Podcasts about isds

Angenommen, eine Regierung beschließt den Ausstieg aus der Kohle, um ihre Klimaziele zu erreichen – eine absolut notwendige politische Entscheidung. Und nun stelle man sich vor, ein ausländisches Unternehmen verklagt diese Regierung genau dafür. Nicht vor den nationalen Gerichten, sondern vor einem privaten Schiedsgericht aus drei Schiedsrichtern, häufig Anwälte großer Kanzleien. Das Verfahren kann vollständig unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit ablaufen. Verliert der Staat, drohen Entschädigungszahlungen in Höhe von hunderten Millionen oder sogar Milliarden Euro. Und selbst im Falle, dass der Staat nicht verliert, bleibt er unter Umständen auf Anwaltskosten in Millionenhöhe sitzen. Dies ist leider kein hypothetisches Szenario, sondern passiert tagtäglich.

Das System von Investor-State-Dispute-Settlements ermöglicht es Konzernen und Investoren, Staaten auf Milliardenentschädigungen zu verklagen – etwa wenn Regierungen Umweltauflagen verschärfen oder umstrittene Bergbauprojekte stoppen. Ein neues Ranking von PowerShift zeigt nun, wie wenig europäische Länder, allen voran Deutschland, gegen diese ISDS-Klagen tun. Die Klagen untergraben nicht nur wichtige Umwelt- und Klimapolitik, sie schaden auch direkt den Menschen, die ihre Lebensgrundlagen beschützen wollen. Das berichten lokale Aktivist*innen aus Lateinamerika. Wächst langsam der Widerstand gegen die Sonderklagerechte? Und was sollten Länder tun, um sich gegen die Investoren zu behaupten? Darüber spricht Nora Noll mit Bettina Müller und Fabian Flues, Referent*innen für Handelspolitik bei PowerShift.

