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Posted on March 1, 2018 April 29, 2019 by Evan Russell
When Collective Impact Has an Impact: A Cross-Site Study of 25 Collective Impact Initiatives
We at Spark Policy Institute and ORS Impact are excited to release the findings of a ground-breaking study in partnership with 25 collective impact sites in the US and Canada as part of the Collective Impact Research Study.
The study sought to shed light on a fundamental question:
To what extent and under what conditions does the collective impact approach contribute to systems and population changes?
The study findings can be a tool—for refining the collective impact approach, strengthening existing initiatives, supporting new initiatives, and evaluating collective impact more meaningfully.
Our study is intended to add to the body of knowledge related to collective impact, building a better understanding of when and where it has an impact. To solve the entrenched social problems that still plague too many people and communities, it is crucial to continue deepening the sector's understanding of the results collective impact initiatives are achieving, the challenges they face, and the lessons they have learned.
Why this study?
In 2011, John Kania and Mark Kramer published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, laying out "collective impact" as an approach for solving social problems at scale. For some, the introduction of a defined framework for cross-sector collaboration provided a useful way to focus new and existing partnerships toward a common goal and, hopefully, greater impact.
It has not, however, been without controversy. Some critiques from the field include a sense that collective impact is just new packaging for old concepts (without fully crediting the work that preceded it); that it is inherently a top-down approach to community problems; that it is too simplistic for solving the complex social problems it seeks to address; and that it replicates unjust power dynamics. There is also criticism that the approach has not been assessed rigorously enough to warrant the number of resources being directed toward it.
In early 2017, the Collective Impact Forum, an initiative of FSG and the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, hired ORS Impact and Spark Policy Institute to conduct a field-wide study of collective impact with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Houston Endowment, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The partnership of ORS Impact and Spark Policy Institute brought, across the two organizations, both knowledge, and experience with collective impact (Spark) and experience with other community change models (both), as well as a healthy skepticism and more arm's length relationship to the approach (ORS).
We encourage you to share any of your insights about collective impact in the comments section below. Questions or comments about the study may also be sent to Terri Akey at ORS Impact or Lauren Gase at Spark Policy Institute.
Categories: Blog, Collective Impact
Posted on February 6, 2018 April 29, 2019 by Kyle Brost, MBA
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Spark
"I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard."
― Malala Yousafzai
Dear partners and friends,
Spark Policy Institute was founded with a core belief that diverse perspectives are key to achieving meaningful change. Each of our conference rooms are named after leaders who made a difference because they spoke up and spoke out: Malala Yousafzai, Rodolpho "Corky" Gonzales, Hattie McDaniel, Maya Angelou, Dolores Huerta, and Sojourner Truth.
Our role as a bridge between nonprofits, communities, and funders brings with it a great responsibility to ensure all voices are heard in strategy design, implementation, research, evaluation, and interpretation. With the mark of the new year, we are committed to assessing how we are doing and where we need to improve. One of the ways we are doing that, is by renewing our focus on the issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Our team is taking on the hard work to make this vision reality – we have assembled not just a committee, but a working group, whose key charges are to develop goals for improving our work and our internal culture to more truly and demonstrably respect diversity, value equity, and foster inclusion.
We are committed to sharing our journey with specifics about the steps we are taking to reach our goals. You can read an introduction to our reinforced effort in our latest blog post Journey to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which includes a link to our DEI Commitment, and our 2018 DEI Plan. We will continue to update our website and newsletter with all of our efforts.
I am sincerely humbled by the skill and perseverance of my colleagues who continually seek to improve our work and challenge our assumptions. Together in this process we are capable of remarkable change.
As always, we at Spark welcome your questions, suggestions, or reactions. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me, or any of our staff as we move forward with this critical work.
Kyle Brost
Categories: Blog, Uncategorized
Posted on January 29, 2018 April 29, 2019 by Evan Russell
Journey to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Capitalizing on the new year's encouragement of new habits and improvement, we are excited to announce a renewed focus to build and improve on Spark's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. This undertaking reflects our organizational and individual staff values. Much like New Year's Resolutions that last, we know this type of work requires ongoing commitment through successes and challenges, a humble and realistic approach, and support from those around us.
Spark has had an inclusiveness statement since 2014 and has used participatory research and facilitation approaches since its inception. The general sentiments underlying DEI have been a part of this organization since the beginning. We believe it's time to build on these sentiments to operationalize them – to "walk our talk," so to speak. The people we work with and for deserve it. Additionally, many of us are drawn to the work we get to do at Spark because of our desire to make a positive difference in the lives of others. To do so effectively, we know we need to work to better understand all the layers that make up people's rich cultures and world views. It is the first step towards building the authentic relationships we seek to cultivate.
Our DEI plan, which you can see here, includes both internal goals for staff awareness and skill building and external goals around the way we work with stakeholders, partners, and clients. We aim to infuse DEI into our language, behaviors, tools, approaches, products, processes, and policies. Part of the reason for this range of focus areas is the recognition that both an individual and systemic approach are needed for real change.
This affects all of us at Spark, and our DEI team (Daniela, Alison, Kristin, and Adell) will be guiding the implementation of this plan. As a team, we largely reflect Spark in this process: passionate about our values and dedicated to this work, though by no means experts.
We commit to keep you updated on our progress. This will include both the successes we have and the challenges we bump up against. We'll share lessons learned and highlight partners who are taking on this work.
We sincerely hope we hear from you, too. Have a resource to share? Got some advice or feedback for us? Are you struggling with something in this area where we can either help or brainstorm together? Let us know! We don't have the perfect formula here, and we don't expect everything to go smoothly. But we know something is better than nothing, so we're doing our best and taking some important steps. We hope you'll join us on this journey!
Tags: diversity, equity, inclusion
Collective Impact Study Update
By Jewlya Lynn, Founder and Chief Learning Officer, Spark Policy Institute; and Sarah Stachowiak, CEO, ORS Impact
Back in May, 2017 ORS Impact and Spark Policy Institute embarked on an ambitious and important study to explore how collective impact contributes to changes in systems and populations through its unique approach to addressing social issues. We are pleased to update the field on our study progress as we near the end of our data collection.
Study Selection Process
To seek out a representative group of sites that would allow us to dig into how collective impact leads to systems and population changes, we invited the field to nominate sites that were good examples of how the collective impact model is contributing to changes in systems and outcomes.
We screened over 150 sites to find examples of mature initiatives (at least three years old), in the US and Canada, with evidence of strongly implementing all of the five conditions of collective impact, changing a number of systems, and moving the needle on outcomes. Of the 39 sites that met our initial screening criteria, 25 initiatives across a wide range of topics and geographies consented to participate in our inquiry. Our research steering team helped us vet the final set of sites and identify any potential challenges.
To develop a broad understanding of how collective impact works across many different settings, we interviewed two key people in each of the 25 sites who had a deep knowledge of the initiative– often backbone leaders or steering team members. In addition, we reviewed many documents that described activities, goals, and progress. Through the interviews and documents, we sought to understand how collective impact shows up in different initiatives and how the collective impact conditions might be linked to important changes in systems and outcomes.
Drilling Down to Equity and Impact
Next, we selected two sets of sites to dive deeper into our primary research question of "what is the contribution of collective impact to population and systems changes?" and to explore more explicitly how equity intersects with the CI model– a priority identified by our steering team as an opportunity to raise up a significant principle that is important to the field.
To address our primary research question about the contribution of CI, we selected eight "contribution" sites from our original pool of 25. Our goal in selection was NOT to identify the "best" CI sites, but rather to identify a set of initiatives that allowed the best chance of examining causal linkages among how collective impact is implemented and the changes that occur in people, organizations, systems, and ultimate impact. Therefore, we selected eight sites that had the strongest evidence that all five collective impact conditions were present and that multiple social and systems changes could clearly be linked to population changes achieved.
Within our contribution sites, we collected additional data using structured group dialogues to help us understand how collective impact is implemented and what challenges the initiatives faced in implementation. In addition, we facilitated group process tracing sessions where a group of stakeholders pressure tested theories of change that the systems changes and population changes they were experiencing could be attributed to their collective impact efforts and not to external events or context.
To address growing interest and urgency around infusing equity into collective impact work, we also identified three sites to allow us to understand more deeply the issues related to meaningful and authentic inclusion of beneficiary communities in CI planning, implementation and leadership; what types of equity focused strategies are being implemented; what factors are related to "readiness" to engage in equity work; and how initiatives are achieving equity-focused systems changes and outcomes. ARISE– an initiative focused on the needs of indigenous students in Anchorage, Promesa Boyle Heights– a community-driven initiative in Los Angeles, and RGV Focus– a regional initiative focused on low-income Hispanic children and families in the Rio Grande valley– all provide unique opportunities to learn how CI can actively engage the families and communities they intend to benefit and how having an equity focus interacts with the CI model.
Coming up in future posts, we'll share our collective impact and equity rubrics that we are using to understand how the model is being implemented, and blogs on systems changes and process tracing as a methodology. As we wrap up our analysis and distill findings, we'll also provide a glimpse into our initial results and share lessons with the field from what we are learning.
Tags: Collective Impact, methods, systems change


The Wilton police and fire departments teamed up with the Toy Chest to take the Toys for Tots collection drive to another level this year. The "Stuff a Cruiser" event was held Sunday at 21 River Road in the Stop and Shop plaza. Pictured are some of the folks who volunteered at Sunday's event.
The Wilton police and fire departments team up with Toy Chest to make this year's Toys for Tots drive the best yet.


