News

Sean Douglas

6 minutes ago

The Strategic Services Agency (SSA) 2021 Annual Report said Trinidad and Tobago now faces a potential threat from terrorist actors whom the SSA appears to link to sympathizers of local individuals who had become foreign terrorist fighters. (FTF) who are now being held in Syria and Iraq. The report was tabled in the Senate on Tuesday, along with the SSA’s annual reports for 2019 and 2020.

“There are approximately 130 local Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) detained in camps in Syria and Iraq. Conflicting figures are still available, given the restricted flow of information from these areas.”

The report expected the issue to keep intelligence and immigration authorities busy, especially if new legislation were to allow mass repatriation.

“Given the court ruling in 2021, local sympathizers – including radicalized local actors who defend and legally challenge the state – may eventually become more disenchanted and hostile to the state.

“Terrorist actors remain a serious threat to TT as they aim to spread radicalized philosophies through moral panic and recruit otherwise disenchanted and easily susceptible people.

“The recruitment of people leaving or entering the prison system, illegal immigrants and others who come from historically radical families, remains an ever-present threat.”

The easy availability of illegal firearms could provide fertile ground for engaged threat actors, according to the report.

“In conclusion, while the terrorist threat has diminished, there are several people who remain radicalized but perhaps disillusioned. This combination is linked to the decimation and non-fulfilment of the Islamic State agenda in the globally and in pursuit of the compromise of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

“There remain several people of radical leanings, who are either incarcerated or affiliated with incarcerated people, and are motivated to attack prison facilities, as well as other elements and people attached to the national security apparatus.

“The local terrorist threat, although latent, may experience a resurgence as these actors may be galvanized by the various community leaders, possible repatriations of FTFs and the perception that the state is slow to recognize them and their concerns.”

The 2020 SSA report estimated that in 2020 the local terrorist threat had been reduced, with several radical individuals concerned about facilitating the repatriation of detained relatives in Syria and Iraq.

“Their strategy was multifaceted as several protagonists sought to influence the state through the use of social media, international observers and politicians. While the state did not bow to pressure to repatriate nationals, this was partly facilitated by the closure of borders due to the covid19 pandemic.

“There may be increased pressure in 2021 pending covid19 mitigation efforts.”

The report said about 100 suspected TT citizens were in Syrian and Iraqi camps for FTF, including 15 men, 24 women and 63 children.

“It is expected that as desperation grows, supporters will seek to influence governance structures through legislative pressure and through alliances with pressure groups and other civil society associations.

“Some politicians seeking support, influential figures in the legal fraternity, as well as some sympathetic business owners are expected to join the appeal to the government in the hope of giving impetus to the repatriation. .”

The SSA in 2020 said terrorist actors remained a serious threat in the TT due to their radical leanings.

“Their association with the underworld and the use of the drug and ammunition trade to obtain money to facilitate anti-state actions and behavior will continue to attract the attention of law enforcement and law enforcement agencies. intelligence services Recruitment may also become an issue for national security officers, as more and more disenfranchised young people are left behind as schools close due to covid19, reduced opportunities legitimate employment and education.

“Radical extremism is therefore one of the other threats in the terrorism environment. Patterns of radical recruitment should therefore be observed.”

Lawyer Nafeesa Mohammed had, in a Newsday article in September 2020, called for the repatriation of 21 women and 66 children.

“These women and children are displaced people. They are victims. They suffer and beg to go home.

Saying that they had simply wished to live in a Muslim state, she said: “But that fell apart. He crashed. There is no more ISIS and none of us support terrorist activities.

Then-Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi told Newsday in July 2020: “They didn’t go on vacation. They left for terrorism. They were killed in action in ISIS.

“Have you seen what ISIS did? Behead people. Rape children. Rape women. You can’t, in a government position, look past something like that.

“The Muslim community has overwhelmingly argued that we oppose terrorism.”

Summerville’s Chick-fil-A has temporarily closed for a five-week renovation at its Main Street location, according to a report by The Post and Courier.

The popular fast food restaurant closed on April 16.

The renovations will re-prepare the restaurant’s interior for seated customers, The Post and Courier reported. Chick-fil-A’s indoor dining room has been closed to customers since the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent closures began in 2020. The restaurant has since expanded its drive-thrus to accommodate customers.