Today on the IC-DISC Show we're talking with John, Clive, and Kelly Hess from CompuCycle in Houston. John started in the metals business in South Africa back in 1966, came to the US in 1986 to run a brass and copper distribution company, and spun off a small scrap division that eventually became CompuCycle. Clive joined in 1996 fresh out of U of H. Kelly came aboard in 2013 from the nonprofit world and now runs the company as CEO. Three decades later they're processing 40,000 pounds a day and hold more certifications than any other electronics recycler in Texas. In this conversation, the Hess family talks about the moment the Basel Accord shut down their entire plastics market overnight, why they think scrap metal companies handling electronics is now a liability risk for corporate customers, and how they built their own plastic washing line to solve a problem the rest of the industry was still struggling with. Kelly also shares a partnership they've built with Pearland ISD that turns scrap dismantling into job training for autistic students ages 18 to 22. Whether you're in recycling or not, the Hess family's thinking on running a multigenerational business, earning certifications most competitors won't bother with, and treating customer problems as a moat instead of a cost is worth your time.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS How John Hess went from manufacturing copper ingot in South Africa in 1966 to building Houston's largest electronics recycler Why being R2 certified isn't enough, and what Compu-Cycle did after watching certified downstreams still send material to landfills The day the Basel Accord shut down their entire plastics market overnight, and how they engineered their way out Why scrap metal companies handling electronics has become a liability risk for their corporate customers The partnership with Pearland ISD that turns scrap dismantling into job training for autistic students What changed when Kelly came in from the nonprofit world and the family started hiring people smarter than themselves   Contact Details LinkedIn - Gordon Driscoll LINKS Show NotesBe a Guest About IC-DISC AllianceAbout CompuCycle   John HessAbout John Kelly HessAbout Kelly Clive HessAbout Clive TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Well good morning. So this is my first time. I've had three guests on the podcast at one time. We have John Hess, we have Kelly Hess, and we have Clive Hess. So where are you all, calling into from today? what part of the world are you all in? Where now? John: We, I'm a responder. We're in Houston, Texas. Dave: Okay. And so am I. So that's, that is good. what I wanna talk about, and the reason we're doing the three person interview is the company Compus Cycle has been in business a little over 30 years, is that right? Kelly: 30 years to this? 2026 is our 30th anniversary, so we're really excited. Dave: That is awesome. and so what I wanna do, I want to go to the far origin of comp cycle, which really starts with John. So what I'd like to do is just start off with a little background on John and his entrance and experience in the scrap metal industry. So John, where are you? What part of the world do you hail from? John: Originally South Africa and have been in the metal business all my life. started in, at the age of 23 in 1966. Go back a long way. Dave: Okay. And, and then you're in the metals business, Ferris, non Ferris, John: right? we, I was, we were ingot manufacturers. We manufactured copper and aluminum based ingot for the foundry industry. And, got into the. Computer business, way back in about 1975 when we imported a, a machine for stripping cables and Okay. This machine also had the capability of shredding,computers of the old mainframe computers. Of course, there were no PCs at that time. Yes, of course. So that was my introduction to computers. Dave: Okay. So you're,you're getting into the computer, so we're talking if I'm doing my math right, that was about 50 years ago that you're involved in the shredding, chopping cable, shredding mainframe computer components. Is that about right? John: That's about right. Yep. Dave: Okay. And then how did we get from there to Compu cycle? John: Well, in 19. In 1966, I was offered an opportunity to come to, sorry, I'm getting myself messed up. It was 1986 that I had an opportunity to come to the United States to manage a company that distributed bras and copper bars and rods. Dave: okay. John: And we, while whilst there, I started a scrap division and that scrap division eventually became Compus Cycle. Okay. Right. Dave: Okay. So did, so was Compus Cycle like a literal spinoff from that company or was, did the idea come to you while you were there and you started a completely separate company? John: Well, we started it as a spinoff of that original company and, after a few years of running that business, I decided to leave the parent business and, get comp cycle going on its own. comp cycle started in the 1990s, as, A computer processing facility. Dave: Okay. And what does the name mean? John: What, what would the, what does the name mean? Dave: Yeah, I'm guessing it, it's like computer recycling that they John: kinda, yeah, computer cycle. we were largely in the scrap processing business at that time, but occasionally found product that was resalable and. okay. We actually repaired that and resold it. and that is how comp cycle began its existence, and it become a whole lot more sophisticated, over the years. Dave: Okay. Now, when you launched it, were Clive and Kelly involved at that time? John: Clive became involved. Clive, I can't remember the year. When was it? Dave: Yeah. Clive: I was involved, Kelly in 1996, I believe I was involved. Yes. And Kelly became involved in 2013. Was it 2013? Kelly: It's in 14 years. Believe it or not. Clive: Yeah, Kelly: 14 years. Dave: yeah, Kelly couldn't have, obviously Kelly couldn't have been involved from the beginning because she would've been in elementary school 30 years ago. Kelly: Well, no, I was that when he said, John said 50 years. I was like, okay, well that's exactly my whole life livelihood. And then, but yeah, no, Clive, I think, funny enough, we were dating when you were involved in Compu Cycle, but It was great though because Clive graduated. Well, you tell your story. You graduated from U of H and then jumped in. Clive: Yeah, I graduated, got involved and, we were, as my dad mentioned, primarily doing electronic scrap. and it evolved. it was really interesting. Back then there were very few companies doing what we were doing. And so not really knowing how to do what we were doing, we could survive and, we, we were scrapping mostly for the metal and precious metal recovery. Okay. Dave: And Clive: evolved into harvesting components, reselling the components, and then the refurbishing of equipment. On a very basic level, reselling it. And,as mentioned today, we are far more sophisticated than what we used to be 30 or 25 years ago. so it, it's, it, it grew from a very small business into a, today we're, we are a very. nice mid-size company. In our industry, John: we like to think of ourselves as the most dominant computer processing facility in, certainly in Houston and probably in Texas. Dave: Okay, so Clive, when you joined. I'm guessing it was a cushy job. You're the boss's son. You probably just sat at a desk with your feet on the desk, smoking a cigar all day, I'm guessing. Is that, was that about right? Is that kind of how it worked out? Clive: I would love to agree. family businesses are very unique, Dave, and, it, it, I'm very blessed. I'm very grateful for what I have. but it, that, I wish that was the case. No, we were certainly, yeah. Very involved and very entrenched. And, and,it's been a, it's been wonderful working with my dad and, it's been. more wonderful working with my wife. Kelly: He's just trying to be nice. That's a whole other podcast, Dave. Dave: Sure. Yeah. And obviously, and oh, and obviously I was joking with you, Clive, because usually the story is that when you're the boss's son, it's hard. Your life is harder because you're held to a different standard. Sometimes your dad has to go the opposite way and be even harder on you than the other employees. Clive: Yeah, he was actually,I will say,very easy with me. and,but it's, it, I was working for John: him getting clever aboard. Definitely took us to a higher level than we were when I was here on my own. And getting Kelly aboard gave us, a further injection to the extent that we've over the last 13 years since Kelly's arrival com cycle has matured enormously, it's become from simply another scrap, another computer scrapping business. To a sophisticated computer, refurbishing and scrapping as well. our scrap division has grown enormously with the addition of a shredding plant for computers and more recently a shredding plan for plastics, which, makes us unique in terms of having abilities that others simply do not have. Dave: Okay. No, that I get that. What, so I'm a chronological thinker. I'm an accountant. And so what I'd like to do is let's go back 30 years. You touched on it, John. Let's think about like the big milestones. So it, the company started in 96, if I'm doing my math right, in 1996. And what year did you join Clive? Clive: in 96 I was Dave: Okay, so the same time. Clive: Yeah. Dave: So as you think back, what was like maybe the first significant milestone? If we're thinking like in five year kind of impli or increments, like any major things that happened in those first five years that were, meaningful to where we got to today? Clive: If, gosh, going back 30 years, I can't go back three years, but,it's, bringing on. Large accounts. I think the first large account that I recall bringing on, would be Texas Children's Hospital. Okay. And,when we, that was a significant account that we brought on recycling the electronics, I think I, that would be a, certainly a milestone. and then going back to 2000,this is further ahead by 2010. We became the first certified electronics recycling company in Houston. And that was certainly a very large milestone because we were the only,for quite a few years, and that brought on additional accounts. what does takes life? Yeah. What Dave: I'm, I don't mean to interrupt. what does certified mean? Clive: So in, in our industry, there was no benchmark or there was no qualifications that one would have, one could have to identify themselves as a responsible electronics recycling company. Okay. And, corporations were familiar with the ISO certifications and Yeah. In 2008, the EPA. Stakeholders, created a certification called the R two, which stands for Responsible Recycling Practices Certification. Okay. And in order to achieve that, companies had to, follow a certain practices. Had to be certified just like companies who are ISO certified. Okay. We through the process of becoming certified, and it, it takes about, six months to a year to achieve that certification where you are, monitored. you have to recycle materials in a certain manner. you have to, adhere to the practices. You cannot just export products overseas anywhere to anybody without any, okay. Standards. And so we achieved that certification, which was,at that time extremely difficult, especially, a small company that did not have, Processes, policies, procedures that were documented in a sure professional manner. So that was, I think our, a very large step, moving in the right direction. and David, today we have the most certifications of any electronics recycling company in Texas. okay. So we, we have, I think seven certifications. Which would be the ISO 9,001, 14,001, 45,001, 27,001 certification. Then R two certification. E Steward certification, na AAA certification. so we have certifications, that, the scrap metal companies have zero. so scrap metal companies recycling electronics, is actually a. it is a,a liability risk, to corporations who may be sending the electronics to scrap metal companies for recycling because they don't adhere to any certifications. where we, we have seven that we have to adhere to. So when you're recycling with compute cycle,your products are handled in a very professional and, Very secured manner, especially today with where we are compared to back then. Dave: Yeah, I can, no, thank you for pointing that out. Because I can tell you, so I've been fortunate enough to be a, a donator of computers to your company through the years. I suspect I'm not your largest account. but of course my biggest concern was the confidentiality of the data. Okay. Because, I'm not a computer expert. I don't really know how to wipe a hard drive. And even if you wipe a hard drive, somebody who really knows what they're doing can still, I'm told, can still recover data some way. So I was looking for a way that I could just give you guys my laptop and be confident that data was never going to find a home elsewhere. Clive: Yeah. Dave: so is that the biggest concern of like your large corporate. providers or customers. Clive: Yeah, it's, and, let me just, one other milestone I'll say Okay. That I want to throw in was certainly, Kelly joining Comp Cycle. And, it's, over the years I've delegated, responsibilities or responsibilities have been removed from me and, Kelly is the CEO of comp cycle. And truly, Kelly is, an incredible leader of comp compute cycle. I'm, I, I always tell people that, and I've mentioned earlier that I'm truly, I'm blessed and, Kelly is phenomenal. And working with Kelly,is extremely rewarding for me, because of what we've accomplished. and we continue and we have the most amazing team at Compu Cycle. Company culture in this at Compute Cycle is extraordinary and it's because of Kelly and the team. So I think I'm gonna bow out now and I'm gonna pass. Okay. Kelly: Yeah. No, but hold on. Because they don't give themselves enough credit in the sense of where we've gotten to. where I came in about 2012 was our kids had, I came up from the nonprofit world. That was my life after graduation. And,I did a public relations psychology communications degree. Okay. Fell in love with nonprofit world and the fundraising of it and development directors of various different nonprofits. And, almost 25 years ago, October, Clive and I got married and Oh wow. Had, our two beautiful daughters. When I was working, I decided to stay home and raise the girls, but was doing some marketing and communications that really wasn't existent at the time for comp cycle while I was working at home. And, it was an amazing company for me because both John and Clive created this company that was really green before it was even cool to be green. And, wanted to really try to see how we could maximize what we were doing because the growth had been. Flat and we were, they were doing well, but we needed some type of growth in business development. So that's where I decided I was gonna come in for a couple years and try to just build clients, try to find new business. Okay. And we were, very blessed and lucky that we did, where we were able to get some very large accounts. And a lot of these accounts we were working with were saying, we don't understand why you're not a women-owned business. Okay. Like this there, obviously in this world, in this niche of the business we're doing, there's not a lot of women-owned businesses, okay. And what a growth possibility or opportunity it might be if you become women-owned. Okay? that is where it all started. And so 10 years ago I signed the dotted line and decided to see, okay, I'm really gonna see what we can do and build with Compus Cycle. but. I would definitely say yes, I've been able to grow the business with business development and accounts, but where the growth has really come is getting the right people on our team. It has been the strength of the,our management team. the actual managers of our company are, we have about a hundred employees right now. And Oh, wow. Yeah. And all of them are so dedicated. They're loyal. We've had some with great tenure with us, but it was really us realizing we had to start hiring people smarter than us. And that if we wanted to really grow, Dave: and Clive was the first one that made that hire. When he brought Kelly: Well, and then I've had to make, and then as a team, we've definitely hired a few more of those, which, has really been what has got us to this next level. and It's exciting to see, but I think what I'm most proud of with Compi Cycle as our company and what we've been able to create is, I am so proud to say when it comes if to looking for the most responsible, the most secure, the most sustainable and circular solution, you cannot do better than Compe Cycle. And we have such great differentiators of especially being here in Houston. I mean it when I say it, David, there is you. No reason why any company in Houston should not be using Comp Cycle. 'cause we are the only one that can truly show and guarantee responsible recycling because we're not only that recycler, most recyclers are sorters. They're going through the equipment. What can they reuse and what can they resell? Sure. And being a certified company, we are so proud to be dual certified with that R two and E Steward certification. But in my opinion, being certified is not enough because certified companies have to use certified downstreams. But being in the business for 30 years, we have unfortunately learned the hard way. And it's those Downstreams certified or not. Which is unfortunately where a lot of the landfill, the exporting and finding your three things on eBay happens. Okay? So we said as a team, no more, and we put in our processing facility next door and a multimillion dollar shredder where we're now, everything that comes to us, if we're not able to reuse and resell, which we're gonna give value back to our customer if we can resell it. But if not, it's gonna go next door to that processing plant and it's gonna turn directly into its raw materials. The steel, the plastic boards, aluminum, copper, and it goes directly to the mills smelters and refineries to be recycled. So that's like the biggest difference where, you know anyone, any company that uses us can sleep at night knowing that it's being done the right way and things aren't leading comfy cycle. And that is like what I am most proud of. And then we took it to the next level with putting in the plastics plant because epl, most electronics are made about 60% plastic and the EPL is dirty. So we created a sink float system where really the plastic gets about four different bath. And we're able to separate the plastic and then as well as separate it with an electrostatic machine that breaks. Its down to its A, B, S, and PS form. So we can create domestic solution now for the plastic. So that's where we Dave: got Kelly: the most circular. But what's really been amazing is us being able to see how Compi cycle is really that last piece of having an effective cybersecurity plan. If a company's gonna put all this money in protecting themselves from with the cybersecurity. But at the very end, they're not taking care of their equipment in the disposal, then it means nothing. So we've really tried to pose ourselves as like really the most critical, essential piece to the end of that plan because we wanna make sure things are done the right way. Dave: No, that. That is great. So by the way, I just wanted to clarify something with Clive. So one thing you and I share, Clive, is we both married way over our head and we're both married to rockstar wives. So when I say that. you married someone smarter than you. I can say that being that I'm in the same boat. So I'm just letting you know, I'm not really picking on you. I'm more, commiserating with you that we,we really, got way over our head with our spouse, selection. Clive: David. I agree. we certainly did. And, I, I have three women in my life and believeing me, they're all smarter than I. but I wanted to just, add on what Kelly mentioned. for me, my, my goal with Compute Cycle was to have a solution to our clients that was a completely secured solution. And where chain of custody remains with Compus Cycle. So when we, and we invite our clients, we've, we invite all prospective, clients to visit Compute Cycle. To see the process. To understand the process. once you see it, it's very easy to understand it and any questions that, or concerns that you may have. You mentioned earlier you wanted to make sure that if you drop off your product at Compute Cycle, you are mostly concerned about your data and how do you know? That it's gonna be handled correctly. So when we bring clients into our facility and our facilities, our access controlled facilities, we have security on site. So it is very secure. But when you go through the facility and we show you, we walk you through where it arrives and how it's processed. Any questions, concerns? we have companies that will audit us. We have their security departments, visiting compute cycle. we have cameras in our shreds where you can see the product being shredded. we, we show people how it's been done and it is absolutely a closed loop solution, which is exactly what I've always wanted. And we have that process today to offer to our clients, which is a major, we talk about, what would be the milestones, that is a milestone that we've actually achieved today where there is nobody. There's no other electronics processor in Houston. We are the third or fourth largest,city in the United States, and we are the exclusive processor in Houston. very proud of doing that. And in Texas, we're the exclusive electronics processor separating plastics into single polymer plastics. Okay, if clients are always concerned about data. Cybersecurity. We are the only electronics processor in Texas that's ISO 27,001 certified. so we can check the cybersecurity just through that certification. But we do these things because we wanna be a leader in the industry and we also want to protect our clients throughout the entire process. Dave: Yeah. So let's So by the way Kelly: Yeah. The right way. Dave: Oh yeah. How long has it been since you moved across the street to your current facility? Like three years ago, but I'm pretty sure it's been longer than that. Clive: 20, 20 18 we moved into. This facility and in 2019 we opened up the processing facility. Kelly: But I think it's important to note that in 2018, that facility was 40,000 square feet. When we moved here, it was 80,000 square feet, so we doubled our size and that next year we bought next door for our processing plant, which is now another 50,000 square feet. Yeah. So truly tripled our size. In one year. And so the good news is we have capacity, we to do more, which we'd love. In our processing plant, we do about 40,000 pounds a day of processing. Oh wow. But we could do 60. and I would love to get us to two shifts. we'd love to always get more customers and we'd love to be able to show prospects and customers to tour our facility. We're so proud of what we're doing and how we do it, and we're very transparent, so we encourage any prospect to schedule a tour with us. And something off also that we offer just more is less a community service, but also because it's the right thing to do is residents can bring their equipment to us five days a week and drop off, and we'll be happy to recycle it free of charge, destroy all their hard drives, so residents don't have to worry about their data. Dave: that is great. It sounds like I'm overdue for a tour because it's been, it was probably 2020 that I was last there. It was probably right after the Shrider got started. Yes. Certainly I've not seen the plastics recycling. So talk to me to the extent that you're comfortable discussing in general terms, because you made the comment that depending on the value you can extract from the machine, some of that value may go back to your customers. Can you gimme just a general sense, like let's take some company that. Recycles a thousand computers a year. What's the general process? Do they deliver 'em to you? Do they have a big container? Do you go pick 'em up? Like why don't we just start at the beginning? How does it work, Kelly? Kelly: Yeah, no, and I'll let Clive go into more of the pricing. He's the pricing guru for us. But really what you know, what's so great is that we can accept material. We have 3 24 foot box trucks driving. I call 'em my walking bill, driving billboards. They're going around the city all day long, picking up equipment. And so we bring stuff here directly to us, but also companies can ship things directly to us. Dave: Okay. Kelly: And or if there's locations outside of Houston and they want us to either white glove service to pack it and or we can ship it. We have our own logistics where we can bring and a arrange. So really from anywhere in the United States, we can handle collections. But what's the process really is once a customer is in our system, Clive or myself are the only ones that are able to develop a contract for that company, and it gives us the exact instructions of what they want. Some companies need everything destroyed. Some things will allow us to give value. So depending on the contract, we have specific instructions. But what we're also so proud of is all the data bearing devices come in and we put our own asset tag on that equipment. Okay. So we'll be able to track that equipment as it comes into Compu cycle and we can see exactly what happens to it, where it goes, where it is in the process. But our customers can also, so they can, oh wow. Serial number of a machine. They can be able to see exactly when it was recycled. This online portal holds our certificates of data destruction, certificate of recycling. So all of these things our customers can access at any time. But when it comes to value, usually our baseline is anything five years and younger, and that has this working condition. But I'm gonna let Clive take over at this point. Clive: Yeah, it's, so where we can. Refurbished product for reuse, we give value back to the customers. Okay? So typically if product's five years old or younger, we gotta give value back to the customers. We are gonna destroy the data. we sanitize the data using Department of Defense Compliance Software, our reporting, we will report the mate model, serial number, capacity, of the hard drive and include in the report. The parent's serial number that the drive,belongs to. So very detailed reporting, drives that fail the process. We physically shred. we have some clients, as Kelly mentioned, we have some clients where a hundred percent of the equipment coming in here has to be shredded. We have camera surveillance throughout the entire facility, so you can witness the,the process in person, or you can witness the process via camera. but where we can repurpose and reuse, we give value back. our sales channels, we sell to various verticals, depending on the age of the equipment. so we sell product domestically. We sell product internationally. we actually, have launched and we, David, I think we are the only company in our industry. we have online sales where our customers. Can actually witness the sale of their products and see the value that we actually are getting for their products. So we are Oh wow. Truly transparent, where our clients can see what the value of the product is. We have a lot of clients that ask us how do we know we getting the maximum value? So we now have a way for them to see what the value is, and then we are selling that on a revenue share basis. Where based on what we sell, they'll get X and we'll get Y. Okay. So we are trying to maximize the value, for our clients and whatever we cannot resell. We process through the shredding plans. Kelly: Ooh. I have to mention, I love also that one of our biggest buyers too is ISDs across the country. Dave: Oh, really? Kelly: Okay. We can buy three systems for the price of one, and we sell with warranties. So I'm so proud that we're able to provide school districts across the country with the affordable equipment for the students. Dave: No, I, I like that. So I'm curious,you're the only, computer recycling, client we have and so I'm more familiar with a traditional yard, so like a scenario where there's like a manufacturing facility. And they have like turnings and scrap metal that comes from the processing facility that's clean. Now, my understanding is that type of material, the recycler is actually paying for that material. Now, I would imagine in the computer world it might be different if a client wants everything destroyed. Are they, do they tend to pay you or are you still paying them because of the scrap value? Clive: it's both. so yes, we do give scrap value. but there, there are items where there is a cost for us to, it's not like a scrap metal company where you're bringing in clean aluminum, dirty aluminum, steel, copper, et cetera, et cetera. TVs for example, when we are processing TVs, inside the TVs, there's products that there's a cost for us to disposal. If it's the lamps, the glass, the panels where there is a cost for us to process and dispose of that. So if, a company just had cable and we brought in the cable, yes. We'll give them cable value, just like the scrap metal companies we'll pay for For that product. So it's a combination of both. that,and, depending on the volumes, we will price it that way. So we do have manufacturers, that need their products shredded and we will then,there's a cost for us to process and there's value that we give for that material too, and we will. we will, we'll share that, certainly the value with them as well. Kelly: And David too. What I think is so important is that we also provide incredible environmental scorecards and sustainability reports for our customers. Okay? So we're actually able to show them what has been diverted from landfill. What is the reduction of carbon footprint? And especially having that processor next door, we can actually break it even down to the actual metals of what, what it is that's been recycled. What's been reused, what has been resold, so we can provide all that data to them to make them be able to show their corporate sustainability departments what difference they're able to make by using a company like Comfy Cycle. Dave: Okay. So and so your customers, are they like across industries? I'm guessing you guess some oil companies as clients. Kelly: Healthcare. The healthcare and oil and gas here in Houston obviously are very heavy, but we handle companies of all sizes, all industries. And, what's Dave: the minimum size that it makes sense for them to have a conversation with you? do they need like, a hundred employees or thousand employees or Clive: Yeah, the, the, so companies can, they can deliver their product to us. Dave: Okay. Clive: or we can, so small companies,there, there are very small companies that will bring their product to country Cycle to. To be processed. Dave: like the way my company does it. Clive: Yeah. Dave: we just drop it off. We don't pay you anything. You don't pay us anything. You just take care of it. Clive: Correct. so yeah, it's, it really is any size, most importantly,is how we process the material. And that is not going to a landfill, that we are not exporting it, overseas to. any to a downstream that is, that, that is not to third world countries that cannot recycle the product correctly. we have to adhere to very strict regulations and, hence we open up our processing plants where we can shred into the raw materials. and so we are not exporting. Products overseas. We process, we processing it domestically. And what we do export is the raw material. So yes, we can, well, the steel we sell domestically, but the aluminum and the copper and the boards and the plastics, we can sell that domestically or we can sell internationally as the raw material. Dave: Okay. Clive: Yeah. Dave: So talk to me about the plastics recycling. Before you started doing that, was that product just going to the landfill? Clive: No, so the plastics industry, the plastics, the plastics were being shipped to Malaysia. the Malaysia is the largest plastics market for,I'm going to for low grade plastics material and John: Okay. Clive: In. appro approximately five years ago, the Basel Action Network. so the Basel Accord passed a law regarding recycling of plastics and certain low grade plastics, had to be,recycled in accordance with the Basel action. John: okay. Clive: Accord and really what that came down to with electronics, plastics is that you could not, Malaysia, which is, which ratified the Basel action Accord, was not allowed to import mixed e-waste plastics. Okay, because the United States has not ratified the Basel Action Network. It was not illegal to export other United States, but it was illegal for them to import into Malaysia. Okay? And so the Basel Action Network put a lot of emphasis on monitoring what was leaving the US and what was going into Malaysia. so it basically went from plastics. All the e scrap guys selling plastics to Malaysia, to, there's no market to sell the plastics. There's no value in the plastics, and what do you do? And that became a massive problem in our industry. Fortunately, we decided many because we were shredding electronics and were generating the plastics. We wanted to further process plastics and we wanted to extract the metals, excuse me, from the plastics. So we added on to our processing line, a plastic washing and sorting system so we could remove the metals, have clean plastics, and get more value for the plastics. And the timing was just, it was wonderful because we just happen to do this at the right time. So today we have a solution for the plastics. We can sell plastics domestically. Or we can sell plastics internationally. In order to sell it internationally, you have to separate the A, b, S and PS plastics, which we can do, or we can sell it domestically mixed. So we have a plastic solution. the plastics, I'm grateful. We not in the, we, we always tell our clients we're not in the plastics business. We don't want to be in the plastics business. we just happen to generate plastics. The plastics markets. at the moment are very depressed markets. Kelly: so I always say it's sustainability over profitability, but it's Dave: okay. Clive: Yeah. Sorry. and that's why we are very grateful. We are not in the plastics business, but it is a,today the virgin plastics actually,are it's the recycled plastics. The virgin plastics prices are so low right now that the recycled plastics is not a needed plastic. in Europe, they are mandated to use a certain percent of recycled plastics, the manufacturing of equipment that does not exist in the United States. So there's a much stronger demand for the plastics internationally than there is domestically. hence we can sell the plastics internationally. but it's a wonderful, it's wonderful that we can offer this to our clients. it has opened many more doors to compute cycle because clients who are concerned about the environments, who do want to do the right thing, who wanna make a difference and wanna make an impact. they are using compute cycle because of our capabilities. Dave: Okay. Clive: Yeah. Dave: Well, I, I just looked at the clock, man. Time flies when you're having fun. as we're rounding the home stretch, I just have a few more questions. so Kelly, so you and Clive and John have done a great job of explaining it. Why? Comp is uniquely positioned to serve companies, especially in Houston and Texas. but I'd like to flip the question. Can you share a customer story or two as far as what your customers tell you that they love about comp? Can you think of like a couple. A couple examples, like where somebody had a different solution that was problematic, then they found compus and Compus, really made a big difference. Can you think of a couple examples? And you don't need to mention the company's by name if it's Kelly: not Yeah,no. I think one of the things I'm most proud of with, Compus Cycle is that we are not a cookie cutter approach. We really create tailored solutions for all of our companies because working with companies of all sizes, all industries, all of the needs are different. So we've really been able to tailor solutions to what their needs are. But I really think what's amazing is John, Clive and myself, what pride we put into our customers. And they're able to see that as owners of the business, that we actually, how much we're involved and how much we care. I give every potential customer and customer my cell phone. If there is ever a concern, a problem, an issue that they're having, they can call me directly. We have a great sales team, but if they're not getting what they need or if there's a problem, I want to know so they can call me directly. And we really work on having the personal relationship with our customers of, and again, of all sizes. okay. Every customer we have means something to us. And I think like that's one of our great selling points, and something that's important to us. But I also think too that, we love to grow. We're all about continuous improvement. So we challenge our customers that if they have projects or different types of equipment, that they're not sure if it's something that we can process or do. Send us a picture. Tell us what your project is, let us see if we can do it. If we can grow our services, because that's what, how we grow as a company, and then we can offer more to our other customers. Okay. So we really challenge them to see what else can we do to help them. Clive: Yeah. I, Dave, let me add that, the feedback that I get from a lot of our customers is how responsive we are. If you email compute cycle within 24 hours, you'll have a response. you need something done, we get to it. they are amazed at how efficient we are at what we do. large corporations where typically they're waiting three or four or five days, we get back to them immediately and then their pain points. We had a client a week ago that, it's a very large client. They're international clients that needed a solution for, certain hard drives and certain devices,that are very,important devices that they do not want to leave their facility. They want to be able to, just wipe these devices individually themselves. we are very easy. They use our license, they wipe the device and they send the device to us. So we can electronically do that, where they can just log in through the portal, click a button, and it will erase the data from the device. Dave: oh Clive: wow. It's, we have solutions. We work with our clients to make their lives easy. We make their lives so simple. we have a team that does data center decommissioning. So we go on site, we decommission the data center Kelly: all over the Clive: country. We do that all over the country. Oh, wow. And it's a very experienced team. And the feedback that we get is. You guys can do it in a week. The last company that we used, it took them three weeks. So we are very efficient, and we are very transparent. I mentioned when we selling your product that you can see the value that we selling your product. It's just we are so good at what we do and when we can prove that to our clients. We never lose clients. once you come on board with Compus Cycle, the experience is unbelievable. And, we truly are the expert in our industry, because this is exactly what we do. And yes, we have much larger competitors, but we are very streamlined, we are very efficient, we are very nimble and we get things done very well. and so we are so excited 'cause we are growing. We really are growing within this industry and our capabilities are unbelievable and we continue to improve. right now, we focusing on data, we focusing on ai, we focusing on how do we become more efficient at what we doing. within these two facilities, we are processing the same amount of material, 50%. More efficient than where we were two years ago. So really Dave: That's Clive: amazing. we need to move into another facility today. Kelly: today we just need more equipment. Clive: Yeah. it's just incredible. So we continuously, we set goals and we continuously, achieve those goals. and,we're, we are growing and we're. Kelly: But really to be a family owned business, which we are, and what John, started for all of us is what is, what's amazing is that we still haven't lost that We can now do what all the big boys do and our processes and procedures and services, but we also are still very much. A family owned business in the sense of I hope our customers realize how much we care and that we're available to them and our team cares. And I just hope that says something that we haven't lost that. Clive: Yeah, we're not a mom and pop organization, but we are, we treat our clients with the same respect as we would like to be treated and we treat our employees. Like they are, family to us. we, and our facility is clean. Our facility is dust free, our facility is safe. Our employees have the the PPE that is required. we are always looking out for employees. I was actually at a facility yesterday. that I, yesterday I came home to Kelly and I said, I've never seen something so dusty. And disgusting and how they would allow the employees to be in that environment. When I left that facility for an hour, I was copying and it was just, it was awful. And we would, it's just not who we are. And this is an international company. I could not believe it. And we will never treat our employees. wow. in that regard. Dave: So it really sounds like the philosophy that your relationship with your customers is more than just a vendor, customer, that it's truly a partnership. Kelly: Absolutely. Dave: Right. and that you are, you work together, you're always, trying to improve things. And then it also sounds like the relationship with your employees is somewhat similar, that it's a partnership. Y'all are in this together and you play different roles, but everybody's important and, Does that kind of summarize that? Kelly: Yeah, no, we definitely know, see people for their strengths and and maximize them to what they're good at and what they have a passion for. And it's worked. It's an Dave: equation works. So I have one more question and it's for each of you this, so it's the same question to each of you and you can't copy one another's answers. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna start with John. So John, at this point. In your career, in the evolution of Compus Cycle, what do you enjoy the most as far as your role these days with the company and with Clive and Kelly? what brings you the most enjoyment? John: Okay. So I'm at the stage of my career, right at the end stage of my career. what I enjoy most. Is watching the success of Kelly and Clive, which I find so remarkable. And the, when I look at the company now and relate where it's at to where it was when, they came on board, the differences like chalk and cheese, the difference is massive. volumes of business that we doing. the relationship with employees, the relationship with customers, all of these things has metastasized into so much more than it used to be. Okay? So that is what I'm proud of, and that's what I enjoy most. Dave: Yeah, that, that answer doesn't surprise me. I. I see you more frequently, socially than I do Kelly and Clive, and I've always had that sense that pride, in just the how gratifying you found, you find that you started this thing and that Clive and Kelly have really just taken it to a whole new level. So that, that makes Kelly: sense. But don't let him pull you. He's here every single day. And a door is always open. And really a consultant of consultants when it comes in helping us with our scrap metal side still of the business and everything. So he's here every day. Dave: Well, that, that is great. I'll go to Clive next. So in your current capacity, what do you enjoy the most? What gives you the most satisfaction? Clive: Yeah. I, Dave, I enjoy. also watching the growth and the success of country cycle. But I think what's, I enjoy doing things that make me happy, where I used to have to do everything. I now can focus more on establishing partnerships, focus more on, working on the business,instead of the nitty gritty little things that I used to be so bogged down on. I don't have that anymore. So it's helping salespeople be successful. putting quotes together that are,very difficult, because of the experience that I have. So it's, it's that's,it's, that's what I enjoy. Yeah. Dave: Awesome. Kelly last stop Clive: and watching loves. Kelly: Yeah. So I have to say, I can this answer, I can finally give you confidently. 'cause I probably, if you asked me the last few years, I wouldn't be able to say so confidently. because now by having a sales team, I'm not always having to focus on finding the new business. And also being able to not be in the nitty gritty as much and be more at a higher view. But I have finally gotten my nonprofit life back and been able Oh John: yeah. Kelly: Yes. And combine both. So there's two things I have to tell you that we're doing that I'm just Dave: sure Kelly: beyond proud of. The first thing just happened recently and we've been trying for years to make this happen, but we have a partnership with Goodwill Houston. Dave: Oh, you do? Okay. Kelly: Yes. And so Goodwill Houston, you know their mission is to empower lives by work. And to employ people by work. And the way they do that is by having all of these donation centers, people donate and then they're able Put their money into the career development. Well, we wanted to be able to have a place where people could donate or to give their equipment. So when Goodwill accepts electronics, if they can't sell those electronics, we're gonna take them, and then we're gonna pay them for the scrap value. Oh Clive: wow. So Kelly: we're one responsibly handling all the stuff they can't sell. And two, be able to provide money back to them where they can put it into their programs. So I'm very proud that's a partnership we have here in Houston and that's developed just recently. And then we also have a partnership working right now with Pearland ISD that we're trying to now replicate within other ISDs. And I have to give Clive credit for this because he's the one that really created a training facility for individuals at school that are, That I No, that no. That have,the gift, like really the children that are on the spectrum of autism. So they have, from 18 to 22 years old at schools, those students that have somewhat graduated high school but still need time to develop, we've created a job track, a training facility where they're able to dismantle the equipment. Oh wow. John: We Kelly: to then pay, it's the equipment that they're dismantling is their school's equipment. We're then picking it up as scrap. We're paying them for that scrap so they can keep the program sustainable. As well as pay some of their students as interns. They're getting job training, which I can now bring over to Goodwill. Have them go into the job piece of work. Wow, that's amazing. Not only are we circular solution and recycling, but my goal is to create a circular solution and community impact. Dave: That is awesome. That is awesome. That's what Kelly: I'm excited about. Dave: That is awesome. Kelly: So it's doing things like that, that I'm really hope that as we grow, that we continue just how can we collaborate and make more impact in the community as well as the responsible sustainable recycling. Dave: No, that is awesome. Congratulations. Goodwill is my paternal grandmother worked at, Goodwill for like 40 years in, Sioux City, Iowa. Kelly: You're kidding. Dave: Nope. 'cause I know you're from Iowa, Kelly: right? You get my whole family, my mom's side. Yes. All, oh, the plow. Dave: Yeah. so Goodwill, they started a church at the Goodwill Facility. And anyway, so I'm a big fan of Goodwill, so I appreciate, I That's strange, that connection. John: Yes. Dave: so I can't tell you. So I want to thank you all for two things. One, I want to thank all three of you for taking the time to come on and tell the story. I really appreciate it. And secondly, more personally, I just wanna tell you how much I appreciate having had the chance to serve you all,on our services. the team always tells me that they always enjoy working with your team. And it's been fun to watch the, from our end to watch the progress of the company over time. So thank you for having that opportunity to be your partner in the tax services that we do. Kelly: No, we appreciate everything you do for us, David. Thank you. We enjoy working with you. Dave: Well, thank you. Well, you all have a great day and we'll talk soon. Kelly: Great. John: Thank you David. Kelly: Thank you. John: Bye. Special Guests: Clive Hess, John Hess, and Kelly Hess.

Man stelle sich Folgendes vor: Als Reaktion auf den Krieg gegen die Ukraine verhängt die EU Sanktionen gegen russische Oligarchen, friert deren Milliardenvermögen ein – und dann verklagen genau diese Oligarchen europäische Staaten auf Entschädigung. Klingt absurd? Ist aber genau das, was gerade passiert. Und die Summen, um die es geht, sind schwindelerregend.

durée : 00:06:23 - Caroline au pays des 27 - par : Caroline Gillet - Frances Verkamp travaille à Bruxelles aux Amis de la terre Europe. Une ONG qui alerte depuis des années sur les ISDS - une procédure d'arbitrage très opaque. Depuis la guerre en Ukraine et les sanctions de l'UE contre la Russie, cette procédure est utilisée par les oligarques pour contre attaquer. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les autres épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France.

20260126 [신들린 경제] 코스피 5천 시대 개막 & 쿠팡 투자사, 한국 ISDS 제소? (고란 경제전문기자)

[JB TIMES] 정청래, 혁신당에 합당 제안..“혼자 결정한 것 아니다” 박근혜 요구에 장동혁 단식 중단 “더 큰 싸움 하려고” 美 쿠팡 투자사, 韓 정부에 ISDS 제기..“한국, 차별적” ‘양평고속도로' 국토부 서기관 공소기각..“수사대상 아냐” 경찰, 김경 ‘추가 공천헌금' 의혹 관련 PC 확보 - 더 막내작가

Chevron has been awarded $220 Million in the Ecuadoran Amazon pollution case. The award comes from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, part of Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. From 1964-1992, Texaco polluted thousands of acres of Amazonian rainforest and poisoned its residents. In 1993, those residents took Texaco to court. In 2001, Chevron acquired Texaco and took its debts (including the billions it owes Amazonian residents). In 2011, an Ecuadoran court awarded the residents $9.5 billion in damages for the pollution and poisoning. Since then, Chevron has waged a legal and public relations against the Indigenous people of the Amazon and their lawyers. This award is part of a 16 year process through the ISDS system. In our latest, Scott talks with Paul Paz y Mino (@paulpaz.bsky.social) about Chevron's history in Ecuador and this case. Bio// Paul Paz y Mino- Deputy Director at Amazon Watch.Paul has lived in Chiapas, Mexico and Quito, Ecuador, promoting human rights and community development and working directly with Indigenous communities. ----------------------

Six weeks ago, billionaire businessman Clive Palmer lost a $300 billion case against the Australian government when the High Court determined that he is not, in fact, a Singaporean investor.It may sound absurd, but Palmer's case had potential – and he has three more similar cases in the works. Across the globe, fossil fuel companies are taking up a secret weapon against climate action: it's baked into many trade agreements, and allows corporations to bypass court systems and sabotage climate policies.‘Investor-state dispute settlement', or ISDS, has the potential to crush what little progress states are making on climate action.  To fill us in on this toxic global loophole, I called on the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, AFTINET. Audio for this episode comes from their recent webinar on ISDS, and features expert voices on the problem and its solutions. Dr Pat Ranald is an honorary research assistant at the University of Sydney and convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.  Kyla Tienhaara is Canada Research Chair in Economy and Environment and Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Studies and Department of Global Development Studies at Queen's University, Kingston. Maria Poulos Conklin is a diplomat, policy maker, founder of the Save the Bay Coalition and the former Parliamentary and Political Relations Manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation. Earth Matters #1533 was produced by Mia Audrey on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country.Image courtesy of AFTINET.

Voters have rejected property-tax measures proposed by two school districts in the Wilson County News coverage area; results of a third proposal remained undecided as of press time Nov. 10. The East Central, La Vernia, and Nixon Smiley Consolidated independent school districts (ISDs) all had voter approval tax ratification elections (VATRE) on local ballots. The measures proposed moving several cents from each district's interest and sinking (I&S) portion of their property tax rates — used to pay down debt — and adding these cents to their maintenance and operations (M&O) portion of the tax rate; this would allow the districts...Article Link

Today we begin with Nick Fuentes—how did he go from a guy with Jewish friends, to someone who is proudly anti-Semitic? Why does “anti-Semitic” now have so many meanings? What are the differences between preference, discrimination, and bigotry? Then: Bill Gates changes his tune on climate change—or does he? His new memo still sounds the alarm about Carbon, but also privileges his pet projects of vaccinating the world and handing agriculture to the technologists. Finally: manta rays, how smart they are, how they respond to mirrors, and how much time they spend at the spa.*****Our sponsors:Branch Basics: Get 15% off Branch Basics with the code DARKHORSE at https://branchbasics.com/darkhorse #branchbasicspodFresh Pressed Olive Oil Club: Scrumptious & freshly harvested. Go to http://www.GetFreshDarkHorse.com to get a bottle of the best olive oil you've ever had for $1 shipping.Uplift Desk: Elevate your workspace with UPLIFT Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/DARKHORSE for a special offer exclusive to our audience.*****Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.comHeather's newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.comOur book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3AGANGg (commission earned)Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org*****Mentioned in this episode:Fuentes on Tucker Carlson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efBB0D4tf1YBret on dual citizenship: https://x.com/BretWeinstein/status/1825602620192698812Speak of the Devil: How Demonizing "Whiteness" Spreads White Nationalism – Bret in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1sJgjG5AF4&t=227sBob Murphy analyzing Fuentes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSDs_2narcw&t=698sClipped by: https://www.youtube.com/@hamannatureBill Gates memo: https://www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-page-topic/reader/three-tough-truths-about-climateAri & D'Agostino 2016. Contingency checking and self-directed behaviors in giant manta rays: Do elasmobranchs have self-awareness?. Journal of Ethology 34(2): 167-174:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10164-016-0462-zSupport the show

Voters in the East Central and La Vernia independent school districts (ISDs) are asked to weigh in Nov. 4 on proposals to capture “golden pennies.” Called a voter approval tax ratification election — or VATRE — voters in both districts are being asked to decide measures that, if approved, would allocate additional funds to daily operations, such as teacher pay and benefits, maintenance, and safety and security. On the ballot, voters are being asked if they will authorize the East Central and La Vernia ISDs to “access the maintenance and operations tax rate to create additional local funding.” The districts...Article Link

Join us on the latest episode of the Getting Smart Podcast as Rebecca Midles sits down with Dr. Dave Richards, Executive Director of the Future Learning Council. Together, they explore how Michigan's coalition of school districts and ISDs is driving statewide transformation through personalized learning and competency-based education. Discover how member-driven networks are fostering collaboration, scaling innovation, and creating flexible, learner-centered systems. From micro-schools to professional development tools, this episode dives deep into the future of education. Don't miss this inspiring conversation about empowering communities and reimagining learning for all students! Outline (00:12) Introduction and Podcast Overview (04:14) Meeting Dave Richards (08:28) Building the Future Learning Council (16:24) Supporting Rural Schools (20:10) Professional Development Resources (23:59) Future Vision and Innovation Links Watch the full video here Read the full blog here LinkedIn Future Of Learning Council Michigan Virtual

Das Ohr am Netz ist mit einer kleinen Neuerung aus der Sommerpause zurück: Ab jetzt erscheinen unsere neuen Folgen jeden zweiten Mittwoch! Und am heutigen Tag starten wir mit einem Dauerbrenner-Thema: IT-Sicherheit. Ein Cyberangriff ist vermutlich das Horrorszenario einer jeden Person, Firma oder Institution, da mittlerweile fast alle Sphären und Prozesse mit digitalen Technologien verzahnt sind. Umso wichtiger ist es, über aktuelle Bedrohungslagen, Entwicklungen und Lösungsansätze zu sprechen. In der heutigen Folge tauschen sich Sidonie und Sven mit drei Expert:innen der Branche aus. Der Clou: Alle drei Gäste sind in diesem Jahr auch Speaker:in bei den eco Internet Security Days am 15. und 16. September im RheinEnergieSTADION Köln. Claudia Plattner, Präsidentin des Bundesamtes für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI), spricht mit Sidonie darüber, wie gut Deutschland auf die aktuelle Bedrohungslage im Netz vorbereitet ist und welche Hebel für mehr Resilienz existieren. Außerdem ordnet sie die Relevanz von Vertrauen in der Debatte um Cybersicherheit ein. Research Director und Founder des cyberintelligence.institute, Prof. Dr. Dennis-Kenji Kipker, gibt - angelehnt an seine Keynote bei den ISDs - einen Pulscheck zu sicheren digitalen Infrastrukturen. Er berichtet nicht nur über die wichtigsten regulatorischen Gegebenheiten, sondern spricht auch über den Einfluss von KI. Markus Hennig, Senior Product Sales Specialist bei F5, erklärt Sven, worauf es bei der digitalen Transformation in Unternehmen ankommt. Dabei sprechen sie nicht nur über fitte Anwendungs- und Sicherheitsarchitekturen, sondern auch darüber, welche Rolle verschiedene Skills im Team spielen. Wer die Gäste dieser Folge live hören möchte, kann sich noch jetzt Tickets für die ISD 2025 sichern: https://www.eco.de/events/internet-security-days-2025/ Weitere Infos: eco Verband zieht 100-Tage-Bilanz der Bundesregierung YouGov-Umfrage von eco e.V.: Mehr als jede:r zweite Deutsche findet lokale Domainendungen sinnvoll eco Branchenpuls zeigt Ost-West-Gefälle bei KI Nutzung ----------- Redaktion: Christin Müller, Laura Rodenbeck, Anja Wittenburg Schnitt: David Grassinger Moderation: Sidonie Krug, Sven Oswald Produktion: eco – Verband der Internetwirtschaft e.V.

                        Listen in as Erin and Brittney discuss: How Brittney went from librarian to leading 125+ agents in a thriving Texas brokerage—starting with zero real estate experience. Why “borrowing belief” is a secret weapon in business growth (and how to use it). The real formula for success: Massive action + unwavering faith (and how to build both). Brittney's mindset toolkit for leadership, momentum, and avoiding burnout. Tactical advice on time blocking, tracking lead gen, and building integrity with yourself—not just your clients.                                                   About Brittney is the dynamic broker and owner of BK Real Estate, a company she founded in 2023 to support the growth and success of other agents. Over the last several years, Brittney has achieved and surpassed personal goals in both her production and skill set, viewing each transaction as a valuable opportunity for growth. Prior to embarking on her real estate journey, Brittney was a dedicated school librarian in various ISDs across Texas. She cherished the joy of teaching and helping students develop a love for reading. As a single mother to two amazing kids, she decided to expand her horizons by starting a part-time real estate career. Balancing her roles as a teacher by day and a real estate agent by evening, Brittney found herself selling a diverse range of properties, including commercial buildings, residential properties, tenant representation, and multifamily units. After two years of managing both careers, she took the bold step to leave education and fully commit to real estate, a decision that paid off significantly. With more time at her disposal, Brittney was able to reach more clients and achieve greater personal goals. Her interest in investing led her to follow the BiggerPockets podcast, inspiring her to grow her own portfolio. Today, she owns 11 doors, a mix of short- and long-term rentals, and is a part-owner in a mortgage branch. Brittney's passion for building her portfolio has ignited a new goal: to help as many clients and agents as possible grow their own assets. In addition to her professional achievements, Brittney is an active member of her Keller community, particularly involved in the PTA. Her dedication to her community and her family is as strong as her commitment to her career. Whether clients are looking to buy a personal home, invest in multifamily properties, house hack, wholesale, flip, use creative financing, or grow their rental portfolio, Brittney and her team at BK Real Estate are ready to help. How to Connect With Brittney Website: www.brittneykosev.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittney-kosev-7203b628a/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bkrealestatetx Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brittney_kosev

In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, Nate McClennen and Mason Pashia explore the intersection of education innovation, policy updates, and emerging technologies. From the role of AI in fostering human flourishing to the potential of CTE centers and ISDs as innovation hubs, they dive into transformative ideas reshaping education. The discussion also delves into ethical considerations for AI, federal funding impacts on schools, and the power of decentralized networks to accelerate change. Tune in for insights on how education marketplaces and collaborative ecosystems can create future-ready learning environments. Outline (00:00) Introduction and Catching Up (03:20) Scholarship Granting Organizations and Education Marketplaces (08:34) Innovative Education Models and Networks (22:49) Ethical Considerations in AI (28:45) AI in Education and Dependency Concerns (33:24) Human Expression and Storytelling (38:08) What's That Song? Links Watch the full video here Read the full blog here Free pre-K, kindergarten expanded under new law signed by governor (New Jersey Monitor) School choice causes confusion for families. Can edtech companies help? (EdSurge) CTE in 2025: The evolving pathway to opportunity in a tech-driven world (Strategos Group) Regional Education Agencies: The Critical Link Between the State and the Classroom (SISEP) ESA State-by-State Report – March 2021 (WAESD) EducationCounsel Policy Brief PDF The Flourishing Hub – Research (Gloo) Google Drive Document (PDF or File Link) Chat GBT Study Mode Google NotebookLM Video Overviews & Studio Upgrades National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Article

Welcome back to Tales of the Tribunal – Season 7 is here! After a bit of a break, we're thrilled to be back with a new season of global stories, personal journeys, and bold conversations from the world of international law and dispute resolution. Thanks for sticking with us! We're kicking off this season with a long-overdue conversation with none other than Tafadzwa “Tafi” Pasipanodya, Partner at Foley Hoag LLP in Washington, D.C., and a fierce advocate for sovereign states in high-stakes international disputes. In this powerful and wide-ranging discussion, Tafi shares her journey from Harare to Princeton to NYU Law, and how her passion for international justice and post-conflict reconstruction led her to represent states at the ICJ, in investor-state arbitrations, and beyond. She also dives deep into: How she manages the balance between technical complexity and compelling storytelling in arbitration The legitimacy crisis in ISDS and what true diversity means in global adjudication Her work with the ICC Court of Arbitration, the African Society of International Law, and an upcoming book on Africa and the Law of the Sea Plus: surf lessons, parenting in the tech age, and dancing to Afrobeats in Lisbon

Extraction and Exploitation in the Global South under the Decarbonization Consensus and Theories and Praxis for a Just TransitionDiscussion with Professor Miriam Lang and Mary Ann Manahan on how current energy transition efforts are framed under a colonialist narrative that continues and entrenches extraction, exploitation and interference in the Global South. We discuss how the Global North is utilizing emergency framing to create sacrifice zones across the Global South, rife with environmental destruction, resource depletion, land grabbing and human rights violations. We also discuss how renewable energy infrastructure mega projects in the Global South impede local resources while failing to alleviate energy poverty, and the deception and detrimental impact of creative carbon offset accounting. Additionally, we look at the continued internalization of externalities in the Global South, saddled with odious debt and subject to the corrupt ISDS system, creating economic vulnerability and democratic deficits. We also discuss grassroots ecological movements and how we can move from green colonialism to create an equitable and ecological transition.For More Info: https://thegravity.fm/#/episode/65

Extraction and Exploitation in the Global South under the Decarbonization Consensus and Theories and Praxis for a Just TransitionDiscussion with Professor Miriam Lang and Mary Ann Manahan on how current energy transition efforts are framed under a colonialist narrative that continues and entrenches extraction, exploitation and interference in the Global South. We discuss how the Global North is utilizing emergency framing to create sacrifice zones across the Global South, rife with environmental destruction, resource depletion, land grabbing and human rights violations. We also discuss how renewable energy infrastructure mega projects in the Global South impede local resources while failing to alleviate energy poverty, and the deception and detrimental impact of creative carbon offset accounting. Additionally, we look at the continued internalization of externalities in the Global South, saddled with odious debt and subject to the corrupt ISDS system, creating economic vulnerability and democratic deficits. We also discuss grassroots ecological movements and how we can move from green colonialism to create an equitable and ecological transition.For More Info: http://thegravity.fm/#/episode/65

Arbitrators and counsel can use artificial intelligence to improve service quality and lessen work burden, but they also must deal with the ethical and professional implications. In this episode, Rebeca Mosquera, a Reed Smith associate and president of ArbitralWomen, interviews Benjamin Malek, a partner at T.H.E. Chambers and former chair of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center AI Task Force. They reveal insights and experiences on the current and future applications of AI in arbitration, the potential risks of bias and transparency, and the best practices and guidelines for the responsible integration of AI into dispute resolution. The duo discusses how AI is reshaping arbitration and what it means for arbitrators, counsel and parties. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello, and welcome to Tech Law Talks, a podcast brought to you by Reed Smith's Emerging Technologies Group. In each episode of this podcast, we will discuss cutting-edge issues on technology, data, and the law. We will provide practical observations on a wide variety of technology and data topics to give you quick and actionable tips to address the issues you are dealing with every day.  Rebeca: Welcome to Tech Law Talks and our series on AI. My name is Rebeca Mosquera. I am an attorney with Reed Smith in New York focusing on international arbitration. Today we focus on AI in arbitration. How artificial intelligence is reshaping dispute resolution and the legal profession. Joining me is Benjamin Malek, a partner at THE Chambers and chair of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center AI Task Force. Ben has extensive experience in commercial and investor state arbitration and is at the forefront of AI governance in arbitration. He has worked at leading institutions and law firms, advising on the responsible integration of AI into dispute resolution. He's also founder and CEO of LexArb, an AI-driven case management software. Ben, welcome to Tech Law Talks.  Benjamin: Thank you, Rebeca, for having me.  Rebeca: Well, let's dive in into our questions today. So artificial intelligence is often misunderstood, or put it in other words, there is a lot of misconceptions surrounding AI. How would you define AI in arbitration? And why is it important to look beyond just generative AI?  Benjamin: Yes, thank you so much for having me. AI in arbitration has existed for many years now, But it hasn't been until the rise of generative AI that big question marks have started to arise. And that is mainly because generative AI creates or generates AI output, whereas up until now, it was a relatively mild output. I'll give you one example. Looking for an email in your inbox, that requires a certain amount of AI. Your spellcheck in Word has AI, and it has been used for many years without raising any eyebrows. It hasn't been until ChatGPT has really given an AI tool to the masses that question started arising. What can it do? Will attorneys still be held accountable? Will AI start drafting for them? What will happen? And it's that fear that started generating all this talk about AI. Now, to your question on looking beyond generative AI, I think that is a very important point. In my function as the chair of the SAMC AI Task Force, while we were drafting the guidelines on the use of AI, one of the proposals was to call it use of generative AI in arbitration. And I'm very happy that we stood firm and said no, because there's many forms of AI that will arise over the years. Now we're talking about predictive AI, but there are many AI forms such as predictive AI, NLP, automations, and more. And we use it not only in generating text per se, but we're using it in legal research, in case prediction to a certain extent. Whoever has used LexisNexis, they're using a new tool now where AI is leveraged to predict certain outcomes, document automation, procedural management, and more. So understanding AI as a whole is crucial for responsible adoption.  Rebeca: That's interesting. So you're saying, obviously, that AI and arbitration is more than just chat GPT, right? I think that the reason why people think that and relies on maybe, as we'll see in some of the questions I have for you, that people may rely on chat GPT because it sounds normal. It sounds like another person texting you, providing you with a lot of information. And sometimes we just, you know, people, I can understand or I can see why people might believe that that's the correct outcome. And you've given examples of how AI is already being used and that people might not realize it. So all of that is very interesting. Now, tell me, as chair of the SVAMC AI Task Force, you've led significant initiatives in AI governance, right? What motivated the creation of the SVAMC AI guidelines? And what are their key objectives? And before you dive into that, though, I want to take a moment to congratulate you and the rest of the task force on being nominated once again for the GAR Awards, which will be unveiled during Paris Arbitration Week in April of this year. That's an incredible achievement. And I really hope you'll take pride in the impact of your work and the well-deserved recognition it continues to receive. So good luck to you and the rest of the team.  Benjamin: Thank you, Rebeca. Thank you so much. It really means a lot, and it also reinforces the importance of our work, seeing that we're nominated not only once last year for the GAR Award, but second year in a row. I will be blunt, I haven't kept track of many nominations, but I think it may be one of the first years where one initiative gets nominated twice, one year after the other. So that in itself for us is worth priding ourselves with. And it may potentially even be more than an award itself. It really, it's a testament to the work we have provided. So what led to the creation of the SVAMC AI guidelines? It's a very straightforward and to a certain extent, a little boring answer as of now, because we've heard it so many times. But the crux was Mata versus Avianca. I'm not going to dive into the case. I think most of us have heard it. Who hasn't? There's many sources to find out about it. The idea being that in a court case, an attorney used Chad GPT, used the outcome without verifying it, and it caused a lot of backlash, not only from opposing party, but also being chastised by the judge. Now when I saw that case, and I saw the outcome, and I saw that there were several tangential cases throughout the U.S. And worldwide, I realized that it was only a question of time until something like this could potentially happen in arbitration. So I got on a call with my dear friend Gary Benton at the SVAMC, and I told him that I really think that this is the moment for the Silicon Valley Arbitration Mediation Center, an institution that is heavily invested in tech to shine. So I took it upon myself to say, give me 12 months and I'll come up with guidelines. So up until now at the SVAMC, there are a lot of think tank-like groups discussing many interesting subjects. But the SVAMC scope, especially AI related, was to have something that produces something tangible. So the guidelines to me were intuitive. It was, I will be honest, I don't think I was the only one. I might have just been the first mover, but there we were. We created the idea. It was vetted by the board. And we came up first with the task force, then with the guidelines. And there's a lot more to come. And I'll leave it there.  Rebeca: Well, that's very interesting. And I just wanted to mention or just kind of draw from, you mentioned the Mata case. And you explained a bit about what happened in that case. And I think that was, what, 2023? Is that right? 2022, 2023, right? And so, but just recently we had another one, right? In the federal courts of Wyoming. And I think about two days ago, the order came out from the judge and the attorneys involved were fined about $15,000 because of hallucinations on the case law that they cited to the court. So, you know I see that happening anyway. And this is a major law firm that we're talking about here in the U.S. So it's interesting how we still don't learn, I guess. That would be my take on that.  Benjamin: I mean, I will say this. Learning is a relative term because learning, you need to also fail. You need to make mistakes to learn. I guess the crux and the difference is that up until now, at any law firm or anyone working in law would never entrust a first-year associate, a summer associate, a paralegal to draft arguments or to draft certain parts of a pleading by themselves without supervision. However, now, given that AI sounds sophisticated, because it has unlimited access to words and dictionaries, people assume that it is right. And that is where the problem starts. So I am obviously, personally, I am no one to judge a case, no one to say what to do. And in my capacity of the chair of the SVAMC AI task force, we also take a backseat saying these are soft law guidelines. However, submitting documents with information that has not been verified has, in my opinion, very little to do with AI. It has something to do with ethical duty and candor. And that is something that, in my opinion, if a court wants to fine attorneys, they're more welcome to do so. But that is something that should definitely be referred to the Bar Association to take measures. But again, these are my two cents as a citizen.  Rebeca: No, very good. Very good. So, you know, drawing from that point as well, and because of the cautionary tales we hear about surrounding these cases and many others that we've heard, many see AI as a double-edged sword, right? On the one hand, offering efficiency gains while raising concerns about bias and procedural fairness. What do you see as the biggest risk and benefits of AI in arbitration?  Benjamin: So it's an interesting question. To a certain extent, we tried to address many of the risks in the AI guidelines. Whoever hasn't looked at the guidelines yet, I highly suggest you take a look at them they're available on svamc.org I'm sure that they're widely available on other databases Jus Mundi has it as well. I invite everyone to take a look at it. There are several challenges. We don't believe that those challenges would justify not using it. To name a few, we have bias. We have lack of transparency. We also have the issue of over-reliance, which is the one we were talking about just a minute ago, where it seems so sophisticated that we as human beings, having worked in the field, cannot conceive how such an eloquent answer is anything but true. So there's a black box problem and so many others, but quite frankly, there are so many benefits that come with it. AI is an unlimited knowledge tool that we can use. As of now, AI is what we know it is. It has hallucinations. It does have some bias. There is this black box problem. Where does it come from? Why? What's the source? But quite frankly, if we are able to triage the issues and to really look at what are the advantages and what is it we want to get out of it, and I'll give you a brief example. Let's say you're drafting an RFA. If you know the case, you know the parties, and you know every aspect of the case, AI can draft everything head to toe. You will always be able to tell what is from the case and what's not from the case. If we over-rely on AI and we allow it to draft without verifying all the facts, without making sure we know the transcript inside and out, without knowing the facts of the case, then we will always run into certain issues. Another issue we run into a lot with predictive AI is relying on data that exists. So compared to generative AI, predictive AI is taking data that already exists and predicting another outcome. So there's a lesser likelihood of hallucinations. The issue with that is, of course, bias. Just a brief example, you're the president of Arbitral Women, so you will definitely understand. It has only been in the last 30 years that women had more of a presence in arbitration, specifically sitting as an arbitrator. So if we rely on data that goes beyond those 30, 40, 50 years, there's going to be a lot of male decisions having been taken. Potentially even laws that applied back then that were not very gender neutral. So we need, we as people, need to triage and understand where is the good information, where is information that may have bias and counterbalance it. As of now, we will need to counterbalance it manually. However, as I always say, we've only seen a grain of salt of what AI can do. So as time progresses, the challenges, as you mentioned, will become lesser and lesser and lesser. And the knowledge that AI has will become wider and wider. As of now, especially in arbitration, we are really taking advantage of the fact that there is still scarcity of knowledge. But it is really just a question of time until AI picks up. So we need to get a better understanding of what is it we can do to leverage AI to make ourselves indispensable.  Rebeca: No, that's very interesting, Ben. And as you mentioned, yes, as president of ArbitralWomen, the word bias is something I pay close attention. You know, we're talking about bias. You mentioned bias. And we all have conscious or unconscious biases, right? And so you mentioned that about laws that were passed in the past where potentially there was not a lot of input from women or other members of our society. Do you think AI can be trained then to be truly neutral or will bias always be a challenge?  Benjamin: I wish I had the right answer. I think, I actually truly believe that bias is a very relative term. And in certain societies, bias has a very firm and black and white standing, whereas in other societies, it does not. Especially in international arbitration, where we not only deal with cross-border disputes, but different cultures, different laws, laws of the seats, laws of the contract. I think it's very hard to point out one set of bias that we will combat or that we will set as principle for everything. I think ultimately what ensures that there is always human oversight in the use of AI, especially in arbitration, are exactly these type of issues. So we can, of course, try to combat bias and gender bias and others. But I don't think it is as easy as we say, because even nowadays, in normal proceedings, we are still dealing with bias on a human level. So I think we cannot ask from machines to be less biased than we as humans are.  Rebeca: Let me pivot here a bit. And, you know, earlier, we mentioned the GAR Awards. And now I'd like to shift our focus to the recent GAR Life on Technology that took place here in New York last week on February 20th. And to give our audience, you know, some context. GAR stands for Global Arbitration Review, a widely read journal that not only ranks international arbitration practices at law firms worldwide, but also, among other things, organizes live conferences on cutting-edge topics in arbitration across the globe. So I know you were a speaker at GAR Live, and there was an important discussion about distinguishing generative AI, predictive AI, and other AI applications. How do these different AI technologies impact arbitration, and how do the SVAMC guidelines address them?  Benjamin: I was truly honored to speak at the GAR Live event in New York, and I think the fact that I was invited to speak on AI as a testament on how important AI is and how widely interested the community is in the use of AI, which is very different to 2023 when we were drafting the guidelines on the use of AI. I think it is important to understand that ultimately, everything in arbitration, specifically in arbitration, needs human oversight. But in using AI in arbitration, I think we need to differentiate on how the use of AI is different in arbitration versus other parts of the law, and specifically how it is different in arbitration compared to how we would use it on a day-to-day basis. In arbitration specifically, arbitrators are still responsible for a personal or arbitrators are given a personal mandate that is very different to how law works in general. Where you have a lot of judges that let their assistants draft parts of the decision, parts of the order. Arbitration is a little different, and that for a reason. Specifically in international arbitration, because there are certain sensitivities when it comes to local law, when it comes to an international standard and local standards. Arbitrators are held to a higher standard. Using AI as an arbitrator, for example, which could technically be put at the same level as using a tribunal secretary, has its limits. So I think that AI can be used in many aspects, from drafting for attorneys, for counsel, when it comes to helping prepare graphs, when it comes to preparing documents, accumulating documents, etc., etc. But it does have its limits when it comes to arbitrators using it. As we have tried to reiterate in the guidelines, arbitrators need to be very conscious of where their personal mandate starts and ends. In other words, our recommendation, again, we are soft law guidelines, our recommendation to arbitrators are to not use AI when it comes to any decision-making process. What does that mean? We don't know. And neither does the law. And every jurisdiction has their own definition of what that means. It is up for the arbitrator to define what a decision-making process is and to decide of whether the use of AI in that process is adequate.  Rebeca: Thank you so much, Ben. I want to now kind of pivot, since we've been talking a little bit more about the guidelines, I want to ask you a few questions about them. So they were created with a global perspective, right? And so what initiatives is the AI task force pursuing to ensure the guidelines remain relevant worldwide? You've been talking about different legal systems and local laws and how practitioners or certain regulations within certain jurisdictions might treat certain things differently. So what is the AI task force doing to remain relevant, to maybe create some sort of uniformity? So what can you tell me about that?  Benjamin: So we at the SVAMC task force, we continue to gather feedback, of course, And we're looking for global adaptation. We will continue to work closely with practitioners, with institutions, with lawmakers, with government, to ensure that when it comes to arbitration, AI is given a space, it's used adequately, and if possible, of course, and preferential to us, the SVAMC AI guidelines are used. That's why they were drafted, to be used. When we presented the guidelines to different committees and to different law sections and bar associations, it struck us that jurisdictions such as the U.S., and more specifically in New York, where both you and I are based, the community was not very open to receiving these guidelines as guidelines. And the suggestion was actually made to creating a white paper, And as much as it seemed to be a shutdown at an early stage, when we were thinking about it, and I was very blessed to have seven additional members in the Guidelines Drafting Committee, seven very bright individual members that I learned a lot from during this process. It was clear to us that jurisdictions such as New York have a very high ethical standard, and where guidelines such as our guidelines would potentially be seen as doubling ethical rules. So although we advocate for them not being ethical guidelines whatsoever, because we don't believe they are, we strongly suggest that local and international ethical standards are being upheld. So with that in mind, we realize that there is more to a global aspect that needs to be addressed rather than an aspect of law associations in the US or in the UK or now in Europe. Up-and-coming jurisdictions that up until now did not have a lot of exposure to artificial intelligence and maybe even technology as a whole are rising. And they may need more guidance than jurisdictions where technology may be an instinct away. So what the AI task force has created. And is continuing to recruit for, are regional committees for the AI Task Force, tracking AI usage in different legal systems and different jurisdictions. Our goal is to track AI-related legislation and its potential impact on arbitration. These regional committees will also provide jurisdiction-specific insights to refine the guidelines. And hopefully, or this is what we anticipate, these regional committees will help bridge the gap between AI's global development and local legal framework. There will be a dialogue. We will continue, obviously, to be present at conferences, to have open dialogue, and to recruit, of course, for these committees. But the next step is definitely to focus on these regional committees and to see how we, as the AI task force of the Silicon Valley Arbitration Mediation Center, can impact the use of AI in arbitration worldwide.  Rebeca: Well, that's very interesting. So you're utilizing committees in different jurisdictions to keep you appraised of what's happening in each jurisdiction. And then with that, continue, you know, somehow evolving the guidelines and gathering information to see how this field, you know, it's changing rapidly.  Benjamin: Absolutely. Initially, we were thinking of just having a small local committee to analyze different jurisdictions and what laws and what court cases, etc. But we soon came to realize that it's much more than tracking judicial decisions. We need people on the ground that are part of a jurisdiction, part of that local law, to tell us how AI impacts their day-to-day, how it may differ from yesterday to tomorrow, and what potential legislation will be enacted to either allow or disallow the use of certain AI.  Rebeca: That's very interesting. I think it's something that will keep the guidelines up to date and relevant for a long time. So kudos to you, the SVAMC and the task force. Now, I know that the guidelines are a very short paper, you know, and then in the back you have the commentary on them. So I want to, I'm not going to dissect all of the guidelines, but I want to come and talk about one of them in particular that I think created a lot of discussion around the guidelines itself. So for full disclosure, right, I was part of the reviewing committee of the AI guidelines. And I remember that one of the most debated aspects of the SVAMC AI guidelines is guideline three on disclosure, right? So should arbitrators and counsel disclose their AI use in proceedings? So I think that that has generated a lot of debates. And that's the reason why we have the resulting guideline number three, the way it is drafted. So can you give us a little bit more of insight what happened there?  Benjamin: Absolutely. I'd love to. Guideline three was very controversial from the get-go. We initially had two options. We had a two-pronged test that parties would either satisfy or not, and then disclosure was necessary. And then we had another option that the community could vote on where it was up to the parties to decide whether their AI-aided submission could impact the outcome of the case. And depending on that, they would disclose or not disclose whether AI was used. Quite frankly, that was a debate we had in 2023, and a lot changed from November 2023 until April, when we finally published the first version of the AI guidelines. A lot of courts have implemented an obligatory disclosure. I think people have also gotten more comfortable with using AI on a day-to-day. And we ultimately came to the conclusion to opt for a flexible disclosure approach, which can now be found in the guidelines. The reason for that was relatively simple, or relatively simple to us who debated that. Having a disclosure obligation of the use of AI will very easily become inefficient for two reasons. A blanket disclosure for the use of AI serves nobody. It really boils down to one question, which is, if the judge, or in our case in arbitration, if the arbitrator or tribunal knows that AI was used for a certain document, now what? How does that knowledge transform into action? And how does that knowledge lead to a different outcome? And in our analysis, it turned out that a blanket disclosure of AI usage, or in general, an over-disclosure of the use of AI in arbitration, may actually lead to adverse consequences for the parties who make the disclosure. Why? Because not knowing how AI can impact these submissions causes arbitrators not to know what to do with that disclosure. So ultimately, it's really up to the parties to decide, how was AI used? How can it impact the case? What is it I want to disclose? How do I disclose? It's also important for the arbitrators to understand, what do I do with the disclosure before saying, everything needs to be disclosed. During the GAR event in New York, the issue was raised whether documents which were prepared with the use of AI should be disclosed or whether there should be a blanket disclosure. And quite frankly, the debate went back and forth, but ultimately it comes down to cross-examination. It comes down to the expert or the party submitting the document, being able to back up where the information comes from rather than knowing that AI was used. And if you put that in aspect, we received a very interesting question of why we should continue using AI, knowing that approximately 30% of its output are hallucinations and it needs revamping. This was compared to a summer associate or a first-year associate, and the question was very simple. If I have a first-year associate or a summer associate whose output has a 30% error rate, why would I continue using that associate? And quite frankly, there is merit to the question, and it really has a very simple answer. And the answer is time and money. Using AI makes it much faster to receive using AI makes it faster to receive output than using a first year associate or summer associate and it's way cheaper. For that, it's worth having a 30% error margin. I don't know where they got the 30% from, but we just went along with it.  Rebeca: I was about to ask you where they get the 30%. And well, I think that for first-year associates or summer associates that are listening, I think that the main thing will be for them to then become very savvy in the use of AI so they can become relevant to the practice. I think everyone, you know, there's always that question about whether AI will replace all of us, the entire world, and we'll go into machine apocalypses. I don't see it that way. In my view, I see that if we, you know, if we train ourselves, if we're not afraid of using the tool, we'll very much be in a position to pivot and understand how to use it. And when you have, what is the saying, garbage in, garbage out. So if you have a bad input, you will have a bad output. You need to know the case. You need to know your documents to understand whether the machine is hallucinating or giving you, you know, an information that is not real. I like to play and ask certain questions to chat GPT, you know, here and there. And sometimes I, you know, I ask obviously things that I know the answer to. And then I'm like, chat GPT, this is not accurate. Can you check on this? And he's like, oh, thank you for correcting me. I mean, and it's just a way of, you got to try and understand it so you know where to make improvements. But that doesn't mean that the tool, because it's a tool, will come and replace, you know, your better judgment as a professional, as an attorney.  Benjamin: Absolutely. One of the things we say is it is a tool. It does nothing out of its own volition. So what you're saying is 100% right. This is what the SVAMC AI guidelines stand for. Practitioners need to accustom themselves on proper use of AI. AI can be used from paid versions to unpaid versions. We just need to understand what is an open source AI, what is a close circuit AI. Again, for whoever's listening, feel free to look up the guidelines. There's a lot of information there. There's tons of articles written at this point. And just be very mindful of if there is an open AI system, such as an unpaid chat GPT version. It does not mean you cannot use it. First, check with your firm to make sure you're allowed to use it. I don't want to get into any trouble.  Rebeca: Well, we don't want to put confidential information on an open AI platform.  Benjamin: Exactly. Once the firm or your colleagues allow you to use ChatGPT, even if it's an open version, just be very smart about what it is you're putting in. No confidential information, no potential conflict check, no potential cases. Just be smart about what it is you put in. Another aspect we were actually debating about is this hallucination. Just an example, let's say you say this is an ISDS case, so we're talking a little more public, and you ask Chad GPT, hey, show me all the cases against Costa Rica. And it hallucinates, too. It might actually be that somebody input information for a potential case against Costa Rica or a theoretical case against Costa Rica, Chad GPT being on the open end, takes that as one potential case. So just be very smart. Be diligent, but also don't be afraid of using it.  Rebeca: That's a great note to end on. AI is here to stay. And as legal professionals, it's up to us to ensure it serves the interests of justice, fairness, and efficiency. And for those interested in learning more about the SVAMC AI guidelines, you can find them online at svamc.org and search for guidelines. I tried it myself and you will go directly to the guidelines. And if you like to stay updated on developments in AI and arbitration, be sure to follow Tech Law Talks and join us for future episodes where we'll continue exploring the intersection of law and technology. Ben, thank you again for joining me today. It's been a great pleasure. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in.  Benjamin: Thank you so much, Rebeca, for having me and Tech Law Talks for the opportunity to be here.  Outro: Tech Law Talks is a Reed Smith production. Our producers are Ali McCardell and Shannon Ryan. For more information about Reed Smith's Emerging Technologies Practice, please email techlawtalks@reedsmith.com. You can find our podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, reedsmith.com, and our social media accounts.  Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship, nor is it intended to suggest or establish standards of care applicable to particular lawyers in any given situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Any views, opinions, or comments made by any external guest speaker are not to be attributed to Reed Smith LLP or its individual lawyers.  All rights reserved. Transcript is auto-generated.

It is becoming common for the fossil fuel industry to sue governments that attempt to decarbonise over “lost future profits.” They do so via an obscure part of international law called international-state dispute settlements (ISDS) that can allow them to extract billions in public money. Alasdair speaks to Eunjung Lee, a senior policy advisor at think tank E3G. The two discuss how ISDS began, how the international treaties came to being predatory, and what measures countries should take to prevent the exploitation of the claims.  Eunjung Lee is a senior policy advisor at think tank E3G and is the lead investigator of international investment governance. She previously served as a South Korean diplomat and has worked in the Korean embassy in London. Further reading:  Investment treaties are undermining the global energy transition  - E3G The climate crisis requires a new approach to international investment treaties - E3G The Energy Charter Treaty remains the most dangerous investment treaty to the energy transition - E3G Clean investments shun Investor-State Dispute Settlements - E3G  Investor-state disputes threaten the global green energy transition | Science “Shocking and sad”: how corporations use investment agreements to block decarbonisation in the Global South - Land and Climate Review  How Exxon is using international law to sue the Dutch government   Click here to read our investigation into the UK biomass supply chain, or watch a clip from the BBC Newsnight documentary.

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Abbott says we'll pass school choice without the big handout, offered last time, to the ISD bureaucracies. The governor points out that when offered billions last time around the ISDs wouldn't play ball so too bad. But the real reason we should not hand more big money to the administrative machines of government school districts is the continued failure of those schools to deliver good results: Texas Students' Test Scores Shrink as Spending Grows.Meanwhile, Democrats keep talking about “billionaires” instead of parents and students. Also, they maintain their position that students in really bad schools should continue to be captive to such with no real alternative.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Texas sales tax receipts come in much stronger than last month.Texas Secretary of State Office of Elections decertifies E-Pollbook system from ES&S.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

This week, the hosts dive into the chaotic world of political absurdities, touching on everything from Trump's bizarre claims about Chinese soldiers in Panama to the questionable credibility of various political figures. They explore the implications of ISDS clauses in trade agreements, highlighting Clive Palmer's alarming attempts to cash in on them, which could cost Australia billions. The conversation also veers into the realm of media bias, particularly how coverage of disasters in California often eclipses tragedies occurring elsewhere, especially when wealthy individuals are affected. With irreverent humor, they dissect the strange dynamics of modern politics, including the oddities surrounding Donald Trump's family and the chilling parallels drawn with authoritarian regimes. Expect a mix of satire and critical analysis as they navigate the latest headlines and their impact on global affairs.Topics:To financially support the Podcast you can make:a per-episode donation via Patreon or one-off donation via credit card; orone-off or regular donations via Paypal orif you are into Cryptocurrency you can send Satoshis. We Livestream every Monday night at 7:30 pm Brisbane time. Follow us on Facebook or YouTube. Watch us live and join the discussion in the chat room.You can sign up for our newsletter, which links to articles that Trevor has highlighted as potentially interesting and that may be discussed on the podcast. You will get 3 emails per week. After the fiasco mentioned in episode 454 I can't use Mailchimp anymore so for the moment, send me an email and I'll add you to a temporary list until something more automated is arranged.We have a website. www.ironfistvelvetglove.com.auYou can email us. The address is trevor@ironfistvelvetglove.com.auYou can send us a voicemail message at SpeakpipeTranscripts started in episode 324. You can use this link to search our transcripts. Type "iron fist velvet glove" into the search directory, click on our podcast and then do a word search. It even has a player which will play the relevant section. It is incredibly quick.

