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Huntington Bancshares Incorporated Reports 2016 Third Quarter Earnings
October 26, 2016 7:30am EDT Download as PDF
Completion of Transformational FirstMerit Acquisition Highlights Quarter
COLUMBUS, OH -- (Marketwired) -- 10/26/16 -- Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ: HBAN) (www.huntington.com) reported net income for the 2016 third quarter of $127 million, a $26 million, or 17%, decrease from the year-ago quarter, impacted by FirstMerit acquisition-related expenses. Earnings per common share for the 2016 third quarter were $0.11, down $0.07, or 39%, from the year-ago quarter. FirstMerit acquisition-related expenses totaled $159 million pretax, or $0.11 per common share. Total revenue increased 24% over the year-ago quarter.
"We are very excited about the third-quarter acquisition of FirstMerit, which has strengthened the return profile of the company," said Steve Steinour, chairman, president and CEO. "We delivered solid core fundamental performance for the quarter. Acquisition-related expenses continue to be in line with our expectations and guidance. Auto and mortgage lending were among the significant drivers of organic loan growth during the quarter, complemented by acquisition-related growth. We are entering a new era for Huntington, as we introduce our customer-centric strategies and operating model to new geographies and improve our operating efficiency due to increased scale."
"Integration execution is proceeding on schedule as we move closer to operating as one expanded company with each passing day," Steinour said. "We have completed workforce onboarding and initial training, and we are laser-focused on customer experience and retention. In addition, we remain confident we will complete the majority of system conversions during the first quarter of 2017, swiftly moving toward our target of realizing $255 million of annualized cost savings."
"We continue to implement revenue synergies that were not included in the original FirstMerit financial model," Steinour said. "For example, as we look forward to further deploying Huntington's Small Business Administration lending expertise within our expanded customer base and geographies, we are again pleased to rank as the second-highest SBA 7(a) lender nationwide in terms of number of loans. Within our combined geography of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Huntington was ranked first in number of SBA 7(a) loans and total dollars lent. We look forward to an even stronger SBA fiscal year in 2017 as we add lending capabilities in Chicago and Wisconsin."
"Finally, Huntington is honored today to have been recognized in MONEY Magazine's Best Banks in America for 2016-2017, as the Best Regional Bank: Great Lakes," Steinour said. "We are humbled that MONEY has chosen to recognize our commitment to value, transparency, fairness, service and convenience for our customers, including Huntington as a Best Bank for four out of the past six years."
Specific 2016 Third Quarter Highlights:
Closing of the acquisition of FirstMerit Corporation (FirstMerit), which added approximately $26.8 billion of total assets, $15.5 billion of total loans and leases, and $21.2 billion of total deposits
FirstMerit integration proceeding as planned; branch conversion scheduled for 2017 first quarter, and required branch divestiture expected to be completed during 2016 fourth quarter
Estimated FirstMerit annualized cost savings of $255 million are specifically identified and expected to be fully implemented within one year; potential revenue enhancements also identified and execution already begun
Continued balance sheet optimization strategy following completion of FirstMerit acquisition, resulting in movement of $2.6 billion of loans to Loans Held-For-Sale
Recently announced 14% increase in quarterly cash dividend to $0.08 per share
$182 million, or 24%, year-over-year increase in fully-taxable equivalent revenue, comprised of a $132 million, or 26%, increase in fully-taxable equivalent net interest income and a $49 million, or 19%, increase in noninterest income
Net interest margin of 3.18%, an increase of 2 basis points from the year-ago quarter
$186 million, or 35%, year-over-year increase in noninterest expense, including $159 million of FirstMerit acquisition-related expense during the 2016 third quarter compared to $43 million of Significant Items during the year-ago quarter
$11.7 billion, or 24%, year-over-year increase in average loans and leases, primarily driven by a $5.2 billion, or 26%, increase in commercial and industrial (C&I) loans and a $2.5 billion, or 28%, increase in automobile loans
$4.4 billion, or 32%, year-over-year increase in average securities, including a net increase of $0.8 billion of direct purchase municipal instruments in our Commercial Banking segment
$11.1 billion, or 22%, year-over-year increase in average core deposits, driven by a $5.8 billion, or 87%, increase in interest-bearing demand deposits and a $3.0 billion, or 18%, increase in noninterest-bearing demand deposits
$0.40, or 6%, year-over-year decrease in tangible book value per common share (TBVPS) to $6.48
Table 1 -- Earnings Performance Summary
($ in millions, except per share data) Third Second First Fourth Third
Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter
Net Income $ 127 $ 175 $ 171 $ 178 $ 153
Diluted earnings per common share 0.11 0.19 0.20 0.21 0.18
Return on average assets 0.58% 0.96% 0.96% 1.00% 0.87%
Return on average common equity 5.4 9.6 10.4 10.8 9.3
Return on average tangible common equity 7.0 11.0 11.9 12.4 10.7
Net interest margin 3.18 3.06 3.11 3.09 3.16
Efficiency ratio 75.0 66.1 64.6 63.7 69.1
Tangible book value per common share $ 6.48 $ 7.29 $ 7.12 $ 6.91 $ 6.88
Cash dividends declared per common share 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.06
Average diluted shares outstanding (000's) 952,081 810,371 808,349 810,143 814,326
Average earning assets $ 79,687 $ 67,863 $ 66,234 $ 64,961 $ 63,323
Average loans and leases (1) 60,722 51,932 50,618 49,827 49,046
Average core deposits 62,022 51,895 51,363 51,585 50,891
Tangible common equity / tangible assets ratio 7.14% 7.96% 7.89% 7.82% 7.89%
Common equity Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio 9.09 9.80 9.73 9.79 9.72
NCOs as a % of average loans and leases 0.26% 0.13% 0.07% 0.18% 0.13%
NAL ratio 0.61 0.88 0.97 0.74 0.72
ACL as a % of total loans and leases 1.06 1.33 1.34 1.33 1.32
(1) Excludes loans held for sale
Table 2 lists certain items that we believe are significant in understanding corporate performance and trends (see Basis of Presentation). There was one Significant Item in the 2016 third quarter: $159 million of FirstMerit acquisition-related expense.
Table 2 -- Significant Items Influencing Earnings
Three Months Ended Pre-Tax
Impact After-Tax Impact
($ in millions, except per share) Amount Amount (1) EPS (2)
September 30, 2016 -- net income $ 127 $ 0.11
Merger and acquisition-related net expenses $ (159) (107) (0.11)
June 30, 2016 -- net income $ 175 $ 0.19
Merger and acquisition-related net expenses $ (21) (14) (0.02)
March 31, 2016 -- net income $ 171 $ 0.20
Merger and acquisition-related net expenses $ (6) (4) (0.01)
December 31, 2015 -- net income $ 178 $ 0.21
Franchise repositioning-related expense $ (8) (5) (0.01)
Merger and acquisition-related net gains (3) - - -
Addition to litigation reserves $ (38) (25) (0.03)
Merger and acquisition-related net expenses (5) (3) -
(1) Favorable (unfavorable) impact on net income.
(2) EPS reflected on a fully diluted basis.
(3) Noninterest income and noninterest expense was recorded related to the integration of Huntington Technology Finance (HTF) and the sale of Huntington Asset Advisors (HAA), Huntington Asset Services (HASI), and Unified Financial Securities (Unified), resulting in a net gain less than $1 million.
FirstMerit Corporation Acquisition
On August 16, 2016, Huntington closed the previously announced acquisition of FirstMerit Corporation and its subsidiary FirstMerit Bank. The acquisition added approximately $26.8 billion of total assets, $15.5 billion of total loans and leases, $21.2 billion of total deposits, and 340 branches. 2016 third quarter results reflect inclusion of FirstMerit since August 16, 2016.
Table 3 -- Summary Balance Sheet of FirstMerit at Acquisition
($ in billions)
As of August 16, 2016 (1)
Assets Liabilities
Commercial and industrial $ 7.3 Demand deposits - noninterest-bearing $ 6.3
Commercial real estate 1.8 Demand deposits - interest-bearing 3.6
Total commercial 9.1 Total demand deposits 9.9
Automobile 1.6 Money market deposits 1.5
Home equity 1.4 Savings and other domestic deposits 7.2
Residential mortgage 1.1 Core certificates of deposit 1.1
RV and marine finance 1.8 Total core deposits 19.7
Other consumer 0.5 Other domestic deposits of $250,000 or more -
Total consumer 6.4 Brokered deposits and negotiable CDs 1.5
Total loans and leases 15.5 Deposits in foreign offices -
Total securities 7.4 Total deposits $ 21.2
Held-for-sale and other earning assets 0.8
Total earning assets $ 23.7 Short-term borrowings $ 1.2
Long-term debt 0.5
Total debt $ 1.7
(1) Assets acquired and liabilities assumed were recorded at estimated fair value on the acquisition date.
Immediately following completion of the acquisition, FirstMerit Bank was merged into The Huntington National Bank. In addition, the management and organization structure was updated to reflect the combined organization. On-boarding of former FirstMerit colleagues and their initial training is complete. Certain of Huntington's products and services are being introduced across the legacy FirstMerit customer base, and customer-facing colleagues are focused on both growing and retaining customers. Technology conversions have commenced and are scheduled to be substantially complete by the middle of the 2017 first quarter. The branch conversion and 102 branch consolidations are scheduled to be completed during the 2017 first quarter.
As part of the FirstMerit transaction, Huntington entered into an agreement to divest thirteen branches in the Canton, Ohio and Ashtabula, Ohio markets, including approximately $0.7 billion of total deposits and $0.1 billion of total loans and leases, to First Commonwealth Financial Corporation. This transaction is expected to close during the 2016 fourth quarter.
Net Interest Income, Net Interest Margin, and Average Balance Sheet
Table 4 -- Net Interest Income and Net Interest Margin Performance Summary -- FirstMerit Drives Linked Quarter and Year-over-Year NIM Expansion
($ in millions) Third Second First Fourth Third Change (%)
Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter LQ YOY
Net interest income $ 625 $ 506 $ 503 $ 497 $ 495 24% 26%
FTE adjustment 11 10 9 8 8 10 38
Net interest income - FTE 636 516 512 505 504 23 26
Noninterest income 302 271 242 272 253 11 19
Total revenue - FTE $ 938 $ 787 $ 754 $ 778 $ 757 19% 24%
Change bp
Yield / Cost LQ YOY
Total earning assets 3.52% 3.41% 3.44% 3.37% 3.42% 11 10
Total loans and leases 3.81 3.63 3.67 3.59 3.65 18 16
Total securities 2.47 2.56 2.56 2.58 2.59 (9) (12)
Total interest-bearing liabilities 0.49 0.50 0.46 0.41 0.39 (1) 10
Total interest-bearing deposits 0.22 0.23 0.24 0.23 0.22 (1) -
Net interest rate spread 3.03 2.91 2.98 2.96 3.03 12 -
Impact of noninterest-bearing funds on margin 0.15 0.15 0.13 0.13 0.13 - 2
Net interest margin 3.18% 3.06% 3.11% 3.09% 3.16% 12 2
See Pages 8-10 of Quarterly Financial Supplement for additional detail.
Note: 2016 third quarter results reflect inclusion of FirstMerit since August 16, 2016.
Fully-taxable equivalent (FTE) net interest income for the 2016 third quarter increased $132 million, or 26%, from the 2015 third quarter. This reflected the benefit from the $16.4 billion, or 26%, increase in average earning assets coupled with a 2 basis point improvement in the FTE net interest margin (NIM) to 3.18%. Average earning asset growth included an $11.7 billion, or 24%, increase in average loans and leases, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition, and a $4.4 billion, or 32%, increase in average securities, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. The NIM expansion reflected a 10 basis point increase in earning asset yields and a 2 basis point increase in the benefit from noninterest-bearing funds, partially offset by a 10 basis point increase in funding costs. The 2016 third quarter NIM included 11 basis points of purchase accounting favorable impact.
Compared to the 2016 second quarter, FTE net interest income increased $120 million, or 23%. Average earning assets increased $11.8 billion, or 17%, sequentially, and the NIM increased 12 basis points. The increase in the NIM reflected an 11 basis point increase in earning asset yields and a 1 basis point decrease in the cost of interest-bearing liabilities.
Table 5 -- Average Earning Assets -- Earning Asset Mix Remains Consistent Following FirstMerit Acquisition
($ in billions) Third Second First Fourth Third Change (%)
Commercial and industrial $ 25.0 $ 21.3 $ 20.6 $ 20.2 $ 19.8 17% 26%
Commercial real estate 6.4 5.2 5.2 5.3 5.3 22 20
Total commercial 31.3 26.6 25.9 25.5 25.1 18 25
Automobile 11.4 10.1 9.7 9.3 8.9 12 28
Home equity 9.3 8.4 8.4 8.5 8.5 10 9
Residential mortgage 7.0 6.2 6.0 6.1 6.0 13 16
RV and marine finance 0.9 - - - - NM NM
Other consumer 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.5 0.5 34 65
Total consumer 29.4 25.4 24.8 24.4 23.9 16 23
Total loans and leases 60.7 51.9 50.6 49.8 49.0 17 24
Total securities 18.2 15.3 15.1 14.5 13.7 19 32
Held-for-sale and other earning assets 0.8 0.7 0.5 0.6 0.6 14 33
Total earning assets $ 79.7 $ 67.9 $ 66.2 $ 65.0 $ 63.3 17% 26%
See Page 8 of Quarterly Financial Supplement for additional detail.
Average earning assets for the 2016 third quarter increased $16.4 billion, or 26%, from the year-ago quarter. The increase was driven by:
$5.2 billion, or 26%, increase in average C&I loans and leases, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. This increase also reflects organic growth in equipment finance leases, automobile dealer floorplan lending, and corporate banking.
$4.4 billion, or 32%, increase in average securities, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition, the reinvestment of cash flows and additional investment in Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) Level 1 qualifying securities, and a $0.8 billion increase in direct purchase municipal instruments in our Commercial Banking segment, offset by sales of certain securities following the closing of the FirstMerit acquisition.
