August 22nd the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill aiming to provide much needed emergency funding to help USCIS meet its operational needs.
Earlier this year, USCIS made clear that without additional funding the agency would need to furlough two-thirds of its workforce by the end of August, even after announcing an increase in fees set to go into effect on October 2nd. The agency has been struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the Coronavirus.
While the bill still needs to pass the Senate and be signed into law by the President, this is very promising news and a step in the right direction for applicants waiting in line for their applications to be processed on a timely basis.
Should the bill be successful it will stop the agency's planned furloughs and inject much needed capital to help USCIS deal with the significant backlogs across the board. The Senate is expected to return to chambers in September and will likely take up the issue as soon as possible.
Posted in: Congress, Coronavirus, COVID 19, DHS, Family Visas, Fee Increases, Field Offices, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, Green card, Green Card Interview, Immigrant Visas, News, Trump administration, USCIS and USCIS Field Offices
DOS Announces Consular Officials Will NOT Apply Public Charge Rule to Visa Applicants Pursuant to Court Order
We have great news for visa applicants regarding the public charge rule. On August 7, 2020, the U.S. Department of State issued an important update explaining that the agency will be complying with the July 29th injunction issued by a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York which temporarily blocks the government from "enforcing, applying, implementing, or treating as effective," the public charge rule known as "Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds," which was implemented on February 20, 2020.
As a result, effective June 29th (the date of the Judge's order) neither Consular officials nor the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can enforce any part of the public charge rule for any period during which there is a declared national health emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and for as long as the injunction remains in place.
In other words, visa applicants applying for both immigrant and non-immigrant visas at a U.S. Consulate or Embassy abroad, can rest assured that Consular officials will not enforce the public charge rule known as "Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds," in any way pursuant to the Court's ruling on June 29th.
In their statement the Department of State made clear, "the Department is complying with the court's order and is in the process of updating its guidance to consular officers on how to proceed under the preliminary injunction. In the interim, visa applications that appear to be ineligible under INA 212(a)(4) will be refused for administrative processing to allow for consultation with the Department, including legal review to ensure compliance with applicable court orders. Visa applicants are not requested to take any additional steps at this time and should attend their visa interviews as scheduled. Applicants are not required to complete, nor should they present the DS-5540, Public Charge Questionnaire."
Posted in: Consular Closures, Consular Processing, Consulates, Coronavirus, Court Decisions, Court Injunction, Court Orders, COVID 19, DOS, Embassies, Family Visas, Federal Register, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, Immigrant Visas, Injunctions, News, Public Charge, Trump administration, USCIS, USCIS Field Offices and Work Visas
Updated: August 9, 2020 9:17 pm
Quick Immigration Updates: USCIS Prioritizes Citizenship Oath Ceremony Scheduling, Orgs Call USCIS to Extend TPS for Yemen and Somalia, and New Labor Certification FLAG System
Welcome back to Visalawyerblog! In this post we bring you the latest immigration updates.
Naturalization Ceremonies
Great news for naturalization applicants waiting for an oath ceremony. On July 1, 2020, USCIS issued an announcement notifying the public that it anticipates that it will complete nearly all postponed administrative naturalization ceremonies by the end of July of 2020.
USCIS has been prioritizing the scheduling of oath ceremonies for all naturalization applicants who were approved following their interviews. As we previously reported, USCIS is also exploring options to bypass the formal oath ceremony process in the future, and administer the oath immediately following a successful naturalization applicant's interview. This will help move cases along quickly during the pandemic and limit further exposure.
USCIS remains committed to being as flexible as possible to welcome new citizens to the United States as fast as possible. We are glad that in the very least, naturalization applicants are being accommodated by the agency during this difficult time.
If you have not yet received your naturalization oath ceremony notice, you should be receiving one very soon. As always, we recommend calling USCIS to expedite the process.
Calls to Extend TPS for Yemen and Somalia due to COVID-19
Dozens of organizations are calling on the government to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for at least 180 days to all current Yemen and Somalia TPS holders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A letter was issued in early April by interested organizations urging USCIS and DHS to automatically extend work authorization and TPS for all current Yemen and Somalia TPS holders, or at the very least extend the re-registration period for TPS holders from Somalia and Yemen for a total of 180 days.
The letter emphasizes the importance of granting relief for Yemeni and Somalia TPS holders stating, "While states across the country are rightfully taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, these measures and the subsequent loss of income and freedom of movement establish insurmountable barriers for TPS holders to renew their status before the rapidly approaching re-registration deadline. TPS holders should not have to choose between missing a deadline and violating health directives that keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe."
Posted in: Coronavirus, COVID 19, Employment Authorization Document, Employment Based Petitions, Employment-Based Categories, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, Green card, H-2B, N-400, Naturalization, Naturalization Interviews, News, OFLC, PERM, PERM - Labor Certification, Somalia, TPS, Trump administration, USCIS, USCIS Field Offices, Work permits and Yemen
USCIS San Diego Field Office Prepares to Reopen for Interviews, ASC Appointments
Interviews at the San Diego Field Office
We have great news for our local readers. The USCIS San Diego Field Office is scheduled to resume interviews on July 6, 2020, with priority given to adjustment of status applications filed by doctors and front-line workers fighting to mitigate the effects of Covid-19. Under certain circumstances, USCIS will exercise its discretion to waive adjustment of status interviews on a case-by-case basis.
What will be the approach for rescheduling?
The USCIS San Diego Field Office will begin rescheduling all other interviews on a "first-in, first-out," basis based on receipt date of filing. This will occur as soon as possible.
When will biometrics offices reopen to the public?
Application Support Centers in San Marcos in Chula Vista are scheduled to reopen to the public on July 27, we ask our readers to please be patient while they wait to be rescheduled. Those with cancelled biometrics will be automatically rescheduled and will receive a notice in the mail with a new biometrics appointment.
What about Parole in Place cases?
Parole in place applications continue to be adjudicated, however applicants should expect delays.
What about citizenship applications?
USCIS will continue to prioritize the scheduling of oath ceremonies for naturalization applicants. Those who did not appear at a scheduled oath ceremony will receive a letter by mail. As we previously reported, oath ceremonies in San Diego are being held at the Cabrillo National Monument and the City of El Cajon parking lot adjacent to the police department.
Posted in: Adjustment of Status, ASC, Biometrics, Biometrics Appointments, Bona fide marriage, Citizenship, Citizenship Interview, Civics Examination, Coronavirus, COVID 19, DACA Renewals, Doctors, Dreamers, Employment based visa, First Time Clients, Free Consultation, Global Immigration, Green card, Green Card Interview, Initial Interview, Interviews, Medical Doctors, Medical Professionals, Military, N-400, Naturalization, Naturalization Interviews, News, Oath Ceremonies, Permanent Residents, Rescheduling, San Diego Field Office, Trump administration, USCIS and USCIS Field Offices
Updated: August 5, 2020 11:55 am


