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Ask an Expert: Political scientist Terry Jones discusses the changes afoot in Jefferson City
Terry Jones, a professor emeritus and internship coordinator in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has been an astute observer of the Missouri state capitol for decades.
But he’d never seen anything to compare with the events of the past five months in Jefferson City, culminating in Gov. Eric Greitens’ resignation on June 1.
It marked the first time since 2000, when Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash while campaigning for the U.S. Senate, that a Missouri governor did not complete his term.
Lt. Gov. Mike Parson has ascended to the governorship, becoming the 57th man to hold that office in the state’s history and already embarked on a listening tour around the state as he looks to strike a less divisive tone than Greitens did during his 17 months in office. Meanwhile, Parson’s former post remains vacant with no clear established procedure for filling it.
For the latest installment of the “Ask an Expert” series, UMSL Daily spoke to Jones about the historic midterm change, Parson’s transition to the governor’s office and what can or should be done to replace the lieutenant governor.
Other than Carnahan’s death in 2000, is there any other precedent in Missouri history for what has happened in the last two weeks?
My knowledge of Missouri history is quite good from World War II forward. I could not say definitively whether this ever happened in the 19th century. Missouri’s undergone two major revisions in its constitution – the first in 1875 and the second in 1945 – so certainly since 1945, no. Under the latest version of the Missouri Constitution, this is the first instance of this.
How rare has this been nationally?
It’s very unusual – not unprecedented but unusual – for governors not to fulfill their term. So that’s why, when it happens here, we have to treat it like very new news and we have to go back a ways to figure out whether it’s happened before.
What has Mike Parson had to do to transition to this new role?
First, former Lt. Gov. Parson, now Gov. Parson had some time to think about this. Since January, he knew – he had to know – that the odds that he was going to become governor were fairly high, so he had the opportunity to think about, “Well, if it happens, how would I proceed?” His persona throughout his career – and I’ve only known him since he was a state legislator – has been one of calm and friendliness. He’s serious about what he does but not serious about himself. He has a smile on his face. He believes he can get along with anybody. So he did not have to change to continue to project that. That was a stark contrast with then-Gov. Greitens, who clearly dealt with the world in terms of there being people that he admired and people whom he was very critical of. In the latter category was basically everybody in Jefferson City but him and his immediate staff. He didn’t differentiate. The members of the legislature – both Republican and Democrat – were very put off by that, as anybody would be.
What were your impressions of Parson’s first address to the General Assembly?
I wasn’t surprised at all. He had, in one sense, four months to write it. He was reassuring. The message was short and sweet: “The policy positions remain largely the same. I’m a Republican. I’m a conservative Republican. But I’m not going to make this set of remarks a set of specific agenda items.” But the tone was much different, and he went out of his way to describe the legislators in positive terms – as people who serve the state, not get rich off the state, who work hard, who are not lazy, who are dedicated, not third-graders.
The fact that Parson is more of an insider – that he has been in the General Assembly, that he was a senator before becoming lieutenant governor – how does that actually impact his ability to govern?
I think the word “insider” is a little unfair because it’s pejorative. He’s a veteran of the process. That gives him experience and credibility in working with others who are within the process. We live in a checks-and-balances, separation-of-powers system. The legislature has to pass legislation before it can become law. Of course, the governor has to sign it. Certainly, during Greitens’ first year, nothing passed the legislature that had Greitens’ stamp on it. Things he campaigned on, such as campaign reform – ironically enough – and rejection of gifts and so forth, none of that happened. Right-to-work was going to happen. As long as a Republican was elected governor, that was going to happen, and it did. So he had no impact on the policy outputs and changes in policy in the state of Missouri during his year-plus in office, because he never shifted into governing mode and never sat down with the legislature to talk about that.
So there’s the question of lieutenant governor. Parson has said that he would like to appoint a lieutenant governor. What does the law say? Can he?
First of all, I’m not a lawyer. My friends who are lawyers, which includes Mike Wolff, the former dean at Saint Louis U. law school, say it’s unclear. It’s ambiguous. When things are ambiguous, the best advice that I have and others have is that if it doesn’t say you can’t do it, then do it. He’s in a honeymoon period. Both a honeymoon born out of relief – “Boy, Greitens is gone” – and “You’re a nice guy, it’d be nice to have you as governor.” So if you’re going to do it, do it relatively soon. Don’t rush it, but don’t wait forever. It makes some sense to do that in terms of having a partner.
That will be different in Missouri. There are some states where the governor and the lieutenant governor run as a single ticket, and of course, that’s the way we do it at the federal level. In Missouri, the people make that decision, and people can and have had split tickets. I think the most notable example was when John Ashcroft was governor and Harriett Woods was lieutenant governor – a big distance on the political spectrum. More recently we had Peter Kinder and Jay Nixon – not as much of a policy difference as Ashcroft and Woods, but certainly a personality difference.
To date, the governor could not count on having the lieutenant governor as a complete and full partner on the team, unlike the United States, where a Mike Pence or Joe Biden filled that role for Donald Trump or Barack Obama. So this will be a rare opportunity for a governor to have that – somebody who the governor wants and it’s going to be clear the governor chose. There’ll be a closer link to the governor in terms of being able to utilize that individual for various policy and political initiatives.
What are the main responsibilities of that office of lieutenant governor in Missouri?
The overwhelming responsibility of the lieutenant governor is to be there if the governor cannot serve for reasons of health or other reasons, or is out of the state. As an aside, when we were in a situation of very sharp partisan differences – Republican John Ashcroft, Democrat Harriett Woods – Ashcroft was very reluctant to ever leave the state. During those eight years where it was Gov. Jay Nixon and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, Gov. Nixon interpreted it not as physically leaving the state but as being out of touch with the state. Given electronic connections now – he always had his cell phone – no matter where he was in the world, he was still within the state. So Peter Kinder never became governor, even for a second, even though Nixon was overseas on state trips and so forth. That aspect of it – the person filling in while the governor’s in Europe or something – that’s gone by the wayside because of modern communication, technology.
The people occupying the lieutenant governorship used to only work part-time at lieutenant governor, which is to say they kept their full-time job. The pay was relatively low, and even in current terms it’s still relatively low. So if you wanted to continue to practice law or sell real estate or farm, you could do so, and most did. In the ’70s, a Republican named Bill Phelps ran for lieutenant governor, and his principal campaign message was “I’ll serve full-time.” He won, and indeed, his nickname became “Full-time Phelps.” Since that established a precedent, lieutenant governor candidates have said, “I’ll serve full-time. I won’t try to carry on another career during that period.”
Well, then the legislature started to think – and the lieutenant governor welcomed this, whoever it happened to be – “Well, as long as you have all this time on your hands, maybe we could put you on this commission and put you on this commission and put you on this commission.” So now, the lieutenant governor is an ex-officio member of a lot of fairly important commissions – tax credit commissions and so forth – and has also become the chief advocate for the elderly and the point person also for tourism.
Lastly, Greitens ran as an outsider. Trump obviously ran as an outsider. Worldwide, people are running as outsiders and having success. Is this going to continue in perpetuity or do you think there’s a point where that message doesn’t work as well?
Let’s separate two questions. One is a professional judgment about whether occupying office without considerable experience at the governmental level is a good idea. History suggests – and we’ve had now at least in Greitens a very good example – it’s a very bad idea. Missourians, up until now, have wanted a resume. For the last 50 years, every governor had at least some experience. Probably the least experienced was Joe Teasdale, but he had been prosecuting attorney of Jackson County. Most of the governors had considerable experience: John Ashcroft, Warren Hearnes, Mel Carnahan. Jay Nixon was 16 years as attorney general and six years as state senator. It’s going to be a test for the next elections statewide where we have an outside candidate bragging about being the outside candidate running against an experienced candidate who emphasizes his or her experience. The jury’s still out. Whether or not enough voters will regard the Greitens phenomenon as a lesson about the importance of experience has yet to be tested, but it will be tested.
Short URL: https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=74417

