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Cybersecurity threats that place bank information and personal data at risk are on the rise as the holiday shopping season officially kicks off with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Cybercriminals are targeting online shoppers by scraping sites for credit card and banking data, according to a recent report by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which monitored cyberthreat-related […]
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Whitney McDonald
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Austin was a very different city for vulnerable companion animals just 14 years ago. Some of the animals most at risk were puppies with parvovirus. Each day these tiny lives were needlessly lost because shelters didn’t have programs set up to treat parvo.
Veterinarians learn how to treat parvo in school, so we wondered why animal shelters couldn’t or wouldn’t. If these puppies could often be saved, why wasn’t treatment the norm? To
save these pets and increase lifesaving in Austin, we had to start
somewhere — and keeping parvo puppies from being euthanized seemed like a
good place to start.
The Parvo Puppy ICU, as we know it today, was born in a bathroom in my house around Thanksgiving 2008. At its peak I could spend up to eight hours a day cleaning and treating anywhere from a couple to 25 sick puppies at a time. Thankfully,
my husband was very understanding and willing to put up with the smell
of sick puppies in our bathroom. Even though it wasn’t ideal having the
strong and unforgettable odor of parvo in our home, it was the only way
to protect these pets in need and give them the critical care they
deserved.
We often share the story of the ICU’s humble beginnings because it
reminds us how far we’ve come. Although I was often the only one
cleaning up after that first batch of puppies, APA!’s capacity to care for animals in need continues to grow thanks to the help of friends like you.
Because of our community’s determination to make Austin No Kill, we were able, eleven years ago, to trade the bathroom tile and pop-up crates for linoleum and metal kennels in a location with easy access to our clinic and round-the-clock staff. The need for support didn’t end when we moved to the Parvo Puppy ICU at TLAC.
Today, parvo puppies are still at risk of needless euthanasia in shelters across Texas that haven’t yet adopted No Kill. As we celebrate the 11th anniversary of No Kill in Austin and its continued impact on pets at high risk of euthanasia we know there is still so much work to do to save even more lives and help other shelters do the same. Will you join us today?
With gratitude,
Ellen
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The staggering multi-trillion dollar global illicit economy is thriving from dirty money derived from an array of cross-border smuggling and trafficking crimes. Free trade zones, poorly regulated ports, ineffective enforcement of beneficial ownership laws and secretive financial hubs are threat multipliers that expand dark commerce, as criminals exploit cracks and seams in the global financial and trading systems to advance illicit trade and hide their profits. No one alone can fight illicit economies; public-private partnerships are critical.
Press Release
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Jun 13, 2022
WASHINGTON, June 13, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Today, the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies (ICAIE), a national security non-governmental organization based in Washington, DC, released a new 2022 report entitled, “The Dark Side of Illicit Economies and TBML: Free Trade Zones, Ports, and Financial Safe Havens”. The ICAIE report and recommendations outline the importance of public-private partnerships to counter illicit trade and TBML. ICAIE highlights the importance of leveraging strategic intelligence, network analytics, and pattern-of-life forensics to disrupt the logistics, financial wherewithal, and corruptive influence of criminals and their complicit enablers across borders, trade hubs, illicit economies, free trade zones (FTZs), and vulnerable ports. While the report has a focus on the Americas, it also illuminates the convergence of transnational criminal activities and illicit financial threats across other regions and global supply chains.
In recent decades the confluence of transnational criminal structures and illicit economies has grown to create a clear and present danger to global security by siphoning trillions of dollars from legal economies. These funds fuel growing corruption, instability and violence while destabilizing markets in the Americas and around the world. Criminal actors and threat networks connected through global super fixers exploit advances in technology, transportation and other critical infrastructure for illicit enrichment. In these dangerous times, converging illicit vectors erode our collective governance, prosperity, and security.
“Illicit trade, the trafficking and smuggling of counterfeit goods, narcotics, humans, natural resources, WMD, illicit cigarettes, and other contraband impact the security of all societies. Kleptocrats, criminal organizations, terrorist groups, and their enablers exploit networked hubs of illicit trade centered on free trade zones, ports, and other logistical channels of transportation, communications, and trade,” said David M. Luna, ICAIE Executive Director. “This allows illicit networks – such as the Chinese triads, Mexican cartels, Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), and Hezbollah – to profit from an array of criminal activities and corrupt institutions, drain resources for economic development, and compromise the integrity of supply chains. No country is immune from these pernicious security threats in the globalized world.”