One of the highlights od this weekends Uefa Nations League encounters comes in France as a Netherlands side on the comeback trail come calling.
Ronald Koeman takes charge of the Netherlands for the sixth time having made a solid start. Going down narrowly to England in his first game in the hot seat, the Dutch have since recorded and impressive 3-0 win in Portugal, beat Peru and drawn with Slovenia and Italy. Perhaps things are now looking up again for this nation with such a rich footballing heritage.
They will find it tough to come away from the Stade de France with anything though. It will likely be close to a carnival atmosphere in the stands on what will be Frances first game on home soil since their glorious victory in Russia.
France have won 24 and lost just two of their past 29 International home games.
The Netherlands have likewise been solid on the road, tasting defeat just twice in their past 17. One of those losses did come here though when going down 4-0 in August last year.
The Netherlands bade farewell to one of their best players of modern times as Wesley Sneijder retired in midweek. Koeman looks set to now give youth a chance with eight members of the current squad 24 or younger. Included in that number is Memphis Depay who is in the form of his life at present.
France did give up chances despite keeping a clean sheet against Germany in midweek. With les bleus expected to come forward more back in front of their own fans, this may be an open affair. Overall though France are the World Champions for a reason and should just have enough.
Two bookings in France, both for the World Champions. Antoine Griezman and Benjamin Pavard the men to have their names taken by referee Alberto Undiano.
This one went as expected in the end. Although France dominated for large periods - and indeed the entire first half - the Netherlands should come away from this game relatively pleased that they are at least on the right track under Ronald Koeman as they bid to erase the disappointments of recent years.
France were on top early in this one and it looked a matter of time before they took the lead. The opening goal came in the 14th minute. Quincy Promes giving the ball away in a dangerous area and Blaise Matuide playing a wicked ball across the six yard box, taking keeper Jasper Cillessen out of the game and allowing Kylian Mbappé to tap into an empty net.
Despite persistent pressure, France didn't create all that much in terms of clear-cut opportunities and it remained 1-0 at half-time.
The pattern of play remained the same in the first twenty minutes of the second half as it appeared France would stroll to victory. And then all of a sudden the Netherlands burst into life. Giorginio Wijnaldum played through on goal only to blaze wide.
Just 45 seconds later though the Dutch were back on level terms. Kenny Tete in acres pf space down the right and playing in a low ball which was met by Ryan Babel to finish past Alphonse Areola. 1-1 after 67 minutes.
The winner came eight minutes later, and it was France who grabbed it. Benjamin Mendy sending in a whipped ball from the left and Olivier Giroud just getting his left foot around Virgil van Dijk to finish excellently on the volley from around eight yards.


I was searching for a Property and found this listing (MLS® #1379585). Please send me more information regarding 219 W Antrim Drive, Greenville, SC, 29607. Thank you!
I'd like to request a showing of 219 W Antrim Drive, Greenville, SC, 29607 (MLS® #1379585). Thank you!


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Farewell BCL
I first saw Brian Lara in action (on live television) back in April 1993. The Pakistani team was touring the West Indies, and in the first test at Port of Spain, he made a delightful 96. I was curious; I'd heard about his 277, and had read some of the hype and wondered what he was like. What I saw convinced me he was going to be a very good, if not great, West Indian batsman. I added the qualifier "West Indian" deliberately because there was something of that Caribbean flair in his batting that marked it - it wasn't the crashing coverdrives or the pulls over midwicket, both made with a flashing blade, but something else. Perhaps it was the effortlessness with which he did it, perhaps it was the mixture of aggression and classic defense. A year or so later, I saw his 277 on video. A West Indian fan, living in New Jersey, and like me, a reader and writer on rec.sport.cricket, agreed to make a tape and send it over by post to New York. (As a bonus, he included England's 46). I eagerly arranged to view it at a friend's dorm room, called up a couple of Australian friends, and proceeded to get utterly blown away by that particular display of cricketing pyrotechnics. As he chatted with Tony Grieg in the post-match interview, I was struck by his humility, and his acknowledgment of the roles that others had played in his cricketing education. The years went by, and the stories about Lara never stopped. I, like many others, never stopped respecting him as a batsman, and didn't mind ranking him higher than Tendulkar. I did find him a strange representative of West Indian cricket. He was a poor captain, and his constant clashes with the board, with fellow players, his occasional prima donna'ish antics, all struck a false chord. On this blog last year, I complained about his comments at the end of the series with India. But to be honest, in the last year, I grew to appreciate the fact that he pretty much always spoke his mind (even if it meant revealing certain immature patterns of thought) and that by and large, he injected a dose of humanity into the cricketing interview, lifting it above the dreary, mind-numbing, cliche that we are constantly, painfully, subjected to. How I wish Tendulkar could approximate even a fraction of the emotion that Lara brought to these encounters. And how I wish Tendulkar had pulled off a '153' himself, preferably against Pakistan.
In many ways, his last appearance for West Indian cricket symbolized all that had gone wrong for him: he got run out by a man who couldn't even apologize for raining on his parade, and his team lost. And in his last press conference, as always, he spoke as frankly as he could. I'm sad to see him go; not just because we are denied a great batsman who clearly had years of test cricket left in him, but because we'll be missing someone who made it clear that cricket was played by humans, not by coached, cagey, inarticulate jocks.
"but because we'll be missing someone who made it clear that cricket was played by humans, not by coached, cagey, inarticulate jocks."
captures the essence of Lara in that one sentence..brilliant!
Don't worry, we know who he is
Erin go breà
Opposites?
Hmmm..missed it
Yup, good news
Stuck in the stone age
Part of the solution
Aggro my lad, thats the key


Chubby cheeks may look good on you if you were a ten year old or even an 18 year old for that matter but if you are in your mind 20's and 30's and you have them all loaded on your face, you may want to be a bit more concerned about that huge amount of fat collection on your face. Yes, this face fat is a form of accumulation of fat. While many would find it happening to themselves in the hip region or in the tummy region, you do not tend to notice the double and triple chins that are forming and also the chubby cheeks. So now, all the equipment you picked up through Grand Slam Fitness can help you reduce the fat accumulation in other areas of your body and here are a few exercises that you can do to help you get rid of the double chin and the bloated cheeks.
– Chin lift: A simple exercise where all you need to do, is life your chin. Imagine you are looking at the ceiling while being in a seated position and you will be performing the exercise as you should be. Make sure to do a set of 20 reps every day.
– Neck twists: You may be doing this when you experience discomfort in your neck and now all you need to do is perform the exercise and keep the discomfort away and also help reduce the double chin. Make sure you roll your neck in all directions and do it slowly. Perform the exercise in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions for 2-3 minutes.
– Jaw drop: Remember doing 'AAA' as a kid? Well, you have to do it again now only without the sound. With sound if your neighbor wouldn't mind. Drop your jaw as low as you can as if you are going to gobble up something humongous. Make sure to do 10 reps continuously.
– Blow air: Yes, just blow air as if you are inflating a balloon with your mouth. Do it and see your chubby cheeks reduce. Do it for 10 seconds and relax and perform 20 reps for best results.
– Mouthwash: Well, irrespective of whether you do it daily or not, do it now. You do not have to literally mouthwash. Just imagine that you are having the liquid in your mouth and now do what you have been taught to. Perform 10 reps of 1 minute each.
Do you see how the simplest exercises can help you get rid of thing you don't need? In fact, all the daily activities that a human used to do without the help of machines were a form of exercise. Of course, the recent times do not allow it but if you can do something physically which is within your limits, then you should do it rather than depending on technology. Even if it is as simple as taking a walk instead of the bike, you know it works.


These Sale items are going fast -- and they're a great deal! Get them before they're gone!
This Windy City can get cold fast. This stylish hoodie is perfect for any winds, coming your w..
Chicago Distressed Flag MicroFiber Tea Towel ..


When you have opened a business, then you need to ensure that all the people in the knows of its services.Therefore, you need to design signage which can make many people know about your business. Therefore, you can either design the signage on your own or employ the services of a professional company. You will thus hire the services of a good signage design company you settle on them. The demand for the signage design services is high because of the increased number of business owners. The increased demand for the signage services has led to many companies being established in the market. The process of choosing the best signage design companies is stressing and time-consuming since many are in the market. There are certain factors to consider if you are searching for the best signage design company to use for your services. The following are the factors to consider when choosing a signage design company.
The work that the signage company has done before is the first aspect to consider when you need a suitable one. You will know the quality of services offered by a signage company when you consider their work record. Consideration will be made on the signage company that has the best work records for their services. The signage company without the best work record will not be considered when you need to choose the best one.
The second tip to put into consideration is the reviews that the signage company has for the services they offer when you need the best one. Talking to the people who have used the signage companies before will provide with incredible information about them. You will thus consider the services of the signage company that you are recommended to use. The signage company which you are not advised to use will not be considered if you need a suitable one.
The amount of money you will pay for the services of the signage company is the other tip to put into consideration. The type of services provided by the signage company will determine the price they value their services. The signage company which you can comfortably pay for their prices is the one you will choose.


The Salem Group is a multi-year recipient of the Best of Staffing Award for service excellence. This prestigious award is given only to firms in the top 2% for client satisfaction in the United States and Canada.
Salem is a member of the American Staffing Association, the premier organization representing the staffing industry for the past 50 years. We are also a member of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), a group dedicated to helping women-owned businesses succeed.
The Salem Group does more than connect extraordinary talent to great jobs in great client organizations. Additionally, Salem itself is also an awesome place to work for Staffing Industry Professionals. Join us; we work extra hard to make sure that there is no better place to build a great career than in the staffing industry with The Salem Group.


