Greetings and welcome to the Introduction to Astronomy. In this lecture we are going to talk about Special Relativity and do note that this is an enrichment lecture. It is not something that is covered directly in our textbook. So, we still want to take a look at it a little bit. We've mentioned a little bit about Special Relativity before. So, Special Relativity was put forth by Albert Einstein in 1905, about a decade before his general theory of relativity. And it was a new description of motion. Remember that general relativity did gravity? This one talks about motion. And we know that Newton's laws of motion work in almost every situation, but not quite. They cannot explain motions at high speeds. And high speeds getting close to the speed of light, we need Special Relativity. So, what was a little bit of the comings of this? Well, first of all, back in the 1800s, it was considered that light needed a medium through which to travel. And this was called the ether. And in fact, an experiment was done in 1887 by Michelson and Morley to measure a light beam traveling through the ether in different directions and seeing how its speed was affected. And here we see the setup there as a light beam would be split so that if some of it would go in one direction, perpendicular to the ether, some would go parallel to it. And there should be a difference in the light travel times for those two. No difference was found, meaning that there was no ether. And we now know that light does not need a medium through which to travel. So, since the laws of physics are exactly the same, there's no way to tell the difference between the reference frames. Everything is going to be... There's no way to tell the difference between those two. So, what the second one is that the speed of light is a constant and has the same value for all observers. That is the speed of light 300,000 kilometers per second. And that does refer to the speed of light in a vacuum. So, not just the speed of light, but the speed of light in a vacuum. So, it does not matter if the observer is moving, then the speed of light will still be... So, the speed of light, since the speed of light is the same, but velocities will add differently. Normally, we can add velocities together. So, if you're moving and something is thrown, you add the two velocities together to get the net velocity. When you get close to the speed of light, it does not matter. A light beam shining ahead of a fast-moving car or spaceship is still traveling at exactly the speed of light. You cannot add in the motion of that craft. So, if you had a spaceship moving at half the speed of light, that light would still be moving ahead at just the speed of light. Not the speed, not one and a half times the speed of light. You can never exceed that speed. So, when you get close to light speed, there are different ways of adding velocities. Now, some of the consequences here, when we look at special relativity, are simultaneous events depend on the observer, whether two things are simultaneous. So, observer A may see the two flashes simultaneously occurring, but that does not mean that there is simultaneity there. Because observer B here, observer B, this light will reach her first, and this light will reach later. So, it depends on the observer as to whether things occur simultaneously. So, if there's a burst of light, one observer can see them at exactly the same time, and another one can see them not occurring at exactly the same time. We also have time dilation. Now, we mentioned this before when we talked about general relativity, but clocks slow down as one moves faster. And if you really want to know the conversion factor, it's this one that tells you as how fast you're going. And as you get closer and closer to the speed of light, this gets bigger and bigger, and it gets bigger and bigger very fast. And you can never exceed the speed of light, because if you exceeded the speed of light, then under the square root here would be negative. And of course, that would become imaginary, and there is no solution there. So, we have observed this. This is actually observed here on Earth. How do we observe it? Well, muons. These are elementary particles that are produced in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays interact with atoms. Muons do not live long enough to make it down to the ground. They decay very quickly. However, because they are moving so fast at close to the speed of light, their internal clocks are slowed down, and they can actually survive the trip down to the surface of Earth. We also can have length contraction, so time changes, but so do lengths. And objects moving at very high speeds will appear shortened in the direction of motion. So, something moving at a very high speed, you will see it as foreshortened there, and it will appear shorter because of the high speed of travel. So, again, that affects things as well. So, there are some very interesting things, such as the time dilation and the length contraction, that will increase as you get close to the speed of light. Now, at our speeds, it makes no difference. None of these will be noticeable. Now, causality. Well, causality, sometimes it can one thing cause another. Well, it depends on where you are within the cone here, within the light cone. So, in the light cone, space is represented by the x-axis, and time by the y-axis. We are at point A, that is the current location is at the origin. Travel is possible within the shaded region, so something happening at A can affect something at point B. It is possible to travel there at less than the speed of light. Travel is impossible outside that shaded region. So, A could cause B, but there is no way A could cause C because it would evolve faster than light travel, which is impossible under special relativity. Now, we can look at one other example of this, and that's what's called the ladder paradox. A ladder paradox says a rapidly moving ladder would be shortened and would fit into a smaller garage. So, if you had a ladder moving at a very high speed, it would appear shortened, and you could, for that instant, have it completely within the ladder. However, since motion is relative, you can also consider a stationary ladder and a moving garage. Well, what would happen there? Well, now the garage is shortened, and what happens? So, does the ladder fit or doesn't it? Because if the garage is shortened, then there's no way the ladder is going to fit inside this. So, what is going on here? Well, we can take a look at what the resolution to this paradox might be. And what we see is that, here, I said it would not fit, but here we can see the example that you have two cases of this happening. If you have the ladder moving, yes, the ladder is foreshortened and you have, for an instant, that it is within this object. And you can have both doors closed. So, it's how the doors are open, both doors are closed, and it is within there. Now, in the other point of view, where this is moving, remember that things do not occur simultaneously to all observers. So, here we have simultaneity, and, therefore, the doors do not open and shut at the same time.  So, under this, the ladder is never completely within the garage, but it does completely apply to what we've seen before. It really is just a matter of simultaneous events. What things are simultaneous in one reference system are not going to be simultaneously in the other. In the second case here, we never have the two garage doors closed at the same time as we do in the first. It is not a simultaneous event there. So, there is no paradox. It does not fit in. It doesn't have any issue being in there because it still fits since one of the doors is open under this reference frame. So, there are some other paradoxes that you can consider, too, and they're usually something similar to this to be able to explain how things actually work under special relativity. So, let's go ahead and finish up with our summary. And special relativity, given by Einstein, describes motion at speeds near the speed of light. This causes things like time dilation and length contraction, as well as issues with causality that have to be considered. Paradoxes like the latter paradox occur because the simultaneity depends on your reference frame. And that kind of fixes the paradox because there are two different reference frames. So, that concludes this lecture on special relativity. We'll be back again next time for another topic in astronomy. So, until then, have a great day, everyone, and I will see you in class.


Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of AWS Storage Day. We're here in downtown Seattle, crisp downtown Seattle. Winter is coming. We're going to talk about the snow, pun intended, and also the ever-expanding cloud. The cloud, it's in a way, it's like the universe. It's moving out to the edge and to the data center, which is literally another edge node, if you think about it. Mark Kree is here, he's the general manager of AWS Gateway and Sid Roy is the GM of AWS Snow Family. Folks, welcome. Good to see you. Thank you. So Mark, talk about how you think about on-prem and hybrid. That's an excellent question, Dave. So I represent a group of services called Storage Gateway and that's exactly what Storage Gateway does is it bridges your on-prem applications with the cloud. And the way we do that is we deliver it with really four services that we call gateways. The first one being volume gateway and what volume gateway does is it gives you a way to connect your block storage on-prem with the cloud for file shares, for backup is what popular application there and for applications that can tolerate some latency. That's our traditional service. Then we came out with something called Virtual Tape Gateway, which I'm personally really excited about because we all know about the big clunky tapes that have been around for 50 years that you have to have trucks pick up and go store in a mountain and all that. With Virtual Tape Gateway, what we can do is all of our gateways install either as a software package on-prem or as an appliance, hardware appliance, but we put the Tape Gateway on-prem and the customer's able to back up their tapes to us and we look like a tape drive, a virtual tape drive. So what we're doing is we're allowing the customer to basically digitize in the cloud all of their legacy tapes and this I think is a huge industry and we've got some great customers or one would be Formula One. They've used Virtual Tape Gateway to basically could reduce their recovery time from five days down to one. So big impact there. The next gateway is our file gateway and what our file gateway does, again, sits on-prem, either as a software package or as a hardware appliance and the file gateway exposes both an SMB share for Microsoft traffic and then an NFS share for your NFS traffic and basically what we do is we front end S3 with this gateway and so the gateway caches. So your active workflow gets really great performance but you can move your inactive data to the cloud in S3 where you've got durable storage. It's over multiple regions. You can run all of our analytics on that data as well. A good example there would be Moderna, the company work on the COVID vaccine. They used storage gateway, the file version, to move their instrumentation and scientific data into the cloud where once it's up in S3, we've got a really robust set of tools that allow them to do analytics on it. And then finally, but not least, our last announcement was something called FSX Gateway and FSX is kind of a cool product. So we offer FSX as a Windows file system or file share in the cloud. The gateway basically acts as a cache to that so a customer can put our FSX gateway on-prem in lieu of like a server of some sort and we'll cache all the traffic for that active workflow again and then push their inactive data back to the FSX file system in the cloud. Cool, a lot of ways to get data into the cloud. A lot of compatibility issues, so excellent, thank you for that, Mark. Sid, we know about snowball, snow cone, snowmobile, all the snows. Where does that fit in? Yeah, so let me talk about the AWS edge first. The broader edge spectrum of AWS spans, many things from snow to outpost to IoT, where there's a lot of data being created at the edge. Within this edge spectrum, there is the rugged mobile edge, which is where Snow plays, right? So Snow's purpose is really to capture, transform and optionally move the data from rugged edge to AWS, right? And in our portfolio, we have different devices. So let me start with the snow cone device we announced last year in 2020. Snow cone is a small tissue box size device. It is portable, it's highly mobile, portable, rugged. It can capture data from rugged sensory endpoints and industrial equipment and once we capture the data, you can process the data locally right there. And then if you have to send the data back to AWS, you can ship the device back or use data sync to transfer the data back at AWS. Now, if you have higher compute needs, where you have what we call the core edge, where it's not portable, but you need to kind of process there, we have the Snowball Edge device. That can be single node or multi node Snowball Edge devices in groups of clusters for storage, edge storage, edge compute. There you can process like large scale data capture and transform it right there with machine learning or other data management and analytics right there for real time and AI based edge local decisions. So I'll give you a couple of examples in each category. So for Snow cone, for example, we are partnering with Facebook to deliver private LTE based networks for remote and rural areas where the connectivity is not yet there, right? So we are serving those communities in partnership with Facebook to deliver private LTE networks. The second example I'll give you is with the Snowball Edge device with multiple nodes. US Air Force recently demonstrated their ABMS system which is the advanced battle management system where they can do like a lot of data capture and local simulation with AI and ML on containers right on the Snowball Edge devices. So those are two examples of how we're doing edge local processing and capture. Well, I think you guys got it right. You got a lot of ways to get data on, the on ramps into the cloud. I'm particularly struck by your edge, we didn't get into the edge strategy, but the idea of processing locally, bringing machine learning, because the future we think anyway is AI inference and where the data lives.  Exactly. I'll give you guys the last word. Last word? Well, I would just say, our FSX gateway is a relatively new announcement. It's got some really cool applications for high performance Microsoft applications, but also for remote offices that want to share files. Great. Well guys, Mark said, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE. Thank you. Sharing the insights and the data, I really appreciate it. Okay, thank you for watching. This is theCUBE's coverage of AWS Storage Day. Keep it right there.


So if you recall, density, z, molar mass times s cubed and a, Apagodra's number. So Apagodra's number is 0.02 times 10 to the 23rd per mole. z we've got, s we've got, and the molar mass of silver. How do we find that? We look up at the periodic table. We'll say 107.9. Is everybody OK with those things? Remember, this will be given. So honestly, you don't need to know the radius to do this problem, even though that's usually the problem that's given right before. So z for face centered is 4. So if you recall, when we do the conversion to 107 times 10 to the negative 8 centimeters, that's something you want to get into your head just to do that. And remember, I think I've done that conversion on a couple of these days. So centimeters or grams per centimeter. Now let's just check it out. So do that. Big digs, 10.6 grams of the face centered packing silver. Hey, did anybody have any questions on this one? Good job, guys.


Hey, good afternoon, the Senate government operations committee is Wednesday, April 7. So we were going to move on to discussion about the agency of public safety. I'm willing to let Jeanette take the lead on that, obviously. I wonder, Gail, are the folks here. I'm admitting them right now. And I did post that document that you referred to earlier, Senator Polina, that's on our website now and I just posted a link to it on chat. Oh, dear. If it's on chat, we can't pull it up. Because you can't, I can't see people and do that. You don't have to do it on chat. Oh, it's on, it's on our website. Right. Okay, got it. I can forward that to anyone who needs a copy. Well, if it's on our website, which was the document you just did. It's the letter for Mr. Sorrell. Oh, from Jacob Humbert. Yes. Yeah. Okay, great. So that was hard. That was sent on Monday, if anybody needs to check email for it. So before we start, I guess I need to ask a procedural question here is since this is an S bill, we're going to have to have permission to from the Rules Committee to bring it out and I think they'll, if we bring it out that they will give us that permission. But my question is, is this likely to end up being a committee bill? Does everybody is everybody. Or should I just ask for it to be drafted in my name so that we can get going on it and have actually, so we make sure we don't lose the opportunity. I'm not ready to be a co-sponsor so. Okay, then, Cameron, I'm going to ask you if you will just put this in my name and send it to whoever needs to be sent to and give it a number. I'll do that. Okay, thanks. And as we get farther along, we may all buy into it or not, but at least there'll it'll be in the works. Yeah, that would be great. It can evolve into a committee bill. Well, no, it will all how it is introduced is not is is not always how it ends up. Is it. If it is introduced as S 224, that's what it will always be. Right. It won't be a committee bill, but it may have the support of the committee, but it will not be a committee bill. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to, I was just, I woke up in the middle of the night. Last night, thinking about this.   