domain: news


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December 22, 2010
PAUL GIAMBANCO, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,
THEODORE SHERRER, JR., CHRISTINE M. HUJBER, DEFENDANTS, AND CLARENDON NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Mercer County, Docket No. L-1032-06.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
Argued October 20, 2010 - Decided Before Judges R. B. Coleman and Lihotz.
This case requires us to review whether a material misrepresentation made by a claimant seeking benefits during an insurance examination will forever bar coverage of future claims submitted under any subsequent policy issued by the same insurer. Plaintiff Paul Giambanco appeals from the December 4, 2009 summary judgment dismissal of his declaratory judgment action seeking underinsured/uninsured motorists (UIM/UM) and personal injury protection (PIP) benefits to compensate him for personal injuries suffered in an April 27, 2004 motor vehicle accident (the 2004 accident). Plaintiff was a front-seat passenger in a vehicle operated by Christine Hujber and insured by defendant Clarendon National Insurance Company.
Fifteen months earlier, on January 26, 2003, plaintiff had also suffered injuries in an accident while a passenger in Hujber's automobile (the 2003 accident). At that time, plaintiff completed a PIP application, an affidavit of no insurance, and an examination under oath giving inaccurate information about his identity. Specifically, plaintiff used his brother's name, date of birth and social security number, rather than his own, claiming he was in "a self-imposed witness protection program" and feared for his safety if his whereabouts were discovered. Plaintiff's deception was uncovered prior to final adjudication of his claims regarding the 2003 accident, although no question had been raised challenging the materiality of his injuries or the reasonableness and necessity of medical treatments rendered following the 2003 accident.
In the litigation initiated by plaintiff following the 2004 accident, defendant moved for summary judgment. In its review, the court relied upon the insurance policy's "Concealment or Fraud" provision, determining plaintiff's prior misstatements about his identity following the 2003 accident precluded recovery for injuries incurred in the 2004 accident, even though plaintiff had been completely forthright following the 2004 accident.
On appeal, plaintiff argues the clause relied upon by the court is ambiguous as to time, requiring an interpretation that favors plaintiff. We agree and conclude the clause is limited by the period of the policy, which has not been provided in the record. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.
These are the undisputed facts taken from the summary judgment record regarding the 2004 accident. While Hujber's vehicle was stopped at a traffic light on Route 29, where it intersects with South Warren Street in Trenton, Theodore Sherrer's vehicle struck Hujber's automobile in the rear. Plaintiff, a front-seat passenger in Hujber's car, sustained injuries, including disc bulges at L4-5 and C5-6, as well as tears in his right knee medial meniscus, right anterior cruciate ligament and shoulder.
In the course of discovery undertaken in plaintiff's negligence action following the 2004 accident, it was learned Sherrer had no automobile liability insurance when his vehicle struck Hujber's vehicle. Defendant moved to intervene. Plaintiff put defendant on notice of his claim for UIM/UM benefits and amended his complaint to directly name defendant in the action and requested a determination that defendant was obligated to pay his PIP and UIM/UM benefit claims. The court added defendant as a direct party. Defendant commenced discovery and participated in non-binding arbitration.
Prior to its direct involvement in the 2004 accident litigation, defendant had uncovered plaintiff's false statements during the 2003 accident insurance investigation. Defendant became aware of plaintiff's misstatements when its investigator, who had spoken to plaintiff following the 2003 accident, was also assigned to conduct plaintiff's examination under oath in the insurance investigation of the 2004 accident. Defendant's investigator recognized plaintiff from the previous encounter and plaintiff admitted he filed the 2003 claim for PIP benefits using his brother's name, "Salvatore Giambanco," along with Salvatore's social security number and date of birth.
In the litigation resulting from the 2003 accident, defendant moved to disclaim its obligation to provide PIP benefits to plaintiff because he had manufactured his identity. The court granted defendant's request for summary judgment on July 26, 2006 and relieved defendant "of any duty to provide insurance coverage" to plaintiff under the policy. Further, plaintiff was ordered to repay $4,174.13 in PIP benefits defendant had previously paid.
At some point, in the 2004 accident litigation, defendant, armed with the July 26, 2006 order from the 2003 accident litigation, asserted it had no liability for plaintiff's PIP and UIM/UM claims. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. During oral argument before the Law Division, plaintiff explained he had been completely truthful in the inquiry surrounding the 2004 accident and refuted defendant's contention that the policy's language precluded his current recovery. Defendant argued that although the July 26, 2006 order had been entered with respect to the 2003 accident litigation, it should equally apply to plaintiff's demands for coverage regarding the 2004 accident. Alternatively, defendant suggested the policy's "Concealment or Fraud" provision barred plaintiff's 2004 accident claims.
The trial court did not impose the terms of the prior order to bar plaintiff's recovery in the current litigation but agreed with defendant's argument to impose the policy's fraud clause, which stated: "There is no coverage under this Policy if you or any other person insured under this Policy has made false statements with the intent to conceal or misrepresent any material fact or circumstance in connection with any claim under this Policy." The Law Division judge found the clause was not only unambiguous, but sufficient to deny coverage. The court concluded the "any claim" language used was designed to protect the insurance company and deter insurance fraud. Accordingly, defendant's "right to declare the policy void as to plaintiff" was upheld. Plaintiff appealed.
A motion for summary judgment should be granted only when the moving party establishes the absence of any genuine issue as to a material fact. Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 142 N.J. 520, 539-40 (1995). In our review of a grant or denial of summary judgment, we apply the same standard as the trial court. Moore v. Woman to Woman Obstetrics & Gynecology, L.L.C., 416 N.J. Super. 30, 40 (App. Div. 2010). We first decide whether there was a genuine issue of fact. If none is presented we decide whether the lower court's ruling on the law was correct. Brill, supra, 142 N.J. at 538-41.
We begin our review by recognizing we must consider the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiff, granting him all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the established facts. Ledley v. William Penn Life Ins. Co., 138 N.J. 627, 635 (1995). Further, we owe no special deference to the trial judge's interpretation of the law and the legal consequences that flow from the established facts. Zabilowicz v. Kelsey, 200 N.J. 507, 512-13 (2009); Manalapan Realty L.P. v. Twp. of Manalapan, 140 N.J. 366, 378 (1995); Homesite Ins. Co. v. Hindman, 413 N.J. Super. 41, 46 (App. Div. 2010); Sealed Air Corp. v. Royal Indem. Co., 404 N.J. Super. 363, 375 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 196 N.J. 601 (2008); Spring Creek Holding Co. v. Shinnihon U.S.A. Co., 399 N.J. Super. 158, 190 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 196 N.J. 85 (2008).
Our review must also be guided by well-settled principles governing the interpretation of insurance contracts. Primarily, we note "the words of an insurance policy are to be given their plain, ordinary meaning. In the absence of any ambiguity, courts should not write for the insured a better policy of insurance than the one purchased." Zacarias v. Allstate Ins. Co., 168 N.J. 590, 595 (2001) (internal quotations and citations omitted). "A liberal construction of an insurance policy is not warranted when the policy is clear on its face." Cassilli v.
Soussou, 408 N.J. Super. 147, 154 (App. Div. 2009) (internal quotation omitted). "In the absence of ambiguity,  a court must enforce the policy as written." Ibid. (internal quotation omitted).
However, because insurance policies are "contracts of adhesion, such policies are subject to special rules of interpretation." Longobardi v. Chubb Ins. Co., 121 N.J. 530, 537 (1990). When an ambiguity is discerned, such as, "the text appears overly technical or contains hidden pitfalls, cannot be understood without employing subtle or legalistic distinctions, is obscured by fine print, or requires strenuous study to comprehend[,]" we "will depart from the literal text and interpret it in accordance with the insured's understanding, even when that understanding contradicts the insurer's intent[.]" Zacarias, supra, 168 N.J. at 601 (internal quotations and citations omitted). See also Progressive Cas. Ins. Co. v. Hurley, 166 N.J. 260, 277-78 (2001) (stating the interpretation of ambiguous language favoring coverage for the insured should be applied); Cassilli, supra, 408 N.J. Super. at 154 (stating courts will generally "construe ambiguous language in favor of coverage for the insured").
As noted, the instant dispute centers on the "Concealment or Fraud" clause, which mandates forfeiture by an "insured who has intentionally concealed or misrepresented any material fact or circumstance in connection with any claim" under the policy. "Because the law disfavors forfeitures, Hampton v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 65 N.J.L. 265, 267 (E. & A. 1900), such clauses should be construed if possible to sustain coverage." Longobardi, supra, 121 N.J. at 537.
The Supreme Court has reviewed the meaning of policy clauses similar to the one presented here and instructed "'concealment or fraud' clauses apply when an insured misrepresents facts to the insurer that is investigating a loss." Id. at 538 (citations omitted). In this regard, the trial judge apparently adopted Longobardi's holding that "the intentional concealment or misrepresentation of any material fact relating to the insurance will void the policy. [As] any means any." Id. at 539 (quotations and citations omitted). The Court had instructed that the scope of the concealment or fraud provision extends not only to misrepresentations made when applying for insurance, but to misstatements made during the insurer's investigation of a claim. Ibid.
We are aware of no reported opinions explicitly addressing the circumstance here presented. Other matters interpreting the impact of a policy's fraud clause address an insured's material misrepresentation made either when applying for coverage or in the course of a claim investigation. See Id. at 543 (examining insured's material false statement during his examination under oath "in an effort to or for the purpose of hindering, deflecting or misleading defendant in the course of its investigative process"); Ledley, supra, 138 N.J. at 631-632 (examining insured's knowing misrepresentation of material facts relating to his health treatment). This matter is different.
Plaintiff did not challenge the application of the concealment or fraud provision to bar his claims originating from the 2003 accident. He also conceded the phrase "any claim" would extend to bar any type of coverage sought including PIP, UIM/UM, collision, comprehensive or liability. However, he challenges the temporal interpretation sought by defendant, arguing "it strains credulity . . . that there is no coverage . . . under the [defendant's] policy for future claims where [plaintiff] did not make false statements with the intent to conceal or misrepresent a material fact with [regard to] that future claim." Plaintiff suggests he has been punished for his misrepresentation following the 2003 accident and the benefits now sought must be allowed because he made no misrepresentation in the course of the 2004 accident investigation.
Defendant argues the unambiguous policy clause denies coverage any time a claimant conceals or misrepresents any material fact or circumstance in connection with any benefits sought for an accident that occurred under the policy. Defendant maintains "once a claim is fraudulently made," "the policy provides no more insurance coverage." Further, defendant asserts the forfeiture of coverage is "absolute," and it logically follows that all subsequent claims are precluded "as to that person."
Although we agree with defendant's argument that the policy clause "does not limit denial of coverage [solely] to those claims [occurring under the policy] where the claimant misrepresents himself or herself," we do not subscribe to defendant's proposed expansion of the fraud clause, extending its reach into perpetuity, such that plaintiff will forever be prevented from seeking coverage under an automobile liability policy between Hujber and defendant. The barring of benefits does not attach to individual claimants. Rather, the bar applies "under the policy," meaning the period of the policy during which the accident occurred.
We specifically note that the form policy included in the record limits claims to those that occur during the policy period. See Zuckerman v. Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co., 100 N.J. 304, 310-11 (1985) (stating an "occurrence" policy covers all acts occurring within the policy period regardless of when the claim is filed). Section III discusses "When and Where Coverage Applies," stating "The coverages you choose apply to accidents and losses that take place during the policy period."
Plaintiff's misrepresentation following the 2003 accident would attach to possible claims he might make during that policy period. However, once the period ends, a new policy begins. Hujber must reapply and redefine the requested insurance coverages for the next policy period. Likewise, defendant reassesses its risks and computes the applicable premium. Thus, if plaintiff's second claim was in all respects honestly presented and validly made under a new policy for a subsequent policy period, the fraud clause is not triggered and defendant's contractual obligations remain intact.
The two accidents were fifteen months apart. While it is likely they fell under separate policy periods, we cannot be certain of this fact because the Declarations defining the policy periods were omitted from the record. Our experience suggests automobile liability policies do not exceed a period of twelve months, with many extending coverage for merely six months.
Consequently, if the 2004 accident occurred during a new policy period, and not the same policy period as the 2003 accident, plaintiff's claims will not be barred as there is no basis to impose the fraud clause. We reverse the December 4, 2009 order and remand the matter for review of the policy periods and for further proceedings consistent with our opinion.
Reversed and remanded.
© 1992-2010 VersusLaw Inc.