Kroke & Anna Maria Jopek in Asia!
Kroke live are a hair-raisingly brilliant, unforgettable experience.
The music is too dark to really represent traditional klezmer. At times, it is almost as if the Velvet Underground have been reborn as a klezmer band.
What makes me feel drawn to Kroke music is spiritual reality of the musicians, this means honesty and authenticity of the music.
At times they sound jazzy, at times contemporary, at times classical. Their music is at once passionate and danceable.
webmaster: napiorex@gmail.com MODX. HTML5 UP.


text:
Home/Special Issue/Role of Membrane-Bound and Circulating Endoglin in Disease
Role of Membrane-Bound and Circulating Endoglin in Disease
Endoglin (Eng), alias CD105, is a transmembrane glycoprotein whose mutations are responsible for a rare pathology called hereditary hemorragic telangectasia type 1. In addition, Eng seems to be implicated in a huge variety of pathologies including cancer, hypertension, atherosclerosis and metabolic diseases. Eng acts as an auxiliary receptor for several the TGF-beta family members, including BMP9 and BMP10. Recently, Eng was demonstrated to have a role beyond the TGF-beta pathway by acting as an adhesion molecule, implicated in vessel stabilization and platelets adhesion to endothelium. Upon cleavage of membrane-bound Eng, a soluble form (sEng) can be released, whose increased levels in circulation are regarded as a biomarker of preeclampsia. sEng is also a biomarker of metabolic syndrome-related symptoms and pathologies such as hypercholesterolemia, hyperglycemia, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and liver and kidney disease. Furthermore, sEng has also been reported to be of prognostic value in prostate, breast and gastrointestinal cancers.
Both Eng and sEng are involved in a wide variety of pathologies. However, their underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. Eng is predominantly expressed in endothelial cells, playing a key role in vascular homeostasis, and its dysregulated expression is associated with different vascular-related disorders. In addition, sEng was initially described as a biomarker in preeclampsia, among other pathologies, but later studies also support a pathogenic role. Thus, sEng appears to participate in the development of endothelial dysfunction contributing to the development of arterial hypertension or pulmonary arterial hypertension, suggesting that high levels of sEng promote metabolic syndrome symptoms and complications. However, its cut-off concentration to be considered pathologic has not been completely elucidated. The involvement of Eng and sEng in new diseases remains to be explored. Interestingly, endothelial dysfunction participates in Covid-19 pathogenesis, but no information concerning Eng or sEng in Covid-19 patients is currently available. Overall, the main goal of this Research Topic is to better understand the molecular role of Eng and sEng in Pathology.
The aim of this research topic is to bring together the most recent findings on membrane-bound endoglin (Eng) and its circulating form of soluble endoglin (sEng).
Among others, authors could focus on:
• The involvement of membrane Eng in vascular pathology and vessels development/stabilization.
• The sEng biomarker to better characterize its function and its critical cut-off concentration as a disease marker.
• The role of Eng and/or sEng in cardiovascular, metabolic, liver, and kidney diseases, rare diseases, cancer and covid/SARS syndromes.
• The function of Eng and/or sEng, under the pathological setting, in endothelial, epithelial, mesenchymal stem, fibroblast, and smooth muscle cells, as well as in hematopoietic cells of the innate- and adaptive immune system.
This Research Topic's aim is to improve the knowledge of this intriguing and not completely understood molecule.
– About this Research Topic
admin2021-10-14T06:49:39+00:00Ottobre 14th, 2021|Special Issue|


A commented reading of the novels by the American writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964).
Gaida International Festival of Contemporary Music features two discussions dedicated to contemporary music and its ties with other arts.
Contemporary music festival "Gaida 2011"
Personal show by Jasono Dodge will be opened on Friday 22 April. You are cordially invited to meet the artist one day before the opening in his lecture at the CAC Reading Room.
Kate Fowle's talk will mark the last day of the presentation of "Harald Szeemann: Documenta 5" at the CAC Reading Room.


At various points I led the development of the iD editor, carto language, osmlab organization, and other critical components of OSM. I no longer contribute to OpenStreetMap or participate in the community because of the toxic culture tolerated and even encouraged by the formal and informal leadership.
It's time to restart OpenStreetMap as an inclusive, progressive project: the ignorant, abusive, sexist elements of OpenStreetMap don't show signs of fading.


text:
De gedenksteen Jan van Hoof is een monument in Lent ter herinnering aan verzetsstrijder Jan van Hoof.

Achtergrond
De student Jan van Hoof (1922-1944) was een van de Nijmegenaren die tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog actief was in het verzet. Tijdens Operatie Market Garden maakte hij op 18 september 1944 explosieven onklaar die door de Duitsers waren aangebracht bij de Waalbrug en de spoorbrug. Hij wordt daarom wel beschouwd als 'redder van de Waalbrug'. Een dag later werd Van Hoof op de Nieuwe Markt opgepakt, mishandeld en ter plekke om het leven gebracht. Op de plek waar hij overleed werd een tegel in het trottoir geplaatst.

Beeldhouwer Jac Maris maakte in opdracht van medestrijders van Van Hoof een gedenksteen, die aan de noorkant van de Waalbrug (Lent-zijde) werd geplaatst en op 18 september 1945 onthuld. Deze steen werd gemaakt door beeldhouwer Jac Maris en verbeeldt Van Hoof die de explosieven onklaar maakt. Nog in dezelfde maand werd de Jan van Hoof-stichting opgericht, die opdracht gaf voor het Jan van Hoofmonument van Marius van Beek dat in 1954 aan de Nijmegen-kant van de brug werd onthuld.

