The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U. S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 state representatives, the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 state senators. Representatives are elected for senators for four-year terms. Prior to statehood, separate pro-slavery and anti-slavery territorial legislatures emerged, drafting four separate constitutions, until one was ratified and Kansas became a state in 1861. Republicans hold a long-standing supermajority in both houses of the state legislature, despite a short-lived dominance by the Populist Party; the state legislature approved one of the first child labor laws in the nation. Composed of 165 state lawmakers, the state legislature meets at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka once a year in regular session. Additional special sessions can be called by the Governor; the Kansas Territory was created out of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854. In several of the provisions of the act, the law allowed the settlers of the newly created territory to determine, by vote, whether Kansas, once statehood was achieved, would be entered as either a free or a slave state.
The act created a rush of both abolitionist Northern and pro-slavery Southern immigrants to the territory, hoping that strength through numbers would place Kansas in their camp. Animosities between the newly arrived sides turned into open violence and guerrilla warfare, giving name to this period known as Bleeding Kansas. During Kansas' first elections for a territorial government on March 30, 1855, nearly 5,000 Missouri men, led by United States Senator David Rice Atchison and other prominent pro-slavery Missourians, entered the territory, took over the polling places, elected pro-slavery candidates; the elections resulted in 13 pro-slavery members of the upper house of the territorial legislature and one free-state member, who resigned. The lower house ended up with one free-state member. Free-Staters cried foul, naming the new Kansas Territorial Legislature the Bogus Legislature. After meeting for one week in Pawnee at the direction of Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder, the thirty-eight pro-slavery legislators reconvened at the Shawnee Manual Labor School between July 16 and August 30, 1855, began crafting over a thousand pages of laws aimed at making Kansas a slave state.
Free-Staters convened their own unauthorized shadow legislature and territorial government in Topeka, crafting their own Topeka Constitution in late 1855. While the document was debated and submitted to a vote in the territory, it was never accepted by Congress; the pro-slavery territorial legislature's response to the Free-Staters and growing violence was the Lecompton Constitution in 1857. Due to an electoral boycott by abolitionist groups and the questions regarding the validity of the legislature itself, it never became law. While the Lecompton Constitution was debated, new elections for the territorial legislature in 1857 gave the Free-Staters a majority government, caused in part by a boycott by pro-slavery groups. With this new mandate, the legislature convened to write the Leavenworth Constitution, a radically progressive document for the Victorian era in its wording of rights for women and African-Americans; the constitution was adopted in 1858, though it too suffered the same fate as previous documents when Congress refused to ratify it.
Following the Leavenworth Constitution's defeat, the territorial legislature again crafted a new document the following year, dubbed the Wyandotte Constitution. A compromise of sorts, it outlawed slavery in the territory, while removing progressive sections on Native Americans and blacks; the territorial legislature passed the document, submitted it to public referendum. It was ratified by the Kansas electorate on October 4, 1859. Following long debates in both the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate, on January 29, 1861, President James Buchanan authorized Kansas to become the 34th state of United States, it had entered into the Union as a free state. Only six days the Confederate States of America formed between seven Southern states that had seceded from the United States in the previous two months; the first Kansas impeachments occurred in 1862, brought about in part by United States Republican Party infighting in the state. The election of state officers under the Wyandotte Constitution took place in December 1859, because of a delay in the Kansas path to statehood, those officers did not assume office until February 1861.
The lapse of time created a constitutional question as to the expiration of the two-year terms for which Governor Charles L. Robinson and the chief administrative officers were elected, with Robinson's opponents calling for a November 1861 election. Robinson refused to permit the canvassing of votes for the offices in the 1861 election and his position was upheld by the Kansas Supreme Court; the state legislature brought impeachment trials against the governor, Kansas Secretary of State J. W. Robinson, State Auditor George S. Hillyer over what they believed to be the unlawful sale of state bonds, they convicted J. W. Robinson and Hillyer of selling state bonds in a manner in direct violation of the laws of the state, but failed to convict the two officials on conspiracy and other articles of impeachment. Only three state senators voted to impeach the governor, less directly involved in the sale of the bonds. In 1867, a constitutional amendment failed. State offices began to move from the Old Constitutional Hall to the east wing of the Kansas State Capitol in 1869, still undergoing construction.