domain: law


Arlington ranked behind No. 1 Madison, Wis., and No. 2 Rochester, Minn., according to Livability.com, a website that “explores what makes small-to-medium sized cities great places to live.
“Arlington strikes a great middle ground for those who want something less urban than Washington D.C., but more suburban than many of the other towns that ring our nation’s capital,” Livability editor Matt Carmichael wrote. “Arlington’s status on this list can be traced largely to a decision made back in the 1960s.”
“Arlington lobbied to run the Metro underground and planned for high-rise and high-density development nearby,” Carmichael continued. “The result is the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor that planners imagined as an ‘urban village.’ Each stop has its own function and identity. Together, its mix of retail, residential, government buildings, and offices help draw residents and businesses, but also help support the more traditional suburban parts of Arlington such as the cul-du-sac [sic], single-family-home neighborhoods of Country Club Hills and Columbia Pike.”
Livability scored localities in eight categories: economics, housing, amenities, infrastructure, demographics, social and civic capital, education and health care. Those factors were graded out of 100 and added together. Arlington had a score of 680 (Madison finished at 705, and Rochester and 685). Arlington received 88 points for its school system and 76 for amenities.
County leaders touted the ranking in a press release.
“This is gratifying recognition of decades of long-term thinking, planning and follow-through by many community leaders,” said Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette. “Our outstanding transportation network, strong neighborhoods, welcoming business climate, mixed-use development and great schools were all factors in our ranking.”
Flickr pool photo by @ddimick


Fans got the matchup they were hoping for in the 3/9 ACC tournament free pick as Duke and North Carolina get to do it a third time in the ACC Tournament from Brooklyn. The teams have split the season series, both winning games on their home court. The Heels and Devils should be familiar with each other – and not just because their campuses are 10 miles apart. The teams met 5 days ago in the regular season finale. Both squads are firing on all cylinders after big wins last night, so who has the edge in Friday’s game?
This will be the 22nd straight ACC Tournament where either North Carolina or Duke will play in the championship game.
The last time it didn’t happen was in 1996, when Wake Forest beat Georgia Tech and Tim Duncan was named ACC Tournament MVP. pic.twitter.com/VZkcmnwpP5
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 9, 2018
Can UNC Rebound From the Regular Season Finale?
North Carolina had a (regular season) sweep in their grasps when they went up 10 at halftime at Cameroon Indoor last week. The Tar Heels couldn’t hold that lead however and in fact were blown out by 20 points in the second half to fall to the Blue Devils 64-74 as +7.5 underdogs. Holding that first half lead has to be a bright spot heading into the 3/9 ACC tournament free pick however – especially considering that UNC notched an 82-78 win over Duke earlier in the season as -1.5 favorites.
These two rivals met in last year’s ACC tournament with Duke getting an 93-83 win, their sixth straight win over UNC in the ACC tournament. The Tar Heels have reason to be optimistic though, mainly because of the play of Theo Pinson. The senior is averaging 20.5 points and 11 rebounds through the first two games of the ACC tournament. His emergence has made up for the relative absence of Luke Maye and Joel Berry II. Those two Tar Heels leaders have combined for just 17 ppg through the first two rounds of the tourney and they went just 5-29 against Miami last night.
Is Duke Becoming National Title Contenders?
As it stands Kansas is on the fast track for the final #1 seed in the NCAA tournament but a Jayhawks loss combined with Duke winning the ACC tournament could put the Blue Devils in that spot. Duke is a team that nobody in the country wants to meet up with right now. The Blue Devils won 7 of 8 down the stretch and have one of the hottest inside-out combinations in the country right now between Marvin Bagley III and Grayson Allen. Bagley scored 33 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in the 88-70 dismantling of Notre Dame to open the tournament while Allen hit 5-6 from three on his way to 23 points.
Duke might be a bit banged up heading into the 3/9 ACC tournament as 6’10” forward Wendell Carter, Jr. has battled a foot injury most of the week. The combination of Carter and 6’11” Bagley were expected to be a huge advantage over UNC’s front line of 6’6″ Pinson and 6’8″ Maye. Duke has a +15 rebound edge in the two games this season. And of course, Duke being Duke they can just bring in 6’11” Marques Bolden or 6’10” Javin DeLaurier if Carter is not at full strength tonight.
3/9 ACC Tournament Free Pick Betting
North Carolina is winning by an average of 18 points through their first two ACC tourney games which is why the line may seem a bit low at DUKE -4. The public is liking Duke but only marginally at 57%. People forget that UNC is the returning national champions – but that being said they are 1-3-1 ATS in the last five contests with Duke. Frankly the Tar Heels do not have an answer for Bagley and the size of Duke inside. This means the Tar Heels will have to rely on their outside shooting to get the W – something that is going to be hard to do with their third game in as many nights. Duke’s depth prevails.
Free Pick: Duke Blue Devils -4


text:
Pratt Creative Xchange — Kingston, New York
We created this piece for OFS’s Imagine a Place Journal.
90 miles north of Manhattan, the city of Kingston, New York, has been experiencing a sort of creative renaissance. This new focus on their arts community has stemmed from an unlikely collaboration with dedicated individuals from the Pratt Institute. Together, they’re showing the impact that art and design can have on the culture of a place and the lives of young people.

domain: sociology


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UFC 263 did approximately 600,000 pay-per-view buys, according to a report from the Sports Business Journal.
That figure includes 500,000 buys domestically through ESPN+ and another 100,000 internationally. Those figures are based on industry estimates, because the Las Vegas-based promotion does not release official buy rates.
UFC 263 took place at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on June 12 and saw Israel Adesanya retain his middleweight crown with a unanimous verdict over Marvin Vettori in the evening’s headliner. In the co-main event, Brandon Moreno claimed the 125-pound belt with a third-round submission of Deiveson Figueiredo. The card also featured the return of Nate Diaz, who lost a five-round verdict to Leon Edwards in a non-title, welterweight affair.
That represents a significant increase from UFC 262, which was headlined by a lightweight title tilt between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler and drew around 300,000 buys on May 15.
Adesanya has proven to be a solid draw: UFC 259, which was topped by his bid to become a two-division champion against Jan Blachowicz, reportedly sold 800,000 buys, while UFC 253, which saw him successfully defend the 185-pound belt against Paulo Costa, sold approximately 700,000 buys.
UFC 257, which was headlined by the rematch between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor, is the top-selling event of 2021 with a reported 1.6 million buys. The trilogy between the two men is scheduled for UFC 264 on July 10 and will likely approach or surpass the 1 million mark.


