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Announcing the Newest Class for Techstars Boulder 2017
We're thrilled to announce the 13 companies in the 2017 Techstars Boulder class.
This is our 11th class since starting in 2007. The newest class has a diverse mix of founders:
- This year's class includes five companies from Colorado, two from New York, and one each from Atlanta, Austin, Canada, Los Angeles, Portugal and San Francisco.
- 77 percent of the company founders are from under represented groups based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, race or age.
- This class has five companies from within the Techstars network, either as mentors who are now taking their companies through Techstars or participants in our Rising Stars, Patriot Bootcamp or another of our accelerator programs.
- We're thrilled to welcome our first non-profit into Techstars Boulder through a unique partnership with the Techstars Foundation, highlighting new ways we can support organizations and causes that don't typically fit into the traditional company structure for our accelerator.
As we enter our 10th year in Boulder, the core of our program remains the same. We continue to connect our companies with a fantastic mentor community who help the companies accelerate. We love our mentors, they provide incredibly valuable advice, time and energy. The network is powerful here in Boulder and also leverages the scale and connections of the broader Techstars' network.
What We Look For
As in all prior years, we look for great teams working on complex and important problems. For us, great teams are defined by four specific things:
1. They are uniquely qualified to solve this program through their passion for and prior experience with the problem.
2. They have proven they can execute and move fast.
3. The founders love, trust and feel loyal to each other and they relish feedback and mentorship.
4. Founders who have drive and vision and they understand the 'why' behind what they are doing. They have coherence around a set of values and a mission that aligns with their life's work. They are not trying to make something better than what existed before, they want to change the game and deliver a solution that is different.
How the Boulder Program Has Evolved
While the central idea remains the same and our companies will make significant progress on their company, we continue to innovate on the accelerator model and this year is no different.
We are investing more resources into supporting our entrepreneurs directly, providing a more holistic approach to entrepreneurship through founder coaching, mental health resources, and interpersonal and intrapersonal content and coaching. We are integrating lean practices and principles from the leading Lean Startup experts around the world to help our companies do more of the right things faster.
We're also connecting our founders into our powerful Techstars network at the local level in a whole new way, and providing access to the full global network which opens doors and new opportunities. We're incorporating many of the principles in the book Play Bigger to help our companies build companies that are different, not just better.
And, we're emphasizing companies and founders who have a passion and commitment for giving back to their communities such as our relationship with Pledge1%.
We're thrilled to introduce you to the 13 companies in the 2017 Techstars Boulder class:
Airstream Health – creates a new health plan to fix America (Boulder, CO)
Cheryl Kellond, Julia Hutchins and Kathy Keating of Airstream Health are tired of healthcare sucking money from retirement savings, education, infrastructure, and wage increases – so they have set out to fix it. Founded by a diverse team which includes a Techstars mentor, the head of a Colorado health insurance company and an experienced CTO, they have the perfect blend of horsepower, leadership and industry experience. They are pioneering a new type of health plan for self-insured employers that is network-less, provides a higher level of service and support, and saves employers and employees significant money — all powered by a data-driven technology platform at its core. It's a big, hairy, ambitious vision that's different from anything else out there and it's starting to work. They have a large pilot customer who they've been working closely with and who is thrilled at the improved healthcare experience for their employees and reduced cost to their bottom-line. We share Airstream Health's vision for a future where purchasing and using healthcare will feel easy, painless and no different than purchasing other services.
Attentive – powers competitive intelligence as a service to help make better, more informed decisions (Braga, Portugal)
Daniel Araujo, Pedro Araujo and Luis Miguel Braga of Attentive are building a competitive intelligence engine to power an information assistant for every professional so that they can be more proactive and productive. This team has spent years in the belly of top firms like Google deeply understanding how data can influence decisions and believe there is a fundamental shift happening as enterprises no longer rely on proprietary siloed data sources and use open platforms (Salesforce, Slack, etc.) and open datasets (LinkedIn, Social, News, etc.) to gather and analyze external data sources to inform decision making. We believe by collecting, structuring and standardizing this data they can help everyone make better day-to-day business decisions with no manual work. Attentive.us is an alumni of the Techtars Risingstars program.
Blank Slate Systems – enables workflow management and prototype sketching tools to desktop manufacturing (Boulder)
Kyle Kuczun and Gabe Johnson of Blank Slate Systems have developed a cloud-based workflow management system for creating and manufacturing 3D printed, CNC and laser cut prototypes and a touch based sketching tool for rapid prototyping. This team is made up of industry experts with 10+ years in the desktop manufacturing space, startup veterans with 20+ years developing high growth tech companies, and have a Techstars mentor as the CEO. We share Blank Slate's vision that desktop manufacturing will become more ubiquitous and having simple tools to manage the prototyping and manufacturing process is critical — and the solution needs to be device and format agnostic. We believe by enabling creative professionals to simply and quickly go from idea to sketch to concept while managing the process to reduce cycle time and increase opportunity they will make desktop manufacturing accessible to anyone.
CANDL – provides simple, secure, and global connectivity for travelers around the world through a global WIFI hotspot providing 4G/LTE coverage in 150+ countries (Atlanta)
Tom Cox and Jason Talley are on a mission to build the go-to solution for global mobile connectivity devices by becoming the high-end yet affordable supplier of cellular, satellite, UHF, and 5G handsets for international travelers, explorers, and highly mobile populations. Tom and Jason are also on a social mission to reconnect 1 million displaced, distressed and disconnected people around the world by 2021. They believe connectivity is a fundamental human right and should be available to everyone whether they are in their home country, traveling the world, or in a refugee camp. Tom and Jason were both satellite controllers in the US Army in the 1990s and have worked their entire 20+ year careers in telecommunications in both startups and Fortune 100 environments. They perfectly blend strength in hardware design and product management with building large-scale systems and global technical teams. Connectivity is as important as ever and like CANDL we believe new tools are needed to connect our global population and often the times we need connectivity the most are the times getting connected can be the hardest, until now. CANDL is an alumni of our Patriot Bootcamp program.
Data Nerds – helps anyone buying or selling a home get the data they need to make an informed decision (Kelowna, Canada)
Josh Fraser has quietly spent years aggregating real estate and property data from around the US and Canada to bring information transparency to the real estate market. The data and insight he has is unlike anything available and his years as a PPC expert has helped him develop a unique competitive advantage in driving demand to his products. While growing his business he's built a stellar team, a unique culture and a huge learning engine – impressive for a solo founder. We believe Josh has the special capacity to build a huge business in this space and as data becomes more and more important for making all decisions, the data and insight he has will turn Data Nerds into the world's most comprehensive and powerful database for real estate and property record information, thereby helping millions of people make better decisions with their most important asset.
Global EIR – expands economic opportunities in the innovation economy by supporting international entrepreneurs (San Francisco)
Craig Montuori and Christopher Nicholson founded the Global Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) Coalition with Brad Feld and Jeff Bussgang which allows universities and their centers for entrepreneurship to hire immigrant startup founders or partner with their startups to give the founders access to the visas they need to get back to the hard work of building great businesses and growing the American economy. At the same time they provide expert mentors for their entrepreneurial-minded students. The founders have years of political and startup experience and aren't afraid to get involved in policy. While the startup and tech communities have historically not wanted to get involved at the policy level, we share the Global EIRs belief that needs to change and it can be a powerful tool. The Global EIR initiative is a non-profit, which is new for us at Techstars Boulder, but we couldn't be more thrilled to help support the mission of making it easier for great entrepreneurs to start and keep meaningful companies in America. Global EIR is also a grantee of the Techstars Foundation.
Hardbound – helps people understand the world better through fascinating stories designed for the phone (New York City)
Nathan Bashaw and Joe Nguyen are on a mission to popularize and become the market leader in "tap stories" — a new media format that's designed for smartphones, and a much more engaging way to read than plain text. They've been passionately and diligently building the app for the past few years and have generated a loyal and engaged following. They've chosen to focus initially on content for the 'curious mind' that makes you smarter and have created an incredibly interesting and engaging media property, but ultimately their vision is to become the platform for tap stories by enabling other brands to leverage this new medium for their audiences. We share their belief that this new media format will be consumed by hundreds of millions of people, and tens of thousands of creators will be making them, while earning a great living. We believe in this new media format, and it's exciting to see this one emerging under the guidance of Nathan and Joe.
IronCore Labs – enables simple end-to-end encryption as a service making it easier than ever to secure data (Boulder and Bozeman, MT)
Patrick Walsh and Bob Wall's mission is to make end-to-end encryption usable and reasonable for all use cases involving sensitive data and make it the undisputed best-practice requirement for all enterprise cloud software. Bob and Patrick have worked together for years designing and building enterprise cloud software systems including access controls and data protections at Oracle. In the course of working together, a shared desire to build a better foundation for cloud software was formed and eventually they left Oracle to pursue the vision. We share their belief that to make more secure applications and fix the state of computer security, it needs to be easier for developers to integrate strong security into their applications. And as an approach, proactive security is far preferable to the reactive kind. IronCore Lab's developer tools dramatically reduce the risk of a security breach, government subpoena to a vendor, and provide better compliance with privacy and security regulations with an easy to use API.
Monday – makes it easy to find a job and work that matters (New York and Spain)
Evan Walden and Raul San Narciso have created a personalized job discovery experience that is fundamentally different from the "search-based" job boards that exist today, and attracts passive talent who need a trusted tool to filter the signal from the noise, and are too busy to do it for themselves. They've spent years in the job placement space including creating a company called ReWork that had hundreds of clients and was named to Outside Magazines Top 100 places to work. We share their belief that business is a powerful lever to solve our world's most intractable problems, and in order for the most impactful companies to succeed, they need the best talent. At the same time, we all believe that everyone deserves to make meaning at work, and that our model of torturing ourselves in a 9-5, only to live life on nights and weekends, is an old model that will only die out if professionals have the tools they need to find work they love. When Monday succeeds they'll be making sure the most competitive professionals are making an impact on the world's greatest problems.
PreFix – frees homeowners from the unexpected cost and burden of home maintenance (Austin)
James Bilodeau wants you to own your home, not its problems by providing a home 'primary care physician' that manages all the monitoring, management and maintenance of a home for a low monthly fee. By applying health care best practices to the home maintenance market he is transforming how homeowners manage their largest asset and at the same time the economics of the model while providing unprecedented customer service. James' model will create hundreds of middle income jobs and provide opportunity to those that wouldn't otherwise have it by using technology and training to create a whole new category of home service professional. We share James' belief that homeownership can be easier and by changing the way we interact with our home, like our healthcare, can save significant time, hassle and cost while better enjoying the asset.
Sitter – find, book and pay for babysitters (Boulder)
Kristen Stiles and Matt Stueve have built an app for parents to connect with babysitters to enable their own work or play. Whether it's booking and paying existing babysitters or finding a new one in a pinch from friends' networks, Sitter makes the whole process hassle-free so everyone gets a sitter they trust when they need one. Founded by parents who love spending time with their kids, but like all of us need that precious adult time too, they've hit the mark with thousands of parents already using the app. We share Sitter's vision that all parents need and deserve some time off every once in awhile to be our best selves and our best partners. Because happier parents make happier kids and grow happier families. And yes, it's fun to see a movie before it hits Netflix.
Stateless – provides network functions as a service (Boulder)
Murad Kablan, Eric Keller and Nigel Sharp have built a patent pending network virtualization technology licensed from the University of Colorado, Boulder which provides scalable and fault tolerance software-based network functions (firewalls, NAT, and load balancers) that are automatically configured, managed, and monitored in data center environments. Stateless provide these network functions on-demand "as-a-Service", eliminating the need to acquire, install and maintain specialized hardware or provision capacity up-front, which have the benefit of also being able to be offered to Cloud Managed Service Provider's tenants, as a value-added service. Founded by a team with PhDs from Princeton and Colorado, the Stateless technology is based on years of research with an ultimate aim of having an impact beyond an academic publication through large scale commercialization of their breakthrough. Like the Stateless team, we believe in the power of no-ops environments and believe that change and innovation is critical in the networking functions of data networks to unlock the scale and potential of the future.
Hangout with Techstars at Denver Startup Week
We hope to see you at Denver Startup Week. Please join us at the following events.
Tuesday (9/13)
- Chase Startup Week Diversity Panel Discussion — from 9–11am at DSW Basecamp. Add to your schedule here.
- Get More of the Right Things Done with Zach Nies — from 2–3:30pm at Davis, Graham & Stubbs LLP (1550 17th Street, Suite 500). Add to your schedule here.
Thursday (9/15)
- Mentor Office Hours — from 9–11am at DSW Basecamp. Sign up for time with me (near the bottom of the list) or Julie Penner or any of the other amazing mentors.
- Techstars Hiring Fair — from 1–2pm at DSW Basecamp. Come meet Techstars and mentor companies that are hiring to find your next great job. Add to your schedule here.
- Chain Reaction Panel: From Founding to Funding with Amy Baglan, Sue Heilbronner, Chris Marks and Seth Levine (attendees to be confirmed) — from 2–3pm at DSW Basecamp. Add to your schedule here.
- Pitch Techstars — from 3–4pm at DSW Basecamp. Either apply to pitchor come watch and learn how to give a great startup pitch. Winning pitch gets an automatic invitation to the private Taste of Techstars later this month. Add to your schedule here (if you want to pitch, make sure to apply separately).
20 Ways to Blow Up Your Company
Techstars Mentor Jason Mendelson recently gave a talk to the Boulder program called, "20 Ways to Blow Up Your Company."
Here are a few highlights. Be sure to check out all the details in the video below!
- Pick a Bad Idea
- Pick Bad Employees
- Being Arrogant
- Focusing Only on What You Don't Know
- Being Overly Emotional and Not Analytic
- Know Your Business Model
Fundraising Round Expectations: A Graphical Explanation
A lot of startups are confused about the expectations investors have at different stages of the fundraising process, and therefore make mistakes aligning their fundraising efforts and business progress. When working with Techstars companies, I like to use this basic graph to show how capital needs and execution should align.
Obviously, you want to be on the "Good" or "Great" paths. Both of which should relatively easily attract the right stage of investment at the right time — as long as the market is big and compelling and the team remains strong and effective. You'll also likely have leverage and be able to get good investors and terms for each financing round.
Being below the slope of the "Good" curve is a dangerous place to be. Not only are you behind but you're likely to lose leverage with your existing investors and new investors will be hard to attract.
How to Think about the X (Stage) and Y (Progress) Axes
The X axis represents the standard fundraising stages. The more interesting axis is the Y axis which represents the progress you are making as a company throughout your fundraising journey. The milestones I've included are where most investors expect you to be to raise that round of financing. If you are early on your journey and haven't raised money yet, the milestones I list are a good goal to shoot for.
If you have raised money, you should talk with your investors about what they would like to see on your Y axis to make subsequent fundraising rounds easy — knowing that the milestones for your company may be different depending on your market, team or another variable.
How to Make Sure you are on the "Good" or "Great" Path
Be measured and disciplined in your pursuit of capital. Make sure you accomplish the milestones needed for the next raise before you need the capital. Your goal is to get ahead and be on the "Great" curve.
Raise less money and slower than you may want. Raising capital is a powerful catalyst and milestone for a company and can seem like a silver bullet but when you get ahead of yourself you begin to set unrealistic expectations of accomplishment and ultimately end up behind.
Spend your capital wisely. Keep your burn low and execute.
Know where you are. Be sober about the data your startup is churning off and make sure you understand where you are in the startup process and don't get ahead of yourself.
Check in with your stakeholders. Be open and candid with your existing investors about where you think you are on the chart and understand their expectations of the slope of your curve and where you are today.
How to Get Off the "Bad" Path
Knuckle down and execute. You're going to need to do more with less and go fast. Your goal is to catch back up and pull up the slope of your curve.
Become incredibly capital efficient. Your goal is to not need new capital until you change your trajectory. This may mean changing the size of your team, dropping salaries, and slowing down non-customer related growth.
Explore if you are in bad soil. Maybe you are approaching the wrong customer, maybe your product isn't solving their problem, maybe you don't understand their problem, maybe your positioning and message isn't resonating. Start testing variables to see if you can find better soil.
Extend your runway. If it becomes desperate yet you still deeply believe you are onto something, you can try to raise more capital from existing investors or try to attract new investors to extend your runway and give you time to bend your curve. This will be hard, distracting and costly.
I hope this model is helpful in thinking about aligning investor expectations and your startup's progress. To put it into practice, create the graph for your company. Start by figuring out your Y axis (your best guess at least), determine where you are, look at your slope and then keep checking in as you move forward.
This post was originally published on Medium.
Informational Webinar on Techstars Boulder on 8/17
On Thursday 8/17, Natty Zola, Managing Director of Techstars Boulder, is hosting a webinar on Techstars to highlight the Techstars accelerators and talk about the Boulder program specifically. The webinar will last about 45 minutes and you can RSVP here.
What is Techstars?
What is Techstars Boulder?
Results and benefits.
Why Boulder?
How it works.
What we look for.
Tips for applying.
Key dates.
Please RSVP – we hope you can join us! If you can't attend, it will be recorded. Reach out to natty [at] techstars.com for a link to the recording.
Announcing the 2016 Techstars Boulder Class
We are excited to announce the eleven companies joining us for the 2016 Techstars Boulder program. This inspiring group of companies will be the 10th class at Techstars Boulder and join 99 other incredible companies who have graduated from the Boulder program.
We will be hosting a special demo day at the Boulder Theater on 5/18, the Wednesday of Boulder Startup Week, to thank the Boulder community for their immense and enduring support over the past ten years. We hope you can join us!
Without further ado, here are the 2016 Techstars Boulder companies:
Alchemy Learning: communication skills training platform helping sales professionals and public speakers prepare for and practice presentations through Virtual Reality.
AncestorCloud: genealogy marketplace connecting family researchers with experts around the globe.
Bridge21: API enabling Bitcoin wallets to buy and sell Bitcoin directly from inside their wallet.
Converge Industries: enabling insurance inspectors to fly drones to inspect buildings.
Edn: fully-automated digitally connected wall garden for growing herbs and vegetables in your home.
Free and For Sale: mobile marketplace making it quick and easy to buy and sell used goods.
Init.ai: empowers companies to create conversation-based applications using artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and messaging.
Maxwell: connecting home buyers, realtors and lenders with tools to manage and streamline a home purchase.
MeetMindful: dating application and community connecting people interested in mindful living.
Orderly Health: helping consumers and companies understand their healthcare costs while recommending ways to save money.
Section.io: Content Delivery Network delivering faster, more secure content that can be run in local development environments.
Natty Zola, Managing Director, Techstars Boulder (email@example.com)


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- Please select a date to see the proper prices!
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Description of the accommodation:
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In Light, In! Trailer (2014)
A darkly beautiful visual essay that explores human emotion in response to societal standards. With a lone cello providing the soundtrack, this collage of archival footage from 1950's-era films is a superb example of manipulation via sound and image (Dorothy Woodend, DOXA Documentary Film Festival)
Watch the official In Light, In! 2014 trailer in HD below or find more In Light, In! videos on Vidimovie.


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By Zubeida Mustafa
ALL of a sudden, Pakistan's official circles seem to be awakening to the importance of education for the development of the country. But their newfound enthusiasm can be quite daunting especially when there is no change in the establishment's views on 'ideologising' the entire spectrum of learning.
Hence it was news to me when I learnt that five years after devolution under the 18th Amendment, it has been realised that the New Education Policy of 2009 is no longer implementable. Another policy will now be framed collectively by all the provinces. In order to respect the autonomy of the federating units, the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference has been inducted into the process. Since last year, six meetings have been held. One cannot vouch for the full participation of all the provinces in the policymaking process, especially Sindh given its irregular attendance in IPEMC meetings. Officials are optimistic that the policy will be framed by the end of this year and implemented in 2016. Continue reading "Learning from CLF"


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Chairman Schrock and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on this important topic.
Costs of regulation. Every year, Americans are reminded of the costs of federal taxation when they filed their income tax returns with the IRS, and see a clear and specific bottom line telling them how much they paid to Washington. Not so with the cost of regulation. These costs are hidden - embedded in the prices of products and services, reduced innovation, and lost opportunities.
Yet, by any reckoning, these costs are staggering. According to the Office of Management and Budget, regulations adopted in the last ten years alone cost Americans some $34-38 billion annually. All federal regulations, OMB estimates, could be costing ten times that much, or some $380 billion.
This estimate, however, is likely a vast understatement. According to a comprehensive study conducted by economist Mark Crain and Thomas Hopkins for the Small Business Administration, regulations cost Americans $843 billion in 2000, or over $8,000 per household.[1] That is almost half the amount collected in federal taxes, and nearly as much as Americans paid in personal income taxes ($999 billion). Put another way, the total is about 10 percent of America's gross domestic product - and more than half the output of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Crain and Hopkins also found that that these regulatory costs fell disproportionately on small businesses. In total, they found that firms employing fewer than 20 people faced regulatory costs of almost $7,000 per employee, compared to an average of $4,700 for all firms.
It should be noted, however, that even these numbers are estimates - the full impact of regulation is likely even higher. Crain and Hopkins, for instance, do not include indirect burdens in their study. For instance, a regulation that increases the cost of energy also would increase the cost of products that require energy to produce. Those secondary costs do not appear in the Crain and Hopkins totals.
Perhaps more important, some costs are by their nature unknowable. For many economic regulations, for instance, the major cost may not be any direct burden on consumers or businesses, but constraints on innovation. There simply is no way to assess such losses - you can't measure inventions that never were created. In today's 21st century economy, these unmeasurable costs are perhaps more harmful than the measurable burdens.
The economic harm from regulatory burdens is substantial - reducing economic growth, slowing job growth, and reducing Americans' income. The actual effects vary tremendously, based upon the type of regulation at issue. But the overall result is clear. Most recently, the World Bank released a study of regulation around the world - with a particular emphasis on rules critical to start-up enterprises, such as entry restrictions. The report underlined the connection between economic growth and regulation, finding that "[h]eavier regulation is generally associated with more unemployed people, corruption, less productivity and investment."[2]
Americans can take heart that their regulatory burden is far less than much of the world. Yet, we shouldn't be too comfortable. The study offered three alternative methods of rankings of "least regulated" countries. The U.S. was in the top ten in only one, and on that we were tenth.
Bush Administration efforts. To its credit, the Bush Administration has recognized the problem of regulation, particularly in regard to small business, the traditional engine of growth and job creation in the economy. Over the past few years, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the OMB unit that oversees executive branch regulation, has been revitalized - taking a harder look at proposed new regulations, and implementing new standards for agency analyses of new rules. In regard to small business, the President signed a new executive order strengthening requirements for agencies to assess the small business impact of proposed new rules, and the expanding the role of the SBA's Office of Advocacy in that process.
This has led to some successes. The Office of Advocacy in particular reports that some $6 billion in potential new burdens were avoided in 2003 due to evaluations of small business impacts. Yet, much as I would like to believe that the regulatory problem is being solved, it is not. While the growth of regulation may have slowed, burdens still appear to be growing - not shrinking.
Continuing growth of regulation. The 2003 edition of the Code of Federal Regulations, for instance, weighed in at a whopping 144,177 pages, about a thousand pages less than in 2002, but still four percent more than when President Bush took office in 2000. This overall increase was led by nine percent increase in the sections on the environment and transportation.
Similarly, the number of federal rulemaking proceedings which increase burdens on the private sector still substantially outnumber those which decrease burdens. Since 1996, the General Accounting Office has reported to Congress on major rules promulgated by agencies, as required under the Congressional Review Act. Excluding from this list those that are "budgetary" in nature - i.e. establishing terms and conditions for spending programs[3], and excluding those that did not clearly increase or decrease burdens, leaves 30 major final rulemakings from the start of the Bush Administration to the end of 2003.[4] Of these, 21 - or 70 percent -- increased regulation.
The record was even more lopsided during the Clinton years. From 1997 through the end of the Clinton Administration, some 106 such rulemakings were finalized - nearly twice as many per year -- with over 75 percent increasing regulation. Taking out rules adopted by independent agencies, the portion increasing burdens during the Clinton Administration hits 92.5 percent. Bush's executive branch actions increased burdens 74 percent of the time.
These numbers admittedly are only a rough measure of regulatory trends. However, they indicate that - while regulatory growth has been curbed during the Bush Administration - it has not been stopped. Regulation is still expanding, not shrinking.
Small business and regulation. It should be noted that while small businesses bear a disproportionate share of the regulatory burden, the issue should not be considered too narrowly in terms of small business. Most of the regulatory harm suffered by small business is not from regulations imposed specifically on such businesses, or even applied to them directly. Small businesses, like individual Americans, suffer from the higher prices, reduced economic activity and hindered innovation caused by excessive regulation. In this way, even regulation of "big" businesses such as telephone companies and electric utilities harms small business.
In addition, it should be remembered that the interests of small businesses are not always the same as consumers as a whole. Regulations that artificially protect small businesses can therefore be as harmful to Americans as those that hinder small businesses. In fact, many of the most heated controversies in regulatory policies have involved rules that limit competition to small businesses - ranging from insurance agents to car dealers to law firms - at the expense of the public as a whole. The goal of policymakers should be to eliminate unnecessary barriers, rather than provide regulatory advantage to, any enterprise.
Pending legislation. What then, can be done to curb unnecessary regulation? Several proposals are pending in Congress that would at least represent small steps in the right direction. One, H.R. 2345, would strengthen the Regulatory Flexibility Act in a number of ways, increasing requirements for agencies to analyze small business effects before promulgating regulations, and increasing the authority of the SBA's Office of Advocacy in a number of ways. Among other things, it would require agencies to evaluate the indirect, as well as direct, effects of regulation on small business. This is a positive step, for the reasons outlined above.
The legislation would also require agencies to periodically review existing rules for small business impacts. This also would be a positive step, and is similar to a provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that requires the FCC to review its regulations every two years. Importantly, that provision explicitly requires the FCC to repeal or modify any regulation it finds is not in the public interest. A similar requirement would be helpful in this legislation.