$2.5 billion, or 28%, increase in average automobile loans, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. The 2016 third quarter represented the eleventh consecutive quarter of greater than $1.0 billion in automobile loan originations, while maintaining our underwriting consistency and discipline.
$1.1 billion, or 20%, increase in average commercial real estate (CRE) loans, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition.
$1.0 billion, or 16%, increase in average residential mortgage loans, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition as well as increased demand for residential mortgage loans across our footprint.
$0.9 billion increase in RV and marine finance loans, reflecting the acquisition of the product offering in the FirstMerit transaction.
$0.7 billion, or 9%, increase in average home equity loans, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition.
Compared to the 2016 second quarter, average earning assets increased $11.8 billion, or 17%. On a reported basis, average loans and leases increased $8.8 billion, or 17%, primarily reflecting a $3.6 billion increase in average C&I loans, a $1.1 billion increase in average CRE loans, a $1.3 billion increase in average automobile loans, a $0.8 billion increase in home equity loans, and a $0.8 billion increase in residential mortgage loans, as well as the addition of $0.9 billion in RV & marine finance loans. Average securities increased $2.9 billion, or 19%. These increases primarily reflected the FirstMerit acquisition.
While not affecting quarterly average balances, approximately $2.6 billion of total loans and leases, comprised of $1.5 billion of automobile loans, $1.0 billion of predominantly non-relationship C&I loans and leases, and $0.1 billion of predominantly non-relationship CRE loans were moved to loans held-for-sale at the end of the 2016 third quarter as part of a continued balance sheet optimization strategy following the closing of the FirstMerit acquisition. As shown on Page 5 of the Quarterly Financial Supplement, total originated loans and leases were $51.8 billion at the end of the 2016 third quarter, a $0.7 billion decrease from the end of the prior quarter. This decrease reflects the previously mentioned movement of loans to loans held-for-sale partially offset by organic loan growth across all categories except other consumer loans.
Table 6 -- Average Liabilities -- Strong Core Deposit Growth Complemented by FirstMerit Acquisition
Third Second First Fourth Third Change (%)
($ in billions) Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter LQ YOY
Demand deposits - noninterest-bearing $ 20.0 $ 16.5 $ 16.3 $ 17.2 $ 17.0 21% 18%
Demand deposits - interest-bearing 12.4 8.4 7.8 6.9 6.6 46 87
Total demand deposits 32.4 24.9 24.1 24.1 23.6 30 37
Money market deposits 18.5 19.5 19.7 19.8 19.5 (6) (5)
Savings and other domestic deposits 8.9 5.4 5.3 5.2 5.2 65 70
Core certificates of deposit 2.3 2.0 2.3 2.4 2.5 14 (10)
Total core deposits 62.0 51.8 51.4 51.5 50.9 20 22
Other domestic deposits of $250,000 or more 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.2 (5) 76
Brokered deposits and negotiable CDs 3.9 2.9 2.9 2.9 2.8 34 40
Deposits in foreign offices 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 (7) (61)
Total deposits $ 66.5 $ 55.3 $ 55.1 $ 55.2 $ 54.4 20% 22%
Short-term borrowings $ 1.3 $ 1.0 $ 1.1 $ 0.5 $ 0.8 26% 55%
Long-term debt 8.5 7.9 7.2 6.8 6.0 7 40
Total debt $ 9.8 $ 8.9 $ 8.3 $ 7.3 $ 6.8 10% 42%
Total interest-bearing liabilities $ 56.3 $ 47.8 $ 47.0 $ 45.5 $ 44.3 18% 27%
Average total deposits for the 2016 third quarter increased $12.1 billion, or 22%, from the year-ago quarter, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition, while average total core deposits increased $11.1 billion, or 22%, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. Average total interest-bearing liabilities increased $12.0 billion, or 27%, from the year-ago quarter, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. Year-over-year changes in total liabilities reflected:
$8.8 billion, or 37%, increase in average demand deposits, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. Average interest-bearing demand deposits increased $5.8 billion, or 87%, and average noninterest-bearing demand deposits increased $3.0 billion, or 18%. The increase in average total demand deposits was comprised of a $6.1 billion, or 39%, increase in average commercial demand deposits and a $2.7 billion, or 33%, increase in average consumer demand deposits.
$3.7 billion, or 70%, increase in savings and other domestic deposits, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition.
$2.9 billion, or 42%, increase in average total debt, primarily reflecting the issuance of $3.3 billion of senior debt over the past five quarters.
$1.1 billion, or 40%, increase in brokered deposits and negotiable CDs, impacted by the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition.
Partially offset by:
$1.1 billion, or 5%, decrease in average money market deposits. During the 2016 third quarter, changes to commercial accounts resulted in the reclassification of $2.8 billion of deposits from money market into interest bearing demand deposits. This decrease was partially offset by the impact of the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition.
Compared to the 2016 second quarter, average total core deposits increased $10.1 billion, or 20%. The increase primarily reflected a $3.9 billion, or 46%, increase in average interest-bearing demand deposits, a $3.5 billion, or 21%, increase in average noninterest-bearing demand deposits, and a $3.5 billion, or 65%, increase in savings and other domestic deposits, partially offset by a $1.1 billion, or 6%, decrease in money market deposits. These increases primarily reflected the mid-quarter FirstMerit acquisition. Average total debt increased $0.9 billion, or 10%, reflecting the $1.0 billion senior debt issuance during the 2016 third quarter.
Noninterest Income (see Basis of Presentation)
Table 7 -- Noninterest Income (GAAP) -- Robust Mortgage Banking Performance Highlights Fee Income
($ in millions) Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter LQ YOY
Service charges on deposit accounts $ 87 $ 76 $ 70 $ 73 $ 75 15% 16%
Cards and payment processing income 44 39 36 38 37 13 21
Mortgage banking income 41 32 19 31 19 29 114
Trust services 29 22 23 25 25 29 16
Insurance income 16 16 16 16 16 (1) (2)
Brokerage income 15 15 16 14 15 1 (2)
Capital markets fees 15 13 13 14 13 13 16
Bank owned life insurance income 14 13 14 13 13 15 14
Gain on sale of loans 8 9 5 10 6 (19) 28
Securities gains (losses) 1 1 - - - 57 NM
Other income 33 36 30 37 35 (8) (3)
Total noninterest income $ 302 $ 271 $ 242 $ 272 $ 253 12% 19%
Table 8 -- Impact of Significant Items
Third Second First Fourth Third
($ in millions) Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter
Service charges on deposit accounts $ - $ - $ - $ - $ -
Cards and payment processing income - - - - -
Mortgage banking income - - - - -
Trust services - - - - -
Insurance income - - - - -
Brokerage income - - - - -
Capital markets fees - - - - -
Bank owned life insurance income - - - - -
Gain on sale of loans - - - - -
Securities gains (losses) - - - - -
Other income - - - 3 -
Total noninterest income $ - $ - $ - $ 3 $ -
Table 9 -- Adjusted Noninterest Income (Non-GAAP)
See Pages 11-12 of Quarterly Financial Supplement for additional detail.
Noninterest income for the 2016 third quarter increased $49 million, or 19%, from the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year increase primarily reflected:
$22 million, or 114%, increase in mortgage banking income, reflecting a 39% increase in mortgage origination volume and a $10 million impact from net MSR activity.
$12 million, or 16%, increase in service charges on deposit accounts, reflecting the benefit of continued new customer acquisition. Of the increase, $8 million was attributable to consumer deposit accounts, while $4 million was attributable to commercial deposit accounts.
$8 million, or 21%, increase in cards and payment processing income, due to higher credit and debit card related income and underlying customer growth.
Compared to the 2016 second quarter, total noninterest income increased $31 million, or 12%. Service charges on deposit accounts increased $11 million, or 15%, primarily reflecting the benefit of continued new customer acquisition. Of the increase, $7 million was attributable to consumer deposit accounts, while $4 million was attributable to commercial deposit accounts. Mortgage banking income increased $9 million, or 29%, primarily driven by a 9% increase in mortgage origination volume and a $3 million impact from net MSR activity.
Noninterest Expense (see Basis of Presentation)
Table 10 -- Noninterest Expense (GAAP) -- Personnel Expense Continues to Drive Growth in Noninterest Expense
Personnel costs $ 405 $ 299 $ 285 $ 289 $ 286 35% 41%
Outside data processing and other services 91 63 62 64 59 45 56
Equipment 41 32 33 32 31 28 30
Net occupancy 41 31 31 33 29 35 43
Marketing 14 15 12 12 12 (2) 19
Professional services 47 21 14 13 12 119 294
Deposit and other insurance expense 15 12 11 11 12 23 29
Amortization of intangibles 9 4 4 4 4 151 131
Other expense 48 47 39 42 82 3 (41)
Total noninterest expense $ 712 $ 524 $ 491 $ 499 $ 527 36% 35%
Number of employees (Average full-time equivalent) 14.5 12.4 12.4 12.4 12.4 17% 17%
Table 11 -- Impacts of Significant Items
Personnel costs $ 76 $ 5 $ - $ 2 $ 3
Outside data processing and other services 28 3 - 2 2
Equipment 5 - - - -
Net occupancy 7 - - 5 -
Marketing 1 - - - -
Professional services 34 11 4 1 1
Other expense 8 2 1 - 38
Total noninterest expense $ 159 $ 21 $ 5 $ 10 $ 43
Table 12 -- Adjusted Noninterest Expense (Non-GAAP)
Outside data processing and other services 63 60 62 62 57 5 11
Professional services 13 11 9 12 12 18 8
Other expense 40 46 38 41 43 (13) (7)
See Page 11 of Quarterly Financial Supplement for additional detail.
Reported noninterest expense for the 2016 third quarter increased $186 million, or 35%, from the year-ago quarter. Changes in reported noninterest expense primarily reflect:
$119 million, or 41%, increase in personnel costs, primarily reflecting $76 million of acquisition-related personnel expense and a 17% increase in average full-time equivalent employees largely related to the in-store branch expansion and the addition of former FirstMerit colleagues.
$35 million, or 294%, increase in professional expense, reflecting $34 million of legal and consulting expense related to the FirstMerit acquisition.
$33 million, or 56%, increase in outside data processing and other services expense, reflecting $28 million of Significant Items related to the FirstMerit acquisition as well as ongoing technology investments.
$33 million, or 41%, decrease in other expense, primarily reflecting litigation reserve adjustments in the year-ago quarter.
Reported noninterest expense increased $189 million, or 36%, from the 2016 second quarter. Personnel costs increased $106 million, or 35%, primarily related to $76 million of Significant Items in the 2016 third quarter compared to $5 million of Significant Items in the prior quarter as well as a 17% increase in average full-time equivalent employees related to FirstMerit. Outside data processing and other services increased $28 million, or 45%, primarily reflecting the $28 million of Significant Items in the 2016 third quarter compared to $3 million of Significant Items in the prior quarter. Professional services expense increased $26 million, or 119%, primarily reflecting $34 million of Significant Items in the 2016 third quarter compared to $11 million of Significant Items in the prior quarter.
Credit Quality
Table 13 -- Credit Quality Metrics -- NALs and NPAs Decrease Sequentially, while NCOs Remain Better Than Long-Term Expectations
($ in millions) September 30, June 30, March 31, Dec. 31, Sept. 30,
Total nonaccrual loans and leases $ 404 $ 461 $ 499 $ 372 $ 356
Total other real estate, net 71 29 26 27 25
Other NPAs (1) - - - - -
Total nonperforming assets 475 490 525 399 381
Accruing loans and leases past due 90 days or more 135 99 106 106 106
NPAs + accruing loans and lease past due 90 days or more $ 610 $ 589 $ 631 $ 505 $ 487
NAL ratio (2) 0.61% 0.88% 0.97% 0.74% 0.72%
NPA ratio (3) (4) 0.72 0.93 1.02 0.79 0.77
(NPAs+90 days)/(Loans+OREO) 0.92 1.12 1.22 1.00 0.98
Provision for credit losses $ 64 $ 25 $ 28 $ 36 $ 22
Net charge-offs 40 17 9 22 16
Net charge-offs / Average total loans 0.26% 0.13% 0.07% 0.18% 0.13%
Allowance for loans and lease losses $ 617 $ 623 $ 614 $ 598 $ 592
Allowance for unfunded loan commitments and letters of credit 88 74 75 72 64
Allowance for credit losses (ACL) (5) $ 705 $ 697 $ 689 $ 670 $ 656
ACL as a % of:
Total loans and leases 1.06% 1.33% 1.34% 1.33% 1.32%
NALs 174 151 138 180 184
NPAs 148 142 131 168 172
(1) Other nonperforming assets include certain impaired investment securities.
(2) Total NALs as a % of total loans and leases.
(3) Total NPAs as a % of sum of loans and leases and net other real estate.
(4) Excludes nonaccruing troubled debt restructured home equity loans previously transferred to held-for-sale for the quarters ending September 30, 2015 through June 30, 2016.
(5) Includes $693 million related to Originated loans and $12 million related to Acquired loans as of September 30, 2016.
Overall asset quality remains strong, with modest volatility, including the impact of the FirstMerit loan portfolio. The FirstMerit portfolio quality, composition, and geographic distribution was similar to the legacy Huntington portfolio. The only new loan classification is the RV/marine portfolio, which we are planning to continue offering. Nonaccrual loans and leases (NALs) increased $48 million, or 13%, from the year-ago quarter to $404 million, or 0.61% of total loans and leases. The year-over-year increase was exclusively centered in the Commercial portfolio and was primarily associated with a small number of energy sector loan relationships which were added to NALs during the 2016 first quarter. Nonperforming assets (NPAs) increased $94 million, or 25%, from the year-ago quarter to $475 million, or 0.72% of total loans and leases and net OREO. NALs decreased $56 million, or 12%, from the prior quarter, while NPAs decreased $14 million, or 3%, from the prior quarter. The linked-quarter decreases primarily resulted from significant pay-downs, offset by an increase in OREO balances from the FirstMerit acquisition. While the energy sector was a primary driver of the NAL activity over the last two quarters, the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) portfolio continues to represent less than 1% of total loans outstanding at quarter end.
The provision for credit losses increased $41 million, or 184%, year-over-year to $64 million in the 2016 third quarter. Net charge-offs (NCOs) increased $24 million, or 148%, to $40 million. NCOs represented an annualized 0.26% of average loans and leases in the current quarter, up from 0.13% in the prior quarter and 0.13% in the year-ago quarter. The linked-quarter increase was centered in the C&I portfolio and normal seasonal changes in the consumer portfolios. The year-over-year change was a function of material commercial recoveries in the year ago quarter combined with higher automobile and other consumer losses based on portfolio growth. We continue to be pleased with the net charge-off performance within each portfolio and in total.
Commercial charge-offs were positively impacted by continued recoveries in the CRE portfolio and broader continued successful workout strategies, while consumer charge-offs remained within our expected range. Overall consumer credit metrics, led by the residential mortgage and home equity portfolios, continued to show an improving trend, while the commercial portfolios continued to experience some quarter-to-quarter volatility based on the absolute low level of problem loans.
The period-end allowance for credit losses (ACL) as a percentage of total loans and leases decreased to 1.06% from 1.32% a year ago, while the ACL as a percentage of period-end total NALs decreased to 174% from 184%. We believe the level of the ACL is appropriate given the improvement in the credit quality metrics and the current composition of the overall loan and lease portfolio. The decline in the coverage ratios is a function of the purchase accounting impact associated with FirstMerit.
Table 14 -- Capital Ratios -- FirstMerit Acquisition Effectively Deploys Capital
($ in millions) Sept. 30, June 30, March 31, Dec. 31, Sept. 30,
Common equity tier 1 risk-based capital ratio (1) 9.09% 9.80% 9.73% 9.79% 9.72%
Regulatory Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio (1) 10.40% 11.37% 10.99% 10.53% 10.49%
Regulatory Total risk-based capital ratio (1) 12.57% 13.49% 13.17% 12.64% 12.70%
Total risk-weighted assets (1) $ 80,473 $ 60,717 $ 59,798 $ 58,420 $ 57,839
(1) Figures are estimated and are presented on a Basel III basis, including the standardized approach for calculating risk-weighted assets.
The tangible common equity to tangible assets ratio was 7.14% at September 30, 2016, down 75 basis points from a year ago. Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) risk-based capital ratio was 9.09% at September 30, 2016, down from 9.72% a year ago. The regulatory Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio was 10.40% compared to 10.49% at September 30, 2015. All capital ratios were impacted by the $1.3 billion of goodwill created and the issuance of $2.8 billion of common stock as part of the FirstMerit acquisition, as well as to a lesser extent the repurchase of 2.5 million common shares during the 2015 fourth quarter under the repurchase authorization included in the 2015 CCAR capital plan. The regulatory Tier 1 risk-based and total risk-based capital ratios benefited from the issuance of $400 million and $200 million of Class D preferred equity during the 2016 first and second quarters, respectively, and the issuance of $100 million of Class C preferred equity during the 2016 third quarter in exchange for FirstMerit preferred equity in conjunction with the acquisition. The total risk-based capital ratio was impacted by the repurchase of $25 million of trust preferred securities during the 2016 third quarter.
The provision for income taxes in the 2016 third quarter was $25 million, compared to $47 million in the 2015 third quarter. The effective tax rates for the 2016 third quarter and 2015 third quarter were 16.3% and 23.5%, respectively. The variance between the 2016 third quarter and 2015 third quarter provision for income taxes and effective tax rates relates primarily to the Significant Items.
At September 30, 2016, we had a net federal deferred tax asset of $172 million and a net state deferred tax asset of $43 million.
"Our priority for the remainder of the year and for 2017 is the successful integration of FirstMerit," Steinour said. "We anticipate improving U.S. economic conditions in the fourth quarter. Guidance from the Federal Reserve also makes an interest rate increase appear likely in the near term, which would be incrementally helpful to our bottom line. We will remain diligent in the execution of our strategies, sensibly balancing investment and risk to stay on course for long-term growth. Our balance sheet optimization strategy will help rebuild our capital ratios more quickly, providing greater flexibility in our capital planning for 2017."
Excluding Significant Items, we expect total revenues for the full year 2016 to increase 16%-18%, while we expect noninterest expenses to increase 13%-15%. We expect to deliver positive operating leverage for the fourth consecutive year. We expect the effective tax rate for the full year 2016 to be in the 24%-25% range, excluding Significant Items which are taxed at an approximate 35% rate.
Overall, asset quality metrics are expected to remain near current levels, with moderate quarterly volatility. We anticipate NCOs for the full year 2016 will remain below our long-term normalized range of 35 to 55 basis points.
Conference Call / Webcast Information
Huntington's senior management will host an earnings conference call on October 26, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). The call may be accessed via a live Internet webcast at the Investor Relations section of Huntington's website, www.huntington.com, or through a dial-in telephone number at (844) 318-8148; Conference ID #84440833. Slides will be available in the Investor Relations section of Huntington's website about an hour prior to the call. A replay of the webcast will be archived in the Investor Relations section of Huntington's website. A telephone replay will be available approximately two hours after the completion of the call through November 3, 2016 at (855) 859-2056 or (404) 537-3406; conference ID #84440833.
Please see the 2016 Third Quarter Quarterly Financial Supplement for additional detailed financial performance metrics. This document can be found on Huntington's Investor Relations website, www.huntington-ir.com.
This communication contains certain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain plans, expectations, goals, projections, and statements, which are not historical facts and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. Statements that do not describe historical or current facts, including statements about beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as expect, anticipate, believe, intend, estimate, plan, target, goal, or similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as will, may, might, should, would, could, or similar variations. The forward-looking statements are intended to be subject to the safe harbor provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
While there is no assurance that any list of risks and uncertainties or risk factors is complete, below are certain factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained or implied in the forward-looking statements: changes in general economic, political, or industry conditions; uncertainty in U.S. fiscal and monetary policy, including the interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve Board; volatility and disruptions in global capital and credit markets; movements in interest rates; competitive pressures on product pricing and services; success, impact, and timing of our business strategies, including market acceptance of any new products or services implementing our "Fair Play" banking philosophy; the nature, extent, timing, and results of governmental actions, examinations, reviews, reforms, regulations, and interpretations, including those related to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Basel III regulatory capital reforms, as well as those involving the OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, and CFPB; the possibility that the anticipated benefits of the merger with FirstMerit Corporation are not realized when expected or at all, including as a result of the impact of, or problems arising from, the integration of the two companies or as a result of the strength of the economy and competitive factors in the areas where we do business; diversion of management's attention from ongoing business operations and opportunities; potential adverse reactions or changes to business or employee relationships, including those resulting from the completion of the merger with FirstMerit Corporation; our ability to complete the integration of FirstMerit Corporation successfully; and other factors that may affect our future results. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described above can be found in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, including for the quarters ended March 31, 2016 and June 30, 2016, each of which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and available in the "Investor Relations" section of our website, http://www.huntington.com, under the heading "Publications and Filings" and in other documents we file with the SEC.
All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and are based on information available at that time. We do not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements were made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except as required by federal securities laws. As forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, caution should be exercised against placing undue reliance on such statements.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This document contains GAAP financial measures and non-GAAP financial measures where management believes it to be helpful in understanding Huntington's results of operations or financial position. Where non-GAAP financial measures are used, the comparable GAAP financial measure, as well as the reconciliation to the comparable GAAP financial measure, can be found in this document, conference call slides, or the Form 8-K related to this document, all of which can be found on Huntington's website at www.huntington-ir.com.
Annualized Data
Certain returns, yields, performance ratios, or quarterly growth rates are presented on an "annualized" basis. This is done for analytical and decision-making purposes to better discern underlying performance trends when compared to full-year or year-over-year amounts. For example, loan and deposit growth rates, as well as net charge-off percentages, are most often expressed in terms of an annual rate like 8%. As such, a 2% growth rate for a quarter would represent an annualized 8% growth rate.
Fully-Taxable Equivalent Interest Income and Net Interest Margin
Income from tax-exempt earning assets is increased by an amount equivalent to the taxes that would have been paid if this income had been taxable at statutory rates. This adjustment puts all earning assets, most notably tax-exempt municipal securities and certain lease assets, on a common basis that facilitates comparison of results to results of competitors.
Earnings per Share Equivalent Data
Significant income or expense items may be expressed on a per common share basis. This is done for analytical and decision-making purposes to better discern underlying trends in total corporate earnings per share performance excluding the impact of such items. Investors may also find this information helpful in their evaluation of the company's financial performance against published earnings per share mean estimate amounts, which typically exclude the impact of Significant Items. Earnings per share equivalents are usually calculated by applying an effective tax rate to a pre-tax amount to derive an after-tax amount, which is divided by the average shares outstanding during the respective reporting period. Occasionally, when the item involves special tax treatment, the after-tax amount is disclosed separately, with this then being the amount used to calculate the earnings per share equivalent.
Please note that columns of data in this document may not add due to rounding.
Significant Items
From time to time, revenue, expenses, or taxes are impacted by items judged by Management to be outside of ordinary banking activities and/or by items that, while they may be associated with ordinary banking activities, are so unusually large that their outsized impact is believed by Management at that time to be infrequent or short term in nature. We refer to such items as "Significant Items." Most often, these Significant Items result from factors originating outside the company -- e.g., regulatory actions/assessments, windfall gains, changes in accounting principles, one-time tax assessments/refunds, litigation actions, etc. In other cases they may result from Management decisions associated with significant corporate actions out of the ordinary course of business -- e.g., merger/restructuring charges, recapitalization actions, goodwill impairment, etc.
Even though certain revenue and expense items are naturally subject to more volatility than others due to changes in market and economic environment conditions, as a general rule volatility alone does not define a Significant Item. For example, changes in the provision for credit losses, gains/losses from investment activities, asset valuation write-downs, etc., reflect ordinary banking activities and are, therefore, typically excluded from consideration as a Significant Item.
Management believes the disclosure of "Significant Items," when appropriate, aids analysts/investors in better understanding corporate performance and trends so that they can ascertain which of such items, if any, they may wish to include/exclude from their analysis of the company's performance -- i.e., within the context of determining how that performance differed from their expectations, as well as how, if at all, to adjust their estimates of future performance accordingly. To this end, Management has adopted a practice of listing "Significant Items" in its external disclosure documents (e.g., earnings press releases, quarterly performance discussions, investor presentations, Forms 10-Q and 10-K).
"Significant Items" for any particular period are not intended to be a complete list of items that may materially impact current or future period performance. A number of items could materially impact these periods, including those described in Huntington's 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other factors described from time to time in Huntington's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


