The Department of Homeland Security watchdog delayed the process of retrieving deleted Secret Service text messages and notifying Congress about them, The Washington Post reported Friday.
The Secret Service and DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, clashed earlier this month after Cuffari wrote a letter to lawmakers saying the Secret Service had deleted text messages from the day of and before the Capitol riot in 2021. The Secret Service said the deleted text messages were due to a pre-planned system migration.
The Post, citing unnamed sources, said Cuffari’s office initially planned to have DHS agencies, which includes the Secret Service, turn over their phones in early February, in an effort to retrieve the lost data. But by late February, the office decided not to push forward on collecting the phones, sources told the outlet.
On July 13, Cuffari’s office sent a letter about the deleted messages to the House committee investigating January 6. Cuffari’s letter, however, did not mention that the office knew of the deleted messages as early as December, according to The Post. Unnamed sources told CNN that Cuffari was even aware of them as early as May 2021.
Cuffari also did not mention in the letter that additional text messages were missing from two top DHS officials, The Post also reported.
On July 16, the House committee issued a subpoena for the Secret Service text messages. The Secret Service has so far provided a single text message to the committee.
The House committee has said that the deletion of text messages may be an illegal violation of the Federal Records Act of 1950.
“The procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act,” Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, the committee’s chair and vice chair, said in a statement.
Thompson, who is also the House Homeland Security chair, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, House Oversight chair, have called for Cuffari to remove himself from the investigation. They said his delayed disclosure to Congress about the inaccessible Secret Service records casts “serious doubt on his independence and his ability to effectively conduct such an important investigation.”
DHS and Cuffari’s office did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Elon Musk has countersued Twitter, escalating his legal fight against the social media company over his bid to walk away from the $US44 billion (more than $65 billion) purchase.
Key points:
The countersuit was filed confidentially by Elon Musk hours after it was announced his trial against Twitter would take place in October
Musk is also being sued by a Twitter shareholder for a breach of his fiduciary duty
In April, Mr Musk pledged to pay $US54.20 a share for Twitter
While the 164-page document was not publicly available, under court rules a redacted version could soon be made public.
Musk’s lawsuit was filed on Friday, hours after Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered a five-day trial, beginning on October 17, to determine if Mr Musk can walk away from the deal.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on Friday, local time, Mr Musk was sued by a Twitter shareholder, who asked the court to order the billionaire to close the deal, finding that he breached his fiduciary duty to Twitter shareholders and awarded damages for losses he caused.
The world’s richest man is also being sued by Twitter shareholder. (Reuters: Joe Skipper)
Mr Musk owes a fiduciary duty to Twitter’s shareholders because of his 9.6 per cent stake in the company and because the takeover agreement gives him a veto of many of the company’s decisions, according to the lawsuit, which seeks class action status.
The lawsuit was filed by Luigi Crispo — who owns 5,500 Twitter shares — in the Court of Chancery, an equity court.
Mr Musk — the world’s richest person and chief executive of Tesla Inc. — said on July 8 that he was abandoning the takeover and blamed Twitter for breaching the agreement by misrepresenting the number of fake accounts on its platform.
Twitter sued days later, calling the fake account claims a distraction and saying Mr Musk was bound by the merger contract to close the deal at $US54.20 per share.
The company’s shares ended the trading day on Friday at $US41.61, the highest close since Mr Musk abandoned the deal.
Chancellor McCormick fast-tracked the case to trial last week, saying she wanted to limit the potential harm to Twitter caused by uncertainty around the deal.
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Elon Musk vowing to buy Twitter for $61.4 billion.
Twitter has blamed the court fight for slumping revenue and causing chaos within the company.
The two sides had basically agreed to an October 17 trial, but were at odds over the limits of discovery, or access to internal documents and other evidence.
Mr Musk accused Twitter this week of dragging his feet in response to his discovery requests, and Twitter accused him of seeking huge amounts of data that are irrelevant to the main issue in the case: whether Mr Musk had violated the deal’s contract.
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In her order on Friday, the chief judge appeared to anticipate discovery disputes to come.
“This order does not resolve any specific discovery disputes, including the property of any requests for large data sets,” said Chancellor McCormick.
Mr Musk also faces a week-long trial in Wilmington, Delaware, beginning October 24.
