4Front Announces Upcoming Conference Participation

Company to participate in Canaccord’s U.S. Cannabis Symposium, NCIA California Cannabis Business Conference, Arcview Investor Forum, IC3, and the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in October

VANCOUVER, British Columbia and PHOENIX, October 2, 2019 — 4Front Ventures Corp. (CSE: FFNT) (OTCQX: FFNTF) (“4Front” or the “Company“) today announced that a number of its executives, including President Kris Krane and Chief Investment Officer Andrew Thut, will attend several industry events during the month of October.

Company executives will participate in the following events:

Canaccord’s U.S. Cannabis Symposium
On Oct. 3, Mr. Thut will give a company presentation at 3:10 p.m. ET at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in Toronto. You can view the company’s presentation here.

Arcview Investor Forum
On Oct. 3, Mr. Krane will participate in one-on-one meetings at Convene’s One Liberty Plaza location in New York City.

NCIA California Cannabis Business Conference
On Oct. 9, Josh Krane, Senior Director of Business Development in California, will be available to participate in one-on-one meetings at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif.

Institutional Capital & Cannabis Conference
On Oct. 21, Mr. Thut will participate in a panel on M&A trends in the cannabis industry at 11:15 a.m. ET at Convene’s 117 West 46th St. location in New York City.

Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference
On Oct. 22-23, Mr. Thut and Mr. Krane will give a company presentation and participate in one-on-one meetings at the Palmer House in Chicago.

About 4Front Ventures Corp.
4Front is a cannabis company designed for long-term success and built upon battle-tested operating capabilities at scale, experienced and committed leadership, a strategic asset base, and a commitment to being a magnet for talent. From plant genetics to the cannabis retail experience, 4Front’s team applies expertise across the value chain. 4Front has invested heavily to assemble a comprehensive collection of management skills and hands-on operating expertise to capitalize on the unique growth opportunity being afforded by the increased legalization of cannabis. For more information, visit 4Front’s website.  

Investor Contact
Andrew Thut, Chief Investment Officer 
IR@4frontventures.com
602-633-3067

Media Contact
Anne Donohoe / Nick Opich
KCSA Strategic Communications 
adonohoe@kcsa.com / nopich@kcsa.com 
212-896-1265 / 212-896-1206

This news release was prepared by management of 4Front Ventures, which takes full responsibility for its contents. The Canadian Securities Exchange (“CSE”) has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Forward Looking Statements
Statements in this news release that are forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in 4Front Ventures’ periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as “will, could, plan, estimate, expect, intend, may, potential, believe, should,” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements related to future developments and the business and operations of 4Front Ventures, developments with respect to legislative developments in the United States and the proposed trading dated of the resulting issuer.

Although 4Front Ventures has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, including, but not limited to: dependence on obtaining regulatory approvals; investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are engaged in activities currently considered illegal under U.S. federal laws; change in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; hindering market growth and state adoption due to inconsistent public opinion and perception of the medical-use and adult-use marijuana industry and; regulatory or political change.

There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management’s expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, the results or events predicted in these forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results or events.

Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release. 4Front Ventures disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law, and 4Front Ventures does not assume any liability for disclosure relating to any other company mentioned herein.

The post 4Front Announces Upcoming Conference Participation appeared first on 4Front.

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Drowning In Parenting Advice? Here’s Some Advice For That

At my baby’s six-month appointment a few months back, I got a one-pager from the pediatrician titled “Starting Solid Foods.”

“It is critical that the baby develop a taste for rice cereal at the beginning, to offset the loss of iron from formula or breast milk,” it reads.

Sounds serious. Then come the all caps: “THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF FEEDING GIVE RICE CEREAL ONLY.” That is followed by advice to introduce pureed vegetables before fruits so the baby doesn’t develop a sweet tooth.

I obediently went out and bought some sand-textured baby cereal. (Organic, of course.)

“Oh no, we’re not doing that.” My spouse pointed me to a parenting book we had on the shelf.

“There’s no need for cereals alone; they are bland and bulky and their iron benefits are overstated,” it reads. “The idea that you should introduce vegetables before fruits to avoid creating a sweet tooth is just an unfounded myth. A carrot has virtually the same amount of sugar as an apple.”

