Monthly Archives: July 2017

7 western states report heavy winter losses of deer, elk – Fairfield Daily Republic

Posted: July 3, 2017 at 8:12 am

CHEYENNE, Wyo. Across the U.S. West, wildlife managers are reporting above-normal losses of deer, elk and other wildlife following one of the coldest and snowiest winters in decades. Heres a look at what they found:

Heavy snows in Californias mountains over the winter caused an unusually high number of deaths among the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep herd, according to Jason Holley, supervising wildlife biologist with the states wildlife agency.

An estimated 40 to 60 sheep failed to survive. Some died from avalanches, others starved because they were unable to get to food. The herd numbers about 500 to 600, and the loss from just the weather is considered significant, Holley said.

California wildlife managers also noted some losses of deer to snow and cold.

South-central Colorado saw high fawn mortality over the winter, according to Andy Holland, big game manager with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Estimates are that only 20 to 25 percent of fawns survived in the Gunnison Basin, mainly because of a large snowfall event. Wildlife managers already have reduced mule deer hunting licenses in the basin by 60 percent for bucks and 80 percent for does.

A deer herd in northwest Colorado, near the Wyoming border, also suffered above-average fawn losses, but it was over its population objective.

Idaho saw its third worst winter for mule deer fawn survival in the past 18 years, according to Roger Phillips, Idaho Fish and Game Department spokesman.

Of the 10 areas where mule deer are monitored, the lowest fawn survival rate was 3 percent, and the highest was 60 percent.

Mule deer numbers across the state are still healthy enough to withstand the loss as long as next winter is milder.

Concern for wildlife prompted Idaho to initiate supplemental feeding over the winter on a scale that hadnt been done in about 20 years. Its believed that white tail deer, bighorn sheep and elk came through the winter with normal losses.

Oregon saw a drop in winter survival of mule deer fawns, said Pat Matthews, a biologist with the states wildlife agency.

His district recorded a ratio of 24 fawns per 100 adults surviving into this spring, compared with the average of 34 fawns per 100 adults.

Other parts of the state recorded as few as 11 fawns per 100 adults making it through the winter.

Elk appeared to weather the snowy winter with average losses, but some areas recorded above-average pronghorn losses.

Deer and pronghorn hunting tags are being reduced in areas with lower fawn survival rates.

Above-average losses of mule deer fawns were recorded in northern Utah, where only 10 percent of one herds fawns survived, said Justin Shannon, big game program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

The losses occurred despite the states efforts to provide food supplements to the deer.

Shannon blamed deep snow, mainly from three storms in December and January. Snow depths exceeded 150 percent of normal in some areas.

Mule deer hunting permits in northern Utah will be fewer this fall as a result.

Elsewhere in the state, deer survival rates averaged 89 percent for adults and 52 percent for fawns.

___

WASHINGTON

Eastern Washingtons three primary elk herds saw record low calf-to-cow ratios coming out of the winter, particularly along the Cascades eastern slopes, according to Brock Hoenes, statewide elk specialist for the state.

Adult mortality appears to be normal, but elk calf numbers were at 18 to 19 calves per 100 cows in eastern Washington. Normally, the end of winter would see 30 to 40 calves, Hoenes said.

Mule deer and bighorn sheep also appeared to sustain above-average losses.

Winter hasnt been this tough on the states elk calves in over 10 years.

Elk hunting permits have been reduced as a result, especially cow permits.

However, Hoenes said elk numbers on the whole are healthy. In fact, he said Mother Nature helped with recent state efforts to bring down excessive elk populations in some areas. Elk in western Washington, with the exception of the Mount St. Helens herd, came through the winter OK.

The Mount St. Helens herd was battling hoof disease, which may have contributed to bigger losses.

___

WYOMING

Mule deer and pronghorn antelope west of the Continental Divide in Wyoming suffered significant losses this winter, probably the worst in more than 30 years, said Bob Lanka, a wildlife supervisor with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Many areas saw up to 90 percent loss of deer fawns and up to 35 percent loss of adult deer.

The Wyoming Range mule deer herd, which has been subject to radio-collar study for nearly 25 years, lost all 26 fawns that entered the winter, and 200 total carcasses from the herd were found this spring. Normally, 30 to 50 carcasses are found after the winter.

Elk losses also were higher than normal, which is unusual because elk are hardier animals, Lanka said.

Another troubling indicator of the harsh winter is unborn fawns appear to be smaller than normal in some herds.

Fewer hunting permits fkoor mule deer and antelope will be issued this fall in western Wyoming because of the losses, Lanka said.

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Faith guide – Billings Gazette

Posted: at 8:10 am

Saturday

Peace Lutheran Church, 1301 Ave. D: Ralph Sappingtons Country/Gospel Liturgy is featured during the 5 p.m. worship service.

United We Stand, Karin, Ryan and Dijana Gunderson in concert at Atonement Lutheran Church, 1290 Sierra Granda Blvd.: At 7 p.m., Heavenly Harp presents United We Stand, a concert by Karin, Dijana and Ryan Gunderson, a mother, daughter and son trio, to encourage people in these tenuous times. The concert features harp, piano, flute and vocals on popular and Christian pieces. For information, call 245-7004, or go to christianharpmusic.com.

Billings Association of Humanists meeting at First Congregational Church, 310 N. 27th St.: Ben Hahns presentation of An Introduction to a Resource Based Economy is at 1 p.m. The term and meaning of resource based economy originated with Jacque Fresco. It is a whole factor socioeconomic system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude.

