Ronald Stammen – The Daily Standard

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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020

Ronald Stammen

Ronald N. "Ron" Stammen, age 71, of Fort Recovery, passed away July 21, 2020 at his residence.

He was born January 19, 1949, in Celina, to the late Melvin and Mary Rita (Huber) Stammen. On September 23, 1972, he married Mary Lou (Siefring) Stammen, who survives.

Also surviving are his children, Todd (Denise) Stammen of Wendelin, Marty (Jaymi) Stammen of Fort Recovery, Amy (Eric) Wendel of Fort Recovery, Chrissy (Aaron) Bergman of Wendelin, and Tony (Kayla) Stammen of Marion, OH; five siblings, Ken Stammen of Sharpsburg, Kathy (Ron) Ontrop of St. Henry, Dan Stammen of Sharpsburg and his friend Deb Ables of Celina, and Steve Stammen of Sharpsburg; 19 grandchildren; and in-laws, Dennis (Diana) Siefring of Fort Recovery, Larry (Kris) Siefring of Troy, Ed (Dana) Siefring of New Weston, John (Alice) Otte of St. Henry, and Donna (Steve) Braun of St. Henry.

He was preceded in death by a grandchild, Luke Stammen; a brother, John Stammen; and a sister-in-law, Pat Stammen; and in-laws, Ruth Otte & Dale Siefring.

Ron formerly drove semi for Wendel Poultry and retired from farming. He was a member of St. Paul Catholic Church, Sharpsburg and its Men's Society. He was also a member of the Progressive Sportsman Club, Fort Recovery and the Northwest Water Race Association.

Ron enjoyed spending time collecting and driving Allis Chalmers Tractors. His passion was swimming water race dogs especially, his trophy winning dogs Hooper and Nip.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be 10:30 am Friday, July 24, 2020 at Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church, Fort Recovery, with Fr. Christian Cone-Lombarte as celebrant. A live stream of the Mass will be available at http://www.fortrecoverycatholics.org/streamspot/. Social distancing will be observed at the funeral home and church. Burial will follow at St. Paul Cemetery, Sharpsburg.

Calling is 3:00 pm-8:00 pm Thursday and 9:00 am-10:00 am Friday at Brockman-Boeckman Funeral Home, Fort Recovery.

Contributions can be made to Fort Recovery Community Foundation.

Condolences may be directed to http://www.brockmanboeckmanfh.com.

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Ronald Stammen - The Daily Standard

The Big Ugly: Vinnie Jones stars in drive-in actioner – Newnan Times-Herald

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Review By: Jonathan W. Hickman

Made in the classic tough-guy tradition, writer/director Scott Wiper (see 2000s A Better Way to Die) partners, once again, with actor Vinnie Jones on The Big Ugly, a handsome slice of moody, neo-noir.

In the film, an English crime boss named Harris (Malcolm McDowell) strikes a deal with American oilman, Preston (Ron Perlman), to launder ill-gotten gains. Preston is desperate for funding for a West Virginia drilling operation. He tried traditional lenders, but loans proved to be impossible. Harris, beaten down by years of running his dangerous operation, sees Prestons business as a way to go legit and retire.

Traveling to the rural American job-site, Harris brings with him from England his chief enforcer, Neeyln (Vinnie Jones). And after tying up a loose end, Harris, Preston, and Neeyln engage in some much needed partying. Neeyln is an alcoholic, and Harris is a recovering one.

The next morning, Neeyln wakes up to find his beloved wife, Fiona (Lenora Crichlow), not beside him. Hung-over and disheveled, Neeyln stumbles to the bar to ask questions. What he discovers is disturbing and, inevitably, leads to the discovery of Fionas body in a nearby creek. Naturally, Neeyln doesnt want just answers; he wants justice, and that means someones gonna get hurt, and someones gonna die.

Theres nothing particularly unique about Scott Wipers script for The Big Ugly. Its a familiar revenge narrative, punctuated by solid performances by rugged faces. If theres a deviation from the standard revenge yarn, its that Neeyln isnt a superman capable of dispatching a gang of roughnecks with a single blow.

Wiper takes time to develop the investigation. And that gives the otherwise stoic Jones a chance to emote into his role. Its a fairly good piece of acting, if undercut by some uneven performances by the younger parts of the cast.

As always, Perlman is a formidable presence, playing the oil-drilling patriarch, who spoils his philandering son, Junior (Brandon Sklenar). McDowell is particularly good as a world-weary gangster. Hes played this role in better films (see Paul McGuigans Gangster No. 1, for example), and, over the years, he's developed the stare, that sees through the violence recognizing painful realities. Memorable character actor Bruce McGill serves well as the menacing, violent, American counterpart to Neeyln.

The Big Ugly looks terrific. It's shot by cinematographer Jeremy Osbern, a Kansas-based cinematographer and filmmaker (see the highly-recommended Air: The Musical). Osbern worked in Newnan on the locally made feature The Fat Boy Chronicles. With The Big Ugly, he gets the look exactly rightcapturing a sweaty, dusty, and unforgiving landscape.

The Big Ugly is a perfect drive-in release this weekend. Its a film that harkens to that very American outdoor cinema experience, watching lurid, vulgar pictures from the comfort of our vehicles. But no matter how gritty and violent this movie is, Wipers ambition was to make it about the West Virginian experience, where theres a conflict between fracking and less destructive drilling techniques.

Theres a movie in that social and environmental issue. While The Big Ugly contains an undercurrent devoted to the local, long-time landowners squeezed by large corporate entities, this is ultimately a b-movie actioner. Revenge on-screen never seems to go out of style.

***

A RottenTomatoes.com Tomatometer-approved critic, Jonathan W. Hickman is also an entertainment lawyer, college professor, novelist, and filmmaker. Hes a member of the Atlanta Film Critics Circle, The Southeastern Film Critics Association, and the Georgia Film Critics Association. For more information about Jonathan visit: FilmProductionLaw.com or DailyFIlmFix.com

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‘By all reports, things went really well:’ York County resumes jury trials amid COVID-19 – York Daily Record

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During his more than 30-year legal career, Rick Robinson estimates that hes conducted well in excess of 500 trials.

But when jurors had a question this last time, Robinson, a defense attorney in York, was faced with a dilemma: they were weighing the case inside the courtroom to ensure social distancing, instead of the jury deliberation room.

His client, Richard Schock, was being held in lockup while the jury deliberated because he couldnt post $100,000 bail on charges of drug delivery resulting indeath and related crimes.

But juries aren'tsupposed to know thatdefendantsareincarcerated thats highly prejudicial and could trigger a mistrial. Normally, deputy sheriffs first bring them out of the holding cell. Then, jurors reenter the courtroom.

So Robinson said he navigated through the York County Judicial Center and made it back to the holding cell. He and his client then walked from lockup and through the door to the courtroomtogether, as if they had simply been meeting in a conference room.

Welcome to criminal jury trials in the age of COVID-19.

READ: 'Wear a mask': Wolf, Levine say COVID-19 wave not over in Pa., during WellSpan Healthvisit

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, jurors are spaced out in the courtroom and don't all sit in the jury box to accommodate social distancing. The setup is shown recently in a smaller courtroom in the York County Judicial Center.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Now that Ive done two of them, Im kind of used to it, Robinson said. Under the circumstances, I thought it went pretty well.

In July, York County resumed holding jury trials for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic thats killed more than 140,000 people and upended everyday life in the United States.

Between July 6 and 17, judges conducted six criminal jury trials, Court Administrator Paul Crouse said in an email. The courts have implemented various safety measures, he said, including shifting counsel tables away from the jury box, creating more space between jurors and installing plexiglass barriers in several places.

Everyone whos in the presence of jurors has to wear a mask at most times. People have to undergo a temperature check before they enter the courthouse. Two criminal court judges instead of all five are holding trials at once.

Crousesaid whenever people receive a summons for jury serviceand complete their questionnaire online, they have the option to defer to a future date. Butvery few jurors expressed concerns about serving.

CHECK OUT: 50 lives: These Pennsylvanians share a similar tragedy, losing their lives to COVID-19

Plexiglass shields at the York County Judicial Center face the witness stand and the judge.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

By all reports, things went really well, said President Judge Joseph C. Adams, who added that the judiciary next plans to see if the smaller courtrooms can work with social distancing.

On Monday, Adams entered an order extending the local judicial emergency through the end of 2020, which allows the courts to limit in-person access to hearings for health and safety reasons and use technology including Zoom to conduct some proceedings.

People must wear masks at all times in areas of the building directly accessible to members of the public. Elected officials can establish their own protocols for employees in areas of their departments that are not directly accessible to the public, according to the order.

When Shelva Innerest received her summons for jury duty, she said her first reaction was, Oh, no.

Innerst, 78, said she wasnt bothered because of COVID-19. Instead, she said, it was the third time that shes been called for service. But she decided to do her civic duty.

During her service, Innerst said, she had to wear a mask. Court staff limited the number of jurors in the elevator to four at a time. People practiced social distancing in the jury assembly room.

I felt comfortable, because they were taking a lot of precautions, said Innerst, a retired barista who lives in North Hopewell Township.

Ron Gross, a defense attorney in York, said he experienced some hiccups during a three-day trial.

First, Gross said, potential jurors were sitting out of order during jury selection. Lawyers had to address legal issues with the judge talking into a headset. And witnesses testified behind plexiglass.

It was definitely challenging, Gross said.

He expressed concerns that some of the changes could negatively reflect on defendants. The position of the tables, with the defense off to the side. The physical distance between defense attorneys and their clients. Jurors, he said, pay attention to nonverbal communication.

The experience, he said, was awkward and uncomfortable. But Gross said he believes that the criminal justice system is doing its best. Courtrooms, he said, are designed for people to interact.

ALSO OF INTEREST: York County Prothonotary's Office employee tests positive for COVID-19, but public not told

A temperature scanner is used on everyone entering the York County Judicial Center.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Deputy Prosecutor Mark Monroe tried two cases this month.

Monroe said the safety of everyone is of the upmost importance. So if that causes minor inconveniences, he said, its something you accept.

Because hes relatively new, Monroe said, he wasnt completely cemented in the normal way of doing trials. He said he was able to focus on his cases once the proceedings got underway.

I just appreciate that members of the community are willing to come in, Monroe said, and make sure the courts can fulfill their role of seeking justice.

Contact Dylan Segelbaum at 717-771-2102.

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Ed Hardin: Football isn’t happening; we’re better than this – Winston-Salem Journal

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As ludicrous as that sounds to some people, we all need to get ready for it.

Were not playing football this fall.

While coaches around the area and the entire country go through the motions of preparing for a normal autumn or even a disrupted one, its time we call this off. The NCAA, state governors and college and high school administrators are all coming to the same conclusion, and its not hard to accept.

The virus isnt going away. There is no vaccine. We cant play football.

This week, in a show of bluster common among old-school football coaches, LSUs Ed Orgeron uttered something that was indeed ludicrous. He said football is the lifeblood of our country.

OK, so he was with the vice president at the time and probably trying to impress the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force with his intellect. But the statement echoed across Louisiana, which is one of the states experiencing one of the fastest growing surges in caseloads in America.

Football is not the lifeblood of this country. We can live without it. In fact, right now, we have to.

All across the South, as clueless coaches continue to plan for their season openers, scientists, epidemiologists, doctors and COVID-19 experts insist on no physical contact of any kind.

What about this are we missing?

Does anyone in his right mind think were going to unleash our children upon each other in two-hour contests of germ warfare? Were going to let high school and college students slam into each other in a toxic cocktail of sweat, blood and spit and pretend its safe?

Stop it. Its not happening. Were better than this.

In Missouri, where parents and youth coaches have thrown their kids back onto playing fields, health officials now say a rise in coronavirus cases among youth aged 10 to 19 are the primary source of COVID-19 spreading into the community.

Colleges from Chapel Hill to Clemson to Alabama and yes, LSU, are reporting shocking numbers of positive cases among football players. And at fraternities across the South and in college bars across the country, outbreaks are being reported every day.

All this before the students even return to campus.

We seem frozen by an inability to do the right thing. In Guilford County, no one knew when or whether summer workouts would resume Monday until the dinner hour tonight, while school districts of comparable size managed to make their decisions earlier in the week.

Its time the adults started acting like adults.

The NFL seems hell-bent on its players playing the role of guinea pigs if not lemmings, willing to die if not kill, to play football. We know what thats about, and it has nothing to do with the health and welfare of the workers.

Its about money. And television. And the odd assumption that Americans are all stupid football fans longing to watch their gridiron heroes on fields of glory.

Colleges are afraid to admit that theyve totally lost their souls to the athletics departments. And now theyre going to go broke because of football.

Look, we can play this in the spring if we get through winter without destroying our way of life. We can skip this season all together if it comes down to it. Colleges can then rebuild and restructure along fiscally responsible guidelines that dont include coaches being the highest-paid employees in the entire state.

Theyre just coaches. And football is just a game.

Its time for all these people making plans and statements about getting ready for the opener to pipe down. Common sense tells us we cant play football this fall.

Its time to stop listening to the liars and listen to the scientists. Its time to admit that we cant risk the lives of our best and brightest because we want to watch State play Florida State or Grimsley play East Forsyth.

We can wait. We dont have the money to play high school football. Do you know how many buses it would take to move an entire high school football team from one county to the next and stay within state guidelines?

We dont have enough test kits to play college football and keep small college communities safe and healthy. Do you realize how many times we would need to test these poor players just to know for certain the entire team isnt infected?

We have the rest of our lives to get this right. Its time we had the guts to stop this nonsense right now.

Stay home if you can. Stay safe if you cant.

Contact Ed Hardin at 336-373-7069, and follow @Ed_Hardin on Twitter.

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Global Video Surveillance Market (2020 to 2025) – Increasing Demand for VSaaS and VCA Presents Opportunities – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global Video Surveillance Market: Focus on Ecosystem, Application (Infrastructure, Commercial Residential, Industrial, Institutional, Others), and Region - Analysis and Forecast, 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to this report the video surveillance market is currently witnessing a high growth rate owing to the increasing market penetration of IP cameras in various application sectors for their high clarity and image responsiveness. With the increasing security concerns, along with the rising initiatives by the government to spend on surging digitization and smart cities, the number of cameras being used for video surveillance is also increasing. However, noteworthy changes in the commodity prices, including oil, the exit of the U.K. from the European Union (i.e., Brexit), or threatened trade wars are some other macroeconomic factors that may impact the supply-demand chain of the video surveillance products.

The software segment has witnessed the highest CAGR in the global video surveillance market, owing to the presence of various key players focusing on the integration of video analytics into their video surveillance systems. For instance, Dahua and Hikvision unveiled vehicle and face recognition analytics into their high-end surveillance products. Further, Huawei is also emphasizing on integrating deep learning technologies to their products.

In addition, an infrastructure application is expected to be the most lucrative application segment in the video surveillance market. This is attributed to the rising security demands across the globe with the goal of retaliating against terrorism and crime, along with an increase in government spending on security.

The market report provides a detailed analysis of the recent trends influencing the market, along with a comprehensive study of future trends and technological developments. It also includes a competitive analysis of the leading players in the industry, including company overview, financial summary, and SWOT analysis. The overall market has been segmented on the basis of ecosystems, applications, and regions. The report also includes a comprehensive section on the regional analysis for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa.

Key Questions Answered:

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Restraints

Opportunities

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2dj7de

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Global Video Surveillance Market (2020 to 2025) - Increasing Demand for VSaaS and VCA Presents Opportunities - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Growth of the regional fintech ecosystem going forward – Gulf Business News

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Changing consumer needs and rapid technological development has given a massive impetus to financial technology (fintech), which has grown from strength to strength.

Since the first credit card launched witha magnetic strip in the 1960s, the intertwining ofdigital technology and finance to improve the offerings in the market, has seen constant innovation.

Furthermore, fintechs adaptability across a slew of consumer sectors is propelling its widespreadacceptability. Managing finances, trading shares,furnishing payments and shopping online (often onyour smartphone) has never been more convenient.

The numbers add up: Ernst and Youngs Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019, surveying more than 27,000 consumers across 27 markets, revealed that China and India both hold an 87 per cent fintech adoptionrate while the global fintech adoption rate in 2019stood at 64 per cent.

Regionally, the MENA fintech market will reach a value of $2.5bn by 2022, according to research company MENA Research Partners.

INVESTOR ENGAGEMENTTechnological advancementshave not only led to a notableincrease in fintech startups, buthave understandably led tosubstantial investor engagement as well.

Since 2015, $237m has beeninvested in MENA-based fintech startups across 181 deals,with 51 of those deals beingmade in 2019 alone, a report co-compiled by MAGNiTT and AbuDhabi Global Market reveals.

Consumer demographics, internet and payments adoption, consumer attitudes, regulatorysandboxes, fintech funds and accelerators, and private capitalavailability remain key driversof regional fintech adoption andstartup growth, the report notes.

Regionally, the UAE stands out as the largest MENA hub forthe industry, accounting for 46per cent of all fintech startups.This growth has been backed by a tech-savvy consumer base,government support and programmes that underpin thestartup ecosystem.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)launched the $100m FinTechFund in 2019 to accelerate thedevelopment of financial technology by investing in startups from incubation through togrowth.

As part of the fund, DIFCinvested in four fintech startupsin June this year: FlexxPay acloud-based B2B employee benefits platform; GoRise a startup building a financial services platformfor 250 million global migrants; NOW Money a payroll services startup for Gulf-based companies; andSarwa a robo-advisory wealth management firm.

DIFC has registered over 100 fintech firms since the end of 2018, it announced in Q3 2019.

Outside the UAE, Riyad Bank in Saudi Arabiarevealed a SAR100m ($26.7m) programme to investin financial technology startups, while Bahrainlaunched its FinTech Bay in a bid to become the Gulfregions centre for fintech, hosting co-working spacesand shared infrastructure for corporate innovationlabs and startups.

Bahrain also offers a regulatory sandbox whichallows fintech firms to experiment with new ideasand solutions.

The Covid-19 pandemic also highlighted its relevance at a time when people have been either unableto or preferring to avoid physical services. Someof the products that have seen the biggest increase in transactions include online banking and cryptocurrencies, according to experts.

Overall, greater investment, regulatory support and a digitised consumer base have inspired fintechstartups to innovate and expand.

Looking ahead, the future of the regional fintechspace looks bright.

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Googles $10 billion fund is a testament to Indias accommodative ecosystem towards technology: Amitabh Kant – Economic Times

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Highlighting how the fintech segment has marvelled in the country over the years, Amitabh Kant said that India provides an accommodative ecosystem promoting technology and digital prowess, which inspires confidence in the country and follow investments. Googles $10 billion fund is a testament to that, he said.

Kant said that the financial technology sector has been the shining star of Indias startup and technology ecosystem, enabling seamless transition from physically connected to a physically distant but socially connected environment.

India is following the global trend of fintech adoption curve. Early work in payments and fund transfers is now leading to increased appetite for digital lending and gradually leading to activities, such as insurance wealth management and traditional deposit public savings accounts. Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of digital means of financial services. It has spurred the adoption of contactless digital payments. And there has been a surge in different payment volumes across online grocery stores, small retail outlets, among others, he said at the virtual event of Global Fintech Fest.

He pointed out that UPI has registered its highest ever transaction volume and value in June 2020, which is more than 100,300 million transactions amounting to over 2.6 lakh crore transactions.

Despite all the disruptions caused by COVID-19, our digital payment system has worked smoothly. And this is what drives our confidence that we are prepared for a post COVID-19 future as we ramp up our ambitions in moving up the fintech value chain, he said.

He mentioned that the Committee of Deepening of Digital Payments have made targets with respect to the growing fintech segment. This includes 10 x increase in per capita digital transactions from FY 2019 to FY 21-22; a 2x increase in digital transaction value as percentage of GDP from 769 per cent in FY19 to 1500 per cent in FY 21-22, and a 3x increase the number of active digital payments user per month from 100 billion to 300 billion.

The future of lending in my mind will be digital. Digital lending will constitute 50% of the total lending by 2023, he said.

He added that strong goals are also expected in SME loans and personal loans with increasing penetration of digital credits. Insurance sector in India is expected to grow by 4x in 2025, with an expected premium of $250 billion by 2025.

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Googles $10 billion fund is a testament to Indias accommodative ecosystem towards technology: Amitabh Kant - Economic Times

Impasse between Chennai FA and Tamil Nadu FA hampering the football ecosystem in the state – Goal

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It has been a few years since one of the most productive leagues in the state has run....

Tamil Nadu is one of those states in the country which does not have a common football league. In the absence of a league or competition organised by the Tamil Nadu Football Association (TNFA), leagues in cities like Chennai and Madurai hold utmost importance for footballers from the state.

The Chennai Football Association's (CFA) Senior Division is extremely special in that regard because it has been the breeding ground for almost every talent that has come up from the South Indian state.

It has been running for a long time (even before independence) under the stewardship of CFA and is the only properly-organised league in the state.

Forget the past. From the current crop of players, the likes of Dharmaraj Ravanan, Michael Soosairaj, Edwin Vanspaul, Michael Regin and Nandhakumar Sekar are all players who proved their mettle in the CFA Senior Division before getting their chance to gain national prominence.

However, for the last three years, the CFA Senior Division has not been held, dealing a major blow to the dreams and aspirations of countless local players who rely on the competition to impress scouts and get a break in their career.

Regin, an ISL winner with ATK last season, had this to say to Goal in a recent interview - "Chennai league is the first step for many local players. I played both second, first and then played senior division. It gives a lot of exposure to local players. Nobody would have known me If Id not played there.

"I don't understand what is happening but a lot of players are suffering. Everybody cannot play for Chennai City FC and come up. They cannot give a chance to every player. There needs to be the league in the city. It is such an important part for a Tamil Nadu player."

The reason for the discontinuance of the league is a legal spat between CFA and TNFA. The state body took the district body to court in 2018 after opposing the elections held by the CFA that year. Chennai City owner Rohit Ramesh was elected as President but the state body filed a case saying the Secretary E Sugumaran was ineligible to contest the elections.

The legal wrangle has left the CFA without a rudder for more than two years and as a result, the Senior Division league has not run since. Not only did the spat bring the footballing activities in Chennai to a standstill, TNFA reportedly went as far as cutting the electricity connection to the CFA office at one point.

After seeing literally no progress and no intent to foster the sport in the state because of the impasse, Rohit Ramesh even offered to resign from the CFA, only for the Secretary to turn the resignation down.

The spat has permeated all aspects of the footballing administration in the state with TNFA accused of delaying and creating roadblocks for entities and clubs associated with the CFA.

The Madras High Court had to intervene in August 2019, appointing an ad-hoc committee to ensure the CFA Senior Division at least is held in 2020. However, even the court's directive has not produced any results despite efforts to start the registration process in January 2020 by the court-appointed committee.

Rohit Ramesh feels that because he belongs to the opposing camp, as per TNFA, they manufacture difficulties and create unnecesary red tape when it comes documentation and other procedures that involve his I-League club Chennai City FC.

"It (the Senior Division) has not been happening for the last three years. When you got an entity fighting case after case in the court, nothing happens. Then there are the ego clashes," he told Goal.

"For instance, when we have to get some certificate for our licensing procedure, it has been tough because they know that we are from CFA and they try to delay it. They bring politics into it. You supported this or that (against us) and why should we help you. Its not working out."

