A Florida city made the difficult decision to fork over the cash after ransomware hijacked city computers. Everyone needs to make their own choice, but I firmly believe you should never pay the ransom.

Nurses act as caregiver, adviser, confidante, educator, advocate – often all at once – and for multiple patients. Nurses also shape policies at the national level as representatives of professional organizations. During National Nurses Week, we’re celebrating the important role nurses play, now and every day of the year.

With plenty of best sellers at $4.99 or less, like Midnight in Chernobyl, you're basically getting a free book or two.

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

The coronavirus death toll continues to rapidly climb in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Elementary school teachers in the Peach State are using "game-based" formative assessments to take a pulse on their students' learning.

AP has managed to dodge the partisan pitfalls that have felled other ambitious curricular efforts—so far, write Chester E. Finn Jr. and Andrew E. Scanlan.

D. Brooks Smith, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, will deliver the Penn State Law in University Park 2020 commencement address on May 16 in Eisenhower Auditorium.

To help teachers remotely engage their students during the coronavirus crisis, Penn State’s Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative has released its first set of free learning resources.

Penn State Law in University Park will have a mandatory credit/no-credit grading system for the spring 2020 semester in order to be supportive of students during the novel coronavirus public health crisis.

The Penn State New Kensington Office of Admissions and Student Aid is available remotely for appointments, as well as scheduled virtual events for prospective students and families.

A faculty member at Penn State Wilkes-Barre will be part of a collaborative fellowship program.

Dylan Fredricey, a senior majoring in rehabilitation and human services, has been chosen as the recipient of the Outstanding Adult Learner of the Year award for Penn State Wilkes-Barre.

Penn State faculty are going beyond using traditional video in their courses by incorporating virtual-reality immersive experiences. They are discovering how those experiences help enhance active learning and focus students' attention on critical lessons in their courses.

Penn State Executive Vice President and Provost Nicholas P. Jones has shared a message updating the University community on steps being taken to monitor the evolving worldwide coronavirus outbreak and prepare for the safety and well-being of students, faculty, staff and visitors.

Prime Day is over but there are still some great deals available. AirPods, Apple Watch Series 4, Samsung Galaxy S10e, Google Pixel 3 XL are discounted right now.

With the dust now settling on UEFA EURO 2016, we looked back at the 51 matches that took place in France and tried to pick out the best five. What do you think?

France forward Antoine Griezmann has received his award as the Player of the Tournament for UEFA EURO 2016 in the run-up to Les Bleus' European Qualifier against Bulgaria.

Six Penn State faculty members have received the 2020 George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Each year, Penn State recognizes outstanding faculty and staff with annual awards in teaching and excellence. These awards highlight many of the faculty and staff who go above and beyond.

By providing instant torque to all four wheels you can drive as normal in all conditions according to Nissan, while also feeling like you're in a sports car.

A soundwave is saved from a voice recording, converted into a circular pattern, and then used for the indentations on 3D-printed wheel nuts and keys.

The 'accelerator suppression function' is a new safety feature which ignores accelerator pedal input if the car thinks the driver pressed it by mistake.

A popular 32-inch Dell 1080p IPS monitor is back at $150, the 2TB Seagate expansion is only $55, and the Netgear Arlo Pro 2 four-camera kit is just $400.

Not exactly an impulse buy but priced well below Wacom pen displays like the Cintiq 16, the Wacom One is a fine product for students, doodlers, and casual artists who'd like to write and sketch digitally.

Source: www.consumeraffairs.com - Friday, May 08, 2020
There are a couple of simple ways to stay ahead of the situation, and there's possible relief for those who can't By Gary Guthrie of ConsumerAffairs May 8, 2020 var myLink = "https://my.consumeraffairs.com/tax-relief/get-matched/"; var mySubTitle = "Get matched with an Accredited Tax Relief Partner"; window.onload = function changeLink(){var linkForm = document.getElementsByClassName("wzrd-wg__form")[0];var titleForm = document.getElementsByClassName("wzrd-wg__sbtl")[0];linkForm.setAttribute("action", myLink);if (mySubTitle != ""){titleForm.innerHTML = " " + mySubTitle + " ";}}; The hits keep on comin'! On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, with the unemployment rate at 14.7 percent. Thank you, COVID-19. All told, upwards of 22 million Americans have lost their jobs during the pandemic, forcing many to collect unemployment to make ends meet. For some, a bonus of $600 each week in coronavirus relief is being added on. All that is fine and dandy for now, but most of those check recipients are unaware that they're going to have to pay taxes on that money because the IRS views it as "taxable income." Note: the "economic impact payment" Americans received is NOT taxable. "Most people don't realize it. They're thinking in the moment. They don't have much savings, credit is not great and then come April 15, 2021, you have a big tax bill you're not expecting," Ken Lin, the

050 - Media accreditation deadline is Wednesday 11 September at 12.00CET

Holyrood’s Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee is to have an inquiry into the role of Scottish Development International (SDI) in developing a Scotland that competes on the international stage.

Istanbul is the venue for the first all-English UEFA Super Cup as European champions Liverpool take on Chelsea.

'We need to be actively engaged in questioning what the algorithms do, what the results mean, and how inherent bias in the training set can affect the results,' says MIT Professor Bernhardt Trout. But it doesn't always work out that way.

Motion smoothing is horrible for most of what you watch, but it can make live sports look much better. Here's why you should turn on motion smoothing for watching games.

God prompts a worker to take along a Farsi Bible during his day manning the literature stand so that a Farsi-speaking man can find the Truth.

Mathilde, a French teen, describes her trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina. She and others will raise funds for a youth centre where Bosnian teens can discover God.

French teens attend TeenStreet 2012 and help raise money for youth ministry in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Students and faculty members at Penn State Behrend's Black School of Business are contributing to and assessing a financial literacy curriculum that is being taught at nearly 400 high schools in eight states.

The Center on Education Policy has two new reports pinpointing trouble spots in implementation of waiver plans under the No Child Left Behind Act.

In a sprawling but nuanced examination, comedian John Oliver explained why the U.S. standardized testing system exists and the harms it creates.

You don't need a comprehensive No Child Left Behind waiver to get a reprieve from some of the law's accountability requirements.

The U.S. Department of Education continues to quietly approve and negotiate over states' teacher-evaluation systems as part of its No Child Left Behind Act waiver process.

House leaders may hold off on a final vote on a Republican-backed bill to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law, amid pushback from powerful GOP lobbying groups

The reason young people fail to vote is not because they don't care about politics or policy, but because they don't know how to translate their ideals into action, a new book argues.

Four top European players feature in the first episode of UEFA's new weekly vlog series designed to increase the visibility of women's football to teenage girls.

Jabra's Elite Active 75t earphones improve upon the original pair with a more secure fit and a waterproof design for a real true wireless winner.

Apple started the trend with AirPods, and now completely wire-free earphones are everywhere. But how do they sound? And are they worth the premium? Here's what you need to know, including the best true wireless earbuds we've tested.

You don't need to spend a lot of money for a good pair of true wireless earphones. In fact, you can spend as little as $50.

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2020 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso has tested positive for the coronavirus, his archdiocese announced Tuesday. He is the second cardinal known to have tested positive for the virus, which is now a global pandemic.

Ouédraogo, 75, has been admitted to a medical clinic in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.  He is “in good condition and his close collaborators are reported to be self-isolating,” a spokesman for Burkina Faso’s bishops’ conference, Fr. Paul Dah, told ACI Africa on March 31.

The cardinal is president of the African continental bishops’ conference, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). He was elected to the post in July 2019. He has been Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso for ten years, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2014.

Ouédraogo is the second bishop from Burkina Faso known to have contracted COVID-19, as countries across Africa implement lockdowns and restrictions to slow the spread of the virus across the continent.

Another Burkina Faso bishop, Archbishop Emeritus Séraphin François Rouamba of Koupela, tested positive for COVID-19 after being admitted to Our Lady of Peace clinic for urgent treatment on March 19.

The 78-year-old archbishop has since been transferred to another hospital and is reportedly in stable condition, according to a March 25 statement from Bishop Laurent Birfuore Dabire of Dori, Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has the largest documented coronavirus outbreak in West Africa, with 249 documented cases as of March 31, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The coronavirus has spread throughout the African continent to 47 countries, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control. In North Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco each have more than 500 documented cases, and the South African government has reported more than 1,300.

Three Nigerian states began two-week mandatory lockdown this week to combat the spread of the virus, including Lagos, Africa’s most populous city with more than 20 million people.

Zimbabwe and Mauritius have also implemented national shut-downs, and the bishops in South Sudan and Zimbabwe have suspended public Masses.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, tested positive for coronavirus on March 30.

Other bishops in Italy, France, China, and the United States have also tested positive for COVID-19, and Bishop Angelo Moreschi, 67, died in the Italian city of Brescia on March 25 after contracting the coronavirus.

 

 

Rome Newsroom, Apr 22, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- For Iraqi Christian and Yazidi communities still recovering from the destruction wreaked by the Islamic State, the coronavirus poses significant risks, NGOs have said in a joint statement. 

“The public health system in Sinjar and the wider Nineveh Governorate was decimated by ISIS during its brutal occupation and genocidal campaign in Iraq, beginning in 2014,” the letter stated.

“An impending humanitarian and security disaster looms large in Iraq. … There is a significant attendant threat to global security if ISIS uses this opportunity to regroup and return, but it does not have to be this way. Iraqi authorities and the United Nations must act now,” it continued.

Twenty-five NGOs working in northern Iraq issued a joint statement April 16 calling on the World Health Organization to undertake an assessment mission in the area, where testing has been limited, and urging Iraqi authorities to prevent the Islamic State from regrouping.

Signed by the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, Free Yezidi Foundation, Genocide Alert, and the Religious Freedom Institute, the statement described how the pandemic is exacerbating existing security, humanitarian, and health risks among displaced and rebuilding Iraqi minority communities. It highlighted, in particular, the global risk of a potential resurgence of the Islamic State.

Security threat

“COVID-19 and the precipitous drop in oil prices have caused the Iraqi economy to collapse, leaving a dangerous security vacuum for ISIS to exploit. Indeed, the resultant political turmoil and social strife recall the very conditions that earlier incarnations of ISIS and its supporters capitalized on during its initial surge almost a decade ago,” it stated.

“According to International Crisis Group, ISIS in its weekly newsletter Al-Naba called on its fighters to attack and weaken its enemies while they are distracted by the pandemic,” it added.

U.S. military officials have expressed concern that the Islamic State could use adverse conditions to its advantage in it recruitment efforts.

“COVID-19 has also hastened the departure of some coalition forces from Iraq, weakening counter-terrorism operations, while some ISIS detainees have recently escaped prison in Syria,” the letter stated.

On March 30, Islamic State fighters imprisoned in northwestern Syria revolted. The rioting prisoners took over one wing of the prison before Kurdish forces intervened.

“There is an urgent need for reform in the civilian security sector, in order to integrate regional militias into a unified Federal Police that upholds the rule of law and protects all citizens, regardless of religion or clan affiliation,” the letter said.

Health infrastructure needs

The economic strain has also hindered Iraqi minorities’ efforts to rebuild their communities, including medical infrastructure needs.

“Many Yazidis (Ezidis/Yezidis) want to return to Sinjar, but security, reconstruction and basic services are still lacking to allow a dignified return. There are currently only two hospitals and just one ventilator to assist the current population of around 160,000 people in the region,” the NGOs’ statement explained.

Iraq’s healthcare system, which has suffered for decades from the effects of sanctions and war, currently faces a critical shortage of doctors and medicine, according to a Reuters investigation. Hospitals in Iraq are already overcrowded and doctors overworked, while the healthcare situation is slightly better in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has its own health ministry.

There have been at least 1,600 cases of COVID-19 documented in Iraq, which is under pressure to reopen its border with Iran, which has had more than 85,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Humanitarian workers have also had trouble reaching those in need due to movement restrictions, and have raised concerns about the risk of an outbreak in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.

Social distancing is very difficult in these high-density IDP camps in Iraq, where 1.8 million people remain displaced due to insecurity and reconstruction needs, according to the UN.

The 25 NGOs called for the government of Iraq and the United Nations to provide testing capacity in the IDP camps in Sinjar, Tel Afar and the Nineveh Plains.

“At present, it is impossible to apprehend the extent of the spread of the virus because no testing for the disease is taking place in the camps, while restrictions of movement impede the work of humanitarian actors who provide basic essentials such as food, water and medicine,” they stated.

Psychological risk for trauma survivors

Genocide survivors with trauma also face increased personal risk of psychological harm amid isolation imposed by coronavirus measures.

As in much of the world, authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have ordered people to stay home, imposed a curfew, and have closed places of worship, schools, restaurants, and most businesses. 

“Another alarming corollary of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq is the psychological impact on at-risk communities, including Yazidis, Turkmen and Christians, such as Assyrians,” it said.

This is a particular concern for the Yazidi communities in which thousands of women were victims of sexual violence by the Islamic State.

“Prior to the outbreak, Médecins Sans Frontières reported on a debilitating mental health crisis among Yazidis in Iraq, including a rising number of suicides,” it stated.

Suicides in this community have already been reported since social distancing measures were put into place, the NGOs reported. They called on the World Health Organization to address this “acute mental health crisis.”

In their appeal to the WHO and Iraqi government, the NGOs insisted that the stakes were high: 

“COVID-19 is a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen before. Survivors of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes are now waiting for this silent death to pass through the camps and their homes, unable to fight back.”

Seagate's FireCuda Gaming SSD and BarraCuda Fast SSD will appeal to those looking for a convenient way to give their laptop a boost, starting at less than $100.

Teach for America has tapped a longtime teacher and administrator and a member of the new National Advisory Council on Indian Education to lead its fledgling Native Achievement Initiative.

More than 9.3 million U.S. students attended a rural school last year. A new report examines factors that affect them like poverty, academic achievement, and diversity.