Earned the Playing the Field badge! Earned the Bar Explorer badge! Earned the Brewery Pioneer (Level 2) badge! Earned the God Save the Queen badge! Earned the Tower of Beer badge!
Tom D.: Scrapping the barrel?
Steve W.: The ticker in me I suppose.
Steve W.: Superior to Tesco Value Bitter I suppose.
One of the better offerings from Marston's portfolio. Tried cask and keg. Opted for keg (note to self).
Quite nice hoppy lager. Good for a hot summer's day.
They couldn't get the keg lens to stay in place..... but surprisingly an OK beer.
Tom D.: Oohhhh 1! Must be bad. Maybe I should make an avoid list.
Steve W.: Yeah. Not the best. A new one from the looks of it. 8 check-ins and also a big brewery.
Oh man. This is pretty much perfect. A nice bitterness and super sessionable. Could drink all day.
Great session IPA this. Would pick any day over most of Marston's cask offerings.
Tom D.: Ah seems I've only had it in my pre-untappd days.
Steve W.: Lovely stuff. Hilton Brook have it now too. It'll be my go to beer there I reckon.
Nicely done up inside. Worth checking out Matt C.
Earned the Caskville (Level 93) badge!
Pedi from source (pretty much). Marston's new Taproom.


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Shannon Matthews: Never Again
AN MP today urged Kirklees Council to "learn the lessons" from the dreadful Shannon Matthews case.
Neil Atkinson
Huddersfield's Barry Sheerman said the council needed to examine closely what it could learn from its involvement with the family of the kidnapped youngster.
Mr Sheerman, who chairs the Commons education select committee, made his call as the role of social services in the life of Shannon was being closely scrutinised following her mother's conviction for kidnapping her own daughter.
Mother-of-seven Karen Matthews, 33, was condemned by police yesterday as "pure evil" after a judge told her she faces a substantial jail sentence, along with co-accused Michael Donovan.
Last night allegations emerged that Matthews's children had been placed on the child protection register but later taken off despite concerns about violence in the household and poor living conditions.
A BBC documentary team, which was given exclusive access to West Yorkshire Police's investigation, said social workers commissioned a psychological report about Matthews highlighting her "inability to successfully place the children's needs above her own" in December 2003 – three years before Shannon went missing.
Mr Sheerman said: "We are not talking about a Haringey here, and Kirklees Council does have a good record with social care. But officers need to look closely at this case and see what lessons could be learned."
The Panorama programme said the report concluded: "Her ability to protect her children is compromised by her inability to successfully place the children's needs above her own. I believe that Karen will require constant monitoring and support throughout the lives of her children."
According to the documentary, Matthews's children were removed from the child protection register by the time the report was completed.
The documentary alleged that despite ongoing concerns about violence in the home and the effect this might have on the children "they were never considered at risk of significant harm" and not placed back on the child protection register.
Claire Wilson, a former neighbour of Matthews at a previous address, said she was concerned about terrible conditions at the house next door.
She said: "I rang social services because it just got to the stage where I was so concerned about the children.
"But we just kept reporting it and nothing seemed to get done.
"We were saying that something's going to happen to those children. How can you leave them in those conditions?"
Kirklees Social Services said yesterday it was limited in what it could say about the Matthews family for legal reasons.
In a statement, Alison O'Sullivan, Director for Children and Young People at Kirklees Council, said that "very important issues concerning the children, the actions and plans of this local authority past, present and proposed will be scrutinised carefully."
She went on: "We are acutely aware that the difficult issues surrounding child protection and the promotion of child welfare by local authorities are rightly the subject of huge public interest.
"Kirklees Council and the agencies it works alongside strive in all cases to achieve a proper balance between rigorous statutory intervention and social support for children and families who may be struggling to cope."
Click here to watch Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan being questioned a charged by police with the kidnap of Shannon Matthews.
Barry Sheerman
Kirklees Council

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Do The Teams In The Nfl Bring Their Own Football College Football Betting Line – Earn Easy Money Betting on Sports Today!
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John is a friend of mine who is a big influence in sports betting especially on National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football games. He told me his thoughts, advice and experiences in this hobby (first a hobby but soon became his bread and butter) and what he does best with college football betting lines. He explained and shared with me.
My friend was nobody a few years ago. He basically lived with his wife and worked full-time to support him and their son. John's wife is about to leave him, fed up with their living conditions, when he suddenly makes a fortune in sports betting.
"One of the things that made this possible for me was learning about college football betting lines," John told me once I asked him about his sports betting activities.
"What is this?" I asked, having no idea what he was doing.
He explained to me that college football betting lines are basically handicappers or odds bettors on football teams so it makes the betting process more exciting and results harder to predict.
"In any college football betting line, there are always odds against the better team and better odds against the other team. It's only natural, isn't it?" he said
"I didn't understand it at first, and I just approached each game haphazardly, never having a strategy," he added.
Whatever his strategy is, it must be working well for him. John is a success story, a potential and good cover boy for magazines like Reader's Digest. Many people will be inspired by his stories and skills. He and his wife now own their own business, have a nice car and a nice house. He can now support his family and send his young son to a good school.
"I used to go with my gut. With every college football betting line, I was just making general guesses. And I wasn't winning," John said.
When he started losing he thought about quitting but he was already stuck and he just wasn't going to quit. He asked around for tips on how to approach sports betting. It was there that he learned and developed his own strategy.
"The key here is information," he said. John emphasized the importance of gathering all the necessary information about each team and player. It helps him to analyze the results of the games.
"Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't get emotional. Master the game and winning will come naturally to you," he advised.
John said that making money with sports betting is easy if you always prepare well before placing the all-important bet. Researching your stats is extremely important as it will help you analyze each college football betting line that you may encounter.
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Create your Classroom: Welcome Back to School!!!!!
I wanted to share with you some things that I have done within my classroom so far this year. Our school wide theme is..."Together we can reach for the stars" but if you know me then you know I like to think out of the box. My classroom's theme is: Rock Stars!! Here are a few pictures of my room. Hope you enjoy!!!!
I don't know which to comment on first, the ROCKIN'room or the fab new layout of your blog! You are *so* clever and creative! Rock on, sister!
The lockers are so cute!!! I wish I was in your class in 3rd grade! I belive it's really important to have an exciting and fun learning environment just like you've created... it's so important even though most underestimate it. This beats white brick walls and black and white printed stuff on the walls any day!!!!!


Certainly one of quite possibly the most typical electrical wiring queries is regarding how to wire a change. Even though working with switches at your home is very uncomplicated, wiring a single may well not be that straightforward for everybody. An ON-OFF switch is actually quite simple to wire. You will find different kinds of switches, but for this example, let's say you are setting up a single-pole toggle switch, a really typical change (and also the easiest).
There are 3 colours of wires in a very common single-pole toggle switch: black, white, and environmentally friendly. Splice the black wire in two and join them about the terminal screws - a person on best and the other over the bottom screw from the swap. The white wire serves for a source of uninterrupted electricity and is usually linked to the light coloured terminal screw (e.g., silver). Hook up the inexperienced wire into the ground screw of your change.
These techniques would generally be ample to create a typical swap do the job without a problem. Nevertheless, in case you are usually not self-confident you can execute the undertaking correctly and safely you much better let the professionals get it done as an alternative. Soon after all, there is a purpose why this task is among the most typical electrical wiring thoughts questioned by many people.
For many motive, how you can wire a ceiling fan can also be considered one of one of the most widespread electrical wiring questions. To simplify this endeavor, you should use one change for just a single ceiling fan. To wire the enthusiast, it is really only a subject of connecting the black wire of your ceiling fan to the black wire from the swap. If there is a lightweight, the blue wire needs to be linked towards the black wire of the swap also.
You will discover factors why these are typically the most commonly requested electrical wiring thoughts. One, many consider it really is very simple to try and do, and two, these are generally the popular electrical jobs in the home. But then you definitely should not set your safety at risk with your goal to save money. The stakes could even be substantially higher in case you try and spend less and do an electrical wiring work without the need of adequate information or working experience.


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There seems to be a spirit of discontent in Chicago these days
Posted on 9 January 2022 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
There seems to be a spirit of discontent in Chicago these days, evidenced in Catholic news, what with the harsh diktats about the Vetus Ordo and the wild sacrilege at St. Sabina.
It's sad. Such a great city. So many problems.
Today I received a note that Chicago's Archbishop was booed and heckled at at pro-life rally. It's hard to get your mind around that. On the other hand, he's not exactly the poster boy for defense of the unborn, who seem in his school of thought to be lower on the list than government spending for illegal immigrants and other aspects of the DNC platform. It's all part of that Chicago/Bernardin seamless garment thing.
Anyway, one fellow wrote today:
I'm a resident of the Archdiocese of Chicago. We currently have a funding drive by the Archdiocese. I thought I would give Archbishop Cupich my $0.02 by sending in a $0.02 check in honor of "Restore the Latin Mass". A "funding drive" like this might be the way traditionalist can get their voices heard by the powers that be.
It would certainly get their attention, although the idea of "organizing traditionalists" made me smile a little. Good luck with that. Until they stop defending their own little wrinkle of turf and, with some humility and commonsense, put aside small differences that's not going to happen. I fear that the fallacy of the zero-sum game has many in their grip. I digress.
Yes, drying up their funding would get their attention. It would be negative attention, too. I suspect they would rather see the city's churches become depopulated smoldering craters than to see happy young people praying reverently in them during a Traditional Latin Mass.
That said, a priest friend of mine had an interesting way of showing his displeasure over being billed for the truly asinine and often downright heretical seminary formation he (we) received. When he was sent regular bills with a return postage guaranteed paid envelope, he sent back checks so small that it cost more to process them than they gained and he once taped the envelope to a concrete block. Eventually they stopped sending bills.
Brick by brick, differently.
Mind you, I'm not suggesting that anyone should anything like that. It's just that this frustrated Chicagoan's note reminded me of that episode.
This entry was posted in Lighter fare and tagged Archd. Chicago. Bookmark the permalink.
Your Sunday Sermon Notes: Holy Family Sunday (Novus Ordo: Baptism of the Lord)
YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS – UPDATED!
Son of Saint Alphonsus says:
Hmmmm. Where I to be billed for my seminary education I would feel bound in conscience to return what I received as defective. I wonder, does BS smell better with age or does the odor dissipate as it dries into bull apples?
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Mojoron says:
Chicago has been a cesspool from the 60's when Saul Alinsky and the then Cardinals Meyer and then Cody who even sent money to Alinsky's organization. Of the leaders in the US Church, Cupich is the absolute worsest (sic).
GregB says:
I viewed the introductory part of the St. Sabina video. Some things stood out to me when the video starts. Everything that took place at Christmas was billed as a service. St. Sabina was billed as being "The Faith Community of St. Sabina." This continues when they list New Year's Eve services. The NYE Weekend listing said that there were no services on January 1, 2022. The Unity service on January 2, 2022 is listed as being the first service of 2022. With January 1rst being the Solemnity of Mary – the Holy Mother of God, and the World Day of Peace, this is a very glaring omission, particularly when there was an onscreen appeal for a peace walk. Mary is the Queen of Peace. Not much Catholicism in evidence in their introductory listings.
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Anita Moore, O.P.(lay) says:
I doubt it really matters to the liberal hierarchy whether the collection plate dries up. We not hear them cry poverty during lockdowns, which could never have happened without their cooperation. So punctiliously do they enforce the directives of our secular owners that it is hard not to conclude that they have secured another and more substantial income stream.
Out of St. Sabina's there is a video (I think not the infamous Christmas Eve affair) that shows Fr. Pfleger and his big pectoral Mercedes logo rushing to hug a guy at the altar and knocking over the Pachamama boat full of Hosts, which end up all over the floor. Since he evidently ad libs the canon of the Mass and makes up his own words of consecration, there seems good reason to hope that those were only wafers getting spilled on the ground.
JMody says:
When it gets right down to the brass tacks, isn't the whole idea of "attend Mass every Sunday" and "support your local parish" all a bunch of rigidly adhering to a pre-Conciliar notion of "precepts of the (non-V2) Church"? So in the spirit of Tantrum Custodibus, shouldn't we tell all of them to pound sand? Just COMPLETELY IGNORE THEM? What if there was a collection take of ZERO across the archdiocese? What if EVERY single person filed out after Communion? What if the RCIA folks just didn't show?
Ah, but "you have the words of eternal life – where shall we go?" will get thrown back at us. Talk about a sinful presumption …
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GrumpyYoungMan says:
It's frustrating to see folks acting out this way. Granted, I've thought privately many of the things that were said to H.E. in that video (and ought to head to confession), it does our cause no good to act that way in public; frankly, it is exactly the response they hope to get from us.
For the time being I'm just grateful we ended up in a neighboring diocese instead of his.
GrumpyYoungMan says: It's frustrating to see folks acting out this way. Granted, I've thought privately many of the things that were said to H.E. in that video (and ought to head to confession), it does our cause no good to act that way in public; frankly, it is exactly the response they hope to get from us.
I disagree that that is exactly the response that "they" hope to get from us. I think frankly that that is the last thing they are expecting. I think they think everyone shares their high opinion of their own selves.
Chuck4247 says:
For a moment, after reading the headline of this post, I had forgotten who was writing and was expecting something about the state of the Bears football team…
Kathleen10 says:
Bishops need the illusion of former days that for many, are no more, that of a shepherd and his flock. Bishops need money. But they don't need it as much from the pew-sitter, since many have large chunks of money coming in from the federal government due to "Resettlement Funds". Resettlement is what they call it when the church shuttles in people across the border and gives them all kinds of support to do so, while other people born in other nations do it the stupid way and follow the law by applying for entry. Resettlement funds can add up to millions each year for bishops. Everybody wins, bishops get paid, nuns can finally get off the bus, and nations get millions of largely unvetted permanent visitors.
Bishops need some people to sit in the pews each week, and to show up for events they are present for, because media might be there. If no people show up, the illusion gets harder to pull off. When bishops get booed at public events, or have to be quickly shuttled off to a vehicle, this is actually something that may get noticed if it goes on. Chances are the bishop will then get even nastier toward the flock, because they are refusing to play the game according to the rules he has become accustomed to. In Cupich's case, he issues evil diktats, and you are silent about them.
Tantum Ergo says:
A gentle correction, that's not a "Mercedes logo" around Fr. Pfleger's neck… it's a millstone.
Fr. Z is right, we should reflect before we post. My post concerning Fr. Pfleger would be tantamount to my considering him worthy of damnation, which is not my right. Even with such as these, only God has the last word.
summorumpontificum777 says:
I have mixed feeling about the crowd's treatment of Soupy. On the one hand, if I had been there, I too would have been tempted to boo him, as it must have been galling to just stand there while this deplorable prelate was pretending that he's been a friend and ally of the pro-life cause. On the other hand, Soupy has already established himself as an egotistical bully, so booing and heckling him will very likely result in retaliation in the form of him doubling down on making life hell for conservatives/trads/pro-lifers (increasingly the same group) in his archdiocese.
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JoHNewman says:
Countdown: time until St. Sabina's becomes Pfleger's Community of Spiritual Diversity and Pfeel-goodedness… 3 (years), 2 (years), 1 (year).
The SSPX (Society of Schismatic Pfleger the Ex-priest) will undoubtedly elect their beloved leader as bishop, and will claim their right to do so is a legitimate manifestation of the synodness of the synod on synodality.
Apologies to the SSPX for appropriating their initialism.
Gabriel Syme says:
This kind of thing highlights how dysfunctional and rudderless the modern Church is, largely stemming from the fact it has had no functioning authority (beyond the harsh bullying of sincere Catholics) for many years (decades?) now.
It is obviously undesirable, but then perhaps it is best that the poison – which always stems from heterodox, corrupt, often homosexual, careerist prelates – comes out, so that the Church can heal.
I certainly hope no-one throws eggs or rotten fruit at Cardinal Cupich in future: that would be outrageous, no matter how well deserved.
Fr. Timothy Ferguson says:
I dream of hitting the lottery jackpot and then making my voice heard by providing funding for seminaries and seminarians. Some of my fantasy pet projects:
The Msgr. Richard J. Schuler Endowed Chair in Liturgical Music at the St. Paul Seminary (with Frs. John Zuhlsdorf, Robert Altier, James Livingston, and myself as the board who determines who gets hired to fill the chair).
The Fr. John Zuhlsdorf wing of the St. Paul Seminary Library, to be filled exclusively with texts in classical languages.
The Fr. George Welzbacher Institute for Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, professors to be hand-selected by the eponymous gentleman himself (may he live forever!)
The Fr. Francis Phillips, C. R., Endowed Chair in Liturgical Excellence at Mundelein Seminary (to be filled only by qualified priests of the Canons of St. John Cantius)
The Clement XIV Chair of Ecclesiology at the University of San Francisco – or perhaps the Gregorian (holder to be determined by Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ and a discerning group of Dominicans)
The Fr. John Hardon SJ Catechetical Institute, professors to be selected by Cardinal Raymon Burke.
Semper Gumby says:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops founded in 1969 the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The CCHD has connections that include former Archbishop of Chicago Joseph Bernardin (1982-1996), Saul Alinsky, Barack Obama and the now defunct ACORN.
https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/organizations/catholic-campaign-for-human-development-cchd
The CCHD has an annual Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award.
Archdiocese of Chicago CCHD grants to support "grassroots social justice":
https://pvm.archchicago.org/human-dignity-solidarity/catholic-campaign-for-human-development/grants
JGavin says:
Give the cash to the FSSP or ICKSP. This would be appropriate particularly for Peter's Pence. Consider SSPX as well.
In 1940 Saul Alinsky (author of Rules for Radicals, a book Alinsky dedicated to "Lucifer") founded in Chicago the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). Bernard James Sheil, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, was a founding Board Member.
Also located in Chicago was the Abraham Lincoln School of the Communist Party USA. From "Testimony of Walter S. Steele Regarding Communist Activities In The United States, Hearings Before The Committee On Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, July 21, 1947:
"The Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago is located at 180 West Washington Street. Faculty members are…Frank Marshall Davis… . A South Side Annex to the school has recently been added. It is located at 4448 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Other annexes are at 1225 South Independence and 2409 North Halsted."
The Daily Worker, Tuesday, May 20, 1924:
"Party Activities Of Local Chicago"
"Finnish Branch, 2409 N. Halsted, Imperial Hall."
"On Wednesday, May 21st, Comrade Ernest Ettlinger will speak before the North Side English Branch of the Young Workers League at Imperial Hall, 2409 N. Halsted Street on the subject "The Need for a Labor Party.""
See VENONA decrypts and Vassiliev Notebooks: "Abraham Lincoln School" and "Alice Barrows." Alice Barrows was employed by the Office of Education, predecessor to the Department of Education. In the VENONA decrypts Alice Barrow's contact "KROT" is unidentified, in the Vassiliev Notebooks KROT is identified as Congressional staffer- including duties on Sen. Harvey M. Kilgore's Subcommittee on War Mobilization- Charles Barrows.
krc2019 says:
As I have said in other venues, I live in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I do not give a single penny to any diocesan institution, including any parish. There is a trickle down effect and some of that money will end up with the diocese. This will continue until Blase Cupich is gone, and his successor proves to be a priest, not a politician. in the meantime I donate to true Catholic charities, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Concerning the March for Life…read the transcript where Cupich said from birth to natural death. Sorry, it's from conception. Cupich deserved the chat of "Shame!"
Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, is Chancellor of Catholic Extension (founded in 1905 by Fr. Francis Kelley), the President is Rev. John J. Wall.
Catholic Extension has an annual Spirit of Francis Award.
"According to the Catholic Exchange website, the award was established in 2014 to honor individuals and groups that have significantly aided the Catholic Church in the United States, "in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis and the founder of Catholic Extension, Fr. Francis Clement Kelley.""
Awardees:
2021 November – Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York
"Seventh Annual New York Spirit of Francis Award Dinner" Metropolitan Club NYC "Heroes of Hope $50,000 – Instruments of Change $25,000"
https://www.catholicextension.org/2021-spirit-francis-award-dinner-nyc/
2020 February – Antonio "T.J." Martinez SJ (posthumously)
"Fourth Annual Award Dinner" River Oaks Country Club Houston "Gold Table $50,000 – Silver Table $25,000"
https://give.catholicextension.org/page/14568/donate/1?locale=en-US
2019 February – In Houston, Curtis Guillory SVD Bishop of Beaumont TX
2018 March – In Boston, William Leahy SJ President of Boston College
2017 October – At the Metropolitan Club NYC, Joseph Parkes SJ President of Cristo Rey High School, New York
2017 January- In Houston, First Lady Cecelia Abbott of TX
2016 "Third AnnualTheodore McCarrick
2015 October – At the Metropolitan Club NYC, John Jenkins CSC, President of Notre Dame
In 1987 Rev. John J. Wall, Pastor of Old St. Patrick's in Chicago prior to his appointment as President of Catholic Extension in 2007, was tasked by Joseph Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, with the additional duty of "minister to Chicago media."
From the Old St. Patrick's website, Staff:
In Residence: Fr. John J. Wall
He is now pastor emeritus of Old St. Patrick's Church and president of the Catholic Extension Society. Father Wall continues to preside at Old St. Patrick's Church.
700 West Adams Street
Fr. Jack Wall Mission Center
711 West Monroe Street
https://www.oldstpats.org/clergy-and-pastoral-staff.html
The Crossroads, Old St. Patrick's Bulletin, Sunday, January 9, 2022:
"In June 2021 Cardinal Blase Cupich announced that Fr. McGrath [Patrick McGrath SJ, President of Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois] will become the next pastor of Old St. Patrick's Church in Chicago starting Summer 2022."
GuideStar entry:
Crossroads Center for Faith and Work
https://www.guidestar.org/profile/36-4220092
Software at Old St. Patrick's includes Church Community Builder ("It Takes A Village"; "Part Organizer Part Activator"):
https://www.churchcommunitybuilder.com/
"Notre Dame Club of Chicago – Strengths for the Journey 2017"
"Strengths for the Journey is a program consisting of four 90 minute sessions…"
"Using the Clifton StrengthsFinder 1.0 AssessmentTM and the book Living Your Strengths: the Catholic Edition (Gallup Press), participants identify their themes of talent, and reflect on how they can better use them to enhance every part of their life."
"Materials including the book ($20) will be distributed at the first session. Please do NOT pay online. Participants may pay at the first session. Space is limited."
Old St. Patrick's Church
https://www.events.org/cPage.aspx?e=103656
See Don Clifton and "First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently"
"Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Members of the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See" January 10, 2022
"Christmas": 1 ("the liturgical season of Christmas, a privileged period for cultivating family relationships")
"Jesus Christ": 0
"Christian confessions": 2
"God": 2
"We": 33
"I": 33
"My": 13
"Collective awareness": 1
"Comprehensive commitment": 1
"Comprehensive system": 1
"Differing visions" (as negative): 1
"Pandemic": 9
"Vaccines": 3
"Social": 13
"Climate change": 2
"New" [redesigned or created]: 3
"The pandemic prevented many young people from attending school, to the detriment of their personal and social development." [No mention of church closings.]
"None may consider themselves exempt from this effort [against "climate change"]."
"moral obligation [Covid vaccine]"
"lack of resolute decision-making"
"A political commitment is thus needed to pursue the good of the general population…"
"reality therapy [the pandemic]"
11 citations, 10 self-referential
The Holy Gospel of John 3:30-31:
He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above, is above all. He that is of the earth, of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh. He that cometh from heaven, is above all.
Pingback: Cupich's war on Catholics continues: a Chicago pastor speaks up | Fr. Z's Blog


text:
Amber Heard Loves Being a Stepmom to Johnny Depp's Kids: It's the "Most Surprising Gift"
By Joyce Chen
Amber Heard opened up to the December issue of Marie Claire and said she considers being a stepmother the "most surprising gift." Boe Marion/Marie Claire
The holiday season isn't even upon us yet, but Amber Heard says she's already been given the best present of all: being stepmom to husband Johnny Depp's two children — Lily-Rose, 16, and Jack, 13.
"[It's] an honor and the greatest, most surprising gift I have ever received in my life," she says in the December issue of Marie Claire. "I feel new flavors that I didn't know existed. New colors that I didn't know existed have been added to my life. I'm so happy."
PHOTOS: Secret celeb weddings
Depp shares Lily-Rose and Jack with singer Vanessa Paradis, with whom he had a 14-year relationship before calling it quits in 2012.
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Heard, 29, and Depp, 52, tied the knot in several hush-hush ceremonies this past February, including one at Depp's Hollywood home, and another on a white sandy beach in the Bahamas.
PHOTOS: Celeb couples and how they first met
The pair, who began dating in 2012 after meeting on the set of The Rum Diary, have largely kept a tight lid on their relationship.
But something Heard is not hesitant to talk about is how she's managed to stay grounded and maintain her independence despite being one-half of such a high-profile couple.
PHOTOS: Costar couples
"You respect what it takes to earn [money], and it also gives you a certain resilience, because it minimizes this false notion that that's what matters," she says. "I know that to not be true, and I know I'm fine without it. That's why maybe I'm so independent. I never expect anyone to give me anything — the notion of someone supporting me would be absurd to me."