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PGE retirees: Hands off our cash
Former execs fret that Enron creditors might nab benefits ranging from $6,000 to $19.3 million
Several retired executives and directors of Portland General Electric Ñ including former Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Harrison, who presided over the sale of PGE to Enron in 1997 Ñ are considering legal action to head off what they see as an Enron squeeze play to deny most of their retirement benefits.
The group, composed mostly of former employees, fears that their retirement and deferred compensation accounts Ñ totaling about $55 million Ñ may be claimed by Enron Corp. creditors in the wake of the June 26 bankruptcy filing of Portland General Holdings Inc., which administered the retirement accounts for the utility's managers.
'We believe there may be an effort under way by big New York banks to steal the money of all the retirees in Oregon,' said Don Kielblock, a retired PGE vice president of human resources.
Kielblock said he is negotiating with Enron's creditors committee, its bankruptcy counsel and Enron executives on behalf of 62 former PGE executives and directors and a handful of the utility's current executives.
Enron spokesman John Ambler said he couldn't confirm if the retirees would get all of their money back.
'Everyone wants to try to work this out,' he said. 'There are a lot of people who have their money in deferred compensation. It's not just Oregon people who are affected.'
PGE Chief Executive Officer Peggy Fowler was unavailable for comment, and company spokesman Scott Simms referred all calls on the subject to Enron.
'We're in a very significant battle with these big-time attorneys and big-time banks who are literally trying to steamroll us,' Kielblock said. 'These are the same banks that caused the problem in the first place, and their interest is in trying to recover some of our money. They can outspend us and run us over.'
If negotiations fail, Kielblock said the group intends to file lawsuits against the creditors, its trustee Wachovia Trust and PGE.
Enron's bankruptcy attorney and a representative of the creditors' committee did not return calls before deadline.
Big money at stake
Among those who may be left out by the PGH bankruptcy are former President and Chief Operating Officer Richard Reiten, who could lose about $1 million; Ruby Short, widow of Robert Short, a former CEO of PGE, $384,000; and former Albertsons CEO Warren McCain, a one-time board member, $266,000.
Harrison is owed the largest amount by PGH, about $19.3 million. The former CEO of PGE became an Enron director after the utility was sold to Enron and, according to the Washington Post, made $75 million on the sale of Enron stock before the Houston company went bankrupt.
Joe Hirko, a former CFO at PGE and later president of Enron Broadband Services, is owed about $8.5 million. He was indicted in May for securities fraud in the Enron bankruptcy debacle.
In a telephone interview, Harrison said he supports Kielblock's efforts 'because he's trying to help a lot of people. It affects me, but I'm more worried about the others.'
Though none of the high-level retirees lack for necessities, many are dipping into their savings to cover the loss of the monthly check, Kielblock said. The retirees already have lost thousands of retirement dollars invested in their 401(k) accounts when Enron stock plummeted in value.
Former PGE board member Gwyneth Gamble Booth is hopeful that they'll recover the money.
'We're taking a wait and see attitude,' said Booth, who had $113,000 in the account. 'I don't think the money is gone forever. I don't see how the bankruptcy court can take that.'
Petition filed with court
The group of 62 has filed a petition in New York bankruptcy court, Kielblock said, asking the court-appointed trustee to support the retirees in obtaining counsel and to set up their own creditors panel.
Several major New York banks, including JP Morgan and Citicorp, make up the other creditors committees. Enron also is seeking to sell PGE to raise cash to pay creditors.
'We can't afford to hire counsel of this magnitude,' Kielblock said. 'To them, $10 million is spending nothing.'
Kielblock said he expects the creditors' committee to make a decision on sparing the retirees' money by early next week.
'We've informed them they can't just take this money,' he said. 'I am a creditor, but more important, I administered these plans. What I care about more than anything is these managers.'
Kielblock and another source said Enron and PGE management decided in March to move millions of dollars in executive retirement funds from the holding company and put them under PGE's supervision, thus protecting the funds from the bankruptcy courts.
PGE's Fowler, Senior Vice Presidents Fred Miller, Pamela Lesh, Mary Turina and James Piro Ñ all directors of PGH Ñ were not among the 62 on the list of PGH's creditors. Fowler and a number of current executives elected not to have their deferred compensation in PGH, Ambler said.
Kielblock, however, said he believes that the March move was made to protect the current executives and left the others vulnerable to Enron creditors.
'It does bother me,' Kielblock said. 'What they did was legal. It didn't feel right. They would tell you they did it because Enron was getting ready to sell PGE, not PGH, and they needed to stand alone.'
Retirees suspicious of bankruptcy
Enron creditors have been eyeing Portland General Holdings funds since the Houston oil firm filed for bankruptcy in November 2001, Kielblock said. PGH is an Enron subsidiary and a one-time shell company for PGE's nonregulated companies. Under its auspices, PGH held six different retirement accounts for executives, middle managers and outside directors.
Some of the retirees said they were suspicious of the PGH bankruptcy, which lists no other debtors besides PGE, Enron and the 62 executive savings accounts. PGH also owes PGE $5 million and Enron $25 million.
Three days after the holdings group filed court papers, its bankruptcy was consolidated with Enron and its reorganization plan was announced prior to any claims being submitted.
Documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in southern New York show that PGH's board, including PGE's Fowler and Miller, resigned June 20 Ñ a week before the company filed for bankruptcy.
'They knew they were going to file for bankruptcy and didn't want to tangle up anyone in PGE,' Kielblock said of the resignations. 'It left us extremely stranded. There was no one for us to talk to.'
The group of employees, including some middle managers, were enrolled in management-deferred compensation and supplemental retirement plans, which allow them to deposit earnings and bonuses in an account with higher interest rates and a company match. The money was held tax-free and dispersed in monthly payments.
The former members of PGE's board of directors, meanwhile, were enrolled in their own deferred compensation plan.
At this time, Kielblock said, the creditors want the employees to get only about $12 million of the $55 million they saved over the past three decades.
'The creditors want 30 cents on the dollar; we want a dollar on the dollar,' he said. 'What we're fighting for is the total amount.'
At first, it seemed that few PGE executives had been affected by the PGH bankruptcy. When interviewed last week, PGE and Enron said only eight executives would be affected by the PGH collapse.
Enron's Ambler said they did not include the other 54 executives and directors because they had filed claims previously in court.
'Our counsel felt that some of these 62 people, including the others filed under other subsidiaries, should be included in the PGH filing,' Ambler said. 'These are not new claims. I'm sorry if I misconveyed that previously.'
Kielblock said it's PGE that will suffer the most damage if the retirees pursue litigation because any potential buyer of the company would shy away from additional liabilities. A sale to the city of Portland reportedly fell apart over the cost of potential liabilities facing PGE, according to city Commissioner Randy Leonard.
'The creditors have said all along we're not going to get PGE wrapped up in Enron's bankruptcy,' Kielblock said. 'They want it whole to sell it. That's where they stand to lose the most. They need all the public support they can get to get most dollars out of PGE. Buyers won't be interested if there are all these threats to PGE.'
Ambler said he doesn't believe that the retirees' next step will harm any potential PGE sale.

domain: finance


text:
Kaitlyn Bristowe almost competed for Juan Pablo Galavis' heart in his season of "The Bachelor". Although her audition for season 18 back in 2014 didn't work out, the former leading lady of "The Bachelorette" didn't have any regret.
"I'm just so glad nobody picked me for his season," Kaitlyn told host Chris Harrison in the Monday, September 7 episode of "The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever!" "I remember making my video, being like 'I can't wait to meet Camila!' Then at the end [of the season] I was like 'Whew!' "
Kaitlyn, who prior to starring in season 11 of "The Bachelorette" competed for Whitney Bischoff's love in season 19 of "The Bachelor", wasn't a fan of Juan and how he treated Clare Crawley. "Worst Bachelor ever," said Kaitlyn of Juan. "I feel bad saying that, but what comes to mind is he just wasn't what America wants to see in a man."
Referring to when Juan told Clare, "I love f***ing you, but I don't know you," the "Dancing with the Stars" contestant went on to say, "It was disgusting." She added, "I just feel like the way a man speaks to a woman — it's a respect thing. When that's what happens when the cameras are off, I don't know why she didn't run as fast as she could."
Prior to this, Kaitlyn opened up about the criticism she received over her physical appearance which eventually took a toll in her. Showing her vulnerable side on Instagram Stories by sharing a picture of herself crying, she wrote on Saturday, September 5, "I forgot how mean people are when you go on TV."
"Just so many 'She looks so old and plastic' comments everywhere. You win today trolls. It got to me," she continued.
The TV star, who is set to compete for the Mirrorball Trophy in upcoming season 29 of "Dancing with the Stars", further elaborated her feelings in a follow-up video. "I had a good cry, didn't somehow ruin my eyeliner," she shared. "I honestly am so tired that anything will set me off right now, plus I am PMSing so great combo."
"But I felt my feelings. I got it out, sometimes I like to be honest on here but not always be 'woo, happy,' " she continued. "I had a weak moment, cried it out, felt it all, now poured myself a glass of wine, and remember what's important in life."

