Day: January 6, 2022

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Solution Tree Inc. Acquires Results Coaching Global

Bloomington, IN, Jan. 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Solution Tree Inc.—owner of Solution Tree, Marzano Resources, Solution Tree Education Canada and Hawker Brownlow Education—longtime leaders in the field of educator professional development—has acquired international coaching specialty company Results Coaching Global (RCG) in a move that will continue to ensure learning for all by empowering education professionals with exceptional knowledge and skills. The transaction was completed on Jan. 3, 2022, for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2015 by educators and professionally certified coaches Karen Anderson, PCC, M. Ed.; Vicky Dearing, PCC, M. Ed.; Kathryn Kee, PCC, M. Ed.; and Frances Shuster, PCC, M. Ed., Texas-based RCG is a premier provider for high-quality coaching and is accredited/certified by the International Coaching Federation. RCG’s mission to support school leaders by providing system-wide solutions for professional learning closely aligns with the work of Solution Tree Inc.
“We are pleased to add Results Coaching Global to the Solution Tree Inc. portfolio of professional learning products and services,” said Solution Tree President Ed Ackerman. “This acquisition is a natural fit as we continue to support educators’ efforts to ensure high levels of learning for all.”

“The RCG founders have thought a great deal about the next generation of our company. We considered ways to keep our dream and mission alive for when the time was right for the founders to step away from daily operations. After many conversations with district leaders, seeking and examining for the quality standards we sought and getting references; over and over the very highly respected educational company kept meeting our criteria—Solution Tree. Solution Tree is our first choice to entrust the legacy of our collective contributions to K-12 educational leadership and build upon the foundation created by the RCG team,” said Kathryn Kee, spokesperson and co-founder of RCG.

RCG’s founders will serve as strategic advisors to RCG and will continue in their instructional and coaching roles. Day-to-day operations will continue with no disruption to products, services, and customer care. RCG will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Solution Tree Inc. Longtime Solution Tree staffer Macy Harmon will assume general manager responsibilities for RCG.

About Solution Tree
For more than 20 years, Solution Tree (https://www.solutiontree.com) has worked to transform education worldwide, empowering educators to raise student achievement. With more than 48,962 educators attending professional development events and more than 5,500 professional development days in schools each year, Solution Tree helps teachers and administrators confront essential challenges. Solution Tree has a catalog of more than 515 titles, hundreds of videos, and online courses and is the creator of Global PD, an online tool that facilitates the work of professional learning communities. Follow @SolutionTree on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Contact
Solution Tree
Erica Dooley-Dorocke
Erica.Dooley-Dorocke@SolutionTree.com
800.733.6786 ext. 247 ###
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Floods: Trader uses boat to buy from growers unable to deliver crops

SEGAMAT, Jan 6 — A fruit seller’s initiative to buy from fruit growers in Kampung Serakek and Kampung Simpang Jabi here has helped in easing their burdens as they are unable to deliver their crops to traders due to floods.

Mahathir Mahmud, 43, said he hoped his small effort would help the villagers whose income mostly depended on selling fruits grown in their orchards.

He said the growers could not deliver the fruits to traders because the main road connecting the two villages was flooded.

“Realising their difficulties, I take it upon myself to go to the villages by boat and buy their crops even in small quantities because I do not want them to lose their source of income during difficult times like these,” he said when met by Bernama at his stall in Buloh Kasap here today.

He said he would normally buy bananas at RM2 per kilogramme and durians between RM20 and RM30 per kilogramme from the growers.

Meanwhile, a rubber farmer Mohd Zahari Abdul Samad, 47, said he could not go out to work for almost a week now as the road leading to his rubber plantation was flooded, which has also damaged some of the trees.

He said to support his family, he now repairs electrical appliances for residents in Taman Yayasan here.

Segamat recorded the highest number of flood victims in Johor with 2,460 people from 676 families were housed at 36 flood relief centres as of 4 pm today.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

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COVID: MoH probes 17 Omicron infection cases with no records of vaccination

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) has detected 17 out of 122 individuals who were infected with Omicron variant as of Jan 4, were found not to have COVID-19 vaccination record.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said MOH is investigating the matter on the records of travellers from abroad who have no vaccination history due to health problems or other reasons.

He said 10 of them involved Malaysians while seven others were foreigners.

”The Omicron import cases without vaccination records are from United Kingdom with four cases, Nigeria (four), United Arab Emirates (four) and one each from the United States, Australia, Ghana, Ireland as well as Saudi Arabia,” he told a media conference here today.

According to Khairy, initial MOH investigations found 122 positive Omicron cases after entering Malaysia with 14 per cent or 17 cases without vaccination.

“Here, there is a non-compliance of standard operating procedure (SOP) as only those who have been vaccinated are allowed to travel,” he said.

Meanwhile, Khairy said the cumulative positive COVID-19 Omicron variant cases detected in Malaysia is 245 cases with 157 cases or 64.08 per cent comprising umrah pilgrims.