Welcome to early parenthood’s barrage of contradictory advice. It tends to be detailed, with convincing internal logic. “Studies” are often invoked. And the stakes feel so high — like, if I do this wrong, will my baby be malnourished or end up a picky eater or not succeed in life somehow?

Enter Brown University economics professor Emily Oster and her new book, Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, From Birth to Preschool. It’s the follow-up to her first book, Expecting Better, a deep look at the data behind pregnancy advice, which has a bit of a cult following. (I am in this cult.)

In her new book, Oster ticks through big and small parenting dilemmas. She uses her training as an economist to look at the relevant research for each of them and to assess how much stock we should put in the findings.

“What I do in the book is actually try to comb through these studies and figure out which of them are giving us the best information,” Oster says. “So then you can make these choices having the best information, not just the first thing that comes up when you Google it at 3 o’clock in the morning.”

OK, so what about my solid-food dilemma? Yea or nay on rice cereal? Veggies first?

“It turns out there isn’t any evidence to suggest that is a particularly important way to introduce foods or not,” she says.

The answer to this one: You do you. Keep the food mushy, and don’t stress about it too much.

This wasn’t my only point of confusion that this book cleared up, even though I’m nearly four years into parenthood. Here are a few of my personal takeaways.

• Nipple confusion is not a thing — you don’t need to wait three weeks after birth to give a pacifier or bottle. (This makes me feel better about giving my firstborn a pacifier on day two.)
• Baby milestones have a wide normal range, so don’t obsess. (Still vaguely worried that by nine months my baby should be clapping.)
• Breastfeeding does not help mom lose weight. (Crushed.)

A lot of the other takeaways are kind of nuanced. They don’t give you a clear-cut answer, so much as information to help you make your own decision. One reason for that is designing a good study of the risks and benefits of a parenting decision is really hard.

Take, for example, Chapter 4: “Breast Is Best? Breast Is Better? Breast Is About the Same?” Oster provides a path through the maze of conflicting advice by sifting out the convincing studies from the questionable ones.

“Most of the studies on this are done by comparing the kids whose moms breastfeed to the kids whose moms don’t,” Oster says. “The issue with that is that the kind of moms who breastfeed are different than the moms who don’t, on average. So, in the U.S. in particular, moms who breastfeed tend to be better educated, higher income, more likely to be married.”

(It’s unclear why that demographic breastfeeds more, Oster says, but the timing for the trend is connected to the public health push away from formula that began in the 1970s.)

Now, let’s say you want to find out the impact of breastfeeding — and not of these demographic differences — on things like IQ and obesity.

“When we narrow in on some studies that are better — like, for example, studies that compare siblings, where one sibling is breastfed and one sibling is not — those studies do not show the same kinds of impacts on long-term things like obesity or IQ,” Oster says.

For the record, she found that there are some health benefits to breastfeeding, but they’re more limited than the hype. If it works for you and your family, Oster concludes, great; if not, formula is a good option.

So, even if you’ve made a decision about how to introduce solids and whether to breastfeed or bottle-feed, there are so many other ones to make! What about baby nap schedules, how to potty train or the financial impact of choosing a nanny versus day care versus staying at home?

As an economist, Oster advocates for taking some of the angst out of it.

When making a parenting decision, she says, “Step one is to kind of really figure out what the best evidence says about the choice.” Look for randomized studies and big sample sizes.

“But then there’s a really important second step, which is to combine that with what is going to work for your family,” she says.

For instance, when she first brought her baby daughter home, she knew the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that your baby sleep in your room, ideally for the whole first year, as part of its safe infant sleeping environment guidance.

“My husband did one day with our older daughter, and he was like, ‘I can’t believe it’s making those noises.’ He just couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t sleep,” she says. Room sharing for a full year was just not workable for her family.

With Cribsheet, Oster is trying to make parents less confused, more confident in their choices and less judgmental of other parents who make different choices. Reading the book makes that feel surprisingly achievable. Laying out the research really strips these decisions of their drama, and you end up wondering why it all felt so overwhelming in the first place.

