A developer's plans to build up-market houses on a 6000m2 piece of land in Fairlands in Johannesburg has backfired, thanks to a High Court judgement which has found that the elderly couple who have lived in a house on the property for more than 40 years may not be evicted.
The landmark ruling came in the wake of an attempted illegal eviction in 2013, when a group of men descended on the property without warning and tried to remove the roof of the couple's home. The pensioners enlisted the help of Socio Economics Right Group (SERI), took the developer to court - and won.
The ruling was based on a number of issues, but one of the points the judge raised was that the onus is on an owner to show that an eviction would be just and equitable. In this case, the developer had 'not made any serious attempt to satisfy the onus'. In terms of meaningful engagement, he found that, apart from 'intimidatory tactics', there had been 'no engagement' at all with the two 71-year-old residents.
In other words, instead of consulting with the tenants, the developer took it upon himself to make their lives unbearable by attempting to hound them off the property.
Courts jealously guard their powers and don't take kindly to those who attempt to take the law into their own hands.
Nomzamo Zondo, a SERI attorney who acted for the residents, noted that this was a ground-breaking case. "It is very unusual for a court to refuse to grant an eviction order to a private owner on just and equitable grounds. This case serves as a warning that property developers must treat poor people who they find living on newly-purchased land with dignity and respect. Our constitution demands nothing less."
Acting Judge Paul Carstensen found that the owner of the land had not proven that an eviction order would be just and equitable. He dismissed the application with costs. The judge found that, taking into account the circumstances and factors set out in section 4(7) of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from, and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998 (the PIE Act) - including the length of time which the residents have lived on the land, the circumstances under which they moved there, the fact that there are old age pensioners on the property and that there is a lack of alternative accommodation - all 'clearly tilt the scales of justice in favour [of the residents]'.
While this is clearly an exceptional case, one has to wonder if the outcome would have been different if the developer had acted differently. It appears that the company concerned took a high-handed approach, possibly because it assumed that the court would find in its favour and evict.
While it is perfectly understandable for a landlord/landowner to want to remove a tenant who doesn't pay rent or who is squatting on the property, trying to force that resident off the property without going through the correct legal channels could have disastrous consequences for the owner.
That said, there is still a seemingly large number of people who believe that disconnecting the water and electricity, changing the locks or in the worse case scenario, bringing in the 'heavies', is an acceptable way of removing people from a property. Simply put, it's not. It doesn't matter whether you believe that tenants have more rights than you, the lawful owner, it's of no consequence if the tenant doesn't pay rent or pays in dribs and drabs. In this country, owners have to take the legal route when evicting people from their property, regardless of the reason. Flout the law at your own peril - because when the courts do bite, it tends to hurt and leaves a nasty scar.
The Rental Housing Tribunal (RHT) assists in resolving disputes that arise between landlords and tenants.
A recent Constitutional Court judgement has ruled that residents cannot be evicted if they would be left homeless.


A few hours after I posted Reason #11 last night, a reader forwarded to me a copy of the letter each REAC3H coach received in May, letting them know their jobs were being eliminated. I never liked the DJ who talked over the song, so I'll post the letter below and then add a few words.
I am writing this letter to you with a heavy heart. When I spoke with you earlier this year, I told you that the REACH Coach program would be fully funded for the next fiscal year. At the time we met and I shared this information with you, I had been told that my Activity Fund Budget would be fully funded without any increase. Little did I know that funding for your program would be zeroed out and the money applied to other areas within the Activity Budget. The disappointment and sadness I feel as a result of this decision is palpable. I am truly disappointed because you and your wonderful work became the victim of politics. There are those in and around the state who oppose our work grossly, and they mischaracterized your mission. I am saddened because I wanted to see the remarkable work you are doing continue.
As much as I do not want to say this, I must release you from your duties for the next school term. Funding for your program ends with the end of the fiscal year. The contract between you and your districts will expire at that time. Whether you decide to go back to the classroom or take leadership positions within schools, the children at those schools as well as the teachers will be the lucky ones. Needless to say, if you need letters of recommendation, all you need to do is ask.
Teri and I have been hard at work trying to plan for the future. Essentially, we are trying to make lemonade out of lemons. Although the Legislature eliminated the $5 million REACH Coach line item in the budget, the Department did receive some additional funding for RSA implementation. We are working hard to develop a plan focused on using this additional funding to provide targeted services to the districts most in need. One of the options we are considering is to utilize individuals (former REACH Coaches) in a full-time capacity to focus on low performing districts that have a high number of students who scored unsatisfactory and limited knowledge within certain subgroups. We are also considering making professional development a focus of this plan, offering professional development to schools on weekends, after school, and in the summer, regionally throughout the state.
As we finalize this plan, we will be in touch regarding future opportunities within the Department. Obviously, if we move forward in this direction, all applicants for these positions will go through the normal hiring procedures established by Department policy. Certainly, the training you have received as a REACH Coach would serve you well in this capacity, and I hope this is a position some of you will consider once the plan has been finalized.
I know this is hard for you, and I want you to know how proud I am of each and every one of you. You are a blessing to teachers and children in Oklahoma. I do not know what God has in store for Oklahoma education, but I remain committed to follow His path and to only work for the good of His will. I will continue to pray for you and to offer thanksgiving for the opportunity to work with you.
The first paragraph is self-serving drivel. Barresi asked for funding increases to several line items of the Activities Budget in her October budget request for FY15. She got some. Others were cut. She also asked for $65 million to be added to the funding formula. She got about 2/3 of that. She asked for an increase to the instructional materials budget. She didn't get it.
She also fails to mention that in 2012 (for FY 13) and in 2014 (for FY15) the legislature assigned the amounts within the Activities Budgets. The commonality is that those are election years. In 2011 and 2013, legislators gave the SDE that fund as a lump sum and allowed Barresi's people to categorically assign the money.
Barresi states that the REAC3H coaches are a victim of the politics of the people who mischaracterized their mission. The general public really didn't understand their mission. The SDE threw the REAC3H label onto so many loosely connected initiatives, that the word really lost meaning. Educators, on the other hand, who worked closely with the coaches, understood their purpose. At that point, the characterization probably depended on the quality of the coach. There were 60 of them. I assume some were spectacular and others were in a different range. It happens. We can't all be the best.
Again, I'm sure that's not a complete list.
On the other hand, I definitely agree with the second paragraph. The REAC3H coaches have received a tremendous amount of training. Their knowledge base about literacy instruction strategies is without parallel. They have also seen the inner-workings of the machine that has brought us all of the reforms that their boss (or more accurately, their boss's boss's boss) has championed.
Whereas the rest of the letter reads like tract literature that someone might have handed you on your porch just as you were about to eat dinner, the second paragraph shows reveals the flaw in the design. As the Rev. Lori Allen Walke stated Sunday at the candidate debate (not attended by Barresi), "the system has no clothes." The REAC3H coaches have seen that as well as anybody. They've had a foot in both worlds for the past two years. They were technically employees of one of the districts they served, but they were selected by the SDE. They received their orders from the SDE. Any decision to keep them (pending funding) would have been made by the SDE. Of the ones I know, none will be voting to retain the current state superintendent.
Based on a comment on last night's blog post, at least one of the coaches feels like their story is being told correctly.
Thank you for giving a fair and honest opinion of the Reac3h Coaches. When asked what my job was, I always replied, "I serve and honor teachers and schools." Yes, our focus was pre-k – 3rd literacy; but if a district needed help in other areas, many of us did our very best to get them help. When I was an administrator, all I had to do was ask myself this: IF IT'S BEST FOR KIDS, THEN WE DO IT. Reac3h Coaches were best for students, teachers, administrators, parents, and those who love education. Again, WE SERVED AND HONORED TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS!! Again, thanks for being fair!!
That's all I've ever tried to do when it comes to this group – tell the story right. At first, I was simply trying to figure out what we had and if we really could use it. I tend to follow policy, policy makers, and the highest level officials directed with executing the policies. The REAC3H coaches didn't fit into any of those categories.
Hopefully all the coaches will find good jobs that satisfy them personally and professionally. Hopefully they'll also get a chance to put all that training to use in an environment where they don't have more territory to cover than they possibly can. Hopefully, what we've invested in them the last two years will continue helping children.
One of the fun things about this countdown is how much it reminds me of high-stakes testing. We spend all this time learning new material, and then we spend a few weeks reviewing for the test. As we reach the halfway point, maybe we should spend some time reviewing how to properly mark your ballot on in 15 days.
The line goes all the way across, y'all. No stray marks. And they'll be looking for irregular erasure patterns.
Beginning in 2010 with the adoption of the Common Core by the Oklahoma Legislature, schools in our state have faced a rapid onslaught of reforms. Most (TLE, A-F, RSA, Virtual Instruction) were enacted in 2011, but as a group, this represented the most significant education reforms in a generation. Together, they were going to help us have College, Career, and Citizenship readiness schools – C3 for short. It was natural, then, that the SDE would create a network of support (and fabulous logo) that somehow included this acronym.
Thus was born the Regional Educators Advancing College, Career, and Citizen Readiness Higher – REAC3H – network. Late in the summer of 2011, the state organized its 500+ school districts into 70 regions. Each region had a lead district, as this two page reference sheet shows. Each region would work together overcoming obstacles as they transitioned from PASS to CCSS. There would be statewide conferences for the lead districts. The first of these included something of an altar call in which district representatives came forward with their signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) vowing to do everything possible to help their fellow school districts.
The toolkit included timelines and transition planning tools. All districts, large and small, rural and urban, would create four year transition plans that would be completed by…June 2014 – hey, that's right now!
With those ambitious goals in mind, I am asking for volunteers from districts within the REAC³H Network to participate in working groups toward this effort to develop a plan that the REAC³H Network can recommend for OSDE to take to the State Board of Education for approval.
As a grassroots effort, the REAC3H Network can be most effective as the larger group of volunteer coordinating districts divides into smaller working groups, each with a specific area of the application that they will address. After we've had the opportunity to review specific waiver guidelines provided by USDE, I will disseminate additional guidance on the path forward. Much of the working groups' efforts on a waiver request can be accomplished digitally or via conference call, so I do not expect this to be an additional burden or a significant time commitment.
This is an exciting opportunity for all of us and one that will allow us to assure that we are empowered to focus more on what works for children.
Exciting opportunity indeed! You too can rubber stamp bureaucratic jibber-jabber!
I know that each of you is busy but if you have a moment I need your help with a few things.
I have attached the Network Partnership handout that was distributed during this last summit (in your folders). Please look over all information related to you as a Coordinating District and let me know if there is any incorrect information listed under your district's local network. I tried to communicate with each of you regarding this information before this document was created, but I am sure that there is information that has either changed or that I simply missed.
I received a lot of feedback about the summit through the evaluations, but if you did not get a chance to complete the evaluation or if you have additional feedback please feel free to email me. I hope you were able to see that I listened to your comments from evaluations I received at Summit #2 and used that feedback to create Summit #3. I desire to continue this two-way communication with you and provide summits that are helpful and worthy of your time. I would like to hear about the things you liked as well as the things you disliked about Summit #3. I have attached the evaluations that were handed out at the summit.
I want the REAC3H program to work successfully for the entire Network, which includes you as a Coordinating District, all participating districts, Career Techs., Higher Education, and OSDE. I ask that you communicate with your participating districts, and the Career Tech and Higher Education entity (if applicable). During this communication I need you to find out if the participating districts currently in your local network are satisfied with being in your local network or if they would like to move to another network. If they want to move, why? Is it because they already have a working relationship with a certain Coordinating District? Is it because of geography? Do they not feel they are getting what they need from you as a Coordinating District? Etc. Once you have the chance to gather this information (before school is out), please email the results to me.
The REAC3H program has endless possibilities and benefits for all of us, but I do not want any of us to move forward with blinders on if there are certain things in the network that are not working. If we need to move districts around and adjust, let's adjust. In order to be transparent I want to let you know I will soon start conducting random telephone surveys of participating districts from each local network to get a better feel for how things are going. I will keep a log of all information I gather and if you are interested I will share the feedback with you, but I will keep the district names anonymous.
While most districts simply signed their MOUs at the first summit, many chose to amend their partnership agreements the second time around. As the toolkits became less helpful, the networks had begun to unravel. We weren't realizing our endless possibilities and benefits. Unquestioned loyalty to the agency or the process was becoming unrealistic. Plus the coffee was cold.
Later that spring, we received word that the SDE was set to hire 60 REAC3H coaches to help us with the transition to Common Core – all grades, reading and math. They were to be paid with federal jobs money. My first thought was that I didn't understand how they were getting 60 coaches into 70 districts. Then I realized they were going to task these people with working with all grade levels and all subjects. None of this seemed realistic.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Aug. 28, 2012) – As they undergo intensive training this week, a front line of 60 professional educators is preparing to assist Oklahoma schools with the implementation of new education reforms such as third-grade reading sufficiency and the transition to Oklahoma C3 Standards, which include Common Core standards in reading and math and new state standards in social studies.
After undergoing their second full week of intensive training this week at the State Department of Education, 60 REAC3H Coaches will be dispersed throughout the state to help train classroom teachers in the foundations for reading.
REAC3H, Regional Educators Advancing College, Career, and Citizenship readiness Higher, is part of Superintendent Barresi's overall C3 Plan, which will ensure each Oklahoma student graduates college, career and citizen ready. The plan is built on a number of reforms being implemented over the next few years, including the new curriculum standards, third-grade graduation requirements, Teacher and Leader Effectiveness evaluations, the A-F School Grading System, and a new Student Longitudinal Data System.
Deputy Superintendent Chris Caram said the REAC3H Coaches have an amazing amount of energy and practical resources to share with Oklahoma classroom teachers. She said the coaches – all former classroom teachers or reading specialists, and some with administrative experience – will be the most highly trained teachers on Oklahoma C3 Standards. They will be the first to receive training on the next generation of assessments under the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).
The 60 coaches will train one week each month at the State Department of Education and then will offer training through workshops and one-on-one visits to classrooms to the more than 60,000 teachers in the state.
The state has been segmented into thirty regional districts, with 30 school districts agreeing to employ two of the coaches. The coaches will be housed at Career Technology Centers in their home region. Federal Ed Jobs funds from the U.S. Department of Education have been awarded to 30 Oklahoma school districts as a grant to offset the cost of salaries plus benefits of the 60 coaches, a total of about $4.1 million.
REAC3H Coaches will communicate with districts in their regions to offer before-, during and after-school training based on best times and dates available for teachers, substitutes and administrators. The coaches also will offer training to career technology teachers and higher education instructors.
Over the summer, REAC3H took on another meaning as 60 instructional coaches were hired to work with schools around the state. They are being paid this year with federal money that is set to expire, and Superintendent Barresi has included $5 million in funding in next year's budget request to maintain the program.
Interestingly, the coverage areas for these coaches are not aligned at all with the REAC3H consortium. They operate in pairs, and for the most part, use office space in Career Tech centers around the state. Some serve only one or two districts. Other pairs serve more than 20. They have been well-received in some places and kept at arm's length in others.
In all honesty, the REAC3H coaches haven't been bad. I've attended training presented by several. I've worked day-to-day with some as well. The imbalance, however, is in what they've had the ability to learn versus what they've had the ability to teach. These individuals are professional educators who have had extensive training in methods for helping struggling readers. As they have worked with their assigned schools (amid heavy SDE interference from what they have told me) coaches have often found themselves to be simultaneously training and learning. As we have learned in the last few weeks, they're out of a job now. Fortunately, the best of the REAC3H coaches will have no problems finding good work.
As for the original network with the 70 lead districts? We haven't heard from that for a while. It's not really a thing anymore. There was also a short period of time when the SDE was inviting district-level administrators to the Hodge Building for monthly, then quarterly REAC3H Checkpoint meetings. If I remember correctly, though, more were cancelled than weren't. I think they just didn't want to develop another acronym.
The SDE has even quit using the term C3 all the time. That used to be the piece of string holding our standards together. Then came the umbrella term Oklahoma Academic Standards (which gets its own top ten entry on the countdown).
The REAC3H concept at one point was the key to Common Core. Then literacy. Now nothing. It's another big push – an all the expense that goes with it – straight down the drain.
I know you've been expecting at least one post a day from me over the last couple of weeks. Maybe today the things that are necessary won't get in the way of the things that provide release. Two-for-Tuesdays, right?
Maybe I didn't show up yesterday because I thought there was a candidate debate and I was the incumbent! Wait, that's not me. I'm thinking of someone else. In case you were wondering whether Dr. Barresi was still making public appearances, I assure you she is. In fact, here she is Thursday in Bartlesville at an event sponsored by ConocoPhillips.
To be fair, the guy in the second picture looks vaguely like fellow MIA Republican candidate Brian Kelly. Maybe she was debating him.
Janet Barresi, this spot in our countdown is for you. Since you never show up at debates anymore, we'll make it our Long Distance Dedication. First, a reminder of the last few memories we've painfully relived.
While Rob Miller has been weaving through the tangled financial web of the SDE for the last few days, I have been wondering how things would have been different in this state if Janet Barresi trusted schools. She spends a lot of money on out-of-state firms to help us understand how to teach to Oklahoma values. She has increased personnel spending at the SDE (in spite of what her campaign ads say), while hiring (in many cases) inexperienced policy people to do a job that had previously been done well by a veteran educator. She even let a guy work via Skype for a few weeks and make more money than a beginning teacher.
As I mentioned when discussing the #17 reason last week, the SDE made the inexplicable decision in July 2012 to withhold more than twice the mandated amount of funding from school districts at the beginning of the 2012-13 fiscal year.
The SDE has made the conscious decision to withhold a greater portion of state aid for schools. As the Tulsa World explains, "the education department withheld nearly $64 million, or 3.52 percent, of all state aid, compared to the $41 million, or 2.26 percent it kept in reserve at the beginning of 2011-12." The article is a great read, with typical flimsy excuses from SDE staff, comments from Tulsa-area administrators about the real impact of this decision, and even a caustic remark from a legislator who is frustrated with all of this.
The World goes on to discuss the fact that all the large districts in the Tulsa area will receive less aid than last year. In short, the SDE tells districts not to worry – the money will come at the mid-term adjustment. In the meantime, it would be irresponsible for districts to set staffing levels based on what might happen in December. Districts that are growing at a fast pace will be teaching more students with less money. All of this occurs in the backdrop of numerous sea-change reforms to public education, all of which are costing school districts tremendous amounts of money.
This arrogant cash grab was made either in ignorance of the fact or with full knowledge of the fact that school districts need to make as many of their personnel decisions before the first day of school as possible. Holding out money until December forces schools to under-hire for programs such as tutoring. When they finally got the remainder of their allocation, it was less than expected.
This came at a time when Barresi was actively trying to increase charter school and virtual school enrollment – at the expense of your neighborhood schools. At the same time, districts were being forced to wait half a year on having their federal claims reimbursed by the SDE. In some cases, they were out millions.
Schools have to function with the funds they have available. During this particular school year, the SDE – partly by design, partly by incompetence – made sure those funds were low. If this really had been a good idea (doubling the amount of State Aid held back), the SDE would have done it twice.
I half-heartedly laugh now, thinking of all the places where the SDE has thrown the state's money during the last 42 months. REAC3H (network and coaches) – gone! Common Core – gone! Measured Progress – gone! CTB – oh wait, they seem to have more lives than a cat! As Rob points out, we have hired all kinds of people from out of state to develop a statistical model for good instruction (which anyone will tell you is fool's gold). Why couldn't we hire our own university researchers to do that? It's also a wasted opportunity to build on the relationship between Common Ed and Higher Ed in this state.
With that last paragraph, I've inadvertently previewed the next two spots on the countdown.
When readers send me things, I sometimes get a view into the inner-workings of some of our state's policy measures. In this case, it's a perspective many of us would have missed.
As all Oklahoma parents, educators, and concerned citizens should know by now, this is the first year schools will be forced to retain third grade students who score unsatisfactory on the state reading test. Since those tests are less than four months away, the Oklahoma State Department of Education has begun to help us plan. This week, schools affected by this law should be receiving a form asking them to predict how many students will score unsatisfactory on the third grade reading test.
1. Be identified as Limited-English Proficient (LEP)/English Language Learner (ELL) on a screening tool approved by the Oklahoma State Department of Education Office of Bilingual/ Migrant Education and have a Language Instruction Educational Plan (LIEP) in place prior to the administration of the third grade criterion referenced test; and the student must have had less than two (2) years of instruction in an English Language Learner (ELL) program.
2. Students with disabilities who are assessed with alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) under the Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) with the Oklahoma Alternative Assessment Program (OAAP) qualify for the good cause exemption.
4. *To promote a student based on evidence from the Student Portfolio, the Student Portfolio shall include evidence demonstrating the student's mastery of the Oklahoma state standards in reading equal to grade level performance on the reading portion of third grade OCCT.
5. Students with disabilities who participate in the statewide criterion-referenced test and have an IEP may qualify for a good cause exemption. To qualify for this exemption, the student must meet the following criteria: (A) The student must have been previously retained in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, or third grade; (B) The student's IEP must: (i) Identify Reading as an area of education need for the student or identify some type of special education service in the area of Reading; and; (ii) Reflect that the student has received intensive remediation for more than two years. Intensive remediation may include any type of program offering intensive reading instruction that is identified as appropriate by the IEP team.
6. Students who demonstrate a reading deficiency and have been previously retained may qualify for a good cause exemption. To qualify for this exemption, the student must meet the following criteria: (A) The student must have been previously retained in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, or third grade for a total of two years, and; (B) The student must have received intensive reading instruction for two or more years.
* Good Cause Exemption 3 and 4 are provisions designed for students who read on a proficient level.
Whether you knew it or not, this should be a solid reminder that the safeguards designed for ELL and Special Education students are quite flimsy. It should also be a wakeup call for anyone who has forgotten the added burdens that school reformers are placing on students and their teachers. The SDE is asking schools to predict – by mid-February – how many students will score Unsatisfactory on the test in spite of being proficient readers. That's what the asterisked exceptions do.
In addition to having principals complete this worksheet, the SDE will send their Regional Accreditation Officers around in the next few weeks to have superintendents sign their Reading Sufficiency Act Awareness Statement. This form provides assurances – after the fact – that schools have provided reading instruction as proscribed by law, administered frequent benchmark assessments to students, and adopted policies to address issues such as mid-year promotion. It also serves as a de facto evaluation of the REAC3H Coaches who are serving the districts.
None of this will make students better readers or teachers better at reading instruction. It's another series of checklists and forms. This process, by design, provides cover for the SDE, for schools, and ultimately for teachers. If you believe that more fear and bureaucracy are the necessary components to improving reading instruction, Oklahoma is on its way to 100% literacy by 2020.
The time has come to have a serious discussion about this. I want teachers to know I am committed to working with them and the rest of the education community. This summer and in the fall, together with these groups, we will conduct an audit of all the different assessments given across the state, including federal, state and district level assessments.
I am proposing this study to help identify the best assessments that will provide feedback regarding instructional strategies so teachers can better meet the needs of their students. As we move to new assessments in the next few years, educators will use some familiar tools, including data, technology and texts. They will also use new instructional strategies that are a critical component of all our new Oklahoma C3 Standards. These include strategies to promote critical thinking and problem solving as well as practical application of securely held foundational knowledge. Working together, we can identify areas of duplication and unproductive assessments. Perhaps, we may even find places where we can save money and put dollars back into the classroom.
Through my advocacy and policy work over the past 17 years, and now serving as your state superintendent, there is one thing I know for sure. Our current state tests are by and large memory tests. Every educator knows that tests that rely more on rote memory of facts yield very little in retained knowledge. Our current OCCT tests are aligned to the Oklahoma PASS standards. The state is currently transitioning to the new Oklahoma C3 Standards through the rewrite, revision or replacement process. The PASS Standards are a "mile wide and an inch deep." The new Oklahoma C3 Standards are characterized as "narrower, deeper, higher." They are narrower in focus to allow teachers to develop foundational knowledge in their students.
I've heard the mile wide and inch deep spiel for years, but never have I heard someone who is supposed to be over public instruction for the whole state misidentify the nature of our tests. There is, in fact, very little a student can demonstrate through memorization. Not the reading passages. Not the math. Not the science and social studies. That's not how the tests are designed. To criticize the assessments and say that they often test understanding at a low level might be accurate, at times. To criticize PASS for being all over the place is also fair.
We have engaged teachers and principals in a comprehensive effort of professional development to prepare educators for the new system. Our goal is to create an environment of continuous learning spurred on by innovations in instructional strategies that are student centered, research based and data driven.
My next column will be about how we're communicating with educators and the public and the training we're providing to support educators throughout the state.
I would hardly describe the effort at providing training for educators as comprehensive. It has consisted of: expensive keynote speakers; invitation-only conferences at irregular intervals and with disconnected content; a summer conference when most teachers are working second jobs or on vacation; well-intended REAC3H Coaches with too much territory and an evolving assignment of duties; and a handful of regional half-day workshops by the SDE's curriculum team. Hopefully, as Barresi collects feedback about testing, she'll also accept constructive input about the dearth of training happening around Oklahoma.
The request for additional professional development money does not protect school districts from having the SDE determine how best to spend those funds. The proposed budget includes a slight increase in AP funds, $2.5 million in new staff development money for schools, and $5 million for REAC3H coaches. Unfortunately, with the first two items, there is no guarantee that school districts will have any say in how they spend that money. Last year, the SDE took all the AP money and sunk it into the Vision 2020 conference. And the staff development money could be re-routed on behalf of school districts into statewide initiatives. The money for REAC3H coaches could also be better spent. The SDE likes bringing in expensive big name national speakers (such as Bill Daggett). However, schools don't have the funds to spend on his training and conferences. We all know that focused, sustained professional development makes a difference. We know that opportunities to collaborate create meaningful positive change in schools. Unfortunately, these types of professional development are not prioritized in this budget.
How many times have you met with the REAC3H Coaches this year?
How beneficial are the Coaches to your District?
If beneficial, please tell us about the benefits in your district as a result of the Coaches.
If not beneficial, what could we do to improve?
I would love to know what the survey results showed. I would also like to know whether those results have been shared with legislators. Finally, I wonder what the results of a similar survey would be five months later.
Some REAC3H Coaches are assigned to work with more than 20 school districts. If they are required to spend one week a month in training, exactly how much time are they spending with each school? Also, the SDE has drifted away from the original intent of helping implement the Common Core. REAC3H Coaches have also been asked to review districts' Reading Sufficiency plans.
Don't misinterpret me here: I believe the coaches to be a dedicated group of professionals who will do whatever they're asked to do. I just don't believe in all cases that (a) their background exceeds the schools to which they're assigned; and (b) they have enough days in a month to do their job effectively with every school in their coverage area.
These are great people working in a program that is being developed in real time. It was neither well-conceived nor well-executed. Maybe the legislators need to know what the survey results showed.