In fact, Goal was privy to a recent telephonic conversation between a Chennai City official andJ. Jesiah Villavarayar, a senior TNFA official. The club official's requests for an affiliation document needed for the club licensing procedure which was initiated by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) was met with a rude 'no'.

The official cited the ongoing lockdown as a reason for his inability to furnish the document. But the polite request for even an e-mail acknowledgement of the fact that TNFA are unable to do so fell on deaf ears as Jesiah asks the club official to take it up with the AIFF.

Under such trying circumstances, Rohit feels it is beyond CFA's ability to hold a league that means so much to the development of football in the city and the state. He feels that only an AIFF intervention can resolve the issue at hand in the near future.

"To be very honest, it is highly unlikely that the league will happen until and unless the AIFF intervenes. If you ask me, they should put an ad-hoc committee to help both associations sort out their differences.Till then, a representative from AIFF should take over the running of the league. That would be the only way the league might restart, if you ask me."

Not every local player can get a chance at Chennai City or Chennaiyin FC - the two clubs from the state playing in the national competitions. The CFA Senior Division is a huge event in the players' calendars and right now, they are being denied that chance by egoistic administrative tussles.

The Indian FA have made some noise recently about handing more responsibility including the organisation of youth leagues to the state associations. In Tamil Nadu's case, the priority for AIFF should be to sort out this issue that is threatening to stall the progress and development of the sport.

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Impasse between Chennai FA and Tamil Nadu FA hampering the football ecosystem in the state - Goal

Global Region Likely to Dominate the TD-LTE Ecosystem Market Over the Forecast Period 2015 2021 – Bulletin Line

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Indias fintech ecosystem leading the world in terms of innovation: WhatsApp India head – Livemint

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Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp is looking to partner and invest" in Indias fintech ecosystem, said Abhijit Bose, WhatsApps India Head.

Over the next two years, were committing to opening up in entrepreneurial ways we never have before," said Bose at the virtual Global Fintech Fest on Wednesday.

He said the company will launch many experiments", some of which are already set in motion, including digital banking, increased financial services and digitization of small businesses.

Bose said the company will use the venture model to help banks and financial institutions, partnering with WhatsApp, to come up with solutions . We will take risks, but well do it with controlled pilots. And, based on user acceptance, we will invest and scale the solutions that deliver results," he said.

The Indian fintech sector is leading the world in terms of innovation, Bose said, adding: The fintech innovation happening here and the outcomes that all of us are going to do together, are years ahead of any other country, including the US."

He said the scale companies need to think in India is way beyond" what other markets could offer. The practical operations and constructs on the ground also have to be thought of at a very different level." India has been one of the biggest markets for the company. It is working to launch WhatsApp Pay, which will be based on the governments Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

WhatsApp has 15 million users , including many small businesses, in India on its business platform, it had said earlier this month. Bose said WhatsApp has been working with its banking partners to build more products. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have deployed WhatsApp-based services and have been very well received".

WhatsApp isnt the only company that is bullish on Indias fintech market. According to a May report by Research and Markets, fintech adoption in India saw the highest adoption rate of 87%, compared to the global average of 64%.

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Indias fintech ecosystem leading the world in terms of innovation: WhatsApp India head - Livemint

What Is Gentle Medicine? – The Wire

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Numerous criticisms of medical science have been articulated in recent years. Some critics argue that spurious disease categories are being invented, and existing disease categories expanded, for the aim of profit. Others say that the benefits of most new drugs are minimal and typically exaggerated by clinical research, and that the harms of these drugs are extensive and typically underestimated by clinical research.

Still others point to problems with the research methods themselves, arguing that those once seen as gold standards in clinical research randomised trials and meta-analyses are in fact malleable and have been bent to serve the interests of industry rather than patients. Here is how the chief editor of The Lancet medical journal summarised these criticisms in 2015:

Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.

These problems arise because of a few structural features of medicine. A prominent one is the profit incentive. The pharmaceutical industry is extremely profitable, and the fantastic financial gains to be made from selling drugs create incentives to engage in some of the practices above. Another prominent feature of medicine is the hope and the expectation of patients that medicine can help them, coupled with the training of physicians to actively intervene, by screening, prescribing, referring or cutting.

Another feature is the wildly complex causal basis of many diseases, which hampers the effectiveness of interventions on those diseases taking antibiotics for a simple bacterial infection is one thing, but taking antidepressants for depression is entirely different. In my book Medical Nihilism (2018), I brought all these arguments together to conclude that the present state of medicine is indeed in disrepair.

How should medicine face these problems? I coined the term gentle medicine to describe a number of changes that medicine could enact, with the hope that they would go some way to mitigating those problems. Some aspects of gentle medicine could involve small modifications to routine practice and present policy, while others could be more revisionary.

Lets start with clinical practice. Physicians could be less interventionist than they currently are. Of course, many physicians and surgeons are already conservative in their therapeutic approach, and my suggestion is that such therapeutic conservatism ought to be more widespread. Similarly, the hopes and expectations of patients should be carefully managed, just as the Canadian physician William Osler (1849-1919) counselled: One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine. Treatment should, generally, be less aggressive, and more gentle, when feasible.

Another aspect of gentle medicine is how the medical research agenda is determined. Most research resources in medicine belong to industry, and its profit motive contributes to that obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance. It would be great if we had more experimental antibiotics in the research pipeline, and it would be good to have high-quality evidence about the effectiveness of various lifestyle factors in modulating depression (for example). Similarly, it would be good to have a malaria vaccine and treatments for what are sometimes called neglected tropical diseases, the disease burden of which is massive.

The current coronavirus pandemic has displayed how little we know about some very basic but immensely important questions, such as the transmission dynamics of viruses, the influence of masks on mitigating disease transmission, and the kinds of social policies that can effectively flatten epidemic curves. But there is little industry profit to be made pursuing these research programmes. Instead, great profit can be made by developing me-too drugs a new token of a class of drugs for which there already exist multiple tokens. A new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) could generate great profit for a company, though it would bring little benefit for patients, given that there are already many SSRIs on the market (and, in any case, their demonstrated effect sizes are extremely modest, as I argued in a recent Aeon essay).

Also read: Can We Push Pharma Innovation Without Giving Away Pricey Patents?

A policy-level change, for which some now argue, is to reduce or eliminate the intellectual property protection of medical interventions. This would have several consequences. It would, obviously, mitigate the financial incentives that appear to be corrupting medical science. It would probably also mean that new drugs would be cheaper. Certainly, the antics of people such as Martin Shkreli would be impossible. Would it also mean that there would be less innovative medical research and development?

This is a tired argument often raised to defend intellectual property laws. However, it has serious problems. The history of science shows that major scientific revolutions typically occur without such incentives think of Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Breakthroughs in medicine are no different. The most important breakthroughs in medical interventions antibiotics, insulin, the polio vaccine were developed in social and financial contexts that were completely unlike the context of pharmaceutical profit today. Those breakthroughs were indeed radically effective, unlike most of the blockbusters today.

Another policy-level change would be to take the testing of new pharmaceuticals out of the hands of those who stand to profit from their sale. A number of commentators have argued that there should be independence between the organisation that tests a new medical intervention and the organisation that manufactures and sells that intervention. This could contribute to raising the evidential standards to which we hold medical interventions, so that we can better learn their true benefits and harms.

Returning to the issue of the research agenda, we also need to have more rigorous evidence about gentle medicine itself. We have a mountain of evidence about the benefits and harms of initiating therapy this is the point of the vast majority of randomised trials today. However, we have barely any rigorous evidence about the effects of terminating therapy. Since part of gentle medicine is a call to be more therapeutically conservative, we ought to have more evidence about the effects of drug discontinuation.

