|
This is the category for Education. See also the Education Portal. Refresh this list to see the latest articles.
|
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write. Sister projects
|
(previous page) ()(previous page) ()
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Macomb, New York Councilman Steve Burke took some time to speak with Wikinews about his campaign for the U.S. Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination.
Burke, an insurance adjuster and farmer, was elected councilman in Brookhaven, New York in 1979. He left the town after being accused and found not guilty of bribery in the 1980s. Since 1987 he has served as Macomb councilman off-and-on and currently holds the post. From 1993 to 1996 and 1999 to 2002 he worked as chairman of the Democratic Party of St. Lawrence County, New York. Among his many political campaigns, Burke unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1992 and recently attempted to run for U.S. Congress in 2014 but too many of his ballot petition signatures were found invalid. Burke filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in the 2016 election on September 18, 2015 and has qualified for the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary.
With Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn?, Burke discusses his political background, his 2016 presidential campaign, and his policy proposals.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted sixteen instances of sensitive information being leaked on social networking websites in the past eighteen months. Ten employees have been disciplined for misuse of the sites. The revelations follow a Freedom of Information request by Lewis PR and computer security company F-Secure.
The MoD would not comment on what disciplinary action was taken, or whether the leaks involved operational information. The ministry’s guidelines state that staff must obtain clearance to release any information that is related to sensitive, controversial or political matters, or military operations.
“It’s worrying that employees in sensitive positions have been sharing confidential information via Twitter and other means,” said Mikko Hypponen, of F-Secure. “Loose Tweets can cost lives.”
According to Lewis PR, computers on the main MoD networks are blocked from visiting social networking sites. However there are a small number within the department which have unrestricted Internet access. Some personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq also have access through internet cafés on military bases.
The ministry’s “online engagement guidelines”, released in August last year, recognise the importance of social media such as Facebook for personnel keeping in touch with friends and family. According to the document: “Service and MOD civilian personnel are encouraged to talk about what they do, but within certain limits to protect security, reputation and privacy.”
Friday, November 3, 2006
On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley West (Ward 25). Three candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include John Blair, Robertson Boyle, Tony Dickins, Cliff Jenkins (incumbent), and Peter Kapsalis.
For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
A review this week by Wikinews of US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaints about mortgages in the United States shows Bank of America leads all lending institutions in complaints.
Since mortgages complaints were recorded in December 2011, 77,622 total have been added to CFPB’s database. 29.2% of these complaints involved Bank of America, with the second most received by Wells Fargo, accounting for 15.5% of all complaints. JPMorgan Chase ranked third by volume of complaints with 9.8%. Ocwen was fourth with 8.7% and Citibank was fifth with 4.8%. Nationstar Mortgage; Green Tree Servicing, LLC; HSBC; PNC Bank; U.S. Bancorp; OneWest Bank; SunTrust Bank; Flagstar Bank; and Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. each had between 1.0 and 3.8% of total complaints. The remaining 14.4% of all complaints about consumer mortgages were divided between about 530 other lending institutions.
The Motley Fool reported last month that for the past fiscal quarter, the biggest US based mortgage lenders were from first to fifth Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Quicken Loans and U.S. Bancorp.
According to the US Federal Reserve, debt for family residences stands at US$10.706 trillion for the second quarter of 2013. As of the end of June of this year, Bank of America is the United States’s second largest commercial bank with US$1.343 trillion in domestic assets. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest commercial bank with US$1.251 trillion in domestic assets. JPMorgan Chase is the largest US commercial bank with US$1.329 trillion in domestic assets and US$1.947 trillion in total assets.
The mortgage complaints in the CFPB report include several subproducts. Conventional fixed mortgages account for 27.1% of all complaints. Conventional adjustable mortgages account for 10.0%. FHA mortgages account for 7.7% of all complaints. Home equity loans or lines of credit account for 3.8% of all complaints. VA mortgages are 1.4% of all complaints. Second mortgages and reverse mortgages each account for 0.6% of complaints. The remaining 48.7% of complaints are about other mortgages or other mortgage issues. A few years ago, FHA loans accounted for about 10% of all US mortgages while VA loans accounted for about 3%. Prime loans accounted for over 75% of the market and the rest were subprime mortgages.
California leads all states by volume of complaints with 14768. It is followed by Florida, New York, Georgia and Texas. When complaints are divided by a state’s total population, New Hampshire leads. The state is followed by Washington D.C., Maryland, Georgia and Florida. Complaints do not correlate with national rankings for August’s foreclosure rate by state where Nevada topped the list, followed by Florida, Ohio, Maryland and Delaware.
Two zip codes account for over 1,000 total complaints between them. 565 complaints originated in the 48382 zip code, which is in Commerce Township, Michigan, located in suburban Detroit. 553 complaints originated in the 33071 zip code, in Coral Springs, Florida. According to real estate website Zillow, there are currently 1,033 properties in foreclosure in Coral Springs while Commerce Township only has 131 properties currently in foreclosure. Four other zip codes have 100 plus complaints originating from them. 91730, in Rancho Cucamonga, California, had 158 complaints. 33409, in West Palm Beach, Florida, had 132. 92626, in Costa Mesa, California, had 125 complaints. 92660, in Newport Beach, California, had 122 complaints. Respectively, the towns had 534, 1,068, 153, and 134 properties currently in foreclosure. These numbers are higher than for the cities of a few sampled zip codes where there was only one complaint, such as Gold Hill, Oregon which has 4 properties in foreclosure, and Decatur, Illinois which has 6 properties in foreclosure.
The CFPB categorizes complaints into six categories: “Loan modification, collection,foreclosure” or problems when a person is unable to pay; “Loan servicing, payments, escrow account” or problems with making a payment; “Application, originator, mortgage broker”; “Credit decision / Underwriting”; “Settlement process and costs”, and “Other”. The CFPB says the complaint types indicate consumers “appear to be driven by a desire to seek agreement with their companies on foreclosure alternatives. The complaints indicate that consumer confusion persists around the process and requirements for obtaining loan modifications and refinancing, especially regarding document submission timeframes, payment trial periods, allocation of payments, treatment of income in eligibility calculations, and credit bureau reporting during the evaluation period.” Currently, 59.6% of all complaints against lenders deal with being unable to pay. 25.1% deal with problems in making a payment. 7.0% have to do with the application process.
Of the complaint-heavy zip codes, for 48382 in Commerce Township, Michigan, 98.9% of all complaints have to deal with being unable to pay. Accounting for 23.4% of all mortgage complaints in Commerce Township, 132 of the complaints for being unable to pay were made regarding Bank of America, accounting for 97.8% or all but 3 complaints against them from the zip. 121 of the Bank of America responses in Commerce Township were closed with explanation and 12 were closed with non-monetary relief. 33071 in Coral Springs is different, with 537 of the 553 complaints being categorized under other. Only 11 complaints relate to foreclosure and issues with being able to pay. 92626 in Costa Mesa, where 32% of the mortgage complaints were about Bank of America and 26.4% were about Wells Fargo, had 93.6% of its complaints dealing with being unable to pay. 5 total complaints dealt with payment issues and 3 dealt with applications.
Beyond regional variance in complaint types lodged, the top five mortgage lenders by volume of complaints all had being unable to pay as their top complaint category, ranging between 55.8% for Citibank and 69.4% for Bank of America. Problems with payment accounted for the second largest area of complaints, with Ocwen having the largest percentage of complaints at 31.9% and Bank of America having the smallest at 18.8%. Foreclosure was the top area of complaints for a number of other lending institutions including 1st Alliance Lending, OneWest Bank, Ally Bank, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Bank of the West, BMO Harris, BOK Financial Corp, Caliber Home Loans, Inc, Capital One, Deutsche Bank and EverBank.
Nationally, complaints reached a high of 5,840 for January 2013, 1,107 more than the next highest month of April 2013. The total emerging for September is the second lowest since records were first kept in December 2011. On a state by state level, this pattern largely repeats with a major exception for Florida which saw a peak of 849 complaints in June 2012. Then, as now, Florida was one of the top five states in the nation in its foreclosure rate. The national January spike came as the Qualified Mortgage standard required by the The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 came into play. It required mortgage lenders to take steps to insure borrowers could repay their mortgages.
Bank of America’s complaint volume follows the national trend, with a spike in January 2013 with 1,925 total complaints. Unlike nationally, the next month by volume of complaints was February of this year with 1,598 complaints. Prior to that, the highest month was May 2012 with 1,418 complaints. The lowest volume of complaints is September this year with 334.
Wells Fargo matched national trends for volume of complaints by month, with the exception of the current month being the lowest on record for number of complaints with 197 compared to the next lowest month, December 2011, when they had 221. JPMorgan’s complaint volume by month spiked in January and March of this year with 504 complaints. April of this year was the next highest month with 493 complaints, edging out May of last year with 488 complaints. September this year is on track to be the lowest month by complaint volume.
