‘Amphetamine-like substance’ in supplements among 2016 food alerts – Irish Times

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Salmonella in soup and broths was among the unappetising discoveries in a record number of Irish food alerts last year. Photograph: Getty Images

Salmonella in soup, broths and condiments, pieces of plastic in confectionery and food supplements with an amphetamine-like substance were among the unappetising discoveries in a record number of Irish food alerts last year.

Ireland experienced the highest rate of such incidents in a decade during 2016.

These tend to follow the identification of pathogens like bugs or chemicals and can lead to products being taken off shelves or even withdrawn from the Irish market altogether.

Other grim discoveries included listeria monocytogenes, the bug that leads to Listeriosis, in prepared food dishes, snacks and milk products, and one case of insufficient product sterilisation.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), which issues warnings, said there were 39 food alerts last year compared to 31 in 2015.

There were also 28 food allergen alerts where certain products did not have specific ingredients listed correctly.

In total the FSAI responded to 554 food incidents last year.

In the EU there are 14 categories of allergens that must be labeled. Last year in Ireland milk, soybeans, eggs and nuts were the most common of those incorrectly included in food packaging and prompting a number of such public alerts.

Three in every 100 people in Ireland have a food allergy and the seriousness of these occurrences can result in the loss of life to an individual in its most extreme form and can also result in urgent medical treatment and serve allergic reactions, the FSAI said when publishing 2016 data on Wednesday.

Inaccurate labelling can occur when an allergen is unknowingly incorporated in a product; when the ingredients are not listed in English; or when the wrong product is placed in the wrong packaging.

The identification of a food incident can follow inspections, complaints from consumers, a business informing the FSAI that they have a problem, laboratory results, or from notifications from other EU member states.

Issuing food alerts and food allergen alerts is a reflection of the seriousness of food incidents, some of which have the potential to cause serious harm to consumers, said Dr Pamela Byrne FSAI chief executive.

The increase in recent years of food allergen alerts and food alerts is indicative of the need for food businesses to not only ensure the food they place on the market is safe, but that it is also labeled correctly, especially in the case of allergens.

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'Amphetamine-like substance' in supplements among 2016 food alerts - Irish Times

Stop Taking These 10 Vitamins and Supplements and Eat These Foods Instead – Huffington Post

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Why take a mysterious pill when you can eat a handful of sunflower seeds?

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According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1990 to 2006, the number of Americans taking some sort of supplement increased from 40 to 53 percent. However, studies show that, with a few specific exceptions, most Americans already get an adequate amount of nutrients, through fortified and whole foods.

Fruits and vegetables offer fiber, phytochemicals, and antioxidants that cant be replicated by a handful of pills, and nutrients, like vitamin A, E, and calcium are better absorbed by the body when derived from whole foods.

That said, supplements do sometimes serve a purpose. People over the age of 50 have trouble retaining vitamin B-12 naturally through food, for instance, and for vegetarians, iron derived from spinach and other plant-based sources is not as easily absorbed by the body. Please consult your doctor, then, before eliminating any supplements from your diet.

If there are no medical concerns, however, you might want to start weaning yourself off supplements today by eating these 10 foods instead.

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Stop Taking These 10 Vitamins and Supplements and Eat These Foods Instead - Huffington Post

Derek Carr on Contract Extension: I’m a Raider for life – Just Blog Baby (blog)

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Dec 4, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) reacts after the Raiders rushed for a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills in the third quarter at Oakland Coliseum. The Raiders defeated the Bills 38-24. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

The Oakland Raiders Should Move On From D.J. Hayden by Gagan Aujla

AFC West: Chiefs To Let Jamaal Charles and Dontari Poe Hit Free Agency by Nick Hjeltness

Oakland Raiders franchise quarterback Derek Carr recently made an appearance on Mad Dog Sports Radio on Sirius XM, hosted by Adam Schein. When asked about his future contract extension, Carr made his loyalty to the team that drafted him perfectly clear.

Im a Raider. Im a Raider for life. I dont want to play anywhere else, Carr told Sirius XM Mad Dog Radios Adam Schein. When I got drafted, this is where I wanted to be anyway. And so, I dont want to go anywhere, ever. They told me they dont want me to go anywhere, ever. Now its about two people who want to be together, and how do we make that happen? So well see.

Im a Raider for life is certainly a statement that will register loud and clear with Raider Nation, and will only further the love and enthusiasm that the fan base has for their franchise quarterback.

With Carr expected to receive a contract that will be on par with Andrew Luck somewhere in the neighborhood of $24 million annually that obviously will be the firststep in making that for life statement hold true.

McKenzie told CSN Bay Area back in January that extending Carr and Khalil Mack were priorities.

You can say that, McKenzie said last week. The good thing is we do have time, but Im not the type to wait until the last minute. Those two guys are not only great players but they are great men. They are true Raiders and I want to make sure we do the best that we can to make sure that they stay Raiders.

Carr said that his agent, Tom Younger, and the team are working on a deal. But that he just wants it to be done and to not be a distraction:

The biggest thing for me is that I dont want it to distract my teammates. They know me, that I really dont care. I just like to play ball, but I dont want people asking them questions. I would want it done so they dont have to deal with it, but Im always going to do whats best for my family and whats best for the team all in one.

Carr has been asked about the possibility of taking a hometown discount in the past, and somewhat alluded to that in the final sentence of the above quote, when he said he is always going to do whats best for his family. Its unreasonable for a player about to enter his prime, especially a quarterback, to take a discount, so dont expect Carr to. Nor should he.

If he signs a new deal somewhere in the range of 6-years, $140M, hell deserve every penny of that. And itll be up to McKenzie to continue to find ways to keep the team competitive.

The full interview with Mad Dog Radio can be heard by clicking here, and is wellworth the 20 minutes.

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CHAZAN | The Revolution Will Not Have Shoulderpads: Image Comics 25 Years Later – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

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Courtesy of Image Comics

One of the largest comics publishers has reached a milestone anniversary this year. Image Comics, now in its 25th year, also happens to be experiencing of its most successful years ever. Initially a major driver of the speculation boom in the early 90s comics market, Image has recently reached the pop culture zeitgeist again with numerous bestselling titles which put most of Marvel and DCs output outside the box office to shame. Image has represented very polarizing ideals in the comics scene over the years, a seeming contradiction in the direct market paradigm. On one hand, they have represented the utter absence of artistry in the mainstream, the muscle-bound inanity and collectors items of the late nineties boom and bust at their most abject. Yet at the same time, Image has stood as an ideal publishing model to many: an outlet for popular and original concepts with the creators retaining full ownership.

When Image was founded in 1992, the intent was a self-proclaimed comics revolution. Spearheaded by seven of Marvel Comics most popular artists at the time namely Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Jim Valentino and Erik Larsen the explicit purpose of the publisher was to offer a feasible alternate within mainstream superhero comics to Marvel and DCs contracts, which robbed the writer/artist of any rights to their own work. Historically, exploitation has always been the dark not-so-secret side of superhero comics. For example, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, spent much of their lives hovering close to the poverty line while their iconic man of steel became a billion dollar property. Taking a stand against this nonsense was and remains a big deal. Image series featured original characters without 50 years of popular baggage and sold on the popularity of the creators behind them. And unlike an indie publisher like Fantagraphics, Image comics reached a mass audience beyond the hip graphic novel scene, which had not yet grown to encompass bookstores and newspaper columns.

In many ways, Image was the ideal model, but their marketing strategies were less than utopian. Many mock the content of their comics from this time, shoulderpadded extreme nonsense drawn quickly with a poor sense of proportion and all the worst boys club impulses. I actually wouldnt go that far myself, as these comics arent exactly Persepolis, but they have a certain charm in their exclamatory energy. Liefeld and McFarlane are particularly appealing in a gnarly camp sort of way. The real issue wasnt the content, but how irrelevant the content was. Most every comic Image Comics published at that time was sold as a collectors item with at least a couple variant covers (the most infamous of these being Bloodstrike #1, whose gelatinous variant cover beckoned the buyer to Rub the Blood!). This inflated collectors market was initially fueled by the then-shocking auction sales of rare superhero comics from the 40s, 50s and 60s, but Images ferocious push on this speculation back and forth with Marvel and others added gasoline to the bonfire. Eventually, people began to realize that Violator vs. Badrock #2 wasnt going to put their kid through college, and the flame of speculation was extinguished, leading to a moment of industry-wide failures and bankruptcy even Marvel filed for chapter 11 from which the direct market scene arguably still hasnt totally recovered.

Recently, Image has come back into vogue as a publisher, mainly due to the success of The Walking Dead, a TV show spun off from one of their longest-running comics. However, what has allowed Image to muscle in on that coveted third place in the mainstream market alleged third, seeing as the sci-fi series Saga outsells most Marvel and DC books that arent Spider-Man or Batman is not Images own success but rather the failures of their competition. Vertigo, DC Entertainments mature readers imprint, previously occupied that space in the comics market with beloved titles like Neil Gaimans Sandman, but their cachet has stumbled massively in recent years since editor and founder Karen Berger left the imprint. Without her curatorial force, Vertigo has stumbled aimlessly through bad ideas and vanity projects, while Image developed a prestige television vibe that beckons new readers to their books.

The Image Comics that exists today is quite admirable in many regards. Their books are usually handsomely designed, (although the actual artistry on display may vary in its success) publications that might even gasp reach an actual audience. The work of editor David Brothers and others have pushed a greater creative diversity and diversity in creators Image publishes the Brandon Graham-curated anthology Island, which is among the most forward-thinking comics publications out there, period. And most importantly, creators own their work and receive fair compensation, still a shockingly alien concept for most publishers today.

