thing. On today, March 12, we welcome all of you. And we'd like to introduce any of you who are new to our Pac-Me 3 meeting this morning. Do we have any newcomers that have never been? And Sergeant Snyder, I'll introduce you. So yeah, there he is. He's stepping in for the captain today, our commander. He's not with us today, but Sergeant is. Okay, good. Yep. I think everybody's been here before. Thank you all for coming again. We need to review our minutes from February, which were attached to the registration materials you've got. And thank you all for registering. It's just a more safe way to post our Zoom meetings. Are there any corrections or additions to the February meeting minutes? Here we are. Thanks, Alexis. We thank our secretary, Rita, who does such a terrific job with these. If there's no corrections or additions, can I call for a motion of approval? Don't move. Thank you, Joyce. Joyce moves. Is there a second? Second. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Rita and Daryl, for a second motion. All in favor. You can raise your hand or say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? I don't see any opposition. Thank you. So the minutes have been approved. Thank you. We have a few items of business that we did want to cover first thing. We wanted to take a vote. How many of you all are ready to meet in person? That's the question. So the mass mandate has been dropped in Durham. Things are opening up. And our next meeting is April 9th. And let's just do, I've got all of you on my screen. So let's just raise our hands. How many would like to meet in person April 9th? I have a question for you. I know in the past we've met at Lyon Park. Is that the meeting place? That is not confirmed, but yes, that is where we meet. So Lyon Park as of now still has a mass mandate, just a building. So it may be lifted by April, but I just want to let you all know that they are still asking that people still wear masks in the common spaces. Great to know. They want to check with Desali the executive director first to make sure.  Good point. So we may be able to meet in person, but we might have to wear a mask. And certainly people would be encouraged if they felt more comfortable to wear a mask. So is there any discussion before we take that vote then? Let's talk about it. So otherwise we don't meet in May and we meet in June and that meeting would be the 11th of June. We don't meet in May historically because of the Mother's Day weekend and the graduation for local universities that weekend. It just was too much going on. So if we decide we want to try to meet in person, we have to make sure we can that the Lions Park Community Center is available to us, which we think it will be. Also the mask mandate. I don't know that we'll be able to do hybrid. Daryl and Alexis, what's your feeling on that? Will we be able to? We will. Okay. So those who can attend in person would have an option to meet by Zoom or we just wait till June. So those are the choices we have to make. Does anybody need any more information? Any thoughts? Until June. You think Joyce, we wait till June? And Noel, you're on mute, so I didn't hear what you said. I was thinking it might be better just to wait until June and then we can decide if we want to meet in person. Maybe not mask, no mask, all that stuff. Right. So we have two good points of view for waiting until June. Are we ready for the vote? All right. So all of those, how should I put it? I don't want to prejudice it. So how many of you would be willing to meet in person in April and then I'll count and then we'll count how many want to wait until June? That sounds fair enough. Thanks, everybody. A voice. Okay. So how many would like to resume that option of in person for April? And just raise your hand if you. Oh, okay. How many would like to just wait until June? Okay. So it looks like June wins. So we will do in Zoom again in April. Thank you very much. And we will get the ball rolling and get with Tazali about June. And I think we'll have a very clear picture by then of whether they'll need masks or not. Mindy. Yes. Hey. Hi, Jesse. Hi. I'm just trying to, so I live in Lion Park. I'm the vice chair of the neighborhood association and I'm literally, I can see the center from my bathroom. So I, all that to say, I do a lot of work with Tazali. So I just texted her and I was in the chat and she says that they are ready whenever, whenever we are here. So thank you. It's going to be hard to coordinate. When you're ready, just follow up with her. Yeah. That is great. And you know, Lion Park's neighbors have always been very supportive of the pack. So we're anxious to get those people back in person, namely this Umstead Hazelene. So, Jesse, we'll leave it to you to make sure she gets there in June. How's that? I'll do my best.  She'll be 80 seconds this year. So she makes special appearances. We value that. She's been a terrific pack, remember, over the years. Okay, super. So um, we are all set on that. I wanted to remind you that we are now doing these invites. So you have to register for our meeting. So please share that with your neighbors, neighborhoods. Like Noelle, you represent a neighborhood where you have different people come every month. So make sure they understand they have to accept the invitation and then register to get the Zoom link for the April meeting. Is there anything else on that, Alexis? My grandchildren tend to get in the way. I think a lot of people here with grandchildren get in the way. The main thing is there's two separate ones. So the Google group is the most important one because that's going to be our listserv. So we want to make sure that everyone actually accepts that it should have been sent to your email. And a lot of the times it goes to the spam email. So please check that and make sure that you click accept. And that will make sure that you're on the listserv. And then the second thing is that the Zoom meetings going forward will be a registration just to protect the meetings and also to help us keep who is coming into the meetings. And so those are the two separate things. The Google group, make sure that you're accepting the request. If not, please email PAC3 leadership team at gmail.com to make sure that you're on that. I have been sending an email out, but we would like to get to the point where you're just all on the listserv. So we'll just have to post it there. And then the separate one is just making sure that you're registering for the Zoom. Right. Thank you. Any questions on that, everyone? So how do I know if if I'm already in the Google list or not? Did you receive an email to accept the Google group? And if not, if you could just email PAC3 leadership team at gmail.com. And then I'll send you the request that you'll just have to accept. Okay. Thank you. And please share that, Han, with any other friends or other students. Okay, super. Yeah, we're trying to capture everyone once you all involved. So thanks, Alexis, for setting all that up for us. That's super. We also want to look at our expenditures and purchases for this year. So we as an organization as PAC3 and all the PACs get money from neighborhood improvement services, which is a department in the city. And we get to buy things that help promote our mission of solving issues of crime and partnering with the police to solve quality of life issues. So we've, the executive team has made a list of items that we'd like to purchase and we need your approval today. So let me present those in lieu of the fact we don't have a treasurer and we are, I'll make a little plug here. Anybody who wants to have a role in the PAC leadership team, we'd love to have someone be a treasurer and it's really straightforward. You don't have to raise money. That's the easiest thing in our organization. You get a lump sum.  So if we have anybody out there wanting to be treasurer, we'd love to have you join us. But anyway, what we looked at was actually some long-term items to help market the PAC3. So Officer Mock is going to many neighborhoods, talking to many of you in your neighborhoods. And we'd like to have a presence at any of these events where we could have a table and maybe a PAC3 representative there, one of our officers. So the things we're looking at sound pretty self-serving and they are, but they help us identify ourselves at neighborhood gatherings or any community events. So we need a tablecloth. We need the goodie bags like grocery bags to be able to put the handouts in for National Night Out, which will come up in August. And for when we return to our in-person meeting in June, we'd like each neighborhood representative to be able to take a grocery bag with PAC3 information on it with maybe some safety tips and with then some handouts and things we really want to get distributed are the postcards that are in Spanish and in English that have our PAC3 information on it. And the community crime map that we heard from our expert last month on the mapping, we want that included and Officer Mock is going to provide those for us. This city police department will print those up for us. We want to be sure to get that information out. So people have the resources, the tools to be able to check their own neighborhood and the criminal activity there. We'd also like to ask for a shirt, polo, or a t-shirt that says PAC3 on it for those of us who go to these events to be able to wear. So we might need four of those for Rita, our secretary, Daryl and I as your facilitators. And LaWanda, you wear your police officer uniform, right? So do we, we'd love to get you on if you think that's important. I think I'll be good just wearing the police polo. Okay, all right. And Alexis, should you have one as well? I'm good either way. I typically wear the neighborhood improvement services polo, but I can always switch it up and wear the PAC polo as well. Okay. All right, so we're asking for four of those. Let's put four, the number four on that one, two, three, four. And the other top item on the list, okay, so this identifying shirts, the tablecloth, so we can set up a stand whether when we do like the mobile substation and we, you know, Jennifer's out there with her victim services things and we get different organizations with different tables. We'd like to have a tablecloth and we'll use that also at the mine and car community center for every one of our meetings. So we don't know as of today how much money we actually have to spend. So we're waiting to try to get those numbers from the NIS. So we are hoping you'll give us a blanket approval for the grocery bags, the polo, the postcards, the tablecloth, and then one item we're hoping we can afford either a whistle, flashlight, gadget that we can hand out to people as a personal safety device. But those were the top items that the executive committee agreed on. So are there any questions, concerns about how we're spending the money? No, okay, so what I need then is a motion that we accept the expenditures as proposed with the limit being the amount of money in the budget that we don't have a number for. So we will limit our purchases to within that amount. Thank you. Let's just take care of this. I'm stumbling, thanks Noel. All right, so the motion's on the table. It's seconded. Does anyone else have any questions to worry? All right, all in favor of approving the expenditures? Raise your hand. All right, those of you thanking Nada for putting the checkmark in. Great. Jesse, are you in? Yeah, Carol. Oh, Carol, welcome. Terrific. All right, so we have some new people we're going to have to introduce. All right, great. So it has passed. The motion has passed. We'll give Alexis approval to make those purchases for us once we get that amount. And thank you all. That helps us as a group to identify ourselves. Super. So let's see. I have two minutes. So we have open positions. We are looking for two at-large members as well for our leadership team, our executive board for the PAC. So please think about it. Maybe I'll have to make some phone calls. There are a sense of emails to ask you personally if you'll be willing to just help us out in these positions. It's not a huge requirement. And then I'd like to give there's a couple of new faces that have just that have joined us. So Carol, I see you for one. Do you want to say hello and identify yourself? I'm Carol Gregg. I'm the pastor to the congregation at Duke Chapel. And I've come a couple of times before. Yes, sorry, another Carol. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, Carol Baldwin, a longtime member of PAC 3, and a very busy lady. So we're glad. Hello, Carol. Hi, everybody. Nice to be here. I'm Carol Baldwin. I live in Buck crossing out near South Point Mall. And I have been around for a while. Thank you for rejoining us, Carol. It's great to see you. Mark, I see Mark. Yep. Hi. I'm Mark Aldrich. I live in the Montclair area out by Barbie Chapel. Great. Yep. Super. Well, welcome. We appreciate you joining us today. So was there anyone else new that I missed? Okay, I think I recognize Latoya. You've been before, right? Where did Latoya go? She's got her hand up. Latoya, did you want to say something? Hi. Yes, I've joined before, but I just wanted to properly introduce myself. I live in the Lion Park area. Super. So thanks for having me. Well, great. Well, we hope to be in your hood back in June. So we'll look forward to meeting you back then. All right. Super. I think, Alexis, did I cover everything we needed to cover? Right on schedule. Alrighty. Well, it is my great pleasure then to introduce our guest speaker for today. And she is no stranger to District three. She was an officer in our district several many years ago. I guess you came to Durham in 19 or you lived in Durham, you grew up in Durham and you can fill in my gaps here, but in 1997, you joined the police force, I believe, worked in the Durham Police Department, in the heat unit, was a captain, and then went to Marsville to be chief, and was after a national search hired back to become our police chief here in Durham. So we extend our heartfelt welcome to you, chief, and we'll turn it over to you. And we have you down for 20 minutes. So I hope that works for you. Thank you, chief. Thank you. Thank you. It's so great to see some new faces and and and my my family of the past. And it's so good to see everyone. Thank you so much for having me on today. I've been trying to make my round. So I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get here, but I'm here. I will go through just very, very briefly, just some some questions that were asked. Obviously, I want this to be more of a dialogue and a conversation versus me just kind of throwing information at you. But as Mindy said, I am Patricia Andrews and I'm new ish to the Durham Police Department having served in 1997 until 2016 when I left to go to Morrisville. And then as luck would have it, good luck, good fortune was able to return. So I'm very happy to be here.  And, you know, certainly what we all want to address is obviously recruiting and retention. You all have heard about it a lot. You've seen the news stories about our staffing. You know, it's not anything that certainly isn't is new for Durham or any other agency across the country. You know, officers are leaving agencies for a number of reasons. You've heard a lot about, you know, the pay. Officers are leaving to go to other agencies, smaller agencies that are paying a lot more than what the midsize to large agencies are currently paying. We also have officers that are just saying, you know what, I'm done. I'm finished. You know, the past couple years of COVID and certainly the, you know, the really move for reform in the criminal justice system coupled by some really nasty rhetoric around law enforcement has really caused them to say, you know what, I just don't want to do this anymore. You know, I got into this career to help and I'm trying to help, but I just don't feel appreciated. So I'd rather take my 15 years and just leave. And, you know, for, you know, we kind of expect that of a newer generation of officers because what we understand from our new kids, they're different. They're, they're different for sure. And they're not married to any one profession. I'm a bit jealous sometimes because they, they really do reinvent themselves like that. And so, you know, that we see that with our, you know, two year folks, three year folks, but for a 15 year veteran, a 10 year veteran, someone who would traditionally be vested in an agency and in a retirement system to say, you know what, I'm done. That's significant. So we're really struggling, continue to struggle with that. And, you know, we're starting to make some, I do see some changes. I do see some more interest. I see officers that are currently here really having the desire to stay. You know, some of that had to do with the new pay plan that came out and was voted on by council. And then, you know, there is a part of it that is having to do with some of the internal low hanging fruit that changes that we are making and changes that we're making because we're listening to our officers and we're really asking them because that's my philosophy is that, you know, while, you know, we are, we are one team, we're one family. And if one person fails, we all fail. And so that's kind of the motto and really are, this is what the vision I'm pushing forward to our officers. I will tell you morale. So along with all of that is morale is rolled into that. So we're, we're trying to be innovative and doing some out of the box things, listening to a lot of input from our staff, whether it's developing new mentoring programs in CID, all the way to, you know, the reason why executive team, including lieutenants, captain, sergeants or lieutenants and captains and above are out riding the streets, right? That was all driven by uniform patrol officers. And then finally, you know, violent crime, certainly I can't name, you know, the goals and direction of our police department without talking about violent crime. Obviously, we want to see a reduction in violent crime, not just in certain parts of the city, but our entire city. It's very important though that we understand that, and you've heard me probably say this a time or two, we can't arrest our way out of crime, meaning we could arrest a lot of people. I certainly have tremendous staff that are able and capable of doing that. But we have to really look at what is causing the crime and criminality, right? So that we continue to work with our community based groups. We continue to strengthen our CIT program, you know, our community resources, our community partnership with community safety department. And so you all know that that's a relatively new venture here in the city of Durham, not without a little bit of drama focused around it. But what I will tell you is this is that it's a welcome addition, a welcome partnership that we have with, and I think you might have talked to a time or two with Ryan Smith with community safety. But we certainly are doing everything that we can from the police department side and with communications and fireside to ensure that this program is a success because we all do believe that police officers are tasked with jobs and responsibilities that are not in our wheelhouse, that we should never be doing. We can't, you know, enforce and then, you know, we're not social workers. And so, but we're asked to do that on a daily basis, right? So, you know, we're just we're looking forward to future partnerships with community safety department.  And what I will tell you, the Durham police department is complicated. It's much like a Facebook status. It's complicated, right? And it's an onion, right? So there's layers, there's so many layers. And, you know, I'll say this, that the Durham police department is not broken. We are not broken and disjointed. We are a collective group of officers that are committed to doing what's best, you know, by the community that we serve, also while making sure that our officers are whole, right? And they're mentally able to and physically able to do the work. And so those are the things that as I start to peel back the layers of the onions, we start to ask the questions of, you know, so why are we doing this? And is there another more innovative way of doing these things? Are we efficient? Are we as efficient now as we were five years ago or 10 years ago? Are we doing things just because, because it's the way we've always done them? I don't know how many of you have ever heard that. But, you know, I always tend to give a little bit of pushback when I hear, because it's the way we've always done it, which means oftentimes it's, we just would rather not change it right now, because that takes a little bit of a little bit of resourcefulness, which, you know, our staff very capable of doing. So we are coming up with internally some new initiatives. You know, and what I've told my staff is that really, you know, don't worry about something not going the way you thought it would go, right? Because oftentimes if it doesn't go well, that's an opportunity to learn, right? That's an opportunity to self-assess. That's an opportunity to, to go back to the drawing board. It's not a failure. It's not a final failure. It's an opportunity. And so when I'm asked to assess the Durham Police Department, I will say that you have a tremendous group of men and women that are committed to each one of you here on this call, and each one of our community members that aren't, as well as our visitors. We are committed to the city of Durham with, with everything that we have. There just needs to be some tweaking internally and we're getting there, right? So let's talk about our staffing to our vacancies. Right now, I will tell you that we are sitting at about 94 vacancies. And we've had some folks that have had to leave not of their own fruition, but because it is, they've, they could no longer be a Durham Police Department officer. We've had officers that have simply retired. They have chosen to get out of the profession and retire. We have had officers that have resigned to go and do other things. And we have a lot of retirements coming up. I think within the next year, we have probably 10 or 15 that I know of potentially that can retire, whether it's on age or time. And that is certainly one of the things that we always cringe because what that means is if we're, you know, we're officers are leaving, we've got to pull those officers into the agency. We've got to be able to make up the difference. And what has been happening as we've seen this trend across the country with officers leaving, they're leaving at a high rate, much higher than we're able to fill. Right. And so we're catching, we're trying to, we're constantly trying to play catch up to fill the positions. You know, our vacancies right now, we have, we have vacancies that are having to be supplemented on patrol. And that's where we're seeing the most of our vacancies is on uniform patrol. You know, and we're working really hard to come up with some innovative ways in order to fill, kind of fill in those cracks and gaps. One of the things that we've been doing is we've been using what's called Power BI and most of you are probably very familiar with that software. It's a godsend. Right. When you start to look at how it relates to policing and how, how do we allocate our resources? And so what we, we essentially do is we use Power BI to look at what districts are generally the busiest and then when are they busy? Right. And what types of calls are they going on? And so it helps us allocate our resources while relying on that data that tells us the story of where we need to put our officers when. And so that's been helpful as we have utilized supplemental patrol, as we've utilized, you know, kind of the all hands on deck model. But we know that that can't go on forever. So we're constantly looking at how do we utilize our, you know, our reserve officers. So right now we have reserve officers that are, that are working part time in a, in a number of capacities within the agency. We are potentially going to be bringing back officers as on a reserve status that we'll be filling in on uniform patrol, which is in the past something that we haven't really looked at. But now, you know, we are, and we're going to be again utilizing our reserve officers for our telephone response unit. So answering those calls that typically don't really require an officer to come and see you. So, you know, if it's a belated something that has happened, you've gotten home and something has been taken off of your back patio. Well, typically an officer would respond, that call would go to the telephone response unit. And what that does is it frees up an officer out there on the street by having an officer sitting here answering the call. And so that's what I can see has been extremely successful. We had it a long time ago, way back when, but it's been extremely successful. So more to come on that, happy to come back and really speak a little bit more as we, as we move forward in the year. So finally, I do want to talk to you and touch on some of the violent crime incidents that we have had. So towards the end of 2021, y'all should have known 2021 was not done with us. She had to go out with just a bang. And it was busy for us, right? We had some incidents at South Point Mall that was just, and for me as a police officer, still shocking. We had the shooting on Black Friday shooting out at South Point.  