In addition to H.R. 2345, the Government Reform Committee has reported H.R. 2432, by Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA). This legislation is primarily aimed at improving regulatory accounting - the calculation of the costs and benefits of regulation. Among other things, the legislation requires each agency to report to OMB each year on the costs and benefits of its regulations, and provides for a pilot program on "regulatory budgets."
Problems with regulatory accounting. Steps to improve the valuation and reporting of the costs and benefits of regulation are much needed. Despite improvements over the past few years in the federal government's ability to assess such costs and benefits - due in large part to efforts by OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs - the information produced by regulators on the impact of their regulations is still incomplete, inconsistent, and often unreliable. A large number of major regulations are routinely adopted without a quantification of both costs and benefits. According to OIRA, of 12 major non-budgetary rules it reviewed in 2003, costs and benefits were only quantified for six. In addition, at least nine major regulations were promulgated without OIRA review (primarily by independent agencies). Eight of these failed to quantify costs and benefits. The net result was that of at least 21 regulatory actions, costs and benefits were quantified for only seven - a rate of 33 percent. As a result, even though OMB is required by law to report annually on the costs and benefits of regulation, those numbers actually cover only a small portion of regulatory activity.
Moreover, even when costs and benefits are quantified, the numbers are based upon analyses performed by regulatory agencies themselves, as part of their justification for their rules. And despite efforts by OIRA to make the analyses uniform, they have varied substantially in quality and methodology. Although analyses are approved by OIRA as part of the review process, they do not present a reliable or consistent assessment of regulatory costs.
Steps to improve regulatory accounting are much needed. Simply put, policymakers and consumers deserve to be told more about the costs being imposed on them by federal regulators. Requirements, such as those in H.R. 2345 to expand analysis and reporting of costs and benefits, could be beneficial. At the same time, we need to recognize the limitations of such reforms.
Certainly, agencies should be required to provide more analysis. But to the extent that the same people who wrote the rules provide the analysis, the result will be a too-rosy view of their efficacy. And, as mentioned above, even the best analysis cannot quantify every impact of a regulation - especially in innovative industries. Moreover, even perfect regulatory accounting would not ensure good regulatory decision-making. As anyone who has seen regulatory debates first-hand can verify, ultimately decisions are influenced for good or bad by the facts of the particular case, the values, principles and priorities of the decision-makers, and (yes) even politics.
Additional reform proposals. For these reasons, steps are needed to ensure independent analysis of regulations, to ensure that the risks of overregulation are fully considered at every stage of the regulatory process. Such steps could include:
1. Establishment of an independent Office of Regulatory Analysis. Such an office - charged with providing Congress with information on the cost and impact of, and alternatives to - regulation -- would provide an independent source of analysis on regulation. The model for this new office would be the Congressional Budget Office, with provides Congress with information on spending programs, and acts as both a complement to, and check on, the Office of Management and Budget.[5]
2. Establish regulatory review offices, or "mini-OIRA's" within each regulatory agency. Consideration of the costs of regulation should not begin when a proposal leaves an agency, but should take place within an agency as well. To be an effective check, however, analysis should be from outside the office or bureau implementing the decision. One model for this is the office I served in Office of Plans and Policy at the FCC, which reviewed every item presented before the Commission, and provided comments to the Chairman and Commissioners.
3. Designation of "regulatory reform czars" at each agency. Sometimes, the best way to ensure that an issue is given consideration is to confer responsibility on an individual for making sure that is done. In 1992, as part of the first Bush Administration's regulatory review executive order, each agency was required to designate such officers, known informally as "regulatory czars." No new staff positions were created, as the individuals typically were the general counsels or policy directors of the agencies, but ensuring regulatory restraint became part of their job description. Certainly, not every one produced a success story, but some did become jealous advocates of reform, making the case for better regulation inside their agencies.
4. Require independent agencies to submit analyses to OMB. Independent agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission produce a substantial share of the major rules finalized each year - seven of 21 for FY2003. The overall impact of these agencies is even greater, as they cover some of the economy's most dynamic and vital sectors. Yet, these agencies' rules are not subject to outside rule before they are promulgated, and only rarely are their costs and benefits analyzed. The problem could be resolved by putting independent agencies under the requirements of Executive Order 12866. If that cannot be done, Congress should at least require these agencies to prepare regulatory analyses of all planned significant rules, and to forward the analyses to OIRA for non-binding review.
5. Require congressional approval of major regulations that place new burdens on the private sector. Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has the ability to veto new regulations coming from agencies. To date, however, that authority has only been used once - to stop a new ergonomics rules from taking affect. Our system of government requires that Congress take responsibility for new rules imposed on society. Congressional review and approval of major new burdens should be required. (Rep. J.D. Hayworth has proposed such a step in H.R. 110.)
Conclusion. There is no "magic bullet" for controlling the continuing growth of regulation. The proposals now pending in Congress do largely move in the right direction, but much more is needed to solve the problem.
The Heritage Foundation is a public policy, research, and educational organization operating under Section 501(C)(3). It is privately supported, and receives no funds from any government at any level, nor does it perform any government or other contract work.
The Heritage Foundation is the most broadly supported think tank in the United States. During 2003, it had more than 200,000 individual, foundation, and corporate supporters representing every state in the U.S. Its 2003 income came from the following sources:
|Investment Income
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The top five corporate givers provided The Heritage Foundation with 5% of its 2003 income. The Heritage Foundation's books are audited annually by the national accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche. A list of major donors is available from The Heritage Foundation upon request.
Members of The Heritage Foundation staff testify as individuals discussing their own independent research. The views expressed are their own, and do not reflect an institutional position for The Heritage Foundation or its board of trustees.
[1] W. Mark Crain and Thomas D. Hopkins, "The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms: A Report for the Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration," RFP No. SBAHW-00-R-0027.
[2] "Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation," p. xiv (World Bank, International Finance Corporation, Oxford University Press, 2004).
[3] Such rules, of course, can burden the private sector. Medicare rules, for instance, are a major burden on doctors and hospitals. Such rules, however, do not directly limit or mandate action by private sector firms or individuals. Rather, they are conditions set by the government as the price for receipt of federal aid.
[4] For purposes of this analysis, "Bush" rules included those reported by the GAO after March 2001.
[5] The cost of such a new office need not involve increased spending. It could easily be funded by reallocating some of the nearly $30 billion spent by federal regulatory agencies each year.


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GIBSON CITY — Council members used new wireless tablets to review zoning rules this week before deciding that the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley school district does not need a zoning variance to turn a former residential lot into a parking lot.
The council had approved up to $6,000 to purchase iPads. The move is expected to help the city to "go green" and provide convenient access to maps and documents.
"There's going to be some glitches, but we'll work through them," Mayor Dan Dickey said after the first meeting using the devices.
Officials also plan to spend up to $500 for a new document scanner to assist the move to a more paperless council.
Superintendent Randy Stauffer led the council's electronic review of pertinent zoning ordinances. The lot in question is owned by the GCMS school district at the corner of Sangamon and 16th Street. The house on the property was recently torn down by the district.
Stauffer said he district must eventually put a hard surface on the lot, but gravel will be allowed for up to one year from when a building permit is obtained.
Police Chief Steve Cushman announced that plans are being made for public training and competitions at the police firing range this spring.
To ask about training, citizens should contact the police department at 784-8666 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or email the chief's administrative assistant Lisa Helgeson (firstname.lastname@example.com [2]).