A Tesla shareholder is seeking to void — as corporate waste and unjust enrichment — the chief executive’s record-breaking, $56 billion pay package from the electric vehicle maker.
I continue to be interested in the saga of Dr. Disrespect, his studio Midnight Society and his new game, which now has an official name, DEADROP, after previously being called Project Moon.
The game caught my eye because of its use of NFTs to recruit players to be early players/testers, and its promise of a totally transparent development process involving giving those players frequent vertical slices of the game to play and give feedback about.
Now, besides the name debut, a live event provided those dedicated, NFT-holding Doc fans with their first live look at the game. It is definitely further along than screenshots from a blog post a few weeks ago indicated, though there’s plenty of pushback about how it does look, as well.
DEADROP (yes, it’s missing a D on purpose), is a Vertical Extraction Shooter, a new term Doc invented, but it seems to be some sort of spin on Escape from Tarkov mixed with elements of The Cycle or Warzone.
However, the early test footage from the gameplay reveal at the live event has not progressed all the way to showing an actual match. It’s mainly a firing range simulator and an exploration of part of the skyscraper environment. The general idea seems to be to fight your way past human and AI enemies to reach the top and be extracted by helicopter, but only the basics are shown in this early footage.
Does this footage look good? I mean, no, not really. The environments are okay, but the gun model/firing/reload looks pretty rough. Again, this is the first public build of the game ever, so that is going to be a common refrain used when things aren’t looking polished, but that’s what the Midnight Society has opened themselves up for with this new kind of ultra-transparent development.
People keep bringing up the fact that Doc said the following a few weeks back
“I could take a screenshot of our game right now, in-game, in-engine, and I don’t think anything [from Call of Duty] could match that screenshot.”
All of this remains somewhat strange because Dr. Disrespect is a “character” who frequently makes boasts of his own abilities and dunks on his competition, but Guy Beahm is now a developer making an actual video game. So which one said this, and how serious were they? Regardless, expect it to be brought up every time new footage is shown if it does not, in fact, surpass Call of Duty.
The plan now seems to be to produce more and more vertical slices for game founders showing off pieces of DEADROP. It’s unclear when it might expand outside the NFT-holding circle, but that seems pretty core to the concept of its “community building.” And it does seem a ways off from releasing something like a true beta. But yeah, I’m going to keep an eye on it, as all this continues to be fascinating.
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Singapore chilli crab, lasagne, Massaman curry and more are being sealed under lids of pastry as Melbourne pie-makers explore their creative side.
The city is home to a bewildering array of gourmet pies thanks to new businesses – some of them lockdown projects – and established bakeries who are gamely experimenting with fillings.
Austro’s Sally Roxon has Polish heritage, while her husband is Austrian, so she gravitates to those flavors in the pies she offers from her South Melbourne bakery. There’s a Polish hunter’s stew pie, featuring sausage, pork belly and sauerkraut, and in the past mushroom stroganoff and beef goulash have featured.
Footscray’s Pie Thief is one of Melbourne’s most adventurous pie purveyors, with owners Aaron Donato and Scott Blomfield (an ex-Supernormal chef) breaking all the rules.
“I guess we don’t really look at other pies when we’re coming up with flavours,” says Donato. “We look at what’s a delicious meal and [ask] can that be turned into a foot?”
The Builders Arms fish pie may not have pastry on the bottom, but it’s become a favorite dish at the Fitzroy pub. Photo: Grace Dorman
Singapore’s famed chilli crab and the kebab shop HSP have both run as weekly pie specials. There’s even a filling inspired by a burger from a famous fast-food conglomerate, who asked the pie to be renamed. It’s now called Big Thief.
The shop also offers vegan pies, with a plant-based pastry that went through many rounds of testing.
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Magnum PI, as well as being the best-named pie shop in Melbourne, also gets points for the top-notch ingredients it uses, whether you eat meat or not. The mac and cheese pie loads up its white sauce with spinach and herbs in some attempt at healthfulness. Pulled beef is cooked with merlot for seven hours for the shop’s most popular pie.
West Melbourne cafe Udom House combines chef Aum Phithakphon’s Thai heritage with Melbourne coffee culture – and pies. Everything that’s served with steamed rice, from green curry to spicy bolognese-style pork, is also sealed in puff pastry.