And our detectives were able to, despite all of the chaos focused around that, our detectives were able to make arrests on the individuals that were involved in that skirmish and the shooting. And so those cases are still going through the court system. I do not believe that they've been heard yet. So typically what's happening is because of COVID, and now the district attorney's office is trying to get back on like a regular schedule, you'll start to see the case processing go through a little bit quicker and quicker as we clear the backlog. But I can assure you, our detectives are following the case, as well as folks that have a vested interest in really knowing what's happening with those folks that were charged with the gun crime. So we did charge the victim with carrying of a concealed gun. So our philosophy is if you're carrying a gun and you're carrying it illegally and the actions that you take result in injury of someone else, then you will be charged. You will be charged. We have far too many guns out here for us to turn the other cheek and not charge folks appropriately. And so that is my direction to staff is that do your job, use your discretion. But here is my two cents about charging people with carrying of a concealed gun, especially in the time that we're in. I did a recent kind of field trip to our property and evidence and the amount of firearms that we have that resulted from seizures and seizing from crimes or homicides, what have you, is astounding. It's in the thousands that we have here, in the thousands, almost the tens of thousands. So clearly there is a problem with gun crime. And certainly we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can both on the enforcement side and the community outreach side and really talking to our kids and really getting back to basics with them in order to be a part of the solution to reducing gun crime in our city. And we are also to still investigating the home invasions that occurred recently in the early months of latter part of February, early month, days of March that involved our Duke students. And we know that this has been something that has occurred in years past. We do not know at this point if the people that are responsible for these recent incidents are connected with some other ones from years past. But we are looking at the connection as well. In the meantime, our community resource, community services unit, they have done a fantastic job with distributing flyers, making sure they're doing these pop-up events. I'm really spreading the word on, you know, about safety in general, right? And working well with those apartment complexes that have been most affected with getting the message out to our kids, our students, and making sure that they are protected. And also knowing too that and letting them know that they cannot let their guard down, that they also have to be vigilant. Duke has been incredibly helpful. They have actually started patrolling and they have also started patrolling with our folks. They have requested off-duty. So that is happening throughout the night. And we also are patrolling the area heavier now than we have been. So it's just finding that balance of making sure that we are giving everyone our services and our best while keeping our students safe as well.  Thank you so much, Chief. And I wanted to say that I sent her office a huge list of points I wanted her to cover. And you did an incredible job. But I must ask you, how can we support you, Chief, and budget-wise? What are you looking for in the new budget? We'll have the budget presentation next month by John Allure. And what is it that you need and want? Yeah. So right now, I'll tell you, we didn't make a lot of tremendous asks this year because we are still trying to figure out really what do we need, right? So I can tell you that our asks that we have made are all up for consideration in the budget. There are some software that we ask for that will help enhance our investigations on the electronic side. And so I don't see that would be a problem. As you know, we're going to be incorporating ShotSpotter in the budget conversation. So you all have probably been following that. And then there was a, we also made some requests for our latent print examiners. So that's in our forensic services.  So we've requested two more latent print examiners. So out of all of that, those are kind of the new requests. There are some ongoing requests that we made that we feel confident that that that will be increased in our budget. So and as far as that, the support continuing to advocate, right? I can say all the time, and I can stand on my ear and say how something is wrong or we need more of this and more of that. But really, it is you all that gets things done. And I'm looking at Mindy Square in particular because Mindy has done so much here in the city of Durham has asked some tough questions and I heard her doing it yesterday. So, but it's things like that that I know that you all do every day, continue to do that, continue to advocate for the answers to the really tough questions about what's happening in our city with gun crime. And what are we doing to support our communities that are most at need and are really most at need, particularly doing during this time, you know, the access continuing to advocate for access. So in doing that, you also support us, because when we can kind of figure those things out, we will see a reduction in the crime that's happening within the city. Thank you. You're welcome. Are there any other comments, questions from? She I know it's a lot, you heard a lot. She talked about a lot of things and you may have questions like what is latent fingerprints, that's fingerprints, latent prints. So if I can help explain, it's only taken me two decades to learn some of the lingo. So I understand, don't feel embarrassed if you don't know what she was talking about, because I yeah, it's a learning curve to understand law enforcement lingo. Any other thoughts? Thank you. I mean, we support you and you know, we're behind you. And if there's any way we can help you. And I'll tell you our community resource officer, Officer Mock is heroic.  I mean, we can always reach her. She's always a part of our leadership team for pack three. And it's, it's a real tribute to you and your, your staff that the people we interface with regularly are doing a heck of a job and trying so hard. So yeah, shout out to you and Chief, any other thoughts from? No, nobody. And I'm gonna, I'm going to say I just want to just do a just a we lost Canine Darrow yesterday. He succumbed to his cancer. You know, he was shot. It'll be a year ago, I believe the third, no, the 30th, I think of March. And he made a miraculous recovery from that only for cancer to ravage his body. And so he couldn't recover from that. And so he he crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday surrounded by his team. We went yesterday morning and awarded him the Purple Heart for his bravery and during that time last year.  So I will tell you, you know, we, we celebrate all of our officers here, no matter if they have two legs or four. And, and we will certainly we will miss him tremendously. So I just wanted to let you all know I just will please continue to keep his handler in your in your thoughts and your prayers. Because he was very he was a big part of Dora's life and Dora was his. So I'll close by saying that. So thank you. No, thank you for sharing that. And our hearts break to hear about that. Yeah, that's really sad. And I know that officer was very close to the animal. So that's tough for your officer. All right, well, we should move on and we'll follow up and we hope chief you can stay on. But we understand it if you can't certainly. But we'd like to have our pack three update our district three update by our Sergeant Nicholas Schneider, who is joining us in place of our commander, Captain Murray. So, Lieutenant or Sergeant Schneider, if you'd like to give us our monthly update. Sure. Good morning. Thanks, Miss Sully. Everyone. My name is Sergeant Nicholas Schneider, the patrol sergeant in District three here. In fact, I was a patrol officer in District three, a patrol corporal and a sergeant. I've been here for this is my 21st year of service. District three is near and dear to me. So I'm very happy to be here and and thank you for the opportunity to speak to you all. As you know, Captain Murray is not able to be here, but he did provide some remarks for me to present to you. So we'll start off with violent crime. For the past 28 day cycle, we have 32 total cases to break those down further. We've had 15 robberies. That is a reduction of 11%. We've had 14 aggravated assaults that is up 40% from the last 28 day cycle. And seven of those involved firearms. And that's an increase of 130%. Property crime as a whole. We've had 127 total cases. And that's down 5% of burglaries. 16 total cases. That's been up 100% as we only had eight in the last 28 day cycle. 48 cases of shoplifting. That's been up 17%. 28 cases of larcenies from motor vehicles. And that's down 52%. Sorry, down from 52 in the last cycle, that's a 46% decrease. Thankfully, larcenies from motor vehicles have really decreased this 28 day cycle. 10 cases of stolen vehicles. That's also down. And that's down 23%. Without boring you with all the other numbers and so on and so forth, I do want to mention with the home invasions and the armed robberies and stuff like that, specifically in the LaSalle Street area, the McQueen Drive area. I can't go into details right now, but there are some very, very interesting developments with regards to all of that. The captain definitely wanted me to mention that to you. So please be on the lookout for some information as these leads develop over the next couple of weeks or so. The captain asked me to make sure that I mentioned to you that he will be sending stuff out to you just as soon as he gets it and as he can share it with you. That's all the captain has prepared for me. Does anyone have any questions for me? Great. Thank you. And the captain sends, if you are on our listserv, you get a weekly report from our commander and then you get this monthly highlights that Sergeant Schneider just read to you.  