The state legislature first met there in 1870, though the east wing was not completed until 1
Pieter Schlosser is an award-winning Guatemalan-American film and television composer best known for Destiny 2, You, Me and the Apocalypse, The Lying Game, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. He has composed scores for multiple studio films and network television shows. Schlosser was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala to a Dutch mother and Costa Rican father of German descent, who introduced him to jazz and classical music at a young age, he cites opera and Disney films as his earliest influences. During his childhood, his family lived and traveled between Guatemala, Austria and Costa Rica, enabling him to expand his musical vocabulary. While living in Austria, he learned to play the piano. After moving to Panama, he began singing in a Swedish choir which sang in Spanish, French and Swedish, he began learning saxophone and, after moving to Costa Rica, playing in symphonic bands, youth orchestra, small jazz ensembles. During high school, he bought the music software Cakewalk Pro Audio and began composing his own music.
While graduating from the German high school in Costa Rica, Schlosser wrote a song inspired by Pat Metheny Group. The Latin Grammy Award-winning world music group Editus, recording an album with songs by Costa Rican composers, included Schlosser's work in their album Calle Del Viento, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a partial scholarship, where he completed a double major in Film Scoring and Music Production and Engineering. He relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film composition. Schlosser began his career in Hans Zimmer's studio Remote Control Productions, through the connections he made while working at The Record Plant in Hollywood, in which he met Alan Myerson, he worked for five years alongside Steve Jablonsky on multiple films and television series, including The Amityville Horror, The Island, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Desperate Housewives, Friday the 13th, the Transformers film series. While working for Steve Jablonsky, Schlosser contributed additional music and conducted a small orchestra while recording the score for all nine seasons of Desperate Housewives.
In 2014, Schlosser was one of over a hundred people who were given the ASCAP Award for Top Television Series for his work on Freeform's The Lying Game. In 2015, he composed the score for NBC's Me and the Apocalypse. During that same year, he worked with the Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra and arranged a full orchestral performance of his original music in collaboration with Editus. In 2017, he scored the film What About Love starring Andy Garcia. In 2018, the IMAX film In Saturn's Rings for which he composed the opening music is set to be released. Schlosser has composed scores for video games, including Destiny 2, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, The Sims 3, Transformers: The Game. Pieter Schlosser Official Site Pieter Schlosser on IMDb Pieter Schlosser on SoundCloud
Krystyna Klimczak is a Polish figure skater who has competed as a single skater and pair skater. As a pair skater, she competed with Janusz Karweta, they were the 2007 Polish national silver medalists. They received the host wildcard entry to the 2007-2008 Junior Grand Prix Final, where they placed 9th, their partnership ended in 2009. Although they placed ninth on the day, they were moved up a spot to an eighth-place finish at the 2007-2008 Junior Grand Prix Final following the retroactive disqualification of first-place-finishers Vera Bazarova & Yuri Larionov due to a positive doping sample from Larionov, she competes as a single skater on the national level. J = Junior level N = Novice level Klimczak & Karweta at the International Skating Union Krystyna Klimczak at the UKŁF "Unia" Oświęcim
"I'm on Your Side" is a ballad performed by Australian rock duo Divinyls. It was released 9 September 1991 as the fourth and final single from their successful self-titled album, Divinyls. "I'm on Your Side" is one of only a few Divinyls songs not written by Christina Amphlett and Mark McEntee. Instead it was written by famed songwriting duo Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who had both co-written Divinyls smash hit "I Touch Myself". "I'm on Your Side" peaked at number 92 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. Australian 7" single "I'm on Your Side" – 3:41 "I Touch Myself" – 4:03Australian CD single "I'm on Your Side" – 3:41 "I Touch Myself" – 4:03 "Boys in Town" – 3:04Australian EP maxi single "I'm on Your Side" - 3:41 "I'll Make You Happy" – 3:45 "Boys in Town" – 3:04 "Pleasure and Pain" – 4:30 "I Touch Myself" – 4:03US Promo CD single "I'm on Your Side" - 3:43 Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