text:
«Пацаны» () — американская серия комиксов, написанная Гартом Эннисом и иллюстрированная Дариком Робертсоном. Изначально она публиковалась Wildstorm (DC Comics) до перехода в .

В основе истории комикса лежит мир, в котором супергерои имеют огромную власть. И часто используют свои силы в тёмных целях. Им противостоит небольшой отряд добровольцев с одноимённым названием «The Boys» («Пацаны»), созданный под покровительством ЦРУ.

Эннис сказал, что «Пацаны» «перепроповедали бы даже проповедника», предположительно ссылаясь на крайнее насилие и сексуальность, которые были отличительной чертой комиксов Preacher. Начатая в октябре 2006 года, серия завершилась в ноябре 2012 года выпуском 72-го и последнего номера.

Комикс был адаптирован Amazon Studios в телесериал, премьера которого состоялась 26 июля 2019 года.

История публикаций
Первые шесть выпусков «Пацанов» были опубликованы Wildstorm, начиная с 2006 года. 24 января 2007 года серия была внезапно закрыта на шестом выпуске. Позже Эннис объяснил, что это произошло потому, что DC Comics (Wildstorm был их импринтом до своего расформирования) были обеспокоены анти-супергеройским тоном работы. Запланированный сборник указанных выпусков также был отменен. Дарик Робертсон заявил тогда: «DC согласны вернуть наши права, чтобы мы могли найти нового издателя, и мы работаем над этим сейчас». Затем Эннис выпустил заявление, что несколько издательств проявили интерес к комиксу и что седьмой выпуск и том из первых шести будут доступны.

Хотя Робертсон работал на эксклюзивном контракте с DC, ему было дано особое разрешение продолжить работу над «Пацанами». В феврале 2007 года серия перешла к Dynamite Entertainment, а с мая продолжилась дальнейшая публикация. Сборник из первых шести выпусков был также издан Dynamite с предисловием Саймона Пегга. Пегг был моделью, на которой базировалось изображение персонажа Хьюги Робертсоном.

