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Gerd Saalfrank, a Potsdam-based meteorologist for the German Weather Service (DWD), explained that the storms in Brandenburg were caused when two weather fronts met. An unstable layer of air coming in from the North Sea met warmer air from inland. In some areas between 30 and 40 liters of rain fell per square meter, he noted.
By Monday evening, the storm front had weakened and was moving away toward Poland and the Czech Republic, where emergency services have been dealing with floods that could also endanger parts of Germany. Other regions in eastern and northern Germany also saw bad weather over the weekend, although in southern Germany temperatures as high as 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) were recorded.
Amidst the turmoil of all the immigrant family separation stories, the media has decided to turn to their unblemished angel, Hillary Clinton, for her insight on the controversy.
On June 29th, The Guardian posted an interview with the 2016 presidential candidate, covering her thoughts on the Trump administration and the border issues. Painted like a child-loving heroin from a tragic play, the “stricken” Hillary proclaimed her concern for all the immigrant children.
“I worry about that. I’m worried that some children will not be reunited,” she revealed. “The question of how we reunite the children who were taken from the parents is the one that’s keeping me up at night.” All. Night.
Dabbing her eyes, she lets rip.
Touching, but Hillary defended crushing babies’ skulls. It would have looked bad for The Guardian to point out that back in the 2016 Hillary defended partial-birth abortion, a procedure in which a baby is partly taken out of the womb and then brutally killed. Just like Hillary tried to paint her support of the procedure under a sympathetic light, The Guardian disguised her as a selfless children’s rights advocate.
She was not just maternal though, she also had a fierce passion for justice. “What is more uncivil and cruel than taking children away? It should be met with resolve and strength,” she declared.
One wonders if Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey see her as someone devoted to civility and kindness too. The Guardian didn’t think about asking them, probably because they accused Hillary of sanctioning Bill Clinton’s sexual assaults back in the 90’s.
Liberals and the media have a flare for the ironic concerning the border situation. Two weeks ago, the former Planned Parenthood executive Cecile Richards tweeted that she was horrified that babies were being ripped from their mothers arms. Apparently The Guardian didn’t want her to steal the show. That’s why they brought in Hillary for the second act.
ROSEMONT, IL: The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) has hired the GCI Group for a nationwide PR campaign to drum up support for medical liability reform at the state level.
The integrated effort will use the association's state societies to work to pass reform legislation in states where there are no effective laws to cap non-economic pain and suffering damages in medical liability lawsuits. Such laws, modeled after a California statute, would still allow patients to collect for economic losses due to injury caused by medical mistakes.
The liability crisis, caused by massive jury awards and ballooning insurance rates, has led to a shortage of specialists like orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, and obstetricians in many areas.
Many physicians groups, including the AAOS, are working on the issue on the federal level. But the severity of the crisis varies from state to state, a fact that has structured the AAOS campaign.
"We decided to use an approach where we provided the tools and training to all of our state societies so they would be able to manage the crisis within their states," said Sandra Gordon, AAOS director of public education and media relations. "They have the messages, ads, and PR counsel, but they can make changes."
"The states have the opportunity to use the advertising," said AnnaMaria DeSalva, EVP of Healthcare North America for GCI. "They've got the ads, and we'll be supporting them at no cost to them to tailor them to place them locally. A challenge for the state societies is figuring out what resources they have and how to deploy them."
Jessica Scott-Forbes, director at Haygarth, on the 'considered' Adam Bostock.
'Adam joined us as an account executive in 2003 and immediately we were struck by his calm nature. He had charm, intelligence and dashing good looks, but somehow coupled it all with a lack of arrogance.
'We put him to work on our global Chivas Regal campaign and he made a name for himself around product launches, events and the launch of forum thisisthelife.com. His laidback approach and fun nature were a hit with both colleagues and clients, and Adam was always unflappable - even when things got rather tricky.
Adam Bostock is now working in the Australian film industry.
