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November 16, 2018 by Tessa Shepperson
Another Friday (they come round so quickly!) and another roundup of some of the landlord and tenant news items which caught my eye.
A new Housing Court?
It looks as if a specialist housing court may be back on the cards again. A press release published by the government said:
Government will seek views on a specialist Housing Court which, if created, would provide a single path of redress for both landlords and tenants – meaning both have the security of knowing they have somewhere to go to seek justice, with the power to resolve the dispute.
The press release went on to say:
Other proposals include reducing the need for multiple hearings in different courts, transferring certain types of housing cases between the courts and tribunal or vice-versa to ensure cases are resolved quickly and issuing new guidance to help tenants and landlords navigate their way through the legal system.
Changes to further streamline court processes could also provide confidence for landlords to offer longer, more secure tenancies, by making it easier for responsible landlords who provide a high-quality service to regain possession of their tenancy should they need to do so.
It will be interesting to see if they are actually able to do this. I suspect that, unless this new court is properly funded (which is unlikely) there will be similar delays to obtaining possession that we have now. After all, there are time limits needed to allow tenants to respond and file a defence if appropriate, and unless they employ more bailiffs the delays in London and other large cities in getting a bailiffs appointment are not going to improve.
Interestingly the press release also mentioned the plans to make landlords, as well as letting agents belong to a redress scheme.
The proposal for a new housing court has the support of both ARLA and the RLA, but the NLA said that their main concern was for the government to overhaul the section 8 possession procedure which they say is ‘no longer fit for purpose’.
The Law Society Gazette, on the other hand, was concerned at Savid Javid’s comments that a specialist court could reduce dependence on legal representation and encourage arbitration.
His comments sparked widespread concern that solicitors would be left out in the cold. The Law Society pointed out that legal advice at an early stage of a housing complaint about the merits of the claim could prevent matters from escalating. The Housing Law Practitioners Association pointed out that the private rental sector was increasingly becoming beset by regulation and technical requirements far beyond the capabilities of the average litigant in person. The Law Centres Network said arbitration might not always be appropriate.
There is a ‘call for evidence’ and anyone wishing to respond will find the consultation document here. NB Nearly Legal has a few comments on the consultation document which you may want to look at first here.
The consultation will end on 22 January 2019.
Westminster to ban ‘supersize homes’
Westminister, one of our ‘posh’ London boroughs, is looking to ban super large houses – ie those larger than 150 sq metres (1,615 sq ft) – saying that banning “Monopoly board-style” homes will help free up more space for affordable homes for Londoners.
Their 2019-40 development plan also included a commitment to build more than 10,000 affordable units by 2040.
Councillor Richard Beddoe said
We want Westminster to be home to thriving, mixed communities, not empty super-prime properties. That’s why we will be restricting the size of new luxury apartments and introducing a new extra bedroom policy to make it easier for families to extend their homes so they have enough space to stay living in Westminster and are not forced to move out.
We shall see. 2040 is some way off.
Tenant Fee Ban
This is currently being examined in the Lords. There is a post on the progress on Generation Rent’s website which sets out some of the concerns that the Lords have.
It looks as if they are reconsidering the ‘default fees’ clause but are not minded to reduce the maximum amount of deposit which can be taken which is currently set (in the bill) at six weeks.
There is (apart from in the Tory Party) almost universal condemnation of universal credit, and there has recently been a Panorama program (which I have not watched) on the subject.
There is a discussion about this on the Property 118 website which quotes from some of the participants in the program. For example, Paul Shamplina said:
I’ve raised my concerns over the increasing complexity of the scheme which, in many cases, means even staff assessing Universal Credit claims are making mistakes on an all too regular basis to the detriment of tenants and landlords.
Over the next few years, thousands more families will move across to UC as the Full Service rollout expands, bringing with it even more complicated cases and further challenges for DWP staff. Unless changes are made now, housing stock will decrease further, and homelessness will increase.
At present, direct payments to landlords are only considered in certain crisis situations. This needs to change and tenants and landlords need the option to have the housing element paid direct to the landlord.
There is also a report in the Guardian on a study which has linked stress over coping with new benefits to suicide, with another report saying that the new system is more expensive than the system it replaces.
Nearly Legal considers the Wilson’s most recent court outing. This time for failure to comply with an enforcement order.
Foxtons has shut six offices in a response to falling revenues.
The new, somewhat aggressive, ‘Landlords Alliance’ has come up with an interesting solution for housing benefit tenants
« Can this tenant be evicted in two weeks because he has no tenancy agreement?
Landlord Law Blog Roundup from 12th November »
1,615 sq ft is super-large? My current home is ~1,600 sq ft. . I paid £179k for it 4 years ago. It’s not small , but hardly super-large. My parents’ house maybe, That was ~3,000 sp ft. We sold it for £275k in 2013. Both needed work doing, and are in the North West.
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Vertigo: Scène d’Amour
Vertigo is now recognized as Hitchcock’s most personal project, a disturbing study of romantic obsession, guilt, and death. But upon its premiere in 1958, it met with mixed reviews and indifferent box office. "We liked it," Herrmann told an interviewer, "but even in the States, people thought [Vertigo] was a backache or something."
Instead, it is the symbol of detective Scottie Ferguson’s (Jimmy Stewart) obsessive love for the elusive, doomed Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak), and her apparent double, Judy Barton (also Novak) -- a psychological maelstrom illustrated in one of Herrmann’s most exciting main titles, set to the swirling geometric imagery of designer Saul Bass. When it came to filming Vertigo’s emotional climax -- the scene in which Ferguson is "reunited" with Madeleine, after convincing Judy to make herself in Madeleine’s image -- "we’ll just have the camera and you," Hitchcock told his favorite composer. True to his word, the director kept dialogue to a minimum, knowing that Herrmann could convey more effectively the emotions of this troubling, complex film.
The resulting five-minute sequence may be cinema’s most powerful evocation of romantic longing, as "Madeleine" steps out of a ghostly green light, to be embraced by Scottie, as Hitchcock’s camera travels a full 360 degrees around the lovers. Scottie’s literal embrace with death is given another layer of meaning by Herrmann’s theme: a paraphrase of Wagner’s Liebestod (love-death) from Tristan und Isolde.
Steven C. Smith is the author of A Heart at Fire’s Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann (University of California Press, 1991), and a recipient of the Deems Taylor Award for writing on music. He is currently a writer/producer on the A&E television series Biography.
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Base Cost
Public Administration Program Requirements
The Master of Public Administration program features 12 courses at three units each to total 36 units. Each course meets for eight weeks. The graduate student typically takes one course at a time completing two courses each semester.
Major Core Courses
History and Theory of Public Administration
Investigation of the historical development of the theoretical foundations of modern public administration practice. The course serves as an overview of the public administration profession within a democratic society, a description of the history and development of the field of public administration, and an introduction to ethical issues faced by public administrators.
Leadership and Management in Public Administration
Exploration of leadership and management in public administration at the cognitive, experiential, and implementation level. Students integrate and apply theoretical concepts, improve collaborative management skills, and explore their individual philosophies of leadership within real-world scenarios.
Public Finance and Budgeting
Analysis of theories and strategies of resource allocation as a basis for managing revenues and debt in government, with a focus on budgeting as a tool for controlling both operations and policy at all levels of government. Students gain an understanding of the role of government in a market economy to include the impact of monies spent at the local, state and federal level. Students investigate why expenditures are channeled toward certain critical areas in the economy under conditions of market failure.
Public Personnel Management
Evaluation of labor-management negotiations grounded in theory. Students analyze and articulate the nature and extent of labor-management negotiations, the suspected causes of conflict, and the internal and environmental influences on these changes. Students consider the critical issues in labor-management negotiations and collective bargaining in the public sector and analyze crucial policy issues.
Conflict Resolution and Labor Negotiations
A comprehensive examination of conflict resolution with an emphasis on public sector labor negotiations. Students evaluate and critically analyze theoretical, collaborative and practical approaches associated with conflict resolution, negotiation and consensus building in the workplace in order to develop necessary skills to both identify and resolve interpersonal, intragroup, and inter-group conflicts.
Public Policy Analysis
Examination of the activities of government and the consequences of these actions. Through the application of analytical techniques, students gain an understanding of the nature of public policy and various ways in which it may be approached to include addressing complex, real-world policy matters involving multiple constituent groups with diverse interests, institutional complexity, and ethical controversy.
Legal and Ethical Issues
Exploration of the basic legal and ethical concepts and challenges facing public administrators. Students identify principles that might guide legal and ethical choices and show the practical impacts of these principles. Students consider the tensions among ethics, societal influences, and faith in public administration decision making.
Examination of the interrelationship of political and economic factors that influence both public political and economic outcomes. Key means of analysis will include the application of micro- and macro-economic theories to obtain better understandings of political and administrative decision-making processes. Students explore the relationship and dynamics between public policies and political forces.
Organizational Theory and Human Behavior
Systematic analysis of theories and concepts of organizational theory in the field of public administration. Students explore the structure and function of public and nonprofit organizations, behavioral dynamics, and how to apply theory to practice. Students examine a variety of major theories and perspectives and discuss recent research in the discipline.
Professional Communication in Public Administration
Review and application of professional presentation skills within an organization. This course provides students with effective strategies for integrating technology-enabled communication, data, narrative information, and persuasive oral presentation skills. Students practice the ethical use of messaging for public communication. Practical application and demonstration of skills are required.
Public Administration Program Evaluation
Evaluation of a program offered by a non-profit, government, or contract organization, based on scholarly literature. Students review city council meeting agendas and minutes to gather public comment about a specific program. Students analyze secondary data from program reporting data to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the program and propose recommendations for improvement.
MPA Capstone
Investigation of real-world scenarios that require analysis and ethically sound problem-solving. Students identify a salient issue in a community in which they live or work that is currently in focus among city officials and constituents. Students investigate the perspectives of all involved parties and propose a solution or intervention to address the issue. Students advocate for the solution to a city official.
Prerequisite: MPA 500, MPA 510, MPA 550, MPA 560, and 18 additional units of MPA coursework.
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Pensioner, 96, strangles wife of 68 years 'for love'
The couple had been happily married for 68 years and were "devoted to one another"
Robert Langley
Jack Tindall pictured leaving the court after a previous hearing
A pensioner strangled his ailing wife of 68 years with a cord from her dressing gown “for love” after she begged him to kill her, a court heard.
Jack Tindall, 96, and his wife, Ernestine Tindall, 88, had previously vowed that if one of them had to be put into a home, the other would take the other’s life.
Ex-soldier Mr Tindall, from Boughton, became convinced that they would be going to different homes and would be separated.
And on August 3 last year, the depressed pensioner fulfilled his wife's wish at their Perlethorpe home - using the cord from a dressing gown to throttle her.
He surrounded her head - her "beautiful face" - with lilies, Nottingham Crown Court heard on June 9.
The grandfather-of-five told police when they arrived: "For years we've solemnly promised each other that if anything happens...if it gets too much for either of us, we know what to do, and I've done it...promise has been fulfilled...I've strangled her. All the pleading and pleading and pleading, and I finally done it".
In February he was charged with murder and made his first appearance in court.
But after considering the background to the case, this was commuted to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Tindall pleaded guilty to the charge.
Judge Gregory Dickinson QC, the Recorder of Nottingham, handed the pensioner a sentence of 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.
Car drives WRONG WAY down A1 after masked men raid house
The judge told him: "It is not necessary for the court to add further to the tragedy of this case by the imposition of a sentence of immediate imprisonment."
However, he said "this was a crime", and Mr Tindall had taken the life of another person.
"Every life is uniquely precious," he said. "The sanctity of life is one of the hallmarks of a civilised society and our justice system.
"This is not a case of assisted suicide. This was a killing as a perceived act of mercy.
"However, it is central to this case that Mrs Tindall had repeatedly asked her husband to ensure that she did not suffer; to kill her rather than let her endure pain and indignity.
"In a sense, Mr Tindall's actions were coolly and calmly rational - fulfilling his promise to his beloved wife.
"In fact, he was acting through the fog of his distress, his depression and his declining mental faculties, in particular his misapprehension that he and his beloved wife were about to be separated."
Man, 29, in critical condition after crash
Mr Tindall met Ernestine in Austria when he was stationed there after the war ended in 1945.
After they married in Austria in 1946, they returned to England the following year and had one child James, now aged 68.
"They were happily married for 68 years and were devoted to one another," said prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC.
He said in August 2015 she had a haemorrhagic stroke that left her paralysed down one side, and she was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia.
She spent an unhappy time in a residential care home. The couple then reunited and settled at a large rented home with their son and daughter-in-law.
One of their granddaughters said after the couple moved to the address, they quickly became miserable.
After a meeting with social services, it was agreed they would move to a residential home together.
Another granddaughter said Ernestine "continually asked" her grandfather to help her die.
"She says she could never hate her grandfather, who she describes as a lovely, caring man," said Mr Hankin. "She believes that his actions 'would have been out of love'."
Woman with dementia, 84, scammed by thieves
And she said her grandfather "absolutely idolised my grandmother and would not in any way have done anything against her wishes".
"I had heard her going on at him for weeks, maybe months, about her suffering and, all I can think is that her demands got too much for him," the court heard.
In police interview Mr Tindall, a soldier in the Infantry in the Second World War, said his wife's stroke "affected her right-side leg and arm, and it also took her memory...and she was like a baby, she didn't know anything, she didn't even remember us getting married".
And he said to officers: "I admit I've done wrong, but I did it for love."
After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Justine Dakin said: "Although you never condone the taking of a life, the court heard today his actions were purely born out of love and devotion for his wife of 68 years," he said.
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TV show looking for real-life Romeo and Juliets
Diane King
A new TV series is looking to talk to couples whose love goes against their parents or families wishes.
Love Against The Odds aims to look at how British culture is changing through the love and relationships of the country’s young couples.
The show’s producers - who are also responsible for My Kitchen Rules; Back to the Land with Kate Humble and Micky Flanagan’s Detour de France - want to hear from anyone whose parents believe their offspring are dating “The Wrong Kind of Person”.
That could mean a partner being from the “wrong” race, class or religion, or could apply to gay couples or even if there is a significant age difference between the couple.
Basically, “If your family doesn’t like your partner and they don’t want you to stay together, then we’d like to hear your story,” say 7 Wonder, likening the situation many couples find themselves to that of Shakespeare’s tragic duo Romeo and Juliet.
You can find out more at www.loveagainsttheodds.com or you can email Charlieclare@7wonder.co.uk, or call 020 3701 7342.
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Brits name stars they’d most like to bring back for festival
New research has revealed which late musicians people would most like to see perform at a festival if they hadn’t passed away.
Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse and Tupac all feature in the top 10 list of acts that Britons would most like to see headlining a fantasy festival.
The research was carried out by www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk in the lead up to the festival season, after noticing an increase in searches for festival ticket discounts. 2,198 Britons aged 18 and over were quizzed about their musical tastes and which performers they wish they’d had the chance to see live before they passed away.
Initially all respondents were asked ‘Have you ever been to a music festival?’ to which two fifths of respondents, 44%, said ‘yes’. When asked what their top reasons for attending various music festivals were, the top reasons cited were ‘the musicians’ (56%), ‘I go every year, without fail’ (21%) and ‘the friends that I’m going with’ (19%). The top music festivals were revealed as ‘Glastonbury’ (34%), ‘The Reading & Leeds Festival’ (20%) and ‘V Festival’ (16%), based on those which respondents said they had attended in the past.
All respondents were then asked, ‘Are there any musicians that have passed away, that you wish you could’ve seen perform live?’ to which almost two thirds of respondents, 65%, said ‘yes’, there were.
Wanting to determine which late celebrities Britons would like to see headlining at a fantasy festival (given the chance, had they not passed away) the researchers asked respondents. The fantasy festival headliners, according to the responses, would feature as follows:
Freddie Mercury - 35%
John Lennon - 32%
Michael Jackson - 31%
Tupac - 27%
Bob Marley - 26%
Elvis - 23%
Kurt Cobain - 20%
Whitney Houston - 16%
Amy Winehouse - 16%
Jimi Hendrix - 14%
George Charles, spokesperson for www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, commented on the findings: “The last few years, in particular, have been tragic; we’ve lost so many big names, and not just musicians but actors and heroes too. It’s interesting to see that the majority of those performers that Britons would love to have the chance to see live are famous from previous decades, not just those who have passed away recently.”
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Lucius Pescennius Niger
Lucius Pescennius Niger (c.140-194): Roman general, emperor for a short while in 193-194.
Pescennius Niger
Lucius (or Gaius) Pescennius Niger was born in Aquinum, a modest provincial town in Italy, between 135 and 140. He was the son of a Roman knight named Annius Fuscus and his wife Lampridia.
These were the years of the emperor Antoninus Pius, when the Roman world was tranquil and at peace with most of its neighbors. This peace, however, was shattered during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180), who had to wage war against the Germanic tribes along the Danube, and whose brother Lucius Verus had to fight a big war against the Parthian Empire in the east. When peace was lost, Pescennius was more than twenty years old and it was probably no coincidence that in this restless age a military man like him was to rise higher than a normal equestrian's son.
Commodus as Hercules
He served as military prefect of an auxiliary cohort during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The next step of his career, a double military tribuneship (a high position in a legion), is attributed to the reign of the next emperor, Commodus (180-192). Although Pescennius was no longer a young man, he seems to have done his job excellently and must have impressed the emperor, because he was accepted as senator with the rank of a former praetor.
Pescennius went on to occupy an unknown office in Dacia (modern Rumania). Here, he fought against the Sarmatians, a coalition of Iranian tribes that had settled in Central Europe. Another man is named in the same context: Decimus Clodius Albinus, who will return in our story. The fact that two senators with the rank of former praetors are mentioned in a military situation, strongly suggests that they were the commanders of the garrison of Dacia, which consisted of V Macedonica and XIII Gemina.
By now, Pescennius must have had a good reputation as a commander. When in 185 a man named Maternus freed some prisoners and started a gang of robbers that invested Gaul, Commodus considered this a serious crisis and appointed Pescennius Niger as governor of the province called Gallia Lugdunensis. Deserters from several army units had joined Maternus, but Pescennius overcame them, together with the Eighth Augustan Legion of Strasbourg (186).
After a consulship at an unknown moment, Pescennius was considered worthy of the governorship of Syria, a very important position, where he had to command two legions, III Cyrenaica and IIII Scythica. He arrived in Antioch, his new residence, in 191. It seems that Pescennius was sincerely liked by the Syrians.
Under normal circumstance, this governorship was the zenith of an extraordinary career. However, the circumstances were nor longer usual. The situation in Rome was worsening. The emperor Commodus had waged something like a war against the Senate and had tried to boost his popularity, which was declining after a great fire, by acting as a gladiator and presenting himself as the Roman Hercules. Although the Romans were not unused to imperial extravaganza, they found this shocking and several courtiers decided that Commodus' reign had to be terminated.
Several reliable men had already been appointed to key positions, and perhaps Pescennius' appointment as governor of Syria (and general of its legions) was among them. In the night of 31 December 192 / 1 January 193, the conspirators decided to strike. They murdered the gladiator-emperor and hailed the old general Pertinax as emperor. Like Pescennius Niger, he was a social climber who had made his career in the army - and outside the Senate.
The coup had been bloodless, but unfortunately, something went wrong. On 28 March 193, eighty-six days after the murder of Commodus, a sedition broke out in the camp of the imperial guard. A group of soldiers burst into the palace, where one of them killed his emperor.
This time, the succession had not been considered beforehand and there was no natural candidate availavle. The soldiers were not fighting for a particular pretender, they were just angry. Two men, however, were considered capax imperii ("fit to rule"): the prefect of the city, Pertinax' father-in-law T. Flavius Sulpicianus, and a noble war hero named Marcus Didius Julianus. The latter offered more money to the soldiers and became emperor.
Didius Julianus
The Romans did not know what was more shocking: the outrageous behavior of Commodus, the murder of Pertinax, or the fact that the empire had been auctioned away. Didius Julianus had to cope with people shouting that they wanted another ruler, and they usually mentioned the same name: Lucius Pescennius Niger. The new emperor sent an assassin to kill the popular governor, but in vain.
Instead, Julianus was informed that Pescennius had heard about his popularity and had accepted the imperial purple himself on 19 (?) April 193. He had proclaimed the beginning of a new "Golden age" after the dictatorial rule of Commodus and Julianus, and had received recognition from every province in the east, from the Parthian king Vologases V, and from the ruler of Hatra, a small kingdom in Mesopotamia.
Pescennius' position was excellent. To start with, he controlled at least five and probably nine legions. He could certainly count on II Traiana Fortis in Alexandria, X Fretensis in Jerusalem, III Cyrenaica in Bosra in northern Arabia Petraea, III Gallica in Raphanaea (Syria), and XII Fulminata in Melitene. We do not know about the loyalty of other legions in the region (VI Ferrata in Caparcotna in Galilee, IIII Scythica at Zeugma, XVI Flavia Firma at Samosata, and XV Apollinaris at Satala), but we can assume that they supported Pescennius Niger as well. However, the new ruler probably would not have to fight at all, because he controlled the port of Alexandria, which was crucial for the food supply of Rome. He could starve the capital. Or so it seemed.
Septimius Severus
The Romans and Syrians were not the only people who abhorred from the coup of Didius Julianus. The soldiers of the army of the Danube preferred the governor of Pannonia Superior, Septimius Severus, as emperor (9 April 193). In his province, he controlled I Adiutrix in Brigetio, X Gemina in Vindobona (modern Vienna), and XIIII Gemina in Carnuntum. However, he could also employ the legions of the Upper Danube, III Italica of Regina Castra and II Italica of Lauriacum, and he could rely upon the units of the Lower Danube and Dacia, like II Adiutrix at Aquincum (Budapest), IIII Flavia Felix in Singidunum (Belgrade), VII Claudia at Viminacium, V Macedonica and XIII Gemina at Potaissa and Apulum in Dacia, I Italica in Novae, and XI Claudia at Durostorum, near the delta of the Danube.
Septimius Severus had a larger army and was closer to Rome. With the Pannonian legions I Adiutrix and XIV Gemina, he made a lightning raid on Rome, which he reached on 9 June. By then Didius Julianus was already murdered and Severus was recognized by the Senate.
Clodius Albinus
Meanwhile, the chaos had only increased, because in faraway Britain, Decimus Clodius Albinus (once Pescennius' fellow-commander in the war against the Sarmatians) had assumed the imperial purple as well. He could count on the three British legions (II Augusta at Isca/Caerleon, VI Victrix at Deva/Chester, XX Valeria Victrix at Eburacum/York). The only undecided legions were those of Germania Inferior, once Clodius Albinus' province, and Germania Superior (XXX Ulpia Victrix at Xanten, I Minervia at Bonn, XXII Primigenia at Mainz, VIII Augusta at Strasbourg), Hispania (VII Gemina), and Numidia (III Augusta). Clodius Albinus understood that, with three legions, he was no match for Severus, and accepted a position as caesar, intended successor.
Now Severus had his hands free to attack Pescennius Niger. He sent and army to Egypt - an expedition about which we know next to nothing but must have been important to restore the food supply of Rome. At the same time, he arrested the family of his opponent, and sent the two easternmost legions of the Danube, I Italica and XI Claudia, to Byzantium, which controlled the Bosphorus. However, the legionaries found that this strategically important city had already been occupied by Pescennius himself. And there was a second enemy army, commanded by Asellius Aemilianus, his right-hand man and the governor of the province of Asia.
Negotiations were conducted - Pescennius proposing to share the empire and Severus offering his rival a guarantee - but when these had come to naught, fighting broke out. Ultimately, the reinforced army of Septimius Severus was able to make a landing in Asia and defeat the army of Pescennius Niger at Nicaea (January 194). Asellius Aemilianus was caught at Cyzicus. Pescennius, who had been in Byzantium, now fled to Syria. When he had arrived, he learned that Egypt was lost as well (13 February).
The Cilician gate
This was not the end of his emperorship, however. Byzantium still held out, and Severus still needed to reach Syria. He would have to cross the Taurus Mountains, which meant that he had to force his way through the Cilician Gate. Apparently, Pescennius personally commanded the troops in the Taurus. In his History of the Roman Empire, the historian Herodian says that heavy rainfall forced the defenders to give up their position, and that the Severans reached the plain of Cilicia. Between this country and the plain of Antioch was the coastal zone of Issus, where Alexander the Great had defeated his rival Darius III Codomannus of Persia in 331 BCE. This was to be the place of another decisive battle.
The battlefield of Issus
It took place on 31 March 194, and Pescennius Niger was defeated. According to the historian Cassius Dio, 20,000 people were massacred.note[Cassius Dio, Roman History 75=74.8.1.] Pescennius tried to flee to his ally, the Parthian king Vologases V, but he was intercepted by the soldiers of Severus before he could cross the Euphrates. His reign had lasted less than one year. He was killed and his head was sent to Byzantium in order to induce the defenders to surrender. Severus punished Pescennius' adherents and sent his family into exile. The Senate convened and pronounced a damnatio memoriae.
The victorious emperor immediately launched a short war against the Parthians, who had supported his opponent. This, at least, was the pretext, but the real reason must have been that he had won a civil war and needed a victory in a foreign war to make his emperorship acceptable. After he had gained some successes in Mesopotamia, he returned to Rome, defeated Clodius Albinus in Gaul, went to Mesopotamia again and sacked the Parthian capital Ctesiphon. All this was commemorated on the Arch of Septimius Severus on the Forum Romanum.
Although Lucius Septimius Severus had been the enemy of Pescennius Niger, the two men had much in common. Like Pertinax and Didius Julianus, they were experienced generals. From the reign of Marcus Aurelius on, the Romans had to defend themselves against dangerous enemies -the Germanic tribes in the north and the Sasanians in the east- and these military commanders were to be the new leaders of the Roman world. When Pescennius Niger was born, the Mediterranean was tranquil and peaceful; when he died, this world had started to become unquiet. Although his reign was not a success, the future belonged to military leaders like Pescennius.
The text of the biography of Pescennius Niger from the Historia Augusta can be found here in Latin and English.
The reign of Pescennius has also been treated in Cassius Dio's Roman History (Book 75=74), and Herodian's History of the Roman Empire (Book 2 and 3)
Home » Articles » Person » Pescennius Niger
Jona Lendering
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Rendering: Fentress Architects, National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations
National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations
Founded in 1942, the OSS was the first organized effort by the United States to implement a centralized system of strategic intelligence, and the predecessor to the CIA and the U.S. Special Operations Command. The OSS Society is an association of former OSS operatives with an objective to widen public knowledge of the OSS and its many accomplishments, most of which remained classified until relatively recently.
The Society has embarked on an ambitious new project – a new National Museum of Intelligence and Special Operations (NMISO) to be built as part of a new mixed-use development on a site in Loudoun County, Virginia. Rather than create an “OSS museum,” the objective is to focus more broadly on the topic of American intelligence gathering, special operations and covert warfare from the founding of the nation to the present day.
In 2015 the society commissioned Lord Cultural Resources to develop a Master Plan for the project. This included concept, visitor experience, operational, staffing and facility plans, as well as capital cost estimates and projections of attendance, operating revenue and operating expenses for the first five years of operation. A complete “road map” for the new Museum, the Master Plan will be used as the basis for building and exhibition design and implementation. In addition, our team developed content and design for a brochure of the future museum intended for fundraising and general promotion.
The Starr Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the U.S., has contributed a $10 million lead gift to the new museum, which is expected to be completed in 2021.
Office of the Strategic Services Society
Master Plan, Brochure Design
Fentress Architects
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Supreme Court: 'Gerrymandering' is Legal
Supreme Court oks extreme redistricting
This list is not FDA-approved.
9 Words for Transnational Currencies
When many countries share the same name for a buck
Today the dinar is the main currency in eight countries formerly belonging to the Ottoman Empire: (from west to east) Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Serbia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain. The first dinars were issued in A.D. 696 by the great Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who enforced its use as the lone currency of exchange throughout the Muslim world, just as he decreed Arabic to be the official language. The name was taken from the Roman denarius, a coin that had been in use for many centuries, whose name, with its “ten” root, originally referred to the value of ten donkeys.
“Seeing this, the fisherman rejoiced and said, ‘If I sell it in the brass-bazaar, 'tis worth ten golden dinars.’”
— Anon., trans. by Richard Burton, Arabian Nights, 1885
Eight former Spanish colonies—Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Philippines, and Uruguay—today use the peso as their national currency. For a thousand years, up to the present, peso has meant “weight” in Spanish—here referring to the weight, and thus the value, of a coin of gold or silver. (Cf. the British pound, below.)
“’Fer a plugged peso I’d strew yu all over th’ scenery!’ shouted Billy, feigning anger and rubbing his head.”
– Clarence Edward Mulford, “The Advent of McAllister,” 1906
The franc is today the basic monetary unit of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and twenty African nations, all of them once part of the French colonial empire. But originally it was the currency of France itself. Francs were first minted in 1360 for the ransoming of the captured King John II from the English, showing the king astride his charger brandishing a sword, with the words Francorum Rex (“King of the Franks”) forming part of the border. It is often claimed that franc comes from franc à cheval, or “free on horse,” apparently an early name of the coin. (Another coin, showing the king standing, was known as the franc à pied, or “free on foot.”) Alternatively, some believe franc was a shortening of Francorum. But the simpler explanation is that, in those years, franc merely meant “French.”
“He is still worth at least 50-000 pds—being what is called here a ‘Millionaire’ that is in Francs & such Lilliputian coinage.” – George Gordon, Lord Byron, letter, 23 June 1816
The rupee is today the basic monetary unit of India and Pakistan, two of the world’s most populous countries, as well as the much smaller Nepal, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Bhutan. (Indonesia’s currency is sometimes spelled rupee but more often rupiah.) The ancient Sanskrit word it comes from means “coined silver.” The first coin called the rupee was minted in northern India around 1540.
“Fast-forward 20 years, and Pondy . . . has set up shop as a strongman for hire, his prices set out in garish DayGlo on the walls of his underpopulated office: 10,000 rupees for leg-breaking, 15,000 for an arm.”
- The Guardian, 2 Nov. 2015
Krone, Krona, Koruna
Many European monarchies historically chose to use a crown, representing their monarch, as an emblem on their principal coins. Though several “crown” currencies have been supplanted by the euro, the basic monetary units in five European countries still derive their names from the Latin corona: in Denmark and Norway, the krone; in Sweden and Iceland, the krona; and in the Czech Republic, the koruna. No matter that these last two are no longer monarchies.
“Just look at that old stingy-beans, that old miser, sitting there with his five hundred kroner all counted out ahead of time!”
– Knut Hamsun, August, trans. Eugene Gay-Tifft, 1931
Rial, Riyal
In Iran, Oman, and Yemen, the basic currency unit is the rial; in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, it is the riyal. Westerners may find it slightly surprising that Latin was the source for both words, as it was for dinar. In the Muslim world both riyal and rial are far younger words than dinar, riyal not being recorded in use in the Middle East until 1856 and rial not until 1930. But coins named rial had been minted in France and Britain as long ago as the 15th century, and its basic meaning in those European countries—like that of the slightly later Spanish real, these words' most immediate ancestor—was “royal.”
“I paid for two deck passages eighteen Riyals, my companions seven each, whilst Saad secretly entered himself as an able seaman.
- Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah, 1857
Pound is the name of the basic currencies not only of the United Kingdom but also of Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Lebanon, and Syria. Like peso, pound originally referred to weight, as it still does today. The Latin libra pondo meant “a pound by weight,” and libra survives today both in the £ symbol for the British pound and in the abbreviation lb. meaning “pound” in the weight sense. (Lira, the name of both the old Italian currency and the current Turkish currency, likewise derives from libra.)
“She would write her memoirs and include in them faithful records of her association with every noble lord who failed to pay hush money to the tune of two hundred pounds.”
– The Economist, 9 Nov. 1957
Shilling
Today, shilling is the name of the basic currency of four former British colonies in Africa: Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. (It was also once the basic monetary unit of Ireland, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand.) Nevertheless, Americans are most likely to know it as the old British denomination worth one-twentieth of a pound, or twelve pence. Its name traces back to a gold coin known in Old High German as the skilling.
“Indeed, civil servants and others in positions to do so seem quite content extracting a pocketful of shillings (Kenya currency) here and there from expatriates, Asian businessmen, white Kenyans, whom they view as no more than walking money to be taken, and even fellow black Africans, who can ill afford to pay chai (tea), as bribes are euphemistically called here.”
– Chicago Tribune, 11 Jan. 1987
Finally, the currency name adopted most widely in the world, even more widely than the modern euro: the dollar. Eight countries use the U.S. dollar itself as their currency, while 27 others use dollars of their own. The word’s unlikely source is the old Bohemian silver-mining town of Sankt Joachimstal (“St. Joachim’s Valley”), now Jáchymov, where the silver was turned into coins called Thalers or Talers. Taler and its variant daler were already being used for various coins circulating in the American colonies when the latter achieved their independence from Britain, and the national government soon chose the name for its new currency.
“Steadily they played at a dime ante, and a dollar better, till the funds of the deacon were all exhausted, and he was forced to ante up tools.”
- Pensacola Gazette, 12 Oct. 1850
10 Words from Pennsylvania German
More Words At Play
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Police News for Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007
Holliston man arrested on warrant
ASHLAND - A Holliston man was arrested Tuesday at 3:54 p.m. on a warrant, police said.
Steve A. Robinson, of 58 Jennings Road, had a warrant for his arrest, but no other information was available, police said.
Natick man charged with assault, battery
NATICK - A Natick man was arrested Tuesday at 2:33 p.m. at his home after a domestic dispute, police said.
William Glynn, 43, of 1 Tibbetts St., was charged with assault and battery, police said.
Marlborough man arrested on warrant
FRAMINGHAM - A Marlborough man was arrested Tuesday at 7:04 p.m. on a warrant, police said.
John Nevarez, 36, of 26 Huntington Ave., had a Framingham District Court warrant charging him with the failure to appear in court and the failure to pay a fine, police said.
Man arrested on license violation
MARLBOROUGH - A Marlborough man on South Bolton Street at 8:08 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
Renier A. Semprum, 29, of 277 West Main St., apartment 12, was charged with driving with a suspended license and two number plate violations, police said.
MARLBOROUGH - A Marlborough man was arrested on a warrant at 2:11 p.m. Tuesday on Lincoln Street, police said.
Neal V. Patel, 22, of 123 Robert Road, was wanted in Ayer District Court on charges of driving with a suspended license, police said.
Man arrested after passing school bus
MARLBOROUGH - A Marlborough man was arrested after he allegedly failed to stop for a school bus at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday on Boston Post Road East, police said.
Raymond M. Vargas, 36, of 181 Boston Post Road East, apartment 62, was charged with driving under a revoked license, police said.
Man charged with drug possession, assault
MARLBOROUGH - A Marlborough man was arrested at 6:49 p.m. Tuesday on drug and assault charges on Lincoln Street, police said.
Michael A. Burt, 28, of 342 Lincoln St., apartment 416, was charged with possessing a Class D substance and assault and battery, police said.
MARLBOROUGH - A Marlborough man was arrested on a warrant at 10:54 p.m. Tuesday on West Main Street, police said.
Leonardo C. Teixeira, 17, of 231 West Main St., apartment 1, was wanted in Marlborough District Court on charges of defacing property, police said.
MARLBOROUGH A Marlborough man was arrested on a warrant at 6:30 a.m. yesterday on Lakeside Avenue, police said.
Alberto Gomes Freire, 24, of 44 Belleview Ave., was wanted in Marlborough District Court on charges of driving without a license, police said.
Gardner man arrested on warrant charges
NORTHBOROUGH - A Gardner man was arrested Tuesday at 1:56 p.m. on Otis Street, police said.
Rocky Brogna, 26, of 1 Whitney St. apartment D, was arrested on outstanding warrant charges for possession of a Class A substance and possession of Class C substance, police said.
Compiled by Daily News staff writers Galen Moore and Norman Miller
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Outdoor Advertisements Across the U.S. Will Soon Be Replaced With Fine Art
By Laura Itzkowitz
Everyday we're assaulted by an endless stream of advertisements — on our computers, on our phones, on billboards — many of which are completely irrelevant to us. This summer, the campaign Art Everywhere will give us a break from this marketing barrage by replacing ads on billboards, bus stops and subway platforms across the U.S. with works of fine art. Five of America's most important art museums have selected a total of 100 works of art, and it's up to the public to vote to narrow it down to the 50 pieces that will be displayed. Aside from being a brilliant campaign, the images of art rather than ads will provide a much needed creative respite for our commercially over-saturated brains. Imagine Jasper Johns greeting you at the bustop, rather than an advertisement for razors.
"Three Flags" by Jasper Johns. Wikimedia Commons.
Last summer, Art Everywhere launched in the UK, filling 22,000 poster sites with great works of British art, from "The Lady of Shallot" by John William Waterhouse to "Head VI" by Francis Bacon. In addition to billboards, subway posters and bus shelters, an estimated 2,000 London buses and 1,000 black cabs prominently displayed the paintings. Though the UK initiative lasted only two weeks — from August 12-25 — as much as 90% of the adult population encountered a work of art thanks to the initiative. It was a success.
Image credit: Facebook
Richard Reed, who organized the Art Everywhere initiative, called it "a joyful project with no agenda other than to flood our streets with art and celebrate the creative talents and legacy of the UK".
Art Everywhere / The Making of from 101 London on Vimeo.
The idea is catching on globally, and more and more people are engaged by the prospect of encountering great works of art on the street where once there were ads. French street artist Étienne Lavie carried out a guerrilla art project called "OMG Who Stole My Ads?" which replaced advertisements on Paris streets and in subway stations with French masterpieces.
Photo credit: Etienne Lavie
The U.S. initiative will run for the entire month of August and include iconic locations like Times Square, Route 66 and Sunset Boulevard. The artworks will be selected from the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC, the National Gallery in Washington DC, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art. The pieces of art span the entire course of U.S. history, from the Revolutionary War to the present.
"Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper is one of the paintings nominated for the Art Everywhere initiative. Wikimedia Commons.
Imagine subway posters near the Flatiron Building replaced by Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks", a billboard in Times Square replaced by "Three Flags" by Jasper Johns and a bus stop ad replaced by a portrait of George Washington. In addition to these, you could be seeing paintings and photographs by Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Chuck Close, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keefe, Cindy Sherman and many others. Imagine a world where art is what we look at all day, not ads.
You can vote for 10 works of art everyday until May 7.
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Looking For The King
Dr. David C. Downing
It is 1940, and American Tom McCord, a 23-year-old aspiring doctoral candidate, is in England researching the historical evidence for the legendary King Arthur. There he meets perky and intuitive Laura Hartman, a fellow American staying with her aunt in Oxford, and the two of them team up for an even more ambitious and dangerous quest.Aided by the Inklings-that illustrious circle of scholars and writers made famous by its two most prolific members, C.?S. Lewis and J.?R.?R. Tolkien-Tom and Laura begin to suspect that the fabled Spear of Destiny, the lance that pierced the side of Christ on the cross, is hidden somewhere in England.Tom discovers that Laura has been having mysterious dreams, which seem to be related to the subject of his research, and, though doubtful of her visions, he hires her as an assistant. Heeding the insights and advice of the Inklings, while becoming aware of being shadowed by powerful and secretive foes who would claim the spear as their own, Tom and Laura end up on a thrilling treasure hunt that crisscrosses the English countryside and leads beyond a search for the elusive relics of Camelot into the depths of the human heart and soul.Weaving his fast-paced narrative with conversation based on the works of the Inklings, author David Downing offers a vivid portrait of Oxford and draws a welcome glimpse into the personalities and ideas of Lewis and Tolkien, while never losing sight of his action-packed adventure story and its two very appealing main characters.
About Dr. David C. Downing
David C. Downing, PhD, is the R. W. Schlosser Professor of English at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of four award-winning books on C.?S. Lewis: Planets in Peril, The Most Reluctant Convert, Into the Region of Awe: Mysticism in C.?S. Lewis and Into the Wardrobe: C.?S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles . Downing has also written short fiction for Christianity Today and other periodicals.
FIC026000 (FICTION / Religious)
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PHILOSOPHY >
Lord of Elves And Eldils
Richard Purtill
A fascinating look at the fantasy and philosophy of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien. The two men were friends and fellow professors at Oxford, renowned Christian thinkers who both “found it necessary to create for the purposes of their fiction other worlds?not utopias or dystopias, but different worlds.”
“The great importance of [Lewis and Tolkien] is that they have succeeded in restating certain traditional values?in a way that they make an imaginative appeal to a very wide audience, young and old, traditionalist and non-traditionalist.”
?Richard Purtill, Author, J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion
About Richard Purtill
PHI022000 (PHILOSOPHY / Religious)
Doors in the Walls of the World
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." — Hamlet After William Shakespeare's Horatio sees the ghost of Hamlet's father, and scarcely believes his own eyes, Hamlet tells him that there is more to reality than he can know or imagine, including ghosts...
by Sri, Edward
"Don't be so judgmental!" "Why are Christians so intolerant?" "Why can't we just coexist?" In an age in which preference has replaced morality, many people find it difficult to speak the truth, afraid of the reactions they will receive if they say something is right or wrong...
Ignatius Bible (RSV), 2nd Edition Large Print - Hardcover
by Press, Ignatius
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is acclaimed by many as the clearest, most accurate and most beautiful modern translation of the Bible. This newly designed and typeset 2nd edition of the popular Ignatius RSV Catholic Bible is a contemporary English translation that revises archaic language of the first edition, but avoids dumbing-down the text...
Ignatius Bible (RSV), 2nd Edition Large Print - Softcover
Ignatius Bible (RSV), 2nd Edition Large Print - Leather
Called to Be the Children of God
by Olson, Carl E.
This book gathers fourteen Catholic scholars to present, examine, and explain the often misunderstood process of "deification". The fifteen chapters show what "becoming God" meant for the early Church, for St. Thomas Aquinas and the greatest Dominicans, and for St. Francis and the early Franciscans...
After the Natural Law
by Hill, John Lawrence
The "natural law" worldview developed over the course of almost two thousand years beginning with Plato and Aristotle and culminating with St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century...
A special 2-DVD collector's edition of the acclaimed epic film on St. Augustine of Hippo. Filmed in Europe, the first full-length feature movie on Augustine, it uses a historic backdrop to tell the true story of one of the Church's most beloved and well-known Saints. Its message of sin, conversion, redemption is as timely today as it was in the 5th century of Augustine...
The Ninth Day
With The Ninth Day, acclaimed film director Volker Schlondorff creates a moral thriller that "succeeds in illuminating an almost unimaginably dark story" (The New York Times). Inspired by the true story of a dissident priest's temporary furlough from Dachau, The Ninth Day transforms an ethical crisis into a nail biting showdown and unspeakable horror into transcendent redemption...
A Deeper Vision
by Royal, Robert
In this wide-ranging and ambitious volume, Robert Royal, a prominent participant for many years in debates about religion and contemporary life, offers a comprehensive and balanced appraisal of the Catholic intellectual tradition in the twentieth century...
Life for Life
Auschwitz, 1941. One of the prisoners, Jan, escapes from the German concentration camp while working at a gravel pit. Thanks to the help of good-hearted people he finds shelter. There Jan hears tragic news about ten random inmates sentenced to death by starvation by the Nazis as a punishment for his escape. One among the convicts is Fr...
The Wife of Pilate and Other Stories
These three novellas from the acclaimed German writer Gertrud von le Fort, newly translated for the first time into English for this volume, are from her later works of historical fiction, in which she displays her mastery as a dramatist of ideas...
Who Designed the Designer?
The “New Atheists” are pulling no punches...
Finding True Happiness
by Spitzer, Fr. Robert J.
One of the hottest topics in contemporary culture is happiness. The explanation for this current fixation seems to lie in the contrary phenomenon—unhappiness. Despite the fact that we have tremendous access to every imaginable form of entertainment, we experience a pervading sense of insecurity, emptiness, and malaise amid sporadic peak experiences...
A Time of Renewal
by Francis, Mother Mary
Mother Mary Francis, abbess of a Poor Clare Monastery for over forty years, left an enduring legacy in her writings and in the conferences she gave to her spiritual daughters. In this work she presents beautiful meditations on the liturgical season of Lent, revealing the treasures of the liturgy to Christians in all walks of life...
On Human Life
by Montin, Giovanni Battista
On Human Life, also known by the Latin name Humanae Vitae, made headlines worldwide. Everybody talked about the document when it was issued in 1968 but few people actually read. It is perhaps the most controversial document in modern Church history...
The Hope of the Family
by Muller, Gerhard
"Today, the family is in crisis--it is in crisis worldwide", Pope Francis has said. "Young people don’t want to get married, they don’t get married, or they live together. Marriage is in crisis, and so the family is in crisis...
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Son taking on marathon in honour of Honiton mum who underwent transplant operation
Callum Lawton
Transplant survivor Mary Palmer with her husband Mike.
Leon Palmer is running the Amsterdam Marathon on October 15 to raise funds for the Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity.
A Honiton woman is using her son’s charity run as a way to spread the importance of becoming an organ donor.
Mary Palmer, of Charles Road, was dealt a bombshell when she was diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), a life-threatening inherited condition that can cause renal kidney failure and affect other organs in the body.
Her son, Leon, is now taking on the Amsterdam Marathon on October 15 to raise funds for the Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity. Mary said: “My mum died when she was 56. My brother developed problems and had a transplant aged 54.
“That is when the family was checked and I was given the news that I had the same condition - I was in my early forties and had no idea up to that point.
“It was a bit of shock but I am the kind of person who just goes with the flow.”
Mary’s next step was to be monitored annually, then monthly by the renal team in Exeter and Honiton before she underwent dialysis.
“I would have been 62,” Mary said. “I was then placed on the transplant list at South Mead Hospital in Bristol.
“The next stage was to undergo dialysis, which I did for just over three years.”
Then, at midnight on November 2, 2016, she received that long-awaited call.
“I almost hung up because I thought it was a cold call!” Mary said.
“But the woman at the end of the line said she was the transplant co-ordinator at the hospital and she said they had a kidney for me.
“It felt a bit surreal, I was like ‘Was this really happening?’”
At 7pm the following day, Mary went under the knife and had a successful transplant.
“It has been brilliant since,” she said. “I feel very thankful that I am here.
“I sit here sometimes and think I have been so lucky when I look around and see other conditions that other people have - yet someone gave me a second chance.
“Organ donation is so important because it saves lives.
“I think the government should change the rules on organ donation and make it a scheme where you have to opt out of donating them.”
To donate to Leon’s marathon run, visit: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/leon-palmer1
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Amherst Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose disenrolls from Democratic Party
Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose switches his voter registration from Democrat to unenrolled.(Courtesy Solomon Goldstein-Rose)
By Shira Schoenberg | sschoenberg@repub.com
BOSTON -- State Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, of Amherst, has switched his voter registration from Democrat to unenrolled.