I know what a dream life I had. But I have to tell you something very exciting before we start here. I had a real breakfast with a real person in a real place. Isn't that exciting. That is exciting. I had, I had home. I had coffee and muffins with the sheriff on the porch of the general store. How exciting. First time since last fall. That's really good. I just like normal. I know it's weird to be normal. Right. It felt weird to be normal. Yeah. All right. So I think the way what I'd like to do today is focus on the language that came from, because I think one of the real outstanding issues here is around the independence and autonomy of the council. And, and so what I'd like to do is start with the language that came from Mr. Humbert and Mr. Surrell around that. So, it's the best way to do this Amron for you to walk us through that. Those changes. Those suggestions. Or would you prefer having Mr. Surrell do it. It might be hard to view those changes outside of the context of the bill draft. Okay. So I'm, I'm thinking maybe we should, and it does, I believe, give some direction as to where in the bill draft. Those changes are so. Okay. We do have a draft posted. Okay. So I suggest committee members pull that up. And then we can view these changes one by one in the context of the draft. Okay. I would suggest that. Okay. That is, since you've been working on this that that sounds reasonable to me. Does that sound reasonable to everybody else to do it that way. All right. Yes, this is just 1.3 right. Yes. Okay. So we go back and we pull up 1.3. Great. Okay. Great. Thank you. For the record, and we're an average LA office of legislative council. Just as a preface for looking at this draft, the, as you may recall, the department of public safety came into this committee with a prior draft in a different format and did a walkthrough of that draft. I had taken that draft. Converted it into a more standard draft format, which is what you see now. Before you go, I continue. I'm going to Gail. I'm going out of the meeting on this device and going into it on another one. So I'm waiting in the waiting room here and I'm going to leave on this one. Okay. High tech. I know. Move. It's like a switch and bait. It's like, okay. So this draft is a updated version of the draft that you saw from commissioner Sherling. It is shortened I took out a lot of the references that are sort of technical changes changing commissioner to secretary department to agency throughout much of the statutes and instead of doing an iterative. Act timeline where you see what the, the statute would look at a different stages of the transition. I, the draft that you're looking at now would be the statutes, as of the completion of the transition, as of July 1 2022. And then in the effective date section, you'll see that we only add in the provisions. According to when their effective date should be, if that makes sense. So, after completing that draft. I ran the draft both by the Department of Public Safety, as well as Mr. Surrell in his office and Jacob Humbert, and they provided feedback. There was some discussion. And what we have here right now is language that people could tentatively agree was a good place to start, I would say is a good place of framing this. So, the feedback that you see here from Mr. Humber is somewhat incorporated into the draft you're going to see now, I will point out where it's incorporated and where it has not been incorporated. So to begin, we're going to scroll down to section two, which begins on page two, and then scroll down to section 6002. And you'll see that this is the comment was around three VSA 6003 to preserve the Criminal Justice Council independence. Chief Surrell proposes that the text read that the agency would and then you'll see that there's a line here so I'm scrolling down to subsection C. I'm sorry, this is on section 6003. I was going to say, I'm sorry. I've got too many screens going here. Six zero zero three section C online 17. Yes. So this change that was requested by chair Surrell has been incorporated into this language. And Madam chair, would you like me to stop with each requested change for background in discussion or would you like me to go through each of the requested changes, and then I think unless somebody has questions about them let's go through the changes and then have a discussion of them because I've already found a number of places here where I would change language but it's not substantive changes just language. I have concern, I already have a concern but I can wait until we're done. I don't think technical question for amour and not a resounding question. Yeah. Wait. Okay. All right. So the next provision. Let's see is on page five. Again under section 6003. You'll see at the top of page six, the secretary may exercise administrative powers and functions relating to and then there's a placeholder here. There was some, I would say discussion between Commissioner Sherling and chair Surrell about what would be the appropriate language here. I didn't see an easy place to put in compromising language or language that everyone was comfortable with so we have a placeholder here because I know this might be come with more discussion about where the parameters are around what's administrative and what is not administrative. So that change has not been incorporated. Moving down to sections 6054 subsection C. I'm going to find that 6054. Not right. I think it might be on page 10. Thank you. I was trying to do a word find and it was not working. 16 on page 10. Yeah, 6054. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Okay. And so the, this was with regard to subsection C on page 11. The comment from chair Surrell the criminal justice council wishes to retain the authority to appoint the executive director. And I did incorporate this change as you will see in subsection C one. And then the executive director shall not be under the direction and control of the appointing authority, except to the extent permitted pursuant to subsection 603 C of this chapter. And this subdivision to that I just read is with regard to the next comment. So change was that chair Surrell further request that this subsection C to reference executive director for consistency. And again, as the administrative reference could be subject to various interpretations cross reference to 603 C. And so I did put in that cross reference. And that again cross references up to what I read before where there's just a placeholder for outlining what is the difference between an administrative function and power and what is not administrative. So the next comment was on section 6054 B. This I think was really a wording. I'm trying to describe the comment. I agreed to that the way I had drafted it was perhaps confusing so I did make change the draft to be consistent with the request there. Moving down to comment number four. This looks like it doesn't have a reference. This must be the transition section, looking at section three on page 13 chair Surrell's position is that the Vermont criminal justice council financial assets and liabilities as well as its positions equipment supplies inventory should remain the criminal own further the rules should remain criminal justice council rules, meaning that the Vermont criminal justice council would retain its rulemaking authority. I did not incorporate those changes there was some. There was an agreement between Commissioner Sherling and chair Surrell about whether this was standard language, or whether this was an area where the criminal justice councils authority was being somehow moved or modified, and giving the secretary, more authority over the criminal justice council. Comment number five. Which is the general transition provision. This is down on page 15 section six chair Surrell wishes to express concerns that this transition section could undermine the council's independence. It sounded like there was specifically around the language authorizing directing the agency secretary to take any action necessary to enable the organizational modernization and consolidation of state law enforcement divisions and resources. This was again an area where the interested stakeholders did not agree on whether this was language that was providing more authority to the secretary of administration and diminishing the authority of the council. So I left it as is for further discussion in committee. Moving on to comment number six with regard to section 2355 Yeah, page 16 section seven. With regard to subsection C one. The council shall. This will not match what you see here because I did revise as requested to leave the language as it was which says the council shall appoint subject to the approval of the governor the executive director. Lastly comment seven. Also in section 2355, but subsection C to be the previous version said with the approval of the secretary and consultation with the council. Well, said that the criminal justice council wishes to retain its current independence to employ staff and contract for services without the approval of the secretary and requested that this the language currently in statute remain, and I have done so and remove for the modifications to leave the the statute as it is currently written in that section. And so that's section 2355 C to be and those are the changes that I made in response to these I apologize that was not the cleanest walk through of those sections. There was an interim draft that the committee did not see which these comments were in response to. That's, that's okay I'm, I'm going to, if Anthony, I'm going to run right now and I just printed this out. I'm going to run downstairs and pick up what I just printed. So if you would just entertain, if any, but he has drafting questions for Amron. Sure. Does anybody have questions for Amron. So these are all the questions that were written on questions right word but this all came off that memo that was sent to you. And then the other day that we saw that was multi page at memo.  The, all of the those items that were listed in what's posted for today. Right. Yes. So those are, I don't know if it would be helpful it's been a while since we got the walkthrough from Commissioner Sterling of the bill would it be helpful if I did a refresher on what the bill as a whole does and the timeline. Well, I mean, I have a question I think for, for bill about this language, but I don't know if that's appropriate now or people want to do a walkthrough bill again first. I think if it would be appropriate now we're talking about the language in the bill I take it. Yeah, and this these changes. Sure.  