And yet, a certain malaise seems to set in. Most of Images comics are boring, stiffly drawn art married to aggressively bland writing. Many of these titles are clearly written with multimedia potential in mind more than creative freedom, using decompressed storytelling as a pretense to spread the content of a television pilot over 6 months of single issues that cost four dollars each. Images top-selling titles are like little packages of nothing you follow them in anticipation of a morsel of something, 1000 pages from now, or in an adaptation, or perhaps a long form blog post by an adolescent youll never meet. This isnt creative freedom, this is comics dystopia.

Under the lens of late stage capitalism, the strengths and flaws of Image Comics from its inception in 1992 to today begin to make sense. Images publishing model offers an alternative to creators dissatisfied with the Big Twos system of ownership while stressing the commodification of product over celebration of artistry. There is no inherent protection under Images rules beyond what is stated in a contract, nor is a great deal of emphasis put on pursuing excellence. There is no comradery, only ambition for personal gain at the expense of fellow artists and eager readers alike. The conundrum of Image, the bad but good, the brilliant and crass, the artists in the mainstream, all of this boils down to a decision that financial capital and the rapid movement of product would be the best system to bring fair compensation to creators exploitation countered by self-exploitation. One wonders what the comics world might look like today if Images star founders had decided to unionize and demand new industry-wide standards instead of building a new comics factory.

Nathan Chazan is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at ndc39@cornell.edu.

We are an independent, student newspaper. Help keep us reporting with a tax-deductible donation to the Cornell Sun Alumni Association, a non-profit dedicated to aiding The Sun.

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CHAZAN | The Revolution Will Not Have Shoulderpads: Image Comics 25 Years Later - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Max Eastman: Curmodgeon – The Liberty Conservative

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During the height of the violent protests by the anti-war movement in the late 60s, a cartoon circulated that reflected the shock parents experienced at their long-haired, profanity-spewing communist-flag waving children. In an attempt to soothe said parents the cartoon had one wife telling her husband, Dont worry about it, honey. Why, even Max Eastman ended up writing for Readers Digest.

This implication that Eastman, once nearly thrown in jail for supposedly violating the Espionage Act by opposing World War I on socialist grounds, had now embraced the establishment depends heavily on which establishment one is talking about.

It is certainly true that by the 1940s, the former proponent of the Bolshevik Revolution had veered rightward, abandoning even socialism and embracing the anticommunism of the Readers Digest where he worked.

But if one considers the intellectual zeitgeist as one feature of the establishment, then Eastman was never part of it; indeed, he spent a large part of his life as a minority of one.

While American crowds cheered Woodrow Wilsons declaration of war in 1917, Eastman denounced Americas entry into World War I as simply to make money for the upper classes. When he continued to oppose the war through his writings for the anti-war left-wing Masses magazine, Eastman was prosecuted by the government for supposedly violating the Espionage Act, which made it a federal crime to agitate against the war (Eastman won the case).

In the early 20s, he was a frequent visitor to Bolshevik Russia and was very much the premature anti-Stalinist while other leftists praised Stalin. Eastman, by turns, caught the thuggish nature of the then-Party member Stalin early and warned that the Soviet Union would slide into dictatorship should Stalin take power.

Sidney Hook, an anti-Stalinist Marxist who nonetheless was frequently at loggerheads with Eastman, praised Eastman as a lone voice warning against Stalin:

Of all the forms of intellectual independence Eastman displayed in his life, nothing matched the courage he had to summon up when he stood practically alone on his return from the Soviet Union in 1924. He had brought with him the first hard evidence of the Stalinization of the Bolshevik regime. In consequence, he became a rebel outcast in his own country and a pariah in the radical movement that had been central to his life.

This isolation would be even more accentuated in the 1930s when intellectuals became Stalinists. As a result, Eastmans books were largely ignored, and it reviewed by leftists were denounced as reactionary.

By the late 1930s, Eastman had abandoned even Leon Trotskys brand of Marxism and was a decided anticommunist.

When he brought these views with him into the World War II era when the Soviets and the United States were military partners, and even rock-ribbed Republicans like Henry Luce were praising Stalin, Eastman remained a voice in the wilderness.

By now regarded by even liberal anticommunists as a senile reactionary, Eastman bucked the intellectual tide even further by supporting Senator Joseph McCarthys anticommunist crusade in the 1950s. While liberals denounced McCarthy by the term of red-baiter, Eastman defended both the Senator and that term:

Red Baiting in the sense of reasoned, documented exposure of Communist and pro-Communist infiltration of government departments and private agencies of information and communication is absolutely necessary. We are not dealing with honest fanatics of a new idea, willing to give testimony for their faith straightforwardly, regardless of the cost. We are dealing with conspirators who try to sneak in the Moscow-inspired propaganda by stealth and double talk, who run for shelter to the Fifth Amendment when they are not only permitted but invited and urged by Congressional committee to state what they believe. I myself, after struggling for years to get this fact recognized, give McCarthy the major credit for implanting it in the mind of the whole nation.

Now writing for William F. Buckleys pro-McCarthy National Reviewhe was an original contributing editorEastman in 1955 completely repudiated the revolution he once so fervently championed:

Instead of liberating the mind of man, the Bolshevik revolution locked it into a states prison tighter than ever before. No flight of thought was conceivable, no poetic promenade even, to sneak through the doors or peep out of a window in this pre-Darwinian dungeon called Dialectic Materialism. No one in the western world has any idea of the degree to which Soviet minds are closed and sealed tight against any idea but the premises and conclusions of this antique system of wishful thinking. So far as concerns the advance of human understanding, the Soviet Union is a gigantic road-block, armed, fortified and defended by indoctrinated automatons made out of flesh, blood and brains in robot-factories they call schools.

As supportive of the Cold War as Buckley, Eastman typically parted company with conservatives on the magazine. Against Buckleys fervent Catholicism, Eastman remained an atheist (the magazines increasingly pro-Christian viewpoint would force Eastman to leave it in the 1960s). Always willing to entertain second thoughts, the free marketeer (Eastman helped publish the libertarian Frederich Von Hayek) now believed the conservative movement had been taken over by reactionary forces who confused the quest of social justice with Communist treason.

His final gesture of independence from the movement he was now part of occurred when he opposed the Vietnam War.

At first glance, Eastman would seem to be merely a knee-jerk rebel. But there is a consistent strain in his thinking that traced back to his days as a political leftist radical. The theme he lived by was provided in, of all places, The Masses magazine, when he wrote that the mission of the periodical was to be directed against rigidity and dogma wherever it is found.

And that was Eastmans creed, be it on the Right or the Left.

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Max Eastman: Curmodgeon - The Liberty Conservative

Kendrick Lamar Gives A Glimpse Into His Mindset As He Approaches His New Album (Video) – Ambrosia For Heads

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Kendrick Lamars 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly became a zeitgeist. It seemed to arrive right on time and embodied the spirit of American social consciousness amid the growth of a progressive fight for civil rights in the 21st century. Alright became the theme song for a movement, while Lamars visit with President Obama and his visceral Awards performance helped make TPAB a cultural a keystone of conversations about race in America (which is in part why the album is going to be preserved in Harvards archives). As arguably one of the most influential artists in music today, Lamars next album is more than highly anticipated.

Thundercat & Kendrick Lamar Stay In The Groove On Walk On By (Audio)

The Compton artist (Lamar himself identifies as a writer, not a rapper) has kept a generally tight lip around the details of his as-yet-unnamed follow-up project. However, he did unveil the conceptual framework and mindstate behind it in a recent interview with the New York Times T magazine. To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem, he says. Im in a space now where Im not addressing the problem anymore. However, he does seem to feel theres an oversight that needs to be addressed. Were in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because its almost in conflict with whats going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system. This is what goes on in my mind as a writer.

Kendrick continues to describe the thought processes informing his approach to the new album, which include visualizations of the daughter he may have some day, and how being the father of a future woman is something he grapples with on a philosophical level. One day, I may have a little girl. Shes gonna grow up. Shes gonna be a child I adore, Im gonna always love her, but shes gonna reach that one point where shes gonna start experiencing things, he says. And shes gonna say things or do things that you may not condone, but its the reality of it and you know she was always gonna get to that place. And its disturbing. But you have to accept it.

R.A. Shows That Even Rugged Men Change With Fatherhood (Video)

Its then that he expounds upon not addressing the problem anymore. You have to accept it and you have to have your own solutions to figure out how to handle the action and take action for it. When I say the little girl, its the analogy of accepting the moment when she grows up. We love women, we enjoy their company. At one point in time I may have a little girl who grows up and tells me about her engagements with a male figure things that most men dont want to hear.

Learning to accept it, and not run away from it, thats how I want this album to feel, he says.

In a video package for the magazine, Lamar says he makes music because of its powers as a form of self-expression, but also because it allows him to be a voice for those that cant release their frustration on the mic, you know. They gotta do it on the streets. He adds, I wanna put my stories and their stories together for the world to hear.

There is no news yet about when Heads can expect a new Kendrick Lamar album, but from the words he speaks in this interview, its likely to be a powerful token of artistry and once again, it will be right on time. As he says, Its very urgent.