Beschrijving
Het monument bestaat uit een rechthoekig stuk natuursteen, met daarop in reliëf een geknielde mannenfiguur met losgetrokken snoeren. Onder het reliëf het opschrift:

Zie ook
 Lijst van beelden in Nijmegen
 Lijst van oorlogsmonumenten in Nijmegen

Beeld van Jac Maris
Beeld in Nijmegen
Oorlogsmonument in Nijmegen
Nijmegen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


driverbooster.exe is a program which is probably legit. So, if driverbooster.exe is on your laptop or desktop computer, it is probably ok, and will NOT be a cause for concern. Even if your PC is virus-free, it is still recommended to purchase a good antivirus with a good track record, in order to yourself yourself against threats.
Normally, this program is found in C:\Program Files\IObit\Driver Booster\4.0.3\DriverBooster.exe.
The MD5 fingerprint for this file is 70233fc81c8c310707241f624ffba7dd.
This app runs as a 32-bit program. It does not exploit the entire power of nowadays' computer processors. This ordinarily happens because the publishers did not upgrade it to use the x64 instruction set.
The description extracted from the program is Driver Booster 4.
File version stored as a property 4.0.3.322.
Copyright© 2016 IObit. All Rights Reserved.
Legal copyright Copyright© 2016 IObit. All Rights Reserved..
driverbooster.exe appears to have visible windows. This is good because it doesn't run in some kind of stealth mode. Its operation is clearly displayed to you.
The machine code of this program appears to have been compressed or encrypted so it can not be easily decompiled.
Some unusual functions of the Operating System have been used, such as functions for tapping the keyboard. We recommend you to perform more in-depth research about this program.
driverbooster.exe has a digital signature. Today the large majority of legit software applications are digitally signed.
The digital signature attached to driverbooster.exe checks out perfectly. This is very good.


Mathematicians have developed a smartphone app that helps travelers restore their misaligned rhythms. It tells you exactly when you should soak up some sun, and when to call it a night.
We all have various tricks for coping with jet lag. Staying awake for days, melatonin tablets, or just good ol' copious amounts of coffee. Now, a newly-released iPhone app called Entrain could help travelers restore whacked-out rhythms after long trips, Science reports. It tells you exactly when you should go outside to catch some rays and when it's lights out for the night.
Circadian rhythms are our body's internal timekeeping system. It adjusts our body temperature and tells us when to eat, sleep, and produce red blood cells. Jet lag happens when our circadian biological timing becomes misaligned with the timing of our human activities -- first few days of play when we're on vacation, first few days of work when we're back. Being out of sync is something your body usually sorts out on its own with time, but prolonged misalignment can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
So, mathematicians Kirill Serkh and Daniel Forger from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, developed a way to rapidly "re-entrain" (or fall back into synchronicity with) ourselves. They compared simulations of thousands of different situations in order to figure out the mathematically optimal schedules of light exposure and avoidance.
If you're traveling from Detroit to London, for example, Entrain says you'll need to turn off the lights at about 9 p.m. and rise at 6:20 a.m. the next day in order to get used to your new time zone as quickly as possible. If the app prescribes bright outdoor light when you'd rather sleep in, a therapeutic sunlamp in your hotel room might do the trick.
Experience one block of light and one block of darkness each day.
The length of daytime should be significantly shorter when delaying the clock, rather than when advancing it.
During the light phase, be in the brightest light possible. Short light pulses are less effective than sustained light.
During the dark phase, be in the dimmest light possible. Even a short burst of bright light at the wrong time can extend the time it takes to adjust.
Dark phases don't have to be sleep phases, but if you must be outside, block blue light with rose-tinted glasses or a visor.
If the prescribed schedule helps or doesn't help with rapid readjustment, you can log your travel schedule and jet lag experiences on the app. This will help the team determine if their theoretical models actually work in real life.
The work was published in PLOS Computational Biology.