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Labour proposals to directly elect members of Sussex Police Authority will divert cash from neighbourhood policing - and risk increasing racist and homophobic hate crime in the city.
As our economy worsens we need to focus more resources on neighbourhood policing.
Locally, burglary and car crime are both on the rise, as people increasingly struggle to make ends meet with poverty and unemployment levels getting worse everyday.
Of course we need communities to become more involved in decisions about policing - but the way to do that is to allow them to participate in spending decisions, not simply to introduce another tier of elections without even explaining if the cost will be met by taking police off our streets.
I am deeply concerned that direct elections to Sussex Police Authority will open the door to extremists and single-issue campaigners and drown out the voices of our city's distinct and vulnerable group's and communities.
Direct elections will inevitably mean different political parties back different candidates. You only need to look to the Metropolitan police to see the dangers of that kind of political sponsorship.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Electing police managers could open the door to extremists - and increase hate crime
Posted by Ben Duncan at 23:15
Labels: Labour, Sussex Police
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We help you locate a Newbury harp teacher. Harp tuition are an excellent way to learn a fun new hobby, pick up a new talent and attain confidence with harp. Please use our service to find Newbury harp teachers and choose which best suits your requirements so you can enjoy your harp lessons in Newbury immediately!
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The Economic Determinants Of Vessel Operating Expenses: A Semi-Parametric Approach
The recent increase in operating expenses of merchant vessels (opex) has stimulated interest in explaining their determinants. However, the available literature cannot explain this development nor does it provide information on a level of necessary detail. This paper considers a quantitative model of opex that is particularly successful in explaining the variation in opex across vessels of different type, size, age and specification. This paper employs a generalised additive model framework to analyse the determinants of opex. The results confirm that differences in opex are due to the behaviour of a vessel's operator and to regulatory requirements. Furthermore, it shows that there are significant differences in opex due to earnings and employment status of a vessel. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2008) 10, 275–294. doi:10.1057/mel.2008.5
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Volume (Year): 10 (2008)
Issue (Month): 3 (September)
Pages: 275-294
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Australian artist living in Dubai, UAE.
Original works on canvas and Plexiglas.
Specializing in corporate, hospitality and healthcare projects.
Originals are painted on canvas or reverse painting on to acrylic .
Reverse painting is an art form consisting of applying paint to a piece of glass and then viewing the image by turning the glass over and looking through the glass at the image. Prints are then produced on canvas, paper and acrylic panels.
We here at Lisa Fabian Art tend to favor the Acrylic (Plexiglas) look as it gives a polished, finished look. The image is viewed through the glass so there is no need for the additional expense of mounting and framing the work. Security devices on the back of the works are not necessary as the panels are installed in to the wall and held in place with stand off pins.
Works reproduced as prints on acrylic panels give a stunning look and compliment any contemporary interiors.
All work can be reproduced on acrylic, canvas and paper. Aluminium is a substrate that we are currently investigating.
My work is soothing yet powerful, relaxed yet vibrant. Each piece, whether original or print, has a beautiful organic fluid feel to it.
If you have a contemporary project that needs a little panache please give me a call or email me on [email protected]
International projects are welcome.


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As I sat with my husband in the temple today, reading through the scriptures, I came across 2 Kings, Chapter 20, which included a story that was of special interest to me under my present circumstances:
1 - In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 - Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,
3 - I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done [that which is] good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4 - And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
5 - Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
6 - And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
A man was appointed unto death, and instead receives a fifteen year extension of life from the Lord. The Lord heard his prayers and saw his tears, and healed him.
My own efforts to petition the Lord might as well be called "Project Hezekiah"! I am hopeful and prayerful that the Lord will hear my prayers and see my tears, and heal me. An extension of any time would be most welcome.
Remembering Krista Ralston Oakes, a brain cancer survivor, writer, wife, mom and friend.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Project Hezekiah
1 comment:
Dear Krista,
I just wanted you to know that you are in the thoughts and prayers of our family. You have been on our mind and in our prayers ever since I talked to Pat and found out about your health problems. I have talked to all of our children and asked that they include you in their family prayers with their children.
We are on your side and cheering for your success in this difficult time in your life. I guess the only consolation that we have is knowing that we have a kind a loving Father who brings loving and helpful people into our lives to help us and who has His guiding hands in the events of our life.
Aunt Linda
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The Boogie, alias Sugam bhai, was preparing to cut his birthday cake in the third and the last day of his birthday celebration series. I heard it - about the series. Yet to find the truth which I don't care, and also similarly non-important issue is about his name - why he is called "The Boogie".
Updates: Three days bday celebration mystery solved


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Our address is 333 W Merrick Rd, Unit #4, Valley Stream, NY 11580.
Please keep in mind that there is no retail window at this location. Special pickup requests must be arranged prior to pickup.


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Hi all! I started my career as a Cub Scout back in the late 80's when I joined as a Wolf/Bear(can't remember) I went on to become an Eagle at 16. I worked at summer camp for many years and even met my wife there. While a Boy Scout I went to Philmont, The 94 Nat. Jambo. and even went to Europe for 2 weeks with my troop plus countless other trips around the U.S. I became my sons Tiger Leader the instant he was born 11 years ago, and next week he is crossing over. My wife and I have already submitted our apps. to be on the Troop Committee. I look forward to interacting with everyone.
A quick intro!
Posted 07 March 2017 - 12:26 AM
- 1
Posted 07 March 2017 - 08:14 AM
Welcome! Grab a cuppa and enjoy the warm glow of the virtual campfire!
- 0
Posted 07 March 2017 - 08:41 AM
Welcome, sounds like you have a checkered past just like the rest of us. You'll fit in just fine.
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Posted 07 March 2017 - 05:29 PM
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Posted 07 March 2017 - 08:07 PM
Yeah, RivetSmasher, I keep telling these ol' boys and girls that fire is not a good thing around electronics. A virtual crackerbarrel is much better. The cheese and crackers are even more lo-cal that way.
I bet you have some good stories to tell. We'll see you on the trail...
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Posted 27 March 2017 - 04:51 PM
Howdy , and welcome from Texas!
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The AK360 is an innovative virtual keyboard enabling to type all alphanumeric characters only by using a standard gamepad's analog sticks. It was build as an alternative software solution of the virtual keyboard currently used by video game consoles for its speed and intuitive control.
Other Useful Business Software
User Reviews
Be the first to post a review of AK360!


text:
Fatai Owoseni, the CP of Lagos State Command disclosed this to the newsmen, saying that the suspects claimed that they are heading to oil rich Gabon.
He said the suspects were captured by the state policemen with the supports of Border Patrol Unit team from Force Headquarters, Abuja at Badagry axis of Lagos.
Following an investigation, the police command discovered that the suspects were illegal moving to Gabon, while they are kept in the police custody for further interrogation.
Jelili Mumuni, one of the immigrants disclosed that he never know that the journey was illegal because he honoured the invitation sent to him by his brother, who has already relocate in Gabon.
According to Jelili, his brother told him that he should visit a waterfront at Benin Republic, where there will be a boat going to Gabon,
He noted: "But I was shocked when policemen swooped on us here in Nigeria,".
Another Comparoare Musa, one of the suspects from Burkina Faso also declared that he was advised to embark on the journey.
Mr. Musa said the people who organized the journey earlier declared that they will visits Benin Republic, before moving to Gabon, while they find themselves in Badagry.
Mr. Owoseni assured that the police command will secured all corner of the state to prevent illegal immigrant to the country.
He said that the suspects will be hand over to NIS (Nigeria Immigration Service) for more investigation.


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Tue 04 Apr 2017
Family (Film)
All tickets £4
This event has already happened
Dir: Christophe Lourdelet, Garth Jennings. US 2016. 108 mins. Voiced by: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane.
In a world like ours but entirely inhabited by animals, a theatre impresario's attempt to save his failing theatre with a singing competition becomes grander than he expects. And its finalists find that their lives will never be the same.
US 2016. 108 mins.


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It occurs to me now that this story is wasted on the young. As a child, I found it overwrought. Then again, I was the kind of insufferable pedant who insisted on pointing out that I was ten and a half or turning thirteen next month. To me, the delta between just-turned-twelve and twelve-plus-eleven-months was… Continue reading these changes ain't changing me
teenage dream
Every so often, I give up on pretending that I have sophisticated taste in music and turn on the kind of thing I used to wallow to in high school. It's a sure ticket to the past, which has been especially welcome lately—nothing like escaping to the good old days when the president was just… Continue reading teenage dream
city mouse, suburb mouse
"Master-planned community": a euphemism for "white people and expensive trees, arranged along streets that are cleverly named so that a typical set of directions sounds like 'make a right on Timber Rose, then a left on Heirloom Rose, and then another right on Scarlet Rose.'"* This is where I was raised, on a parcel of… Continue reading city mouse, suburb mouse
bathrooms of the great midwest
I have a small bladder. Perhaps it's more proper to say that I am a small woman and then let you infer the rest, but I've never pretended to be proper, so let's just be frontal about it and move on. I have to pee often enough that I'm a bad person to bring on… Continue reading bathrooms of the great midwest
thicker than water
"An introverted Finn looks at his shoes when talking to you; an extroverted Finn looks at your shoes." I traveled recently to Finland, the country that my mother's family left several generations ago. I've never been particularly in tune with my cultural heritage, mostly because I'm not just a mutt but a generic, whiter-than-white-bread mutt:… Continue reading thicker than water
freshman disorientation
Nothing prepared me for the first time that I tried to walk from one building on Vassar's campus to another alone. It was before smartphones or even the proper signage that the fire department recently forced the college to install. I was hell-bent on finding my own way, no way was I going to ask… Continue reading freshman disorientation
textually transmitted diseases
I have thought often since then about where the boundaries lie between what's mine and what's fair for me to talk about and what secrets belong to the people who shape me.