For example, in 2010 researchers in Israel applied a drug discontinuation programme to a group of elderly patients taking an average of 7.7 medications. By strictly following treatment protocols, the researchers withdrew an average of 4.4 medications per patient. Of these, only six drugs (2 per cent) were re-administered due to symptom recurrence. No harms were observed during the drug discontinuations, and 88 per cent of the patients reported feeling healthier. We need much more evidence like this, and of higher quality (randomised, blinded).

Gentle medicine doesnt mean easy medicine. We might learn that regular exercise and healthy diets are more effective than many pharmaceuticals for a wide range of diseases, but regular exercise and healthy eating are not easy. Perhaps the most important health-preserving intervention during the present coronavirus pandemic is social distancing, which is completely non-medical (insofar as it doesnt involve medical professionals or medical treatments), though social distancing requires significant personal and social costs.

In short, as a response to the many problems in medicine today, gentle medicine suggests changes to clinical practice, the medical research agenda, and policies pertaining to regulation and intellectual property.

This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.

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What Is Gentle Medicine? - The Wire

SpaceX’s historic 1st crewed mission set to end on Aug. 2 – Space.com

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SpaceX's first-ever crewed mission will come to an end in two weeks.

NASA is targeting an Aug. 2 splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean for the Demo-2 test flight, which sent NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, agency chief Jim Bridenstine announced today (July 17).

If all goes according to plan, Behnken and Hurley will depart the ISS on Aug. 1 and come back to Earth a day later, Bridenstine said via Twitter today. But those dates aren't set in stone, he stressed: "Weather will drive the actual date. Stay tuned."

Related: SpaceX's historic Demo-2 test flight in photos

Demo-2 launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on May 30 and reached the ISS a day later. The mission's duration was uncertain until today; NASA officials had previously said that Demo-2 would last between one and four months, depending on how Crew Dragon performed.

Demo-2 is the first orbital human spaceflight to lift off from the United States since the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in July 2011. Ever since then, NASA had relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get American astronauts to and from orbit, at a cost, most recently, of about $90 million per seat. The U.S. space agency didn't want this dependency to last too long, so, over the last decade, it has been funding the development of private astronaut taxis to fill the shuttle's shoes.

In 2014, SpaceX and Boeing each received multibillion-dollar contracts from NASA's Commercial Crew Program to finish work on their human spaceflight systems and launch at least six operational missions to the ISS.

After Demo-2's successful splashdown, SpaceX will be clear to launch the first of those contracted flights. That mission, known as Crew-1, is scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 30.

Boeing's capsule, called CST-100 Starliner, is not yet ready to carry astronauts to orbit; it must first refly an uncrewed test flight to the ISS later this year. During its first attempt at this mission, which launched in December 2019, Starliner suffered a glitch with its onboard timing system and failed to rendezvous with the orbiting lab. (SpaceX notched this milestone with its uncrewed Demo-1 flight in March 2019.)

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX's historic 1st crewed mission set to end on Aug. 2 - Space.com

The UAE’s Hope Mars orbiter: Here’s 6 things to know about the historic mission – Space.com

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is sending a spacecraft called Hope to Mars in what will, if successful, become the first interplanetary mission based out of the Arab region.

The mission focuses on understanding Mars' weather and atmosphere. It's a topic that plenty of missions have touched on before, but the Hope spacecraft will take a new, more comprehensive approach to the question. The UAE hopes the mission will help scientists around the world to understand how weather changes on the Red Planet over the course of a day and between the Martian seasons; the mission could also shed light on how our neighboring world is losing its atmosphere.

Here's your cheat sheet to the mission.

Related: The United Arab Emirates' Hope mission to Mars in photos

The UAE is still pretty new to spaceflight, first participating in a satellite launch in 2009 in partnership with a South Korean company. The country's first domestically built satellite, an Earth-observing mission called KhalifaSat, launched in 2018.

Hope is the country's first-ever foray beyond Earth orbit. As with its early satellites, the UAE recruited partners to help make the mission more feasible and to develop the knowhow necessary for the mission. In this case, the UAE partnered with three U.S. universities who host faculty with experience on Mars spacecraft.

Related: A Mars 'Hope': The UAE's 1st interplanetary spacecraft aims to make history at Red Planet

The Hope mission, also called the Emirates Mars Mission, was first announced in 2014 as a way to spur economic and technological development. The mission came with several stipulations: although the project would be based on partnerships, the team needed to build the spacecraft not just buy it, and the spacecraft needed to arrive at Mars before December 2021, when the UAE will celebrate its 50th anniversary. That deadline required a launch this summer because of the tricky orbital alignments that put Mars launch windows 26 months apart from each other.

And, of course, the mission couldn't be too expensive. All told, the spacecraft and its launch cost $200 million, according to the UAE, although that number doesn't include the costs of operating the mission in space.

Related: The boldest Mars missions in history

Mars is hard. To date, only four entities have successfully visited Mars: NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency and India. If all goes well, the UAE would join that contingent.

But the country may not end up being the fifth Mars visitor because China is also launching its first Mars mission this summer while orbits align. Neither mission has yet announced when specifically it will arrive at the Red Planet, although both will be on track for an early 2021 rendezvous.

(NASA's Mars 2020 mission, starring the massive Perseverance rover, is targeting the same three-week launch window.)

Related: It's the month of Mars! 3 Red Planet missions set to launch in July

Hope, which is about the size of an SUV, carries three instruments. One is an imager, which will capture photographs in optical and ultraviolet light. The other two are spectrometers, which split light into the specific wavelengths present, one working on ultraviolet and one on infrared light.

As a team, the three instruments will allow Hope to study the thin, carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere of Mars in order to better understand the Red Planet's weather and how it loses its atmosphere out to space.

Related: The UAE wants to rewrite what we know about weather on Mars

While the mission's instruments build on existing technology, the Hope spacecraft will use a unique tactic to gather its science data: traveling in an orbit around Mars no probe has taken before. Every 55 hours, the spacecraft will complete a loop around the planet's equator, flying between 12,000 to 27,000 miles (20,000 to 43,000 kilometers) above the Martian surface.

That path will allow the probe to study changes in weather over the course of the full Martian day, which lasts a bit longer than a terrestrial day, and year, which lasts nearly two Earth years. The primary mission will continue for one Mars year.

Related: A brief history of Mars missions

Choosing to send its first interplanetary robot to Mars fits with other priorities within the UAE's space program. Currently, the nation's main human spaceflight focus is sending astronauts to the International Space Station; the first Emirati astronaut, Hazzaa AlMansoori, launched in September 2019 for a weeklong flight. The UAE is already recruiting its next pair of astronauts and strategizing longer missions to orbit.

But the Red Planet also sits firmly in the UAE's goals. The country is preparing to participate in a Mars analog mission for the first time later this year. If all goes according to plan, the country may soon host such analogue missions, as well as other Mars-focused research, at the Mars Science City facility it is planning to construct in the desert.

Related: Hazzaa AlMansoori: The 1st Emirati Astronaut's Space Station Mission in Photos

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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The UAE's Hope Mars orbiter: Here's 6 things to know about the historic mission - Space.com

Care home residents blast off to space on simulator in celebration of moon landing anniversary – The Northern Echo

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CARE home residents marked the anniversary of the first manned mission to the moon by embarking on their own, virtual space flight.

Using a space flight simulator on their tablet computers, residents at Hazlegrove Court Care Home, Saltburn, glided through space.

The event was organised to mark 51 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first steps on the surface of the moon. Many of the residents can still remember watching the historic event on the television in July 1969.

When asked what things they would take to the moon, resident Joyce Tibbett, 84, said: Family photos, sweets, bible, shandy, puzzle books, clock, men.

Asked why she included men on her list, Joyce said: So they can do repairs if needed.

Sharon Lewis, activities coordinator at Hazelgrove Court Care Home, said: The residents really enjoyed the Shuttle flight simulator app. Our journey into space was great fun.

Listening to the residents memories of the moon landing was a lot of fun. They were all different ages but they all remember watching it on TV and knowing it was a moment for the history books.

