Pill mill

A pill mill is an illegal facility that resembles a regular pain clinic, but regularly prescribes painkillers (narcotics) without sufficient medical history, physical examination, diagnosis, medical monitoring, or documentation. Clients of these facilities usually receive prescriptions only against cash. Pill mills contribute to the opioid epidemic in the United States and are the subject of a number of legislative initiatives at the state level.
Business model and characteristics.
In pill mills, doctors or staff supervised by them prescribe opioids for non-existent or exaggerated pain. The primary purpose behind this prescribing practice is not to relieve pain or cure it, but to make high profits. This makes pill mills a criminal enterprise.
Characteristics of such facilities include that they are often owned by non-medical personnel and only cash is accepted (no credit cards or insurance payments). Medical records, findings, or X-rays are not required; no medical examinations are performed or are merely pro forma; alternatives to treatment with tablets are not discussed; strong painkillers are prescribed; and prescriptions can only be redeemed at certain pharmacies. Additionally, long queues are visible in front of the facilities, parking spaces in front of or near the facility are heavily frequented, and security personnel or doormen are used.
According to investigating authorities and scientists, such facilities come in different shapes and sizes, but for them it is important to give the impression that they are independent pain treatment centres. To avoid prosecution, pill mills' managers tend to run their facilities like pop-up stores. Clients of pill mills are addicted to pills or trade their pills.
Origin and development.
David Herbert Procter is considered the inventor of pill mills. The Canadian-born doctor established an office specializing in pain treatment in South Shore, Kentucky near Portsmouth, Ohio in 1979. In the mid-1980s, he was one of the first to prescribe painkillers that often contained opiates; he also combined them with benzodiazepines (tranquilizers) such as Xanax. His business expanded with the advent of OxyContin (active ingredient: Oxycodone), the blockbuster of the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma. He hired more doctors to run new practices. Some took over the business idea of the "godfather of pill mills" and later became self-employed.
Pill mills subsequently spread to other states, including for instance West Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, and New York. They gained great importance especially in Florida. There, the pill mills of Chris George had a prominent position.
Consequences.
Facilitated access to powerful painkillers is contributing to the opioid epidemic in the United States, as clients who take these drugs over a long period of time become accustomed to them and may need higher doses to achieve the same alleviating or pleasurable effect (drug tolerance with subsequent high-dose dependence). In addition, the opiates in these drugs have a euphoric effect. When used regularly, the foreign opiates can replace the functions of the body's own endorphins, resulting in high addiction. Drug abuse leads to increasing numbers of cases in emergency rooms, cost-intensive treatment of addictions and frequent overdose deaths.
Excessive prescription practice, negligent and absurd practice, and the promotion of drug addiction and illegal drug trafficking are violations of medical ethics and laws. For this reason, a large number of police operations, measures by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and closures of these facilities have occurred. Many perpetrators were convicted by the courts, and by the end of 2016 there were 378 physicians in Florida alone, with 95 more under indictment there by that time.
In response to the growing problems with narcotics abuse, a number of states have tightened their laws. In Kentucky, for example, a law to improve monitoring of prescription practices, known as the "Pill Mill Bill" (KRS 218A.175 "et seq."), has been in effect since 2012. By 2012, 41 U.S. states had implemented such monitoring programs, and by 2019 all states except Missouri had implemented such programs. There is debate in the literature whether and about the extent to which the tightening of narcotics laws is causing addicts to turn to other addictive substances such as heroin, with many heroin addicts generally claiming that they have previously abused prescription opioids. Addicts also switched to fentanyl, often with fatal consequences.
Adaptations.
"The OxyContin Express", a 2009 documentary by Portuguese journalist Mariana van Zeller, which follows the sales channels of pill mills in Florida, received further awards and nominations for the Emmy in addition to the Peabody Award (2010). The American television series "American Greed", which has been dealing with white-collar crime since 2007, focused on pill mills in episodes 137 (first broadcast: March 2017) and 152 (first broadcast: March 2018). Money laundering for a pill mill plays an important role in the TV series "Claws". The documentary "The Pharmacist", released on Netflix in 2020, shows how Dan Schneider uncovered a pill mill in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana through private investigations.


Chris Brymer

Christopher Brymer (born November 29, 1974) is a retired American football guard.
Early life and college.
Born in Apple Valley, California, Brymer graduated from Apple Valley High School in 1993 and attended University of Southern California until 1997. He redshirted his freshman season and was academically ineligible to play in 1995. At USC, Brymer was an offensive lineman.
Career.
He played in the summer of 1999 for the Rhein Fire of the NFL Europe then was an off-season member of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1999 NFL season. In 2001, he played for the Los Angeles Xtreme of the XFL, a league that would fold after its only season. He moved to San Juan Capistrano, California afterwards and founded mortgage loan company CMG Capital.
Personal life.
Brymer was married to his high school girlfriend Melissa; they had a son in 2003 and separated in 2005. Melissa Brymer told "SF Weekly" in 2010 that Chris, during his football career, would have angry bouts and accuse her of infidelity. After CMG Capital folded, the Brymers lost their two homes. Melissa moved to San Bernardino County with their son, and Chris became homeless.
On July 19, 2010, Brymer left a San Francisco soup kitchen with another man, Henry Therkield, who had accosted him earlier. Brymer pulled out a 6-inch blade and became confrontational with that man and that man's friend Shaun Parker before leaving on a MUNI T-line train. Brymer was arrested the next day at another MUNI station. During the trial, Therkield testified that he heard Brymer threaten him but stated otherwise in an interview with "SF Weekly". However, Brymer was acquitted of hate crimes in November 2010. Former San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan commented about acquittals like this: "Juries lose confidence in [prosecutors], and a hate crime doesn’t have the same clarity that it should have."


Airline Ambassadors International

Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Arlington, Virginia and founded by American Airlines flight attendant Nancy Rivard in 1996 as a form of volunteer tourism. Its initial focus was humanitarian aid in Central America due to American Airlines' presence there, but has expanded to 52 countries.
Its focus further expanded in 2009 to partner with other airports to help prevent human trafficking, although their claims about the scale of the issue are under question.


Rhena Schweitzer Miller

Rhena Schweitzer Miller (January 14, 1919 – February 22, 2009) was an American humanitarian activist, the director of the hospital her father founded in west central Africa and a key organizer of the fellowship that bears his name. She was the only child of Albert Schweitzer.
Life and activism.
In 1917, Albert Schweitzer and his wife, the former Helene Bresslau, had been arrested as German citizens in French Equatorial Africa; the hospital that they had founded there in present-day Gabon in 1913 was closed and they were taken to a prison camp in France. Rhena Schweitzer was born in Strasbourg in Alsace-Lorraine in 1919 after the territory's post-World War I return to French control following 45 years as part of Germany. With his family still in Europe, Dr. Schweitzer went back to Africa in 1924, with occasional visits from his daughter and wife over the following two decades.
She married Jean Eckert in 1939, whom she later divorced. In 1940, she was asked by her father to form the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship.
She was trained as a medical technician and went to Africa to work at the hospital in Gabon. Following her father's death, she took over the operation of the hospital, remaining in that role until 1970. By the time of Miller's death, the hospital had grown to encompass 150 beds in 12 buildings, serving 35,000 patients annually. In the late 1960s, during the Nigerian Civil War, Miller took in Ibo children from Biafra into the hospital, and had 20 beds placed in her home when the hospital was full, with two children sleeping in each bed.
She met David C. Miller, her second husband, at the hospital. Miller was a physician who had come to Gabon to perform a study on heart disease at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital and developed a close relationship with Dr. Schweitzer, caring for him at the time of his death in 1965. The couple were married in 1971. They lived in Atlanta and traveled around the world offering medical assistance in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Yemen. David Miller died in March 1997.
Together with Harold Robles, Miller established the Albert Schweitzer Institute for the Humanities in 1984, which later established its headquarters at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. Robles and Miller created the "Reverence for Life Commendation" in 1990 to recognize humanitarian efforts performed in the spirit of Albert Schweitzer.
Miller died at age 90 on February 22, 2009 in Pacific Palisades, California, at the home of one of her daughters. She was survived by a son and three daughters from her first marriage, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.


Welfare benefit simplification

With the general complexity of welfare systems, there are occasional requests for simplification of welfare systems.
The general aim is to head towards a simple system of benefits. This may also include a simplified system based on the individual rather than on identifiable groups reflecting the reasons for welfare assistance (e.g., unemployed, incapacity).
United Kingdom.
The British House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee has announced an inquiry to "examine the feasibility of simplifying the UK benefit system".
Particular areas of interest are likely to include:
New Zealand.
"Also known as Working New Zealand"
In the late 1980s Minister of Social Welfare Dr Michael Cullen announced the then Labour Government’s intention to move to a universal benefit. The Labour government subsequently lost the next election and the policy was dropped by the incoming National government.
In 2001 the Labour-led government began its overhaul of social welfare with Pathways to Opportunity. Its aims were to:
On October 26, 2006 the Labour-led government announced a number of changes to the welfare system. The changes include continuing to align rules and criteria of different benefits.


Workfare in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, "workfare" refers to government policies whereby individuals must undertake work in return for their benefit payments or risk losing them. Workfare policies are politically controversial. Supporters claim that such policies help people move off welfare and into employment (see Workfare) whereas critics argue that they are analogous to slavery or indentured servitude and counterproductive in decreasing unemployment.
History.
Although actual "workfare" only began in the UK in the early 1990s with the first Major government's "Community Action" scheme in 1993 which was replaced in 1996 with the better known "Project Work" which was subsequently replaced by New Labour's "New Deal", welfare to work or "active labour market policies" go back much earlier to 1986 and the second Thatcher government's introduction of compulsory "Restart" interviews for unemployed claimants. Restart lasted until 1991 when it was superseded by the "make work" scheme "Employment Action" which lasted until 1993. "Make work schemes" are not workfare as such, but are very much a composite part of welfare to work or "active labour market policies", or "welfare reform".
The definition used here to distinguish between outright workfare and "make work schemes" is that workfare is "work for benefits", either for a company or in the public sector, or what has been called "bogus volunteering" for a charity. This is undertaken as the condition of still being able to claim unemployment benefit, as distinct from claimants receiving that but also being in receipt of "a small supplemental payment".
As such, it can be argued that welfare to work/"active labour market policies" first properly appeared in the early 1980s along with mass unemployment, in the form of the state run Manpower Services Commission created by the Heath government in the early 1970s whilst full employment still existed, along with the Youth Opportunities Programme scheme first introduced by the Callaghan Labour government of the late 1970s but being continued and further applied by the incoming Conservative government. The YOP was replaced in 1983 by the better-known Youth Training Scheme (YTS).
Although workfare did exist in the 2000s under New Labour, it was not widely publicised or widely used. In the 2010s under the Conservative-led coalition it became widely used and widely known along with large scale and highly effective opposition which has continued ever since, leading to many dozens of organizations withdrawing from one or all of what were seven different schemes. This became five after the DWP announced in November 2015 that it was "not renewing" two of its flagship schemes, "Community Work Placements" and "Mandatory Work Activity".
In November 2011, the Prime Minister's Office announced proposals under which Jobseeker's Allowance claimants who have not found a job once they have been through a work programme will do a 26-week placement in the community for 30 hours a week. According to "The Guardian" in 2012, under the Government's Community Action Programme people who have been out of work for a number of years "must work for six months unpaid, including at profit-making businesses, in order to keep their benefits".
These developments followed years of concern and discussion by people both for and against such schemes. In 1999, the UK charity Child Poverty Action Group expressed concern that a government announcement that single parents and the disabled may have to attend repeated interviews for jobs under threat of losing benefits was "a step towards a US-style workfare system". The Social Security Secretary at the time, Alistair Darling, described the plan as "harsh, but justifiable", claiming that it would help address the "poverty of expectation" of many claimants.
In 2008, research undertaken by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) found that there was little evidence that workfare programmes increased the likelihood of finding paid employment and could instead reduce the prospect of finding paid employment by "limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers". Despite the report, Lord Jones, former Minister of State for Trade and Investment, said in April 2010 that Britain needed to adopt American-style workfare.
During their 2013 annual conference the Conservative Party announced a new scheme, called Help to Work, the workfare aspect of which "Community Work Placements" expected claimants to work for up to 30 hours a week for 26 weeks in return for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA). The scheme was introduced in April 2014, but scrapped in November 2015.
Schemes.
A myriad of contemporary workfare schemes exist, or existed until quite recently. The anti-workfare group Boycott Workfare list eight schemes involving the risk of benefit loss (directly and indirectly).
Support.
In 2012, right-wing political blogger Paul Staines argued in support of workfare on his blog, Guido Fawkes, writing:
Chris Grayling has criticised what he calls the "Polly Toynbee left", saying that they fail to understand the modern labour market.
Criticism.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC), a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, has stated that workfare is exploitation of the unemployed, "paying" them below the minimum wage. The TUC also highlight that workfare is unfair to paid workers who find themselves in competition with unpaid workers. In these cases the TUC claims that the result would be job losses and the deterioration of pay, overtime or other conditions. Employers who opted not to use workfare workers would also find themselves competing with other firms who are "effectively being subsidised".
"The Guardian" newspaper claimed in February 2012 that businesses in the UK which take staff via "work for your benefits programmes" included Asda, Maplin, Primark, Holland & Barrett, Boots, and McDonald's. The policy is similar to that which the Conservative Party administration hoped to introduce in the mid to late 1990s, which would most likely have been carried through had John Major not been defeated by Tony Blair in the 1997 general election.
Critics also ascertain that the majority of menial, low paid jobs would end up being carried out by people on workfare who, because they are working but unpaid, would not be counted among the unemployment figures. In an article in the "Huffington Post", Dr Simon Duffy likened workfare to slavery. The Green Party of England and Wales has also voiced its opposition to workfare.
Academics have argued that, as workfare participants are essentially providing work that is beneficial to the employer, whether public or private, they should be granted employment status (as a worker or an employee) or, at least, employment protection, even regardless of status.
Academic analysis.
Academic analysis by the Department of Work and Pensions has cast doubt on the effectiveness of workfare policies. After surveying the international evidence available from America, Canada and Australia the report states:
Backlash.
Opposition to workfare has caused a number of companies to withdraw from "workfare" schemes. A number of organisations including Maplin, Waterstones, Sainsbury's, TK Maxx and the Arcadia Group withdrew from the scheme in early 2012. Argos and Superdrug announced they were suspending their involvement pending talks with ministers. Clothing retailer Matalan subsequently suspended its involvement in the scheme in order to conduct a review of the terms of such placements, with a spokesman for the DWP saying "The scheme is voluntary and no one is forced to take part and the threat of losing the benefit only starts once a week has passed on the placement - this was designed to provide certainty to employers and the individuals taking part"
Controversies.
Tesco.
There was controversy later in February 2012 following the involvement of the Tesco supermarket chain in a government workfare scheme linked to the payment of benefits. An advert appeared on the Jobseekers' Plus website in which Tesco sought permanent workers in exchange for expenses and jobseeker's allowance. After the advert was highlighted by users of Facebook and Twitter, the supermarket claimed its appearance was a mistake and that it was intended to be "an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a Government-led work experience scheme". A protest about this advert later caused the temporary closure of a Tesco store near the Houses of Parliament.
Poundland.
The discount retailer Poundland's participation in a workfare scheme has been controversial. A graduate took the Department of Work and Pensions to Court arguing that participation in a workfare scheme was a breach of her human rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. Caitlin Reilly and Jamieson Wilson lost the case but the decision was reversed on appeal. However, the appeal decision was made primarily on technical grounds, and the judge found no breach of Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Home Retail Group.
Home Retail Group, the parent company of Argos and Homebase, were also widely criticised for their involvement in Workfare. It was reported they would not offer jobs to people who successfully completed the scheme (with Argos simply issuing certificates of completion to those wanting jobs). A key moment for those who opposed Workfare was when a poster produced for internal purposes by Homebase indicating that unpaid work in the scheme was a way of reducing operating costs was leaked to the public. After this, Home Retail Group soon announced they would stop participating in the scheme.


Alight

Alight, formerly the American Refugee Committee (ARC), is an international nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that has provided humanitarian assistance and training to millions of beneficiaries over the last 40 years.
In 2011, Alight helped nearly 2.5 million people get essential services to regain their health and take back control of their lives. Alight works with its partners and constituencies to provide opportunities and expertise to communities of refugees and internally displaced persons in seven countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe, including Iraq, Kosovo, and in the Darfur region of Sudan and is currently providing for emergency relief and recovery in Haiti. Alight provides shelter, clean water and sanitation, health care, skills training, microcredit education, and protection to help survivors of war and natural disasters to rebuild their lives with dignity, health care, security, and self-sufficiency.
History.
Moved by the plight of millions of men, women and children affected by the conflict in Southeast Asia, Chicago businessman Neal Ball founded the American Refugee Committee in 1979.
 One of ARC's first programs opened at Khao-I-Dang refugee camp in Thailand in late 1979. ARC also provided medical and public health services at Nong Samet Refugee Camp, Phanat Nikhom, Ban Vinai Refugee Camp and Site Two Refugee Camp until 1993, when the camps closed and ARC turned its attention to programs inside Cambodia. ARC later provided health, sanitation and laboratory services at Khao Phlu Refugee Camp from 1997 until 1999. ARC pioneered the treatment of tuberculosis in refugee-camp settings using an innovative program structure that other international agencies had argued was not feasible.
Alight became the organization's new name on June 21, 2019, after research found that persons who received aid preferred not to be identified as refugees forever.
Current projects.
Program areas.
Alight has humanitarian programs and provides medical care, shelter, protection services, clean water, community development support, microloans, and help for women who have suffered violence, as well as other opportunities to help refugees.ARC Programs.
In Africa, Alight has programs in Liberia, Sudan, Darfur, Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
In Asia, Alight programs are concentrated in Pakistan and in Thailand. In Pakistan, Alight has recently been working with to help civilians who have fled fighting between the government and the Taliban in northwest Pakistan. Alight also responded to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, providing relief services in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and a Fishing Boat Project in Thailand.
Haiti.
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck just outside Port-au-Prince. The capital city and surrounding towns were completely destroyed and a million people were left homeless. 50,000 were reported to have died. On January 14, the first Alight emergency response team members arrived in Port-au-Prince. They started planning the response, hiring local staff, and coordinating with the United Nations and other partners. In the following days and weeks additional staff with expertise in emergency response, logistics, health, water/sanitation, shelter, and protection arrived in Haiti. Alight distributed food to 2,200 people in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince, 1,000 hygiene and kitchen kits in the Nazon district. On January 26, Alight began managing settlement of 5,000 people in Terrain Acra district of Port-au-Prince, working with multiple relief agencies. In the next few months the camp size grew to 25,000 people. Of the 19 most crowded settlements (of 300 total), Terrain Acra was the only one with an organization overseeing and coordinating relief activities.
Four cargo planes carrying 90,000 pounds of donated emergency medical and shelter supplies arrived in Port-au-Prince from Minneapolis. In Terraine Acra, Alight opened a health clinic, distributed shelter materials, built latrines and sanitation systems. On February 9, the first three child-friendly spaces opened in the Terraine Acra settlement. 300 children were expected and 1,000 showed up. On April 10, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro visited Alight's camp in Terrain Acra . Alight is working with the local community and coordinating with international and local NGOs to help people survive and rebuild.
Côte d'Ivoire.
The American Refugee Committee team has been responding to the refugee crisis on the border between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia since December 2010, constructing shelters to house refugees in Nimba County, Liberia.
Kyrgyzstan.
On Sunday June 20, 2010, Alight's Rapid Response Team arrived in Osh, Kyrgyzstan to assess the situation and the needs of the affected communities.
Liberia.
In the fall of 2003, Alight launched a program to assist those who had been displaced by the Second Liberian Civil War. Alight began providing services to people living in camps at Brown's Town and Unification Town and continues serving those locations today.
Pakistan.
Afghan refugees.
Today, there are millions of Afghan refugees living in refugee camps in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province. Some fled the oppression of the Taliban, others the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. For years they have known no way of life other than in the camps. Entire generations have grown up without the right to move about freely or the possibility to make a living for their families.
Alight provides primary health care to 98,000 Afghan refugees in the camps and in the surrounding communities. Alight also provides special attention to pregnant mothers and training for refugees in caring for their own communities. Alight helps refugees cope with the frustrations of living in a camp by organizing youth clubs and activities, working to prevent and respond to domestic violence in the camps, and building awareness of the threat of HIV/AIDS.
Earthquake relief.
In October 2005, a massive earthquake shattered communities throughout mountainous northern Pakistan. The impact has been long-lasting, with entire families and villages wiped out and vital infrastructure destroyed. Within hours of the quake, Alight began getting survivors in Bagh District the emergency relief they needed – clean water, nutritious food, shelters for those left homeless and in need of emergency medical attention. Today, Alight's efforts are focused on working with communities to rebuild health care clinics and water systems in the region so that survivors can care for themselves.
2009 Pakistan displacement crisis.
In the spring of 2009, three million people fled for their lives from fighting between Taliban forces and the Pakistani government in the mountainous region of northwestern Pakistan. Many fled to camps without clean water or enough to eat. But the vast majority have been taken in by local communities, packed in tight quarters – sometimes 50-60 people in very small homes. Water and sanitation systems were on the brink of collapse, and there was a serious threat of outbreaks of disease.
Alight quickly began trucking clean water into refugee camps and digging wells and latrines to ensure safe and sanitary living conditions. Aid workers have also stepped in at local clinics to provide comprehensive medical care and to try to reach as many survivors as possible.
Alight is also currently working to help Pakistani families who have begun returning. So far, 100,000 families have gone back to the Swat Valley. But the fighting destroyed infrastructure and other systems, leaving people without basics like clean water and sanitation. Alight will soon begin work digging wells and repairing infrastructure so that basic necessities will be waiting for families when they return home.
2010 floods.
In late July 2010 monsoon rainfall caused flash floods swelling the river Swat and killing over 1,100 people. Alight's Emergency Response teams began work as the flooding subsided in early August, providing clean water and mobile health clinics for survivors. Alight's mobile health teams, especially water and sanitation teams, assembled and began coordinating with partners and authorities. Swat, Nowshera, Mardan, and Peshawar were the most severely affected areas. Roads were washed out, bridges gone, internet and telephone were functioning intermittently. Many affected communities remained inaccessible except by helicopter; others had been entirely obliterated.
Rwanda.
Alight began work in Rwanda in December 1994, following the genocide. Alight manages all three major refugee camps in Rwanda, providing health care, water, construction, and sanitation services as well as programs combating gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. Alight also manages successful income generation programs in the camps and hires and trains refugees wherever possible. In 2005, the government of Rwanda asked Alight to build a refugee camp at Nyabiheke to accommodate 5,000 new refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Alight quickly constructed roads, bridges, shelters, latrines, storage warehouses, and health centers, and began receiving refugees within a month of the request. The culminating achievement of the construction efforts was the drilling of a borehole to tap an aquifer, which provides 100,000 liters of naturally purified, filtered water per day. In the fall of 2007, Alight expanded Nyabiheke Camp to receive 2,000 more people fleeing increased violence.
Sudan.
Darfur.
The American Refugee Committee is taking a variety of actions to directly help millions of Darfuris who are without access to clean water, who are unable to make a living for their families, who live in camps with no access to farmland or who are forced to flee fighting too frequently to raise any crops.
Alight's corps of midwives assist pregnant mothers to safely deliver their babies, and health clinics provide treatment and medications to thousands of people each month. Alight is working with Darfuri communities to dig wells that will provide safe drinking water to thousands, and Alight is partnering with families to plant crops that will feed and support them. Alight provides tools and seeds and the families bring the farming skills to grow the food that will sustain them. In schools Alight provides children with nutritious meals. Parents have one less mouth to feed, and their children will be educated and better prepared to help rebuild the region when the fighting has ended.
Southern Sudan.
Alight began operations in Kajo Keji County in Southern Sudan in 1994, providing health services to people displaced by the war. Operations have since grown dramatically, and Alight now operates an integrated program of health care, water and sanitation, and microenterprise development for war-affected residents and returning refugees. Since 2006, Alight has been implementing a major, long-term initiative to expand comprehensive reproductive health care services in Southern Sudan. Alight has recently initiated the Through Our Eyes project in southern Sudan, using hands-on video and community participation to get people talking about gender-based violence and how to prevent it. Alight currently works in Juba, Kajo Keji, Malakal, Nimule, and Yei.
Thailand.
Alight's oldest program, Alight has operated continuously in Thailand since 1979. Currently Alight works in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border, providing health care services, health education, and water, sanitation and environmental health services to Karen refugees in camps on the border with Myanmar. Alight focuses on building the capacity and skills of constituents, training them to become health care providers and community leaders so they may apply these skills upon their return to Myanmar or their relocation to a third country.
Alight also operates in coastal villages between Phuket and Ranong in the south of Thailand.
Uganda.
Alight has been working in Uganda off-and-on since 1994, when Alight began operations in neighboring Southern Sudan. Today, Alight manages 14 internally displaced persons camps in the northern Gulu District of Uganda.
Awards and distinctions.
Alight was given an A+ rating by Charitywatch.org, a charity watchdog created by the American Institute of Philanthropy to rate Non-profit organizations based on the ratio of funds spent on humanitarian aid compared to administrative overhead.
Charity Navigator gives Alight 4 stars, its highest rating.
"Reader's Digest" magazine, "Money" magazine, "Worth" magazine, and GiveSpot.com also highly rate Alight.
In 2012, Alight was awarded the Peter F. Drucker Award for Non-Profit Innovation.
Records.
Records of Alight (and the American Refugee Committee) are available for research use. They include domestic and international program records, organizational files, correspondence, subject files, publications, printed material, and newspaper clippings.


The Dougy Center

The Dougy Center, The National Center for Grieving Children & Families is a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon that offers support groups and services to grieving children and young adults. Its peer support program and network of children's grief services make the organization the first of its kind in the United States. 500 independent programs around the world are based on its model, more than 300 of which have staff who were trained by the organization's staff. The Dougy Center serves 400 children and 250 adults from the Portland metropolitan area each month, free of charge. Its main building is located in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood, and its satellite locations in Canby and Hillsboro are called The Dougy Center Walker's House and The Dougy Center Linklater Commons, respectively.
The organization was founded in 1982 by Beverly Chappell, in tribute to Dougy Turno, who died of a brain tumor at age thirteen. In August 1981, Dougy wrote a letter to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a pioneer in near-death studies, on the subject of his own death. This prompted Kübler-Ross to connect Chappell with Dougy and his family, and Chappell to create support groups for grieving children. Since its establishment, more than 20,000 children and their family members have received support from the organization.
In 2009, an unidentified arsonist destroyed the center. Construction on a new building began in April 2012, but in the interim, the center operated in Northeast Portland. Following $4.5 million in construction costs, the current 11,750-square-foot facility opened in February 2013 in its original location.
Mission and model.
The Dougy Center, established in 1982 in Portland, Oregon offers support groups and services to grieving children. It has been described as a "safe haven where grief is normal", and is assisted by support groups, professional staff, and trained volunteer facilitators. Groups are separated by age (for example, the "Littles" group is for children ages 3–5) and type of death. Through a peer support model, children are encouraged to talk and play with one another, sharing their experiences in the process. Its peer support program and network of children's grief services make the organization the first of its kind in the United States. 500 independent programs around the world are based on its model, more than 300 of which have staff who were trained by the organization's staff. Its Summer Institute offers training for the leaders of other grief support programs.
The center serves 400 children and 250 adults each month, focusing its efforts on children and teens (ages 3–18) and young adults (ages 19–30). Since its establishment, more than 20,000 children and their family members in the Portland metropolitan area have benefited from The Dougy Center, free of charge. Support groups are offered in Canby, Hillsboro, and Portland. In 2004, 140 volunteer facilitators donated more than 10,500 hours of service to the center. The organization employs a staff of around fifteen individuals, and is supported by an advisory board and board of directors.
The Dougy Center's main building contains round rooms designed with "creative" tunnels, some geared towards specific age groups; interactive features, such as slides and toys; and an art room. There exists a popular "Volcano Room", which contains gymnastics padding, a punching bag, and soft objects, allowing children to "express their feelings in whatever form they're comfortable with".
The organization has satellite locations in Canby and Hillsboro, called The Dougy Center Walker's House and The Dougy Center Linklater Commons, respectively. As of 2011, the Hillsboro location serves 45 children and teens in three groups.
The Dougy Center is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has various revenue streams. According to Partnership Northwest, the center receives little government financial support and depends on donations from businesses, foundations, and individuals. In 2012, the center received more than $10,000 from Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Portland Rose Festival, via the Regence Grand Floral Walk. Other funding sources have included a concert headlined by a local singer-songwriter. The Dougy Center hosts an annual Reflection Benefit, which includes a silent auction, dinner, and live auction. Porsche Boxsters have been raffled off at the benefit for fifteen years. In April 2010, Oregon Public Broadcasting sponsored a benefit event at Oaks Amusement Park called "Cookies with Cookie Monster", featuring a walkaround plush Cookie Monster. The event raised awareness for a program from the producers of "Sesame Street" called "When Families Grieve".
History.
Beverly Chappell founded The Dougy Center in 1982 in tribute to Dougy Turno, who died of a brain tumor at age thirteen. In August 1981, Dougy wrote a letter to psychiatrist and author Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a pioneer in near-death studies, on the subject of his own death. This prompted Kübler-Ross to connect Chappell with Dougy and his family, and Chappell to create support groups for grieving children. Despite Kübler-Ross' early influence on the organization, The Dougy Center does not subscribe to the Kübler-Ross model (a series of five emotional stages experienced by survivors of an intimate's death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) and has even expressed skepticism about the model.
In June 2009, an unidentified arsonist destroyed the center. According to Schuurman, the center suffered three arson attempts previously: a fire burned the professional building three months prior and was followed by the discovery of a soda can filled with flammable liquid, then the burning down of the center's play structure. Building and content losses were estimated at $750,000. Business and financial records, as well as program materials were lost in the fire. The organization spent a year attempting to recover a "fair" insurance settlement, during which the building remained vacant and was subjected to vandalism (stolen copper pipes resulted in a flooded basement). Deconstruction and demolition of the building began in May 2010, following receipt of a $1.2 million settlement. During the construction of the new center, which began in April 2012, the center operated on Northeast Glisan Street near 22nd Avenue in Northeast Portland and reportedly never cancelled a single support meeting.
On February 2, 2013, the center hosted a celebration to commemorate the completion and grand opening of its new facility. The 11,750-square-foot building, located at its original site on Southeast 52nd Avenue in Portland's Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood, cost $4.5 million and was designed by Scott Edwards Architecture and built by Bremik Construction. Donations and the insurance settlement supplied seventy percent of the construction costs.
Reception.
In 2013, Schuurman was awarded the Clinical Practice Award by Association for Death Education and Counseling, one of the oldest organizations in the counseling psychology field of dying, death and bereavement. In 2014, the center's reconstructed building design earned Scott Edwards Architecture an Award of Merit (also known as the Building Industry Community Spirit award) at the Gold Nugget Awards, which recognize "design excellence of U.S. and international projects submitted by builders, developers, architects and land planners". The firm also received the Against All Odds Award at the 2014 Design Excellence Awards, presented by the Oregon chapter of the International Interior Design Association.


Legal Aid BC

Legal Aid BC (formerly the Legal Services Society) is the legal aid provider in British Columbia, Canada.
Services are available for family, immigration, and criminal law matters and include legal information, advice, or representation, depending on the client’s legal problem.
Legal Aid BC is a non-profit organization governed by a nine-member board of directors. While the provincial government is its primary funder, the society remains independent of government. It also receives funding from other sources, including the Law Foundation of British Columbia and the Notary Foundation of British Columbia. Provincial funding has declined over the past two decades, significantly impacting the Society's services and operations (see below).
Services.
Legal Aid BC provides three main types of services: information services, advice services, and representation services. Information services include outreach worker requests, as well as publications such as self-help manuals, legal aid awareness materials, Aboriginal publications, and general legal information. MyLawBC.com provides online guided pathways and dispute support.
Advice services include criminal, immigration, and family duty counsels, as well as the Brydges phone line (providing "Province-wide, toll-free telephone advice service for persons who have been arrested, detained, or are under active investigation by a law enforcement agency") and the Family LawLINE (a "phone service for financially eligible people that provides information on a variety of family law issues").
Representation services provide the full services of a lawyer for eligible individuals in the areas of criminal, family, and immigration law.
History of legal aid in British Columbia.
Prior to the 1970s, legal aid services for low-income individuals were provided by the pro bono work of lawyers and solicitors in the province. Throughout the 1970s, the federal and provincial governments began providing funding for such legal aid services. Government support of legal aid services was formalized in 1979 with the establishment of the LSS by provincial statute.
Funding and related issues.
Legal Aid BC is funded primarily by the Province of British Columbia, providing approximately 93% of the Society's annual budget. The provincial Law and Notary Foundations together provide the remaining seven percent. Provincial funding and, subsequently, Legal Aid services in the province have diminished for close to two decades. Approximately 40% of the one-time budget has been cut, equating to nearly 50 million dollars. The largest decline in this funding came in 2002, when it was reduced by close to 30 million dollars. The Province of British Columbia ranks third lowest in Canada in per capital legal aid spending.
The funding reductions have had major impacts on many aspects of the Legal Services Society and legal aid in the province. In the 1990s, BC had one of the most comprehensive legal aid programs in Canada, but government funding would become insufficient to support such a program. By 2010, 50 Regional Offices closed throughout the province, leaving only two. Currently, in areas without a Regional Office, the Legal Services Society relies on the Province's courthouses and the private law offices of lawyers and solicitors to liaise with potential clients about the legal aid services available to them. Another result of the funding cuts has been a 40% lay-off rate of the Society's support staff. Furthermore, "[the] number of legal aid cases approved for legal representation declined dramatically between 2001 and 2010: the number of family law cases approved dropped from 15,526 to 6,270 and poverty law referrals went from 40,279 to 0 (legal representation for poverty law – housing, welfare, disability pensions, debt – has been eliminated)." At a broader level, this decline in Provincial funding "has contributed to the court system being overwhelmed and cases being thrown out."
In March 2011, the "Public Commission on Legal Aid in British Columbia" was released. In it, "[the] overwhelming majority of [public and private] submissions spoke to the general failure of our legal aid system, the negative repercussions for needy individuals and families, and the consequent adverse impact on our communities and justice system." The Commission went on to recommend, among other things, an increase in long-term, stable funding to the LSS, as well as an official recognition of legal aid as an essential public service. In November 2011, Robert J. Bauman, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, stated that the province's judicial system "is threatened, if not in peril... Inadequate funding of courts [including legal aid] in British Columbia has been the reality for the last number of years. We are not at the tipping point yet- but we are steadily edging towards it."
According to a 2008 Ipsos Reid poll, public support for legal aid in British Columbia remains very high, with 93% of respondents saying they support these services.
The legal community in British Columbia strongly supports legal aid services and continues to protest the funding reductions. On November 30, 2011, the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia held a Rally in Ribbons and Robes, a province-wide protest on the steps of regional and provincial courthouses to raise awareness about the state of legal aid in British Columbia. The Association carried out job-action protests from January to April, 2012. The primary component of the job-action impacted the duty counsel services outlined above; these services were withheld for one week in January 2012, two weeks in February, three weeks in March, and throughout all of April.
On December 30, 2011, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of British Columbia, the Honourable Shirley Bond, announced an augmentation of LSS funding, by $2.1 million annually. This announcement was received positively by the LSS.


Betty Willis (singer)

Betty Jane Willis (March 10, 1941 – January 1, 2018) was an American soul singer in the 1960s.
Biography.
Born on a farm in Mississippi, Willis moved with her family to Fresno, California, when she was two. In the early 1960s, she moved to Santa Ana and sang in Los Angeles-area nightclubs. Singer Bill Medley, whose career with The Righteous Brothers was just beginning, was told about Willis. Medley and Willis recorded a song together at Gold Star Studios, but it was never released. However, her voice and association with the studio drew notice from producers Phil Spector and Leon Russell, who retooled the country song "Act Naturally" into a rhythm and blues version for Willis in 1965. As part of the duo Betty and Ray, with Ray Lockhart, she also made several other recordings. Her last known recording was in 1968.
According to her daughter, Willis enjoyed a singing career but did not want to be part of the music industry. She also grew frustrated when paperwork was mishandled that scuttled an Africa music tour. She briefly worked in a factory before becoming a postal worker in the 1980s and retired after 37 years.
Personal life.
Despite having family in Santa Ana, Willis chose to mostly live on the street in retirement. She slept outside a fabric shop, arriving after the shop closed and leaving before it opened.
Death.
Early on January 1, 2018, Willis was assaulted by a homeless man who attempted to rape her. She was hit repeatedly on the head and strangled to death, before police arrived to apprehend her attacker. Willis was 76.


Hypothenar hammer syndrome

Hypothenar hammer syndrome (HHS) is a vascular occlusion in humans in the region of the ulna. It is caused by repetitive trauma to the hand or wrist (such as that caused by the use of a hammer) by the vulnerable portion of the ulnar artery as it passes over the hamate bone, which may result in thrombosis, irregularity or aneurysm formation. HHS is a potentially curable cause of Raynaud's syndrome, distinct from hand–arm vibration syndrome.
Diagnosis.
A physical examination of the hand may show discoloration (blanching, mottling, and/ or cyanosis; gangrene may be present in advanced cases), unusual tenderness/ a callous over the hypothenar eminence, and fingertip ulcerations and splinter hemorrhages over ulnar digits; if an aneurysm is present, there may also be a pulsatile mass. Allen's test will be positive if an occlusion is present and negative if an aneurysm is present. An angiogram may show a "corkscrew" ulnar artery or an occlusion or aneurysm at the hook of the hamate.
Treatment.
Noninvasive treatments have an 80% success rate; surgical options exist for other instances.
Epidemiology.
HHS, though rare, occurs much more frequently in men than in women (9:1) and principally affects those in their 40s and 50s.


TetR

Tet Repressor proteins (otherwise known as TetR) are proteins playing an important role in conferring antibiotic resistance to large categories of bacterial species.
Tetracycline (Tc) is a broad family of antibiotics to which bacteria have evolved resistance. Tc normally kills bacteria by binding to the bacterial ribosome and halting protein synthesis. The expression of Tc resistance genes is regulated by the repressor TetR. TetR represses the expression of TetA, a membrane protein that pumps out substances toxic to the bacteria like Tc, by binding the "tetA" operator. In Tc-resistant bacteria, TetA will pump out Tc before it can bind to the ribosome because the repressive action of TetR on TetA is halted by binding of Tc to TetR. Therefore, TetR may have an important role in helping scientists to better understand mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and how to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria. TetR is one of many proteins in the TetR protein family, which is so named because TetR is the most well characterized member.
TetR is used in artificially engineered gene regulatory networks because of its capacity for fine regulation of promoters. In the absence of Tc or analogs like ATc, basal expression of TetR-regulated promoters is low, but expression rises sharply in the presence of even a minute quantity of Tc. The "tetA" gene is also present in the widely used "E. coli" cloning vector pBR322, where it is often referred to by the name of its tetracycline-resistance phenotype, TetR, not to be confused with TetR.
Structure & Function.
TetR functions as a homodimer. Each monomer consists of ten alpha helices connected by loops and turns. The overall structure of TetR can be broken down into two DNA-binding domains (one per monomer) and a regulatory core, which is responsible for tetracycline recognition and dimerization. TetR dimerizes by making hydrophobic contacts within the regulatory core. There is a binding cavity for tetracycline in the outer helices of the regulatory domain. When tetracycline binds this cavity, it causes a conformational change that affects the DNA-binding domain so that TetR is no longer able to bind DNA. As a result, TetA and TetR are expressed. There is still some debate in the field whether tetracycline derivatives alone can cause this conformational change or whether tetracycline must be in complex with magnesium to bind TetR. (TetR typically binds tetracycline-Mg2+ complexes inside bacteria, but TetR binding to tetracycline alone has been observed in vitro.)
The DNA-binding domains of TetR recognize a 15 base pair palindromic sequence of the TetA operator. These domains mainly consist of a helix-turn-helix (HTH) motif that is common in TetR protein family members (see below). However, the N-terminal residues preceding this motif have also been shown to be important for DNA binding. Although these residues do not directly contact the DNA, they pack against the HTH and this packing is essential for binding. The HTH motifs have mostly hydrophobic interactions with major grooves of the target DNA. Binding of TetR to its target DNA sequence causes changes in both the DNA and TetR. TetR causes widening of the major grooves as well as kinking of the DNA; one helix of the HTH motif of TetR adopts a 310 helical turn as the result of complex DNA interactions.
TetR Protein Family.
As of June 2005, this family of proteins had about 2,353 members that are transcriptional regulators. (Transcriptional regulators control gene expression.) These proteins contain a helix-turn-helix (HTH) motif that is the DNA-binding domain. The second helix is considered to be most important for DNA sequence specificity and often recognizes nucleic acids within the major groove of the double helix. In the majority of the family members, this motif is on the N-terminal end of the protein and is highly conserved. The high conservation of the HTH motif is not observed for the other domains of the protein. The differences observed in these other regulatory domains are likely due to differences in the molecules that each family member senses.
TetR protein family members are mostly transcriptional repressors, meaning that they prevent the expression of certain genes at the DNA level. These proteins can act on genes with various functions including antibiotic resistance, biosynthesis and metabolism, bacterial pathogenesis, and response to cell stress.


Farida Shaheed

Farida Shaheed is a Pakistani sociologist and feminist human rights activist. In 2012, she was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. She heads the Shirkat Gah women's resource centre in Pakistan, and is known for her extensive work on gender and class analysis, both in Pakistan and more globally.
Work.
Shaheed has over 25 years of research and activist experience, using a gender and feminist lens on issues of rural development, labour, culture, religion and the state. She has particularly focused on promoting and protecting cultural rights through policies and projects for marginalised communities, including women, the impoverished, religious and ethnic minorities. Shaheed is also an expert in international, regional and national negotiations, including within the United Nations and Pakistan.
Shaheed is a founding member of the Pakistan women's rights network, Women's Action Forum (WAF) and a member of the transnational feminist network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML).
Awards and recognition.
On 12 November 2014, Shaheed was awarded the "International Award UCLG – Mexico City Culture 21", for her work on gender, culture, religion and the state. She had previously received several other awards, including the Pakistan Prime Minister's Award for her co-authored book, "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back".
Selected publications.
In 2010, Shaheed authored the article "Contested Identities: Gendered Politics, Gendered Religion in Pakistan" for the special edition of Third World Quarterly.
In 1998, Shaheed edited with Sohail Akbar Warraich, Cassandra Balchin and Aisha Gazdar, the book "Shaping Women's Lives: Laws, Practices and Strategies in Pakistan". It was published by Shirkat Gah.
In 1987, she wrote the book "Women of Pakistan: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?" with Khawar Mumtaz, chronicling Muslim women's movements in South Asia from the turn of the 20th century up till the mid-1980s=27 November 2014}}</ref>
In 2004, with Aisha L F Shaheed, she wrote "Great Ancestors: Women Asserting Rights in Muslim Contexts". The book was conceived of as a training module for women's human rights activists with a companion book of historical and biographical information. The two volumes were published by Shirkat Gah and was republished as a stand-alone monograph by Oxford University.


Yellow-banded poison dart frog

The yellow-banded poison dart frog ("Dendrobates leucomelas"), also known as yellow-headed poison dart frog or bumblebee poison frog, is a poisonous frog from the genus "Dendrobates" of the family Dendrobatidae.
Distribution and habitat.
"Dendrobates leucomelas" is found in the northern part of continent of South America, most notably in Venezuela. It is also found in parts of Guyana, Brazil, and the extreme easternmost part of Colombia.
This amphibian is normally found in very humid conditions in tropical rain forests, close to fresh water. It is often found on flat rocks, trees, plants (notably bromeliads), and the leaf litter of the forest floor. During the dry season, specimens are known to congregate in damper places, such as under rocks or fallen tree trunks.
The "D. leucomelas"' natural habitat is tropical, and not subject to great seasonal temperature variations. Typically, temperature variances are related to elevation and time of day, and range from the low 20s to the low 30s °C. In captivity, care must be taken not to overheat the frogs, as they can be sensitive to higher temperatures.
Although preferring high humidity levels, this species can handle lower humidity levels much better than other species in the genus. Specimens can also be found in the seasonally drier forest islands in its natural range, and at elevations ranging from sea level to 800 metres AMSL.
Morphology.
"Dendrobates leucomelas" is one of the largest species in the genus "Dendrobates", with a snout-to-vent length between . Average adult size, however, rarely exceeds . Their average weight is reported as being around . Females tend to be slightly larger than the males, but otherwise, little in their appearance can be used to determine the sex of the species.
Like most poison dart frogs, the yellow-banded poison dart frog has evolved aposematic colouration as a warning to potential predators that it will make an unpalatable or toxic meal.
Predominantly, these frogs have a bright yellow colouration with varying numbers of broad black stripes and/or spots that extend over the whole body. Some morphs are orange in colour, and variations exist within the species (naturally occurring and not morphs solely within the exotic pet community) that dictate the extent of these markings ranging from fine spots to thick, unbroken banding.
They have glandular, adhesive pads on their toes (which aid in climbing and positioning) and, in common with other species in their order, they have a short, protrudable, unnotched, sticky tongue, which extends to catch prey.
Behaviour.
"Dendrobates leucomelas" frogs are diurnal by nature, and are known to be fiercely territorial. They live in small groups in the wild, and will attack neighbouring groups with surprising ferocity for creatures of their size. They will also warn off rivals by emitting loud calls; "D. leucomelas" is known to have one of the loudest calls among poison dart frogs; theirs can be heard from some distance and is described as an innocent-sounding, bird-like trill. "D. leucomelas", as with all frogs, can also call to attract members of the opposite sex. Uniquely, it is also the only poison dart frog to estivate during dry spells.
Toxicity.
Like all Dendrobatidae, "D. leucomelas" frogs secrete toxins from their skin, which they gain from eating certain unspecified arthropod prey. It is uncertain precisely which arthropods lend their toxicity to which genus of Dendrobatidae, but one such arthropod is thought to have been identified as a possible source of the toxin for Dendrobatidae "Phyllobates terribilis" (aka the golden poison frog), and it is a local variant of the Melyrid beetle.
Dendrobatidae toxins vary from species to species, but some are extremely potent neurotoxins. The alkaloid toxins, secreted from the frogs' skin, interfere with nerve impulses, which can lead to heart failure or fibrillation.
Husbandry and conservation status.
The species' robustness, relatively common numbers in the wild, and widespread natural distribution has helped maintain this frog's status of "Least Concern" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's conservation red list, despite some overharvesting of wild specimens for the exotic pet trade. The species' ability to be easily bred in captivity has led to a fall in prices within the free market, which is an alleviative factor to the problem of overharvesting.


Environmental Law Foundation

The Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) is a UK registered charity, dedicated to environmental law and disseminating information on the subject.
One of the main purposes of the organisation is to bring individuals and community groups who are trying to prevent environmental damage in touch with ELF's membership of environmental lawyers and other technical environmental specialists, who can provide information and pro bono advice on potential legal or planning cases.
ELF also organises local questions-and-answers sessions with experts for members of the public; provides training and education in the subject, and produces various publications, including the periodical, "ELFline", containing among other things, case studies.


Yash Ghai

Yash Pal Ghai (born 20 October 1938) is a Kenyan academic in constitutional law. As of 2007 he is the head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in Nepal. Until 2008, he was a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cambodia on human rights. In September 2008, he resigned his post, following bitter arguments with the Government of Cambodia. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 2005.
Early life and education.
His grandparents were Khukhrain who came from North India, and were part of the waves of migration sponsored by the British Empire. His father sent Ghai to Oxford University to study.
Career.
He was the Sir YK Pao Professor of Public Law at the University of Hong Kong starting in 1989. He has been an Honorary Professor there since his retirement in 2005. Prior to that, Ghai taught and did research in law at the University of Warwick, Uppsala University in Sweden, the International Legal Center in New York City, and Yale Law School. He has also taught courses at the University of Wisconsin Law School, as part of an exchange program.
He was the Chairman of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (which attempted to write a modern constitution for Kenya) from 2000 to 2004. Professor Ghai is also recently selected by the Fijian Military Government to be the Chairperson of Fiji's Constitutional Committee.
Ghai has also advised and assisted NGOs on human rights law-related work. He drafted the Asian Human Rights Charter—A People's Charter, a project of the Asian Human Rights Commission.
Ghai has written several books on law in Africa, the Pacific islands, and elsewhere.
Honours and awards.
Professor Ghai has received the following honours and awards:


Pizza Rat

Pizza Rat is an internet meme based around a viral video of a brown rat carrying a slice of pizza down the steps of a New York City Subway station in Manhattan. The video was first uploaded to Instagram on September 21, 2015, and a copy was uploaded to YouTube later. Currently, the YouTube video has more than 11.6 million views.
Impact.
Within hours of the video's posting, #PizzaRat was trending on Twitter, and by September 23, the clip had been viewed over five million times. Articles were quickly written by Gawker, BuzzFeed, DNAinfo, and Gothamist. Pizza Rat costumes, as well as "sexy" Pizza Rat costumes, were created and worn for Halloween that year.
"Popular Science" identified the rat as a common brown rat, and noted the rarity of humans to be able to get as close to them as Little did while filming the video. They attributed this to either the rat being too hungry to run, or more used to humans than other rats.
"The Washington Post" created a timeline of the meme's progression, starting with its upload on September 21. The article argued that journalists and marketers attempting to gain clout from the meme, as well as the users themselves oversharing it, led to the meme's death within two days of its initial creation.


Elmo Henderson

Elmo Henderson born April 8, 1935 is an American former boxer from Texas. Despite his dubious claim of a 1972 win against Muhammad Ali in an exhibition match in San Antonio, Texas, he did not become particularly well known in the boxing community; John Spong of the "Texas Monthly" said that the match was the "shot not heard round the world". However, people who attended the exhibition say Elmo Henderson did not defeat Ali, and newspaper reports after the exhibition made no mention of Ali losing. After the match, Henderson became a part of George Foreman's Rumble in the Jungle event in Zaire and won a libel suit against Norman Mailer and "Playboy". As of 2003, Henderson was a homeless man in Austin, Texas. As of 2015, Henderson lives in a care home in Northern California.
Believed to have died, was still bragging about beating Ali to anyone who would listen to him while in the hospital towards the end of his life.
History.
Henderson, a high school dropout from Stop Six, Fort Worth, first began boxing in 1954 and frequented events in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He went to prison in Huntsville, Texas in 1961 after stealing a television from a truck. In 1964, Henderson won the Texas state boxing title by defeating Benny Bowser, a boxer from Austin, Texas, in the second round of the competition. In the following year, Henderson again faced Bowser and lost the title to him after the judges made a split decision to grant the title to Bowser. In 1967 Henderson had a series of fights; in August of that year the California Athletic Commission asked Henderson to take an examination of his brain so doctors could determine if he had received brain damage. Henderson did not take the examination and instead went to New Zealand to match against Bobby Dunlop; he defeated Dunlop in the New Zealand match, and then Dunlop defeated Henderson in a rematch in Sydney, Australia three months later. The California Athletic Commission suspended Henderson's state boxing license after it learned of the matches in Australasia. In 1968, police from Fort Worth found marijuana in Henderson's possession, and he briefly returned to prison. In 1972 Nevada suspended Henderson's boxing license because, unless the boxer gets an exception, the state did not allow people of 36 years of age or older to be boxers. Despite the suspensions in California and Nevada, Henderson continued boxing in other states. Five states, including Texas, granted Henderson boxing licenses after California suspended its license of Henderson.
Elmo Henderson used to train at Archie Moore's gym on the corner of Sage and Gateway in Vallejo, California. Archie Moore was the Light Heavyweight champion and had lost to Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) on November 15, 1962. Henderson had fought Ernie Shavers on October 29, 1971 in Stateline, Nevada and was knocked out in the fourth round, Shavers was the hardest puncher that Henderson had ever encountered during his career, at that time Ernie Shavers had never lost and during the year 1971 alone Shavers had 17 professional fights and won them all and most by knockouts.
Elmo Henderson claimed he defeated Muhammad Ali in an exhibition match during the "Muhammad Ali Boxing Show" in San Antonio, Texas on October 24, 1972. However, people that were present at the event say it did not happen. He never achieved widespread fame in the boxing world. He also served as a cheerleader in George Foreman's entourage in the Rumble in the Jungle event in Zaire. Norman Mailer wrote a "Playboy" article about Henderson in the May 1975 issue. The article included a false statement that said that Henderson had been released from the Nevada State Hospital, a mental hospital. Henderson filed a $1 million lawsuit against Mailer and "Playboy". The magazine and Mailer lost the lawsuit. In 1977, the jury, located in Corpus Christi, Texas, awarded Henderson $105,000. Spong said that the lawsuit made Henderson, "[...]at least in his telling of the story, the first black man ever to win a libel suit against a white man." The federal court ordered the defendants to make the payment on November 16, 1977. Owen Cox, the judge, said that the amount was too high, and ordered that the plaintiff would either accept $25,000 or that the case goes to trial again. The defendants decided to pay a sum between the jury judgment and Cox's judgment to Henderson. Bill Nutto, Henderson's lawyer, does not state how many dollars the defendants paid to Henderson and Nutto. Henderson said that he received $40,000.
In 2003 Henderson was a homeless man in Austin, Texas.
However, as of August, 2011, Henderson is housed and well in Vallejo, California, and, as of November 10, 2012, Henderson is living in a nursing home called Napa Nursing in Napa, California.


