text:
Women's Roles in Peoples Temple and Jonestown
by Catherine B. Abbott and Rebecca Moore
(This article and the accompanying timeline were originally published on the World Religions and Spirituality website, and are republished with permission.
(Catherine B. Abbott holds a degree in history from California State University-San Marcos and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is currently a PhD student at UWM. She may be reached at catherineabbott@yahoo.com. Her collection of articles on this site may be found here.
(Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She has written and published extensively on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Rebecca is also the co-manager of this website. Her other articles in this edition of the jonestown report are Jonestown in American Religious Life and The Erasure (and Re-inscription) of African Americans from the Jonestown Narrative. Her collection of articles on this site may be found here. She may be reached at remoore@sdsu.edu.)
Doctrines/Beliefs Concerning Women's Roles
The primary ideological concerns in Peoples Temple were racial inequality and social injustice, rather than the advancement of women's rights. Nevertheless, the oppression of women in society was known to Peoples Temple members and their leader, Jim Jones (1931–1978). During at least one sermon, given in Fall 1974, Jones spoke of the Bible as the source of women's oppression (Q1059-6 Transcript 1974). He blamed the poor treatment of women on the biblical story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3). Like other Christian interpreters, Jones claimed that Genesis 3:16, the passage in which Eve's punishment for disobeying God's command is pain in childbirth and being ruled by her husband, was the cause of women's relegation to subservient positions in society. In his tract "The Letter Killeth," Jones also provided a wealth of examples of the mistreatment of women as apparently sanctioned in the Bible (Jim Jones n.d.)
Despite the lack of a clear-cut feminist ideology, white women in Peoples Temple did advance to positions of leadership, achieving a measure of authority and responsibility not available to them in wider American society in the 1970s. While the overarching narrative in the Temple concentrated on race relations and economic exploitation of people of color in the United States and abroad, a simultaneous subtext granted some white women extraordinary privileges. This disconnect was noted by eight young adults who left the movement in 1973. The "Eight Revolutionaries" wrote a letter to Jim Jones explaining their defection in which they pointed out that:
You said that the revolutionary focal point at present is in the black people. There is no potential in the white population, according to you. Yet, where is the black leadership, where is the black staff and black attitude? (The Eight Revolutionaries 1973)
The Eight Revolutionaries listed by name the individuals (male and female) who they believed demanded sex of Jim Jones, placing the onus for such relationships on members rather than on the leader.
Women singing at Temple meeting (location unknown) = MS-0516-06-149
Yet it was clear that Jones controlled most sexual relationships that occurred within the Temple, approving or rejecting marriages and partnerships through a Relationships Committee. Connections with outsiders were not approved. While Jones claimed that everyone but himself was a homosexual and seemed to denigrate gays and lesbians, he did allow LGBT relationships to flourish in Jonestown (Bellefountaine 2011).
Jones deliberately humiliated women and men in a variety of ways, frequently focusing on their sexual inadequacies. On one occasion he insisted that Cathy Stahl (1953–1978) remove her clothes and jump into the swimming pool located at the Redwood Valley complex of the Temple. This was to teach her not to eat so much. "You are terribly overweight already," he told her in a public meeting, and "the only way you will understand these rules is through embarrassment" (Mills 1981:258). Stahl stripped to her bra and panties, held together by a safety pin, and was pushed into the deep end of the pool.
On a separate occasion Jones required a woman to undress completely in front of the Planning Commission, the official leadership committee for the Temple. The reasons are unclear: either she had written a love note to Jones, according to some individuals present; or she had written something critical of the group, by her own account. (Because she is still living, she would like to remain anonymous.) In any event, she stood naked before fifty people for more than an hour while they criticized her body, her genitals, and her person (Nelson 2006).
Thus, beliefs about women in the Temple paradoxically led to their abasement and, at the same time, to the advancement of some women over others in the Temple.
Organizational Roles Performed by Women
Marceline Jones with microphone = MS-0516-02-052
Women's leadership roles changed throughout the course of Peoples Temple's twenty-five year history. When the group was based in Indiana in the 1950s, Jim Jones and his wife Marceline Mae Baldwin Jones (1927–1978), served as the primary decision-makers. A few other individuals are listed on incorporation documents, but it is clear that the couple worked as team: Jim was the charismatic front man whom people recognized as the leader, while Marceline worked behind the scenes as the administrator of several licensed care facilities, which provided income to support the church's benevolence programs. With the move to northern California in the mid-1960s, more women became involved in administration, although Jim Jones remained the final decision-maker. As the church expanded to San Francisco and Los Angeles in the early 1970s, an efficient bureaucracy developed to manage the programs offered by the organization. For the most part, women oversaw these programs. While the early pioneers at the Temple's agricultural project in Guyana were primarily men, a few women were also engaged in the heavy labor required to clear the jungle. Women back in the United States were instrumental in effecting the mass migration of more than one thousand Temple members to Guyana in 1977. By the very end of Peoples Temple's trajectory, women both in the United States and in Jonestown coordinated almost all of the group's operations. (See, WRSP profile of Peoples Temple)
A number of white women exercised broad authority in Peoples Temple through the various leadership roles available: as confidantes of Jim Jones, as administrators, and as members of the Planning Commission, all of which served the rank and file (Hall 1987). Confidantes were those women whom Jones trusted the most, generally women with whom he had long-term relationships, such as his wife Marceline Jones and his mistresses Carolyn Layton (1945–1978), Maria Katsaris (1953–1978), Teri Buford, and a few others. They made up an inner circle that included a few men.
Administrators were second-tier leaders (such as Harriet Tropp (1950–1978) and Sharon Amos (1936–1978)) who carried out Jones' orders, or realized his imperfectly imagined ideas (Maaga 1998:72). Amos managed the group's communal home, called Lamaha Gardens, in Georgetown, Guyana, and conducted business with Guyanese officials. Tropp handled media relations for the group, and dealt with negative publicity that was generated by the Concerned Relatives, a group created to raise media awareness and shape public opinion about Peoples Temple. Tropp was one of the few people who could criticize Jim Jones, as her memo about "The Uglification of Jonestown" demonstrates. In this document she notes that the commune had embarked on a misguided beautification project because "Dad wants it done," against sound advice provided by several people.
I think the above just serves to highlight a problem we have in decision-making. That is, if you say you want something done, we ignore any advice we've been given and we go against our own judgment, and go ahead. . . . I think the essence of the problem, or at least one aspect of it, is that no one is willing to oppose your opinion in certain matters, and I frankly think that sometimes you are wrong, and no one is willing to say so. I realize this is quite a volatile statement, but I think it is one factor in the dynamics of how this organization functions that gets us in trouble (Tropp, quoted by Stephenson 2005:101).
Operating in Redwood Valley and San Francisco, the Planning Commission was more broadly based than either the confidantes (or inner circle) or the administrators. It was comprised of women and men who developed policies and procedures in a semi-democratic fashion, although ultimately Jones alone made the final decisions that affected the group. With the move to Guyana, the Planning Commission seemed to be abandoned in favor of a more diverse and decentralized administrative body. Authority in Jonestown, however, still rested with Jim Jones (Moore, Pinn, and Sawyer 2004:69–70).
In addition to these three primary leadership levels, individual women had responsibility over numerous departments and operations throughout the history of the movement. (Because data are readily available from Jonestown documents posted online at the Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple (Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple website 2018) we report on those; countless files held by the California Historical Society will undoubtedly support the picture being constructed once they receive scholarly evaluation.) Don Beck, a former Temple member, analyzed organizational charts, work assignment lists, and other items to develop a clear portrait of who accomplished tasks in Jonestown. For example, the ruling "triumvirate" of the jungle community consisted of Johnny Brown Jones (1950–1978), Carolyn Layton, and Harriet Tropp. They supervised the activities of eight department heads who managed thirty different divisions (Beck n.d.). Maria Katsaris was in charge of banking; Harriet Tropp and Jann Gurvich (1953–1978) were two of the three members of the legal team; two African American women, Shanda James (1959–1978) and Rhonda Fortson (1954–1978), handled entertainment, such as video and film programming. Heather Shearer's analysis of the paperwork required to mount the emigration of more than one thousand people out of the United States to Guyana does not provide individual names, but vividly depicts the tremendous amount of work conducted by rank-and-file, predominantly female, volunteers (Shearer 2018).
Several women deserve specific mention in terms of their roles within the organization.
Psychobiographies of Jim Jones' mother Lynetta Putnam Jones (1902–1977) depict a woman who simultaneously hated and loved her troubled son (Nesci 1999; Kelley 2015). By several accounts she was a feisty woman who, though married, was in effect a single mother since her third husband, James Thurman Jones (1887–1951), the father of James Warren Jones, was a disabled veteran of World War I. Her own writings and interviews depict a turbulent background for her son (Lynetta Jones "Writings" and "Interviews" n.d.). She moved into the home of newlyweds Jim and Marceline, and remained a fixture throughout their lives, even moving to Jonestown and dying there in 1977.
Marceline Jones, wife of Jim Jones, was considered to be the "mother" of the Temple, corresponding to Jones' role as "father." She was well-respected by all the members, and known for her kindness and compassion. An account written by her biological son Stephan Jones attempts to address the dilemma of her loyalty to Jones despite his compulsive infidelities. His narrative includes a moving letter he wrote to his mother shortly after her death in Jonestown:
Whatever your own diseased thinking was, one thing is certain: You believed you had no choice but to stay. You remained in the fold to see us through it, to keep us alive and as whole as possible beyond doom, or until we were strong enough to escape on our own. But it wasn't just the children you'd held as babies that you championed, was it, Mom? There were the children of the Temple too. And there was one more child, wasn't there? You believed you could fix things—fix HIM—didn't you? (Stephan Jones n.d.).
Marceline's name is found on numerous legal documents, indicating her role as a corporate officer and decision-maker. An able nursing home administrator, she was responsible throughout the movement's history for developing a significant income-producing arm of the Temple that provided needed healthcare services at the same time.
Carolyn Layton and Kimo Prokes, Jim Jones' biological son, in Jonestown, 1978 = MS0183-48-10-006
Next to Jim and Marceline Jones, Carolyn Layton had perhaps the most important leadership role in the movement. She oversaw planning and organizational committees. According to Mary McCormick Maaga, "Carolyn Layton was as much at the center of building and maintaining the organization of Peoples Temple and later, Jonestown, as was [Temple attorney] Tim Stoen, perhaps even more so" (Maaga 1998:45). Maaga summarizes the contents of Layton's résumé in which she states that she was the Vice-President and Director of Peoples Temple (Maaga 1998:57). She and Marceline Jones were the only two women given check-signing authority to purchase equipment for the Jonestown settlement. In letters to her parents, Layton wrote that in Jonestown some of her responsibilities included educational training about socialism and organizational tasks. Her sexual relationship with Jones led to the birth of their son Jim-Jon Prokes (1975–1978), known as Kimo in the community.
Maria Katsaris holding a toucan in Jonestown, 1978 = MS0183-78-1-053
Maria Katsaris began her ascent to leadership in Peoples Temple in the letters office, which coordinated letter-writing campaigns conducted by the Temple. She eventually assumed the duties of a secretary in Peoples Temple, taking on a major role in the Planning Commission. Like Carolyn Layton and former members Grace Stoen and Teri Buford, Katsaris had a sexual relationship with Jones and remained devoted to him despite his ties to other women in Peoples Temple, including his wife, Marceline.
As trusted confidantes and aides to Jones, Carolyn Layton and Maria Katsaris were privy to activities that their leader kept secret from other members, such as moving millions of dollars from the United States to foreign bank accounts. As Jones' heavy drug use increased in the later years of the Temple's existence and often left him incapacitated, Layton and Katsaris assumed more power in Jonestown, relaying Jones' orders to his followers.
A few other women, including Grace Stoen, Teri Buford, Deborah Layton (sister in-law to Carolyn), and Annie Moore (1954–1978, Carolyn's sister), had important roles within Peoples Temple, although Stoen, Deborah Layton, and Buford ultimately defected from the group. Grace was in charge of counseling for the group in San Francisco, setting up appointments and solving problems. "When I was in Peoples Temple I had more power than I'll ever again attain in my life," Grace Stoen confided to Mary McCormick Maaga (Maaga 1998:60). "There was a feeling of power and influence that the young women in leadership, including [Stoen] herself, had never experienced before," according to Maaga (1998:61). She fled Peoples Temple in July 1976, before most of the members relocated to Guyana, leaving her son John Victor Stoen (1972–1978) in the care of Maria Katsaris. Tim Stoen left Peoples Temple in June 1977 (Moore 2009:58). A bitter custody lawsuit between the Stoens and Jim Jones commenced in 1977, which led to the publication of a document in which Tim Stoen asserted that Jim Jones was the father of John Victor. Grace and Tim were among the earliest members, or founders, of the Concerned Relatives group that organized activities to heighten public awareness of Jonestown in the United States; they also helped to persuade Congressman Leo Ryan (1943–1978) of California to personally investigate conditions in Jonestown and traveled with him to Guyana in November 1978.
Deborah Layton and Teri Buford were involved in finances, and smuggled currency to bank accounts outside the United States. Layton defected in May 1978, and announced publicly that suicide drills were occurring in Jonestown. Her statement provided additional impetus for Leo Ryan's trip to Jonestown. Teri Buford defected in October 1978, enlisting the assistance of attorney Mark Lane to effect her departure. Whereas Layton had made public declarations, Buford went into hiding after her flight.
Annie Moore, a nurse, was responsible for maintaining Jim Jones' drug regimen in Jonestown, providing psychoactive pharmaceuticals (uppers and downers) to keep the leader functioning. In addition, Moore played a key role in planning the means by which the community would self-destruct, as documented by a note in which she described the various alternatives for conducting killing en masse (Annie Moore n.d.). Annie Moore, Carolyn Layton, and Maria Katsaris remained loyal until the end, perishing on November 18, 1978, with more than nine hundred other Peoples Temple members after ingesting cyanide. Annie Moore and Jim Jones were the only Jonestown residents known to have died by gunshot wound.
Issues/Challenges Facing Women
Woman hoeing in Jonestown, 1978 = MS0183-78-2-036
A major issue that faced women in Peoples Temple was the inequality between white women and people of color, especially women. Although African American women comprised a much higher percentage of Peoples Temple members than white women (and made up almost half of the fatalities in Jonestown) most of Jones' secretaries were white, college-educated, and relatively young. This disparity shows Jones' favoritism towards whites and how he failed to give important positions in Peoples Temple to African American women (Rebecca Moore 2017). More significant, however, is the lack of attention that news media and scholars have given to the black experience in the Temple and in Jonestown, although Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America (Moore, Pinn, and Sawyer 2004) is a notable exception.
The recovery of voices of African American women came to the fore in 2015, with the publication of White Nights, Black Paradise, by Sikivu Hutchinson. In this fictional account, Hutchinson (an author, educator, and filmmaker) focused on the experiences of African American women in the Temple and in Jonestown. Hutchinson produced a theatrical short of the same title, and in 2018 mounted a stage production of the book. She also organized several panel discussions that highlighted the voices of African American and biracial women in the Temple. Key among these were Yulanda Crawford, a defector whose affidavit gave early evidence of the potential for violence in Jonestown (Crawford 1978); and Leslie Wagner-Wilson, who fled Jonestown with her young son on November 18 (Wagner-Wilson 2009). These women describe a hierarchical, race-based system in which African Americans were cruelly exploited and lived essentially as prisoners in Jonestown.
Another key challenge was the nature of sexual manipulation that occurred between women and Jim Jones. Reports are complicated and sometimes conflicting: some indicate that sexual relations between Jones and his followers were consensual, such as those with Maria Katsaris and Carolyn Layton; others suggest that Jones abused his power and raped non-consenting men and women, such as Deborah Layton and Janet Phillips (Layton 1998; Q775 Transcript 1973).
Women sewing in Jonestown, 1978 = MS0183-78-2-040
The role of women in new religious movements in general, not only in Peoples Temple, is contested. Sociologist Rosabeth Kanter argued that "defamilialization" enhanced women's participation in the decision-making processes of utopianist communes (Kanter 1972). Certainly the resource-sharing that occurred in Jonestown, with children raised and taught by non-biological caregivers, might support Kanter's argument. Many women were indeed freed from child-rearing tasks to do other work in the commune; at the same time, much of that work appeared to be divided along traditional gender lines, with cooking, laundry, childcare, healthcare going to women, although there were clear exceptions. Both women and men, for example, did farm labor at Jonestown. Sociologist Susan J. Palmer's ethnographic study of women in seven different new religions did not include Peoples Temple since it was defunct (Palmer 1994). But her gender typology of sex polarity, sex complementarity, and sex unity identified in the groups that she studied does not seem entirely relevant for understanding women's roles in Peoples Temple and Jonestown, given the absence of a clear theology or ideology of sexuality or gender.
Mary McCormick Maaga (1998) provides the most complete analysis of women's roles in Peoples Temple, although she, too, neglects that of African American women. She challenges the notion that Jim Jones held all of the control in the movement and argues that white women had sex with Jones for both pleasure and power (Maaga 1998:49). They gained influence over others through "pillow talk," using their sexual relationships with Jones to political and social advantage. This prestige was not derivative, but was central to the functioning of the entire operation. Women and men in the leadership did share one thing in common, however: "all had a strong desire to contribute positively and centrally to social change." For women, their personal privilege and influence to make a difference was not realized until they joined the Temple and hooked up with Jones; men, on the other hand, could have had that same level of leadership outside the movement. "Within Peoples Temple there was an opportunity for some women to exercise power and authority beyond what either their gender or educational training would have allowed in mainstream society" (Maaga 1998:55–56).