If you're doing an independent investigation into use of force. Do you see any problems with having this larger agents in your independence with having this larger agency provide the administrative and operational support to you in conducting that independent investigation. Can I can I just before I'm sorry I was going to interrupt before you start because part of my question is, is that the case I mean that's what that's what we're seeing and that's what the language appears to say correct send it around. Right, even if it says instead of it previously it looks like the it said the agency part of the agency's role is to conduct these investigations, I appreciate the clarification that's presented here which is that the independent investigation would still be separate from the agency in the hands of the CJC. But I still am curious if, if the CJC could truly conduct an independent investigation in all contexts, if they are getting their administrative and operational support for that independent investigation from the agency. Bill, do you want to comment on that. I'll try but first I, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage because I either don't know or don't have the technology to be seeing the, the language of the drafts that you're seeing so I've written some notes down, but I'm flying blind a little bit here. I would feel much more comfortable if I had a second screen that had the draft on it that I could, I could see so with that qualifier that I'm a little bit disarmed I guess. Thanks to Senator Rahm's question. It. I hate to play lawyer but it depends on what you mean by administrative support. I'm trying to figure out what that means as well which is why I'm uncomfortable with the language at this point and essentially uncomfortable with the CJC being under that in a new agency. I guess my overarching question is, is there a way to be independent and be part of the agency. The if when we say administrative support. What we're talking about, for example, is the assistance in drafting contracts. We're talking about IT services. Things of grant applications and grant for received grants grant administration. That's what we construe to be. Administrative where it doesn't that the agency doesn't have authority to to engage in the substantive work of the council. That's where what's fundamentally important to us in terms of independence. And so, what we were trying to suggest it as long as the independence language is clearly defined and through legislative history, what you as the legislature means by the language, then we would be content that we wouldn't have the thumb of an agency of public safety for our substantive work on investigations on creation of policies on, you know, body worn cameras, access to military equipment, permission software, the, the entrance exam, any of the issues we get relating to the curriculum at the, at the county, excuse me at the, the training council, then you're at the police academy excuse me. We don't see that the agency just by assisting us with administrative details would be in a position to negatively impact our independence for the duties that were given under S 124. We see that there is a hybrid situation but we as executive interim executive director sheets is testified and I've testified we've agreed that there would be some benefits to the council and the operation of the academy. Certain of the administrative duties were afforded by the agency of an agency of public safety. The, the independence for example is that we want to be free to go in and testify before the legislature just as we've done multiple times this session in both the House and Senate gov abs committees and in the appropriations committees about in response to the governor's recommend we don't want to be run the risk of getting an angry call from someone in the cabinet saying you may not do this or that I mean, we won't live. We won't be able to function independently if, and we would lose credibility I think with what the legislators tried to do by the creation of the council, if, if we were restricted in that way so we, I trust the bill sheets and the Taylor patch and others who see some advantages for in certain respects, being under an agency umbrella. But as, but not as long as the substantive work of the council is negatively impacted. I was just going to finish that thought I mean I appreciate what you're saying bill on the other hand I thought when I saw administrative actions, I was thinking of making copies and stuff like that. Because you could argue that designing contracts and working on grand proposals could really raise red flags because you just by designing a grand proposal shapes part of what your activities are going to be so I'm just, I'm not, I'm not saying it's that being argumentative or I'm just saying it raises those kinds of questions. Well, good point, Senator, because I'm not thinking by saying being of assistance in writing a grant proposal that the secretary of the agency an agency of public safety would be in a position to say, No, you can't apply for that grant or you can't say this as a reason for supporting the reason for the grant that I don't see as administrative administrative I see is typing the proposal or figuring out, maybe what software we might need to enhance our computer system, but in terms of grants to apply for and what to say in support of receipt of such a grant. I, if, if you're concerned, if you're concerned that an agency of public safety could, could negatively impact that then that would not in my view be an administrative service that would be a decision making service on in the part on the part of the Secretary of Public Safety and I would strongly object to that so I think you and I are on the same page here. I think on this and I hope I'm not being, you know, giving away too much. I, I think that when you talked about grants I was thinking of grant administration, the real that real administrative part of a grant and the example I'm thinking of is the town of Brattleboro for example, has a grant to administrative unit grant manager, the library decides what grants they're going to apply for, and does all the content work, the grants manager can help them write the grant actually to get it in the form that they needed, and then they can do the grant administration that the reporting and the keeping of all the numbers and that kind of stuff, but the library actually decides what grants they're going to apply for the grants manager has no say in that whatsoever. So that's what I was thinking of when you said grants administration you're really talking about a grants management position. Yes, not, not the. Yeah, it just that we want to, if we get a grant in, and we want to make sure that we don't arise and cross these so that we are not violating any of the rules and regulations relating to use of grant funds and such. It's, but it wouldn't be that. So I think I'm agreeing with what you're saying is just, you know, not the agency wouldn't be in a position to say no you may not do that whatever is that you've got to, you've got to do it in this way, as opposed to the substantive issue of whether you can do the action. Right. I mean, is complicated. And if there is a grant administrator or grant manager in the agency, and you should be taking advantage of it. Because some, I mean, I mean, the police academy staff, I mean it's a small, it's a small staff and so some of the sort of duties that don't affect making decisions, you know, to be done within an agency constructively take, take some of the, some of the burden off the, the academy staff. So, can I ask a question about does on page five of the does the way it's to find shall retain and exercise all powers and functions given to the council by law including the power to develop training and training delivery methodology, administer legal standards conduct investigations and hearing adjudicate law enforcement officer conduct and issue and enforce orders is does that cover is that specific enough to, and, and then just the secretary may exercise administrative powers and functions and I would not use the word powers but change that language a little bit does that does that address it well enough or not. I think when you were away from switching screens or whatever senator I said that I was a little bit of a disadvantage and that I am not. I don't have the technology to be able to see the exact draft language what you just read. Right to me. I would feel a lot more comfortable if I had the draft language in front of me but I don't either I'm not skilled enough technologically or I don't, I don't have access to what you have right now. Can you go to our web page. Without losing your. I, I don't think so. Right. Well I couldn't. You know, maybe someone more technologically verse than I could tell me how to do it but I don't have it. I can't do it either I have to have another device to do it so. Okay. So, to me, I mean this is just as I'm listening to this it's, it's sort of like the council is in a co working space with the agency it shares administrative functions, which are co working space does we're all familiar with that model. Independent, it has its own authority, it has it's clear on its boundaries, and is is clear on its own authority and will act and continue to act in those capacities, but that it will take advantage of shared costs and burdens with, as you would in a co working space. Is that sort of a fair way to look at it I mean, I can envision it in this capacity. Is consistent what with how I see it working that. Yeah, that, that's a good analogy. But I mean, the, the council could be investigating someone in their co working space. I feel like. But, but, I, okay. I think that's the case, but I, they may. That doesn't bother me. I mean they, yeah, it doesn't mean they couldn't do it. I don't see that that would be a problem. I mean, I think we have to give some some. Either we don't either we let the whole Academy and the council be completely separate from the agency, or we allow them to get some benefit out of the fact that they can get some administrative support. But if we don't put them someplace else, then we're going to have to provide them more resources for before their administrative support. I mean one of the things that I had wondered about when we looked at where to place the Academy. It would be at some place like BTC. But that wasn't, that wasn't an option, but that would have been that would have put it under the auspices of an educational institution but they still wouldn't have been completely separate I guess I, I don't see an issue with. I would change on page six, the on the top where it says the secretary will exercise administrative power and functions relating to and then Amron put in that placeholder. I would change that language to the secretary will provide administrative support and functions. Instead of saying administrative power, which makes it sound so you're just providing administrative support. Right, and that I think that would clarify that that co working aspect of it and any power and authority, the Criminal Justice Council has retains and we're not talking about power we're talking about administrative function. I think that's a good sharing, which I think is good. We could also put in, and we could review how this is working. I mean, although anybody can raise their hand at any point and say this isn't working for us. And we do feel too much pressure to not do something or we could put in a review and see how it's working in three years. I think we could add develop policies under their ability under the Council's powers develop policies. Make it very clear. I think the question is, does, does this create a perception issue with the council supposed to be conducting independent investigation is there a perception that there is that this is no longer independent. And that causes a lot of problems for how we what why it matters to actually have independent investigation. I would much rather I what I feel like is happening is the language says, you know, the, the Council, I think we should start with the Council is completely independent. And only received such and such very limited scope of services. But I think we need to really spell out the independence first and not just sort of consider that an unspoken reality. I think that is the critical centerpiece of this. Yes, turn it on a tad in a way and start with it being an independent body that is housed and and shares administrative functions with the agency. In fact, in some ways it should have authority over the agency in certain ways as it conducts investigations it should not be not administrative support it's the ability to access the resources and the personnel support it needs to conduct an independent investigation. I very much like affirmative statements that are clear. And I think the idea of starting with that premise of independence makes a stronger statement than than otherwise treating it as an exception, if you will.  Does that mean he's wanting to pay something. I turned it on just because but I would observe I like the approach of declaring independence to use old terminology and working from there to make it clear what the intent is. I would, I just want to also flag that we keep talking about oversight over the the agency of public safety. It's really oversight over the, what would be the department of law enforcement the agency of public safety is a much larger construct. And that is in part why we thought that bringing the operations of the Academy and administrative support to the criminal justice council does make sense and does create the requisite distance from law enforcement operations because the agency is much more than a law enforcement organization it has a component or would have components of law enforcement in it, but is designed to do much more than that. I would also just offer that we often find ourselves in this rabbit hole of trying to create sort of workflows that don't take into account the need to hire and recruit the right people and what I mean by that is all kinds of bad things can happen if you appoint a secretary or commissioner of public safety that is the wrong person. The one of the important pieces here is to try to elevate this work, all of this work to include the operations of the Academy to a cabinet level so that there is direct oversight by an elected governor and that there is, you know, there's a, there are political small P ramifications to doing the wrong things making the wrong appointments so I just wanted to add a little context to this. So, I, I have a suggestion and I don't know if this makes any sense to anybody, but instead of 6003 being talking about advisory capacity and talking about, and then carving out an exemption for the council, let's, what if we put in a separate section for the council itself. So we had 66003 was declaring the independence of the council and putting in there, what is in see there that what what they have authority over, and then making it clear that the agency has administrative support can provide administrative support and then have the section on the other advisory boards, as is in a and B. So then that that's making that definitive statement. This, this is a different animal this is not the same as those others and making it very clear. One other observation madam chair that I was in my notes and I neglected to mention, and I'd say this for awareness more than anything. One of the reasons that this was put forth originally in that construct that it was was unfortunately there have been historic instances some of the not too distant past where personnel action within the Academy has been necessary, and there have been significant challenges to a council that are not state employees not embedded in the system, and often without the requisite personnel management skills. And that is an exception right now with chair sir element in the chair. But one of the reasons that we had this a little more closely bolted to the operations of the agency was to obviate those prior challenges and we even faced those challenges recently with the, the processes to hire executive director they require resources that don't exist within the existing construct of the Academy or the Council, and to that end, the Department of Public Safety provided significant administrative support to that process. Well, I see that clearly as administrative support. If you have an HR person that can help make sure you follow all the guidelines and everything for hiring processes and stuff I, I clearly see that as administrative support. It gets a little more complicated when you have someone a state employee who's in trouble for something, which unfortunately has happened, and then they're the appointing authority is an amorphous council versus an actual appointing authority which is an individual. So, again, I just flag that as a potential challenge. It's not a reason not to proceed in the way that you're contemplating but it, it creates the possibility of issues down the road. So isn't the executive director higher. The people in the executive director of the Academy not of the council executive, the council hires that the executive director but the executive director hires the other personnel. And so they are not really the, the hierarchy, the two directors of administrative services, and of the instruction. So those really. I mean the executive director is key in that but it's the. Let's just say the council was very active in the interviews and the hiring the decision to hire the, the new director of administrative services. And I think we had some language there that made sure of the underscoring the independence of the council in that in that the secretary of public safety would not be making the decision of who should be in the hierarchy of the Academy. That's not what we envision. Yeah, I would just offer what I was originally envisioning and I'm not sure it was. It was as clear in prior drafts was that a partnership between the secretary and the council where the council retains oversight of things until or unless they need to hand something to the secretary like a personnel action against an executive director for example. I'm trying to do that with a council of, you know, X number of people is a bit of a nightmare. That's, that's why we have appointing authorities and state government so you're not doing it by committee. But again, it you there you can do it that way I'm just pointing out that what the original concept was in terms of the shared duties and just offer that as an option. So, so I see, I'm trying to think here in terms of the town of Brattleboro, the town manager is the person that hires the, the police chief. But there's a committee that does the interviewing and all that and recommends to the town manager who to hire. The town manager actually hires the person. And so I guess I don't see what the issue is here. So somebody help me out I don't see what the issue is here that the council would recommend would do the interviewing, but the executive director actually does the ultimate interview and signing the contracts and all that am I wrong about that somebody has to do that. I think you're right. I think it's where the where we draw the line between like the training staff, for example, the people that work for me, the council isn't typically involved in that. Right, the process but I think more to the commissioners point of who is involved with issues that occur at the level of executive director. Yeah, well I would think that if it was an issue of the executive director that the council would have to work with the, with the secretary to figure that one out if it's the executive directors. If it's the secretary that's being under investigation somehow governor is going to take care of that. If it was a misconstruct senator the council would retain all of that authority, which again is one way to go, but just operationally I don't want to bring you too far in the weeds. Imagine there's an allegation of misconduct against an executive director that requires swift action, you've got a call a meeting to present what's going on, take a vote to have a body take it personnel action. At the same time, to Senator Rahm's point, we're not trying to create something where the requisite oversight that the council has relative to certification investigations etc is in any way circumvented so it's trying to we were trying to strike a balance. This has gone in a further in the other direction from what we had presented, and again, you can do it that way. I'm just pointing out the potential pitfalls. It's, it's not. Yeah, we hope that those kinds of things don't happen so again we're talking about. This isn't something that's going to happen every other month it's, it's a rarity and hopefully we'd never have to deal with it. I just think that if, if you had an executive director that somehow went off the rails, and you had to do something right away that was for cause that the, the, what's your title bill. I'm the chair of the chair that the chair could immediately just relieve the person of their duties until, until you could take action I can't imagine that if, if it was something that was so egregious against the executive director. That the chair wouldn't just say, you're suspended for a time being, and, and then, and then take action, but I agree with you I wouldn't wait to get 24, the quorum of the council together in the middle of the night. To take that kind of action. And you must have a personnel committee that can it could address it without having the whole council, but I would anyway. Just keep in mind, and I'm not being argumentative I just want to point this out. The current chair has as much go state government experience as any person in Vermont, and that is not always going to be the case. Right. That is true, but there are legislators who have no experience and we're actually making legislation so. I just mean relative to an immediate decision versus someone who might defer to a council it's again it's a rarity. And I just offer that as one example of why we, we propose what we proposed previously. Okay, well, what did you think of the my idea of putting a whole separate section in there that specifically address the council and its independence and its duties and the administrative support to make it clear. Clear and positive instead of an exemption. If that was directed at me I am in favor of that center. It was directed at anybody who cares. I like the idea. I would, I would really like to see it say something about none of this support shall in any way delay or in or circumvent or, you know, get in the way of an independent investigation. Well, it isn't just an investigation I think that we need to be clear that we're not talking about just investigations here. We're talking about policies training curriculum, we're talking about all of that so I would hate to focus in just on investigations and one role of the council, and we want