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From George Washingtons first in 1789 to President Trumps in 2018, Thanksgiving proclamations have been declared by U.S. presidents 164 times. Theyve been proclaimed during times of want as well as times of plenty, during financial crisis as well as economic prosperity, and in times of both war, peace, malaise, and hope. Yet by 2017, this tradition was at risk of disregarding its original purpose until reclaimed by President Trump.

Presidential Thanksgiving proclamations have always kept God at the center. A change occurred, however, with the first Thanksgiving proclamation from Barack Obama in 2009 God was only mentioned once while quoting Washington. From 2010 to 2015, God received only a few passing references. Obama stressed the cultural contributions of Native Americans, typically concluding by asking Americans to be thankful, not to God, but to each other.

In Obamas Thanksgiving proclamation in 2016, God was absent entirely. Obamas changes went against the sentiment of almost all Thanksgiving proclamations that had come before him.

In 1798 and again in 1799, John Adams issued proclamations calling for days of Fasting and Humiliation. After a 15 year gap, James Madison issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1814, followed by another in 1815 which marked an end to the War of 1812 and offered acknowledgments to Almighty God for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of peace.

After Madison, no president until Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation. When, on Oct. 3, 1863, Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November, the proclamation became a presidential tradition. Despite the Civil War, two World Wars, wars in Korea, Vietnam, and throughout the Middle East, an unbroken line of presidential proclamations have reminded Americans to give thanks.

Whats remarkable about the proclamations is their consistency. Americans are called to meet in their accustomed houses of worship, to rest from work, and most importantly to offer prayers of gratitude to God. Andrew Johnson intoned, Resting and refraining from secular labors on that day, let us reverently and devoutly give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the mercies and blessings with which He has crowned the now closing year.

Ulysses S. Grant reminded the nation, It becomes a people thus favored to make acknowledgment to the Supreme Author from whom such blessings flow of their gratitude and their dependence, to render praise and thanksgiving for the same, and devoutly to implore a continuance of God's mercies.

Grover Cleveland was the first president to use his Thanksgiving proclamation to encourage Americans to reunite with forgotten friends and seldom-seen relatives, writing, let there also be on the day thus set apart a reunion of families, sanctified and chastened by tender memories and associations; and let the social intercourse of friends, with pleasant reminiscence, renew the ties of affection and strengthen the bonds of kindly feeling.

Being the son of a Presbyterian minister, and known for his virtuous character, Clevelands Thanksgiving proclamations are especially good. His 1886 proclamation is the first to explicitly call on Americans to remember their private duty to the poor with cheerful gifts and alms.

Beginning with his heartfelt proclamation given less than three months after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, Theodore Roosevelts proclamations were dependably powerful, reverent, and imbued with a sense of duty and purpose. Roosevelts 1908 proclamation should be read by every American.

Woodrow Wilson began a trend of progressive Democrats infusing Thanksgiving proclamations with politics. After spending 1916 promising to keep the United States neutral in World War I, Wilson utilized his Thanksgiving proclamation in 1917 to endear Americans to the war cause. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his 1933 proclamation to advocate for workers rights, and his 1934 proclamation to promote social justice. Following FDRs lead, Lyndon Johnson pushed the war on poverty in his 1964 proclamation.

Yet in 1944, FDR gave one of the most explicitly Christian Thanksgiving proclamations ever. After thanking our Heavenly Father for the success of D-Day and the start of Europes liberation from tyranny, FDR suggested Americans engage in daily readings of Holy Scripture from Thanksgiving to Christmas to renew the nations understanding of eternal truths.

Gratitude for Heavens Grace on the United States goes back to Washingtons proclamations, where he wrote of signal favors, Providence, and Gods Divine beneficence in protecting and preserving the nation. Indeed, regular affirmations of Providence continued in the modern proclamations of presidents Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

With his first opportunity, President Trump returned the Thanksgiving proclamation to its religious origins, imploring Americans to seek God's protection, guidance, and wisdom and recognizing The Almighty as the root of our blessings once more. The presidents 2018 proclamation continued this trend, declaring the nations strong faith in God remains a beacon of hope to all Americans.

