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Corbyn has given up on Europe. For the good of Britain, we cannot
David Miliband
As Labour subscribes to the government’s dangerous Brexit fantasies, a people’s vote is now the only way to ensure stability
Mon 24 Dec 2018 07.38 EST Last modified on Mon 7 Jan 2019 10.20 EST
‘It is reported that five cabinet members can now see their way to supporting a people’s vote.’ Photograph: Tim Ireland/AP
The debate about Brexit has entered a new and potentially chaotic phase. Britain has already suffered an economic and reputational hit from the Brexit saga. Investments are on hold, jobs are being moved, the pound has lost value. Britain has come to be seen as a political risk rather than a force for stability. If our leaders continue to peddle illusions about the real choices, they risk turning damage into carnage.
Jeremy Corbyn told supporting Brexit could cost Labour seats
The first illusion is that the fundamental problem with Brexit is the faulty negotiating tactics of the government. This is said by both the Brexiters and the Labour leadership. Boris Johnson says Britain should have shown “more willpower”. Dominic Raab says we should have threatened to withhold agreed payments. Owen Paterson says we should embrace no deal to frighten the EU into concessions.
The Labour leadership is not much better. Jeremy Corbyn’s Guardian interview has rightly caused a furore. He makes clear that his difference with the government lies in tactics not goals, personnel not principles. The assertion – it does not deserve to be called an argument – seems to be that a better atmosphere would get a better deal. But this is a confusion at best and a fantasy at worst.
There is no doubt that the government has botched the negotiations, with everything from the red lines over the customs union and single market to the premature triggering of article 50 (with, it must be remembered, Corbyn’s support) and the partisan approach adopted by the prime minister.
But this is a flawed starting point. The problems of the Brexit negotiations are structural and not primarily the result of the government’s incompetence. The contortions of Brexit are integral to it rather than incidental. The promises of Brexit can never be squared with each other or with reality. There is no future state where frictionless trade and the commitments of the Good Friday agreement (to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic) are compatible with departure from the customs union and single market. The debate about the backstop is a symptom of the problem, not the core problem. If you leave the club, then you cannot enjoy the benefits.
A second illusion is also vitally important. This is the idea that if Theresa May’s plan, or the Labour version of it, is passed, then we could be done with Brexit and get on with improving the country. The reality is that if the May plan is voted through, the contortions that have bent it out of shape will continue. They will reappear, many times, when the negotiations about the future relationships between the UK and EU finally get into detail and expose the trade-offs that were fudged in the 26-page political declaration appended to the withdrawal agreement.
There are three rule-makers in the 21st century: the EU, America and China. Opt out of the EU, and we are rule-takers
The desire to get shot of Brexit from the headlines, to free up political and economic ability to get on with addressing the growing problems facing the country, is understandable. But the only way to create space for the country to move beyond Brexit is to give it the chance to decide whether to proceed with Brexit. There is no realistic future where we continue to negotiate with the EU and have the bandwidth to mobilise national willpower for the big challenges ahead.
The government published more than 100 papers on sectors of the economy affected by no deal. All of these would need detailed arrangements to be agreed on for the future. It took Canada seven years to effectively negotiate a trade agreement with the EU. That agreement does not come close to the deal that the UK currently has with the EU, not least because 80% of our economy is services based. As Sir Ivan Rogers, who was the leading UK diplomat in Brussels until two years ago, recently said in a lecture at the University of Liverpool: “The free trade agreement talks will be tougher than anything we have seen to date.”
There is one final illusion: the notion that the world beyond Europe is waiting to offer juicy trade deals to Britain. The EU has trade deals with more than 70 countries already, as well as facilitating trade with the likes of US and China through a series of side agreements that in the case of the US number no less than 147 to supplement the WTO minimum standards.
All of these other “third countries” have interests of their own. It is a fantasy to think that they are going to do anything other than confront Britain with very unpalatable choices – literally, in the case of America’s chlorinated chicken. There are three rule-makers in the 21st century: the EU, the US and China. Opt out of the EU, and we are rule-takers.
The prevalence of these illusions has become tiresome for our European neighbours, compounded by the attempt to blame them for the mess. I was told by someone who was there that after this month’s European council meeting, they “just want this issue to go away”. But my European friend added: “I have no words to express my sadness about all this.”
The paradox of our current situation is that our European neighbours are becoming hacked off just as the UK debate brings the possibility of a referendum closer than it has been before. A people’s vote is not an admission of defeat or a poke in the eye to those who voted leave. “Better safe than sorry” is the right approach when buying a house, and so makes sense when making a momentous national decision.
What Labour can learn about Brexit from California: think twice | David Adler
The alternative to a bad deal – the May plan – is not no deal. It is reported that five cabinet members can now see their way to supporting a people’s vote. They need to insist that preparations begin now. Gordon Brown has made a good point that a referendum needs to be carefully prepared if it is to begin the healing process. The evidence from Ireland’s citizen’s assembly, is that referendums do not need to be divisive – even on issues that go to the core of national character – if citizens are involved in drawing up the question and participating in the debate. That takes time, but it is time well spent. That needs to be urgently negotiated.
We know Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump want Britain out of the EU. But their interests are not our interests. We have no time to lose in getting to grips with reality, sloughing off the illusions that have held sway on right and left, and embracing a vision of Britain’s future that is positive, empowered, progressive – and European.
• David Miliband is president and CEO of International Rescue Committee and former UK foreign secretary
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Part I: Antebellum San Antonio and Runaway Slaves
For the Blacks of San Antonio, slave life meant suffering, deprivation and injustice. Escape to freedom was a widely felt dream, frequently realized. There were 600 slaves on the Bexar County assessment rolls in 1849. They were valued at $70,150 on which their owners would pay property taxes [San Antonio Light, September 27, 1906]. According to Alwyn Barr, author of Black Texans, A History of Negroes in Texas, 1528-1971, an increased flow of escaped slaves into Mexico prompted the slave-holders of San Antonio and nearby towns to hold meetings in 1854 and 1855. They raised $20,000 for an expedition to go after the runaways.
They tried first to negotiate with Mexican authorities, but when that failed, they sent James H. Callahan and 130 men into Mexico to attack the Indian-Mexican-Negro forces of a Seminole Indian chief named Wild Cat in order to bring back runaways. Wild Cat had led a band of more than 150 Indians and Blacks from the Indian Territory of modern day Oklahoma into Mexico in 1849. The Mexican government permitted them to live along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.
Wild Cat welcomed Blacks from Texas and Indian Territory, and according to Alwyn Barr, an estimated 3,000 slaves made good their escape into Mexico by 1851, and another 1,000 reached the relative safety there between 1851 and 1855. The troops under James H. Callahan crossed the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass in October 1855, but they were driven back into Piedras Negras by a combined force of Mexicans, Indians and Negroes. Callahan’s forces partially burned the Mexican town of Piedras Negras to cover their retreat.
In 1860, according to the count of the City Assessor, San Antonio had 7,643 whites and 592 slaves. In 1870, Bexar County had “whites, 14,753; colored, 3,366.” Of the 14,753 whites, 3,090 were reported as “Mexicans” and 1,829 “born in Germany.” In 1876, the City Assessor reported 2,075 “Africans” in a population of 17,214, which included 3,750 “Mexicans.”
Part II: The Freedmen’s Bureau
Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds, a West Point graduate, arrived in Texas as commander in March 1867 and established his headquarters in Austin, although the Army depot remained in San Antonio. Among his other functions, he was the agent for the Freedmen’s Bureau, established by the United States Congress in 1865 as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. It wasn’t long before the Freedmen’s Bureau was involving itself in educating Blacks, providing medical treatment, supervising labor relations and effecting legal protections for freedmen—despite the fact that the law specifically spelled out none of those activities. Congress had been vague in its directions, saying chiefly that the Bureau should have “control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen in the rebel states.”
General Reynolds deposed the civil government of San Antonio and appointed a new City Council made up of Unionists. He established a local Freedmen’s Bureau and a school for Negroes. Registration was required of all who desired to vote. The San Antonio Express of July 3, 1867 said: “There are two classes in the community, those who still cling to the Confederacy and those who are radically in favor of the U. S. Government. A large class of the former must be rejected [for registration] for their participation in the rebellion.” Some Confederate sympathizers away moved from San Antonio; some joined ex-Confederate secret organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan. Typical of the tense feelings was the time that Taylor Thompson witnessed a young woman “accosted by a Negro.” She shrieked the “distress word” of one of the organizations and immediately the Black was shot down. As Taylor Thompson said: “Twenty-four bullets had struck him. Fifty or 60 of us were arrested and arraigned before the local agent of the Freedman’s Bureau, but nothing came of it.” [Seymour V. Connor, Texas pg 228-229; Quadrangle: The history of Fort Sam Houston: Eldon Cagle, pg 22; WPA Pg 33; The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Texans, by Barry A. Crouch Pg 3,]
The U. S. Congress passed legislation in 1869 to end the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau. In its five years of existence it had laid the foundation for Negro education in Texas--more than 20,000 Blacks had been provided with some form of education. (Medallion, Texas Historical Commission, February, 1992)
- Frank W. Jennings (1992)
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First Family
The Trump Kids’ Spring Break Is Turning Aspen Into a Nightmare
Can Ivanka Trump Keep Selling Her Brand of Advocacy?
“Don Jr. and Jared Really Dislike Each Other”: In the Trump Campaign, It’s Son Versus Son-in-Law
Gabriel Sherman
Vanity Fair x Royal Salute Dinner at Blakes
Donald Trump Jr. Called a “Disgrace” for Response to London Terror Attack
The First Son demonstrates the typical Trumpian Twitter restraint.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump check their phones during the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016.By Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.
Parts of London were still on lockdown Wednesday when Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, decided to weigh in on the terrorist attack that had just killed three people, unleashing a confused attack on the city’s mayor at a time when relations between the two countries has already been recently strained.
The official response from the White House was more measured. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released a statement offering his condolences and condemning the “horrific acts of violence” in which a lone attacker plowed a car into crowds of tourists before fatally stabbing a police officer outside the U.K. Parliament. Four people, including the assailant, were killed, and 40 were injured. Through his press secretary Sean Spicer, President Donald Trump pledged the full support of the U.S. government to help with Britain’s investigation and offered “thoughts and prayers” to the victims.
Don Jr., in an unofficial capacity, decided he had a different message to send. He took a jab at London mayor Sadiq Khan, who had been critical of Don Jr.'s father during the campaign, misreading an interview with Khan from September in which the mayor discussed how major cities need to prepare for the possibility of terror attacks.
“You have to be kidding me?!” Don Jr. tweeted. “Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan.”
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/844594059679334400
Trump’s tweet, along with the headline of the article, are misleading. Khan did not throw his hands up and say that terrorist attacks are simply a way of life in major cities, as the president’s son seemed to suggest. Rather, Khan had reflected, in comments to the Evening Standard in an interview last September, shortly after a bomb had gone off in Manhattan, about how cities must change in response to the growing ubiquity of terrorist threats. “That means being vigilant, having a police force that is in touch with communities, it means the security services being ready, but it also means exchanging ideas and best practice,” Khan told the Standard before a meeting with New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. “The terrorists are evolving their tactics and we have got to evolve our response to them all the time. I am afraid the consequences of a terror attack are very, very, scary. They want to kill. They want to maim and terrify. It is my job to try to make sure that we are as safe as we can be.”
Besides completely misunderstanding Khan’s point, Don Jr.’s criticism of London’s mayor was also widely viewed as insensitive and unseemly. British M.P. Wes Streeting called him a “disgrace” on Twitter, and Channel 4 journalist Ciaran Jenkins asked if he thought his comments were “helpful” and if he had even read the interview.
As Don Jr.’s tweet racked up 13,000 retweets and 18,000 likes, British police went to work. Overnight, they arrested eight people and conducted six raids. Prime Minister Theresa May said that the attacker was British-born and had been investigated for extremism.
Khan refused to respond to Don Jr.’s tweet in an interview with CNN Thursday morning, saying he’s been “doing far more important things over the last 24 hours.”
Meanwhile, Don. Jr. had moved on to tweeting about whether his father and his advisers’ communications had been surveilled in an investigation into their ties to Russia, retweeting comments about his father “always being right” and taking shots at the media. He also tweeted a photo of his youngest daughter in a Sesame Street hat. “Hardest thing in the world is to not spoil the last of my little monsters,” he wrote.
Unlike his sister, Ivanka, who moved to Washington with their father and took an office in the West Wing, Don Jr. has stayed in New York to run the Trump Organization. At a recent fundraiser, he told the audience that he has had virtually “zero contact” with his father since he took office, due in part to the fact that, in order to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, they cannot talk shop. But he has weighed in, repeatedly, on Twitter. Last week, when MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow reported on two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax returns, Don Jr. went on a Twitter spree, thanking Maddow for proving just how much money his father actually makes. In the intervening days between his Maddow tweets and his tweet about Khan, Don. Jr. went on a family spring break trip to Aspen..
Daddy’s Boys: Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
by Ron Galella/WireImage.
Is this an endearing moment of Donald squeezing Eric’s cheeks, or Donald checking to see if his thoroughbred son’s teeth are healthy?
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Die Universitäten stellen sich vor
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPIMP)
The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology (MPIMP) was founded after the German unification in 1994, as one of 18 institutes on the territory of the former GDR. The founding director was Prof. Dr. Lothar Willmitzer, who is the director of one of the three departments which have been established since then. From originally only 16 employees the institute grew into a large institute, which now employs about 360 people from all over the world, who put their combined efforts into elucidating the secrets of plants.
In the first years the scientists performed their research in buildings on the campus of the University of Potsdam. In 1999 the construction activities on the Max Planck Campus were completed and the MPI-MP, together with the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, moved into their new buildings. The three institutes share a central building with a lecture hall, seminar rooms, administration offices and a cafeteria. Apart from that, they are completely independent from each other.
Since the institute was founded the main emphasis of the institute has shifted from the analysis of central metabolic pathways combined with the analysis of gene function to the development and implementation of phenotyping technologies and system approaches. This Systems Biology approach is driven by a close interaction between experimental and computational scientists who work side by side in the institute.
The MPI-MP investigates metabolic and molecular processes in cells, tissues, organs and whole plants. The overall goal is to understand how growth and metabolism are regulated, to learn how they respond to environmental factors, and to unravel genetic factors that underlie these processes and responses. To achieve this, it is not only necessary to understand the functions of individual genes, but also the molecular details of individual processes like the uptake of nutrients, the structure, storage, transport and mobilisation of plant components, and the regulation of individual processes. It is also essential to learn how these different processes interact in networks, and to develop approaches that provide quantitative information and a predictive understanding of these complex networks. More information about the research interests of the various groups can be found in the Research section of this website.
Homepage des Arbeitgebers
Zur Homepage des Arbeitgebers
Kontakt Stellensuche Für Arbeitgeber Arbeitsuchende Jobletter abonnieren Mein Profil Die Universitäten stellen sich vor
© 2019 University Positions. All Rights Reserved.
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B.C. Health Minister Mike de Jong
VICTORIA – There are 9.1 million B.C. CareCards in circulation, but only 4.5 million people live in B.C. That’s one reason why the province’s health care costs are so high.
Health Minister Mike de Jong is introducing a new “smart card” in an effort to cut down on unauthorized access to the health care system by residents of the United States and other jurisdictions who do not pay into the Medical Services Plan.
De Jong introduced legislation Thursday to replace the plastic cards that B.C. started issuing in 1989. The new cards will include a picture and an electronic chip, and drivers will have the option of including health care registration on their driver’s licence.
As with the driver’s licence, people will have to enrol and then renew the card every five years to maintain medical coverage. De Jong said there will be no extra charge for the new card, whether it is separate or included on a driver’s licence renewal.
A program will be developed to go out to seniors’ homes and reach people who do not drive, he said. It is expected to take five years to put the new system in place.
De Jong said the health ministry doesn’t have statistics on how much fraud there is, but other provinces have found that people are coming from other countries to take advantage of the health care system.
NDP health critic Mike Farnworth said he wants to know how much the smart card program is going to cost, and how much it will really save. A survey of 399 cards last year indicated that 94 per cent of patients claiming MSP coverage were legitimate residents of B.C., he said.
MSP enrolment entitles people to publicly paid hospital treatment, as well as subsidized coverage for ambulance service and prescription drugs. De Jong said no one will be refused care, but those without MSP coverage will be billed for services.
UPDATE – Truck plunges off BC Ferry dock at Swartz Bay
CULTURE OF DRINKING: Why smart people drink more and stay up later
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The History of the International Hockey League
The IHL was created Dec. 5, 1945 in a three-hour meeting at the Norton Palmer Hotel in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Present at the meeting were: Jack Adams, General Manager and Coach of the Detroit Red Wings; Fred Huber, Jr., the Red Wings public relations director; Frank Gallagher, who eventually would own the Flint Generals and also serve two terms as league commissioner; Lloyd Pollock, a member of the executive staff of the Ontario Hockey Association; Gerald McHugh, a well-known Windsor lawyer; and Len Hebert, Len Loree and Bill Beckman, all dedicated hockey men.
The IHL was to provide opportunities for Detroit-Windsor hockey players returning home from World War II. Four teams were formed to absorb these fledging athletes: Detroit Auto Club and Detroit Bright's Goodyear would play at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, while the Windsor Spitfires and the Windsor Gotfredsons would play their home games in the Windsor Arena.
McHugh was named league president, and the four teams completed a 15-game schedule during the winter of 1945-46. The Detroit Auto Club defeated the Detroit Bright's Goodyears 2-1 in the final series to win the first Turner Cup, symbolic of the IHL championship.
The league's first expansion outside the Detroit-Windsor area came in 1947, when businessman Virgil Gladieux paid $1,000 to place a franchise in Toledo, Ohio. The Toledo Mercurys drew sellout crowds, and won the league championship in their first season. Gerald McHugh retired the following season, and was succeeded by Fred Huber, Jr., who had the title of league managing director.
The four original franchises were gone from the IHL by 1952, but the league had grown to nine teams. Expansion in 1952-53 extended to Fort Wayne, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Louisville. The 1952-53 season would be the first of five consecutive league championships for the Cincinnati Mohawks. The team's success was largely the result of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, who supplied the Mohawks with many young prospects. The Mohawks set a league record in 1956-57 by losing only nine games during the entire regular season.
The IHL went through changes on and off the ice during the 1960's. Six different clubs won the championship, including back-to-back crowns by the Saint Paul Saints. All of the league's franchises were located in the U.S. after the discontinuation of the Chatham Maroons and the Windsor Bulldogs in 1964. League membership varied from six to eight teams, and Toledo hockey executive Andy Mulligan succeeded Frank Gallagher as commissioner. There was one certainty, however, throughout the decade: Komets forward Len Thornson, who won seven Most Valuable Player awards over a 10-year period.
The 1970's were a period of stabilization for the league. Bill Beagan was named commissioner and held the position throughout the decade. Current franchises in Kalamazoo (now Michigan K-Wings) and Milwaukee joined the IHL. Franchises in Dayton and Toledo won titles early in the decade, and Kalamazoo ended it by winning consecutive championships in 1978 and 1979. One of top memories of that period came in 1975 when the Toledo Goaldiggers won the Turner Cup, despite finishing the regular season with a losing record. That decade began the leadership of the IHL's longest-standing ownership group as Ted and Martha Parfet founded their Kalamazoo-based franchise in 1974-75."
The national growth of the IHL can be traced to the expansion of the early 1980's. Peoria was admitted in 1982, and Indianapolis rejoined the league two years later. Upon the strong encouragement of Commissioner N.R. 'Bud' Poile, who was appointed in 1983, the league added a franchise in Salt Lake City for the 1984-85 season, beginning the transition from a regional league which traveled by bus, to one with markets throughout the country. Another breakthrough came in 1985 with the adoption of the shootout, a unique tie-breaker format to decide its games, an innovation that is one reason the IHL is distinguished from other professional hockey leagues.
Stability and growth continued with N. Thomas Berry, who was appointed commissioner in 1989. Under Berry's leadership, the league added seven new cities and fees for expansion franchises rose from $200,000 to $5 million in five years.
The IHL has made tremendous advances in more than half-century of operation, but some things remain similar to the league's origins: The league's business offices are now located in new offices in suburban Detroit headed by President and CEO Doug Moss, who was appointed in July, 1998 after serving as the league's chief operating officer for nine months. And, an IHL team is in the area, as the Detroit Vipers draw record crowds in the wonderful surroundings at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
Detroit is just one of several markets who have enjoyed their introduction to the modern era of the IHL. Major cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Kansas City, Long Beach, Milwaukee, Orlando and Salt Lake City are also proud to host franchises in first-class facilities. Likewise, the IHL has found success in medium-sized communities as witnessed by the Grand Rapids Griffins who debuted in 1996-97, packing the sparkling new Van Andel Arena with sellout crowds night after night. Part of the IHL's charm also lies in the continued success of the franchise based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where fans have seen the league undergo its various advancements.
For the third straight year, the season will begin with a new champion. The Houston Aeros dominated regular season play, continued their winning ways into the postseason and captured their first Turner Cup last spring. They face a revamped league with a comparable mix of veterans and youth that will make repeating as champions a more daunting task.
From the President (Douglas G. Moss)
Dear IHL Fans:
As the International Hockey League begins its 56th year, we are looking forward to the excitement of the upcoming season. First of all, I would like to thank you for your support of the IHL. Last year, the IHL led all of minor league hockey in average attendance for the 11th straight season, a feat impossible without the backing of our great fans across North America.
Our commitment to improve the quality of our on-ice product has grown each year, with last season our most successful yet. This season will be even better. The revised overtime format will make the games exciting right down to the final seconds. Should a pre-season or regular season IHL game be tied after three periods of play, the teams will compete in a five-minute, sudden death, four-on-four, overtime period. If at the end of the extra session the teams remain tied, there will be a shoot-out with three shooters a side, followed by, if necessary, a "sudden-death" shoot-out.
We've also added two new NHL affiliations. The first-year Minnesota Wild is teaming up with the Cleveland Lumberjacks. The Kansas City Blades are serving as the primary affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars also have a new IHL affiliation with the Utah Grizzlies.
Our league is continuing its partnership with the National Hockey League, aiming to jointly promote the sport of ice hockey. The Game On! logo will once again be visible throughout our marketing and promotions.
Our teams take pride in their involvement within their respective communities and will continue their efforts to raise money for local charities throughout the league. And I assure you that all of us are committed to continue to provide you with the best hockey product, second only to the NHL, at family affordable prices.
In the upcoming months we will be creating new ways to entertain and inform you about out players and teams. We will be working even harder to earn your loyalty. Please e-mail me a dmoss@theihl.com and let me know how we're doing. I look forward to your comments.
Once again, thanks you for your support of the International Hockey League, and I wish you, your families and your favorite IHL team a healthy and successful season.
Best regards, Douglas G. Moss
Dec. 5, 1945 -- The International Hockey League is born at the Norton Palmer Hotel in Windsor, Ontario. The league is formed by Jack Adams, general manager of the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings; Red Wings public relations director Fred Huber; Frank Gallagher and Gerald McHugh. McHugh is named the league's first president.
March 2, 1946 -- The Detroit Auto Club wins the first-ever Turner Cup, defeating the Detroit Bright's Goodyears two games to one.
Summer, 1947 -- Virgil Gladieux purchases an expansion franchise for Toledo, Ohio for $1,000, the league's first expansion outside of the Detroit-Windsor area.
April, 1949 -- Fred Huber is named league managing director.
June, 1952 -- Frank Gallagher is named first commissioner of the league. The position, formerly held by Fred Huber, was formerly known as the managing director.
Sept., 1952 -- The Fort Wayne Komets join the IHL at a cost of $2,500 (the Komets are the oldest active franchise in the IHL).
Jan. 25, 1953 -- The Cincinnati Mohawks and the Troy (Ohio) Bruins play the league's only known doubleheader with one game played in each city. In the first game at Troy, Cincinnati wins 3-0; the Bruins won the nightcap in Cincinnati by a score of 2-1.
March 25, 1957 -- The Cincinnati Mohawks capture an IHL record fifth consecutive Turner Cup, sweeping the Indianapolis Chiefs in a best-of-five series.
April 14, 1960 -- Fort Wayne and the Saint Paul Saints play four overtimes to decide a Turner Cup Finals game. Saint Paul's Elliott Chorley scores the deciding goal at 1:25 a.m. for a 5-4 victory in a contest which consisted of 118 minutes, 29 seconds of playing time.
Jan. 4, 1962 -- The IHL holds its first official All-Star Game in Saint Paul, Minn. The host Saints defeated a league all-star team 6-5.
Jan. 17, 1962 -- The Saint Paul Saints win the most lopsided game in IHL history, a 20-3 drubbing of the Toledo Mercurys.
Feb. 6, 1962 -- Chick Chalmers of the Omaha Knights completes a 40-game point streak during which he scored 18 goals and 46 assists. The streak started on Nov. 12, 1961.
June, 1962 -- Andy Mulligan becomes the league's second commissioner, succeeding Frank Gallagher.
March, 1964 -- The Chatham Maroons and Windsor Bulldogs cease operations, leaving the IHL based solely in the United States.
June, 1969 -- Bill Beagan becomes the league's third commissioner, succeeding Andy Mulligan.
June, 1974 -- Ted and Martha Parfet purchase an IHL franchise for Kalamazoo, Mich. The franchise, now known as the Michigan K-Wings, is the oldest currently in the league.
Dec., 1978 -- Bill Beagan resigns as commissioner. Former commissioner Frank Gallagher assumes the post on an interim basis.
June, 1979 -- Jack Riley becomes the league's fourth commissioner, replacing interim commissioner Frank Gallagher.
June, 1983 -- N.R. "Bud" Poile becomes the fifth commissioner in league history, replacing Jack Riley; the IHL headquarters relocates from Windsor to Indianapolis.
June, 1984 -- The IHL accepts Salt Lake and Indianapolis as the league's eighth and ninth franchises.
Summer, 1985 -- The IHL becomes the first professional league to use a shootout to decide tied games.
June 1, 1989 -- N. Thomas Berry, Jr. named league commissioner, replacing N.R. "Bud" Poile.
Fall, 1989 -- The Phoenix Roadrunners enter the IHL.
