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Daily Archives: April 11, 2022
Commercial boat catches fire near paper mill on Staten Islands West Shore – SILive.com
Posted: April 11, 2022 at 6:43 am
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A fire on a commercial boat Sunday off the coast of Staten Islands West Shore prompted a response by multiple emergency agencies.
A Samaritan boating near Travis alerted authorities to smoke and flames emanating from a towing vessel just after 11:30 a.m., according to a source with knowledge of the incident.
The captain of the ship extinguished the flames by the time crews had arrived, the source said.
No injuries were reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard, FDNY and North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue responded to the area of 4435 Victory Boulevard for a report of the incident.
Pratt Industries at 4435 Victory Blvd. in Travis recycled a thousand tons of paper products a day when this photo was taken in April 2011. (Staten Island Advance/Irving Silverstein)staten island advance
The address belongs to Pratt Industries paper mill, where multiple fires have been reported over the past decade.
BUSY DAY ON THE WATER
Hours prior to the boat fire near Travis on Sunday, FDNY Marine Operations responded to a private vessel in distress near the Staten Island side of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
The FDNY helped untangle a line from a propellor on the boat after it was spotted drifting toward rocks along the coastline.
No injuries were reported.
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Commercial boat catches fire near paper mill on Staten Islands West Shore - SILive.com
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Second Israeli goes to space on Friday in first all-private flight to ISS – Haaretz
Posted: at 6:43 am
Philanthropist and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe will become the second Israeli to fly to space on Friday, when he takes off for the International Space Station as part of the first all-private astronaut team ever flown to the orbiting outpost.
Stibbe, 64, is set to take off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket furnished and flown by Elon Musk's commercial space launch venture SpaceX, as part of a mission initiated by Axiom Space, a privately held company.
What Iran Learned From Ukraine: LISTEN to Former Israel Intel Chief
A retired combat pilot who formerly had the most kills of enemy aircraft in the Israeli armed forces, Stibbe was a founder of theLR Group, which enjoyed close ties with Angolan authorities during and since the countrys civil war. Stibbe has since left that company.
He is also a member of the board of directors of the Ilan Ramon Foundation, named after the first Israeli to fly to space, who perished with six NASA crewmates in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. In a blog post, Stibbe wrote that he plans on taking several surviving pages of the diary Ramon kept in space to the ISS.
Stibbe will remain on the International Space Station for eight days and perform scientific experiments. The flight ticket comes with a hefty price tag of $55 million. The former fighter pilot is funding the trip with offshore dollars, with his payment for the flight coming from a company that is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The State of Israel, Haaretz found, has invested hundreds ofthousands of dollars in expenses related to this mission, while funds for other parts of the mission were registered in the books of the Ramon Foundation,a nonprofit, something that may save Stibbe substantial tax costs.
The mission is being led by retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, Axiom's vice president of business development, who will be joined by Larry Connor, a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio designated as the mission pilot, and Canadian businessman and philanthropist Mark Pathy.
The Ax-1 crew may appear to have a lot in common with many of the wealthy passengers taking suborbital rides lately aboard the Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic services offered by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, respectively. But Axiom executives said their mission is more substantive.
"We are not space tourists," Lopez-Alegria said during a recent news briefing, adding that the Axiom team has undergone extensive astronaut training with both NASA and SpaceX, and will be performing meaningful biomedical research.
The team will be carrying equipment and supplies for 26 science and technology experiments. These include research on brain health, cardiac stem cells, cancer and aging as well as a technology demonstration to produce optics using the surface tension of fluids in microgravity, company executives said.
Launched to orbit in 1998, the ISS has been continuously occupied since 2000 under a U.S.-Russian-led partnership that includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.
While the space station has hosted visits by civilian visitors from time to time, the Ax-1 mission will mark the first all-commercial team of astronauts to use the ISS for its intended purpose as an orbiting laboratory.
They will be sharing the weightless work space alongside seven regular crew members of the ISS three U.S. astronauts, a German astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts.
Axiom said it has contracted with SpaceX to fly three more missions to orbit over the next two years. NASA selected Axiom in 2020 to design and develop a new commercial module to the space station, which currently spans the approximate size of a football field. Flight hardware for the first Axiom module is currently undergoing fabrication, the company said.
Plans call for eventually detaching the Axiom modules from the rest of the outpost when the ISS is ready for retirement in around 2030, leaving the smaller Axiom station in orbit as a commercial-only platform, Ghaffarian said.
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Second Israeli goes to space on Friday in first all-private flight to ISS - Haaretz
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Black Women Have Always Proven Their Mettle as Church Leaders – The Washington Informer
Posted: at 6:42 am
Having grown up as a child attending church services every Sunday, all day long, including Sunday night and weekly Bible Study with my father and mother as the pastor and co-pastor, respectively, I have come to know a great deal about the inner workings of the Black Church.
Even more, as I have followed in their footsteps, I know firsthand the challenges that women have long faced.
Special thanks toDr. Susie Owens,the wife of Archbishop Alfred A. Owens, Jr., D. Min., whose husband serves as the pastor of Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church in Northeast, a progressive, inner-city church with an adult membership of more than 7,000.
She provided invaluable information on the early and rich history of women who served as leaders in the church.
Women in the pulpit stem back to the early 1800s, Owens said. And despite the controversial debate surrounding the validity of female preachers, God has used women to make an indelible impact on the body of Christ and the world at large.
This history includes: Word carriers, such as Mary the mother of Jesus used to carry and bring forth the Word in the person of our Lord and Savior; evangelists, such as Mary Magdalene, who on the heels of her tomb encounter with Jesus, runs to proclaimthe good news; traveling evangelists, like Jarena Lee, thefirst African-American woman authorized to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819; and church planters, like Sojourner Truth, who decreed prophecies as she declared in 1843, the Spirit calls me, and I must go.
