The Milwaukee Police Department would take over security at Mitchell International Airport from the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, under a plan being considered by city and county officials.
Patrick Curley, Mayor Tom Barrett's chief of staff, and County Executive Chris Abele confirmed the idea had been broached. Both said the discussion on the move was preliminary.
The idea comes on the heels of a large cut to Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.'s 2012 budget and as he is seeking a major increase for next year.
Curley said the city was interested in the idea, which would shift almost 50 airport security jobs to city police and presumably cut a similar number from the sheriff's deputy force. That would amount to a 20% reduction in deputies.
The topic of shifting airport security to city police came up in the context of discussions between city and county budget officials on "sharing efficiencies," said Abele spokesman Brendan Conway.
Abele said he was interested in exploring any ideas that might lower county service costs or improve services. The airport idea is one of a number of things he's willing to explore, he said.
"That's just what we want to find out – can this work," Abele said. The county faces a potential 2013 shortfall of nearly $30 million, according to a forecast unveiled last week.
Clarke questioned the wisdom of shifting airport security away from the county.
"There's zero tax-levy costs on airport security," he said. Federal aid and fees collected from airlines currently pay for the county's security costs.
Clarke also noted that if airport security were transferred to the city, county taxpayers would have to foot the bill for pension costs of deputies that now are covered by airport revenue.
"How does the county executive reconcile that? How do the county taxpayers come out ahead on that move?" Clarke said in a statement.
Abele did not tell the sheriff he was exploring shifting airport security to the city police, said Clarke spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin. Clarke has criticized Abele for failing to consult him on cuts the county executive pushed through for this year.
Abele said he won't proceed with the plan unless it makes financial sense. If the police department can do the job more efficiently than the sheriff, ultimately taxpayers benefit, he said.
This year's airport security costs are budgeted at $7.7 million, which includes salaries and benefits for 50 deputies, seven supervisors, four K-9 units and one clerical position. The dollar figure includes costs of pensions for retired deputies.
It wasn't immediately clear how having the city take over airport security might ease the county's budget woes. Airport Director C. Barry Bateman said deputies had provided airport security for decades. He declined to comment on the proposal.
County Supervisor Michael Mayo Sr., who heads the County Board's transportation committee, said sheriff's deputies were doing an excellent job on airport security.
"We are not here to help the city with its budget," Mayo said.
Making the change to MPD officers would require Common Council and County Board approval.
The shift would mean another big cut to the sheriff, who lost $11 million and 48 deputies in his 2012 budget. Those changes, pushed by Abele as budget-saving moves, were bitterly opposed by Clarke.
Clarke's 2013 budget request seeks to expand, not contract. He is calling for increasing his overall budget to $155.5 million, including a $16 million increase in property tax funding.
Among the major shifts outlined in the sheriff's request are creating a $5.5 million, 52-person transit unit for patrolling Milwaukee County Transit System buses; beefing up his detective unit by $1.3 million and 11 more deputies; and boosting spending for freeway patrols by $726,000.
The sheriff renewed his pitch for hiring an outside company to take over jail medical services, which his budget request says would save about $3 million and cut about 120 county jobs.


Always love pi-lo. Favourite thing I ever bought there was the perfect little angel mobile for my baby. She's nine now, but it sill hangs over her bed. Thanks for sharing.
I have been a long time fan of her work. I have an alphabet hanging from when the girls were young that I still love.
Like a breathe of fresh air. And I think I say this every time but I love how you style your blog posts.
thank you 🙂 I am challenging myself every week to try and match the personality of the brand/person I am profiling.. not an easy task!
The studio is the calmest place in Toronto, hands down.


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Carl Nicholson awarded honorary degree
blackottawa July 1, 2018	No comments	People making a difference, Z. Main Story
Carl Nicholson, left, with his honorary degree
Iconic community leader Carl Nicholson awarded honorary degree by Algonquin College
Executive Director of the Catholic Centre for Immigration was on Tuesday awarded an honorary degree from the School of Health and Community Studies at Algonquin College, a part of the institution's 2018 convocation ceremonies. Carl is well known in the national capital as a community leader, innovator, activist and philanthropist. He is also a member of the Ottawa Police Services Board and a past Co-Chair of the Community and Police Action Committee (COMPAC).
Below is the citation that accompanied the award.
Carl Nicholson – Honorary Degree Recipient
For more than fifty years, Carl Nicholson has been a man with a mission. In his own words, "I'm driven to build a better world."
By any standard, he has been highly successful in this task. Best known since 1994 as the Executive Director of the Catholic Centre for Immigrants Ottawa, Carl guides an agency helping thousands of immigrants and refugees each year. But the mission doesn't end there. Carl has been a tireless advocate for several not-for-profit and immigrant services organizations, often helping to found, lead or chair them. He is, for instance, a founder and member of Local Agencies Serving Immigrants. He has sat on boards, committees and advisory panels of many agencies and advocacy groups, including the Capital Community Credit Union, Local Agencies Serving Immigrants, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, the Community and Police Action Committee, The Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership Council, the Canadian Border Services Agency Advisory Committee, the Executive Committee of the Human Resources Council for the Voluntary Sector, the Ottawa Police Services Board, and the National Settlement Council and the Advisory Committee for the Deputy Minister with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
Carl's sense of service came with him to Canada from Jamaica when he emigrated as young man in 1966. He was soon hired by CUSO, Canadian University Students Overseas, to place volunteers and coordinate aid projects – everything from drilling water wells to teaching modern farming techniques – in places like Togo, Nigeria, and Ghana, working either in the country or from home base in Ottawa. He still has ties to Africa through his volunteer participation in Watercan, which delivers clean water and hygiene to three east African countries.
This work has not gone unrecognized. Carl has received numerous honours for his efforts to build a better world. To mention a few: In 2004, he was given the "Investing in People Award" by the Community Foundation of Ottawa. That same year, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa awarded him its Diocesan Order of Merit. The National Institute of Jamaican Canadians presented him with its Lignum Vitae award in 2007. in 2011, he received the Ottawa Community Leadership Award in honour of Martin Luther King from the Dream Keepers organization. More recently, he was invested with the Order of Ottawa by the City of Ottawa.
Carl credits his parents and his Christian heritage for instilling his sense of duty. "I learned from my parents that there is pleasure in causing good things to happen for others."
If there is one lesson Carl would like us to take away from this Convocation ceremony, it is one his parents taught him: "Helping people is a joy."
Source: Algonquin College
Read more about Carl from an interview with Black Ottawa Scene at this link:
Interview with Carl Nicholson
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There are 12 people, known as the Governing Board, who challenge Mr Jewitt (our Headteacher) to make sure the school continues to improve and provides every pupil with wonderful learning experiences.
We take Mr Jewitt's advice on educational matters because this is his expertise, and constantly work together with him towards improving the School and making sure ALL the pupils at Snarestone are making as much progress as they possibly can and achieve the best they can.
We also discuss with Mr Jewitt (who is also a governor) if the lessons are exciting enough. We ask ourselves: how many children are finding lessons a bit difficult or too easy? What can the school do to change this?
Other questions we ask are: Do we have enough money to buy materials or pay for extra staff to help smaller groups progress? Do we have enough learning space? Are all our children safe and healthy at school so they can learn really well?
Are we helping the teaching staff to develop their own careers so they are enthusiastic about teaching our children?
Have we got the right staffing structure to help our pupils achieve?
This sounds like a lot of discussion and decision-making, but it's not always easy because the money Snarestone receives each year can change so sometimes there is not enough money to tackle everything.
You may think decision-making doesn't sound like doing very much. Well, here are visible activities you may see us doing in School;
job interviews for new teachers
reviewing Mr Jewitt's progress
joining in with school and community events
writing reports from classroom visits and school trips
meeting with teachers or pupils
studying pupils' progress data
checking health and safety around the school
speaking to parents and visitors who come into school
speaking to Ofsted about current trends in the School during an inspection
We also look at how good your attendance levels are and deal with parents complaints when needed, if Mr Jewitt cannot resolve the issue.
We all meet together once a half-term, which equates to 6 meetings per year. At each meeting we focus specifically on an area of the School Improvement Plan and other statutory requirements.
We have a paid Clerk to Governors, Mr Eydman, who provides us with legal advice on governance, constitutional and procedural matters too. Governors don't get paid for their work, they are volunteers. It would be quite difficult to be an effective Governor unless you had a job that gives you some time because it's important to get into School regularly.
Sometimes governors might not all agree on something and will ask the Senior Leadership Team or teachers to provide more data, before moving ahead. Ultimately we come to an agreement with a majority vote.
Everyone in our School Community hold governors responsible for the direction the school takes but we can conclude that the Governing Board is very supportive of the way the school is run.
A message from one of our Foundation Governors:
"We all take an active role in improving the quality of teaching and leadership within the school to the highest levels and have a strong grasp of the impact of a good education and caring school community on children of all abilities, and are a supporter of small, inclusive, village schools. We are keen to support pupils, parents and staff in their journey through Snarestone School to ensure the best outcome for every child."
Our Instrument of Government.pdf Download


