Cymatic Named Most Promising Start-Up Finalist in 2019-20 Cloud Awards – Business Wire

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RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cymatic today announced that is has been declared a finalist as the 2019-2020 Most Promising Start-Up in the international Cloud Computing Awards program, The Cloud Awards.

Since 2011, The Cloud Awards program has sought to champion excellence and innovation in cloud computing across multiple industry sectors. Cymatics inclusion as a finalist for the years most promising start-up is a testament to its next-generation all-in-one web application defense platform that moves protection from the network side to the client to defend against todays most sophisticated client and browser-based attacks.

To be shortlisted for our revolutionary work in web application defense is not only an honor, but a clear recognition of our early success in leading secure cloud technologies, said Cymatic Founder and Chief Executive Jason Hollander. We offer the only unified WAF that deploys at the client through a simple line of JavaScript without agents or proxies to deliver first-look, first-strike capability that is earliest in the kill chaina fundamental shift from traditional approaches to security.

The Cymatic platform provides universal in-session visibility and control to reduce risk across web applications, networks and users, while decreasing network traffic loads and eliminating user friction. Instead of just protecting network-based threats like traditional WAFs, Cymatic uses sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms to identify page mutations and user anomalies. The platform protects against user-derived and device-based threats such as poor credential hygiene, dark web vulnerabilities and potentially risky devices. It is invisible and frictionless to users, deploys in mere minutes and has immediate time-to-value.

Head of Operations for the Cloud Awards, James Williams, said: Simply, Cymatic has recognized the importance of adopting and pioneering leading cloud technologies in order to deliver outstanding client success, which is why theyre a deserving finalist in the Cloud Awards program. The Cloud Awards team already had a near-impossible task sorting the exceptional from the excellent and the bleeding-edge from the cutting-edge. Weighing both proven successes and exceptional promise across several unique categories is a constant challenge.

Cymatic was selected from hundreds of organizations that entered from the Americas, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Its advanced cloud-based microservices and real-time message-bus architecture offer unparalleled scale to provide the resilience necessary to validate and process the millions of users and transactions that touch web properties every second. The platform is engineered to work across all web applications regardless of operating system, browser or device. It eliminates the OWASP top 10, bots, CAPTCHAs, dark web threats, forced MFA, shared accounts, IP threats, device vulnerabilities and other cloud-based threats with no erosion of the user experience.

Click here to see Cymatics all-in-one web application security at work.

Click here to view the entire list of award finalists. Category winners will be announced on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

About the Cloud Awards

The Cloud Awards is an international program which recognizes and honors industry leaders, innovators and organizational transformation in cloud computing. The awards are open to large, small, established and start-up organizations from across the entire globe, with an aim to find and celebrate the pioneers who will shape the future of the Cloud as we move into 2020 and beyond. The Cloud Awards currently offers two awards programs, the Cloud Computing Awards and the Software-as-a-Service Awards.

Categories for the Cloud Computing Awards include Most Promising Start-Up, Best SaaS, and Best in Mobile Cloud Solution. Finalists were selected by a judging panel of international industry experts. For more information about the Cloud Awards, please visit https://www.cloud-awards.com/.

About Cymatic

Cymatic offers the only all-in-one web application security platform that deploys at the client rather than the network for improved efficacy and ease and speed of deployment. Cymatics first-look, first-strike capability is earliest in the kill chain, reducing risk across applications, networks, and users while decreasing network traffic loads. The solution is invisible and frictionless to users and deploys in minutes. Organizations that have web applications rely on Cymatic for real-time visibility and control to protect their web properties from OWASP top 10 threats, including credential-, user-, and device-based threats. Cymatic is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with offices in California and New York. Learn more at cymatic.io and follow Cymatic on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Cymatic Named Most Promising Start-Up Finalist in 2019-20 Cloud Awards - Business Wire

How the DOD Plans to Bring Its JEDI Cloud Contract to Life – FedTech Magazine

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On Oct. 25, the Defense Department awarded its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract to Microsoft, capping a yearslong effort to start deploying commercial cloud capabilities for Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service. That was just the beginning.

Senior Microsoft leaders including CEO Satya Nadella, Toni Townes-Whitley (one of FedTechs 30 Federal IT Influencers Worth a Follow in 2019), Jason Zander, Tom Keane and Mark Russinovich were scheduled to meet with Pentagon officials last week to lay the foundation for working together, Nextgov reports. Nadella and members of the Microsoft Azure and public sector teams were to meet with DOD CIO Dana Deasy and other senior DOD technology leaders from Dec. 11-13 as part of requisite activities to prepare the cloud environment, the department confirmed to Nextgov.

The Department of Defense is confident in the JEDI Cloud Contract award and remains focused on getting this critical capability into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as possible, DOD spokeswoman Elissa Smith told Nextgov. The departments Cloud Computing Program Office continues to work with Microsoft to prepare the JEDI Cloud environment.

MORE FROM FEDTECH: Follow the 5 Rs of rationalization for an effective cloud migration.

DOD has chosen 14 entities to act as pathfinders for the clouds capabilities. Deasy says those Pentagon components which include the U.S. Special Operations Command, the U.S Transportation Command and the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center will be the first to use JEDI on a more tactical level, according to Federal News Network.

These early adopters have unique missions that are more than just using JEDI for base compute, raw storage capacity, and want to do real unique platform-for-service opportunities on top of that, Deasy said Thursday at the Northern Virginia Chapter of AFCEAs Air Force IT Day in Arlington, Va. The variety of the early adopters allows us to test various principles on JEDI from the tactical edge all the way to the top secret needing to use the cross domain.

Deasy indicated the pathfinder components will be able to learn quickly what it takes to go from the strategic vision to stand up and bring JEDI capabilities to life, Federal News Network reports.

Shortly after the contract was awarded, Peter Ranks, a deputy CIO at the DOD, told reporters after speaking at a Professional Services Council event that awarding JEDI was a prerequisite to faster software development. DOD must modernize the way it builds software as it shifts to commercial cloud infrastructure.

If we get modern cloud infrastructure but dont modernize the way we build software, we will not achieve the promises of cloud computing. We want software capabilities in the hands of warfighters faster, Ranks said during his Vision Federal Market Forecast keynote, according to MeriTalk. We want software that can adjust to changing requirements or the changing dynamics of the battlefield more quickly. That is whats driving our cloud strategy.

We have fooled ourselves into thinking that if we can just hire the cloud provider, it will solve all those problems. Hiring the cloud provider wasnt supposed to be the hard part, Ranks added. Like any other weapons system, mastery of the weapons system is really where the challenge comes in, he added.

The DOD has struggled to run applications, such as the Global Command & Control System Joint, across all combatant commands because the cloud infrastructures of the Army, Air Force and Navy vary widely. Ranks said JEDI aims to fix such issues.

What we need is a focused effort to make sure that we have a provider that is filling the gaps in that current multi-cloud solution, he said, according to FedScoop. For all the cloud providers we have today, they still havent solved those problems of classification, tactical edge and something that is common across the enterprise.

Court documents indicate that the DOD has agreed not to proceed with performance under JEDI until at least Feb. 11, aside from initial preparatory activities, pending a lawsuit Amazon Web Services filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over the award, according to NextGov.

Microsoft says it is pushing ahead with its work on the contract. As the selected contractor to support [the Defense Department] in its mission to modernize its enterprise cloud, we are diligently working with the Cloud Computing Program Office to bring this critical new technology to our men and women in uniform, a Microsoft spokesperson told Nextgov.

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How the DOD Plans to Bring Its JEDI Cloud Contract to Life - FedTech Magazine

Private cloud evolves as public cloud steals the industry spotlight – CIO Dive

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With the race to the public cloud, private clouds at first glance appear left behind.

Eighty-four percent of enterprises have a multicloud strategy, according to Flexera's Rightscale 2019 State of the Cloud Report. Within that 84%, 9% of respondents use multiple private clouds; 17% use multiple public clouds; and 58% use hybrid cloud.

Only 3% of enterprises use a single private cloud.

"We're seeing the number of workloads move over to the public cloud, so that certainly is creating pressure on the whole world of private clouds," Kim Weins, VP of cloud strategy at Flexera, told CIO Dive in an interview.

But private clouds aren't disappearing. Instead, they're evolving to fit into a hybrid and multicloud world, whether for sensitive and secure data while other functions are spun up into a private cloud, or digital-first companies using private clouds to help house and analyze massive amounts of data.