An excellent introduction to the Mises Institute way of understanding the world. It's not wonder that Roy Childs wrote of this book: "The great virtue of the volume is the excellent interaction between first principles and current events.... rational, zippy, to the point, informative with facts and figures, and based soundly on the first principles of liberty and the free market.... you can take your time reading them, using them as a 'bed book' that you can dip into at will, and learn a lot of information in a short time. And the book sizzles."
Contributors include Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, David Gordon, Robert Higgs, and Tom Bethell.


text:
With Mike Bobo out, who are the leading…
With Mike Bobo out, who are the leading candidates to replace him at CSU?
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Colorado State head coach Mike Bobo, left, and Hawai'i Warriors head coach Nick Rolovich, talk to each other after before the game at Canvas Stadium Aug. 25, 2018. Bobo will coach from the box upstairs due to an illness involving his right leg and foot.
By Sean Keeler | skeeler@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: December 4, 2019 at 2:18 pm | UPDATED: December 4, 2019 at 4:51 pm
FORT COLLINS — A second go-round with an SEC coordinator didn't pan out for CSU, as Mike Bobo failed to replicate predecessor Jim McElwain's success. Which raises the question:
Will the Rams go for a third time and hope it's a charm? Or will they turn in a different direction for Bobo's successor? Here's a quick look at five potential candidates with Bobo out at CSU:
1. Tony Alford, Ohio State assistant head coach/running backs coach. The no-brainer. A CSU alum and former Rams running back from 1987-90, Alford interviewed for the position that went to Bobo in December 2014. 247Sports named him a finalist for recruiter of the year while at Notre Dame in 2011.
2. Nick Rolovich, Hawaii head coach. Got his alma mater, the Rainbow Warriors, back off the mat and into the Mountain West Conference championship game. Like Bobo, a prolific former college quarterback. Unlike Bobo, someone already familiar with recruiting the West Coast and familiar with the Mountain West from the get-go. Recent assault charges could complicate things, though.
3. Collin Klein, Kansas State, co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. Loveland native is considered one of the more promising assistants in the game, even at the tender age of 30. The 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist may not know the league, but he sure as heck knows the territory.
Jerry Schemmel loses job as voice of Rockies on KOA radio
Best of the West final top 25: Are we on the brink of an Oregon Ducks Dynasty?
CSU Rams coach Steve Addazio names offensive coordinator, associate head coach
Here's the ex-Broncos, plus former local players and coaches, still alive in the NFL playoffs
How Colorado's college football team's offensive lines ranked (one finished 19th in the country)
4. Jim Leavitt, Florida State defensive assistant. Until the last three weeks, the CU defense hadn't looked the same once he left Boulder following the 2016 regular season. The former Buffs defensive guru still has the fire — and still has a home and family in Boulder County.
5. Dan Hammerschmidt, Oklahoma State safeties coach. Another CSU alum, having played safety at Fort Collins from 1982-85, Hammerschmidt was the Rams' co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Sonny Lubick from 2001-07.
Colorado State football
Jim Leavitt
Jim McElwain
Mike Bobo
Sean Keeler
Sean Keeler is an award-winning writer who joined The Denver Post in 2018 after stints with Cox Media Group (2016-18), FOX Sports and FOX Sports Midwest (2012-2015), The Des Moines Register (2002-2011) and The Cincinnati Post (1998-2001).
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Oregon has amassed SEC-style talent, especially on the defensive end, where nine starters are slated to return in the fall -- including pass-rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, a freshman All-American and early candidate for 2020 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.
The first major pieces of the Steve Addazio offense at Colorado State fell into place Tuesday, as the Rams announced the additions of Joey Lynch as offensive coordinator and Brian White as senior associate head coach.
Colorado's teams read like Goldilocks' porridge samples -- one was hot, one was cold and one was, well, average. Here's how they performed.
Colorado State football alums have fantastic day in NFL's Week 17
It was a good day to be a CSU Ram.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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First check that the paper is approx 20cm wide. Use the pencil to roll up 5 of the 6 sheets and secure the resulting tube with tape. You will probably need another pencil to get the first one out.
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Wrap the whole thing in insulating tape and fold it in half as shown.
Take the last sheet of paper, fold it into a square about 1 x 1 inch (2.5 x 2.5 cm) and wrap it in tape.
Fold over the end of the pouch and cut a small semi-circle out - this will leave you with a perfect hole (you could also use a heavy duty hole punch.) Cut 2 of the bands and tie them to the pouch.
Cut the 3rd band into 2 strips and use them to attach the band-set to the frame.


Your computer may be infected with viruses in multiple ways. The most common way is downloading songs, videos or any other files that are infected with malicious code.
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A virus can damage the information you have into your computer or cause it to malfunction. If you are asking how to detect and remove viruses that are on your computer, you are in the right place because, in this article, we will give you instructions to follow to remove viruses from your computer.
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text:
Christie Morreale (née le  à Ougrée) est une femme politique belge, socialiste. Elle est Vice-présidente du gouvernement wallon et ministre de l'Emploi, de l'Action sociale, de la Santé et de l'Égalité des Chances depuis le .

Licenciée en criminologie de l'Université de Liège, elle est membre du PS depuis 1993. Christie Morreale préside le groupe de travail « égalité hommes-femmes » de ce parti. Elle exerce un mandat d'échevine à Esneux où elle est chargée des compétences suivantes : Jeunesse et sports, égalité des chances, coopération au Développement, affaires sociales, petite enfance.