To facilitate a comfortable interior for gym members in the brand new Planet Fitness Megaclub in The Club precinct in Hazelwood, Pretoria, architect Tony Hofman specified a rigid insulation board that could double up as ceiling face.
"Rigifoam's 80mm LAMBDABOARD® was selected for its good insulation properties and the fact that the rigid board can be installed to serve as a ceiling," Hofman says.
Planet Fitness is situated in Die Klubhuis, also the new home of property developer, Atterbury, and features a running track along the perimeter of the entire building.
In the gym portion of the building, Cladco installed Rigifoam's 80mm LAMBDABOARD between purlins under the sheeting with the services suspended below it. To blend with the interior look of the rest of the gym, the board was painted black.
LAMBDABOARD is a flexible faced polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation board made on a continuous laminator. The PIR core is a thermosetting, closed-cell foam plastic that offers the highest levels of insulation properties. The PIR cored insulation uses a hydrocarbon-based blowing agent which has zero ozone depletion potential, it does not contribute to global warming and complies with Kyoto Protocol. It is also HCFC- and HFC-free.
According to Duncan Goldsmith, managing director of Rigifoam, LAMBDABOARD has the highest R-value per 25mm thickness, therefore the design U-value of the insulation system can be achieved with a minimum thickness.
"This allows the air-conditioning system in the building to operate economically, keeps energy costs as low as possible and decreases the overall footprint of the building," he concludes.
• Resistant to solvents used in construction adhesives.
• Good performance in fire tests.
• Service temperature range from -30°C to 140°C.
• Thermoset material does not soften or melt.


The McIntosh MP100 Phono Preamplifier is packed with features designed specifically for vinyl lovers in order to get the most fidelity, performance and enjoyment from their albums.
Hi-Fi News magazine has reviewed it and have awarded the MP100 their "Highly Commended" ranking.
"This is a clean-sounding, detailed, commanding phono amp that also represents excellent value. It's compact, beautifully-made in the McIntosh manner and easy to use. Once the features are accounted for, especially XLR balanced out, you realise that it's actually something of a bargain."


An array of 6 vectors, to store the resulting side normals in.
Orientation to apply to the normal vectors. If not provided, the vectors will be in respect to the local frame.
Updates the local convex polyhedron representation used for some collisions.
The local bounding sphere radius of this shape.
Whether to produce contact forces when in contact with other bodies. Note that contacts will be generated, but they will be disabled.
The type of this shape. Must be set to an int > 0 by subclasses.


What actions can sign language interpreters take to put the Deaf community at the center of the profession? Dave Coyne explores how applying principles of social justice to our work can result in positive change.
The field of sign language interpreting still finds itself at a very serious and critical juncture as interpreters and educators attempt to put Deaf community members back into its center. Without considering the tenets of social justice and the perspectives of those who aim to proliferate it, sign language interpreters face the reality that they may be contributing to the oppression of Deaf people.
The aim of social justice is to prohibit privileged majority members from taking control – accordingly, a significant amount of guidance and support by those in the minority is needed. Social justice permeates daily experiences because practices, policies, and laws perpetuate the very existence of majority members. Though there is little space today for the appreciation of individual efforts toward justice, and perhaps less space to celebrate times of creativity, sign language interpreters need to create the capacity to give meaning to the Deaf experience in socially conscious ways.
Embracing social justice and incorporating its tenets at the center of interpreters' practice moves professionals away from explanations that people's outcomes in life (more specifically minorities' lives) are merely results of their good and bad choices toward a position that highlights the strength and conviction required to create opportunities for positive change. Social justice works to include the experiences of others that showcase both social injustices as well as how to move us toward equality—in the case of sign language interpreters, this process is about keeping or changing behaviors that are supported by Deaf people and support their desires and goals to achieve autonomy.
While the United States Government is responsible for ensuring basic quality of life for all citizens, interpreters know too well that people's reactions to injustice in situations differ depending on their political background, media influences, and affiliations. Often we use the same terms to talk about differing scenes of injustice (political, social, economical, and the like). We find that these terms can be vague, meaningless, and often leave us with our wheels turning, but going nowhere. Although the terms justice, e.g., political and social justice, are often seen as interchangeable and often used synonymously, but they can also be defined as distinct terms concerning various inequalities experienced by minority groups.
But do not allow all of this wordsmithing to stop you—minority groups' injustices (regardless of the realm they fall within) are about being targeted, discriminated against, and oppressed; often concerning power rooted in the social order of our society.
An important component of any social injustice is that conversations about minority lives are happening.
Discussions guided by the uses of status, meaning the effects of today's socially constructed hierarchies (i.e., social ordering), are real and important pieces in sign language interpreters' productions of interpretations. Taking types of social ordering into account within interpretations can show us how status affects people (their views and how they are represented in the eyes of others, both individually and systematically). We are talking about reading between the lines of language use to show prestige, respect, and esteem for individuals. In addition to this, those working with hearing interpreters are often from very different communities. To articulate accurate messages, we must consider the real challenges of attempts to maintain fairness based on the myriad relationships (which are symbolic of status used within the exchange) possible within situations. Status can be used to maintain, leverage, and define the types of relationships between people, e.g., best friends, teachers and students, employees and managers.
Social justice is also a concept that deals with people's actions to craft equitable opportunities for positive change (Rawls, 1971), so it is vital that interpreters work closely with Deaf community members to support equitable experiences. These practices can include sometimes-controversial behaviors, yet are critical interventions of oppressive acts found within our professional role, e.g., advocating, supporting, educating. The more we shift control of our field to the hands of Deaf leaders, the less controversial our behaviors will become because appropriate actions will carry the Deaf community's seal of approval.
On the other hand, pausing or avoiding behaviors that intervene oppression may actually prohibit various forms of respect for individual autonomy. The explanation behind such pauses/avoidance may be due to our understanding of ethical relativism, whereby those experiencing the injustice may have the right to determine right and wrong behaviors based on their cultural norms and individual contexts within situations. Perhaps some of us are too worried about doing wrong that we perpetuate current habitual patterns that support the status quo, and thus, inadvertently contributes to injustices.
Similar worries have given rise to growing public controversy surrounding political, social, and economic institutions, which have centered conversations on social justice since the late 19th century. Though these conceptions related to justice have been formulated and reformulated over the years, we realize that political justice generally deals with equality, while social justice addresses freedom (Rawls, 1971). These forms of justice are actually elements of each other and represent unique challenges of those experiencing injustices.
Because inclusion related challenges exist (which many minorities experience) the Deaf community faces similar challenges about involvement in conversations about roles of social structures. Special attention to the needs of those we serve, as professionals providing a service, is vital. These needs are a part of an overarching holistic understanding, not solely based on communication exchanges, because majority members (yes, even sign language interpreters) lack full awareness of experiences of Deaf community members.
So, while sign language interpreters work, they permeate participants' experiences during the communication exchange. Working between two or more people communicating makes the use of status and its social roots (that are often unfamiliar to the parties involved) visible to the interpreter. All injustices are social in nature, even those within political situations, and are based on the relationships among those involved. This makes interpreter's positions in the interaction between people useful in working toward social justice (e.g., addressing, supporting, opposing). Again, most injustices experienced by Deaf people are types that interpreters will never fully 'get', because as hearing individuals, hearing interpreters may only have secondary experiences to associate with individuals who experience our world differently.
Social justice emphasizes that privileged majority members do not have full understanding of minorities. This makes minority groups' involvement, guidance, and support with professionals serving them imperative.
Of course both social and political justice need to occur under the eyes of the law, but we are far from achieving equality; social justice exposes social deficits and injustices that bring Deaf people's experiences to the center. The social injustices experienced by the Deaf community create a call to action for everyone, reminding us that we are all part of a much larger battle. Liberating actions cannot be successful without true community involvement because no one can liberate themselves by their own efforts or solely by the efforts of others (Freire, 1971). Interpreters' community involvement should include being a part of a force attacking the social injustices experienced by Deaf community members.
This support is pertinent in the lives of those we serve, and for most interpreters, this is as personal as it gets.
A multitude of personal and institutional concerns surround a fear that the behaviors of sign language interpreters' will remain static despite the shifting needs of the Deaf community. One example may be the identified need to establish ASL as the language used at interpreting-related conferences as a norm and the historic struggle to achieve it. In the big picture, static and indifferent stances can stymy efforts to overcome systemic injustices (not that they need interpreters, but working both with and beside them supports their efforts tremendously). This makes social justice even more important. A position of indifference creates a critical need to examine the power, inequality, and transformational opportunities central to our work as interpreters in mastering language and culture.
This examination allows for the formation of a bridge between the need of social justice in the lives of minority groups and the practice of sign language interpreting (a significant influence within Deaf people's lives). This bridge only holds if stakeholders are involved in its design. Grassroots reform movements have historically relied on strong collaborations among members of various groups that come and go from the lives of minority groups. Unfortunately for the Deaf community, interpreters' involvement in grassroots reform movements are not a given; views of such involvement differ widely from interpreter to interpreter. Even interpreter organizations and educators vary widely in their stance on such involvement.
Both the positive and negative affects relationships have on experiences dictate one's unique understanding of the world (Fairclough, 2001). Thus, the relationships that sign language interpreters maintain make their positions on issues of social justice even more vital because power struggles are bound to arise among participants who require negotiations through interpreters (this includes relationships between Deaf individuals and interpreters).
Therefore, an interpreter's understanding of the Deaf community must extend beyond their own experiences, thoughts, and actions (majority-centric) in a way to support their overall wellbeing based on their understanding (minority-centric). The potential to build the bicultural attributes needed to promote the wellbeing of others lies within the social rules, experiences, and signed language of Deaf people, especially in matters highlighting social justice itself. Social justice begins by upholding the belief of minority groups on matters of equality.
Exploring a sign language interpreter's cultural competencies challenges them to understand their own position within situations as well as the positions of those involved. Critical language study expert Fairclough (2001) indicated that for groups to make real progress toward their liberation, social emancipation of minority cultures is essential. The first step for interpreters to support the progress of the Deaf Community toward equality is to openly evaluate and strengthen their own behaviors. Locations are already being created and discussions are taking place all over the country: Jean Miller's TerpTalk or as suggested by Damita Boyd in her article, Cooperation Strengthens Sign Language Interpreter Education Programs.
The need to change the collective stance of interpreters has become a moral imperative today more than ever—this change begins individually. Sign language interpreters cannot expect those we serve to believe that change can occur for the Deaf community if we are not sure ourselves that such change is actually possible. We must ask ourselves what we truly believe and understand that social justice leaves us with a choice.
We have to choose to do something about how we position ourselves as professionals.
How can Deaf individuals trust that there is a modest level of integrity in interpreters if they do not see us learning and emulating models that aim to eradicate stereotypes, prejudices, and the discrimination of Deaf people? Exploring the dynamics of relationships among all ages, abilities, religions, races, ethnicities, social classes, sexualities, and genders is more crucial than ever to tackle the current injustices these members face; simply put, we should do this because it is the right thing to do.
Social justice moves us toward supporting autonomy and allows people to one day live in a world that provides unique spaces for minority groups to flourish. Understanding how Deaf individuals view social justice issues allows for majority members to begin looking at the unique needs of individuals, rather than viewing the whole community as another alternative group based on memorized knowledge about minorities in general (although important parallels between minority groups do exist).
The concept of social justice wills interpreters to address current social challenges posed by policy, growing inequality, and social exclusion. Many sign language interpreters strive for social justice because of our unique position to witness injustices experienced by Deaf individuals. Examples of how unfair and avoidable differences lead to disparities in the lives of those we serve include how insufficient support and education in our country affects those who use sign language. I sometimes feel we fail to truly recognize and account for how Deaf people experience the world.
Delivering actions through a prism of social justice creates opportunities for positive change. When interpreters lack personal understanding—experience with and knowledge of Deaf culture—they tend to perpetuate, normalize, and widen the divide between hearing and Deaf communities. To avoid this, a framework of social justice minimizes disconnects between communities and positively influences the relationships between Deaf Community members and sign language interpreters.
If interpreters work in a dysfunctional manner (i.e., working passively and remaining unconcerned about personal involvement with Deaf individuals), they are likely to block the grassroots collaborations necessary for change to occur. If this happens, it means interpreters can become a social justice issue themselves. This brings the need for individuals in the interpreting field, and its organizations, to advocate for the equal treatment of Deaf Community members, and recognize their impact on the lives of Deaf Community members: civic, academic, and otherwise.
Social justice is a part of on-going discussions about shifts in our work as scholars, practitioners, teachers, and policy makers. These shifts, in turn, will improve the lives of oppressed people—in this case the Deaf Community. Scholar Rabbi Tarfon perhaps best articulates the nature of this call to action, our task to join Deaf people in a wider battle toward equality for all communities, "you are not obligated to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it".
Let's work together to get rid of structures of hearing supremacy (e.g., stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination) by ensuring professionals in our field uphold Deaf Community members' beliefs and thoughts surrounding their own self-empowerment.
Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power. Harlow, Eng: Longman.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the oppressed. [New York]: Herder and Herder, 1970.
Rawls, J. A. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