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Responsys Strengthens Asia-Pacific Foothold was todays headline over at the email marketing site Emailexpert.net
Simon O'Day announced their expansion in the Asia-Pacific countries on twitter (@SimonOz) "a bit of news of significant importance – Eservices is now 100% Responsys. Exciting times." He is now director Australia at Responsys.
"Responsys is always looking for attractive opportunities to expand globally," said Dan Springer, Chief Executive Officer of Responsys in a recent press release. And it has. Last year they already announced a 51% majority stake purchase in eServices Australia, subsequently opening an office and development hub in Bangalore India in November 2010.
In 2009 Responsys already acquired the respected e-mail marketing firm smith Harmon. They are preparing for a IPO (initial public offering of shares).


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Altoona, PA Classifieds
Redesigning Your Home Can Be Fun
Choosing home decor furnishings is not always a straightforward process. Home has always been the ne...
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Brand Fire Safety Services Inc
Address: 16 Range Rd Hunlock Creek, PA 18621 Phone: 570-256-2981 Website: http://brand-svc.com Fire ...
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Our service is only for online classified ads placed by, or addressed to USA residents.


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Spring is the beginning of new life for plants and people alike. That means new make-up to mark the season, and style change. An Ulta 21 days of beauty mega sale comes at the perfect time for swapping out your winter make-up for a new springtime look.
This sale begins March 19th and goes for a full 21 days, which means April 8th is the final day. Ulta is offering up to 50% off discounts for each day of this sale, including different savings offers every day! How amazing is that?
This will be the perfect way to get your hands on new spring items just releasing and stock up on old favorites.
Products like Too Faced Love Flush Blush, Lorac POREfection Baked Perfecting Powder, STILA Smudge Stick Waterproof Eyeliner and so much more! Take a look at their calendar so you can mark when your favorite products are on sale. What better way to ring in spring than half-off cosmetics?!


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Simple Hydration Sponsors End To End CFPosted March 29th, 2017 by Brian Hock
Simple Hydration is proud to support Emily Allan and her effort to run the full 895 kilometers of the Bruce Trail in Canada. Her effort is known as "End to End CF" and will take place over 22 days from June 10 to July 1, 2017. Emily hopes this run will raise funds and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis.
Simple Hydration is supporting Emily with Simple Hydration Bottles to use on her runs each day in training and on the Bruce Trail. She is not a fan of handheld bottles and our bottles will provide the perfect hydration tool to allow her to run as efficient and possible.
Her goal is to raise $8,950 ($10/km) for Cystic Fibrosis Canada. If you would like to support Emily and this effort then visit her web site to learn more.


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Event date:
Apr 21 2017 - 4:00pm to Apr 22 2017 - 11:00pm
Our Saviour Baptist Church
701 S. 320th St.98003 Federal Way , WA
United States
See map: Google Maps
The 2017 Div. II Convention and Contest is at Our Saviour Baptist Church in Federal Way. Quartet contest will be held on Friday evening, starting at 6:00 PM. The chorus contest will start on Saturday at 10:00 AM. There will be a Show of Champions at 7 PM, on Saturday evening, so plan on staying for the show.
More convention information is at this link: Evergreen Convention 2017 Div2.


text: Black African male and female executives are being replaced by mediocre white men who won't rock the boat, writes John Dludlu.Eskom has many problems, but this week it made an important, albeit clumsy, intervention in the discourse about the future of black economic empowerment (BEE) and transformation in South Africa. In questioning the decision by Exxaro, the coal miner, to review its empowerment structure, the power utility has exposed the systemic failure of empowerment and transformation that has been going on for years now, mostly owing to poor monitoring by the government.Until last month, Exxaro was considered an exemplary empowered mining company: it had exceeded the legislated 26% empowerment shareholding, and was both black owned and controlled. Then, late last year, the empowerment scheme's lock-in period expired, and the company, which supplies coal to Eskom, had to structure a new empowerment transaction. Courts have yet to rule on whether white firms can enjoy empowerment status even after black shareholders have long sold their shares in these entities. Instead of waiting for this decision, Exxaro chose to redo the transaction. But the new one, approved last week by shareholders, will see its empowerment reduce from above 50% to 30%. This means that Exxaro will become black owned, but not black controlled.This has rattled Eskom whose empowerment policies require its coal suppliers to have 50% empowerment. Its Twitter-happy interim CEO, Matshela Koko, felt insulted by Exxaro's actions and has threatened not to recognise the new structure. Exxaro says it can't afford another 50%-plus empowerment scheme because of uncertainty around commodity prices. Plausible though this might sound, it's not entirely factual.Black African male and female executives are being replaced by mediocre white menBut the purpose of this input isn't to interrogate the commercial viability of a 50%-plus scheme. Rather, it's to explain how we got here. Put differently, why it is possible for companies like Exxaro to consider reducing empowerment at all?The answer is simple: Empowerment and transformation are just no longer important in this economy. They've not been, at least, for the past seven years. The governing party and its government pay lip service. White companies have noticed this and are taking full advantage of it.Exxaro isn't alone in being rogue, for lack of a better characterisation. Routinely, these days, black African male and female executives are being replaced by mediocre white men, not even white women, and/or foreign African men who won't rock the boat. Examples are plenty. Sizwe Nxasana, one of a handful of successful black African executives to have survived a parastatal without a scandal, was replaced by a white CEO at FirstRand. A look at executive committees of the large banks bears this out. A troubled telecoms company recently replaced a black African CEO with a white man without a word on transformation or succession planning. The very same government has appointed two white men to head strategically important state-owned entities Armscor and the Post Office. The SABC, which we now know doesn't do any security vetting of its senior personnel, is run by a foreigner.If Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele fails to stop the Independent Communications Authority of SA from proceeding to auction off the spectrum to the highest bidder, the contest for the lucrative spectrum will just be between the two bullies – MTN and Vodacom – which have deep pockets, but shallow empowerment credentials. How did we get here?A cocktail of factors explain this deprioritisation of empowerment and transformation. 1. First, the state is to blame. Each year, the Employment Equity (EE) Commission issues a report on the shocking state of affirmative action in the workplace, but there are no consequences. Increasingly, empowerment is losing its importance in state procurement decisions.2. Second, the state's monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are woefully weak and inadequate. The departments of trade and industry and mineral resources are but two examples of poor enforcement. Instead of resolving the long-running impasse over the mining charter with the industry, Mining Minister Mosebenzi Zwane has been fighting the release of the state capture report and trying to regulate banks on behalf of his friends. More than a decade after enacting the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act, the department only set up the Black Economic Empowerment Commission – an agency that is supposed to enforce the act – only last year. Typically, it has an acting head, which means that corporate thugs are continuing to bend the laws while it gets its act together.3. Third, over time, empowerment and transformation have lost their most vocal, committed and effective high priests. Two examples come to mind. As CEO of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Brian Molefe used the PIC's muscle to force listed entities to embrace transformation and, as head of the EE Commission and Black Management Forum (BMF), Mzwanele Manyi gave untransformed companies a hard time. These voices have since gone silent on this issue.And lastly, there are serious capacity and resource constraints. Even with the best intentions in the world, it's doubtful that the BMF has the capacity and financial resources to track, monitor and act against anti-transformation transactions and companies. The same applies to the departments of labour, trade and industry and mineral resources. Even though the BEE Commission is finally operational, we have yet to see whether it is well-resourced to track down and jail any of the many corporate offenders who are flouting the BBBEE Act. This administration's track record on funding such bodies is uninspiring. Can the deprioritisation of empowerment and transformation be stopped? Yes, it can – and ought to – be stopped. Problem is, the current administration lacks both the political will and interest to do so. It is just not interested in the management of proper economic empowerment and transformation. This is why, for now, South Africans will have to settle for empowerment activism, Eskom-style.* Dludlu is a former editor of the Sowetan.Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24's top stories


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Season 4 of the American fantasy series "Game of Thrones" has come to an end and the anticipation for season 5 has reached great heights. To recap, the season kicked off at King's Landing where royals from all 7 kingdoms gathered for the highly anticipated union of Prince Joffrey Lannister and Margaery Tyrell. Within minutes of the grand ceremony, the episode took an unexpected turn. Prince Joffrey was killed and his uncle, Tyrion Lannister, was accused and detained for his death – but did he really commit the crime?
From that tragic event on, the tone for season 4 was set. There were nail-biting twists and turns in the story line that kept watchers on the edge of their seats. Jamie Lannister returned home; Sansa Stark silently escaped King's Landing during Prince Joffrey's death; Khalessi, the mother of dragons, built an outnumbered army but lost control of her greatest weapons; the men of the Night's Watch fought to protect the Wall; and Tyrion Lannister killed the protector of his family and father Tywin Lannister.
With the close of season 4, the war of the five kings continues. Will the Lannister's be protected without their father? What's Sansa Stark's motive now that she has escaped King's Landing? Will Khalessi regain control of her dragons and claim what's rightfully owed? Unfortunately, these questions will all go unanswered, and despite the year long wait for season 5 we can assure you what's to come is well worth the wait.
If you want to capture the drama of Games of Thrones as your Halloween costume this year then check out these creative Game of Thrones costumes.
See our Recap of Season 3: Games of Thrones' Season Finale Excites Us For Season 3