St. Johns Lutheran Ministries, 3940 Rimrock Road: Marcia Muir, staff chaplain, leads worship in the Ocee Johnson Chapel at 7 p.m.

Pilgrim Congregational Church, 409 36th St. S.: After the 9 a.m. coffee fellowship, the Rev. Steve Heppner leads the 10 a.m. worship service, themed God is worshiped for his authority over peace. Also, John Christian, of Billings American Legion Post 4, gives a patriotic Scripture reading, and Sharon Baldwin offers special music.

Peace Lutheran Church, 1301 Ave. D: Ralph Sappingtons Country/Gospel Liturgy is featured, and Paul Freeman gives a musical offering during the 10 a.m. worship service.

East Gate Wesleyan Church, 625 Mattson Lane: The Holy Eucharist is celebrated as the Rev. Kevin Jones, of Grace Anglican Church in Sheridan, Wyoming, leads the 3 p.m. worship service. Fellowship and refreshments follow.

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 180 24th St. W.: At the 9:30 a.m. worship service, the Rev. Susan Thomas preaches about transformation, using the texts Isaiah 61:1-3 and Mark 5:1-20, and the Lords Supper is shared with all who wish to partake. Thomas served as a hospital chaplain for many years at Billings Clinic. After the service, refreshments are served in the Garden Room.

Unity of Billings, 9 14th St. W.: At 10 a.m., the Rev. Danielle Egnew, singer/songwriter and interfaith minister, shares her message, "Fear as Our Teacher." Russ White leads the congregational singing of Daniel Namod songs. A potluck takes place after the service. Everyone is invited to share in food and fellowship.

First English Lutheran Church, 1243 N. 31st St.: Christs welcoming of all and the nations birth are celebrated at the 10 a.m. worship service. After the service, Independence Day is celebrated with ice cream bars, and a womens group meeting takes place.

American Lutheran Church worshiping at Moss Mansion, 914 Division St.: An outdoor worship service takes place at 10 a.m. Bring a lawn chair. (No child care is available for this service.)

Construction work at Billings Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 2032 Central Ave.: Billings Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is under construction. No services are planned until August.

American Lutheran Church, 5 Lewis Ave.: Family vacation Bible school is offered in three sessions July 12, 19 and 26. Each takes place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and includes a meal, lesson, craft and games for the whole family. RSVP by emailing Rochelle Buyse at rochelle@amluth.org.

The deadline for submitting information for the Faith Guide is noon Tuesday for consideration for publication in the upcoming Saturday edition. The items should be special events open to the public and of interest to readers outside your congregation.

You may mail information to: Faith Guide; Billings Gazette newsroom; P.O. Box 36300; Billings, MT 59107. Items also may be faxed to 657-1208 or emailed to citynews@billingsgazette.com. Be sure to address faxes or emails to the Faith Guide. Or you may drop off your item at The Gazette, 401 N. Broadway; please mark it to the attention of Rachelle Lacy.

Items are used as space is available.

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California’s Far North Deplores ‘Tyranny’ of the Urban Majority – New York Times

Posted: at 8:10 am

Californias Great Red North is the opposite, a vast, rural, mountainous tract of pine forests with a political ethos that bears more resemblance to Texas than to Los Angeles. Two-thirds of the north is white, the population is shrinking and the region struggles economically, with median household incomes at $45,000, less than half that of San Francisco.

Jim Cook, former supervisor of Siskiyou County, which includes cattle ranches and the majestic slopes of Mount Shasta, calls it the forgotten part of California.

In the same state that is developing self-driving cars, theres the rugged landscape of Trinity County, where a large share of residents heat their homes with wood, plaques commemorate stagecoach routes and the county seat, Weaverville, is an old gold-mining town with a lone blinking stop-and-go traffic light.

The residents of this region argue that their political voice is drowned out in a system that has only one state senator for every million residents.

This sentiment resonates in other traditionally conservative parts of California, including large swaths of the Central Valley, which runs down the state, and it mirrors red and blue tensions felt in areas across the country. But perhaps nowhere else in California is the alienation felt more keenly than in the far north, an arresting panorama of fields filled with wildflowers and depopulated one-street towns that have never recovered from the gold rush.

People up here for a very long time have felt a sense that we dont matter, said James Gallagher, a state assemblyman for the Third District, which is a shorter drive from the forests of Mount Hood in Oregon than from the beaches of San Diego. We run this state like its one size fits all. You cant do that.

Many liberals in California describe themselves as the resistance to Mr. Trump. Residents of the north say they are the resistance to the resistance, politically invisible to the Democratic governor and Legislature. Californias strict regulations on the environment, gun control and hunting impinge on a rural lifestyle, they say, that urban politicians do not understand.

The states stringent air quality and climate change regulations may be appropriate for technology workers, Mr. Gallagher said, but they are onerous for people living in rural areas.

In the rural parts of the state we drive more miles, we drive older cars, our economy is an agriculture- and resource-based economy that relies on tractors and trucks, Mr. Gallagher said. You cant move an 80,000-pound load in an electric truck.

A recently passed gas tax, pushed through by the Democratic majority, will disproportionately hurt rural voters, he said.

Taxation and hunting are two issues northerners are quick to seize upon when criticizing laws they feel are unfairly imposed by the state. But there are also more fundamental issues related to incomes and job opportunities that split California into a two-speed economy.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, unemployment rates hover around 3 percent. In the far north, where many timber mills have shut down in recent years, unemployment is as high as 6 percent in Shasta County and 16.2 percent in Colusa County.

