Ethics commissioner opens probe into Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon
MONTREAL — Quebec’s ethics commissioner has announced she is opening an investigation into Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon regarding assets he allegedly holds in private companies.The investigation is to look into whether the minister broke conflict of interest rules and whether he properly declared those assets, commissioner Ariane Mignolet said Tuesday in a release.Mignolet said she is opening the probe on her own initiative.The commissioner added, however, that two separate complaints filed with her office last week by opposition parties regarding Fitzgibbon will also be part of her investigation.Quebec solidaire’s Vincent Marissal filed a complaint asking Mignolet to investigate Fitzgibbon’s nomination of Guy Leblanc as president and CEO of Investissement Quebec, the agency that helps finance businesses across the province.Marissal alleges in his complaint that Fitzgibbon has personal and professional ties with Leblanc. His complaint also claims Fitzgibbon had given instructions to a trust to sell shares he allegedly owned in a company.The commissioner added she received a second complaint from the Parti Quebecois’ Martin Ouellet, who also requested she investigate Fitzgibbon’s alleged decision to sell “financial assets” in the same private company.Mignolet said the questions raised by the two members “are connected” and they “will be treated as part of the investigation the commissioner opened on her own initiative.”A spokesman from Fitzgibbon’s office did not return a request for comment.The Canadian Press
Julianna Richardson, the founder of the HistoryMakers project (Photo courtesy of HistoryMakers)Documenting the rich diversity of the lives of African Americans is the mission of a national group called The Historymakers. Julianna Richardson is the founder and executive director of The Historymakers. Richardson and her videographers are in Alaska this week for the first time to capture the stories of 11 Alaskans. The video interviews here along with thousands of others are being archived at the Library of Congress and shared with more than 40 universities and public libraries. Richardson says she grew up not knowing her own history or the contributions of other African Americans to the United States, so even though her professional background is in law, The Historymakers became her life’s work.Richardson spoke with Alaska Public Media’s Lori Townsend about the group.Listen nowRICHARDSON: People don’t know about the African American experience. A lot of people think our project is about civil rights because it’s as if that’s the only thing they know about the Black experience. When I was saying that I was coming here to Alaska, people were like, “Are you kidding? There can’t be any Black people in Alaska. Black people don’t like cold weather.” (laughs) But, I have wanted to come here since the early days of my project. Each community has it’s own personality and there’s a lot of independent spirit here.TOWNSEND: What did you hear from Alaskans that really stand out to you. Have you really had a chance to view the content enough yet.RICHARDSON: Yes. What I want to say is that, Alaska for most of the people we interviews — I would say all of them, I wouldn’t say most — represented a chance to get away from a constrictive environment. To have opportunities that did not exist in their home states, and in many ways, a fresh start. And not to be sort of held back, not that… they’re not showing it as a fantasy, you know, that it was without racism. But, that’s what sort of resonates.TOWNSEND: Do you see this as kind of resetting the whole idea of who Black Americans are? And instead of just this focus on the tragic past, that this can more normalize that people are doing every kind of profession and every kind of accomplishment that every other American is doing? Is that part of what’s at play here?RICHARDSON: I won’t say that was my intent, but that’s essentially what it will do. I mean, the problem about slavery in the American tradition is that no one either wanted to be a slave, or wants to have that slave background, or no one wanted to be responsible for it. So what has essentially happened is that we’ve worked in unintended complicity to cover up this wonderfully rich history that has a lot of context to it. And I don’t want any other child to feel the way I felt, in a classroom where I was the only Black student. And the teacher was asking me about our family, you know, our backgrounds. And everyone knew their’s and I didn’t know mine. So that’s what I think, in the larger context, what we hav.TOWNSEND: Julianna, as you well know, there’s a lot of racial tension in our country right now. Do you see a role for the HistoryMakers project in, sort of, alleviating some of that tension through education and sharing our collective experience as Americans? Do you think this effort to elevate these stories and accomplishments of African American citizens here can help somehow in this effort going forward?RICHARDSON: Yes I do believe that. And I often sometimes refer to myself as sort of an activist historian, even though I’m a lawyer by training. I was born in 1954, which is the year of Brown v. Board of Education, which is often touted as a watershed moment. It was a watershed moment, but when you look back, now you wonder. and even now as you say in the current climate we’re in, I don’t think most of the people that we interview who grew up in a different point in time, and went through the Civil Rights Movement… I don’t think they could envision the climate we’re in, that it was possible to exist. And that we’re back, in many ways, in the same place. And divisions, like crazy horrible divisions. This is the question. What we’re really hearing being debated in society is who has value. Who has value to society? And the people who have value should stay and the people who don’t have value should leave. And so I think really that the fact that we have content that shows the complexity, there are just all these things that people don’t associate with the Black experience. And so, I feel very, very positive.The 11 African Americans who will be interviewed by the HistoryMakers are:Eleanor Andrews, Former Commissioner, Administration for Alaska;Rex Butler, Defense Attorney;The Honorable Lawrence Card, Retired Superior Court Judge;The Honorable Bettye Davis, Former Alaska Senator and Current Anchorage Public Schools Board Member;Mayfield Evans, Owner, Mayfield’s Quality Cleaners and E&S Diversified Services;Celeste H. Growden, Director, Shiloh Community Development;Jewel Jones, Public Administrator under six Anchorage mayors;Sylvester Joubert, Owner, Midnight Sun & Van Car Rentals;Reverend Alonzo Patterson, Pastor Emeritus, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church;Ed Wesley, National Committeeman, Alaska Democratic Party;Cal Williams, Former President, NAACP Anchorage.A reception at 6 p.m. this evening in Anchorage will honor the 11 Alaskans whose stories will now be part of the national Historymaker’s project.
