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Author Dinesh D'Souza Indicted for Violating Campaign Finance Laws

Author Dinesh D'Souza Indicted for Violating Campaign Finance Laws

A federal grand jury indicted conservative author and commentator Dinesh D’Souza Thursday for allegedly violating U.S. campaign finance law.

D’Souza, the author of books like Illiberal Education, What’s So Great About America, and The End of Racism, made the film 2016: Obama’s America, which was based on his book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage

According to Reuters, D’Souza was accused of “arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate.” He is accused of reimbursing “people who he had directed to contribute $20,000” to the campaign of a U.S. Senate candidate who is not named in the indictment. He was also charged on one count of “causing false statements to be made.”

In 2012, federal law “limited primary and general election campaign contributions to $2,500 each, for a total of $5,000, from any individual to any one candidate.”

Preet Bharara, an Obama appointee who is the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, said, “As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process.”

The candidate in question is 2012 New York Senate candidate Wendy Long, a Republican for whom D’Souza campaigned against incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). As Reuters notes, “Long graduated from Dartmouth College in 1982, a year before D’Souza.” Gillibrand, who won the race with nearly 72 percent of the vote, is also a 1988 graduate of Dartmouth.

D’Souza’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told The Hollywood Reporter that D’Souza “did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever… at worst this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza.”

Gerald Molen, a co-producer of the 2016 movie, accused the Obama administration of “criminalizing dissent through the selective enforcement of the law.”

In 2012, D’Souza resigned as president of King’s College after revelations that he was engaged to a woman after separating from his wife to whom he was still legally married. According to The Hollywood Reporter, D’Souza “has been cooperating with authorities” and “will surrender Friday for processing and be arraigned in the Southern District of New York.”


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Waffle House Hero Raises More than $160,000 for Victims’ Families

Man who disarmed Waffle House shooter hailed by lawmakers
Larry McCormack/The Tennessean via AP

The hero who wrestled a gun away from the suspected shooter at a Tennessee Waffle House raised more than $160,000 for the shooting victims as of Thursday morning—more than ten times the initial fundraising goal.

James Shaw Jr.’s GoFundMe campaign raised $160,076 as of Thursday morning, just days after the Sunday morning attack that killed four people and injured at least three more.

Shaw suffered a gunshot wound to his elbow and burns on his hand from grabbing the rifle from the gunman at the restaurant, preventing further casualties and injuries.

The 29-year-old shooting survivor launched the fundraiser shortly after the attack, setting an initial fundraising goal of $15,000. In less than 24 hours, Shaw raised more than $45,000—and his fundraiser showed no signs of slowing down.

In the spirit of kindness, another man inspired by Shaw’s generosity created a fundraising page to benefit the Waffle House hero.

Yashar Ali, who writes for New York magazine and HuffPost, raised just over $172,000 for Shaw as of Thursday morning. His goal is to raise $175,000.

The Antioch, Tennessee, Waffle House also pledged to help the shooting victims, announcing that all of its profits for the next month will go towards the families of those killed or wounded in the attack.

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Why Black and White? / by Brian Suman

Over the last few months, I have been editing mostly in black and white.

I am not exactly sure but I have always been drawn to black and white images and as a young adult marveled at the work of Ansel Adams. There is just something about the shadows, the highlights, and the grays in between that can make an image draw your attention.

Don't get me wrong, I love a great color image but color can be a distraction and the subject of the image if we take our editing too far.

So, what makes a good photo to edit in black and white?

  1. Lack of color.

  2. Contrast between the lights and darks.

  3. Prominent shadows.

  4. Patterns

  5. Textures

There are real set rules but there are things that can be a good characteristic for you to make an eye-catching black and white image.

If you don't like black and white that's okay but I would challenge you to go down the path of no color in your editing workflow and I can almost guarantee that you have a photo in your catalog that will pop off the screen without the color.

Imagine. Capture. Create.


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DO you remember that breathtaking photo of fog rolling across West Bay’s cliffs?

It was taken by talented photographer James Loveridge, who has produced a calendar of his stunning work.

The photo of the natural phenomenon at West Bay was commended in the Take a View Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards and published in a book.

It was also commended in the Outdoor Photographer of the Year Awards and featured on the cover of the Outdoor Photography Magazine.

The aerial time-lapse video James took alongside the photographs saw millions of views and was shown on TV news channels as far afield as the US, Australia and Sweden.

James, 28 and currently living in West Bay, says he loves that his photography helps to put Dorset on the map.

“I never expected this image and video of West Bay to go quite so far,” he said.

James has always had a an interest in photography but never had the opportunity to learn it at school. He began playing around with a digital camera, and in 2014, while at Plymouth University studying coastal engineering, he bought his first DSLR camera, along with a friend. His passion grew on his return to Dorset.

“Photography is a great way to get outside and explore,” he said. “There are so many places I’ve discovered across Dorset that I may not have otherwise visited. I find it quite addictive to be constantly learning, trying to improve, finding new locations and taking better photographs. There are rare moments where the planning and perseverance pays off and you capture something spectacular that you can’t wait to share with other people.

“It’s always nice to get messages from people about how my photography affects them, whether it’s people who live in the area, love visiting the area or perhaps are no longer able to visit or get out and about.”

James works full time as marketing manager for West Dorset Leisure Holidays, but that doesn’t stop him getting out and about with his camera.

“What I enjoy most about photography is trying to capture something unique that makes people go ‘wow’ and appreciate what a beautiful area we live in here in West Dorset,” he said.

For more information on the calendar, visit


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Q. Polly, the first thing that struck me about ‘Let England Shake’ is that, not only does it not sound like anything else I have heard, but it doesn’t sound like you. It sounds completely different from what has come before. What was the starting point for this album?

A. The same as it always is for me. It’s important to feel like I’m experimenting and continuing to learn, and that’s not something that I study or sit down and make a manifesto about, it’s just very natural. Even going back to the days when I was at art college, my work was changing radically the whole time. I never followed a set pattern. For some reason that has remained really important for me, because I need to be learning, and so this album came out of looking at what I have done, particularly what I had just done, which was ‘White Chalk’, but also the whole lay-of-the-land of what had gone before, and thinking about trying to explore areas I hadn’t explored. So sonically I wanted to experiment with instruments. On some of my solo shows, which I had been doing in the couple of years prior to starting to write this record, I began to play the autoharp and I adapted some songs to the autoharp. For instance, ‘Down By The Water’ I was playing on the autoharp, and I was really enjoying this different, enormous, wide breadth of sound that the autoharp gives. It’s quite a delicate sound, but it’s also like having an entire orchestra at your fingertips. I began by writing quite a lot on the autoharp, and then slowly as time went by, (because this album was written over two and a half years)… my writing started moving into experimenting with different guitars, and using different sound applications, ones that I had never really experimented with.

Q. So it sounds like, to an extent, you have to learn in order to recreate. If you didn’t play on the autoharp before, presumably there is a difference between being a master of the autoharp and then deciding to write a whole bunch of songs and having less vocabulary?

A. Well, something I’ve realised is that when I’m not writing music, (I write words all the time, it’s continuous), but when I’m not writing music, I do not play an instrument ever. I’m not one of those people who walk round the house and thinks “aah I’m going to play the piano because I feel like it”! I never touch an instrument unless I’m writing music for the words that I’ve made, or I’m rehearsing for a gig. That’s the only time. So it means that when I come to play the guitar I maybe haven’t played it for six months and I’m very messy on it. I get very ham-fisted, I’ve realised over the years that I actually like that sound. I like the sound of a beginner on an instrument. Q. This is actually the opposite to how a lot of people work because you are putting yourself in the position of a beginner. If you are taking up a new instrument and then you don’t have that range of experience to lean on, in fact you have to start from scratch?

A. Yes, you do start from scratch. I begin almost as if I’m feeling around in the dark, and I guess that’s the beauty of it, because then your only response can be of the body. It can be emotional because your intellect is not there; you’re not adept at what you’re doing. I don’t know what chord I’m playing. But I can feel it, I hear it.

It is very childlike in a way, you know how children move to music, or when you see a child first pick up an instrument, there’s something just beautiful about that, because it’s the utter emotional, bodily response and I think that naivety can really get to some truths.

Q. Doesn’t that build a stumbling block in that you have to get past the point of playing it adequately in order to become creative or is it the other way round?

A. It can be a bit of a stumbling block to begin with, but I think it is more advantageous than disadvantageous, I quite like that sound of clunky chord changes and it feels more human. I like mistakes.

Q. With ‘Let England Shake’ there are themes going on... War being an obvious one, but also war from a personal perspective. So this must have been a different way of writing?

A. Yes, I felt like something I hadn’t really done yet with my writing was to approach big, concrete issues such as one’s country, and conflict. Things which affect every one of us, every day of our lives. A lot of people try and write about these things, and their hearts are in the right place and everything is done for the right reasons, but for me, a lot of the time it doesn’t work. I didn’t know if I could even approach it in a way that I could get that balance right, that would work without coming across as maybe rather pompous, or as if I was preaching, or some sort of chest preaching protest music. It’s very difficult to get right, and I didn’t think I could. For the first time I thought “let’s have a go”. I had always felt passionately about these things and yet hadn’t put my voice to that, to express it. This was the first time I tried to do that. But it was very, very difficult, and like I said, so difficult to get the right balance that I think I probably threw away half, or even more than half , of what I wrote, to get to the point of this album.

Q. So what was your starting point? Did you do research? I ask because it has a very historical perspective on war and I think, reading into this, I see elements of Gallipoli and a lot of elements of the First World War? Also tied in is this idea of Englishness and England, and also modern warfare too.

A. I did an enormous amount of research, and like I said, the writing process took about two and half to three years. I read lots of books on war from all different eras. I read about war in a philosophical way, I read about it from all angles. I did lots of research on English history. I looked at the way other artists have spoken about England. I did a lot of internet research; I watched lots and lots of documentaries with interviews of people who had actually been there. Interviews with WW1 soldiers right up to present day interviews with Afghani people to produce the broad spectrum. I just tried to absorb as much information as I could. I looked at lots of artwork, lots of painting, for instance Salvador Dali’s Spanish Civil War era and Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ series. That’s just two, but there were many different angles that I looked at. Lots of photography and lots of current day photography where I came across a photographer called Seamus Murphy, who spent the best part of 10 years in Afghanistan. I was extremely moved by an exhibition I saw of his called 'A Darkness Visible'. So much that I actually I got in touch with him because I wanted to speak to him more about his experiences being there in Afghanistan. The whole time I was writing trying to get the voice right, and I suppose what I kept coming back to, was that the place I did feel qualified to speak from was a very simple, human, emotional point of view, because we are all human. We all feel these things, or you can feel how it would have been for somebody in that situation. You know how much your heart can break after watching a documentary about somebody else’s misfortune, a soldier who has been in these terrible situations, or a man who has lost his wife - blown up by a suicide bomber, and you feel. It’s very human.

Q. That’s the artistic process, I think. Empathy… you don’t necessarily have to have gone through these things but you have to have a feeling for these things, otherwise it’s going to be empty?

A. Yes, and that’s what I was trying to articulate, those feelings. That’s the way that I found a way in, to even begin to write about these giant things. I just hoped that I was striking the right balance, and all the way through the writing process I needed feedback. For instance, I approached the whole album in a different way, and I only wrote words for a long, long time. I wrote words and honed them again and again, rewrote different drafts until I felt like there was a point where there was one set of words on a page, and they would work for anybody who would come in and read them. And then when I got to that stage, I sent them to a couple of my friends to get feedback, and friends whose opinions I really trusted, and that helped me hone it down. Then I just slowly, slowly built on that, until I had 18 songs that were working on a page. That was out of a lot. Many got discarded. Then I began to sing those words, I didn’t touch an instrument. I would sing them until the words told me their melody, which again was something I hadn’t done before. The words have their rhythm, especially if they’ve been written in a poetic way to work on a page. They’ve already got a rhythm, the rhythm is there. When you begin to work with the rhythm then the melody just comes. Most of them started off in that way. There was a melody for the words to be sung, and then I would find an instrument for the melody.

Q. So the melody only came through repeating the words and experimenting? Would the normal process be sitting on a piano or a guitar or whatever and find the melody that way? Is that how you normally work?

A. Yes, in the past I would just play on an instrument. I might have written words before, but I’d play on an instrument until the instruments began to suggest a rhythm and a melody and then I’d ‘shoe-horn’ my words into that. This is entirely the other way around.

Q. The words came, the themes, and the ideas and then the music followed?

A. It was a first for me. Having said that, I spoke to a few musician friends and they were amazed that I hadn’t done that before!

Q. It sounds different even from yourself, and there are things that you are doing with your voice which are very different. I was wondering if that was from that change in process, especially the first song ‘Let England Shake’, your voice races really high and I haven’t heard you use that approach before.

A. Well going back to child-like responses, the nature of the words are often addressing very dark weighty subjects. I couldn’t sing those in a rich strong mature voice without it sounding completely wrong. So I had to slowly find the voice, and this voice started to develop, almost taking on the role of a narrator. I could visualise the action taking place on the stage, and the narrator’s on the side relaying the information of the action. I had to find the right voice to carry out the action as if I were the voyeur, and had to relay the story. And that actually grew from my research, looking at officially-appointed war artists and war poets, and thinking “where are the officially-appointed war song writers?”.

Q. They left that one off the list!

A. Where’s that on the list? Well, I am going to make my own list! I am officially appointing myself as a song writer! So this was my way of bringing back the story from the front… if you like… Q. What I thought was really interesting was that it was personal without being personal. I didn’t get the sense that this was personal in the sense of your experience or emotions, but it was personal in that it wasn’t political song writing or dogmatic, it’s actually all about experience. It’s personal even though you weren’t necessarily being personal about yourself.

A. The only link was the bottom-line of emotions, which every human being has access to.

Q. Also interesting is the picturing of England. On one level; there are the themes of war and history, but also you get this sense of ancient, oak-like, very British patter of rain on oak tree sound going on. So I’m interested in your relationship with England or how the dream of England might inspire you?

A. I think you can’t help but respond to the country you are living in. As an English person living in England, I am talking about this country but you could supplant that soul to a lot of different countries. We all feel this terrible disappointment in what happens to our countries, mostly its disappointment and this sense of connection and sense of push and pull with all the things you hate about it and love about it. They’re parts of you but then again you want to get it away from you at the same time. I think it’s a common human feeling no matter what country you’re living in. There are these feelings that you wrestle with and I can’t help but be affected by where I have grown up. I was trying to talk about that using very broad brush strokes to leave it open for other people to enter. I didn’t want it to become so specific and so narrowed down and I hope that’s what I have done because I would like to leave it open for other people to bring forward their responses. I was really just presenting some ideas to throw out there. I’m not sure if that makes much sense… Q. It does make sense. I sensed a kind of romance to the English countryside, which may not have been intended, but there was a lyric “It leaves a taste, a bitter one” on a song called ‘England’ which made me think... And also “Cruel nature has won again” which is on ‘Battleship Hill’. That can be interpreted in so many ways but it’s actually quite romantic too. It’s almost this idea that whatever happens, nature is going to keep going.

A. Yes, no matter what will happen to it, or whatever destruction man makes, it will keep going. One point down the line, if we destroy ourselves, it will still be there, and there’s something quite comforting about that, but also quite brutal.

Q. I couldn’t place the music in any particular genre and I think that’s probably a very good thing. But were there certain things that have been an influence even in a very indirect way in terms of the music?

A. I knew when I was starting to write the words that I wanted a timelessness to it. I wanted timelessness in that I wanted it to travel to many different eras. Musically, I wanted to capture the timelessness too. I didn’t want it to be particularly referenced to anything. I listened to a lot of The Pogues...

Q. Well, it sounds nothing like The Pogues! Couldn’t be more different!

A. Particularly the first two albums (from the Pogues), they are singing very traditional, very ancient folk songs about conflict and social problems. I was also listening to The Doors because for me there was a lot of association with Vietnam and that era, and I felt they embodied a strange and dislocated sound. They have a very indefinable sound, that’s difficult to pin down. I like the confusion they have in their sound. I listened to a lot of The Velvet Underground because I like the quality of their sound and the exuberance of their music. They might be dealing with quite difficult subject matter in some of their songs but it’s very rousing. I knew that I wanted the music to be rousing, indefinable, and not particularly able to be pinned down. I listened to traditional folk music from all countries across the world even though I didn’t understand the words. I listened to the emotion, the cadences in the voice. It might be a very simple three stringed bowed instrument but still I could feel the emotion. Going back to a song like ‘England’, which you pulled a lyric out of, you’ll hear a little sample of a very, very old Kurdish folk song. A woman singing to her beloved, and I wanted to keep that little sample in there because I had been listening to that and there was something about the emotion there that I wanted to bring into my love song to England. So there are these two love songs, hers is Kurdish, and mine is English and they cross in the middle.

Q. Again, it doesn’t sound like The Doors, The Pogues or The Velvet Underground which is great, I can see how it can soak in but it doesn’t sound like any of the folk music I know. The thing I would connect it with, a lot of folk songs are about shared experience or stories. So you take a song like “The Plains of Waterloo” which is about the Napoleonic War and Salisbury Hill, they’re about these things which happen to everyday people and I can see that connection, even though musically its very different… A. If you read the texts of some of those really ancient songs from the 1600s you can still feel something because you can apply it, and going back to wanting to capture that timelessness, that it’s ongoing. This complete cycle of warring and distress with one’s country, and money and it just goes on and on and it always will. That’s what I realised when I look at some of these really old songs, and it’s not particular to one country, it is all countries.

Q. It’s human nature. The other thing which struck me, as people, we are always caught up what’s going on at the moment, and technologically, we are all caught up in whatever’s going on. You realise how insignificant that is really. There were songs which were probably referencing Gallipoli and Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter, the experiences are the same and you feel that very much, that it was about things which are routed in human experience, not routed in a journalistic approach.

A. I felt that was very important for me. It was the only way I could approach it. Because I don’t feel qualified to speak from a political or journalistic point of view. I just haven’t got that information, unless it was all I did and all I studied, I couldn’t write like that, I could only write about the things I do feel.

Q. About the recording of the album, wasn’t it recorded in a church?

A. Yes we recorded it in a church that’s now just used for exhibitions and classical concerts mostly, in Dorset. It’s very remote, on top of a cliff, and has a graveyard which has trees bent by the wind. It’s a classic, misty surrounding but actually a beautiful place and a place I was very familiar with and often walk through, so it felt a part of me. It didn’t feel very far away from me and I knew that with this body of work I didn’t want to go to London. A city didn’t feel right. I looked at a few studios in Berlin. That didn’t feel right. Then I remembered that the man who now runs this church as an arts venue had said to me a few times if I’d ever wanted to use it for a show or rehearsals that he’d love that, and that’s when I approached him and asked if we could use it. We only had it for five weeks so it was all done in that space of time which is very short. As a comparison ‘White Chalk’ took five months. So this was all done in five weeks and it was approached in an extremely different way, because I had thought about it before hand and all the things I didn’t want to do. I wanted to remain open to the moment a lot more, I wanted to leave room for the musicians I was working with and the producer I was working with, who was Flood. The musicians were John Parish, Mick Harvey and Jean-Marc Butty, who is a drummer I have worked with before. I wanted to leave room for them so they could bring their feelings into it as well. Usually I would have planned everything and known what instrumentation I wanted. This time I demoed the songs mostly with one or two instruments with a voice and that was as much as I had. So I basically had the chords and a couple of saxophone melodies, a couple of voice melodies and that was what I took with me to the church. We rehearsed the songs as if we were rehearsing to play them live and found quite quickly that we had only rehearsed a song through maybe twice and Flood had started recording us. It was that ill prepared. We hadn’t had any plan; nobody knew what they were going to play apart from me because I had written the song on it! We set up a keyboard station, a very old drum-kit station. I have two very old drums, one is a Second World War Drum and one is a marching drum, probably from a similar era which had an enormous sound. The drums on the record are unlike any other drum sound and it’s because of these old drums. We were just playing in the moment. We played the song once or twice, the boys would find out what they felt like playing, somebody would drift to the keyboard, or somebody would drift to the church organ or somebody would be on the drums. It just kept changing as to how we felt and a song would be done within three or four approaches. And we worked quite quickly like that and then later on we might return to that song and hone it a bit. But it was very spontaneous.

Q. What point did they hear the songs or were they building it up very quickly?

A. I sent them the demos I had made so the boys and Flood had my voice and one instrument playing chords.

Q. And that was it? And from there it was up to them to work it out… A. Yes and it was very quick. They’re all players I have worked with for getting on 20 years. We know each other very well; we know each other’s language musically. We don’t have to describe things in words to each other, we just know. They would know instinctively what they should play for that song and it would change from song to song. We knew what each other was going to do, so it was very fluid in that way. That comes from that beauty of correspondence with people you’ve known for such a long time.

Q. But also spontaneity, I guess? Because it was that fast, you don’t have time to… A. It was very spontaneous and that kept it very exciting so it was a wonderful atmosphere in which to work. It was very fast, very exciting because each new song was bursting up. Everybody felt they had freedom to contribute and bring their own ideas and we were all firing off of each other. Somebody would have an idea and that would spark an idea in me, and then that would spark an idea in Mick, and it was wonderful like that. I have never known a recording experience like that but then again I had never approached the recording in such an open way. I had always been very controlling of it. I think one of the joys of getting older is that you start to gain more confidence in yourself in ways that allow you to relax in some areas like that for instance. I knew that I could still know what I needed, but also I could still give free reign and still be able to judge what was working and what wasn’t.

Q. Well, I think also when one gets older, one still wants the quality to be there, but don’t worry as much… A. You gain perspective.

Q. Yes you have perspective; it’s OK for someone else to get on with it. I suppose it’s a trust thing, as these are the people you know well and that must help too.

A. Yes and it’s also knowing that, if this doesn’t work after experimenting for a while, we can try another way. When you are younger it is all so black and white, you think ‘No this has to be right now!’ as if it’s the end of the world!.

Q. So did you know when you had it right? Would there be times when you were experimenting, (again you are talking to someone who doesn’t spend much time in studios), you go down a certain creative alley-way and you just know that it’s working? Or is it only later, after hearing it, that you find out what’s good and what isn’t?

A. Sometimes with this record we could be so excited by something we thought was working, but then we’d listen to it two and a half weeks later and we’d think “What on earth is that?!” We all just had the faith to keep on following the excitement, the moment and where it was taking us, because we never sat and dissected what we were doing until it was done. We knew to just go with it because if we did listen to something two weeks later and it was wrong we could then work out why that was and approach it again. Having said that it only happened on about three songs and we were all astonished how many songs just seemed to know how they were supposed to go. In fact we did talk about that; how it was uncanny, almost as if the songs were already written. I don’t want to sound too mystical about anything but they did present themselves so quickly and so fully formed that it didn’t feel like we had to do all that much apart from just be there, and be at the right instrument at the right time, and very few things needed a lot of honing and reworking.

Q. That’s interesting because they are structurally odd. Quite often they don’t follow the first chorus structure of the songs.

A. No and I think a lot of that goes back to me approaching the melody of the words first. So sometimes my voice is leaping all over the place, so when I came to put an instrument to with it I thought...I have got to go B flat to E major and that sounds weird, but it sort of worked at the same time. It meant I was playing chords I hadn’t played before and playing chord changes I hadn’t played before.

Q. We are re-touching on what I started off talking about, but I do think there is something about playing at the top of your ability which possibly hampers creativity. What I mean by that is, this way of picking up new instruments, there is something which forces creativity in a way that maybe is missing if you are a total master of an instrument and so trained to playing from the page... So it’s quite an interesting approach, have you always done that to an extent? You said you don’t play the guitar unless you are writing songs… A. I think on reflection now yes I have, although it was never something that I set out as a conscious plan to do, but when I look at how I have written, it’s always been like that. In the earlier days I would write a song just through thought before I would get near an instrument or open my mouth to sing anything or write anything down, so it made itself in my head and then I would go to the instrument. Then it changed into something more like finding a feel on an instrument, and then words would form out the feel there, pulling words out of the feelings I was getting from the music. Now it has come right the way around. It doesn’t happen block to block, I mean I can remember with ‘White Chalk’ I was beginning for the first time to craft words more by looking at them on the page and then that came into flourish more with this record.

Q. Right, you mean looking at the rhythm, looking at the pattern and the sort of poetry of the words without music I suppose?

A. Yes and then taking it to an even greater extent this time.

Q. So what about playing live? How is it going to work, what’s the set up going to be? Is it going to be with the same people you recorded the album with?

A. Yes, it’s going to be with the musicians on the record, so Jean-Marc Butty on the drums. Mick Harvey and John Parish will be interchanging on all manner of different instruments, and I will mostly be on the guitar and autoharp. We are going to, I hope, just recreate the sound. We should be able to; because it was all played live. I mean, all of the main body of the songs were put down completely live, even the vocals on some of the songs were live.

Q. The whole thing would be in a take?

A. Yes, and there would be overdubs of harmonies but the body of the song would be going straight down.

Q. That's increasingly unusual these days isn’t it?

A. It is, yes. I think that one of the drawbacks of having such technology at our fingertips everywhere is that you can become very precise about things and overly protect things. Something I have always loved is the way we can make mistakes and they can end up being the most beautiful mistakes. And there are plenty mistakes on the record.

Q. The mistakes are the stains of humanity as it comes out?

A. Yes, sometimes when I’m demo-ing the songs I will make a mistake musically and I will say “oh I’ll leave that because we’ll get it right” and then get really attached to it and so I’m trying to teach the boys it goes g-minor e-minor then d-minor that time but just that once! They’re so used it now… Q. Used to the wrong bit being the right bit… A. Yes, the wrong bit being the right bit. And they’re used to me counting in strange time signatures that change every other bar or every five bars… it makes sense to me because I’m the one singing the words, but for a player to come and play it not singing the words it can be a matter of having to unravel what is going on.

Q. So I guess they have to learn your way of doing things... They know what’s going on and know how to do it.

A. Yes they know Polly language at this point.

Q. Because it’s not like you are just going G to D to C and the A and E for the chorus. The whole structure is weird.

A. I think they know now that as long as they follow the voice then they will know where to go with the music because they know my music is based around the voice. So if the voice has got one line that has three syllables shorter than the one prior to it, they know it will change rhythmically and is going to come earlier.

Q. So, let me ask you something, because earlier you mentioned art school training. Do you think your approach to music and your approach to doing what you do, do you think your years at art school had a significant influence on the way you have approached doing this?

A. Completely, I don’t feel any different, I have never felt like a musician, whenever someone has asked me what I do, I have stumbled on the word. I feel like an artist. I feel like a painter more than a musician. I paint with words and sound. I have always felt like that, always. And that’s why it has felt quite strange to me to be associated with any particular movement with music; I don’t feel like I am associated with anything apart from painting pictures or painting ideas. I approach it all like that, it’s about malleability, it’s about sculpture, ramming one thing up to the next, ramming one colour up there to see what happens to the one next to it. That’s the way I approach things. Again, it goes back to do with touch and smell and instinct.

Q. Self-expression in structured ways. Or structures to form self expression around wherever those structures might be?

A. Yes, I throw things at a canvas and see what works, and I do it with music and words. I can’t describe it very well, but for some reason I never feel like a musician. I am better with song-writing; I can say ‘Yes, I am a song-writer not a musician.’ Just dropping in on the musical side.

Yes, I paint with singing and words.


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ballet by Lalo

Learn about this topic in these articles:

discussed in biography

  • Lalo
    In Édouard Lalo

    …(1876); and for his ballet Namouna (1882). Namouna foreshadowed the ballets of Diaghilev in that it merited attention more for its musical score than for its choreography. There followed the Symphony in G Minor (1887) and the final version of his opera Le Roi d’Ys (1888; libretto by Edouard Blau).…

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uk holiday cottages and self catering accommodation

UK Holiday Cottages

Holiday cottages and self catering accommodation around Britain and Ireland

  1. UK Information
  2. UK Holiday Cottages
  3. FCH319

FCH319,Bridgwater Information
1 OF 2 COTTAGES BOTH WITH PRIVATE HOT TUBS WELL LOCATED TO EXPLORE SOMERSET PARTS OF DEVON DORSET AND WILTSHIRE. IDEALLY LOCATED FOR VISITING THE FAMOUS BRIDGWATER CARNIVAL IN NOVEMBER Set in a peaceful countryside setting conveniently placed 2.5 miles from the town of Bridgwater these enchanting beautifully converted Grade II listed semi-detached cottages are set in one of the loveliest parts of Somerset. Situated close to the Quantock Hills a walkers paradise with routes to suit all levels of ability including The Coleridge Way and excellent for watching wildlife. Also to the coast with beaches a short drive away and the Championship Links Golf Course at Burnham-on-Sea and Enmore Park Golf Course another Championship course is just 2 miles away and set in a beautiful location on the Quantock Hills. Exmoor popular with walkers and sightseers and famous for its wild ponies red deer and spectacular scenery is a short drive. Lynmouth where Exmoor meets the sea with its water powered cliff railway to Lynton makes a great day out. Other attractions within easy reach include Bath Glastonbury Wells Cheddar Gorge Wookey Hole The West Somerset Steam Railway Clarks outlet shopping village and numerous National Trust properties. Further afield why not visit Longleat Safari Park the pretty resort of Lyme Regis and the Jurassic Coast or the ancient towns of Frome Salisbury or Shaftesbury home of Gold Hill made famous by the Hovis bread advert to name but a few. Both cottages are renovated to an excellent standard and form the wing of a 17th century/medieval Somerset longhouse with a working farm next door. Outside: each property has its own private patio area with hot tub seating and dining area. 1 acre paddock where children can play. Amenities: garage available and off-road parking for 2 cars. Bed linen electric and central heating included. Broadband available. Regret no pets and no smoking in the properties. Additional info: the 2 cottages can be booked separately or together if a larger party of friends or family wish to holiday together. Perfectly located for visiting the Bridgwater Carnival in November. Location: beaches 30 minutes drive away. Local shops and pubs in North Petherton 2 miles and supermarkets in Bridgwater 2.5 miles. Country pubs in nearby villages and on the Quantock Hills. Arrival: 3pm. This upside-down cottage has slate floors on the ground floor with underfloor heating and offers TWO bedrooms: on the ground floor 1 king-size and 1 twin. Bathroom: also on the ground floor with electric shower over bath and WC. Lounge/kitchen/diner: upstairs open-plan beamed area where you are able to take advantage of the countryside views. Lounge area with flatscreen TV with Sky (sports and movie package) and DVD kitchen area with integral electric oven hob dishwasher fridge microwave and many useful extras. Stairgates available. Under-stairs storage area housing the washer/dryer and freezer. Outside: raised paved patio area with hot tub BBQ and seating surrounded by roses.
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Friday, June 24, 2016

Navigator's Week: Sailing Directions

Today's guest post once more comes to us from Lena Mosser, a PhD candidate at Eberhard Karls Universität. Lena's doctorate dissertation is on masters in the Royal Navy, and she brings that expertise to bear with this short piece.

‘From Ushant to Scilly ‘tis thirty-five leagues’: Some musings on sailing directions

With all the fascinating new developments going on in eighteenth-century navigation, it is easy to forget that it was not all sextants and chronometers. Even the best instruments and new techniques, even in the hands of the most experienced and skilled navigators, reached the limits of their usefulness once a ship was in coastal waters, which means that a considerable part of eighteenth-century navigation is actually better described as good old-fashioned pilotage. Pilotage demanded completely different skills and equipment of the practitioner than blue-water navigation: in coastal waters, what served a navigator better than any new-fangled instruments were a sounding lead, a good memory and a sharp-sighted lookout, as well as, of course, sailing directions.

Detail from "Earl of Cornwallis Bound to Bengal,"
William Gibson, 1783
Courtesy of The Mariners' Museum and Park, Newport News, VA.

Sailing directions have something decidedly ‘low-tech’ about them. The earliest written ones I have seen were used by ships of the Hanseatic League in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but they are almost certainly very much older. They are descriptions, either written down or memorised, of distances, depths, landmarks and other topographical information for particular waters or sailing routes. In other words, sailing directions were pilots to take away and carry with you, even where live pilots might not be easy to come by.

Sometimes, they were rhymed so as to make memorisation easier. In fact, most people with an interest in maritime history or seafaring in general will probably know at least one example, perhaps without even realising: parts of the famous sea song Spanish Ladies sound suspiciously like sailing directions. The second verse contains something that is more or less a (somewhat abbreviated) manual of how to proceed when entering the English Channel from the south before coming in sight of land but suspecting that you are ‘in soundings’:

We hove our ship to, with the wind from sou'west, boys
We hove our ship to, deep soundings to take;
‘Twas 45 fathom with a white sandy bottom
So we squared our main yard and up Channel did make.

In the third verse, the most important landmarks – such as prominent headlands and lighthouses – that a ship sailing up the Channel will pass are listed:

The first land we sighted it was called the Dodman
Next Rame Head off Plymouth, Start, Portland and Wight
We sailed by Beachy by Fairlight and Dungeness
And then we bore up for the South Foreland Light.

Detail of South Foreland Light from "A Packet Boat Under Sail in a Breeze off the South
Foreland," Thomas Luny, 1780, Yale Center for British Art.

I don’t know if these were ever actually used as sailing directions, or whether they mimic the real thing, but the detail given in them, with its references not only to landmarks but also to depths, composition of the sea floor, and hints at how to work the ship suggest that they were.

One beautiful example that dates from around the mid-eighteenth century is Wadhams Directions, sailing directions from Cape Bonavista to the Wadham Islands. It was famous among eighteenth-century navigators and I came across a copy in the journal of John Dykes, master in the Royal Navy, who served with Edward Pellew on the Newfoundland station in the 1780s.[1] The directions open with the magnificent lines:

From Cape Bonavista to the stinking Isles,
The course is North full forty miles
Then you must steer away NE
Till Cape Freels Gull Isle bears WNW
Then NNW thirty-three miles
Three leagues off shore lays Wadhams Isles.

The rest is a more in-depth description comprising another thirty-eight atrociously rhymed lines, but even though the poetic quality might make philologists cringe, it certainly serves its purpose very well; how well, you can tell from the fact that, while writing this, I cannot help constantly reciting in my head “When within the channel you are shot/Three fathom of water you have got/Port your helm and do take care/in the mid-channel for to steer”. I think there is something touching in how the directions address the navigator directly, like a trusty friend cautioning against narrow passages and sunken rocks:

Therefore my friend I you advise
Since those rocks so dangerous lies
That you do never amongst them fall
But still endeavour to weather them all.

Detail from "To the Survivors and Relations of the Unfortunate Persons who Perished in the
Halsewell," P. Mercier, S.W. Forbes, and Rawlinson, 1786, National Maritime Museum.

These sailing directions had the reputation of being the best for the Newfoundland coast, and you can in fact follow them easily on a chart (I have not so far had an opportunity of running a field trial). Thus, despite their old-fashioned appearance, it is no wonder that sailing directions in general remained in use alongside all innovations in navigation, and are still in use today.

[1] Log of John Dykes, master, HMS Winchelsea, National Maritime Museum (Greenwich), Caird Library, LOG/N/W/1.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Navigator's Week: Effective Nautical Interpretation

Today's entry in Navigator's Week comes to us from Robert Fryman, PhD, an adjunct professor at Georgia Perimeter College, reenactor with HMS Acasta, and veteran of the United States Coast Guard.

Effective nautical interpretation of the “Age of Sail” requires that the docent/reenactor go beyond proper clothing and appearance and the description of life at sea.  This is acutely important when describing and explaining the technological differences which exist between operating a vessel in the present as compared to the period from 1700 to 1815.  The procedures of navigation are illustrative of this, particularly as modern GPS systems have removed today’s travelers from the basic skills of map reading and plotting a course, yet such abilities would have been common place for sailors of the 18th and early 19th centuries.  Acquiring an applied knowledge of navigation skills therefore better prepares the interpreter/reenactor with not only a working understanding of the tools of navigation, but also an enhanced appreciation for sailors to perform complicated calculations without the benefit of electronic devices.

Detail from portrait of Master William Bligh,
John Webber, c. 1776, National Portrait Gallery (Australia)

Such an understanding of the tools and procedures of navigation was an integral component in the development of my interpretive persona as a member of the HMS Acasta.  I was able to approach this with a fundamental grounding in navigation gained while serving with the U.S: Coast Guard, but while the basic algorithms for plotting speed, distance, and position have remained the same, the tools for their calculation have not.  From reading period accounts of navigation procedures, the tools used for calculating the aforementioned variables, apart from the octant of sextant, included the sector, Günter Rule, dividers, parallel ruler, and tables of sines, cosines, and logarithms.  The sector and the Günter Rule were the equivalent of the 20th century slide rule, and both contained a number of different scales.  The user perform mathematical computations by placing the tips of a pair dividers on the appropriate scale.  Tables of sines, cosines, and logarithms were commonly found as appendices of mathematical treatises, such as the 1796 edition of John Love’s Geodesia and other publications including the American Coast Pilot, reducing the need for the navigator necessarily to be familiar with how to determine these values.

Detail from "His Royal Highness Prince William Henry," book illustration
for Hervey's Naval History, 1779, British Museum

While I re-learned the art of navigation from the 18th century perspective, I was suddenly struck by the differences that existed in the amount of formal training in mathematics that the sailor in 1790 received compared to that of your average middle school student of today, who by the 8th grade has already been taught Algebra and, in some instances Geometry.  This does not imply that today’s students are more intelligent than their 18th century counterparts, but rather serves to illustrate the impact of inexpensive electronic calculators in accelerating exposure to more advanced forms of mathematics than was previously possible.  I often present students in my Physical Science classes with a stimulated navigation problem where they must determine their position using paper reproductions of sectors.  The result of this exercise was that they gained an understanding of how people were able to solve problems using “primitive” technology while I was able to gain a new perspective on mathematical training of the 18th century sailor.

Through re-learning how to navigate using 18th century tools and equipment I was able to not only to better use the instruments and thus be better equipped to describe and explain their use and function to the public, but also gain a perspective onto the world of the 18th century sailor and his background which allowed him to perform such complicated calculations to venture to new lands.  This new information helps to explain to visitors the impact which modern technology has on the world of nautical navigation.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Navigator's Week: The Tools Needed for Dead Reckoning

Today's entry in Navigator's Week comes to us from follower Thomas Apple. Tom was involved in creating the chip log used in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In this post, he writes about the use of dead reckoning navigation.

The Tools Needed for Dead Reckoning

Dead reckoning enabled sailors to navigate when conditions did not permit celestial observations. If you could not see the heavens, day or night, you could not fix your exact position. You must plot your course from the last place you fixed the ship’s position to make an educated guess as to your location. To do this you needed certain data. The better the data and the more skilled the interpretation of it, the more accurate would be the resulting dead reckoning.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries the data was collected at least hourly and temporarily recorded on a log board (figure 1). The log board, usually a slate, recorded the hour, ship’s speed (knots), ship’s course, wind direction, and leeward drift. Extra observations could be recorded if conditions changed within the hour intervals. Observations were usually made at the top of the hour after the bell had rung. They would be transcribed to the log book at least twice daily.

Figure 1 - Slate Log Board

To measure ship’s speed, a log reel and chip were used as well as a small sand glass to keep time. The chip was a quarter circle of wood attached to the end of the log reel line. It acted as a sea anchor that remained largely stationary as the ship sailed away from it. The chip was weighted on the curved edge with a strip of lead to cause it to float with the pointed end facing up. It was attached to the log line with a two or three-leg harness. One leg of the harness was attached to the chip with a peg.
The log reel was constructed of two wooden disks connected by a series of bars that created a sort of drum on which the log line is wound. The bars allowed air to reach the line better making it less prone to rot. This drum rotated on a central axle with a handle on each end (figure 2).

Figure 2 - Log Reel with Chip
The first 12 fathoms of the log line was the stray line to allow the chip to float free of any turbulence in the ship’s wake. After the stray line portion of the log line it was marked with a piece of cloth. After the marker cloth there were knots tied in the line, each to indicate one nautical mile per hour (figure 3).

Figure 3 - Log Reel with Log Line and Chip

The spacing of the knots depended on the size of the sand glass used to time the log line. Thirty- and 28-second glasses were the most common with a 14-second glass used for very fast and small craft. If using a 30-second glass, the knot spacing would be 50.75 feet and for a 28-second glass it would be 47.6 feet. These were usually rounded up to the next whole foot, so 51 or 48 feet were usually used as the knot spacing. The sand glass was constructed of two separate globes of blown glass connected to each other with a disk in between with an orifice to control the flow of sand from one globe to the other. They were often connected to each other using a Turk’s head knot (figure 4).

Figure 4 - 28 Second Sand Glass

To measure speed the chip was tossed over the aftmost rail, the taffrail, and into the water. The log line paid out as the ship sailed away from the stationary chip. When the cloth marker hit the rail, a sailor called out “Turn!” - at which point the sand glass was turned to start timing. The number of knots passing over the rail were counted until the sand glass ran out at which time the person holding the glass called out “Nip!” to grab the log line and stop it from paying out. The number of knots was recorded on the log board. From the time the chip is tossed overboard and the log line nipped, the wind had caused the ship to drift to leeward veering from the course plotted. A protractor was usually inscribed on the taffrail. The crew would lay the log line on this protractor to indicate the angle of leeward drift and then record this angle on the log board. The log line was then given a sharp tug to dislodge the peg in the chip harness allowing the chip to lay flat to the water, making hauling it in much easier.

Also recorded were the water depth, course, and wind direction. Water depth was measured using a sounding lead and line. A compass indicated the ship’s course and allowed determination of wind direction. All of these vital pieces are data were used to plot the actual track of the ship from its last known position to hopefully get the ship to where the captain wanted it to go and out of harm's way from grounding or other hazards.

William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, or, a Copious Explanation of the Technical Terms and Phrases employed in the Construction, ...of a Ship...London: Thomas Cadell, 1780 edn.

William Brady, The Kedge-Anchor or Young Sailors’ Assistant, Fourth Edition, New York: William Brady, 1849.

William Burney, Falconer’s New Universal Dictionary of the Marine, 1815

C. Keith Wilbur, Pirates and Patriots of the Revolution, Chester, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 1984.

Log line, chip, and sand glass are reproductions built by author for use in the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 2003. The log reel is based on an original example in the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, VA and the sand glass and log slate are based on an early 19th century examples in a private collection.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Navigator's Week: The Backstaff and Octant

Continuing our focus on navigation, I'm going to talk briefly about the transition between two important pieces of navigational equipment: the backstaff and the octant.

Both instruments accomplish the same task of determining latitude. Latitude, for the uninitiated, is the distance you are North or South of the Equator. Latitude may be found by measuring the angle between the horizon and the sun at its highest point (zenith). There are many ways to do this, and it may be as simple as the use of a quadrant or cross-staff. Neither of those instruments are as accurate as the backstaff, which was sometimes called the Davis Quadrant for its sixteenth century inventor John Davis.

The photograph above was generously provided by E.T. Fox, curator of the Golden Hind Museum in London. The backstaff he holds on the quarterdeck is one that he constructed himself, and you can see more examples of his work here. In this photograph you can see how the staff is used. In order to measure the elevation of the sun from the horizon, you would have to turn your back to the sun, as demonstrated in this video by the Mariners' Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia.

The biggest drawback of a backstaff is that it is nearly impossible to use for sighting anything but the sun. The backstaff is practically useless for measuring the altitude of celestial bodies at night. This lack contributed to its eventual replacement in the 1730's by the octant. A more accurate instrument, the octant could also measure any celestial body visible in the sky, night or day.

In the mid to late eighteenth century, these instruments co-existed in a period of transition that saw the phasing out of the backstaff. This phasing out is evidenced by cartoons of the period, such as "Ridiculous Taste or The Ladies Absurdity," a 17771 print by Matthew Darly. The version below is in the collection of the British Museum.

Lampooning the tall wigs piled onto the heads of fashionable ladies, Darly is probably not acquainted with celestial navigation as more than just a concept. As part of the joke, he has one dandy gentleman taking a sighting by the wig of the seated woman.

Our macaroni holds a sort of octant (lacking many of the necessary pieces), but he holds it as one would operate a backstaff. Darly is either unaware of precisely how an octant works and so falls back on the general appearance of a navigator working a backstaff, or is intentionally making the scene more ridiculous through the use of an oafish fop who doesn't quite understand what he's doing.

Either way, it is a piece of art that exists in the time of transition between the dominant technologies in determining latitude.

The same is true of R. Attwold's cartoon "The Naval Nurse, or Modern Commander." The first image here is a 1740-1750 sketch from the British Museum's collection, used as a study for the final piece which was printed in 1750. The final engraving featured here comes from the Yale University Lewis Walpole Library.

On the wall of the Boy Captain's cabin is a series of pistols, a blunderbuss, a telescope, and a backstaff.

In the final print, however, the instrument is changed from a backstaff to an octant.

Attwold's point in this cartoon is the youth and inexperience of naval officers. Such young men would be much more open to using newer technologies and newer methods of navigation. Perhaps it is this which accounts for Attwold's choice to replace the original backstaff with the octant.

Just as Attwold erased the backstaff from his image in favor of the octant, the octant would eventually erase the backstaff from the list of essential navigational instruments. The octant itself shortly evolved into the sextant, which remains the primary means of celestial navigation to this day. While the GPS has largely supplanted the use of celestial navigation, sextants can still be found in marine supply stores around the globe.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Navigator's Week: A Few Thoughts on Masters in the Eighteenth-Century Royal Navy

Today's guest post comes to us from Lena Mosser, a PhD candidate at Eberhard Karls Universität. Lena's doctorate dissertation is on masters in the Royal Navy, and she brings that expertise to bear with this short piece.

Kyle Dalton has very kindly asked me to share a few thoughts on masters to tie in with his post on William Bligh and masters’ uniforms. I will focus on their career paths and social backgrounds because there are many misconceptions about just this issue.

The title ‘master’ (in the Royal Navy they were not called ‘sailing masters’) already gives an indication. Before a Royal Navy as such existed, the English crown would hire merchant ships for their military exploits, including the crew and the master. The master retained command of the ship as such, that is, in all nautical matters, while army officers – captains and generals – coordinated the expedition on the whole. When a Royal Navy had been established, with its own captains and generals (who were re-named admirals), masters of merchant ships continued to be hired as nautical specialists: now without their ships, but the title stuck.

"Etched from the Life on Board a Scotch Ship: Cook, Captain, and Mait," artist unknown
(John Kay?), c.1750, National Maritime Museum (UK)
Of course this is something of a simplification, but even in the eighteenth century, masters were essentially still civilians who lent their nautical expertise to the Royal Navy. This is why they received warrants rather than commissions, and why they went without a uniform for so long: they were per definition non-combatants (although there were many warlike individuals among them).

A Navy-internal career path was theoretically possible, but an exception. One popular stereotype about masters is that many of them were ‘failed lieutenants’, passed midshipmen who had given up waiting for a commission. This could not be further from the truth: The vast majority of masters had been trained outside the Navy, and all of them were examined and certified by Trinity House, a civilian authority. They had possibly (though not necessarily) attended a ‘mathematical school’, had served an apprenticeship at sea (usually for seven years) and were, by the time of entry in the Navy, already at the pinnacle of their profession, being masters or at least chief mates of merchant ships.

This, in fact, sometimes led to clashes between masters and captains, since masters who had commanded merchant ships before were unused to having superior officers. If such cases came to a court martial, the court often treated masters leniently because they were ‘unacquainted with the customs of the service’. Many masters returned to the merchant service at some point, a liberty which was possible through them being warranted rather than commissioned.

Portrait of James Cook as Master of the Pembroke
Sculpted by T. Major, 1759, National Library of New Zealand

They usually came from social backgrounds that were situated fairly firmly in the ‘middling stations’ of society; very similar, in fact, to the backgrounds of most commissioned officers. Many of them came from families with seafaring backgrounds, with fathers, uncles, older brothers or cousins who were also shipmasters, merchants, ship owners or owners of dockyards. Few masters rose through the ranks in the Navy, at least no more than rose to other positions as officers. Socially, they were very much on a footing with lieutenants – but even so, some of them seem to have envied their colleagues the glamour of a commission.


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Favre named VP, development, paraMedia

Publish date:

Susan Favre has been named VP of development at Jim Paratore’s paraMedia, which is housed at Warner Bros.

 While Favre was just hired by paraMedia, she’s been working with the company for a long time. She helped Paratore and Harvey Levin develop and launch TMZ as well as the now-cancelled Bonnie Hunt and Lopez Tonight. She also served as one of Lopez Tonight’s senior producers.

“Susan has been an integral part of the start-up of many of the shows that I have worked on,” said Paratore in a statement.  “Her experience and knowledge as a producer are the perfect background for developing and launching shows in today’s marketplace.  She not only knows a good idea, she knows how to execute.”

Favre began her career in 1992 as a script supervisor on The Jane Whitney Show. She later worked on such programs as ABC’s Good Morning America, The Dana Carvey Show, MTV’s The State and the Brandon Tartikoff produced late-night talk show, Last Call. Favre was an associate director of Warner Bros.’ The Rosie O’Donnell Show during the show’s entire run.  After Rosie, Favre became coordinating producer at Warner Bros.’ short-lived The Sharon Osbourne Show in 2003 and also worked in the same position at NBCU’s The Megan Mullally Show, as well as at TMZ and at Bonnie Hunt.

Favre earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Emerson College and graduated cum laude in 1992.


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BBC1 to promote a tidy Britain

The Incredible Spice Men

BBC1 will hope to clean up with its latest daytime commission: a series celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.

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Diary of an Edinburgh virgin

Jake Kanter

Following his first trip to the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Jake Kanter reflects on the hustle and bustle of the weekend.

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The Transcript

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Policy Statement

This information explains the student's official academic record at The College at Brockport.

Category Name: Student
Responsible Unit: Office of Registration and Records
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Adoption Date: July 2014
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The transcript is the College's official record of both your attendance at this institution and your academic performance. That is, it contains your dates of attendance, a list of all the courses you took, all the academic credit you received for these courses, and the grades you earned in the process. Also, it contains information on whether or not you were ever dismissed, for academic or other reasons. If you were granted credit towards your degree from another institution or any other source, your transcript contains this information as well (although not the list of specific courses or grades, just the total number of credits accepted.)

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When a course is entered onto your transcript, it is there to stay. Courses that you drop during the first four weeks of the semester don't show on your transcript. But if you withdraw later in the semester, the course will show permanently on your transcript. Similarly, if you repeat a course, your previous attempt, together with the grade earned, stays on the transcript. The previous grade no longer counts in your cumulative GPA, but the record of your having taken the course remains.

Transcripts are either official or unofficial. If you need an unofficial copy for your own information, is available online. When signed on to Web Banner, go to Student Services, then Student Records and then Academic Transcript. You can print it for your own use.

If a graduate school, an employer, or another college needs to see your transcript, however, they want an official one. Official transcript requests are not accepted by mail, fax or email. Requests for official transcripts must be ordered online. The Office of Registration and Records has contracted Credentials Inc. to manage all official transcript request orders. Your official transcript is maintained by the State University of New York College at Brockport and is bound by the federal law FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.)

You must provide your Brockport Banner ID number or your SS#, a valid email address and a valid credit card number in order to use this service to place an order. You will receive confirmations of your order, its status and any issues that may need your attention. If problems arise, Credentials Inc. must be able to communicate with you. If communication isn't possible, your order will be automatically cancelled after 30 days.

If there is a hold on your record, it must be cleared with the department/office that placed the hold there before the transcript can be released. You will receive an email from Credentials Inc. regarding any holds and will be given the telephone number of the department/office to contact regarding clearance. Once cleared, Credentials Inc. will automatically notify Registration and Records to release the transcript.

Unofficial Transcripts

Unofficial transcripts can be accessed through Web Banner for students who were in attendance at The College at Brockport in 1983 and later. When signed on to Web Banner, go to Student Services, then Student Records and then Academic Transcript.

Students who attended Brockport prior to 1983 must send a signed request to the Office of Registration and Records for an unofficial transcript. Please note that an unofficial transcript will only be sent to the student's home address. Unofficial transcripts are free of charge.

Links to Related Procedures and Information

To complete a transcript order form, click Transcript Request Information from the options to the left and follow the prompts to order the transcript. You can check the status of your order through Credentials Solutions at any time online.

Contact Information

Questions regarding the status of an online transcript order should be directed to Credentials Inc. at (847) 716-3005.

History (in descending order)

Item Date Explanation
Next Review Date July 2017  Three year review
Adoption Date July 2014 Policy Adopted

This policy is approved by:

Last Updated 1/4/18

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Ventana by Buckner senior living community opens offices

[caption id="attachment_12654" align="alignnone" width="5184"] Buckner Retirement Services Senior Vice President Charlie Wilson dedicates the new marketing offices at a reception for staff.[/caption]

Ventana by Buckner will open its new information center to priority members this summer where they will have an opportunity to reserve a future home at significant discounts prior to construction. Priority members will soon visit the new information center near the Dallas site that will host Buckner Retirement Services’ newest senior living community scheduled to open in late 2018.

The information center showcases an array of amenities offered at Ventana by Buckner. Architectural details, floor plans, lighting options, cabinetry and finish samples are featured as well as floor plans and pricing. A scale model of the building and interactive flat screen televisions feature renderings of building amenities and views, and a virtual tour of the community helps future residents get a sense of what it will be like to live at Ventana.

“All these resources should give those interested a good feel of how the campus will look and function, helping them make an informed decision about living at Ventana by Buckner,” said Dida Horton, Sr. Director of Marketing and Sales for Buckner Retirement Services.

The twin 12 story high-rise buildings will encompass about 450,000 square feet and sit on nearly three acres in Dallas. Ventana by Buckner will feature 189 independent living residences, 36 assisted living apartments, 24 memory care apartments, 48 skilled nursing private suites and 24 short-term rehabilitation suites.

In addition to the residences, the community includes three dining venues – formal, casual and a café-bistro; a Wellness Center featuring a fitness room with weights and cardio machines; and a host of other amenities, including an indoor, heated pool, aerobics room, multi-purpose rooms, movie theater, roof terraces with gardens, business center, library, day spa, concierge, valet and underground parking.

Ventana by Buckner will be a Life Care senior living community. Life Care defines the arrangement under which future care, such as assisted living, memory support, skilled nursing and rehabilitation services, is provided on the same campus and delivered by an organization with a successful track record of providing that care.

To learn more about the risk-free priority membership program or for more information about Ventana by Buckner, please visit or call the information center at 214-234-1035.

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Legal update - Enforcement of Minimum Employment Rights – MBIE needs you

1 July 2014

Recent concerns about the exploitation of migrant and seasonal workers have been the catalyst for a discussion document issued late last month by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) entitled "Playing by the Rules – Strengthening Enforcement of Employment Standards".  MBIE seeks submissions from key stakeholders (including employers and employees) about how it can better enforce employees' rights to minimum employment entitlements.  Amongst the reasons cited for the review are the anti-competitive effects of non-compliance with minimum entitlements, and the negative impact this has on New Zealand's international reputation.

MBIE proposes a number of changes to employment legislation to ensure employers are incentivised to comply with minimum employment entitlements and to ensure the Labour Inspectorate has the necessary powers to investigate and enforce breaches of employee rights.  Amongst other suggestions, the discussion document proposes:

  • Changes to the sanctions for non-compliant employers, including 'naming and shaming' deliberately non-compliant employers, putting in place higher monetary penalties and criminal sanctions that are more in line with penalties under immigration legislation

  • Taking steps to prevent 'phoenixing' (ie where directors wind up a company and start a new one to avoid enforcement measures)

  • Increasing the amount of information that Labour Inspectors can require from employers (eg financial records, bank statements and PAYE records, not just wages and time and holidays and leave records) and promoting greater information sharing between government agencies, such as the IRD, WorkSafe and Immigration New Zealand

  • Extending Labour Inspectors' powers to make binding determinations as to employment status (ie contractor or employee), or clear cases of non-payment of wages or holiday pay

  • Removing the requirement for parties to attend mediation in cases of alleged breaches of minimum employment rights, on the basis that it is a matter of fact whether a breach has occurred, and mediation can unnecessarily delay employees receiving their entitlements.

The discussion document contains a submission form that can be filled out and sent in to MBIE.  We would also be happy to assist you in preparing a submission.  Submissions are due by 5pm on 23 July 2014.


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Tonbo Meadow Homes for Sale Wilmington NC

Listed below are homes for sale in Tonbo Meadow, a neighborhood of Wilmington, NC, updated daily from the NCRMLS.

For more information on any of these Tonbo Meadow homes for sale, click the "Request More Information" button located on the detail page of each property. We can provide you with disclosures, past sales history, dates and prices of homes and condos recently sold nearby in Wilmington, NC, and more.

Would you like to receive email alerts when new listings hit the market in Tonbo Meadow that match your specific search criteria? Just register for a free account -- it's fast, easy and free.

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Get your Council Tax bill by email

You can receive your Council Tax bill by email. The information you receive will be the same as people who receive a paper bill in the post.

This form only allows you to change the way you are billed. If you need to register for Council Tax please complete the form at the change of address page. first.

If you change your email address, please contact us to let us know.

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Check your Council Tax balance online

The Open Access system allows you to check your current Council Tax balance, confirm what you have paid and see when your next payments are due. You can also keep track of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support claims as well as business rates account balances and payments.

Log in to view your account details

If you would like to set up an Open Access account, we need to issue you with a user name and password. Please complete the contact form below and let us know your:

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You are here: Home » Economy & Policy » News
Business Standard

Scrabbling for solutions

Ajai Shukla  |  New Delhi

The Indian Air Force’s crisis in training its pilots saw a farcical twist recently when an Egyptian diplomat posted in India helpfully offered Cairo’s assistance. The Egyptian Air Force, he suggested to a senior IAF officer, could send a training team to Hyderabad, along with several of its trainer aircraft, the K-8 Karakorum. Was the Egyptian aware that the Karakorum trainer has been jointly developed by Pakistan and China? Nobody is certain but, since the offer was not followed up in writing, the Indian Air Force (IAF) was spared the embarrassment of having to reply.

Even as the IAF spends billions of dollars in a global shopping spree for fighters, helicopters and transport aircraft, the training of pilots to fly these has been practically stalled since last July. That was when the IAF’s notoriously unreliable basic trainer, the HPT-32 Deepak, was grounded after a horrific crash that killed two experienced pilots. In 17 Deepak crashes so far, 19 pilots have died.

The Deepak, as the IAF has long known, has two major design flaws. When it flies upside-down the flow of fuel gets blocked, shutting the engine; and, since the Deepak cannot glide without engine power for even a short distance, a serious crash in inevitable.

Stage-1 Deepak
(80 hours)
Kiran Mark 1
(20 hours)
New turbo-prop
trainer (80 hours)
Stage-2 Kiran Mark 1
(About 60 hours)
Kiran Mark 2
(About 60 hours)
Sitara IJT
(About 60 hours)
Stage-3 Kiran Mark 2
(As needed)
  Hawk AJT
(As needed)

The IAF’s concern is evident from the radical methods it is exploring. It now proposes to fit each Deepak with an enormous parachute that opens when the engine shuts off, bringing down the aircraft slowly with the crew still in their seats. Limited (HAL), which manufactures the Deepak, is being asked to fit a number of trainers with this Ballistic Recovery System (BRS). It remains unclear whether the Deepak has the structural strength to support a BRS.

Meanwhile, improvisation governs training. After evaluating and ruling out several options — including training IAF flight cadets in civilian flying clubs; or handing over training to foreign contractors on a “Power by the Hour” payment basis — the IAF is now putting absolute rookies into the relatively complex, jet-engined Kiran Mark-1 aircraft for their very first taste of flying. The Kiran, too, has a dubious safety record, with 13 serious crashes over this last decade.

Before the Deepak was grounded, it took 80 hours of basic training on that aircraft before selected cadets — only those found fit to become fighter pilots — graduated to the Kiran Mark-1. The third stage of training was on the Kiran Mark-2; which the (AJT) is gradually replacing. After those three stages of training, IAF pilots graduated to the frontline fighters that they would fly into battle.

“Conducting basic training on a jet aircraft is risky”, admitted a senior IAF decision-maker to Business Standard. “But what choice do we have? The air force must have pilots to fly its planes.”

In fact, the IAF has several good choices, but all of them are some time away. To replace the “Stage-1” Deepak trainer, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has approved the fast-track purchase of 75 aircraft from the global market. Requests for Proposals (RfPs) have gone out to 10 aircraft manufacturers. The hot contenders include the Pilatus PC-21 (Switzerland); Embraer Tucano (Brazil); and the Grob (Germany). Bids are due before April 14, but the aircraft will be delivered only by 2013-14.

For “Stage-2” training, that is, to replace the Kiran Mark-1, HAL is developing an Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), the Sitara. The IAF is pleased with the prototype, and has ordered a limited series production of 12 aircraft. Eventually, the air force plans to buy 73 Sitaras, but it will take at least 3-4 years before it is available in the numbers needed for organised training.

Finally, for the “Stage-3” training, the Hawk should have been available in large enough numbers by now. But, production delays at HAL, accompanied by a blame-game between HAL and the Hawk’s vendor, BAE Systems, has meant that just 29 Hawks have entered service against the scheduled induction of 44 Hawks by now.

A much needed strategy for training IAF pilots has now become clear. Before the trainers to implement this plan are obtained, several years of makeshift training lie ahead for the air force.

First Published: Mon, April 05 2010. 00:22 IST


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That ought to make an impression. Among other things, it should help people realize that there has been no recovery…not even a weak one. And there won't be a recovery, ever. Not of this economy.

Today, a chorus of indicators chants a warning.

The copper market — down 23% in September — tells us recession is coming.

Falling demand for gasoline hints at the same message.

Oil — under $80 a barrel — heralds recession.

The 10-year US note, yielding all of 1.7%, also screams 'recession.'

And so do the 'junk' bond market and the financial sector — both of which are acting like it was '07-'09 all over again.

And here's why. From Bloomberg:

Ninety-one percent of people in the US labor force have a job. That may be the extent of the good news for these Americans, whose incomes tell a darker story.

Take-home pay, adjusted for prices, fell 0.3 percent in August, the third decrease in five months, and personal income dropped for the first time in two years, the Commerce Department reported last week. The declines followed news from the Census Bureau that median household income in 2010 fell to $49,445, the lowest in more than a decade, and the poverty rate jumped to 15.1 percent, a 17-year high.

Salary and benefit growth "has been going nowhere," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "One of the key reasons the recovery has stalled is that real incomes have fallen."

What happens to a consumer economy when consumers don't have any money? The economy shrinks.

But wait, there's something else going on. This is an economy that depends on MORE — more credit, more sales, more income, more people…more of everything. But now it faces LESS. Consumers have less money. They spend less. They drive less. They borrow less. Less is becoming fashionable, chic, trendy. People now brag about how little they spend…and about what cheapskates they are. They proudly show off their imitation watches…and invite friends to their simple digs. McMansion is giving way to McModest.

And it looks to us as though the feds can't turn this around. Every time, since WWII, when consumers slowed down, the feds intervened. They got the economy revved up by giving it more. This time they can't do it. Because more no longer works. It no longer pays. Give the consumer more credit? The Fed's key rate has been at zero for three years already. What else can it do?

Further inputs of energy or investment won't pay off either. Because the innovations that led to such spectacular growth over the last 2 centuries have been fully implemented. Who doesn't have an automobile? What farm lacks a tractor? Yes, they can be refined and improved…but the era of 5% growth is over — in the developed world.

Trouble is, the economies of the developed countries — and their governments — evolved in an era of growth. They depend on it. Without it, they die.

And what can we do? We have to wipe away our tears, turn our backs, and move on. We have to say 'adieu'…and turn the page.

And you know what soft-hearted diehards we are here at The Daily Reckoning. Typically, we stand behind lost causes and underdogs to the finish.

But we're not standing behind this bubble-crazed, credit addicted economy. We'll let Bernanke, Geithner, and Summers do that. The poor thing is ailing, it's true. It needs life support, no doubt about it. But we'd put a plastic bag over its head and be done with it. It's not worth saving. It's a fraud and a cad.

That's true of the governments of the developed countries too. They're growth governments. They can't survive in a no-growth world.

Give them the coup de grace too.

You know the old expression, attributed to a Rothschild, "buy when blood is running in the streets."

Is it time to buy now?

Well, it is certainly true that there are some bargains. Especially in the emerging markets. Our Family Office chief financial strategist, Rob Marstrand, is recommending a stock whose P/E ratio is now below one. You could buy the whole company for what the company will earn in profits between now and next June. It's a food company that is priced for what Rob calls "vegetable Armageddon." There's so much blood in the streets around company headquarters that the cabbages have turned red.

Does that mean it is time to buy? Maybe.

But the broad market probably has a ways to go…a long ways. Maybe another 3,000 points down. And maybe it will take another 10 years to get there.

Stay tuned…

And you think you have problems? Check this out, from The Wall Street Journal:

LEHIGH CRES, Fla. — Joseph Reilly lost his vacation home here last year when he was out of work and stopped paying his mortgage. The bank took the house and sold it. Mr. Reilly thought that was the end of it.

In June, he learned otherwise. A phone call informed him of a court judgment against him for $192,576.71.

It turned out that at a foreclosure sale, his former house fetched less than a quarter of what Mr. Reilly owed on it. His bank sued him for the rest.

The result was a foreclosure hangover that homeowners rarely anticipate but increasingly face: a "deficiency judgment."

"Now there are foreclosures that leave banks holding the bag on more than $100,000 in debt," says Michael Cramer, president and chief executive of Dyck O'Neal Inc., an Arlington, Texas, firm that invests in debt. "Before, it didn't make sense [for banks] to expend the resources to go after borrowers; now it doesn't make sense not to."

Indeed, $100,000 was roughly the average amount by which foreclosure sales fell short of loan balances in hundreds of foreclosures in seven states reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. And 64% of the 4.5 million foreclosures since the start of 2007 have taken place in states that allow deficiency judgments.

Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning

Why Government Spending Won't Inspire Consumer Confidence originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning provides over 400,000 readers economic news, market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas.

Read more posts on The Daily Reckoning »


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Company Investigations: What actions can be taken against company directors

When a company enters into an insolvency procedure, resulting in control of the company being passed to a licensed insolvency practitioner, such as administration or liquidation, there is a statutory requirement to commence a company investigation into the cause of the insolvency. This article will set out the investigations, and what actions can be taken by an insolvency practitioner or official receiver. The post will also help any directors facing corporate insolvency, demonstrating what not to do.

Director investigations: what do they mean?

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, actions can be taken by an insolvency practitioner that require the directors to compensate the company on a financial basis. The official receiver may also take action leading to a director’s disqualification based on their conduct.

Company investigation

Wrongful trading and fraudulent trading

Many companies are at risk of trading whilst insolvent. However, if there is no prospect of the company returning to solvency and you continue to trade, this becomes a matter of wrongful trading.

At the point of insolvency, a director is expected to take every action to limit losses to creditors. Failure to do so will result in the directors being required to make a contribution to the insolvent estate of the company. They may also potentially face directors’ disqualification. Statistically, there is more likely to be a wrongful trading claim where a director has continued to trade, waiting for a winding up petition to be issued against the company. In this situation, a more proactive approach would be to place the company into voluntary liquidation.

Fraudulent trading is different from wrongful trading in several ways:

  • It is a criminal offence, as opposed to a civil matter.
  • Intent to trade to the detriment of creditors must be demonstrated.

A good example of fraudulent trading is taking deposits from clients, when already planning to enter insolvency, with no intention of delivering goods. The bottom line to avoid claims for wrongful trading and fraudulent trading is, if you even remotely believe the company is insolvent, you must consider all steps you can take to limit the losses to creditors.

Preference payments

Preference payments are where specific creditors are given preferential treatment over the main body of creditors. This refers to the time the company is insolvent. It must be demonstrated that there is a desire to prefer one party over the main body of creditors. Therefore, preference payments are particularly prevalent where:

  • Payments are made to connected parties, such as family members.

  • Payments are made to the directors or shareholders or the company.
  • You intend to start a new company, and payments are made to suppliers you wish to use moving forward.

In the company investigation process, the insolvency practitioner may seek to recover funds. This can be from either the party who has benefited from the payment, or the directors of the company for allowing the payments to be made. Payments made under true duress, along with payments made to employees of your business, which they are contractually due, cannot be considered to be preference payments.

Transaction at undervalue

A transaction at undervalue is where a company asset is given away or sold for significantly less than its actual value. The intention behind this is to stop directors from stripping the company of its assets ahead of entering formal insolvency. When looking at this, from the company investigation perspective, this will also include lumps of cash taken from the company bank account without cause.

If it is necessary to transfer assets out of the company ahead of insolvency, professional advice should be obtained. In such circumstances, it may be more appropriate to take the pre-pack sale route, for example. Before transferring assets, a professional valuation should be procured, and it should be clear that no other buyers are willing to pay more for the business than the connected party. The monies should also be set aside appropriately, avoiding the risk of making preference payments as described above.

Overdrawn directors loan account

Whilst an overdrawn directors loan account may be a part of tax planning, to keep your own tax affairs efficient, this becomes an issue upon liquidation. If the company does not have sufficient reserves to enable the declaration of dividends and you only submit payroll at the tax free limits, this can leave you in a position where you loan account begins to spiral. As a director, you are entitled to make a living. Generally, it is the reason you set the company up in the first place. Being tax efficient at the expense of leaving yourself open to having to repay monies to the company, however, should be avoided.

Directors Disqualification

The above aspects of company investigation can lead to a financial contribution being required to the insolvent estate. The official receiver will also be considering whether directors disqualification is also appropriate. If an order is made, or you take an undertaking, you will be unable to act as a director for a period of 2-15 years. Depending on the specifics of the case, you may also be ordered to make a contribution to the insolvent estate under a disqualification order.

Once a company enters liquidation or administration, the insolvency practitioner has a statutory duty to complete a full company investigation. They must also take any necessary actions to recover monies for creditors. If you can provide evidence that transactions were in the best interest of the company, an insolvency practitioner should not pursue you any further.

If you have any concerns about the proper way to wind down your company, our business rescue experts can advise on how to stay on the right side of the regulations.

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Business Today

Jaiswal bats for an end to 'no go' zone in mining

Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal pushed for doing away with the "no go" classification introduced for coal mining projects and sought a 150-day deadline for environmental clearance for all mining projects.

S. P. S. Pannu   New Delhi     Last Updated: February 18, 2011  | 15:35 IST

Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Thursday pushed for doing away with the "no go" classification introduced for coal mining projects by the ministry of environment and forests and sought a 150-day deadline for environmental clearance for all mining projects.

A coal ministry official told Mail Today that the presentation made by the coal ministry received a positive response from other ministers at the group of ministers (GoM) meeting headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Jaiswal stressed that the Centre needed to switch to a practical approach based on the earlier forest laws and drop the "no go" and "go" area classification for coal mining introduced by the environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh. He also cited cases of mining projects being held up by as much as much as three to six years.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee asked the ministry of environment and forests to make its presentation on the issues raised by the coal ministry in the next meeting of the GoM to be held next month.

The environment ministry's 'no-go' classification introduced in 2009 has blocked mining in 203 blocks, which have the potential of producing 660 million tonnes of coal a year. According to coal ministry estimates, the output from these blocks could have been used to generate around 1.3 lakh MW of power per annum.

The environment ministry had identified about 35 per cent of forest area in nine major coal mining zones as "no go" zones.

This accounts for as much as 44 per cent of the area that public sector Coal India Ltd (CIL) wants to mine.

Jaiswal's stand has the support of power minister Sushilkumar Shinde as more coal is needed to meet the expanding needs of the country's power plants.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is also of the view that Ramesh must be more flexible on his "no go" area stand as the objective of economic development has to be kept in mind.

"All the issues like "no go" coal blocks and coal imports were discussed.

We will meet again sometime in the second week of March on the issue," Jaiswal said. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, "I have assured them that from our ministry's side, we will adopt a positive attitude." Ramesh said his ministry had already lifted moratorium on 13 areas, categorised as 'critically polluted' under the Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI).

The environment ministry had last year imposed a temporary moratorium on development projects in 43 clusters identified as "critically polluted". Seven coalfields, including Chandrapur, Korba, Dhanbad, Talcher, Singrauli, Asansol and IB Valley came under the ambit of the CEPI moratorium.

He said technical teams from the Central Pollution Control Board are in the field.

"I hope that we will be able to lift the moratorium by end of March as we had originally anticipated," he said. He explained that CEPI was not a coal pollution index but a comprehensive emission measurement tool.

Ramesh, who had earlier taken a tough stand to enforce forest protection laws, said he did not intend to stop the projects. "It is also true that there is a decline in forest cover in India, which needs to be checked," he said.

The 12-member GoM also includes steel minister Beni Prasad Verma and road transport minister C. P. Joshi and was set up following a Cabinet decision to resolve the turf war between Jaiswal and Ramesh.

Courtesy: Mail Today

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