So please do accept. Thank you, Sergeant. We welcome you today. Officer Mock, would you like to follow up with your activities? Okay. For the past month from the last PAC meeting, I've definitely been out in the community, engaging a lot of those residents along the LaSalle Street, Irwin Road and Campus Walk area in reference to the home invasions. We've been setting up community safety mixers at the Belmont and at the Heights. And this past Wednesday, we were over at the flats on the Irwin, but we found out that the kids were on spring break this week, so we didn't have such a great turnout. So I'm going to reconnect with the management. We're going to come up with a new date for theirs. And I've been out to, well, I met with the Bradford Place community online for a neighborhood watch meeting. I kind of sat in on part of their HOA meeting and kind of shared a little information about neighborhood watch. So I don't know if anybody is here from Bradford Place today. I don't really see any names sticking out to me, but they were invited to attend to go ahead and get their neighborhood watch signs installed. So I'll be following up with them just to make sure, you know, they have to attend PAC and be involved. So I was asked to come today and share some brief safety tips on home safety. These are some common crime trends that face homeowners. Like if you have a house or apartment, burglaries are very, it's probably like the top crime, but we are seeing like larcenies, other types of larcenies like packaged theft. So what I would recommend for burglaries, a lot of the thieves are targeting your jewelry, cash, electronics. So make sure you're keeping those things documented for your jewelry. I recommend taking pictures and keeping that in a secure place. So in the event it is stolen or whatever or lost, you have a picture document of your jewelry and to be able to identify that if it's ever taken to a pawn shop. And we also have property inventory forms that I can forward out to PAC to place on the listserv. And these are great ways to document your items with the serial numbers, making models, and all that important information. So with the packaged theft, you know, I'm kind of encouraging residents to make sure they use the locker systems that a lot of delivery companies are using. That is a great way to make sure you get your packages safely, or maybe put a note in the delivery section for your driver. So if you're not at home, not to leave your package, you'll pick it up or try it another date and time. So those are like some basics, crime trends that I'm seeing. And to kind of safeguard your home is what we call this target heartening. These are things you can do around your home to keep your home safe. Make sure you have a dead boat lock. Those are very important. Make sure the screws are at least three inches longer because that kind of protects your door frame in case it's ever kicked in. And make sure you have a peephole or a way to look out your window or door. And another thing, I kind of added a storm door that creates an extra barrier between your main door and the outside. So that's another great protection. And garage doors. So make sure we're securing those at night if you have one, because we do have people to ride through neighborhoods looking for open garage doors and they're taking some of your lawn equipment or any tools you may have. Or maybe your cars are parked inside the garage and doors are unlocked, keys are left inside. So just make sure we're securing those garage doors and check your windows. Make sure the locks are working properly. And make sure that, you know, if you open your windows, you know, the weather's warming up, make sure you're closing it and locking it back, especially at nighttime and if you're leaving home. And a great way to kind of, I guess, secure your windows is make sure you put up blinds and curtains because, you know, open home, you invite people in to see what you have. So closing those curtains, especially on the main level, definitely can do to your crime. And the most vulnerable areas around your home, I would say would be the side and the rear areas in the backyard. So make sure those windows and doors are very protected. And a lot of times you can place plants and things in underneath those windows to kind of keep people from getting too close. So some of those hostile plants. So I recommend lights, you know, around the exterior of your home and also turning on your lights inside your home if you're leaving in the evening. Sometimes that light can be a great deterrent for people because it'll give the sense that, hey, someone is inside, leave your TV on, do things that's going to create noise and, you know, activity inside your house. And motion sensor lights are also great. And turn on those alarm systems. You know, if you have them, turn them on, that's what you're paying for.  Those are very important tips. And surveillance, we're talking about cameras. So make sure you have interior or exterior cameras. If you can have both, that will be great. And that will give you more visibility around your home and also give you peace of mind when you're at home and away because you're able to check in. And the biggest part that I would say right now in this time of the year is the maintenance. So making sure that we are trimming our grass, keeping our shrubs low. Don't let those things grow up above your window seal because then that's going to start creating visibility issues. So making sure we keep those shrubs at least two to four feet. And if you have trees in your front yard, make sure you have those trimmed from the ground up to at least five to six feet. And then that way you're able to detect movement in your yard and backyard. So if you're able to see movement, you're able to see people. And if the grass, not the grass, but if the limbs are so low, these can become hiding places for criminals to, you know, to go undetected a lot of times. So keeping those maintenance issues under wraps would definitely help protect your home. And like I said, use hostile plants in those areas of those windows that can definitely decrease any opportunity of entry. And then we have some resources. If you're ever interested, I'm always available to come out and do a home security assessment. And these assessments are free of charge. I look at those. The sub-ted plan, we look at your lights, your alarms, and all those great things to help keep your home safe. And we also do lighting assessments. So if your neighborhood could use more lighting, feel free to give me a call. And I can set up a light assessment request through Terry Thompson. And that's something I can do for you and your community. If you're ever going out of town, we can do residential patrol requests or if you're seeing suspicious activity in your neighborhood. This is a great way to let officers know, hey, we need to give a little extra attention in these areas. And like Mindy mentioned before, the community crime mapper, you know, I would definitely encourage you to go to this website and do research on your community and know what crime trends are happening in your area. And next door and your PAC list serves are great resources of information. And coming to PAC every second Saturday of each month is very important to stay informed to your crime trends in your neighborhoods and neighborhood watch. Okay. So I try to wrap it up as fast as I can. Yeah, we're running out of time. Thank you so much. Everything she said, she was rushed to present it, but every tip is so important. We've got to do our share to prevent crime. And so please take to heart everything she said and try to encourage your neighbors to trim up their plants and put in more lighting and look after each other. Thank you, Officer Mock. And now we'll have Daryl Mount, the Crime Prevention Specialist for Duke University, and also one of our facilitators, co-facilitator Daryl. Can you give us a few minutes, just a few? Yeah, no problem. First off, hey, everybody. I'm actually out on Shigateague Island right now in Virginia, where I come see my daughter every so often. And there's like a big, I can't believe we're actually maybe getting snow by the end of the day today. So it's going to be kind of a weird change for me. But anyways, regarding Duke University, the students right now are currently on spring break.  It was well planned in advance. We had a lot of VIP celebrities and so forth, but we were proud to announce that we had little to no incidences whatsoever on the game day of the fifth. Unfortunately, we took a devastating loss to UNC. But hopefully we're going to make progress to our tournaments and so forth. Regarding the crime trends, we have our normal low-line thefts, larceny, such as bicycles and electronics that do occur throughout our campus. They're still on trend. That's our normal activity for us. And a lot of people also don't know. We're also responsible for the medical center, the hospitals and the DMP and the cancer center. And those are keep us fairly busy with with other activities that are happening within those areas. Duke's like its own little mini city with all different moving parks and so forth. Our partnership here lately with Durham has really gone over well within the community and with our students. I think they've seen a good side of enforcement and good side of presence altogether in regards to having our patrol out of our jurisdiction, but within the city there off the south campus walk and so forth. And I think it's actually turned out to be a blessing because I think we have like Sergeant Snyder mentioned that we have a movement now that I think is maybe going to hopefully put that those incidences, at least maybe in our rear view, a mirror possibly, but we'll see what it all comes out to. But we have some good interesting developments coming from that. So the students will be coming back as of Monday and masks were lifted and it's changed the I think everyone was happy to see that all together and more normal feel now is starting to feel around the Duke campus. And they're all looking forward to the big day of graduation, which will be coming up here very shortly in May. Thank you so much, Darryl. We appreciate your report. Donna, if you could summarize your report, we'll share your slides real quick. If people can stay on for three or four minutes here, I think we'll have to finish with Donna. Okay. So Alexis. So is it up? Let's see, Alexis. And also to close this out, Mindy, I'll have something to mention. It'll take like two minutes as well. Okay, so it looks like we'll go about eight minutes after 11. If you can hang with us, we appreciate it. Okay. All right, Donna, their slides are all right. Okay, so the first slide is, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. All right. So the first slide is just my contact information. I'm with Durham County Department of Public Health. So we'll go on to the next slide. Um, since January, Durham has seen an explosion of cases of Omicron. There are over 113% more cases than we saw in 2021 in just the first 62 days of 2022. Fortunately, Durham County's case count has reduced by almost one half in the last week. This indicates we may be coming to the end of the Omicron wave. From February 1st until March 3rd, 2022, there has been a total of 5,285 cases throughout the month of February and three days into March. There's been an average of 170 cases a day. So we'll go to the next slide. Public Health continues to offer free walk-in COVID-19 vaccines Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. And on Tuesdays, vaccines are available until 5.30 p.m. Come to our building at 414 East Main Street. And we'll go to the next slide. A new COVID-19 testing site at the Fidelity Investments RTP campus is now open. El Centro Espano is now open for testing only Tuesday through Saturday. All tests are available for free. No insurance is needed. Registration is encouraged. And you can check our website to get updates on testing. We'll go to the next slide. The indoors mandate is officially over in Durham since March 7th, 2022. Masks are still required on public transportation in healthcare settings and in businesses that require masking. Masks are still required in Durham County government buildings, the courthouse, the sheriff's office, libraries, etc. They'll continue to be required in schools for the time being. That's what's been decided for the schools. And we'll go to the next slide. Smoking is a risk factor for chronic illnesses like lung disease, heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. If you're ready to quit, join our quit for life. Stop smoking cessation classes. Our current series began on March 10 and it ends on April 7. It meets virtually from 6 to 7 p.m. And you can call me if you need information on how to join those. We'll go to the next slide. If you need help finding child care, there's information on child care services on this slide. And we'll go to the next slide. Join the Men's Health Council on Saturday, March 19th, from 9 to 10 a.m. at Duke Park on Knox Street for their walk for colorectal cancer awareness. Dr. Julius Wilder, gastroenterologist from Duke, will be present to answer questions. Go to the next slide. The Durham Board of County Commissioners has announced that Kimberly J. Sowles is the new county manager beginning March 14. And she currently serves as the city manager in Greensboro, North Carolina. Next slide. Register for our free webinars. And this is our list of webinars that we announce every month. And there are some webinars on teen dating violence awareness month, which was actually February, but this is a post-TDVAM series, webinar series, that I would like for you to join in, because this is with a group that I work with. If you have difficulty locating the webinars, contact me. And we'll go to slide 11. The stress of life can be overwhelming. And here's your information for a helpline. We'll go to the next slide, 12. We have monthly diabetes support classes that are virtual. The next session is Tuesday, March 22. And it's from 6 to 7 p.m. If you're interested, contact Willa Robinson, W. Robinson at DCONC.gov, or contact me if you have trouble finding that information. Next slide. Registration for the Eighth Annual Women's Health Awareness Conference on Saturday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And there's the information for that. And the event is virtual. If you have trouble finding that information, of course, contact me. Next Saturday, Patrice Carr Nutritionist at the Health Department will present a webinar, Good Nutrition for Good Health. You can join by Zoom or by phone. And you can contact Joyce Page if you need that information, or, of course, contact me. And thank you all for this opportunity to present. And that's my last slide with my contact information again. Fantastic. Thank you, Donna. The city offers so many resources, and we share them with you because you're our contact to the neighborhoods and other citizens, people in need. There are resources available from our city and our county. So don't hesitate to contact one of us or the city or the county public health department because there are many, many resources at our disposal. All right. Super. Okay. Alexis, we'll finish with you. I'll go as fast as I can. Yeah. And Bobby put some things in the chat. Bobby Matthews on our call. Thanks, Bobby. Please read the chat as you're on our Zoom meeting because information is being sent to you that way as well. Alexis. All right. So I just wanted to go really quick about the equitable and green infrastructure funds that we have coming up in the near future. And I have a few highlights to mention. Council approved a one cent or a one cent on tax rates to prioritize investments in an engagement with low wealth communities and communities of color that have historically been excluded from or harmed by policy decisions. The reoccurring 1.6 million funds will be used for infrastructure upgrades. So what is infrastructure? Do you ask? Well, that can be physical structures such as roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewer, electrical grids, telecommunications and also non physical systems and structures. Systematic drivers of equity to eliminate disparities. And also, what have we been tasked with? Neighborhood Improvement Services Community Engagement has been tasked with informing the residents of the tax rate yearly 1.6 million dollars engaging residents in the low wealth area in this process, prioritizing residents needs, wants and issues and in partnership with residents creating a community driven plan. And how are these neighborhoods selected? The geographic neighborhoods, demographic populations, environmental data, social, economic data, communities identified by community engagement and input from residents. To engage residents throughout Durham, NIS is seeking residents to become community allies. And they will identify and inform community residents of the half cent funding and the request for community participation. And they'll also be responsible for getting residents involved in identifying and verifying and verifying what they need, want and any issues that they have. And then also reporting the collective community feedback to city administration to include prioritized needs, wants and issues in partnership with Cure Americas. So for the next steps, we just ask that you complete this form and I will drop that in the chat. If you have any questions, you can contact me. And then also we're just asking that folks return this by March 15, whether it's in person at our office downtown or by email or by mail. And so yeah, that is what I have. And I will drop that information in the chat for you. Please let me know if you have any questions. All right. Thank you, Alexis. You really raced through that. I appreciate everyone's hard work on the meeting today. We will in June be doing a business meeting only. We will not have a guest speaker at our meeting in June, kind of like an annual meeting so that it will allow our partners to have some more time to share with you what's going on. So we were honored to have the Chief today and I know we've had guest speakers since September and we will try to have a couple meetings a year where we don't have to rush our regular partners who present every month. So take a deep breath, everybody. Thank you for being with us today. And you can always contact any of us on the leadership team. Just send your emails. Keep your neighborhood safe. Please try to share as much of this information as you can with your friends and neighbors. Durham is a great place and we all have to be accountable for keeping it that great place for everyone. All right. Thank you all. Have a wonderful month and we'll see you by Zoom in April. Okay. Bye, everybody.


Welcome to Tick-Melt Weekly Market Outlook for we commencing the 28th of October with me, Patrick Munley. With the market fully pricing in the October Fed rate cuts at Wednesday's meeting, the central bank is unlikely to pre-commit to a more meaningful cutting cycle. Rather, it's likely to stick to its reactive approach insurance cut rhetoric. Key dollar drivers should be the US economic data. Markets looking to queue through GDP also released Wednesday to come in modestly above consensus. Key risk to the dollar stems from the October US labor report released Friday. The non-farm payrolls may well see another dip with market consensus at 95,000. A potential catalyst for the disappointment may be due to the GM strike being a drag on the numbers. A miss would increase the odds of a further rate cut. And from a technical perspective, the dollar held the symmetry swing support highlighted in last week's review. And I'm looking now for this current correction to be capped around the 98 level and for another load to be made to test the ascending trend line support down to the 9680. From this area, we could see a more meaningful correction in a three-way pattern, and that will be another selling opportunity in and around the 9850 area. Whilst we're looking at the dollar, let's check in with gold. Gold continue to hold the support area highlighted in last week's review and broke higher to test offers above the 1500 level. And we saw seller step into the market, but we're still in the consolidation pattern. And while the 1480 area access support still see the potential for a push higher to test the 1580 target. However, any failure below 1480 would be a bearish development suggesting a move down to test support at the 1440 area. In Canada, the focus will be on the Bank of Canada rate announcement on Thursday, which comes four hours before the FOMC makes its move. Markets are pricing for rates that will be kept on hold and expect government pollers to stick to his recent rhetoric. September headline inflation disappointed, but the preferred core measures remain on target and wage growth boom to 4.3%. Unemployment levels also down, which suggests the bank is still lacking reasons to cut or change its neutral guidance, especially when adding rising optimism around the trade war resolution. On Friday, August GDP numbers should flatten up to around 1.3% year over year. From a technical perspective, the Canadian dollar has continued to drift lower and as the 13150 area can access resistance, I'm anticipating a move down to test support at the 130 level. A move back through 132 would be needed at this stage to stabilise the pair and suggest a more sustained correction could evolve. In Europe, we should get another batch of unsurprising data. Both October core and headline Eurozone CPI should come in at 1%. And third quarter GDP should stay at around 0.2% quarter over quarter, although there is a non-negligible risk of a 0.1%. This means that European data won't provide many reasons to be cheerful about the Euro next week. The Euro has initiated its correction from its symmetry swing resistance area at the 11180 zone. I'm now looking for a corrective pattern to develop and ultimately test the support now back down at 110, where I'll be looking for bullish reversal patterns to set long positions as looking for 110, 110.50 to set a platform for a test of 112.50. Only a move back down 109.50 would concern this bullish bias and suggest a retest of year to day close. Whilst we're talking about the Euro, let's check in with the DAX. The DAX has continued to trade higher with no bearish reversal signals as per last week's analysis. And we are now testing up looking for a new high to be made and an equidistant swing with an ABCD target at 13,061. As this area then contains, we have sending trend line resistance as well, looking for bearish divergence to develop. And I'll be looking to set short positions from this 13,000 level, looking for a move back down to test 12,500 as support. In the UK, uncertainty is creeping in again as Prime Minister Johnson is keen to call early elections, but that doesn't seem to be the required majority in Parliament. The EU signaled that it would wait until after Monday's vote in the UK Parliament or an early election before it decides on the length of the Article 50 extension period. With the UK general election unlikely to gain the required majority, the eventual agenda may move back towards the withdrawal agreement bill, with the aim of translating the deal into law. Still, there is a risk that Boris Johnson will follow on his threat and unless the early election vote is passed, he does not follow with legislating the withdrawal agreement, effectively ending up with the zombie parliament. From a technical perspective, the sterling pound has pulled back from the ascending trend line resistance zone at the 130 area. I'm now looking for a symmetry swing correction to test 12650, 127 area support. As it does, I'll be watching for bullish reversal patterns to set long positions, initially targeting a retest of this 130 resistance area, but ultimately looking for a move up to Test 132. A breach below 126 would suggest that we're going to see a deeper correction, looking then to the ascending trend line support down at the 124 area. The Bank of Japan meets on October 30th and 31st to set monetary policy. The improving global backdrop has left markets undecided on whether Governor Corrado will push rates into deeper negative territory, and the implied probability of a cut is around 65%. However, markets suspect that consumption tax hike this month worsens and already batters the economic outlook in Japan, which should really warrant more than a 10 basis point cut. The dolly end continued to consolidate last week in a relatively tight range, so looking for any test hire now into this offers above 109 to contain that move, and then I'll be looking for a symmetry swing correction back down to test the 10730 area as support. As the RBA navigated these past few months of monetary using, the market's perception has been that two indicators were the major detriment of the bank's decisions. Inflation and unemployment, for both the RBA sets two targets 2.5% and 4.5%. However, markets have also noticed that even a slight improvement those two gauges seems to be enough to prompt a pause in RBA easing. The unemployment rate slowed 5.2% from 5.3% in the September print, and this was enough to halve the implied probability now only at 18% for a cut in the November 5th meeting. Next Friday, the Q3 inflation report will be published and consensus sees the headline CPI advance from 1.6 to 1.7%. This may be enough to cement expectations that the RBA will stay put in November. Governor Lowe will speak on Tuesday, please unlikely to diverge from his recent rhetoric before seeing the inflation numbers. From a technical perspective, I'm looking for support to develop at the 68 level in the Australian dollar and ultimately to test trend line resistance at the 69 level. From there, we may see a more sustained correction. I'll be looking for bearish reversal patterns in and around this 69 level to set short positions. However, ultimately, I'm looking for support to develop back down in the 67.50 area after that correction, and then we can see a challenge of the 70 cents level over the coming weeks. That concludes the weekly market outlook for week men's scene, October the 28th.