(a) Production of relativistic BDM χ1 in the Galactic center by the annihilation of heavier dark matter χ0. (b) Illustration of multiple-site hits from an inelastic interaction of BDM for the case of two interactions occurring in two different NaI(Tl) and liquid scintillator (LS) detectors. (c) Illustration of bremsstrahlung radiation-induced hits on two NaI(Tl) or LS detectors. Credit: Ha et al. A team of researchers in the Republic of Korea, the U.S., Brazil, Indonesia and the U.K. have recently carried out a direct search for inelastic boosted dark matter (IBDM) using a terrestrial detector. Their study, published in Physical Review Letters (PRL), is the first ever to search experimentally for IBDM using a terrestrial detector. “The expected signal from high velocity dark matter is energetic electron recoil, while typical dark matter brings low energy nuclear recoil,” Lee explained. “This theory has been considerably developed over the past few years. After that, theorists started thinking about inelastic scattering, because of the multiple components of dark matter.” A few years ago, researchers at the University of Maryland and MIT introduced a new model that describes a relativistic dark matter particle boosted by the annihilation of heavier dark matter participles in the galactic center or the sun. According to their model, this would require at least two species of dark matter particles, comprising a multi-component dark matter. Dark matter candidates with a heavier mass can decay into light dark matter. As mass is equivalent with energy, in the case of multi-component dark matter, mass differences between different components would lead to high speed of light dark matter. The term ‘boosted dark matter,’ therefore, basically means that incident dark matter has a relatively high velocity. More information: C. Ha et al. First Direct Search for Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter with COSINE-100, Physical Review Letters (2019). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.131802 (In)direct detection of boosted dark matter. DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/10/062. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/10/062/metaDark Matter “Collider” from Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161801.journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/ … ysRevLett.119.161801 An experiment to search for dark-matter interactions using sodium iodide detectors. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0739-1. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0739-1 CERN lab on the hunt for dark matter The COSINE-100 detector from outside. Credit: Ha et al. (a) Production of relativistic BDM χ1 in the Galactic center by the annihilation of heavier dark matter χ0. (b) Illustration of multiple-site hits from an inelastic interaction of BDM for the case of two interactions occurring in two different NaI(Tl) and liquid scintillator (LS) detectors. (c) Illustration of bremsstrahlung radiation-induced hits on two NaI(Tl) or LS detectors. Credit: Ha et al. Observations gathered by past astrophysics studies suggest that the universe’s dominant matter component is not ordinary matter, but nonbaryonic dark matter. Researchers have made tremendous efforts in to search for dark matter via direct detection, indirect detection and collider experiments, yet so far, their attempts have been unsuccessful. This lack of success encouraged them to search for alternative types of dark matter, such as light-mass models or relativistically boosted dark matter (BDM), which would have substantially different signatures in detectors. Precisely because these new kinds of dark matter would produce unconventional signatures, very few of them have been the focus of traditional dark matter experiments. “Even though scientists have consistently searched for WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle) dark matter over the past few decades, no clear signals have yet been observed,” Hyun Su Lee, a researcher at the Institute for Basic Science in Daejeon, Korea, who carried out the recent study, told Phys.org. “This has motivated searchers for other types of dark matter, which may give significantly different signals in the detector. One idea is searching for multi-component dark matter. In this case, each dark matter component is likely WIMP dark matter, but it has a different mass.” Citation: The first direct search for inelastic boosted dark matter with a terrestrial detector (2019, April 16) retrieved 18 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-04-inelastic-boosted-dark-terrestrial-detector.html “We used both NaI(Tl), 106kg, and LS, 2ton, as an active detector to search for one energetic electron plus electron positron pair that deposited energies in two different detector components,” Lee said. “Because of the large mass of the detector and its many components, it achieves a relatively good sensitivity for these types of signals.”Unfortunately, Lee and his colleagues were unable to detect IBDM signals in their data. Nonetheless, theirs is a pioneering study, as nobody had previously used detectors to search for this particular type of dark matter. Their work is part of a greater project, dubbed COSINE-100, which is specifically aimed at testing dark matter annual modulation observed by the DAMA experiment. The researchers think that further searches for IBDM signals using the same detector or other ton-scale dark matter detectors will be more fruitful.”For the boosted dark matter search, we will improve our analysis by using about 10 times larger dataset that we already have on disk,” Lee said. “We also plan to search elastic scattering channels and expect that an updated search will explore large parameter spaces that have not yet been searched in any other experiments.” Inside the COSINE-100 detector. Credit: Ha et al. This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. In chemistry and physics, Inelastic scattering is a fundamental process in which the kinetic energy of an incident particle is not conserved, but is either lost or increased. Researchers at CERN, as well as other institutions in Korea and the U.S. have theorized an inelastic interaction of boosted dark matter. According to their theories, relativistic dark matter interacts with the target material through inelastic scattering with electrons, creating a heavier state that later produces standard model particles, such as electron-positron pairs. “In inelastic scattering, the first energetic electron is produced with an additional dark sector particle,” Lee explained. “Such a dark sector particle is decaying into an electron positron pair with some displacement. So far, no experiments have carefully studied these kinds of signals, so we thought that this could be a good alternative scenario to explain the dark matter problem.” In their study, Lee and his colleagues carried out the first direct search for IBDM with a terrestrial detector. Essentially, they immersed eight Nal(TI) crystals with a total mass of 106kg into a 2,200L liquid scintillator surrounded by heavy shields to block radioactive backgrounds. Explore further © 2019 Science X Network (a) Production of relativistic BDM χ1 in the Galactic center by the annihilation of heavier dark matter χ0. (b) Illustration of multiple-site hits from an inelastic interaction of BDM for the case of two interactions occurring in two different NaI(Tl) and liquid scintillator (LS) detectors. (c) Illustration of bremsstrahlung radiation-induced hits on two NaI(Tl) or LS detectors. Credit: Ha et al. Journal information: Physical Review Letters Inside the COSINE-100 detector. Credit: Ha et al. Inside the COSINE-100 detector. Credit: Ha et al. Inside the COSINE-100 detector. Credit: Ha et al.
Register Now » 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. November 18, 2016 Artificial intelligence (AI) is a thrilling prospect for most people, even if some have a nagging feeling in the back of their minds that robots will ultimately replace them. And, given the number of jobs that have already become automated, that fear is not unwarranted.Related: Tech Moguls Such as Musk and Bezos Declare Era of Artificial IntelligenceTechnology is certainly changing everything, and those who can’t adapt will likely be pushed out of the way. For business leaders, though, staying on top of how AI is progressing today can be the key to mapping out their companies’ future.The use of artificial intelligence todayRight now, AI is being used to gather and interpret business metrics. The big talk of the town is Salesforce’s Einstein, which has made a big splash for marketers and sales teams alike. From lead conversion to sales acceleration, it’s helping companies make decisions based on past events.Einstein relies on predictive analytics to get new leads and identify the decision-makers within target companies. Used correctly, it can tell you when your competitor might broach your clients, when to upsell or cross-sell and when there’s likely to be a hiccup in the business.It also gives you the profile of the best possible customer, a process that normally takes a lot of mistakes made by marketers. The caveat with AI in B2B sales right now is that the information you receive is only as good as the data it processes. The scoring and dividing-up of the leads for easier contacting and strategy decisions is deeply affected by a lack of quality data, which can account for some of the failures that companies have seen using AI.Related: Top 10 Best Chatbot Platform Tools to Build Chatbots for Your BusinessWorking out the informationThere’s little doubt you’re already dealing with a mountain of facts, statistics, names and numbers, as it is. Some of those facts, though, have either changed or been clarified over the years. You have an incredible incentive for improving the accuracy however, because AI is designed to give better, more intuitive advice, the more you work with it.Related: 5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Shaping the Future of EcommerceThis means that you need to stick with this technology for more than the first few rounds. There are services available that will chart how the relationships and behavior of businesses work and may help your business figure out how to work with the existing order to penetrate a certain market.Having that information at your fingertips could enable you to start generating more of your own relationships and focus on better strategies to gain the trust you want from key people.Making software relevantSoftware companies come out with fresh innovations every day, and many are shocked to find their clients aren’t so much impressed with their hard work as confused and discouraged. Many have speculated that the real value of AI has to do with the fact that it makes the machinery and devices easier to use, so training is minimal and changes in the structure are sparse.Sales reps, in fact, come to despise software updates and communication failures, especially considering these events’ direct impact on their numbers. Clearly, then, AI may not be there quite yet, but eventually it will give sales teams a reliable way to make better decisions both in the office and in the field.Related: How to Create a Facebook Messenger Chatbot For Free Without CodingAction stepsAs mentioned, sales AI is all about predictions, and the best companies are also the best predictors. AI should be able to take your CRM from a basic tool to a more engaging and interactive experience. It’s these insights that empower a team to make better connections with clients which ultimately inspire the real loyalty you’re looking for.AI is not meant to give you a direct answer, but rather