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The ongoing celebrity photo leaks all come back to one thing: iCloud security. The pics were allegedly snatched from iCloud, which has prompted Apple to shore up cloud storage security. A new report claims Apple wasn’t caught off-guard by the attacks, and knew about severe vulnerabilities as far back as March of this year. Ibrahim Balic tells Daily Dot he … Continue reading
There has been a lot of chatter about mobile photography lately, with more than one clip-on lens maker attempting to stake claim to your phone. At the end of the day, what you get is a slightly upgraded picture, but probably one that is more novelty than actually good. Can mobile photography be great, though? The answer is yes, if … Continue reading
One California city is trying to rein in alcohol abuse among its vulnerable populations, including homeless people, teens and addicts.
Mayor Gary Phillips of San Rafael is using a local store to test if eliminating liquor sold cheaply and in large quantities — varieties he claims are most popular among homeless customers struggling with substance abuse — would help stop the prevalence of public drunkenness, an issue spawning complaints among residents downtown. Amman Damani, owner of Colonial Liquors, has agreed to get rid of about six types of alcoholic beverages in the city’s efforts to fight the problem, according to Marin News.
“If it’s less readily available, it’s going to improve the situation considerably,” the mayor told the news source, noting that the step is a positive one for all residents, including ones without homes.
Substance abuse plays a major role among people who haven’t been able to live in stable housing circumstances, according to the United States Interagency on Homelessness. The organization claims that nearly half of all homeless individuals deal with substance abuse disorders. That figure rises to 70 percent among homeless veterans. The group also points out substance abuse acts as a major barrier when homeless individuals try to access public housing, as many shelters require sobriety from their residents.
San Rafael isn’t the first city that has attempted to restrict alcohol consumption among its homeless population. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, banned alcohol in public parks earlier this month because of safety concerns, the Argus Leader reported, and Arlington Heights, Illinois, saw a decrease in crime among its homeless after implementing a ban on single-servings of liquor, the Journal & Topics noted in 2011.
Mayor Phillips said he hopes other stores in San Rafael will follow in Colonial Liquors’ footsteps now that a precedent has been set.
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There are so many milestones in a young child’s life, and yet baby’s first fashion show isn’t often one of them.
Of course, most babies don’t live the jet-set lifestyle like North West, who made her front row debut for the Balenciaga show at Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday alongside her parents, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
The fashionable family dressed in all-black ensembles, save for the pop of color on the 1-year-old’s tiny Yeezus tour t-shirt that she wore with a teeny leather skirt — an outfit that may have been inspired by one of her father’s past looks.
The Following post first appeared on FactCheck.org.
In a new TV ad, Rep. Tom Cotton tries to rewrite history with the claim that President Obama “hijacked the farm bill, turned it into a food stamp bill.” Food stamp funding has been part of farm bills going back to 1973.
Cotton’s ad seeks to explain the congressman’s vote earlier this year against the farm bill — a vote that bucked the rest of the Arkansas House delegation, all Republicans, and was criticized by the president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, who said he was “disappointed” in Cotton’s vote.
Cotton, who is locked in a tight race to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, frames his vote against the farm bill as an attempt to rein in food stamp spending, and his campaign notes that he supported an earlier House effort to separate food stamps from the farm bill. The Democratic-controlled Senate didn’t go for it, and neither did Obama. But contrary to the ad’s contention, it was House Republicans who were trying to upend congressional precedent, as farm bills going back four decades have included food stamp funding.
In a direct-to-camera appeal from his family’s farm in Dardanelle, Arkansas, Cotton says, “When President Obama hijacked the farm bill, turned it into a food stamp bill, with billions more in spending, I voted no. Career politicians love attaching bad ideas to good ones. Then the bad ideas become law, and you pay for it.”
The first farm bill was enacted in 1933 to give subsidies to farmers amid the Great Depression. And continuously since 1973, farm bills have included funding for food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the Congressional Research Service. While some argue the arrangement makes pragmatic and thematic sense, it also has been viewed as a way for the legislation to get broad congressional support, appealing to both rural legislators interested in farm assistance and urban legislators interested in securing food assistance for the poor.