Fall, 1990 -- The IHL begins the 1990-91 season with a record 11 teams, including new franchises in Albany, Kansas City and San Diego. The Albany franchise ceased operations the following February.
Nov. 22, 1990 -- The Peoria Rivermen defeat the Fort Wayne Komets 5-4 for their 18th consecutive victory, setting a professional hockey record.
March 9, 1991 -- The league's longest shootout game takes place at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee as a total of 42 shooters -- 21 from both the Admirals and Peoria Rivermen -- battle to determine the winner. Milwaukee went 6-for-21, Peoria scored on five attempts as the Admirals claimed a 4-3 victory.
Aug., 1991 -- The IHL announces that the Atlanta Knights will begin play in the 1992-93 season.
Spring, 1992 -- The Muskegon Lumberjacks franchise relocates to Cleveland. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Cyclones enter the IHL after operating two seasons in the East Coast Hockey League.
Dec. 13, 1992 -- Manon Rheaume becomes the first female to play in a regular-season professional game. She starts the second period of game at the Omni in Atlanta and gives up one goal on six shots.
Dec. 29, 1992 -- Fort Wayne forward Scott Gruhl scores his 552nd IHL goal in a game against the San Diego Gulls, breaking the all-time goal scoring mark held by Joe Kastelic who played season in the league.
April 13, 1993 -- San Diego finishes the 1992-93 regular season with 62 wins and 132 points, both league records.
May 21, 1993 -- Fort Wayne defeats San Diego 6-1 to win the Turner Cup championship in four consecutive games. The Komets set a league record by winning 12 consecutive playoff games, after finishing the regular season with a five-game winning streak.
Fall, 1993 -- The Las Vegas Thunder begin play as an IHL expansion franchise and would go on to post the league's top regular season record (52-18-11).
Jan. 28, 1994 -- During a period which extended back to July 6, 1993, the IHL grants membership for expansion teams in Denver, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Houston and Chicago. The league will operate during the 1994-95 season with a league record 17 teams.
March 7, 1994 -- John Paris, Jr. is named coach of the Atlanta Knights, becoming the first black head coach in professional hockey.
March 22, 1994 -- The IHL approves the transfer of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles to Detroit for the 1994-95 season.
April 6, 1994 -- Kalamazoo right wing Rob Brown sets a league single-season record with his 110th assist during a 7-3 Wings victory vs. the Cincinnati Cyclones.
June 1, 1994 --Robert Ufer, the league's legal counsel during the past 18 years, assumes the position of commissioner, president and chief executive officer. As part of the restructuring, the IHL's business offices move to Detroit.
Sept. 30, 1994 -- The IHL begins its 50th anniversary season as a crowd of 20,182 fills The Palace of Auburn Hills for a game between Detroit and Cleveland.
Jan. 21, 1995 -- The Peoria Rivermen win at Indianapolis to post their 12th consecutive road victory, the most in professional hockey history.
April 9, 1995 -- The IHL's golden anniversary regular season concludes with a record-setting attendance total of 5,757,894.
Sept. 29, 1995 -- The league begins its second half-century of operation with a record 19 teams, including an expansion franchise in San Francisco (Spiders). Two teams relocated: The San Diego Gulls to Los Angeles (Ice Dogs) and the defending champion Grizzlies moved from Denver to Salt Lake City.
Jan. 13, 1996 -- An All-Star Game record crowd of 13,013 at The Summit in Houston sees the Eastern Conference posted a 7-3 victory over the West All-Stars.
March 30, 1996 -- Cleveland's Dave Michayluk scores the 533rd regular season goal of his IHL career in a game vs. the Atlanta Knights, setting a league all-time record, previously held by Scott Gruhl who scored 532 from 1979-94.
June 8, 1996 -- The Utah Grizzlies defeat the Orlando Solar Bears 3-2 in overtime to complete their second consecutive four-game sweep of the Turner Cup Finals before a record playoff crowd of 17,381 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
August 15, 1996 -- The IHL and the Professional Hockey Players Association announce a new collective bargaining agreement set to run through the 2001-2002 season.
October, 1996 -- The 1996-97 season begins with 19 teams, including the first Canadian franchises in more than 30 years -- the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg and the Québec Rafales, which relocated from Minnesota and Atlanta, respectively. The expansion Grand Rapids Griffins opened play in the brand new Van Andel Arena, while the Ice Dogs moved into their new home in Long Beach, California. The start of the season also saw the debut of the San Antonio Dragons, a reincarnation of the former Peoria Rivermen.
November 9, 1996 -- Fred Brathwaite of the Manitoba Moose becomes the first goalie in IHL history to be credited with scoring a goal. He was the last Moose player to touch the puck prior to the Long Beach Ice Dogs putting it into their own net during a delayed penalty situation.
November 30, 1996 -- The Orlando Solar Bears win their 16th consecutive game, marking the second longest victory streak in IHL history (Peoria won a pro hockey record 18 in 1990-91). The Quebec Rafales snapped the Solar Bears streak with a 5-4 decision on Dec. 4. Counting two games prior to the winning streak, Orlando equaled a league record by posting an 18-game unbeaten streak (17-0-1).
December 20, 1996 -- Houston Aeros goaltender Frederic Chabot ties a 24-year old IHL record by posting three consecutive shutouts (Dec. 13 vs. Québec, Dec. 14 vs. San Antonio, Dec. 20 vs. Las Vegas). The feat was previously accomplished twice by Dave Hainsworth of Muskegon during the 1972-73 season. Chabot's shutout streak was part of a stellar season which would earn him league MVP honors.
February 18, 1997 -- A sellout crowd of 10,834 at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids saw the Western Conference claim a 6-4 decision in the 23rd IHL All-Star Game.
March 8, 1997 -- Eventual scoring champion Rob Brown of the Chicago Wolves became the third player in league history to score 100 or more points in four consecutive seasons.
March 17, 1997 -- The Detroit Vipers defeat the Michigan K-Wings, becoming the first team in pro hockey history to amass 100 or more points in each of their first three seasons of operation. Detroit would finish the season with a league-best 122 points, tied for third most in IHL history.
March 19, 1997 -- Orlando Solar Bears winger Kevin Smyth plays against the Cincinnati Cyclones, completing an amazing comeback. Less than three months previous, Smyth suffered permanent vision loss after being struck in the right eye by a deflected puck during a Dec. 22 game vs. the Indianapolis Ice.
April 13, 1997 -- The IHL surpasses the six million mark in regular season attendance for the first time, finishing at 6,021,099. Including playoff attendance, the total number of fans to watch games during the 1996-97 campaign was a record 6,495,144.
May 7, 1997 -- Cleveland Lumberjacks center Jock Callander becomes the league's all-time playoffs goal scoring leader, picking up his 65th lifetime postseason goal, in a Conference Semifinals game vs. the Indianapolis Ice.
June 15, 1997 -- The Detroit Vipers claim their first Turner Cup, eliminating the Long Beach Ice Dogs four games to two. Peter Ciavaglia was voted the playoffs MVP, while the stingy Vipers defense held the Ice Dogs to only 10 goals over the six contests.
October, 1997 -- The IHL begins its 53rd season, fielding 18 teams. The Utah Grizzlies move into a new arena, The "E" Center in West Valley, Utah, while the Cincinnati Cyclones also go to a new venue -- the former Riverfront Coliseum, renamed The Crown.
October 3, 1997 -- Gordie Howe becomes the first hockey professional to play in six decades as he suits up for the Detroit Vipers in their season opener at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Howe skated one shift for the defending Turner Cup champions.
November 29, 1997 -- An IHL-record crowd of 20,804 pack The Palace of Auburn Hills. Grand Rapids dampers the evening with a 4-1 win over the Vipers.
January 15, 1998 -- The league begins widespread utilization of the "expedited faceoff" procedure. The enforcement of the rules governing faceoffs and stoppages in play proves to reduce game times by an average of 14 minutes.
February 10, 1998 -- Offense is the norm as the Western Conference skates to a 12-8 victory in the 24th All-Star Game at Orlando Arena. Utah's Kip Miller scores a hat trick to pace the winners and collects MVP honors.
March 27 & 28, 1998 -- The IHL, in conjunction with the National Hockey League, stages experimental, four-quarter games in Las Vegas. It is the first time professional hockey uses the format for regular-season games.
June 15, 1998 -- The Chicago Wolves capture their first Turner Cup before 16,701 fans at the Rosemont Horizon. The 3-0 shutout clinched the title in seven games. It was the first seven-game series for a Cup Final in 13 years. Alexander Semak is selected as postseason MVP.
July 27, 1998 -- Douglas G. Moss, who had served as chief operating officer, is promoted to president and chief executive officer. He steps in for Robert P. Ufer, who had earlier tendered his resignation as commissioner.
October 9, 1998 -- The league begins its 54th season with a lineup of 16 teams.
June 4, 2001 -- League ceases operations.
Click here to make an order
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The History of the Toledo Blades
The Toledo Blades were the International Hockey League franchise of Toledo, Ohio from 1963 to 1970. The team name was changed to Hornets in 1970. The storied franchise left Toledo after the 1974–75 season for Lansing, Michigan, where they became the Lansing Lancers. The Blades were the Regular Season Champions in 1963–1964, with 86 points and were awarded the Fred A. Huber Trophy.
The Blades won the Turner Cup Championships in 1964 and 1967.
The Rookie of the Year Trophy was awarded to Blades players Don Westbrook in 1964 and Bob Thomas in 1965, respectively.
Blades goaltender, Glenn Ramsay, won the James Norris Memorial Trophy for the least goals against during the 1963–1964 regular season, his third Norris Trophy in a row. Glenn also won his sixth and final James Norris Memorial Trophy in 1967.
In 1965, team captain, , William "Chick" Chalmers, was awarded the James Gatschene Memorial Trophy, for the player voted most valuable through his display of outstanding playing ability and sportsmanlike conduct over the course of the regular season by the league coaches.
After the Hornets left in 1974, the IHL awarded a new franchise to Toledo called the Toledo Goaldiggers.
Toledo Blades vintage IHL hockey jersey $225.00
Game weight double knit fabric featuring double elbows, double shoulders and 1960's style tie down fight straps.
Logos are sewn together of individual twill pieces with hand sewn highlights.
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Strictly's Oti: I would miss dancing too much to replace Darcey on judging panel
Dame Darcey Bussell has announced she is quitting Strictly Come Dancing.
Oti Mabuse has said she would miss being part of the group of Strictly Come Dancing professional dancers too much to replace Dame Darcey Bussell on the judging panel.
The former ballerina announced last week that she would be leaving the BBC One series after a seven-year stint as a judge and would focus on “other dance commitments”.
She added that her departure was not due to “any upset or disagreement”.
Dame Darcey Bussell (Ian West/PA)
Mabuse is among the contenders tipped to replace Dame Darcey on the panel following her stint on the BBC show The Greatest Dancer but she told the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2: “I think the Strictly audience is just like ‘No we are not ready to let her go’, at least I hope they are!
“I love dancing, I love coming to the rehearsals, I love being part of the group, I think it’s a really special group to be a part of.
“There are no dancers like Strictly dancers and how close we are and I think I would absolutely miss that and that part of it, so I’ll be dancing, honey, I’ll be dancing.”
Mabuse with The Greatest Dancer co-stars Matthew Morrison and Cheryl (Tom Dymond/BBC/Syco/Thames)
Ball, who hosts the Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, admitted she was “so shocked” when she heard the news about Dame Darcey and Mabuse added: “I was not even in the country, I was with my parents in Germany and we just got this email.
“It’s really sad because we really love her and she’s been such an important part of the show and she will be missed.”
New Jersey high school's celebrated Alien play gets encore
Pet Shop Boys announce new musical about Billie Trix
BBC Apollo 11 broadcaster: Why I ignored orders during moon landing
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"The Life and Work of Dr. Miceal Ledwith, L.Ph., L.D., D.D., LL.D." Tuesday, May 18, 2010
"The Life and Work of Dr. Miceal Ledwith, L.Ph., L.D., D.D., LL.D."
Hosted by David Gibbons
Miceal Ledwith
Dr. Miceal Ledwith joins David Gibbons to discuss his life’s work and spiritual journey. From the halls of St. Patrick’s College in Ireland as Professor of Systematic Theology to serving Pope John Paul II as a member of the International Theological Commission, he has now become a world-renowned expert in Spiritual Evolution. His work as author and filmmaker has touched millions around the world with profound theories and numerous projects on the subjects of religion and spiritual awareness. His series of films are explored in this program to evaluate where the hopes and dreams of human beings are to transform in the future. Inspired and guided by Ramthas teachings and learning from ancient traditions, Dr. Ledwith brings amazing philosophical ideas to the table for an engaging and powerful conversation.
In Discussion
"In Discussion" brings world leaders and people from all areas of life together in frank and powerful conversation. Interviewer and writer David Gibbons invites great thinkers, politicians, business leaders, scientists, religious leaders, scientists and entertainers and notable philosophic think tanks together in cleverly orchestrated interviews and discussions. In developing and encouraging frank conversation towards the dynamic ignition of positive mindsets, the paradigm of progressive and positive change is at the forefront of its vision and mission.
David Gibbons
David Gibbons has been writing and involved in the broadcast arena since 2001. His work in understanding the world we live in and its people continues to fascinate and consume his interest, in pursuing a direct conversational style with leaders, literature scholars and everyday individuals. He is the host of David Gibbons "In Discussion", the daily program that engages world's thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, business individuals, scientists and religious leaders. He is constantly seeking a greater understanding of the world we live in today with an unassuming style and delivery, leading to the premise of igniting dialogue towards dynamic change in our society.
Lighthouse Imaging
David Gibbons.org
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October 02nd 2012:Doing What Must Be Done
What is the biggest thing people tend to take for granted? On the next episode of Rideau’s Real Recognition Radio, Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown speak with Chad Hymas, author of Doing What Must Be Done. At the age of 27, Chad Hymas’ life changed instantaneously when an accident left him a quadriplegic. Since that time Chad has been recognized by the state of Utah as the Superior Civilian of the Year. He is the president of his own communications company and an internet marketing company and is the youngest person ever to receive the CPAE award and be inducted into the Nati
Chad Hymas
Chad Hymas is the author of Doing What Must Be Done. At the age of 27, Chad Hymas’ life changed instantaneously when an accident left him a quadriplegic. Since that time Chad has been recognized by the state of Utah as the Superior Civilian of the Year. He is the president of his own communications company and an internet marketing company and is the youngest person ever to receive the CPAE award and be inducted into the National Speaker Hall Of Fame. As a member of the National Speakers Association, Chad spoke at over 220 events last year on 4 continents. Chad is a world-class wheelchair athlete enjoying basketball, wheelchair rugby, hang-gliding, and snow skiing. In Ju
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Ravensdale Park makeover to add multi-sport ...
“Breaking ground on this park is the result of a great deal of work by community members who had a vision to improve our region and are making it happen,” said Sen. Fain (R-Auburn), who secured a $650,000 grant for the park in the state’s 2013 capital budget. “Providing opportunities for families to recreate is vitally important to this growing area. I cannot wait to see the incredible community asset this park will be for many years."
Chavonne Ludick
Endorsements, issues, Issues
FAIN RECEIVES SOLE ENDORSEMENT FROM CARBON WA + 100% RATING FROM ENVIRONMENT WASHINGTON
FAIN RECEIVES SOLE ENDORSEMENT FROM CARBON WA +
100% RATING FROM ENVIRONMENT WASHINGTON
Covington, Wash. – (October 12, 2018) – State Senator Joe Fain received Carbon WA’s highest and sole endorsement for his “bipartisan approach to climate change” while also receiving a perfect 100% rating from Environment Washington for his voting record in the Washington State Senate.
“I am pleased to let you know that Carbon Washington has decided to offer you their sole endorsement in your legislative race.” They continued to tout his bipartisan approach saying “Our take is that Joe Fain’s presence is going to be essential to bipartisan action on climate change. Help us return Joe to Olympia!”
Meanwhile, Environment Washington released its 2018 Legislative Scorecard tracking how state representatives and senators “voted on bills that could protect our air, water, and health.” Fain was one of only three Senators called out by the organization in its release. “There is strong, bi-partisan support for environmental policies in Washington state, but we still have work to do,” said Bruce Speight, Environment Washington Director.
“I’m honored to receive both the coveted Carbon WA endorsement as well as the 100% rating by Environment Washington,” Fain said. “I truly believe that we need grassroots organizations like these to speed our transition to a clean-energy economy which is going to be essential for the world we’re leaving our children and grandchildren.”
About State Senator Joe Fain
Fain is currently running for re-election in the 47th Legislative District and has received unprecedented support from South King County mayors representing every city whose communities touch the this district. The Mayors join a growing list of endorsers including a majority of local city council representatives from the region along with other local and state officials.
Senator Fain has a rich history of bipartisan legislative accomplishment, including his nationally-recognized work on family leave, support for people with disabilities and their families, traffic congestion relief, funding of public education, balanced budget reforms, and protecting people’s right to free speech.
Many nonpartisan organizations have recognized Fain for his work – including, Legislator of the Year by the Humane Society for his work fighting animal cruelty; and the Sunshine Award from the League of Women Voters, and the Ballard-Thompson Award from the Coalition for Open Government for his work to preserve transparency and protect public access to government records. Senator Fain has also been locally commended for his work on education by the Kent PTA, by the Auburn Area and Kent Chambers of Commerce for his small business advocacy, and has been celebrated as public official of the year by the Kent and Covington-Maple Valley Reporter newspapers several years in a row.
In recent years, Fain has served as a King County deputy prosecutor, taught political science classes at Highline College, worked in economic development with the University of Washington’s center for innovation and commercialization, and practiced law as an attorney focusing on health law and strategy.
Senator Fain was first elected in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014 with 64% of the vote, the highest percentage earned in a contested partisan race in modern 47th District history.
Tagged: Environment
Issues, News
The Times recommends: Joe Fain for state Senate, 47th Legislative District
A centrist who moves people of both parties toward policies that make sense for their community and the whole state is a lawmaker voters should treasure. The people of the 47th Legislative District have such a leader in Joe Fain, who should be reelected to the state Senate in November for a third four-year term.
Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/the-times-recommends-joe-fain-for-state-senate-47th-legislative-district/
Tagged: Community
News, Issues
Beyond Seattle, legislative candidates try to woo voters with plans to ease housing costs
With communities across Washington seeing higher rents and growing prices, both Democratic and Republican legislative candidates are talking about how Olympia can tackle the affordability crisis.
Washington state Rep. Dave Hayes gets a drumbeat of reminders these days about the lack of affordable housing in his district.
A Republican from Camano Island, Hayes says his son and daughter-in-law are paying $1,200 a month to live in a mobile home.
Hayes, a sergeant with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, says he sees young deputies moving in, sometimes from other states, who then have to pay $1,800 per month in rent.
And then there are the for-sale signs Hayes sees as he goes door to door in the 10th Legislative District, which includes Island County and parts of Skagit and Snohomish counties.
“I’m seeing houses advertised that are going for $350,000 or more dollars,” said Hayes. “That’s unreachable for most people.”
Campaign talk about affording rents or mortgages is spreading beyond Seattle’s pricey metro area. Towns all over Washington have seen double-digit growth in home prices.
Meanwhile, the shadow of the property-tax plan lawmakers approved last year to fund K-12 schools hangs over the elections. That plan hiked statewide property taxes everywhere in 2018, though it ultimately will lower overall property taxes in many school districts in the coming years.
But now, it has voters — and candidates like Hayes and his opponent, Democrat Dave Paul — talking about what lawmakers can do from Olympia to help.
“As I’m out doorbelling, affordable housing comes up almost every day,” Paul said.
Housing issues
In Island County, the median resale price of a home is now $377,900, according to the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.
That’s a roughly $92,000 jump from the same time period three years ago.
Like some other Republicans, Hayes wants to see changes to parts of the state’s Growth Management Act and cuts in other regulations to make it easier to get new homes built.
And he wants lawmakers to find incentives to get towns to accept higher-density housing. Legislators, he said, “need to help them with that.”
Paul, a vice president at Skagit Valley College, was one of the Democratic candidates who won more votes in the August primaries against Republican incumbents who previously weren’t thought to be in jeopardy.
He wants to give more financial incentives to encourage building, provide more training for local officials in permitting processes, and create more partnerships between government and builders to figure out where new housing stock could go within towns.
In Whatcom County’s 42nd District, Bellingham resident and first-time Democratic candidate Justin Boneau is also making housing a part of his campaign.
In that county, the median resale price of a home this year has reached $385,000, about $90,000 more than the same time period in 2015.
Boneau said he decided to run because he felt that not enough lawmakers personally experienced the economic anxieties of trying to make ends meet.
“My rent’s gone up three times in two years,” said Boneau, who topped incumbent Rep. Luanne Van Werven, R-Lynden, in the August primary and will face her again this fall.
Boneau, a supervisor for a state Department of Ecology litter-cleanup crew, said it’s time to “re-evaluate the ban on rent regulation at the state level.”
In Southeast King County’s 47th District, Senate Republican Floor Leader Joe Fain of Auburn is among the legislators who wants to change the state’s liability laws that have been blamed for preventing the construction of more condominiums.
The condominium shortage has left some people renting when they could have had starter homes, he said.
“Getting that condo liability thing fixed will unlock the ability for young families to build the equity that they’ve really been robbed of the last few years,” said Fain.
Fain also said the Legislature must follow through on the bill he sponsored last year and lawmakers passed to make it easier to identify buildable land and fund homelessness and low-income housing programs.
His challenger is Mona Das, a Democrat who moved to Covington last year and owns a mortgage business that she said focuses on first-time homebuyers.
Das said she moved from Seattle because of the high costs there.
“People can’t afford Seattle; I found myself in that situation as well,” she said.
She wants condominium liability reform, as well as more money for affordable housing and zoning changes to increase density.
Statewide problem
Housing prices are no longer just a Western Washington topic.
East of the Cascades, in the 12th Legislative District, independent candidate Ann Diamond says her communities also experience housing shortages.
That district includes Chelan and Douglas counties, and parts of Grant and Okanogan counties.
“In my valley, housing costs are going up three times faster than wages,” said Diamond, who sits on the Winthrop Planning Commission. “People are living in basements, sheds.”
The current median resale home price in Okanogan County, where Winthrop is located, is $201,700. That’s a 35 percent increase from the same time period in 2015, according to the UW’s Runstad Department of Real Estate.
If elected, Diamond would be the only independent in the Legislature, and said she doesn’t intend to caucus with either political party. She faces Republican Keith Goehner in November.
Diamond wants the state to boost the Housing Trust Fund, a state program that helps to build or preserve affordable-housing units. And she wants to find ways to coordinate with real-estate interests and municipalities to increase housing stock.
In the 6th District, which includes part of Spokane, Democratic state Senate candidate Jessa Lewis wants to cut property taxes, possibly through a tax on capital gains.
Spokane has seen rising apartment rents and growing home prices.
Lewis argues that the property-tax plan to fund schools hits not only homeowners, but is passed on to renters, too. “And I absolutely am going to be fighting to reduce property taxes,” she said.
Like everywhere else in the state, property owners in the Spokane School District saw a tax increase for 2018. But overall property taxes funding schools are expected to drop in the coming years.
In November, Lewis will face current Rep. Jeff Holy, R-Cheney, who is giving up his seat to run for Senate. Holy beat Lewis by about four percentage points in the August primary.
Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/its-not-just-a-seattle-thing-candidates-for-legislature-try-to-woo-voters-with-plans-to-ease-housing-costs/
fainadmin
Microsoft to Contractors: Give New Parents Paid Leave
Republican state Sen. Joe Fain, the prime sponsor of the measure that passed last year, said Microsoft's decision was "a really powerful step forward."
By applying the plan to contractors and vendors around the country, "it really creates a pressure for those state legislatures to make a similar decision that Washington made."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/30/us/ap-us-microsoft-paid-parental-leave.html
Tagged: Family Support & Planning, Social services, safety net, Jobs
News, Endorsements, Issues
Fain is the person we need returning to Olympia
“Joe is the community advocate and bipartisan leader our community needs. While the rest of our nation’s politics sometimes seems to be crashing down around us, Joe’s is a steady and thoughtful hand that brings people together to get things done. This primary election I’m voting for our Sen. Joe Fain, and I hope you’ll join me.”
Source: https://www.kentreporter.com/letters/fain-is-the-person-we-need-returning-to-olympia/
Tagged: Social services
News, issues, Issues
Work & Life Podcast
Republican Senator Joe Fain of Washington State has an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Political Science. He’s been in the Senate since 2010 and has been both the Minority and Majority floor leader. Joe was the prime sponsor of the landmark legislation to create a statewide paid family and medical leave program by convening a bipartisan group of lawmakers and business and labor leaders.
Source: http://www.workandlifepodcast.com/blog/bfi
Tagged: Family Support & Planning
Recognition, Issues, issues
South King County Mayors Unanimously Endorse Senator Fain’s Re-election Bid
Covington-Maple Valley Reporter
In an unprecedented move, South King County mayors representing every city whose communities touch the 47th Legislative District have united to endorse Joe Fain for re-election to the Washington State Senate.
Source: http://www.maplevalleyreporter.com/news/south-king-county-mayors-unanimously-endorse-senator-fains-re-election-bid/
Tagged: Campaign, Good government
Issues, issues
Fain-sponsored bills supporting current, former military members signed at Capitol
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Joe Fain to strengthen consumer protections for active-duty military and their families and reduce costs for disabled veterans to add adaptive equipment to their vehicles was recently signed by Gov. Jay Inslee.
Source: http://www.auburn-reporter.com/news/fain-sponsored-bills-supporting-current-former-military-members-signed-at-capitol/
Tagged: Veterans
News, Op Ed, Issues
Voters deserve more information on campaign backers
Voters have the right to know who’s paying for a politician’s campaign. While campaign funders do not necessarily define a candidate or issue, we’ve seen throughout history how hidden campaign spending in other parts of the country has fueled a culture of corruption and self-dealing.
Source: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/apr/01/sens-andy-billig-and-joe-fain-voters-deserve-more-/
Tagged: Good government, Editorials, Editorial, By Fain
Legislature sued over how it changed police deadly force law
"I have incredibly grave concerns that we are creating a convoluted process for getting around a constitutional right," said Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn.