Here's how private clouds are changing to stay in the game.

A true private cloud is one that is not only used on site, but one that an enterprise builds and maintains.

That takes a lot of work and resources to keep running, said Weins, which is why it's not a popular choice.

But private clouds are still preferred by enterprises with strict security requirements and/or in highly regulated industries.

Private clouds "tend to be a little more constraining, but there's an exclusivity of it. They get to custom design the management of the architecture, and they tend to have control on how much computing resources they put at it," Keith Renison, senior product marketing manager at SAS, told CIO Dive in an interview. That can also lead to better performance.

Some enterprises that say they use private cloud aren't really running true private clouds either, Scott Sinclair, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), told CIO Dive in an interview.

"Many organizations view themselves as having some sort of private cloud" even if they're leveraging software like VMware, which provides cloud computing services, he said. "It's being equated with private cloud."

Whether enterprises are building a private cloud from the ground up, or using software to maintain the cloud on premises, almost no one exclusively uses private cloud.

When clients want to scale, they are more likely to push non-secure jobs into the public cloud, Reinson said. "There tends to be an evolution from on-premises, moving into private cloud where appropriate and then there's been a massive adoption of public cloud."

Private clouds are also still used by companies that "are a little bit behind the curve and haven't quite embraced public cloud," Weins added.

While public cloud has been the cloud of choice for young companies, Sinclair said they're moving to hybrid setups too.

ESG has seen "a lot of movement from the public cloud providers trying to bring that cloud experience down," he said.It challenges the idea that private is going to go away.

Public clouds are getting in on the private cloud market too. "We've also seen public cloud providers trying to offer private cloud options," Weins said, with strongest interest in Azure Stack and AWS Outpost, though adoption is "still fairly early."

Private has also been a resource for companies young, digital companies "that believe data is their business," Sinclair said. "They consider themselves cloud first. New workloads come their way and they think about cloud."

With massive amounts of data and quick growth these companies are expanding in private and public clouds.

"We're seeing companies that say 'my data is growing more than 50% year-over-year,'" he said. "That fuels the hybrid demand, at least for the near term."

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Private cloud evolves as public cloud steals the industry spotlight - CIO Dive

Here’s what’s on the March 2020 ballot in Stark County – Massillon Independent

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Heres who met Wednesdays filing deadline.

CANDIDATES

* incumbent

Congressman - 7th Congressional District

Democrat

Patrick Pikus

Libertarian

Brandon Lape

Republican

Bob Gibbs*

Congressman - 13th Congressional District

Democrat

Tim Ryan*

Libertarian

Michael Fricke

Republican

Christina M. Hagan

Duane Hennen

Louis G. Lyras

Richard A. Morckel

Jason Mormando

Robert J. Santos

Donald Truex

Congressman - 16th Congressional District

Democrat

Aaron Paul Godfrey

Ronald Karpus III

Republican

Anthony Gonzalez*

State Representative - 38th Ohio House District

Democrat

Joe Campbell

Republican

Bill Roemer*

Republican

State Representative - 48th Ohio House District

Republican

Scott Oelslager*

State Representative - 49th Ohio House District

Democrat

Thomas E. West*

Republican

James Haavisto

State Representative - 50th Ohio House District

Democrat

Brian K. Simeone

Republican

Reggie Stoltzfus*

Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge, term starting Jan. 1, 2021

Republican

Kristin G. Farmer*

Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge, term starting Jan. 4, 2021

Democrat

Frank G. Forchione*

Stark County Court of Common Pleas judge, term starting Feb. 9, 2021

Democrat

Taryn L. Heath*

Stark County Probate Court judge

Democrat

Angela Alexander

Republican

Dixie Park*

Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals judge, term starting Feb. 9, 2021

Democrat

William B. Hoffman*

Republican

Jeff Furr

Stark County Clerk of Courts

Democrat

Louis P. Giavasis*

Republican

Lynn Miller Todaro

Stark County Coroner

Democrat

Anthony P. Bertin*

Republican

Ronald R. Rusnak

Stark County commissioner, term starting Jan. 2, 2021

Democrat

Katherine Baylock

Republican

Bill Smith*

Stark County commissioner, term starting Jan. 3, 2021

Republican

Richard Regula*

Stark County Engineer

Democrat

Keith A. Bennett*

Stark County Recorder

Democrat

Rick Campbell*

Republican

Jamie Walters

Stark County Prosecutor

Democrat

John D. Ferrero*

Republican

Kyle L. Stone

Stark County Sheriff

Democrat

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Here's what's on the March 2020 ballot in Stark County - Massillon Independent

Holcomb and cell phones: The inch that becomes a mile – Journal Review

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Back in the dark ages when mandatory seat belt use was relatively new in Indiana, I had a colleague who liked to say that she never nagged people about buckling up when they were riding with her. In fact, she never mentioned it to her passengers.

Why? she was inevitably asked.

Natural selection was her answer.

I like to use that story as a good analogy for what I consider proper government. She gives people the information needed to make good choices, sometimes offers incentives for making good choices and can even provide the mechanisms to make good choices easier. But if people insist on making poor choices anyway, well, thats on them.

Of course, our government driver (to continue the analogy) seldom stops when she should. She employs various coercive tactics to get those passengers in line. (Yes, I am being deliberate in the choice of pronoun; were talking about the nanny state, after all.)

Such as, buckle up or this car isnt moving. Or, if you dont buckle up, I will harangue you mercilessly for the whole trip. Or, the penalty for not buckling up, payable at the end of the journey, will be a hefty fee that I will send collectors out to get from your childrens children into the 10th generation.

In my experience, people who advocate for government solutions, and even bigger and more expensive government when those solutions fail to materialize, seldom have to justify themselves. They are merely following the spirit of the age, no explanations required.

But those of us who advocate government restraint or, heaven forbid, limited government, are always put on the defensive. We are either insensitive to human misery to the point of heartlessness or hopelessly ignorant of the need for immediate action to avert imminent disaster.

In all the response I get to these columns (thank you very much), by far the most common form of criticism is from readers who misinterpret, either carelessly or deliberately, the libertarian thrust of my government critiques.

I always mean, in those pieces, the least government necessary, which, believe it or not, was a founding principle of this country. They always insist I really meant, no government at all, then proceed to deliver the Gotcha! they think I deserve.

What about the fire department when your house is burning down, they will ask, or the police department when youre robbed? What about that pothole you want filled in?

Arent those all socialism, you self-serving hypocrite?

Actually, no, theyre not. They are legitimate government functions.

My favorite Gotcha! showing up in my email with tiresome regularity is, So, I guess youve refused your Social Security payments, huh?

No, I have not. Had I the opportunity to opt out and use the money for my own retirement investments, I would have done so. But participation was mandatory. To whom am I trying to prove what if I dont take money out of the system I was forced to put money into?

The tenet of libertarianism people seem to have the most trouble grasping, though itreally should be the easiest, is that government legitimately tries to keep us from hurting each other but risks overstepping its bounds when it tries to keep us from hurtingourselves. Autonomy should be sacred.

So, I find myself having to explain that, no, I do not object to Gov. Eric Holcombs proposal to ban Hoosier motorists from using their cell phones while driving unlesstheyre hands-free.

There are rules for the road that are open to challenge on libertarian grounds. There is no reason to require me to use seat belts when driving or wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle except to keep me from behaving stupidly.

But there are also rules that protect me from others stupid behavior, such as the one against driving while drunk.

Mandating hands-free-only cell phone use falls into the latter category. I am the one you might run into while youre fiddling with that stupid phone.

See? Simple.

Of course, there are a couple of potholes in the road an earnest libertarian should be aware of whenever he gives in and acknowledges that, yes, OK, fine, government should do this.

One is the maxim that by the time government acts, government action is usually beside the point. Most cellphones today have Bluetooth, and most new cars have systems that sync to it, so its likely that the moment you get behind the wheel your phone automatically become hands-free.

The other is that when government is given the legitimate inch, it will go the illegitimate mile. Setting reasonable speed limits is a legitimate function, but it requires local knowledge of local conditions. But few were shocked to see a national 55 mph limit that, for a time, was the most ignored law in America.

