We’ve collected our best practice guidance and updates on how we’re addressing the professional indemnity insurance issue, as we're aware that most RIBA Chartered Practices and other industry professionals are facing some form of restriction or complete exclusion of cover in relation to fire safety

Dear Energy and Resources spokespeople across the political spectrum

Thank you for addressing us at our Energy and Resources Pre-election Panel event on the 26th of July. We heard about the importance of our energy system and mineral resources to support the wellbeing, productivity, and lifestyles of all New Zealanders, regardless of their aspiration.

Following this event, we present to you our ten-point priority plan on the regulatory and policy environment needed to unlock our country’s social, economic, and environmental wellbeing through energy:

1. Deliver clear and enduring policy settings. The sector needs stable, simple, well-signalled and durable policy settings across electoral cycles. Unclear, short-term policy settings make it harder to bring more energy and resources online and make decarbonisation investments.

2. Embed the ‘Energy Trilemma’ as the organising principle against which energy policies can be assessed. Every sector participant wants to provide energy to consumers that is affordable, reliable, and sustainable, so it can be used productively throughout the economy.

3. Use the right policy portfolio and tools for the right problem. While inevitably overlapping, energy and resources policy and climate change policies have different objectives and problems that require careful analysis and trade-offs to be made.

4. Ensure there is confidence in a complete and robust Emissions Trading Scheme, and let it do the heavy lifting to meet our net zero emissions goal.

5. Build the resilience of New Zealand’s energy system. A resilient energy system is one with diverse energy types, fuels and locations. The more options we have, the more resilience, the lower emissions, and lower costs we are likely to face.

6. Encourage competition for competitive prices and customer-centric innovations, rather than heavy-handed regulations. Energy is a means to an end. It is a vital input into a vibrant, productive economy.

7. Ensure we have a planning and resource management system that enables energy generation and mineral assets and other infrastructure to be built in the right place at the right time for the least cost.

8. Stop eliminating options from our energy system. Enable and advance all options for low emissions energy technologies and fuels in New Zealand. Carbon capture and renewable gases, biomass and biofuels can all reduce hard-to-abate emissions. Ensure that regulatory settings allow them to flourish .

9. Recognise the important role that New Zealand’s domestic mineral resources will have in our low-emissions future. Unlock access to our precious and other metals that are so vital to low emissions technology.

10. Upskill our workforce to equip them for the energy sector of the future.

Sincerely,

BusinessNZ Energy Council

Electricity Networks Aotearoa

Electricity Retailers’ Association of New Zealand

Energy Resources Aotearoa

GasNZ

Major Electricity Users’ Group

Straterra

Young Energy Professionals Network

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The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) was founded in 2000 by the renowned actor, nearly ten years after his own diagnosis. The goal: to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Strengthen treatments for people who have the condition. According to the WHO, disability and death rates from PD are increasing faster than for any other neurological disorder. MJFF has so far invested more than US$1.75 billion into global research and open science practices. The organisation provides scientists with resources: funding, data, bio-samples, laboratory tools and training programmes. With a background in pharmacology and neuroscience — and a passion for translational research — Mark Frasier highlights how the foundation is aiming to find a cure and put itself out of business.

Tell me about MJFF’s role in Parkinson’s research.

We accelerate research through funding and resources to hasten discovery, translation and validation of treatments for Parkinson’s. While we provide more funding for Parkinson’s research than any other non-profit in the world, we also offer extensive open science resources to researchers who are studying PD and developing treatments. We provide everything from biosamples to pre-clinical models. Ultimately, we aspire to put ourselves out of business by finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

How does MJFF support collaborative research?

We bring Parkinson’s researchers together. MJFF provides the forums and tools for sharing knowledge, methods and findings, to accelerate research. As well as funding, we offer research support through a network of expert advisors, a robust repository of biosamples, and tools to help with study recruitment and retention. We pride ourselves on how much we can offer the research community through our open science resources. Our largest programme is the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). Data from people with and without Parkinson’s are collected by 50 academic centres worldwide. These comprehensive datasets include molecular, genetic and neurological imaging data, together with clinical data and biological samples like spinal fluid, blood and DNA. All data are shared in real time through a web portal, and we encourage the research community to mine these data. We also support a global Parkinson’s genetics programme where the goal is to obtain DNA and genetic information for more than 500,000 people with Parkinson’s with an emphasis on partnering with underrepresented populations.

What lab resources does MJFF provide?

We offer tools to Parkinson’s researchers of every focus and stage of research. For example, MJFF has a catalogue of more than 100 laboratory resources, from antibodies and laboratory reagents to pre-clinical models. We work directly with vendors to develop tools, meaning we can distribute them widely at low cost and provide every scientist the chance to use them. This makes research more efficient: results can be compared from lab to lab, and tools are consistent across studies.

What kind of impacts do we see from MJFF?