And that is certainly something we all give thanks for.

Joshua Lawson is a graduate student at the Van Andel School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College, pursuing a masters degree in American politics and political philosophy. His work has appeared in the Washington Examiner and The Federalist.

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Trump restored references to God in presidential Thanksgiving proclamations after Obama abandoned them - Washington Examiner

The challenge of cleaning up dilapidated and unsafe structures in Martinsville has become overgrown with challenges for city inspectors.

As of November, just two employees had performed more than 1,200 inspections since the beginning of 2019, Building Official and Zoning Administrator Kris Bridges said.

Part of this workload involves following up on two resolutions Martinsville City Council passed in September to address property maintenance concerns from citizens.

One resolution declared more than 20 houses, which City Attorney Eric Monday described as frequent flyers because of recurring complaints, to be public nuisances and ordered property owners to repair the problems. Council added many of the same properties to the rental inspection program at its meeting on Sept. 24.

Since September, Bridges said his office has been working steadily through the rental inspection and public nuisance lists, taking these about five at a time. The inspectors must have time to examine the property and reinspect it once work is completed. Property owners who are found in violation must be given due process and an opportunity to remedy the issue.

At their meeting, council members decided to spare several other houses from the initial lists because the owners seemed willing to work with the city to make repairs. These also require communication and follow-up from the inspectors to make sure the work is being done as planned.

City inspectors are responsible for investigating property maintenance complaints from local residents. These range from junk cars and trash in peoples yards to abandoned houses that are open to squatters and the elements.

Bridges also is working through a list of houses that the council approved for demolition this year because they have deteriorated to the point of being dangerous. The demolition program was had been de-emphasized for several years but was revived by City Council in 2018.

All this is on top of the departments normal workload of inspecting new construction, building repairs and renovations in the city. And there is more construction going on than people might think, Bridges said. If you talk to local contractors, he said, Everybodys busy.

With only himself and inspector Mark Price conducting more than 1,000 inspections a year, Its a balancing act, Bridges said. We do the best we can with the limited resources that we have to address the situations that we can. We do respond to every complaint.

But the city is limited in the problems that can be addressed by limited staffing, lack of money, the time required for the complaint process and what is legal to act on. Bridges said the code allows a D-minus thats barely passing. Well, barely passing is still passing.

When receiving property complaints, he said, We have to look at, are these the worst in the city? Just because it looks bad doesnt mean it rises to the level of a code violation.

Emphasizing safety

The most important concern for the inspections department is safety. They must emphasize situations that affect safety of the occupant and safety of the public in general, Bridges said.

In terms of danger, a building that is open and unsecure against public entry is pretty much the worst of the worst. People can go in and do things like squatting, using building materials as fuel for heat, or other illegal activities. Its a danger to kids who may not understand what unsafe looks like, he said.

The next most damaging issue is having an open, second-floor entry, such as a damaged roof that leaves the property open to the weather.

Theres nothing you can do to make a house go downhill faster than, one, to be vacant, and two, open to weather, where moisture and animals can get in. Those are the top things that make properties high on the list, Bridges said.

Other safety issues can include hoarding or living in a house without proper utilities. A dwelling must have a way to heat water for sanitation, have sources of natural light and ventilation, and provide heat in the winter. This heat source must be permanently installed, not a space heater, he added.

If you dont have electricity but still have gas, you might be using the stove or oven to heat your house, which is very unsafe, Bridges said. Theres no requirement for air conditioning in a single-family dwelling, but there is a requirement for heat. Even then, the legal minimum is 65 degrees during the day and 60 degrees at night.

Protecting renters

Safety was the intent behind Martinsville City Councils addition of 18 properties to the rental inspection list. Council first established the program in November 2018 following several reports of unsafe conditions in local rentals, including bricks that had been removed from a fireplace and a gas line improperly hooked up to a water heater.

Bridges intends for it to be a living list: As some places get cleaned up, others can be added.

