Podcasts about city halls

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, Jan. 20. The Wilson County Collection Facility will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 18, in addition to its normal closure days of Sunday and Monday. The facility will re-open on Tuesday, Jan. 21. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed. Wilson County Public Libraries will be closed in Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale. The Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office will also be closed. The Wilson County Appraisal District office will be closed. Additional closures...Article Link

Work is good. Work is necessary for the fulfillment of every human being. Work is required of every person according to his or her capabilities and talents, so sayeth the Scripture. All of us must work to survive, live, grow and profit and be all that we can be and as God intended us to be.Our very own America was built on hard work, and is in fact itself a work in progress. The progress depends upon us, we the people, how hard we work and how we make things happen. The majority of we the American people are hard workers. And, the harder and the better we work, the better America and all of us are. To be sure, nothing comes easy in this life, nothing. Everything we have or enjoy is the product of hard work by someone, whether you, or me, or someone else. You and I must do our share, accomplish our calling for the very short time we have on this precious earth. Life, said the wisest man of old King Solomon, is but a vapor here today and gone so soon tomorrow. We should make every working day count to the fullest.Pioneers built our country. They were men and women who did little but work hard morning till night. They farmed land never before productive. They raised animals and used them for work and feed. They built houses, and churches, and City Halls. They built roads and bridges. They built autos and trucks. They built hospitals and invented medicines. They designed and manufactured clothing. They created places for entertainment and worship. They built elaborate and majestic campuses for education and things theological. They built laboratories and science centers and they sent us deep into space. They were then and we are now the workers who made America great, America, the most exciting, creative human and social experiment in all of history. You and I should be proud of them and we should be proud to be workers like they were. The more we work, the better we are, caught up, energized and thrilled by the spirit of America, our exceptional opportunity to pursue our dreams and to build our future. America and those who believe in what it stands for are indeed EXCEPTIONAL and we have been blessed by EQUALLY EXCEPTIONAL opportunity. As we work, we should do everything possible to protect and defend the opportunities, lifestyles and freedoms which America offers.How wonderful it is that the talent and ability of every individual God-Made is different, unique. It is marvelous indeed that every single person has talent and gifts which are in fact different. That is true divine diversity. None of us are better at least not in the sight of God, but different only. Each of us has our own special CALLING. So, no matter who you are, YOU are special and it is your right but every bit as importantly your duty to utilize those God-given talents to the fullest. It is your duty to fulfill your calling. So then, we should not be concerned with what others think nor should we judge what we do and how we work by the standards of others. Nor should we be inhibited by their criticism. For we need to know ourselves, be true to that special self and soul which God has created and through prayer and meditation, come to a full recognition of those talents and be the very person God intended that you and I be. We can fail, but we can bounce back. The opportunity for growth and change is still available in America, thank God. Ignore rejection and focus on your calling.So then, my fellow Americans, you may be called to be a mother. Be all that you can be as a mother for the sake of your children and do your God-given calling with all of your might. Or perhaps you are secretary, or babysitter. Perhaps you clean for a living. Recognize all such work as a calling and do your calling with all of your might. Or perhaps you are plumber, electrician, landscaper, restaurant worker. Do your calling with all of your might and as you can, as unto the Lord. Or perhaps you are lawyer, accountant, radio salesperson, financial planner. Do your calling with all of your might. And if you are the President of anything, including the President of our great United States, you perhaps have a calling with higher standards, duties and demands. No one should do a calling better than you WITH ALL OF YOUR MIGHT!So, we work, we produce and as we do, we should expect return which of course includes money and profit. We work for economic growth and benefit, for the fruit of our labors. We follow the biblical prescription that we can expect even with minimum work product the return of that work one for one. Or perhaps, five to one. Or even as Scripture indicates, perhaps as much as ten to one or more as we diligently develop and exploit those talents and capabilities through hard work. The money return from our work, efforts, creativity and initiative is blessed by Scripture. That money return is right, as we become work men and work women worthy of our hire. We plant, as Scripture says, and Mother Nature waters and it is GOD who gives the increase so the Scriptures say. It is a good thing to make money and to be rewarded for our work. Money supports. Money helps others. Money creates opportunity. The best of us at work, hard work, is exactly what this world of so many ENTITLED needs now more than ever. In fact, hard and productive work is so necessary for this world of entitlements in which we live in order for it to survive and continue. It is well and good indeed to help those all in real need. But all who can, any and all including those receiving entitlements, should work as they can.But today, unfortunately it seems, there are those supposedly progressive in thinking who wish to tell us that profit is wrong, especially in excess. That profit made is the result of GREED at work. Profit they say is not as a result of hard work or special skills, but rather the exploitation of others. Ignore them. You are worthy of the profit and gain of anything you produce at any level of life. The more you invest as a mother, the better your child, perhaps better than others. Enjoy the fruit, the profit of your labors. When you build something, revel in the fruit of your labors and do it with all of your might, and better than others. For no matter what progressives or others would say, YOU DID IN FACT BUILD IT, and you did build it yourself. In fact, so much of what is built would not have been built without you or me. Revel in, enjoy and profit from anything and everything YOU BUILT!But work produces much more than money. Those who understand the value of work realize full well that the doing well of anything is the reward itself! The satisfaction, the fulfillment, the full expression of the self among mankind and before God are THE BEST REWARDS. They are indeed more valuable than money for money comes and goes. But the rewards of work well done last a lifetime and are in fact eternal. We create an earthly balance sheet, personal financial and loss statements here and now, but it is the ETERNAL balance sheet which really counts. Nothing goes with you, no matter what you leave behind, but only the heavenly balance sheet you create. For there is always something more, often much more than the work itself or the profit therefrom. There is good, often enormous good in work well done and even very spiritual good. See that clearly as part of the goal of your calling and WORK which only adds to the return and the enjoyment.So, the work we do can be not only for money, or profit, but for non-profit. For worthy causes. For the good of society in which we live. For all humanity, especially those in need. For the Christian Church and for the Christ we love and serve. For blood drives. For HIV awareness and treatment. For feeding and sheltering the homeless. For carrying the message of the Gospel to forsaken and needy parts of America and the world. Shepherding and guiding children. Tending to the needs of the elderly. Visiting and comforting those in prison.THE WORK OF THE LORD AT WORK FOR ALL MANKIND, AS WE ARE CALLED.All of these things make us what we should be before the Lord and our fellow man.So many of us are people of faith. But our faith, sayeth Scripture, without works is dead. Whatever you believe, whatever your faith, there is no way for anyone to know whether or not it is real except by your works. Talk is cheap. But by the fruits of your labors your fellow human beings will know you. If there is in fact a work of God in you, a CALLING, a life objective, the works that you do will prove to others who you are. What you and I do not do also proves who we are. The great thinking Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that not to act is to act. Negative actions, doing nothing, can be as potent negatively as actual action itself.Unfortunately, there are those who do deceitful works and works of iniquity. They are known for their fraudulent and deceitful acts. They work not for the good of mankind, but only for themselves, for ego, for elicit gain in a deceitful way. Their works and their lives are in vain. William Shakespeare said that the evil that men do lives after them, the legacy they make and that evil is the only thing remembered here and in eternity.So, it is our duty to study, to grow ourselves in our career and constantly make ourselves better, so that we can show ourselves approved as work men and women, understanding the objectives, values and priorities which are ours, always growing in our understanding, especially the Scriptures so that we can be approved by God before him as well as man. Learning, whether a trade or in law, or by gaining experience and growing or by learning from others, or the school of hard knocks, and by mistakes, learning standards of excellence to which we can aspire so that we can be all, ALL we can be, working with all of our might knowing in this world that indeed the night is coming where no man can work. Work while you can and the best you can.In this life, we slow down, age or perhaps lose interest or motivation, and of course energy and our ability to work dissipates or even ends. With that ends opportunity and potential and we may not have finished what we are called to do. Some retire, or quit, or are forced to retire prematurely. Some of us are fortunate enough to finish and accomplish our objectives and purposes, while others can not. For us, we are fortunate that even Jesus of Nazareth said in John's Gospel that he had in fact finished the work for which the Father had sent him. He had accomplished His objectives, fulfilled His purposes and He did so to His last dying breath. Our goal, like HIS should be to finish our work, the work for which we were sent by God and meant to do. That is the greatest fulfillment this life can offer.We are called upon by God Almighty to live every day to the fullest. CARPE DIEM my fellow Americans, seize the day. It is the day which the Lord hath made and for you to work and be productive. Worry not about tomorrow, or the criticism, expectations or even the rejections of any man. It has its own problems-evil-which you can not control or do anything about. But, rather think in terms of how precious every minute of every hour of every day is, and rejoice in that. Maximize the opportunity that minute brings and, whatever your hand finds to do, YOUR CALLING, do it with all of your might. Every God-given minute is indeed an opportunity there once never to return. So that everything we do, everything no matter how menial works together for good. The joy of living is so special. We are told by our Lord that He is come that we might have life in its most ABUNDANT form and that our joy, OUR TOTAL JOY may be full. There is joy in every moment, as we work, as we rest, as we play, as we love others and as we understand who we are and:BE ALL THAT WE CAN BEThose who love to work and love as much to be productive and make things happen know that the ultimate reward for such work is:THE VERY WORK ITSELFNo matter the accolades of man, or profit, or any other earthly benefit, the ultimate reward, the ultimate satisfaction is the work itself. Nothing feels better to any right-thinking person than a job well done, having done the best you can with all of your might.So then, for the Christian, there is something even greater than works. There is GRACE, saving grace. And no manner of works can ever equal that. The grace at God at work trumps the works of any man, but when added to works, leads to the complete fulfillment of that life. We can and should be proud of the works we do, but the work of God in Jesus Christ, saving grace through Him is the greatest work of all. The combination of grace producing work, the right work is the very best thing in life.So, my fellow Americans, work hard. Work well, with purpose. Know your calling. Do what you were CALLED to do, and do it in each and every minute, hour and day of your life. Do what your Creator would have you do and you will find fulfillment in that work and in your life. It matters not whether you are housewife or President, millionaire or middle class, never forget that:YOU AND YOUR WORK ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANTYOU AND YOUR WORK ARE UNIQUE, DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERSWe need not the approval or recognition of mankind however enjoyable that may be. We need to work to be approved by God, who knows us, our every thought and deed. His approval is all that matters.I and the Crawford Broadcasting Company honor all of the men and women in America who work, and work hard, and make America, family and friends, and all of us so much better and especially those who work as unto the Lord. Find the work you love to do, really love to do and you will never work a day in your life!God bless you work men and women worthy of your hire and it is because of you that:GOD WILL BLESS AMERICA

Containment rises on local wildfires, as winds subside. Los Angeles is launching a cooling center pilot program at select libraries. The story behind Los Angeles City Hall and why there are four now.  Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.com.    Support the show: https://laist.com

Journalist & podcaster James Farr joins Dominique to take on Left Coast issues impacting our freedom of speech, right to assemble and agency in spaces of governance. Farr shares the latest scandal involving Pasadena's Police Chief, Eugene Harris...Why is the response to student protests at UCLA & USC so different? How does the uprising of April 29, 1992 inform today's movement? X & IG: @JamesFarrLive @DiPrimaRadio

75% of small business owners reported that they suffer from burnout!  Some were hospitalized; some suffering from depression; others struggling with divorce.  In this last episode of Women of Means, I chat with a former client of mine as she shares her recovery from burnout to living a joyful, balanced life.Michelle LaFleur and I talk about:The three steps she used to recover from her burnoutHow she now works 3 days/week in her successful businessWhat she's doing with her free timeAs well as her biggest lesson learnedACTION PLAN: STOP and think about what you're actually doing with your life and business.Discover YOUR way to relieve the stress so you can find clarity and focus.Create space by getting rid of old baggage (mindset).Establish your method for long-term calmness.Shift from being a ‘doer' in your business to the ‘leader' i.e. CEO of your business.ABOUT MICHELLE: Michelle LaFleur is the CEO & Founder of a very successful Montreal interior design firm, Décor Michelle Marie Inc. For 18 years, Michelle and her team have designed and decorated both residential and commercial spaces. More recently they have focused on government projects including designing and decorating City Halls, Aquatic Centers and public libraries. With her newfound free time, Michelle is starting a 2nd business educating and mentoring business owners who have experienced the symptoms and subsequent fallout from burnout.Michelle has been happily married for more than 36 years.Connect with Michelle:438-700-0128 or 514-616-5995www.decormichellemarie.commichelle@decormichellemarie.comABOUT ME:Hi friends,Want to escape the chaos of the day to day running of your business?  Then I'm your gal.I'm a champagne lover and a sought-after business coach for small business leaders who want to grow, and scale their business.I'm also a best-selling author, award-winning speaker and podcast host. After almost 40 years as an entrepreneur, I'm best known for my straight-talk, no BS and the simple business and marketing strategies that bring my clients more joy, profit and freedom.  My podcast, Work Less PROFIT More business podcast offers tips and strategies for small business owners who are tired of working too hard for too little profit, and having little or no free time. You can do this!Connect with me here:diana@dianalidstone.comwww.dianalidstone.comhttps://www.facebook.com/diana.lidstonehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/hiredianalidstone/Work with me:Currently, there are 2 ways you can work with me:I am only accepting private clients in my 12-month Business Accelerator program (here) orBy booking a VIP Grow Day which is intensive session designed to give you my undivided attention and acceleration to accomplish something extremely fast. More information here.Share your feedback with me by clicking here and leaving a short voice message!