The Trump administration is moving forward with efforts to rebuild US infrastructure. A group of panelists talked about the outlook and timetable for the Trump infrastructure plan and then had a wide-ranging discussion about other current topics and potential growth areas for new infrastructure investment at a breakfast roundtable hosted by Norton Rose Fulbright and Inframation in late April in New York. The growth areas include such things as expanding broadband to cover rural areas and the large number of new transportation projects that will be needed to honor a promise by Los Angeles that spectators at the 2028 summer Olympics will be able to move easily in an area that has legendary traffic congestion.
The panelists are Jim Ray, senior advisor for infrastructure to the US secretary of transportation, Colin Peppard, senior director in the office of extraordinary innovation at the Los Angeles Metro, Jane Garvey, North American chairman of Meridiam, Christophe Martin, CEO of North America at VINCI Concessions, Tom Rousakis, senior managing director at Ernst & Young Infrastructure Advisors, and Tom Mulvihill, managing director and head of infrastructure for KeyBanc Capital Markets. The moderator is Doug Fried with Norton Rose Fulbright in New York.
MR. FRIED: President Trump unveiled an infrastructure plan in February that involves spending $200 billion in federal dollars to generate at least $1.5 trillion in total new infrastructure investments over 10 years .
Jim Ray, what can you tell us about the plan that might not be evident just by looking at it, and how much private investment do you think $200 billion in federal seed capital will bring?
MR. RAY: The administration's efforts are much broader than just this plan. They fall generally into two buckets. One bucket is the things that we need Congress for. An example is the $1.5 trillion plan that you mentioned.
The other bucket is things that we can do ourselves. The executive order that was signed last week directing federal agencies involved in environmental permitting to streamline the process is an example. We are fundamentally changing the way Washington coordinates itself on permitting.
There are also opportunities within existing programs. During the Bush administration, we put out a program called the "congestion initiative" with about $1.5 to $2 billion of "found" money. It makes sense to look under the sofa cushions in Washington. There are usually a few dollars lying around. We used some money we found to help make variably priced toll lanes more palatable as we think they will help ease traffic congestion.
We are looking for ways to transform federal programs to draw in more non-federal dollars. Congress has given us discretionary grant dollars that we can use for this purpose. These are all part of a broader package on infrastructure.
Returning to the new $200 billion of federal spending that we are proposing to Congress, we intend that $100 billion of that will be awarded as incentives. The money will go to projects where states and cities are willing to throw in more of their own money or money they can raise.
It is perfectly fine with us how the state or city chooses to raise its share, whether it means increasing the gas tax or doing some sort of hotel tax or another type of user fee increase. If another state or city wants to embrace public-private partnerships and have toll lanes on highways, that is also fine with us. We do not view it as the federal role to dictate what the new source of revenue is, but we want more skin in the game from other participants.
Fifty of the $200 billion will go to a new rural program. A lot of good can be done in what I still think is a core federal interest, which is farm-to-market roads and similar rural infrastructure.
MR. FRIED: Colin Peppard, this infrastructure plan asks cities and states to develop their own funding sources so that they can pitch in more money. Are they prepared to assume these types of responsibilities?
MR. PEPPARD: I think it cuts two ways. In Los Angeles, we have been fortunate that the voters have consistently been willing to invest dedicated tax dollars in infrastructure. We have a broad enough tax base that we are able to do that.
Other cities, especially some of the more distressed areas in the upper Midwest and the Southeast, will have a harder time doing that. The point that Jim Ray made about not being too prescriptive about where that money comes from is important. It may be fine to require these areas to pitch in, but it is important to recognize that different areas have different capacities and they can contribute in different ways.
A new $100 billion carrot is a great incentive for areas like Los Angeles to invest. The move to update procurement processes and rethink technologies is equally important.
I moved from the federal to the local level. Seeing how the thicket of procurement rules weighs down these projects and makes them less attractive to outside investment was a real eye opener. I would not underestimate the importance of these provisions as part of the overall package.
MS. GARVEY: I applaud the administration for rethinking how incentives can help Congress reach consensus regarding federal spending in this area.
Setting aside the dollar figure, the whole idea of matching and trying to figure out ways to incentivize local communities is a terrific idea. Even the Brookings Institution, which is considered left of center on policy issues, has put out papers calling for use of federal dollars as incentives to bring in other capital.
Some of the city organizations, like the Urban League and the US Council of Mayors, are focused on this part of the bill. This is a terrific opportunity to make some real links to those groups.
MR. RAY: A lot of people have faulted us for not coming out with legislative language. We are not so naïve as to think that the ideas that we put forward will just be enacted as proposed. There has to be a dialog. We have heard pushback on the dollar figure as well as other items. We are more than open to discussion.
There are other things that were contemplated that are not yet fleshed out. Some of that is because we have had a robust conversation with leadership in Congress who said to leave the drafting to Congress, so we tried to be respectful and play the role that we are meant to play.
Doug, you asked whether state and local governments can afford to contribute more money. The proposal sits on top of an existing program. We are not talking about changing the way the formula is done underneath. This is an opportunity for projects to secure additional federal money beyond what they might already receive. Even with our discretionary grant programs, the vast majority of the money goes out by formula.
MR. FRIED: Jane Garvey, what odds do you give that the Trump infrastructure plan will clear Congress?
MS. GARVEY: I do not think it will be enacted this year. We are dealing with a short legislative calendar in 2018. Congress must pass a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration this year. There is talk about a separate bill reauthorizing federal water programs. There is no time to do much more than that. We might see within the FAA or water bill the opportunity for a targeted piece of the Trump plan to happen.
But I would go back to Jim Ray's point. We still have tools without waiting for Congress. We have a terrific TIFIA program. Funding has increased for it. There are some wonderful things happening at the state level. Let's think more about the cities. I think there are opportunities.
It is also the beginning of the dialog. This is a process. All of us need to be involved. Compromises will be worked out. Something will emerge in the end that reflects a collective effort.
MR. RAY: I think we, the American public, like to see things really neat, to fit within a 20-second news segment. But that is not how our founders set up Washington. I think the plan will move in pieces. We will chip away at this piece and then that piece until the remaining package really has its day in the sun.
MR. FRIED: Tom Mulvihill, what parts of the infrastructure plan would most help P3s?
MR. MULVIHILL: The P3 market has not had the desired deal flow. I have always felt that the problem has been lack of funding. The fact that the president has identified funding as an issue and has proposed using federal dollars as an incentive for local governments to pitch in more hopefully will unlock a large pipeline of deals going forward.
I am encouraged about the funding. I think you are right there will be plenty of discussion, but I think that we will have that discussion is a good development.
Getting into the financial aspects of the plan, I think the proposed improvements to various existing programs — TIFIA, WIFIA, RIFF and private activity bonds — are fantastic.
I am encouraged by things like the streamlining process. Trying to shorten the time from the drawing board to shovels in the ground is very important. Having been a consultant to governments on infrastructure projects for many years, I have seen firsthand how the process works and how things get studied and then restudied. There is always concern about litigation, so it is studied again.
MR. FRIED: Christophe Martin, what does the infrastructure plan say to foreign companies about the future of the US P3 market?
MR. MARTIN: We do not consider ourselves a foreign company. We are present in North America through incorporated local companies, and we are based in Miami. Most of our staff, the engineers on the different sites as well as our partners, our subs and our supervisors, are American.
MR. MARTIN: There is no doubt there are huge infrastructure needs in the US. We consider Trump's plan a positive sign and maybe a commitment to allow the private sector to play a major role. From our perspective, it is a fantastic opportunity to bring in more expertise and investment and take advantage of our worldwide concessions experience.
MR. ROUSAKIS: I want to combine that with the discussion of the plan in general.
TIFIA has played a tremendous role in the expansion of P3 projects and projects in general. Programs like it can help projects get over the finish line, reduce public subsidies and make or break a project. The market expects these programs to remain in place.
What would be most interesting is expansion of PABs to other asset classes, especially social infrastructure. We are seeing tremendous natural growth in interest in P3s for social infrastructure at the smaller city scale. Many less sophisticated public agencies are being pitched these ideas. The taxable versus tax-exempt debt issue is a big hurdle for them. If Congress were to allow PABs for social infrastructure, that would send an important signal. It is kind of psychological.
The decision to do a P3 is a local one. PABs, TIFIA and WIFIA are tools that help demonstrate to local governments how these projects can be more cost-effective.
Whether the Trump plan will move the needle massively in core areas like transportation, leading to more deal flow, is an open question.
MR. FRIED: You have a point about the psychological aspect. When the people in this room talk about P3s, we talk about risk transfer, life-cycle management and benefits like that. However, when it gets to the decision makers, they look at the coupon, right? They say risk transfer is nice, but show me the money.
MR. ROUSAKIS: That's right, but we have come a long way. I have a lot fewer of those conversations today.
Public officials also ask why they should lock into a long-term contract with a private party. They want flexibility. Public leaders are really sticking their necks out when signing long-term deals. P3s are all about fiscal sustainability and the long-term condition of assets. People still get elected to build things.
MR. MULVIHILL: It is hard to get away from the tax-exempt debt discussion. When you tell public officials that a P3 might cost 100 basis points more, but they will get risk transfer, they do not hear the risk transfer part. The fact that the debt will be at tax-exempt rates is a big psychological benefit.
MS. GARVEY: Tying this to incentives, maybe the politicians will feel they get more if you can demonstrate a commitment to long-term maintenance and a commitment to life-cycle costs. That can become part of the incentive program and one way to shift the narrative.
MR. FRIED: We have been talking about educating government officials since the P3 market started in the US. Tom Rousakis, you advise a lot of government agencies. Do you feel that we have made significant progress?
MR. ROUSAKIS: Even though the deal pipeline is not massive, it is diversifying. Clearly something is happening across the country. Progress is made by word of mouth. Someone tries something, someone learns a lesson, and so on. Eventually those lessons get widely disseminated. We still spend a lot of time holding our clients' hands and explaining things, but there has been progress.
MR. MULVIHILL: Public officials are not paid to be risk takers. What is their upside if they try a new tool and it works well? Maybe they get a pat on the back. There is no monetary incentive. If things do not go well, bad things can happen to them, including losing their jobs and possibly their pensions.
MR. FRIED: Yet one of the biggest changes in the last 12 to 18 months is we are seeing P3s applied to a broader range of assets.
MR. MULVIHILL: You still need a champion. You need someone who is willing take the risk.
MR. FRIED: Tom Rousakis, in what states do you expect the most opportunity for P3s?
MR. ROUSAKIS: The pendulum swings back and forth. We are not talking about Texas these days. There has been a real pushback in Texas.
Maryland is exciting. Its HOT lanes could be a massive project. It would be a natural extension of what Virginia has already done on its half of the Capital Beltway.
California and Los Angeles are also exciting. Who would have thought three or four years ago that this would be the epicenter of P3 transactions? It is not just the current projects, but more is also coming. LAX airport still has the consolidated rental car facility — or ConRAC — project to do. The Los Angeles Civic Center project may happen as well.
New York is another. The governor here wants to do more projects.
Those are the really exciting areas. We are not talking about Texas and Florida like we did five to 10 years ago.
MS. GARVEY: Energy is a new area at which we are taking a close look. Water is another. Some places that have done P3s like Miami or Florida are now looking at different sectors for P3s.
One of the great challenges as we look at new markets is the notion of risk transfer. We are learning a lot as we think about new potential uses of P3s. For example, use of P3s for street lighting and other areas of technology that are likely to change quickly is interesting but challenging. Maybe these ends up with shorter-term P3 concessions. Maybe there is a new P3 model for these deals.
MR. FRIED: Tom Mulvihill, Jane Garvey mentioned the energy industry. The Ohio State University energy transaction reached financial close in the summer of 2017. Why hasn't that model taken off and been applied by other universities?
MR. MULVIHILL: Ohio State has been a leader in P3s, first with a transaction around its parking facilities and then with the energy utility deal. A few other universities have looked into emulating the parking deal, but we have not seen that take off.
Universities are conservative by nature. They see big numbers that are startling. That scares them more than incentivizes them to pursue some of these deals, because they fear the risks that usually come along with big numbers.
Universities run like small cities. They must provide heating, cooling and power throughout a campus that has maybe 20,000 to 50,000 students and faculty.
Providing those services is not core to their missions, so the services wind up being more of a headache for them. They have to spend a lot of time at the executive level that they would rather spend on academic services. Fundamentally, I believe many universities would be delighted for someone to take utilities off their hands.
There is a gradual trend toward it, but some sectors move more slowly than others.
MR. FRIED: Christophe Martin, Tom Rousakis mentioned the potential $7 billion HOT lanes deal in Maryland. Is it feasible to do that large a project or is it better to break it into smaller pieces?
MR. MARTIN: We believe this type of project has to be split into two or three sections because of its size. Imagine for a second what would happen if there were a problem with a concessionaire or a contractor. This is a risk. Splitting the project will provide security for all of the parties.
MR. FRIED: Colin Peppard, why has LA Metro relied on unsolicited proposals over solicited? Will that continue?
MR. PEPPARD: We expect to continue using unsolicited proposals. Phil Washington, our CEO, has had a lot of success with unsolicited proposals, and he feels that the model allows the private sector to see our blind spots in ways that are helpful to us. To presume that we know everything about our needs and the best approaches for addressing them is just wrong.
Entertaining unsolicited proposals does not require a tremendous amount of work. The work to submit them is not insubstantial, but the amount of work to submit is manageable for a conceptual proposal. The proposal is really an abstract of a vision about what could be possible.
Unsolicited proposals have yielded tremendous creative thinking within our agency . We have also leaned on unsolicited proposals because our experience defining where P3s would work best has, frankly, not been particularly good. Unsolicited proposals have helped us to see potential P3s that we would not have spotted on our own.
We are still developing and screening our own projects internally, doing our own P3 assessment and doing the types of due diligence that you need to do to understand the best procurement model across the range from design-build to a full concession. But with the $120-billion program and 60 or so projects that we have, identifying potential win-win situations for both LA Metro and the private sector quickly, without a big screening effort and a lot of politics, is incredibly valuable.
MR. FRIED: You have currently in pre-procurement the Sepulveda Pass transit corridor project, the West Santa Ana transit corridor project, the Vermont Avenue bus rapid transit project, and the Orange Line project. Will any of these advance as P3s?
MR. PEPPARD: The Sepulveda Pass transit corridor project and the West Santa Ana transit corridor project are both moving forward as P3s. We are doing additional due diligence and building business cases for both. The Sepulveda Pass project will likely have a preliminary development agreement in some form, and the West Santa Ana project will likely be a hard bid, potentially with a variable scope. We will see how that bears out depending on the business cases that we develop.
The Vermont Avenue BRT project is a possible technology project. The bus service itself is likely to be retained by Metro, but there are so many new technologies that can facilitate the type of reliable, consistent, high-quality bus rapid transit service that you need to drive ridership. The idea of Metro procuring and integrating all those technology components is really challenging. We are trying to think about this project in new ways, including as a potential P3 with risk transfer.
The Orange Line is likely to remain with Metro. We will have to reassess when we get closer. The planned conversion to light rail is not until 2051 or something like that, so the light rail unsolicited proposal we received was a little bit early.
There is also the San Fernando Valley light-rail line, for which the locally preferred alternative will be identified in the next couple months. That project was identified internally, not through an unsolicited proposal, and shows a great deal of promise as a P3 as well.
MR. FRIED: Are there any other projects about which you are thinking that you could share with this group?
MR. PEPPARD: Yes. The great thing about the way that the ballot measure M that yielded the sales tax that underpins our entire program is structured is that it has a detailed expenditure plan, or project pipeline. Voters could see that expenditure plan when voting about whether to dedicate an additional penny of sales tax in perpetuity to transportation.
So the expenditure plan is your project pipeline. There are about 40 or 50 projects on it, and they have anticipated groundbreaking and revenue service dates and the anticipated cash flows associated with them.
One key thing to understand is that it was all laid out assuming design-build construction because we needed to start somewhere. Those assumptions would obviously change if any of the projects is procured in a different method.
One project that is not on the plan is our express lanes network. We currently operate two managed variable-price toll lanes on the 110 South and the 10 East. But we have a vision for a 632-lane-mile managed-lane network throughout LA County. It is laid out in great detail in our express lane strategic plan. It is built to function as a network operationally, but also financially, with inter-fund loans and cross-collateralization of assets to enhance the credit of the network. Unfortunately, the state law allowing us to do P3s on state-owned highway facilities has expired. We are working to try to get it renewed.
The demand for freeway space and travel time in Los Angeles is nearly limitless. The willingness to pay is pretty high. The public acceptance of tolls in Los Angeles is higher than in many other places around the country, especially if we are reinvesting some of the revenue back into additional transit assets in the corridor.
MR. FRIED: Christophe Martin, a big theme has been thinking about how we might increase the deal flow in the United States. You have vast experience globally. What does the United States need to do?
MR. MARTIN: We see three issues. The first one is funding.
Beyond funding, there is room to be innovative to create more deal flow. We were talking about managed-lanes projects, but we can also talk about asset recycling. I just arrived one year ago in the US, and I was a bit disappointed by the number of brownfields that were on the table: not too many, maybe one or two every year. This is disappointing. Maybe operations and maintenance could be privatized in some states. We think that could help to increase deal flow in the market.
That said, the main issue we have to face is uncertainty. We need to address the uncertainty whether a project will go all the way to the end. Support at the highest levels of government for a project is key.
MR. FRIED: Jim Ray, Christophe mentioned recycling of assets. In the infrastructure plan, there was some mention of divesting or selling federal assets. Can you provide more color?
MR. RAY: In the last round of the TIGER discretionary grants, we included a secondary criteria that was meant to open the door to asset recycling. I don't know how many people picked up on that. Discretionary grant programs do not provide a lot of lead time to develop projects, but you should expect to see more of that as we move forward.
We are trying to think creatively. This gets back to the issue of what can we do within the authorities that Congress has already granted us. We are looking for ways we can help asset recycling get traction in the United States.
Your other question was about federal assets. This may come as a massive surprise, but the federal government owns a heck of a lot of stuff, and not all of it, I think, is in the best hands. Not all of it needs to reside within the confines of the United States government. We have started looking broadly at assets that perhaps the federal government might be able to sell.
Does anybody here know that the federal government owns a couple of toll bridges? We have openly questioned whether the government is the best entity to own them and, if we are not, then should those assets go to the state, which can then decide what to do with them, or should the federal government go directly to the market? There are assets all over the place and that effort is afoot. I think it will be controversial.
This is something for which we will need to go to Congress, unless it fits under the rules for excess property. Some of the things we may be able to make a case for could be done on that basis. We have to get fair market value for the assets.
MR. FRIED: Are you thinking about sales or concessions, or have you not gotten that far?
MR. RAY: We are thinking about both. We see value in maintaining ownership of some assets over the long haul, but perhaps there are better options in the short and medium term. There are other assets that the United States government probably does not need to own. For example, an asset may have run its useful life. In some cases, assets are in the process of being decommissioned, meaning torn apart and destroyed, and the private sector has approached us and said it thinks there is an alternative use for that asset. That would be a case for an outright sale.
MS. GARVEY: Probably even more controversial is that there are a number of federal assets that should stay with the federal government, but they are in terrible, terrible shape. I have often thought that if we really want to promote P3 as a public policy, you could take the federal buildings, just even the ones in the Washington area, and improve them all through a P3 and, with life-cycle cost analysis built in, it could be a wonderful model.
Or you could take the facilities that the Federal Aviation Administration owns that I know need to be replaced. There are anywhere from 10 to 15 facilities that could be replaced through a P3 model. The scoring rules in the budgetary process have always been the big stumbling block. There is a way forward if you really wanted to kick start this market and show what could be done. The leader really could be the federal government.
MR. FRIED: The last infrastructure roundtable we had here at our offices was two days after the presidential election in 2016. In preparing for that roundtable, we all thought that we were going to be talking about Hillary Clinton's policies. Donald Trump became president and the focus obviously shifted, but at that roundtable, there was a tremendous amount of optimism about infrastructure and particularly with what could be done with bipartisan support.
Looking back now a year later, do you think that optimism still exists?
MR. RAY: I am still very optimistic. There may have been people who were enthusiastic in a Pollyanna type of way in the early days, and who did not think about the system of government that our founders created and how life in Washington is hard on purpose. It is difficult to move things for reasons that I think over the last couple hundred years have proven to be valid.
I think we are moving things forward in dramatic fashion within the confines of what we can do.
In terms of the bill and bipartisanship, Washington is a difficult place. The president has already shown his ability to work with the other side as it relates to the debt ceiling. I think infrastructure is one of those items that we can pull together in the same way.
Not cementing our ideas in bill text is a sign of our willingness to shape the plan in ways that work for everybody. Somebody had to move. It was us because we established it as a priority.
I remain optimistic. Looking at the two baskets I mentioned earlier, I know one will be successful, and I have a pretty good feeling that the other one will be, too. It may just not be exactly the way that we painted it, which is okay. That is our system of government.
MR. FRIED: Colin Peppard, Los Angeles will host the Olympics in 2028. What are some of the most critical infrastructure investments that Los Angeles will need for the Olympics, and what role do you think private capital can play in delivering these projects?
MR. PEPPARD: Without sounding too self-serving, it really is the transportation network. I just moved to LA two years ago, and I moved from Washington, DC which is known for its traffic congestion. I was blown away. Local streets, freeways — you try and get across town on a Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m. There is gridlock.
As a condition of getting the games in 2028, there were specific guarantees that the mayor and the bid committee made in terms of travel times, not just for athletes and support staff, but also for the real show, which is the production squads, the entertainment aspect.
We are going to have to figure out how to move people to meet those guaranteed travel times. The clock is already ticking on these projects.
MR. PEPPARD: Which is why it is very exciting to be here. We have a lot of opportunity, and we have a lot of political motivation. We are being asked to put together an accelerated "28 by 28" plan of the highest priority projects for acceleration by the 2028 deadline. At the same time, we need to take into account robust hiring requirements, environmental processes and fights about scope and alignment, which can take years.
We are being squeezed on both sides. It is our job to impose some discipline, including considering where the private sector can help provide bridge funding and smooth out our cash flows, especially when it comes to the spikiness of design-build project funding.
People's expectations are high in this era of new mobility options such as Lyft and Uber. Everybody just expects travel to show up and take you away when you push a button on a phone.
It is in meeting that challenge that the people in this room and the broader marketplace can help us, including through our unsolicited proposal policy. The "28 by 28" list was approved by the board. You can find it online. It was in the Los Angeles Times.
LA County is the size of Rhode Island. Hosting the Olympic Games is going to be a real challenge if people cannot get around.
MR. FRIED: Let's get some final thoughts from the panelists. Jane Garvey, please lead us off.
MS. GARVEY: A lot of good points have been made, and I would go back to just a couple.
One is the importance of incentives. I think there is a growing consensus that incentives are important, but can we think about incentives in such a way that we advance not just P3s, but we also look at them from the perspective of the local communities?
The second is about rural infrastructure. We did not get much chance to speak about it, but if you are looking for compromises in Congress, there will have to be a merger of the big urban interests with rural interests. A number of people running for office today are talking about rural infrastructure. For example, there is a candidate for governor in Maine talking a lot about rural infrastructure and broadband.
The final point is the importance of the champion. Especially when thinking about new markets or new geographies, there has to be a local champion. I have never seen a complicated, difficult public works project that has succeeded without a local champion.
MR. MARTIN: Vinci will be proud to help advance Trump's plan. We are fully aware as a concessionaire that our fate is closely linked to the economic development of the country. Our revenue is strongly dependent on the economic momentum of the country. We are confident about the outlook for both the US economy and P3s.
If properly developed, a P3 can drive strong political and community concessions.
MR. MULVIHILL: I am excited about where this market is headed. This already feels like a good year. I think certainly by the second half of the year, we will see some big deals closing. This could be a breakout year for P3s in everything from very large airport-related projects to small courthouses to technology. The market has diversified, and it is digging more deeply into the municipal levels.
We are reaching the point where people do not have to bid every deal like it is the last one they will see. I think people can start to pick their spots, which is good.
I think 2019 will be another great year. I feel like there are enough procurements starting now that will not get done this year. That is all right because we need deals next year, too. I am very encouraged about the market and that a compromise can be struck at the federal level. Bring in some of the proposed funding, bring in some of the streamlining and we can continue to grow the market.
MR. ROUSAKIS: One state I left out earlier was Georgia. In terms of the near-term pipeline of possible P3s, there are major availability-payment transactions there.
Also on the theme of diversification are broadband projects. We are working on such projects with Pennsylvania and Georgia, and other states are starting to look at broadband.
We think broadband will be a big opportunity that will happen fairly quickly because there is new value in the fiber that has already been laid with the advent of 5G networks. The question will be whether our clients can reach their social goals and maybe make some money off the rights-of-way that they have. These projects tie into automated vehicles, they tie into ITS, they tie into all sorts of social needs.
MR. PEPPARD: Something that Jim Ray said was important. He thought he understood how the federal transportation programs worked, and then he realized he didn't when he switched from the federal government to the private sector. Having helped to write parts of the federal program, I feel the same way. Things that I drafted look totally different on the other side.
I thought we were drafting a series of policies. At the local level, however, we are looking for a package of solutions to really big problems. Politicians can be petty and self-serving, but they are ultimately trying to look out for the public interest.
My closing comment would be to ask, as somebody who is trying to build what could be the biggest P3 market in North America if we are successful, not to look at this as a series of deals, but to look at it as a series of solutions. Let's not focus solely on the next closing, but put in place a model that works for the long term. These solutions need to bear out, they need to show value. We talk about value for money. They need to demonstrate that, not just on paper, but in real life. We all have a responsibility to make that happen.
MR. RAY: I can't speak for how other administrations approached things, but I know from my time during the Bush administration that we took a lot of things as they were. I liken it to walking into a professionally staged house. You may be out shopping and the couch is there, and there is a table, and a vase is there, and the TV is on that wall. Everything is just perfect. I think that when most people buy that house and move their own furniture in, a lot of it goes in the same spot because that is their mental image of how that room is supposed to look.
What has been really energizing about working where I work now is that this White House will not allow that type of assumption to be made. You question everything. In so doing, you run down some rabbit holes, and you find there was a good reason for why somebody put that existing policy in that place.
And then you go down other holes and you find no one recalls why a particular decision was made or why those rules were in place. I have brought back to Washington with me the lessons learned over the last eight years of working on deals, shoulder to shoulder with a lot of really thoughtful, committed people in the industry.
Colin Peppard said earlier about unsolicited proposals that you should not look at LA Metro as though it knows all the answers. Don't look at the administration as though we know all the answers. Look at us as people who are there for the right reasons and are absolutely committed –– to the point of tremendous self-sacrifice –– to doing the right thing and finding a better mousetrap. But we will not be able to do it without you.
Regardless of who you are or what your perspective is, your opinion is really valued by us. Before complaining about the marketplace, call me first and tell me what we can do differently.
Please, if you think that we have the opportunity to include something in the FAA or water reauthorization, or you think we have the opportunity to change a piece of the infrastructure package, or you think that we have the possibility not to make a mistake tomorrow, call us. You are going to find a receptive listener. I cannot promise we will do what you ask, but we will evaluate your request and hopefully at the other side of it come out with a better program.