Many of these gourmet pie-makers love the portability and accessibility of walking. A hand-held pastry is an excellent gateway to flavors people may never have tried.
But rising costs are being felt. Pie Thief won’t offer family pies because Donato says charging the true cost for all the required ingredients would make a pie of that size prohibitively expensive.
The haloumi pie at A1 Bakery in Brunswick gives you change from $5. Photo: Supplied
Wonder Pies founder Raymond Capaldi, a chef with 40 years’ experience, believes his family pie, which weighs one-kilogram and feeds four, should be priced closer to $30 instead of $24.
The cost of Wonder Pie’s ingredients, including flour and vegetable fat for the pastry, are steadily rising each month. But passing on those costs to consumers can be difficult, according to Capaldi, because there is only so many people will pay.
“I say we do the best pie we can for what you’re willing to pay,” says Capaldi.
The Fishmonger’s Son fish pie was originally a collaboration between neighboring businesses The Pie Shop and Maria’s Pasta. Photo: Parker Blain
Melbourne’s most exciting feet to try
Magnum PI
At this Fitzroy newcomer, pies of roasted cauliflower with beluga lentils or a vegan Sri Lankan curry are just as satisfying as meatier choices, which use free-range products sourced as locally as possible. Think pulled beef with merlot, saltbush lamb, or chicken with salsa verde. Magnum PI started as a lockdown hustle for former Pillar of Salt chef, Jason Kubasek, but we’re glad it stuck around. Most pies hover around the $9 mark, despite the premium ingredients. Don’t live near the mothership? Delivery is available for orders of $30 or more.
402 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, magnumpi.com.au
Pie Thief in Footscray get creative with their pie fillings Photo: Eddie Jim
Austrian
“Pies are just one string to our bow,” says co-owner Sally Roxon. That makes the beauties on offer here even more impressive. A rich chicken fricassee is enlivened by paprika, while zucchini gets the parma treatment thanks to napoli sauce and mozzarella. But the Polish hunter’s stew – pork belly, sausage and more – has been the breakout star of the cabinet, defying Roxon’s expectations that people would miss the slow-cooked beef pie it replaced. It’s typical of the hearty, comforting and deeply flavored Austro dishes casts in buttery puff pastry (all $9.50). Apparently, it’s one person’s sole job to make the puff, and you know what they say about practice: it makes perfect.
147-149 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, austrobakery.com
Party feet from the Pie Thief. Photo: Jason South
Babajan
A borek might not be sealed on the sides, but it does have a pastry bottom and top, which is more than some Melbourne pubs can say about their pies. At Babajan, each borek filling, layered between 10 sheets of filo, is just as rich and comforting as any traditional pie. Crowd favorites include silverbeet and feta, and baharat-spiced lamb with potato. But the surprise hit is tuna, slowly simmered in white wine with carrots and fennel, paired with kefalograviera cheese. Each is available as a single (from $8) or in larger trays for easy entertaining or family dinner. Pie purists can stick to the haloumi, feta and cheddar pie, which owner Kirsty Chiaplis says is her favorite way to start the day.
At Udom House everything from green curry to spicy bolognese-style pork, is also sealed in puff pastry. Photo: Penny Stephens
Wildflower Bakery
Run by two British bakers, Matilda Rexton and Keith Doig, this Prahran shop rolls out three different kinds of pastry for everything from pork pies to hand pies (aka pasties) and your more typical round pie. Pasties are usually vegetarian, containing oozy bechamel and truffled mushrooms or spiced sweet potato with caramelised onion and corn. It’s even heartier stuff when you wade into pie territory: pork and beef Bolognese with cheddar is joined by weekly specials like lamb rendang. We’ll take one of everything.
21 St Edmond’s Road, Prahran wildflourmatilda.com
Pies at Austro bakery, which opts for hearty Eastern European-style fillings in its pies. Photo: Supplied
Foot Thief
There’s nothing that can’t be sealed in pastry, seems to be the motto of Pie Thief, which steals hearts with its line-up of lasagne, Thai chicken and barbecued jackfruit pies. For the pie of the week, the team really flexes their creativity: kashmiri lamb, venison braised in Garage Project stout, and Singapore chilli crab have all featured. There are always a couple of vegan pie options plus sweets like cookies, brownies and vanilla slice, and coffee by St Ali. In even better news, the team have added a weekend pie stall in Fitzroy adjoining their production kitchen.