Splashing in a pool and dancing with one of her bodyguards, Britney Spears looked happier and healthier than she has in years as she showed the world that she has her killer bikini body back.
The occasion was a weekend getaway vacation to Los Cabos, Mexico, organized by Palms Casino owner and good family friend George Maloof, who intended to help Britney relax after finalizing her hard-fought custody battle against her ex-husband Kevin Federline.
Britney, 26, lost that war. On July 25, Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon signed off on an agreement giving Kevin, 30, sole legal and physical custody of their sons, Jayden James, 22 months, and Sean Preston, who turns 3 on Sept. 14.
Britney is allowed supervised visitation three times a week, including one overnight. Still, just having the custody battle over was a relief for Britney, whose focus now is staying fit (she eats five small protein-packed meals a day and works out rigorously), getting her career back on track and, most important, being a great mom to her little boys.
"Britney had an overnight visit with Jayden and Preston before leaving for Mexico," a source tells OK!. "They had just been picked up to go back to Kevin’s on Saturday morning when she left for the airport. Britney was in great spirits when she got on the plane."
For the complete story on Brit’s trip to Cabo, pick up the new OK! — on newsstands everywhere Thursday!
Non-stop loops of rock, hip-hop, classical, ambiental, and techno music were played to aging Emmental cheese wheels to see whether the sounds would affect the taste. Surprisingly, the music did appear to have an effect on the cheese, especially the hip-hop music: it made for a stronger and fruitier smell.
They look similar but taste slightly different. Image credits: Bern University / Beat Wampfler.
Cheese-making is big business. Most people love a healthy chunk of tasty cheese, but for some people, the old Cheddar, Camembert, or even Danish Blue just won’t cut it. As a result, there’s immense variability in the cheeses you can find on shelves, ranging from fruity cheeses to mold cheeses and even some cheeses made with worms.
But, regardless of what they contain or how extreme they are, all cheese-making involves a dance between milk and fermenting bacteria. Despite our thousands of years of making and eating cheese, we’re still only now learning some things about this process and the bacteria that drive it. To test a rather quirky theory, Swiss producer Beat Wampfler and a team of researchers from the Bern University of Arts played different types of music for 6 months to several aging Emmental wheels.
Three other wheels were exposed to simple high, medium, and low-frequency tones, to assess whether it was the music itself causing the effect, and not just exposure to sound.
The researchers then subjected the cheeses to two types of tests: laboratory analysis (which have not been finished yet) and a taste test carried out by a star-studded line-up. Both results highlighted differences between the cheeses. The sample from the medium-frequency cheese exhibited the strongest taste, along with the control sample. The hip-hop cheese, however, was considered the tastiest.
“The experiment was a success, and the results are amazing: the bio-acoustic impact of sound waves affects metabolic processes in cheese, to the point where a discernible difference in flavour becomes apparent – one which can even be visualised using food technology,” researchers write in a press release.
The tests were quite thorough. Core samples were taken from the cheese wheels for the sensory screening tests immediately before the evaluation, with each core sample being approximately 10 cm long and 1 cm in diameter.
Each tester received half a core sample, served to them on odorless and flavorless paper plates. It was a “blind” test, so they did not know which cheese they were tasting. The sensory screening of the cheese samples was carried out based on a consensus profile, the press release reads.
Hip-hop cheese appeared to be on top for most people, having a stronger and more fruity flavor, something regarded as favorable in the context. Of course, the taste test is subjective and not everyone agreed. The Mozart cheese, which had a milder taste, was preferred by some.
While this is obviously a cool project with a creative approach, perhaps a healthy dose of skepticism is also required on top of that cheese. The lab results have not yet been concluded, and the study itself has not been peer-reviewed — there’s a certain advertising bonus associated to this whole thing, so it’s safe to say that it will still be a while before results are confirmed. For instance, the heat generated by the transducer playing the music might also influence how the cheeses aged.