There are a lot of things you can do to improve your looks: put on makeup, sport a new hairdo, or update your wardrobe, just to name a few. Increasing your chest size, however, will prove to be a much harder task.
Never assume a breast enlargement pill or any natural herbal supplement is safe for you to take, stresses the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The ingredients in these products can interact with the medications you take and can be extremely dangerous if you have certain medical conditions. Saw palmetto can not only effect how well your blood clots, but it can interact adversely with blood-thinning medications. Also, because it can have estrogen-like effects, there's the possibility that it might make your birth control pills less effective. Wild yam can also interact adversely with with hormone replacement therapies and birth control pills. But of tantamount concern to women is that taking phytoestrogens may increase your risk for breast cancer. Essentially, all nutrients, herbs and other natural ingredients can become toxic if you take them long enough in very high doses, cautions the FDA.
Breasts are mostly made of fat, and some women think that gaining weight will give them larger chests. However, each woman's body distributes fat differently, so there's no guarantee that you'll gain a cup size by putting on more pounds. Chances are, the extra fat will only go to your thighs or belly, making you even unhappier about your figure.
Small breast size isn't the only concern women have—they have to deal with saggy bosoms, too. To combat sagging, many women think that wearing a bra to bed will keep their breasts "lifted" or perky. Unfortunately, there is no scientific basis for this assumption and it's actually recommended to give your breasts a break at night.
Indeed, the best way to enhance your breasts' size and profile is to consult a Baltimore breast augmentation expert. They can recommend the best procedures that will help you attain your ideal bosom.