Despite a go-it-alone ethos, residents of the 13 counties in the northern bloc are much more likely to receive government medical assistance than those in the Bay Area. In the north, 31 percent take part in Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, while the Bay Area rate is 19 percent, and Californias overall figure 28 percent.

United States Representative Doug LaMalfa, a Republican representing Northern Californias First District, blames regulations that have shut down industries for the economic disparities.

Theyve devastated ag jobs, timber jobs, mining jobs with their environmental regulations, so, yes, we have a harder time sustaining the economy, and therefore theres more people that are in a poorer situation.

Because incomes are significantly lower than the state average and the region is so thinly populated, tax revenue from the far north is a fraction of what urban areas contribute. In 2014, the 13 northern counties had a combined state income tax assessment of $1 billion, compared with $4 billion from San Francisco County.

Resentment toward the rest of California has a long history here there have been numerous efforts to split the state since its founding in 1850. After the presidential election, a proposal to secede from the union, driven by liberals and known as Calexit, gained attention.

Residents here have long backed a different proposal for a separate state, one that would be carved out of Northern California and the southern reaches of Oregon. Flags of the so-called State of Jefferson, which was first proposed in the 19th century, fly on farms and ranches around the region.

Jefferson, named after the president who once envisioned establishing an independent nation in the western section of North America, is more a state of mind than a practicable proposal. Many see it as unrealistic for a region that has plenty of water and timber but perhaps not enough wealth to wean itself away from engines of the California economy.

However, two recent initiatives have channeled the deep feeling of underrepresentation.

In May, a loose coalition of northern activists and residents, including an Indian tribe and the small northern city of Fort Jones, joined forces to file a federal lawsuit arguing that Californias legislative system is unconstitutional because the Legislature has not expanded with the population.

States

Population per House member

States

Population per Senate member

California

489,310

California

978,620

Texas

183,127

Texas

886,100

Florida

168,927

Florida

506,782

New York

131,972

Ohio

351,922

Ohio

117,307

New York

319,287

States

Population per House member

States

Population per Senate member

Wyoming

9,768

South Dakota

24,528

Maine

8,803

Vermont

20,868

North Dakota

8,052

Montana

20,659

Vermont

4,174

Wyoming

19,537

New Hampshire

3,327

North Dakota

16,105

The suit, filed against the California secretary of state, Alex Padilla, who oversees election laws in California, calls for an increase in the membership of the bicameral Legislature, which since 1862 has capped the number of lawmakers at 120.

The lawsuit argues that California now has the least representative system of any state in the nation. Each State Assembly member represents nearly 500,000 people and each state senator twice that.

This arbitrary cap has created an oligarchy, the lawsuit says.

By contrast, each member of the New York State Assembly represents on average 130,000 people; in New Hampshire, its 3,330 people for each representative.

Mark Baird, one of the plaintiffs, says residents of Californias far north feel as though they are being governed by an urbanized elite.

I wake up in the morning and think, What is California going to do to me today? said Mr. Baird, a former airline pilot who owns a ranch about an hours drive from the Oregon border. In a grass valley framed by low-lying hills, Mr. Bairds pastures are filled with his small herd of buffalo and a few pens of horses and donkeys.

Mr. Baird complains of restrictions on the types of guns he can own. Its tyranny by the majority, he said. The majority should never be able to deprive the minority of their inalienable rights.

Scott Wiener, a state senator representing San Francisco, says he has sympathy for the concerns of rural voters but rejects the proposal for a larger legislative body.

When you have a state as big and diverse as California, decisions are made that we dont all agree with, he said.

The second initiative is a proposed amendment to Californias Constitution that would change the method for dividing districts of the Legislatures upper house, the Senate. Instead of being based on population as they are now, Senate seats would be tied to regions, giving a larger voice to rural areas in the same way the federal Senate does.

I am asking the people with power to give up some of their power in order to allow all the voices in the state to have a little bit more strength than they do right now, said Mr. Gallagher, the assemblyman.

Northern Californians point out that the United States House of Representatives and Senate are based on the compromise between population and geography.

What I cant get over is that a court can rule that its not good for the state but it stands up at the federal level, said Mr. LaMalfa, the congressman. We wouldnt have a union if we hadnt come up with that compromise.

Mr. LaMalfa, who lives on a farm, says Californias urban denizens think of the rural areas as their park, and deplores what he describes as trophy legislation to protect animal species.

You have idealists from the cities who say, Wouldnt it be great to reintroduce wolves to rural California? Mr. LaMalfa said. He has a half-serious counterproposal: Lets introduce some wolves into Golden Gate Park and the Santa Monica Pier.

Doris Burke contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on July 3, 2017, on Page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: The Great Red North of California.

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As we enter a zone of uncertainty… – The Statesman

Posted: at 8:10 am

April is the cruelest month, so said the famous poet TS Eliot. But one wit remarked that June marks the end of May.

Who would have expected that British Prime Minister Theresa May would lose her majority in Parliament in the June election, which was supposed to strengthen her hand in negotiating Brexit with the European Union?

This expectation reversal was as big a shock as Brexit or Trumpism. May may have found her Ides of March in June. In sharp contrast, unlike earlier in the year when everyone was worried about France falling to populist rule under Marine le Pen, a fresh centrist candidate named Macron won, and was rewarded by a handsome legislative majority to carry out his promise to reform France.