One of the first antibodies we supported was against LRRK2, a protein kinase associated with the initiation and progression of Parkinson’s. In 2018, we coordinated development of an antibody against a key substrate of LRRK2 — Rab10. This antibody has spawned multiple research projects, and crucially is now part of an assay that measures phosphorylated Rab10 and the associated activity of LRRK2. This assay has been used widely in clinical trials to determine whether drugs are engaging their target correctly. Again, that’s just one of more than 100 lab resources we offer.

What funding and training does MJFF provide?

We have multiple funding mechanisms, including traditional open calls available to all researchers, and a rolling review cycle where we make rapid decisions on applications from industry and industry-academic partnerships. We also have contract-based funding, where we approach specific laboratories with a particular idea. All researchers we fund are required to share their data and publish in open access formats. We’re always working to bring more voices into the conversation. Open science invites more people to join, but we also provide training opportunities, such as our fellowship programme. We support institutions to train physicians in motor disorder care and research over two years, growing the global base of these clinician-scientists.

How does MJFF support clinical research?

Recruitment and retention can create challenges for all kinds of PD research, especially when it comes to bringing together diverse cohorts. We have toolkits available on our website to help shed light on best practices for everything from guiding participants through consent to generating awareness about your study. We also offer our Fox Trial Finder tool to help researchers connect with potential participants. This lists recruitment opportunities from researchers and helps volunteers find studies which they are eligible to join. We also send regular updates to clinicians who sign up for our email updates highlighting trials in which their patients could participate.

In today’s cybersecurity landscape, security teams face challenges across people, processes and technology. Detection, investigation and response are fragmented between siloed tools, making it difficult to achieve intelligent situational awareness. Further, security operations center (SOC) procedures and data are dispersed across different systems, limiting the ability of your team to investigate and respond to basic ...

BELEN, N.M. (KRQE) – Belen Consolidated Schools is ramping up security. The school district is adding three new resource officers.

Belen Police Chief James Harris said the department was able to fund one office, the school district was able to fund the second and between the two and the city they were able to fund the third.

Just three days into the school year, Belen High School was placed on locked down after there were reports of a possible weapon on campus. “Because of our quick responds because of having an officer on scene at the time, we were able to quickly identify and detain a suspect. We were ultimately able to find a gun which thankfully was a BB-gun,” said Harris.

Officer Sarah Martinez patrols all seven elementary schools. She said she wanted to be part of the solution, keeping students safe and now she’s even getting feedback from her son. “I get to interact with him and get to get his feedback of how he feelings and his friends,” said Martinez.

Officer Kyana Garcia is the Belen Middle School Resource Officer and said all of the three new officers went through a week of training in Albuquerque. That instruction was specific to the dangers officers may face while being on school property.

Belen Mayor Robert Noblin said everyone in city council was on board when it came to moving forward with the plan to implement the resource officers.

The Smithsonian offers many resources to support educators, caregivers, and students in the classroom, at home, and at our museums, research centers, and zoo.

Education is at the core of our mission—the increase and diffusion of knowledge—from informal education for students to lesson plans and professional development for teachers. A wealth of resources and digital tools support inquiry-based learning and active engagement to spark creativity and curiosity.

State officials announced Monday they are opening more in-person resource centers to help people affected by last week’s flooding. The first such centers opened over the weekend in Ludlow and Barre.

A new center opened in Johnson on Monday and will remain open through Wednesday, Secretary of Human Services Jenney Samuelson said at a remote press briefing Monday morning with other administration officials. Similar facilities will be available in Woodstock and Londonderry from Tuesday through Thursday, she said, and in Hardwick from Thursday through Saturday. All are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The centers serve as places for public and private organizations to come together to help those affected by disaster,” Vermont Emergency Management wrote in a press release Friday. 

The centers are open to all residents in the region and will host several state and nonprofit disaster recovery agencies that can answer visitors’ questions and guide them to appropriate services, officials said.

The resources’ location and hours are as follows:

• Johnson Elementary School, 57 College Hill, Johnson — July 17-19, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Woodstock Union High School, 100 Amsden Way, Woodstock  — July 18-20, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Neighborhood Connections, 5700 Route 100, Londonderry — July 18-20, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

As of Monday morning, the Hardwick location had not yet been determined, Samuelson said. 

Among the services offered at the centers, according to the press release:

• Meals and water from the Red Cross
• Cleaning kits
• Assistance in finding recovery resources
• Mental health services
• Basic medical services

The centers in Ludlow, at the town community center, and in Barre, at the Barre Auditorium, are expected to close after 5 p.m. today, Samuelson said, though they could reopen in the future.

PRESQUE ISLE — University of Maine Cooperative Extension will host an open house from from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26 at the Aroostook County Extension Office, 57 Houlton Road, rain or shine. 

The event is free to the public and will showcase some of the many programs and services UMaine Extension offers. Extension staff will deliver presentations on a variety of syllabus including preparing gardens for fall, making meals in an electric pressure cooker and nutrition education. Crafts and activities, including a 4-H plant printing station, will be available, along with useful resources and information.

Herb seedling plants will be given out to the first 20 attendees. For more information, or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact 207-834-3905 or sharon.paradis@maine.edu.