domain: entertainment


text:
EU States gather to discuss imposition of climate taxes and carbon pricing on European aviation sector
Wed 26 June 2019 – A coalition of EU States came together last week in the Netherlands to discuss how carbon pricing and taxes could be applied to Europe’s air transport sector. At a conference convened by the Dutch government, the country’s finance minister, Menno Snel, said it was unfair aviation escaped taxes compared to other transport sectors and called on States to work together to create a European aviation tax and carbon pricing system. His stance was supported in presentations by ministers from Sweden and France, who called for a carbon tax on fossil aviation fuel and that the next European Commission tackle the issue as a priority. The EU Commissioner responsible for taxation, Pierre Moscovici, said the Commission was ready to work with States willing to impose a fuel tax on flights between them. A researcher from Oeko-Institut estimates if flights covered by the EU ETS were taxed on their fuel, it would raise around €8.7 billion ($9.9bn) annually for European treasuries.
“Travelling by plane allows us to cross as many borders as we like – the world is at our feet and that is good – but there are also problems caused by flying, and the pollution doesn’t stop at our borders,” Snel told invited EU government representatives and academics. “Some might say creating an aviation tax won’t make a big difference but I think if we do it together, it really can.”
The Dutch government is planning to impose a ticket tax of €7 per flight, despite having pulled back from imposing such a tax a decade or so ago after a downturn in passenger traffic at Schiphol airport and travellers reportedly choosing to take flights from neighbouring countries. Snel said it was better for States to tackle the aviation pollution issue together.
“An EU-wide approach will make carbon pricing and aviation taxes even more effective,” he said. “It will prevent cross-border effects and create a level playing field where we can all share the same benefits at the same time. It makes sense to tax things that are undesirable than things that are desirable, such as more jobs. We want to shift the tax burden and putting a price on emitting carbon is a good way to do it. We also have an idea how we can do this although they are not set in stone and everything is up for debate.”
Snel said it was commonly believed international civil aviation’s Chicago Convention prevented States from taxing jet fuel (kerosene) on international flights. “It’s true the Convention doesn’t allow us to tax the fuel already onboard once a plane arrives but the restriction does not apply to fuel taken onboard before departure,” he argued. “That’s good news for all of us. Imposing a fuel tax would be a strong incentive for carriers to develop cleaner fuels. More importantly, it’s only fair that they pay.”
He was supported by Sweden’s Minister of Finance, Magdalena Andersson, who said the Convention had been good for trade and economic growth but new challenges were now having to be faced.
“Our view is that taxing aviation fuel would make a lot of sense,” she told delegates. “Just as a carbon tax on other fossil fuels, it doesn’t just address climate change, it also addresses the imbalances that exist today between different modes of transportation. All we have is this huge exception for the aviation sector and this is clearly a harmful subsidy. A tax on aviation fuel would meet the ‘polluter pays’ principle and raise public funds that could be used for important investment and climate-friendly technologies. It would also be easier to administer both for authorities and companies.
“A tax would both stimulate energy efficiency and the reduction of fossil fuels as we would only tax the fossil content of the fuel, and this would encourage the much-needed production of biofuels for airlines.
“Of course, it can also change people’s behaviour and a reminder that when we are flying, we are polluting our climate and so we need to pay for it. High income households do fly more frequently and longer distances than those on lower incomes, so the tax would be paid mainly by high income earners.”
Andersson said she expected there would be challenges to such a policy at ICAO but Sweden was willing to take the initiative “and we would be happy if we could have more friends in those discussions.”
She added the EU ETS only applied within the EU and did not ensure aviation contributed sufficiently to the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“We also have CORSIA but as I see it, it can only be a relevant policy tool if it is ambitious enough and what has been outlined so far is by no means sufficient in order to tackle climate change. So we clearly need stronger action nationally, bilaterally and internationally. We need to fill up the aviation taxation toolbox and it’s urgent.”
French ecology minister Brune Poirsson, whose government has been confronted by the ‘gilets jaunes’ mass movement that initially started as a public protest against rising environmental taxes on fuel, told the conference via a video: “It makes no sense for the majority of citizens to pay significant taxes on their car fuel in order to commute to work in their daily lives, while aviation fuel is not taxed for people who fly thousands of kilometres to go on vacation. This creates a feeling of deep injustice and unfairness and it hampers social acceptability for environmental policies.”
She acknowledged aviation had already taken action to reduce its emissions within the EU ETS and the future implementation of CORSIA.
“It’s a good first step and France has been fully supporting the successful implementation of CORSIA because it represents a unique opportunity for the aviation sector to curb CO2 emissions on a global level,” she said. “But we need to go further and faster. It is therefore crucial the sector intensifies its efforts, in particular in R&D investment in disruptive low-carbon technologies.
“At the government level, a coordinated European approach would be the best way to avoid negative impacts, especially on our competitiveness. We are only at the beginning of the debate and all the relevant policy tools should be discussed, such as a direct tax on aviation fuel, strengthening the EU ETS by reducing the free allocation [of allowances] for airlines and ticket or plane taxes.
“France strongly supports the initiative of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium to open a discussion on this topic. It should become a key part of the next European Commission’s work programme. If an agreement cannot be found within the EU within a reasonable timeframe, then France would be open to becoming part of a ‘coalition of the willing’ on aviation taxation.”
Other major aviation European countries like Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom have yet to express a public view on an EU-wide common approach to aviation taxation.
In addition to the Chicago Convention, another challenge in imposing jet fuel taxes on intra-EU flights is the EU’s own energy tax directive adopted in 2003 that exempts aircraft fuel from excise duty. As domestic aviation is outside the remit of the Convention, any country can charge a fuel tax or duty on domestic flights and EU Member States can also tax aviation fuel used in intra-EU flights but only by means of bilateral agreements.
EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the exemption was in stark contrast with the environmental objectives of the European Union.
“I can assure you the Commission is ready to work alongside Member States to explore all possibilities,” he told the conference via a video. “These include amending the directive to remove the exemption for aviation and maritime transport. In 2011, the Commission proposed to amend the directive in order to introduce taxation based on CO2 emissions and on the energy content of fuels. Unfortunately, the proposal had to be withdrawn in 2015 in view of the lack of unanimous support in the Council.”
Efforts to overcome the unanimity lock on EU energy taxation have so far failed although the Commission recently proposed a move towards qualified majority voting.
“I know it will be difficult to get this proposal adopted because in order to end unanimity, unanimity is required,” he reported. “But the important thing for us was to launch the discussion. We wanted to encourage Member States to take a stand and then be accountable to their citizens who had clearly expressed their concerns about climate issues in the recent European elections. We must live up to their expectations.”
Moscovici said the Commission could assist Member States willing to sign bilateral agreements by providing guidelines. He added the EU could work towards removing the fuel exemption from bilateral air service agreements with third countries by agreeing to tax fuel on a reciprocal basis. He named India, Japan, Brazil, Australia and the United States as examples since they already taxed aviation fuel domestically.
New aviation taxes should be looked at alongside other measures that include emissions trading, offsets, alternative fuels and operational improvements, he advised.
“The choice of measures should be based on the most effective way of achieving emissions reductions with the lowest impact on connectivity,” he said. “One thing is clear – the implementation of a modern energy tax system in line with our environmental objectives is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges that will face the next European Commission. It is essential this difficult work gets underway now.”
The conference also heard presentations by representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Ludger Schuknecht, Deputy Secretary General at the OECD, said carbon pricing was key for a cost-effective climate policy and was an economically and politically sound strategy. However, he said, there was currently almost a complete absence of carbon price signals in aviation.
“Asking aviation to share in the decarbonisation effort like other sectors of the economy would seem fair,” he said. “There are no simple answers but leaving aviation out of the equation is definitely not the answer. Stepping up pricing efforts in aviation seems both fair and efficient, and should complement broader carbon pricing efforts across all sectors, A tax on jet fuel, or its carbon content, is technically the most straightforward way. Coordination at the European and global level is crucial when it comes to a fuel tax, which is politically challenging.
“CORSIA can create incentives to price additional emissions but in its present guise it is not geared towards reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement or the decarbonisation of the aviation sector. Apart from a fuel tax, emissions trading is the most effective way to induce carbon abatement.
“Ticket-based carbon charges have the same demand effect as carbon prices but the effect on efforts to reduce CO2 emissions per unit of travel is less direct. They are also vulnerable to regulatory competition and require a coordinated effort across jurisdictions and should apply to all flights in the region, but they may offer a relatively straightforward approach to a fair and reasonably efficient carbon pricing for aviation.
“We need to convince citizens that what is at stake is a shift, not a loss, in economic activity – money we don’t spend on planes is not lost, it goes somewhere else in the economy.”
Ruud de Mooij, head of IMF’s tax policy division, said carbon pricing was effective and efficient, and induced behavioural changes in terms of fuel efficiency, fuel switching and consumption patterns. It could also offset the anomalous tax treatment of aviation, which along with international shipping, created large distortions. He suggested both sectors were natural sources of global climate finance.
The European Commission’s Director for Aviation, Filip Cornelis, said there was no one silver bullet measure that would decarbonise aviation and a basket of measures was required.
“It is something we have been working on for a number of years, maybe not fast and deep enough but a lot of different activities and measures are ongoing in technological developments to improve the fuel efficiency of airplanes, and much progress has been made,” he said.
“There is merit in looking at taxation but what I would argue is that we have to look at the efficiency of a measure in achieving decarbonisation. The uptake of sustainable fuels, for example, costs more than kerosene and will increase the cost of flying but they will reduce emissions very substantially. This is something we so far have not been able to do because the production of these fuels is very low. If we can address those two questions, we will be able to achieve very real emissions reductions while continuing to fly. Flying provides connectivity and we have made a lot of progress in our society in the last 25 years through having more opportunities to travel. Of course, we want to have the impact of that minimised.”
Cornelis said a study by the Commission showed the weighted average passenger ticket tax across EU States was already €11 ($12.50), adding that more work should be done to understand what impact ticket taxes had on demand, connectivity and emissions. “Of course, we can calculate what the revenues are from such taxes but the impact on emissions we still have to prove,” he said.
Maria Teresa Fabregas Fernandez, Director of Indirect Taxation and Tax Administration at the Commission, said taxation can play a key role in incentivising innovation in new technology and changing behaviours to achieve climate change objectives.
Beatriz Yordi, the Commission’s Director for European and International Carbon Markets, with responsibility for the EU ETS, said: “The measures we have in place will not help us reach Paris. We will need to step up ambition and take more measures – this is clear.”
On CORSIA implementation in Europe, Cornelis said: “We are working on a process worked out by the Parliament and Council that is written into the ETS directive, which says we need to produce a report within one year from the adoption of CORSIA, possibly coupled with proposals, on how we implement the scheme. We are in the early stages of that process and we will be moving forward with a public consultation and studies in the coming months.”
Added Yordi: “We are already proactive in adopting the monitoring provisions of CORSIA and we in Europe are working together on its environmental integrity and achieving a solid international agreement, although we do have some worries.”
Dr Eckhard Pache, Professor of Commercial and Administrative Law at the University of Wurzburg, said although the EU energy tax directive allowed for bilateral or multilateral agreements between EU Member States to remove the aviation fuel tax exemption for intra-EU flights, air service agreements (ASAs) with third countries had to be respected. Third country aircraft operators falling under those agreements that carried out intra-EU flights, must be exempted from fuel taxation, he said.
He estimated there were around 100 such non-EU operators but very few with more than single-digit intra-EU flights a week, with the exception of two major US freight operators, FedEx and UPS, which operated around 100 flights per week.
To avoid violating ASAs with third countries there were two possibilities, he said. One was to exempt all freight operators from the tax and the other was to include an exemption for all operators falling under a certain maximum number of weekly flights that would allow capture of all intra-EU flights from non-EU operators. As well as complying with ASAs, he said, this would ensure equal treatment for all operators in the EU aviation market.
"This would be compatible with not only the Chicago Convention but also with those existing ASAs. There would be no legal impediment for introducing this,” he reasoned.
Emissions allowances (EUAs) under the EU ETS are currently trading at around €25/tonne CO2e ($28) is equivalent 6.3 eurocents per litre of jet fuel, said Jakob Graichen, a senior energy and climate protection researcher at Öko-Institut. Under minimum excise duties stipulated under the energy tax directive, aviation fuel must be taxed at no lower than 33 eurocents per litre, so equivalent to an EUA price of €130.95/tonne.
On a 400km typical flight from London to Paris, Graichen estimates an additional per economy class passenger cost of €1.15 to cover the EUA price of €25/tonne. However, a fuel tax would add €6.02 per passenger, most of which would likely be passed on to the traveller, he said. A flight between Amsterdam and Rome would incur a fuel tax equivalent to €16.37 per passenger. If all flights covered by the EU ETS in 2017 had been taxed on fuel usage at 33 eurocents/litre, total revenues would have amounted to €8.7 billion ($9.9bn), calculated Graichen.
Commenting after the Dutch conference, Bill Hemmings, Aviation Director at Transport & Environment, said: “Member states have had a unique opportunity to assess what needs to be done about aviation’s climate impacts and it’s clear the kid glove treatment of the sector must end – starting with stepped up taxation on fuels and tickets and a further strengthening of the ETS. The call for a level playing field on taxing fuel between sectors came across loud and clear. The fact that some 82% of carbon is yet to be taxed in the ETS and fossil fuels are subsidised to the tune of €350 billion should be a wakeup call to all.”
In a statement issued ahead of the conference, trade body Airlines for Europe (A4E) said aviation taxes were not an effective tool to reduce CO2 emissions and that a number of ‘green taxes’ introduced in some EU Member States had neither helped reduce emissions nor been used to fund environmental initiatives.
A4E members Airbus, Air France, easyJet and Norwegian said the best way for aviation to address climate change was through continuous investment in technology for new aircraft, sustainable fuels and reformed air traffic operations.
“Taxes weaken airlines’ ability to further invest and also hurt consumers by making it more expensive to fly,” said Bjørn Kjos, CEO of Norwegian Air Shuttle.
The statement added that airlines had been paying for their emissions since 2012 through the EU ETS and was the only transport sector in the scheme.