Source: http://komonews.com/news/local/legislature-sued-over-how-it-changed-police-deadly-force-law
Tagged: Good government
Who stood up against secrecy
A brave few lawmakers in the House and Senate stood up for government transparency, countering their caucus leaders who insisted the Legislature should not be subject to the state Public Records Act.
Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/opinion-governor-jay-inslee-must-stand-up-for-the-people-and-veto-legislative-secrecy-bill/
Issues, issues, News
Fain's Property Tax Relief Plan
Senator Joe Fain discusses his plan for property tax relief with KVI’s John Carlson.
Source: http://kvi.com/podcast/carlsoncast-feb21-8am-hour
Tagged: Budget
Senate approves Fain-sponsored protections for servicemembers
New legislation allowing service members to cancel or suspend a service contract because of deployment or move Thursday passed the state Senate.
Source: http://www.kentreporter.com/news/senate-approves-fain-sponsored-protections-for-servicemembers/
Tagged: Veterans, Consumer Protection
Senator Fain discusses key issues with Southeast King County community leaders
Covington Maple Valley Reporter
“Speaking with and listening to our local leaders is essential to successfully represent our community before the entire state,” said Fain, who represents Covington in the Washington State Senate. “Hearing their concerns and ideas has helped us secure funding for much needed congestion-relief projects in the area, and this year successfully partner to expedite construction and help commuters sooner.”
Source: https://www.maplevalleyreporter.com/news/senator-fain-discusses-key-issues-with-southeast-king-county-community-leaders/
Sen. Fain honored for suicide prevention legislation
Auburn Reporter
The Legislator Award, part of Forefront’s 2017 Champions of Change Awards, honors the critical role that lawmakers and elected officials play in suicide prevention.
Source: https://www.auburn-reporter.com/news/sen-fain-honored-for-suicide-prevention-legislation/
Tagged: Public safety, Social services
Op Ed, Issues, issues
Let’s stand united, strong against acts of violence
“Acts of White supremacy by the KKK or by some domestic incarnation of Nazism are not quirky brands of minority beliefs that need protection. They are acts of violence that demand our unified condemnation.”
Source: http://www.auburn-reporter.com/opinion/lets-stand-united-strong-against-acts-of-violence-sen-fain/
Tagged: Editorial, Editorials, Community
Gang prevention funding included in new state budget
With a rise in violent gang activity in South King County over the last year, state lawmakers sought and secured funding in the new state budget to help prevent street gangs, especially among young people.
Sen. Joe Fain, R-Auburn, and Reps. Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines and Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, built on previous efforts to improve public safety and prevent at-risk youth from joining gangs.
“Working on gang prevention and intervention policies for a few years, we’ve learned a great deal about how kids get drawn into juvenile gangs, and we need to focus on innovative practices to break the criminal cycle before it breaks our young people,” Orwall said. “These dollars will go toward research on best practices for effective interventions to keep young adults from getting involved in gang activity that harms not only themselves, their families and neighborhoods, but endangers entire communities.”
Gang activity forces people to live with the daily threat of intimidation and harassment. Crimes such as drug dealing, vandalism, theft of personal property and automobiles, assault, rape and murder are prevalent in communities where gang membership is on the rise. Even people who are not directly affected by gang-activity also share in the indirect costs such as lower property values and higher insurance premiums, and first-responders are increasingly vulnerable to personal injury or death when responding to gang-related crimes.
The new 2017-19 state budget approved at the end of June includes $1 million for a grant program for areas with the greatest criminal street gang problems. Grants are eligible to local governments and non-profit organizations who collaborate and can demonstrate effective prevention and intervention efforts in the past. Grant recipients are also required to report on how effective the funding has been for improving community safety and the effect it’s had on at-risk youth.
“Gang violence is not isolated to one area and affects all of us throughout South King County,” Fain said. “Providing young people with alternatives to gangs makes our neighborhoods safer and ensures a better life for at-risk youth now and in the future.”
In May, city officials and police chiefs from Auburn, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Renton and other South King County cities announced a joint task force following a rise in gang activity and violence in 2017. This includes the Valley Enforcement Gangs and Narcotics Task Force, which is supported by the FBI and other national agencies.
“We know that once a young person has gotten involved in a gang or the criminal justice system it is very difficult to shift course,” Pettigrew said. “Several years ago I was able to secure funding to support young adults in avoiding or moving away from gangs, helping young people avoid mistakes that can follow them for the rest of their lives. These programs have already made a difference in our communities and I am glad that we were able to continue funding this ongoing work.”
The lawmakers also secured $75,000 for the Juvenile Rehabilitation Program, part of the state Department of Social and Health Services, to collect and analyze data from juvenile gang and gun offenses. The results will allow state officials to better target solutions and improve prevention efforts. Following review, the department will also make research-based recommendations to the Legislature that could improve public safety.
“At a time when we are seeing a significant increase in gun violence in South King County – often with direct ties back to gang violence – I and other Police Chiefs applaud the Operating Budget funding by the Legislature to continue gang intervention grants, to update and fully populate a gang data-base to give us accurate information, and to help gather more detailed numbers regarding juvenile firearms usage,” said Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas. “I truly appreciate the bipartisan leadership of Senator Joe Fain and Representative Tina Orwall on this issue, as well as the work of other legislators such as Reps. Eric Pettigrew and Pat Sullivan.”
Tagged: Public safety
The Politics of Paid Family Leave
Joe Fain, Republican state senator for Washington. Prime sponsor of a bill that passed into law last week, guaranteeing paid family leave in the state.
Source: http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/07/07/the-politics-of-paid-family-leave
Pushed to the limit, lawmakers find formula for basic education
Rep. Pat Sullivan and Sen. Joe Fain, legislators from the 47th District, were two of the principal negotiators who helped find the final pieces of the McCleary puzzle.
Source: http://www.kentreporter.com/news/pushed-to-the-limit-lawmakers-find-formula-for-basic-education/
Tagged: Education
Family-leave measure passed by Washington Legislature
The Washington Legislature on Friday approved a paid family leave program that offers workers paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child or for the serious medical condition of the worker or the worker’s family member.
Source: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-legislature-passes-paid-family-leave-measure/
Tagged: Family Support & Planning, safety net, Social services
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Rothschild Family
Revealing News Articles on the Rothschild Family
"Rothschild's departure will leave a big gap, not least because it hosts the twice-daily gold price fixing. Started in 1919, it is a prized and bizarre tradition. Every day at 1030 and 1500 local time, five representatives of investment banks meet in a small room at Rothschild's London headquarters on St Swithin's Lane. They are charged by the London Gold Market to agree a price for the bullion on offer."
-- BBC News article revealing Rothschild family wealth and influence, 4/15/04
The Rothschild family is considered by many with knowledge of deep politics to be one of the most, if not the most, influential families on our planet over the last few centuries. Yet the Rothschilds have consistently tried to keep their incredible power and influence secret over these years.
Though their influence has faded some in recent decades, the Rothschild family continues to enjoy tremendous amounts of wealth and power in a wide variety of concerns around the world. The collection of rare news articles below are among the few to cover some of the little-known activities of this secretive family.
Each excerpt from these articles on the Rothschild family is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails, see this page. The most important sentences are highlighted. By educating ourselves and spreading the word, we can and will build a brighter future.
Special note: For an excellent, highly educational essay on the power elite of our world and groups like the Rothschild family, click here. For ideas on what you can do to help build a brighter future, see the section at the end of this message.
The Rothschild story: A golden era ends for a secretive dynasty
http://web.archive.org/web/20070115044040/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/th...
The news that the bankers Rothschild are to withdraw from the gold market, in which they have been a major player for two centuries, has been hailed as the end of an era. In one sense, of course, it is. But in another way it marks out the continuation of an even older tradition - the ability of the family which has founded one of the world's largest private banking dynasties to sustain their secretive fortune, which industry insiders count not in billions but in trillions, and keep it within the family. Secrecy has been a hallmark of the Rothschilds from the outset. The Rothschilds created the world of banking as we know it today. [They] invented, or at any rate popularised, the government bond, which allowed investors, big and small, to buy bits of the debts of sovereign states by purchasing fixed-interest bearer bonds. It brought investment in railways, the industrial revolution and ventures like the Suez Canal. The Rothschilds got a cut of everything. They made billions in the 1980s from Margaret Thatcher's privatisations of state-owned industries on which they advised. In France after their bank was nationalised by the Socialist president Francois Mitterrand they slowly built a new business which, under Baron David de Rothschild, has risen to the top ranks of the merger and acquisition league tables. They have pulled out of retail fund management - into which they went with much fanfare only three years back - and now they are pulling out of oil and gold in favour of the higher-margin areas of private banking and wealth management
Note: For some reason this article was removed from the website of the Independent, which is why the above link takes you to a cached version of this revealing article. For more on financial corruption, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
Rothschild and Rockefeller families team up for some extra wealth creation
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9300784/Roths...
The Rothschild and Rockefeller families have teamed up to buy assets from banks and other distressed sellers in a union between two of the best-known names in financial history. RIT Capital Partners, which is chaired by Lord Rothschild, has taken a 37pc stake in Rockefeller Financial Services, the family's wealth advisory and asset management wing. It has snapped up the holding from French bank Société Générale for less than £100m. The transatlantic alliance cements a five-decade acquaintance between the now ennobled Jacob Rothschild, 76, and David Rockefeller, 96, the grandson of the ruthlessly acquisitive American oilman and philanthropist John D Rockefeller. The two patricians now plan to capitalise on their family names to buy other asset managers or their portfolios, using their networks of top-notch contacts to ensure they get a seat at the table for any deal. The Rockefeller group goes back to 1882, set up to invest the family money made by John D Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the forerunner for today's Exxon Corporation, which he built with a Darwinian aggression. "Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in," he once said. The Rothschild banking dynasty has its roots in the 18th century when Mayer Amschel Rothschild set up a business in Frankfurt. That sprang to fame in 1815 when it bought government bonds in anticipation of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo.
Note: Why is that these two hugely wealthy families get so little press coverage? Could it be that their wealth and influence exerts control over the major media? For more on secret societies which command huge hidden power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
Rothschild to leave gold market
NM Rothschild, one of the City's oldest merchant banks, has decided that profit takes precedence over history and is to withdraw from London's gold market. The move is part of Rothschild's plans to halt all commodities trading out of London as it becomes less profitable. Last year, the business generated just 2.2% of the bank's income, down from more than 8% five years earlier. Rothschild's departure will leave a big gap, not least because it hosts the twice-daily gold price fixing. Started in 1919, it is a prized and bizarre tradition. Every day at 1030 and 1500 local time, five representatives of investment banks meet in a small room at Rothschild's London headquarters on St Swithin's Lane. They are charged by the London Gold Market to agree a price for the bullion on offer. Each sits behind a desk and gets a phone and small Union Jack. In the centre is the chairperson, who for the past 85 years has come from Rothschild. A price is given and relayed via phone lines to customers. Then the haggling begins. When the price is right and buyers are matched with sellers, the flags are lowered and the price is fixed. While the whole process harks to a bygone age, the economics of the modern gold market are far less quaint. Many producers are no longer hedging their exposure to both currency and commodity price movements and that has taken a large chunk of business off the table. According to bank chairman David de Rothschild, "our income from commodities trading in London has fallen as a percentage of our total income in each of the past five years".
Note: For more on commodity price rigging, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
Rothschilds to merge British and French banking operations to secure control
The Rothschild dynasty is to merge its British and French banking operations to secure long-term control of the business and to boost the firm's financial strength ahead of the introduction of tougher capital requirements for banks. The 200-year-old banks will be reunited under a single shareholding that will bring together the fortunes of the French and English sides of the renowned family as they attempt to safeguard the business against the effects of new regulation and the fallout from the global financial crisis. Paris Orleans, the Rothschild Group's Paris-based holding company, will convert into a French limited partnership, securing the families' control of the bank against potential takeovers. The new partnership will then buy out minority investors in NM Rothschild & Sons, the UK business, as well as outstanding minority interests in the French operations. Paris Orleans has a market value of more than €500m (£415m) and is about 30pc owned by outside investors. The Rothschild Group employs 3,000 people in 42 countries and is one of the world's leading independent investment banks, advising some of the largest international companies on capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions. The bank also remains a player in the private equity industry and operates several merchant banking operations that invest directly in business across Europe and the rest of the world.
Note: For an index of all articles ever published by the New York Times on the Rothschild family, click here. For more on secret societies which command huge hidden power, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
The Rothschilds and their 200 years of political influence
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-rothschilds-and-their-200-y...
Nat Rothschild, the financier at the centre of allegations that threaten to engulf the shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, is no stranger to laws which forbid politicians from accepting donations from abroad. Political donations from overseas are also illegal in the US, where John McCain's campaign team is under investigation for allegedly accepting a benefit in kind from two mega-rich British citizens, namely Nat Rothschild and his father, Jacob, the Fourth Baron Rothschild. In April, Mr McCain passed through London and spoke at a fund-raising dinner for expatriate Americans, where seats at the cheapest tables cost £500 a head. What caught the eye of Judicial Watch, a Washington-based foundation dedicated to combating corruption, was that the event was held "by kind permission of Lord Rothschild and Hon Nathaniel Rothschild" at the family home in Spencer House, St James's, the only privately owned 17th-century palace in central London. The Rothschild family and politics have been intertwined for generations, ever since Nathan Rothschild, who founded the English branch of the family business, financed Britain's war against Napoleon two centuries ago. Serena Rothschild, Nat Rothschild's mother, was one of the largest individual donors to the Conservative Party last year. She gave £190,000. She has also helped fund Mr Osborne's office. When another member of the clan, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, married the New York businesswoman Lynn Forester, they spent the night of their wedding dinner in the White House as guests of Bill Clinton. Lady Rothschild was a fund-raiser for the Democrats. So it is nothing new for a Rothschild to be mixing with prominent politicians.
Note: For more on secrecy in high places, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
The Man Who May Become the Richest Rothschild
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/business/09rothschild.html
More than 200 years after Mayer Amschel Rothschild founded the family dynasty that offered discreet counsel and investment wisdom to kings, queens, emperors and industrial titans, his 35-year-old direct descendant, Nathaniel, has emerged as a kingmaker in his own right and an investor who some say may become the richest Rothschild of them all. In five short years, the man in line to be the fifth Baron Rothschild is close to becoming a billionaire. The ascent of Mr. Rothschild is a vivid illustration of how the still glittering, if somewhat faded, prestige and wealth of Europe's most storied banking family has been reinvigorated from bold bets in this era's new-money investment vehicles. Like his forebears, he prefers that his influence remain unseen. Mr. Rothschild is a principal adviser to Oleg Deripaska, one of the richest oligarchs in Russia and the owner of the aluminum giant Rusal, which recently merged with two other companies to create the world's largest aluminum company. Mr. Rothschild received no public credit despite having played a crucial role in getting the deal done. He ... would not be interviewed for this article, yet he allowed his lushly renovated town house in Greenwich Village to be featured in Men's Vogue magazine. With his mix of Old World politesse, a racy appreciation for fast times and the brute force of his accumulating wealth, Mr. Rothschild has become friend and adviser to many – including Russian billionaires, Indian steel magnates and a long list of people who have helped him out during his ascent. "There is a lot of power behind him, and like all the Rothschilds they use their power with discretion," said Guy Wyser-Pratte, who has invested with Mr. Rothschild. "I expect him to uphold the family tradition."
Note: For more on secret societies and groups in which the Rothschilds are suspected to play a large role, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here. For an index of all articles ever published by the New York Times on the Rothschild family, click here.
Transatlantic alliance between Rothschilds and Rockefellers for wealth management
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/transatlantic-alliance-between...
As if they weren't already well-connected enough, the world's two greatest dynasties joined forces yesterday as Europe's Rothschild banking clan bought a stake in the Rockefeller group's wealth and asset management business to gain a foothold in the US. The patriarchs of the two families – 96-year-old David Rockefeller and Jacob Rothschild, 76 – cemented a five-decade acquaintance as the younger man's London-based £2bn RIT Capital investment trust bought a 37 per cent stake in the American's business. In addition to bringing together the two doyens, the deal will considerably expand the vast networks of both families. To give a taste: Lord Rothschild's son, Nat Rothschild, is a well-known entrepreneur with stakes in a range of companies such as Genel, the Kurdistan-focused oil producer ... and Bumi, the Indonesian mining group. He was also linked with George Osborne and Peter Mandelson at a notorious party on an oligarch's yacht off Corfu in 2008. Lord Rothschild's niece Kate is married to Ben Goldsmith, brother of Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith and Jemima Khan and son of the late billionaire business tycoon Sir James Goldsmith. On the Rockefeller side, for starters, David's granddaughter Ariana is a successful fashion designer who married the construction heir Matthew Bucklin in 2010. The Rothschilds bought the stake in Rockefeller from French banking group Société Générale for an undisclosed sum.
Note: For an index of all articles ever published by the New York Times on the Rothschild family, click here.
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U.S. prepares to slap tariffs on remaining Chinese imports, which could add levies on roughly $300 billion in additional goods
Days after both countries had raised hopes of a deal, Trump and Xi instead escalate their tariff war
By David J. Lynch ,
David J. Lynch
Financial writer covering trade and globalization
Taylor Telford ,
Taylor Telford
Reporter covering national and breaking news
Damian Paletta and
Damian Paletta
Reporter covering economic policy
Gerry Shih
China Correspondent
The United States and China traded blows on Monday in the latest escalation of their tariff war, unnerving Wall Street and threatening to draw American consumers into the fray for the first time.
Both nations, which just days earlier had anticipated sealing a comprehensive commercial deal, instead took steps to raise new trade barriers. In Beijing, the Chinese government announced plans to impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of American products in retaliation for U.S. tariffs that President Trump increased on Friday.
Trump, meanwhile, began the process of expanding U.S. tariffs to cover all $540 billion in Chinese imports — a potentially seismic jolt to the global economy that is expected to raise prices for everyday products such as cell phones, sunglasses, cameras and televisions.
“There will be price hikes at Target, Costco, Home Depot and Walmart,” said Nelson Dong, a partner with Dorsey & Whitney in Seattle. “The importers are going to pass on some or all of the tariff to the consumer and that will become much more readily apparent and harder to mask.”
With hopes fading for an early resolution of the year-long U.S.-China trade dispute, the president said he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28-29. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that the two sides remained in “ongoing” negotiations.
“I love the position we’re in,” the president told reporters.
Investors were less impressed, sending the stock market to its worst one-day performance in months. The Dow Jones industrial average, which was down 719 points at its low, ended the day down more than 617 points or 2.4 percent to close at 25,324.99. All 30 Dow stocks lost ground.
During an early afternoon appearance in the Oval Office with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, the president appeared unfazed by the market jitters.
He boasted incorrectly that the federal government is collecting “hundreds of billions of dollars” in tariff revenue and said he planned to use $15 billion of that amount to bail out farmers suffering from lost sales to China.
“Our farmers will be very happy. Our manufacturers will be very happy. Our government will be very happy,” Trump said. “It’s working out very well.”
In fact, the Treasury Department has collected $39 billion in customs duties over the first seven months of the current fiscal year, roughly $18 billion more than in the same period one year earlier.
Industry groups also proved hostile to the president’s latest action. Most industries have cheered the president for confronting China over its pilfering of trade secrets and market-distorting policies. But executives have grown increasingly restive as the tariff toll has mounted.
“This is a self-inflicted wound that will be catastrophic for the nation’s economy,” said Rick Helfenbein, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association. “By tightening the noose and pulling more consumer items into the trade war, the President has shown that he is not concerned with raising taxes on American families, or threatening millions of American jobs that are dependent on global value chains.”
[Trump's go-it-alone approach on trade, immigration poses risks]
After a tweet from an editor of the Global Times, a Chinese state-affiliated publication, suggested that China might cease purchases of U.S. agricultural products and reduce Boeing orders, the embattled aircraft maker told CNBC it was confident the two sides would reach “an agreement that benefits both U.S. and Chinese manufacturers and consumers.”
Boeing’s stock price fell by almost 5 percent on Monday.
The sense of deepening confrontation between the world’s two largest economies represents a sharp contrast to last week’s expectations of an imminent deal. The president said Monday that the two sides had completed “95 percent” of an agreement before talks broke down.
After concluding that the Chinese were reneging on terms they had agreed to during earlier bargaining rounds, Trump last week opted to more than double tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports.
Shortly after the finance ministry announced the retaliatory tariffs, an anchorman for state television read an official government commentary in a live prime-time segment.
“If we discuss, our door is always wide open; if we fight, we’ll fight to the last,” CCTV anchorman Kang Hui said. “The U.S.-initiated trade war with China is just a hurdle in China’s development process. It is no big deal. China must strengthen its confidence, overcome difficulties, turn crisis into opportunity, and fight to create a new world.”
The nationalistic notes Kang struck quickly became the most searched subject on Chinese social media Monday evening.
China may stop purchasing US agricultural products and energy, reduce Boeing orders and restrict US service trade with China. Many Chinese scholars are discussing the possibility of dumping US Treasuries and how to do it specifically.
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) May 13, 2019
That tariff increase to 25 percent from 10 percent took effect on Friday. The tariffs Trump set in motion on Monday would hit an additional roughly $300 billion in imports, leaving almost no products from China entering the United States without incurring a tax.
Trump frequently claims that the Chinese are paying the tariffs, insisting in a tweet on Monday “there is no reason for the U.S. consumer to pay the tariffs.” Of the 25 percent levy, he claimed “4 points were paid by the U.S., 21 points by China,” an apparent reference to a 2018 study by a team of Swiss and German economists.
That research relied on evidence from the 1990s rather than looking at what actually happened after Trump imposed the tariffs, economists said. More recent empirical studies concluded that Americans are paying the tariff tab.
“Using standard economic methods, we find that the full incidence of the tariff falls on domestic consumers, with a reduction in U.S. real income of $1.4 billion per month by the end of the 2018,” concluded a March paper by economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Princeton University and Columbia University.
“This is not some kind of macroeconomic crisis or huge shock,” said economist Mary Lovely of Syracuse University. “But it is going to be tough on lower-income households.”
Trump’s tariff comments clashed with those of National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, who acknowledged in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that Americans will suffer.
“In fact, both sides will pay. Both sides will pay in these things,” Kudlow said.
The president is encouraging companies to relocate production from China to the U.S. or another country like Vietnam, which is not affected by the new tariffs. But switching suppliers is costly and time-consuming, say some business leaders, who fear the administration’s goal is to unravel the commercial links between the U.S. and China.
“Not only is there no deal, but the barriers are going up and the decoupling pressures are going to be even greater,” said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council.
With talks at a standstill, at least for now, investors and executives are settling in for a longer fight. If Trump did hit all Chinese imports with a 25 percent tax, U.S. economic output would shrink by at least $120 billion “as companies would have to rebuild entire supply chains,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in an investor note.
Corporate earnings, the key to stock prices, would drop around 10 percent, he added.
Still, despite Monday’s market slide, investors continue to expect the two sides to eventually reach a deal, Shepherdson said.
That might require the personal intervention of the two presidents.
“Ultimately, this is a political decision for the president and not an economic decision,” said Ely Ratner, executive vice president of the Center for New American Security. “Does the political benefit of standing up to China change as the tariffs bite the economy? That’s the fundamental question.”
David J. Lynch David J. Lynch is a staff writer on the financial desk who joined The Washington Post in November 2017 after working for the Financial Times, Bloomberg News and USA Today. Follow
Taylor Telford Taylor Telford is a reporter covering national and breaking news. Follow
Damian Paletta Damian Paletta is White House economic policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, he covered the White House for the Wall Street Journal. Follow
Gerry Shih Gerry Shih has been the Washington Post China correspondent since 2018. Before joining The Post, he was a correspondent for The Associated Press in Beijing. Follow
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White House blocked intelligence agency’s written testimony calling climate change ‘possibly catastrophic’
Officials sought to excise the State Department’s comments on climate science because they did not mesh with the administration’s stance
According to the National Park Service, Glacier National Park’s ice sheets are a fraction of the size they were 100 years ago. (Beth J. Harpaz/AP)
By Juliet Eilperin ,
Josh Dawsey and
Josh Dawsey
Reporter covering the White House
White House officials barred a State Department intelligence agency from submitting written testimony this week to the House Intelligence Committee warning that human-caused climate change is “possibly catastrophic.” The move came after State officials refused to excise the document’s references to federal scientific findings on climate change.
The effort to edit, and ultimately suppress, the prepared testimony by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research comes as the Trump administration is debating how best to challenge the fact that burning fossil fuels is warming the planet and could pose serious risks unless the world makes deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. Senior military and intelligence officials have continued to warn that climate change could undermine the United States’ national security — a position President Trump rejects.
Officials from the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Management and Budget and National Security Council all raised objections to parts of the testimony that Rod Schoonover, who works in the Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, prepared to present on the bureau’s behalf for a hearing Wednesday.
The document lays out in stark detail the implications of what the administration faces in light of rising carbon emissions that the world has not curbed.
“Absent extensive mitigating factors or events, we see few plausible future scenarios where significant — possibly catastrophic — harm does not arise from the compounded effects of climate change,” the document said.
[Read White House edits of Schoonover's prepared testimony for the National Security Implications of Climate Change hearing]
White House officials took aim at the document’s scientific citations, which refer to work conducted by federal agencies including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
According to several senior administration officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal deliberations, Trump administration officials sought to cut several pages of the document on the grounds that its description of climate science did not mesh with the administration’s official stance. Critics of the testimony included William Happer, a National Security Council senior director who has touted the benefits of carbon dioxide and sought to establish a federal task force to challenge the scientific consensus that human activity is driving the planet’s rising temperatures.
Schoonover’s draft testimony was peppered with comments from the National Security Council, criticizing his characterization of the threats posed by climate change.
“This is not objective testimony at all,” read one comment, according to an individual familiar with the document. “It includes lots of climate alarm propaganda that is not science at all. I am embarrassed to have this go out on behalf of the executive branch of the Federal Government.”
In another passage, Happer objected to the phrase “tipping point” when describing how a certain level of warming could trigger devastating climate-related impacts, the individual said.
“ ‘Tipping points’ is a propaganda slogan for the scientifically illiterate,” Happer wrote. “They were a favorite of Al Gore’s science adviser, James Hansen.”
Administration officials said the Office of Legislative Affairs ultimately decided that Schoonover could appear before the House panel but could not submit his office’s statement for the record because it did not, in the words of one official, “jibe” with what the administration is seeking to do on climate change. The official added that legislative affairs and staffers at the Office of Management and Budget routinely review agency officials’ prepared congressional testimony before they submit it.
A House Intelligence Committee aide confirmed that the panel received the written testimony of the two other intelligence officials who testified at Wednesday’s public hearing, but not Schoonover’s.
Francesco Femia, chief executive of the Council on Strategic Risks and co-founder of the Center for Climate and Security, questioned why the White House would not have allowed an intelligence official to offer a written statement that would be entered into the permanent record.
“This is an intentional failure of the White House to perform a core duty: inform the American public of the threats we face. It’s dangerous and unacceptable,” Femia said in an email Friday. “Any attempt to suppress information on the security risks of climate change threatens to leave the American public vulnerable and unsafe.”
Schoonover, who served as a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, could not be reached for comment Friday, and the State Department referred questions to the White House. A White House spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said in an email, “The administration does not comment on its internal policy review.”
[As White House questions climate change, the military is planning for it]
The Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s 12-page prepared testimony, obtained by The Washington Post on Friday, includes a detailed description of how rising greenhouse gas emissions are raising global temperatures and acidifying the world’s oceans. It warns that these changes are contributing to the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
“Climate-linked events are disruptive to humans and societies when they harm people directly or substantially weaken the social, political, economic, environmental, or infrastructure systems that support people,” the statement reads. Noting that while some populations may benefit from climate change, it said “the balance of documented evidence to date suggests that net negative effects will overwhelm the positive benefits from climate change for most of the world.”
The document sounds the alarms on several fronts, outlining two dozen ways that “climate-linked stresses” could affect human society. It identifies nine tipping points that could transform the Earth’s system, including “rapid melting in West Antarctic or Greenland ice masses” along with “rapid die-offs of many critically important species, such as coral or insects” and a “massive release of carbon” from methane that is now frozen in the Earth. It warns that because scientists have not been able to calculate the likelihood of these thresholds being reached, “crossing them is possible over any future time frame.”
The prepared testimony also notes that 18 of the past 20 years have ranked as the warmest on record, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, “and the last five years have been the warmest five.”
The White House proposed eliminating all of these scientific references.
Trump has been steadfast in shrugging off warnings from scientists about the potential impacts of climate change, reiterating in an interview with Piers Morgan on “Good Morning Britain” this week that he does not regret pulling the United States out of a 2015 global climate accord aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
“I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways,” he said. “Don’t forget, it used to be called global warming. That wasn’t working. Then it was called climate change. Now it’s actually called extreme weather because, with extreme weather, you can’t miss.”
During the interview, he blamed China, India and Russia for polluting the environment and insisted the United States has “among the cleanest climates,” noting that the United States had suffered extreme weather in the past. “Forty years ago, we had the worst tornado binge we’ve ever had. In the 1890s, we had our worst hurricanes.”
The United States remains the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, behind China.
What the president meant by “worst hurricanes” is unclear. According to the NOAA, the six most costly hurricanes on record have all occurred since 2005, and three — Maria, Harvey and Irma — have hit the United States during Trump’s tenure. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, in which at least 6,000 people perished, remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
As for tornadoes, they have tended to follow boom-and-bust cycles over the decades. The nation saw a relatively low number of tornadoes last year, although this year already nearly 1,000 have been reported. In general, scientists have warned that climate change will make a variety of extreme weather events more likely, namely droughts, hurricanes and wildfires.
Camilo Mora, a geographer and environmental professor at the University of Hawaii, said in an email that the president is rejecting the conclusions made by scientists in his own government.
“The evidence on this issue is overwhelming,” Mora said. “The president questions our change in jargon from warming to climate change to extremes as uncertainty on our side, but in reality we have come to learn that the impacts of greenhouse gases are much broader than we originally thought. By increasing atmospheric temperature, greenhouse gases can also cause drought and heat waves, ripening conditions for wildfires. In humid places, heat causes constant soil water evaporation leading to extreme precipitation, which falls on saturated soils and thus you commonly also get floods.”
Despite the internal controversy over the testimony prepared for Wednesday’s hearing, all three witnesses detailed ways in which climate-related impacts could exacerbate existing national security risks. Peter Kiemel, counselor at the National Intelligence Council, and Jeffrey Ringhausen, a senior analyst at the Office of Naval Intelligence, talked about issues ranging from how terrorist cells could capitalize on water shortages to disputes with other nations over shifting fishing grounds.
Schoonover, for his part, said in his opening statement that the planet was warming and that it could pose a major risk to the United States and other nations.
“The Earth’s climate is unequivocally undergoing a long-term warming trend, as established by decades of scientific measurements and multiple, independent lines of evidence,” he said, adding later: “Climate change effects could undermine important international systems on which the U.S. is critically dependent, such as trade routes, food and energy supplies, the global economy and domestic stability abroad.”
Josh Dawsey Josh Dawsey is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017. He previously covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal. Follow
The Opioid Files: Follow The Post’s investigation of the opioid epidemic
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Keegan Theatre finds Irish audiences enthusiastic about ‘A Few Good Men’
By Rebecca Ritzel
As a drama student at Catholic University, Brianna Letourneau had the good fortune to spend the summer of 2007 studying theater in Ireland. Hearing plays by Brian Friel, John Millington Synge and other Irish dramatists performed by actors in their native accents was euphoric for a collegiate thespian. But perhaps more inspiring, on a practical level, was the night she sat in Galway’s Town Hall Theatre watching Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company perform Cormac McCarthy’s play “The Sunset Limited.”
“Seeing American actors performing an American play on that stage — that was something that sounded like a fabulous, never-gonna-happen-to-me experience” as an actress, Letourneau recalled.
This summer, that never-gonna-happen thing happened to her when the District’s Keegan Theatre Company opened its 2014 tour to Ireland with a three-day run of “A Few Good Men” at the Town Hall. Letourneau was onstage playing Jo. The 16-person contingent returned home happy from the Emerald Isle on Sunday afternoon, about 24 hours after the final curtain came down in Kilkenny.
From 1999 until 2011, touring Ireland was an annual pilgrimage for Keegan, a small non-Equity troupe based in Dupont Circle. Then the company’s main overseas contact died, and it took two years of networking for artistic director Mark A. Rhea to arrange this year’s five-city tour. Keegan’s repertoire varies wildly, but each season includes work by at least one or two Irish dramatists. When traveling abroad, the company sticks to American classics; past exports have included “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “The Crucible” and “Fool for Love.” Aaron Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men” was a riskier choice, given the dense, rapid-fire dialogue and a plot that hinges on American military machinations.
Director Jeremy Skidmore traveled with the ensemble for the first week, and the actors quickly realized they were going to have to change their approach. Specifically, they had to slow down and use clearer diction to deliver expository dialogue during the opening scenes. Watching from the wings, stage manager Nikki Hoffpauir became convinced that patrons were listening carefully and enjoying the play.
“We picked the right show,” Hoffpauir said. “Not knowing how it was going to translate was a concern, but afterward, people wanted to stay and talk at the theater bars. People sat and just gushed.”
Trojan women
The show is not going on, but a high-stakes Livestream conversation about Euripides is set for Friday night at Georgetown University.
As the Post reported last month, Georgetown had to scrap its ambitious plan to stage “Syria: The Trojan Women,” after the State Department denied visas for the 12 amateur Syrian actresses cast in an adaptation of Euripides’s classic. The production had been organized by journalist-screenwriter Charlotte Eagar; her husband, filmmaker William Stirling; and Syrian stage director Omar Abu Saada. Georgetown was to offer the outside-of-the-Middle East premiere, and Columbia University had planned to add an additional performance in New York.
Now, because of State Department concerns that the women would not return home, none of those plans has come to pass. Instead, Georgetown has organized “Voices Unheard: The Syria: Trojan Women Summit.” Abu Saada will speak to the audience from Damascus, Syria, while as many actresses as are able will gather at the Makan Arts Space in Amman, Jordan. HowlRound, an online forum that supports new play development, will provide technological assistance. After the Livestream conversation and a selection of clips from the play, a panel of experts will discuss the Syrian refugee crisis. The summit is set for 7:30 p.m. at Georgetown’s Gonda Theatre. Tickets are free but must be reserved.
Molly Smith married
Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith wed her longtime partner, Suzanne Blue Star Boy, on Sunday. The two met in Alaska, where from 1979 to 1998, Smith founded and ran the Perseverance Theater in Juneau. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has become Washington’s go-to jurist to officiate at artsy same-sex weddings, conducted the ceremony. About 180 guests attended the event, which included a ceremony in Arena’s Kogod Cradle, followed by hors d’oeuvres and cocktails on the outdoor terrace overlooking the waterfront on a gorgeous sunny day.
Dancing in the rehearsal hall followed, although guests had to compete with an impressive list of performer-well wishers that included E. Faye Butler, Erin Davie, Maurice Hines, Nehal Joshi, Brad Oscar, Glenn Pearson and Nicholas Rodriguez.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (center) officiated the marriage ceremony for Suzanne Blue Star Boy (left) and Molly Smith on Sept. 14 at Arena Stage’s Mead Center for American Theater. (Susan Kaufman)
Ritzel is a freelance writer.
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Evangelicals’ infallible new faith: The gospel of Trump
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. in his Lynchburg, Va., office. (Jay Westcott/The Washington Post) (Jay Westcott/For The Washington Post/Jay Westcott/For The Washington Post)
By Christine Emba
Christine Emba
Columnist focused on ideas and society.
Jesus wept. Or maybe just rolled His eyes.
On New Year’s Day, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. defended his unwavering support of President Trump with a thoroughly confused reading of the Gospel.
Speaking to The Post, the evangelical leader claimed that it was a distortion of Christ’s teachings to suggest that because He taught love and forgiveness, “the United States as a nation should be loving and forgiving.” According to Falwell’s creative theology, Christ “went out of his way to say that’s the earthly kingdom, I’m about the heavenly kingdom,” and loving your neighbor as yourself only applies to the latter.
The man whose institutional mission includes being “a voice for the voiceless” then meditated on the uselessness of the poor — “A poor person never gave anyone a job. A poor person never gave anybody charity, not of any real volume. It’s just common sense to me.” He then suggested that it might be immoral for Christians not to support Trump.
Even the Son of God might have raised an eyebrow at that.
Why? Because even the most apathetic Sunday school attendee could probably dredge up this snippet of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The golden rule is applicable now, not just after death.
And when it comes to the poor, there’s that memorable story in which Jesus declared that a poor widow’s two mites were worth more than all the gifts of the rich. One might even recall that Christ himself was born in a stable and went on to become an itinerant teacher — a lesson we collectively reviewed a little more than a week ago.
Falwell’s flawed exegesis is comically absurd, but its implications are profoundly unfunny. While the Liberty University president purports to be an evangelical leader, his statements are in total contradiction to Christian truth. This isn’t just benign confusion: This is heresy.
And, like many heretics, Falwell and his fellow evangelical Trump apologists are on their way to founding a new religion, one in direct conflict with the old. This new religion doesn’t have much to do with Christ at all. Instead, it centers Trump as savior above any other god.
A disconcerting number of self-professed Christians have transitioned from the traditionally “evangelical” ambitions of spreading the gospel and forming a personal relationship with Jesus to spreading the gospel of wealth creation and fighting the “radical left.” National identity is what ties this body of believers together, and “the wall” has become its icon of hope, pushing the cross to the side.
By now, we’re all familiar with the statistic that 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016, and we know that conservative evangelicals remain the bedrock of his now-crumbling support. Writers from this order have cooked up an entire “Spiritual Biography” of Trump, and every new failing is transmogrified into cause for celebration.
Falwell’s conversion to the religion of Trump isn’t new, nor is this new faith’s continued growth. But its ramifications are becoming more apparent over time.
We’ve already seen Trump grow more obstinate in an attempt to keep faith with his new believers. In the past two weeks alone, two children have died as a result of border control brinkmanship, and the government shutdown is persisting at the expense of many in need. It’s all too easy to imagine Trump’s supporters providing enough of a cause to run the entire country aground and then to justify the collapse as necessary.
Of course, not all American Christians have signed on. Many have repudiated this new theology and are even rejecting the label of evangelical to further distance themselves from its new associations with the president. They’ve taken the advice of the Apostle Paul, who advised early Christians to admonish heretics at least twice, but then after that “have nothing to do with them.”
Yet this approach makes it even clearer that the alternative dogma has solidified and that its adherents are fully convinced. Near the end of his interview, Falwell was asked if there was anything that Trump could do to endanger his support from evangelical leaders. His confident answer? “No.”
That’s what you call faith. But it’s definitely not Christian.
Michael Gerson: Evangelicals have hired their own Goliath
Elizabeth Bruenig: How Jerry Falwell Jr. found his MAGA religion
Michael Gerson: Christians are suffering from complete spiritual blindness
Michael Gerson: As Jesus said, nice guys finish last
Jennifer Rubin: How many norms can Trump and evangelical leaders break in one meeting?
Christine Emba Christine Emba is an opinion columnist and editor for The Post. Before coming to The Post in 2015, Christine was the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at the New Criterion and a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Follow
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Why Democrats need to be ready to kill the filibuster
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at the Capitol in July 2017. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Among the reasonable criticisms of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is that he has extremely ambitious policy ideas — single-payer health care, free college tuition and so on — but not much in the way of ideas about how to pass them through Congress, other than to lead a popular movement so compelling that it will force Republicans to yield to its power and vote for bills they find abhorrent to everything they believe.
Still, it was something of a surprise to hear Sanders tell CBS’s John Dickerson this week that “I’m not crazy about getting rid of the filibuster,” seeming to dismiss the idea that a 60-vote requirement to pass legislation through the Senate would be an impediment to his agenda.
Maybe Sanders knows something about the openness of Republican senators to democratic socialism that the rest of us don’t, but he has a good deal of company even among his fellow presidential candidates. “We should not be doing anything to mess with the strength of the filibuster,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) recently said. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) was somewhat more equivocal: “Having just lived through being in the minority and how destructive the 51-vote threshold has been for Supreme Court justices, I just want to think long and hard about it.”
In April 2017, senators wrote a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) urging the maintenance of the legislative filibuster. Among those who signed were Gillibrand, Booker, and Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Kamala D. Harris (Calif.).
They might change their minds if they were to be elected president and Democrats managed to take control of the Senate, which could happen in 2020. And we should hope they do. The legislative filibuster may sometimes be useful to progressive purposes, but it doesn’t mean it’s not still an abomination. And if Democrats have the power to get rid of it, that’s exactly what they should do.
There is one presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is at least coming close to saying the filibuster should be eliminated. Here’s what she told “Pod Save America” this week:
So first they steal a Supreme Court seat, then they turn around and change the rules on filibuster on a Supreme Court seat. And so when it swings back around us what are we going to do? And my answer on that is all the options are on the table, that that’s how we gotta do this. If the Republicans are going to try to block us on key pieces that we’re trying to move forward, then you better believe we gotta keep all the options on the table. And I think that’s the way we should be describing it right now on everything that the Republicans are doing: that nobody is gonna forget what happened here and all of the options are on the table. We’re not going to play — let them play by one set of rules and then we play by the, you know, polite, everybody drinks tea and and keeps a curled pinky up while they do it. I’m just not for that.
This issue is, in some ways, emblematic of the differing approaches that Republicans and Democrats have to governing. Republicans trample over every norm and tradition if it will give them an advantage, and, in response, Democrats usually refuse to do the same, pledging their devotion to the civil operation of august institutions even whether it means they’re prevented from doing what they were elected to do.
One argument for keeping the legislative filibuster — one that Republicans offer when asked why they haven't gotten rid of it in the last two years — is that even if it frustrates you when you're in the majority, you'll feel much differently when you're in the minority again. Republicans are sincere when they say this.
But that’s because they need the filibuster more than Democrats do. Republicans legislative goals are modest, as you can see from what they did in the two years they had control of the White House and both houses of Congress. They used the reconciliation process (which circumvents the filibuster’s supermajority requirement) to pass their primary objective, a tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. After that, they didn’t have much else they wanted to do. They tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which failed because it couldn’t even garner 50 votes in the Senate — not 60, but 50.
That ought to be a lesson for Democrats. If they believe in the things they’re advocating, they shouldn’t fear their repeal by an untethered Republican Senate of the future. The Affordable Care Act was an incredibly controversial law full of compromises and was subjected to years of brutal and dishonest right-wing attacks, yet when Republicans finally had the chance to keep their promise and repeal it, they couldn’t do the job because public opposition was so strong. If you think your Medicare-for-all plan will be as good as you say, why should you fear that it won’t be as secure as the Affordable Care Act?
Republicans need the filibuster to thwart Democrats because Democrats believe in a strong government and have a comprehensive agenda. They’d like to pass health-care reform, tax increases on the wealthy, an increased minimum wage, family leave, child care, action on climate change, strengthened voting rights, and a good deal more. With the filibuster in place, almost none of it will be possible.
Then there is the simple fact that the filibuster is a grotesquely undemocratic feature of our system, taking a body that is already anti-majoritarian and skewing it even further against the will of the electorate. And it’s getting worse. The 21 least populous states, whose senators could together kill any piece of legislation by filibuster, now represent a combined 11 percent of the American population, meaning one out of every nine Americans could veto something that the other eight Americans want.
And according to some estimates, in two decades, 70 percent of Americans will live in just 16 states. That huge majority will be represented by 32 senators, while the remaining 30 percent of Americans will control 68 Senate seats.
A few of those small states are majority Democratic (e.g., Delaware, Rhode Island) but most of them are controlled by Republicans. Even today, though Republicans still control the Senate, a majority of voters chose to be represented by Democrats. Which means that when Democrats use the filibuster, it’s the party representing the majority of Americans doing the will of a majority of Americans. When Republicans use the filibuster, it’s the party representing a minority of Americans thwarting the majority’s will.
There’s one more thing to keep in mind. If history is any guide, a victory by Democrats in 2020 is likely to be followed by a backlash in the 2022 midterm elections, when Republicans could take back one or both houses of Congress. That means President Warren or President Harris or President Sanders would have just two years to accomplish all their ambitious legislative goals. It’s not a lot of time, so they’d better make the most of it.
David Byler: Bernie Sanders’s biggest strength for 2020 is his ability to thrive on chaos
David Ignatius: These ‘pragmatic progressives’ may be the future of the Democratic Party
Fareed Zakaria: The left is bubbling with ideas. They’re just the wrong ones.
Meghan Kruger: Good day care is hard to find. Elizabeth Warren’s plan might make it harder.
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Why Elizabeth Warren is surging
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), a Democratic candidate for president, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on JUne 9. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
Behold, the Elizabeth Warren surge has arrived.
Overinterpreting small movements in polls is always dangerous, but if she does continue to rise — and right now she looks like one of the only Democratic candidates who is gaining support — there are some particular reasons why, reasons that may help us understand what primary voters are thinking and how the media are shaping the race.
Let’s be clear: Warren’s gains are modest at this point. But she is getting more attention on cable news, and more stories written about her in other media (see here, here, or here). While, nationally, she still trails former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in most polls, a new Economist/YouGov poll shows her passing Sanders into second place, and a Monmouth University poll in the key early state of Nevada also shows her in second place, as well.
Most notably, in the Des Moines Register poll that came out last weekend (the gold standard of Iowa polls), she moved from 9 percent in the newspaper’s March poll to 15 percent now, while Biden fell from 27 percent support to 24 percent, and Sanders went from 25 percent to 16 percent. Just as important, 61 percent of potential caucus-goers said they were considering supporting her, the same number Biden got.
That’s consistent with what journalists on the ground in Iowa have been reporting: Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, is drawing some of the largest crowds as she campaigns across the state. Those attending her events testify to her skill in winning people over, her ability to describe policy challenges through effective storytelling, and her seemingly inexhaustible energy and enthusiasm.
Then there’s the role of the media. For a variety of reasons, Warren has become the favored candidate of the liberal opinion-writing elite. Even those (such as myself) who aren’t endorsing any candidate have been complimenting Warren for a while, writing and talking about her in ways that may be having an impact on how everyone else sees her and her candidacy.
It started as a reaction to her early struggles, with explorations of how sexism and problematic ideas about electability might be holding back a candidate who should be at least one of the most appealing contenders for Democratic voters. An ever-growing pile of laudatory opinion pieces about her may eventually have had an effect on how she is being perceived.
Which brings us to what has become Warren’s slogan: “I have a plan for that.”
Warren may be successfully turning the act of having policy plans into a virtue in and of itself, one that stands apart from the substance of the plans. Democratic voters are drawn toward candidates they think have policy muscle to go along with charisma. And in Warren’s case, what’s in her plans may matter less for the support she gets than for the idea that she’s the candidate who has plans for everything. It means she’s serious, substantive, prepared and ambitious about change. Not coincidentally, these are all things President Trump is not.
There’s something else Warren has that wins respect from those who have covered lots of campaigns, and winds up producing better media coverage in subtle ways: A clear, coherent message of the kind most of the other candidates are lacking.
A successful presidential campaign message tells voters three things: What the problem with America is, what the solution is, and why the candidate is the right person to bring us from the first to the second. In Warren’s case, she argues that the system is distorted by the interests of the rich and powerful, and she wants to reorient it both politically and economically in the direction of everyone else. She’s the one to do it, she argues, because she understands what’s necessary and has already figured out how to go about it (see: the plans).
A coherent message not only persuades voters, it also gets you good reviews from journalists covering the race, whether they personally agree with it or not. That’s not only because they respect a skillfully designed campaign but because it creates a kind of narrative coherence to the candidates’ actions and voters’ responses to them, one that makes easier the difficult task of writing about the contest every day.
None of this guarantees any particular result in the long run. Warren may be pulling support from Sanders now, but that could change. The significant number of moderates in the party could stick with Biden. A different candidate could catch fire. There are guaranteed to be ups and downs in the campaign; the first votes won’t even happen for more than 7½ months.
But there are good reasons why Warren is moving up, and why she at least has the potential to keep rising.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Elizabeth Warren is proving her doubters wrong
David Von Drehle: Elizabeth Warren’s jaw isn’t made of glass
Jennifer Rubin: You want to know who is electable?
Alexandra Petri: Can we risk nominating a man for president?
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Bill Richardson: For negotiating tips, Trump should read ‘Art of the Deal’
So far, he’s giving up leverage without asking for anything in return.
President Trump (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
By Bill Richardson
Bill Richardson is a former governor of New Mexico and a former United States ambassador to the United Nations. He is the founder of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement.
President Trump prides himself on being a world-class negotiator. His candidacy, and now his presidency, have relied on that premise. He says he’ll “force the Iranians back to the bargaining table” on the nuclear deal; after scrapping the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he’ll secure bilateral trade deals with Pacific Rim countries and renegotiate NAFTA’s terms; Mexico, he insists, “will pay for the wall, believe me — 100 percent.” Never one to underpromise, last year he told one reporter: “Peace all over the world would be the best deal. And I think I would know how to do it better than anybody else.”
Trump the businessman has, indeed, haggled many business deals. He even wrote a best-selling book about it. Yet politician Trump is making mistakes that “Art of the Deal” Trump wouldn’t. He’s negotiating against himself — giving up leverage before there’s a corresponding ask — and he’s boxing in his negotiating partners, driving up the cost of reaching agreements, with potentially perilous results.
One explanation is that private-sector negotiations are quite different than exchanges in international affairs. Citizen Trump’s business negotiations have frequently been stand-alone deals: You build a tower, I’ll put my name on it, and we’ll share the profits.
Negotiating on behalf of the American people on matters of global security is far more intricate. On the world stage, deals are frequently multifacted, multilateral and for the highest stakes. Sometimes these are matters of life and death and war and peace. They cause reverberations and carry indirect and often unintended consequences across continents. I know, because I’ve worked on many of them. Negotiating with North Korea, the Taliban, Sudan and Cuba is not comparable to bartering with casino moguls, real estate czars and hotel chains.
When Trump signals that he’s considering moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he needs to understand that this is not a simple, isolated act of support for Israel. It will significantly affect his existing dialogue, and any potential agreements, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other regional powers. Not because their governments are obsessed with the location of our embassy, but because it’s likely that many citizens in these countries will be marching in the streets in protest, and their governments’ credibility and stability will be on the line. The United States needs to stand firmly behind Israel; in my opinion, our recent abstention at the United Nations on a resolution condemning settlements was a mistake. But so far, Trump’s Bibi-can-do-no-wrong stance toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emboldened Israel to take the rare step of announcing a major settlement expansion. This will severely hamper future negotiations with the Palestinians to bring stability to the region.
These kinds of negotiations can’t be zero-sum. To reach successful, lasting international agreements, the president needs to serve the interests of the United States, while allowing his counterparts to claim their victories as well. If your counterpart can’t live with or survive politically the consequences of your deal, the deal won’t hold. As a diplomat, I always believed that in negotiations it was important to let my partners take credit and, when necessary, allow them to save face. In 1996, when I persuaded Sudanese rebel leader Kerubino Kwanyin Bol to release three Red Cross workers despite his initial multi-million dollar ransom demand, we held a joint news conference with several diplomats in attendance and praised Bol’s humanitarian gesture. We also promised him medical supplies for children in the rebel camp.
But by publicly stating over and over that he will make Mexico pay for his border wall and redo NAFTA, Trump makes it impossible for Mexico’s president to survive such a deal, even if, somehow, Trump managed to negotiate it out of him. He’s forcing President Enrique Peña Nieto to harden his own position. Tuesday, Peña Nieto’s government floated the idea of pulling out of NAFTA and lessening Mexico’s cooperation on cartels, security and immigration, all important U.S. interests. On Wednesday, Peña Nieto reiterated his opposition to the wall in a televised statement; Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel a planned meeting between the two leaders; a few hours later, Peña Nieto did cancel. They spoke Friday, but from here, the price of reaching a deal just goes up.
[Trump is bullying Mexico because Mexico is letting him do it]
Unlike some business deals, international affairs and political agreements are rarely a one-time game. There is always a next round. Misbehave after you conclude a deal, and the next round will be more costly. Gloating about being a winner and calling your counterpart a loser will backfire bigly.
Negotiators should also keep as many options open as possible. “I never get too attached to one deal or one approach,” negotiator Trump writes in “The Art of the Deal.” “I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first.” President Trump, however, seems intent on closing doors before he has an alternative lined up. He wasted no time signing an executive order that marked the United States’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yes, it fulfilled a campaign pledge, but TPP was meant to give us economic leverage over China, and Trump just gave a lot of it away without lining up alternatives, thereby letting China back in the game.
In addition, by tearing up the TPP, Trump damaged our relations with 11 other important countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico and Japan. The president’s claim that he will negotiate individual trade agreements with these nations is impractical and unrealistic. While he slogs along on 11 separate trade deals, the United States could be moving full steam ahead into trade wars with allies such as Canada and Mexico, as well as competitors such as China. Protectionism costs jobs and slows economic growth. We’ve lost the TPP and have, so far, gotten nothing in return.
[The missing dimension in the NAFTA debate]
Negotiator Trump argues: “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have.” Committing to repealing the Affordable Care Act, before a new plan has been negotiated with the insurance industry and health-care providers, will make President Trump negotiate from a point of weakness, desperate to make a deal. Most negotiations take place out of the spotlight, and Trump’s comments about the ACA suggest that he has far less leverage in private. In 1995, Saddam Hussein agreed to release two American prisoners to me only after months of intense but quiet talks. All we had to give in return was a public thank you. Hussein never would have agreed to those terms had we been spouting insults and bluffs. Bombastic threats not only would’ve jeopardized the negotiations, they would’ve endangered those two Americans, workers for a U.S. aircraft company who had made a wrong turn in Kuwait.
Similarly, doing away with the Iran nuclear deal instead of using it as leverage to negotiate amendments and change the Iranian regime’s unacceptable behavior — such as its support for known terrorist organizations and calls for the destruction of Israel — would be counter to negotiator Trump’s logic. The deal is made. The Iranians have an interest in keeping it. In negotiator Trump’s words: “Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs.” What does President Trump gain, negotiation-wise, by throwing his leverage away?
Finally, negotiators manage expectations. As Trump wrote: “I always go into the deal anticipating the worst. If you plan for the worst — if you can live with the worst — the good will always take care of itself.” President Trump, however, seems to have forgotten this principle, making sky-high promises that he may not be able to deliver on. And worse than in business deals, when the expectations you set in a political environment are higher than the results you achieve, you will be a disappointment and eventually lose support.
In an alternate universe, Trump the negotiator might very well proclaim Trump the president something of an amateur. “You can’t con people,” he notes, “at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole.
“But,” he adds, “if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.”
Bill Richardson Bill Richardson is a former governor of New Mexico and a former United States ambassador to the United Nations. He is the founder of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement. Follow
Opinion Trump has become the voice of insecure white Americans
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Opportunity, NASA’s record-setting Mars rover, is declared dead after 15 years
A eulogy for the spacecraft that transformed our understanding of the Red Planet.
By Sarah Kaplan
Sarah Kaplan
Reporter for Speaking of Science
Rolling up to the crater’s edge, the Opportunity rover took in a landscape unlike anything any Earthling had ever seen. A vast, meteorite-blasted expanse of volcanic rock and iron oxide extended for 15 miles, ringed by rugged mountains under a dusky orange sky. In months to come, the enterprising robot would uncover signs that warm, liquid water had altered these ancient rocks — evidence that the conditions for life once existed on Mars.
“That view was one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen,” recalled Ashley Stroupe, the engineer who was driving the spacecraft the day it arrived at Endeavour Crater on Mars in August 2011.
And although she was sitting a hundred million miles away, in Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in that moment Stroupe felt like the astronaut she’d grown up always wanting to be. Opportunity had allowed her, and her fellow scientists, and her fellow humans, to experience another world.
Opportunity’s historic mission, which uncovered signs of Mars’s watery past and transformed our understanding of the Red Planet, has finally come to an end after 15 years, NASA declared Wednesday.
The cause was system failure precipitated by power loss during a catastrophic, planetwide dust storm that engulfed the Mars rover last summer.
“It’s going to be very sad to say goodbye,” said John Callas, the mission’s project manager. “But at the same time, we’ve got to remember this has been 15 years of incredible adventure.”
Opportunity’s mission was planned to last just 90 days, but it worked for 5,000 Martian “sols” (which are about 39 minutes longer than an Earth day) and traversed more than 28 treacherous miles — two records for NASA.
“It will be a very long time,” Callas predicted, “before any other mission exceeds that duration or distance on the surface of another world.”
‘It’s a miracle they got to the launchpad’
Before 2000, when NASA announced its ambitious plan for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, just three spacecraft had ever successfully operated on the Red Planet. Of these, only one — the tiny Sojourner rover that accompanied the 1997 Pathfinder mission — moved around on the surface. It never traveled more than 100 meters and lasted less than three months.
The images these travelers sent back were alien and bleak. Though scientists had speculated about the possibility of finding life on the Red Planet, initial investigations revealed a world with no liquid water, hardly any atmosphere and a lethal daily dose of radiation.
At that point, roughly two-thirds of all missions destined for Mars had failed, often in expensive and embarrassing ways. In 1999 alone, a unit conversion mix-up and a missing line of computer code doomed an orbiter and two landers, costing NASA a combined $200 million.
Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS)
The agency’s chief scientist, Ed Weiler, called the failures “a wake-up call.” For years, NASA had pursued a “better, faster, cheaper” exploration strategy, attempting to use a shrinking budget to send several small missions into space. But now critics began to question the merits of the Mars program altogether. What could this desolate planet possibly teach us that would be worth the expense?
NASA would take an $800 million risk to find out.
Shortly after the crashes, Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres got an unexpected phone call. He’d been trying to persuade NASA to send a sophisticated robotic geologist to Mars for more than a decade. Now the agency wanted to know — could he have his idea ready to launch by 2003?
“We only had 34 months between when NASA said, ‘Okay. Ready, set, go!’ and when we had to be on top of the rockets in Florida,” Squyres said. “People say to me, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s a miracle the rover lasted so long on Mars,’ and I want to go, ‘It’s a miracle they got to the launchpad.’”
The new plan was to place a package of scientific instruments developed by Squyres and his colleagues atop two rovers called Spirit and Opportunity. The task of building these mobile robotic geologists turned out to be herculean. Dimensions changed, parachute tests failed, launches were delayed by bad weather and battery glitches.
Engineers perform a driving test with the Opportunity rover in November 2002. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Squyres recalled a sticky summer evening in 2003, after the scrubbing of yet another launch, when he took a walk on the beach near Cape Canaveral to clear his head.
To the East, he watched Mars — just a little red dot — rise over the glittering black Atlantic. It was hard to imagine how the rovers would ever get there, Squyres said. Mars seemed so forbidding, so alien, so impossibly far away.
‘We’re on Mars, everybody!’
Opportunity launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket on July 7, 2003, three weeks after its sibling, Spirit, took off. The cruise was uneventful, and seven months later, on Jan. 25, 2004, Opportunity prepared to touch down in Mars’s Meridiani Planum, a low-lying cratered expanse in Mars’s southern hemisphere.
“I was in the control room” at JPL, Squyres recalled. He laughed, “Which, interestingly, is a place where we have no control whatsoever.”
Because it took about 11 minutes for light signals to travel the roughly 100 million miles from Mars to Earth, a spacecraft’s “EDL” (entry, descent and landing) is over before scientists learn of it.
The logistics of the MER rover landings were formidable, bordering on absurd. Within six minutes of entering Mars’s thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, the spacecraft had to slow from 12,000 mph to just about 0. Right before impact, a cocoon of air bags inflated around the spacecraft, allowing it to bounce safely onto the surface of the Red Planet.
For a moment, the spacecraft’s radio link was lost as it shuddered to a standstill. And then a signal appeared on the computer screen in front of EDL manager Rob Manning. He flung out his arm and leaned back in his chair.
“We’re on Mars, everybody!"
Entry, descent and landing manager Rob Manning, facing the camera, hugs Richard Cook, the current Mars Exploration Rover project manager after Opportunity's successful landing on Mars. To their right, Miguel San Martin, a member of the attitude control systems team, cheers the victory. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Planetary scientist Abigail Fraeman, then 16, had been invited out to JPL as part of a Planetary Society program for high school students. She can still summon every detail of that night. The tones that rang out as each system was found healthy. The images that Opportunity sent down from its landing site of a smooth dark plain so vivid and sharp she almost felt she could reach out and touch it. The surge of elation that swept through the science team as researchers realized what they’d landed on: layers of exposed bedrock that would reveal clues about Mars’s geologic history stretching back billions of years.
“I realized I wanted to be one of those people who could jump up and down,” Fraeman said. “I wanted to be someone who could understand the significance of what those images were telling us.”
Fraeman wound up going to college for physics and geology, then earning her PhD in planetary geoscience. Since 2016, she has served as the deputy project scientist for the Opportunity mission.
15 years of exploration
Opportunity’s first great achievement came within two months of its arrival on the Red Planet. The layered outcrop on which the rover had landed — the one that made the scientists surrounding Fraeman jump for joy — contained evidence that water once flowed through the rocks: crystals, sulfur compounds, little spherical objects that scientists likened to blueberries, and rock patterns that looked like sediments laid down by a flowing current.
This evidence constituted a “giant leap” toward determining whether Mars ever hosted life, Weiler told The Post.
Opportunity's heat shield impact site is seen on Mars in an approximately true-color mosaic of panoramic camera images taken Dec. 28, 2004. On the left, the main heat shield piece is inverted and its metallic insulation layer glints in the sunlight. (NASA/JPL/Cornell)
That discovery was bolstered by scores more like it. Opportunity went on to find hematite, an iron mineral usually associated with water, and a vein of gypsum, which probably formed from mineral-rich water moving through rock.
“It really changed the way scientists perceive Mars,” said Squyres, who has been principal investigator for the instruments aboard Spirit and Opportunity since the beginning of their mission. “It is a cold and desolate world today, but in the distant past, in the time that the rocks explored by Spirit and Opportunity were formed, it was a very different world. It was a world that was more Earthlike, a time when life was emerging on Earth.”
“So it makes you seriously consider,” he continued, “if it happened on Earth, which it did, could it have happened under the warmer, wetter conditions that once existed on Mars?”
Opportunity, he said, “couldn’t answer that question. But we helped frame it.”
Those discoveries helped build the case for subsequent missions to Mars, including the Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012 and is still exploring the Red Planet, and a 2020 mission that will collect rock samples for eventual return to Earth.
Opportunity’s scientific accomplishments were only possible because it had been such an engineering success, said NASA’s acting director of planetary science Lori Glaze. The rover was adaptable, tenacious and diligent, and its drivers never failed to get it to its targets.
“Being able to really roll right up to an outcrop and examine it, to look up close with your hand lens, do the chemistry measurements … it allows you to really feel like you’re there,” she said. “That absolutely changed the way we go about doing planetary exploration.”
From its perch high on a ridge, Opportunity recorded this image of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. The view looks back at the rover's tracks leading up the north-facing slope of Knudsen Ridge in Marathon Valley. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The MER mission’s cultural legacy is just as wide-reaching. The intrepid rovers, with their humanlike proportions and endearing, Wall-E-esque antics, proved phenomenal ambassadors for the Mars program. Middle school science classes tracked the rovers’ progress across the Martian landscape. A Twitter account shared selfies and snarky comments in the spacecraft’s voice.
When Opportunity went silent last summer, more than 10,000 fans sent the spacecraft digital “postcards” wishing it well.
“Wake up little buddy!” one read. “We miss you!”
[Listen: Sarah Kaplan eulogizes the Opportunity rover]
Even the scientists who operated the spacecraft couldn’t help but anthropomorphize them. Stroupe, the JPL engineer, jokes that Spirit and Opportunity had “the dynamic of being rival siblings.” Spirit, which landed on Mars first, faced much tougher terrain and suffered several breakdowns, culminating in the rover’s eventual loss of contact in 2010.
As the “younger child,” Stroupe said, “everything kind of came easy to Oppy.” The engineer laughed. “I mean, she found signs of water before we even drove off the lander!”
This 2015 map shows Opportunity's route across Mars. The rover landed in Eagle Crater in 2004 and was exploring Endeavour Crater when NASA lost contact last summer. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NMMNHS)
The charmed rover barely escaped becoming trapped in a sand dune in 2005, survived a global dust storm in 2007, and undertook the longest-ever traverse performed by a rover — the three-year journey from its landing site at Victoria Crater to Endeavour Crater, 13 miles away.
“It’s been a privilege,” Stroupe said, “to see Mars through Opportunity’s eyes.”
She calls Spirit and Opportunity “the first Martians” — the first things to live and work longer on another planet than they ever did on Earth.
And as a systems and operations engineer for NASA’s Mars missions, responsible for driving robots across unforgiving alien terrain, “I do feel a bit like I have naturalized dual citizenship,” Stroupe added.
A sticker in her office declares, “My other vehicle is on Mars.” She uses an app on her phone to track the 24-hour, 39-minute Martian day. When she closes her eyes to sleep, rusty landscapes and dust-filled skies are the background to her dreams.
In May 2018, scientists at JPL received a worrying weather report from NASA’s Martian satellites: A large dust storm was brewing just a few hundred miles away from Opportunity, blocking out the solar-powered rover’s view of the sun.
The spacecraft had survived such storms before. But at more than 14 years old, it was no longer as hardy as it had once been. A fault in one of Opportunity’s memory banks resulted in loss of all long-term memory. Problems with the rover’s wheels and robotic arm looked like spacecraft arthritis. If Opportunity experienced another prolonged power loss, it might not recover so easily.
By June, the dust storm had grown into a planet-encircling event, one of the most ferocious NASA had ever seen. It looked likely that Opportunity would experience a low-power fault, putting itself to sleep until the skies cleared. Efforts to make contact with the spacecraft went unanswered.
This series of images show simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the sun from Opportunity's point of view during the massive dust storm. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/TAMU)
When the storm finally began to subside, in September, NASA adopted a “sweep and beep” strategy for waking the rover, sending commands multiple times per day. Except for a few false alarms from other spacecraft — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter transmits on a similar frequency — scientists heard nothing back.
Still, the team held out hope. If the storm had deposited dust on Opportunity’s solar panels, the coming windy season — which runs from November to January — might help sweep them clean.
“The hardest part was the not knowing,” Stroupe said. “It takes a real toll.”
The robot’s 15th birthday, on Jan. 24, passed without so much as a ping from the Red Planet.
After sending more than 835 recovery commands to the spacecraft, including a last-ditch program that would completely reboot Opportunity’s clock, hope began to dwindle. Every day that passed, Callas said, it became less likely that NASA would ever get a response to its frantic calls.
NASA’s Opportunity rover captured spectacular views of Mars
NASA tried one last time to contact its record-setting Mars rover Opportunity, but declared it dead on Feb. 13, 2019, 15 years after arriving at the Red Planet. The solar-powered rover has been silent for eight months, victim of one of the most intense dust storms in decades.
NASA/JPL/Cornell/NASA/JPL/Cornell
The very last signal was sent from JPL on Tuesday night. It was met with only silence.
“We’ve reached the end of the road,” said NASA’s associate administrator for science, Thomas Zurbuchen. “We’ve exhausted all the good ideas [for waking the rover] … and now we declare the mission as being complete.”
A meeting with the mission’s scientists and engineers this week felt almost like a funeral, Zurbuchen said. Researchers cried not just for the death of their rover, but for the disintegration of a 15-year-old team.
Still, Squyres was resolute as the mission drew to a close.
“I always knew it was going to end,” he said. “And boy, if this is the end … getting killed by one of the most ferocious storms we have ever seen. Well, you can walk away from that with your head held high.”
The rover is survived at Mars by Curiosity, the InSight lander and six orbiting spacecraft. NASA’s next rover mission, which will seek out signs of ancient life, will launch in 2020.
As for Opportunity, its metal shell will remain in the spot where it sent its last message, on the rim of Endeavour Crater. “It’s always going to be there,” Zurbuchen said, “like a monument, or a shipwreck.”
It is a marker of where humanity has been. And a beacon for whatever comes next.
Sarah Kaplan Sarah Kaplan is a science reporter covering news from around the nation and across the universe. She previously worked overnights on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Follow
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North and South Korea reopen cross-border hotline, paving the way for formal talks
A South Korean soldier stands guard at the truce village of Panmunjom in July. (Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
By Simon Denyer
Simon Denyer
Tokyo bureau chief covering Japan, North Korea and South Korea.
BEIJING — North and South Korea reopened a long-suspended cross-border hotline on Wednesday, conducting a brief conversation to pave the way for official talks between the two sides about sending a delegation from the North to next month's Winter Olympics in the South.
Talks, if they take place, would mark the first formal dialogue between the two sides since December 2015, while the hotline has been dormant since February 2016. The talks could yield an easing of tensions after a year of nuclear and missile tests, hostile rhetoric and the real risk of war. But U.S. officials and experts have reacted cautiously and skeptically, doubting the sincerity of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea had earlier in the day announced the channel would be reopened. The South's Ministry of Unification then announced that officials from the North had called using the hotline at the shared border village of Panmunjom on Wednesday afternoon. Officials first tested the line and held a conversation for about 20 minutes, it said, according to news agencies.
The announcement follows Kim Jong Un's offer on Monday to open a dialogue with South Korea over the North's participation in the Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 9.
[Trump to North Korea My ‘nuclear button’ is ‘much bigger & more powerful’]
South Korea responded by proposing talks as early as next Tuesday in Panmunjom, which straddles the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. The reopening of the hotline is meant to establish arrangements for this formal dialogue.
"The restoration of the hotline is very significant," said South Korea's chief presidential press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, according to news agencies. "It creates an environment where communication will be possible at all times," he added.
Ri Son Gwon, chairman of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, said his country hoped the Winter Olympics would be a success.
"We will try to keep close communications with the South Korean side from a sincere stand and honest attitude, true to the intention of our supreme leadership, and deal with the practical matters related to the dispatch of our delegation," he said, according to the North's official KCNA news agency.
China urged both sides to use the Winter Olympics as an opportunity to improve ties.
"We believe all relevant parties in this issue should seize this positive turn of events in the situation on the peninsula," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily news conference Wednesday. "China would like to play a constructive and positive role in bringing this situation back to the right track of peaceful settlement, work for the denuclearization of the peninsula and long-term peace and stability on the peninsula."
However, there is no guarantee that talks would find common ground between the two sides, nor lead to any lasting upturn in ties. Experts warned that North Korea was most likely resorting to a tactic that it has used before, making insincere promises in hopes of getting sanctions eased while buying time for its nuclear program.
U.S. officials said they were skeptical that Kim would make good on his offer, and insisted that the North will not drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul.
In an indication of the possible hurdles that lay ahead, South Korea's prime minister, Lee Nak-yon, warned Tuesday that North Korea could demand "different treatment," apparently as a nuclear power, if the talks do take place.
North Korea has refused to pick up the hotline since 2016 in retaliation for the closure of an industrial complex jointly operated by the two sides that provided much-needed revenue for the North. Relations have deteriorated as North Korea has accelerated its nuclear and missile program with frequent tests.
Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Tuesday that the United States is hearing reports that North Korea might be preparing for another missile test, warning that such action would necessitate tougher steps against Pyongyang.
In a New Year's Day speech, Kim said he wanted to ease tensions with the South but also told the Trump administration that a "nuclear button" was on his desk and that his missiles could strike any part of the United States.
Trump responded with a threat of his own Tuesday evening.
"Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!" he wrote on Twitter.
Asked about Trump's comments, China's Geng urged "all the relevant parties" to exercise restraint and do more to ease tensions on the peninsula.
Amber Ziye Wang in Beijing contributed to this report.
North Korean leader says he has ‘nuclear button’ but won’t use it unless threats
This is how nuclear war with North Korea would unfold
Life under Kim Jong Un
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The Teacher’s Gifting
Withstanding White Lady Road
Published by Bentley Bryant at December 20, 2016
After MidNight...
As a child, JaElle had been somewhat of a prodigy. She was a spunky little girl who was full of joy, laughter and questions. She was also the baby of her siblings. Being the youngest of 2 sisters and 1 brother she was quite spoiled, but within reason. The “life of the party”, she was known for her impersonations and making her family, and others, roll with laughter. On the surface, Jaelle looked and interacted like a normal child, and to be fair she was. But there was also something very special about her. JaElle was also born with a gifting that, in the beginning, only her father truly understood. Even she didn’t understand it. She knew she was different in that regard, even early on. She was said to have been born with a veil over her face. An old wives’ tale says that babies born with a veil, have psychic abilities and may have prophetic abilities. As a baby, JaElle was very asthmatic. There were several times where her parents rushed her to the hospital because she would be turning blue from a lack of oxygen.
When JaElle was around 8 months old, her mom took her in for a routine check-up. There was a point when one of the nurses was holding her to take her to the baby scale, which confused JaElle. Although her mom was following behind the nurse, she cried out, “Momma, don’t leave me!” The fact that she spoke, the fact that she could, the fact that she knew exactly what she was saying, along with the fact that she was so young made everyone in the doctor’s office stop and take another look. ‘Hey,’ said the nurse carrying her, “You’re too young to be talking like that!’”Her mom, laughing, said, “Oh, she’s been talking like that for a while now. It’s ok, honey, mommy is right here behind you.” The nurse stood there for a moment looking at JaElle like she still couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Her mom held back since this happened a lot. JaElle was different, but it was in a good way, amazing people everywhere she went. And it didn’t help that she was a super cutie!
As she grew older, JaElle’s gifting developed even more, in different, unexplainable ways. The best way she could explain it, she often compared it (jokingly) to Peter Parker’s spidey-senses. And this was true. It was like she could sense danger before it happened. Because she was so young when she realized she was not like the other kids, she was a bullied from time to time. But most of the time she avoided it because her gifting steered her clear of any trouble. Most of the time. At 3 she pretty much saved her sister’s life. It happened on a Saturday morning. Earlier that week there was a trip planned, by one of her aunts, to take her, her sister and a few of their cousins to a nearby park. There was a lake at this park and it was the middle of the summer, so naturally there would be swimming. JaElle’s mom was quite nervous about the trip since JaElle had not been around water and because she was so young. It was only natural that she was very protective of her little one. JaElle’s sister was 7 at the time so she wasn’t as worried about her, but there was also another factor that made their mom nervous. One of her sister’s had adopted a little girl, through an agency. Unfortunately, the play cousin had issues that she hid from all of the grown-ups, and most of the kids. But she couldn’t hide it from JaElle. She picked up on her darkness shortly after she met her.
One thing that JaElle learned, early on, was to let her mom or dad know whenever she got “that feeling”. About the 2nd time she was around her play cousin, she got “that feeling” and it was strong. So strong it almost made JaElle sick to her stomach. There was a pure evilness about her play cousin that JaElle, being only 3 couldn’t explain, but because she was so in tune with her gifting, she knew to stay clear of her, without making it obvious. Her sister, on the other hand was absolutely enamored by their play cousin. There was even a time when they were all in a candy store and the play cousin began stealing candy like it was okay. When JaElle asked her if she was gonna pay for all the candy she was stuffing in her pockets, she scowled at her, and said,”Mind your own business little girl”. When her sister seemed to give thought to swiping a handful, too, JaElle had to use her go to line, “Ooohh, if you do, I’ma tell Momma!” And because her sister knew that she really would tell on her, she refrained from joining the antics of her play cousin.
There were several instances of this type of activity. She remembered hearing her mom and dad talking and referring to the play cousin as “bad seed”. It was the first time that JaElle heard this term, but it stuck with her throughout her life. So the fact that her Aunt M. suggested that her play cousin come along, made JaElle’s mom very nervous. Especially since there would be water involved. Her play cousin’s mom, her Aunt B. wasn’t exactly thrilled about her taking the trip, either, because after she adopted her, she began to discover that the sweet little girl that she’d adopted was no sweet little girl at all. In fact, she’d had several run-ins with teachers, the law, store owners, fast food establishments, you name it. It was like everywhere her bad seed went, there were eventually going to be issues. It was a given, but her Aunt B. kept it away from the family. Call it pride, embarrassment, privacy, or ignorance…but not telling the family wasn’t the best idea. Especially since she was left alone with kids she was older than. She was 10 when she was adopted, which made it that much more difficult for her Aunt B. to deal with once she started acting out.
There was another time when she, her sister and JaElle went to the store to get some candy and on the way they went through a wooded area. This would have been fine, but because the play cousin was unpredictable and you could never tell what she was going do next. She grabbed JaElle’s hand and took off like a rabbit. Being much older and larger than JaElle, when she yanked her arm, it not only hurt, but caused JaElle to fall. Her play cousin, not even phased that she was screaming and crying, continued to run, dragging JaElle for quite a ways before her sister caught them and made her stop. It was the only time JaElle had seen her sister stand up to her play cousin. And for good reason. She wasn’t badly hurt, but the idea that her play cousin thought the whole thing was funny really angered the sisters. This had been a couple of months ago, but their mom was still a little mad at their Aunt B., somehow blaming her for the whole incident. Family is funny that way.
So the fact that she wouldn’t quit talking about the park trip really got on JaElle’s nerves. They lived right behind JaElle, so she was over at her house more than she was at her own. The night before the trip, their play cousin stayed for a sleep over. JaElle barely slept that night, tossing and turning and waking up several times in the middle of the night. Not being able to put her finger on exactly what it was about her play cousin, other than she was a disobedient child, who seemed determined to do just the opposite of what the grown-ups said to do…ALL the time.