How many can claim that it took a village to raise their foot? In a sleepy pocket of Melbourne’s north last year, when takeaway was a lifeline for both diners and restaurants, that’s exactly what happened. The local fish shop teamed up with nearby Maria’s Pasta and The Pie Shop to create a fish pie ($35) that’s since become a permanent item and is still made to the same recipe, even though The Pie Shop is no longer. Feeding four, it brings together the best seafood on the day – perhaps salmon and scallops – white wine, dill, paprika, potato and carrot, sealed under a crisp and golden shortcrust lid.
You’ll understand what’s behind the name when you realize how finely engineered these feet are. Masterminded by top chef Raymond Capaldi, the steak and ale, cauli and leek and lasagne-filled pastries are made with shortcrust on the bottom and a rough puff on top. Capaldi won’t use butter in the puff because he says it goes rancid when pies are kept in a warmer. He uses a single muscle (brisket) for the steak and mushroom, so the beef cooks evenly. Each month, the team tastes its competitor’s feet. “It was like going back to school learning pies,” Capaldi says. With six stores around Melbourne and 11 choices in the larger pie that feeds four, we’re glad he hit the books again.
Locations across Melbourne, wonderpies.com.au
A1 Bakery
Some eat for the falafel wraps, others are all about the manoush. But the real gold at this Melbourne institution comes in the form of the cheese pie ($4.50). Don’t be fooled by first impressions. What looks like a rather plain and doughy crescent is hiding molten haloumi, baked until warm and oozy. It’s the perfect salty contrast against the slightly sweetened bread pocket. Other pie-adjacent treats include triangles filled with spinach and cheese or marinated spinach, or ring-shaped kaak filled with halloumi and coated with sesame seeds.
643-645 Sydney Road, Brunswick, a1bakery.com.au
Babka
If you’re a believer in the saying it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, Babka is your spirit animal. A Brunswick Street mainstay for 30 years and counting, the bakery keeps its pie line-up the same from week to week and prefers classic fillings – mostly. A Moroccan-inspired lamb pie, involving lamb fillet cooked with dried apricots, bay leaves and peppercorn, is a surprise find. But beef with mushroom and red wine, spinach with ricotta, feta and pine nuts, and chicken and white wine keep the ship steady. Don’t even try to leave without a wedge of lemon tart.
358 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Udom House
Newsflash: the best Massaman curry you can get in Melbourne may be hiding inside on foot. Udom House, a West Melbourne cafe run by chef and barista Aum Phithakphon, has embraced pies as a vehicle for Thai flavors like green curry, Massaman and dishes that remind Phithakphon of her childhood. Vegetarian fillings might include stir-fried pumpkin with garlic scrambled egg or jackfruit with northern Thai flavours. Curry pastes are made from scratch, the coffee is by Padre (and includes Thai drinks not often seen here), and there’s kaya (coconut) jam for sweet-tooths.
343 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 0468 789 851, @udomhouse on Instagram
The Builders Arms Hotel
Not for the faint-hearted, the fish pie at this northside pub is a hulk of a thing. It asserts itself from the get-go, arriving in a square ceramic dish with a billowing hat of puff pastry. Pierce it with your fork and you’ll be greeted by aromas of fennel, dill and shellfish, thanks to the bisque-based sauce that’s crying out for bread (or hunks of pastry). You might be mad it’s a pot pie, but the generous proportion of sauce to ocean trout, white fish, prawns and sorrel should set things right. Our advice is to skip lunch so you arrive hungry, or share it between two.
Stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes was never going to be an easy day for the non-climbers with the mountains arriving in full force, but with so many carrying crash wounds and then a brutal long-range attack from Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar ) to split the field early, the penultimate stage became a race ending day of suffering for many.
There were 13 riders who stepped out of the Tour de France Femmes on the day of the 127.1km stage to Le Markstein Fellering, which included three category one climbs. Even before the stage started the crashes of previous days had taken a toll, with stage 4 winner Marlen Reusser (SD Work) suffering from a concussion and therefore registering a DNS, as did sprinter Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing Xstra).