Home Instead Senior Care UK is a network of franchises specialising relationship-led domiciliary care for the elderly, in support of aging in place. It is a franchise of Home Instead Senior Care, based in Nebraska and was founded in 1994, it has 210 franchised offices across the UK, employing more than 13,000 people. It was one of the 20 most recommended providers in the Home Care Awards 2019, it achieved an overall rating of 9.9 out of 10. Martin Jones, based in Stretton, Warrington is the CEO, he is involved with Business in the Community He sees the company as a major provider of community-based care in line with the strategy outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan. He spoke at the Future of Care conference in London in March 2019, discussing the place of robotics in senior care; the firm is interested in the use of assistive technology, has formed a partnership with Anthropos Digital Care which provides smart sensors in the home. These can form a picture of the activities of an older person and generate alerts and actionable insights.
It was piloted at four of the firms franchises in 2018. In 2020 the organisation had 64 Care Quality Commission ‘outstanding’ ratings across England; this was more than 25% of its English network, which compared to an average 3% in the social care sector. In 2019, it was congratulated by the chief inspector of Adult Social Care, they won the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation. At that time they had 56 offices and in 2019 they had 195, with about 10,500 clients and about 9,500 caregivers. Jones was appointed to the board of trustees at The Silver Line in March 2019. Staff are matched with clients that share their interests, all home visits are at least an hour, it was awarded the Princess Royal Training Award in 2016 and 2019. The national office of Home Instead Senior Care UK is based in Warrington. There are 210 franchise offices UK wide; the franchise in Stockton-on-Tees, Home Instead Cleveland, set up in 2014 and is owned and run by a former Stockton Rugby Club player, was rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission after an inspection in 2018.
The York & Malton franchise was rated outstanding in 2018. The CQC reported: ‘The culture at Home Instead Senior Care is exceptionally open and caring, demonstrating a commitment to putting their clients and staff at the heart of everything they do.’ Home Instead Senior Care North Oxfordshire, which provides personal care to 36 people living in their own homes in the community was rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission in 2019. Their report said "We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from people and professionals on how staff had developed caring relationships with people and their relatives." Visits were over an hour, unusual in the sector. Home Instead Senior Care Canary Wharf was rated outstanding; the inspector reported that " Two hour minimum visits allowed people and their care workers the opportunity to develop positive and caring relationships that took into account people's individual needs and interests." Comitis L11 Limited, which trades as Home Instead Senior Care Brentwood was inspected in August 2018 and rated outstanding.
It gives personal care to 80 people living in their own homes. The inspector reported that "People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Home Instead Senior Care in Havant, Hampshire was rated outstanding at its first inspection and Debbie Westhead, the Care Quality Commission interim chief inspector for Adult Social Care, said she was delighted to be able to congratulate Home Instead Senior Care for another overall ‘Outstanding’ rating and that the quality of care which their inspectors found was exceptional. Home Instead Bromley was rated outstanding in 2018 and used the resulting publicity to recruit more staff; the firm was awarded a Five Star Employer award by the human resources company WorkBuzz in December 2018. Home Instead Bolton made a public commitment to pay the Real Living Wage, £9 an hour, rather than the £8.21 national living wage in March 2019. In March 2019 the franchise in Ipswich held a nutrition workshop for older people.
