One of the things that makes Governor Sanders’ education proposal so frustrating is that it is such a missed opportunity. To understand the missed opportunity you have to review a little history. Public education received an incredible gift a little over 20 years ago, during the Mike Huckabee administration. The Arkansas Supreme Court, in the Lakeview case, ruled that our system of education was unconstitutionally inadequate and unequal. What happened next, led by Governor Huckabee and the Legislature, transformed the Arkansas education system from among the worst and most underfunded in the Nation to among the fastest improving. After the Lakeview ruling, Governor Huckabee and the legislature responded by forming a Blue Ribbon Commission on Education. It had many diverse stakeholders from educators to community and business leaders from all over the state. It was absolutely nonpartisan and non ideological. Republicans and Democrats worked together for the common good. Their goal was to develop a consensus set of recommendations based on evidence and research on how best to improve student opportunities. Their recommendations transformed the Arkansas education system and led to radical improvements. It worked because it had all of the stakeholders invested in a consensus around evidence based […]

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Median Home Values Decline from Third to Fourth Quarter of 2022 in More Than Half of Opportunity Zones Targeted for Economic Redevelopment; Drop-off Matches Broader Nationwide Downturn; Values Still Up Annually in Almost Two-Thirds of Zones Even as Market Cools IRVINE, Calif. – Feb. 16, 2023 — ATTOM , a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data , today released its fourth-quarter 2022 report analyzing qualified low-income Opportunity Zones targeted by Congress for economic redevelopment in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (see full methodology below). In this report, ATTOM looked at 4,119 zones around the United States with sufficient data to analyze, meaning they had at least five home sales in the fourth quarter of 2022. The report found that median single-family home and condo prices decreased from the third quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2022 in 56 percent of Opportunity Zones around the country and went down at least 5 percent in almost half. Those declines closely paralleled drops in neighborhoods outside the zones as prices fell across the broader U.S. housing market during the second half of 2022 following a decade of almost continuous growth. Solutions For Every Industry […]

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Would industries remain inactive if tomorrow they were deprived of energy? No. Yet, European industries risk drowning themselves in this situation due to another vital economic resource: water. The revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive is the once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn water risks into industrial opportunity. Whether one likes it or not, water stress is increasingly putting industrial value chains under pressure due to water pollution and scarcity. The World Resource Institute predicts a 56% gap between water supply and demand by 2030. Europe will not escape from this risk, as demonstrated by the winter droughts we are currently facing. In addition, industrial emissions into water did not really decrease last decade, threatening all the more water availability. Industries need to integrate water risks into their core business. If industries seem to be aware of energy issues linked to their production, they shall start factoring in the water-related ones. Industries will pay 5 times more with a business-as-usual behaviour than investing to tackle water risks in their activities. For instance, the cost of derogating to the thermal pollution’s standards, in order to ensure France’s energy security, would have been avoided by implementing water-smart measures. Solutions do exist! The European […]

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Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for a second round of Zoonotic Disease Initiative grants. Authorized under the American Rescue Plan, this additional funding will provide up to $9 million in grants to states, Tribes and territories to help address wildlife disease outbreaks before they become pandemics. The highest priority for the initiative is to increase organizational readiness and help state, Tribal and territorial wildlife managers prepare for and respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks. “Zoonotic disease poses a severe threat to humans and wildlife and can be compounded by the effects of climate change ,” said Martha Williams, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Our agency works closely with experts who specialize in public, animal and ecosystem health to develop comprehensive plans and appropriate responses to zoonotic disease events through a One Health approach. This funding will complement our partner projects by providing critical financial resources to those who help prevent and combat global pandemics before they start.” Zoonotic diseases are defined as those that can be transmitted between wildlife and humans. The Service’s One Health approach to zoonotic diseases includes working closely with experts who specialize in public, animal […]

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The U.S. has disclosed further evidence that Iran is arming Russia with armed drones for the war against Ukraine. While Iran maintains this is not the case, it sees the European war as a ripe opportunity to market its indigenous military drones to more countries. On Tuesday, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the Department of Defense released a report with photographic evidence that conclusively confirms Russia’s use of Iranian-built drones in Ukraine. Russia’s repeated and ongoing use of these drones has, of course, been public knowledge since September. However, this report provides further proof this is the case by comparing recently declassified images of Iranian drones used in attacks in the Middle East and the publicly available photos of the drones used in Ukraine. It leaves no doubt that Russia is using Iranian-built Shahed-131/136 loitering munitions (one-way, explosive drones) and multirole Mohajer-6 drones in this war. Iranian Shahed-136 loitering munitions in their launch container. Iran Ministry of Defense U.S. officials explained that the report’s evidence aims to refute continued Iranian denials. "The main point is that Iran’s foreign ministry is denying that they are being used. What the U.S. and U.K. want to do is provide irrefutable evidence […]