In Bangkok this week to refresh memories of 2 July 1997, I was struck by how history seemed to rhyme in 10 year cycles. Next month would mark not only the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to China, but also the 20th anniversary of the Asian financial crisis, when the baht was devalued.

2007 also marked the 10th anniversary of the US sub-prime crisis, which together with the European debt crisis, caused a decade of low growth for the advanced economies.

Initially, investors hardly noticed the tremors from the subprime crisis. On 19 July 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average touched a record high of 14,000. After an adjustment in August to 13,000, the index dropped below 11,000 on September 15, 2008, following the Lehman failure. It fell to a record twelve-year low of 6,547 on 9 March 2009, recording a 53.2 per cent drop over this period. Similarly, the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index also crossed the 20,000 milestone on 28 December 2006 and rose to the all-time peak of 31,958 on 18 October 2007.

A year later, it lost 66.6 per cent to a low of 10,676 on 27 October 2008. Ten years later, both indices have once again touched record highs, with the Hang Seng recovering past the 26,000 mark this month, whereas the Dow hit a record peak of 21,528 this week.

Because this rally is essentially tech driven, even the NASDAQ index has surpassed its 2000 tech bubble peak of 5,048 to hit a new peak of 6,305 on 2 June 2017. These market gyrations suggest that another consolidation may be reached sometime soon, except we do not know the exact timing and the trigger.

All we know is the there are many risks out there, including policy uncertainties from whether the Fed would continue to raise interest rates, the sudden re-appearance of inflation and possible geopolitical or natural disaster events.

So far, market worries about Chinas high leverage issues seem to have receded with the stabilisation of US-China relations and better performance at the growth level.

All in all, the markets have priced in so far almost all the Brexit and Trump fears and did not react too much to the recent normalisation of Fed interest rates. The stark reality is that no one knows for sure whether we are in over-priced territory or bubble zone.

The US economy appears to trundle along in reasonable shape, with unemployment numbers reaching new lows. All we do know is asset prices are at record highs, financed by historically high debt and abnormally low interest rates. In this zone of radical uncertainty, we are no longer sure that the GDP indicator reflects the true state of the economy. GDP measures the old resource-based economy well, but does not capture growth in a datadigital economy.

No economy reflects this contradiction more than China, which has shifted from being the largest assembler of the global supply chain towards a consumption and service-driven economy. Both consumption and services crossed 50 per cent of GDP levels, moving closer towards an advanced country pattern where consumption and services account for roughly 60-70 per cent or more of GDP.

If China succeeds in this historic transition, with the old resource-consuming industries, like coal, steel, energy, being phased out, even as the new internet economy trims the inefficiencies in the current Chinese distribution system, then China could break through her middle-income trap. But one recalls that South Korea achieved OECD status in December 1996, only to fall into the Asian financial crisis in 1997/8. Mexico did the same in 1994.

All countries go through growing pains, especially what Austrian economist Schumpeterian called creative destruction.

This transition creates massive winners and also losers. We see this pattern being reflected in the mixture of top Dow Jones index component companies, whereby the leading tech stocks are being priced to win, whereas the old energy, manufacturing and distribution companies are struggling to maintain their market share. Given these radical uncertainties, history is replete with the rise and fall of nations, as well as the rise and fall of companies.

It teaches humility in forcing us to think holistically on the broader trends, whilst sorting out the signals from the noise. Emerging markets in Asia today are facing what is called a middle income trap whereby they need to break through a pain barrier to rise to advanced income status.

Advanced and aging economies countries like Britain and Japan face the opposite, a high income trap where if major policy mistakes are made, a rich country may slide into stagnation and possible lower income levels. Ultimately, demographics and geography determine destiny.

Asia may face many growing pains and a complex operating environment from disruptive technology and excessive competition, including geopolitical rivalry. Western analysts disdain for Asian demagogues is now being haunted by their own demagogues.

Basically, in the midst of these complex transitions through mega-trends, there is also a governance transition. The millennial generation is rapidly taking over in terms of consumption lifestyle, innovation and governance style.

History suggests that it will not be a bloodless transition. Despite all such noise, we should do well to remind ourselves that Asia is still where there is still demographic and technological growth.

Lets see whether the next market adjustment will stall or disrupt that growth trajectory. Happy 10th and 20th anniversaries!

The writer, a former Central banker, is Distinguished Fellow, Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong.

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NEX Optimisation Rolls Out New Automation Settlement Service for OTC FX – Finance Magnates

Posted: at 8:09 am

NEX Optimisation has implementedout a new settlement service for over-the-counter (OTC) FX, helping better facilitate and streamline bilateral settlement netting processes for market participants. The launch will mark one of the industrys first instances of a fully automated Settlement Netting Service, initially targeting OTC FX as well as additional asset classes moving forward.

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The new service will help address thelingering issue of settlement failure rates. While only estimated at nearly 3 percent, these do amount to nearly $1.5 billion on a daily basis. However, the deployment of an API to simultaneously communicate with clients, banks and custodians systems will help mitigate and ideally reconcile this issue.

NEX Optimisations service will abandon the manual process in favor of automated netting between clients and their dealers to date, manual methods have resulted in settlement fail rates and other unnecessary fragmentation that has had a disconnect with markets.

In its first iteration, NEXs Settlement Netting Service will target and automate the settlement netting of only OTC FX, though is also slated for an expansion into all asset classes in the near future. The service was developed utilizing Traianas technology infrastructure, yielding several new benefits for trading activities and settlement processing.