Then during the stage it wasn’t long before the abandons started, with the pace driven early as a large break pulled away. Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM), nursing the injuries and stitches of a crash on stage 6, climbed off early as did Letizia Borghesi (EF Education-Tibco SVB). There were also further additions to the list of riders not finishing as the stage went on. They included Anne van Rooijen and Nicole Frain of Parkhotel Valkenburg, who the team said could not finish due to their injuries, while Gladys Verhulst (Le-Col Wahoo) also failed to make it to the end.
“For me it was a real suffer day, I didn’t make it through today so that is the end of my Tour,” said Australian champion Frain in an interview with broadcaster SBS (opens in new tab). “There were big time gaps…so it shows how hard the day actually was. The pace was on from the start.”
Then there were the riders who tortured their bodies to make it to the end as fast as they could, but to no avail. The already substantial challenge of making it within the time limit on such a climb heavy day was made even harder when the field was torn apart on the very first major ascent, the Petit Ballon. This is where Van Vleuten attacked less than 50km into the racing, sending large swathes of riders off the back and shattering the field as the Movistar rider’s rivals scrambled to salvage their GC hopes.
Even the top climbers in the peloton, however, couldn’t help but shed chunks of time to Van Vleuten, who finished in 3:47:02. Only eight other riders on the stage managed to come over the line within ten minutes of the new race leader. That of course meant the pressure was on not just for those riders who wanted to stay in touch for the overall, but also for those at the back of the field.
The last rider to make it within the cut was an exhausted Kim de Baat (Plantur-Pura), coming through to finish 38:20 behind Van Vleuten. It was, however a heartbreaking outcome for the next group, with Ukrainian rider Yuliia Biriukova (Arkéa-Samsic) leading over the line with a small gap to Franziska Koch (Team DSM), Margaux Vigie (Valcar-Travel & Service), and Anais Morichon, also from French team Arkéa-Samsic. At just a little over 41 minutes back, they all missed out by the slimmest of margins.
“Yuliia Biriukova and Anaïs Morichon arrive 14 seconds behind the deadlines. They are therefore leaving us tonight at the end of the penultimate stage,” said Arkéa-Samsic on Twitter, who were appreciative of the effort the riders put in to trying to make it through.
“Thank you girls, what you have done is extraordinary.”
Dans la souffrance 🥵#TDFF pic.twitter.com/T5E58KVWWwJuly 30, 2022
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Battling on more than ten minutes further back was 22-year-old French rider India Grangier (Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime) and the very last recorded over the line was Emily Newsom (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB). The American rode through to the end even though at 56:42 behind the stage winner the cut was clearly well beyond reach.
The toll of stage 7, combined with the six tough days of racing before-hand, has whittled the field down to 111 for the final stage to the top of La Super Planche des Belles Filles and while some teams still have a full complement of riders – like Trek-Segafredo, Canyon-SRAM and Jumbo-Visma – others are severely depleted.
Of those teams with riders in the top ranks of the GC it is Team DSM, who has Juliette Labous in fourth overall, that has been the hardest hit. The abandonment of Wiebes and failure of Koch to make it within the time cut means Labous has just Liane Lippert and Georgi Pfeiffer for support in the crucial final stage. Sixth-placed Silvia Persico is just a little better off, with three Valcar-Travel & Service teammates remaining.
A number of teams, like Valcar-Travel & Service, are down to four but there is just one rider flying solo, having lost five of her teammates along the way. The hopes of the French team Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime in stage 8 will rest squarely on the shoulders of 27 year-old Séverine Eraud, who came 23rd on Saturday.
Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney has given the strongest indication yet that a truth and treaty process is in the works.
Key points:
Linda Burney is in Arnhem Land for the Garma Festival
The government has announced a question it intends to ask at a referendum to create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
Ms Burney says the government is committed to all three parts of the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart, including a truth and treaty process
Speaking at the Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land, Ms Burney said the public should not forget that the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart was not only about a referendum.
“So many parts of this country [are] deciding how they’re going to explore the truth,” she said.
“When we think about the effect that a national truth-telling process would have on Australia, it’s remarkable.
“One of the things that we’re thinking about at the moment is what form that would take.”
“I see this as, you know, a thousand flowers blooming.
The Uluru statement includes a First Nations’ Voice in the constitution, and Makarrata, referring to the process of conflict resolution, peacemaking and justice.(Getty Images: Trevor Collens)
“The Uluru Statement talks about three things: It talks about an enshrined Voice in the Constitution, but it also talks about the establishment of a Makarrata commission that would have two jobs — treaty and agreement-making, and also truth-telling,” she said.