Other Black women during the 19th century in the U.S., made an indelible mark as orators, abolitionists, feminists and expositors including: Phoebe Palmer, one of the founders of the Holiness movement within Methodist Christianity; Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman to be ordained by a major American Protestant denomination in 1853; Margaret Newton Van Cott, the first woman to be licensed to preach in The Methodist Episcopal Church in 1869; and Amada Berry Smith, who in 1878 became the first Black woman to serve as an international evangelist.
The summary of nearly 10 interviews below come from women who have been guests on my live, weekly, on-air time with Radio Ones, Spirit 1340, WYCB broadcast during which they shared their insights and perspectives about their roles as women of leadership in the church.
All but one, Della Reese, remain alive today.
Pastor Shirley Caesartalked about how hard it is to have to travel a million miles a year, and try to get back to Durham, after doing her gospel concert in Miami on Saturday night, then to preach on Sunday morning at her church, Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church.
Its getting harder and harder because Im getting older now, so I dont always make it back on Sunday mornings but I do the very best that I can, she said.
First Lady Tramaine Hawkinsshared with listeners what it means to be the first lady of the church, travel and sing as well.She grew up under her father, Bishop E. E. Cleveland, one of the founders of the Church of God in Christ, the largest black Pentecostal Church in the U.S., who served as pastor in San Francisco.Under his leadership, the choir was able to secure the biggest gospel, cross-over song of all time, Oh Happy Day, in 1967. It has been included on the Songs of the Century list.Hawkins has joined me twice, last year in August, and before that, several years ago when she was honored for her work during Black History Month.
Pastor Della Reese was a true sweetheart. She pastored in Los Angeles at Understanding Principles for Better Living, aka UP Church.She talked about how to have a healthy life, while living with Type 2 Diabetes.Despite her professional career as a singer and actress, she devoted the latter part of her life as the pastor of her nondenominational church. She said she never worried about how men treated her, because she had her own, stand-alone church to share her message with the people of God.
Sister Dr. Jennais a Brahma Kumaris acclaimed, trusted spiritual mentor committed to bridging divides in societies and building relationships between global influencers. This amazing leader teaches from herpulpitseven days a week, all year long.Her messages are about peace, love, hope and joy.As the host of the popular America Meditating Radio Show and recipient of the Presidents Lifetime National Community Service Award, she has traveled to more than 80 countries.In addition, she serves as a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, a group of thought leaders from diverse disciplines in service to conscious evolution and was selected by Empower a BillionWomen2020 as one of 100 most influential leaders of 2015.
Rev. Sylvia Sumter, pastor, Unity of Washington DC in Northwest, is a natural and gifted spiritual teacher. She has had an extraordinary effect on the thousands who have heard her messages and taken her classes. Her reach extends far beyond the boundaries of her church, however. She has fostered a thriving and active spiritual community involved in dozens of transformational programs. She spearheads the national movement, Stand Up for Humanity, which brings together individuals from all walks of life and spiritual paths to promote positive action for the greater good of all.
Rev. Sumter said, When people ask my advice as to whether they should enter the ministry, my primary answer is, do not do it unless you are called!And, if you are truly called, then there is nothing else you can do!
Ministry is challenging in and of itself, and pulpit ministry carries its own unique qualities, she said. You are tasked with bringing a message, an impartation from on high, that is meant to touch the heart, mind and soul of those listening. And while you are the vision carrier, there may be some who are not able to see what you see, nor hear what you hear and therefore it is not always easy to inspire them to take the journey with you.
But we women know how to make a way out of no way, to stretch the resources, to heal the brokenhearted all while keeping the House of God in good working order. The world needs expressions of compassion, healing, loving relationships, understanding and nurturance. This is our specialty and the time for the Divine Feminine to lead is now. Women can and will heal the world, she said.
Rev. Niketa Wilson,a native Washingtonian from Southeast is also a trained singer from Duke Ellington School of the Arts.Shewastheopening actat the Carter Barron Amphitheater severalyears in a rowand currently serves on the ministerial board of her home church in Southeast.
God is raising upwomens ministries because so many of us are very willing to carry the gospel in our bellies and are spreading the gospel message, she said. Apulpitis a platform used to spread the gospel so where ever a woman places her feet to share the unadulterated gospel really is herpulpit.Womenhave hadpulpitauthority in that aspect for years and didnt even realize it.
Pastor Mary S. Smith, senior pastor and founder of the Key to Heaven Kingdom Ministries, located in Clinton, Maryland, said I have been pastoring this awesome body of believers for 17 years. It has been a blessing and a joy serving Gods people.Certainly this is a great work and involves much sacrifice, time, resources and challenges, but its been worth it.
Although I wouldnt trade my journey for anything, it is a little different forwomenin thepulpitthan it is for men. But God has called me to this and given me much favor among his people.There is much more Kingdom work for me to do and Im encouraged to hang in there to see what the end will be. I will not be silent; I will always worship the Lord, she said.
Rev. Michelle Simmons, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Inc., said, I believe that theres no gender in thepulpit.It is just God.
When Im in the pulpit, I want people to see the anointing of God, His grace and His mercy that is upon me, so when I get up and preach in a pulpit, all I do is ask for the anointing of God, because that is what destroys the yolks. Anytime I get nervous or anxious I go back into prayer and ask God to show up in me and through me and always pray His anointing is upon me, she said.
Top 10 Women in the Pulpit Chosen by NewsOne Magazine
Rev. Suzan Johnson Cookraised in Harlem by her parents, was a pastor, motivational speaker and diplomat who made history by becoming the firstwomanand African American to become Ambassador-at-Large for international religious freedom.
Dr. Neichelle R. Guidry, a spiritual daughter of New Creation Christian Fellowship of San Antonio, where she was ordained to ministry in 2010, serves as Dean of the Chapel atSpelman College. In 2019 she received theWilliam Sloane Coffin 56 Awardfor Peace and Justice a distinctive honor given to those working toward peace, devotion, and dignity of all individuals.
Dr. Prathia Laura Ann Hallis a theologian who is widely recognized for her role in theCivil Rights Movement.The Philadelphia native came from a lineage of preachers, as her father, the Rev. Berkeley Hall, was a Baptist minister. After graduating from Temple University, Hall joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and was one of the first Blackwomento become a field leader in southwest Georgia.She died August 12, 2002.