make the answer clearer. Too often, managers completely underestimate the motivations for a buyer’s hesitation, and that lack of knowledge hurts the whole company. By eliminating the information that clouds people’s judgment, you can simplify your understanding of the situation for a better outcome.The future of sales and technologyThe nature of technology is that it only gets better. AI will continue to interpret the information of the past to create stronger machines that can easily adapt to the circumstances of the day. Even though the people in B2B sales may not be the first group to leap on what’s new and now, that doesn’t mean they won’t get there eventually.Salespeople have a tendency to be focused on whom to call, as opposed to the fancy coding that makes that contact information available. However, once they see the difference that AI can bring to their performance, they’ll become its leading champions. AI will continue to be integrated with the internet of things, which will bring further convenience and automation to clients and salespeople alike.Related: How One Man Used Artificial Intelligence to Generate Genuine Sales LeadsThen, once AI helps to make these processes run like clockwork, clients will gain a sense of security and support in an often tumultuous world. For these reasons and more, it’s wise to keep up on all of the news concerning this important technology in the sales field. Attend this free webinar and learn how you can maximize efficiency while getting the most critical things done right. Free Webinar | Sept 5: Tips and Tools for Making Progress Toward Important Goals
In Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour, meanwhile, IS fighters have beheaded two couples they accused of practicing sorcery, according to Abdurrahman of the Observatory.The beheadings were carried out over the past week, he said, without giving further details.The IS group, which governs its self-styled caliphate in accordance with an extreme interpretation of Islamic law, has in the past beheaded dozens of people for blasphemy, sorcery and espionage. The group has beheaded female Kurdish fighters, but beheading civilian women remains rare.___Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Kurdish activist Mustafa Bali said Tuesday that IS fighters killed 233 people in Kobani, including 100 children, saying most of those killed were shot in cold blood, some inside their homes. He said 35 Kurdish fighters were killed following the June 25 attack.Rami Abdurrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group with a network of activists inside Syria, said 223 civilians were killed in Kobani, including “scores” of women and children, as well as 37 Kurdish fighters. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the slightly different tolls.Kurdish fighters captured Tal Abyad two weeks ago — denying the IS group a crucial border crossing used to bring in supplies and foreign fighters and causing immediate price hikes in areas under IS control. Backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, the Kurds then advanced south toward the extremist group’s de facto capital, Raqqa.But in Tuesday’s surprise attack, IS fighters battled their way back into Tal Abyad, seizing the eastern Mashhour neighborhood, Abdurrahman said, adding that the extremists did not appear to have enough fighters to retake the whole town.Bali and a senior Kurdish defense official, Nasser Haj Mansour, told The Associated Press that the small group of IS fighters might have been a sleeper cell that came from inside the town. Bali said that after a fierce battle lasting up to three hours, the fighters took shelter in an empty school building. He later said all the IS fighters were killed. How men can have a healthy 2019 Top Stories Mansour said late Tuesday that the fighters were holed up in two buildings and were being “dealt with” by Kurdish forces. “The fight will soon be over,” he said.Conflicting accounts are not uncommon during or immediately after such battles.In the remote northeastern city of Hassakeh, meanwhile, Syrian government forces and allied paramilitary National Defense Forces retook Eastern Ghoweiran, a neighborhood seized by IS militants last week, activists and Syrian state television said Tuesday.Fighting has raged in Hassakeh since the IS group attacked several southern neighborhoods held by government troops earlier this month. The violence has left dozens killed and forced at least 60,000 residents to flee, according to activists and a Western aid group.Turkey-based opposition figure Mustafa Osso said IS captured three predominantly Arab neighborhoods in Hassakeh last week and that fighting was continuing in the city.The U.S. military said Tuesday that the U.S.-led coalition has conducted seven overnight airstrikes near Hassakeh, hitting five groups of IS fighters, destroying four vehicles, an armored personnel carrier and a tank.Until the latest IS advance, the predominantly Kurdish city was split between government forces and Kurdish fighters, who have been fighting the IS group separately. Here’s how to repair and patch damaged drywall Mesa family survives lightning strike to home Ex-FBI agent details raid on Phoenix body donation facility
Comments Share BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State fighters on Tuesday launched a surprise attack on a Syrian border town recently seized by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, taking positions in the eastern part of the town and waging fierce gun battles with its defenders, activists said.The attack on Tal Abyad resembled another surprise assault by the IS group last week on the border town of Kobani, where Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes had driven out the extremists in January. The two attacks brutally displayed the extremists’ resilience and signaled a possible change in tactics following a string of defeats at the hands of Kurdish forces. Sponsored Stories Men’s health affects baby’s health too New Valley school lets students pick career-path academies 4 sleep positions for men and what they mean