The 2008 farm bill — which included SNAP funding — was originally due to expire in 2012, and was extended. So that was the law of the land when in 2013 the Republican-controlled House tried to extricate the food stamp program from the rest of the farm bill. On July 11, 2013, the House passed “farm bill only” legislation, and then two months later passed a food stamp overhaul bill. Both bills passed the House — with Cotton and the rest of the Arkansas congressional delegation supporting them — without a single Democratic vote.
Immediately after the first vote, leaders in the Democratic-controlled Senate, including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), chairman of the Agriculture Committee, made clear they would not consider a farm bill that did not include food stamp funding.
President Obama also released a statement condemning the House bill.
White House, July 12, 2013: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a cornerstone of our nation’s food assistance safety net and should not be left behind as the rest of the Farm Bill advances. If the President were presented with this bill, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.
And in November 2013, the White House released a 48-page report titled “The Economic Importance of Passing a Comprehensive Food, Farm and Jobs Bill.”
That’s how Cotton arrives at his conclusion that Obama “hijacked” the farm bill — even though 40 years of historical precedent were on the side of a comprehensive farm bill that included food aid.
The House and Senate ultimately reached an accord on a farm bill that included SNAP funding. On Jan. 29, the conference report passed the House 251-166, with Cotton among the 63 Republicans who opposed it. While Cotton takes a jab in the ad at “career politicians” who “love attaching bad ideas to good ones,” we note that the bill was supported by Arkansas’ three other congressmen, Eric Crawford, Tim Griffin and Steve Womack — all Republicans.
Cotton is correct that the final farm bill included “billions more in spending.” There was $406 billion in food stamp funding in the 2008 farm bill and an estimated $756 billion in the 2014 farm bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Food stamp spending increased in recent years as a result of greater need caused by the Great Recession, and also partly due to liberalizations in both benefits and eligibility under Obama and also under his predecessor. We covered some of those issues in detail back in 2012, when then-GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich accused Obama of being the “food stamp president.”
Over the decades, the percentage of farm bill funding earmarked for food stamps has increased dramatically. Nearly 80 percent of the funding in the 2014 farm bill was for food stamps and nutrition. That’s up from about 55 percent in the 2002 farm bill.
However, it’s also true that the CBO projected the bill would reduce the deficit by $16.6 billion and trim a modest $8 billion in SNAP funding over 10 years compared with what would have happened if the 2008 bill had simply been extended in its entirety.
Cotton wanted more cuts. The stand-alone food stamp bill he supported called for $39 billion in cuts to the program over 10 years. The Senate version of the farm bill would have reduced nutrition spending by $4 billion over the next 10 years.
As we noted, the compromise conference report ultimately agreed to by both chambers included an estimated $8 billion reduction. That reduction was largely a result of a more restrictive provision regarding food benefits tied to heating and cooling allowances. Cotton’s campaign pointed to a Wall Street Journal article that found some states are already “gaming new food-stamp eligibility rules” to get around that provision, and so some of that $8 billion reduction may never be realized. Nonetheless, when Cotton argues that the farm bill was stuffed with “billions more in [food stamp] spending,” that’s true in raw dollars, but not true compared with the amount that was projected to have been spent had the 2008 law simply been extended without changes.
During this past summer, I was asked to give a talk at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work, for their Common Day, on matters related to LGBTQ issues and social work practice. Instead of delivering a dry speech, I narrated a personal story of my journey to studying LGBTQ and Disability — two identities that intersect and create multiple oppressions in an individual’s life. Here is a snippet of it:
I have been involved with the LGBTQ population since the age of 16. I was tired of feeling like the outsider among my peers and community in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. I decided to find a way to meet other LGBTQ people in the City. A friend of mine, who was also gay, said why don’t we contact one of the gay hotlines listed in the Village Voice. So, we found one, and an older gay gentlemen from the hotline said to visit the Gay and Lesbian Center in Greenwich Village. It was a scary endeavor to travel on the train all the way to the city, but worth the opportunity of finally finding people who identified proudly with being gay. When we discovered the location of the Center, my friend and I asked about groups and counselors available to gay youth. We were directed to Youth Enrichment Services, who embraced us immediately, and provided a safe space for us weekly to attend groups with other gay youth. I felt at home, finally. That was 17 years ago.
Since that time, I have made it a point to be an advocate for the LGBTQ population through my work experience and personal activities. I integrate LGBTQ and Disability literature, film and social media, in the classes that I teach. I write about the experiences, issues and concerns that surround both of these populations. And most importantly, I am mainly interested in how LGBTQ and Disability intersect as identities, and how both policy and practice should address institutional oppression.
You may ask why I chose to focus on disability; it was coincidence that a fellow social work student introduced it to me while I was graduate student in social work at NYU. I realized people who remain on the fringes of our society — I being one of those people since I am a gay and working-class — need the support, political power and financial backing of those who can challenge normativity. Normativity has been equated with the values of the dominant culture, which is usually described as wealthy men, who are able-bodied and heterosexual. That is not political. That is a reality!
As social workers, I believe our role should be to challenge the master narratives through the collection of our clients/students personal stories and to find ways to put those personal stories to use through your work. It could be utilized in the papers you write, discussed at your internships and jobs, brought to your community board, employed in qualitative research, published in books, channeled through art, expressed in social media and spread through spoken word/or other types of communication to family, friends and colleagues.
In the end, you will be happy that you maintained your integrity and commitment to your professional role. Through your efforts, those people’s voices will be heard.
Four years ago I traveled over a deeply washed away and rutted dirt track to visit villages in the northern Liberian jungle, in what is now the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. I focused on a network of small health clinics, which were dealing with the scourges of war and the impact of gender-based violence. Once the emergency of war eased, foreign assistance for these clinics was cut — and now what remains of these clinics are at the heart of an Ebola outbreak.
Recently, President Obama announced that the administration will be tackling the largest and longest Ebola outbreak in history by deploying troops, increasing the supply of medical resources across West Africa, and increasing collaborative efforts with the United Nations and other international organizations. The United Nations estimates a need for $1 billion in efforts to contain the outbreak and reduce the probability of a humanitarian catastrophe.
InterAction members are responding to the unprecedented Ebola outbreak, providing clinical care, logistical support and community outreach (see a bigger snapshot of involved members). For instance, International Medical Corps recently opened and is running a new Ebola Treatment Unit in Bong County, Liberia — a unit constructed by Save the Children. This facility increases the total number of Ebola treatment facilities in the country to six. International Medical Corps works with local partners and employs over 200 specially trained staff, 90 percent of whom are Liberians.
The health care systems in the countries most affected by the virus — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — have collapsed. Even before the Ebola outbreak, these countries had very low doctor-to-patient ratios; Liberia had one doctor for every 100,000 people prior to the outbreak. The strain that the Ebola outbreak has placed on an already weak health care system means that the system cannot respond effectively; there is not enough proper medical equipment, trained medical professionals or space to isolate those infected. Hospitals and treatment centers are forced to turn away patients, who return home and risk infecting their family and friends.
This health crisis has morphed into a humanitarian crisis with sweeping effects on daily lives and economies. The ripple effect of the Ebola outbreak on West Africa’s health care means many people with prevalent ailments — such as typhoid, dysentery, malaria and malnutrition — may not receive treatment. Additionally, as farmers cannot tend to their fields and shipping embargoes hinder food imports, the Ebola epidemic has sent food prices soaring. The UN estimates that 1.3 million people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will need food assistance in the coming months. Along with shipping embargoes, mining activities and cross-border trade have diminished. Liberia has cut its growth projections.