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Cloud-based membership management suite for alumni, school and other organizations. Store membership data online, giving both the organization, and its members, 24/7/365 access to keep data up-to-date. Our clients include all sizes of K-12 schools, associations, small colleges and universities, non-profit membership groups (camp, youth group, etc.), and corporate-based alumni networks. A cloud-based membership management suite for alumni, school and other organizations.
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ProClass provides easy to use and flexible class & event management, online registration, membership management, donor management and fundraising software. ProClass clients include continuing education, dance and gymnastics studios, arts organizations, non profits, business and religious associations, afterschool programs, camps, training facilities, lifelong learning, community health organizations, certification and non credit education providers. Cloud-based classroom management tool that helps with registration, membership management and communications.
Almabay creates a contemporary and aesthetically pleasing alumni website for the institute. Through this website vision and mission of the organization is shared with the alumni. Alumni get their individual login and password from where they can engage fellow alumni and students socially and professionally. Alumni can login from their personal ids, facebook or linkedin thus keeping the information updated and relevant. Online platform where you can create a network for your alumni to plan events and meetings.
Providing membership and contact management software with event booking to many sectors since 1995. Powerful yet affordable, with editions to suit all budgets. Easy to use software comes in editions to suit all budgets. Backed up with full data conversion, installation, training and support services. Ideal for clubs, associations, institutes, societies and more. Prospect handling, contact tracking, payment handling, on-line features, targeted mailing, emailing and SMS and much more. Membership contact management software and event booking software for your club, association, society, social group, etc.
Cloud-based higher education data architecture (HEDA) platform that helps educational institutes with student lifecycle management. Cloud-based higher education data architecture (HEDA) platform that helps educational institutes with student lifecycle management.
Fundraising, alumni, and event management system with extensive database and communication functionality for educational organizations. Fundraising, alumni, and event management system with extensive database and communication functionality for educational organizations.
EnterrpriseAlumni is a rapidly deployed and fully customizable corporate Alumni platform to manage your Alumni & Retiree community atop your existing HRIS solution, with deep integrations into existing Cloud, OnPremise & External applications. Enables talent pipeline transformation, deep engagement with the extended network and accelerates sales leads. The fully automated platform runs live in under 30 days. Large enterprise fully integrated and customizable Alumni & Retiree management platform to rapidly grow a successful corporate program.
Alumni portal, iOS and Android app to help institutes manage their alumni community with features like Jobs, Fund Raising, Events. Alumni portal, iOS and Android app to help institutes manage their alumni community with features like Jobs, Fund Raising, Events.
Viburnix gives schools, colleges, universities & corporates a unified communication and collaboration platform. Viburnix effectively engages alumni and keeps them plugged into your organization. It enables you to leverage your national and international reputation to create a climate of engagement and benefaction necessary to building a vibrant alumni community while building your brand identity.Get your portal at the lowest price starting $2599. Alumni relations portal. Gives schools, colleges, universities and corporates a unified communication and collaboration platform.
Potentiality helps build strong communities by connecting you with alumni. Potentiality helps build strong communities by connecting you with alumni.
Specifically designed to provide integrated management of online communities and a full-featured content management system. Specifically designed to provide integrated management of online communities and a full-featured content management system.
A web solution for online alumni communities to answer the challenges and demands of the next-generation alumni community. A web solution for online alumni communities to answer the challenges and demands of the next-generation alumni community.
The best alumni management software that helps schools and universities to connect with their graduates by helping them in building and updating their databases and effectively communicate with their graduates. Gradsgate is recognized as a leading alumni management software with over 150+ clients in Europe, Asia and USA. An evolutionary alumni management software that helps schools and universities to connect with their graduates.
Strengthens alumni and affinity communities by helping their members help one another. Strengthens alumni and affinity communities by helping their members help one another.
Inexpensive alumni tracking software to keep track of past students and advertise their positive experiences to prospective students. Inexpensive alumni tracking software to keep track of past students and advertise their positive experiences to prospective students.
Founded in 1998, Finalsite is the partner for over 2000 independent schools, public school districts, and colleges and universities in more than 70 countries for our award-winning design, best-in-class web software, and integration with a wide range of third-party data providers, including student information systems and social media applications. Easy to use alumni portals that allow your alumni to keep in touch with your school and each other.
SaaS-based, alumni management platform that helps students and employers with the process of campus placement and on-boarding. SaaS-based, alumni management platform that helps students and employers with the process of campus placement and on-boarding.
Web-based online alumni management application may be "re-skinned" to deploy on other school and university web sites. Web-based online alumni management application may be "re-skinned" to deploy on other school and university web sites.
schoolALUMNI provides a fully integrated, private, supportive online alumni database for your former pupils that both they and you can benefit from. Provides a fully integrated, private, supportive online alumni database for your former pupils that both they and you can benefit from.
Ability to Segment Alumni by Various Demographics and Criteria, Manage and Track All Alumni Affiliations and much more. Ability to Segment Alumni by Various Demographics and Criteria, Manage and Track All Alumni Affiliations and much more.
Planning and coordinating tool for school, military or company reunions. Designed to manage and track budget, tasks, and events. Planning and coordinating tool for school, military or company reunions. Designed to manage and track budget, tasks, and events.
AlmaConnect provides customized alumni networks to institutes for leveraging & managing alumni networks. It has a tracking algorithm that runs over Facebook / LinkedIn that not only auto-finds alumni of an institute & invite them to sign up on the college portal, but also keeps profile information of alumni updated in a central database so that institute can benefit in better corporate relations, branding & students help. A platform offering customized alumni portal for leveraging & managing alumni networks.
AlumnForce is a private professional social network solution dedicated to schools, universities, alumni associations and foundations with the aim of building relationships between students, graduates alumni, recruiters, professors and administrations. The application can be customized to suit the image of the community and is functionally modular to meet your organizations priorities. A private professional social network solution designed to empower Alumni networks. Engage alumni on an evolving and modular platform.
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Flexible, full-featured, scalable software solution developed to manage the complex needs of continuing alumni. Flexible, full-featured, scalable software solution developed to manage the complex needs of continuing alumni.
With over a decade's experience in the online sector, Aluminati create and integrate fully managed online applications that allow alumni to engage in meaningful actions relevant to them, working with notable institutions across the UK and internationally. Whether it is running private, high trust eMentoring communities, providing branded Email-for-Life services, or reaching out to allow alumni to update your data via LinkedIn or Facebook, we can help to unlock the power of member networks. Cutting-edge online platforms and applications offering structured engagement and giving your alumni and members what they want.
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Firsthand Alumni and Mentoring Platform connects students and alumni one-on-one. Firsthand Alumni and Mentoring Platform connects students and alumni one-on-one.
An easy-to-use engagement metrics solution to connecting your entire alumni network with cloud based software and mobile capabilities. An easy-to-use engagement metrics solution to connecting your entire alumni network with cloud based software and mobile capabilities.
AlmaHub is a one stop solution to build an engaging, online alumni community on Web & Mobile. It provides features such as network with alumnus, offer mentorship opportunities for students, job boards for alumnus, manage event tickets and many more. Our goal at AlmaHub is to simplify the task of building and maintaining lifelong relationships amongst Alumnus. With our product you can easily handle all of your Alumni Community management needs and build a close knit network of Alumnus. A complete alumni network building solution that provides everything you need to keep your alumni engaged and connected.
Customizable alumni community management platform that can be customized to your needs. Customizable alumni community management platform that can be customized to your needs.
Cloud based alumni network solution for universities,colleges and schools. Cloud based alumni network solution for universities,colleges and schools.


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text:
Attorney general settles with reverse mortgage broker accused of misleading elderly
By Jenifer McKim The Eye,April 10, 2017, 9:00 p.m.
Dolores Rush of Quincy complained to the attorney general after a financial planner convinced her to get a reverse mortgage without explaining the high costs.Jenifer McKim/The Eye
Dolores Rush of Quincy wishes she never obtained a reverse mortgage on her three-bedroom family home. She and her now-deceased husband had paid off their conventional mortgage and had no debts.
But she said a financial adviser persuaded the retired couple in 2009 to take out a $250,000 loan against the value of their home and funnel the money into investments — without explaining the financial repercussions, including $17,000 in closing costs alone. When monthly statements revealed that the Rushes were sinking further into debt, she called the state attorney general's office for help.
"It's like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,'' said the sprightly 74-year-old. "There are so many things they don't tell you."
Rush's complaint spurred a state investigation into alleged collusion between a Massachusetts mortgage broker and an insurance agent and serves as a warning, state regulators say, about the perils of obtaining a complicated reverse mortgage.
Attorney General Maura Healey said last week that she had obtained a $137,500 settlement with the two men — James Moniz and Daniel Matthews — to discharge claims they colluded to profit from "risky financial transactions" that involved funneling reverse mortgage proceeds into other investments.
Reverse mortgages are meant to help people 62 and older "age in place" by giving them cash from the equity in their homes. Borrowers typically receive a loan or a line of credit, in a lump sum or in monthly payments. They are allowed to defer payments on the debt until they die, move away, or fail to pay taxes and insurance. Proceeds from the sale of the property can be used to pay off the loan.
Healey said people should be wary about using funds from the home loans to buy financial products like annuities, which provide investors with steady dividends over time. First, the costs of the reverse mortgage can more than offset the income from the annuity. Also, annuities pose other risks because there can be steep financial penalties for withdrawing funds ahead of time, according to the state's lawsuit.
"These defendants took advantage of elderly homeowners who spent decades building equity in their homes," Healey said.
Moniz and Matthews admitted no wrongdoing. But the agreement focuses added attention on reverse mortgages, which for the most part are insured by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, with nearly 636,000 active loans across the United States. There's been a growing momentum among some financial advisers to market reverse mortgages to people with more financial means as part of an overall retirement strategy.
But the growth of reverse mortgages has been marred by deceptive practices, scams, and foreclosures. In December, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took action against three companies for deceptive advertising, claiming the groups falsely said homeowners could not lose their properties while they have reverse mortgages. Lenders can foreclose if owners don't pay their property charges or maintain their properties.
In California last month, a woman was sentenced to a year in prison for allegedly stealing $117,000 from a 74-year-old man as part of a reverse mortgage scam.
HUD in 2008 instituted a requirement that reverse mortgage brokers not work with other investment or insurance groups. That was done "to insulate seniors from unscrupulous brokers who would use the reverse mortgage platform to sell them products they don't need," said HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan.
To better educate homeowners, the industry organization, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, published an online guide in November. Among the recommendations, the pamphlet says, "It is never recommended that reverse mortgage borrowers use their loan proceeds to speculate on real estate or securities."
Rush said that she and her husband, a firefighter and bricklayer, went to Moniz, who billed himself as a financial adviser, to make sure they were set for retirement.
She said Moniz persuaded them to take out a $250,000 loan from their home and funnel it into a $100,000 annuity and a $150,000 investment account. They didn't understand, she said, how costly the home loan would be — including mounting debt each month as the mortgage increased with interest and fees.
"They don't tell you about the high fees," she said.
In 2015, the attorney general's office filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court against Moniz, Matthews, and Matthew's employer, Norwell-based Direct Finance Corp., seeking restitution as well as civil penalties.
They claimed the defendants failed to disclose details of the mortgage and insurance products — a "toxic mix of financial obligations" — and that they were paid commissions.
In the March settlement, Moniz and Matthews agreed they would not blend their products — Moniz would not associate with mortgage brokers to market reverse mortgages, and Matthews would not "voluntarily" refer clients to financial advisers or market insurance or investment products.
Moniz could not be reached for comment.
Matthews said that he did nothing wrong and never pushed clients to funnel mortgage proceeds into other investments. He said the Rushes were counseled about the financial details of a reverse mortgage and knew what they were getting into. He released affidavits from clients who said they were happy with his service and clear on the costs of a reverse mortgage. He also released records showing that Moniz paid the entire settlement to the state.
"We don't tell people what to do with their money,'' Matthews said.
Alain Valles, president of Direct Finance Corp., could not be reached for comment. On its website, the company advertises the reverse mortgage as a "tax-free loan" that can be used to pay bills, taxes, and vacations.
In a settlement with the attorney general, John Hancock Life Insurance Co. in 2014 agreed to refund seniors more than $550,000 to settle allegations it had failed to supervise Moniz, who sold "unsuitable" annuities and life insurance policies.
Moniz was terminated in 2013 after an internal investigation, according to a John Hancock spokeswoman.
Rush said that, in the end, she was able to repay the home loan to get out of the reverse mortgage. She's eager to warn others to avoid her troubles.
"We were just your average American, 'Joe Schmo,' and we wanted to make sure everything was OK, and they took us for a nice big ride,'' she said. "Initially I was scared. Then I was angry."
The Eye is the online news site of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, based at Boston University and WGBH Public Radio. Jenifer McKim can be reached at jenifer.mckim@necir.org.


