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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Teacher Strikes In Oklahoma And Sickouts In Kentucky Close Schools

 

 

 

 

The wave of teacher protests in recent weeks has shown no signs of slowing down. School districts in Oklahoma and Kentucky were forced to close due to statewide teacher sickouts. Thousands of Oklahoma and Kentucky teachers rallied Monday at their state capitals, demanding more education funding for students. Many say they’ll keep fighting until lawmakers meet their demands.

The state of Oklahoma has the lowest average teacher salaries in the US with many teachers saying they have not received a pay raise in 10 years. Many say that the lack of funding and low wages keep new teachers out of their districts which have seen classroom sizes swell to 40 kids because of teacher shortages.

The Oklahoma teachers union wants $10,000 raises for teachers, $5,000 raises for support staff such as janitors and cafeteria workers and $200 million in education funding. Ultimately, the governor signed legislation last week granting teachers’ pay raises of about $6,100, raises of $1,250 for support staff and $50 million in education funding. The state’s two largest school districts, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, announced that schools would be closed Monday as the strike enters its second week.

In an effort to produce for state revenue so more can be allocated to education funding, the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA), working in collaboration with lawmakers, is seeking to end the strike by Tuesday following Friday’s passage of a revenue and tax bill that is expected to raise $20 million from an internet sales tax and $24 million from the legalization of “ball and dice” gambling in the state. The union praised the senate’s action on Friday and called for two additional measures of removing capital gains exemptions, saying that this would add an additional $100 million in revenue, and for Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to veto the repeal of a tax on guests at hotels and motels—another regressive measure.

Meanwhile, more than 30 Kentucky school districts had schools close after massive teacher call outs. Educators were furious after the state Legislature approved changes to their pension the day before. Kentucky teachers have opposed changes to their pension, which was in Senate Bill 1 that proposed reducing benefits. But in a surprise move, elements of Senate Bill 1 were tucked into another bill, Senate Bill 151, which had been about sewage services. The nearly 300-page Senate Bill 151 passed both the state House and Senate on Thursday.

The Kentucky Education Association, which represents teachers and other education professionals, slammed the maneuver as a “classic legislative bait and switch.” “It stripped all the ‘local provision of wastewater services’ language out of SB151 and replaced it with many of the harmful provisions of SB1,” the association stated.
Under the new pension bill, new hires will have to use a hybrid cash balance plan, rather than a traditional pension, which will drive new teachers to leave the state. Other elements of the bill include limiting the number of sick days teachers can put toward their retirement and no changes to the annual cost of living adjustments, which will remain 1.5%.

Gov. Matt Bevin supports reforming the system and says it’s critical to fix the pension crisis, which ranks as one of the worst in the US. He said a wider demonstration like a teacher strike would be “illegal.” “I would not advise that,” Bevin said during a Capitol news conference. “I really wouldn’t. I think that would be a mistake.” In Kentucky, public employees are prohibited from striking.

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Laura Ingraham Loses Advertisers After Mocking School Shooting Survivor On Twitter

 

 

Fox News host Laura Ingraham found herself in hot water for a tweet mocking outspoken Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg. Hogg survived the Florida shooting that left 17 people dead and 14 others wounded. He is one of twenty founding members of Never Again MSD, a gun control advocacy group led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) students. After Hogg mentioned publicly that he had been rejected by four UC campuses, Ingraham taunted him about it on Twitter. Ingraham tweeted, “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA…totally predictable given acceptance rates.)”

Ingraham was immediately criticized for taunting a 17 year old school shooting survivor; with many pointing out that she herself is a mother and an adult. Hogg responded with the tweet “ Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers … Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts” He then compiled a listing of the top 12 advertisers on Ingraham’s Fox News program and urged his 722,000 followers to “contact” the companies. He labeled Ingraham as a bully and before long, Hogg’s tweet was flooded with replies from his supporters, some of whom added images of their messages to the companies mentioned.

