Despite a fortnight of hot, dry weather, Jack Walker's property in Theodore still has hailstones covered by a thin layer of dirt and debris.

A leading science institute finds Queensland must move more quickly towards renewable energy and away from coal-fired power by 2030 to meet its share of the nation's emissions reduction targets.

The principal of three alternative schools in New South Wales says she will run them illegally if she is forced to close following a scathing report into their compliance.

Visually impaired children at a surfing event in the NSW Hunter region are encouraged to get into sports and not let their disability hold them back.

More than 500 workers in Sydney have their jobs terminated after the collapse of the Red Lea chicken company, leaving staff without pay and "eating two-minute noodles for dinner", one former manager says.

Whale watchers spot hundreds of humpbacks, with the population looking healthy, on annual migration census day.

While many find them majestic, the pride of the township of Ourimbah is often seen in trees, atop cars, feeding on bird seed on porches, and more recently as roadkill.

A disease that could potentially wipe out Australia's multi-billion-dollar livestock industry has been detected at Australian airports.

A one-woman campaign to rehome egg-laying chickens at the end of their lay cycle gains momentum.

Water allocations for farmers and communities in western NSW are reduced in new plans released today.

A pilot killed in a plane crash that also claimed the life of his passenger in South Australia's outback is a south Queensland businessman and horse stud owner.

With just seconds to go before running out of fuel and unknown alarms going off, Neil Armstrong's heartrate began to skyrocket.

Writer Stuart Beattie wrote scripts for Johnny Depp, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Tom Cruise, but it's his newly released Vietnam War epic that he is most passionate about.

A major program to combat fruit fly is underway in two Australian states where the Queensland fruit fly is not native to those areas.

"The Hot Zone" author Richard Preston gets candid about a failed 1990s movie adaptation that was once set to star A-listers Robert Redford and Jodie Foster before falling apart.

M. Night Shyamalan has rounded out the cast for his next movie. Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff and Vicky Krieps are in negotiations to star in the top-secret project. Shyamalan will write, produce and direct the untitled film, which will be released by Universal Picture. Like most Shyamalan movies, plot details are shrouded […]

Updated accessibility news

In early July, the Linux Foundation announced new licensing terms for IAccessible2 (IA2) and the availability of AccProbe, a new desktop application testing tool for the development community.

Faced with a stagnant, 10-year budget forecast, restricted resources and the need to address healthcare and safety needs of a rapidly growing percentage of healthy citizens over the age of 70, city leaders got creative. Partnering with IBM, TIS Innovation Park, the technological park of Bolzano, and Dr. Hein GmbH, the city sponsored the Secure Living project to help seniors safely 'age in place' at home.

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) last week reported its latest first-quarter results, which makes it a good time for investors...

(Bloomberg) -- Millions of virus-idled American workers are now at home with little more than hand-wringing anxiety about where their next paycheck will come from. They are Jerome Powell’s biggest worry, and how to ease their plight with monetary policy is the Federal Reserve chairman’s largest challenge.The Fed will probably debate using instruments including stronger forward guidance or asset purchases when officials meet next month, which would add more muscle to interest rates that have already been slashed to zero.But those tools require officials to have a forecast they trust of where the economy is heading. The lack of clarity could be a reason to dial down expectations that they would take such steps in June, because officials will struggle to form an outlook as the nation slowly reopens.Policy makers have already described the difficulties that forecasters face.Vice Chairman Richard Clarida warned of “enormous uncertainty” in a CNBC interview and said “we have to be appropriately humble as we’re navigating this period.” San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told Bloomberg Television that forecasting “has become very tough” now because it depends on the course of the virus. Philadelphia’s Patrick Harker described scenarios, including one with a second infection wave and “a painful economic contraction of GDP in 2021 as shutdowns are reintroduced.”Even so, Powell has said that the Fed will do what it can to curb the human tragedy of the virus’s economic harm.He helped nurture the longest U.S. expansion on record, a period of growth that was just starting to reach the most marginalized workers, from people with criminal records to those with little schooling.The Fed chief spent the last year on a listening tour to hear from ordinary Americans and discuss obstacles to even bigger gains.‘Absolute Limit’He’s now pledged to use Fed powers to the “absolute limit” to prevent the contraction from leaving deep scars on the economy’s long-term ability to grow -- through bankruptcies of small businesses or deterioration in worker skills. And he is boldly urging Congress to do more.“It is about not just winning the war against a depression, but it’s about securing the peace, winning the peace. We failed in 2008-09 to secure the peace,” Mohamed El-Erian, a Bloomberg columnist and chief economic adviser to Allianz SE, told Bloomberg Television Friday “We won the war against a threat of depression then, but we did not secure a peace of higher growth, more inclusive growth and sustainability.”In an April 29 press conference, Powell was asked if he’s troubled by the prospect that the downturn does the most harm to Americans who have only just managed to get a foothold in the labor market. “That’s exactly what I worry about,” he said.Record UnemploymentU.S. government data on Friday shows the nation headed in that direction. Employers cut 20.5 million jobs in April and the unemployment rate more than tripled to 14.7%, the harshest labor market downturn in the history of the data series. All the indications point to a brutal recession. The central bank wants to make sure it is as short as possible.Fed officials next month are due to refresh their quarterly Summary of Economic Projections, where all 17 anonymously write down a forecast for their policy interest rate, GDP, inflation and unemployment. They skipped the process in March due to a rapidly changing outlook.With so many puzzles yet to be resolved, they may diminish its importance or skip it again at their June 9-10 meeting.Officials have already assured investors that interest rates will be held near zero until they are confident the economy is back on track to achieve their twin goals for full employment and 2% inflation.Zero RatesTraders have priced in zero rates for the rest of the year, and possibly even negative interest rates in 2021, an idea that Powell has dismissed in the past and which other officials played down last week as a prospect in the U.S.With rates already at zero, “the second tool,” said Daly, “has been forward guidance,” and then balance sheet policies. Still, there is a sense at the Fed that monetary policy will have to be complimented with further creative fiscal policy to help push demand higher.Fed officials have worked with the U.S. Treasury and Congress to provide bridge credit to everything from Main Street businesses to the largest corporations.“Will there be a need to do more though?” Powell asked at his April 29 press conference. “I would say that it may well be the case that the economy will need more support from all of us if the recovery is to be a robust one.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Saturday the company will file a lawsuit against Alameda County and threatened to move its headquarters and future programs to Texas or Nevada immediately, escalating a fight between the company and health officials over whether its factory in Fremont can reopen. Tesla had planned to bring back about 30% of its factory workers Friday as part of its reopening plan, defying Alameda County's stay-at-home order. TechCrunch has reached out to Elon Musk directly.

(United States Second Circuit) - Finding that a plaintiff had standing to sue in seeking adequate payment for foster parents and that plaintiff had a right to adequate payments.

(Supreme Court of California) - Affirmed. The Appeals court held that the current policy of the California Department of Social Services treating court-ordered child support as income and using the same funds twice as income for both the paying household and the receiving household does not violate the Welfare and Institutions Code section 11005.5.

(United States Second Circuit) - Denied. In a 6-5 vote, the panel majority declines to rehear the case en banc, holding that the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 creates a privately enforceable right for foster parents to sue states for costs related to child care. Five judges dissent.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a suit brought by two nonprofit veterans organizations against the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Ninth Circuit en banc holds: 1) the district court lacked jurisdiction to reach the plaintiffs' statutory and due process challenges to alleged delays in the provision of mental health care and to the absence of procedures to challenge such delays; 2) the district court lacked jurisdiction to reach the plaintiffs' claims related to delays in the adjudication of service-related disability benefits; 3) the district court had jurisdiction to consider the plaintiffs' challenges to the alleged inadequacy of the procedures at the regional office level; and 4) the district court properly exercised that jurisdiction to deny the plaintiffs' claim on the merits.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Held that the First Amendment's commercial speech protections entitled a company to operate automotive service centers under the name "Tire Engineers," even though a state board that licenses engineers objected to the use of the profession's occupational title. Reversed and rendered summary judgment in favor of the company, in this declaratory judgment action.

(United States Supreme Court) - This case involved the State of Washington's tax on fuel importers who travel by public highway. The Yakama Nation contended that its 1855 treaty with the United States forbids that tax from being imposed upon fuel importers who are tribal members. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the tribe. Justice Breyer's plurality opinion was joined by only two other justices. Justices Gorsuch and Ginsburg concurred in the judgment.

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#architektura #architekt #dom #design

Men's & women's Mod clothing at Madcap England. Huge range of boating blazers, flares, racing jumpers, polos and dresses. Free UK delivery orders over £75.

Google Lens now lets you copy/paste text from handwritten notes to your laptop!

Important new CitizenLab report: "We Chat, They Watch: How International Users Unwittingly Build up WeChat’s Chinese Censorship Apparatus"

(United States Federal Circuit) - Affirmed that certain computer-related patent claims were not directed to patent-eligible subject matter. In this patent infringement case, the Federal Circuit agreed with the district court that the patent claims at issue failed under the abstract idea exception, because the claims lacked any arguable technical advance over conventional computer and network technology. The patent claims here related to a way to display two sets of information, in a non-overlapping way, on a display screen.

(United States Federal Circuit) - Held that a teacher working for the U.S. Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools failed to file a timely petition for review of a decision removing her from the federal service. The teacher, who argued that her procedural due process rights were violated when she was fired from her job teaching on a military base, petitioned for review of an arbitrator's decision. However, the Federal Circuit concluded that her petition for review was not timely filed and thus dismissed it.