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Presidents' Day on Monday, Feb. 19. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed, along with the Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office. The Wilson County Appraisal District will also be closed. Additional closures include post offices in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, Stockdale, and Sutherland Springs. All Wilson County Public Libraries, including Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale, will also be closed. The Floresville Electric Light & Power System in Floresville will also be closed on Presidents' Day. The Guadalupe Valley Electric...Article Link

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, Jan. 15. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed. All Wilson County Public Libraries will be closed in Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale. The Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office will also be closed. The Wilson County Appraisal District office will be closed. Additional closures include post offices in Floresville, La Vernia, Stockdale, Elmendorf, Poth, and Sutherland Springs. The Floresville Electric Light & Power System in Floresville will also be closed. The Guadalupe Valley Electric...Article Link

Work is good. Work is necessary for the fulfillment of every human being. Work is required of every person according to his or her capabilities and talents, so sayeth the Scripture. All of us must work to survive, live, grow and profit and be all that we can be and as God intended us to be.Our very own America was built on hard work, and is in fact itself a work in progress. The progress depends upon us, we the people, how hard we work and how we make things happen. The majority of we the American people are hard workers. And, the harder and the better we work, the better America and all of us are. To be sure, nothing comes easy in this life, nothing. Everything we have or enjoy is the product of hard work by someone, whether you, or me, or someone else. You and I must do our share, accomplish our calling for the very short time we have on this precious earth. Life, said the wisest man of old King Solomon, is but a vapor here today and gone so soon tomorrow. We should make every working day count to the fullest.Pioneers built our country. They were men and women who did little but work hard morning till night. They farmed land never before productive. They raised animals and used them for work and feed. They built houses, and churches, and City Halls. They built roads and bridges. They built autos and trucks. They built hospitals and invented medicines. They designed and manufactured clothing. They created places for entertainment and worship. They built elaborate and majestic campuses for education and things theological. They built laboratories and science centers and they sent us deep into space. They were then and we are now the workers who made America great, America, the most exciting, creative human and social experiment in all of history. You and I should be proud of them and we should be proud to be workers like they were. The more we work, the better we are, caught up, energized and thrilled by the spirit of America, our exceptional opportunity to pursue our dreams and to build our future. America and those who believe in what it stands for are indeed EXCEPTIONAL and we have been blessed by EQUALLY EXCEPTIONAL opportunity. As we work, we should do everything possible to protect and defend the opportunities, lifestyles and freedoms which America offers.How wonderful it is that the talent and ability of every individual God-Made is different, unique. It is marvelous indeed that every single person has talent and gifts which are in fact different. That is true divine diversity. None of us are better at least not in the sight of God, but different only. Each of us has our own special CALLING. So, no matter who you are, YOU are special and it is your right but every bit as importantly your duty to utilize those God-given talents to the fullest. It is your dutyto fulfill your calling. So then, we should not be concerned with what others think norshould we judge what we do and how we work by the standards of others. Nor shouldwe be inhibited by their criticism. For we need to know ourselves, be true to thatspecial self and soul which God has created and through prayer and meditation, cometo a full recognition of those talents and be the very person God intended that you andI be. We can fail, but we can bounce back. The opportunity for growth and change isstill available in America, thank God. Ignore rejection and focus on your calling.So then, my fellow Americans, you may be called to be a mother. Be all that you canbe as a mother for the sake of your children and do your God-given calling with all ofyour might. Or perhaps you are secretary, or babysitter. Perhaps you clean for aliving. Recognize all such work as a calling and do your calling with all of your might.Or perhaps you are plumber, electrician, landscaper, restaurant worker. Do yourcalling with all of your might and as you can, as unto the Lord. Or perhaps you arelawyer, accountant, radio salesperson, financial planner. Do your calling with all ofyour might. And if you are the President of anything, including the President of ourgreat United States, you perhaps have a calling with higher standards, duties anddemands. No one should do a calling better than you WITH ALL OF YOUR MIGHT!So, we work, we produce and as we do, we should expect return which of courseincludes money and profit. We work for economic growth and benefit, for the fruit ofour labors. We follow the biblical prescription that we can expect even with minimumwork product the return of that work one for one. Or perhaps, five to one. Or even asScripture indicates, perhaps as much as ten to one or more as we diligently developand exploit those talents and capabilities through hard work. The money return fromour work, efforts, creativity and initiative is blessed by Scripture. That money returnis right, as we become work men and work women worthy of our hire. We plant, asScripture says, and Mother Nature waters and it is GOD who gives the increase so theScriptures say. It is a good thing to make money and to be rewarded for our work.Money supports. Money helps others. Money creates opportunity. The best of us atwork, hard work, is exactly what this world of so many ENTITLED needs now morethan ever. In fact, hard and productive work is so necessary for this world ofentitlements in which we live in order for it to survive and continue. It is well andgood indeed to help those all in real need. But all who can, any and all includingthose receiving entitlements, should work as they can.But today, unfortunately it seems, there are those supposedly progressive in thinkingwho wish to tell us that profit is wrong, especially in excess. That profit made is theresult of GREED at work. Profit they say is not as a result of hard work or specialskills, but rather the exploitation of others. Ignore them. You are worthy of the profitand gain of anything you produce at any level of life. The more you invest as a mother,the better your child, perhaps better than others. Enjoy the fruit, the profit of yourlabors. When you build something, revel in the fruit of your labors and do it with all ofyour might, and better than others. For no matter what progressives or others wouldsay, YOU DID IN FACT BUILD IT, and you did build it yourself. In fact, so much ofwhat is built would not have been built without you or me. Revel in, enjoy and profitfrom anything and everything YOU BUILT!But work produces much more than money. Those who understand the value of workrealize full well that the doing well of anything is the reward itself! The satisfaction,the fulfillment, the full expression of the self among mankind and before God are THEBEST REWARDS. They are indeed more valuable than money for money comes andgoes. But the rewards of work well done last a lifetime and are in fact eternal. Wecreate an earthly balance sheet, personal financial and loss statements here and now,but it is the ETERNAL balance sheet which really counts. Nothing goes with you, nomatter what you leave behind, but only the heavenly balance sheet you create. Forthere is always something more, often much more than the work itself or the profittherefrom. There is good, often enormous good in work well done and even veryspiritual good. See that clearly as part of the goal of your calling and WORK whichonly adds to the return and the enjoyment.So, the work we do can be not only for money, or profit, but for non-profit. For worthycauses. For the good of society in which we live. For all humanity, especially those inneed. For the Christian Church and for the Christ we love and serve. For blooddrives. For HIV awareness and treatment. For feeding and sheltering the homeless.For carrying the message of the Gospel to forsaken and needy parts of America and theworld. Shepherding and guiding children. Tending to the needs of the elderly.Visiting and comforting those in prison.THE WORK OF THE LORD AT WORK FOR ALL MANKIND, AS WE ARE CALLED.All of these things make us what we should be before the Lord and our fellow man.So many of us are people of faith. But our faith, sayeth Scripture, without works isdead. Whatever you believe, whatever your faith, there is no way for anyone to knowwhether or not it is real except by your works. Talk is cheap. But by the fruits of yourlabors your fellow human beings will know you. If there is in fact a work of God inyou, a CALLING, a life objective, the works that you do will prove to others who youare. What you and I do not do also proves who we are. The great thinking DietrichBonhoeffer said that not to act is to act. Negative actions, doing nothing, can be aspotent negatively as actual action itself.Unfortunately, there are those who do deceitful works and works of iniquity. They areknown for their fraudulent and deceitful acts. They work not for the good of mankind,but only for themselves, for ego, for elicit gain in a deceitful way. Their works andtheir lives are in vain. William Shakespeare said that the evil that men do lives afterthem, the legacy they make and that evil is the only thing remembered here and ineternity.So, it is our duty to study, to grow ourselves in our career and constantly makeourselves better, so that we can show ourselves approved as work men and women,understanding the objectives, values and priorities which are ours, always growing inour understanding, especially the Scriptures so that we can be approved by God beforehim as well as man. Learning, whether a trade or in law, or by gaining experience andgrowing or by learning from others, or the school of hard knocks, and by mistakes,learning standards of excellence to which we can aspire so that we can be all, ALL wecan be, working with all of our might knowing in this world that indeed the night iscoming where no man can work. Work while you can and the best you can.In this life, we slow down, age or perhaps lose interest or motivation, and of courseenergy and our ability to work dissipates or even ends. With that ends opportunityand potential and we may not have finished what we are called to do. Some retire, orquit, or are forced to retire prematurely. Some of us are fortunate enough to finishand accomplish our objectives and purposes, while others can not. For us, we arefortunate that even Jesus of Nazareth said in John's Gospel that he had in factfinished the work for which the Father had sent him. He had accomplished Hisobjectives, fulfilled His purposes and He did so to His last dying breath. Our goal, likeHIS should be to finish our work, the work for which we were sent by God and meantto do. That is the greatest fulfillment this life can offer.We are called upon by God Almighty to live every day to the fullest. CARPE DIEM myfellow Americans, seize the day. It is the day which the Lord hath made and for you towork and be productive. Worry not about tomorrow, or the criticism, expectations oreven the rejections of any man. It has its own problems-evil-which you can not controlor do anything about. But, rather think in terms of how precious every minute ofevery hour of every day is, and rejoice in that. Maximize the opportunity that minutebrings and, whatever your hand finds to do, YOUR CALLING, do it with all of yourmight. Every God-given minute is indeed an opportunity there once never to return.So that everything we do, everything no matter how menial works together for good.The joy of living is so special. We are told by our Lord that He is come that we mighthave life in its most ABUNDANT form and that our joy, OUR TOTAL JOY may be full.There is joy in every moment, as we work, as we rest, as we play, as we love others andas we understand who we are and:BE ALL THAT WE CAN BEThose who love to work and love as much to be productive and make things happenknow that the ultimate reward for such work is:THE VERY WORK ITSELFNo matter the accolades of man, or profit, or any other earthly benefit, the ultimatereward, the ultimate satisfaction is the work itself. Nothing feels better to any rightthinkingperson than a job well done, having done the best you can with all of yourmight.So then, for the Christian, there is something even greater than works. There isGRACE, saving grace. And no manner of works can ever equal that. The grace at Godat work trumps the works of any man, but when added to works, leads to the completefulfillment of that life. We can and should be proud of the works we do, but the workof God in Jesus Christ, saving grace through Him is the greatest work of all. Thecombination of grace producing work, the right work is the very best thing in life.So, my fellow Americans, work hard. Work well, with purpose. Know your calling. Dowhat you were CALLED to do, and do it in each and every minute, hour and day ofyour life. Do what your Creator would have you do and you will find fulfillment in thatwork and in your life. It matters not whether you are housewife or President,millionaire or middle class, never forget that:YOU AND YOUR WORK ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANTYOU AND YOUR WORK ARE UNIQUE, DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERSWe need not the approval or recognition of mankind however enjoyable that may be.We need to work to be approved by God, who knows us, our every thought and deed.His approval is all that matters.I and the Crawford Broadcasting Company honor all of the men and women inAmerica who work, and work hard, and make America, family and friends, and all ofus so much better and especially those who work as unto the Lord. Find the work youlove to do, really love to do and you will never work a day in your life!God bless you work men and women worthy of your hire and it is because of you that:GOD WILL BLESS AMERICA

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Presidents' Day on Monday, Feb. 20. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed, along with the Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office. The Wilson County Appraisal District will also be closed. Additional closures include post offices in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, Stockdale, and Sutherland Springs. All Wilson County Public Libraries, including Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale, will also be closed. The Floresville Electric Light & Power System in Floresville will also be closed on Presidents' Day. The Guadalupe Valley Electric...Article Link

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, Jan. 16. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed. All Wilson County Public Libraries will be closed in Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale. The Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office will also be closed. The Wilson County Appraisal District will be closed. Additional closures include post offices in Floresville, La Vernia, Stockdale, Elmendorf, Poth, and Sutherland Springs. The Floresville Electric Light & Power System in Floresville will also be closed. The Guadalupe Valley Electric Co-op...Article Link

The filing deadline for the February municipal election was Monday. One name that won't be on the ballot for the first time in over 50 years is Southwest Side 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke. The indicted alderperson decided to quietly bow out of the race as he faces a federal corruption trial and an unfavorably redrawn ward. We are joined by WTTW politics reporter Heather Cherone and WBEZ's host of The Rundown Erin Allen to discuss Burke's legacy and how the aldermanic races are shaping up. The trio will also break down an ethics complaint against Mayor Lori Lightfoot, an Illinois nonprofit providing safe flights to people seeking and providing abortion care, and reentry programs for Illinoisans leaving incarceration. Plus we've got some gooooooddddd news to get you through the weekend! Follow us on Twitter: @CityCastChicago Sign up for our newsletter: chicago.citycast.fm Call or Text Us: (773) 780-0246 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Municipal elections took place on Saturday, and many City Halls around B.C. saw some change. We get a lay of the land from political science professor Hamish Telford. In our second half, Bob McDonald, host of Quirks & Quarks on CBC, joins us to talk about his new book The Future is Now: Solving the Climate Crisis with Today's Technologies" and takes questions about how to fight climate change.