When the time came to break out the solid foods with my baby, we did mashed sweet potato. A few months into it, emboldened by Oster’s book, we’ve gotten adventurous: This weekend at our Seder, baby even had a bit of brisket smushed up with horseradish.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

from MindShift http://bit.ly/2GDXfB9

Bravetart’s Levain-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve got something BIG for you today. Big, beautiful, and swimming in chocolate morsels. I had to make these cookies as soon as possible after seeing Bravetart (Stella Parks) post about them on instagram. She’s basically a genius at all things baking and often creates copycat recipes of classic sweets. And this chocolate chip cookie is a New York City classic … if you’ve ever been to Levain Bakery in the Big Apple, then you know what I am talking about. Monstrous, majestic and served warm and melty. Like a cushion of chocolatey goodness.

Here’s the link to get Bravetart’s Super-Thick Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (a la Levain Bakery) posted over on Serious Eats.

And here’s a link to her book, Iconic America Desserts if you want to learn how to make Homemade Oreos, Twinkies or Nutter Butters like these for instance.

The rest of this post is basically just photos showing you how glorious these cookies are. Visit the links above for her detailed instructions and a video, too.

Full disclosure. These cookies do have walnuts in them, which I usually don’t like in my cookies, but that’s how Levain makes them, so that’s what she did, and me too. And really, you don’t notice them that much with all the chocolate morsels that make it into every bite of cookie … so I’m okay with that.

And when I say all the morsels. I mean it. These cookies have fifteen. 15. One Five. ounces of chocolate chips in them.

Stella recommends a mix of morsels. I used, Ghiradelli bittersweet, semisweet and milk chocolate chips along with some Guittard 66% cacao baking wafers. Those are the really big ones in the pic above.

Look at that!

And feast your eyes on this. Once you mix up your dough, weigh out about 6 oz for each cookie.

Can you say tennis ball?!

With cookies that big, you’ll end up with eight great big balls of dough. Which is plenty. Trust!

Once your dough is prepared, wrap it up securely and refrigerate overnight.

When you’re ready to bake, sprinkle a little salt on the tops and arrange four cookies at a time on a baking sheet to allow room for spreading. You can also bake as you want to enjoy them over the following couple of days. Because you will want to eat these warm for full effect. Just wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

What?!?!?! I’m in love.

Here’s the inside of one of the cookies. Look at that center! These baked for 22 minutes and were absolutely perfect. They immediately made me think of eating a Levain cookie on the sidewalk in NYC. And I already want to make them again.

And here’s the inside of another cookie. The next time I make these, I’m going to try them without walnuts to see if I miss them and for two minutes less in the oven. You know just to get them a tad more under cooked like I like.

Okay, one more view to enjoy! So good.

from bakerella.com http://bit.ly/2USiKXH

Easy Blueberry Crisp

Most Teachers Don’t Teach Climate Change; 4 In 5 Parents Wish They Did

How Your Teacher-Librarian Can Be An Ally When Teaching With Inquiry

This article was originally published by Canadian School Libraries, a registered non-profit charitable organization dedicated to professional research and development in the field of the school library learning commons in Canada. It is republished here with permission.

By Trevor MacKenzie

We teachers are constantly reflecting on our practice and professional growth. We want to make sure we are doing the best for our students despite the demands of constant assessment, unanticipated curricular changes and continually changing student needs and demographics. Combined with our own desire for excellence, this is so overwhelming. I’ve attended really inspiring professional development, only to figure out that teaching materials, specialized training and additional technology are out of reach for most school budgets. Where can teaching professionals go for support as we try to improve?

I have discovered rich support and learning in my own backyard when I have collaborated with my teacher-librarian. This educational professional is often under-utilized in a school environment. Many teachers see the librarian interact only with students, but they are invaluable resources for teachers as well.

Collaboration with a teacher-librarian creates a rich inquiry practice for classroom teachers that can easily be implemented with students. If we develop the habit of accessing this great resource as a regular class routine throughout the year, we will see the kind of progress and success we are looking for.

Teacher-Librarians Have More Flexible Schedules

The librarian’s schedule and workday provide more flexibility so they can be available to help teachers. The door is open, why not come in? Also, it is my experience that teacher-librarians love having discussions with teaching colleagues–they get to play an active role in student progress and success. I have often stopped by the library unannounced, with the intention of just asking a quick question. What starts out as a two minute query ends up in a rich, inspiring discourse that goes well beyond “a quick question.”