Teenage girls standing in flatbed truck in Jonestown, 1978 = MS0183-78-2-015
Despite the sexual exploitation that clearly occurred, white women, and some African American women, advanced through the ranks to assume positions of great responsibility for what became a multimillion-dollar operation. All women (from secretaries, cooks, and childcare providers, to school teachers, public relations directors, and financial managers) contributed valuable time and energy to the organization. It could not have existed without their labor or leadership.
Nor would the violence of the community's final day have occurred without the facilitation of the women in acquiring and administering the poison. Yet a few African American women resisted. Leslie Wagner-Wilson fled with her young son and a dozen others before the deaths began. One elderly African American woman, Hyacinth Thrash (d. 1995) slept through the tragic events (Moore, Pinn, and Sawyer 2004: 177). And during the final gathering of the Jonestown community, Christine Miller (1918–1978) argued with Jim Jones against killing the children (Q042 Transcript 1978). However, other members of Peoples Temple stood with Jones and applauded his plan to carry out "revolutionary suicide" on November 18, 1978 (Q042 Transcript 1978).
**All images are courtesy Special Collections, Library and Information Access, San Diego State University.
Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple website. 2018. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/ on 25 September 2018.
Beck, Don. n.d. "Jonestown Organization." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35926 on 25 September 2018.
Bellefountaine, Michael. 2011. A Lavender Look at the Temple: A Gay Perspective of the Peoples Temple. iUniverse.
Crawford, Yolanda D. A. 1978. "Affidavit." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13085 on 25 September 2018.
Eight Revolutionaries, The. 1973. "Statement." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14075 on 25 September 2018.
Hall, John R. 1987. Gone From the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Jones, Jim. n.d. "The Letter Killeth." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14111 on 25 September 2018.
Jones, Lynetta. n.d. "The Writings of Lynetta Jones." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=62772 on 25 September 2018.
Jones, Lynetta. n.d. "The Lynetta Jones Interviews." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13783 on 25 September 2018.
Jones, Stephan. 2005. "Marceline/Mom." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=32388 on 25 September 2018.
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1972. Commitment and Community; Communes and Utopias in a Sociological Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kelley, James L. 2015. "Nurture Failure: A Psychobiographical Approach to the Childhood of Jim Jones." the jonestown report, November 17. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=64878 on 25 September 2018.
Layton, Deborah. 1998. Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple. New York: Anchor Books.
Maaga, Mary McCormick. 1998. Hearing the Voices of Jonestown: Putting a Human Face on an American Tragedy. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Mills, Jeannie. 1979. Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones's Peoples Temple. New York: A&W Publishers.
Moore, Annie. 1978. "A Select Group Would Have to Kill the Majority." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=78445 on 25 September 2018.
Moore, Rebecca. 2017. "An Update on the Demographics of Jonestown." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and People Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=70495 on 25 September 2018.
Moore, Rebecca, Anthony B. Pinn, and Mary R. Sawyer, eds. 2004. Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
Nelson, Stanley. 2006. "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple." PBS American Experience.
Nesci, Domenico Arturo. 1999. The Lessons of Jonestown: An Ethnopsychoanalytic Study of Suicidal Communities. Rome: Società Editrice Universo.
Palmer, Susan Jean. 1994. Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Q775 Transcript. 1973. Prepared by Seriina Covarrubias, The Jonestown Institute. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27582 on 25 September 2018.
Q1059-6 Transcript. 1974. Prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III, The Jonestown Institute. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27336 on 25 September 2018.
Q042. 1978. "The 'Death Tape'." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29084 on 25 September 2018.
Shearer, Heather. 2018. "'Verbal Orders Don't Go—Write It!' Building and Maintaining the Promised Land." Nova Religio 22:68–92.
Stephenson, Denice, ed. 2005. Dear People: Remembering Jonestown. San Francisco: California Historical Society and Heyday Books.
Wagner-Wilson, Leslie. 2009. Slavery of Faith: The Untold Story of the Peoples Temple from the Eyes of a Thirteen Year Old, Her Escape from Jonestown at 21 and Life 30 Years Later. iUniverse.
Abbott, Catherine. 2017. "The Women of Peoples Temple." the jonestown report, November 19. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=70321 on 25 September 2018.
Guinn, Jeff. 2017. The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Moore, Rebecca. 2012. "Peoples Temple." World Religions and Spirituality Project. Accessed from https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/peoples-temple/ on 25 September 2018.
Smith, Archie Jr. 1998. "We Need to Press Forward: Black Religion and Jonestown, Twenty Years Later." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16595 on 25 September 2018.
Taylor, James Lance. 2011. "Bring Out the 'Black Dimensions' of Peoples Temple." the jonestown report, October 13. Accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29462 on 25 September 2018.
Originally posted on September 8th, 2020.
Last modified on December 26th, 2022.
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Heavy snow expected in Texas; storm could spawn tornadoes
KEN MILLER and ACACIA CORONADO
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A winter storm moving across southwestern Texas on Wednesday could dump more than a foot (0.30 meters) of snow before moving eastward and possibly spawning tornadoes in parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi on New Year's Eve, according to weather forecasters.
Jeremy Grams, a forecaster with the National Weather Services' Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 12 to 18 inches (0.30 meters to 0.46 meters) of snow was possible west of the Pecos River in southwest Texas, with another 3 to 5 inches (0.13 meters) predicted for western Oklahoma by Thursday.
Tornadoes are possible as the cold air moving eastward with the storm collides with moisture and warmer temperatures from the Gulf of Mexico, Grams said.
"On the warm side of the system we have the chance for tornadoes from southeast Texas across most of Louisiana and at least into southern Mississippi," Grams said.
Grams said a wintry mix of precipitation and a threat of tornadoes is uncommon — but not unheard of — this time of year.
The storm produced what Grams said was a likely a brief tornado in Corsicana, Texas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Dallas shortly before noon Wednesday.
More than a dozen mobile homes were damaged in Corsicana, Navarro County officials said in a social media statement, but no injuries were reported. Two other homes were damaged by fallen trees.
The Navarro County Office of Emergency Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Grams said any tornadoes would likely be classified as EF2, with wind speeds of 111-135 mph (179-217 kph), or below, compared to violent tornadoes which he said are those rated EF4 and above with wind speeds of 166 mph (267. kph) and higher.
In Oklahoma, the state Department of Transportation reported wet and slushy roads on Interstate 40 in the central part of the state on Wednesday, and extending along I-44 to Tulsa. The state said salt and sand was being applied to make roadways less slick.
The city of Odessa, Texas, in the Permian Basic oil patch opened a winter weather shelter that would be available through Friday. Federal guidelines for social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19 will be enforced at the shelter, the city said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday placed several state agencies on standby ahead of the storm. Meanwhile, another storm system dropped heavy snow across the Upper Midwest and led to winter storm warnings for parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Miller reported from Oklahoma City.
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U.S. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman's bravery during the insurrection may be honored with the Congressional Gold Medal. A bipartisan group of congressional members introduced a resolution on Thursday, nearly a week after the U.S. Capitol was breached, to recognize Goodman. As previously reported by theGrio, Goodman led an angry mob away from the Senate chambers.
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Home › SCADA / ICS
Vulnerability in Mitsubishi Controllers Can Allow Hackers to Disrupt Production
By Eduard Kovacs on June 11, 2020
A potentially serious denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability affecting some Mitsubishi Electric automation controllers can allow hackers to disrupt the production process in an industrial organization, experts have warned.
The flaw, discovered by a researcher at industrial cybersecurity firm SCADAfence and reported to Mitsubishi in late February, was described by the vendor as an uncontrolled resource consumption issue that allows an attacker to cause the Ethernet port to enter a DoS condition by sending it specially crafted packets, in bursts, over a short period of time.
The vulnerability affects Mitsubishi's MELSEC iQ-R series CPU modules, including R00, R04 and R08, and the RJ71EN71 Ethernet interface module. The vendor has released firmware updates that should address the flaw for several of the affected modules and plans on releasing patches for the remaining products "soon." In the meantime, the company recommends a series of mitigation steps.
Ofer Shaked, co-founder and CTO of SCADAfence, told SecurityWeek that the impacted controllers are used across all industries. The affected products include safety controllers, high-speed motion controllers used in robotics and other motion-oriented applications, and process CPUs that can be used to monitor and control physical processes in sectors such as critical infrastructure and manufacturing.
Learn More About Vulnerabilities in Industrial Products at SecurityWeek's ICS Cyber Security Conference and SecurityWeek's Security Summits Virtual Event Series
"This vulnerability is dangerous to industrial environments, because unlike other DoS attacks, it doesn't only crash the network interface controller. We're also talking about crashing the main CPU, which stops the entire production process and loses the current state of operation," Shaked explained. "An unauthenticated remote attacker over the network, can stop your entire production, in a way that requires physical intervention (rebooting the PLC, recalibrating, restarting any production process)."
Shaked warned that the vulnerability is easy to exploit. Exploitation only requires network access to the targeted device, but no special privileges or user interaction are needed to launch an attack.
"Once an attacker has access to the network, they can run a simple Python script and crash the PLC CPUs remotely. All they need is network connectivity. The script takes less than a second to crash the CPU," he explained.
He added, "[Exploitation] doesn't require any advanced knowledge in process automation. The attacker has to send 2 bytes of payload multiple times in burst to the PLC, and the PLC will crash."
An advisory published by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) assigns the vulnerability a CVSS score of 5.3, which puts it in the medium severity category. However, SCADAfence believes the real CVSS score, based on its impact, is 8.6, which makes it high severity. The company has reached out to CISA in hopes that the CVSS score will be updated in the agency's advisory.
Related: Critical Flaw in CODESYS Industrial Controller Software Allows Code Execution
Related: Industrial Controllers Still Vulnerable to Stuxnet-Style Attacks
Related: Vulnerabilities in SoftPAC Virtual Controller Expose OT Networks to Attacks


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New Jersey PreK-12 District Selects Follett Aspen® Student Information System
Superintendent Says New SIS Will Grow with District's Current, Future Needs
BASKING RIDGE, NJ – Bernards Township School District in Basking Ridge, N.J., capped an extensive two-year search by selecting Follett Aspen® SIS for its new student information system (SIS). The PreK-12 district implemented Follett Aspen® SIS in time for the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, which began Sept. 7.
According to Superintendent of Schools Nick Markarian, the decision to move to a new SIS followed a selection committee's careful consideration of the district's needs, and the evaluation of several of the top student information systems in the marketplace. Markarian said Aspen was ultimately chosen because of its ability to:
Provide robust data reporting;
Create workflows to automate time-consuming tasks; and
Integrate and sync with other software the district uses (including Follett Destiny®) to generate efficiencies and a single source of information.
"Moving to Aspen will provide a wonderful opportunity for our district to evaluate processes to make them better, more efficient, and more user-friendly," he said. "We are so excited to grow Aspen over time in a way that increasingly serves the needs of students, staff, and parents."
Markarian said Follett Aspen® SIS will allow students and parents to access information from home more efficiently and easily. "Right away, the benefits of both the student portal and the parent portal will be evident."
The Follett Aspen® SIS Gradebook, used by teachers to capture attendance and grade information, will offer parents and students timely and confidential access through the SIS' web-based portal. Moreover, Aspen partners with SRC Solutions, Inc., for an online registration system. Gateway Suite for Follett Aspen® SIS allows school districts to migrate their paper-based registration processes to a simple, yet dynamic, online registration environment.
"We applaud the district's selection committee for its rigorous and competitive search process," said George Gatsis, Senior Vice President of Technology Platforms, Follett School Solutions. "We are thrilled to expand our working relationship with Bernards Township, which also uses our Follett Destiny® solution for its library and resource management needs. The district is accomplishing one of its key goals by seamlessly integrating Aspen with our Destiny platform."
Bernards Township School District serves more than 5,400 students in six schools – four elementary, one middle and one high.
Follett Aspen® SIS currently serves more than two million students throughout 236 school districts in the U.S. and Canada. Follett recently announced Follett Aspen® SIS was selected as the new SIS for Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third-largest school district.
For more than 145 years, Follett has been a trusted provider of educational resources to K-12 institutions. With proven experience in delivering educational content and technology solutions, Follett seeks to provide tools that connect educators and students in an evolving learning environment.


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text:
360° VR
G-objects
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This simulated view shows a G-object that has been observed orbiting the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. – Image credit: ESO
Related channels: BLACK HOLES, THE MILKY WAY, GRAVITY, SPACE-TIME, COSMOLOGY, ASTRONOMY, STARS, GRAVITATIONAL WAVES, ALBERT EINSTEIN
Animation of the Stellar Orbits around the Galactic Center (2019)
The UCLA Galactic Center Group has been tracking specific stars orbiting the proposed black hole at the center of our Galaxy for 25 years using 2.2 micron images taken at Keck Telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These stellar orbits, and a simple application of Kepler's Laws of motion, provide the best evidence yet for a supermassive black hole, which has a mass 4 million times the mass of the Sun. Particularly important is the short period star S0-2, which has been observed for more than a full orbital period (orbital period ~ 16 years) and puts limits on how massive and far away the supermassive black hole is to Earth. UCLA Galactic Center Group http://www.galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/
G-objects: Strange New Discovery From The Galactic Center
You can buy Universe Sandbox 2 here: http://amzn.to/2yJqwU6 Or get a shirt: https://teespring.com/stores/whatdamath Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about newly discovered space objects known as G-Objects that were discovered near the central black hole Sgr A*. Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1883-y Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath Space Engine is available for free here: http://spaceengine.org Enjoy and please subscribe. Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhatDaMath Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatdamath Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/whatdamath Bitcoins to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! 1GFiTKxWyEjAjZv4vsNtWTUmL53HgXBuvu The hardware used to record these videos: CPU: https://amzn.to/2LZFQCJ Video Card: https://amzn.to/2M1W26C Motherboard: https://amzn.to/2JYGiQQ RAM: https://amzn.to/2Mwy2t4 PSU: https://amzn.to/2LZcrIH Case: https://amzn.to/2MwJZz4 Microphone: https://amzn.to/2t5jTv0 Mixer: https://amzn.to/2JOL0oF Recording and Editing: https://amzn.to/2LX6uvU Thank you to all Patreon supporters of this channel Specifically, great thanks to the following members: Morrison Waud Vlad Manshin Mark Teranishi TheHuntress Ralph Spataro Albert B. Cannon Lilith Dawn Greg Lambros adam lee Gabriel Seiffert Henry Spadoni J Carter Jer Silver surfer Konrad Kummli Nick Dolgy UnexpectedBooks.com Mario Rahmani George Williams Shinne Jakub Glos Johann Goergen Jake Salo LS Greger Lyndon Riley Lauren Smith Michael Tiganila Russell Sears Vinod sethi Dave Blair Robert Wyssbrod Randal Masutani Michael Mitsuda Assaf Dar Sagol Liam Moss Timothy Welter MD Barnard Rabenold Gordon Cooper Tracy Burgess Douglas Burns Jayjay Volz Anataine Deva Kai Raphahn Sander Stols Bodo Graßmann Daniel Charles Smith Daniel G. Eugene Sandulenko gary steelman Max McNally Michael Koebel Sergio Ruelas Steven Aiello Victor Julian Castillo xyndicate Honey Suzanne Lyons Olegas Budnik Dale Andrew Darling Niji Peter Hamrak Matthew Lazear Alexander Afanasyev Anton Newman Anton Reed
G objects and stars orbiting the super-massive black hole at the center of our Galaxy
The center of our Galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole of 4 million times the mass of the Sun. A great number of stars spin around it at very high speed. The UCLA Galactic Center Group discovered another class of objects orbiting the black hole: the G objects. These peculiar objects look like gas clouds but behave like stars. G objects are likely stars that are hidden in a thick envelope of gas and dust. They may have formed as the result of the merger of a pair of stars. This animation is a visualization of the orbital motion of G objects and stars in the Galactic Center. The G objects are shown in magenta, young stars in green and old stars in orange. The orbits are based on the Keck data obtained between 1995 and 2019. The research is published in the journal Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1883-y. A blogpost by lead author Anna Ciurlo, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher, is published here: https://astronomycommunity.nature.com/users/342193-anna-ciurlo/posts/58053-stars-in-disguise-at-the-center-of-our-galaxy. UCLA press release here: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/astronomy-strange-objects-galaxy-black-hole. To find out more about the Galactic Center: http://galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/index.shtml Animation done by: Advanced Visualization Lab, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu/
There Are Mysterious Objects at the Edge of Sagittarius A*, Here's What We Know
Astronomers observed dust clouds lurking around the black hole at our galaxy's center. They weren't of that much interest, until they started behaving in unusual ways. What Does It Sound Like When Black Holes Smash Into Each Other? - https://youtu.be/QRZNyrDqbKk Thumbnail image courtesy W. M. Keck Observatory. Read More: More Mystery Objects Detected Near Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole http://www.keckobservatory.org/g-objects/ "Astronomers have discovered several bizarre objects at the Galactic Center that are concealing their true identity behind a smoke screen of dust; they look like gas clouds, but behave like stars." Mysterious 'Puffy' Objects Lurk Near the Milky Way's Monster Black Hole https://www.space.com/40850-mysterious-puffy-objects-monster-black-hole.html "The team discovered these objects by measuring the wavelengths of light released by the structures of gas and dust at the galaxy's center using the Keck Observatory's OH-Suppressing Infrared Imaging Spectrograph." Mysterious Objects Have Been Detected Coming Way Too Close to The Milky Way's Black Hole https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-strange-objects-discovered-in-milky-way-near-black-hole "During the 1970s, astronomer became aware of a massive radio source at the center of our galaxy that they later realized was a Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH) – which has since been named Sagittarius A*." ____________________ Elements is more than just a science show. It's your science-loving best friend, tasked with keeping you updated and interested on all the compelling, innovative and groundbreaking science happening all around us. Join our passionate hosts as they help break down and present fascinating science, from quarks to quantum theory and beyond. Seeker explains every aspect of our world through a lens of science, inspiring a new generation of curious minds who want to know how today's discoveries in science, math, engineering and technology are impacting our lives, and shaping our future. Our stories parse meaning from the noise in a world of rapidly changing information. Visit the Seeker website https://www.seeker.com/videos Elements on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SeekerElements/ Subscribe now! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=dnewschannel Seeker on Twitter http://twitter.com/seeker Seeker on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SeekerMedia/ Seeker http://www.seeker.com/
NEW SPACE DISCOVERY: G-Objects
You can buy Universe Sandbox 2 game here: http://amzn.to/2yJqwU6 Hello and welcome to What Da Math! In this video, we will talk about G type objects. Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath Space Engine is available for free here: http://spaceengine.org Enjoy and please subscribe. Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhatDaMath Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatdamath Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/whatdamath Bitcoins to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! 1GFiTKxWyEjAjZv4vsNtWTUmL53HgXBuvu
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Interstellar Objects
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
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Per the GLP website, there is plenty of jargon, buzz words, lingo and intellectual-sounding slogans that help propagandize the practice of inserting the genes of toxic pesticides in America's staple crop, such as corn, soy, canola, cottonseed and sugar beets.
Biotechnology or "agri-chemical-technology" is warping farming, mutating food and infecting medicine. No longer can the American consumer walk into a grocery or supermarket and blindly choose from fruits, vegetables and packaged goods and expect to get quality food that's not infused with deadly pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. Food security is at an all-time high threat level, and websites like GLP fully intend to convolute the truth about this synthetic biology that's dominating the food supply and feeding the (preventable) food-driven diseases, disorders and epidemics, such as cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, fibromyalgia, autism spectrum disorder, osteoporosis and arthritis. Genetic engineering is leading to unintended consequences and major ethical challenges, and Jon Entine's job is to cover all of this up with rhetoric and twisted industry jargon.
Then, GLP includes and provides external resources and links that further support their propaganda, in order to look official, sourced and reliable. These other propaganda websites include "Biology Fortified" or (Biofortified), the GMO Pundit David Tribe, the exposed "public scientist" and Monsanto huckster from University of Florida–Kevin Folta, Discover's biotech shill Keith Kloor, and blogs by Grist's Nathanael Johnson.
In actuality, the use of GMOs costs farmers even more money than conventional methods of farming, compromises the global standard of living for future generations, cripples companies as they must rely 100% on biotech corporations for seeds and toxic herbicides, propels the growth of superweeds and the infestation of superbugs that are now immune to the very toxic pesticides that the crops are infused with by companies like Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Dupont, BASF, Cargill and Syngenta. This is a total compromise of global food security and puts the health of millions of people at high risk. Top it off with the fact that GM seeds die every year and must be replaced with new ones. Plus, GMOs can raise greenhouse gas emissions as more and more corporations use the CAFO methods of raising animals, where they keep them indoors and feed them GM feed, synthetic growth hormones and treat them unethically. Nothing about GMO is sustainable or healthy, but websites like GLP are constructed and maintained to push the exact opposite perception.
Even just a few altered genes or traits can lead to irreversible, contagious pest and plant diseases. Scientists, biologists and farmers have discovered GM traits in fields that never grew GMO and where GMO is not even legal to grow. Humans should not even be consuming rapeseed (canola), yet 90% of US canola is GMO. Currently, there are over 400 million acres of GM crops worldwide. GM seeds are banned in Europe and Russia now, where the governments are trying to protect their people from disease and disorder, but in the United States, where healthcare is a total sham, GMO is pushed and pushed hard via propaganda websites like the Genetic Literacy Project.
Because GMOs decrease the productivity of land, they increase the amount of land needed to farm and use the chemicals, water, energy and greenhouse gas emissions needed to produce food.
ACSH, much like GLP, describes itself as a consumer education organization that addresses public concerns with food safety, but both organizations solicit funding from corporations that push toxic food and toxic farming practices. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader described ACSH as a "consumer front organization for its business backers" that has "seized the language and style of the existing consumer organizations, but its real purpose, you say, is to glove the hand that feeds it." These rogue organizations are chemical-pesticide apologists that defend the use of Roundup, DDT, 2-4D and Agent Orange. They refer to environmentalist groups as "food terrorists," arguing that their concerns and criticisms about GMO health and environmental risks are in themselves threats to society, as if infusing chemicals into food crops can somehow save the world from famine and drought.
Both GLP and ACSH promote junk food and junk science and the main collaborators have been indicted for fraud, abuse and felonies. Case in point: Dr. Gilbert Ross, the medical director of ACSH, (11) served several years in FEDERAL PRISON and had his medical license revoked for Medicaid fraud, racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy.


Psychotherapy is based on the professional relationship between a qualified counsellor or psychotherapist, and yourself, the client. This relationship demands certain responsibilities of the individuals involved, and as the client, you have clearly defined rights. During the course of therapy, your counselor will endeavour to keep you informed of the purpose and nature of procedures or interventions, and you have the right and freedom to participate or to refuse. You also have the right to ask questions about any aspect of the services provided. Prior to the provision of services, you are asked to sign an Informed Consent form, indicating your voluntary participation. Please read the following carefully. If you have any questions or concerns, please share them with your counsellor.
Counselling has been shown to have many benefits, however, there are also some risks involved. Counselling often involves discussing unpleasant aspects of your life, which you may find difficult to share. You may experience resistance at first, and you will likely experience a range of uncomfortable feelings, and these may include sadness, guilt, shame, anger, frustration, loneliness, or helplessness. When you experience these feelings, you are encouraged to discuss them with your therapist so that these feelings can be addressed. Counselling has been shown to have great benefits for individuals who persist and are willing to dedicate themselves to the process.
(a) if a therapist believes there is a clear risk that a client will seriously harm himself or another, or if a therapist believes that a child is in need of protection, then the therapist is required to take protective action. This may include notifying the potential victim, contacting the police, or seeking hospitalization for the client.
(b) where there is legal or regulatory requirement to provide information to the court or a third party.
Progress notes will be made after each session. These notes are to help your therapist identify areas of concern which may require further work in future. Because these are professional records, they can be misinterpreted and/or upsetting to untrained readers. If you wish to see progress notes, it is recommended that they are reviewed together with your therapist so that any questions you may have can be addressed immediately.
Occasionally it is helpful for therapists to consult with other professionals about a case. During a consultation, every effort will be made to avoid revealing the identity of clients. The individual consulted is also legally bound to keep the information confidential. Counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists are also encouraged to meet with "supervisors", ie individuals who have many years of experience in the field, and whose role it is to provide us with an objective perspective of our work, guide us and make suggestions where appropriate.


Can Donald Trump interfere in the 2018 election?
It seems he might try.
On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted what seemed to finally be his acceptance of the intelligence community's finding that Russia will interfere in the 2018 midterms—on the side of Democrats.
The tweet was mostly written off as either gaslighting or some kind of misfired attempt at trolling by the president.
But quite a few people on social media had a more pressing concern, and it's one that liberals have been expressing for a while. They believe that the tweet was foreshadowing the president attempting to interfere in the upcoming election, either by postponing it, canceling it completely, or somehow invalidating the results—due to the specter of Russian interference or something else.
Y'all understand that this Tweet is specifically setting up questioning of the validity of election results if Democrats take bake the Congress, right?
Invalidate, declare national emergency, refuse to certify?
It's all on the table now, folks.
They are coming for our country.
Polling for the 2018 election shows Democrats holding a large lead in generic ballot surveys. And midterm elections usually swing toward the party that's not in the White House.
So is it possible that Trump wants Russia to repeat its efforts from 2016 as a pretense for invalidating a Democratic victory? Or to just cancel the whole thing entirely?
Can he actually do that?
While it's almost certain that Russia will attempt to interfere in the election in some way, Trump does not have the authority to either cancel the election or invalidate its results. The election of 2018 will go forward, and the winners will be seated.
His statement is pure propaganda. To state that he's "concerned" Russians will hack upcoming elections, but then insert the lie of their preferences for Dems, is him spreading disinformation to his base. He is looking to postpone midterms or planning to contest Dem successes.
The reasons for this certainty lie in the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution, and in the complex web of laws that dictate who governs elections.
Both individual state governments and Congress play various roles in scheduling and carrying out elections, but the executive branch plays no role. In fact, the United States technically has no nationwide elections—only state elections for senators, House members, and a slate of electors for the Electoral College during presidential election years.
A 2004 report by the Congressional Research Service, prepared in anticipation of a possible terrorist attack around the time of the 2004 presidential election, found as much.
"The United States Constitution does not provide in express language any current authority for a federal official or institution to 'postpone' an election for federal office," the report found, with additional finding that even if an attack or other unforeseen event took place that necessitated moving the date of an election, it would fall to Congress to make the select the date, and the states to carry out the new election.
Oh god, I just realized what's happening with this tweet.
Everyone, incl. Trump & Putin, knows that Democrats will sweep the midterms.
A second Congressional Research Service report, specifically about the Executive branch's theoretical power to postpone or cancel an election, has the same finding.
"The Executive Branch does not appear to currently have the authority to establish or postpone the dates of elections at either the federal or state level in the event of an emergency situation," it finds, reaffirming that Congressional elections are entirely the purview of Congress and the states.
As for the validation of such an election, again, the White House has no role in certifying or declaring winners. Congressional elections are administered by state election boards, certified by each state's Secretary of State, and Congress itself seats its members every two years.
Nothing stops that process, no matter who or what tries to interfere. A perfect example of that could be found in December 2017 in Alabama, when Democrat Doug Jones beat Roy Moore in that state's special election for Senate, and was certified and seated, despite Moore never actually conceding. It didn't matter that he never conceded, the state declared that he lost.
As federal law stands, Donald Trump simply doesn't have the constitutional authority to cancel the midterms via a tweet or executive order, nor does he have the power to make the states comply with such an order. The election would go on just as scheduled, and the president would be exposed as a tyrant flagrantly attempting to violate federal law.
Trump could conceivably try to use emergency presidential powers to postpone or cancel an election, but that power has to be granted by Congress and recognized by a court. To do so without such approval would be an illegal power grab unlike any other in American history, and one that Congress and the states are beyond unlikely to accept.
The United States has never suspended, postponed, canceled, or invalidated an election at the federal level. Even during the Civil War, both the 1862 midterms and 1864 presidential elections were held without incident.
And while the U.K. suspended local and general elections during World War II, the United States continued as normal, with Franklin Roosevelt simultaneously running the war effort and for re-election in 1944.
That's not to say elections have never been postponed at the state level. After September 11, 2001, New York postponed or canceled the vast majority of its primary elections under the authority of the state's governor and local officials. But they were eventually held without incident.
Let us be very, very clear about what Trump is doing: He is laying the groundwork to declare the midterms "rigged" and thus null and void.
There were rumblings that President Barack Obama might suspend some or all of the federal elections in 2012 due to the damage that Hurricane Sandy caused to the East Coast. In fact, the White House's inability to answer a question about Obama's authority to postpone the election led to a flurry of outcries from right-wing media outlets demanding that the election go forward as planned—likely because they thought Mitt Romney was going to beat him.
In the end, Sandy caused no postponement or cancellation of the election, and Obama didn't need a massive and illegal power grab to ensure a second term in office.
What Trump can do is what he did in 2016—cast doubt on the validity of the results not in an official capacity, but as way to validate the grievances of his followers.
Trump spent the waning months of the 2016 campaign complaining that the election would be "rigged" as an excuse for what he thought was his inevitable loss.
He appears to be doing the same thing now, loudly proclaiming that Russia will interfere as a way of making excuses for what will likely be a poor showing for Republicans in November.
Essentially, as Trump is spinning it, the only way for Republicans to lose is for Russia to interfere.
Trump is seeding the narrative that when the Republicans lose in a landslide in November, the Democrats will have been aided by the deep state and Russia. The regime has been laying the groundwork for this since the inauguration crowd story-an alternative truth for his believers.
But no matter the result, the 2018 election will go forward. The president has no power to stop it, nor does he have the power to block a Democratic majority from being seated if that's what the voters choose.
That media figure was Rush Limbaugh.


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Home / About our Designers / Saloni
London based contemporary womenswear designer Saloni Lodha founded her brand SALONI in 2011. The brand subtly draws on Saloni's Indian heritage, re-interpreting prints, silhouette and colour in a modern way. Born in India, Saloni studied in Mumbai and later moved to Hong Kong and London before returning to Hong Kong where she now lives.
"I always keep in mind my Indian heritage while designing but don't translate it literally into our clothes. I think the way we as a brand celebrate bold colours and patterns is our way of bringing the spirit of India into the collections".
Saloni's signature and iconic dresses have been worn by international celebrities including Emma Watson, Carey Mulligan, Helena Christensen, Samantha Cameron, Naomi Watts, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jessica Alba.


I can't post a video for some reason but check out or facebook page if you want a sneak peek.
Any chance there's pricing info for the new stuff yet?
The drum will retail for $99.95. The 54r mag will be just a little more than the 10 rounder.
So $60ish? Can we pre order? Got a release date? Any intro discount for vepr.org members?
^ Makes perfect sense to me. Maybe post pictures before he starts asking for them.
3 Gun guys are going to be loving that drum, especially on shotgun only stages. 100 rounds of 12ga in 3 mag changes! They can afford to miss.... a lot!
Will it activate the LRBHO?


The Candidate must possess a proven leadership quality, effective oral & written communication skills in English and the candidate should have a clear fundamental technical knowledge in mechanical. Communicating with target audiences and managing customer relationship. . Able to generate the inquires.
Interested / suitable professionals, kindly share your updated Resume in Word format with present CTC details to career@sbmc.in. Also please mention the Ref.No. Lite/Pun/SalsCoord-Tech/01-2019 in Subject.


The Fake Royal Oak was designed by now-legendary watch designer Gerald Genta in 1971. It shot to super-stardom over the years and was released in many different variations and references continuously from then until now. The watch has always been known for it's sporty octagonal case shape, substantial link bracelet, and grande tapisserie dial.
First thing's first, this watch was created to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the first ladies' Royal Oak designed by Jacqueline Dimier in 1976. It was a pretty big deal at the time because most women's watches weren't that sporty and Dimier's design was true to the men's Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Replica Watches but with some slight changes to size and aesthetics.
A similar approach was taken for the new Frosted Gold pieces. Luxury Audemars Piguet Watches partnered with Florentine jeweler Carolina Bucci to collaborate on this anniversary piece. Bucci is known for her bold jewelry pieces that often have a hammered finish. This process is call the Florentine Technique and it involves a diamond-tipped, needle-like tool that hammers into the surface of gold, creating tiny facets. This allows for an almost diamond-like appearance that shimmers and is rough to the touch.
For the Audemars Piguet Replica Swiss Movement, the Florentine Technique was applied to the surface of the entire watch. The prototypes were all done by hand to create the right finish and the process took over a year to perfect. However it should be noted that the collection will be frosted by a machine that mimics the technique with additional elements finished by hand. Creating the prototype and the final product was quite a challenge, as the technique is applied to the entire case, each bracelet link, and the bezel, to create a seamless look. And boy is it a look.
Both the white and rose gold models feature the grande tapisserie dials, with rhodium-toned and silvered finishes respectively. Each feature a small date aperture at three o'clock and both have center seconds too. The indexes are thin and elongated and add a nice balance to the Audemars Piguet Replica Watches dial. The only thing that bugs me is the floating "Swiss Made" at the base of the dial – why can't it just be a little lower? But that's really the only thing that bothers me, which is saying something here.
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The Step Forward
Special Sessions & Workshops
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Prof. Ioannis Brilakis
University of Cambridge, UK
Dr Ioannis Brilakis is a Laing O'Rourke Professor of Construction Engineering and the Director of the Construction Information Technology Laboratory at the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign in 2005. He then worked as an Assistant Professor at the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2005-2008) and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (2008-2012) before moving to Cambridge in 2012 as a Laing O'Rourke Lecturer. He was promoted to Reader in October 2017 and to Professor in 2021. He has also held visiting posts at the Department of Computer Science, Stanford University as a Visiting Associate Professor of Computer Vision (2014) and at the Technical University of Munich as a Visiting Professor, Leverhulme International Fellow (2018-2019), and Hans Fischer Senior Fellow (2019-2021). He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the 2019 ASCE J. James R. Croes Medal, the 2018 ASCE John O. Bickel Award, the 2013 ASCE Collingwood Prize, the 2012 Georgia Tech Outreach Award and the 2009 ASCE Associate Editor Award. Dr Brilakis is an author of over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, an Associate Editor of the ASCE Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE Construction Engineering and Management, Elsevier Automation in Construction, and Elsevier Advanced Engineering Informatics Journals, and the lead founder of the European Council on Computing in Construction.