Ms Burney said she was “thrilled” with the progress that has been made with the announcement of the proposed question and constitutional changes.
“The Prime Minister was very clear that we will embrace and implement the Uluru Statement in full,” she said.
“We will not be rushed. We will do it in consultation. We will build consensus and part of that is truth-telling.”
PM Anthony Albanese and Yothu Yindi Foundation Chair Galarrwuy Yunupingu receive Indigenous tokens from indigenous dancers at the Garma Festival. (ABC: Michael Franco)
Individual truth-telling processes are underway in several states and communities.
Ms Burney said there were excellent examples and frameworks already evident that a Makarrata could be modeled on.
“The best example that I can think of is what has happened at Myall Creek in north-western New South Wales,” Ms Burney said.
Anthony Albanese is the first PM since Malcolm Turnbull to visit Garma, which is held on Yolngu land, where people are connected through ancestry, story and ritual. (ABC: Michael Franco)
“Descendants of those [who] did the massacring, and descendants of those that were massacred, have come together to create a memorial.
“That has meant, for the Gwydir Shire, [it] has been healing and coming to terms with a terrible event of the past.
“It’s not about apportioning guilt. It’s not about blame. It’s about that we all can share in the whole story of this country.”
The Oklahoma State Board of Education voted this week to downgrade the accreditation of Tulsa Public Schools after a teacher reportedly complained that the school district’s training materials “shame white people.”
The board voted 4-2 to lower the status of Tulsa Public Schools to “accredited with warning” on Thursday after the State Department of Education determined an implicit bias training for teachers in August 2021 violated House Bill 1775. The law, which restricts discussions of race and sex in public schools, is widely seen as targeting critical race theory. The state investigation began after a complaint from a teacher who has not been publicly identified, according to the Oklahoman.
The board also demoted another district, Mustang Public Schools near Oklahoma City, to “accredited with warning” after it self-reported that a teacher had violated House Bill 1775 by using an exercise that made students uncomfortable on account of their race or sex.
The demotions mark the first enforcement action under the law, which Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed in May 2021, the Oklahoman reported. All four members who voted to downgrade the districts were appointed by Stitt.
The law does not explicitly mention critical race theory — an academic framework for examining the way laws and policies perpetuate systemic racism — but prohibits teaching what it calls “discriminatory principles,” including that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex , is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
The measure came amid Republican efforts to bar teaching about systemic racism and oppression in schools following the nation’s racial reckoning in 2020, which opponents say is leading to self-censorship and fear among teachers. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Oklahoma over the law in October, alleging that it violates students’ and teachers’ First and 14th amendment rights.
What is critical race theory, and why do Republicans want to ban it in schools?
Representatives for the Tulsa and Mustang school districts did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.In a statement to the Oklahoman, Tulsa Public Schools denied that the training stated that people of a certain race were inherently racist, saying it would “never support such a training,” but the system defended the need for implicit bias training.
“In Tulsa, we are teaching our children an accurate — and at times painful, difficult, and uncomfortable — history about our shared human experience,” the district told the newspaper. “We also teach in a beautifully diverse community and need our team to work together to be prepared to do that well.”
Charles Bradley, the superintendent of Mustang Public Schools, said in a statement published by News 9 that he was “shocked” by the board’s demotion, which he called a “harsh action.”
HB 1775 prohibits teaching that any individual “bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.” It also bans any course material that would make a student “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex de ella.”
ACLU sues Oklahoma, saying law restricting teaching of gender and race theories is unconstitutional
The complaint against Tulsa Public Schools stemmed from a 20-minute implicit bias training for teachers conducted by a third-party vendor last August. The administrative rules for HB 1775 extend the prohibitions in the law to teacher trainings.
Tulsa’s training informed teachers that they must be “aware of our own inherent biases, as well as historical biases against minorities,” the Oklahoman reported. In response, a teacher filed a complaint with the state alleging that the training materials “specifically shame white people for past offenses in history, and state that all are implicitly racially biased by nature,” according to Public Radio Tulsa.
