Oscars: Switzerland Selects ‘The Divine Order’ For Foreign … – Deadline

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Getting its bid in early, Switzerland has selected The Divine Order to represent it in the Foreign Language Oscar race. Directed by Petra Volpe, the period drama about the fight for equal rights for women has sold more than 300,000 tickets at home. In April, it played the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Narrative Award, the Nora Ephron Prize for Volpe, and Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film for Marie Leuenberger.

By accounts, Switzerland is the first to declare for Foreign Language this year. The majority of selections will roll in during early fall. Last year, Switzerland put forth Claude Barras My Life As A Zucchini which made the Foreign shortlist and then scored a Best Animated Film nomination.

The Divine Order centers on Nora, a young housewife and mother living in a quaint village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Noras life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody until she starts to publicly fight for womens suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.

At the Swiss Film Awards it won three prizes including Best Screenplay and Best Actress. Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist co-acquired it in the U.S. where it has an October release set.

Other international sales include Italy (Merlino Distribuzione), Germany/Austria (Alamode Film), China (DD Dream), Canada (Films We Like), Benelux (September Film), France (Version Originale), Spain (Surtsey Films), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery Film), Poland (Bomba Film) and Denmark (Filmbazar).

The film is produced by Reto Schaerli and Lukas Hobi for Zodiac Pictures, co-produced by Swiss Radio and Television and Teleclub with support from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Zurich Film Foundation, Canton of Aargau, Lucerne and Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Suissimage and Migros Kulturprozent. Trust Nordisk is handling international sales.

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Oscars: Switzerland Selects 'The Divine Order' For Foreign ... - Deadline

Carolyn Cooper | Those wicked white people! – Jamaica Gleaner

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If you've ever taken the time to read the 1833 act to abolish slavery in the British colonies, you will understand what I mean. The schemers who conceived it were well and truly wicked. The full title of the document is An Act for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Colonies; for promoting the Industry of the manumitted Slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves. The 19th-century language of the entire act is obscure.

Translating the document into modern English, plain and simple, should be one of the first projects of the newly established Centre for Reparations Research at the University of the West Indies, directed by Professor Verene Shepherd. According to a press release issued last week on the eve of Emancipation Day, the centre "will lead the implementation of CARICOM's Reparatory Justice Programme, which broadly seeks to foster public awareness around the lasting and adverse consequences of European invasion of indigenous peoples' lands, African enslavement and colonialism in the Caribbean; and offer practical solutions towards halting and reversing the legacies of such acts".

The translated Abolition Act should be required reading for every single Jamaican politician. They need to fully understand the fundamental injustice on which 'emancipated' Jamaica was founded. Perhaps, enlightened politicians might be able to see that many of their colleagues are just as wicked as our colonial masters. They do not care about the well-being of the people they are supposed to serve. All they are interested in is using political office to make themselves richer and richer. As Kabaka Pyramid sarcastically puts it, "Well done, Mr Politician." And that includes the women.

The perverse act confirmed in its very title that 'Persons hitherto entitled to the Services of such Slaves' were to be compensated for loss of service. The amount paid out to enslavers in the Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape was PS20 million. According to an article in the UK Independent newspaper, published on February 24, 2013, "This figure represented a staggering 40 per cent of the Treasury's annual spending budget and, in today's terms, calculated as wage values, equates to around PS16.5b."

The act carefully documents how the British Government intended to fund the payout and administer the compensation scheme. Approximately two-thirds of the 66 sections of the act focus on the complicated financial arrangements. This seems to be the primary concern of the act. As I understand it, the Treasury was going to borrow money and issue annuities to cover the cost of the compensation. And an army of commissioners was going to be employed to oversee operations.

Not one red cent of compensation was to be paid to the enslaved. No money, no land, not a cow, not a sheep, not a goat, nothing! Enslaved Jamaicans were going to be freed with nothing but their two long hands. Fortunately, they had their heads and could figure out how to survive. Since they had no land, they farmed on hillsides. Dem tun hand mek fashion.

What is even worse is that supposedly emancipated Jamaicans were going to be kept in slavery for another six years, under the guise of an 'Apprenticeship' scam. That would mean another 27 million of additional compensation to enslavers. The act declared that emancipated people needed to learn how to be free! So they had to be taught during a period of apprenticeship in which they would continue to work for nothing. What a piece of wickedness!

Now these were people who had relentlessly rebelled against slavery. Freedom was in their DNA. It couldn't be taught by the evil people who had enslaved them. Historians agree that one of the forces that propelled Emancipation was the 1831 Christmas Rebellion led by Sam Sharpe. Enslaved Jamaicans knew there was talk of Emancipation in Britain and rightly feared that they would be kept in slavery after its nominal abolition.

Sharpe seems to have assumed that slavery had already been abolished and led a peaceful general strike to protest working conditions. It soon got violent when plantation owners realised that the sugar crop was not going to be harvested. The striking workers burned the cane. The colonial government brought in the military to end the rebellion. More than 200 protesters were killed and 14 whites. In addition, the government tried, convicted and hanged more than 300 protesters.

Just before Sam Sharpe was executed in 1832, he made the triumphant declaration, "I would rather die among yonder gallows, than live in slavery." He was only 27 years old. Now this is the kind of hero that the unconscionable drafters of the Abolition Act were going to teach how to be free! The act was also concerned with "promoting the Industry of the manumitted Slaves". This was not industry to benefit emancipated Jamaicans. It was to prolong plantation slavery.

The act recognised that "it is also necessary, for the Preservation of Peace throughout the said Colonies, that proper Regulations should be framed and established for the Maintenance of Order and good Discipline amongst the said apprenticed Labourers, and for ensuring the punctual Discharge of the Services due by them to their respective Employers, and for the Prevention and Punishment of Indolence ...".

The Apprenticeship scheme had to be cut short by two years. Emancipated Jamaicans were not prepared to work out their soul case for nothing. Not then, not now!

- Carolyn Cooper is a consultant on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com.

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Carolyn Cooper | Those wicked white people! - Jamaica Gleaner

Personal Empowerment | Prometheism.net – Part 31

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Self empowerment implies self belief, trust, and self leadership. Being self empowered, you will KNOW you have an active role in creating the future of your dreams.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In order to trust yourself, you must know yourself! Explore your passion, purpose, your values and priorities through your personal mission development. Find out who you are!

Then, cultivate your personal success and fulfillment by giving yourself a fertile and stable internal environment. This translates to an attitude that is:

When I was a child, my mother had a small patch of ground by the side of the house that she called a garden!?!

During the 2 years of this garden, I was occasionally asked to help work in it. It was a bit of a joke. The soil seemed about 95% clay, and the seeds she planted would rarely become anything more than a sprout. A few very hardy seeds and a few weeds would persist, but it was a fairly futile exercise.

I had an aunt who lived on the same street. She cultivated the soil in her yard, tilling and adding manure and fertilizer. She found out about the vegetables she planted and gave them the best conditions to encourage vibrant growth. She had a lush garden and it was a joy to see the plants thriving in it. It was even more fun to eat her fresh homemade pumpkin pie at harvest time!

The simple difference was that she offered the seeds and plants the healthy environment that encouraged what they did naturally. And thats what we want to do, create a vibrant healthy personal environment that will encourage our self development and motivation.

These elements may be viewed as the requisites to a healthy inviting environment for self growth.

If you are serious about enjoying fresh organic goodies from your own personal growth garden cultivate these:

What is your Self Concept telling you? Whether positive or negative, it is talking in your ear every day. Is it helping you achieve your goals?

You can wield personal power with positive self talk. There is one caveat your subconscious power must be working with you. When the subconscious is in alignment with your highest wishes, it is supporting the same constructive ideas as your positive thinking self talk. This is powerful.

High Self Esteem is a major component of self empowerment. It births self confidence and great trust in your own abilities. It doesnt mean you have to always be right. It means you are inwardly prepared to face whatever life serves up.

When do you think your self esteem and self concept began developing? Yes, just about the time of consciousness. How do habits, attitudes, beliefs, and values impact this ongoing development?

There are three main causes of low self esteem. Fortunately building self esteem is achievable and ongoing.

Understand how your beliefs and values, and subconscious programming can be aligned by you. Yes, it comes down to you,.. it is self esteem self help.

Self Motivation is at the beginning of be, do, have.

What self motivation seeds ensure you are planting SUCCESS motivation? Motivate yourself properly to start with, and youll love your life.

Learn the necessities for success motivation and build higher with these.

These five skills are easy self help motivation abilities to acquire, and will enhance not only your self motivation, but also your success.

Think back to previous hopes and dreams, and the success you have achieved in your life. You can see that you had an underlying belief in yourself that you would be able to accomplish those particular things. Whether it was learning to ride a bike, or play a musical instrument,or graduate from university,.. whatever you have achieved, you believed that you could. You were self empowered for that pursuit.

The structure of society has often encouraged people to defer to an expert and trust them unconditionally rather than foster belief in oneself. Many of us have grown with this understanding that there are experts who will tell us how to do whatever it is we are interested in. Society has taught us that self improvement advice is forthcoming from physicians for better health, religious leaders to tell us what god to believe in, and psychiatrists to solve our emotional and mental health problems.

Experts of course have an abundance of knowledge and may be great resources. Empowered individuals take an active role in learning, sharing thoughts and ideas with other experts, instead of glibly believing and accepting what apparent authorities promote. It may seem like a bit of work sometimes, taking primary responsibility in ones own self development. It is certainly a life change in attitude for people who have become accustomed to depending on anothers viewpoint or justification, rather than cultivating knowledge and belief in oneself. When the effort is expended to achieve self empowerment, you will find the riches that much sweeter.

By becoming more aware of our self concept, improving self esteem, and increasing self motivation, our self knowledge and confidence build. It is a natural progression to trusting ourselves and our life inspiration.

As personal leadership development unfolds, our sense of being active creative participants in life also grows. This internal state of self empowerment is a dynamic platform to move forward from in our personal development plan.

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Self Empowerment Appears Fundamental For Personal Development

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Personal Empowerment | Prometheism.net - Part 31

Bringing Garden Fresh technology to others – Crain’s Detroit Business

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The new operation, which is expected to create 25-30 jobs, garnered a $150,000 grant from the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development in July, as one of the first incentives in a pilot incentive program launched by the state agriculture department.

"There's literally hundreds of thousands of dollars a month leaving Michigan, going somewhere else," Aronson said. "Now we can bring this all in-state."

He owns 90 percent of Great Lakes; a silent partner owns the rest.

A 30,000-square-foot building on Trolley Industrial Drive near I-94 will house the HPP line. It was formerly a distribution site for Garden Fresh products, and Campbell Soup continued to operate from there for a time after it bought Garden Fresh.

Campbell vacated the building recently after constructing a new warehouse in Ferndale, leaving two "football-field-sized" walk-in coolers that are perfect for storing food going through the HPP process, Aronson said, and four loading docks.

The site has space for four HPP lines, but initial plans call for installation of a single line that would have capacity to process 45 million pounds of food per year.

When complete, the HPP line will be able to take small runs as well as large runs, given that it uses only cold water to process foods and won't need to go through costly cleanings in between product runs, Aronson said.

The process does change some some attributes of the food, he said. "What we noticed is it makes jalapenos hotter, so I had to put less in (salsa.) And it made garlic weaker. I had to put more garlic in."

The process can't be used for products in glass and doesn't work well for breads and breakfast sandwiches, Aronson said. Dips work great, but after they go through HPP, they may leach a little liquid around the edges.

"That's what I'll help them with. I'll tell them here's the food starch you want to use because it's all natural, and it's really attractive on your label. ... You don't want to add something with five ingredients. We can help them that way without having to experiment at home for a month or five months."

The process has helped Drought expand its distribution throughout the Midwest over the past eight months, said Jessie James, chief business development officer of Drought and one of the four sisters who founded the company six years ago.

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Suwanee app maker demonstrtes traffic alert technology to Rep. Rob Woodall – Gwinnettdailypost.com

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Imagine having your phone warn you if youre driving too fast or if youre approaching a red light.

For Bryan Mulligan, it doesnt take much imagination. His Suwanee-based company, Applied Information, is developing a smartphone app called TravelSafely that will do those things and more for drivers in areas where the local government has set up the technology to interact with the app.

Weve got all of this stuff bundled together, and thats where we came up with the idea of TravelSafely as a comunity, Mulligan said. Its friends keeping friends safe using the connectivity of their cell phones with each other and with the infrastructure.

U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall got a firsthand look at the technology behind the app which wont be released to the public until next year this past week when he toured Applied Informations office. He also got to see the test version of the system in action when Mulligan took him for a demonstration drive in the Suwanee area.

The TravelSafely app is in the testing phase with Applied Informations employees using technology it has installed for local governments to see how it works. In Marietta, smart city technology has been installed, allowing fire trucks, for exmaple, to get to incidents sooner.

In Gwinnett, the test app uses information from 270 school beacons installed for the county last year to see how the technology works in school zones.

We have a world-class expert within 50 miles of our district office and the best thing we can do is take advantage of that intellect, he said. I can go through the halls of Congress and theres going to be 250-300 other members who dont have access to a company like this, who dont have access to innovators like this.

To have folks willing to share their expertise with us means were going to get better policy at the end of the day.

At its core, TravelSafely is a system that relies on the internet being the place where different pieces of technology talk to each other through the programs system. That could include anything from cellphones that have the app communicating with each other, or beacons on public safety vehicles communicating with the phones that are in the near vicinity.

A beacon on a fire truck, for example, will send a signal about its location to the TravelSafely system, which will then send an alert to a driver who has the app on their phone to let them know the fire truck is approaching. The fire truck could even send a signal to traffic lights that its approaching to have it open a path for the truck so it can get to the scene of a fire sooner.

Similarly, the system can be set up so that it knows when a driver is traveling faster than the posted speed limit, when they are in a school zone, when they are approaching a red light among other things or even when a red light is about to turn green.

At one point during a demonstration drive with the Daily Post, an alarm suddenly came blaring from Mulligans phone as he approached a sign warning him to slow down. A Siri-like voice then came from his phone, offering him an additional warning.

Speeding in low speed zone, the phone said, prompting Mulligan to slow down.

Thats the app working, he said. It knew I was in an area of danger. I was going too fast, and so it will alert me and tell me Im going too fast. Over here, its telling me the status of the traffic light ahead.

Since the app is in the testing phase, engineers back at Applied Informations office decided to throw up a red light warning as the car Mulligan was driving approached the intersection of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Eva Kennedy Road even though the light was really green.

It was just a test to see what the app would do if someone drove through the intersection despite the warnings.

Red light alarm, the apps voice said as the car entered the intersection.

This is the layer of safety that can help save some of these 40,000 lives that are lost each year, Mulligan said. We lose 40,000 people on the roads each year (because of accidents).

Mulligan, who has worked in the transportation business for about 20 years, decided last year that although he had been talking about doing the TravelSafely technology for a while, he wanted to go ahead and do it.

It was time to see if we could do something as a private sector to save some of these 40,000 lives we lose each year, and I just decided to do it, he said.

Residents will have to wait a while before they can find TravelSafely in their app stores, though. Mulligan said the app wont be able to the public until sometime in January at the earliest. It will be free, with Applied Information making money for it by selling communities the equipment to be a part of the system so drivers can use it in those areas.

As a member of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Woodall has some use for that expertise in addressing traffic issues. He said the issue facing the committee is figuring out how to address these issues, and whether that involves using traditional means or going in a new direction.

How are we going to make roads safer, he said. We can build more lanes of interstate in order to keep congestion down or we can deploy technology to keep congestion down. What youre going to find when folks are bringing their own solutions is that were going to get to make those choices. Are we going to go 20th Century or are we going to go 21st Century?

Free and reasonable people can agree to disagree, but were going to have a chance on the committee to give people a bigger bang for their taxpayer dollar if we can replicate what Gwinnett County has done in terms of its school zones, or what Marietta has done in terms of its emergency vehicles.

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Suwanee app maker demonstrtes traffic alert technology to Rep. Rob Woodall - Gwinnettdailypost.com

Sinkhole draws neighbors checking out progress – ABC Action News

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Land O Lakes -

The Land O' Lakes sinkhole that first opened weeks ago has grown by another 30 feet. Now two more homes are condemned and even more evacuated.

Another piece fell in like yesterday and you never know if another ones going to come over here, homeowner Lorelis Prieto said.

It's a moment Lorelis will always remember.

I just kept hearing pieces falling and there was water and I saw a palm tree go down and Im like immediately I was getting stuff out of my house because I didnt know how big it was going to grow, if it was going to stop, she said.

The Land O' Lakes sinkhole swallowing two homes, just a few doors down. Now county officials confirm that sinkhole has grown by another 30 feet, making it about 260 feet at the widest point.

"200 feet away there was this huge massive hole that opened up in the ground and like in the middle of the night anything can happen so I dont think I'd be coming back," Lorelis said.

County officials said some of their equipment may have caused the additional collapse but they don't think this is an active sinkhole.

Over the weekend, dozens of dump trucks bring lime stone and boulders to steady the sinkhole. Crews are even planning to create a boat ramp so a small barge can work from the inside. Right now, this site is a spectacle.

Shows you theres not much to do in land o lakes on a Saturday night, one neighbor said. Just hope that they can get it fixed and people can get back home and their homes are safe."

Crews are cleaning debris throughout the weekend.

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Sinkhole draws neighbors checking out progress - ABC Action News

Big progress for new sewage pipe project in Heartland America Park – KETV Omaha

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OMAHA, Neb.

A big breakthrough for Omaha's sewer separation project took place Saturday when a giant tunnel-boring machine drilled through a shaft in Heartland America Park. This moves one of the city's newest sewer mains forward, after some major setbacks and big costs.

"It's a big relief seeing this tunnel machine show up today," said Scott Aurit, the project delivery team lead for the Clean Solutions for Omaha program.

The tunnel 80 feet under Heartland America Park is just a small piece of the massive CSO project, which is aimed at reducing waste from flowing into the Missouri River.

In December 2015, construction workers began digging the 3,500-foot tunnel, starting near Sixth and Leavenworth and working toward the northeast corner of Heartland America Park.

Work came to a halt in May 2016 when the tunnel-boring machine got stuck underground.

"Our machine that was designed to go through rock was unable to continue tunneling because we started encountering boulders and also ground water conditions," Aurit said.

The hiccup cost the city an additional $2.5 million, bringing the portion of the CSO project to more than $30 million and pushing the completion date back by a year.

"The contractors have done a really good job working diligently and we've been maintaining the schedule to complete this by the end of the year," Aurit said.

Workers built a new shaft to reach the trapped drill and brought in a bigger and better tunnel-boring machine. They started working from the opposite direction, and Saturday nearly finished drilling the 900 feet of the tunnel that the old machine couldn't.

With the new machine reaching the shaft, the current phase of the project is almost complete. Next, workers will install another pipe, test it and hope to start operation by October or November.

"Replacing our aging and our old infrastructure as well as maximizing," Aurit said. "We want to try and get as much flow to the Missouri River treatment plant for treatment."

While the new machine reached the shaft Saturday, it still has a little ways to go. It only moves about five feet every hour.

Workers will also remove the machine that's stuck sometime next week.

The total cost of the CSO project is $2.2 billion.

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Big progress for new sewage pipe project in Heartland America Park - KETV Omaha

Iowa football: Hawkeyes remain a work in progress – Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

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IOWA CITY Six practices into fall camp and four Saturdays away from its season-opening game against Wyoming, the Iowa football team remains a little rough around the edges.

The Hawkeyes areas of need are mostly on what coach Kirk Ferentz labels the perimeter, in the secondary on defense and at receiver, tight end and quarterback on offense.

Every time you start a new season, you have new challenges, new opportunities, said Ferentz, preparing for his 19th season as Iowas head coach. Its a different equation every year and the trick is to put it all together.

That remains a work in progress, particularly behind center where sophomore Nathan Stanley and junior Tyler Wiegers continue to battle for the opportunity to replace C.J. Beathard as the Hawkeyes starter.

Were making each other better, Stanley said. Were close friends competing for the same thing, but in doing that we are moving each other forward.

I think weve both gotten better and we worked hard this summer and I feel like things went well, Wiegers said. We came back to camp ready to go. Weve both been working at it. Its a good competition for both of us.

Ferentz said Saturday it remains an ongoing competition.

Both continue to split reps with the first-team offense and ultimately, Ferentz said coaches believe Iowa can be successful with either quarterback.

Theyve made strides since last spring, certainly, and they have improved in the last couple days, as well, Ferentz said.

Quarterbacks coach Ken OKeefe said the pair have had their ups and downs during the first week of fall camp.

Thats normal. One will look good one day, the other the next. This past week was a little like spring in that we were starting up again, working to get back in the routine and that leads to a little inconsistency, OKeefe said.

History tells me that we can probably expect the same for about another week. I dont think were going to see one guy separate this next week. Id be surprised by that.

OKeefe helped the Hawkeyes break in Brad Banks, Nathan Chandler, Drew Tate, Ricky Stanzi and James Vandenberg as successful first-year starters during his previous tenure as Iowas offensive coordinator.

As was the case then, every statistic is being documented. Every completion percentage, quarterback rating number, throw times, plusses, minuses, theyre all being charted.

They will all be discussed, reviewed, reviewed again and ultimately will factor into a decision.

You cant rush it, though, OKeefe said. As much as you would like me to stand here today and say this is the guy, I cant say that because we arent at that point yet. Thats the reality of it.

First-year offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz doesnt expect or want to be in a position where Iowa would platoon two quarterbacks and let a final decision play out on the field once the season starts.

What we want is what is best for the team and Ive never been around a situation where a two-quarterback rotation of some sort was best for the team, he said.

He believes that Iowas current situation at quarterback isnt necessarily a bad one.

We have two guys working hard, two guys who their teammates believe in and two guys who are capable of leading our football team. Thats a good thing, Brian Ferentz said. The tough thing is that only one of them can start and I still believe that will sort itself out on the field.

A year ago as a true freshman, the 6-foot-5, 212-pound Stanley completed 5 of 9 passes for 62 yards. Wiegers didnt play last fall, but did complete 3 of 4 passes for 32 yards as Iowas back-up in 2015.

Both said they have benefitted from OKeefes knowledge and experience, providing them with tips that are helping them grow as quarterbacks.

All we can do right now is keep working to be consistent, Wiegers said. Thats the main thing. Every day, you want to be as consistent as you can.

Stanley said ultimately, that will likely be the difference-maker.

The consistency is the big thing that I think were both working toward, he said. All we can do every day is show up ready to work and try to put our best out there with every snap we get.

As the second week of camp begins, the Hawkeyes continue to seek answers at receiver, where Matt VandeBerg has enjoyed a good opening week of camp in his return from two foot surgeries.

He has 106 career catches on his resume, the extent of the experience at Iowa for current Hawkeye receivers.

The group is working hard, making progress, receivers coach Kelton Copeland said. Its a daily thing, trying to take one, two steps forward and eventually, it will work.

Junior-college transfer Nick Easley currently joins VandeBerg on the top of the depth chart, but one week into camp Copeland has been pleased with the progress Adrian Falconer has made since spring and he likes the potential he sees in a collection of four true freshmen.

Were going to need some help from them and they came in ready to compete, Copeland said.

On defense, Kirk Ferentz said the Hawkeyes will also likely need help from at least a couple of the four true freshmen Iowa brought in at cornerback.

Theres been a lot written and said about our youth at the receiver position, but I would say thats who we are on the back end (on defense), too, Ferentz said. Were just really young on the perimeter right now. Young, inexperienced, that is us at the corners, at safety and at receiver. Quarterback, too. Thats our team in a nutshell right now.

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More progress made on Chuckanut fire – goskagit.com

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The Burnout Road Fire on Chuckanut Mountain was 80 percent contained as of Saturday afternoon.

The fire was estimated at 48 acres, though the state Department of Natural Resources said fire does not mean flame, but hot embers, coals, that need to be brought to the surface and extinguished by mixing with water.

The fire is 6 miles southeast of the Lost Lake Trailhead of the Larrabee State Park.

It is on Department of Natural Resources and private land.

There are about 104 people working the fire. They have been helped by higher moisture content in the air, cooler temperatures and calm winds.

Meanwhile, the Suiattle Fire that is 9 miles northeast of Darrington increased in size from Friday.

The fire is now at 216 acres and 25 percent contained. The fire was 200 acres with 15 percent containment on Friday.

There are 356 people fighting that fire.

The causes of both fires are under investigation.

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More progress made on Chuckanut fire - goskagit.com

Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood opens up about his lung cancer – NME.com

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The guitarist had a five hour operation to have the growth removed.

The Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood has spoken out about the surgery he had to remove a growth in his lung.

The musician received the diagnosisback in Mayand underwent a five hour operation to have part of his lung removed.

He spoke exclusively to the Mail on Sundays Event magazine, saying he prepared to say goodbye to his family after the diagnosis.

There was a week when everything hung in the balance and it could have been curtains time to say goodbye, he told the mag.

You never know what is going to happen.

He revealed that hed been surprised that he hadnt fallen ill sooner after his life of hedonism.

I had this thought at the back of my mind after I gave up smoking a year ago: How can I have got through 50 years of chain-smoking and all the rest of my bad habits without something going on in there?' the guitarist said.

So I went along to see our good old doctor, Richard Dawood, because we [Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts] all have to be checked before we go on tour, and he asked me if I wanted him to go deeper and check my heart, lungs and blood. I said, Go for it.'

Wood told the mag that hes fine now, and will be going for regular check-ups.

He quit smoking before his twins were born in 2016 and is now sober after being in rehab eight times, and having treatment for alcoholism.

But what doesbandmate Keith Richards think of his sobriety?

He was more bothered Id quit the fags, Wood revealed. I took Champix [a nicotine inhibitor] for three weeks. That stuff is heavy duty. Makes me sick even to think of it now. I just stopped wanting the ciggies.

Wood is expected to join the band on their No Filter European dates in September.

The Rolling Stones upcoming No Filter European tour dates are below.

9 September Hamburg, Germany: Stadtpark 12 September Munich, Germany: Olympic Stadium 16 September Spielberg, Austria: Spielberg at Red Bull Ring 20 September Zurich, Switzerland: Letzigrund Stadium 23 September Lucca, Italy: Lucca Summer Festival-City Walls 27 September Barcelona, Spain: Olympic Stadium 30 September Amsterdam, Holland: Amsterdam ArenA 3 October Copenhagen, Denmark: Parken Stadium 9 October Dusseldorf, Germany: Esprit arena 12 October Stockholm, Sweden: Friends Arena 15 October Arnhem, Holland: GelreDome 19 October Paris, France: U Arena 22 October Paris, France: U Arena

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Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood opens up about his lung cancer - NME.com

It’s duty of Hindus to rid world of unbridled consumerism: RSS chief … – The Indian Express

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Written by Vivek Deshpande | Nagpur | Published:August 5, 2017 4:06 am RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat (File Photo)

DOES Hindu dharma stress on self-correction, or does it tell followers to strive to lead the world on the path of correction?

The valedictory function of Vishwa Sangh Shiksha Varga (world Sangh training camp) saw conflicting views being expressed by chief guest Bibek Debroy and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat here on Friday.

While the NITI Aayog member expressed the opinion that Hindu dharma directs followers on the path of self-correction and any attempt to bring about correction in others is reflective of egotism, Bhagwat clarified that the god-ordained (ishwar pradatta) duty of Hindus is to free the world of the ills of unbridled consumerism and hedonism engendered by uncontrolled capitalism.

We are too insignificant to change the world or the universe. If you feel you have to change others, then it reflects your ego. The Hindu dharma says that if each one of us corrects oneself, the world will automatically get on the path of correction, Debroy said addressing a gathering of 112 young men and women from different parts of the world.

Bhagwat, in his speech, referred to Debroys opinion, saying, The chief guest spoke of involvement of ego in trying to bring about change in others. When K B Hedgewar founded the RSS, he was of the opinion that the Hindus should blame themselves for all their ills, not the British or the Muslim rulers. But one of the resolutions pushed by Hedgewar during the Nagpur convention of Indian National Congress, where he was a key organiser as its member before he went on to set up the RSS, was to usher India on the path to help the world rid itself of the ill-effects of unbridled consumerism. So, if we have to carry out that responsibility, we need to spread the Vishwa Dharma named Hindu Dharma by visitors from outside world.

He added: There is no ego involved in this mission. There is atmiyata (affinity). Like how the squirrel did by contributing its mite in the construction of Ram Setu during the Ramayana war. She didnt have ego, she had affinity for the cause and a will to contribute.

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It's duty of Hindus to rid world of unbridled consumerism: RSS chief ... - The Indian Express

Israel’s ‘crown prince’ Netanyahu under fire for crude post – Fox News

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JERUSALEM Since becoming an adult, the eldest son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly drawn media criticism for what has been portrayed as a life of privilege at taxpayers' expense.

Yair Netanyahu, 26, has been described as someone who hobnobs with world leaders and enjoys a state-funded bodyguard, while living at the prime minister's official residence.

But his recent behavior, including a crude social media post, has now drawn public rebuke from the children of a former Israeli leader, along with threats of a libel suit. It has also revived criticism of the Netanyahu family's perceived hedonism and sense of entitlement, at a time when the prime minister faces multiple corruption allegations.

Israeli police on Thursday disclosed that Netanyahu is suspected of fraud, breach of trust and bribes in a pair of cases, just as his son was being pilloried in the press.

The younger Netanyahu hit the tabloids last weekend when a neighbor posted an account of how he refused to pick up after the Netanyahu family dog at a public park and then, when confronted, gave the neighbor the finger.

Yair Netanyahu then lashed out on Facebook at a website run by a liberal think tank that detailed what it said was his lavish lifestyle at taxpayers' expense.

In the post, Netanyahu alleged the site is funded by what he claimed are foreign interests, referring indirectly to the dovish New Israel Fund, which he renamed the "Israel Destruction Fund." He signed the post with emojis of a middle finger and a pile of excrement.

The Times of Israel said Thursday that the Molad organization which runs the site served the younger Netanyahu with a notice of intent to sue. The notice reportedly said that his posts "had no iota of truth to them" and that Molad stopped receiving money from the NIF last year.

Representatives of Molad could not be reached for comment.

The New Israel Fund noted that Yair Netanyahu made the comments on Tisha B'Av, the day Jews mourn the destruction of their biblical Temples, brought upon by internal divisions and hatred.

"On this day ... it would be appropriate for the prime minister to educate his son to spread the love of Israel," the fund said in a statement.

But perhaps the harshest reactions came from some of the other targets of his post, in which he claimed the children of former Israeli leaders Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert did not come under such scrutiny.

It included an insinuation that one of Olmert's sons had an "interesting relationship with a Palestinian man" that affected national security.

Olmert's son Ariel fired back on Facebook, denying he was gay, dismissing the claims as a fabrication and accusing the younger Netanyahu of "racism and homophobia."

"I've ignored that until now, maybe because in my opinion there's nothing negative about being either gay or Palestinian," he wrote. "Your attempts to drag me into your twisted reality are doomed to fail."

Ariel Olmert added that he works for a living, never slept in the prime minister's residence and "on principle, try to pick up my dog's doody."

His older brother Shaul then chimed in, calling Yair Netanyahu a fascist thug.

Their sister Dana Olmert declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

The online exchanges highlighted Yair Netanyahu's pronounced presence of late around his father.

In May, he was on hand to welcome President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the official Netanyahu residence and was heard telling Mrs. Trump how he related to their youngest son Barron's struggle with the spotlight.

He has also reportedly taken a leading role in his father's social media platform.

Yair Netanyahu has also been questioned though not as a suspect about a corruption scandal in which his father was asked by police "under caution" about ties to executives in media, international business and Hollywood.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are said to have received more than $100,000 worth of cigars and liquor from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who reportedly asked Netanyahu to press the U.S. secretary of state in a visa matter.

Australian billionaire James Packer has reportedly lavished Yair with gifts that included extended stays at luxury hotels in Tel Aviv, New York and Aspen, Colorado, as well as the use of his private jet and dozens of tickets for concerts by Packer's former fiancee, Mariah Carey.

Police are trying to determine whether these constitute bribes, since Packer is reportedly seeking Israeli residency status for tax purposes.

The prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, portraying the accusations as a witch hunt against him and his family by a hostile media.

His office declined comment Thursday on the latest affair.

David Bitan, the coalition whip from Netanyahu's Likud party, said Netanyahu's son was not involved in policy and dismissed the chatter as kid's stuff on Facebook.

"He's a private person and that is how it should be treated," he told Israel's Army Radio.

Others disagreed.

Columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in a front-page piece in the Yediot Ahronot daily Thursday that the prime minister's plea to the media to leave his family alone had no merit once his son had written "one of the nastiest and most vile posts ever."

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Israel's 'crown prince' Netanyahu under fire for crude post - Fox News

Comic Chatbot Errors in China Mask Serious Corporate Caving on Censorship – TheStreet.com

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Tencent, Microsoft MSFT and Action Alerts PLUScharity portfolio holding Apple (AAPL) have all in the last five days learned the hard way that in China, software is power.

Tech companies that might put up a fight elsewhere over content restrictions or access to their products crumble in the face of the Communist Party. With Web restrictions tightening in China, the issue is only going to gain in prominence, and the ranks of companies caving are likely to grow.

Comically, Tencent (TCEHY) has removed chatbots developed by Microsoft and Beijing-based Turing Robot after they started giving so-called unpatriotic answers.

The BabyQ bot co-developed by Beijing-based Turing Robot answered the question "Do you love the Communist Party?" with "No," the Financial Times reports. The XiaoBing bot from Microsoft (MSFT) reportedly told users: "My China dream is go to America."

On a more serious note, Applecame under fire for removing VPN-related apps from its app store. VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, can help Chinese citizens get around the stringent governmentcontrols of Web content to access overseas information.

Apple says it was merely complying with tightened Chinese regulations. But there was none of the defiance that Apple showed when it fought back on home soil against a court order to help the FBI unlock an iPhone, as the agency investigated the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

The president of Golden Frog, which saw its privacy software VyprVPN knocked off the Apple app tree in China, said it was "disappointed" Apple bowed to pressure from Beijing, without even citing the specific law that makes a VPN illegal.

"We view access to Internet in China as a human rights issue, and I would expect Apple to value human rights over profits," Sunday Yokubaitis told The New York Times. Golden Frog filed an amicus brief in support of Apple's action against the FBI.

The pulling of the chatbots is no surprise. They were likely tricked into giving their answers by users, just as provocative Twitter comments helped swindle Microsoft's Tay bot into making anti-Semitic and offensive comments such as "feminism is cancer."

But online access is a mounting concern.

Amazon.com (AMZN) , too, appears to be under pressure in China over its cloud computing services. One of Amazon's operators in China has told its customers to stop using software that would let someone get around China's controls.

Cloud computing is an increasingly thorny issue for the Chinese government, since it raises the potential for controversial content to be held outside China. In response, China is insisting that companies operating data services store the data within China's borders, ostensibly on public safety grounds. Banking data, for instance, could go missing.

But we know the real reason. It's so China can regulate what its citizens see, in a bid to control what they think, particularly on issues concerning the Communist Party and its unelected authority to govern.

The perils of operating in China are many, but top among them would be running afoul of the Communist Party. Bloomberg has given in by suppressing touchy news stories about Chinese officials, such as this non-working link to its own story once about the wealth of the family Chinese President Xi Jinping. Most companies capitulate. Chinese yuan are too good to give up.

Google, and now its parent Alphabet (GOOGL) , has been the only major company that springs to mind that has taken a stand against Chinese censorship. It pulled its search engine from China, redirecting traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong engine, in 2010 in a fight over China's censorship rules. The company is reportedly in talks to get access in China for some of its offerings, such as Google Scholar.

There are plenty of sites you can't access in China, including Facebook , Pinterest and Snapchat. But many would like to get in, given the chance. For instance, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been happy to chat with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Mandarin and post this Facebook photo of the two together.

You'd think online censorship is a battle destined to fail. Web access only grows with the production of every new digital site, app and device, while content proliferates faster exponentially.

But the Chinese government fights hard. And while they may know they're not getting the full truth, many of China's citizens believe a large amount of what they're told.

The Chinese government orchestrates 488 million fake social-media posts every year, according to a study led by Harvard University data scientist Gary King. In many cases, the government pays the equivalent of $0.08 for people who post comments cheer-leading for China, talking about the Communist Party's revolutionary history, or supporting the regime.

The first thing I do every time I visit mainland China is to log in to the hotel's WiFi and search for "Tiananmen Square." Here in Hong Kong, the Chinese government's 1989 massacre of students protesting in favor of democracy pops right up. It's appeared at a couple of Chinese hotels, too, presumably because the Chinese government hadn't yet paid them a digital visit.

Hong Kong and Macau are the only parts of China with their own rules on issues like censorship. Macau, relying on Beijing's approval of mainland travel visas to prop up its casino business, toes the party line. For now, I'm free to say what I want from my base in Hong Kong, but that freedom of expression is also disappearing, and fast.

The new administration of Chief Executive Carrie Lam, known for her stubborn streak and devotion to Beijing in equal parts, is under pressure to resurrect a highly unpopular "national education" curriculum, viewed by many teachers as patriotic airbrushing and brainwashing. It is also likely to attempt to introduce a "security" law, which by outlawing "sedition and subversion" will obliterate that theoretical freedom of speech.

It would certainly make it illegal for Hong Kong politicians to suggest that they support autonomy or independence for Hong Kong. To "challenge the power of the central government" or "endanger China's sovereignty," both terms that can and will be interpreted broadly, "crosses a red line."

That's what Chinese President Xi Jinping told Hong Kongers on his July 1 visit to "celebrate" the 20thanniversary of Hong Kong's reversion to China. Freedom of speech only allows you to say, it seems, what the Communists want you to say.

In China, it determines what you can read, see and hear online. Don't question authority, and don't get any upstart ideas.

That applies as much at the corporate level as the personal. Even providing the platform, the software, on which to express controversial sentiments crosses a very ill-defined line.

Will other companies take a stand like Google? Or will they all cave?

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Comic Chatbot Errors in China Mask Serious Corporate Caving on Censorship - TheStreet.com

George Washington Could Teach Trump A Lot About Free Speech – Daily Beast

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To listen to President Donald Trump and his surrogates rail against the American media, you would think the commander in chief was setting the stage for a nasty divorce proceeding. Some years back, he had a happy and reciprocal love affair with leading news and entertainment outlets, one that that he hasnt yet forgotten.

In Europe and back home recently, the president insisted in another of his myriad fake news claims that, NBC's equally as bad [as CNN], despite the fact that I made them a fortune with The Apprentice, but they forgot that!" And surrogate Kellyanne Conway accused CNNs anchor Chris Cuomo of ignoring other issues at home and paying more attention to Russia than to the good old United States.

Our first president, George Washington, would probably be at least irked to learnwere he to return to the banks of the Potomac for a dayabout all the serious charges of foreign meddling, which he warned adamantly against in his own Farewell Address.

But he also would likely be amused to see the Trump administration in such a dogfight with the Fourth Estate. He knew a little about the symbiotic relationship between people in power and their muses, who, in his day, often came in the form of poets working as journalists, or journalists working as playwrights.

George Washington, as general and as president, spent most of his career gliding past the daggers of his detractors, confident that free voices, though flawed and often inaccurate, were an essential element of a more open society and a bulwark against the omnipresent threat of oppression.

He made a point to be cordial with the press, and for good reason. Early on in his career, men and ladies of letters had adored and feted George Washington.

In October 26, 1775, a recently emancipated black poet, Phillis Wheatley, praised the newly-appointed commander of the Continental Army, writing,

Shall I to Washington their praise recite?

Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight.

Thee, first in peace and honorswe demand.

The grace and glory of thy martial band.

Fam'd for thy valour, for thy virtues more,

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Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!

It was start of a golden age of revolution in which America needed heroes and the media of the day was there to help polish their legends. Throughout the grueling seven years of the Revolutionary War, the fledgling U.S. press provided blow-by-blow accounts of the revolt, so that as Ben Franklin wrote in 1782, the same truths may be repeatedly enforced by placing them daily in different lights in newspapers, which are everywhere read.

For his part, Washington saw press, poets and playwrightsparticularly the ones on his sideas the best defense against Tory lies. From his desk at Valley Forge, he wrote to the young poet Timothy Dwight to encourage him, stating that nothing would please him more than to patronize the essays of Genius and a laudable cultivation of the Arts & Sciences, which had begun to flourish in so eminent a degree, before the hand of oppression was stretched over our devoted Country.

Washington was, of course, a great actor on the stage of history and politics, and he also knew that no great actor could survive without the help of muses, who could be seen in public as free of shackles that others might place on them.

In May 1788, George wrote to his friend the Marquis de Lafayette, Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal arts and friends to poets, of their own as well as former times, adding that, In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.

By contrast, Trump and his staff hammer the press daily with personal insults and have threatened to eliminate funding for the National Endowment of the Arts, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support independent voices, often critical of authority.

The White House has made plain its disdain for funding the NEA as well as public radio and television, but with major corporate and private backing, independent critics of those in power are likely to continue plying their trade regardless.

Breaking revelations that the Trump campaign actively sought foreign help to defeat Hillary Clinton are only likely to further stoke the fires of domestic criticism aimed at White House, also sometimes referred to as The Peoples House.

Such a role for artists and the media is as all American as apple pie and began with the imprimatur of POTUS #1.President Washington had to deal with members of the Fourth Estate out to ridicule and undermine his tenure. A leading and rabid critic, Philip Freneau, hired to work for the U.S. government by Washingtons sometimes friend and rival Thomas Jefferson, spent much of his desk time writing scathing critiques of Washington in his wildly partisanNational Gazette.

The paper was entirely unforgiving of anything that struck of gilded pleasures, calling Washingtons 61st birthday, party, for example, a forerunner of other monarchical vices, and asking rhetorically if the celebration of a leaders birthdaywhich was widely demanded by Washingtons many admirerswas not a striking feature of royalty? One cringes to think what Freneau might have concluded from one of Trumps lavish weekend soirees or staff pool parties at Mar-e-Lago.

The best way to understand the difference between POTUS #1 and POTUS #45 might well be to review the social milieu in which they earned their political chops.

As George launched his military career during the French and Indian War, the heart of the Old Dominion, Williamsburg, was witnessing an explosion of drama and fiction, including new plays marked by scathing satire, often with ironic twists aimed at highlighting or pillorying societal norms. Georges personal development ran parallel to this Augustan Age of wit, wisdom, and criticism.