Arizona Cardinals running back Ryan Williams will miss the entire season with a ruptured right patella tendon, Coach Ken Whisenhunt confirmed in a Saturday press conference.Williams was injured in the Cardinals’ 28-20 loss to the reigning Superbowl champion Green Bay Packers. He was hit from behind and looked to fall awkwardly on his right knee. Williams was carted off the field and looked to be in a great deal of pain. Nevada officials reach out to D-backs on potential relocation Top Stories Comments Share A ruptured patella tendon requires surgery to fix and extensive rehabilitation. Williams is estimated to be ready for the beginning of the Cardinals’ 2012 training camp.Williams absence leaves a hole in the Cardinals run game, as he was expected to work with Beanie Wells this year as a tandem. Former Cardinals running back Tim Hightower was traded to the Washington Redskins to clear a place for Williams.Whisenhunt did not say who the Cardinals had in mind to replace Williams, but he did say the selection of a replacement would be a process. If the Cardinals went for a veteran back, he would have to be content with a lesser roll, Whisenhunt said.
What an MLB source said about the D-backs’ trade haul for Greinke D-backs president Derrick Hall: Franchise ‘still focused on Arizona’ Cardinals expect improving Murphy to contribute right away
The positions Turkey’s foreign minister as outlined in his interview with Phileleftheros on Sunday, explains why the Cyprus problem has not been solved to date, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said.In the interview, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara remained firm in its position to maintain the system of guarantees and of keeping Turkish troops in Cyprus following a solution.According to a brief preview of the interview published online, Cavusoglu argues that the existing guarantee system provided “a strong framework to ensure the future stability of the island.” He further maintained that “the overwhelming majority of the Turkish Cypriots will not accept a settlement without Turkish guarantees”.Cavusoglu also insisted that the EU four freedoms, free movement of people, capital, goods and services, should apply to Turkish nationals after a solution.He said Turks and Greeks must be treated equally in order to maintain an outside balance between the two countries, both of whom are guarantor powers. The Greek Cypriot side argues that Greeks have the four freedoms because Greece is a member of the EU. In addition Cavusoglu claimed that the Greek Cypriots were not prepared to go the extra mile to reach a settlement.Responding in comments to the Cyprus News Agency later on Sunday, Christodoulides said: “The positions he expresses in his interview explain exactly why, in spite of significant progress already achieved, the current process has not led, so far, to a final conclusion.”“The interview and everything the Turkish foreign minister refers to further explain the awkwardness of the Turkish side towards the recent proposal by the President of the Republic, which is the only one which, if adopted, could create prospects for a positive outcome and avert a possible deadlock in the negotiations,” he added.Christodoulides said the most recent proposal President Nicos Anastasiades had put forward at the negotiating table, to help make headway in the ongoing peace talks, could create prospects for a positive outcome and avert a possible deadlock.The talks have stalled since the leaders last week failed to come to an agreement for a new Geneva conference. UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide tried some shuttle diplomacy to bring them together in a new meeting to figure out a workable formula but got nowhere. He is due to continue his shuttle diplomacy when he returns to Cyprus on Tuesday.In the meantime, Anastasiades is due to hold a National Council meeting on Monday and to address the Cypriot people.You May LikeClassmates.comLook For Any High School Yearbook, It’s FreeClassmates.comUndoFigLeaf Beta AppHow to Become Fully Anonymous Online in Less Than 3 Minutes? Better safe than sorryFigLeaf Beta AppUndoTruthFinder People Search SubscriptionOne Thing All Liars Have in Common, Brace YourselfTruthFinder People Search SubscriptionUndo Concern over falling tourism numbersUndoAuthorities release five of 12 Israeli rape suspects, seven due in court FridayUndoPensioner dies after crash on Paphos-Polis roadUndoby Taboolaby Taboola
Categories: Albert News 28Apr Rep. Albert invites residents to April office hours State Rep. Thomas Albert of Lowell will host open office hours on Saturday, April 29.9 to 10 a.m. at 3rd Wave Coffee, 105 E. Main St. in Belding;11 a.m. to noon at Jamnbean Coffee Company, 6860 Cascade Road SE in Grand Rapids“Being open and accessible is important for anyone in government,” Rep. Albert said. “I look forward to listening and learning about what issues are important to people in our community. This is a great opportunity to share your voice with the Capitol.”No appointment is necessary. Those unable to attend may contact Rep. Albert at 517-373-0846 or via email at ThomasAlbert@house.mi.gov.#####