В феврале 2009 года Dynamite объявил о спин-офф мини-сериале «Herogasm» с рисунками Джона Маккри, с которым Эннис уже прежде работал и Кита Бернса, друга МакКри, о котором он сказал: «Сильные стороны Кита — это мои слабости и наоборот». Сериал представляет собой версию большого «события» для «Пацанов», но, по словам Энниса, «в то время как большие кросоверы в рамках общей вселенной пользуются у нас популярностью, мы не [стали делать его похожим на] "Кризис" или "Секретные войны". или "Обратный отсчет" или что-то ещё». Идея мини-сериала возникла потому, что первая часть истории не связана с командой и фокусируется на супергероях, но повлияет на основную серию:

«Второстепенная роль наших героев в истории постепенно меняет её динамику, пока что-то не происходит в 4 номере, что поворачивает события в совершенно неожиданном направлении. После этого жизнь становится серьёзной, и к концу вы станете свидетелями событий, которые навсегда изменят положение вещей в мире "Пацанов". Последствия начнут проявляться где-то с 31 выпуска основной серии»

После того как «Пацаны» были завершены, Эннис сказал CBR, что комикс выиграл от отмены Wildstorm'ом, поскольку Dynamite дал ему гораздо больше свободы, чем когда-либо могли предоставить DC: «Мы бы умерли на корню [в DC]. Книгу бы сокращали здесь и там, пока её написание не превратилось в чистое разочарование». Он также признался, что «вздохнул с облегчением», так как Wildstorm был распущен как импринт вскоре после переезда.

Сюжет
Действие сериала происходит между 2006—2008 годами в США, где под крылом корпорации «Vought International» действуют несколько команд супергероев. Самая элитная — «Семерка». Рангом пониже: «Расплата», «Люди Джи», «Тинейдж Кикс» и другие в мире, где существуют супергерои. Тем не менее большинство супергероев во вселенной сериала испорчены своим статусом знаменитостей и часто ведут себя безрассудно, ставя под угрозу безопасность мира. Сюжет повествует о небольшом подпольном отряде ЦРУ, неофициально известном как «Пацаны», во главе с Мясником, в который также входят Молоко матери, Француз, Женщина и недавно вступивший «Ви» Хьюи Кэмпбелл, которым поручено следить за сообществом супергероев, что часто приводит к ужасным результатам; параллельно ключевой сюжет следует за Энни «Звездный свет», молодой и наивной супергероиней, которая присоединяется к Семерке - самой престижной и коррумпированной группе супергероев в мире и самым могущественным врагом «Пацанов».

Награды
 2008: «Лучшая продолжающаяся серия», номинация, Премия Айснера
 2009: «Комикс года за меньше, чем 3$», номинация, Diamond Comic Distributor Gem Awards
 2010: «Лучший комикс или графический роман», номинация, Scream Awards

Персонажи
 «Пацаны»: Бутчер, Молоко Матери, Француз, Самка, Хьюи Кэмпбелл
 «Семерка»: Хоумлендер, Королева Мейв, Джек с Юпитера, Поезд А, Глубина, Чёрный Нуар, Старлайт.

Адаптации

Отменённый фильм
В феврале 2008 года Variety сообщил, что Columbia Pictures заказала экранизацию комикса, продюсером которой стал Нил Х. Мориц, а Фил Хэй и Мэтт Манфреди напишут сценарий. В августе 2010 года Адам Маккей сказал, что был нанят режиссёром фильма. Маккей добавил: «У них уже есть сценарий, и мы его переписываем, поэтому, надеюсь, приведем его в форму осенью, а съемки, возможно, начнутся в январе». В феврале 2012 года Columbia Pictures сообщила, что отказалась от идеи экранизации «Пацанов». Однако Адам Маккей написал в Твиттере, что Paramount Pictures подобрали фильм и что он все ещё находится в разработке. 30 апреля 2013 года Paramount наняла Манфреди и Хэя для написания сценария, хотя проект так и не был реализован.

Сериал
В октябре 2015 года сообщалось, что Cinemax дал зелёный свет сериальной экранизации «Пацанов» и что над ним работали Сет Роген, Эван Голдберг и Эрик Крипке. В сентябре 2017 года Variety сообщила, что Amazon Studios подобрала сериал. Его премьера состоялась 26 июля 2019 года.

Премьера 2-го сезона прошла 4 сентября 2020 года. Третий сезон вышел 3 июня 2022 года, в разработке находится спин-офф о Людях Джи.

Примечания

Ссылки
 Салливан, Майкл Патрик (19 апреля 2007 года). «Пацаны» вернулись в город: говорят Эннис и Робертсон. CBR.com.

Издания DC Comics
Комиксы 2006 года

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Sen. Rand Paul Ends Quasi-Filibuster of PATRIOT ACT Renewal
Sen. Rand Paul shortly before midnight ended his "filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal" after holding the Senate floor for 10 hours and 30 minutes.
Sen. Rand Paul Ends Speech After Ten Hours
May 20, 2015, 7:28 PM UTC / Updated May 21, 2015, 11:18 AM UTC
By Frank Thorp V and Carrie Dann
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has ended a more than 10 ½-hour filibuster-like speech on the Senate floor to protest the renewal of the Patriot Act, highlighting his opposition to the National Security Agency's controversial bulk collection of telephone data.
"All this gathering up of bulk data records isn't what we needed," Paul said on Wednesday of his perspective on how the terrorists behind 9-11 could have been better tracked.
I've just taken the senate floor to begin a filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal. It's time to end the NSA spying!
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 20, 2015
Paul officially relinquished the Senate floor at 11:48 after 10 hours and 30 minutes.
The 'filibuster'-like move became bipartisan on Wednesday when, after nearly three hours of speaking, Paul yielded to Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon for a question.
"There is no question it is a very dangerous world," Wyden said. "But what doesn't make sense is to be pursuing approaches that don't make us safer and compromise our liberties."
Wyden threw questions back and forth to Paul, a technique aimed at giving the main speaker a break. Sen Mike Lee, R-Utah is also expected to join Paul on the floor.
"I guess if he's going to (filibuster), doing it now as opposed to doing it during the weekend is maybe preferable," Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican told reporters.
Paul, who early in his career learned the art of the filibuster from McConnell, a fellow Kentucky Republican, used the technique in 2013 to delay a vote on the nomination of John Brennan as director of the CIA. Paul took to the floor to criticize the Obama administration's use of drones.
He spoke for nearly 13 hours.
He tried another filibuster the next month — this one opposing federal gun control measures — but a vote to end debate scuttled that attempt.
Last week, the House overwhelmingly passed the USA Freedom Act. The legislation passed by a 338-to-88 vote signalling a bipartisan, veto-proof majority.
The measure also has the support of the White House, leaving the Senate in a precarious position.
The House bill is now in the Senate. McConnell, who wants a clean reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, said on Tuesday he will allow a vote on the House-passed measure.
The announcement comes after House Republican leadership publicly called out McConnell to allow a vote on the bill. The House measure faces an uncertain future in the Senate where opposition to the bill stems from concerns it would weaken the government's ability to thwart terror plots.
The issue of NSA surveillance has also divided the Republican presidential field.
Paul, the GOP presidential hopeful who has broken most often with party orthodoxy on foreign policy issues, has made civil liberties a centerpiece of his campaign mantra, but he's not alone in his opposition to the bulk collection of data. Fellow Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has also said that he favors ending the program.
But two other Senate Republicans with presidential ambitions - Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina - say that the Patriot Act should be renewed as it currently exists, arguing that it's necessary to thwart terror plots and keep Americans safe.
And Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who also may pursue a White House run, agrees.
"You can't enjoy your civil liberties if you're in a coffin," Christie said in New Hampshire on Monday.
— with Halimah Abdullah and Kelly O'Donnell
Frank Thorp V
Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.
Carrie Dann
Carrie Dann is a political editor for NBC News.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Get vector of indexes containing values between two numbers I have a vector called time, which contains time values.  I'd like obtain a vector of indexes of time in which the value is between threshold x and threshold y.
This is undoubltedly trivial to do, but I'm struggling with Matlab syntax a bit, here.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Blz

A: time=5:20
idx = find(time > 10 & time < 15) % indices
values=time(time(:)>10 & time(:)<15) % values

which give
time =

     5     6     7     8     9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19    20

idx =

 7     8     9    10

values =

    11    12    13    14

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package cn.neolo.app.ireach.Utils;

import com.amap.api.location.DPoint;

import cn.bmob.v3.datatype.BmobGeoPoint;

/**
 * Created by Neolo on 2017.8.19.
 * Bmob BmobGeoPoint
 * Amap Dpoit
 * 坐标的工具类
 */

public class CoordinateUtil {
    //bmob类型转Dpoint
    static public DPoint converter(BmobGeoPoint point) {
        return new DPoint(point.getLatitude(), point.getLongitude());
    }

    //Dpoint类型转bmob
    static public BmobGeoPoint converter(DPoint point) {
        return new BmobGeoPoint(point.getLongitude(), point.getLatitude());
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
set -e -x