The scientists themselves acknowledge the need for a stronger case for this type of study.
“More extensive testing is required in order to determine whether there is a link between exposing cheese wheels to music as they mature and discernible sensory differences,” they conclude.
It has been six years since President Clinton signed legislation creating business advantages for veterans and almost two years since the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 created additional benefits and incentives, yet the government is still not meeting its contracting goals.
In the eyes of some advocates, it's not even coming close. According to a Small Business Administration report compiled from Federal Procurement Data System information, only 0.38 percent of contracting dollars in fiscal 2004 went to businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. Worse, critics say, the report omits some contracting data that, if included, could make the share going to small businesses even smaller.
With the passage of the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999, the federal government set a goal of spending 3 percent of contracting funds on such firms. If agencies failed to take note, that should have changed in the past two years, said John Moliere, an advocate for such businesses. He is president of Standard Communications and a Vietnam veteran.
In December 2003, the Veterans Benefits Act created a set-aside class for the companies. After a 2004 executive order from President Bush called for the creation of a governmentwide acquisition contract to make it easier for agencies to find qualified companies, the General Services Administration created the Veterans Technology Services GWAC in April.
Moliere said the stage is now set for companies owned by service-disabled veterans to gain a higher profile. And although agencies can take more steps to better comply with the legislation, businesses' success depends in large part on the businesses themselves, he added.
"When I speak publicly, I admonish people that I've been very successful, but every bit of business [I won] until July of this year, I've earned in a full and open competition," he said. "It's important to be qualified. There's no substitute for work, and there's no room in this or any other place for phonies. The only entitlement we have is to a fair opportunity."
Guy Timberlake, chief executive officer and chief visionary officer at the American Small Business Coalition, said some small companies have the same misunderstanding about set-asides that others do about getting on the GSA schedules. They think it's an endpoint and don't understand that it's just the beginning, he said. Companies are designated as belonging to a particular category -- such as the 8(a) designation or the business classification for companies owned by service-disabled veterans -- and they expect the contracts to roll in.
Companies are not entirely to blame for that misconception, Timberlake said. "Government still perpetuates the notion that getting 8(a) is a good way to do business with the government," he said. "They really do nothing to dispel the notion that it's a shortcut."
Larry Allen, executive vice president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, said that in creating a variety of small-business categories for special or preferential treatment, Congress has divided the pie into a growing number of slices that each get increasingly smaller. That approach forces agencies to make choices and means it is almost inevitable that some contracting goals will not be met.
However, he said, companies owned by service-disabled veterans have the best potential for increasing their business in the coming months.
"There is now a mandate to do more business with service-disabled vets," Timberlake said. "That mandate was backed up with at least one good-sized GWAC that's going to have good visibility within GSA. And all else being equal, because we have troops in the field right now, you have people who feel they should pay back those who have already been" in combat.
Government policy has a say in how agencies spend their contracting dollars, but veterans' advocates agree that much of the onus is on the companies themselves. Business strategy and an entrepreneurial attitude count at least as much as policy.
The Veterans Corp., chartered by Congress in 1999, is a resource for veterans who want to learn how to start and run a business. It also offers some access to capital loans and other resources that can equip a motivated business owner to compete more successfully, said Walt Blackwell, TVC's president and CEO.
"TVC is there to do the things that government can't do or shouldn't do," he said. "Government shouldn't really have a role in the networking that brings companies together, shouldn't be involved in the details of education and training, and shouldn't be involved in getting companies access to capital."
Most veterans look to TVC for help in accessing funds and securing surety bonds, in which an underwriter promises to make good on any promises the company can't keep, he said.
"Without capital, no business is successful," Blackwell said. "Without the ability to get bonded, government contracting is mostly inaccessible."
TVC is working with 155 companies that provide such bonding with the goal of creating a pool of willing underwriters. Blackwell said veteran-owned small businesses are often overlooked as a potential market, so his job is to convince the underwriters that the firms represent a huge untapped opportunity.