Work is good. Work is necessary for the fulfillment of every human being. Work is required of every person according to his or her capabilities and talents, so sayeth the Scripture. All of us must work to survive, live, grow and profit and be all that we can be and as God intended us to be.Our very own America was built on hard work, and is in fact itself a work in progress. The progress depends upon us, we the people, how hard we work and how we make things happen. The majority of we the American people are hard workers. And, the harder and the better we work, the better America and all of us are. To be sure, nothing comes easy in this life, nothing. Everything we have or enjoy is the product of hard work by someone, whether you, or me, or someone else. You and I must do our share, accomplish our calling for the very short time we have on this precious earth. Life, said the wisest man of old King Solomon, is but a vapor here today and gone so soon tomorrow. We should make every working day count to the fullest.Pioneers built our country. They were men and women who did little but work hard morning till night. They farmed land never before productive. They raised animals and used them for work and feed. They built houses, and churches, and City Halls. They built roads and bridges. They built autos and trucks. They built hospitals and invented medicines. They designed and manufactured clothing. They created places for entertainment and worship. They built elaborate and majestic campuses for education and things theological. They built laboratories and science centers and they sent us deep into space. They were then and we are now the workers who made America great, America, the most exciting, creative human and social experiment in all of history. You and I should be proud of them and we should be proud to be workers like they were. The more we work, the better we are, caught up, energized and thrilled by the spirit of America, our exceptional opportunity to pursue our dreams and to build our future. America and those who believe in what it stands for are indeed EXCEPTIONAL and we have been blessed by EQUALLY EXCEPTIONAL opportunity. As we work, we should do everything possible to protect and defend the opportunities, lifestyles and freedoms which America offers.How wonderful it is that the talent and ability of every individual God-Made is different, unique. It is marvelous indeed that every single person has talent and gifts which are in fact different. That is true divine diversity. None of us are better at least not in the sight of God, but different only. Each of us has our own special CALLING. So, no matter who you are, YOU are special and it is your right but every bit as importantly your duty to utilize those God-given talents to the fullest. It is your duty to fulfill your calling. So then, we should not be concerned with what others think nor should we judge what we do and how we work by the standards of others. Nor should we be inhibited by their criticism. For we need to know ourselves, be true to that special self and soul which God has created and through prayer and meditation, come to a full recognition of those talents and be the very person God intended that you and I be. We can fail, but we can bounce back. The opportunity for growth and change is still available in America, thank God. Ignore rejection and focus on your calling. So then, my fellow Americans, you may be called to be a mother. Be all that you can be as a mother for the sake of your children and do your God-given calling with all of your might. Or perhaps you are secretary, or babysitter. Perhaps you clean for a living. Recognize all such work as a calling and do your calling with all of your might. Or perhaps you are plumber, electrician, landscaper, restaurant worker. Do your calling with all of your might and as you can, as unto the Lord. Or perhaps you are lawyer, accountant, radio salesperson, financial planner. Do your calling with all of your might. And if you are the President of anything, including the President of our great United States, you perhaps have a calling with higher standards, duties and demands. No one should do a calling better than you WITH ALL OF YOUR MIGHT!So, we work, we produce and as we do, we should expect return which of course includes money and profit. We work for economic growth and benefit, for the fruit of our labors. We follow the biblical prescription that we can expect even with minimum work product the return of that work one for one. Or perhaps, five to one. Or even as Scripture indicates, perhaps as much as ten to one or more as we diligently develop and exploit those talents and capabilities through hard work. The money return from our work, efforts, creativity and initiative is blessed by Scripture. That money return is right, as we become work men and work women worthy of our hire. We plant, as Scripture says, and Mother Nature waters and it is GOD who gives the increase so the Scriptures say. It is a good thing to make money and to be rewarded for our work. Money supports. Money helps others. Money creates opportunity. The best of us at work, hard work, is exactly what this world of so many ENTITLED needs now more than ever. In fact, hard and productive work is so necessary for this world of entitlements in which we live in order for it to survive and continue. It is well and good indeed to help those all in real need. But all who can, any and all including those receiving entitlements, should work as they can.But today, unfortunately it seems, there are those supposedly progressive in thinking who wish to tell us that profit is wrong, especially in excess. That profit made is the result of GREED at work. Profit they say is not as a result of hard work or special skills, but rather the exploitation of others. Ignore them. You are worthy of the profit and gain of anything you produce at any level of life. The more you invest as a mother, the better your child, perhaps better than others. Enjoy the fruit, the profit of your labors. When you build something, revel in the fruit of your labors and do it with all of your might, and better than others. For no matter what progressives or others would say, YOU DID IN FACT BUILD IT, and you did build it yourself. In fact, so much of what is built would not have been built without you or me. Revel in, enjoy and profit from anything and everything YOU BUILT!But work produces much more than money. Those who understand the value of work realize full well that the doing well of anything is the reward itself! The satisfaction, the fulfillment, the full expression of the self among mankind and before God are THE BEST REWARDS. They are indeed more valuable than money for money comes and goes. But the rewards of work well done last a lifetime and are in fact eternal. We create an earthly balance sheet, personal financial and loss statements here and now, but it is the ETERNAL balance sheet which really counts. Nothing goes with you, no matter what you leave behind, but only the heavenly balance sheet you create. For there is always something more, often much more than the work itself or the profit therefrom. There is good, often enormous good in work well done and even very spiritual good. See that clearly as part of the goal of your calling and WORK which only adds to the return and the enjoyment.So, the work we do can be not only for money, or profit, but for non-profit. For worthy causes. For the good of society in which we live. For all humanity, especially those in need. For the Christian Church and for the Christ we love and serve. For blood drives. For HIV awareness and treatment. For feeding and sheltering the homeless. For carrying the message of the Gospel to forsaken and needy parts of America and the world. Shepherding and guiding children. Tending to the needs of the elderly. Visiting and comforting those in prison. THE WORK OF THE LORD AT WORK FOR ALL MANKIND, AS WE ARE CALLED.All of these things make us what we should be before the Lord and our fellow man.So many of us are people of faith. But our faith, sayeth Scripture, without works is dead. Whatever you believe, whatever your faith, there is no way for anyone to know whether or not it is real except by your works. Talk is cheap. But by the fruits of your labors your fellow human beings will know you. If there is in fact a work of God in you, a CALLING, a life objective, the works that you do will prove to others who you are. What you and I do not do also proves who we are. The great thinking Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that not to act is to act. Negative actions, doing nothing, can be as potent negatively as actual action itself.Unfortunately, there are those who do deceitful works and works of iniquity. They are known for their fraudulent and deceitful acts. They work not for the good of mankind, but only for themselves, for ego, for elicit gain in a deceitful way. Their works and their lives are in vain. William Shakespeare said that the evil that men do lives after them, the legacy they make and that evil is the only thing remembered here and in eternity.So, it is our duty to study, to grow ourselves in our career and constantly make ourselves better, so that we can show ourselves approved as work men and women, understanding the objectives, values and priorities which are ours, always growing in our understanding, especially the Scriptures so that we can be approved by God before him as well as man. Learning, whether a trade or in law, or by gaining experience and growing or by learning from others, or the school of hard knocks, and by mistakes, learning standards of excellence to which we can aspire so that we can be all, ALL we can be, working with all of our might knowing in this world that indeed the night is coming where no man can work. Work while you can and the best you can.In this life, we slow down, age or perhaps lose interest or motivation, and of course energy and our ability to work dissipates or even ends. With that ends opportunity and potential and we may not have finished what we are called to do. Some retire, or quit, or are forced to retire prematurely. Some of us are fortunate enough to finish and accomplish our objectives and purposes, while others can not. For us, we are fortunate that even Jesus of Nazareth said in John's Gospel that he had in fact finished the work for which the Father had sent him. He had accomplished His objectives, fulfilled His purposes and He did so to His last dying breath. Our goal, like HIS should be to finish our work, the work for which we were sent by God and meant to do. That is the greatest fulfillment this life can offer.We are called upon by God Almighty to live every day to the fullest. CARPE DIEM my fellow Americans, seize the day. It is the day which the Lord hath made and for you to work and be productive. Worry not about tomorrow, or the criticism, expectations or even the rejections of any man. It has its own problems-evil-which you can not control or do anything about. But, rather think in terms of how precious every minute of every hour of every day is, and rejoice in that. Maximize the opportunity that minute brings and, whatever your hand finds to do, YOUR CALLING, do it with all of your might. Every God-given minute is indeed an opportunity there once never to return. So that everything we do, everything no matter how menial works together for good. The joy of living is so special. We are told by our Lord that He is come that we might have life in its most ABUNDANT form and that our joy, OUR TOTAL JOY may be full. There is joy in every moment, as we work, as we rest, as we play, as we love others and as we understand who we are and:BE ALL THAT WE CAN BEThose who love to work and love as much to be productive and make things happen know that the ultimate reward for such work is:THE VERY WORK ITSELFNo matter the accolades of man, or profit, or any other earthly benefit, the ultimate reward, the ultimate satisfaction is the work itself. Nothing feels better to any right-thinking person than a job well done, having done the best you can with all of your might.So then, for the Christian, there is something even greater than works. There is GRACE, saving grace. And no manner of works can ever equal that. The grace at God at work trumps the works of any man, but when added to works, leads to the complete fulfillment of that life. We can and should be proud of the works we do, but the work of God in Jesus Christ, saving grace through Him is the greatest work of all. The combination of grace producing work, the right work is the very best thing in life.So, my fellow Americans, work hard. Work well, with purpose. Know your calling. Do what you were CALLED to do, and do it in each and every minute, hour and day of your life. Do what your Creator would have you do and you will find fulfillment in that work and in your life. It matters not whether you are housewife or President, millionaire or middle class, never forget that:YOU AND YOUR WORK ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANTYOU AND YOUR WORK ARE UNIQUE, DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERSWe need not the approval or recognition of mankind however enjoyable that may be. We need to work to be approved by God, who knows us, our every thought and deed. His approval is all that matters. I and the Crawford Broadcasting Company honor all of the men and women in America who work, and work hard, and make America, family and friends, and all of us so much better and especially those who work as unto the Lord. Find the work you love to do, really love to do and you will never work a day in your life! God bless you work men and women worthy of your hire and it is because of you that:GOD WILL BLESS AMERICA

It was the best of times when the city of Loveland had a solution to city hall. It is the worst of times when the current administration ignores the right answers to our city hall problem. Welcome to an all new podcast where we discuss what could have been and what the current Loveland city government is doing to further hurt the taxpayer. Download the podcast for free.

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Presidents' Day on Monday, Feb. 21. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed, along with the Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office. The Wilson County Appraisal District will also be closed. Additional closures include post offices in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, Stockdale, and Sutherland Springs. All Wilson County Public Libraries, including Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale, will also be closed on Saturday, Feb. 19. The Floresville Electric Light & Power System in Floresville will also be closed on President's Day....Article Link

All city and county offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, Jan. 17. City Halls in Elmendorf, Floresville, La Vernia, Poth, and Stockdale will be closed. All Wilson County Public Libraries will be closed, including Floresville, La Vernia, and Stockdale. The Wilson County Courthouse, Tax Office, and Clerk's Office will also be closed. The Wilson County Appraisal District will be closed. Additional closures include post offices in Floresville, La Vernia, Stockdale, Elmendorf, Poth, and Sutherland Springs. The Floresville Electric Light & Power System in Floresville will also be closed. The Guadalupe Valley Electric Co-op in La...Article Link

Work is good. Work is necessary for the fulfillment of every human being. Work is required of every person according to his or her capabilities and talents, so sayeth the Scripture. All of us must work to survive, live, grow and profit and be all that we can be and as God intended us to be.Our very own America was built on hard work, and is in fact itself a work in progress. The progress depends upon us, we the people, how hard we work and how we make things happen. The majority of we the American people are hard workers. And, the harder and the better we work, the better America and all of us are. To be sure, nothing comes easy in this life, nothing. Everything we have or enjoy is the product of hard work by someone, whether you, or me, or someone else. You and I must do our share, accomplish our calling for the very short time we have on this precious earth. Life, said the wisest man of old King Solomon, is but a vapor here today and gone so soon tomorrow. We should make every working day count to the fullest.Pioneers built our country. They were men and women who did little but work hard morning till night. They farmed land never before productive. They raised animals and used them for work and feed. They built houses, and churches, and City Halls. They built roads and bridges. They built autos and trucks. They built hospitals and invented medicines. They designed and manufactured clothing. They created places for entertainment and worship. They built elaborate and majestic campuses for education and things theological. They built laboratories and science centers and they sent us deep into space. They were then and we are now the workers who made America great, America, the most exciting, creative human and social experiment in all of history. You and I should be proud of them and we should be proud to be workers like they were. The more we work, the better we are, caught up, energized and thrilled by the spirit of America, our exceptional opportunity to pursue our dreams and to build our future. America and those who believe in what it stands for are indeed EXCEPTIONAL and we have been blessed by EQUALLY EXCEPTIONAL opportunity. As we work, we should do everything possible to protect and defend the opportunities, lifestyles and freedoms which America offers.How wonderful it is that the talent and ability of every individual God-Made is different, unique. It is marvelous indeed that every single person has talent and gifts which are in fact different. That is true divine diversity. None of us are better at least not in the sight of God, but different only. Each of us has our own special CALLING. So, no matter who you are, YOU are special and it is your right but every bit as importantly your duty to utilize those God-given talents to the fullest. It is your duty to fulfill your calling. So then, we should not be concerned with what others think nor should we judge what we do and how we work by the standards of others. Nor should we be inhibited by their criticism. For we need to know ourselves, be true to that special self and soul which God has created and through prayer and meditation, come to a full recognition of those talents and be the very person God intended that you and I be. We can fail, but we can bounce back. The opportunity for growth and change is still available in America, thank God. Ignore rejection and focus on your calling. So then, my fellow Americans, you may be called to be a mother. Be all that you can be as a mother for the sake of your children and do your God-given calling with all of your might. Or perhaps you are secretary, or babysitter. Perhaps you clean for a living. Recognize all such work as a calling and do your calling with all of your might. Or perhaps you are plumber, electrician, landscaper, restaurant worker. Do your calling with all of your might and as you can, as unto the Lord. Or perhaps you are lawyer, accountant, radio salesperson, financial planner. Do your calling with all of your might. And if you are the President of anything, including the President of our great United States, you perhaps have a calling with higher standards, duties and demands. No one should do a calling better than you WITH ALL OF YOUR MIGHT!So, we work, we produce and as we do, we should expect return which of course includes money and profit. We work for economic growth and benefit, for the fruit of our labors. We follow the biblical prescription that we can expect even with minimum work product the return of that work one for one. Or perhaps, five to one. Or even as Scripture indicates, perhaps as much as ten to one or more as we diligently develop and exploit those talents and capabilities through hard work. The money return from our work, efforts, creativity and initiative is blessed by Scripture. That money return is right, as we become work men and work women worthy of our hire. We plant, as Scripture says, and Mother Nature waters and it is GOD who gives the increase so the Scriptures say. It is a good thing to make money and to be rewarded for our work. Money supports. Money helps others. Money creates opportunity. The best of us at work, hard work, is exactly what this world of so many ENTITLED needs now more than ever. In fact, hard and productive work is so necessary for this world of entitlements in which we live in order for it to survive and continue. It is well and good indeed to help those all in real need. But all who can, any and all including those receiving entitlements, should work as they can.But today, unfortunately it seems, there are those supposedly progressive in thinking who wish to tell us that profit is wrong, especially in excess. That profit made is the result of GREED at work. Profit they say is not as a result of hard work or special skills, but rather the exploitation of others. Ignore them. You are worthy of the profit and gain of anything you produce at any level of life. The more you invest as a mother, the better your child, perhaps better than others. Enjoy the fruit, the profit of your labors. When you build something, revel in the fruit of your labors and do it with all of your might, and better than others. For no matter what progressives or others would say, YOU DID IN FACT BUILD IT, and you did build it yourself. In fact, so much of what is built would not have been built without you or me. Revel in, enjoy and profit from anything and everything YOU BUILT!But work produces much more than money. Those who understand the value of work realize full well that the doing well of anything is the reward itself! The satisfaction, the fulfillment, the full expression of the self among mankind and before God are THE BEST REWARDS. They are indeed more valuable than money for money comes and goes. But the rewards of work well done last a lifetime and are in fact eternal. We create an earthly balance sheet, personal financial and loss statements here and now, but it is the ETERNAL balance sheet which really counts. Nothing goes with you, no matter what you leave behind, but only the heavenly balance sheet you create. For there is always something more, often much more than the work itself or the profit therefrom. There is good, often enormous good in work well done and even very spiritual good. See that clearly as part of the goal of your calling and WORK which only adds to the return and the enjoyment.So, the work we do can be not only for money, or profit, but for non-profit. For worthy causes. For the good of society in which we live. For all humanity, especially those in need. For the Christian Church and for the Christ we love and serve. For blood drives. For HIV awareness and treatment. For feeding and sheltering the homeless. For carrying the message of the Gospel to forsaken and needy parts of America and the world. Shepherding and guiding children. Tending to the needs of the elderly. Visiting and comforting those in prison. THE WORK OF THE LORD AT WORK FOR ALL MANKIND, AS WE ARE CALLED.All of these things make us what we should be before the Lord and our fellow man.So many of us are people of faith. But our faith, sayeth Scripture, without works is dead. Whatever you believe, whatever your faith, there is no way for anyone to know whether or not it is real except by your works. Talk is cheap. But by the fruits of your labors your fellow human beings will know you. If there is in fact a work of God in you, a CALLING, a life objective, the works that you do will prove to others who you are. What you and I do not do also proves who we are. The great thinking Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that not to act is to act. Negative actions, doing nothing, can be as potent negatively as actual action itself.Unfortunately, there are those who do deceitful works and works of iniquity. They are known for their fraudulent and deceitful acts. They work not for the good of mankind, but only for themselves, for ego, for elicit gain in a deceitful way. Their works and their lives are in vain. William Shakespeare said that the evil that men do lives after them, the legacy they make and that evil is the only thing remembered here and in eternity.So, it is our duty to study, to grow ourselves in our career and constantly make ourselves better, so that we can show ourselves approved as work men and women, understanding the objectives, values and priorities which are ours, always growing in our understanding, especially the Scriptures so that we can be approved by God before him as well as man. Learning, whether a trade or in law, or by gaining experience and growing or by learning from others, or the school of hard knocks, and by mistakes, learning standards of excellence to which we can aspire so that we can be all, ALL we can be, working with all of our might knowing in this world that indeed the night is coming where no man can work. Work while you can and the best you can.In this life, we slow down, age or perhaps lose interest or motivation, and of course energy and our ability to work dissipates or even ends. With that ends opportunity and potential and we may not have finished what we are called to do. Some retire, or quit, or are forced to retire prematurely. Some of us are fortunate enough to finish and accomplish our objectives and purposes, while others can not. For us, we are fortunate that even Jesus of Nazareth said in John's Gospel that he had in fact finished the work for which the Father had sent him. He had accomplished His objectives, fulfilled His purposes and He did so to His last dying breath. Our goal, like HIS should be to finish our work, the work for which we were sent by God and meant to do. That is the greatest fulfillment this life can offer.We are called upon by God Almighty to live every day to the fullest. CARPE DIEM my fellow Americans, seize the day. It is the day which the Lord hath made and for you to work and be productive. Worry not about tomorrow, or the criticism, expectations or even the rejections of any man. It has its own problems-evil-which you can not control or do anything about. But, rather think in terms of how precious every minute of every hour of every day is, and rejoice in that. Maximize the opportunity that minute brings and, whatever your hand finds to do, YOUR CALLING, do it with all of your might. Every God-given minute is indeed an opportunity there once never to return. So that everything we do, everything no matter how menial works together for good. The joy of living is so special. We are told by our Lord that He is come that we might have life in its most ABUNDANT form and that our joy, OUR TOTAL JOY may be full. There is joy in every moment, as we work, as we rest, as we play, as we love others and as we understand who we are and:BE ALL THAT WE CAN BEThose who love to work and love as much to be productive and make things happen know that the ultimate reward for such work is:THE VERY WORK ITSELFNo matter the accolades of man, or profit, or any other earthly benefit, the ultimate reward, the ultimate satisfaction is the work itself. Nothing feels better to any right-thinking person than a job well done, having done the best you can with all of your might.So then, for the Christian, there is something even greater than works. There is GRACE, saving grace. And no manner of works can ever equal that. The grace at God at work trumps the works of any man, but when added to works, leads to the complete fulfillment of that life. We can and should be proud of the works we do, but the work of God in Jesus Christ, saving grace through Him is the greatest work of all. The combination of grace producing work, the right work is the very best thing in life.So, my fellow Americans, work hard. Work well, with purpose. Know your calling. Do what you were CALLED to do, and do it in each and every minute, hour and day of your life. Do what your Creator would have you do and you will find fulfillment in that work and in your life. It matters not whether you are housewife or President, millionaire or middle class, never forget that:YOU AND YOUR WORK ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANTYOU AND YOUR WORK ARE UNIQUE, DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERSWe need not the approval or recognition of mankind however enjoyable that may be. We need to work to be approved by God, who knows us, our every thought and deed. His approval is all that matters. I and the Crawford Broadcasting Company honor all of the men and women in America who work, and work hard, and make America, family and friends, and all of us so much better and especially those who work as unto the Lord. Find the work you love to do, really love to do and you will never work a day in your life! God bless you work men and women worthy of your hire and it is because of you that:GOD WILL BLESS AMERICA

