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Doctoral candidate wants to help blind people, just like himself

JooYoung Seo, a doctoral candidate in the College of Education’s Learning, Design, and Technology program, has secured a highly competitive internship with RStudio that will allow him to help people just like himself — those with severe visual impairments.




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An architect explores using his passion in missions

For years, Gustavo, an architect from Central America, felt drawn to working in the Arabian Peninsula. Then, on a short-term trip, he saw what it could be like to use his profession overseas.




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Using her gifts

A Korean Transit Challenge team member shares the gospel by using face painting to overcome the language barrier in France.




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Small steps towards justice

An OM France couple works among trafficked women and fights for justice before government officials.




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Americans Say Civics Is a Must and Religion a Maybe in Schools

Americans overwhelmingly believe civics should be taught in school, and almost 70 percent of them think it should be a requirement to graduate, a new survey finds.




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Highly Rated Curricula Are Out There. Are Schools Using Them?

Math teachers are more likely to be using highly-rated curricula than English-language arts teachers, according to a new analysis from the RAND Corporation.




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New Public Data Tool Lets You See What Curricula Schools in Nebraska Are Using

Nebraska's education department released an interactive instructional materials map last week, showing what curricula districts have adopted for English-language arts, math, and K-8 science.




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Without Rules, Credit Recovery Is Just an 'Easy Ticket to Graduation,' Report Says

Too many districts that use a lot of credit recovery to enable students to finish high school don't have sufficient policy safeguards to ensure that those catch-up courses are high quality, according to a new report.




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Reading Instruction 'Keeps Parents Up at Night': Advocates in Wis., Calif. Push for Changes

As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to form new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt new approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.




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Referee Meler hopes U17 final just the start

"I know it is the beginning of a long path," said Halil Umut Meler ahead of refereeing the U17 EURO final in England.




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Medical Foods for Inborn Errors of Metabolism: History, Current Status, and Critical Need

Successful intervention for inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) is a triumph of modern medicine. For many of these conditions, medical foods are the cornerstone of therapy and the only effective interventions preventing disability or death. Medical foods are designed for patients with limited or impaired capacity to ingest, digest, absorb, or metabolize ordinary foods or nutrients, whereby dietary management cannot be achieved by modification of the normal diet alone. In the United States today, access to medical foods is not ensured for many individuals who are affected despite their proven efficacy in the treatment of IEMs, their universal use as the mainstay of IEM management, the endorsement of their use by professional medical organizations, and the obvious desire of families for effective care. Medical foods are not sufficiently covered by many health insurance plans in the United States and, without insurance coverage, many families cannot afford their high cost. In this review, we outline the history of medical foods, define their medical necessity, discuss the barriers to access and reimbursement resulting from the regulatory status of medical foods, and summarize previous efforts to improve access. The Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children asserts that it is time to provide stable and affordable access to the effective management required for optimal outcomes through the life span of patients affected with IEMs. Medical foods as defined by the US Food and Drug Administration should be covered as required medical benefits for persons of all ages diagnosed with an IEM.




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Coronavirus: les premiers signes de déconfinement se multiplient en Europe | AFP

Source: www.youtube.com - Monday, April 20, 2020




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Aussie Rules In Cork City

Source: www.worldfootynews.com - Monday, May 04, 2020
The Leeside Lions, one of the AFL Ireland clubs in hiatus due to COVID-19, have shown the world a way out by adroitly combining social-distancing with football skills. The following clip from the Cork-based club showcases a range of talents and proves footy can still move forward despite current challenges to the game. Our thanks to the Leeside Lions for sharing. All clubs are welcome to share their clips and can send to the World Footy Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/5197533739/ or send to me via email at: wesleyhull22@gmail.com




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China reacts to Trump comparing virus to Pearl Harbor, 9/11 attacks

Source: www.youtube.com - Thursday, May 07, 2020




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Wood Block Tower | Economy Museum Mini-Tour

Source: www.youtube.com - Tuesday, May 05, 2020




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Liam Payne & Chloe X Halle Hail The Heroes During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Source: www.youtube.com - Friday, May 08, 2020




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Does virus transmission have anything to do with 5G? | Ask CIDD




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Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the Criminal Justice System

Penn State researchers provide informed commentary on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the criminal justice system (CJS), focusing on its efforts to contain the spread of the virus through the three core components of the CJS — courts, corrections, and policing – as well as opportunities going forward. To read more, visit the "Insights from Experts" website — a partnership of Penn State's Social Science Research Institute and the Center for Health Care and Policy Research.