Water.org

Water.org is an American nonprofit developmental aid organization resulting from the merger between H2O Africa Foundation, co-founded by Matt Damon, and WaterPartners, co-founded by Gary White. Its goal is to provide aid to developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that do not have access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
History.
In 2009, WaterPartners, founded in 1990, and H2O Africa Foundation, founded in 2006, merged to form Water.org. In 2017, Water.org created the WaterEquity investment fund. By 2019, the charity had "provided more than 16 million people throughout India, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines with access to safe water and sanitation."
Approach.
Water.org's approach to implementing water projects involves four key components:
The organization conducts monitoring, evaluation, and original research programs. It has initiated third-party evaluations of its programs to determine how it is fulfilling its mission.
WaterCredit.
Water.org's projects are funded through grants, loans, or a combination of the two. Its loan program, known as WaterCredit, utilizes microcredit to fund water sanitation projects. Funding water supply projects through a combination of grants and loans is a new approach to the water sector. This strategy helps these people in need build credit for the future and also builds confidence in commercial institutions that are considering lending. Until recently, almost all water projects facilitated by other nongovernmental organizations have been funded entirely by grants, even when the individuals served by the project have the means to share costs.
Prior to its merger with Water.org, WaterPartners received grants from organizations such as the PepsiCo Foundation, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Open Square Foundation (previously called the Agora Foundation).
Water.org and Stella Artois Partnership.
Since 2015, Stella Artois has teamed up with Water.org to provide access to clean water to people in the developing countries. In January 2018, their new commercial, which premiered during the Super Bowl, encourages its audience to take part in this initiative by purchasing a limited edition Stella Artois chalice. Each purchase helps Water.org provide up to 5 years of clean water for 1 person in the developing world.
Reviews.
, Charity Navigator gives the organization 4 out of 4 stars, with an overall score of 95.75 out of 100.
Award.
2019 Global Global Water Awards: Water Company of the Year


Charitable gift annuity

A charitable gift annuity is a gift vehicle that falls in the category of planned giving. It involves a contract between a donor and a charity, whereby the donor transfers cash or property to the charity in exchange for a partial tax deduction and a lifetime stream of annual income from the charity. When the donor dies, the charity keeps the gift.
The amount of the income stream is determined by many factors including the donor's age and the policy of the charity. Most charities in the United States use payout rates defined by the American Council on Gift Annuities.


Svinesund

Svinesund is a sound separating the Swedish municipality of Strömstad in the province of Bohuslän in the county of Västra Götaland from the Norwegian municipality of Halden in the county of Viken.
Two bridges, the old and new Svinesund Bridge, span this sound of the Iddefjord. The Swedish side is extremely popular with Norwegians who flock to buy relatively cheap goods in Sweden, where a large shopping area can be found immediately after crossing the sound. Following the inauguration of the new bridge in June 2005, both the old and new bridges are toll bridges.
Norwegian and Swedish customs authorities have offices and checkpoints on their respective sides of the sound. While there is not normally any passport control on the border, vehicles crossing are regularly stopped and searched. Norway is not in the EU so there are much stricter restrictions on the amount of goods (e.g. alcohol, cigarettes, food, etc.) that can be taken across the border without stopping to pay customs duties than between EU countries. Customs duties are paid immediately after crossing the border using the new bridge.


Smith Sound

Smith Sound (; ) is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait.
On the Greenland side of the sound were the now abandoned settlements of Etah and Annoatok.
History.
The first known visit to the area by Europeans was in 1616 when the "Discovery", captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin, sailed into this region. The sound was originally named "Sir Thomas Smith's Bay" after the English diplomat Sir Thomas Smythe. By the 1750s it regularly appeared on maps as "Sir Thomas Smith's Sound", though no further exploration of the area would be recorded until John Ross' 1818 expedition. By this time it had begun to be known simply as "Smith Sound".
In 1852 Edward Augustus Inglefield penetrated a little further than Baffin, establishing a new furthest north in North America.


Street Outreach Program


National Environmental Policy (Brazil)


United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association

The United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association works independently to inform and advise the United Nations Human Rights Council. The special rapporteur examines, monitors, advises and publicly reports on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association worldwide.
The position was created by Human Rights Council resolution 15/21 in October 2010. This position is voluntary, and the expert is not United Nations staff nor paid for his/her work.
The first mandate-holder, Maina Kiai, took up his duties on May 1, 2011, for an initial period of three years. He began his second three-year term in May 2014 and completed his term on April 30, 2017. Kiai is a lawyer and human rights defender from Kenya.
The third mandate-holder, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule of Togo, took up his functions on March 1, 2018.
Mandate.
The Special Rapporteur is mandated to gather all relevant information relating to the promotion and protection of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association throughout the world. The Special Rapporteur is also mandated to make recommendations on ways to ensure the promotion and protection of these rights, to report on rights violations, and to issue reports on his findings.
The mandate was initially established for three years. In September 2013, it was extended for an additional three years, through 2017.
Working methods.
In the discharge of his mandate, the Special Rapporteur:
Work of former Special Rapporteur Kiai (2011-17).
Former Special Rapporteur Kiai authored seven reports to the Human Rights Council on the subjects of:
Kiai also authored four reports to the UN General Assembly, on the subjects of:
Kiai also made nine official country visits, to Georgia (2012), the United Kingdom (Jan. 2013 & April 2016), Rwanda (Jan. 2014), Oman (Sept. 2014), Kazakhstan (Jan. 2015), Chile (Sept. 2015), the Republic of Korea (Jan. 2016) and the United States of America (July 2016).
Kiai issued more than 190 press statements via OHCHR and sent over 900 communications to UN member states.
Kiai also attended numerous conferences and meetings on the subject matter of his mandate and convenes consultations with various stakeholders on the subject.
In 2014, Freedom House awarded Kiai its Freedom Award, an acknowledgment begun in 1943 "to extol recipients’ invaluable contribution to the cause of freedom and democracy." Prior Freedom Award honorees include Chen Guangcheng, Aung San Suu Kyi, Vaclav Havel, the 14th Dalai Lama, Medgar Evers, and Edward R. Murrow.
In October 2016, Kiai received the United Nations Foundation's Leo Nevas Award for his work as Special Rapporteur. The award recognizes "those who have served as agents of change in advancing international human rights." In December 2016, he was awarded the 2016 AFL-CIO George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award.
In response to continued significant police conflict with the Black Lives Matter and other social movements in the US, he conducted the first ever official country visit to the United States by a Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in July 2016.


Habeas corpus in the Philippines

Habeas corpus (; Latin for "you [shall] have the body") is a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. In the Bill of Rights of the Philippine constitution, "habeas corpus" is guaranteed in terms almost identically to those used in the U.S. Constitution. in Article 3, Section 15 of the Constitution of the Philippines states that "The privilege of the writ of "habeas corpus" shall not be suspended except in cases of invasion or rebellion when the public safety requires it".
History.
American Period.
In response to continuing unrest, the Philippine Commission availed itself of an option in the Philippine Organic Act of 1902, , and on January 31, 1905, requested that Governor-General Luke Edward Wright suspend the writ of habeas corpus. He did so the same day, and habeas corpus was suspended until he revoked his proclamation on October 15, 1905. The suspension gave rise to the United States Supreme Court case "Fischer v. Baker", .
Marcos Administration.
In 1971, after the Plaza Miranda bombing, the Marcos administration, under Ferdinand Marcos, suspended "habeas corpus" in an effort to stifle the oncoming insurgency, having blamed the Filipino Communist Party for the events of August 21. Many considered this to be a prelude to Martial Law. After widespread protests, however, the Marcos administration decided to reintroduce the writ. In December 2009 under Arroyo Administration, "habeas corpus" was suspended in Maguindanao as the province was placed under martial law. This occurred in response to the Maguindanao massacre.
Law.
According to the Section 13 of the 1987 Constitution "All persons, except those charged with offenses punishable by reclusion perpetua when evidence of guilt is strong, shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, or be released on recognizance as may be provided by law. The right to bail shall not be impaired even when the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended. Excessive bail shall not be required."


45th meridian west

The meridian 45° west of Greenwich is a line of longitude that extends from the North Pole across the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, the Atlantic Ocean, South America, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica to the South Pole.
In Greenland the meridian defines the borders of Avannaata, Qeqertalik, and Qeqqata municipalities with the Sermersooq municipality and the North East Greenland National Park.
The 45th meridian west forms a great circle with the 135th meridian east, and it is the reference meridian for the time zone UTC-3.
From Pole to Pole.
Starting at the North Pole and heading south to the South Pole, the 45th meridian west passes through: