The University of Cambridge invites for applications for a Research Associate to work on EU-BON, a major EU-funded research project, seeking to improve the use of biodiversity data in public policy. EU-BON will carry out research towards building a European gateway for biodiversity information, which will integrate a wide range of biodiversity data from on ground observations to remote sensing datasets and make it accessible for scientists, policy makers, and the public. The project is coordinated from the Berlin Natural History Museum with the University of Cambridge contribution being led Professor William Sutherland (Department of Zoology) and Dr Robert Doubleday (Centre for Science and Policy and Department of Geography). EU-BON started on 1 December 2012 and runs for 4.5 years.

The post The researcher will carry out research on how biodiversity data is currently used in European policy making and will contribute to analysis of the opportunities to increase its effective provision and use. Research methods are likely to combine qualitative and quantitative analysis and to focus on the use of biodiversity data in public policy contexts. The researcher will be expected to spend time working in both the Department of Zoology and the Centre for Science and Policy.

In addition to carrying out research on the use of biodiversity data in European policy making, the researcher will support Cambridge's contribution to EU BON as a whole. This will involve contributing to other workpackages as and when required. More information about EU BON can be found here:http://www.eubon.eu

Person Specification Applicants should have a PhD in a relevant field. Experience in both qualitative and quantitative analysis is desirable. Applicants should ideally have some first-hand experience of public policy processes and a willingness to travel within the European Union for research. Excellent organisational and communication skills will be essential in working as a successful part of this large, multi-partner and multinational team.

Any enquiries concerning the position can be made to Dr Robert Doubleday,rob.doubleday@csap.cam.ac.uk or Professor William Sutherland, w.sutherland@zoo.cam.ac.uk

Interviews for this post will take place on Thursday 18th June 2015.

To apply and for more information, please go to teh official job offer.

A new aticle published in Ecology Letters  looks into the indirect interactions among tropical tree species through shared rodent seed predators. The reasearch is part of the work of EU BON postdoc Carol X. Garzon-Lopez.

Abstract: The coexistence of numerous tree species in tropical forests is commonly explained by negative dependence of recruitment on the conspecific seed and tree density due to specialist natural enemies that attack seeds and seedlings (‘Janzen–Connell’ effects). Less known is whether guilds of shared seed predators can induce a negative dependence of recruitment on the density of different species of the same plant functional group. We studied 54 plots in tropical forest on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, with contrasting mature tree densities of three coexisting large seeded tree species with shared seed predators. Levels of seed predation were far better explained by incorporating seed densities of all three focal species than by conspecific seed density alone. Both positive and negative density dependencies were observed for different species combinations. Thus, indirect interactions via shared seed predators can either promote or reduce the coexistence of different plant functional groups in tropical forest.

Carol X. Garzon-Lopez et. al. (2015) Indirect interactions among tropical tree species through shared rodent seed predators: a novel mechanism of tree species coexistence. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.12452

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences offers a new position for Postdoctoral researcher in ecology: Spatial population dynamics at a species’ northern range margin at the Department of Ecology.

The department conducts empirical and theoretical research for sustainable forest and agricultural production and efficient biological conservation. Research on populations, communities, and ecosystems forms the foundation for studying the influence of land use and climate on animals, plants, soils nutrient status, and greenhouse gas balances. Solutions are sought that will mitigate climate change, preserve threatened species, benefit biological diversity and ecosystem services, and control pests in forest and agricultural landscapes as well as in urban areas.

Duties: The postdoc researcher will study spatial population dynamics in an insect at the northern margin of its global distribution, by taking advantage of a data from a long-term study of the butterfly Pyrgus armoricanus. The main purpose of the project is to understand how climate, habitat fragmentation and habitat quality influence the regional distribution and population dynamics of this butterfly, and to use this knowledge to predict population persistence and distribution in an altered climate and after changed land use. The successful candidate wull also analyze time-series data on population dynamics in relation to weather and habitat quality. There will also be opportunities to model future regional distribution or population persistence under scenarios of future land use and climate change.

Place of work: Uppsala

Form of employment: Temporary employment, 1 year.

Deadlines: June 1, 2015

For more information on requirements and how to apply, lease visit the official job offer page: http://www.slu.se/sv/om-slu/fristaende-sidor/aktuellt/lediga-tjanster/las-mer/?eng=1&Pid=1875

One of our recent associated partners, the EU project GLOBIS-B has published its first paper: "Towards global interoperability for supporting biodiversity research on essential biodiversity variables (EBVs)". You can find the article here.

Abstract: 

Essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) have been proposed by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) to identify a minimum set of essential measurements that are required for studying, monitoring and reporting biodiversity and ecosystem change. Despite the initial conceptualisation, however, the practical implementation of EBVs remains challenging. There is much discussion about the concept and implementation of EBVs: which variables are meaningful; which data are needed and available; at which spatial, temporal and topical scales can EBVs be calculated; and how sensitive are EBVs to variations in underlying data? To advance scientific progress in implementing EBVs we propose that both scientists and research infrastructure operators need to cooperate globally to serve and process the essential large datasets for calculating EBVs. We introduce GLOBIS-B (GLOBal Infrastructures for Supporting Biodiversity research), a global cooperation funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme of the European Commission. The main aim of GLOBIS-B is to bring together biodiversity scientists, global research infrastructure operators and legal interoperability experts to identify the research needs and infrastructure services underpinning the concept of EBVs. The project will facilitate the multi-lateral cooperation of biodiversity research infrastructures worldwide and identify the required primary data, analysis tools, methodologies and legal and technical bottlenecks to develop an agenda for research and infrastructure development to compute EBVs. This requires development of standards, protocols and workflows that are ‘self-documenting’ and openly shared to allow the discovery and analysis of data across large spatial extents and different temporal resolutions. The interoperability of existing biodiversity research infrastructures will be crucial for integrating the necessary biodiversity data to calculate EBVs, and to advance our ability to assess progress towards the Aichi targets for 2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Original Source:

W. Daniel Kissling et. al. (2015) Towards global interoperability for supporting biodiversity research on essential biodiversity variables (EBVs). Biodiversity. DOI: 10.1080/14888386.2015.1068709

A new article published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering looks at how Aphia, the core platform that underpins the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS),  can Serve the taxonomic community and the field of biodiversity informatics.

Abstract

The Aphia platform is an infrastructure designed to capture taxonomic and related data and information, and includes an online editing environment. The latter allows easy access to experts so they can update the content of the database in a timely fashion. Aphia is the core platform that underpins the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and its more than 80 related global, regional and thematic species databases, but it also allows the storage of non-marine data. The content of Aphia can be consulted online, either by individual users or via machine-to-machine interactions. Aphia uses unique and stable identifiers for each available name in the database through the use of Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs). The system not only allows the storage of accepted and unaccepted names, but it also documents the relationships between names. This makes it a very powerful tool for taxonomic quality control, and also allows the linking of different pieces of information through scientific names, both within the Aphia platform and in relation to externally hosted databases. Through these LSIDs, Aphia has become an important player in the field of (marine) biodiversity informatics, allowing interactions between its own taxonomic data and e.g., biogeographic databases. Some applications in the field of biodiversity informatics encompass the coupling of species traits and taxonomy, as well as the creation of diverse, expert validated data products that can be used by policy makers, for example. Aphia also supplies (part of) its content to other data integrators and the infrastructure can be used to host orphan databases in danger of being lost.

Original Source: http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/3/4/1448/htm

A new paper "Combining internal and external motivations in multi-actor governance arrangements for biodiversity and ecosystem services" published in the journal Environmental Science & Policy looks at ways to motivate actions for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. The paper is a result of the EU FP7 funded project BIOMOT.

Abstract: 

This paper analyses the possibility of building a mutually supportive dynamics between internally and externally motivated behaviour for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. To this purpose a face to face survey amongst 169 key actors of 34 highly successful and prominent biodiversity arrangements in seven EU countries was conducted. The main finding of the paper is the feasibility of combining inherently intrinsically motivated behaviours (providing enjoyment, pleasure from experimentation and learning, aesthetic satisfaction) and internalized extrinsic motivations (related to the identification with the collective goals of conservation policy) through a common set of governance features. Successful initiatives that combine internal and external motivations share the following features: inclusive decision making processes, a broad monitoring by "peers" beyond the core staff of the initiatives, and a context that is supportive for the building of autonomous actor competences. These findings are in line with the psycho-sociological theory of motivation, which shows the importance of a psycho-social context leading to a subjective perception of autonomy and a sense of competence of the actors.

Original Source: 

Tom Dedeurwaerdere, Jeroen Admiraal, Almut Beringer, Flavia Bonaiuto, Lavinia Cicero, Paula Fernandez-Wulff, Janneke Hagens, Juha Hiedanpää, Paul Knights, Erica Molinario, Paolo Melindi-Ghidi, Florin Popa, Urban Šilc, Nathalie Soethe, Tiina Soininen, Jose Luis Vivero, Combining internal and external motivations in multi-actor governance arrangements for biodiversity and ecosystem services, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 58, April 2016, Pages 1-10, ISSN 1462-9011, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.12.003

The Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) network has the aim to measure and compare plants, terrestrial mammals, ground-dwelling birds and climate using a standard methodology in a range of tropical forests, from relatively pristine places to those most affected by people. TEAM currently operates in sixteen tropical forest sites across Africa, Asia and Latin America supporting a network of scientists committed to standardized methods of data collection to quantify how plants and animals respond to pressures such as climate change and human encroachment.

A recent TEAM network paper published in PLOS Biology deals with the standartization of methods in assessing biodiversity trends in tropical forest protected areas.

Abstract: 

Applications for a Project Manager position for the Horizon 2020 project called COOP+ are now open at the University of Granada (Spain). This project aims to foster the cooperation among EU environmental research infrastructures (EISCAT, ICOS, EMSO, LifeWatch) and their international counterparts (NEON, TERN, AMERIFLUX, LBA, ILTER, OOI, AMISR, IMOS, etc.).

The Project Manager will be in contact with the project consortium on a daily basis to foster the cooperation among RIs. He/she will be responsible for communication with project partners (organizing meetings, workshops and videoconferences during the project duration, maintenance of web page). He/she will also participate in writing reports, timely production of deliverables as well as scientific outputs. He/she will join the "Laboratory of ecology" located in theAndalusian Institute for Earth System Research, at the University of Granada (Spain).

More infornation on the position, requirements and how to apply can be found in the offcial job offer.

A new EU BON acknowledging data article provides a virtual species set as a valuable tool in biodiversity monitoring. 

Abstract

Predicting species potential and future distribution has become a relevant tool in biodiversity monitoring and conservation. In this data article we present the suitability map of a virtual species generated based on two bioclimatic variables, and a dataset containing more than 700,000 random observations at the extent of Europe. The dataset includes spatial attributes such as: distance to roads, protected areas, country codes, and the habitat suitability of two spatially clustered species (grassland and forest species) and a wide-spread species.

Original Source:

Garzon-Lopez, C.X., Bastin, L., Foody, G.M., Rocchini, D. (2016). A virtual species set for robust and reproducible Species Distribution Modelling tests. Data in Brief, 7: 476-479. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2016.02.058

A new position for "Researcher and Scientific Project Manager" is opened by the Doing it Together science (DITOs) project, running under the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) within the H2020 framework, and led by the UCL London.

The DITOs project aims to elevate public engagement with science across Europe from passive engagement with the process of developing science to an active one.

Deadline: 23.05.2016

For more information on how to apply and requirements for this position, please download the Official Job Offer.

Established under the auspices of the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS), the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS) is an Intergovernmental Agreement aimed at achieving and maintaining a favorable conservation status for cetaceans though the implementation of coordinated measures.

The Secretariat of ACCOBAMS, based in Monaco, ensures the coordination of the Agreement implementation and provides assistance to the Contracting Parties. In this context, the Secretariat is working on the development of an initiative aimed at responding to the ACCOBAMS strategic objective on improving the understanding of the conservation status of cetaceans at the Mediterranean/Black Sea macroregional level (the "ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative" – ASI).

A new opinion piece published in the journal Global Change Biology looks at the development of biodiversity scenarios and their inclusion of  future land-use changes.

Abstract: 

A new research paper Linking Earth Observation and taxonomic, structural and functional biodiversity: Local to ecosystem perspectives published in the journal Ecological Indicators looks at the ways in which earth observation (EO) techniques may provide a solution to overcome shortcomings in biodiversity monitoring by measuring entities of interest at different spatial and temporal scales. 

Abstract: 

Impacts of human civilization on ecosystems threaten global biodiversity. In a changing environment, traditional in situ approaches to biodiversity monitoring have made significant steps forward to quantify and evaluate BD at many scales but still, these methods are limited to comparatively small areas. Earth observation (EO) techniques may provide a solution to overcome this shortcoming by measuring entities of interest at different spatial and temporal scales.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the role of EO to detect, describe, explain, predict and assess biodiversity. Here, we focus on three main aspects related to biodiversity taxonomic diversity, functional diversity and structural diversity, which integrate different levels of organization molecular, genetic, individual, species, populations, communities, biomes, ecosystems and landscapes. In particular, we discuss the recording of taxonomic elements of biodiversity through the identification of animal and plant species. We highlight the importance of the spectral traits (ST) and spectral trait variations (STV) concept for EO-based biodiversity research.

Furthermore we provide examples of spectral traits/spectral trait variations used in EO applications for quantifying taxonomic diversity, functional diversity andstructural diversity. We discuss the use of EO to monitor biodiversity and habitat quality using differ-ent remote-sensing techniques. Finally, we suggest specifically important steps for a better integrationof EO in biodiversity research.EO methods represent an affordable, repeatable and comparable method for measuring, describing,explaining and modelling taxonomic, functional and structural diversity. Upcoming sensor developmentswill provide opportunities to quantify spectral traits, currently not detectable with EO, and will surelyhelp to describe biodiversity in more detail. Therefore, new concepts are needed to tightly integrate EOsensor networks with the identification of biodiversity. This will mean taking completely new directionsin the future to link complex, large data, different approaches and models.

Original reseach:

A. Lausch, L. Bannehr, M. Beckmann, C. Boehm, H. Feilhauer, J.M. Hacker, M. Heurich, A. Jung, R. Klenke, C. Neumann, M. Pause, D. Rocchini, M.E. Schaepman, S. Schmidtlein, K. Schulz, P. Selsam, J. Settele, A.K. Skidmore, A.F. Cord, Linking Earth Observation and taxonomic, structural and functional biodiversity: Local to ecosystem perspectives, Ecological Indicators, Volume 70, November 2016, Pages 317-339, ISSN 1470-160X, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.06.022

The planetary boundaries framework attempts to set limits for biodiversity loss within which ecological function is relatively unaffected. In a recent article in Science Newbold et al. present a quantitative global analysis of the extent to which the proposed planetary boundary has been crossed. 

Abstract: 

Land use and related pressures have reduced local terrestrial biodiversity, but it is unclear how the magnitude of change relates to the recently proposed planetary boundary ("safe limit"). We estimate that land use and related pressures have already reduced local biodiversity intactness—the average proportion of natural biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems—beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58.1% of the world’s land surface, where 71.4% of the human population live. Biodiversity intactness within most biomes (especially grassland biomes), most biodiversity hotspots, and even some wilderness areas is inferred to be beyond the boundary. Such widespread transgression of safe limits suggests that biodiversity loss, if unchecked, will undermine efforts toward long-term sustainable development.

The study is available at http://dx.doi/10.1126/science.aaf2201

Are protected areas working when it comes to promoting biodivesity? A new study, published in Nature Communications, shows that local biodiversity is actually higher within, rather than outside protected areas.

Abstract: 

Protected areas are widely considered essential for biodiversity conservation. However, few global studies have demonstrated that protection benefits a broad range of species. Here, using a new global biodiversity database with unprecedented geographic and taxonomic coverage, we compare four biodiversity measures at sites sampled in multiple land uses inside and outside protected areas. Globally, species richness is 10.6% higher and abundance 14.5% higher in samples taken inside protected areas compared with samples taken outside, but neither rarefaction-based richness nor endemicity differ significantly. Importantly, we show that the positive effects of protection are mostly attributable to differences in land use between protected and unprotected sites. Nonetheless, even within some human-dominated land uses, species richness and abundance are higher in protected sites. Our results reinforce the global importance of protected areas but suggest that protection does not consistently benefit species with small ranges or increase the variety of ecological niches.

Original Source:

The original article is openly accessible at:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12306

Key in ensuring the effectiveness of conservation efforts and maintaining ecosystem health, measuring biodiversity can benefit greatly when remote sensing data comes into the equation. A new EU BON related paper, published in the journal Ecological Indicators, proposes open source solutions for measuring the important Rao's Q index, when it comes to remote sensing data.