"I've always been unenrolled in spirit," Goldstein-Rose said in an interview in his Statehouse office. "I've been acting nonpartisan since I was elected and before."
Goldstein-Rose said his switch does not represent a break with Democratic Party values, and he does not expect to vote differently than he did as a Democrat.
"This is nothing against the Democratic Party," he said.
Goldstein-Rose said he feels that good policy should not be defined by party, and he believes in the importance of reaching across party lines.
"I don't want people to have assumptions of me. I don't want Democrats to have an assumption I will necessarily have a certain perspective because of the letter next to my name in the newspaper or on the ballot," he said. "This is something I think will help elevate the issues I focus on."
Goldstein-Rose, 24, is the youngest member of Massachusetts' House of Representatives, serving his first term. According to the Amherst town clerk, he has voted in every election since 2012, including in every Democratic primary.
Goldstein-Rose currently sits on committees on higher education; housing; tourism, arts and cultural development; and personnel and administration.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo's office did not immediately respond to a question about whether Goldstein-Rose would be allowed to keep his committee assignments or caucus with Democrats.
Goldstein-Rose has made addressing climate change one of his top priorities in the legislature. He is a strong supporter of imposing a tax on carbon.
Asked about one area where he has crossed party lines, Goldstein-Rose said he has been soliciting support from Republicans and Democrats, as well as business and environmental groups, for a proposal to pair a new tax on carbon with a reduction in the state sales tax.
Freshman Amherst Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose lays out ambitious climate agenda
Goldstein-Rose introduced a bill to create a carbon fee and take numerous steps to generate clean energy jobs in Massachusetts.
He also worked across party lines to promote civic education.
Goldstein-Rose said unlike in Washington, Massachusetts already acts in a nonpartisan way on many issues.
Today, 54 percent of voters are unenrolled, compared to 34 percent who are Democrats and 11 percent who are Republicans.
Goldstein-Rose's party switch is also in line with a proposal he has made to move toward ranked choice voting elections, which would result in a more nonpartisan election.
From patent trolling to ranked-choice voting: WMass lawmakers file bills
Here's a look at a few of the bills that have been filed by local lawmakers.
"Politics can not be explained on a spectrum," he said. "The idea a line can be drawn from uber-conservative to uber-liberal oversimplifies the nuance every individual has in his political beliefs."
Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford said Goldstein-Rose's decision was "a surprise," but the party will continue to work with him. Bickford said the Democrats "are a big tent party."
Asked whether the party would recruit or support a Democratic challenger to Goldsten-Rose, Bickford said he would be more focused on defeating and replacing Republicans.
"I am much more focused on replacing Republicans that don't have Democratic values than someone with strong Democratic values who may not have a 'D' next to his name," he said.
The only other unenrolled state representative is Susannah Whipps of Athol, who left the Republican Party in 2017.
Western Mass. Rep. Susannah Whipps ditches Republican Party to become 'unenrolled'
Contending that she has decided to put "people over party," state Rep. Susannah Whipps, of Athol, announced Tuesday that she has officially left the Republican Party and changed her voter registration to "unenrolled," or independent.
Goldstein-Rose represents the third Hampshire District, which includes Amherst, Pelham and part of Granby.
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Lifestyleopinion
Active dads cut risk of children growing up obese by a third
Men can have a significant impact on the health of their child simply by playing an active role in their upbringing
Miriam Stoppard
Dads could be our secret weapon against obesity (Image: Getty)
I’ve always been keen on dads.
Children really need them. There’s loads of research showing they’re crucial for the long-term wellbeing of their children.
And recently my interest in dads has soared as one of my sons has had his first baby and, it would seem, he’s a natural hands-on father.
He doesn’t know it, but because he’s so hands-on he’s lowering the chance of his baby daughter ever being overweight. That’s what the latest research points to.
Scientists, from Johns Hopkins and Harvard Schools, tracked 3,900 children in the US from the age of two until they turned four.
Those whose fathers played with them regularly or took them outside were a third less likely to be obese at the age of four.
And infants whose fathers took part in regular child care such as putting them to bed or giving them a bath were similarly less likely to be obese .
So men can have a significant impact on the health of their child simply by playing an active role in their upbringing. I don’t think enough men know about this crucial aspect of fatherhood.
Study leader Dr Michelle Wong said: “There is growing evidence of the importance of fathers’ involvement in raising children in other areas of the children’s development, and our study suggests that there may be benefits to child health as well.
“Because fathers devote more care-giving to playtime, they may have a compensatory role of taking children outside for a walk or to play when mothers, who typically shoulder the majority of care-giving, do not have sufficient time or energy.”
Experts say when fathers are involved, mothers are less stressed, which in turn improves children’s wellbeing and diet.
Fathers also have a unique impact as they’re more likely to play actively with their child, so they do more physical exercise and get outside more.
Research from King’s College, London has found that children born to men over 45 also tend to do better at school and at work.
This may be because older fathers are a different sort of role model and provide a better learning environment, usually being wealthier, better qualified and with a more established career in place.
We’re all increasingly worried about the growing rate of child obesity in the UK. A fifth of infants start primary school overweight , which increases to a third by the time they begin secondary school at the age of 11.
Dads could be our secret weapon!
LifestyleFormer Wimbledon ball boy comes out of retirement to recruit the next generation of ballersAs the nation recovers from an epic sporting weekend, including a 5-set thriller in the men’s singles final at Wimbledon on Sunday, the tournament has inspired 88-year-old former Barnardo’s Wimbledon ball boy, Peter Knight, to come out of retirement for one last stint as a tennis ball boy when Champions Tennis returns to the Royal Albert Hall later this year.
SleepNumber one reason why your child refuses to sleep at night according to sleep consultantBy the time your little starts to rub their eyes, the damage is often done
SupercarsSupercar Blondie: Exciting life of woman who gets to drive world's most expensive carsAlex Hirschi has built up a social media following of millions as she tours the world enjoying the flashiest cars around
UnderwearDoctor claims we've all been washing our underwear 'wrong' for yearsA health expert has revealed the best method for cleaning underwear and it seems we've been doing it wrong all this time
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Strategies For Finding Skilled Manufacturing Workers
The best answer to the skills-shortage question is that it depends on where you’re located, the positions you’re looking to fill - and perhaps most importantly, the compensation you’re willing to offer.
Metros With Fastest-Growing Manufacturing Earnings, 2012–2016; Source: Emsi 2017.2 Employees; earnings not adjusted for inflation.
For years, manufacturing executives have contended — in survey after survey and media story after media story — that they can’t find the talent they need to maintain and grow their operations. On the other side, academics and economics writers like Ben Casselman of FiveThirtyEight have argued that there’s “scant evidence” for a skills shortage in manufacturing.
Which is it? Does a skills gap exist in manufacturing, or at least is it getting tougher to find manufacturing talent? Two things are certain: (1) The labor market is tightening, which is pushing up wages — even in manufacturing; and (2) job openings far outpace hires in manufacturing. Nonetheless, the best answer to the skills-shortage question is that it depends on where you’re located, the positions you’re looking to fill — and perhaps most importantly, the compensation you’re willing to offer.
How to Spot a Shortage
One of the best ways to spot a potential worker shortage, if you can find reliable data over time, is to analyze historic wage trends. When labor demand outstrips labor supply, wages should go up. “If finding qualified workers is so hard, for example,” Casselman notes, “then companies should be offering higher pay to attract and retain precious workers.”
That’s not the case nationally. Growth in wages among manufacturing workers in nonsupervisory roles has tracked about the same as the same category of workers in all private-sector industries. And industrywide per Emsi, which compiles administrative data from the BLS, growth in earnings was lower in manufacturing (8 percent) than all private-sector industries (10 percent) from 2012 to 2016 before adjusting for inflation. Next time you read or hear a bold proclamation on the truth or fiction of a national skills shortage, think about the complexity of our economy.
Skills gaps, though, are best diagnosed locally or regionally - Emsi. The U.S. economy is composed of hundreds of metro area economies, some of which are similar or larger than the economies of major nations (e.g., the Los Angeles metro’s gross metro product at purchasing power parity almost equals Australia’s GDP). These MSAs, along with micropolitan and rural areas, combine to form an incredibly complex American economy.
Next time you read or hear a bold proclamation on the truth or fiction of a national skills shortage, think about the complexity of our economy. All economics is local, and most skills gaps (if they’re not information, training, or wage gaps disguised as skills gaps) manifest themselves locally.
So, where should manufacturing executives be most concerned about finding talent or most need to consider bumping up wages to compete for workers? Emsi looked at the 2012–2016 change in manufacturing earnings among the most populous 150 metros and in every state. (Note: These earnings are reported industrywide, so they include everyone from entry-level laborers to CEOs. We didn’t include supplements to income like 401(k) contributions.) We then examined wages and unemployment over time for a few key manufacturing occupations, both white-collar and blue-collar positions, to get an indication of the jobs that are challenging to fill.
The Regions Seeing Manufacturing Wage Increases
In the Raleigh MSA, the average manufacturing salary was $88,000 in 2016, up from $66,000 in 2012. That’s an increase of 33 percent before adjusting for inflation — more than 2.5 times faster than wages for all private-sector industries (13 percent) and faster than any large metro area. *
Raleigh was one of several Southeast metros to see healthy manufacturing wage and employment spikes the last five years. Columbia, South Carolina, had the fourth-largest uptick among the 150 most populous MSAs, growing manufacturing wages 17 percent and jobs 6 percent. Mobile, Alabama; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia, all ranked in the top 10 with nominal wage jumps of 16 percent.
In each of these metros, manufacturing salary growth from 2012 to 2016 outpaced private-sector earnings change. The same was true in Trenton, New Jersey, which ranked No. 2 with a 21 percent wage increase in manufacturing compared to 8 percent in all industries, and Corpus Christi, Texas (No. 3 at 17.2 percent compared to 6 percent for all industries). Manufacturers who are struggling to recruit workers have a few options. They can increase wages. They can consider other, more talent-rich locations. Or they can invest in automation.
On the flip side are tech-focused metros like San Jose, Seattle, and Boston. San Jose ranked fifth in manufacturing wage growth (16.8 percent) and first in total private-sector wage growth (25 percent). The situation is much starker in Seattle, which ranked second in overall wage growth (16 percent) but 72nd in manufacturing wage growth (9 percent). These are high cost-of-living cities with ultra-skilled workforces. Tech manufacturing is an important part of their economies, but manufacturers haven’t kept pace in the salaries they’re offering.
At the state level, Alaska (22 percent), Wyoming (15 percent), and California (12 percent) grew manufacturing wages the most in the last five years. Louisiana and North Dakota (both 11 percent) rounded out the top five, but manufacturing jobs in both states dipped from 2012 to 2016.
Bringing Unemployment Data into the Picture
This data suggests that manufacturers in the aforementioned states and metros will face increasingly robust competition for talent. But wage trends are just one clue in the supply-and-demand picture. Another is unemployment.
In January, Raleigh had an estimated 1,350 unemployed manufacturer workers, according to Emsi, which accounts for 5 percent of the metro’s total unemployed. Nationally, 8 percent of the unemployed have previously worked in manufacturing. In Trenton, there were just 254 unemployed in manufacturing, 4 percent of the regional total. Raleigh was one of several Southeast metros to see healthy manufacturing wage and employment spikes the last five years.
Compare these two metros with San Jose, where 15 percent of the unemployed (over 5,400) were in manufacturing in January. The higher-than-average unemployment in manufacturing indicates that San Jose has excess manufacturing talent. These unemployed workers perhaps can’t find manufacturing jobs that pay the bills or don’t have the advanced skills to meet industry needs.
Which Positions Are Hardest To Fill?
A quarter of America’s 12.3 million manufacturing jobs are staffed in eight occupations, led by team assemblers; supervisors of production workers, inspectors, testers, and sorters; machinists; and hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers.
In our work with corporations developing strategic site selection and talent acquisition plans, we often come across companies that struggle to find hand laborers. This is also reflected in Manpower’s 2016 talent shortage survey. Laborers, after being absent in 2015, ranked higher than engineers and technicians in the top 10 hard-to-fill positions. Nationally, unemployment for hand laborers stood at 10.7 percent in 2016 after sitting at 14.8 percent in 2012 — an improvement but still a high jobless rate, which could be partially due to high turnover.
Wages and Unemployment for Hand Laborers.
What about wages? Median earnings for hand laborers rose 9 percent from 2012 to 2016 (4 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis). Still, the BLS reported that in 2016 these workers made just $12.49 per hour in median wages and $20.53 at the top 10th percentile.
Another similar occupation that requires slightly more skills is packaging and filling machine operators and tenders. These workers are highly compatible to hand laborers, according to Emsi’s occupational compatibility index, and their wages have risen 9 percent to $13.60 per hour in 2016. Perhaps the most telling indication that the demand is rising for packaging operators? Their unemployment rate has dropped from 14.5 percent in 2012 to 8.2 percent in 2016, per the BLS’s Current Population Survey.
These are both blue-collar factory positions. What about white-collar positions? One of the prime examples is industrial engineers. More than 170,000 of these high-skilled workers are employed in manufacturing (1.4 percent of total industry employment). Their median wages increased 7 percent the last five years and their unemployment rate has remained extremely low; it stood at 2.5 percent in 2016 and 2.7 percent in 2012.
Manufacturers who are struggling to recruit workers have a few options. They can increase wages. They can consider other, more talent-rich locations. Or they can invest in automation. Many will likely do a combination of these things. (In most cases, companies need workers with advanced skills to run robots.)
Regardless of the route they take, compensation is clearly on manufacturing executives’ minds. In Area Development’s 2016 Corporate Survey, labor costs catapulted to the third-most important site location factor after ranking No. 6 the previous year. Highway accessibility and labor availability, the No. 1 and 2 factors cited in the survey, have long been concerns, but rising wages are becoming more of a factor in business decisions. This is good news for workers and the economy, and a new reality for businesses.
* Raleigh’s manufacturing growth should be weighed against Durham-Chapel Hill’s decline. Among the 150 largest MSAs, Durham-Chapel had the biggest decrease in manufacturing wages, at -6.2 percent. Factory jobs also declined -13 percent there. This could be an artifact of businesses moving between the two twin MSAs (which used to be one joint MSA).
Source: Area Development.com
Law Making
MAM Member Anouncements
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Simon Cowell's New Show Is Looking for Asian American Voices
Do you think you have what it takes to be a pop star? Good news—Simon Cowell wants to meet you. As the executive producer of the highly anticipated show "The X Factor", Cowell is touring the country to meet the nation’s most talented singers. What’s more is that the producers are specifically looking to increase Asian American representation in the show and feature a range of voices.
"The X Factor" is a singing competition show, much like "American Idol," that debuts this fall on FOX. The show’s name refers to that “innately special something” or star quality that today’s biggest pop stars and musical artists have to succeed and become icons. What makes "The X Factor" different from other singing competition shows is that contestants will not only perform before a panel of judges, but also in front of an audience of thousands as part of the audition process. And the big prize? One winner will receive a $5 million recording contract with Syco (Simon Cowell's production company) and Sony Records.
EntertainmentTiffany Ayuda March 21, 2011 auditions for singing competitions, pop stars and musical artists, Simon Cowell, singing competition, singing competition shows, the x factorComment
Join the 2011 Asian American Short Story Contest
OtherJennifer Yamada March 27, 2011 asian american literature, asian american short story contest, writing contest
Get Cooking With These 5 Asian-Themed Apps
OtherMochi Magazine March 21, 2011 asian cooking apps, asian-themed apps on itunes, Cooking, healthy cooking, top 5 asian cooking apps
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MUSICAL REPERTOIRE
MUSIC WITH ORCHESTRA
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An extraordinary gold pianist seduced Płock's audience with Mozart – Gazeta Wyborcza
“An extraordinary gold pianist seduced Płock's audience with Mozart“
« This Friday evening in the National School of Music's concert hall an artist stood out, who is at the same time an outstanding pianist, as well as an actress, a composer and a singer. In addition, Lydie Solomon is French, born in Korea. »
« – Maybe today's concert will help calm down the emotion from our handball player's match – thus Adam Mieczykowski, Płock Symphonic Orchestra's director, welcomed the audience with humour. This greeting was the starting point of “Classic is Cool”, a concert cycle which aims at demonstrating that classical music is really cool, that it is meant to be played to please and to be pleased. In the past, however, people in manors enjoyed it, and the greatest composers led quite a rich society life, as did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to whom today's musical evening was devoted.
The orchestra started with Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, in its 1788 string version. Then Lydie Solomon, the star of this evening, joined the orchestra. Altogether with the musicians, under the direction of Janusz Przybylski, she measured herself with the piano concerto in D minor, K. 466, dating from 1785.
– The concerto's beginning is characterised by Mozart's dramatic writing in the Allegro, while the central part is a Romance, the most beautiful piece in classical music history – said Adam Mieczykowski about the concerto in D minor, K. 466, and one would find it difficult to disagree.
A star delighted the audience with her talent, but also with her beauty, as well as with… a lovely golden dress and tastefully matching bootees. All the musicians on stage received a standing ovation, and the remarkable pianist expressed her gratitude by singing a song by Chopin in F sharp minor on lyrics by Witwicki – “Smutna Rzeka [The Sad River]”. She created surprise with her Polish accent, and she did well in selecting it, since this artist is fascinated by Chopin, whose works she established a link with Cuban music in her new project “From Chopin to Cuba”, which came out onto the recording of a CD.
Lydie Solomon is a woman who has really been through a rebirth. She played her first concert with an orchestra at the age of 13, at Radio France. She completed the prestigious Paris Conservatory (in the class of piano), then she undertook business administration studies, after which she got an MBA in France at the ESSEC Business School. Later she cared about cinema, being admitted to follow courses at the private theatre school Cours Florent. She played the role of a pianist in the autobiographic long movie “Vivre!”. She sang songs of which she composed the music and the lyrics. In 2011 she came back to her first passion, the piano. And at the same time… she played the role of a criminologist in a French television series. »
Gazeta Wyborcza (Rita Góralska), 2015-01-31
– Concerto No. 20 by Mozart, first movement:
– Concerto No. 20 by Mozart, second movement:
– Concerto No. 20 by Mozart, third movement and encore (Smutna Rzeka, Julian Fontana):
RSS Feed | Site map | Lydie sur Wikipédia | Lydie on Wikipedia English
© Lydie Solomon 2019 - All rights reserved | Made by Arborescence31
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Brad Ricca
Filmmaker, Author of “Super Boys”
A writer and filmmaker who received his Ph.D. in English at Case Western Reserve University, Brad Ricca is currently a SAGES fellow who teaches classes on comics, popular culture, and narrative biography. His latest book is the first literary biography of the creators of Superman, Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster – The Creators of Superman which draws on nearly ten years of research in dusty libraries and secret comics hoards to portray two teenagers who, in the midst of the Great Depression, created a global icon.
A lifelong comics nerd and aficionado, Ricca has spoken about comics in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He has given talks at The Maltz Museum of Jewish History and the legendary San Diego Comic-Con, along with numerous schools and conferences from Oxford to Kyoto.
Ricca won the St. Lawrence Book Award for his first book of poetry, American Mastodon, and is also an independent filmmaker whose documentary, Last Son, screened all over the world and won a Silver Ace Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival.
Mrs. Sherlock HolmesThe True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes tells the incredible true life story of Mrs. Grace Humiston, the New York lawyer and detective who solved the famous cold case of Ruth Cruger, an 18-year-old girl who disappeared in 1917. In the literary tradition of In Cold Blood and The Devil in the White City, Brad Ricca's Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is a true crime tale told in spine-tingling fashion, complete with a twist ending.
Super Boys
The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster -- the Creators of Superman
In time for the 75th anniversary of the Man of Steel, comes the first comprehensive literary biography of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, creators of the DC Comics superhero Superman and the inspiration for Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay.
How to Make a Superman - The Amazing True Story of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster: This talk is an overview of the book and its thesis that Superman, the billion dollar corporate icon, began as an autobiography for two teenagers during the Great Depression who would live out the highs and lows of the American dream.
The History of Comics in America: This lecture is an overview of the history of comics and superheroes in the United States, touching on how art and early publishing practices combined to create what is now the driving niche of the American popular culture.
What’s So Funny? Race, Gender, and Stereotypes in Comics: A provocative presentation highlighting comic books and their unsteady provocative past when it comes to depictions of gender and race.
We Won – Nerd Culture in America: This is a history of nerd/geek culture and how it moved from small groups of fans to the billion-dollar industry that gave us “The Avengers,” “The Big Band Theory,” and “San Diego Comic-Con.” How did we turn into a nation of nerds? The answers will surprise you!
Follow Brad on Twitter
Read the NYT write-up on Super Boys
Read about Brad’s Cleveland Art Prize win
Read the Kirkus Review of Mrs. Sherlock Holmes
"Brad was outstanding and we enjoyed an excellent event! The crowd loved him, as did our entire staff. There was a long line at the book signing!"
- Janet Arno, Campbell County Public Library
Advance praise for Mrs. Sherlock Holmes:
"In Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, Brad Ricca paints the picture of Grace Humiston, a soft-spoken yet persistent woman investigator determined to solve the disappearance of an 18-year-old girl—this in the midst of both the suffragist and white-slavery movements. Where the police leave off, Humiston, undaunted by naysayers, picks up clues and doggedly follows them. Ricca lays out this fascinating whodunit with a novelist's skill, making Mrs. Sherlock Holmes a suspenseful winner."
— Cathy Scott, award-winning journalist and Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Murder of a Mafia Daughter and The Killing of Tupac Shakur
"Brad Ricca’s spellbinding nonfiction account of the disappearance and murder of a young woman ranks right up there with the most absorbing mystery novels. Set against a background of early 20th century New York, Mrs. Sherlock Holmes exposes police indifference, newspaper sensationalism and sexist attitudes. A first-rate story."
— Sandra Dallas, New York Times Bestselling author of The Last Midwife
Jonathan Balcombe
Author, scientist, and leading animal advocate
Legendary Actor
Yoram Bauman
The "Stand-Up Economist"
Richard Ben-Veniste
Lengendary Washington Attorney
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iOS Central
By Dan Moren, Macworld | PT
FCC asked to investigate Skype for iPhone restriction
Since its release on Tuesday, Skype for iPhone has been downloaded more than a million times—that’s a rate of six downloads a second, according to the company. All this despite the fact the software only works via the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection, and not AT&T’s 3G network.
That restriction has angered some, who have argued that the practice is anti-competitive. Those allegations have been turned up a notch now, as the Wall Street Journal reports that an Internet advocacy group called Free Press has asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether or not the restriction is in violation of federal law.
[ Further reading: Best NAS boxes for media streaming and backup ]
Free Press bills itself as a nonpartisan organization concerned with media reform. In its open letter to the FCC (PDF link), it asks the government body to confirm that mobile wireless Internet access is subject to the same rules as traditional broadband Internet.
The letter cites the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement (PDF link) which states that “consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice” in order to “preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet.”
A USA Today article published earlier this week talked with an AT&T executive about the issue:
Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s top public policy executive, says AT&T has “every right” not to promote the services of a wireless rival.
“We absolutely expect our vendors”—Apple, in this case—”not to facilitate the services of our competitors,” he says.
“Skype is a competitor, just like Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile,” he says, adding, Skype “has no obligation to market AT&T services. Why should the reverse be true?”
Meanwhile, Apple has remained mum on the matter, though it’s easy to see why the company might not want to get involved. After all, being able to use VoIP over AT&T’s 3G network could help Apple sell more iPhones by providing another attractive feature—but, at the same time, Apple doesn’t want to risk alienating their business partner.
The U.S. isn’t the only place where VoIP restrictions are irking customers. T-Mobile, Apple’s wireless partner in Germany, has said that not only will it prohibit use of VoIP applications on their 3G network, it’ll also restrict their use on the company’s Wi-Fi hot spot network and cancel the contract of any customers who try to work around the restriction.
In response, the Voice on the Net coalition, which includes Skype, as well as Microsoft and Intel, has asked the European Union to step in and enact policy that would protect consumers rights to choose what applications they can use.
How the FCC and EU proceed could have far-reaching implications not just for the future of VoIP, but in terms of what restrictions mobile operators can legitimately put on the use of their networks, which also may have impact on peer-to-peer programs, live video, and other services.
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Design Classics #3: The Barcelona
Such is the iconic status of the Barcelona chair that it has its own page in the Barcelona Yellow Pages. Not only that but it is one of the oldest modern classics still around. It was designed in 1929 for the Spanish Royal Family by the German designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Along with his peers Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, Mies (as he is commonly known) is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern furniture. His style was deceptively simple with clean lines and he used modern materials such as stainless steel and plate glass in his buildings, which he referred to as “skin and bones” architecture.
Born Ludwig Mies, he added the van der and his mother’s maiden name Rohe, perhaps to hide his humble roots as a tradesman’s son, who began his career in his father’s stone carving shop, and had no formal training.
He came up with a series of pioneering designs in the search for a style that would be suitable for the modern industrial age. While many of his ideas remained unbuilt, in 1929 he was asked to design the German Pavilion for the
Barcelona Exposition.
As part of his design (a replica of which stands on the site today), he made two chairs for King Alfonso XIII and his wife Ena in case they required a rest while visiting. According to the aforementioned yellow pages, Mies drew his inspiration from an Egyptian folding chair and a Roman folding stool. It was supposed to bring to mind a throne. Unfortunately the royal couple never sat in the pavilion.
The following year, he was appointed director of the Bauhaus School until 1933 when it was shut down by the Nazis. Four years, he later he moved to the States and eventually became a US citizen. He designed several high rise buildings there from the Chicago twin towers to the Seagram in New York. He was also asked to design the new national gallery for Berlin and while he visited several times during its construction he never went back to live in Germany.
In 1950, Mies redesigned his old Barcelona chair using modern techniques which allowed the frame to be moulded from a single piece of stainless steel rather than being bolted together. The original pigskin seat was replaced with cow leather.
The chair was taken up by Knoll who still produce it to this day. While it is a mass-produced item, the upholstery consists of 40 individual panels made from a single hide so it has the qualities of a hand-made piece, which goes someway to accounting for the price.
Thanks to its rather sculptural appearance it is often found in foyers or minimalist dwellings and can cost around £4,500 for a licenced Knoll version.
For an extra £2,000 you can have the matching Barcelona ottoman too.
And should the price not be enough to inform you of the chair’s authenticity, there should also be a Knoll signature and a serial number.
First published in The Independent
Kate Watson-Smyth
I'm a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.
Design Classics #1: The Lava Lamp
Design Classics #2: The Cafetiere
Design Classics #4: The Juicy Salif Lemon Squeezer
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Harrison J. Kaplan Partner
F fax +1 919 836 4031
hkaplan@mcguirewoods.com
A lobbyist at the North Carolina General Assembly for over 30 years, Harry is a senior advisor with McGuireWoods Consulting's state government relations group and is a partner with McGuireWoods LLP. Through his extensive work in state government relations, Harry has been at the forefront on many crucial public policy issues, particularly in the areas of education and health care.
His role in shaping and influencing public policy was recognized in 2017, when Harry was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest honor that the Governor of North Carolina can bestow to persons who have a record of service to the State.
Since beginning his government relations and legal career in 1988, Harry has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential lobbyists in Raleigh.
Harry represents public and private companies, as well as associations and nonprofit organizations, on a range of issues including education, health care and health insurance, pharmacy, economic development, finance and tax, property and casualty insurance, and the environment. He has extensive experience representing clients at the legislature and before state agencies, boards and commissions, and local governments.
Prior to joining McGuireWoods, Harry ran his own legal and lobbying practice for more than a decade and also served as director of government relations and counsel for the North Carolina Region of Kaiser Permanente.
McGuireWoods Consulting LLC ("MWC") is a wholly owned subsidiary of the McGuireWoods LLP law firm. From time to time, various McGuireWoods lawyers provide non-legal services to MWC clients, but MWC cannot provide legal services or advice. Therefore, any work MWC performs for a client does not give rise to an attorney-client relationship or privilege. Should you require legal services from McGuireWoods, as well as consulting services from MWC, you must engage the law firm separately.
Effectively lobbied on behalf of school/parental choice organizations to create virtual public charter school options; give high performing public charter schools greater regulatory flexibility, including accelerating the fast track replication process for successful charters; provide local public education authorities with the opportunity to purchase online and digital learning products and services directly from qualified vendors; and establish education savings accounts for children with special needs, who require educational options that traditional public schools may not be able to provide.
Led the lobbying team that passed landmark health care legislation integrating behavioral and physical health care benefits and services for North Carolina Medicaid patients and providing for the licensure and regulation of health plans that will provide these services via a Medicaid managed care transformation program in the state.
Secured a two-year four-county pilot project for an organization that uses an interactive cinematic, evidence-based approach to teach students about the negative impacts of bullying and violence, risky driving, and alcohol and drugs, and in place, strives to teach students about entrepreneurship and healthy behaviors overall.
Lobbied successfully to update state insurance laws that will improve the financial stability of domestic insurance companies by providing them with greater, and timelier, access to capital.
Lobbied, pro bono, with North Carolina and national Jewish organizations to add North Carolina as the 22nd state to enact HB 161: Divestment from Companies that Boycott Israel. HB 161 ensures that the people and the government of the state do not unknowingly become a party to discriminatory business practices or boycotts against the State of Israel.
Healthcare Compliance, Regulation & Policy
Technology & Outsourcing
The University of North Carolina School of Law, JD, 1984
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA, 1981
Past President, North Carolina Society of Health Care Attorneys
Member, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce
Member, North Carolina Professional Lobbyists Association
Member, North Carolina State Bar
Member, Health Law Section, North Carolina Bar Association
Legislative Counsel, 2001-2013; Board of Directors, 1995-2001, Food Bank of North Carolina
Assistant Director, North Carolina Commission on Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, Lieutenant Governor Robert Jordan, 1986-1988 • Member, Business Committee on Infrastructure, North Carolina State University Institute for Emerging Issues
2011 A. E. Finley (North Raleigh) YMCA Sports Coach of the Year
Past Advisory Committee Member, A.E. Finley YMCA
Speaker, "N.C. Legislative Update: Charter Schools Specifically and Public Education Generally," 16th Annual Nonprofit Seminar, October - November 2018
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina
Recipient, Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Pat McCrory, 2017
Author, North Carolina General Assembly Week in Review, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, March 27, 2015
Author, North Carolina General Assembly Week in Review, McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, March 6, 2015
Author, Proposed Changes to North Carolina CON Process - February 2012 Update, McGuireWoods Legal Insights, February 6, 2012
Author, Committee to Consider Reforming NC Certificate of Need Law, McGuireWoods Legal Insights, September 15, 2011
Author, Commission to Study Expansion of Life Sciences Industry in North Carolina, McGuireWoods Legal Insights, July 26, 2010
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Milwaukee Officials Invite Jay-Z to Bring Made in America Festival to Wisconsin
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation
Jay-Z performs onstage during his 4:44 tour at Barclays Center of Brooklyn on Nov. 26, 2017, in New York City.
Milwaukee officials are inviting Jay-Z to bring his Made In America music festival to the city next year because Philadelphia no longer wants the event at a location it has been held since 2012.
Alderman Khalif Rainey says in a letter to Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation, that Milwaukee is known as a city of festivals because it hosts dozens of events annually, including Summerfest. The letter Thursday is signed by four or Rainey's Common Council colleagues.
Made In America is held Labor Day weekend at Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which includes museums, monuments and the famed "Rocky" steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. City officials say the festival can no longer be held at that location after this year. Mayor Jim Kenney says the city is looking for alternative sites.
Kenney Responds to Jay-Z Statements on Made in America Move
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Suspect in New Jersey Murder Added to FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitive List
Published Oct 12, 2018 at 11:10 AM
NJ Murder Suspect Hunted as FBI Most Wanted Suspect
//www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/NJ-Murder-Suspect-Hunted-as-FBI-Most-Wanted-Suspect_New-York-497044681.html
A man is on the run, accused of strangling a Newark woman and killing her dog four years ago. Pat Battle reports on the FBI's renewed search for him.
(Published Thursday, March 7, 2019)
A New Jersey man wanted for killing a woman in her home has been added to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
Lamont Stephenson is wanted for the 2014 strangulation killing of Olga DeJesus and her dog in Newark, the FBI announced, saying that Newark police officers found DeJesus and her dog unresponsive in bed at a residence.
Stephenson, 43 and a Newark resident, hasn't been seen in New Jersey since the killing but is known to have contacts in Virginia and the Carolinas.
Stephenson is considered armed and dangerous. He is described by the FBI as being between 5’6” to 5’7” and 220 pounds.
Top News: PR Governor Faces Protests Over Scandal, and More
Carlos Giusti/AP
Greg Ehrie, Special Agent in Charge of the Newark FBI office, says the bureau is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading directly to Stephenson's arrest.
Stephenson replaces Antwan Mims on the most-wanted list. Mims was arrested in July and charged with two murders in Michigan.
“Over the past four years our office has worked tirelessly to find and apprehend Lamont Stephenson, following numerous leads both in New Jersey and beyond. Sadly, those efforts have not resulted in an arrest,” Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II said.
Top Tri-State News Photos
Ashley Mayer
“Placing this defendant on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, we believe, will significantly increase the likelihood of finding him. Our goal, from the beginning, has been to apprehend him and bring him to court in Essex County where he can face the bar of justice for the murder of Olga DeJesus,” Stephens added.
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Home | Education
Odisha Inks MoU With Singapore-Based ITE On Skill Development
The Odisha government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ITE Education Services, Singapore for collaboration on skill development in the state.
Education | Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: November 02, 2017 20:57 IST
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ITE Education Services, Singapore for collaboration on skill development in the state. The Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) and the ITE Education Services (ITEES), a subsidiary of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), inked the MoU to transform the skill development ecosystem in the state. "This initiative will certainly step up the quality of our skilled youth. I thank the ITEES for helping us with knowledge, collaboration and international linkages," said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Informing that the ITE is a global leader in vocational education and has made a significant contribution to this field in Singapore, the Chief Minister said one hundred ITI teachers will be trained at the ITE in 2018.
"My Government is committed to development of human and social capital for enhancing the capabilities of our people and this partnership will go a long way in fulfilling this objective," said Mr. Patnaik.
As part of the collaboration, ITEES will share ITEs experiences in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and provide consultancy support to OSDA in raising the quality of skill development and vocational training.
For a start, ITEES will be conducting a two-week training on leadership development for 100 leaders of government-run ITI institutions that are in the forefront of TVET in Odisha.
The programme aims to develop human and social capital, contributing towards community development and enhancing capabilities for skill development and vocational training, said an official.
ITEES will also provide TVET consultancy support to OSDA on the proposed Advanced Skill Training Institutes (ASTIs) formations for advance skilling of youths.
OSDA Chairman Subroto Bagchi said: "We are delighted to forge a collaboration with ITEES, a global leader in the area of technical training and skill development.
"We believe, with their help, we can push up the standards of our ITI institutions to global levels".
Bruce Poh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ITEES said: "We are extremely impressed with the vision Odisha has for skill development. We are looking forward to a very long-term collaboration between us."
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Why Akshaye Khanna Has 'No Preferences' As An Actor
Akshay Khanna said, "I enjoy everything almost the same. I don't have any preferences"
Entertainment | Written by Shruti Shiksha | Updated: November 15, 2017 16:00 IST
Akshay Khanna in Ittefaq (Image courtesy: karanjohar)
New Delhi:
"The genre, the characters... I enjoy all of it," he said
Akshay's last release was Ittefaq
He made a comeback in 2016
Actor Akshaye Khanna, who last featured as a cop in Sonakshi Sinha and Sidharth Malhotra's Ittefaq, says that as an artiste, he doesn't have any preferences for the films he wants to be a part of, reports news agency IANS. Akshaye, 42, took a break from films in 2012 and after a gap of four years, he made a comeback in 2016 with Dishoom. "The genre of a film, the characters... I enjoy all of it. It's not like I enjoy doing a certain kind of genres more or any certain kind of roles. I enjoy everything almost the same. I don't have any preferences," Akshaye told IANS.
This year, Akshaye Khanna appeared in two films MOM and Ittefaq. In both the films, he played a cop. MOM starred Sridevi in the lead role and Nawazuddin Siddiqui was also a part of it.
Akshay is happy to be back at work and with the response and has no issues with people calling it is 'second inning.' He told IANS, "If any actor takes a long break and then they decide to work again, then people can call it a second inning. I don't have any issues with it. But, it's wonderful to be back at work. Ittefaq is doing well. People are appreciating my work. It feels great."
Of his role in MOM, Akshaye said, "I loved the script and the role. Also, I loved the people, who were already attached to the film. Everything was perfect and correct. That's why I thought it would be a great film to be a part of."
Akshay Khanna is the son of actor Vinod Khanna, who died of cancer this year in April. His elder brother Rahul is also an actor. Akshaye made his acting debut in 1997 with Himalay Putra. He is the star of films such as Border, Aa Ab Laut Chalen, Dil Chahta Hai, Hulchul and Humraaz.
(With IANS inputs)
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Home › Information › Cases › Fairfield Sentry Ltd v Migani & Ors (2014)
Fairfield Sentry Ltd v Migani & Ors (2014)
Fairfield Sentry Ltd v Migani & Ors (2014)
Certain documents sent by the administrator of a mutual fund to members, including contract notes recording any redemption of shares made, constituted "certificates" which were binding on the fund under its articles of association.
The appellant financial institutions (X) appealed against a decision of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal as to whether certain documents were binding on the respondent company (F).
F had been incorporated in the British Virgin Islands as a mutual fund (the fund). From 1997 to 2008, it was the largest of a number of feeder funds which placed money for investment with a company (B) which was later revealed to have operated a Ponzi scheme from the United States. Investors participated indirectly in those placements by subscribing for shares in the fund at a price dependent on the fund's net asset value per share (NAV); they were entitled to withdraw funds by redeeming their shares under the provisions of the fund's articles of association. In December 2008, shortly after the frauds came to light, the directors of the fund suspended the determination of its NAV per share, thus effectively terminating the redemption of shares. In 2009, F was ordered to be wound up. The instant action had been brought by the fund at the instance of its liquidators against a number of financial institutions who were members of the fund but redeemed some or all of their shares before December 2008. The aim was to recover from X the amounts paid out to them on redemption, on the basis that they were paid out in the mistaken belief that the assets were as stated by B, when there were in fact no such assets; any recoveries made on that basis could then be distributed rateably between all members. The High Court ordered to be determined as a preliminary issue the question of whether certain transaction documents issued to members of the fund recording the NAV per share or the redemption price upon redemption were binding on the fund under art.11 of the articles of association, which included the following clause: "Any certificate as to the Net Asset Value per Share or as to the Subscription Price or Redemption Price therefor given in good faith by or on behalf of the Directors shall be binding on all parties". The transaction documents included the following documents sent by the administrator of the fund (C): an email sent to all members setting out the final NAV per share for the last business day of each month; a contract note recording any redemption made; and a monthly statement of account recording, among other things, the opening and closing NAV per share for the previous calendar month. The High Court, whose decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal, held that those documents were not "certificates" for the purpose of art.11.
As a matter of language, a "certificate" ordinarily meant (a) a statement in writing, (b) issued by an authoritative source, which (c) was communicated by whatever method to a recipient or class of recipients intended to rely on it, and (d) conveyed information, (e) in a form or context which showed that it was intended to be definitive. The monthly email, the contract notes and the monthly statement of account were all "certificates". They communicated information in documentary form to members. It followed that the critical questions were whether the documents in the three categories were issued by an authoritative source and in a form or context which showed that they were intended to be definitive. The answer was yes. Documents in all three categories were issued by C under the authority of the directors, conferred by the relevant administration agreement. The calculation and publication of the monthly NAV per share were among C's functions under the agreement. The communication to members seeking to redeem their shares of the monthly NAV per share and the redemption price was necessarily implicit in the agreement, which delegated to C the duty of redeeming shares in accordance with the "provisions and procedures" set out in the fund documents. Those authorities were general, and not specific to any particular transaction or category of transactions. Further, the context in which the documents were issued plainly demonstrated that they were intended to be definitive. The nature of a redemption transaction and the procedures set out in art.10 of the articles made it essential that the redemption price should be definitively ascertained at the time of the transaction and as at the valuation day. In that context, any unqualified documentary statement of the redemption price or the NAV per share on which it was based had to be intended to be definitive. That conclusion was borne out by the language of the documents. The emails formally "advising" the monthly NAV per share to members described it in terms as the "final" figure. The contract notes formally "confirm[ed]" the redemption and recorded its terms. The monthly statement constituted a formal record of each transaction during the month and the NAV per share at which it went through. All of that information was plainly intended to be relied on by members as a definitive record of the transaction and the values on which it was based (see paras 27-31 of judgment).
Appeals allowed
Privy Council (BVI)
Lord Neuberger, Lord Mance, Lord Clarke, Lord Sumption, Lord Toulson
LTL 24/4/2014 : Times, May 1, 2014 : [2014] UKPC 9
Andrew Westwood
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Redefining social justice
By Valerie Bryson and Pamela Fisher
By Valerie Bryson
The editors and contributors to Redefining social justice gathered at the University of Huddersfield last week to launch their brand new book.
The launch was part of a seminar series organised by the Centre for Research in the Social Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. The audience was drawn from staff and postgraduate students, and they joined in a very lively round-table discussion.
The event enabled us to engage in inter-disciplinary conversation and up-date our findings – so after I had outlined the book’s key findings and themes, we discussed in particular changes in Labour’s electoral strategy (Tim Heppell), its policies on disability (Chris Gifford), and changes in NHS (Ruth Deery) and legal aid (Pete Sanderson) since the election. I found particularly interesting (as it was unfamiliar to me) the ongoing research by Lesley Jeffries into political language – she is involved in an ongoing research project documenting how this is changing – and has found that ‘choice’ was a word that increasingly appeared in political manifestos during the 1990s and early 2000s – but had practically disappeared by 2010.
Conversation continued informally over lunch.
More information about Redefining social justice can be found on our website.
From left to right: Chris Gifford, Lesley Jeffries, Peter Sanderson, me, Tim Heppell and Ruth Deery. Unfortunately Pamela Fisher was unable to attend due to illness.
Category: Politics 13 Comments.
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Mara Sfara is a representational painter and a contemporary sculptor, multi sensory kinetic artist and artistic jeweler. Artwork is Sfara’s medium for storytelling. Her kinetic sculptures blend traditional artwork with new media creating her own unique fantasy worlds. Sfara’s lucite and gemstones sculptures are unique treasures. Her whimsical Greek mythological bronze sculptures convey a range of moods, humor, and attitudes with which her audience can readily identify.
Her positive nature is reflected in her art, in her use of beautiful colors, objects and quixotic, idyllic serene landscapes. Sfara’s works tell stories of human relationships to the self, others and the universe. She studied English, Film Criticism and Fine Arts at the undergraduate level and obtained her Master’s in Art from New York University.
Sfara’s paintings and sculptures are regularly exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide at shows in England, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Argentina and Spain. She is in the permanent collections of The Springfield Museums, Springfield, MA, The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York and the QCC(CUNY) Art Gallery/Museum, Bayside, NY. In 2013, Sfara’s sculptures and paintings were featured at the opening of a new wing at the historic Westbrook Manor at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum, Great River, NY.
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Budding Minority-Owned California Cannabis Businesses Get a Boost
A new California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown eases the way for those impacted hardest by the failed “War on Drugs” to launch a budding marijuana business. Senate Bill 1294 aims to counteract the disproportionate impact of the misguided drug ware on minority communities, allowing local jurisdictions in California to apply for a grant from the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control to aid entrepreneurs who are also minorities in a number of ways, including providing financial support via waiver of license fees, providing technical assistance and more (with $10 million allocated to provide this support).
The new law, supporters said, will directly go to helping those who have been more profoundly impacted by the criminalization of marijuana.
The California Cannabis Equity Act was sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance, noting that cities that have local marijuana equity programs (Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento) will have access to the grant funds. Some opponents of this law argued prior to passage that giving marijuana growers a license and access to grants despite a prior marijuana conviction, something even some proponents of legal marijuana argue harms legitimate businesses because some would-be cannabis business owners got their prior convictions growing marijuana unlawfully on land that wasn’t designated for it, thereby harming the environment.
But supporters, like Sen. Steven Bradford (the man who wrote it) paints this as the first “social equity cannabis law” in the U.S. Funding from the grants may also go toward business loans, capital improvements and regulatory compliance assistance. Some of these things may fall under the umbrella of legal assistance, which our L.A. marijuana business lawyers do provide to burgeoning cannabis companies.
The executive director of the L.A. Department of Cannabis Regulation voiced his support, saying the new law will allow for more equitable ownership and employment opportunities within the California cannabis business community.
How War on Drugs Impacted Minority Communities
According to the Drug Policy Alliance, the U.S. claims less than 5 percent of the world’s population, and yet holds 25 percent of all incarcerated people on earth, with an incarceration rate that is 666 inmates per 100,000. Russia, the country with the second-highest incarceration rate, is 430 inmates per 100,000 people. In a single recent year, there were 1.5 million drug arrests in this country and more than 80 percent of those were just for possession.
At every single phase of the judicial system, people of color are more likely to be:
Harshly sentenced
Handed a lifelong criminal record
Prosecutors are twice as likely to impose mandatory minimum sentences for black offenders compared to white offenders for the exact same offense. We have substantial evidence now this was by design. An interview recently published by Harper’s Magazine, based on a 22-year-old interview of one Richard Nixon top adviser, indicated that in 1968, Nixon’s campaign targeted, “the antiwar left and black people.” They enacted policies expressly to alter public opinion and suppress those communities. Some of those policies still haunt to this day.
One in every 13 black person of voting age in the U.S. is denied the right to vote due to a prior felony conviction. Nearly 3 million children are growing up in U.S. homes where one are more parent is incarcerated and more than two-thirds of those are for non-violent offenses (including a substantial number of drug possession violations).
So the question is: Should cannabis business owner hopefuls of color be further prejudiced by that prior conviction and lack of capital? SB1294 seeks to remedy that.
Legal Advice Imperative for New Cannabis Business Owners
Marijuana business owners – those existing and looking for a means to break into the market, must secure legal representation if they hope to successfully navigate marijuana laws and regulations, both in California and L.A. We can help.
The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 714-937-2050.
Legalize It All, April 2016, By Dan Baum, Harper’s Magazine
New L.A. Bud Businesses Can’t Ignore Legal Snares, Sept. 28, 2018, L.A. Marijuana Lawyer Blog
Posted in: California marijuana business lawyers
Tagged: California marijuana attorney, L.A. marijuana lawyer and marijuana lawyer
Updated: September 28, 2018 2:36 pm
California Cannabis Vape Cartridges to Require Explicit Label June 25, 2019
Interstate Hemp Delivery Wins Favorable View from USDA June 23, 2019
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Calendar + Events
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[415] Top Doctors
Marin Magazine
A Historic Hotel Makes its Mark in San Francisco
The Marker Hotel, recently renovated, is a luxurious destination for literature and history buffs alike.
Mimi Towle,
San Francisco has a colorful history to say the least. What better way to explore it than staying in a hotel that is over a century old?
Take, for instance, The Marker, located on the corner of Geary and Taylor, just two blocks from Union Square. It is an excellent example of Beaux-Arts architecture, a style that was popularized by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from the 1830s through the end of the 19th century, which can be seen throughout major U.S. cities, including San Francisco, New York and Chicago. This familiar style is a mixture of French neoclassicism with a dash of Gothic and Renaissance elements for flair.
To get some idea of the rich history of the hotel, a quick Google search provided this fun read from The San Francisco Call, via the Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (one of my favorite rabbit holes), on the hotel's impending opening, written in August of 1910:
BELLEVUE HOTEL TO OPEN SHORTLY
San Francisco to Have Another Million Dollar Hotel on August I
The new Bellevue hotel on Geary street is receiving the finishing touches and will be ready for guests by the first of August. Excepting Chicago and New York there is no other city in America which has so many magnificent hotels as San Francisco. The Bellevue makes the fourth hotel in this city which has cost more than $1,000,000.
When the Bellevue opens it will be the handsomest American plan hotel in this country. The grand lobby and main entrance are among the most impressive features. The entire ground floor, 137 feet square, is devoted entirely to the lobby and dining rooms. The soft, subdued sunlight pours into the lobby from three directions and makes it an ideal place for the gathering of the guests and patrons. The hotel hafe seven stories and a basement and is fireproof from top to bottom. There are 300 rooms, each supplied with bath and every modern facility to make guests comfortable and happy. As a matter of fact, every invention and modern appliance for the luxury and comfort of the guests has been installed in the Bellevue. The owners of this property, the Barron estate, will conduct the hotel under the name of Bellevue hotel company, with W. E. Zander as manager. The demand for an American plan hotel of such excellence Is evident from the satisfactory amount of business which is In prospect. "The success of this hotel is absolutely assured," said Mr. Zander, the manager, "by the number of permanent guests who have already made reservations. You see, the hotel is now being finished, carpet layers are at work and furniture dealers are busy making deliveries, yet in the midst of this confusion we have many callers each day who desire to look over the hotel and make reservations. Already more than 160 apartments have been rented. Among some of the more prominent persons who have rented apartments at the Bellvue are ….. (names deleted)
"We shall not only cater to the better class of permanent guests,'-' says air. Zander, "but also to the tourist and transient trade who desire intelligent service and hotel excellence with exclusiveness not heretofore obtainable in our other hotels."
Fast forward a century and some change and this seven-story Beaux Arts beauty has had a major facelift, is being managed by super hip Joie de Vivre Hotels and has reopened under the name The Marker. Many of the original features still exist, such as the impressive central fireplace with built-in benches, grand staircase, and some of the original historic stone floor has been complemented with patterned black and white tile.
As a nod to one of the city’s famous writers, Dashiell Hammett, who lived nearby when he wrote The Maltese Falcon, the designers of Perkins + Will have created an homage to his work with a 12-foot, theatrical bird cage in the lobby and copies of this famous novel on display in the newly appointed living room.
Another highlight is the newly refreshed restaurant, Tratto, which was “re-conceptualized” in 2016 by Puccini Group, Tratto is now a San Francisco neighborhood staple for locals and visitors alike, offering breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner, along with a selection of Californian and Italian wines and beers as well as a craft cocktail program. Be sure to go to the bar to order a Manhattan, served with an extra-large ice cube, and close your eyes and imagine the conversation you would be having with Mr. Hammett about the fine city of San Francisco.
The Marker makes a great base from which to explore the city, and the hotel offers bicycle rentals to do just that. The building is surrounded by the city’s most sought-after shopping, art galleries, restaurants, museums and theaters, including the Curran Theatre, A.C.T. and San Francisco Art Exchange. The hotel's 208 guest rooms were updated in 2013, with rates starting at $229 per night, and are pet-friendly.
In celebration of the renovation, the property is offering a Making Your Mark(er) Package, for up to 30 percent off best available rates. The experience includes a three-course, chef-curated dinner for two at in-house Italian restaurant Tratto, complete with a welcome “film noir” cocktail. Each package comes with a copy of the famed Maltese Falcon novel and the opportunity for guests to make their mark by leaving a secret message in the books flanking the hotel’s imposing lobby fireplace.
Categories: Hotels
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May 13 (Monday)
May 13 – Aug 1 all-day Bluemercury
Summer is quickly approaching – stop into your local neighborhood beauty store Bluemercury for all the essentials you need to refresh your summer beauty regimen! On May 13th, Bluemercury will launch their Ready. Set. Summer. program in stores nationwide and online! Bluemercury Beauty Experts will be standing by to educate customers on how they can incorporate the latest and greatest...
June 11 (Tuesday)
Earth, Water, Paint – Art Exhibition
Jun 11 – Jul 20 all-day Bay Model Visitor Center
Toni Littlejohn is a mixed media artist living and working in Point Reyes Station. She has exhibited her work extensively in the Bay Area and is a founding member of Gallery Route One. For 26 years she has been leading Wild Carrots, an arts workshop for artists and people new to making art. Exhibition Dates June 11- July 20, 2019...
June 15 (Saturday)
Timeless Themes of the Persian Perspective
Jun 15 – Sep 6 all-day San Marco Gallery within the Alemany Library, Dominican University of California
‘Timeless Themes of the Persian Perspective’ art gallery show Opening Reception: Saturday, June 15, 2019 5:00-8:00 p.m. Art has the power to communicate a better understanding of our differences and therefore create a connection. Persia (Iran), is an extraordinary land that evokes different feelings when mentioned… different for those who focus on its politics, and different for those who focus...
Underneath The Surface
Jun 18 @ 11:00 am – Jul 24 @ 5:00 pm Desta Gallery
Desta Gallery is pleased to present “Underneath the Surface,” a group exhibition of works by David Skillicorn, Liz Fracchia and Robert Cantor. Exhibition dates are from June 18 – July 24. Join us for artist reception Saturday, June 29th, 5:00pm – 7:00pm. About Desta Gallery Desta Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery in downtown San Anselmo, featuring emerging, mid-career...
June 20 (Thursday)
Coastal California
Jun 20 @ 11:45 am – Aug 8 @ 4:00 pm Rock Hill Gallery
11.2px;font-size:12px;line-height:normal;font-family:’Times New Roman’; >COASTAL CALIFORNIA: Oils & Watercolors Celebrating our Beautiful Land Paintings by Suzanne Siminger Rock Hill Gallery June 20 – August 8, 2019 Artist’s Reception: Sunday, June 23, noon to 2:00 pm Community Congregational Church, 145 Rock Hill Road, Tiburon, CA For Tiburon resident Suzanne Siminger painting has always been a passion and describes her work as...
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Sparkling Dewdrop
Hand Made Sterling Sivler and Rose Quartz Dangle Earrings, 'Sparkling Dewdrop'
Falling like enchanted dewdrops, rose quartz gems glisten with exotic elegance. They crown the exclusive design of these silver earrings by Khun Boom.
.925 silver.
SIlver 925 and rose quartz
2.1 cm L x 0.4 cm W x 0.4 cm D
0.8" L x 0.2" W x 0.2" D
Jewelry Earrings Birthstone Jewelry Bridal Jewelry Rose Quartz Jewelry Silver Jewelry Sterling Silver Jewelry Dangle Jewelry Pink Jewelry
Artfully crafted by Khun Boom from Thailand.
Khun Boom
"I feel that I am doing well for my age, and I am very content with how far I have come. But my real measure of success is seeing my mother smile, as she means the whole world to me."
Congratulations go to Khun Boom for receiving the 2015 Chiang Mai Creative City Design Award!
"I have a passion for life, art and jewelry. I was born in 1979 and grew up in Chiang Mai. My mom is a nurse and I have a younger sister. My parents divorced when I was five and my father passed away when I was 12. I started working at a young age as my mom had loans to deal with due to the fact that she had to provide for my sister and me, and put us through school. I am very thankful for this, as it gave me a lot of experience and made me a better person. I am so appreciative of my mother for her support, her strong heart and soul, and for her taking such good care of us through our childhood. At times I miss my father, but through all this I have realized that no matter what happens, your family will be there for you to give you all the support and love you need.
"Being born into the varied and abundant culture of Chiang Mai, I was exposed to the world of traditional art and the customs from China and Southeast Asia. This contributed to my love for art, which began at an early age and has become a life-long passion for design and creation. My love for art is ingrained in my personality, and it comes through in the care, love, and attention to detail that I put into every piece I design. I am so proud to be Thai, and I hope to share some of that pride with you.
"I am trained in design and art, and earned a degree in fine art from the Chiang Mai Institute of Technology. From there I moved into the world of design. I used to work for a company that exported fine silver and jewelry from 1998 to 2004. I gained international experience and a greater inspirational base for my design from working there.
"In 2004, I was hired by a major UK design house to produce elegant and unique designs to accompany their line of high-fashion clothing and accessories. While working in the UK, a number of design houses picked up my jewelry collections. I am very appreciative of this opportunity for I gained in experience and saw the world.
"I never hesitate to take the opportunities that life offers, as I believe that an opportunity is like a lucky bird: it might come just once in your life or maybe a few times and when it does, I am going to do my best to take it. I also believe in honesty. I live my life my life based on being honest; I am honest about my feelings. I am honest to people as I do believe that if you do good things, you will get that back in return.
"I am pretty content with my life now although I still have some things to deal with. I feel that I am doing well for my age, and I am very content with how far I have come. But my real measure of success is seeing my mother smile, as she means the whole world to me. She has been through a lot of things and I would do anything to just make her happy for the rest of her life. I do not do it because I feel it is an obligation, since in Thai culture children are expected to look after their parents when they get old. I do it from the bottom of my heart because I truly want her to be happy.
"I am thankful for this 'lucky bird' called Novica, which has given me such a brilliant opportunity to express myself and my art to the world. I am thankful to the team at Novica who has been working really hard in helping artists worldwide to show the world their talents. Moreover, I am thankful to all the clients from the bottom of my heart for their wonderful support."
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Family Worries New Law Could Mean No Trial for Father in Deadly Rancho Bernardo Apartment Fire
Henry Lopez is accused of falling asleep drunk on Oct. 28, 2017, with a lit cigarette in his mouth, which led to a fire in his condominium that killed his two children, Isabella Lopez, 7, and Cristos Lopez, 10
By Rory Devine and Monica Garske
Published Mar 2, 2019 at 11:31 PM
New Law Could Impact Trial for Father Accused in Deaths of 2 Kids
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Henry-Lopez-Children-Killed-in-Rancho-Bernardo-Condo-Fire-New-Law-No-Trial-506602421.html
NBC 7's Rory Devine explains the new law and how it could have an impact on a pending trial for a man accused of passing out drunk and setting fire to his condo, killing two of his children. (Published Friday, March 1, 2019)
A new law could impact what happens in a criminal case that has gripped San Diego: Two young children, killed in a fire, after their father – who had allegedly been drinking – fell asleep in their home with a lit cigarette in his mouth.
Isabella Lopez, 7, and Cristos Lopez, 10, were killed in the fire on Oct. 28, 2017, at their father Henry Lopez’s two-story condo on Bernardo Terrace in Rancho Bernardo. According to prosecutors, Henry Lopez had passed out from drinking alcohol while smoking a cigarette just before the blaze sparked.
His attorney, however, claimed the Metro Arson Strike Team investigating the fire was lying and the fire could’ve been started by a cellphone charger.
The children were sleeping when the fire erupted.
Isabella was found in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed next to a stuffed teddy bear and an open Bible; the little girl would soon die from smoke inhalation at a local hospital.
Cristos, who was found in his father’s bedroom, suffered burn injuries and smoke inhalation. The boy could not overcome his injuries and also died.
Henry Lopez was hospitalized after the fire.
The father was charged with five felonies involving the death of his children, including involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and the reckless starting of a fire. He pleaded not guilty to all charges in December 2018.
At his preliminary hearing in February 2018, prosecutors said his blood-alcohol level was 0.26 percent when it was taken at the hospital.
According to court documents, Henry Lopez had allegedly threatened to burn down the family’s home weeks before the fire. In a temporary restraining order obtained by NBC 7, the children’s mother, Nikia Lopez, claimed her husband had texted her: “I will burn all of this (expletive) down,” during a conversation the pair were having about a missing mortgage payment.
At Henry Lopez’s preliminary hearing, Nikia Lopez testified that she had fought with Henry Lopez over a lit marijuana joint found next to a bed in the home.
Nearly one year ago – on Feb. 27, 2018 – after Henry Lopez’s preliminary trial, a judge decided there was enough evidence for him to stand trial in the death of his children. If convicted, the father could face 14 years in prison.
The case was supposed to go to trial in November 2018, but there were delays in court proceedings.
For now, Henry Lopez’s trial is set for this April.
However, if a judge decides a new law is relevant to this case, the family of the young victims is concerned this development could mean no trial – and no jail time – for Henry Lopez.
“We’re all in a holding pattern,” Michael Codner, an attorney for Nikia Lopez, told NBC 7 in an exclusive interview Friday.
Codner said delays in high-profile criminal cases are not unusual but said the family is concerned about the latest continuance in proceedings.
Codner said Henry Lopez’s defense attorney asked for the continuance so he could take a look at a new law that went into effect on Jan. 1 that could work in the defendant’s favor.
According to Codner, the new law allows a judge to consider whether the defendant suffers from a serious mental disorder, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. If that is the case, a judge could allow the defendant to be treated in the community, as long as the defendant is not considered a danger to the public.
Codner said Nikia Lopez and her family do not want any leniency for Henry Lopez.
“She does not believe he deserves any kind of break, whatsoever,” he added. “She absolutely does believe that he does deserve a significant amount of prison time at this point.”
After 10 years of marriage and raising two children together, Codner said Nikia Lopez is certain Henry Lopez does not suffer from a legitimate mental illness. However, Codney said she is sympathetic to those who do suffer from mental illness and feels that, in this case, the law would be exploited if it were to help Henry Lopez.
Codner said Henry Lopez did serve in the military but was never deployed. He said Henry Lopez’s time in the military may be the basis for the defense’s possible PTSD argument, but he can’t be sure.
Meanwhile, as the family awaits answers on what comes next for the case in court, the pain of losing their two young loved ones lingers.
Sophia Lopez, Isabella’s and Cristos’ great-grandmother, said she can still hear them and remember them playing in her backyard.
“They go down the stairs right there, and they run over there,” she recalled. “I think about these children every day – all day.”
Until the criminal case is over, Sophia Lopez told NBC 7 the nightmare, for her family, “goes on and on” and there will be no peace of mind.
“I always tell Nikia, ‘God knows what he’s doing. When it’s time for things to settle down, or things to get worse, God will handle it,’” said Sophia Lopez.
Codner said that with every delay, Nikia Lopez’s fragile state is rattled once more.
In the meantime, Henry Lopez’s attorney, Paul Neuharth, told NBC 7 that based on the law, he is anticipating filing a motion on behalf of his client. The motion will be sealed because, according to Neuharth, it will detail traumatic, personal events in Henry Lopez’s life that pre-dated the deadly fire.
Neuharth said it’s inappropriate for him to comment further on a case where motions and a trial are pending.
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Get Out This Weekend: 10/3 - 10/4
Stargazing, water plant tour, bike race
By Jessica Greene
Published Oct 2, 2009 at 11:58 AM | Updated at 12:48 PM PDT on Oct 2, 2009
A new study shows that the sediment on the seafloor in the middle of the South Pacific appears to have the fewest living cells of any place on the planet.
GAZE AT THE STARS: See the moon, planets, stars galaxies and more on Saturday at a free public viewing program at UC Berkeley's Laawrence Hall of Science. There's even a special visitor this weekend: Mars! The gazing starts at 8 p.m.
WATER PLANT TOUR: No joke, there's actually a tour of the Santa Clara Water Pollution Plant. Where does the water go when you flush, rinse or drain? Find out the ins and outs of the largest wastewater treatment facility on the West Coast. The tour starts at 1 p.m.
RUN LIKE THE WIND: If you'd like to feel healthy after your long work week, try going on the Bridge to Bridge 12K and 7K Run/Walk on Sunday morning. Start in front of the Ferry Building at 9 a.m. and enjoy "America's Most Beautiful Run".
WALK & WAG: Go for a walk with your dog and raise money for the Humane Society Silicon Valley at the same time. The 5k route starts and ends at the shelter's community center. There's plenty of entertainment on tap, including a dog agility demonstrations and opportunities to get your four-legged pal involved too.
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https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Museum-shows-aluminum-tree-forest-12658594.php
Museum shows aluminum tree forest
Published 12:00 am CST, Sunday, December 11, 2011
As a child of the 1950s, Dave Harms never wanted his parents to buy an aluminum tree.
Christmas isn't the same without a live tree, he thought. And besides, they're just not pretty, he said.
He still thinks that way, but ironically, Harms now owns more than 40 aluminum trees.
"This is my living room," he said as he waved his arm in front of a stage at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union.
Some of his aluminum trees had been assembled in all their shiny glory, while others sat nearby piled in boxes.
They'd soon fill the stage and more at the museum, creating a forest as part of a historic winter wonderland display.
Lit by antique color wheels once used to light aluminum trees in the living rooms of the 1950s and '60s as well as other lighting, the display takes on the feel of city lighting, Harms said.
It also includes a couple 5-foot Santas and a snowman, the plastic decorations once given away by Polk Bros. appliance and furniture stores during a four-year promotion beginning in 1962. Everyone who bought an appliance could get the free Jolly Polk santa or snowman.
"There's a significance for those of us who grew up with these," said Harms of Crystal Lake. "It's the nostalgia."
The Aluminum Christmas Tree Forest will remain on display throughout December, available for free viewing by the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the museum, 6422 Main St., Union.
Harms has put on holiday displays at the museum for the past five years since running into Museum Administrator Nancy Fike at a post office. She was looking for holiday display ideas, and Harms had several of them.
He's collected Christmas memorabilia since 1980, when he first set out to find a lighted tree stand like the one his grandparents used when he was a child.
They never lit it, fearing the tree stand would leak and short out the lights, Harms said.
"It just infatuated me that grandma and grandpa never had it working," said Harms, who grew up in Morton Grove.
He and his family now own and run D. Hill Nursery in Union.
Visiting flea markets and antique shops, Harms eventually found the tree stand his grandparents used. He didn't stop there. He's collected numerous stands dating to the 1800s.
He's been a member of Golden Glow of Christmas Past, a worldwide club for collectors of antique Christmas items, for the past 32 years.
A Rudolph fan as a child, he's also collected numerous Rudolph antiques, such as radios, and has a wealth of Christmas books and advertising from those days. He has a Red Ryder BB Gun, made popular in the movie "A Christmas Story," as well as numerous other popular toys of the 1950s and '60s.
"I've just always liked Christmas," he said of the inspiration behind his hobby.
Using these and other items, Harms in years past has created a 1950s holiday living room, complete with a big easy chair, as well as 1950s department store and hardware store scenes for the museum.
"One afternoon, I turned off the lights and sat in that easy chair and remembered my own Christmas in the 1950s," Fike said.
Others did the same, ascending the stage into their past and reminiscing about Christmases behind them, she said.
The 4- to 7-foot aluminum trees only lasted about a decade before being phased out, said Harms, now a member of the historical society's board of directors.
"It's been a fun discovery," he said of his research into the history of the trees, which came in various styles and colors.
The first patent of the trees was in 1958, when they sold for about $80. Many of the trees originated from companies in Chicago. A company in Manitowoc, Wis., figured out how to create them through an assembly line, and they soon became more affordable for everyone.
A Cary couple who once worked and met at that Wisconsin factory stopped by the museum to see the trees during a previous display, Harms said. He hopes others enjoy the nostalgia created by the displays.
He laughs as he puts together the trees, which reflect the rainbow of colors they were created in, everything from gold and silver to pink.
"In retrospect, they're a riot," he said. "I laugh every time I look at them. What in the world were they thinking?"
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Senate healthcare bill is a boon for many insurers, except Medicaid plans
Shelby Livingston
Senate Republicans' bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is a windfall to insurers selling plans on the individual market, and may be enough to keep them from exiting the exchanges in 2018.
But Medicaid insurers warn the bill's caps on federal spending in that program would compel them to cut necessary care management services and reduce provider reimbursement rates.
"It's worse than we thought it would be," John Baackes, CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan, which insures Medicaid and ACA exchange members, said of the Senate bill. While he said he's glad the bill includes funding for subsidies on the individual market, he's more concerned about the much larger Medicaid program, which serves 75 million people.
"We will have less resources to provide coverage for these folks (on Medicaid), which means we'll have to reduce reimbursement for providers, and at that point we expect to see fallout from participating physicians," Baackes said.
In a nutshell, insurers will see less taxes and reduced regulations under the Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act. For months, they've been pressing congressional Republicans for an inkling of how the individual insurance market will be regulated. Approximately 17 million people obtain coverage on and off the exchanges.
Insurers urged the Trump administration to enforce the individual mandate and fund the cost-sharing subsidies that help low-income people afford coverage. They called for the elimination of the loathed health insurer tax, which they said increased premiums for plan members.
The industry got much of what it wanted in the "discussion draft" of the Senate's bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hopes to bring to a vote next week.
The repeal-and-replace bill gives insurers a big tax break. It eliminates the annual fee on health insurance companies, which amounts to $144.7 billion over the next 10 years. It also funds the cost-sharing subsidies through 2019, after which the subsidies would be cut off.
"We appreciate that the Senate has funded the vitally important CSR subsidies through 2019 and is providing some amount of market certainty," said Ceci Connolly, president and CEO of the Alliance of Community Health plans, which represents not-for-profit health plans and has been urging the administration to fund subsidies and incentive consumers to maintain continuous coverage.
But the bill would also eliminate the mandate that requires most Americans to enroll in insurance coverage or pay a financial penalty.
Health insurers have argued the mandate is necessary to increase enrollment in the market and balance out older, sicker enrollees with younger healthier members. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the House Republicans' American Health Care Act would lead to 23 million people losing coverage by 2026, mostly because of the individual mandate repeal.
But Dan Mendelson, president of consulting firm Avalere, questioned the importance of the mandate at all.
"It wasn't working so well to begin with," he said.
States will receive cost-sharing subsidies and funding to stabilize the individual market in 2018 and 2019, and that could be enough to lure insurers to the markets and encourage them to lower premiums, which would attract more enrollees, Mendelson said.
The bill gives insurers $50 billion in funding to stabilize the individual market in the short-term, and $62 billion to states to stabilize the market longer-term.
"It's possible you will see some plans trying to get into those bare counties if this bill passes," Mendelson said, referring to the 44 counties in Ohio, Missouri and Washington that currently lack a health insurer for 2018.
While the cost-sharing subsidies may lead to lower premiums, they will also lead plans to pay for less. Benchmark qualified health plans would only have to cover an average of 58% of medical costs, which is lower than the minimum required actuarial value under the ACA. That likely would increase out-of-pocket costs for consumers. Insurers would also be able to charge older people five times what they charge younger enrollees. The ACA allows insurers to charge older members just three times as much.
Consumers would receive premium tax credits based on their age and income to buy plans from the individual market, like under the ACA. But those credits are limited to those earning up to 350% of the federal poverty level, rather than the ACA's limit of 400%.
"At first blush, it would not only provide far skimpier health coverage than what's offered today, but millions of people would have no coverage at all," Peter Lee, executive director of California's insurance exchanges, Covered California, said in a statement.
The bill would also allow states to determine insurers' medical loss ratio requirements—how much of insurers' premium revenue must be spent on health care claims and quality improvement. The ACA required an MLR of 80%.
On the Medicaid front, the Senate bill has a tighter cap for federal Medicaid spending than the House's AHCA, capping federal payments to the states for most beneficiaries at the medical component of the Consumer Price Index starting in 2020. Growth of those payments would be limited to the much lower CPI rate starting in 2025. It would also phase out the ACA's enhanced federal payments for Medicaid expansion by 2023.
The reduced funding won't impact insurers' margins because "insurers will transfer headwinds to physician rates," Piper Jaffray analyst Sarah James said in research note. But insurers may reduce the services they offer to Medicaid members.
"The bill moves in a dangerous and harmful direction for poor, aged and disabled Americans and the health plans and providers that serve them—whether it is phasing out Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans, threatening the viability of the Medicaid system through underfunded per capita allotments, or failing to protect the integrity of actuarially-sound rate-setting practices that underpin Medicaid managed care," Meg Murray, CEO of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans, which represents safety net plans, said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a lobbying group for large, national insurers, said the group is still analyzing the Senate bill. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association did not have a comment.
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Corinna J. Alanis
Washington D.C., (202) 887-6947
calanis@mofo.com
University of Arizona (B.S., 2003)
University of Phoenix (M.B.A., 2005)
Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 2012)
Corinna Alanis is an associate in the firm’s Intellectual Property Group.
Mrs. Alanis has represented clients in matters involving hard disk drives, semiconductor fabrication, microelectromechanical systems, musical instruments, firewall technology, and rare earth magnets. Her litigation experience includes handling technical as well as legal issues from discovery through trial.
Before joining the firm, Mrs. Alanis worked for several years as a software engineer at IBM, and as a quality engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems. Mrs. Alanis also served as a judicial intern for the Honorable Susan G. Braden of the United States Court of Federal Claims, and was previously a summer associate at Morrison & Foerster.
Mrs. Alanis received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was the recipient of the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation Scholarship, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Student Advocacy Award. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in computer engineering, and also earned an M.B.A. in technology management from the University of Phoenix.
Mrs. Alanis is admitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
iGuitar, Inc. v. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation
(Southern District of New York). Represented Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in a patent infringement lawsuit involving musical instruments that function as peripherals for computing devices. Lawsuit settled on terms favorable for the client.
Juniper Networks v. Palo Alto Networks
(District of Delaware). Defended Palo Alto Networks against patent infringement allegations relating to firewall and intrusion prevention technology. Following a two-week jury trial, a mistrial was secured based on a hung jury.
Certain Sintered Rare Earth Magnets
(International Trade Commission, 337-TA-855). Represented Hitachi Metals in an investigation involving multiple patents concerning certain sintered rare earth magnets. Investigation settled on terms favorable for the client.
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Lorenzo’s Cause by Stephen R. Harrison
When Adam Drysdale’s self-inflicted misery drives him to take his own life, his only wish is for oblivion. He soon realises that his wish has not been granted when he finds himself returned to the world as a spirit. But he is no ordinary spirit, because he has the extraordinary ability to possess and control other living creatures.
And so begins Adam’s remarkable journey to uncover the reason behind his existence. It will involve cats and dogs, unwitting pensioners, some shady individuals, a psychotic gang leader and a highly unusual nightclub doorman. His journey will eventually lead him to the heart of why humans exist, and with it what the afterlife has in store for him.
Adam’s story combines fantasy, science fiction and the real world to describe the experiences and exploits that carry him forward. It becomes a road of redemption that will test him far beyond anything he had experienced in life.
As he progresses he is forced to reassess his attitude towards people’s beliefs. In life he had always questioned what people put their faith in. In death he finds that there are no straightforward answers.
Lorenzo’s Cause is a humorous, sad, and at times harrowing story, which reflects on the human condition as it twists and turns its way to some novel concepts of what lies beyond.
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9 Employers and Job Resources to Pursue as an Older Worker
Plenty of employers are tapping into the growing 50-and-older crowd. Here's how to find them.
Alex Valdes • March 13, 2019
Photo by hedgehog94 / Shutterstock.com
There’s a huge job market out there, and it’s not all reserved for the under-50 crowd.
There are many employers who value the experience, wide skill set and mature work ethic that older workers bring to the workplace.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for workers age 45 to 54 was 2.9 percent — and the rate for workers age 55 and older was 2.7 percent — as of February. That’s compared with an overall unemployment rate of 3.8 percent.
If you’re an older worker looking for a new job, or looking to re-enter the workforce, start your job search by considering the following age-friendly companies and job resources.
These companies are examples of the many employers that offer special programs for older workers or that have been recognized for otherwise age-friendly efforts:
1. CVS Health
The retail pharmacy giant launched its Talent Is Ageless program in 2017 — at which time the company said that 24 percent of its workforce was over the age of 50.
The goal of the Talent Is Ageless program is to recruit and retain workers who are 50 or older.
Visit CVS Health’s careers webpage to learn more about current openings.
2. FCCI
About one-third of this insurance company’s workforce is age 50 or older, CNBC reported last year.
You do not necessarily need an insurance background to work at FCCI, which provides commercial property and casualty insurance through independent agents. Its careers webpage explains:
“FCCI has some positions that do not require an industry background. In addition, the FCCI School of Excellence offers learning opportunities for teammates to develop and grow. Job descriptions on the Openings page will specify requirements.”
FCCI is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, but also has offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia, according to a recent company announcement.
This Is an Easy Way to Find Legitimate Flexible Jobs
3. Goldman Sachs
The financial services company’s Returnship Program is a paid eight-week program for people who have been out of the workforce for two years or more.
Program participants are placed in one of the company’s many divisions, where they’re able to hone rusty skills and learn new ones.
As the Goldman Sachs website explains it:
“In the same way that an internship offers a guided period of exploration, a ‘returnship’ provides individuals with an opportunity to sharpen their skills in a work environment that may have changed significantly since their last experience as an employee. It also gives participants the ability to explore a new area of expertise and learn new skills.”
The deadline to apply for 2019 passed in October, so keep an eye out for the 2020 deadline this fall.
4. National Grid
This supplier of natural gas and electricity to Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and the United Kingdom was among a handful of companies that received an Age Smart Employer Award last year from the Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University. The awards recognize employers that value workers of all ages, including older workers.
“We are proud of our comprehensive compensation, benefits and well-being programs that respond to the needs of a multi-generational workforce,” said Keith Hutchison, National Grid’s senior vice president of U.S. human resources and chief diversity officer, in response to the award.
Visit the company’s careers webpage to search for openings.
5. PKF O’Connor Davies
Roughly one-third of this accounting firm’s employees are older than 50, according to the Columbia Aging Center — which also recognized PKF O’Connor Davies with an Age Smart Employer Award last year.
The company boasts that it prioritizes creating flexible schedules and hires partners who are forced to retire from competing firms that have mandatory retirement ages.
PKF O’Connor Davies has 11 offices across five states, according to a recent company announcement. You can filter current job opportunities by location on the firm’s careers webpage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0tGWdJz0jE
These nonprofits and job-search aids offer programs for — or specialize in — connecting older workers with companies that are looking to hire such workers:
1. Encore.org
Encore.org is a nonprofit that aims to “leverage the skills and talents of experienced adults to improve communities and the world,” according to its website.
The organization’s Encore Fellowships program offers fellowships to experienced professionals who are seeking to enter or return to work in social purpose organizations. Participants are matched with organizations such as nonprofits and foundations based on their expertise.
Fellows earn a stipend that typically ranges from $15,000 to $25,000 for 1,000 hours of work. And according to Encore.org, 65 percent of fellows stay in the social sector as workers or consultants.
Visit the program directory to find out about or apply to fellowship opportunities in your area.
2. Operation A.B.L.E.
This Boston-based nonprofit seeks to provide employment and training opportunities to job-seekers who are age 45 or older in partnership with employers in Massachusetts and other parts of New England.
The services that Operation A.B.L.E. offers include occupational and computer skills training, job search training and support, coaching and counseling, and apprenticeships.
Visit the organization’s list of “age-friendly” employers and find open positions at those companies.
3. Interim Search Partners
Interim Search Partners is a staffing company that specializes in the behavioral health and substance abuse fields. The types of workers the company places include occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, social workers and management professionals.
Interim Search Partners also has a Hire Industry Retired Expert (HIRE) program, which is designed to help employers who are seeking to tap retirees specifically.
The company is based in St. Augustine, Florida, but works with employers across the country. Visit its candidates webpage to submit your resume.
4. Specialized job boards
There are job websites that specialize in positions for job seekers who are 50 or older.
Workforce50.com, for example, says that employers post positions directly to its Workforce50 Jobs board when seeking older and experienced workers.
RetirementJobs.com offers a Certified Age Friendly Employer (CAFE) program, which recognizes “organizations that are committed to being the best places to work for employees at or above age 50,” according to the website.
For more tips and resources, check out:
“7 Ways Workers Over 50 Can Stay Competitive“
“7 Tips to Find a Job in Retirement“
“19 Ways to Make Extra Money in Retirement“
Are you 50 or older and looking for work? What’s helped and hindered you in your search? Share your stories and tips by making a comment below or on our Facebook page.
2-Minute Money Manager: I’m Retiring Soon — How Should I Invest My Savings?
Earn Up to $2,700 a Year Watching Videos, Answering Surveys
Save More Money This Year Using 5 Fun Tricks
107 Easy Ways to Make Extra Money Every Month
5 Easy Ways to Get an Extra Discount at Walmart
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WHAT'S ON OFFER AT THE MONKEY SANCTUARY
Come and explore and bring the kids and see what you can expect.
MONKEYS are haplorhine ("dry-nosed") primates, a paraphyletic group generally possessing tails and consisting of approximately 260 known living species. Many monkey species are tree-dwelling (arboreal), although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Most species are also active during the day (diurnal). Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent, particularly Old World monkeys.
LEMURS are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. The word "lemur" derives from the word lemures (ghosts or spirits) from Roman mythology and was first used to describe a slender loris due to its nocturnal habits and slow pace, but was later applied to the primates on Madagascar. As with other strepsirrhine primates, such as lorises, pottos, and galagos (bush babies), lemurs share a resemblance with basal primates.
BUSHBABIES Galagos, also known as bushbabies, bush babies, or nagapies (meaning "little night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small, nocturnal[2] primates native to continental Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are sometimes included as a subfamily within the Lorisidae or Loridae. Bushbabies mainly live in sub-saharan Africa, but not as far south as the Western Cape.
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Review: McCartney digs deep into Beatles, solo material in marathon Newark concert
The nearly three-hour show was the first of eight planned for New Jersey and New York.
Review: McCartney digs deep into Beatles, solo material in marathon Newark concert The nearly three-hour show was the first of eight planned for New Jersey and New York. Check out this story on northjersey.com: https://njersy.co/2w4xs12
Jay Lustig, Special to The Record Published 7:44 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2017 | Updated 8:16 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2017
Fans waited outside the Prudential Center in Newark for the start of Paul McCartney's concert on Sept. 11, 2017. Joshua Jongsma/NorthJersey.com
Singer/songwriter Paul McCartney performs on stage at the Prudential Center on Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)(Photo: Brent N. Clarke, Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)
As Paul McCartney returned to the stage for his encores at the Prudential Center in Newark on Monday night, he was waving a large American flag. But all eyes were on the banner that his drummer, Abe Laboriel Jr., was holding: It featured a red-white-and blue heart with the phrase “9-11-01, Never Forgotten” written in it. Laboriel stood still next to McCartney, holding it high as the crowd cheered.
McCartney spent Sept. 11, 2001, in New York. He also wrote the 9/11 anthem “Freedom” and organized the all-star October 2001 Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden, a fundraiser for the families of 9/11 victims. On Monday, he acknowledged the anniversary early on, dedicating the show to “all those involved with what happened 16 years ago,” and making a statement against oppression, violence and prejudice, and for “friendship and freedom.”
He then evoked the positivity of the 1960s more effectively than just about anyone else could, with an effervescent version of “Can’t Buy Me Love,” an early hit that he penned for the Beatles. Vintage videos of the band and the Beatlemania they inspired filled the screens behind him.
Singer/songwriter Paul McCartney performs on stage at the Prudential Center on Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP) (Photo: Brent N. Clarke, Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP)
McCartney is more than just a link to that time. He is the living, breathing embodiment of it, still a master at his craft and, almost miraculously, still capable of evoking boyish charm at the age of 75. He seemed to really be enjoying himself, and his longtime backing musicians seemed like a real band, not just a bunch of hired hands supporting a star. (Laboriel, guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist-bassist Brian Ray and keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens have actually been playing with him longer than the other Beatles did.) And it was a generous show, with 38 songs over two hours and 45 minutes.
Paul McCartney wows fans in Newark
Singer/songwriter Paul McCartney performs on stage at the Prudential Center on Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP) Brent N. Clarke, Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP
This was the first of eight shows that McCartney will be presenting in New Jersey and New York this month, and the opening night of a new leg of his One on One Tour, which began in April 2016 and came to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford in August 2016. The set list on Monday was nearly identical to his Jersey set list from last summer, with “Here, There and Everywhere” and “The Fool on the Hill” subtracted, and “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” added. The presence of “I Wanna Be Your Man” inspired McCartney to talk about the Rolling Stones, who had an early hit with it, and to make a timely joke: The rumor of hatred between the bands, back in the day, was just “fake news,” McCartney said.
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McCartney played bass, ukulele, grand and upright pianos, and acoustic and electric guitars. When he played electric guitar on “Let Me Roll It” and “I’ve Got a Feeling,” he extended the songs with long solos that made them almost feel like new, different songs.
He built his solo on “Let Me Roll It” solo on the riff from Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.” After the song, McCartney warmly praised Hendrix, whom he knew, and told a story about him. That’s the kind of show it was: Lots of stories, and lots of tributes, including heart-tugging ones to John Lennon, George Harrison and the Beatles’ producer, George Martin.
Chronologically, songs ranged from the days before the Beatles existed (“In Spite of All the Danger,” recorded as a demo by an embryonic version of the band, the Quarrymen ) to McCartney’s most recent major hit: his “FourFiveSeconds” collaboration with Kanye West and Rihanna. There were some non-hits in the set list, such as the “Sgt. Pepper” oddity “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” and his 1980 electropop experiment “Temporary Secretary.” But for the most part, he stuck with better known material.
And why wouldn’t he? Even after all these years, it’s still mind-blowing when he strings a bunch of megahits together, as he did when he closed his set with “Band on the Run,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “Let It Be,” “Live and Let Die” and “Hey Jude,” and then, after the flag-waving interlude, launched his encores with “Yesterday.”
Even after factoring in Lennon’s importance to him as a co-songwriter, early on, we’re left with a mystery: How can one man have done so much?
WHO: Paul McCartney.
WHERE AND WHEN:Prudential Center, 25 Lafayette St., Newark, Tuesday; Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street, Manhattan, Friday and Sunday; Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, Sept. 19 and 21; Nassau Coliseum, 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, N.Y., Sept. 26 and 27; all shows at 8 p.m.; 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.
HOW MUCH: $29.50 to $350.
Set list, Prudential Center, Sept. 11, 2017:
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Temporary Secretary”
“Let Me Roll It”
“I’ve Got a Feeling”
“My Valentine"
“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”
“Maybe I’m Amazed”
“In Spite of All the Danger”
“You Won’t See Me”
“Here Today”
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!”
Encores:
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
“Hi, Hi, Hi”
Read or Share this story: https://njersy.co/2w4xs12
'West Side Story' remake: Set going up in Paterson
The Vanguard set to open in Harrison next month
This diner was named most famous restaurant in NJ
Here are the best dishes we ate in June
The inside scoop: The life of an ice cream truck driver
RHONJ's Jim Marchese: My son is too young to say if he's gay or not
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The National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Michigan
Sibley House
Patriotic Activities
Re-enactments
Congressional Seminar Essay Contest for High School Students
NSCDA-MI Graduate Student Scholarship
The Orphan Train In Michigan Lecture
Between 1854 and 1927, 12,500 children from New York City and the Boston area rode the orphan trains to Michigan and were placed with families throughout the state. Michigan Dames heard this amazing statistic from Mr. Al Eicher, speaking to us at The Grosse Pointe Club on October 22.
Mr. Eicher, along with his son David, produced the documentary The Orphan Train in Michigan, and explained that they first encountered evidence of Michigan’s role in this drama while researching the history of the town of Oxford.
Several books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been written about the American orphan trains. Children riding these trains were sent to nearly every state in the union. The Eichers learned that the first orphans to arrive in Michigan were fourteen boys who were placed with families in the southwestern town of Dowagiac in 1854. By 1927, forty-three towns within the lower and upper peninsulas had received children.
As our group watched the video, Mr. Eicher stopped several times to give us more personal accounts of many of the children who were placed. They generally ranged in age from two to fourteen, and the majority (about 61%) were boys. Most of these orphans were never formally adopted. The families who took children were almost always looking for help in one form or another, farm work and domestic work being most common. Their experiences ranged from ill treatment to great success, with most somewhere in the middle.
Why so many orphans and where did they come from? During the time period from the mid 1800s to the 1920s, large numbers of European immigrants arrived on the East Coast, especially in New York and Boston. Wars and famine were forcing these families to leave their homes in the hope of a better life in America. Most of these families came here with very little, and painfully, a few were eventually forced to either sell or give away their own children. In some cases, parents died and left young children to fend for themselves on the streets.
The New York Children’s Aid Society and The Boston Home for Little Wanderers were two of many agencies established to care for these unfortunate children, and the two that became the principal organizations sending orphans to Michigan. As the children grew up, many of them began contacting the two agencies for information about themselves and their birth parents. Currently the Eichers, working through their company Program Source International, are developing a Michigan Orphan Train Registry to document the names, places, and any pertinent information regarding the train riders. People may contact them to either give or receive information by emailing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by going to their website at www.program-source.com
NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE DAMES
©2019 The National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Michigan
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Greatest Blues Moment Nomination 46
Fri 4 Apr 2014, 08:00 PM
Ryan Girdler scores the fastest try in Origin history in Game 1, 2001.
In 2014, New South Wales and Queensland will celebrate the 100th State of Origin (Game One in Brisbane) to be played since the inception of the Origin format in 1980.
To mark the occasion, the New South Wales Rugby League is asking YOU to select the greatest Blues moment in Origin history.
From the moment Tommy Raudonikis led the Blues onto Lang Park for the inaugural interstate contest, State of Origin has produced some of the most iconic moments in Rugby League history.
Whether you were watching on television or cheering from the front row, who will ever forget Michael O’Connor slotting the match-winning conversion in driving rain in 1991, Andrew Johns returning to deliver one of the best individual performances we’ve ever seen in 2005, or Steve ‘Turvey’ Mortimer dropping to his knees and kissing the hallowed SCG turf after the Blues’ first series victory in 1985.
But they are just three great Blues moments. Over 100 days leading up to Game One in Brisbane, we’ll be highlighting one moment per day which will serve as a nomination for the greatest Blues Origin moment. We will then turn the decision over to the fans to decide the top ten Blues Moments from a century of Origin clashes.
Voting will open on May 28 (Game One) and close on June 18 (Game Two at ANZ Stadium). Nominations will be posted on the New South Wales Rugby League website, Twitter and Facebook pages and can be discussed using the hashtag #blues100.
We hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane and here’s hoping the NSW VB Blues can add to the memories in 2014!
Click here to view all of the 'Blues Moments' nominations
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News Releases (Archived)
Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis remembers workers killed at BP Texas City, calls for re-dedication of safety efforts at refineries, chemical plants
NOTICE: This is an OSHA Archive Document, and may no longer represent OSHA Policy. It is presented here as historical content, for research and review purposes only.
OSHA Statement
Release Number: 10-386-NAT
Contact: Diana Petterson
E-mail: petterson.diana@dol.gov
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, five years after the terrible explosion at BP's Texas City refinery, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis issued the following statement remembering the 15 workers who were killed and the many others who were injured in that tragic event:
"As we've seen from my department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's recent enforcement actions, BP still has a long way to go to ensure the safety of its employees and those of the contractors who work in its refineries.
"Today and every day, I hope that the entire petrochemical industry is fully and actively dedicated to worker health and safety at all American refineries and chemical plants. I hope that the industry is reminded today to examine and improve safety systems and their corporate safety culture. These measures should include looking at how their organizations address safety issues, the extent of management commitment and worker participation in improving safety systems, the adequacy of training and maintenance, and the use of leading indicators like close calls to gauge the safety of their facilities.
"The Labor Department is doing its part to ensure the safety of America's refineries and chemical plants. OSHA is entering the final stages of a comprehensive National Emphasis Program that has examined most of the nation's refineries and, where necessary, initiated action to compel elimination of hazards in many of them. In addition, OSHA has also initiated an NEP for the chemical industry with the ultimate goal of preventing catastrophic incidents that can injure and kill employees and affect entire communities.
"The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to strong enforcement of OSHA standards and technical assistance to companies to help them achieve safe environments for their workers and surrounding communities."
U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America's employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit www.dol.gov/compliance.
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Sex in the Sea
Marine creatures rely on some surprising strategies to reproduce in their watery world
Daphne Gail Fautin
During two decades as a marine biologist, never had I seen anything like it: puddles of white and orange, each the size of a quarter, dotting the rocks in a California tide pool. Looking closer, I saw that the orange spots were eggs, thousands of them, and the white were perhaps millions of sperm. Both had just been released by sea anemones attached to depressions in the rock. When the tide came in, eggs and sperm would mix, giving way to a new generation.
To a casual observer, the sight might have scarcely raised an eyebrow. Rut I was fascinated: Those puddles contained the seeds of life itself. I wondered, what if sperm and eggs matured randomly, so that a male sea anemone released sperm one day and a female released eggs on another? The two would never find each other in the wide Pacific Ocean. Besides, eggs and sperm (collectively called gametes) live for only a few hours: most would die before they could join forces.
Clearly, successful reproduction at sea is no casual affair. Rather, it can demand precision planning and split-second timing. As I have learned, even some of the most primitive-looking of the ocean's inhabitants have developed extraordinarily sophisticated strategies for ensuring that at least some of their young will survive.
Most marine creatures, like the sea anemone, spawn freely into the open water, "broadcasting- their eggs and sperm by the millions, if not billions. Fertilized by sperm, a sea anemone egg develops into a furry, pear-shaped larva that bears scant resemblance to its tentacled parents. Most of the young are lost to predators. The few survivors drift in the open sea, sometimes for weeks, then suddenly metamorphose into smaller versions of their parents and attach themselves to rocks.
Considering the tortuous path that sea anemone larvae and the offspring of other species take to adulthood, it's remarkable that any of them make it. However, some wondrous adaptations improve the chances eggs and sperm will meet and the young will survive. For one thing, gametes of most species ripen only during part of the year. Males of most sea creatures release sperm only in response to nearby females spawning, a simple mechanism that ensures sperm will not go into the water lacking eggs. Fish generally discharge eggs or sperm only in the presence of the other sex, and often only after some kind of courtship behavior. In some cases, gamete release is tied to environmental cues, such as tides, water temperature, day length, even phases of the moon.