State State Rep. Lee Chatfield, of Levering, today said the release of a study considering options for preventing the spread of Asian carp is just the first step, and swift action is needed to prevent the invasive species from entering the Great Lakes.The long-awaited report from the Army Corps of Engineers assesses the viability of establishing various control mechanisms at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Ill., to prevent the upstream transfer of aquatic nuisance species such as Asian carp from the Mississippi River Basin into the Great Lakes Basin.“Now that the results of the study are finally available, it is important to move as promptly as possible to implement a plan that protects our Great Lakes from the spread of this highly-invasive species,” Chatfield said. “Asian carp are now closer than ever – just 9 miles from Lake Michigan. We need to take action before they spread throughout Great Lakes waters, destroy our ecosystem and way of life and negatively impact the state economy.”The study, which presents a variety of options that will stop invasive species at the Brandon Road Locks and Dam while also minimizing impacts to existing waterway uses and users, is available at glmris.anl.gov/brandon-rd.### 08Aug Rep. Chatfield: Asian carp study released, now it’s time for action Categories: Chatfield News
Share11TweetShare5Email16 Shares“1909 Cheyney Library” by Smallbones at English Wikipedia; transferred to Commons by Stefan4 using CommonsHelper. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.August 27, 2015; Philadelphia InquirerPotential Democratic candidate for President Hillary Clinton has made college affordability a significant plank in her campaign platform, with a component of her “New College Compact” providing support to students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Students who go to a community college before enrolling at an HBCU would benefit from Clinton’s commitment to making community colleges tuition free. Through her plan for state-level public-private partnerships, students attending public HBCUs would attend not have to borrow for tuition costs. According to NBC News, the Clinton plan includes $25 billion to help students at private nonprofit HBCUs.It isn’t certain by any means that the New College Compact would make it through Congress even if Hillary Clinton were to re-enter the White House, or that the state-level partnerships would work given recent experience of some states’ very reluctant participation in plans that need their support (such as the expansion of eligibility for Medicaid). A key to making her plan successful for HBCUs is to make sure that the HBCUs are themselves surviving through the fiscal problems that too many of them seem to be encountering.One of the latest HBCUs in some financial and managerial trouble is Cheyney University, the nation’s oldest HBCU. Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth, Cheyney counts a number of notable graduates, including Ed Bradley of CBS News and Robert Woodson of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. However, a review conducted for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education found that the school may have mismanaged the financial aid it receives from the U.S. Department of Education to assist students and, as a result, may owe the federal government more than $29 million. According to Kenn Marshall, a spokesperson for the system, “It appears as if a large percentage of students who received grants and loans were not eligible or should not have received the level of funding that they did.”Sadly for Cheyney, this isn’t the first time that the school has encountered this problem of administering student aid correctly. “This report brings to light the deficiencies of many enrollment management functions, the university’s policies and procedures, communications, academic progress, student accounts, student records, financial records, and student information management systems,” wrote Frank T. Brogan, state system chancellor, in a letter to Cheyney’s council of trustees, highlighting the systemic management problems that afflict Cheyney University and may reflect challenges to the school’s survival.According to the coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Cheyney has an annual budget of $30.4 million, carries a $15 million deficit, and operates on a line of credit. A $29 million repayment to the U.S. Department of Education would be clearly a devastating event. For this report, the school declined to reveal its current student enrollment, but late last year, another article reported that Cheyney enrollment was at a 31-year low and the four-year graduation rate was down to nine percent.Cheyney University may be on the verge of going under, but it isn’t the only HBCU facing major challenges. Other HBCUs in trouble include South Carolina State University, a public university, and Wilberforce University, a private nonprofit. Even some better-known and better-financed HBCUs such as Howard University and Spelman College face considerable financial challenges, according to a review in Business Insider.President Reagan created a White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in 1981 to strengthen HBCUs, and each succeeding president has continued the program, including President Obama. However, a report published in Diverse Issues in Higher Education notes that inequities between funding predominantly white and HBCU schools have not been overcome. The author, Autumn Arnett, noted that President Obama infuriated members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently by suggesting that some HBCUs might have to close, something that no other president has ever suggested. “He didn’t show much empathy for struggling HBCUs,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), after President Obama’s speech to the CBC.A Congressional HBCU Caucus was established earlier this year, with Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) at the helm. If they can generate a deeper understanding in the White House and in Congress about the importance of sustaining HBCUs, they might help deal with inequities in government support. If Clinton’s plan or something akin to it takes shape, that will help HBCU students. But the longstanding financial challenges of many HBCUs merit a redoubled commitment from charitable giving and private philanthropy to deal with accumulated deficits and mounds of debt. We don’t know of any major efforts to save HBCUs like there have been to save some troubled predominantly white colleges and universities.—Rick CohenShare11TweetShare5Email16 Shares
Share60TweetShare2Email62 Shares“Drug overdose” By Sam Metsfan (Apartment in New York) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsMarch 9, 2017; Washington PostThe American Health Care Act (AHCA), proposed by House Republicans and endorsed by the Trump administration, includes key provisions that eliminate federal mandates for what services must be covered under Medicaid. Among these changes is one that could affect an estimated 1.3 million people in need of addiction treatment in the 31 states and the District of Columbia that chose to implement Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).There is concern about ending the coverage mandate at the same time a national opioid epidemic is spreading across the country. The Washington Post reports:A record number of people—33,000—died of opiate overdoses in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioids now kill more people than car accidents, and in 2015 the number of heroin deaths nationwide surpassed the number of deaths from gun-related homicides. Authorities are also grappling with an influx of powerful synthetic narcotics responsible for a sharp increase in overdoses and deaths over the past year.Opioid overdose death rates are highest in Kentucky and West Virginia, both states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA. Medicaid currently pays for about 44 percent of medication-assisted addiction treatment for covered individuals in those states.If the AHCA were to become law in its present form, the federal mandate under Medicaid expansion would disappear. However, whether addiction treatment coverage would also disappear in those states is a more difficult question to answer, owing to economics, politics, and existing state laws.Federal Medicaid funding would shift from a percentage of covered expenses (reimbursements for services provided and paid for) to a percentage of covered individuals (a fixed dollar amount per eligible Medicaid recipient). The bill’s proponents believe that the change is a win-win; the federal government will save money and states will have more latitude to implement Medicaid coverage based on state-identified needs.Critics note that a person’s Medicaid eligibility and enrollment varies from month to month, especially for nondisabled enrollees younger than retirement age. Addiction is a “chronic relapse disease,” meaning that someone receiving treatment under Medicaid expansion might be successful in returning to work and no longer qualify for addiction treatment services under Medicaid expansion. If they were to subsequently relapse into addiction, under the proposed AHCA they would not be able to requalify for the same benefits.According to the nonpartisan National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL), all states have at least some form of mental health parity mandate or regulation. The ParityTrack website provides additional state-by-state information on the details of legislation, regulation, and litigation related to mental health insurance coverage parity. Each state’s approach and extent of parity is different, making it all but impossible to know what would happen in the absence of federal mandates.Further complicating the ability to predict is the very freedom guaranteed to state Medicaid administration under the AHCA. Would states elect to continue addiction treatment coverage under the same terms as before? Would state-level mental health parity laws apply to Medicaid plans? Could state governments afford to maintain coverage if Medicaid funding is reduced and other treatment priorities—and other providers—are demanding support?Advocates for addiction treatment would be wise to watch events at both the federal and state levels. Although it’s possible that the AHCA will be defeated or amended, it’s likely that President Trump and HHS Secretary Tom Price, with or without Congressional support, will direct changes in federal Medicaid regulations in such a way as to make state-level mental health parity laws and state Medicaid policies crucial to continued coverage for addiction services.—Michael WylandShare60TweetShare2Email62 Shares
Cyprus service provider PrimeTel has chosen Russian technology company SmartLabs to provide a hybrid platform for the delivery of TV services.PrimeTel PLC offers traditional IPTV services and is now planning to promote DVB-T broadcasting with interactive services delivered over the internet. SmartLabs will deploy its SmartTUBE SDP Service Delivery Platform, SmartSPY monitoring solution, integrate them with the security and content encoding systems, and deliver SML-303 hybrid set-tops to support DVB-T/IP.
UK operator Virgin Media reached a milestone figure of two million TiVo customers this week, after first launching the service in December 2010. The firm marked the occasion by surprising the two millionth customer, a family in Manchester, with an impromptu visit by Hollyoaks and Dancing on Ice star Jennifer Metcalfe.Virgin Media said that TiVo is the “UK’s fastest growing pay TV service” and along with 2 million installs, received 519 million on-demand TV programme requests last year alone.“Reaching two million TiVo customers is a huge milestone for Virgin Media,” said director of digital entertainment Scott Kewley.“TiVo brings your favourite TV right to you, so we thought we’d go even further for Chris and Leigh Lynch by surprising them with a visit from their favourite television celebrity. It was great seeing their reactions and we hope they had as much fun as we did planning the surprise.”
Portugal had about 3.17 million pay TV subscribers at the end of last year, up 1.6% on the previous year and up 0.3% on the previous quarter, according to regulator ANACOM. According to the regulator, growth was driven by fibre network and XDSL providers, whose subscribers increased by 4.5% and 3.4% respectively quarter-on-quarter. Cable and DTH customers fell by 1.1% and 2.8% respectively in the fourth quarter.Cable held a 44.2% amrket share in December while XDSL represented 21.6% and DTH had 19.3%. FTTH/B network accounted for 14.9% of subscribers.According to ANACOM, 77.9% of pay TV subs took a service as part of a bundled offering.The Zon Optimus group remains the market leader by share, accounting for 47.8% of subscribers. Portugal Telecom had a 41.5% share, followed by Cabovisáo and Vodafone with 7.1% and 3.5% respectively.Total revenues from standalone pay TV packages totaled €1.2779 billion, up 3.1% on the previous year, according to ANACOM, while average monthly expenditure per user for bundled offerings stood at €47.50, down 4.2%. Average revenue from bundled TV and internet offerings fell by 5.3% to €39.60, while bundled TV and fixed phone packages saw averagerevenue rise by 2% to €31.60.About 19.4% of pay TV homes had access to premium channels at the end of December, down 1.2%.
The UAE’s new TV ratings system, tview, has been approved for use by international auditors CESP, clearing the way for its adoption in the Gulf state. The audit report, which was shown to the media industry at an event hosted by the Media Zone Authority in Abu Dhabi, concluded that tview, which is a meter-based audience measurement system, had shown significant improvement over the last year.Tview was initially set up in 2012 by Emirates Media Measurement Company (EMMC), a joint venture of some of the UAE’s leading media players. The system did not win universal approval, and an initial audit last year highlighted a number of areas that needed to be improved. In the past year, the operator of tview, Kantar Media, has worked with CESP and established a joint technical committee with industry stakeholders to plan and make the required improvements.The audit found that the active participation of panel homes had improved from below 60% to nearly 77%, compared with an internationally recognised target of 85%. The audit found that around 90% of TV sets are being properly metered, up from 74% a year ago. Meanwhile, a new survey methodology used to gather data about the UAE population was adopted and successfully piloted during the year. This will now be rolled out on a larger scale.“EMMC, Kantar Media and the Technical Committee have worked hard all year to make these improvements, and we will continue to do more to develop tview,” said EMMC general manager Christopher O’Hearn.“We understand this is a significant and game-changing step for the industry but we have to catch up with the rest of the world. 78 countries have electronic TV measurement systems, some established for decades. If the television industry does not embrace it here then it will continue to be undervalued, and will suffer further as digital consumption and online viewing increases.”
Altice Group second quarter financials were pulled down by continued subscriber, revenue and earnings losses at French unit SFR, despite a solid performance elsewhere, including its new US acquisitions.Total French revenues fell by 4.3% year-on-year to €2.781 billion, which included revenues from its new content and media assets. Adjusted EBITDA, like revenue, was hit by falling subscriber numbers, falling 6.8% to €999 million.Total French fixed customer losses were 58,000, a slight year-on-year improvement compared with the 61,000 lost during the prior period.Consumer mobile revenues also tumbled by 7.1% thanks in large part to subscriber losses of 199,000 – an improvement on the prior year losses of 314,000.The quarter saw the completion of the acquisitions of a 49% stake in NextRadioTV and Altice media Group France to create a portfolio of channels that also includes SFR’s sports assets, centred on its rights to English Premier League football. SFR launched five new sports channel and two news channels – BFM Paris and BFM Sport – ahead of the Premier League season kicking off at the end of this week.NextRadioTV, now rebranded SFR RadioTV, saw double-digit revenue growth of 12.6%.Portugal Telecom/Meo also saw revenue fall by 3% – an improvement on the prior year – but EBITDA surged by 22.5%. Consumer revenue was hit by falling voice termination fees as well as multi-play price competition.Israeli unit Hot saw revenues increase for the first time in a number of years, growing 1.5% on a constant currency basis.Altice’s US assets peformed well. Suddenlink saw revenues grow by 5.7% on a constant currency basis. EBITDA grew by 18.5%. Revenue generating units were down by 8,000 but residential customers relationships were up 2.9% year-on-year. Optimum also performed well.Overall, Altice saw group revenues fall by 2.6% to €5.828 billion for the quarter, while total group EBITDA was up 2.7% on a reported basis to €2.265 billion.