Morning came and it was time to prepare to leave. Aunt M. had phoned and would be there to pick them up within the hour. It was as if their mom had a sense that something wasn’t quite right with the whole “day at the park trip”, too. Conveniently, while their play cousin was taking a shower, their mom pulled them both aside and said, “Listen to me, both of you. I want you guys to enjoy yourselves with your cousins. Play and have fun and listen to your Aunt M., but I’m not comfortable with y’all getting in that lake.” “Yes, Ma’am,” responded JaElle, who felt a little bit better that their mom had expressed her true feelings, finally. But her sister just continued to look blankly, as though she didn’t hear what her mom had said. She had a tendency to do that from time to time, which also annoyed JaElle. “Now your dad and I have discussed it quite a few times and we agree, we are allowing y’all to wear your bathing suits, but we don’t want y’all anywhere near the lake.” Speaking to her sister she said, “Make sure you hold JaElle’s hand and keep up with her.” This clearly aggravated her sister who felt like anytime she had to hold JaElle’s hand, it made her look like a little kid instead of a big sister. She did realize, though, that she’d have no choice in the matter. And it wasn’t too late for their mom to pull the plug on the whole trip. “Yes, ma’am,” she responded after way too much silence. JaElle knew that her sister would do everything she could to keep up with their play cousin. Especially, in front of the other cousins, she was sure to act like she was older than she actually was.
The three of them were ready to for a day of fun by the time their Aunt M. rolled up in a huge rented van. She’d already picked up the other cousins, snacks and everything else they would need on this trip. It would be a total of 5 kiddos and 1 adult, with her play cousin and her big sister being the oldest at 9 and 7, so it seemed like a reasonable ratio for an outing of such magnitude. So after their Aunt M. spoke with their mom and her Aunt B. who walked over once Aunt M. arrived, the girls loaded the van to leave for the park. But not before JaElle’s mom reminded her and her big sister of what she’d said earlier that morning. After hugging and kissing them both, the were off.
The trip took nearly 3 hours to reach the park, but only because, again, you had a van full of girls. Normally the trip should have taken an hour, max, but Aunt M. kept stopping because every so often, she had to pull over to a rest station or one of those Stop-N-Git Stores because someone had to use the restroom. Plus there were a couple of times that JaElle sensed her Aunt M. had no idea where she was… and she was right. After some time, they passed a sign that said Lake Park – 1 mile ahead, and JaElle woke her big sister up to tell her the good news. She had fallen asleep a while ago, as did their 2 Cousins, but their play cousin remained wide awake the whole trip…and eerily quiet.
Feeling creeped out by her, and the fact that she remained awake for the whole trip, made JaElle feel even more uneasy now that she was so far away from her mom. She even pretended to be asleep for a lot of the trip because she didn’t want her play cousin to realize she was awake and maybe come sit with her.
“Alright girls, we’re pulling into Lake Park, make sure you have your overnight bags and personal belongings before I park and we get out.” Her Aunt M. was also a very bossy lady. She figured she probably was eating this outing up because she could be in charge and boss her, her cousins and their play cousin around all day. One of the cousins along for the trip was her Aunt M.’s daughter, which made the two of them first cousins. The first cousin and JaElle were very close in age and JaElle acted like a big sister to her from time to time, when they hung out together. For the better part of her childhood the first cousin lived with JaElle’s GiGi (her mom’s mom who refused to be called Grandma) so JaElle hung out with her first cousin a lot. In ways, they were more like sisters than first cousins, so they were really cool with each other. Growing up, one of JaElle’s absolute favorites was ol’ Bugs Bunny. She would often go around saying “Eh? What’s Up Doc?!” even to random strangers. Thankfully, back then kids could do that. She thought that Bugs was the cleverest bunny she’d ever seen. She often mimicked his antics, which got her tons of laughs from her family members.
There was a time where she and her first cousin were hanging out with her dad and he’d given them both silver dollar pieces. Back then, this was a really big deal, especially for kids their ages. To this day, JaElle can’t tell the story without laughing hysterically, but the 3 of them had gone out for ice cream on a hot summer day. During that ice cream social, JaElle’s dad had handed the 2 girls each a 50-Cent piece. You would have thought he’d handed them a $100 dollar bill. After some time they’d made it back to the car and sitting in the back seat, JaElle looked over at her first cousin and whispered, “Hey girl, I just threw my 50-Cent piece out the window.” “Nuh-unnn, no way!” replied her bewildered first cousin, “You did?!” “Yep!” replied JaElle, “I didn’t want that old thing. I don’t even think it was real anyway!” As her first cousin dug her 50-Cent piece out her pocket, with sticky ice cream hands, she looked at it and back at JaElle and said, “It ain’t?!” “Girl, naw…” replied JaElle fighting back laughter. Her first cousin drew her arm back as far as she could and said with the evidence of ice cream all over her face, “Well, I don’t want mine, either, then!” and with that she threw her 50-Cent piece as hard as she could out of the back window. The moment she did, JaElle reached under her thigh, where she’d hidden her 50-Cent piece, and pulled it out saying, “Ha! I didn’t really throw mine out!” Her dad, who was driving and listening to the radio only heard that last bit of what was going on, and now her first cousin was crying hysterically. Pulling over, JaElle’s dad said, “What in the world’s going on back there?” JaElle, hoping she wasn’t in trouble, told her dad what had happened. Her dad, who also happened to be her biggest fan, calmed the situation down by digging in his pocket and giving her first cousin another 50-Cent piece. “Now you might want to hold on to that one,” he advised her first cousin and she did, well into adulthood. For years, JaElle and her dad told that story and they both cracked up every time they did. Apparently her dad was overheard telling her mom later that night and they both laughed for a while before falling asleep. After some time, even her first cousin thought it was funny. It was kind of scary, but JaElle had that type of influence on people early on and she still does.
So now they were all off-boarding the van and JaElle, being in a foreign place, immediately reached out to grab her big sister’s hand. It was just before noon when they arrived and being the ever prepared Aunt M., she’d stopped along the way, and grabbed a couple of buckets of KFC. Nothing like KFC on a road trip. So they checked into the 5-star hotel, made it to their room and hopped on to the 2 king-size beds. The room had a wonderful view to the lake and her first cousin was the first one to notice it. With a piece of chicken in her hand and a mouth full of it, she pointed and said, “Ooohhh! Loook!”The scene was like something from one of those fairy tale movies. The water. The people on the beach building sand castles. The people in the water playing and swimming. Hard to believe that within the next few hours one of the six would succumb to a hidden nightmare here in Lake Park. In broad open daylight. Soon the magical majestic aura of this place would take on a whole different look and feel.
Now with the excitement at an all-time high, and both buckets of KFC gone, the girls all dressed out in bikinis and prepared for the lake. At this point, as JaElle had predicted, the play cousin had gotten on everyones’ nerves. She had been extra crabby today and the happier and more excited all the others became, the more negative she became. This was typical of her, a very cynical being normally, but today she was turned up a few notches. So from now JaElle, with the ever imaginative mind, re-named her as the cynical cousin because it definitely fit her better than the former play cousin. Come to think of it, she’d always been the opposite of her title as play cousin. Who named her that anyways? After thinking about it for a few moments, JaElle realized that she’d done the naming herself that to make it a point to emphasize that she was not of her and her big sister’s blood-line.
As they made their way to the lake, it was revealed to JaElle exactly what her cynical cousin’s issue was with her and her big sister. She was deeply jealous of not only their relationship, but also the fact that they were a part of a whole family. JaElle would find out in later years that she had issues that stemmed from years of abuse from her family and God knows who else. It was sad that the agency hadn’t disclosed all of the details of her past to her Aunt B. So her cynical cousin had issues that ran deep and dark. So rather than being free out here on the lake running wild, she should have been on a very skilled shrink’s couch to figure out what was really going on in those minds of hers. Yes, minds… No wonder it took JaElle a while to figure out exactly what her deal was. She presented several personalities due to her past abuse that was too severe to even share with her adoptive mom. Apparently.
JaElle was snapped back to reality, when her big sister ran by, knocking over part of her and first cousin’s sand castle. “Heeyyy!!!” both JaElle and her first cousin were angry. Then JaElle’s “Spidey-Sense-Tingly-Thingy” crept up on her like a cool eerie chill. Her Aunt B. had briefed all 5 of them not to get into the water without telling her, so she could keep an eye on them. And if they did get into the water to all stay together. What the heck? JaElle felt as though her Aunt M. must’ve been trying to win the coolest aunt in the world award, since she was so nonchalant about them getting into the water. But the ever-obedient-child, JaElle only heard the voice of her mom…”Stay back from the water and hold your sister’s hand.” Their mom was probably the most laid back of all 10 of her siblings (a laundry list of aunts and uncles). But she was quite fierce if you crossed her. Those who didn’t know this, did it only once and if they survived, they never did it again. The others who had heard, never crossed her, because they believed what they heard about crossing her. Not a wise move.
So it terrified JaElle when she looked and saw her cynical cousin luring her big sister to the edge of the lake and beckoning her to follow her deeper into the calm deep blue water. She could tell that her big sister wanted to follow their cynical cousin, but was hesitant, probably by whole idea of crossing their mom by being disobedient. At any rate, JaElle took the moment to hop up and run as fast as she could to grab her big sister’s hand, hoping to snatch her back from the apparent trance their cynical cousin had her under. Running in her direction and praying that she’d make it to her big sister in time, JaElle screamed her name causing the few people in the area, who heard her over the splish-splashing fun everyone else was having, to freeze in their spots. Someone screaming and running in that setting always caught the attention of others. As she continued to scream and run towards her big sister, she made it to her just as she stepped one foot into the icy water, and grabbed her hand with both of hers. It was as though she had gone deaf in those last few seconds because her big sister never responded to her voice. The yanking of her arm finally caused her to spin around. Like someone waking up from a very bad nightmare in the middle of the night with only the night light burning, her big sister looked down at her and back out to the water at their cynical cousin, who never stopped moving. “Remember what Momma said. We are not allowed to get into the water!” Listening now and nodding slowly, her big sister didn’t fight her as they stood there holding hands.
At this point the lake was filled with families who were all busy with enjoying the beautiful sunshine and nice little breezes that swooped through every now and then. Now everyone was stopping to see what all of the commotion was about. Squinting, Aunt M. was now on her way too. Running as fast as her small ankles would allow her, but she was carrying more weight than recommended by her doctor and now felt every ounce of it. The cynical cousin, meanwhile, was backing further and further into the ice-cold water as though someone or something was calling her out there. She finally stopped as others started calling to her, mostly from fear and trying to convince her to stop and come back. Finally she stopped backing up and just stood there silent for a few moments as she faced everyone on the lake’s shore. This was an easygoing lake and everyone, before now, had stayed in the shallow parts, with water no higher than their knees at any point. The water was now around the waist of the cynical cousin as she stood there, silent, just looking creepy. At this point, JaElle remembers her Aunt M. standing near them screaming and crying for someone to help, call help, please help. She was totally losing it. And then finally it happened. That part in the movies where people go, “Nooooo! Go back! Go Back!” The cynical cousin turned around and went further out. JaElle felt like she was watching a movie. Except this was real and she was about to pass out from the excitement of the whole ordeal. At this point a few people jumped in and swam to go get her, when all of the sudden the water began to take on a life of its own. It seemed as if something caused it to start swirling, whipping and stirring and then the cynical cousin began to scream. Everyone there that day witnessed her being snatched under the water, seemingly by something that grabbed her by the ankles. Something much larger that anyone there had ever seen. It was crazy because three minutes ago, the water was totally calm, icy-cold, but very calm. And now, it, or something, snatched the cynical cousin under one last time and JaElle never saw her again.
It was very hard for JaElle to understand her cynical cousin’s death. It was as though the world lost sound at the point her cynical cousin was seemingly snatched under that icy-cold water, never to be seen again. The truth of the matter was that her body was found several hours later, bloated and deformed. Hardly recognizable after being out in those waters for so long. It was believed that she had been caught in a strong undercurrent. Even so, for those who saw the horrible death happen that day, many were convinced that it was more than just a strong undercurrent that caused her to go under. She was a great swimmer, which was probably why she thought she could disobey the rules of the grown-ups, namely her Aunt M., and go wandering out into that icy-cold water. She’d been disobedient quite a few times before, but it seems this time, it caught up to her.
A few years later, JaElle was in middle school and she, her mom, dad, and big sis were taking a well-deserved Dizzy World Trip! Her dad, a fellow known for joking around and having a good ol’ time, especially at the expense of others. He was responsible for naming the trip and a few other things, to include other people, places and things. He was quite a character and everyone knew it. Heck, even he knew it. So after talking about it for months, the day finally came for the Dizzy World Trip. JaElle and her big sister were beside themselves with excitement. Needless to say, they hadn’t been on any trips too far away from home since that dreadful day a few years back when JaElle’s insight saved her big sister’s life. If not for her, her big sister would’ve surely followed their cynical cousin to her death, as well.
It was a Friday afternoon, and the girls were out of school, but their parents weren’t off until noon. They double checked all of their bags, since they would be gone until Sunday. It wasn’t long before their mom arrived, took a shower, and she too, was excited and ready to go. Then their dad arrived and said, “I’m right as rain! I’ll take a bath once we get to where we’re going!” After their dad finished with his shower, because their mom wasn’t hearing the “taking a bath once we get where we’re going” nonsense. This was funny to the girls. Their dad wore the pants in their relationship, but their mom definitely told him when to put them on. So after some last minute checks, JaElle’s family was on the road. Since this was a time before Siri, MapQuest, Google, Cell Phones, and the Internet, everything had to be planned out just right.
It was a much simpler time. A time where there were hardly any distractions and you had to be in the moment of what was happening. It was a time where families like JaElle’s had discussions about what was going on at the moment it was going on. Of course, back then, there were the stories that had happened eons ago, that were brought up during road trips. Like the time JaElle made a fool out of her cousin and pretended to have thrown her 50-Cent piece out of the window. And then like a dummy, her cousin threw hers out, as far and as hard as she could! They all must’ve laughed for a couple of miles, at least, at that historic family moment. Yeah, life was much simpler then, and it was good.
Back then it was also, par for the course, to stop at rest stops along the way to any destination that was a million miles away. It was very common, but you also had to be very careful, for the obvious reason that if you were traveling, and your license plate would give that clue away faster than anything else, you were probably loaded with cash. Even if you had it hidden, you had it and there would always be people hanging around to relieve you of it, if you weren’t careful. The real funny thing about JaElle’s dad with all of his playfulness and at time, downright comical genius antics, when it came to his family, he’d kill you without hesitation for getting out of line with any one or all of them. And this was a known fact, especially in their town. But out here on the road, it was during a time when you could openly carry a firearm. And he did just that. Being a person that named and nicknamed everything, he called his piece the GATT. One could only assume that this was in reference to the Gatling gun which is a machine gun that consists of multiple barrels revolving around a central axis and is capable of being fired at a rapid rate. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler of the Union Army first used the gun at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia in 1864-1865. Very much similar to the Golden Manual Machine Gun in that Denzel movie, The Magnificent Seven. The gun is named for its inventor, Richard Jordan Gatling, a physician. Gatling neatly divided his sympathies during the Civil War. While trying to sell machine guns to the Union, he was an active member of the Order of American Knights, a secret group of Confederate sympathizers and saboteurs.
The conservatism of the Union army chief of ordinance and the unreliability of early models of the gun frustrated efforts to sell it to the U.S. Army. But Gatling soon improved on the original six-barrel, .58 caliber version of the gun, which fired 350 rounds a minute, by designing a ten-barrel, .30 caliber model, which fired 400 rounds a minute. The U.S. Army adopted the Gatling gun in 1866, and it remained standard until it was replaced in the early twentieth century by the Maxim single-barrel machine gun. Her dad’s piece was nowhere as intricate, or large as the one described, but it was quite impressive nonetheless. Where most really nice pieces were nickleplated back then, her dad’s was goldplated, with all types of designs inscribed along it’s barrel and it’s ivory handle. It was actually hand crafted just for him, to his liking, since he liked rare expensive things. So did JaElle’s mom, but she could wear most of her expensive rare things.
Her dad wore his GATT, a.k.a. the Persuader, (because according to her dad it could persuade anyone to do anything you wanted them to), proudly, especially in public faraway places like rest stops. Just in case anybody just so happened to get-it-twisted. Or, in other words, think they could step to him or his beautiful wife or daughters. Once glance at his GATT and I’m sure it persuaded countless folks to reconsider any foolish thoughts they may have been having to run up on him or his Family. So as they pulled up to their first rest stop, their mom and dad allowed the girls to lead the way. As they followed closely behind them, that ol’ glistening GATT set the tone: “Mess with me or my family and you’re going to get dealt with, with quickness!” JaElle had actually heard her dad say those words countless times, even around their home. And she knew he meant every word of it! Nevertheless, their dad stood around outside the women’s rest room and waited for his queen and 2 princesses. As he’d done countless times before, he walked them back to the car and proceeded to go back to the men’s restroom. This caused a rest stop break to take forever, but it was the safest way for them to conduct their business in a completely strange area. On that day, there would be no reason for her dad to pull or fire his GATT, and her mom was always thankful for that. But the time was coming, at their next stop, when popping off a couple of rounds just might be necessary.
The rest of the road trip was pleasant. JaElle, having slept most of the way to one of the hotel’s a few miles outside of Dizzy World, woke up just in time to see the beautiful green trees and shrubs that were all over the area. At first she thought she was in Dizzy World, but quickly realized they still weren’t quite there. It was her parents’ voices that woke her up. It was comical how somehow, on these road trips, her dad would always end up lost. Lost and never admitting he was lost was hilarious, except to her mom who would always get aggravated with her dad for not stopping and asking for directions. Back then, there were only fold-up paper maps that could be more confusing than just winging-it and heading in the direction you wanted to end up. Her dad was NOT a readin’ or writin’ man. Although she’d heard him say that more than a few times, as well, she really didn’t understand what that meant until she became older. She’d been reading and writing from a very young age and at some point her dad began to tell her that someday she’d become a very good teacher. She’d always dreamed about becoming a super model and then an airline stewardess. There were times when they’d have talks and he’d agree with her, although he knew she’d become that teacher, regardless.
So now she was wide awake, pretending to be asleep, fighting back laughter and blowing her cover. Her dad would always get so defensive about being lost. She only figured that maybe it made him seem vulnerable, or maybe even a little helpless. She wasn’t sure either, but her mom knew just how much to press her dad. For some reason, it was giggly-fun while it was happening, but hilariously funny later around the dinner table. So sure enough, mom would finally convince him to stop at a filling station, and ask. And sure enough, he’d come back to car with his head hanging down and mumble something about being turned around. Her mom, being a smarty-pants every chance she could, would always say, “What was that, Honey? Can you “turn around” and speak up?” Normally, at that point, they’d all get a good laugh. Ah, family, gotta love ‘em!
After a couple hours of traveling, which should have been only 30 minutes, they pulled up to the hotel. This place and the rates seemed a little off, but after traveling for so long, anyplace would suffice. As long as it had a bed or two. Personally, JaElle found the hotel kind of creepy. There was something about the well manicured grass, the perfectly shaped shrubs, the huge smiles on every employees face, that just seemed overdone. Fake. Walking into the front lobby up, to the check-in desk, JaElle tried to call upon her Spidey-Senses to no avail. She knew that her gifting didn’t work that way, especially when it was forced. JaElle knew this, but would try to sometimes make her gifting work based on how she was feeling. But there was something about this place. It was like painting over an old wooden chair with new paint. Gorgeous upon first glance, but further inspection would prove otherwise.
Since she didn’t want to cause any kind of scene, especially at the check-in desk, she decided to wait and see. Maybe her Spidey-Senses would kick in later, or maybe not at all. Time would tell. The hotel was designed so that its doors opened to a very narrow balcony. They left a lot of their belongings in the car, so as to conserve energy for the Dizzy World Theme Park tomorrow. Climbing the stairs, because their parents despised elevators, they finally made it to the 6th floor. Even traveling lightly, the steps were quite tedious. Opening the door to their room, her big sister ran and jumped on to one of the huge king size beds. “Me and JaElle are gonna take this one!” “Now, now,” said, their mom who was heading over to sit on the other bed. Their dad bolted for the restroom and JaElle just stood there. Silently holding her bags. Staring around the room. Her dad came out of the restroom and noticed that she had not put down her stuff or joined her big sister.
“JaElle?” Her dad had seen that look before and now her mom and big sister tuned in to see her just standing there. Staring. What made this even the more strange was JaElle had begun to whisper something in audible. “What’s that Honey?” She continued to mumble and whisper until finally she spoke loud and clear, “We can’t stay here, not tonight.” It was no mistaking what she had said at this point. Her dad now a bit bewildered, leaned down and hugged his little girl. “Honey, are you sure? Are you picking up something in the room?” Before she answered, JaElle looked around the room slowly. “Yes.” Her mom spoke out, “Are you serious? Just like that, we’re going to go look for another hotel?” “Now hold on a minute Honey. Nobody said anything about leaving, just yet.” JaElle’s whole body was tingling and she said it again, “I’m sorry guys, we have to leave.” That she never changed her tone, convinced her dad that they’d better get moving, ASAP. So he hustled everyone up, grabbed all of their belongings, and made a mad dash for the front desk with his family.
To this day, JaElle has no clue what her mom or dad said to the lady at the front desk, but they ended up with keys to another one on the opposite side of the building. Thankfully, the hotel had plenty of rooms and the next room was even more fabulous. Now they all crashed on the two king-sized beds. It would be later on, sometime after midnight, when JaElle and her family would be awakened by loud noises, coming from across the way, in front of their room. Peering through their blinds, they all felt a little silly, but wanted to know what the heck was going on. It didn’t take long to figure it out. At least part of it. One of the rooms, across from them, had been violently broken into. The door had been knocked completely off the hinges and lay dented against the balcony rail. The windows had been shattered, so thick glass was everywhere. Police tape was up, blocking would be travelers from either end of the balcony. They all stared in complete silence for a very long time at the huge blemish that now was part of the hotel.
Pulling into the hotel earlier, none of them noticed the two thugs that were standing across the street, hanging out at the bus stop. But the thugs noticed them and their out of state license plates. Their plan was to watch what room the travelers checked into, wait until after midnight, and give a good ol’ welcome to town surprise party. Only the party would consist of at least robbing them blind and God only knows what else since these two crack-heads were both wanted felons. But neither of them stuck around to see the Travelers check out of that particular room and choose another one on the opposite side of the building. Thanks to a little girl named JaElle, who was born with a special gifting. A gifting that just may have saved the lives of her family, and her precious life tonight, too.
Bentley Bryant
Hello Readers, I am originally from a small town in South GA where everyone loves a good story. I now reside in AZ with my Wife and our 2 daughters, who are very supportive of my efforts here on WereWoofs. Being a movie buff (along with spending a number of years in the Military and Prison System, as a Senior Correctional Officer) I've seen and experienced, a lot of things that I equate to a good story. Writing about these various events, and adding a bit of mystery, comedy, suspense, horror and intrigue comes natural. I'm not sure if I have a specific 'genre,' but for now, it seems, most of my stories will be suspenseful and spooky, with elements of real life events that I have personally experienced. It is my hope that you enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoy writing them. HappySpookyReading! Bentley Bryant
Mongolian Death Worm
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Plan to expand hunting, fishing in wildlife refuges revealed
AP National - World
by: JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press
Posted: Jun 5, 2019 / 09:25 PM EDT / Updated: Jun 5, 2019 / 09:48 PM EDT
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announces plans to expand hunting and fishing access in the nation’s wildlife refuges, Wednesday, June 5, 2019, in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The plan affects 1.4 million acres on federal public lands. (AP Photo/John Seewer)
OAK HARBOR, Ohio (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed opening up more federally protected land for hunting and fishing in what it called a major expansion of those activities in the nation’s wildlife refuges.
The plan affects 1.4 million acres (5,666 square kilometers) on federal public lands, including 74 national wildlife refuges, U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said at the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge along Lake Erie in northern Ohio.
The proposal would allow hunting and fishing for the first time at 15 national fish hatcheries. The department also wants to revise hunting and fishing rules at refuges in all states to more closely match state regulations.
Interior Department land managers were told last September to review hunting and fishing regulations to determine where they conflict with state regulations, with a goal of deferring to state management unless they clash with federal law.
A comprehensive review of federal and state rules is something that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had never been done before, Bernhardt said.
Under the proposed expansion at sites in 46 states, the number of wildlife refuges where hunting would be allowed would increase by five to 382 while fishing would be allowed at 316 locations.
“It’s a dramatic statement about our commitment to access,” Bernhardt said, adding: “The goal is to get more people out.”
Lack of access to hunting and fishing sites is one of the most common reasons people don’t begin those activities, Bernhardt said.
One of the new refuges where hunting and fishing would be allowed is Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. Deer and elk hunting would be allowed for the first time at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge.
The expansion is the largest proposed by the administration to date, Bernhardt said.
The plan is to finalize the proposal by September after public comment.
More AP National - World Stories
by MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press / Jul 19, 2019
PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Authorities in Illinois have suggested that the remains of a slain 26-year-old scholar from China may never be found despite a vow from prosecutors after her killer was sentenced to life in prison this week that the search will continue.
Brendt Christensen, a former doctoral student in physics at the University of Illinois, abducted Yingying Zhang in 2017 from a bus stop. Prosecutors say he beat her to death at his off-campus apartment, decapitated her and carried her away in a large duffel bag.
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Today in History – October 8 in History
What happened on this day in history – October 8 in History around the world
876 Charles the Bald is defeated at the Battle of Andernach.
1690 Belgrade is retaken by the Turks.
1840 King William I of Holland abdicates.
1855 Arrow, a ship flying the British flag, is boarded by Chinese who arrest the crew, thus beginning the Second Chinese War.
1862 The Union is victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky.
1871 The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary. Fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames raged for more than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people were killed in the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were destroyed.
1897 Journalist Charles Henry Dow, founder of the Wall Street Journal, begins charting trends of stocks and bonds.
1900 Maximilian Harden is sentenced to six months in prison for publishing an article critical of the German Kaiser.
1906 Karl Ludwig Nessler first demonstrates a machine in London that puts permenant waves in hair. The client wears a dozen brass curlers, each wearing two pounds, for the six-hour process.
1912 First Balkan War begins as Montenegro declares war against the Ottoman Empire.
1918 US Army corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132 in the Argonne Forest; promoted to sergeant and awarded US Medal of Honor and French Croix de Guerre.
1919 The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass the Volstead Prohibition Enforcement Bill.
1921 First live radio broadcast of a football game; Harold W. Arlin was the announcer when KDKA of Pittsburgh broadcast live from Forbes Field as the University of Pittsburgh beat West Virginia University 21–13.
1922 Lilian Gatlin becomes the first woman pilot to fly across the United States.
1932 Indian Air Force established.
1939 Nazi Germany annexes Western Poland.
1956 Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitches the first perfect game in World Series history against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1967 Guerrilla Che Guevara captured in Bolivia.
1968 U.S. forces in Vietnam launch Operation SEALORDS (South East Asia Lake, Ocean, River and Delta Strategy), an attack on communist supply lines and base areas in and around the Mekong Delta.
1969 The “Days of Rage” begin in Chicago; the Weathermen faction of the Students for a Democratic Society initiate 3 days of violent antiwar protests.
1973 In the Yom Kippur War an Israeli armored brigade makes an unsuccessful attack on Egyptian positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal.
1978 Ken Warby of Australia sets the world water speed record, 317.60 mph, at Blowering Dam in Australia; no other human has yet (2013) exceeded 300 mph on water and survived.
1982 The musical Cats begins a run of nearly 18 years on Broadway.
1991 Croatia votes to sever its ties with Yugoslavia.
2001 US President George W. Bush establishes the Office of Homeland Security.
Born on October 8
1810 James Wilson Marshall, discoverer of gold in California.
1890 Eddie Rickenbacker, U.S. fighter pilot in World War I, aviation pioneer.
1895 Juan Peron, Argentinean dictator.
1917 Rodney Porter, British biochemist and Nobel Proze winner.
1926 Cesar Milstein, molecular biologist.
1936 Rona Barrett, gossip columnist; co-host of NBC’s Tomorrow program (1980-81).
1939 Paul Hogan, comedian, actor; won Golden Globe for his role as “Crocodile” Dundee (1986).
1939 Lynne Stewart, US attorney convicted of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists (2005) and perjury (2010).
1941 Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader.
1943 Chevy Chase, actor, comedian, known for his roles on Saturday Night Live TV series and comedic movies (National Lampoon’s Summer Vacation, Caddyshack).
1943 R. L. Stine, author, screenwriter, producer; known as the “Stephen King of children’s literature” for his hundreds of horror novels written for younger readers.
1948 Johnny Ramone, musician, songwriter, founding member of The Ramones band.
1949 Sigourney Weaver, actress; (Aliens film series, Gorillas in the Mist).
1952 Edward Zwick, director, producer whose films often are based on historic events (Glory, The Last Samurai).
1959 Erik Gundersen, motorcycle speedway rider; won 3 Speedway World Championships, 2 Long Track World Championships, and 7 World Team Cup awards (riding for Denmark in the latter).
1965 C. J. Ramone, musician, sometimes vocalist of The Ramones.
1970 Matt Damon, actor, screenwriter, producer, philanthropist; shared Academy Award and Golden Globe for screenplay Good Will Hunting; appeared in Saving Private Ryan, Invictus.
<< October 7 in HistoryOctober 9 in History >>
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Eskdale campaigners head to Northallerton with 5000 petition signatures
Emma Spencer
Parents fighting to save Eskdale School from closure are heading to county council headquarters this morning to hand over a petition with over 5000 signatures.
A bus load left town this morning and they are now on route to Northallerton where it is hoped they can present the paperwork to senior education member, Cllr Arthur Barker.
He is due to make a decision tomorrow (Tuesday) on whether to forge ahead with plans to close Eskdale and transfer pupils and teaching staff to Caedmon College.
The proposals which were leaked almost a month ago have spurred parents of present and potential pupils, ex staff and Whitby Town Council into a campaign to save the school.
In a letter accompanying the petitions, the group Fight to Save Eskdale School say: “Quite simply there are more people who want to see Eskdale stay open than want to see it closed. Please hear their voice and let our youngsters have choice of secondary education in Whitby.”
On Friday and for the first time since the plans became public knowledge, the county council revealed more about its plans for merging the town’s secondary education establishments.
Under the proposal, the local authority would cease to maintain Eskdale School and enlarge Caedmon College as a single campus on its two sites.
A spokesperson said that both Eskdale and Caedmon College are in agreement with the idea which came about after discussions between both schools
If Cllr Barker agrees to pursue this - consultation will start later in February.
The council spokesperson added: “Since September 2015 the two schools have effectively had a shared catchment area, serving many of the same communities with the same issues and challenges, and drawing students, staff and governors from the same area.
“They both face financial challenges, and challenges around maintaining and improving the quality of educational provision. Both schools are aspirational for their students in terms of academic achievement, and focus on their students’ wellbeing and happiness. “They are geographically close to each other. For these reasons it is considered that they are logical partners. In addition the schools have collaborated over many years.”
Education bosses also say that amalgamating will also drive standards to be outstanding, deliver a coherent 11-19 curriculum in Whitby with potential for students to experience uninterrupted learning from 11 through to 19, drawing on the best from staff in both schools, increase the ability to recruit and retain the very best teaching staff and school leaders, be more flexible when to start GCSE and A level courses, make efficiencies in the use of scarce resources - to balance the books without detriment to either curriculum choice or front line teaching.
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AMERICAN JUSTICE: The FBI’s most wanted criminals
Brad Hunter
More from Brad Hunter
Published on: August 16, 2018 | Last Updated: August 16, 2018 3:27 PM EDT
The FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list has been around since 1950 and has helped send numerous criminals to prison, the electric chair and death row.
SOME FACTS:
— 473 fugitives have been captured or located
— Gangster victor Manuel Gerena was on the list for 32 years
— William Bradford Bishop Jr. was at 77, the oldest on the list
CURRENT RATS:
BHADRESHKUMAR CHETANBHAI PATEL
AGE:28
411: Patel is wanted for battering his wife to death in the Hanover, MD. donut shop they worked in on April 12, 2015. Last seen in Newark, NJ. Armed and extremely dangerous.
JASON DEREK BROWN
411: In November 2004, Brown shot and killed an armored car guard in Phoenix and fled with the cash. He speaks French, and is an avid golfer, snowboarder and skier. A show off. Armed and extremely dangerous.
SANTIAGO VILLALBA MEDEROS
411: Nutjob. Gang member murdered a woman, 20, in a random shooting. Killed another innocent bystander in 2010 in Tacoma, Washington. Armed and dangerous. May be in Mexico.
RAFAEL CARO-QUINTERO
411: Mexican dope godfather and a leader of the Sinola cartel, he’s wanted for the kidnapping and murder of a DEA agent in 1985. Considered armed and extremely dangerous.
ROBERT WILLIAM FISHER
411: Fisher is wanted for murdering his wife and two young children and then blowing up their Scottsdale, Arizona home in 2001. A fit outdoorsman, Fisher is armed and extremely dangerous.
ALEXIS FLORES
411: Sicko Flores is wanted for the kidnap, rape and strangulation murder of a 5-year-old girl in Philadelphia in August 2000. He is considered armed and extremely dangerous.
ALEJANDRO ROSALES CASTILLO
411: Wanted for the murder of a co-worker on Aug. 17, 2016 who was found outside Charlotte, NC shot in the head. Believed to be in Mexico. Armed, dangerous and very violent.
YASER ABDEL SAID
411: Said is wanted for the murders of his two teen daughters who were found shot to death on Jan. 1, 2008 in Irving, Texas. Ties to Canada, maybe hiding in Egyptian community in U.S. Armed and extremely dangerous.
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Home » Coast to coast » International Working Women’s Month: Students honor Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks
International Working Women’s Month: Students honor Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks
By Monica Moorehead posted on March 19, 2013
Depicting Harriet Tubman & Rosa Parks.
WW photo: Monica Moorehead
Brooklyn, N.Y. — Harriet Tubman, who was born into U.S. slavery and then escaped her captors to become an operator of the Underground Railroad, a Union Army spy and a nurse during the Civil War, was honored at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., by African-American women students and faculty members on March 16. In a powerful skit, they acknowledged the centennial of her death, which occurred on March 10, 1913. The skit was performed beautifully after only eight days of rehearsal.
Not only was Tubman paid homage in the skit, but so too was Rosa Parks, a civil rights pioneer who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in 1955. Her courageous action is widely credited for sparking the historic Montgomery bus boycott. The mass boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the victory of Black people no longer being forced to sit in the back of the bus. Parks was born on Feb. 4, 1913, making this year the centennial of her birth. She died in 2005.
The plot of the skit centers on Parks and Tubman, who appear in modern-day time to speak to teenage women jumping rope. The two women answer questions and reflect on the challenges they faced growing up in a racist and sexist society — challenges that led them to their inspiring activist roles in progressive movements and struggles for social change, despite the different eras they came from. After listening to the two women, each teenage woman becomes inspired to speak to the audience about the societal changes she would like to see in her lifetime, like health care for all and an end to stop-and-frisk police policies in their communities.
The skit was part of a daylong event co-sponsored by the International Working Women’s Day Coalition and the Care Center, which is based in the school. Before the skit was performed, short videos were shown on Harriet Tubman’s life along with highlights from a March 9 speakout organized by the IWWD Coalition at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Memorial in Manhattan. The program also included spoken word, dance and solidarity messages.
The writer is a co-coordinator of the IWWD Coalition, representing the Women’s Fightback Movement along with co-coordinators Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement and Irma Bajar from Gabriela-USA, an organization based in the Philippines liberation struggle. Go to the Facebook page, International Working Women’s Day Coalition, for more information and updates.
The Klan & Government: Foes or Allies?
https://www.workers.org/2013/03/19/international-working-womens-month-students-honor-harriet-tubman-rosa-parks/
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Ras Al Khaimah Weather Forecast
Ras Al Khaimah, AE
Ras Al Khaimah Current weather report
Ras Al Khaimah International Airport Ras Al Khaimah Sharjah Fujairah
Wind: 7 km/h from ENE
Pressure: 998 mb
Today's weather is turning out to be partly cloudy. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 999 mb . The daytime temperature is going to reach 39 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 30 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 4% of the sky, the humidity will be around 56%.
Tomorrow weather is forecasted to be partly cloudy. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 999 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 40 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 30 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 0% of the sky, the humidity will be around 57%.
On Monday weather will be partly cloudy with daytime temperature reaching 39 °c. Night time temperature are expected to be 29 °c.It will be dry with no precipitation. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 998 mb. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 4% of the sky, the humidity will be around 57%.
Tuesday seems to be partly cloudy. Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 996 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 40 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 29 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 4% of the sky, the humidity will be around 53%.
Partly cloudy will be the weather pattern for the Wednesday. The visibility is going to be around 10 km i.e. 6 miles and an atmospheric pressure of 997 mb. The daytime temperature is going to reach 38 °c and the temperature is going to dip to 29 °c at night. It will be dry with no precipitation and cloud covering 2% of the sky, the humidity will be around 56%.
Weekly Weather Report for Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
Looking at the weather in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates over the next 7 days, the maximum temperature will be 40℃ (or 104℉) on Sunday 21st July at around 4 pm. In the same week the minimum temperature will be 29℃ (or 84℉) on Monday 22nd July at around 4 am.
Looking at the world weather radar, national weather service and satellite images, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates weather forecaster is reporting little or no rainfall over the next 7 days. So make most of it while you are on vacation in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.
The windiest of all days will be Saturday 20th July as wind will reach 19mph (or 30kmph) at around 7 am.
Ras Al Khaimah Weather Video
Ras Al Khaimah Today, Tomorrow and next 14 day Weather Forecast
10 Day Weather Forecast Ras Al Khaimah
HOLIDAY WEATHER Ras Al Khaimah
Ras al-Khaimah experiences a very hot and desert climate that features two major seasons with slight variations, a hot summer and a mild winter.
Summer usually begins in late April when the average temperature raises to around 31°C, while July sees that drastically increases with the temperature normally around 40°C.
The humidity is exceptionally high in the summer months with no rain or snow ever recorded during this season.
The combination of these elements can make Ras al-Khaimah a troublesome place to visit in the summer for those unaccustomed to temperatures of this level, though night-time remains comfortable enough for visitors when the temperature dramatically falls to mid-twenties.
From October through to March, the average temperature tends to fluctuate between 19°C and 28°C, making life a little easier for visitors.
The night-time temperature is much cooler, with January through to March receiving rainfall that may influence your activities depending on what you have scheduled.
Snow has been reported twice in Ras al-Khaimah, once in December 2004 and January 2009 in the highest mountains of the Emirate.
Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates Yearly Monthly Climate Weather Averages
About Ras Al Khaimah
Ras al Khaimah, one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates, is a world-class tourist destination with visitors from all over the world frequently exploring the stunning state.
This luxury holiday destination has year-round sunshine and sweeping beaches of white sand to keep every jetsetter happy and provide an amazing experience.
Find out more about Ras Al Khaimah or view more top holiday destinations.
Ras al-Khaimah is blessed with natural beauty such as a wonderful coastline and vast mountains, making it one of the most visited places in the whole of the Middle East.
The Ras al-Khaimah National Museum was originally the house of the royal family until 1964 and is considered the wealthiest monumental museum in the UAE.
For visitors looking to cool off from the heat of the Emirates, the Iceland Water Park offers a unique twist on traditional water parks with extensive theming in snow and ice.
For keen golfers, Ras al Khaimah has two 18-hole championship Golf courses on its doorstep. Visit the Al Hamra Golf Club and Tower Links Golf Club for spectacular backdrops of mountains and beaches as you play.
Consider planning your holiday to fall across the three-week yearly festival, UAE Awafi Festival. The festivities focus on Arabic community with theatre performances, cultural displays and outdoor sports events.
Visitors will be able to indulge across a range of culinary delights in Ras al-Khaimah, with food an integral element of the Emirate’s hospitality.
Local people, being seafarers and merchants for centuries, have brought traces of Indian, Eqyptian, Iranian and Turkish cuisines into local dishes.
Casa Maghrib is a renowned Moroccan that delivers wonderful service and exquisite dishes, while the Pura Vida Restaurant is recommended for meat lovers.
For an extravagant treat, visit Lexington Grill in the Waldorf Astoria for a US steak house, almost taken off the street in New York.
The official language spoken in Ras al-Khaimar is Arabic.
Even though English in the tourist industry English is understood to a decent level, English speakers are advised to learn a few basic phrases to assist in day-to-day activities, such as going to restaurants and shops.
The currency of Ras al-Khaimar, as well as the rest of the UAE, is the Emirati Dirham, commonly referred to as the UAE dirham.
Money can be exchanged at hotels and banks, but it is advised for visitors entering Ras al-Khaimah to exchange cash before arriving in the UAE for the best exchange rates.
Tourists should not worry about accommodation during the tour in Ras al-Khaimah since it is home to five-star hotels and beach resorts.
The Hilton Ras al-Khaimah Resort & Spa is a fabulous five-star hotel located in a private bay, offers splendid views, luxurious spa and 13 restaurants.
Other grand hotels include the Waldorf Astoria Ras al-Khaimah and the Banyan Tree Ras Al-Khaimah Beach.
The best for value family hotel, Doubletree by Hilton Ras Al-Khamiah offers a very fair service for those on a smaller budget.
The colossal size of the City Hotel is impressive and regarded as one of the best kept secrets in Ras al-Khaimah.
When to visit Ras Al Khaimah?
The winter period of late October until mid-April is arguably the best time to visit Ras al-Khaimah, with the average high temperature of 26°C extremely comfortable for tourists.
Tourists visiting Ras al-Khaimah during the summer months should be prepared for extreme heat between June and September.
What to pack for Ras Al Khaimah?
Tourists must be respectful to the Muslim culture and customs, even though there are no rules or regulations on the dress code to be followed by tourists.
However, as a matter of respect to the local citizens and their culture shoulders and knees should be covered when entering public places.
Light, cotton clothing will help tourists tolerate the scorching summer weather, with this line of clothing also necessary during the winter period. Sun cream and sun glasses will also be essential companions for navigating the heat.
10 day hour by hour Ras Al Khaimah weather
<div id="wwo-weather-widget-1"></div><script type='text/javascript' src='https://www.worldweatheronline.com/widget/v5/weather-widget.ashx?loc=727&wid=1&tu=1&div=wwo-weather-widget-1' async></script><noscript><a href="https://www.worldweatheronline.com/lang/en-ca/ras-al-khaimah-weather/ras-al-khaimah/ae.aspx" alt="Hour by hour Ras Al Khaimah weather">10 day hour by hour Ras Al Khaimah weather</a></noscript>
Please also visit Ras Al Khaimah Historical Weather, Text Weather and Weather Charts pages. Historical or past weather forecast page provides historical weather forecast from 1st July, 2008 till now in 3 hourly interval. Text weather page will allow you to get a weather text summary for next 14 days and weather chart page displays weather pattern like temperature, wind speed, gust, pressure, etc. in graphical mode for next 14 days. We hope you like it.
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Looking to buy past/historical weather for Ras Al Khaimah, please visit Buy Historical Weather Data section.
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Georgia Insurance Commissioner asked to resign by Governor following federal fraud accusations
by: Samuel Sachs
Georgia’s insurance commissioner Jim Beck has been asked to resign by Governor Brian Kemp following an indictment that was delivered Tuesday for 38 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering which allegedly occurred before his election in November.
Beck, who was sworn into office on Jan. 14 had previously served as the general manager of operations for the Georgia Underwriting Association, “which was created to provide high-risk property insurance to Georgia homeowners,” according to previous reporting by the Associated Press.
The indictment also alleges that Beck stole $2 million up to November 2018 when he ran for statewide office.
“The indictment says Beck, a Republican, used the money for personal expenses and to fund personal investment, retirement and savings accounts, as well as his statewide election campaign. The indictment also says he used the funds to buy and improve personal rental property and for personal state and federal income taxes,” reports the AP.
“While Beck served as General Manager at GUA, he also maintained controlling financial interests in two businesses known as Creative Consultants and the Georgia Christian Coalition. Beginning in 2013, Beck allegedly talked four associates into forming four separate businesses which supposedly supplied necessary services including residential property inspections and water damage mitigation to GUA,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak.
While an FBI investigation is in progress, according to the Department of Justice, some information from the department has been included in the indictment announcement.
“The FBI investigation found that Beck abused the trust of friends and his employer (GUA), in an elaborate scheme to enrich himself at GUA’s expense,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The indictment is a testament to the fact that the FBI will expend all resources necessary to hold those who seek to enrich themselves through fraud and deceit, accountable for their actions.”
Beck allegedly set up “an elaborate system of fradulent invoicing which included producing false documentation and concealing the truth from his four associates,” says the DOJ. He also allegedly “regularly approved substantial GUA payments to the four new companies,” before sending fraudulent invoices from “Creative Consultants and the GA Christian Coalition” to those same four companies.
“At Beck’s direction, his four associates paid the fraudulent invoices form a portion of the money they had been paid by GUA.” This activity, between February 2013 and August 2018, is what constituted the alleged defrauding of $2 million.
While Beck’s attorney Bill Thomas said that his client will be fighting “to clear his good name,” Governor Kemp has requested the Commissioner’s resignation because “In light of this connection and the possibility of new revelations, it would be highly inappropriate for you to continue to hold public office. I ask that you do what is right for our state and step down immediately.”
Request for comments from the Department of Insurance yielded a short statement from their Communications Director.
“The accusations that were made against Commissioner Beck yesterday have no bearing on his service as an elected official to the people of Georgia. The Commissioner maintains his innocence and he is entitled to the same presumption of innocence that every citizen of Georgia walks into a courtroom with when accused of a crime. The Department is focused on fulfilling the vital mission we have to protect Georgia consumers,” said Brandon Wright.
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A Spanish Leader Emerges as a Crusader for Austerity
Protesting the Popular Party's austerity plan in March, workers in northern Spain lampooned Ms. Cospedal. Associated Press
Sara Schaefer Muñoz
TOLEDO, Spain—Thrown a lifeline to shore up its banks, Spain must now show it can fix its public finances—or face an even bigger bailout.
In the trenches of that struggle is Maria Dolores de Cospedal, an up-and-comer in Spain's ruling party who inherited the deepest deficit of the country's 17 regional governments when she became president of Castilla-La Mancha a year ago.
Maria Dolores de Cospedal, an up-and-comer in Spain's ruling party, has taken dead aim at the red ink—closing schools, dismissing teachers, privatizing hospitals and lengthening public employees' workweek. WSJ's Sara Schaefer Munoz reports.
Ms. Cospedal has taken dead aim at the red ink—closing schools, dismissing teachers, privatizing hospitals and lengthening public employees' workweek. The tough moves have earned her praise from credit raters and Spain's conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. An economic payoff, though, remains nowhere in sight: Her region's unemployment has surged and its growth rate wilted.
Ms. Cospedal's strategy is the kind of bitter medicine that aims to rectify structural problems and set the stage for growth in the future. But Spain doesn't have a lot of time. Bond buyers' aversion to its debt threatens to force Spain into asking for a countrywide bailout, at a likely cost to international rescuers far above the figure of up to €100 billion ($125.7 billion) earmarked for its banks.
Ms. Cospedal remains outspoken about the need to tame crippling debt. AFP/Getty Images
Castilla-La Mancha is small region, but it poses a test of a crucial question in the euro zone at large: whether austerity can nurse sick economies back to health or, by battering their near-term growth, may do more harm than good.
Last month, in a meeting at the ancient walled city's historic Fuensalida Palace, Toledo's mayor implored Ms. Cospedal to ease up. Her spending cuts were "strangling the economy and setting us back decades," said the mayor, Emiliano Garcia-Page, regional leader of the Socialist Workers Party that had ruled Castilla-La Mancha for decades.
Ms. Cospedal stood firm. "It's not possible" to stop the cuts, she said. "The first thing we need to do is deal with the debt."
Part of what spurred her cost crusade was something discovered after Ms. Cospedal, a telegenic 46-year-old, won the region's presidency in May 2011: piles of unreported bills to suppliers. A spokesman for the defeated socialist party said it had been steadily paying the bills off. Nonetheless, their discovery doubled the size of the region's previously reported budget deficit, pushing the 2011 tally to 7.3% of its annual economic output.
That was more than twice the average for Spanish regions and nowhere near a 1.5%-of-output goal for the regions recently set by the national government.
Ms. Cospedal, who had pledged to promote jobs—"To the…unemployed, above all, for you we are going to work hard," she said in her victory speech—made thrift her first priority.
Some items presented ripe targets: a government fleet of Audis and Volvos and a "mini embassy" in Brussels. And of the dozens of schools she marked for closing, some had fewer than 10 students.
But many cuts have intruded deeply on daily life, such as a halt of work on two new hospitals, a cut in public-employee pay and the lengthening of their workweek. Hospital waiting lists have grown, and students have seen professors dismissed.
She isn't through. Last month, her government unveiled a delayed budget for 2012 that lopped 20% off the prior year's spending.
After a year of this, unemployment in Castilla-La Mancha hit 27.1% in the first quarter, up 5.4 percentage points from a year earlier and a faster climb than Spain's national rate, which rose 3.1 points to 24.4%.
The region's growth has nose-dived. Its economic output had edged up at a 0.6% annual pace in the quarter of 2011 during which Ms. Cospedal was elected; but in the first quarter of 2012 it contracted at a 1.8% annual pace, according to researchers at the Instituto Flores de Lemus of the University Carlos III in Madrid. They estimate Castilla-La Mancha's output will be contracting at a 3.1% annual rate by the end of this month, the worst of Spain's statelike regions.
Labor leaders call Ms. Cospedal the "unemployment machine." A Facebook page devoted to "hating Cospedal" caricatures her with scissors for hands.
"She's cutting indiscriminately," said Juan Angel Organero, a professor of biophysics at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo who has seen funding for research wither. "Before, this region was just agriculture, and it will return to that if you stop investing in education," he said.
At the same time, there have been glimmers of improvement longer term. Castilla-La Mancha was one of a handful of regions authorized by Prime Minister Rajoy in March to issue debt for the first time since 2010, a reflection of a more solid position. The region has since borrowed about €540 million of various maturities, with interest rates around 5%, to refinance debt coming due and pay suppliers.
Moody's Investors Service assigns the region a credit rating below investment grade. However, Castilla-La Mancha escaped a further downgrade Moody's dealt to seven other regions recently.
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Castilla-La Mancha "is very strict on the execution of the budget," said Marisol Blasquez, a Moody's credit analyst. Referring to the goal for the region, she said, "They might not reach 1.5% [debt to GDP], but they will make progress."
Seated in the region's parliamentary office overlooking a medieval bridge across the Tagus river, Ms. Cospedal said in an interview that the best way to help the people of Castilla-La Mancha is to reduce its debt. The region's debt load stood at 17.2% of its gross domestic product when she was elected, according to the Bank of Spain, and declined to 16.6% of GDP in the 2012 first quarter.
"We cannot be drowning in debt if we want growth," she said. "I, too, want to invest, but right now, with this deficit we inherited, it's impossible."
Euro Zone by the Numbers
The 17-nation euro zone is a collection of countries with vastly different economic profiles. See how they stack up on the major measures.
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The deficits must be reduced to lower interest premiums they force the government to pay when it borrows, she said, describing a choice of budget cuts vs. growth as a "false debate." A major fiscal adjustment, Ms. Cospedal said, is needed to preserve health care and education in the long run.
Luis Miguel Lopez, a 20-year-old studying management, voted for Ms. Cospedal and is hopeful her policies will ultimately result in more job options than now. "She's trying to revive things," he said outside a supermarket where he works once a week handing out fliers. "Things have to get worse before they can get better. I still believe she can do it. It's still early."
Ms. Cospedal grew up in Castilla-La Mancha, trained as a government lawyer and in 1996 went to work in the administration of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of the conservative People's Party. In 2004 she became an official in the government of Esperanza Aguirre—head of the Madrid region and a figure known for fiscal discipline and clashes with unions—whom Ms. Cospedal has described as a mentor.
People close to Ms. Cospedal say she often eschews the sacrosanct Spanish sit-down lunch in favor of sandwiches. She recently said Spaniards should work harder and look to German companies as an example.
The People's Party in 2006 named her its leader in her home region, grooming her for the presidency of a place that had been governed since 1983 by the socialists. Days before arriving in Toledo in her new role, Ms. Cospedal, then unmarried and 40, gave birth to a son conceived by in vitro fertilization. The move drew national attention and some criticism from conservative constituents, but Ms. Cospedal, who wanted a child despite being single, has called it "the best decision" of her life.
In 2008, Mr. Rajoy, as national leader of the People's Party, named Ms. Cospedal its secretary-general, or second in command, the first woman to fill the role. Political analysts see her as his likely successor at some point, and thus a possible future nominee for prime minister.
Ms. Cospedal's rise faced a threat earlier this year when her husband, Ignacio Lopez del Hierro, whom she married in 2009, was appointed to the board of the partly state-owned power company Red Electrica, a position critics charged was secured with his wife's help. After public outcry, he turned it down. A spokeswoman for Ms. Cospedal said her husband was offered the post on his own merit.
The real fireworks around Ms. Cospedal began in May 2011 when, newly elected in Castilla-La Mancha, she launched her budget cutting. Frugality campaigns have swept across Spain these days. The large region of Catalonia has reduced public workers' salaries amid severe belt-tightening. The city of Seville has put diapers on carriage horses to reduce cleanup costs. But Ms. Cospedal, with her immediate and across-the-broad cuts, captured national attention.
"There were no partial measures with Cospedal," said Eduardo Nolla, a professor at the University of San Pablo-CEU in Madrid.
Javier Gomez, who earned €2,000 a month working on forest maintenance and in the region's helicopter fire brigade, found his employment reduced in January to four months a year from 12. "It was a shock," said the 29-year-old. "Last year I made €24,000, and this year I won't even make €12,000."
One place felt a special sting. The cliff-side city of Cuenca has long been propped by government spending, with hospital and other public-sector jobs accounting for 80% of employment, according its business council.
Before Ms. Cospedal's election, the regional government was in the process of building Cuenca a second medical center—complete with cutting-edge diagnostics, trauma treatment, day care for staff and 1,600 parking places—in hopes of attracting people and growth. The region was planning to spend some €150 million on it.
Ms. Cospedal scotched the plan. Now the site has only a parking lot and some stoplights that stand, unblinking, over an unused access road. At the city's existing hospital, meanwhile, the budget is being reduced by 18%, the workforce cut by 10% and some floors have closed. In April, some rooms had three beds instead of the usual two.
Residents continue to have access to free medical treatment there or at another regional city.
Still, the cutbacks are rocking some citizens' core assumptions about what the state should provide.
"As a nurse and as a Spaniard, I wake up and think, 'What is this nightmare? I cannot believe that in Spain this is happening, that they would touch our health care and touch our education,' " said Maria Jose Peralta, a nurse.
Before this year, Cuenca hadn't seen a significant protest march since Spain's entry into the Iraq war in 2003. But in April, about 3,000 people joined a protest of the cuts.
Personal pressure has mounted on Ms. Cospedal. A group of severely disabled people took to the streets of Toledo late last year to demand payment of delayed subsidies and an end to a planned benefits revamp that would limit direct subsidies and result in more disabled people being treated in institutions. A procession of people in wheelchairs and even a rolling bed moved slowly through the streets under the banner "Pay us Cospedal, someday this could be you." TV and newspapers took notice.
Organizer Jose Luis Gomez, who has two sons afflicted with a degenerative disease, said he counts on monthly €950 payments to bolster his teacher salary, and had to borrow from a bank and relatives to afford medicine and food for his family because of the delay in disability payments.
"I don't know if these cuts are necessary or not," he said, hunched over a table at a cafe in a village outside Toledo. "But we didn't cause the crisis, so why should we pay?"
Mr. Gomez said that thanks to the march, the regional government made the delayed payments. The government said the march didn't influence the timing. It defended the benefits revamp as a system that would prevent people from using government payments for things other than directly helping a dependent.
When Ms. Cospedal met last month with socialist Mayor Garcia-Page, she hoped he would sign a unity pact supporting her new budget. He declined.
"Nobody doubts there needs to be an adjustment of accounts in Spain," the mayor says. "But we're trapped in a downward spiral."
Ms. Cospedal then presented the budget without his support, saying, "To produce growth, we need cleaned up accounts."
A week ago, Ms. Cospedal, speaking to the press, addressed the surging borrowing cost that is threatening Spain's ability to avoid a full, country bailout. "We must gain confidence and credibility," she said. "It's lost quickly, and it takes time to gain back."
Write to Sara Schaefer Munoz at Sara.Schaefer-Munoz@wsj.com
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Yale Takes on UMD at Hanover
Minn. Duluth
Minn. Duluth (9-9-2) 1 2 2 5
Yale (5-8-0) 0 0 0 0
The Elis are coming off a 2-1 win at SHU (Steve Musco image)
1st - 19:57 - PP - Parker Mackay (Minn. Duluth)
2nd - 02:51 - PP - Karson Kuhlman (Minn. Duluth)
2nd - 11:46 - PP - Blake Young (Minn. Duluth)
3rd - 11:35 - Jared Thomas (Minn. Duluth)
3rd - 13:06 - Blake Young (Minn. Duluth)
G: Blake Young - 2
A: 2 Players (#19, #23) - 2
Sh: Jared Thomas - 5
Sv: Hunter Shepard - 29
G: N/A
A: N/A
Sh: Kevin O'Neil - 6
Bulldogs Debut at Ledyard Classic
Full Media Notes in PDF
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Yale men's hockey team takes a two-game win streak into a holiday tournament in a familiar location. The Bulldogs are making their first appearance in the Ledyard Bank Classic hosted by Dartmouth. The Elis play Minnesota-Duluth at 4 p.m. on Dec. 29 at Thompson Arena before taking on New Hampshire the following day at the same time. Both LBC games air live on the Ivy League Network.
Formerly known as the Auld Lang Syne Classic, the Ledyard Bank Classic began in 1978 and has always been played at Thompson Arena in late December. The host, Dartmouth, skates against UNH on Friday and UMD on Saturday. Both game times are 7 p.m.
Yale won the first meeting with Minnesota-Duluth (5-4, 1975) before losing the last six straight. There were three encounters in the 1970s and four between 2001 and 2011.
The last time Yale played UMD was the 2011 East Regional Final at Bridgeport. The Elis were the No. 1 overall tournament seed and were coming off a late-night OT win over Air Force in front of a sold-out crowd. Duluth, which beat Union in the afternoon semifinal at Webster Bank Arena, upset Yale the next day 5-3.
Yale's last game was Dec. 9, a 2-1 win at Sacred Heart. Joe Snively had both goals, Ryan Hitchcock picked up helpers on both tallies while Sam Tucker (18 saves) was outstanding in net.
THE OTHER BULLDOGS
UMD has wins over Minnesota, Maine, Western Michigan and Omaha among its eight victories. They are coming off a road split with Omaha on Dec. 8-9.
New Hampshire (9-7-1, 4-5-1 Hockey East) last played in early December, dropping close games to Army and Merrimack. The Wildcats have victories over Yale, Colgate (2) and Colorado College.
After five straight games away from the Whale, Yale is back home to host UMass on Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. in a game that airs live on the ILN.
Junior forward Ted Hart became the second Bulldog this season to score 4 goals in a weekend ECAC set with Yale's only tally at RPI and then 3 of the team's 5 goals at Union in December. Hart, who has five points in his last three games, is now second on the squad with four goals.
KEMP WITH U.S. NATIONAL TEAM
First-year defenseman Phil Kemp (7 gp, 1-2-3) was named to the roster of the U.S. National Junior Team's pre-tournament camp, which runs Dec. 15-19 as the selection process for the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship. The 42nd world championship takes place in Buffalo at the Key Bank Center and Harbor Center, Dec. 26 to Jan. 5.
Junior forward Joe Snively (Herndon, Va.), who leads the team with 7 goals and 12 points, was one of five players selected to the Pre-season Coaches All-ECAC Hockey Team after netting 1.18 points per game in 2016-17, which ranked 21st in the nation. An All-Ivy League honorable mention from a season ago, Snively had three multiple-goal outings in 2016-17, including consecutive games against Holy Cross and RPI. Snively (79 pts, 77 career games) has already registered three multi-goal games and four multi-point outings this season.
Junior goalie Sam Tucker (Wilton, Conn.) has all but one of the games in net this season. Tucker made his collegiate debut on Nov. 12, 2016, in a relief appearance against Cornell, and eventually won his first collegiate game against UConn on Jan. 7, 2017. Tucker seized the starting job as the Elis headed into ECAC playoffs, where he stopped 68 of 71 shots in first round playoff action against Dartmouth. Tucker has been solid this season, recording a 2.74 goals against average and a .904 save percentage in his first 11 games. His Nov. 18 effort at Quinnipiac was one of the best of Tucker's career with 40 saves.
Freshman forward Dante Palecco had one of the best weekends for a Bulldog forward in recent memory against St. Lawrence and Clarkson on Nov. 10-11. In a 6-1 win over St. Lawrence on Friday, Palecco netted his first collegiate goal and added two more in scoring the first Yale hat trick since 2012. Palecco chipped in Yale's only goal in a 4-1 loss to No. 8 Clarkson. For his efforts, the Whippany, N.J. native was awarded both the ECAC Hockey Offensive Player and Rookie of the Week.
Seven freshmen joined the team this year (4 F, 2 D, 1G). Two are from Canada and played junior hockey in the British Columbia Hockey League, while the other five come from around the U.S. and competed in the United States Hockey League last season. Yale's freshmen have accounted for 9 goals and 14 points this season. Forwards Dante Palecco (player, rookie of week) and Kevin O'Neil (rookie) have earned ECAC Hockey honors this season.
Yale is very balanced in scoring this season with 10 in the first period, 9 in the second and 11 in the final frame… The Bulldogs currently rank fifth in the ECAC in goals per game (2.90)… Joe Snively is 8th in the ECAC in points and goals… His 2 shorthanded tallies are tied for first in the conference… Dante Palecco is 5th among ECAC Rookies in points.
Yale head coach Keith Allain, an assistant for the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team, traveled to Augsburg, Germany, in November for the Deutschland Cup. He watched a roster of prospective Olympic players compete against Slovakia, Russia, and Germany. Several Yale alumni made a strong case to make the final Olympic roster. Broc Little '11, Mark Arcobello '10 and Brian O'Neill '12 were reunited on a line together, while Sean Backman '10 also skated for the Americans. Arcobello posted a goal and an assist in three games, while Little netted a goal. The XXIII Winter Olympic Games at PyeongChang, South Korea, begin on Feb. 9.
by Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD/Sports Publicity Director - steven.conn@yale.edu
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Man, 20, jailed for violent killing
Innocent mistake left teen dead
By: Mike McIntyre
An innocent misunderstanding was the trigger for a violent attack that left one Winnipeg teen dead and another headed to a federal penitentiary with an adult sentence.
Timothy Smith was given a six-and-a-half year prison term Thursday after pleading guilty to manslaughter for the August 2005 killing of 15-year-old Gregg Johnston inside a North End home.
Smith, who was 17 at the time, thought his ex-girlfriend had rebounded quickly from their recent break-up when he caught her in bed with Johnston. The irate young man rounded up two friends and began beating Johnston with fists, feet and even a hockey stick they broke over his back. The group then added insult to deadly injury when they stripped the clothes off Johnston and posed for photographs.
Johnston suffered massive head trauma and was pronounced dead at hospital. It was later learned that Johnston had been at a friend's place when he chose to walk Smith's ex-girlfriend to her home because it was dark out and she felt unsafe. The pair then both fell asleep, fully clothed, while talking in her bedroom, court was told.
"The (victim's) parents continue to suffer the pain and anguish of losing their son in these particularly egregious circumstances," Queen's Bench Justice Lea Duval said Thursday.
She agreed with the Crown's request to give an adult sentence to Smith, who was out on bail at the time of the slaying for a deadly crash he'd caused. Smith was ultimately convicted of dangerous driving causing death for smashing a car into the back of a semi-trailer at a high rate of speed in 2004. The passenger in the vehicle was killed instantly.
Smith, who is now 20, blamed alcohol for the violent beating of Johnston, saying he'd consumed more than one-third of a 40-ounce bottle of vodka just hours before the attack. He said they never meant to kill Johnston, just injure him.
Police originally charged all three accused with second-degree murder, but they all plead guilty to reduced charges of manslaughter.
Smith's adult co-accused, Thomas Bear, previously received a seven-year sentence, deeply discounted by time spent awaiting resolution of the case. A 15-year-old boy was given a 12-month sentence under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
"Not only have you killed my son, you killed the inside of me as well, because I'm no longer living, I'm only surviving," Johnston's mother said in a victim impact statement read aloud in court last month.
Crown attorney Deann Sahulka said the fact Smith has now killed twice proves he is a violent offender who poses a substantial risk to the community. Defence attorney Aaron Seib was asking Duval to keep his client in the youth system or to impose a two-year less a day sentence if she rules he is an adult offender so to keep him out of the federal prison system.
A court-ordered report shows Smith remains a high-risk to re-offend.
www.mikeoncrime.com
Mike McIntyre
Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.
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President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence and others stand as the US Army Band performs and the US Navy Blue Angels flyover at the end of an Independence Day celebration in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump celebrated “the greatest political journey in human history” Thursday in a Fourth of July commemoration before a soggy, cheering crowd of spectators, many of them invited, on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial. Supporters welcomed his tribute to the U.S. military while protesters assailed him for putting himself center stage on a holiday devoted to unity.
Trump called on Americans to “stay true to our cause” in a program that adhered to patriotic themes and hailed an eclectic mix of history’s heroes, from the armed forces, space, civil rights and other endeavors of American life.
He largely stuck to his script, avoiding diversions into his agenda or re-election campaign. But in one exception, he vowed, “Very soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars,” actually a distant goal not likely to be achieved until late in the 2020s if even then.
A late afternoon downpour drenched the capital’s Independence Day crowds and presaged an evening of possible on-and-off storms. But Trump’s speech unfolded in occasional rain, and the warplanes and presidential aircraft he had summoned conducted their flyovers as planned, capped by the Navy Blue Angels aerobatics team.
By adding his own, one-hour “Salute to America” production to capital festivities that typically draw hundreds of thousands anyway, Trump became the first president in nearly seven decades to address a crowd at the National Mall on Independence Day.
Protesters objecting to what they saw as his co-opting of the holiday inflated a roly-poly balloon depicting Trump as an angry, diaper-clad baby.
Trump set aside a historic piece of real estate — a stretch of the Mall from the Lincoln Monument to the midpoint of the reflecting pool — for a mix of invited military members, Republican and Trump campaign donors and other bigwigs. It’s where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech, Barack Obama and Trump held inaugural concerts and protesters swarmed into the water when supporters of Richard Nixon put on a July 4, 1970, celebration, with the president sending taped remarks from California.
Aides to the crowd-obsessed Trump fretted about the prospect of empty seats at his event, said a person familiar with the planning who was not authorized to be identified. Aides scrambled in recent days to distribute tickets and mobilize the Trump and GOP social media accounts to encourage participation for an event hastily arranged and surrounded with confusion.
Many who filed into the sprawling VIP section said they got their free tickets from members of Congress or from friends or neighbors who couldn’t use theirs. Outside that zone, a diverse mix of visitors, locals, veterans, tour groups, immigrant families and more milled about, some drawn by Trump, some by curiosity, some by the holiday’s regular activities along the Mall.
Protesters earlier made their voices heard in sweltering heat by the Washington Monument, along the traditional parade route and elsewhere, while the VIP section at the reflecting pool served as something of a buffer for Trump’s event.
In the shadow of the Washington Monument hours before Trump’s speech, the anti-war organization Codepink erected a 20-foot tall “Trump baby” balloon to protest what activists saw as his intrusion in Independence Day and a focus on military might that they associate with martial regimes.
“We think that he is making this about himself and it’s really a campaign rally,” said Medea Benjamin, the organization’s co-director. “We think that he’s a big baby. … He’s erratic, he’s prone to tantrums, he doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions. And so this is a great symbol of how we feel about our president.”
The balloon remained tied down at the Mall because park officials restricted the group’s permission to move it or fill it with helium, Benjamin said.
Protesters also handed out small Trump-baby balloons on sticks. Molly King of La Porte, Indiana, a 13-year-old Trump supporter in sunglasses and a “Make America Great Again” hat, happily came away with one.
“They’re making a big stink about it but it’s actually pretty cute,” she said. “I mean, why not love your president as you’d love a baby?”
A small crowd gathered to take pictures with the big balloon, which drew Trump supporters and detractors.
“Even though everybody has different opinions,” said Kevin Malton, a Trump supporter from Middlesboro, Kentucky, “everybody’s getting along.”
But Daniela Guray, a 19-year-old from Chicago who held a “Dump Trump” sign, said she was subjected to a racial epithet while walking along the Constitution Avenue parade route and told to go home.
She said she did not come to the Mall to protest but ended up doing so. “I started seeing all the tanks with all the protests and that’s when I said, ‘Wait, this is not an actual Fourth of July,'” she said. “Trump is making it his day rather than the Fourth of July.”
Trump had sounded a defensive note Wednesday, tweeting that the cost “will be very little compared to what it is worth.”
“We own the planes, we have the pilots, the airport is right next door (Andrews), all we need is the fuel,” he said, referring to Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews, home for some of the planes expected for the holiday flyover. “We own the tanks and all. Fireworks are donated by two of the greats.”
Trump glossed over the expense of shipping tanks and fighting vehicles to Washington by rail and guarding them for several days, and other costs.
Not since 1951, when President Harry Truman spoke before a large gathering on the Washington Monument grounds to mark the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, has a commander in chief made an Independence Day speech to a sizable crowd on the Mall.
Pete Buttigieg, one of the Democrats running for president, said: “this business of diverting money and military assets to use them as a kind of prop, to prop up a presidential ego, is not reflecting well on our country.” Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a Navy Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan in 2014.
Two groups, the National Parks Conservation Foundation and Democracy Forward, want the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate what they say may be a “potentially unlawful decision to divert” national parks money to Trump’s “spectacle.”
Trump and the event’s organizers could be on the hook to reimburse the government millions of dollars if he goes into campaign mode, in violation of federal appropriations law and the Hatch Act, which bars politicking on government time, said Walter Shaub, who left the Office of Government Ethics in 2017 after clashing with the White House over ethics and disclosure issues.
Washington has held an Independence Day celebration for decades, featuring a parade along Constitution Avenue, a concert on the Capitol lawn with music by the National Symphony Orchestra and fireworks beginning at dusk near the Washington Monument.
Trump altered the lineup by adding his speech, moving the fireworks closer to the Lincoln Memorial and summoning the tanks and warplanes.
Nashville 2019 / 49 mins ago
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3.2 Decision Methods
如何有效地解决问题和决策
加州大学尔湾分校
课程 8（共 10 门，职场成功 专项课程）
Critical thinking – the application of scientific methods and logical reasoning to problems and decisions – is the foundation of effective problem solving and decision making. Critical thinking enables us to avoid common obstacles, test our beliefs and assumptions, and correct distortions in our thought processes. Gain confidence in assessing problems accurately, evaluating alternative solutions, and anticipating likely risks. Learn how to use analysis, synthesis, and positive inquiry to address individual and organizational problems and develop the critical thinking skills needed in today’s turbulent times. Using case studies and situations encountered by class members, explore successful models and proven methods that are readily transferable on-the-job. Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 1. Choose and apply appropriate problem solving and decision making processes and methods 2. Identify common obstacles to effective problem solving and decision making 3. Recognize the human variable in problem solving and decision making 4. Assess major conceptual blocks and significant situational challenges 5. Apply concepts to enhancing personal development and organizational performance 6. Explain the key elements of problem solving and decision making and the barriers associated with them
Decision Theory, Decision-Making, Change Management, Data Analysis
Very educative and interesting course, I recommend it for everyone who wish to deal with personal and organisational problems professionally.
Great course. Easy to follow and use the concepts in real world instantly. Course covers not only problem-solving but also change management.
Decision Making Methods
3.1 Group Decision Making12:51
3.2 Decision Methods6:07
3.3 Consensus and Ethical Decisions11:14
Rob Stone, PMP, M.Ed.
Instructor, University of California, Irvine Extension
选择语言德语（German）英语（English）西班牙语（Spanish）越南语阿拉伯语（Arabic）
Module 3, lecture 2.
We're going to talk about two other decision making methods and
we're gonna talk about these two together.
We'll talk about these together, discuss these,
because these two look very similar.
There's a huge difference between the two.
But to look at a group using both of these decision making methods
could look exactly the same.
If you walked into a room, you wouldn't have any idea which decision making
method was being used, if you saw a group of people using either of these.
So what we want to do is figure out, okay, which one does this, which one does this?
What's the differences?
How are they similar?
We're gonna look at decision by an authority with input from the group,
and we're going to look at a consensus decision, a decision by the whole group.
Authority with input.
Advantages of authority with input.
Somebody, what authority with input says, is somebody,
an authority figure with the power to make a decision and
follow up on that decision, and have that decision move forward.
There's an authority figure out there that's going to make that decision, but
they're going to work without a group to say, what do yo think about this?
What's your input?
What ideas do you have?
Advantages, group members are consulted, they are listened to,
their thoughts and ideas are part of this whole decision process.
But with this decision making process,
a lot of times we find there's really good solid support for the decision.
Disadvantages, there may be confusion about the process.
Sometimes, the decision has already been made.
Let's look at the first one.
We look at there may be some confusion about the process.
Sometimes with this decision making method,
there's a problem because the group comes together,
they discuss things, they talk about the advantages, the disadvantages, and
they finally come up with something they think should be done.
This is the answer.
This is what we're looking for right here.
They give that to the authority figure.
Then, the person who's making the final decision, they go off,
think about this for a little while, come back with a completely different decision.
And then the group, feels really angry.
They feel angry, alienated.
They feel like they've been betrayed.
Out in the business world,
there are a number of managers who would never use this kind of decision
making method because they have had bad experiences where people did feel betrayed
by a final decision that was not what the group came up with.
The group, with this method is not coming up with the decision,
this is a key element of this decision.
The group is coming up with a recommendation.
They are giving information to somebody who is going to make a decision.
That's a piece of the decision.
This group really has a lot of expertise that can really help make decisions, but
it's not the only thing that we need to look at sometimes when making a decision.
Sometimes there are regulatory issues that this group doesn't know about, there
are financial issues in the organization that this group doesn't know about,
there are contractual issues that this group doesn't know about.
There could be any number of other inputs into this decision that this group
doesn't know about.
But this group has some expert knowledge that this authority figure making
the decision needs to have, so they can make a good decision.
So with this decision making method,
the group is making a recommendation, not a decision.
So, if people are clear about that, there shouldn't be any confusion here.
It shouldn't be a problem.
That should never be an issue at all.
Sometimes the decision has already been made, and
people want to make it look like an authority decision with input.
We talked about a decision made earlier about hiring someone
into the group after there had been a bunch of interviews by the group.
They had determined a priority listing of who they thought should be hired for
the position.
And the person selected for
the position by the authority wasn't even on the priority list at all.
In fact, this group doing the recommendations had said and
this group of people should not even be considered.
And the authority figure just went over and
picked out of that list, should never be considered.
Oh, I want that one because they speak Italian.
Completely disregarded anything that this other group had done.
So sometimes, the decision's already been made.
Doesn't make any difference what the group does, but sometimes, people want to
make it look like the group has some input, so that's a disadvantage to this,
that sometimes it's not being used properly by the authority figures.
Another one that we're going to look at is Consensus, and
this one could look exactly the same as decision by authority.
We have a group of people sitting around a table discussing things and
coming up with some sort of solution,some sort of decision along the way here.
Advantages, group members are all involved, so
we get a lot of good buy in and support for this thing.
Implementation can be very successful.
Because we already have all the buy-in, we've talked about all the issues.
We've worked through all of the problems we thought we would have.
We've probably discussed any kind of the change issues that might come up
along the way.
Worked through all of these things to come up with what we think is
a really good decision.
And now we can move forward with this.
And moving forward is pretty easy after we've gone through
this whole consensus process.
Some disadvantages.
It takes time, it's not a fast way to make decisions.
There's a whole lot of discussion to goes on, and everyone has to, finally,
agree to live with, then support this decision.
It's not easy, some people think consensus is an easy way to make decisions.
It's not.
It's not an easy way at all.
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Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (translation: Received a treasure called love) is an upcoming Indian family drama film, written and directed by Sooraj Barjatya, produced by Rajshri Productions and distributed by Fox Star Studios. It stars Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor in lead roles. This will be the fourth collaboration between Sooraj R. Barjatya and Salman Khan after their previous blockbusters Maine Pyar Kiya, HAHK and Hum Saath Saath Hain.
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Long prison term for York man who raped 3-year-old
Jacob Hess was sentenced to 30½ to 61 years in state prison, and still has a second case pending for allegedly indecently assaulting a different child.
Long prison term for York man who raped 3-year-old Jacob Hess was sentenced to 30½ to 61 years in state prison, and still has a second case pending for allegedly indecently assaulting a different child. Check out this story on yorkdispatch.com: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/crime/2019/06/25/long-prison-term-york-man-who-raped-3-year-old/1561415001/
Jacob Hess (Photo: Submitted)
A York City man who raped a 3-year-old girl in 2010 must spend at least 30 years in prison for his crimes — and perhaps much longer.
A jury on March 6 found Jacob Harry Hess guilty of the felonies of child rape and sexual assault, as well as misdemeanor indecent assault of a child less than 13.
Hess, 43, of the 400 block of West Princess Street, appeared in York County Court on Tuesday, June 25, where presiding Common Pleas Judge Maria Musti Cook sentenced him to 30½ to 61 years in state prison, according to court records.
His victim told York City Police in October 2017 that Hess raped her multiple times at his former York City home, according to court documents.
When investigators questioned Hess in January 2018, he admitted only to touching her genitals by accident, then changed the subject to how he hates cops and "the system," and made claims that the victim didn't like him, documents state.
After that interview, Hess became physically ill and had to leave, but he promised to return for follow-up questions, according to court documents.
Police said Hess spoke to a detective a week later and admitted to raping the girl once, when he was drunk, sometime between December 2009 and April 2010.
He would have been 34 at the time, and she would have been 3, police said. The girl was playing on his lap when the rape happened, court documents state.
Hess still has an active criminal case against him in York County Court, in which he is charged with indecent assault of a child less than 13 and corruption of minors, court records state.
The alleged victim in Hess' remaining criminal case is not the same girl he raped when she was 3, according to Kyle King, spokesman for the York County District Attorney's Office.
Read or Share this story: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/crime/2019/06/25/long-prison-term-york-man-who-raped-3-year-old/1561415001/
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