ICAIE brings together diverse champions across sectors and communities, including former members of the public sector, companies and prominent organizations from the private sector and civil society to mobilize energies to combat cross-border illicit threats that endanger U.S. national security. In the coming months, ICAIE is committed to raising awareness of the harms and impacts of illicit economies, TBML, and crime convergence in risky FTZs and criminalized ports. ICAIE’s engagement will include briefings in the U.S. Congress, the White House and federal government, and across the international community including at the 2022 Concordia Americas Summit in Miami in July. ICAIE will also continue to support the United to Safeguard America from Illegal Trade (USA-IT) alliance to fight illegal trade across the country.
Find Full ICAIE Report and visit us at:
https://www.icaie.com/resources
David M. Luna
Executive Director
Source: ICAIE
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Due to the climate causing more breedings and a lack of resources in rural parts of the state, shelters are always facing an influx of pets that need homes. It wasn’t until a storm rocked everyone’s worlds in Texas that we’d find a solution on how to help save these deserving lives.
The idea was born out of Winter Storm Uri. Pets needed to get out of Texas — fast. Their lives were at risk and the clock was ticking. It was then that APA! – with its national outreach arm American Pets Alive! – set out on a mission to get 1,000 pets out of Texas into warm homes safely, and that we did.
In a matter of just four weeks, we hit our goal with our 1,000th pet being an adorable cat named Charlie. Charlie traveled all the way from Laredo, TX to KC Pet Project in Kansas. His journey up north was made special by having a first-class seat in a private plane flown by our volunteer pilot friend, David Nelson. Once he landed at KC Pet Project, it was only a matter of days until he found his forever home. Read how he found his family once he landed in KC.
The success of this mission opened the door for a new idea. Why would we stop at just 1,000 lives when we could continue to save pets from all over Texas who are facing death? APA! could act as a pit stop for these pets while they await the transportation that would take them to various states across the country. And so, the APA! Hub Transport Program was born.
Our transport team connects with shelters in Texas that are facing a lack of resources and space which often lead to the unwanted decision to euthanize their animals. Now we’re able to provide them with an alternative. Northern shelters often face the opposite problem. Due to the weather, in the winter months, many shelters have rows and rows of empty kennels with lines of people waiting to adopt. There’s no reason animals should die in the south when there are people waiting to adopt a shelter pet in the north.
“The APA! Hub Transport Program embodies the true spirit of Austin Pets Alive, through innovation, resourcefulness and the constant dedication to lifesaving,” says Clare Callison Maddie’s® National Director of Pet Supply & Demand. “Through this program, we are able to bring our hard-working Texas shelter partners into the national pipeline of support. It means so much that we are not only saving the lives of cats and dogs in Texas shelters, but we are helping to connect adopters to the love of a shelter pet, no matter where they live in the country!”
All the faces you see here are animals that were saved thanks to your support of our transport programs. Whether it was by bus, plane, train, or car, these lives found their second chance in loving homes all across the United States. They were welcomed with open arms as people lined up to bring them home.
As of yesterday, 2,228 lives have been saved through the Austin Pets Alive! Hub Transport Program and American Pets Alive! transport work. Lives that were once going to end before they had a chance to even begin now get a fresh start in a new state. Together with you, we can ensure that no pet in Texas ever gets left behind. Rush a donation now to ensure pets like these pups get the chance to be rescued from euthanasia at rural, overcrowded shelters and adopted in homes. Your gift will be DOUBLED until December 31, thanks to a generous $100K matching gift, so don’t wait to become a lifesaver today!
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That means we have seven days to make it clear to the city council members that No Kill in Austin is important and deserves their urgent attention.
There are many layers to this problem, but right now one of the most important things that you, as a supporter of the animals who need us to save their lives, can know is that we simply need a relationship with the city that makes sense.
APA! has kept Austin No Kill by taking animals off the city’s kill list every single day for 10 years now. We will continue to do that. We will not agree to continue serving as Austin Animal Center’s overflow partner. It doesn’t make sense to our mission as a nonprofit organization or the pets that never get a chance to leave a shelter alive.