Several companies have responded to the boycott call. Nutrish tweeted “We are in the process of removing our ads from Laura Ingraham’s program.” TripAdvisor pointed to one of its company values — “We are better together” — in its decision to stop advertising on Ingraham’s show. “We do not . . . condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster,” TripAdvisor said in a statement. “In our view, these statements focused on a high school student cross the line of decency.” Online home goods retailer Wayfair pulled their ads saying that Ingraham’s personal criticism of Hogg was “not consistent with our values.” Nestlé and Liberty Mutual also stated that they had no plans to buy future ads on the show. Johnson & Johnson, Stitch Fix, Office Depot, Ruby Tuesday, Miracle Ear, Jenny Craig, Expedia, Nestle, Hulu and The Atlantis, Paradise Island resort have also joined the boycott.

Following the loss of advertisers, Ingraham apologized for mocking Hogg with a tweet the next day. “Any student should be proud of a 4.2 GPA-incl. @DavidHogg111. On “On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset or hurt my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland. For the record, I believe my show was the first to feature David immediately after that horrific shooting and even noted how poised he was given the tragedy. As always, he’s welcome to return to the show anytime for a productive discussion.”

Hogg dismissed the apology as an insincere “effort just to save your advertisers” and continued to label Ingraham a bully. “The apology . . . was kind of expected, especially after so many of her advertisers dropped out,” Hogg said on CNN. “I’m glad to see corporate America standing with me and the other students of Parkland and everybody else. Because when we work together, we can accomplish anything.”

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Testimony Reveals Orlando Shooter’s Father Was FBI Informant

 

 

 

During the trial of Noor Salman, widow of the Pulse Nightclub shooter, testimony has revealed that the father of shooter Omar Mateen had worked as an FBI informant. Seddique Mateen, Omar’s father, was a confidential FBI informant from 2005 to 2016. He is now under investigation for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan.

FBI Special Agent Juvenal Martin, who was on the stand in the terrorism trial of Noor Salman, said Omar’s father, Seddique, was upset and had called him while his son was being investigated for the extremist comments in 2006. Martin testified that, during the call which took place a decade before the Pulse attack, Seddique told him something like “if he had done those things he was being stupid.” Martin said the FBI interviewed Omar two other times as part of that investigation, but eventually determined he wasn’t a security threat. The bureau even considered turning Omar into a confidential informant himself, according to Martin’s testimony.

The trial produced several revelations about the shooting. Prosecutors said Mateen originally intended to attack Disney World, using a gun concealed in a baby stroller, but changed his mind after seeing police at the entertainment complex. Government witnesses, using data from Mateen’s cell phone, said he looked up information about Orlando nightclubs and went back and forth between two of them before setting on Pulse as his target.

Omar Mateen’s widow, Noor Salman, was found not guilty of all charges against her in the only trial to stem from the deadly June 2016 shooting rampage. She was accused of helping her husband plan his terror assault on the Orlando, Florida, nightclub and of falsely denying her role afterward. The government equated Mateen’s actions with supporting terrorism, because he repeatedly pledged allegiance to ISIS before and during the attack, which left 49 people dead and 53 injured.

Salman was charged with aiding him in providing material support to a terror group. She was also charged with obstruction of justice, accused of misleading police and FBI agents by making contradictory statements about whether she knew what he was planning. In opening statements, defense attorney Linda Moreno said Salman was a person with a low IQ who did not know “she would wake up a widow, and Omar Mateen a martyr for a cause that she didn’t support.”

In a November 2016 interview with The New York Times, Salman apologized for her husband’s act and claimed she was unaware of his plan. “I don’t condone what he has done,” she told the newspaper. “I am very sorry for what has happened. He has hurt a lot of people.” FBI agents arrested Salman in January 2017 inside the California home she shares with her young son and she had been in custody since then.

Outside the courtroom, a spokesman for Salman’s family said “The family really wants to first say that we’re very sorry for the family members and friends of the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting and also the survivors of that horrible attack.” “Noor can go home now to her son, Zack, resume her life and try to pick up the pieces.”
The June 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre was the deadliest single gunman mass shooting in United States history until the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. It is the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history and the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the September 11 attacks of 2001.