If Holcomb gets his way with cellphones, all sorts of distracted driving will be on the endangered list, everything from playing the radio to scarfing down those fries you got from the drive-through. Then dont be surprised if there are hefty fines for talking to your in-car companions and there are calls for hands-free nose-picking.

Government will always always, always, always go too far.

I know you might not believe that. But the evidence is plentiful if you choose to ignore it, thats on you.

I respect your autonomy.

And, you know. Natural selection.

Leo Morris, columnist for The Indiana Policy Review, is winner of the Hoosier Press Associations award for Best Editorial Writer. Morris, as opinion editor of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, was named a finalist in editorial writing by the Pulitzer Prize committee. Contact him at leoedits@yahoo.com.

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Holcomb and cell phones: The inch that becomes a mile - Journal Review

Amash says it’s Congress’s duty to impeach Trump | TheHill – The Hill

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Rep. Justin AmashJustin AmashThe Hill's Morning Report - Busy week: Impeachment, Dem debate and USMCA First-term Democrats push Amash as impeachment manager: report The 'Green' new deal that Tom Perez needs to make MORE (I-Mich.), who left the Republican partyover thesummer, reiterated his support for articles of impeachment during debate on the House floor shortly before the historic vote took place.

"I rise today in support of these articles of impeachment. I come to this floor not as a Democrat, not as a Republican but as an American who cares deeply about the Constitution, the rule of law and the rights of the people under our system of government," he said in his speech.

"Impeachment is not about policy disagreements or ineffective governance, nor is it about criminality based on statutes that did not exist at the time our Constitution was written. Impeachment is about maintaining the integrity of the office of the presidency and ensuring that executive power is directed toward proper ends in accordance with the law," he added.

Amash went on to say he believed it is lawmakers' "duty" to impeach President TrumpDonald John TrumpWhite House counsel didn't take lead on Trump letter to Pelosi: reports Trump endorses Riggleman in Virginia House race Lisa Page responds to 'vile' Trump attacks: 'Being quiet isn't making this go away' MORE, arguingheviolated the public's trust with his dealings with Ukraine andmisusedhis power for personal gain.

President Donald J. Trump has abused and violated the public trust by using his high office to solicit the aid of a foreign power, not for the benefit of the United States of America but instead for his personal and political gain, he continued.

His actions reflect precisely the type of conduct the Framers of the Constitution intended to remedy through the power of impeachment, and it is our duty to impeach him.

The Libertarian-leaning Michigan congressman has long been a vocal critic of Trump. He announced he was leaving the GOP in a July 4 op-ed in The Washington Post,saying was "disenchanted with party politics" and believed the president demonstrated impeachable behaviorbased on former special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) Swan MuellerSchiff: Trump acquittal in Senate trial would not signal a 'failure' Jeffries blasts Trump for attack on Thunberg at impeachment hearing Live coverage: House Judiciary to vote on impeachment after surprise delay MORE's report. The move sparked strong backlash from members of his former party.

The House is expected to pass two articles of impeachment one charging the president with abuse of power and a second pertaining to obstruction of Congress largely along party lines on Wednesday evening.

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Amash says it's Congress's duty to impeach Trump | TheHill - The Hill

What types of radios are there? – The Libertarian Republic

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Radio: A name that almost we all have heard in our childhood, recently and will listen to it in the future also. Some technologies never get older and Radio is for sure one of them. Being developed in the 20th century, Radio is one of the oldest modes of communication that brings up the feeling of freshness whenever we listen to it. While going through the different landscapes of innovations, this part of technology has changed a lot yet. Woking of radio is quite simple. It just works by transmitting and receiving signals where part of speech and music are being delivered in the coded format.

Ture taste lies in the variety and that this wonderful platform also offers to its listeners. Ranging from serving those old melody songs to todays top numbers from providing information about agricultural tips to introducing you with the latest technologies, there is a huge variety of options that you can easily find out here. Users can easily enjoy 24 hours of streaming here without paying any charges or data packages here. Just get a radio and stay connected with your favourite channel, thats the only rule you have to follow here.

Explore the various types of radios

Right from the launch of radio in the 20s to date, a variety of radio options from various brands are being introduced into the market. Do you know how many kinds of radios are there being available in the market? The options are huge. Ranging from Conventional FM to the latest NXDN there are so many options being present there and if we start on counting the number of brands offering radio services, the list even gets increases more. Searching out one of the best table radios for your home has become quite easier now. You not only ask your buddies or family members for the same but go through various online options and can check out the reviews of your preferred ones as well.

If you are willing to get the best table radio for your home, it would be quite beneficial for you to know about the different types of radio you have in the market. Here are the top listed for you.

Utilization of radios

AM and FM is one of the oldest forms of wireless broadcasting that works on the process of modulation and demodulation throughout. This kind of radio option is quite good to provide fair sound quality but it is vulnerable to electrical noise also.

Shortwave radio works just above the AM radio frequency bands. The frequencies of this kind of radio somewhere lie in between 1.7 to 30 MHz. If you are looking for collecting news, commercial broadcasting, informative channels and sports channels globally, it is surely a great option you can try on.

Satellite radio is based on one of the latest broadcasting techniques where radio signals are being transmitted and received using satellites. The radio option does not include any kind of digital encoding. Users are not allowed to directly get tuned into any channels here. They have to pay what they are willing to get a subscription to. One of the best things about satellite radio is that it offers you amazing sound quality and nationwide coverage to enjoy on.

Ham Radio is a kind of radio option that provides broadcasting into a restricted area and to the set frequencies only. It is a great platform for all those who are willing to improve their operator skills. Moreover, this kind of radio option serves as a great help in case of natural calamities or emergencies.

Walkie-Talkie is one of the most favoured portable and handheld radio options that sends and receives signals in about a distance of a mile. This kind of radio option is usually being used by two persons to communicate with each other. Walkie-Talkie serves as a great help where the phone call services or net services are quite poor.

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What types of radios are there? - The Libertarian Republic

Released From Prison, Young Libertarian Russian Activist Sporting ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ Flag Wants To Be Russia’s President – Tsarizm

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Russian university student Yegor Zhukov,who recently confronted Kremlin repression, was jailed, and then released on a suspended sentence, declared in a recent interview with independent Russian television that he wants to be president of the Russian Federation.

Zhukov is famous for using the infamous Dont Tread On Me flag from the American Revolution during his Youtube videos promoting individual responsibility and libertarianism.

I want to be the president of the country, he said in anappearanceon the independent Dozhd television channel.

Your honor, the darker my future, the wider I smile toward it, he declared to the judge in his recent widely publicized trial, reported The Moscow Times.

Beyond continuing with the blog, he said, he plans to finish his university degree by next summer. Hes also going to host a talk show on the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station and write for Novaya Gazeta.

These are other ways I see to keep spreading my ideas, he said. Thats my goal right now: for the focus not to be on me, but on the ideas.

His ideas have raised eyebrows. Critics have pointed to his support of Jordan Peterson, a Canadian thinker who has beendescribedas a purveyor of fascist mysticism. They have also noted one video from January of this yeartitledFeminism Is Dangerous, in which Zhukov, seated behind a desk with a red Make America Great Again cap on it, tells his audience: Today the nutcases are lefties and particularly left-wing feminists.

It taught me that I need to carefully express my views, he said recently in response to criticism. At the end of the day, I want the same thing as Russian feminists. For transgender peoples rights to be respected, for same-sex marriage to be legal, for there to be a law against domestic violence. I just dont believe in classifying people according to collective identities, reported The Moscow Times.

Regarding his future, We are still figuring it all out, Zhukov said. The idea for now is to say: stay tuned.

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Released From Prison, Young Libertarian Russian Activist Sporting 'Don't Tread On Me' Flag Wants To Be Russia's President - Tsarizm

Yes, there’s a candidate for president from Connecticut – CT Insider

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Mark Stewart is running for president of the United States, but he knows he wont win.

That said, hes officially on the ballot the Vermont Secretary of States office released its official list of presidential primary candidates this week, and Stewarts name is there, along with names like Biden, Bloomberg, Warren, Sanders and Trump.

Im on the ballot to try to make a stink in four states, Stewart said.

Vermont approved his ballot application he submitted a petition with 1,200 names on the list and hell be running in the Democratic primary for sure in New Hampshire and California. Rhode Island is still a hurdle, but hes confident hell make it on that states ballot, too.