What can be done to get our towns and cities back on track? My guest tonight is Marcel Latouche from the Institute for Public Sector Accountability and he offers some solutions to bring sanity back to city hall.

Shannon Robnett Explore the Riches of Three Decades in Real Estate Development and Investing Today Dr. Allen chats with Shannon Robnett, a leading real estate developer and investor with more than 30 years of experience. His developments projects range from multi-family, professional office buildings to City Halls, fire and police stations, schools, industrial and mini storage. He comes from an Entrepreneurial family, and he is a second-generation builder-developer and a fourth-generation realtor. Shannon believes with 5 generations of real estate professionals it truly is in their blood. They specialize in the acquisition of development land, entitling it.  Once ready for construction they involve their syndication partners in the real estate Shannon says that there is phenomenal growth in just building, filling, and selling a product. He further explains that his operation is different than most because he is looking for syndication partners that are seeking tax-advantaged situations and his main clients are using IRAs to invest; not clients looking for small monthly cash flow investments. In today's chat, listen to Shannon Robnetts's insightful three-decade journey in real estate development and investment. He invests with integrity, passion, and excellence to bring wealth and economic freedom to his investors. 3 Key Points from the episode: ·        Explore every opportunity to understand your project and your client. ·        Learn from the experience and use it in the future. ·        Don't just look to do everything under the sun, be focused on your goal. Connect with Shannon: ·        www.shannonrobnett.com/ ·        Phone: 208-291-6312 ·        info@shannonrobnett.com

Beginning with an iPhone and an “a-ha moment” in the beautiful San Francisco City Hall, photographer Arthur Drooker began a project that would last five years and take him across the United States to photograph the most impressive and interesting city halls in the nation. The project culminated with his wonderful book, City Hall: Masterpieces of American Civic Architecture, from Schiffer Publishing, and it brings him to the B&H Photography Podcast to discuss photographing architecture, civic pride, research and interviews, book publishing, zoom and tilt-shift lenses, and a host of other subjects related to his photography. Join us for this practical and insightful episode. “To me, the best city halls are not just office buildings to administer services, they also use architecture and design to express something about civic pride, civic virtue, and democratic engagement.” – Arthur Drooker Guest: Arthur Drooker Photograph © Arthur Drooker

On Thursday April 8 (yesterday), The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, OSFI (the Canadian Bank watchdog) announced that they are proposing changes to the current stress test rule. So basically, consider this the last-call bell to qualify under the current stress test until June 1, 2021. It’s not 100% official as of yet, but the chances of OSFI not proceeding with their new recommendation is slim to none.Before I get into the proposed recommendation, here’s a quick recap on the current stress test:Rather than qualifying based upon the actual mortgage contract rate, all mortgage applicants are required to qualify at a rate that is 2% higher, or 4.79% - whichever is higher (4.79% is the predetermined 5 year benchmark as imposed by the Bank of Canada...since 2018, this benchmark rate has varied between what it is today, 4.79%, to as high as 5.44%). So throughout COVID (essentially all of 2020), applicants have been qualifying at 4.79% which has at some times been 3% higher than the actual contract rate. But lately, it's equating to less than 3%, but still higher than 2%. So really, if anything, it should be known as the 3% stress test rather than 2%...I digress.So right off the bat this should extinguish some of the theories that this market was set ablaze by low interest rates. YES, interest rates are at historical lows, but to get approved for these amazing rates mortgage holders have been qualifying for them at a rate that is similar to where rates were at back in 2008/09 (4-6%). Since 2018, Canadians have only been awarded these historical low rates (1.39% to 2.59%) only after they’ve proven that they can qualify for them at much higher rates (4.79% to 5.44%). Ok so now let’s move on to the proposed change that OSFI will very likely implement this June:As I mentioned earlier, this is not 100% official, but will very likely become official sometime in May, then the mad-rush countdown will begin all the way until the actual implementation date of June 1.And here it is, the big news...the minimum qualifying rate will increase from 4.79% to 5.25%. How will this impact someone qualifying for a mortgage?Consider a qualifying income of $100,000 (individual or combined): At the current stress test qualifying rate of 4.79%, the maximum mortgage qualification would equate to $500,000 for an insured mortgage and $630,000 for a conventional mortgageAt the proposed stress test (likely effective June 1) qualifying rate of 5.25%, the maximum mortgage qualification would equate to $470,000 for an insured mortgage and $605,000 for a conventional mortgageOther interesting points: This will diminish the purchasing power of home buyers (who require mortgages) by 4-6%OSFI policy is not intended to influence the housing market, but rather to maintain and secure the overall integrity of Canada’s financial system. Even though its policies (obviously) impact the housing market to varying degrees, its intent and focus is on preserving the overall integrity of the financial systemIf you read between the lines, this could also be viewed as a forecast of where OSFI thinks the 5 year rate will be...in this case, they are indirectly pricing in a rate hike of about 50 bps (0.50%)...we’ll see how this plays outSo far, this increased qualifying benchmark is only marked for uninsured mortgages. But, it is likely to blanket over to insured mortgages as well. The reason why insured mortgages aren’t in the conversation at this point is simply because insured mortgages (via CMHC) are not under OSFIs regulating umbrella. If/when this increased qualifying rate becomes applicable to insured mortgages, you could then expect a formal announcement by the Minister of Finance declaring so.Here are my thoughts..Don’t misinterpret this announcement as a housing market influencer (even though it will have an impact on the housing market, but to what degree remains to be seen). I believe that OSFI is genuine in its mandate of being the overseer of Canada’s overall financial system...take this policy like all other previously implemented OSFI policies. Regardless of which group will be most negatively impacted from this (first timers, middle income earners, etc), the outcome is simply to give assurance to our financial system that all the mortgage holders today will be able to make their payments 5 years from now when interest rates are higher. That’s it. This is OSFIs number one priority. If anything, the most negative thing about this announcement and eventual implementation is that it might give the real policy makers (municipal, provincial and federal governments) an out, allowing them to remain idle on the sidelines and continue to do nothing meaningful when it comes to addressing the supply side of the real estate crisis. I’ve said it before, the differentiator is at the municipal government level. Frustrated home shoppers/buyers should be directing their lobbying efforts towards City Halls rather than Parliament. The more people lobby the federal government to step in, the higher taxes go (this seems to be all that they answer with). It's time to demand more from our local politicians and municipalities as this is where policy can have a direct and meaningful impact on real estate in your own backyard. Asking Ottawa for advice on how to balance Vancouver’s real estate crisis is simply insane, yet we continue to call on them to do so.Contact Marko, he's a Mortgage Broker!604-800-9593 direct Vancouver403-606-3751 direct Calgarymarkogelo.comFacebook@markogelo (Twitter)MarkoMusic (SoundCloud Account)...all podcast music tracks are performed and produced by Marko See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

California city governments have undergone massive political change in the last 5 years. This was driven by some macro political trends, but kitchen table political issues are what really drive this change. We talk about housing, homelessness, environmental issues, policing and cannabis as a few of the dominant policies bringing new groups and candidates into City Halls.

Some cities in the area are operating at different capacities due to this week's severe winter weather. Here is the latest information as of Wednesday afternoon: •China Grove City Hall is closed, although on-duty police may be at work on the premises. •Elmendorf City Hall is closed. •Falls City City Hall plans to be open Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. •Floresville City Hall plans to be closed Thursday. However, phones will be routed for employees to address citizen concerns remotely. No decision has been reached on whether City Hall will be open Friday. After hours, callers...Article Link