Sometimes I have an underdeveloped idea for an inquiry project and I need a sounding board. How do I figure out a starting point? What will be our goal? What steps should we take to get there? How do I keep things student-centered? During our conversation, the teacher-librarian is willing to listen to me, assess my students’ needs, reflect on an array of resources and learning materials to support us, and then supply them in a timely and easy manner. They ask questions I hadn’t yet thought of, and they direct me toward objectives I had not previously considered. They want to make realizing my lesson goals as easy and seamless as possible.

This type of personalized help makes me feel supported when I sometimes feel like I’m teaching “on an island.” The Teacher-librarians’ unique training gives them a way to assist me in my teaching goals and help me in ways I had not previously envisioned. The flexibility continues. As our inquiry work progresses, the teacher-librarian follows up with us, visiting our classroom to see how the work is coming along, asking questions, making observations, and offering up next steps of support. Students begin to see the teacher-librarian as a “learning partner” — a more authentic support of what’s happening in the classroom.

Teacher-Librarians Strengthen Support

As committed as I am to the inquiry method of learning, and though I have published work to help teachers in the practice, I still have areas of weakness. Mine in particular is the research component. This is where the teacher-librarian is a great partner. They develop a collaborative alliance with me and discover my teaching strengths and weaknesses objectively, without judgement. Because of their training, they have a knack of offering up just the right support in ways that lift up or elevate my teaching practice. They complement my instruction with their own when working with students to assist in the research phase of inquiry.

Teacher-librarians employ their unique expertise as they walk students through the learning library and demonstrate how to navigate databases and locate resources. They also sharpen research skills by helping students understand the validity of information and evaluate it by recognizing bias and persuasion in various sources. This is difficult for both teachers and students to master. I have been so thankful to have teacher-librarians who offer help in this area that I find extremely challenging. It balances out the inquiry experience for my students and provides them (and me) with the support necessary to follow through with our big ideas and meet our learning goals.

A True Teaching Partner

The teacher-librarian is truly a second teacher in inquiry, an additional support for all of my students as we embark on more personalized learning structures and objectives. The more I include my teacher-librarian, the more I find that they are able to help students with inquiry: the collaboration becomes a powerful cycle of support that gains momentum and benefits the students, the teacher, and the culture of learning in the school.

Students can also visit the library to seek out support from the teacher-librarian on their own time outside of class, because they now see that person as “in on the learning” and someone who understands the inquiry and can provide support and help. The teacher-librarian knows the resources in the library, how to locate them, and how to empower students in this process. Students then become more competent independent researchers and learners themselves.

Just as I intentionally nurture a culture of inquiry that gradually releases control over learning to the student, so too does the teacher-librarian partner with the teacher in their support of the student. Now there is a collaborative team dedicated to meeting the needs of the students. Each learner has access to learning and materials based on their learning strengths challenges. The teacher-librarian also gets to know each learner’s topic and can help personalize inquiry much better than I could if I worked alone. The end result is a collaborative team that reinforces independent learning.

Teachers everywhere struggle with meeting student needs even though we have few resources. We also struggle with the breadth of our own learning and practice. We have to get creative. But what if a truly great resource is at our own school, right under our noses? A teacher-librarian is the ideal partner for inquiry – they are flexible and can make time for us and our students. They are a great sounding board to help inquiry projects take shape, make authentic progress and meet meaningful objectives. They build meaningful relationships with students and help them hone their inquiry skills while taking responsibility for their own learning.

Teachers do not need to teach “on an island” with little support when there is such a rich resource in the library–not just for us, but for our students as well. Teachers also don’t have to know everything about a practice from the start: they can learn with their students along the way. It will make them better teachers. Students do better in general when they have more adults on campus they know have concern for them. The teacher-librarian can become a valuable support for teacher practice and student academic growth, as well as their emotional health. Why not make use of this amazing school asset?

Trevor MacKenzie is an award winning English teacher at Oak Bay High School in Victoria, BC, Canada, who believes that it is a magical time to be an educator. Trevor is the author of Dive into Inquiry: Amplify Learning and Empower Student Voice as well as Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders and Curiosities of our Youngest Learners, co-authored with Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt.

from MindShift http://bit.ly/2PmwOmd

What to Do with Hard Boiled Eggs