Im not doing Connecticut, he said. The ballot access to too hard.

Stewart knows that winning the presidency is unrealistic, but his goal is not actually a victory.

What he wants is for an outsider, for a free-market Libertarian, to voice issues within the primary process, to roll back socialism and try to extinguish the leftist lurch that leaders in the democrat party have.

I dont believe your average Democrat voter really buys into all the big government promises that these televised candidates want, he said.

Stewart is also vying to be the Libertarian Partys choice for vice president, and hopes that running for president will help him be seen as a fighter.

If I have a little cred as a warrior it might help, he said.

But Stewart said his primary goal is to inspire other potential candidates.

I know there will be other candidates for state house seats and maybe even congressional seats that have until now felt stymied, he said. We need more people running for offices. if more candidates are in the mix we get better public servants.

Stewart whose full name is Mark Stewart Greenstein is originally from West Hartford, where he still calls home. He founded and runs an SAT-prep firm, and said he intends to spend no more than $99,900 on his own campaign.

This is not the first time hes run a long-shot campaign for national office. Four years ago, he was on the ballot in Rhode Island, for the sole purpose of beating Hillary Clinton. He received 240 votes, which put him in third place.

The main mission four years ago was not to run for president, but to stop Hillary, he said.

He ran for Senate in New York also for the stated purpose of beating Clinton in 2006. This year, he tried for the 5th Connecticut State Senate District, and garnered 0.5 percent of the electorate, a total of 51 votes.

In 2018 he ran an unsuccessful bid for Connecticut governor, against Ned Lamont. He qualified for the November ballot, but said it did not go well. He received only 0.1 percent of the vote.

In that race, he ran under the Amigo Constitution Party, but Stewart is currently trying to form a new political party he calls EPIC, an acronym for Every Politically Independent Citizen.

The new party will run a convention in August. Stewarts last primary in this election cycle will be when Rhode Islanders go to the polls on April 28, 2020, called the Acela primary. That will give his EPIC party enough time to register any candidates for office who have become disillusioned with the major parties, he said.

As for why hes running as a Democrat, in the Democratic primary, Stewart said its because they need the most help.

They are so wayward in their leadership, he said. They give rise to leftism, which I will define as people who want to take America down.

But the EPIC party will not be choosy when it comes to political affiliation.

This is a beautiful way to offer conservatism as a candidate and not be painted as pro-Trump, he said.

Excerpt from:

Yes, there's a candidate for president from Connecticut - CT Insider

Registered ‘No Party Preference’? You’re Gonna Have to Tell the Elections Office Which Ballot You Want in the March Primaries – Lost Coast Outpost

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NPPs will soon get a postcard that looks like this. Youll want to fill that sucker out and send it back.

###

From the Humboldt County Elections Office:

In the next few days, HumboldtCounty Office of Elections will be sending postcards to vote-by-mailvoters who registered with No Party Preference (NPP). These votersare being asked to choose which ballot they want to receive for thePresidential Primary Election in March 2020.

NPPvoters can choose one of these four ballots: No Party Preference(with no presidential candidates), American Independent Party,Democratic Party, or Libertarian Party. The postcard must be returnedto the Office of Elections by January 10. The voter will receive theballot of their choice in February.

Ifan NPP voter wants to vote a Republican, Green, or Peace and Freedomparty ballot, they will have to reregister to change their partyaffiliation.

Nowis a good time for all voters to check their registration status tomake sure they are ready for the primary. Go tovoterstatus.sos.ca.govto check your voter registration, including your party. If you needto update your registration, go to registertovote.ca.govto fill out a new registration.

Contactthe Humboldt County Office of Elections athumboldt_elections@co.humboldt.ca.us or at 707-445-7481.

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Registered 'No Party Preference'? You're Gonna Have to Tell the Elections Office Which Ballot You Want in the March Primaries - Lost Coast Outpost

The ‘Green’ new deal that Tom Perez needs to make | TheHill – The Hill

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The Green Party has played the role of spoiler in two presidential elections. To avoid a trifecta in 2020, Tom PerezThomas Edward PerezClintons top five vice presidential picks Government social programs: Triumph of hope over evidence Labors 'wasteful spending and mismanagement at Workers Comp MORE, chair of the Democratic National Committee, needs to make a Green new deal.

In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, who campaigned aggressively in Florida, attacking Al GoreAlbert (Al) Arnold GoreThe 'Green' new deal that Tom Perez needs to make Al Gore says Democrats should run on the Green New Deal Charlotte Pence to hold wedding reception at vice president's residence MORE for a string of broken promises to the environmental movement, received 97,421 votes in the Sunshine State. George W. Bush carried the state by 537 votes. In New Hampshire, Bush garnered 273,559 votes, Gore 266, 348, and Nader 22,198. Had Gore carried either of these states, he would have become president of the United States.

In 2016, Jill Stein, the Green Party standard bearer, received 51,463 votes in Michigan, where Donald Trumps margin of victory was 10,704 votes; Stein got 49,678 votes in Pennsylvania, which Trump won by 46,765 votes; and she garnered 31,006 votes in Wisconsin, which Trump carried by 22,177 votes. These three states, of course, put Trump over the top in the Electoral College.

To be sure, as political scientists Kyle Kopko and Christopher Devine have pointed out, exit polls suggest that some Stein voters would have voted for Trump, written in a candidate, or decided to stay home if forced to choose between the two major party candidates. In a Five Thirty Eight Chat in December 2016, Nate Silver estimated that the breakdown may have been 35 percent Clinton, 10 percent Trump, and 55 percent no vote.

Nonetheless, in a close election and 2020 may well be a close election every vote in a battleground state matters. This time, Green Party leaders and potential voters should have no difficulty discerning whether President TrumpDonald John TrumpWhite House counsel didn't take lead on Trump letter to Pelosi: reports Trump endorses Riggleman in Virginia House race Lisa Page responds to 'vile' Trump attacks: 'Being quiet isn't making this go away' MORE or the Democratic candidate, whoever he or she may be, aligns more closely with their four policy pillars: an energy policy committed to addressing the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change by replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources of power; federal government guarantees of a living wage and an expanded safety net; dramatic reductions in the military budget; public financing of elections, more representative voting systems, and an end to corporate-dominated politics.

That said, Perez will almost certainly be unable to persuade Jill Stein (who Hillary Clinton called a Russian asset) or Howie Hawkins (a founder of the Green Party, the leading candidate for its presidential nomination, and an advocate of an independent socialist movement) to endorse the 2020 Democratic nominee. But he might be able to lay the groundwork for the Green Party candidate (who will be selected in state-by-state primaries and caucuses held in the spring and is certain to be a Never Trumper) to do throughout the campaign season what William WeldWilliam (Bill) Weld Protesters rally against Trump in multiple cities on eve of impeachment vote Bill Weld: As many as six GOP senators privately support convicting Trump Trump challenger Bill Weld rules out 2020 independent bid MORE, the vice-presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, did, belatedly, in 2016. In a speech in Boston a few days before the election, Weld expressed his hope that the Libertarians would win. But in a very close swing state, Weld added, there may be different dynamics at play. The former governor of Massachusetts urged supporters to pull the lever for Libertarian Gary JohnsonGary Earl JohnsonThe 'Green' new deal that Tom Perez needs to make The Trump strategy: Dare the Democrats to win Trump challenger: 'All bets are off' if I win New Hampshire primary MORE in solidly blue states, a vote of conscience which would also help the Party reach 5 percent of the vote nationwide and qualify for federal election funds. In battleground states, Weld advised them to cast their ballots for Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonBooker will not appear on primary ballot in Vermont Nearly all Democrats expected to back articles of impeachment Sanders surges ahead of Iowa caucuses MORE.

Equally important, given the appeal of environmental issues and third parties to millennials, Perez should see to it that the Democratic platform and the nominee appropriate the mantra of Tony Affigne, a young American featured prominently on the Green Party web site: Im Green because from what I can see, the worlds only real chance to survive is through politics grounded in Ecology, Equality, Democracy, and Peace.

While theyre at it, Perez and his fellow Democrats should keep their fingers crossed that Justin AmashJustin AmashThe Hill's Morning Report - Busy week: Impeachment, Dem debate and USMCA First-term Democrats push Amash as impeachment manager: report The 'Green' new deal that Tom Perez needs to make MORE, the congressman from Michigan who left the Republican Party and supports the impeachment of President Trump, becomes the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, which received about 3 percent of the national vote in 2016 and could attract conservatives who are unhappy with Trump but allergic to the Democratic Party in 2020.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) ofRude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.