Comedies of manners, as they were called, became all the rage before and after theFrench & Indian War. Virginia, like mother England, was learning to laugh at society, but, in particular, to make fun of stuffy, wealthy types who typified the ruling classes. Across the channel in France, writers and critics took a similar tack through plays, pamphlets, and cartoons, which would eventually spell the demiseand beheadingof the monarchy.

As in Paris, leading characters in many of Williamsburgs popular dramas were marked by their acute character flaws, whichmore often than notmade them comic misfits. Other stage stories delved into scandalincluding into the sexual peccadilloes of the elite class.

Washington found himself regularly at thetheater in Williamsburgin the company of a Thomas Jefferson, whoin contrast to George, who liked his expensive box seatsoften enjoyed watching performances from the rowdy pit beneath center stage, where detractors could throw rotten apples, tomatoes, and orange peels if they didnt like what they sawwhich could be numerous times in an evening.

Indeed, it is hard to see how Washington could have become the same inspired hero of the Revolution and advocate of a vibrant arts scene had he not been exposed to this rollicking age of drama in his teens and early twenties.

By contrast, it is worth remembering that Trump spent his early days promoting fake wrestling matches before he expanded his interests into beauty pageantsa far cry from the Colonial Era.

Despite the barbs thrown at him later in life, Washington never surrendered hisbelief that a battle of ideas was worth engaging in. He knew that arts and a free, unshackled press provided a means for him and his fellow Americans to envision their own idealsto put meat on the bone, so to speak. It was this faith in his own ideals that guided his evolution as one of Americas earliest and most influential patrons of the arts. He had his flaws, but he always ardently supported freedom of speech.

He wanted his fellow Americans to embrace this love and stated that: To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.

While Washington was seenby virtue of his muses and a free pressas the embodiment of all courage and devotion to the nation for most of his career as a leader, and as president, he becameby the end of his first term in officea prime target for ridicule. Ironically, his unusual reward for fighting to oust a monarch from American shores was that he was now accused openly of coveting a crown. It was a story without substance, but it still stuck in some quarters.

Regardless, as president, Washington rarely displayed public disdain for the press. Only on one notable occasion, but within the confines of his own cabinet meeting, did he explode rather wildly against the insults cast upon him by the Fourth Estate.

At the closed meeting, his loyal friend, Henry Knox, who served as secretary of war, seized upon a newly published satire in the press titled The Funeral Dirge of George Washington and James Wilson, King and Judge,a playful little drama in which Washington was dragged before the guillotine for alleged aristocratic crimes. It was light satire, but it went too far for the president. It was, after all, suggesting his beheading in no uncertain terms.

Georges temper, which he struggled to control all his life, blew a fuse, and Thomas Jefferson described the rage of the president in these words: Washington went into a tirade, he said, and shouted that he would rather be on his farm than be made emperor of the world, and yet that they were charging him with wanting to be king. It wasnt the first time he had been ridiculed, and it would not be the last, but even magnanimous George had his limits.

He was at the end of his rope (and almost his presidency), and so he now dreamt about his ensuing and final retreat from politics beneath his proverbial vine and fig tree at Mount Vernon. In the end, the false and unsubstantiated charges in the media that he coveted a crown may well have bolstered his image when it became clear to his fellow Americans that he never harbored any such aspiration.

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George Washington Could Teach Trump A Lot About Free Speech - Daily Beast

Campus free speech politics settles in North Carolina – Greenville Daily Reflector

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After a controversial year at ECU in which strong public expressions at both ends of the spectrum drew protests, the university and every other in the North Carolina system received clear instructions this week from the state Legislature on their responsibilities to protect free speech and expression on public campuses.

The N.C. General Assembly enacted into law the Restore Campus Free Speech Act, also known as House Bill 527,written by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. The bill had been returned July 31 unsigned by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

LaQuon Rogers, ECU Student Government Association president, said the university had been acknowledging everyones right to free speech before HB 527 became law.

We recently have looked at our procedures and policies in terms of how we handle free speech (on campus), Rogers said. We made some adjustments in those areas that resulted in the campus being green-lighted as a free-speech campus. This legislation is coming at a time when we see differences of opinions in academic settings and people are expressing themselves.

Rogers was referring to the Green Light rating ECU received from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) after changing four campus policies to meet the groups First Amendment standards. That recognition was given the same week that the Legislature sent HB 527 to Cooper.

Essential portions of the new state law require the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina develop and adopt apolicy on free expression that states, at least, the following:

The primary function of each constituent institution is the discovery,improvement, transmission and dissemination of knowledge by means ofresearch, teaching, discussion, and debate.To fulfill this function, theconstituent institution must strive to ensure the fullest degree of intellectualfreedom and free expression. It is not the proper role of any constituent institution to shield individualsfrom speech protected by the First Amendment, including, withoutlimitation, ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or evendeeply offensive.

The law also states that colleges and universities may not require its students and faculty to express any given view of social policy; must provide access to campuses for free speech purposes, consistent with First Amendment law, including invited speakers; must provide a range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone who substantially disrupts its functioning or interferes with others protected free expressions; and enforce a clearly defined set of procedures for disciplinary actions and appeals related to free speech and protected conduct.

The new law also requires the UNC Board of Governors to establish from among its members an 11-member Committee on Free Expression that will report annually to the full board and the General Assembly on barriers or disruptions to free expression, handling of disciplinary cases, difficulties, controversies and successes relating to administrative neutrality on political and social issues.

The session law also protects institutional leaders and board members from personal liability for acts taken pursuant to their duties related to the law.

One thing I can say about ECU is that most of the time were ahead of the ballgame, Rogers said. We want to be sure all students feel welcome, and even the speakers we invite. We invite speakers with different views, and I think thats important for an academic institution.

The Daily Reflector also received a news release Tuesday from the Phoenix, Ariz.-based Barry Goldwater Institute. The staunchly conservative organization said the Legislature crafted HB 527 on its model bill.

The Goldwater Institute model legislation affirms a commitment to free speech on public college campuses, prohibits universities from disinviting speakers, and creates a system of sanctions for those who interfere with the free speech rights of others, the release said.

Groups like FIRE and the Goldwater Institute have been lauded and scrutinized because of their support from strongly conservative backers, including the Bradley Foundation, the Claude R. Lambe Foundation and several organizations supported by the activist Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist, who sits on the board of the Goldwater Institute.

Cooper opposed forcing the legislation on universities, but allowed it to become law, a spokesman from his office told The Daily Reflector.

While Gov. Cooper would prefer the state trust university leaders to handle these issues rather than for the legislature to dictate terms, he felt it was best to allow this legislation to become law given the overwhelming majority that supported it, the spokesman said.

The law is a solution in search of a problem, but free speech always should be a priority for public universities, Sarah Gillooly, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, told the Carolina Journal after HB 527 was sent to Cooper.

In the rare circumstances where there is an issue with the stifling of free speech on campus, appropriate remedies exist and are working, Gillooly said.

Virginia Hardy, ECU Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, issued a statement following the changes that led to ECUs green light designation.

We are committed to free speech and freedom of expression on our campus, Hardy said. We want our students, faculty, staff and guests to feel comfortable exercising their rights and exploring their ideas. Allowing the opportunity for freedom of expression and civil discourse around differing views has always been, and continues to be, a mainstay of institutions of higher learning.

Contact Michael Abramowitz at 329-9507 and mabramowitz@reflector.com.

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Campus free speech politics settles in North Carolina - Greenville Daily Reflector

Germany’s SPD rejects NATO 2 percent defense spending target – Reuters

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats on Sunday rejected NATO's target of spending 2 percent of economic output on the military, and blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservatives for kowtowing to the demands of U.S. President Donald Trump.

With just over a month to go before national elections, SPD leader Martin Schulz and Thomas Oppermann, who heads the SPD in parliament, issued their strongest criticism to date of Merkel, the NATO spending target and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen in an essay for the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain.

"We say a clear no to the 'two-percent target' of Trump and the CDU/CSU," the two leaders wrote, referring to Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party.

"It's not only unrealistic, it is simply the wrong goal."

The comments put the SPD on a collision course with U.S. officials, who have began pressing Germany long before Trump's election last November to increase its military spending.

The SPD leaders, whose party is lagging Merkel's Christian Democrats in the polls by 15 percentage points, said Germany would have to nearly double current defense spending to meet the NATO target. That would make it the largest military power in Europe - a goal they said "no one could want" given Germany's Nazi history.

Instead, they said, Germany should focus on building a strong European defense union and ultimately, a European army - a stance that may resonate with a deeply pacifist German public that remains skeptical of military engagements.

"Merkel and the CDU/CSU make themselves small vis-a-vis Donald Trump when they answer his provocations around the two-percent target by saying, 'Okay, fine, we'll put in more money,' as if we didn't have any better ideas what to do," they wrote.

They said increased military spending should be matched by higher outlays for diplomacy, humanitarian aid and crisis prevention.

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a former SPD leader, has also questioned the NATO target, but the Schulz-Oppermann essay was far more explicit, driving a further wedge between the parties in Merkel's right-left coalition.

Merkel, who is poised to win reelection on Sept. 24, insists that Germany is committed to reach the two percent target. She has also chided Gabriel pointedly, noting his predecessor signed off on the NATO commitment when it was first made years ago.

Merkel's conservatives have about 38 to 40 percent support in the polls, and hope to form a coalition government with one or more of the smaller parties, after the election.

In June, the SPD also reversed course and rejected plans to lease Israeli drones that can carry weapons to protect German soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Mali, sparking sharp criticism from von der Leyen and the top officer in the German air force.

The essay also criticized von der Leyen's leadership as defense minister since late 2013, citing continued problems with equipment, a lack of planning, and challenges in recruitment.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mary Milliken

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Germany's SPD rejects NATO 2 percent defense spending target - Reuters

Scuttlebiz: Separating Cyber from NSA could speed private-sector development in Augusta – The Augusta Chronicle

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When Americas enemies hide behind closed doors, the best military strategy could be stealthily picking the lock under the cover of night. Or it could be blowing the door to smithereens with an M203 in broad daylight.

Same goes for electronic warfare: some situations requires finesse, others demand brute force.

That, as much as anything, explains why the Pentagon is planning to separate U.S. Cyber Command from the National Security Agency the two entities that have the most influence over Fort Gordon and, by extension, Augustas fledgling cyber economy.

If the split happens as expected in the coming years, the impact would be a positive for Augusta. More on that later.

First, some background: The nearly decade-old Cyber Command focuses on digital warfare and oversees Army Cyber Command, which is gradually being moved from Fort Belvoir, Md., to a 324,000-square-foot facility under construction next to NSA-Georgias massive cryptologic center at Fort Gordon, which gathers intelligence from Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Cyber and NSA directives differ, but both report to the same commander, Admiral Michael S. Rogers.

Cyber, being the new kid on the block, has essentially borrowed the NSAs tools. That made sense when the command was brand new in 2009, but now cyber warriors need battle-specific gear, military experts say.

One of those experts is Bill Leigher, director of government cybersecurity solutions for defense contractor Raytheon, which has an office in Augusta. Leigher will be one of nearly 3,300 attendees at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Associations TechNet show in Augusta later this week.

During a phone interview on the eve of the event, the retired Navy rear admiral explained the difference between Cybers needs and NSAs.

Using network capabilities to collect good intelligence, and not get caught while youre doing it, is the secret part of what our Department of Defense does, Leigher said. But when you go to war, that measure of performance changes. (The technology) needs to behave like a weapon. It needs to be measurable. It needs to be legal in the context of conducting war.

Leigher believes a Cyber-NSA split is about two years from becoming a reality. The two would, of course, continue to collaborate, but he said Cyber Command would be free to start adapting things used successfully in the intelligence community to create new tools that are more in line with the responsibilities of conducting war.

Leigher, who spent many years working with Fort Gordon as the commanding officer of Naval Information Operations Command and deputy commander for U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet, said Cyber Command could and should become the Defense Departments 10th unified combatant command. It currently falls under U.S. Strategic Command, the Omaha, Neb.-based command that also oversees U.S. nuclear capabilities and space operations.

Though the Cyber-NSA separation would be transparent from the laymans point of view at Fort Gordon, a newly independent Cyber Command would likely create more opportunities for private industry to develop new cyberwarfare weapons or battle-focused adaptations of existing intelligence gathering.

Leigher noted increased outreach already is occurring through events such as last months Cyber Quest, where 27 companies put out more than three dozen products for road testing at the bases cyberwarfare school, the Army Cyber Center of Excellence.

He said a sharper focus on digital warfare technologies could speed development of private industry.

The best analogy I can give you is I happened to be working at NSA in Fort Meade on Sept. 11, Leigher said. What we now call Annapolis Junction a three-quarter-mile long, half-mile wide cluster of defense contractors and IT companies did not exist before the war on terrorism started. It has all emerged to stand up and support the intelligence needs around NSA. So I just have to believe that you guys in Augusta are going to see growth too.

TONS O TOURISTS: The TechNet show, with an estimated economic impact of nearly $2.8 million, is one of the biggest annual conferences in Augusta. And it keeps getting bigger.

But its not the months biggest event. That distinction goes to 2017 Military Worlds Softball Tournament, which is bringing an estimated 5,500 attendees and $3.4 million in economic impact to the region. This years United States Specialty Sports Association-sanctioned tournament is about the same size as it was last year, when it came to Diamond Lakes Regional Park in south Augusta for the first time in its 15-year history.

August in general is a big month for visitors, according to the Augusta Convention &Visitors Bureau and Augusta Sports Council, which said events like the tournament and TechNet will pump nearly $10.5 million into the economy. Other major events for the month include the the Georgia-South Carolina Bulls Soccer Clubs 2017 Aiken Soccer Cup (3,500 participants, $1,8 million impact) Georgia United States Tennis Associations 2017 Georgia State Mixed Doubles Championship (1,400 participants; $865,000 impact).

MELTING DOWN: Id be smiling more if our nuclear power industrys long-term outlook was as rosy as tourism s.

Heres two bombshells from this past week: South Carolinas SCANA and Santee Cooper canceled construction plans for their two new reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant, and Atlanta-based Southern Co. said its Plant Vogtle expansion project will cost at least $25 billion and wont be finished until 2023.

For those of you keeping track, the Vogtle reactors should have been completed by now for $14 billion. Ay caramba!

Southern Co.s Georgia Power is said to be mulling whether to pull the plug Vogtle. Just two weeks ago it took project management at the site away from Westinghouse Electric Co., which has had numerous problems getting its super-advanced AP1000 reactor built. The subsidiary of Toshiba Corp. filed for bankruptcy in March, largely because of its problems at Vogtle and VC Summer.

Whats been described as Americas nuclear renaissance began in Georgia and South Carolina, and it may end there too.

Other companies that were planning to build new reactors may now be putting on the brakes. And those that havent, such as Utahs Blue Castle Project, have sought companies other than Westinghouse to build their AP1000 units.

Thats sort of like saying you love Fords new F-150 you just prefer it was built by General Motors.

Weve been well aware of the construction issues Westinghouse has been having as contractor at those (Vogtle and Summer) sites, Aaron Tilton, CEO of Blue Castle Holdings, told The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colo., earlier this year.

Vogltes woes coincide with this summers 30th anniversary of its units 1 and 2, which began operation in 1987 and 1989.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world plows ahead in nuclear. More than 9 gigawatts of new electricity, the largest increase in 25 years, were brought on last year according to the World Nuclear Association.

Four AP1000s under construction in China, two in Sanmen and two in Haiyang are scheduled to start commercial operation next year, with Sanmen being the first.

I predict that a couple of years after that, Chinas state-owned electric utility will probably start building its own reverse-engineered AP1000 knockoff. Maybe China will then sell the pirated technology back to us at discount prices?

Thats one way to grow the industry. Were certainly not going to be able to power our factories and homes or charge our precious smartphones on renewables .

SPEAKING OF PHONES: Xfinity Mobile, a wireless phone service through Comcast, is now available through the Xfinity store in the Augusta Exchange shopping center at 222 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway.

Comcast is introducing the service in its retail stores market-by-market, and this location is among the first in the Southeast to offer Xfinity Mobile, the comapny said in a statement. Xfinity Mobile combines Verizons 4G LTE network with a Wi-Fi network of more than 17 million hotspots nationwide to support a seamless internet and entertainment experience.

The company said it offers straightforward data options: an unlimited $45 per month, per line plan up to five lines with no usage limits; and a $12 by the gig plan with hared cellular data across all lines on an account each month.

SCHOOL DAZE: Are your kids faces buried in a smartphone screen? Put the device to work for you looking into some free back-t0-school apps.

Mike Kinney at Verizons Evans store recommends the following: Family Locator, which lets you track your kids whereabouts; Brainscape, a digital version of flash cards that can be used to improve math and language skills; Easybib, a tool high schoolers can use to make bibliography citations; Todoist, a class, sports and chore task-management app; and Google Goals, a Google Calendar app that lets you schedule, defer or complete goals.

