Under the leadership of Dr. R. C. Potts, Associate Dean of the College of Agriculture, a curriculum was developed, approved through the University and the Texas State Coordinating Board, and the announcement was made in the spring of 1965 that a new curriculum in outdoor recreation would now be offered through Texas A&M. The announcements circulated primarily through rural news outlets, word-of-mouth and radio announcements by county extension agents.
This publicity resulted in one graduate student being admitted in the fall of 1965. Since there was no faculty or staff, he was placed in the Department of Range and Forestry.
During the Fall semester, Dr. Leslie M. Reid, a faculty member at Michigan State, was brought in to interview for the position as Department Head. To the best of my knowledge, he was the only one interviewed.
Les Reid was impressed with the potential he saw at Texas A&M. The school had a good reputation as an all-male military school, but military training had just become non-compulsory, and the school was poised to begin an era of growth. At the time, there were fewer than 9,000 students enrolled.
Les was very well received, in part, he confided to me a few years later, by one of those serendipitious actions that sometimes guide our fate. His resume listed the fact that he had served as a Corporal in the armed forces, but the descender on the leter "p" was imperfect. The "Cpl." on his resume was easily mistaken for "Col." As you might guess, this promotion was well received at a military school which had originally offered its first presidency to Jefferson Davis.
Much of the information on these pages is from first-hand experience since I was that first student to enter the program. My father would listen to the "Ag Morning Report" by Dewey Compton, the Ag Extension Agent in Harris County. Each morning I would awaken to the strains of the "Aggie War Hymn" which was played at the start of the report. It was from this talk show that I first learned of the new program. Since I was a graduating senior at Rice University at the time, I decided to write to obtain more information on the new program. My mistake was hand-writing the request. Soon thereafter I received a response–a letter from the Animal Science Department giving me information on their swine-management programs. Obviously, I was a confused country bumpkin who didn't know swine (the animal) from pork (the product). Fortunately, a month or two later I sent a second (typed) letter which caught the attention of Dr. Potts who convinced me to come to A&M.


text:
Humble ISD celebrates history of Lakeland
Written by Beverly Horner
Humble ISD celebrated Lakeland Elementary School at the July board meeting. The school counts six decades serving the community. Attendees watched a video starring three current students in an energy-filled compilation of the past and present milestones of the campus. Lakeland has served as a neighborhood school for 60 years.
"While it has undergone several physical changes and additions, the level of education provided to the students and the dedication from the teachers and staff have remained consistent," board member Robert Sitton said.
Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Fagen spoke about the new school facility which will open Aug. 10.
"The new campus will bring about several technology advancements, innovative learning opportunities, and in some ways, save in the overall bus mileage. This is just one of the many great changes around the district," she said.
The board discussed providing online instruction during the new school year.
"House Bill 3 (HB3) is a Blended Learning Grant Program that determines when online programs are offered throughout the state and how they will be both funded and administered. If Humble receives the funding, it will make a difference in online initiatives and educators in the form of millions of dollars of support. We know how important it is to give our students choices for their education based on decisions at the state-level," said board member Lori Twomey
Elementary English Language Arts Coordinator for Humble ISD, Netta Whitaker, gave a presentation alongside additional team members to provide districtwide literacy data.
"Together we have used software to our advantage to be able to focus on the growth and challenges of our students on a bigger scale. That is, we can see how our students are aligned in terms of STAAR performance in both math and literacy — particularly since the onset of COVID."
"The numbers show that Humble ISD students are continuing to raise the bar and set a bench mark for future years. We all know that math was the lowest subject across the state," said Whitaker.
Fagen concluded by stating, "The data your team, all members, have put together is of excellent quality and shows precision in all points. Our teachers have worked hard, especially with flexibility over the past year. They have big shoes to fill moving forward as well."
PAC raises thousands to stop Humble ISD challengers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
require 'capistrano/command'

module Capistrano
  class Configuration
    module Actions
      module Invocation
        def self.included(base) #:nodoc:
          base.extend(ClassMethods)

          base.send :alias_method, :initialize_without_invocation, :initialize
          base.send :alias_method, :initialize, :initialize_with_invocation

          base.default_io_proc = Proc.new do |ch, stream, out|
            level = stream == :err ? :important : :info
            ch[:options][:logger].send(level, out, "#{stream} :: #{ch[:server]}")
          end
        end

        module ClassMethods
          attr_accessor :default_io_proc
        end

        def initialize_with_invocation(*args) #:nodoc:
          initialize_without_invocation(*args)
          set :default_environment, {}
          set :default_run_options, {}
        end

        # Executes different commands in parallel. This is useful for commands
        # that need to be different on different hosts, but which could be
        # otherwise run in parallel.
        #
        # The +options+ parameter is currently unused.
        #
        # Example:
        #
        #   task :restart_everything do
        #     parallel do |session|
        #       session.when "in?(:app)", "/path/to/restart/mongrel"
        #       session.when "in?(:web)", "/path/to/restart/apache"
        #       session.when "in?(:db)", "/path/to/restart/mysql"
        #     end
        #   end
        #
        # Each command may have its own callback block, for capturing and
        # responding to output, with semantics identical to #run:
        #
        #   session.when "in?(:app)", "/path/to/restart/mongrel" do |ch, stream, data|
        #     # ch is the SSH channel for this command, used to send data
        #     #    back to the command (e.g. ch.send_data("password\n"))
        #     # stream is either :out or :err, for which stream the data arrived on
        #     # data is a string containing data sent from the remote command
        #   end
        #
        # Also, you can specify a fallback command, to use when none of the
        # conditions match a server:
        #
        #   session.else "/execute/something/else"
        #
        # The string specified as the first argument to +when+ may be any valid
        # Ruby code. It has access to the following variables and methods:
        #
        # * +in?(role)+ returns true if the server participates in the given role
        # * +server+ is the ServerDefinition object for the server. This can be
        #   used to get the host-name, etc.
        # * +configuration+ is the current Capistrano::Configuration object, which
        #   you can use to get the value of variables, etc.
        #
        # For example:
        #
        #   session.when "server.host =~ /app/", "/some/command"
        #   session.when "server.host == configuration[:some_var]", "/another/command"
        #   session.when "in?(:web) || in?(:app)", "/more/commands"
        #
        # See #run for a description of the valid +options+.
        def parallel(options={})
          raise ArgumentError, "parallel() requires a block" unless block_given?
          tree = Command::Tree.new(self) { |t| yield t }
          run_tree(tree, options)
        end

        # Invokes the given command. If a +via+ key is given, it will be used
        # to determine what method to use to invoke the command. It defaults
        # to :run, but may be :sudo, or any other method that conforms to the
        # same interface as run and sudo.
        def invoke_command(cmd, options={}, &block)
          options = options.dup
          via = options.delete(:via) || :run
          send(via, cmd, options, &block)
        end

        # Execute the given command on all servers that are the target of the
        # current task. If a block is given, it is invoked for all output
        # generated by the command, and should accept three parameters: the SSH
        # channel (which may be used to send data back to the remote process),
        # the stream identifier (<tt>:err</tt> for stderr, and <tt>:out</tt> for
        # stdout), and the data that was received.
        #
        # The +options+ hash may include any of the following keys:
        #
        # * :hosts - this is either a string (for a single target host) or an array
        #   of strings, indicating which hosts the command should run on. By default,
        #   the hosts are determined from the task definition.
        # * :roles - this is either a string or symbol (for a single target role) or
        #   an array of strings or symbols, indicating which roles the command should
        #   run on. If :hosts is specified, :roles will be ignored.
        # * :only - specifies a condition limiting which hosts will be selected to
        #   run the command. This should refer to values set in the role definition.
        #   For example, if a role is defined with :primary => true, then you could
        #   select only hosts with :primary true by setting :only => { :primary => true }.
        # * :except - specifies a condition limiting which hosts will be selected to
        #   run the command. This is the inverse of :only (hosts that do _not_ match
        #   the condition will be selected).
        # * :once - if true, only the first matching server will be selected. The default
        #   is false (all matching servers will be selected).
        # * :max_hosts - specifies the maximum number of hosts that should be selected
        #   at a time. If this value is less than the number of hosts that are selected
        #   to run, then the hosts will be run in groups of max_hosts. The default is nil,
        #   which indicates that there is no maximum host limit. Please note this does not
        #   limit the number of SSH channels that can be open, only the number of hosts upon
        #   which this will be called.
        # * :shell - says which shell should be used to invoke commands. This
        #   defaults to "sh". Setting this to false causes Capistrano to invoke
        #   the commands directly, without wrapping them in a shell invocation.
        # * :data - if not nil (the default), this should be a string that will
        #   be passed to the command's stdin stream.
        # * :pty - if true, a pseudo-tty will be allocated for each command. The
        #   default is false. Note that there are benefits and drawbacks both ways.
        #   Empirically, it appears that if a pty is allocated, the SSH server daemon
        #   will _not_ read user shell start-up scripts (e.g. bashrc, etc.). However,
        #   if a pty is _not_ allocated, some commands will refuse to run in
        #   interactive mode and will not prompt for (e.g.) passwords.
        # * :env - a hash of environment variable mappings that should be made
        #   available to the command. The keys should be environment variable names,
        #   and the values should be their corresponding values. The default is
        #   empty, but may be modified by changing the +default_environment+
        #   Capistrano variable.
        #
        # Note that if you set these keys in the +default_run_options+ Capistrano
        # variable, they will apply for all invocations of #run, #invoke_command,
        # and #parallel.
        def run(cmd, options={}, &block)
          block ||= self.class.default_io_proc
          tree = Command::Tree.new(self) { |t| t.else(cmd, &block) }
          run_tree(tree, options)
        end

        # Executes a Capistrano::Command::Tree object. This is not for direct
        # use, but should instead be called indirectly, via #run or #parallel,
        # or #invoke_command.
        def run_tree(tree, options={}) #:nodoc:
          if tree.branches.empty? && tree.fallback
            logger.debug "executing #{tree.fallback}"
          elsif tree.branches.any?
            logger.debug "executing multiple commands in parallel"
            tree.each do |branch|
              logger.trace "-> #{branch}"
            end
          else
            raise ArgumentError, "attempt to execute without specifying a command"
          end

          return if dry_run || (debug && continue_execution(tree) == false)

          options = add_default_command_options(options)

          tree.each do |branch|
            if branch.command.include?(sudo)
              branch.callback = sudo_behavior_callback(branch.callback)
            end
          end

          execute_on_servers(options) do |servers|
            targets = servers.map { |s| sessions[s] }
            Command.process(tree, targets, options.merge(:logger => logger))
          end
        end

        # Returns the command string used by capistrano to invoke a comamnd via
        # sudo.
        #
        #   run "#{sudo :as => 'bob'} mkdir /path/to/dir"
        #
        # It can also be invoked like #run, but executing the command via sudo.
        # This assumes that the sudo password (if required) is the same as the
        # password for logging in to the server.
        #
        #   sudo "mkdir /path/to/dir"
        #
        # Also, this method understands a <tt>:sudo</tt> configuration variable,
        # which (if specified) will be used as the full path to the sudo
        # executable on the remote machine:
        #
        #   set :sudo, "/opt/local/bin/sudo"
        #
        # If you know what you're doing, you can also set <tt>:sudo_prompt</tt>,
        # which tells capistrano which prompt sudo should use when asking for
        # a password. (This is so that capistrano knows what prompt to look for
        # in the output.) If you set :sudo_prompt to an empty string, Capistrano
        # will not send a preferred prompt.
        def sudo(*parameters, &block)
          options = parameters.last.is_a?(Hash) ? parameters.pop.dup : {}
          command = parameters.first
          user = options[:as] && "-u #{options.delete(:as)}"

          sudo_prompt_option = "-p '#{sudo_prompt}'" unless sudo_prompt.empty?
          sudo_command = [fetch(:sudo, "sudo"), sudo_prompt_option, user].compact.join(" ")

          if command
            command = sudo_command + " " + command
            run(command, options, &block)
          else
            return sudo_command
          end
        end

        # Returns a Proc object that defines the behavior of the sudo
        # callback. The returned Proc will defer to the +fallback+ argument
        # (which should also be a Proc) for any output it does not
        # explicitly handle.
        def sudo_behavior_callback(fallback) #:nodoc:
          # in order to prevent _each host_ from prompting when the password
          # was wrong, let's track which host prompted first and only allow
          # subsequent prompts from that host.
          prompt_host = nil

          Proc.new do |ch, stream, out|
            if out =~ /^Sorry, try again/
              if prompt_host.nil? || prompt_host == ch[:server]
                prompt_host = ch[:server]
                logger.important out, "#{stream} :: #{ch[:server]}"
                reset! :password
              end
            end

            if out =~ /^#{Regexp.escape(sudo_prompt)}/
              ch.send_data "#{self[:password]}\n"
            elsif fallback
              fallback.call(ch, stream, out)
            end
          end
        end

        # Merges the various default command options into the options hash and
        # returns the result. The default command options that are understand
        # are:
        #
        # * :default_environment: If the :env key already exists, the :env
        #   key is merged into default_environment and then added back into
        #   options.
        # * :default_shell: if the :shell key already exists, it will be used.
        #   Otherwise, if the :default_shell key exists in the configuration,
        #   it will be used. Otherwise, no :shell key is added.
        def add_default_command_options(options)
          defaults = self[:default_run_options]
          options = defaults.merge(options)

          env = self[:default_environment]
          env = env.merge(options[:env]) if options[:env]
          options[:env] = env unless env.empty?

          shell = options[:shell] || self[:default_shell]
          options[:shell] = shell unless shell.nil?

          options
        end

        # Returns the prompt text to use with sudo
        def sudo_prompt
          fetch(:sudo_prompt, "sudo password: ")
        end

        def continue_execution(tree)
          if tree.branches.length == 1
            continue_execution_for_branch(tree.branches.first)
          else
            tree.each { |branch| branch.skip! unless continue_execution_for_branch(branch) }
            tree.any? { |branch| !branch.skip? }
          end
        end

        def continue_execution_for_branch(branch)
          case Capistrano::CLI.debug_prompt(branch)
            when "y"
              true
            when "n"
              false
            when "a"
              exit(-1)
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Warburg-HIH Invest Creates New Value-Add Unit
Office property investments worth 300 million euros planned
Acquisitions focus on Germany's "Big Seven" cities
Unit to be headed by property development expert Daniel Werner
Hamburg, 29. April 2019 – Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate ("Warburg-HIH Invest") is in the process of setting up a new business unit and plans to invest 300 million euros in German office properties marked by value-add and rental upside potential before the end of the year. "In a dedicated effort, we will upgrade the properties, eliminate vacancies, bring them up to the market level within three to five years and dispose of them afterwards," said Hans-Joachim Lehmann, Managing Director of Warburg-HIH Invest. "We will limit these activities to the Big Seven cities, which are subject to keen demand among investors and tenant leads."
The new business unit will be headed by Daniel Werner (45). The new Head of Transaction Management Value Add Germany is transferring from HOCHTIEF Projektentwicklung where he most recently served as Head of Branch in Hamburg and had the overall responsibility for the operating activities in town. Werner brings more than 20 years of experience to the job and has been active in the property development sector for the past 14 years.
With its new business unit, Warburg-HIH Invest will expand its product spectrum, which so far used to be focused on properties of the core and core+ type. "Insurance companies, pension funds and superannuation schemes increasingly demand investment opportunities that will help them offset the current yield compression in the prime property segment," said Alexander Eggert, Managing Director at WarburgHIH Invest.
"In a dedicated effort, we will upgrade the properties, eliminate vacancies, bring them up to the market level within three to five years and dispose of them afterwards. We will limit these activities to the Big Seven cities, which are subject to keen demand among investors and tenant leads."
Hans-Joachim Lehmann, Managing Director
Warburg HIH Invest
"Insurance companies, pension funds and superannuation schemes increasingly demand investment 2/2 opportunities that will help them offset the current yield compression in the prime property segment."
Alexander Eggert, Managing Director
Original Image Download
Deputy Head of Corporate Communication


text:
Q: Problem with enabling JavaScript with HtmlUnit I'm a newbie to HtmlUnit, and I'm writing a demo script to load the source HTML of a webpage and write it to a txt file.
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    try (final WebClient wc = new WebClient(BrowserVersion.BEST_SUPPORTED)) {
        wc.getOptions().setThrowExceptionOnScriptError(false);

        final HtmlPage page = wc.getPage("https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/SearchResults/biscuits");
        WebResponse res = page.getWebResponse();
        String html = res.getContentAsString();

        FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(dir + "/pageHtml.txt");
        fw.write(html);
        fw.close();
    }
}

However, it returns the HTML for disabled JavaScript. To try and fix this, I added this line to ensure JS is enabled on the WebClient:
        wc.getOptions().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);

Despite that, nothing changes. Am I being an idiot, or is there something more subtle that needs to change?
Thanks for any help! ^_^

A: WebResponse res = page.getWebResponse();
String html = res.getContentAsString();

This is the response (code) you got from the server. If you like to have the current DOM (the one after the js processing is done you can do something like
HtmlPage page = webClient.getPage(url);
webClient.waitForBackgroundJavaScript(60_000);

System.out.println(page.asXml());

or
System.out.println(page.asNormalizedText());

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The most important numbers to know about Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM)
Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) shares traded 12.81% higher at $59.99 on Wall Street last session.
In accordance with the data, 5 analysts cover Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM). The consensus rating among analysts is 'Overweight'. As we calculate the median target price by taking the range between a high of $66.00 and a low of $45.00, we find $60.00. Given the previous closing price of $53.18, this indicates a potential upside of 12.82 percent. IRDM stock price is now 17.11% away from the 50-day moving average and 37.39% away from the 200-day moving average. The market capitalization of the company currently stands at $6.68B.
It has been rated a hold by 1 analysts and a buy by 3. Brokers who have rated the stock have averaged $57.75 as their price target over the next twelve months.
With the price target reduced from $48 to $45, Barclays Downgraded its rating from Overweight to Equal Weight for Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM). On February 22, 2022, Barclays Upgraded its previous 'Equal Weight' rating to 'Overweight' on the stock keeping its target price maintained at $47, while 'Raymond James' rates the stock as 'Strong Buy'.
In other news, DESCH MATTHEW J, Chief Executive Officer sold 9,208 shares of the company's stock on Jan 06. The stock was sold for $552,112 at an average price of $59.96. Upon completion of the transaction, the Chief Executive Officer now directly owns 595,091 shares in the company, valued at $35.7 million. An SEC document containing details of the transaction can be found on the SEC's website. On Jan 06, CAO Iridium Satellite LLC Kapalka Timothy sold 1,176 shares of the business's stock. A total of $65,856 was realized by selling the stock at an average price of $56.00. This leaves the insider owning 15,504 shares of the company worth $0.93 million. Insiders disposed of 572,504 shares of company stock worth roughly $34.34 million over the past 1 year. A total of 1.50% of the company's stock is owned by insiders.
There have been several recent changes in the stakes of large investors in IRDM stock. A new stake in Iridium Communications Inc. shares was purchased by DRIEHAUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC during the first quarter worth $26,055,000. NICHOLAS INVESTMENT PARTNERS, LP invested $10,867,000 in shares of IRDM during the first quarter. In the first quarter, AMALGAMATED FINANCIAL CORP. acquired a new stake in Iridium Communications Inc. valued at approximately $5,178,000. GREAT WEST LIFE ASSURANCE CO /CAN/ acquired a new stake in IRDM for approximately $4,545,000. CIPHER CAPITAL LP purchased a new stake in IRDM valued at around $3,582,000 in the second quarter. In total, there are 423 active investors with 85.80% ownership of the company's stock.
Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) opened at $54.59 on Friday. During the past 12 months, Iridium Communications Inc. has had a low of $31.73 and a high of $56.00. As of last week, the company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 2.80, and a quick ratio of 2.50. The fifty day moving average price for IRDM is $51.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price translates $43.76 for the stock.
The latest earnings results from Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) was released for Sep, 2022. According to the Telecom Services Company, earnings per share came in at $0.02, inline with analysts' expectations of $0.02. This compares to -$0.02 EPS in the same period last year. The net profit margin was 0.50% and return on equity was 0.30% for IRDM. The company reported revenue of $184.06 million for the quarter, compared to $162.16 million a year earlier. Comparatively to last year's same quarter, the company's quarterly revenue rose 13.51 percent. For the current quarter, analysts expect IRDM to generate $175.13M in revenue.
Moreover, the firm recently paid out its quarterly dividend on 03/30/2023. Investors who held shares on 03/15/2023 were paid a $0.13 dividend. On an annualized basis, this represents a $0.52 dividend and a 0.87% percent yield. There was an ex-dividend date of 03/14/2023 for this dividend.
Iridium Communications Inc.(IRDM) Company Profile
Iridium Communications Inc. provides mobile voice and data communications services and products to businesses, the United States and international governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers worldwide. The company offers postpaid mobile voice and data satellite communications; prepaid mobile voice satellite communications; push-to-talk; broadband data; and Internet of Things (IoT) services. It also provides hosted payload and other data services, such as satellite time and location services, and inbound connections from the public switched telephone network, short message, subscriber identity module, activation, customer reactivation, and other peripheral services. In addition, the company offers voice and data solutions comprising personnel tracking devices; asset tracking devices for equipment, vehicles, and aircrafts; beyond-line-of-sight aircraft communications applications; maritime communications applications; specialized communications solutions for high-value individuals; mobile communications and data devices for the military and intelligence agencies, such as secure satellite handsets, as well as netted voice, messaging, and paging services; and maintenance services for the United States government's dedicated gateway. Further, it provides satellite handsets, personal connectivity devices, voice and data modems, broadband data devices, and IoT data devices; various accessories for its devices that include batteries, holsters, earbud headphones, portable auxiliary antennas, antenna adaptors, USB data cables, charging units, and others; and engineering and support services. Iridium Communications Inc. sells its products and services to commercial end users through a wholesale distribution network that include service providers, and value-added resellers and manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Iridium Holdings LLC and changed its name to Iridium Communications Inc. in September 2009. Iridium Communications Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
Tags: IRDMIRDM stockIridium Communications Inc.NASDAQ:IRDM
Is General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) being unfairly punished by investors?
Reasons why MasTec Inc.'s (NYSE:MTZ) fundamentals are futile
Before Investing In Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB), Here Are Some Things To Consider
Reasons why Cardiovascular Systems Inc.'s (NASDAQ:CSII) fundamentals are futile
Stocks like Alpha Metallurgical Resources Inc. [AMR] still have plenty of sunny days ahead


text:
February 21, 2013 by SCwpadmin
The most recent immigration reform bill, S.744, was introduced by the Senate's "Gang of Eight" on April 16, 2013 and passed in the Senate on June 27th. While the bill survived the Senate largely intact, it is now being sent to the Republican controlled House, where it will face further scrutiny. If the bill passes in the House, it will then go to President Obama, who has already said he will gladly sign it.
Of the bill's over 800 pages, here are some of the key components of the proposed legislation's:
Legalization! This would give legal status to undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before December 31, 2011 by creating a category called Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI). Those who are eligible for this status would pay a fine and any back taxes, and would be given work and travel authorization. After 10 years as an RPI, they could apply for a green card, and later, citizenship.
Creation of a new visa type for temporary workers, called W visas. A W-1 would allow lesser-skilled workers a way to work in the country legally, while W-2 and W-3 visas would take the place of the H-2A agricultural worker program.
Spouses and children of legal permanent residents would be considered immediate relatives, and derivatives of immediate relatives would be allowed. As a result, the several years waiting period for spouse and children of legal permanent residents would be eliminated. The tradeoff is that the family-based preference category for brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens would be eliminated, meaning that a United States citizen could no longer apply for a sibling.
Knowingly defrauding an immigrant, including by pretending to be an attorney or immigration representative, would become a crime.
Before passing in the Senate, an amendment was added that would increase border security provisions that are aimed a 90% success rate of preventing people from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico without authorization. While some people believe that these goals will be both ineffective and costly (roughly $30 billion), it seems that this addition will make it more likely that the bill will make it through the House. Moreover, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the passage of this bill will reduce the Federal deficit by $900 billion over the next ten years, mostly from new taxes. This is an important figure because it could help sway Republicans in the House to pass the bill.
Many Republicans have said that the bill does not do enough to protect the border and is not harsh enough on people who enter without permission, which could mean that they will add to the bill or not pass it all. Prominent Republicans have said that they will not even vote on the bill unless a majority of Republicans support it. However, we remain hopeful that this year we will finally have much-needed immigration reform.
In the meantime, it is important to remember that immigration reform has not yet passed. Until a law has been signed by the President, beware of anyone who claims they can file immigration paperwork for you now. Immigration consultants, notaries public, and notarios are not authorized immigration representatives and are unable represent you in the immigration process. Learn more at www.stopnotariofraud.org.
Stern & Curray attorneys will be updating our blog and our Facebook page with updates about this exciting, historic legislation. If you would like to join our immigration reform newsletter to receive updates about the bill, please email us at info@sterncurray.com.
Deferred Action for DREAMERS
State-side Waiver Program


text:
POPCRU concerned about the increasing incidents of stabbings and escapes within correctional centres
Latest News Press Release Press Statement Recent News — 15 May 2019
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) condemns the latest stabbing incident of a correctional official by an inmate at the St Albans Correctional Centre, and the escape of 7 suspects awaiting trial at the Modimolle Police station; incidents which took place over the past weekend.
These incidents took place just weeks after another unfortunate incident in the Free State where an inmate fatally stabbed while her colleague was injured and hospitalised.
These random occurrences have become commonplace within our facilities across the country, and they just go ignored by management.
Our staff complements across correctional centres and police stations have for years been subjected to unsafe working conditions within their workplace, and this state of affairs has been normalised by their seniors who have continuously failed to improve conditions workers are placed under.
Whenever there are escapes, management is quick to charge members, but act at a snail's pace in improving their working conditions.
They have effectively rendered the lives of correctional officials worthless through their failure to comply to their safety policies, and this incident has adversely affected the morale of many other correctional officials who continue to be single-handedly forced to work under dangerous conditions.
The challenges of overcrowding and understaffing within our correctional centres stem from the indifferent attitude that has been demonstrated by the DCS management, and this due to the fact that they have over the years abandoned their core mandate to create conducive rehabilitating conditions at the expense of individual self-serving interests that prioritise briberies over service delivery.
Overcrowding, understaffing and the illegal shift patterns that are imposed on correctional officials endanger continue to their lives on a daily basis, and this status quo cannot continue unabated.
No longer can olden norm be acceptable where agreements such as the fulfilling of the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) of 2009, the lack of supply of uniforms since 2009 and the illegal shift patterns that lead to attacks be acceptable while a huge chunk of the budget that is supposed to address these challenges is primarily utilised for tenders on services that could be done internally, something which would make our correctional centres self-sustainable again.
It is now, more than ever, that discussions into the future of the functionality of the DCS is not an exclusive club, but becomes a dialogue in which all stakeholders should have a say since the department has failed to create conducive conditions for implementing their core task which is to ensure rehabilitation.
Our immediate demands are that there should be an urgent sitting with the department and stakeholders in resolving challenges workers are workers are faced with, including the full implementation of signed agreements, the insourcing of all services, illegal shift patterns and promotions.
We also call on government to take urgent action in ensuring the restoration of the lost DCS is regained through improved service delivery. Issued by POPCRU on 15/05/2019


It's a popular idea: Create "rules of engagement," then expect everyone on the team to act accordingly. But it doesn't work that way.
Rules don't change behaviors. A simple stop sign in your local neighborhood proves this: A majority of people don't stop. People break rules all the time, even if the consequences are deadly. The result: Teams that think they'll get somewhere just because they agree to rules rarely get anywhere.
Changing behaviors is not an intellectual exercise. It's the business of the heart, the process of being better humans. In other words, your teammates will only follow those rules that they deem are in their best interest.
Did the team first get to tell their truth about what's causing them to think and act the way they were?
Were deep motivations identified as to why team members think the rules are needed?
Did you equip the team with a mechanism or technique to better enable them to demonstrate improved or consistent behaviors?
Are teammates and leadership consistently providing feedback, feedback, feedback?
Did you establish a process that regularly takes the team through steps 1 – 4 (instead of just talking about this stuff once a year)?
We will never become who we believe we can be as the result of rules, signs, manuals, police officers, or bosses. That's because we rarely do things other people expect of us.
We do only those things that we expect of ourselves.


The Lawrence Wing Chair by Alexander & James is part of a truly graceful collection that combines striking Satchel grade leather & neutral upholstery with a stunning result. This collection delivers both style and elegance and will grace most decor and rooms. With its Foam and Feather seat cushions for that extra touch of comfort and Fibre back cushions for additional support the Lawrence collection is perfect for any discerning home.


This is a new one. I'm in a convenience store owned by some Muslim men. I'm shopping for NJ license plates, hoping to find one with my license plate number already on it. It seemed as though I'd found one, but, after I bought it, it turned into a blank Texas plate. I've never been anywhere near Texas.
There's an elevator in the store. I enter it, and it goes down a very long way, accelerating in every which way, rotating, etc. It's fun, but I'm getting dizzy.
I'm suddenly in a suburb, walking around and around the same block. It seems familiar, but I don't remember it. During the whole dream I don't realize I'm dreaming, but for some reason I think that now I should wake up. And I do.
That's about all I can remember. When I woke up, I almost immediately realized my dream had some things in common with a book I was reading the night before; (``We'', by Yevgeny Zamyatin.) There is a part where the character is descending a very long elevator, and before this he is walking around in a similar state as I was. I read a lot, and very, very rarely do I dream about what I'm reading. Maybe spending the last few days around here has changed something?
I wake up (or dream I wake up) after several hours of sleep, and am disappointed that I haven't had any dreams. I fall back asleep, and have a dream.
I get to a house that I'm quite convinced is my neighbors house, even though it is very far from my house, it does not look like my neighbors house, and my neighbor does not live there. There is a man inside who never says anything. He is playing a guitar, but it sounds like a harp. (Harmonica, but I'm thinking harp.) I envy his playing.
The turn me over to an old, bearded man with an Italian accent. He severely reprimands me. He builds a da Vinci-like flying machine, attaches some explosives to it, and sets me airborne. I have to get back to bed. In order to do so, I have to fly over this green-red-purple pedestal, jump off the contraption, land on the pedestal, bounce through my kitchen window, and into my bed (which is in the kitchen for some reason.) Whenever I do it, there is someone already in the bed. I keep trying, but my father, then my mother, then my sister, then pets, then strangers, then ... Each time I see someone there I go backwards in time, to try again. Only the explosives do not go back in time. I become more and more anxious. Finally, I see myself in the bed. I land into myself, and wake up.
I can not remember any dreams from last night. I know I had some, but they slipped away as soon as I woke.
I've been having a bit of trouble recalling dreams from the last couple of nights. I did a bit better this morning. It seems I was trying to befriend a large succession of animals. There was a very large sea snake / dragon type of creature in an in-ground pool. It only trusted me (there were other people there teasing it, or figuring how to exploit it.) There was an insect (moth?) flying between my eyes. Other people were trying to kill it. There was something that kept changing from a cat into a dog, it kept making me pet it. Others were abusing it. There were more that I can't remember. These were separate dreams, with significant lapse of time between them. In each case, I was trying to relax and protect the animal, and felt great compassion for it.
I had the strangest feeling this morning. I vaguely remember that before these dreams, I had one of the repeat dreams, but I can not remember what it was. I concentrated very hard to remember, and I got this intense feeling of deja vu; but also I felt very deeply relaxed and peaceful, as if I had just had a very good meditation. The more I thought about this dream, the stranger I felt. It was kind of like being in two places at once; one place being literally inside of my head, the other far away. I believe the far away place is the source of the deja vu. It is as if my subconscious remembers it, but I do not. It was a beautiful state of mind.
I was sitting in a desk. Some one behind me was poking me in the back and laughing. They implied that this would be the only dream I would remember. They were right. I turned around and slammed the person's face into the desk, pressing their face into it. The person seemed at once many people, yet one person. I don't know why I reacted so violently, but the person seemed determined to drive me to it.
..or am I a butterfly?
Congratulations on the LD, even if it wasn't all that great.
Your recall seems to be pretty good, you've remembered something 4 out of 5 nights. If you're remembering these along with doing a job or whatever, I'd say you're doing pretty well. If you can spare the sleep, then waking yourself up in the night by alarm is a good way to remember multiple dreams per night.
Toast, thanks for the reply and encouragement. I've always had fairly good recall, but strangely it has been worse since I've started this journal. Maybe it's because I'm trying too hard to remember. on the other hand, I haven't been doing this for a week yet, so maybe it's just a coincidence.
where each `~' is longer than shown and is moving. It goes on indefinitely, like a fractal. I was staring at this for quite some time. Every so often, an impulse from one of the `leaves' would cross to another leaf in a sort of little lightning bolt, and for a brief instance, the whole thing would form into a symbol, like some kind of pictograph. I've seen the symbols before in other dreams. I seem to understand them at the time, but I have no idea what they mean upon awakening, and can recall very little about their appearance. I have never seem anything similar when I'm awake.
This is a repeat dream. There are sometimes variations, but most of the details are always exactly the same.
I am living in a very tall house; it's almost like a tower. I spend most of the time in the upper floors. The lower floors are more chaotic; there is a feeling of madness about them. They do not seem to be three dimensional, and there are indescribable sounds coming from them. It seems to get worse farther down; in any case I've never been beyond two or three of these floors.
One thing in common with all of these repeat dreams involves my senses (although this sometimes happens in new dreams.) For one thing, I seem to have synesthesia. (I do not while I'm awake.) The sounds that I hear in the lower rooms are not really sounds. They occur when and only when I am looking at an `object.' Because they are not ordinary three-dimensional, physical objects, they are extremely confusing to look at for any length of time, and I perceive them as (not much less confusing) sounds. If I close my eyes, or look away, the sounds stop. The middle-higher floors have less confusing objects, but they still seem to kind of weave in and out of their forms. The sight of them produces strange, but rather soothing sounds. In the middle floors, some of the `monster' objects protrude through the floor, so I can still see them, but they sound quieter.
Some of the objects are like this: Imagine taking a room, with it's objects, turning it inside out, and wrapping it around a sphere. Pull some of the parts out, push other parts in, twisting them so that they kind of form a vortex into themselves. Then imagine that this whole thing is alive--it has a definite personality, and is attempting to communicate. It changes colors to speak, and becomes angry when it is ignored.
Other objects look more normal. For example an old wooden chair, but one of the arms will dissolve, float off, become a sound, slam into the wall, reform back at it's original location as the wrong object, for example a metal beam, then slowly turn into an arm again.
Also, I seem to have senses that have no physical counterpart, and these also get involved in the synesthesia. This is pretty much impossible to explain, because there is nothing to compare it to. All of the physical senses are responses to phenomenon that are electrical in nature; there is some other `fundamental force' here. I believe it is this force which keeps the objects with more `chaotic energy' on the lower floors, or perhaps they are more chaotic because of it. I think chaos is not the right word here either, because there is a strange feeling of order.
In any case, I have not spent much time on these lower floors, because the lower I go, the more I lose the distinction between my self and the `place.' It is not fear, but there is less `I' that is conscious, to even look at anything.
The upper floors are very pleasant and relaxing. I often sleep in a bed in the attic, which is basically like a normal attic, but with nice big windows and fine furnishings. There I have dreams within dreams, when I awake, I wake up there. These dreams I can not remember.
This house is always exactly the same, but what I do on the lower floors varies. But I always go to the attic and I always sleep there. Sometimes I read, or just sit and think. I do not remember what books or what thoughts.
This, however, always happens. Outside of the attic's window, on the ground is a road. Across from the road is a meadow, beyond which is a forest. Walking along the road are dinosaurs and strange, very colorful birds. About once a minute, a vehicle (not a modern car, more `futuristic,' but it moves like and about the speed of a car. There are passengers of some sort inside.) comes down the road, and the birds jump out of the way into the meadow. The dinosaurs are slow to respond, and usually, one of them gets hit. This causes no damage to the vehicle. The dinosaur will appear to be fine, but then a bulldozer will come, pick up the dinosaur (still standing), and dump it into the meadow, where it flops over dead. The other dinosaurs do not seem to react to all of this. The sizes of the bulldozer and the dinosaurs are normal, but the dinosaur seems to get smaller when it is being picked up. The dinosaurs are about 80% brontosaurus, the rest smaller and varied types. Some of the birds will eat the dinosaur corpse. No matter how many dinosaurs die, they do not seem to diminish in number. There is probably 50-100 of them, with 2-3 birds to each one.
I feel very bad for the dinosaurs. I have tried jumping out of the window to help, but none of the animals (or the vehicles) seem to notice that I am there at all. If I yell from the window, some of them will look up, but little else.
That is very strange, sounds like an interesting place for recurring dreams. You should try to find a way to go up above the attic, and see if it gets extremely orderly up there, the same as it gets extremely chaotic as you go down. You mentioned reading there, maybe you could check the bookshelf for a secret door, leading to a stairway going up.
Thanks for the reply, Serith. That's a great idea, checking for a secret door. The problem is I can't have proper lucid dreams yet. All of the events unfold, and I feel I am consciously making decisions, but I can't really change the `plot' of the dream, or I don't realize it's a dream to begin with. When I am able, I will definitely try your suggestion. By the way, I looked at your dream journal and all I can say is WOW. The idea of drawing your dreams, and the drawings themselves, are very, very cool.
I feel like I'm gonna go crazy if I keep thinking about this. I had at least two repeat dreams last night, but I can't remember them. I know they were repeats, because I wake up and think `Oh, that again,' and it's all crystal-clear in my mind, for about 3 seconds. then I completely forget everything. The `feeling' of it lingers on, nagging me all day, like a song that you've forgotten how it goes. After the second time, I was determined not to let it happen again, but then I had a new dream, of which I recall fairly little also.
My grandmother's brother keeps dying. And coming back to life. He's quite senile, and he doesn't realize he's dead. He has moments of clarity and speaks profound wisdom, of which I remember nothing. This goes on for a long time. His eyes seem to be glowing red.
I vaguely recall trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces of which are random, non jigsaw-piece-like objects, like branches, pliers, and coffee-make parts.
Probably it's easier to just remember, "next time I'm in that building, I'll look for a secret way above the attic" then to actually become lucid. If it does become more and more orderly as you go up just like it becomes more chaotic as you go down, then it'd probably also make you more aware as you go up just like you become less aware as you go down. I suspect that effect would actually cause lucidity.
Thanks for the compliment. I really wish more people would draw their dreams, as dream journals with images seem more interesting than plain text, and drawings would probably be more interesting than the pictures off the internet that the other people who add images to their dream journals use. Plus, I suspect that there are lots of people here who would do much better at drawing their dreams than I do. I know Oneironaut does occasionally, and the results are amazing.
It does always seem that way, that you can never remember the profound wisdom that DCs sometimes seem to speak, or you remember it as nonsense. Does anyone remember hearing any accounts of anyone actually learning something amazing from a DC?
That's very insightful, and it's certainly something I will try. My objectiveness is definitely proportional to the height of the floors, and it makes sense that the floors just a little higher would have the effect of causing lucidity, since it seems so close to it already in the attic. I actually feel extremely `aware' on the lower floors, but I am not able to make sense of the situation; I can not distinguish between myself and the surroundings, my perception seems kind of backwards.
Maybe it's some kind of `subconscious wisdom' that can't quite be put into words. On the other hand, maybe it is complete nonsense. Strange what a revelation it seems like at the time, though.
I had discovered an amazing new law of physics which simplified physical calculations enormously. It was some kind of conservation law of a new abstract quantity similar to energy. I spent the majority of the dream testing my theory in various situations, from mundane objects such as falling trees, to sub-nuclear interactions within living brains (makes a lot of sense,) to the origin of the big bang. I discovered that everything is fundamentally impossible, and realizing that this would also include my theory, became disenchanted and walked through a mirror into another universe, never to return.
I woke up, fell back asleep, and had this same dream again. (I guess that means I'm back in the original universe. ) I've never had it before.
mu: Glad to know one of my dreams could be so inspiring . Your dream sounds a lot more interesting than the original to be hones though. A new abstract quality? Mirrors to other universes? Wow.
Recurring dreams seem to happen a lot for you... I wonder why that could be, since I absolutely never have a dream that I've had before.
Serith: Yeah, I would like to draw my dreams, but my drawing is so atrocious that I would be ashamed to post it. Maybe I'll start trying to draw them anyway, since as they say, practice makes perfect, and if I'm drawing stuff every day, then I should (some time ) get better.
Yeah, there's always a starting period where your drawing is atrocious, a few of the earlier drawings in my DV journal are just embarrassing. Still, it doesn't last too long if you keep it up, and when people can see your earlier drawings, the later ones look much better just by comparison.
Thanks . I wonder why too, that's why I'm here. I remember having some of them at least 15 years ago, probably several time per year. Most of them are quite enjoyable, so maybe I just want to `see it again,' like an old movie? But I can't seem to ever dream about what I want to, to find out more about it. That's why I want to be lucid in them.
Suddenly I'm outside and running up into the air. (I have had very few dreams in which I'm flying by my own power. I always need some kind of machine. But if I run very fast I start running up into the air, and I can stay up for 20-30 s.) I land on the roof of the store, and confused, I jump down into the parking lot to try again. But when I turn around there is a different store there, the mall. I've had some very strange dreams about the mall, and for some reason I was afraid to go in. I woke up.
I haven't dreamed about the mall for a while, and the details are sketchy to me right now. Since I've started this journal, I've been thinking a lot about these repeat dreams and locations. They are all kind of like old memories in the back of my mind, and it feels like they are all sort of active, or becoming active, like some part of my brain is thinking about them all of the time. It's a very hard thing to describe. Since I would like to have these dreams whilst lucid, I am going to add here some thought, key-words, etc. as I remember them, even if it's been a while since I've had a particular dream. I don't expect this will make much sense to anyone.


text:
All posts by One Guys Opinion
Dr. Frank Swietek is Associate Professor of History at the University of Dallas, where he is regarded as a particularly tough grader. He has been the film critic of the University News since 1988, and has discussed movies on air at KRLD-AM (Dallas) and KOMO-AM (Seattle). He is also the Founding President of the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics' Association, a group of print and broadcast journalists covering film in the Metroplex area, and was a charter member of the Society of Texas Film Critics. Dr. Swietek is a member of the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS). He was instrumental in the creation of the Lone Star Awards, which, through the efforts of the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Film Commission, give recognition annually to the best feature films and television programs produced in Texas.
January 18, 2020 One Guys Opinion
Producers: Scott Rudin, Eli Bush and Sebastian Bear-McClard Directors: Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie Screenplay: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie Cast: Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Judd Hirsch, Keith Williams Richards, Mike Francesca, Jonathan Aranbayev, Noa Fisher and Abel Tesfaye Distributor: A24 Films
One can easily get exhausted just watching Adam Sandler go through his paces in Josh and Benny Safdie's "Uncut Gems," a non-stop odyssey of a man desperately trying to save himself as his personal and professional lives collapse around him. In its rough-edged style and frenetic pacing, it's not unlike the brothers' previous film, the ironically titled "Good Time," in which Robert Pattinson played a skuzzy low-life named Connie who'll stop at nothing to make a big score, eve n if it means using his mentally-impaired brother.
This time around, the central figure is Howard Ratner (Sandler)—an appropriately rodent-like name—who, in 2012, is running a chaotic jewelry shop in New York's diamond district. He's an inveterate sports gambler, heavily in hock to an increasingly impatient bookie Arno (Eric Bogosian), whose thugs, headed by his volatile lieutenant (Keith William Richards), are constantly on his tail despite the fact that Aron is his brother-in-law.
Howard also has problems at home: his wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) is well aware that he's set up his mistress Julia (Julia Fox), who also works in his store, in an apartment in the city, and he even drags his son (Jonathan Aranbayev) into the fraught situation. Not that his relationship with Julia is any less troubled; when he suspects that she's playing the field while leading him on, he tosses her out—though not for long.
In this midst of everything that's closing in on him, Howard has an escape plan. He's acquired a rock from an Ethiopian mine that's encrusted with gems, and intends to sell it a prestigious auction, bringing in enough to cover his debts and then some. Naturally things do not go as he'd planned.
A major road bump in his scheme arises when his motor-mouthed assistant Demany (Lakeith Stanfield) brings Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett, playing himself, into the shop to see the rock. The NBA player has a superstitious streak, and believes the stone will bring him luck in an upcoming game; Howard lets his borrow it but demands Garnett's ring as collateral—which, hoping to make a quick profit, he pawns in order to place a bet on the game. Unfortunately, Arno quashes the bet, and Howard's hope of an immediate payoff is lost. Everything now hangs on the auction, which of course does not go smoothly; in fact, Howard enlists his dubious but supportive father-in-law (Judd Hirsch) in an attempt to drive up Garnett's bid.
That scheme goes awry too, though in the end Garnett buys the stone. In the last act, however, Howard's gambling obsession gambling takes over as he debates whether to pay off Arno or risk everything—including his life—on one more risky bet. The outcome is a shocker, to say the least.
Sandler carries "Uncut Gems" with a ferocious performance. It's not that he's departed from his well-known frantic, man-child persona; instead he's taken it to its utmost—you could say that he's gone Sandlerissimo. But it's certainly effective in this context. And the Safdies (along with co-writer Ronald Bronstein (who also edited, with Benny) and cinematographer Darius Khondji, have crafted some excruciatingly tense sequences for him, not just the auction and the final stand-off with Arno and his men, but a sequence set at a school talent show where Howard is threatened by Arno's enforcers. They also generate considerable suspense )along with some dark comedy) in a familial Passover celebration where both Howard and Arno participate, watching one another warily, and effectively intercut some of Garnett's actual NBA footage into the action.
The supporting cast are all excellent. Fox and Menzel evoke the emotional stress of the women struggling to deal with Howard in very different ways, while vets Hirsch and Bogosian inhabit their characters with their customary efficiency, and Richards brings real menace to the table. Stanfield makes the most of Demany's loquaciousness, and Garnett shows none of the stiffness of celebrities from other fields trying their hand at acting.
"Uncut Gems" is a dark parable of a man driven by his demons to make self-destructive choices, likely to elicit radically divided audience reactions, though all will emerge from it feeling as if they've been put through as potent an emotional wringer as its protagonist.
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith and Doug Belgrad Directors: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah Screenplay: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, Kate Del Castillo, Nicky Jam, DJ Khaled, Theresa Randle and Bianca Bethune Distributor: Sony Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Grade: C-
The sequel to the original 1995 "Bad Boys" was long in coming: "Bad Boys II" didn't show up until 2003 (and it was so true to the titular adjective, one wished it never had). It's taken nearly seventeen years for a third installment, and the time was not well spent: "Bad Boys For Life" is endlessly awful, a throwback that should have been thrown away.
The premise is that long-time partners Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are still cruising the streets of Miami in their muscle car, sending their short-tempered captain (Joe Pantoliano) into paroxysms with their rule-breaking ways. (If the setup reminds you of innumerable buddy movies of the seventies and eighties, let alone tons of TV series from the time, your memory is working fine.)
But Marcus, a first-time grandpa, wants to retire and help raise the new baby, while Mike has no desire to change his routine, intent on continuing his street-wise swaggering indefinitely. Marcus does exit the force, but, as the saying goes, he's forced reluctantly back into the game when Mike is targeted by a would-be assassin, and makes a recovery (one depicted as remarkably quick and easy) from what certainly seems should have been a fatal assault.
The question is who's responsible, and why. The answer has been telegraphed from the very start, when we're shown Isabel (Kate del Castillo), the bloodthirsty widow of a Mexican drug lord, escaping from prison in an extraordinarily nasty scene, and encouraging her son Armando (Jacob Scipio) to take vengeance on Lowrey not just by attacking him, but making him suffer by first killing everybody involved in her late husband's downfall.
That leads to a string of big set-pieces, including a frantic chase involving cars, motorcycles and helicopters, and a series of bloody killings (including one of a major character) before Mike and Marcus travel to Mexico to take on the dastardly duo in a finale that turns into a literal conflagration, with Mike coming to terms with his past and Marcus kvetching all the way. It closes, however, with a big revelation about family secrets that might just remind you of that in the last of Smith's other recent action extravaganza, "Gemini Man" (if you were unlucky enough to see that Ang Lee bomb).
Along the way the duo pick up a team of Miami cohorts, a special ops team called AMMO headed by Rita (Paola Núñez), who has a past with Lowrey (and she's not the only one), and including svelte sharpshooter Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens), beefy computer wizard Dorn (Alexander Ludwig) and cocky know-it-all Rafe (Charles Melton). They all make it south of the border for the finale, too.
The directing duties of "Bad Boys for Life" have passed from Michael Bay (who must make do with a cameo here) to the Moroccan-born Belgian duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, billed as Adil and Bilall, but the basic approach remains the same. They offer up tons of action, shot by Robrecht Heyvaert and edited by Dan Lebental and Peter McNulty in the hyperkinetic style that's obligatory nowadays and accompanied by an overbearing score from Lorne Balfe.
But they also leave plenty of room for banter between the two stars, which is meant to be explosively funny but comes off as pretty lame, with Lawrence in particular struggling to wring laughs out of lines that wouldn't even merit inclusion in a stand-up routine (which is what he often seems to be attempting); he also has to try to sell multiple instances of his trying to stifle throwing up at the sight of blood, which seems an odd reaction from a guy who must have seen beaucoup violence during decades on the streets. (A conversation between the two on their plane ride to Mexico, which sends their fellow passengers into fright at the mention of guns and mayhem, is cringe-inducing.) Presumably all the gabbing is intended to humanize the characters, but there's entirely too much of it, especially in the first hour (which frankly tends to crawl along) since it's mostly composed of stock back-and-forth repartee.
Perhaps one has to give Smith and Lawrence credit for trying to pull off this old-fashioned blarney at all, but the fact of the matter is that their reunion doesn't engender as much affection as impatience, and when the suggestion of a sequel comes at the close, it seems more like a threat. Enough, already.
As for Adil and Bilall, they're reportedly also attached to direct another installment of the old "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise with Eddie Murphy. The last movie in that series came out in 1994, which means that when the new one appears, more than a quarter-century will have elapsed. Can you smell the mothballs?
1 2 … 2,837 Next →
Search Reviews by Grade
A A+ A-
B B+ B-
C C+ C-
D D+ D-
SAM MENDES, KRYSTY WILSON-CAIRNS, GEORGE MACKAY and DEAN-CHARLES CHAPMAN ON "1917"
DANIEL ISN'T REAL
Search Movie Rating
A | A- | A+
B | B- | B+
C | C- | C+