The outlet identified the teacher who filed the complaint as Amy Cook, who was investigated earlier this year for allegedly proselytizing in class and briefly ran for the state Senate. On her campaign website, she wrote that as a Tulsa Public Schools teacher, she has witnessed “spiritually damaging programs, liberal brainwashing, and political indoctrination being slipped into our schools.”
Brad Clark, the general counsel for the StateDepartment of Education, announced at the board’s June meeting that his agency’s investigation into the complaint found the district in violation of the law.
“It was a close call, but we believe the spirit of that training, or the design of it, was contradictory to House Bill 1775,” Clark said in June.
Though Clark recommended the district be demoted one level to “accredited with deficiency,” board member Brian Bobek introduced a motion at Thursday’s meeting to downgrade it one step further, to “accredited with warning.” That level indicates the district has an issue that “seriously detracts from the quality of the school’s educational program,” per the state’s accreditation standards.
Bobek argued that anyone who took the training “is going to be biased, potentially” and called it an “egregious” violation that merited warning status.
Board member Estela Hernandez agreed, accusing the Tulsa district of deliberately flouting the law and arguing that the extra level of demotion was necessary to “send a message.”
The state’s finding that the training violated the law was met with pushback from board member Carlisha Williams Bradley, who said implicit bias “does not equate to inherent racism.”
“Maybe this is why some of this content should be taught in schools because I just don’t know that we all have a shared understanding of definitions and language here,” she said at the meeting.
New critical race theory laws have teachers scared, confused and self-censoring
Williams Bradley and state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who won a primary last month to be the Democratic nominee for governor, voted against downgrading both districts. Hofmeister said she voted no because she supported the state agency’s recommendation of only demoting the districts one level.
The board’s vote came less than a month after Stitt called for a “special audit” of the Tulsa district over its use of coronavirusrelief funding and for allegedly teaching critical race theory, which the district denies.
Williams Bradley told The WashingtonPost on Saturday that the decision was an “obvious attack” on Tulsa Public Schools, which she noted is a majority-minority district.
“It is appalling and terrifying that we have schools and educators who can be penalized for having conversations about true facts, history and implicit bias that we all have based on the differences of our lived experiences,” she wrotein an email.
While the Tulsa complaint involved teacher training, the complaint against the Mustang district centered on a lesson for students, which was investigated internally and self-reported to the state, Clark said.
The exercise, which was taught by a single teacher, asked students to answer questions about whether they had experienced or perpetrated discrimination or bullying, according to News 9. The district determined that the lesson violated the law because it made students feel discomfort based on their race or sex.
The state also recommended Mustang be demoted one level to “accredited with deficiency,” but board member Jennifer Monies argued the panel must be “consistent with how we apply” HB 1775 and avoid the appearance of “unfairly targeting” the Tulsa district.
The same four members then voted to downgrade Mustang Public Schools two levels to “accredited with warning.”
The speed and scale of interest rate rises have been, well, scary. They are calculated to be so – surging consumer prices need to be stopped.
However, rather than waiting in trepidation for the next upwards rate move – there will likely be another 50-basis-point Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) rise on Tuesday – you could probably give yourself a rate cut by taking a little pre-emptive action.
Refinancing to a lender offering a lower mortgage rate can save big money.Credit:stock
Despite recent mortgage rate rises, there remains a huge gulf between what the big-four banks are offering on their variable-interest rate mortgages and what can be found at some smaller lenders, who generally offer the best rates. And I mean huge.
If your home loan is on an advertised big-bank package mortgage interest rate, you are likely paying 2.67 percentage points more than the cheapest comparable product. If you are on the discounted package rate, you are still forking out 1.61 points over the odds. That adds up to a lot of money you are paying for nothing in your fast-rising monthly mortgage payments.
However, by simply switching home loans from a discounted big-bank rate to the best available, you would almost entirely undo the “damage” the RBA has so far done with your higher mortgage payments.
In case I haven’t got your attention yet, let’s put some dollar figures on this.
By switching from a big-bank mortgage rate to the best available, you could under the damage the RBA has done with your higher repayments.
The average national mortgage is $611,158; today, the big-four bank average discounted rate is 4.7 per cent (compared to the headline rate of 5.76 per cent), while the mortgage interest rate on the most competitive, the comparable product is at 3.09 per cent.
If you refinance that mortgage to the lowest rate – and $380 billion worth of home loans has been refinanced since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis – you would shave $540 a month off your repayments, cutting them to $2927 (based on a 25-year mortgage ).