The federal government shutdown is unlikely to impact the current mortgage situation in the United States directly for most consumers, though mortgage processing by the Federal Housing Administration could be slower, resulting in fewer mortgages processed.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Journalist, counselor, painter, and US 2012 Presidential candidate Joe Schriner of Cleveland, Ohio took some time to discuss his campaign with Wikinews in an interview.
Schriner previously ran for president in 2000, 2004, and 2008, but failed to gain much traction in the races. He announced his candidacy for the 2012 race immediately following the 2008 election. Schriner refers to himself as the “Average Joe” candidate, and advocates a pro-life and pro-environmentalist platform. He has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, and has published public policy papers exploring solutions to American issues.
Wikinews reporter William Saturn? talks with Schriner and discusses his campaign.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Buffalo, New York —A woman in Buffalo, New York in the United States is in critical condition tonight at Sisters Of Charity Hospital after she accidentally set herself on fire.
The unnamed elderly woman was receiving oxygen for medical problems in her home and lit a cigarette, and the oxygen coming from her mask facilitated the ignition of her clothing, setting her on fire.
Despite her “severe” burns as described by firefighters on radio communications, she was still able to dial the emergency line in the U.S., 911.
In the U.S. only 4% of all residential fires were reportedly caused by smoking materials in 2002. These fires, however, were responsible for 19% of residential fire fatalities and 9% of injuries. The fatality rate due to smoking is nearly four times higher than the overall residential fire rate; injuries are more than twice as likely. Forty percent of all smoking fires start in the bedroom or living room/family room; in 35% of these fires, bedding or upholstered furniture are the items first ignited.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
A patient at Stoke Mandeville Hospital had to be treated in a toilet after wards became overcrowded, it emerged on Friday.
The revelation came as Sheryl Pope, a Buckinghamshire National Health Service strategy director, was questioned over plans to bring healthcare to the forefront of the community. A number of councillers challenged her plans, however, claiming that the opposite had been happening.
The Bucks Free Press reported that councillors asked Pope why community hospital beds are being closed and why more clinics are being centralised. The Overview & Scrutiny Committee for Public Health Services was told that an “under-used” gynaecology clinic located at Buckingham Community Hospital was moved to Stoke Mandeville, which one councillor said was already too congested.
| One person had to be treated in the toilet. I’m wondering how quickly you’re going to change it. | ||
“You’re bringing things into Stoke, but there’s such a lot of congestion there… One person had to be treated in the toilet. I’m wondering how quickly you’re going to change it,” High Wycombe councellor Wendy Mallen asked Mrs Pope, a joint director for strategy and system reform.
It emerged that overnight wards at Chalfont’s and Gerrards Cross Hospital have remained closed since a fire risk was identified in 2008. Chalfont St Peter councillor, Bruce Allen, said of the revelation: “We’ve never had an answer from anyone of any intelligence to say what’s going to happen. We had a community hospital with 29 beds and it served us well. We keep asking when it’s going to be opened and we get nil answers. I’ve been to so many meetings and heard this nonsense. We can’t get an answer from anyone.”
Mrs Pope replied by saying that she could not give a “definitive answer,” but said that she considered Chalfont’s to be “an important part of the jigsaw.” Mrs Pope was told by the chairman of the Buckinghamshire County Council committee that she had “a duty” to inform residents of the futue of the hospital. “Unfortunately there’s always a reason for delaying it,” said Mike Appleyard. “All I’m saying is sorry, no longer. We expect you to be here within six months with some answers on the community hospitals.”
Hedley Cadd, another councillor, attacked the gynaecology transfer, saying that he and his wife were forced to travel for four hours to get to and from Stoke Mandeville Hospital, for a consultation that lasted only twenty minutes. Mrs Pope responded by saying that she was “very aware” of the issue, conceding that because the clinic is only 40% full, “those clinics are being denied to somebody else.” Mrs Pope said that it was too early to say how the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, a new organisation which is the result of a merger between the Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust and several community hospitals, would manage local hospitals.
Anne Eden, Chief Executive of the new organisation, said: “We felt it was important to change our name to reflect the wide range of services we now offer patients from our hospitals and in community settings and in people’s own homes. In addition, discussions took place with staff across the organisation alongside patient representatives to evolve our five patient promises to reflect our extended range of services which underpin everything that we do.”
By Hillary Marshak
The list of exotic and tropical fruits is ever-growing and lengthy, here are some key facts about just a few!
Durian
Labelled the “king of fruit,” this spiky melon originally hails from the forests of Southeast Asia. Since Durian literally means “thorny fruit” in Malay, its spiky exterior makes it hard to attempt opening the fruit, as some consider it more dangerous to touch than most cacti. The inside of a Durian consists of pods that are filled with a custard-like substance. The smell can be strong to the point where some find it intolerable, but a sign of a ripe Durian is a strong smell that isn’t sour.
According to Proscitech.com, “To choose a Durian, pick a fruit which is comparatively light and who’s stem appear big and solid. When shaking a good Durian, the seed should move.” Durian lends itself well to milk-based foods like milkshakes, ice cream, and even cakes. The custard-like consistency can be used on its own for a rich dessert.
Durian season is typically summertime (from June to August). They can be found in many mainstream supermarkets in the East, particularly in Japan. But in the West, they’re often only found in Asian groceries and markets. Aside from its countries of origin, (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei), the largest exporter of the Durian fruit is Thailand.
Kiwano (Horned Melon)
The kiwano has taken on so many different descriptions in its day ranging from having the seeds of a cucumber, the look of a pomegranate, and the smell of a banana. The only sure facts about the kiwano are that they have yellow skin with spikes throughout, and bright green gelatinous insides with seeds throughout.
The fruit that bears such an aptitude of names like melano, jelly melon, and others in addition to kiwano and horned melon, was born in the Kalahari desert of Africa. Also called the African horned melon, is now also regularly grown in California and New Zealand.
Lychee
Another Southeast Asian native, the lychee is part of a whole family of small rough nut-shaped fruits. Along with its cousin, the rambutan, the lychee is often red in color with white gelatinous insides. Used in some desserts, the flavor is sweet and citrusy.
The fruits are harvested during early summer, and are supposed to be eaten fresh. But, there are also such fruits as sun-dried lychees that take the name of lychee nuts. This preservation method was the only way lychees were consumed prior to 1950, according to Proscitech.com
Pitaya (Dragonfruit)
A fruit of cactus plants, the pitaya has a bright reddish pink leathery skin with green long and curly spikes protruding from it. The insides are white with black specks throughout, making this fruit one of the most variable in color. Some variations of the fruit have red flesh, or yellow skin.
The dragonfruit was originally found in Mexico, Central and South America, and is now cultivated in China, the Phillippines, Israel, Taiwan, and many Southeast Asian countries. Only growing at night, the pitaya is also labelled “Queen of the night.”
Guava
Guavas are native to the Caribbean, Central and South Americas, and Mexico. They grow on trees with tropical shrubs and white flowers, and can be yellowish-green or red in color. Both have a red juicy flesh on the inside that tastes sweet and flavorful, hence why guavas are often particularly used in desserts. With a long list of cultivars, the guava fruit thrives in humid weather, according to the Purdue University Horitculture Department.
Noted for its strong odor, the guava has also been cooked and prepared in salads and main courses, in addition to desserts. Some eat the guava raw by itself, or with cream cheese. The fruit can be round or pear-shaped and its seeds can be chewable.
Carambola (Starfruit)
The carambola fruit comes from the Carambola trees of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries. The yellow plasticky skin with distinct green edges gets its “starfruit” nickname from the shape it creates when cut latitudinally (please tell me it goes without saying that that would be a star). Carambola is now readily available in the United States as it is commercially grown in both Florida and Hawaii.
Carambolas are crunchy and juicy in texture, with a citrusy taste. Some believe that carambolas taste similar to apples or grapes. A significant amount of oxalic acid is present in the fruit, which can be dangerous for those with kidney trouble. It’s also said that the consumption of starfruit with certain drugs can increase their effectiveness, so consumers should be careful.
Starfruit can be used to make wine in some countries, and in Myanmar is known for being a main ingredient in tea pickles.
Mangosteen
The mangosteen is seen as a precious commodity in the States these days because it wasn’t until recently that it became available. Still very expensive in the West, mangosteens are grown in Southeast Asia, along with Durian and many of the other exotic fruits. One of the interesting facts about mangosteens is that it naturally possesses an acid that deters insects.
The sweet flesh is the only edible part of the mangosteen and is said to be creamy, citrusy, and remniscent of a peach’s flavor. “The ripe mangosteen is dark red and tastes best if harvested before turning purple or blue-black,” according to www.Proscitech.com.
And unlike what you might think, the mangosteen has no relation to the mango.
Sources:
Proscitech.com – Tropical Fruits
Wikipedia entries
Purdue University – Horticulture Department
About the Author: Hillary Marshak is a writer and editor for
Recipe4Living.com
, an up and coming recipe sharing Website. For more articles like this, or for a large collection of recipes, visit the site at
Recipe4Living.com
.
Source:
isnare.com
Permanent Link:
isnare.com/?aid=188982&ca=Food+and+Drinks