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Thread: How can I convert a Julian (1970) time value to a standard date and time format?
John wrote 1000 lines of code. Fred wrote 10 lines of code. How many lines did Fred write?
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The Mortal Plane has long been divided among the servants of Light and Darkness, suffering a thousand years of atrocity by both sides. When one god finally rose up and slew another, The Pact was formed, forestalling any further damage to the realms of men. But now, over the last few decades, signs of the Demons and their mindless Accursed minions have dwindled to an all-time low. It seems that after a thousand years of conflict the Gods of Light and the Gods of Darkness have finally tired of the bloody war. Or have they?
It falls to Trent, a Paladin of the Light with a soul torn with an impossible and unrequited love for his commander and scarred by a childhood filled with despair and pain, to travel beyond the walls of the city to discover what has become of humanity's ancestral enemy. Only with his closest friend Devin by his side can Trent hope to keep from losing himself. Together the two men track a horde of Demons to a secret that will rock the Mortal Plane to its very foundations.
©2016 Dark Tidings Press LLC (P)2016 Dark Tidings Press LLC
"Thrilling series"
To be fair I haven't finished. however the book is captivating and thought provoking. It helped me stay awake on a long drive which is where I tend to listen to audio books. This is great fantasy novel that has kept me enthralled.
I haven't finished yet so I don't know however if the end is going where I think it is, the whole book will be quite memorable.
I read the complaint about not liking the "ghost whisper" for the characters' inner monologues; however I enjoyed it. I think it was a great addition to the listening experience. I could differentiate between the characters and their thinking vs speaking. To me this was a huge improvement to other audible listening. In some books they make no distinction of thought or voice and that too often gets confusing. It also left out the redundancy of having to say "Trent thought to himself" or "Ren said."
"The world is out of balance, and only chaos reigns."
"Good intro book"
Slow at first but the story picks up. Should be a good series. I definitely recommend
"Inner Monologue Problems"
Do you remember the voice from Field of Dreams (if you build it they will come?)
Well the main character as well as several others have these inner monologue parts throughout the book. Not that this is a problem....but the voice is that ghost whisper. That ghost whisper is the same for all characters and makes up about 15% of the book.
Is it bad enough to skip the Audible and just get the book? Almost. By the 20th time you hear it you start to cringe.
Books was enjoyable, I would suggest you stick to print.
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First post
Hi folks, just a few words to say HELLO and a big THANKS to all of you guys who like and buy my T-shirts. I'm in it just for fun, but I'm really proud of the results after a month at RedBubble.
BTW, I've got some designs up for voting at Qwertee and it'd be nice if you could pop on over and vote for it.
Plus, if one of them gets printed, you can get an awesome tee at a great price!
"Likes", "pins" and "tweets" are really appreciated too…


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LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Police said no one was harmed when an elderly man accidentally drove his car into a Gwinnett County restaurant on Thursday.
Shortly before 4 p.m., police responded to a Subway restaurant on Five Forks Trickum Road near Oak Road where they found a four-door sedan that was partway into the restaurant.
Police said the driver had intended to hit the brake but accidentally pressed the accelerator instead.
Police said that after the vehicle was removed from the restaurant and towed, the elderly couple was taken home by police.
No charges were filled. Police said the incident is now a matter for the insurance companies to work out.


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Wessex FM News
Cash Boost for Dorset Health
7:31am 19th February 2014
An £800k funding package is going to help Dorset join up its health and social care services.
The money comes from Health Education Wessex.
They say it will go towards training and developing staff directly involved in dementia care and community nursing.
It's hoped the joint health and social care partnership will improve the way services are delivered across the county.
"There are approximately 14,000 staff working in the NHS and in primary care across Dorset and up to 22,000 staff working in social care, plus many more people working as carers and independent and voluntary sector. Many will need new skills and need to work in new ways to deliver care to people in an integrated way," said Paul Holmes, Managing Director, Health Education Wessex.
"Education and training of the workforce is key to the success of this initiative and breaking down the traditional funding barriers between health and social care is critical to make this project work at scale."
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Post leap Raman has become very rude in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. He doesn't listen to anybody. He has not only become heartless but also very coldblooded. He cannot sense emotions and doesn't even give any heed to others who show emotions even if it is his own mother.
Though he stays with his family, he has completely isolated himself from them. In fact, his attitude and behavior is troubling everybody. However, though nobody is able to convince him that he is doing wrong, Adi is trying his best to bring his dad on the right track.
Raman Purposely Doesn't Want to Remember Ishita
Raman loves Ishita. Somehow he thinks he is responsible for her death and even tries to run away from her memories. This is the reason why he has asked everybody not to take her name. In a way, he wants to escape from the reality that Ishita is no more and also wants to believe that he doesn't love her anymore. However, the truth is that he is suffering the most post Ishita's exist from his life.
Adi is Constantly Making Raman Remember Ishita
Adi is the only one who is maintaining his relationship with both the family – The Bhallas as well as the Iyers while the two are fighting with each other. He keeps on remembering his Ishi Maa and even tries to make Raman remember. However, Raman hates it when he takes Ishita's name. In fact, he even slapped him for taking Ishita's name in front of him.
Adi Has Now Met Ishita
We saw in the previous episodes how Adi accidentally met Ishita in the hospital where she was admitted after she was shot with a gun during the hijack episode. While he got emotional, he didn't reveal his identity on Mihika's insistence. He loves Ishita and doesn't consider her wrong though Raman thinks she is. This is the reason why he wants Ishita back in their life.
Adi Will Make Raman Realize His Mistake and Love for Ishita
Now that Adi knows Ishita is alive and wants her back in their lives, he will try to instigate Raman and keep on trying to make him realize his mistake and also his love for Ishita. We are sure Adi will succeed in his mission though not so quickly and when he is finally successful in waking the lost love for Ishita in Raman, he will bring the two together.
Well, while, Ruhi (Ruhaan) is trying his best to separate Ishita and Raman, Adi will ensure that the two reunite in the upcoming episodes of Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. We are sure he will bring them face to face and also bring back Ishita in their lives. No wonder, we want IshRa to reunite after 7 years – What do you think? Will Adi be able to do this – Will he be able to make Raman realize his mistake?
Image Source: 1 2 3


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Running Time: 86 minutes
Released: 01/2011
Studio Name: Staxus
Director: Vlado Iresch
Description: Outdoor shenanigans abound as a group of cock-mad twinks head for their local woodland park in search of hard, uncut flesh - which they find aplenty! Added to the mix are the park wardens, whose lust for dick is even more outrageous than that of their young charges. The resulting raw fucks and spunk-filled holes will make this summertime romp a definite cum-dumper time and time again!
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Vaginal discharge in women is not abnormal and it should not be treated as an illness. This only applies to the scenarios wherein the release is clear or white along with no particular odour. Anything that looks different is most likely a symptom of a health condition. Sometimes there is nothing severe; however, in some women it may signify a severe disease.
The best thing to do when detecting a strange secretion, like a yellowish vaginal discharge, is to see a physician in order to know for certain whether you need treatment or not. Each time the vaginal discharge changes in colour and becomes yellow, green or bloody, it implies that something has occurred within your body to trigger this change.
It is always better to be safe rather than sorry, so you need to investigate the possible causes. A yellow discharge can be due to several medical conditions. Dependant upon which is responsible in your instance, the treatment might differ. Sometimes vaginal discharge may become yellow due to stress, toxins or unhealthy lifestyle.
In this type of case, you can consider yourself a lucky woman because when you remove stress and put yourself back on the right path, the issues may also disappear. In most cases a yellow vaginal discharge requires sufficient treatment. The doctor will ascertain the condition which is causing the release based on your other symptoms.
A few of the most typical reasons for yellow vaginal discharge is sexually transmitted diseases, chlamydia, gonorrhea, vulvovaginitis and cervicitis. Very rarely, vaginal cancer might lead to a yellow discharge. Apart from the yellow vaginal discharge, ladies with cervicitis may also encounter irregular bleeding, fertility issues and pain.
Vulvovaginitis is an inflammation that affects the vulva of a woman. It may either result in yellow vaginal discharge or brown discharge. Other signs are vaginal dryness along with pain during urination along with lovemaking.
Chlamydia is a bacterial infection that is transmitted through sexual contact. Gonorrhea can be sexually transmitted and along with the yellow discharge, the patient also suffers from pelvis pain.