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The 'Green' new deal that Tom Perez needs to make | TheHill - The Hill

What’s behind Rep. Dean Phillips’ push to get Rep. Justin Amash on the impeachment team – MinnPost

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REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Rep. Dean Phillips said hes gathered a group of around 33 Democrats to sign on to the idea that Rep. Justin Amash help make the case for impeachment.

Should Rep. Justin Amash, the Republican-turned-Independent from Michigan, help make the case for impeaching the President? Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnetonka said that when the idea struck him on Friday evening, he reached out to his close confidants first, and then asked more of his colleagues.

As first reported by the Washington Post on Sunday, Phillips said hes gathered a group of around 33 Democrats to sign on to the idea that Amash help make the case for impeachment. He would be a terrific member of the management team if indeed articles are forwarded to the Senate for a trial, Phillips told MinnPost.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will select members to represent Houses case for impeachment during the Senate trial, called impeachment managers, that will serve as a sort of team of prosecutors. Reps. Adam Schiff of California and Jared Nadler of New York, the two committee chairs running impeachment so far, are almost certain to be chosen. But the other three slots committee could be competitive, as several members are asking for a slot, including Rep. Stacey Plaskett, a delegate to Congress representing the U.S. Virgin Islands.

But Phillips believes someone like Amash, a Tea Party libertarian, is needed to demonstrate the case that impeachment isnt about partisanship.

Phillips, a moderate Democrat and a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, said he has already spoken with Amash and that the Michigan congressman was humbled and I think surprised.

I didnt want to float the idea to our whole Democratic freshman class without at least that he would be interested and thats exactly what I did, he said. And weve been corresponding since.

When asked which members have signed onto the idea, Phillips said he has 33 strong affirmative yes statements on the idea from members, but hed rather not say who. Im not going to divulge names, Phillips said. I think thats up to individuals to do so.

At least one Democrat, Rep. Max Rose of New York, told MinnPost that he is supportive of the effort.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Phillips believes someone like Rep. Justin Amash, a Tea Party libertarian, is needed to demonstrate the case that impeachment isnt about partisanship.

As others have suggested, Rep. Amash should be one of the impeachment managers for the Senate trial, Kevin Kruse, a historian of American History, said on Twitter. Michelle Goldberg, a New York Times columnists that leans significantly to the left of most of her colleagues, said on Twitter: Democrats should choose Amash as one of their impeachment managers. And Charlie Sykes, editor of the conservative (but Never-Trump website) The Bulwark, called the suggestion a Good idea.

Amash told HuffPosts Matt Fuller that he has so far not been approached by Pelosi about the idea, but would have the conversation.

House Democrats plan to vote on impeachment on Wednesday. If they are approved, articles of impeachment will be forwarded to the Senate for a trial, which will be presided over by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Phillips said he fully intends to vote for articles of impeachment, come tomorrow.

In fact, you know, [Ive been] using language similar to Rep. Amash, which is that our responsibility is not to try or convict or acquit, Phillips said.

Our responsibility is analogous to a grand jury to assess the evidence and determine if it warrants a trial.

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Third-Party Candidates in Texas Want a Fair Shot – Reform Austin

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By Emma Balter

Trip Seibold had planned to run for U.S. Congress in 2020 to represent Texas 31st District, but he had to drop his bid because of significant burdens to get on the general election ballot. Why? Hes a Libertarian.

The Texas legislature passed a new law in June that puts significant restrictions on third-party candidates. Previously, third parties could get their candidates on the ballot if the party met certain requirements: It could hold a convention where the attendance equaled one percent of votes cast for governor in the last election, or it could gather the signatures of one percent of people who didnt vote in a primary in the last election.

In addition, at least one statewide candidate from the party must have also won five percent of a vote in the previous election cycle.

The bill was presented as a way to expand ballot access. It waived the convention and petition requirements and lowered the threshold of the third requirement. Now, a party only needs one of their candidates to receive two percent of a vote in the last five elections.

However, new requirements are shifted onto the individual candidates, who now have to submit a petition or, if they fall short of the minimum signatures required, pay filing fees of varying costs depending on the office.

Seibold did not get the number of signatures he needed, but refused to pay the large $3,125 filing fee. Instead, hes running for the Texas State Board of Education for District 10, which requires a lower fee of $300.

I have an unwavering belief that money doesnt belong in politics, Seibold said in a Facebook post on December 4. The Texas Legislature won and the American people lost.

A couple lawsuits followed the bills passing. In July, several third parties, including the Libertarians and Greens, sued the state over requirements which they say constitute too high a barrier for entry.

When you have these restrictions that make it effectively impossible for others to participate and entrench two old established parties, thats when the system starts to fail and thats when voters are denied meaningful choices at the polls, Oliver Hall, executive director of the Center for Competitive Democracy and an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Houston Chronicle.

An October lawsuit that homed in on the filing fees resulted in a Harris County judge blocking them from being enacted, a mere week before the filing deadline. They won on the basis that the fees fund primary elections that third-party candidates do not participate in.

This temporary injunction was a crucial step to ensuring voters have choice at the ballot box, Harris County Libertarian Party Chair Katherine Youngblood told the Houston Chronicle.

This latest development is a big win for third parties, yet its just a provisional reprieve for now. The July suit is still pending.

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Massive tender scam sucks in top officials – Zimbabwe Independent

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ANDREW KUNAMBURA

LOCAL Government minister July Moyo and Harare Metropolitan Provincial Affairs minister Oliver Chidawu have been implicated in a massive tender scandal at Harare City Council (HCC) after they allegedly directed the local authority to award a multi-million dollar water treatment contract to two separate companies without following laid down procedure, it has emerged.

The contract is for the supply of water treatment technology solutions to Harare, which is struggling to supply the city of three million residents with safe drinking water.

Currently, council is using nine chemicals to treat water which is heavily polluted with domestic and industrial effluent at a monthly cost of US$3 million.The local authority has had to frequently shut down its main treatment plant, Morton Jaffray Water Works, due to a shortage of foreign currency to import the required chemicals.

Official documents, corroborated by information obtained from both council and government sources, indicate that the two ministers are separately exerting intense pressure on City of Harare management to disregard an ongoing tender process and have the contract awarded to their preferred companies.The issue has since become the subject of a corruption investigation by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) after one of the companies reported the case to the anti-graft body on Tuesday.

Moyo is pushing for Boltgas, a Zimbabwean-owned company founded in South Africa in 2005, to be awarded the contract.This is despite the fact that the company was not among 10 firms which responded to a tender invitation for the project in June this year. Chidawu is rooting for South African firm Nanotech Water Africa Private Limited (Nanotech).

However, Nanotech like all the other bidders initially failed to make the grade, but is now poised to clinch the tender following Chidawus intervention.Documents indicate that after the bidding closed on June 20, Harare City Councils evaluation committee deliberated on all submissions and found out that none of them were suitable.

This was revealed in a letter by town clerk Hosiah Chisango to Procurement Regulation Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) chief executive officer Nyasha Chizu.Chisango, in the letter, particularly stated that Nanotechs bid had been thrown out because it was not competitive.

For instance, Nanotechs proposed technology reduced the cost of water treatment by just US$780 000. This implies that the monthly cost of treating Harare water would be pegged at US$2,2 million, which the evaluation committee still found to be too high.

Nanotech also fell short in terms of references as it had only one project it undertook in Botswana, raising competence concerns. The evaluation committee recommended that Praz approves the cancellation of the expression of interest for lack of competition and for technical irregularities, reads Chisangos letter to Chizu, dated August 5.

Chisango, in his letter, also raised the red flag over the possibility that Nanotech was accorded preferential treatment. Nanotech had been engaged by the citys water department to conduct a pre-test three months ahead of the invitation to tender.

The committee was convinced the specifications were not neutral and the playing field was not level as other players went into the race with an advantage after having been afforded the opportunity to pre-test their solutions before being made to compete with others who did not get the same opportunity. Their specifications, thus, were tailored towards the solutions provided by those that presided over the solutions, he wrote.