to maintain the council's independence in terms of curriculum and policy development, and the training delivery methodology, all of that. I think that we make it clear that the administrative support does not interfere with the core functions of the of the council which is those things that are outlined here including investigations and hearings and adjudication of law enforcement officers. Yeah, I think it would be great to have it separate although the language is pretty clear that the following units on page whatever it is page four. It does say the following units are attached to the agency for administrative support. Only I mean doesn't say for anything else but I think it would be clearer if the council had its own. Its own section, because the others, I believe, Commissioner the others will be viewed as divisions of the agency right. That's correct component. Some of them are components within divisions but. But yes, I think of them as being divisions like the division of fire safety or fire service training or so I get away it would be clearer to have a separate section on that. If I can back up a minute I did not mean to take it out of the of sick of 6002. I didn't mean to take it out of there at all because that clearly says, these are attached for administrative support what I meant is to have a new section. And then there are three that's under advisory capacity that clearly identifies the council as an independent authority and and clearly says it and then gives these responsibilities and says that it will get administrative support without interfering with the core functions, and I think we have section, the section there that says except as otherwise provided and not and be and be. So you're just removing see and putting it in its own separate thing but you're not removing it from the list above. I would support that. I think that's good. I think that's a good start. Thank you manager. Yeah, I agree. If you took what's now numbered as 6003 and took the exact same language from line 17 through. Yeah, line two on the next page and made that its own separate 6003 and then took what is now a and B and renumbered those to be 6004. I think you've accomplished what you want to do. That's that's exactly what I would have done it and then just made be a beginning statement a little stronger. So you said it much better than I did. Thank you. I'm not sure I did but you're welcome. All right, so. Are there other. There were there other issues here where there was. Cameron there were a couple other places where there were some. I'm not not agreement. Yes. I'm not sure. Would you bring us to those. While she's looking for those Gail has her hand up. I'm not sure. Oh, Gail, I'm sorry. Hi, chair white. The HGO is expecting you in about five minutes. Oh, okay. Cameron is going to that same meeting as well. I think mine's been pushed to about 330. I think Tucker is going to the one I'm going to. Okay. Okay. Yes. So the. There was the. Section that we've discussed the six zero zero three subsection C where I had the placeholder, which we've just discussed. Then there was. This was this is transition. This is the transition section. I believe it's section three. Of the bill. I think it's down. A ways. I think it's on page 13. Is that it? Provisions for the transition. Yes. Yes. And the concern. About the concern was about. Subsections a B and D. Subsections. Equipment supplies inventory should remain the justice councils. And the rules should remain council rules. And the justice council would retain its rulemaking authority. We've lost our chair. She's gone to house. No, I thought she had actually already left. She has left. Well, those, the words, I mean, I guess I would ask people to comment on why. No, I mean, I think they're not going to be willing to do that. We're going to be willing to do that. We're going to be willing to do that. We're going to be willing to do that. We're going to be willing to do that. But I don't think it's over the years. If the council is going to be giving over everything, it's appropriations and equipment supplies, et cetera, to the agency public safety. Is that related all to them being independent or not? What would be the results of doing that? The wording that's in the bill is came from who? Yeah, Emron. That came from the department of public safety. the E-911 board, the enforcement officers, all of those, it's the same language for all of those transfers. So the question is whether it's appropriate to have that same language with the council, with the other entities. Commissioner Sherling, I presume you would speak in favor of that. Thanks Senator. The original goal here was to infuse more resources into the operations of the academy by sharing resources. Obviously the Department of Public Safety has vast resources above and beyond the small operations of the police academy. So that was the original intent. I'm not clear from my discussions with folks to what extent the council actually has any assets. I think many of the assets are, like facilities are BGSs, I don't know what else there is. So I'm not sure how this, I just don't fully understand how this is perceived as being problematic. At the same time, there's no significant advantage to the agency or the department to absorb assets and liabilities of someone else. So it doesn't make that much difference. But again, the goal was to try to be helpful by providing more resources. Could you tell me, I'm sorry, Senator Clarkson? Their chief asset seems to be Bill Surrell. Agreed. And the staff. See it says there would be, it says all authorized positions. Yeah. I wonder what that means. Does Bill go to work for this agency now? All authorized positions. B. I believe that is just standard language around state government consolidations. So in the position head count that you see when we present budgets, you'd see the dozen or so academy employees within the agency construct. But that, this does beg the question if we're gonna keep it as an independent and we're gonna set up the section that identifies it as an independent council, then wouldn't the only letter here that really applies is C, which is the CJC will have the administrative, technical and legal assistance of the agency of public safety. It keeps its rulemaking authority. It keeps its assets and liabilities and it keeps its staff. Yes.   Is that what this is trying to clarify? Or. Yes. I'm looking for a good, within the agency of public safety, excuse me, of commerce, for example, we have a couple of different constructs where there's an independent council that has full authority over spending and programmatic delivery. But there are employees of the agency of commerce that are, they exist, Fred Kenny, for example, when he was with commerce, existed as a commerce employee, but reported to the economic progress council in his entirety. That's kind of what we anticipated with that kind of relationship that we were trying to create relative to the executive director here is exactly what you see with Pepsi. Got it. So full administrative umbrella of pay, benefits, but reporting and independent reporting, independent authority, that just probably needs to be clearly outlined. It would be interesting to see what the language is around the Pepsi incorporation into ACCD. I mean. Yeah, I don't think it's this nuanced. We are in the weeds here trying to find our path. I think it would be interesting to see, I'm sorry, do you have your hand up? I just wanted to, the question of what our assets are came up and it would be our fleet vehicles, furniture, another related training equipment. The one thing that just, I mean, that makes sense, but the authorized positions is the nuance that is a little, seems a little not complicated, but questionable. But I hear what you're saying, Mr. Commissioner Sherling that it's relate to the Pepsi example was a good example. But I guess what I would do is I would just in my own mind leave a question mark here until we see the language that makes it clear that it's a separate entity, that the council's separate entity. And that having seen that later on, we might decide that this is okay. We might decide that we want to revisit this conversation a little bit about turning over all the positions to the council, to the HEC Public Safety. But for now, Amron, are there other, is there another section that we should be looking at? And may I say, Senator, I'm not sure about the legal assistance piece. We, the new position that thus far has made it in the budget in the house. And we're hoping that Senate appropriations goes along with it. Two new positions. One of them is a legal position. And I'm just raising a bit of a red flag about a we could ask for legal assistance, but you may not need it. May not need it. You also may want your own legal advisors. Well, that's what I'm trying to say. And so depending on what you're dealing with, I mean, you may not want to have it be public safety agencies legal authority. Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. Our massive legal team of two would not balk at not having additional responsibilities. Senator, you look at, you have a comment there, Cindy, I don't know if you had your hand up. Just agreeing. With which? With Chair Sorrell. So then that's another reason to leave this with a question mark until we get more clear about how the independence will be stated. But I think the legal assistance and the authorized positions are two things we might just want to revisit. Where do we go from here, Amran? Down to section six on page 15. This is the section about transition generally. There was a concern about the phrase that the agency secretary may take any action necessary to enable the organizational modernization and consolidation of state law enforcement divisions and resources. So this would give the secretary of public safety the ability to basically do things, make changes that are made in the name of modernization, but have the power to do that without necessarily having to have it be approved by the council or anyone else. Is that what? I would observe, Senator, that I think if you're going to move the criminal justice council on the academy to its own section, you can probably obviate the impact of this piece by doing that. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah. Is there other sections, Amran? So other particular questions, those are the sections that we need to revisit that where there was disagreement, I guess I'd call it, controversy, lack of agreement. Lack of agreement. So far, we're getting there. But I wonder whether there's other comments or questions around any of these sections or about where we are in general in terms of where we stand with the bill. And Amran, you'd be able to take what you have to come up with something around the independence issue. Yes, for the, yes. Mr. Schirling, are you okay with this so far? Yes, I believe so. Just observe that, I think we're largely aligned if not entirely aligned with where Chair Sorrell wants to go in terms of the independence. It's just threading the needle to make it all make sense. And not water it down so far that there's just no benefit to having the operations, the academy attached to the agency. Sure. Bill Sorrell, you okay with this right now? Yes, thanks to the committee for this today. Any other comments? And of Mark Anderson's here, other folks who haven't spoken of any ideas or any comments? Thank you, Senator. I think that I'm pretty comfortable with everyone's comments so far. John, you're comfortable? I can't find the raise hand feature, but in listening to, and maybe perhaps I should just say for the record, John Federico, Department of Motor Vehicles and the VSEA rep to the Ramon Criminal Justice Council. I think I agree that there's a threading the needle piece of this. The important piece, which from my perspective is just to make sure that the executive director of the academy just has to remain not beholden to two different groups. So it's my belief that the executive director of the academy has to be beholden just to the council if that's the way you intend it. And the language just has to, you have to just assure yourselves that the language is such that they're not beholden to two different people. Therefore the direct reports I think to the executive director would therefore be beholden to two different groups. And they'd be potentially in certain circumstances rolling in different directions. And there's a number of imaginative scenarios that we can all come up with. But that's the most important piece for me is that the language protects the direction that the executive director has to row. And if that's to maintain the direction of the council without having to be beholden to anybody else, I think that's the important piece for me from my perspective. It was well said. I appreciate that. Tony Fakas, Fakas. Tony Fakas, Director of Enforcement and Safety from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Yeah, John, that was a really important, I think way to encapsulate it. And I'm fine with exactly where this seems to be headed in terms of the academy and the train count, criminal justice council, excuse me. And again, we're supportive of this piece of legislation to create this agency. And you're okay with the move towards more independent statement, is okay with you? Yeah, I think it accomplishes, provides crafted appropriately. What's so important is the public has to really believe and trust what we're doing at the highest level. And I think it will all flow from there. Again, trust and legitimacy, as we know, is just the cornerstone of law enforcement. And if anybody, any group entity feels doesn't franchise from that or feels that it's just change can't happen or accountability can't occur in an appropriate way, then it's doomed to fail. Sure. I can't see everybody who's here. So I don't know if anybody else needs to speak or make comment before we adjourn. I've asked everybody that I see. John, did you have your hand up? I just wanted to, I didn't of course know what all the chair wanted to cover in this particular hearing and one of the reasons of course that I came in case there was the opportunity or the need to speak on the Department of Law Enforcement piece of the bill. But if that wasn't for today, then I will certainly hold and come back at another time. Well, we're certainly gonna come back to this. I don't know when it's up to the chair. So when we schedule this next week or the week after, but we are committed to moving it out one way or another in time to give it crossover to the other chamber. So I think what we would do is task hammering with coming up with some language around the independence issue. And then we'll come together and revisit the whole bill again and give us better direction as to how we handle those other pieces that we left hanging around the movement of the personnel and the legal assistance, those issues. We'll deal with those next time we'll have closer to consensus on that. Anthony, our chair has returned. And I'm just curious, because it's only 315.  At 330, we're supposed to talk with people about ARPA funds. Oh, right. Drew Hazelton, Gwen Sackoff, Peter Gregory. Got it, right. We have a change of topics in 330. So I was gonna suggest that we take a little stretch between now and 330, if that's okay. And then come back and sort of finish. So we'll be finished with what we're talking about now. We come back from a little stretch, we'll be able to sit down and talk about the ARPA funds. Come. Anthony, Senator Polina, you are much more humane than I am. He is. And we're preaching. This is true. I think I did tell really a message to John Federico that if we had time today, we would look at that. But I think that it took us longer with the independence language than had anticipated. So I'm going to try to put this on the schedule for next Tuesday. Okay. And do you think, Amaran, that by Tuesday we might have a bill? I mean, have an assigned number and can go from there? I would need to check. Okay. But we can use your draft anyway and you can be changing language in it. Yes. Okay. All right. So a bit of due to those of you who are here to talk about the agency of public safety. Thank you very much. Removing that Tuesday if possible. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.  I know what it's like. Will I take us offline then? And we reconvene after a break? I believe so, yes. 10 minutes. 10 minutes? Okay. Wouldn't that be about 3.30? Sure. Well, yeah. It's like 13 minutes.


Hello, this is David D. Guernandez, and you're watching Spirit Church on the Encounter TV Network. All of us face seasons of loneliness. Seasons where we feel distant from God, from other people. You may be in a season right now where you feel like nobody understands what you're facing. But I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit, who is your faithful friend. And once you become aware of this friendship, then you will never again know that sense of loneliness. Never again will you feel that distance where you will be aware of the person of the Holy Spirit. But first, Steve Amok Tizuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some very anointed worship. And then we're getting right into that message. Here is Steve Amok Tizuma. I'm wasting every care on you. I have carried them enough. We're not alone. Here within is love. Amen. He is still with us. We're not here within. Amen. He is still with us. He is with us now. Mercy is falling, falling. Lift up your hands, receive it now. Here in the presence of the... Mercy is falling, falling. Lift up your hands, receive. Here in the presence of... Perhaps you're in a season right now where nothing makes sense. Perhaps you feel distant from God and from people. And you feel like nobody understands what you're going through.  Maybe you're in a ministry right now and you're not seeing the fruit that you want to see. Whether it be strain in a relationship or weight in your emotions or what you perceive as failure and something that you want to succeed in. All of us face seasons where we feel alone, misunderstood, like we're outcast, not accepted, like we don't quite fit anywhere. The good news is this. I know someone that loves you, that is faithful to you, that will never betray you, that you can always trust. That is the Holy Spirit, the most faithful of any friend that you will ever have. He understands you, he sees what you're going through right now, he senses what you're going through right now as a matter of fact. Now you may feel that cynicism, you may feel that doubt, you may feel that coldness coming over your heart or that questioning in your mind. And you're wondering when is this season going to end? When are you going to finally come into a place where you're no longer troubled by that sense, that overwhelming sense of loneliness, that weight of heaviness that comes on you? Well, I want to show you a portion of Scripture which is one of my favorites and it's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse number 10. The Scripture says, But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit, for His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And we have received God's spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given to us. In other words, the Holy Spirit searches out the depths of God and reveals them to your spirit, that's deep calling unto deep, that unending, unbreakable fellowship that takes place 24-7, whether you're aware of it or not. You are understood by the Holy Ghost.  But there are those that we really find that can really connect with us in ways that other people can't, and maybe you haven't found that. Maybe you're wondering where you fit into God's big plan, maybe your family is in discord, division.  Relationships can become strained, people can betray us, but the Holy Spirit will never forsake us. The Holy Spirit will never leave us. I'm going to show it to you from Scripture in John chapter 14, look at verse number 16. This is Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you. Verse 18, No, I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. The Holy Spirit abides with you. You never again have to sense the weight of loneliness. You never again have to question if anybody cares about you. You never again have to wonder if anybody truly understands you because the Holy Spirit cares about you. The Holy Spirit is with you and the Holy Spirit understands you. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 15, the Bible says, Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never.  