The rise of the pro-Trump media machine

Axios CEO Mike Allen grinds on about what he calls 'A New Media Machine'. Is he OK?
The Sinclair Broadcasting Group echo effect?

NASA Spacecraft Discovers New Magnetic Process in Turbulent Space

This is Turbulence

Published on May 9, 2018

Views: 75,000+

Though close to home, the space immediately around Earth is full of hidden secrets and invisible processes. In a new discovery reported in the journal Nature, scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft — MMS — have uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment by using an innovative technique to squeeze extra information out of the data.
Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in the space — filled with charged particles known as plasma — around Earth. This fundamental process dissipates magnetic energy and propels charged particles, both of which contribute to a dynamic space weather system that scientists want to better understand, and even someday predict, as we do terrestrial weather. Reconnection occurs when crossed magnetic field lines snap, explosively flinging away nearby particles at high speeds. The new discovery found reconnection where it has never been seen before — in turbulent plasma.

Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2...

Trump's Female CIA Nominee Stonewall's In Public Testimony

". . . It's classified . . We can talk about that subject in closed sessions . . ." Related in Politics

Book: Trump’s CIA Pick ‘Ran the Interrogation Program’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ex-CIA Official Says Some Torture Videotapes May Still Exist

Ex-SEAL on Haspel: ‘We Needed Leadership. We Got Torture’

REDACTED

Gina Haspel Stonewalls on Discussing Her Role in CIA Torture

Trump’s CIA pick once ran a secret prison. Now she doesn’t want to talk about it.

Spencer Ackerman 05.09.18 3:38 PM ET

". . . Haspel, from October to early December 2002, ran a CIA black site in Thailand where, while she supervised it, interrogators tortured Abdul Rahim al-Nashiri—“immediately upon his arrival,” according to the CIA inspector general. Former top CIA lawyer John Rizzo, in a 2014 memoir penned before it was at all controversial, wrote that Haspel, as of 2005, had “previously run the interrogation program,” only to retract that statement after The Daily Beast called attention to it (and after he himself had reaffirmed his confidence in it). Haspel, reacting to that, twice told senators: “I did not run the interrogation department. In fact, I was not even read into the interrogation program until it had been up and running for a year.”
It was a curious and precise formulation, not least of which because there has never been known to be any entity inside the CIA called “the interrogation department.”
“The CIA has a serious, pervasive and corrosive accountability problem,” said Dan Jones, a former FBI counterterrorism analyst, the lead investigator for the Senate torture report and the resultant subject of CIA spying. “No one is ever sanctioned for wrongdoing, even when the CIA itself acknowledges gross misconduct.”
Haspel’s defiant tone crescendoed as the hearing persisted. In written answers to the committee about her time at the CIA Counterterrorism Center, which operated the torture program, Haspel would not give any public response beyond saying she was a Deputy Group Chief from 2001-2003 and later a Senior-Level Supervisor from 2003-2004—without saying what her responsibilities were (PDF). (It was during that time that she ran the black site.) Asked by Maine independent Angus King if she was ever in a “supervisory” or “management” position over the torture program, Haspel said, “we’ll be able to go over any of my classified assignments in classified session.”
 

Above Poverty, Working Hard & Still Struggling

A United Way study, to be released publicly Thursday, suggests that the economically forgotten are a far bigger group than many studies assume . . . and it appears to be growing larger despite the improving economy.
That's an exclusive about an hour ago from Axios
Exclusive: 40% in U.S. can't afford middle-class basics
Quick take: The study, conducted by United Way, found a wide band of working U.S. households that live above the official poverty line, but below the cost of paying ordinary expenses. Based on 2016 data, there were 34.7 million people in that group — double the 16.1 million who are in actual poverty, project director Stephanie Hoopes tells Axios.
> At a time of rock-bottom joblessness, high corporate profits and a booming stock market, more than 40% of U.S. households cannot pay the basics of a middle-class lifestyle — rent, transportation, child care and a cellphone, according to a new study.
> These are households with adults who are working but earning too little — 66% of Americans earn less than $20 an hour, or about $40,000 a year if they are working full time.

When you add them together with the people living in poverty, you get 51 million households. "It's a magnitude of financial hardship that we can't been able to capture until now," Hoopes said.

Link to United Way ALICE Study  Click Here

Arizona Corporate-Owned Public Charter Schools Getting Some Heat For All The Right Reasons

Here's just a start on some of the heat generated by the release of findings for all charter schools last month. 
According to an Arizona Republic analysis of data from the state charter board,  Charter operators representing 138 of the state's 538 charter schools showed financial warning signs in the 2016-17 school year.