Hello David Diga Hernandez here and you are watching an episode of eTV interviews and on this edition of eTV interviews I have with me my good friend. He's actually been on our YouTube channel before His name is Michael Lombardo and he is here to talk to us today about intimacy with God before we get into that Welcome to the broadcast my friend. Thank you for having you back. Oh, I believe you did spirit church with us last time Yeah, and you taught and so but you're here today You just released a book called immersed in his glory. We'll talk more about the book later But let's get into some of the content. Yeah, and I really do love the idea behind this book breaking every barrier To experiencing God's presence people are hungry for his presence, but they feel like they hit those those walls Yeah, yeah, so I believe many can find you on one of our channels And so let's just get right into the teaching Talk to me about those barriers Intimacy with God and focus in on what you think is the most common one That's really good question. And I think in this book I touch on various because it's it's multifaceted all of our struggles Aren't the same, you know, so I talk about I hit it from a lot of different angles in my book immersed in his glory But for me, I think one of the greatest barriers has been self condemnation and guilt because when you get saved And now you're born again. The Spirit of God lives in the inside of you He takes out your all your old heart of stone and it gives you a heart of flesh You have a heart now that loves righteousness and hates wickedness. So all you want to do is please the Lord So I believe that pure hearted believers the propensity that we need to learn to overcome is Self-condemnation and the reason why I call it self-condemnation is it cuz it doesn't come from God it comes from us What does that look like self-condemnation when someone's trying to pray? How do they know what self-condemnation is describe it?  You're very sin conscious sin focused if condemnation is declaring somebody guilty for something and then you know Punishment comes after that self-condemnation is saying I'm guilty and I deserve to be punished or I'm unworthy And I can't come into the presence of holiness. I can't come into the presence of God Really self-condemnation is a fruit of a lack of revelation of the gospel what Christ accomplished and his love and his heart for us as believers But it's pure hearted believers. This is some something that we stumble upon And I believe that it's one of the greatest killers of intimacy divine union in the body of Christ You know the devil he wants us to have condemnation He wants us to be bogged down because listen if let's say I thought that you were angry with me Disappointed, you know not not pleased with me for something I wouldn't be able to approach you confidently. I wouldn't just say hey David How you do and shake your hand give you a hug? I wouldn't be able to do that because I feel like he's upset with me He's he's displeased in some way But the Bible says that we could come boldly before the throne of God that we have bold access To God through Christ and what he did for us so when I know that God loves me and Nothing I could ever do will ever change that when I know what he did for me that he shed his blood for me to Make me clean that now he became my sin so that I could be the righteousness of God in Christ So when we learn these truths we get a revelation of these things then we can come to God for the forgiveness We need for the for the embrace for the comfort for the joy for whatever we need we can come boldly before him I love what you said that Self condemnation is the fruit of a lack of a revelation Talk to me a little bit about that revelation and how it broke self condemnation in your life because I know this was an area Where God gave you breakthrough. Yeah, so for me. I was born again. I encountered the presence of a Lord I shared that in the last show I was on with you And I just so hungry for God now it devour books and materials about walking in the power of God and going deeper with The Lord and fasting and prayer and I dedicated myself to these things and it's important to have a prayer life fasting tongues Evangelism intercession all these things are important and I dedicated myself to these things But at the same time I had a performance orientation. I felt like as I was doing these things I was earning God's love for me or I was I was constantly Striving to turn God's heart towards me or to make him happy in some way I believe that God loved me, but I didn't believe he liked me And I was so focused on what I can do for God my hunger for him my pursuit of him And I was like a roller coaster if I was getting up in the morning I was praying if I was doing all my spiritual disciplines then you know, I was up here. I was encountering God I was happy I was in peace, but if I didn't wake up or I didn't evangelize at Walmart like I thought I should have I didn't meet this high standard that I placed over my life Then I was beating myself up constantly and I was just up and down up and down And the Lord began to give me this revelation of his love It says in 2nd Corinthians 13 14 may the grace of Christ may the love of God and may the fellowship of the Spirit be with you All and these three revelations changed my life the unconditional love of God the grace that was poured out through Jesus Christ and this intimate fellowship that is possible with the Holy Spirit and so Man, I would mess up. I would you know be angry with somebody or I wouldn't get up at this You know pray as long as I should have and the Holy Spirit would just keep whispering to me. I love you I'm pleased with you. I'd begin to actually read through the song of songs and the gospel of John and 1st John It would just come wildly alive to me I began to get a revelation of not only my passion for him that I should be passionate for him But his passion for me that he's hungry for my attention that on that cross when he said I thirst He wasn't just talking about a natural drink. He was thirsting for sons and daughters He was thirsting for us to come before him and to have fellowship with him. That's what he paid for He paid for sons and daughters. He paid for us to have the same access that Jesus has to his throne That's what he paid for that access Jesus has we now have because of the finished work So I began to see his passion for me his hunger for me his seeking of me And when I began to step into that revelation it changed my life forever I began to realize that he tore the veil from top to bottom he tore the veil everything separated me from my heavenly father Jesus in his body in his finished work He brought me near I was once far off and he brought me near through his finished work It changed my life. What was your prayer life like before you learned that? Some days it was real dry some days It was I felt like God was light years away and there were sometimes I was encountering the Lord I was having visions. I was dreaming dreams still in that time frame. I was encountering the Lord I was feeling his nearness. I was feeling it was off and on you're saying it was off and on there were some days I was confident in my relationship with him and there was other days I wasn't confident because I wasn't measuring up to the self-inflicted standard that I put on myself and Sometimes it would take hours to get into this place of real Vibrancy in my prayer life in my devotional time But when I began to realize this that it's not works that that that bring me into the presence of the Lord All those things are great fasting all that stuff is great when there's faith attached to it When faith is the heart behind the fasting behind the intercession behind the prayer I began to realize that faith is my access. So now I just wake up and say Jesus There he is I love you Lord. Thank you that you're here Thank you that you live on the inside of me. Thank you that you love me and you never stop loving me. It's my heart Trusting and believing in what he said what he did his word My heart is now angered in the Word of God and what he did for me and then there's a beautiful manifestation of the presence of God So some may say I hear you I get what you're saying That revelation I they may even they may even have possibly heard those things you're talking about those truths about the grace of Jesus the love of the father the fellowship of the spirit, but they can't Make that connection. They can't get from what they're feeling to experiencing what you're experiencing help them make that connection We get so focused on our feelings Am I feeling the presence of God? Am I not feeling the presence of God? We become so feelings oriented and experience oriented and experience driven The Word of God needs to be the foundation of everything We need to trust the Word of God more than our feelings and more than our experiences You need to what we need to do is we need to have this foundation of the word Like it says in Romans 10 17 it says faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God and I wake up every morning I just declare the Word of God over my heart and as I'm speaking the word I'm hearing the word come out of my mouth and it's actually building faith on the inside of me I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. He loves me. I'm accepted in the beloved I'm his son and whom he's well pleased as I'm speaking this over myself Faith is growing in the inside of me and faith connects me to the manifestation of God's presence So yeah, people you know, they they they they try the Word of God for a day You know, they speak the Word of God and then they get discouraged and get disappointed We need to trust the Word of God remain in the Word of God speak the Word of God devour the Word of God And as our heart is anchored in the truth, you will begin to experience a manifestation, but faith comes before the manifestation and faith comes before the feelings Every single time and I wish I can give a five-step This is exactly this is gonna work for everybody formulas and so many people try to pump out formulas Try to tell you just do this and just do that But the gospel is all about this amazing God who poured out his love who who is more accessible Then then then we get ever imagined. He's not far away. He's not withholding himself It's this beautiful God that we have no access to through faith. It's so simple It's so simple and so beautiful. I love what you're talking about here faith and confidence versus Cowering and second guessing talk to me about that confidence He said that we could have confidence man. He's a holy God, but he has also made us holy by his blood He's a God who removed all of our sin. He doesn't count our sins against us We could be confident to enter into his presence and the beautiful thing is, you know The Holy Spirit something amazing about the Holy Spirit as he comes and he heals our hearts There's something I really would love to touch on he comes and he heals our hearts So many we have a skewed vision of who father God is Because of our dad, maybe the absence of our dad Maybe the abuse of our father or mother, but the Holy Spirit comes and he shows us who the father is And when he shows us who the father is He's a good papa that he loves us that he adores us that he's smiling over us when the Holy Spirit reveals the father Our hearts are healed. It's amazing when the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God to our hearts He actually pulls up the lies that we've believed and these lies hold us back From entering to the presence of God and being bold before God like we should for me. It was also shame I had a deep sense of shame because I came from drugs. I came from perversion I came from doubt and unbelief and so the Holy Spirit had to do some serious work on my heart He's the master at working on our hearts. He's so beautiful and for me I actually was in a relationship where I got a girl pregnant before I encountered Christ before I got saved and I I wasn't born again I didn't have the mind of Christ and the girl she she she wanted to have an abortion And I said, you know, I had the money at the time. I said, okay, I paid for the abortion I get saved, you know months later, maybe six to nine months later. I get saved and now Jesus is in my life I'm encountering him, but I still I'm not a fan of church yet I'm not a fan of church my sister. She calls me up and she says just come to church come to church So I said, you know what God? I love you. I'm not really big on church, but I'll go today But please just remove one burden just one burden from my back just speak to me father And I get to church and nothing happens in the church service nothing at all happens and I'm like, thanks God And so I go to the restroom the pastor's doing an altar call and because it was a mega church I heard in the speakers the pastor was you know He was given words of knowledge and all this stuff and I heard him say There's somebody here that had an abortion and the Lord wants to heal you from shame and I knew it was me So I ran out of the bathroom and I tried to get into the doors But there were 16 doors was a mega church and all them were locked except the middle ones I had no clue so I ran back to the bathroom and I got into a stall and God'll meet you and unusual places David I got in that stall and I just opened my heart to the Lord and I just felt his forgiveness His acceptance pour into me his love. I was a murderer.  