It is no longer fair to serve as an overflow partner for Austin Animal Center anymore for two main reasons:
First, the rebuildable land leased to APA! by the City of Austin has been dramatically reduced to just one fourth of what we were promised in the Lamar Beach Master Plan. This is not reflected anywhere in the negotiations with city staff or in our actual license agreement. It is as if it doesn’t matter. But it does matter to us because, once we sign an agreement, we cannot use the property in the future the way we have been for the last 10 years. This means we can not build anything new on this property that will even come close to matching our current capacity. It is unreasonable to expect APA! to provide the same level of services to the City when the property we have been given in exchange for those services has been so significantly reduced.
Second, the City of Austin Animal Center has received over $10,000,000 more dollars per year than they had when Austin first became a No Kill city. Our mission is to eliminate the killing of pets in shelters and as long as an animal is at risk in Austin, we will save it. It is not reasonable to ALSO ask APA! to provide free services to Austin Animal Center that they’ve been funded to provide to Austin people and animals.
We believe that APA’s support of the City of Austin, in keeping Austin No Kill and driving the city to be progressive and sustainable, is worth the land we are being given. City Council will have to decide if they agree. Please contact your council member’s office today with an email and follow-up call if you agree. It is so important that the council offices hear your voice before they make the final determination.
Thank you,
Ellen
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The report is the first time that litigation win rates of companies have been published for comparison. In the near future, Premonition plans to release their findings on top litigants in other industries along with their win rates.
Press Release
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updated: Mar 15, 2017
Miami, United States, March 15, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Connie Daniell climbed into the trunk of her 1973 Ford Ltd and closed it behind her, intent on committing suicide. However, after a subsequent change of mind, she was distressed to find that Ford hadn’t fitted a release handle on the inside of the trunk. When she was finally released 9 days later, she sued Ford for negligence. Frivolous lawsuits like this continue to plague the auto manufacturer. According to a recent survey by Premonition Analytics, Ford has the dubious distinction of being one of the most sued car manufacturers in the USA in 2017.
| Name | Cases | Days | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Motors | 260 | 161 | 93% |
| Chrysler | 36 | 159 | 88% |
| Toyota | 30 | 567 | 80% |
| Ford | 18 | 63 | 33% |
| Hyundai | 12 | 467 | 80% |
| BMW | 9 | 47 | 100% |
| Nissan | 6 | 151 | 50% |
| Tesla | 3 | 158 | 100% |
| Audi | 2 | 0 | 100% |
| Porsche | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Volkswagen | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Ford also has less litigation than every other domestic manufacturer except Tesla(a recent study found that Tesla’s were 40% less likely to crash than other cars). However Ford won just 33% of their cases compared to General Motors, America’s most sued auto manufacturer that has more than 14 times Ford’s litigation, but achieved an impressive 93% win rate. BMW was the top litigation performer, winning all 9 of their cases in the study, also at the fastest pace, just 47 days, comparing nicely to the leisurely 567 days that Toyota usually took to close their cases.
Choice of Counsel affects 30.7% of the average case outcome
Nathan Huber, Director of Business Development, Premonition
Premonition is the world’s largest litigation database and a leader in the field of legal analytics. The company claims to know which lawyers are strong performers in front of which Judges. According to their website, this gives their corporate clients “A very, very unfair advantage in litigation”.
“There are great discrepancies within industries of how General Counsel are performing in their litigation.”, Premonition Co-Founder Toby Unwin explains. “We found that this is even reflected in a company’s stock market performance. A basket of litigation winners nearly always outperforms a basket of losers. The effect is quite pronounced and can be tracked several months in advance.” Unwin claims that changing counsel can have a significant effect on litigation performance if the track record of lawyers before the relevant judges is closely examined.
The report is the first time that litigation win rates of companies have been published for comparison. In the near future, Premonition plans to release their findings on top litigants in other industries along with their win rates.
“Choice of Counsel affects 30.7% of the average case outcome”, claims Premonition Business Development Director, Nathan Huber. “Analytics allows companies to deploy their litigation resources most effectively, putting the right lawyer in front of the right Judge. It’s the opportunity to turn a 50/50 litigation portfolio into an 80/20 one.”
Source: Premonition
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