But then in verse 16, he goes on to say, And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scripture says the two are united in one. But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. One spirit with him. This means I already have that perfect union with Christ. I'm already connected to the Holy Spirit. He's already that faithful friend who abides in me. And I can experience that friendship. I can enjoy that companionship wherever I go, whatever I do, 24-7. Whether you're driving to work or you're preparing a message for Sunday morning or you're at a family gathering where you feel disconnected because people are cold toward you. It doesn't matter who you're with. It doesn't matter what you're doing. You can involve the Holy Spirit right there where you are. And you do not have to know that sense of loneliness. Somebody needs to hear this. So I want to say this very clearly to you. I know this season has been rough. And I know you feel like nobody understands. I know you feel like nobody cares. But let me be very clear with you. You are not alone. You're never alone. You're never abandoned. The Holy Spirit is with you even now. He's in the room with you right now. He is looking at you right now. He is listening to you right now. He's real. He's present. He's close. He's tangible. Just become aware of that presence. Now you may feel that the Holy Spirit might abandon you in times where you make a mistake or maybe you are repeating a sinful error again and again and again. And you're becoming frustrated not just with yourself but with the whole situation. And you imagine that the Holy Spirit is also becoming frustrated with you. And perhaps you wonder is the Holy Spirit going to leave me? Have I finally made that last mistake that makes him say that's it. I'm done with you. I've given you enough chances. I want to remind you of this. Think of all that Jesus taught concerning patience and forgiveness. And then realize that God keeps to his own standards of mercy. If Jesus told us to forgive on multiple occasions, then don't you think he himself would forgive us on multiple occasions? This by no means is an encouragement to abuse the grace of God because a true believer will walk in true repentance with a true desire for holiness. What I am saying is that that faithful friend of yours, even when you aren't faithful to him, even when you make that mistake, even when you come to that place where you become frustrated with yourself, he doesn't leave you. It would make no sense for God to remove your power unto holiness just because you lack holiness. It doesn't make any sense. Instead, the Holy Spirit doesn't abandon us when we make mistakes. He leans into us. He remains with us. And he rescues us from ourselves. Galatians chapter five verse 16 says, So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. You are directed by the spirit. You are not under obligation to the law of Moses. In other words, the Holy Spirit is right there with you, fighting that fight, not just for your sanity, not just for your peace, not just for your joy, not just so that you can cry out Abba Father, for that's what he does also. He convinces us of our sonship. He convinces us that we're children of God, even when we don't feel like we are. And he causes us to be encouraged by what he does. This is what he does. When you become frustrated with that sinful nature, the Holy Spirit doesn't abandon you and say, you messed up one too many times. Instead, he draws near to you and says, I'm right here with you to fight that. I'm right here with you to help you walk back in holiness. You may feel lonely right now because you've made mistakes and you feel like God has abandoned you and you've crossed the line. Let me tell you something that's alive right now to tell you, to rebuke that lie, to get back up because the Holy Spirit has not abandoned you and he's remaining with you as a faithful friend to fight this battle with you. First John chapter one verse nine tells us that if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Think about what the scripture says there.  God has already paid the price for your sins.  Now, let me emphasize this again is by no means an encouragement to abuse the grace of God. I'm simply letting you know that the Holy Spirit is the truest of friends. The Holy Spirit is faithful. You may feel like you've gone too far. You may feel like nobody cares anymore. You might be in one of the loneliest seasons of your life yet, but I encourage you to know this. The Holy Spirit has not abandoned you. I know how we get. Sometimes we face things that are so dark, so depressing, so discouraging that we allow that to get into us. I've been there in seasons like that where we're cynicism, where we're anger, where we're doubt, we're worry and fear. All of it begins to grip your heart and you become entangled in yourself.  You become entangled in the lies of the enemy and you begin to distance yourself from people, not knowing who you can trust, not wanting to trust them. Your heart grows cold. Your head becomes suspicious, but that's when the Holy Spirit shows up. It's in those difficult places and I'm talking about real difficulty. I'm not talking about high school drama. They offended me. They looked at me wrong. Some of us just need to grow up, but I'm talking about real life issues, true darkness that comes against us, true trials that begin to cause us to waver and doubt. If we will just stay focused, if we will just stay connected to the Lord, then we will recognize that we have a faithful friend. That fellowship is unbreakable. That fellowship is unending. The Holy Spirit is with you. Stay in the fight. Stay encouraged. Get back up again. Get back to your pulpit again. Get back into your ministry again. Pick up that guitar again. Pick up that microphone again. Get back to doing what God has called you to do. Be who God has called you to be. You have the choice. This is one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given to humanity is the ability to choose who we will become.   You can get back in this thing. I want to say this to you to give you some superficial encouragement. This is supernatural empowerment. I'm talking about a person who wants to come alongside you and walk with you in this. Remember, he is faithful even when we are not. He's not going to leave you on the side.  You are not alone. The Holy Spirit is with you, a faithful and true friend. He's with you now. I want to pray that you would begin to sense the presence of the Holy Spirit.  I want to pray right now that his very presence would be made known in your heart. Father, in the name of Jesus I lift that one now receiving this prayer I ask you, Father, in the name of Jesus to allow the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to be sensed. Strengthen them, Lord. Holy Spirit, tap them on the shoulder and remind them that you're with them. We thank you that you're with us. Again, we offer this prayer in the name of Jesus and I want you to say it in the name of God. Say amen. Well, that is it for the lesson. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you'd like information on how you can join the Spirit family, go to DavidHernandezMinisteries.com Spirit Church. When you sign up, it's absolutely free. You'll get an email from me every single week with a brand new teaching from our ministry staff. So join the Spirit family today. Now over 10,000 members strong from nations all around the world. Now to your comments. These comments are from last week's teaching, the final harvest, revival in the last days. And if you'd like me to potentially read your comments next week, then go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section right now. And if you're watching on YouTube while you're at it, go ahead and subscribe and be sure to click that notification bell so that there are other ways to connect. So go ahead, connect with us in any way possible. Now these again are coming from the final harvest, revival in the last days. Olucci Ozone writes, this message has given me so much confidence in the word of God. It is what we really need to hear right now because the spirit of fear is gripping believers all over the world. Thanks for the message. Sunita James writes, praise the Lord Almighty, wonderful song and message.  Thank you for being an obedient and faithful servant of the Lord. God bless. Sarah Warren Berg writes, I'm still standing with you brothers and sisters in Christ. God is amazing and let us keep fighting for the word in Jesus's name. Much love and praise the Lord. I totally agree. We are in this together. This is not something that any one person can do. And this is where I want to talk to you. Don't turn off the video. I want to talk to you. It's not by accident you're watching this and it's not by accident you were even drawn to this in the first place. I believe God has connected us. Here's the reality. What we're doing as a ministry costs money. I don't want to charge for this media. Jesus said freely you receive now freely give. We're not charging for this content. I don't want to charge for our events. We're not charging for the ministry fees to come in and hear the word of God. That's just not how it works. The way it works is you sow the word of God freely and then God touches the hearts of the people to support the work. So the biblical way to do this is through free offerings. It's how Paul the Apostle did it. Paul the Apostle took offerings in the church. Jesus talked about money. If you disagree with this it's because you need to go back and read the scripture. This is biblical. Those who have a heart for the gospel never have any issue with an offering being taken because they recognize that it's going toward something. So let me just be real with you. God is in charge. He's the one who directed us to do what we're doing and he's been faithful to supply but God supplies through people. God supplies for the gospel through his church. In other words, in order to keep this video on the air or keep this video being produced these videos coming out in order to keep our events going and God needs to speak to you. Now, I've given my life to this thing. I'm not asking you to give your life to this thing.  But I'm asking my brothers and sisters to join hands with me. Together we can do more together than we could ever do apart.  The gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. So I'm asking you, become my partner today. Sign up to support this ministry for $30 or more a month when you sign up to support this ministry. Listen, you're helping to keep the content coming. You're helping to keep the events going. We don't charge for any of this so it's up to you, the viewer. It's up to you, the event attendee to keep this going by obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit and doing what he tells you to do. Sign up to be my partner for $30 or more a month and I will send you either carriers of the glory encountering the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare. I will sign that book, send it to you as my initiation gift just to say thank you for signing up to be my partner. If you also want to do a one-time gift that's absolutely helpful as well. So one-time gift card, my credit card, my bank account, you can donate stock, you can donate cryptocurrency, you can even give by Apple Pay Now all by going to DavidHernandezMinisteries.com do that today, help support the work of God and this video is being released toward the end of 2019. So as we approach the end of the year I'm asking many of you to consider investing your year end giving into this ministry around the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Well that is it for this edition of Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. Until next time remember nothing is impossible with God.