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Care home residents blast off to space on simulator in celebration of moon landing anniversary - The Northern Echo

EXPANDED: County adopts resolution affirming Second Amendment | National News – KPVI News 6

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In a 9 to 6 vote, the Sawyer County Board of Supervisors on Thursday, July 16, approved a non-binding resolution to reaffirm a commitment to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and the right to bear arms under the Wisconsin Constitution.

During public comments and supervisor discussion, support for the resolution centered on the importance of the Second Amendment as critical to the existence of all other constitutional amendments, along with the importance of a public affirmation and concern over legislative efforts to diminish Second Amendment rights.

Those opposed to the resolution said the Second Amendment is enshrined in both the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions and the resolution was unnecessary and could provoke unnecessary consequences, such as placing local law enforcement in a position to interpret constitutional law, a role set aside for the courts.

In late 2019 a citizen approached the Public Safety Committee during public comments about creating Second Amendment sanctuary status for the county. Several Wisconsin counties have established Second Amendment Sanctuary status to offer law enforcement discretion whether to enforce laws county supervisors might consider an infringement to Second Amendment rights.

In Wisconsin, the sanctuary movement gained momentum after Gov. Tony Evers (D-Madison) took office in 2019 and proposed legislation requiring that all gun sales, including gun shows, conduct a background check. Evers also proposed red flag laws, which would allow law enforcement or a family member to appeal to a court for the removal of firearms based on a concern that a person is a threat to himself or others.

The resolution passed July 16, however, does not create sanctuary status. It does cite concerns about legislation from the state that would infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.

According to the countys minutes and agendas, the first official mention of the resolution appeared on the agenda under Future Agenda Items, for the March 5 Public Safety Committee as Second Amendment Protection, but it wasnt openly discussed until the July 2 meeting under Second Amendment Resolution. At that meeting, after an 18-minute discussion, the committee adopted a resolution to be forwarded to the full Sawyer County Board on July 16.

The adopted resolution re-affirms, in part 1, all constitutional obligations, including the Second Amendment, and also notes, in part 2, its support of the sheriffs office.

In part 3 of the resolution, it notes the county will not support any actions that could infringe constitutional rights for the citizens of Sawyer County and in part 4 states opposition to any state or federal legislation that would infringe upon the constitutional rights of the citizens of Sawyer County.

Public comments

During public comments, five spoke in favor of the resolution and four spoke in opposition.

Harold Miller documented the historical and constitutional importance of the Second Amendment and discussed the importance of citizens being armed in light of recent civil unrest and personal safety, but he did not directly address the resolution.

Fred Briggs, who said he first proposed the sanctuary status, said he represented a Facebook group of 1,200 people, including 850 county residents, who supported the resolution.

Briggs said he had presented a petition to the county with 650 signatures in support of the resolution, including 48 businesses, which were gathered in just over four weeks.

We want our officials to basically uphold their oath, Briggs said. If you look at the resolution, there is nothing in there new.

Jim Miller, representing the Republican Party for the 7th Congressional District, said his party had similar planks and supported the resolution.

Jeremy Stewart, founder of Change for Sawyer County, a new group representing young activists, supported the resolution. He said his support comes after seeing the civic unrest that led to destruction in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd on May 25. He said the best antidote to social upheaval is peacefully coming together as a community, but he also noted the importance of being armed if unrest does happen.

Bill Schleusner, who initiated the resolution, said he believes there have been efforts to remove Second Amendment protections, and he said he believes the Second Amendment helps secure other constitutional rights.

In the past year or two, we have gotten lot of people in this country who think there are other ways that (are) much better to live and one of the things they are trying to do is take away the right to own a firearm to protect yourself, he said.

He contended more are killed each year by other means than a gun, and he also noted a fear of socialist countries.

I do not want you or my family or anyone else to live like they live, Schleusner said of socialist countries. Im proud of what we have here and a lot of military people have given their lives for our freedom and we need to maintain that.

Lastly, he called the resolution an additional lawyer of documentation to support the Second Amendment, which also supports the First Amendment.

The four who spoke in opposition to the resolution also noted their support of the Second Amendment.

I dont believe this resolution is necessary because the right to keep and bear arms is already well established in the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions, said Thomas Vitcenda of Exeland. This resolution is an unnecessary symbolic gesture that would do nothing to improve the safety and security of Sawyer County residents and visitors. Instead, a statement like this is likely to stoke fear, mistrust and division.

He also feared the resolution would result in discretionary power for law enforcement.

Mary Vicenda, Thomass sister, also from Exeland, also spoke in opposition and called the resolution largely symbolic, but noted it elevates gun rights over other amendments, such as the First Amendment, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to choose ones religion and more.

Tish Keahna, a lawyer who lives in Hayward, said she was asked by a county employee signing up those who wanted to make public comments, whether she was for or against the Second Amendment, a question, she said, that was disingenuous and framed the discussion as a political issue on the Second Amendment and not the countys resolution.

She also questioned why the county was devoting time to this issue when there were more pressing maters, and she added it was outside of the duty of law enforcement officers to interpret constitutional law because under it is the domain of the courts.

Joan Cervenka, a leader of Up North Engaged, a local grassroots political action group, questioned if part 3 of the resolution created an unintended financial obligation for the county to take an active role in ensuring all constitutional rights are observed, such as ensuring everything could be done to encourage access to voting.

Cervenka said the way to uplift constitutional rights in Sawyer County is to build the second courtroom and seat the second judge, and she also encouraged higher fees for public defenders so people are properly represented in court.

Board discussion

Supervisor James Schlender, chair of the Public Safety Committee, said there had been discussion of the resolution during the February and March committee meetings. However, there is no record of those discussions in county minutes.

The Record asked Schlender about those February and March discussions and he said there had been attempts to place the issue on the agenda but they had fallen through.

Schlender added that in May a draft resolution was brought forward that was amended as a reaffirmation of the Second Amendment and acknowledge law enforcement during a time of social upheaval.

Schlender asked for a motion to adopt the resolution, but Supervisor Troy Morgan proposed a motion to postpone pending a public hearing.

Theres a lot of passion on this from both sides, Morgan said, and I dont believe the public has had the proper notice to be able to discuss this. I would move that we would postpone this until a public hearing be held, so that we can hear from all relevant parties. I dont believe tonights public comment is sufficient for that, so that is my motion.

Supervisor Ron Kinsley seconded the motion. There was some confusion about the motion because some thought Schlender had made a motion, but Morgan pointed out that he had only called for a motion.

Schlender responded that Morgans motion seemed pre-planned to stop the resolution.

Supervisor Dale Schleeter said the resolution before the board had only been public for a matter of days and added he had received much feedback from those who had just heard about it and were not in favor but hadnt been able to attend a public meeting.

This is a big issue for Sawyer County, Schleeter said.

The vote to postpone the resolution pending a public hearing failed in a close 7 to 8 tally. Voting to postpone were Tom Duffy, Bruce Paulsen, Susie Taylor, Kinsley, Schleeter, Tweed Shuman and Morgan. Voting against postponing were Marc Helwig, Chuck Van Etten, Dale Olson, Dawn Petit, Ronald Buckholtz, Helen Dennis, Jesse Boettcher and Schlender.

After the motion failed, Olson recounted speaking to Schleusner that legally the resolution had no standing, but he would support the resolution because it supports the Second Amendment.

Morgan said he took an oath of office to support the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions, including the Second Amendment, and he also spoke of the resolution having unintended consequences.

Supervisor Helwig asked what those consequences might be.

Morgan said he was concerned law enforcement might not enforce some laws.

There is absolutely nothing in here I disagree with, Boettcher said.

Addressing Cervenkas concern over unintended obligations in part 3, he noted part 3 is a passive statement and did not require the county take an active role.

It doesnt say we are going to actively police and support anything, he said. It just says we are not going to support any infringement on any of those rights. Im not sure why that is so contentious. It seems pretty passive to me.