In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, Jon Eckert interviews Dustin Benac, co-founder of Baylor's Program for the Future Church. They discuss the connection between schools, churches, and communities in fostering flourishing environments. Benac shares insights on leadership that moves at the speed of trust, the power of belonging, and the importance of taking strategic risks. The conversation also highlights how collaboration and shared language can drive meaningful connections and create spaces where individuals and institutions thrive together. The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work. Be encouraged. Books Mentioned: Adaptive Church by Dustin D. Benac Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides by Geoffrey L. Cohen Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl Connect with us: Baylor MA in School Leadership EdD in K-12 Educational Leadership Jon Eckert LinkedIn Twitter: @eckertjon Center for School Leadership at Baylor University: @baylorcsl   Transcript: Jon: Welcome back to the Just Schools podcast. Today we are here with Dustin Benac. Excited to have him here. He's a little different kind of guest than we usually have, so we're going to start with Dustin telling us a little bit what he does here at Baylor, and then we'll get into how it connects to what we do as educators. Dustin, welcome in. Dustin Benac: Thanks Jon. Thrilled to be here. Love what you guys do in the School of Ed. Jon: Can you tell us a little bit about what you do here at Baylor? We overlap some because we're interested in leadership, we're interested in education and institutions, but can you talk a little bit about what you do here? Dustin Benac: Absolutely. I am the director and co-founder of the Program for the Future Church. We are a research, resource and relationship hub that's devoted to engaging the complex and emerging challenges between current and emerging Christian leaders. We do that through curriculum. We do that through convenings or gatherings, and we do that through contextual research. And one of the things that we're seeing is that even as the church and our communities are changing in incredible and dramatic ways, there is a remarkable future and we're committed to supporting that and pursuing that together. Jon: Love that. My question for you, obviously we care deeply about the church. That's one of the primary institutions that really supports what goes on in our country and around the world. And we have the global flourishing study that's a partnership of Harvard and Baylor, looking at what flourishing looks like, and certainly churches and faith are a big part of that, but another big part of it is schools. Where do you see K-12 schools fitting into the work that you're doing? Dustin Benac: I think they are an essential aspect of the flourishing of our communities and the flourishing of churches. Because one of the things we see is that the faith formation of people who inhabit churches, particularly inhabit churches over their life course emerges in those first 10 to 12 years. That certainly happens in families, but that also happens in spaces well beyond families. Sunday school classrooms, camps, schools, after school programs, baseball fields, athletic fields, gyms, art rooms, all of those are spaces where people are being formed. And a flourishing church, particularly a flourishing future church requires flourishing generations. And then secondly, it requires connections across different communities of faith. We think about our work happening at the level of the system or the ecology where we think communities need thriving congregations. They also need thriving schools, they need thriving nonprofit sectors, they need thriving entrepreneurs and the health of those realities, those sectors will only contribute to the thriving of the local church. Jon: A lot of that focus on community because we don't do any of these things in isolation. And so as educators, we have this great role of walking alongside people as they become more of who they're created to be as we become more of who we're created to be in the work that we do as we are formed. My question for you especially is your vantage point largely focused on the church, but also then looking at the ecology, as you use your term, which I love that term as well. What does a healthy school look like in your opinion, either currently or in the future, or maybe those are the same thing, but what's it look like to you? Dustin Benac: I think there are several markers of a healthy school. One, I think healthy schools require healthy leadership, and that's one of the reasons I appreciate the work you and your colleagues do is you all are equipping, resourcing and engaging healthy leaders and supporting healthy leaders across the country. That's the first thing. I think the second thing is a connection to and commitment to place. One of the things I love about education is it's one of the increasingly few institutions that still have a geographic designation. We have ISDs that are connected to particular places. And schools are places that bring people from their surrounding community to a shared gathering. Third, I think healthy schools require a healthy balance of diversity and similarity. You have to have something that you have in common, which I think is the education of our children. And you also have to have environments where people gather around and from the various differences and particularities that they bring to these spaces. Third, you've got to have matters of trust, justice, equity. Schools are only as strong as the virtues that carry them, and our leaders are only as strong as the virtues that they possess, so you've got to have schools that are marked by integrity. And fifth and finally, I think a healthy school requires a hopeful vision for the future. We can't have a hopeful vision for our children if the leaders and the communities don't have a hopeful vision for the future. Jon: The country right now is somewhat polarized as we're in an election year and you hear a lot of things about separation of church and state. And a lot of times that comes into play in schools where what's allowed, what isn't allowed? In Oklahoma right now, there's mandated Bible teaching going on in public schools with a hope that that will lead to better virtue development. And that's getting a lot of push back and possibly not really being implemented because that's not been traditionally what's gone on in public schools in Oklahoma at least over the last several decades. I'm curious to have you talk a little bit about the way you think churches and schools can work together effectively, because we also have the model of churches coming in and reading with kids and providing tutoring with kids and afterschool programs and this kind of ecology that we're all in this together and that both schools and churches serve the community. Do you have any sense of what that might look like? Not in the church state, separation wars that are out there, but in we're all part of a community, leadership as service. How do we lead in a way that serves each member of the community well? Dustin Benac: Yep. I love that question. I think that's part of one of the things that gets me really hopeful about the future schools and the future of churches because I think there's opportunities for real partnership here. Just a quick anecdote, I found my way into this work after doing several years of research in the Pacific Northwest. And the Pacific Northwest is a context where there's a marginal position for religious organizations. They're on the edges of society, but there's also a real history of religious entrepreneurship, that people of faith are doing new things. Entrepreneurship is the water they swim in. And one of the things I saw there is that people of faith and churches in the Pacific Northwest, they found a way to exist on the margins of society in ways that are not anxious. They're not trying to reclaim power, they're just trying to be faithfully present. And I think that's the first step to find this meaningful partnership, is churches and people of faith can pursue meaningful partnerships with schools, public or private, not trying to control the content or control the outcome or set the table, but simply show up and be a good partner and be present. Second, that takes a lot of time. Jon: You're right. Dustin Benac: You can't just parachute in a community and expect change to happen. You've got to keep showing up. Go to the football games, go to the band concerts, show up, show up over and over and over again. And when you do that, you begin to, one, see the needs of the community and they might be different than what you think. And then secondly, you begin to earn trust. The third thing I say is be prepared to be surprised by the encounter. When I've shown up in spaces, when I've tried to be relationally, faithfully present, I go in expecting knowingly or unknowingly something from that connection. And I'm always surprised. And as a person of faith, I like to think that surprise is part of the gift of God. Jon: That's beautifully put. I would say I think it overlaps with our view of leadership in general, but I would go all the way back to teaching middle school students. You can't just hit middle school kids over the head with truth if you don't do it with love because they're not listening until they know that you love them and you show them that you love them by spending time with them when you're not contractually obligated to spend that time with them. And so it is that showing up. And I think that's true with adults that we lead and we work with the educators we serve all over the world. It does coming alongside listening first, being surprised by what we might learn, not coming in with solutions for people. We don't know the context. We come in with processes. We come in with ideas for improvement. We come in with networks of people that we connect. That's Eric Ellison's main job at the Center of School Leadership. He does that even on Baylor's campus for us. And so how do we do that better? Because ultimately in the time we're in now, I don't think anybody can be that superhero solo leader. We write a lot about collective leadership at the center and what that looks like to do the work that moves towards shared goals. You do a lot of work on collaborative leadership. What kind of leadership do you see working at Baylor in churches in the ecologies? What kind of leadership do you see working? What are some attributes of that that you're encouraged by as we move forward? Dustin Benac: There's several different attributes. One is it's leadership that moves at the speed of trust. Collective collaborative leadership is leadership that it can't be engineered, it can't be manufactured. It takes time and it moves at the speed of trust. The second thing is this type of leadership is leadership that's carried by shared language. And I think that's one of the values of a place like Baylor or a place like the Center for School Leadership is I think one of the things you all offer are some shared language. And that allows people to partner around shared work by using the shared language because we can't assume that we mean the same thing when we talk about community or education or formation or faith. You have to have shared language because that's the point of contact where the shared work begins. The third thing that I think is required is an ability to recognize and celebrate a diversity of leadership expressions. Leadership, particularly collaborative leadership, is carried by teams. In order to have a strong team, you need to have people who lead in different ways. In my book, Adaptive Church, I talk about this across six different modes of leading, leading as the caretaker, leading as the catalyst, leading as the connector convener, leading as the surveyor, leading as the champion, leading as the guide. An effective collaboration requires people and teams who have the diversity, the dexterity, and the variety of gifts to lead in different ways in order to respond the needs of their community. Jon: You talk about diversity, dexterity, and variety, and a lot of people will hear that, and say it sounds messy. Dustin Benac: It is. Jon: And my argument is leadership's always going to be messy. It's whether it's going to be messy on the front end or the back end. I'd much rather it be hashed out with diverse thinkers that bring this variety to what we do so that we better represent the communities we serve. If you're thinking in ecologies, you certainly can't, as a single person know what's going to work best for everyone in that ecosystem. That is just not going to be possible. But it takes time, which you already mentioned about relationships, but it also takes time to process things. But then at the back end, you have something that actually might work as opposed to you implementing something which churches do this all the time, "Oh, we got to grow attendance, we got to grow the budget. We got to do..." And so it just becomes this hamster wheel we jump on and then we're spinning off crazy. And in churches, you are burning human beings who get run over by that hamster wheel. Dustin Benac: That's exactly right. And I think it's important to make a difference between the messiness of shared and collaborative leadership and sloppiness because- Jon: Yes. That's a good point. Dustin Benac: ... we don't have an excuse for being sloppy. The responsibility of leadership requires that we do it as well as we can. And part of not being sloppy is having shared language, knowing your lane, and also having good and effective strategy. It's going to be messy, it's going to be improvisational. It's not going to turn out like you thought or hoped it would, but you can be purposeful, you can be intentional, you can be strategic, you can be patient. And when those ingredients are there, the outcome is oftentimes far better than we could ever hope or imagine. Jon: The sloppy piece is such a great point. I think in schools, we have oversold the idea of failing forward. We've taken this Silicon Valley idea that fail fast, fail forward. No one wants to fail. And so you don't take haphazard risks, that's sloppy. You take strategic risks and Chip and Dan Heath write that the promise of risk taking is not, I don't have the exact quote, but the promise of risk taking is not success. It's learning. All right. If success were always promised for taking risks, it wouldn't be a risk. And so ultimately, how do we take the right risks? How do we take them with the right people? How do we take them in the way that we're actually going to learn from them and then revise and improve? I've certainly taken many risks in my career where I'm like, "I'm never doing that again." That was just a flat mistake. But most of the time, whatever it is, I figure out ways that we can improve and do better the next time. And then that's where leadership is fun because you're constantly iterating and you know don't have to have it right the first time ever because we probably aren't. But it's like all we got to do is get better. And so I've quit talking about solutions because solutions sound too neat, sound too prepackaged. It's not about solutions. It's about improving, so if you are leading a dumpster fire, just put the fire out. You don't have to build the Taj Mahal yet. Get the dumpster fire out first. Dustin Benac: I love it. Jon: As we think about that, what's your greatest fear as you look ahead to churches and schools? What's the greatest fear you have right now? I know there are many fears out there. What would you say is the thing that keeps you up at night about churches and schools? Dustin Benac: You actually teed this up so well, Jon, because I think my greatest fear is that we wouldn't take the risk. I think we are in a moment of significant and dramatic change. The world is changing, the church is changing, how we gather is changing, what education looks like and feels like is changing. And that can be a moment of real anxiety and uncertainty. It can also be a real moment of opportunity. And my hope is that in this moment of incredible change, we will do the thoughtful, the strategic, maybe even the prayerful work of considering what are the risks that are ours to take and take them with other people. We don't have to take these risks alone, but I do think we are in a unique moment of time where there's things that we can do together that are going to build the structures, the schools, the churches that our children inhabit for a generation. And if we don't do that, I think we've missed an opportunity. Jon: That's well said. Before we jumped on, you mentioned a couple of books that you were reading, which I think tie into this fear and also to the hope that we can have. Would you mind sharing a couple of books? I always like for our listeners to get a couple of recommendations that might be useful that may or may not be part of a typical educator's reading list. But do you have a couple for us? Dustin Benac: Yeah. One of the very best books I read in the last year is a book by a Stanford psychologist, Geoffrey Cohen's Belonging, a brilliant book about the structure of connection and how to understand the need for belonging and also the strategies that can help us build cultures of belonging. Brilliant work, data-driven, translatable across cultures and across contexts, so, that's the first one. The second one is a book by Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning that is about his experience surviving a concentration camp and also his theory of purpose that emerged out of his work there as a clinical psychologist. And one of the things Frankl says is that those who survived, survived because they found purpose, even purpose in suffering. And it's precisely this purpose that gave them meaning and ultimately gave them a future hope that they could imagine. Even if the circumstances were such, that it was very unlikely that they would live to see that future hope, the purpose carried them forward and gave them a reason to live. Jon: Well, I like the way those two books fit together in that if we're going to belong, we have to have a purpose. Dustin Benac: Yes. Jon: And that's part of what we do. And when we have a purpose, we are willing to struggle well with each other. And ultimately that's where joy is found. It's not the freedom from the struggle, it's the fuel to struggle well. And our joy comes from something deeper than our circumstances because that's where happiness lies and certainly Viktor Frankl is not talking about happiness. He's talking about where purpose can lead to joy because there's a life of meaning. And we don't have wellbeing if we don't have a purpose. And so I think the belonging piece doesn't happen unless we can do that with others because we serve a relational God and we reflect that in the ways that we interact with each other. We don't thrive by ourselves. That just doesn't happen. Love those two books. You shared your greatest fear, not taking risks, so what's your greatest hope as you look ahead for schools and churches? Dustin Benac: That new connections will form? I think the future of schools, the future of the church is carried by the work we do together. And one of the things that gives me great hope is that in a time of isolation, in a time of polarization, in a time where so many people do not feel like they belong, new connections are being formed every day. And that gives me great hope. That gives me great hope for the work that we do in the program where people come through our events, come through our courses, come through our programs, and they come out saying, "I'm more connected with other people." That's my hope about Baylor, is we have incredible students who come through our classes, and they certainly leave with a degree, but they also leave with a lot of connections. And that's my hope for churches, is that churches are finding a way to be faithfully present right where they are that is simply holding out the space for connection. Connection with others, connections with themselves, and connection with God. Jon: And that's why it's such a blessing to be part of Christian Research One University where we can convene these things, create those connections across communities, study them, and try to amplify the good work that schools and churches are doing, because there's a lot of great work going on out there. We just don't always hear about it. And so how do we accelerate that? Well, let's bring people together. Let's do it together in a way that creates connection and joy and then amplify it. Dustin Benac: That's right. Jon: And so that's the blessing. Well, thank you for all you do at Baylor through this, the program for the Future Church. Thanks for being with us and always love allies like you at Baylor, so thanks for taking the time. Dustin Benac: Thanks, Jon. Thrilled to be here.

Rapacious European corporations were top users of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals. For decades, they extracted billions from taxpayers worldwide, attacking local laws and suing governments before ISDS tribunals of three corporate attorneys.   So, it was big news when the European Union recently exited one of the world's largest ISDS agreements -- the Energy Charter Treaty.   In the latest episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast, Lori Wallach is joined by two people who know the inside story: Cecilia Olivet, advisor to the Left Group in the European Parliament, and Fabian Flues, of the German-based organization Powershift. Here's a hint: When European domestic climate policies got ISDS attacked, the Dutch, German and other ISDS-booster governments had to shell out billions. And climate activists turned up the, um, heat. Nothing like being on the receiving end of ISDS – and domestic grassroots campaigns - to change opinions…

240911(1) [뉴스브리핑 아침 배송] 론스타에 또 패소, 법무부 ISDS 소송에만 652억 / 노잼 탈출 위해 노력하는 지자체들 / “추석 때 생선전 먹지 마세요”...의사 출신 국회의원 당부 - 김완

Welcome to another episode of Kitchen Table Finance! Today, we have a very special guest, Scott de Varona, Division Director at MiABLE 529(a) Disability Savings Program & Student Loan Repayment Division. We discuss the groundbreaking MiABLE 529 disability savings program. If you're curious about how this program can help individuals with disabilities achieve a better life experience, you're in for a treat. https://youtu.be/jM0Q1zol3n4?si=hMHWvJzFJ23s-IAS Key Points Covered What is ABLE? ABLE stands for Achieving a Better Life Experience Modeled after the 529 education savings program but focused on disability savings According to their website, "ABLE is about Connecting People with Disabilities, their families, and those who support them to information about the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act and ABLE accounts. Our mission is to educate, promote, and support the positive impact ABLE can make on the lives of millions of Americans with disabilities and their families." Check out Michigan plan information here. https://youtu.be/K2KnCTw_mRw Scott's Journey: Background in Medicaid and how it led him to ABLE Initial challenges and steps in setting up the ABLE program The Importance of Awareness Common Misconceptions: Lack of awareness in the disability community Challenges in marketing to this unique population Building Trust: Partnering with service organizations and advocacy groups Joint presentations with ISDs and other credible sources Stephen Beck Jr. and the Origin of ABLE Accounts Personal Story Stephen Beck Jr.'s advocacy for his daughter with Down syndrome Creation of the ABLE account to allow savings without losing benefits Functionality and Benefits of ABLE Accounts Ease of Setup: Simple online setup via https://www.ablenrc.org/ Key Advantages: Savings not counting against the $2,000 asset limit for benefit eligibility Various allowable expenses, from housing to transportation Contribution Limits: Up to $18,000 per year (subject to IRS changes) Wide Range of Uses: Education, housing, transportation, medical expenses, and more Why ABLE Accounts Matter Empowerment: Providing financial independence to individuals with disabilities and encouraging smart financial decisions without penalty Conclusion This episode sheds light on how ABLE is revolutionizing financial planning for individuals with disabilities. Scott de Varona's insights make it clear that ABLE accounts are a game-changer, offering a better life experience through financial empowerment. Ready to learn more? Visit MiABLE to explore how you or a loved one can benefit from an ABLE account. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for more expert insights and inspiring stories! Connect with Us Follow Kitchen Table Finance on YouTube Email us your questions and feedback at info@srbadvisors.com Guest Information Scott de Varona, Executive Director at ABLE Mission: Encourage and assist the saving of private funds to help persons with disabilities cover costs that support their health, independence, and quality of life. Website LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review and share it with your network.  