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Kendrick Lamar Gives A Glimpse Into His Mindset As He Approaches His New Album (Video) - Ambrosia For Heads

Outcry Kills Anti-Protest Law in Arizona, but Troubling Trend Continues Nationwide – Truth-Out

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Approximately 50 protesters stage a die-in on a street outside of the Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia, on November 29, 2014, to show solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri. (Photo: Joseph Gruber)

An Arizona bill that sought to prosecute protest organizers like racketeers is officially dead after widespread outcry forced state lawmakers to put that effort to rest, marking a victory for the national resistance movement currently facing a rash of legislation aimed at stifling dissent.

Arizona House Speaker J.D. Mesnard announced late Monday that the bill,SB 1142, would not move forward in the legislature.

"I haven't studied the issue or the bill itself, but the simple reality is that it created a lot of consternation about what the bill was trying to do," Mesnard, a Republican,toldthePhoenix New Times. "People believed it was going to infringe on really fundamental rights. The best way to deal with that was to put it to bed."

Indeed, the legislation, which would have expanded state racketeering laws to allow police to arrest and seize the assets of suspected protest organizers, made national headlines last week afterpassingthe GOP-led Senate.

However,according toTheArizona Republic, the bill's "fate was sealed over the weekend" as Mesnard "fielded phone calls from the public to complain about the bill. The House leader's personal cellphone number is listed on his personal website. As he listened to the callers, Mesnard realized their belief that the legislation was intended to curb free-speech rights outweighed any merits its supporters might put forward. He carefully read the legislation and by the time he returned Monday to his office, where there were more than 100 messages about the bill awaiting him, he decided he would kill the measure."

The so-called "Plan a Protest, Lose Your House Bill" was the most recent state-level attempt to crackdown on the growing protest movement and opponents celebrated its defeat.

"Thanks to everyone who spoke out against this terrible proposal!" the ACLU of Arizonawroteon Twitter. "Continue fighting for our civil liberties!"

Arecent analysisby theWashington Postfound that "Republican lawmakers in at least 18 states have introduced on voted on legislation to curb mass protests," which includes bills that would "increase punishmentsfor blocking highways,ban the use of masksduring protests, [and] indemnify drivers whostrike protesterswith their cars."

AsCommon Dreamshas previouslyobserved, most of these anti-protest bills have sprouted up in Republican-dominated states that have seen a flurry of demonstrations and civil disobedience.

In Minnesota, where people protested the police killings of Philando Castile and Jamar Clark by blocking roads, measures aimed at raising the penalties for obstructing traffic are gaining traction. Numerous bills wereapprovedby public safety committees in both the House and Senate last week, despite vocalopposition.

Running down some of the other pending legislative efforts,The Atlantic's Matt FordwroteTuesday:

Tennessee lawmakersintroducedtheir own civil-liability bill in February. [...]

Iowa'sSenate File 111would make blocking highways a felony offense with a possible five-year prison sentence.

In Washington, a version of the highway-protest bills came in response to environmentalist-led demonstrations that had targeted the oil industry. State Senator Doug Ericksen introducedSenate Bill 5009, also titled the Preventing Economic Disruption Act. It allows prosecutors to seek longer sentences against defendants who commit crimes that cause "economic disruption," which it defines as obstructing commercial vehicles or interfering with pipelines or oil-related facilities.

Meanwhile, public opposition has already defeated numerous other attempts, such asNorth Dakota's "civil liability" bill,aVirginia effortthat would have brought potential jail time for attending a protest, and now Arizona's SB 1142.

As Lee Rowland, a senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, explained to thePost, the new bills are "not about creating new rules that are necessary because of some gap in the law." Rather, Rowland said, the intent is to "increas[e] the penalties for protest-related activity to the point that it results in self-censorship among protesters who have every intention to obey the law."

The laws as well as the impulse to label protesters as "paid" or "professional" agitators are simply "standard operating procedure for movement opponents," according to Douglas McAdam, a Stanford sociology professor who studies protest movements.

"For instance, southern legislatures -- especially in the Deep South -- responded to the Montgomery Bus Boycott (and the Supreme Court's decision inBrown v. Board of Education) with dozens and dozens of new bills outlawing civil rights groups, limiting the rights of assembly, etc. all in an effort to make civil rights organizing more difficult," he wrote in an email to thePost. "Similarly, laws designed to limit or outlaw labor organizing or limit labor rights were common in the late 19th/early 20th century."

The Atlantic's Ford also concluded that "[t]he proposals as a whole point to a more enduring dynamic: As mass protests return to the political zeitgeist, so too will efforts to clamp down on them."

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Outcry Kills Anti-Protest Law in Arizona, but Troubling Trend Continues Nationwide - Truth-Out

Krones Acquires Process and Data Automation to Strengthen Its Digitization Capabilities in the US – Yahoo Finance

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FRANKLIN, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Krones, a leading manufacturer of integrated packaging and bottling line systems, has acquired the business of Process and Data Automation, Inc. (PDA). PDA is based in Erie, Pennsylvania, and is a leading industrial control systems integrator across a number of sectors including liquid food.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170302005177/en/

The PDA management team will continue to manage the business moving forward, and its headquarters will remain in Erie, Pennsylvania.

With regard to digitization, it is our goal to provide customers with added value through better utilization of the data that our machines, software, employees, users of the machines etc. generate," said Holger Beckmann, President and CEO of Krones Inc. "The acquisition of PDA allows Krones to take another step to offer relevant U.S. based expertise to our customers. We are excited to add PDA's skilled employees, depth of experience and know-how to the Krones family.

Joseph Snyder, President of PDA, stated, Partnering with Krones represents a unique opportunity to continue to build the business in areas where we already excel. My business partner Michael Benedict and I are looking forward to the additional potential with Krones and new opportunities for our employees.

The acquisition of PDA represents a further step in executing the Krones digitization strategy and increasing the international footprint. PDA will closely collaborate with Krones subsidiary Syskron which is a specialist in IT and automation solutions within the Krones Group.

About Krones Inc. Krones Inc. is the United States subsidiary of Krones AG, Neutraubling, Germany, a world leader in the manufacture of fully integrated packaging and bottling line systems as well as integrated brew house and processing systems, IT solutions and warehouse logistics systems. The company has facilities strategically located around the globe. Krones United States headquarters is in Franklin, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee.

About Process and Data Automation Process and Data Automation is a full service, CSIA Certified industrial control systems integration firm headquartered in Erie, PA. Our Controls Engineering (ENG) group specializes in physical automation system design, programming, and commissioning. We also feature a dedicated Data Services Group (DSG) that connects automated equipment and systems to the business system environment including protected recipe systems, data collection and reporting, and data historian implementation.

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Krones Acquires Process and Data Automation to Strengthen Its Digitization Capabilities in the US - Yahoo Finance

March 2 Letters: Silicon Valley must address automation issues – The Mercury News

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P.K. Agarwals oped (Opinion, Feb. 28) on the disruption of jobs with new technology (e.g. self-driving vehicles) is likely well-meaning and informative, but shows a core problem that has now dramatically become front and center. The election showed that large numbers of Americans are worried about their futures. Automation eliminates jobs, disrupts careers, and can ruin lives for those who are unprepared for it. It also improves quality, reduces costs, improves safety, uses less resources, and many other benefits.

If there is one thing Silicon Valley can learn from the last few years, simply treating technology and automation as unicorns and rainbows and ignoring its social disruptions has stoked a backlash that will only grow as automation spreads. It will not dissipate until the social costs are addressed on an equal level, and not just by suggesting online classes, as Agarwal writes offhandedly, but by specific programs that reach the millions of displaced workers. It is in Silicon Valleys deepest interest to address these issues proactively.

Michael Klein Palo Alto

Republicans say they want to reduce health insurance costs by allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines. There is not a state in the country that bars an insurance company from selling within it if the company is in good standing, has a presence in the state and thus falls under the consumer protection laws of that state. By allowing companies to sell across state lines Republicans want to allow insurance companies to locate their headquarters where consumer protections are lax. There is evidence this may already be happening. If you have a problem with an insurance company denying a claim or refusing to pay, you have to go to the state where the headquarters is located rather than your states Insurance Commissioner. Ask a Republican if they will require the insurance company who sells across state lines to be under the consumer protection laws of the state where the policy holder resides. I have and was greeted with silence.

HarveyJohnson San Jose

President Trumps speech and the Democratic response, thanks to the advent of television and social media, is nothing more than pure theater, a stage for meaningless political rhetoric. Nothing was said that he hasnt said before. Goals were set that wont be reached, and promises were made that will not be kept. It makes no difference who or which political party is in power, very little happens for the greater good. Our polarized dysfunctional political system wont allow any meaningful accomplishments.

Joseph Rizzuto Los Gatos

So, what if Hillary Clinton had also won the Electoral College vote and, in the first week of her administration, before all of her team was in place, she green lighted a risky raid on Yemen over a dinner table, not in the Situation Room, did not observe the raid from the Situation Room, apparently tweeted about a TV program during a raid that resulted in Yemeni civilian deaths, the loss of an MV-22 Osprey aircraft and the death of a Navy Seal, whose father, Bill Owens, did not want to meet with the president while at Dover Base to receive the body of his son. Would the Republicans be shouting lock her up? And would the Republican Congress be convening a committee to investigate Benghazi II?

Bob Davis San Jose

Commander-in Chief Donald Trump wants to spend more than half (54 percent) of our budget on the military (Page 1A, Feb. 28). He must have forgot that the United States already spends more money on defense than the next 10 nations combined. With Russia as a friendly ally, we would have hoped the defense budget might have gone down not up. Unfortunately, Trump missed some early training when he resisted military service five times as a young man. One hopes his bellicose attitude doesnt lead us into an unnecessary war.

Stan Fitzgerald San Jose

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March 2 Letters: Silicon Valley must address automation issues - The Mercury News

Oilfield automation may slow job growth but it doesn’t have to … – Chron.com

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Oilfield automation may slow job growth but it doesn't have to

Last week, I wrote about the race to create a digital platform to help drillers deploy and track trucks and other equipment to service their wells in the most efficient possible way, with shorter trips and seamless billing an Uber for the oilfield, if you will.

Efficiency, of course, means making things cost less. Cost comes in two varieties: Capital and labor. So which one is being cut?

In the case of software programs for running oilfield operations, the answer is theoretically both. Service providers will need fewer trucks to do more jobs, which could mean fewer truck drivers, not to mention fewer administrative staff shuffling paper tickets. A few weeks ago, the New York Times looked at how technology was muting oilfield job growth even as drilling returned, which my colleague Jordan Blum had done back in December.

As always, however, the correlation between automation and payroll isn't perfect. A company that lowers its cost of doing business may be better positioned to expand faster than its competitors, and ultimately hire more people than it would have with its old labor-intensive methods.

That's what Dee Atkin, CEO of a digital dispatching platform called OmniSolutions, thinks many of his customers have done after cutting back on paper.

"For the back office process, it reduces personnel requirements significantly," says Atkin, who is based in Utah and has been most active in the Bakken shale of North Dakota. He says one company he worked with had 11 people doing dispatching and invoicing, and was able to redeploy most of them to other functions, like customer service.

"I haven't seen anybody actually laid off," Atkin says. "Our goal with Omni Dispatch is to remove the mundane and release the human to do the creative."

Increasingly, companies are being founded with technology already baked into their operations. One of Omnisolutions' customers, Purity Oilfield Services, started up in 2012. The company never had a huge paper-shuffling operation, having digitized its record-keeping from the beginning. That efficiency allowed Purity to avoid layoffs through the downturn, and it has since focused on diversifying into new business lines which is easier to do with the help of a software program that knits them all together.

That's the optimistic vision of how automation can actually help employment: Robotics and artificial intelligence amplify human efforts, allowing newly competitive businesses to hire more people in new roles. For example, manufacturers have been able to build incredibly advanced factories in America that compete on a cost basis with Chinese production. They employ a fraction of the workers they used to, but still more than they would if the factory didn't exist.

More broadly, some research has found that automation often glibly referred to as "robots" has little impact on aggregate employment, while decreasing slightly the share of low and middle-skilled jobs.

Of course, the decision of whether to reinvest the earnings from higher productivity into new job opportunities is up to each company's leadership. They might just decide to put their profits into a bigger house, or bigger investor dividends.

And today's technological advances may pale in comparison to the ones coming down the road, like trucks that drive themselves. When that happens, businesses may not be able to expand fast enough to replace jobs that are lost.

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Oilfield automation may slow job growth but it doesn't have to ... - Chron.com

Sikorsky Moves to Phase 3 of DARPA Cockpit Automation Program – Aviation International News

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Aviation International News
Sikorsky Moves to Phase 3 of DARPA Cockpit Automation Program
Aviation International News
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded Sikorsky (Booth 8114) a contract to carry out a third phase of its program to develop an Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), the Lockheed Martin subsidiary ...

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Sikorsky Moves to Phase 3 of DARPA Cockpit Automation Program - Aviation International News

Avante Logixx Inc. Announces Acquisition of Automation Company Assets – Yahoo Finance

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TORONTO, March 02, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trading symbols: (XX.V), (ALXXF)

Avante Logixx Inc. (Avante) is pleased to announce that it has indirectly acquired certain business assets of Architronics Inc. (www.architronics.com).

Architronics Inc. was founded in 1994, to provide high-end integrated solutions in the home and commercial automation and custom electronic integration industry, including security, lighting, audio & video, blind and temperature control. Since then, Architronics Inc. has established itself asa leading company in thisfield, designing and completing manysuccessful automation projects throughout Canada, the US and the Caribbean.

The transaction was structured by way of Avantes formation of a subsidiary entity, now named Architronics Limited (Architronics), which acquired, effective March 1, 2017, certain business assets from Architronics Inc. As consideration for the sale of these assets, the vendor received a 49% equity interest in Architronics. As a condition to the acquisition, Avante provided cash funding to Architronics in the amount of $255,000 along with access to its clients with regard to automation services and in exchange therefor Avante retains a controlling 51% equity interest. In conjunction with the acquisition, Architronics entered into key employment agreements with Matthew Grossman, President, Ron Cheung, COO and Kevin Belvett, VP Sales along with several other key team members.

Avante Logixx is very excited to collaborate with one of the pre-eminent automation teams in Canada, said CEO George Rossolatos, We believe that this transaction will be beneficial as Avante customers are significant buyers of automation offerings and will provide a materially increased flow of automation opportunities for Architronics, which already has a very strong brand presence. With our new capability in home and commercial automation, we add another pillar to our strategy, which already caters to residential and commercial security, locks and hardware. Avante expects Architronics to generate more than $2.5 million of revenue in the first year.

Architronics President Matthew Grossman added: We are very excited to team up with Avante. This acquisition will provide access to a larger number of new potential customers for our offerings as well as help us to provide better customer service and 24/7 support. We are also excited to be a part of the Avante groups bespoke showroom catering to designers and architects along with Avante Security, Into Electronics and Citywide / ADH. We believe that owning a smaller piece of the much bigger opportunity that this transaction makes possible, will ultimately help us to expand our business to new levels.

There were no finders fees payable in connection with the transaction, the transaction was negotiated on an arms length basis and does not result in a change of control for Avante. Avantes acquired equity interest in Architronics represents less than 2% of Avantes assets, post-acquisition.

About Avante Logixx (www.avantelogixx.com)

Avante Logixx Inc. (XX.V)is a Toronto-based security, monitoring, system integration and technology company. Its subsidiaries, Avante Security Inc., (www.avantesecurity.com), INTO Electronics Inc., (www.247into.com), and the recently acquired City Wide Locksmiths Ltd., (www.citywidelocksmith.ca), together provide best in class security systems and services for residential and commercial clients, and high-rise condominium applications, with industry leadership in designing and installing complex security systems, access control, intelligent video analytics, high-end lock services and smart home automation.Avantes group of companies strives to be best in class in each of its verticals including an industry leading rapid alarm response offering combined with alarm system and live video analytics monitoring. Avantes Executive Services team provides unparalleled end-to-end security solutions for high profile and high net worth families to ensure their safety in a comprehensive yet discrete manner, including an executive transportation option. Avantes International Travel Security team helps corporations protect traveling employees working abroad in medium/high risk jurisdictions and has executed travel details in over 60 countries. Avante continuously develops innovative products and applications within its core competencies. Please visit our website at http://www.avantelogixx.comand consider joining our investor email list.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information with respect to Avante within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as seek, anticipate, plan, continue, planned, expect, project, predict, potential, targeting, intends, believe, potential, and similar expressions, or describes a goal, or a variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, should, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the list of risk factors identified in Avantes Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A), Annual Information Form (AIF) and other continuous disclosure, which list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Avantes forward-looking information. In connection with the forward-looking statements contained in this and subsequent press releases, Avante has made certain assumptions about its business and the industry in which it operates and has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of Avantes normal course of business. Although management believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date the statements are made, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Avantes forward-looking information is based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management on the date the statements are made, and Avante does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable law. For the reasons set forth above, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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Avante Logixx Inc. Announces Acquisition of Automation Company Assets - Yahoo Finance

‘As well or better than humans’: Automation set for big promotions in white-collar job market – CBC.ca

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Tory Shoreman thought she was safe.

As far as career choices go, working in mortgage financing at one of the country's top banks seemed like a solid bet.

She figured there would be more job security than many other professions and plenty of opportunities to climb the corporate ladder in Toronto.

That was back in 2010.

Over the next seven years, she says she had a front-row seat to watch automation most often intelligent software take over nearly every aspect of mortgage processing.

Tory Shoreman worked at one of Canada's top banks and says she watched automation take out 40 per cent of her department. (CBC News)

"I witnessed about 40 per cent of my department get laid off and the reason they were given was automation," the 32-year-old told CBC News. "And these are people who had spent years getting trained to be experts in this field. A lot of it was pretty shocking to all of us."

Experts say thetechnological upheaval that's rocked industrial manufacturing for decades is set for rapid expansion into white-collar roles in fact, it's already begun in some sectors. The concern is thatif people aren'tprepared to adapt and quickly they could be left without work.

Sunil Johal, policy director at the Mowat Centre think-tank at the University of Toronto, says millions more Canadians between 1.5 million and 7.5 million, many of them highly skilled workers could face such a fate over the next decade because of rapid technological advances, including in artificial intelligence and robotics, and the potential for automating increasingly sophisticated tasks.

Public policy expert Sunil Johal says many highly skilled Canadian workers are at risk of being replaced by automation in the next decade. (CBC News)

Johal says, at this point, nobody should consider their job "safe."

"We are starting to see in fields like medicine, law, investment banking, dramatic increases in the ability of computers to think as well or better than humans. And that's really the game-changer here. Because that's something that we have never seen before."

A pizzeria owned by a Canadian ex-pat in Silicon Valley provides a glimpse at how far and fast automation might go. Zume is a "co-bot" environment where robots Pepe, Jojo and Bruno help prepare the pizzas. Within five years, owner Alex Garden says the entire operation could be automated.

"If you called to place your order with us you would probably be speaking to our artificial intelligence phone operator, and you may even have a drone or a self-driving car delivering your pizza," Garden said.

There is little data to show for certain what impact more intelligent automation has already hadon the job market, largely because it's often more subtle than what happened on industrial assembly lines. Johal says people can be shuffled around, moved into other positions or slowly phased out.

And while there's some debate among experts about how fast and dramatic the disruption will be, all agree change is coming.

Consider what's already happened at Goldman Sachs. In 2000, the investment bank had 600 U.S. cash equities traders highly-skilled, high-income workers on its floor. Today, it has two backed by 200 software engineers.

Johal's fear is that not everyone will be able to develop and maintain the skill sets necessary to compete in the changing job market.

"If Canada doesn't take this seriously, we are going to see many Canadians left on the sidelines of the labour market," he said. "They are not going to be able to get back into the job force."

Since resistance is likely futile, some Canadians have decided to get ahead of what's coming.

Benjamin Alarie is the CEO of tech startup Blue J Legal, whose next generation legal software is designed to replace some of the work lawyers do.

"In the past," he said, "you would have gone to a law library and walked through the stacks and found the books relevant to your case, and produced often a stack of materials to read and then you go back to a desk and spend many hours working through all of those hard-copy materials."

Ben Alarie is CEO of Blue J Legal, a tech company that sells software that can quickly perform tasks that would take lawyers days to accomplish. (CBC News)

But his software asks the user questions to better understand the case, then scans huge amounts of case law to determine possible outcomes and solutions.

What the software can do in moments would take a human days to accomplish.

But Alarie isn't trying to replace humans with software.

By day, he's a law professor at the University of Toronto, where he trains the lawyers of tomorrow. He says young people expect automation to be part of the work they do.

"This kind of technology is an obvious ally in advising their clients, so it's a way for them to be better, stronger lawyers and to really test their intuitions, and in years past it was just technologically impossible," he said.

In December, Tory Shoreman also decided to get ahead.

She quit her banking job and enrolled in a three-month intensive boot camp to learn coding at Lighthouse Labs.

Her hope? To launch a career in software development.

"I had to be realistic about where the [finance] industry is going and not just the industry but where everybody is going. Where the whole business world is going," she said.

Shoreman realizes she'll likely have to make more big changes down the road.

"And while my career may not look like what my grandfather's career looked like in terms of stable full-time employment and climbing the ladder, there is still going to be lots of opportunities out there for me," she said.

"And there is nothing wrong with that."

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'As well or better than humans': Automation set for big promotions in white-collar job market - CBC.ca

Forced to work? 60000 undocumented immigrants may sue detention center – Christian Science Monitor

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March 1, 2017 A class action suit alleging that as many as tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants were coerced to perform free labor in a privately operated Colorado detention center has been given the green light to move forward in a federal district court.

On Tuesday, a district judge ruled to grant the 2014 lawsuit class action certification, marking the first time a class action suit alleging forced labor has been brought against a private prison. The suit was launched by nine former and current detainees at the Aurora Detention Facility, a holding center near Denver, Colo., operated privately on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The lawsuit may now encompass as many as 60,000 people detained at the center between 2004 and 2014, according to Andrew Free, one of the plaintiffs attorneys.

Roughly34,000 people are in immigration detention centers on any given day in the United States, 60 percent of whom in privately operated facilities. Running those centers proves a pricey task, and private prison operators which stand to gain by employing cheap labor to maintain the centers and turn a profit resort to legal, cheap labor on part of detainees.

But the first-of-its-kind case could shed further light on an ongoing issue. As more argue that detainees and prisoners must be paid and at wages higher than $1 per day a shakeup of the system could take place.

While low-wage work has long been a feature of the United States prison system, theres a legal difference between forcing those who have committed a crime and therefore foregone some 13th Amendment protections to earn their stay in prison, and those being held on civil matters, like immigrants. Coercing detainees to perform labor would violate ICE work standards, which guarantee the protection from workplace hazards as well as discrimination in voluntary programs.

Residents will be able to volunteer for work assignments, but otherwise not be required to work, except to do personal housekeeping, the agencys standards state.

The private prison immigration detention center and ICE collaboration doesnt really work without the forced labor of these detainees in Aurora, plaintiff's attorney Mr. Free told The Christian Science Monitor.

The question is, if the business model relies on having detained people clean, cook, do laundry, cut hair, maintain the facility thats what the business model requires in this particular case are we able to shift that business model? Is the American taxpayer comfortable footing that bill?

While novel in its scope, the suit also comes at a time when immigration policy is slated to shift under President Trumps administration. Immigration officials have increased enforcement activity, the administration plans to expand its number of detention facilities, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions made clear that much of the prison system will remain privately operated.

The suit sheds light on the way in which the detention system operates, Carl Takei, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties National Prison Project, tells the Monitor in a phone interview.

We have a name for the practice of locking people up and forcing them to work without paying them real wages," he adds. "Its called slavery. And companies like GEO group stand to profit immensely from the expansion of detention centers that the Trump administration has laid out in its executive orders.

The suit alleges that GEO, the private-prison giant operating the Aurora facility, violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a measure passed in 2000 with the intention of shielding undocumented immigrants who are victims of trafficking and violence, as well as forced labor. The plaintiffs contend that they were forced to work without any compensation and under the threat of solitary confinement. The suit also notes that when paid $1 per day, detainees made much less than Colorados minimum wage of $9.30 per hour.

GEO moved to dismiss the case. While a judge threw out the piece of the case involving a call for minimum wage earnings in prisons, he allowed the segment involving coerced labor to stand.

The company has denied allegations that it threatened inmates with solitary confinement in order to obtain free labor.

We have consistently, strongly refuted these allegations, and we intend to continue to vigorously defend our company against these claims, Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman, said in a statement to the Monitor. The volunteer work program at immigration facilities as well as the wage rates and standards associated with the program are set by the Federal government. Our facilities, including the Aurora, Colo., facility, are highly rated and provide high-quality services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments pursuant to the federal governments national standards.

Whether at the Aurora facility or elsewhere around the country, experts say coercion plays a large role in getting detainees to work, but uncovering it can prove a nearly impossible task.

You cant underestimate the level of coercion involved, Mr. Takei says of detention centers and prisons around the nation. If you refuse to work as a detainee, you can be thrown in solitary confinement. There is no parallel to that in the free world. If I were to call my boss tomorrow morning and say Im not showing up to work, he might be able to fire me, but he couldnt throw me in a cell the size of a parking spot.

Whether inmates were coerced at the Aurora facility remains to be proven in court proceedings, but concerns linger for those who choose to work and only bring home between $1 and $3 a day.

It was voluntary, Delmi Cruz, a detainee at a GEO-run facility in Texas, previously told the Los Angeles Times of her stint cleaning bathrooms and hallways where she made $3 a day. [But] it wasn't fair."

While some cite the benefits behind the programs, such as putting extra cash in detainees commissary accounts or teaching them a new skill, many argue that ICE-mandated earnings should increase, or that private companies should pay a higher rate.

That debate has brewed around both prisons and detention centers. And as Mr. Trump pivots away from Obama-era policies regarding private ownership, calls for better wages for detained and incarcerated works will only grow louder.

The spotlight has certainly been on private corporations running and managing prisons. It certainly was last year under the Obama administration, and the momentum has changed under Trump, says Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior counsel for the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.

Paying $1 to $3 a day is incredibly low," she says. "Just like in a state prison, if someone wants to participate in a work program, they should be compensated at a higher wage.

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Forced to work? 60000 undocumented immigrants may sue detention center - Christian Science Monitor

Taoiseach refuses to back down on water – Newstalk 106-108 fm

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The Taoiseach has insisted the government will not facilitate any new system of water charges which is contrary to EU law.

The Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has said he cannot abolish water charges in their entirety - claiming it would result in large fines imposed on Ireland by Europe.

Yesterday thecommittee failed to reach an agreement on a total abolition of charges with a new draft of the final report set for debate next Tuesday.

Fianna Fils water spokesperson Barry Cowen has warned that if Minister Coveney refuses to legislate based on the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Water the minority government could collapse.

Speaking today, Enda Kenny refused to back down on Fine Gael's refusal to legislate for any system which it believes could result in EU fines.

The party willonly support the recommendations if they include a charge for excessive use thus side-stepping the EU regulations.

The party is due to make its own submission to the committee tomorrow.

That committee has not finished its work, said Mr Kenny. It was given a paper by the chairman.

I would expect them to deliberate on that and continue their work until such time as they bring forward their views and their recommendations to the Oireachtas and I dont want to go beyond that at this stage.

Clearly you are not going to be implementing something that is illegal.

This morning, Joe McHugh, Minister of State for the Diaspora and Overseas Development Aid suggested there was still scope for negotiations between the two main parties.

Warning that the committee needs to be given a chance to complete its work, Mr McHugh said there is an appetite within Fine Gael to reach a solution and avoid another election.

There is always the potential in the minority situation that we are in, he said. We have a confidence and supply with Fianna Fil.

I am sure there are people within Fianna Fil who I speak to privately as well that can find a solution with this impasse.

Meanwhile it has emerged that a small number of households are still claiming the 100 water conservation grant despite the fact it was scrapped a year ago when water charges were suspended.

The state spent 89m covering the grant which was introduced to help households pay their water bills and cover water conservation measures.

The Public Accounts Committee has been told this morning that a small number of households are still claiming the one-off grant - having not received it in 2015.