The season started well but, after a rash of injuries, Sparta lost three games in a row against teams from the lower half of the league, falling from first place to fifth. In the midst of that, the team swapped defencemen with Vítkovice, sending Slovene Blaž Gregorc in exchange for Swede Erik de la Rose. Before Friday's game in Zlín, Coach UWE KRUPP spoke about the current situation facing the team.
It's been really difficult, but you're probably going to get one of those situations every year where you have a lot of adversity, and we're hitting that right now. Right now, we have nine players out and, at best, three of them might come back soon. It's difficult to play when you have that many injuries.
Which three players are those?
I believe Beran, Piskáček and Košťálek are all close to coming back. But the other guys, Klimek will be back at Christmas at the earliest, Smejkal will also be out at least four weeks, and those are the best puck controllers on our team. Then Pavelka, Kalina and Černoch will also be out three to four weeks, and if we want to count Přibyl, who hasn't played since the start of the season, that's 10 guys out of the lineup.
What is the situation with Daniel Přibyl?
As far as I know, he is in treatment. In his case, there have been some unpleasant circumstances with his knee. It's been a really difficult time for him. I think it can be worked out eventually, but it's going to take significantly more time than we first thought.
So how do you manage with that many guys out?
We go with the guys who can stand in their skates, add some of the young guys in there and we go play, but it's a completely different team. It's been especially hard on defence, where Blain and Delisle are the only two healthy guys we have left from our original lineup – we're missing four of our top six.
Will Erik de la Rose play in Zlín on Friday?
Yes! Finally, something positive to say (smiling). Yes, he's been good in practices and he's a good body for us to have right now.
Can you say anything about how the trade with Vítkovice transpired?
I don't think I'd had more meetings with any player than with Blaž. The bottom line was that he wasn't happy with the amount of ice time that he got. He wanted a bigger role and I think he's a good player, but we have other players that can play that role so he asked to be moved. As for Erik, he had a good year last year in Jihlava and then he had an injury at the start of this season and just never got going in Vítkovice. So, the two teams got together and I think it's a good deal for both players and for both teams.
With everything that's going on, how is the current mood in the dressing room?
The mood is not bad, but everyone is a little upset. This is very different from the beginning of the season. There's an expectation to win, so everyone's a bit on edge. But I'd rather have that than guys who just laugh and joke around when we lose – then I'd be pissed off. Everyone here wants to win, so it´s important to work hard in practice and get through this, and I believe we will. Eventually, the injured players will return and we'll get back to our form from the beginning of the season.
Are there any positives you can take from the last few games?
The last two games, I thought our penalty killing was better. We were a bit more aggressive, better on loose pucks, clearing the zone better. The power play was okay last game – it gave us a chance to get back in the game. We didn't win the game, but we came back after being down 3-0 to tie it, then got a fluky goal against and the floodgates opened. I think the work ethic on the team but we need to play a little bit better, which is a good challenge.