     Climate justice is a hot issue, especially as we experience global climate disasters on an exponential level. There is no dispute that the fossil fuel industry has caused this climate devastation, yet the criminal polluters evade any sort of meaningful legal punishment. Instead, the criminal polluters are paid off due to a series of moronic 'trade deals', beginning with the grand-daddy of trade deal treason--namely NAFTA. The polluters are being paid off with our taxpayers dollars thanks to a mechanism benignly known as ISDS or Investor-State-Dispute arbitration system. Make no mistake, this legal robbery was rubber stamped by both republicans AND democrats. This system makes a mockery of justice itself, and the survival of the planet is at stake. This is our big story.  We will end the show with a few musical parodies for your enjoyment. Come join me.  Jeanine

State takeovers, high staff turnover, and even last-minute changes to familiar bus routes – it seems like this year our local Independent School Districts are facing more challenges than usual. Since it's back-to-school week here in Houston, we wanted to talk with a local education reporters to find out what parents, students, and teachers can expect from recent changes. Asher Lehrer-Small, Houston Landing's education reporter, and Elizabeth Sander, Houston Chronicle's suburban education reporter, join host Raheel Ramzanali to talk budget cuts, textbook censorship, staff shortages, and more in this back-to-school educational roundup. Stories we talked about today:  Read all of Asher's work here Read all of Elizabeth's work here Learn more about the sponsors of this August 12th episode here: Inprint Looking for more Houston news? Then sign up for our morning newsletter Hey Houston  Follow us on Instagram  @CityCastHouston Don't have social media? Then leave us a voicemail or text us at +1 713-489-6972 with your thoughts! Have feedback or a show idea? Let us know!  Interested in advertising with City Cast? Let's Talk! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buckle up as EJ and Ann takes you through an array of stories about Fort Worth's future and the political landscape of the metroplex.SHORT STORY #1: Who Attends Great Replacement Theory Event?SHORT STORY #2: Tarrant County GOP Attacking FW DEI Efforts- FW hire DEI Consultant- Bo French's shenanigansSHORT STORY #3: Most Texas adults support school vouchers, new survey findsBIG STORY: Who is leading Fort Worth's future?- Tarrant Appraisal District approves sweeping changes to appraisal process - Tarrant school districts fear consequences of new appraisal tax plan- ‘The implications are not good.' Tarrant Appraisal changes could lead to higher school taxes- David Cooke to retire as city manager, paving way for new era of Fort Worth leadership- Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke to step down in 2025 after decade of serviceWINS AND LOSSES:Ann:

Momentum is growing against clauses in investment treaties that permit companies to sue a state if it decides to keep fossil fuels in the ground. In this episode, we revisit the secretive world of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which some experts are worried could jeopardise global efforts to save the climate and cost countries billions of dollars in the process. Kyla Tienhaara, Canada research chair in economy and environment at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, comes back on The Conversation Weekly to update us on the latest resistance to these clauses. Part of this episode was first aired in October 2022. You can listen to the original episode here. It was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading:How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billionsEnergy charter treaty makes climate action nearly illegal in 52 countries – so how can we leave it?How Clive Palmer is suing Australia for $300 billion with the help of an obscure legal clause (and Christian Porter)The Energy Charter Treaty lets fossil fuel firms sue governments – but its future is now in question Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the Millionaire Real Estate Podcast! Today, we sat down with special guests Alan Stewart Jr. and Brittney Kosev to talk about How to be a real estate agent to investors Alan Stewart Jr. started in Real Estate in Late 2015. In 2016, he founded a brokerage out of a basement Called Yellowbrick where he was the only agent. Since then, he has grown the brokerage from himself and a partner to nearly 100 agents and does over 300 million in annual sales volume. The brokerage currently sits at number 15 in the State of CT in both units sold and Volume sold. He was Realtor of the Year in 2017. He has coached hundreds of agents and responsible for dozens for becoming nationally top-producing Realtors. In 2021, he founded ASK insurance which currently has over 70 Carriers and a book of business of over 2 million dollars. He is a Real Estate investor that has flipped over 100 properties and owns a few million dollars in rental properties. Alan will say his biggest accomplishment is being a dedicated and present single father of his son, Alan Stewart III. Alan believes in living a large life through faith, self-improvement and disciplined consistency so he can give MORE, that is why he helps raise 10's of thousands of dollars for charity every single year for the last half decade for a variety of causes. Brittney Kosev is the dynamic broker and owner of BK Real Estate, a company she founded in 2023 to support the growth and success of other agents. Over the last several years, Brittney has achieved and surpassed personal goals in both her production and skill set, viewing each transaction as a valuable opportunity for growth. Prior to embarking on her real estate journey, Brittney was a dedicated school librarian in various ISDs across Texas. She cherished the joy of teaching and helping students develop a love for reading. As a single mother to two amazing kids, she decided to expand her horizons by starting a part-time real estate career. Balancing her roles as a teacher by day and a real estate agent by evening, Brittney found herself selling a diverse range of properties, including commercial buildings, residential properties, tenant representation, and multifamily units. After two years of managing both careers, she took the bold step to leave education and fully commit to real estate, a decision that paid off significantly. With more time at her disposal, Brittney was able to reach more clients and achieve greater personal goals. Her interest in investing led her to follow the BiggerPockets podcast, inspiring her to grow her own portfolio. Today, she owns 11 doors, a mix of short- and long-term rentals, and is a part-owner in a mortgage company. Brittney's passion for building her portfolio has ignited a new goal: to help as many clients and agents as possible grow their own assets. In addition to her professional achievements, Brittney is an active member of her Keller community, particularly involved in the PTA. Her dedication to her community and her family is as strong as her commitment to her career. Whether clients are looking to buy a personal home, invest in multifamily properties, house hack, wholesale, flip, use creative financing, or grow their rental portfolio, Brittney and her team at BK Real Estate are ready to help. - This episode is sponsored by CanZell Realty. CanZell is one of the fastest-growing virtual/hybrid companies with a focus on providing local leadership, revenue share opportunities, and top technology for agents. Learn how you can keep more of your commission and sell more real estate at joincanzell.com - Join CanZell HERE: https://joincanzell.com/

Entra y descubrelos. De momento aprovecho para copiar el magnifico trabajo de JIB sobre este tema publicado en la web “la web de las sombras” domingo, 21 de diciembre de 2014 titulado “Mercenarios en Paterna”. Mercenarios en Paterna. Foto1 El 25 de agosto de 1989, el periodista Samuel Rosemblum publicó un artículo en el diario israelí "Hadashot" 1, en el que informaba de la existencia de una finca privada, situada en una zona arbolada próxima a Valencia, que serviría de campo de entrenamiento a mercenarios contratados por narcotraficantes colombianos. Se produjeron desmentidos oficiales. Los servicios de seguridad y el Ministerio del interior negaron saber nada del tema, sugiriendo que quizás se tratara de la Valencia venezolana, pero la revista Interviú, en su número del 8 de septiembre de 1989, afirmaba que había localizado una finca en el municipio de Paterna que se había abandonado cuatro meses atrás, pero en la que todavía se observaban vestigios de una "pista americana", megáfonos para recibir instrucciones, tiendas de campaña, roderas de vehículos todoterreno, cajas vacías de municiones e impactos de bala de gran calibre. Según Interviú, era una finca del Conde de Trénor, donde los mercenarios se preparaban bajo el pretexto de formación de personal con destino a empresas de seguridad españolas e israelíes. 2 1 El diario Hadashot, fundado por Amos Schoken el 4 de marzo de 1984, tuvo que cerrar poco después. 2 En 1989 la policía comenzó a investigar a empresas de seguridad con personal procedente del ejército o de los servicios secretos israelíes. Entre las empresas con personal israelí de la época se encontraban Mydas, de Mauricio Hatchwell y H Seguridad e ICTS, de Jacques Hachuel, que por entonces se ocupaba de la selección y entrenamiento del personal de seguridad del presidente de Banesto, Mario Conde. Hachuel estuvo implicado en el affaire Banesto junto a Marc Rich, el dueño del fuel oil del Prestige, amigo de Enrique Múgica y Javier Corcuera, y asociado con Luis Gómez-Acebo, casado con Pilar de Borbón, la hermana mayor del Rey Juan Carlos I. Sionista relacionado con el Mossad, buscado por el FBI y acusado por la fiscalía de Nueva York de una lista interminable de delitos financieros, Rich fue indultado por el presidente Bill Clinton a petición del ex presidente de Israel Simón Peres; el primer ministro Ehud Barak; los alcaldes de Zurich y Jerusalén, el vicepresidente de la CEOE, Fernando Fernández Tapias; el premio Nobel de Literatura, Camilo José Cela y el propio Rey Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón. Foto 2 Foto 3 Primero hacían un cursillo en Israel de especialización en armas cortas y pesadas, uso de explosivos, técnicas de rescate, golpes de mano, control de zonas reservadas, etc. y desde allí se trasladaban a distintos países en donde pudieran ser necesarios sus servicios. Los destinados a la América hispana que no hablaran español se trasladaban a Paterna para terminar su entrenamiento con dos meses más de prácticas y, finalmente, se incorporaban a las milicias privadas de los capos colombianos dedicados al tráfico de cocaína. Al noroeste de Valencia, siguiendo la carretera de Liria y atravesando la urbanización El Plantío y la zona de La Cañada, se encuentran las fincas de Vélez, Martinot y Mandor, cuyo propietario por aquellas fechas, según Interviú, era el conde de Trenor, Juan Antonio Gómez Trénor y Trénor. Foto 4 Foto 5 (Vista aérea de la zona. En el ángulo inferior izquierdo, el lago de la Vallesa del Mandor.) La finca Vélez, de más de quinientas hectáreas arboladas, con riachuelos, zonas escarpadas y una pequeña laguna en su zona central, se hallaba rodeada por una doble cerca de alambre de espino, y las entradas tenían puertas de hierro forjado. Vecinos del entorno hablaban de que los cazadores furtivos habían visto entrar y salir todo terrenos con las luces apagadas, así como comandos vestidos con trajes de camuflaje. Eran extranjeros, pero en otras ocasiones se habían topado con otros que hablaban en castellano, probablemente españoles y argentinos. Cuando sorprendían a los furtivos, los echaban a punta de pistola. A unos quinientos metros de distancia del complejo se encontraba una especie de fortaleza, situada en un enclave de unos diez mil metros cuadrados rodeado de un doble muro de cuatro metros de altura coronado con alambre de espino y provisto de varias atalayas. Foto 6 Foto 7 Foto 8 El citado conde de Trénor anunció la presentación de una demanda civil o una querella criminal contra los periodistas responsables de la información. Trénor negó poseer ninguna de las fincas citadas en el reportaje: Vélez, Mandor y Martinot. Miguel Tormo, propietario del El Conventet, una finca limítrofe a las citadas en la que estaría enclavada la supuesta fortaleza, también anunció que se querellaría. Según él, los muros, torretas y alambradas se habían instalado para impedir los robos que se venían produciendo continuamente. ….. En Israel existe una censura militar que prohíbe publicar informaciones relacionadas con los servicios secretos y el Ejército sin previa autorización. Teniendo noticia de que el periódico israelí "Hadashot" conocía las actividades del campo de Paterna, se paralizaron las actividades militares en la finca Vélez, se desmanteló la pista de entrenamiento, se retiraron los megáfonos -alguno de los cuales, por estar estropeados, se arrojaron a la laguna- y todo el personal, instructores y mercenarios, abandonaron las instalaciones. El 25 de agosto de 1989, como queda dicho, el diario mencionado hizo pública la información que tenía sobre el campo de entrenamiento español, confirmada por la emisión de un vídeo de la NBC en el que se observaba a militares israelíes instruyendo a los sicarios en hebreo. La televisión israelí consiguió finalmente identificar al individuo que aparecía en el vídeo. Se trataba del coronel Yair Klein, presidente de la empresa Hod Hahanith. Foto 9 Klein, de 46 años, ex comando y ex oficial de paracaidismo, se encontraba en la reserva, dirigiendo un regimiento especializado en instrucción militar, lucha antiterrorista y formación de escoltas. Otros empleados de Hod Hahanith eran los coroneles Moisés Spector, Abraham Tzadaka y Yaacov Biran. La noticia provocó consternación en Israel. El Ministerio de Defensa salió al paso de la información declarando que, aunque Klein y su empresa tenían permiso oficial para operar en Colombia, estaba caducado hace meses. Y que se trataba de una actividad criminal de la que no tenían conocimiento, que era asunto de la policía. Al fin y al cabo, Klein era ya un civil. Según un experto de una empresa de seguridad valenciana que asistió a un campamento israelí situado en las afueras de Tel Aviv, "... Los israelíes no juegan a la guerra: enseñan a matar. La última bala siempre se reserva para el que está en el suelo. Conozco bien sus métodos. Y no me extrañaría que entrenaran a sicarios de los narcos, porque los israelíes adiestran a todo el que pague. Lo demás les da igual." "Si están o no pagados por los narcos, lo ignoro. Lo único que puedo asegurar es que estaban tirando a bocajarro, con chalecos antibalas y placas antitrauma y desde luego utilizaban calibres altos, un 38 al menos, porque el impacto los echaba para atrás." "Todos nuestros entrenadores eran oficiales del Ejército, algunos en activo y otros retirados. Pero, desde luego, todos tenían experiencia en misiones concretas, tanto en Latinoamérica o Beirut como en Sudáfrica. El ejército es el que está detrás del negocio de los entrenamientos en Israel; se anuncian en las revistas y todo es tan natural como en España la oferta turística." Foto 10 Los asesinos a sueldo se acababan incorporando a los ejércitos privados de los narcotraficantes colombianos, que por aquella época asesinaron al candidato de la oposición a la Presidencia del Gobierno, el senador Luis Carlos Galán. Klein fue detenido finalmente en agosto de 2007 en el aeropuerto Domodédovo de Moscú, por agentes del Departamento antiterrorista del Ministerio del Interior ruso y agentes de la Interpol, cuando se disponía a viajar a Israel. En marzo de 2008, el Tribunal de Moscú autorizó su extradición a Colombia, en donde estaba condenado en ausencia a la pena de diez años y ocho meses de prisión, por instrucción, entrenamiento en tácticas, técnicas y procedimientos militares terroristas a mercenarios al servicio de Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Pablo Escobar y los hermanos Fidel y Carlos Castaño. De este último se decía que utilizaba sierras mecánicas para realizar masacres de campesinos. 3 El artículo de Hadeshot, Paterna, la finca Vélez, los campos de entrenamiento, los instructores israelíes, los mercenarios del narcotráfico, las masacres de campesinos colombianos desmembrados con motosierras por los hombres de Carlos Castaño... Y llegamos a Macastre. Con una coincidencia cronológica y geográfica, en la que una de las víctimas es mutilada con una sierra mecánica y uno de sus pies aparece en el interior de un contenedor de basuras en la calle Alcàsser, de Valencia. No es de extrañar que con todas estas coincidencias se empiecen a formular hipótesis sobre la causa del triple crimen de Macastre, que muchos consideran un claro antecedente del triple crimen de Alcàsser. http://lawebdelassombras.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/los-crimenes-de-macastre.html 3 "... Carlos Castaño Gil had plenty of enemies. You expect that of a death squad commander in Colombia who killed hundreds of peasants, leftist polticians and suspected Marxist sympathizers. But in the end it was his own older brother Vicente, "El Professor," who supposedly hired the assassins who killed Carlos. He was shot two years ago in an ambush, at the age of 39. But it wasn't until Sept. 1 that Castaño's skeleton was dug out of a shallow grave in the jungle and identified by DNA testing. You wouldn't exactly call it a dignified burial for Castaño, once the most feared man in Colombia. It was a faster death than Castaño probably deserved; many of his victims were killed by chainsaw..." (Time, Friday Sept. 08 2006. Tim McGirk). En el libro autobiográfico "Mi confesión", Castaño negó el uso de sierras mecánicas. "... Insisto hoy y siempre que si se presenta un único caso en donde en las AUC se haya utilizado una motosierra para cercenar y mutilar a una persona, ese día me someto a la justicia. Nunca ha sucedido, pero continúa la campaña de desprestigio..." Foto 11 FUENTES: Paterna: Localizado en Valencia un campo de entrenamiento de mercenarios: http://elpais.com/diario/1989/09/09/espana/621295216_850215.html Vecinos de Paterna niegan haber dado cobertura a mercenarios de la droga: http://elpais.com/diario/1989/09/11/espana/621468006_850215.html Oficiales israelíes entrenaban a sicarios del narcotráfico: http://elpais.com/diario/1989/08/25/internacional/619999216_850215.html Interior abre una investigación sobre el campo de entrenamiento para mercenarios: http://elpais.com/diario/1989/08/28/espana/620258408_850215.html Yair Klein: Olga Behar. El caso Klein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq9ouyDb9Os https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfg3iemb6tc Yair Klein. La noche de RCN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Wbau0v_y4 Who Is Israel's Yair Klein and What Was He Doing in Colombia and Sierra Leone?: http://www.democracynow.org/2000/6/1/who_is_israels_yair_klein_and http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia/doc/klein1.html Israhelli war criminal lt colonel Yair Klein says colombian officials invited him to train paramilitary deathsquads…. Still no extradition ,no justice for victims: http://www.shoah.org.uk/2012/11/14/israhelli-war-criminal-lt-colonel-yair-klein-says-colombian-officials-invited-him-to-train-paramilitary-deathsquads-still-no-extradition-no-justice-for-victims/ Israeli advisors fight in Colombia?: http://ww4report.com/node/4312 Explosivo testimonio de mercenario israelí que entrenó paramilitares colombianos: http://elmolinoonline.com/2012/11/13/explosivo-testimonio-de-mercenario-israeli-que-entreno-paramilitares-colombianos/los-%C3%BAnicos-en-espa%C3%B1ol/ Yair Klein: Russia’s “other” Viktor Bout: http://exiledonline.com/yair-klein-russias-other-viktor-bout/ Rights court halts mercenary's extradition: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/03/israelandthepalestinians.russia Yair Klein y otros 14 mercenarios que deberían responder en Colombia: http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/yair-klein-otros-14-mercenarios-deberian-responder-colombia/242214-3 Yair Klein cuenta su historia: http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/yair-klein-cuenta-su-historia/255142-3 Yair Klein. El instructor de la muerte: https://elturbion.com/?p=1690 El mercenario israelí que tiene las claves del paramilitarismo en Colombia: http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2012/11/121114_colombia_yair_klein_perfil_claves_paramilitarismo_aw El Tiempo: http://www.eltiempo.com/noticias/yair-klein Yair Klein threatens to blow whistle on Colombian government: https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?5103-Yair-Klein-Colombia-FARC-the-US-and-drugs Is Klein Coming Clean?: http://mikesbogotablog.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/is-klein-coming-clean.html Moscú autoriza la extradición a Colombia del mercenario israelí Yair Klein: http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2008/03/12/actualidad/1205276406_850215.html Paramilitares: The Colombian Paramilitaries and Israel: http://de.indymedia.org/2003/08/59728.shtml Colombia's Blowback: http://www.tni.org/archives/act/4421 Carlos Castaño: http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1532948,00.html Aranguren Molina, Mauricio. Mi confesión. Carlos Castaño revela sus secretos. Hadashot: Haaretz: You go your way and I'll go mine: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/you-go-your-way-and-i-ll-go-mine-1.302134 Palestine-Israel Journal: http://www.pij.org/details.php?id=381 Freewheeling Israeli Daily Shuts Down, Citing Poor Sales: http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1993/Freewheeling-Israeli-Daily-Shuts-Down-Citing-Poor-Sales/id-e8af5f05baac61c40f433f9a70d7b66f No more news from Hadashot. (newspaper business closed): http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14676174.html Hadashot: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/journal.php?joid=484 The dissenters: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/28/the-dissenters Israeli Paper Hadashot Shuts Down: http://www.jta.org/1993/11/30/archive/israeli-paper-hadashot-shuts-down Empresas de seguridad: http://elpais.com/diario/1989/11/02/espana/625964408_850215.html http://destapandolasmentiras.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/una-compania-israeli-de-alta-seguridad.html Marc Rich: http://lahaine.org/internacional/marc_man.htm Jacques Hachuel: http://elpais.com/diario/1987/08/09/economia/555458402_850215.html ………………………………………………………………………………………. Invitados: Nunkálo Zabras @NZabras ALL WAYS WHAT XING …. Mr Cambio Climático @M4D3R0 Soy machista. Hago a los moros volverse locos y gritar "allahu akbar" en iglesias. Si subo la temperatura 3'33 grados, mataré de paros cardíacos a to quisqui. …. ZOILO. @ZoiloMCMLIX P. S. C. MALINFLUENCER. …. Dra Yane #JusticiaParaUTP @ayec98_2 Médico y Buscadora de la verdad. Con Dios siempre! No permito q me dividan c/izq -derecha, raza, religión ni nada de la Creación. https://youtu.be/TXEEZUYd4c0 …. UTP Ramón Valero @tecn_preocupado Un técnico Preocupado un FP2 IVOOX UTP http://cutt.ly/dzhhGrf BLOG http://cutt.ly/dzhh2LX Ayúdame desde mi Crowfunding aquí https://cutt.ly/W0DsPVq ………………………………………………………………………………………. Enlaces citados en el podcast: censura en Twitter https://twitter.com/tecn_preocupado/status/762350969132838913 Siguen censurando mi cuenta https://twitter.com/tecn_preocupado/status/943541246299181063 Desindexado de Google y bloqueado en Twitter https://twitter.com/tecn_preocupado/status/946081197335162882 LO SINIESTRO que hemos descubierto (videos - medios sociales) https://x.com/criptodaisy/status/1795345673132413301 ¿ESTAMOS EN CIBERGUERRA EN LOS FOROS? https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2014/03/23/estamos-en-ciberguerra-en-los-foros/ Los indecentes de @larazon_es le han plagiado el maravilloso artículo de @tecn_preocupado analizando el caso Daniel Sancho. https://x.com/Placeb0Mad/status/1689618355198545921 𝐓𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐢́𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐬, 𝐞𝐥 𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐲 𝐞𝐥 "𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐨 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨” https://x.com/larazon_es/status/1689603603911065600 UTP215 El culto covidiano https://www.ivoox.com/utp215-el-culto-covidiano-audios-mp3_rf_107418948_1.html SE DEBATE EL REGLAMENTO SANITARIO INTERNACIONAL #OMS https://x.com/NZabras/status/1795538101915562085 PCR kit de caldo de paella (censurado) https://twitter.com/ayec98/status/1292108796978958336 PRUEBAS PCR: EL KIT DE CALDO PARA PAELLAS QUE NOS ENFERMÓ A TODOS https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2020/08/10/pruebas-pcr-el-kit-de-caldo-para-paellas-que-nos-enfermo-a-todos/ The Big Reset https://x.com/tecn_preocupado/status/1646613904460505090 Hasta el pobre pangolin nos lo mostró la revista The Economist en sus previsiones… https://x.com/tecn_preocupado/status/1240612782208401409 IA Ameca: "Ten cuidado con lo que deseas” https://x.com/terra_cremada/status/1795355399635509680 LO QUE NO DEBERIAS SABER SOBRE EL PNR https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2019/03/14/lo-que-no-deberias-saber-sobre-el-pnr/ AGENDA 2020, CORPORACIONES Y DISIDENCIA CONTROLADA https://tecnicopreocupado.com/2017/10/15/agenda-2020-corporaciones-y-disidencia-controlada/ El Triunfo de Las Corporaciones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0l3Rz3gFW0 The Corporation - La Corporacion (español - spanish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkr-paaAYJ8&t=1s Las trincheras ‘ocultas’ de Valencia https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/valencia/20160829/404205053010/trincheras-guerra-civil-valencia-vallesa-paterna.html Localizado en Valencia un campo de entrenamiento de mercenarios https://elpais.com/diario/1989/09/09/espana/621295216_850215.html Vecinos de Paterna niegan haber dado cobertura a mercenarios de la droga https://elpais.com/diario/1989/09/11/espana/621468006_850215.html Oficiales israelíes entrenaban a sicarios del narcotráfico https://elpais.com/diario/1989/08/25/internacional/619999216_850215.html Interior abre una investigación sobre el campo de entrenamiento para mercenarios https://elpais.com/diario/1989/08/28/espana/620258408_850215.html Mercenarios en Paterna https://lawebdelassombras.blogspot.com/2014/12/mercenarios-en-paterna.html Coordenadas en google maps: 39.544414,-0.496654 "La compañía International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS), dirigida por militares israelíes, opera en España desde hace dos años sin permiso del Gobierno y al margen de las normas previstas para controlar la penetración extranjera en el campo de la seguridad (...) Según la normativa en vigor, las personas que dirijan o gestionen empresas de seguridad, así como sus jefes técnicos, han de ser de nacionalidad española. La Policía debe conocer también la composición de los órganos de administración y cuadros directivos, "así como cualquier variación en los mismos". Una compañía israelí de alta seguridad opera ilegalmente en España con cobertura de Hachuel http://elpais.com/diario/1989/10/10/espana/623977202_850215.html "International Security and Defense Systems (ISDS), una empresa de seguridad israelí (...) estableció, además, estrechas relaciones con el grupo Telefónica, siendo presidente Luis Solana, el actual director de Radiotelevisión Española. Fruto de aquellos lazos fue también el envío a Israel de los tres guardaespaldas de Luis Solana. Esos tres hombres siguieron, durante varias semanas, un curso de adiestramiento organizado por la empresa ISDS en unas instalaciones en Israel". Una empresa israelí vinculada a la 'contra' presta servicios a Agricultura de la Generalitat http://elpais.com/diario/1989/11/10/espana/626655603_850215.html "La empresa israelí de seguridad ISDS Ltd., vinculada a la guerra sucia en Centroamérica y al entrenamiento de la contra, ha operado de forma ilegal en España desde septiembre de 1986 hasta julio de 1989, fecha en que el Ministerio del Interior autorizó las actividades de ISDS Ibérica (...) Hasta el 28 de julio de 1989, Interior no autorizó a ISDS Ibérica para operar en seguridad. Por ello, todas las actividades de Bilan, que nunca estuvo autorizada en ese campo y las de ISDS Ibérica anteriores a esa fecha son plenamente ilegales. Desde julio, según han señalado fuentes de Interior a este diario, subsiste el problema de hasta qué punto una empresa española de seguridad puede servir de intermediaria a otra israelí que no está domiciliada en España". La empresa israelí de seguridad ISDS ha operado ilegalmente en España durante tres años http://elpais.com/diario/1989/11/11/espana/626742001_850215.html Menos mal que en 1991 las actuaciones en el ámbito de la seguridad de los israelís de ISDS ya estaba legalizadas (las actuaciones que fueran legales se sobreentiende)... "El Rey de España (...) confió estos trabajos a la compañía privada International Security and Defense Systems (ISDS) Ibérica, de origen israelí, en detrimento del Cesid que, por ley, tiene la obligación de proteger las comunicaciones de la Casa del Rey. Oded M. Lahat, capitán en la reserva del Ejército israelí, de 37 años, se desplazó el 26 de junio de 1991 hasta la Zarzuela para elaborar el plan de seguridad. En este plan intervinieron cinco técnicos en telecomunicaciones de la propia Zarzuela, que hicieron varias pruebas con los secráfonos (telefónos que codifican y descodifican la voz en tiempo real e impiden las grabaciones). Los trabajos fueron supervisados por Sabino Fernández Campo, que en aquellas fechas era el jefe de la Casa del Rey*. http://archivo.elperiodico.com/ed/19950616/pag_007.html * REAL DECRETO 1/1993, de 8 de enero, por el que se dispone el cese de don Sabino Fernández Campo, Conde de Latores, como Jefe de la Casa de S.M. el Rey. REAL DECRETO 2/1993, de 8 de enero, por el que se dispone el cese de don Joel Casino Gimeno como Secretario general de la Casa de S.M. el Rey http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/1993/01/09/pdfs/A00474-00474.pdf ………………………………………………………………………………………. Música utilizada en este podcast: Tema inicial Heros Batir Lázarus - Enredados https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzd361ppRP0 a-ha - Take On Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914 LARGO - POSTCOVID https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFLFfHJ0h0Q Bian - Gratitud | Versos sencillos Cap 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBBtubs-nv4 ………………………………………………………………………………………. Epílogo Yaco - El Coco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5dWi_dbmbo