Other Chick-fil-A locations in the North Area include one on St. James Avenue in Goose Creek, as well as Northwoods Mall, University Boulevard, Dorchester Road, and Rivers Avenue locations in North Charleston.

South Carolina’s Workforce is Improving

The Ministry of Employment and Manpower announced that employment figures continue to move in positive directions.

The number of people participating in the labor force — that is, people who are employed or actively seeking work — is higher than it has ever been, at about 2,384,360.

The department announced that while the labor force participation rate remains at 57.2%, there are nearly 68,000 more people in the labor force than before the pandemic, and the labor force participation task force South Carolina’s workforce continues to examine the state’s challenges and opportunities to raise the rate.

The agency reports that the number of people employed is 2,303,592. That’s 54,239 more South Carolinians who were working than before the pandemic and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4% in March from the rate 3.5% in February.

“Our agency continues to do its part to provide connections between job seekers and employers,” SC Department of Jobs and Workforce Executive Director Dan Ellzey said in a statement. Press release. “Earlier this week, we announced the launch of the SC Works Veterans Portal which helps transition military personnel into civilian jobs. This is an important tool to help people with strong job skills and not techniques to find a job in South Carolina with one of the many employers looking for qualified candidates.

Knight Companies Promotions

Knight’s Companies, a Summerville-based concrete company, announced several promotions, including a new general manager.

Joe Thomas became general manager of Knight’s Precast, Tekna Corporation and Sovereign Steel. Thomas comes to this role with 32 years of experience in the precast concrete industry.

Previously, Thomas was the Regional Manager for Knight’s Precast and focused on plant operations. Now, in addition to plant operations, he will manage the estimating and engineering aspects of Knight’s Precast, Tekna Corporation and Sovereign Steel.

Joining Knight’s Precast in 1999, Thomas was first attracted to Knight’s because of its reputation as a growing family business. During his time with the company, he saw it triple in size. To maintain this growth and success, he believes constant communication is essential, according to a press release from Knight.

Knight’s Companies also announced that Jodi McCall has been hired as human resources manager.

Previously, McCall was head of human resources at Home Telecom. She comes to Knight’s with 25 years of human resources experience.

McCall will work with Knight’s Companies CEO Pete Knight and senior management to develop employee services, policies and programs aimed at creating a stronger sense of community at Knight’s. Currently managing a team of four human resources professionals, she will lead the implementation of programs aimed at improving the employee experience.

Knight’s Companies offers septic systems, ready-mixed concrete, precast concrete, prestressed concrete, steel rebar products, trucking and concrete pumping services to commercial and residential customers in South Carolina and in Georgia.

A Chester-based pharmacy recruitment agency has seen 400% growth in the past 12 months, predicting an equivalent increase for 2022.

Quad Recruitment, based at Chester Business Park, works in the pharmaceutical industry, placing pharmacy professionals in the UK and USA.

In 2021 alone, the agency won contracts with several UK pharmacy brands, giving them the opportunity to find top pharmacy talent for their vacancies.

Quad Recruitment has a team of consultants who advise their clients who have seen a change in the structure of their processes and results.

With 2022 now in play, the agency predicted a corresponding 400% increase in revenue over last year. This is due to the even higher demand for the pharmacy industry and its ever-growing presence in the United States.

James Roberts, Managing Director, said: “Recruiting has had some of its toughest times throughout the pandemic and has required us to change a lot of the way we do business, but as an agency Pharmacy recruiting, demand was high and we capitalized heavily on that.

“Since opening our doors in June 2015, the business has gone through endless change. Last year was no different for Quad Recruitment which worked for the best, 2020 vs 2021 saw an increase in revenue of over 400%.

“It all depends on strategic planning, internal recruitment and training. We only focus on the pharmaceutical industry and that works perfectly in our favour. »

Looking ahead, he added: “We are now in 2022 and we have the strongest team yet and an ever-expanding portfolio of world-class clients in amazing locations around the world. Here’s another extraordinary year.”

SOUDERTON — Part of Arlene Daily’s job since becoming executive director of the Keystone Opportunity Center in 2017 has been to interact with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) liaison about grants from Keystone with the federal agency.

In her new job at HUD’s Regional Planning and Community Development office in Philadelphia, she will be the liaison.

“I will be that person at HUD working with agencies like Keystone to help ensure they are able to understand and effectively execute their HUD grants,” Daily said.

The office covers an area from Delaware to eastern and central Pennsylvania, so she doesn’t yet know exactly which agencies she will work with, she said in the week before she took office on 28 February.

“I’ve really never had anything like the experience I had at Keystone because it’s such a loving community that really cares about its members and really wants to make sure people have access to food, housing and education,” Daily said.

Keystone’s board and staff are “spectacular,” she said.

“It really is an organization that is centered around the heart and their passion for their customers, the empathy, the willingness to advocate for the customers and the students that they have, everyone is such a team player,” he said. she declared. “They really want to see their community members in need succeed.”

“We are sad to lose Arlene as she has been a wonderful leader and has accomplished so much during her tenure as executive director,” Trish Sneddon, chair of the Keystone Opportunity Center board of directors, said in a statement. “She led the organization through difficult times, both financially and operationally, and we came out of it much stronger, thanks to Arlene. We know she will be as successful in her new role as she was with us.

His time at Keystone included a lot of work to strengthen operational procedures and structures, Daily said.

Meanwhile, Keystone has also taken over the Fresh for All product distribution held every Tuesday in Souderton “and really expanded that program so that there’s more variety of foods and more partners involved,” it said. she declared.

Keystone’s educational programs also increased during this time, she said.

“We’ve taken new territory in education, expanding into Norristown and other parts of southeastern Pennsylvania,” Daily said.

“The housing department has grown,” she said. “Grants and funding for this have increased, so each year we accept more clients than the year before.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased need for the services provided by Keystone, she said.

“The population that we have served throughout, people with low income or no income, is really the population that is the first affected and the last to recover in an emergency, but especially with COVID,” said Daily.

Aid programs during the pandemic are winding down, but the needs remain, she said.

“When you have a very fragile population, it’s hard for them to get up and stay up,” Daily said, “and then when you have an emergency like the pandemic, it’s especially hard for them to recover.”

Acting director appointed

Marta Rubin Kiesling, Acting Director of Keystone, worked as a benefits lawyer for 17 years and has 20 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations.

“I’m excited to be able to work with the organization and build on what Arlene has done,” Kiesling said, “and help prepare the organization for the arrival of the next leader.”

She said she has been fortunate to work in the Pottstown community for several years and sees similarities to the Souderton area in the way people care for each other and the generosity of the community.

She said she expects to hold the interim position for four or five months, depending on how long the search for the new chief executive lasts. The research, which is just beginning, is being conducted by Dunleavy & Associates, where Kiesling has been a consultant for three years.

In addition to listing the organizations and jobs she has been involved in, Kiesling’s profile on the Dunleavy & Associates webpage matchingmissions.com describes her as “a theater geek, an enigma, a foodie and a self-reflective . Gatherer and organizer of people who likes to recharge through bike rides, solo explorations and embarrassing piano playing. Addicted to thrillers – let’s leave it at that.

Keystone’s work is “about people in every way,” Kiesling said, “most importantly with the people who are served in the community.”

“Of course, I won’t engage with the community at the level of Arlene or the new leader, nor should I because I’m here just as a stepping stone, but nonetheless, I’m really excited to be a part of it. of that kind of service work,” Kiesling said. “Hopefully I can help through this little transition period, that’s the idea, and make things as smooth as possible for everyone.”

Keystone is at a strong point, Daily said.

“We’re at a point where we’ve finished a lot of things that we wanted to work on and that gives us the perfect time to be able to transition into someone who will take it to the next level,” she says.

Nonprofit leadership is like a relay race in which each person runs for a while and then passes the baton to the next, she said.

“We all hope that our mission will eventually be resolved and no one will ever need our services again,” Daily said. “Until then, we just stand on the shoulders of the giants in front of us, take over, carry it forward, and then look forward to the next person.

The job posting for Keystone’s new executive director will be posted on the matchingmissions.com website, Kiesling said.

“I’m sure there are a lot of people in the area who would be a great fit,” she said.