She informed me about a mutual friend that sent an email pertaining to an eagle. I said something along the lines of.. "Huh, a Pastor's message I just read was also about an eagle." We prayed for strength as I pulled in to the shelter..
The study started off great. I exited the car and a deaf man was on the picnic table and we immediately began to talk about the Lord. I gave him a bible and invited him to the study. After spending some time talking with other residents and spreading invites, I went into the conference room to study the above verse and pray for the study.
The beginning of Is 41 talks about being silent and letting them come near and speak. I know the context of the verse is not – "This is for Joseph's bible study in East Lansing, MI", but.. for anyone who knows when God is speaking to them, well.. He was speaking to me and that's what He said. :) But anyways, I'm going slightly off track here, but it's really cool how the Lord works. The deaf man came in and we had some great 1 on 1 going. It was really cool, he talked about things in his life and he did all the talking/reading, I just guided to some scriptures. I prayed over him and we departed. It went very well.
Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
1. EAGLE'S EYES: An eagle has an ability to see an object twenty miles away, not only this, he doesn't lose focus on his target.
targets one out them and go for it, leaving the rest. It's not enough to have a vision, but you must also have focus. Never allow anything or anyone shift your focus on your vision.
2. EAGLE'S WINGS: During the storm and strong wind when other birds disappears in fear, that is when an eagle spreads his wings to fly with the aid of the strong wind.Where other birds sees danger, an eagle sees opportunity.
obstacles or allow them to stop you, spread your wings and soar on them like an eagle.
Never let go of your God given dream, hold unto it no the challenges.Your God given dream must be tried and tested, this is when most people loses their God given dreams. Don't be like any other bird that loses its prey at the slightest shout; be like the eagle and hold unto your God given dream, come what may.
I just love how God works all things together for the good, for those that love God and are called according to His purpose. Praise the Lord, thank you for the help Lord and thank you for the Body.
I can't have the strength of an eagle… you need to talk to me.
I cannot help with strength, only God can..