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Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
Emile A. Okal, Hermann M. Fritz, Ranto Raveloson, Garo Joelson, Petra Pančošková, Gérard Rambolamanana
The effects of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the island of Madagascar were surveyed in July and August of 2005. Runup and inundation were obtained at 52 sites, covering most of the eastern coast of the country, ranging from a maximum runup of 5.4 m in the south to locations where the tsunami was not observed by eyewitnesses present on the day of the event. The data set is characterized by significant heterogeneity, suggesting the importance of local factors in controlling runup. The report of a 50-m vessel breaking its moorings in the port of Toamasina several hours after the maximum visible activity of the wave underscores the complexity of harbor responses and the need to re-evaluate civil defense policies in port environments. Important factors are how the Malagasy population responded to the warning issued during the Nias earthquake, on 28 March 2005, and the hazard posed to Madagascar by possible future mega-earthquakes in south Sumatra.
Earthquake Spectra
Dive into the research topics of 'Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Madagascar Physics & Astronomy 100%
Indian Ocean Physics & Astronomy 97%
Indian Ocean tsunami 2004 Earth & Environmental Sciences 78%
Tsunamis Engineering & Materials Science 69%
earthquakes Physics & Astronomy 64%
civil defense Physics & Astronomy 53%
field survey Earth & Environmental Sciences 50%
Earthquakes Engineering & Materials Science 45%
Okal, E. A., Fritz, H. M., Raveloson, R., Joelson, G., Pančošková, P., & Rambolamanana, G. (2006). Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Earthquake Spectra, 22(SUPPL. 3). https://doi.org/10.1193/1.2202646
Okal, Emile A. ; Fritz, Hermann M. ; Raveloson, Ranto ; Joelson, Garo ; Pančošková, Petra ; Rambolamanana, Gérard. / Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In: Earthquake Spectra. 2006 ; Vol. 22, No. SUPPL. 3.
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title = "Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami",
abstract = "The effects of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the island of Madagascar were surveyed in July and August of 2005. Runup and inundation were obtained at 52 sites, covering most of the eastern coast of the country, ranging from a maximum runup of 5.4 m in the south to locations where the tsunami was not observed by eyewitnesses present on the day of the event. The data set is characterized by significant heterogeneity, suggesting the importance of local factors in controlling runup. The report of a 50-m vessel breaking its moorings in the port of Toamasina several hours after the maximum visible activity of the wave underscores the complexity of harbor responses and the need to re-evaluate civil defense policies in port environments. Important factors are how the Malagasy population responded to the warning issued during the Nias earthquake, on 28 March 2005, and the hazard posed to Madagascar by possible future mega-earthquakes in south Sumatra.",
author = "Okal, {Emile A.} and Fritz, {Hermann M.} and Ranto Raveloson and Garo Joelson and Petra Pan{\v c}o{\v s}kov{\'a} and G{\'e}rard Rambolamanana",
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Okal, EA, Fritz, HM, Raveloson, R, Joelson, G, Pančošková, P & Rambolamanana, G 2006, 'Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami', Earthquake Spectra, vol. 22, no. SUPPL. 3. https://doi.org/10.1193/1.2202646
Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. / Okal, Emile A.; Fritz, Hermann M.; Raveloson, Ranto; Joelson, Garo; Pančošková, Petra; Rambolamanana, Gérard.
In: Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 22, No. SUPPL. 3, 01.06.2006.
T1 - Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
AU - Okal, Emile A.
AU - Fritz, Hermann M.
AU - Raveloson, Ranto
AU - Joelson, Garo
AU - Pančošková, Petra
AU - Rambolamanana, Gérard
N2 - The effects of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the island of Madagascar were surveyed in July and August of 2005. Runup and inundation were obtained at 52 sites, covering most of the eastern coast of the country, ranging from a maximum runup of 5.4 m in the south to locations where the tsunami was not observed by eyewitnesses present on the day of the event. The data set is characterized by significant heterogeneity, suggesting the importance of local factors in controlling runup. The report of a 50-m vessel breaking its moorings in the port of Toamasina several hours after the maximum visible activity of the wave underscores the complexity of harbor responses and the need to re-evaluate civil defense policies in port environments. Important factors are how the Malagasy population responded to the warning issued during the Nias earthquake, on 28 March 2005, and the hazard posed to Madagascar by possible future mega-earthquakes in south Sumatra.
AB - The effects of the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the island of Madagascar were surveyed in July and August of 2005. Runup and inundation were obtained at 52 sites, covering most of the eastern coast of the country, ranging from a maximum runup of 5.4 m in the south to locations where the tsunami was not observed by eyewitnesses present on the day of the event. The data set is characterized by significant heterogeneity, suggesting the importance of local factors in controlling runup. The report of a 50-m vessel breaking its moorings in the port of Toamasina several hours after the maximum visible activity of the wave underscores the complexity of harbor responses and the need to re-evaluate civil defense policies in port environments. Important factors are how the Malagasy population responded to the warning issued during the Nias earthquake, on 28 March 2005, and the hazard posed to Madagascar by possible future mega-earthquakes in south Sumatra.
JO - Earthquake Spectra
JF - Earthquake Spectra
Okal EA, Fritz HM, Raveloson R, Joelson G, Pančošková P, Rambolamanana G. Madagascar field survey after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Earthquake Spectra. 2006 Jun 1;22(SUPPL. 3). https://doi.org/10.1193/1.2202646


Organizers of the most recent All-4-Kids Consignment Sale at Wells Elementary School had a few extra hands helping them set up for their October 15th sale of children's clothing and other items. It turned out that the entire Wells High School Warriors Football Team showed up at the WES gymnasium the day before the sale to do some community service by helping set up the many awkward and heavy tables needed for merchandise displays.
The Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) for Wells Elementary School has been sponsoring and organizing this event since the fall of 2006. According to sale organizer and PTSA member Margaret Borkowski, this bi-annual sale has raised over $50,000 during the sale's 10 year existence. Borkowski says the first year's profits were about $750. According to Pam Lear, the recent sale generated $2,600 following payment to the sale's consignors. Lear added that the next All-4-Kids Sale at WES will take place in April of 2017.
With funds generated from events like this, the PTSA is able to sponsor large annual events at WES including Colors Day and Starz for Broadway. PTSA money is also granted to teachers for requested classroom items. According to Lear, money raised also goes towards student activities and school supplies.


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Group Studies
Little Wonders School
AWANA Clubs
WELCOME TO OUR AWANA PAGE!
We have Awana Clubs a great ministry for kids! If you are not familiar with AWANA, check out their website for more information.
Join us at the church on Sunday's at 5:30pm for an evening of amazing Christ-oriented fun! We have clubs for 3 years old through 6th grade.
Contact the Church Office for more information.
Because Kids Matter to God!
Dear Parents and Clubbers,
Welcome Clubbers!!! We are so excited to have all your children come join us at Awana Clubs!! We look forward for a great year. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Again, THANK YOU for letting us minister to your children.
09/08 - Apple Acres Entrance Booklet
09/08 - Flight 3:16 Entrance Book
11/17 - Genesis 1:1 / Genesis 1:31 02/16 - John 3:16
12/01 - Romans 3:23 / Genesis 1:1 02/23 - John 3:14-16
09/22 - S is for Savior / 1 John 4:14
P is for Power / Psalm 147:5
12/08 - John 17:17 / 1 Peter 1:25
03/01 - Joshua 1:9
09/29 - A is According to Scriptures / 1 Corinthians 15:3
R is for Raised / 1 Corinthians 15:4 12/15 - John 14:6 03/15 - Joshua 24:24
10/06 - K is for Keep / James 2:10
S is for Saved / Acts 16:31
01/05 - Missionary Night
03/22 - Joshua 1:9 & 24:24
10/20 - 1 John 4:14 / Bring/Ask A Friend To Come
01/12 - New Testament
Say first 8 Books
03/29 - Ephesians 6:1
10/27 - John 20:31
01/19 - Say next 9 Books
Say last 10 Books
11/03 - Psalm 118:1 / 1 John 4:19
01/26 - Say All New Testament
11/10 - Psalm 118:1 02/09 - John 3:14 / John 3:15
T&T - Truth & Training
09/08 - Start Zone Section 1 11/03 - 2 Timothy 1:9 01/12 - Luke 22:41-42 03/15 - 2 Thessalonians 3:16
09/15 - Start Zone Section 2 11/10 - John 3:17 / 1 John 4:9 01/19 - Ephesians 5:2 03/22 - Ephesians 2:10
09/22 - Psalm 9:10 11/17 - Mark 12:30 / Psalm 25:4 01/26 - Matthew 28:6 03/29 - Colossians 1:10
09/29 - Romans 8:38-39 12/01 - Romans 12:2 02/09 - 1 Peter 5:10 04/19 - 1 Timothy 6:11
10/6 - Deuteronomy 7:9 12/08 - Matthew 28:19-20 02/16 - Acts 1:8 04/26 - Galatians 5:22-23
10/20 - 2 Peter 3:9 12/15 - Luke 19:38 02/23 - Galatians 5:14
10/27 - Romans 8:28 01/05 - Mark 10:45 03/01 - Psalm 16:11
Blessings!!
Your Awana Leaders
Ladies-Fresh Grounded Faith Conference When: Fri. 27 Jan, 2023 at 7:00 pm
Men's Journey Group - Chris C. When: Sat. 28 Jan, 2023 at 7:30 am
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Worship Service When: Sun. 29 Jan, 2023 at 9:00 am
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IADV-Servicio Evangelistico When: Sun. 29 Jan, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Copyright © 2023. Baybrook Baptist. 15775 Hope Village Road, Friendswood TX 77546