During my trip to the villages in northern Liberia prior to the outbreak, the fragile health care network seemed vulnerable and susceptible to shocks. Four years later, the horrifying impact of a weak health care infrastructure is evident to us all. Whether it is Ebola or another medical issue, countries will repeatedly experience outbreaks if solutions focus on symptoms and not the underlying need for strong local systems. The Ebola outbreak is the result of a frail health care system. It is imperative that international aid communities join forces with local governments, organizations and leaders in order to contain the virus while being cognizant of the need to also build stronger, more resilient, health care systems.
Every September for the last ten years, there is a gathering in Providence, RI that brings together people who are passionate about innovation and change. This year was #BIF10, held by the Business Innovation Factory. While the summit is about innovation, after attending for the second time, I’m learning what really creates innovation isn’t money, or disruptive ideas, it’s people. One of my biggest takeaways from BIF last year didn’t occur until after the summit was over.
What I learned firsthand was that the relationships we build and the people we connect ourselves with are the true sources of innovation. Imagine what would happen if we started looking at innovation through the relationships we create that begin with being vulnerable ourselves?
Start With One and Listen Deeply
When David Bolinski began to tell us his story, it started with how he began getting involved in art, and eventually animation, in the medical field. While there were several important points he shared, most were masked in statements that got laughs from the audience. Just when we thought this was going to be a story about his animation, it turned out to be about a trip to China and his encounter with one young girl. I won’t share the entire story, but you should watch it when it’s available to learn how one conversation changed everything. The major takeaway for me was: we don’t have to change a neighborhood, company or even the world to make an impact. We just need to listen to one person to change a life.
Stop Covering
Dorie Clark told us her personal story about often being mistaken for a boy when she entered the ladies bathroom. She learned how to turn this internal conflict into confidence. This set the stage for the rest of her talk that showed increased job satisfaction rates for those who were “out of the closet” compared to being “in the closet.” What opened my eyes up, was the term “covering.” Covering is when you aren’t “in the closet” but you are not standing tall and proclaiming it. This could be the person who shares their sexual orientation with friends and family, but never talks about it at work. Or it could be seeing a doctor about your depression, but never letting friends and coworkers know about it. Over half of all Americans are covering, including almost half of all white, straight males. When we become vulnerable and stop covering, as Dories has successfully done, we no longer have anything to hide. We can start to become more productive and more creative through embracing ourselves for who we are.
Broken
Angela Blanchard shared an insight that most overlook: “You can’t build on broken” Too often we tend to focus on what’s not working and attempt to fix it. If the foundation is weak, everything you build upon it will eventually collapse. With the work that Angela and her team at Neighborhood Centers do in strengthening underserved Houston neighborhoods by bringing together resources, education, and connection by working with neighbors side by side, they focus on what is working, and why, and then build on that. You’ll get more people to join in when it’s not changing what they do, but amplifying what they are already doing that works.
Simplify
When he took over a team to train the Afghan Air Force, Colonel Matthew T. Fritz saw his budget and timeline slashed. One of the ways they innovated was by taking complex training processes, that were understandable to them, and getting input from others. What they learned, once they invited anyone they could find (rank, civilian, even the janitor), was that if you weren’t familiar with the processes, they were in fact, extremely complicated. By the time they got the processes simplified, they successfully reduced the training times and have more Afghan planes being flown and maintained. By bringing in others’ perspectives, they built solutions based on empathy and listening. The key to keeping it simple is to view it as others would, not as you do.
Community
Arlene Samen shared that understanding what will work comes from listening and building trust. Listening comes from trust that results from being part of a community, not an outsider implementing what you think will work. People in the community recognize you understand what is important to them because you have committed to learning from them and not trying to change them. By becoming part of these villages, Arlene and her organization have seen zero maternal deaths in Tibet. Effective solutions come from understanding the issue as a member of the community, not an outsider.
We are all innovators. If we start with ourselves, and the relationships we form, we have the building blocks for creating purposeful change that will touch the lives of many. And anything becomes possible.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