Martinsville cannot afford to have a full-blown rental inspection program like some larger localities do, which would include all rental properties in the city, he said. Instead, this one consists of the ones we receive the most complaints about.

Were restricted in what we can charge to run the program, so it cannot be self-sustaining. Were not in a financial situation where we can take on additional responsibilities and tasks that are not cost-neutral, he said. So, we came up with resolution through council that identified specific houses instead of making a broad stroke.

In addition, a full rental inspection program negatively would impact the large number of very responsible landlords out there, Bridges said. We do not need to put regulations on people who are doing what theyre supposed to.

The department strives to work with property owners and give them a reasonable amount of time to make improvements. Several of them are being very cooperative about letting us come in and take a look, he said. We do understand that this is not their only responsibility every day.

Ultimately, inspectors want to work with property owners to repair a problem without resorting to fines or legal action, Bridges said.

The people that ignore us, thats where things escalate, he said. It doesnt do anybody any good to get them in front of a judge, because the money they wouldve spent on the house now goes to court fees and lawyers, and thats not our goal. Compliance is our goal.

The complaint process

Property maintenance violations are driven entirely by citizen complaints usually meaning that a resident calls the inspections department to report a problem in his or her neighborhood. Residents can reach the inspections department at 276-403-5174 or in room 217 on the second floor of the Municipal Building.

When a citizen complaint comes in, inspection staff add it to a master list and go out to inspect the property in person. The complainant must give their name and contact info, but this is not publicly accessible information, Bridges said.

We do not take anonymous complaints. Complainant information is protected, if theyre fearful of some kind of retribution, he said. But we also want to be able to get back with the complainant and let them know what the status is.

If no violation is found, we call the complainant and let them know its not quite to that level, he said.

For example, a backyard that cannot be seen from the street cannot be cited. If its something we have to take extraordinary effort to see, its a little bit beyond the interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, in the opinion of the city attorney. Were not saying its not an issue, just that legally we cant necessarily take action on it, Bridges said.

If a property maintenance violation is found, the city then works to notify the property owner through various means. This includes a notice posted on the door, mail, and in the newspaper.

We have to be fairly consistent in how we notify people. We dont have access to everybodys phone information, he said.

Bridges said he realizes some owners live out of town, but if its your house, youre responsible for keeping up with your house. If you cant do it physically because youre four hours away, you need to get someone to do it for you.

Depending on the type of violation, the time given to get into compliance could be three, seven, 10 days or more.

Complainants can use the citys online tracking system to look up by property and see where your complaint is in the process, Bridges said.

The webpage has a lag time of a day or two, but it does pull directly from the citys property maintenance complaint tracker. The system can be accessed at http://mud-va.org/pmview.php, or by visiting the citys homepage at http://www.martinsville-va.gov, clicking the residents tab, then selecting property maintenance from the menu.

Grass is a tall order

The majority of complaints the city receives deal with high grass. However, this goes beyond a homeowner who skipped mowing the lawn for a week or two.

We dont have a landscaping ordinance; we have a high grass and weeds ordinance. The majority of the yard has to be 10 inches high or more, Bridges said.

Again, the intent behind the ordinance is protecting public safety. Grass that high provides an environment for ticks, snakes or other animals to live, as well as hiding other hazards such as sinkholes, he said.

A groundhog infestation can be just as bad as a snake infestation, Bridges said, because of the digging and burrowing, and creating holes you dont see when you walk across the yard.

Grass can also be a fire hazard when you have extra fuel. Most grasses, when they get up above 10 inches, they start dying off. It doesnt take much to light off a brush fire, he said. Thats when things escalate from a minor problem to a big issue that affects multiple occupants and residences. Thats what were trying to prevent.

If the property owner does not cut the yard down to acceptable levels by the deadline, Bridges said his department refers the case to Public Works to mow it. When we turn it over to Public Works, theyre only going to knock [the grass] down. Theyre not going to make it look pretty, he said.

The owner will then be billed several hundred dollars as a discouragement to having the city be your lawnkeeping service. We dont want to be in the lawnkeeping service, Bridges said.