A pitch is at its heart, a story. Forget everything else you have ever been told about fundraising. Your success in raising capital for your idea, or your start-up, will depend on how good a story you can tell. Moreover, how you tell it, is just as important. So, get comfortable with talking about yourself, your beliefs and make sure you have a chronological narrative that investors can understand and be inspired by. Tell it with passion!
Technocrats will not save the world; change will be brought about by the people who have a vision and can communicate it well. So, embrace the poet, the artist, and the storyteller within.
Remember, it is your job to convince the investor.
The cardinal rule before every pitch meeting is: GOOGLE. Yes, seriously.
Find out what investments the investors have made previously.
Identify their areas of expertise and investment preferences.
Speak to people who know them or are part of their existing portfolio.
Establish a personal connection and build a rapport.
I remember the first time my partner and I presented our start-up to a room of potential investors. We made sure to find out the smallest details about them as well as the organisations they represented.
Our homework allowed us to strategise a more effective pitch, tailor-made to the people we were meeting, and it helped build a greater sense of trust because we were able to align our vision with their beliefs.
We do not always meet our potential investors in formal conference rooms; sometimes you may find your next donor or investor during small talk at a cocktail party or waiting to catch the next flight.
You have to be able to use the opportunity wherever it may arise, to make a compelling case for your start-up or investment idea in one minute. Any longer and your investor will lose interest and move on.
Fifteen minutes translates to about 12-15 slides.
You must leave another 15 minutes to answer questions.
Always be prepared to present your main business points with less time in hand.
How exactly are you planning to scale your current business?
How are you going to use new resources (money, people, connections) to grow faster?
Experienced investors will also push you to consider changes in your technology platform or business model. View the process as an opportunity to explore potential new ways of thinking about or structuring your business.
Do not scupper the advice, because it is not necessarily in line with your own ideas; there may be merit to some of those suggestions that you can benefit your start-up later on.
As a social entrepreneur, you care about changing the world. An impact investor cares about changing the world and making a lot of money in a short to medium time frame (usually three to seven years).
In all likelihood, exit will look like a licensing agreement with a big company, a strategic sale of the business to another larger company or the sale of your investor's stake to a later-stage investor.
So, make sure you tell your investor when they can monetise their investment. It may be an unstated question in the meeting, but one you have to address, regardless.
Harvard Business Review recently published a study analysing VC conversations and how differently they talk about female entrepreneurs.
There is a gendered discourse around female entrepreneurs, HBR discovered. Apart from a few exceptions, the investors often assessed women as having qualities fundamentally opposed to those required for entrepreneurship. However, when assessing male entrepreneurs, the opposite was true. Unsurprisingly, these stereotypes played a role in who received funding.
One of the worst pitch sessions I ever experienced was when I was called in to mentor a panel of entrepreneurs and every male investor in the room called the female entrepreneurs out on their levels of commitment. "Do you think you will be able to give up your personal life to make this company grow as it needs to?" was a common question. No male entrepreneur was asked this.
Female entrepreneurs: the cards may feel stacked against you. Nevertheless, there is hope. Conversations such as these are making the gender bias more transparent.
Money needs to be invested in businesses that have the highest potential. Period. When you stand before your investor, at the next pitch meeting, remember that. Believe in yourselves and what you have to offer the world. That is part of the change you are here to create.
Shloka Nath currently leads the Sustainability portfolio at the Tata Trusts, focused on the organisation's climate, energy and environment work. Prior to this, Shloka co-founded and was Managing Partner, Sankhya Women Impact Funds. Shloka is an angel investor in social enterprises and has mentored organisations across sectors. She was Managing Editor for the Harvard Kennedy School Review and has spent over a decade in journalism with the BBC in London, New Delhi Television, and Forbes. Shloka has a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a BSc in Government from The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Doesn't it infuriate you when pity is used to fuel fundraising? And yet, so many organisations continue to do it. Here's why you shouldn't, and what you can do instead.
Your website is usually the first reference point for your organisation, so making sure you have an informative, engaging website is imperative.