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Consult a psychic – for empowerment – Philly.com

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Two days after her grandmother's death last March, an emotionally distraught Arielle Visalli called a psychic medium, "looking for a sense of hope" that her grandmother was OK, Visalli recalled.

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She was shocked when the medium, Sheri Marcantuono, whom she hadn't met before, knew accurate details about her life.

"In the middle of setting up an appointment, she interrupted me, asking, 'Who died from stomach pain? It's a lady with curly hair and she's real bubbly and she's holding her stomach,' " said Visalli, 24, of Pittsgrove, N.J. "Then she asked me about another lady with dark, curly hair and piercing blue eyes who was pointing Sheri to a mailbox."

The two women were Visalli's grandmothers, one who died in December 2015 of pancreatic cancer; and the other, the "mailbox lady" - a reference to her trout-shaped mailbox - who died two days earlier from complications associated with Alzheimer's.

"This was all in a span of 15 minutes on the phone trying to set up an appointment that turned into a full-blown reading," Visalli said.

Since then, Visalli and Marcantuono have met twice in person.

Answering questions about dead relatives - even predicting love prospects - has always been de rigueur for psychics. But more people are turning to these soothsayers for advice about their work or life in general, seeking empowerment advice and even life coaching. And although anyone can still consult with a psychic in person or on the phone, now you can take classes, even text your questions.

Jackie Pidgeon began consulting with psychics six years ago, initially through face-to-face encounters and phone calls. When she needs privacy or is in a rush, the texting chat feature offered by ESPsychics.com works best.

"The first time I tried it, I was skeptical, because I wondered how they'd be able to pick up information just by typing back and forth to me," said Pidgeon, 43. "But as soon as I logged on, the psychic said, 'You are having relationship issues.' I contacted her because I was going through a horrible breakup."

For that service, Pidgeon pays $4.25 per minute, and she limits her chat sessions to 10 minutes.

Marcantuono, 44, a medium who's a full-time accountant, has - through Facebook and word of mouth - grown her two-year-old business, Lotus Wood Journey in Berlin, from three clients a month to 24, charging $80 to $100 per hour, depending on the discipline.

She also runs a 10-week course on empowering women to focus on personal goals, including creating a spiritual mandala, making a vision board, practicing yoga, and learning about nutrition.

For Beth Ann Mazzeo, the course was a life-changer, especially in helping her find love: Her new boyfriend closely fits the qualities she had placed on her vision board. "I wanted someone active who loves the outdoors, is generous, kind and caring, with dark hair, and taller and older than me," said Mazzeo, 49, from Hammonton, N.J. "The class reinforced positive thinking, not dwelling on your problems, and living in the now."

Among the million people each year who visit Keen.com, an advice site in San Francisco, 250,000 seek out psychics, with the rest using free content, CEO Warren Heffelfinger said. That's about a 20 percent increase from 2013, when the company launched its chat and chat mobile formats, allowing clients to text for advice. Now, about a quarter of all clients use chat, half on the mobile app, for between $1.50 and $30 per minute, depending on the adviser.

"You think of a psychic as somebody who's just trying to predict the future or channel a loved one, but the predominant advice our psychics are giving is career advice, life questions, love and relationship and dating questions," Heffelfinger said.

What's the attraction to such a texting relationship? People have questions they may deem too personal to ask friends or family, and therapists require appointments, he said.

"This is on-demand 24/7, with you wherever you are, anonymous and bite-sized," he said, qualities that are especially appealing to millennials.

But buyers beware.

Mark Edward, who wrote Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Conflicted Medium in 2012 about his own career as a mentalist and psychic, including nine years with the Psychic Friends Network (remember the one with Dionne Warwick?), attributes his abilities simply to good listening skills.

"On the 900 line, people are paying up to $5 a minute, so they will usually cut to the chase and ask about their problem," said Edward, 65. "I didn't defer to any kind of guidance or metaphysics. I was brutally honest."

For example, responding to a caller who asked if her boyfriend was going to get out of jail, he said, " 'I see there is a price that will have to be paid and you're going to have to be patient.' Then I would let them fill in the details. Once you get the ball rolling, you listen to the intensity in their voice and you make a lot of judgments based on what you hear. It's basically situational awareness."

And there's "nothing supernatural about it," he insisted.

Patti Negri, president of the American Federation of Certified Psychics and Mediums, an organization in New York that vets psychics, said, "For every legitimate psychic, there are boatloads of scam artists." Do your homework when choosing a psychic, she said, by looking at reviews and seeking referrals.

Susan Forte agrees. Though as a teenager she had visited psychics on the boardwalk who offered "hocus-pocus stuff," her experience tells her Marcantuono has the gift.

In 2010, after losing a dear friend, she channeled her devastation into seeking answers to "what was on the other side," said Forte, 42, of Berlin.

Marcantuono described her friend standing with her horse, which had died after her friend died.

"It was validation to me. It's not like she's channeling the deceased, speaking as if my friend was speaking through her. But I know that my friend is at peace, which gives me a good feeling."

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Digital Inclusion Summit: Training, Partnerships Are Key – Rivard Report

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Business & Tech By Edmond Ortiz | 10 hours ago

Lea Thompson for the Rivard Report

Ensuring that more people have access to computers, could help boost economic, educational, and personal opportunities.

San Antonios firstDigital Inclusion Summittook placeWednesday, and participants agreed that comprehensive training must accompany efforts to increase digital access and literacy.

More than 100 people attended the day-long conferenceat the Central Library. Speakers said progress in bridging the digital divide is being made by extending high-speed internet access citywide, especially in lower-income communities.

That, and ensuring that more people have access to computers, could help boost economic, educational, and personal opportunities in such neighborhoods, they added. Attendeesalso called for increased focus on outcomes of greater access and literacy.

San Antonio Public LibraryDirector Ramiro Salazar said the library systems increasing number of branches help with this effort.

For many communities, [libraries] are the only access they have to high-speed internet, Salazar said.

Molly Cox, president and CEO of SA2020, said digital inclusion is key to personal empowerment in many communities. But its more than simply having computer or web access its about using it productively, she noted.

How can you fill out a college application without internet access? How do you look for a job? How do you sign up for health care without an email? Cox added.

One in six San Antonians do not have a computer or internet access, Cox said,citing research. Smartphones alone are inadequate for completingmore complextasks, such as writing school papers or developing a rsum, she added.

Mayor Ivy Taylor has long advocated forSan Antonio becominga globally competitive city where everyone has a chance atprosperity. The mayors office spearheads a digital inclusion initiative, where the City, theSan Antonio Housing Authority, and private and public partners work toward solutions.

We cant achieve that vision without bridging the digital divide, Taylor said. Its the gap between people who have broadband access and know how to use it and those who dont.

Taylor said not having internet access at home or in neighborhoods prevents people from completing essential tasks, such as applying for a job, paying bills, or discussinga childs school performance with ateacher.

Even engaging in local government is a challenge without reliableweb access, Tayloradded. As a result, people without adequatedigital access do not get to share educational and workforce skills with others, she explained.

Socioeconomic inequality exacerbatesthe digital divide, especially among younger and lower-income families and the elderly. Such individuals often lack the digital or financial literacy to achieve upward mobility, Taylor said.

According to the 2013 American Community Survey, San Antonio ranked in the bottom third of major cities based on percentage of households lacking internet access. Taylor said developing public and private sector partnerships is vital to closing the digital gap.

Think about that for a minute: up to one in four San Antonians may be functionally illiterate, she said. The most important thing we can do to address the digital divide is to build relationships that help our residents learn basic skills that apply competently to new technology.

Panel discussion participants talked about how such partnerships and innovation shore up access, training, and literacy.

More than one year ago, the Housing Authoritybegan working with ConnectHome, a pilot initiative launched by then-President Obama in 2015. The program links communities, businesses, and the federal government in extending broadband technology to residents in assisted housing.

Google Fiber and several private and public partners joined the Housing Authority in the local cause.

The Housing Authority first installed computers with broadband access in centralized rooms at three of its properties. Itlater enabled WiFi in individual unitsand computer rooms at two other Housing Authority properties.

The organizationhas also provided more than 350 devices to residents across these communities, and more installations are in the works. Local ConnectHome partners hope to expand their efforts beyond federally funded public housing.

The Housing Authority also offersdigital literacy classes at its properties where broadband access and devices are provided. Officials said its important to instill a sense of confidence while providing proper digital literacy training to residents.

Some of the residents at Housing Authority properties go on to become so-called ambassadors to help train fellow residents.

Confidence is one of the most important things [residents] need to continue, said Catarina Velasquez, educational consultant with the San Antonio Housing Authority

One of the summits speakers, Bill Callahan, is the director of Cleveland-based Connect Your Community 2.0, a nonprofit that helps increase digital inclusion and literacy in low-income communities across Cleveland and Detroit.

He said less than two decades ago, at the dawn of the mainstream internet, many people were comfortable with filling out job applications in person.

Now that most job applications are offered online, fewer residents are confident they can access a computer to seek out job openings, much less fill out applications online.

This isnt just a mobility or access problem for the individual, but a huge problem for the community, Callahan said.

Public discussions about digital inclusionlack focus on exclusion, Callahan explained not deliberate exclusion, but rather inclusion effortsthat are not comprehensive.

As a result, many people specifically in low-income and rural communities still get left behind.

When cities engage as smart cities, you put your digital eggs in one basket, but you tell other communities youre less vital, Callahan said. He pointed to a Bexar County map where most residents still lack digital access and mobility.