Stages of Senior Care: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Best Decisions and Lori Hogan, McGraw-Hill, 2009, ISBN 0-07-162109-1, ISBN 978-0-07-162109-0 Official website
The cane toad in Australia is regarded as an exemplary case of a "feral species"—others being rabbits, foxes and dogs. Australia's relative isolation prior to European Colonisation and the industrial revolution—both of which increased traffic and importation of novel species—allowed development of a complex, interdepending system of ecology, but one which provided no natural predators for many of the species subsequently introduced; the recent, sudden inundation of foreign species has led to severe breakdowns in Australian ecology, after overwhelming proliferation of a number of introduced species for which the continent has no efficient natural predators or parasites, which displace native species—in some cases these species are physically destructive to habitat as well. Cane toads have been successful as an invasive species, having become established in more than 15 countries within the past 150 years. In the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the Australian Government listed the impacts of the cane toad as a "key threatening process".
Native to South and mainland Middle America, cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in June 1935 by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, now the Sugar Research Australia, in an attempt to control the native grey-backed cane beetle and French's beetle. These beetles are native to Australia and they are detrimental to sugar cane crops, which are a major source of income for Australia. Adult cane beetles eat the crop's leaves, but the main problem is the larvae, which feed on the roots. Adult cane beetles have a heavy exoskeleton and their eggs and larva are buried underground, making them difficult to exterminate. Furthermore, conventional methods of pest control, such as pesticide use, would eradicate harmless species of insects as well, making it an unsatisfactory method. Cane toads were to replace the use of pesticides like arsenic and copper; the success of using the moth Cactoblastis cactorum in controlling prickly pears in Australia contributed to hopes for the cane toad.
The cane toads bred in captivity, by August 1935 more than 102 young toads were released in areas around Cairns and Innisfail in northern Queensland. More toads were released around Ingham, Ayr and Bundaberg. Releases were temporarily limited because of environmental concerns but resumed in other areas after September 1936. Since their release, toads have multiplied in population and now number over 200 million and have been known to spread diseases affecting local biodiversity; the introduction of the toads has not only caused large environmental detriment, but there is no evidence that they have affected the cane beetles that they were introduced to prey upon. The toads have expanded their range through Queensland, reaching the border with New South Wales in 1978 and the Northern Territory in 1984; the toads on the western frontier of their advance have evolved larger legs. As a consequence of their longer legs, larger bodies, faster movement, about 10% of the leading edge cane toads have developed arthritis.
It was estimated that cane toads migrate at an average of 40 kilometres per year as of 1994, but new research in 2014 indicated that the migration rate had increased to 60 km per year on the western front. By 2019 they had become a pest in the Torres Strait Islands carried there by boat; the long-term effects of toads on the Australian environment are difficult to determine, however some effects include "the depletion of native species that die eating cane toads. Precipitous declines in populations of the northern quoll have been observed after toads have invaded an area. There are a number of reports of declines in goanna and snake populations after the arrival of toads. For example, local populations of Varanus panoptes dropped by up to 90% when their habitat was invaded by cane toads; the preliminary risk assessment of cane toads in Kakadu National Park stated that the predation of the cane toad by native wildlife is the greatest risk to biodiversity. Other factors, such as competition with native wildlife for resources, the predation of the cane toad on native wildlife, were considered much lower risk factors but requiring further study.
In the Northern Territory, goanna predation on cane toads has been linked to a rise in the amount of undamaged saltwater crocodile eggs. Cane toads were present within a few days of the crocodiles hatching in April 2007. Numerous native species have been reported as preying on toads; some birds, such as the black kite, have learned to attack the toad's belly, avoiding the poison-producing glands on the back of the head. Anecdotal reports in the Northern Territory suggest that a native frog, Dahl's aquatic frog, is able to eat the tadpoles and live young of the toad without being affected by the poison that kills other predators; this may account for slower than expected infestations of toads in certain areas of the Northern Territory, although research carried out jointly by several Australian Universities casts doubt on these reports. Some snake species have been reported to have adapted smaller jaws so that they are unable to swallow large cane toads which have large quantities of poison. Another study, notes that the cane toad is adapting to a wider environmental range and may in the future be spreading into habitats not available.
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