Tanya Moodie, a critically-acclaimed actress and founding member of the Women's Equality Party, will be recording the audiobook for Catherine Mayer's Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World! (HQ, HarperCollins).
Moodie has won Best Actress at the International Achievement Recognition Awards for her performance of Gertrude in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet and is also known to TV viewers for roles in "Sherlock", "Prime Suspect" and "Archangel". She will also be addressing crowds on behalf of the party at the Trafalgar Square rally of the Women's March on London this Saturday (21st January).
Mayer, Women's Equality Party co-founder, and a former editor-at-large for TIME magazine, said the book announced in September will outline the "many and good reasons why BAME women often regard white feminists with mistrust". There will also be a chapter on Iceland in the book as "the world's best country for women". In recognition, Mayer brought along Halla Gunnarsdóttir, head of policy and partnerships at the Women's Equality Party and a former advisor to the Icelandic government, to help Moodie with her Icelandic pronunciation during the recording.
Attack of the Fifty Foot Women publishes on International Women's Day in March this year.


text:
Kaloa is een geslacht van rechtvleugeligen uit de familie veldsprinkhanen (Acrididae). De wetenschappelijke naam van dit geslacht is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1909 door Bolívar.

Soorten
Het geslacht Kaloa  is monotypisch en omvat slechts de volgende soort:
Kaloa tabellifera (Bolívar, 1909)

Veldsprinkhanen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using SylphyHorn.Serialization;

#if WINDOWS_UWP
using Windows.System;
#else
using VirtualKey = System.Windows.Forms.Keys;
using System.Windows.Input;
#endif

namespace SylphyHorn.Services
{
	public static class KeyHelper
	{
		public static int[] VirtualDesktopCreationKey { get; } = new ShortcutKey(VirtualKey.D, VirtualKey.NoName, VirtualKey.Control).ToSerializable();

		public static int[] VirtualDesktopDeletionKey { get; } = new ShortcutKey(VirtualKey.F4, VirtualKey.NoName, VirtualKey.Control).ToSerializable();

		public static bool IsModifyKey(this VirtualKey key)
		{
			return IsModifyKey((uint)key);
		}

#if !WINDOWS_UWP
		public static bool IsModifyKey(this Key key)
		{
			return IsModifyKey((uint)key.ToVirtualKey());
		}

		public static VirtualKey ToVirtualKey(this Key key)
		{
			return (VirtualKey)KeyInterop.VirtualKeyFromKey(key);
		}
#endif

		private static bool IsModifyKey(uint keyCode)
		{
			switch (keyCode)
			{
				case 164: // LMenu
				case 162: // LControlKey
				case 160: // LShiftKey
				case 091: // LWin
				case 165: // RMenu
				case 163: // RControlKey
				case 161: // RShiftKey
				case 092: // RWin
					return true;

				default:
					return false;
			}
		}
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


My database is very very slow; why is this happening? - Knowledgebase - ODITech, Inc.
The second most common reason for database slowdown is either a corrupt database, or changes to your database structure or functionality which have caused decreased performance.
Determine if your database has any unstored calculations, too many "relationships," data in big chunks, and check FileMaker's network activity (if you are able to on your network). FileMaker has some helpful information about this topic.
Ascertain whether or not there are network issues at your office or home. If you have an IT or Network person/department, contact them to see if there are issues at your location. If you are at home, you can contact your ISP to find out similar information. Many ISPs have their network status and outages available to clients on their client portal.
Check to see if anyone else is having this same trouble, or, is it just your machine.
Check with the persons who have access to your database--to make changes--have made any new changes since last you logged in. It is possible that changes to your database structure have resulted in problems.
Check the status of ODI servers and network.
Open a support ticketwith ODI to determine if there are issues with the ODI server on which your database resides.


Deep, dusty, brooding house music from the archives of the talented Royer. Dark photographed flooring with classic Mörk B-side text centre cut on black 12" vinyl.
Includes unlimited streaming of Documented via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.


text:
Dushyanth Ramkumar is an Indian actor and producer working in Tamil language films, who made his debut in Success (2004). After appearing in a couple of films, he has worked as an executive producer for Sivaji Productions. He is the son of Ramkumar Ganesan and grandson of the actor Sivaji Ganesan. He is now acting in South Indian Tamil TV soaps such as Devathai, of for which he is one of the producers.

Career
Producer Issaki Sundar saw Dushyanth at the Sivaji Productions office and offered him the opportunity to make his acting debut. After initially rejecting the offer, he ultimately agreed after consulting with his uncle Prabhu and cousin Vikram Prabhu. Dushyanth was also credited as Junior Sivaji during the production of the film. The film was named Success, after the first on-screen dialogue of Sivaji from the film Parasakthi (1952). The film opened to mixed reviews, with a critic noting: "the movie surprises us with a nice turn of events. It definitely energizes the movie and gets us interested again. Looking back on the first half after this, we realize that the movie has actually been quite clever in setting up stock characters, but in a slightly different way that makes the twist surprising." Another reviewer noted: "To sum up, Success is not the right film for Jr. Ganesan to be successful." His second film was Machi (2004), with a reviewer noting: "Dushyanth shows some improvement from his debut Success, but not enough to mark him as a hero of promise." He has since not been seen in films as an actor.