Dr. Carolyn Ann Knight is a Denver native whose theological training began at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York, and later Union Theological Seminary in New York City where she received the Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Theology degrees, respectively.The Rev. Knight was assistant pastor at Harlems Canaan Baptist Church forseven yearsbefore starting her own congregation, Philadelphia Baptist Church.
Bishop Jacqueline E. Jackie McCulloughis a Jamaica-born preacher, gospel musician and author. Currently, she serves as senior pastor at The International Gathering at Beth Rapha in Pomona, New York.
Bishop Vashti McKenzie. Baltimores own, is one of the most prolific voices in the faith community. She has sat at the helm of African Methodist Episcopal [AME] Church since 2000, when she became the firstwomanin its 200-year history to obtain an Episcopal office as bishop. She retired in July 2021.
One of fivewomenbishops elected in the AME Church, McKenzie remains ready to answer anyone who questions their ability to lead.
Do I thinkwomencan do this? Yes, she said. Do I thinkwomenare called to this? Yes. Do I think thewomenthat have been elected in my denomination have done an exceptional job? Absolutely.
Sarah Jakes Robertsis the daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes,blazing a trail for millennialwomenof faith. She and her husband, Tour Roberts, are co-pastors atThe Potters House at One LAandThe Potters House Denver. She has openly spoken about gettingpregnant at just 14, after which she started a successful ministry.
Priscilla Shireris an author, minister, motivational speaker and the founder of Going Beyond Ministries. She holds a masters degree in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary and her mission is to teach the truths of Scripture intellectually. Shirer designs studies forwomenand teens.
Dr. Gina Marcia Stewartis a senior pastor atChrist Missionary Baptist Churchin Memphis, Tennessee. The University of Memphis graduate earned the distinct honor of becoming the first Blackwomanelected to lead an established Black Baptist congregation in Memphis and Shelby County.
Dr. Renita J. Weemsis co-senior pastor of Ray of Hope Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee. She is a biblical scholar, an ordained minister and a writer who is an authority on spirituality and feminist theology. She was also a biblical studies professor at Vanderbilt University and was the first Blackwomanto deliver the Lyman Beecher Lecture atYale University.
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Black Women Have Always Proven Their Mettle as Church Leaders - The Washington Informer
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Method 4 How to make $1k-$3k without any carding … – reddit
Posted: at 6:40 am
Hey guys, I'm back again amd like I promised the day before, I'm going to share a tutorial on how to make money without carding knowledge and initial capital. All you need for this method to work is just good old social engineering skills.
For those who missed Method 1 - 3 click on my profile to see them all https://www.reddit.com/user/strobya/ I decided to do this tutorial because over the past few days, I've received messages from people who have been asking me to send them some startup capital. First of all, I have to let you guys know you need money to make money even in fraud. The only thing I can do is to teach you how to make money, I'm trying to help the community so stop stressing me by trying to guilt me into sending you money. If you need some bread, you have to work for it. I'm already doing too much by sharing these tutorials for free.
So this tutorial is targeted at those who don't have enough capital to start carding, you can easily use these methods to make from $1000 to $3000 every few weeks or more depending on how much effort you put.
I must reiterate, if you really serious from making money from fraud, you have to know you have to spend some money on some things like cc, rdp, and many more but this particular tutorial does not need any of those things.
Carding and fraud is an art to me, this is my life, this is what I live for. I'm not your average carder, I take this serious and the way people invest time into their jobs that's how I invest time into research and my fraud. I remember last year when my US stripe accounts were getting burnt easily by stripe I moved to Europe briefly just to try my hand on European stripe because US stripe became saturated on Alphabay and my sojourn to Europe paid in 5 figures. So I take this serious and if you want to make money from fraud, you have to take it serious too.
Let's get down to business,
This tutorial focuses on scamming using instagram or facebook. No carding skills required and everyone can easily make some good money from this with no prior knowledge just this tutorial.
Right now I only card institutions and do victimless scams but when I was building up my startup capital for carding payment processors, this was what gave me money and here it is.
This method is fairly simple so here it goes.
I came up with this method when I read a news online about how a couple bought a rare breed A Tibetan Mastiff for over $120,000 from an Instagram seller then I sat and thought about this and figured out with some tweaking I could really start hitting hard.
Here are the step by step guide.
1, Create an Instagram account for dogs or cats, example catloversden, catsarebeautiful, cutedogsofig. etc
2, find picture of cute dogs or cats on Google and upload to your new page daily and build the page up by following cat lovers on Instagram especially old couples. Don't buy followers, you have to build your page by following genuine animal lovers, Your target should be to get up to a thousand or more followers in your first week.
3, after the first week of posting pictures of cute dogs or cats and getting your followers up to a thousand or 2. From the second week, find a picture of a cute rare and expensive cat or dog then post on your IG that it is for sell. You will get up to 5 interested persons who want to buy. You can also say the dog or cat is up for adoption and needs any home and when you get messages from many people, ask them to send you some money for transporting the cat or dog and some other money for insurance etc
4, Send them your paypal or bankdrop or a and tell them to pay by cash deposit or transfer into your account. Once 3-10 people pay you block them from your page and turn your page to private for a week then resume again after they move on.
I know this might be little confusing but when I was doing this I was cashing out over $5k each week and I have lots of IG accounts I've built up and cash out from every week. I stopped doing this because I got into bigger fraud like carding stripe and venmo which are victimless crimes.
I have over 5 accounts on IG with lots of followers that I built up over the past year.They are properly aged and I haven't used them to cashout since last year because I shifted my focus to stripe.
This method is really easy and no way you not going to make at least $3k before the month ends. Ask me any questions if you are confused about something.
The hard part is always building the followers on IG or getting likes.
For those that want the easy way out and don't have the time to build up IG pages. I have 5 IG accounts that I aged last year that I stopped using because I moved to other things. I can sell this accounts to anyone interested. I do not know how much so make me an offer for any of them if you're interested. Of course I'll send proof I own any account I'm selling.