Demolition

The public nuisance and demolition lists are meant to give the inspections department more options to deal with the worst properties in the city. However, fixing up buildings or having them torn down takes time.

There are myriad opportunities to get these things taken care of, none of which are real fast, Bridges said.

In 2018, when council leaders revived the demolition program, Bridges presented a ranking of 50 or so buildings that had major structural failures or had otherwise deteriorated past the point of repair. As of September, inspections staff had started with a list of the top 13 houses, a complex process of notifying the owners, negotiating to have them repair or demolish it themselves if possible, looking at tax liens, and conducting asbestos surveys. When property owners are unable to fix or demolish the building, the city steps in.

Before the city pays to raze a building, we want to give everybody as much opportunity as we can to get it taken care of themselves, he said. If were having to tear something down, it should not be a fast process unless its an imminent danger to the public.

Budget is another issue. Projects range from $5,000 to up to $27,500 each, Bridges said. In this fiscal year, which began in July 2019, there is $15,000 allocated for demolition in the city budget, plus $10,000 in carryover funds from 2018.

Demolition is not cheap, he said. We dont have a big line item to tear things down.There are a lot of things that need to be addressed in order to do it right.

These include complying with regulations from the Department of Environmental Quality and properly disposing of materials containing asbestos in licensed landfills.

At the September council meeting, Bridges presented a list of the next 12 properties for demolition, but more money will need to be added to the budget before they can be addressed.

Kim Barto Meeks is a reporter for the Martinsville Bulletin. She can be reached at 276-638-8801.

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City of Martinsville's inspectors face hundreds of assignments each month in fighting blight and unsafe building conditions - Martinsville Bulletin

Following a jurys recommendation from the summer, a judge on Monday sent a Georgia drug dealer to prison for more than 50 years.

Antron Adon Tucker, 44, was convicted in August of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, transporting meth into Virginia and possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute after a Wythe County Circuit Court jury trial.

After reaching their verdict, jurors suggested a possible punishment, which Judge Josiah Showalter Jr. followed this week.

According to police and the prosecution, Tucker, who has prior drug convictions in Georgia, was caught in Wythe County in 2017 while taking a variety of illegal party drugs to Harrisonburg to sell.

State sentencing guidelines recommended a punishment of six years in prison, but Tucker opted for a jury trial.

Calling the jurors 51-year recommendation heavy handed, Tuckers attorney, Randy Jones, asked Showalter to give his client a shorter sentence.

This court takes the jurys recommendation very seriously, said Showalter, who also imposed a $100,000 fine on Tucker, whos been held in the New River Valley Regional Jail since his arrest.

Tucker indicated in court on Monday that he planned to appeal his case.

S.C. man convicted of assaulting police officers

A South Carolina man pleaded no contest on Monday to five felonies stemming from an Aug. 3 police chase that ended in Wythe County.

Corey Dennard Black, 34, was convicted of felony eluding police, assaulting a police officer (two counts) and felony destruction of property (two counts).

According to Commonwealths Attorney Mike Jones, Blacks vehicle struck a state troopers vehicle and a Smyth County Sheriffs Office deputys vehicle during a high-speed chase on Interstate 81.

As part of a plea agreement, Black was sentenced to serve one year and four months in jail with credit for time served while awaiting trial.

After his release, Black will be on probation for five years, during which time hell waive his Fourth Amendment protections, which means police can search him without a warrant.

Blacks drivers license was also suspended for a year and he has to pay $2,500 to the Smyth County Sheriffs Office and $1,500 to the Virginia State Place for damage to the patrol vehicles.

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Convicted drug dealer gets 51-year sentence in Wythe - Southwest Virginia Today

The use of lethal drones was once an area dominated by the US, but has spread rapidly, drawing in new conflicts and causing more civilian casualties as warfare is revolutionised.

The principal battleground is Libya, where both sides in the ongoing civil war are trying to gain air superiority with cheap Chinese-made craft run by the United Arab Emirates on one side, and equally inexpensive Turkish-made drones on the other.

Libya is ground zero for drone wars, said Chris Cole, who runs the Drone Wars research group. A complex network of countries are involved and nobody is precisely sure who is doing what.

The conflict pits the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar, the 76-year-old military strongman who controls Benghazi and much of the east of the country, against the forces of the rival Government of National Accord (GNA), which holds the capital, Tripoli.

More than 1,000 people have already been killed in the fighting with 120,000 displaced, according to UN estimates. In April, Haftar launched a new offensive, attacking Tripoli and advancing into the south-west of the country. Since, there have been more than 900 drone missions, the UN estimates.

The use of drones intensified when, after rapid early gains, Haftars forces were stalled by resistance from a coalition of militias fighting for the GNA. This led to an increasing reliance on air power to gain a tactical advantage in what had become a stalemate and to avoid further military casualties, experts say.

Haftar is supported by Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The UAE operates a handful of Chinese-made Wing Loong drones, with an estimated cost of $1m-$2m (800,000-1.5m), a fraction of the price of a US-made Reaper, where the entry level price is about $15m.

The GNA, recognised by the UN as the legitimate government of Libya, is backed by Qatar and the fast-emerging drone power Turkey, which has supplied its Bayraktar TB2 drones in at least three waves this year.

In August, UAE-operated Chinese drones fighting for Haftar were blamed for a double strike targeting a town hall meeting in south-western Libya that killed at least 45 people.

Using a controversial double tap technique pioneered by the US, the second strike came a few minutes later to target first responders, in the belief they would be connected to the original targets. Guests at a nearby wedding who had come to help were among those killed.

The death toll, which included many children, represents one of the largest single loss of civilian life since conflict began in 2011 after the fall of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Jalel Harchaoui, an expert at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, said that in recent months Haftar had switched to using cheaper drones after he had abandoned hope of a successful conventional military attack on Tripoli they were the ideal weapons for a drawn-out campaign aimed at undermining the morale of opponents.

Air power is playing a bigger role and drones are very useful. We have seen a greater tendency to go after soft targets. Slowly but surely there is a higher tolerance for civilian casualties and there has been no real international condemnation, Harchaoui said.

There have been dozens of smaller-scale strikes in recent months, including one that hit a riding club close to the UN compound in Tripoli in early October, injuring several children. Most have been blamed on Haftars forces, who have been using drones to destroy the GNAs Turkish-made aerial vehicles on the ground.

Complicating the picture further, the US periodically conducts its own drone strikes aimed at Isis-affiliated groups in the south of the country. Four recently disclosed strikes were claimed to have killed 43 militants in late September, launched from bases in Italy and Niger.

In November last year, Tuareg people living in the south of the country claimed a US drone strike had killed 11 civilians. But Washington said terrorists had been targeted and it believed no civilians were killed.

The military effectiveness of the GNAs Bayraktur TB2 drones has been proven in Ankaras long-running battle with the separatist PKK in the south-east of Turkey, which has spilled over into Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria, where they have been involved in lethal strikes.

Such is Turkeys success that it has rapidly become a major exporter of medium-range drones, meeting a demand because the US remains unwilling to allow countries in the conflict-torn Middle East to buy its Reaper drones.

The GNA bought 20 TB2 drones from Turkey in the summer, although some replaced drones knocked out by the LNA. Ankara also struck a deal to sell six TB2s to Qatar in 2018 and this year 12 were sold to Ukraine.

Analysts say that in Libya, the deadly air war has been prolonged by the use of the relatively inexpensive drones. Jennifer Gibson, from the human rights charity Reprieve, adds that a long history of secrecy around drone use by the US and its allies has created an increasingly amoral environment around their use.

New users of drones do not feel any great obligation to admit what they have done, because a precedent for non-disclosure has already been set, she said.

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'Libya is ground zero': drones on frontline in bloody civil war - The Guardian

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced today that it is increasing its support to refugees and asylum seekers in urban areas of Libya and reassessing the role and functioning of the Gathering and Departure Facility.