He worked extensively on the sets of Sivaji Productions' Aasal as a producer. In 2015, he set up Eshan Productions and began his first film Meen Kuzhambum Mann Paanaiyum (2016), as an individual producer.

In May 2022, Dushyanth announced plans of making an acting comeback, and signed on to appear in a film titled Shooting Star by M. J. Ramanan.

Personal life
He is the son of actor-producer Ramkumar Ganesan and grandson of Sivaji Ganesan. His uncle Prabhu and cousin Vikram Prabhu are leading actors in Tamil films. He married Abirami in a ceremony in November 2011. He has two brothers Dharshan and Rishyan.

Filmography

As actor

As producer

References

Living people
Tamil film producers
Film producers from Chennai
Male actors in Tamil cinema
Indian male film actors
21st-century Indian male actors
1983 births
Male actors from Chennai


There are 34 million family caregivers in the U.S. and more joining their ranks daily as the population ages. Caring.com has released findings from its annual study on the state of caregiving. Using that and a few other sources, here's what we found to be the most cringe-worthy facts.
1. There are haves and have-nots, even among family caregivers.
Caregivers who get to go home to their own home each night are much luckier than those for whom this option does not exist. Housing arrangements kind of divide the world of caregivers into the haves and have-nots ― the have-nots being the group that cannot escape their responsibilities for even a minute because they live under the same roof with them. Some lucky caregivers get to go home to their own space after caregiving. They can lock the door behind them, shut out what they want to shut out.
But most family caregivers don't get to do this. Almost 60 percent of the family caregivers surveyed by Caring.com live with the person for whom they are caring. More than half of them (56 percent) are their spouses ― which is a whole other ballgame (see next item). A quarter (25 percent) said their loved one ― a parent or in-law ― moved in with them.
2. Spousal caregiving is the worst of the worst.
We've met caregivers who care for parents, children, and even friends. But the caregivers who care for their spouses are the ones who generally struggle the most, studies have shown. They watch their spouse go from partner to patient. Suddenly, after years of sharing life choices and decisions and responsibilities, everything falls into the lap of the healthy spouse.
When the person you married is no longer able to be as present in the relationship – the loneliness can feel worse than if they were not there at all. Often there is a sense of resentment and anger that they did not hold up their end of the bargain.
A 2014 AARP and United Hospital Fund survey found that spousal caregivers suffer higher rates of stress than non-spousal caregivers. Seventy percent felt they had no choice but to provide care.
The study said most spouses reported wanting "to do the right thing for their beloved partners" but felt "ground down by ongoing demands and demoralized by the lack of acknowledgement they receive." They often become more socially isolated over time ― and yes, depressed.
3. Caregiving has moved from being a nursing-related profession into something that families are now expected to provide.
Does anyone remember being a kid and on Sundays the family traipsed over to the nursing home to see Grandpa? Now, only 22 percent of people being cared for live in an assisted-living center, nursing home or other living community.
After visiting some nursing homes, we won't attempt to convince anyone that they are sterling places that will give our loved one impeccable care. But those services they those nurses and nurses aides provide? They now fall to largely untrained family caregivers ― most of whom had already full lives when the decision was made that they would become caregivers.
Family caregivers save the nation $500 billion a year.
4. Caregiving costs the caregiver money.
So to boil this down to its simplest terms: Not only would a professional caregiver get paid and a family caregiver won't, but becoming a caregiver is actually going to cost them money. Eighteen percent of caregivers to loved ones with Alzheimer's or dementia are likely to spend $20,000 or more per year on caregiving expenses, according to the Caring.com report. More than four in 10 family caregivers ― 42 percent ― spend $5,000 or more annually on caregiving-related expenses.
5. Caregiving messes with your job.
Caregiving not only affects finances but also employment. Forty-two percent of family caregivers who are either working full-time or part-time have missed work, found Caring.com. Of those who have missed work due to caregiving responsibilities, 24 percent have missed about a week and 31 percent have missed two or more weeks of work.
Even if you want to nominate your boss for sainthood, caregiving will put her to the test. Almost 75 percent of employed family caregivers say that caregiving has had a negative impact on their job. Caring.com found that 60 percent had to make adjustments to their work schedule to accommodate their caregiving, and 31 percent said they frequently arrive late to work or have to leave early.
6. Speaking long-term, caregiving is the gift that keeps on giving.
All in all, the picture is pretty dismal ― and definitely cringe-worthy.
Ann Brenoff is a Huffington Post Senior Writer/Columnist. She works out of the Los Angeles office, where she is a senior manager. Prior to joining The Huffington Post in 2011, she was on staff at the Los Angeles Times.
How do you make space for the illness without letting the illness take over your lives?
Who takes care of whom now? How do you manage when your roles shift from those of equal partners to patient and caregiver?
How do you hold onto love — emotionally and physically? How do you recapture joy?
How do you deal with the maze of medical, legal, and financial decisions?
How to choose between home care and nursing home?
And, most importantly, how do you find comfort and hope, even when there may not be a cure?
The English language should have different words to distinquish 1) an adult caring for a spouse, 2) an adult child caring for an aging parent (my personal specialty…), 3) an adult caring for another family member, 4) a 20-something caring for a sick parent, and 5) an institutional caregiver. Although they overlap, the mental fortitude and physical skill set required for each varies; family-on-family caregiving probably carrying the biggest bucket of emotional baggage (mother and daughter in particular). Although hard to find, there definitely exist gem moments that I wouldn't experience if my mother hadn't gained vulnerability with age, and I hadn't found a little acceptance.
Thanks for your piece Ann… I look forward to checking out your books!


text:
Q: Access Typedef in Function From Outside I am working on some math related objects, and I would love to be able to distinguish between operators which behave in mathematical ways.  The simplest solution, and one I hope can somehow be accomplished is below.
struct derp { };

derp operator+(derp const & a, derp const & b) {
    typedef std::true_type commutative;
    typedef std::true_type associative;

    return derp();
}

void test() {
    typedef int testing;
}

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    // is it possible to access test::testing or the typedef's in the operator+ from here?

    return 0;
}

Is this or something similar possible?

A: No. typedefs within a function are local to the scope of the function.
A way to provide similar functionality would be to define an external type (could also be a nested type) that defines what you want.
One possible way:
template<typename T>
struct arithmetic_traits
{
    using addition_associate = std::false_type;
    using addition_commutative = std::false_type;
};

template<>
struct arithmetic_traits<derp>
{
    using addition_associate = std::true_type;
    using addition_commutative = std::true_type;
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Sunnyvale Medical Plaza is a two-story medical office building developed by Caddis on the campus of the 70-bed Texas Regional Medical Center. Caddis was called upon to provide a cost-effective on-campus facility that would support the expansion of existing hospital providers and aid in new physician recruitment. The project incorporates a large primary care group, urology group, pain management and multiple OB/GYN practices. Caddis' commitment to providing value while maximizing the benefit to the physician practices allowed this project to facilitate an increase in practice efficiency, patient satisfaction, and patient volume.


text:
;============================================================
; Show credits and run main program
;
; TODO:
; this version runs a few tests on string manipulation functions.
; In the future, it might actually get the date from a string.
;============================================================

!zone main

!macro load16BitsIn2Bytes .source, .targetLow, .targetHigh {
            lda #<.source
            sta .targetLow
            lda #>.source
            sta .targetHigh
}

            jsr clear_screen
            jsr credits

; test cases

            +load16BitsIn2Bytes ok1, $02, $03
            jsr get_date

; experiment, copy ok1 string to $0630
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0630, $05, $06
            jsr cleanup
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0658, $05, $06
            jsr cleanup
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes ok1, $02, $03
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0630, $05, $06
            jsr copy
            ; compare 0630 with ok1, this should succeed (output a 0 in the first column of the second line)
            jsr compare
            sta $0428

            ; copy ok2 string to 0658
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes ok2, $02, $03
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0658, $05, $06
            jsr copy
            ; compare 0630 with 0658, this should fail (output a 1 in the second column of the second line)
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0630, $02, $03
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0658, $05, $06
            jsr compare
            sta $0429

            ; string in $0658 should start with img- (output a 0 in the third column of the second line)
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0658, $02, $03
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes img, $05, $06
            jsr startsWith
            sta $042a

            ; string in $0630 should not start with img- (output a 1 in the fourth column of the second line)
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes $0630, $02, $03
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes img, $05, $06
            jsr startsWith
            sta $042b

            ; string in digits should be digits only
            +load16BitsIn2Bytes digits, $02, $03
            jsr digitsOnly
            sta $042c

            jmp *