Once you get the logins, change the password, I'll send you a picture of an expensive cat worth around $3,000 and you'll make a post and say it's for sell. You'll get interested buyers immediately and then you use your drop or paypal to cash out some times you can get 5 people to pay for the same means more money for you.
I'm currently not doing this method right now for those that might ask, because I moved on to stripe which is victimless cos stripe, paypal and all those big corporations will be fine no matter how hard we hit them
Watch out for part 5. Paypal method. Many people have been asking for a paypal method, so watch out for part 5 of my tutorial soon, how to make clean funds that don't chargeback into your paypal or venmo.
Message me on wickr with questions and offers for the IG account.
Wickr strobya.
You can also setup a new fresh IG and build it up but getting this established cats account I have would guarantee you a big cashout before the month ends.
I promise everyone, as long as you're not lazy and willing to put in some effort, there is no way you wonT start making good money from fraud after my 10 tutorials is up. So keep reading and dont forget you cant make money if you just read these methods and dont start. The time to start is now.
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Method 4 How to make $1k-$3k without any carding ... - reddit
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Meeting the challenge of organized retail crime – NRF News
Posted: at 6:40 am
Organized retail crime costs retailers $700,000 for every $1 billion in sales, on average, according to NRFs 2021 National Retail Security Survey, and 57 percent of respondents indicated a rise in ORC during the previous year.
These are not victimless crimes; they jeopardize employee and customer safety and disrupt store operations.Theyre also not non-violent customers, employees and community members are traumatized by these incidents. News headlines around smash and grab thefts at national retailers in major cities show that organized retail crime continues to be a serious problem. ORC continues to be a gateway crime to more serious crimes and often has ties to transnational crime rings.
And its not a new problem: NRF surveys show that organized retail theft has been a growing problem over the past five years. The brazen, targeted and coordinated activity occurs in communities across the United States.
Over the past eight years, several states have worked to keep non-violent criminals, or those with minor misdemeanor offenses, out of the U.S. criminal justice system. Diversion programs and other job and economic development programs encourage these individuals to become productive members of society.
NRF PROTECT 2022
Join us for the most important retail security event of 2022 as NRF PROTECT returns in-person.
States have also changed laws regarding the amount of bail assessed to minor offenses, increased felony theft thresholds and worked to remove non-violent offenders from the prison system in the hopes they do not become career criminals or fall into a life of more violent crime.
Some district attorneys, law enforcement officers and state legislators even communicated that they would no longer be tough on non-violent, victimless or seemingly minor offenses. In an effort to help locales meet criminal justice reform goals and free resources to go after more violent and serious offenders, those apprehended were often quickly released due to the non-violent and unimportant nature of these property crimes.
The result is that criminals can recruit people to steal inexpensive items in great quantities with no fear of retribution or prosecution.
Incidents of organized retail crime were rising before 2020, but the pandemic upended peoples lives in countless ways. Many lost their jobs. Communities restructured how we lived, shopped and worked. Retailers raced to safely stay open and serve customers by increasing innovations like delivery, curbside fulfilment and buy online, pick up in store. Customers flocked to these convenient and safe ways to shop, wearing face coverings as required in stores and shopping centers.
Unfortunately, these innovations also attracted enterprising criminals looking to exploit gaps in security and take advantage of opportunities to quickly resell merchandise online, on street corners, in black markets and even back to the retail supply chains and stores they stole from. Criminals organized flash mobs or smash-and-grab incidents through social media and apps, which spawned more copycat incidents.
A perfect storm for organized retail crime emerged and the results of that storm are being captured on mobile devices and shared via social media and news stories across the country.
While ORCs financial impact is considerable, the impact on employee and customer safety is even more important. These crimes not only affect retailers bottom lines with asset loss and store operation disruptions; they have become increasingly violent jeopardizing the safety of employees and customers.
The costs for security budgets for retailers have grown significantly in recent years partly due to these retail crimes. Retailers continue to revisit their policies and shift strategies to fight and prevent ORC-related incidents. NRF supports their efforts through advocacy and opportunities to convene the retail industrys leading professionals in loss prevention, asset protection and cybersecurity.
NRF encourages states to update the definition of organized retail crime with sufficiently serious criminal penalties. States should act to define the crime of "organized retail theft" in criminal law to specify those thefts involving two or more participants, an intention of resale, and include increased penalties for those specific violations.
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Industry Perspectives Op-Ed: When contractors engage in tax fraud they are stealing from the rest of us – constructconnect.com – Daily Commercial News
Posted: at 6:40 am
Every year, Canadians contribute to their communities by paying taxes.
Public tax dollars pay for critical investments in our schools and hospitals and for a host of other benefits for both the elderly and our children.
The money we pay builds the neighbourhoods we live in and takes care of the people around us. However, every year many construction contractors and builders selfishly and criminally refuse to pay their fair share. Does that seem right to you?
According to the Ontario Construction Secretariat, our governments lose up to $3.1 billion in revenue due to construction contractors not paying their fair share of taxes. They lose an estimated $1.1 billion in general taxes, $656 million in CPP contributions, $18 million in Employer Health Tax, $119 million in employment insurance, $340 million in WSIB payments and $832 million in HST revenues.
For governments at every level, finding the required financial resources is key to our ongoing ability to deliver much-needed health care, education and infrastructure investments. Stamping out tax fraud in construction is a crucial tool in enabling us to collect such financial resources. Just think of the services and investments which could be paid for with the extra $3.1 billion that would be available each and every year if everyone paid their fair share.
Tax fraud within the construction industry takes many forms.
It can be as simple as people paying cash for home renovations or, as is extremely common now, the misclassification of workers as independent contractors.
These practices lower the general contractors income and payroll tax responsibilities and allows them to avoid tax and CPP/EI/WSIB contributions. This goes on with every trade across the entire industry, including floor covering installers, tile setters, painters and decorators and carpenters. Unfortunately, the underground economy is growing.
It is sometimes assumed that practices like paying cash or misclassifying workers are victimless crimes but workers vanishing into the grey economy has led, in the worst cases, to human trafficking and serious disregard for the basic health and safety of workers, resulting in deaths in some cases.
We have seen examples of all of these phenomena in recent years and, in fact, one of the biggest human trafficking cases in Canadian history, the Domotor Case, was a result of these practices right here in Ontario.
We at the Carpenters Union are determined to do something about this.
Construction companies engaging in tax fraud, such as by not classifying their workers properly to avoid their tax obligations, result in two severe consequences, economic inequity and worker vulnerability.
Economic inequity results from the unfair advantage gained by employers who do not play by the rules by improperly avoiding taxes. This hurts industry competitors but it also hurts the general public as well.
Now, when governments collect taxes to pay for infrastructure or social security, the average citizen has to contribute more to make-up for the amounts not contributed by the construction companies.
This means that as spending increases with our economy bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic, honest and hardworking taxpayers are hurt the most.
Additionally, by committing tax fraud, contractors are putting the lives of their workers at risk. Paying construction workers off the books or as independent contractors makes employers less accountable and jeopardizes basic safety standards on jobsites.
Workers can often be cheated out of their pay and forced to work long hours, under horrendous conditions, at jobsites that simply are not safe.
This can include, not being paid overtime or other required premiums or not even being paid at all in the worst cases. These are just a few examples of what is going on in Ontario right now.
This underground economy is large in size and broad in scope.
However, whether someone is being paid under the table to paint the inside of a house or human trafficking is taking place, both are crimes and should not be tolerated in Ontarios construction industry. Quite simply, all forms of tax fraud are theft and when contractors engage in tax fraud they are stealing from the rest of us.
While tax fraud is not an issue that can be resolved overnight, there are tangible steps that can be taken to begin eliminating these toxic practices on our jobsites.
The implementation and enforcement of a fair wage policy by both the Ontario and the federal government needs to happen now and these policies need to be applied universally to all builders.
This is a solution that the City of Toronto adopted over 100 years ago to ensure their workers were not discriminated against by contractors failing to pay fair hourly wages, vacation and holiday pay, along with certain basic benefits.
Torontos Fair Wage Policy ensures the ethical treatment of workers and holds employers accountable through oversight and enforcement by the citys fair wage office.
If the federal and provincial governments adopted these practices it would greatly reduce the employment vulnerability that many workers face and help eliminate unfair competition between contractors. We need to take a stand against tax fraud and show our support for those who build our province.
The Carpenters District Council of Ontario is leading the way against tax fraud in the construction industry and will be promoting Tax Fraud Days of Action from April 11 to 16, as seen on our website http://www.notaxfraud.com.
With a long economic recovery and large levels of uncertainty ahead, it is important that contractors pay their fair share, to ensure critical infrastructure can continue to be built and our economy makes a strong comeback.
For more information also see http://www.stoptaxfraud.net.
Mike Yorke is president of the Carpenters District Council of Ontario. Send Industry Perspectives comments and column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.
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A Woman’s Take On the Men’s Rights Movement | Hannah Cox – Foundation for Economic Education
Posted: at 6:40 am
True feminism is the belief that all people should have equal rights, equal opportunity, and equal command of their own destiny. Unfortunately, there are factions of the feminist movement that do not truly hold to that definition but rather hate men, see them as inferiors, or even wish to see them hold fewer rights than women.
Just as the feminist movement has two sides to itone valid and one vile, Id argueso too does whats known as the mens rights movement, which is sort of a parallel advocacy movement for men.
I recently decided to tackle this movement on an episode of my show, BASED.
According to one of the largest advocacy groups within this sector, MensGroup:
Activists (in this movement) argue that society has become biased and sexist against men. They also argue that men face discrimination from the media, government, and Supreme Court for being male. Mens rights groups fight against custody laws that favor mothers over fathers, violence against men, false rape allegations, disproportionate male prison sentencing, and conscription. These are some of the inequalities mens rights groups strive to address.
Anyone who cares about individual liberty, equality before the law, and limited government could surely find much in that paragraph to agree with. But admittedly, this feminist had a hard time giving the mens rights movement the time of day for many years.
The reason is simple: large swaths of this movement have been co-opted by men who really do just hate women, want to bring back the oppressive societal structures of the past, and even excuse horrors like rape and domestice abuse. These subgroups of the movement include the incel community, components of the alt-right and white nationalists, trads that want to force their social conservatism on others, the pick-up artist community, and the Men Going Their Own Way movement.
These groups do not believe in equality and their members are often consumed with bitterness and resentment. Its a shame that theyve been able to co-opt the mens rights movement to an extentbut as a libertarianI know the feeling. Our movement is no stranger to liberty-despising people trying to co-opt it and corrupt our message.
So, lets get back to the valid side of the mens rights movement and the concerns they elevate.
As a woman, it can be hard to feel sympathy for men sometimes. Im just keeping it real. It often feels like there is so much we have to overcome even to this day, and a lot of the talking points used by the mens rights movement can sound like an excuse for sexism or thinly veiled desires to oppress women.
But when you step back and take a look around, it actually becomes pretty clear that while women may still have a lot to overcome, men really arent doing well in our society lately.
In fact, recent research has found that in 91 of the 134 countries evaluated, women faced fewer net disadvantages than men based on metrics that included literacy, primary and secondary school enrollment, years one could expect a healthy lifestyle, and life satisfaction.
Women are now more likely to go to college, more likely to graduate college, and more likely to obtain a graduate degree. Men, on the other hand, are 3.88 times more likely to die by suicide than women. They have higher rates of substance abuse. They are substantially more likely to have a dangerous job and to die on the job. Their average life expectancy is five years less than women. 19 percent of men are classified as having a gaming addiction. Porn addictions are up. 34 percent are overweight.
The list could go on, but you get the picture. As a whole, there are a lot of men facing very serious issues in our society right now, and when they talk about them, theyre often met with derision.
While there are always elements of self-responsibility that must be emphasized when it comes to these matters, anyone who cares about liberty should care deeply if the state is putting policies into place that hurt peopleespecially when those policies disproportionately hurt one group of people more than others.
You should care about people when theyre hurting. You should especially care when the government is hurting people in your name and with your resources. And you should also recognize that hurt people often hurt people.
The growth of the alt-right and some of these hate groups within the mens rights movement is evidence of that. The fact that single white men are the most likely demographic to be a mass murderer shows that. The fact that men make up the majority of murders and murderers in general, shows that.
So if we want to actually stop misogyny, sexism, and the growth of malicious groups that are preying on hurting, disaffected people, the best thing we can do is start to show up and show sympathy and, hopefully, even free-market solutions for their problems.
Lets break down some of the top issues the mens rights movement is trying to elevate.
Men make up almost 80 percent of all murders worldwide. In the US, their homicide rate is almost 10 times that of females. Theyre also more likely to be victims of other crimes too, like drug-related crimes and gang-related crimes. And though they experience far lower rates of violence for things like domestic abuse and rape, they do experience that kind of violence too.
In response to these crime statistics many will point out that men are also far more likely to be perpetrators of violence than women, leading to their involvement in more violence against them. And this isnt incorrect. Men commit 90 plus percent of murders based on one global study, and intimate partner violence remains the biggest health threat to women. But I want to reiterate what I said earlier: hurt people hurt people.
The dichotomy you have in your mind of victim and perpetrator as mutually exclusive categories rarely exists. They are almost always one in the same because violence is cyclical in nature. Most people are first victims of violence many times over before they themselves become violent, and then they are met with more violence from our system.
And no one is ever safer for it. If we want to get serious about violence we have to get serious about trauma interventions and violence disruptions, programs that largely take place outside of policing and do the real work of stopping cycles of violence. These are serious criminal justice reforms that we should all be supporting. And the best thing about them is theyre local, often less costly than our bloated policing system, and take a more limited government approach to crime. Thats the policy change that needs to take place.
But theres a societal change that needs to take place here too. Namely, we need to stop diminishing violence against men. It is not ok for your partner to harm you - physically, verbally, or emotionally. Abuse is abuse. And men who find themselves on the receiving end of it should get the same sympathy and support from their community as women do.actually thats not even saying much. Women also often do not get all that much sympathy either.
Our society needs to be better on this all around. Stop asking people why they didnt leave and instead ask how you can help. Stop laughing at the antics of abusers and instead intervene, speak up, let them know others are watching them and wont excuse their behavior.
These two issues are somewhat intertwined if you think about it, so well combine them here.
The US has a massive over-incarceration problem driven by wrongful convictions, prosecutors pushing everyone into plea deals, and a whole litany of actions being made into crimes by our lawmakers that are victimless, non-violent offenses no one should be in jail over.
Despite making up close to 5 percent of the global population, the US has more than 20 percent of the world's prison population. And since 1970, our incarcerated population has increased by 500 percent.
Under this system, men are over 8 times more likely than women to be incarcerated in prison at least once during their lifetime. Now, some of that is correlation given the violence rates among men we discussed above. But certainly, they are also more likely to go to jail or prison for things no one should be locked up for as well.
They are also more likely to be victims of wrongful convictions, which is a pervasive problem in our system.
Weve discovered over 2,500 wrongful convictions in recent years, and thats just the people whove been able to get the external resources they need to plead their case. Of those, men are far more likely to be wrongfully convicted, and black men, in particular, are the most impacted, with a rate that is 7 times higher than that of white people wrongfully convicted.
But while men are more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to be wrongfully incarcerated, it is not because women are falsely accusing men of crimes left and right.
More than half of all wrongful convictions are due to government misconduct. Shocker. That would include police misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, judicial misconduct, corruption in the labs, and general mistakes.
The misapplication of forensic science is responsible for 45 percent of wrongful convictions, false eyewitness identification in 70 percent, false confessions in 25 percent of cases, and jailhouse informants in 19 percent. (The percentages add up to more than 100 because wrongful convictions often have multiple causes).
For these reasons and more, it can be difficult to garner an accurate understanding of crime data. But when it comes to false accusations of rape, experts believe the range is between two to ten percent of reported rapes. Most rapes are never reported. In fact, some studies show as many as 60 percent of sexual assaults are not reported.
While wrongful convictions and false accusations are terrible, some use this data to say that rape isn't a real problem. But this is the wrong conclusion.
The truth is, rape is an under-reported problem. Why? For one, because cops arent going to do anything about it. We have thousands of untested rape kits theyre literally running out the clock on. Two, given the fact they're unlikely to even get their rape kit tested, the downsides to reporting rape and abuse often far outweigh the positives.
The mens rights movement is 100 percent correct here.
Throughout most of our history, only men have been eligible for the draft and its wrong. And this isnt to say that women should be drafted in the name of equality. The draft is wrong full-stop. Conscription is immoral. No one should be forced to go fight, kill other innocent people, lose their limbs, risk their lives, and potentially lose their sanity to fight in the banal, vile wars governments create.
The draft should be eliminated. This is a no-brainer. No one should be subjected to it, ever. But the fact that theyve done it to men and not to women is a clear violation of the 14th Amendments equal application of the law. Abolish it.
Having a strong father is one of the greatest gifts Ive ever been given. My dad has always made me feel secure, provided for, and deeply loved. He is entirely irreplaceable in my life. I would be a drastically different person without him. I truly cant fathom moving through the world without the security of knowing he is behind me. And yet, this relationship is something our courts rob children of every day in this country.
Women initiate close to 70 percent of all divorces. And while there is no single reason divorce happens (there are many societal struggles we can currently point to that make women more likely to leave), there is one big governmental incentive we can point to that may also contribute: which is that, when women initiate divorce, the odds are stacked in their favor.
Currently, only a handful of states encourage family judges to set custodial standards for parenting at 50/50. Though, encouragingly, there are many states currently considering legislation to make this the norm.
