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AI-Powered Customer Service: Use-Cases and Real-World Examples

Cognitive/AI technologies for customer engagement are white hot. No wonder professionals, who had removed AI from their resumes, are scrambling to add it back in!




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Key Considerations in Maximizing the Value of Cognitive Search

I am a firm believer in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. If you've not read this book, it is worth the time. I mention this because my focus at BA Insight is around Covey's second habit, which is, "Begin with the end in mind." Seems simple, right? Well it is, but it's also quite rare. When approaching any enterprise search project, at any phase, I always try to come back to this idea. What is success? When are we done? What does finished look like? These are all different ways of saying, "Make sure you have goals!"




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Transform Customer Service With Next-Gen Knowledge: Why and How

The consumer has spoken. Forrester Research asked 5,000 of them, "What created the biggest pain when you contacted a business for customer service?" They answered lack and consistency of agent knowledge, followed by the difficulty of finding relevant answers on company websites. So, what is driving this dissatisfaction?




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Take a Bow for the Next Generation KM

There may be several generations that a KM system appeals to in different ways, but there are no generational differences when it comes to expecting high quality customer service and knowledgeable agents.




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Preset (Everyday) + transform + exposure + graduated filter +...



Preset (Everyday) + transform + exposure + graduated filter + radial filter. If shots like this take more than 2 minutes to edit, it’s probably not worth editing. ⏱

Boxing Day will be the last day to get my Lightroom presets discounted, which leaves you only 3 more days! Get on it! ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)




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Merry Xmas everyone! It’s giveaway time! ???????? . Thank you to...



Merry Xmas everyone! It’s giveaway time! ????????
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Thank you to all those who participated in my preset giveaway this week! The support makes all the hard work and extra effort worth it!
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Without further ado, the randomly drawn winners of my custom Lightroom presets are @l9lee @rchellau @bokeh.jay! Congrats and check your DMs soon for details! ????
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You still have until tomorrow to grab my presets (which this shot was edited with) for 50% off! They’ll be going back to regular price after so don’t miss out! ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)




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I just realized that I can export my entire story all at once...



I just realized that I can export my entire story all at once now, which means uploading my tutorials to my Facebook page will be a million times easier (it was tedious to stitch all the individual clips together before). ????
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Related: I posted a story this morning deconstructing the edit on yesterday’s shot.
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Also related: I uploaded the 3 tutorials from my November feature on @thecreatorclass to my Facebook page this morning too. More to come! (at London, United Kingdom)




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A Guide to UX Competitors’ Analysis for User Research

UX competitor analysis is a valuable user research method that focuses on understanding your products’ competitors, helping you better understand your market and goals. Idea Theorem™ has worked with many clients that required a UX competitor analysis to get actionable insights about their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes to avoid and know what they are doing right.




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Best YouTube Channels for UX Designers

Discover top YouTube channels dedicated to UX design, offering insights and tutorials to enhance your skills in creating intuitive and engaging user experiences. Here are some of the best channels for UX designers.




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Guardian no Longer Posting on X

We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere.




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Trump Picks Fox News Host for Defense Secretary

President-elect Trump on Tuesday announced he was choosing Pete Hegseth, an Army veteran and a Fox News host, to serve as Defense secretary.




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Andrew Cox (2005)

Andrew Cox is conducting a PhD in the Research School of Informatics, Loughborough University. He was previously a manager of the digital library research centre, LITC, at South Bank University. Andrew took part in a panel session on "The Web Management Community: Present and Future" with Duncan Ireland and Brian Kelly. Andrew can be contacted at A.M.Cox AT lboro.ac.uk.




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Chris Sexton (2010)

Chris Sexton is Director of Corporate Information and Computing Services at the University of Sheffield. Chris will be giving a plenary talk entitled "The Web in Turbulent Times".




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Victorian base enables American yoghurt company’s export to Singapore

Chobani Australia is exporting yoghurt to Singapore less than 18 months after the American company set up in Victoria. Within 18 months, Chobani has grown production at its A$30 million yoghurt factory in Victoria from 25,000 cases a week to 25,000 cases a day, and become one of the biggest yoghurt manufacturers in Australia.