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Investigators Still Searching For Motive In Austin Bombings

 

 

Investigators searching for a potential motive for Austin Bomber Mark Anthony Conditt’s actions are no closer to answering the question of why he carried out a nearly three-week-long bombing spree that left two people dead. Conditt blew himself up inside his SUV early Wednesday, shortly after a SWAT team performed a tactical maneuver to force him to stop the SUV.

Conditt went to a FedEx store south of Austin on Sunday and made the mistake of parking within view of a surveillance camera that captured the vehicle’s license plates on his red SUV. Surveillance photos from the mail delivery office showed Conditt wearing a baseball cap, blond wig and pink gloves as he brought two packages to the store. Investigators used cellphone technology to track him down on Wednesday and to confirm that he had been to all of the bombing locations.

The early morning confrontation started after his SUV was located in a parking lot of a hotel in Round Rock. As plainclothes officers and unmarked vehicles descended on the area while a ballistics and SWAT team were enroute. The officers then followed Conditt as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto Interstate 35 where he ultimately detonated a bomb as officers approached his vehicle.

Investigators say they are no closer to understanding a motive and are relying on Mark Anthony Conditt’s own words from a 25-minute recording he made hours before he was confronted by the SWAT team. In the cellphone recording, Conditt, 23, refers to himself as a “psychopath” and showed no remorse for carrying out the deadly bombings and spreading fear across the city. Federal agents searched Conditt’s home in Pflugerville for almost two days, removing explosive materials and looking for clues that could point to a reason for the bombings. Two of Conditt’s roommates were detained and questioned by police. One of them was released hours after Conditt’s death and the other was released the next afternoon, police said. Neither was arrested or publicly identified.

Investigators found components for making similar bombs to the ones that exploded in the past few weeks, but no finished bombs were found, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A law enforcement source said the devices that exploded in Austin and near San Antonio were pipe bombs with batteries and smokeless powder and were constructed with materials found in a hardware or sporting goods store. The bombs had distinctive shrapnel inside with some using “mousetrap” switches and others using “clothespin” switches. Chief Brian Manley of the Austin Police Department said that Mr. Conditt had made a 25-minute recording in which he discussed the bombs and how he had made them. The recording, Chief Manley said, was “the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to this point.”

According to friends and neighbors, Conditt was an intense, socially awkward loner, who was the oldest child in a tight-knit, devout Christian family that held Bible study groups in their home. Conditt was unemployed and had no criminal history. He had worked for a local manufacturer, Crux Manufacturing, for about four years until he was fired this past August after he failed to meet job expectations, according to a statement from the company.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the city’s “collective fear and anxiety” was growing as the bomber carried out the string of attacks. “There was feeling that there was not much that we could do. There was a collective helplessness, our community was beginning to fray,” Adler said at a City Council meeting. He added that it appeared that Mr. Conditt had acted alone, but authorities had not definitively ruled out whether he had any accomplices.

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

4 Dead In Supermarket Siege In France

 

 

 

 

French police officer Arnaud Beltrame has died from his injuries after he offered to exchange himself for one of the female hostages being held inside the Super U supermarket in Trèbes. The violence unfolded Friday morning when the attacker, identified as Radouane Lakdim, stole a car, killing the passenger and gravely wounding the driver. Lakdim then drove towards military and police barracks where he shot at four National Police officers who were jogging before trying to run them down. One of the officers was wounded.

The gunman proceeded to the Super U market armed with a gun, knife and explosives. He began shooting as he walked inside shouting that he was a soldier from Isis. Two people were killed and several others wounded. Christian Medves, 50, a butcher in charge of the meat counter was shot first and Hervé Sosna, 65, a shopper was then killed while 16 others were wounded.

Around 50 terrified shoppers and staff managed to escape but several were taken as hostages. Witnesses said about 20 people in the supermarket found refuge in its cold storage room. Police found the car, and SWAT teams surrounded the market, at around 11am, beginning the three hour standoff. “They managed to get some of the people out,” said Interior Minister Collomb, but the attacker kept one woman hostage to use as a human shield. Officer Arnaud Beltrame, offered to take the place of the woman. The lieutenant colonel had his phone on so police could hear his interactions with the gunman. Collomb said that at one point the National Police lieutenant colonel shot the gunman. After hearing shots, police stormed the supermarket where Lakdim had been left holding only Beltrame. Lakdim was killed and Officer Beltrame, who had been shot and stabbed, later died from his injuries.

Lakdim, 25, a small-time drug-dealer who had French nationality and was born in Morocco, left a handwritten letter at his home pledging allegiance to Isis. He was known to authorities for petty crimes, but had been under surveillance by security services in 2016-2017 for links to the radical Salafist movement, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who is leading the investigation. One neighbour told a news reporter that the suspect was a pleasant young man who was “calm, friendly, and always had a nice word to say.” He reportedly lived in an apartment block with his parents and sisters, and would take the youngest child to school every day.

Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said that he believed Lakdim had acted alone and that the gunman also brought homemade explosives into the supermarket. Police continue to question a 17-year-old and Lakdim’s 18-year-old girlfriend. Collomb said the gunman had demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam – the prime surviving suspect in Islamic State suicide bombing and mass shooting attacks on a sports stadium, concert hall and restaurants that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015. Abdeslam, a French citizen born and raised in Brussels, went on trial in Belgium last month.

President Macron hailed the fallen officer as a hero saying of the officer. “He saved lives and honoured his colleagues and his country,”

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Military Vet Kills 3 At California Veterans’ Home

 

 

 

 

 

 

A gunman killed three women in a standoff at a Northern California military veterans home. The three victims—Jennifer Gonzales, 32; Christine Loeber, 48 and Jennifer Golick, 42; worked for a counseling program at the Pathway Home nonprofit, which helps military veterans overcome PTSD and transition back into civilian life. The shooter, 36-year-old Albert Wong of Sacramento, was a military veteran and former patient at the center who was kicked out of the program just days before the shooting spree, after he threatened its employees- including one of the women killed.

Records show Wong was in the Army reserves from October 1998 until December 2002 and served in active duty from May 2010 to August 2013. He was deployed to Afghanistan April 2011 to March 2012. He received several awards and medals, including an Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with two campaign stars, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Expert Marksmanship Badge with Rifle before being honorably discharged.

According to law enforcement sources, Wong was armed with a rifle and a shotgun when he entered the room where a going-away party for some departing Pathway employees was taking place. According to sources, Wong entered the building and exchanged fire with a deputy. Witnesses say he calmly entered the room brandishing a rifle and let at least 4 employees leave-firing shots into the rest of the room as they left.

Napa County Sheriff John Robertson said dozens of law enforcement officers responded about 10:20 a.m. local time to a report of shots fired. Reports indicate that as many as 15 to 30 shots were fired before Wong took the hostages at the Veterans Home, on the second floor of The Pathway Home. Everyone at the Veterans Home was told to shelter in place and lock their doors, and the entire facility was placed on lockdown for hours.

Authorities say the gunman shot at police as they surrounded the building. SWAT, FBI, and ATF all responded to the incident, but no one was able to reach him during the standoff. The gunman and the three hostages were found deceased after a nearly seven-hour standoff. It’s not yet known what his motives were or if the victims were chosen at random. Jen Golick’s father-in-law, told news outlets that she had ordered Wong’s removal from the Pathway program two weeks prior to the shooting. She called her husband, Mark Golick, around 10:30 a.m. Pacific to let him know that she had been taken hostage. He never heard from her again.

The Veterans Home is one of the largest in the United States, housing at least 1,100 men and women. The Pathway Home, located on the Veterans Home grounds, operates an independent 35,000-square-foot center within the Yountville veterans’ home, has treated more than 400 veterans since 2008. Male veterans enrolled in the live-in program are mostly soldiers returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who have difficulty transitioning into civilian life. Many returning veterans have graduated from the program, including Adam Schumann, the subject of the book and film “Thank You For Your Service”.

In 2016, the program began transitioning from a group that focused primarily on housing and treating veterans with PTSD into a program with a wider mission, including helping vets with academic and career development. Loeber was the executive director of the Pathway Home and Golick was a staff psychologist and clinical director there. Gonzales was a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Yountville Mayor John Dunbar said he was not sure when or if the facility will reopen. Six people currently enrolled in the program will continue to receive care, he said.

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Six Dead In Florida Pedestrian Bridge Collapse

 

 

Authorities say six people have died after a 960-ton span of a pedestrian bridge collapsed on Thursday, onto a busy street below, killing six motorists under an avalanche of concrete and metal. At least nine others were injured in the collapse of the nearly 200-foot-long bridge, which was under construction near the campus of Florida International University. The bridge, which was still being installed at the time of the collapse, was built to connect Florida International University with downtown Sweetwater, where many students live. The bridge was not scheduled to open until 2019.

Senator Marco Rubio said suspension cables on the bridge “were being tightened when it collapsed.” Police are enlisting the help of engineers as they investigate the cause of the collapse. The National Transportation Safety Board, Miami-Dade homicide detectives and prosecutors are focusing on the government agencies and two contractors — Munilla Construction Management, which was building the structure, and FIGG Bridge Group, which engineered and designed the span.

A lead engineer with the private contractor FIGG Bridge Engineers -who constructed the bridge, left a voice mail for a state transportation official warning of “some cracking observed on the north end of the span” two days before the structure collapsed. In the message, which was not retrieved until Friday, the engineer said he did not consider the crack a safety issue. The Florida Department of Transportation official to whom the voice mail was directed was out of the office on assignment. Footage of the collapse, taken from a vehicle dashcam, suggests the concrete came apart on the north end — the same area that the bridge’s design engineer spoke about in the message.

On Thursday, shortly before the bridge collapsed, a meeting was held regarding the crack that appeared on the structure. The university said that the meeting was convened by FIGG and Munilla Construction Management (MCM), which built the bridge. “The FIGG engineer of record delivered a technical presentation regarding the crack and concluded that there were no safety concerns and the crack did not compromise the structural integrity of the bridge,” the university said in a statement, adding that representatives of the school and the state Department of Transportation attended the session, which lasted two hours.

News outlets speculating over the cause of the collapse have focused on the cracks reported but experts say other factors, including the tensioning work going on at the bridge’s north end are of more concern. They say cracking in new concrete is not uncommon and not necessarily a sign of failure. Tightening of steel cables, or tendons, that run through concrete structural elements is a delicate operation, and over-tightening can cause concrete pieces to twist and break apart, experts say.

Rescue workers dug through the rubble nonstop for two days, pulling out crushed vehicles in search of victims. All six victims were identified by Saturday morning as Florida International University student Alexa Duran, 18; Brandon Brownfield, a tower crane technician, husband and father of three; Rolando Fraga Hernandez, 60, was a systems technician at ITG

Communications; Osvaldo González, 57 and Alberto Arias, 54. Navarro Brown, 37, an employee with Structural Technologies VSL, died at a hospital shortly after the accident. Two other employees of the company were hospitalized at Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami in stable condition.

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Hundreds of NYPD Officers Kept Their Jobs Despite Serious Offenses

 

 

An investigation into internal New York City Police Department files show that hundreds of officers have been allowed to keep their jobs and pensions despite having committed an array of offenses. According to hundreds of pages of internal police files, offenses committed from 2011 to 2015 by over 300 NYPD officers include excessive force against civilians, driving under the influence of alcohol, selling drugs, sexually harassing fellow officers, assault, threatening and stealing.

At least fifty officers lied on official reports, under oath, or during an internal affairs investigation. Thirty-eight were found guilty by a police tribunal of excessive force, getting into a fight, or firing their gun unnecessarily. Fifty-seven were guilty of driving under the influence. Seventy-one were guilty of ticket-fixing. One officer threatened to kill someone while some were guilty of lesser offenses, like mouthing off to a supervisor.

In every instance, the police commissioner, who has final authority in disciplinary decisions, assigned these officers to “dismissal probation” which is a penalty with few consequences. The officer continues to do their job at their usual salary but they may get less overtime and won’t be promoted during that period, which usually lasts a year. They continue to patrol the streets, arrest people and testify in criminal prosecutions. When the year is over, their probation period ends.

The probation files covered in the investigation do not include all officers who received dismissal probation during the 2011 to 2015 period. According to the NYPD, of the more than 50,000 people who work for the department, at least 777 officers and an untold number of other employees received the dismissal probation penalty during the five years in question. During that same period, 463 additional officers were forced to leave or resigned while a disciplinary charge was pending. Sources have said that dismissal probation is also used to punish some officers for reporting misconduct or just for getting on their supervisors’ bad sides. Still, many officers continue to patrol the streets making over $100,000 a year while the city has paid millions of dollars in civil settlements for offenses committed between 2011 and 2015, such as excessive force or unlawful arrest. These settlements are reached without the department or officer admitting any wrongdoing.

New York is one of three states, along with Delaware and California that has a law specifically shielding police misconduct records from the public. As police departments around the country face growing pressure to be more transparent about police misconduct, NYPD has doubled down on its stringent legal interpretation of those laws. Civil Rights Law Section 50-a is the law that hides New York police officers’ misconduct from public view and it’s one of the strictest in the nation.

The Department Advocate’s Office determines which officers to charge and prosecute at the NYPD’s internal disciplinary trials. Kevin Richardson, the deputy commissioner said the law prevented him from commenting on specific officers’ cases but that dismissal probation serves a valuable purpose. “The department is not interested in terminating officers that don’t need to be terminated. We’re interested in keeping employees and making our employees obey the rules and do the right thing, but where there are failings that we realize this person should be separated from the department, this police commissioner and the prior police commissioner have shown a willingness to do that.”

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

China Removes Presidential Term Limits

 

 

President Xi Jinping of China is set to rule the country indefinitely after Chinese lawmakers passed changes to the country’s constitution abolishing presidential term limits. The National People’s Congress voted 2,958 in favor of the amendment, two opposed and three abstained. Xi assumed leadership of China’s Communist Party in 2012 and has consolidated power to levels not seen since the era of Mao Zedong. The change in presidency now aligns with other posts Xi holds, as head of the Communist Party and head of the military, neither of which have term limits.

After becoming president in 2013, Mr Xi fought corruption, punishing more than a million party members. Critics say he has used the anti-corruption purge to sideline political rivals. At the same time, China has clamped down on many emerging freedoms, increasing its state surveillance and censorship programs which critics attain was a move to silence opposition.

The constitutional change officially allows him to remain in office after the end of his second term in 2023. Many believe that now that the constitution has been altered- that Xi Jinping intends to rule for the rest of his life unchallenged. There has been no national debate as to whether a leader should be allowed to stay on for as long as they choose.

The two-consecutive-term limit to China’s presidency was put in place by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 in order to avoid the kind of chaos and tumult that can sometimes happen when you have a single authoritarian leader, as China had with Mao Zedong. Among many campaigns launched by Zedong were “The Great Leap Forward” in 1957 that aimed to rapidly transform China’s economy from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history and the deaths of more than 45 million Chinese people between 1958 and 1962.   Zedong also initiated the Cultural Revolution in 1966, a program to remove “counter-revolutionary” elements of Chinese society that lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle and widespread destruction of cultural artifacts. It has officially been regarded as a “severe setback” for the Peoples Republic of China.

The National People’s Congress is also likely to confirm China’s new government line-up for the next five years, kicking off Xi Jinping’s second term as president, ratify a law to set up a new powerful anti-corruption agency and ratify the inclusion of the president’s political philosophy in the constitution. His philosophy is officially called “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era”. Schoolchildren, college students and staff at state factories will have to study the political ideology, which the Communist Party is trying to portray as a new chapter for modern China.

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7 years ago · by · 0 comments

Daily HI4E.org Trivia Contest Winners For The Week Ending: Sunday, March 11th, 2018.

 

 

In an effort to broaden the company’s “social interaction” with our clients and FaceBook fans, Daily Trivia Questions are posted on both of our business pages. Here are the weekly standings for this past week, and the winner of the Sunday night Weekly Drawing for an AmEx gift card!            

Congratulations  – To this past week’s Trivia Contest Winner!!   Our latest contest winner for the weekly FaceBook HealthInsurance4Everyone/Health & Life Solutions, LLC Trivia Contest, drawn randomly by computer late Sunday evening, March 11th, 2018 was:

 

MELANIE  MESSING

Brooklyn,  NY

Winner Of A $25.00 AmEx Gift Card

 

Each day, fans who have “liked” either of our company FaceBook pages (HealthInsurance4Everyone  or Health & Life Solutions LLC) are able to test their skills with our Daily TRIVIA QUESTION.  The first 20 winners who post the correct answer to the TRIVIA QUESTION, will then get entered into the weekly drawing held late on Sunday evenings for a $25.00 Am Ex Gift Card.


Weekly Gift Card winners will be posted in our blog at this site.  Remember to become a FaceBook “fan” on either of our company pages to enter and post your answers. 

 

Here are the daily contestants from last week’s Trivia Contest that were entered into the Sunday drawing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

3/5/18

 

Sheila Carvell

 

Melissa Maestas

 

Jodi Stevens

 

Alicia Johnson

 

Joanie Waterman

 

Brooke Scott

 

Jessica Bognear

 

Lia Jill

 

Jenifer Garza

 

Kathleen Marks

 

Helen Saez Deverter

 

Anna Nichols

 

Jennifer Downing

 

Nicole Blaha

 

Trish Hysell

 

Mary Achio

 

Jennifer Kinner

 

Rachael Dakota-Two-Feather Smith

 

Nacole Patrick

 

Wendy Messer-Brinnon

 

Stella Methvin

 

Tiffany Patrick

 

Allison Frederick

 

Kacie Rogers

 

Christy Hawkes

 

Bea Patrick

 

 

 

3/6/18

 

 

Alexis Maureen

 

Lia Jill

 

Kendra George

 

Deborah Farris

 

Theresa Sigourney

 

Amanda Peters

 

Charlotte Dennis

 

Brooke Scott

 

Pamela White Brearley

 

Mary Ann Cody

 

April Denise Council-Redmond

 

Anna Nichols

 

Vickie Gipson

 

Beata Tybor

 

Amy Conyers

 

Myranda Medlin

 

Autumn Dansby

 

Lauren Bradley

 

Amy Chavis

 

Wilma Mast

 

Dave Miller

 

Kayte CookWatts

 

Samantha Rentschler

 

 

 

3/7/18

 

Karen Brunet Moore

 

Kelsey McKnight

 

Joanie Waterman

 

Ambreen Rouf

 

John Hardy

 

Jenifer Garza

 

John McKnight

 

Christy George

 

Dawna McKnight

 

Melanie Messing

 

Sarah Bellestri Shih

 

Destiny Landsaw Davis

 

Brittany Light

 

Tanya Mattox

 

Chelsie Nicole

 

Kellina Fernell Murphy

 

Bethany Henry

 

Anggie Marie

 

Debbie Garretson

 

Beth Stelzer-Smith

 

Brooke Scott

 

Adaria Johnson

 

Alicia Smith

 

April Walrath

 

 

 

3/8/18

 

 

Melissa Ann Stura-Bassett

 

Amber Chandler

 

Tammy Alcorta

 

Christina Domingue

 

Shelby Howke

 

Lia Jill

 

Anna Nichols

 

Heather Marocco

 

Stacy Lynn Nelson

 

Kimberly Taylor Hall

 

Wendy Messer-Brinnon

 

Brooke Scott

 

Nyeasia Pippin

 

Kimberly Necolie Garrasi

 

Crystal Dotson

 

Geri Rus

 

Eleazar Ruiz

 

Brandi K Chaney

 

Nicole Blaha

 

April Ashcraft

 

Brittany Light

 

Bea Patrick

 

 

 

 