There is however no record of Prazs response to Chisangos correspondence. Upon learning of the development, Chidawu summoned Harare mayor Herbert Gomba, Chisango and City of Harare supply chain manager Never Murerwa and other senior managers from the local authority to a meeting at his offices at Charter House in Harares central business district where he piled pressure on them to bypass the legally permitted procurement procedures and award the tender to Nanotech, claiming the issue was coming from higher office.

However, Chisango failed to turn up for the meeting. Gomba attended, but abstained from the ensuing deliberations, leaving everything to city officials, arguing that since he was only a ceremonial mayor, he did not want to interfere in the day-to-day activities of Town House.

City officials reportedly asked Chidawu to put his demands in writing, but the minister strongly objected to this and said if they were not keen on following his instructions, he would not hesitate to directly engage Chizu and ask for a waiver of the formal tendering process in terms of Section 54 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, which provides for that waiver in case of emergency. At that time, Harare City Council had approached the government, seeking a declaratory order classifying its water situation as a state of emergency.

Curiously, 30 days later, on September 5, Chisango wrote again to Chizu, this time requesting permission to withdraw his earlier correspondence.The Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe received a report from City of Harare on the 14th of August on the cancellation of the request for expression of interest. This letter therefore serves to withdraw that report so that pertinent additional information is included and will be resubmitted thereafter, Chisango wrote.

He followed that up with another letter six days later, in which he was now asking Praz to consider proposals from four of the 10 bidders despite having clearly stated that they had failed to satisfy tender adjudicators. He claimed the new position arose because the evaluation committee had subsequently reconvened and resolved to shortlist four bidders, namely Nanotech, Water Dimensions International, Aqua Global and Microlab Scientific.

Documents also show the emergence at this stage of a special procurement oversight committee (SPOC) set up by Praz to take the place of Harare City Councils conventional tender evaluation committee. In the particular correspondence, Chisango dramatically somersaulted and claimed the four companies had offered a water treatment solution and had adequate manpower to carry the required work.

This time, Chizu, in a letter dated September 24, 2019, approved the new position. The authority is hereby directing the accounting officer to re-evaluate the tender and make recommendations in line with the observations and requirements of the standard bidding document and submit the revised evaluation report and bids for review by the SPOC, Chizu wrote.

Oddly, it also appears from the documents that there is lack of consensus among city officials, with acting Harare water director Mabhena Moyo writing to Chidawu, instead of Chisango, in which he apparently canvassed for Nanotech.

A report was written to Praz seeking approval for the city to go ahead with the project with the four companies. A report to Praz recommending that it approves four companies to carry out a pilot project at Morton Jaffray after re-evaluation of the companies is to be prepared. However, it would be prudent and faster to commence with the pilot project with Nanotech who are ready to start, reads Moyos letter, dated October 7, 2019.

Chisango, on November 13, then wrote to some of the companies involved, informing them that their bids had been unsuccessful, without specifying who had won the tender.

Microlab objected to the move, alleging the process was biased and claimed the tender had been awarded to Nanotech.Your handling of this tender process was biased towards Nanotech from the onset as Nanotech went into the competition with an unfair advantage, rendering the specifications to be not neutral.

The specifications were tailored to suit Nanotech and this smacks of corruption at its worst. We are also aware that the initial evaluation committee strongly advised against awarding the tender to Nanotech only for the report to be withdrawn from Praz after submission.

It is not only unfair but flagrant corruption to proceed with this process in the current form. Nanotech has connections with those in high offices and this is now standing as their only qualification, Microlab wrote through its managing director Walter Jera on November 19.

This time, it was Murerwa who responded to Microlab, writing: Please take note that the matter was considered by the SPOC. This letter also serves to advise you that the bid from Nanotech Water Solutions P/L was accepted to proceed to the next level. Be guided accordingly.Jera on Tuesday filed a corruption report to Zacc. The case was filed under RRB number 369602/05/08/14.

Chidawu confirmed he called city officials to a meeting, but claimed he did so on request by the provincial Joint Operations Command (Joc) which he chairs.

The meeting was called by the provincial Joint Operations Command, worried by the deteriorating water situation in the country which had become a security threat, he said in an interview.

On allegations he pressured council officials to accept the Nanotech bid, Chidawu, himself a former Harare mayor, said: I only recommended Nanotech on the basis that its proposal seemed to offer the right solutions and, in so doing, I was communicating a security resolution of the provincial Joc. So I did not pressure them, he said.

Gomba also confirmed he went to the ministers office in September along with city officials, but denied playing any role.Councillors are not involved in tenders, we are legislated out of it. Tenders are done by the supply chain manager under the town clerk and then sent to Praz for approval. Council only receives reports to note. Yes, I attended (the meeting) but played no part, he said.

Chisangos mobile phone was not being answered when the Zimbabwe Independent sought his comment yesterday while WhatsApp messages sent to him were not responded to despite evidence that he read them. Council sources also said that on Tuesday this week July Moyo called a meeting at his offices over the issue and indicated that he wanted Boltgas to be part of the deal despite the fact that it had not participated in the tendering process. Moyo could not be reached for comment as he was unreachable on mobile phone.

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Massive tender scam sucks in top officials - Zimbabwe Independent

S&P Global Ratings sees ‘positive early progress’ in Deutsche Bank restructure – CNBC

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Deutsche Bank has made "positive early progress" in its massive multi-year restructuring program, according to S&P Global Ratings.

In a note published Monday, the independent credit ratings agency retained a "stable" outlook for the embattled German lender, affirming its long and short-term issuer credit ratings at 'BBB+/A-2'.

S&P said the promising signs were "most evident in the refocusing of the investment bank and the runoff of exposures in the capital release unit (CRU)."

Deutsche Bank announced in July that it would pull out of its global equities sales and trading operations, scale back the investment banking division, and slash 18,000 jobs in a bid to bring profitability in line with cost of capital.

Management wants the changes to trim 20% of the 2019 adjusted cost base by as soon as 2022.

Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing struck an optimistic tone at the bank's investor conference last week, anticipating a marked rise in profitability and improved cost efficiency through to 2022. He said this was based on measures across private, corporate and investment banking.

Despite the German banking system facing substantial economic and industry risks, S&P has agreed that it saw "sufficient progress" from Deutsche Bank to affirm its credit rating.

"Looking ahead, with substantial operational execution due in 2020 across all divisions, we see this as a critical period that will determine whether, amid an adverse environment, the plan can ultimately be successful," the S&P analyst note said.

"We continue to see management's desired result as ultimately more supportive of Deutsche Bank's creditworthiness: a leading, less-leveraged and well-controlled European bank, with focused global reach, that covers its cost of capital, aided by a greater weight of stable revenues, significant contributions from all divisions, and scalable infrastructure," it added.

Shares of Deutsche Bank are lower by around three-quarters of one percent on Tuesday on a down day for wider markets. Since the appointment of Sewing in April 2018, the stock has lost almost 40% in value.

S&P analysts highlighted that the restructuring of the investment bank and establishment of the CRU appears to be "substantially complete" while Deutsche's regulatory capital is likely to finish 2019 ahead of expectations.

"Step by step, regulators appear to accept that the bank's control environment is improving, signaled for example in the European Central Bank's announcement that it will reduce the bank's 2020 capital requirements by 25 basis points to 11.6%," S&P said.

Wall Street analysts have expressed skepticism over the planned scale of the downsizing and reinvestment, and S&P acknowledged that there are "clear downside risks" at this early stage of the restructure.

"These stem principally from the already weak economic and market environment, which could deteriorate further, making Deutsche Bank's already difficult task of covering the cost of capital even harder," the note said.

"While the current management team has demonstrated its ability to cut costs, execution could yet be impeded or delayed, and an even weaker environment could further undermine revenues."

In the event of material setbacks to the possibility of Deutsche hitting its profitability target by 2022, S&P suggested that it could lower its long-term issuer credit rating for the bank.

"This could be more likely in the event of management missteps or a more costly, or longer, turnaround than anticipated, but it would most likely result from an even more adverse environment that severely weighs on group revenue," it added.

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S&P Global Ratings sees 'positive early progress' in Deutsche Bank restructure - CNBC

Progress Report: Youth shining down the stretch – Giants.com

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Starting opposite Beal at corner was rookie DeAndre Baker, who put together his second consecutive strong performance. Baker finished tied for the second-most tackles with six (five solo) and had two pass breakups. Baker did a good job in coverage against Miamis DeVante Parker, limiting the Dolphins number one option until the end of the fourth quarter when the Giants were up by 23 points.

Julian Love has shined since taking over at safety for the injured Jabrill Peppers. The rookie fourth-round pick finished with five tackles (four solo), two tackles for loss, a pass defended and a quarterback hit.

Defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence enjoyed one of the best games of his rookie season. While the stat sheet shows that he recorded just one tackle, Lawrence was a force in the pass rush. The first-round pick had two quarterback hits and finished with a pass rush grade of 90 and an overall grade of 82, according to PFF.

Lawrence wasnt the only young defensive lineman to perform well. Oshane Ximines collected 0.5 sacks and a QB hit, while RJ McIntosh picked up a sack, tackle for loss and a QB hit to go with his two solo tackles.

On top of the performance of several first and second-year players, fourth-year receiver Sterling Shepard led the team with nine receptions for 111 yards, earning the highest grade of any Giant at 87.9, according to PFF. Third-year lineman Dalvin Tomlinson tied with Lawrence for the highest PFF grade on the defensive side of the ball (82.0) after recording three tackles (one solo), one sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and one QB hit.

While this season may not have gone as the team or fans expected, the play of numerous young players has provided hope for a bright future.

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Yellowstone makes progress to reduce non-native lake trout – Explore Big Sky

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

MAMMOTH HOTSPRINGS, Wyo. The annual removal of non-native lake trout from YellowstoneLake recently concluded and the multiyear effort points to a declining population.Lake trout are removed in an effort to preserve the native cutthroat troutpopulation, the largest remaining concentration of inland cutthroat trout inexistence.

Native cutthroat trout are the parks most ecologically important fish and the most highly regarded by visiting anglers. It is an important food source for grizzly bears, birds of prey and other wildlife. The cutthroat decline resulted in several of these species being displaced from Yellowstone Lake or having to use alternate food sources during certain times of the year.

I want to personally thank the National Park Service team, our partners and the many people who have philanthropically supported this continuing conservation effort, said Superintendent Cam Sholly. There is a considerable amount of work yet to do to build on this progress. This will continue to be one of our conservation priorities.

Yellowstone National Park and contract crews removed 282,960 fish between May and October of this year compared to 297,110 in 2018, and 396,950 in 2017. It is a 29 percent decline over three years.

Yellowstones lake trout suppression program is one of the largest nonnative fish removal programs in the United States. Since lake trout were first discovered in 1994, more than 3.4 million have been removed from Yellowstone Lake through suppression gillnetting. The number of lake trout caught in nets continues to steadily decline, from 4.4 per net in 2017 and 3.1 per net in 2018, to just 2.9 per net in 2019.

In order to predict the success of the removal effort and set benchmarks for gillnetting in the future, Yellowstone National Park and Michigan State University collaborated to generate statistical models of the lake trout population. The models suggest there are 73 percent less lake trout ages six and older in Yellowstone Lake now than were present at the populations peak in 2011. This is critical because older, larger lake trout have the highest reproductive potential and consume the most cutthroat trout. The models also indicate that the invasive species has been in decline since 2012.

Concurrent with the lake trout decline, long-term monitoring indicates a substantial increase in the number of cutthroat trout in the Yellowstone Lake ecosystem. Cutthroat that inhabit the lake migrate more than 30 miles up into the Upper Yellowstone and Thorofare streams where they spawn and then return to the lake. This July, fisheries staff found large numbers and sizes of cutthroat in these backcountry streams. Ten years ago, few cutthroat were present. This long-distance migration highlights the spatial extent to which the recovery of the cutthroat impacts Yellowstone.

While models and monitoring point to positive trends, a panel of expert fishery scientists in May 2019, estimated that a minimum of five more years of effort is needed to reach the lake trout population goal of below 100,000. They also emphasized that lake trout cannot be completely eradicated with current techniques and will continue to require annual removal and monitoring into the future.

Yellowstone fishery biologists continue to explore alternatives to gillnetting that will augment lake trout suppression, increase efficacy and reduce costs. For example, over the last few years, biologists tested a method to suppress the population by killing lake trout eggs on spawning sites. One technique involved placing plant-based organic pellets on spawning sites to facilitate decomposition and loss of dissolved oxygen. This method killed eggs within two days. Since the results are promising, the park intends to expand the technique in the future. Yellowstone has invested more than $20 million over the past two decades on this recovery effort. Much of that funding has come from the generosity of donations through Yellowstone Forever.

The park will never completely eradicate lake trout but the return on investment is the ecological restoration of Yellowstone cutthroat trout, sustainable angling and a chance to glimpse a river otter, osprey or bear catching a cutthroat, said Todd Koel, leader of Yellowstones Native Fish Conservation Program.

Visit nps.gov/yell/learn/management/native-fish-conservation-program.htm to learn more.

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Yellowstone makes progress to reduce non-native lake trout - Explore Big Sky

We Made No Progress, Other Than All the Progress We Made – Coindesk

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This post is part of CoinDesk's 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Lex Sokolin is Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based blockchain software company.

It looks like we havent gotten very far! Its been ten years of magical internet money, and the best we can show for it is Twitter tipping?

On the other hand, maybe we have gotten really far! Decentralized financial protocols are pumping out unfiltered peer-to-peer trading, margin lending, and synthetic structured products. Financial manufacturing machines are converting cash money into virtual money, and real estate, cartoon cats, regulated securities, with hundreds of millions of notional corporate bonds and payments and invoice securitizations done by the worlds largest banks on public, private, and open source blockchains.

Of course, there also are the people who have been sued and gone to jail, or lost their life savings, or disappeared, or paid $24 million in fines for unregistered security offerings. There are the Ponzi schemers and the pyramid marketers and the Twitter botnet kings. A grain of beautiful truth has been placed squarely on a throne of artifice and innovation theatre, spinning wildly while people yell their unbridled emotions into the abyss. Rat Poison Squared! Code is Law!

Chinas sword of blockchain and AI will ring against the shield of American regulation in the century to come.

And then we have power. America is flexing its black letter law and alphabet soup of pre-war regulatory bodies. The CFTC and the SEC agree to split securities from commodities, unless they are moving around a bit and regulated by FinCEN or touch New York State and its BitLicense. Dont forget that if you do banking or lending looking at you, hot DeFi stuff the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) may think you are a bank, and their lenient fintech charter was overturned in court. European power has been slightly more amenable, with its Brexit stroke encouraging each side of the body to compete for most favourable tintech nation.

But even hungrier power is around the corner. Facebook, looking at its 2.3 billion users and seeing Ant Financial in the rear mirror, has maximized the attention its artificial intelligence machine can syphon. After solving the problem of online loneliness and the human need for friends, it seeks to liberate human-kind from poverty and launches Libra. To date, Facebook has been a techno nation. Now it tries to be a state, and both the Americans and the Chinese notice. Unlike the former, the latter grab risky innovation as a national priority putting hundreds of billions of yuan to work on next-generation infrastructure. Chinas sword of blockchain and AI will ring against the shield of American regulation in the century to come.

Progress is like water

So yeah, nothings really happened.

What I mean to say is that progress is like water. It flows around the barriers of human society, washing away at the soft parts in our beliefs and structures, and then, just at the right time, collapses away some arcane thinking in favor of the new. Sometimes, like in AI, it takes 50 years of little drips and multiple false starts to get anywhere meaningful. But once you arrive, the technology is everywhere. Also, sometimes, like in crypto, there is a magnificent spotlight on the industry. We have been lucky to work with a technology people can easily own and trade. It has been our greatest weakness as well.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have poured into making the distribution of financial products easier. Yet, nothing real has changed in the manufacturing of financial instruments, until now.

When I look at the next decade of blockchain-based systems and decentralized protocols, I see far less focus on the asset class, and far more focus on operating progress within the chassis of human technology. To build a capital markets business that treats software units of bitcoin, ethereum and the rest as financial instruments is a great first goal. I would posit that we are already there. From custody to exchanges to broker/dealers, and eventually integrated robo-advisors and fintech apps this stuff is being solved fast, and by companies large and small. Between Fidelitys institutional solutions, Coinbases American consumer dominance, and Binances global presence, we have the initial use-cases covered. These stacks are hundreds of competitors deep, with many doing strong work. Yes, more merchants should accept BTC or DAI or USDC. But this, too, shall come to pass.