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US defence manufacturer Wilcox Industries to set up in Victoria

Wilcox Industries’ manufacturing and assembly facility in Victoria will be a joint venture with its Melbourne-based distributor and partner, Aquaterro – a leading supplier of law enforcement and defence equipment in Victoria.




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Zendesk expands Melbourne operations

San Francisco-based IT company, Zendesk, is expanding its operations in Melbourne to take advantage of Victoria’s strong information technology skills base. “Our head of product and engineering says Melbourne is the best place for us to hire right now because of the combination of expectations, talent and production,” said Mikkel Svane, co-founder and chief executive of US-based Zendesk.




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Australia, an innovative leader: Global Innovation Index

Australia has achieved its highest ever ranking in the 2014 Global Innovation Index (GII). The GII 2014 surveyed 143 economies around the world, using 81 indicators to gauge both their innovation capabilities and measurable results.




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DataCore expands Melbourne operations

US-based data visualisation software storage company, DataCore Software, has expanded its operations in Melbourne. The new marketing function located in Melbourne delivers demand-generation programs and better serves the DataCore Australia-New Zealand partnership.




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Expression of Interest to be released for Federation Square East

The Victorian Government is calling for Expressions of Interest to develop Federation Square East – an iconic site in the heart of Melbourne. Global developers are invited to respond to the EOI which will be officially released to the market on Monday 15 September 2014, presenting an exciting opportunity to create a vibrant, mixed use development that may incorporate commercial components — including shops, bars and even accommodation.




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Melbourne rises in Global Financial Centres Index

Melbourne’s dynamic environment for business has been reaffirmed by the Global Financial Centres Index 16 (report) which highlights Melbourne’s position amidst the Global Financial Centres. Melbourne is ranked sixth in the Asia-Pacific, with Sydney fifth - the top six centres all dropped in rating. Melbourne ranked 24th, which is one rating point difference between Melbourne and Sydney - an improvement of 11 points and a rank improvement of 13. Sydney, ranked 23rd, dropped eight rating points, but maintained its rank.




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CSL’s Melbourne expansion to create 190 jobs

Australia’s largest biotechnology company, Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL), will invest A$210 million to expand albumin production at its Broadmeadows manufacturing site (25 minutes from Melbourne’s city centre) to meet increasing demand for its global ‘ablumin’ critical care therapy. The planned manufacturing facility for the Broadmeadows site is expected to create up to 200 jobs during construction, with a further 190 manufacturing jobs once the plant is operational.




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Aegis Services Australia expansion to create 550 new jobs in Melbourne

Aegis Services Australia has announced it will expand its business processing outsourcing operations in Victoria, creating 550 new jobs over the next two years. Aegis is a global outsourcing and technology company. The expansion will mean a doubling of the company’s existing local workforce and a substantial investment in training and up-skilling of employees. The company’s announcement underscores Victoria's strong reputation as a destination for global investment and business services centre.




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New Victorian mining and exploration online map

The Victorian Government has launched Australia's first web tool specifically designed to help Victorian communities locate mining and exploration activities in their regions quickly and easily. The Mining Licences Near Me web tool ensures greater transparency for communities regarding industry activity in their region, both onshore and offshore, including minerals, gas and quarries.




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Finmeccania – Selex ES to set up Australian Naval ICT Communications HQ in Melbourne

Global technology supplier Finmeccanica – Selex ES will establish its Australian Naval Communications headquarters in Melbourne, creating 80 manufacturing jobs by 2019. Finmeccanica - Selex ES works across the international defence, security, aerospace, naval and transport sectors.




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Games blog: PAX Australia to stay in Melbourne until 2019

The Victorian Government has secured the right for Melbourne to continue to host the Australian leg of the world’s largest digital games festival, the Penny Arcade Expo Australia (PAX Aus), for the next five years until 2019.




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Kerry Group – bakery centre for excellence to open in Melbourne’s West

Global food company, the Kerry Group, has announced that it will establish its new centre for excellence for bakery products in Melbourne, creating 118 new jobs. The A$13.7 million investment by the company in the Western Melbourne suburb of Altona (18 km from the Melbourne city centre) will be used to purchase state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment, and increase their research and development capacity.




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German industrial automation company Balluff to expand in Australia

Balluff Leuze has invested in a custom-built automation centre in Bayswater, located 40 minutes east of Melbourne’s city centre, as part of its continued Australian expansion plans. The German company, which specialises in technically innovative products for the Automation industry has been working in Australia for 15 years and is considered a leader in sensor technology. They also build a range of safety products that are used in the Victorian manufacturing sector.




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Games blog: PAX Aus 2014 turns up the volume on games in Australia

For the second year in a row, the Penny Arcade Expo Australia (PAX Aus) was held in Melbourne from 31 October 2014 to 2 November 2014. It opened to the news that Melbourne had secured the right to continue to host the event for the next five years, a huge coup for Victoria and for all Australian digital gaming fans. The announcement meant that Melbourne would host the iconic event, which attracts the world’s biggest and most influential digital games developers, publishers, and enthusiastic players, until at least 2019.




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AEREON expands its operations in Melbourne

AEREON, a global leader in combustion, vapour recovery and pollution-control technologies has announced the opening of a new 1250 square metre (13,000 square feet) operations facility in Melbourne. The large facility will create flares, thermal oxidizers and gas compression units that adhere to Australian code requirements in the oil and gas industries. Local fabrication of the materials will allow AEREON to better improve their customer experience and ensure consistency and quality in their product range.




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HotelQuickly expands into Australia with a new Melbourne office

Hotel and accommodation booking app, HotelQuickly, has opened an office in Melbourne as part of its plans to expand its operations in the Australian market. The Hong-Kong headquartered company, which was launched in March 2013, has more than 600,000 users globally and offers last-minute discounted hotel and accommodation booking options for travellers.




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Equinix expands in Melbourne with launch of new data centre

The global data centre and software giant, Equinix, has recently opened a new state-of-the-art data centre in Melbourne, as part of its expansion plans throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The centre, which is strategically located in Port Melbourne, about 2.5 kilometres from the Central Business District, will help to meet the growing regional demand for premium data centre services, and comes amidst strong growth in Australia and Victoria’s IT markets. Equinix has invested A$60 million in the centre, known as ME1, and early reports indicate an successful launch.




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IFPRI Roundtable on Next Harvest II

Time: 
12:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST (please join us at 11:45 am for a light lunch)

Presenter(s): 
Judy Chambers, Director, Program for Biosafety Systems, IFPRI | Patricia Zambrano, Senior Research Analyst, IFPRI | Virginia Kimani, Lead Consultant, Pesticides and Agricultural Resource Centre | Sylvia Uzochukwu, Professor of Food Microbiology and Biotechnology, Biosafety Specialist, Faculty of Science, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti | Muffy Koch, Global Biosafety Specialist | Geofrey Ariaitwe, Plant Genetic Engineer, National Plant Biotechnology Center, National Agricultural Research Laboratories | Jose Falck-Zepeda, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI.
Contact/RSVP: 

Please contact Pilar Rickert (202 862-4647; p.rickert@cgiar.org) to RSVP for the live event or for the webinar login information.

Location: 

International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW, Washington, DC
Fourth Floor Conference Facility

IFPRI’s 2014 report “GM Technologies for Africa: A State of Affairs” identified the lack of standardized and uniformly collected biotech data as a main constraint in assessing the overall state of Africa’s agricultural biotechnology capacity and in the ability to draw policy recommendations regarding countries’ strengths and needs. IFPRI designed and implemented Next Harvest II, a John Templeton funded initiative that gathered detailed information for four of the leading biotechnology countries in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. The information collected has enabled the systematic evaluation of the status of African biotechnologies in these countries. A panel of participants will give an overview of the results for each country, highlighting their differences and similarities, and will discuss the capacity of the biotechnology innovation system to produce and deliver these technologies, the opportunities and challenges faced, and will give policy recommendations to address current limitations.

Go-to-Meeting available for those unable to join the meeting in Washington, DC. Please contact Pilar Rickert (p.rickert@cgiar.org) for more information.

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Roundtable Invitation 251.81 KB




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Driving into UMix (November 14, 2024 8:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 8:00pm
Location: Pierpont Commons
Organized By: Center for Campus Involvement CCI


Get ready for an evening packed with hands-on fun and good vibes! Join us for an exciting UMix featuring personalized license plates, Lego car building, free food from Great Greek, crafts, Mario Kart, and the Cars movie to top it all off. This is the perfect chance for everyone to connect, unwind, and get creative. Come for the fun, stay for the memories—see you there!



  • Social / Informal Gathering

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Explore Macquarie @ University of Michigan (November 14, 2024 6:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 6:00pm
Location:
Organized By: University Career Center


Come to our information session and discover how at Macquarie, you’re empowered to shape a career that is fulfilling and creates value — whether that’s investing in essential infrastructure, driving technological innovation, giving back to our communities or expanding your expertise into new areas. Hear from our employees and alumni who will bepresenting and answering questions about Macquarie.We invite you to explore the upcoming internship for Summer 2026. All years and majors are welcome to attend -- it will be most valuable for students graduating inDecember 2026/Spring 2027 or later.




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Quotas and the President: Jewish Inclusion and Exclusion at UM in the 1920s (November 14, 2024 4:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 4:00pm
Location: Detroit Observatory
Organized By: Bentley Historical Library


When new University of Michigan president C.C. Little arrived in Ann Arbor in 1925, American universities were in the midst of a great transition, revamping their admission systems to limit the number of Jewish students on their campuses. Professor Karla Goldman will discuss the status of Jewish students at Michigan during this period and how President Little, well known as a eugenicist, actually resisted some of the racist and antisemitic assumptions of his time. His tenure illustrates the long and complicated history of inclusion and exclusion at U-M and in American higher education.

Karla Goldman is the Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work and Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan where she also directs the Jewish Communal Leadership Program. Her research focuses on the history of American Jewish experience with special attention to history of varied Jewish communities and the evolving roles and identities of American Jewish women. She previously taught at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and served as historian in residence at the Jewish Women’s Archive in Boston. She is the author of Beyond the Synagogue Gallery: Finding a Place for Women in American Judaism (Harvard University Press, 2000).




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GO BLUE Book Exchange Book Swap (November 14, 2024 4:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 4:00pm
Location: Hatcher Graduate Library
Organized By: University Library


Talk about books with other book lovers while enjoying free cider and donuts! Whether you have a well-loved book that you would like to share with others, want to discuss different authors, or just want to trade for something new, please join us!

Sponsored by student Jack Lado, as a class project, and U-M Library.



  • Social / Informal Gathering

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Discover a Career in Merchandising at The TJX Companies! (November 14, 2024 4:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 4:00pm
Location:
Organized By: University Career Center


Have you ever been interested in being a part of a Fortune 100 retailer supporting the heart of the business? If so, The TJX Companies, Inc., the parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, HomeSense, and Sierra are looking for enthusiastic and committed individuals from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences to join our Merchandising team as we believe it is important thatour workforce reflect the diversity of our customers and the communities we serve. Merchandising is the heart of our business. Our Buying and Planning & Allocation teams work together to drive sales and profit for TJX. They create the “WOW” you find in our stores!Ifyou have an entrepreneurial spirit and are passionate about blending youranalytical and creative mindset to drive a business, we are currently recruiting Sophomores and Juniors for our Merchandising Internship Program for Summer 2025.Please see below to review our opportunity. Should you choose to apply, we will be reviewing your resume and be in touch with any next steps.CLICK HERE TO APPLY TODAY! 




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DE Seminar: Existence of Rotating Stars with Variable Entropy (November 14, 2024 4:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 4:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Differential Equations Seminar - Department of Mathematics


Rotating stars can be modeled by steady solutions to the Euler-Poisson equations. An extensive literature has established the existence of rotating stars for given differentially rotating angular velocity profiles. However, all of the existing results require the angular velocity to depend on the distance to the rotation axis, but not on the distance to the equatorial plane. Incidentally, all of these solutions have constant entropy within the star. In this talk, I will present a recent result which is the first that allows a general rotation profile, without restrictions. It is also the first result that allows genuinely changing entropy within the star. The variation of entropy causes the previous methods used to construct steady solutions inapplicable. We discover a div-curl reformulation of the problem and perform analysis on the resulting elliptic-hyperbolic system. This is joint work with Juhi Jang and Walter Strauss.