Of all the beautiful and iconic places to go in Morocco, Casablanca isn't known for being much of a destination. Compared to posh Marrakech it's slummy; compared to Fes's labyrinthine medina it's charmlessly modern. The one compelling reason to visit is the incredible Hassan II mosque, which for all its stunning opulence and intricate old-world craftsmanship was constructed in the late 1980's and completed in 1993, or for comparison, the same year Jurassic Park was released.
Named for King Hassan II who ruled Morocco from 1929-1999 (70 years!), the mosque is the largest one in Morocco and the 13th largest in the world. Its insanely intricate wood ceiling, hand carved and painted by thousands of Moroccan artisans over five years, covers a retractable roof that weighs 1100 tons and opens in under five minutes, filling the central hall with daylight and allowing worshippers to pray under the stars on a clear night.
We arrived to Casablanca in the morning by train, mostly because we accidentally walked out the wrong door at the airport and were blocked from going back inside by some not-so-congenial looking Moroccan airport cops. Our tour group was scheduled to convene at our hotel that night and kick off 8 days of unadulterated Morocco. That left us a day free to uncover whatever made Casablanca special on our own.
As soon as we stepped out of the hotel, two morocco-red taxis pulled up. They told us the cars can only fit three passengers, so as a group of four we would have to split off into pairs. I immediately assumed this was some sort of scam to turn one fare into two, but it seems that this is a standard for Moroccan taxis across the country. We split up.
Luckily "Hassan II" is a common request in a Casablanca taxi, so not much translation was needed there. We went rattling off through the city streets at breakneck speed, one car behind the other. Only when Michelle and I got out at the mosque entrance a few minutes later, there was no sign of the other taxi. The whole area was fairly deserted except for a police officer toting a comically large rifle, a teen glowering at us from his stationary bicycle, and about 7 stray cats. No one spoke.
We killed time by taking some selfies and pictures of the cats and tried to avoid the thought that Cat and Kristin had been straight up abducted by their cab driver during our first outing. Did they take a roundabout route, or had they been in some sort of accident? Is it possible there's another Hassan II mosque?? We were supposed to be right behind their car, but we both had gotten distracted doing time-lapse videos from the backseat and forgot to keep an eye on them. More minutes passed. Without working cell phones there was no way to get in touch with them. Under the increasingly hot sun we started getting nervous.
The mosque was massive. The building itself is surrounded by a vast stone courtyard, walled in by other buildings, of which we could only see a part through the gap in the exterior wall where the officer stood. We asked him if there was any other place that a car might have possibly dropped someone off to visit for the day.
The dialog was extremely slow-going for a few reasons. For one, he spoke little English and we spoke nothing useful at all. To add on to that, we were so on guard at this point in the trip that we refused to share any detailed information about our situation, who we were looking for, or what we were doing there. He tried persistently to help us. Eventually he just gestured for us to just walk with him to the other entrances.
We crossed the sprawling square that contained the mosque. Visitors speckled the courtyard, which stretched so widely that the farthest ones away were reduced to indistinct figures in the distance. The mosque buildings cast shadows down on us. It was a longish walk, so while we chatted he managed to coax some more information out of us. The western entrance facing the Atlantic Ocean was more populated, but there was still no sign of Cat and Kristin. The security officer hailed an accomplice and they discussed the situation in French, all while we stood to the side sheepishly. They asked us to describe our friends.
"They look like you." The first guard inferred.
As they went walking off in search of them, I didn't have high hopes that they would be able to pick out Cat and Kristin. We weren't the only tourists there and there were a good amount of Europeans around. I focused on each pair of white women I saw from our vantage point, wondering which one they would end up bringing back. At some point it occurred that they might not come back at all. Still we obeyed their last command and sat tight at the gate.
Soon (although it didn't feel like it at all) the two officers came barreling across the stone courtyard in a police car. They pulled up next to us and told us to get in. At first we were like "uh, absolutely not." But ended up realizing we basically had no choice at this point and getting in was probably our best bet. We flew across the courtyard and there, standing in the middle of the churning crowd, was Cat and Kristin. I guess it's easier to spot a Yankee women in a crowd than I thought.
It took us more than this one adventure to learn it, but Morocco is an intensely hospitable country full of strangers who do recognize you as an out-of-towner - and genuinely want to help you navigate theirs. I'm not saying it's ever a good idea to let your guard down completely while traveling (I had the appallingly bad henna tattoo to prove it), but I'm a little embarrassed in retrospect of how suspicious we were of anyone offering us free directions or little gifts (boy did I regret shrugging off that mint branch before walking into the unholy stink of Fez's tannery).
And we did find another good reason to hit up Casablanca – the orange juice and brunch buffet at Rick's Café is actually the best in the world. Good looking out, Bogie.


Positive Impact Sales approached us to design and build a new website promoting their services. They loved our simple to use content management system and the web design concepts we created for them. Acting as a lead generation website the UX design funnel visitors through to contact forms on service pages ensuring no leads are lost.


Disappointment. Disappointing is how I would characterize my first encounter with The Boston Cooking School Cookbook. As a food historian I have spent years reading book after book and article after article which talk about the historical significance of Fannie Farmer's text. In my introductory post to this text (see here), I described the book's economic success and how it has taken its place in history due to its reliance on scientific cookery.
I assumed that a book noted for its measurements and exactness would provide me with recipes that were easy to follow and reproduce with wonderful results, like Betty Crocker's Cookbook that we utilized earlier this year. I was wrong.
I love baking bread and Fannie Farmer's recipe for Quaker Oat Bread wasn't exactly terrible. However, even when I read the instructions, I doubted that they would yield the most successful loaf. The recipe was unspecific about the amount of time one should allow for the dough to rise. In fact, I was surprised about how much knowledge the Quaker Oat Bread recipe assumed on the part of the reader, when the book is lauded as significant due to its precision and ability to simplify culinary techniques. Farmer herself notes that "experience is the best guide for testing temperature of oven" and that though "various oven thermometers have been made, none have proved practical" (55). While the book employs a scientific approach to cooking, Farmer still had readers working with a far ranging variety of ovens, from coal-fired to wood fired (For more information about the history of oven technology, see Ruth Schwartz Cowan's More Work for Mother).
Perhaps Fannie Farmer never actually tested the bread recipe herself. As you can see, the recipe is not for Oat Bread but for Quaker Oat Bread—as in the brand Quaker Oats. According to the Quaker Oat Company's own website, in 1877, Quaker Oats registered as the first trademark for a breakfast cereal. The trademark was registered with the U.S. Patent Office as "a figure of a man in 'Quaker garb'" to symbolize good quality and honest value. In 1881, Henry Parsons Crowell bought the bankrupt Quaker Mill in Ravenna, Ohio for its most important asset – the brand name "Quaker." Crowell was an adept businessman, especially keen in regards to marketing his products. In 1882, Crowell launched the first national magazine advertising program for a breakfast cereal. By 1890, the company chartered a special all-Quaker Oats train from Cedar Rapids, Indiana to Portland, Oregon and with it introduced the first ever "trial-size samples." These 1/2 oz. sample boxes of Quaker Oats were delivered to every mailbox in Portland, Oregon. However, 1891 was the year of Crowell's most genius marketing tactics. First, Quaker Oats introduced the idea of packaged premiums by inserting chinaware items into boxes of oats. More importantly however was that in 1891, Quaker Oats became the first brand to feature a recipe on its box. The recipe was for Oatmeal Bread. Thus in 1896, with the release of Fannie Farmer's cookbook, the Quaker Oat Bread box recipe entered the culinary cannon.
The recipe itself is quite easy to follow.
Fannie Farmer tells us to "Add boiling water to oats and let stand one hour; add molasses, salt, dissolved yeast cake, and flour; let rise, beat thoroughly, turn into buttered bread pans, let rise again, and bake. By using one-half cup less flour, the dough is better suited for biscuits, but being soft, is difficult to handle" (59-60).
While my loaf did not rise enough, I think the recipe could be improved if I had let the dough rise overnight, rather than a few hours, and added slightly more yeast. I baked it for 45 minutes at 350F, which was sufficient, but I would like to experiment with lowering the temperature to 325F. If you follow the directions exactly, I recommend eating the bread the day after you bake it, since the flavors strengthen over time.
If a trademark search found that two of company to sell the same class of goods or services by using same trademark sign, It is possible that you can go forward with using your used mark under a co-existence agreement with the other company.


text:
Het WWE Cruiserweight Championship was een professioneel worstelkampioenschap voor cruiserweights, worstelaars onder de 100 kg (220 lb). Het stond voorheen bekend als het WCW Cruiserweight Championship maar werd een World Wrestling Entertainment titel die exclusief verdedigd werd op SmackDown!. De laatste kampioen was Gregory Helms. Een tijd nadat Helms een nekblessure had opgelopen en zijn titel niet meer verdedigde, maakte de WWE bekend dat de titel werd opgeheven. Later in 2016 kwam het terug in de WWE en werd verdedigt op Raw door de zogenaamde Cruiserweights.

Geschiedenis
Voor zijn gebruik in de WWE, was het Cruiserweight Championship een belangrijke factor in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Gecreëerd om het WCW Light Heavyweight Championship te vervangen, was het WCW Cruiserweight Championship het hoogtepunt van veel WCW shows, waarbij het vaak diende als een snelle opening voor WCW Monday Nitro en pay-per-view evenementen om het publiek op te warmen.

Het WCW Light Heavyweight Championship is erkend door de WWE in de teruglijning van het Cruiserweight Championship. Met zijn begin in 1991, was de eerste kampioen Brian Pillman. De titel was door een blessure van de kampioen beschikbaar gesteld en opgeheven in 1992.

De eerste WCW World Cruiserweight kampioen was Shinjiro Ohtani die in 1996 Chris Benoit versloeg in de finale van een niet-uitgezonden (en grotendeels fictioneel) toernooi. De match vond plaats in Japan tijdens een New Japan Pro Wrestling show. De kwaliteit van de matches en deelnemers voor de titel maakte het een prestigieuze titel om te houden.

Veel huidige en recente WWE worstelaars hebben de titel in WCW gehouden, waaronder Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio en Eddie Guerrero. Tijdens de slechte periode van WCW verloor de titel veel van zijn imago door slechte booking en titel periodes van Madusa en niet-worstelaar Oklahoma.

Toen de Canadese worstelaar Lance Storm het Cruiserweight Championship hield, hernoemde hij het tot het 100 Kilograms and Under Championship, die hij later aan Elix Skipper gaf.

Shane Helms was de laatste cruiserweight kampioen voor het bedrijf werd gekocht door de World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in maart 2001.

De WWF gebruikte een soortgelijke titel, het WWF Light Heavyweight Championship wat startte in 1997. In 2001 tijdens de Invasion angle hiel X-Pac beide titels tegelijkertijd. Terwijl hij beide titel hield verloor en herwon X-Pac het Light Heavyweight Championship in matches tegen Tajiri. Nadat hij het Cruiserweight Championship verloor aan Billy Kidman, was hij geblesseerd en televisie gehaald. Tijdens zijn afwezigheid kwam het WCW Cruiserweight Championship bekend als het WWF Cruiserweight Championship (en later het WWE Cruiserweight Championship). X-Pac keerde terug naar televisie zonder het Light Heavyweight Championship, en het wordt aangenomen dat het opgeheven is of opgenomen is in het Cruiserweight Championship. Het Cruiserweight Championship was de enige titel die erkend was als een WWE Championship terwijl het een logo van een andere promotie (WCW) zichtbaar op de riem had. De riem werd later vervangen door een nieuw ontwerp in het midden van 2002. In 2016 kwamen de zogenaamde Cruiserweights naar Raw samen met de hernieuwde WWE Cruiserweight Championship. De eerste Champion ervan is TJ Perkins die het won in een CWC toernooi. Hij moest de titel later afstaan aan The Brian Kendrick op Hell in a Cell. Die weer op zijn beurt aan The Outlandish Rich Swann op 205 Live. Op de Royal Rumble pay-per-view in 2017 verloor Rich Swann de titel aan Neville.

Statistieken

Trivia
 De enige worstelaars die het Cruiserweight Championship zowel in de versies van WCW en de WWE hebben gehouden zijn Tajiri, Billy Kidman, Gregory Helms, Rey Mysterio, Juventud en Chavo Guerrero. Van de worstelaars op die lijst, heeft alleen Tajiri de titel nooit gehouden in WCW omdat zijn enige WCW Cruiserweight Titel plaatsvond tijdens de Invasion angle.
 Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio en Eddie Guerrero zijn de enige voormalige Cruiserweight kampioenen die het world heavyweight kampioenschap in de WWE wonnen. Guerrero won het WWE Championship, Mysterio won het World Heavyweight Championship en het WWE Championship, en Jericho won zowel het WWE Championship als het WCW World Heavyweight Championship.
 Gregory Helms hield elk van zijn drie titel onder een andere persoonlijkheid, eerst als "Sugar" Shane Helms, toen als The Hurricane en uiteindelijk als Gregory Helms.
 Sean Waltman (aka X-Pac of Syxx) is de enige persoon die zowel het Cruiserweight Championship, het TNA X Division Championship en het WWF Light Heavyweight Championship heeft gewonnen. Kid Kash heidl zowel het WWE Cruiserweight Championship en het TNA X Division Championship terwijl Dean Malenko zowel het WCW Cruiserweight Championship als het WWF Light Heavyweight Championship hield.
 Drie vrouwen hielden het Cruiserweight Championship. Madusa en Daffney wonnen de WCW versie van de titel terwijl Jacqueline de WWE versie won.
 Twee Afrikaans-Amerikaanse worstelaars hebben het Cruiserweight goud gehouden. Elix Skipper hield de WCW versie van de titel terwijl Jacqueline de WWE versie hield.

Laatste kampioen
De laatste Cruiserweight Champion was een lange tijd Hornswoggle, de titel was een lange tijd niet meer actief in WWE maar in 2016 keer de titel terug die werd gewonnen door T.J. Perkins.

Externe link
  WWE.com - Cruiserweight Championship

WWE-kampioenschap
Professioneel worstelkampioenschap

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Is everything on Etsy really handmade?
Everything listed for sale on Etsy must be handmade, vintage, or a craft supply. Handmade items are items that are made and/or designed by you, the seller. If you sell handmade items, you agree that: All handmade items are made or designed by you.
What industry is Etsy?
Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies….Etsy.
Industry E-commerce
Founded June 18, 2005
Founders Robert Kalin Chris Maguire Haim Schoppik Jared Tarbell
Headquarters Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
What is the most successful Etsy business?
What Are the Best Selling Categories on Etsy?
Jewelry. Jewelry is definitely the most profitable category that has been among the top searches on Etsy, and some of the most successful brands on Etsy are jewelry stores.
Stickers.
Notebooks and Journals.
Home Decor.
Wedding Items and Accessories.
Plants.
Mugs.
How did Etsy begin?
Etsy started as a group of creatives and artists that could sell their products online. The motivation for creating Etsy came from Robert Kalin, who at that time was an amateur furniture maker and he had difficulty selling his handcrafted furniture online.
What makes the most money on Etsy?
10 Top Items To Sell On Etsy
Accessories. Masks were the must-have accessory of 2020, but it's time to take a peek at the bigger selection of accessories.
Art and Collectibles.
Craft Supplies.
Digital Artwork and Printable Items.
Is Etsy a profitable company?
In July 2019, the company had a market capitalization of 7.46 billion U.S. dollars. According to industry experts, Etsy is projected to grow its revenue at a 22 percent CAGR between 2019 and 2021. In 2018, Etsy's marketplace was its most profitable segment with almost 441 billion U.S. dollars in revenues.
What dies Etsy stand for?
Expanded Truncated Structural Y
Etsy is an acronym for Expanded Truncated Structural Y.
How much does the average person make on Etsy?
The average income for an Etsy seller is $44,380, which isn't dire but isn't great, either (source). It's possible to make a comfortable living selling crafts online—look at Three Bird Nest and their headbands that rake in $65,000 a month (source). That's over half a million dollars a year.
Who is the biggest seller on Etsy?
CaitlynMinimalist
Top 100 Etsy Sellers
30 Day Sales
1 CaitlynMinimalist 39,913
2 Beadboat1 36,904
3 ModParty 26,170
4 HeatherRobertsArt 25,033
How fast did Etsy grow?
Etsy's marketplace GMS was $2.8 billion, up 14.2% year over year. And Etsy's GMS per active buyer on its marketplace grew 22% year over year, Etsy reported.
Can I be sued on Etsy?
Infringement can lead to fines and damage claims – even if inadvertent. Beyond simply having your merchandise removed from your Etsy store, you may find yourself being sued for infringement, and, potentially be liable for damages.
What is the history of Etsy?
Etsy was launched on June 18, 2005 by Iospace Inc., a company owned by Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik. The founders wanted to create an online community where crafters and artists could sell their handmade and vintage products.
What kind of products does Etsy sell?
Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft supplies and tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old.
What type of site is Etsy?
Type of site. Etsy is an e-commerce website (etsy.com) focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft supplies and tools. All vintage items must be at least 20 years old.
What is the meaning of handmade on Etsy?
In that meeting and afterward, Etsy claimed the meaning of the word "handmade" should be redefined to encompass factory made. In June 2014, Etsy purchased A Little Market, a French e-commerce site for handmade goods, foods, and wine, for a mix of cash and stock valued at less than $100 million.
Does Alceste really love Celimene?
NextWhat is personality number?


Confectionery brand Unibic, has made a huge splash in the outdoor arena for its brand placement Spotted at multiple DMRC metro stations,. the campaign has been launched to reinforce the brand's presence in Delhi NCR market. The brand has designed attractive displays promoting its different range of biscuits with the tagline 'Wow Too Much'.
The campaign creates a larger-than-life effect with back lit displays inside metro stations.
Is TV's loss OOH's gain?


The incident happened on 43rd and 7th Ave around 3 p.m.
A singer caused a fan frenzy in Times Square Monday afternoon.
Artist and YouTube star Queen Naija was in Times Square to promote her new EP when excited fans caused some chaos.
Videos posted to social media show huge crowds surrounding the singer as she is carried through the throngs of people. Other videos show masses of people running to catch a glimpse of the star.
At first, people could not identify who was causing the frenzy. Some guessed it was Nicki Minaj, others guessed Kylie Jenner was in town, but Queen Naija identified herself on Instagram as the one in the video.
Her Instagram post reads, "We. Just. Caused. HAVOC."
It did not appear any arrests were made.


Consumer states that the antenna is missing.
Engine check light comes on at low speed and the gauges fluctating. When vehicle is turned off and back on only the service engine soon light stays on. Receiver/cd player the paint is rubbing off the buttons.


text:
NYC Recovery Index
News Political News
One-Week Budget Extension Halts Shutdown
Here's what it does and doesn't do.
By Jim Probasco
President Trump signed a two-day spending bill passed by lawmakers late Friday, Dec. 18 avoiding a midnight government shutdown. The measure gives Congress until Sun., Dec. 20 to resolve differences in the latest coronavirus relief package.
Following a series of delays, including last-minute objections based on military policy, lawmakers' pay, and tax rebate checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Senate approved and President Trump signed into law a one-week temporary funding measure to avoid a government shutdown before a midnight deadline Friday, Dec. 11. The measure passed the House of Representatives Wednesday, Dec. 9.
The budget extension passed and signed into law Dec. 11 expires Dec. 18, 2020.
The new law contains no specific provisions for COVID-19 relief including a new round of stimulus checks.
The law extends funding to most government programs through Dec. 18, 2020 to give lawmakers time to negotiate a more long-term budget agreement and additional coronavirus relief.
Late Fri. Dec. 18, lawmakers passed a two-day spending bill that will expire Dec. 20.
Not Much Time to Act
The one week budget extension gives Congress little time to hammer out differences over longer-term funding and a long hoped for COVID-19 stimulus package.
Meanwhile, passage of H.R. 8900, "Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, and Other Extensions Act" into law avoids an immediate shutdown and continues funding of the government for seven days.
The goal is to negotiate an omnibus spending package for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and include whatever coronavirus relief Congress can agree to before the Dec. 18 expiration of the new law and to provide relief for a variety of COVID-19-related programs set to expire by the end of the year.
What's in (and Not in) the Budget Extension
The budget extension signed into law Dec. 11 contains no specific COVID-19 relief, including no stimulus payments. It does provides funding for several important social services and public health programs to help manage the spread of the coronavirus disease.
Specifically, the law does the following:
Continuing appropriations
The law amends H.R. 8337: "Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act," which was signed into law Oct. 1, 2020 as Public Law 116–159, by changing the expiration date from Dec. 11, 2020, to Dec. 18, 2020.
This section of the new law essentially allows government funding to continue in fiscal year 2021 at the same levels as in fiscal year 2020. This gives Congress until Dec. 18 to either negotiate a full government funding bill, pass another continuing resolution, or allow the government to shut down.
Medicare and Medicaid extensions
Under the law signed Dec. 11, several provisions apply to Medicare and Medicaid including. All of these provisions expire Dec. 18, 2020, unless Congress acts.
Medicare Extension of the Work Geographic Practice Cost Index Floor.
This provision provides continuing adjusted reimbursement to Medicare physicians to keep them in rural areas.
Medicare Extension of Funding Outreach and Assistance for Low-Income Programs.
This provision extends funding for certain low-income Medicare activities provided through State Health Insurance Assistance Programs, Area Agencies on Aging, Aging and Disability Resource Centers, and the National Center for Benefits and Outreach and Enrollment.
Medicare Extension of Funding for Quality Measure Endorsement, Input, and Selection.
This part of the law extends funding for quality measure selection and support for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Medicaid Extension of Community Mental Health Services Demonstration Program.
This provision continues authorization for certified community behavioral health clinics.
Medicaid Extension of Spousal Impoverishment Protections.
This provision extends protections for anyone whose spouse receives home- and community-based services (HCBS).
Medicaid Delay of DSH Reductions.
This provision delays through Dec. 18, 2020, the implementation of scheduled cuts to payments to hospitals with a disproportionate share of Medicaid patients.
Medicaid Extension of Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration.
This provision extends funding of the Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration program through Dec. 18, 2020. MFP makes it possible for people on Medicaid to transition to a safer environment and still maintain Medicaid funding during the COVID-19 crisis.
Specific public health programs are also addressed by the one week budget extension:
Community Health Centers, National Health Service Corps, and Teaching health centers that operate graduate medical education.
This provision extends funding for certain community health centers, the National Health Service corps, and teaching health centers.
Diabetes Program.
Two programs—including one for Indigenous people, the Special Diabetes Program and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians—now have funding through Dec. 18, 2020.
Personal Responsibility Education.
This provision extends the authorization of the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) through Dec. 18. The extension is on a pro-rata basis at the amount appropriated for fiscal year 2020.
Sexual Risk Avoidance Education.
The new law also extends funding and authorization for the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) program on a pro-rata basis based on fiscal year 2020.
Rare Pediatric Priority Review Voucher Extension.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Rare Pediatric Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program is also extended.
Under Title III - Offsets, the new law has two additional provisions:
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) agency is required to share Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug benefit enrollment information with insurers when those insurers initiate Medicare secondary payer inquiries.
Narcotic drug dispensing
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is required to allow a medical practitioner to dispense up to a three-day supply of narcotic drugs to a patient (or for a patient's use) for the purpose of maintenance treatment or detoxification treatment, or both.
Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.
Roll Call. "Trump signs short-term spending bill, preventing shutdown." Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.
U.S. Senate. "Daily Press Gallery." Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.
U.S. Congress. "H.R.8900 - Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, and Other Extensions Act." Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.
U.S. Congress. "PUBLIC LAW 116–159—OCT. 1, 2020." Accessed Dec. 12, 2020.
2021 Personal Finance Calendar
What to Do When Your Doctor Doesn't Take Medicare
How Much Medicaid and Medicare Cost Americans
Beyond Social Security and Medicare
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administers major healthcare programs in the U.S. It is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Medicare is a U.S. government program providing healthcare insurance to individuals 65 and older or those under 65 who meet eligibility requirements.
Medigap, also called Medicare Supplement Insurance, is private health insurance coverage designed to pay for costs not covered by Original Medicare.
Medicare Part A, or Medicare hospital coverage, is one of the four parts of Medicare, the government's health insurance program for older adults.
Affordable Care Act (ACA) Definition
The Affordable Care Act is the federal statute signed into law in 2010 as a part of the healthcare reform agenda of the Obama administration.
Medicare Part B Premiums
Medicare Part B premiums are a monthly fee for medical insurance to cover services not covered in Medicare Part A.