Each day I wake up with an obsession. It is a simple one: all financial services infrastructure will be powered by open source programmable blockchains. Over the last decade, hundreds of billions of dollars have poured into making the distribution of financial products easier. Just look at your phone, from Revolut to Robinhood to Venmo to Betterment to Sofi and TransferWise. These apps have broadened the retail footprint and collapsed pricing in everything from banking to investments. And yet, nothing real has changed in the manufacturing of financial instruments, until now.

Think about our financial infrastructure how we make deposits, or underwrite loans, or invest our pensions and how it is governed by entirely separate regimes and supported by disconnected software platforms and value chains. Massive public companies like Visa, FIS, Fiserv, Envestnet, Temenos, Broadridge and others power the hum of institutional finance. Some of their infrastructures are so old that developers who understand the code that these systems are written in have mostly retired or passed. Just Google COBOL!

Hundreds of billions of enterprise value and trillions in money flows are waiting for the type of digitization that only blockchain-native companies can accomplish. At ConsenSys Codefi, which I co-lead out of London, we are focused on building this bridge using public and private ethereum. In the beginning, industries are comfortable mutualizing their data and the standards around them. Next, they contribute workflows and intellectual property into these shared systems. Tokenization follows, giving the workflows a meaningful object with which to interact. This is where most of the world is today.

But tomorrow, tokens are not just representations of some chunky legal document sitting printed and signed on a corporate lawyers desk. They are programmable, fully-featured financial instruments that perform corporate functions, distribute dividends, enable governance, rebalance portfolios, adjust risk exposure, provide provenance and audit data, self-administer, and instantly settle. They can live in your enterprise cloud, and in your phone, and on printed-out QR codes. This tomorrow is much closer than you think.

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We Made No Progress, Other Than All the Progress We Made - Coindesk

Divergent Diversity: Why Has LGBTQ+ Achieved Such Progress And Disability Hasnt? – Forbes

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In the last decade, we have seen 28 countries worldwide pass same-sex marriage laws from Portugal, Iceland and Argentina in 2010, to Austria, Costa Rica and Taiwan in 2019. There has been a raft of other pieces of right-based legislation passed into law, from adoption rights to outlawing hate speech and hate crimes.

In the last decade we have witnessed legislative progress on disability rights too. The most significant is the 2011 newAmericans with Disabilities Act mandating increased accessibility requirements for recreational facilities as well as standards of service provision.

In the US, about 15 million Americans identify as LGBTQ+ whereas there are 40 million people living with a disability. In terms of volume, the bigger minority has made less progress. In the minds of many businesses and governments LGBTQ+ is not a cost line item, whereas they view disability as a significant budget commitment.

However, legislation is only the start. Its been the shift in cultural attitudes that has seen greater inclusion of LGBTQ+ people than ever before. And the lack of shift that has left many disabled people out in the cold.

LGBTQ+ change has been cultural, disability legislative

How do we witness cultural change? When Casey Stoney, the Captain of the England Womens football team, came out as lesbian, it was a major milestone for straight people supporting a gay role model. When Ireland voted by a huge majority tolegalise same-sex marriage, it was the first country in the world to do so by a referendum. When Prince William appeared on the front cover of gay magazine,Attitude, stating that no one should be bullied because of their sexuality, it was another landmark moment. In Pete Buttigieg we now have an openly gay man running to be American President.

We havent yet seen such a cultural shift in attitudes towards disability.

A lot of change surrounding disability has been resisted, rather than embraced, such as captioning requirements for broadcast video and, since 2014, internet-based businesses also. Its been the law, rather than culture that has led the way, for example the 2010 Rosa's Law, which changed references in many US federal statutes that referred to "mental retardation" to make them refer, instead, to "intellectual disability". Barack Obama renamed White Cane Safety Dayas Blind Americans Equality Day. It was left to the UN and World Health Organisation to release a joint international statement eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization.

Horns and halo effect

This divergence between culturally led LGBTQ+ advancement and legislatively driven disability stalling has partly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can understand it in terms of the horns and halo effect. When we come to regard something as positive, we can see subsequent tropes in its image as positive a halo effect. Conversely, when we remain fearful or ignorant of something, we can be subject to the horns effect.

For example, the more LGBTQ+ inclusion becomes normalised the more straight people want to include. The longer disability appears segregated, the harder it remains for non-disabled people to include. It was only in 2006 that countries started to adopt the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Whilst the CRPD has now been ratified by 163 countries, the cultural change is in many cases yet to start.

Much of the disability legislation still focuses on fundamental basic rights. For example, the launch of the UN Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies aims to allow everyone to simply communicate with each other.Many of the LGBT rights passed such as permitting the celebration of civil partnerships in religious buildings in the UK are great but these buildings often remain physically inaccessible for disabled people, essentially leaving the door shut to some while opening it for others. One of the more recent high-profile disability issues to hit the US media has been emotional support pets on flights. For many, this just fuels the horns effect.

Future cultural change

LGBTQ+ progress has not come without backlash. In 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 people injured after agunman opened firein the LGBT nightclub Pulse, in Orlando. In Chad homosexuality was criminalized in 2017 and in many countries laws are being brought in to respond to a perceived (or invented) homosexual agenda. Disability has suffered backlash before its progress has really come to fruition. Part of this is to do to the horns and halo effect, part due to perceived cost.

The next frontier is how, to use the British PMs new phrase, we can level up. How we can ensure the diversity of all of us can be advanced. This is going to require more legislation. But moreover, its going to rely on contact between different people, easier and harder in a digital age, and above all its going to require leadership.

Next year is the Tokyo Paralympic Games. If it can build on the tangible progress from Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 we will see significant improvements in accessibility, visibility and inclusion. UK broadcasters are going to make 2020 a year of disability to increase positive representation on screen. Hollywood is getting with the program and supporting, Lights, Camera, Access! an initiative to increase disabled representation in mainstream culture. If we can secure more cultural buy in, the legislation may finally be built upon to improve the quality of life for all of us.

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Divergent Diversity: Why Has LGBTQ+ Achieved Such Progress And Disability Hasnt? - Forbes

Eyes on the Street: Progress on Three New Walk/Bike/Horse Bridges over L.A. River – Streetsblog Los Angeles

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This article supported by Los Angeles Bicycle Attorney as part of a general sponsorship package. All opinions in the article are that of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of LABA. Click on the ad for more information.

The city of L.A. is making progress on three new L.A. River bike/walk bridges that SBLA last reported on in August. There are three new pedestrian bridges currently under construction, all in the relatively natural eight-mile-long Glendale Narrows stretch of the river through Northeast Los Angeles.

The La Kretz bridge is located in North Atwater, connecting that community to the river bike path on the west bank. The bridge is designed to carry pedestrians, cyclists, and equestrians. The bridge provides a safe equestrian connection to Griffith Park via an existing tunnel under the 5 Freeway.

Construction was anticipated to be completed this year. The citys Bureau of Engineering posted pictures of people riding horses there (for load testing) in October. Though there are still fences preventing the public from accessing the new facility, construction appears complete and north-south travel on the bikeway has been fully reopened. A grand opening should take place any day now.

As part of the citys retrofit of the historic Glendale-Hyperion Bridge, a new pedestrian bridge is being added just downstream atop the old Red Car pier walls.

Construction there just got underway in April, and the cross-river span is already in place, with construction still in progress on each end. The existing south bank river bike path remains passable during construction.

The third bridge is located in Elysian Valley, near the end of Altman Street. That bridge will connect Elysian Valley to Cypress Park, and the planned large-scale river revitalization at Taylor Yard. Construction there broke ground in June and is expected to be complete in 2021.

Construction is not that far along, though it has closed off a portion of the walk/bike path though Elysian Valley. Detour signage is posted directing cyclists to neighborhood streets, though many pedestrians and cyclists chose to walk on the sloped channel wall below the closed area.

The city of Glendale is planning a fourth bridge nearby, designed to connect Glendale to the L.A. River path and to Griffith Park. That bridge will be accessible via Glendales existing walk/bike path located on the north bank north of the 134 Freeway. As part of a rail grade separation project, Metro is finalizing designs for two connective bridges that will facilitate walk/bike access from Glendale.

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Eyes on the Street: Progress on Three New Walk/Bike/Horse Bridges over L.A. River - Streetsblog Los Angeles