When it comes to good timing, few creatures can match the clocklike punctuality of the Palolo worm, which lives in the tropical Pacific. Precisely seven days after the full moon following the September equinox, the worms travel from the sea floor and into the open, where their rear ends snap off. The pieces, which contain either sperm or eggs, swim to the surface and break open all at once, allowing their contents to mingle.
On Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists have discovered another example of exquisite sexual timing. For about four hours after dusk every evening during the week following October's full moon, nearly 150 species of coral send out streams of sperm and eggs, which accumulate on the surface in huge, pink slicks.
Only a few groups of marine creatures have developed the specialized anatomy and behavior necessary for copulation, the most efficient method for delivering sperm to an egg. The technique for sea animals is similar to that used on land — with some interesting differences. A type of shell-less snail called the saccoglossan, for instance, can insert its penis and inject sperm into any part of its partner's body.
Cephalopods (which include octopuses and squids) have perhaps the most unusual sperm-delivery system of all. Using a specialized arm, the male grasps a packet of sperm from inside its body and inserts it into the female, near the oviduct. The tip of the male's arm then breaks off, leaving the sperm packet lodged near the tube through which eggs are emitted.
Nudibranchs, octopuses and many other sea animals lay eggs by the thousands in sacs, which the females attach to rocks. Left on their own, eggs hatch into larvae, which float about and often are eaten by other animals. In a number of species, including some clams, jellyfish, sea anemones and tunicates, the fertilized eggs develop inside the female.
Brood care may seem superior to broadcasting vulnerable larvae into the open sea, but there are definite tradeoffs. One price a female pays for keeping all her eggs in one basket, so to speak. is fewer offspring. And because brooded eggs must contain enough yolk to support the young, they are generally larger than broadcast eggs, whose occupants feed in the sea.
Whatever the reproductive strategy, the goal is the same: to produce enough youngsters so that as many as possible will become sexually mature adults. For most sea creatures, the odds of failure are great. The rewards of success, however, are nothing less than survival of the species.
Daphne Gail Fautin, a specialist in reproductive biology of marine creatures, teaches at the University of Kansas. Photographer Fred Bavendam lives in New Hampshire.
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Finding a Future for an Endangered Bird
An innovative program is putting private landowners on the side of the red-cockaded woodpecker.
Michael Lipske
The operation at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle is reminiscent of the opening scene from the late 1970s Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now. A helicopter comes out of the distant blue horizon, flying low over a verdant expanse of forest. The "wop-wop-wop" of the engine pulses in the air. The chopper fires spherical objects, like ping-pong balls, at the ground, and flames burst against the trees. "It's like starting a zillion lightning-strike fires all over the place," says Carl Petrick, the man who has called this air strike. "You can burn well over a 1,000 acres an hour."
Petrick plans these flights of flame not to destroy the forest but to restore it. He is a civilian biologist in charge of Eglin's wildlife management, and he knows that fire will make the area more suitable habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers, an endangered species and the center of often-controversial management programs.
The birds live in southern pine forests and require woods relatively clear of undergrowth. In earlier times, fires started by lightning burned much of the southern pine forest every few years, incinerating the understory and the hardwood saplings that would otherwise have crowded out pines. Fire-resistant longleaf pines were scorched at their bases, but otherwise unharmed.
This system worked fine until twentieth-century fire-fighting policies cooled off the woods, allowing hardwoods to grow up and replace vast areas of pine forest. "It's been the Smokey Bear complex," says Ralph Costa, red-cockaded woodpecker recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). "Taking recurring natural fire out of the system has completely changed the table scraps of longleaf ecosystem we have left, in that they have serious hardwoodmidstory problems." The main red-cockaded problem is that the birds abandon forests choked with non-pine growth.
Learning the importance of fire to the survival of the endangered bird has been long in coming. Indeed, the means to red-cockaded survival are only now becoming clear. But the leaps in scientific understanding have initiated some remarkable successes in managing the woodpeckers. They also have provided conservationists with data needed to add suppleness to the Endangered Species Act and to assure private landowners that doing right by the endangered woodpeckers will not impinge on economic interests. As a result, experts say, a bird whose future until recently looked grim could be poised for a comeback.
Named for a tiny red streak on the side of the male bird's head, the cardinal-sized, black-and-white red-cockaded woodpecker probably evolved in southern old-growth longleaf pine forests. But the entire piney universe to which red-cockaded woodpeckers are finely calibrated—a belt of tall, widely spaced evergreens that covered 90 million acres of coastal plain from Chesapeake Bay to East Texas—has for the most part vanished. The cause is not just fire control but also heavy logging around the turn of the century. As the old-growth forest fell, so did red-cockaded woodpeckers, declining from an estimated 1.6 million family groups at the time Columbus sailed to about 4,500 groups (or roughly 12,000 individual birds) now. FWS listed the red-cockaded woodpecker as endangered in 1970.
The South still has millions of pines, but few pinelands suitable for red-cockadeds. Pines planted to produce pulpwood and paper have replaced primeval longleaf, and in these commercial forests, trees are cut decades before they can become useful to the woodpeckers. The birds prefer pecking cavities into the living pines of only two species, and the trees must be at least 80 years old, an age at which they become internally weakened by a fungus called red heart. On average, the birds spend six years making a cavity in a longleaf pine, two years in a loblolly.
Red-cockadeds live in family groups made up of parents, some adult male offspring, and, during breeding season, the newly fledged young of both sexes. Young males from former years help feed nestlings, defend territory and do other woodpecker work, such as cavity excavation. Young female red-cockadeds usually leave their parents' territory, sometimes joining other groups that have lost a breeding female.
According to Jeffrey Walters, a red-cockaded woodpecker researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, sticking close to home gives a young male a better chance of becoming a breeder himself. Each woodpecker family occupies several cavity trees within the group's territory, and a successful helper can inherit these cavity trees when his father dies. Or he may be able to take over another cluster when a neighboring, unrelated breeding male dies.
Because of the clear importance of old pines to red-cockaded survival, early efforts to rescue the birds focused almost entirely on setting aside large stands of pines, called recruitment stands. But red-cockadeds seemed disinclined to pioneer these stands, and the species declined steadily throughout the South during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The birds' reluctance "didn't make sense to anyone at the time," says Walters. But research soon revealed the source of the recalcitrance. In 1988, scientists drilled artificial nest cavities in trees that grew within 20 test patches of forest unoccupied by woodpeckers. By the next breeding season, red-cockadeds had moved into 18 of the test areas. In contrast, no birds moved into the control plots, which lacked artificial cavities. "The key is really the cavities," says Walters.
Suddenly, conservationists had a potent tool for helping the species, and this tool soon was put to use when, in September 1989, Hurricane Hugo's 115-mph winds flattened vast tracts of the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina. The forest was home to the nation's second-largest red-cockaded woodpecker population. "We lost 87 percent of the active cavity trees and 63 percent of the red-cockaded woodpeckers," says Craig Watson, a biologist at Francis Marion. After the storm, biologists found almost 700 of the area's 1,900 woodpeckers still alive, but only 200 undamaged cavity trees remained. Watson had a housing crisis on his hands.
Within a month, Forest Service crews were drilling cavities for the refugee birds. As of 1995, 1,400 of the cavities dotted the forest, and Francis Marion's 371 red-cockaded groups still ranked among the species' largest populations (Apalachicola National Forest in Florida has the largest, with 650 groups). "It's one of the big success stories for endangered species," says Watson.
Presently, red-cockaded woodpeckers are increasing in a number of southern pine forests, and artificial cavities have played a part in each case. But where there is a way to save woodpeckers, there is not always a will. Attacks on the Endangered Species Act in Congress, and specifically on protection for red-cockadeds, and lack of commitment to the bird's protection among land-management agencies may throw cold water on woodpecker recovery. "The biggest threat to this species today is more in a political nature than it is a biological nature," says North Carolina biologist J.H. Carter, III, whose research has revealed much of what is known about red-cockaded habitat needs. (He published his first report on the species 30 years ago, when he was 15.)
For example, federal lands play a crucial role in meeting the FWS plan to establish 300 to 500 groups of the birds at each of 15 sites across the Southeast. National forests will make up the bulk of territory for 12 of the recovery populations. Already, more than half of all red-cockaded woodpeckers are found in national forests, though only Apalachicola has more than 500 groups.
Despite the forests' importance, Forest Service guidelines for managing woodpecker habitat, released in June 1995, do not go far enough in protecting the woodpeckers, according to a consortium of conservation groups. Woodpecker researcher Fran James, of Florida State University, gives the new national-forest guidelines mixed marks. "They're a great improvement" over previous plans, she says, because woodpecker habitat will be managed in units of several family groups, and trees will be cut on longer rotations. But in a concession to timber interests, the service plans to allow more logging in red-cockaded woodpecker habitat than experts recommended. Another fault in the guidelines, says James, is that local forest managers are not required to pursue "a very vigorous prescribed burning regime."
The assault on woodpecker management also has been conducted in Congress. Early last year, Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina) attempted to halt protection of redcockadeds at the Army's Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He dropped his effort when even the Pentagon opposed his goal. Later in 1995, 15 of Helms colleagues petitioned the Interior Department to remove the woodpecker (and two other troublesome birds) from the endangered-species list. The congressional petition, which is still pending, argued that the Endangered Species Act's "perverse incentives" discourage conservation "by imposing ruinous financial burdens on private landowners" who have protected wildlife on their property.
A new federal program suggests the weakness of that argument. This is Safe Harbor, a program that FWS launched last year to encourage voluntary improvements to privately owned red-cockaded woodpecker habitat in a six-county area of the North Carolina sandhills.
For example, Billy Clark, an attorney in Fayetteville, North Carolina, wants to manage his 2,000 acres to yield pine needles for the garden-mulch market. Under a 99-year Safe Harbor permit, Clark has agreed to maintain enough pine habitat, as determined by FWS biologists, to support the four groups of woodpeckers nesting on his land. These groups serve as his baseline birds. If more. woodpeckers move onto his land, Clark will not be responsible for protecting the newcomers under the Endangered Species Act, beyond giving biologists time to relocate any affected woodpeckers before he cuts pines.
"Although the Safe Harbor concept may not work for all species," says John Kostyack, the National Wildlife Federation's attorney for endangered-species issues, "it offers promise for the red-cockaded woodpecker. Under the program, the FWS protects current population levels on private lands and encourages private landowners to voluntarily increase those populations by eliminating any fear that ESA restrictions might result when new habitat is created."
Safe Harbor, says Carter, has helped to ameliorate property owners' fears of government control. "It's given us more tools to deal with private landowners," he says, "and has given them more reasons not to be scared to death of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Endangered Species Act." To date, 12 landowners responsible for 15,000 acres of private pineland have signed up with Safe Harbor.
Safe Harbor plans are being set up to help red-cockaded woodpeckers (and other endangered species) beyond the Carolina sandhills. "Landowners just love it," claimed Ralph Costa, the FWS woodpecker recovery coordinator, after meeting last fall with Louisiana pineland owners interested in joining a statewide Safe Harbor plan. "They say, 'This is all we needed. Just take away the onus of the government telling us what we can and cannot do with our land, and we'll give you habitat, we'll give you birds.'"
If Costa is right, someday this southern bird may at last be out of the woods, and at home in its pines.
Washington, D.C., journalist Michael Lipske last year won NWF's annual Trudy Farrand and John Strohm Magazine Writing Award for his article on blue crabs in the October-November 1995 issue.
NWF: Creating Plans To Save Rare Birds
Saving endangered species is an NWF priority. In recent years, NWF's Southeastern Natural Resource Center has been active in efforts to develop effective management plans for the red-cockaded woodpecker. Meanwhile, the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, an NWF affiliate, has joined the state Forestry Association in developing management plans that range from starting a Safe Harbor program like North Carolina's to creating woodpecker certificates that landowners who establish new red-cockaded families could sell, just as industries trade pollution credits.
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Victors celebrate wins in local elections
TONY JUDNICH @Tonyjnwfdn
Cynthia Brown will join the Crestview City Council, Steven Menchel will continue serving on the Destin City Council and newcomers Kirby Locklear and Nathan Kelley will join re-elected Councilman Mike Holmes and former Councilman M.G. Moran on the Fort Walton Beach City Council.
That’s according to unofficial results reported by the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections office on Tuesday’s at-large, nonpartisan elections. The overall voter turnout was only 7.8 percent of registered voters.
In Crestview, Brown defeated incumbent Bill Cox by winning almost 59 percent of the vote for the four-year Group 1 seat.
“I am pleasantly surprised,” said Brown, who thanked all of her supporters. “I’m really focused on revitalizing downtown. And I want ordinary people to know that they can do something, too, in getting involved in city government.”
In Destin’s special election, Menchel received more than 60 percent of the vote while defeating Teresa Hebert for a one-year seat.
Late last year, Menchel was appointed by the council to fill the seat of former Councilman Tuffy Dixon. Dixon resigned last December after saying he was tired of the city’s contentious politics.
Starting Monday, Menchel will begin serving the final year of Dixon’s unexpired, second four-year term.
“My big thing is, with the new staff that we have, things are moving forward and I look forward to being part of that team,” said Menchel, who thanked his supporters while he was out removing his campaign signs.
“Too many things had not moved forward during the past couple of years," he added. "I want to get with the city manager and have a town hall meeting so the constituents come to us and we can hear their ideas and learn what their problems are.”
In a tight race for Fort Walton Beach’s four-year council seats, Locklear led all candidates with almost 21 percent of the votes. Holmes and Moran each topped the 20 percent mark, while Kelley received slightly less than 20 percent.
The fifth candidate was Ryan Hartman, who collected a little less than 19 percent of the vote.
“I’m thrilled,” Locklear while thanking his family and supporters and celebrating at AJ’s on the Bayou. “It is quite an honor to be able to serve this city. It was a hard-fought victory, and it was close.”
He said he looks forward to making sure the city’s police and fire departments and parks are adequately funded, and that he wants to make Fort Walton Beach a go-to, fun destination.
Before his current four-year term, Holmes served a total of nine years on the council.
“I’m truly humbled by the votes that I got,” Holmes said, but added, “I guess I’m disappointed that we had such a small voter turnout.”
He said he's eager to see the Fort Walton Landing upgrades and the city’s downtown master plan being completed, and to make sure city officials are good stewards of Fort Walton Beach’s portion of the half-cent sales tax revenue.
Moran, who previously served on the council for two years, received only two fewer votes than Holmes and only 10 fewer than Locklear.
“I’m very pleased” with the win, said Moran, who was removing his campaign signs Tuesday night.
He said he’s excited about getting the city’s master plan done and making improvements to the city’s Commerce and Technology Park.
“We need to start making progress,” Moran said. “We don’t need the (industrial park) plans just sitting there. And we need to work with our state leaders on getting some funding for some of these issues.”
Kelley, who twice ran for a council seat before the current race, said he was very thrilled with his victory.
“I’ve been working on it for a very long time,” he said. “I’m pretty stoked. It’s like running a very long marathon.”
The biggest thing for the council to do now is to keep the city's momentum going, Kelley said.
“We have a ton of great things in the works, and the city manager and city staff are the best in the business,” he said.
One of the open Fort Walton Beach council seats had been held by Diane Keller, who died last September after battling cancer. John Holguin is filling the remainder of her current term, which expires March 31.
Besides the three contested races, the local elections featured a number of candidates who automatically won their respective seats after having faced no competition.
In Crestview, current Councilman J.B. Whitten will replace David Cadle as mayor. Also, Andrew Rencich will serve in the Group 2 council seat.
Incumbents Danny Dillard, Laura Driver and Kathleen Kunzman each were automatically re-elected in Cinco Bayou, and incumbents Debra Adams, Shawn Cogan and Scott Moneypenny will return to serve in Laurel Hill.
In Shalimar, Mark Franks will take over as mayor in place of Gary Combs, who has served in that post since 1999. Incumbents Brad Gable and Jerry McCallister will return to the Town Commission.
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American Folk Art Museum
2 Lincoln Square
Arts & Attractions American Folk Art Museum
The American Folk Art Museum is one of the leading institutions dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of folk art. From 18th and 19th century paintings, quilts, and sculptures to the dynamic work of contemporary self-taught artists, the museum... more
The American Folk Art Museum is one of the leading institutions dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of folk art. From 18th and 19th century paintings, quilts, and sculptures to the dynamic work of contemporary self-taught artists, the museum’s extraordinary collection reveals the spectrum of American expression. The museum believes that "folk art captures the heart of American culture. It speaks to diversity of heritage and shared national experience, individual creativity and community values." The museum's collection of more than 4,000 artworks span three centuries of American visual expression, from unflinching portraits, dazzling quilts, and muscular weathervanes to potent works by contemporary self-taught artists in a variety of mediums. Aside from frequent special exhibitions, the Museum offers two permanent collections: The Contemporary Center Formed in 1997, the center is dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of works by 20th- and 21st-century self-taught artists. Of particular note is the Henry Darger Study Center of the American Folk Art Museum. The center is guided by a belief that self-taught artists, with special reference to those highly gif... more
The American Folk Art Museum is one of the leading institutions dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of folk art. From 18th and 19th century paintings, quilts, and sculptures to the dynamic work of contemporary self-taught artists, the museum’s extraordinary collection reveals the spectrum of American expression.
The museum believes that "folk art captures the heart of American culture. It speaks to diversity of heritage and shared national experience, individual creativity and community values." The museum's collection of more than 4,000 artworks span three centuries of American visual expression, from unflinching portraits, dazzling quilts, and muscular weathervanes to potent works by contemporary self-taught artists in a variety of mediums.
Aside from frequent special exhibitions, the Museum offers two permanent collections:
The Contemporary Center
Formed in 1997, the center is dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of works by 20th- and 21st-century self-taught artists. Of particular note is the Henry Darger Study Center of the American Folk Art Museum. The center is guided by a belief that self-taught artists, with special reference to those highly gifted individuals who are identified with the field of art brut or "outsider" art, have created a powerful and moving but frequently unacknowledged body of work that is essential to a full understanding of the art and culture of the world.
Houses many examples of notable self-taught artists and outsider art. In particular, works by Henry Darger, Howard Finster, John Bell and others.
Also on permanent display at the AFAM is the The National Tribute Quilt. The quilt represents the response of the Steel Quilters of United States Steel Corporation to the events of September 11, 2001. This small quilt club conceived the monumental undertaking, ultimately receiving quilt blocks from all fifty states as well as Canada, Spain, Australia, and Denmark. The quilt measures eight feet high by 30 feet wide, and is constructed of 3,466 blocks in six panels. The four central panels form a montage of the twin towers of the World Trade Center against the New York City skyline. These are flanked by panels dedicated to the lives extinguished on the four flights and at the Pentagon. Each three-inch-square block bears the name of one person who perished in the disaster.
Admission And Tickets
This Week's Hours
Tue-Thur: 11:30am-7:00pm
Sunday: 12:00pm–6:00pm
to 66th Street-Lincoln Center
Free Activities & Amusements For Kids
Museum Deals
Free Music Fridays
Each Friday, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, the museum trustees and staff invite the public to explore the galleries free of charge, have a refreshment in the cafe, and enjoy live music in the stunning atrium.
Fri, August 02
@folkartmuseum
Can you guess what bustling NYC street sprang up in this quaint location? The Stone Bridge Tavern was situated at…
https://t.co/FDfFiGwDg2 14 Hours Ago
Bring the family and celebrate all things folk at the AFAM’s #SummerSaturday—an all-day FREE event of live music, a…
https://t.co/hX1QGNmVvN 15 Hours Ago
In 1953, Cal and Ruby Black moved to the Mojave Desert where they created Possum Trot, a miniature amusement park.…
https://t.co/y01uDcHVaz Yesterday at 3:00 AM
"Thunder Mountain is one of those places where the boundary between art and ritual is exceedingly thin. As it repre…
https://t.co/mF8930Iy1o Fri at 6:05 PM
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Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium is New York City's 'MUST SEE' Times Squar... view
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The New York Transit Museum, one of the city’s leading cultural institutions is ... view
Brooklyn Cyclones at MCU Park
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Media|Garden & Gun Claws Its Way Back From the Brink
https://nyti.ms/PRCkWu
Garden & Gun Claws Its Way Back From the Brink
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY SEPT. 2, 2012
Issues of Garden & Gun have included stories about woodworkers crafting chairs from whiskey barrels and Southern produce like Georgia rattlesnake watermelon. Credit Kate Thornton for The New York Times
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Among the many magazines that were battered by the recession, few survived such a precarious financial state as Garden & Gun.
In 2009, the two-year-old Southern lifestyle magazine lost financial support from its first publisher. Its employees, many of whom had relocated from New York City to work here, were left with dwindling buyout packages and the promise of freelance pay. Real estate developers could no longer afford to buy advertisements, and some new prospects said they would not give a cent to the magazine until the owners took “gun” out of its title.
David DiBenedetto, the editor in chief, recalled that when the magazine’s color printer broke, the staff did not have the money to replace it for two months. They had to print out proofs at a nearby Kinko’s.
“You didn’t know if you would be there the next week,” Mr. DiBenedetto said as he picked over a lunch of peach soup, fried green tomatoes and catfish at Charleston’s Husk restaurant. He and his wife moved here from New York so he could work at Garden & Gun. “You just didn’t know if the lights would be on.”
It did not help that Garden & Gun’s spare layouts and meandering prose differed radically from the shorter, flashier articles many magazines were moving toward to compete with Facebook and Twitter.
But now, its provocative name and contrarian approach seem to be paying off in a struggling magazine industry. The bimonthly won a 2011 American Society of Magazine Editors award for general excellence, and its editors have a three-book deal with HarperCollins to publish a Southern guide, a collection of dog columns and a cookbook.
With advertisers like Audi, Le Creuset and Brooks Brothers on board, the magazine’s owners forecast that it could be profitable for the first time this year. While circulation is slipping across the magazine industry, Garden & Gun’s circulation grew to 237,837 subscribers in December 2011 from 210,172 the year before, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
The magazine, based out of a 200-year-old former pharmacy on Charleston’s historic King Street, was founded as what Jessica Hundhausen Derrick, its vice president and brand development director, described as “a love song to the South.”
It included articles about backyard gin makers, woodworkers crafting chairs from whiskey barrels, and Southern produce like Georgia rattlesnake watermelon. Among the lighter pieces by authors like Roy Blount Jr., there were richly detailed articles like the one from a lifelong friend of Eudora Welty describing how the author feared that if her dead mother saw her cook, “she’d weep with shame.”
David DiBenedetto, editor in chief of Garden & Gun magazine. Credit Kate Thornton for The New York Times
And to feed advertisers’ anxieties, nearly every issue featured unapologetic articles in praise of hunting. There were essays on quail hunts, hunting clubs and hunting dogs, often written with an emphasis on land preservation and basking in sumptuous photo spreads to rival Vogue or National Geographic.
But the magazine has also taken a very modern approach to publishing. It began the Garden & Gun Club, which offers subscribers retail discounts and access to private concerts and talks. So far, 3,000 subscribers are paying $35 to $500 a year for one of three membership levels.
The magazine is holding 30 events this year, including a “Lowcountry Field Feast” in South Carolina, a golf event in Georgia and a New Orleans beer festival this fall. It also sells its own merchandise, like a limited-edition Garden & Gun hunting tie and, for the coming holidays, a Le Creuset dish in gunmetal gray.
These kinds of initiatives depend heavily on loyal readers, which Garden & Gun has in abundance. Subscribers knock on the door daily to introduce themselves. Readers write in about how they tested the Southern road trips and dive bars the magazine recommended. One reader even threatened to hunt down the editors and shoot them if they stopped publishing — which the editors emphasize was in jest.
During Mr. DiBenedetto’s lunch at Husk, he attracted more attention from diners and kitchen staff than the senior officials from the Homeland Security Department noisily taking up the restaurant’s back corner.
“It is probably my favorite magazine,” said Andrew Hastings, a 28-year-old hunter and fisherman from Little Rock, Ark., who, while dining at Husk, recognized Mr. DiBenedetto from his editor’s note photo.
The magazine grew out of a conversation between two parents in a Charleston kindergarten class. The first parent, Rebecca Wesson Darwin, was a native of Columbia, S.C., and a former New Yorker publisher who relocated to Charleston in 2004 because her husband accepted a job as senior pastor at the Second Presbyterian Church.
The second parent was Pierre Manigault, chairman of the Evening Post Publishing Company, which publishes the local paper. Mr. Manigault’s ancestors were Huguenots who moved to Charleston in the 17th century and shifted their fortunes into the newspaper business with the decline of rice farming.
At first, Ms. Darwin talked to Mr. Manigault about starting a local magazine. But she quickly decided there was a greater need for “a national magazine about a region.”
Mr. Manigault’s friend and Garden & Gun’s first editor in chief, John Wilson, suggested the title after taking a date to Hank’s Restaurant in Charleston and learning that it used to be a gay bar called the Garden and Gun Club.
From left, Barbara Bing, publisher of Garden & Gun; Rebecca Darwin, a co-founder of the magazine; and Jessica Hundhausen Derrick, a vice president. Credit Kate Thornton for The New York Times
Ms. Darwin had never hunted and no longer had time for gardening after moving to Charleston. But as she sat behind her desk in her sunlit office on King Street, framed by photographs of her children, she said she liked that Garden & Gun was “a bold name” and “a metaphor for the sporting life.” The title reminded her of working at GQ, and she said she might someday shorten it to G&G.
The first issue made its debut on newsstands in spring 2007, days before the shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. But Garden & Gun’s popularity grew steadily that year, and readers wrote long, impassioned letters to the editor.
By fall 2008, newspaper executives said they could no longer afford the magazine. Ms. Darwin and Mr. Manigault negotiated a deal to buy it from them and started making trip after trip to banks for temporary loans.
Ms. Darwin, who ran the daily operations, told employees they could stay and come to work as freelancers. She did not have the money to print or mail an October/November issue and instead wrote an apology letter to readers. She avoided asking private equity groups for help because she feared they would sell the magazine quickly.
The employees who remained worked together to keep the magazine afloat, taking out the trash because they could not afford support staff and finding backup editing jobs to pay their own bills. They relied on readers’ e-mails and letters for emotional support.
“There was no guarantee that the magazine was going to survive,” said Sid Evans, who was Garden & Gun’s editor in chief from 2008 to 2011 before moving to Time Inc. “But there are a lot of people out there who love a good read. They love being in the hands of a good writer and the insights those writers have.”
By May 2010, J. Edward Bell III, a lawyer from Georgetown, S.C., had become a major investor and the third co-owner along with Ms. Darwin and Mr. Manigault. Mr. Bell, who discovered the magazine when a country songwriter gave him a copy to read on a flight back from Colorado, said he was “instantly hooked” because “it reminds me of growing up in the South.”
Since then, Garden & Gun has had a slow but steady rise. Ms. Darwin brought back most of her staff. In early 2010, she hired Barbara Bing, an Atlanta-based publisher who had worked on sales for magazines like The New Yorker and Esquire, to build a national sales team. Ms. Bing refused requests by advertisers to change the name and said she hoped to increase circulation to 500,000.
She said she thought there were plenty more readers out there. While 55 percent of the magazine’s readers come from the Southeast, the rest come from other parts of the nation. Judging by the letters page, many of them are displaced Southerners or people who have married Southerners and fallen in love with the places their spouses have described.
“You don’t have to be Southern and you don’t have to live in the South to appreciate Garden & Gun,” Ms. Bing said. “But you do have to have the time to read.”
A version of this article appears in print on September 3, 2012, on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: A ‘Love Song to the South’ Claws Its Way Back From the Brink. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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Ewen Blaikie
After praying the prayer “send me” at 16 years old, Ewen feels God is finally answering that prayer and sending him into the mission field to serve as a pastor to people in Perth. For over 25 years, Ewen has been actively involved in ministry, and has served in the local church in a variety of fields including kids’ ministry, worship, youth ministry, young adults and married couples. As a vet, and more recently a business owner, Ewen developed a rapport with people from all walks of life, and it gave him a strong desire to help people find their way to God. It also gave him a strong grounding in running an organisation. Ewen is an accomplished songwriter, having written for and performed on a number of albums. Worship is still very close to his heart, and he looks forward to being involved in worship at Oasis. Ewen is passionate about building the Kingdom of God, raising up the next generation of leaders, and loving his family. He has been married to Christie for 13 years and he loves spending time with her and their four children.
Christie Blaikie
As a young girl Christie gave her heart to God when she was 10. However, her faith became real when she had a supernatural encounter at age 19. Christie has been in ministry since this time including youth ministry, women’s ministry, itinerant preacher and as a lead pastor. Planting Oasis Church has been a dream in her heart for sometime, and she has a heart and mind to see people experience the love of God, and find life the way that she has. Christie also feels strongly about empowering believers to lead lives full of passion for God and love for people with integrity, wholeness and authenticity. Christie has been a sought after speaker, speaking nationally and internationally, and she is the founder of Selah Women’s Retreats and a citywide movement for women, called ‘Girls on Fire’. Christie’s sense of humour and transparency enables her to communicate in a challenging, effective and heartfelt way. Together with her husband Ewen, she has four children; Amelia, Jack, Eliza and Anna, who are the loves of her life. She loves the beach, summer, meeting new people and she can’t wait to start Oasis Church.
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Is it more difficult for women to recover after a heart attack than men?
New research shows why doctors should be giving women stronger warnings about the existing consequences after a heart attack.
Reuters reports on the new study any why it is important for women to know this information.
Experts find that women are more stressed than men after a heart attack and possibly have a greater chance of having another heart attack due to this stress.
Experts are saying women report more stress than men soon after a heart attack and this explains their worse recovery. The lead author of this study is Dr. Xu, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Dr. Xu commented on the study telling Reuters,
“It has been known for a while that (the) mortality rate is higher in younger women than in younger men after heart attack. But few studies have looked at gender differences in other outcomes. Women tend to experience greater stress than men, even in the general population regardless of heart attack status. Our study confirmed such a gender difference in young and middle-aged patients with heart attack.”
How was the study conducted?
Experts compared 2,397 women and 1,175 men under the age of fifty-five who were hospitalized in the United States, Australia and Spain. The seriousness of the heart attacks was almost the same for men and women. During the time of their hospital stay, participants answered fourteen questions about their recent stress levels. After a month, researchers re-interviewed them and to analyze how their recovery processes were going.
What was the outcome?
Researchers say at the first interview, those who were of a younger age and female tended to have higher stress scores than those who were older or male. The authors reported their findings in a paper scheduled for publication in the journal Circulation. The team created a 0- to 56-point stress scale, where men averaged 23.4 points and women averaged a higher number at around 27 points.
“A third of women had experienced major family conflict within the past year compared to 20 percent of men. More women than men also reported a major personal injury, illness or death of a family member over the past year. Women tend to have lower financial resources than men and are often faced with more demands for family care, which may explain their higher stress. Women in the study also had more diabetes, lung disease, kidney problems, depression, cancer and previous heart problems. At the one-month point, women had worse chest-pain related physical function, quality of life and overall health,” according to Reuters.
He experts said that after a heart attack, doctors should be advising patients to adopt healthy lifestyles and receive therapies such as beta-blockers. However people under more stress may be less likely to follow this advice.
The experts also said that stressed people are more likely to take part in smoking and drinking behaviors or have disruptions in their treatment process. They also said that all heart attack patients, irrespective of gender, should be screened for chronic stress.
Dr. Arnold, a research assistant professor at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, was not involved in the research but commented on the study.
She said, “We had known that women have worse health status after a heart attack for some time. What we don't really understand is why. Stress is associated with heart attack and even death.”
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Home The Weekly Hit List Current Hit List Violent Femmes
Photo courtesy Cain's Ballroom.
Photo courtesy Cain’s Ballroom.
Sun., Jul 17 at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa
From cainsballroom.com:
Their eponymous first album became the first and only album in Billboard history to enter the charts as a platinum album, eight years after its release. The Femmes became a mainstay of festivals, clubs and theatres in over 30 countries worldwide in the ensuing three decades.
MTV’s “Unplugged” show was inspired by the Femmes, although they never actually appeared on it. Their raw sound and honest lyrical perspective has been cited as an influence by artists as diverse as Pink, Keith Urban, The Smiths, Nirvana, Lou Reed, John Cusack, Mark Morris, and Wim Wenders.
Violent Femmes are currently touring behind the Happy New Year EP and We Can Do Anything LP.
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An Evening with MISS USA
Brittany Anicetti - September 16, 2015
Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic (OKC)
Staff - June 14, 2017
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Andrew Morton, UNEP
Haiti 2011: Looking One Year Back and Twenty Years Forward
January 14, 2011 By Wilson Center Staff
This piece first appeared on the website of the Haiti Regeneration Initiative – a new collaborative venture between the UN, the government of Haiti, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Catholic Relief Services, and a wide range of other implementing partners.
In 2010, Haiti endured a year like no other. The country was struck by a devastating earthquake, a cholera epidemic, floods, violence, and political uncertainty. At the same time, Haiti witnessed heroic rescue and relief efforts and an enormous demonstration of international goodwill. Today, recovery and reconstruction are taking place, albeit at a frustratingly slow pace and not currently at the scale of existing needs.
Just as importantly, 2010 brought a renewed awareness of the need for lasting solutions and improvements in the design and delivery of international aid. During the next few days, we will look back on the tragic events of January 12th, 2010, while at the same time, we must look forward, not just one year, but 20.
A Failed Recovery in a Fragile State
Already before the earthquake, Haiti was a fragile state trapped in a slow but vicious negative spiral. A tightly interconnected trio of chronic environmental, political, and socio-economic crises has gradually ensured that Haiti has had the lowest human development indicators in the Western Hemisphere, with life-long poverty, chronic hunger, and violence. Catastrophic events, such as natural disasters, epidemics, and political violence, have simply steepened the descent. Moreover, disaster recovery efforts to date have systematically failed to bring the country back to pre-disaster levels.
In spite of this depressing analysis and forecast, we should not resign ourselves to failure. The situation can be turned around but only with great effort and by foregoing “business as usual.”
The first step towards change is full recognition of the situation. In the case of Haiti, this means recognizing the marked failure of foreign recovery and development assistance to date. It is pointless to blame any particular institution or individual for this: The current state of Haiti is the culmination of generations of efforts and decisions, good and bad, combined with rapid population growth and an inherent vulnerability to natural hazards. (Editor’s note: according to the UN, Haiti’s fertility rate tripled in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake last year.)
The second step is planning. While relatively solid recovery plans have been developed by the government of Haiti with international assistance, their implementation has not so far met with success, due to four interlinked problems.
First, the humanitarian imperative for urgent and chronic relief is overrunning all good intentions for recovery and development – it is politically impossible, inhumane, and simply unwise to ignore the basic resource needs of a cholera epidemic and a million people living in tents.
Second, nothing suppresses development investments like political violence and uncertainty: Few donors, and even fewer companies, will invest while riots and political uncertainty paralyze the country and destroy its reputation.
Third, the planning process is necessarily democratic and participatory; as a result, however, virtually all of the country’s needs are listed with no reliable process of thematic or geographic prioritization.
Finally – and perhaps most importantly – although the plans are official and uncontested, they generally lack broad credibility and commitment. Weary aid workers, government officials, donors and the general public look back at the fate of previous plans and, not surprisingly, expect these latest efforts to fail just as others have before.
Regenerating Haiti
Unlike virtually all other aid organizations I have met in Haiti, the team behind the Haiti Regeneration Initiative (HRI) has fortunately been given the vital time and seed funding to reflect on these issues and try something really different. After two years of preparation, on January 4, 2010, we launched a long-term rural sustainable development initiative for the southwestern tip of Haiti. The Côte Sud Initiative aims to transform the lives and the degraded environment of 200,000 people living in one of the poorest yet most beautiful parts of Haiti.
This specific initiative will only directly assist two percent of the population of Haiti, but just as importantly, we aim to demonstrate that sustainable development is truly possible in this country. Because national-scale issues require national-scale efforts, we also aim to promote change through dialogue and assisting the government of Haiti to develop and deliver on sustainable development plans that work. This is the primary mission of the HRI.
We must arrest the long-term decline as soon as possible. This includes, but is not limited to, basic recovery from the earthquake. At the same time, we need to establish the foundations for the long-term radical changes that are an absolute prerequisite to achieving sustainable development in Haiti. We must prepare to turn the vicious circles into virtuous ones.
So what are the short- to medium-term priorities?
The first is political stabilization, as vital foreign aid and direct foreign investment will simply not arrive in the face of such negative news and uncertainty.
Second, a massive aid investment in potable water and sanitation is required to suppress cholera in the longer term. No country can develop in the midst of recurrent major epidemics. This investment needs to be designed for sustainability; in other words, infrastructure needs to be accompanied by realistic, locally financed mechanisms for maintenance. Otherwise it will become useless within weeks of installation.
Third, persistence is needed on the current debris clearance and rebuilding efforts; we know from many other countries that such efforts can take years to be completed.
Finally, development aid should move out of Port-au-Prince and into the regions. In 2010, the massive influx of earthquake relief and reconstruction aid actually increased the economic pull of the capital and exacerbated existing urban problems.
What to do to prepare for the long term? Implementing radical change requires political support and even cultural reform, so in addition to good ideas, the HRI partnership will work hard to develop a sense of national ownership of the solutions as well as the problems.
Many of the ideas are not new: mildly decentralized development, diversified and value-added agriculture, niche tourism, improved aid coordination, public-private partnerships, etc.
Many, however, are radical, including a proposed paradigm change on migration and remittances, education, food security and import policies, widespread privatization, harsh revisions and rebuttals of traditional development models and assumptions, and adaptation to the new types of religious NGOs. These are just a few of the concepts and opportunities we have identified and will work to make a reality in Haiti.
Over the next few years, the HRI hopes to foster an intelligent and useful dialogue on sustainable development in Haiti. We look forward to having all of those who are concerned about and interested in helping Haiti join us in the debate.
Andrew Morton is the Haiti Regeneration coordinator and a senior staff member at UNEP. For more information on the Haiti Regeneration Initiative please see www.haitiregeneration.org.
Sources: BBC, Haiti Regeneration Initiative, United Nations Development Programme.
Image Credit: “Rebuilding as a community,” courtesy of flickr user Save the Children.
Topics: disaster relief, economics, environment, environmental health, global health, Haiti, livelihoods, population, poverty, UN
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The Day of the “Roaring Jackass”
Amid questions over his charitable giving and defunct for-profit school, Donald Trump continues to sling insults at any member of the media who contradicts him.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LUCAS JACKSON / REUTERS
Even by the exacting standards of the 2016 campaign, which has turned into a theatre of the absurd and the disturbing, the past twenty-four hours have been bizarre. Barely had Americans returned to work from the Memorial Day weekend when word came that Donald Trump would be holding a mid-morning press conference at Trump Tower. He planned to detail how he had distributed some six million dollars that he claimed to have raised for veterans’ organizations back in January, when, fuming at Fox News and its anchor Megyn Kelly, he skipped a Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa, and held a charity event of his own.
Early last week, the Washington Post’s David A. Fahrenthold reported that he couldn’t find any veterans’ organizations that had received money from Trump’s event. And it was only as Fahrenthold prepared to publish his story, he reported, that Trump moved to fulfill a pledge to donate a million dollars of his own.
To anyone who was familiar with Trump’s record of philanthropy, which is long on rounds of golf donated to charity by his various courses but short on actual cash handed over, the Post story wasn’t entirely surprising. Together with other reports, it clearly got under Trump’s skin, though. As the press conference began, his staff distributed a list of forty veterans’ organization to which he or his charitable foundation had sent checks. The organizations ran the gamut from the Navy SEAL Foundation, to which the Trump Foundation donated four hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars, and Operation Homefront, a sizable Texas-based charity, which received fifty thousand dollars, to much smaller outfits, such as New England Wounded Veterans, which got seventy-five thousand dollars.
The Associated Press subsequently reported that many of the checks went out just last week, and that at least some were dated May 24th, the same day Fahrenthold’s story appeared. Trump, when he took the microphone, didn’t pause to explain this coincidence. Instead, he lashed out at the media for querying his actions.
“You make me look very bad,” Trump complained. “I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job.” He called the reporting about his donations “dishonest” and “unfair,” and he singled out some of the journalists present. Pointing at Tom Llamas, of ABC News, Trump said, “You’re a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well.” To CNN’s Jim Acosta, who expressed doubts about whether Trump could withstand media scrutiny, the candidate said, “Excuse me, excuse me. I’ve watched you on television. You’re a real beauty.” At one point in Trump’s rant, a reporter asked him if his angry demeanor was an indication of how his White House news conferences would go, should he get elected. “Yes, it is,” he said. “It is going to be like this.”
Trump didn’t reserve his vitriol for members of the Fourth Estate. He also took some swings at Mitt Romney, the patron saint of the Never Trump movement, and at its de-facto chief executive, Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, who had interrupted his holiday weekend to tweet, “There will be an independent candidate—an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.”
Asked about the possibility of a third-party candidate, Trump said that it would lose the election for the Republicans, “and therefore you lose the Supreme Court.” He reminded his audience that Kristol once predicted that he wouldn’t run for President, and he added, “He’s got no credibility. . . . He looks like a fool.” Then he hit his antagonist with the ultimate Trump insult: “Bill Kristol’s a loser. His magazine is failing, as you know. I don’t think it even survives. He’s getting some free publicity.”
Kristol, a veteran Republican grandee who came to prominence as Vice-President Dan Quayle’s chief of staff, didn’t take long to return fire. “I gather Donald Trump said I’m a loser,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’ve won some and I’ve lost some, but one thing I’ve always tried not to be is a roaring jackass.”
In the Twitterverse—or, at least, in parts of it—this was adjudged a devilishly effective response, the literary equivalent of Ali coming off the ropes to drop Foreman to the canvas. More than sixteen hundred people have retweeted Kristol’s bon mot thus far, and one of the retweeters, Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times, proclaimed, “Quote of the 2016 campaign - so far.”
From this pre-noon high, however, Kristol’s day was to embark on a steep descent. In the middle of the afternoon, Bloomberg News’s Mark Halperin and John Heilemann reported that the “impressive” third-party candidate Kristol had in mind to challenge Trump was David French, a conservative lawyer and anti-abortion activist who writes for National Review, the conservative publication that earlier this year published a special issue devoted to the theme “Against Trump.” As word of French’s possible candidacy got around, it provoked a collective raspberry from the commentariat, the likes of which hasn’t been heard since John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. Harry Enten, of FiveThirtyEight, wrote on Twitter, “No offense but who the hell is David French?” BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski quipped, “Kristol went with French after his first choice, Harambe the gorilla, became unexpectedly [un]available.” (The reference was to the primate shot by zookeepers at the Cincinnati Zoo, on Saturday.) Josh Barro, of Business Insider, said, “I want to thank Bill Kristol. I have a headache and I’m not feeling so great today, and the hearty laugh he just gave me cheered me up.”
Even some people more familiar with French expressed doubts. Ed Morrissey, a senior editor at the conservative Web site HotAir tweeted, “Huge respect for both @DavidAFrench & @BillKristol, but this is like picking @GeorgeWill to pitch for your fantasy baseball team.”
Some of this reaction may have been unfair to French, a Harvard Law School-trained constitutional lawyer, social conservative, and decorated military veteran. (While serving as Squadron Judge Advocate for the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq, he was awarded a Bronze Star.) On Tuesday evening, Mitt Romney came to French’s defense, tweeting, “I know David French to be an honorable, intelligent and patriotic person. I look forward to following what he has to say.”
The fact remains, however, that French is a political neophyte. He doesn’t have any money to finance a campaign, and just last week he published an article saying that Romney was the only one with “the integrity, financial resources, name recognition, and broad public support to make a realistic independent run at the presidency.”
Perhaps the most revelatory reaction to the news about Kristol and French came from Trump himself. Like the dog in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze,” Trump didn’t bark. Either he didn’t think it was worth his while, or he was too busy tweeting abuse at yet another reporter, Katie Couric, and preparing for a fawning interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, who let slip the non-revelation that he would be voting for his guest in November. “You know, I am not the corrupt press,” Hannity said. “I am actually the conservative.” Trump responded, “You happen to be right about that.”
There followed a mutual whining session about the iniquities of the media, and how unfairly journalists were treating the presumptive G.O.P. nominee. “I said in 2008, journalism is dead; you’re confronting this bias, institutional bias, and they don’t seem to like it,” Hannity said. Naturally enough, Trump agreed. “They’re bad people,” he said.
Doubtless, they are. As Trump and Hannity were chewing the fat, the New York Times was publishing another scurrilous attack on America’s would-be savior: a front-page story that cited sworn testimony from former managers of Trump University, which was released yesterday following a court ruling. The testimony portrayed the now-defunct for-profit school as “an unscrupulous business that relied on high-pressure sales tactics, employed unqualified instructors, made deceptive claims and exploited vulnerable students willing to pay tens of thousands for Mr. Trump’s insights,” Michael Barbaro and Steve Eder wrote. One of the ex-managers told the Times, “I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme.”
Trump’s lawyers told the Times that this testimony had been “completely discredited” by other depositions taken in a California lawsuit. Hope Hicks, a campaign spokesperson, said that Trump University was looking forward to its day in court. For some reason, though, as of Tuesday morning the “roaring jackass” himself hadn’t responded directly.
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David Remnick, Amy Davidson, Kelefa Sanneh, and Nate Silver discuss the problem of Trumpism.
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Thanks to some good old-fashioned reporting, we now have an idea of how little cash Trump has given away.
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Description and Analysis
Silver Commemoratives
1951 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 50C MS
Booker T. Washington was one of the leading figures in the charge to educate freed slaves during the reconstruction era. Being a free slave himself, he believed that the key to African Americans’ future success was through learning practical skills. Though his emphasis on manual skills as the ticket to advancement for his race drew criticism from those favoring a more balanced education for African Americans, it’s evident that his approach was perhaps better suited to the American social climate of its time. But Booker T. Washington’s ceaseless, pioneering efforts helped to ease white America into a greater acceptance of their fellow Americans.
Due to his place in American History, the Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial Commission looked to strike a commemorative coin in his honor. They hoped to raise funds for the purchase and maintenance of his birthplace in Franklin County, Virginia. They were successful, and legislation was passed on August 7th, 1946 authorizing the mintage of up to 5 million coins. There were no stipulations placed on date and mint, an oversight that the Commission took full advantage of over the course of the following years.