Ralph welcomes Professor Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT. We discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/ Palestine and breakdown what the weaponry being used in both conflicts tells us about the intentions and capabilities of all parties involved. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!Theodore Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government's claims about missile defenses.We have a very complicated situation. In some ways, there's no right or wrong. There are different groups of people with deep ethnic commitments, and a central government in Kiev that has acted in a way that's completely intolerant of a significant fraction of its own citizens who happen to be of Russian descent. And right from the beginning, there was hostility from the West.Theodore PostolThere's a long history of the central Ukrainian command not supporting their troops at the battlefront. This is a real problem with the troops. The morale of the troops has been tremendously affected in an adverse way by the sense that their military leadership is not concerned about their life. It's one thing to ask a soldier to go risk their lives or lay down their life for their country and be providing everything you can to protect them and make it possible for them to fight. It's another thing when you're sending them to a certain death just because it looks good.Theodore PostolThe people in leadership roles are clueless, to a point that it's astonishing. The last situation that I know of historically where the leadership was so clueless was Tsar Nicholas II in 1917.Theodore PostolIn Case You Haven't Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 4/23/241. According to AP, the United States has vetoed Palestine's latest bid for full membership in the United Nations. The vote in the 15-member U.N. Security Council was 12 in favor, including close U.S. allies like France, Japan, and South Korea, with the U.K. and Switzerland opting to abstain. Only the United States voted against the resolution. If U.S. had not blocked the resolution, the question would have gone to the full U.N. General Assembly, where no country holds veto power. While the U.S. claims this vote “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,” these words obviously ring empty. Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination…The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real.” 140 countries recognize Palestine. Palestine currently sits as a non-member observer state at the U.N.2. Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a prominent Palestinian-American academic, was arrested at her home in Jerusalem last week, Democracy Now! reports. According to this report, Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian “was suspended by Hebrew University last month after saying in an interview Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.” Sarah Ihmoud, a co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Collective who teaches at College of the Holy Cross is quoted saying “We see this as yet another example of Israel attacking Palestinians wherever they are, whoever they are. It underscores that no Palestinian is safe under Israel's racist apartheid rule.” Now, Ryan Grim of the Intercept reports that Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is communicating trough family that she is being tortured in Israeli custody. Maddeningly, it appears unlikely that President Biden will hold Israel to account for the possible torture of an American citizen.3. Left-wing Israeli journalist Nimrod Flaschenberg reports Israeli refusenik Tal Mitnick and Sofia Orr “were both sentenced this week by the Israeli army to prison terms of 45 days+15 days probation. This will bring Sofia to a total of 85 days and Tal to 150. The Israeli army is relentless. But these brave kids are not about to give up.” This is Mr. Mitnick's 4th term in military prison and Ms. Orr's third, accoring to Pressenza. The international press agency further reports “probation is unprecedented and aims at deterring the refusers by enabling the military court to extend their next sentence beyond the 45-day limit…[and] In addition to Mitnick and Orr, conscientious objector Ben Arad is serving his first term of 20 days in prison.”4. Much has been made of the recent pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. Prem Thakker of the Intercept reports, organizers of these protests say over 50 Barnard students and over 30 Columbia students have been suspended, with Barnard students losing access to dining and housing services. Reports on the ground show the universities dumping students belongings in the street. At the protests themselves, organizers emphasize that Jewish and Muslim students shared prayer space, and stress “Columbia wants you to believe we are enemies to protect their genocidal investments, but there is no deeper solidarity."5. Following SUNY Binghampton's adoption of a BDS resolution, New York State Legislators sent a letter to SUNY Chancellor John B. King calling for the expulsion of the student leaders behind that campaign. Moreover, this letter calls for “the ouster of any faculty and committee members who played a role in promoting or supporting this resolution.” This letter was signed by both Republican and Democratic state legislators in Albany. As prominent DSA member Aaron Narraph aptly put it, this campaign against the student activists constitutes “our very own mccarthyism.”6. In more campus news, The Lens, a New Orleans based outlet, is out with a blistering report on LSU's pay-for-play arrangement with fossil fuel companies. They write “For $5 million dollars, Louisiana's flagship university will let an oil company help choose which faculty research projects move forward. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with ‘robust' reviewing powers and access to resulting intellectual property.” This report links to documents that outline LSU's fundraising pitch to oil and chemical companies, and “Records [which] show that after Shell donated $25 million in 2022 to LSU…the university gave the fossil-fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university's new concentration in carbon capture, use, and storage.” It is telling that, like pro-Palestine speech, the so-called campus free speech defenders are not standing up to corporate capture of research institutions.7. Against the backdrop of escalating diplomatic tensions in Latin-America over Ecuador's raid on the Mexican embassy, Progressive International reports “Ecuador [has voted] NO in the referendum on investor-state arbitration…rejecting President Noboa's underhanded efforts to override the Constitution to protect foreign investors over labor rights, Indigenous communities, and environmental regulations.” The Investor-State Dispute System – which places international corporations on the same legal footing as sovereign governments and hands over adjudication to the World Trade Organization – has come under heavy fire by left-wing skeptics of so-called ‘free trade' in recent years, contributing to the ultimate demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal engineered in the late Obama era. The ISDS has had a particularly troubling history in Latin-America, with tobacco companies suing Uruguay over anti-smoking legislation to name just one example. At the same time however, Ecuador overwhelmingly passed an anti-gang referendum in a victory for Noboa, per Reuters. Expect to see more about Ecuador in the coming weeks.8. Techcruch reports “Tesla is recalling all 3,878 Cybertrucks that it has shipped to date, due to a problem where the accelerator pedal can get stuck, putting drivers at risk of a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.” This article goes on to say “The recall caps a tumultuous week for Tesla. The company laid off more than 10% of its workforce on Monday, and lost two of its highest-ranking executives.” The Guardian now reports that Tesla plans to cut prices on the Cybertrucks, which cost over $100,000 each. We beseech our listeners to be wary of these vehicles and to do thorough research on Tesla's auto safety record.9. In more transportation news, transportation blog Second Ave. Sagas reports “The feds are threatening to sue [New York City] if city vehicles [such as NYPD patrol SUVs] do not stop parking on sidewalks and crosswalks in ways that ‘impede the access of people with disabilities to pedestrian pathways.'” According to the Justice Department's letter, “The City of New York (and, more specifically, the NYPD) has failed to ensure that the pedestrian grid is ‘readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities,'... NYPD vehicles and the personal vehicles of NYPD employees frequently obstruct sidewalks and crosswalks in the vicinity of NYPD precincts…a recent study identified parking behaviors at 91% of the NYPD's precincts that resulted in obstructions to sidewalks and crosswalks with the potential to render those pathways inaccessible.” We commend the Justice Department for taking action to ensure the ADA is enforced, even against the NYPD which routinely behaves as though it is above the law.10. Finally, the United Autoworkers have prevailed in their union election at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, winning by an overwhelming 2,628 to 985 margin, per the Guardian. This marks the first time workers have unionized a foreign-owned auto plant in the South and serves as a repudiation of the anti-union campaign backed by Republican Governors such as Tennessee's own Bill Lee. UAW President Shawn Fain responded to this campaign, saying “They're liars…These politicians are showing that they're just puppets for corporate America, and they don't give a damn about working-class people. They don't care about the workers being left behind even though the workers are the ones who elect them.” Seizing on the momentum of victory,  said “The workers at VW are the first domino to fall. They have shown it is possible…I expect more of the same to come. Workers are fed up.” UAW now plans to target a Mercedes plant in Alabama; according to the union, “A supermajority of Mercedes-Benz workers have filed a petition with the…NLRB…for a vote to join the UAW.” As the Guardian notes, “Mercedes has been considerably more outspoken against the union than VW was, with a top Mercedes official telling workers: ‘I don't believe the UAW can help us to be better.'” Yet Fain is confident, saying “At the end of the day, I believe that workers at Mercedes definitely want a union…and I believe a big majority there will vote in favor.”This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Two big court decisions today. The U.S. Supreme Court issues a “unanimous” decision that states cannot remove Trump, or any other federal candidate, under the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment – it was really a 5 to 4 opinion.The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay against Judge Ezra's order of last week that prevents Texas from enforcing SB4 that allows state arrests for illegally crossing the border. However, the court has put a 7-day pause on the issue to give the Supreme Court time to react.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.More news of school districts and electioneering: Huffman ISD is the Latest School District Caught Potentially Violating Electioneering Laws Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Huffman ISD and Aledo ISD for Illegal Electioneering Texas' Sales Tax Revenue Totaled $3.7 Billion in February.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