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Letter From the Editor: One of Us
Introducing Pacific Standard's December 2017 issue.
Nicholas Jackson
Behind the scenes with Robin Hammond, recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography and a World Press Photo prize. (Photo: Robin Hammond)
I'm sitting on the tarmac at the San Francisco airport when the New York Times reports that Edith Windsor has died at 88. It was her landmark case, a fight to keep ownership of her home following the death of her partner of 40 years—unmarried couples aren't exempt from estate taxes—that led to the 2013 Supreme Court decision granting same-sex unions federal recognition and benefits. United States v. Windsor paved the way for the Obergefell case two years later, in which a majority held that same-sex couples not only deserved benefits, but had a constitutional right to wed anywhere in the country.
A version of this story originally appeared in the December/January 2018 issue of Pacific Standard.
(Photo: Jarren Vink/Pacific Standard)
Same-sex marriage is an issue that has moved from the fringes to the mainstream with remarkable speed, ushered forward by a generation of politically active and socially conscious Millennials who celebrate diversity and inclusion. With each successive generation, according to a study in the journal Social Forces authored by the American psychologist Jean M. Twenge, Americans have grown increasingly tolerant of lifestyles different from their own.
Driven, in part, by generational change, 62 percent of Americans expressed support for same-sex marriage in June of 2017, the most since the Pew Research Center began polling on this issue. (That number was just 35 percent in 2001, and 42 percent in 2010, the year Windsor sued the federal government.)
But while the issue continues to inch toward complete acceptance here in the U.S., many around the world still face the threat of imprisonment—and even death—for not hiding who they are. This month, we share several new portraits from Robin Hammond's Where Love Is Illegal project, which uses photography to fight ongoing stigmatization of the LGBT community. Love has taken Hammond, an award-winning photojournalist, around the world, to a number of the dozens of countries where homosexuality is still criminalized.
Decades of social science research point to the importance of visibility in furthering acceptance, a finding perhaps best expressed in 2008's Milk, when Sean Penn, playing Harvey Milk—the first openly gay elected official in the history of California—encourages others to come out of the closet: "They'll vote for us two to one if they know one of us."
Hammond knows this. His career has been dedicated to documenting human rights issues. More than a photographer simply capturing his surroundings, Hammond describes Love as an artistic collaboration. His subjects choose their own clothing and poses. And they write their own stories, excerpts of which can be found in our collection. This approach aims to amplify the voices of those who are traditionally silenced. It allows us to get to know them.
reports that Edith Windsor has died at 88. It was her landmark case, a fight to keep ownership of her home following the death of her partner of 40 years—unmarried couples aren't exempt from estate taxes—that led to the 2013 Supreme Court decision granting same-sex unions federal recognition and benefits. United States v. Windsor paved the way for the Obergefell case two years later, in which a majority held that same-sex couples not only deserved benefits, but had a constitutional right to wed anywhere in the country.Subscribe for full article
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PrimerDEC/JAN 2018Letter from the EditorMagazineHuman RightsLGBT
Nicholas Jackson is the editor-in-chief of Pacific Standard, where he directs editorial strategy for the National Magazine Award-winning print magazine and daily website. He previously served as the digital editorial director at Outside.


We are now in the last weeks of the 2018 legislative session. Barring any surprise demands by the Governor or legislators, like the call for passing a taxing and regulating marijuana sales that occurred last week, we should be finished by mid-May. There are a number of important bills that we continue to deal with before we pass the budget and adjourn. One of these bills is the Minimum Wage bill (S.40), which was passed by the Senate and has been studied for several weeks by the House General, Housing & Military Affairs Committee.
The current Vermont minimum wage is $10.50/hour which became effective on January 1, 2018. The bill under consideration would continue increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2024, about a 75 cent increase per year on average, starting at 60 cents in 2019. The minimum wage exemptions would remain the same, including for students under age 18, agricultural workers, nannies/babysitters, newspaper deliverers, and employees of nonprofits that receive state funds. The bill would also adjust state child care subsidies to account for the minimum wage increases in order to maintain those benefits for low wage workers with children.
So, why do we need to keep raising the minimum wage since Vermont has one of the highest minimum wages in the northeast? The simple answer is that for a large number of people, it is simply not enough to live on. Governor Scott has talked repeatedly about making Vermont more affordable and protecting the most vulnerable. For the approximately 25,000 Vermonters who work one or more minimum wage jobs, it is still too hard to pay for the basic necessities of supporting their families. For single parents making minimum wage, there are repercussions for their children as well. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) of all minimum wage earners in Vermont, 62% work full time, 88% are at least 20 years old with an average age of 38, 56% are women, and 22% have children. On average, those with families earn 55% of their family's total income. A person working 40 hours per week at the current minimum wage makes about $21,840/year, slightly above the federal poverty level for a three person family. However, according to the EPI study, a modest but adequate standard of living in Vermont for one adult without children costs about $32,000/ year, including housing, food, transportation, taxes and health care. With children, necessitating child care, the costs are even higher. At $15/hour, the 2024 target, a full-time minimum wage job would pay $31,200*, which would no longer be a poverty-level wage.
Objections to raising the minimum wage revolve around the increased costs to business, the potential loss of jobs, and economic impacts. Most minimum jobs are in the service sector of the economy. In the first year, a full-time employee's earnings would increase $1250, a cost to the employer. This cost would presumably be passed on to consumers. However, the increased income would also be spent, thereby injecting more money into the local economy. The impact on jobs would be minimal compared to the increase in wages. Moreover, the high turnover rate seen in minimum wage jobs may be reduced thereby saving employers training costs. The EPI study estimates that while 2% of low wage jobs would be lost, 98% of low wage workers would benefit. Overall, the economy would benefit from raising the minimum wage gradually over several years while improving the affordability factor for those who need it most.
*Note: The original publication of this article incorrectly had $26,500 as the annual income at $15/hour for a full time job.