text:
Everyone of us rated this book very highly, and it achieved an almost unheard of average rating of 9.0 on a scale of 0 to 10. There was a general hope expressed that the book will be widely read in the U.S. especially.
Rosie commented that the writing was really clear and that the science was well explained—which the rest of us also agreed with. She said the book was really fair and rational, giving both sides of each argument. She also appreciated the author giving the background on each of the ethical positions for and against stem cell research and therapy. "Given its timeliness," Rosie said, "everybody should read it!"
John and Rich agreed with Rosie's very positive comments. John said he thought the book was a wonderful discussion and that everyone should read it. Rich remarked that that "this is a really good book, a great book to read". He pointed out that unlike some of the books our group has read, this book was well condensed down and had very little repitition. Barbara likewise very much enjoyed the book.
Kevin S., Kirby and Scott also liked the book a lot, and each of them also gave it high ratings. However, each of them also had a few criticisms of the book. Kevin said that for him it was mostly review, though the author did do a good job outlining the various points of view.
Kevin commented that one thought that kept running around in his mind as he read the book was that this new stem cell science seems to be something mostly for rich Western people, and that the huge amounts of money involved could be used to much better purpose for general public health, etc. Scott agreed with that, but suggested that if this public money were not spent on stem cell research it would probably not be spent on health services for the poor in any case (given who controls the government!). Still, Kevin's basic point is well-taken: There is the much bigger issue looming before us of straightening out our failing public health system in this country.
Kirby noted the genuine importance of stem cell science, and agreed that the author did a very good job explaining both the scientific and moral issues involved. Nevertheless, he personally felt a bit bored by the book.
Scott said that for him all the scientific explanation was quite valuable and extended his rather limited knowledge in that area. On the other hand he was rather impatient with the extended discussion of the moral and political pros and cons, since the correct positions there seem quite obvious. This brings up the issue of how to rate books in general: Do you rate them for other people, or for how useful they were to you personally? Scott agrees that Stem Cell Now is a very important book that should be widely read, but still the second half of the book on the moral and political debates was not of much value for him personally. When it comes to the central issue in those debates, whether or not early embryos "are human beings", the answer is clearly that they are not! In the epilogue the author quotes the comment: "Is potentiality the same as actuality? You and I are potentially dead. But we are not yet dead, and until we are actually dead, it would be a mistake to treat us as if we were dead." In the same way, something that is only potentially a human being does not need to be treated in the same way that actual human beings are properly treated. Q.E.D. Once you understand this abstract point the moral appropriateness of stem cell research and therapy (or abortion too, for that matter) is completelely established.
Scott had a few other very secondary criticisms of the book, such as of the argument on p. 163 that the opponents of stem cell research had "predetermined" opinions and "lacked neutrality". This sort of liberal wishy-washyness is hypocritical since the author would not object to those on the other side having already made up their minds or "lacking neutrality". In point of fact in most arguments there is one side which has already done more investigation than the other, and/or thought things through more clearly, and therefore it is ridiculous to demand that no one should enter a discussion or debate with predetermined opinions.
John felt that those of us who gave the book a less than 10 rating (based on what we personally got out of the book) were in the wrong, because he felt the book is so important for educating the rather ignorant American population on this issue. And John just might be right about that!
Return to our complete list of books.
Return to our Science Group home page.