This episode is recorded in Russian. In this Russian-language edition of our ISDS podcast series, Sultan Seidalin and Aitmaganbet Ospanbekov provide a comprehensive overview of the most significant developments in investment treaty arbitration during the latter part of 2023. This episode is a Russian-language translation of our previous episode “Investment treaty arbitration: 2023 in review” hosted by Suzie Savage and Patrick Beale.  ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our International Arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, global head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  Aitmaganbet: Здравствуйте и добро пожаловать на наш первый выпуск серии подкастов на русском языке. Я напомню, что это по-русски урегулирование споров между инвестором и государством или сокращенно, как его называют «УСИГ». Меня зовут Айтмаганбет Оспанбеков, и я являюсь юристом в группе по международному арбитражу в офисе Рид Смит в городе Астана. Я рад, что ко мне присоединился мой коллега Султан Сейдалин, старший юрист по международному арбитражу, также работающий в астанинском офисе Рид Смит. Здравствуйте, Султан.  Sultan: Здравствуй, Айтмаганбет. Очень приятно вести с тобой этот подкаст. Всегда интересно, конечно, проверить и подвести итоги того, что произошло за последние шесть месяцев, и что нас ждет в перспективе.  Aitmaganbet: Да, определенно интересно, и нам есть о чем поговорить начнем с Договора к энергетической хартии. Ранее государства-члены ЕС выразили намерение выйти из ДЭХ. Европейская комиссия в своем прошлогоднем решении настаивала на скоординированном выходе ЕС, Евроатома и всех государств-членов из Договора к энергетической хартии. Намерение выйти из ДЭХ связано с обеспокоенностью общества о том, что ДЭХ представляет защиту инвестициям, осуществленным в сектора горючих полезных ископаемых. В результате чего ДЭХ находится в кризисе, а его будущее не определено. Что-то изменилось с тех пор Султан?  Sultan: Да, Вы правы, Айтмаганбет одиннадцать стран уже уведомили о своем выходе или намерении сделать это. И седьмого июля Комиссия Европейского союза предложила скоординированный выход TC, его государств-членов и Евроатома из Договора к энергетической хартии. Более того, в сентябре Правительство Великобритании объявило, что пересмотрит членство Великобритании в договоре и рассмотрит возможность выхода из него, если соглашение по изменённым условиям не будет достигнуто к ноябрю две тысячи двадцать третьего года. Если государства Европейского союза осуществят скоординированный выход, это вдвое сократит число подписавших сторон и, следовательно, географический охват мер защиты, предусмотренный ДЭХ. Тем не менее, на заседании Конференции Энергетической хартии в ноябре прошлого года секретариат ДЭХ указал, что они желают возобновить свою политику консолидации и расширения привлечений, так называемое CONEXO, путем рассмотрения потенциального сотрудничества с ОПЕК. Это может указать намерение расширить членство в ДЭХ за счет государств ОПЭК.  Aitmaganbet: это все представляет большой интерес, учитывая всю неопределенность относительного будущего ДЭХ. Существует ли альтернатива для инвесторов, которые считают, что маршрут защиты инвестиций через ДЭХ для них закрыт?  Sultan: Да, конечно, инвесторам следует определить, имеется ли соответствующее двустороннее инвестиционное соглашение предполагающее защиту аналогичную ДЭХ. Если нет, они могут рассмотреть возможность реструктуризации своих инвестиций через оставшиеся государства, подписавшие Договор к энергетической хартии. Они также могут попытаться усилить договорную защиту посредством соглашения с правительством принимающей страны. и в качестве альтернативы, если государство инвестора и принимающее государство являются участниками Европейской конвенции о правах человека, существует еще возможность для них сослаться на положения о защите собственности, содержащиеся в статье 1 Протокола 1 к этой Конвенции. К примеру, группа акционеров ЮКОСа успешно подала иск против России до ее выхода из Конвенции по ЕСПЧ и получила компенсацию в размере почти два миллиарда долларов США. Ну и, наконец, может быть рассмотрен вариант страхования от определенных рисков.  Aitmaganbet: Спасибо, Султан. Приятно осознавать, что у инвесторов есть и другие варианты. Теперь предлагаю обсудить кратко другой вопрос это процедуру исполнения арбитражного решения. Недавно в английских судах рассматривалось крупное дело по этому вопросу. Не так ли, Султан? Sultan: Совершенно верно. В деле Инфраструктурные услуги Люксембурга против Испании Английский коммерческий суд отклонил попытке Испании воспрепятствовать исполнению решения ДЭХ, вынесенного в пользу инвесторов, учрежденных в Европейском союзе. Aitmaganbet: Дело в том, что в этом отношении английский суд не последовал решениям Суда Европейского союза по делам Achmea и Комстрой, который определил, что внутриевропейское арбитражное разбирательство в рамках ДЭХ противоречило законодательству ЕС.  Sultan: Все правильно. Позиция Европейского союза заключается в том, что он является окончательным арбитром по всем вопросам, касающимся интерпретации и применения правового порядка Европейского союза. Однако судья по делу Инфраструктурные услуги Люксембурга против Испании установил, что договоры Европейского союза не имеют приоритета над положением о разрешении споров в статье 26 ДЭХ. Соответственно, арбитражное решение против Испании имело возможность быть зарегистрированным и исполненным в Великобритании. Что касается внутренних дел Великобритании, произошло еще одно весьма интересное событие. Так, Комиссия по законодательству провела пересмотр закона об арбитраже Великобритании 1996 года.  Aitmaganbet: Да, это так, и Комиссия по законодательству опубликовала свои рекомендации в сентябре прошлого года. Предложения и поправки были разработаны после консультаций с арбитражными юристами и всеми заинтересованными лицами. Кстати, включая Рид Смит, чьи рекомендации были процитированы в отчете Комиссии по законодательству по этому вопросу. Законопроект об арбитраже был затем включен в речь короля в ноябре прошлого года. Это означает, что его будут рассматривать на следующей законодательной сессии.  Sultan: интересно, а какие основные рекомендации заинтересуют практикующих юристов, занимающихся инвестиционными спорами, с твоей точки зрения? Aitmaganbet: несмотря на то, что существует несколько примечательных рекомендаций, в том числе в отношении упрощенной процедуры урегулирования иска и обязанности арбитов раскрывать информацию о любых потенциальных конфликтах интересов или любую соответствующую информацию, которая может повлиять на их беспристрастность, я думаю, что больше всего юристов-практиков по инвестиционным спорам заинтересует предполагаемые изменения оспаривания вопроса материальной юрисдикции трибунала.  Sultan: А можешь подсказать о том, какую реформу предложила Комиссия по законодательству?  Aitmaganbet: Да, конечно, цель состоит в том, чтобы упростить процесс оспаривания материальной юрисдикции арбитражного суда. Основной целью предлагаемой реформы является обеспечение, чтобы если трибунал уже вынес решение о своей юрисдикции, а возражающая сторона участвовала в этом процессе, то любое последующее оспаривание решения, согласно статье 67. то есть из-за отсутствия материальной юрисдикции должно осуществляться только путем пересмотра, а не полного повторного слушания, как это происходит в настоящее время. Цель состоит в том, чтобы снизить риск несправедливого и расточительного повторного слушания, который потенциально может возникнуть в результате полного повторного слушания. Возможность предоставить новые аргументы или доказательства, или пересмотреть старые доказательства будет ограничена только исключительными ситуациями.  Sultan: Да, в этом есть смысл. А как было воспринято это предложение? Aitmaganbet: Спасибо за хороший вопрос Существует опасения, что оспаривание по статье 67, не являющееся полноценным повторным слушанием, может оказаться недостаточным для возникновения эстопеля в отношении вопроса при исполнении арбитражного решения за рубежом. Тогда возражающая сторона может начать еще одно оспаривание юрисдикции в иностранном суде, исполняющем решения. Возникшие в результате этого задержки и возросшие расходы, скорее всего, будут намного больше, чем экономия, полученная за счет отказа от повторного рассмотрения дела в Англии. Неопределенность и процессуальная несправедливость также будут гораздо выше, что сделает реформу статьи 67 пирровой победой. Однако комиссия по законодательству не была убеждена в значимости этого риска, отчасти потому, что ожидает, что иностранные суды все равно могут найти основания для возражения по делу даже в отсутствие полного повторного слушания. Ну что ж, время покажет, насколько обоснованы эти опасения.  Sultan: Давай вернемся к индо-тихоокеанскому региону. В июле прошлого года Великобритания подписала всеобъемлющее и прогрессивное соглашение о транстихоокеанском партнерстве (CPTPP), и у нее есть двенадцать месяцев на ратификацию соглашения, вступления в силу которого ожидается во второй половине 2024 года. В торговый блок входит Австралия, Новая Зеландия, Япония, Сингапур, Малайзия, Бруней, Вьетнам, Канада, Мексика, Чили и Перу.  Aitmaganbet: У меня возник вопрос, включает ли CPTPP положение об урегулировании споров между государствами и инвесторами.  Sultan: CPTPP является первым соглашением о свободной торговле после Брексита, подписанным в Великобритании, которое включает положение об урегулировании инвестиционных споров. Тем не менее, у Великобритании уже есть действующие двусторонние инвестиционные соглашения с Сингапуром, Малайзией, Перу, Чили, Вьетнамом и Мексикой, которые также содержат арбитражные оговорки между инвестором и государством. Однако Великобритания вела переговоры о дополнительных соглашениях с Австралией и Новой Зеландией, с которыми у нее нет существующих двусторонних инвестиционных соглашений для того, чтобы исключить применение УСИГ (ISDS) в рамках CPTPP. Aitmaganbet: А как рассматриваются иски УСИГ (ISDS) в рамках CPTPP? Sultan: Стандартная процедура иски рассматриваются трибуналом в составе трех арбитров по одному арбитру назначается каждой сторон, и председатель назначается совместно сторонами, если иное не согласованно сторонами.  Aitmaganbet: Есть ли какие-то особенности механизма урегулирования споров между государством и инвестором в данном случае, о которых слушателям будет полезно узнать?  Sultan: Да, я думаю, что интересно знать следующие основные моменты. В соглашении предусмотрен обязательный шестимесячный период для переговоров, так называемый «cooling-off» период.  Инвесторы могут подавать иски CPTPP без предварительного обращения к национальной судебной системе, хотя есть оговорка о подсудности, которая не позволяет инвесторам обращаться в арбитраж против Чили, Мексики, Перу и Вьетнама, по искам, которые уже были поданы в национальные суды или административные трибуналы этих государств.  Также уведомления об арбитраже направленные на любой сторон, подписавших договор должны сопровождаться письменным отказом от права на возбуждение или продолжение рассмотрения тех же исков в любом суде, административном трибунале или другом органе по разрешению споров. И одна особенность, на которую следует обратить это срок исковой давности Он ограничен сроком в 3.5 года.  Aitmaganbet: А как насчет материальной защиты, предлагаемой данным договором?    Sultan: Ну, здесь для некоторых секторов, к примеру, здравоохранения присмотрено исключение из стандарта национального режима. Соглашение представляет государствам право отказать в применении Главы договора об инвестициях, касающихся государственных мер по контролю за табаком и табачной продукцией и недискриминационных регуляторных актов, направленных на достижение общественного благосостояния. Это не рассматриваются как косвенная экспроприация. Aitmaganbet: Султан, а какие правила применяются к арбитражу в рамках CPTPP? Sultan: здесь могут рассматриваться и применяться регламенты МЦУС или ЮНСИТРАЛ, а также любые другие арбитражные регламенты, которые будут согласованы между сторонами.  Aitmaganbet: Большое спасибо, Султан. А теперь давайте перейдем от Индотихоокеанского региона к Америке и поговорим больше о раскрытии информации в США. Верховный суд США недавно пришел к выводу о том, что помощь в раскрытой информации в США в соответствии со статьей 1782 Кодекса США не распространяется на иностранный частный коммерческий арбитраж или специальный арбитраж между инвестором и государством. Верховный суд постановил, что на статью 1782 можно слаться только в том случае, если иностранный трибунал является правительством или межправительственным судебным органом  Sultan: Да, и это оставило вопрос о том, можно ли использовать статью 1782 для поддержки арбитражных разбирательств в рамках МЦУИС. Aitmaganbet: Совершенно верно. Однако следует уточнить, что Верховный суд не дал конкретного теста или критерия, которому должны следовать нижестоящие суды в таких случаях. Sultan: Да, я бы хотел отметить в данном случае решение по делу Webuild S.P.A, рассмотренное в Южном округе Нью-Йорка, в рамках которого был отклонен запрос истца о предоставлении доказательств для использования перед трибуналом МЦУИС. Судья данного суда пришел к заключению, что содействие по сбору доказательств в рамках статьи 1782 недоступно истцам в арбитраже МЦУИС по в рамках ДИС между Панамой и Италией.  Aitmaganbet: Совершенно верно, и это решение теперь обжаловано во Втором апелляционном округе. Подготовка аргументации завершена в августе прошлого года, включая докладную записку, предоставленную Соединенными Штатами, которая утверждает, что арбитражный суд между инвестором и государством, созванный в соответствии с Конвенцией МЦУИС, не является иностранным или международным трибуналом в соответствии со статьей 1782.  Sultan: Да, будет интересно посмотреть, как второй апелляционный округ решит подойти к этому вопросу. И я думаю, что мы обязательно вернемся к данным событиям в нашем следующем выпуске. Aitmaganbet: Давайте теперь поговорим о реформе УСИГ (ISDS). Рабочая группа №3 UNCITRAL рассматривает широкомасштабные реформы системы. В октябре прошлого года Рабочая группа рассмотрела проекты положения о процедурных реформах и так называемых сквозных вопросах. Sultan: именно так, Айтмаганбет, и секретариат сейчас представил проект положений, которые могут быть включены в существующие или будущие международные инвестиционные соглашения, или в качестве дополнения к арбитражного регламенту ЮНСИТРАЛ. Они рассматривают многие вопросы, которые были спорными.  Sultan: Текущие предложения сгруппированы в три раздела. В первом разделе рассматриваются условия ограничения подачи требований. в рамках инвестиционных споров, например, инвесторы обязаны инициировать разбирательство в судах, принимающих государств в отношении оспариваемых мер, прежде чем они смогут прибегнуть к инвест арбитражу. Также существует требования к инвестору отказаться от права инициировать или продолжать любое другое производство по разрешению споров, касающееся оспариваемых мер.  Предполагается предусмотреть срок исковой давности, продолжительность которого еще не определена.  Предусматриваются подробные положения, касающиеся обстоятельств, при которых государство может отказать инвестору в преимуществах МИС, в том числе, когда инвестиции были сделаны в нарушение законов и правил государства или национальных или международных принципов добросовестности или были сделаны путем коррупции, мошенничества или обмана. Также предусмотрено четко выраженное право договаривающихся сторон урегулировать спор в общественных интересах и принимать меры для обеспечения того, чтобы инвестиции осуществлялись с учетом защиты общественного здоровья, окружающей среды, а также поощрения и защиты культурного разнообразия. Ну и, наконец, в этот раздел включено право государство определяет встречные иски, что является очень важным моментом. Aitmaganbet: В дополнении ко всему, второй раздел посвящен проведению разбирательств, в том числе и в отношении бифуркации, обеспечительных мер досрочного прекращения дела, обеспечения расходов и финансирования арбитражей третьими сторонами, так называемый «third party funding». Третий раздел содержит положение, регулирующие оценку трибуналом ущерба и компенсации. Они требуют, чтобы трибунал учитывал вину истца, его неспособность смягчить убытки или ущерб. В нем также рассматривается вопрос об оценке ущерба в случаях осуществления инвестиций на ранней стадии, т. е. без истории ведения бизнеса, чтобы снять опасения по поводу иногда спекулятивного характера таких исков. Обсуждение будет продолжено на следующей встрече, которая состоится уже совсем скоро двадцать второго января текущего года в Вене.  Sultan: Спасибо. Я думаю, мы будем ждать остальных событий, которые будут в этом году в ближайшей перспективе. Я думаю, что на этом мы завершим выпуск. Я надеюсь, что это был интересный и полезный обзор недавних и ожидаемых событий в инвестиционном арбитраже Большое  Aitmaganbet: спасибо, что слушаете наш подкаст. Мы надеемся, что вам также будет интересен следующий выпуск нашей серии подкастов и особенно следующий подкаст, посвященный системе урегулирования споров между инвесторами и государством. На нашем сайте вы можете узнать больше об опыте работы Reed Smith в Лондоне, Париже, США, Астане и других странах по вопросам инвестиционных споров.  Outro: Arbitral Insights is a Reed Smith production. Our producer is Ali McCardell. For more information about Reed Smith's Global International Arbitration Practice, email arbitralinsights@reedsmith.com. To learn about the Reed Smith arbitration pricing calculator, a first of its kind mobile app that forecasts the cost of arbitration around the world, search arbitration pricing calculator on reedsmith.com or download for free through the Apple and Google Play app stores. You can find our podcast on Spotify, Apple, Google Play, Stitcher, reedsmith.com and our social media accounts at Reed Smith LLP on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship, nor is it intended to suggest or establish standards of care applicable to particular lawyers in any given situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Any views, opinions, or comments made by any external guest speaker are not to be attributed to Reed Smith LLP or its individual lawyers.  All rights reserved.

E83 CORRUPTION in ISDs: You Should Know - The Bottom Line with Jaco Booyens and Missie Carra In this compelling episode, we're joined by Missie, a passionate advocate for parental rights in education and healthcare. With a background as a nurse, Missie brings a unique perspective to her advocacy work. Her journey began with eye-opening research into Comprehensive Sexual Health Education, uncovering the unsettling link between the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health and the 'Public School Pipeline to Planned Parenthood'. This discovery ignited her mission to protect families from the encroachment of radical ideologies in our public education system. Drawing from her extensive involvement in local, state, and national initiatives, Missie sheds light on the far-reaching implications of Comprehensive Sex Ed, Critical Race Theory, Social Emotional Learning, and the Agenda 2030 framework. Through her expertise and firsthand experiences, Missie offers invaluable perspectives on navigating these complex issues and empowering parents to advocate for the well-being and future of their children.  helpjbm.org sexnationfilm.com Instagram: @jaco.booyens X: @booyensjaco TikTok: @jaco.booyens --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jacobooyens/support

In our latest episode, we have two very special guests - voices you will know - talking about a corporate trade power tool that definitely should be on the “out with the old” list! We're talking about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and its implications for our economies and democracies. First, a quick refresher:   What is ISDS?  ISDS grants foreign investors special rights and privileges, allowing them to sue governments outside of domestic courts. These suits often result in staggering compensations for corporations, all while undermining public policies.   ISDS has to go.    That's why we teamed up with Nobel-winning economist Prof. Joseph Stiglitz and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), our guests on this podcast, to release a paper that we co authored with experts from Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas at Georgetown University Law Center, about how we can exit out of ISDS in the Americas. 

In the fifth edition of our regular ISDS podcast series, hosts Suzie Savage and Patrick Beale once again break down the key investment treaty arbitration developments that took place in the latter part of 2023. They discuss the Energy Charter Treaty, award enforcement case updates, the ISDS elements included in the Law Commission's review of the English Arbitration Act 1996,  Indo-Pacific updates (notably the UK signing the CPTPP), s.1782 news, before closing with commentary on UNCITRAL Working Group III's proposed ISDS reforms.

Join Don as he sits down with the 2024 Michigan Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Jeffrey Collier from Saginaw ISD to discuss how it feels to be the first ISD superintendent to receive this award and about the important services and support ISDs can provide to their communities.

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: A ridiculous, spurious decision from a Travis Co. Democrat district judge places a temporary injunction on TEA from releasing the public school A to F accountability ratings. The judge, ruling on a lawsuit to stop transparency from about 100 ISDs, says school districts could suffer “irreparable harm” from the release! How?One charter school leader wrote me:  “You are probably already aware of this, but some judge in Austin blocked TEA from releasing ratings after about 100 ISDs sued.  I think charters should do the opposite and tell the world to ”bring it on” because we don't fear accountability like the ISDs do.  … But we need to face the facts.  It's widely understood that the delay is because TEA is trying to tweak ratings to already make schools look better.”Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Brain dead Democrats in Houston and Harris County go out of their way to advertise their brain dead status: Harris County justice leaders eye ‘cite and release' revival.Texas rig count up in this week's Baker Hughes report.Second Amendment issues including stupidity from a Dallas city councilman. Here's where to sign up for NRA political action.In the last segment, it's the beginning of a Pratt on Texas Podcast Extra with Dr. Gilbert Berdine, an associate professor of medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and an affiliate of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, in which we discuss the dangerous failures of the American health systems in handling COVID. The full Podcast Extra interview can be found here (link will post after 6pm.)Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

Neocolonialism, Democratic Deficits and Regulatory Chill of the Investor State Dispute Settlement MechanismDiscussion with Lisa Sachs on the regulatory chill and democratic deficit of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS). We discuss the structural issues of ISDS, including conflict of interest, lack of transparency and lack of accountability as well as its neocolonial origins and entrenchment. We also discuss the proliferation of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, the expanding investor protections of international investment law, treaty shopping and how ISDS is distorting the investment climate in favor of fossil fuels. Additionally, we discuss the fragmentation of international law and the need to have holistic international jurisprudence and governance.For More Info: https://thegravity.fm/#/episode/54

Neocolonialism, Democratic Deficits and Regulatory Chill of the Investor State Dispute Settlement MechanismDiscussion with Lisa Sachs on the regulatory chill and democratic deficit of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS). We discuss the structural issues of ISDS, including conflict of interest, lack of transparency and lack of accountability as well as its neocolonial origins and entrenchment. We also discuss the proliferation of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, the expanding investor protections of international investment law, treaty shopping and how ISDS is distorting the investment climate in favor of fossil fuels. Additionally, we discuss the fragmentation of international law and the need to have holistic international jurisprudence and governance.For More Info:https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=sustainable_investment_staffpubshttps://ccsi.columbia.edu/content/primer-international-investment-treaties-and-investor-state-dispute-settlementhttps://ccsi.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/docs/publications/fJohnsonetal58-1.pdfhttps://ccsi.columbia.edu/content/investment-law-policyhttps://icsid.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/ICSID%20Convention%20English.pdfhttps://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/investment-dispute-settlementhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14693062.2022.2153102?journalCode=tcpo20https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2697555https://www.oecd.org/daf/inv/investment-policy/4th-Annual-Conference-on-Investment-Treaties-agenda.pdfhttps://policyalternatives.ca/ontheoffensivehttps://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/diaepcbinf2019d3_en.pdfhttps://digitallibrary.un.org/record/803449?ln=enhttps://alexandra-arneri.medium.com/that-my-keen-knife-see-not-the-wound-it-makes-part-ii-why-loot-when-you-can-lend-the-violence-of-be65d7e16c9d

School districts all over Texas are switching to a new school week schedule of four days rather than the traditional five day. This new scheduling idea was introduced to schools to help attract more teachers to districts that were lacking staffing power and two local ISD's – Harlandale and La Vernia could be next.

Claire & Nichole hope you are having a restful holiday season! We are replaying a past favorite episode from our Education Series.Attention Mentions:Patti Everitt: she's really paying attention to the importance of teachersClaire: Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip Ex-wives Edition on Bravo and PeacockNichole: Fair Play, a documentary on Apple+Go behind the ballot with us for this information-packed episode with Patti Everitt who knows all things charter schools. She has dedicated so much of her time to asking questions about how charter schools function in Texas so we can all have more clear information. She talks about the challenges that charter schools create for local ISDs and the different expectations and accountability for each. Patti gives us a tutorial on how charter schools are funded in Texas and how that affects all Texas families. She also informs us on important questions families should ask when making decisions about charter schools versus their local ISD. Buckle up for a very informative episode.

There are many organizations in the Michigan public education arena. We talk with the new Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, John Severson, Ph.D., about how we collaborate and listen at the state level, as well as how ISDs and locals work together for the common good of their communities.

Suzie Savage and Patrick Beale discuss key developments in the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) landscape in 2022 and look ahead to 2023. The duo's third horizon-scanning instalment covers the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), including various EU states' intention to leave and what this means for the future of the ECT; the review of the 1996 English Arbitration Act; the availability of USC section 1782 in aid of ICSID arbitrations; the African Continental Free Trade Agreement; the progress of UNCITRAL Working Group III on ISDS reform; and whether the pandemic led to an uptick in ISDS claims.

A new barrier to climate action is opening up in an obscure and secretive part of international trade law which fossil fuel investors are using to sue countries if policy decisions go against them. We speak to experts about the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism and how it works. Many are worried that these clauses in international trade deals could jeopardise global efforts to save the climate – costing countries billions of dollars in the process.Featuring Kyla Tienhaara, Canada research chair in economy and environment at Queen's University, Ontario in Canada, Emilia Onyema, reader in international commercial Law at SOAS, University of London in the UK, Lea Di Salvatore, PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham in the UK and Maria-Rita D'Orsogna, anti-oil activist and professor of mathematics at California State University, Northridge in the US.This episode was produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Full credits for this episode are available here. A transcript will be available soon. Sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.Further reading:How treaties protecting fossil fuel investors could jeopardize global efforts to save the climate – and cost countries billionsEnergy charter treaty makes climate action nearly illegal in 52 countries – so how can we leave it?British investors could sue Australia over climate action if UK joins trans-Pacific trade pact Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022년 9월 7일 수요일 주제: ‘2800억 배상' 론스타 판정이 남긴 것은? 1. 론스타 사건의 쟁점과 ISDS 판결의 의미 2. 론스타 사태, 부실 M&A는 누구의 책임인가? 출연: 김남근 변호사 (참여연대 정책자문위원) 이정환 미디어오늘 대표 전성인 홍익대 경제학부 교수