It was Father's Day and the pastor I was at church and the pastor says all the fathers stand up Everyone's clapping for the fathers and I didn't stand up not a dad yet, right? I didn't meet my wife yet. No kids and I heard the Holy Spirit say happy Father's Day Happy Father's Day, man. I just began to weep like a baby, but that's what the Holy Spirit does He knows the shame that we hold on to he knows the self-condemnation that we're always inflicting upon ourselves He knows the hurts that we have he knows the deception that's crept into our lives He knows the lack of revelation that we have about the gospel We've been taught legalistic things formulas and methods that are anti gospel anti Christ He knows these things what the Holy Spirit does he comes in and he pulls up the weeds that the lies in our heart And he implants truth and when he puts that truth in us He heals us he heals us and we get to come before God confidently because now we have a whole heart It's a wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit. He's not just the healer of our physical body, but he's the healer of our heart He's the one that renews our mind and shows us who God is shows us who Jesus is It's amazing. So how does somebody position themselves to allow the Holy Spirit to do that work? I think simply You just ask him You just ask him with sincerity. It says draw near and with full assurance of faith and sincerity of heart It says in Hebrews 10 So it's just saying Holy Spirit. I know that there's hurts in me. I know that there's things that I'm that I'm believing that are lies I know that I'm a work in progress, but come nothing is off limits Nothing is off limits touch what you need to touch speak into what you need to speak into whether it's encouraging whether it's corrective Holy Spirit have your way. I yield my heart to you. I yield my life to you He's your best friend and he's your truth-telling best friend.  He's gonna come for you.  Maybe you need a revelation of God as your papa Maybe you need a revelation of the finished work of Christ to set you free from self condemnation and striving Maybe you've had trauma from your childhood, you know abuse or neglect whatever it may be He's gonna come and he's gonna heal your heart because if you can get to your heart And nothing will be able to stop you from jumping into your papa's arms Nothing is gonna stop you from laying down your life to bring the gospel Wherever he calls you to bring it You know this self condemnation this guilt this shame It's one of the barriers as you talk about in your book. It's one of the barriers to intimacy with God Yeah, would you look into the camera? Yeah, and minister to that one watching Who's battling heavily self condemnation and guilt and shame and because of it They're having trouble connecting with the Lord in prayer. Would you minister? I? Want to say something to you that the Lord said to me.  He's like he's like he said take the boxing gloves off I'm like, what do you mean?  He's your papa.  He's your redeemer your healer in every way, and I just want to pray over you right now Holy Spirit, I pray that you would manifest your beautiful presence. I Just sense right now. He's breaking off self condemnation. I literally see chains in the spirit I see chains falling off of you right now, and it's like they're invisible chains They were they were never real from God's perspective, but you put these chains on yourself I see the chains falling off, and if that's you just raise your hand and freedom It's it's it's an act of faith you raise your hand and just say I will not be bound anymore I will not suffer with self condemnation. I will not suffer with guilt and shame and Maybe you had an abortion. Maybe you had a miscarriage Maybe you did something it caused some kind of damage physically to yourself or somebody else The Lord does not want you suffering with shame.  We just thank you for your ministry Consume them immerse them in your beautiful glory your personality who you are the multi-faceted God reveal yourself to them In Jesus Thank you so much for sharing what you shared I really do believe that it was Timely and I think that there are some watching right now Would this message has come just in time for them, but you know you talked about Guilt and shame, but that's not the only barrier to experiencing God's presence Just just for a few seconds or so Could you just tell me some of the barriers that you talk about in this book that keep people from experiencing God's presence? Yeah, so I talk about spiritual hunger in the book and the necessity of spiritual hunger It's it's that that chapter really changed my life. What are the barriers? Yeah, yeah the barriers Okay, I'll talk about self-condemnation. Obviously it's about guilt and shame and all that I talk about interhealing in the book I talk about doubt and unbelief. I talk about fear It's it's amazing It's like the book really could be several books in one because there's all these different facets to it in each chapter I just I dive deeply into it give tons of scripture tons of practical tools for them to overcome the barriers that I speak about in The book and so how do we how do we find this book online? Is there a website your ministry has? Yeah, they can go to www.lifeportoutintl short for international Org they go to Amazon they get it on Kindle anywhere books are sold they can get it even in other countries And if they want more information on your ministry to go to the same website you just mentioned They go to the same website so people can ask you to minister and their church is there and as I say with the guests that we bring Look, I don't just bring you guests sporadically and the people I bring to you because I believe in their ministry I know Michael has a love for the Holy Spirit So there are many facets of his ministry that I appreciate so I just want to say go and support his ministry Get behind him check out what he's doing take a look at this book Be sure to pick up your copy of immersed in his glory. Well, thank you so much for joining my friend I appreciate you and your ministry. Well, that is it for this edition of eTV interviews until next time remember Nothing is impossible with God Thank you for watching encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe Also, help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now


Now, Adam, see, it shows that sometimes you feel that you're not capable to find the right happiness with the right woman. Sometimes it shows that you just want to, you know, go in another direction, which people are changing what you feel. People are changing what you want to do in your life. Now, it shows what you want to do in your life is just to be happy with the right person. And, of course, to succeed in what you want to succeed in as far as your family and friends are concerned. But it shows that there has been a little bit of things in the way of what you want to do. Because, see, you're not, you don't have, like, another part of you, which is that lady. Could that involve my work? Yes. Your question about work is, what is your question about work, your work? Well, I've got concerns about that, because I'd like to know what's going to happen with that and apprehensive about that. Well, as far as your work is concerned, see, you will further your knowledge of what you want to do. And it shows that there will be people that you will be involved with to help you to do that. But it's just that there is obstacles in your way of thinking, of positive thinking that's the problem. Now, see, it shows you need help, Adam. You know, you need help to make little guidance to guide you the right way to know that you're going to be happy, you're going to be healthy. Do you see any, well, any temporary separation or travel involved? Well, it shows you're going to go through a bit of travel, yes. Now, this travel concerns that you're going to go to see this lady. How far? I mean, a little great distance there. What it shows is not too far, well, not very far. What it shows that you will have a determination to try to settle matters, different matters concerning yourself and concerning her. Do you see any longer trips involved or near future? Well, yes, after that, there might be another longer trip, but that's, you're not going to be alone. So I'll make a shorter trip to see her and then a longer trip? Yes, sure. You said I won't be alone? You're not going to be alone. If there is a second trip, which there could be, it looks pretty certain. Will that be a distant trip? Yes, it's going to be distant.  See, you have to be a little bit more positive of what you want and then if you know that it's going to be meant, if you feel that it's going to be meant, then nothing is going to change that. See, it's just that you have to, you know, think positive about yourself and what you want in life and then God is going to grant you what you want, which is happiness with that right woman to know that she's going to be right for you. So will there be a big change with the first woman? There will be a change in her because as of now, she's, like I told you, she's involved with somebody that she thought she would be very happy. But the involvement she's in with now is not for her, but has only made her to change, to know what she wants in life, which is happiness with you. Well, whose fault is that? My fault? Is it her fault?  She's doing now the same thing.  So now, see, you have to know that that's most important in your life. But is she going to do anything drastic? No, she's not going to do anything drastic. It's just that she knows now what is right and what is not. See, this time separation that you had led her to realize that she has done wrong to you. You understand that? So no matter what people are against what you want to do and what their opinions of your happiness should not matter. See, because you know yourself what you want and you know yourself that you will always have love for her. She'll always have love for you. So you know, just let things fall in place by themselves and believe in yourself. Be positive in what you want in life. Things will work out best. The trip, if it takes place for a long distance trip, can you tell me that would take me? But it's going to take you to a place where you'll be at ease with this one. You'll both be at ease. There will be another opportunity there for you, which is good. So in the meantime, you know, you don't pay no mind to people that are against opinion of things.  Are these people in my business, do you think? Yes, people in business, close people to you. I mean, superiors or just employees or what? Well, it shows superiors, but it also shows family too. So you don't worry about that. See, you just know what you want. It will be granted to you because you know that your love is meant for her and her love is meant for you. It's just that people try to change things and change your feelings and that's what happens. So your future looks good also. So you don't worry, alright? God bless you. Thank you. We thank you for watching this latest episode of James Randy Speaks. For more of James Randy and the Educational Foundation, make sure you visit randy.org.


Good morning, Hickets Tuesday. So when I was a tiny little newborn baby back in January of 2023, do you know what I said was my big goal for the year? Do you know? Let's play the tape. Sometimes, Hank, sometimes you need to take it down a notch. And that's my only goal for 2023. Just take it down a notch. Oh, buddy, that's, uh, that's cute. Breaking news from the real world, you do not get to decide the notch situation. Welcome to 2023. Your brother is going to get a little bit of cancer. So that's going to take it up a notch. Also, you're going to be unexpectedly promoted to reluctant and temporary CEO of two companies with a total of 115 employees. Up a notch. Hank's going to have to get chemo and radiation, taking it up yet a further notch. Also, he's going to continue to come up with millions of business ideas. Up a notch. Also, you're going to have a somewhat dramatic confrontation with one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies over the price of a tuberculosis drug, or possibly two of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. If the other one doesn't get their act together and stop price gouging the world's poorest countries, things will not be taken down a notch. If anything, the notch is like a helium balloon that slips out of your fingers sometime in late February and you just watch as the notch situation rises and rises. Now, of course, the notch situation will probably descend at some point, but it's not for you to know how or when or where because you, little buddy, are, as Robert Penn Warren memorably put it, a bubble on the tide of empire. Now, look, it can be a helpful delusion to imagine that we have more control over our fate than we actually do, right? Like, if I felt all the time the way I feel walking onto an airplane, I have absolutely no say in whether I survived this journey, I wouldn't be able to function. And also, I wouldn't be giving myself any agency when, of course, I do have a little bit, right? Like, I might be a bubble on the tide of empire, but I am nonetheless some small part of the tide and the choices I make do matter. But the great risk of imagining that I decide the notch situation is then extrapolating and imagining that other people decide their notch situation. And that can lead to all kinds of stigma and dehumanization, right? Like, Hank, we've both seen comments that are like, Hank got a vaccination, so he got cancer, or Hank worked too hard, so he got cancer, or Hank has ulcerative colitis, so he got cancer, etc. And all those comments are designed to make the person commenting feel better. Like, I'm not going to get cancer because I don't have colitis, or I'm not going to get cancer because I didn't get vaccinated. It's not about Hank. It's about them. And furthermore, trying to find the cause when you're not like Hank's physicians is obviously not about Hank or his well-being. It's obviously about, you know, wanting to feel better yourself, wanting to feel like you're never going to have to take it up a notch. Now, I want to emphasize that for Hank, these comments have been super, super rare, and almost everyone has been extraordinarily supportive. But Hank's experience is, just to state the obvious, not typical. And I do think that whether you're living with HIV or cancer or tuberculosis or another highly stigmatized disease, the social response to the illness is part of what makes the illness so difficult. Which come to think of it was not the original point of this video. The point of the video was that you don't get to decide the notch situation. But if and when the opportunity to take it down a notch emerges, Hank, I want to take that opportunity, which brings me very belatedly to the question at the center of this video. Since 2007, with a few notable exceptions, our videos have been required to be under four minutes in length. We started this rule to force us to be concise and to make appropriate and intentional use of people's attention, and I like the four minute rule. Like, I think it's helped me become a better writer. Without the four minute rule, I think the Fault in Our Stars would have been like a hundred pages longer and not nearly as good. But it's often a lot of work to take a video idea and somehow get it under four minutes. Like, there really is something to that old line, I would have written you a shorter letter if only I had more time. Anyway, since Hank's diagnosis, we've suspended the four minute rule to be able to make videos with a little more flexibility, and I kind of love it. Like, I think this video's gonna be over four minutes, and to get it under four minutes, I would have had to cut all that stuff about stigmatization and notches, which I like. On the other hand, I understand that it's an important and long-standing rule, and one of the reasons we've been able to make stuff for so many people for so long? So I'm a little conflicted, and basically, I'm gonna trust y'all to decide whether we should continue doing the four minute rule via a poll in the doobly-doo. Let us know what you think. Listen, you do not decide the notch level, but I will tell you something from experience. Feeling accompanied and unalone as the notches go up helps. Does it help as much as the notches coming down? No, but it helps. So thank you for being here with us, really, now more than ever. Hank, I'll see you on Friday.


So let's do another example of Al-Qashu's method of square roots, and let's see why it works. So let's try to approximate the square root of 151,245. Since we're looking for square roots, we'll break the number into two-digit cycles. Starting with the first cycle, the largest number whose square is less than 15 is 3. And so we'll subtract 3 squared from 15, leaving 6. Adding the gas gives us 6, and we shift. So remember we should read this number as 60, and this number we can bring down the next few digits and get 612. Now for our next digit, we want the largest number that when multiplied by the sum of 60 and the number is less than 612. So we try 9, and we find 9 times 60 plus 9, which is too much. So we try 8, and we find 8 times 60 plus 8, so 8 works. And so we subtract, we add our gas again to get 68 plus 8, 76, and we shift. And again, this column should be viewed as having two digits, so this number should be 760 something. And if we copy down the last few digits, we have the number 6845. And so once again, we want the largest number that when multiplied by the sum of 760 and the number is less than 6845. So we try 9, and find 9 times 760 plus 9 is too much. And we try 8, and find 8 times 760 plus 8 is, and so 8 works. We subtract. Now to get the fractional part, we add 8 again to get, and add 1 to get 777, the denominator. And the remainder is the numerator. And so the square root of 151,245 is approximately 388 and 701,777. To understand the algorithm, let's start with a different question. How do we know if we have a good approximation? We can't compare the approximation to the actual value, since if we had the actual value, we wouldn't be trying to find an approximation. Instead, if we've approximated the root by some number n, then the difference between the radicand and n squared will tell us how accurate our approximation is. So let's see why this works. We'll break it down into two parts. First, the whole number part, and second, the fractional part. Now for the whole number part, we might begin by noting that 300 squared is less than 151,245, which is less than 400,000. In other words, our square root is 300 something. Now we started by subtracting 3 squared or 9, but this was in that third cycle. And in fact, that 3 is really 300, and 300 squared is 90,000. And notice that if we split this number into cycles of two digits, we see that we really only need to subtract a 9 from the number in the left-most cycle. And this leaves 61,245. Now we note that 380 squared is less than 151,245, which is less than 390 squared. In other words, our square root is 380 something. And if we find that remainder, it's really 151,245 minus 380 squared. Now that's really the same thing as subtracting 300 plus 80 squared. And if we expand this term, the first thing to recognize is that we've already subtracted 300 squared. So we don't need to recompute this first part. Meanwhile, the remaining terms have a common factor of 80, so we could remove that. And 2 times 300, well, that's 600. And notice that since we've already subtracted 300 squared, we only need to subtract 80 times 600 plus 80. But if we multiply that out, and breaking this product into cycles of two digits of piece, we see that this is the second subtraction we did. And again, we note that 388 squared is less than our radicand, which is less than 389 squared. And again, if we find the remainder, and again, we've already subtracted 380 squared. So we only need to subtract 8 times 760 plus 8. But when we multiply that out and break our number into cycles of two digits, we see that that's the last subtraction. What about the fractional part? So we computed the difference between 151,245 and 388 squared to be 701. So let's consider the difference between 389 squared and 388 squared. Now, because this is a difference of squares, we can compute it very easily. And the way to interpret this is that increasing the root by 1 is going to increase the square by 777. Now, since we want to increase the square by 701, so we increase the root by 701,777. And so that's the source of the fractional part of the approximation to the root.


Meet the Steppen Grannies, a group of seniors who likes to stay active. I never thought I'd be a part of a dance team. You would be surprised at the things that you can do if you really want to do it. That can-do spirit is a big part of the Best Years Club at Fellowship Corner. There's weekly Bible study to feed the soul. I enjoy the ministry of teaching here. Low-impact workouts that promote stretching and flexibility. Touching and selling. And games of skill to sharpen the mind. We have games that we play and I enjoy winning. Fellowship Corner seniors also enjoy giving back. Their angelic voices singing group performs at local nursing homes. They bless us because they're so glad to see us and they're so appreciative. And time for sharing a healthy lunch with friends. It's no wonder these seniors love to connect, create and contribute. I just enjoy the whole thing being here and I miss it when I can't come. Check out all the Fellowship Corner senior activities online or by phone.