On Thursday, October 15, the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings hosted an online discussion with a bipartisan group of policymakers on China exploring how leading political figures at each level of U.S. government approach these questions. https://www.brookings.edu/events/assessing-china-policy-from-city-halls-governors-mansions-and-capitol-hill/ Subscribe to Brookings Events on iTunes, send feedback email to events@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. To learn more about upcoming events, visit our website. Brookings Events is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Work is good.  Work is necessary for the fulfillment of every human being.  Work is required of every person according to his or her capabilities and talents, so sayeth the Scripture.  All of us must work to survive, live, grow and profit and be all that we can be and as God intended us to be.Our very own America was built on hard work, and is in fact itself a work in progress.The progress depends upon us, we the people, how hard we work and how we make things happen.  The majority of we the American people are hard workers.And, the harder and the better we work, the better America and all of us are.  To be sure, nothing comes easy in this life, nothing.  Everything we have or enjoy is the product of hard work by someone, whether you, or me, or someone else.  You and I must do our share, accomplish our calling for the very short time we have on this precious earth.  Life, said the wisest man of old King Solomon, is but a vapor here today and gone so soon tomorrow.  We should make every working day count to the fullest.Pioneers built our country.  They were men and women who did little but work hard morning till night.  They farmed land never before productive.They raised animals and used them for work and feed.  They built houses, and churches, and City Halls.  They built roads and bridges.  They built autos and trucks.  They built hospitals and invented medicines.  They designed and manufactured clothing.  They created places for entertainment and worship.They built elaborate and majestic campuses for education and things theological.  They built laboratories and science centers and they sent us deep into space.  They were then and we are now the workers who made America great, America, the most exciting, creative human and social experiment in all of history.You and I should be proud of them and we should be proud to be workers like they were.  The more we work, the better we are, caught up, energized and thrilled by the spirit of America, our exceptional opportunity to pursue our dreams and to build our future.  America and those who believe in what it stands for are indeed EXCEPTIONAL and we have been blessed by EQUALLY EXCEPTIONAL opportunity.  As we work, we should do everything possible to protect and defend the opportunities, lifestyles and freedoms which America offers.How wonderful it is that the talent and ability of every individual God-Made is different, unique.It is marvelous indeed that every single person has talent and gifts which are in fact different.  That is true divine diversity.  None of us are better at least not in the sight of God, but different only.  Each of us has our own special CALLING.  So, no matter who you are, YOU are special and it is your right but every bit as importantly your duty to utilize those God-given talents to the fullest.It is your duty to fulfill your calling.So then, we should not be concerned with what others think nor should we judge what we do and how we work by the standards of others. Nor should we be inhibited by their criticism.  For we need to know ourselves, be true to that special self and soul which God has created and through prayer and meditation, come to a full recognition of those talents and be the very person God intended that you and I be.  We can fail, but we can bounce back.  The opportunity for growth and change is still available in America, thank God.  Ignore rejection and focus on your calling. So then, my fellow Americans, you may be called to be a mother.  Be all that you can be as a mother for the sake of your children and do your God-given calling with all of your might.  Or perhaps you are secretary, or babysitter.  Perhaps you clean for a living.  Recognize all such work as a calling and do your calling with all of your might.  Or perhaps you are plumber, electrician, landscaper, restaurant worker.  Do your calling with all of your might and as you can, as unto the Lord.  Or perhaps you are lawyer, accountant, radio salesperson, financial planner.  Do your calling with all of your might.  And if you are the President of anything, including the President of our great United States, you perhaps have a calling with higher standards, duties and demands.  No one should do a calling better than you WITH ALL OF YOUR MIGHT!So, we work, we produce and as we do, we should expect return which of course includes money and profit.  We work for economic growth and benefit, for the fruit of our labors.  We follow the biblical prescription that we can expect even with minimum work product the return of that work one for one.  Or perhaps, five to one.  Or even as Scripture indicates, perhaps as much as ten to one or more as we diligently develop and exploit those talents and capabilities through hard work.  The money return from our work, efforts, creativity and initiative is blessed by Scripture.  That money return is right, as we become work men and work women worthy of our hire.  We plant, as Scripture says, and Mother Nature waters and it is GOD who gives the increase so the Scriptures say.It is a good thing to make money and to be rewarded for our work.  Money supports.  Money helps others.  Money creates opportunity.  The best of us at work, hard work, is exactly what this world of so many ENTITLED needs now more than ever.  In fact, hard and productive work is so necessary for this world of entitlements in which we live in order for it to survive and continue.  It is well and good indeed to help those all in real need.  But all who can, any and all including those receiving entitlements, should work as they can.But today, unfortunately it seems, there are those supposedly progressive in thinking who wish to tell us that profit is wrong, especially in excess.  That profit made is the result of GREED at work.Profit they say is not as a result of hard work or special skills, but rather the exploitation of others.Ignore them.  You are worthy of the profit and gain of anything you produce at any level of life.  The more you invest as a mother, the better your child, perhaps better than others.Enjoy the fruit, the profit of your labors.  When you build something, revel in the fruit of your labors and do it with all of your might, and better than others.  For no matter what progressives or others would say, YOU DID IN FACT BUILD IT, and you did build it yourself.  In fact, so much of what is built would not have been built without you or me.  Revel in, enjoy and profit from anything and everything YOU BUILT!But work produces much more than money.  Those who understand the value of work realize full well that the doing well of anything is the reward itself!  The satisfaction, the fulfillment, the full expression of the self among mankind and before God are THE BEST REWARDS.  They are indeed more valuable than money for money comes and goes.  But the rewards of work well done last a lifetime and are in fact eternal.  We create an earthly balance sheet, personal financial and loss statements here and now, but it is the ETERNAL balance sheet which really counts.  Nothing goes with you, no matter what you leave behind, but only the heavenly balance sheet you create.  For there is always something more, often much more than the work itself or the profit therefrom.  There is good, often enormous good in work well done and even very spiritual good.See that clearly as part of the goal of your calling and WORK which only adds to the return and the enjoyment.So, the work we do can be not only for money, or profit, but for non-profit.  For worthy causes.  For the good of society in which we live.  For all humanity, especially those in need.  For the Christian Church and for the Christ we love and serve.For blood drives.  For HIV awareness and treatment.  For feeding and sheltering the homeless.  For carrying the message of the Gospel to forsaken and needy parts of America and the world.  Shepherding and guiding children.  Tending to the needs of the elderly.  Visiting and comforting those in prison. THE WORK OF THE LORD AT WORK FOR ALL MANKIND, AS WE ARE CALLED.All of these things make us what we should be before the Lord and our fellow man.So many of us are people of faith.  But our faith, sayeth Scripture, without works is dead.  Whatever you believe, whatever your faith, there is no way for anyone to know whether or not it is real except by your works.  Talk is cheap.  But by the fruits of your labors your fellow human beings will know you.If there is in fact a work of God in you, a CALLING, a life objective, the works that you do will prove to others who you are.  What you and I do not do also proves who we are.  The great thinking Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that not to act is to act.Negative actions, doing nothing, can be as potent negatively as actual action itself.Unfortunately, there are those who do deceitful works and works of iniquity.  They are known for their fraudulent and deceitful acts.They work not for the good of mankind, but only for themselves, for ego, for elicit gain in a deceitful way.Their works and their lives are in vain.William Shakespeare said that the evil that men do lives after them, the legacy they make and that evil is the only thing remembered here and in eternity.So, it is our duty to study, to grow ourselves in our career and constantly make ourselves better, so that we can show ourselves approved as work men and women, understanding the objectives, values and priorities which are ours, always growing in our understanding, especially the Scriptures so that we can be approved by God before him as well as man.  Learning, whether a trade or in law, or by gaining experience and growing or by learning from others, or the school of hard knocks, and by mistakes, learning standards of excellence to which we can aspire so that we can be all, ALL we can be, working with all of our might knowing in this world that indeed the night is coming where no man can work.  Work while you can and the best you can.In this life, we slow down, age or perhaps lose interest or motivation, and of course energy and our ability to work dissipates or even ends. With that ends opportunity and potential and we may not have finished what we are called to do.  Some retire, or quit, or are forced to retire prematurely.  Some of us are fortunate enough to finish and accomplish our objectives and purposes, while others can not.  For us, we are fortunate that even Jesus of Nazareth said in John's Gospel that he had in fact finished the work for which the Father had sent him.  He had accomplished His objectives, fulfilled His purposes and He did so to His last dying breath. Our goal, like HIS should be to finish our work, the work for which we were sent by God and meant to do.  That is the greatest fulfillment this life can offer.We are called upon by God Almighty to live every day to the fullest.  CARPE DIEM my fellow Americans, seize the day.  It is the day which the Lord hath made and for you to work and be productive.  Worry not about tomorrow, or the criticism, expectations or even the rejections of any man.It has its own problems-evil-which you can not control or do anything about.  But, rather think in terms of how precious every minute of every hour of every day is, and rejoice in that.  Maximize the opportunity that minute brings and, whatever your hand finds to do, YOUR CALLING, do it with all of your might.  Every God-given minute is indeed an opportunity there once never to return.  So that everything we do, everything no matter how menial works together for good.The joy of living is so special.We are told by our Lord that He is come that we might have life in its most ABUNDANT form and that our joy, OUR TOTAL JOY may be full.  There is joy in every moment, as we work, as we rest, as we play, as we love others and as we understand who we are and:BE ALL THAT WE CAN BEThose who love to work and love as much to be productive and make things happen know that the ultimate reward for such work is:THE VERY WORK ITSELFNo matter the accolades of man, or profit, or any other earthly benefit, the ultimate reward, the ultimate satisfaction is the work itself.  Nothing feels better to any right-thinking person than a job well done, having done the best you can with all of your might.So then, for the Christian, there is something even greater than works.  There is GRACE, saving grace.  And no manner of works can ever equal that.  The grace at God at work trumps the works of any man, but when added to works, leads to the complete fulfillment of that life.  We can and should be proud of the works we do, but the work of God in Jesus Christ, saving grace through Him is the greatest work of all.  The combination of grace producing work, the right work is the very best thing in life.So, my fellow Americans, work hard.  Work well, with purpose.  Know your calling.  Do what you were CALLED to do, and do it in each and every minute, hour and day of your life.  Do what your Creator would have you do and you will find fulfillment in that work and in your life.  It matters not whether you are housewife or President, millionaire or middle class, never forget that:YOU AND YOUR WORK ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANTYOU AND YOUR WORK ARE UNIQUE, DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERSWe need not the approval or recognition of mankind however enjoyable that may be.  We need to work to be approved by God, who knows us, our every thought and deed.  His approval is all that matters. I and the Crawford Broadcasting Company honor all of the men and women in America who work, and work hard, and make America, family and friends, and all of us so much better and especially those who work as unto the Lord. Find the work you love to do, really love to do and you will never work a day in your life! God bless you work men and women worthy of your hire and it is because of you that:GOD WILL BLESS AMERICA

Hosts Jesse Torres & Sid Voorakkara talk with Rachel on how she approaches effective policy and stakeholder development and her insights on how the COVID-19 has impacted retail in California and what the future holds for the industry. About The Guest: Rachel Michelin is the President of the California Retailers Association. The California Retailers Association works to be the most significant voice representing the retail industry in California’s public policy arena, at the State Capitol, in City Halls and with regulatory bodies across the state.  Rachel oversees a diverse board and membership representing retail throughout the state and nation from small brick and mortar, to franchises to national retailers and on-line merchants.  She has as impressive professional background and has spent the past 20 years leading associations with particular expertise on strategic growth and engagement, increasing revenue, developing partnerships, statewide influence and public awareness.   More From Rachel Michelin: Visit her website: https://calretailers.com Contact her directly: Rmichelin@calretailers.com  Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn *If there is a specific resource you would like to see on covid19biztools.com you can reach us HERE. *If you would like to be featured in our Q&A segments of the show, email us your business questions info@covid19businesstools.com *Thank you for listening and please share the show or an episode you love with someone who might need it during this challenging time. We believe that when you succeed we all succeed, so let’s share the knowledge and resources! 

Let's visit Our Miss Brooks!

Let's visit Our Miss Brooks!

BV chats with Shaun Willoughby, Pres. ABQ Police Officers Assn. on City Halls new crime plans, the stats issues and the need for more police on News Radio KKOB.

The last several weeks have been dominated by stories of executives, entertainment moguls, news hosts, and politicians of all stripes being credibly accused of sexual harassment - and in some cases, assault. We all agree that this sort of behavior is disgusting and has no place in our workplace, the halls of Congress, or at our State Capitols and City Halls. But what happens if this is happening inside your company? How can you prepare for, respond to, and recover from the reputational damage that could be done to your organization if one of your executives is credibly accused of harassment or assault? In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser and Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba talk about how to prepare for this sort of situation, the messaging that may need to be required, when to involve outside counsel to protect your organization, and the need to ensure you're doing the right thing for the company and victim(s) along the way. //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js Episode Transcript Bryan Strawser:                   Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly, Minnesota state senator Dan Schoen, Roger Ailes and Minnesota state representative Tony Cornish. What do these six men have in common? Jen Otremba:                        Well, I've seen them all in the news recently. Bryan Strawser:                   You've seen them all in the news recently because they've been credibly accused of sexual harassment, and in a couple of these cases, assault. Jen Otremba:                        And I think information is still coming out about different cases and different people involved. Bryan Strawser:                   Apparently, there'll be a Senate ethics investigation on Al Franken. There's going to be a Senate ethics investigation in the Minnesota Senate it appears for Dan Schoen. There's an outside law firm looking at representative Tony Cornish's activities, and Harvey Weinstein, of course, has been ousted from his company and is taking up residence in the UK, I believe ... hiding. Jen Otremba:                        Yeah. Bryan Strawser:                   His brother has also been fired from the Weinstein company, or whatever the name of their firm is, and then Bill O'Reilly allegedly paid millions of dollars in settlements, and Fox News fired him. And Roger Ailes made a multi-million dollar settlement with Minnesota native, Gretchen Carlson, over sexual harassment that he conducted with her over apparently quite a long period of time. Jen Otremba:                        And I eventually guess this isn't the end. Bryan Strawser:                   Probably not, and we're recording this episode, I think, for context the week of Thanksgiving, although it's not going to be out for a couple weeks, so these situations have probably evolved significantly by the time you listen to this. Jen Otremba:                        And there's probably more. Bryan Strawser:                   And there's probably more, but we're not here to talk about the news necessarily, and the facts of these cases. What we want to talk about is this rising risk to organizations that one of their employees or executives, or talent, have been engaged in this kind of behavior and the company becomes aware of it, and will have to deal with it. Jen Otremba:                        And I don't even know that I would call it a rising risk, or it's just now being so much more highlighted as a risk. Bryan Strawser:                   I think the reputational risk is what we're trying to get at. Jen Otremba:                        Yes, yes. Bryan Strawser:                   The reputational risk has increased in terms of its likelihood and impact because there is so much attention- Jen Otremba:                        Right. Bryan Strawser:                   Being paid to this particular issue. I think often because it simply hasn't been dealt with at many companies. Jen Otremba:                        Yes. I agree. Bryan Strawser:                   Right, and so now it's coming out about many of these individuals, and in almost every case we've heard that they've been engaged in this behavior for a long period of time, and it's never been dealt with. Jen Otremba:                        With multiple individuals. Bryan Strawser:                   With multiple individuals involved. So let's talk a little bit about ... I don't know if prevention is the right term to use, but there are some basic things that we believe companies should have in place in order to at least start a base of how to prevent and deal with these kind of situations. Jen Otremba:                        On a reputational basis. Bryan Strawser:                   On a reputational basis. So where do we start? We start with a policy, and, Jen, what should the policy be? Jen Otremba:                        The policy should clearly define what is not allowed in your organization, so should include sexual harassment specifically, and it should be very clear as to what is allowed and what is not allowed, what's appropriate behavior and what's not appropriate behavior, to try to prevent some of that gray area that we keep hearing about. Bryan Strawser:                   We want a policy, an employment policy, put into place that prohibits sexual harassment, at a minimum in accordance with what state and federal law says. We're not attorneys, so talk to your employment attorney about that- Jen Otremba:                        That's right. Bryan Strawser:                   About this. But companies can also prohibit behavior beyond what the state or federal law requires, and often that's appropriate- Jen Otremba:                        Yup. Bryan Strawser:                   Given the work place. Once the policy is in place, individuals, the company, should go through training. Jen Otremba:                        Yes. Bryan Strawser:                   Now there's no indication from what we've been reading in articles published over the last couple days here that training in policies, in workshops, do anything necessarily to stop this from happening, but it feels to us like it has to be a minimum expectation that you're setting a policy, you're training people to that policy to appropriate management, peer to peer- Jen Otremba:                        Right. Bryan Strawser:                   And work relationships. Jen Otremba:                        You have to start somewhere. Bryan Strawser:                   You have to start somewhere. Jen Otremba:                        Yup, and I think ... I think additionally, you have to have a means of reporting, right? So you have to make it a comfortable position for people to report, and include that in the training. Bryan Strawser:                   Agree. Jen Otremba:                        So much like many of the other topics we talk about with threats of workplace violence, there has to be a way for people to communicate and report. Bryan Strawser:                   And that reporting should go to an independent body within the organization, so a lot of companies will contract this out to an anonymous reporting mechanism where you accompany a consulting firm, a call center, where you can disclose who you are, if you wish, or you can just report anonymously, and then those reports go to a body inside the organization that's going to deal with this in an appropriate legal and mature manner, not to someone who is going to then go use this to find out who reported on them. Jen Otremba:                        Right. And I think herein lies the problem, right, so when it's been reported and maybe there's been an investigation, often times we've seen in organizations where maybe it's not dealt with, or not really dealt with appropriately, for whatever reason, and then so you start to lose trust in that reporting process. Bryan Strawser:                   Yes. And the organization, not just the reporting process. Jen Otremba:                        Right. Bryan Strawser:                   If you've been the victim of this, and you reported something and that report went nowhere, I think you're going to lose trust, and you're going to tell people about that unhappy experience that you've suffered this harassment or assault, and you've been unable to get any action taken on the issue. Jen Otremba:                        Right. And now reputationally put yourself in the shoes of being maybe a mid-level business, or small business, and somebody has this happen, and it wasn't managed very well, and this individual then decides to have a voice. And say they start talking, so like you said, they're going to start talking to people. That reputationally is going to have a huge impact, especially nowadays on your organization. Bryan Strawser:                   Well, and the people are going to believe the accuser, because there has been so much coverup and failure to deal with these issues in these situations in the past, and that's part of why there's so much traction around this issue today. When we talk about setting expectations in the training, we talk about this reporting mechanism, and then there has to be an investigative process that looks at the best interests of the organization, and gets to the bottom of what has been going on. Is the allegation credible? Did this behavior occur? And then that behavior needs to be dealt with in line with what the policy says. And I think that most people would believe that there is simply no place for this kind of behavior in the workplace. We were talking about another podcast that was discussing this over the weekend. There is a spectrum here- Jen Otremba:                        Right. Bryan Strawser:                   Where- Jen Otremba:                        Threshold, I guess. Bryan Strawser:                   Yeah, and I don't know that we know where to draw the line on some of this, but we do know that unwanted sexual advances are not okay in the workplace that- Jen Otremba:                        Outside the workplace too. Bryan Strawser:                   Or outside the workplace, yeah. Jen Otremba:                        Yeah. Bryan Strawser:                   Yeah, just to be clear. Jen Otremba:                        Yeah, be on property or off property, doesn't work here. Bryan Strawser:                   No, you're exactly right. No, but in the work environment, there is no place for that. It's a pretty egregious violation. Touching someone is assault, and that's obviously way beyond the pale of what's acceptable in or out of the workplace. Here, of course, we're dealing with not the physical workplace, but we're talking about people who work at the company. Jen Otremba:                        Right. Bryan Strawser:                   Because this behavior can happen- Jen Otremba:                        Anywhere. Bryan Strawser:                   After hours. It can happen before work. It can happen- Jen Otremba:                        On a work trip and travel. Bryan Strawser:                   It can happen on a date. Jen Otremba:                        Exactly. Yup, yes. And I think that's good to point out because we have a lot of those discussions. We have them a lot, working with workplace violence prevention is ... well, that did happen, but it was off property that it happened, so it's not for us to deal with. Well, reputationally- Bryan Strawser:                   It is. Jen Otremba:                        It absolutely is. Bryan Strawser:                   Right. When I was ... I just spent the first 12 years of my career in the actual, like field security part of our previous employer, and I can't tell you the number of situations I dealt with involving sexual harassment. Of course, HR is in our organization ... HR was the leader for those, but because I was the security leader in the area, I was often involved in the investigative process and conducted interviews or serve as a witness, or dealt with more senior people directly when they were alleged to have engaged in this behavior, and a lot of stuff happens on work travel, because you get ... you're away from home, and you feel safe, or the perpetrator feels safe- Jen Otremba:                        Sometimes there's alcohol involved. Bryan Strawser:                   There might be alcohol involved. Actually, all of them involved alcohol to some extent. But a lot of things happen inappropriately on a work travel, so it's definitely a place where clear guidance is needed about appropriate behavior, particularly as a leader, if you're on those kind of trips. Whatever ... not a deliberate trip for this purpose, but you're on a work trip- Jen Otremba:                        Yes. Bryan Strawser:                   And you're kind of leading the team through that. Jen Otremba:                        Yes. Bryan Strawser:                   We also see, and I've personally witnessed situations where there was egregious behavior, but we liked ... I say we ... people senior to me, who were decision makers, liked the individual that had been alleged to have done these things, and therefore nothing happened to them, or something minor happened to them. In almost every case, just like we see in the [inaudible 00:09:56] world, they recidivated. They did it again. And at some point you have to draw the line. They should have drawn the line on the first offense. Jen Otremba:                        Yeah, and not only did they do it again, but maybe their peers now- Bryan Strawser:                   Think it's okay? Jen Otremba:                        Think it's okay. They've seen this and so now they're going to do it, or do it later on down the road at some point. Bryan Strawser:                   Right. So our advice for companies when it comes to prevention in dealing with the incident is have a policy, train the team to the policy, set clear expectations, live up to those expectations, and hold people accountable when they cross the line. And that accountability may include terminating them, and/or calling in law enforcement or criminal justice officials to deal with criminal behavior. Assault and worse, that goes on. Jen Otremba:                        Yeah, and if necessary, bring in, like you said, bring in an outside party like law enforcement or maybe it's somebody else to have ... to conduct the investigation, to help to build the trust in that organization, both with the employees or students or whoever is in the organization, as well as the public, and the public's view of that organization. Bryan Strawser:                   When it comes to your senior executives, if one of them is accused of this kind of behavior, it's not at all unusual to bring in outside counsel to conduct the investigation. You gain that outside impartiality that goes along with this, but you also gain a shield of legal privilege around the investigation, although I'll tell you if you're a publicly traded company, you're in a really bad spot because you probably are going to want to at some point disclose the results of that investigation, even if it's just a summary, what has gone on. And you can look at recent situations involving Uber as a good example of this where- Jen Otremba:                        That's right. Bryan Strawser:                   You know, Uber clearly had a cultural issue where this kind of harassment was okay, because they didn't deal with it, and they tilted the table in favor of people that were committing this kind of egregious acts- Jen Otremba:                        In the public's view. Bryan Strawser:                   In the public's view, because they were talented and they wanted to retain them, or because they had never been accused of this before, which of course turned out to be BS. Jen Otremba:                        Yeah, never is. Bryan Strawser:                   But Uber went to an outside firm, and then shared most of the outside firm's investigation publicly, which I thought was a good example of transparency. That's an extreme example of what can happen, but some of the folks that listen to this- Jen Otremba:                        It's an example of what can happen if it's not dealt with at the lowest level- Bryan Strawser:                   Exactly. Jen Otremba:                        If it's never dealt with, that culture continues to grow. Bryan Strawser:                   Right. Jen Otremba:                        And so that is ultimately what could happen. Bryan Strawser:                   Right. So we talk about this all in the aspect of we see this as an increasing risk for companies because of the prevalence of stories and accusations and issues that are coming up. This is definitely something that we think a company of any size needs to put some thought in to how to respond and what would they do, and what would their messaging look like, and how would they deal with it. But I also think it serves as a warning that these kind of reputational issues, you know, six months ago no one would have thought that this was going to be the big issue that it is today, that's that it should be the big issue that it is today. But companies didn't predict this coming at them, and it's good to start to plan and make sure that you have this risk in mind as you approach the next four or five months.

A free sample of Mike Murphy's new podcast with David Axelrod! Campaign veterans David Axelrod and Mike Murphy take you deep inside the very top level of American politics with a degree of insight and knowledge you’re not going to get from Twitter. Or from any quick hit, headline grabbing daily dispatch. These seasoned pros have seen it all: the peaks and valleys, the pressure-cooker moments, the huge breaks and horrible calamities no one saw coming — and they will take listeners deep behind in the scenes and into the very top level of political strategy. For decades Axelrod, the Democrat, and Murphy, the Republican, have run campaigns – hundreds of them – for the White House to State Houses to City Halls-all over the country. In fact, they’ve even run campaigns against each other! Yet over the last twenty-five plus years they have maintained a close friendship and a shared love of American politics. Available wherever finer podcasts are found! Visit https://www.hacksontap.com for subscription links and more info.

In this episode, I am explaining why local governments play important role in bringing innovations to local communities. What kind of tools City Halls can use, how they can support large companies as well as startups. I share examples of Boston. Cincinnati and San Francisco to prove it works.

Melissa Bird, PhD, MSW is a passionate feminist whose education in social work has led to a career advocating for children, women, and their families. She is a fierce believer in social justice advocacy and preparing women for leadership roles in politics. As a writer, professor and fiery public speaker, Dr. Bird creates the genesis for a new brand of leadership. Her words awaken revolutionaries, trailblazers and powerful innovators in the quest for justice. When she’s not building her public speaking Empire, she can be found reading trashy novels, drinking fine whiskey, playing mom to three delicious humans, and loving her punk rock scientist James Thomas Kelly. She’s a fierce believer in social justice advocacy and preparing women for leadership roles in politics. For women who want to be heard. Women who want their families to be respected. Women who believe they can make a difference in their communities and create lasting change, Dr. Bird is creating the genesis for a new brand of leadership she calls The Graceful Revolution. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Eagle Forum Emerge America Netroots Nation GUEST LINKS - Dr. Melissa Bird birdgirlindustries.com 5 Can’t Miss Steps to Finding Your Voice free SAGE Guide to Social Work Careers by Melissa Bird, PhD, MSW HOST LINKS - SLADE ROBERSON Slade's Books & Courses Get an intuitive reading with Slade Automatic Intuition BECOME A PATRON https://www.patreon.com/shiftyourspirits Edit your pledge on Patreon TRANSCRIPT Melissa: Well, I used to say that I was like a political badass. I'm more of a hellraiser than a trailblazer, and I help people tap into their passion to engage in advocacy in their communities. And so, for years, I was teaching at a college level and I worked as a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in Utah and I was really involved in politics in Utah. I've kind of taken all of those years of working on the ground and in the Capitol, both at the state level and at the national level, and I decided that it's time to build the Bird girl Army, and really bring people to the place where they are super tapped-in to their passion and their jam and what lights them on fire so that they can go out and do the thing that lights them up. That's become so apparently critical to me right now in 2018 because we are getting inundated constantly with SHIT, and it's coming down on us all the time. And so, every morning you wake up and you have 500 things on your phone talking about how the nation is exploding and people are freaking out. And they don't know what to do. So what I do is, I give them the tools to go out and do the thing so they can get past the paralysis and into intentional action. Because it's going to take intentional action at a COMMUNITY level, not at a national level, at a community level, to build this back up. So that we can feel like we're not stuck not making a difference in our communities. And so I've taken all these years of being a lobbyist, like, on the front lines and making changes in policy and politics and taking it to this really passionate, lit up, on fire... I had someone say that I was an igniter and I just light everyone on fire, which could be really dangerous. That's a huge responsibility and really taking it to the next level so that people can have the tools to engage in action in their communities and engage in dialogue with people who are holding elected office at a local level, so at city county and state level. Because, I tell this to my students all the time when I'm teaching in a classroom, but basically, the federal government is a wash at this point. You're not going to make a huge gigantic difference at a federal level, and I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's where we're at. But now we have this huge opportunity to directly impact our local leaders, no matter what their party affiliation is. We have stories to tell and we have... There are ways that these policies directly impact our lives and it is OUR time to be telling those stories to people. There's no bigger time to be doing that, so I teach people how to have the tools to scream their passionate dreams from the mountaintop and go out and do that thing. Slade: Wow. You know what? Let's get into a big topic here. I'm going to ask you a big old loaded controversial question. I believe in synchronicity and timing, and there is definitely a big beautiful Divine timing for me personally with you being here in this moment talking to me today. It's very significant because we've been talking about spirituality and politics in the Automatic Intuition community, the group of people that I mentor privately. We've been talking about it this week for the first time, very civilly, I must say, so I'm very proud, but I think one of the reasons why we haven't touched it in so long is because it's such a hot potato kind of situation. But somebody went there in a really good way, in a kind of adjacent issue, and so... there is a big dissension among spiritual practitioners, right? Some of us believe that it's really important to disconnect from the news in order to preserve your psychic hygiene and to protect your energy and your vibration, and that you just need to tune it all out. And then some of us believe that part of being conscious for us is being plugged in and observant of all that stuff, and aware of the bad and the good. So what are your thoughts about being spiritually conscious and politically conscious? Dr. Bird: So the first thing I want to say is, I have been wanting to email you for like, months and months about coming on the show to talk about this, and it was only in the last couple of weeks that I was like, You HAVE to do this right now. So I was like, What? And I was nervous! I was like, What am I going to say to Slade?? What if he thinks I'm this whackadoodle noodle, like, We're gonna talk about how to use your intuition to engage in politics! And I was like, That's exactly what you're gonna say. You're gonna type it out. It's gonna be fine. He's not going to reject you and everything's going to be magic. And so... Slade: Which it was. Dr. Bird: Which it was. So the fact that you just barely had this conversation while I was like, I really need to talk to Slade, was really... You know, Divine intervention and all the magic. So, I have to say that because I'm really excited to be having this conversation about using your intuition to engage in social justice work and politics. I call it 'social justice work' because no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it doesn't matter where you're at because everything that is happening has to do with how our society is going to thrive or just survive, moving forward, because of all of the policies that are being enacted at a federal level that are going to trickle down to the local level. I can honestly say that, I feel that need to be completely disconnected from the toxicity of the media. And I also feel the need to be completely inundated with what's happening currently in our nation and in our world. The way that I have sort of pulled that apart and teased that apart is that, I choose, and I'm really active on social media, I LOVE Twitter, I LOVE Facebook, I love Instagram. I love being online and connecting with other people in that way. But I have figured out how to use my intuition to lead me into places where I am going to be connecting with people who aren't just like me, but who appreciate my differences of opinion. And this is, I think, where people are getting stuck and later on today, for example, I do Facebook live on Mondays and Fridays, I have Monday Mayhem and Fuck Shit Up Friday. And at noon my time, Pacific time, and I have been having conversations with my darling friend Amy Wolf, who I consider a dear friend who's completely the polar opposite of me politically. She's a conservative, Christian Methodist in a really small conservative town in Oregon. But she and I have connected on this level that is just unbelievable. And we have people from my friends and her friends and people in the community who keep sending us messages thanking us for having honest conversations about politics, about fundamentalism, about abortion, about really tough conversations about justice and social justice and what that means to each of us. And we do it in a way that is so respectful that you can't not get something out of that. You know, and I come from a conservative place - I was born and raised in Utah. And what I learned when I was walking the hills of that Capitol is, elected officials just put their pants on one leg at a time. We're all people. We all get up in the morning and think, How am I going to make a difference in my world today? What do I want to do to really make a difference in my world today? And it may be the difference is, My god, I'm going to vacuum my house, and that's an accomplishment. It may be that you're going to write a bill and pass it into law like I did. Oh god, it's been 15 years since I wrote that bill. I'll talk about that in a second. This idea that we have to be divisive about politics is a new idea. That is something that was created out of, I would say, 1980s during the Reagan administration. That was when the divisiveness of politics came along. Were there separation of parties? Totally. Were there Democrats and Republicans fighting against each other for power? Absolutely. For years and years and years. But there was a discourse and a nuance to politics that has been lost as, I would say, really starting in the 80s and it got worse during the Clinton administration and now it's just all gone to shit. And I believe that we have so much power to make a difference. And I know it because I've done it. And I'm not saying - I don't do any of my work because I'm like, up on some high horse pedestal. I'm probably on a soapbox, let's be fucking real here. I love my soapbox. My husband, he even bought me a soapbox that says 'Fairy Soap' on it from the 1920s. Slade: I love that. Dr. Bird: So that I can have an... I love my fairy soapbox. And it says 'Fairy' so clearly. That makes me even happier. And so... I can get on my soapbox all day but when I was getting my Masters degree in social work in 2003, I did the very first research in Utah about homeless LGBTQ youth so NOBODY had been, this was, you know, 2002, 2003. Nobody was talking about homeless kids. Nobody was talking about homeless queer kids, and here I am, in Utah, trying to figure out how many of our youth identifies LGBTQ and I did this research for my Masters research class and Utah was no different so at the time, 35% of youth identified as LGBTQ, and I was like, We have to do something. Our shelter law was so bad it said that you couldn't shelter a youth for longer than eight hours without parental consent or emancipation. And I knew that our kids, we didn't have an emancipation bill because I worked in child welfare, and I knew we didn't have an emancipation bill and I was like, Ohmygod, I've got to write one! I sat at my dining room table listening to Ani DiFranco and Metallica and I took the 26 lines from 26 other states and wrote them out line by line and hashed out a lot... I picked the lines that I thought would work in Utah because Utah is a more conservative state and I knew that the parents' rights' folks were going to lose their minds about it. And so, I wrote this law, and I threw everything in it and I called the woman who was an elected official and I said, Hey Roz, I think I just wrote a bill and I'm wondering if you'd sponsor it. And she said, What's it about? I said, Homeless youth. And she was like, Great! And I emailed it to her and she called me back like five minutes later. She goes, Missy Bird, you just wrote a law! People don't do that! And I was like, Oh, they don't? She's like, No, they come to you with an idea. We take it to leg. research, and then they figure it all out. Oh! I wrote a law! It's the only thing, Slade, I've given birth to for real. That bill is my baby. I learned how to lobby. I taught myself how to lobby. I taught myself how to advocate, and I got it passed into law two years later, and that bill has helped hundreds of homeless youth get emancipated. I learned how to stay away from talking about LGBTQ kids with certain people but I knew that that was part of the story for other people who were in power. I learned how to talk about polygamist kids that were being kicked out of their homes, as a way to sort of leverage this conversation up to a different space. And I just listened to my gut the whole entire time. So every single thing I do when I'm talking, whether it's a person in the community or an elected official is, I use my gut instinct to have conversations about what's happening in our communities. I have followed my intuition throughout my entire career as an advocate. And so, I think as you're having this broader political conversation in your group, it's not just about politics the way we see it on Fox news and MSNBC. It's about, How do the things that are happening in our neighbourhoods and in our cities and in our counties and in our states directly impact what's happening, our ability to access safe and clean water, our ability to access safe and clean food, our ability to stay in the homes that we're building for ourselves and for the people around us and our families and our friends. That's what policy is. That's what politics is. Politics isn't this bullshit Mitch McConnell flipping Paul Ryan ridiculousness, Dianne Feinstein and all this national distraction. The national distraction keeps us from looking in our own backyards and seeing what we can do to help the little old lady who lives next door who might be having a hard time getting her newspaper every damn day. That's politics! Slade: Yeah, what do you say to that person, because you must meet these people, right? Who say, I'm really spiritual and I just don't want to engage in politics, it's just all too negative. What do you say to that person because, we have to believe, first of all, let's be compassionate. We understand why they're wanting to tune out and protect themselves. I mean, it's a given. I get it. But there has to be something deep within them that responds to what you just said, that has some feeling of, like, Ohmygod I've got to do something. But then they also feel overwhelmed and helpless. So when you are confronted with that, I can't do politics because I'm too spiritual, what do you say to light that person up? Dr. Bird: I ask them what matters to them. I say, You know what? I get it. You don't want to... I don't like politics as usual either. I get it. I know that your conviction says that you just want to stay the hell out of this because it's just too much. But what is one thing you can do, that you feel like you can do from your spiritual centre, to make an impact potentially? Are you willing to tell your story to one of your local elected officials? Are you willing to help support a candidate at a local level who resonates with you either by donating money or your time? Is there something you can do to raise the vibration of the people we actually have serving in office that you would be comfortable with? I understand you think your vote doesn't matter. But I'm going to tell you right now, at a local level, your vote matters SO... I mean, I get that federal politics has completely shut down a lot of people from wanting to be able to engage in this process of voting. But we are the only democratic nation in the world where a majority of the people who live here don't vote. Slade: Yeah, that's insane. Dr. Bird: I mean, in every other democracy in the world, the majority of people who are of voting age VOTE! And we don't. And it's... And I actually was in a conversation about this in a Twitter group that I'm in. They have some research that says the millennials are like, I'm not voting. So people are trying to figure out how to get the millennials to vote. And my response was, their parents don't take them to the polls because their parents don't vote. My kids have been going to the polls since they were little wee bits, right? They go with us every November. It doesn't matter if it's a city election or a state election or a federal election. Every November, we vote. And our kids go with us, so our kids just know that that Tuesday in November, that's what you do. They've never NOT voted with us. And I think that part of the problem is that millennials are like, Well I'm not going to vote because my parents don't vote. Why the hell would I vote? And I feel like, from a spiritual space, if voting is your thing that you're like, 'Screw it, I don't care', find some other way to tap into your centre and your intuition and what you want in the world, and make THAT the thing. If you don't want to vote, fine. I'm not gonna force you to vote. Although I am gonna, I might have a little judgy voice inside of me that's like, For reals? Do SOMETHING. I don't care what it is. But do something to elevate the vibration of making a change in our communities, because this is why we are where we are at in 2018. Slade: Mmm... It's so funny because, I'm going to throw a bumper sticker at you, but you are going to remember it: Think global, act local. Remember that?? Dr. Bird: I know!!! Slade: Yeah, I mean, that's really what you're saying. That's the answer. And you know something I've noticed too is, I was thinking about that the other day, I was thinking about the fact that, my daddy took me to vote for every Republican he could. And I ended up with such a completely different political opinion than him, but I do remember being taken to vote and thinking it was really cool to go behind the curtain. And it used to be all very like the Wizard of Oz... Dr. Bird: Yes! Slade: You know, it was that big machine... And so I thought it was amazing and I thought it was cool. And I can remember in elementary school - ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - we had mock elections. Dr. Bird: YES!!! Slade: I remember when it was like, you know, the Jimmy Carter Gerald Ford election in 2nd grade or whatever. Dr. Bird: Nice! Slade: We were taught to do that, and we were taught that it was this sort of holy thing that you did, you know? Dr. Bird: And you just said it, Slade. It is a HOLY thing. Slade: Yeah. Dr. Bird: The power of that vote is given to us as a GIFT. It is a gift just like our spiritual intuition. It is a gift just like our ability to breathe air and drink water. It is a GODDAMN GIFT to be able to vote in this country. It is an HONOUR and a PRIVILEGE to be able to vote for the people who represent you in office. It is NOT some bullshit strong-arm tactic that we have been led to believe it is by very conservative and very liberal groups of humans. And I will say this flat out until the day I die - this extremist bullshit that we have going on on the right and the left, there are so many of us that are in the middle, floundering, going, What the HELL do I do next? THAT'S why I do the work that I do. Because especially for women, but I think also for the LGBTQ community, and for minorities, and people of colour, there are... AND I will say, I will put Republican women in this camp as well. There are a shit-ton of us sitting right in the middle, going, What the hell do I do? Nothing. I got nothing. I don't know... The parties are completely out of control. The party platforms on both sides of the aisle are becoming ridiculous. Extremists. A line-in-the-sand views. It's not real! And we know this as spiritual practitioners, right? Like, we know that this extremist, hard-line, no nuance, black or white, there is nothing else, that's bullshit! That's not how it works! There is not a hard and fast way to do politics. And there is not a hard and fast rule to doing this. Trusting your gut to engage in social action is the way that we can be the leaders and shift this dynamic. That's the way. There's a whole ton of us in the middle. I will say, I don't... I cross party vote all the time. Especially at a local election level because I like fiscal conservancy. I've seen what happens when you've got a bunch of fiscally liberal people running child welfare. It doesn't work very well. You've got to find moderation in the middle. Slade: Well you know what's interesting too at the local level, my mom was asking me. She said, When you go and vote in local elections, you can't even really tell from the ballots, at least the way it's presented to us, locally, who is a Republican or Democrat. It's not necessary... Dr. Bird: That's because they're all non-partisan. They're all non-partisan. Slade: Right. It's not spelled out, and you know what? When I vote locally, a lot of the times I'm voting for people that I personally know. I'm voting for a doctor that I know that's running for office. I'm voting for someone that I've met in a cafe that I always talk to. You know what I mean? Dr. Bird: Yeah! Slade: They're actual real people. And I even notice when I went to vote this week, there was this man out there canvassing for someone who, honestly, I would never vote for in a million years. But he engaged me in conversation about something completely random, and we were kind of just standing there having a conversation on the sidewalk and it wasn't really about politics at all. But the whole time, I was thinking, Oh, I'm so glad he's standing here because my computer's in my car. And I knew that because I parked next to him, even though politically he was my enemy, I knew that he'd protect my shit when I went inside. Nobody's gonna mess with my car with this dude standing here. Like, he's just looking to bust somebody, you know? That whole experience and the conversation about the way that the parties are kind of not identified with at these really, really local elections, I was very much in the space of, a lot of that shit just falls away when you're dealing with people who actually live down the street from you. When you're dealing with people that you actually look in the face and have conversations with. It does matter less. And everyone hates "a group of people" except for their cousin that is one. Except for their hairdresser that is one. Dr. Bird: Umhmm. Slade: Those people they love, and that's why it's so important to kind of really authentically represent who you are in the world and just... go out and be friends with everyone. And be a nice person. And be yourself. Because, to me, that IS a form of political activism, you know what I mean? Dr. Bird: Yes, exactly! And it's not just about voting. Voting is a piece of this democracy, but it's not the entire democracy. It's also about us being really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really invested in getting out of the echo-chamber of our politics. So part of what happens is we tend to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals who think exactly like we do. That's the echo-chamber. We do it on Facebook, we do it on Twitter. We do it... We get entrenched in these spaces where we are just listening to ourselves talk over and over again because it's reflected in the people that we're surrounded with. The beauty of what you're talking about, about the dialogue that you're having in that group, is that you're not in an echo-chamber. Because there's people from all over that have differences of opinion. This is why I will always maintain this relationship with Amy in a respectful, intentional, delicious, glorious, graceful manner. Because I love connecting with people who aren't just like me. I love that! And I think, to keep ourselves safe, especially now, because of all of the threats that are coming at us, we have become even more entrenched in the echo-chamber and we're afraid to expand that conversation outside the people that think and behave just like us. And I think it is to our detriment. Because if I, I as this queer, you know, at the time I was married to woman at the Capitol and I was lobbying for Planned Parenthood, so here I am, this lesbian-identified, platinum blonde punk rock girl with hair like Pink, at the Utah State Capitol wearing high heels and fishnet and miniskirts, you know, like my inner Erin Brockovich, going in to the Capitol, talking about Planned Parenthood and sex... And I got 6 laws passed! Now if I can do that at the Utah State Capitol, don't tell me y'all can't make a difference somewhere else. Because that's where the rubber meets the road right there. You can go in... And by the way, those state houses, those are our houses. City Halls, the County Council, the State Capitol, we pay for that with our tax dollars. You wouldn't not walk into the front door of your own home. Don't be afraid to walk in to the front door of a house where policy is being made. Because you paid for that. That's ours! It's just like paying rent. Those are our houses. We own them. And we have to remind elected officials that those are our places too. They're public. They're not walled off from the public. It's different at the federal level. It's not - this is where I think the beauty of being involved and looking around our neighbourhoods and the spaces that we're in every single day, where we go to the grocery store, where our kids go to school, where the neighbours kids go to school, where we connect and interact at a very local level is where we should be getting involved politically. Slade: Well, and we, just to touch on a little bit, like your relationship with your friend who's conservative, we need ALLYS. When you were talking about safety, you know, if some jumped-up group is coming after your ass, you need somebody on their side of the fence to calm their ass down. Dr. Bird: Mmhmm! Slade: You need to be able to call into and talk within their bubble. You need a connection in there. Dr. Bird: Yes! Slade: Because that's how... that's where their consciousness, like if you want them to be conscious of who you are, they have to know you. And somebody within there needs to identify with you and connect with you as an individual person. Because when you think about people as human beings, you treat them differently. Dr. Bird: That is exactly right. That is exactly right. And you know, when I left Utah to go get my Ph.D in California. When I left Utah, they roasted me at an Irish pub in Salt Lake City and Gayle Ruzicka, who was the head of the Eagle Forum, which, Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, right? Super conservative group. Gayle Ruzicka came to my roast and roasted me and pinned me with an Eagle Forum pin, because she was like, You know what? I don't agree with you on almost every single thing, but I honour you and I respect you and I am going to miss debating you on that hill. Slade: Awesome. Dr. Bird: And for awhile, she would call me and say to me, Missy, I really miss you. I miss having that debate with you because it was always intentional and respectful. And this goes back to me using my intuition to talk to people who have absolutely not one damn thing in common with me. And it was scary. This is the other thing. I think people are just so fucking afraid to say the wrong thing, especially now. Because, you know, if we identify as Liberal Progressives, if we don't say the exact politically correct thing, we get ANNIHILATED by the Liberals. And if we identify with the Conservative Republican ideas, we get lambasted because we're not conservative ENOUGH. We're not hateful enough against the gays or whatever that is. And I think that that is what really... Like, stepping through my fear and being like, Okay, well I've got to get this bill passed because I want to help the homeless kids. And that's the other thing about tapping into your passion and tapping into your jam, and figuring out what lights you on fire. Because if you can tap in to that one thing, I don't care if it's the environment, or housing, or homelessness, or food or being pro-choice or anti-choice. Whatever your thing, I don't care what your thing is. I want you so tapped in to it that you know what lights you on fire so that you can advocate for that thing, because I actually think it's going to bring us more towards the middle and it will take people out of these extreme spaces and bring them into this space where they are acting from intention and love. Because you can't NOT when you're in your sweet spot. When you're in that place where you know without a shadow of a doubt that that THING that lights you on fire is the thing you're going to talk about all the time. And that's what I do. That's what I help people do, is figure out what that thing is so that they can go out and do that thing. Because when you do it, that's when people come around you from both sides of the aisle. It doesn't matter because you're so lit up and tapped in and turned on and just moving and flowing that you're like, Hell yeah! That's the person I want to be around. That person who's so excited and not being divisive. I'm not talking that excited divisive way. I'm talking the person who's willing to be imperfect in their activism, who's willing to be vulnerable in their activism, who's willing to say, This is who I am and this is what I believe in at the very core of my soul and my heart. Because this is what I want to do in the world. And that's a very different space than 'all the gays should be banished'. That's not the space I'm talking about. That's not passion. That's not speaking from a space of love and intention and grace. THAT is mean. Slade: Yeah. Be FOR something. That's always my rule is, when I start to stray into harping on what I'm against, as opposed to trying to come from a place of what I'm for. Dr. Bird: Yes!!! There's a bumper sticker. Slade: Just be FOR something. Because it's hard to be FOR things that are terrible. You know, it's harder, in a way. I think if you can come from a place of what you're for, you're also less likely to make people defensive. Because, like you said, you're vibrating in a high energy and a positive energy. And I've met people before who were, like at authors conferences and stuff, who write about really conservative Christian concepts, I mean, I live in the Bible belt, so if I go meet other authors, there's a really good chance that there's a minister in there somewhere who's written a book. One of the coolest women that I've met at one of those spaces is completely different mindset from me spiritually, but she desperately wanted to have lunch with me because she liked my energy. I was like, 'Of course you do.' Because she was so lit up about what she loved and what she cared about, and it was like we recognized each other's light, you know what I mean? Dr. Bird: Yeeeees! Slade: It wasn't about the filter that we had on it or what the container was or anything like that. It was just the light itself that drew us and made us say like, 'We need to have lunch because we're having too much fun talking.' And when I have those experiences, I'm like, why can't this be what, you know, it always feels like. Dr. Bird: But it CAN be because, I feel like, you know, we forget that people are equally as passionate as we are about certain things. So the reason Gayle and I work so well together is not because we had one damn thing in common. It's that exact thing: The passion in me recognized the passion in her. And I was like, Listen, you and I aren't going to get along on a policy level but as human beings, we can get along just fine. Thank you. And that's what we're forgetting in this whole thing. I don't have to agree with your policy or your politics, but I am deeply driven to respect people's difference because I don't want everyone to be just like me. I don't want to be trapped in my own echo-chamber. It gets a little bit loony in there sometimes! Slade: You don't want everybody rocking your look! Dr. Bird: No, listen! I am an individual, damnit. You know what I'm saying though? This diversity of thought is what makes this so fucking awesome. Slade: Yeah. All diverse systems are more healthy. Dr. Bird: Yes! Slade: Yeah. Alright. So I want you to tell me about something. So you have this program called Candidates Secret Weapon program. That sounds pretty badass, but just tell me what exactly is that all about? Dr. Bird: I'm so excited you asked me about this. So the Candidates Secret Weapon, my friend Melanie Childers, she and I met randomly though some groups online somewhere. And Melanie lives in Georgia and she and I connected and we were like, What are women missing... So we have all these women running for office in record numbers across the country. They're all being trained by these great organizations like Emerge, and all these fantastic organizations. But what Melanie and I have known from the years and years that we've been working together, or working in politics, is that in coming together, what Melanie and I really recognize is, we're training all these women to run, but then, and they've got this campaign staff and they're super awesome but then the criticism comes in. The personal attacks come in. The things we see when women run for office, where they get criticized for who they are, and they just get annihilated in the press. They get annihilated by the voter. They get this sort of... the patriarchy comes out and the sexism comes out. And the crap comes out. And the you've got women who worry about getting up to speak to their voters. They worry about making a mistake doing an interview with the press. They start to worry. And so their mindset and their energy gets off because women are running in a system that was created for white straight men to win. So now you have all these women and women of colour who are running, who are like, running in this system that's meant to keep the power in its place. And so the Candidates Secret Weapon is all about shifting the mindset and the energy and the intuition so that women are running as women. And so they are coming from this space of badass connection to their passion and their jam, so that their platform and their story fully resonates with people, so that they can manage their fears around fundraising and asking for money, because it's really hard for women to do that, for some weird reason. (I haven't figured that out because I love asking for money. It's like my favorite thing on Earth.) And managing their inner critic and dealing with all of the voices that come up, just in general. As women, we deal with this SHIT coming into us and we have to manage these critics that say you're not capable of doing this. You're not going to win. You're not going to be able to make this happen. We create, sort of, this confidence framework for women to be able to - THAT'S the secret weapon. The secret weapon is... There's a woman who's running for office somewhere in middle America. I can't remember off the top of my head right now, but she was being told by her campaign staff not to bring her kids with her on the campaign trail. She's like, I'm out of dissonance with this because I'm a mom! And I'm proud of my family. And I was like, Girl, take your kids out! Slade: Yeah... Dr. Bird: What are you talking about! Be in integrity with who you are! That's what this secret weapon is all about. It teaches women who are running for office how to hold, stay in their power, and communicate with confidence and do all these things that are intentional and vibrational to help them stay in that space of power, of their own spiritual power and their own intentional power and their own confidence so that they can win. Slade: So what's the response been like? So do you... Was it you that said you were like, paying your teenagers to track down their contact information to make a list for you? Dr. Bird: That was me! I was like, Listen, girls, I got a job for you. There's a lot of women running for office, right? And so, I'm like, I don't have time to do that! But I have teenagers who are doing nothing right now so I'll pay them. Slade: Ooo... very cool. Dr. Bird: Yeah. Because they're in-between work right now. It's my daughter and her best friend. So we have about 10 women right now who are going through the program. We're waiting for their feedback right now. I'm really excited to hear about it. I'm just sitting back here waiting. I kind of feel like I'm having this pregnant pause where I'm like, Ohmygod, When's it coming when's it coming? I'm just waiting. Slade: So this is a new... Dr. Bird: Brand new! Like, this is the first time I've ever actually talked about it. Slade: In the media. Dr. Bird: In the media! And so, it's kind of exciting! We set it up... When we first envisioned it, it was this sort of, 1-on-1 coaching program, because Melanie and I are both life coaches, and so it was this sort of 1-on-1 coaching thing and I was like, That's not big enough! It's gotta be bigger. And so, it is out online so all of... Melanie and I did videos and then we have workbooks. So it's me and Melanie whipping up all this stuff. And so we've got six videos that are an hour long, a little less than an hour long, apiece, and then workbooks that go with them. And I don't know what the response is, because we just barely launched it this week. Slade: I just had this flash of what it could grow into and I was picturing you with your army and that your army was actually women who would go and take that training and that message and go and be on these campaign teams. Like, you could just send all these people from the mothership to go to Georgia, to go to Iowa, to go to all these places and be that voice of what you're talking about, in that person's environment, right? That would be really cool. Dr. Bird: That would be really cool. We are, Melanie and I are gonna be, we've connected with, we're going to be at Netroots Nation, probably we will be doing that right when this airs or right after this airs. So I'm excited about that. We'll be talking to all these activists about the secret weapon, the activitst secret weapon, using the same kind of concept. So you are absolutely right in that vision, Slade. I can see it now! Slade: So someone who, this is really kind of cool actually because when we think about that person, who is this spiritually minded woman, I don't want to plug in to the toxicity of the network news broadcasts but I want to do something. Maybe their something is being part of your organization. You know, going out and representing. Dr. Bird: Yeah. I think that's absolutely, absolutely true. Is that connecting with the work that I'm doing so that you are tapped in to your passion and your jam and the thing that's lighting you up, that's exactly what I want to create in the world. Is people who are so tied in to how they want to BE. And it is the spiritual women who are like, I just don't want to sit down and be quiet anymore. I'm done being quiet. I can't sit here while this is happening but I don't know what to do. That is what I give to women and that is what I do. Slade: Well I was going to ask you about your legacy and you already told me so... That was gonna be the next question. That sounds like a good enough answer to my question that you psychically heard. So, when you go to your website, you have a free download that's called 'Five Can't-Miss Steps to Finding your Voice'. How does that feed in to your message and what you're talking about here? Is that an extension of this, or a tool people can access RIGHT NOW that will give them a piece of what you do. Dr. Bird: It is indeed a tool. I was so driven to figure out how to help people immediately figure out their passion. And so, when I came up with the 'Five Can't-Miss Steps', this is sort of based on all of my work that I learned, you know, 15 years ago, doing my work at the Utah State Capitol, so it's all about tapping in to your WHY and really being clear on why you want to do the things you're doing. Again, it goes all back to your passion and your jam. Tools to actually find your jam, which is not just the thing that makes you excited, but also your favorite song and how your favorite song makes you feel. There's that music that we hear that makes us... and I can't dance, let's just talk about white girl can't dance. I have NO rhythm at all. But man, when I hear, One Girl Revolution, that's one of my favorite songs, or even Pink or Ani, or even Carmina Burana's my most favorite symphony. When I hear that, I MOVE. My body cannot sit still. And that's your jam. And so one of the things that I'm trying to help people do is figure that out so that they can just put that song on all the time and be in their jam, so that they vibrate at a difference space, so that they can go out and do their thing. Slade: Oh! So it helps you figure out your theme song? Dr. Bird: Mmhmm. Slade: That's awesome. Dr. Bird: It helps you figure out your theme song AND so... it reminds you when you're listening to that song, I'm going to take action. Like, go do something. Send an email to an elected official. Send a thank you note. One of the things I talk about in my freebie is saying thank you and being grateful and putting your gratefuls out into the world. And saying thank you to someone who's actually making a big huge difference. So I am a big fan of the handwritten thank you note, because it's how I was raised, and I will write random thank you notes to Brené Brown, and Hilary Clinton and the people that I love. The people that inspire me. And I will write handwritten thank you notes to people like my county council people or my city council people. Or the guy running... we have a huge homeless problem here in Corvallis, and the guy who was running HOAC (Housing Opportunities Action Council). That guy needs a thank you note. He's getting lambasted right now. Like, people who I see in the community who are taking the shit but doing the good work, I'll send them thank you notes and say, thank you so much for doing what you're doing! I mean, yeah, like connecting to our community - that's what I teach. And I give people, in that 'Five Can't-Miss Steps to Finding your Voice', I also give people permission to be imperfect. Because I think that's the other neat thing we're really really wanting right now, is, how can I be imperfect when I'm terrified of being imperfect, because I've been told my whole life I have to do it perfect. I have to do it right. And I'm like, No. Fuck that. Be imperfect. I'm not perfect. But I am not going to shut up for nothing. And you can't make me. Slade: Missy, ohmygod, I want to talk to you about a million things and we probably will after we stop recording. (Sorry people, who are listening and want to hear all that.) So we make sure and let everyone know where they can go find you online, tell us where we can find you. Dr. Bird: Well, in Bird Girl fashion, I am my own industry and so you can find me at birdgirlindustries.com on the interwebs. I am also on Patreon, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, @birdgirl1001, because I'm a Libra so I have to talk about my birthday in all my things... Maybe I'll get birthday cards on 10-01! And so I'm on all of those things and I absolutely love engaging with people. It just makes me so happy. I had a woman the other night who was just... asking for how to just stop the chaos and move forward and I was like, Just breathe. And she's like, she sent me a message two days later and was like, That's revelatory! That's like revolutionary, so even if you aren't involved in one of my programs, even though I hope everyone gets involved in one of my programs... Oh! I also have a 'Marginalized No More' training online that's super easy to do that's got a couple of things that launches off of that freebie. So there's another thing online that's super fun that you can tap into. Slade: Yeah! Dr. Bird: But I just, you know, I love connecting with people and giving them little nuggets of joy to just go off into the world and take with them. So... I'm all about creating that army. Slade: Well, and I want to say to anyone who wants to follow you on Facebook. You are a really fun person to have on your Facebook friends because you ARE super enthusiastic, you like the hell out of stuff, your comments are always, you're a cheerleader for all your friends and I can see that... I like to call myself a professional Enabler. I am re-claiming the concept of 'enabling' because it's become such a dirty word but I find that so much of what I do is about hearing someone's dream and then thinking, Ohmygod YES that's an amazing idea. Let me convince you that you can do it. You know what I mean? Dr. Bird: Ooo I love that! Slade: And you're a kindred spirit in that way. And your presence is, that really comes through in your online presence. So I want to tell everyone, Don't be shy to be friends with you online. Because you're super fun and excited friend to have. Dr. Bird: Thank you! And I swear all the time so that's a bonus. Slade: Yeah, yeah. If you like the swearing then that's always available. Dr. Bird: (Inaudible) Slade: Of course you are! Why would you be on my show if you weren't. Dr. Bird: Listen, that is the goddamn truth. Slade: Missy, thank you so much for letting me capture this conversation with you. It's super timely and I'm sure that we will find many many more things to talk about in the future. But for now, I just want to say thank you. Dr. Bird: Slade, thank you so much for having me on. I'm so stupid happy about it I don't even know what to do with myself.

Our weekly news round up from across Orange County with Publisher Norberto Santana Jr. joined by the VOC crew of reporters, Nick, Thy and Spencer. The group talks about the intense last week in federal court and mass protests at city councils over the Orange County supervisors makeshift plan for homeless shelters across Orange County.

Air Date: 11/07/2017 Today we look at the systematic deconstruction of the environmental regulatory infrastructure at the hands of anti-environment radicals, otherwise known as the "Climate Denying Dream Team" Be part of the show! Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Join the Best of the Left Social Network! Donate or become a Member to support the show!  Visit: https://www.patreon.com/BestOfTheLeft  Show Notes Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill Ch. 2: Act 1: Trump’s ‘Dream Team’ of Climate Change Deniers Threatens the Planet - The Breach - Air Date 8-1-17 Ch. 3: Song 1:  Long and Low Cloud - The Bulwark Ch. 4: Act 2: War on the EPA - Frontline - Air Date 10-17-17 Ch. 5: Song 2:  Passionate Ending - Soft and Furious Ch. 6: Act 3: Trump Picks DAPL Lobbyist to Oversee EPA Water Safety in Same Week He Rolls Back Water Safeguards - @DemocracyNow - Air Date: 06-29-17 Ch. 7: Song 3:  Rotisserie Graveyard - Doctor Turtle Ch. 8: Act 4: Science under attack from Trump administration - Got Science? - Air Date: 8-15-17 Ch. 9: Song 4:  Turning to You - Landsman Duets Ch. 10: Act 5: How Will We Be Remembered? Demand Climate Action in Your Community Nov. 18th via Climate Legacy Time Capsule Project - Best of the Left Activism Ch. 11: Song 5: This Fickle World - Theo Bard Ch. 12: Act 6: Trump's PC Police Purging The Term 'Climate Change' - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 08-08-17 Voicemails Ch. 13: Banning guns wouldn't work - Zach from Atlanta, GA Ch. 14: An unarmed proletariat will always be dominated - Anthony from Salt Lake City, UT Ch. 15: Dems were unfair to Bernie who wasn't a Democrat - Erica from Massachusetts Voicemail Music: Loud Pipes - Classics Ch. 16: Final comments defending my personal friend, Martin O’Malley Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone (Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions and Free Music Archive)  Activism: TAKE ACTION! Demand Climate Action in Your Community on NOVEMBER 18th with the Climate Legacy Time Capsule Dedication demonstrations at State Houses and City Halls across the U.S.  Find a Dedication Day event near you  No event near you? Create one and get support!  EDUCATE YOURSELF Robert Redford: Scott Pruitt Is 'Hell-Bent' On Dismantling EPA Rules (Time) Scott Pruitt Declares War on Air Pollution Science (The New Republic) Here’s the Expertise Scott Pruitt Is Removing From the EPA’s Advisory Boards (Slate) EPA chief set to meet privately with chemical industry execs (ABC News) GAO to review whether EPA violated anti-propaganda law (The Hill) Another Trump aide seems to be caught up in the Russia probe (Vox) Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Support the show via Patreon Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on iTunes and Stitcher!

The third seminar of Series 7 took place on Tuesday 8 February 2011 at the City Halls in Glasgow. It was Plato who first observed that human beings naturally integrate the true, the good and the beautiful. We still observe this in our own lives when we are allowed to do so. Yet, the true (as manifested in the ideologies of scientism and economism) has been elevated in our work and professional lives to a position where 'evidence' and 'cost effectiveness' trumps all other considerations. The result is that we feel brutalised and not 'fully human'.