On the funding front, TVC is launching a pilot program in October in Virginia; Delaware; Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Florida through which lenders will provide unsecured loans of up to $300,000 each to some start-up businesses.
"This new access to a capital line is an incredible head start," Blackwell said.
TVC is adding distance-learning classes to the in-person training it provides. Recently, 46 military members stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, took advantage of one of TVC's Web-based courses. Training encompasses business and basic life skills, including adult literacy, Blackwell said. TVC is trying to add degree programs as well.
Moliere said he finds it ironic that SBA, which is "supposed to be for all these downtrodden folk," spent no money with companies owned by service-disabled veterans in fiscal 2004. Agencies need to know more about the program for vets, he said.
"It's an education process, and the education process shouldn't be hit and miss," he said.
Bush's executive order instructed agencies to develop plans for hiring businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, and agencies are showing varying degrees of interest in meeting the goals, Moliere added.
"So all of those agency plans are there," he said. "They rank from excellent to 'Jesus, forget it.' " He ranked GSA and the Department of Veterans Affairs among those that have good plans.
"I think it's going to be an ongoing battle," Timberlake said. "Because the government is a conservative-natured organization, they're going to be risk-averse. When they have a choice between using a company that they have a relationship with -- large or small -- and giving it to a service-disabled veteran-owned company, they're going to lean toward going with the company they know."
When Walt Blackwell (right) left the Navy in 1969, he had no idea what to do with the rest of his life. Through a series of acquaintances, he landed a job at IBM, where he stayed until 1993. He left the company to begin a career in managing nonprofit organizations.
Now he is president and chief executive officer of The Veterans Corp., which was chartered by an act of Congress in 1999 to help veterans gain business skills.
The environment for small businesses has changed remarkably since 1969, Blackwell said. It's changed dramatically since the late 1990s, when venture capital flowed freely to Internet and technology start-ups of all kinds.
Investors responded to the subsequent collapse of the dot-com market by holding onto their remaining cash for a while, he said.
"These days I think that cash is being loosened," Blackwell said. But he doesn't think people will ever see the kind of money that flowed then, when some deals were written on napkins. "The '90s, the dot-com era, was a little cowboy-esque," he said.
Historically Underutilized Business Zone firms -- defined broadly as companies located in economically depressed areas and staffed by people in those areas -- represent another category where contracting dollars don't match the goal. Agencies are supposed to spend 3 percent of their contract funds with HUBZone firms, but such businesses got only 1.6 percent of fiscal 2004 contract dollars, according to a recent Small Business Administration report.
An interim rule SBA published Aug. 30 expands the HUBZone program, as directed by the Small Business Reauthorization and Manufacturing Assistance Act of 2004. For the first time, the legislation allows up to 49 percent foreign ownership of HUBZone firms, expands the residency requirements for tribally owned HUBZone firms to allow more flexibility and designates areas around closed military bases as HUBZones for five years after final closure.
It also extends the period during which firms can continue to reap the rewards of the HUBZone designation after the areas in which they are located lose their qualifying status. Previously, the period was three years, but under the new law, it is either three years or until the public release of the 2010 census data, whichever is later.
The interim rule went into effect with publication. SBA will take comments through Oct. 31 and then issue a final rule reflecting the comments.
The run-up to the U.S. presidential election is like a "reality TV show" but will boost business, the boss of one of the world's leading advertising companies told CNBC.
Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, said that the upcoming race to become America's next president, the Rio Olympics this year, and the Euro 2016 soccer championships – despite the controversy around the sport's world governing body FIFA – will help the company.
"We are seeing big issues in most sports, there is going to have to be very significant change at FIFA, and elsewhere in order to get it right…but that will end up to the good…but having said that you're right, this year when possibly Hillary wins the US presidential election, that will be helpful for our business," Sorrell told CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Politicians are battling it out in the U.S. to represent their party in the upcoming elections. Sorrell said the race to pick candidates is "rather like a reality TV show".