To get robots to learn in much the same fashion as humans, engineers from the University of Michigan have developed an approach that allows robots to work with soft materials, like rope and fabrics, with increased performance. In simulations, the larger training data sets doubled the success rate of a robot looping a rope around an engine block and improved it by more than 40% from that of a physical robot executing the same task. The novel method could cut learning time for robots working with new materials and working in new environments down from weeks to just hours.
“That task is among those a robot mechanic would need to be able to do with ease,” explains Dmitry Berenson, associate professor of robotics at UM. “But using today’s methods, learning how to manipulate each unfamiliar hose or belt would require huge amounts of data, likely gathered for days or weeks.” During that time, the robot would manipulate that rope until it understood the number of ways the hose could move and contour, a long, drawn-out process.
To reduce that amount of time, the team altered an optimization algorithm to enable a computer to make some of the generalizations we humans do, such as predicting how dynamics observed in one instance might repeat in others. In one example, a robot pushed cylinders on a surface populated with obstacles. During trial runs, the cylinder didn’t hit anything, while in others, the cylinder collided with other cylinders, moving those in the process. If the cylinder didn’t collide with anything, that motion could be repeated anywhere on the table where the trajectory doesn’t bump into other cylinders. While this is intuitive for humans, robots need to garner that data. Rather than performing time-consuming experiments, the engineer’s program can create variations on the initial result from that first experiment that the robot can utilize in the same fashion.
To produce that fabricated data, the engineers focused on three qualities: it needed to be relevant, diverse and valid. For example, if the focus is centered on moving cylinders on a table, then information on the floor is not relevant. That data must also be valid, so simulations with two cylinders occupying the same space would be invalid and need to be identified so that the robot knows it isn’t possible.
The engineers put their findings to the test for the rope simulation by expanding the data sets using the extrapolated position of the rope to other locations in a virtual environment and having the rope behave the same way it did in the initial experiment. Using traditional training methods showed that the robot could wrap the rope around an engine block 48% of the time while using their new method pushed that success rate to 70%.
Murder Party’s title is deceptively simple. But within those two words are several puzzle boxes and twists.
That’s the fun of it, and murder party knows exactly what it’s about.
It also knows exactly where it comes from and why a moviegoer might choose to buy a ticket to a film called murder party. It has one purpose – entertain and challenge the keenest of murder mystery fans – and it delivers on that promise.
A French farce that revels in the tropes of its delicious genre, murder party owes almost everything to all of its predecessors. There’s the obvious one, Knives Outaping even its distinct font in the movie’s marketing.
But there’s a raft of influences ranging from Alfred Hitchcock to Cluedoand its full embrace of the thrills and conventions of all that came before is why murder party is such a charming and entertaining little movie.
Architect Jeanne (Alice Pol) is called to the isolated country estate of a games empire family to present her vision for their grand renovations. Upon arriving, she realizes the family – patriarch Cesar (Eddy Mitchell), his son Theo (Pablo Pauly), his daughter Lena (Sarah Stern), his wife Salome (Pascale Arbillot), his sister Jo (Miou-Miou) and butler Armand (Gustave Kervern) – are all a bit kooky.
When Cesar drops dead, seemingly poisoned, the murder mystery game the family were engaged in, kicks in for real. A voice over a PA tells them that they must play a series of games to uncover the killer. If they guess correctly, they’ll be freed. If they’re wrong, they’ll be killed. If they don’t play at all, also dead.
The reserved Jeanne is a reluctant joiner but the quest for survival is a great motivator.
There is so much here for genre fans to drink in. There’s the conspicuous hat-tip to the godmother of closed house mysteries, Agatha Christie, with its ensemble of cloistered characters and limited suspects running around a baroque mansion.
The use of bold flashing color evokes Vertigo while the outsider among the games empire family recalls 2019 slasher comedy Ready or Not. The second game in the film is an escape room challenge while it also has flashes of fellow French dark comedy 8 women.
murder party is a cornucopia of references but rather than descend into some prosaic mishmash, it’s a clever and playful homage.
Like the Cluedo moviebeforeit, murder party clearly loves the genre and it’s inviting the audience to be part of the fun and games. And it’ll manage to keep you guessing with a few tricks you won’t see coming.
