- Switzerland can't be neutral on everything. Even the land
of amazing chocolate, fantastic cheese and monumental mountains has its share
of miscreants and misfits and those scofflaws have to go somewhere. In one of
the smallest nations in the world, that means criminals aplenty and prisons too
few, with an overcrowding problem common to countries around the world. The
Swiss Justice Ministry is facing this conundrum and weighing the
option of solving it by accepting a proposal to export convicts to neighboring
France and Germany. Yes, the Swiss just may have a new export to share with the
world and this one won't taste good, keep excellent time or look stylish for
your night out on the town. Swiss prisons chief Thomas Freytag said during an
interview that the country's correctional facilities are at more than 100
percent capacity, noting that prisons in the French-speaking cantons (states)
of western Switzerland are said to be particularly overcrowded. There is no
officially announced deadline for when the Justice Ministry will decide on the
plan and even worse, no confirmation on whether France or Germany would be
prepared to let Swiss inmates do their time there. It’s an ironic twist for
Switzerland to be asking other countries to accept its felons, given that in
recent years, it has tightened its immigration rules for foreigners from the
surrounding European Union, causing considerable political friction with its
neighbors. Now it wants those neighbors to open their borders. Better throw in
some truffle-laden chocolates in to sweeten the deal, Switzerland………
- Barcelona coach Luis Enrique is putting on an optimistic
front. Where the manager of your average European soccer power might see a ban
on acquiring new players via transfer during the next two windows for such
moves as a negative that would hamper the team from boosting its talent base,
Enrique has a different point of view. In Enrique’s world. The s transfer ban
is an "invitation" for players from the vaunted Barcelona youth
academy to push for a place with the parent club. FC Barcelona have long been
hailed for their development of young talent through the program, known as
“Masia,” since the arrival in the late 1980s of coach Johan Cruyff, who put an
added emphasis on homegrown players. Cruyff probably didn’t imagine that the
Catalan club would need that young talent after losing an appeal against a FIFA
sanction for an alleged breach of rules on the transfer of foreign under-18
players. The ban stipulates no buys during the next two transfer periods and
Enrique worked quickly to put a happy face on that turd sandwich. "The
decision didn’t surprise us as it seemed likely, we would have preferred it to
be different but that’s the way it is," Enrique said. "The squad
though is sufficiently strong and this is a stimulus for the youth players. It
is an invitation for them to show what they can do. We are a club that likes to
make use of the youth system although we do supplement it by buying players and
now we can take advantage of this.” Right now, Barcelona are second in La Liga,
one point behind archrival Real Madrid, despite having played one more game
than their rivals. The next month features a brutal schedule that will further
test Barcelona’s resolve and with the knowledge that no new Lionel Messi’s or
Cristiano Ronaldo’s are walking through the door thanks to a pricey transfer
means reasons for hope are harder to find………..
- Clark County is swinging a big hammer and looking to crush
the driving dreams of young truants within its borders. The county is wielding
a new law that went into effect on Jan. 1 with the intent of policing high
school students who ditch class too often and who also happen to hold a valid
driver’s license. If a student has too
many unexcused absences, his or her driver's license will be taken away for 30
days on first offense and a whopping 60 days for a second offense. For those
who haven’t yet obtained their license, they won't be able to do so until their
truancy issues are resolved. SB 269 is designed to ensure students are in
classrooms at least 90 percent of the school year and the thinking goes that if
they have a way to transport themselves to school, then getting their butt in a
desk shouldn’t be too difficult for them. There’s even bureaucratic red tape
and forms involved, as students will have to print a form available on the
Department of Motor Vehicles' website which their school must then sign,
allowing them to obtain a license. Should a student accrue too many unexcused
absences, a truancy officer will confiscate that student's license and mail it
to the Department of Motor Vehicles. A third violation will mean forced
compliance with all of the law’s measures and going through the entire process
of obtaining their license from scratch. Clark County School District Assistant
Superintendent Tammy Malich explained that the law is necessary because
lazy-ass parents drop their children off at school and their involvement stops
there even though their children don’t actually attend. “I am a parent and I
don't necessarily need a statute that needs to tell me how to parent, as a
parent. If you live in my house and I pay your bills, I don't need a statute,”
Malich said. “We're looking forward to any initiative that encourages kids to
attend school, because if they are not in school, it makes it very difficult
for them to pass classes and then graduate.” Time to go to class, kids………
- Speaking of attending things that probably aren't going to
make you that much better (just kidding, public school educators), there is a
question of what’s in store for fans attending the public recording sessions for British
indie rock veteran P.J. Harvey's new album. Harvey revealed earlier this week
that she will open up the recording sessions for her ninth album to fans, but
one of the producers for the project wants fans to scale down their
expectations for what they will see in 45-minute windows as Harvey and her band
record the album at Somerset House in London. The project, titled
"Recording in Progress", was conceived by Harvey alongside
collaborators Artangel. Michael Morris, the co-director of Artangel, cautioned
that the process is a "lottery" and fans could waste, er, spend their
allotted time watching something as mundane as seeing a bass being tuned. Harvey,
Morris and the rest of Artangel have been working together on the project for
more than a year. "Polly's approach to songwriting and making films is
very much like that of a visual artist and we got talking about how the process
of making a record could be displayed rather like an exhibition and what that
might feel like. It will be warts and all," Morris said. "There will
be some visitors who experience longueurs, the tuning-up of a bass guitar, the
integration of a horn section. There will others there when she happens to run
through a couple of songs from start to finish. It is very much a
lottery." Morris went on to say that he and Harvey have avoided characterizing
the process as a performance because many times, there won't be any actual
performing involved. However it plays out, the exhibition runs from January 16
to February 14……….
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