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Theme on the Social and Environmental Accountability of the Private Sector (SEAPRISE)
Theme Chair
Diana Shand (Aotearoa New Zealand)
The SEAPRISE Theme
The subject of Environmental and Social Accountability of the Private Sector has been identified as one of the work themes mandated to CEESP by the IUCN General Assembly at the Third World Conservation Congress in Bangkok (November 2004).
The CEESP Theme on Social and Environmental Accountability of the Private sector - SEAPRISE - will collaborate with the Business and Biodiversity Programme of IUCN on methods and tools to strengthen the capacity of the private sector to become environmentally and socially accountable in its field-based work. In particular, it will promote the engagement of civil society in context-specific, long-term, constructive processes by which the private sector is followed and assisted to ameliorate their policies and practices.
Besides following the CEESP mandate, - SEAPRISE - takes inspiration from a number of IUCN Resolutions endorsed by the IUCN General Assembly in Bangkok (November 2004). These include 3.057, 3.059, 3.060, 3.061, 3.075, 3.082, 3.084 and 3.086.
Furthermore, SEAPRISE wants all IUCN Resolutions to be respected by Industry as well as Governments. These include the AMMAN Declaration which calls on Governments to prohibit by law, all exploration and extraction of mineral resources in protected areas which correspond with IUCN categories I to IV protected areas. It also lays down clear recommendations for when exploration and extraction would be acceptable in categories V and VI protected areas.
SEAPRISE Origins
SEAPRISE was born out of the former CEESP Collaborative Management Working Group, CMWG. Several CMWG members, notably representatives and defenders of indigenous people, expressed concerns about dialogues between the private sector and conservation organisations. At the same time CMWG members became involved in providing independent advice to stakeholders in the prospect of oil and gas exploitation in the West African Marine Eco Region (Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia Guinea Bissau and Guinea).
SEAPRISE members
SEAPRISE members include academics, defenders and representatives of indigenous people, representatives of affected people organisations, and professionals working for development and environment agencies who share a common concern about dialogues between the conservation community and the private sector. Our members agree that strategies of both cooperation and confrontation are necessary to make business more sustainable. Members work on various themes like bridging the knowledge and power gaps between industries and stakeholders, financial transparency, the driving forces of business for good social and environmental conduct, loopholes in international law, and the role of the media, shareholders, consumers, civil society and governments in corporate accountability. The members generally offer their contributions on a volunteer basis. They can be compensated for their professional activities if funds are available through specific projects or programmes.
- Membership in the SEAPRISE list automatically implies membership in the CEESP Commission.
- Membership is by invitation, which is issued by one of the SEAPRISE Chairs on behalf of the CEESP Chair, or on the recommendation of experienced SEAPRISE members.
SEAPRISE Goals
During its first years SEAPRISE will focus on the extractive industries (mining and oil and gas extraction)
- To To study ways for conservation organisations to engage effectively with the extractive industries towards improving their policies and practice.
- To increase the capacity of civil society and governments to work effectively with the extractive industry, particularly in countries with a low capacity of government and civil society to participate effectively in planning/managing extractive industry projects.
- To improve corporate environmental and social accountability through developing and implementing mechanisms, notably citizens councils, that enable stakeholders to engage in a fully informed dialogue with the private sector.
- To promote the 1% Earth Profits Fund, a newly proposed private-sector finance initiative to provide increased and sustained support to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
- To promote an "Energy Revolution" that will reduce the impact of oil and gas on climate change and biodiversity. This will include the removal of all subsidies to the Oil and Gas Industry (which are currently approximately $230 billion a year (UNEP 2003)) and apply the subsidies to help the industry to engage in renewable energy and environmental and socially sound energy/transportation systems and reduce the need to negatively affect areas of high biodiversity.
SEAPRISE Goals further explained:
1. Effective engagement with the extractive industry
In recent years there has been an explosion of voluntary initiatives intended to improve the social and environmental performance of business, including corporate social responsibility (CSR), socially-responsible investment (SRI), product certification and labelling, corporate sustainability reporting, etc. Some of these initiatives have been spearheaded by IUCN members. At the same time, other IUCN members remain sceptical of the potential of the private sector to achieve social and environmental goals voluntarily.
Many concerns were expressed by IUCN members about trans-national corporations of especially the extractive industry having succeeded in marginalising and neutralising International conservation organisations by providing relatively small sums of money for conservation work. Many advocacy organisations label funding from the extractive industry to environmental organisations as greenwashing.
At the Third World Conservation Congress in Bangkok it also became apparent to CEESP members that some conservation organisations who accept funding from the extractive industry are ill informed about the negative impacts of these industries on the environment and people. Greenwashing is likely to take place when organisations are both strapped for resources and poorly informed.
Other well-known interactions between the extractive industry and International conservation organisations are high-level dialogues and partnerships such as, for example, the IUCN-ICMM dialogue or the EBI (Energy and Biodiversity Initiative). These interactions generally aim to develop voluntary codes of good environmental and social conduct and to integrate considerations of biodiversity in the development of extractive industry projects. The organisations involved generally recognise that the extractive industries cause environmental degradation, but are convinced that the industry, as being a part of the problem, could also become a part of the solution.
Many SEAPRISE members, affected people, indigenous people groups and advocacy organisations are deeply concerned about these high-level partnerships. Many are having second thoughts about the effective and fair engagement of all stakeholders, especially indigenous and affected peoples groups, in such partnerships/dialogues. Others believe that these dialogues do not generate tangible results in the field, because discussions are too theoretic and the terminology that is used, such as "biodiversity" or "sustainable development" is too broad and too vague. Private sector and the environment movement often differ fundamentally in their actual idea of what these terms actually mean in practice. Others label high level dialogues as deep greenwashing. They believe that these efforts are part of a political strategy of the industry to convince civil society and national governments of the "self-regulating" capabilities of companies with the ultimate aim to weaken and prevent the development of binding legislation and regulation.
SEAPRISE members will study the driving forces behind good environmental and social conduct of the private sector. SEAPRISE will make conservation organisations better aware of the impacts of the extractive industry on people and the environment. SEAPRISE will investigate the limits of voluntary codes of good conduct and study the respective roles governments and civil society should play in making markets and business more sustainable. Real life cases will be taken under the loop in the analysis.
SEAPRISE will advocate for more concreteness in high level dialogues. Our Commission is furthermore committed to provide affected communities with a voice in the high-level dialogues between the conservation community and the extractive industry.
In order to realise our goals we are especially interested in hearing from those communities most impacted by the extractive industries.
CEESP members have been active over the past years to enhance the capacity of civil society groups and governments to enter in a more equitable dialogue with the extractive industry. Many stakeholders in the prospect of oil, gas and mining exploitation expressed a need for independent advice and capacity building activities.
SEAPRISE members assist civil society groups and government institutions with decision making procedures regarding oil, gas and mining exploitation. They give advice about Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA), the identification of "no go zones" and on how to fit extractive industry projects within National Sustainable Development plans, Poverty Reduction Plans, Energy and Transport Strategies.
Advice is also provided on a project level. SEAPRISE members work with stakeholders during especially the critical early planning phases of extractive industry projects, when awareness of stakeholders about best practices and undesirable side effects is low. Especially during these early planning phases, it is important that stakeholders have a thorough understanding about best practices and potential impacts because crucial decisions about social and environmental safeguards are taken in this period. Stakeholders mostly become aware about negative impacts only when undesirable side effects start to appear and when it is too late to put necessary safeguards in place. In this common scenario, violent conflicts between companies and their stakeholders may arise (see scheme below (Geert van Vliet, 1998). Complete PPT presentation in French downloadable here.
SEAPRISE experts have provided stakeholders in the West African Marine Eco Region in the prospect of oil and gas development with independent advice how to best manage this activity.
In efforts to make large-scale extractive industries more environmentally and socially accountable, it is essential to establish formalized mechanisms to engage local communities and citizens in the oversight of those industries. In addition to transparency, the critical importance of informed public oversight is key to the improvement of the safety, environmental practice, revenue equity, social responsibility, and ethical behaviour of extractive industries around the world. The Regional Citizens' Advisory Council (RCAC) established in Alaska to oversee the Alyeska oil terminal is one of the more effective models in this regard. We propose that all large-scale extractive industries establish similar well-funded, independent, representative Citizen Advisory Councils to provide real engagement with informed citizens over the entire lifetime of extractive industry projects (See Richard Steiner´s article on Citizen Advisory Councils).
4. 1% Earth Profits Fund (EPF)
As 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world are corporations (the other 49 are nation-states), the business community represents the largest under-exploited revenue source for conservation. Rather than accepting small sums of money from private sector for conservation work that are often labelled as greenwashing, a pooled fund within which businesses can dedicate 1% of their profits would represent an enormous step forward in the urgent need to provide financing for conservation. As profits of the "Global 500" companies (top 500 revenue generating companies worldwide) were reported at almost $1 trillion in 2004, 1% of this would have amounted to $10 billion.
Clearly, past combined financial commitments of governments, international financial institutions, corporations, and private philanthropies have been far too small to reverse environmental decline. While some estimates suggest that as much as $300 billion (USD) / year would be necessary to fully protect global biodiversity, global annual spending specifically on this issue is much less than 1% of this amount. As well, the conservation impact of traditional corporate giving has been limited due to four main reasons: 1) contributions are segregated rather than pooled; 2) funding decisions are made mostly by corporate directors for public relations and/or political value rather than by conservation professionals and communities for conservation value; 3) combined contributions have been too small, and 4) giving has been erratic, unpredictable, and unstable. Although national governments agreed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 to dedicate 0.7% of GNP to Overseas (sustainable) Development Assistance (ODA), all but a few have failed this promise. (Download Rick Steiner's article on 1% Earth Fund here)
SEAPRISE position, in a nutshell, is that climate change is the biggest possible threat to the planet, its people and its environment. Current actions to solve the problem are totally inadequate; the energy sector is making billions today and leaving behind environmental and social legacies costing billions today and in the future. The future of the planet is at risk and we have to act as soon as possible.
An Energy Revolution would have to tackle all aspects of our use of energy as well as the production of Energy. For example 50% of CO2 emissions come from the built environment, 25% from transportation and 25% from other causes. Radical changes need to be made not only to the way we produce energy but also the way we build and transport people and goods…
|CEESP Themes Page