This includes heightened efficiency via the reduction of lead time between netting and settlement as well as a lower operational and funding costs, settlement fail breaks and costly claims. This has been one of the largest areas of emphasis through its Settlement Netting Service, which had been working to improve in this area.The service will also help provide a standardized process for netting participants. In addition to reduced risk exposure, the automated service is also in full compliance with regulatory regimes and the new FX Global Code of Conduct.

Joanna Davies, Managing Director at Traiana, commented on the launch: The Settlement Netting Service will allow traders to execute with any bank on any trading venue and enjoy optimised, efficient, automated and consistent post-trade processing from execution through settlement.

Settlement netting processes have traditionally been fragmented across organisations and asset classes, requiring extensive manual processing, which does not reflect the way in which the market is moving. By automating the entire netting process via a central hub, weve brought an essential tool to the market that will significantly reduce breaks and have a direct impact on costs for our clients, she added.

The release of the Settlement Netting Service comes just one month after NEX introduced a new infrastructure for NEX Infinity, which improved testing for FX and cash equities on the distributed ledger. The initiative has since helped clients benefit from less complexity and more optimized resources across the transaction lifecycle.

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Groups draft changes in law on poll automation – Inquirer.net

Posted: at 8:09 am

Several poll watchdog groups are now drafting amendments that they would propose to strengthen the 10-year old Election Automation Law.

In a press briefing, the Automated Election System (AES) Watch, transparentelections.org, Philippine Computer Society and Reform Philippines Coalition (RPC) said they were already outlining provisions aimed at changing and improving Republic Act (RA) No. 9369.

We are actually drafting a new Automated Election System (AES) law that would strengthen the institution of automated elections in the country, said RPC spokesperson Glenn Chong.

He said the new AES draft aimed to better ensure that the basic principles of an automated poll system were safeguarded.

This would strengthen the security and ensure that our elections would be transparent, clean, honest and secure, Chong said.

Single contractor

The election watchdog groups had been criticizing the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for tapping Smartmatic International for the last three national elections despite the AES providers supposed violations of the provisions of RA 9369.

Recently, the groups said it was possible that fraud was committed during the May 2016 elections after all the security features required by RA 9369 were, according to the groups, disregarded by the Comelec and Smartmatic.

Maricor Akol, transparentelections.org coconvener, said one particular provision that the groups were considering is how to ensure accountability in case the error is committed by the Comelec.

There were no provisions for penalties [in RA 9369]. What would happen if they are the ones guilty of failing to secure the system? What if they fail to do something? In the revision that we are coming out with, well come out with the penalties, Akol said.

AES Watch spokesperson Nelson Celis said the draft measure was already in its final review stage.

It is already for submission to the Senate hopefully in two to three weeks, he said.

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‘Borders on slavery’: Government’s internships welfare program criticised by unions, Labor – SBS

Posted: at 8:08 am

Up to 10,000 internships will be offered to unemployed youths over the next four years in a deal struck between the federal government and retail sector.

But not everybody is pleased with the scheme, with unions arguing if there are retail positions available, employers should instead be offering young welfare recipients ongoing work.

Jobless youths aged between 15 and 24 will undertake training before securing 12-week placements with major retailers under the government's PaTH internship program.

"They will get a start at a job and, you know what, they could go on to great heights," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday.

"They could go on to, like many others before them, running big businesses, owning big businesses and employing lots of other people, realising their dreams."

The PaTH scheme (Prepare, Trial, Hire) offers young jobseekers $200 a fortnight on top of their income support payments to undertake internships, and gives employers a $1000 upfront payment for taking them on.

Australian Retailers Association chief executive Russel Zimmerman says underprivileged youths will access the same opportunities as successful people before them who started out on the retail shop floor.

"We are hoping by this program, and being able to get people enthused about the retail industry and to get employers to take on more people, that we will get young people into retail, that they will see retail as a career, and work their way through," Mr Zimmerman said.

But Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney said the program offered no path to qualification, employment or workforce protection.

"This is a government-sanctioned program that actually borders on slavery," she told reporters in Melbourne.

It's offering them as free labour: ACTU

"If this does create new jobs, then pay the kids for the jobs. Pay them a wage. They're going to be productive. They're going to be contributing to the bottom line of these businesses."

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says the partnership is aimed at getting young people job-ready, giving them a go and finding them work.

"When we say that the best form of welfare is a job, we mean it, and we will put both the resources and the programs behind it," she said.

Government vows new jobs will be created

Jobs created through the program will be new positions, rather than replacing current roles or filling existing gaps.

Labor and the Greens are opposed to the program, insisting it will allow young people to be exploited by employers.

"If the PaTH program becomes simply a supply of cheap labour for employers who would otherwise be paying people full time wages to do that work, then that's a bad thing," deputy opposition leader Tanya Plibersek said.

About 620 young people have been given internships through the PaTH scheme since it began on April 1, with 82 young people securing ongoing work.

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Factions and the Crisis of Power – Daily Maverick

Posted: at 8:07 am

The African National Congress, both as a liberation project and governing party, faces daunting challenges.

Changes in the strategic environment deamand a rethinking and deliberate balancing. The strategic rebalancing needs to give way to a dialogue over ideas to manage the multiple dilemmas that blight our national life, a stagnant (now recessionary) economy dominated by racialised cartels, and emboldened reactionary forces buoyed by electoral fortunes.