Abstract: 

Measuring biodiversity is a key issue in ecology to guarantee effective indicators of ecosystem health at different spatial and time scales. However, estimating biodiversity from field observations might present difficulties related to costs and time needed. Moreover, a continuous data update for biodiversity monitoring purposes might be prohibitive. From this point of view, remote sensing represents a powerful tool since it allows to cover wide areas in a relatively low amount of time. One of the most common indicators of biodiversity is Shannon's entropy H′, which is strictly related to environmental heterogeneity, and thus to species diversity. However, Shannon's entropy might show drawbacks once applied to remote sensing data, since it considers relative abundances but it does not explicitly account for distances among pixels’ numerical values. In this paper we propose the use of Rao's Q applied to remotely sensed data, providing a straightforward R-package function to calculate it in 2D systems. We will introduce the theoretical rationale behind Rao's index and then provide applied examples based on the proposed R function.

Original Source: 

Rocchini, D., Marcantonio, M., Ricotta, C. (2017). Measuring Rao's Q diversity index rom remote sensing: an open source solution. Ecological Indicators, 72: 234-238. [5years-IF: 3.649] DOI:10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.07.039

A new EU BON derived paper, publsihed recently in the journal Remote Sensing, introduces eHabitat+, a habitat modelling service supporting the European Commission’s Digital Observatory for Protected Areas.

Abstract:

Protected areas (PAs) need to be assessed systematically according to biodiversity values and threats in order to support decision-making processes. For this, PAs can be characterized according to their species, ecosystems and threats, but such information is often difficult to access and usually not comparable across regions. There are currently over 200,000 PAs in the world, and assessing these systematically according to their ecological values remains a huge challenge. However, linking remote sensing with ecological modelling can help to overcome some limitations of conservation studies, such as the sampling bias of biodiversity inventories. The aim of this paper is to introduce eHabitat+, a habitat modelling service supporting the European Commission’s Digital Observatory for Protected Areas, and specifically to discuss a component that systematically stratifies PAs into different habitat functional types based on remote sensing data. eHabitat+ uses an optimized procedure of automatic image segmentation based on several environmental variables to identify the main biophysical gradients in each PA. This allows a systematic production of key indicators on PAs that can be compared globally. Results from a few case studies are illustrated to show the benefits and limitations of this open-source tool.

Original Source: 

Martínez-López, J.; Bertzky, B.; Bonet-García, F.J.; Bastin, L.; Dubois, G. Biophysical Characterization of Protected Areas Globally through Optimized Image Segmentation and Classification. Remote Sens. 2016, 8, 780. DOI: 0.3390/rs8090780

A new editorial, published in the Journal of Apllied Ecology looks at modelling and monitoring as methods for adaptive biodiversity management in the 21st century.

Abstract: 

With increasing threats on biodiversity, informed conservation decisions need to be based on currently observed and future predicted trends of biodiversity (Pereira, Navarro & Martins 2012; Guisan et al. 2013). In this regard, two essential components supporting informed biodiversity conservation decisions are good monitoring data to assess recent and ongoing trends (Collen et al. 2013; Pereira et al. 2013) and robust models to anticipate possible future trends (Pereira et al. 2010a; Akc
akaya et al. 2016). Models benefit from robust monitoring data sets, that is repeated observations of biodiversity, as they need data to be fitted or validated, but models can also help assess data representativeness (e.g. by highlighting any bias), support proper data collection (e.g. covering the relevant gradients) or be used to make more effective use of biodiversity observations (Guisan et al. 2006, 2013; Ferrier 2011).

Read more in the open access paper.

The IALE 2013 European Congress "Changing European Landscapes: Landscape ecology, local to global" will take place on 9-12 September 2013, in Manchester, UK. This major international event, organised by IALE UK and IALE Europe, will examine how and why European landscapes are changing and how landscape ecology can help us to plan for the future at local to global scales. It will consider local projects alongside international programmes and provide many opportunities for researchers, policy makers and practitioners to interact. The congress will have a European focus but we look forward to welcoming participants from around the world.

More information and how to register find here.

The "Open Science at the Global Scale: Sharing e-Infrastructures, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Progress" conference will take place on March 31, 2015 in Brussels, Belgium. The conference is organized under the aegis of the European Commission (DG CONNECT) to bring together policy and research stakeholders from all the regions targeted by the project (Asia, Africa, Arabia, India, Europe and Latin America) to discuss major developments and perspectives in the field of global e-Infrastructures for Research and Education.

The main outcomes of the CHAIN-REDS project will be also presented on this occasion:

• The development of a Distributed Computing Infrastructure interoperation model between Europe and other regions
• The promotion of international standards and technical guidelines for interoperability of cloud services across continents
• One of the largest existing e-Infrastructure-related digital information systems, the CHAIN-REDS Knowledge Base
• A complete methodology for better sharing and using scientific data
• The CHAIN-REDS Science Gateway: a single portal for accessing remote computing and data services anywhere in the world
• The support of the creation of Identity Federations to make Authentification and Authorisation easier for users and service providers worldwide
• The main outcomes of the six awareness-raising workshops organised by CHAIN-REDS in Asia, Africa, Arabia, and Latin America

For Registration and more information, please visit the oficial conference webpage: https://agenda.ct.infn.it/event/1110/

BIOTALENT is a multilingual blended e-learning training programme to gain crucial skills and knowledge in biodiversity. Protecting life on earth in all its forms also involves introducing innovative ways to address pressing environmental issues of today. A strong investment in environmental education and a passion for science is therefore essential to this programme.

This one-day event, Taking place on 18 May 2017, in Brussels, will illustrate the uniqueness of the BIOTALENT project and programme in the way environmental education is brought to the course participant. The various expert speakers that are invited are all very passionate about innovation in education and the new ways in which scientific and environmental education can contribute to conserving biodiversity.  

To register and find out more visit the official announcement.

The Trump administration is expected to pull back Biden's controversial directive that requires emergency rooms to provide abortions when necessary to stabilize a woman's health or life.

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"Theeeee Yankees lose!"

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ABINGTON 91 Linda St. One-family ranch, built in 1951, 858 square feet, 5 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, on 7,014-square-foot lot. $425,000 56 Townsend St. #C23 Condo/Apt, built in 1972, 900 square feet, 6 rooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. $280,000 ACTON 21 Grasshopper Lane. One-family Colonial, built in 1968, 3,546 square feet, 9 rooms, 4 […]

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Everything to know about visiting Salem in October, including parking info, the best restaurants, Salem Witch Trials activities, and a full guide to Halloween celebrations.

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Local guides share spine-chilling stories — and an electromagnetic field reader — on a recent night in the historic city.

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A "a collector of curiosities" once lived there.

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Local officials are racing against the clock to intervene and save Ingersoll’s Ordinary before more than three centuries of Danvers history is lost for good.

The post This North Shore home has ties to the Salem witch trials and American Revolution. Officials say it’s now ‘rotting’ away. appeared first on Boston.com.

John Shairs faces life in prison for the murder of Tina Amore, a mother of two.

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“While an increase in population is hopeful, the North Atlantic right whales washing up dead on our shores speak for themselves — we must stop killing them."

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In response to growing customer demand, stores of all stripes are bringing out their festive collections weeks before the Nov. 1 start of the holiday shopping season.

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The brand said it expects to operate as The New Tupperware Co. upon completion of the deal.

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This executive order will allow the state to bring more diversity into its hiring processes, benefitting the overall workforce, according to the governor.

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Tickets must be booked by Nov. 14.

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The sale ends on Thursday.

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Titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music,” the one-credit class will focus on the period from her 2013 self-titled album through this year's genre-defying “Cowboy Carter.”

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"After today, I don't know how you don't walk away and just feel better about that quarterback position in there with Drake Maye."

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Two journalists set off on a quest to hand deliver a letter to a grandmother in Puerto Rico from her family on the mainland of the United States.

Also: we learn why Che Guevara is being honoured on a postage stamp in Ireland; we admire the art of Martin Ramirez which has been featured on postage stamps in the US; plus we read one of the most timeless job application letters in history, sent by a copywriter, Robert Pirosh, to studio directors in Hollywood, in 1934.

(Image: Janet Franceschini Colon (left), Jennifer Santos Franceschini (middle), Jenelyn Santos (right) and Jennifer's two daughters are pictured. Credit: PRI’s The World)

Plus: New England's scariest attractions, a cruise with celebrity chefs, and Kennebunkport Hotel Week.

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From a headless horseman to DunKings to Barbie.

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According to city officials, 87,351 visited on Oct. 31 alone.

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On this week's edition of The Watchman, we're joined by Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council and Kamal Saleem of Koome Ministries to discuss their thrilling new novel about radical Islam, "The Coalition." Click on the ... ...

En la siguiente entrevista, la autora nicaragüense Hada María Morales, presenta su nuevo libro "A Mamá le va de maravilla y al hogar también". En él, describe la importancia de que la mujer tenga un alta autoestima dentro de su hogar, pues ...