pushd flight-school
  bundle install
  bundle exec rspec
popd


text:
Brunei's stateless left in a state of confusion
Alana Tolman - 08 Apr, 2016
In the tiny Southeast Asian nation, outsiders are still looking in and for a place to call home. Alana Tolman reports.
With the annual March sitting of the Legislative Council of Brunei (LegCo) the plight of the stateless residents of Brunei Darussalam has been brought, once again, to the surface.
Many ethnic Chinese residents of Brunei have lived in the kingdom for generations, accounting for 15 per cent of the population. Yet, due to difficult and slow bureaucratic measures around immigration, they remain permanent residents, not citizens – they are essentially stateless.
Locally, the term 'red IC' – referring to the colour of national identity card given to permanent residents — is used to denote Brunei's stateless permanent residents. Foreigners receive green cards and citizens receive yellow cards [a colour that lends itself to 'golden ticket' jokes]. These cards are necessary for every aspect of administration in the country – from enrolling in school to taking out a phone plan. Those without a yellow IC certainly feel the effects. The major telco does not allow people without a yellow IC to take out Internet plans, government scholarships for education are restricted and even social prestige is linked to your 'colour'.
These disadvantages affect expatriates and Malaysians living long-term in the kingdom, but those most impacted are those who hold no passport. In lieu of a passport, stateless permanent residents are issued with a Bruneian International Certificate of Identity. While this certificate theoretically allows international travel, many nations are sceptical of the strange document and do not accept it – if they do it is with strict conditions. It is not hard to find workers who can't be promoted within their company, as they can't attend a specific training session that will be held in a nation they are barred from, or a family who has been questioned at a foreign airport for simply trying to take a vacation.
According to the Brunei Nationality Act 1961, a person residing in Brunei would be eligible for registration as a Bruneian national if the person has satisfied five conditions: the person has a proficient knowledge of the Malay language, able to speak it proficiently, has been examined by a Language Board on the Malay language, is of good character, and has taken the oath of allegiance.
However, these language standards are incredibly difficult to meet, as the multiple criteria allow for more reasons to reject an applicant's competency claims. As standard Malay taught in school and Brunei Malay spoken on the street are linguistically different, failure to display considerable skill in either will prevent you from being registered as a citizen.
On 12 March, The Brunei Times published an article regarding the calls made by stateless people to the government. The callers were born and raised in Brunei and had previously sat citizenship tests, but were yet to hear back from the Department of Immigration regarding an oath-swearing ceremony. They had been waiting for years for a response, causing significant turmoil in their business, residential and family prospects – given non-citizens cannot own land in Brunei.
During the session of LegCo on the 10 March, Minister of Home Affairs Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Hj Abu Bakar Hj Apong was questioned regarding the timeline for those who are seeking citizenship. Setting a timeline would be 'very difficult', he said, due to legal considerations, but did not elaborate on the nature of those considerations.
On 12 March, LegCo member Yang Berhormat Pehin Kapitan Lela Diraja Dato Paduka Goh King Chin – a respected advocate for the Chinese-Bruneian community – proposed to the Minister that the laws regarding citizenship be amended. His proposal included the granting of citizenship for stateless residents born in the kingdom that aged over 60. He also noted that before independence all residents of Brunei held a British passport, however after independence only ethnically Malay residents were granted citizenship. He spoke to the successful examples of Australia, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore where all residents were granted citizenship. This principle was not enacted in Brunei as it was a British protectorate, not colony, and thus was administered differently.
The Minister said that Chinese-Bruneians had an opportunity to apply for a streamlined citizenship process during the independence period, pointing out that as the Brunei Nationality Act 1961 predates independence in 1984, Chin's arguments were irrelevant to the reality of the law.
"In conclusion, I feel confident in the National Citizenship Act, it is important for Brunei Darussalam in the long-term, and that I feel there is not yet a need to amend the Act," the minister said.
Many claim that these conditions are simply used as legal way of discriminating against non-Malays, in an effort to preserve a false myth of homogeneity and tightly control who is 'Bruneian'. This preservation is particularly important in regards to legitimising the state philosophy of 'Melayu Islam Beraja' or 'Malay Islamic Monarchy' [MIB], which permeates every aspect of the government and society.
The practical and existential difficulties associated with living with a stateless status have caused mass migration to a number of countries, causing a brain drain and potential capital flight. More cynical commentators claim that this is certainly not accidental, and these continued delays in the bureaucratic process are not haphazard at all, but a tool being expertly wielded.
Alana Tolman is an Asian studies/arts student at the Australian National University, and spent 2015 in Brunei as a New Colombo Plan fellow.
Alana Tolman
Alana Tolman is an Asian Studies graduate from the Australian National University and a current Darmasiswa Scholar at Universitas Negeri Medan.
She spent 2015 as the New Colombo Plan fellow in Brunei - studying at Universiti Brunei Darussalam and interning with the Brunei Law Society. She represented Australia at the 2015 ASEAN+ Youth Leaders Summit.
Her areas of interest include student mobility (particularly in the Indo-Pacific), cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia and society and culture in Brunei Darussalam.


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Q: Find $\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{x_n}{x_1 + \cdots + x_n}$ Suppose that $\{x_n\}_{n=1}^{\infty}$ is a bounded sequence, and that $x_n>0$ holds for all positive integer $n$.
Find $\lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{x_n}{x_1 + \cdots + x_n}$.

A: Hint: It is useful to separately consider the cases $\sum x_n < \infty$ and $\sum x_n = \infty$.  In the latter case, remember that $\{x_n\}$ is bounded.

A: I think the limit is zero. The above hint is useful. For $\sum x_n<\infty$, $x_n\rightarrow 0$ ($n\rightarrow \infty$). In the case $\sum x_n=\infty$, the answer is obvious.


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Let's Practice What We Teach: Flipping Faculty Development
Faculty everywhere are flipping their classes, but can we flip faculty development? That's the question I asked myself when I flipped the pre-conference workshop at the 2016 Teaching Professor Technology Conference. What I discovered is that we can "practice what we teach" and design faculty-centered learning experiences much the same way we design studentcentered
learning experiences.
The Myth of Multitasking
Yes, cellphones and laptops do affect students' grades, and no, students can't multitask as well as they say they can.
Arnold Glass, a psychology professor at Rutgers University at New Brunswick, and Mengxue Kang, a graduate student, recently published a study in Educational Psychology that they say reveals a causal link between cellphone and laptop use during class and poorer exam scores.
Millennials: the age of entitlement
I'm so lost! Your course is so confusing. Like, I really have no idea what to do and, like, I'm ready to simply cry and, like, drop this crazy course."
Susie, a major in education, blinked, but no tears came; she just kept glaring at me with her elaborately made-up brown eyes. She had texted me the previous day about how stressed she was about my course, and I had invited her to come to my office at her leisure. But this wasn't a great start to our heart-to-heart.
4 Strategies for Teaching Wisdom Today
In October of 1979, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman delivered al ecture at West Point in which she decried the "persistence of unwisdom" among politicians across the ages. Reflecting on how American presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon had embroiled the United States more deeply in the Vietnam War, Tuchman bemoaned a perennial "wooden-headedness" -- a tendency for politicians to act wishfully, while not allowing themselves to be "confused by facts."
workforce 2025 the future of the world of work
The world of work has changed. Successful organizations know something others don't: slow, steady and consistent no longer win the race. Competitive businesses today are fast, flexible and – most importantly - agile. They create fewer obstacles
to responding quickly. They take unpredictable, dynamic market trends in stride. They sidestep when necessary to keep moving forward because they've built a workforce based on a non-traditional model that is adaptable, fluid and responsive. They adopt simple, cost-effective processes through which they manage a workforce that is both connected and autonomous.
How the gig economy has transformed the North American workforce
Technology has changed just about every facet of our economy and society — from how we travel to how we bank to how we communicate with each other. But perhaps no part of the economy has been as fundamentally transformed as our nation's workforce.
The gig economy Achieving financial wellness with confidence.
Over time, the labour market has shifted from one characterized by stable or permanent employment to a "gig economy" of temporary or contracted employment, where an on-demand, freelance or contingent workforce is becoming the norm. A gig can be defined as "any job, especially one of short or uncertain duration."
This type of staffing model allows an organization to fill skills gaps by hiring on a temporary, on-demand basis. These are not the "temps" of the past; instead, they are short- or long-term contracts for personnel ranging from blue-collar light-industrial
workers to highly skilled IT, engineering, accounting and HR professionals.
What the 2018 election results mean for Ontario's professors and academic librarians
On June 7, the Ontario voters elected a Progressive Conservative majority government led by Doug Ford. This election outcome has a number of important implications for professors and academic librarians in the province and will pose several challenges and opportunities for the university sector over the next four years.
How Can We Amplify Student Learning? The ANSWER from Cognitive Psychology
In the early 2000s, anyone learning about pedagogy might have encountered "learning styles," a collection of theories that assert people learn differently, coupled with the advice to teach in ways that include visual, auditory, and/or kinesthetic learning.
We should never minimize online harassment
While an academic goes about her public online activities, someone calls her a stupid c*nt, tells her they hope she is raped and wishes her a gruesome death. Or maybe they just tell her she is dumb and should get back in the kitchen. Or that she should smile or exercise more. Perhaps they do this in response to an opinion she expressed, or a research paper she published, or perhaps it is simply because of her gender, race or sexuality.
Taking the Class Temperature: Cognitive and Affective Feedback
"Are students getting it? How do I know?" Instructors answer these questions through a variety of assessments, from small, informal methods such as asking students if they have questions, to formal, graded methods such as multiple-choice exams and research papers. These assessments provide cognitive feedback, whether in the form of a score, a correction, lack of
an answer, or an abundance of questions. But is that the whole picture? While these assessments can help us gauge how well students are "getting it," it often fails to explain why or why not.
Shared Governance Works in Executive Hiring, If We Let It
Consider the following two scenarios: Scenario No. 1: Having sat through the entirety of a search committee's deliberations, a trustee on the panel seeks to invalidate its work — accusing two other committee members of having a conflict of interest because they are colleagues of an internal candidate who has become one of the two finalists. Those relationships had been discussed openly within the committee but conveyed to the full governing board only after the finalists had been named. The mere accusation compels the board to reject the finalist pool and restart the search from the beginning. The result: considerable disruption and delay, not to mention the damage done to the institution's reputation in the hiring market.
Canada's post-secondary schools exploiting international students, says recruiter
As the provincial government releases new strategies for strengthening international student recruitment and retention, concerns have arisen about the stresses on international students.
How to Take Care of Others Without Burning Out
In our over-stressed world, many health care providers, social workers and caregivers are suffering from slow yet painful burnout. Many of the rest of us, working long hours and raising families, seem to be approaching burnout, too. Sometimes we may feel that we're too exhausted to keep giving to others, even though giving is a primary source of happiness in our lives.
Higher Education in the Postdegree Era
It's traditional graduation season, so it's also the time for articles about the supposed gap between what colleges claim baccalaureate graduates know and can do and what the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors claim they need them to know and do. Higher education's panicked response to those critiques has too often been to chase rabbits. Unfortunately, the rabbits are usually not innovative, creative curricular redesigns but rather a doubling down on increasingly less relevant and arbitrary collections of credits we call "degrees."
Across Canada, more colleges are transitioning to universities
In the span of a week, the future of three Alberta colleges was set. On February 22, Minister of Advanced Education Marlin Schmidt announced that Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC) had been approved for degree-granting status, with a view to becoming a university. On March
1, Premier Rachel Notley appeared at an event to announce that Red Deer College (RDC)
also had been approved to grant its own degrees. That same day, the education minister again
went before the cameras to confirm that the Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD) had
achieved university status.
How One Teaching Expert Activates Students' Curiosity
Most of the time, instructors use activities as a way for students to demonstrate their mastery. But activities can be used differently — to spark curiosity and get students thinking, before they know much of anything about a particular topic. That was the premise of "The Power of the 'Naïve Task,'" one of the most interesting sessions I attended at the Designing Effective
Teaching conference in Bethesda, Md., last week.
Five Keys to Motivating Students
Recently I had reason to revisit Paul Pintrich's meta-analysis on motivation. It's still the piece I most often see referenced when it comes to what's known about student motivation. Subsequent research continues to confirm the generalizations reported in it. Like most articles that synthesize the results of many studies, it's long, detailed, and liberally peppered with educational jargon. It does have a clear, easy to follow organizational structure and most notably, it spells out implications—what teachers might consider doing in response to what the research says motivates students. Here's a quick run-down of those generalizations and
their implications.
Scammers force student into hiding, threaten family in China, Calgary police say
International students are being warned they may be the target of scammers who run elaborate virtual kidnapping schemes. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press) International students in Calgary are at risk of falling victim to an elaborate "virtual kidnapping"
scam that forced one man into hiding and terrified his family in China, police say.
There have been two such cases reported by Chinese students in the city since the start of May, following reports of the scam elsewhere in the country, the Calgary Police Service said.
BLACK: Universities must become flexible to stay successful
In 2018, Nova Scotian taxpayers will spend more than $400 million in support of universities, and another $26 million in student scholarships and bursaries.
The students themselves spend more than that amount on their share of tuition and fees. In addition, most of them study away from home and pay for food and accommodations in the city or town where they study.