3/9/18

 

 

Lia Jill

 

Trish Musgrave

 

Amanda Peters

 

Emily Rice Bowersock

 

Sarah Bellestri Shih

 

Katrina Worford

 

Kathleen Marks

 

Anna Nichols

 

Jenifer Garza

 

April Ashcraft

 

Ashley Agner

 

Eleazar Ruiz

 

Kelsey Polacek

 

Margaret Gipson

 

Taschia Miller

 

Shelby Howke

 

Jennifer Marie

 

Felicia Block

 

Beth Cleveland

 

Misty Dawn Moores

 

Brenda Hartwig

 

 

 

 

3/10/18

 

 

Tanya Mattox

 

Karen Ann Hinkle

 

Isis Sample

 

Shelby Howke

 

Sheri Boydston

 

Jenn Anthony

 

Lia Jill

 

Debbie Garretson

 

Geri Rus

 

Eleazar Ruiz

 

Be Schwerin

 

Amanda Rosario

 

Mary Bubel Smith

 

Tonya Velazquez

 

Kimberly Snyder

 

Tammy Alcorta

 

Wilma Mast

 

Amanda Peters

 

Sunney Michelle Johnson

 

Lauren Bradley

 

Dean Bruss

 

Tracey Smith

 

Tracy Shafer

 

Jennifer Lee Clack

 

 

 

 

3/11/18

 

 

Jennifer Lee Clack

 

Lia Jill

 

Kendra George

 

Sarah Bellestri Shih

 

Nicole Blaha

 

Jodi Stevens

 

Trish Hysell

 

Destiny Landsaw Davis

 

Anggie Marie

 

Tanya Mattox

 

Kristi Cervantes

 

Ann Patrick

 

Diane Hamric

 

Samantha Brwn

 

Joann Tompkins-Winborn

 

Kendra Lynne Ramsey

 

Christy Hawkes

 

Tina Casto-Shafer

 

Tiffany Greene Elliott

 

Tabitha Sinks

 

Michael Flagg

 

Christina Domingue

 

Deborah Farris

 


Be sure to watch both of our FaceBook pages for your chance to win and enter again next week, with questions posted daily on HealthInsurance4Everyone or at Health & Life Solutions, LLC!!

Remember that if you try your hand at answering the Trivia Question several days each week, your odds of winning the Sunday weekly drawing are much better. 

Also note that a number of the posted answers each day are from contestants who have forgotten to “Like” one of our pages, so their names WILL NOT be entered at the end week drawing for the gift card, giving our fans a better chance!

You may also find that if you “Like” BOTH of the business pages, you will receive faster notifications of the other players as they post their answers to compete with you!  

—————————————————————-

At Health Insurance 4 Everyone, we not only want to improve our customer service but also interact with our customers on a social media level that wasn’t available before. Interested in connecting with us?  Look us up on….

 

Twitter: Healthinsurane4  (Follow Us On Twitter To Receive Faster Notifications When Daily Trivia Questions Posted, & To Be Immediately Notified When Weekly AmEX Gift Card Winners Are Announced!!)

 

 

Click-On for LinkedIn To Follow Our Posts: LinkedIn

 

Like us on facebook: HealthInsurance4Everyone or Health & Life Solutions, LLC

 

Over 54,000 Combined Fans/Followers To Our Social Media Sites, & We’re Growing Daily!

 

Follow Mark Shuster, Founder/Owner at Health & Life Solutions, LLC for daily health tips! 

 

 

Mark Shuster FaceBook Link

 

Follow our word press blog and read about everything from health insurance and reform news to healthy living and current events!

 

Company Blogs

 

Find out more about LegalShield, our corporate partner which gives you the power to talk to an attorney about any legal issue, and offering high-quality Identity Theft plans.

 

LegalShield

 

Read more

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* State specific differences may apply to each insurance carrier or benefits provider, and each entity is responsible for their own contractual and financial obligations. Insurance products offered through HI4E.Org, Health & Life Solutions, LLC, and Health Insurance 4 Everyone, are not available to residents of New York or Oregon.

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