In many places, fathers have to beg the courts to give them custody, even when the kids or the other partner wants it. Family courts routinely consign one parent, usually the father, to mere visitor status in their childrens lives. Typically, non-custodial parents see their kids four days per month, plus a few hours one night per week, plus a few weeks during the summer. That usually works out to between 14 percent and 20 percent of the time. That sounds traumatizing.
Keep in mind that the loss of a parent is one of the most horrific events a child can suffer. And there are multiple ways to lose a parent.
It is really creepy, weird, and sexist to assume that one parent has innately better parenting skills because of their gender or that kids are somehow okay with less exposure to one parent because of their gender. How is that okay? What science is that based on? None in the psychology field.
In fact, statistics show that kids with two parents are more likely to do well in school, stay out of jail, stay away from drugs and alcohol, avoid teen pregnancy, avoid depression, and, as adults, be gainfully employed than are their peers with a single parent.
It cant be emphasized enough that this system doesnt just hurt men. It really hurts kids. A study that examined 150,000 arrangements conclusively found that children in joint physical custody suffered from less psychosomatic problems than those living mostly or only with one parent. Those kinds of mental health impacts have life-long consequences and yet we continue to let our courts operate recklessly in this regard.
The consequences of these decisions also weigh heavily on men. Non-custodial fathers are eight times as likely to commit suicide as are fathers with children. As leading authority Edward Kruk of the University of British Columbia has written, parents with equal parental responsibility post-divorce have better physical and emotional health, and less stress, resulting from the sense of purpose and personal gratification associated with active parenting; the highest levels of depression occur among adults who have a child . . . with whom they are not living.
Barring any incidents of abuse of neglect (with ample supportive evidence prior to the divorce) kids should be split 50/50. This is a no-brainer that states should immediately seek to rectify. Anything less is inhumane and has long-term, harmful consequences for all parties involved and therefore society.
Furthermore, once the custody split is agreed upon it should be permanent to create stability for the child and for the parents, barring, again, some evidence of abuse or some other unforeseen major life events that would necessitate one parent to take on more of the burden.
Ultimately, we need public policies that prioritize co-parenting and that put the financial burden for divorce on the shoulders of those who initiate it while ensuring the childrens needs are met.
To the men in my audience who are suffering one of the injustices or societal shortcomings we discussed today, I want to extend my sympathy. I want you to know you are valued and you are needed in our society, and Im so sorry for the voices in our culture that seek to strip away your humanity or diminish you to a caricature.
Know that this feminist is fighting for equality and justice under the law for you just as I am for women. My hope is that we can see each other's mutual goals, come together, and form an alliance that will create a better society for all of us.
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Helping BIPOC employees fight burnout and find community – Fast Company
Posted: at 6:39 am
When people of color burn out in the workplace, they often focus on the immediate factors: a challenging relationship with a manager; unpredictable hours that complicate work-life balance; and perhaps, if theyre feeling safe in sharing, the biases and aggression that are all too pervasive in American worklife. There is no doubt being the only black trader on the floor the week after George Floyds murder had real mental health effects. Indeed, the CDC reported a rise in anxiety and depression for Black Americans immediately after the horrific video surfaced.
In response to this and other mental health crises, a number of digital health startups have entered the fray promising to address mental wellbeing for employees from all backgrounds. Indeed, with fast increasing demand from employees, employers and investors are putting more funds and resources toward mental health initiatives and startups. Firms like Cerebral, Lyra, Ginger, and Talkspace help employees connect with providers. While these services can be helpful, they tend to overlook the roots of why people of color suffer from more workplace anxiety and depression: isolation and the feeling of burnout from being the only person of color in the room. These differences are magnified by the fact that while the U.S. population has become more diverse, U.S. workplaces have become more segregated. When high-growth and high-wage firms do hire people of color, these workers are few and far between.
As firms seek to hire more people of color, how can they make sure that new hires dont end up burnt out, and looking for the exit? Black executives report that feelings of isolation drive their burnout. In response, large firms have started affinity-based, employee resource groups. For example, Black Googler Network provides everything from professional development and mentorship programs to holding dialogues on topics affecting the Black community. And the Hispanics of the Linkedin Alliance host a quarterly meeting with the CEO of LinkedIn to raise awareness over issues affecting them.
However, most companies just dont have the numbers to build out such affinity groups, either because the firm is a small business or because of an internal lack of diversity. Indeed, firms that are now committed to building a more diverse workforce face a dilemma. When people of color join they might be the only person at their company from their background, which can lead to those feelings of isolation and burnout discussed above. Research shows that when firms fail to hire enough workers of color to build community they end up especially likely to quit the firm.
Fortunately, a new model of addressing feelings of isolation and burnout has emerged in recent years, focused not on the needs of employees within one particular firm, but on addressing the feelings of isolation from employees of color across firms. Consider, for example, the Gentlemens Factory, a coworking space in Brooklyn that offers men of color an environment to develop as professionals, and find solidarity. They write on their website, Gentlemans Factory is designed to deliver one simple message: youre not in this alone.
And then, theres Chief, a networking community for senior executive women. Key to their model is an investment in core groups, wherein a small group of female executives get together to bond to discuss personal, leadership, and other challenges. Beyond promoting career success, Chiefs community focus is designed to reduce burnout and the exit of female executives.
Finally, one of the authors of this piece, Tarun Galagali, is building out a platform for BIPOC workers (Mandala). Mandala helps employers create intentional communities for their people through their flagship service, Circles, whereby an external facilitator will bring a group of BIPOC workers together to talk about topics ranging from their identity to their inner critic. In the process, they create a space of belonging and well-beingtaking the pressure off of employee resource groups. Down the line, Mandala will involve companies connecting their underrepresented talent so that there are spaces between companies just as much as there is within a company.
These examples and an increasing number of startups focused on the interaction of mental health, burnout, and inclusion can begin tackling employee burnout, especially for people of color. But it requires companies to focus on building community just as much as they focus on improving individual mental health needs. Its just not because theres a moral imperative here. The financial costs of race-related attrition ($34 billion), absenteeism ($54 billion) and productivity loss ($59 billion) are only beginning to be tabulated. So, next time leaders reflect on burnout for people of color, they should explore investing in their sense of belongingboth within the company, and by connecting employees to the working world at large.