However, a culture of pornographic and unproductive factionalism has become all-consuming within the ruling party, forestalling an imminently cardinal engagement within the organisation, and is devouring the body politic of the sole instrument of African peoples emancipation.

At the heart of the internecine antagonism between the myriad factions is control over state institutions. The state is seen, by the contending factions, not as a site of production of history but rather as a site of accumulation.

The abolition of the colonial-apartheid system of governance and its attended institutions did not resolve the conflict between the social democratic idea, as expressed in the National Democratic Revolution, and the reality of largely racialised social divisions. A great deal of work remains to be done. There still remains an urgent need to achieve an estate of equal citizenship for the historically marginalised black, particularly African people, not just in theory but as a matter of socio-economic fact. Today this process of social democratisation, though advanced, largely because of deliberate policies of the African National Congress, remains incomplete.

We have no need for a litany of statics for the purposes of this intervention. The plain fact is that black Africans are vastly and proportionally over-represented among those who suffer the maladies and afflictions of social marginality in South Africa, however measured. African communities are among the most miserable, violent, and despairing places in this land of fabulous wealth. The prisons are overflowing with young African black men, rates of infection with HIV and other chronic diseases are unacceptably and terrifyingly high in African poor communities, African communities experience lower life expectancies, higher infant mortality rates, lower levels of academic achievement, higher poverty rates, and greater unemployment.

Thus, it is mind-boggling that in the midst of an acute socio-economic emergency, the party of that imminent son of our revolution, OR Tambo, should be bound hand and foot by unproductive factional intrigues. The factional fractures have become unbridgeable ideological chasms.

On the one hand, a faction much maligned by the white-owned media and the chattering classes, distinguished by its callous incompetence and a lackadaisical attitude towards public finances, has sloppily and belatedly donned itself with revolutionary garments.

On the other hand, we have a faction of cynical snake-oil salesmen who are wont on insisting that the National Democratic Revolution as a governing ethos can have no other function than to serve and safeguard the interests and economic-cultural domination of white monopoly capital, which they insist, astonishingly, is a figment of our imagination.

The net effect of these factional contrivances has been the incremental socio-cultural civic ex-communication of the oldest liberation movement on the African continent. There has been a marked demoralisation on the constituent elements of the National Democratic Revolution as expressed in the worrisome results of the 2016 local government elections.

As we deliberate in the policy conference, we must reassert the ethos of service to our disinherited popular masses. We must reject cults of personalities and unproductive factionalism that are leading our revolution adrift. We must categorically and boldly assert that white monopoly capital is the enemy of a sovereign people, and adopt policies that unflinchingly challenge power of the finance-industrial-resource white complex. Equally we must send an unequivocal message to the contemptuous philistine section that we lost our best sons and daughters in the struggle for to liberate this country. We will therefore not mortgage the inheritance of our forebears for defiled pieces of silver.

The primary role of the African National Congress, as the steward of civic cohesion, insurer of geopolitical integrity, guarantor of social progress, and a depository of historic experience, is to direct societys gaze to the effective truth of national redemption, commonly known as the National Democratic Revolution. This task must be undertaken with revolutionary moral clarity and energy. DM

Andile Lungisa is former deputy president of the ANC, Eastern Cape.

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Factions and the Crisis of Power - Daily Maverick

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1. MONDRIAN LOVED TO BIKE – artnet News

Posted: at 8:07 am

In hisnew biography of Piet Mondrian, Dutch art historian Hans Janssen sets out to abolish the myth of the artist as recluse, ascetic being, and mechanical/unemotional figure slaving in his studio. Instead, he reveals the true nature of [a] man who embraced life, and was completely fascinated by painting.

Though Mondrian was, no doubt, a mysterious and elusive man, Janssen endeavors to draw a portrait of the Neo-Plasticist hero as a practical man, lessinfluenced by his belief in Theosophic philosophy or Goerthes color theory than his enjoyment of the company of women, love of music and food, and above all, abilities as an amazing danceran artist with a wholesomejoie de vivre.

In what is an impressive feat of research and scholarship into the life of Mondrian, Janssen takessome liberties in recounting the painters life, retelling parts of Mondrians story in the form ofvie romance andfictionalizing segments of the famed figures life based on plausible circumstances.

The most notable example of this may be a scene in which Mondrian is described as attending Josephine Bakers first performance in Paris in 1925down to his disappointment that she didnt dance the Charleston. There is no evidence that he did attend, [but] it is highly likely, notes Janssen.It includes passages like this, an invented dialogue with Henry van Loon in the section:

And this is the thing, said Mondrian. I hear that there was a young dancer with them, and no one knew what she would be doing. Charles developed a dance sauvage for her. He wanted her to appear scantily clad, or better still, wearing almost nothing, with just some pink feathers here and there, including at her wrists and ankles. That would nicely accentuate the suppleness of her body. She is apparently called Josephine Baker, and she is barely nineteen years old.

Nevertheless, Janssens biography of the Dutch master is riveting and eloquent. Here aresome of the tidbitsabout Janssens new, earthy Mondriangiven in this 625-page tome (120 pages of which were translated from its original, and form the basis of this article).

Piet Mondrian in his studio with (top) Lozenge Composition with Four Yellow Lines (1933) and (bottom) Composition with Double Lines and Yellow (1934). Paris, October 1933. Collection RKD, Netherlands Institute for Art History. Photo credit Charles Karsten.