domain: library


- How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love (Wired) — if he doesn’t end up working for OK Cupid, productising this as a new service, something is wrong with the world.
- Humin: The App That Uses Context to Enable Better Human Connections (WaPo) — Humin is part of a growing trend of apps and services attempting to use context and anticipation to better serve users. The precogs are coming. I knew it.
- Spoiled Onions — analysis identifying bad actors in the Tor network, Since September 2013, we discovered several malicious or misconfigured exit relays[...]. These exit relays engaged in various attacks such as SSH and HTTPS MitM, HTML injection, and SSL stripping. We also found exit relays which were unintentionally interfering with network traffic because they were subject to DNS censorship.
- My Mind (Github) — a web application for creating and managing Mind maps. It is free to use and you can fork its source code. It is distributed under the terms of the MIT license.
ENTRIES TAGGED "machine learning"
Mating Math, Precogs Are Coming, Tor Bad Guys, and Mind Maps
An interview with Ash Damle of Lumiata on the role of data in healthcare.
Vinod Khosla has stirred up some controversy in the healthcare community over the last several years by suggesting that computers might be able to provide better care than doctors. This includes remarks he made at Strata Rx in 2012, including that, “We need to move from the practice of medicine to the science of medicine. And the science of medicine is way too complex for human beings to do.”
So when I saw the news that Khosla Ventures has just invested $4M in Series A funding into Lumiata (formerly MEDgle), a company that specializes in healthcare data analytics, I was very curious to hear more about that company’s vision. Ash Damle is the CEO at Lumiata. We recently spoke by phone to discuss how data can improve access to care and help level the playing field of care quality.
Tell me a little about Lumiata: what it is and what it does.
Ash Damle: We’re bringing together the best of medical science and graph analytics to provide the best prescriptive analysis to those providing care. We data-mine all the publicly available data sources, such as journals, de-identified records, etc. We analyze the data to make sure we’re learning the right things and, most importantly, what the relationships are among the data. We have fundamentally delved into looking at that whole graph, the way Google does to provide you with relevant search results. We curate those relationships to make sure they’re sensible, and take into account behavioral and social factors.
Software in 2014, Making Systems That Don't Suck, Cognition Troubles, and Usable Security Hacks
- Software in 2014 (Tim Bray) — a good state of the world, much of which I agree with. Client-side: Things are bad. You have to build everything three times: Web, iOS, Android. We’re talent-starved, this is egregious waste, and it’s really hurting us.
- Making Systems That Don’t Suck (Dominus) — every software engineer should have to read this. Every one.
- IBM Struggles to Turn Watson Into Big Business (WSJ) — cognition services harder to onboard than seemed. It smells suspiciously like expert systems from the 1980s, but with more complex analytics on the inside. Analytic skill isn’t the problem for these applications, though, it’s the pain of getting domain knowledge into the system in the first place. This is where G’s web crawl and massive structured general knowledge is going to be a key accelerant.
- Reading This May Harm Your Computer (SSRN) — Internet users face large numbers of security warnings, which they mostly ignore. To improve risk communication, warnings must be fewer but better. We report an experiment on whether compliance can be increased by using some of the social-psychological techniques the scammers themselves use, namely appeal to authority, social compliance, concrete threats and vague threats. We also investigated whether users turned off browser malware warnings (or would have, had they known how).
Artificial Labour, Flexible Circuits, Vanishing Business Sexts, and Themal Imaging
- Artificial Labour and Ubiquitous Interactive Machine Learning (Greg Borenstein) — in which design fiction, actual machine learning, legal discovery, and comics meet. One of the major themes to emerge in the 2H2K project is something we’ve taken to calling “artificial labor”. While we’re skeptical of the claims of artificial intelligence, we do imagine ever-more sophisticated forms of automation transforming the landscape of work and economics. Or, as John puts it, robots are Marxist.
- Clear Flexible Circuit on a Contact Lens (Smithsonian) — ends up about 1/60th as thick as a human hair, and is as flexible.
- Confide (GigaOm) — Enterprise SnapChat. A Sarbanes-Oxley Litigation Printer. It’s the Internet of Undiscoverable Things. Looking forward to Enterprise Omegle.
- FLIR One — thermal imaging in phone form factor, another sensor for your panopticon. (via DIY Drones)
Pattern Recognition, MicroSD Vulnerability, Security Talks, and IoT List
- tooldiag — a collection of methods for statistical pattern recognition. Implemented in C.
- Hacking MicroSD Cards (Bunnie Huang) — In my explorations of the electronics markets in China, I’ve seen shop keepers burning firmware on cards that “expand” the capacity of the card — in other words, they load a firmware that reports the capacity of a card is much larger than the actual available storage. The fact that this is possible at the point of sale means that most likely, the update mechanism is not secured. MicroSD cards come with embedded microcontrollers whose firmware can be exploited.
- 30c3 — recordings from the 30th Chaos Communication Congress.
- IOT Companies, Products, Devices, and Software by Sector (Mike Nicholls) — astonishing amount of work in the space, especially given this list is inevitably incomplete.
It's an extensive, well-documented, and accessible, curated library of machine-learning models
I use a variety of tools for advanced analytics, most recently I’ve been using Spark (and MLlib), R, scikit-learn, and GraphLab. When I need to get something done quickly, I’ve been turning to scikit-learn for my first pass analysis. For access to high-quality, easy-to-use, implementations1 of popular algorithms, scikit-learn is a great place to start. So much so that I often encourage new and seasoned data scientists to try it whenever they’re faced with analytics projects that have short deadlines.
I recently spent a few hours with one of scikit-learn’s core contributors Olivier Grisel. We had a free flowing discussion were we talked about machine-learning, data science, programming languages, big data, Paris, and … scikit-learn! Along the way, I was reminded by why I’ve come to use (and admire) the scikit-learn project.
Commitment to documentation and usability
One of the reasons I started2 using scikit-learn was because of its nice documentation (which I hold up as an example for other communities and projects to emulate). Contributions to scikit-learn are required to include narrative examples along with sample scripts that run on small data sets. Besides good documentation there are other core tenets that guide the community’s overall commitment to quality and usability: the global API is safeguarded, all public API’s are well documented, and when appropriate contributors are encouraged to expand the coverage of unit tests.
Models are chosen and implemented by a dedicated team of experts
scikit-learn’s stable of contributors includes experts in machine-learning and software development. A few of them (including Olivier) are able to devote a portion of their professional working hours to the project.
Covers most machine-learning tasks
Scan the list of things available in scikit-learn and you quickly realize that it includes tools for many of the standard machine-learning tasks (such as clustering, classification, regression, etc.). And since scikit-learn is developed by a large community of developers and machine-learning experts, promising new techniques tend to be included in fairly short order.
As a curated library, users don’t have to choose from multiple competing implementations of the same algorithm (a problem that R users often face). In order to assist users who struggle to choose between different models, Andreas Muller created a simple flowchart for users:
Dinosaur Tries to Suckle, Dashboard Design, Massive Visualizations, Massive Machine Learning
- Behind the Scenes of a Dashboard Design — the design decisions that go into displaying complex info.
- Superconductor — a web framework for creating data visualizations that scale to real-time interactions with up to 1,000,000 data points. It compiles to WebCL, WebGL, and web workers. (via Ben Lorica)
- BIDMach: Large-scale Learning with Zero Memory Allocation (PDF) — GPU-accelerated machine learning. In this paper we describe a caching approach that allows code with complex matrix (graph) expressions at massive scale, i.e. multi-terabyte data, with zero memory allocation after the initial setup. (via Siah)
Inside the Nest Protect, Log Structures, Predictions, and In-Memory Data Cubes
- Nest Protect Teardown (Sparkfun) — initial teardown of another piece of domestic industrial Internet.
- Logs — The distributed log can be seen as the data structure which models the problem of consensus. Not kidding when he calls it “real-time data’s unifying abstraction”.
- Mining the Web to Predict Future Events (PDF) — Mining 22 years of news stories to predict future events. (via Ben Lorica)
- Nanocubes — a fast datastructure for in-memory data cubes developed at the Information Visualization department at AT&T Labs – Research. Nanocubes can be used to explore datasets with billions of elements at interactive rates in a web browser, and in some cases it uses sufficiently little memory that you can run a nanocube in a modern-day laptop. (via Ben Lorica)
AI Book, Science Superstars, Engineering Ethics, and Crowdsourced Science
- Society of Mind — Marvin Minsky’s book now Creative-Commons licensed.
- Collaboration, Stars, and the Changing Organization of Science: Evidence from Evolutionary Biology — The concentration of research output is declining at the department level but increasing at the individual level. [...] We speculate that this may be due to changing patterns of collaboration, perhaps caused by the rising burden of knowledge and the falling cost of communication, both of which increase the returns to collaboration. Indeed, we report evidence that the propensity to collaborate is rising over time. (via Sciblogs)
- As Engineers, We Must Consider the Ethical Implications of our Work (The Guardian) — applies to coders and designers as well.
- Eyewire — a game to crowdsource the mapping of 3D structure of neurons.