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This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 3, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: The White House is still debating whether to release a photograph of Usama bin Laden's bodying following the raid. But CIA Director Leon Panetta hinted an interview that a picture of the body will ultimately be released.
Now officials are debating the issue because the most identifiable image of bin Laden is also the most gruesome. And despite Panetta's claim, he did say the White House will make the final decision about the release of the picture.
Now meanwhile, we are piecing together the key details of the raid that lead to Usama bin Laden's death at this Pakistani compound. Even the White House seemed confused about how the operation unfolded, in particular about whether Usama was armed, whether he used one of his wives as a human shield and whether she emerged from the fire fight dead or alive.
But we know now that a team of 24 Navy SEALs repelled into the compound on the president's orders, bin Laden some of his family members and two other families were living inside this mansion at this time. Now reports say that bin Laden and his family occupied the second and third floors. Now, the SEALs entered on the ground floor where they shot and killed two of bin Laden's couriers before moving up to the second floor. There they found Usama and one of his wives. His wife reportedly tried to attack one of the SEAL and was shot in the leg. Next, the SEALs shot and killed bin Laden who according to the latest report was not armed.
Now, the entire raid last approximately 38 minutes after which the team exited the compound by helicopter with bin Laden's body.
But now questions are surfacing about the intelligence that led to Usama's capture and just how much of it was gathered through enhanced interrogations that got during the Bush administration.
Joining me now with analysis, the author of "Known and Unknown," former Secretary of Defense, the one and only Donald Rumsfeld is back.
Sir, welcome back to the program, good to see you.
DONALD RUMSFELD, AUTHOR, "KNOWN AND UNKNOWN": Thank you, Sean.
HANNITY: All right. A couple of things. Let's start with the photographs. Panetta saying -- because they got photographs, they got images, they got photographs prior to dumping his body in the sea. My attitude is, why not release all of these pictures and let the public see, let the public decide. Your thoughts?
RUMSFELD: Well, I'm really without conviction on the subject. I suspect that I'd have to see the photographs to know what my opinion was. But I tilt towards releasing them, as you do.
HANNITY: Well, I really can't come up with a justifiable reason why we wouldn't. I mean, Uday and Qusay, that was released, Saddam Hussein's hanging, that was made public. And if you look on Google on the internet, you could see, if you want pictures of former President Kennedy with half his skull missing.
RUMSFELD: Well, those were not released. Those were taken, as I recall the Kennedy photos. In real-time, if I'm not mistaken.
HANNITY: Right.
RUMSFELD: In this case, the concern on the part of the Department of Defense, I would think, would be, would the photographs contribute to enraging people in the world and causing recruiting to go up for al Qaeda or causing fundraising to go up for al Qaeda; to see that particular person, the face of al Qaeda terror in a mutilated form.
So, I think that that is undoubtedly what is on their minds. I can't imagine that there would be anything in the photograph that would reveal anything relating to military techniques or sources and methods. So, I think the only possible consideration would be the latter. And I think that's a tough judgment call.
HANNITY: Why would it be a tough judgment call when the report is that we shot him in the head? You know, for example, there was a 40 minute service we are told aboard our aircraft carrier, 40 minutes. And the burial at sea was supposedly to follow Islamic custom. And his body was cleaned, and he was covered with a shroud and there's a 40 minute service. And frankly, the more I think about it, the more inappropriate I think this is, because, you know, the people that died on 9/11, they didn't have a funeral. In many cases we didn't recover their remains.
RUMSFELD: That is quite true. I think however that at least for myself, I think they made exactly the right decision to dispose of the remains at sea and not bring them back to land and create a site where he could be considered a martyr of some sort.
HANNITY: Do you think this fear is somewhat irrational and a little bit misguided that we might incite or enrage, if we release the photo, we might incite, we might enrage if he wasn't given a proper funeral, et cetera, following Islamic custom? Because it seems to me that we are overly concerned about an enemy that's never going to like us any way.
RUMSFELD: Well, you're quite right in terms of al Qaeda. They are not going to like us. They are going to keep doing what they are doing and do it viciously as they have in the past. I think the concern that undoubtedly people in the government are weighing is not what will al Qaeda think, but what will other people think of that faith. And I think they probably are not improperly making judgments that suggest that they would like to avoid causing additional concerns and causing additional people to feel that al Qaeda was mistreated in some way.
I am delighted that he was killed. I am delighted they disposed of his remains at sea. And I think that the questions -- these are side questions on the photos and on the procedures at sea, I'm not really familiar with what they've done, and I haven't seen the photos.
HANNITY: Well, there are many doubters in the Muslim world. The Taliban has said there is no proof of bin Laden's death. There is an explosion of conspiracy theories. Seems to me that --
RUMSFELD: I've heard that.
HANNITY: -- that they kind of have to do this.
Let me ask you this. I think it is pretty clear now that discovering who this courier was, through strong interrogation techniques, that were employed during the Bush administration, without which this day would never have occurred. So, can't we -- it seems to me we need to reignite this debate about enhancement interrogation techniques in this country. Is that a good idea?
RUMSFELD: I think it's certainly is a reasonable idea. Is it correct that the CIA Director Panetta today indicated that one of the individuals who provided important information had in fact been waterboarded?
HANNITY: Yes. Yes. Yes.
RUMSFELD: Is that correct?
HANNITY: Yes.
RUMSFELD: Well, that's my understanding. And I think that anyone who suggests that the enhanced techniques, let's be blunt, waterboarding, did not produce an enormous amount of valuable intelligence, just isn't facing the truth. The facts are, General Mike Hayden came in, he had no connection with waterboarding anybody. He looked at all the evidence and concluded that a major fraction of the intelligence in our country on al Qaeda came from individuals, the three, only three people who were waterboarded.
HANNITY: Yes. Well, there were only three people.
RUMSFELD: Right.
HANNITY: And that led to the information of the nickname of the courier. And this by way -- we've had this for years and this was being pursued during the Bush years. The courier's name was found, he was eventually identified, and through eavesdropping, we were able to locate him and then locate bin Laden.
But that brings up the issue of black sites, enhanced interrogation, rendition, all the things we've discussed, we would not have had this success. And these are the very policies, I praised the president yesterday, I think it was a gutsy move that he decided to go in and get him, so we could have identification. But if he had his way and Democrats had its way, we wouldn't have had this intelligence, sir.
RUMSFELD: You are exactly right. I also agree that he made the right decision. And rather than using cruise missiles or drones to attack the facility, I think using the SEAL teams and going in there and actually getting him physically, identifying him, knowing that's what has happened and being certain about it was exactly the right call.
I'm told there was some confusion today on some programs, even one on Fox, I think, suggesting that I indicated that no one was who was waterboarded at Guantanamo, provided any information on this. That's just not true. What I said was, no one was waterboarded at Guantanamo by the U.S. military. In fact, no one was waterboarded at Guantanamo, period. Three people were waterboarded by the CIA, away from Guantanamo and then later brought to Guantanamo. And in fact, as you point out, the information that came from those individuals was critically important.
HANNITY: Last question, does George W. Bush, President Bush deserve as much credit for what happened Sunday as President Obama?
RUMSFELD: Well, the current administration would not have had the kinds of intelligence that was critically important, nor would they have had the Special Forces in the numbers, with the equipment, with the training, with the authorities and with the experience. We increased their budget I think fourfold during the time I was in the Pentagon. We increased the numbers in the special operations people, I believe by about 50 percent. Their equipment has been improved.
Those capabilities, to deal with asymmetric threats were developed during the George W. Bush administration, and let there be no doubt about it. So, we give credit to the current administration for making the decisions they made and clearly, the Bush administration is the one that developed and nurtured those capabilities.
HANNITY: All right. Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, thanks for being with us, sir.
RUMSFELD: Thank you, Sean.
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Kano state government to build multi billion naira economic city
The Kano State Governor His Excellency Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje OFR today on behalf of the state government oversaw the signing of an unprecedented agreement with Brains & Hammers Limited for the construction of the massive multi billion naira Kanawa Economic City which took place at the Africa Hall of the government House.
The governor stated that the Kanawa market was conceptualized over 11 years ago but all efforts for its offtake failed until today when this agreement is signed. The total direct project cost is over 167 Billion naira and is expected to be completed within 72 months and will be carried out in 3 phases on a land size of about 121 hectares.
This major breakthrough when completed will provide over half a million jobs to the people of Kano State and beyond, and is expected to provide over 10 thousand retail shops, 160 warehouses; a standard shopping mall, an international conference center, a World trade center, light factories, a motel and hotel, banks, clinic, among other facilities that will be made available in this world class international market the 1st of its kind in West Africa.
His Excellency disclosed that this historic agreement will significantly transform the economic situation of Kano State and tremendously enhance economic activities of the state. He also stated that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to lay the foundation of this massive investment in the State in January 2017.
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