At the tail end of WWI, Mondrian lived in Laren, Holland, and would travel from his home to his studio near Noolsewegevery day by bicycle (thats where he made Composition With Gray Lines of 1919). The book starts out, quite emphatically, by stating that Mondrian always enjoyed the bicycle ride, even when the weather was not good.

Granted, for a Dutchman, this is perhaps not so surprising.

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Grey Lines, 1918, oil on canvas. Courtesy Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

Janssen makes an interesting case about the origins of his path-breaking art concepts:

Mondrians literal interpretationof reality was also reflected in his interest in the literal meaning of words, which may have been prompted by a mild form of dyslexia. His peculiar use of language resulted from this interest: plastic means, bringing to determination, abolition of position and proportion. Such terms and phrases, as he used them in Dutch, were the outcome of his tendency to take words literally.

Mondrian wroteextensively for friend and fellow painter Theo von Doesburgs journalDe Stijl.Through these writings, Mondrian would then come up with theories of a new plastic, or Neo-Plasticism.

Starting in1910 (and perhaps before), Mondrian worked as an assistant to Professor Reindert Pieter van Calcar (18721957) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. As a way to make money during a time of uncertainty in his art practice, the artist would draw bacteriological specimens in the laboratory for the professor. Van Calcar specialized in cholera and performed a lot of quantitative and experimental research. Between 1901 and 1920, researchers at Leiden were awarded three Nobel Prizes. Janssen argues Mondrians experience working at Leiden University had a tremendous influence on theoretical breakthroughs in paintinga strategy of looking, measuring, and experimenting with nature.

Mondrian has grown up to become a painter, but the need to expose the essence has induced him to seriously consider becoming a church minister, or a conductor, writes Janssen, though in general, the bookmakes an effort to downplay Mondrians interests in Theosophy and mysticism. But the artist was very much into spirituality. Although Mondrian developed a scientific method or approach to art making, hewas convinced that the creative process was directed and led by the intuitive, and driven by unknown forces.

In 1918, Mondrian contracted the Spanish flu, an epidemic that took more lives than the Great War itself, with deaths ranging from 50 to 100 million. It is believed that Mondrian caught the disease from his housemate Jo Steijling (18791973), a primary school teacher who was very close to the artist. Mondrianssymptoms continued for months. By December 1918 tens of thousands of people died of the influenza alone. Throughout this time, he continued to work on his paintings in his studioand this may have helped his art.

As he wrote to a friend in 1929, While I have had the flu I have noticed how concentrated one unwillingly becomes, and that the work is the better for it.

Piet Mondrian,Victory Boogie Woogie (1944). Courtesy the Gemeentemuseum.

After WWI, Mondrian returned to Paris where the city was slowly becoming a hotbed for creativity, experimentation, and partyinghe was huge fan of the Paris nightclub scene and frequented theboteswhenever possible. However, while in Paris, his lack of success gave him severe doubts, and made him think about finding a job as a waiter or a grape picker. Janseen notes:

From January 1920 he toyed continually with idea of throwing in the towel and going to live with his friend Ritsema van Eck, who had offered him accommodation in the south of France.You understand, he [Mondrian]wrote, that once I am convinced that it will be financially viable because of N.P. [neo-plastic] work, I shall be off. I shall simply pick olives in the South. I can earn 12 fr. [francs] a day there, and people live off that.

It is probably well known that Mondrian was a great jazz fan, and was obsessed with how people danced to the music, regularly going to clubs in Paris during the 1920s. What is perhaps not common knowledge is that the artist was also a fan of noise music.

In June 1921 artist Luigi Russolo premiered his performanceBruiteurs Futuristesat the Thatre des Champs-Elyses in Paris. Russolo created instruments he calledintonarumori, apparatuses that produced acoustic noises that were reflected in their names: screechers, growlers, cracklers, bleepers, cluckers, poppers, howlers, croakers. Although we dont know for sure if Mondrian actually attended Russolo performance in Paris, Janssen notes that he wrotea lengthy article forDe Stijldetailing how theintonarumoriallowed the creation for purely abstract form of music.

During his time in Paris, Mondrian often complained about having a lack of money, since he couldnt sell his painting. This fits with his artistic rep for austere, rationalistic abstraction, but it was far from being true.

Not only did he have support from friends like Ritsema van Eck and Jo Steijling who both bought paintings from the artist, he also had fairly affordable rent. The issue was that Mondrian was not very good with money and lived a somewhat lavish lifestyle: He enjoyed the finer things in life, and most of all loved going out to best restaurants in town: Mondrian knew all the restaurants where one could eat well.

In attempt to be frugal, Mondrian started cooking from home and found that he ate much better and more cheaply, but alas, he felt that his social was in the outs, finding himself at home and in the studio at all hours of the day.

Piet Mondrian with Broadway Boogie Woogie, New York, 1943. Photo by Fritz Glarner. Courtesy the Collection RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History.

Despite the image ofMondrian as a solitary, hermit of a man, he actually did enjoy the company of women. He would take women out on walks, to restaurants, and out dancing to clubs. As Janssen puts it in his book, he had an uncomplicated interest in women, one that was unusually intense but at the same time enlightened and honourable. He was also highly attractive to women, He lived simply, but took pleasure in the finer things in life.

Just how enlightened and honourable was he? He hadan affair with the much younger Lily Bles (19091982), the daughter of Dutch poet Dop Bles (18831940). In 1929 Dop and his daughter, who was a much, much younger 19 at the time (Mondrian was 57), came to visit Paris and stayed with Mondrian. Dop and Mondrian had known each other for some time and were good friends. Mondrian and Lily continued their affair for years. Mondrian asked for Lilys hand in marriage, but in a letter she wrote to him in 1932, Lily denied his request because she was looking for someone her own age.

Maybe one Mondrians best known secrets is his passion for dance. The painter enjoyed going out dancing with friends and took dance classes all throughout his life. And, according to Janssen, the dance enthusiast was obsessed with the Charleston, a popular dance movement in the United States during 1920s, named after the city in South Carolina.

Mondrian was drawn to the dance for its connection to jazz and visual and rhythmic aspects. All over the world, however, the dance was frowned upon because it was viewed as immoral, lude, and overtly sexual. As Janssen puts it, Moondrian felt compelled, in 1926, to give an interview to the Dutch press threatening never to return to the Netherlands if the ban on the Charleston was enforced.

Piet Mondrian: A New Art for a Life Unknown (Hollands Diep, 2017) was published just before the opening of Mondrian to Dutch Design: 100 Years of De Stijl an exhibition celebrating centennial anniversary ofthe founding of the art movement. The show is on view at the Gemeentemuseum in Holland, through September 24, 2017.

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1. MONDRIAN LOVED TO BIKE - artnet News

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Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings – New York Times

Posted: at 8:06 am

(Where have we seen that sort of thing before Russia maybe?)

Or when the White House plays so many games with its press briefings, taking them off camera and placing conditions on how and when they can run or, in the case of its rare, unrestricted live briefings, using them to falsely accuse the news media of dishonesty?

For those who cherish a robust free press, its hard to feel much like partying after witnessing how some cheered Representative Greg Gianforte, Republican of Montana, for body slamming a reporter for The Guardian, Ben Jacobs. His sin: asking unwelcome questions.

The he had it coming camps celebration of the violence against a reporter seemed out of step with Mr. Gianfortes own response. He ultimately apologized, pleaded guilty to assault and pledged a $50,000 donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Then again, it wasnt out of step with President Trump, whose weekend tweet appeared to promote violence against CNN which, some argued, violated Twitters harassment policies certainly undercut Mr. Gianfortes message of contrition.

Yes, America, all of the attacks against something so central to your identity must have you in quite the birthday funk.

The likely reaction in anti-press precincts to a column like this one will be that mainstream journalists think theyre above reproach, which is nonsense.

When a real news organization makes a mistake, it takes action, as CNN recently did when it retracted an article about the Russia investigation, saying the article had not received the proper vetting. Three people lost their jobs.

The Trump administration torqued it into supposed proof that CNN and much of the rest of the news media including The New York Times and The Washington Post are fake news.

It was a powerful reminder to journalists everywhere to take the extra time to get it right, to make sure that the processes that ensure editorial quality and accuracy remain intact and strong.

The stakes are higher now, as the anti-press sentiment veers into calls for more action against journalists, if not against journalism itself.

Look no further than the new National Rifle Association advertisement. In it, the conservative radio and television star Dana Loesch angrily describes how they whoever they are use their media to assassinate real news, contributing to a violence of lies that needs to be combated with the clenched fist of truth.

Given that the ad was for a pro-gun group, this sort of thing tends toward incitement, Charles P. Pierce wrote in Esquire. (Added context: The N.R.A. chief Wayne LaPierre recently called academic elites, political elites and media elites Americas greatest domestic threats.)

The Fox News host Sean Hannity has urged the Trump administration to force reporters to submit written requests in advance of the daily White House press briefing, which, he said, should be narrowly tailored to specific topics the administration wants to talk about.

Mr. Hannitys good buddy Newt Gingrich went one better, suggesting that administration officials fully close the briefing room to the news media, which he has called a danger to the country right now.

Whats most extraordinary in all of this is how many people calling for curtailments on the free press are such professed constitutionalists and admirers of the founders.

The founders didnt view the press as particularly enlightened, and from the earliest days of the republic it certainly wasnt. (To wit, a passage in The Aurora, an early publication, described George Washington as the source of all the misfortunes of our country.)

But they drafted the founding documents to enshrine press freedom for good reason. As the Stanford University history professor Jack Rakove said in an interview last week, James Madison was most concerned about a misinformed publics acting on misplaced passions, and saw the press as an antidote. Were he alive now, Mr. Rakove said, Madison would be worried by the idea of government whipping up or exploiting what he called badly formed passions.

Sure, there were the occasional stumbles, like the short-lived Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which banned false, scandalous and malicious writing about the government, but they led to stronger free speech protections.

So this, our 241st birthday, seems just the time to invite some of our forebears to remind us including those at the top of the government why a free press is so important.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. Benjamin Franklin, 1722

There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a free press. Samuel Adams, 1768

The freedom of speech may be taken away and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter. George Washington, to officers of the Army, 1783

Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused. A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both. James Madison, 1822

There is a terrific disadvantage not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily, to an administration. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didnt write it, and even though we disapprove, there still isnt any doubt that we couldnt do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press. John F. Kennedy, 1962

Since the founding of this nation, freedom of the press has been a fundamental tenet of American life. There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the founding fathers called our noble experiment in self-government. Ronald Reagan, 1983

Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And its important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere. George W. Bush, 2017

Jaclyn Peiser contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on July 3, 2017, on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Celebrating Independence As Free Press Is Besieged.

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Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings - New York Times

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