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The Underground DLC for Tom Clancy's The Division is now out for Xbox One and PC owners, so we have captured some footage running at 1440p/60fps and ultra settings with our newly aquired Custom GTX 1080. If you are playing the game on PS4, you'll have to wait until August 2 to discover this new addition to the original game.
another weak show at Gamescom, ... Dogs on the stage, EA? Really? (15 minutes ago)
[url] shitty Cgi trailer, but i'm liking the idea of this one. biomutant. action RPG. basically rocket racoon: the game (2 Hours ago)
As long as they do it properly - do it justice to the original games, I'm fine with it. I personally would love a Xenogears remake, but that's beside Half-Life 3's level of impossibility. (3 Hours ago)
I believe a lot more old games will start being "remade" after Crash's trilogy's immense success. You can bet a lot of publishers and developers will want to jump on all that nostalgia money train. (3 Hours ago)
@KORNdog: I forgot about Sedna. My wish would be a mix of both, the best parts of each. But I will still take each as they are. (3 Hours ago)

domain: game


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On Thursday, 21 June, the Federal Government will have been in place for 100 days. Until 14 March 2018, when the coalition government between the Conservatives (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats was formed, the political situation was – especially in German terms – extraordinary. Since the federal elections in September 2017 it had taken nearly six months to form a new coalition.
One reason for the long delay in forming a new government were the high electoral losses for the CDU/CSU and SPD, which led to internal conflicts. After Chancellor Merkel failed to form a government with the Liberals and the Green Party, the SPD gave in into public pressure to enter another Grand Coalition.
After 100 days, the Grand Coalition now seems to be at an impasse. While it has managed to launch several legislative proposals – and pass some of them – the row about Germany’s asylum policy has overshadowed the government’s work for the past week and threatens to derail the coalition. The row erupted between the two sister parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), who have been in an alliance since 1949.
The dispute was sparked by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) announcing a “masterplan” on asylum policy which foresees to turn back certain refugees at Germany’s border. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has so far strongly refused to implement such a policy. If she is unsuccessful in striking bilateral deals with other EU countries, such as Italy, on taking back already registered asylum seekers, this could lead to the collapse of the current government and potentially see Chancellor Merkel’s political career end abruptly.
Despite these significant risks for the coalition government and Angela Merkel’s chancellorship, it is worth looking at some of the legislative steps the coalition has taken since coming into office:
- Class action lawsuits: The German Bundestag adopted a new law that will enable class action lawsuits, albeit in a significantly lighter version than their U.S. counterparts. The law will enable collective proceedings against companies to be introduced by consumer organizations.
- Right to return to full-time employment: A significant step for employees will be the right to return to full-time employment after a time in part-time employment. The new law is meant to make it easier for employees to balance their family lives and career.
- Coal commission: The government has created a “coal commission” which is tasked with developing a gradual exit strategy from Germany’s reliance on coal. Significantly, it is meant to decide on an end date for coal-powered energy production.
- Data Ethics Commission and Working Group on AI: The government decided to establish a Data Ethics Commission and the Bundestag decided to establish a Working Group on Artificial Intelligence which are meant to develop legal, political and ethical principles for the use of data and AI.
Overall, legislative action has been limited so far. Instead, the government has focused on setting up commissions and working groups to further develop policy measures on some of the key topics for Germany, such as the energy transition or digitization. For a coalition government that has ruled in this constellation for eight of the past 12 years, that seems too little.
The government will have to work very hard to overcome the current dispute on asylum policy and develop future-oriented policies if it wants to be seen as successful after its four years. Domestic and international calls for Germany to up its game in terms of investment and taking a leadership role in foreign policy are only likely to grow.


In October 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit blocked Judge Shira Scheindlin’s order requiring changes to the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program and removed Judge Scheindlin from the case. In August, after a two-month trial, Scheindlin ruled that the NYPD not only violated the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures, but had also violated the Fourteenth Amendment by resorting to a “policy of indirect racial profiling,” evidenced by the skyrocketing numbers of police stops in minority communities over the last ten years. The NYPD appealed her findings and remedial orders, including a decision to assign a monitor to help the police department change its policy and training program.
In its ruling, the Court stated that Judge Scheindlin needed to be removed from the case because she “ran afoul” of the code of conduct for U.S. judges by compromising the necessity for a judge to avoid the appearance of partiality. In its ruling, the panel of three judges criticized Judge Scheindlin for giving interviews and making public statements, which were published in The New Yorker and the Associated Press, while the case was pending before her. In these published interviews, Scheindlin spoke to reporters after the Bloomberg administration leaked statistics on her rulings against police in an attempt to show bias.
The judiciary panel has since recanted its misconduct finding, stating that “We now clarify that we did not intend to imply in our previous order that Judge Scheindlin engaged in misconduct.” But the Court’s revised order did not remove the damage to Scheindlin’s reputation, and, despite the less severe accusations, the panel stood by its decision to remove her.
The rule is usually used to send cases involving similar facts to a single judge in the interest of efficiency and economy, but it has also evoked concerns about “judge-shopping.”
In response to the appellate ruling, Scheindlin said she had taken the stop-and-frisk case, Floyd v. City of New York, only because it was “related” to another case she heard in 2007. She rejected the panel’s claim that she discussed the Floyd case in interviews conducted in the summer of 2013. The Court criticized her for suggesting to the challengers in 2007 that they file a new, “related case” rather than extending a 1999 settlement. Scheindlin was alluding to a rule that directed lawyers to route a lawsuit to a judge who is already hearing a case with similar facts. This “related case” rule is an exception to the practice of randomly assigning cases and is intended to simplify litigation. The rule is usually used to send cases involving similar facts to a single judge in the interest of efficiency and economy, but it has also evoked concerns about “judge-shopping.”
Judge Scheindlin told the lawyers that the issue might be better addressed by bringing a new case. “If you got proof of inappropriate racial profiling in a good constitutional case,” she said, “why don’t you bring a lawsuit?” The plaintiffs could designate the suit as related, and Judge Scheindlin would then presumably accept it as a related case. Judge Scheindlin admitted that the idea was problematic and was “sure [she was] going to get in trouble for saying it.” Despite these qualms, city lawyers did not object to her suggestion, nor did they object when Floyd v. New York was filed and marked as “related.”
The appeals court ruling will become moot if de Blasio does in fact withdraw the appeal or devises a settlement.
In response to Judge Scheindlin’s actions, Manhattan’s Federal District Court recently issued new rules to regulate the use of the related-case rule, including having all such requests reviewed by a three-judge panel. Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska said the goal was to “maximize the randomness” of assignments and “increase transparency.” The new rules will require any party that seeks to mark a lawsuit as “related” to another case before a judge to file a statement “stating clearly and succinctly the basis for the contention.” Moreover, any other party may object to a claim of relatedness in writing. Although a judge being asked to accept a “related” case will still independently make that decision, the court’s three-judge assignment committee, including the chief judge, will review every case where a claim of relatedness has been made. If the assignment committee disagrees with the judge’s decision to accept a case as related, the matter will be assigned randomly to a new judge.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that on the first day of his administration, he would withdraw New York City’s appeal of sweeping reforms ordered by a federal judge in the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices. The appeals court ruling will become moot if de Blasio does in fact withdraw the appeal or devises a settlement.


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The nonprofit organization supports adults with disabilities, helping them find jobs and teaching life and vocational skills. Maggie Wattenbarger, the center’s associate director, said selling meats helps them fund the center, which has lost 40 percent of its state funding over the past few years due to budget cuts.
“These fundraisers are very important for us now,” Wattenbarger said. “Over the years, it gradually keeps getting to where we have to fundraise more than the year before just to sustain our programs.”
People can purchase an 8- to 10-pound fully cooked smoked picnic ham for $25, a fully cooked 10- to 12-pound smoked turkey for $35 and a 5- to 6-pound fully cooked smoked
The last day to make an order for Thanksgiving is Friday, and the deadline for Christmas orders is Dec. 17.
Watternbarger said everyone who ordered last year has placed another order this year and they’d like to see large employers placing orders soon. So far, she said they’ve sold about 650 orders for both holidays combined.
“I believe last year, we were close to 800 for both holidays, so we’d like to exceed that,” Wattenbarger said.

domain: economics