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Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, announced on January 20 that around 12,000 employees would be laid off. This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Google this week began companywide internal testing of Bard, its AI chatbot for search. In a memo, CEO Sundar Pichai has asked all employees to spend 2-4 hours helping test the product. Google is in a race with Microsoft to lead the next era of AI-based search. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent an internal memo to Googlers on Wednesday asking them to contribute 2-4 hours of their time to helping improve Bard , the company’s AI chatbot that it intends to integrate into search. The email, which was reviewed by Insider, signals how Google’s urgency in moving to win the next generation of AI-based search. The company has found itself on its back foot as Microsoft took the spotlight for its investment in OpenAI. OpenAI created the popular ChatGPT, a chatbot released in late 2022 which can respond to broad, open-ended questions with human-like answers. Last week, Microsoft unveiled a revamped version of its Bing search engine with ChatGPT , and CEO Satya Nadella […]

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Anyone who owns a business, runs a blog, or has a side hustle has heard of the wonders of Canva . Instead of creating documents and designs from scratch, business owners pick from the thousands of templates Canva offers to advertise, invoice, and promote in whatever way they need. The free graphic design site is extremely easy to use and ideal for amateurs who want professional-looking logos, business cards, and presentations. It’s the ultimate tool for brands looking to curate a cohesive social media presence with as little effort as possible. If you’re a small business owner, freelancer, or entrepreneur of any kind, Canva is simply a really great resource for creating high-quality materials at no cost. Before we get into what templates you should be snagging to make your life easier, here’s a brief introduction to Canva and how it can help. What is Canva? Canva is a treasure trove of highly customizable design templates, most of which are free. Its extensive library of templates includes everything from graphs and gift certificates to posters and project plans. Creating a Canva account takes only a minute, and then you’re off to craft graphics of all sorts with total ease. […]

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Tax Practice Development In the most recent Rosenberg Survey, a yearly study of the CPA industry, we see how major seismic factors involving firms’ limited access to capital and the ongoing shift to advisory services may remake the US accounting industry in 2023 The accounting industry is facing macro-sized challenges going forward, including a lack of capitalization that could leave many accounting firms reeling or looking for merger partners, even as the industry as a whole continues to push toward a dramatic shift in its service model, from compliance-based piecemeal work to a more holistic advisory-based partnership with clients, according to a recent industry survey. The latest iteration of the Rosenberg Survey , an annual study of the CPA industry in the U.S. that’s published by consulting firm The Growth Partnership , took a look at the changing complexion of accounting firm ownership — driven by a need for capital that has raised interest among private equity firms — and the profession’s long-anticipated move toward more advisory work. (The latest survey, released in late-September 2022, relies mostly on data from the year previous.) We spoke to Allan D. Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting, who contributed his insight to the […]

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AD Loading advertisement… 00:00 / 06:59 This article is in your queue. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has nabbed the attention of corporate boardrooms for its humanlike ability to generate business reports, marketing pitches and code for software applications, among other things. Yet some business-technology professionals are uneasy about integrating it into the enterprise stack, citing concerns over its use of online data and security risks. But above all, they’re worried about ChatGPT’s grip on reality. “It explained to me in very convincing detail why cow eggs are larger than chicken eggs, and why the moon is bigger than the sun,” said Christine Livingston, a managing director in the emerging technology group at Protiviti, a management consulting company. ChatGPT is a tremendous step forward for generative AI, she said, referring to algorithmic software designed to tap giant stores of data and create unique output based on user prompts. But at the moment, ChatGPT “should be used with caution in an enterprise business setting,” she said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. SUBSCRIBE Besides its problems with accuracy, ChatGPT requires a number of other improvements before it […]

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Leadership The former Domino’s CEO, who returned as executive chairman of Burger King owner Restaurant Brands International in November, said he is “all in” with his new position. Patrick Doyle said he missed the restaurant business. He’ll oversee plenty of action as executive chairman of Firehouse Subs owner Restaurant Brands International. / Photograph: Shutterstock. Apparently, the restaurant business is not so easy to walk away from. Just ask Patrick Doyle. “I missed it,” he said in an interview on Wednesday, explaining why he came out of retirement in November to take over as executive chairman of Restaurant Brands International, the owner of Burger King, Popeyes, Tim Hortons and Firehouse Subs. “It’s so much fun working with these brands, with the franchisees, and figuring out how you make these businesses work,” he said. Doyle triggered speculation about his next step almost from the moment he announced his planned retirement . His departure announcement in January 2018—he left six months later—coincided with a job opening at Chipotle that would ultimately go to Brian Niccol. The speculation was intense enough that he had to address it, saying he’d planned to take a break and spend time with his daughters . “Every other […]

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