Is This All There Is? | hello, kris.
Over the last several months of making more time and space for myself I've started to confront some very real concerns about my future.
I have a steady job which generally I like. But it doesn't challenge me. It doesn't push me to learn, to better myself, to believe I am capable of greatness. I have a few good friends, and they are lovely. But none I can look up to, none too ambitious, none pushing me to let go of fear and embrace all possibility.
And so I started wondering, is this all there is?
From a young age I believed in my heart I was different, and I believed I was special. I was determined to make something of myself, for myself. Success was my driving force. I knew I was smart. I knew I was creative. I just needed a focus.
The focus has come and gone in so many ways. None of which I've been able to cling to long enough. The years jaded me, aged me, and started to kill off my long held beliefs that I could do and be anything I wanted. I've gone so far into survival mode that anything other than is merely a blip on the radar.
The future scares me. Losing my ability to learn scares me. Not being able to provide for myself or Reilly terrifies me. Some days the fear is so overwhelming I literally feel like I'm choking and cannot breathe.
Deep down I still know I am destined for more, far more than this. I am more than the hustling 9 to 5 grind. I am more than this environment. I am more than being someone's secret. I am more than other people's mistakes. I am more than my fears.
And there is so much more than this.
It all awaits me, as long as I stay in the driver's seat.


The Dirt Road Ramblers has roots in the soil of America and a wayfaring spirit recognizable in the narrative pilgrimages – from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Nashville, Tennessee to roads unnamed and unknown – undertaken in their music. With members reared in northern Minnesota and central Florida, the DRR uses Minneapolis, Minn., as its current hitching post. With two years of collaboration under its belt, the band showcases songs with traditional American roots sounds, influenced by the likes of hard work, whiskey, and women. Their first album, For Safekeepin', released in September 2011, comprised of 11 original songs arranged over the course of the last two years, demonstrates the band's commitment to carrying on the tradition of American songwriting. Get down with the DRR.
with THE DIRT ROAD RAMBLERS, GRANT HART and TOAST.


Real-time monitoring of urban dynamics, which is widely unexplored, has recently received a lot of attention due to the fast rise of inexpensive pervasive sensor technologies. Following the comprehensive vision of a "digital skin for planet Earth" by Neil Gross (1999), it can be presumed that geo-sensor web deployments will experience a considerable boost within the coming years, as pervasive sensing has recently become feasible and affordable. This enriches knowledge about our environment with uncharted real-time information layers. This book focuses on pervasive sensing in urban environments, which poses very particular challenges – as well technical and technological ones, as socio-political and privacy-related ones. The Live Geography approach presented in this book seeks to tackle these challenges with an open sensing infrastructure for urban monitoring applications. The system makes extensive use of open (geospatial) standards throughout the entire process chain – from sensor fusion to data analysis, Complex Event Processing (CEP), alerting, and finally visualisation. The thesis discusses the implemented technical infrastructure as well as how the methodology can potentially influence the city and its inhabitants by "making the abstract real". In other words, the thesis illustrates how pervasive monitoring infrastructures can change urban social interactions and people's short-term behaviour, and which issues are related to establishing such systems.


Is reality TV your guilty pleasure? Then splurge on all the latest reality TV news and gossip right here! We bring you the top stories on your favourite reality TV shows and reality TV stars, and discuss the front runners for the reality TV awards!


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That Theatre Blog
What's on Stage - July 13th Edition
This week's calendar of live performances!
Professional Theatre:
Stratford Theatre Festival continues its season in full swing with several productions beginning this week.
Crazy for You continues its run through October 12th. Performances run throughout the week, with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: Sent to Deadrock, Nevada, to foreclose on a derelict theatre, banker Bobby Child falls for its owner's daughter, Polly Baker. Can he reconcile the demands of duty and love – and his own dreams of dancing? "I Got Rhythm," "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and "Someone to Watch Over Me" are just some of the gems in this dynamic musical's dazzling score.
Alice Through the Looking-Glass opens on April 30th and runs through October 12th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: Climbing through her living-room mirror, Alice enters a world of wonders populated by such fantastical characters as Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Walrus and the Carpenter – and the fearsome Jabberwock. Children and adults alike will be delighted by this spectacular journey into the topsy-turvy realm of the dreaming mind.
King Lear opens on May 6th and runs through October 10th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: An aging monarch resolves to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, with consequences he little expects. His reason shattered in the storm of violent emotion that ensues, with his very life hanging in the balance, Lear loses everything that has defined him as a king – and thereby discovers the essence of his own humanity.
Man of la Mancha opens May 8th and runs through October 10th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: Awaiting trial by the Inquisition, poet and playwright Miguel de Cervantes is assailed by his fellow prisoners, who try to seize the manuscript of his masterpiece, Don Quixote. His inspired response: a challenge to join him in staging his stirring tale of Quixote's obsessive quest to attain an impossible dream.
A Midsummer Night's Dream opened May 31st and runs through October 11th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: Threatened with death if she marries against her father's wishes, Hermia elopes with her lover, Lysander, pursued by rival suitor Demetrius and his spurned admirer, Helena. In the enchanted woods, love's lunacy reaches its giddiest heights – both for the bewildered couples and for an aspiring actor transformed into the unlikely consort of a fairy queen.
Midsummer Night's Dream: A Chamber Play opens July 11th and runs through September 24th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: Two couples become gods, animals, demons, monsters, children, playthings and, finally, gradually, compassionate, honest, loving adults. Across one intense night of confusion, delusion, repression, permission, forgiveness and release, Shakespeare's masterpiece moves right into the open heart of our multiple selves and conflicted identities – the only thing that we know for certain in this life is that, along with the climate, we are changing.
King John opened May 28th and runs through September 20th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: War is the inevitable result when the King of France demands that John relinquish his crown in favour of his nephew, the young Prince Arthur. Excommunication, attempted atrocity, rebellion and assassination all contribute to a political and personal turmoil that finds devastating expression in an anguished mother's grief for her son.
Mother Courage and Her Children opened May 30th and runs through September 21st with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: As the Thirty Years' War swirls around her, Mother Courage scrapes together a living for herself and her three children by selling provisions to Protestant and Catholic combatants alike. But as she hauls her wagon across the battlefields of Europe, she discovers that the very chaos that sustains her will eventually cost her everything she holds most dear.
Hay Fever opened on May 28th and runs through October 11th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: Stage star Judith Bliss, her novelist husband and their two grown children have each invited houseguests for the weekend. But as the Blisses indulge their artistic eccentricities in a hilarious whirlwind of flirtation and histrionics, the guests begin to wonder if they've landed in a madhouse – and if they can survive the weekend with their own wits intact.
Festival Friday Chats begins in the month of June, giving patrons an ability to peer inside the playbill and participate in chats revolving around the shows being performed this season.
Stratford's Food for Thought series kicks off this week with discussions on various shows that can be enjoyed along with brunch or lunch.
Stratford's Peer into the Playbill discussion series with directors begins this week, with varying times available throughout the summer season.
Stratford's Night Music series, which allows you to hear music in the evenings at different venues around the festival kicks off on May 4th
For ticket info, dates and times, and full show details, please visit the Stratford website
The Purple Rose Theatre begins their production of The Last Romance on June 12th, running through August 30th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: A crush can make anyone feel young again – even a widower named Ralph. On an ordinary day in a routine life, Ralph decides to take a different path on his daily walk – one that leads him to an unexpected second chance at love. Despite the misgivings of family and the initial reluctance of Carol, the object of his affections, Ralph embarks on the trip of a lifetime and regains a happiness that seemed all but lost. The Last Romance is a heart-warming comedy about the transformative power of love.
The Encore Theater begins their production of Carousel on July 10th, running through August 10th with evening and matinee tickets available.
Synopsis: In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker, Billy Bigelow, captivates and marries the naive millworker, Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery. Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison, he takes his own life and is sent 'up there.' Billy is allowed to return to earth for one day fifteen years later, and he encounters the daughter he never knew. She is a lonely, friendless teenager, her father's reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. How Billy instills in both the child and her mother a sense of hope and dignity is a dramatic testimony to the power of love. It's easy to understand why, of all the shows they created, CAROUSEL was Rodgers & Hammerstein's personal favorite.
College Theatre:
Central Michigan University opens its production of Murder by Natural Causes on June 25th with additional performances on June 28th and July 11th.
Synopsis: A greedy wife's "fool-proof" plan to murder her husband, a famous psychic, puts the ultimate test to his abilities in this wildly clever, edge-of-the-seat thriller. Twists and turns abound through the final scene!
Posted by That Theatre Co. at 1:38 PM
Labels: On Stage
That Theatre Co.
That Theatre Co. is a non-profit dedicated to furthering theatre arts in our community. We focus on arts education as well as offering numerous performances per year. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming shows.
Auditions: Macbeth
May 17 at 11:00am
Performance: Macbeth
Dates and Time TBA
Performance: Little Women
Performance: Winter One Act Showcase
Performance: Spring 2015 Production TBA
Visit us online!
Setting the Stage: A Journey to Making Macbeth
What's on Stage - July 6th Edition
Michigan Shakespeare Festival
Performance Network Theatre
The Encore Musical Theatre Company
The Hillberry Theatre
The Purple Rose Theatre Company
Tipping Point Theatre
College Theatre
Rude Mechanicals
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre
Carriage House Theatre
Dexter Community Players
Saline Area Players
Spotlight Players
High School Theatre
Community Ensemble Theatre
Greenhills School
Huron High School
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Earn an accredited Master's degree without taking time off work.
The Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy guides working diplomats and international relations professionals through the theoretical and practical building blocks of diplomacy, with a focus on contemporary issues and challenges.
The programme, offered in cooperation with the University of Malta Department of International Relations, includes a 10-day residential workshop in Malta followed by 16 to 20 months of online study. Online areas of study range from the basics of diplomacy (including Diplomatic Theory and Practice, Bilateral Diplomacy, Multilateral Diplomacy) to contemporary topics (Language and Diplomacy, Development Diplomacy, E-Diplomacy and more).
Internet governance specialisation: Applicants may select Internet governance as an area of specialisation within the Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy. This programme gives current and future Internet policymakers a solid foundation in diplomatic skills and techniques.
Please provide your details to download our application form and receive it by e-mail. Read more about the application process below.
I was interested in the deeper intricacies of diplomacy in the 21st century, given the major tectonic shifts in today's geopolitics.
The programme, offered in cooperation with the University of Malta Department of International Relations, includes a 10-day residential workshop in Malta followed by 16 to 20 months of online study. The residential workshop focuses on practical skills, while online areas of study range from the basics of diplomacy (including Diplomatic Theory and Practice, Bilateral Diplomacy, Multilateral Diplomacy) through to contemporary topics (Language and Diplomacy, Development Diplomacy, E-Diplomacy and more).
Flexible: You design your study programme, deciding on the Postgraduate Diploma or Master's degree, and selecting from our wide range of courses. You decide when and where to study.
Practical and affordable: Programme fees cover participation and accommodation for the 10-day workshop in Malta and the entire online course tuition. Even better, with online study you can continue to work and earn an income. All you need is a computer connected to the Internet.
Relevant: Courses cover traditional and contemporary topics in diplomacy, and are kept relevant through discussion of current events and trends. Faculty members include practising and retired diplomats with both theoretical expertise and practical experience in the field.
Personalised: Extend your professional network through your classmates and lecturers. Small group sizes emphasise learning together, drawing on the experience and knowledge of participants as well as lecturers.
Effective: The programme is highly rated by former participants, who have seen immediate and lasting benefits ranging from personal development to career advances.
The Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy has European postgraduate accreditation through the Department of International Relations at the University of Malta, making it recognised worldwide.
Internet governance specialisation: Applicants may select Internet governance as an area of specialisation within the Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy. Candidates for this area of specialisation will attend several required courses in the area of Internet governance (Introduction to Internet Governance, E-diplomacy, and at least one of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure and Critical Internet Resources) and select their remaining courses from the wide list of diplomacy topics (see Provisional schedule for 2019 for Internet governance specialisation below). Candidates will write their dissertations on Internet governance-related topics.
Candidates who successfully complete the Internet governance specialisation will receive a degree/diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy awarded by the University of Malta. Internet governance courses attended – as well as other courses attended – will be listed in the detailed transcript issued on completion of the programme.
The Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy consists of a compulsory 10-day workshop in Malta followed by 16 to 20 months of online learning, including writing a Master's dissertation.
The option of completing up to two of the online courses before enrolling in the programme offers additional flexibility and financial savings. Please see University of Malta Accredited Courses to learn more about this option.
The programme language is English, giving non-native speakers a valuable opportunity to practise and hone their skills at expressing and explaining work-related concepts in this international language.
Faculty members include high-ranking, practising and retired diplomats as well as renowned academics in the fields of diplomacy and international relations. For further details please visit our faculty page.
You will need to bring a notebook or laptop computer for participation in the Malta workshop. A wireless Internet connection will be available in the workshop room.
An important benefit of the workshop is meeting other course participants and faculty members face-to-face. This personal contact makes the online learning phase richer and more rewarding. Participants tell us that they keep in touch with classmates and faculty members long after the programme ends and the resulting professional network is highly valuable in their work.
During the online learning phase, you return home and complete five online courses of your choice, each lasting ten weeks. Participants usually choose one course during each of the five sessions of the programme, although two courses may be taken simultaneously if this suits your schedule better. Participation in the programme involves seven to ten hours of study time per week (based on taking one online course at a time).
Courses cover a wide range of both traditional and contemporary topics in diplomacy, many of them not taught elsewhere. Please see the provisional schedule below, and visit our Course Catalogue for a full list of courses and their descriptions.
Discussion and interaction with course lecturers and among participants improves and enhances individual study of course topics. We keep online class groups small to allow for rich collaborative learning.
After successful completion of the introductory workshop and the online learning phase, you may choose whether to receive the Postgraduate Diploma or to proceed with writing your Master's dissertation.
If you aim for the Master's degree, you will prepare a 25 000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice under the personal online guidance of a research supervisor selected from Diplo's faculty members. You may decide whether to write your dissertation over a four- or eight-month period. Candidates for the Internet governance specialisation will write their dissertations on Internet governance-related topics.
In order to proceed to the Master's degree you must achieve an average mark of at least 65% for the five online courses.
If you have already completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy and would like to write your Master's dissertation, please see our page on How to Apply for the Master's Dissertation.
Note: visit our Course Catalogue for full course descriptions.
* Participants must choose at least one of Cybersecurity, and Infrastructure and Critical Internet Resources, either in the Learning Session 3 or 4.
Individuals interested in developing a career in Internet governance, cybersecurity and other emerging Internet policy areas.
Diplomats and government officials dealing with Internet governance, cybersecurity and other Internet-related policy issues.
Business people and civil society activists involved in multistakeholder Internet governance processes.
Postgraduate students of diplomacy, international relations, and communications wishing to study the multidisciplinary topic of Internet governance, and to gain deeper insight into Internet governance through interaction with diplomats and Internet governance policymakers.
Journalists, staff of international and non-governmental organisations, translators, business people and others who would like to take active part in Internet policy-making.
The residential workshop combines lectures, exercises, assignments, and simulations in order to build skills used in diplomatic practice. Participants are expected to participate fully in the workshop, and evaluation is based on both participation and graded assignments for each topic covered.
During the online courses, interaction takes place via the Internet through an online classroom. Each week, participants read the provided lecture text, adding questions, comments and references in the form of hypertext entries. Lecturers and other participants read and respond to these entries, creating interaction based on the lecture text. During the week, participants complete additional online activities (e.g. further discussion via blogs or forums, quizzes, group tasks, simulations or short assignments). At the end of the week, participants and lecturers meet online in a chat room to discuss the week's topic. Evaluation is based on participation and on several assignments for each course.
Writing the dissertation is a largely an individual activity. Each participant will work with a supervisor drawn from Diplo's faculty, communicating via e-mail.
All applicants must have regular access to the Internet (dial-up connection is sufficient, although broadband is preferable).
The fee for the Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy is €8700. After successful completion of the Postgraduate Diploma, participants who choose to write the Master's dissertation pay an additional fee of €2600.
The fee does not include travel expenses to Malta for the workshop.
A non-refundable application fee of €100 must be submitted with the application package. On acceptance into the programme, the amount of the application fee will be deducted from the course fee.
DiploFoundation offers a limited number of partial scholarships for the Postgraduate Diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy fee, to assist diplomats and others working in international relations from developing countries. Financial assistance is not available to cover the additional fees for the Master's dissertation.
Reasons for your interest in the programme.
Why you feel you should have the opportunity to participate in this programme: how will your participation benefit you, your institution and/or your country.
Maltese applicants can benefit from up to 70% of the fee in tax credits, as part of the Get Qualified 2017-2020 scheme. The credit can be set off against personal income.
Get Qualified is an initiative of the Government of Malta that supports the personal development of individuals for the achievement of qualifications and certifications required by industry. The incentive is applicable to individuals following our Master/PGD programme. Upon successful completion the student will benefit from a tax credit enabling them to recover part of the costs incurred.
Since the Master/PGD is on the Get Qualified approved list of courses, students should register on the Get Qualified portal.
Once registered, students will receive a username and password enabling them to access the online system, submit and manage their application. Following registration, students are reminded that they are still required to submit their application, in line with the Incentive Guidelines.
Complete applications must be received by 15 October 2019.
University of Malta application form filled out in full (download form). At the top of the form please indicate February 2019 as the start date. For Section A please indicate the correct course code and title: Master in Contemporary Diplomacy (PMCDIPFDL8); or Master in Contemporary Diplomacy (Internet governance) (PMCDIGVFDL2).
Draft research proposal of around 500 words (relevant to Section F of the application form; or Section E for Maltese applicants). You will have the opportunity to revise or change this before begining work on your dissertation, if you opt for the Master's degree.
Copies or scans of your degree(s) and official transcripts. Originals must be presented during the introductory workshop in Malta.
English translations of degree(s) and transcripts if they are not in English, signed and stamped by translator (copy or scan with the application, originals to be presented in Malta).
English language proficiency certificate obtained within the last two years (minimum requirements: Paper-based TOEFL - 600; Internet-based TOEFL – 95 (with a writing score of at least 24); IELTS: 6.5 (with a minimum of 6.0 in each element); Cambridge: Advanced Certificate with Grade C or better). Please indicate on the application form if you are still waiting for your English language proficiency results.
Copy or scan of the personal details pages of your passport.
If you are requesting financial assistance, please include your CV and a motivation letter with your application. The motivation letter should include details of your relevant professional and educational background; reasons for your interest in the programme; and why you feel you should have the opportunity to participate in this programme, i.e. how will your participation benefit you, your institution and/or your country. Financial assistance from DiploFoundation is only available to applicants from developing countries.
Please ensure that your application package is complete as we cannot process incomplete applications.
Late applications may be considered if space remains in the programme - please contact us if you wish to submit an application after the deadline.