"These schools' operators failed three of four quantifiable measures reported in their financial performance dashboards, which rate charters' financial health using metrics including how much cash they have on hand and whether they made more money than they spent.

Charter holders of 62 schools failed all four measures, including 18 schools run by Edkey Inc. that lost a total of $2.6 million last year. . .

_______________________________________________________________

Let's stop right there and put EdKey into a hyper-local political perspective to show you, dear readers, the close association of politicians and education here in Mesa when aspiring candidate Jerry Lewis (a good friend of John Giles) campaigned for election in 2016 to the Mesa City Council in District 3 was immediately endorsed by both the current mayor John Giles and former mayor Scott Smith at the same time he declared his candidacy - he runs Sequoia Charter Schools that are owned by EdKey). At one episode in his unsuccessful campaign, at the invitation of the mayor to appear in front of the Mesa City Council meeting, he introduced himself as "a businessman".

So too does another Mesa politician calls himself "a businessman" who's amassed a personal fortune - AZ Senator Bob Worsley, who's the champion of taxpayer-funded vouchers to pay for what's called "Parental Choice" in public education that pays for charter schools. Recently, he came out publicly as a private real estate speculator here in downtown, gambling and betting what he says is $20 million dollars at the same time holding an elected public.

_________________________________________________________________________ 

Here's more of the analysis that was published on 09 May:

Analysis: 1 in 4 charters shows significant financial red flags

Agnel Philip, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 6:00 a.m. MT May 9, 2018

Updated 4:59 p.m. MT May 11, 2018

" . . . Edkey's schools were among 41  that fell far below the standard of "going concern," meaning there was indication that they could close within a year because of their finances, according to The Republic's analysis of financial audits submitted to the State Board for Charter Schools. . .

More schools show financial issues: In March, The Republic published the initial findings from an analysis of charter school financial performance data, but the reports for operators of 84 schools hadn't been made public or submitted. The final reports, with the 84 schools included, were released last month. . .   

BASIS Schools, Inc., which operates 18 schools in Arizona, failed two of the four quantifiable measures, including showing a $9.2 million loss last year.

BASIS Executive Director DeAnna Rowe said in an email that the school refinanced some debt, contributing to the appearance that it lost money.  

Not all charter chains fell below the standards. . .

The updated findings also showed that:

• Charter holders for 142 schools (26 percent) failed the board's expectation for cash reserves; holders for 48 fell far below this standard.
• Charter holders for 221 schools (41 percent) lost money in the 2016-17 school year.
• Charter holders for 230 (43 percent) had obligations that were too high relative to their income.
• The majority of holders are mostly financially in the black. Operators of more than 316 charter schools (59 percent) met three or more of the standards

______________________________________________________________

Blogger Note: the reviews, which are accessible online, aim to provide the public some transparency into charter finances and to "improve the financial health" of the state's charter-school sector.
________________________________________________________________________
READ MORE > Arizona Republic's Analysis 

 

 

Do "Living Green Workshops" really work???

Thanks to The East Valley Tribune for publishing the following in their Week Ahead section, but is it really going to have a significant impact? Just one quick observation:
The City of Mesa uses probably the most costly, wasteful and inefficient way to keep downtown green in public spaces and older homes: flood irrigation.
With that being said, your MesaZona blogger wholeheartedly respects and admires the dedication and job that Donna DiFrancesco, Conservation Coordinator with the Mesa Environmental Management & Sustainability Department, is doing to promote sustainability and low-impact development here in Mesa.
The first question that is fundamental for this series of workshops is if homeowners want to or are able to pay the costs of installing the required rainwater harvesting equipment?
Living Green workshops in Mesa focus on water conservation 
"You can collect more than 400 gallons of free water off the rooftop of a typical home from just half an inch of rain.
You can learn valuable information like this at the Living Green Hydrate Mesa series taking place on Tuesdays, starting this week through May 29 at the Mesa Main Library, 64 E 1st Street. . . 
The program is presented by Watershed Management Group, a local nonprofit whose stated goal is to “create unity, peace and progress around water and watershed health" starting in the home.
Walk-ins are welcome, but advance registration is encouraged: watershedmg.org/learn/classes/hydrate.
_______________________________________________________________________
 “Living Green” is part of a larger effort by Mesa to “to address environmental issues and concerns.”
Information > http://www.mesaaz.gov/residents/sustainability
_______________________________________________________________________
           




   

Things That Happen To Your Body While You're Asleep

Perfectly natural