text: Nope! It's a shell of horn type like your finger nail that's over a core of bone. Each late fall they pull of the shell and grow new once. The only big game that does that in the world. Someday the shell will quite shrinking but it depends on the climate. It's important to get the buck measured right at 60 days if it's going book. For sure it will still shrink after that 60 day drying period. Mule Deer will shrink also. I have a buck I took in the mid 60's that had a main frame of 30" will he has shrink to 28 1/2"! All big game shrink but nothing like antelope. I think the one that will shrink a lot is horned animals like sheep or goats. We are all in the same boat with the shrinking bit. Mike

subset: commoncrawl


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A line of fans are outside of our offices for today's Easter Egg Hunt. The Royals will take the field at 3:00 for an open workout in preparation for tomorrow's opener vs. Detroit. Come on out to Kauffman Stadium this afternoon!
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Located in scenic Park City, Utah, White Pine Touring is a retailer and guiding service for mountain biking, hiking, climbing, and snowshoeing. We also operate a 20 km cross-country ski center in the heart of Park City for skate and classic skiing. For an exciting outdoor adventure, we offer year-round yurt lodging in the high Uinta Mountains. White Pine Touring's knowledgeable staff, instructors and guides have been helping locals and visitors enjoy their outdoor pursuits since 1972. For more information call us at (888) 649-8710. Nordic Center hours are 9:00AM to 6:00PM during the Winter Season.
If you're considering visiting Park City for the first time, please visit http://www.parkcityinfo.com for comprehensive information on the local area and lodging.


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I am having some calendar issues with Outlook users. This is what happens.
Mr A. schedules a meeting with Mr B. Mr B. receives the appointment and accepts it. After this,
Mr A. does not get any email confirming that Mr B. accepted his invite and neither Mr A. or Mr B. has this schedule in their Calendar items. Has any one run into this problem before? I will like to know what the root cause is so I can fix this.
I have confirmed that the users have the latest service pack for Office.


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Glass Doors
Showcase Mullion With Bistro Glass
Solid wood door with removable tempered glass inserts. Choose Bisto, Antiquity or Ravenna inserts. This style features 2� x2� lites in each corner and is always 3 lites wide X 3 lites high. Size of center panels depends on door width. Not available in arc
Glass Door Details
|Door / Glass Type
|Order Code


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Two fans of The Beatles have been left shocked after receiving a message from Sir Paul McCartney, half a century after first trying to contact him.
Barbara Bezant and Lyn Phillips, of Essex, England, were starstruck teenagers when they recorded a message to the singer on tape before posting it to a London theater where the band was due to play in 1963.
The two ladies were reunited with the recording on British TV's "The One Show" on Friday after it was unearthed at a junk sale – and they were stunned when the presenters then handed over a note from McCartney.
The message reads, "Hi Linda and Barbara, thanks very much for you lovely tape. It finally got through, better late than never. Great to hear that you found each other after all these years. Keep enjoying the music, love Paul."


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Valencia, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Top seed and defending champion David
Ferrer was an easy second-round winner, while fourth-seeded American John
Isner was shown the door at the $2 million Valencia Open.
The Spanish crowd favorite and French Open runner-up Ferrer leveled Frenchman
Julien Benneteau 6-2, 6-1 on the indoor hardcourts at the City of Arts and
Ferrer, who was last week's runner-up in Stockholm, beat Ukrainian Alexandr
Dolgopolov in last year's Valencia finale, also titled here in 2010, and was
the runner-up back in 2005.
The 6-foot-9 Isner, meanwhile, succumbed to France's Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (9-7),
6-3 on Day 4.
Fifth-seeded Pole Jerzy Janowicz avoided an upset by handling Portuguese
Joao Sousa 6-2, 7-5.
Also in the second round, Finn Jarkko Nieminen whipped Colombian Alejandro
Falla 6-2, 6-3 and Russian Mikhail Youzhny grounded German Philipp
Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-3.
The 2013 Valencia winner will collect $490,000.
The Sports Network


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Good luck! I hope your rite. Look forward to the pics
but this time next week I'll have 1 big bull elk on the ground! (and my 1st archery)
and hopefully my father will also get lucky before the hunt is over...
may luck be on all of your side as well!
pics may take a couple weeks from today at least...
no matter how much I prepare for these hunts it seems nothing ever gets done/ready until the last minute...
Good luck! I hope your rite. Look forward to the pics
Good luck to you
Back with no elk
Did see a mountain lion though! scary/awesome to see 1 alive in the wild.
I like it better when I don't see them. Then I can tell myself there's none around. Even though I don't believe it.


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Information Literacy in Philosophy
Back to Information Literacy in the Disciplines Menu
The ACRL IS Information Literacy in the Disciplines Committee has gathered links and citations to information literacy standards and curricula developed by accrediting agencies, professional associations, and institutions of higher education in Philosophy.
Professional Associations
The American Philosophical Association
American Philosophical Society
American Society for Aesthetics
The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Curricula, Articles, and Presentations
Kodderman, Achim D., and Nancy Canon. "What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking? Developing skills to read and write effectively about philosophy." The State University of New York Digital Repository, 2005. http://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/bitstream/1951/396/1/teachncak.pdf (accessed December 10, 2013).
Maughan, Patricia D. "Assessing information literacy among undergraduates: A discussion of the literature and the University of California-Berkeley assessment experience." College and Research Libraries 62, no. 1 (2001): 71-85.
Simmons, Michelle Holschuh. The development of undergraduate students' facility with disciplinary discourses through collaboration between faculty members and librarians. PhD diss., University of Iowa, 2007. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/161 (accessed December 10, 2013).
Sugarman, Tammy S., and Constance Demetracopoulos. "Creating a web research guide: Collaboration between liaisons, faculty and students." Reference Services Review 29, no. 2 (2001): 150-56.
Young, Sheila J., and Jennifer M. Duvernay. 2006. "Learning communities and librarians at Arizona State University." IATUL Annual Conference Proceedings 16 (2006): 62-66.
Teaching Materials
Behrendt, Kathy, Stig Hansen, and Nik Jewell. Internet Philosopher Tutorial. Intute: Virtual Training Suite. http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/tutorial/philosophy/ (accessed December 10, 2013).
Searching Tips
Suggested Search Terms:
- Information Literacy
- Information Competency
- Information Fluency
- Library Research
- Philosophy
- Philosophy Courses
Suggested Search Strategies:
- Basic: "Information Literacy" AND philosophy
- Advanced: ("information literacy" OR "information competency" OR "information fluency") AND ("philosophy classes" OR "philosophy courses")
- Note: Searching for philosophy without a word like "courses," "classes," "department," or "professor" following it retrieves many results that have nothing to do with the academic discipline of philosophy. For example, "my philosophy is that..."


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Building Respect for Usability Expertise
Summary: Enemies of usability claim that because 'the experts disagree,' they can safely ignore user advocates' expertise and run with whatever design they personally prefer.
A reader recently sent me the following message, seeking my advice on a common quandary:
I read your article today ("Guesses vs. Data as Basis for Design Recommendations") after an awful workplace bicker with subject matter experts about how their content failed to meet the Web readers' needs.
As a Web manager for a small state government agency, I am constantly frustrated by content owners' subjective opinions, which they fling at me while stubbornly refusing my suggestions:
- "Yeah, see, I don't like that."
- "I wouldn't click there, and so neither will they."
- "Oh, they'll know what that means, even if you don't."
When I recently cited one of your articles to support my stance, I was told "there's always evidence to support any opinion." Giving them data seemed to not impress them one iota. They seemed annoyed that I found data to support my argument and were not swayed.
Do you have any other suggestions on how to get colleagues — who are not usability experts — to trust me with their content? How do I convey that what I do is a profession and skill set? How do I gain my colleague's respect as their Web content strategist?
Sadly, this situation is common not just in government agencies, but also in most big companies. There are several different issues at play here; each requires a specific remedy.
Differences Between Users and Project Members
The first malady here is that content owners are relying on their own opinions and preferences. The primary cure is to point out that these subject-matter experts are completely unrepresentative of the target audience on almost every possible dimension:
- Because they're in charge of a particular topic, they obviously know much more than the target audience about all aspects of it, from background knowledge to specialized terminology.
- As insiders working in your organization, they're also aware of how you structure the domain and each department's responsibilities. (Similarly, product managers know not just about their own products, but also how they relate to the company's overall product line.) This is the root cause of many of the IA failures we see in testing websites — and intranets.
- As professionals — usually with college degrees — they might be smarter and better educated than many people in the target audience. This certainly varies across websites, but it's typically true for sites that target a broad consumer audience, senior citizens, and many recipients of government services, such as welfare benefits.
- Sometimes, content owners are also more tech savvy than the audience, with a better understanding of computers and Internet concepts. This is analogous to application design, where developers often have far greater technology skills than users.
- Finally, because it's their project, content owners are much more motivated to care about the content than the users. And, the less motivated people are, the more likely they are to skim text in an attempt to extract only the most useful information.
For all of these reasons, it doesn't matter what content owners themselves like or understand; the behavior of real users is likely to be completely different.
Luckily, these differences are fairly easy to explain to anybody who's willing to be objective. Better yet, each difference flatters subject-matter experts by emphasizing their superior knowledge.
Seeing Is the Only Way to Convert Unbelievers
Once you've successfully argued that content owners can't project their own preferences onto the target audience, you're left with a question: How should you judge usability?
Although it's good to cite external research, the sad fact is that nothing is as persuasive as testing your own users. Even if numerous outside studies have identified a certain phenomenon, many people won't be convinced until they've seen it for themselves.
That's one of the main reasons I always recommend running your own user tests, even if you're designing a fairly simple website and virtually all of your findings will replicate the published literature. Seeing is believing, and most skeptics will leave the lab highly motivated to change their ways (and, more importantly, to change the site so that it finally works).
This is also why you should move heaven and earth (or at least serve free pizza) to get all stakeholders to observe a few user sessions. You can also flatter them some more by explaining that it will be difficult to correctly interpret the study results without them. (That's not a lie, but the main reason to invite them is so that they'll believe the study findings.)
Simple user studies are cheap, and it's almost always worthwhile to spend a few days observing a handful of representative users working their way through your content.
Which Data to Trust
It's true that "there's always evidence to support any opinion," but that doesn't mean you should ignore data. After all, some data is clearly better than others.
The main facts about how people read on the Web are extremely well established, and literally hundreds of studies have reproduced our original findings over the past 12 years.
The same is true for all of our usability guidelines: most have been confirmed by other independent studies. Anyone who bothers to run a study will discover the same thing, because there are no usability secrets — it's simply a matter of looking.
Still, while most usability evidence strongly aligns, there are deviant results to be found. People who don't know any better will stumble across such findings in a Web search and proclaim that "the experts disagree." However true, this is not a license to ignore usability data and follow any random path.
Instead, you should weigh the evidence. On one scale, you have hundreds of studies from experts across industries and countries; they all agree on the big picture, and often document their findings with substantial reports. On the other scale, you have a few deviant postings (plus many guesses, but as previously discussed, you should disregard pundits who don't test their theories with real people). This simple weighing exercise usually tips the scales in favor of the consensus.
Deviant usability findings are typically caused by one of the following:
Weak study methodology. Unless you're an expert in usability methodology, this can be hard to assess, but common problems include:
- Unrepresentative users. Academic studies, for example, tend to test students instead of people who better represent the target audience. (See guidelines for recruiting representative study participants.)
- Unrealistic tasks that are overly narrow compared to the free-form roaming that characterizes real user navigation. Such bogus tasks are particularly common in eyetracking studies, which are easier to conduct when you take users directly to the pages that you want to heatmap. But people behave completely differently when they're dumped into a problem rather than coming across a page on their own. (To do eyetracking on a shopping cart, for example, you should first ask users to shop.)
- Biased study facilitation, where the facilitator talks too much and guides users in a way that changes their behavior.
- Statistical flukes. If you rely on a 5% significance level, then 1/20th of the findings are due to random fluctuations and don't represent a real effect. Unfortunately, the 19 studies that correctly confirm existing wisdom are boring, and don't get much coverage. The 20th — invalid — outcome, however, is easily found in a search for hotly debated blog posts.
- Second-tier usability consultants who try to attract attention by being different.
- Unusual circumstances. I designate something as a usability guideline if it holds true for about 90% of designs. So, in 10% of cases, something different happens because that design addresses a problem that's extremely different from the typical case. People always think that their projects are unique. However, 9 times out of 10, it's not different enough for the common usability guidelines to fail.
There's a big intrinsic reward for claiming to find something completely new that contradicts all established wisdom. Seminars sell better when they claim to reveal "secrets" or "all-new, all different" results. I admit that I always hope for new findings in our own research, because I know that they'd make us more money. But year after year, the usability findings remain fairly robust and steady, and I'd rather report the truth than increase revenue. Luckily, there are enough honorable usability experts in the world that the findings of most other reports are similar to our own.
When judging which data to trust, look at the economic incentives. For example, studies of Internet advertising's effectiveness conducted by advertising agencies are inherently suspect compared to those conducted by people who don't care whether you spend more or less money on ads. Similarly, the rewards from being "new and different" mean that those studies that confirm existing knowledge are inherently more likely to be trustworthy.
Building Respect
So far, I've presented all the logical arguments for why people should follow your advice. However, logic will take you only so far. Ultimately, your colleagues must respect your professional expertise so that you don't need to bury them in an avalanche of external research data for every decision.
Respect comes only from proven performance. Once content owners see how much better customers react to websites that are written and designed according to established usability guidelines, they'll start respecting you more. Sadly, this is a chicken-and-egg situation: you get to demonstrate the value of your advice only if it's being implemented.
This is why it takes some time to build respect. There are two ways to incrementally improve the situation:
- Do use logic to get some of your arguments accepted. Logic won't win the day, but in most organizations, it's not completely ignored.
- Run user studies and do whatever it takes to get others to observe some sessions. When they see first-hand that you're right this time, they'll believe you a bit more next time.
If you have the budget, a third approach can help as well: bring in an external consultant or prod your colleagues to attend a usability seminar (say, our UX Basic Training :-) When they hear internationally recognized authorities say the same as you, there's a better chance that they'll listen to you in the future.
This is a hill-climbing process. You can't go from contempt to respect in a day, but you can gradually build respect by continuously doing your job well. This is very similar to the way an organization as a whole builds usability maturity: one step at a time.
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My friend is scheduled to be induced in a few days which is NOT what we want...And I cant figure out a good reason for. None the less, please let me know of the myriad of things she can try to get her labor moving along --and soon!
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text:
Is there a minimum size that a Tallis Kattan has to be in order to be Yotzei the Mitzva of Tzitzis according to all Poskim? If there is a minimum size, what is it?
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Twenty-four inches wide. Some poskim hold that it is eighteen inches.
The main shiur is that which will cover the head and most of the body of a child who can walk independently in the marketplace (menachos 41). The Tur gives an age of 9.
There is a dispute about the second condition of the braisa that an adult would wear it in the street occasionaly. The Tur holds this is a second precondition and so the Rema adds this even though the mechaber doesn't ((O.C. 16:1- see magen Avraham). The 2nd precondition alone would not be enough of a shiur. However, the Mishna Berura (16:2) says that it seems from the Bach that if an adult (13 y/o) would wear it on a regular basis, you wouldn't need the precondition of the child.
BOTTOM LINE: The Mishna Brura (ibid.) quotes a shiur of 3/4 Amah L x 1/2 Amah W, but then quotes the Artzos haChayim who say this shiur has no basis and says that "Anshei maase" are particular to have an Amah on each side, but you should have at least 3/4 of an Amah, since the "Mesamchei Lev" measured a 9 y/o and found him to be 1.5 Amos.
haRav David Yosef rules in Halacha Berura 16:1 (presumably based on a ruling of his father Hacham Ovadia) that unless a talit is 2 amot long (96 cm) and 1 amah wide (48 cm), not including the hole, one should not make a beracha.
Big enough that if you wore this over your torso in the street, you wouldn't be embarrassed.
(Now Groucho Marx would ask what your torso was doing in the street, but that's a different question ...)
To make it simple. It would be size 22 of Tzitzis.
According to the Aruch Hashulchan there is no shiur at all:


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|School lunch menu guidelines updated
|Written by Holyoke Enterprise
Schools across the country are launching a campaign to inform parents and students of the recent lunch program changes and are requesting families to take another look at school menus.
At the start of the 2012 school year, the United States Department of Agriculture released guidelines for the school lunch program, adjusting portion sizes and requirements for fruits, vegetables, grains, meat protein and milk. These adjustments resulted in many students' favorite school lunch items getting pulled from the menu.
In December 2012, the USDA released an updated version of these guidelines that loosened the weekly limits for grain and protein intake. As a result of these changes, school meals can now include more options for student favorites like chicken sandwiches, burgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, deli sandwiches, salads and wraps.
Schools will be able to serve increased portions of grains such as breads, rolls, pasta and rice, allowing menu planners to have more flexibility in offering a variety of options for meals that students will enjoy.
The meals will remain nutritious, a great value and more satisfying than ever. Food service staff and school personnel are encouraging parents to join their student for lunch at school and give school lunches a try. They are hopeful these efforts will reignite participation in the National School Lunch Program and alert students and parents to the increased variety available for lunch at their school.
All other guidelines from the initial school meal standards remain intact, including the requirement that students need to select at least 1/2 cup of a fruit or vegetable to make up a complete meal. The USDA has not stated if these guidelines will change again for next school year.
Chartwells School Dining Services, a division of Charlotte, N.C.-based Compass Group, provides dining services for over 550 public school districts, including Holyoke, serving 2.7 million students in over 6,000 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. For more information about Chartwells School Dining Services, visit www.eatlearnlive.com.
Holyoke Enterprise March 7, 2013


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Running Time: 102 mins.
Genre: Drama, Foreign, Sports
Eleven-year-old Will Brennan is perhaps the biggest fan of Liverpool football. While attending Catholic boys' boarding school in Southern England, his fervent passion for the sport proves to be his greatest joy. One day his absentee father Gareth reappears, providing him not only the hope of being a family again but also two tickets to the biggest football match of the year: the Champions League Final in Istanbul. When his father suddenly dies, Will finds himself devastated but determined to fulfill their dream of attending the game, even if he must make the trans-European journey on his own.


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Video: Montana State University Shout Out
Video by Sgt. Mark Scovell
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Waldorf and Soldiers from the 1-189th General Support Aviation Battalion of the Montana Army National Guard do a shout out to Montana State University. The 1-189th, which is based in Helena, is currently deployed to the Middle East with the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (Video by Sgt. Mark Scovell, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade Public Affairs) Also available in high definition
This work, Montana State University Shout Out, by SSG Mark Scovell, identified by DVIDS, is free of known copyright restrictions under U.S. copyright law.
Date Taken:11.6.2013
Date Posted:11.6.2013 11:09AM
Video ID:306716
Hometown:BOZEMAN, MT, US
Hometown:HELENA, MT, US


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RAYLAND - Steven Gretchen shot even par to win medalist honors for Bishop Donahue during a quad.
Bridgeport won the match behind Jonathan Kreiter's 37. Ryan Kasper (43), Parker Dyson (44) and Zach Herink (46) also shot for the Bull Dogs.
Monroe Central was led by Tanner Burkhart with a 42.
Jason Miller and Brandon Smith both fired a 44 to lead River.