The Commission hired sculptor Charles Keck, creator of the Panama-Pacific gold dollar and Lynchburg half, to design the coin. He submitted his designs which were approved by the Mint. However, unbeknownst to him or the BTW Commission, African-American artist Isaac Scott Hathaway learned of the program and offered up his own designs for free. Not knowing all of the facts, the Commission of Fine Arts approved Hathaway’s models. These were to be the designs that were put on the coin, and Keck’s were not used.
The coin’s obverse features a three-quarter facing bust of Washington. Below this is his name BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, while above is the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, both arranged in peripheral arcs around the coin’s border. To the left of Washington’s portrait are the year of coining and the value HALF DOLLAR, while the Latin legend E PLURIBUS UNUM is placed to the right. The reverse features in large letters the inscription FROM SLAVE CABIN TO HALL OF FAME. Indeed, both are depicted, New York City’s Hall of Fame colonnade above, and a generic slave cabin below. Squeezed into the spaces at left and right of the cabin are IN GOD WE TRUST and FRANKLIN COUNTY VA, respectively. Below the cabin is yet another statutory motto, LIBERTY, flanked by small stars, while the words BOOKER T. WASHINGTON BIRTHPLACE MEMORIAL are arranged in an arc inside the upper periphery.
For the initial offering year of 1946, 200,000 sets were issued, and an additional 800,000 coins were minted in Philadelphia. While many of these coins were likely melted in 1951, no records were kept as to the quantity of each date and mint mark that were destroyed. Sales were abysmal, and many coins were either released into circulation or melted. Nevertheless, all three mints coined this type annually through 1951 in ever-diminishing quantities that went straight to speculators and those few collectors who stayed with the program each year. Only the 1950-S and 1951(P) coins had significantly larger mintages, around half a million each, but again these coins were mostly returned to the Mint in later years for melting. All Booker T. Washington halves minted after 1946 aside from the 1950-S and 1951(P) issues are better coins price-wise due to their significantly lower mintages that range from 6,000 to 8,000 coins each.
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This Former Street Kid Is Harnessing the Favelas' Untapped Political Power
SourceGluekit for OZY
People who are accelerating our culture and advancing the conversation – for good or for ill. You may not have heard of them yet – but you'll soon need to know 'em.
Because a massive forgotten community might have found its voice at last.
The Next Mandela: Will the next famed freedom fighter please stand up?The Next Mandela: South Africa's famed freedom fighter was one of a kind, but there may be leaders today looking to follow in his footsteps.
By Ciara Long
The Daily Dose JUL 22 2018
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, OZY is profiling opposition figures around the globe taking risks in the fight for social justice. Here is another on Cambodia’s Yang Saing Koma.
As the clock ticks toward 7 p.m. on a Friday, Celso Athayde breezes out of a business meeting in Rio de Janeiro’s central business district, where he has been negotiating since midafternoon. The 55-year-old entrepreneur, whose T-shirt stands as a contradiction to the suits swanning by on the sidewalk, doesn’t seem tired. Instead, he gesticulates excitedly as he talks about how the deal he’s just made could help insert hundreds more Afro-Brazilians into the workforce.
Athayde is an exception to the rule, one of the 4.7 percent of Brazilian executives who are Black in a country where, on the current pace, the racial salary gap will only close in the year 2089. Not that it’s enough for him. “Every day that passes, I have the possibility to change the lives of even more people,” he says.
Deals might be business as usual for Athayde, but his latest foray is his most provocative move yet: a political party. Frente Favela Brasil hopes to represent Black Brazilians and residents of low-income favela settlements in the upcoming October elections. There was one condition attached to his help: that voters sign up on Athayde’s online platform, Real Collective Mandate Movement (MMACOR). This, he believes, has the potential to connect politicians with voters once again.
We need to have Black Brazilians in politics because we need to see ourselves within the process of transforming society.
Nega Gizza, rapper, activist and political candidate
Through the platform, representatives promise to open significant matters to public consultation with their voters. “There’s a rupture today between the elected and the electorate,” Athayde says. “You vote for people who belong to parties, to financial backers, to lobbies, and everything that you want is ignored. But this means that politicians represent people again.”
With Brazil’s high-level corruption saga Operation Car Wash embroiling more than a third of the country’s politicians in its four years, Brazilians are not feeling optimistic about their national politics. Just 20 percent feel that October’s elections could bring about something good for their country, and only 3 percent approve of the current government. Athayde believes that reinvigorating the connection between voters and politicians is the way to revive a scandal-scarred country’s political culture.
Though Athayde’s life began a little less than 25 miles from Rio’s business center, the glass-and-cement office towers couldn’t be farther from the crumbling curbs where he spent his childhood. Having lived on the streets since the age of 2 with his mother after his parents’ divorce, Athayde moved into a shelter at 10 and into a house in one of Rio’s favelas at 14, where he started working as a street hawker. In 1999 he launched Central Única das Favelas (CUFA), a business with hip-hop culture at its heart, designed to foster social inclusion and career opportunities for Black Brazilians. CUFA’s success earned accolades from the likes of Beyoncé and Gisele Bündchen.
“Celso always told me: ‘Look, there’s this opportunity coming up, it could make money, and it could also not make money. But either way it’s an experience,’” says Ualace Rodrigues. Now 40 years old, Rodrigues met Athayde six years ago through one of CUFA’s sports projects. He had almost given up on his dreams, working as everything from street hawker to motorbike delivery boy to private security. But thanks to Athayde’s social holdings company, formed in 2012 and home to 20 favela-owned businesses, Rodrigues now owns air travel agency Favela Vai Voando (translation: The Favela Flies). “Whatever Celso looks at, he transforms.”
Despite 54 percent of Brazil’s population identifying as Black, wealth and power are overwhelmingly concentrated in White hands. The United Nations found that Black Brazilians make up 76 percent of the country’s poorest 10 percent, but just 17.4 percent of its richest 1 percent. Even better-off Black Brazilians are usually behind: The Institute for Applied Economics notes that the number of Black Brazilians attending university quadrupled between 1995 and 2015, but on average they still earn 28 percent less than their White counterparts.
“There’s a lot of racism here,” says Ana Claudia Correia, coordinator of distributor firm Favela Log, another of the companies under Athayde’s holding company. “CUFA opened up opportunities for Black Brazilians to enter the workforce.”
Political representation is as bad as in the business world. At present, Black Brazilians make up just 18.5 percent of the Senate and 20 percent of the lower house, even though voting is compulsory for all citizens. Nega Gizza, a rapper and activist, has always wanted to enter politics — so much so that she, Athayde and a few others tried to create a political party back in 1999 when CUFA launched. They decided that their timing wasn’t right, but never gave up the idea. Gizza, along with several others, recently twisted Athayde’s arm enough to help create Frente Favela Brasil. The new crowd-funded party cleared a massive series of bureaucratic hurdles before it was approved by the Supreme Electoral Court. Athayde has not donated to it himself, rather using his business connections to boost awareness and credibility.
“We need to have Black Brazilians in politics because we need to see ourselves within the process of transforming society,” says Gizza, now running for a Rio de Janeiro state representative seat with Frente Favela Brasil. “We need to be participants in reducing racism, violence and all the prejudice that surrounds Black Brazilians today.”
While Frente Favela Brasil is gaining momentum, its growth relies on word of mouth rather than flashy campaigns — meaning that its 72 candidates were unable to run on their own ticket or put forward a presidential candidate this year. As such, its candidates are running at state and federal levels in partnership with other parties such as the Socialism and Liberty Party and the Communist Party of Brazil.
The difference, Athayde and Gizza hope, is the MMACOR online platform’s easy-to-track promises, which can hold politicians accountable. “Any mechanism which increases citizens’ engagement with politics is hugely important, because it means their expectations are more aligned with politics,” says Thiago de Aragão, strategy director at political consultancy Arko Advice. “But it all depends on the size of expectations. I don’t think it will fundamentally change the relationship between voters and politicians, but it could be a first step.”
Athayde says he has “no interest whatsoever” in becoming one of those politicians himself. His passion is organizing and creating opportunities for Black and low-income Brazilians, constantly shuffling on to the next big deal.
Ciara Long, OZY AuthorContact Ciara Long
Democracy, The Big Test
OZYRising Stars
Bulgarian journalist Petya Kertikova is building a movement, but her country has a long way to go.
Can a 25-Year-Old MP Lift One of India's Poorest Regions?
Chandrani Murmu, India’s youngest parliamentarian, is fighting for her rural mining constituency.
More from Rising Stars
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Getting Goals, Setting Goals
Rob McNichol
WHEN the goals were not coming for Argyle earlier in the season, John Sheridan always believed that a time would come when that would change.
In some of the days during the late months of 2013, to suggest that Argyle would get nine goals in nine games might have pushing it. To suggest nine unanswered goals in two games would have had you laughed out of town.
As you might expect from the gaffer, though, he refuses to get excited about the rapidly improving goal difference next to our name on the table. It is the column on the furthest right that he cares about the most.
“The main focus is trying to get three points from each game, which we have done,” said John. “To score nine and not concede is a big plus for us.
“It’s down to the players more than anything. We’ve had chances, and scored when we’ve had the chances. There’s no secret. I knew it would come good in the end because the players are good enough. They are just playing with a bit more confidence and belief. If you go out thinking you’re going to win games you’ve got a good chance of winning them.”
With Argyle two points away from the play-off zone and their seasonal destiny in their own hands, this truly is looking to be a crunch stage of the season. Six games in eighteen days, starting with a relatively short trip to Bristol Rovers, could mean everything come May.
John said: “I’ve been mentioning the play-offs all season. I felt we were good enough if we performed and got a bit of consistency in our game. At this moment in time we’re in quite a healthy position. We’re chasing the pack. There are still plenty of points to play for, plenty of games, plenty of ups and downs. While we are there we’ve got to build on it and carry on.”
Rovers occupy an odd sort of no-mans-land in the Sky Bet League 2 table Six more points and they could be ninth, just below Argyle. Six points fewer, though, and they would be underneath the dreaded dotted line. Safety is far from assured for John Ward’s men.
It has been when leaving their own patch where they have suffered, however. Their home form has been strong; they have only lost three league games at the Memorial Stadium all season. They are also unbeaten in five games at home or away, having conceded only two goals. Despite Argyle’s form, this will be anything but a cakewalk.
“I actually thought they would be further up the table,” said John, of Rovers. “I think they’ve got a strong squad and an excellent manager - I’ve got a lot of time for John Ward. I respect him, and I listen when he talks. They’ve got decent home form at the moment.
“They beat Burton. We’ve had them watched and they’ve got some good players. It will be a good test for us but we go there confident that we can get something form the game.
“We’re going to try to win the game.”
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Andy In The Middle
Lewis Hancock
ANDY Davies will be the man in the middle of Argyle’s Sky Bet League 2 fixture on Saturday, where the Pilgrims host Cheltenham Town at Home Park.
The Hampshire-born referee is a former professional footballer, plying his trade at Portsmouth, Gillingham and Yeovil Town before being forced to retire at 28-years-old due to injury.
After hanging up his boots, Davies turned to refereeing in 2003 and made rapid progress, achieving a double promotion and reaching National Line list in a short amount of time. He went onto officiate his first Football League match in August 2012 – a 3-0 victory for Morecambe at Exeter City.
Andy has been in charge of nine matches this campaign producing 33 yellow cards and sending one player off – AFC Wimbledon’s Matt Tubbs against Burton Albion. However in his last outing, Luton v Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday, he issued no cards.
In his three seasons of refereeing, Davies has been in the middle for five Argyle matches in which we have never lost (four wins and a draw).
Last year, he was the official when Argyle beat Wycombe 1-0 at Adams Park. He cautioned one Argyle player (Neal Trotman) on that occasion.
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Five things to know about Robert Mueller’s secret Trump-Russia appeals court case
Bill Palmer | 10:30 pm EDT December 16, 2018
It’s being treated by the federal court system like it’s the most crucial case in United States history. Yet because it’s also being treated as one of the most secretive court cases in U.S. history, we know virtually nothing about it. It’s the case of Special Counsel Robert Mueller (we think) vs someone in the Trump-Russia scandal who’s important enough to make the entire DC Court of Appeals bend over backward to accommodate the matter accordingly. Here’s what little we do know about the case:
1) Not one official word has been said about this ongoing court case by anyone involved. We only know it exists because secretive hearings keep taking place. That said, various reporters have spotted Robert Mueller’s top prosecutors in just enough proximity to the court case to make clear that it almost certainly involves him.
2) Minor details have leaked out which strongly suggest that this is a court battle over a grand jury proceeding. Some legal observers suspect Mueller has subpoenaed Trump to testify, but we’re not sure that alone would be enough to warrant all the secrecy. Other legal observers have suggested that Mueller may have already had a grand jury indict Trump, and he’s seeking to get the court to allow him to unseal it. Still others think Mueller may have indicted Pence. But all of these are merely logical guesses, based on almost no available evidence.
3) Whatever this court battle is, it’s been going on since August. It’s currently at the U.S. Court of Appeals level, meaning that it started out in lower court, one side won, and the other side is appealing. We have no way of knowing which side won the initial ruling and which side is appealing. But this is clearly a battle that’s been going on a long time, meaning it’s not a result of anything that’s sprung up in the past few months.
4) Secrecy surrounding this court matter is off the charts. Various reporters have tweeted that the entire floor of the courtroom was sealed off ahead of time in order to keep them out. This level of security is typically only reserved for cases in which a witness is being shielded from the public. But an appeals court case of this type wouldn’t involve having a witness testify. This suggests that the secrecy is due to the sheer importance of the case.
5) The entire DC Court of Appeals has dropped what it’s doing in order to hear this case – it’s apparently that crucial to the fate of the nation. That said, one judge has recused himself from the panel; it’s a guy who was recently nominated by Trump, after he did some legal work for Trump’s defense. His recusal strongly suggests that this case is about Trump, or directly involves Trump.
← Yep, Jared Kushner is going to prison“Mr. Enemy of the People” →
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Gentleman Jack’s Sally Wainwright on the Riveting True Story Behind the Lesbian Drama
Actress Suranne Jones also opened up about portraying a 19th century queer woman.
By Lisa Liebman
As improbable as Anne Lister’s life as an out and proud lesbian in 19th century England may sound, it’s actually true. We know this because the Halifax landowner and businesswoman kept secret diaries that now form the basis of the captivating new HBO series Gentleman Jack, premiering April 22. Suranne Jones stars as the titular character—locals gave Lister the nickname due to her “unfeminine” dress and demeanor—in the first queer costume drama created, written, and co-directed by a woman.
For years, writer Sally Wainwright, whose most recent series was the Netflix crime drama Happy Valley, has wanted to use the intimate details of Lister’s voluminous private journals to tell the story of the gender non-conforming maverick now considered to be the first modern lesbian. A native of West Yorkshire where Lister lived, Wainwright had visited Lister’s ancestral home, Shibden Hall, as a kid. But it wasn’t until she read historian Jill Liddington’s book Presenting the Past that she understood the provenance of the estate that’s now a public park.
Still, when Wainwright first pitched a show about the woman who confidently defied convention—eschewing feminine attire, studying anatomy abroad, and carrying on love affairs with women—17 years ago, no one was interested. A screenwriting grant allowed her to do more diary decryption— Lister used code to conceal entries about her relationships—while writing other dramas, including Last Tango In Halifax. But Lister’s story remained at the top of her to-do list, and the success of Happy Valley finally gave her the clout to get it greenlit. “I think the timing’s right for this kind of subject matter now and it simply wasn’t 17 years ago,” Wainwright tells OprahMag.com.
The at-times cheeky drama—Lister occasionally offers asides to the camera—opens in 1832 with the charismatic 41-year-old world traveler returning home heartbroken after being dumped by her latest girlfriend for yet another marriage of convenience. Lister doesn’t intend to stay long at the manor Wainwright says her uncle left her, and in which her disapproving sister (Gemma Whelan, Game of Thrones), discouraging father (Timothy West), and doting aunt (Gemma Jones) live. But soon she’s seducing her spinster neighbor Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle, Bodyguard)—with an eye on the fragile heiress’s bank account—making improvements to her estate, and reopening the family coal mine.
Despite Jones’s dynamic performance—and the fact she and Wainwright have worked together on two series—the actress wasn’t a shoo-in for the part. “Normally when I’m writing, I have a real clear picture of who I’m looking at,” Wainwright says. "But I think partly because she was a real person and partly because the three adult portraits of her don’t quite agree with each other, I could never see her in my mind’s eye. I almost needed somebody to come in and say, ‘This is me, I’m Anne Lister.’ Suranne did that.”
For her part, Jones tells OprahMag.com that she was drawn to a “very different take on a period drama. It felt very modern, and unique because Lister was very modern and unique for her time.”
Stylishly dressed in mostly black menswear-inspired outfits, Jones’s spirited Lister confidently strides around doing the unthinkable: collecting tenants’ rents, firmly negotiating with coal rivals, and courting timid Walker, who is besotted by her new acquaintance—to the dismay of her family and friends.
Ahead of the series premiere on April 22, we spoke with Wainwright and Jones about the written record Lister left, the role class played in her confident outlook, and what she thought of her nickname.
Sally, you’ve said Lister’s journals are “the Rosetta Stone of lesbians.” How far back do they go?
Wainwright: She started writing them when she was a child at school, probably around age 14. It began as a record of letters that she sent and received. So it kind of trickled into existence, beginning in 1805. They start properly after her relationship with Marianna [Belcombe Lawton] broke down in 1815. And they go right through to 1840 when she died.
A rival of her family’s coal business says Lister came to live with her uncle at age 15 and was expelled from school. Is that because she was already out?
Wainwright: Yes. She was sent to the Manor House School in York by her family because they couldn’t quite handle her. She met a girl called Eliza Raine, and she had a really intense relationship with her. Raine called Lister her “husband.” The implication is that Lister was expelled because they found out about this transgressive relationship between the two girls.
What We Know About Big Little Lies Season 2
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Lister says to Walker, “Isn’t every tiny moment an inexplicable delight packed with potential?” Was she really filled with such joie de vivre? She certainly wasn’t happy about being deprived of an education, or the right to vote.
Jones: I think that the diaries are why she was able to have such a positive outlook. It was her comfort. She could talk about the things that were troubling her. With the security of the secret code, she could release herself of any thought, and then dust herself off and live the way that she wanted to. Of course, her life was a struggle in many ways—particularly her private life. We would pick and choose the moments where we showed her heartbreak. She was really quite dramatic, particularly when her love affairs went wrong.
In adapting the story, how did you decide what to heighten or change for dramatic effect? For example, in a review of one of Liddington’s books, it says Lister wasn’t in love with Walker—as is depicted in the series.
Wainwright: I think I created quite an authentic portrait of Lister. It’s pretty clear in the journals that while it wasn’t one of her grand passions when she started courting Walker, she did start to fall for her in a way that she didn’t quite expect. I don’t think it was just for money—though there was certainly that element to it. I don’t want to shy away from that because it’s part of the complexity of the drama. But Lister, despite herself, started to have really palpable feelings for this woman. So I don’t quite agree with Jill on that. I also think that it’s clear from the journals that Walker was absolutely dazzled by Lister.
How much did class and privilege play a role in Lister being so confidently “out”?
Wainwright: She was a landowner, so we automatically assume that she was wealthy. But she wasn’t. Shibden was a modest-size estate. Her income was not huge, and she had to share it with her father and her aunt. She was always struggling to make money. She had to negotiate her way very skillfully through society. She inherited Shibden really through her own machinations; she was a real player. It’s wrong to assume that she was at one with her sexuality because of privilege or a kind of class confidence. It’s more to do with her extraordinary intelligence, and robust mental health that allowed her to have a healthy sense of her self-worth and homosexuality.
How did you decide how detailed the sex scenes would be?
Wainwright: I made a point not to be gratuitous. I wanted to express the relationship between Lister and Walker and the fact Lister was a great lover. It was a big, important part of her life, so I wanted to reflect that. We had an intimacy advisor, which was helpful because it gave us a language in which we could easily talk without being embarrassed.
Jones: We went into the way that she had sex: She identified as butch, and didn’t like to be penetrated. She felt like she was “womanized” if she was touched on the breasts. We looked at how different sex was with Marianna, and how free she was with her. Then we looked very sensitively at the new relationship with Walker. Sophie and I were very delicate with that storytelling.
Suranne, you said Lister’s story is “a great celebration of a lesbian woman,” that she’s “a lesson in courage.” As a straight woman, did you have any hesitation about taking on this role, and what the reaction from the LGBTQ community might be?
Jones: Yeah, of course I did. I was very aware of the conversation around straight actors playing queer roles. Firstly, I auditioned and was given the part, so it wasn’t just me that was responsible. Being a lesbian was just one part of Lister. I had to be able to portray every aspect of this character. I’m just the face of Gentleman Jack. There was a team around me that held my hand. Anne Choma, our historical advisor, Stella Merz, our script editor, and Phil Collinson, our producer, are all gay. And they helped me—and Sally as she was writing.
Should Straight Actors Play LGBTQ Characters?
Did the nickname “Gentleman Jack” bother Lister?
Wainwright: That’s a really interesting question actually. It was a derogatory term used by the people of Halifax. “Gentleman” because she was a bit of social climber, and she was very aloof and snooty. And “Jack” was a then-contemporary slang word, the equivalent of which now would be “dyke.” So it was very much an insult. But the words “Gentleman Jack” never actually appear in the journals. It’s a local anecdote. People say that’s what she was called, but we don’t know if she knew about it.
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Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Cast: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts...
Movie or TV Series Plot: A washed-up actor, who once played an iconic superhero, battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career and himself in the days leading up to the opening of his Broadway play. ...
Director: Todd Phillips
Cast: Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper...
Movie or TV Series Plot: Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry. ...
Cast: Zach Galifianakis, Robert Downey Jr., Michelle Monaghan...
Movie or TV Series Plot: Peter Highman has to go to LA with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay. ...
Release Date and Country: 2009, United States, Germany
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis...
Movie or TV Series Plot: Three buddies wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the bachelor missing. They make their way around the city in order to find their friend before his we...
Comedy/Romance
Director: Tom Vaughan
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Corddry...
Movie or TV Series Plot: A man and a woman are compelled, for legal reasons, to live life as a couple for a limited period of time. At stake is a large amount of money. ...
Adventure/Drama
Director: Sean Penn
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt...
Movie or TV Series Plot: After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in...
Details | Filming Locations: 16 | Locations With Photo: 1 | Discuss: 0
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While many people are familiar with the benefits of traditional 401(k) plans, others are not as acquainted with Roth 401(k)s.
Since January 1, 2006, employers have been allowed to offer workers access to Roth 401(k) plans.¹ And some have rolled out offerings as part of their retirement programs.
As the name implies, Roth 401(k) plans combine features of traditional 401(k) plans with those of a Roth IRA.2,3
With a Roth 401(k),contributions are made with after-tax dollars—there is no tax deduction on the front end—but qualifying withdrawals are not subject to income taxes. Any capital appreciation in the Roth 401(k) also is not subject to income taxes.
Fast Fact: Roth 401(k) plans were made permanent by the Pension Protection Act of 2006.
Source: IRS, 2018
The choice between a Roth 401(k) and a traditional 401(k) comes down to determining whether the upfront tax break on the traditional 401(k) is likely to outweigh the back-end benefit of tax-free withdrawals from the Roth 401(k).4
Often, this isn’t an “all-or-nothing” decision. Many employers allow contributions to be divided between a traditional 401(k) plan and a Roth 401(k) plan—up to overall contribution limits.
One subtle but key consideration is that Roth 401(k) plans aren’t subject to income restrictions like Roth IRAs. This can offer advantages to high-income individuals whose Roth IRA has been limited by these restrictions. (See accompanying table.)
Contributions are made with pre-tax dollars
Contributions are made with after-tax dollars
Income Limits
No income limits to participate
For 2018, contribution limit is phased out between $189,000 and $199,000 (married, filing jointly), and between $120,000 and $135,000 (single filers)
Maximum Elective Contribution*
Aggregate contributions are limited to $18,500 in 2018, ($24,500 for those over age 50)*
Contributions are limited to $5,500 for 2018, ($6,500 for those over age 50)*
Taxation of Withdrawals
Qualifying withdrawals of contributions and earnings are subject to income taxes
Qualifying withdrawals of contributions and earnings are not subject to income taxes
Required Distributions
In most cases, distributions must begin no later than age 70½
There is no requirement to begin taking distributions while owner is alive
* This is an aggregate limit by individual rather than by plan. The total of an individual’s aggregate contributions to his or her traditional and Roth 401(k) plans cannot exceed the deferral limit—$18,500 in 2018, ($24,500 for those over age 50).
Roth 401(k) plans are subject to the same annual contribution limits as regular 401(k) plans—$18,500 for 2018, ($24,500 for those over age 50). These are cumulative limits that apply to all accounts with a single employer; an individual couldn’t save $18,500 in a traditional 401(k) and another $18,500 in a Roth 401(k).
Another factor to consider is that employer matches are made with pretax dollars, just as they are with a traditional 401(k) plan. In a Roth 401(k), however, these matching funds accumulate in a separate account that will be taxed as ordinary income at withdrawal.
Setting money aside for retirement is part of a sound personal financial strategy. Deciding whether to use a traditional 401(k) or a Roth 401(k) often involves reviewing a wide-range of factors. If you are uncertain about what is the best choice for your situation, you should consider working with a qualified tax or financial professional.
To qualify for the tax-free and penalty-free withdrawal of earnings, Roth 401(k) distributions must meet a five-year holding requirement and occur after age 59½. Tax-free and penalty-free withdrawal also can be taken under certain other circumstances, such as a result of the owner’s death or disability. Employer match is pretax and not distributed tax-free during retirement. Generally, once you reach age 70½, you must begin taking required minimum distributions.
Distributions from 401(k) plans and most other employer-sponsored retirement plans are taxed as ordinary income and, if taken before age 59½, may be subject to a 10% federal income tax penalty. Generally, once you reach age 70½, you must begin taking required minimum distributions.
Roth IRA contributions cannot be made by taxpayers with high incomes. To qualify for the tax- free and penalty-free withdrawal of earnings, Roth IRA distributions must meet a five-year holding requirement and occur after age 59½. Tax-free and penalty-free withdrawal also can be taken under certain other circumstances, such as a result of the owner’s death or disability. The original Roth IRA owner is not required to take minimum annual withdrawals.
Here's a look at several birthdays and “half-birthdays” that have implications regarding your retirement income.
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Gil C. Quiniones named 2019 “ETS Thought Leader of the Year”
NYPA CEO to be recognized at ETS19 in Austin
Austin, Texas (April 3, 2019) – Zpryme, a research-based firm with services focused on energy, announced today that Gil C. Quiniones, President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), has been selected as the 2019 “ETS Thought Leader of the Year.” Quiniones was chosen for the recognition amongst a group of peers following voting by ETS alumni and participants. He will be honored during a ceremony at Zpryme’s 6th annual Energy Thought Summit (ETS19) on April 18, 2019 at 12:15 p.m. at the W Hotel in Austin, Texas.
The “ETS Thought Leader of the Year” award salutes an individual among the ETS community of thought leaders who possesses the type of inventive and brave vision needed to inspire the global energy ecosystem. Previous award winners include University of Minnesota Professor and IEEE Chairman, Dr. Massoud Amin (2015); former CPS Energy President & CEO, Doyle Beneby (2016); ComEd President & CEO, Anne Pramaggiore (2017); and CPS Energy’s President & CEO, Paula Gold-Williams (2018).
Quiniones, along with other industry nominees, was first identified by the ETS19 Advisory Committee and Zpryme staff in January before the voters made the ultimate decision.
Quiniones, upon learning of his selection for this award, said, “I am honored to be named ‘ETS Thought Leader of the Year’ and to join the ranks of my respected colleagues that have received this recognition before me. At NYPA, we have an innovative and inspired team that is designed to lead when it comes to new ideas for grid efficiency, electrification of the automobile industry, energy storage and expanding a clean energy economy in New York State. I have the privilege of working closely with the energy team of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and guiding the talented NYPA team to disrupt the status quo and lead by example in energy and electricity innovation. I thank ETS for this award which I will share with my NYPA staff who inspire me every day.”
Quiniones joined NYPA, the largest state-owned electric utility in the U.S., in 2008 after holding various positions at Con Edison and the New York City Economic Development Corporation under then mayor Michael Bloomberg. He served as NYPA’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Vice President of Energy Marketing and Corporate Affairs prior to becoming CEO.
Today, he is responsible for developing and implementing the statewide utility’s strategic vision and mission for supervising its operations, legal and financial matters and relationships with key stakeholders. Under Quiniones’ leadership, NYPA saves customers more than $1 billion a year, helping to create or protect more than 450,000 jobs and spur nearly $40 billion in capital investment at New York State businesses and other entities through allocations of low-cost electricity.
NYPA is playing a key role in Governor Cuomo’s landmark Green New Deal, the nation's leading clean energy and jobs agenda, which is aggressively putting New York State on a path to economy-wide carbon neutrality. This initiative is providing for a just transition to clean energy, spurring the growth of the green economy and mandating New York's power be 100 percent clean and carbon-free by 2040, one of the most aggressive goals in the U.S. The cornerstone of this newly proposed mandate is a significant increase of New York's successful Clean Energy Standard to 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
As part of this landmark effort to combat climate change, Quiniones is leading the charge to create the first end to end digital utility in the country: a comprehensive digital infrastructure addressing New York State’s ever-evolving energy, environmental and economic needs. This bold initiative is groundbreaking in concept and scope, and provides a template for replication throughout the nation.
Through full digitization, NYPA will monitor power generation, transmission and use with unprecedented granularity, sophistication and precision. Quiniones’ approach was initiated with deep consideration for cyber, physical security and network communications. This initiative reaches across every NYPA process and department to facilitate broad collaboration and leverage information for optimal performance.
As result, the Power Authority will become the first utility in the United States to create digital twins of its entire generation portfolio, substations and transmission system, using data analytics and data visualization tools to optimize our operations, capital and O&M investments. NYPA is building a Digital Foundry that creates an ecosystem where third party technology companies (software and hardware), utilities, research institutions and universities can conduct applied R&D and develop new "Apps,” services and drive innovation at the grid’s edge.
“Gil and NYPA’s push for innovation in digitalization and renewable energy has transformed the energy industry in New York while also creating a roadmap for other utilities around the country,” added Jason Rodriguez, Zpryme’s Co-Founder and CEO. “The ETS community is proud to award Gil for his contributions which have helped transform this industry in the industry as well as made New York an energy efficient state.”
ETS19 will take place April 15-18 at Austin’s ACL Moody Theatre. For more information, to purchase badges or see a list of participating thought leaders, please visit http://www.ets19.co/.
About ETS19
For the lucky, we flip the switch, and the light comes on every time. For others, it’s a gamble for a flicker. Today’s global electricity system is a complex web of wires, infrastructure and an ever-growing list of new tech, but how is our industry respecting it? Loving your energy is not only about appreciating its loyalty, but more importantly all the moving parts that make it happen.
Join us on April 15-18, 2019 in Austin, Texas to celebrate six years of ETS as we honor the heroes that help provide safe and reliable electricity, as well as debate the realistic state and future of energy. http://www.ets19.co/.
About Zpryme
Based in Austin, Texas, Zpryme is a research-based firm with agency-geared services focused on energy. Based on the creative direction of our associates, Zpryme produces influential research and events that challenge the status quo and marketing solutions for fully-immersive brand experiences. For more information, visit www.zpryme.com.
Zpryme
100 Congress Ave. Suite 2000
Website: http://ets19.co
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Home/PS2 Reviews/TimeSplitters 2 Review
TimeSplitters 2 Review
Are you in the mood for some retro gaming goodness? Let’s take a look at a classic PS2 first-person shooter, “Time Splitters 2”…
Whenever you begin to talk about the TimeSplitters franchise it’s impossible to avoid discussing its developer, Free Radical Design, which featured many of the people who worked on the N64 mega-hit, “Goldeneye”. Since 2009 of course, they’ve been known as Crytek UK and have gone on to bolster the wonderful “Crysis” series (with work on both Crysis 2 and 3). But they really seemed to have made their mark with Time Splitters 2. If you’re a keen TimeSplitters fan you’ll probably be interesting in this article: Why we want to see a next-gen PS4 follow up of the TimeSplitters series, which looks at why many want to the possibilities of an updated edition for next-gen gaming.
In short, this game embodies the sort of classic FPS console action which many feel defined the gaming era. Not only does the gameplay feel extremely satisfying, but the entire scope of events encapsulates a very wide amount of additional modes and challenges.
As far as the plot is concerned, we find our 2 favorite space marines, Cortez and Hart, battling the nefarious TimeSplitters once again. This of course necessitates the need for them to travel across a wide range of time periods in order to prevent them from collecting the precious time crystals which will allow them to seriously mess up the space-time continuum.
Of course the real draw of TimeSplitters 2 isn’t the story – it’s the gameplay, which is still rather entertaining as well as challenging. Armed with a wide array of weapons which are endemic to the various periods in which they are typically found, our heroes fight their way through such disparate locales as 1930’s Chicago, a space station in 2401, and much, much more. Although each of these 10 levels features its own unique charms and three levels of difficulty, the real attractions are the game’s arcade and challenge modes.
The first thing you’ll notice about these extra modes of play is the difficulty and variety of scenarios / characters. Needless to say, they really went a bit “off the rails” (in a good way) here, introducing some incredibly oddball elements amidst one devastatingly hard encounter after another. Each successive challenge poses a series of objectives which, when completed, end the level. You’ll literally spend hours wading through these, with some likely finding many of the latter ones to be next to impossible short of sheer luck. It’s these sorts of defiant confrontations (where you seem to be facing nearly impossible odds) where the real fun in the game lies. Finding yourself swarmed by relentlessly accurate A.I. bots, each one gunning for your head, it’s basically sink or swim.
Additionally, this PS2 title implemented the use of system link capabilities, allowing you to hook together multiple consoles and tv’s to add up to no less than 16 players. Moreover, since there was plenty of extra options for customization available, including a MapMaker, you were guaranteed to never run out of options.
FIFA 14 Review
Shadow Hearts Review
Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 Review
NHL 2K3 Review
Zone of the Enders Review
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Panasonic updates its Mobile Clinical Assistant, drops price
Written by Simon James on 01 November 2010 .
Panasonic has updated its CF-H1 Toughbook, a tablet computer designed specifically for clinical settings. As with its predecessor, the CF-H1 MkII has been built upon Intel’s ‘Mobile Clinical Assistant’ (MCA) reference design, which specifies the types of hardware functionality that can be leveraged in healthcare environments.
As with other devices in the Toughbook range, the CF-H1 MkII sports a ruggedised construction. The crash resistance of the device is tested to military standard MIL-STD810G, which requires that it be capable of withstanding a drop of 180cm while operational, a height double that of the first iteration of the product.
As is increasingly common in the recently revitalised tablet computer market, the CF-H1 MkII does not feature a keyboard, with users instead interacting with the device via its 10.4 inch touch screen using either a stylus pen or their finger. Like its predecessor, the screen has a resolution of 1024x768 pixels and is designed to be viewable in direct sunlight.
The device weighs around 1.5kg and sports an integrated handle for easy transportability.
The CF-H1 MkII is powered by two batteries, both of which can be swapped out of the device without it having to be shut down or put in sleep mode. With its fanless construction and the low power requirements of its Intel Atom processor (running at 1.86GHz), Panasonic claim the device is capable of operating for six hours before a recharge or battery swap is required.
The device has been designed in such a way as to make it conducive for disinfection to clinically acceptable standards using typical cleaning products commonly found in healthcare settings. To assist the user to do a thorough job of disinfecting the device, a packaged software application can be run on the CF-H1 MkII that works in conjunction with its touch sensitive screen to visually demonstrate which parts of the screen have been wiped down, and more importantly, the areas that haven’t. Software can also remind the healthcare facility’s staff to disinfect the device at regular intervals.
The CF-H1 MkII integrates both a finger print reader and a contactless smart card reader, both of which can be used to authenticate healthcare professionals to clinical systems and desktop environments that support such access controls.
Also included in the CF-H1 MkII is RFID technology for wireless interaction with compatible tags, a technology increasingly being used for both patient record management, and management of patients themselves. The device can be configured with an optional 2D barcode reader, making it suitable for the majority of Australian healthcare facilities that have not yet widely deployed RFID systems.
The CF-H1 MkII includes Bluetooth technology for wireless communication with peripheral devices, and wireless network technology (a/b/g/n) to allow users to remain connected to their healthcare facility’s network whilst moving between patients and administration areas. Wireless 3G broadband technology can also be integrated into the device, allowing healthcare professionals to achieve Internet connectivity anywhere mobile phone reception is available. The device can also be configured with an integrated GPS unit, which can be used, for example, to assist the user when conducting home visits, or to allow healthcare facilities to dynamically track the location of their MCAs.
To give healthcare professionals the opportunity to quickly take photos and include them in patient records, the device features an integrated 2 megapixel camera and two LED lights to maximise picture quality. However along with many of the CF-H1’s other value added features, the ability for photos to be seamlessly integrated into a patient’s record will be dependent on the ability of the organisation’s clinical software to integrate with MCAs.
In its default configuration, the CF-H1 MkII ships with 2GB RAM (up from 1GB) and an 80GB 1.8 inch hard drive, however the device can be customised to include solid state drive (SSD) technology to improve performance and add further robustness to the MCA.
Assisted by the strong Australian dollar, the device features a RRP of $3899AUD, which is $1100 cheaper than the debut price of first version of the CF-H1, which was announced in June 2009.
Comparisons with the Apple iPad, which retails from $629AUD, are inevitable, particularly after some high profile bulk purchases of the device by healthcare organisations in Australia, against the backdrop of worldwide sales of over seven and a half million units in just six months. And Apple is far from the only other vendor that retails products healthcare organisations looking to mobilise their clinical and nursing workforce need to consider. A plethora of tablet computing devices have been announced in recent months, including the HP Slate 500 (RRP $799USD) and the diminutive Telstra T-Touch (RRP $299AUD), which were both launched in the last week of October.
When asked about the impact the recent emergence of these devices will have on Panasonic’s plans for its CF-H1 MkII, Mark Wallis, Toughbook Group Manager highlighted the product’s targeted focus on healthcare environments and the positive impact Apple’s marketing clout will deliver the entire tablet computing sector.
“Touchscreen technology is not new to us and we have had this technology for some time. Apple, by virtue of their size and nature, will yell to the crowds that touchscreen is great technology, and that’s a good thing for all of us. In terms of actual usage, you’ll only need to drop a couple [of iPads] and perceptions will change.”
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Thomas Brayden Kruger-Allen pleaded guilty to an assault of a man after leaving the Mule nightclub in 2017. (Facebook photo)
Sentencing delayed for Penticton man guilty of nightclub assault
Thomas Brayden Kruger-Allen pleaded guilty to kicking a man in the face shattering his orbital bone
A Penticton man who pleaded guilty to a “excessively violent” assault was characterized with Jekyll and Hyde tendencies.
“He can go from zero to 100 without provocation and once he is at 100, his behaviour is out of control. He is unable to calm himself down. His behaviour can be very, very scary,” said Crown counsel Nashina Devji, in court on Friday while reading notes from the man’s councillor.
Thomas Brayden Kruger-Allen was at the Mule Nightclub on Aug. 12, 2017 with a group of friends when, according to the victim, they asked to meet him in a back alley nearby. Once there, one of the group members struck the man in the face and while he was on the ground Kruger-Allen kicked him shattering his nose and orbital bone.
READ MORE: Police break up bar brawl in Penticton
It was shortly after, at 3:20 a.m., that RCMP caught up with the group of males and found one of them with blood on his clothes and hands. That person was immediately arrested, as was Kruger-Allen who RCMP said had blood on his shoes and some redness on his hands. The blood on his shoes matched that of the victim.
Damien Tyrell Keddie was one of the group that was charged with aggravated assault and sentenced to 24o days in prison. The court heard that Taish Alvin Desmonie, who faces the same charge, has not yet been found to be arrested.
Crown is seeking a six to eight month jail sentence and two years of probation for Kruger-Allen.
Devji said Kruger-Allen had a very difficult and sad upbringing where both his parents abused substances, leaving him with a childhood that was “riddled with chaos and violence.” She noted that due to his parents substance abuse, he was essentially left to fend for himself from the time he was five years old — quite often being neglected for long stretches of time. She added that his mother has been clean for the past seven years and they are working at repairing their relationship.
Devji said Kruger-Allen has proven he is a hardworking, good employee that has expressed interest in rehabilitation programs, however he also has an “explosive” temper that is linked to his abuse of alcohol that makes him a danger to the public.
Even in the controlled environment of jail, where he spent less than two months while awaiting for a bail hearing on another matter, Devji said he found himself in several altercations with inmates. Yates explained the prison population tends to be aggressive to those who have sexual assault charges, which Kruger-Allen faces in an unrelated incident which also included an alleged assault on a man who is dealing with a serious brain injury. Yates said inmates would cause issues for Kruger-Allen — including throwing hot water at him. While in sick bay Kruger-Allen was involved in an altercation and then asked to be segregated, although Yates said that probably would have occurred anyways because of the incident.
Yates reminded the court any criminal charges that Kruger-Allen accrued after this incident were not to be taken into consideration on the sentencing position as he has yet to be in front of a judge for those charges.
Kruger-Allen also pleaded guilty to a breach of his conditions by being in possession or having consumed alcohol. On March 16, 2019 his mother called RCMP stating he had punched her and destroyed her house.
While she did not pursue charges on the assault she told RCMP she just wanted him dealt with because he was out of control.
Judge Andrew Tam said he needed more time to make a decision on sentencing and adjourned the matter to go back to the judicial case manager to schedule another date.
Air Force officer from Okanagan will march in the Netherlands
Conservatives far ahead of other parties in picking candidates for fall election
Guess Who has started a band in the Shuswap? Legendary guitarist Donnie McDougall
Band to play pair of shows in Sicamous area before setting out on tour
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Terror Coverage Boost News Media’s Images
But Military Censorship Backed
These are the best of times and the worst of times for the news media when it comes to public support. By and large, Americans continue to praise the press for its coverage of the war on terrorism, here and abroad. So much so that the general image of the media has, at least temporarily, lost some of its tarnish. At the same time, however, the public shows strong support for government control of the news for the sake of national security.
The latest Pew Research Center survey of 1,500 adults finds the public giving the media better grades for its performance and higher approval ratings for the values of journalists and news organizations. The number who think the media usually gets the facts straight has risen from 35% in early September to 46% today – the best grade for accuracy in Pew Center surveys since 1992. News organizations also continue to get good grades for covering the terrorist attacks and the war on terrorism, though not as high as during the first week after the attacks. The percentage rating media performance as excellent or good has slipped from 89% in mid-September to a still lofty 77% in the current survey.
Mirroring satisfaction with its recent performance, the public now holds more favorable opinions of the press’s professionalism, morality, patriotism and compassion. In particular, the percentage saying that they think news organizations stand up for America jumped from 43% in early September to 69% in the current poll. The previous high for the press on this measure had been 53%, in 1987. Similarly, the percentage seeing the news media as protecting democracy has increased from 46% three months ago to 60% now – again an all-time high for the media on this indicator.
While the public has higher regard for the media, it also favors tight government control over information related to national security – indeed, support for military censorship is as high as it was during the Persian Gulf War. By 53%-39%, respondents say it is more important for the government to be able to censor stories it believes could threaten national security than for the media to be able to report news it sees as in the national interest. By a comparable margin, Americans say the military should exert more control over news about the war rather than leave most decisions to the media.
Despite its support for military censorship, the public is not comfortable with the media substituting propaganda for news, nor does it prefer the press to be a lap dog rather than a watchdog. The survey finds a solid majority in favor of war coverage that is neutral rather than pro-American. An even larger percentage (73%) favors coverage that portrays all points of view, including those of countries unfriendly to the United States, over pro-American news. And by 52%-40%, respondents say that when covering the war, news organizations should dig hard for information rather than trusting government and military officials who refuse to officially release information.
Along these same lines, the survey shows continued respect for the watchdog role played by news organizations, even at a time of national crisis. Roughly half of Americans believe press scrutiny of the military keeps the nation prepared, compared with 37% who say it undermines the country’s defense. By an even larger margin (54%-32%), the public thinks press criticism of political leaders prevents wrongdoing rather than keeping them from doing their jobs.
While most of the public thinks that information about the war has been censored, there is little sense that the government is trying to cover up bad news, either from abroad or at home. Fully 82% believe that Pentagon officials are disclosing as much as they can about military operations in Afghanistan – just 16% think the government has been hiding bad news. Nearly two-thirds (65%) find news reports from the front to be accurate, but fewer (58%) say the same about the sometimes confusing reporting on anthrax and other domestic terrorist threats.
Most Americans are turning to cable news for reports about terrorism and the war, and the number doing so has increased since mid-September. Fully 53% cite cable as their primary source for news on the crisis, versus 17% for network TV and 18% for local TV. Other non-television sources lag well behind cable, although the number relying mostly on newspapers has tripled (from 11% to 34%) since the week of the attacks. All types of media may take comfort in the fact that 66% of respondents say they are more interested in the news now than before Sept. 11. This is appreciably higher than the 49% expressing increased interest a decade ago as a result of the Gulf war.
Next: Public Views of Terrorism Coverage Next Page → ← Prev Page
Mid November 2001 Survey Dataset
Public Views of Terrorism Coverage
The Media’s Post-9/11 Image
The New Media Landscape
PublicationsJan 1, 2002
Press Shines at a Dark Moment
PublicationsOct 15, 2001
Public Remains Steady in Face of Anthrax Scare
American Psyche Reeling From Terror Attacks
PublicationsAug 8, 2006
Public Holds Conflicting Views of Press Reports about Government Monitoring Bank Records
PublicationsNov 28, 2001
What the Public Thinks of News Coverage Since Sept. 11
News Interest
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Public Confidence In War Effort Falters
But Support for War Holds Steady
Over the past two days the American public has become much less confident that the war in Iraq is going well, but large majorities continue to support President Bush and the decision to go to war. Polling on March 23-24 finds significantly fewer Americans thinking the war is going very well compared to surveys conducted March 20-22.
The percentage of the public thinking the war was going very well was as high as 71% on Friday and Saturday, only to fall to 52% on Sunday and 38% Monday as the public learned of American casualties and POW’s. Overall, the interviews by Sunday and Monday found about as many people thinking the war effort was going just fairly well (41%) as opposed to very well (45%). Only 8% went as far as to say the war effort was not going well.
But there are no indications that declining optimism about progress in the war is affecting overall support for military action or President Bush’s handling of the conflict. Roughly seven-in-ten Americans say it was the right decision to use military force against Iraq, a figure that remained fairly stable during the polling period. And about the same number (71%) give the president positive marks for his handling of the war.
The Pew Research Center’s five-day survey, conducted March 20-24 among 1,495 people, found a slight increase in the numbers of people reporting feelings of sadness and depression at the end of the polling period. Still, the emotional impact from the war to date is far less than during the first Persian Gulf War in 1991.
There also has been growing public antagonism toward anti-war voices. Fully 45% of respondents in recent days have said the have heard too much from those who oppose the war, an increase from 37% during the survey’s first three days. Last month, only about a quarter of Americans (24%) said they were hearing too much from war opponents.
Public attention to news coverage of the war is on par with interest in the first Gulf War. Television especially cable news is the dominant source of war news for the vast majority of Americans. The public generally gives the media good marks for that coverage. About eight-in-ten (79%) rate war coverage as good or excellent, roughly the same number as during the first Iraq war. But war supporters give the media better marks than do war opponents; fully 83% of those who think it was the right decision to go to war characterize the coverage as good or excellent, compared with two-thirds of war opponents.
The survey also shows that partisan and ideological differences over using force in Iraq, which were apparent during the weeks leading up to war, are still present now that the conflict has begun. In fact, the partisan gap over the war is greater now than during the first Persian Gulf War.
Nine-in-ten Republicans (92%) think it was the right decision to go to war, compared with 58% of Democrats. In late January 1991 Republican support for the war was comparable (89%) while more Democrats felt it was the right decision to go to war (66%).
Ideological Split Over Bush, War
The president’s ratings have improved sharply since earlier this month, reflecting a ‘rally-around’ effect that traditionally occurs when the U.S. goes to war. Two-thirds approve of the president’s performance, while roughly a quarter (26%) disapprove. In the week leading up to the war (March 13-16), 55% approved of Bush’s job performance and 34% disapproved.
Overall, seven-in-ten Americans (72%) believe the decision to take military action against Iraq was correct, while 22% think it was the wrong decision. During the early phase of the Persian Gulf War in January 1991, slightly more Americans (77%) felt the U.S. had made the right decision in attacking Iraq.
And generally, Americans support that step because they feel going to war is the best thing for the U.S., not because they are uncertain about war but back Bush’s decision as president. Half the public says they support war because they think it was the right thing to do, while far fewer (18%) support it out of loyalty to the president.
Liberal Democrats are the only ideological or demographic group in which a majority believes the United States made the wrong decision to use military force in Iraq. Most liberal Democrats (54%) think the United States made the wrong decision to attack Iraq, while 42% believe it was the right decision.
The president also gets high marks for his handling of the war 71% approval, up from 56% who backed his handling of the situation in Iraq in February. Yet the public remains sharply divided along partisan and ideological lines over the president’s performance, and these differences are present in opinion on whether the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq. Liberal Democrats stand out not only for their strong opposition to Bush, but also in their negative reaction to the decision to go to war.
The president continues to win overwhelming support from his GOP base. Roughly nine-in-ten conservative and moderate-to-liberal Republicans support Bush’s overall performance and his handling of the war in Iraq. Conservative Republicans are nearly unanimous in their positive assessments of the president and his handling of the war (95% each). Moderate Republicans are only slightly less supportive of the president (90%).
Conservative and moderate Democrats also broadly back the president and his handling of the war (55% overall, 62% war). The president’s popularity among these Democrats has risen sharply as a result of the war. In the March 13-16 survey, just 35% of conservative and moderate Democrats approved of the president’s overall job performance.
But the start of the war in Iraq has done nothing to improve the president’s standing among liberal Democrats. By nearly two-to-one, they disapprove of his overall job performance (63%-33%), and they give him negative marks for his handling of the war (57% disapprove, 41% approve).
For the most part, the same patterns of opinion that existed during the debate over military action persist now that the war has begun. Men are more likely than women to say that the U.S. made the right decision to go to war (80% vs. 65%). And while whites overwhelmingly agree with the decision to strike at Iraq (77% right decision), African-Americans are divided (48% right decision/43% wrong decision).
Rally Effect Less Than in Gulf War
While the public has rallied behind the troops now that military action in Iraq has started, the extent of this rally effect is slightly smaller than was the case in January of 1991 at the outset of the Persian Gulf War. In the final pre-war Gallup poll at that time, 55% said they would favor the use of military force to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait if the situation did not change by the Jan. 15 deadline, while 38% opposed military action. Two weeks later, 77% said they thought the U.S. made the right decision to use force in Iraq, a 22-point gain.
In the final pre-war Pew survey this year, support for military action was marginally higher than in 1991 (59% in favor, 30% opposed). Today, 72% think the U.S. did the right thing in using force, a 13-point rally from two weeks ago.
Fewer Want to Hear from War Opponents
With the start of hostilities in Iraq, there has been a marked decline in the number of people who say they have heard too little from war opponents. Just 17% say they have heard too little from those opposed to military action, while more than twice as many (40%) say they have heard too much from war opponents. These numbers reflect a turnaround from last month when only a quarter (24%) said they were hearing too much and fully 42% wanted to hear more from anti-war Americans.
Rising resistance to the views of dissenters was also seen in the Persian Gulf War, when the percentage saying they had heard too much from opponents of the war rose from 18% before the start of hostilities to 47% at the end of January 1991. Republicans much more often than Democrats or independents say they have heard too much from the opposition. Nearly six-in-ten Republicans (57%) feel that way now, up from 35% in February. Less than a third of Democrats (31%) and only 36% of independents say they have heard too much from war critics (up from 18% and 22% respectively).
Public Attention on Par With ’91, Not 9/11
Most of the public is following news about the war 57% say they are following very closely and 33% are following somewhat closely. This is comparable to levels of attention seen prior to the start of the war, and to the degree of public interest in news about the Persian Gulf War shortly after it started in January 1991. But public attention is considerably lower than in the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when 74% were following the story very closely.
Republicans are paying more attention to the war than are Democrats or independents: 68% of Republicans say they are following the news very closely, compared with 55% of Democrats and 51% of independents.
Still, a big majority of the public is keeping tuned to television and radio news about Iraq: 69% are doing this, only 12 percentage points below the levels seen after 9/11 and the start of the Persian Gulf War. Three-in-ten say they have been reading the newspaper more since the war started (with younger people 38% among those aged 18-29 especially likely to report this). This compares to 51% who said they were doing this in January 1991, and 46% after Sept.11. Just 10% say they are checking the Internet now more than before the war started (compared with 33% who did this just after 9/11).
TV Still Dominant News Source
Most Americans first heard about the start of the war in Iraq from television, and most are getting the bulk of their war news from television. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) were alerted to the start of the war by television, with 38% mentioning cable TV news, 22% network news, and 11% local TV news. Just 12% first heard about the war on the radio, and 8% heard it from talking with others. In contrast, Americans had heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks which occurred as a workday was getting under way, rather than during the evening prime-time hours from a wider range of sources.
Since the war got underway, nearly nine-in-ten (89%) mention television as their main source for news, with half (50%) specifically mentioning cable news, 24% citing network news, and 18% mentioning local TV news. About one-fourth (24%) say they are depending on newspapers, 19% cite radio, and 11% are relying primarily on the Internet.
Favorable View of Coverage
The public gives generally good marks to the press coverage of the war thus far, with 79% favorable overall (39% say coverage has been excellent, and 40% say it has been good). Only 16% give news organizations bad grades marks (12% only fair, 4% poor).
Supporters of the war give the press higher marks than opponents: 43% of the war’s backers say the press is doing an excellent job, compared with only 27% of those who think the U.S. made the wrong decision to go to war.
So Far Emotional Fallout Less Than ’91
Even though the war has taken a somewhat greater psychological toll of the war on Americans in the past 2 days, it has been relatively muted when compared with the Persian Gulf War, and especially with aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Roughly a third (32%) say they have felt depressed by the war in Iraq, compared with half who said this in the early days of the Gulf War in 1991, and 71% who reported feeling depressed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Fewer also say they have had trouble concentrating on work and daily activities, or trouble sleeping as a result of the current engagement in Iraq. Overall, 14% say they have had trouble concentrating, and 10% say they have both felt depressed and are unable to concentrate on daily activities. In the days following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. fully 42% expressed both feelings of depression and an inability to focus.
There are signs, however, that as the war continues and casualties mount, the psychological toll may grow. The percent saying the war has made them feel depressed rose to 35% on Sunday and Monday, from 30% from Thursday through Saturday. This would be in stark contrast to the period following Sept. 11, when the intense emotional aftershocks faded as every week passed.
Women, War Opponents More Depressed
As in past traumatic national events, there is a significant gender gap in expressions of depression. Women are twice as likely as men (42% to 21%) to say the war has made them feel depressed. This was also the case in 1991 (64% to 33%) and after 9/11 (79% to 62%) as well.
Opponents of war also feel significantly more depressed by the war. Nearly half (49%) of those who think military action in Iraq was the wrong decision say they are depressed by the war, compared to just 24% of those who think it was the right decision. Along those same lines, Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans (43% to 22%) to say the war makes them feel depressed.
Most Americans (59%) say watching news coverage of the war on TV makes them feel sad, however again, this is far less common than in previous times of conflict. Three-quarters said news coverage saddened them in January 1991, and more than nine-in-ten said this in September 2001.
Somewhat fewer (48%) reported that watching TV coverage was frightening or that they feel they must be constantly tuned in (40%). Both reactions are significantly less widespread than in either 1991 or 2001. One-in-three say watching TV coverage of the war tires them out, and 26% say the war on TV doesn’t seem quite real.
No Major Changes in Plans
Most people report thus far that the war has not led to changes in travel plans or additional steps to prepare their homes for an emergency situation. And compared with the Persian Gulf War and the aftermath or 9/11, fewer people say that they are praying more.
Just one-in-ten Americans say they are considering canceling an airplane trip or a visit to a major city as a result of the onset of war. These are comparable to changes in travel plans reported by Americans shortly after the Persian Gulf War started (then, 14% considered canceling an airplane trip and 11% a trip to a major city). By comparison, 9/11 had a bigger impact. In mid-September 2001, 24% reported that they were considering canceling an airplane trip and one-fifth (21%) canceling a trip to a major city.
One in five Americans (19%) say they have taken steps to prepare their home for an emergency by storing supplies or creating a protected area for the family, a number similar to that seen last month after the government’s official threat level was raised (23%), and also comparable to reported activity shortly after September 11, 2001 (22%).
Just over half of the public (53%) reports that they are praying more since the war began. This is lower than the level of increased prayer seen after the beginning of the Persian Gulf War (65%) and 9/11 (69%), and slightly greater than the level seen at the start of the war in Afghanistan (44%). But there are big differences on this question between men and women: nearly two-thirds of women (66%) say they are praying more, compared with only 39% of men.
Worries Rise as War Proceeds
With the war in its early phases, the public feels somewhat more optimistic about its possible costs and consequences than they did before the conflict began. But concerns over high levels of U.S. military casualties and the prospect that U.S. forces may face attacks from chemical and biological weapons edged back up as U.S. forces approached Baghdad.
Overall, fewer Americans are very worried that U.S. troops might sustain a lot of casualties than in February (38% now, 55% in February). But concern over possible casualties increased significantly after reports that U.S. soldiers were killed or missing. Public worries about the prospect of chemical and biological attacks on U.S. forces followed a similar pattern.
Worries about terrorist attacks on the United States have remained relatively modest, despite the return to a “code orange” level of alert by the Department of Homeland Security. About a third (35%) of Americans say they are very worried that terrorists might strike within the U.S., down from 57% during February’s heightened terrorist alert. Just 9% say they are very worried they or someone in their family might become a victim of a terrorist attack, down from 22% a month ago.
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March 20 April 7 2003 Iraq War Tracking Poll Dataset
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Wars and International Conflicts
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HomePolicyThe Green New Deal Is a Dangerous Fantasy
The Green New Deal Is a Dangerous Fantasy
January 22, 2019 9:22 AM EDT
author: Daniel Mitchell
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a widely criticized viral interview with PBS (Public Broadcasting Station). (Photo: Screenshot)
If nothing else, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives me a lot to write about…and to laugh about.
I recently pontificated about her crazy idea to impose a top tax rate of 70 percent, which would reverse the very successful experiment we had in the 1980s, and presumably have a reverse effect on revenue as well.
Today, let’s look at the spending side of the fiscal equation.
AOC, as she is known, wants a dramatic increase in the burden of federal spending for her so-called “green new deal.”
Let’s examine the implications.
We’ll start with a supporter. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has a giant carbon footprint compared to the average person, but that naturally doesn’t stop him from endorsing policies that would put AOC’s onerous burdens on the less fortunate.
Barack Obama picked up the theme and made a Green New Deal part of his 2008 platform, but the idea just never took off. So I’m excited that the new Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others have put forward their own takes on a Green New Deal… The goal is a ‘detailed national, industrial, economic mobilization plan’ to rapidly transition the country away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, such as a solar, wind, and electric cars.” The Green New Deal that Ocasio-Cortez has laid out aspires to power the U.S. economy with 100 percent renewable energy within 12 years and calls for “a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one,” “basic income programs” and “universal health care,” financed, at least in part, by higher taxes on the wealthy. …it is time for the green movement to think big and make big demands…a portion of every dollar raised by a carbon tax in a Green New Deal would be invested in two new community colleges and high-speed broadband in rural areas of every state.
Thomas Friedman, The New York Times
Now let’s look at the implications of such policies.
But before looking at fiscal and economic considerations, let’s briefly detour to ideology.
Jonah Goldberg of National Review has some fun examining the philosophical forerunners of Ocasio-Cortez’s plan.
…the Green New Deal…is a triumph of recycling. Not of plastic bags or soda cans, but of ideas. Specifically, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the impulses behind it. To her credit, Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) is fairly honest about her ideological recycling. …the New Deal itself was largely about war mobilization — without war. Roosevelt campaigned for president promising to adapt Woodrow Wilson’s wartime industrial policies to fight the Great Depression. …Nearly the entire structure of the New Deal was copied from Wilson’s “war socialism.” The National Recovery Administration was modeled on the War Industries Board. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was an update of Wilson’s War Finance Corporation. …breaking discipline was a punishable offense, which is why a tailor, Jacob Maged, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for charging too little to press a suit. …American liberalism has been recycling the same basic idea: The country needs to be unified and organized as if we are at war… The attraction stems from what John Dewey called “the social possibilities of war” — the ability to reorganize and unify society according to the schemes of planners and experts.
Jonah Goldberg, National Review
Gee, another New Deal. What could possibly go wrong?
Now let’s contemplate the practical implications.
We’ll start with Warren Henry’s article in the Federalist.
…the darling of democratic socialism proposed eliminating carbon emissions within 12 years. …The “Frequently Asked Questions” section accompanying her draft resolution claims it could be funded in the “same ways that we paid for the 2008 bank bailout and extended quantitative easing programs, the same ways we paid for World War II and many other wars. The Federal Reserve can extend credit to power these projects and investments, new public banks can be created (as in WWII) to extend credit and a combination of various taxation tools (including taxes on carbon and other emissions and progressive wealth taxes) can be employed.” …Ocasio-Cortez now falls back on the comforting myth that everything is affordable by soaking the rich with higher income taxes. …Ocasio-Cortez half-concedes her plan is a fantasy… For an idea of how detached Ocasio-Cortez is from reality, consider that we get only 17 percent of our energy from renewables. …even if the golden geese of capitalism were to continue laying eggs in Ocasio-Cortez’s command-and-control economy, there will not be enough to make her statist omelet. Even if Ocasio-Cortez’s fever dream were technologically feasible, the burden of funding it would land on the middle class as well as the uber-wealthy. …This is not the first time Ocasio-Cortez has tried to pass off a fairy tale as a white paper. She recently claimed the $32 trillion cost of a Medicare-for-all plan could be funded by curbing fraud at the Pentagon. Not even PolitiFact could make that math work, given that our nation has not spent $32 trillion on defense since its founding.
Warren Henry, Federalist
In an article for FEE, Jarrett Stepman looks at the economics of AOC’s plan.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the avowed “democratic socialist” went with the predictable “tax the rich” formula in order to pay for a massive government program to combat climate change. …such a scheme would mean that her constituents in New York City would pay a max income tax rate of 82.6 percent… Perhaps New Yorkers deserve what they voted for, but does the country? …the tax hikes on the rich would be one of the least radical parts of the agenda. …moving the economy away from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable energy will come “at a cost of about $5.2 trillion over 20 years.” …this deal would instead rely on the ruthless bludgeoning of private industry and citizens through the levers of the state. …the plan calls for direct government intervention to be its “prime driver.” …The Green New Deal doesn’t just include environmentalist proposals… Among the liberal wish list items included, the Green New Deal contains a proposal for universal health care and a basic minimum income program to make up for all the jobs lost…this will all come with an immense cost. …How do Green New Deal proponents propose to pay for this extreme growth in government? …by massively hiking taxes and then borrowing and ultimately printing money. Then it would use public banks run by unaccountable bureaucrats to carry the whole thing out. …an American version of a Soviet-style five-year plan focused on command-and-control economic solutions that have proven to fail the world over. …The agony of a collapsing Venezuela…is a stark example of how badly this can end.
Jarrett Stepman, FEE
Milton Ezrati’s column in the City Journal further debunks AOC’s numbers.
…specific goals…include, among other things, expanding renewable-energy sources until they provide 100 percent of the nation’s power…upgrading every residence and industrial building in the U.S. for energy efficiency…eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions for industry and agriculture; funding “massive” investments… Ocasio-Cortez adds a long list of social objectives: providing training and education for the energy transition, including “job guarantees at a living wage for everyone who wants one”; …mitigating racial, regional, and gender-based inequalities; developing universal health-care and income-support programs… there were some 136 million housing units in the United States. Upgrading each unit to high standards of energy efficiency would cost, conservatively, at least $10,000 per home, adding up to a total cost of $1.3 trillion. Doing the same for industrial structures would easily exceed that amount. The single-payer health-care part would cost another $3 trillion or more, annually. Stabilizing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would add another $1 trillion to $2 trillion to the price tag—and all these still only account for three items on AOC’s list. …she would rely on debt, “printing money,” and government willingness to take an equity stake in some of the enterprises involved.
Milton Ezrati, City Journal
The bottom line is Ocasio-Cortez wants to dramatically expand the size and scope of government.
Some of her ideas would involve big increases in red tape, especially for the green parts of the Green New Deal (thus underscoring why it is rather naive for anyone to think the left would accept less regulation in exchange for a carbon tax).
But since I’m a fiscal policy person, I’m naturally concerned about what her grandiose plan would mean for the tax and spending burden.
Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute has used public sources to estimate the price tag. Here’s the new spending that AOC and her fellow travelers want to impose on the economy.
Source: Manhattan Institute
And below we have a menu of potential tax increases.
There are two things to realize.
First, even if every single one of the tax increases is adopted, it doesn’t come close to paying for AOC’s wish list for new spending.
Second, the big revenue sources (payroll taxes, VAT, income tax) are largely taxes on lower-income and middle-class taxpayers.
In other words, politicians talk big about screwing the rich, but the rest of us will be picking up the tab.
By the way, I can’t resist commenting on this second table. I realize Brian is merely following the tradition of budget scorekeepers at the JCT and CBO, but new revenues should not be categorized as “savings.” I would go with “grabbings” or “takings” instead.
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Alexandria Ocasio-CortezFiscal PolicyTaxes
Written by Daniel Mitchell
Contributing Economist
Daniel J. Mitchell is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, and a top expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy. Mitchell’s articles can be found in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, and the Washington Times. He is the author of "The Flat Tax: Freedom, Fairness, Jobs, and Growth," and co-author of "Global Tax Revolution: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It."
Another “Useful Idiot” Seeks to Prop Up Cuban Regime by Regurgitating Propaganda
Government Shutdowns and Economic Activity
Pilot Dave / January 22, 2019
So, in 12 years ALL commercial airlines will have to stop using jet engines as there is no “Bio-Jet-A” fuel – and even if invented by then there is no excess in PLANT crops to convert veggie oil into jet fuel.
This is the real fact of AOC’s dream, plus:
“settled science” is political, not science – They only cite the supply side, not the demand side of CO2 (Plant food), They only talk about the affects on temperature from CO2 raise, never the affects on agriculture (Every greenhouse operator knows increased CO2 = increased crop yield.)
There are two very simple facts the Liberals will not acknowledge:
#1 This Earth can only sustain 2 billion people without burning fossil fuel – John Deere does not run on batteries… so, what to do with 5 billion dead bodies?
#2 The “deal” Trump wisely backed us out of would have taxed USA and sent this money to the #1 and #4 producers of CO2 – Chairman Mao’s China, and India…
Most importantly, the Earth can only sustain 2 billion people without burning fossil fuel, so what are they going to do with the 5 – 6 billion corpse ? John Deer doesn’t run on batteries, nor can airliners… how will those fat cats in Congress jet home every weekend without jet fuel ?
Reply /
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Perry > News Grid > Economic Development
Main Street Coordinator Hired
The City of Perry’s Main Street Coordinator position was filled internally by Haley Myers who is currently the Special Events Coordinator with the City. The mission of the Perry Main Street Program is to promote and create a thriving central business district in Downtown Perry and along primary entrance corridors into the downtown development district, while preserving Perry’s historic resources and character. Haley Myers came to the City the end of 2017 after working as the Director of Marketing for BeLoved Atlanta in Atlanta, Ga. She is a graduate from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga., and has a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communications and Nonprofit Management. She has worked for various organizations such as Krochet Kids intl. in Costa Mesa, CA and Plywood People in Atlanta, GA, as a digital marketing specialist. While serving as the first ever Special Events Coordinator for the City of Perry this past year, Ms. Myers has learned about the community, it’s leadership, the city’s partners, local businesses and citizens. She built events and memorable experiences from the ground up where everyone was able to come together in the heart of middle Georgia. Her vision and work ethnic created a year full of fun community events! Ms. Myers comments, “I am excited to take on the role as Main Street Coordinator and serve the city in this new capacity. I look forward to walking alongside current and potential businesses, continuing historic preservation initiatives and creating new economic development projects throughout our Downtown Main Street District. With the help and direction of our Main Street Advisory Board and committees, our trajectory is high and the potential for new growth and the enhancement of our city’s quality of life is very exciting!”
BOOST winners announced
The latest recipients of a crowd-funded grant to “BOOST” downtown Perry’s businesses have been announced. BOOST Downtown Perry is an investment group that provides micro-grants to entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses in the downtown development district. Investors, known as BOOSTers, donate the program’s funds and vote on applications. During the surprise notifications on January 4 and January 7, two companies were awarded $500 each. Recollections by Lynn, located at 745 Main St., was awarded the funds to assist with advertising costs. Gottwals Books, located at 909 Carroll St, was awarded funds to help pay for new glass doors. These awards bring the total grants awarded to downtown Perry businesses to date to $10,400. The program was established in 2015. Previous recipients include Bodega Brew, Cory Allen Jones, Summit Physical Therapy, Davida’s Hair Salon, Tumblecheer Heroes, Mia’s Skincare Salon, Liberty Tax Service, Gentry Downtown Market, Two of a Kind, Eyewear Boutique, Central Computer Services, Shirts Like Mine and Mossy Creek Soap. Applicants may apply for funds for purchasing supplies, business equipment, marketing and advertising, a security system or eligible professional services. BOOST grants are awarded twice annually following a brief application window. The Perry Downtown Development Authority, the Economic Vitality Committee of Perry’s Main Street program, oversees the program. For more information, contact Perry Economic Development Director Ashley Hardin at (478) 988-2755 or ashley.hardin@perry-ga.gov or visit www.perry-ga.gov/economic-development/downtown-development-authority/boost-investment-group/.
Economic Development Director Appointed
Perry’s mayor and city council have selected an experienced professional to serve as economic development director. Ashley Hardin, currently a Shawnee, Kansas resident, will start her new role on October 9. The approval this week by the city is the culmination of a nationwide search for candidates. “Ashley has the skillsets, experience and proven track record we were looking for in a professional to lead economic development for the city of Perry,” according to Mayor Jimmy Faircloth. “I believe she will be a great asset to our community’s team when recruiting new businesses to the area and, most importantly, to the existing employers who have made Perry what we are today. Her expertise in downtown development and working with entrepreneurs who have an interest in starting new businesses are just a few of the reasons we have selected her for the position.” Hardin has served as special projects & grants director / economic development coordinator for the Leavenworth County Development Corporation in Leavenworth, Kansas since 2013. She developed business retention and expansions methods, including an implementation model, within the county and four municipalities located in the Kansas City Metro Area. Hardin’s responsibilities have also included working with national site selection projects, grants, local and state incentive programs and responding to requests for proposals. She also built relationships with Kansas City Kansas Community College, University of St. Mary, Leavenworth Unified School District and utility partners to address workforce development opportunities. As a graduate of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, Hardin has continued her education through the Oklahoma University Economic Development Institute. She is a current member of the International Economic Development Council, Kansas City Area Development Council and the Kansas Economic Development Agency. Hardin serves on the boards of the Basehor Chamber of Commerce, Tonganoxie Chamber of Commerce and Grow Leavenworth County E-Community. Hardin has held other positions with Stephens Media, Inc. and the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce in Spring Hill, Tennessee. “The opportunity to move my family back to the southeastern United States is very exciting,” says Hardin. “My visit to Perry, mixed with the research I conducted, and interaction with the city’s elected and appointed leaders really convinced me this is the right setting for me to add value to the community in terms of economic development. It is also a great chance to raise our family in a progressive area with great schools and infrastructure that appeals to us as parents.” Hardin and her husband, Greg, will be moving to Perry in the next few months with their daughters Taylor, 3, and Callie, 1. As a city department head, the director of economic developer in Perry serves as the liaison between the mayor and council, other department heads and the business community. Hardin will be responsible for the planning, development, implementation, monitoring and assessment of all economic development activities for the city. Key focus areas will include small business development, entrepreneurism, redevelopment, downtown development, industrial development in conjunction with the Houston County Development Authority and community engagement. Specific areas of concentration for Hardin will include the Classic Main Street Program, Downtown Development Authority, Communications and Special Events […]
Perry Rural Zone
BOOST Round 6 application window announced
Downtown Perry’s small businesses may apply for a grant to purchase equipment and supplies. Perry Downtown Development Authority, or DDA, is accepting applications for the sixth round of BOOST grants; the application window will close on Friday, Dec. 1, at 5 p.m. Only existing, brick-and-mortar businesses in Perry’s downtown development district are eligible to apply. Applicants may apply for funds to purchase supplies, business equipment, marketing and advertising, eligible interior renovations, a security system or professional services. Grant funds may not be used for payment of salaries, debts, rent, lease, mortgage, rental deposits, utility bills, late payments or fees, alcohol, tobacco or medicine. Applications must be submitted online and must include quotes and other requested information. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Click here to complete. Grant announcements will be made in December. Grants are awarded in $50 increments, with a maximum grant award of $1,000. Ten grants totaling $5,600 have been awarded to downtown Perry businesses since July 2015. BOOST Downtown Perry is an investment group that provides grant funds to entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses in the district. The DDA, the economic vitality arm of Perry’s Main Street Program, holds the funds until they are awarded. For more information, please, contact Perry Main Street Coordinator Catherine Edgemon at (478) 988-2758 or catherine.edgemon@perry-ga.gov, or visit www.perry-ga.gov/economic-development/downtown-development-authority/boost-investment-group/.
Cruise-In Downtown Perry on Friday, Nov. 11
3rd Annual Cruise-In with a Couple of Jerks A Couple of Jerks Soda Fountain Shop and Perry Main Street Program will host a classic car cruise-in on Saturday, Nov. 11, in historic downtown Perry from 5:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m. More than 150 classic cars are expected at the event to celebrate Veteran’s Day, which will feature live music by Fly By Radio on the lawn of the former courthouse starting at 7:00 p.m. The event is free admission. The following streets will be closed from 4:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.: Carroll Street from the 700 block to Washington, Ball Street from Commerce to Main, and Jernigan Street from Commerce to Main. For more information about this free event, visit A Couple of Jerks Soda Fountain Shop on Facebook.
Perry receives 2017 national Main Street accreditation
Perry has been designated as an accredited Main Street America program for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center. “Downtown buildings are being revitalized, and people are shopping and enjoying our beautiful downtown more than ever before,” Main Street Advisory Board Chairman Bill O’Neal said. “Perry’s Main Street program works to promote and create a thriving business district downtown and along main corridors into downtown, while preserving Perry’s historic resources and character.” “Main Streets are the heart of our communities, and the work they do to create quality public spaces, catalyze local entrepreneurship and support downtown housing is more important than ever,” Patrice Frey, National Main Street Center president and chief executive officer, said. “Across the county, Main Street America programs truly strengthen the economic, social and cultural fabric of their entire communities,” she said. Frey said 828 Main Street America programs received national accreditation for 2017. The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet 10 performance standards. Evaluation criteria determine the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,000 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $71.35 billion in new public and private investment, generated 583,869 net new jobs and 131,974 net new businesses and rehabilitated more than 267,800 buildings.
Historic Photos Downtown
Anyone who has ever wondered what a building in downtown Perry used to look like or what kind of business might have been there 50 years ago is invited to take a stroll downtown through June 3. Photos of spotlighted historic buildings will be displayed in storefront windows. Photographs of former businesses along the 700-900 blocks of Carroll Street, as well as at some on the 1000 block of Ball Street, at 810 Commerce Street and at 1017 Jernigan Street, will be featured on the tour of historic buildings. A photo of the historic Presbyterian Church is also displayed. Photos are added to the display each year. Many photos come from the collection of Charles and Nelle Shelton and other local residents who have helped preserve Perry’s past for future generations. The Perry Main Street Advisory Board’s Design Committee organized this self-guided, walking tour in observance of Historic Preservation Month, which is May, and timed it to coincide with the Perry Downtown Merchants Association’s progressive wine tasting tour on Friday, June 2. Wine tasting tour participants are encouraged to look for the photos as they stroll on their tour. Those who take this history tour are encouraged to take the self-guided walking/driving tour of historical homes and significant sites in Perry, originating at the historic New Perry Hotel. A brochure for that tour is available at the Perry Welcome Center and Convention and Visitors Bureau. Perry was designated as a Main Street community in 2015. Main Street, a program established by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, utilizes historic preservation as a catalyst for downtown redevelopment through its trademark Four Point Approach, which focuses on promotion, organization, design and economic vitality. For more information about the historic building photo tour, contact Main Street Coordinator Catherine Edgemon at (478) 988-2758 or catherine.edgemon@perry-ga.gov. For more information about the progressive wine tasting, contact Jodi Daley at (478) 225-7626.
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NSW News
Former Cats star Sellwood dies
QLD NewsVIC NewsWA NewsSA NewsSportAFL
FORMER Geelong star Joe Sellwood died last night in a nursing home in Belmont, aged 96. Sellwood had been the oldest living VFL/AFL premiership player.
Sellwood was a member of the Cats side that beat Collingwood in the 1937 Grand Final.
"Joe was a terrific character and story-teller," Geelong chief executive Brian Cook said today.
"He was greatly admired and respected by all at the club and when he attended games became the centre of attention because of his humour and quick wit.
"He was an absolute gentleman. He will be sadly missed."
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said he was pleased the former Victorian representative had been able to see a new generation of Geelong players end the club's 44-year premiership drought last month against Port Adelaide.
"Joe did us a great honour late in the season when he joined us to launch the 150-year celebrations for the game next year," Demetriou said.
"As a living piece of our game's history, Joe's recall of events from his career had not faded in any way through the passing of some 70 years since he was a premiership player and his commitment to the Cats had not altered in any way either.
"He was not able to join us at the MCG on Grand Final day to watch Geelong claim the premiership after such a long wait, but everyone in our organisation was delighted that he was able to enjoy the game at home with his family."
Sellwood, along with Essendon's Jack Jones and Geelong's Wayne Closter, was given honorary induction into the AFL 200 Club this season, because his career suffered significant interruption during World War II, preventing him from reaching 200 games.
Sellwood< who was recruited from the north Victorian town of Wunghnu, played in 181 games for Geelong and Victoria between 1930-45.
Sellwood is survived by his four daughters Lesley, Margaret, Joan and Judith, 18 grandchildren, 37 great grandchildren and seven great, great grandchildren.
His funeral will be held on Tuesday at 11am in the Fred Flanagan Room at Skilled Stadium.
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Epilepsy is a common condition in the UK, with an incidence of approximately 80 cases per 100,000 population per year, and a prevalence of 5–10 cases per 1000. Yet, despite this high prevalence, it remains a stigmatising condition, with occupational and social disadvantages imposed on the individual. Epilepsy is difficult to diagnose, requiring a detailed history, and is complex to manage.
Epilepsy is a common condition in the , with an incidence of approximately 80 cases per 100,000 population per year, and a prevalence of 5–10 cases per 1000. Yet, despite this high prevalence, it remains a stigmatising condition, with occupational and social disadvantages imposed on the individual. Epilepsy is difficult to diagnose, requiring a detailed history, and is complex to manage.
The primary aim of epilepsy therapy is seizure freedom. In this, the physician’s medical perspective tallies with the individual’s. Chief concerns for patients often include the regaining of a driving licence and potential lifting of occupational restrictions. However, ideal seizure management requires not only a medication script but also information and an accessible resource for support and questions.
There have been major advances in the understanding and management of epilepsy over the last 20 years, which have gone hand-in-hand with the proliferation of new anti-epileptic medications. Epilepsy services have also expanded with increased numbers of neurologists, epileptologists and epilepsy specialist nurses. Sadly, however, demand for epilepsy services continues to outstrip supply.
In managing newly diagnosed patients, it is worth noting that whilst up to 70% of patients are well controlled on their first drug (with the majority of these rendered seizure-free), the remaining 30% will still require further treatment. Of these, many will continue to have refractory epilepsy. There may be a number of concerns when deciding the next treatment option for these patients, which include licensing restrictions, potential drug interactions and safety and tolerability. In 2004, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) published guidelines on the use of new anti-epileptic drugs in adults and children, and recommended their use generally as second-line medications.
The newer drugs (gabapentin, levetiracetam, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, pregabalin, tiagabine, topirimate, vigabatrin) were each initially licensed as add-on therapies for focal-onset seizures. Lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine and topirimate have since gained monotherapy licenses, whilst levetiracetam has recently gained a clause allowing withdrawal to monotherapy. Some newer medications (e.g. lamotrigine, topiramate) are also useful in primary generalised seizures. Several observational studies also suggest that levetiracetam may be effective in generalised epilepsies, although this is beyond its
current licensed indication.
The new-generation anti-epileptic drugs have several theoretical advantages over the older drugs, including well-characterised mechanisms of action, improved tolerability and more predictable pharmacokinetics. Levetiracetam in particular has a unique cerebral binding site, which perhaps explains its apparent broad spectrum of action. The newer drugs are also generally more predictable than their predecessors when given in combination, having better defined mechanisms of action and less complex pharmacokinetics. Drugs such as gabapentin, levetiracetam and pregabalin are therefore easier to use than the older drugs, having no clinically significant drug interactions together with predictable renal excretion.
As with all new-generation agents, there is a relative lack of data in terms of patient-years and use in special patient groups. The risk of teratogenicity is crucially important when prescribing these newer drugs to women of childbearing potential. The UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy register has sufficient data from pregnancies after lamotrigine monotherapy to give us some assurance of its safety in pregnancy in contrast to valproate, though it will be years before equivalent data exist for the other newer drugs. Our experience with vigabatrin provides us with the most extraordinary example of delayed recognition of a serious complication: it took 8 years to identify that half of those prescribed vigabatrin developed permanent visual field defects. This reinforces the need for continued vigilance in following up patients on long-term anti-epileptic medications.
The future challenge of epilepsy care must be to achieve seizure freedom in our refractory patients. It is hoped that ongoing head-to-head clinical trials of currently available monotherapies will inform future practice. Ultimately, a complete understanding of the aetiology of epilepsy at both the cellular and molecular level, together with the emergence of pharmacogenomic data, may ultimately allow us to ‘best match’ treatments to individual patients. In the meantime, we must ensure that patients with epilepsy are fully informed about the potential advantages and pitfalls of the range of treatment options available, and always aim to prescribe for the individual. Given their position within the community, GPs are ideally placed to inform this decision-making and to respond to an individual’s changing circumstances. By developing effective specialist epilepsy services both within secondary and primary care, we will meet the growing demand for these services and also ultimately improve the care of our patients.
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This Editorial has been written by specialist opinion leaders, Dr Charlotte Lawthom and Dr Philip Smith, The Epilepsy Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Wales, and published in the latest issue of the serial publication, Drugs in Context.
For more information, you can download a free-of-charge Quick Reference Guide to the Levetiracetam in Epilepsy issue of Drugs in Context which is designed to give you an insight into the numerous key points of information and practical guidance contained in each issue, via carefully selected quotations taken directly from each part of the publication.
CSF Medical Communications publishes Drugs in Context which aims to provide clinicians around the world with a comprehensive, authoritative and independent review of all the significant data on a specific drug, placed in the context of the disease area and today’s clinical practice. Each issue comprises four parts - an opening Editorial, a Disease Overview, a Drug Review and finally an Improving Practice section. Each drug is placed within the context of its indications and the clinical practice situation concerned.
Electronic versions (PDF) of articles related to this issue of Drugs in Context are available for purchase and immediate download at ThePharmYard as follows:
Epilepsy - Disease overview
Levetiracetam - Drug review
Epilepsy - Improving practice (UK)
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Crescita Therapeutics™ Announces Amended Loan Agreement...
Crescita Therapeutics™ Announces Amended Loan Agreement with Knight Therapeutics
Crescita Therapeutics Inc. (TSX:CTX) (Crescita or the Company), a commercial dermatology company with a portfolio of non-prescription skincare products and prescription drug products, today announced it has entered into an amended loan agreement with Knight Therapeutics Inc. (Knight) (TSX:GUD).
On September 1, 2016, the Company acquired 100% of the equity of INTEGA Skin Sciences Inc. (INTEGA), a private company located in Laval, Québec that develops, manufactures, sells and markets science-based quality non-prescription skincare products. Concurrent with the Company's acquisition of INTEGA, the Company assumed approximately $6.8 million (currently $6.6 million of principal outstanding) of an INTEGA loan from Knight, which was secured by a letter of credit issued by a Canadian chartered bank on the Company's behalf. The letter of credit was secured by cash held in the Company's account with the bank.
Under the terms of the amended loan agreement, Crescita will immediately repay $2.5 million of the loan (reducing the principal amount to $4.1 million) and Knight has agreed to release the letter of credit in exchange for a general security interest over all of Crescita's assets. As a result, the Company now has access to an additional $6.0 million of its cash (after the repayment described above) – that was previously restricted under the terms of the letter of credit – to fund its operations. The loan continues to bear interest at 9% per annum and matures on January 22, 2022. The loan can be repaid by the Company at any time prior to December 31, 2018 without interest or penalty. The loan does not contain any financial covenants. Under the amended loan, Crescita has agreed to make additional repayments such that the principal amount of the loan is reduced to $2.5 million by December 31, 2018.
The terms and conditions of the amended loan are set forth in an Amended and Restated Loan Agreement between Crescita and Knight, a copy of which will be filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. The summary of the amended loan above is qualified by reference to the specific terms of the loan agreement.
The Company also announced that funds associated with Bloom Burton & Co. (Bloom Burton) have agreed to invest $1.0 million in the Company in exchange for a convertible debenture that will bear interest at 9% (payable in cash) and will be convertible into common shares at the option of the holder at an initial conversion price of $1.00 per share (subject to customary adjustments). The convertible debenture matures on June 30, 2022, unless converted earlier in accordance with its terms. Commencing after the second anniversary of the issue date, the Company has the option to force conversion if the closing price of its common shares exceeds 150% of the conversion price on 20 trading days in any 30 day period.
Crescita Therapeutics
Knight Therapeutics
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Read an Original Essay
Powell's Picks of the Month
Hand-selected books for your reading list.
Even today, female desire is too frequently regarded as only a footnote to the common narrative of male desire — it still remains largely unexplored in the shadow of its ubiquitous counterpart. To that end, Lisa Taddeo spent eight years embedded in the lives of three women: a high school student pursued by her beloved teacher, a lonely housewife embarking on an affair with an old flame, and a beautiful, privileged woman who is polyamorous at her husband's request. Taddeo transcends stereotypes with a concept that's as groundbreaking as some of Gay Talese's more iconic works, although her talent eclipses that of the man who couldn't name a single female writer he admired. Every page is extravagant with detail and it provokes a sense of intimacy between the subjects and the reader, one that echoes the love these women seek. Although my experiences diverge from theirs, I too have been made and unmade by what I want, what I get, and what I am denied. By the end of the book, I felt peeled. Three Women is a masterful blend of journalism and storytelling, a Pulitzer-worthy read that I devoured in one great, furious gulp. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Lisa Taddeo’s fluid prose is amongst the most captivating I’ve ever encountered in a nonfiction book. She expertly puts the reader in sync with the emotional states of her three subjects, telling their stories with both a clear-eyed directness and an empathetic richness. Taddeo completely succeeds in her project and has written one of the best books of the year. Recommended By Keith M., Powells.com
Taddeo spent eight years and thousands of hours with her subjects to render three detailed portraits of female desire, and the end result is an absolute gift. One of the most electric, unapologetic, and powerfully intimate books I’ve ever read, I’ll be reeling from this one for some time. Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com
Desire as we've never seen it before: a riveting true story about the sex lives of three real American women, based on nearly a decade of reporting.
It thrills us and torments us. It controls our thoughts, destroys our lives, and it's all we live for. Yet we almost never speak of it. And as a buried force in our lives, desire remains largely unexplored — until now. Over the past eight years, journalist Lisa Taddeo has driven across the country six times to embed herself with ordinary women from different regions and backgrounds. The result, Three Women, is the deepest nonfiction portrait of desire ever written and one of the most anticipated books of the year.
We begin in suburban Indiana with Lina, a homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. She passes her days cooking and cleaning for a man who refuses to kiss her on the mouth, protesting that "the sensation offends" him. To Lina's horror, even her marriage counselor says her husband's position is valid. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks. When she reconnects with an old flame through social media, she embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming.
In North Dakota we meet Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student who finds a confidant in her handsome, married English teacher. By Maggie's account, supportive nightly texts and phone calls evolve into a clandestine physical relationship, with plans to skip school on her eighteenth birthday and make love all day; instead, he breaks up with her on the morning he turns thirty. A few years later, Maggie has no degree, no career, and no dreams to live for. When she learns that this man has been named North Dakota's Teacher of the Year, she steps forward with her story — and is met with disbelief by former schoolmates and the jury that hears her case. The trial will turn their quiet community upside down.
Finally, in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, we meet Sloane — a gorgeous, successful, and refined restaurant owner — who is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women. He picks out partners for her alone or for a threesome, and she ensures that everyone's needs are satisfied. For years, Sloane has been asking herself where her husband's desire ends and hers begins. One day, they invite a new man into their bed — but he brings a secret with him that will finally force Sloane to confront the uneven power dynamics that fuel their lifestyle.
Based on years of immersive reporting, and told with astonishing frankness and immediacy, Three Women is a groundbreaking portrait of erotic longing in today's America, exposing the fragility, complexity, and inequality of female desire with unprecedented depth and emotional power. It is both a feat of journalism and a triumph of storytelling, brimming with nuance and empathy, that introduces us to three unforgettable women — and one remarkable writer — whose experiences remind us that we are not alone.
" [An] instant feminist classic...Utterly engrossing...Game-changing." O, The Oprah Magazine
"This is one of the most riveting, assured, and scorchingly original debuts I've ever read." Dave Eggers
"Extraordinary...A nonfiction literary masterpiece...I can't remember the last time a book affected me as profoundly as Three Women." Elizabeth Gilbert
Lisa Taddeo has contributed to New York magazine, Esquire, Elle, Glamour, and many other publications. Her nonfiction has been included in the Best American Sports Writing and Best American Political Writing anthologies, and her short stories have won two Pushcart Prizes. She lives with her husband and daughter in New England.
Lisa Taddeo on PowellsBooks.Blog
When people ask how I was able to get so intimate with the subjects of Three Women — a book about desire reported over eight years — I talk about the different methods I used. I posed the same question, for example, dozens of times and from a variety of angles. It was a book, after all, about desire...
Lisa Taddeo
More copies of this ISBN
Signed, New, Hardcover, $27.00
Used, Hardcover, $18.50
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Hey Wait, What About Our Fancy New Quasi-Judicial Statute?
By Chad Essick
Jan. 6, 2014 Reading Time Created with Sketch. 3 min. read SHARE
In 2009, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted Senate Bill 44, an act that codified the case law regarding quasi-judicial land use proceedings, including the proper standards and procedures for judicial review. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-393. Quasi-judicial land use decisions include, among other things, decisions involving variances, special and conditional use permits, and appeals of administrative decisions. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-393(b)(3). The adoption of this new statute took the effort of many accomplished land use attorneys and interested stakeholders. In fact, discussions regarding the need for this legislation originated before my legal career even began. So, when I read a recent Court of Appeals decision involving the denial of a special use permit by a quasi-judicial body, I was befuddled as to why the opinion did not contain a single citation to G.S. § 160A-393.
In Blair Investments, LLC v. Roanoke Rapids City Council, et al. (filed December 17, 2013), the petitioner sought a special use permit to construct a cell phone tower. After considering the evidence presented by the applicant, planning department and concerned neighbors, the Roanoke Rapids City Council denied the special use permit on the grounds that the proposed tower would “endanger the public or safety” and would “not be in harmony with the surrounding area.” The Superior Court affirmed the Council’s decision. On appeal, however, the Court of Appeals reversed the Council’s decision on the grounds that the applicant had met its burden of making a prima facie showing of entitlement to the special use permit and the testimony of the concerned neighbors were speculative opinions, unsupported by any documentary or testimonial evidence. Therefore, the Court held the Council’s decision was not supported by substantial, competent, and material evidence and remanded the case with instructions that the special use permit be granted.
To be clear, I take no issue with the Court’s ultimate decision in Blair. The Court appropriately reviewed the record and made the correct determination based on the facts and evidence that were before the Council. I also take no issue with the overall legal principles and case law cited by the Court in Blair. I do find it perplexing, however, that in discussing the appeal procedure, scope of review and its ultimate disposition of the case, the Court cited to a number of cases decided prior to the adoption of G.S. § 160A-393, but did not cite to or discuss 160A-393 at all. As already discussed, the purpose of adopting 160A-393 was to codify prior case law and establish the black letter law governing the review of quasi-judicial decisions. Perhaps the failure to recognize or cite to 160A-393 was an oversight by the lawyers who argued the case or perhaps it simply slipped by the law clerks working on the opinion. I can’t imagine, however, the statutory framework for reviewing quasi-judicial decisions was completely ignored by the Court intentionally.
Many might consider this article to be a technical assault on an otherwise good appellate opinion. While I believe it to be a substantive omission, my true reason for writing this article is to hopefully ensure that this fancy new statute at least gets dropped in a future footnote. Too many people worked too hard for it not to.
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VCG/Getty Images
Misreading China’s Strength
Feb 24, 2019 Stephen S. Roach
The US believes that with Chinese growth slowing, China's leaders are desperate for a deal to end the bilateral trade war, regardless of when the current 90-day truce actually ends. But the two economies’ longer-term fundamentals compel a very different verdict about which side has the upper hand.
NEW HAVEN – US President Donald Trump’s administration has underestimated China’s resilience and strategic resolve. With the Chinese economy slowing, the US believes that China is hurting and desperate for an end to the trade war. But with ample policy space to address the current slowdown, China’s leadership has no need to abandon its longer-term strategy. While a cosmetic deal focused on bilateral trade appears to be in the offing, the sharp contrast between the two economies’ fundamental underpinnings points to a very different verdict regarding who has the upper hand.
Yes, the Chinese economy has weakened significantly in the past few months. But, contrary to US perceptions that this is due to its successful tariff strategy, China’s downturn has been largely self-inflicted. It was initially brought on by a deleveraging campaign aimed at neutralizing the mounting risks of debt-intensive economic growth. To their credit, Chinese policymakers have moved aggressively to avoid the dreaded Japan syndrome – not just a debt overhang, but also a profusion of zombie companies and related productivity challenges.
Largely as a result of this effort, credit growth has moderated from around 16% at the start of 2016 to about 10.5% in late 2018. This has had marked repercussions for China’s once-powerful investment engine, the largest component of the economy, which has slowed from 20% growth in late 2013 to about 6% in late 2018.
Stephen S. Roach
Stephen S. Roach, former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm's chief economist, is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and a senior lecturer at Yale's School of Management. He is the author of Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China.
Is China the Next Japan?
AFP/ Stringer
Stephen S. Roach is confident that the authorities will implement structural reforms before it's too late.
The Myth of Sound Fundamentals
Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The recent correction in the US stock market is now being characterized as a fleeting aberration – a volatility shock – in what is still deemed to be a very accommodating investment climate.
In fact, for a US economy that has a razor-thin cushion of saving, dependence on rising asset prices has never been more obvious.
America’s Saving Perils
Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Stephen S. Roach blames overconsumption, not China or free-trade agreements, for weakening the US middle class.
A Bilateral Foil for America’s Multilateral Dilemma
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Stephen S. Roach explains the political appeal of the Trump administration's nonsensical approach to trade with China.
Joseph Zorzin Mar 6, 2019
China's economy would be a basket case if not for the huge investments by American, European and Japan's industries in order to obtain dirt cheap labor. It's time to dis-invest in China. Blame these industries for our problem with China. Also, America has more Chinese college students than from any other nation. That should be seen as a problem despite the colleges' love of that lucrative business.
Norman Kennedy Mar 1, 2019
Trying to reconcile this week's Economist magazine essay on China that say 75% of all new bank lending is used to pay interest on existing debt. I guess 25% not going to interest allows them to still push on the growth string with new lending but for how long?
David Chang Feb 26, 2019
communist run china is a country that is run like stalin's soviet union or hitler's nazi germany it has zero strength in only thing that really matters which is ideology. roach is insane to think this has anything to do with economics
Matt T Feb 25, 2019
"Cutting reserve requirements five times in the past year has led to higher bank lending and a pick-up in credit growth in early 2019, which should support an improvement in overall economic activity by midyear." More bridges to nowhere will not help I´d guess Pettis would say. Credit availability is not the problem, but where it goes.
Tom M Feb 24, 2019
Completely the opposite conclusion reached by The Economist - which is that China is one of the very rare things that the US body politic is united on (rather than it being 'Trump's' stance, which is so labelled here so the usual quarters can boo and hiss). Its conclusions that ultimately China's increasingly authoritarian political system is bad for business and bad for the Chinese economy is far better argued that the shallow bit of pro-China polemic reproduced here.
vivek iyer Feb 24, 2019
This article makes some questionable assumptions
1) Symmetric trade diversion effects as if China had already achieved technological parity. This is not the case. The US can kill Chinese 'cash-cows' and prevent it moving up the value chain. Moreover, trade diversion could be to China's natural rivals.
2) Economic resilience as posing the same type of political risks to both regimes. This is quite foolish. The US can tolerate a major Depression without changing its political system. It does not greatly matter who is in the White House or which Party controls Congress. By contrast, if the Communist Party cracks it will crack all the way down to the District level. Capital flight will accelerate. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution will be replicated with multiple 'scissors crises' and vast population movements.
3) China is only now making the pivot to maritime great power status. This can and perhaps should be choked off now. Hitting Chinese trade now directly impacts on the strategic picture. America retains vast reserves of power.
4) China's savings wants to flee. So do a lot of the smartest people. Guess where they want to move? It is now clear that there will be no democratic transition or genuine Rule of Law in China. Anybody may be denounced or 'disappeared'.
The US was sleep walking towards disaster cheered on by a corrupt elite. If a Trump can get elected by denouncing the 'fake news' of the establishment, then the next iteration of Leadership in the Free World will take a stronger, not weaker, line with China. It may decide to be a bigger version of Japan or Taiwan. Alternatively, it could be a gigantic North Korea.
Hans Rijsdijk Feb 25, 2019
I would suggest that China may already be well ahead of the US and the rest of the world in telecommunications. It is quite possible that America's banning of Huawei has nothing to do with security, but everything with protecting its communication industries. In this context it is interesting to note that the UK and Germany are not nearly as negative towards Huawei as they say that although there may be risks, they can be managed. And to my knowledge nothing at all has been published to support America's arguments against Huawei.
Godfree Roberts Feb 24, 2019
China has not only reached parity, it has surpassed the US in both science and technology. According to the Japan Science and Technology Agency, China now ranks as the most influential country in four of eight core scientific fields, tying with the U.S. The agency took the top 10% of the most referenced studies in each field, and determined the number of authors who were affiliated with the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, China or Japan. China ranked first in computer science, mathematics, materials science and engineering. The U.S., on the other hand, led the way in physics, environmental and earth sciences, basic life science and clinical medicine. China is also rapidly catching up in physics, where the U.S. has long dominated. It is spending more than $6 billion to build the world's largest particle accelerator, which could put it at the forefront of particle physics. https://tinyurl.com/ydeqeqnb.
China has overtaken the US to become the world’s largest producer of scientific research papers, making up almost a fifth of the total global output, according to a major new report. https://www.stm-assoc.org/document-library/
hina leads the world all fields of civil engineering, all fields of sustainable and renewable energy, manufacturing, blockchain, supercomputing, speech recognition, graphenics, thorium power, pebble bed reactors, genomics, thermal power generation, quantum communication networks, ASW missiles, drones, in-orbit satellite refueling, Genomic Precision Medicine, passive array radar, metamaterials, hyperspectral imaging, nanotechnology, UHV electricity transmission, HSR, speech recognition, radiotelescopy, hypersonic weapons, satellite quantum communications, Railguns, quantum secure direct communications, quantum controls,.. “Approximately 72% of the academic patent families published in QIT since 2012 have been from Chinese universities. US universities are a distant second with 12%.” (Patintformatics. https://patinformatics.com/quantum-computing-report/).
Walter Gingery Feb 26, 2019
That, of course, is why US companies have been seeking to catch up by hacking the secrets of Chinese firms and military. . . . oh, wait. . . .
If China is ahead then either the US should gracefully accept vassalage or should try to prevent a gap from growing by the traditional means used against the Soviets.
China's recent advances are heavily dependent on State investment. The US and its allies has plenty of spare capacity to reverse the trend. The advantage of the West is that it can attract talent and capital from every country, including China. Technology theft can work both ways. By contrast, China's history is not such as inspires confidence.
Pity then that Chinese patents aren't worth the paper they are printed on because of the complete lack of rule of law in China - Communist Party rule knows now boundaries - this will be China's downfall as it was that of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Petey Bee Feb 24, 2019
Regarding #4 - very true, but... Do you see the west absorbing the class of the best educated Chinese in the necessary numbers for this to have a strategic effect?
Regarding #3 - how would this be stopped? What resource can China be deprived of to prevent or slow down construction of ships, subs, and missiles?
Regarding #1 - this is perhaps the most realistic, or in my opinion, least unrealistic potential strategy. Do you think China's domestic market could not sustain the remaining levels of tech/science development? How would those of China's natural rivals who are also its biggest trade partners feel about disengagement? And if this strategy was carried out, how could it be made to not seem like an injustice from the Chinese perspective? (I.e. if indeed the objective is not to make Chinese citizens rally around the flag, but rather incite them to simultaneously abandon both their political leadership and their development strategy)
I think the market, by itself, has already ensured that Chinese capital and talent will find hospitable homes- even on campuses in less developed rivals or emerging economies. Traditional guanxi networks are very flexible and appear able to ease capital flight despite greatly increased penalties.
I think some of the promise shown by China won't pan out because audit quality is poor and metrics are more manipulable. No doubt, we have similar problems but our information aggregation is more incentive compatible. At least, it has been thus far.
I think China first has to expand its naval capacity before it becomes vulnerable to a 'sunk cost fallacy' strategic trap. In any case, an expanded Chinese maritime footprint means SigInt has a better chance of finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.
Trade diversion to Chinese rivals- its 'competitive fringe'- can be compensated for in terms of effective demand- China is not a dwarf which can be bullied- but it affects the product cycle in unexpected ways. This increased uncertainty may actually be good for small firms in industrial hubs but its effect would be to reduce the Party's control of the economy.
I don't think 'hurting China' will help anyone. On the contrary, the Chinese should improve their quality of life using their newly acquired R&D and export 'green solutions' to the planet. If this happens because of dynamism shown by small firms and knowledge based networks, then the Chinese leadership may trade-off improved efficiency against the desire for control.
The Chinese, historically, have reason to be suspicious of 'money pit' projects in far flung countries. Interestingly, Chinese workers in Africa and elsewhere may get innoculated against the very ideology the Great Leader still subscribes to.
Still, all this is predicated on Western elites shedding their culture of complacency and penchant for corrupt deals. It may be that China will win through because of superior morality and discipline. But, that is not the lesson of History.
Paul Friesen Feb 24, 2019
"The US can kill Chinese 'cash-cows' and prevent it moving up the value chain."
Why do you think that? The U.S. takes about 20% of China's exports. That's a big number, but it does not give the U.S. unlimited leverage to pressure China. And the U.S. accounts for only 8.7% of China's imports. Maybe some of those are pretty critical imports, but I am sure China has been working hard to reduce its vulnerability to pressure given past experience.
In 2008, China experienced a sudden drop in its U.S. exports. But its had a leadership that knew how to handle that. It rolled out a giant stimulus plan, about 15% of its GDP. It was used partly to fund infrastructure spending, but also for consumer incentives, and the result was that soon the country was the major bright spot in the world economy. I expect its leaders would know how to handle any attempts at economic sabotage by the U.S.
China was perceived as being on a very different trajectory in 2008.
Over the last couple of years, the scales have fallen from the eyes of many people who were previously crucial to Chinese dynamism. Xi hopes that he can get the Army to pivot in an unprecedented manner- i.e. he is betting that the organs of State can be as easily re-purposed as commercial enterprises free to hire from a global market.
It may be that China has an unsuspected pool of talent in its Party cadres. But, so far, it has not been the case that China can generate a high enough rate of return on indigenously deployed Capital to prevent Capital flight. At the same time, the political climate has changed adversely.
Why give the Chinese the benefit of the doubt when that would be tantamount to geopolitical defeatism? Why not pursue a trade diversion strategy which hurts cash-cows and damages their R&D programs?
I'm not speaking of Keynesian 'beggar thy neighbor' macro-economics. It would be foolish to do so. Any large enough country can sidestep massive structural unemployment if it is nimble enough and rent-seeking can be curbed.
The US does have some pretty myopic trade negotiators and awakening them rudely from time to time is wholly salutary. But the strategic 'big picture' must be about pushing back on China's expansive designs by diverting trade to its natural rivals.
"It may be that China has an unsuspected pool of talent in its Party cadres. But, so far, it has not been the case that China can generate a high enough rate of return on indigenously deployed Capital to prevent Capital flight. At the same time, the political climate has changed adversely."
I doubt if there's one member of the State Council whose IQ is below 140 and who has less than 25 years successful experience governing hundreds of millions of people, running space programs and Fortune 500 companies.
According to a St. Louis Fed paper, "Chinese State Investments: A Free Lunch?", their Keynesian multiple is 200%-300%.
There is no capital flight. China is the world leader in incoming FDI.
I am sure China is simply too big and too dynamic for the U.S. to bully any more. The U.S. needs to get over the idea that it can use "sanctions" on any country it likes. The days when it dominated the world economy sufficiently for it to do that are over. It can still bully a small country like Iran. But its power to do even that is waning. And China is just no longer susceptible.
I really hope that the U.S. can summon enough humility and greatness of spirit to accept this. It is still the most powerful country in the world. But its power is waning and that will not be true for much longer. My fear is that it may not be able to accept this, and that it could cause a lot of damage to itself and others as it happens.
America reinvents itself at an astonishing rate. I never thought I'd live to see a Luo President- and I still haven't, in Kenya. America had no difficulty electing one.
I broadly agree about Sanctions. However, push-back against China, at this moment in time, may help, not hurt, an industrious people who can rise by their own energy and enterprise rather than have to rely on the gunboat and the expeditionary force.
lt lee Feb 25, 2019
America reinventing itself? Or reinventing reality?
2016 poll:
"Seventy-two percent of registered Republican voters still doubt President Obama’s citizenship, according to a recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll conducted in late June and early July of more than 1,700 registered voters. And this skepticism even exists among Republicans high in political knowledge."
At this juncture, sanction would not serve US interests but accelerate China's rise.
Compare chinese workers to uneducated Americans(obese, tatoos, huge drug probem, short attention spam dedicated to social media, give up when obstacles get in the way. If China gets it's fiscal and monetary policy right, American will be left behind.
Guy Fawkes Mar 4, 2019
I legitly LOLed. Ten seconds of googling would have told you that worker productivity in the chinese peoples republic doesnt even come close to american productivity, in fact it isn't even ranked at all. (and no toiling away day and night like a slave or cockroach doessn't count as productivity).
I get that you are trolling but at least you can put some effort into it...
I certainly agree that China's current minor slowdown is likely to be short-lived. The main reason is that China seems to have leaders who understand and believe in basic Keynesian economics.
I don't really agree that the U.S. is necessarily facing a situation where "With jobless claims starting to inch higher, the housing sector already weak, the global economy on increasingly shaky ground, and the Federal Reserve having limited ammunition, the US economy’s resilience looks increasingly tenuous". Keynesian economics is available to the U.S., too. The U.S. doesn't need to have prolonged periods of high unemployment like that following the crash of 2008. That was entirely self-inflicted. It is quite true that the federal reserve is low on ammunition, but fiscal policy would be able to handle any downturn, if properly applied.
It could be that, in practical political terms, the U.S. is now more likely to be able to do what is necessary in the event of another slowdown. There is no evidence that Trump understands Keynesian economics. A tax cut leading to a large deficit when the economy is close to capacity is not good Keynesian policy. But at least he does not seem to be afraid to run a deficit, and to be much less likely to be prevented from doing so by an administration that is still largely Republican-controlled. Deficits, it seems, are the work of the devil if proposed by Democrats, but to be quite OK if instigated by Republicans.
B Wilds Feb 24, 2019
Understanding the core nature of China is important to comprehend the lack of flexibility ingrained in their system. This comes in the ideology that directs its actions. China is still very much a communist country, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls everything. While it may appear both State-owned and private firms operate within China's economic system. This is mostly an illusion following economic reforms in the 1980s.
In reality, the communist system does not allow for true private ownership and views all "tech innovation" as essential to its national interests. Thus, private and state-owned Chinese firms act in the interest of the Chinese regime when it comes to foreign investments in the high-tech sectors. Below is the second part of a part-two series which explores why China is on a one-track path and blind to other options going forward. This is a recipe for conflict.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2018/08/china-unflexible-path-forward.html
https://prosyn.org/Ol3teoA;
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Which iPhone?
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The drama behind Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders: site issues, sold out already, and record sales
Elyse Betters | 12 September 2014
1/3 Pocket-lint
Best Samsung Galaxy S10 deals June 2019: 30GB for £30/m on EE
Apple opened pre-orders globally for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at midnight PST last night, allowing you to buy online and avoid the queues at physical shops. But then drama ensued.
Apple’s online store in the US crashed for two hours and 25 minutes a short while after pre-orders opened. It appears online stores outside of the US were unaffected by the issues, and pre-orders through carriers largely started without problems as well. Still, plenty of Americans were outraged by Apple's bumpy start and of course took to Twitter to voice their frustrations. Some people humorously tweeted that they might just as well "wait for the iPhone 6S now".
Although people around the world eventually gained access to Apple's online pre-ordering system, the entire debacle won't reflect too well on Angela Ahrendts. She's the former Burberry CEO who became head of Apple's online and physical store retail in May. It also doesn't look good for Apple in general, especially after the company's botched live-stream efforts for the 9 September event.
That said, Apple had forecasted the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch would be its biggest ever. And it appears the company was right. In a statement to Pocket-lint on Friday, Apple announced that the response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus "has been incredible, with a record number of pre-orders" overnight. It's therefore safe to assume that such a strong demand probably caused or at least had something to do with Apple's site problems.
Unfortunately, the record number of sales also means Apple and most major carriers in both the US and UK have sold through their iPhone 6 Plus pre-order allotments. People can still pre-order the device online; they just have to deal with longer ship times if they choose that model. The 64GB and 128GB iPhone 6 Plus from Verizon in US, for instance, has a mid-October ship date. Apple’s site was quoting ship times of up to four weeks for all carriers.
READ: Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Pre-orders open, where can I get it?
As for the UK, Apple's site was also quoting ship times of up to four weeks for carriers Three and O2 (and even the SIM-free model of iPhone 6 Plus). The iPhone 6 however appears to be in stock in the UK. It's unclear how many units have been sold so far, but Apple, according to its previous patterns, is expected to announce initial sales of the iPhone 6s on Monday. In 2012 the company announced iPhone 5 pre-orders surpassed 2 million units sold in just 24 hours.
Thus, if you want your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus sooner than October, you might have to deal with lengthy queues after all. Apple said you can simply visit an Apple Retail Store on 19 September, when the smartphones hit retail shelves, and (hopefully) walk out with one that day.
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ is now available on EE who have been awarded the UK’s best network for the fifth year running. RootMetrics tested the four UK networks and EE was faster and more reliable than all of them, with better data performance. Their network has come a long way since they launched in 2012. Back then they had 11 UK cities covered by 4G. Today they cover most of the UK’s land mass, thanks to 19,000 state-of-the-art 4G sites. They’ve got faster, too – from 50Mbps to a maximum speed of 400Mbps. And they’re soon to experience even greater possibilities with the launch of 5G.
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Island analyzes hurricane response
Worrell wins Laguna Vista race
Shrimp Cook-Off to be on national TV
By PAMELA CODY
More than a dozen competitors not only got the opportunity to vie for their shrimp dish to be crowned the winner of the 24th Annual World’s Championship Shrimp Cook-Off last Saturday, they will also gain national exposure, as crews representing the Food Network were on hand to film the event for a potential new program.
Christina Klimas, a representative for Pink Sneakers Productions, said the company was contracted by the Food Network to film the shrimp cook-off for a new program tentatively titled “Taste of Victory” to be aired sometime in 2018. The half hour-long program will feature food competitions across the United States, with each episode focusing on a different type of food.
Klimas said one of their associates discovered the shrimp festival while researching for the project, so they came to Port Isabel to cover the event. “It’s really beautiful here, really nice. We’re enjoying the beauty of the area and the community has been really friendly and welcoming,” Klimas said.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2017/11/10/shrimp-cook-off-to-be-on-national-tv/
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George Burgess to Miss Two Matches
Wed 9 Sep 2015, 07:27 PM
Rabbitohs forward, George Burgess, will miss two matches after unsuccessfully contesting a grade two contrary conduct charge at the NRL Judiciary tonight.
Following the hearing, Burgess said that he was disappointed by his actions, emphasising that such conduct should not be a part of the game moving forward at any level.
"[It's] not good for me," Burgess said of the suspension.
"Hopefully, as an NRL community, we can get on with the finals now. I look forward to some exciting games.
"Hopefully any kids out there watching can learn from my mistakes. I certainly have done and [I'm] looking to move forward now.
"It was a silly act. I reacted to what I saw at the time. I don't condone what I did. You've just got to move forward and keep working hard and keep encouraging my teammates to get as far as we can in the finals period. It's a very important time for our Club."
The English international accrues 270 points for the charge, resulting in a two-match suspension, meaning the earliest the prop-forward could be available pending results, would be in Week 3 of the 2015 NRL Finals Series – the Preliminary Finals.
The Rabbitohs will take on the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in Week 1 of the NRL Telstra Premiership Finals Series at Allianz Stadium this Sunday with kick-off slated for 4.10pm. Purchase your tickets!
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part of the light - ray lamontagne
Ray LaMontagne returns with his upcoming seventh studio album 'Part of Light,' written and produced by LaMontagne!
Ray LaMontagne has released 6 studio albums, 5 of which have reached Top 10 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart and Billboard's Digital Albums chart. Additionally, his 2010 album 'God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise' won the Grammy for Best Folk Album and was nominated in the coveted Song of The Year category for "Beg Steal or Borrow."
Each release from his catalogue over the last 13 years carries its own character and feel. Having worked with producers Ethan Johns, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Ray's vast sonic catalogue has been called everything from "a perfect throwback to the lost art of the album-length format," from Entertainment Weekly to "epic and magical," from Rolling Stone and "gorgeous and ambitious," from Esquire. NPR's All Things Considered said that Ray throughout the course of his career "has continued to push himself in different directions," while People called Ray a "marvel of nature."
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Travel Essay about New Zealand
Posted by Editorial Staff — December 9, 2018 in Free Essays
Every country has different social, cultural values and norms. The quick history of Newzealand: The culture of New Zealand is essentially is a mixture of western culture. It is influenced by the geographic remoteness of the islands. New Zealand is located in the southwest Pacific Ocean. New Zealand contains topographic and climate variation.
New Zealand Travel
I visit New Zealand to explore new places, people and places. I stay in New Zealand for a time period of six months. My family friend has already resided there. Meori has begun to interact with European visitors and settlers. The culture is in the modern era shaped by the urbanization. It is the revival of traditional practices and close interaction with the New Zealanders and European.
The arrival of Europeans to New Zealand starts from the 17th century. It brings enormous changes to the Maori way of life. Both are visually different. European and Mori people belong to different cultures and tradition.
New Zealand has a fantastic mixture of art and culture. New Zealand is a worth seeing culture. The first time, I visited Auckland city in New Zealand. I stayed three months with a homestay family. The flight was almost 21 hours from Riyadh, Hong-Kong and Auckland city. There are very unique customs in New Zealand from food, sports, and hospitality. The culture puts the impression of the indigenous Maori and observes the various shades of the multi-ethnic migration. In every country, the scenario of culture is different.
The people have different traditions, cultural and social values. New Zealand culture has been broadened by the globalization, and the people immigration from the Pacific islands, South Asia and West Asia. I stayed with a family and spend a good time with them. The people were very nice and sweet. I used to watch the rugby game with them. I have experienced the culture of kiwi and Maori people with them. The people of New Zealand like to visit each other especially their relatives.
Maori is the indigenous people of New Zealand. The language of the Maori people is “TE-REO”. It is originally discovered by Polynesians between 1200 and 1300 C.E. The country was settled by Maori and areas were named after the Kiwi (tribes). In 1642, the Dutchman Abel Tasman named the land Staten Island (Weaver).” This was soon changed to Nieuw Zeeland, after Zeeland in Holland.
Tasman was attacked and never landed, but in 1769, James Cook claimed dominion for George III of England. In 1860, New Zealand brings Chinese minors from Australia, China, and Hong Kong. The people are chiefly market gardeners and café owner. The emerging culture of memory symbolizes its culture. The culture of Maori (taonga) is reinvented. Some parts of the culture are incorporated in public events and ceremonies
All black rugby team performs a “HAKA”. Haka is a war dance. Before starting a game, Mori people give the challenge to the other people. A popular rugby team is called “a black “Maori tourism is a growing industry throughout New Zealand, Most of the Mori live in a north island. Maori like to see traditional dances. The Maori have a rich culture. The large influence is on the north island.
The Rotorua is a unique village of Maori. The Maori food is cooked under the hot stones is known as “hang”. Legend is passed through the telling of stories by the older generation. The stories relate to the creation of the islands of New Zealand. The Maori people focused on a social, cultural and spiritual life within the community. Mostly Maori people define themselves by the tribe system.
The family concerns are very important. All the people are connected with blood relations and in-laws. The most important part of the Maori culture is dancing. The people formed their culture, language, and tradition. Maori people gives warm welcome to other nations. The Maori people mostly like to speak English in schools and official places. The arrival of European settlers broke out the war in the land.
Kiwi is the famous bird of the New Zealand that cannot fly. The kiwi is also used to refer to a people and things link to the New Zealand people. It is mostly used “Kiwi team” or a “Kiwi accent”. Many people in New Zealand like to enjoy a British culture. Sports play a very big part in the lives of the New Zealanders. The most popular game is Rugby that is played in the season of winter.
All black nations team are renowned by this game. In the summer season, the cricket is mostly played. The most popular games are tennis, bowls, swimming, horse riding, sailing, golf, and athletics. Many people enjoy the tradition. These traditions are inherited from the British. The main meal is eaten during the evening time. The people of New Zealander is like to visit each other home.
The Maori people are very lovable, hospitable and great love to follow their tradition. However, most of the homeless population are from the Maori. The people of Maori are in the influence of deep poverty. Many of the people are jobless. There is no house for living. But the reforms come with the passage of time.
Maori people also refer as an indigenous people of New Zealand. Indigenous people the unique mixture of Maori and European people. Nearly, 70, 000 people in New Zealand are Maori. I observed Haka is a type of war dance. Culture is a unique part of the indigenous people. It adds a unique, dynamic experience for the visitors.
The indigenous people come from the mythical Polynesian homeland of Hawaii more than 1000 years ago. I experience the indigenous people culture organized tour. I learn a weaving or demonstrating the fascinating myths and legends. I observe the best place on a Marae (tribal meeting grounds). The tribal discussion was made and solve the issues of the people. Hangi feast cooked in earth ovens.
The Maori hunted a large number of birds and fish. The people mostly give the warmer Maori is the second language of New Zealand
The Haka is traditionally war dance used on the battlefield. The groups came together in peace. Haka dance shows the tribe pride. Actions show violent foot stamping, tongue protrusions and slapping of a body in a loud chant. The words of Haka often used poetically used describe the tribe ancestors.
Haka is also used to challenge to the opponent in the battlefield. The indigenous people ceremonies include the long-standing tradition. Indigenous people eat hang. Indigenous people creative arts are weaving and carving. The people celebrate the part events. It continues to involve inspiration and new material. Indigenous people reside in the Auckland, Waikato, and Netherland regions.
Indigenous people have the poor living standard. Indigenous people don’t hold a power position in the political field. The indigenous people have the tradition of Haka dance. The food, dances, and languages become the center of attention of Morori people. Indigenous people represent the remarkable diversity. There is 5,000 distinct group in the world. Indigenous people present 5% of the world’s population.
There are 370 million indigenous people living in the world. Indigenous people present the 15 % world’s poorest people. Indigenous people have common historical continuity. The region is prior to colonization and strong links to the lands. They maintain the distinct social, economic and political system. Indigenous people have the culture, beliefs and knowledge system. There are many challenges faced by indigenous people. It includes the Daniel of their right to control their development.
It is based on their values, needs, and priorities. Indigenous people have no access to social services and not strong in decision making. Indigenous people often displaced from their ancestral lands.
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It is concluded that there is a huge number of Indigenous people in European countries. Indigenous people are also native America in the USA. Indigenous people of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or Americans Indians. Indigenous people started struggle one time by the European. Indigenous people fight to get their full rights. Maori people did not get the right they did not deserve. They live from hand to mouth. Where ever the memory people exist, they have common criteria in their living standard.
In the countries of Europe and USA, they have the poor living standard, indigenous people have no political power. Their tradition and culture are used as a business like a haka dance. There are 10 million indigenous people lived in the United States and they become part of it. As time passed, these migrants and their descendants pushed south and east, adapting as they went.
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Cite this article as: "Travel Essay about New Zealand," in Readessay, December 9, 2018, https://www.readessay.com/new-zealand-travel-essay/, July 16, 2019.
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Kanter may be safe, legal experts say, but remains a man without a country
deadspin.com
OKC Thunder star Enes Kanter had his Turkish passport revoked and a warrant for his arrest issued
Heide Brandes | May 30, 2017
OKLAHOMA CITY -- On May 26, Oklahoma City Thunder NBA star Enes Kanter became a man without a country.
The 25-year-old basketball star, who was born in Switzerland and raised in Turkey, had his Turkish passport revoked in May as he was traveling through Romania on his way back to the United States. A vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and supporter of Erdogan opponent Fethullah Gulen, Kanter escaped in the middle of the night from Indonesia but was detained in Romania due to the canceled passport.
Turkish officials also issued an arrest warrant for Kanter on May 26, accusing the NBA star of conspiring against the Erdogan government with Gulen supporters through an encrypted messaging app. A judge in Turkey issued a warrant for his arrest following an investigation into his alleged association with the separatist leader, who was accused of staging an unsuccessful coup to overthrow President Erdogan last July.
According to an article in the Turkish newspaper AFP, Kanter was accused of “membership [in] an armed terrorist organization.”
Kanter is back on U.S. soil and has talked publically about the turn of events. He’s no stranger to controversy, opening backing Gulen and likening Erdogan to Adolf Hitler. Although Gulen has denied plotting against the Turkish government, his Hizmet movement publically renounces Erdogan’s government.
So what does this all mean for Enes Kanter and his future in the NBA and America?
According to Bill Zuhdi, Oklahoma City federal criminal defense attorney specializing in complex civil litigation, Kanter should be safe as long as he remains in the United States, despite a 1981 extradition treaty signed between Turkey and the U.S.
“The arrest warrant out of Turkey is because he is an opponent to Erdogan because of the human rights violations. I think the whole thing is bogus and wrong. I do not think it will impact him as long as he remains in the U.S. and Canada,” Zuhdi said. “Turkey has no jurisdiction in the U.S. and Canada, but it will impact him because he has no passport. He puts himself at risk if he travels outside of the U.S. and Canada.”
Kanter himself also does not seem worried about the warrant. He posted on Twitter, "You cannot catch me. Hahaha. Don't waste your energy.” Kanter shared his thoughts in an intimate essay on The Player’s Tribune on May 23, saying “In one second, I was country-less. Just like that. It was a very weird birthday. It is crazy how a government can take away your right to go home. Or your freedom to travel. Not for any actual crimes, but for what you say or what you believe.”
EXTRADITION AND INTERPOL
Although most experts believe that the Turkish arrest warrant has “no teeth” when it comes to Kanter, Turkey could petition the U.S. to extradite the player. The Turkish government would have a tough sell to make an extradition request stick, however.
“They have to prove that the reasons are not a political witch hunt, but that he is actually involved in terrorist activities,” said Zuhdi. “Kanter is high-profile and is a huge name in both Turkey and the U.S.”
According to the extradition terms laid out in the 1981 extradition treaty between the two countries, Turkey would have to explain why they are charging Kanter, show evidence that Kanter is guilty and also prove that the charges would also be considered a crime in the U.S.
According to the treaty, extradition cannot be granted if the request is of a political character or when the arrest is made “on account of his political opinions.”
Zuhdi added that any extradition attempts between Turkey and the U.S. would likely take months or years to navigate as well.
Turkey may also turn to Interpol, or the International Criminal Police Organization, for assistance. Interpol, however, does not have the ability to serve an international arrest warrant but can issue “Red Notices” to member countries that share information about alleged crimes and movements of the person accused. A red notice still does not require the U.S. to arrest or detain Kanter because all arrests through the U.S. must comply with the Fourth Amendment and show probable cause.
“But I do worry about him,” Zuhdi said. “He put himself in some jeopardy, and I worry about his safety. It is never good to have your home country coming after you. If he did find a way to leave the country without a passport due to his stature, he might put himself in jeopardy for arrest.”
Kanter has also said that he is interested in becoming a U.S. citizen. He currently has a green card, which allows him to be a permanent residence of America, but would still have to go through the U.S. citizenship process to become a citizen of the United States.
“He’s on the right track right now because he already has a green card,” Zuhdi said. “The next step is citizenship, which would be quicker if he was married to a U.S. citizen. If not, then it takes about five years to become a citizen.”
Kanter’s fame and stature as an NBA player likely would not speed up the process, however.
“If the president comes in and puts his weight behind it, it could be fast-tracked through, but typically everyone has to go through the same process,” Zuhdi said. “That’s the beautiful thing about America. He would have to get in line and take the test like everyone else.
LOSING FAMILY, LOSING LAND
Kanter is never shy about sharing his thoughts about his home country, but today, that country has rejected him. He is also estranged from his parents who remain in Turkey over comments denouncing Erdogan.
Erdogan was elected to president in 2014, and has since been accused of human rights violations and cracking down on the freedom of the press. He has jailed journalists and university professors, and in April, he won a controversial referendum giving him power over the other branches of the Turkish government.
In July, the Turkish Armed Forces launched a coup against the state and Erdogan, but the effort was short-lived and unsuccessful. According to the World Report Watch 2017 by the organization Human Rights Watch, the attempted coup left at least 241 citizens and government law enforcement dead. After the failed attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and went after public officials, police, teachers, judges and prosecutors. Most of those jailed, dismissed or suspended were accused of being followers of the US-based cleric Gulen.
“Government-led efforts to silence media criticism and scrutiny of government policy in Turkey involved five main trends: the prosecution and jailing of journalists; takeover of media companies—including the daily Zaman newspaper—by appointing government-approved trustees and seizing assets and the closing down of media; removal of critical television stations from the main state-owned satellite distribution platform and their closure; physical attacks and threats against journalists; and government pressure on media to fire critical journalists and cancel their press accreditation. Blocking of news websites critical of the government also increased. Turkey made the highest number of requests to Twitter of any country to censor individual accounts,” the report states.
As for Kanter, his essay in The Players’ Tribune also touched upon why he speaks out.
“I’m O.K., but I’m also not O.K., you know? I am lucky. My story has a happy ending. There are thousands of other Turkish people out there with stories that don’t have happy endings. They are not so lucky,” he wrote.
“You guys need to know what is going on in Turkey right now. I hope people around the world will open their eyes to the human rights abuses. Things have gotten very bad over the last year. This is not my opinion. We don’t know everything that is happening inside Turkey, but we do know some facts. Newspapers and media have been restricted. Academics have been fired. Peaceful protesting is not allowed. Many people have been imprisoned without any real charges. There are reports of torture and rape and worse. Just think about it. If the Erdogan government will treat an NBA player this way, how do you think it is for everyone else?”
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Patriots pursuing historical win at Super Bowl LII
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Dirteater: Not an ordinary name for a bull rider
Must wins for OSU and OU hoopsters tonight
Defenses should rule in NFL playoffs this weekend
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London 1 day 3 stops 5.0 hours All Season 1230
This interesting route combines history, art and a scenic tour of central London. Starting at the National Gallery, the walk then takes visitors to the British Museum, with the option to stop off at the famous Covent Garden along the way. The route finishes with the Grant Museum of Zoology, an underrated, but highly interesting museum.
Love art and history and travelling on a budget? Look no further.
#london museum #london #museum #art
# IN EDUCATION
Grant Museum of Zoology
Maggie Burknem Follow
Let's all go down the Strand
Death and Destruction Trail in East London
A gentleman’s Pub Crawl in London
Share a beer with friends in the coolest settings
Exploring Attenborough's London
Embark on a voyage around London
Hitchcock's Kensington
Tour Kensington's contemporary scene
<<The National Gallery>>
Stop 1 120 minutes All Season
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN London United Kingdom
Description: The place to be in London for lovers of art, the National Gallery holds over 2,300 paintings and is completely free for all. The gallery displays art pieces from a variety of eras and even displays works by Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci. Exhibitions differ throughout the year, and there is usually some sort of event taking place, whether it's a concert, an in-depth talk about art, or a family workshop, there really is something for everyone at the National Gallery.
<<The British Museum>>
Great Russell Street London United Kingdom
Description: The British Museum is an essential spot for history lovers. It houses an impressive, vast collection of artefacts and art from all over the world – and, of course, it’s free entry for all. There’s always a wide array of exhibitions taking place from month to month and it’s worth checking the website for more information on this. For those who are hungry after spending so much time at the National Gallery, you’ll be glad to know that The Court Café serves freshly made sandwiches, snacks and salads.
<<Grant Museum of Zoology>>
21 University St, Fitzrovia, London WC1E 6DE London United Kingdom
Description: Founded in 1828, the Grant Museum of Zoology is one of the quirkiest, most underrated museums in London. It features almost 70,000 specimens, and every member of the animal kingdom, in fact. It’s packed with mounted animals (including ones that are now extinct, like the dodo), specimens preserved in fluid, and skeletons. There are usually various exhibitions and events taking place here, so it’s worth checking this out before you visit.
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US & Japan to develop fuel-cell powered sub – report
Published time: 8 Aug, 2014 11:43
AFP Photo/Kazuhiro Nogi © AFP
Japan and the United States are looking to develop a submarine to be powered by a fuel-cell. The joint venture will be able to see the vessel be submerged for up to a month without the need for recharging.
The boat will be unmanned and 10 meters (33 feet) in length, according to AFP, which cited the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun. The submarine would be used for patrolling the seas around Japan looking for any potential threats. It is set to be a purely reconnaissance sub, with no torpedoes or other weapons on board.
The advantages of a fuel-cell powered submarine are numerous. Firstly they can stay underwater for large amounts of time, without having to refuel, while they are environmentally friendly, unlike a nuclear sub, from which toxic waste has to be disposed of.
The project will cost Japan around $25 million over the next five years, to try and develop the fuel cell, according to Yomiuri. Fuel cells cleanly and efficiently convert chemical energy from hydrogen-rich fuels into electrical power and usable high quality heat in an electrochemical process that is virtually absent of pollutants.
Germany is currently one of the world leaders in the development in fuel-cells in submarines. The 212A, which is powered by nine PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cells providing between 30kW and 50kW each, is armed with 12 heavyweight wire-guided torpedoes, each capable of destroying a war ship or disabling an aircraft carrier.
There is certainly a political undertone to the decision by Japan and the US to develop this new sub together. Both are wary of the threat of China, which announced in March it would increase its military budget for 2014 to almost $132 billion, a 12.2 percent rise over last year, the New York Times reported.
Meanwhile in July, Japan signaled a change in its military course as its cabinet reversed a key article of the post-war constitution that forbids the country’s troops from ever fighting on foreign territory.
Article 9 of the 1947 founding charter proclaimed Japan a pacifist nation, meaning that its armed forces are technically domestic self-defense units, and cannot participate even in UN-backed conflicts, other than as peacekeepers.
This decision drew an angry response from China. Beijing and Tokyo have been locked in a dispute over the Japanese-owned Senkaku (or Diaoyu) Islands. Although uninhabited, they allow the owner to claim lucrative trade routes, and vast potential underwater resources that have yet to be explored.
Japan has scrambled its planes over 400 times in the past year to ward off Chinese ships circling the archipelago.
China’s military flexes muscles in East China Sea amid Japan war shrine tensions
Japan gearing up for first military export deal in decades – report
Japanese citizen sues govt. over military expansion attempts
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British Library a...
British Library appoints new CEO
The Board of the British Library has appointed Roly Keating as the Library’s new CEO.
Keating is currently director of archive content at the BBC. He will take up his new role on 12 September, succeeding Lynne Brindley, who will be leaving the Library on 31 July after 12 years as chief executive.
Keating said: 'It’s a huge honour to have the opportunity to lead one of the UK’s greatest cultural institutions, at a time of exciting change driven by the internet and connected media. Under Lynne Brindley’s leadership the British Library has set standards for the world in both the quality of its curatorship and the boldness of its thinking around new technology. I am looking forward to working with the Library’s talented staff and leadership team to take it on the next stage of its journey into the digital age.'
Baroness Blackstone, chairman of the British Library, commented on the new appointment: 'I am delighted that Roly Keating will be joining us as chief executive. He has a strong record of creative leadership and strategic innovation at the BBC and has wide experience and a deep commitment to the digital information environment. He is the ideal person to build on the successes of the British Library and to ensure that the Library continues to be a leading-edge provider of knowledge as we take forward our Vision for 2020. I look forward to working with him.'
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Tech-savvy colleg...
Tech-savvy college students hungry for more
Technology is being described as the new education benchmark after research revealed that more than half of further education students said tech facilities played a part in their choice of college.
Conducted by Jisc, the UK’s digital champion for education, research and skills, the research suggests that students are embracing technology like never before and want to see their classroom become a digital haven.
Some 75 per cent of FE learners indicated that they would be happy for some of their lessons to be delivered by a robot, demonstrating the openness students have to new and developing technologies. While 62 per cent of FE students said they were happy with the technology facilities at their place of study, learners would like to see better internet connectivity (60 per cent), virtual lectures (42 per cent) and dedicated mobile apps (41 per cent) to make studying easier for them.
It’s not only the classroom that seems to be changing; communicating with teachers has gone mobile with 53 per cent using social media to stay in touch with teachers. Of those that do communicate online, nearly two thirds use Facebook (62 per cent), nearly half use Twitter (44 per cent) and possibly most surprising of all, 17 per cent use Snapchat.
The research is part of Jisc’s Digital Festival, taking place on 9 and 10 March at the ICC in Birmingham, where 3D technologies and augmented reality for teaching and learning will be showcased, and topics including internet security for staff and students will be debated.
Martyn Harrow, chief executive at Jisc, said: 'Our research shows just how important technology is to students. FE providers need to ensure that they themselves are tech savvy and that education technology is on the very top of their agenda to secure the future of their institution. What that means in practice is change for the sector, but exciting change.
'Jisc is in a good position to help with this challenge and that’s why we’ve dedicated a day at this year’s Jisc Digital Festival to further education and skills. The Festival will celebrate technology innovation in the sector; encourage collaboration between providers and offer advice and guidance on using digital technology in FE institutions.
'Jisc is here to support FE providers through this ever-changing technology world. We’ve already started work on strengthening resilience and increasing bandwidth of our Janet network. This will mean that by the end of March, 92 colleges will have better internet connectivity – through our research we know that’s something students want to see. The Digital Festival will not only benefit attendees but will help shape how Jisc can support the FE sector in years to come.'
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170+ Unit Burger King Franchisees Are Bringing The Hummus & Pita Co. to the Southeast
April 10, 2019 · ·
The fast-growing, authentic Mediterranean concept’s southeast expansion will kick off with five units in Atlanta
Atlanta, GA (RestaurantNews.com) The Hummus & Pita Co., one of the country’s fastest growing Mediterranean fast casuals, has signed a multi-unit deal to expand their franchise to the Southeast. Brother-in-law Franchisees Jay Gill and Patrick Sidhu will bring five locations to the Atlanta area over the next two years.
Gill and Sidhu are partners in Premier Kings, Inc., one of the largest BURGER KING® franchisees in the country, and were named its “Franchisee of the Year” in 2015. Starting with six BURGER KING® locations in 2010, their portfolio now includes more than 170 locations, as well as 14 Popeyes® restaurants throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.
As an emerging restaurant concept, The Hummus & Pita Co. was the ideal non-competing complement to Gill and Sidhu’s existing portfolio. The concept also provides the upside of better unit economics, more flexibility and room for expansion.
“The passion behind The Hummus & Pita Co. brand is contagious and rapidly multiplying, and we hit the lottery having Jay and Patrick franchise with us,” said Dave Pesso, co-founder of The Hummus & Pita Co. “They are the perfect franchisees, and we are beyond humbled to have them on board. We will learn a great deal from Jay and Patrick, and I look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship.”
The Hummus & Pita Co.’s high sales volume, coupled with high consumer demand, proves the brand is well-poised for its planned national expansion, with units in development in Detroit, Michigan and Los Angeles, California. A known Southern California multi-concept operator recently signed on as a 100-unit development agent for the state of California, demonstrating the brand’s rapid franchised growth and expansion into new markets.
“We were looking to diversify our restaurant portfolio in the Atlanta area and saw the Mediterranean segment as the next big thing in the Southeast,” said Gill and Sidhu. “The Hummas & Pita Co. has unlimited growth potential, and we can’t wait to bring the concept’s variety of authentically flavorful, healthy and innovative options, like dessert hummus and hummus shakes, to Atlanta diners.”
The fresh and healthy Mediterranean concept has been delivering guilt-free, homemade cuisine to the masses since 2011. All menu items are made from scratch on the premises at each location, using only the freshest ingredients available to ensure high-quality, flavor-focused eats for every guest. The Hummus & Pita Co. stands out from other Mediterranean concepts for its freshly-baked pita and laffa breads, wide variety of vegetarian dishes, meats cooked in a traditional taboon oven, and its signature hummus-based dessert offerings like the Hummus Shake and Hummus Ice Cream. The concept was named one of QSR’s “13 Emerging New York City Fast Casuals to Watch” and “11 Restaurant Franchises on the Cusp of Greatness.”
The Hummus & Pita Co. is partnered with Fransmart, the industry leading franchise development company behind the explosive growth of brands like Five Guys Burgers and Fries, The Halal Guys, and QDOBA Mexican Grill, as their exclusive franchise development partner to grow the brand. They are currently looking for experienced multi-unit foodservice operators to develop franchise territories in major markets. To learn more about Hummus & Pita Co. franchising opportunities please visit go.fransmart.com/hummusandpita/franchise.
To learn more and stay up-to-date on the latest happenings, find The Hummus & Pita Co. on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About The Hummus & Pita Co.
The Hummus & Pita Co. is a New York City-based concept that brings healthy, homemade Mediterranean cuisine to the masses in a comfortable and inviting environment. All menu items are made-from-scratch on the premises, using only the freshest ingredients available to ensure high-quality flavor-focused eats at every visit. The concept has been named one of “13 New York Fast Casuals to Watch” and “11 Restaurant Franchises on the Cusp of Greatness” by QSR Magazine, and their signature Dessert Hummus was dubbed one of “America’s Most Innovative Menu Items” by QSR in 2017. The Hummus & Pita Co. currently operates four locations in New York City and Brookfield, CT, with additional units in development in Denver, New Jersey, Detroit and Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.hummusandpitas.com.
About Fransmart
As the leading franchise development firm in the country, Fransmart turns emerging restaurant concepts into successful national and global brands. Founded by Dan Rowe, the man who identified and grew brands such as Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Qdoba Mexican Grill from single unit businesses to the powerhouse chains they are today, Fransmart’s formula for success is finding emerging brands ripe for expansion and building successful multi-unit franchise businesses across the U.S. and globally. Fransmart’s current and past franchise development portfolio brands have opened more than 5,000 restaurants worldwide, and facilitated franchise investments that have cumulatively generated 1-billion in revenues to date. For more information, visit www.fransmart.com.
Hope Torruella
Largemouth Communications
hope@largemouthpr.com
Filed in: Press Release Tags: Hummus & Pita Co., Mediterranean food, Mediterranean restaurant, restaurant, restaurant news
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Former National Wellness Director for Sodexo Universities Joins MenuTrinfo
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pippeeContributor/Shutterstock.com
Magnets Are Being Used to Retrieve Patients' Lost, Short-Term Memories
BEC CREW
Scientists have found that dormant memories can be revived by delivering a pulse of magnetic stimulation to the brain, allowing people to retrieve forgotten information with almost perfect recall.
The results have revealed that a type of short-term memory called working memory could be far more complicated than we thought, and could answer some long-standing questions about what causes a number of mental illnesses.
"This changes how we think about the structure of working memory and the processes that support it," one of the team, Nathan Rose from the University of Notre Dame in Australia, told NPR.
Working memory is the kind of short-term memory that gives you the ability to remember relevant information while in the middle of an activity.
It lets you memorise a new phone number long enough to make a call, or retain the names of two new people you meet at a party while you’re having a conversation.
For decades now, scientists have assumed that working memory retains information in the short-term through sustained brain activity.
It was thought that the continuous activity of a certain set of neurons was required to retain the information, and if that activity ever faulted, that memory would be lost forever.
But Rose and his team wanted to investigate how the brain determines what information to retain at any given moment, and what it ends up filing away for quick access later on.
Because while it might feel like we’re able to take in a whole lot of new information at a time, our working memory is actually quite limited in what it 'chooses' to retain.
"The notion that you’re aware of everything all the time is a sort of illusion your consciousness creates. That is true for thinking, too," said one of the researchers, Brad Postle from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in a press release.
"You have the impression that you’re thinking of a lot of things at once, holding them all in your mind. But lots of research shows us you’re probably only actually attending to - are conscious of in any given moment - just a very small number of things."
The researchers gathered 66 participants to observe how their working memory actually functioned.
Through a number of experiments, they tested how the participants would remember sets of two different things - a face and a word. They were shown the items, then told they needed to remember them later on, and MRI scans were taken to see how the brain reacted.
"That caused a distinct pattern of activity in two groups of brain cells: one that was keeping track of the face and another that was keeping track of the word," Jon Hamilton reports for NPR.
"But then ... the researchers had people focus on just one of the items they'd seen. And when they did that, the brain activity associated with the other item disappeared."
"It was almost as if the item had been forgotten," Rose said.
But when the participants were warned that they were about to be quizzed on the second item they were supposed to remember, their working memory suddenly kicked back into gear - disproving previous assumptions that the working memory had to be continuously activated.
"People have always thought neurons would have to keep firing to hold something in memory. Most models of the brain assume that," Postle explains in the release.
"But we’re watching people remember things almost perfectly without showing any of the activity that would come with a neuron firing. The fact that you’re able to bring it back at all in this example proves it’s not gone. It’s just that we can’t see evidence for its active retention in the brain."
Next, the team asked the participants to focus on remembering the face, which caused them to forget about the word.
They then used a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to apply a focused electromagnetic field to the exact part of the brain involved in storing the word, causing the participants to incorrectly think they'd been asked to focus on the word - not the face.
"We think that memory is there, but not active," says Postle. "More than just showing us it’s there, the TMS can actually make that memory temporarily active again."
The experiments only featured a very small sample size, so it's not enough to start dreaming of a future where we can start using magnetic stimulation to recall lost short-term memories.
But the researchers say their experiment could help further our understanding of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, because it's revealing exactly how our brains decide what thoughts to focus on, and how this can be mitigated.
"A lot of mental illness is associated with the inability to choose what to think about," says Postle. "What we’re taking are first steps toward looking at the mechanisms that give us control over what we think about."
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Start Your Solution Today
847-292-1989Schedule Your Initial Consultation
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Scott C. Polman
Scott C. Polman was born in Elgin, Illinois and grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1993 with a B.B.A. in Production/Operations, then worked in business and supply chain management for global corporations in the Chicagoland area.
Scott continued his education at DePaul University, graduating in 2002 with an M.B.A. in Financial Management. He then attended The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, graduating with a J.D. in 2007. While in law school, he made Law Review, and also received the CALI award for excellence in Employment Law.
Scott's practice is located in Niles, Illinois, and he is admitted to the state bar of Illinois, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin
U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois
John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois
Honors: CALI award for excellence in Employment Law
DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
M.B.A. - 2002
Honors: With Distinction
Major: Financial Management and Control
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin
Major: Production/Operations Management
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Land ManagementCurrently selected
Series 600 Organization and Management
Cloverley
Fromme
Keith Lynn
Lonsdale Creek Annex
Lucas Centre / LMCC
MonterayCurrently selected
Ridgeway Annex
Monteray
Monteray Site Sold: Proceeds to be directed to the Arygle Secondary School Replacement Project
The North Vancouver School District is pleased to announce the sale of its property at 4343 Starlight Way, the site of the former Monteray Elementary school, to Morningstar Homes. The $6.38M sale was completed following approval by the District of North Vancouver, which included a public hearing process and extensive prior community consultation by the School District. Proceeds from the sale of the Monteray site will be directed towards funding the proposed full replacement of Argyle Secondary.
The new residential development planned for Starlight Way will feature 12 single-family lots and two park areas. Preparations for demolition of the current building are now underway. For future updates and project information please visit the website of Morningstar Homes http://www.mstarhomes.com.
“The sale of Monteray represents a significant advancement in our ability to fund the proposed full replacement of Argyle Secondary,” says Cyndi Gerlach, chair of the North Vancouver Board of Education. “We thank Morningstar Homes for their professionalism and public consultation process and we appreciate the work of District Council and staff in supporting our vision for a new, efficient and sustainably designed school for the Argyle community.”
Monteray school was permanently closed in 2004 following an extended period of lowering enrolment due to changes in neighborhood demographics—primarily a decline in the number of school-age children in the area. As well, the 1.17-hectare site is too small to meet current Ministry of Education standards for a school, making rezoning for residential development the highest and best possible use for the site going forward.
Morningstar Homes Ltd.'s proposed redevelopment of the former Monteray School site received second and third readings at the District of North Vancouver's Council Meeting on April 27, 2015. Fourth and final reading of Council is expected in June 2015, enabling the completion of the Purchase and Sales Agreement. The North Vancouver School District has identified the proceeds of the sale ($6.38M) towards the funding 'gap' for a full-replacement project at Argyle Secondary School.
Morningstar Homes Ltd. presented their redevelopment proposal to the Council of the District of North Vancouver on March 23, 2015. A Public Hearing will be scheduled.
An update on the Monteray School site was provided by John Lewis, Superintendent of Schools, at the Public Board Meeting on June 17, 2014.
Morningstar Development Ltd. is continuing to meet with the District of North Vancouver to address municipal requirements to advance the proposed redevelopment towards a Public Hearing.
At the Public Board Meeting on April 22, 2014, Superintendent John Lewis provided an update on the Monteray School site.
Morningstar Development Ltd. reports good progress with their application for the redevelopment of the Monteray site. The proposed development is continuing with the municipal requirements of the District of North Vancouver.
Community Feedback at Public Information Meeting
Morningstar Development Ltd., in consultation with the District of North Vancouver Planning Department, arranged a Monteray Site Public Information Meeting at Braemar School on March 7, 2014. This information meeting was well-attended by neighbours living in close proximity to the Monteray Site.
General themes identified at the meeting included:
Support for the redevelopment of the property for single-family residences
Interest in reducing the size and number of trees on site to improve the views from adjacent properties, and
Strong support for the poject to more forward at the earliest opportunity to improve the neighbourhood.
Morningstar Now in Application Phase with District of North Vancouver
At the Public Board Meeting on January 21, 2014, John Lewis, Superintendent of Schools, provided a Land, Learning and Livability Community Engagement Update. Information about the Monteray School site was included in the update.
Morningstar Development Ltd. is now in the application phase with the District of North Vancouver for the redevelopment of the Monteray site. A number of meetings have been held with the District of North Vancouver Planning Department to address siting, survey, environmental, and engineering requirements.
Morningstar reports good progress in working with the District of North Vancouver to advance this project and that they have also received strong support from community members through informal discussions.
North Vancouver Board of Education Approves the Sale of Monteray School Site
At its public meeting on November 26, 2013, the North Vancouver Board of Education read and adopted Disposal of Real Property Bylaw No. 2013-2 Monteray School. The School District will now proceed to enter into an agreement to sell, and complete the sale of, the Monteray property to Morningstar Development Ltd., for a sale price of at least $6.38 million.
An experienced specialist in single-family homes, Morningstar is now in a position to move forward with their due diligence process.
Monteray school was officially closed in June of 2004. The building was leased for several years, but has been vacant since March 31, 2011.
Learn more about Land, Learning and Livability by visiting the LLL Blog.
Substantial progress has been achieved with the negotiation of a Purchase and Sales Agreement with Morningstar Development Limited for the Monteray site. At the Public Board Meeting on November 26, 2013, the Board of Education will consider a recommendation to proceed with an agreement for the disposition of Monteray in accordance with the terms and conditions of a Purchase and Sales Agreement.
Lead Proponent for Redevelopment
At the Public Board Meeting on October 22, 2013, John Lewis, Superintendent of Schools, presented the Land, Learning and Livability Community Engagement Update. The Update includes current information regarding the Monteray facility and site.
The review of the Requests for Proposal (RFP) for the Monteray site concluded with the identification of Morningstar Homes Limited (a Polygon Associate) as the lead proponent for the redevelopment of the site. The proposal from Morningstar responds well to the municipal expectations provided by the District of North Vancouver Planning Department. Morningstar proposes to develop low density, residential housing with innovative design concepts that utilize the existing topography and green spaces.
The Board of Education will now engage in negotiations with Morningstar to achieve a Purchase and Sales Agreement no later that the end of January 2014.
The North Vancouver School District is seeking redevelopment Proposals for the disposition of the former Monteray Elementary School lands located at 4343 Starlight Way, North Vancouver BC [Map Link]. The School District seeks interested parties in developing low-density, residential housing with innovative design concepts that utilize existing topography and green spaces.
As a result of demographic changes such as the aging population and small families that have resulted in declining enrolment, and the School District's direction towards ensuring the efficiency of school facilities, the School District found itself in the position of having 12 surplus properties.
The Board of Education has an important stewardship role respecting these valuable community assets as well as a desire to maximize their revenue potential to support enriched educational opportunities for students within the North Vancouver School District. Accordingly, the Board requested development of a strategy that demonstrates how diverse interests are balanced while moving forward in a positive direction. It was at this time that the Surplus School District Land Retention and Disposition Strategy was developed and that the former Monteray Elementary School was identified as being surplus to our educational needs.
Proponents are asked to read and familiarize themselves with the School District's Land, Learning and Livability Community Engagement Blog as it includes valuable information about the Board's objectives in relation to its land management initiative.
For a complete copy of Request for Proposals, Monteray Elementary School, RFP #130802-4, please see the BC Bid website > Browse BC Bid > Browse opportunities by organization > School District 44 North Vancouver > #130802-4 Monteray Elementary School Site Redevelopment
The closing date for Proposals is September 18, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. Local Time.
Monteray School opened in 1968 as a public school and closed in 2004. The site sat vacant for more than two years and was then leased to the Ecole Francaise de Internationale Vancouver until March 2011. A Request for Proposals (RFP) will be issued for residential redevelopment. More details
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Latest News By Category Hoy Reelected Board President
Hoy Reelected Board President
SDCERS' Board of Administration reelected Valentine Hoy to serve as Board President for a second one-year term at its May 11, 2018 meeting.
Prior to serving as Board President, Hoy served as the Board's Vice President and as the Board's Business and Governance Committee Chair.
Appointed by Mayor Sanders in 2011, Hoy has practiced law in San Diego since 1985. He is a litigation partner in the San Diego office of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP. He previously served as a trustee and board president of the San Diego Museum of Man.
SDCERS administers defined benefit plans for the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified Port District, and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority and provides service retirement, disability retirement, death and survivor benefits to more than 20,800 members.
Document Under Categories: Board, News Articles, Press Release
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You are here: Home / Blogs / Breaking the cycle of “an eye for an eye”
Breaking the cycle of “an eye for an eye”
Education Egypt Health and wellbeing Hope/Encouragement Persecution reflections refugees Terrorism
As the Middle East Christian community faces increasing attacks, SAT-7 Founder and International CEO, Dr Terence Ascott, grapples with a question that is asked more and more often – how should believers respond to violence?
The recent brutal gun attacks and suicide bombings in Egypt have left many of our brothers and sisters there grieving, despairing, angry, and feeling vulnerable. SAT-7 plays a unique role in supporting them and reminding them of the need for a Christian response.
Jesus’ teachings on how to respond to such violence or oppression have always been a challenge. He called His followers to forgiveness, tolerance, and love at a time when their homeland was occupied by an often cruel and violent Roman regime. The command to turn the other cheek to a Roman soldier’s blow would have been as shocking then as it can be in today’s Middle East.
The command to turn the other cheek to a Roman soldier’s blow would have been as shocking [in Jesus’ day] as it can be in today’s Middle East.”
But, as Jesus describes in Matthew 5:38, a peaceful response is the only way to break the violent cycle of an “eye for an eye” – a cycle that remains prevalent in Middle Eastern cultures today.
SAT-7’s programmes walk alongside the suffering Church in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and other troubled countries in the region, helping them to process their feelings, know that God is with them, and understand the true value of a Christ-like response.
Walking a path of healing together
SAT-7 KIDS’ programmes also help young viewers to understand and cope with their feelings. With 60 million people now directly impacted by the conflicts raging in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, more and more communities are struggling to deal with issues of loss, displacement and injury. It is thought that there is not a child in Syria who has not lost a member of their immediate family and the process of grieving and dealing with trauma is a lengthy one. There is denial, then anger and so on. We recognise there is no quick fix and a television programme alone can’t take away a child’s pain and anger. But our aim is to work with them and their families, step by step, through every stage of their response, praying for them and showing them God’s love.
Counselling programme “With Smyrna” tackles issue of trauma and parenting.
We are also helping with special programmes for women, who often play a crucial role at times of crisis. Mothers are frequently the main example to their children of how to respond peacefully and constructively. Women are also the most likely to be a voice in society for compassion and understanding. By empowering women with logical arguments and an understanding of the power of a Christian response, SAT-7 helps spread Jesus’ radical message of forgiveness throughout families and communities.
Choosing to forgive in a “shame culture”
To meet the needs of our male viewers, we firstly need to understand that they live in a “shame culture” in the Middle East, where it is dishonourable for a male not to take revenge for harmful actions against you or your family or even your tribe. If one does not respond like with like, they are viewed as weak – as cowards who have brought disgrace and shame on their family or community. SAT-7’s programmes for men seek to counteract this prevailing attitude by bringing a Christian message that, to break the cycle of violence is not cowardice – it is an act of personal bravery. As Martin Luther King said:
How should we pray?
Recent editions of “Keep on Singing” tackled the issue of fear and peace amid violence as a fruit of the Spirit
The question of how the state should respond to terrorism is, of course, a separate issue. A government is a God-ordained institution with a primary duty to protect all its citizens. We must pray for the different governments in the region – that they would act with justice and that local officials, some of whom are more sympathetic to Christians than others, would take the needed action to protect all minorities.
But, most of all, we must pray for our brothers and sisters across the Middle East and North Africa. They have suffered terribly, but they and their Christian witness remain. And, while this is a very painful time, it also presents a unique opportunity. The witness of people willing to die for their faith, to pray for their enemies, and to publicly forgive their attackers is powerful and undeniable. This is incredibly profound at a time of great disillusionment by so many in our region.
Please join me in praying for Arab, Iranian, and Turkish Christians – that the Lord will comfort and heal them, bless them, and enable them to continue as a shining light for Him.
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https://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Opendoor-gets-another-325-million-to-buy-and-12992213.php
Opendoor buys and sells homes fast — now it has another $325 million
By Kathleen Pender
Updated 8:50 am PDT, Thursday, June 14, 2018
Lennar, the maker of homes like this one in San Antonio, is investing in Opendoor, a San Francisco real-estate startup.
Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News
Opendoor, a San Francisco startup that buys and sells homes online, has raised an additional $325 million from investors including venture capital firms, homebuilding giant Lennar and Invitation Homes, the nation’s largest single-family home landlord.
Altogether, Opendoor has raised $645 million from equity investors. It also has raised $1.5 billion in debt to finance its home purchases.
Opendoor has been described as a flipper, but it’s not trying to make money by rehabbing homes. It does painting and minor repairs before putting homes it has purchased back on the market, typically within a week or so. It aims to buy and sell at the market price and make money the old-fashioned way, by charging sellers a commission. It’s typically about 1 percentage point higher than the going commission in each market, but it says sellers are willing to pay extra for the speed and convenience.
What makes it “techie” is that sellers can start the deal just by filling out an online questionnaire and, if they want, uploading photos. They’ll have a cash offer within a day or two. No need to stage the home, have neighbors traipsing through an open house or worry about the buyer’s loan falling through.
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After viewing the home online, buyers can get in to see it — with or without their own agents — between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. seven days a week. They open the house with a smartphone app.
If the buyer has an agent, Opendoor will give that agent the usual commission, typically 3 percent. If the buyer has no agent, Opendoor keeps the full commission.
Agents who are already working with sellers can also get an offer from Opendoor and if the seller accepts it, the agent will get a referral fee, which Opendoor would not disclose.
The company has licensed real estate agents on staff, but prices homes by using computer-generated formulas. “That’s where our data science team comes into play. They are building algorithms to accurately price homes,” said Julia DeWahl, chief of staff to Opendoor chief executive Eric Wu.
Venture capitalists have been pouring money into residential real estate, an enormous, politically powerful industry that has proven hard to disrupt. Offerpad, an Arizona company very similar to Opendoor, has raised $410 million in venture capital. Its lead investor is LL Funds of Philadelphia.
Zillow, which runs a house-hunting website, and Redfin, a discount real estate brokerage firm, have also become so-called iBuyers in select markets. Zillow is buying and selling homes, with the help of agents, in Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Opendoor is operating in 10 cities, mostly in the West and Southeast, plus Minneapolis. “We wanted to start in what felt like the average American city,” DeWahl said. That explains why it’s not in the Bay Area.
It has worked with almost 20,000 customers, which means it has bought or sold around 10,000 homes, although “we have bought a few more than we have sold,” DeWahl said.
Nancy Robinson, regional vice president for Coldwell Banker in the Bay Area, said Opendoor is targeting a “very narrow” need in the marketplace, sellers who need cash quickly. “Sellers will take a sizable discount to achieve that liquidity,” she said. “What we see in the Bay Area — it’s not just about selling houses, it’s about selling houses for the best price. That’s where these tried and true real estate models are invaluable.”
If Opendoor is really trying to make money just on commissions — and not buying low and selling high — she wonders why the company is not active in the Bay Area, its home base. “We are the hottest real estate market in the nation. You’d think they’d go where that big pot of gold is,” Robinson said.
DeWahl said that “one in two sellers who get an offer from Opendoor is accepting it,” which indicates that its offers are fair.
Analyst Thomas McJoynt-Griffith of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said investors typically pay less for homes than “a family who sees their kids playing in the backyard.” However, companies like Opendoor “have a pretty unique value proposition. If you scale up in certain cities, if you have contractors and the infrastructure to do quick fix-ups, I think these can be fairly profitable options. People do appreciate the convenience.”
Opendoor has done business with some of its investors including Lennar, which has participated in two rounds of financing, including the latest one announced Wednesday. Move-up buyers interested in a new Lennar home can sell their existing home through Opendoor. This way they know exactly how much they will get and can close the sale shortly after they move into their new home.
“We kicked off that program almost a year ago,” said Jon Jaffe, Lennar’s president and chief operating officer. It started in Las Vegas and Phoenix and is now in all Opendoor markets. In each of those cities, around 20 Lennar buyers are selling their previous homes through Opendoor each month, on average. “We have seen that their valuation model works, that what they do for the customer really is frictionless,” said Jaffe, who is joining Opendoor’s board.
Invitation Homes, a publicly held company that started buying up single-family homes en masse during the recession and turning them into rentals, has purchased “a couple hundred” homes from Opendoor, said Dallas Tanner, Invitation’s chief investment officer. It has also purchased homes through Zillow and Offerpad.
“We are seeing that transactions are starting to happen through companies like Opendoor. It’s a nice alternative for buyers and sellers to transact with a considerably easier process than a traditional model. We are usually a cash buyer in these situations. The seller is looking for a cash price. Us being the largest single-family home owner in the U.S.,” the investment made sense, Tanner said.
Invitation has not sold any homes through these companies but “we would consider doing it in the future,” Tanner said.
Opendoor’s latest round of financing was co-led by General Atlantic, Access Technology Ventures, and Lennar with additional participation from new investors Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, 10100 Fund, and Invitation Homes. Existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Lakestar, GGV Capital, NEA, and Khosla Ventures also participated in the round.
Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpender
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How many students attend Sheridan?
We intentionally limit our enrollment to 226 students.
Being intentionally small means we make your child’s education personal. We are able to know and appreciate students for who they are and respect their individual stories, strengths, weaknesses, voices, and backgrounds as we guide them towards their full potential. Because of this, our students feel comfortable taking intellectual risks and are empowered to express themselves as creative, forward-thinking, and socially- aware individuals.
How big are your classes?
There is one class per grade at Sheridan, with approximately 25 children in each class. Our faculty-to-student ratio is approximately 6:1.
Do you provide lunch?
Yes, Sheridan provides a hot meal every day, including a vegetarian option. Students are offered a hot entrée, salad bar and deli bar at every meal. If your child has a food allergy, the kitchen staff, school nurse and faculty will work with you to ensure your child eats a safe and healthy meal.
Do you have a school nurse?
Yes, Sheridan employs a full-time school nurse.
Do you require uniforms?
Students are not required to wear uniforms but should be dressed appropriately for the school day.
Where do students go to school after Sheridan?
Everywhere! Sheridan is proud of its remarkable high school placement. Most graduates continue on to another private school and those who wish to attend public school usually enroll in an honors program. In recent years, Sheridan graduates have attended St. Albans, National Cathedral School, Bullis School, Field School, Georgetown Day School, Sidwell Friends School, Landon School, Maret School, Washington International School, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Wilson High School and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, among others. Each year, nearly all students in the graduating class are accepted into their top choice school. For a full list of schools with Sheridan Alumni click here.
Is there an Admissions test?
Yes. We require that each applicant take an age-appropriate aptitude test. Children six years old and younger must take the WPPSI-IV. Children seven to eleven years old must take the WISC-V. Applicants to grades 6,7 and 8 may take either the SSAT or the ISEE.
Information about our application and testing requirements for students entering Kindergarten and First Grade is available here.
Information about our application and testing requirements for students entering Grades 2-8 is available here.
How many openings are available in each grade?
There are 24 openings in Kindergarten each year. We strive for a balanced class between girls and boys. In other grades, openings are based on attrition and cannot be guaranteed. We will accept applications for all grades. Please contact the Admissions Office about openings in grades 1-8.
When is the application deadline?
All applications must be received by 4 p.m. on Friday, January 16, 2019. Full information about the application process is available here.
Curriculum & Student Life
What type of curriculum is offered?
Sheridan’s offers both a rigorous academic curriculum and a nurturing social-emotional curriculum. Our academic curriculum is challenging and conceptually-based with a focus on experiential learning and social justice education. Across all disciplines, the emphasis is as much on process as outcomes and students are challenged to dig deeply and meaningfully into their work. Content-integrated, authentic and meaningful, this approach is especially effective in a K-8 environment. Parents receive regular updates on academic progress through student-involved conferences and report cards. Letter grades are reported beginning in 6th grade. Sheridan’s social-emotional curriculum is based on the Responsive Classroom approach to teaching and learning. Through collaboration, problem-solving, reflecting and risk-taking, students become invested in their education and develop as people.
Do students learn a foreign language?
Yes, Sheridan students study Spanish beginning in Kindergarten through Eighth Grade. Our integrated Spanish program is a rigorous, joyful, playful, and authentic way for students to gain proficiency in an additional language and to foster a love of language learning and culture. Teachers utilize the Organic World Language approach to engage students, lower their affective filter, and inspire them to take risks in their communication. Outside the Spanish classroom, students participate in teacher-designed interdisciplinary learning experiences in music, art, and homeroom. Students leave Sheridan proficient in Spanish and inspired to continue their studies in high school, either by deepening their understanding of Spanish or by pursuing a new language.
Do you offer athletics?
Yes, Sheridan is a member of the Capital Athletic Conference and offers a competitive interscholastic sports program. Sports teams are open to 5th through 8th graders and begin in the fall with cross-country and soccer. In the winter, students can play basketball, and in the spring, baseball and softball. All students are encouraged to participate, and each child is ensured playing time.
Do you have an After School Program?
Yes, Sheridan has an After School Program for students of all ages. It costs $15.00 per hour if pre-registered. The hours are from 3:30 until 6 p.m. daily (2:30pm – 6:30pm on Wednesdays). Students are given the opportunity to play outside, complete homework, create art projects, and have a snack. Sheridan also offers care before school from 7:45 to 8:15 a.m. at no charge.
What is included in Sheridan's tuition?
Sheridan is proud to offer all-inclusive tuition that includes:
Daily lunch
All books, laptops and supplies
Before School morning care
Interscholastic athletics
Group instrumental and voice lessons
Trips to our Mountain Campus in Luray, Virginia and other outdoor expeditions.
Do you offer financial aid?
At Sheridan, we strive to ensure that every student who is offered admission to our school has the opportunity to be part of our community and take advantage of Sheridan has to offer, regardless of family finances. In 2018-2019, more than 20% of our families received a financial aid grants with amounts ranging from $5,000 to almost full tuition. More information about our financial aid program and external scholarships is available here.
What does it cost to attend Sheridan?
All-inclusive tuition rates for the 2018-2019 school year are:
Grades K-3: $34,950
Grades 4-8: $38,040
Sheridan School is located in the North Cleveland Park neighborhood of NW Washington, DC. We are approximately two blocks northwest of the Van Ness/UDC Metro station. Please click here for a map of the area.
Sheridan’s 130-acre privately-owned Mountain Campus is located in Luray, VA.
Do you provide transportation to students?
Sheridan is conveniently located within walking distance of the Van Ness and Tenleytown Metro stops. We also work with families to facilitate neighborhood carpools.
Where do your students come from?
Sheridan students come from all four quadrants of DC, Montgomery & Prince George’s counties in Maryland and communities in Northern Virginia.
Intentionally progressive.
Intentionally challenging.
Intentionally joyful.
Intentionally inclusive.
Intentionally small.
Intentionally empowering.
admissions@sheridanschool.org
E: admissions@sheridanschool.org
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No changes in Syria after Putin-Trump summit: U.S. general
Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. general said on Thursday he had not received any new guidance about the war in Syria, four days after the conflict was discussed in a closed-door meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, commander of the U.S. Central Command, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
Trump and Putin both praised U.S.-Russia military ties and spoke vaguely about Syria to reporters on Monday after their talks in Helsinki, Finland, noting shared concerns for the security of Syria’s neighbor, Israel.
Russia’s envoy to the United Nations was even quoted as saying on Thursday that the summit “will positively affect efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict.”
Still, U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who as the head of Central Command oversees U.S. military forces in the Middle East, said there was “no new guidance for me as a result of the Helsinki discussions as of yet.”
“For us right now, it’s kind of steady as she goes. We have received no further direction than we’ve currently been operating under,” Votel said at a Pentagon news briefing, speaking via video link from his offices in Tampa, Florida.
The summit in Helsinki sparked a storm of criticism in the United States and abroad after Trump refused to blame Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, something Putin denies.
Trump later said he had misspoken, and the White House has been struggling to contain a political outcry and confusion over the summit ever since.
But beyond the controversy over Trump’s remarks, there were broad unanswered questions as to what — if anything — was agreed during his one-on-one discussions with Putin in Helsinki. Even senior U.S. officials like Votel appeared unaware of how the talks might affect their work.
Trump on Thursday said he looked forward to a second meeting with Putin so the two could start implementing plans on grappling with “terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.” The specifics of those plans, if they exist, were not known.
Trump surprised some U.S. defense officials by asserting, while standing next to Putin, that the U.S. and Russian militaries “do coordinate in Syria” and that they both got along “probably better than our political leaders.”
Votel stressed that U.S.-Russian militaries do not coordinate in Syria and their interactions, while professional, were tightly restricted by U.S. law. The remarks appeared to address speculation following the summit that the militaries of the former Cold War foes might be asked to cooperate.
“The National Defense Authorization Act, as a law, prohibits us from coordinating, synchronizing, collaborating, with Russian forces,” Votel said.
Asked whether he would able to comply with any requests for some degree of cooperation in Syria, Votel suggested that such a consideration would necessarily involve U.S. lawmakers, who wrote the law restricting U.S.-Russian military interactions.
“Any space would have to be created by Congress or a waiver that they would approve to allow us to do something like that,” Votel said.
“I have not asked for that at this point, and we’ll see what direction comes down.”
Reporting by Phil Stewart; additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Bernadette Baum
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August 28, 2008 / 8:17 PM / 11 years ago
Warfarin underused by patients at risk for stroke
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research indicates that most patients with atrial fibrillation — the most common type of heart arrhythmia — who suffered a stroke and were eligible for anticoagulation treatment, were not taking any warfarin or were not taking enough.
“These are missed opportunities for stroke prevention,” lead author Dr. David J. Gladstone, from the University of Toronto, said in a statement. “Sadly, we frequently see patients admitted to a hospital with a devastating stroke who are known to have atrial fibrillation, yet were either not taking warfarin or were taking a dose that is not therapeutic.”
Warfarin, also known by the trade name Coumadin, can reduce the risk of stroke by preventing the formation of blood clots, which often occur in patients with atrial fibrillation. The clot may detach from the wall of the blood vessel and become lodged in the brain, blocking the flow of blood and causing a stroke. Atrial fibrillation doesn’t always cause symptoms, but the condition can be quite dangerous.
As they reported in the current online issue of Stroke, the researchers analyzed data for 597 patients with known atrial fibrillation and potentially preventable strokes who were entered in the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network from 2003 to 2007.
The strokes were disabling in 60 percent of the patients and fatal in 20 percent.
Overall, just 10 percent of patients had a therapeutic international normalized ratio (INR) at admission. An INR is the commonly used method of determining if blood-thinning drugs are working.
Prior to admission, just 39.9 percent of patients were taking warfarin and 29.0 percent were receiving no other drugs to prevent stroke. Of those taking warfarin, 74.2 percent had an INR level that was less than therapeutic, the report indicates.
Among patients with a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIAs, or “mini-strokes”), just 18 percent had a therapeutic INR with warfarin therapy when they were admitted to the hospital, the researchers note.
“Too often and for too long we have overstated the inconvenience of warfarin and exaggerated its risks, ignoring convincing evidence of its effectiveness in practice,” Dr. John Worthington, from Liverpool Health Service in New South Wales, UK, and colleagues write in a related editorial. (A side effect of blood-thinning drugs is potentially serious bleeding.)
However, the paper by Gladstone and his colleagues “reminds us of the perils of discounting the benefits of warfarin.”
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The Fire at Notre-Dame
The fire at Notre-Dame, 15th April, was the most shocking event to happen to France since the French government surrendered to Hitler and the evil, boastful power of Nazi Germany in 1940. General De Gaulle fled to London and raised the flag for Free France, France libre. He was not smiling, but he promised that France would become free again.
This time, as President Emmanuel Macron walked with his prime-minister, Edouard Philippe, towards the frightful conflagration, they were caught on video-film, smirking. The video can be seen on internet. The prime-minister was saying something behind his hand. The president was finding it difficult to suppress his smile. Macron, a while later, took on the role of saviour of France, and said that he would restore Notre Dame in five years. The French minister of the interior, Christophe Castanaer, explained that “Notre-Dame n’est pas une cathédrale, c’est notre commun,” “Notre-Dame is not a cathedral, it is our common (asset).”
The first part of Castanaer’s comment sounds ridiculous, but it is true. Notre-Dame does not belong to the Catholic Church. It has belonged to the French state since 1905, like other French cathedrals. The French state is officially non-religious. So from the point of view of the French government, Notre-Dame is not a “cathedral,” a place of worship; it is just a common asset. The second part of his comment is typical government hypocrisy, claiming that state property belongs to the common people.
It has to be explained that secularism, or laïcité, is woven deep into French conceptions of democracy. Ever since Louis XIV, in 1685, revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had given protection to the Huguenots (Protestants), French thinkers found they were denied the opportunity to follow the path of biblical Christianity, and chose instead the way that led to agnosticism and atheism. By the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Louis XIV metaphorically signed the death warrant of his descendant, Louis XVI, who was beheaded during the French Revolution. The English are mocked for having beheaded their king, Charles I, in 1649, after a civil war. The French not only beheaded their king, but also his wife and children, and thousands of aristocrats and members of their families, as well as priests, and tens of thousands of common people, who chose to reject the atheistic state, were massacred. The French Revolution became the model for the Communist revolutions of the 20th century, which killed countless millions of innocent people.
Thankfully, France steered away from the path of violent revolution, and chose to fight for the cause of freedom in two world wars. She lost colossal numbers of casualties in the First World War. However, the anti-Christian thread still remains in the French body politic. One strand of it is the secret power of freemasonry. The origins of freemasonry lie at the time of the Reformation, hundreds of years ago, when European people were starting to reject the control of the Catholic Church over religion and the power of despotic kings over the state. In Protestant countries, freemasonry allied itself with Protestant kings and the Protestant churches. In Catholic countries, freemasonry became a breeding ground for revolutionaries. For instance, George Washington, a man of prayer, was a freemason. Tolstoy described his fictional hero, Pierre, in War and Peace, as being a member of the Scottish Lodge of freemasons in Moscow. On the other hand, Trotsky, Lenin’s accomplice in the Bolshevik Revolution, was also a freemason, and contributed the five-pointed star, or freemasons’ pentagram, to the symbols of Communism.
Freemasonry in Britain has generally been considered, humorously, as a rather childish pastime, with men going around in aprons and performing rituals in cathedral vaults. It is a secret society, but it exists rather as a gentlemen’s club for mutual support and for support of the Protestant monarchy. In France, it is a secret society for the upholding of the non-religious, or atheistic, state. It is useful to be a freemason in France, if you want to get ahead in government. In 2016, Emmanuel Macron is said to have become a freemason, apparently introduced to freemasonry by his mentor, President Hollande. Macron became president of France in 2017.
With regard to the burning of Notre-Dame, there must have been a cause. No fire breaks out without a cause. With our memories full of the terrible destruction of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11 in 2001, we might think that militant Islamists were behind it. It is obvious that Al Qaeda hijacked planes and directed them into the Twin Towers. Conspiracy theories, however, implicate big business interests and even the US government itself as being the culprits, in weakening the structures of the buildings in advance. Such a disaster provoked the allied attack on Iraq, a major producer of crude oil, in 2003. Yet Afghanistan was the base for Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s regime was undoubtedly tyrannical, as it affected the people of Iraq, but the allied attack on Iraq was unprovoked, from the point of view of international law.
What would militant Islamists gain by burning down Notre-Dame? Maybe the pleasure of seeing a Christian monument falling. But how would they gain access to the roof, where the fire started? The teams of repair workers would surely be severely screened for security reasons. It was easier to get into a public music-hall like Bataclan, in 2015, or drive a lorry down the street in Nice in 2016. Anyhow, militant Islamists are more interested in killing large numbers of ‘infidels’ than in demolishing buildings. The recent suicide attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, claimed by ISIS, killed about 360 people, mostly Christians.
Another suggestion is that the Pope or the Catholic Church was behind the burning of Notre-Dame. The building was old and was a tremendous financial liability to keep up. Better be rid of it. Maybe it would inspire renewed interest and fervour in the Catholic religion. However, we have learned that Notre-Dame does not belong to the French Catholic Church, nor to the Pope. It belongs to the French state.
A second video, which I have seen, has been made by someone who is an architect, and who comes from a family of architects. Apparently, a confidential report to the government was made in 2016, on the state of the fabric of Notre-Dame, and the risk of fire was especially pointed out. Nothing was done. About the same time, a builder’s model of Notre-Dame, made in the context of planned redevelopment of the cathedral area, was seen not to include the spire. It was the spire that fell first, in the great fire. Just a few days before the fire, statues of the twelve apostles and four evangelists, were taken from their niches, deliberately decapitated, and taken to Périgueux in the south-west of France, for ‘restoration.’ Pictures were also taken out of Notre-Dame. It was loudly proclaimed that, during the fire, important artefacts were rescued. Already some had been taken out, before the fire ever happened. The stone apostles and evangelists, with their heads at their feet, waiting to be shifted, are shown on the video-film.
For the roof to burn, the beams supporting the roof would have to catch fire. It is assumed that the 800-year old oak beams must have been worm-eaten and rotten. The architect says, to the contrary, that oak beams harden in just thirty years to become like steel. After eight hundred years, they would be just as hard. They would not have been affected by damp, because they would have been well-aired just under the roof. They would not have caught fire easily. The problem would have been to get them to catch fire at all. For that, they would have to be covered with a solution which would have ignited.
A report went out that the beams were growing champignons, ‘mushrooms’ or fungus. A company was brought in to spray the beams all over with a liquid to combat infestation. That liquid, in itself, would not make the beams catch fire. For that to happen, a substance had to be added. The architect suggested that something like ‘nano-thermite,’ an explosive composite used in missile fuel and for demolition work, could have ignited the fire. Nano-thermite causes metal debris, which should be looked for in the ongoing investigation of causes of the fire. The architect noticed the strange colour of the flames coming out of the roof of Notre-Dame, and also saw the sign of an explosion high in the building behind the scaffolding. After the explosion the fire spread rapidly.
What reason would anyone have to burn Notre-Dame? Plans have been afloat for some time to make a large commercial area and supermarket under the extensive parvis, or paved piazza, in front of Notre-Dame. Macron says that Notre-Dame will be restored in five years. It is impossible to rebuild Notre-Dame with anything like its original materials in such a short time. Even the oak beams take many years to season. More likely it will be rebuilt with steel girders, concrete, and acres of glass on the roof. Only the outline will resemble old Notre-Dame, from a distance. Tourists will get an excellent view of Paris from all around the glass roof. It will be Paris’ answer to the Millenium Wheel in London
The supermarket or mall under the parvis will satisfy all the material needs of tourists. Jesus expelled the money-changers and merchants from the temple. They will get back in, with a vengeance, in the new Notre-Dame. Religion will be minimal. The France of King Saint Louis and Joan of Arc, which led Europe in the faith during the Middle Ages, will be well and truly forgotten, as the remade Notre Dame becomes infested by modern commercialism and corruption.
Why should the work of restoration only take five years? It happens that the Olympic Games will be held in Paris in 2024. All ambitious heads-of-state take glory in hosting the Olympic Games. What more appropriate than a great old symbolic building, restored in modern materials, and saved by the country’s president, to mark the event? The building will, however, be empty of faith and the holy spirit, and France, and the world, will still be sorry.
The two videos, in French language, can be found online on these links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD5ptuC65Cs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPm70GeTLHg
Copyright Rod of Iron Ministries 2019.
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CONSUMER ALERT: Tomato prices expected to nearly double, study says
By Megan Menchaca mmenchaca@statesman.com
May 1, 2019 at 12:28 PM May 1, 2019 at 12:31 PM
The U.S. Department of Commerce previously announced its plans to end its tomato trade agreement with Mexico last May. But, according to a new analysis, this move could lead to a price increase and reduced supply of tomatoes.
The trade agreement from 1996 created a price floor for imported Mexican tomatoes, and the U.S. could reintroduce tariffs on Mexican tomatoes if the agreement is ended. The withdrawal from this agreement could lead to an approximately 40% price increase on tomatoes, according to an analysis released last week by Arizona State University economists.
According to the Border Trade Alliance, Timothy Richards, Arizona State's Morrison chair of agribusiness, said the prices of certain varieties of tomatoes could potentially rise to up to 80%, especially during the winter or a crop failure.
“Ultimately, U.S. consumers pay for the lion’s share of the tariff impact because the demand for tomatoes in the U.S. is relatively inelastic, meaning that consumers do not change how much they purchase in response to higher prices,” Richards said
However, tomatoes would not be the only food affected. Luis Ribera, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University, told Austin, Texas, radio station KUT that other products could also be affected by tariffs because they are frequently purchased with tomatoes.
“Look at pizza,” Ribera told KUT. “You’ve got tomatoes, pizza sauce, cheese and wheat products. So there’s going to be some ripple effect on other products.”
After tomato growers and U.S. lawmakers accused Mexico of unfair trade practices. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in February that the U.S. withdrew from the agreement to protect farmers and ensure free trade, according to CNBC.
“We have heard the concerns of the American tomato producing industry and are taking action today to ensure they are protected from unfair trading practices,” Ross said in a written statement. “The Trump Administration will continue to use every tool in our toolbox to ensure trade is free, fair, and reciprocal.”
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The Invaluable Gift of Experiences
Through running across the Serengeti to support local school girls, one woman discovered the beauty in creating unforgettable connections and why these memories will always be more rewarding than material objects.
In late October, tech industry executive and avid athlete Rhonda Vetere participated with eight other women in the inaugural Serengeti Girls’ Run—a 55-mile, five-day journey through the Serengeti in Tanzania. The goal of this new conversation initiative, co-hosted by the Singita Grumeti Fund and Singita, both of which are invested in preserving African communities and wildlife, was to raise money to support the next generation of female leaders through education, scholarships, building life skills, internships, and training.
Donations from the fall run allowed the Singita Grumeti Fund to host three girls’ empowerment events for more than 1100 local high school girls. At the events, they delved into an array of important topics, ranging from reproductive health and menstruation to career development and confidence-building.
The young girls weren’t the only ones who benefited from this unique experience. Below, Vetere shares her personal story of this life-changing adventure as told to writer Cassie Shortsleeve.
Related: A Mindful Runner Shares What Drives Her to Train for the First-Ever All-Female Run Across the Serengeti
When I first arrived, the 400 girls were all lined up in their uniforms. They looked so professional—long skirts, maroon sweaters, shoes, purses. Most of all, I noticed their quietness. They didn’t seem free. I wanted them to be able to express themselves. Knowing that many of them had short hair, I took off my baseball hat and let my long hair down. They all went crazy.
Before I began my keynote speech, I could feel the energy. I had them say, “I am beautiful,” then got them hugging each other and dancing. I had them repeat “I’m beautiful” once again and added the chant, “I can do it.”
Afterward, altogether, we ran 3.8 kilometers. The girls were singing, dancing, running, and asking questions about the upcoming five-day run across the Serengeti. They were thirsty for details and so smart. The next day, the challenging multi-day, 55-mile run kicked off.
When I had visited the Serengeti, staying at various Singita Resorts in June, I had met a female guard named Helen. I was so moved by her that I requested that she join us on this run. She is one of the only female guards to work for the government. When I saw her, she hugged me tightly and told me how thankful she was just to be a part of this.
I have to admit, the first three miles of the Serengeti run were overstimulating. This is not Central Park in New York City. It’s not what I’m used to. We were running with guards, protecting us from wildlife, including the big five, like lions, buffalo, and elephants.
But then, I got into the groove. Folks’ energy levels eventually calmed down, evening out, and we all broke off, running at our own paces. We all got into our zones. The middle of the Serengeti is so tranquil, inviting us to focus. I tried to lift my head up and enjoy the moment.
Training is a big part of my life, but 55 miles was nothing to blink at. It was challenging. At times, I thought, ‘I don’t want to get injured. The terrain is different.‘ You have to watch out for rocks and mud. But my mind was also with the girls and the run we had done the day before.
I made close bonds with women, who were initially strangers, too. One of the women, the only local female running the 55-mile distance, wanted to give up during a part of the run. I ran with her and repeated, “You’re not giving up.” After the run, she sent me a message saying “thank you” for the encouragement to keep going. She was so proud of herself. Me, too! A communal effort can be very powerful and motivating. We all came to this event from different places and we are now bonded for life.
That’s what’s sticking with me: After the journey is complete, what you’ve accomplished hits you.
I traveled 237 days overseas internationally last year for work, but this re-entry to my NYC life has been different. I ran a race no one has ever done before, connected with people and organizations that want to make a difference, took a leap of faith, and immersed myself in nature. Now, I’m back in my concrete jungle and, somehow, I feel more connected to everything. All that active meditation in a wonderful place with genuine people, opened my mind to appreciate experiences far more greater than “things,” which is a good feeling to having entering the holiday season. This wasn’t just a run in the Serengeti with lions. This was a bigger event holistically.
30 Brilliant Insights from Mindfulness Trail Blazers
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25 Beautiful Places in the World to Find Peace of Mind
Related: Can Running Really Be a Form of Meditation?
Looking back, one moment stands out the most. It was during the community run with the school girls. Out of the blue, one came up to me and grabbed my hand. We ran three miles together singing a Beyonce song in Swahili. I wouldn’t let go of her tiny palm and neither would she. You could feel the pulsing, the sweatiness, that “I am free” feeling. She had this big, beautiful smile. Her eyes were sparkling. The girls’ energy, I have no doubt, will carry them.
For me, at the end of the day, I’m thankful. You could give yourself a million reasons to cancel out of things—we’re all busy in life—but these are the moments you have to embrace and be present for.
I’m taking each moment one second at a time right now, channeling energy to make a difference to the bottom line at work and in other people’s lives.
>>This unique running safari will be offered again in October 2019 for up to 20 runners. To learn more, email KatherineC@grumetifund.org or BeverlyB@grumetifund.org.
Video Courtesy of Black Bean Productions
TAGS: fitness, mindful living, mindfulness, running
An Expert Guide to Crow Pose
Download Sonima’s comprehensive guide to this exciting “reach” posture and enjoy the benefits of expert instruction at home!
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