Organizations such as Bexar Bibliotech and Communities in Schoolswork to achieve greater access, mobility, and literacy. Bibliotech now boaststwo full-servicebranches, one of which isthe first digital library in the nation located in public housing. The libraries allow locals to access the same books available at traditional libraries through digital e-readers which can be checked out for two weeks at a time. In addition, Bibliotech has collaborated with VIA Metropolitan Transit on the Ride and Read initiative, added six digital kiosks at transit centers throughout the city, and committed to furthering anti-cyberbullying programming.

Callahan andHousing Authority representatives agreed that people who have recently become digitally literate shouldshare their newfound knowledge with their peers and, thus, help close the digital divide.

Were not making sure everyone who has access or a computer can use the system, Callahansaid. You cant expect someone who cant pay their $60-a-month electric bill to just figure out their internet.

Jen Vanek, director of the IDEAL Consortium, shared similar sentiment: Access to poor training is worse than no training.

Vanek said digital literacy should be well-rounded, relevant, and specified. She added that it should be embedded inEnglish as a second language, general education development, and workforce development.

Deb Socia, executive director of the nonprofit Next Century Cities, said widening digital access and literacy helps unleash peoples potential.

With access, anyone can create a web-based enterprise, she said. In turn, communities build wealth internally.

This is about investing in people, Socia said.

Investing in people means collaboration, said Catherine Crago of Austin Pathways. She described how the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) built a coalition of private and public partners to further digital mobility for local low-income residents.

The Austin Community College Districtdonated hundreds of computers to Austin Housing Authorityresidents, allowing HACA to divert more resources totraining. In turn, more residents have access and share their knowledge.

These people are willing to learn, relearn, and co-learn, Cragoadded.

Angelique de Oliveira of Goodwill Industries said Goodwill helps serve low-income residents with needs and workforce development by collecting, refurbishing, and recycling used computers.

One of the things in using a computer is you can achieve employment as an outcome, she added.

Towards the summits end, Cox stressed the importance of outcomes regarding digital inclusion.

I want to know what happens with those people when they turn on those computers, once they have access, then go out into the community and apply their new skills, shesaid.

Edmond Ortiz, a lifelong San Antonian, is a freelance reporter/editor who has worked with the San Antonio Express-News and Prime Time Newspapers.

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Digital Inclusion Summit: Training, Partnerships Are Key - Rivard Report

This women’s sport you’ve never heard of is taking Israel by storm … – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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A match at the Israeli catchball tournament in Kfar Saba, Feb. 21, 2017. (Courtesy of the Israel Catchball Association)

TEL AVIV (JTA) Every week, thousands of women across Israel gather to play a sport almost no one outside the country has heard of.

For that matter, few Israelis knew about catchball or cadur-reshet in Hebrew a decade ago. But in recent years it has become the most popular sport amongadult women in the country,with nearly all the players over 30 years old.

Its like a disease among middle-aged women here, said Naor Galili, the director-general of the Maccabi sports association in Israel. We like it. We love it. We fully support it.

Now the Israel Catchball Association is trying to spread the feminist fever to women around the world. A major step will be catchballs appearance for the first time at the Maccabiah Games in Israel this summer. The hope is that the thousands of Jews who attend the multi-sport gamesfrom around the worldwill be inspired to ask: What is catchball?

Catchball is likevolleyball, but easier because catching and throwing replacesbumping, setting and spiking. Israelis adapted the sport from Newcomb ball, which was named for theLouisiana womens college where it was invented over a century ago. Today, Americans rarely play Newcomb ball outside of gym class.

Meanwhile, catchball leagues in Israel boastmore than 12,000 female members. That is twice as many adult women as belong to basketball, soccer, volleyball and tennis leagues combined, according to data from Israels Culture and Sport Ministry.

Hila Yeshayahu, 41, plays for the Herzliya-based squad Good Heart and handles marketing and business development for the Catchball Association, to which the team belongs. She said women start playing catchball because it is fun and easy and stick with it for the sense of community and personal empowerment.

Catchball is a present women give themselves. Its a chance to do something healthy with other women and come back home with more strength and more passion, she said. When I step out the door in my uniform, my kids arent on my shoulder; my husband isnt on my shoulder. Im 18 years old again. Im Hila, and I can do anything.

Yeshayahus twin sister also competes for a team in the association, and their 11-year-old daughters play together in a new girls league.

On a Tuesday evening, Yeshayahu and her team faced off against A.S. Moment at a high school gym in Ramat Hasharon, not far from Herzliya in central Israel. The crowd consisted of a few husbands and sons on the sideline. But the atmosphere was competitive, with a referee, scorekeepers and players wearing numbered uniforms. When A.S. Moment won two sets to none, Good Heart players slumped onto the court, and several tearfully threw their knee pads toward the bench. (The first two sets are scored up to 25 points, while a third set in the best-of-3 match would go to 15. The victor must win a set by at least two points.)

Good Heart coach Liron Shachnai, 34, a marketing and sales manager by day, said most of her playershave little experience losing. Competitive sports in Israel are male-dominated, she said, so women do not have the opportunity to learn sportsmanship growing up.

You have women who are over 40 going home crying, saying [the opposing players] think theyre better than us, she said.

Still, by the next practice Thursday evening, the players werelooking toward the future. It helped that this weekend, they will competein the Catchball Games in the southern resort town of Eilat. The tournament is catchballs biggest event and a highlight of the year for many players.

You should see all the photos theyre posting on Facebook. They can barely wait, Yeshayahu said.

In its sixth year, the Catchball Games are expected to draw more than 1,500 women from all of Israels leagues, and even a few teams from abroad. Leavingtheir husbands and children at home, women willdon pink Israel Catchball Association T-shirts for four days of competition and socializing. Local schools will host hundredsof matches, and the top two teams will face off for the championship. Off-court festivities will include a parade, Eilats first night road race and a standup comedy show.

A player celebrating at the Catchball Games in Eilat, Israel, February 2016. (Courtesy of the Israel Catchball Association)

Alexandra Kalev, a sociology professor at Tel Aviv University, says the success of catchball in Israel can be seen as a challenge to the roles women have traditionally played in the countrys sport and culture. Womens sports in Israel are underfunded and little covered in the media, and women are expected to work and handle most household responsibilities.

Catchball can empower women, especially at a stage in life when they are weakened, Kalev said. They are discriminated against in the labor market, overwhelmed by home chores and child rearing and experiencing the changes that age brings on all of us. These leagues really come at the right time of their lives and allow them to be empowered. The message is: We are strong.

The rise of catchball in Israel began in 2005, when OfraAmbramovich started Mamanet, a league for mothers in the central city of Kfar Saba, where she lives. She learned the sport fromHaim Borovski, an Israeli gym teacher from Argentina. Thanks to Ambramovichs entrepreneurship, dozens of municipalities have since started their own Mamanet leagues.In her mind, catchball is primarily a mom-powered social movement.

Catchball gives motherssomething for themselves, a reason to be healthy and part of the community, Ambramovich said. And the mother is the agent of the family, so shes the perfect role model. When the motherdoes well, everyone benefits.

In 2009, the Israel Catchball Association branched off from Mamanet in an effort to make the sport more competitive. The associationwelcomed non-mothers and allowed women to form their own teams rather than requiring them toparticipate through their childrens schools though they maintained Mamanets age minimum of 30. Today,the association offers leagues at four skill levels.

The Israel Catchball Association claims 5,000 players, and Mamanetclaims 12,500. Both groups claim superiority and dispute each others numbers, but everyone agrees the totalnumber of women playing is more than 12,000.

It is also clear the sport is growing rapidly, and even reaching into Israels most traditional communities. Many Orthodox Jewish women play catchball in headscarves and skirts. And there is a mostly Druze team in Daliyan al-Carmel in northern Israel. When Anaia Halabi, a 35-year-old school counselor, started the team seven years ago,it was a radical idea.

For women to leave their husbands and their children toplay was a big change for the village, she said. It is not considered suitable for women to be outside the home at night. Not all the husbands approve.

But over time, Halabi said, the husbands have grown more accepting, and the local municipality began paying for a van to transport the team to games outside the village. At the same time, theteam has arranged not to play late night games, anda three-club local league has been formed to allow women to compete without leaving the village.

With the sport firmly established in Israel, the Israel Catchball Association has started looking overseas. Part of the motivation is that to qualify as an official sport and receive funding from the Israeli government, catchball must be played competitively in at least 52 countries. So far, the only leagues the association knows of outside Israel are in Mexico and the United States. But they are encouraging the sportin more than half a dozen other countries, mostly through Israeli expats.

Gal Reshef, a 35-year-old Israeli lawyer, founded acatchball group in Boston in 2015 and last year expanded it into the U.S.A. Catchball Association in partnership with theIsrael Catchball Association. She said the vast majority of thenearly 100 womenin the BostonetCatchball Association, as well as in the handful of other teams across the country, are Israelis. But Reshef is confident catchball will, um, catch on with American women, too.

I think in the States, the situation is the same as in Israel. If youre a middle-aged woman who didnt have the chance to play sports growing up, there are very few options, she said. The great thing is anyone can play catchball, and it creates an amazing uplifting community.

At least one Bostonet team is slated to participate in the catchball exhibition tournament at the Maccabiah Games in July. Thirty-six Israeli teams will be there, along with a couplefrom London and Berlin. Reshef predicted that by the time the next games roll around in four years, teams from around the world will be playing catchball in the real tournament and after that, maybe the Olympics.