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NHS Resolution, which was formerly NHS Litigation Authority, has published research on the motivation of patients making a compensation claim when something has gone wrong with their healthcare.
The research, which was conducted in partnership with The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), surveyed 728 patients who had made a claim and looked at the incident that had occurred, how the patient felt it had been handled, how any subsequent complaint had been handled and the factors that led to the patient making a claim for compensation. BIT also did an in-depth telephone interview with 20 past claimants.
The findings show that, in general, the research participants were not satisfied with the reactions of NHS staff following an incident or how their complaint was handled within the NHS.
It found that:
63% of patients who responded felt that they did not receive an explanation for why the incident occurred.
Only 31% said they felt they had received an apology.
71% of the people responding did not think that their healthcare provided undertook any actions to investigate the incident in the first instance.
Only 6% of respondents felt that actions were taken that would prevent the same incident happening again.
The majority rated the response to their complaint as 'poor or very poor' in terms of accuracy, empathy, speed of the response and level of detail.
It also found that both internal and external factors motivated patients to make a claim. Personal motivations included:
Wanting to prevent similar things happening to others.
Wanting to receive an apology or an explanation for the incident, or to trigger a detailed investigation of the incident.
Wanting the clinicians involved to be held to account.
Emotional responses (e.g. frustration and anger) brought about by poor incident or complaint handling.
Financial compensation.
External motivations included:
Suggestions from NHS staff that making a claim would be appropriate
Conversations with friends, family and wider social network
Helen Vernon, who is Chief Executive at NHS Resolution, said "This research confirms that claims for compensation can sometimes be made in the search of answers, which could have been provided when the incident occurred. Being open with patients when they suffer avoidable harm and taking tangible steps to learn from what happened are essential. We would like to thank the patients who spared the time to contribute to this valuable research, which will help us to build on our work with the NHS to improve the response when things go wrong."
Full details of the research conducted can be found on the NHS Resolution website.


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Social Safe Urban Design
Increasing the vitality, safety and economic potential of our cities
info@sv-s.nl
06-55.36.38.17
Access roads
Main streets
Pedestrian and bicycle routes
Residential Streets and buildings
Spaces for encounter
Contact_en
The identity of a neighborhood – the character and atmosphere – is largely determined by the attractiveness of the neighborhood and the clarity of functions. The status and function and ownership of a place must be clear at a glance to firt-time visitors. Is the place private, semi-public or public and who is responsible for its managing? It must be clear that everything belongs to someone and nothing belongs to nobody. Semi-public spaces often create problems when the function and / or management of these areas are unclear. Usually the function and ownership of a place are clear at a glance. Most people immediately recognize a park, square, front yard or parking lot and know who is responsible for it. Sometimes, however, the function is not as obvious. The spaces are then regarded as pieces of 'no man's land' where no one feels responsible for and where decent people would rather not come. A clear and recognizable routing is a planning requirement for a uniform development of residential areas and a positive experience. Visitors and residents must at all times know where they are and which way they should go. This is not only important for their sense of safety, but also provides a bundling of pedestrian flows which creates even more safety. Clarity can be promoted by the use of markers (which, for example, defines a patio or front yard), barriers, orientation and identification measures.
Also attractiveness is an essential part of identity. The character and the atmosphere in a residential area is, after all, strongly dependent on the extent to which visible attention is paid to the environment. This includes the aesthetic quality of the built environment, the mix of functions, maintenance and aesthetic, technical and social sustainability. In determining the identity the method Social Safe Urban Design looks at the quality and diversity of buildings, the facilities and functions provided, the amount and use of public greenery and the level of maintenance and management.
Volg ook ons SVS seminar bij het Beccaria Instituut
Safe Social Urban Design is a method designed to increase the safety, vitality, and liveability of urban areas through urban planning and design.
Copyright 2014 RCM-advies


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Home News National 2022 UP polls: 'Resignations not a big deal, BJP will successfully form govt,' says Narendra Singh Tomar
2022 UP polls: 'Resignations not a big deal, BJP will successfully form govt,' says Narendra Singh Tomar
Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said BJP will form government in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, where Assembly elections will be held next month.
Credit: Google
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The recent resignations of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Uttar Pradesh is not a "big deal," said Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, claiming that his party will form government in four of five states going for Assembly polls next month.
"Resignations are not a big deal in Uttar Pradesh. BJP is getting support from everywhere in the state. People will bless us and BJP will be successful in forming government in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur: Narendra Singh Tomar told ANI.
As many as three Uttar Pradesh ministers from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led cabinet have resigned in the past few days. These include Dharam Singh Saini, Swami Prasad Maurya, Dara Singh Chauhan.
Besides them, several BJP MLAs have also left the party ahead of the crucial Assembly polls.
The first phase of polling will be held on February 10, followed by second phase on February 14, third phase on February 20, fourth phase on February 23, fifth phase on February 27, sixth phase on March 3 and seventh phase on March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
In the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party had bagged 312 seats out of the 403. Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had bagged 47 seats and 19 seats respectively. Congress had managed to win only seven seats.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, Assembly elections will also be held in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.


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News / Moray
Fisherman surprised vessel isn't write-off following sinking in Moray harbour
by David Mackay
A Moray fisherman fears he could be left high and dry for several months after his vessel sank to the bottom of a harbour – but is just relieved he still has it.
Keith Sutherland's boat Emblem was one of two crafts that began to take on water at Burghead on Friday night.
The Hopeman-based fisherman, who predominantly catches prawn and squid, returned the following morning at about 5.30am with his nephew to begin pumping water out of the vessel – before getting help from a local who offered his tractor to get the boat back on an even keel.
Emblem is afloat again at Burghead Harbour.
Yesterday, the boat was afloat again at the harbour while the other vessel affected, Pegasus, remained almost completely submerged.
Mr Sutherland admitted he feared his craft could have been lost completely.
He said: "There's been a lot of damage inside the cab, the electronics are ruined, I'm just surprised it's not a total write-off. We're going to fix it but it could be a few months, depending on what the insurance says.
"It was a really low tide, lower than what we expected. She began taking on water as the tide came back. I was on board. I called the fire bridge, who did everything they could with pumps, but it was too much for them and I had to abandon ship.
"We were prepared to get going with buckets to get the water back out again on Saturday but we had a bit of help from people, which was good of them."
Three fire crews were called to Burghead Harbour shortly before 9pm on Friday following reports of the vessels taking on water.
The fishing boat that sank within Burghead Harbour, Moray. Picture: JASPERIMAGE
Lifeboats kept a watchful eye on the fishing boats to ensure they did not break free from their moorings and drift out to sea.
Yesterday, only the rigging and roof of the cab on Pegasus remained above water while other fishermen took advantage of the fine weather to perform maintenance on their own vessels. The sight of the submerged boat drew curious glances from onlookers.
Fire crews confirmed that nobody was aboard either boat when they left the scene on Friday at 9.30pm.
More from the Press and Journal
Flash floods in Moray leave town centre traders fighting the tide
Moray Council insists much-maligned dredger remains best value for money option
"Ongoing incident" at Moray harbour
Moray Council's dredger to begin visiting village harbours after long lay-off
Burghead
Burghead Harbour
Keith Sutherland
Communities in Moray to be given chance to fund own flashing speed signs to try to slow traffic


With the News of the World scandal on the front page of every single national newspaper, it would take something historic and monumental to take its place as headline news. Political scandal? Royal weddings? No, it took people waving wands at each other and Alan Rickman's silky voice. Yes, the final installment of the Harry Potter film franchise hit our screens, and it has got the whole world watching, and in some cases, crying.
The makers of Harry Potter decided to well and truly cash in on the success, by splitting the 7th book of J.K Rowling's epic tale, The Deathly Hallows into two parts, as well as prolonging the agony of 16 year olds everywhere having to say goodbye to Harry, Ron and Hermione. For people who grew up with the books and films of Harry Potter (me included) you cannot help but feel sad that it has all come to an end, and during the film even a non Harry Potter fan would not help but be swept up into the atmosphere created by the most successful movie franchise of all time. (By the way, I am a massive Harry Potter fan, so expect some bias).
But enough about Harry Potter in general. Let's review the film. As a fan of the books, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed by the first part of the Deathly Hallows. It felt rushed, and missed out on some key issues of the book. The second part however, despite having some of the same issues as the first, I found fantastic, if not the best installment so far. Some of the action sequences, dare I say it, were magical, with the battle of Hogwarts being the stand out moment, up there with the battle scenes from the 'Lord of the Rings' or '300.' The special effects were not too over the top, but were captivating; the pace of the film was perfect, with the anticipation of the final battle between Harry and Voldermort kept the viewers attention. The acting from the three stars, which at times in the previous films has been, let's say questionable, was this time up there with the adult stars of Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes and Maggie Smith. I found myself willing to come up with something bad and critical to say when I was watching the film, but the only thing I found frustrating was a person's phone going off in the middle of the film.
And I was not the only one who was captivated by Harry Potter. Never before have I been to a film where there was applause at the end, which I found too cheesy to join in, but still! Then there was the woman next to me, who at times cried, I won't tell you when, it will ruin it, but who before the film started was so excited that she looked like Wallace just before he is about to eat some cheese. All this goes to show just how much of an impact Harry Potter has had on everyone's lives, not just kids (Did I mention that the woman beside me looked as if she was in her 40's?).
But was the film perfect? No. If you read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and watched the film, you may be slightly disappointed by the lack of certain elements from the book, such as Dumbledore's story. In addition, I believe that there may have been a bit too much of Neville Longbottom, with the speech he made feeling like that of a 12 year old, not quite the awe inspiring speeches of William Wallace and Winston Churchill. But these criticisms are almost forced, there is no doubt this is the best film I have seen, since last year's classics of Inception and Toy Story 3.
Overall, I would present Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with four stars. It was truly a fantastic film, one that I will purchase as soon as it comes out, in order to complete the collection. However, that is where the true story lies. I know personally it feels like the end of my childhood now that Harry Potter is over. From the age of 10 it has been with me, and there is no question it is the end of an era. So it is quite easy for me to say that I give the whole Harry Potter franchise, the most successful movie franchise of all time, the biggest selling books of all time, and my personal favorite, 5 out of 5.
Thank you Harry Potter and thank you Emma Watson.


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Mom of twins says 'miracle' events led her to reject abortion, choose life
MENDOTA HEIGHTS, Minn. (CNS) — Alonna Mertz prayed in front of abortion clinics as a teenager in Michigan, driven by her well-formed, pro-life conviction.
Then, in 2017 as a young adult, she went to such a clinic in Minneapolis for a different and unexpected reason: She was pregnant.
Dating a man whose values didn't align with hers, she found herself alone and feeling scared about the new life inside her body.
"At that point, there was enough distance between me and God that I wasn't listening to the Holy Spirit," said Mertz, 27. "I was terrified, and I made an appointment for an abortion."
Alonna Mertz talks about her experience of turning away from abortion to giving birth to her twins at the Champions for Life awards luncheon Oct. 31, 2019, at the Church of St. Peter in Mendota, Minn. Mertz became pregnant unexpectedly in 2017 and was considering abortion. She went as far as going to an abortion clinic, but what she describes as a "miracle" took place the day she went. She changed her mind and instead sought help at a pro-life center in Woodbury, where she had once volunteered. (CNS photo/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit)
Like so many other women who discover unplanned pregnancies, Mertz struggled with a torrent of tortured emotions when a home pregnancy test confirmed what she had sensed was true.
"I wept," she said of seeing the positive result. "I felt so sorry for my baby. It (her life) wasn't a white picket fence. It wasn't a mother and father who loved each other. It was broken and it was hard. And, this is what my child was going to meet. And, I just couldn't bear that reality."
She was well aware of the "big disconnect" between what she had grown up believing and what she now wanted to do. A Catholic, she had served for a year and a half with NET Ministries in West St. Paul, and even had volunteered with a pro-life pregnancy resource center in the Twin Cities after moving to Minnesota from Michigan in 2015. Still, she pressed on and went to the abortion clinic.
Finding the atmosphere there "sterile and cold," she got as far as the ultrasound room, where she would find out how far along she was in her pregnancy.
Though she knew abortion was wrong, she was consumed by one thought concerning the alternative of carrying her baby to term: "I can't do this."
Alonna Mertz plays with her twin daughters, Lilly and Eve, at the home of Joan and Robley Evans in Mendota Heights, Minn. A year ago the family took in Mertz and the twins, who will turn 2 Feb. 2. Mertz became pregnant unexpectedly in 2017 and was considering abortion. She went as far as going to an abortion clinic, but what she describes as a "miracle" took place the day she went. She changed her mind and instead sought help at a pro-life center in Woodbury, Minn., where she had once volunteered. (CNS photo/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit)
Only a technical glitch that she cannot explain and a baby's cry at that clinic kept her from getting an abortion. She left the clinic that day without carrying through with her plan, and instead gave birth to fraternal twin girls, Eve and Lilly, Feb. 2, 2018, by cesarean section.
Today, she can't imagine life without them, she told The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
It is a struggle, she admits, but there is joy every day, plus help from what she calls a "village" of friends and family members. They include a Catholic family in Mendota Heights with whom she now lives.
Mertz, who belongs to St. Bernard in St. Paul, recently recalled her journey from being abortion-minded to being child-focused.
When Mertz found out she was pregnant in June 2017, she told no one at first, not even her boyfriend. She went to the clinic alone for the procedure.
While sitting in the waiting room, she heard a baby's cry — a noise that changed everything.
"It was just a split second, but it was such a distinct cry, from the back (of the clinic)," she said. "I looked and I could see other women had heard it, too, because everyone else looked to the back room."
The infant's wail triggered a thought in her mind: "This is a baby, Alonna," she said. "You know this is a baby."
Eventually, she was called in for an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy and determine how far along she was. But, the technician could find nothing — no image, no heartbeat. Mertz was instructed to schedule an appointment to try the test again.
Alonna Mertz holds her twin daughters, Eve and Lilly, at the home of Joan and Robley Evans in Mendota Heights, Minn. A year ago the family took in Mertz and the twins, who will turn 2 Feb. 2. Mertz became pregnant unexpectedly in 2017 and was considering abortion. She went as far as going to an abortion clinic, but what she describes as a "miracle" took place the day she went. She changed her mind and instead sought help at a pro-life center in Woodbury, Minn., where she had once volunteered. (CNS photo/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit)
No way, Mertz decided. After a reaction of "just relief," she went to the parking lot, cried for 20 minutes and looked up a pro-life center where she had volunteered — Woodbury Options for Women Pregnancy Resource Center.
She went there a week later and got an ultrasound during the first visit. This time, there was "an immediate heartbeat, just so loud," Mertz said. Believing there was "no biological reason" for this heartbeat to be absent from the ultrasound at the abortion clinic just one week earlier, she sensed divine intervention.
Pregnancy resource centers ~ Diocese of Phoenix
"It was a miracle," she said. "These little girls were wanted and willed and protected, even from me. So, I knew this was special."
She was yet to learn how special this pregnancy was. At that first appointment in Woodbury, she thought she was having just one baby. But, she was sent to another clinic for a follow-up exam because of abdominal pain. There she was told she was having twins.
Shari never wanted to be a single mother, and now she was facing the reality of being the single mother of five young children.
She had entertained the idea of adoption in her thoughts, but felt paralyzed in moving forward with a plan. https://t.co/QkKJnzDfP3 pic.twitter.com/1P4DnIs0xH
— CatholicCharitiesAZ (@CCArizona) January 17, 2020
Read another mom's story
It was time to start telling people and seeking help, including a friend she had met a few years earlier, Theresa Evans.
Eventually, Mertz did tell her boyfriend, and they came back together for a year after the girls were born.
But, it didn't work out, and she turned to Evans and her family for help. Theresa's parents, Robley and Joan Evans of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, quickly and eagerly offered to let her stay in their Mendota Heights home.
She has her own apartment in the basement, and an informal lease agreement that is up for renewal every six months. So far, the arrangement has worked well for both sides, partly due to the pro-life convictions of the Evans family.
"We have a sign in our yard that says, 'Choose life,'" said Joan, 60. "You can consider yourself pro-life, but when something like this happens, it challenges you."
With all of their six children grown and most of them out of the house, Joan and Robley had room for a tenant. Theresa also lives there, and she likes being close to Mertz and her daughters. Eve is her goddaughter.
Meanwhile, Mertz, who is studying to become an MRI technician, is sharing her story publicly, including how she strayed from her Catholic faith, became pregnant and abortion-minded, and eventually returned to the church.
She hopes she will have the chance to encounter a woman in an unplanned pregnancy. She wants to say to her what she now knows after bringing twin girls into the world and raising them over the past two years: "You are not alone, and you can do this."
— By Dave Hrbacek, Catholic News Service. Hrbacek is a photographer/reporter at The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
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