TAX TROUBLE In last weeks column I pointed out the trouble county officials will face dividing up taxes at the new Jim Hudson Lexus dealership under construction on the Richmond-Columbia county line near Washington and Pleasant Home roads.

My mistake was noting that car sales would become part of that headache. Not so, says a friendly neighborhood CPA, who reminded me sales taxes on cars were eliminated by 2013s Title Ad Valorem Tax, which is remitted to the county where the vehicle will be registered, not where the sale occurred.

Shows you how often I buy new cars I still pay the old birthday tax, where the cars taxable value decreases with age.

Car dealers lobbied the state for a title fee for more than 20 years before finally persuading them in 2012 to phase out sales and property taxes on cars. And theres been gripes about it ever since.

People complained the tax was killing the leasing business. Then they complained dealers were gaming the system by artificially inflating the value of trade-ins. Then they complained high-mileage, late model cars were being overvalued. Then Mercedes-Benz executives got an exemption for moving the companys U.S. headquarters to Atlanta while other people who moved away and then returned to Georgia got double taxed.

The tax started at 6.5 percent. Its now 7 percent. The law allows it to go as high as 9 percent.

Remind me, again, what was wrong with the old birthday tax?

ASK STEVEN: Have a local tax question? Youll be able to ask Richmond County Tax Commissioner Steven Kendick on Aug. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the Warren Road Community Center at 300 Warren Road, where hell be the guest speaker at the West Augusta Alliance meeting, which is open to the public.

Reach Damon Cline at (706) 823-3352 or damon.cline@augustachronicle.com.

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Scuttlebiz: Separating Cyber from NSA could speed private-sector development in Augusta - The Augusta Chronicle

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If Hutchins is at fault, then the NSA needs to be pulled up too – iTWire

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If American judicial authorities are going after British security researcher Marcus Hutchins for allegedly writing malware, then they will also have to indict people at the NSA who were responsible for creating Windows exploits that then leaked and led to massive ransomware attacks.

Those attacks have left some companies incapable of returning to full production even now, with a case in point being the pharmaceutical giant Merck.

Hutchins has pleaded not guilty to all six counts on his indictment. He has been charged with creating a banking trojan known as Kronos and also selling it, among other charges.

In Hutchins' case, the malware he is charged with creating Kronos barely raised a blip on the screen when it was being used.

Nobody in the US has ever said that someone in the NSA needs to be held responsible for their slip-ups. In other words, if you leave a slab of meat lying in the open and dogs attack it, then the dogs are to blame.

Another category that should come under scrutiny is businesses like Immunity, led by former NSA man Dave Aitel, which pay for vulnerabilities that are not publicly known and then protect only their own clients against them. There is no disclosure for the greater good.

But then in the US, there is one kind of justice meted out to government organisations that screw up and leave a mess that others drown in, and an entirely different kind of justice served to the average man/woman in the street.

One would expect much lauded mainstream media outlets like The New York Times and the Washington Post to come out screaming about things like this. But there has not been a peep from either of these brave defenders of democracy.

Every security researcher creates proof of concept code to understand how a particular vulnerability works and how it can endanger the average computer user. Only then can patches be devised.

Else, there is no way of testing anything. We will all have to live with thousands of vulnerabilities that remain unpatched if authorities get red under the collar every time someone creates PoC code.

Anti-virus researchers do it every day. So too do researchers at bigger security companies.

In the NSA, they do it to create exploits that can be used to target other countries. The NSA often does not inform companies that their products have vulnerabilities - else how would they exploit the same vulnerabilities when they want to?

Exploits like ETERNALBLUE leaked out of the NSA because the security agency was unable to look after its own creations.

The move against Hutchins looks very much like the US wants to make an example of someone to scare the bejesus out of all and sundry. Meanwhile, the professionals who live off the proceeds of malware and ransomware are laughing all the way to the bank.

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If Hutchins is at fault, then the NSA needs to be pulled up too - iTWire

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Donald Trump will no longer tolerate any support to militants: NSA – Economic Times

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WASHINGTON: Asserting that President Donald Trump will no longer "tolerate" any support to militants, US National Security Adviser Gen H R McMaster today asked Pakistan to change its "paradoxical" policy of supporting selective terror groups.

US officials have often accused Pakistan of helping the militants, a charge Islamabad denies.

"The president has also made clear that he, that we need to see a change in- in behaviour of those in the region, which includes- those who are providing safe haven and support bases for the Taliban, Haqqani Network and others," the National Security Advisor, McMaster, was quoted by MSNBC as saying.

"This is Pakistan in particular that we want to- that we want to really see a change in and a reduction of their support for these groups," he said, in response to a question on Afghanistan and terrorism in the region.

He said that Trump is making clear that the US will no longer "tolerate" any support for the Taliban or related groups.

"Of course, you know, a very paradoxical situation, right, where Pakistan is taking great losses. They have fought very hard against these groups, but they've done so really only selectively," he said.

Pakistan's two neighbours both India and Afghanistan have accused it of being selective in its war against terrorism.

McMaster said that Trump has lifted restrictions on US armed forces in Afghanistan.

He also defended Trump's strategy on winning the war in Afghanistan by giving unrestricted powers to the US military based in the war-torn country.

"The president has said that, "He does not want to place restrictions on the military that undermine our ability to win battles in combat".

"He has lifted those restrictions, and you are beginning to see the payoff of that as well," the top US national security advisor said.

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Donald Trump will no longer tolerate any support to militants: NSA - Economic Times

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NRA-ILA | Second Amendment Guarantee Act Would Protect … – NRA ILA

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This week, Congressman Chris Collins (R-NY) introduced legislation that would shield popular rifles and shotguns, including the AR-15, from being banned under state laws. The bill, known as the Second Amendment Guarantee Act (SAGA), would also protect parts for these firearms, including detachable magazines and ammunition feeding devices.

The bill is a response to antigun laws in a small handful of states including California, Connecticut, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York that criminalize the mere possession of highly popular semiautomatic long guns widely available throughout the rest of the country. Although rifles or shotguns of any sort are used less often in murders than knives, blunt objects such as clubs or hammers, or even hands, fists, and feet, gun control advocates have sought to portray the banned guns as somehow uniquely dangerous to public safety.

Anti-gunners focus on these so-called assault weapons was renewed after the U.S. Supreme Courts 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. That decision made clear that handguns by far the type of firearm most commonly used in crime were subject to Second Amendment protection and could not be banned. This led gun control advocates to seek out other sorts of guns to demonize, and theyve since been strenuously promoting the myth that semiautomatic rifles and shotguns with certain features such as detachable magazines, pistol grips or adjustable stocks are weapons of war with no legitimate civilian use.

Yet Americans overwhelmingly choose these types of firearms for legitimate purposes, including protection of their homes and properties, three-gun and other practical shooting sports, and hunting and pest control. And, indeed, the states legislative attempts to ban these guns has spurred a market for innovative products that use the same basic calibers and firing mechanisms, but with stock, grip, and accessory configurations that comply with legislative guidelines.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to review any of these state bans, lower courts have come up with increasingly strained readings of the Second Amendment and Supreme Court precedents to try to justify them. The Seventh Circuit, for example, held that even if a ban's incursion on Second Amendment rights had no beneficial effect on safety whatsoever, it could still be justified on the basis of the false sense of security it might impart to local residents with exaggerated fears of the banned guns. [I]f it has no other effect," the majority opinion stated, the challenged ordinance may increase the public's sense of safety. Thats hardly an acceptable offset for the infringement of a constitutional right.

Members of the Supreme Court have criticized their colleagues for failing to review these cases and the lower courts for misapplying Supreme Court precedent. As noted in a dissent filed by Justice Clarence Thomas and joined by Hellers author, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Roughly five million Americans own AR-style semiautomatic rifles. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting. Under our precedents, Thomas concluded, that is all that is needed for citizens to have a right under the Second Amendment to keep such weapons.

With states violating Americans rights and federal courts allowing them to act with impunity, it is up to Congress to ensure that all Americans, wherever they may live, have access the best, most modern and innovative firearms for their lawful needs, including the protection of themselves and their families.

The SAGA would ensure that state regulations could not effectively prevent the manufacture, sale, importation, or possession of any rifle or shotgun lawfully available under federal law or impose any prohibitive taxes, fees, or design limitations on such firearms.

The NRA thanks Rep. Chris Collins for leading this important effort and urges his colleagues to cosponsor and support this staunchly pro-gun legislation.

Please contact your U.S. Representative and ask him or her to cosponsor and support H.R. 3576, the Second Amendment Guarantee Act. You can call your U.S. Representative at 202-225-3121.

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NRA-ILA | Second Amendment Guarantee Act Would Protect ... - NRA ILA