“I think this organization is a wonderful place and hopefully there will be good local candidates,” she said, “who want to step up and support her in this way.”

Illinois officials are seeking answers after the murder last week of a state social worker during a home visit – the second such tragedy in less than five years.

Deidre Silas, an investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, was stabbed to death last Tuesday when she responded to a call indicating a possible endangerment of children in a home in the town of Thayer in central Illinois.

A man related to one or more of the six children who were at the home at the time, Benjamin Reed, 32, is being held in Sangamon County Jail without bail on first degree murder and other charges. An Associated Press attempt to reach Reed’s lawyer on Friday failed.

Silas’ death marks the second time in four and a half years that state officials and the social worker community have asked what should have been done, but not been, to prevent it. DCFS investigator Pamela Knight, 59, died of a brutal beating while trying to remove an endangered child from her father in September 2017.

Like Silas, Knight was alone when she was attacked. Officials at DCFS, which has 23,000 dependent children, did not disclose the circumstances of Silas’ visit to Thayer’s home, 23 miles south of Springfield, but DCFS director Marc Smith said said last week that this agency protocol has been followed.

The attack on Silas also marked the 21st time since 2017 that social workers have been subjected to “threats or acts of violence” during 2.5 million home visits in Illinois, said the agency spokesperson Bill McCaffrey.

His death has raised questions about why case workers are sent alone to potentially unstable environments and whether understaffing – an issue that has plagued DCFS for decades despite a federal consent decree regulating it – affects the response. social workers in the field.

“DCFS, if you send someone in a situation like this, send two at once,” Silas’ father Roy Graham said last week. “Whether it’s a man and a woman or two men or two women anyway, but send two per visit, not just one.”

The police have always been willing and able to help. This cooperation was strengthened after Knight’s death. A law signed in 2018 allows law enforcement officers to go to another jurisdiction to save a home visit. Knight, who was based in Sterling, initially had police reinforcements.

But the boy Knight was looking for wasn’t at his father’s house, forcing Knight to check out his grandparents’ house in the neighboring county. She decided that waiting for a new police department to accompany her endangered the boy’s safety. The boy’s father met her at the second stop and beat and kicked her so badly that she suffered brain damage and died five months later.

Arnold Black, a child protection specialist and supervisor at the DCFS Urbana office, said that whenever a social worker or supervisor thinks there should be two workers on a home visit, it is approved. And there is no hesitation in seeking police assistance, as outlined in the agency’s field security administrative procedures.

“Sometimes taking the police can upset the customer. You have to know the family… You have families who are going to scream and yell at you for the first five minutes, but then they’re going to let you in, ”Black said. “But if this is a more recent case, or if it is a rural area, I have no problem bringing in another worker. “

The problem, however, is that worker matching stretches the workforce, which sometimes results in hiring employees from other offices, Black said. The Urbana office has a worker shortage of more than 6%, and agents on Black’s team have workloads of 30-50 families per worker, in many cases exceeding the limit of an executive order. Federal Consent of 1988 which limits the number of new cases assigned per month to 12. to each worker.

The Knight tragedy also resulted, at the instigation of the DCFS Employees Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, in the creation of office security guards and better access to files. of the police of the people to be visited.

Black, a member of the AFSCME committee that discusses issues with DCFS management on a quarterly basis, said the workforce continues to push for other changes it supports.

These changes include ongoing Illinois State Police Self Defense and De-escalation training, public service announcements to familiarize the public with social workers and their duties, and a database of social workers. law enforcement like in Cook County which records not only arrests and convictions, but any interaction with police. have with a particular address.

Newly hired investigators, who earn about $ 55,000 a year, must pass a six-week training session on “foundations” that includes safety precautions, said DCFS spokesperson Bill McCaffrey. Once in the field, they continue under the tutelage of a supervisor and must follow a training session “safety at work and in the field” within 90 days of their start.

Senator Sara Feigenholtz, Democrat of Chicago and leader on child protection issues, said DCFS must build an infrastructure, with the cooperation of the private sector, to recruit and retain employees. She anticipates more immediate security legislation when the facts of Silas’ death become public.

“If there are other resources that we can give to our frontline workers, you will be sure that we are going to look to see how to avoid this kind of situation,” said Feigenholtz.