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May 24, 2016
NEW YORK (AP) -- Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first freshman to win college football's most prized individual award.
The redshirt freshman beat out Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein.
A few days after turning 20, Manziel became the most inexperienced player to win the Heisman. Adrian Peterson had come closest as a freshman, finishing second to Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart in 2004.
Manziel is the second player from Texas A&M to win the Heisman, and first since John David Crow 1957.
Manziel broke 2010 Heisman winner Cam Netwon's Southeastern Conference record with 4,600 total yards this season, led the Aggies to a 10-2 in their first SEC season and orchestrated an upset at No. 1 Alabama in November that stamped him as legit.
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See All Contributors »
Done deal if you believe this.
SPORTSbyBROOKS Sources: 96-Team March Madness Is "Done Deal"
If true, that's complete BS. Don't **** with a perfect system. If you want to **** with something, try football.
Ugh, **** that ****. So stupid.
What about the associated story:
"31 Mediocre Coaches Embrace The Change"
I cheer for two teams, Iowa State and whoever is playing the hawkeyes.
Originally Posted by cyclonenum1
What about the associated story:
"31 Mediocre Coaches Embrace The Change"
LOL...just like the bowl system it's gonna be oversaturated.
You already have teams that don't belong in the tournament with the 64 team field and now you are adding more average teams? Doesn't make much sense
Kansas wears Adidas.
It use to be an incredible honor to be asked to play in the NCAA tournament. Now if you are mediocre, you will be in the tournament. Why fix what isn't broken? Who plays in the NIT now?
"The greatest risk in life is not taking one"
well first these rumors and now this?!?!?!
NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
We still wouldn't make it into the tournament. Sorry, had to be said. Please continue.
Yet again, greed rules all.
Imagine the number of coaches who actually win more than one championship under that bracket. You would be considered a legend if you could accomplish that.
The NCAA confirmed that bidders would be interested in 96 teams, so theyre going with it.
All you need to know right there. The NCAA, exploiting student athletes since 1905.
The ncaa tournament is still one of the most selective postseasons out there even with the change.
NCAA Tourney (asis) 64/347 18.4%
NCAA Tourney (new) 96/347 27.6%
NCAA Football (I-A) 68/120 56.6%
NFL Playoffs 12/32 37.5%
MLB playoffs 8/30 26.6
NBA playoffs 16/30 53.3
Making the bottom end of the NCAA tourney will be equivalent to making the NIT today. The real question is, if you're in that 66-96 range, would you rather be in the tourney and be done early, or be in the NIT and have a shot at playing many more games?
Originally Posted by ChrisMWilliams
If you guys come by Bondurant tonight, I'll **** all over every one of your dogs. I'm not the Mayor but I've been drinking a crap ton of water today and have plenty of water in the old radiator.
I'm not a fan of half the teams getting a bye...So IMO, 64 or 128. Which 128 is probably way too many.
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May 31, 2016
A 32-year-old man was arrested for possession of child pornography after his lost cellphone was recovered at the Mississippi State Fair.
The Hinds County Sheriff's Department spokesman says Christopher A. Gadvilus was arrested after employees of the Penn's booth on the fairgrounds found a cellphone that allegedly contained a video of a young girl having sex with a grown man.
Deputies say when they found Gadvilus he admitted he had lost his phone.
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Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh Mandel met once again Thursday night for a debate to see who is more qualified for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat. The candidates were a bit less feisty in their final debate, but the substance behind their words was fairly similar to the past two debates.
Mandel spent a bit less time attacking Brown for "Washington speak," and Brown spent a bit less time attacking Mandel for dishonesty. However, Mandel did spend a bit more time attacking Brown for being a "career politician," and both candidates criticized each other for voting along party lines.
For the most part, the debate treaded ground covered in the first debate and second debate. CityBeat covered those face-offs in-depth here: first debate and second debate.
Some new details did emerge when Brown and Mandel discussed Social Security. Mandel clarified he would raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare for those around his age — 35 — and younger. To justify the raise, he said life expectancy has grown since those laws were first put into place. He also claimed, "If we maintain the status quo, which is the way of Washington, there will be no Medicare or Social Security."
Brown responded by saying he wouldn't raise the eligibility age or reduce benefits, but he would increase the payroll tax cap.
In the case of Mandel's proposal, there is some important context missing. While it's true life expectancy has increased in the U.S., it has not increased at the same level for everyone. A 2008 study by the Congressional Budget Office found life expectancy is lagging for low-income individuals, while it's steadily rising for the wealthiest Americans. A 2006 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology had similar findings. These studies show increases in the average life expectancy may not be reflective of what's actually happening within the poor and even middle class. In other words, raising the eligibility age to match the rise in life expectancy could disproportionately hurt the lower classes.
There are also some holes in gauging the eligibility age for entitlement programs with a rise in the average life expectancy. Social Security was enacted in 1935. Between the law passing and 2007, the U.S. child mortality rate dropped about 3.3 percent per year for children between the ages of one and four, according to a study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This large drop in child mortality rate could be exaggerating gains in life expectancy, which is an average that takes into account the age of deceased children.
Mandel's implication that raising the eligibility age is the only way to keep Social Security solvent is also misleading. Currently, the payroll tax is set up so it only taxes the first $110,100 of everyone's income. A Congressional Research Service study from 2010 found eliminating the cap would keep the Social Security Trust Funds solvent for the next 75 years. The downside is this would raise taxes for anyone making more than $110,100. Still, the fact eliminating the cap would extend the trust funds' solvency shows there are other options, and it shows Brown's idea of increasing the cap has some fiscal merit.
However, Mandel would not be able to take Brown's approach because it would mean raising taxes, which Mandel vowed to not do under any circumstance when he signed lobbyist Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge.
For the final debate, Mandel and Brown followed similar paths as before and even recited some of the exact same lines. At this point, the candidates have painted clear contrasts. With three debates and a year of campaigning behind them, it's now clear Brown is mostly the liberal, Democratic choice and Mandel is mostly the conservative, Republican choice.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The final debate for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat is tonight. Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh Mandel will meet in Cincinnati to continue a feisty exchange of ideas and sometimes insults. In the last debate, the candidates drew sharp contrasts on policy, which CityBeat covered in-depth here. The final debate will be tonight at 7 p.m. on all Ohio NBC news stations, including WLWT.com. In aggregate polling, Brown is currently up 5.2 points against Mandel.
Want to see what a biased headline from a local newspaper looks like? Here you go, from Business Courier:
Romney win would boost economy, economist says. Strangely enough, the article says re-electing President Barack Obama could also lift the economy, which makes the misleading headline even worse. Unfortunately for the newspaper, Obama is currently leading by 2.1 points in
Ohio against Mitt Romney, and the state will play a pivotal role in the
election. Romney is leading by 0.6 points nationally.
A group is trying to convince Cincinnatians to vote no on Issue 4. The initiative, which is on 2012's ballot, would extend City Council terms from two to four years. Supporters of Issue 4 say it lets City Council focus more on passing laws and less on campaigning, but opponents say it makes it more difficult to hold City Council accountable.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Robert Cupp is distancing himself from a TV ad put out by the Ohio Republican Party that depicts his Democratic opponent, William O'Neill, as sympathetic to rapists. Liberal blog Plunderbund called the ad "tone deaf," referencing recent instances of Republican senatorial candidates turning rape into a legitimate issue. The Republican Senate candidate for Indiana, Richard Mourdock, recently said during a debate, "I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." Previously, the Republican Senate candidate for Missouri, Todd Akin, told reporters when discussing pregnancy caused by rape, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
CityBeat looked at some of the benefits and downsides of green water infrastructure yesterday. Basically, it's going to produce more jobs and economic growth, but it's going to require long-term commitment and education. Later today, CityBeat will be talking to some city officials of how that green infrastructure can be adopted in Cincinnati.
Hamilton County's budget is tight, and that means no wage hike for county workers anytime soon, according to Hamilton County Commission President Greg Hartmann.
Gov. John Kasich is taking his time in filling an open Board of Education seat. Rob Nichols, Kasich's spokesperson, says, "We just want to get the right person." But state law requires the seat be filled within 30 days, and the seat has been vacant for a month.
An Ohio judge said provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct and polling location must still be counted.
Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble beat Wall Street expectations, easing concerns from skeptical investors.
Huntington National Bank is relaunching its credit card business in a move that will produce 250 new jobs, and Greater Cincinnati is expected to land some of those jobs.
Ohio is getting a little love from Airbus. The aerospace company will be getting more of its parts from Ohio manufacturers. Cincinnati-based GE Aviation is already Airbus' biggest U.S. supplier.
A new health care report found health providers often
cover up mistakes in fear of retaliation. The report also found health
care has been slow at embracing the "culture of safety."
Apparently, strict parents raise conservative kids.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
A City Council committee approved $13.5 million that will be going to Over-the-Rhine development. Of that money, $6 million will go to the second phase of the Mercer Commons project, which is being developed by Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC). The rest will help 3CDC redevelop 18 different buildings that are mostly around Washington Park. City Council will vote on the funding today.
Cincinnati's unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent, but the drop was mostly attributed to people leaving the labor force. Between September 2011 and September 2012, Cincinnati's labor force has actually shrunk. Still, more people were employed in September 2012 than were employed in September 2011.
The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority is asking Cincinnati for $8.5 million to secure a Jordan Crossing shopping center project at Bond Hill. The funds would pay for the demolition, site preparation, marketing and redevelopment of the project.
In the second wave of interim results from an ongoing investigation into Ohio schools' attendance data reporting, State Auditor Dave Yost found no evidence of attendance scrubbing in schools with levies on the 2012 ballot. The investigation included Cincinnati Public Schools, which means CPS was found to be clean. In a statement, Yost said, "I'm surprised and pleased. To have zero incidents of 'scrubbing' is encouraging news." The full findings for both interim reports can be found here.Clifton is set to get a neighborhood grocery store soon. The neighborhood has been without one since January 2011. City Council's Budget and Finance Committee helped spur the new project with a tax abatement program.
The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners held a budget hearing yesterday, but not much new information came out. Board President Greg Hartmann insists public safety is a priority, but he says the sheriff's office will have to deal with some across-the-board cuts. The cuts won't include closing the jail, decreasing courtroom security or eliminating contracts with townships for patrols. The board has two more public meetings on Oct. 29 and 30.
The controversial billboards accused of attempting to suppress voters are being taken down by Norton Outdoor Advertising, the Cincinnati company that hosted the billboards. Meanwhile, P.G. Sittenfeld and Lamar Advertising Company, a different billboard company, are putting up 10 billboards that read, "Hey Cincinnati, voting is a right not a crime!" The new billboards are supposed to encourage voting.
The University of Cincinnati has a new president: Santa Ono. The official promotion was unanimously approved by the UC Board of Trustees. Ono has been serving as interim president since Aug. 21, when former President Greg Williams suddenly resigned due to "personal reasons."
The Cincinnati Enquirer is being accused of age discrimination in a recently amended lawsuit. In the lawsuit, eight former employees claim they were fired and replaced with younger, less qualified employees.
A new rumor is going around that says it's possible to tamper with voting results, but fact checkers and election officials are saying it's not possible. The rumors started due to the Romneys' investments in an electronic voting company.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Here is a list of some of the department's accomplishments: The amount of rivers meeting aquatic life standards went from 21 to 89 percent between the 1980s and today, carbon monoxide in the air is down 80 percent since the 1970s, sulfur dioxide is down 71 percent, lead is down 95 percent and 99 percent of community public water systems now meet health standards, up from 85 percent in 1993.
Miami University says it will discipline two students responsible for putting up an offensive flyer about getting away with rape in a coed dorm bathroom.
Metro revealed its plans for an Uptown Transit District. The district, which will cost Metro $6.9 million, is meant to better suit the needs and growth of Uptown.
Two Democratic state lawmakers are planning legislation to slow down the privatization of the Ohio Turnpike. Gov. John Kasich's administration is currently paying $3.4 million to KPMG, a private consulting and accounting firm, to study whether leasing the turnpike to the highest private bidder would benefit the state. Kasich says he could use the money saved for transportation projects all around the state. But northern Ohio residents do not seem happy with giving up a valuable asset they helped invest in, especially if the revenue from the Ohio Turnpike goes to regions outside of northern Ohio.
There's more evidence sushi sucks. Popular Science has an article and graph showing how raw food kept primates stupid.
A Cincinnati outdoor advertising company announced Tuesday that it will take down controversial billboards that opponents claim are aimed at intimidating voters.
Norton Outdoor Advertising had been contracted to put up about 30 billboards that read "Voter Fraud is a Felony!" The billboards also listed the maximum penalty for voter fraud — up to 3 and a half years and a $10,000 fine.
Opponents of the billboards claim they were strategically placed in predominantly low-income and black neighborhoods in Cincinnati as a means to discourage those largely Democratic voters from going to the polls.
The billboards were funded by an anonymous "private family foundation."
In a statement posted online, Norton Executive Vice President Mike Norton said the displays would be taken down as soon as possible. He wrote that the foundation and Norton agreed after hearing criticism that the sentiment surrounding the displays was contrary to their intended purpose.
The family foundation didn't intend to make a political statement, but rather make the public aware of voting regulations, he wrote.
"We look forward to helping to heal the divisiveness that has been an unfortunate result of this election year," Norton wrote.
Norton had previously told CityBeat that the billboards were not targeted but distributed randomly throughout the city.
Several Cincinnati officials wrote to the company requesting the billboards be taken down.
ClearChannel Outdoor Advertising announced on Monday that it was removing similar billboards in Cleveland and Columbus.
The billboards throughout Ohio had garnered national criticism and media attention.
A rival outdoor advertising company is putting up 10 new billboards to rebut the voter fraud ones.
The new red, white and blue billboards will read "Hey Cincinnati, voting is a right not a crime!"
Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld said in an emailed news release that he reached out to Lamar Advertising Company to ask if they would donate the billboards throughout Cincinnati.
"We should be encouraging folks to participate in our democratic process, not trying to scare them," Sittenfeld wrote. "I salute Lamar's generosity and their support in encouraging citizens to raise their voice and not be scared away."
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The final presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was last night. The general consensus from media pundits is Obama won by a substantial margin. But political scientists say debates typically have negligible electoral impact. In aggregate polling, Obama is up in Ohio by 1.9 points and Romney is up nationally by 0.6 points. Ohio is looking like a must-win state for both campaigns, so Obama's advantage there is a very bad sign for Romney. FiveThirtyEight, The New York Times' election forecast blog, has an explanation of how and why the current electoral landscape favors Obama.
In a follow-up to the debate, Romney will be visiting Greater Cincinnati Thursday.
A new motion by City Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan could encourage more people and businesses to make use of the city's LEED program. The program uses special tax exemptions to encourage buildings to be cleaner and greener.
Cincinnati's City Planning Commission approved Plan Cincinnati Friday. With the approval, the plan's only hurdle is City Council. If passed, the plan will reform city policies to put a new emphasis on the city's urban core. That means a cleaner, greener city with more transportation options, ranging from walking and biking to the streetcar and rail. CityBeat wrote about Plan Cincinnati here. The full plan can be found here.
Three Republicans in the state legislature, including Cincinnati's Sen. Bill Seitz and Rep. Louis Tehrar, introduced a bill that would require health insurance providers to cover autism. Critics say the move could cost small businesses too much during an economic downturn, but supporters say it's necessary to Ohio's mental health coverage requirement, which was passed in 2007. Seitz says the bill could also save money by bringing down special education costs.
In a sign of Ohio's education funding problems, one report found two of three Ohio school levies are asking for
additional funding. But Cincinnati Public Schools' (CPS) levy will only
not ask for extra funding or higher taxes; instead, it asks for funding
and taxes to remain the same. CityBeat covered Issue 42, the CPS levy, in-depth here.
A new report found Ohio students graduate with more debt than most of the nation. The report named the state a "high debt state" with an average of $28,683 in student loans — above the national average of $26,600.
Despite what a recent conflict between Commissioner Greg
Hartmann and Mayor Mark Mallory implies, Cincinnati and Hamilton County
are working together. The city and county are cooperating on the Banks
project, funding the Port Authority and operating the Metropolitan Sewer
Cincinnati is working harder to enforce a chronic nuisance
disorder. A property is classified as a chronic nuisance when it
surpasses a certain amount of crimes and violations. The law is meant to
hold property owners accountable for what happens in their buildings.
There are more signs that Ohio's fracking boom may not be
sustainable. Natural gas producers are not seeing the profits they
expected from the boom. For many, the boom is quickly turning into a
bust. Still, natural gas prices have massively dropped, and an analysis
at The Washington Post suggests natural gas could play an important role in reducing carbon emissions. CityBeat wrote in-depth about the fracking boom in Ohio and the faulty regulations on the industry here.
The Ohio Board of Regents is using a grant to award 1,300 associate degrees to transfer students over two years.
Fourteen recreational trails in Ohio will get $1.6 million in federal funding, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. However, none of the trails are in Hamilton County.
The key to humanity: cooked food.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
The final presidential debate is tonight. It will cover
foreign policy. The debate will likely focus on the recent attack on
the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya and Iran's nuclear program. Whatever happens, political
scientists say debates typically have little-to-no electoral impact. In
aggregate polling, Obama is up 2.2 points in Ohio and Romney is up 0.3 points nationally. Ohio is considered a must-win for Romney, and it could play the role of 2000's Florida. The debate begins at 9 p.m. It will be streamed live on YouTube and C-SPAN.
CityBeat will host a debate party tonight at MOTR
Pub in Over-the-Rhine from 7:30-10:30 p.m. Come watch the debate and live
tweet. Councilman Chris Seelbach will make an appearance. If you can't
show up, at least tweet if you watch the debate with the hashtag
#cbdebate. Check out the event's Facebook page for more information.
If Gov. John Kasich gets his way, 60 percent of bachelor's
degrees will be completable in three years by 2014. The move intends to
raise graduation rates and save money for students. Currently, very few
students graduate in three years. Only 1 percent of Miami University
students and 2 percent of University of Cincinnati students graduate
that quickly.
Ohio's Third Grade Reading Guarantee, a new education
policy approved by Kasich that requires all students to be proficient in
reading in third grade before they can move onto fourth grade, could
cause 40 percent of students to be held back in some schools.
The policy is meant to encourage better progress and higher reading standards, but some studies
have found retention has negative effects on children.
The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati announced a merger and expansion into Dayton. The organization will now be called the Urban League of Southwest Ohio.
Greater Cincinnati home sales ticked up in September, but there was some slowdown.
The end of the Scripps trust that funded the Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Company could lead to the end of a few newspapers. But Ohio will not be affected; the company no longer owns newspapers in the state.
Plant identification has never been easier at Cincinnati parks.
University of Cincinnati researchers are using a $2.7 million grant to see if there's a difference between generic versus brand drugs for transplant patients. The study could potentially save money and lives.
Tired of traditional bridges? Meet the trampoline bridge.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
Ohio's unemployment rate dropped to 7.0 percent in September despite employers cutting 12,800 jobs. The rate is much lower than September's national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent. Ohio actually lost jobs in manufacturing, construction, education, health services, government and other sectors, with some gains in professional and business services, information services and trade, transportation and utilities. The new rate is a big improvement from the 8.6 percent unemployment rate in September 2011. This is the last state unemployment rate Ohioans will see before the Nov. 6 election.
The second debate for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat took place last night. As usual, Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh Mandel held back no punches. Each candidate mostly focused on attacking his opponent's integrity and record, but the men also discussed a multitude of issues — the economy, China, Obamacare, foreign policy, gay rights and more. Check out CityBeat's in-depth coverage of the debate and the policy proposals espoused by the candidates here.
The final presidential debate between President Barack
Obama and Mitt Romney will take place next Monday. The debate will cover foreign
policy. Presumably, the debate will focus a lot on Iran, but Foreign Policy
has an article focusing on five bigger threats to U.S. national
security. Although the debate could be important for substance,
political scientists say debates typically have little-to-no electoral
impact. In aggregate polling, Obama is up 2.4 points in Ohio
and Romney is up one point nationally. Ohio is considered a must-win for Romney, and it could play the role of 2000's Florida.
To make the debate more fun, CityBeat will host a party at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine Monday. Come join the CityBeat team to watch the debate and live tweet. Councilman Chris Seelbach will also show up and talk for a bit. If you can't show up, feel free to tweet about the debate at home with the hashtag #cbdebate. For more information, check out the event's Facebook page.
Ohio Senate Democrats are demanding an investigation into a voter fraud group. The Democrats say True the Vote (TTV), a conservative group, is unnecessarily intimidating voters. TTV claims it's just fighting voter impersonation fraud, but the reality is that kind of voter fraud doesn't seem to exist. A study from the Government Accountability Office found zero cases of voter impersonation fraud in the past 10 years. Another study from News21 found 10 cases since 2000, or less than one case a year.
Meanwhile, a local group is trying to encourage Muslim voters to get educated and vote.
The Cincinnati Police Department is trying to improve relations with the LGBT community. As part of that effort, the city hosted a LGBT public safety forum and named the first LGBT liaison yesterday.
A federal appeals court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which forbids the recognition of same-sex marriage at a federal level. The ruling was praised by Ian James, spokesperson for FreedomOhio, in a statement: "The federal DOMA forbids allowing governmental recognition of civil marriage. The demise of the federal DOMA will not resolve Ohio's ban on marriage equality. For this reason, we will soldier on, collect our petition signatures and win the right for committed and loving couples to be married so they can better care for and protect their families. That is ultimately why marriage matters and we look to have this issue on the ballot as soon as November 2013."
With a week left, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati fundraising campaign has only met 70 percent of its goal. The campaign acknowledges it's been a tough year, but campaign chairman David Joyce says he has been "heartened" by support.
The University of Cincinnati is committing to giving Cintrifuse $5 million initially and $5 million at a later point. Cintrifuse is a "startup accelerator," meaning a company devoted to helping startup businesses get started.
Ohio health officials urge caution as they monitor a meningitis outbreak.
Ohio's heating assistance program for low-income households is starting on Nov. 1. Qualifying for the program is dependent on income and the size of the household. For example, one-person households making $5,585 or less in the past three months or $22,340 or less in the past 12 months are eligible, while four-person households must be making $11,525 or less in the past three months or $46,100 or less in the past 12 months. For more information, check out the press release.
Kentucky is pitching into development at the Purple People Bridge. The state is boosting a $100 million hotel and entertainment project on the bridge with a $650,000 grant.
The Boy Scouts' "perversion files" were released, and some of the sexual molestation cases involve Cincinnati.
Science finally has a breakthrough to care about. Scientists invented a strip that ensures pizza and coffee won't burn a person's mouth.
For a full hour Thursday night, Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh Mandel continued their feisty fight for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat. For the most part, the debate centered on the candidates' records and personal attacks, with policy specifics spewing out in between.
Apparently, the barrage of attacks is not what the candidates had in mind before the debate started. Throughout the debate, both candidates asked for substance, not attacks. At one point, Brown said, "I appreciate this clash of ideas. That's what this debate should be about." At another point, Mandel said, "We need less attacking, and we need more policy ideas to put people back to work."
These comments came well into the debate. By that time, Mandel had criticized Brown for "Washington speak" so many times that an exasperated Brown quipped, "I don't get this. Every answer is about Washington speak."
Brown also launched his own attacks, which focused on Mandel's dishonesty on the campaign trail, which previously earned Mandel a "Pants on Fire" crown from Cleveland's The Plain Dealer, and Mandel, who is also Ohio's treasurer, missing state treasurer meetings to run for political office.
But Ohioans have seen enough of the attacks in the hundreds of campaign ads that have bombarded the state in the past year. Voters probably want to hear more about how each candidate will affect them, and the candidates gave enough details to get some idea of where each of them will go.
On economic issues, Brown established the key difference between the two candidates' economic policies: Mandel, like most of his Republican colleagues, believes in the trickle-down theory. The economic theory says when the rich grow, they can create jobs by hiring more employees and expanding businesses. In other words, proponents of the theory believe the success of the rich "trickles down" to the middle class and poor through more job opportunities. Belief in this theory is also why most Republicans call the wealthy "job creators." Under the trickle-down theory, the wealthy are deregulated and get tax cuts so it's easier for them to create jobs.
On the other hand, Brown says he supports a middle-out approach, which focuses on policies that target the middle class. That is how sustainable employment and growth are attained, according to Brown. Under the middle-out approach, tax cuts and spending policies target the middle class, and the wealthy own a higher tax burden to support government programs.
Some economists, like left-leaning Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, say the trickle-down theory should have been put to rest with the financial crisis of 2008. After all, deregulation is now credited with being the primary cause of 2008's economic crisis. In that context, more deregulation seems like a bad idea.
Still, Brown's contrast to Mandel holds true. Brown has
repeatedly called for higher taxes on the rich. In the debate, he touted his
support for the auto bailout and once again mocked Mandel's promise to not
raise any taxes. These are policies that do end up benefiting the middle class
more than the wealthy. The auto bailout in particular has been credited with
saving thousands of middle-class jobs.
On the other side, Mandel told debate watchers to go to his website and then offered some quick talking points: simplify the tax code, end Wall Street bailouts and use Ohio's natural gas and oil resources "in a responsible way." How Mandel wants to simplify the tax code is the issue. On his website, Mandel says he supports "a flatter, fairer income tax with only one or two brackets, eliminating almost all of the credits, exemptions and loopholes." A study by five leading economists suggests a flat tax model would greatly benefit the wealthy and actually hurt the well-being of the middle class and poor. That matches with the trickle-down economic theory.
Another suggestion on Mandel's website says, "Help job creators. Reduce capital gains and corporate taxes, and allow for a small business income deduction." The small business portion would help some in the middle class, but an analysis from The Washington Post found 80 percent of capital gains incomes benefit 5 percent of Americans and half of all capital gains have gone to the top 0.1 percent of Americans. So a capital gains tax cut would, again, match the trickle-down economic theory.
What all this means is on economic issues the choice of candidates depends mostly on what economic theory a voter believes. Brown believes in focusing economic policies that target the middle class, while Mandel mostly supports policies that generally support what he calls "job creators" — or the wealthy.
On partisanship, both sides once again threw out different ideas. Although he was asked for three ideas, Brown only gave one: fix the filibuster. The filibuster is a U.S. Senate procedure that allows 41 out of 100 senators to indefinitely halt any laws. The only way to break the filibuster is by having a supermajority of 60 senators — a rarity in American politics. Brown said if this rule was removed, a lot more could get done in Congress.
Mandel had different ideas for stopping partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C. He touted his support for No Budget, No Pay, which would require members of Congress to pass a budget in order to get paid. He also expressed his support for term limits, saying lifelong politicians only add to the partisanship in Congress. Then, in a strange twist, Mandel's last suggestion was to stop bailouts, which has nothing to do with partisanship or gridlock in Congress.
Then came Obamacare. Brown said he was "proud" of his vote and continued supporting the law, citing the millions of Americans it will insure. Meanwhile, Mandel responded to the Obamacare question by saying, "The federal government takeover of health care is not the answer."
The fact of the matter is Obamacare is not a "government
takeover of health care." Far from it. The plan doesn't even have a public
option that would allow Americans to buy into a public, nonprofit insurance
pool — an idea that actually has majority support in the U.S. Instead,
Obamacare is a series of complicated reforms to the health insurance industry.
There are way too many reforms to list, but the most basic
effect of Obamacare is that more people will be insured. That's right, in the
supposed "government takeover of health care," insurance companies actually gain
more customers. That's the whole point of the individual mandate and the many
subsidies in Obamacare that try to make insurance affordable for all Americans.
Mandel made another misleading claim when he said Obamacare "stole" from Medicare, with the implication that the cuts hurt seniors utilizing the program. It is true Obamacare cuts Medicare spending, but the cuts target waste and payments to hospitals and insurers. It does not directly cut benefits.
The one area with little disagreement also happened to be the one area with the most misleading: China. It's not a new trend for politicians to attack China. The Asian country has become the scapegoat for all economic problems in the U.S. But in this election cycle, politicians have brandished a new line to attack China: currency manipulation. This, as Ohioans have likely heard dozens of times, is why jobs are leaving Ohio and why the amount of manufacturing jobs has dropped in the U.S. In fact, if politicians are taken at their word, it's probably the entire reason the U.S. economy is in a bad spot.
In the Brown-Mandel debate, Brown repeatedly pointed to his currency manipulation bill, which he claims would put an end to Chinese currency manipulation. Mandel also made references to getting tough on China's currency manipulation.
One problem: China is no longer manipulating its currency. There is no doubt China greatly massaged its currency in the past to gain an unfair advantage, but those days are over, says Joseph Gagnon, an economist focused on trade and currency manipulation. Gagnon argues the problem with currency manipulation is no longer a problem with China; it's a problem with Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. If the U.S. wants to crack down on currency manipulation, those countries should be the targets, not China, he argues.
In other words, if currency manipulation is a problem, Mandel was right when he said that countries other than China need to be targeted. To Brown's credit, his currency manipulation bill targets any country engaging in currency manipulation, not just China. The problem seems to be the misleading campaign rhetoric, not proposed policy.
The debate went on to cover many more issues. Just like the first debate, Brown typically took the liberal position and Mandel typically took the conservative position on social issues like gay rights and abortion. Both touted vague support for small businesses. Each candidate claimed to support military bases in Ohio, although Mandel specified he wants bases in Europe closed down to save money. As far as debates go, the contrast could not be any clearer, and the candidates disagreed on nearly every issue.
The final debate between the two U.S. Senate candidates will take place in Cincinnati on Oct. 25.
In-person early voting is underway in Ohio. Find your nearest polling booth here.
In case you missed it, CityBeat is hosting a party
for the final presidential debate at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. There
will be live tweeting, and Councilman Chris Seelbach will be on-hand to discuss this year's key issues. Even if you can't come, make sure to live tweet during the
presidential debate using the hashtag #cbdebate. More info can be found
at the event's Facebook page.
A new study found redistricting makes government even more partisan. The Fair Vote study says redistricting divides government into clear partisan boundaries by eliminating competitive districts. In Ohio, redistricting is handled by elected officials, and they typically use the process for political advantage by redrawing district boundaries to ensure the right demographics for re-election. Issue 2 attempts to combat this problem. If voters approve Issue 2, redistricting will be taken out of the hands of elected officials and placed into the hands of an independent citizens commission. The Republican-controlled process redrew the First Congressional District, which includes Cincinnati, by adding Warren County to the district. Since Warren County typically votes Republican, this gives an advantage to Republicans in the First Congressional District. CityBeat previously covered the redistricting reform effort here.
Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Josh Mandel will face off in another debate for Ohio's seat in the U.S. Senate today. The two candidates met Monday in a feisty exchange in which the men argued over their records and policies. Brown and Mandel will face off at 8 p.m. The debate will be streamed live on 10TV.com and Dispatch.com. Currently, the race is heavily in Brown's favor; he is up 5.2 points in aggregate polling.
Cincinnati is moving forward with its bike sharing program. A new study found the program will attract 105,000 trips in its first year, and it will eventually expand to 305,000 trips a year. With the data in hand, Michael Moore, director of the Department of Transportation and Engineering, justified the program to The Business Courier: "We want Cincinnatians to be able to incorporate cycling into their daily routine, and a bike share program will help with that. Bike share helps introduce citizens to active transportation, it reduces the number of short auto trips in the urban core, and it promotes sustainable transportation options."
Cincinnati's school-based health centers are showing promise. Two more are scheduled to open next year.
Echoing earlier comments by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, Ohio Senate Republicans are now talking about using the lame duck session to take up a bill that would set standard early voting hours and tighten voting requirements. Republicans are promising broad consensus, but Democrats worry the move could be another Republican ploy at voter suppression. Republicans defend the law by saying it would combat voter fraud, but in-person voter fraud isn't a real issue. A recent study by the Government Accountability Office found zero examples of in-person voter fraud in the last 10 years. Another investigation by News21 had similar results. Republicans have also justified making voting tougher and shorter by citing racial politics and costs.
A Hamilton County judge's directive is causing trouble. Judge Tracie Hunter sent out a directive to hire a second court administrator because she believes the current county administrator is only working for the other juvenile judge. The county government is trying to figure out if Hunter has the authority to hire a new administrator.
This year's school report card data held up a long-term
trend: Public schools did better than charter schools. In Ohio, the
average charter school meets slightly more than 30 percent of the
state's indicators, while the average traditional public school meets 78
percent of the state's indicators, according to findings from the
education policy fellow at left-leaning Innovation Ohio. The data for
all Ohio schools can be found here.
Some in the fracking industry are already feeling a bit of a bust. The gas drilling business is seeing demand rapidly drop, and that means $1 billion lost in profits. CityBeat wrote in-depth about the potential fracking bust here.
Ohio student loan debt is piling up. A report by Project
on Student Debt says Ohio has the seventh-highest student loan debt in
the nation with an average of $28,683 in 2011. That number is a 3.5
percent increase from 2010.
What if Abraham Lincoln ran for president today?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind could soon be reality. Scientists are developing a drug that removes bad memories during sleep.