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text:
New York Times: Hong Kong Marks Tiananmen Crackdown, as China Ignores Event
By Angie Chan
HONG KONG — Tens of thousands of pro-democracy activists turned out in Hong Kong Monday to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing, observing an event that goes largely unmentioned in mainland China.
This year's vigil focused on freeing "dissidents imprisoned or under home arrest" in addition to pushing for greater democracy in mainland China.
The protesters marking the Tiananmen anniversary in Hong Kong have seen their numbers dwindle in the years since the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement gripped Hong Kong in 2014. Organizers said as many as 180,000 people showed up to that year's June 4 vigil — the police estimated the number to be roughly half that — but last year they estimated 110,000 people attended.
Heavy rains on Monday also limited this year's turnout at the event, held annually in the semiautonomous territory.
Tens of thousands of people attended the annual
candlelight vigil at Hong Kong's Victoria Park,
on Monday, to mark the 29th anniversary of the
Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Kin Cheung/Associated Press
One reason for the declining attendance is that many student organizations are unwilling to join the vigil, arguing that the event should focus on democracy in Hong Kong, rather than mainland China.
But not all students agree.
"They are letting the events that happened in Tiananmen fade," said Wong Nga-man, a student at Hong Kong Baptist University. "I want to show that there are still young people like myself who believe in the values of the vigil, for the Tiananmen crackdown and democracy."
Organizers of this year's event have seized on the death the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, prominently displaying a bust of him in the city's Times Square and bringing it to Monday night's vigil. Democracy activists have been calling for the release of his widow, Liu Xia, who is under house arrest.
At a second, smaller and unsanctioned vigil, one speaker called for the international community to investigate the deaths in Tiananmen.
Michael Mo Kwan-tai, the speaker, called for "the International Criminal Court to investigate suspicions of crimes against humanity."
The organizer of the larger main vigil, Chow Hang-tung, said before the event that she planned to call for an "end to one-party dictatorship."
Organizers said more than 100,000 people were in attendance despite the rain. Many of the participants held candles during the somber ceremony.
The vigil in Hong Kong is a stark departure from the situation in China, where protests are banned and mentions of the Tiananmen crackdown, in which hundreds if not thousands of protesters died, are scrubbed from social media.
Mike Pompeo, the United States secretary of state, called attention to the anniversary Sunday, releasing a statement urging "the Chinese government to make a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing" and "to release those who have been jailed for striving to keep the memory of Tiananmen Square alive."
Correction: June 3, 2018
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a capsule summary with this article misstated the year of a deadly crackdown on protesters in Beijing. It was 1989, not 1979.
ChinaAid Media Team
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HomeLiteraryDimitris Lyacos. With the People from the Bridge. Translated by Shorsha Sullivan.
Dimitris Lyacos. With the People from the Bridge. Translated by Shorsha Sullivan.
Dimitris Lyacos' long, tripartite poem, Poena Damni, is one of the most important and challenging literary works to come from Greece in the past generation, and it has achieved an international reputation.
October 15, 2016 Robert Zaller Literary 0
Dimitris Lyacos' long, tripartite poem, Poena Damni, is one of the most important and challenging literary works to come from Greece in the past generation, and it has achieved an international reputation. With the People of the Bridge is a thoroughly reworked version of the second part of the trilogy, originally published as Nictyvoe. We will perhaps not have a definitive version of the poem until its parts, separately published until now, appear in a single volume, and so a consideration of it as a whole may be premature. The separate parts, however, stand as individual works, and so the current installment can be properly considered on its own.
"Poem" is itself an approximate genre description of this complex and polyvalent text, which combines elements of staging, ritual, and passages whose indentation on the page seem to mark them as verse soliloquy, choral incantation, or simple description. There is a figure, the Narrator, who doesn't narrate but seems to function as a kind of stage manager and director, assigning the other "players" their roles and action; tenses fade in and out of the first person, and, in the absence of named individuals, identities only slowly coalesce and are seldom stable for long. Lyacos gives a firm sense of mastery in these disparate materials, since nothing In them seems wasted or arbitrary and the sense of atmosphere they build is cumulative and compelling. But you will look in vain for anything approaching a resolution. This is not a world in which things are resolved.
The setting of the poem is likewise ambiguous. There is indeed a bridge, though it has no indication of traffic: perhaps it is a derelict structure, or perhaps the people who live by or under it, like any homeless population, are simply cut off from any economy beyond scavenging. On the other hand, they are not the people under or of the bridge, but those "from" it, which implies a more than temporary abode. Perhaps it might be better to suggest that their home is rather a situation, and the bridge, which comes from nowhere and goes to nowhere (an indistinct past; an uncertain future), is an emblem of it.
The 'people'—thirteen more or less identifiable characters, but also assorted voices and disembodied presences that appear among them as revenants—are, like any homeless population, living in primitive conditions, burning fires for warmth and using a cut-down oil drum as a table-cum-altar. But they also have possession of a working TV and the cast-off technology of a video cassette, and books and newspapers are occasionally brought in from outside, primarily for fuel. The suggestion is that some form of modern civilization is still going on outside, but it is also true that past and present are interpenetrable, as if time had been beaten flat. If there is any privileged moment, it is the biblical one, for biblical texts are quoted, paraphrased, or intimated throughout the text, and the Bible is the one book the 'people' do not consider burning. This point d'appui creates the spatiotemporal grid on which the poem rests, enabling Lyacos to move from remote antiquity and folklore through visionary figures such as Dante to the stalled and crumbling enterprise of modernity. If we're never entirely clear where (and when) we are, it's because we're everywhere at once, among the living and the dead, all of them copresent in the matrix of the text.
This is, one might say, a displaced Christian vision—perhaps the only vision of wholeness available to our own chronological hour. At its most exalted, the Christian vision was one of a kingdom of souls, living, dead, and yet to come, all comprehended in the eternal gaze and embrace of God—but torn, too, by the competing empires of Heaven and Hell. The vision, that is, was at once unitary and fluid, and deeply penetrated, as historical Christianity was, by the darker visions of folkloric myth, of wandering spirits, of vampires, of unseen presences just beyond the campfire. Christianity sought to banish or at least domesticate these dead/undead figures, but in its present technobarbaric decay (the Narrator with nothing left to narrate; the communication devices with nothing to communicate), they deeply unsettle us again. A quotation from Mark 5.9 early in the poem reminds us of the task of exorcism faced by early Christianity:
For he said unto him, come out thou
unclean spirit from the
man, and he asked him;
what is thy name? and he answered
saying ;my name is legion
for we are many. (13)
What Jesus expels is not a single spirit but a figurative host, and whether and to whom this is welcome is unclear. The dogs whose barking is invoked throughout the poem are also symbolic both of the underworld (Cerberus) and of the sensory alertness that detects the presence of the fearful and the uncanny; they are, too, emblematic of the feral creatures of social decay. This symbolic polyvalence takes the place of metaphor, and Lyacos is able, because of the temporal simultaneity he creates, to suggest a complex and reverberant matrix for which what seems the plainest of speech will serve. At the same time, however, this apparent simplicity and directness is undercut by broken utterance and fragmentary syntax that leaves the reader repeatedly suspended over a void, while it is also belied by the wealth of cultural reference embedded in it by silent quotation and allusion. This is no parade of learning for the critical cognoscenti, however; as in Samuel Beckett, the pressure of an entire civilizational epoch lies behind the most seemingly casual and transparent rhetorical gestures.
In what one might call the conventionally apocalyptic postmodern text, a vision of broken narrative, endless repetition, and meaning not signified but depleted by speech and gesture would appear to be the goal. There are moments that, taken in isolation, seem to suggest this in Lyacos as well. Speech and action are repeatedly broken off; circumstances seem, by sheer dint of repeated invocation, to grow, if not worse, then something worse than that: petrified. Fires will not stay lit; wounds will not heal. Seagulls that swoop to peck at exposed flesh seem to indicate a city under a particularly intimate and malefic kind of siege. But Lyacos' aim is not to depict despair as such. It is rather, in the deeply Christian signification of the poem, to suggest the possibility of redemption. Indeed, his fundamental insight is that redemption is dialectically entwined with despair, and that one cannot be called forth without the other.
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Dr. Robert Zaller is an American author, playwright, and professor of history at Drexel University. An authority on British political history and constitutional thought, he writes extensively on politics, modern literature, film, music and art. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
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Q: How fast does $\prod_{p\leq x}\frac 1{1-p^{-k}}$ diverge when $0We have that
$$\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{\sigma(n)}{n\log(\log(n))}=e^\gamma$$
$$\limsup_{n\to\infty}\log(\tau(n))\frac{\log(\log(n))}{\log(n)}=\log(2).$$
I'm trying to find a similar result for $\sigma_k$ for $0<k<1$. The two results above correspond to the ends of the interval $\tau=\sigma_0$ and $\sigma=\sigma_1$. For an $n=p_1^{a_1}\dots p_r^{a_r}$,
$$\sigma_k(n)=\prod_{h=1}^r\frac{p_h^{k(a_h+1)}-1}{p_h^k-1}$$
$$\frac{\sigma_k(n)}{n^k}=\prod_{h=1}^r\frac{1-p_h^{-k(a_h+1)}}{1-p_h^{-k}}.$$
Each term in the product is a decreasing function of $p_h$, so for this quantity to be large we want the $p_h$ to be small, so assume they're the primes in increasing order $p_1=2$, etc. By choosing all of the $a_h$ to be large the numerators all approach 1, but the behavior of the denominators is more vexing. We have
$$\frac{\sigma_k(n)}{n^k}<\prod_{h=1}^r\frac 1{1-p_h^{-k}}$$
so define
$$f_k(x)=\prod_{p\leq x}\frac 1{1-p^{-k}}.$$
It seems reasonable to conjecture that $\frac{\sigma_k(n)}{n^k}$ is close to $f_k(p_r)$, that is, that the the above inequality is tight. This is why I want an asymptotic form for $f_k$.
I did some numerical computation for the $k=\frac 12$ case. Plotting $\log(f_{1/2})$ on a log-log plot got me a surprisingly linear-looking relationship, which corresponds to
$$f_{1/2}(x)\approx e^{x^\alpha}$$
where $\alpha=0.3751988607236585$. Other than guessing this is three eights, I don't know.

I tried using the Euler product
$$\sum_{n=1}^x\frac 1{n^k}<f_k(x)$$
but it appears this inequality is far from tight, as the left-hand side is asymptotically polynomial.

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Production car stalwart Rod Salmon has announced he'll be racing next weekend in the Australian Production Car Series, despite his new Mercedes Benz A45 AMG waiting on parts from Germany.
Salmon will return to his roots for the second round of the series, entering his Mitsubishi Evo 10 that will be shared with young-gun Will Brown for the first time.
"The new car is just brilliant and I really enjoyed racing it at Bathurst, but unfortunately with around half an hour to go the 4WD system gave way and we were left with only two-wheel drive," Salmon said.
"This leaves us waiting for parts to come all the way from Germany and there just isn't enough time to have the car ready in time for Winton next week.
"So, this means we will be bringing the old faithful Mitsubishi Evo 10 to battle for Round 2.
Dunlop Super2 racer Brown replaces Salmon's regular co-driver Nathan Antunes, who is unavailable for the Winton round.
"Will Brown is an up and coming superstar, he is the F4 and Toyota86 Champion and is currently driving in the Dunlop Super2 Series," Salmon said.
"Earlier this year I drove to a class victory with him in the Bathurst 12 Hour in the MARC car.
"He really impressed me with his speed and maturity, as well as the fact that he is just a great young man.
"We are not going there to fill in the field that is for sure, we will be looking to be on the podium.
Winton Motor Raceway will host two 300km races as part of the third round of the 2017 Shannons Nationals.


A distinct nip in the air..and already in the morning sun Beanwood has that autumnal "glow" when the weak sun hits the top leaves in the wood turning them a lovely golden colour.
Growers continue to develop, and at last I am now able to see the potential in some of the large salmon cockerels, it does take time as they mature more slowly than the females and the colour in the boys take a good 6 months to be able to detirmine the final plumage. When raising the large faverolles, patience is a must and try not to be tempted to over feed them, let them develop naturally so they develop good strong muscle which I believe gives them that lovely strong shape and stature.
We feed our boys on Garvo cockerel grower and supplement with Alfastart chicks which contains good quality protein. I find it can take a year to get one of them up to their full weight and size. Oregano is also given in the form of Oregistim in the drinking water to aid good gut health and feathering along with cod liver oil occasionaly given mixed in feed.
Hatching early though is important to allow the long days for optimal growth and development, otherwise all their energy will be used to keep warm in the short winter months and not for growing. We try when developing breeding stock not to hatch beyond March, although we still will hatch later but those will probably not be mature until late summer of the following year. We usually can see the potential at around 6 months, these are then named...and used for the following year for breeding, the others are grown on for the pot.
The other colours are easier, especially the bantams and it looks like I also have some nicely marked ermines as well as one or two good blacks. I also have one particulary "stocky" salmon bantam cockerel, son of Cliff Lowes strain, showing lovely type already. My thanks to Sue Bruton for letting me have the cockerel for breeding.
This is Hercules, one of my pullet breeding large salmon boys for next year...we also have Titan, a darker "cherry" mahogany boy. Hercules was actually a late March hatch, but this strain.. a true "utility" does mature faster that the darker strain I also keep, which takes forever to get to a decent size! You can see here depth of keel, width across the breast and saddle, he also has that strong stature that we like to breed here. This enables the bird to carry plenty of meat.


A couple of pronunciation-themed lesson shares; one introducing the phonemic chart and the other practising minimal pairs pronunciation.
Linda Alley wins this month's Lesson Share with a lesson focussing on the /r/ and /l/ sounds.
Introducing the phonemic chart and in particular the phonetic symbols used to represent diphthongs.
To practise minimal pairs pronunciation.


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$91M settlement over WW II federal bombing range 'way forward' for Enoch Cree Nation, says chief
November 23, 2020 November 24, 2020 Stan 0 Comments
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Chief Billy Morin stands just off the seventh hole tee box of what used to be the Indian Lakes Golf Course in Enoch Cree Nation, just west of Edmonton.
He talks about his late father, who worked the golf course, and how golf was his medicine. In generations before, the sweetgrass, sage and muskeg tea that grew adjacent to nearby Yekau Lake were his ancestors' medicines.
But in the 1940s, this land served a much different purpose: it was a practice bombing range for Allied forces during World War II.
Morin estimates up to 100,000 munitions were dropped between 1942 and 1944. The land, he said, was taken by the government despite not holding a referendum for Enoch band members.
On Nov. 13, the nation and the federal government reached an agreement for $91 million to cover trauma endured by people who lived nearby, future cleanup of the land, and lost income from the golf course, which closed in 2014 for safety reasons.
For Morin, it's impossible to put a price on trauma endured. But as one of the lead negotiators on the claim for the past five years, he's happy to close this chapter for his nation.
"It is historic to settle a land claim that's just about 80 years old," Morin said.
"No amount of money can ever put this land back to what it was … but hopefully the nation decides some good things to happen with this land going forward."
In a statement, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett said the federal government will be available to Enoch Cree Nation should they need any special help in continued cleanup of the land.
Land felt unsafe
Morin has heard stories from elders who lived near the range in the 1940s as young people. They'd feel their houses shake — old enough to understand there was a war raging on but too young to understand their place in it.
The federal government leased the land from Enoch, but Morin said leadership donated that money right back to the war efforts, something he is proud of.
"I think it goes back to what we inherently wanted when we signed a treaty," he said.
"It was working together for the common good. And at that time, the more common good was banding together and defending this country."
After the area was decommissioned as a bombing range, the Canadian government had no other use for the land.
But nation members had to deal with the fallout. There were no fish in the lake; they couldn't use the grounds for hunting anymore because it was unsafe.
An archival photo of Enoch Cree Nation out near Yekau Lake. (Submitted by Enoch Cree Nation)
For the first few years after the Second World War ended, Yekau Lake was the only water source for the Cree who lived there. If they wanted to go elsewhere, they'd have to get permission from the federal government, as per the Indian Act.
"They felt a lot of hurt," Morin said.
"And it was still a wound that at this time [is] still open."
Gary Morin lived near Yekau Lake in the 1950s, and he remembers people being scared to go there.
"Fear took a lot of their freedom away," he said.
But at some point, hunger forced the hand of people on the reserve. The 71-year-old remembers hunting near Yekau Lake when he was seven years old — when he'd retrieve ducks that the older hunters shot over the lake.
Gary Morin, a 71-year-old elder in the community, was a steward of sorts for the Yekau Lake area for decades. (Dave Bajer/CBC)
Occasionally, he said, he'd come across what looked like a "big lead bullet."
Gary Morin later became a steward of sorts over the land, tending to cattle there. He saw first-hand the effects the bombs had — wild horses would fall into the craters left by the bombs, and the lake seemed like it was losing vegetation possibly due to pollution from the munitions.
A lot of the wildlife he used to see — cougars, lynx, rabbits — haven't returned, he said.
Despite the drastic change to the land, Gary Morin helped build powwow grounds near the lake to help return it to an important part of maskêkosihk, which means land of the medicines in nehiyawewin (Cree).
He also was part of the leadership that built the Indian Lakes Golf Course.
'Felt like betrayal'
Chief Billy Morin said they began using the lands as they'd been told that only practice rounds — smoke and flash bombs — had been used, munitions that aren't as much of a threat as their more explosive counterparts.
In a statement to CBC News, the Department of National Defence said its has "found no evidence that any other munitions were used at the site."
It said extensive searches in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2014 found only three unexploded practice rounds which were removed. It deems the land safe for use, but wants the public to be aware of what happened on the land before using it.
But an independent surveyor contracted by Enoch found evidence of live, heavy-action explosives in 2011, and deemed the whole area unsafe.
One of the munitions found in 2011 near the Indian Lakes Golf Course. It prompted the closure of the Indian Lakes Golf Course on the reserve in 2014. (Supplied)
It was this mixed messaging that hurt the nation's trust in the then-Conservative government.
"It felt like betrayal," Billy Morin said.
"It kind of felt like the government's always hiding something or there was another agenda or they're just not in it to do the right thing by us and this land to make it whole again, to have a good, prosperous future on it."
In 2015, when the federal Liberals took office, Billy Morin went from councillor to chief. They wiped the slate clean on negotiations and came to an agreement five years later.
'It's safe out here'
Billy Morin is talking about the richness of the land and the medicine it had before the bombing range when he spots a deer near the lake. Some medicines have returned.
He hopes to reopen the golf course his dad loved so much. He wants buffalo to roam the area again one day, and he wants to create a space for nation members to enjoy the outdoors, hunt and pick medicine.
Gary Morin wants to see the buffalo roam again, too. He said he sees some "strange-looking birds" these days, a sign that the land is returning to its natural state.
An overhead view of Yekau Lake, which was used in the 1940s as a practice bombing range. (Dave Bajer/CBC)
It's still not perfect. The Department of National Defence has said the site was assessed as having a low unexploded-device risk in 2011, but admitted the site can never be declared completely hazard-free.
But Chief Billy Morin said the settlement is a good path forward.
"At the end of the day, the federal government and the negotiators don't have to live here. We do. And we have to find an acceptable way forward for our nation members," he said.
"I believe it's safe out here for people. I believe we're taking all the right steps to make it safe, otherwise we would have never signed the deal."
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