Tarun Galagali is a second year MBA student at Harvard Business School, and founder of Mandala, a belonging and wellbeing platform for BIPOC employees. Rem Koning is an assistant professor of business administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. They are hosting a virtual Belonging summit on April 18 (free, virtual and open to all). RSVP here.
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Pushing Disaster Preparedness Forward in the Gulf Coast – Walmart Corporate
Posted: at 6:39 am
As you enter Walmarts Home Office you cant miss a painting on the right. The long line of trucks heading into New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, ready to bring supplies to communities in need, reminds all associates of the moment that forever changed our thinking. A moment that helped us realize how we could draw on our strengths as a business to support communities during disasters and help solve pressing challenges like climate change and food insecurity.
Since 2005, responding to natural and human-made disasters across the U.S. and worldwide, from hurricanes to wildfires, the COVID-19 pandemic to civil unrest has become part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundations DNA. As the frequency of these events continues to climb, our approach evolved, realizing that while responding in the moment is vital, our impact can be greater by also helping the places we call home prepare. We also deepened our focus on equity, because a more equitable response helps make communities stronger for everyone.
Lack of preparedness can have lasting economic and social impacts on communities especially communities of color. When communities are unable to quickly respond to disasters or access necessary resources, the impacts can increase inequality and hurt communities in the long-term. For example, a Society for the Study of Social Problems report showed that in the wake of disaster, white Americans living in certain counties gained $126,000 net worth on average, while Black Americans in the same areas lost $27,000.
By helping communities get ahead of disasters and focus on equity in response so that all people can recover, we can better serve them when a disaster strikes. Thats why we are pushing forward on new philanthropic investments in areas prone to disasters with higher numbers of Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities. Starting these investments in the Gulf Coast allows us to test solutions and learn how we can use philanthropy to help communities build the capacity to respond to disasters more effectively and equitably.
The Walmart Foundation has made an investment of more than $3 million in a group of organizations helping local government leaders and community-led organizations in the Gulf Coast prepare their communities for disasters. These investments include:
The firm belief that sparked in us after Hurricane Katrina remains the same. By using our resources and learnings from the past 15 years, we know we can have a major impact in helping our neighbors prepare for, and respond to, disasters. This focus on the Gulf Coast will help us learn how intentional investments in communities can strengthen the ability of local governments and organizations to better prepare. And by looking at the whole system of mitigation funding and planning, we hope these investments help other underserved communities access the funding and resources they need to move disaster preparedness forward.
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Poor housing harms health in American Indian and Alaska Native communities – Harvard Health
Posted: at 6:39 am
Robbed of ancestral lands, American Indian and Alaska Native tribal communities face an unparalleled housing crisis that pleads for national housing reforms. As victims of centuries of intentional government policies to remove and reallocate lands and resources, many live in third-world conditions that have led to sky-high rates of health problems, ranging from diabetes and cardiovascular disease to chronic liver disease, obesity, unintentional injuries, substance use disorders, violence, and suicides. This paves a path to extremely high rates of disability and prematurely shortened lives.
The stark reality of poverty became obvious when I traveled to my reservation home in Mescalero, New Mexico as a child. There I saw discolored, fractured, or weather-tattered homes, and yards littered with old, rusted, and abandoned cars. According to the National Congress of American Indians, substandard housing makes up 40% of on-reservation housing compared to just 6% of housing outside of Indian Country. On reservations, almost one-third of homes are overcrowded.
In 2019, an estimated 20% of American Indian and Alaska Native people lived in poverty compared to an 11% national poverty rate. Poverty, low education levels, and harsh conditions mean that many American Indians and Alaska Natives lack the foundation for basic survival: stable, secure, adequate, affordable housing.
As historian Claudio Saunt so eloquently wrote, an "invasion" of approximately 1.5 billion acres occurred in the United States from 1776 until the present. This loss of traditional homelands has had devastating, lifelong effects on housing and living conditions. Poor health outcomes soared among the millions displaced over the past 300-plus years.
Today, as a result of poor housing conditions, American Indians and Alaska Natives struggle from environmental ills that include lead exposure, asthma from poor ventilation, infectious diseases due to contaminated water, sanitation issues, and overcrowding. Mental distress is common. Exposure to pollutants raises risk for lung disease, cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke, and many other illnesses.
American Indians and Alaska Natives have disability rates 50% higher than the national average, and among people ages 55 and older mobility and self-care disability rates are especially high. Housing that is old, in poor repair, or crisscrossed with physical barriers may not be accessible for many people, preventing them from living independently within their homes and participating fully in community life. This can cause isolation and exacerbate distress and despondency. In addition, unreliable electricity could pose life-threatening risks to people with disabilities requiring ventilator support, and threaten the safety of power wheelchair users (wheelchair batteries must be kept well-charged).
Housing is a well-known contributor to health outcomes and a meaningful lever for health equity. Despite the United States promise to assume responsibility for housing and health for American Indians and Alaska Natives in exchange for billions of acres in conceded land, little has been done to achieve positive change. Outsiders may assume that Indians are getting rich from tribal casinos, but that is far from the truth. Many tribes do not have casino revenue. Those who do often struggle to break even, with any earnings canceled out by their tribes needs.
Conditions on tribal lands sadly reveal the consequences of historical trauma, poverty, and insufficient federal government support. Each sovereign nation must create sustainable housing projects for its members as determined by its tribal government and housing departments. Federal support varies depending on tribal financial status, resources, and competition from bordering communities.
Seeking national support for these measures could go far:
The US government has a moral obligation to ensure that American Indians and Alaska Natives are allowed to acquire lost tribal lands, and afforded the best housing possible to be successful, join fully in community life, and remain healthy. Last year the US Interior Department reauthorized the regional directors of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to review and approve applications to place land into trust. This represents one important step forward, though hopefully not the last.
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Poor housing harms health in American Indian and Alaska Native communities - Harvard Health
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