Supervisor Dennis noted that the resolution had been reviewed by the countys legal counsel, and she contended the resolution had been out in the public for some time.

Schlender said a reaffirming is an action of reassuring oneself. He used the practice of repeating the Pledge of Allegiance as one such reaffirmation.

This resolution is non-binding, Schlender said. It does not create any affirmative action other than that to say that we affirm our constitutional obligation to uphold our oath, and second one is we recognize the work and the sacrifices of the deputies and the sheriff.

Paulsen said as a gun owner he supported the Second Amendment but would not support the non-binding resolution. He said if the board wanted to show its support of the sheriff then it should offer a resolution specifically stating that.

In the final vote, nine supported the resolution and six were opposed.

The nine voting yes included Van Etten, Olson, Petit, Kinsley, Buckholtz, Dennis, Boettcher, Schlender and Helwig.

The six voting no included Duffy, Paulsen, Taylor, Schleeter, Shuman and Morgan.

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EXPANDED: County adopts resolution affirming Second Amendment | National News - KPVI News 6

Thank Slavery For The Second Amendment MIR – The McGill International Review

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A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.

One of the most common defenses of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution rests in the assertion that the people should have the right to bear arms in order to resist a tyrannical government. Asked what a tyrannical government actually looks like, some will explain that a government becomes tyrannical when it restricts ones civil liberties, such as ones freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble. Yet few are calling for an armed insurrection against the Trump administration for its assaults on Americans civil liberties. After all, many of those protesting against systemic racism and police brutality are probably opposed to an unrestricted interpretation of the Second Amendment, not least because it has historically been invoked by racists to justify the killing of unarmed African Americans.

So when is a government considered tyrannical, and when does the Second Amendment become a necessary safeguard against government transgression? If someone had asked some of the founders, they might have said, abolition.

Its not emphasized in history textbooks enough, but the Second Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights, at least in part, to placate plantation-dominated states in the South, so that slave owners could protect themselves from slave revolts and abolitionists by controlling their own state militias. People have only been misled into thinking otherwise because of a fatal misreading of history and a pernicious disregard for grammatical logic.

For starters, the question of states authority over their militias, not individual gun ownership rights, is at the heart of the Second Amendment. In June 1788, James Madison, one of the principal drafters of the Constitution and a future US President, made his case for ratification before the Virginia state convention. By then, eight of the nine states required to approve the Constitution had ratified it. Because New York, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and New Hampshire leaned anti-federalist (opposed to strengthening the central government), and did not seem likely to ratify it, all hope rested with Virginia. But it quickly became clear that Madison had made a dangerous oversight: he had inadvertently threatened the institution of slavery.

Slavery found its champions in Patrick Henry, the governor of Virginia and the colonies most renowned orator, as well as in George Mason, the intellectual leader of the anti-federalists. They railed against the proposed Constitution, arguing that its original wording, without the later addition of a Bill of Rights, implied that the federal government would be able to control a states militias without the states consent. This posed two problems for slave states. On the one hand, if the United States went to war and levied state militias, it would leave the southern states at the mercy of slave revolts. In some parts of the South, particularly eastern Virginia, white inhabitants were significantly outnumbered by their enslaved counterparts, and state militias were considered necessary to terrorize the slaves into submission. On the other hand, without explicitly extending the right to organize, arm, and discipline militias to the states themselves, the federal government might have been empowered to subvert the slave system by disarming the southern state militias. To this criticism, Madison argued that the states right to regulate their own militias was concurrent with that of the federal government. Nevertheless, Henry and Mason insisted that this was not the case, and nearly prevented Virginia from ratifying the Constitution.

Fear of Black people compelled Henry and Mason to resist the Constitution. And that fear defined the Southern cultural milieu that raised them: Southern colonists were habitually afraid of their human chattel, always fearful that enslaved African Americans would turn against them unless they were violently suppressed at every moment. Such fears were stoked by the Stono Revolt in South Carolina in 1739, after which state militias were increasingly used as slave patrols to subdue and preempt unrest, regularly inspecting slave quarters on plantations to search for arms and ammunition. Indeed, during the American Revolution, the southern states committed far fewer militias to the cause than their northern counterparts, because they feared inviting slave insurrection at home.

That same anxiety dictated their deliberations on the Constitution in 1788. The concern that the northern states might have been empowered to curtail slavery was justified; for as Patrick Henry observed at the convention, slavery is detested the majority of Congress is to the North, and the slaves to the South. In short, the tyranny they feared was a government controlled by northern abolitionists.

In the end, Virginia ratified the Constitution by a thin margin, and, unbeknownst to them, New Hampshire did the same. The Constitution was adopted, in spite of the concerns raised by Mason and Henry. Nevertheless, determined to secure slavery, Virginia proposed that Congress consider a declaration of 20 rights, including a right to bear arms, and 20 constitutional amendments, including one empowering states to arm their militias if Congress did not.

When Madison was elected to Congress in the fall, he was careful to ensure that nothing in the Bill of Rights contradicted the authorities established in the main body of the Constitution. So, instead of explicitly stating that states had the right to arm militias, he made use of the fact that state militias traditionally required members to bring their own guns with them. The people (that is, the free, land-owning white people) would arm themselves and come to the states defense when mustered by the states, if the federal government did not raise them itself. And so, finally, control over the militias really was concurrent between the states and the federal government as Madison had originally intended.

The Second Amendment, then, is a product of Madisons political maneuvering. This inheritance has been misunderstood, because the militia clause is followed by a qualification: that the people have the right to bear arms. However, this clarification was only necessary because state militias enlisted free citizens who were required to bring their own firearms. Of course, it would have also eased states concerns about the tyranny of a standing army, the idea of which provoked images of red-clad British troops marching on colonial liberties. Still, this way of appeasing the antifederalists did not invite every American to overthrow a government that they perceived as tyrannical; it rested in the assumption that states would act as cohesive political units, giving states greater leverage in the national political arena.

Naysayers contend that the Second Amendment was less about regulating militias and instead necessarily about individual gun rights, because colonizing the western frontier posed many dangers, including resistance from Indigenous peoples. But they forget that frontiersmen were originally required to bear arms, as members of the militia, to combat Indigenous inhabitants of the land. They were, of course, regulated accordingly in preparation to fight them following a brutal tradition that started with the first European settlements in the Americas.

An honest consideration of the historical context shows that the Second Amendment was intended to balance states rights and those of the new federal government a particularly important issue to southern legislators who saw a strong central government as a threat to slavery. Yet that historical context has been ignored too often by lawmakers, and most troublingly, even by some of the Justices on the US Supreme Court. As the US reckons with its history of racial injustice and protesters topple statues that glorify racists, perhaps Americans should train their eyes on the Second Amendment that equally enshrines Americas history of violently asserted white supremacy.

This is the first installmentof a two-part series by the author.

Featured Image: Second Amendment by Eli Christman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Edited by Clariza-Isabel Castro

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Thank Slavery For The Second Amendment MIR - The McGill International Review

Weber Reaffirms Commitment to Preserving 2nd Amendment Rights – TAPinto.net

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BARNEGAT, NJ: New Jerseys 3rd Congressional District Independent Candidate Martin Weber is vowing to preserve the spirit and legality of the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment needs to be defended for the law-abiding citizens, says Weber. When you look at many gun owners here in the 3rd District, you see people who are hunters and those who use them for sport and recreation.

The candidate does recognize the calls by advocates to ensure there are reasonable regulations and background checks. I firmly believe that if you want to own a gun, you should be trained, certified, and registered, states Weber as he is calling for creating a program that has individuals complete a one-time certification course in which they learn how to properly handle and maintain their firearm. You have people out there who buy a gun and injure themselves (sometimes fatally) while trying to clean it, cites Weber. There is a role for groups like the NRA (National Rifle Association) and even retired military and law enforcement personnel to properly train gun ownersit is all about safety.

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Weber, 56, is the owner of YoBuck Landscaping Company in Barnegat and sits on the Zoning Board in town. He is a U.S. Army Veteran and former Captain of the Barnegat Volunteer First Aid Squad.

Weber will be speaking at a Second Amendment Rally that is being organized by 2nd District Libertarian Candidate Jesse Ehrnstrom. Others scheduled to speak include Second Amendment advocate Anthony Colandro, and 4th District Libertarian Candidate Michael Rufo. The Second Amendment Rally will take place on August 22nd, at 290 Route 72 in Barnegat from 11 AM to 4 PM.

Press inquiries can be directed to the campaign at press@martinweberforcongress.com For more information about the campaign, please visit our Website at martinweberforcongress.com or on Facebook at Martin Weber for Congress.

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Weber Reaffirms Commitment to Preserving 2nd Amendment Rights - TAPinto.net

Sawyer County Board of Supervisors approve resolution reaffirming 2nd Amendment rights – KBJR 6

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SAWYER CO.,WI-- On Thursday night the Sawyer County Board of Supervisors voted on a resolution affirming the countys support of the second amendment.

The non-binding resolution passed 9-6.

"Some may say its merely symbolic but I think it sends a strong message that we support our constitution and we will continue to do that," said Jesse Boettcher, County Board Supervisor for District 2.

Boettcher was one of the 9 board members that voted in support of the resolution.

He said although the resolution is non-binding, it tells residents the county won't support future gun control laws or any law that infringes on constitutional rights.

It doesnt say we are actively going to take measures to prevent any of your rights from being in fringed but it says that if that does happen were not going to support it," said Boettcher.

The resolution has been in the works since last year.

Troy Morgan is one of the 6 supervisors who voted against the resolution.

He thinks the vote may have been unnecessary.

I do believe we are agents of the state and we have this in place already. If we want to change something we do that through our elected officials and through the courts," said Troy Morgan, Board Supervisor District 4.

With everything that is going on right now Morgan said that this was not a priority.

All of the northern counties have so many other issues they need to be working on," Morgan said.

Of the 72 counties in Wisconsin about half a dozen have passed resolutions similar to this.

If you would like to view the resolution you can click here.

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Sawyer County Board of Supervisors approve resolution reaffirming 2nd Amendment rights - KBJR 6

FCC Announces the Execution of a Second Amendment to the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas – Lexology

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The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (Bureau) has announced that the FCC, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (the Parties) have executed a Second Amendment to the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas (Collocation NPA). The amendment facilitates the collocation of wireless facilities on existing towers by eliminating review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for certain collocations that involve a limited expansion beyond the boundaries of a tower site. The Collocation NPA, executed in 2001 and amended in 2016, excludes collocations that involve a substantial increase in the size of the tower, which includes, among other factors, any excavation outside the current tower site. In contrast, the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement Regarding the Section 106 National Historic Preservation Act Review Process (NPA), which was executed subsequently in 2004, includes an exclusion from Section 106 review for the replacement of a tower that involves excavation by no more than 30 feet in any direction outside the boundaries of an existing tower site. For consistency, the Parties agreed to amend the Collocation NPA to exclude a collocation that would not expand the boundaries of the current tower site by more than 30 feet in any direction or involve excavation outside these expanded boundaries, provided that the collocation complies with the other criteria for exclusion. This amendment will be effective upon publication in the Federal Register.

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FCC Announces the Execution of a Second Amendment to the Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas - Lexology

ESSAY: Standing Up to the Inarticulate – Pagosa Daily Post

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Heres a quietly unsettling moment from the current cries for change churning across the nation:

A teenage girl is at a grocery store in the small town of Marion, Virginia. Her brother, Travon Brown, age 17, had recently become both beloved and hated the center of controversy in the town, because he had organized a protest against racism in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. This was one of thousands of such protests across the country, but the majority-white town was nonetheless riled up over this affront, according to the Washington Post, which took a long, deep look at events there.

Indeed, a neighbor had burned a cross on the familys lawn after the protest and wound up getting arrested. That was by no means the end of the unrest. At the store, the Post informed us, RayKia was confronted by a stranger . . . who asked the 16-year-old if she was Travons sister and then pulled up his shirt to reveal a handgun.

This is the USA, land of the Second Amendment. The stranger wasnt threatening to murder a young, African-American woman (I dont think), just tossing a warning into her awareness that armed, white America will never change. Guns are the speech of the inarticulate.

I begin with this fleeting moment nothing further came of it simply because it captures both the worst and best of who we are. This was not the end of the protest movement in Marion, nor has Donald Trumps infusion of secret, federal police into Portland, Oregon with more of the same coming to other cities, including Chicago, where I live put an end to the nations protest movements: the demands for change and consciousness shift. But I see a surreal symmetry here. The inarticulate but oh-so-powerful President Trump is sending the same sort of message to a city, to a country.

The message can probably be summed up thus: This is a divided nation. Always has been, always will be. White people run things here and that isnt going to change. We live in an us-vs-them world. Get used to it. Stay in your place, whoever you are.

Trump is tapping into the same consciousness as the guy in the grocery store. American fascism is always a force waiting to be born.

As Juan Cole writes: It now appears clear that part of that strategy is to send federal agents dressed like Iraq War troops to Democratic-run cities, on the pretext of protecting federal property, and then for them to attack and provoke Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police protesters, causing violence to escalate and using it to scare the suburbs. The exercise also has the advantage for Trump of entrenching a new form of secret police and of turning federal agents into instruments of his authoritarianism.

As some writers have pointed out, it could also be Trumps re-election strategy: In this regard, Trump appears to be following Richard Nixons 1968 Southern Strategy, perhaps even on the advice of former Nixon advisor Roger Stone, Thom Hartmann writes. Provoke violence, make cities burn, and then promise to keep white people safe with law and order.

Whats crucial here is not to give them what they want i.e., a pseudo-civil war, which will be crushed by the heavily armed good guys the ones firing teargas and rubber bullets, arresting protesters for no apparent reason and throwing them into unmarked cars.

In this context, meet Naked Athena. Actually, she is an unidentified woman, but she was thus dubbed when photos of her appearance wearing nothing but a face mask and a stocking cap at a Portland protest rally last week, taken by a photographer for the Portland-based Oregonian, went public.

The photographer had been covering a protest into the wee hours last weekend when, according to the Oregonian, at nearly 2am, as police officers stood in a confrontational faceoff with a crowd of protesters, suddenly a naked woman appeared. She walked out to the intersection in front of where police were standing She paced the area near the crosswalk. She laid down, kicking up her feet. She did ballet poses. At one point, police officers shot pepper balls at her feet. She stayed put.

Basically, everyone was stunned. After about 10 minutes, the police simply walked away.

The photographer, Dave Killen, said: She was incredibly vulnerable. It would have been incredibly painful to be shot with any of those munitions with no clothes on.

Perhaps whats most stunning here is the power of vulnerability. And so I return to Travon Brown, and the second protest he organized in Marion. Yes, the protesters were met by a crowd of counter-protesters, who, as the Post reports, started shouting things at them like Antifa sucks and Go home!

Anger bubbled.

When protesters began to talk back, Travon turned and shushed them, according to the Post. He knelt near the front, his right fist raised to the air. As he did so, the caustic sarcasm from the counter-protesters continued. But then

Travon began shouting I love you across the divide, and soon all the protesters were shouting it and the faces opposite them were momentarily quiet and confused.

And later the chief of the county sheriffs department shook his hand, happily reporting that not a single person had been arrested.

As Jeffrey Isaac wrote, when Brown cried out love! He seems to have meant it in the way that Martin Luther King, Jr. meant it not as mere sentiment of affection, but as agape, an active performance of human solidarity, a way of engaging with ones oppressors, and communicating with bystanders

Love so much deeper, so much more vulnerable, so much more powerful than hate.

In the long run, this is the force that will create the change so many of us are calling for.

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ESSAY: Standing Up to the Inarticulate - Pagosa Daily Post