As the Libyan conflict intensifies, we have decided to expand the assistance provided to the refugees and asylum seekers living in urban areas, said UNHCRs Chief of Mission for Libya Jean-Paul Cavalieri.

There are already some 40,000 refugees and asylum-seekers living in urban areas, some of whom are extremely vulnerable and in desperate need of support. Humanitarian assistance to refugees and asylum seekers is available at our Community Day Centre (CDC) in Gurji, district of Tripoli, where those in need can access primary health care, registration and cash assistance to help meet food and accommodation needs.

The agency is also reassessing the role of the Gathering and Departure Facility (GDF), in light of severe and unsustainable over-crowding. The GDF was opened a year ago as a transit facility for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers, mostly women and unaccompanied children at heightened risk in detention and for whom solutions outside Libya had been identified. These solutions remain very limited and require us to identify and prioritise the most acutely vulnerable people within a much broader population, many of whom are in great need. UNHCR and partners operate inside the facility, which is under the overall jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior.

However, since July, following a deadly airstrike at Tajoura detention centre, hundreds of former detainees made their way into the GDF. They were followed by another group of around 400 people from Abu Salim detention centre in late October, as well as up to 200 people from urban areas. They are part of a broader population of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants who are vulnerable and exposed to risks in Libya but have not been prioritised for evacuation or resettlement.

The GDF is now severely overcrowded. It has capacity for around 600 people, but currently hosts nearly double that figure many of whom have been there for several months. UNHCR, UN agencies and our partners have been providing them with humanitarian assistance, including medical care, psycho-social support, hot meals and high-energy biscuits. However, the situation at the GDF is unsustainable and it no longer functions as a transit facility, hampering UNHCRs ability to evacuate the most acutely vulnerable refugees, for whom solutions outside of Libya have been found, out of detention centres and to safety.

We very much welcome the release of asylum seekers and refugees from detention by the Libyan authorities, and are now expanding our programme of support in urban areas so that they can get the help they need, said Cavalieri. We are also encouraging partners and donors to step up support to urban migrants and other vulnerable communities.

We hope that the GDF will be able to return to its original function as a transit facility for the most acutely vulnerable refugees, so we are able to evacuate them to safety, he added, while noting that the GDF has de facto become an open centre for urban migrants and asylum-seekers where UNHCR will continue to provide medical assistance and sanitation services for the foreseeable future, based on available resources.

With the broader package of urban assistance in place, UNHCR will phase out food catering at the GDF in the New Year. UNHCR will continue to inform and counsel individuals who informally entered the GDF about their options and the availability of the urban assistance package. Those with a valid claim for international protection are being offered the urban assistance package to help them move out, including emergency cash for an initial two months, relief items, access to primary health care and medical referrals. They will also be offered to meet with our staff to identify specific vulnerabilities and solutions. We continue to appeal for additional resources that would allow us to provide more substantial and sustained support.

Around 40 people have already agreed to this option, which does not rule out their eligibility for possible future evacuation or resettlement outside of Libya. For example, four individuals who accepted the package have been assessed as eligible for humanitarian evacuation following protection interviews.

The processing of individual cases, including protection assessments and identification of possible durable solutions outside Libya, will continue to take place at UNHCRs Sarraj registration office, in order to ensure the integrity of UNHCR procedures.

UNHCR reiterates that options for resettlement remain unfortunately extremely limited, with the number of available resettlement places worldwide being far outstripped by the needs. Less than 1% of refugees identified by UNHCR as in need are able to be resettled each year. We urge the international community to come forward with more resettlement places and faster processes to help us evacuate more refugees in need of resettlement to safety.

For more information:

In Tunis: Caroline Gluck gluck@unhcr.org +216 299 25506In Tunis:Tarik Argaz, argaz@unhcr.org, +216 29 9612 95In Geneva: Charlie Yaxley, yaxley@unhcr.org, +41 79 580 8702

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UNHCR expands help to refugees in urban areas in Libya, reassesses role of Gathering and Departure Facility [EN/AR] - Libya - ReliefWeb