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Student Ambassadors from the PCC Office of Community and School Relations meets with high school students at Marshall High School to discuss programs, services, admissions procedures, and "next steps" for students who have applied.
PCC Assessment Team will be on campus to administer the Math and English
Placement Tests to all students who have signed up with their counselors.
Location: Marshall High School, 990 N Allen Ave, Pasadena, CA
Contact: Alan De La Vara , High School Relations Specialist
Phone: (626) 585-7266
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Animal health officials from participating States provide monthly data to NAHRS on the confirmed presence of diseases on the NAHRS Reportable Disease List. This list includes most of the diseases that all OIE Member Countries are required to report, except for OIE-reportable diseases related to amphibians, lagomorphs, bees, and diseases OIE categorizes as 'other' (e.g., camelpox and leishmaniasis).
Participating State animal health officials collect, collate, and report on the confirmed occurrence of NAHRS reportable diseases. The reporting criteria include defined laboratory testing standards and additional criteria as defined in the NAHRS Operation Manual and Uniform Methods & Rules (pdf, 373kb); these criteria are considered minimum guidelines.
A "yes" response from a State indicates that at least one new case of that particular disease was confirmed during the specific month; a "no" response indicates that, as far as State animal health officials are aware, no new cases of disease were confirmed in the State during the specific month. Confirmed occurrences of NAHRS reportable diseases are those diseases that meet NAHRS reporting criteria and/or are 'confirmed' by using additional information (i.e., other testing methods or additional epidemiological information).
The discretion of NAHRS reporting by State animal health officials is considered essential in the valid reporting of confirmed disease because it is recognized that disease testing technology and other considerations may change rapidly. For endemic diseases that may have both a presumptive and definitive level of confirmation, States are encouraged to report a case if it meets presumptive criteria and available information indicates that it is a reportable case. As with all NAHRS reportable diseases, endemic diseases are reported only when there is a confirmed case of the disease in a State. Regarding endemic disease, a "no" response indicates that, based on available information, there were no reports of confirmed disease presence; a "no" does not explicitly infer the endemic disease does not occur in the State.
After approval by a designated State official, the State monthly report is submitted to NAHRS through the secure NAHRS online reporting system, or by fax or e-mail. NAHRS reporting is coordinated by the USDA-APHIS-VS-CEAH-National Surveillance Unit; click here to contact the NAHRS coordinator.
>> More on Disease Reporting Criteria and Related Topics


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Sunset gunfire with a side of stabbing in O.B.
Sh**heads shoot and shiv on the seashore
Delinda Lombardo 8:30 a.m., May 26
South All-Star MVP Chris Jones (Hoover) and Hoover head coach Ollie Goulston
Posted April 15, 2012
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Join the Air Force
My educational journey: Take advantage of the benefits available to you
1 of 2
Mark Bacon
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2012 is AFMC's Year of Continuing Education. This is the eleventh of a twelve part series of educational journeys. (U.S. Air Force graphic)
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AFMC's Year of Continuing Education
My educational journey: Take advantage of the benefits available to you
Posted 11/2/2012 Updated 11/2/2012
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by Mark Bacon
Program Manager, C3I&N Directorate
11/2/2012 -
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass.
-- One of the saddest things I've witnessed during my 35 years with the Air Force -- including over 23 years active duty, as a contractor, and now as an Air Force civilian -- has been people who stay with our Service as a career, yet never use the many educational benefits available to them. My educational journey is in many ways a story about all the educational benefits that I've been fortunate enough to take advantage of over the years.
My story begins with my enlistment in the Air Force in February 1978. To say that I was an extremely unfocused high school student is being kind. Owing to a lack of effort and many unexcused absences, I dropped out of high school and convinced my mother to sign for me to enlist when I was barely 17. At the military processing station, several recruiters told me that I scored high enough on the General Technical portion of the ASVAB entrance test to be a linguist. They gave me an artificial language test, which I passed, and after basic training I was off to the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., to learn Korean. Although the curriculum was very challenging, I had a fairly easy time with it and to this day I still enjoy the Korean language. When those recruiters told me about language training they mentioned that it would be worth civilian college credit. That didn't mean much to me then. I had simply found a vocation I enjoyed. Consequently, I became a lot more focused and decided to give this profession a serious try.
My 13-year enlisted career as a linguist took me on three remote tours to Korea and three tours at Fort Meade, Md. Many of my colleagues at those locations were smart and achievement-oriented, and through them I developed a desire to get ahead. I took and passed the GED and began taking college courses funded by Air Force tuition assistance -- a fantastic education benefit. Attending class in the evenings was a long, hard struggle, but by 1986 I completed enough classes to earn my Community College of the Air Force degree. The officer presiding at the commencement ceremony encouraged us to go on and pursue a bachelor's degree, which I had already resolved to do. When I spoke to a counselor at the University of Maryland, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the university would transfer 33 semester hours of credit for the basic and intermediate Korean courses I completed in Monterey. This put me within a year of completing a bachelor's degree and also made me eligible for a program called Operation Bootstrap. This was a super deal in which -- if my duty section agreed -- I could go to school full time, at full pay (E-6, at the time), to earn my degree. I could not use Air Force tuition assistance while participating in this program, but I could and did use my benefits under the Veterans Education Assistance Program.
Operation Bootstrap was a three-to-one payback: for whatever time it took me to complete my degree, I had to pay back three times that to the Air Force. When I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Government & Politics in 1987, I was at nine years time in service and I owed three additional years active duty service commitment time. I decided that since I was already committed to the Air Force, I may as well apply for a commission and go as far as I could in those remaining years. I was accepted to Officer Training School and was commissioned a second lieutenant on November 20, 1991 -- a very proud moment for me. I was assigned to missile crew duty at Whiteman AFB, Mo. While there I learned that there was another education program specifically for my career field called the Minuteman Crew Member Education Program, which would pay for graduate courses, to include books. Another great education deal!
I completed as many courses at the University of Central Missouri as I could through MCMEP, but when the missile wing at Whiteman shut down I had to PCS after only three years on station. During subsequent assignments I kept plugging away with occasional night courses. My goal was to transfer credits back to CMU and complete an Master of Arts in History, which I did in 2003, two years after I retired from active duty. The challenge for me -- as it is for anyone trying to get ahead in any profession -- has been to find the right balance among home life, school and work. In hindsight, I regret not having completed my education sooner and not having advanced through the ranks quicker, but this is simply the way the trade-offs worked for me. I am very pleased with the results.
My educational journey didn't end with my retirement from active duty as a captain in 2001. In the early '90s, I paid $1,200 to convert my VEAP account to the Montgomery GI Bill. I still consider this one of the best investments I ever made. In late 2005 I took a job as a contractor with the Electronic Systems Center. My MA in History wasn't going to provide adequate "creds" for the acquisition business, so I enrolled in Boston University's Master of Science in Business Administration program conducted on Hanscom. I completed my second master's degree in 2009. The next year the GI Bill even paid the $500 fee for me to take the Project Management Institute's Project Management Professional certification exam!
Here I am in 2012 with an associate's, a bachelor's, two master's degrees and a PMP certification, all thanks to Air Force educational assistance programs. My GI Bill benefits expired last year, and I'm proud to say that there weren't more than a few dollars left in my account when it was closed. Looking back, I can say with confidence that the excellent training and off-duty education I received always made me a better and more productive person on the job. I'm sure this is at least part of the logic behind the establishment of these programs, which I hope will continue to stay around for those who follow. It's a win-win for both the Air Force and those who actively pursue these benefits. To those of you who are just starting your journey, take advantage of as many educational benefits as you can. You'll find that education is the key to the door of opportunity, and the ticket to success!
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WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- The Oscar winning director of "Slumdog Millionaire," Danny Boyle, has a new film out Friday. It's called "Trance."
James McAvoy plays an art auctioneer who hides a painting during an attempted robbery, but he's beaten up and can't remember where he put it. In comes a hypnotherapist played by Rosario Dawson, but she has connections to the would-be art thief -- played by Vincent Cassel.
Most critics say even if you LIKE the franchise, Scary Movie 5 is a bad bet. The film was not screened in advance. Like its predecessors, Scary Movie 5 parodies recent horror hits like "Mama" and "Evil Dead" -- even though the latter opened just a couple weeks ago.
The movie getting the most buzz this weekend is "42," which tells the story of Jackie Robinson integrating Major League Baseball.
USA Today film critic Dennis Moore talked to us about the newcomer in the title role, Chadwick Boseman, who is a Howard University graduate and who worked really hard to perfect Jackie Robinson's swing. Moore also talks about Harrison Ford's portrayal of the Dodgers manager.
Moore's colleague, Claudia Puig, calls the movie "solid but no hall of famer." We asked him if he agreed. His answer is in the video.