The advertising veteran also said he remained bullish on China, despite stock market volatility and concerns over the growth of the world's second-largest economy.
"We saw tremendous volatility. I don't think it's going to be much different this year, but I remain long-term, as far as the future of WPP is concerned, that fast-growth markets digital, data…Certainly in the context of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China)…China is very important," Sorrell said.
His comments come amid calls from business leaders of a need to focus on the long-term opportunities rather than a short-term outlook.
Mark Weinberger, the chief executive of EY, said that macroeconomic uncertainties, such as the persistently low oil price, is damaging business confidence and stopping companies from investing. But he called on business to ditch the short-term outlook and invest for long-term opportunities such as the emerging markets.
"Everybody is focused on short term, but you have to separate the noise from the signal. You have to look at where things are going long term otherwise your investments will never pay off," Weinberger told CNBC in a TV interview.
"If you're pulling out of the emerging markets today, you're going to be way behind tomorrow," he added.
All stations south of Braddock Road are closed this weekend. The weekend shutdown foreshadows a three-month-shutdown of an even larger stretch of the Blue and Yellow Lines this summer.
WASHINGTON — All stations south of Braddock Road are closed this weekend on the Blue and Yellow Lines.
Franconia-Springfield, Van Dorn Street, Huntington, Eisenhower Avenue and King Street stations are served by shuttle buses only Saturday and Sunday due to track work.
In areas where Blue and Yellow Line trains are running, those trains are scheduled every 20 minutes each. Yellow Line trains are also cut back to run only to Mt. Vernon Square in the District rather than to Fort Totten.
Separate single-tracking near Stadium-Armory also slows the Blue Line, and impacts Orange and Silver Line service.
Orange Line trains are scheduled every 20 minutes this weekend. Silver Line trains are also every 20 minutes, but will run to New Carrollton in Maryland rather than Largo Town Center.
Single-tracking is also scheduled on the Red Line between Van Ness and Friendship Heights. Red Line trains are scheduled every 18 minutes, with additional trains during the day between Farragut North and Silver Spring.
This weekend’s Blue and Yellow Line shutdown foreshadows the three-month-long shutdown of an even larger stretch of the Blue and Yellow Lines this summer. There will be no trains south of Reagan National Airport from May 25 through Sept. 2.
Metro also tentatively plans to shut down that entire stretch south of Reagan National Airport the weekend of March 2-3.
In the more immediate future, Metro plans single-tracking on several lines next weekend, followed by a Red Line shutdown downtown the following weekend Feb. 9 and 10.
Democratic attorneys general from 18 states and Washington D.C. sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday after she delayed an Obama-era rule meant to protect student borrowers.
The Borrower Defense to Repayment rule was created in 2016 and was set to take effect on July 1. But DeVos announced in June that she would delay its implementation. Instead, she directed her department to create committees to review and improve the rules.
The rule would have clarified the federal loan forgiveness process for students who were defrauded or misled by their colleges. While students in this situation could previously apply for forgiveness, the rule would have created several protections.
First, it created standards for students going through the process. And it set up a fast-track application for students who were enrolled in a college when it shut down, or were involved in instances of widespread fraud. The rule also banned schools from requiring students to sign mandatory arbitration agreements that waived their rights to go to court.
DeVos's move to delay Borrower Defense "is a betrayal of her office's responsibility and a violation of federal law," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. She accused DeVos of "sid[ing] with for-profit school executives against students and families drowning in unaffordable student loans."
She said the Borrower Defense regulations "suffer from substantive and procedural flaws," citing a separate lawsuit brought against the department in May by a group representing for-profit colleges in California. That group is seeking to block the rule from going into effect, complaining it "threatens the existence" of many of its member institutions.
DeVos decided it was time to "hit pause on these regulations until this case has been decided in court and to make sure these rules achieve their purpose: helping harmed students," Hill said.

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