Le , elle est appelée à remplacer Paul Magnette, ministre empêché, comme sénatrice. Ce dernier récupère son siège après les communales de 2012 où il abandonne son poste de ministre fédéral.

Elle prête serment comme députée wallonne le , en remplacement de Maggy Yerna, démissionnaire.

Elle est élue députée wallonne aux élections régionales du  et déléguée par la Communauté française comme sénatrice. Elle est réélue aux élections régionales du  dans la circonscription de Liège, avec . Le , elle prête serment comme Vice-présidente du Gouvernement Di Rupo III où elle devient ministre de l'Emploi, l'Action sociale, la Santé et l'Égalité des Chances.

Notes et références

Liens externes
son site personnel

Femme politique belge
Personnalité du Parti socialiste (Belgique)
Étudiant de l'université de Liège
Député wallon
Député de la Communauté française de Belgique
Sénateur belge de la 56e législature
Sénateur belge de la 57e législature
Naissance à Ougrée
Naissance en juin 1977
Personnalité belge née d'un parent italien
Ministre wallon
Ministre wallon de la Santé

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Displays selected number of last added resources.
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System Requirements: File_checksums configuration turned on.
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text:
Minotauria is a genus of Balkan woodlouse hunting spiders that was first described by Władysław Kulczyński in 1903.  it contains only two species: M. attemsi and M. fagei. In 1847, it was argued to be a synonym of Stalita.

References

Araneomorphae genera
Dysderidae


text:
Regional NY Comptroller Says High Home Foreclosure Level Persists
NY Comptroller Says High Home Foreclosure Level Persists
Monday, August 17, 2015 at 8:53 pm | ב' אלול תשע"ה
ALBANY (AP) -
The foreclosure crisis persists in New York, even worsening in some suburban and upstate areas, the state comptroller said in a report on Monday.
Filings against homeowners unable to make mortgage payments spiked after the housing bubble burst in the 2008-2009 recession, according to the report. New cases nearly doubled over three years to 47,664 in 2009.
New filings then declined for two years under revised court rules that require lenders to affirm claims to property and not simply produce rote documents. However, after dropping to 16,655 in 2011, they climbed sharply again, reaching 46,696 in 2013. New filings were 43,868 last year.
"The foreclosure crisis is far from resolved," Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. "There are still too many people losing their homes. In many places, the situation has continued to get worse."
The pending caseload has held fairly steady at around 90,000 since the start of 2013 with courts backlogged, involving one of every 88 housing units in New York.
Over the past two years, the pending total has dropped in New York City about 10 percent to below 30,000. In its suburbs and on Long Island, the total has risen from 25,097 to 40,985, while rising upstate from 15,000 to more than 20,000 pending cases.
On the upside, the report said pre-foreclosure notifications have begun declining, while the court system, attorney general and state financial regulators have adopted measures to resolve cases faster and return more vacant properties to use.
On Friday, the attorney general's office reported that its Homeowner Protection Program, begun in 2012, has established a network of nearly 90 housing counseling and legal services agencies that have provided free help to 50,000 families statewide in efforts to help them avoid losing their homes. Another program over the past year has approved 309 loans for more than $9.3 million altogether to pay off debts that were barriers to mortgage modification.
The office also offers online vetting of foreclosure rescue offers. It cited more than 2,700 complaints about rescue scams by New York homeowners to the Lawyer Committee for Civil Rights, documenting at least $8.25 million in losses since 2010.
This article appeared in print on page 4 of the August 18th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.
De Blasio Addresses Financial Board for First Time
Regional Briefs – October 31, 2014
Regional Briefs – January 19, 2015
Comptroller: NY Last Year Reached Record Employment
Spitzer, Stringer Press Toward Primary In NYC


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Lawrence Mishel, the outgoing President of the Economic Policy Institute, is finally – after 30 years at the progressive economic research organization – seeing one of his wishes come true. Leaders in both major political parties are talking about wage stagnation, and how to address it.
"I've always wanted to elevate the concerns about people's paychecks as the salient economic issue," he said in an interview in his downtown Washington office.
The bad news is that the stagnant wages conversation is being co-opted by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to sell a tax cut bill that will primarily benefit corporations and the wealthy.
Even so, Mishel counts that as progress. When Mishel joined the then-embryonic EPI as its first research director in 1987, all of the major right-wing think tanks denied that wage stagnation among the working class was a problem, even though EPI was among the first to show the trend unfolding, using the federal government's deep trove of economic data. Few Democrats recognized the issue, either, Mishel said.
"The polls show that not many people buy it, even among Republicans, but it's interesting that this transformation has happened," Mishel said.
Mishel has had a lifelong passion for the plight of workers, going at least as far back as his Philadelphia boyhood and days at Penn State University. At Penn State, he combined that passion with a passion for economics, and after receiving advanced economics degrees from American University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he went to work as an economist for several unions, including the United Auto Workers; United Steelworkers; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO.
When Mishel became president of EPI in 2002, the think tank was beginning to gain a reputation as being more than an advocate of pro-worker policies; it has a reputation for rigorous, fact-based scholarship and economic analysis that is relied on by a broad range of scholars, journalists and lawmakers. Its "State of Working America" reports have become a bible for people seeking to understand the economy from a Main Street point of view.
This month, Mishel hands over the reins of the EPI presidency to Thea Lee, who was previously deputy chief of staff for the AFL-CIO and a leading spokesperson for the union on issues like the impact of trade policy on workers.
The current state of the economy presents a classic economic conundrum. Economic textbooks say that with today's national unemployment rate, 4.1 percent, we should see wage inflation caused by a tight labor market.
The last time the national unemployment rate averaged 4 percent, in 2000, wages rose on average about 5 percent a year, as shown in this wage tracker by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In 2017, the wage tracker shows wage growth in 2017 hovering around 3.4 percent. EPI research further finds that this substandard wage growth has been even worse for people at the lower end of the income scale, whose wages in 2016 grew only about half as much as those of the top 20 percent.
"A true sign of a robust economy is rapid wage growth, and we don't see wages growing that much faster than inflation, even with roughly 4 percent unemployment," Mishel said.
Barring a last-minute surprise, passage of the Trump administration/Republican tax bill this week appears inevitable. Asked to what the American economy might look like a year after the tax bill is passed, Mishel predicted a continued stock market rise because companies, already flush with cash and finding themselves flooded with more, will continue to choose to use that cash to buy back their shares rather than invest in creating new jobs.
The big winners will be stockholders and corporate executives. Workers? Not so much. A boost in stock prices at best only benefits the third of American workers who have meaningful stock holdings, primarily retirement accounts. And even among that group of workers, the average retirement account stock portfolio is less than $100,000.
"The rising stock market is not a sign that the economy is doing well," Mishel said. In fact, an overheated stock market, disconnected from the pulse of the Main Street economy, is prone to the kind of explosive bubble-burst that the nation saw in 2008.
• Raising the minimum wage, which Mishel said would have ripple effects beyond low-wage workers to boost the take-home pay of about 30 percent of the workforce.
• Targeting job creation in areas of high unemployment, which are disproportionately communities of color. Ultimately, government policy should be to ensure that every person who wants a job has access to a job, publicly funded if necessary. "You want a situation where employers are chasing after workers, and not workers chasing after employers. When employers are chasing after workers, wages go up," Mishel said.
• Assuring what Mishel calls "day-one fairness," which would include eliminating such practices as misclassifying full-time workers so they are not eligible for health benefits or overtime, or forced arbitration and noncompete clauses that prevent workers from challenging bad worker policies or even leaving a bad employer to work for a competitor.
When Mishel is presented with the view that Donald Trump's presidency and right-wing control of Congress has placed many of these policy goals further out of reach, he offers a contrarian view.
Examples include the increased willingness of the Democratic Party mainstream to embrace universal health care, a $15 minimum wage by 2023, and support for collective bargaining for all public employees, Mishel said.
This blog was originally published at OurFuture.org on December 19, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
About the Author: Isaiah J. Poole is communications director of People's Action, and has been the editor of OurFuture.org since 2007. Previously he worked for 25 years in mainstream media, most recently at Congressional Quarterly, where he covered congressional leadership and tracked major bills through Congress. Most of his journalism experience has been in Washington as both a reporter and an editor on topics ranging from presidential politics to pop culture. His work has put him at the front lines of ideological battles between progressives and conservatives. He also served as a founding member of the Washington Association of Black Journalists and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
February, the first full month of the Trump presidency, witnessed solid jobs growth of 235,000 with the headline unemployment rate little changed, at 4.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Services monthly report.
Trump has already tweeted to claim credit for the results, but neither his plan nor his administration were in place. In fact, the February figures, a record 77th straight month of jobs growth, result from the momentum of the Obama recovery, plus whatever benefit or harm came from Trump's bombast.
The jobs growth will harden the Federal Reserve's resolve to raise interest rates again when its Open Market Committee meets next week. The Fed is acting in anticipation of an expected rise in inflation, that is to date not much in evidence.
By raising rates, The Fed is choosing to put a drag on the economy, even though full recovery is a long way off. Nearly 15 million people are still in need of full-time work. The share of the population in the workforce – 60 percent – is still down from 2000. If our work rate were back to where it was, about 10 million more Americans would have jobs.
Over the course of the recovery, most of the jobs created are contingent – part-time, short-term, contract work – with few benefits and often low wages. Lawrence Katz and former Obama economic advisor Alan Kreuger found that a staggering 94 percent of new jobs created from 2005 to 2015 were "alternative work," contract or short-term or contingent.
Trump's trickle-down agenda – to cut taxes on rich and corporations so they will create jobs – doesn't address this reality. In fact, corporations are swimming in money, and using it increasingly to buy back shares or for mergers that do little to create jobs. Companies, contrary to Trump's rhetoric, don't lack capital or access to it, they lack demand for their products.
Democrats are sensibly critical of the Trump agenda, but too many fall back to a defense of Obama's policies as the alternative. Obama helped save the economy that was in free fall when he took office, and presided over record months of jobs growth, but his policies, frustrated by Republican obstruction, did little to counter the stagnant wages, growing inequality and increasing insecurity of the modern economy.
The challenge is not simply to expose Trump's bait and switch on the working people who voted for him, but to lay out elements of a bold alternative agenda. Bernie Sanders modeled that effort in his surging primary challenge.
Now, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is up for re-election in 2018, has stepped boldly into the breach. Brown has released a 77 page, meticulously documented report –Working Too Hard for Too Little – that delves into how policies and power have undermined workers, and offers the elements of an agenda to rebuild the middle class.
Senator Brown details how the policies that have structured globalization, technology, corporate management have undermined workers, savaged unions, and pushed companies to offshore, contract out, and cut back on jobs, wages and benefits. He then offers a worker based alternative agenda, some old and some new.
He'd act directly to lift the floor under workers – requiring a $15.00 minimum wage, setting up a national fund to finance 12 weeks family and medical leave, mandating minimum paid vacation days and enforcing overtime pay.
He calls for empowering workers at the workplace– cracking down on labor violations, curbing wage theft, policing misuse of contract labor, and reviving the right to organize and bargain collectively. While Republicans are intent on destroying unions, Brown argues that clearly we all have a large stake in challenging the current imbalance of power in the workplace.
He details measures to help workers save for retirement – including matching grants and expansion of opportunities for part-time and short-term workers.
The academic rigor – complete with footnotes – of Brown's report is a rarity among politicians. It exposes House Speaker Paul Ryan's much celebrated power points for the thin gruel that they are. Brown doesn't see creating jobs as a standalone – affordable health care, better schools, access to colleges and good training, aggressive anti-trust and more are also vital.
Work unites all of us, Brown writes, citing Pope Francis: "We don't get dignity from power nor money or culture. We get dignity from work." With Working too Hard for Too Little, Brown has shown Americans that there is an alternative. The choice is not between Trump's antics and more of the same. Good analysis leads to bold alternatives that offer a way out. His courage and his leadership should be applauded.
This blog originally appeared in ourfuture.org on March 10, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
Robert Borosage is a board member of both the Blue Green Alliance and Working America. He earned a BA in political science from Michigan State University in 1966, a master's degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 1968, and a JD from Yale Law School in 1971. Borosage then practiced law until 1974, at which time he founded the Center for National Security Studies.
In his first days in office, President Donald Trump has launched a major effort to hurt job growth, stifle innovation, and make Americans sicker and less productive. How? By waging war on regulations, particularly those designed to protect the environment.
Yet, contrary to popular myth, regulations such as clean air and water standards do not have a net negative impact on job growth. Indeed, studies have found that the exact type of regulations Trump is targeting actually spur innovation and competitiveness.
Total jobs created by recent 2-term Presidents. CREDIT: Bureau of Labor Statistics via CNNMoney.
As Bureau of Labor Statistics data make clear (above chart), the recent two-term presidents who were in favor of regulation, especially environmental regulation (Obama and Clinton) created vastly more net jobs than the anti-regulation Presidents (Reagan and George W. Bush). "Businesses have added jobs at a nearly 2.5 times faster rate under Democrats than under Republicans, on average," the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee reported in June.
The multiple economic benefits of regulations are well documented. First, EPA regulations make companies invest money to reduce some of the damage that results from their operation— such as polluting the air or water. That investment directly creates jobs, which generally cancel out any jobs lost by the cost imposed on the polluters.
Health and mortality improvement from EPA clean air regulations since 1990, according to peer-reviewed research. Via EPA website (for now).
EPA particulate regulations (PM2.5) alone are now saving some 200,000 lives a year. And the benefits to the economy of these health improvements are enormous. The loss in economic output due to restricted activity, sickness, and death is enormous.
Indeed, the 2016 "Draft Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations" by the Office of Management and Budget found that over the previous 10 years, EPA's air regulations cost the economy $41 to $48 billion (in 2014$) while providing benefits worth $172 to $668 billion.
The same report found that Energy Department efficiency standards—which Trump has also frozen—cost the economy $7.5 to $10.6 billion but provided $19 to $32.6 billion in savings. And it found that the joint EPA and Transportation Department "rules pertaining to the control of greenhouse gas emissions from mobile sources and improved vehicle fuel economy" had costs of $9.5 to $18 billion and benefits worth $35 to $64 billion.
It's worth noting that a comprehensive peer-reviewed analysis of the performance of the U.S. economy in the past six decades found that "growth in total factor productivity was much faster under Democrats (1.89 percent versus 0.84 percent for Republicans)." So if anyone's policies are hurting productivity, it would appear to be the GOP's.
Let meA bus moves past solar and wind farms in northwestern China. Beijing is using the kind of investments and regulations President Trump opposes to become the world leader in this fast-growing source of new jobs. CREDIT: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan.
The Paris climate deal—unanimously agreed upon by 190 nations in December 2015—means that the potential revenues generated for cleantech in the coming decades will be measured in the tens of trillions of dollars.
This potential is quickly becoming a reality. Other countries, especially China, have used regulations and investment to become leaders in clean energy technologies like solar and wind. And now China is using the same strategy with batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) to capture what is projected to be an EV market of more than 37 million in 2025.
But Trump intends to kill the very policies and regulations that would give the U.S. a piece of what is becoming the largest collection of new job-creating industries.
So, tragically, Trump's war on regulations will not only kill countless U.S. jobs, it will kill a lot of people.
This post appeared originally in Think Progress on January 25, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
Dr. Joe Romm is a Fellow at American Progress and is the founding editor of Climate Progress, which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called "the indispensable blog" and Time magazine named one of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010." In 2009, Rolling Stone put Romm #88 on its list of 100 "people who are reinventing America." Time named him a "Hero of the Environment? and "The Web's most influential climate-change blogger." Romm was acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy in 1997, where he oversaw $1 billion in R&D, demonstration, and deployment of low-carbon technology. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT.
Working people fought for this. Don't let Donald Trump get the credit that goes to those union workers.
This article originally appeared at DailyKOS.com on January 9, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
Laura Clawson is a Daily Kos contributing editor since December 2006. Labor editor since 2011.
It was a huge announcement. An announcement so full of winning that we may even get tired of winning.
There's just one problem. It's not true. Or, at least, the suggestion that Trump is responsible for new, previously unannounced jobs is not true. The jobs are coming to the United States, but they are coming as part of a series of investments that were first announced in mid-October.
Sprint's parent company, SoftBank, said in October that it would partner with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund to invest about $100 billion in the tech sector. On December 6, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son told Trump the company would use some of these funds to bring 50,000 jobs to the United States. Trump promptly announced as much on Twitter.
Yet, despite the fact that the 5,000 jobs Trump took credit for on Wednesday were already announced earlier this month and are part of a series of investments that were themselves announced in mid-October, numerous headlines presented Trump's claim as fact.
Sprint, it should be noted, helped Trump push a favorable line. "We are excited to work with President-Elect Trump and his Administration to do our part to drive economic growth and create jobs in the U.S.," Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said in a statement included in that release.
It's also worth noting that Sprint has an incentive to help Trump use already-announced news to bolster his approval ratings. The company attempted a merger with its rival T-Mobile, but abandoned that effort in 2014 due to antitrust issues raised by the Federal Communications Commission.
After Trump takes power, however, Sprint could attempt to revive this effort under the new administration.
This blog originally appeared in ThinkProgress.org on December 29, 2016. Reprinted with permission.
Ian Millhiser is the Justice Editor at ThinkProgress. He is a skeptic of the Supreme Court, hater of Samuel Alito, and a constitutional lawyer of ill repute. Contact him at imillhiser@thinkprogress.org.
Worse yet, this deal is lose, lose, lose for the domestic economy. First, this inflow of foreign capital will bid up the U.S. dollar, which will reduce the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing by making imports cheaper and exports more expensive. This will increase the U.S. trade deficit and reduce employment in U.S. manufacturing. The U.S. dollar has gained about 25 percent in the past two-and-a-half years, and one-fifth of that increase has occurred since the election. As a result, the trade deficit in manufactured goods increased sharply in 2015 and is poised for another increase after the recent run-up in the dollar. Meanwhile, the United States has lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs since the first of the year due, in part, to the rising trade deficit.
SoftBank provides a clear example of plans to acquire and merge existing U.S. businesses.
This article originally appeared at DailyKOS.com on December 17, 2016. Reprinted with permission.
Coal miners, their communities and Faith groups are calling on President-presumed-Elect Donald Trump to honor his campaign promise to help coal workers. In an "Open Letter to President-Elect Donald Trump from coal miners," hundreds of coal miners from Appalachia to Western coal lands asked for help for coal communities across the country.
They want Trump to take action to make sure coal CEOs and companies keep promises to restore the landscape and local environments by "reclaiming" the old mines, which would mean jobs in coal communities. They also asked Trump to protect the pension and health benefits they were promised. The companies and CEOs made millions from the mines and should not be allowed leave behind a devastated environment and ruined communities.
The letter was organized by Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), a network of Faith groups and worker centers working "to mobilize people of faith and work advocates in support of economic justice and worker rights at the local, state and national levels." It asks Trump to stop coal CEOs and companies from abandoning their responsibility to clean up old mines.
Please visit the website Help Coal Workers to read stories from coal workers, read the letter and sign a petition asking Trump to honor his promises.
Anybody who works on American coal mines knows that the industry is rapidly changing. Mines are closing, coal companies are declaring bankruptcy, and many of us are losing our jobs and our livelihoods. For some of us, these are the only jobs that we've ever known – once assured of a lifelong and stable career with good pay and a community in which to raise a family. No more.
We all have strong opinions about why our industry is suffering: which politicians or whose agenda is to blame. Regardless of politics, the bottom line is that we need to take care of our brothers and sisters who are facing uncertain times.
Ensure federal and state governments use every legal option to prevent coal companies from shirking their commitment to reclaim and repair the public lands mined for private profit.
Through bankruptcy proceedings, we have learned that several companies are working to drastically reduce their financial and legal responsibility to reclaim mined land.
Any new or expanded coal leasing should be in concert with the strongest possible assurances that coal companies will honor their obligations to communities to create jobs by reclaiming and rehabilitating mined land.
Work with Congress to increase revenue and funding for communities as well as programs that support local economies.
There are a number of pieces of legislation on the table in Congress that would invest in coal communities, fund reclamation and economic revitalization projects, and protect promised benefits to coal miners and their families.
We, the undersigned coal miners and concerned individuals from across the country, demand action that will bring relief to coal communities.
This post originally appeared on ourfuture.org on December 15, 2016. Reprinted with Permission.
This week in the war on workers: What happens if Obama's overtime expansion is reversed?
CBO finds that reversing the rule would strip nearly 4 million workers of overtime protections. According to the report, there are nearly 4 million workers whose employers will be required to pay them overtime when they work more than 40 hours a week when the rule goes into effect.
CBO finds that reversing the rule would reduce workers' earnings while increasing the hours they work. The report finds that if the rule is reversed, the total annual earnings of all affected workers would decrease by more than $500 million in 2017. Further, these workers would earn less money while working more hours.
At a time when income inequality is already of great concern, CBO finds that reversing the rule would primarily benefit people with high incomes. If the rule were reversed, affected workers, most of whom have moderate incomes, would experience a loss in earnings. These losses would be accompanied by an increase in firms' profits, of which the vast majority (CBO estimates 85 percent) would accrue to people in the top income quintile.
CBO finds that reversing the rule would not create or save jobs. The report finds no significant impact on the number of jobs in the economy.
This article originally appeared at DailyKOS.com on November 19, 2016. Reprinted with permission.
— Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.
One group organizing people and forcing public officials to declare whose side they are on is Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a People's Action affiliate. They are an "issue focused coalition of individuals and organizations committed to achieving social, economic, and environmental justice." Citizen Action of Wisconsin is taking on the Republican Scott Walker administration over their privatization and use of the state's "jobs agency" Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to subsidize corporations even as they move jobs out of the state.
… In July 2011, WEDC was launched "with the mission of elevating Wisconsin's economy to be the best in the world." The quasi-public agency is run by a 15-person board chaired by the governor.
The agency was soon caught up in controversy. In July 2012, allegations of bid-rigging forced it to cancel a planned award to an information systems company. In October the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported WEDC had lost track of some $8 million in funds. In May, WEDC was slammed by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for misappropriating $10 million in federal funds.
In May 2013, the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau found that WEDC had awarded a portion of these grants, loans and tax credits to ineligible recipients, for ineligible projects and for amounts that exceeded specified limits.
WEDC controls an extraordinary amount of taxpayer funds. In fiscal year 2011-12 alone, Walker's WEDC administered "30 economic development programs through which it authorized local governments to issue $346.4 million in bonds, awarded $41.3 million in grants and $20.5 million in loans, and provided $110.8 million in tax credits to businesses and individuals," says the audit bureau.
With all that taxpayer money, how many actual jobs have been created?
The answer, in 2014, was, "Two official state data sets indicate that for every verifiable job Walker's WEDC managed to create, the state lost more than two to plant closings and layoffs." Then 2015 audit found that the problems had only gotten worse.
In response to a series of outsourcing scandals Governor Walker's troubled jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), adopted in 2014 a 30 day advanced notification policy. This policy is supposed to give state policymakers early warning if a corporation receiving state economic dollars plans to outsource jobs or downsize more jobs than they are paid to create.
An open records request by Citizen Action of Wisconsin found that despite a series of additional incidents of WEDC funded corporations outsourcing Wisconsin jobs, there are zero 30 day notifications in WEDC's files.
Data kept by the U.S. Department of Labor shows that at least 11,331 Wisconsin workers have had their jobs outsourced to other countries since Governor Walker's scandal ridden jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), was launched July 1, 2011. This is a very low-end estimate of the impact of outsourcing in Wisconsin because it only accounts for groups of workers who successfully applied for Trade Adjustment Assistance from the federal government by proving their jobs were eliminated because of global trade agreements. It does not account for outsourcing to other states, or downsizing where it is not possible to prove the jobs landed in a foreign country or were impacted by global trade deals.
Both Governor Scott Walker and U.S. Senator Ron Johnson have consistently supported a rigged economic system which allows multinational corporations to pit Wisconsin workers against low-wage foreign workers.
Also in August, a Wisconsin Public Radio report, "Citizen Action Of Wisconsin Claims WEDC Misrepresented Jobs Created In Sherman Park," found that the agency was reporting success in creating 500 jobs in the very neighborhood where lack of opportunity contributed to two nights of disorder following the police shooting of Sylville K. Smith.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin reviewed a database on the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation website and found the agency reported supporting and investing in the creation of 483 jobs in Sherman Park located on the city's north side. When the nonprofit researched the companies adding those jobs, it found the companies to be located outside Milwaukee.
Summary: Republicans privatized the state economic development agency, awarded subsidies to companies that included campaign donors, stripped safeguards, and "lost track" of where millions of taxpayer dollars went. Meanwhile, companies receiving subsidies intended to create jobs in Wisconsin were actually shipping jobs out of the state and country, as part of an effort to pit state workers against low-wage workers and force down wages. WEDC aided that effort by misrepresenting the jobs numbers, and even reporting nonexistent job-creation.
Following last week's revelation that over 11,000 Wisconsin jobs have been outsourced in the past five years, advocates for good jobs launched a statewide tour on Thursday of corporations who are outsourcing while taking public job creation dollars.
At a news event today community leaders detailed how Rexnord outsourced Wisconsin jobs at the same time it took millions in public job creation dollars from Governor Walker's scandal plagued Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).
[. . .] According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor and WEDC, Rexnord has actually outsourced more jobs than it has been paid with public dollars to create. The company has received $2.75 million in WEDC funds, but has so far outsourced 130 more jobs than it is has created.
Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin explained the reason for the tour.
Click here: 11,331 WI jobs Gone Overseas in Last 5 Years – Tell Madison: Enough!
This post originally appeared on ourfuture.org on September 12, 2016. Reprinted with Permission.


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Кульпино — исчезнувшая деревня в Медынском районе Калужской области.

Этимология
В словаре Даля «кульпя, культя, култыга» — часть конечности, оставшаяся после ампутации, увечья, также безрукий, хромой, беспалый, — прозвище первого владельца селения.

История
В 1676 году Кульпино — пустошь, церковная Георгиевская земля, во владении можатича Ивана Васильевича сына Ерофеева, в Трубенском? и Ловышенском станах Боровского уезда. В 1740 году пустошь Колпино освящается

В издании «Описание и алфавиты Калужской губернии» Кульпино отмечается как «пустошь Кулпина». Запись 670 — суходол в западной части пустоши, отрезанная по спору казённая земля. Запись 671 — пустошь братьев Фёдора и Николая Глебовичей Салтыковых на реке Каменка (ныне безымянна). Братья известны как сыновья  Дарьи Николаевной Салтыковой — «Салтычихи».

В 1859 году Кульпино — владельческая деревня в 23 двора при речке Берёзовке. Деревня располагалась по правую сторону тракта Медынь-Гжатск и относилась ко 2 стану Медынского уезда Калужской губернии. После реформ 1861 года вошла в Гиреевскую волость.

Население

Примечания

Упразднённые населённые пункты Медынского района
Ловышенский стан


text:
Russia Seeks Control of Ukraine's Gas Transit System Through a Consortium
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 9
January 15, 2009 06:38 PM Age: 14 years
Russia and some circles in Germany are reactivating the idea of a consortium to control Ukraine's gas transit system. Moscow hopes to profit from the crisis atmosphere it has itself created since January 1 by stopping gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine. Blaming Ukraine in oft-inflammatory language for the stoppage, Russia is seeking to persuade Germany and the rest of Europe that Ukraine is unqualified to handle the transit of Russian gas supplies.
Moscow's thesis, if accepted, would lead to two possible corollaries. One would be international backing for circumventing Ukraine with Gazprom's pipeline projects, such as Nord Stream and South Stream, which Gazprom lacks the means to build. The other would be international acceptance of transferring control over Ukraine's transit system from an "unreliable" Ukrainian government to a "reliable" Gazprom, under the mantle of an international consortium.
Either solution would increase Russia's strategic leverage over Europe. Together with Russia's German partners, the Kremlin has proposed the consortium solution for Ukraine several times in recent years and is now reiterating it, again with Germany as its primary target audience.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has aired the consortium proposal regarding Ukraine's pipelines three times in recent days: on November 7 in St. Petersburg when receiving former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder; in his November 8 press conference in Moscow, after receiving Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek of the Czech Republic, current holder of the EU Presidency; and again on January 11 in an interview on German television (www.premier.gov.ru, January 8; Interfax, January 7, 8, 11; German ARD TV, January 11; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, January 13).
Putin said that Gazprom would consider taking part in "privatizing" Ukraine's gas transit system, either on its own or preferably as part of an operating consortium. Putin invoked the trilateral memorandum of understanding that he signed in June 2002 in St. Petersburg (at the time as Russian president) with then-President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and then-Chancellor Schroeder, to hand Ukraine's gas transit system over to a Russian-Ukrainian-German consortium. Wondering aloud why Ukraine never went ahead with this scheme, Putin took a swipe at "those who passed the law banning the development [sic] of that gas transit system." He meant Yulia Tymoshenko, who initiated that law as opposition leader in 2007 and is now the prime minister. That law, however, does not ban "development"; it does preclude a transfer of ownership of Ukraine's gas transit system.
That "international" consortium was to have included Gazprom, Naftohaz Ukrainy (legally the owner of the transit system), and the German E.On Ruhrgas. Investment in the Ukrainian transit system's modernization was its declared goal—as well as a cover for Gazprom to take over the system de facto. The tripartite formula was hardly "international." It could have given Russia discretionary control over Ukraine's system through Gazprom's collaborators in the Party of Regions (in power from 2002 to 2004, running the energy sector) and the likely passive acquiescence by the German minority partner. The dominant role reserved for Gazprom in that arrangement led some Ukrainians to quip that it was a "consortium for one party."
The subsequent behavior of those same players does not suggest that they would, or could, have acted independently of Russia in such a consortium. On the contrary: key figures in the Party of Regions went on to bring Gazprom's shadowy proxy, RosUkrEnergo, into Ukraine; Schroeder went on to join Gazprom openly; and Ruhrgas (itself a minority shareholder in Gazprom) staked its future on "access" to gas in Russia as its overriding priority.
As Ruhrgas Chairman (and Gazprom board member) Burkhard Bergmann stated at the time, Russia's decision to invite Germany into this transit consortium was "certainly attributable to the relationship between President Putin and Chancellor Schroeder, their exceptional personal relationship." Bergmann also said that the "volume of investment [in the Ukrainian system's modernization] would partly depend on whether Ukraine offers ownership shares in the existing pipelines" (Die Welt, June 13, 2002). For its part, Moscow has remained ambiguous on this point to this day.
While the consortium would be open to additional partners (as Putin has suggested in recent days), Gazprom's dominant role in this scheme has never been in doubt. Discussions on activating the consortium went on for several years. Kuchma did not deliver (apparently not even intending to deliver) on the deal, and the Orange takeover in Ukraine seemed to block the consortium scheme altogether. Since that event, Ukraine's official policy has ruled out a handover of control of existing transit pipelines and storage sites; but it does allow joint control over any new ones that might be built.
In retrospect, the Putin-Schroeder agreement on Ukraine in 2002 marked the first move in a long-term strategy, the next phase of which came with the Nord Stream gas pipeline project on the Baltic seabed, signed by the same leaders in 2005 and spearheaded by them to this day. Both initiatives reflect a strategic design for close integration of the Russian and German economies in the energy sector and beyond. While the first of these initiatives would control the transit route through Ukraine's territory, Nord Stream is meant to circumvent any transit country, connecting Russia directly with Germany. The common denominator behind both initiatives if they come to fruition as intended, however, is that of cementing a Russo-German special relationship, economically and politically.
A Restart of U.S.-Russian RelationsNext
Ukrainian Law Bars Transferring Ownershi..


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Arnold Berdon, the husband of UFC flyweight Rachael Ostovich, has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder, according to reports on MMAfighting.com and TMZ.
Ostovich on Tuesday was forced to pull out of an upcoming January match against Paige VanZant after suffering a broken orbital bone in an attack over the weekend, allegedly by Berdon.
Berdon -- who is also an MMA fighter -- has not been arraigned and remains in jail, according to a Honolulu Police spokesperson, who also says the charge could still be changed.
Ostovich received a temporary restraining order against Berdon on Tuesday. It expires in May 2019.
The couple were married in 2016 and have a daughter together.