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Special Interdisciplinary QC-CM Seminar | Unveiling the Nexus Between Real and Momentum Space Skyrmion in Correlated Systems (November 14, 2024 3:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 3:00pm
Location: Randall Laboratory
Organized By: Interdisciplinary QC/CM Seminars


In this talk, I will explore the emergent physics resulting from the complex interaction between real-space and momentum-space topology in strongly correlated quantum materials, with a particular focus on skyrmions. Using quantum Hall and quantum spin Hall insulators as key examples, I will explain the mechanisms behind skyrmion formation through electron doping in these correlated and gapped topological systems. We provide a detailed analysis of the phase diagrams and the formation of skyrmion lattices within the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model, supported by calculations from both the unrestricted real-space Hartree-Fock and density matrix renormalization group methods. In these systems, the doped electron and skyrmion form a composite object whose density is governed by the doped electron density. This electron-skyrmion bound state is stabilized by the coupling between the orbital magnetization of the Chern band and the emergent magnetic flux generated by the skyrmion. Moreover, we find that doping induces quantum anomalous Hall crystals, which exhibit quantized Hall conductance and broken translational symmetry. Our theory offers an intrinsic mechanism for the experimentally observed robust quantum anomalous Hall insulator over an extended doping range near a filling factor of ν = 1 in twisted transition metal moiré superlattices.

Reference: Miguel Gonçalves and Shi-Zeng Lin, arXiv:2407.12198

Short-bio:
Shizeng Lin completed his Ph.D. at the National Institute for Materials Science and the University of Tsukuba in Japan. After earning his Ph.D., he joined Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 2011, initially as a postdoctoral researcher in the Theoretical Division. In 2014, he was appointed as a scientist at LANL. He is also currently affiliated with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology at LANL, one of the five Nanoscale Science Research Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Lin’s research primarily focuses on theoretical studies of novel quantum materials, with a particular emphasis on systems characterized by correlation and topology. He received the LANL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program Early Career Award in 2017 and the LANL Fellows Prize for Outstanding Research in 2024.




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ELO | UMSI Semester Exchange Meet & Greet (November 14, 2024 12:00pm)

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 12:00pm
Location: North Quad
Organized By: School of Information


UMSI Semester Exchange Program: Meet & Greet Lunches

This lunchtime event is intended for student who have or will participate in a UMSI Semester Exchange Program. Students will have the opportunity to share their experiences, ask and answer questions, and network with other UMSI students who have already or will soon study abroad!


Lunch will be provided to those that register. Register here! - https://umsi.info/elo-register





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CTA Signs New Two-Year Agreement for Expanded Social Service Outreach Following Successful Pilot

Following a successful pilot, a new two-year agreement was approved today between the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and the City of Chicago's Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), which manages the city's overall homelessness outreach, to continue providing expanded outreach and support for riders who are unsheltered, as well as those grappling with mental health and substance abuse.




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Updated dates for the west side of the CTA Track Structure approximately 85ft south of W. Grace Street Work Hours:

Updated dates for the west side of the CTA Track Structure approximately 85ft south of W. Grace Street Work Hours for lead abatement and painting.




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Blue Line Experiencing Delays; Boarding change between Pulaski and Austin (Significant Delays)

(Thu, Nov 14 2024 2:05 AM to TBD) Blue Line service running w/delays due to a track condition near Cicero; board all trains on the Forest Park-bound side at Pulaski, Cicero and Austin.




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A Day at the Races Deluxe

A Day at the Races Deluxe by Sally Caldwell Fisher is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs




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Balloons, Balloons Deluxe

Balloons, Balloons Deluxe by Sally Caldwell Fisher is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs




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Candle Walk Deluxe

Candle Walk Deluxe by Sally Caldwell Fisher is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs




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Concert on the Green Deluxe

Concert on the Green Deluxe by Sally Caldwell Fisher is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs




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Island Welcome Deluxe

Island Welcome Deluxe by Sally Caldwell Fisher is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs




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Monte Carlo Cirque Deluxe

Monte Carlo Cirque Deluxe by Sally Caldwell Fisher is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to pcs