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Five Non-Waiver States Will Get to Pause School Ratings For a Year

You don't need a comprehensive No Child Left Behind waiver to get a reprieve from some of the law's accountability requirements.




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Remembering Former First Lady Barbara Bush, an Advocate for Literacy

As the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, she used the bully pulpit of her office as first lady to advance the issue on behalf of both for children and parents.




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Joe Biden, Gun-Free School Zones Champion, Busing Critic, Is Running for President

As a U.S. senator and vice president, Biden focused on preschool, gun-free school zones, and the Obama administration's response to the Newtown, Conn. school shooting in 2012.




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Coronavirus: Latest Travel Restrictions

(As of 29 April 2020) Information on travel restrictions and advice on quarantine measures.




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Terminal T1 approval for use granted

The Dahme-Spreewald administrative district’s local building inspection authority confirmed the completion of Terminal T1 at BER on 28 April following the completion of the construction work.




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Coronavirus: information on the situation at Berlin Airport

(Last updated: 08.05.2020) Find out here about the current situation at Schönefeld and Tegel Airports.




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Famous faces back new Together #WePlayStrong TV campaign

Europe's most famous footballing families are supporting a new TV campaign by UEFA which calls on dads to encourage their daughters to play football.




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Ausounds AU-Flex ANC

The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC earphones deliver solid noise cancellation and a powerful, sculpted audio experience in a neckband design.




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Belarus, Czech Republic to host WU19 EURO in 2021 and 2022

Hosts have been picked for the Women's U19 final tournaments of 2021 and 2022 respectively.




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First bishop known to die of coronavirus was missionary in Ethiopia

CNA Staff, Mar 25, 2020 / 07:11 pm (CNA).- The Italian bishop of a missionary region of Ethiopia is the first Catholic bishop known to have died of the global coronavirus pandemic. He died March 25.

Bishop Angelo Moreschi, 67, was the leader of Ethiopia’s Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella, a missionary region of 25,000 Catholics in the western part of the country. He died Wednesday in the Italian city of Brescia, in the Lombardy region that has become the European epicenter of the pandemic.

A member of the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order, Moreschi had been a missionary in Ethiopia since 1991. He was ordained a bishop in January 2010.

“The Salesian community mourns the death of the Apostolic Vicar of Gambella (Ethiopia), namely Msgr. Angelo Moreschi, SDB, who died today, March 25, in Brescia (Italy) due to the coronavirus,” the Salesians of Don Bosco said in a statement released through the order’s information bureau.
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The secretary general of Ethiopia’s bishops’ conference announced the news in the country, announced conveying “deep condolences to the Clergy, religious, bereaved family and the lay faithful in the Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella.”

To the mourning people of the Gambella vicariate, the country’s bishops pledged the “closeness and prayers of members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ethiopia and the entire Catholic Church in Ethiopia. May his soul rest in peace.”

Bishop Moreschi was renowned in Ethiopia for his pastoral ministry to the service of young people and the poor. In the local dialect, he was afforded the title “Abba,” meaning “Father.”

“In his mission as prefect and then as apostolic vicar, he continued to embody the Salesian focus in helping children, accompanying them by his practical spirit and his strong apostolic zeal,” the Salesians of Don Bosco stated.

“In his visits to the villages, they still remember when the Salesian arrived with a battered SUV - or by motorboat in the villages along the Baro river when the roads were flooded - and he immediately began to distribute multi-vitamin biscuits to malnourished children.”

Bishop Moreschi died “after serving the young, the poor and his flock of souls as a Salesian for 46 years, as a priest for 38, and as a bishop for over 10,” the Salesians said.

More than 60 priests have died in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 21,000 lives globally. Several bishops have contracted the virus.

 

This story was first reported by ACI Africa, CNA's African news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.

 



  • Middle East - Africa

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African cardinal tests positive for coronavirus as pandemic spreads across the continent

Vatican City, Mar 31, 2020 / 10:28 am (CNA).- Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso has tested positive for the coronavirus, his archdiocese announced Tuesday. He is the second cardinal known to have tested positive for the virus, which is now a global pandemic.

Ouédraogo, 75, has been admitted to a medical clinic in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.  He is “in good condition and his close collaborators are reported to be self-isolating,” a spokesman for Burkina Faso’s bishops’ conference, Fr. Paul Dah, told ACI Africa on March 31.

The cardinal is president of the African continental bishops’ conference, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). He was elected to the post in July 2019. He has been Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso for ten years, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2014.

Ouédraogo is the second bishop from Burkina Faso known to have contracted COVID-19, as countries across Africa implement lockdowns and restrictions to slow the spread of the virus across the continent.

Another Burkina Faso bishop, Archbishop Emeritus Séraphin François Rouamba of Koupela, tested positive for COVID-19 after being admitted to Our Lady of Peace clinic for urgent treatment on March 19.

The 78-year-old archbishop has since been transferred to another hospital and is reportedly in stable condition, according to a March 25 statement from Bishop Laurent Birfuore Dabire of Dori, Burkina Faso.

Burkina Faso has the largest documented coronavirus outbreak in West Africa, with 249 documented cases as of March 31, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The coronavirus has spread throughout the African continent to 47 countries, according to the Africa Center for Disease Control. In North Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco each have more than 500 documented cases, and the South African government has reported more than 1,300.

Three Nigerian states began two-week mandatory lockdown this week to combat the spread of the virus, including Lagos, Africa’s most populous city with more than 20 million people.

Zimbabwe and Mauritius have also implemented national shut-downs, and the bishops in South Sudan and Zimbabwe have suspended public Masses.

Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, tested positive for coronavirus on March 30.

Other bishops in Italy, France, China, and the United States have also tested positive for COVID-19, and Bishop Angelo Moreschi, 67, died in the Italian city of Brescia on March 25 after contracting the coronavirus.

 

 



  • Middle East - Africa

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Jerusalem archbishop blesses city with True Cross relic

CNA Staff, Apr 6, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Unable to lead the traditional Palm Sunday procession through Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, blessed the city with a relic of the True Cross on April 5.

The annual procession, which recalls Christ’s entry into the city and the beginning of Holy Week, was cancelled in line with international efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, with public gatherings and events suspended in Israel. 

“We decided since we cannot have the palm procession, to have anyway a moment of prayer this afternoon,” said Pizzaballa on Sunday. The archbishop led a short, multi-lingual “moment of prayer” at Dominus Flevit, a church located on the Mount of Olives.

The church, which is shaped like a teardrop, overlooks the city, and was built to mark the Gospel account of Jesus weeping as he envisioned the destruction of Jerusalem.

The prayer service ended with Pizzaballa raising a relic of the True Cross over the city in benediction. 

Jerusalem, said Pizzaballa, “is a symbol of the church, the symbol also of humanity. It is the house of prayer for all the people, according to the scriptures.”

“So when we cry [over] Jerusalem, together with Jesus, we cry [over] all our human fraternity, for this difficult moment we are living, for this sad Palm Sunday, this Easter we have to celebrate.”

Pizzaballa said that sadness over being unable to celebrate the liturgical feasts of Holy Week is real, but “maybe, in a way also very true, very essential.” 

“Today we have not celebrated the solemn and beautiful entrance of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem like every year, with faithful from all the parishes of the diocese and with pilgrims from all over the world,” Pizzaballa said during the prayer service.

“We have not raised our palms and olive branches to cry out ‘Hosanna’ to our king, Jesus the Christ.” 

Instead, the archbishop asked Catholics in the Holy Land and around the world to consider what the Lord may be trying to say during these times.

He noted that, while the people of Jerusalem in the Gospel greeted him with cheers on Palm Sunday, Jesus knew that “He came to Jerusalem, not to be on the throne like David, but to be put to death.” 

“The meaning that Jesus attributes to his ‘triumphal entry’ is different from the meaning that the people of Jerusalem saw in it,” he said.

“Perhaps this is the lesson that Jesus wants to teach us today. We turn to God when there is something that harms us. When we are in trouble, suddenly we all want to ask big and difficult questions.”

While people may be praying for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic as we often do for solutions  to other problems, the archbishop said that  “Jesus responds in His own way” to these prayers. 

“Precisely because Jesus says ‘yes’ to our deepest desires, He will have to say ‘no’ to our immediate desires,” he said.

Drawing comparisons between this year's Palm Sunday and the biblical Palm Sunday during Christ's earthly life, Pizzaballa said the story of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem “is a lesson on the discrepancy between our expectations and God’s response.” 

The crowd who greeted Jesus was disappointed that their salvation was not immediate, said Pizzaballa, but “Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is truly the moment when salvation is born.” 

“The ‘Hosannas’ were justified, even if not for the reasons the Jerusalemites had supposed,” he said. 

This remains true today, he explained. Although it may seem as though God is not answering prayers and leaves people “disappointed,” this is in part because “our expectations remain without an apparent response.”

Christianity, he said, “is based on hope and love, not certainty,” and that while God will not answer all problems with certainty, “He won’t leave us alone.” 

“And here, today, despite everything, at the gates of His and our city, we declare that we really want to welcome Him as our King and Messiah, and to follow Him on His way to His throne, the cross,” he said.  

“But we also ask Him to give us the strength necessary to carry it with His own, fruitful love.”



  • Middle East - Africa

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Priest arrested in Kenya for spreading coronavirus

CNA Staff, Apr 17, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- A Catholic priest is one of two people in Kenya to be charged with “negligently spreading an infectious disease” after authorities allege he did not comply with quarantine regulations after he traveled to the country from Italy. 

Fr. Richard Onyango Oduor denied the allegations on Thursday, April 16, and is currently free after he posted bail. He will appear in court on May 2, after he spends another 14 days in quarantine. 

According to Kenyan media, Fr. Oduor is based in Rome and flew to the country to preside at a relative’s burial service. At that burial service, he distributed the Eucharist, interacting with several people. According to local media reports, as many as 60 people who came into contact with Fr. Oduor reported to the hospital, but it is unclear how many of them were eventually diagnosed with COVID-19. 

Fr. Oduor eventually tested positive for the virus, was hospitalized for a period of two weeks, and has since recovered. He was arrested on April 9, immediately after he was released from the hospital. 

Oduor reportedly traveled throughout Kenya from March 11 through 20, and was unaware that he had been infected with the coronavirus. During this period. Oduor took busses and a plane, and celebrated several Masses. 

Kenyan officials were able to locate and quarantine more than 130 people who had come into contact with Oduor before he was diagnosed with the coronavirus. This number includes priests at a parish in Nairobi where Oduor stayed before traveling to his hometown for the burial.

Archbishop Anthony Muheria, who leads the Archdiocese of Nyeri and is the apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Kitui, declined to comment about the case to Reuters, and said it was up to civil authorities to handle Oduor’s case. 

Kenya has banned public gatherings, reduced the number of people who are permitted to attend a funeral, instituted a curfew, and increased restrictions on who can travel to areas that have the highest number of cases.

In Kenya, 234 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 11 have died. 

Oduor was arrested on the same day Gideon Saburi, the deputy governor of Kilifi, a county in Kenya, was charged with spreading coronavirus. Saburi is alleged to have appeared in public while suffering from the virus between March 6 and March 22. He has also pleaded not guilty and was released on April 16 after posting bail.



  • Middle East - Africa

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Turkey disputes US religious freedom commission's assessment of Turkey

CNA Staff, May 1, 2020 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected Turkey's inclusion in a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, charging that the report comes from a “biased mindset”.

“The report contains baseless, unaccredited and vague allegations as in the past years while trying to portray isolated incidents as violations of religious freedoms through far-fetched accusations,” Hami Aksoy, a spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said April 29.

“The importance attached by Turkey to protect religious freedoms, including those of religious minorities, is expressed at the highest level by our Government officials. Our authorities make it clear that any harm to the religious freedoms of our citizens will not be tolerated,” Aksoy added.

In its 2020 report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department add Turkey, as well as 10 other countries, to a “Special Watch List” of countries where abuses of religious minorities are taking place, but not at a level as severe as in those designated as “countries of particular concern.”

The commission wrote that “religious freedom conditions in Turkey remained worrisome” in 2019, “with the perpetuation of restrictive and intrusive governmental policies on religious practice and a marked increase in incidents of vandalism and societal violence against religious minorities.”

It cited the Turkish government's prevention of the election of board members for non-Muslim religious groups and its limitations on the election of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

The report added that Alevis, a group related to Shia Islam and the country's largest religious minority, “remained unable to gain official recognition for their gathering houses (cemevleri) as places of worship or to exempt their children from compulsory religious classes, despite European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings finding that these policies violated Alevis’ rights.”

According to the US commission, Turkish religious minorities “expressed concerns that governmental rhetoric and policies contributed to an increasingly hostile environment and implicitly encouraged acts of societal aggression and violence.”

The report also drew attention to the permission given for a museum, that was originally a Greek Orthodox church and later a mosque, to be reconverted into a mosque. It noted also that president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the same thing to happen to the Hagia Sophia, which has the same history.

USCIRF also said the Turkish government has “continued to dismiss, detain, and arrest individuals affiliated with, or accused of affiliation with, the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, for alleged complicity in a July 2016 coup attempt or involvement in terrorist activity.”

Gülen has lived in the US since 1999, and is considered a terrorist by the Turkish government.

The Turkish foreign ministry charged that Gülen's mention in the report “amounts to deliberately turning a blind eye” to the coup attempt, and added: “We invite the US authorities to earnestly examine the evidence we have provided” about the Gülen movement “and to engage in effective cooperation in line with the spirit of alliance in order to reveal the true nature of this terrorist organization.”

Aksoy added that the recommendation of adding Turkey to a “special watch list” for religious freedom “is a clear indication of the biased mindset behind it and the circles under whose influence it was drawn up.”

“In the report that is supposed to include global trends that threaten religious freedoms, the Commission does not mention a single word about xenophobia, Islamophobia and discrimination on religious grounds that is on the rise in the West and the US,” Aksoy stated.

“This clearly reveals that the purpose of the report is not to protect religious rights and freedoms. It is clear that the Commission, which has been accused of being anti-Muslim in the past, has drawn up this report based on its unwarranted agenda and priorities under the influence of circles that are hostile to Turkey, rather than objective criteria. We recommend the authors of this report to look in the mirror and engage in self-criticism.”

Earlier this year, Turkish authorities arrested a Syriac Orthodox priest on terrorism charges after he provided bread and water to members of a Kurdish separatist group that has been deemed illegal.



  • Middle East - Africa

us

How to Use a Raspberry Pi and Steam Link to Stream PC Games to Your TV

Valve may have discontinued the hardware, but you can still can use the Steam Link app on your Raspberry Pi system to stream games to your TV or anywhere else.




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Seagate Unveils 2 Portable SSD Drives for Gamers, Power Users

Seagate's FireCuda Gaming SSD and BarraCuda Fast SSD will appeal to those looking for a convenient way to give their laptop a boost, starting at less than $100.




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AMD Teases Ryzen 4000-Series CPUs, 64-Core Threadripper

Unveiled here at CES, the new Ryzen 4000 CPU family is the first to use AMD's cutting-edge 7-nanometer production process.




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Teach for America Turns Focus to Native Achievement

Teach for America has tapped a longtime teacher and administrator and a member of the new National Advisory Council on Indian Education to lead its fledgling Native Achievement Initiative.




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Rural Schools Often Ignored in Research and Policy Discussions

Rural schools struggle with high and lows more commonly associated with urban schools, including high rates of poverty, low literacy rates, and low college attendance rates, a new report finds.




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An architect explores using his passion in missions

For years, Gustavo, an architect from Central America, felt drawn to working in the Arabian Peninsula. Then, on a short-term trip, he saw what it could be like to use his profession overseas.






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Wintrust Financial Corporation Reports Record Full-Year 2019 Net Income of $355.7 million and Fourth Quarter 2019 Net Income of $86.0 million, up 8% from the Fourth Quarter 2018

To view more press releases, please visit http://ir.wintrust.com/news.aspx?iid=1024452.







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Wintrust Financial Corporation to Present at RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference on March 10, 2020

To view more press releases, please visit http://ir.wintrust.com/news.aspx?iid=1024452.




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Wintrust Financial Corporation Announces Precautionary Decision to Help Achieve Community Health Objectives By Temporarily Closing Selected Branches

To view more press releases, please visit http://ir.wintrust.com/news.aspx?iid=1024452.





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Wintrust Financial Corporation Working Tirelessly To Support Strong Community Interest in the Paycheck Protection Program

To view more press releases, please visit http://ir.wintrust.com/news.aspx?iid=1024452.





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Wintrust Financial Corporation to Make Loans to Approximately 8,900 Small Businesses Through the Paycheck Protection Program

To view more press releases, please visit http://ir.wintrust.com/news.aspx?iid=1024452.