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This women's sport you've never heard of is taking Israel by storm ... - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Jamaican Women of Florida, Inc. (JWOF) elected a new Board of Directors – Jamaicans.com

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The Jamaican Women of Florida, Inc. (JWOF) elected a new Board of Directors on February 25, 2015 at their fourth annual general meeting. The new president is Ms. Camille Edwards an administrator with the Broward County School Board. Ms. Edwards has previously served as the Presidents of the Immaculate Conception High School Alumnae Association and Broward Alliance Of Caribbean Educators (founder). She hails from Montego Bay, Jamaica and holds Masters of Science and Bachelors of Arts degrees from St. Thomas University, Miami, FL and York University, Toronto, Canada.

The newly Elected Vice President is Mrs. June Minto Marketing Consultant and Managing Partners with Jamaican Jerk Festival & Jamaque Paridis Magazines. Rounding out the new Board are Secretary Tamara Wadley; Treasurer Dale Telfer, CPA who is returning for her second term in the position; Director-At-Large Ann Marie Clarke, Esq. and Legal Director Hilary Creary, Esq.- who previously served as the associations Secretary.

JWOF was launched in April, 2013 with twenty founding members and saw their membership triple since. Currently they have 46 paid members and continue to seek members to strengthen the group. The non-profit was founded as an organization to provide an outlet for Jamaican women in Florida to empower themselves through charitable and educational endeavors, personal development and mentoring. The goal of JWOF is to engage Jamaican women in Florida and to give back to the next generation of young women by assisting in the development of leadership and personal skills to operate in a global environment.

Membership is opened to everyone, and since launching they initiated several measures to accomplish their goals. These include the annual Womens Empowerment Conference & Scholarship Luncheon; the Powerful WomenNext Generation scholarship, the annual Health & Wellness Conversation, and the adoption of Melody House Girls Home in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Members of JWOF have made several trips to Jamaica to visit Melody House and have supported the girls home financially over the years. The organization has also helped several Jamaican women and families in Florida in need and continue to live up to their mission of helping the community.

We the new board embrace JWOFs mission and vision and are dedicated to the organizations continued growth over the next two years says JWOF President, Camille Edwards. We have some big shoes to fill but with the guidance of the outgoing board we will strive to provide avenues to empower the now gen and the next gen , said Edwards.

To celebrate their fourth anniversary, JWOF is again hosting the popular Jamaican Women of Florida Empowerment Conference & Scholarship Luncheon, on Saturday, April 8th, 8:00AM 4:30PM at Jungle Island in Miami, Florida. The days events will include three panel presentations focusing on their mission Empowerment; personal growth and development; and mentorship; the annual scholarship awards luncheon to benefit a female high school senior and a rising second, third and fourth year college students. Sponsorship and vendor opportunities are available.

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The Jamaican Women of Florida, Inc. (JWOF) elected a new Board of Directors - Jamaicans.com

Federal Judge Says NYC’s Regulation Of The Press Will Go On Trial – Village Voice

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Rescue workers on the scene of a Manhattan crane collapse in 2008. Photojournalist J.B. Nicholas needs an NYPD-issued press card, which allows him to cross police and fire lines, to capture images like these. After the NYPD revoked Nicholas' press card seemingly without warning, he filed a federal lawsuit.

courtesy J.B. Nicholas

A journalists lawsuit alleging that the NYPDs regulation of the press violates the constitutional rights of a free press can go forward, a federal judge ruled on Monday. In rejecting the government's motion to dismiss the suit, Judge J. Paul Oetken affirmed that the government cannot arbitrarily restrict journalists, and that the NYPD and the City of New York's policies for revoking and suspending journalists' press credentials may be be unconstitutional.

Arbitrary restrictions on news-gatherers may run afoul of the First Amendment,Judge Oetkenwrote in rejecting the city's motion to dismiss the case. The plaintiff, he said, "has carried his burden to allege a protected interest in his press credential."

The lawsuit, brought by freelance photojournalist J.B. Nicholas, stems from an incident in October of 2015, when Nicholas was on assignment for the New York Daily News. A building under construction on 38th Street had partially collapsed, trapping two construction workers towards the rear of the building.

Nicholas (who full disclosure has written for the Voice) arrived on the scene with his press credentials. The dead body of one of the construction workers had already been retrieved. While Nicholas waited in a nearby store for the second worker to be retrieved, police rounded up other journalists and corralled them into a press pen down the block and out of sight of the action.

But while most of the official press was kept from covering the story, photographers from numerous government agencies and even ConEdison were operating freely inside the police cordon, Nicholas said. When the second construction worker was freed, the complaint states, Nicholas approached, and, without interfering with the emergency workers, photographed him being placed in the ambulance.

Nicholas says getting the shot, which he couldnt have done from the police press-pen, was important, and not just because its his job. Those photos tell an important story that New Yorkers need to see, he told the Voice. Theres a story about the deunionization of construction in New York. Most of these guys are immigrants, legal and not, working for probably $100 a day in cash, all to build multi-billion-dollar condos. And theres a cost for that exploitation there have been 31 construction workers killed on the job in the last two years. So if you lose that photo, the impact of that story, the cost thats paid for all this, it gets lost. The picture might trigger some inquiry. Think of the picture of the Syrian kid on the beach.

But the press officers for the NYPD werent happy with Nicholas getting the shot, which ultimately led the story in the Daily News. As a video Nicholas took during the episode shows, they immediately approached him, confiscated his press pass, and ejected him from the scene.

Nicholas said he wrote to the NYPD repeatedly to discuss the return of his press pass, but was rebuffed. Meanwhile, his career suffered. To be a photojournalist in New York, you need to have a press pass, he said. Without it, you cant cross police lines, which is the only way to get the shot, you cant photograph in court. Unable to perform the basic tasks of spot-news reporting, Nicholas saw his assignments dry up. In December of 2015 he filed his lawsuit against then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. The suit alleges that police violated Nicholass constitutional rights to freedom of the press, speech, assembly, and intra-state movement, as well as his rights to equal protection under the law and substantive due process.

As Nicholass amended complaintexplores in depth, the history of NYPD interference with journalists efforts to do their job is considerable, ranging from freezing out disliked reporters to the violent arrests of credentialed press at protests of the 2004 Republican National Convention to numerous arrests and obstructions of journalists during Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and 2012 to the assault and false arrest of a New York Times photographer documenting stop-and-frisks in the Bronx.

Nicholas has his own stories. He was arrested in 2014 as he was attempting to photograph NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Only after multiple witnesses told prosecutors that in fact it was Goodells bodyguard, a former police detective, who had run into Nicholas with his truck, choked him, punched him, and thrown him to the ground were the assault charges against Nicholas dropped. The year before, Nicholas was acquitted in case based on his taking photographs of paramedics in the subway.

FROM LEFT: Craig Ruttle, J.B. Nicholas, and Joe Marino testify at a City Council hearing on the freedom of the press last year.

William Alatriste / City Council

Nicholas is acting as his own lawyer in the suit. At a hearing before Judge Oetken last May, he got the court to dig into just how the NYPD decides who can and cant report in the city. Regulations state that if the NYPD tries to revoke a journalists credentials, theyre entitled to a hearing to challenge the revocation. What do the hearings look like? the Judge asked the citys lawyer, Mark Zuckerman. Are the hearings ever done?

I dont have the answer to your question, Zuckerman conceded. I cant tell your Honor conclusively whether it was done or not.

What about how the police department decides when its going to suspend or revoke a journalists credentials, the judge asked. Is there a written standard?

Im not aware of any written standard, Zuckerman answered. Theres nothing in the rules about a written standard for whats necessary to take a summary suspension.

Zuckerman conceded that Nicholas was still entitled to a hearing, and a week later, Nicholas got one, presided over by DCPIs commanding officer, Edward Mullen, and Lt. Eugene Whyte. Nicholass card had been revoked at the direct order of Steven Davis, the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, who was on the scene that day, so Mullen and Whyte were effectively being asked to rule on an action of their boss. According to Nicholas, he wasnt allowed to see any evidence against him and Whyte bullied the witnesses he called in his defense. Nonetheless, at a status hearing for his lawsuit a month later, Nicholas learned that hed be getting his press credentials back.

Even so, Nicholas is determined to forge ahead with his lawsuit. I did this for my colleagues. I did this for my city, he told the Voice. Theres an ongoing pattern of the NYPD keeping journalists away from breaking news scenes for no good reason.

Efforts to control the press aren't unique to New York, Nicholas says. They happen everywhere, including the White House.

Norman Siegel, a lawyer who has worked on numerous First Amendment cases and helped shape the current NYPD press credential policies, says the case goes to the heart of questions of press freedom. The standard by which the NYPD pulls someones press pass or denies them renewal cannot be subjective, it has to be objective, Siegel said. If its subjective it invites discrimination based on the viewpoint or even personality of the journalist. We saw last Friday how freedom of the press can be abused, when [White House Press Secretary Sean] Spicer decided not to let certain media outlets in. Freedom of press is a cornerstone of our system. It's being undermined not only by the Trump administration, and sometimes by the NYPD.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.

The case now moves into the discovery phase. Nicholas is still acting as his own lawyer Its an exercise in personal empowerment, I hope to inspire others, he says which means that soon he will be personally deposing witnesses, including the the DCPI officers who revoked his credentials and former Commissioner Bratton.

Ive got a lot of questions, he said. Are there any records of how they handle press credentials, suspensions, revocations? Who keeps notes on this. Where are those notes? Lets see the logs. How many journalists have been arrested?

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Federal Judge Says NYC's Regulation Of The Press Will Go On Trial - Village Voice