Following this, he said the Cabinet yesterday ordered the temporary postponement of umrah for a month from Jan 8 to enable a risk assessment to be carried out before allowing the pilgrimage to resume.

He said MOH with the relevant ministries and agencies would be updating the SOP for umrah, among them the requirement to take the booster dose and the monitoring of health status of umrah pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, Khairy said the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry would be holding discussions with tour agents to reschedule umrah while the Transport Ministry would manage the flight schedule.

“MOH would like to remind individuals who have been directed to undergo compulsory quarantine at home to comply with the order and to remain isolated and not to meet any family members in the house,” he said.

According to him, failure to comply with the order could spread COVID-19 including the Omicron variant to family members and the community.

MOH also urged individuals who are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine to take the booster shot to achieve optimum level of protection and avoid COVID-19 infection as well as its complications.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

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COVID: New infections up again to 3,543 cases

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — Daily COVID-19 cases rose again today to 3,543 compared to 3,270 cases yesterday, taking the cumulative total infections to 2,776,699 as of 12 noon today.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said from the total new cases reported, 53 cases were in categories three, four and five while 3,490 other cases were in categories one and two.

“There are 253 cases requiring treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICU) while 130 patients need respiratory assistance,” he said in a statement on the development of COVID-19 today.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were 3,484 recoveries recorded taking the cumulative total recovery cases to 2,705,292.

He said seven new clusters were identified with 190 clusters still active to date while the infectivity rate (Rt) in the country was 0.97 yesterday.

Apart from that, Dr Noor Hisham said there were no additional COVID-19 cases involving flood victims which remained with 465 cases.

He said 33 infectious diseases were detected among flood victims comprising 22 cases of acute respiratory tract infections, skin diseases (10) and acute gastroenteritis (one)

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

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COVID-19: Daily cases expected to reach 30,000 if Omicron wave not curbed – Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — The Health Ministry (MOH) foresees that daily COVID-19 infections will reach 30,000 cases if measures are not taken to curb the Omicron wave.

As such, Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the decision to temporarily suspend the permission for umrah travel was one of the measures that had to be taken to prevent the spread of the variant.

“Based on the MOH’s simulation, if we do not take preventive measures such as the temporary postponement of umrah travel and quarantine procedures, we will see cases surge from this month until February to over 15,000 a day,” he told a press conference here today.

He said the expected figure was the result of MOH’s projections through the susceptible, exposed, infectious, and recovered (SEIR) model using the infectivity rate (Rt) of 0.95, 1.2 and 1.6 respectively.

Khairy said although Omicron variant infections were not as severe as the Delta variant so far, should the number of cases increased to 30,000, hospital admissions would also surge, though the patients are only under categories one and two.

On the administration of booster doses, he said four integrated vaccination centres (PPVs) with a much bigger capacity would start operating on Jan 15 at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre (WTCKL), Axiata Arena Bukit Jalil, Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) Shah Alam. and Soka Gakkai in Klang.

“The booster dose will be given through appointments made through the MySejahtera application or short message service (SMS),” he said.

However, individuals can contact the Private General Practitioners Vaccination Centres (PPV-GP) listed on the ProtectHealth website to register for the clinic’s waitlist.

To date, 30 per cent of the adult population and 52 per cent of senior citizens in the country have received their booster shots, he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

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Johor Assembly passes lowering of age limit of candidates for state seats

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Jan 6 — The Johor State Assembly today passed an amendment to the 1895 Johor Constitution to lower the age of candidates for state seats from 21 years to 18 years.

The amendment on the age limit in Clause 16 of the Second Part of the State Constitution was proposed by Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad and seconded by Semarang Assemblyman Datuk Samsolbari Jamali. It was passed unanimously after the third reading.

Hasni, when tabling the bill, said it was one of the various ongoing initiatives by the state government to empower the young people.

With this development, Johor has joined Pahang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang in amending the state constitution to reduce the age limit from 21 years to 18 years of candidates for state seats.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

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Hong Kong New Year Countdown Celebrations spark arts spectacular across Victoria Harbour

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 — Hong Kong’s iconic Victoria Harbour lit up exceptionally bright as the city rang in 2022, taking its thriving art scene right to the global centre-stage.

At 11:59pm on Dec 31, last year, the 65.8-metre-high LED facade of M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, was transformed into a countdown clock, which travelled across the rich cityscape of Hong Kong.

Once the clock struck midnight, a special edition of the multimedia show, A Symphony of Lights cast a dazzling array of visual effects across Hong Kong’s famous skyline complemented by rooftop pyrotechnics and lighting effects launched at various elevations.

This is along with New Year’s greetings in 15 different languages on the M+ Facade, sending sincere blessings to the rest of the world, according to a statement.

The dazzling light art extravaganza across the harbour was synchronised with energetic, jubilant music performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the city’s flagship orchestra, in an outdoor concert in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency